Would you like to see chapters of my books before they come out? Do you want to see cover art sketches and vote on which poses should make it to final production? Would you like to see even sexier versions of my covers? Would you like to get my audiobooks at a deep discount?

Of course you would! Join my Patreon here to get all these awesome benefits (or search for my name on Patreon.com).

You can also join my Facebook group right here. Then you’ll know when my books come out before anyone else.

Chapter 1

The sun had long set over the mysterious Isle of Terr, but the light show coming from the depths of the chasm where the rest of the Lower Echelon was located was anything but dull.

After my phoenix-wife, the Incarnate, healed the heart of the island, the most spectacular cascade of lights began to glow and shimmer from below as if the island itself was saying its thanks.

But all I really cared about in that moment was the fact that all of us had managed to dodge a major bullet without too much damage.

Again.

“Kin-son,” Major Tharfin’s questioning voice interrupted the fierce group hug I was locked into with my two wives, my lover, and best friend. “Are you well?”

I broke away from the pile so I could face the tall and imposing Terran with the hard domed head.

“I’m okay, Major,” I assured as I reached my hand out to shake his forearm. He shook it for a second and then maneuvered my arm so I was forced to give him a complete three-sixty, and it made me chuckle. “I promise, I’m good, Thar.”

“When the sentinel tower exploded, we all thought the worst,” he said and peered at the rest of my family over my shoulder to confirm all of us really were intact. “How did that happen, by the way? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“The only place I’ve seen anything similar was when the Sun Temple on Nata was similarly wrecked,” Regent Sskern said as he stepped forward, and his two impressive velociraptor claws tapped on the ground and left small gouges in the earth.

“Councilman Hess did something with his herald blade and one of these,” I said as I pulled one of the cursed metal disks out of my pocket.

“So, it really was Hess who was corrupt.” Leader Zerr, an older man with the features of an alligator with white frizzy hair, separated himself from the rest of the crowd and huffed as he stuck his walking stick into the ground. “Hopefully, now all of the poison has been leached out, and we can finally make progress and move forward as a united people.”

Murmurs of agreement from the ashen-faced Terrans stirred the crowd as the reality started to sink in for everyone that the reign of Up-ish tyranny was now coming to a close.

Well, for most people.

“Excuse me,” the tall brontosaurus-man named Bartus interjected. He shuffled his big body forward and was flanked on either side by two equally sour-faced cronies. “But there are some of us who would presume to view this as a step backward in progress instead of a step forward.”

“You’re right,” a man I knew as Serrek growled as he stepped into Bartus’ space. “That is presumptuous of you.”

The tension ratcheted up several notches, and I wasn’t sure what was going to diffuse the situation at first until Shay and Amaya both walked forward hand in hand.

“People of Terr, a new season is at hand.” Amaya’s voice reverberated through the air in a way that sounded half in my head, and half not, so I had no doubt the augur-woman’s words could be heard by every single person gathered despite the fact she wasn’t speaking very loud at all. “Your land is hearty and hale once more. Can’t you feel it under your very feet?”

A hush fell over the crowd, and I added my silence so I could focus on the ground under my soles. At first, nothing seemed amiss, but after a moment of concentrating, I could feel something like a warm pulse vibrating under me like a heartbeat.

It was obvious when the other Terrans began to feel the same thing because a chorus of gasps and exclamations could be heard ricocheting from person to person.

Each small thrum filled me with a sense of wholeness, and the lingering pinched feeling that had taken up residence in the pit of my stomach pretty much ever since we’d gotten here finally dissolved.

Everything felt… right.

Or as right as it could be for now.

Bartus huffed through his oversized nostrils in obvious disapproval, but he sank back with a lack of anything to say.

“How is everyone here?” I asked as I peered out at the hopeful, yet exhausted, faces of the crowd. “Are there many casualties?”

“With the last Red Sun, many new Ashers joined our ranks, but sadly some of them perished,” Thas, the son of the dome-headed Major, said, but then he trailed off as he glanced down at the new Duelist Stone in his palm. It still slightly pulsed with light, and the expression on the big man’s face was what I would have called poleaxed.

“Are there any injured who might need healing?” Shay asked gently, and she placed a delicate hand on his wrist.

He snapped out of his musings and focused on my crimson-haired phoenix-wife.

“There are a few who could use your graceful touch, milady,” Thas said with a formal half-bow.

“Just ‘Shay’ is fine, Thas,” she giggled and tucked her hand in the crook of his elbow. “Lead me to them, noble Asher.”

“Do you think you are up to doing a tally of those we’ve lost?” I questioned, and I glanced at Sskern and his uncle, the Up-ish Lord, Griss. “Maybe there is a way we can honor the fallen?”

“That is an excellent idea,” Griss said as his colorful neck frill quivered. “We will have a bonfire on this knoll where the battle for unity was fought and won.”

A subdued cheer rippled throughout the crowd at this proclamation, and the people disbanded into separate smaller groups to assess the damage and help anyone injured get over to Shay and Thas.

Meanwhile, I joined Major Tharfin and Leader Zerr on the edge of the cliff overlooking the chasm.

Jutting from a natural rock shelf above was all of Upper Terr with its mountains, rolling plains, and villages. The palace was the pinnacle, and the entrance to this lush and resourceful promised land, but there were only two ways in or out to my knowledge.

One was to hitch a ride on a magnificent millipede creature called a train-beast and crawl in through the falls, but I had no idea how the train-beast would even make it to us.

The only other way into Upper Echelon was via the suspension bridge between the sentinel tower, and the palace, and that bridge was now dangling uselessly from where it was still attached on the other side.

“Is there any other way for us to get over there?” Horus interrupted my musing.

“No,” Leader Zerr said, and he thumped his stick into the ground again as if it had offended him.

“Ah,” the falcon-man replied, and his black-feathered crest flattened slightly in defeat. “Ideas?”

“It might be worth it to utilize the squallers we have,” Sskern suggested. “Maybe we can use them to hold the remains of the bridge?”

“How many do we have at our disposal?” Zerr asked.

“Seven, including the two you brought,” Griss said. “We might be able to coordinate an effort where we can hold the bridge so some of those who need healing and care can get to the Upper Echelon. But forget about the grubs and skitters. We will have to transport them and everyone else by train-beast. Someone will have to go get the creature, but it will be at least two days before we can rally again.”

“Let me check in with Shay and see how everyone is doing, and then I’ll be back to help,” I said.

“If you see Mozz, tell her to send El and La,” Major Tharfin said.

“Will do,” I said, and then I trekked my way back toward the long caravan of tents and newly lit campfires until I found the makeshift canopy where Shay’s crimson hair caught my eyes.

Currently, she was standing still in the center of a slew of cots as Anwaar brought over a clay pitcher. Then the ibex-woman plopped a gray tithe stone into the pitcher and handed it to Shay.

There was a serene stillness that fell over the crowd when the phoenix-woman began to hum a soothing tune under her breath.

I was drawn to her like a moth to a bright flame, and when she smiled at me as she swirled the pitcher, I couldn’t keep myself from sidling up next to her.

“You’re just in time,” Shay said in her low ember voice before she started singing again in a language that no one knew.

After a moment of the beautiful singing, a string of golden drops of water floated out of the pitcher and swirled around the air like stars. Each little droplet then broke away from the strange dance and floated over to each of the individuals in the cots.

The people who were actually awake and alert enough to catch the light show gasped in awe where they sat, and those who were prone and unconscious merely sighed when the soothing water sank into them.

“Mm.” Shay sighed out a final little hum when the last of the droplets faded.

“Sweetheart?” I questioned when she started to sway slightly, and then I full-on caught her when her knees buckled.

“Ambassador, is she okay?” Several voices muttered their concern as I tucked my arm under her knees and hoisted her up bridal-style.

“Oh, I’m fine,” my wife murmured as her head snuggled against my shoulder. “Just… a little sleepy.”

“You’re worrying your adoring public,” I said as I held her tight. “How are you really?”

“And do not say you are fine again,” Zoie said as she appeared behind me, and I grinned a little at her disapproving expression.

“I’m a bit more than sleepy, I might be spent, in fact,” Shay confessed like it cost her too much to even try to circumvent the truth, especially in the face of the cat-woman’s no-nonsense manner.

“Good call,” I said, and I marched us both to a free cot some of the Terrans were kind enough to clear for us.

“Has she always been so scary?” she pouted.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of Zoie’s pointed ears twitch, which meant Shay wasn’t being as quiet as she thought she was.

I simply smiled, settled her down on the cot, and pulled a scratchy blanket up to her chin.

“She’s as scary as you are stubborn,” I remarked.

Shay glared at me, but the effect was ruined when her eyes fluttered the rest of the way closed as sleep overtook her.

Zoie and I watched her breathe peacefully for a few moments.

“I am most definitely not scary,” the cat-woman declared.

“Not in a bad way,” I said.

“There is a good way to be scary?” she asked.

“Yeah, baby,” I said and pulled her into my side by her waist. “You thrill me, love.”

“You always come up with the most interesting things, husband,” my cat-wife purred, and she nuzzled into my jaw. “Now, go back to the men. I will stay with our Shay.”

“I know I can count on you,” I said and kissed her before she could grumble again. “Do we know how many injured are still left?”

Zoie glanced around the canopy acting as the makeshift infirmary. “I think she got them all.”

I looked around at the dozens of people now resting peacefully in their beds, and then let my eyes travel back to my sleeping phoenix-wife. “No wonder she’s exhausted. Stay with her, I’m going to find Amaya.”

“I think she is with the children a few tents that way,” Anwaar said with a gesture. “And knowing Horus, he’s probably with her. I will go with you.”

I tucked the blanket around Shay a little more securely, and then I kissed both my wives before I followed the ibex-woman away from the canopy and toward a large tent where the sound of two overlapping voices could be heard from inside.

When Ana and I entered, it was to the exciting storytelling both Amaya and Horus were engaging the kiddos in.

“… hundreds-- no! Thousands of screechers with razor-sharp teeth were flying at us, and he fought them all with his mighty swords.” The falcon-man demonstrated this part of his epic tale by using two sticks to swipe and slash at his invisible foes.

“A thousand? Really?” one of the more serious-looking kids challenged with his arms crossed over his chest in a huffy manner, but the effect was ruined by his cherub cheeks and big gecko-like eyes.

“Yes, really,” Horus argued back as he caught my eye. “If you don’t believe me, you can ask the Ambassador himself. He’s right behind you.”

The scowl on the little gecko-kid’s face melted as it was replaced with a look of fear, and I almost snorted a laugh at the comical way he gasped and whirled around to gaze up at me.

“I-Is it true you fought a thousand feral screechers with just two swords, Mr. Ambassador?” the kid asked.

“More like fifty or sixty,” I said and patted him on the head. “Ames, are you free?”

The oryx-woman peered up at me from where she was sitting with a sleeping child in her lap, and then she nodded and passed the sleepy lizard-child over to Anwaar, who now took her place next to Horus.

“What is it, Alex?” she asked me when we left the tent.

“I wanted to know if you could check if there is anyone who is in bad shape and possibly needs to get to the palace sooner rather than later,” I requested. “Shay healed all of those who were gathered under the canopy, but I’m not sure if there are others.”

“Let me see,” she said and knelt down so she could place both palms flat on the ground. Her eyes flashed to white a moment before they fluttered closed, and that endearing line appeared between her pale eyebrows as she concentrated.

After a few moments, she sighed and stood up.

“What could you find out?” I asked and offered my arm to her. She seemed fine, but she took my arm anyway, which never failed to warm me up from the inside.

“Shay really did heal everyone who direly needed it,” the oryx-woman said, and the two of us started walking back the way we came. “Aside from her own exhaustion, these people can possibly wait a day or two for the train-beast.”

“How did you know that was the plan?” I chuckled as we strolled along in the peaceful night air. “I didn’t think the Knowing was that detailed.”

“I admit I went a little farther than you asked me to,” she said and gave me a guilty little grin. “I couldn’t help it. I think it’s being back in the Sun after being in twilight for so long.”

“That’s right,” I said and squeezed her hand as I pictured yellow petals and tall stalks. “You’re my little sunflower.”

She giggled, and I knew the image popped up in her head as well. “It is glorious to feel the warmth on my face in the mornings.”

“How are you feeling?” I asked and slowed our walk so I could look her over thoroughly. “Truly. And don’t say fine.”

“I feel better than fine,” she assured me and started walking again. “Actually, I feel really strong, and I can only attribute it to being away from the light for so long.”

“That makes sense,” I said, and then I maneuvered us so she was tucked under my arm, and I was feeling the warm energy thrum fully against my side. “You feel like a small furnace. It’s nice.”

“I have so much energy I feel like I’m burning up,” she panted and leaned even harder into me.

“Maybe you should go climb those trees over there while I update all the leaders, and then I can come and find you,” I suggested.

“Oh?” Her grin turned wicked. “Have something particular in mind?”

“I might have one or two ideas that might help you burn off some of your pent-up energy,” I said, and then I pinched her exposed waist.

“That gives me my own idea,” she said as her silver eyes burned. “One I’ve been thinking about surprising you with.”

“Surprises?” I asked as the thrum of arousal continued to pass back and forth between us like a live current. “Aw, tell me?”

“No way, but I promise you will love it,” she said and pecked me on the tip of my nose.

“You should at least give me a hint,” I pouted as my fingers danced along that strip of warm skin.

Suddenly, I was rewarded with the sexy sounds of moaning as she “pushed” her little hint through our connection. I didn’t know all the details, but if this was going where I thought it was, then it would be well worth the wait.

“Don’t linger, lover,” she teased, and before I could pry any more information or hints out of her, she took off toward the trees.

And if I decided to jog back up to the front of the caravan instead of walk, well. That was a coincidence.

“What is the status of the wounded, kin-son?” Major Tharfin asked when I approached them.

“The wounded have all been healed, but they, as well as my wife, all need their rest,” I reported.

“I see,” he said with a nod. “We have had something of a hectic day. I propose we resume this task tomorrow morning.”

“That sounds agreeable,” Asher Griss said. “Leader Zerr?”

“These old bones would welcome the rest,” the alligator-elder said, and Thas, who had joined the leaders at some point, offered the man his arm to lean against.

“Then it is decided,” Sskern said. “I will round up the squallers and turn in.”

“And I will help,” the Major said.

Everyone seemed to be tasked with their separate agendas, and I glanced around for something to do, when my thoughts suddenly came to a grinding halt as Amaya’s voice entered my head.

Are you ready, my love? Watch this.

Then, a gorgeous image of Zoie’s long legs and ebony hair nearly punched me in the gut with longing I knew wasn’t just my own.

What shall I do first?

I was further startled with the question when I realized the oryx-woman’s delicious fantasy was actually a play-by-play of real events.

Taste her. I sent through our connection and then hastily glanced around again to see if anyone noticed I wasn’t exactly present, but everyone was setting themselves up with their appointed orders, so I pushed one more thought through our telepathic bond. Make her feel good, baby. I’m coming.

Oh, hurry, Amaya moaned back inside my head, and after one last look around to make sure I was off the hook, I hurried off to find my gorgeous lovers in the secluded forest.

Now that we were out of the Lower Echelon, the forest didn’t really glow like I’d grown accustomed to, and I had to strain my eyes.

I could have called out for Amaya to speed up the process, but where was the fun in that?

When I rounded a thick tree truck, I was so glad I didn’t shout because then I would have interrupted the stunningly perfect scene taking place in front of me.

“Ahh!” Zoie’s high-pitched yelp ricocheted around the small clearing, and I watched in awe as the oryx-woman slung one of Zoie’s long legs over her shoulder so she could get a better angle to eat out my wife.

“Holy fuck,” I whispered under my breath when Amaya practically slammed Zoie’s hips against the tree for more stability, and my dick became fully interested when Zoie curled her lithe fingers around Amaya’s horns for more leverage.

“Oh, there!” The cat-woman writhed and arched her back against the trunk, and I couldn’t help but rub my hard-on through my pants at how sexy they both looked. “Ohhh.”

Zoie trembled and shook as her orgasm crested, and Amaya flowed up the length of the cat-woman’s body and replaced her mouth with her fingers so she could milk as much pleasure out of Zoie’s climax as she could.

Eventually, my sexy cat-wife indicated she’d had enough, and she gripped the hand that was still moving slowly beneath her mini-skirt.

“Beautiful,” Amaya whispered. Then she removed her hand from between Zoie’s thighs, brought her fingers up to her lips, and sucked them sensually into her mouth.

For my part, I needed to stop what I was doing in case I ruined the main event.

I could always reveal myself and get things progressing in a certain way, but I lingered back behind my tree so I could see what transpired next.

When Zoie caught her breath, she practically pounced on top of the oryx-woman and forcefully changed their positions so now Amaya was pinned against the trunk and being kissed within an inch of her life.

“So… amazing…” she mumbled in between nipping at Amaya’s full bottom lip. Her hands were roving all over Amaya’s back, down to her waist, and went even further to grope her pert bottom.

“Your hands are wonderful,” Amaya gasped as she broke away for air. Then she tangled her fingers in the briar of Zoie’s midnight hair and jumped so both legs were wrapped tightly around the cat-woman’s toned waist.

“Hang on,” Zoie murmured in that sultry purr of hers, and she hiked up Amaya’s skirt until I could glimpse the thatch of pale hair peeking out between her legs as my wicked cat-wife sought her prize.

“Mercedes be!” The oryx-woman’s silver horns scraped lightly against the dark wood of the trunk and left behind stark white scratches. “Yes, move your hand just like that.”

“Like this?” I heard Zoie ask, and I returned my shaking palm back to the steel rod straining against my inseam when Amaya hissed.

“Y-Yeah,” she said as the other woman’s hand began to move.

I’d just about had it skulking in the shadows, and as much as I was enjoying the show, I felt the burning desire to participate.

My boots crunched along the ground at an even pace so as not to surprise the two women, but then I got closer and noticed the only reaction to my presence were sly little glances and furtive grins, I realized they’d been aware I was there for a while now.

Naughty minxes.

I fucking loved it when they played games.

My blood sang high and hot in my veins, and I stripped off my shirt so I could feel as much of my cat-wife as I could against my bare skin.

“Hello, husband,” Zoie purred as her tail wrapped around my calf. “You’re right on time.”

“Hm, really?” I asked as I nosed along her neck where her clover scent was the strongest. I then peered over her shoulder to see what my wife was up to. “How pretty. Maybe I can help.”

Chapter 2

The position I currently found myself in was unlike any fantasy my sordid brain could ever hope to imagine, and it was fucking hot, so as far as surprises went, this one took the cake.

The front of my bare torso was plastered along the sensual line of Zoie’s back, and in my hands, I gripped Amaya under her knees so she would have enough leverage against the truck of the tree while Zoie worked her fingers in and around the oryx-woman’s pink pussy.

It was a good thing I came over to hold her up because I was pretty sure her ability to keep her legs wrapped around Zoie’s waist was absolutely obliterated the second the cat-woman circled her thumb around Amaya’s clit.

“Oh, baby,” the oryx-woman moaned, and her arms flew up so she could grip the trunk behind her.

Then her horns scratched more patterns into the bark until little corkscrew shavings decorated her moonlight hair.

She was stunning, and I rocked my hips into Zoie’s behind for some much-needed friction on my cock.

“Fuck,” I breathed into the crook of my wife’s neck as I set up a slow grinding tempo.

“Wait!” Amaya gasped and then reached down to grab my right wrist. She squeezed rhythmically, and a spike of lust went through me and made my toes curl when I saw the image she was pushing through our connection.

I squeezed her hand right back, and I wasted no time in shucking Zoie out of her skimpy skirt, giving my palm a good lick until it was nice and wet, and lubing my leaking cock up enough to slide it between Zoie’s smooth thighs.

“Ohhhh,” Zoie moaned when the head of my dick nudged up under the hood of her clit. She was slick and hot from the orgasm Amaya gave her earlier, so sliding my hard shaft along her trembling pussy was easy.

“Tighter,” Amaya panted and dug her heels into Zoie’s hip.

“Guh.” The breath was punched out of me when the soft thighs around my cock squeezed.

“Yesss,” my cat-wife hissed when I drew back and then forward. The head of my dick scraped deliciously over the hard nub of her pleasure, and I kept my strokes short and fast. “Oh, oh, oh…”

Zoie moved her hand at the same pace, and I supported Amaya as she finally tipped over the edge and came so hard her legs trembled like a newborn fawn.

“Gorgeous,” I groaned and ground harder when Zoie copied Amaya from earlier and licked the essence off her fingers.

“You taste like honey,” Zoie purred, and then she leaned forward so she could kiss the oryx-woman on the lips.

My thrusting started to pick up its pace, and my hips began to judder in an awkward rhythm.

Before we could break stride, Amaya regained the strength in her legs and lowered them so she could stand and bring the two of us closer.

“Zoie, Alex,” she panted and then devoured Zoie’s mouth again. Then Amaya guided the cat-woman so she had her arms wrapped around Amaya’s waist.

Because my cat-wife was bent over just slightly, the head of my cock grazed the entrance of her pussy. The sensation caused both of us to jolt, and when Amaya urged us through her Touch, it was easy to slide right into my wife’s silky channel.

“Oh! Goddess!” Zoie yelped, and then she muffled her lust-filled moans in between Amaya’s pert breasts as I drove into her with deep rolling thrusts.

Her walls clenched around my hard shaft, and I couldn’t help but grip the base of her lithe tail in order to keep her from squeezing me out completely. For a moment, I thought she’d come, but the tension was still keeping her bowstring taut.

“Here,” Amaya said as she led us all to sink down into the springy moss at our feet.

Zoie and I had to disengage in order to shift our stances, but we were soon reconnected in the same manner. Only this time, Amaya was reclined in the soft blanket of moss with Zoie’s head between her spread thighs.

“Oh, God,” I groaned as my knees dug into the spongy ground.

“Ah!” Amaya threw her head back and knotted her fists in Zoie’s hair as the cat-woman got to work and returned the favor from earlier. “Oh, you are a quick study!”

The cat-woman didn’t respond because her mouth was too busy bringing Amaya right to the edge of her second orgasm.

“Shit, I’m coming.” I sped up my rhythm when Zoie arched her back, and she tightened around me from the base of my shaft all the way to my sensitive tip as my ejaculation jetted out in hot streams.

“Oh, yes, deep inside me,” she moaned as she trembled and twitched with her own climax. The walls of her pussy milked me to the last drop, and my hips strained against hers as I came hard and kept coming.

“Fuck, Zoie,” I growled as my pelvis gave another kick, and I couldn’t help but bite her shoulder.

“So much, yes, fill me with your strong kits!” she growled right back, and her silken channel rippled around my cock like she was trying to come one more time.

Distantly, I heard Amaya squeal, and I looked up in time to see her finish herself off just as a shared climax thundered through Zoie and me. Because the augur-woman was also tangled up with the cat-woman, and because I was still inside Zoie, I could feel the feedback loop of all of our pleasures cascading through us in a seemingly never-ending wave.

When the sensation finally ebbed, I gently pulled out of Zoie’s cream-filled pussy and burrowed my way between these two gorgeous and amazing women.

“What… in Mercedes… was that?” I asked the oryx-woman between my breaths. “Not that I’m complaining.”

Zoie popped her head up so she could gaze at Amaya on my other side and tilted her head. She appeared too wrung out to form words, but her expressive eyes seemed to ask our lover the same thing.

“I ‘called’ Zoie to meet me here after you left,” Amaya admitted with a pleased smile as she draped her leg across one of my still-clothed thighs.

I was in such a frenzy, all I had patience for was to yank down my pants just enough to get myself free.

Fuck, that was wild, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had so much fun.

“You did more than just bring Zoie over,” I said as I refused to let the wily oryx-woman off the hook so easily. “I felt like my head was going to explode from how good that felt.”

“I told you I’ve begun to feel stronger,” Amaya said with another one of those wicked little giggles.

“No kidding,” I sighed and thumped my head back. “That was amazing. Both of you are incredible.”

“As much as I would like to stay here forever and not move, we should get back to the camp so we may sleep,” Zoie said in her pragmatic way.

I snorted when she didn’t even move despite her words. “You first.”

She grumbled predictably and snuggled harder into my neck, and I supposed a few more minutes wouldn’t go amiss.

That night, I slept soundly back at the tent with Shay and the rest. It was the type of sleep that sucked me under the sea of unconsciousness without a flicker of dreams, and I probably would have stayed asleep if it weren’t for the tossing and turning going on next to me.

After the third kick to my hip that almost sent me clear off the extra-large cot we were all sharing, I woke up to see what all the fuss was about.

“Mmphf!” Shay mumbled in her sleep, and her hand flopped against my chest.

I propped myself up on my elbows so I could peer down at my distressed phoenix-wife as she whimpered in her sleep.

“Sweetheart?” I brushed the hair off her sweaty forehead and then caressed her cheek until her startled green eyes flashed open. “It’s okay, I’m here. You were having a nightmare.”

“Oh,” she whispered as she sat up and looked around the dark canopy structure like she needed to affirm to herself she was indeed awake. “Oh, my.”

“Come on, let’s take a walk,” I said, and I carefully got us both out of bed, grabbed my crossbow for company, and guided us through the sleeping Terrans until we were out in the star-spangled night.

Shay lapsed into silence even though we were far enough away from the campers for any hushed conversation to be overheard. She seemed to still be a bit confused, like she needed a moment longer to process what had caused her to frown the way she was, and I gave her the time she needed as we strolled.

She stopped when we reached a secluded outcropping, paced back and forth for a few seconds, and then took a seat on a boulder.

“I don’t know what it is…” Shay began in a dreamy voice, and based on the circles I could still see bruising around her eyes, I could tell she was still pretty out of it and decided we weren’t going to be out here for very long. “There was just heat and light and then darkness and cold, and it… made me angry.”

“Oh,” I faltered with a lack of anything else to say and then took a seat next to her. “Are you still angry?”

“No,” she sighed and leaned against me. “I feel fine. Tired, but fine.”

“Okay,” I said and draped my arm around her shoulders so she had something to lean against and keep herself warm from the night chill. “Take all the time you need.”

“Mmkay,” she hummed as her head grew heavier on my chest, and I grinned fondly at how endearing she was and how much trust she put into me without hesitation.

I held her close and hummed a part of that soothing tune she sang when she healed all the Terrans. That moment under the diamond-studded sky was so serene, I figured staying out here a few extra minutes would be okay, and I pressed a light kiss on the top of her ginger-scented head.

The calm bubble of peace that surrounded us abruptly popped when Shay seemed to jerk herself out of another uneasy dream.

“Alright,” I said as I held her close while she trembled. “Let’s go back. I think once you are surrounded by Zoie and Amaya, you’ll feel a little better.”

“You are probably right,” she agreed, but the zombie-expression on her heart-shaped face was worrisome, and she wordlessly let me guide us back in the direction of the canopy.

On our way back, however, Shay abruptly stopped dead in her tracks and sucked in a sharp breath.

“Sweetheart? What is it?” I asked as I peered through the darkness for the perceived threat.

“The anger, it’s getting stronger,” she said in a horrified whisper.

Before I could ask any further questions, a strange noise rose up on a sudden gust of wind from the chasm around us.

A sound of dissonant chattering and high-pitched scraping like the sound of a thousand crabs skittering over a chalkboard rang out through the night. It was such a surreal and disturbing noise, the hair stood straight up on the nape of my neck.

“Attack!” a mighty bellow from the camp sounded, and the cacophony of screams and battle noises could be heard as a macabre accompaniment to the screeching skittering symphony.

Without much time to spare, I snatched Shay’s wrist and made her hunker down in a narrow gap in the outcropping.

“Stay here!” I ordered as I shoved her back as far as I could. “I’ll be back, but I have to go help!”

“Be safe!” she said as crystal tears leaked out of her sparkling emerald eyes.

“I will,” I promised, kissed her on her pallid forehead, and then ran toward the chaos with my crossbow.

As I was trying to get a bolt out of the pouch on my belt, I ran smack into someone who was running full-tilt in the opposite direction.

“Oof!” I caught the oryx-woman before she could stumble back and fall.

“Amaya? What are you doing here?” I asked as I gripped her upper arms. “Is everything--?”

“I felt the same thing Shay did,” Amaya interrupted me in an urgent voice, and she’d also apparently grabbed my dual herald blades. “She only felt it because she’s tied to the island’s heart since she healed it.”

“Shay keeps talking about being able to feel some sort of anger,” I said as I lowered my crossbow, jammed my boot into the cocking stirrup, and loaded a bolt. “What’s that all about?”

“She was probably picking up on the hive mind lurking within the island,” Amaya hurried to explain as the screams and the fighting got louder. “I’m not entirely sure what it is, but when Shay healed the heart, it cut off the light and heat source this invasive colony was using to survive. Here, this will be faster…”

She grabbed my wrist and pushed the image she had in her head into mine through our connection.

The familiar picture of the throbbing glowing monolith I saw deep in the Lower bowels of Terr swam to the surface of my thoughts. Like before, I saw the thin beam of light peering down from the surface, the only bit of sunlight able to reach the depths of the island. Then the ground shook, and a single glimmering point winked in the beam of light like a beautiful star.

No, not a star, but a tear.

Shay’s tear.

I watched as it splashed against the precipice of the island’s heart, and the angry red glow that pulsed and throbbed and threw off that sweltering heat began to cool and fade to a gentle blue.

Under the earth, deep below where the heart of the island dug its veins in, hundreds of creatures began to grow cold, and their underground nurseries started to wither and die.

And now?

Now, the creatures were angry at the ones above who murdered their clutches of young…

“Fuck!” I gasped and tore myself away from her touch like she was on fire.

“Oh, Alex, I’m sorry!” Amaya said, and she pulled back with a guilty look on her face. “I’m not adjusting well to limiting my power.”

“That’s alright,” I said, even though I felt shaken inside.

Her Knowing powers really were dialed up, and it briefly worried me. If I was only feeling a fraction of what she experienced when she touched me, I could only imagine what the full brunt of that felt like. As it stood, my arm felt a little like it was full of pins and needles where her hand had made contact with my skin.

No wonder she plowed into me like the devil was after her.

“Are you okay?” she asked again.

“I am, I promise, now keep Shay safe and hidden because if the hive mind finds out who’s to blame, she’ll be their prime target,” I said and handed her one of my blades for protection.

“I understand,” she said as she gripped Decisiveness in her hand. Then we came together in a quick kiss before going our separate ways, and I knew Amaya would keep Shay safe.

My feet flew over the ground as I sprinted toward the fray, and my ears snagged on a very fierce and familiar sound.

“Riiioooowwlll!” Zoie cried from somewhere, and I pumped my legs harder in order to lessen the distance between us.

“The tower!” someone yelled, and I jumped over a smoldering campfire.

“Skreeeeet!” The worst ringing shriek that sounded like twisting and tearing steel erupted at the same time as a veritable tidal wave of bat-like naked mole creatures exploded over the ridge where the remains of the sentinel tower were still standing.

The swarm appeared to be attacking the large spheres of the grubs where I knew the children and the feeble were often kept inside for protection, and I automatically knew what the swarm of mole-bats was hoping to accomplish.

I skidded to a halt when I saw a group of the beasts land next to a grub. Their skinny naked mole bodies and skinned over red eyes should have been a disadvantage, but I remembered they were referred to as a hive mind and figured that came with some perks.

Currently, they were grouping together and attempting to get the giant pill-bug to move and thereby roll itself over the edge.

I took aim with my crossbow and shot at the mole-bat hovering over the Volkswagen-sized grub, and it was dead before it hit the dirt. This caused the rest of the mole-bats at the base of the curled-up grub to scatter like roaches under a spotlight.

Maybe the one I killed was like a little bat satellite, but the signal was only knocked out for so long until another flapping beast took its place over the grub and tried to rally the others.

I cocked my crossbow again and loaded another bolt so I could take out the mole-bat.

The whoosh of an arrow flew up from behind one of the tents, and I recognized it as one of Horus’.

I wanted to try to make my way over to him if I could, so I tossed my crossbow back across my chest, unsheathed my remaining Swiftness blade, and rushed over to the scattering mole-bats. Some of them tried to get away from my slashing sword by attempting to burrow into the ground, but I was too quick for them and severed most of them while they were halfway sticking out.

“Nasty,” I grunted under my breath when I sliced through the last mole creature, and a slew of swamp-green goo and viscera splattered against the ground.

“Riiiioooowwwwll!” Zoie’s battle cry sounded much closer now, and I jumped up on top of a wagon in order to get a better vantage point.

“Alex!” I turned at the sound of Thas’ voice.

“Thas,” I said and jumped down. “Do you know what these things are?”

“No, but they are after our younglings,” he said and hoisted one of the rock cannons higher up on his shoulder.

“Use that to shoot the ones that hover above the clusters,” I instructed. “These beasts are a hive mind, and killing the hovering ones disrupts the signal. Try to keep them from getting away.”

“Will do,” the big man said as he aimed the launcher like a bazooka and shot a rock at the closest mole-bat. The rock exploded in a shower of pebbles, and the pest shrieked as it fell to the ground.

“Roooooiiiirrrr!” That sharp yowl pierced the air off to my right near a copse of trees and scrubby brush followed by a huge crash, and I veered off in that direction.

“Zoie!” I yelled and slashed the wing off one of the hovering creatures, and it spiraled to the ground like a cartoonish biplane with a smoking engine.

“Skrreeeeet!” I rounded a collapsed tent and smashed a mole-bat in its blind face.

“Roooooiiiirrrr!” A flash of bright pink caught my eye, and I hurried to load another bolt into my crossbow at the sight of Issa being carried off in the claws of one of the mole-bats, and then I fired my shot through its neck.

Unfortunately, the beast was a little higher than I first assumed, and it and the cat-woman ended up landing on top of a wooden flat-bed carriage with a thunderous crash.

“Fuck.” I loaded and fired another two bolts in rapid succession in order to take down two more of the pests that were taking an interest in the fallen Varthan warrior, and then I ran over and helped the poor woman out of the broken carriage.

“Th-Thank you, Ambassador,” she said and wrapped an arm around her torso, but she otherwise seemed whole, thank Mercedes.

“Have you seen my wife, Zoie?” I asked.

“I heard her Fighting Call earlier,” the pink-haired woman said as I helped her limp to the relative safety of the base of a large black tree.

“Rest here,” I told the woman as I lowered her down against the tree’s trunk so she would be a little more comfortable.

With Issa taken care of for the time being, I returned to the task at hand and slashed my way closer to the crumbling tower.

“Skkrreeeet!” More and more of the angry horde flooded up from the depths of the chasm, and I was eternally grateful for the Swiftness of my blade.

One, two, one, two.

I kept doing my best to slash them down along the path as I ran across them, but there were just too many, so I stopped and looked around as the screams filled the air.

Something was going to have to give.

The battle raged on all around me, and I spotted people falling to their fates left and right as I looked frantically for any type of solution. A time-trance wouldn’t really do anything because the horde was so massive. I needed something that would disperse the beasts all at once and for good.

The mixed core in my herald blade winked at me under the moonlight, and I gazed down at it as an idea began to take shape in my mind. Then I rummaged in my pocket for the small silver medallion I knew was in there.

When I fought Councilman Hess, he demonstrated how lethal it was when a herald core and a medallion came in contact with one another. Apparently, the reaction was enough to topple the sentinel tower, and now it just might be enough to disperse the mole-bats.

The only question was where to set it off.

My cat-wife’s battle cry could be heard once more rising above the air, and I finally spotted the black-haired beauty in the middle of fighting off three different mole-bats. She spun around like a ballerina, if ballerinas wielded katanas and had perfect striking accuracy.

She was doing an excellent job as usual by keeping the creatures at bay, but she seemed to be unaware of the one hovering above her, so I loaded a bolt into my crossbow and fired it at the thing.

Zoie hacked down her three attackers with a combination spin move that I wanted to keep on repeat in my brain, and at the same time, my bolt found its home embedded in the gross skinned-over eyeball of the interloper. When it landed on the ground in front of the cat-woman, she hissed and jumped back with her ears flattened against her head and her blade pointed threateningly at the corpse.

It was kind of cute.

If only the circumstances were different.

For now, I jogged up to Zoie, gave her a once-over to make sure she was alright, and then bent down and yanked out the bolt from the dead creature.

“Yuck,” I said when the eyeball came with the arrow with a sickening squelch. I shook it off until it went flying into the brush, and then I reloaded the same bolt into the stock. “Waste not, want not.”

“There’s too many of them Alex, what are we going to do?” Zoie asked as she wiped the sweat off her brow.

“They seem to be coming up from the center of the chasm,” I observed as I craned my head back to look at the swarm in the sky. “If we can scare them and force them back down somehow, that might be our only chance. These creatures are all connected with one mind, which makes them hard to fight but relatively vulnerable to the power of one suggestion. Let’s hope they pick up on the fact the suggestion is to retreat.”

“What do you need me to do?” my pragmatic warrior wife asked me as she wiped off her blade.

“I need to get on the back of a squaller so I can set off an explosion that will hopefully block the throat of the chasm and keep them from flying up,” I explained as we hurried toward the frontlines where the battle seemed to be raging even more violently.

If Hitchcock was still alive, he would be pleased by this recreation of his famous film The Birds. Black wings battered the people on the ground in a hurricane of flapping and screeching, but there was only so much a single person could do against the swarm.

“Mozz and Thas brought the squallers into the trees for the night,” Zoie said, and I rushed after her as she pelted toward the tree line.

I followed behind her in hot pursuit, but I took time to slash apart any mole-bats that got too close or were trying to escape through the ground. When we broke through the trees and into a small clearing, I saw the squallers were still tied to their trees and huddling in scared groups, but as I approached the blue squaller, El, she popped her head up and gazed at me.

“Hey, girl,” I said and stashed away my weapons. I then held my palms out in front of her in the universal “I come in peace” gesture, and the pterodactyl-creature calmed down enough to let me stroke her spear-like head. “Do you think you can help me with something real quick?”

“Here,” Zoie said as she came over with the desiccated corpse of one of the pests and held it out for El.

The majestic creature sniffed it curiously for a moment before she gobbled it up and swallowed it in one motion. After her little snack, she seemed much more agreeable to do whatever I would ask of her, so I grabbed her another mole-bat and let her eat while I clambered up into her saddle. Then I offered my hand down toward my cat wife so she could settle in behind me.

“Hold on,” I warned her, and then I gave the command for El to launch us both in the air with her mighty leathery wings.

Flying in the frenzy was easier said than done, and I needed most of my concentration to navigate us in and out of the swooping and hissing horde.

Zoie’s fingers tightened in my belt, and I had to hand it to her and her bravery because I knew how much she hated heights. That didn’t stop her from coming along with me, of course, and for that I fell in love with her all over again.

For now, though, I stowed away any wandering thoughts no matter how pleasant or endearing because I needed to make sure we both got through this alive so I could show her my appreciation in the future.

When we finally broke through the dense storm of flapping wings and started to make our way further down the chasm, the sounds of battle ricocheted off the canyon walls and made my gut turn. It really sounded like people were dying left and right above us, so I knew time was of the essence, and we were almost out of it.

“Look.” Zoie pointed at the thin column of mole-bats flying up along the central updraft of the canyon. “That’s where they’re all coming from.”

“We need to get closer,” I said as I readied my Swiftness blade as well as the medallion, but I made sure to keep them in separate hands until the main event in order to prevent any tragic accidents. Then I steered my mount closer to the plume of creatures flying upward toward the sky and made us hover there.

“What do you mean to do, husband?” Zoie asked me as she helped keep the reins steady.

“I intend to go Chicken Little on their asses and bring the sky down,” I said, and then I held the medallion close to the mixed orange and green gem at the base of my sword’s blade.

The medallion snapped against the herald core like it was magnetized, and I knew at that point I was only working with maybe a few seconds, so I threw the sword as hard as I could down toward the cliff face below. It stuck blade first in between two rocks, and that was the last I saw of it before a large explosion rocked the canyon.

“Alex!” Zoe screamed, and I felt her bury her face in between my shoulder blades.

“Hold on!” I yelled back and attempted to maneuver us to safety in the shower of rock debris, dust, and confused mole beasts.

There was a sizable crag running down the rock wall adjacent to the remains of the tower, and it looked just big enough for El to perch on, so I steered us carefully over there in order to wait out the chaos.

The vile creatures seemed to be scattered to the wind without any sort of harmony or order, and I knew that at least the hive signal was disrupted for the time being. As we watched, a sense of triumph grew within me as the explosion started a modest rockslide, and this had the desired effect of pushing back the flock of creatures as they sought refuge from the chasm below.

“It's working!” my wife cheered as we watched the retreat take place.

There was still the matter of the flock above us, but now that their numbers weren’t constantly being replenished, we actually stood a chance to beat them as long as nothing else happened to come along and change that.

Almost as if I’d jinxed myself, the moonlight was suddenly blotted out by a large and imposing shadow that bathed the chasm in darkness.

Chapter 3

“What is that?” Zoie gasped at the sight of the thing eclipsing the moon like a harbinger of the apocalypse.

For a moment, I almost thought my explosion had caused the rock shelf of the Upper Echelon to break free from the rest of the island, and my heart attempted to crawl right out of my throat. But when I took a closer look, I could see the object obstructing the moonlight was independent of anything on the island itself and also came equipped with familiar gauze-like sails…

“Holy shit,” I said under my breath and then looked over my shoulder at my wife. “Zoie, it’s the airship!”

“You mean--?” the cat-woman trailed off as she gaped at the large flying structure slowly coming to hover directly where the rope bridge used to be.

“Jenner must have figured out how to get it up and running, or rather flying,” I commented as I watched in awe.

“It’s amazing,” she said as she clutched my waist, and we both spent a moment just gazing up through the sheer sails backlit by the moon. It made the descending airship look like some sort of ethereal animal that could have belonged to both the air and the sea.

Suddenly, a mighty roar echoed throughout the chasm, and the ring around my finger resonated in harmony. It was like the signet ring knew when its owner was near, and a large grin lit up my face.

Lord Mec. I’d recognize that voice anywhere.

“It seems as if Jenner brought more than just our airship,” I said as I gathered El’s reins in my left hand. “He brought some reinforcements as well.”

I then maneuvered my mount toward the ridge we were perched on and launched us into the sky so we could get back to defeating the rest of the mole-bats.

“Where are Shay and Amaya?” Zoie asked when we landed back near the forest with the rest of the squallers.

“Amaya is with Shay, and they should still be past the infirmary tent,” I informed her as I gestured with my hand in the direction I meant. “There is an outcropping of rock where I left Shay to hide, and I also instructed Amaya to go there. She has my second blade to protect herself, but Shay wasn’t doing the best when I left her.”

“I will go find them and make sure they are okay,” Zoie said.

“Thank you,” I said with a relieved breath before we quickly embraced. “Be safe.”

"Always," she replied, and then we went our separate ways, her back toward the infirmary tent, and me toward the rubble at the base of the sentinel tower.

“Die, fiends!” The murderous roar of Asher Lord Mec reverberated through the air like a thunderclap.

In both hands, he wielded a large broadsword with deadly force and accuracy, and with one swing, he was able to take out two to three mole-bats at a time.

At his back was Asher Sskern, who cracked his rock-bladed whip in harmony with Mec’s loud threats. Together, it was like listening to a heavy metal band in someone’s garage, only instead of music it was the sound of battle and carnage.

I loaded my crossbow with one of my trusty bolts and ran to join them.

“Alex, my friend!” the ram-lord greeted just before he stabbed his blade into the ground where a mole-bat was attempting to tunnel away.

It squealed loud enough to be heard even under the mounds of dirt.

“Decided to go away on a vacation, huh?” I asked the big guy and then fired my crossbow at the pest flapping noisily over all our heads. The carcass landed in the center of all three of us, and without missing a beat, the Lord of Nata Island punted the mole-bat.

The creature wailed as it arced over the edge and down into the canyon squealing all the time.

“I’m not so sure this is very much of a vacation,” the ram-lord joked as he nudged the Regent with his elbow. “You never told me your home isle was such an inhospitable place, you old snake.”

“Why do you suppose I stayed away for so many seasons?” the raptor-man snarked back and then thrashed his whip to scatter more of the panicking pests.

The mole-bats were truly on the back foot now that it seemed like their hive signal had been disrupted for good. Now, it was only a matter of running off and wiping out any lingering beasts that couldn’t burrow underground or fly away. I made a mental note to check in with Amaya and Shay later about the status of the mole-bats because it would be nice to know if they were thinking about attacking us again in the near future.

Finally, just as the sun was turning the sky from a dark navy to lavender, the last of the foul creatures were dispensed with, and peace flowed through the campsite like the early morning breeze.

“Seems like you just showed up at the right time,” I remarked as I wiped the sweat off my brow and returned my crossbow to the strap across my back.

“Yeah, after the hard part was all over,” Sskern said with a teasing edge to his tone. He then coiled his whip and buckled it back to his armored belt.

“I think the words you’re trying to find are thank you, Gavlain,” Mec sang and then poked the Regent in the side like he was a school boy.

“I’m glad to see things haven’t really changed much with you,” I snorted and crossed my arms over my chest.

The playful grin on Mec’s face faded into something a little fonder and a little softer when he locked eyes with mine.

“I’m just glad to see you, lad,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

Then, in typical Gavlain style, the ram-lord enveloped me in a bone-crushing hug complete with a round of hardy back slapping.

“The same goes for me, big guy,” I said and then stepped back.

“Your Mr. Jenner is truly an outstanding genius to get this thing up and running,” he continued as he sheathed his broadsword. “For all of Gella Vane’s treachery, he sure was capable of designing some of the most amazing feats of modern machinery I’ve seen so far. And that power source. Where did you find such an amazing device?”

“Would you believe me if I told you I made friends with a tree, and somehow the tree gave me the most powerful battery in existence?” I half-jokingly asked, but I only raised my eyebrows at him when he began to laugh.

“Wait... You’re serious?” he asked as his laughter faded. “A tree gave you one of the most powerful sources of energy anyone’s ever seen in existence? What in Mercedes did you do to earn that?”

“It’s kind of a long story,” I said with another grin. “But I’m sure we’ll have time to talk about it once we get to the palace.”

“True enough,” he agreed. “Besides, I heard there is a wedding that my good friend Sskern needs to be in attendance for. After all, he is the guest of honor.”

“Not the only guest,” the raptor- man said. “It seems as if my uncle might finally take a wife after all these years.”

“Oh?” The ram-lord tilted his horned head as he regarded his friend with a curious expression. “Old Griss has finally decided to settle into being a husband, is that right? Tell me, who is the lady he has his heart set on?”

“That reminds me!” I interrupted forcefully. “I came across Issa during the battle. She seemed to be hurt, so I left her to rest under a tree back the other way.”

“We should make it a task to search the area for any wounded who have first priority on getting back to the palace,” Sskern said. “I will also go tell my uncle to be on the lookout for his wayward bride.”

“Speaking of wayward brides,” the ram-lord said as we both watched the raptor-man head off in the direction of the Terran Asher Lord. “What happened to yours? And also, have you seen my sisters?”

“I bet Anwaar is with Horus, and Zoie and Amaya are hopefully with Shay where I last left her,” I said as Mec and I started walking away from the tower. “I had to make sure Shay was safe because she was kind of the reason as to why we suddenly had those nightmares after us.”

“What do you mean?” he asked as he glanced at me.

“She’s been able to come into her Incarnate powers a little more these days,” I explained. “She was able to actually heal the heart of the island, but by doing so she inadvertently ended up threatening the heat source for that colony of parasites. All of their young perished, and they wanted to make the Terrans pay."

“How do you know all this?” Mec asked.

“How else do you think?” I snickered.

“Amaya, of course, it’s Amaya,” he concluded as he shook his head with a weary sigh. “She seems to be getting stronger day by day.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I pointed out as we made our way through the smoldering campfires.

People were slowly coming out of their tents as the sun rose higher in the sky. Now that the danger had passed, it was safe to come out and start putting things to rights. Some of the older matrons already had pots simmering as they stoked up the dead fires, and there was sure to be a filling but flavorless soup being made in one or all of them.

Mec didn’t say anything at first, and I grew suspicious at his silence in the face of the perfect opportunity to brag about his baby sister.

I knew if I waited long enough, whatever was on his mind would make itself known sooner or later, and eventually, I was proven right when he slowed to a stop and looked at me.

“I admit I’m not just here for a wedding, as nice as that would be,” he started as his shoulders slumped ever so slightly. “My wife, Dawn, has come with me because Amaya especially has been receiving messages from the High Temple Order. They say the time for her to take the Oath has come.”

My heart seemed to fall through the floor.

“What does that mean for her, then?” I asked as an icy fear tried to claw up my spine. “Are you here to take her away?”

“We can only be the ones to inform her of her duty,” he said. “We cannot make her do anything she doesn’t want to do, which I’m assuming you’ve come to realize yourself.”

I chuckled as I cast my eyes to the ground. “You’ve got that right. She can be a stubborn one.”

“And that’s part of the reason why we love her so much,” the ram-lord concluded, and we both shared a knowing look. “However, as much as Dawn and I are loath to force Amaya to do anything, that is not the case with the Order. They will be demanding her answer hand-delivered by Dawn herself. That is why we have come, but it’s more of a formality. Because Amaya’s powers seem to be getting stronger, she has been making waves so to speak. Dawn has been able to feel her whenever she expends a great deal, which means the High Priestess also can feel this as well. They know she is almost in her prime.”

“What can we do?” I asked as we resumed walking in the direction of the outcrop.

“I’m not sure yet,” he said as he cast his eyes to the horizon. “I just know I need to talk to her about all this. Maybe we can put our heads together later when we know the full scope of what’s going on.”

I tried to take his word for it as we made our way through the rest of the camp, but I couldn’t help but feel anxious inside like a swarm of hornets was constantly buzzing through my rib cage.

When I finally ran across all three of my beautiful ladies, they were a sight for sore eyes, to say the least.

It appeared as if Amaya had built a small fire while Zoe was cooking some of the mole-bat carcass rotisserie-style, and Shay was curled up on the ground with Zoe’s cloak under her head as a pillow. My phoenix-wife looked like she’d probably slept through all or most of the commotion and would probably go right on sleeping come hell or high water.

“Brother!” Amaya gasped when she looked up from her task and saw who was responsible for casting the shadow in her sunlight. “Were you aboard the magnificent airship Zoie and I just saw?”

“I was indeed, baby sister,” he said and gathered her up in his arms when she launched herself at him. “It’s so good to see you. Tell me, where is our Ana?”

“Probably wherever Horus is,” the oryx-woman snorted. “Are you here for the Regent’s wedding?”

“Apart from other things, my dear,” Mec said in a tone that was a little more somber as he held her hands in his.

Amaya’s rain-colored eyes shimmered as she looked into her brother’s bronze ones, and her Knowing powers didn’t have to stretch far for her to discern the real reason for her brother’s visit.

“You brought Dawnie, didn’t you?” She apparently decided she wanted a verbal answer to that question because she pulled her hands away and folded them behind her.

“I did.” Mec nodded with a sad look in his eyes. “But I also brought Meera.”

“Don’t think that peace offering will work every time,” the oryx-woman said with a laugh that turned into a sob at the end.

“Ames.” I made an abortive gesture toward her like I wanted to pull her into my arms, but I stopped at the last moment because I was unsure if my advances would be welcome or not.

Amaya took the guesswork out of things and lessened the distance between us by seeking comfort in my arms anyway, and I cupped the back of her dear head.

“Oh, Alex,” she whispered as fine tremors raced through every fiber of her being. “I don’t want to go.”

“We haven’t given up yet, flower,” I said as I smoothed my hands along her spine to try and ease her. “In fact, a big part of why your brother is here is because we are going to come up with a plan. Isn’t that right, Gavlain?”

“That’s correct,” Mec said with a nod. “Don’t give up hope just yet.”

Her shaking eased, and her short breaths returned to normal as she collected herself, and when she was composed again, she finally stepped back.

“I understand,” she sighed. “And I trust you both.”

“Hey, Amaya, do you think you can help round up every one who is wounded so we can start ferrying them across to the Upper Echelon?” I requested and then glanced at the amazing, hovering, castle-ship my awesome Crew back on Nata Isle had managed to engineer.

If I had to describe the vessel floating over the deep crevasse of Terr-- other than just wickedly awesome-- I would have said it looked a little like if Monger Manor had traded its creepy Wes Craven vibe for a more whimsical Studio Ghibli one.

“Yes, I can help,” she said as she brushed off her palms on her thighs. “I need to help. And then… then I would like to talk to Dawn and find out what the Order has said.”

“You are one of the bravest people I have ever known.” Zoie’s serene voice interrupted before the spark in the augur-woman’s eyes could flicker and die out completely, and the sage-like Varthan warrior approached Amaya and brushed some of the platinum ringlets out of her gray eyes.

“I don’t feel very brave,” she admitted shyly as she held Zoie’s hands.

“But don’t you feel you are loved?” the cat-woman asked. “That is all you need when your courage fails.”

Amaya sighed out slowly through her nose as she bumped her forehead against the other woman’s.

“Okay,” she said, and this time when she pulled back she seemed determined and confident once more. “First thing’s first, Shay should be taken to the airship so she may sleep more comfortably.”

“Good idea,” Mec said with a smile on his bearded face, but the look he fixed me with said he was definitely going to hunt me down for a Conversation here pretty soon.

Which was fair because there was quite a bit I’d like to chat with him about as well, now that I thought about it.

Namely, the time here just recently when I may have traveled back in time and actually met a younger and more depressed ram-lord who was on the brink of offing himself via Dark Realm Seppuku.

Oh, yeah. We had much to discuss.

For now, however, I needed to see to my exhausted phoenix-wife.

“You guys go ahead,” I said as I turned back to the makeshift campsite where Zoie had returned and was now attempting to rouse the poor woman.

“Is it time for the ball?” Shay asked deliriously as the cat-woman helped her to a sitting position. “I’m afraid I haven’t gotten a thing done.”

“Don't worry about that, darling,” Zoie said as she helped the other woman to her feet.

I ended up having perfect timing because just as I approached them, Shay’s knees went soft, and I prevented her from sinking back to the ground like a puddle of candle wax.

“Oh, Alex,” she mumbled as she rested her crimson head in the curve of my neck and shoulder. “I still haven’t picked out my dress…”

“It’s all taken care of, sweetheart,” I assured her and then scooped her up princess-style.

She merely hummed a contented hum in the back of her throat before succumbing to her healing sleep once more.

“Is she going to be okay?” Zoie asked me after she put out the fire and slung the roasted meat over her shoulder. “She seems more out of it than she usually is when she uses her powers.”

“Well, she did just heal an entire island as well as forty or fifty injured people on top of that,” I pointed out as we followed behind the Mec siblings at a slower pace. “Also, I think if there was something else wrong with her that we needed to know about, Amaya would have told us by now. It’s hard to keep almost anything from her nowadays.”

“Do we have a plan?” my cat-wife asked me as she tilted her head to the side. “To help her with the Order, I mean.”

“I’m hoping maybe Jenner was able to find out more that can help,” I said with a shrug. “Other than that, we are all going to have to be really creative because letting Amaya take her oath is absolutely not an option.”

“I agree,” Zoie said as her normally stoic features hardened into a mask of fierceness and solidarity, and I knew that with her at my side, my chances of failure decreased by a lot.

I wasn’t entirely sure percentage-wise, but whatever the case, I stood by what I said. I’d made a promise to the auger-woman, and I would be damned before I broke it and let her live a life of servitude she’d never asked for.

There were several loose ends seemingly dangling in the wind, and as much as it drove me crazy, my priorities with my family, and seeing a little piece of what I now considered to be home floating in the air in front of me, made a good distraction from all of the things currently out of my control.

When we approached the floating airship, it seemed as if a lot of the miners and what remained of the Asher Lord’s guard were helping to escort as many injured as they could up the ramshackle ramps built to reach the front steps of what used to be Monger Manor. The Terrans had used a number of items to construct the bridges and ramps using anything from branches to parts of disassembled wagons, and not many it seemed were in dire need of care, but a few needed to be carried via stretchers.

Leader Zerr and Major Tharfin were the ones directing people toward the little koala-man standing on top of two wooden boxes, and Mr. Jenner was also giving short and simple directions to anybody passing through the airship. He wore his trademark blue velvet waistcoat, and every so often when answering a question, he would tweak his monocle.

“Master Alex!” My trusty koala-butler stopped mid-sentence when he caught my eye, and then he scrambled down the stack of boxes so he could rush over to me. “Mercedes be. What happened to Lady Shale-Lea?”

“She wiped herself out trying to heal everybody and everything, of course,” I said with a fond grin as I glanced down at my wife silently drooling on my tunic. “How have you been, Mr. Jenner?”

“It certainly has been an interesting time without you, my boy,” Jenner said as he buffed his monocle on his jacket sleeve. “I’m sure not quite as interesting as yours, though. But you had better go inside with her. There will be time enough to catch up, I’m sure, so go on, your shared suite on the upper floor is still made up for you. I’m sure Shay will be comfortable there. Also, I will borrow the lovely Zoe for a moment if you don’t mind.”

“I suppose I could part with her just this once,” I said with a wink, but then I sobered. “Thank you, Jenner, for all of your hard work and research.”

“Of course, lad,” he said with a dismissive gesture as if the acknowledgment was some bothersome insect, but the small grin at the corners of his mouth told me my thanks had touched him somehow.

With one more grateful nod, I maneuvered past him and some of the crowd in order to take my wife up to bed.

When I got up into the rooms I shared with my wives, and hopefully now my lover, I couldn’t help but linger on the side of the large bed after I’d tucked Shay under the soft covers.

The bed itself was almost too much of a luxury compared to the scratchy cots and floor mattresses I’d become accustomed to in the past several weeks. So much so I briefly considered just crawling under the duvet along with my slumbering wife. The only reason I didn’t, aside from the growing list of responsibilities I seem to always have as an Asher-slash-Ambassador-slash-whatever, was the fact I was missing one very important person during this period of unexpected reunions.

Rylan.

After stowing away on the Soaring Light, and generally popping up in places where he shouldn’t be, I figured it was just a given that he would be among the first people I would see on Monger Manor’s airship. But since I’d entered these walls, I hadn’t seen one wisp of him.

Which was odd because there was just simply no way he would allow himself to be left behind.

It was this realization that clued me in on the fact that the corridors were especially silent as I traversed them back down to the main level.

Almost too silent, and this small little detail along with Rylan’s suspicious absence were the breadcrumbs I needed to prevent myself from being tackled to the floor a split second before I was attacked.

“Roar!”

My missing foster son in question exploded out of one of the broom cupboards on the bottom floor when I passed. He attempted to put the basic hand-to-hand things I’d been trying to teach him to use in order to try to take me down, but he didn’t place his center of gravity correctly, and it was easy for me to knock him off-center.

“Oof!” He landed hard right on his back side.

“You’re getting rusty,” I teased as I helped the gangly kid up off the floor, but then I wondered if my vision or memory needed to be checked because Rylan seemed to have grown five whole inches and then some since I’d seen him last.

His lanky arms and legs were still awkward, but his chest had filled out a little with muscles, and his face had lost some of its softness. It was odd to see him grow right before my eyes, and I had one of those existential parental moments when I cosmically understood the desire to see him stay young forever. Already the shadows lurking behind his eyes were of things he should have never had to see in the first place, and the frailty of innocence was definitely fading.

It wasn’t fair.

“I’m only rusty because you’ve been gone for so long,” he argued logically as he brushed the dust off the back of his trousers. “At least I had the element of surprise this time.”

“Actually, your lack of noise, although commendable, was what tipped me off in the first place that you were up to no good,” I said as I ruffled his sandy hair. “Yeesh. Wasn’t there anybody who could give your hair a good chop back on Nata? You’re starting to look like Arvid.”

“Gee, thanks, Dad,” Rylan snarked as he pushed my hand off him. “I missed you, too.”

“Is that Tone I hear, young man?” I asked as I looped him in a loose headlock. “Are you giving me backchat?”

“So what if I am, old man?” he volleyed, and I had to stop right where I was so I could teach him a lesson via noogie. “Ahh, stop, stop! You win!”

I threw back my head and laughed long and hard, and then I pulled the kid in for a proper hug. “I missed you, kiddo. I never thought I’d say that.”

“Hey!” Rylan pouted and tried to break free of my embrace, but I only laughed and squeezed him harder.

“Why do you want to run away from my love?” I practically yelled in mock-pain, and then I tried to make a grab for him.

He was too fast and danced away from my vise-like fingers, but as I chased him down the corridor and around a corner, I had to come to a screeching halt in the middle of the hallway so I wouldn’t bulldoze over Rylan.

“What…” I trailed off when I peered over the top of the teenager’s head and saw a wide-eyed Vel-Rala standing stock-still in a sheer nightgown.

“Oh,” Rylan said as he politely averted his eyes to the floor. The cockatoo-woman was wearing clothes that definitely did not belong outside of a bedroom. “Sorry, Vela, I didn’t see you. Um, are you okay?”

“Alex Brightwood,” the woman said as if Rylan hadn’t even spoken, and her coal-black eyes stared into mine with a flatness that unnerved me but prevented me from looking away at the same time.

“Hello, Vela,” I said as I placed my hands on Rylan’s shoulders from behind. “Long time no see. How have you been?”

“Alex Brightwood,” she repeated, and I tried to ignore how the corridor seemed to be losing its color and oxygen the longer she stood there emanating her strange aura. “There is something I must tell you. It is of grave importance, and one day it will save your life.”

Chapter 4

There was an abounding silence after the cockatoo-woman proclaimed what she did, and Rylan and I exchanged looks.

Then Rylan sighed, and his expression seemed to portray that a half-naked cockatoo-woman talking about life or death without any sort of context seemed, if not normal, something he’d at least witnessed in the recent past.

The way he suddenly cleared his throat and shot me another look confirmed my suspicions. Something had been going on with my loyal estate manager while we’d all been gone, but the question was, what?

“I’m going to go see if any of the Terrans need help crossing from the courtyard to the palace,” Rylan said as he gestured over his shoulder with his pointed thumb. “I’ll catch up with you later, Dad.”

“Good idea, kiddo,” I said and squeezed his shoulder, and when Vel wasn't looking, I mouthed a quick thank you to him before he ran off.

Then I turned my attention to the enigma before me.

“Alex Brightwood,” she said once more, and her voice sounded like she had the worst case of laryngitis in the world. It creaked and groaned through her vocal cords like a rusty screen door, and had we been close to any source of water, I would have interrupted her in order for her to take a drink.

As it was, I could do nothing but stand stock-still and wait for her to talk.

But she didn’t make another move, and I internally sighed when I realized I would have to get the ball rolling.

“How have you been, Vel?” I asked her as I took a tentative step toward her. “Do you feel alright? You look a little pale.”

Then, quicker than I thought she was currently capable of, the cockatoo-woman rushed at me faster than I was prepared for, and the end result had her and her fathomless black eyes just inches away from my face.

“You must heed me,” she said with a low burning intensity. “Do you promise to heed me?”

“Well, considering that it is life and death, I do heed you,” I said, and I made sure my tone was absent of any facetiousness. Whatever it was she had to tell me, she fully believed it, and for all of our problems in the past, the last thing I ever wanted to do to anyone on my Crew was belittle them. “What is this about?”

My question seemed to give her pause, and she backed up a half-step out of my space, which was a bit of a relief.

“This is about life and death,” she said with a confused frown as if she was unsure as to why that needed repeating. Then she rummaged around in her robe and pulled out an object with little aha noise. “See?”

The cockatoo-woman held up what appeared to be a plain silver service bell with a decorative handle. It was definitely a nice little trinket, but I failed to see what a bell had to do with life and death.

I didn’t want to be rude, though. After all, her intense expression tipped me off that I’d better take this just as seriously as she did.

“I have to admit, I don’t see, but I trust you,” I said before she could get upset. And then, to make sure she knew I was sincere, I took the ordinary-looking bell from her shaking fingers and tucked it into my armored belt so the handle was visible for her to see. “I’ll never go without it.”

“You shouldn’t,” she agreed with a frantic nod. “Not even between rooms. It must be on your person at all times, do you understand me?”

Instead of calming her down like I thought it would, me going along with whatever her superstition was seemed to agitate her even further, and I worried I’d just taken a big misstep.

“This is obviously very important to you,” I said as I gently took her arm and hooked her hand into the crook of my elbow. “Why don’t we get something to drink down in the kitchen?”

The non sequitur seemed to throw her out of her head enough so the impending panic was no longer a problem, and for a lack of anything else to say, the cockatoo-woman nodded and let me lead us both to the homey kitchen next to the hearth.

A pot of leftover stew was warming up on the flames, and when I lifted the lid, my stomach rumbled in appreciation at the smell of someone who knew how to cook with spices. I looked around, but the friendly sloth-man and chef extraordinaire, Arvid, was nowhere in sight.

For the time being, I would just have to make sure his excellent cooking would not go to waste.

I must have gotten into my preparations a little too much because when I turned back around, the cockatoo-woman was fast asleep with her head pillowed on top of her arms.

Then, as quietly as I could, I tried to set the two helpings of stew and the pitcher of clean water down quietly on the table, but even the smallest vibration had her jerking awake.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, but I waved it away as I handed her a glass of water. She took it in her trembling hand and gulped down half in one breath.

“No need to apologize,” I said nonchalantly and then topped off her glass when she set it back down. “After all, you’ve given me the ability to avoid death in the future, right?”

“I don’t really know,” she admitted after she had drained her second glass. Then she wiped the corners of her mouth dry and folded her hands primly on top of the table. She seemed a little more composed, but the crow’s feet around her eyes and the lines around her mouth said otherwise.

“Well, let’s start with what you do know,” I suggested.

Vel’s coal-like eyes snapped to mine with some of that old spark I recognized, and I never thought I would miss the type of attitude she was capable of throwing with just one look.

“All I know,” she started with a terseness to her diction that made me want to chuckle, “is there’s something inside of me that will not rest unless I do what it says. I don’t know if other people have the same experiences or not, but it is a type of madness I would not recommend or wish on my worst enemy.”

“Sounds pretty awful, actually,” I said as I dunked a new spoon into the rich gravy-like broth.

Oh, yes, come to Papa.

“Picture something inside of you that won’t stop screaming and screaming and screaming until you do what it says,” she said just as I brought a spoonful up to my lips.

If her goal was to put me off my appetite, then she would have to try harder because it had been a while since I last had something that tasted so good in my mouth.

“How do you feel now?” I asked her around the chunks of spiced meat and boiled vegetables. “Do you feel better or worse now that you were able to listen to the voice?”

“Better, I suppose…” she trailed off again and then looked around the kitchen as if she was seeing it for the first time. “I’ve never felt this way before, so your guess is as good as mine. By the way, I hope you don’t think I’m just a vapid person who makes a big deal about nothing. I wasn’t really intending on coming here in the first place, but I couldn’t not.”

“I’m sure everything is in good hands,” I said as I finished up the last of the leftover stew. “What do you say to something a little stronger than water? I think we both earned it.”

“That sounds agreeable,” the cockatoo-woman said as she wearily pushed away her water glass.

I smiled kindly at her and then turned around in search of a flagon of wine. Then I heard an alarming thud behind me, and when I whipped back around with two wine glasses in my hands, I realized I really only needed one.

Apparently, the poor woman had finally allowed the exhaustion to catch up with her because she was lying face-down again on the table, and I was pretty sure she was out for the count this time.

“I’ll take that wine,” a familiar voice spoke out moments before the voice’s owner peered out from the staircase above the kitchen.

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you eavesdropping was rude, Bodin?” I mock-teased as I gazed upside down at that familiar raccoon face. “So, you decided to join the getaway party, too, huh?”

“When Vel became so adamant on coming, I just had to go with her.” My trusty friend and carpenter sheepishly removed his ever-present painter’s cap and twisted it in his hands. “But don’t you worry, sir. Mel has everything under control back at Ithaca.”

“I definitely trust you and your brother,” I said as I topped off his glass of wine. “I’m pretty sure between everybody we’ve got working for us nowadays, I’ll never have to worry again. How is that going, by the way? Jenner mentioned in one of his letters that Ithaca has serfs now?”

“Yes, Ithaca now boasts seven serf families that wish to unite under the crest of Brightwood.” The raccoon-man replaced his painter’s cap and then took a sip from his glass. “They are hard workers and have already begun to transform the land around the estate.”

“What about Icarian?” I asked him about my second estate as I took a sip from my own glass. The taste of fiery fruity pebbles hit the back of my tongue, and I’d never missed such an odd combination before now.

“Icarian doesn’t have any serf contracts, but according to Vel, several merchants in the markets are curious about joining under the Brightwood Crest,” Bodin informed me. “They have been seeing how well your kolee and bumble honey enterprises are doing, and there are talks of merchant and craft contracts in the city. Vela knows more about all that stuff, and I’m sure she can tell you once she feels better…”

The raccoon-man trailed off as he gazed at the slumbering woman. He smiled a fond smile, but behind his masked eyes, he appeared a little forlorn.

“How long has she been feeling this way?” I asked as I gazed at the poor woman’s white-feathered crest. She seemed peaceful now, but a moment ago she was frantic and even slightly insane, so I tried to keep my phrasing and questions simple and to the point.

Based on how Bodin’s shoulders curled inward slightly, I could tell no amount of phrasing would ever be gentle enough given the situation.

“It started out with the little things at first,” he began as he rubbed his brow under the brim of his hat. “I thought she was just being superstitious all the time-- like not wanting me to leave without a special button or without tying my shoes a certain way. But over time these little inconsequential things began to add up and take priority in her mind. I don’t know what’s causing it, but I’m deathly afraid the love of my life is going mad. That’s why I couldn’t let her come alone.”

“I’m sure there’s a reason for her behavior,” I tried to reassure my friend, even though I was mildly concerned. “And maybe it’s a reason we can figure out. Just don’t lose hope. That’s the last thing that’ll help anybody.”

My words were supposed to comfort the raccoon-man, but I couldn’t help but see the parallels in my own situation with Amaya.

Each new facet of her power was something that seemed to pull us closer to the inevitable, but thinking that I was bound to lose her? Was it really inevitable? That might be a mistake waiting to happen.

Regardless, the other man seemed to understand where I was coming from, and he signed out a little in relief.

“You’re right, Mr. Alex,” he said and then drained the last of his wine in one long gulp. “We are nothing without hope.”

“That is definitely something I will most gladly drink to,” I said and then took a page out of his book as I downed my own wine.

“I’d better get her to bed properly this time,” Bodin said after a few moments where we sat in shared silence. “This is the first time she’s had proper rest since we've left Nata, and I should thank you for that.”

“All I did was accept a lucky bell,” I said.

“Whatever it takes,” Bodin said and then gently gathered the cockatoo-woman up in his arms.

“Get some rest, too, okay?” I patted the other man on the shoulder as he passed me. “I’m going to need someone who can help me fly this thing.”

“It’s good to have you back, Alex.” He smiled faintly and then ascended the stairs at the back of the kitchen toward the second floor.

I sighed and sat back down at the sturdy table as I soaked in this little slice of home.

The galley was quaint like the rest of the three-story structure, and where Ithaca and Icarian had splashes of luxury and opulence strewn throughout the properties, the detachable top part of Monger Manor had more of a country home feel.

Like if the Burrow in Harry Potter could fly.

But by far the best feature of this place was how much light poured in through the natural skylights. Even the window over the galley sink allowed for a surprising amount of brightness to illuminate every nook and cranny.

Maybe it was because I’d spent such a long time in semi-darkness, but whatever the case, I found myself wanting to bask in the sun for a moment like a happy dandelion.

I decided to take this rare moment to myself and gathered up my empty stew bowl and the glasses so I could wash them in front of the open window.

Dishes were one thing I never minded doing whenever I lived with roommates or had to share the house chores. There was something meditative about the warm water and making everything clean and put to rights that I really liked, so even though I only had a handful to clean, I took my time and let the sun pouring in from the window caress my face.

Then a sound caught my attention on the breeze, and I paused what I was doing for a moment. When nothing but the wind greeted me, I resumed drying the glasses with the towel in my hand, but I soon stopped when I heard it again.

That was definitely not the breeze this time, but a sob.

I set aside my towel and leaned over the sink to try to see through the window where the heart-breaking crying was coming from. Just when I thought all emotional crises had passed, someone somewhere tried to muffle their growing, painful sobs, and they weren’t doing a very good job of it.

From what I could hear, it sounded like that person was on the balcony above where the kitchen was, so I decided to investigate.

It turned out the modest study was right above the kitchen, and when I entered, the sound of crying grew louder so I followed it out to the balcony.

I didn’t know what I was expecting, but seeing the normally stoic ibex-woman curled over herself as she sat on the balcony’s ledge was not it.

It was such an unusual sight that I stood there for a moment in indecision as she continued to cry. I looked around hoping maybe Horus was somewhere nearby, but it was just the two of us.

I could walk away and try to find Horus, but something in me felt wrong about leaving her to cry by herself for even a second longer.

Anwaar was practically my sister-in-law, so after one more look around for any sorts of reinforcements and finding none, I carefully approached her in a way that wouldn’t startle her since we were so high up.

It was obvious when she became aware of my approach by the way she stiffened and tried to fiercely wipe away her tears, so I didn’t call attention to the fact that she was sniffling and climbed up on the ledge next to her instead.

“I apologize, I’m just about finished here, and I’ll go,” the distraught ibex-woman said as she clutched her cloak tighter around herself.

“Don’t leave on my account,” I said casually as I looked out across the canyon. The sky was such a vibrant blue, almost azure like a lapis lazuli, and the breeze smelled sweet like summertime.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as if I was just there minding my own business so Anwaar could have a moment to compose herself.

When her tears seemed to be dry, I shielded my eyes from the sun and glanced at her to make sure she was alright.

“You don’t have to stay, you know,” she said with a grim half-smile. “I’ll be alright in a moment.”

“I’ll leave if you want me to,” I said in a tone that hopefully telegraphed a “no pressure” sort of atmosphere. “But if not, I’ll just sit here and enjoy the sun on my face.”

“It is glorious, isn’t it?” She tilted her own face more into the sun and took a deep breath. “Thank you. For staying. Your presence isn’t the least bit agitating like I thought it would be.”

“Right…” I trailed off as I tried not to snort in my amusement. She was definitely an acquired taste to most, but I’d learned by now not to take her blunt manner to heart. “You know, I’m also a pretty good listener, too. Just saying, if you think it’ll help.”

I didn’t actually expect her to take me up on the offer because I knew how reserved she could be, especially because I probably wasn’t the first person she turned to in times like this.

But she proved me wrong when she shifted toward me and took a small breath.

“I am unaccustomed to feeling such deep guilt for things I have no control over,” she began as she hugged herself even tighter.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I know why my brother and his wife are here,” she continued. “It has to do with Amaya, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh because there was no point in hiding the fact. “But you don’t have to worry because your brother and I are going to do whatever we can to make sure she doesn’t have to take the Oath.”

“Forgive me if I still harbor some doubts,” Anwaar said with an apologetic shrug. “I worry about my sister, and it has been this way since she was young, and I had to look out for her, so it is not easy to just shut the emotions off. I just can’t help but think of what happens if you and my brother fail to find a solution.”

“What are you worried about?” I prodded. The insight the ibex-woman had into her sister’s actions and behavior was a perspective I was curious about.

“I know Amaya,” she said. “If she has any inkling there is no hope left, she will petition for a new mage.”

I arched my eyebrows and glanced at her. “I didn’t know an augur could do that.”

“It’s not common, but in cases where the balance of power is uneven or abused, each augur and mage pair can petition the Order for another pairing,” she explained.

“So Amaya will say what? You abused her, or something?” I questioned with a sick feeling in my gut at the thought.

“Mercedes, no,” she snorted. “It may have started that way in order to protect those who are bonded by giving them a way to leave the bond if needed. Now, either one of the pairs may simply elect to do so on preference if they wish to.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” I huffed. “I would hate for your reputation to be smeared like that.”

Anwaar opened her mouth, frowned, and then closed it again like she didn’t quite know what to say to that. Finally, after another false start, she was able to articulate what had her all twisted up.

“You are kind enough to consider my feelings above your own desires,” she repeated in a logical voice. “It should not matter to you, and yet you have taken that detail into consideration. Amaya always says you are a virtuous man, and yet I am still surprised. If she knew, she would just shake her head at me.”

I smiled as a soft look entered her opalescent eyes, and I pictured the very sight. “I think I know what you mean. She’s quite virtuous herself.”

“This is true.” Anwaar’s smile faltered. “And it is why I feel so guilty. If she must be forced back to the Order, she will not permit me to join her. You see, the Order does not want those among their ranks who are unwilling servants.”

“Aside from the Prophetess,” I grumbled.

“Yes.” The ibex-woman nodded her long-horned head as her expression hardened. “Unfortunately, Amaya’s case is a matter of her bloodline, and because of this, it is a matter of destiny. One cannot interfere with destiny.”

“They just haven’t met me yet,” I said with a cocky grin and nudged her shoulder, which teased a rare smile out of her.

“I must thank you for your support of her, even though it has been tempting not to take her fully as a lover,” Anwaar said, and I suddenly stiffened beside her.

“Um…” I cleared my throat and rubbed the back of my neck.

“You two have not fully made love, correct?” she rephrased as she stared hard at me.

“Say that we have…” I hedged. “Would that really be so bad?”

“Are you not a Traveler, then?” the ibex-woman questioned.

“I definitely am,” I replied and watched as her face went pale. “What is the big deal?”

“The ‘big deal’ is you should have poisoned her, and the fact she seems perfectly fine is quite curious,” she said as she stared at me with an intense expression in those multi-faceted eyes. “Quite curious indeed.”

Chapter 5

I stared at the ibex-woman with my jaw almost in my lap as I went over in my head what she had just told me, and no matter which way I sliced it, her words were not making any sort of sense.

“I’m sorry, but did you just tell me I should have poisoned Amaya just by being with her?” I blurted out when nothing was adding up. “Either I am going deaf and senile, or I’m missing a much larger part of the puzzle.”

Anwaar studied me for a moment in silence, and I couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy as her eyes pinned mine. “Do you know what it costs an Acolyte of any status to take the Oath?”

“No, but I’m guessing if I did, I would be less thrown off right now,” I deadpanned.

“The particulars of the Oath are pretty straightforward,” she started. “Simply, every Acolyte must drink of the Ocean Mercedes so Her knowledge will flow through us forevermore. Too much of it, while an Acolyte is newly pledged, can overwhelm her, and so augurs especially must remain chaste of any man’s essence who has also consumed the Ocean. And they teach us all Travelers always drink from the Ocean of Knowledge.”

“Yeah, that was one of the first things I did when I got here,” I admitted. “The sun was so hot, and when I dove into the freshwater, I was so thirsty I didn’t even think twice.”

“Yes, this is how it is for everyone who Travels here,” Anwaar agreed as she massaged her right hand with her left. “The Goddess makes it so.”

“You said the Ocean contains knowledge?” I questioned.

“Indeed.” The ibex-woman nodded her long-horned head. “Haven’t you ever wondered how it is that you could understand everyone from the moment you got here? The knowledge of language comes from the Ocean. All Travelers have experienced this.”

“But too much of the Ocean’s knowledge is like poison?” I asked as I attempted to understand what she was telling me.

“Because the augur-women are already given powerful gifts of knowledge at birth from Mercedes, they risk becoming inundated with too much Knowledge if they make love with those who also have it as well. Too much can burn their minds’ out and could put them in eternal sleep.”

“I knew it was against her customs to forgo remaining chaste, but she never told me there were actual dangers to herself,” I said as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You have to believe me, Ana, if I had known how risky it was for her, I would have never agreed to it.”

“I do believe you, Alex,” she placated, and the corners of her mouth ticked up a little in amusement. “I also believe once again nothing can stand between my sister and her goal when she gets it into her stubborn head. She probably figured it was a risk worth taking. However, I don’t know how she could have come to that conclusion because by all rights this should not have worked.”

“So, the question now is why?” I pointed out. “Is it because she’s the Prophetess?”

“No,” she said. “If anything, that makes her more susceptible. The only thing that would make sense is if…”

Anwaar trailed off as the thoughts visibly raced through her mind. Something had obviously occurred to her, and I waited with bated breath to find out what it was.

I knew by the way she suddenly sucked in a sharp breath and gripped my wrist that she was on to something profound.

“What is it, Ana?” I asked when the anticipation was too much for me to handle. She also struck me as the type of person who could easily get trapped in her own thoughts from time to time, and I didn’t want her to leave me out. “You’re killing me here.”

“There are only three possible ways things could have ended up the way that they did,” she began as her eyes shifted rapidly back and forth like she was organizing some massive spreadsheet in her head. “The first would be you didn’t drink of the Ocean, but by your accounts, you are telling me you did, correct?”

“Correct, so that’s out,” I confirmed. “And the other two?”

“The second reason could be that everything the Order ever taught us was wrong, which is hard to believe because there are accounts of people actually going insane from Ocean poisoning,” she listed. “And then the third would be maybe Amaya isn’t of Prophetess lineage at all. Either that, or these two reasons need more investigation. But if the latter is true, and Amaya is not of Prophetess origin, then there is no obligation holding her to the Order or the Oath.”

“This sounds like the loophole we need,” I said and tried not to get too excited. “How do we go about proving any of this?”

“Well, ideally it would be a matter of comparing specific genealogies, but all of the archives that held the ones we may need were buried on Eng due to the Uprisings,” Anwaar explained.

“Buried like physically buried?” I asked.

“Yes, after the Eng-folk were punished for their part in the war, the Ashers of Blood and the Temple Order physically buried most of the ancient archives under the ground,” she said, and it almost felt like I was back in history class.

“I didn’t know Jenner's people were punished.” I frowned. “What exactly were they punished for?”

“They were punished due to the fact they put their intelligence above even the greater good,” the ibex-woman said as if she was reciting something from a textbook. “The Eng-folk believe in free knowledge for all, but the simple fact is there are just some things the larger part of society should not be made aware of if peace is to be achieved.”

“That sounds ominous,” I said dryly. “And what does it mean exactly?”

“I… Don’t really know.” She shrugged. “This is all they teach us.”

“And you don’t think that’s a problem?” I asked, but when she continued to blink at me with a blank expression, I decided to move on. “Anyway, what was the punishment?”

“The Isle of Eng was enchanted by the High Priestess many seasons ago,” Anwaar continued. “She cursed the land and made it so the Eng-folk who live there lose their higher reasoning and regress, or devolve, into their base species. That is why most of Jenner’s folk have chosen exile from their homeland rather than succumb to savagery.”

“Jenner’s never mentioned anything like that,” I said and hunched my shoulders a little. “He’s mentioned the Uprisings in passing and about how he misses being an Archivist, but I guess I just never thought to ask beyond that.”

“Not many of the Engish like to discuss the past,” the ibex-woman said. “Although, it might be necessary to do so now. There is a chance we could potentially unearth the archive we need that holds the knowledge of gaining Amaya’s freedom. I am willing to do whatever it takes, because I know she is willing to do what she must so I may have the same: a life that is my own.”

“Ani? Ani?” a worried voice called out before the owner of that voice came out onto the balcony we were sitting on.

“I’m here, my love,” Anwaar said and then hopped off the ledge.

“Where have you been, my darling, I’ve been worried,” Horus said as he reached for her and brought her closer. “And what is this? Were you liaising with my best friend? Have you sought affections elsewhere? Oh, the tragedy!”

“It’s true, she finally traded up,” I laughed as I shook my head as I patted him on the shoulder. “You can come to our wedding if you want.”

“Oh, gee, how kind of you, thanks,” he snarked back and then shoved me away. “As if I would believe for a second she would fall for you instead of me. I mean, look at this face. This hair!”

“You are quite attractive,” she agreed as she gazed at Horus’ face. “If I were to leave and elope with another, it would only be due to your big mouth.”

“Exactly what I was-- hey, wait a minute!” he interrupted himself when Anwaar’s words finally hit their target.

“I am a good listener,” I said and waggled my eyebrows at Anwaar just to get under my friend’s skin.

“That’s it, I’m never letting either one of you out of my sight again,” he declared as he threw his love over one shoulder and marched a few steps away.

The whole time Anwar just went along with it with a bored look on her face as if these antics were nothing new and wholly on par for the course. The way her cool expression contrasted with the falcon-man’s overblown dramatics made the whole scene even more hysterical, and I couldn’t contain myself from finally letting loose a side-busting guffaw.

When I started laughing, this caused Horus to drop the act as well, and he put his love back down on solid ground so he could laugh without the fear of dropping her.

Anwaar simply smirked as her opal eyes tracked the both of us with silent judgment. “I take everything back. I’m going to just elope with myself.”

Horus and I paused our hysterics long enough to take a breath, but when we locked eyes, we devolved into giggles once more.

“Ah, but on a more serious note,” the falcon-man said as the hilarity subsided. “Are you really alright, Ani?”

“I am,” she reassured him. “Alex and I were discussing ways Amaya and I can both leave the Order for good.”

“Oh?” He arched one of his thin black eyebrows. “What is the consensus?”

“In summary, I need to pick the brain of our resident Archivist, but if you want my opinion, I don’t think we’ll be returning home any time soon,” I said.

“Where do you think we’ll be going?” he asked.

“Eng Isle,” I said.

“Well, it seems like I have a lot to catch up on,” Horus said. “I’ll let Ani do the honors.”

“Okay, good, because there is someone I need to have a chat with,” I said, and I frowned a little when my thoughts clouded with Amaya.

“Be sure to give her an earful from me as well,” Anwaar said knowingly. “And don’t go easy on her.”

“I won’t,” I said.

“And Alex?” She stopped me before I could duck through the entrance of the balcony. “Thank you for listening.”

“Of course.” I gave her a smile and nodded at Horus when he mouthed a quick thank you at me as well, and then I left them alone to talk while I sought out Amaya.

My search eventually led me out to the courtyard where the rest of the Terrans were finally making the journey from Lower to Upper Echelon in two long lines. The gap between the edge of the airship and the other side was still quite sizable, so two wooden ramps were set up parallel to one another and were being manned by several sturdy men on each of the ramps’ four corners.

Because the ramps were being held only by some rope and a few men, the going had to be slow and single file, but the sight of Zoie’s ears as well as Rylan’s familiar laughter caught my attention and temporarily distracted me from my task.

I stopped, and I felt a fond smile unfurl on my lips when I saw my son twirl my wife around in a little improvised jig as some of the kids sang a song and clapped their hands. It seemed to be the perfect distraction for the little fussy ones who were getting whiny from all the standing around as the lines moved slowly.

I decided to linger back in the crowd just a little so I could watch without being noticed for a moment.

Rylan seemed to have grown an entire acre since I’d seen him last, and even though he still had that boyish grin, and his movements were still gawky, I could start to see the young man hiding beneath the adolescent.

His jaw was a little bit more square, and his voice which had previously cracked on every other word now seemed to be finding a mellow timbre to settle on. Pretty soon, a full-fledged man would take the place of the boy… A man with features alien to mine.

Because the reality was Rylan was only my adopted son, and whenever I thought about his origins, it was a sharp reminder that I’d had the misfortune of running into his biological bastard of a father.

Kavo Alda.

Well, “running into him” wasn’t entirely accurate given I’d never actually met the guy face to face, which was more of a gut punch whenever I looked at Rylan.

The elusive traveler/dreamwalker menace, and also the proverbial thorn in my side, definitely had his fingers in a lot of different pies, and his trail of destruction was something I’d inadvertently committed myself to fixing along the way.

When I first heard of the guy back on Nata Isle, it was after I got down to the bottom of the corruption in Gatetown. Through a long string of puppets and pawns starting back from even when I’d met Dagmar, the person behind the curtain had always been Alda.

Finding out his influence exerted all the way to Terr was just the icing on the cake.

Recently, his top crime featured corrupt mind-controlling medallions made from the sacred ore harvested from the Terrans-- among other things like helping Archus Doler experiment with demon ash in order to create minions, as well as a whole host of things he did that took place before I’d even arrived here.

Namely, orphaning Rylan for starters. And come to find out, he wasn’t the only one up to these antics, if Mozz, Tharfin's niece, was anything to go by. The lizard-girl with similar Dark Realm gifts like Rylan was also orphaned by her father, Krev Alda-- Kavo’s brother.

Luckily, one half of that equation had been dealt with, but the fact remained they had both been here as Travelers longer than I had. This meant they had the opportunities to spread their network in any way they seemingly saw fit, and unfortunately, what they saw fit tended to wreak havoc and pain wherever they left a footprint.

I was quickly coming to grasp that my main ambition would be to end the collective reign of the Aldas’ treachery once and for all.

I just needed to freaking get to the last brother first.

So far, all I’d managed to do was take out Kavo’s “generals,” so to speak, and I was beginning to feel like I was in some never-ending video game where I had to battle boss after boss without actually meeting the final Head Honcho.

If he was indeed the Headest of all Honchos.

Who knew how deep the rabbit hole went?

“Dance with us, Shepherd.” A little lizard girl with clear blue eyes and adorable purple dreadlocks done up into pigtails tugged my hand.

“Shepherd…?” I allowed the little girl to pull me into a circle until I was forced to play along and dance with her alongside Zoie and Rylan.

It definitely helped to pass the time, that was for sure, and I forgot a little bit about my irate mood as I eventually came together with my cat-wife and spun her around.

“Why hello, Shepherd,” Zoie said as she looped her arms loosely around my neck. “What have you been up to?”

“I learned some very interesting information about our Amaya,” I said as we swayed in a circle. “Also, why are people calling me Shepherd?”

“It’s the name the Terrans have given you because you helped lead them out of the Lower Echelon,” she explained as she twirled the hair at the nape of my neck around one of her fingers. “And what is wrong with our Amaya?”

“Aside from the fact the Order wants her to hurry up and take her Oath?” I asked as I released a gusty sigh. “Oh, just the fact she kept some pretty important information from me and put herself at risk.”

“That doesn’t sound much like her,” Zoie said as we came to a stop along with the rest of the dancers. “What did she do?”

“She assured me coupling with her wouldn’t bring about any consequences, and nothing happened, but according to Anwaar, Amaya could have ended up dead, or at the very least really sick.” I pinched the bridge of my nose as I once again went over how lucky we both were that nothing adverse came out of our lovemaking. “I just don’t know why she would do something like that.”

“I can’t begin to guess at her reasons,” my cat-wife said as she kneaded both of my shoulders. “But you are quite tense over the matter, husband. Might I suggest you work off a little energy before you speak with her? I can tell by the fire behind your eyes that you might say something in haste that you would regret in the future.”

I glanced at the knowing woman beside me who never failed to catch me off-guard with little things like this. She was there to constantly remind me even though I was the head of this family, I was not alone or without support from her especially.

Maybe it was just the natural hierarchy that developed, but Zoie had taken on the role of first wife with a seriousness that belied her stalwart loyalty and endless patience. She really was my right hand, and the partner I turned to for advice and strategy, so it was natural to let go of some of my worries and let her take over.

“What do you recommend, wife?” I asked as I smoothed my hands along the curve of her waist.

“It’s been a while since you sparred with me, husband,” she purred. “The Terrans are partial to staff-like weapons, and I thought it might be useful to train with them. If you are unarmed, you at least will be able to use any sort of long melee object with efficiency.”

“You’re so sexy when you get all technical,” I remarked as I felt my good humor returning.

“We should do this outside in the forest so you may practice with found weapons you might come across just in case you ever find yourself in a similar scenario,” she said in a distracted but all-business tone of voice.

I chuckled and shook my head. “What do you think? Should we bring the kid, too?”

“Yes, he will need to learn this as well,” she said.

“Hey, Ry!” I yelled across the courtyard to him, and he halted in the middle of his dancing. “Come on, Mom wants to teach us how to hit each other with sticks!”

“Okay!” he said with a bright smile and bounded over like a Labrador retriever.

“Please,” Zoie said as she clicked her teeth disapprovingly. “There’s a bit more nuance to it than just ‘hitting each other with sticks.’”

“Yes, Mom,” Rylan and I both chorused.

And then the three of us let the Terrans get on with their Exodus while we jogged through the airship back toward the sentinel tower.

“Here is as good of a place as any,” Zoie said as she slowed to a stop in the clearing where the squallers used to be tied. “Each of you, find a staff you can wield.”

“Like this?” Rylan asked as he held a large branch that towered at least three feet above his head after he stabbed it in the ground.

“A little shorter than that,” Zoie giggled as she broke off her own makeshift quarterstaff.

“Here, let me help you with that, bud,” I said and took the overly large branch from him. Then I broke the top quarter of the branch off so now it came up to his chin.

After I’d fixed him up with a suitable weapon, I got my own from a fallen tree right next to me, and with a little more elbow grease, I was able to break it down to size.

“A real weapon of this type would be hewn of the strongest wood and balanced correctly, but if you find yourself without a weapon, anything will do,” she said and then demonstrated how capable she was at kicking ass by twirling her branch around like some gorgeous Electra from Daredevil.

“That’s so awesome,” Rylan said as we both watched the cat-woman twirl and flip, and she demonstrated her wicked moves. “She’s going to teach us all that, right?”

“Well, let’s start with the basics first,” Zoie chuckled when she came to a rest. “First, you both need instruction on how to hold your quarterstaffs.”

Like the no-nonsense trainer she was, she then went behind each of us and adjusted both our stances and our grips so we were holding our staffs with two hands and pointed away from our bodies as if we were holding a sword. The only difference was how wide apart I had to place my hands in order to control the staff, and currently, it felt foreign from wielding my blades.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too much of a learning curve.

“It feels a little awkward,” Rylan admitted as he tried to find a position that was more comfortable.

“It will feel unnatural until you start practicing with a properly balanced staff,” Zoie explained and then tapped her staff against his so he would straighten up and pay attention. “It is more difficult to fight with a found weapon just like this, so if you practice the hard way first, then the easy way will be even easier.”

“Makes sense,” I said with a shrug and held my staff at the ready. “What’s next?”

“Next, I will show you both slowly how to strike and how to block,” she said and squared off in front of me. “Pay attention if you can to my hands and my feet. The key is to make big steps so the power you build behind the follow-through only increases with your body’s motion.”

Rylan and I both watched captivated as the seasoned warrior raised the staff across her chest, took a step back with her right foot, and then with a cry, she surged forward and struck a rock straight on the top with a mighty swack.

The strike reverberated around the small clearing, shortly followed by a strange crackling sound. Then a huge fissure began growing down the center of the rock until it broke apart into two equal halves.

“Holy shit!” Rylan gasped as he gaped at the two halves gently rocking to a stop where they fell.

“Dude, language, but honestly, I feel the same,” I said as I stared at what used to be a small sturdy boulder.

“If you maximize the power behind your strike with your whole body and use your left hand as the pivot point, you have a weapon just as deadly as a blade.” My sexy badass wife swung her branch around until it was resting across the top of both of her shoulders. “Who wants to try first?”

It was a toss-up whose “me” was loudest between the two of us.

What followed next was a lot of sticks banging on the top of rocks without a whole lot to show for it, and an ache growing in my forearms.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Zoie finally instructed. “That’s not going to develop in a day. Let’s move on to some actual sparring.”

“Thank Mercedes,” Rylan huffed and then rested his staff against a rock so he could shake out his hands.

“Although, instead of going for each other’s heads, we will aim to strike each other on the shoulders,” Zoie said and squared up in front of me again.

In slow and exaggerated movements, she took a step and swung the staff down toward my right shoulder where she tapped it and then raised the staff over her head immediately after.

When she gazed at me with her intense sapphire eyes, I knew she was waiting for me to respond in kind, so I copied what I saw and proceeded to strike her like she showed me.

“Like that?” I asked her as I adjusted my grip.

“Make sure your thumbs are both pointed inward when you wield,” she said and tapped my top hand.

I flipped over my right hand so both of them were holding the staff correctly.

“It feels funny to hold it like this,” Rylan said.

“I know it will at first,” Zoie explained as she helped the kid with his stance one more time. “But you want your full driving power behind your striking palm here. Think of it like you are pushing the staff instead of swinging it. Now, face off, you two.”

“Oh, man, I’m so going to kick your butt,” I teased as I bounced a little on the balls of my feet.

“Not if I kick yours first!” Rylan said with a playful little snarl on his face, and then the two of us commenced trying to tap each other on the shoulder as we danced around one another.

Zoie would occasionally call out suggestions or adjustments from where she was perched on a high stump.

“Be sure after you strike, you raise the staff above your head!” she called out. “That is how you block any incoming attacks.”

I took a step toward Ry and tapped him on the shoulder before I leaped back. “Gotcha!”

“Hey!” he growled and attempted to swipe at me.

“Push, not swing,” I parroted Zoie’s earlier instruction, and then I whacked him on the other shoulder. “Gotcha again.”

“Grr,” the kid growled again, but this time the fierce look that marred his face was mingled with frustration and determination.

A sudden scream pierced the air right as Rylan upped his game and feinted a strike, but because I was distracted, the strike meant for my shoulder actually connected with my temple.

There was a bright flash of light before everything went abruptly black.

Chapter 6

“Dad?” A curious voice prodded at my awareness, and I groaned when my hangover throbbed mercilessly through my head.

“G’way,” I mumbled as I swatted away whoever was trying to wake me up. “It’s my day off.”

“Dad, wake up.” Something nudged me in the ribs, and I finally cracked my eyes open.

“Rylan?” I asked as his face swam into view. Not a hangover, it seemed. “What happened?”

“I’m so, so sorry, Dad, I accidentally hit you in the head, and then you wouldn’t wake up because you were in the Dark Realm so we had to go get Mozz so she could get me here because I couldn’t focus, and--”

I held up a hand to stall his machine gun fire rapport and then slowly sat up.

“What?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes. “Did you just say you knocked me into the Dark Realm with your staff?”

“Um… yes?” He rubbed the back of his neck and gave me a sheepish grin. “Again, I’m so sorry. And like I said, I would have been here myself to come and get you, but you weren’t making any noise, so I didn’t know where to find you. And I was a little freaked out about what I did, so I couldn’t really focus.”

“Yeah, you said,” I grunted as he helped me up to my feet. “Damn, kid. Good shot. I’ll never doubt you again.”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, and I nudged him with my shoulder so he knew he didn’t have to feel guilty.

“I’m proud of you, kiddo,” I said just for posterity’s sake. “And I’m sorry you were freaking out.”

“Mozz told me how you had an injury in your head she helped you fix,” he said. “And she explained more about the time I came to take her out of the Dark Realm with you. I tried to go back to find you at the time, but I was too exhausted. I can’t believe I heard the code word, though.”

“Yeah,” I said as I glanced around the nondescript clearing and spied a few tall trees. “I thank you for that. Mozz didn’t know how to get back. Hey, Rylan, are you able to travel between the clearings?”

“No,” he said. “I can see them in my canterfly form from above, but I can only enter a clearing if someone calls for me.”

“Interesting,” I muttered.

“Are you able to?” he asked with a curious tilt of his head.

“Turns out, yes.” I grinned as I waggled my eyebrows. “Second question: remember the sword you transformed last time we were here?”

“The mega awesome one with the purple handle?” he answered back. “That was the best.”

“Yeah, it was cool, and it turns out it’s still in the Dark Realm,” I said. “I stashed it in one of these clearings, and I wanted to ask you if you’ve ever been able to take anything out of the Realm besides people.”

I bent down and picked up a small stone, tossed it up in the air, and then handed it to him.

“I’ve never tried to do that before,” he said as he reached for the small stone. It had a burnt-orange pattern similar to a tiger’s eye and had a perfectly smooth divot in the center perfect for worrying a thumb against. “I don’t know what’s required.”

“Well, how does it work when you manifest something?” I asked. “You visualize it, right?”

“I’ll try to concentrate on keeping it with me when we leave,” he said as he slipped the trinket into his pants pocket. “Which should be soon because Mom is a little worried.”

“Hah, okay,” I said as I ruffled his hair. “You should probably fly us out of here in that case. I don’t think I have time to meditate my way back.”

“Alright, hang on,” he said and closed his eyes, and then his form blurred and phased into the sandy-blond butterfly-pegasus form he was comfortable in when in the Dark Realm.

“Still cool every time,” I commented and patted his flank.

He pranced in place with something like pride, and I got up on his back. Then he reared back on his hind legs and launched us both into the static white sky.

I glanced over my shoulder and scanned the clearings for one in particular, and when I spotted it, I tugged on Rylan’s mane. “Look, Ry. See that tall tree in the clearing down there?”

“Hee-oo!” CanterRy tossed his head when he saw what I meant.

“That’s the tree where I hid our sword!” I called over the rushing wind.

CanterRy whistled again, and I laughed as he turned our ascent into a happy little upward spiral, and as the stark whiteness filled my vision, I could still feel the echo of laughter in the back of my throat before I came to in the clearing with Zoie, Rylan, and Mozz hovering over me.

“He’s fine,” Mozz’s sarcastic drawl greeted me as both she and Rylan helped me to my feet.

“Good to see you, Mozz,” I said and couldn’t resist ruffling her short blue locks. She growled and hissed at me like a wet alley cat, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks, by the way. Ry told me he needed your assistance.”

“Yeah, it was no problem,” she said with a nonchalant sniff that was trying way too hard to be nonchalant, and the faint blush on her scaled cheeks gave away the fact she must have been at least a little pleased with the gratitude. “Just be careful next time.”

“You bet,” I said with a wink.

“The rock!” Rylan suddenly gasped as he searched his pockets. “It’s gone.”

“Aw, that’s okay, bud,” I said. “I didn’t expect you to get it on the first go.”

“I’ll keep practicing,” he sighed.

“Practicing what?” Zoie asked as she peered into my face and checked my head for any more damage. “I think we are done with practice for the time being.”

“No, Mom, we mean practice with the Dark Realm,” Rylan explained. “I’m going to try to bring something back.”

“Really?” she asked, and then she turned her astute sapphire gaze onto her kit and scrutinized him like she did with me. “Is that safe?”

“Probably.” He shrugged, and Zoie’s eyes narrowed even more before they slid over to me.

“Erm…” I cleared my throat. “Now, Ry, make sure you don’t overdo it, okay? Actually, let’s make a rule: you are not allowed to try anything larger than that stone. Once you can do that successfully--”

“Three times,” Zoie interjected.

“Three times,” I added dutifully. Yay, parenting. “After that, we’ll see about bigger stuff.”

“What, like, sticks?” he scoffed sarcastically and glanced at Mozz like he’d just said the Joke of the Year.

The lizard-girl simply blinked at him with an unimpressed-looking stare.

“Yes, sticks,” I said as I arched a single eyebrow. “Is that okay with you, Your Highness?”

My tone conveyed just how unimpressed I was as well with his snark, and he lowered his eyes with a contrite grin.

“Sticks are fine,” he said agreeably.

“Good,” I snorted.

“Glad that’s sorted,” Mozz said, as if she had remotely anything to do with the so-called Sorting. “Hey, Rylan, want to fly on the squallers with me?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely!” He perked up and turned his wide eyes on the both of us. “Can I?”

“Just please be careful,” Zoie relented under the full blast of his puppy dog eyes.

“Will do!” he nearly hollered, and then he practically ran out of the clearing with the blue-haired lizard-girl.

“Good Goddess,” I huffed as I blew my bangs out of my eyes. “We’d better follow them.”

“Agreed,” Zoie said, but she didn’t make any other moves to follow them as she continued to eye me uncertainly. “Are you sure you are alright? He definitely got you good, but I didn’t think it was that serious until you wouldn’t respond.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, love,” I said as I kissed her on the cheek. “I’m perfect, I promise.”

“What distracted you so much?” she asked me.

“Hm?” I cocked my head in her direction. “What do you mean?”

“I saw it just before Rylan struck you,” she explained. “Something distracted you from the task at hand.”

I thought back a bit about what had happened before my lights went out, and I suddenly remembered a little detail I almost forgot.

“Oh, right,” I said as I looked around the clearing. “I heard a woman screaming. What was that all about?”

“There was no woman screaming,” Zoie said as she peered curiously at me.

“There wasn’t?” I frowned. Now that I was reminded of it, I’d definitely heard a woman scream. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” she said and glanced upward at her velvet ears.

“Right, then it must have been in my head,” I said even though I didn’t believe that was the case. But who could argue with a Varthan warrior’s impeccable hearing? So, I filed it away to examine at a later time and extended my hand to her. “Shall we go back to the manor?”

My cat-wife nodded and tucked her arm in the crook of my elbow, and the two of us strolled back to the airship where we parted ways, her to find Mr. Jenner, and me on my quest to find Amaya.

There was no rush, however.

Even though I’d had my bell rung by Rylan, I felt a lot more centered by letting out some steam, so when I actually ran into Amaya, I was less impatient and frustrated and more open to whatever she might say.

When I finally found her, she wasn’t really hiding exactly, but she’d sequestered herself on the uppermost floor where it seemed like a plant menagerie was the theme, almost like a rooftop garden on the top of a high-rise apartment building.

The oryx-woman sat under a modest tree with her back against the trunk and her knees tented upward so she could rest her chin on top.

“You found me,” Amaya said with a sad smile as she gazed up at me with her rain-colored eyes.

“So, you were avoiding me,” I said as I arched an eyebrow and folded my arms across my chest.

“Maybe a little bit,” she admitted sheepishly. “I can feel your ire even now that it has been tempered. I’m sorry.”

“Do you know why I am frustrated?” I asked.

“No, but I can guess,” she whispered. “There is but one thing I have ever kept from you.”

I sighed and sat down on the ground next to her. “You could have died.”

“I know.” She shrugged a little and hugged herself tighter.

“What were you thinking?” I finally asked, and I tried to keep my voice steady so the quaking I felt inside wouldn’t reveal itself. “If you had actually…”

My throat closed off the rest of that sentence. The thought was too horrifying to complete.

“But I didn’t, Alex,” she reminded me and gently pressed her shoulder into mine.

“It still doesn’t escape the fact that you could have, and I would have had no idea what went wrong,” I pointed out as I clenched my fist and pressed it into my thigh.

“I can’t explain it to you, Alex, but when I’m with you, I always know I’ll be okay, no matter what,” she said as tears began to track down her cheeks. “Do you regret our time together?”

“No!” I said and whipped around to look at her. “Never. I’ve loved every moment we’ve spent together. It was amazing being so close to you.”

“I feel the very same way,” she said after she exhaled a relieved breath.

“Now, imagine what it would have been like for me if you… if I had harmed you irreversibly,” I said. “I just need you to understand.”

Amaya lowered her eyes away from mine and instead raised a hand so she could cup my cheek.

I knew what she was doing, and because she wanted to Know, I leaned into the overwhelming fear that left their impression on me whenever I thought of how much Amaya’s harm should have been a surefire deal if Anwaar was to be believed.

The stab of horror I felt caused Amaya to gasp and tear her hand away from my face.

“Oh, Alex!” she cried out and flung herself into my arms. “I’m so sorry.”

“Shh,” I coaxed as I held her shaking body against mine. “It’s okay, Ames.”

“I feel so silly and selfish,” she sniffled as she continued to cling to me. “For an augur-woman and Prophetess, I tend to miss some things. Can you ever forgive me?”

“Flower, there’s nothing to forgive,” I said as my own heart ached from the feedback of her guilt and shame. “I just wanted you to understand.”

“I do, and I am very sorry,” she repeated, and I tilted her chin up so I could press a kiss on her petal-like lips.

“I think maybe Anwaar is the one who could use some reassurance as well,” I mentioned, and I felt Amaya stiffen in my arms.

“Oh, my,” the oryx-woman sighed as she pulled away from me so she could resume hugging herself. “Yes, I can feel her distress…”

“We also discussed a few ways about how to get you out of the Oath,” I explained. “It appears since nothing bad came out of our lovemaking like it should have, there’s a chance… you might not be the Prophetess.”

A deep frown marred Amaya’s face. “What do you mean? I’ve been dubbed so since I was born on the day of the Renewing Cycle. The circumstances of my birth even make it so.”

“I remember Gavlain telling me about how you were still in your mother’s womb when she tried to drown herself in the Ocean,” I said and reached for her hand.

“That’s one of the reasons why I thought I would be okay after we made love,” she said and squeezed my fingers. “I thought I’d developed an immunity just because of how much I had to fight for my health when I was young. But yes, that is another factor into why the Order has demanded I take my place as Prophetess. There are old prophecies written about a Prophetess who comes from the Ocean. She is to herald in a new age of prosperity for the people of Aventoll. Last I was aware of, not many births end up the way mine did.”

“The fact still remains, I should have poisoned you, but I didn’t,” I pointed out the one salient fact I held onto. “Unless there’s a prophecy that talks about immunity from Ocean overload, explain to me how you walked away totally fine.”

“I… I can’t,” she said. “But prophecies are never completely literal. A lot of them are quite vague.”

“Exactly,” I said with a smile. “So, who’s to say your birth in particular, although extraordinary, is the one the prophecy is even talking about? Anwaar seems to think there’s a possibility you might not even be the Prophetess in the first place.”

“But I--” Amaya frowned as she stopped herself, opened and closed her mouth a few times, and then tried again. “Well, I-- hm.”

“It’s possible, right?” I asked with bated breath as the gears visibly turned in the oryx-woman’s mind. “You said it yourself, prophecies are vague.”

“I suppose I did,” she said as a giddy smile slowly unfurled on her face. “I can’t imagine such a thing… All my life, this has been my fate, and I’ve always been too afraid to picture it otherwise, but could it be true, Alex?”

“That is something I’m going to find out,” I promised her and placed a kiss in the center of her forehead. “Stay hopeful, sunflower. I love it when you smile that carefree smile.”

“Mm,” she sighed as she brought our lips together, and I was pleased to find her precious smile sweetened the flavor of the kiss, so I took the liberty of deepening it.

Her body responded so beautifully to mine like it always did, and I would have loved to see where this was heading, but we were suddenly interrupted by a loud shriek as something exploded out of the tree above us.

“Meeeep!” A black and blue flying lizard creature suddenly took the place of the large branch providing us with shade and landed in front of us.

“Gelf!” I yelled in surprise at the shape-shifting animal.

“Skra!” The familiar cawing of Roofus then followed up as the dusty yellow crow-moth flapped down, landed in front of Gelf, and pecked her gently on the snout. “Krrt!”

Gelf’s little eyes crossed as she stared at the tip of her square nose and snorted. “Mrrrp!”

Then the crow-moth whipped around and took off as the lithe flying lizard gave a rowdy chase.

“Were they just--?” Amaya asked as she watched the two frolicking for a moment before they both dove back down the stairs to the interior of the airship.

“Playing tag?” I finished for her. “Well, it seemed like whatever they were doing, they were into. Roofus didn’t even say hi to me. Rude. It’s not like I’ve been away forever or anything.”

“I think he might fancy little Gelf,” the oryx-woman giggled.

“You are quite right, my dear,” a craggy voice sounded from the spiral stairwell just before a set of furry gray ears appeared followed by my trusty koala-butler himself. “Roofus has been a bloody nightmare ever since he took a shine to that thing. I’m also guessing since I was almost knocked off my feet by the pair of them that Roofus didn’t give you my note to meet me in the study?”

“Nope.” I grinned and stood up along with Amaya. “Sorry about that, Mr. Jenner.”

“It’s not your fault,” he grumbled. “If it weren’t for Old Tovish, I would have Arvid cook him in a stew--”

“What did you need to talk to me about?” I asked as I tried to stop myself from chuckling at the peeved off little man.

“Yes, well,” Jenner said as he tweaked his monocle. “There are quite a few things of grave importance we must discuss. Especially if you hope to survive tomorrow’s double royal wedding.”

Ah.

Well, that sounded ominous.

Super.

Chapter 7

I looked deeply into Zoie’s beautiful eyes as I twirled her around and around by the waist, and then I grabbed both her hands as I leaned her back and--

“No!” Mr. Jenner clapped his hands, and Zoie and I came to a stop for the fortieth time. “You’re too early this time. You push her away on the beat, Alex.”

“Ugh, I need a break,” I said, and by the look my cat-wife was giving me, I knew she could use the rest as well.

“You both are improving quite a bit,” Shay said from her perch on a small cushioned stool in the airship’s study-slash-library. She had a cozy blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and she was currently drinking something from a mug, but a big part of me suspected she was milking this “exhaustion” thing just so she could get out of dance training.

“Why don’t you have to do this?” I grumbled as I took her mug and drank a sip of flowery tea. “Bleh.”

Shay snorted and snatched her cup back. “Because I already know the traditional wedding dance, my silly husband.”

“Forgive me, Mr. Jenner, but when you said I would need knowledge in order to survive Griss and Sskern’s weddings, I thought you were about to reveal some sort of underhanded plot you caught wind of, or something besides dance lessons,” I complained. “You made it sound like I could die for not knowing the steps.”

“Maybe not a physical death, but a social one if you do not know the moves to one of the most important ceremonies on Aventoll,” the koala-man said with a shrewd look. “Chances are, you will have to attend several more royal weddings in the future given how much you are gaining in status these days.”

I glanced down at the Duelist Stone resting innocently over my sternum. Now that I was a Rank Six, the symbols on the clear quartz face had changed slightly.

Where I used to have five etchings of Sacred Fish swimming around a shield, there was now only one fish, but instead of the image of a shield in the center, it was now a star.

“Speaking of status,” I said as I held my Stone aloft. “What is the significance of the star? I know it’s the Stone’s way of counting the status I’ve gained, but the symbols seem significant.”

“You are quite right, lad,” Jenner said as he rocked up on the balls of his feet. “Every Duelist Stone begins with the shield design, and some scholars have interpreted that as meaning your class as a Defender.”

“And what does the star class mean?” Shay asked.

“The stars themselves have often been used for guidance,” Jenner continued to lecture like the mini-college professor he was. “To have a star in the middle of your Duelist Stone makes you of the Guide class.”

“What’s the significance of these classes?” I asked. “I vaguely remember a conversation I had with Gavlain when he explained the tally system, but he skimmed over any mention of classes.”

“In places like Nata and Terr, where the highest-ranked Asher is no more than a seven or eight, class doesn’t really matter,” he explained as he fiddled with the sleeves of his blue velvet coat. “But if you were to go to the bigger isles like Alem or even Leen, you would see that class makes a big difference. There, you have Ashers ascending into ranks numbering in the double digits.”

“How can there be so many Duelists?” I questioned. “Weren’t there only, like, sixty original dudes?”

“Yes, but don’t forget, you can be bestowed with the Goddess’ gift during Bhraya’s Night,” Jenner said.

“Or in combat, like Horus,” Shay added.

“I thought I spotted something familiar around that boy’s neck!” the koala-man said as he punched one furry paw into the other. “Good for him. If anyone has conviction-- about anything and everything-- it’s that boy.”

“What’s this?” Horus himself poked his head into the study and peered at all of us sprawled out on the makeshift ballroom floor we’d made, which was really just us pushing all the furniture out of the way for room. “Are you all singing my praises without me?”

“Bold of you to assume they are praises,” Jenner teased fondly as the falcon-man pushed open the door the rest of the way.

“Why would they be anything less than praises?” he asked with a haughty sniff and then looked around at all of us. “Well? Aren’t you going to tell me what you were saying?”

“Sit down, you loon!” Shay said as she flicked some tea water off her fingers at him. “We were telling Jenner how you became an Asher by gaining Mercedes’ favor during combat.”

“Oh, right,” he said, and he then plunked himself down on the hardwood floor with a faint blush. For all of his bravado, whenever he was confronted with true praise, he actually turned quite shy. “Continue.”

“As I was saying,” the koala-man said and winked a barely-there wink at Horus. “Isles like Alem and Leen tend to report the most cases of Blue Night Ashers over any other island.”

“These things are registered?” I asked.

“Yes, they are magically recorded in the Asher Halls on Alem.” Jenner nodded.

“Oh, okay, like in Harry Potter, got it,” I remarked.

“What is a Harry Potter?” Zoie piped up as she tilted her head.

“Harry Potter is a character in a book where I’m from, and he was born with magic,” I explained. “However, he didn’t know he was magical until it came time for him to go to school, but for the school to send him his invitation, they just looked him up in some magical registry thing that lists all the people who are magical. Or that’s how it was explained to me from a friend of mine.”

“Is this Harry Potter a real person?” Horus asked.

“No,” I said. “It’s just a children’s story about wizards and magic. But you’d be surprised at how much of that world helps me form a frame of reference for things.”

“Interesting,” Zoie said before she turned back to Jenner. “So, every Duelist is accounted for on every island.”

“Exactly.” The koala-man rocked up on the balls of his feet. “Now, come on, we should be practicing some more--”

Before Zoie and I could even groan at the prospect of more dancing, the clanging of Arvid’s magical dinner bell saved us.

“Food!” Horus cheered as he shot up to his feet. “Goddess, I’m starving for some of Arvid’s home cooking. You’ll never believe how much we suffered at the hands of Terran cuisine.”

“You’re so dramatic, Rus-Rus,” Shay said as she rolled her eyes and helped Zoie up. “But I do agree with you. I am not sure how much Regent Sskern’s people can taste overall, but a little salt wouldn’t hurt now and again.”

I snorted and bumped my hip against hers. “Same here, sweetheart.”

“Horus, where is Anwaar?” Zoie asked as we all filed out of the study. “I noticed she wasn’t with you when you came in.”

“She and Amaya needed to chat about a few things, but she promised she’d be at dinner with everyone,” he said. “They both did.”

“Good,” I said. “That will be the perfect time to fill everyone in about what’s been going on.”

Dinner that night was a nostalgic event with all of us circled around the table near the hearth while the large shaggy sloth-man, and chef extraordinaire, Arvid, placed another platter of roast and veggies on the table.

“Thank you, Arvi.” I patted the gentle giant’s trunk of a forearm as he passed, and then I shoveled another forkful of savory meat into my mouth. The flavors of complex herbs and peppery spices made my taste buds dance their own little jig at how awesome it all was, and I sighed in pleasure.

“You’re a genius, Arvid,” Horus said as he patted his stomach with a contented sigh, and Rylan was already in a food coma in the next chair over with his head down on top of his folded arms. “What would we ever do without you?”

The sloth-man blinked as he smiled his dopey smile. “Staaaaaarrrvvveee…”

“True,” I said as the falcon-man snorted.

“Alright, lad,” Jenner said as he grabbed a small sliver of bone off his plate and began to pick his teeth clean with it. “Now that our bellies are full, I believe you mentioned something about an update.”

I sat back and took a sip of my wine as I made eye contact with Amaya across from me. She glanced at her sister beside her, and then she gave me a barely-perceptible nod.

“Mr. Jenner, how much do you and your people know about genealogies and blood lineages?” I asked the koala-man.

“Lineages were something of a niche interest to Archivists back when Eng was in its prime,” he replied, and something far away began to creep into his gaze. “Not many scholars wanted to devote their time to mapping something that seemed so menial or tedious when they could be cataloging ancient histories still being dug up from some of the ruins all around Aventoll. But I found I quite liked it. A lot can be revealed through a person’s family history, and at one point I thought I might make a name for myself by keeping a journal of blood lineages, particularly of known Travelers and their descendants to try and map special traits. But that was all before the Uprisings…”

“You’ve briefly mentioned the Uprisings before, and I’m sorry if this is not the best topic of conversation for you, but would you mind telling me more?” I asked as I set my wine back on the table.

“Well, nearly a century ago, you know the Ashers were suddenly being challenged for the rights of the land by No-Ranks, who were able to rise up against the corrupt Lords with Mercedes’ blessings,” he summarized, and I nodded along when most of that sounded familiar.

“I think I remember a bit of that from our last history chat on the subject,” I said with a grateful grin.

“Ahem, yes.” He cleared his throat and removed his monocle so he could organize his mind while he inspected the eyepiece for smudges. When he was satisfied, he replaced it with a tweak. “The history I didn’t teach you was how my own kinfolk were involved in the war. You see, the Ashers of Blood assumed the Eng-folk were on the side of the rebellion from the start because we have always prided ourselves on our ability to ask questions and search for the truth. You can imagine how well a corrupt power group took that.”

“Not very well,” Horus said with a frown as he leaned his cheek against his hand.

“Exactly,” Jenner continued. “Aspersions were cast on us from the start even though most of Eng didn’t take a side at all.”

“Most?” Zoie questioned.

“Clever girl.” The older man smiled at the cat-woman for her astute catch before he went on. “There were a select few of the Eng-folk who grew arrogant in their superior intelligence, and they saw themselves as puppet masters in their own right. Their ultimate goal was to manipulate the conflict in a way where the two sides would stay at war with each other indefinitely. This would allow the Eng-folk to go about ruling themselves in any way they saw fit. But once the Ashers of Blood and the new Duelists figured this out, they actually came together due to the fact neither side knew how long or how much they had been manipulated. Since each side acted numerous times, often violently, without recourse, and based on false information, they decided each of their ledgers was equal in wrongdoing and neither could be blamed. So, to sum up, you could say the Great Treachery of Eng actually united the two sides and brought a swift end to the war.”

“That’s one way to look at it,” I said with a shared half-smirk. “What happened after that?”

“After that… Well, the Eng-folk needed to be punished, didn’t they?” the koala-man said, and that distant look returned to his gaze and caused my own smile to drop. “Those who were responsible for the manipulations were executed, but that wasn’t enough. So, to prevent something like that from ever happening again, the Ashers of Blood formed an alliance with the previously No-Ranked Duelists and became the modern-day Council you all know. The Council, along with the Temple Order, decided it would be appropriate to go through and ‘preserve’ the volumes from our Archives for anything useful to them before burying them underground, and then cursing our land for good measure.”

“What was the curse?” Rylan asked with his head still resting on his folded arms, and I wondered how long he’d been awake.

Jenner blinked at him with a surprised flicker of his bushy eyebrows. “The curse is in the very ground itself, and it affects the Eng-folk if they stay there too long. Those who chose to stay on the island would regress into the more baser forms of our early ancestors as penance for valuing our intelligence over the sanctity of life. Those of us who left like me, and at one point, Old Tovish, have to remain in exile if we want to keep our higher faculties. It is a price, but one I will pay gladly.”

“I know of the history of your people from my own studies,” Shay said when the koala-man finished. “However, I’ve never heard it from someone who’s actually experienced the exile. I can’t imagine being forced from your home and everything you’ve ever known like that.”

“Yeah, exile is the worst,” Horus said with his own scowl that telegraphed his own dark memories. “For what it’s worth, Mr. Jenner, I’m so sorry.”

Luckily, Anwaar was an expert on All Things Horus, and she brought him back to the surface with a simple squeeze of her hand. The falcon-man took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and he cast her a smile before he turned back to the koala-man.

“Ah, it’s alright, lad,” Jenner said and patted the falcon-man on the shoulder. “It has been many, many seasons now, and I was merely a young one like yourself with a fanciful hobby and no family, so exile wasn’t as hard on me as it was on some of the others like Tovish. Did I ever tell you he had a wife and two sons? They all chose to stay behind on Eng whereas he chose to leave.”

“Poor Tovish,” Zoie sighed as she rested her chin on her palm. “May Mercedes guide him.”

We all took a moment of silence to remember our fallen friend, and I sent a silent prayer to whoever might be listening that the old Archivist had somehow reunited with his family in the end.

“Anyway, as much as I love giving history lessons, this one has me a little worn down,” Jenner said with a sad chuckle. “Why ever did you want to know?”

I hesitated for a second as a twinge of guilt squirmed in my gut. “I think it’s because we may have to go there.”

“To Eng?” Both of the koala-man’s eyebrows rocketed up toward his nonexistent hairline.

“It’s because of me, Mr. Jenner,” Amaya chimed in. “There is a chance-- a small one-- that I might not actually be of Prophetess blood.”

“The genealogies,” he realized as he glanced at me. “You want to find something that may not even be on Eng. What makes you think if proof like that existed it wouldn’t already be in the Hands of the High Priestess?”

“Because then they would be seeking out the correct Prophetess,” Amaya replied.

“And you are sure you have more proof you are not her aside from a gut feeling?” Jenner asked as he adjusted his monocle in a skeptical manner.

“Yes,” the oryx-woman said as her eyes flickered to mine, and I could see she was making a concentrated effort not to blush. “There is quite sufficient proof. The way I see it, the Order has no choice but to go with me because I’m the most convenient fit. Whatever the case, if we can prove it to them in a more tangible way, like with a verified Archived Lineage, I would be free of ever having to take the Oath.”

“I see,” he said as he sat back a little in his chair. “That would definitely change things for you, my dear.”

Amaya nodded as her expressive eyes dewed with hopeful tears. “It would mean… everything.”

“Then we must go even if the odds are stacked against us,” Jenner said without hesitation, and his unabridged kindness managed to cause those tears to fall.

“I know how much I ask of you,” she said.

“There, there, lass,” he comforted, and he reached out to pat the back of her hand. “The good news is, we have this magnificent airship, so I will not need to spend so much time on the ground itself.”

“Do you think that will keep you from succumbing to the curse?” Anwaar asked.

“Curses tend to be particular,” he said. “If the ground itself is cursed, then the less time I tread upon it should help keep my mind intact. I’ll just be your guide in the sky.”

“Whatever it takes, Mr. Jenner,” I said. “And thank you. I know it’s not the easiest request I’ve ever asked of you.”

“It is truly an honor to serve you and yours, Alex Brightwood,” the koala-man said.

“I’ve missed you, Cornelius.” I smiled sincerely, and then I thumped a fist over my heart in a salute.

If the Eng-folk could blush through the fur on their faces, I was pretty sure Jenner would be visible from space as the rest of the Crew gathered around the table followed my example in honoring him.

“Ahem,” the older man said as he conspicuously fiddled with his eyepiece and blinked away some moisture. “Yes, well. Now that that’s been sorted, all of us must prepare for the wedding tomorrow. We don’t want to leave Terr as bad guests!”

“You heard him, everyone,” Horus said as he helped Anwaar and Rylan both up from the table. “Bedtime.”

I stretched like a cat until the bones in my spine cracked pleasantly. Rest would be wonderful after a day like today--

“Hold on,” Jenner said before any of us could go very far. He then narrowed his eyes and jabbed a stubby finger at Zoie and me in succession. “You, and you. Back to the study. Did you think your lessons were over?”

“Aw,” I groaned as Shay and Zoie both giggled. “Man, I hate dancing.”

“No complaining!” he sang out.

This became the number-one phrase he repeated for the next two hours as the furry little dance tyrant made my cat-wife and I go over the steps to the traditional wedding dance, which seemed to be a cross between a waltz and an odd mime routine where Zoie and I had to mirror each other.

It wasn’t all bad, however. Shay even came down toward the end of our lesson and added in her part as second wife seamlessly to what Zoie and I were doing, and I vowed to never question her dancing abilities again.

With the three of us doing the moves together, it was even kind of fun.

“Oof, I’m calling it,” Shay eventually said after I got done twirling her and Zoie under each of my arms. “I still need my rest if I am to look fresh for tomorrow’s festivities.”

“Let’s all call it,” Jenner said. “You did well, and tomorrow you will do wonderfully, I just know it.”

“We did have an excellent, if demanding, teacher,” Zoie said and then kissed the koala-man between his fuzzy ears before he could remark on that.

He only grumbled before he shooed the three of us away, and we wasted no time in washing off quickly in the large en-suite bath area before falling into that glorious bed together.

If I was tired before, it was nothing compared to the crushing exhaustion every inch of my body felt when I finally let the comfy mattress cradle my everything.

I fell straight into blackness the moment I shut my eyes, and I would have dearly loved to stay there…

But that scream I heard from earlier shattered the floor of my unconsciousness, and I found myself falling through an endless whiteness.

Chapter 8

The wind rushing through my ears was the last thing I heard before I jolted awake, and my first thought was of frustration.

This wasn’t like the other times I woke up from the confusing dreams Aventoll seemed to try to give me. Usually, my dreams were filled with bright flashes of color and sounds all whirling by almost too fast to discern.

But this time, all I could remember when I opened my eyes was that scream…

And then nothing.

I sighed and looked down at each of my wives tucked under my arms as they slept on peacefully.

At least they had a restful night.

Then I turned my head toward the window and saw through the curtains that it was still quite early, but my mind was still churning over how I felt like I was missing something.

The more I tried to shake it or fall back asleep, the more that strange feeling niggled at me until I had no choice but to carefully get out of bed, get dressed, and take myself off to someplace to meditate.

The balcony on the second floor where I chatted with Anwaar the other day seemed to be as good of a place as any, and I wandered my way out there so I could perch on the ledge of the balcony the way I liked.

As I faced the gray dawn, it was easy to slip into a familiar headspace and let my meditation carry me away.

This shallow meditative headspace allowed me to try and organize things I was confused about, or needed to prioritize, but other than a feeling of frustration, there was nothing this level could provide me, so I focused and pushed deeper.

The woman’s scream echoed in my head, but I couldn’t tell if it was just a memory or if it was in real time. When I tried to grasp at it, it felt like trying to fill a sieve with sand, and I sunk deeper into my trance in order to chase it.

The darkness in my field of mental vision suddenly exploded into white light, and the bottom dropped out from under me as I plummeted straight down from some unknown height. The wind combined with the brightness of the light left me blind, so I really didn't know if I was falling ten feet or one hundred.

Even after I landed, I still couldn’t gauge how far I’d fallen, only that I was now laying on something soft and spongy and staring up at a blank sky.

“The Dark Realm?” I murmured to myself as I sat up.

I didn’t think I went that deep in my trance to end up in this place. Maybe because of the recent mind fuck I’d just had, followed by the subsequent healing of said mind fuck, I was able to slip into this realm a lot easier than before.

Which would explain why one good whack to the head could land me here if I wasn’t paying attention. It was definitely food for thought for later. For now, I had a couple choices. I could either meditate my way out of here and back into a more shallow headspace, or…

I whipped my head to the right when I thought I could hear a faint echo of that scream. I didn’t know what compelled me, but something inside me wanted to scream back every time I heard it.

Then another sound caught my attention to the left, and I froze. Just because this was some mystical in-between plane of existence didn’t mean it was without its dangers. In fact, anything that happened to me here could affect my body out there in some fucked-up Matrix parody I didn’t want to push the limits of.

Aside from that, the creatures in this place seem to be a lot stronger than in the real world.

The last battle I had with a Dark Realm monster took a comically long time to the point where I felt like “Alex versus the Stag Beetle” could have an ongoing gag on a Family Guy episode, like Peter and the Giant Chicken.

The fucker just wouldn’t die, but eventually, I did get the best of it, but not before it gave me a run for my money.

I didn’t particularly want to have an encore of that experience, so I was just about to pack it up and meditate my way back to my body when the noise to my left became more clear.

I paused and held my breath.

“Alex?” A voice beckoned me from beyond the trees.

Whoever the person was sounded really close, and they knew my name.

I stood up and made my way as quietly as I could into the In Between, and I followed the voice when it called out again.

“G-Gav?” I called back when I could hear more clearly. Now that I was getting closer, I was ninety-nine percent positive the familiar timbre belonged to the ram-lord. “Is that you?”

“Alex, my friend!” he boomed when I stumbled out of the dark trees and into the clearing Gavlain Mec was in.

I glanced around his clearing and smiled at the peaceful little rock pool with a few colorful fish that swam in loops around each other. I was pleased to see his bearded grinning face instead of the clean-shaven one from last time when I stumbled across a younger him about to off himself due to guilt.

Speaking of…

“Are you really here right now?” I asked.

“As far as I know, our paths have crossed once more--” he began.

“No, not in the Realm ‘here,’ I mean are you also physically here as in on the Isle of Terr with me as of this day?” I asked.

“Ah,” he said as something seemed to dawn on him. “You are still trying to determine how the time and place thing works.”

“Um, yeah, how did you know?” I asked as I glared at him. “I thought we’d discussed the whole keeping things from me thing.”

The ram-lord tipped his head back and laughed long and loud. “Oh, Alex, I never grow old of your humor, and you are still as smart as you look like you are now.”

“If I didn’t have a basic pop-culture education about how timelines worked, I would be more confused than I currently am,” I snorted and followed his example when he gestured for me to sit down with his right hand. “Since you aren’t wearing your signet ring, the one which you gave me, I’m going to guess you’re a future version of my friend, Gavlain, correct?”

“It would appear so,” Future Gav said as he gave me my own appraisal. “Did you say you were on Terr?”

“Yeah,” I said. “You-- er, Past You-- just showed up with the family as well as the reinforcements we needed. Today is actually Sskern and Lord Griss’ weddings.”

“Today is the old snake’s wedding, eh?” Gav chuckled as he rubbed his chin. “Why are you here sleeping and not preparing?”

“I was trying to meditate, but I suddenly wound up here,” I said. “That’s been happening a lot these days.”

“Ah,” he said again in that knowing tone. “I remember you telling me about this time. Your mind has been bent almost to the point of breaking, and now you are able to flex and move through the Dark Realm unlike any other.”

“Oh,” I said as his words made sense. “Is there a way I can ‘break my fall’ so to speak? It’s not always convenient to end up here if I am just trying to take a cat-nap or--”

“Or Rylan smacks you in the head with a tree branch?” The ram-lord smirked.

“I know Future Me definitely wouldn’t tell you that story,” I said with a glare.

“No, your son did.” Future Gav’s smirk turned into a full-fledged shit-eating grin. “I didn’t even have to bribe him.”

“That kid is so grounded,” I grumbled as I folded my arms over my chest.

“Hah!” he burst out, and this set him off on another round of jovial laughter.

Now that I was looking a little closer at the guy, I could see how this Gavlain had flecks of gray in his beard and at his temples, and it made me wonder just how far in the future Future Gav really was from.

“Hey, how long have we been friends?” I asked.

“Nice try,” he said after he caught his breath. “I have had you explain one too many pop-culture time-travel stories and endured many hypothetical lectures on timelines to make the mistake of revealing too much about your future.”

“Fair enough,” I conceded. “That sounds like me enough for me not to be mad.”

“Your logic is pretty airtight,” he said.

“I’d like to think so.” I nodded, and after a beat, we both cracked up. “It’s good to see you in here again under much better circumstances, no matter where in time you’re from.”

“Is this only the second time you’ve seen me here?” he asked with a tilt of his horned head.

“Yeah, the first was…” I trailed off as I rubbed the back of my neck.

“Oh,” he said, and then the implication of my words seemed to make sense. “Oh, right. Yes, I was a very troubled young man at the time when we first met.”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything about that?” I asked.

“If this is only the second time you are seeing me here, then the Gavlain you know doesn’t remember the angry young man he used to be,” Future Gav explained. “But do not take it personally. He will figure it out in time. In the meantime, you get to be the one who knows something he doesn’t for a change.”

“You’re absolutely right!” I said with a somewhat evil laugh. “See how he likes it.”

“I am glad to have run into you again, my friend,” the older ram-lord said as he placed one of his large baseball mitts of a hand on my shoulder. “You really did save me from making a terrible mistake, and every day I am grateful for it.”

“Eh, I was just making sure you were around long enough to introduce me to your sister,” I joked and then laughed when he ruffled my hair.

“You really haven’t changed, my friend.” Future Gav smiled. “Oh, before I go, I can give you some good advice. Go ahead and ask me a question, and I’ll try to answer you as best as I can.”

“Please do,” I said. “I’d really like to know every detail, but I’ll honestly settle for a trick to keep me from flying off into the Dark Realm every time I close my eyes. As cool as this place is, I don’t actually get any rest or relaxation whenever I’m here.”

“Fair enough,” he chuckled. “Whenever you feel that gut-drop falling sensation, picture yourself landing on something solid like a wooden floor. If you visualize this, you will stop your unconsciousness from falling all the way down.”

“That makes a weird sort of sense,” I remarked as I pictured what he was describing. His wording was quite imagistic, which made it easy to visualize. “I’ll try it next time.”

Future Gavlain’s solid form flickered a little, and he turned his face up to the white sky. “Looks like I might be waking up.”

“However long we’ve been friends, I just wanted to say I’m glad we still are back where-- or when-- you are from,” I said, and I thrust my arm out for him to shake.

“I shall see you again soon.” The ram-lord grinned again as he clasped my forearm. Almost immediately, his form began to turn transparent, and his grip became lighter and lighter until I could barely feel him there at all. “Oh, before I forget, there’s another little tidbit I can give you that you will hopefully thank me for later.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Dodgeball!” he nearly shouted just before he vanished with a shimmer like a mirage in the desert.

“D… Dodgeball?” I asked absolutely no one as I glanced around the now-empty clearing. “Thanks Vague McVague Meister. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

I got up from my place in front of the rock pool and went back through the In Between forest where my own clearing was. I’d learned from last time how impossible it was to return to my body from any clearing other than the one I started in, and then I sat down in order to meditate my way out…

When I opened my eyes again, I was still on the balcony’s ledge, and the sun was higher in the sky than before. I was also not alone, and I saw how I had a little entourage this morning in the form of Rylan and Shay, who were both perched on the ledge with me.

“You have visitors in the galley, husband,” Shay said as she continued to hold her meditative pose.

“Do I?” I questioned as I unfolded my legs and climbed off the ledge. “Don’t let me disturb you two.”

“Mmpf,” Rylan grunted, and I had a feeling he was dozing more than meditating so when I passed, I gave him a giant wet willy to wake him up. “Hey!”

“If you’re going to sleep, please don’t do it on this ledge,” I said. “Zoie will kill me if you fall into the gaping chasm below us.”

“I’m up, I swear,” he said as he tried to dry out his wet ear.

“Good,” I said and poked him in the ribs for good measure. “Don’t fall back asleep.”

I grinned when I saw Shay’s hand creep subtly toward the edge of Rylan’s tunic and hold on just in case.

When I got down to the galley, I was met with the sight of Sskern and Mec sitting around the table and enjoying a cold breakfast of that leftover spiced meat, some cheese, and some rustic bread.

Sskern in particular looked like he hadn’t seen the light for a long time, and he was practically inhaling every bite as if it was his last meal.

“Alex, you are looking fresh today,” Mec said with a broad grin as he sipped something hot from a clay mug.

Then the smell hit my nostrils, and drool instantly pooled in the back of my mouth.

“Is that kolee?” I asked the ram-lord. “Please tell me it’s kolee.”

“It is indeed kolee,” Mec chuckled as he took another sip. “Would you like some?”

“Goddess, yes,” I groaned and reached eagerly for the mug he’d already had prepared for me.

“I took the liberty of making sure we had enough before we left because I know how you are,” he said and watched me flick off the ceramic cover on the mug that was keeping my Lifeblood warm.

“You’re my favorite,” I sighed as I let the fragrant steam buffet against my face before I took a large gulp of the creamy, nutty, sweet drink.

It wasn’t a perfect replacement to my beloved bean juice, but it was close enough, and I’d even grown to like the flavor of the kolee more than the Americanos I used to mainline on a daily basis.

“I will have to say, this little enterprise of yours has really taken off back on Nata,” Mec said. “From what I’ve heard from your esteemed manager, Vel-Rala, you have made quite a pretty coin off this nifty little drink. If the Terrans liked hot drinks as much as Natavians, I would be tempted to steal your kolee flower recipe for a royal wedding gift.”

“A gift?” I asked as I looked between the ram-lord and the raptor-man.

“Yes, a gift fit for a couple of Terrans,” he said.

“I feel like there’s a custom I’m missing here,” I admitted as I took another sip of my drink. Leave it to Jenner to fuss over how good a dancer I was and completely leave out the fact I need to come up with a gift. “What should I do? What’s even appropriate in situations like this?”

“That’s a good question,” Mec said as he topped off his kolee. “And you’re lucky I’m here to help.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I pushed the big guy in the shoulder so he would get on with it. “Just tell me what your gift is and why you picked it, and I’m sure I can figure out the rest.”

“Maybe I should start first with what a wedding gift is supposed to accomplish,” he began, and I sighed at the prospect of sitting through another lecture no matter how fascinating.

But I really had no choice, so I grabbed myself a hunk of cheese and settled in.

“Take it away, Gav,” I said.

“As you have probably come to find, a lot of Duelist weddings tend to happen on the spot due to the transfer of property and assets at the end of every Duel,” he said. “So, when an Asher or otherwise decides to marry for the sake of marriage, it is seen as quite joyous indeed, and to start their new life, their friends and loved ones bequeath them things with a purpose.”

“Is there a list or an encyclopedia of these sorts of things?” I asked as I thought of wedding registries back on Earth.

“It varies from culture to culture,” he explained as he reached for more cold meat. “And it also varies from status to status. For example, most common folk who decide to marry are usually given books and life advice to aid them with something practical.”

“And what about those who are considered royalty?” I questioned. “I’m pretty sure a ‘how-to’ on how to raise a barn would be wasted in this scenario.”

At this sarcastic remark, the Regent began to snicker through his mouthful of food. “Raise. A barn.”

“You are quite right, Alex, my friend.” The ram-lord ignored Sskern’s adolescent snickering. “Basically, the rule is to give them something useful that will serve them for many seasons to come. Often this is something not tangible like knowledge or wisdom, but in my case, I am giving Clan Skerros clippings of all the spices Nata Isle has to offer. This way, they may grow their own variety and improve the quality of their cuisine.”

“You did what?” The raptor-man put down his food long enough to gape at Mec. “You’re giving us spices?”

“It was going to be a surprise, but I decided I didn’t really care about that,” the ram-lord said with a pleased smile on his bearded face. “What do you think? Is it honorable?”

Sskern glanced down at his plate and then back up at his friend with a poleaxed expression on his scaly face.

“M-More than,” he spluttered, and a look of such gratitude overwhelmed him that it almost looked like he could be brought to tears.

I didn’t really blame him because the food on this island really did suck. Bigtime.

“How am I even going to compete with that?” I blurted out when it dawned on me just how awesome the ram-lord’s gift was. “I’ve got nothing.”

“I’m sure you have something to offer,” Mec said. “After all, you are a Traveler from distant lands. Isn’t there something you learned in your culture that you could teach the Terrans before you go?”

“Like what?” I racked my brain to think of something useful to give these people who meant quite a lot to me. “I learned a little bit of Spanish in high school, but I’m not sure how good that will do you guys.”

I sat there for a few more moments trying to think of any other skills or nuggets of wisdom I could pass along that would be a worthy gift, but nothing came to mind.

What did you give somebody who was royalty anyway? A fleet of ships? A giant sculpture effigy?

No, practical was the key, so what were these Terrans lacking?

Their guard force had taken a beating and was quite depleted as of late…

Aside from me volunteering to be in their army, which wasn’t going to happen, there wasn’t much I could do on that end. I did have decent hand-to-hand combat skills, but that wasn’t uncommon in a world like this, and as far as strategy and battle tactics went, I didn’t have any training other than the maneuvers I perfected on the battleground of high school PE when we all played…

Oh, shit.

Dodgeball.

“Alex?” The ram-lord waved a beefy hand in front of my face as if I’d been catatonic or something instead of just thinking for a few seconds, and I felt the urge to swat him away like a bothersome fly.

The fact Future Mec was still leading me along with carefully planned words and actions should have been rather irksome, but as an idea started to take shape in my mind, I couldn’t really be angry at him. After all, the ram-lord probably learned about dodgeball from Future Me anyway so I really only had myself to blame.

Or… thank, if all that sci-fi garbage was anywhere close to being correct about time loops, anyway.

Time-travel was confusing.

Ugh.

“You’re a genius,” I said in response to Mec poking my cheek. “Or I'm a genius, however that works, the jury is still out.”

“What is he talking about, Gavlain?” Sskern asked with a bemused look on his face.

“It’s probably some weird Traveler glop, pay it no attention,” the ram-lord stage whispered, and I couldn’t help but snort. “Whatever the case, you’re in good hands my friend, because I recognize the particular gleam in our Alex’s eyes. That gleam tells me he’s figured out a perfect wedding gift for you and your uncle, am I right?”

“You hit the nail right on the head, my good sir,” I said in a breezy tone of voice as I drained the last of my drink in a persnickety sort of way. “But I’m not going to tell any of you until I can properly demonstrate it.”

“Well, that’s not fair,” the ram-lord said with a pout. “Can’t I have a tiny hint?”

“Nope,” I said as a slow grin spread across my face. “But if you stay long enough, you might be able to help me with the demonstration.”

Chapter 9

The ram-lord glanced between the raptor-man and me with a look of distress on his face. If I knew him the way I thought I did, I knew it was only a matter of time before…

“Sskern,” Mec sighed impatiently. “Don’t you know when it’s time for you to leave?”

“Is that what this is?” Sskern asked with an amused grin ticking up the corners of his mouth. “My cue to exit?”

“Blast it, you old snake, of course, it is,” he growled as he tried to get the other man on his feet and out the door as quickly as possible. “Don’t you have things you need to be doing? Places you need to be going? After all, it is your wedding day. I’m sure if anybody is in high demand, it is the Regent Prince.”

“Alright, fine,” the raptor-man said, but he lingered by the table still and picked out a few hunks of meat.

Mec eventually lost patience and began shoving him toward the galley exit.

“I can see when I’m not wanted,” Sskern laughed. “I’m going, I’m going.”

I ended up waiting in the galley by myself for a few seconds while the ram-lord saw to it himself that the Regent was completely gone from the premises. I was about to send out an All Points Bulletin for the man when he strode back through the door.

“Now that he’s been taken care of, I demand on the basis of our friendship that you tell me your secrets,” Mec said as he dusted off his palms like he’d just taken out the garbage.

“Pot. Kettle.” I stared at him with a deadpan expression and inwardly grinned when he gave me a sheepish smile. “Relax, I’m going to need all the help I can get when I reveal my gift, so I’m going to have to teach you first. You’ll know all about it before the party, trust me.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear,” he said as he looped his thick arm around my shoulders. “I hate anticipation like that. I was always terrible at waiting to open my birthday presents on my actual birthday.”

“So, we’re still friends, then?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said and then scrubbed one of his big trashcan lid hands through my hair in an obnoxious ruffle. “For now.”

“Gee, thanks,” I snarked at first, but then a wicked little idea occurred to me, and as casually as I could, I made one last remark. “If only you knew where I got the idea in the first place for the gift. That would truly make your head spin.”

The ram-lord chuckled along with me for a moment before the implication of my words actually sunk in, and he stopped as he glared down at me.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked. “Who did you get the idea from?”

“Now, that is something I’m not allowed to reveal to you,” I said as I moved out from underneath the big man’s arm. “Okay, grab your dishes and help me put them in the sink so we can help Vel out a little.”

“I hope you know you have destroyed possibly countless nights of sleep for me with your diabolical plan to drive me insane, Alex Brightwood.” The Asher Lord of Nata Isle loomed over me with a mock-menacing sort of air that was ruined by the stack of dishes in his arms, and I realized he looked like a busboy.

The only thing missing was the apron.

“I’d say it’s the least of what you deserve for keeping me in the dark all the time,” I jabbed and then hip-checked him so he would know I was joking.

“Payback, is that what it is?” he said and checked me back.

“For keeping me in the dark all the time?” I smirked. “Maybe a little.”

“Alex!” a too tiny and too cute voice piped up from outside the galley. “Where is Alex?”

“Are Meera and Dawn here, too?” I asked as I rushed out of the galley.

“Hello, Ambassador,” Lord Mec’s beautiful deer-wife greeted me with a regal nod of her antlered head. “Have you been well?”

“Aleeeeex!” The little freckled deer-girl at Dawn’s feet reached up at me with her two little grabby hands, and I had no choice but to swing her up in my arms and plant her on my hip.

“I’ve been as well as can be expected,” I replied to Dawn as I booped the little girl on her elfin nose just so I could hear her giggle. “How about you guys?”

“The journey treated us well,” she said as she glanced around the interior of the ship. “You have quite a mechanical marvel on your hands, Alex.”

“So it seems,” I said and patted Meera on the back when she gave me a cuddle. “And how have you been, little Missy? Have you been staying out of trouble?”

The toddler leaned back so she could look at me in the face. “No. I give Mama headaches!”

I couldn’t help but bark out a laugh at the way she said this with so much pride, and then I shot an apologetic look toward the deer-woman.

“Sorry,” I said as I set the little girl back down on her feet.

“Don’t be,” Dawn said as she observed her daughter with a weary but fond look. “I would have her no other way.”

“Alex!” Meera tugged on my hand and then plucked at the silver blouse she was wearing. “Look at the pretty dress I’m wearing. Isn’t it pretty?”

“So very pretty,” I agreed with the appropriate amount of enthusiasm.

“I wear it for the wedding,” she said matter-of-factly like toddlers do. “We’re getting married.”

“We are?” I asked and then grinned up at both of her exasperated parents. “What a surprise!”

“It is a super-prise!” she agreed and clapped her hands. “And there will be cake!”

“Perfect,” I said as I patted her on the head. “Please save a dance for me at the party.”

She looked at me with those big innocent eyes and whispered out a hopeful, “Really?”

“Really, really,” I replied and tapped her nose one more time.

She let out her trademark high-pitched squeal and then ran behind her mom so she could bury her blushing face in the deer-woman’s skirts.

“Come, daughter,” Dawn said in her gentle voice as she picked her up. “We have a lot to do before the party tonight. Say goodbye to Alex.”

“Bye-bye, Alex,” she said politely and waved her chubby fingers.

“Milady,” I said and bowed at the waist before kissing the back of her hand.

This caused her to giggle shyly again before she tucked her face back in the shelter of her mom’s shoulder.

“I shall see you later, my loves,” the ram-lord said and then kissed his wife and daughter before they left.

“Don’t play too hard,” she warned with a wink, and then they were gone.

“Alright,” I said as I rubbed my hands together. “Let’s gather the troops, and then I will show you the glorious ways of dodgeball.”

It took a little doing to get everyone together, and to cobble up some makeshift dodgeballs out of pillows and cloth, but once everyone was amassed outside in the airship’s courtyard, it was simply a matter of explaining the rules and then dividing the teams into two groups of five.

Pretty much everyone on the airship except for Vela and Bodin joined in to play. This meant on one team there was Rylan, Zoie, Anwaar, Arvid, and Mec, followed by Horace, Amaya, Jenner, Shay, and me on the other.

Each team was pretty equally balanced as far as skill and dodging ability, so we were pretty closely matched, and out of the three rounds we ended up playing, it was neck and neck until the last round.

The strategy Mec’s team were employing was to use Arvid as much as possible, which was actually rather brilliant.

Since the sloth-man was the biggest thing on the other team, it was almost impossible not to hit him within the first few seconds of the round. However, since it took him foreverrrr to walk off the playing field, the other players had plenty of time to dart behind him for the occasional shelter.

It made getting them difficult.

However, Arvid also posed a disadvantage to them early on due to being so slow. There was no denying the Big Boy was a perfect shield, but the fact he was such a big obstacle caused a problem for the other team if they needed room to leap out of the way.

Using these things I’d observed about my competition during the first two rounds, I was able to help my team whittle the others down to just Lord Mec against Horus and me.

The battle royal that ensued was epic by all standards, and the formidable ram-lord proved once again why he was the king of Nata Isle by pulling out every trick in the fucking dodgeball bible in order to avoid getting hit.

At one point, he took to hoarding all of the projectiles until he could gather them all up in his large arms only to fire them at us like a goddamn gatling gun.

Horus didn’t survive that one, and he took a ball to the knee as he tried to dodge.

Then it was just me and Mec.

The good news was I had the advantage of having all the balls he’d fired over to my side.

Every single one except for the small throw pillow currently in his hand, which he used to deflect all of my shots until I was also only holding only one ball.

The standoff continued like this for a tense while until something finally gave.

In this case, that something was a psych-out by Mec that I was prepared for, and when he attempted to take his shot for real, I crouched down and fired my projectile for his legs.

There was no time for the ram-lord to recover, and before he could make a choice on whether to dodge or jump, it was too late.

My ball bounced squarely off his thigh.

“Yes!” I hollered as I thrust both of my fists into the air. “Victory for us two-to-one!”

The rest of my team who’d been sitting out on the sidelines came rushing toward me so they could join in on the cheering, and the other team even cheered along with us until we had all collapsed and sprawled out on the hard ground.

“So, this is going to be your gift to Sskern and Griss?” Rylan asked. “I don’t understand how this is considered practical.”

“It’s simple, Rylan,” Zoie explained. “Once Alex teaches balldodge to the Terrans, they can use it as a training exercise. Picture playing this game again, but instead of soft projectiles, picture actual weapons like knives.”

“Ohhhh, I see,” he said.

“And if you wanted to teach the kids a little something, you could switch back to the fluffy stuff,” Horus added before he demonstrated by firing a pillow ball at Rylan’s face at a near point-blank range. “See?”

“Hey!” the boy yelled, and he wrenched his arm back in order to fire the projectile back where it came from but was stopped by Shay.

“This has truly been one of the most enjoyable ‘training exercises’ I’ve ever been involved in,” Mec said as he got to his feet and dusted himself off. “Thank you for having me be a part of it, but next time, we definitely need to be on the same side.”

“You got it,” I said as I clasped forearms with the other man. “We’ll get our chance soon enough.”

“Very true,” he laughed. “For now, I will say goodbye so I may prepare myself for the evening’s festivities, and based on the sun in the sky, I suggest you all do the same.”

“Gavlain is right, you guys,” I said as I clapped my hands together once. “We all need to be getting ready. I didn’t realize how long we’ve been playing.”

From that point on, the Crew and I scattered back to the airship and to our separate corners in order to prepare ourselves for the big event.

“I wasn’t sure what all to bring from Nata,” Jenner chattered to me as I attempted to tuck a frilly white shirt into my black trousers without much success.

“Definitely not this,” I said, and I shucked the shirt that could have starred on Seinfeld once upon a time ago. “What else have you got?”

“Try this,” he instructed, and he tossed a light-gray tunic over the privacy screen I was using to change in one of the lower-level storage areas while the ladies took over our bedroom.

The only time I peeked my head in to check on them and grab my good boots, it looked like a bomb had gone off consisting of dress fabrics and accessories.

Not something I had any advice on whatsoever, so I made myself scarce.

“Are Shay and Zoie planning a theme, do you think?” I asked.

“Aren’t they always?” Jenner asked, and I heard him wrestling through a few more boxes. “How about this one?”

The tunic and light armor combo that came flying over the privacy screen a moment later was definitely new since I didn’t recall ever owning anything lavender-colored in my entire life.

Of course, this purple could be tolerated because it contrasted beautifully with the silver armored breastplate and armored belt he handed me. It was striking, and it looked powerful when I had it all on.

“This is excellent,” I said as I smoothed my palms down the front of my surprisingly soft tunic. “Hopefully, whatever those creative beauties come up with goes along with this, because I'm not changing again.”

“Regardless,” the koala-man said as he came around the screen and helped me adjust all of the buckles and straps along my shoulders and chest before arming me with my blade. Since it was a relaxed event, I decided to forgo the whole kit and caboodle and left my crossbow behind. “I am to tell you the Lady Zoie wishes to see you in the parlor so she may tattoo your skin with the designs of the evening.”

“Okay, but what are you going to wear, Mr. Jenner?” I asked him as I bent down to tie up my boots. “Anything special you have set aside for such an occasion?”

“I did buy myself a nice new coat similar to this lovely blue one Zoie gave me,” he said proudly as he rocked up on the balls of his feet. “Only the new one is in a nice emerald green.”

“Snazzy,” I remarked and then stood back up to my full height. “Thanks for helping. Now, I’ll leave you alone so you can go get ready.”

“Anytime, Mr. Alex, I’ll see you shortly in the courtyard,” he said and then bustled off to ostensibly get into his new green coat.

Seeing that simple joy on his naturally wizened and serious face made me glad I demanded he accept a wage for all of his services.

All of my Crew deserved to buy themselves nice things if they wanted, and Jenner was no exception. In fact, I was thinking about giving him a little extra since he was so agreeable about returning to his Cursed Homeland on the off-chance there was a magic library that can solve all of our problems, yet again.

It wasn’t often, but every now and then I found myself missing certain creature comforts from my world, namely anything that had to do with Wi-Fi or the internet.

If only Aventoll had something like Google, maybe we wouldn’t have to keep searching out all of these underground, forbidden, or really, really hard to get to libraries for the information we needed.

Such was life.

“I heard you wanted to see me?” I asked Zoie when I entered the parlor and found my cat-wife sitting on one of the plush sofas with her sketchbook on her lap.

When she stood up, I could see she was in the stunning blue dress she wore to the very first party we went to together. She was just as breathtaking then as she was now in that sexy two-piece halter with the thigh-high slits on either side of the skirt, but when I gazed at her, I was struck with how strange it felt to be looking at her in this outfit.

So much time had seemed to pass in between then and now, and yet it also only felt like a blink of the eye.

“Alex?” Zoie asked with a look on her face that told me this probably wasn’t the first time she’d called my name to get my attention.

“What?” I asked, and I focused on her face instead of the delicious dusky V plunging between her perfect breasts. “What did you say?”

“I asked if you were ready for me to paint you,” she repeated as an amused smirk flirted around her lips.

“I’m always ready for you to smear stuff all over my body,” I said, and when she blushed, I placed a kiss right on her forehead. “What do you have in mind?”

“I really loved the colors from Lower Terr, and I want to experiment with some of the natural designs we saw down there,” she said and then went over to a small circular table where her brushes and dyes were all set up and organized. “Will you be my first?”

“I’m honored to lend my face as your noble canvas,” I said just to see her smirk again, and this time I was able to catch that smirk with my own lips.

“Don’t be such a rogue,” she purred only inches away from my mouth. “Or else I’ll never get this done, and we will be dreadfully late to the Regent and Asher Lord’s weddings.”

“See, I know that’s bad, but I can’t help picturing all the other things we could be doing instead,” I teased and then waggled my eyebrows.

“Hush, you, and close your eyes,” she instructed as she made me sit on the small stool across from her.

I chuckled a little at her bossiness, but I did as I was told and let her work her magic in silence.

To be honest, I was soaking up all the relaxation I could get before we had to go. Even though I had an apparent knack for the social schmoozing that went on at these things, I didn’t exactly look forward to all the attention, small talk, and sometimes even awkward questions I tended to field at these events.

So sitting back with my eyes closed and letting this beautiful woman caress her magnificent art into my skin was just the respite I needed to gear myself up in order to be Ambassador Alex Brightwood.

I could definitely tell from how tense I already was that a good meditation session would sorely be in order after this, and I honestly couldn’t wait to be off to our next adventure, even though it was in the opposite direction of home.

“That feels nice,” I mumbled after she put the brush down and then switched to just massaging my temples while the ink dried on my face. “Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop. Let’s stay here forever.”

“I agree,” Horus’ voice shattered the moment and brought me back into the present. “Let’s just stay in. Maybe tell some stories or play some cards.”

“It doesn’t work like that, Horus,” Anwaar said, and she floated into the room behind the falcon-man. Both of them were dressed to the nines in matching black ensembles that went well together. “Now, go over there and let Zoie do your face.”

“Are the ladies getting their faces tattooed also?” the falcon-man asked as he glanced around.

“According to Terran custom, only the men adorned themselves with makeup,” she said as she came into the parlor next.

“What do I look like?” I asked as I looked around for a mirror or some type of reflective surface I could see myself in, but there weren’t any.

“I’ll do Horus the same way as you, so you may see what you look like,” the cat-woman said, and I mouthed a thank you to her.

“Hey, does that mean I get face makeup, too?” Rylan asked as he came in next.

“Sure, if you want,” Zoie said and smiled at the kid.

She was almost through with Horus, and I could see some of the lines and shadowing she’d used made his face look a little more reptilian in certain lighting.

“Woah, is that really what I look like?” I asked as I came around fully to see what she was doing with her clever brush. She’d somehow transformed the falcon-man’s humanistic features into a dinosaur hybrid like the rest of the Terrans.

“It is to pay homage to them,” she answered and then indicated Horus could go dry on the sofa so Rylan could take his place.

“It’s very cool,” I said, and then I watched her give Rylan the lizard treatment with her talented fingers.

Finally, he was done, and the rest of our party trickled in.

Amaya appeared to be dressed in a soft green dress with a high collar and a short flowy skirt that matched quite well with Mr. Jenner’s new forest-green coat and large brass buttons. He seemed to be her escort for the evening, and the pair of them looked so dapper.

Then there was Shay, who always looked stunning in a gown that started as a deep red at the bodice and then faded into a pale yellow at the long hem. The dress would have seemed rather conservative had it not been for the long slit directly up the center and stopping mid-thigh.

With her at the helm starting with red, and with Rylan’s light-blue tunic and tan breeches thrown in, I realized our entire group spanned the whole spectrum of colors.

“I see what you did, you clever boots,” Horus said as he wiggled a finger in his sister’s direction.

“Do you like it?” Shay asked with a proud expression. “I couldn’t really decide on a theme, so I just wanted color.”

“We look amazing,” I assured her. “Way for us to represent Nata.”

“I’m still trying to figure out how Shay knew we would all be in something different,” Anwaar said. “I switched my decision at the last minute from red to black.”

“It’s a secret.” The phoenix-woman grinned a mischievous grin, and it caused all of us gathered to break out into laughter.

Laughter that was spoiled a moment later by a loud wail tearing throughout the corridors, followed by what sounded like two sets of feet running rapidly down the stairs.

“No!” Vel-Rala burst into the parlor with her coal-like eyes opened so wide I could see the whites from where I stood. She heaved several breaths, and when Bodin came up behind her to try and coax her back upstairs, she flung his arm off almost violently.

“Vela--” he tried, but she shook her white-feathered head.

“No,” she gasped again, and her eyes landed directly on Zoie. “Noooo.”

The croak that left the cockatoo-woman’s throat when she moaned this last word was enough to set my teeth on edge, and the previously light-hearted atmosphere withered and died at the sight of Vel-Rala’s haunted face.

Chapter 10

“Vela.” The worn-down raccoon-man attempted to get the deranged cockatoo-woman’s attention, but Vel-Rala’s eyes seemed to be seeing things the rest of us could not.

Horrible things, if the growing look of terror spreading across her face was anything to go by.

“You,” she said and pointed at Zoie. “You must be careful, milady. You must.”

“Do not worry, dear Vela,” the cat-woman said in a mellow tone. “I will be just fine.”

“But you have to prepare yourself,” Vel-Rala urged with a note of distress still high in her voice.

Zoie put her arm around the cockatoo-woman and stood beside her. “What must I do?”

Bodin gave my cat-wife a grateful yet exhausted smile for playing along with the poor confused woman.

Vel-Rala seemed just as relieved someone was listening to her, and before she could do anything else, she threw her arms around Zoie’s neck in a giant hug.

“Thank you,” she sobbed brokenly before she pulled back, wiped her face free of any tears, and marched over to a vase filled with indigo flowers.

Then we all watched as she painstakingly picked just the right blossom to her invisible specifications and brought it over to the cat-woman.

“Vel--” Bodin tried again, but Amaya gently stopped him from saying anything more with a hand on his arm.

“Please,” Vela said to Zoie as she wove the blossom into her ebony hair. “Keep this with you tonight. It will keep you safe.”

“I will,” Zoie promised without skipping a beat and smiled kindly at the sick woman.

“Good, that’s good… Bodee?” Vela asked, and she practically collapsed in the raccoon-man’s arms. “I’m ready to go back upstairs now.”

“Alright, love,” Bodin said as he helped guide her toward the stairs.

“Will you both be alright here on your own?” I asked.

“We will manage,” he said, and the two of them waved at us before they disappeared.

“You can probably take that out, now,” I told Zoie. “She said the same thing about a bell I should always carry, but it’s currently on my bedside table, and I don’t foresee any life-or-death situations where a dainty little bell is my weapon of choice.”

“Is she unwell?” she asked, and I looked around at everyone’s curious faces.

All of them had various expressions of concern, and they were all looking at me for an answer.

“She’s overly exhausted,” I said. “Maybe ill, but we don’t know what’s causing her condition. Bodin has been with her the most since we left and worries she is losing her mind.”

“Poor thing,” Shay sighed. “If only wounds of the mind were easy to heal, then I would say to bring her back down. But if it is truly insanity, I’m afraid even I cannot make a difference. Poor, poor thing.”

“I think I’ll keep the flower,” Zoie decided as she caressed the silky petals with her thin fingers. “For luck.”

“And it goes nicely with your dress,” Shay added.

“Now that everything is settled,” Horus said and gallantly offered his hand to the ibex-woman standing beside him. “Shall we?”

“We shall,” she declared as she primly grasped his fingers.

And with that, all of us were off to the Terran palace.

The fanfare we soon encountered practically from the second we stepped foot into the Upper Echelon was insane.

Music and streamers of various colors were being thrown around the streets leading up to the palace as Terrans young and old, and from Upper and Lower, mingled, danced, and made merry.

Nata usually had pretty kicking parties, but there was something about the exuberant Joy pouring out of each and every citizen that was unlike any celebration I’d seen anywhere else.

Huge vats of what appeared to be mead were rolled out and currently cooking over large fires. Buxom bar maidens lined the streets carrying fistfuls of tankards, and they were passing them out to anybody around with empty hands.

All of us were quickly bestowed with one of these giant mugs of alcohol, even Rylan, which I had to rectify by snatching the cup from him before he could drink more than half.

“Aw, come on, Dad,” Rylan said as he tried to grab the tankard back from me, but I raised it above his head and then chugged it in one go. “No fair. Mozz gets to drink.”

“Mozz is not my kid, you are, and I’m pretty sure if you start now, you won’t even make it inside the palace before you become drunk off your ass.” I tossed the empty tankard to someone passing by with a tray full of other empties. “Don’t argue with me on this, trust me. You’ll have a way better time tonight if you stay sober.”

After slamming down half of Rylan’s mug, I only took sips of the strong alcohol from then on because I wanted all of my faculties in place, and I knew from my own experience that the “sober” advice was for me as much as it was for him.

I knew I made the right decision since I was already feeling a buzz by the time we all finally made it to the palace doors. We were then escorted through the opulent corridors and toward where the festive cacophony of noise was taking place. When we arrived, our party was announced to the banquet hall at large, but nobody seemed to really be paying attention due to all the revelry taking place.

Instead of designated tables where people were seated based on status, this gala seemed a lot more lackadaisical as far as where people were situated. From what I could tell, you simply picked a place on the floor with enough cushions and stuck with it, or you mingled around the large open hall and never really committed to one place or the other.

I wasn’t really sure what everyone preferred, but Mr. Jenner decided to take this into his own hands and struck out for a nicely padded area big enough for our whole crew.

“Feel free to flit about, but I will remain here for the night,” the koala-man said as he hunkered down on top of one of the comfiest-looking pillows. “These old bones can save this space for all of us just as long as one of you keeps bringing me food and wine.”

“I’ll be your errand boy, Mr. Jenner!” Rylan piped up, and I glanced at him.

“Much obliged, laddie,” Jenner said as he made himself even more comfortable by reclining back against two more pillows. He said he would be saving the space for all of us, but so far it looked like he was building his own personal nest. “Now, go get me some of that ale before the night gets old and so do I.”

“Right away, sir!” Rylan said and then zipped off on his task.

“Such a kind boy,” the older man sighed as he removed his monocle and stashed it away in his jacket.

“Yeah,” I said as I glared after the kid with suspicion. “He’s nice. But also manipulative, so watch out.”

“I think I have an adolescent boy handled on my end,” he said sarcastically, and I only snorted and shook my head.

“If you say so.” I held up my hands. “But any trouble he gets into is on you.”

“Oh, pah!” he grumbled and shooed me away.

There was nothing for it after that, and our group broke apart in order to investigate what this banquet had to offer.

“Ambassador!” A long-necked man I knew by the name of Bartus waved me over, and as much as I didn’t really like the stubborn man who only a few days ago wanted to keep the Lowers from Ascending, I still smiled at him and made my way over.

“Asher Bartus,” I greeted with a nod. “I hope you are well.”

“Yes, indeed,” the brontosaur-man said as he patted his wide middle. “Definitely thanks to you and your Natavian allies! You see, it’s like I’ve been saying all along… the way forward is through unity!”

“Yeah,” I said with a terse smile.

That was not what the fat fuck was preaching about earlier.

“Ambassador, can I borrow you for a moment?” Leader Zerr asked from behind me, and I felt immensely grateful for his timing as he moved us away from the irritating man. “I thought you could use a rescue from that twit.”

“You thought right,” I said and clasped the man’s forearm in gratitude.

“Oh, the Ladies Brightwood look quite dashing today, if I do say so,” Zerr commented with a charming smile.

“You are too kind, Leader,” Shay demurred as she held out her hand so the alligator-elder could give it a quick peck.

Suddenly, a dozen trumpets heralded the arrival of the VIPs who had yet to arrive, and the entire banquet hall was silent as the announcer spoke from the entrance of the large doors.

“Presenting Lord Griss, The Lady Issa, Regent Sskern, and Lady Xera,” the guy at the door cried out, and the hall erupted in thunderous applause. “Now, they would all like you to join them in the dance that will strengthen their union and bring them plentiful heirs.”

This was the cue most of the men in attendance were waiting for to bring their wives out to the large open area in the center of the room.

My gut twisted as a small bit of stage fright overwhelmed me, and for a second, my mind went utterly blank of all the steps I’d learned with Zoie and Jenner.

But then, the familiar metronomic drumbeat started, followed by tinny wind instruments and dulcimer-like stringed instruments, and they all combined in a foreign sound similar to something Eastern European like in The Witcher.

And as the music seeped into my bones, it didn’t matter if I couldn’t remember the steps with my mind, because my body had it memorized even better, and it was easy to fall in line with Zoie, Shay, and everyone else.

Then the beat increased, and our movements became more frenzied yet powerful as the group did them all together in one undulating wave.

The part that came next always confused me in practice, but Jenner and Shay constantly told me this would make a lot more sense when we did it for real, and I suddenly knew what they were talking about.

When the tempo changed, it was only natural to turn inward where the two couples were now in the center. Then the intricate weaving step-thing that always threw me off suddenly came easier when I had a center point to focus on and other bodies for reference.

My lungs cinched tight from lack of oxygen, but we were almost at the end of the dance, so I dug deep and danced harder until the final crescendo cascaded to an end.

The whole hall exploded into cheers and applause when the wedding dance was over, and I gathered my two wives in a fierce hug.

I was so stinking proud of us, and maybe it was because of the festivities, but I felt the bonds I had with them thrum brightly inside my chest like little golden hummingbirds.

“Can you feel it?” Shay asked as she wrapped one arm around my waist.

“I feel something,” Zoie replied, and she rubbed a hand over the center of her chest right where I felt my own fluttering sensation.

“The dance is magic,” the phoenix-woman whispered. “It not only strengthens the bond for the newly married, but it also strengthens all bonds of marriage no matter how old.”

“It’s beautiful,” Zoie said as a high blush colored her pale cheeks, and the three of us came together in a passionate embrace.

Then a gong blared around the banquet hall, and the three of us sprung apart with guilty expressions and sheepish smiles, but when I looked around, it appeared as if we weren’t the only ones caught up in the moment of happy matrimony. As people around the hall began to laugh and disperse the tension, the light-heartedness returned to the atmosphere.

I spotted Mec in the crowd waving at us with his wife and daughter, and I waved back and led us toward them.

Dawn was dressed in a gown of such silver it looked like it gave off its own light, and little Meera’s matched adorably.

“Excellent moves there, Alex,” the ram-lord said as he hefted his daughter higher on his waist. “It has been a while since I have done the marriage dance with two wives. Some say it’s even trickier than with only one, and I’ve never attempted it with three.”

“Thank you, I only learned yesterday,” I chuckled.

“Alex! You look pretty!” Meera chimed in, and I winked at her.

“Not as pretty as you,” I said as her father set her back on the ground, and I took one of her hands so I could twirl her around. “Look at you. You look like a sparkly little star.”

“Hee hee!” she giggled and spun around some more. “Alex. We has to dance now. We is married!”

“Right, how could I forget,” I said, and Dawn, Shay, and Zoie all either pressed a hand to their hearts or their mouths at the cuteness, so I decided to really ham it up for the little one and bowed to Gavlain. “Honorable Lord Mec, may I please dance with your daughter?”

“Hmmm,” the ram-lord played along and rubbed his chin as if he was thinking. “I don’t know…”

“Daddy!” Meera whined and tugged his pant leg as she gave him the full force of the puppy dog pout. “Pleeeease?”

“I suppose so,” Mec said, and he smiled down at her when she cheered.

“Tank you, Daddy!” she squealed.

“Yeah, thanks, Dad,” I parroted as I scooped her up and whisked her out onto the floor where others were dancing to the music that had just started up.

Everyone on the floor was dancing freely so I didn’t have to worry about following along with any steps, and I was just able to spin us both around to the beat.

Her little giggles were infectious, and by the third time I dipped her without her knowing just to hear her shriek, I was laughing, too.

Finally, the song came to an end, and I trounced us both back to our group so I could hand her off to her mother.

“Mama!” Meera giggled and hugged the deer-woman around the neck. “Did you see us?”

“Yes, you looked like you both had a good time,” Dawn said.

“The best,” Meera said as she gazed at me.

“Milady.” I took her chubby little hand and placed a kiss on the back of it.

“Are you almost ready to give Clan Skerros their gift of the Almighty Dodgeball?” Mec asked me.

“Um, sure,” I said as I grabbed three tankards from a passing servant and passed two to my wives. “When do we do that? Is there another gong or something?”

“Gift giving is typically at your own leisure,” the ram-lord explained. “You simply approach the guests of honor and proclaim you want to give them a gift. And then you may do a small demonstration for the whole hall if necessary.”

“Are you ready to demonstrate with me?” I asked with a mischievous smirk over the rim of my mug before I took a sip.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say you just want an excuse to throw things at me.” Mec said.

“Always,” I shot back. “Now, come on, let’s get this over with.”

I took a large swig of mead, and then I handed my tankard off to Zoe while the ram-lord and I sought out our favorite Terrans.

“Ambassador!” Sskern said as he sloshed a little mead down the front of his tunic. “Have you met Xera? Isn’t she wonderful? Isn’t she beautiful? But you better not be jealous because she is my wife now.”

Mec and I exchanged amused glances at our drunk friend, and we watched him make googly eyes at his new wife, who was across the hall and chatting with Amaya.

“Something tells me you started pre-gaming a little before this shindig, didn't you?” I asked and put a steadying hand on the raptor-man’s upper arm so he wouldn’t list too far to the side and fall over.

“I’m drunk,” he admitted in a loud stage whisper. “But my uncle is drunker.”

“I resent that!” Griss boomed from just a few feet away. “Don’t get in a match with me, boy, on who can hold their liquor or not. I will drink you straight down into the Darkhells of Terr herself, don’t test me!”

“So, what can I do for you, my friends?” the Regent asked in an overly loud voice so he could drown out his uncle.

“I have a gift for you and Griss,” I said. “One that requires a demonstration.”

“Wonderful!” The Terran Asher Lord clapped his hands and then wrapped an arm around his new wife, Issa. “Let’s see it!”

“We will need some space to perform, milord,” Mec said, and we both tried not to laugh our asses off when the two reptile-men scrambled to move people and furniture out of the way in their drunken states.

It was the best entertainment of the night by far.

When a good space was opened up in front of the little camp Sskern and Griss had on the floor, Mec and I faced off in front of each other.

“The gift I have prepared for you, most esteemed lords, is a gift from my homeland,” I began in the traditional way the ram-lord taught me even though the words sounded awkward in my mouth and fell on drunk ears. “As you know, I am a Traveler, and where I’m from we have a lot of clever… ‘tactical exercises’ we pass down to our children in order to prepare them for the future.”

Of course, the preparation I was talking about was teamwork and hand-eye coordination, but I was hoping the Terrans would choose to think of this in the light I wanted them to.

“What is this exercise?” Issa asked as she swiped some of her vivid pink hair out of her eyes.

“It is called dodgeball.” I caught a round pillow in between my hands that Jenner tossed me from the sidelines. “Or just ‘dodge’ if you’re not doing this with balls. The point is in the name: to dodge. There are two teams of equal numbers and a series of balls or projectiles set up in between them on the floor.”

To demonstrate, I set the round pillow down between Mec and me, and then we both took several steps back.

“How do you dodge if the projectile remains in the middle of the room?” Griss asked.

“Good question,” I said. “When I count to three, Lord Mec and I will race for the ball, try to take it, and then try to hit the other. If you hit them on any part of their body with the projectile, it is a point to that team, and that person is out.”

“When you say out, you mean like dead?” Sskern clarified.

“Pretend dead,” I said. “But yeah, it’s kind of like that. It’s designed for you to take it seriously, so if out means dead, then go for it. Just don’t actually try to kill each other during the exercise. Griss, would you like to do the honors by counting?”

The frill-necked dino-man clapped his hands in excitement. “Get ready. Three… Two… One… Go!”

At the signal, Mec and I ran full tilt toward the balls.

Because I was faster, I ended up reaching the ball first, but when I tried to hit him with it at the ankles, he jumped over it, spun around, and kicked the ball upward so he could catch it in his hands.

He moved quicker than I was anticipating, and even though I made a valiant effort to leap backward, the ball hit me square in the chest.

“That’s just a small demonstration of what this game is about,” I said as the hall erupted in applause. “The teams can be as big as you want or as small as you want. This exercise can also be modified several ways to fit any sort of skill set you are trying to improve on. For example, if you are trying to free prisoners who were taken from your team, you can adjust the rules that way and make it a team-building reconnaissance exercise. The possibilities are really limitless. Go nuts.”

“There are definitely things I can do with my soldiers with this training exercise,” Griss’ Varthan wife said as her cat-ears pricked up in interest.

“Well, you’ve made my wife happy, and that’s all that matters,” Griss joked to a chorus of raucous laughter and back slapping all around him.

“You may use it in any way you see fit,” I said graciously and bowed again.

“I want to do this now!” Sskern announced loudly as he handed off his umpteenth tankard of the night. “Everyone who wants to play Dodge, grab a pillow and meet on the dance floor!”

A small bit of pandemonium took place as several people decided they wanted to try throwing pillows at each other in a free-for-all that ended up being more of a drunken rave pillow fight.

“You really do need balls for this to work properly,” I commented to Mec as we both stood on the sidelines and watched the bloodbath take place.

“Yes, but I wouldn’t trust this lot with anything but pillows,” the ram-lord remarked.

“You and me both, buddy,” Horus snorted, and I turned to look at him over my shoulder.

“What? You don’t want to join in?” I needled.

“Noooo, thank you,” he said. “I’m waiting for the magic show to start! I heard they booked a troupe of illusionists for the main entertainment. Everyone’s raving about it. I guess they are really popular in the Upper Echelon.”

“I don’t know, H,” I said as I watched the shameless bacchanalia take place on the dance floor. Then I spotted Griss wrench his arm back and absolutely hammer Bartus in the face. “I think this might be the highlight of the evening, but say what you want.”

Another banging of the gong rang out throughout the hall, and this time it was accompanied by a dramatic dimming of the torches and braziers.

“It’s starting!” the falcon-man squealed under his breath.

“What are you, a twelve-year-old girl?” I teased and received a shove for my trouble.

“Here, drink more of this,” Horus said as he grabbed my mug from Shay, and he shoved it into my hands roughly enough that some of the mead slopped out over the rim. “Think of it as fun juice.”

“Fun juice?” I deadpanned.

“Yes, if you drink it, you become more fun,” he said with his trademark shit-eating grin.

“You’re going to regret saying I’m no fun,” I threatened, but I drank my mead anyway.

“Everyone! Gather ‘round, gather ‘round!” A musical voice rose above the crowd as a fanciful man bedecked in red rubies and a weird crimson lycra-like material led a string of other strangely-dressed characters that could have come out of Candyland into the hall. “Who among you would like to open their minds into a different world? A world… of illusion?”

The hall broke out into excited applause as the fanciful characters paraded around the guy I’d decided to dub as Lord Licorice.

Each member of the troupe either had a dazzling skill to show, or some type of illusion to perform one by one until it felt like the one time I did security for Cirque Italia and always caught the tail-end of the show. It was cool, but I always wanted to see the beginning when all of the performers came out, so this was way better.

Two members who resembled some type of monkeys did a contortionist act so complex it was hard to separate one from the other, and they blurred together in a completely unbroken ring and rolled along on the floor like a runaway tire.

After the contortionists, out came a pair of beasts, and my eyes flew wide open as I took in the half-Bengal tiger and half-spider creatures.

And spiders and I were. Not. Friends.

Period.

“Holy f--” I said and then jumped when both opened their large tiger mouths and roared.

“Oh, my! Look at how beautiful they are!” Shay said and actually leaned closer to the tiger-spiders, and I had the sudden urge to snatch her back and shove her behind me, but I resisted the urge.

After all, both creatures had thick iron collars around their necks, and they were each being restrained by two large dudes bigger than my buddy Thas, so I was mostly certain they were safe.

Like eighty-six percent certain.

That certainty suddenly dropped down to a whopping eleven percent when both tiger-spider tamers actually took the ferocious beasts off their thick chain leashes, and I was glad I wasn’t the only one who looked a tad nervous about this as the circle around the performers widened while people shuffled back.

The tamers I decided to name Siegfried and Bigfried just for my own amusement then unleashed a pair of whips that seemed to shoot off fireworks every time they were lashed. With every crack, the tiger-spiders fell into a choreographed dance of leaps, bounds, and even backflips, and the fireworks left behind hoops for them to jump through with their sparkling ashes.

The finale of this epic display of disciplined acrobatics ended with both tiger-spiders jumping through one hoop from opposite sides. When they collided in mid-air, they both exploded in a shower of golden sparks that caused most people in the crowd to scream and gasp.

The two tamers waved to the sound of applause and jogged out of the center.

Then a half a dozen bearded dragon types swooped in to take the place of the tamers, and they captivated the audience by juggling flaming torches so fast the streaks they left behind formed pictures depending on the position of their juggling. When they’d cycled through several shapes like stars and flowers et cetera, another guy in what looked like a mystical wizard’s cape opened a black square box no bigger than his palm. When he did, a glittering cloud floated up to the ceiling, and it blanketed the banquet hall until it looked like we were staring up into a sky full of dark storm clouds.

The dark clouds rumbled with real-sounding thunder, and bright flashes illuminated patches of indigo, fuchsia, purple, and turquoise until the sky looked like a rave.

“Tonight will be a night you will never forget!” Lord Licorice announced just as the sky opened up and actually began to rain lightly.

“It’s actually raining!” Zoie said as she lifted her face to the ceiling with her eyes closed.

I watched her with a smirk as her ears flattened out parallel on either side of her head so she wouldn’t get water in them. It made her look like she was wearing a hat, and in that moment I locked eyes with Shay, who had the same gushy expression on her face as I probably did when she observed the cat-woman.

Then a muted trumpet sounded, and two more of Mr. Candyland’s brigade wheeled out a large glass box and unloaded it in the middle of the stage.

The rain ceased, and the clouds overhead went quiet while Lord Licorice circled around the clear cubicle.

“Now, my ladies and lords, my humble troupe and I ask you all for volunteers who are willing to enter the mysterious plane of… illusion!” the scarlet Liberace man said with dramatic sweeping gestures appropriate for his outlandish nature.

Several hands shot up into the air as the troupe characters wound their way through the crowd. One of the contortionists approached us and held out a beckoning hand for Zoie, and she blinked in surprise.

“Me?” she asked and then looked toward me.

“Do you want to go?” I asked her.

“I want to know how it works,” she admitted with a faint blush.

“Of course, you do,” I said and kissed her on the cheek. “Go on, and tell me all about it after.”

“Okay!” A bright smile lit up her face, and she hugged both Shay and me before she went off with the monkey contortionist.

As long as it wasn’t something with the tiger-spiders, I was sure it would be fine.

“Yes, yes, gather inside the cube!” Lord Licorice said as he gestured for the small crowd amassed in the center. “See what the plane of illusion has to offer!”

I noticed Dawn, Meera, and the two new Terran wives among the others selected to “see into the beyond” or whatever, and as I watched them all being shuffled into the transparent box, something niggled at me as odd, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Have you noticed,” Shay remarked in a pensive tone. “They’ve only chosen females.”

I squinted down at the cube and saw she was right.

“Why would--?” I tried to ask, but I was interrupted by the crash of that obnoxious gong.

“Feast your eyes, lords and ladies!” Lord Licorice said as he lifted his cane to the dark ceiling still shrouded with storm clouds. “On the power of illusion!”

A bolt of lightning came down and struck the man’s cane, and the hall exploded in an intense white light that completely blinded me and everyone else in the audience.

Then a terrible roaring sound like the wind of the Endless Storm disoriented my blind state even more, followed by an intense shockwave, and just when I was about to panic at having two of my senses compromised, everything faded back to normal.

The wizard clouds were gone, the lights were restored, and everyone who had climbed into the cube, troupe members and Lord Licorice included, had vanished without a trace.

Chapter 11

A confused hush fell over the hall when the ruby bedecked troupe leader and his merry circus gang disappeared, along with everyone who’d filed into the strange glass cube that would supposedly “send them to the plane of illusion.”

A smattering of applause echoed here and there as some people thought it was still part of the act, but a tar pit of dread in my stomach grew wider with every second that ticked by where the illusionists, and Zoie, failed to reappear.

I glanced across the hall and spotted Mec and a suddenly sober-looking Sskern, and I knew they were just as alarmed as I was.

“Good trick, now where are they?” a Lower Echelon Duelist I’d never met before growled as he took a step toward where the volunteers used to be. Then he unsheathed a long rock dagger and pointed it at Asher Griss. “Bring back my wife.”

“I can assure you, I am just as perplexed as you are, but I’m sure there is an explanation,” Griss said as he straightened his spine and marched toward the center of the floor.

Meanwhile, Amaya managed to shoulder her way through the crowd up to us on my right with a fretful look on her face.

“Anwaar was selected, too,” the oryx-woman said right as Horus came up through the crowd on our left.

“And Rylan and Jenner are missing,” he said.

The pit in my stomach grew wider at this, and I didn’t have to wait for the cry of rage to ring out for me to know there was something seriously wrong going on here.

“Where are they?” the angry Lower Terran bellowed as he held his hands out in front of him where the cube used to be and grasped nothing but empty air. “Where have they gone?”

At the man’s cry, more murmurs and exclamations rippled through the crowd, and a panic began to settle in as the onlookers flooded the empty space to see for themselves that it was indeed empty.

I moved toward the middle as well as I unsheathed my remaining herald blade.

“Gavlain,” I said when I reached the ram-lord. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” he growled in his deep voice, and my signet ring pulsed slightly in response to its original owner. “But I am going to find the people responsible and make them pay.”

“Who brought in the illusionists?” Asher Griss thundered as his neck frill umbrellaed outward and changed to a deep red to show off his anger.

“Bartus!” A voice rose above the chaos. “Lord Bartus brought them in.”

“Where is Bartus?” someone else asked, and soon it became clear the long-necked man was also missing.

“We must search the palace!” A black and red-striped raptor-man I knew as Lieutenant Vertiss snatched his halberd up and jabbed it at the doors of the banquet hall. “They can’t have gone far, come on!”

A large mass of angry Duelists, Upper and Lower alike, began surging to the doors in a mounting witch hunt, but something seemed off about the whole thing.

“Gav.” I snagged the hem of the ram-lord’s robe sleeve, and he turned to me with a question in his bronze eyes. “These illusionists aren’t actually sorcerers, right?”

“Not that I can tell,” he said.

“Horus?” I asked. “Is there a way you can sense it?”

“Yeah, I can try,” the falcon-man said. “Ani’s been teaching me some finer techniques.”

He then closed his eyes, pressed his palms together over his heart prayer-style, and breathed deeply through his nose. When he was done, his eyes flashed open, and for a second they flashed gold before fading back into their natural gold-green. “Nothing. Not even a whisper of magic.”

“Then they have to still be here,” I reasoned. “They said it themselves, they are illusionists. They somehow must have made all of us believe they disappeared.”

“Mercedes, you’re right,” Mec said, and he ran over to a large vase that was sitting on the pillar. With a roar, he knocked it off so it shattered spectacularly on the ground, which was effective at catching everyone’s attention. Then he clambered up in the space where the vase used to be and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Close those doors! The illusionists are still somewhere in this room!”

The flow of traffic toward the doors abruptly jammed as some of the people in the front of the pack attempted to stop and turn around.

“But where did they go, Alex?” Shay fretted as she wrung her hands. “And what about Jenner and Rylan? They weren’t among those who entered the cube. How long have they been missing?”

“We’ll figure it out,” I soothed, even though my nerves were threatening to burst out of my skin, and I looked around for something.

Anything.

My gaze snagged on the flicker of Amaya’s green dress, and I saw her walk in a little circle where the cube used to be. Then she crouched down and pressed her palm against the floor.

“Ames?” I said as I approached her. “What is it?”

“I can’t feel them, Alex,” she said as her silver eyes flashed. “Not a single one. It’s strange…”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“If they had been taken even outside of this room, I would be able to feel traces of their essences as far as the grounds extend,” she explained as she stood up and turned in a slow circle.

“That confirms my theory, then,” I said. “They’re still in here.”

“I agree with you, however, I can’t feel them in here, either,” the augur-woman stressed. “It feels as if none of them have set foot in the palace at all, like something even erased the traces of when they were here a moment ago.”

“Not even breadcrumbs?” I asked.

“Not a one,” she said with a frown, and I could tell the thoughts in her head churned just as hard as mine were.

“How is that even possible?” Shay asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” Horus said as he put his arm around his sister.

“There has to be a logical explanation for where they went!” I raged as I whipped around for a solution.

The chaos at the hall entrance finally subsided as the heavy doors finally boomed shut.

“What do we do now?” someone yelled, and several people turned to where Mec was still standing on top of the pillar and began bombarding the ram-lord with question after question.

The din was so loud I almost completely missed the out of place sound that ended up being the key to everything.

A sneeze.

But not just any sneeze.

An invisible sneeze that seemed to originate about ten feet above my head.

When I looked directly upward toward the ceiling, an odd thing happened. I had the weirdest sensation to look elsewhere, and no matter how hard I tried to stare at the rafters directly over my head, my gaze skipped over the spot I’d dubbed dead center like water off a duck’s back.

A crazy idea began to grow in my mind, and I sheathed my blade and made a run for the crowd surrounding Mec.

“Alex?” Shay called.

“I’ll be back!” I shouted over my shoulder. “If I’m right, be ready!”

“What do you mean?” Horus yelled back, but I ignored him as I squeezed through the mass of angry people toward the ram-lord who was trying to address one person at a time.

“Gavlain!” I shouted, but the arguing voices were too loud and drowned me out.

I figured there was nothing for it and began shoving my way through the bodies until I made it to the base of the pillar.

“This is ridiculous!” the angry Duelist from earlier raged. “They could be getting away! Why are we standing here? We should be tearing this place apart!”

“Think about it,” Mec attempted to reason. “No one saw those doors open the whole time.”

“No one ‘saw’ anything, in case you don’t remember,” another Upper Terran said, and a chorus of agreements backed him up. “I agree with Mot. They must have snuck out when we were all temporarily blinded.”

“You think they had time to transport all of those people and themselves without a single trace in the amount of time it took for the blindness to fade?” Griss postulated, and this gave the crowd pause enough for me to get the ram-lord’s attention.

“Gavlain,” I said. “They’re here, and I can prove it.”

“Get up here,” he said and extended his hand so I could get up on the pedestal before he himself hopped down.

“Everyone!” I said as I crawled up on top of the stone pillar. “I can prove everyone is still here in this room.”

“How?” the angry man named Mot demanded.

“Give me your crossbow.” I gestured to the weapon strapped across the man’s back, and he tossed it to me along with a bolt. Of course, the one time I left mine at home… “Get ready!”

I cocked the bow, loaded the bolt, and put the stock against my shoulder so I could take aim.

Of course, that was easier said than done, and I really hoped I was right because if not, then I was definitely out of ideas.

But, in for a penny, in for a pound, and I narrowed my aim at where I assumed the cube was ostensibly hovering and pulled the trigger…

The bolt flew through the air and, with a crack, embedded itself in an invisible wall.

Silence enveloped the whole banquet hall as everyone stared at the bolt frozen in mid-air. Because it was so quiet, everyone could hear the telltale creak of spidering glass, and after another moment, there was an enormous crack as the invisible side of the cube shattered completely.

Now that the illusion was truly broken, the rest of the glass structure came into view along with the dozens of missing people.

“There!” Mot roared as I tossed him his crossbow, and the circus people jumped to the ground with their fierce scowls and many weapons.

I jumped off the pillar, pulled out my trusty Decisiveness blade, and joined the fray.

“Riiiioooooowwwl!” came that beloved battle yowl, and even angelic choirs didn’t sound as beautiful to me.

“Zoie!” I hollered, and I watched the cat-warrior do a flying kick to Lord Licorice’s poncy face, which knocked him out of the cube and to the ground while Zoie gave chase.

The other Varthan concubines who were “selected” for the cube poured out and were led by Issa. Then they formed ranks around each other as they squared off against Siegfried and Bigfried, who had sicced the tiger-spiders on the warrior women.

“Alex!” Zoie yelled before she did a backward cartwheel away from the swipe of a tiger-spider. “There are still members of the Troupe inside the cube!”

Part of me raged to go and help my wife, but I halted my trajectory and changed course.

The cat-woman would be fine without me for a few moments.

“Alex, over here!” Mec waved at me, dropped down to one knee, and laced the fingers of his hands in the universal Launch Pad position, and I knew exactly what to do.

I pelted forward as fast as I could, planted my foot in the center of his hands, and then braced myself as he all but threw me up into the half-visible half-broken cube.

Once I got inside, the floor suddenly became visible, and I figured this strange glass was some sort of one-way situation I really wanted to know the workings of, but I filed the thought away for later.

For now, I had to take out the monkey contortionists who were preventing the rest of the people in the cube from escaping by shoving them in the far back corner where the remaining three walls were still intact.

“Hey!” I yelled and backhanded one of the contortionists with the hilt of my sword.

When I went to attack the fucker once again, I was suddenly whacked against the back of my knees with a sturdy staff, and I fell to the floor. My blade went flying off the platform and down to the ground below as I crashed down, and I rued the loss of it.

But I didn’t have time to rue too long, and I rolled to the side to avoid being smashed in the head with the quarterstaff.

“Duelist scum!” Thing One spat at me while Thing Two kicked me in the gut. “You’ll pay for what you’ve done!”

Thing One then slammed the butt of his staff into the ground, and after a small click, the business end of the staff suddenly became bladed with sharp razors.

Oh, that was not good.

I flipped onto my back in an attempt to scoot away, but the contortionist was already raising his staff over his head…

“No, no, no, no, no!” a small enraged voice screamed, and out of nowhere, a tiny silver shoe struck the center of the monkey-man’s forehead hard enough to leave a little mark.

It was such a shocking and unexpected thing that the contortionist hesitated just long enough for me to get the upper-hand, and I wasted no time as I exploded into action.

Quicker than lightning, I flipped myself up into a crouch and kicked both feet out from under my assailant, which caused his razor staff to fall off the platform and join mine on the floor below.

“Hey!” the other guy shouted and tried to come to his friend’s aid, but he was still trying to keep his hostages back with his own spiky staff.

The guy I was fighting-- Thing One or Two, I couldn’t remember so he was now Shoe Face-- did a weird helicopter spin that twirled him back up on his hands like a funky breakdancer. A metallic noise sounded, and Shoe Face suddenly had ankle blades.

I would have been impressed if I wasn’t dodging for my life as the monkey-man came at me like a possessed Vitamix.

“Fuck!” I yelled after having to summon some Matrix moves to keep my jugular from being sliced open.

He was still advancing on me, so I danced back even more until my back thumped against something solid.

The other wall.

Fuck.

I dropped into a crouch as a bladed foot came at my head, and then before Shoe Face could change course, I hooked him twice in the ribs and jabbed him in the solar plexus.

This caused him to lose his balance enough for me to slip out from between him and the wall, and then I danced around him. By the time Shoe Face jackknifed himself up to his feet, I was already there waiting for him and met him with a snap-kick to his chin that sent him flying back against the wall I was just pinned up against.

Shoe Face slumped down unconscious with another shoe-shaped bruise added to his face for good measure.

“How dare you!” the other contortionist screeched at the top of his lungs, and he swung his staff at me.

I ducked and rolled to the side as the sharp spikes sliced through the air where my head was mere seconds ago, but at least I was an ample enough distraction for the small cluster of remaining hostages to make their way out of the cube with the help from those below.

That was all that really mattered, and now I could focus on kicking this guy’s ass since there wasn’t any danger to any innocent bystanders.

My attacker came at me again, but I caught the staff with both hands, and for a moment we jockeyed for leverage until he flung me back against the other wall with a lot more power than I was anticipating from such a smallish bendy guy.

The breath got punched out of my lungs, and the back of my skull smacked the wall hard enough to cause my vision to whiteout for a second, but a second was all it took because I suddenly felt myself being grabbed and flung down on my stomach.

If the air wasn’t knocked out of me previously, it would have been now. As it was, I knew I was going to have some interesting bruises.

When I finally got both my breath and vision back, it was only snatched away again when the contortionist climbed on my back and began strangling me with the quarterstaff digging into my throat.

“Diiieee!” the deranged Gumby on my back growled as he pulled up on the staff even harder.

“Ack!” I dug my fingers in between the rod and my neck in an attempt to keep it from crushing my trachea.

Things were not looking like they were in my favor, and with the spike of adrenaline lighting me up on the inside, it was easy to slip into that familiar pool of power.

Tick…

My heart beat like a sledgehammer in my chest as the world slowed down around me, but the way the guy was wailing on my neck made me realize I needed to turn it up a few notches, or else I would be unconscious before I could do anything about it.

I needed to dig deep.

Tick…

Stars burst at the corners of my vision, and my head felt like it was going to pop off if I didn’t do anything soon, so I reached down and pictured the aperture that my power funneled through as it opened wide.

Ti--

The air seemed to shimmer like a heatwave as everything slowed exponentially until the world came to a stop. The incredible pressure against my windpipe also stopped, and I was able to slip my head back through the hole between my attacker’s arms.

I gasped in great breaths of air until the tunneling in my hearing disappeared, and the darkness crowding my vision eased up. Then I wormed my way out from under the hellish acrobat and just sat there on my knees for a second so I could finish catching my breath.

Strangely, I seemed to have only stopped time inside the cube, because the commotion was still taking place on the ground below, and I wondered if it was my own ability, or if it was because I was still in this weird invisible floating structure.

Whatever the case, I needed to file that away for later because it was already getting hard to hold the time-stop.

“Chief!” Horus called out, and I searched the chaos for his familiar black-feathered crest. He was directly below me and holding my herald blade. “Drop this?”

“Toss it!” I yelled as my control on my power started to slip.

Horus yelled as he tossed my curved sword up to me and straight into my hand.

Snap.

The time-stop fell apart, and I whirled around right as the contortionist brandished his razor staff and did a flying leap.

We collided pretty hard, and because I was on the platform’s very edge, we both fell through the air and all the way down to the floor.

Smack.

Chapter 12

“Alex!” Horus shouted, and his voice sounded high and thin in a way I’d hardly heard from the usually overconfident falcon-man.

He also seldom called me Alex, so I knew he was worried, but I was busy still reeling from having fallen ten feet to reassure him I was alright. Thankfully, I managed to open my eyes without too much issue, and I realized the monkey-man had met the business end of my blade and was probably dead before we hit the ground.

Unfortunately, Horus didn’t know I wasn’t the one bleeding, so he worked himself into a lather as he hauled the corpse off me and then began searching me for any fatal wounds.

“Hor--” The rest of the word rasped into silence since my lungs were still trying to remember how to function.

“Darkhell, where are you wounded, Al?” he asked with a faint quake in his voice. “There’s so much blood.”

“Not… mine,” I wheezed as he helped sit me up, and then he smacked me on the back. I coughed and cleared my throat, and finally my seized lungs began working again. “Thanks.”

“Mercedes, don’t scare me like that again,” he said, and he placed a hand over his heart like it had remembered how to start beating again.

“Sorry,” I said as I gazed around the banquet hall.

Most of the fighting was done, and those who were part of the illusionist troupe who weren’t dead were now being taken into custody by the palace guard.

“How did you figure it out, by the way?” Horus asked as he helped me up to my feet.

I had to breathe carefully through my nose for a second as my entire body screamed in protest at how fast I moved. One thing was for sure, falling straight back from that height Did Not do me any favors.

“Actually, I heard someone sneeze above us and figured that’s where the cube must have been,” I said as I recalled the odd displaced noise that ended up being the key to everything.

“Ah, the old invisible-but-not-soundproof mistake,” he said sagely as he stroked his chin. “Amateurs.”

I laughed and then wheezed to a stop when the motion hurt too much. “What I want to know is how they got the damn thing to float.”

“Same here,” Mec’s voice rumbled behind me, and I whipped around to see the slightly battle worn ram-lord clutching his wife on one side and holding his daughter in his other arm.

The little deer-girl lifted her head from where she’d hidden it in her father’s chest and blinked at me with her big wet eyes, and the sight of her missing shoe reminded me just how brave this little pistol really was.

I cast my eyes about and spotted the silvery slipper lying upside-down on the floor near where my sword had fallen earlier, so I went to pick it up and return it to its rightful owner.

“Your daughter saved my life, Gavlain,” I said as I took the toddler’s little foot in my hand so I could put the shoe back on like she was a miniature Cinderella.

With antlers.

Cin-deer-ella?

“She did, did she?” the ram-lord asked as his smile went supernova. “What did she do?”

“I was almost a goner when Meera came up with the perfect distraction by throwing one of her shoes at my attacker’s face,” I relayed to the pair of proud parents, and I winked at Meera when she blushed so hard the smattering of coppery freckles on her face disappeared. Then I took her hand and bowed deeply. “Madame, I am forever in your debt.”

“Hee hee!” she giggled when I straightened from my bow, and then she jettisoned herself out of her mother’s arms and into mine. “No mean heads can hurt my Alex.”

I chuckled as I held her close, and over her little shoulder I spied my two wives as well as the Mec sisters making their way over to us. From what I could tell, they were okay but a little bruised and battered, but when they got closer, I could tell something was missing.

Or rather two very important somethings.

“Where are Jenner and Rylan?” I asked immediately as the rest of the Crew approached us, and everyone glanced around.

“And that traitor, Bartus,” Regent Sskern growled as he came up next to Mec with his new wife wrapped in his arms like he would be hard-pressed to ever let her out of his sight again. “He must pay for his crimes.”

“Ames, can you help us out?” I asked the oryx-woman and handed Meera back to her mother.

“I will search for both of them.” She nodded and then crouched down to place her palm on the floor of the banquet hall so she could do her seek-and-find thing.

Her eyes flashed nearly white, and she tilted her horned head as if she was listening to something. Finally, her eyes faded back to their normal dove-gray, and she stood up.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I looked for traces of that Bartus fellow, too, but something is wrong…” she trailed off and started for the opposite end of the hall until she stopped in front of the far wall. She then pressed her ear against the wall and tapped twice.

“What is she doing?” Sskern asked, but Anwaar shushed the raptor-man.

“Listen!” Amaya suddenly gasped. “I hear something!”

Practically all of us hit the wall and pressed our own ears against it to see what she was talking about.

At first, I couldn’t hear anything, but then I pressed a palm into my other ear to block out the din of the large hall, and there it was.

A very faint pounding.

“What is that?” Horus asked when all of us pulled back from the wall. “Is that them?”

“Yes,” the augur-woman said as her eyes shimmered again. “I’m sure of it.”

“My question is, how did anybody get out of the hall in the first place?” Shay chimed in with her hands on her hips. “Those doors remained shut the whole time.”

“What about a servants’ entrance?” Mec asked. “On Nata, it was a classic building practice to design invisible entrances in the ballrooms and banquet halls so the servants could come and go without being in the way.”

“Hm, my uncle might know,” Sskern said and waved over the man in question from where he was talking quietly with Issa.

“What can I do for my esteemed friends?” Griss said as he sauntered up. “Ambassador, I owe you for your fast thinking.”

“All we need to know is if there is some sort of servants’ entrance around here?” I asked the dino-man.

“Hm.” Griss stroked his neck-frill in thought as he examined the wall in front of us. “I believe I remember something of the sort around here somewhere. Grekis, Bartus, and I used to play in the servants’ corridors when we were lads.”

The Terran Asher Lord then began to feel along the wall with his two hands until something clicked, and a small panel popped out that opened to reveal a narrow passage. Instantly, the faint pounding that could be heard rang out at full volume, and I wasted no time in rushing forward toward the frantic sounds.

“Hello?” I called, and suddenly the pounding ceased, and I could hear Jenner’s muffled voice yell out from a little farther down the corridor.

“Master Alex!” the koala-man shouted. “We’re in here!”

“I’m coming, Mr. Jenner!” I called back as the corridor came to an end. “Where are you guys?”

“Storage cupboard.” His voice floated from behind the locked door at the very end.

“Is Rylan with you?” Zoie asked. “Is he okay?”

“Rylan is with me,” Jenner responded, but my cat-wife and I didn’t miss the fact he didn’t answer the second question, and my uneasy feeling grew.

“Stand clear,” I warned as I backed up a few steps. Then, without further ado, I slammed my shoulder into the door and broke it open in a shower of splinters.

“Oh, my,” Amaya said from behind me as she took in the scene before all of us.

Jenner was sitting on a stack of half-broken crates and looked disheveled with his missing monocle and ripped green jacket, and he stared down at the large and very dead brontosaurus-man.

“Is that Bartus?” Sskern asked in shock as he looked at the jagged slice across the man’s long neck and all the blood.

I tuned out the rest of the conversation when I finally spotted Rylan huddled in the far corner of the room along with Mozz, who was sitting silently beside him. They both looked shocked, but Rylan looked almost catatonic with his knees drawn up to his chest and staring at the dead man with a hollow stare.

“Rylan?” I whispered. My boots crunched as I stepped around the dead Asher, and I saw there were shards of glass everywhere. When I glanced around for the source, I saw there was an old broken mirror smashed to hell due to the apparent confrontation that had taken place, and my frown deepened.

And finally, as I crouched down in front of my catatonic son, I saw that in his fist was the largest and most jagged mirror piece still dripping with blood.

It wasn’t hard to put two and two together after that.

“Where is that wretched Bartus?” I heard Major Tharfin’s booming voice from out in the corridor a moment before the dome-headed man himself came into the room as well. “Mozzy? Sweetness?”

“Uncle!” Mozz cried out, and she sprang up from her spot and threw herself into his arms.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asked as he looked around the room. “What happened?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” I murmured as I gently tried to rouse my son from his fugue state. I glanced down at his hand where he was still clenching the makeshift dagger, and I saw how some of the blood oozing off it was some of his due to how tightly he was still holding it, as if the dead man might spring up again at any second.

“Maybe I can illuminate some of the situation,” Jenner said, and I was grateful for him once more considering the kids didn’t seem like they were in any fit state to rehash the ordeal. “I wasn’t here for the start, but I can guess what probably happened. This young lady was kind enough to tell me that Lord Bartus attempted to snatch her away during the confusion, because I saw him enter this secret passage. It took me a bit longer than I liked to follow because of all the commotion, but when I finally chased after him, I stumbled across Rylan and Mozz fighting Bartus. I tried to help, but in the frenzy, the door was knocked shut, and then jammed closed after the big oaf slammed into it.”

“He broke the mirror over there,” Mozz added in a deadpan voice. “And then Rylan…”

Rylan shuddered and closed his eyes as his grip on the sharp object tightened. More drops of blood fell to the floor, and I wondered how he didn’t feel it.

“I see. You knew Bartus was going to hurt Mozz, hm?” I said in a soothing timbre directed at Rylan. For a second, I didn’t know if he was hearing me, but after a moment, he gave a stiff nod. “And then Mr. Jenner came in, and you knew he would be a target, too, right? So, you did what you had to do.”

I moved more into his line of sight, and I blocked the view of the man he’d killed in order to get him to snap out of the dark thoughts no doubt swirling around in his head.

Killing a person, no matter how much the bastard may have deserved it, came with its own weight, and if I could have anything, I would have it so my son never needed to take a life. If we were in my world, I could have potentially shielded him from this, but we were not in my world.

This was Aventoll, and unfortunately, violence and killing was almost unavoidable.

The best I could do for him was just be there for the fallout like this, but the fact he’d yet to say a single word had me floundering.

Luckily, before I could lose all faith in my abilities as a father, he blinked once, and then he focused his gaze on me for the first time since I’d entered the small storage cupboard.

“He… I heard him,” he whispered, and I leaned forward so I could hear him better. “He wanted to… do things to Mozz, and I--”

He choked and gagged, but then he hissed as he finally noticed the shard of jagged mirror glass in his hand.

“Shhh,” I soothed when he cried out, and then I caught his wrist so I could gently pry his stiff fingers away.

The makeshift knife clattered to the ground, and suddenly I had my arms full as Rylan launched himself at me. He didn’t make any noise, but he shook violently, and I could feel a telltale dampness start to bleed through my tunic where he’d buried his face in my chest.

“You did good, kid,” I murmured into his messy crown. “I’m proud of you, and Mozz and Jenner are both okay. You did the right thing.”

“I killed him,” he croaked into my shirt. “I slashed his throat.”

“I know,” I said as I rubbed his back, and without thinking, I dropped a kiss on the top of his shaggy head. “You did good.”

Zoie then crouched down next to both of us, and Rylan pulled back so he could look at her.

“Kit,” she said simply as she stroked his tear-streaked face.

“M-Mommmm,” he sobbed, and the cat-woman gathered him in her arms so she could now comfort our son the way only a mother could.

Once I knew the crisis was averted for now, I left them to it and stood so I could join the rest of the conversations taking place behind me.

“You’re sure the illusionist troupe are pirates?” Griss had just asked the Major.

“My intel is sound,” the large Terran said with a nod. “My lieutenants were able to… ‘persuade’ some of the jugglers for information. They were commissioned by Bartus some time ago when he realized the Ascension Accord was a sure thing. He was going to leave Terr along with pirates, who were going to transport all of their ‘stock’ to the Traders so he could make off with some premium coin.”

“So, that is why they only picked female ‘volunteers’ for the demonstration,” Horus said with a disgusted scowl. “Pathetic. It’s good he’s dead.”

“The only thing I rue is not killing him myself,” Tharfin growled as he continued to hold his niece against his side.

Zoie had managed to get Rylan up to his feet even though he had to lean on her pretty heavily. Then Shay came up on his right side and carefully took his injured hand in hers so she could heal it.

“The way I see it, this young lad has done us all a great service,” Griss said and took a step toward my son so he could salute him. “Thank you, Mr. Daal.”

Everyone else in the room followed suit by thumping their right fists over their hearts.

Rylan just stared at all of them in mild surprise. His face was still pretty pale with shock so his lack of response didn’t surprise me so much as it worried me, and I found Zoie’s eyes.

She nodded imperceptibly, and both Shay and Zoie began to escort Rylan out of the cramped room already starting to stink of the corrupt pervert.

Before he left, he was stopped by both Mozz and Tharfin as they each gave him a fierce hug, and then my wives took him away.

“Come on,” Regent Sskern said as he gave a kick to the corpse for good measure. “We have the troupe members who didn’t manage to die in custody. As we speak, we are rallying for a quick trial and could use a good augur-mage.”

“We would be much obliged,” Amaya chimed in as her sister nodded in agreement.

“Lord Mec,” Griss said as all of us began to make our way back to the banquet hall. “Would you be amenable to joining me on this council of retribution?”

“Absolutely,” the ram-lord said. “The moment they tried to kidnap citizens of Nata makes them enemies of my house as well. Justice will be served.”

When we entered the hall, there was a group of interesting scientist-type Terrans examining the still-floating cube, while several of the Upper concubines and Lower miners were holding some of the troupe members in custody.

“What shall we do with the scum?” Lieutenant Vertiss asked as he shook Lord Licorice by the scruff of his neck.

“That remains to be seen,” Major Tharfin told his second as he glared at the ruby-bedecked fruit loop.

“My fellow Terrans!” Griss boomed around the large banquet hall loud enough to get everyone’s attention. “Lord Bartus’ treachery has been revealed, and I am giving all of you this one chance to come forward if you were involved with him and his most nefarious plot to abscond with our women-folk. If you do the honorable thing and reveal yourselves now, I may grant you leniency.”

The silence remained for several long seconds in which no one spoke up or moved a muscle, even though several glances slid to the exit now being guarded by more of Tharfin’s men.

“Very well,” Sskern said and then nodded at Amaya and Anwaar to proceed.

What happened next was a truly mega-awesome demonstration of the augur-mage’s combined powers in full force.

First, the sisters linked hands as both their eyes took on that eerie otherworldly glow. Then, while they were still connected, they both crouched as one unit so Amaya could press her palm against the ground again.

She was as still as a statue, but the energy coming off her in waves was potent and caused the hair to stand up on my arms as if there was an electrical storm in the atmosphere.

Just before I was convinced the very air was going to burst into flames, the augur-mage stood. Then, with her eyes still glowing their technicolor array, Anwaar held out her glowing red palm and swept it over the captive audience.

“May justice compel you!” the augur-mage pair said in a shared monotone voice that was the stuff of nightmares.

Suddenly, three individuals were highlighted in the same red light as the ibex-woman’s hand, and when she clenched her fist, the men staggered toward the center of the hall like they’d lost all control over their limbs.

But, going by their terrified expressions, this was the last place they wanted to be headed.

“Seize them!” Griss commanded, and some of his concubine guard including the pink-haired Issa came up to hold the men. “You three, announce yourselves to the assembled court.”

The defectors looked like they would remain silent until death, but one gesture from Amaya had the first man, a weaselly skink-looking motherfucker, blurting out all his information as if he had a bad case of diarrhea.

Of the mouth.

“L-Lord Hervin,” he panted. “Rank-Two. Shipbuilder. Bartus was going to give me a cut of the gold if I gave him a ship from one of my workshops.”

“What about you?” Griss asked the next man in line, who resembled a trike with only one of his three horns still intact. He was also wearing the same insignia of two overlapping circles like the rest of the scientist types, and the Terran Lord made a point to glance down at the emblem.

“I am… Jerres,” the trike-man gritted out. “Rank-Four. Professor of Natural Sciences.”

“What do you have to say for disgracing the noble Terran Academy like this Sskern interjected.

“Lord Bartus promised me gold beyond my dreams if I was able to engineer something that could make the container float in the air,” he explained as he pointed to the cube. “Before the ceremony, I had the workers place powerful magnets in the floor and told them it was for something else. There is a small device in my pocket which activates them.”

“I’ll take that, then,” Issa said as she retrieved the small hand-held item from him that looked like a garage door remote without any buttons.

“And you?” Griss asked the next man in line with the features of some kind of spiky reptile.

“Lord Kaxsus,” he spat out begrudgingly. “Rank-Three. Palace Marshal. I offered him access to a squaller of his choice for the chance to take over ‘minding’ the Low-ish scum he kept at his disposal.”

“What does that mean?” Lord Mec asked with a dark scowl.

“Means ol’ Barty had certain predilections pertaining to torture when it came to the Low-ish,” the man named Kaxsus said with sinister glee. It seemed as if Amaya didn’t really have to force him to speak anymore because now that the jig was up, he apparently didn’t mind sharing. “Every now and again, Bart and I would take a little trip by squaller to the Lowers, see? Pick up a ripe little scat-ling for us to have fun with.”

“How dare you!” Leader Zerr thundered as he came to the forefront of the crowd. “You’ve been harvesting our people so you may maim and torture them for your own sick pleasure?”

My stomach churned at the way Kaxsus just laughed out a rusty laugh.

“I’ve heard enough,” Griss said. “How about you, Lord Mec?”

“I agree,” the ram-lord said and turned to his sisters. “What say the augur-mage?”

“Our findings are the same as what has been spoken by the accused,” Amaya answered, and the two of them returned to normal.

“Whatever shall we do for recompense, then?” Griss asked as he opened up the dialogue to the room at large. “What is a fair punishment, people of Terr?”

“Death! Death!” The crowd instantly started chanting until someone added on the phrase “by Ocean,” and then the chant changed to, “Death by Ocean!”

Horus sucked in a sharp breath next to me, and I turned to him with a puzzled frown.

“Why isn’t anyone challenging him to a Duel?” I asked over the din.

“Engaging in the Rite of the Duel is considered an honor even if the Duelist being challenged is a mega bastard,” the falcon-man explained. “But there are some types of corruption where the chance of redemption through Dueling is not even an option because of how disgraceful that person’s crimes are. In that case, only the Goddess can judge them and mete out punishment.”

“For all three of them?” I questioned. “Kaxus, yeah, he definitely needs to die in a horrible way, but the other two?”

“It is not up to us,” he said since the angry crowd was on the verge of turning into an angry mob if something didn’t happen soon.

“Terrans value their kin above all else.” Horus and I jumped slightly at the sound of Thas’ voice, and I wondered how long he’d been standing behind us. “To hear that these men were in a plot to break up families and sell our women and children is unforgivable. Horus is correct. None of these men deserve the glory of dying in a Duel.”

“It is decided!” Griss cried out and raised his palms up so the audience would settle down. “For their crimes, the three men will be stripped of their titles, their Duelist Stones shattered, and then thrown to the Ocean Mercedes.”

At this declaration, the whole hall erupted into chaos.

Chapter 13

I’d never been a part of an angry riotous mob hell-bent on seeking capital punishment for obvious reasons, so if anyone asked me six months ago if I’d ever be screaming for justice alongside everyone else, I would have said no.

But currently, that was exactly what I was doing, sans the torch and pitchfork, as I followed in the wake of the group of criminals heading for their deaths. There were at least four members of the illusionist pirate troupe including Lord Licorice and the monkey-guy I’d knocked out before I killed his twin.

And in front of them leading the pack were the three Terran traitors, which made a total of seven people.

At first, I didn’t really relish the idea of marching a group of people to their executions because I occasionally liked to think I was born of a society a little more civilized, but I quickly stopped that line of thinking when more of these people’s crimes were revealed.

One of the interesting customs these Terrans observed was a pleasant thing Lord Griss dubbed The March of Repentance down to something called The Cave of Judgement. To my recent knowledge, this was the last chance the criminals had to avoid Death by Ocean by being compelled to confess their crimes by the augur-mage.

Amaya and Anwaar had once again linked hands as they urged the pack of degenerates along from behind. Both of their eyes were glowing along with each of their free hands, and the mage kept them moving while the augur-woman kept them talking.

And talk, they did.

Each criminal spewed their guts about every misdeed or indiscretion that had ever harmed another person until every single one of them dissolved into silent tears of guilt and remorse.

All except one.

Kaxsus.

He, apparently, had a lot of shit to confess to, and where everyone else ran out of horrid crimes about three-quarters of the way down the sharp switchbacks, this sick fuck was still going.

In fact, somewhere along the way he even seemed to pick up steam just like when he was confessing about him and Bartus, and the way his beady eyes gleamed as he described the perverted and fucked-up shit they would do to the undeserving Lower Terrans made my jaw clench.

But when he started talking about the things he and his buddy Bartus used to do to children?

Yeah, that was when I threw my lot in with the crowd and started demanding bloody retribution just like everyone else, fuck evolved morality. People who messed with children deserved to die a thousand deaths in the worst way possible, and to me, no amount of confession or Hail Marys or whatever the fuck could even remotely begin to exonerate a person for that.

Not like Kaxsus wanted to be exonerated anyway, given the manic glee that seemed to roll off him even when he finally stopped confessing.

Lord Griss had the mob come to a stop at the bottom of the nearly mile-long trek, and we all amassed in anticipation in front of the entrance of a dark cave.

“My people!” the dino-man said as his neck frill umbrellaed out and flashed a vibrant yellow to catch everyone’s attention. “Now is the time to claim reparations for the terrible misdeeds laid against us by these deplorable reprobates!”

I added my voice to the roar of the crowd when everyone jeered and cheered.

“I hope they burn in the darkest of darkhells,” Horus said from his position next to me, and his voice was rife with the same wrath I felt burning a hole inside of me.

“Now, only those who have been directly wronged by these loathsome scum may bear witness to the Reckoning,” Griss announced, and all of us who almost had our wives and daughters whisked away to the insanely fucked-up sex trade stepped forward.

Thas, Vertiss, and Serrek helped pass out torches for the people going into the cave, but I also made sure my Duelist Stone was untucked from my shirt so it would give off its own shine.

I remembered how dark the caves of Terr could get, and as we continued on the slightly downward slope, I was grateful for the extra points of light from all of the other Duelists-- newbies and vets alike.

Especially because there was something markedly different about this cave.

First was the sound.

The draft that was blowing in and out had the effect of someone breathing as if they were in a deep slumber, and every time it wafted over me, the hairs on my arms and neck stood on end.

Whatever else this Cave of Judgement was, it was definitely alive, and it was good the walk wasn’t very long considering how dark and endless the cave appeared from the outside. That fact was just another reminder of how supernaturally pitch-black this high cavern was because by all rights, we should have still been able to see the torchlights from all of the people waiting back at the entrance.

I swallowed thickly, and my mouth went dry as a power I’d never felt before shrouded me like a thick lead blanket. It was as oppressive as it was awe-inspiring, and even Kaxsus seemed to finally realize where his place was in the cosmos.

About five hundred feet from the entrance, we all stopped at the edge of an inky shallow pool with something that looked like a mound or a hill rising up from the center. When I squinted at it through the dimness, I was just able to make out the mound had a hole at the top, which made it look a little bit like a science-fair model volcano, and from it came the sound of the Ocean tide.

This, at least, explained the illusion that the cave was breathing. This cavern must be close to Terr’s natural bluffs, and over years of crashing and violent waves, the sea ended up punching a hole through the rock and formed this place.

As the rest of the witnesses finished filing in around the shallow pool, I gripped my torch in my hand tight enough that the leather straps around the handle began to creak.

Finally, Lord Griss raised his hand in a signal that had his guards escorting the seven criminals to their place around the circular pool, and when the dino-man dropped his hand, all of them were forced to kneel.

“Oh, Mercedes!” the Terran Lord said as he beseeched the sky for the Goddess’ power. “We have come to the Cave of Judgement to ask you for your wisdom and fairness. Have mercy on your righteous people, and help us punish those who have gravely maimed us.”

Everything suddenly went so silent, not even the Ocean’s tide could be heard, as if everything outside of the cave had just stopped.

Then, before I could wonder if I’d somehow accidentally summoned a time-trance, a chest-collapsing roar shook the cave before Ocean water geysered out of the top of the conical mound in the center.

The criminals sputtered in shock as they were utterly baptized with the sickly-sweet smelling water, and in the dimness, I could see all of the whites of their eyes as they frantically searched around for any sort of escape.

But there was none.

“She has heard us!” Some of the other Terrans murmured amongst themselves in reverence, and I felt the sizzle of power against my skin like static.

Then Amaya and Anwaar walked out to stand just on the edge of the water, and in a synchronized effort, they raised their unlinked hands, which were both glowing white and red respectively.

Ribbons of glowing white water twined around and combined with Anwaar’s red tendrils of power. They snaked their way up from each criminals’ feet and forced their way into their mouths. Then, with the help of the Guards holding their mouths closed, all of them had no choice but to swallow.

One by one, the seven dropped down to their knees in agony as the guards and the augur-mage stepped back.

“You all have been weighed…” Amaya said in her ancient sounding multi-voice. “And some of you have caused too much suffering. The balance must be restored.”

The seawater gushed up into the cave again, and every single witness remained stone silent as we watched the criminals scream and clasp their heads. Their eyes rolled back in their sockets, and they gnashed their teeth in misery at whatever it was they were seeing in their minds, and several of the men began to bleed heavily from their noses as well as the corners of their eyes.

Two of the Terran traitors, Jerres and Hervin, couldn’t take the onslaught to their minds, and they dropped face-down in the water never to move again.

Gursh.

Another geyser.

This time, when the water rained down on the remaining guilty men, two who I recognized as the bearded dragon jugglers, as well as the contortionist, reacted as if the sea spray falling on them was acid.

Gursh.

Another.

The places where the water hit their skin started to leave behind boils and welts that disfigured them almost beyond recognition until their faces ruptured and split. The effect was similar to slowly squeezing both ends of a ripe banana, and it was a good thing bananas weren’t native to Aventoll because I was sure I’d never want to eat one ever again.

Finally, there were two criminals left, and I ignored the one curled up in a fetal position so I could give my full attention to Kaxsus because I had a feeling his punishment would be the grand finale.

I wasn’t wrong.

“Arguh!” The spike-faced man now covered in boils gagged as more water flowed up of its own accord and forced its way into his mouth and nose like an invading tentacle. His screaming was muffled as the water crammed itself deeper and made his throat and eyes bulge grotesquely.

Then the Ocean water actually began to lift him off the ground and slowly rotated him around like he was strapped to a circular rack until he was fully upside-down and spread-eagled.

I was unable to look away even when the water distended his gut and finally came bursting out through his anus.

And I especially didn’t look away when the water then began to slowly expand until the deplorable pedophile was ripped straight down the middle like the two halves of a phone book.

The water hissed as the mist from the violent rendering rained down along with drops of blood and chunks of viscera. When all was said and done, the oppressive dark feeling in the atmosphere lifted, and in its place was a gentle sigh coming up through the throat of the Cave of Judgement.

All of us breathed in relief as justice was served.

“Rise,” Amaya said, and I was startled when I realized there was one member of the troupe still miraculously left alive.

Lord Licorice got to his feet looking like a traumatized drowned rat.

“What is your name?” Lord Griss asked.

“Grel,” the illusionist stated as tears leaked steadily from the corners of his eyes. “Grel Craven f-from Leen.”

Amaya then approached Craven, and when she held up her hand, the man flinched back ever so slightly.

“I will not harm you,” the oryx-woman said, but she waited for his tight nod of consent before she placed her gently glowing palm against his cheek. There was a beat or two of silence while the augur-woman concentrated on what she was feeling before she opened her eyes again. “Grel Craven, you have been weighed and judged by the Goddess through her Ocean of Endless Knowledge, and she has found your heart to be truly remorseful.”

“I-I didn’t know,” he sobbed. “I didn’t know what they were planning. I swear it.”

“That is why you are still alive,” Amaya said. “The Goddess is fair, and she Knows of your ignorance. But now is your chance to forsake your pirating ways and do your penance. If Mercedes is ever forced to judge you again, she will not be so merciful.”

“Thank you.” The man sank down to his knees and kissed the back of Amaya’s hand.

“Grel Craven, you will now be indentured to me as a servant on strict probation,” Lord Griss decided. “Any grave mistakes, and you will find yourself in a dark prison for the rest of your days. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Lord Griss,” he said as he jumped back up to his feet. “Thank you for your mercy, and I am truly sorry…”

“Come on,” I said to Horus and the Mec sisters. “Let’s get back.”

The whole trek back to the palace and up to our airship was spent in silence.

Despite how enjoyable the evening was at the beginning, the way things had played out toward the end there kind of dampened the mood, and as we entered the courtyard, I stopped in my tracks.

“Chief?” Horus questioned when he noticed I fell behind them all. “What’s up?”

“I’m just really glad to be leaving tomorrow,” I admitted as I gazed up at the airship gently floating on the magical current of air spiraling up from Terr’s wide chasm. It wasn’t Ithaca, but it was definitely a little piece of home, and even though we weren’t returning to Nata just yet, it was enough to tide me over in the meantime.

“I feel the same,” Amaya said as she slipped her hand in mine. “Now, come. I believe we have some people waiting for us.”

I smiled at her even though my heart felt bruised and sore. Justice was served, but it still didn’t make up for all of those innocents who fell prey to both Kaxsus and Bartus. And Meera along with other children had been inside the cube today. Just thinking about what they were doing there made me shudder with rage and disgust all over again.

“What?” I snapped out of the oncoming anger spiral when Amaya called my name seemingly for the second or third time.

“I know how you feel, darling,” Amaya said, and she squeezed my hand to remind me we were still connected, so she was probably feeling all of my violent feelings through the bond. However, when I went to release my grip, she just held on harder. “But what is done is done, and we can only look forward.”

“I know,” I sighed as we all entered the galley.

“Ani and I are going to turn in,” Horus said with his arm loosely wrapped around the ibex-woman’s waist. The two of them had been wrapped around each other like that since the cave, like they were only upright because they were supporting each other. “Get some rest, chief.”

“You guys, too,” I said and waved at them as they went up the stairs and out of sight.

“I need to go find my brother and his wife,” Amaya said even as her hand still remained in mine. “I need to inform and update him on our plans before they head back to Nata on a separate ship.”

“Okay,” I said hollowly and finally let my grasp slip from hers.

“Darling,” she said, and she held my face so I had no choice but to gaze into her gray eyes. “Promise me you will not dwell on the events of the night anymore. There will be time tomorrow to revisit this if you wish, but for the rest of the evening, please, be here now.”

She finished by nuzzling her forehead against mine, so I closed my eyes as our arms came up and around each other at the same time, and we started to sway to our own silent music.

“How do you do it?” I eventually asked in a low voice as we continued to slowly revolve, and when she made a questioning noise in the back of her throat, I rephrased. “How do you not dwell? I only saw it with my eyes. I can’t imagine having touch telepathy like you and having that Knowledge. What I barely know is enough, and what I don’t I can piece together, and it’s making me sick.”

“Yes, the weight of Knowing is a heavy burden to bear,” Amaya said and pulled back so she could look into my eyes again. “It helps to remind yourself of what good fortune you do have. For me, I surround myself with the people who make me happy and make this dark world make sense.”

I released a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding and then leaned in to kiss her reverently on the lips. “Thank you. You’re right, and I love you.”

“I love you, too, Alex,” she said. “Now, promise me.”

“I promise,” I said with a smile.

After we parted ways, I ascended the stairs to the third floor in search of the rest of my family. I told Amaya I wouldn’t think about the disturbing events anymore, and that was just what I was going to do.

The peaceful sight that greeted me when I made it into the small lounge area unraveled that last knot of tension between my shoulder blades, and the shroud of despair fully lifted off me.

Because there was Zoie, my first wife, my mate, sitting on the low-backed sofa with Rylan curled up on his side with his head on her lap. She was humming some idle tune under her breath, and she carded her fingers through his sand-colored hair over and over again.

My heart throbbed, and I felt warm in a way that had nothing to do with the fire burning cozily in the fireplace. I approached them silently in order to prolong this perfect moment in time, yet I was compelled forward with the grasping urge to immerse myself in the tableau before me.

As if Zoie sensed my internal struggle to approach without shattering the moment, she continued to hum down at Rylan as he slept the sleep of the truly exhausted. The only acknowledgement she gave me was the brief flicker of her deep blue eyes as I perched on the arm next to her before she returned to gazing down at the boy in her lap.

Even though it was obvious he was deeply unconscious, Rylan still had the shadow of a frown on his young face when it should have been slack with sleep and peaceful with innocence.

Knowing that innocence was a little more stripped away tore at me, and it wasn’t until this moment that I fully embraced the true responsibility of what fatherhood entailed. Rylan was no longer my “foster-son” or even my “adopted-son” anymore. As far as I was concerned, he was my son.

No matter what he looked like, or who his biological father was.

“Alex,” Zoie murmured, and I blinked down at both of our hands resting on top of Rylan’s head. At some point, I’d reached down and curled my fingers around her hand that was trailing through our son’s hair, which caused her to still. “We’re right here, my love.”

“Do you think he’ll be alright?” I asked on an exhale.

Her response was to lift our connected hands so she could kiss my knuckles. “He was strong before he came to us, and I like to think we have made him even stronger.”

“Even the strongest things can break,” I whispered.

“Then we will be here for him if he does,” she stated matter-of-factly, and I smiled at her before I ducked down so I could capture her lips in a long kiss.

“You keep me right,” I said when I pulled back. “I can’t do this-- be a parent-- without you. I love you.”

“And I, you, my love,” she purred before she kissed me sweetly once more. “Now, I’m to tell you our darling Shay would like you to find her. She is currently under the galley.”

“Under--? Do you mean she’s below the airship where the power source is?” I asked, and I had to lower my voice in the middle so my surprise wouldn’t wake up Rylan.

“That is what she said.” Zoie nodded.

“Interesting,” I said, and an intrigued smile began to tug at my lips since I’d yet to see how this puppy worked up close. “Do you want me to help get him to bed for you before I go?”

“No, that’s not necessary,” she said as her hand resumed its soothing trek through Rylan’s tangled hair. “I’d rather he stay asleep than potentially wake and have to start the process of falling asleep all over again. He said he kept seeing… that man’s face in part of the mirror as he died every time he closed his eyes. He just truly fell under right before you came in.”

I sighed and caressed his ink-smudged forehead with the back of my knuckles before I stood up. “Do you need anything for the night?”

“I do not,” she replied.

I still smoothed one of the light knitted throw blankets I found on the back of an armchair over Rylan’s feet, and then with one last kiss to the top of my cat-wife’s head, I went in search of Shay.

The way to the “engine room” was a circular hatch in the galley’s floor, which made sense because the galley was also the heart of the airship’s interior, so it would make sense that the actual heart of the mechanical marvel was located in the same place.

I grinned when I noticed the large rug Horus and I tore through when we first discovered the hatch. A perfect circle was punched out over the swinging hatch door, and nobody had thought to replace or remove it.

We’d been spelunking through Monger Manor’s inner workings when we came across a surprise “pet project” the place’s previous owner left behind. Pet Project being the minotaur-like abomination Gella Vane left for us to find like a fucking time bomb.

If it weren’t for quite a bit of luck, and a convenient elevating pedestal, we would have become minced meat and would never have discovered how the upper wing of Monger Manor was actually designed as a detachable airship.

Now that we’d figured out how to make her work, I was curious to see her in action, so without wasting any more time, I pulled the hatch open and descended the iron ladder down to the platform below.

When I got down there, I had to practically scrape my jaw off the ground at the truly artistic craftsmanship I saw before me.

The platform was clearly the work of Bodin and his excellent carpentry skills because it now had a sturdy wooden railing wrapped all around it, as well as a wooden ship wheel that now housed the green tear-shaped crystal from Snake Tree.

Back in Lower Terr, the Ancient Tree Spirit had bequeathed me some of its essence for helping to heal the jagged chasm where most of the demon scourge would spawn from and threaten the villagers.

Now, it was embedded in the center of the ship’s wheel, and it was currently casting a gentle glow as it pulsed a little like a heartbeat.

The light was just enough to see beyond the platform, and my eye traced the four beams extending from it. These beams reached far out and supported the airship’s sails, and from below, it would probably resemble something like a manta ray swimming gracefully through the clouds on its semi-translucent sails made from near-indestructible Terran wirm skin.

And it was on one of these beams that I found Shay sitting with her feet dangling down over the side as she looked out over Terr.

Carefully, so I wouldn’t startle her in case she fell, I climbed over the railing and walked out toward her.

“I heard you wanted to see me,” I said when she noticed my approach.

“The air feels so wonderful.” She smiled and patted the space next to her with her hand, and I settled in close so I could feel the comforting heat of her body.

I closed my eyes as I let the gentle zephyr caress my face and play with my hair. It smelled sweet, like how a fresh spring rain leaves behind the scent of plants and new life.

“Something’s changed,” Shay murmured. “This is not the same Terr as when we got here.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She gave me a sly look at this as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Do you want to see?”

“Um… yes?” I grinned at my phoenix-wife’s mischievous little smirk.

I didn’t know what I was expecting, but for Shay to suddenly jump off the beam definitely wasn’t it.

Chapter 14

“Shay!” I yelled out when she dropped over the side of the beam extending out from the airship’s platform.

Her effervescent giggle was my only reply before she suddenly floated up in front of me like some sort of fiery phoenix-goddess with her crimson hair funneled up and around her.

“Trust me, dearheart,” she said and reached her hands out for me.

“Uhh…” I let her ease me off from where I was sitting on the beam and out into the open air despite the fact everything inside me was telling me gravity was gravity, and I would surely plunge straight through the sail and down the throat of Terr.

But the look in my wife’s emerald eyes danced with playfulness, and if she was able to float like some Sailor Moon scout, then by all rights, so should I.

And she also asked me to trust her, and why wouldn’t I?

So, with my hands held in hers, I let her coax me off the beam and into the open air.

The sudden gut-drop sensation when I fully slid off the beam punched the air out of me, but before I could even think to yell, my short descent abruptly stopped as we both bobbed in place like a cork in a tub of water.

“See?” Shay giggled as she laced our fingers together and tugged me further out.

We drifted with surprisingly little effort, and we both spent a few moments experimenting with maneuvering through the air.

“How is this happening?” I asked as we pushed each other out so we were almost floating horizontally like in one of those indoor skydiving tubes.

“Terr is… playing with us, I think,” Shay said as she pulled our hands and brought us back together.

“Playing?” I asked.

As if it was listening, the warm current of air bobbed us up a little higher and then dropped us fast enough that Shay and I were giggling due to the champagne bubbles erupting in both of our stomachs.

“From what I can tell, Terr’s spirit is whole and healthy in a way I’ve never felt before-- at least I’ve never felt on Nata,” Shay explained, and I laughed as I parted the curtain of her scarlet and gold locks in order to see her face.

“What do you think it is?” I asked as I tugged her closer by her petite waist, and the motion caused us to revolve slowly in mid-air as if we were slow dancing.

“I’m not entirely sure…” she mused as she looped her arms around my neck in a loose embrace. “If I were pressed to describe it, I would say the island herself is grateful to us for helping her.”

“Grateful to you,” I corrected as I rubbed the tip of my nose against hers. “You healed its heart. I’m not surprised it wants to show you its appreciation.”

Shay blushed sweetly as if she hadn’t even considered the possibility it was her sole doing that caused the whole island to have a crush on her.

“Oh…” She smiled when the magical wind confirmed this by actually braiding her long mane of hair so it stopped flying into her eyes.

I cupped her face and caressed her cheek with the pad of my thumb as I gazed into her jeweled eyes. “Hello, there.”

“Hi,” she whispered as her fingers flirted with the hair at the back of my neck. “I don’t want to dredge up all of the things that took place this evening, but I do want to know if you are alright, husband.”

“I’m--” I initially wanted to brush it off and say “fine” because I didn’t really want to think about it anymore, but the truth was I wasn’t fine. And as I looked at her gentle and open expression, I was reminded once again that I didn’t have to be fine all the time. Sometimes I could let people in. Especially when it came to my wives. “I’m… not. Alright. But I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it. It’s all just so fucked up, Shay.”

“Shh, dearheart,” she soothed and framed my face with her small hands. “Let me take your mind away from here.”

“Please,” I whispered as her lips came closer to mine. “I don’t want to think anymore.”

“I’m here,” she breathed, and then we both closed the distance in a passionate kiss that caused a small explosion to happen somewhere in the vicinity of my heart.

When the kiss started to heat up, I pulled Shay closer against my body because I felt the overwhelming urge to press every inch of her supple form against my hard edges just to remind myself there were softer things in this harsh world.

“Shay, I need you,” I moaned as I cupped her lush bottom in my hands, and I was unashamed of the erection I was sporting as I lightly ground myself against the soft mound between her legs.

She gasped lightly when the rigid line of my dick rubbed her through her thin flowy dress, and in the gentle throb of the green ship light, her pupils blew wide with arousal until I could barely see the thin ring of her irises. When she breathed, I could feel her erect nipples pressing into my chest, and I wrapped a leg around hers for more leverage in order to increase the friction between us in the weightless state.

“A-Alex,” she stuttered, and her hands scrabbled at my tunic and untucked it from my belt.

I groaned when she got her hands under my shirt and against my hot skin, and her sharp nails raked burning trails across my back, but I suddenly hissed when her fingers found a sensitive bruise.

Oh, yeah. I forgot I fell ten feet flat on my back earlier.

Ouch.

Shay made a small concerned noise in the back of her throat, and her touch gentled as she mapped all the places where I felt that sharp battered ache.

“Let me take care of you, husband,” she whispered.

I nodded and banked the fire of my passion so the boiling arousal I was feeling was turned down low to a simmer, and then I let her lead me by the hand back toward the platform.

Her tender ministrations combined with the way she took over the decision-making crashed over me in a wave of relief so strong, I was sure my soul left my body for a moment.

Then a pleasant haze entered my mind as I literally only had to fill my mind with the scent and sight of her.

The feel of her.

I didn’t really know if it was just the stress of the day leaving me numb, or if it was some kind of healing influence from Shay’s Incarnate powers, but everywhere she touched me, even with her gaze, my skin felt warm like a balm was sinking into me and carrying away my pain.

At some point, I surfaced through the lovely fog as Shay led us both into the wonderful bath attached to our suite of rooms. She must’ve had this all planned because the bathwater was still steamy and added another refreshing feeling against my skin as it wafted through the air.

“Are you doing this?” I asked and blinked slowly.

Her skilled fingers had divested me of my armored belt, my sword, and my ruined tunic at some point, and she was now massaging my pecs. Those deft fingers left warm traces in their wake and gave me a mild feeling of euphoria. It almost felt like we were floating weightless under the ship again, and I wondered if I might be high.

She smiled coyly as she now set about unlacing the front of my trousers. “Hm, it seems as if my theory was correct.”

“What was your theory?” I asked as I pulled the straps of her dress off her shoulders.

“You are bestowed with the Goddess’ gift of Time, as I am bestowed with her gift of Life,” Shay explained as she slowly crouched down and took my pants with her.

“Haa,” I breathed when my erection sprang free in the cooler air.

“What you are feeling is your body’s natural healing process, only sped up,” she said as she kneaded my outer thighs. “I was able to convince your power to act for you.”

“You sped up my healing through my own time power?” I asked as I tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and then caressed her cheek.

“I just encouraged it along,” she said.

“You’re amazing,” I said, and then I sucked in breath when she gripped the base of my hard cock and held it steady. “Oh, Goddess…”

Her lips made a perfect heart as they opened slowly so she could suckle my head into her mouth, and stars streaked past my vision at how glorious the sensation was.

My hips flexed of their own accord, and my hands automatically flew to her hair so I could tangle my fingers into her silky locks. I unfortunately undid the pretty plait the Terran breeze had braided into her hair, but it was worth it when I tugged close to her scalp.

She moaned as she slid her mouth farther down my shaft until the head of my cock hit the back of her throat, and the vibrations her vocal cords created when she hummed had me thrusting forward accidentally.

I pulled back right away because I thought I might have choked her, but I was surprised when she grabbed my ass with one hand to keep me from going too far. Then I feared my spinal cord would explode through the top of my skull because she inched down even more until she’d taken me into her throat without gagging.

We both stilled so she could get used to me, but it didn’t really take long for her to acclimate before she was guiding me to thrust shallowly.

Her esophagus rippled around me, and my lower stomach gave that telltale jolt that warned me I was getting close to the edge.

“Baby,” I huffed, and then I gently guided her off. Even though it would have been awesome to thrust my way to completion and come down her throat, I didn’t want this to be over so soon.

And I really wanted to cum inside of her pussy.

Her emerald irises blazed into mine as she looked up at me with those bedroom eyes. She wiped a little saliva off her chin and then rose from her crouch, so I immediately pulled her close and devoured her mouth.

She tasted like the perfect appetizer, and as nice as that was, I found I really wanted to move to the entree, so I divested her of the rest of her dress and made her sit on the edge of the large tub sunken into the floor.

My phoenix-wife followed my lead, and when I jumped into the warm water, she was already waiting for me like some filthy centerfold I wanted to capture in my memory forever.

“I want you, Alex,” she said as she trailed her hand down between her full breasts and flirted with the top edge of her neatly manicured pubic hair. Then she opened her legs wide as she leaned back against her palms and batted her red eyelashes in a very “come hither” sort of way.

I didn’t need to be told anything twice, and I draped her knees over my shoulders so I could balance her curvaceous back side right on the edge.

“Hang on,” I warned before I spread the pink shell of her pussy lips apart and dove in to feast on her tender center.

“Ahhh!” Her head dropped back as she cried out, and I could feel her muscles tighten and flutter against my lips and tongue, so I used the subtle gasps and sighs to direct me in the ways I could really make her body sing.

I put all of my past knowledge to good use in order to make her moan, and I knew I was on the right track when her ankles locked around my head.

My phoenix-wife panted heavily as her inner thighs quaked, and when a small whine started to build up in the back of her throat, I flicked my tongue rapidly over the hard nub of her clit.

With a yelp, Shay came, and right at the apex of her orgasm, I switched to rubbing her with my thumb so the intensity wouldn’t cause her to recoil, and she could ride that high for as long as possible.

“You’re so beautiful,” I said when she laid back flat with her arm draped over her eyes so she could catch her breath. I kissed the inside of her knee, and then I helped her lower her legs so she wouldn’t cramp.

She finally regained her strength and lunged at me, so I was forced to catch her and swim back into the deeper area of the small pool-slash-tub thing.

One thing I completely forgot about this magnificent airship was the amazing bath complete with a waterfall feature and sauna combo attached to our shared suite. I could tell this place would act like a much-needed sanctuary in the future-- a veritable temple for healing, sexual and otherwise.

“I love you, dearheart,” Shay said as I slowly spun us around.

“I love you, too,” I said and then leaned down to bite and suck at her plump lower lip.

Her legs wrapped around my waist, and I held her comfortably in my embrace as I ducked us under the warm waterfall and then settled her against the smooth wall.

This little cove under the shimmering sheet of water was secluded and romantic in a way that almost made up for me missing the Love Nest Shay came up with back on Ithaca’s grounds.

For now, this would be a good enough substitute altar I could use to worship every inch of her.

I started with her mouth like I was a man starving in the desert. But her mouth was just the appetizer as far as I was concerned, and I nibbled my way to the soft space behind her ear, the side of her neck, and then down to the dip of her clavicle where I laved and sucked.

The whole time, I was also massaging her voluptuous breasts, and the attention I was lavishing upon her had her panting and squirming in a delicious way that made my blood roar.

“Ah, ah, ahh!” Shay squealed again as her heels dug sharply into my buttocks. “In me! A-Alex, I n-need you, ah!”

I leaned back only briefly so I could take the opportunity to line myself up with her hot little hole, and then I slid slowly in. The warm water added another layer of intensity as it was forced around my cock and then out in order to make room, and Shay and I both gasped at the sensation.

“Fffuck,” I groaned, but the rest of my breath was stolen from me when Shay dove in for a kiss.

From there, it was all instinct in the purest carnal way, and we rocked and undulated under the water. The friction and drag as I thrusted tightly inside of her spasming channel was almost on the edge of being too much, but it caused my spine to tingle, and my toes curled against the bottom of the tub.

I was close, and I could feel myself hanging on to my impending orgasm by the tips of my fingernails as I drove up into her over and over again.

Finally, I felt her internal muscles tightening around me in that way I knew meant I could let my foot off the gas and allow my own orgasm to crest.

“Oh, Goddess!” my wife cried out as she came for the second time, and I climaxed deep within her like the crash of a cymbal. “Yes, c-come inside me. Oh, Alex! Ohhh! Fill meeee!”

My cock gave one more valiant twitch as I gave her a last thrust before I was at my limit, and when she squeezed her walls around me, I gasped and put my head down in the crook of her neck.

“God…” I breathed as I drifted down from the stratosphere, and I was too wrung out to do anything right then except just hold her tight.

“I love you, husband,” she whispered, and I could feel her placing kisses into my shoulder as she stroked her hand up and down my spine.

I was floating too high on my little bubble of bliss to respond with words, so I conveyed my adoration by kissing every inch of her dear face, from her eyelids to her high cheekbones, down to her chin, and then back up to her elfin nose.

Everything about this was what I needed, and I felt the jagged disorder in my mind become smooth and polished like marble. The cracks where doubt and discouragement were able to find a foothold were now sealed and seamless as the wounds in my spirit healed.

The reality was, it didn’t matter what universe it was, if any type of humanity existed, there was always going to be dark points and light points no matter what. Maybe it was necessary to keep some cosmic balance, but whatever the case, I decided to take a page out of Amaya’s book and surround myself with those who reminded me more of the light instead of the dark.

“Come, dearheart,” Shay said after I disengaged us and carefully set her back on her own feet.

Then she led me through the fall of water again and over to the silver tray filled with soaps and bath oils.

That docile haze descended upon me once again, and I was silent as she took care of my needs so I didn’t have to think too hard, and I closed my eyes as she washed me clean.

By the time we were both thoroughly scrubbed up and squeaky clean, I felt like a half-coherent zombie, and after Shay dried us both off, I stumbled after her like a lamb and fell into the large bed with her.

Our naked clean skin was almost satiny when we pressed into one another, and when she tucked herself up behind me as the Big Spoon, I felt comforted like never before.

“Thank you,” I managed to mumble right before I gave myself over to the sticky tendrils of slumber.

“Sleep,” she cooed against my ear, and her moist breaths sent a delicious shiver down my spine. “Rest.”

I finally did as I was told and succumbed to darkness waiting to embrace me with open arms…

The next morning, my racing thoughts and sick heart were nowhere to be found, and I greeted the dawn refreshed and ready to tackle whatever was in store for me.

Which turned out to be a lot because it happened to be the day all of us decided would be best to finally bid farewell to the noble Isle of Terr.

First, I was required by Leader Zerr, Major Tharfin, and Thas to join them for breakfast, in part so I could check out the digs Lord Griss allotted for all of the Lower Terrans to start building a life here in the Upper Echelon.

It turned out several early cliff dwellings were still in existence, and despite being only reachable by squaller, it was a good place for all the displaced people to start to make a life for themselves.

After the morning meal, my wives and I were given gifts of all shapes and sizes, some of which included art supplies for Zoie, beautiful bolts of colored fabric for Shay, and two awesome gifts from the alligator-man Zerr and his eccentric gem-cutter compy-dino girlfriend, Fasha.

The first was La, the smaller of the two pterodactyl-creatures, and my jaw popped open in shock.

“You’re giving her to me?” I asked in awe as I took the reins from Tharfin.

“Aye, kin-son,” the large dome-headed dino-man said. “This way, you are able to fly longer distances through the air, and if you want, you are able to come and visit any time you’d like.”

“Thank you. And I’ll be sure to visit, don’t worry.” A large grin lit up my face as I looked up at La.

As much as I loved and missed having my trusty butterfly-pegasus to fly me around, Prosper was not equipped to fly such a distance like in between islands, so a new steed was just what I needed.

Next, the Lower Terrans decided to band together, and between them all, they were able to build us a smaller prototype of Fasha’s awesome gem cutter.

The eccentric compy-woman herself decided to be the one to help describe the contraption, and according to her, it was just like the one in her workshop where she was able to help us split the herald cores in order to make something new.

“Now, you have the power to split any more cores that you so wish,” Fasha said with a small bow of her head. “Just do be careful”

“Will do,” I said with a large grin on my face. I was currently down one of my trusty weapons, and I already couldn’t wait to experiment with more options.

With my gifts securely in hand, I left the cliff dwellings with both my wives, and we made our way back to the palace where Lord Griss and Regent Sskern were waiting for me.

“Ah, our esteemed Ambassador has come to bid us farewell,” Lord Griss said with a sparkle in his old wizened eyes.

Several people who’d gathered in the palace courtyard where I’d landed with La started to clap and cheer, while some of the palace servants brought out boxes and crates filled with provisions.

“Alex.” Regent Sskern held out his hand so I could clasp his forearm in a hearty shake, but halfway through, the raptor-man pulled me in for a surprise hug complete with some hard back slapping. Then he pulled back and placed both of his hands on top of my shoulders. “There is nothing I can do that will even come close to what you’ve done for me and my people. For the first time in my lifetime, I get to look forward to a future where I may raise offspring of my own in a united land.”

“I’m just glad I was able to help you,” I said. “You and your people have made this trip unforgettable.”

“Where will you go, Shepherd?” someone from the gathered audience asked.

“Anywhere the wind takes us, I guess,” I replied in a vague way that wasn’t necessarily a lie. Not everyone needed to know our exact agenda, after all.

“Well, you and your clan are welcome among the Terran kind for the rest of your days,” Griss stated. “I have proclaimed you and yours kin-folk.”

At this pronouncement, a joyous cheer rose above the crowd, and as I stood there between my two wives, I felt enfolded within these loyal people. It was the best send-off I’d ever been a part of, and I was convinced nothing could spoil the moment short of a Red Sky Event.

The second the thought occurred to me, I tried to un-jinx it by looking for any wood to knock against, but then I felt silly about the sudden superstition.

Which was, of course, when the sky itself plunged into its eerie redness as that god awful subterranean howl ripped through the air.

Of course.

The one time I didn’t cover my ass and knock wood after a jinx.

Fuck.

Chapter 15

The Terrans screamed as the eerie howl shook the very air around us, and in the middle of everything, the entire crowd rushed toward the lip of the balcony so they could watch the respawning.

Myself included.

Another howl interrupted my musing, and I waded through a sea of people toward the edge of the balcony in order to get a look at what was happening.

My gaze lingered on the remnants of the old sentinel tower, specifically around the base where most of the demon scourge wound up respawning time and time again after the palace guards slashed them down.

However, no matter how many howls filled the red sky, not a single rock or dirt clod formed back into a demon.

I could tell the moment I wasn’t the only one who was seeing this, because the grave silence that kept the audience captive was starting to break apart with murmured questions and muffled exclamations.

“Is it just me, or are the demons running late to their own party?” I asked Zoie, who was standing to my right.

“Strange,” the cat-woman remarked as her eyebrows came together in a confused pinch. “The sky is red, and yet the scourge does not come.”

“What do you think is the meaning of this?” someone behind me asked, and it took me a second to realize that question was actually being directed toward me, and I turned around to the sight of several questioning faces peering at me as the droning howling sound echoed around us.

“I’ve never seen anything like this…” I started, but before I could even attempt to reason out why the demons were absent from this Red Sky Event, the sudden appearance of the enigmatic oryx-woman solved that problem for me as she stood up on the balcony’s ledge.

“People of Terr!” Amaya called out over the large crowd amassed in the palace courtyard, and when she cast her eerie glowing eyes over the audience, their nervous chattering stopped. “The Island herself has been made whole. From this day onward, Terr is freed from the sickness that has plagued our fair Aventoll for too long. Rejoice and revel in your newfound harmony.”

The augur-woman’s words reverberated through the air with a power all their own, and even if her eyes weren’t glowing, and her voice wasn’t being divided into several like some eerie robot, the sensation that I was standing next to a furnace giving off powerful heatwaves was inescapable.

She’d captured the crowd’s attention better than any one of my explanations could, and I smiled to myself when I realized Shay’s words from last night were right.

“How can this be?” Lord Griss asked as he and the Natavian Asher Lord both pushed through the crowd so they could determine if what Amaya was saying was the truth.

I caught Mec’s eye just briefly, but when I did, I nodded at him and then glanced back at Amaya.

“The Ancient Spirit of this Isle recognizes the Incarnate, who has healed the damage wrought upon us eons ago through the tampering of men.” The augur-woman’s multi-voiced answer rose above the din of chatter that started to creep in. “You no longer need to fear the Red Sky.”

Her proclamation somehow rang out louder than the subterranean howling still intermittently going off, but several people kept their eyes on the base of the sentinel tower through the remainder of the Event like they couldn’t take Amaya’s words for the truth.

Eventually, the Event faded until we were all once again blinking under a blue sky.

After a moment or two, it finally sunk in for all of us that a Red Sky just happened without a single scourge-mite respawning.

“Well, if this is going to be the norm, then I say, what is the point of having the Low-ish here at all?” This was asked by one of the Up-ish Terrans, based on her expensive attire and the amount of jewelry dripping off her. “Isn’t their usage only defined by their capacity to keep the scourge at bay?”

“Madam, with all due respect,” I interjected as politely as I could even though her question was an idiotic one. “If you don’t know by now, the Terrans you would like to deem second-class are now a part of your society whether you like it or not. They are not there for you based on how useful they are. Terr is whole again, people! Don’t go breaking her apart with your old ways of thinking!”

At this, Griss, Sskern, and Mec led the amassed crowd in a round of applause that drowned out the bigoted lady’s huffy noises.

There would always be a few bad apples in the bunch, but as long as they were kept from infecting the rest of the people, they could be dealt with.

Seeing these Terrans embrace this new paradigm filled me with a warm and content feeling, like I could leave and none of our hard-won progress would fall apart the second we did.

“Very wise words,” the ram-lord said when the group started to mill around much more casually now that the Red Sky Event was over.

“Her words were better,” I dismissed as I helped Amaya hop off the balcony’s ledge.

“Definitely not my words,” the oryx-woman corrected with an easy smile.

“Regardless,” Mec rumbled, and he flashed an amused smirk down at his little sister. “Everyone felt them as the Truth.”

“I have a feeling these people really will be alright now,” Shay commented as she leaned against the ledge so she could look out and marvel at Terr’s majesty one more time.

“Thanks in no small part to you, All Mother,” Mec said and dipped his horned head in respect, and then he gathered up her hand so he could place a gallant kiss on the back of the phoenix-woman’s knuckles. “This gives me hope that our own fair Nata can likewise be cured of her affliction.”

“If Terr can be rid of her scourge, then so can Nata,” Mec’s wife, Dawn, said as she joined her husband. Meera was in her arms and looked a little sleepy still since it was only just morning, but when she saw me wave at her, she perked up a tiny bit and waved back.

“If there is a will, there is a way,” I said, and then I grasped Mec’s proffered hand so I could shake it.

“Ah, yes, the saying is apt,” Mec said as we clasped forearms. “I remember my grandfather saying it time and time again when things looked like they were insurmountable in nature. And coming from you, I do not doubt that they are true.”

I grinned at the ram-lord before we each took our hands back. “What will you do? Go back to Nata?”

“Not just yet,” Dawn said as she beckoned Amaya forward so she was standing at the deer-woman’s side. “I’m afraid we must take Amaya and Anwaar with us to Alem so they can register for the Oath.”

“Wait, what?” I asked as I blinked at the oryx-woman, who looked just as surprised as me and even a little pissed off. “You didn’t mention this.”

“Now, Mya, don’t be difficult,” Mec started, but the oryx-woman took a startled step back, which caused her to bump into me.

“But I won’t have to go through with the Oath,” she argued. “Don’t you trust that Alex will find the answer?”

“Yes,” Mec said solemnly as he briefly locked eyes with me. “With all of my heart, if anyone can figure it out, it is our Alex. The question is, don’t you trust him as well?”

Amaya opened her mouth a few times like a cute tropical fish attempting to comprehend algebra, or something.

Finally, she closed her mouth and breathed out deeply through her nose. “I do trust him. With my whole heart.”

“We knew this day was coming,” I said as I tucked a buoyant curl behind her ear.

“I know, and I’ve prepared for it,” she sighed as she closed her eyes and leaned into my touch. “And if I don’t go, they will definitely know something is wrong.”

“And then they will come after us,” I finished for her, to which she nodded solemnly.

“I have to do this so you will all remain protected,” she said like she was also reminding herself of the greater goal. “And so that you may find the answers we both seek.”

“I promise, I will,” I murmured.

“It’s only for a little while, right, my love?” Mec asked his wife. “They merely have to register at this time.”

“Yes,” she said stoically but not unkindly.

“Does Anwaar know?” Amaya asked.

“We informed her earlier,” Dawn said as she hefted the sleepy little girl up higher in her arms. “It might explain why she and Horus are nowhere to be found at the moment.”

I glanced around and realized she was right, and then I smirked when I realized they must be up to a little “goodbye for now” nookie.

“How will she make it back to me?” I asked as I reached for the oryx-woman, who now had an anxious pinch between her platinum eyebrows. I figured the more knowledge she had, the more at ease she would be, as was usually the case with her.

“Once she has been registered, we will deliver her to you on Eng, if that is where you happen to be,” Mec said, and he took his daughter from his wife so he could give her arms a rest. The little deer-girl sighed, curled up on her daddy’s shoulder like it was the most comfortable memory foam mattress in the world, and promptly fell back asleep with a tiny snore. “I have asked your son if we may borrow the screecher called ‘Crackers.’ Look for our correspondence.”

“I shall,” I said with a nod, and then I drew Amaya into my arms. She all but collapsed into me and clung to the back of my tunic with slightly shaking hands. “It’ll be alright, Ames.”

“I know, I just don’t want to leave you.” She pulled back and gazed at me with her soulful gray eyes before she glanced at Shay and Zoie as well. “Any of you.”

As one, my two wives moved in to hug the oryx-woman, and the three of them stayed like that for a good while as I soaked in the embrace. By the time they were done, Horus and Anwar had finally joined us from wherever they were holed up, and it was clear the two of them had said their goodbyes and made amends with the fact that they would be parting.

Finally, Amaya pulled back with only a hint of tears in her pretty eyes as she looked at all three of us. Her sister wore a matching expression of longing on her face, but she held strong and took Amaya’s hand in hers, even though it was clear whose hand she would rather be holding.

As one group, all of us sauntered slowly toward the airship with Mec and Dawn trailing behind us so we could all linger over saying goodbye just a little longer. Eventually, though, the short walk came to an end, and I cupped the oryx-woman’s face between my palms and stared like I could memorize each dip and contour in just this one moment.

She seemed to feel the same way because her wide-open gaze drank in mine just as earnestly, like we were two parched people wandering through the desert, and as her eyes connected with mine, I knew she was going to be fine during our time apart even though the separation would sting.

“You’ll be okay,” I reassured her as much as I reassured myself, and then I placed a kiss in the middle of her forehead. “And you'll come back to me.”

“I promise,” she said and then practically jumped in my arms so she could give me one last passionate kiss before she forced herself to stand by her brother and sister.

“Alex, my friend,” the ram-lord said as he extended his big hand for me to clasp. I gripped it strongly, and then this time, I was anticipating the bone-crushing hug that came next, so it didn’t wring me out quite as badly as it did last time.

“You take care of them,” I told him, even though it really didn’t need to be said. They were his sisters after all.

“Alex is staying?” Meera finally piped up from where I thought she was out for the count on her dad’s shoulder.

“I’m not staying, but I’m not going back to Nata Isle just yet,” I told her and then tapped her on her cute button nose.

“Why not?” she asked me in that purely innocent way all children had.

“Alex needs to go on a very special quest so he might be able to set me free,” Amaya answered for me with a smile in my direction.

“You not free?” the little girl asked as she batted her big eyes.

“No, but I will be soon, don’t you worry, little bug,” she said kindly to the toddler.

This seemed to appease the deer-girl, and she snuggled back against her father’s chest. “Just make sure you don’t take too long, okay, Alex?”

“I promise,” I said and then laughed when she suddenly keeled over sideways with her arms outstretched like she knew I would catch her if her dad accidentally managed to let her go. Instead, he handed her off to me like a little football, and I spun her around just once before I gave her a little snuggle of my own. “You make sure you stay out of trouble, little one, and I need you to make sure Amaya stays safe. She’s going to need you to be by her side. Do you think you can do that for me?”

Meera sat up a little straighter in my arms when I gave her this epic task. Her freckled face screwed up in determination, and I knew I’d accidentally signed Amaya up for a miniature bodyguard because if I was beginning to understand children the way I thought I was, that gleam in her eyes meant she would take her task to heart come hell or high water.

I only hoped I didn’t make her that much more difficult for her poor mom to handle.

“I will do, Alex!” Meera all but shouted in her enthusiasm, and I gave Dawn a sideways glance of apology.

The gracious deer-woman only chuckled slightly as she shook her antlered head. I mouthed an “I am sorry” to her, but she only smiled and gazed fondly at her firecracker of a daughter.

Honestly, I was kind of relieved that the little one’s observant eyes were going to be fine-tuned to look out for the oryx-woman, so maybe I really was on to something.

Eventually, none of us could stall anymore, and it was obvious it was time for us to go our separate ways.

“Alex,” Lord Mec said as he clasped my forearm, and then he brought me in for a hug Meera was more than happy to join in on, and when we broke apart, he took her with him and slung her around so she was hanging on his back like a little monkey. “Take care of yourself.”

“Take care of Amaya,” I said back, and even though that was mostly a given, he nodded seriously with the knowledge of what it meant for me to let her go like this.

After that, I couldn’t stop myself from giving Amaya one last hug and kiss where I attempted to pour all of the things I couldn’t say into the action.

It had to be enough because I couldn’t bear to look back, and then without any further dallying, I took my remaining Crew, now down to just four including me, back up to the airship.

When we all entered the heart of the ship, I found Jenner sitting at the large wooden table sipping at something from a mug. He gave us his customary once-over before he sighed at the sight of all of our long faces and removed his monocle.

“Oh, dear,” he muttered as he tucked away the book he’d been reading before we all came inside. “I can see we are missing Amaya and Anwaar, and I wondered when they would be headed back to Alem to get registered. This looks like a call for Arvid to whip us up something special.”

“Do we really look that sorry?” the falcon-man asked as he slouched himself into the nearest chair.

“Well, you in particular always look like a sorry sack,” Jenner remarked in a teasing tone designed to cheer Horus up rather than annoy him.

But the recent parting of his love only allowed the corners of his mouth to twitch fractionally upward.

It seemed as if the koala-man was using this as a litmus test, because with the lack of a response from the usually roguish falcon-man, Jenner clicked his teeth and shook his head.

“Oh, my, it is worse than I thought,” he said and then bustled over to the pantry. “I had better break out the brandy for this one.”

“Excuse me, Cornelius, but it seems as if you are the only one of us who is not surprised we came back without our darling augur-mage sisters,” Shay observed as she and Zoie both took a seat next to each other.

I stared at my wives for a moment feeling as if their triad was now unbalanced and incomplete without Amaya. I’d gotten so used to seeing the three of them around each other that looking at just the two of them felt wrong.

“It’s true I may have brushed up a little on the Temple Order and how they conduct their Oaths in the interim,” the koala-man said as he adjusted his eyepiece. “I’ve known for some time that once the auger-mage has been summoned, her family must produce her to the high priestess for registration. And then she will be required to come back at the end of the season on Black Day to take the Oath. It is like this for all augur-mages.”

“What is Black Day?” I asked with the appropriate amount of trepidation for something named Black Day. It sounded a lot more sinister and foreboding than something like Black Friday back in my world.

Call me crazy, but I had a feeling this had nothing to do with fabulous marked down prices.

“Black Day is the one day during the season when the moon travels in front of the sun and blocks her out for the whole day,” Jenner explained as he slipped effortlessly into his iconic Ask Jeeves Mode. “Don’t you have any sort of astrological phenomenon like this back where you come from, Alex?”

“We do, actually, it’s called a solar eclipse, but ours only lasts a few minutes, not the whole day,” I answered. “Is there a reason why they have to wait until this day of the year before they can commence with the Oath?”

“They must wait because the Ocean is a little less powerful during Black Day than it is on any other day,” he said. “This is because the more sun that touches the water, the more potent the water is.”

“How far away is Black Day?” I asked in an attempt to put together a timeline in my head.

“Black Day is about four or five fickles off, so we should have time to try to figure out whether or not our dear Amaya is the Prophetess,” Jenner finished and then hopped off his stool. “In the meantime, I think I have something all of you would like to see. If you would be so kind, follow me, and don’t forget to watch your step. Shay, I think you know where I’m going with this, so would you be so good as to open the hatch door to the deck below us?”

“Yes, of course!” the phoenix-woman said, and she jumped up just as enthusiastically from her seat as Jenner did. “Horus, help me.”

The falcon-man still looked quite melancholy, but he was at least out of his head a little bit in order to follow Shay’s simple instructions. He went over to the hatch door located in the middle of the room and helped her open it.

Then we all followed the koala-man down the iron ladder and onto the steering platform I was on just the night before.

Even though it was well and truly daytime by now, the crystal power source was still glowing brightly despite the sunlight.

“What is this place?” Zoie asked as her jaw hung slack.

I could tell based on the slight twitch of her perked ears and her expanded pupils that she was intrigued and probably trying to work out how everything went together before someone explained it to her.

“I have been calling it the engine room,” Jenner said as he rocked up on the balls of his feet like he was pleased, but then he frowned and cocked his big-eared head. “Although, that’s not entirely accurate because we are also where we steer the ship, so maybe the wheelhouse would be more accurate. I haven’t decided, but regardless, this is the place where we make the airship go, so to speak. For the most part, she can maintain a heading on her own once she’s set, but I figured now is as good of a time as any to learn how to maneuver her up and down.”

“How long did it take you to figure everything out?” I asked my trusty koala-butler and resisted the urge to pat him on his furry head. Somehow, I knew he wouldn’t appreciate the gesture as much as I probably would.

“I’ll admit I got a lot of help from Gella Vane and his journal rantings,” he explained. “The man was obsessed over a handful of things, and we are just lucky one of them was this machine. He became quite meticulous with the details as he wrote down how to operate it if he ever found an ideal power source.”

“And who helped you build everything?” Zoie asked as she leaned slightly over the railing so she could look at the beautiful sails arcing out from the beams.

“Our good steward of Monger Manor, Asher Redburn, helped Bodin with the design,” the koala-man said. “He’s a pretty handy fellow when it comes down to it. He’s the one who helped me figure out how to actually make her fly. Would you all like a demonstration?”

The four of us grinned at each other before nodding enthusiastically at Jenner like we were children asking for another helping of dessert.

What took place next was a quick run-down of the basic commands. Basically, with one hand on the power source, the object was to think of the intention behind how you wanted the ship to behave. From what I understood, it was a matter of willing the ship to fly with your own conviction despite the odds against something like this being possible.

At least, I thought that was how he explained it, but I automatically attributed it to a Peter Pan fairy dust kind of thing and left it at that.

Shay was the first one to try to drive after Jenner explained how it worked, and with one hand on the wheel and one on the crystal, she screwed up her face in determination and actually got the ship to rise a few feet in the air before she was spent.

“That was a lot more difficult than you made it out to be, Mr. Jenner,” my phoenix-wife said after she took a moment to catch her breath.

“It’s true, it is not easy at first,” he agreed as he patted her wrist. “But like anything, the more you practice at it, the easier it will become. My goal is for all of us on this ship to become capable enough to maneuver it wherever we might need to just in case something happens. That being said, who’s next?”

“Me!” Horus said with a little more of his usual playfulness intact, and I shared a glance with both Jenner and Shay.

Jenner really was a genius in his gentle way of taking our minds off the fact we were leaving two of our people behind. In fact, it was so nice to have his company again, as well as Arvid and Rylan, that it was rather bittersweet to have to now leave without Amaya and Anwaar. But I wasn’t about to spoil all of Jenner’s hard work, so I pushed the thought aside and focused on how best to beat Horus in flying this airship.

Currently, the falcon-man was concentrating so hard beads of sweat stood out on his brow. Through his labored breaths, the airship was able to move up several meters before it dropped a bit, and then it went up several more.

So far, he’d surpassed Shay in how far he could move the ship, but now it was my turn, and I playfully shoved him out of the way.

“Step aside, amateur,” I said and then pretended to brush invisible lint off my sleeves. “I will show you how this is done.”

Just like Jenner demonstrated, I placed my right hand over the green glowing orb embedded in the center of the wooden wheel, and I found it pulsed slightly under my hand and gave off a warm feeling, almost like a television that had been left on for too long. With my other hand, I made sure to get a good grip on the wheel and held it steady in order to prevent it from slamming into either the side of the canyon, or god forbid, the palace balcony full of Terrans waving and carrying on with their epic goodbyes.

Then I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in order to concentrate on what I needed to do.

The power source under my hand throbbed strongly when I thought of it and its power. In my mind’s eye, I could see what I wanted the ship to do, which was keep floating up and out of the canyon so we could get on our way, wherever that might be. I knew the sooner we made headway on our next quest, the sooner Amaya would be back safe in my arms.

With all that in mind, I dug down deep, similar to when I reached for the time-trance, and willed the inanimate object to do my bidding.

The ship did respond, but not as strongly or as smoothly as I would have hoped. She did lift at least twice the height of what Horus made her do, but she wouldn’t go all the way before I ran out of steam. It took a lot more energy than Jenner had made it sound like to will something not alive to do your bidding.

“Ha,” I said as I gestured to the airship’s new height and then made a face at Horus. “I beat you.”

“Okay, my turn,” Zoie said as she stepped up to the bat. She glanced around the platform for a beat, licked her finger, and studied the way the wind was blowing like some badass Tomb Raider. Finally, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she placed her right hand on the power source.

Then, as easy as breathing, the cat-woman managed to easily fly us up and over the rim of Terr’s odd-shaped crater.

She also seemed to be really into it because it took her a few moments to notice she had an audience full of people with their jaws completely on the floor.

“Oh…” she trailed off with a slightly guilty blush. “Do any of you want another turn?”

“I don’t think my pride could take it,” the falcon-man joked. “Besides, I think I’d rather be a passenger.”

He demonstrated this, and his total okayness with being out-driven by a girl, by closing his eyes and letting the breeze ruffle his black-feathered crest like he was a guest on a mega yacht.

“How are you doing that, love?” Shay asked the cat-woman as she hooked her chin over Zoie’s shoulder. “It’s like you were born for this.”

“I agree,” I said as I hopped up on the platform railing and sat with my back toward the open air. “What are you doing differently than the rest of us?”

“I’m not really sure,” Zoie said as she turned the wheel slightly into the wind so the sails would do most of the work.

Before I could ask her any more questions about her awesome flying techniques, the hatch above us opened forcefully, and down came Bodin with a concerned look on his face.

“I hate to interrupt,” he said and wrung his hat between his lightly-clawed hands. “But it seems as if I cannot find Vela. You wouldn’t by chance happen to have seen her, have you?”

All of us exchanged glances with one another, and when it was clear none of us had seen the cockatoo-woman, we all came to the same conclusion at the same time and glanced back down at the island we’d just left.

Shit.

Chapter 16

“I think I have to be the bad guy and put it out there that maybe we left her back on Terr?” Horus said as all of us peered over the railing of the airship’s platform.

“Did any of you see Vela get off?” Bodin asked as the frown on his face grew deeper.

“None of us did,” Shay said as she wrung her hands together. “Would she have really wandered out?”

“When was the last time you saw the girl?” Jenner asked.

“Not too long ago,” Bodin said, and I was worried he would need a new cap by the time he was done twisting his apart. “She wasn’t feeling like herself again, and I suggested she go take a walk to clear her mind. I just hope she didn’t interpret that as meaning a walk off the ship.”

“Should I go back?” Zoie asked from her place still at the wheel. “I can take us back if you need me to.”

“Let’s think about this real quick,” I said before we did something like turn the whole kit and caboodle around. “Bodin, given the state she’s been in, do you really think Vela would have left to walk around a completely foreign place without you by her side?”

The raccoon-man paused in his hat mangling to think about what I’d said, and after a moment, I was relieved to see him take a small breath and return the wrinkled cap back to his head.

“No, you’re right, Mr. Alex, there’s no way she left the ship,” he said with a decisive nod.

“That means she’s still on board, and it is just a matter of finding her,” Jenner said. “For now, I suggest Zoie and I stay here so we can find our heading for Eng while the rest of you confirm our headcount.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I nodded.

“Oh, and can somebody inform Arvid about the dinner plans?” Jenner asked. “We know the old boy needs a bit of a head start if we plan to eat at a decent time.”

“I’ll track down the big guy,” Horus said.

“And the rest of us will split up,” I added. “If any of you find her, try to coax her to the galley.”

With our various tasks at hand, we all separated so we could search the airship for the confused cockatoo-woman.

As I meandered up and down the airship’s corridors, I let my mind wander. Now that I got a chance to really dwell on it, something about Vel-Rala’s behavior struck me as odd.

Well, aside from the obvious, of course.

I fingered the odd silver bell she demanded I carry with me at all times. At first, I had figured it was just some form of madness she’d succumbed to, so I didn’t really take it too seriously.

But ever since the night of the wedding when she insisted Zoie wear a particular flower in her hair, something began to niggle at me in its insistent niggling way.

After the events of that night, and a good night’s sleep, certain things began to stand out to me with crystal clear clarity, but I was too preoccupied and heartsick to notice at the time.

Now, the more I thought about the events leading up to the treacherous circus troupe, the more I realized how odd it was for someone to sneeze just close enough for me to actually hear it over the commotion in the large hall.

Then, when I thought back a little farther than that, I remembered how agitated the cockatoo-woman was before we all left. She’d somehow gotten it into her delusional head that Zoie would be safe as long as she kept the lucky flower in her hair all night.

At the time, it just sounded like more of her strange madness talking, but the truth of the matter was, if it wasn’t for that flower in Zoie’s hair, would that person have sneezed? And if that person hadn’t sneezed, would they have gotten away with it?

Regardless, ever since then, I’d decided I would keep the bell she gave me on my person at all times, because I was almost one hundred percent certain there would be a situation for me to test out my working theory once more.

For now, I was only intent on finding her because like I told her before, she was a part of my Crew no matter what, and aside from her strange behaviors, she was clearly suffering from something none of us really knew how to help her cope with.

So, the least I could do was track her down, make sure she wasn’t hurt, and make sure she had some food.

However, this was all easier said than done, because I’d forgotten a little about how this place was set up. I didn’t know how, but there was a moment where it didn’t matter which corridor I turned down, I always ended up back in the galley where I started.

After the third time I wandered in and out of the lower four corridors, I had filled in a third of my mental map of this place, but still hadn’t found Vel-Rala.

Even when I went to the second floor where the rest of the bedrooms were, she was nowhere to be found.

I paused for a moment at the bottom of the third-floor staircase and debated whether or not it would be a waste of time to check for her on the third floor where pretty much the only thing up there was the family quarters. Ostensibly, she would have no reason to go up there aside from housekeeping, but these days her housekeeping duties were temporarily suspended due to her mental health, so really I should just turn around and go back down the stairs.

Instead, I followed that little voice in my gut that told me I was on the right track even though logic would dictate otherwise, and I turned and walked up the stairs anyway.

It would be best to be thorough rather than overlook something obvious.

And I was glad I did so because it didn’t take me long to start hearing the sounds of a murmured conversation coming from the small study right at the top of the stairs.

I made sure my footsteps were nearly silent so I wouldn’t startle either one of them in there because over the top of Vela’s alto, there was a pleasant burr I recognized as Rylan’s tenor voice as he chatted to her in a way that sounded deliberate yet polite.

I tried to listen through the crack in the door and could only hear the tones of their voices, but both of them were in a better mental state than the last time I’d talked to them.

I couldn’t really make out any words, but it sounded as if Rylan would ask a question here and there, and after a moment he would receive a patient reply. It sounded so wholesome and normal, which was something these two people probably really needed at the moment, and I was almost sad to disrupt it.

But I did say to check in with everybody else back in the galley, so maybe the two of them could continue their engaging chat while all of us waited for some of Arvid’s delicious cooking.

So, before either of them could start up another small conversation, I opened the door with a little noise to announce my presence and make it seem like I hadn’t been trying to eavesdrop for the past ten minutes.

They both stopped anyway and stared at me, so I made a keep going gesture with my hands to let them know I wasn’t in so much of a hurry that they couldn’t finish their conversation.

“Hey, you guys,” I said as I pulled up a chair next to Rylan. “Don’t rush on my account, but I am here to tell you there will be Arvid’s awesome cooking later, so I hope you both are hungry.”

“I’m not very hungry,” Rylan admitted as he lowered his eyes to the table.

Before I could reply to that, the cockatoo-woman placed her hand on his shoulder until he looked up.

“Neither am I, but I do know I must eat, or else I will feel worse later on,” she told him sagely. “Now, come, what was your question?”

“So what do you do when someone wants to sell your products for you?” Rylan asked.

“Well, it’s pretty easy, you just have to be good with numbers and find out how much you need to sell it to that person for.” Vela turned to another page in the book they were both looking at.

I waited patiently while the cockatoo-woman jumped back in to explain something about market value and trend buying, or whatever. It sounded like a really boring econ class I used to have back in high school, and I’d vowed to myself I would never be an economist due to how utterly boring data analysis sounded.

Although, it was a well-known fact that Vel was a wizard when it came to selling things in the market, and as a good father, I wanted to encourage lessons of all kinds for Rylan, not just the ones I could teach him, so I resigned myself to pretending to be engaged for his sake.

And I had to admit, it was good to see Vela so… lucid and at ease.

Eventually, they wrapped up their conversation, and Rylan earmarked the current page before he closed the book.

“I think I understand it better now,” he said politely, and the cockatoo-woman smiled a genuine smile the likes of which I hadn’t seen from her in quite some time.

“You’re more than welcome to ask me questions any time,” she said. “And when you feel like you are ready to sell your idea, let me know, and I will help you demonstrate it for the people and take you to the stall lender who’s cheapest.”

The kid smiled wide again and leaned in to give the older woman a hug.

“Thanks, Auntie Vel,” he said casually, and yet the effect it had on her face looked like she’d just been hit by a dump truck of unexpected feelings.

I should know.

The cherry on top was, of course, the fact that Rylan didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary about bestowing such easy affection, and then he turned his attention to me.

“Hey, Dad, what’s for dinner?” he asked, and I was glad his appetite seemed to have returned.

“It’s a surprise, I think,” I said and smiled when his eyes got wide with pleasure.

“A surprise?” he said, and now he sounded even more excited. “I’m going to go wash up, but thanks again, Auntie.”

“Yes, you’re welcome,” she said as she blushed faintly. “I’m glad I could help.”

Then Rylan waved at the both of us before he turned on his heels and jaunted away.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to him,” I chuckled when I glanced over at her shocked face.

“Did he just adopt me as his aunt?” she asked with a confused look in her coal-black eyes.

“I’m afraid that happens around him,” I said as my grin grew wider. “Horus says he’s like a fungus. He grows on you.”

“That is quite an apt description for him,” she said, and she covered her lips to hide her smile.

“What were you guys talking about?” I asked as I tipped my chair back on its back legs.

“He started asking me how to sell things for money in the market,” she explained as she stacked all of the books Rylan had no doubt pulled out on a whim and was too distracted to put back. “He thinks that once the Terrans figure out how to sell their screechers, there will be a need for this certain device he’s named the letter hook.”

“And what, dare I ask, is a letter hook?” I dared to ask, much to her amusement.

“Apparently, it is what the name suggests,” she said through another chuckle. “It is a metal device used to snag or hook a piece of correspondence away from the temperamental screechers without getting nipped in return. He is anticipating a problem and hoping to capitalize on a solution that will surely come about in the future once screecher mail becomes a thing.”

“That’s… actually pretty smart, holy shit,” I remarked, and I was impressed in spite of myself.

“Those were my thoughts exactly,” she said. “Well, almost. Hence why I decided to help him by answering a few questions. I always love a good entrepreneurial project.”

We both chuckled at this and then lapsed into an easy silence. When I was alone with my thoughts once more, it hit me how strange it was that this woman and I were actually finally getting along, whereas when we first met I inadvertently became a target of her avarice and her idiotic husband.

If someone would have told me one day we would be laughing and enjoying each other’s company without any hidden agendas, I would have told them they were crazy.

Seems I’d been wrong about a lot of those types of things lately, and maybe that was what was considered growing up: the ability to look beyond pettiness and first impressions.

Gross. Adult-ing.

“Thank you for helping him, by the way,” I said as I smiled at her. “Especially after last night, I think he really could use the distraction.”

“Ah, yes, I heard it was quite eventful,” she said as she shifted subtly in her seat. She was out of things to straighten and stack, so she made it a goal to arrange them by size instead so she would have something to do with her hands.

I noticed the small tell of her agitation and glanced up at her. Her eyes would no longer linger on mine for any significant amount of time, and she suddenly took on the air of nervousness for no discernible reason I could tell.

So, because I didn’t have any concrete proof aside from what my gut was telling me, I could do nothing but come out and ask her directly.

“Why did you give Zoie that flower?” I asked. It was a simple question, but the way she recoiled from it made it seem as if I’d smacked her across the face instead.

“What do you mean?” she asked and clamped her hands together tightly.

“I want to know why you gave Zoie that flower before we left for the banquet.” I stared at her with a neutral expression so she wouldn’t feel intimidated, but I didn’t think it mattered how I asked the question because it still made her upset.

“It was just a trinket,” she said as she occupied herself by swirling patterns into the top of the table. Her actions were casual, but she couldn’t hide the tremor in her voice. “A good luck charm. That’s all.”

I wanted to pry more out of her, but I stopped myself when I noticed the exhaustion still bruising her under her eyes and decided to put a pin in this conversation for later.

“Well, it was a good thing you did because it ended up saving her life,” I said like I was letting it go when in reality I was just going to have to pay more attention in the future.

“I am glad,” the cockatoo-woman said with a sigh of relief, but I was almost certain the relief came from me dropping my line of questioning.

“Me, too,” I said and stood up so I could offer my hand to her. “Come on, I promised Bodin I would bring you to the galley if I ran across you.”

“Oh, Bodee,” she said in a fondly exasperated way. “He really does look out for me.”

“He cares about you just like we all do,” I said and then tucked her arm into my elbow. “But it’s true, he maybe cares for you a little more than the rest of us.”

She stopped suddenly in the middle of the hall, and I slowed with her so I could give her a questioning look.

“You all really do care for me, don’t you?” she asked, and her gaze went in and out of focus in a way that wasn’t normal.

I decided the best course of action was to maintain course, so I patted her on the hand and nodded. “Of course, we do. I told you, you are officially a part of this crew. And if you don’t believe me, ask your new nephew.”

This attempt at humor effectively made her laugh and forget about whatever darkness she was thinking of a moment ago.

“He didn’t really give me a choice, did he?” she chuckled as we continued to stroll toward the staircase.

“He doesn’t give anybody a choice,” I laughed back. “We just have to deal with it as far as he’s concerned.”

“It makes me sorry that I ever could have treated him so poorly in the past,” she mused as her steps slowed once more. “But I hope you do see things are different now. And… I know I haven’t been myself, but everything I do is for this family. I hope you know that’s why I might… say or do things that are…”

“You don’t have to explain it until you want to,” I said when her words trailed off into nothing. Part of me suddenly felt bad for prying earlier because it was clear she didn’t even know why she did some of the things she did, so asking her about it probably just frustrated her or made her feel more ashamed.

“Thank you, Alex, you are too kind to the likes of me,” she said, and the way her gaze drifted off once more told me I probably wouldn’t be able to get her back for some time.

As it was, Rylan had gone and told everyone Vela was okay and on her way down, so it saved me from having to round everyone up just to assure them we weren’t missing anyone back on Terr.

“Vela, darling, where were you?” the raccoon-man asked as he approached us and took over for me.

“Oh, Bodee,” Vel-Rala sighed and allowed him to seat her at the table tucked close under his arm.

“Really quite glad we didn’t leave you behind, Ms. Velly,” Horus said as he handed her a cup of tea.

“As if you could,” she replied without missing a beat, and it was so out of character, the wide-eyed look on Horus’ face made all of us crack up.

“Well said,” Shay giggled just as Arvid placed a big covered platter in the center of the table.

It wasn’t even uncovered yet, but I could smell the mouthwatering aroma even now.

“Arvi, you’ve gone above and beyond,” Mr. Jenner said as he helped bring three massive bowlfuls to the table filled with steaming sides of mashed things, buttered root veggie things, and something that looked like corn on the cob, but it was bright pink.

“What is all of this?” Zoie asked as her ears perked straight up. “It all smells really good.”

“Hey… I recognize this,” Rylan said when he pulled out one of the pink corns. “Is this that stuff you called, um… or… oru?”

“Oooorrrreeeeeooolll,” the sloth-man droned and set down another covered platter, followed by a basket of something that looked like fluffy cloud-bread.

“Yeah, oreol,” Rylan said as he eyed the bread next. “And is that romtoss?”

“Now that you mention it, those do sound familiar,” Vel-Rala mused, and she picked up a bready pillow so she could examine it. “I vaguely remember signing a purchase order with those words on it.”

“That was me helping Arvid get provisions,” the kid explained and then dipped his finger in the lime-green mashed stuff. “What’s this, Arvi?”

“Muuugguuu,” the chef answered as he lifted the lid off the platter in the middle, and all of us admired the roasted, trussed-up, golden-brown turkey-like creature with four wings. “Viiiiirrrrd.”

“The vird is the word,” I muttered under my breath before I reached for a large drumstick and put it on my plate.

“It seems as if you cooked up a little of something from all over the isles,” Jenner observed as he uncovered the last platter, which held various fondue bowls of broth and cheese that I recognized as having before.

I thought it was Alemic if I wasn’t mistaken.

“The muugu is Omish,” Jenner said as he pointed to the green stuff Rylan was heaping on his plate. “And if there is any left, you all will be treated to a sumptuous dish indeed.”

“Ahem.” Horus nudged the voracious teenager as he attempted to scoop another spoonful on his plate.

Rylan stopped with the spoon hovering over the bowl, saw how we were all looking at him, and then lowered the portion back down.

“Sorry,” he said with a blush. “It’s really good.”

All of us laughed, and Horus roughly scrubbed a hand through the kid’s sandy hair.

“Where is the vird from?” Zoie asked after she swallowed a morsel.

“Vird is an Eng-folk staple,” the koala-man answered as he piled on a few vird wings and then reached for a little clay pot I hadn’t seen earlier. “It is best with this delicious sauce made from a mumboo fruit.”

I reached for the sauce jar when Jenner handed it to me, and I put a little of the fruity glaze on my monster of a meat leg. When I bit into the salty, crispy skin, the tart and tangy sauce contrasted nicely, and it tasted Hawaiian in origin.

Like pineapple-glazed pulled pork.

“Wow, that’s awesome,” I said through a juicy mouthful.

“I really love this romtoss bread dipped in this spiced broth,” Shay enthused, and then because she was next to me, she gave me a sample.

The airy texture was chewy and delightful, and the broth was savory and rich almost like a gravy. But when that happy green shit called muugu came around, I understood why Rylan wanted to eat all of it because it tasted like the best creamy garlic mashed potatoes I’d ever had.

It was honestly the best meal all of us had eaten since we left Nata, and as far as lifting our spirits, it helped immensely. We all dug into this home-cooked feast Arvid had prepared, and eventually the conversation ebbed and flowed through various topics, and the best part was none of them were serious.

It was all light-hearted banter, easy laughs, and good wine.

By the time the meal was over, we were all in high spirits and a bit dozy from being so full, so all of us decided to turn in for the night except for Jenner and Bodin, who would take turns in the wheelhouse. Eventually, we would have to come up with a system so we could alternate, but for now I was grateful they had it well in hand.

The pleasant haze creeping into my mind told me I was going to sleep soundly, and I was proven right because barely a second after I snuggled under the duvet between Zoie and Shay, I was swallowed whole by darkness.

I sank rapidly without that carousel of colors, or any dreams of consequence, but that eerie scream reverberated within my skull.

The dreamscape I found myself in was still blacker than pitch, but that painful voice crying out into the lonely darkness had me seeking something I couldn’t see…

Then I suddenly snapped awake and had a miniature heart attack because I was somehow on the second-floor balcony.

“What the--?” I was disoriented, and the air chilled me to the bone as the airship drifted through the mist. I had absolutely no idea how I’d gotten out here because sleepwalking wasn’t something I’d ever had a problem with. That little quirk was reserved for Rylan.

Who just so happened to be sleepwalking on the balcony as well.

Only instead of being on the solid tiles on the ground like I was, he was teetering precariously on the balcony’s ledge.

Chapter 17

“Rylan?” I tried to get the kid’s attention without spooking him since it was a long plunge down through the thick swirling mist.

Definitely not the time to be practicing a balancing routine.

I watched with my heart in my throat as Rylan stood with a blank look on his face. It was clear he was still deeply asleep, and as I watched him try to balance in the wind, I knew it was only a matter of time before gravity won.

My heart gave a kick again when I saw how Rylan’s foot was about to step awkwardly on the edge, and I knew this time he wouldn’t be so lucky.

“Rylan,” I tried to coax again as I started to run, but he was beyond hearing me with his ears.

Just then, my biggest fear was realized, and I watched in slow motion as his foot came down and then slipped sideways off the ledge.

Tick.

My heart beat loudly in my ears, and the time-trance exploded out of me. I needed to slow time just a second in order to reach him, but already he was halfway over and falling fast.

Tick.

“No!” I called out as I dove over the ledge.

I managed to snag his ankle, but I underestimated how heavy he was, especially when he was falling with all of his dead weight, and I ended up flying over the ledge along with him.

And, of course, the place he chose to do his sleepwalking swan dive was directly over a gap between the sails, so we plunged straight past any safety net.

Tick.

I summoned the time-trance and attempted to slow our descent. Usually, I froze my surroundings, but this time I was desperately trying to slow myself down as well while I gathered the still catatonic Rylan close to me.

Tick.

Time slowed, and it seemed like our speed decreased a fraction, but it wasn’t slowing fast enough. Probably because I was so focused on trying to angle my body between him and the waves because hopefully it would be enough to cushion Rylan’s impact when we did hit.

I just hoped he wouldn’t swallow any of the water. He did have Traveler blood in him due to his biological father, but unlike me, the water could poison him.

For a brief moment I considered trying for a full time-stop, but it wouldn't do much good in mid-air, and I would eventually have to let it go.

Tick.

My heart thundered in my ears, and I could tell the time-trance was beginning to take a strain on my stamina. I would soon be at my limit one way or another, the only question was would it be enough to get me closer to the water in a way that would not completely kill us once gravity inevitably took over.

The only chance we had was if I could summon a time-stop just a few feet before we hit the ocean below us, but that was nearly impossible--

Whap.

Something hit me in the back, but through the mist and the darkness combined with the direction I was falling, I couldn’t tell what it was.

Whap. Whap.

Okay, now that was starting to hurt. And, of course, just when my focus was being pulled taut in another direction, Rylan decided to wake up from his episode.

And, of course, he started screaming, like one naturally does when they discover they are falling from massive heights.

Snap.

My concentration shattered, and the world and my body resumed their natural speed, which included maximum velocity.

Rylan abruptly stopped screaming as his voice was snatched away from him by the wind howling past us, and now that regular speed was restored, I realized the things striking my back were actually the branches and leaves of a forest canopy.

We weren’t over the sea like I’d assumed we were.

Did this mean we were in Eng already?

My last thought before everything went astoundingly black was I hoped the kid wouldn’t be too traumatized by my death.

Bang.

Everything was black for quite a while after that. And I really did think that was it for me. However, just when I was congratulating myself on being right about the nothingness of the afterlife, it also occurred to me if this really was the abyss, then surely it shouldn’t ache so much.

Not physically.

But mentally and emotionally.

The only thing that made me realize I wasn’t exactly dead yet was how lonely the sea of blackness was, and I knew that wasn’t right in any universe I was in, so maybe I’d actually gotten the whole nothingness of the afterlife wrong after all.

There was only one way to test this out, which meant swimming up through the heavy unconsciousness and into a world of pain.

“Dad!” Rylan sobbed, and his tears hit my face like rain. My head was resting in his lap, and I was gazing up at his dirty face as he tried to rouse me. “You’re alive!”

“Ry--” I coughed and then regretted it instantly as my ribs cried out in protest. All of them felt broken, but every inch of me hurt, even the roots of my hair, so I couldn’t be sure what all was damaged.

“Oh, no, please--” he cried and then wiped something from my chin. Going off the taste of pennies in my mouth, my guess was he was wiping away some blood.

“Ry,” I said again and tried to comfort him by patting his face, but my depth perception must have been slightly off, and I fumbled through thin air. “Are you hurt?”

“How can you even be concerned with that when you’re--” he rambled with wide, scared eyes. The rest of his sentence was strangled into nothingness, and going by the expression of horror on his young face, I could only imagine what I looked like.

“Hey, calm down, buddy,” I said. “No one is dead. Why aren’t we dead, by the way?”

“I-I’m not even sure what happened,” Rylan replied. “I woke up, and we were falling, and the only thing that seemed to stop us were these really large leaves until we hit the ground.”

“Hm,” I grunted as I squinted up through the shroud of mist. There were a few massive towering structures looming above like giant silent sentinels in the grayness. “You were sleepwalking. We both were.”

“Really?” he asked. “Did you hear…?”

Before Rylan could complete his question, that godawful subterranean howl ripped through the muted atmosphere and caused the mist to bleed red.

“Shit,” I cursed and willed myself upright, but my back felt like it was torn to ribbons. “Oh, god--”

“Dad…” Rylan breathed, and his voice wobbled.

“Shh, help me up,” I said and went to grasp his shoulder to try and lever myself up again, but the damn appendage wasn’t cooperating. That was when I noticed my right shoulder was dislocated.

Of course.

Which made Rylan hauling me upright against the trunk of a tree painful with extra Fuck You on top.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he rambled as I hissed and cried out while he tried to situate me in the most comfortable position available.

“It’s, ah--! It’s alright,” I said in a poor imitation of “Alright.”

Another earth-shaking howl ripped through the air, and my pulse skittered weakly in my throat. Ugh, I felt sick, especially when there were three of Rylan staring back at me. And his face was so pale, I worried he shone like a beacon through the red mist.

“Y-You don’t look alright,” he stuttered out.

“I know,” I said and glanced down at my right wrist. “You need to help me with something, alright?”

“Okay,” he said hoarsely, and then he startled badly when the evil droning noise erupted once again.

This time, the subterranean howl was followed by the fierce sounds of shouting and tearing flesh, which caused Rylan to shudder and clench his eyes shut.

“Hey,” I said and shook him slightly by the scruff of his neck with my good hand. Well, good was relative… “I need you to help me put my right shoulder back in place.”

“What?” His eyes bulged open, and he paled even more if that was possible.

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk you through it,” I said in a voice that reflected a calm I most certainly did not feel.

“I-I--” Rylan jumped again when more sounds of carnage clashed nearby.

“Just focus on my voice and what you’re doing, okay?” I encouraged him.

“Uh-huh,” he said, and I could tell he was doing his best to shake off the nerves. “What do you need me to do?”

“Okay, hold my elbow with one hand, and make sure the upper part of my arm stays close to my body,” I instructed and gritted my teeth when even the smallest jostle felt like being stabbed by needles. “Now, you are going to take my wrist and slowly-- slowly!-- bring my hand toward you. Picture yourself pulling open a door, and my wrist is the handle.”

“Like this?” Rylan followed what I told him to a T, and he even remained calm when my shoulder slowly rolled back into its socket with a gross crunching sound.

“Fuck!” I gasped at the sensation of painful relief and flexed my tingling fingers. “That’s better, good job.”

Now that my shoulder was connected to the rest of me again, I glanced down at the hand-made bracelet Amaya had woven for me. The best thing about this little accessory, aside from the fact it was a token of her affection, was that it also came equipped with a goba nut threaded through the center like a brown bead.

I wasted no time in chewing it off my wrist like a candy bracelet.

Almost instantly, the short-term effects of the magical nut kicked in, and I was completely without any of the pain radiating through me a moment ago.

“Are you--?” Rylan tried to ask, but I interrupted him when I jumped up to my feet.

Another howl echoed around us, followed by a blood-curdling scream.

“Come on, we have to find a place to wait this out,” I said as I helped him up to his feet.

“Ah!” he hissed and stumbled slightly, but I caught him before he could fall.

“Are you hurt?” I asked him again.

“M-My ankle,” he said as I looped one of his arms around the back of my shoulders. “Something is wrapped--”

“We’ll deal with it later,” I said as we ambled along at a limping sprint.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaa!” Something large roared really close by, and as notable as it was that the sound was definitely not any demon I’d ever heard before, I had no interest in seeing the beast it belonged to.

“Come on!” I urged and pushed us faster.

“I can’t see anything!” Rylan said as the hand he wasn’t using to hold onto me reached out through the dense mist.

“I know,” I said before I brought us to a halt. Visibility really was a problem, and when I extended my own arm, I was startled to see the tips of my fingers nearly disappear.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaa!” whatever beast it was thundered practically right behind us.

“We have no choice!” I said, and with the property of the goba nut flowing through my system, I managed to sling Rylan behind me on my back.

“Ah!” he cried out.

“I know it hurts, but you’ve got to keep a hold of me, okay?” I told him as I locked my hands under the bends of his knees. I didn’t wait for a reply to this and instead started jogging in what I hoped was the opposite direction of the Eldritch Horror behind us.

The ground shook, and along with the poor visibility, this made it difficult to keep my footing on what was apparently a regular forest floor. What kept tripping me up were the large swathes of springy moss that acted like a trampoline the second I landed on them. This strange moss was probably the reason Rylan and I were both alive, but it was a nuisance when it threatened to fling us apart.

About the fourth time I crashed down on my knees, I lost my grip on Rylan as we both tumbled down some sort of embankment.

The breath was punched out of me as I landed on my back again, and even though the boost from the goba nut made the pain tolerable, it didn’t get rid of it completely, and the impact rang my bell for a good moment.

“Dad?” Rylan called out in the mist, but his voice echoed strangely and added to my disorientation.

I wanted to answer him, but my breath wasn’t completely back yet, so all that came out was a wheeze.

The disturbing drone howled again, and this time I could hear the telltale gravelly sound that signified the demon scourge spawning up from the ground like a claymation movie gone horribly wrong.

“Ahhh!” Rylan screamed, and my adrenaline spiked through the roof and hauled me up to my feet as all thoughts of pain were forgotten.

“Rylan!” I hollered back, and I vaguely pinpointed the direction his voice was coming from in the dimness.

A gurgling growl followed by the putrid rotting flesh scent told me I was at least headed in the right direction, and then, almost at the last second, I saw the form of one of those foul stump-demons.

Two of the grotesque creature’s tentacles were currently trying to reel Rylan in like he was a giant tuna, and from what I glimpsed, he was putting up a fair fight by thrashing back and forth.

With a flying leap, I stepped straight on top of its bald deformed head, which had the added effect of snapping its gross jaws shut like a bear trap.

“Reeeaaarrrccch!” The demon wailed as it severed its own tentacles much like biting through its tongue.

“Come on!” I said and tried to get Rylan up again.

“My feet are tangled!” he cried out, and even when the severed tentacles were removed from the kid’s ankles, the thing wrapped around his foot from before-- some thick stringy stuff that reminded me of cobwebs-- was now twisted tightly around both of his feet.

Another yawning howl.

More growling and slavering sounds ricocheted off the massive trees and reminded me we had less than No Time For This, so I slung the kid over my shoulders in a fireman’s carry and ran up the embankment so we were out of the valley we’d fallen down.

“Dad, I think something’s chasing us,” Rylan helpfully informed me right before something came whizzing past my head from behind.

Whatever the projectiles were, they weren’t arrows or bolts from a crossbow. These weapons sounded a lot smaller, almost like darts.

Something flew past my head again, exploded against the trunk of a tree off to my left, and splattered against my face. I instantly recognized the slimy substance as ichor smearing the side of my face, and then I realized the darts were actually barbs the demons were spitting at us in a brand-new round of What Kind of Fresh Hell Is This?

“Fuck,” I said to myself.

“The demons!” Rylan gasped. “They’re shooting at us!”

“Double fuck,” I growled and then skidded to an abrupt halt when I almost ran head-first into a large figure.

“Raaaaaaaa!”

I tried to dodge to the side, but the large figure swung one of its large appendages and managed to clip me in the shoulder.

Hard.

Rylan and I flew apart again, but I was still able to keep him from flying too far away from me and getting lost in the red mist.

“Ry?” I asked as I got my bearings again and dragged him closer. He was knocked out for the count and completely soaked in blood, but before I could do anything more to assess him, I was once again flung off my feet by a heavy arm slamming into me.

I glimpsed the sight of a singular flashing eye in the vicinity of the large beast’s head as I arched backward, and I wondered if I’d crossed paths with some kind of cyclops.

Then my back took another pounding as I landed a few feet away.

“Reeeeaaarrrccchhh!” I rolled instinctively out of the way when the cyclops’ large tree trunk arms slammed down directly where my head used to be. I then jumped up to my feet as quickly as I could because I knew laying on my back would be as good as calling me dead already, but I had to dive out of the way again when a demon that looked like the creepy plant monster from Stranger Things raised its slimy hand and shot lethal-looking darts directly at me.

These demons were definitely different from the scourge-mites and stumpys I was used to.

Another howl opened up the sky, and it was so loud I was worried it was also going to forge a crack in the earth below my feet. It seemed like this Red Moon was lasting a bit longer than I was used to, but maybe that was just because I had nothing to defend myself with, and every second that went by without some form of cover or defense felt like an hour.

There had to be something around me I could use, so I quickly squinted around for any sort of tree branch I could at least wield as a melee weapon.

“Raaaaaaaaaa!”

The cyclops I’d been fighting earlier now turned his attention to the demon and his two other demon-friends who had all followed us into this clearing. Two of the demons attempted to jump on the cyclops, which I was glad for because that at least kept him busy from attacking me again.

So, with that settled, I turned to face my foes.

The tentacles on the demon’s back lashed back and forth, and it brandished both of its palms at me as two vertical slits began to dilate like gaping mouths ready to spit out poisoned barbs.

I dove out of the way of both sticky darts and then rolled between the wiry demon’s legs. When I came back up on my own two feet, I noticed a good-sized rock I could use to lob at my opponent, so I snatched it up.

My projectile smashed the demon in its ugly face, and it reeled back with a loud shriek.

The funny thing about this, though, was the fact the demon was halfway through executing another assault via hand dart when it went to clutch its face where my rock just hit.

This had the fortunate and hilarious effect of the giant dumbass darting himself in the face.

The Treebeard motherfucker fell back with a loud bang, and from what I could tell, it seemed to be dead. Or rather, the demon version of dead without being slain by an Asher, which was really just a version of stunned.

Since it seemed like I was the only Asher around, I decided I’d better finish what I started because one less demon left to respawn in the future was always better than leaving one stunned. I picked up the rock I’d thrown before, and I hefted it in my hand like I was getting ready to pitch for the major leagues.

Then, with superhuman energy I summoned from Mercedes only knows where, I took a flying leap and brought the rock down over and over again on the demon’s head until its skull split open and started to leak that gross ichor fluid.

After one last whack, a shard actually chipped off the rock and made a perfect last-minute dagger, so I plunged it through the fucker’s heart.

A bright light flashed and caused me to jump back and cover my eyes, but when it was done, I was able to see the soft blue light glowing from the crumbling rib cage of the tree demon.

A herald core. And a blue one to boot.

I knew the blue ones were some of the more rare and powerful ones, and with a pang of regret, I once again felt the loss of my very first herald blade.

Shay bequeathed me the precious sapphire from her ever-present head circlet at the time, and with her brother’s help, I was able to forge a powerful blade that was able to free her from her bastard husband.

This core wasn’t as deep blue as the last one. It was more of a clear topaz once the shining light faded after I picked it up in my palm.

The sensation of having all of the air suddenly return to the atmosphere was the only warning I had before the oppressive redness of The Event finally lifted.

I panted heavily as I cast my gaze around the foggy clearing, and the mist seemed to be lifting somewhat as the sun started to line the horizon with its usual grayish-blue.

All at once, it seemed the strength ran out of my legs, and I landed heavily on my knees.

“Dad!” Rylan had come to at some point and must have untangled the strange fibrous material from around his legs, because he was able to run to me and support me before I listed sideways. “Dad, hold on.”

“Ry?” I scanned him from head to toe and felt my face pale at the sight of blood drenching the front of his white nightshirt. “Where are you bleeding?”

“It’s not mine,” he said with a tremble in his jaw. “It’s from your back. When you carried me.”

“My back?” I asked and then went to reach for my opposite shoulder, but I stopped quickly when a deep fission of pain arced up my spine like a hot iron brand. My vision whited out and then snapped back, and I found myself gripping onto Rylan tightly.

Then a large silhouette, easily nine feet tall, came through the mist toward us, and I’d almost forgotten about the cyclops-creature I’d also been fighting before the three demons crashed our party.

Going by the two mounds of churned clay on either side of the giant, it seemed as if this creature took out two demons to my one, and I wasn’t really counting mine because of how idiotic it was that my guy darted himself in the face.

The Ent-like demons were definitely a lot dumber than the ones on both Nata and Terr, but their brute force alone was enough to contend with.

So, the fact the cyclops took out two bare-handed made it the real threat. After all, this was a creature that didn’t just disappear with a Red Sky, and we were trespassing in its backyard.

I’d barely staggered to my feet when the cyclops came up to within three feet of where we were standing, and as I looked up, I saw it wasn't actually a cyclops, but some creature wearing a grotesque hood that had two goggle-like eyepieces with one of them missing.

The effect reminded me of something out of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

I knew I was running on fumes, but I still shoved Rylan behind me as best as I could and then brandished my newly harvested herald core.

“You better stay back!” I yelled and shuffled us back a step. “Did you see what I just did there? I ashed a demon, and that’s nothing compared to what I can do if I’m really trying.”

My knees trembled, and my back muscles screamed in protest, but I locked my jaw and held my ground. My only hope was this beast wasn’t a sentient species, but more like a mountain lion I could scare away by acting aggressive.

It seemed to work because the hooded giant stopped in its tracks and cocked its head.

“Yoooouuuuu,” the creature groaned, and the deep timbre and strange unplaceable accent struck me as highly familiar. “Yooouuurrrr sooooon?”

I looked down at Rylan under my arm and then back up to the giant. “Yes, he’s my son. We’re not supposed to be here. We need…”

I sank down to one knee as my hearing tunneled in and out. Dark spots were crowding into my vision, and I knew the miraculous goba nut had all but worked its way through my system.

The last thing I saw as the world tipped and swayed was the creature removing its hood to reveal a face that looked strikingly like Arvid’s.

And my last thought before unconsciousness finally wrapped its cold clammy fingers around me was how this must have been a dream, and I must have passed out at the kitchen table back at Ithaca.

Yeah… That must have been it…

A woman’s scream echoed and echoed as I fell.

Chapter 18

Singing.

More like humming, actually.

Just four simple notes hummed in a honeyed soprano over and over again, but it helped to keep me from losing my mind under the intense onslaught of pain I’d somehow found myself in.

Every so often, I surfaced from this stupor, and the things I heard and saw only fueled my fever dream.

At one point, Rylan’s stressed timbre hooked me to the surface like a struggling salmon, and I found myself being carried in a pair of giant Arvid arms.

“Argh,” I moaned as every step jarred every aching bone of mine that had some sort of complaint.

Which turned out to be a lot, especially all throughout my rib cage.

“He’s in so much pain, can’t we rest?” Rylan begged, and going by the sound of his voice, he was somewhere below me.

“Noooooo,” the sloth-man who was like Arvid rumbled out, and even the vibration of his deep voice jangled my raw nerves. “Heee muuuussst beeee juuuudged.”

“Rylan,” I managed, and my arm slipped over the ridge of Not-Arvid’s arm. I felt my son’s hand grab hold of mine, and I was able to squeeze him in reassurance until I lost consciousness again.

Then that singing tugged me back down under the riptide of pain and fear and soothed me into a calm blackness.

When I tried to open my eyes, I could briefly see some of the Dark Realm superimposing itself over my vision, and I had a moment of panic.

“No,” I heard myself mumble, and the world briefly swam back into focus.

I was now in a small room lit only by orange glow stones and laying on my stomach, and when I tried to push myself up, the sensation of something heavy like drying clay started to crack apart on my back.

“Staaaaaay!”

I shook my head to get the dark forest with the perfectly circular clearings out of my vision.

The small room snapped back into focus, and I saw something very blonde with clear blue eyes pop up in front of me.

“Dad, it’s alright!” Rylan came up and blocked my view for a moment. “They are helping us. See?”

He gestured to a few cuts on his own face that were smeared over with a turquoise paste, so I settled back down. Then the blonde thing came back in sight, and I saw it was the kind face of a female from Arvid’s kin.

Were we on Om?

I laid my head back down when I realized there was no immediate danger, and for the first time, I felt the numbing relief of whatever was coating my entire back. The sheer absence of that burning pain was so wonderful, and the second I closed my bleary eyes again, I was out.

The Dark Realm gripped me this time, and I couldn’t stop myself from falling down into that subliminal region.

I panicked when my eyes gazed upward at the flat white sky. My whole body felt weighted down with a weakness I wasn’t used to, and I knew I was basically a sitting duck for any Dark Realm creatures who decided they wanted a snack.

However, when I attempted to roll over and push myself to my feet, I was stopped by a pair of gentle hands. That was when I noticed the singing was back, and this time, instead of just a distant echo, I could tell it was originating from an actual person.

A person who just so happened to be petting my hair as my head rested in their lap.

I tilted my head back just a fraction more to get a glimpse at the owner of the beautiful voice that reminded me of pure crystal.

At first, those hands stopped me again as the melodious voice balked, but after a moment of hesitation, the person relaxed in a way I interpreted as permission to do what I wanted.

So, I continued to tilt back until I was met with a pair of stunning eyes that sparkled like a pair of garnet gemstones. Then my gaze widened out to see the face those beautiful eyes were set in, and I was slightly surprised to see the jade tint to her creamy-looking skin. On each high cheekbone was a shimmer similar to mother-of-pearl, with a scaled design whenever it caught the light, and the features of the fine-boned face were framed in a curtain of indigo hair that seemed to react slightly as if it was underwater.

“Hello,” I said breathlessly, and my heart beat triple-time in a way that had nothing to do with my earlier anxiety.

Whatever reaction I was expecting, it certainly wasn’t the one where this stunning and mysterious woman leaped up like she’d been burned before she vanished into the dark blue pool next to us.

I rolled to my side and watched the faint ripples of the water. It was the only thing that convinced me I hadn’t just dreamed up some beautiful water goddess, and when I felt the odd rushing sensation of the real world trying to crowd back into my vision, I simply closed my eyes and rode the waves.

At some point, the tumultuous in and out and back and forth calmed down to a more even keel, and somewhere in there I was able to both sleep and meditate in turns. I knew some days had passed, but I didn’t know how many because only part of me was able to surface here and there.

Each time I awoke, I was able to stay awake in the real world a little longer than the last time, but that was only to do things like drink water and eat a little bit of mild broth.

The cuddly and sweet-looking sloth-lady was the one I saw most whenever I frequented the conscious world. I had just enough coherence to ask her for her name, which unfortunately I forgot almost instantly, and enough strength to abide by any nursemaiding she had in store for me.

Usually, it was her rousing me and having me stay on my stomach so she could remove and apply more of that cooling paste whenever it had gone dry and flaky. I didn’t know what exactly had happened to my back, but I figured it was pretty serious.

Especially because in the snatches of Rylan I was able to glimpse before unconsciousness swept me under, his face was clear of any damage, which marked the passage of time.

This told me all I needed to know: my damage must be much, much worse.

Maybe that was the reason why on the nth day, when I honestly felt clear and awake enough to stay up more than just two to three hours at a time, I was actively fighting consciousness instead. There were just some things I didn’t want to face, and the thought of being crippled or worse made me want to shirk away from the knowledge one way or the other.

“No use trying to pretend,” a creaky voice spoke from somewhere off to my right. “You’ve been sleepin’ enough, boy.”

I sighed and peeled open my eyelids to the glare of that orange glow. The room was the same as I last remembered it, so this meant I hadn’t actually dreamed up the small wooden room with the kind sloth-lady.

Only, when I turned to squint at the person sitting at my bedside, the person on the stool in the corner there was not the plump nursemaid, but a woman with large satellite bat-ears poking through a mop of steel-gray dreadlocks.

“La-folk?” I croaked out and then cleared my dry throat.

The shrewd elderly bat-woman narrowed her gaze as she handed me a glass of purified water with the tithe stone still rattling around in the bottom.

“You’ve met my ilk before?” the woman asked in a light calypso accent.

“Madam Midgen,” I replied after I swallowed my mouthful of cool water. It was heavenly, and I couldn’t help myself from guzzling the rest of it down right then and there. “Sorry.”

“I have heard of The Midgen,” she said cryptically as she refilled my glass.

“Thank you,” I said as I took another slower gulp. “What-- ahem.”

I trailed off awkwardly as my mind swarmed with a confusion of things remembered and dreamed.

“You have questions,” she said. “Ask.”

“What’s your name?” I decided to start with.

“I am Madam Morta,” the bat-woman said and got to her feet, but her posture immediately canted her to the side like she was suffering from a curved spine. “And you are Alex Brightwood, according to your son, Rylan Brightwood.”

“Is that what he introduced himself as?” I asked, and I settled back against the pillows after Madam Morta took my spent glass away.

“Is there another name by which he answers?” she questioned sharply.

“Nah, it’s perfect,” I said and tipped my head back a little. “Are we on Om?”

“Yes,” she said and then flicked the thin blanket off my bare legs.

“Hey!” I yelped when I realized I was only in my undershorts.

“Ain’t nothing I haven’t seen before, boy,” she chuckled roughly. “Usually, Meelo has been helping you with your wounds, but the poor thing hasn’t slept a wink the whole time since she found out you know Arvid.”

“Are they related?” I asked as I arched an eyebrow when I remembered the blonde creature tending to me.

“She is his wife,” Morta said and made a gesture for me to flip over onto my stomach.

“I didn’t know Arvi was married,” I said as I settled with a pillow under my arms. “How long have I been out like this?”

“It has been four and a half days,” she responded and then started using something on my back like a paint scraper. “And the one Meelo calls her husband has never met her before, so that might be a reason why you didn’t know.”

“Really?” I asked and then bit down on the pillow when Morta began to chip away at the dried stuff coating my back. It stung worse in some places than others, but over all, it was about as painful as a really bad sunburn.

Definitely a total step up from the mind-numbing acid razors from before.

“The Om-folk have arranged marriages from birth and usually do not meet each other until they both come of age to procreate,” the bat-woman said and then started to place warm damp towels all over the affected skin.

“Mm,” I hummed in pleasure when the warmth seeped into my buzzing muscles, and I snuggled further into the pillow. “That feels so much better.”

“Are you done asking your questions, boy?” Morta asked and then prodded my shoulder so I wouldn’t fall back asleep.

My mind still felt strung out all over the place, but I peeled open my eyes and tried to grasp at some of the nebulous things still floating around in my head. I knew there was probably more I should be asking, but the gentle throbbing against my shoulders and spine was distracting.

“I know there’s more to ask, but my mind is scattered,” I admitted with a sigh. “I guess I want to know what happened to me? Why do I feel this way? I remember something about the Red Moon, but the rest gets pretty hazy, and I’m not even sure some of the stuff really happened.”

“To hear your boy talk, it sounds as if you fell from some sort of castle in the sky?” the bat-woman questioned as she tidied up the tools she used to scrape the gunk off my back. “He says you and your lot have managed to make a castle fly. Apparently, that wasn’t good enough for you two, because the next thing he recalled was you both plunging down through the Okoba canopy.”

“Okoba?” I asked and then turned on my side so I could converse with her better. “Are those the giant trees we smashed through?”

“Yes, you are in the Okoba Forest on Isle Om, home of the last truly free Omites,” Morta explained and washed her hands off in a bowl of water. “In fact, you are inside one now. These large trees are the homes of these people, and the leaves that you say you ‘smashed’ through, are one of the ways the Omish collect their fresh drinking water. Because you and your son pierced the canopy, you disrupted the balance of the Collectors and therefore destroyed their water supply for the upcoming three fickles.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” I said, and my eyes slid furtively toward the water pitcher that was now only a quarter of the way full. “Is this why you had to put tithe stones in my water?”

“Very astute of you,” the Madam said as she relaxed back atop her stool. “There are not many of those stones this far north away from the quarries. And it is not like the Om-folk concern themselves with the likes of Ashers or Duelists or whatever you want to call yourselves these days. They ascribe to nature only.”

“I wouldn’t really know,” I admitted with a half-shrug. “I’m a Traveler, and I arrived on Nata Isle where most of my experiences have been. I’m still learning about the rest of Aventoll.”

“Nata Isle is several days east of us even on a fast frigate,” Morta said as that overly shrewd expression gleamed in the depths of her periwinkle eyes. “What are you doing in these territories, especially sporting a Stone with such a status around your neck? The only Duelist who is of Guide-Class status like you is the Overseer of the quarries, but he was appointed by our neighboring Isle of Leen. Nata does not have Ashers of that caliber who can be spared to oversee or govern the Outer Isles.”

“I can’t help but notice the suspicion in your tone,” I said after we regarded each other with appraising looks. I should have known just based on my knowledge of Madam Midgen how intuitive and smart the La-folk were.

“It is an easy thing to be when faced with suspicious and unexplained characters,” she responded, but a faint twinkle in her eyes told me she might not be as much of a hard-ass as she seemed. “It is just strange you are here at all.”

“Well, Rylan and I were both on the Isle of Terr, but our heading now is actually Eng,” I told her and watched as her amethyst eyes grew wide with shock.

“An outsider like you was granted passage to Terr?” She eyed me sharply like she couldn’t figure out what kind of creature I was.

“It's kind of a long story, but basically I know the Prince Regent pretty well, and he dubbed me Ambassador to try and help him with a few things over there,” I summed up. “We literally just left in our airship that we made out of Terran wirm skin.”

“And how did you end up on Om?” she asked. “All your Rylan could say was he was doing something he called ‘sleepwalking.’”

“I don’t know if he remembers me telling him this, but we both were,” I said and frowned as I remembered the strange and broken screams of despair that first haunted me out of my own bed. I could have sworn I heard it again before I passed out, but that time it was distinctly outside of my dreams. “Sleepwalking is when your body can’t tell you are dreaming. I woke up out of my strange trance before he did, and when I saw him dancing on the, uh, flying castle’s balcony ledge, I followed him because there was nothing else I could do.”

“Spoken like a true father,” she said.

“Was there any doubt?” I asked as my hackles were suddenly rankled.

Madam Morta just continued to gaze at me as her large slightly wrinkled ears swiveled to and fro. “You have said you were a Traveler, implying you have not been in Aventoll long enough to become familiar with some of the common knowledge known throughout the isles. And going off your purported son, who most definitely was born here, it makes little sense you could have conceived him, oh, fifteen seasons ago?

“Fourteen,” I said with a grin at the clever woman. She was like a regular Agatha Christie or something. “And he’s adopted.”

“Adopted?” The bat-woman arched her silver eyebrows. “Well, that certainly makes sense as to why the Okoba Leader has found you worthy of sanctuary. The Om-ish have a similar practice and look highly upon those who cast their vanity aside to care for children who are not theirs.”

“Hm,” I grunted as I tried to get comfortable back on my back. “If only I’d crash-landed on this island a long time ago.”

“You can relate to the abandoned,” the bat-woman stated instead of asked in that knowing way she had.

I locked eyes with her and nodded. “I can.”

“So can all the La-folk,” Morta said, and she left the topic at that, thankfully. “Tell me, what was your purpose on Terr, and if you don’t mind, why are you headed to Eng? Only savage beasts populate that isle.”

“On Terr I was an ambassador, like I said, and they needed a little bit of help seeing eye to eye,” I explained. “For some reason, the Regent thought I would be a good choice as a mediator, although I’m still not sure what he was thinking.”

“Are you talking about the factions that exist between the Echelons?” she continued to pry. “Do you expect me to believe one of the most stingy and stubborn of all the peoples on Aventoll have actually put aside their differences for the sake of unity?”

“Believe what you want,” I said with a smug smile, and I tucked both arms behind my head. The motion twinged and tweaked the skin on my back, but I didn’t let the discomfort show on my face. “But the Upper and Lower factions are no more, and not only that, but the united people are now considering opening their borders to Outsiders.”

“Impressive,” she said with a smirk on her wizened face. “Even if falling through several layers of Okoba leaves was not very smart.”

“It’s not like I had much of a choice,” I grumbled. “What are those leaves made out of, anyway?”

“Have you heard of Omite sun glass?” she asked.

“No wonder it feels like my back was recently torn to shreds by a thousand yards of glass.” I winced as I remembered the Jewel House on one of my estates on Nata Isle. “I have a structure on one of my lands that is made of such glass. It’s made from these leaves?”

“The majority of it is,” Madam Morta said. “It is one of the top luxury exports of this island, which is one of the reasons why the Okoba people are so apt to protect it from threats. Over the seasons, as the glass became more and more popular, more of the forest was harvested. The trees cannot sustain the heat when they are so close to the sun and so wither and die without their canopies.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about Rylan and me,” I told her. “We don't want to harvest your Okoba leaves or destroy your forest. What we would both really like is to join up with the rest of our people. If you know any way of making that happen, I would be very much obliged, despite what you’ve already done for us.

“I’m afraid I cannot help you there,” the bat-woman said. “The Outer Isles of Om and Eng are more primitively equipped than any of the others. Especially out here in the forest and away from the quarries. But in the meantime, I can reunite you with your son.”

At this, the elderly woman hopped off her stool again and limped her way to the door. She opened it, and I could faintly hear a hushed conversation from the other side of the door, but I couldn’t make out any words. If I had to guess, I would say it was something along the lines of telling my sometimes overly excited son to make sure to tone it down a bit.

Finally, prepared by the stern bat-woman, Rylan was allowed to come in.

“Hey, Ry,” I said with a smile when he just stood near the door with wide eyes and a pale face, and he shuffled on his feet in a nervous habit I hadn’t seen from him since he first came to stay with us and thought every little misstep would send him back out the door. “You can come closer, I’m not going to bite.”

“Are you really okay now?” he asked, and his eyes slid over to Madam Morta for confirmation like he’d asked her this question on several occasions.

“I’m not dead,” I said sarcastically and waved him over. “Now, get over here so I can do the ‘Dad Thing’ and make sure you’re alright.”

“Me?” he gasped in mock-outrage but walked over with a small grin anyway. “According to Madam Morta, you lost a lot of blood. Like a lot, a lot.”

“Tis true,” the bat-woman elder said as her ears swiveled in opposite directions. “I am still trying to figure out how you survived long enough to kill a herald demon.”

“Oh, I almost forgot,” I said and then cast my gaze around the room for the few personal effects I had on me.

“I’m afraid your clothes were totally ruined after everything,” Rylan began to explain as he dug around in his pockets for a few things. “But I managed to save the few things you had on you aside from the Stone around your neck.”

I was thrilled, of course, to see my responsible son taking it upon himself to guard the topaz-like herald core and, oddly, that silver bell from Vela. But the other object of importance Rylan took upon himself to safeguard was the calcified circlet I’d kept from my battle against one of the most fierce creatures on Terr Isle: the wirm.

After I battled the Graboid-looking motherfucker, I kicked it in the face and accidentally dislodged this circular ring of tough cartilage that had grown around one of the beast’s many eyes.

Because Amaya had gifted me her trinket-- which actually saved my life later-- I’d been on the lookout for something similar to give her ever since.

“Excellent work, Ry,” I said and then grinned up at him. “Hold on to those for now until I get some proper pants, but thanks for saving what you could. And Madam Morta, I’ll tell you my secret if you can tell me one thing.”

“You may ask, but I cannot guarantee an answer,” she said in her wily mysterious way.

“Do you think one of the Omish craftspeople could do something with this material?” I asked as I held up the calcified ring, and the strange pattern flashed under the orange glow stones similar to a tiger’s eye crystal.

The bat-woman squinted at the object in my hand, and given the confused expression on her face, I could tell this was not the question she’d been anticipating.

“You are a strange one, Alex Brightwood,” Morta said through a rusty chuckle. “And, of course, there are people in this village who could transform even the plainest materials into the most eye-catching works of art.”

“Can they make it useful as well as beautiful?” I asked as I slowly levered myself up with the help of Rylan.

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” she said. “Now, tell me how you cheated death with nearly all the blood on the outside of your body?”

“The secret is something called a goba nut, and I’m not exactly sure where to get more of them,” I revealed. “My lover was the one who gave it to me for emergencies, and it’s high time I paid her back with a trinket of her own. I’m guessing since I’m not getting out of here any time quickly, I might as well see what this place has to offer. Also, since I messed up the water collection, I would like to pay you back in tithes, if you have a tithe pool.”

“Let’s wait until you are fully replenished,” Morta said and hobbled to an armchair in the center of the room. She then grabbed the twisted branch leaning up against the armchair and used it as a sturdy cane as she thumped back to the door. She paused with her hand on the handle, and she glanced at me over her shoulder like the enigma she was. “For now, I must take you to the Okoba Leader. He has been wanting to meet you for some time.”

She then flung the double doors open, and I gasped at the dazzling sight that greeted me.

Chapter 19

“Woah,” I said from where I was sitting on the edge of my narrow sick bed.

Across from me, the two doors of my room were flung completely wide open until it looked like I was staring past a proscenium into outer space.

Since we were apparently inside a giant tree, the sudden image of glittering diamonds of all types of hue was not something I was expecting to see.

“You’ve got to check this place out, Dad,” Rylan said as he sat on the edge of the mattress next to me. Then he tugged my arm over the tops of his shoulders so he could help me stand, and together, we got to our feet.

It was a good thing he did this, too, because my strength wasn’t completely back yet, and my limbs felt a little stiff.

“Well, show me,” I instructed and pointed toward the open door.

“It seems as if the village is about to turn in for the night,” Madam Morta observed. “The evening is fast approaching, so we must go now if we want to catch the village leader.”

Without any further ado, the three of us made our way out into the corridor, and I got my first glimpse of how Arvid’s people lived their lives inside the trunks of these massive trees. I was a little uncomfortable in my partially-unclothed state, but no one seemed to bat an eye, and I soon lost any self-consciousness as I marveled at the sights around me.

For one, it seemed as if the current tree I found myself in was something of a modern marvel of architecture. I didn’t know if all of the trees were naturally hollow, or if it took the Omites time to carve out each painstaking tier, but whatever the case, they’d transformed the inside to resemble something more like a mini city inside of a tower.

Across from me was a wooden railing, and I walked right up to it so I could look over the side. Below me it was clear there were several levels, but when I looked up, I noticed there were even more above me.

The level we were currently on was almost at the halfway point of this giant tree, but I could see all the way down to the ground where a giant bonfire was blazing away. The fire, along with more of the rounded glow stones mounted all over the walls, gave the inside of the windowless tree the perpetual atmosphere of twilight, and some of the colors, though not as bright, flashed in their near glow-in-the-dark hue.

It reminded me a lot of the Lower Echelon of Terr where we were mostly traipsing through dense forests decorated with their bioluminescent patterns winking and blinking all around.

“Come,” the bat-woman ordered, and Rylan and I followed her surprisingly fast clip as she turned and started walking up the gentle slope. The incline wasn’t too steep, but within moments the elderly woman was already breathing hard.

“All of the levels are connected by this giant ramp,” Rylan said almost like a little tour guide as we trekked our way uphill.

“And how many times have you been up and down this thing in the past four days, hm?” I asked as I ruffled his disaster mop of hair. “And when was the last time you utilized a brush?”

“I’ve been all the way to the top and bottom twice!” he said, and it didn’t escape my notice that he conveniently chose not to answer my other question about the brush. “Did you know they keep that fire burning all the time?”

“I do now,” I commented, and I let my mind wander amidst his pleasant and factual chattering.

The ambient glow of the stones combined with the orange bonfire illuminating most of the tree reminded me that I still had no basis of time because the tree didn’t have any windows on the inside.

“Madam Morta,” I began as I took up stride next to the hobbling woman. “How can you even tell time without any windows?”

“I ask myself this multiple times a day,” she said and snagged a handful of something that looked like dates from a modest vendor along the way. “You would think, after all these seasons I’ve lived here, I would grow an internal timekeeper like they do, but alas, that has never been my fortune. But to answer your question, I at least know it should be early enough in the evening to be able to catch the sunset.”

“Is that where we’re headed now?” I asked her as we continued to spiral upward. “Somewhere outside where we can see the sun?”

According to her, I’d been cooped up in here for four and a half long days, and even though I was mostly incoherent and unconscious, my body could feel the effects of having to stay put in that small room. I felt restless, and even though the tree was huge, the lack of windows made me feel a little claustrophobic.

“We are indeed,” she replied and popped a date into her mouth. “Leader Elmer is often up near the canopy to greet every morning sunrise and every evening sunset. I figured you would like to see where you crash-landed while there’s still daylight left.”

“Oh, cool,” Rylan said in a tone that sounded vaguely nonchalant, but it sounded way too casual to be from my enthusiastic kid, so I glanced at him sideways. “That’s the one place I have yet to go, so it should be quite a sight.”

“That’s the ‘one’ place you haven’t gone yet?” I repeated his words, and I hoped my deadpan expression told him how unamused I was at his poking around. “We’ve got to work on your nosiness, especially when we’re considered guests. We are still considered guests, right? You’re not just leading us to your leader so he can throw us in jail?”

These last questions were directed toward the bat-woman, and she waddled to a stop for a moment and then turned to observe me from head to toe.

“Now who’s being suspicious?” She smirked.

“Honestly, if you knew the places I ended up getting into trouble, you would not be surprised at my suspicion,” I told her with a chuckle. “Besides, if you would have met the guy I did when I first got here, you would be just slightly concerned as well.”

“Leader Elmer and Ozrid are two very different men, and trust me when I say you have little to fear from either of them,” Morta said as she continued on.

I took her word for it after that and spent the rest of the walk silently admiring everything my eyes came in contact with.

After I shook off the claustrophobic feeling, I was able to properly soak in the marvel of architecture. There really was a whole bustling city on the inside of this tree, and I wondered if there were more tribes like this living in other trees.

When we all reached the top of the spiraling ramp, we were met with a series of staircases that branched off into several other staircases, which gave a good impression of that crazy mathematician MC Escher.

“The good news is all of those stairs lead outside, so you really cannot go wrong,” the bat-woman said as both Rylan and I craned our heads back to try and see the ends of some of the bigger staircases.

The stairs ascended toward the natural light pouring in through the big gaps between leaves that looked more like cellophane than they did any leaves I was used to.

“We could totally have a race to see whose staircase makes it to the top first,” Rylan said, and at Madam Morta’s stern look, I shook my head at him.

But when her back was turned again, I nudged Rylan playfully in the ribs.

“Later,” I whispered, and he grinned his megawatt smile.

“You will both do no such thing while I am on these stairs,” she called back to us without actually looking over her shoulder.

We shot each other panicked looks, and I’d momentarily forgotten the bat-woman’s large ears were for more than just show, so Rylan and I decided not to talk and save our breaths for the climb.

This turned out to be a good decision because it wasn’t just the Madam and her crooked gait that needed some help. I was also not wanting to push the fact I was actually up and walking on two feet instead of bedridden like I probably should be after crash-landing on this island with nothing to show for it.

Already my thighs and calves were burning as we ascended stair by stair, and I knew it would be another day or two before I felt fully back to normal. So, for now, I matched my pace with the elder of our group, and Rylan even offered to carry her piggyback-style when she started to fall behind.

She refused, of course, and it didn’t surprise me that she refused to sacrifice her pride just for a little help up the last twenty stairs or so. I hadn’t known her for very long, but it seemed pretty on par for the course.

When we all finally made it out onto one of the large branches at the top, I took a moment to draw as much fresh air into my lungs as I could.

The air was clean and fresh like right after a big rainstorm, and I blinked rapidly when a drop of water splashed onto the tip of my nose.

“Is it raining?” Rylan asked as he held his hand palm up. A few more little splashes hit his palm, and he looked up.

“It is the condensation that collects on the Okoba leaves from the evaporating mist,” Morta said, and then she led us to one of many interconnected rope bridges that spanned between the branches. “Come now, it seems as if Elmer has finished his meditation.”

I didn’t know what she was talking about at first, and it didn’t really help when she attempted to point out the mysterious Elmer, because all I saw was a tangle of more rope bridges.

It wasn’t until we were practically on top of it that I noticed there was a small colorful tent propped up on a branch close to the base of the trunk. Both flaps of the door were pinned so the entrance of the tent was open, and a dull red light was pouring out. This must have been a signal of some sort, because Madam Morta had no compunction about waltzing right in without knocking.

“When in Om,” I muttered under my breath, but I was too nervous to really appreciate the pun.

No matter what the bat-woman said about Arvid’s species, I still entered the tent with what I thought was a healthy dose of caution and tucked Rylan behind me. I’d seen first-hand and up close what the sloth-men were capable of, and the last thing I wanted to do was be caught even more unprepared than I already felt.

I’d maybe overworked my imagination just a tad prior, because when I finally did enter the tent, and my eyes adjusted to the sudden dimness, I was able to make out the old sloth-leader himself.

And old was an understatement. This guy looked like his birthday was the same date as dirt’s.

“Um, hello there, Leader Elmer,” I said with a little awkward bow to the shriveled man sitting in something that looked like a beanbag chair covered with a Turkish rug. “My name is Alex Brightwood, and I first wanted to say thank you for your unwarranted hospitality. I know caring for us was not something you could have anticipated, or were even obligated to do, and yet you and your people have done so anyway. You helped me save my son, and I am eternally grateful.”

The leader continued to smile, and he did a complex hand gesture directed at Madam Morta.

“Elmer would like me to translate for him because he knows your time works against you sometimes,” she said with a slight frown on her face that told me, despite her translation, the elder’s words didn’t make as much sense as she’d hoped.

“I’m willing to listen in any manner,” I clarified just in case these guys thought I had anywhere else to be currently.

I was just happy I was out of my sick room.

Elmer nodded again in that easygoing way that reminded me of Arvid, and I wondered how much of his traits were part of his subspecies and just a part of what made him Arvid. Either way, it was nice to see the similarity, even though it made me want to rush out of this epic treehouse in a bid to hasten my return to the airship.

The sloth-leader then moved his hands again in a way I recognized as some sort of shorthand combined with sign language, and I waited patiently for Morta to translate.

“There has been much talk of you, Ambassador Brightwood,” she said in lieu of him speaking with his own voice. “Are you aware your reputation precedes you?”

“From the moment I got to Aventoll, it has been a universal constant that news spreads quickly on the islands, and now apparently between the islands,” I said to him.

“Oh, yes, it is true, people will constantly surprise you at how predictable they are,” Elmer said through Morta. “But you are an individual who refuses to be anticipated or pinned down. Isn’t that right?”

“I suppose,” I said as I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’ve always been told I have issues with authority, and I’m the type who likes to play Devil’s Advocate just to be contrary. Is that what you mean?”

The sloth-man took a moment to chuckle in a slow rolling manner as he stuck his tall staff into the ground in front of him. He then got to his three-toed feet and hobbled closer to me.

Time apparently worked her magic even on a strong and hearty species such as the Okoba people and had worn down this man until he was reduced from what had to be an impressive height, all the way down to my size.

The severe curvature of his spine gave him a stooped over posture that was rounded and smooth almost like a river rock, but when I looked into Elmer’s face, his eyes seemed to hold a sharpness and wit usually common with youth.

“There is no knowing what I mean until you have discovered what I meant,” Elmer replied through Morta. “But don’t worry about that. It is clear you have more to concern yourself with than the ramblings of a much too old man. So, go ahead, my boy, ask me your first question even though it is not the question you really want to ask me.”

I blinked at the eccentric elder with a puzzled frown. He seemed just on the verge of senile when he spoke like that, but I kept returning to the sharpness I saw in the depths of his gaze that reminded me of his true intelligence.

It was an odd way of conversing, and I couldn’t really decide if he was being duplicitous in any way or not, so I just went with the flow.

“Okay, I want to know if there is any way you can help me return to my airship either by communicating with them en route, or by getting me to the Isle of Eng where we were heading before my son and I took our fall,” I said.

I didn’t know if anyone in the wheelhouse saw us fall, so the possibility that none of them knew where we were was a good one, and rather terrifying when it came to Aventoll’s limited means of communication.

“Yes, this is the question you are obligated to ask, aren’t you?” Elmer relayed with more complex hand signs. “Unfortunately, the answers to both of your questions are not ones that are useful to you. We do not have the level of sophistication you are accustomed to. But you are, of course, welcome to stay as long as you can lend a hand to our community. Now, go ahead and ask me what you really want to know.”

I tilted my head curiously at his strange phrasing, and I wondered what else I apparently was champing at the bit to ask him.

But my priorities were pretty clear: get back to the rest of my family hopefully in one piece, and as soon as possible.

“I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” I finally said, but instead of an answer, Elmer simply walked out of the tent with a wave in our direction that ostensibly meant we were supposed to follow.

And, of course, the man was too enigmatic not to see what he was up to next, so Rylan and I shuffled out behind him and followed him all the way to the edge of one of the majestic branches.

The sun was now sinking below the flat horizon and made the sky look like orange meringue whipped with hot-pink streaks of clouds. It was quite stunning in and of itself, but what made it even more magical was how the last of the sun’s rays hit all of the dewdrops in the canopy at once and threw the whole forest into a rainbow disco.

“Woah!” Rylan said as he looked down at all of the flickering rainbow patches on his shirt and turned slowly in place like he was a disco ball. “This is so amazing.”

The sloth-elder merely nodded and closed his eyes when he felt a breeze against his graying shaggy face.

Then, while he was enjoying himself, the grizzled old man began to hum.

His tune, it turned out, was immediately recognizable to both Rylan and me, because my son stopped mid-twirl and stared at Elmer with the same shocked expression that was no doubt on my own face.

The simple tune the Okoba leader was humming to himself consisted of only four painfully familiar notes. The first three notes were a sustained pitch until the last lilted up a whole step, and the whole tune reminded me of a pretty songbird.

Finally, Elmer ceased his humming and gestured with his hands. “Now, do you know the question you most want to ask me?”

“Yes,” I whispered when my voice seemingly decided to waiver. “I want to know who or what keeps haunting my nightmares.”

Chapter 20

After I asked my question, I knew the sloth-elder was correct. This really was the question that had been burning me up on the inside ever since I first heard that fateful scream in my subconscious mind.

Who did this voice belong to, and should Rylan and I be worried?

But apparently now that I’d asked the all-important question to Elmer the Leader of the Okoba, he seemed to have all the time in the world to do everything else but answer my question.

Madam Morta, who was still acting as his official translator, explained Elmer wanted to have tea with Rylan and me in the greenhouse before he would answer any more questions.

Typical.

So, off we went to the lower area of the branches where the greenhouse was located close enough to the sun, yet dappled by the mighty Okoba leaves overhead that were either clear or an opaque white that cast the perfect amount of shading. With the sheer size and the interesting ribbed pattern on the undersides, the leaves reminded me of the belly of a humpback whale, and the way they waved up and down in the gentle breeze reminded me of the great beasts’ graceful movements in the water.

The peacefulness of it all calmed me down and helped me to organize my mind. It also helped that a few of the sloth-folk who occasionally passed us kept giving me articles of clothing, as if all of them knew what I needed and decided to each give me something separately. It was a little funny, and for some reason really endearing, and if I already loved Arvid, I doubly loved his entire species simply for their kind eccentricities.

But despite the fresh comfy clothes, which consisted of a long open vest, harem pants, and socks with grippy things on the bottom, my brain was still gnawing on the burning question, and especially over the sloth-elder.

There was something about Elmer that I couldn’t put my finger on, but he definitely conducted himself like every other crafty old coot who had some knowledge hoarded away over everybody else. Distantly, part of me realized this was probably a lesson in patience, but another larger part of me couldn’t wait to become old and half-senile just so I could get away with antics such as these.

Indirectness really frustrated me, and by the time the greenhouses came into view, I was revved up again with anticipation and a little bit of irritation.

At least I wasn’t the only one crawling out of my skin with suspense because Rylan was just as bad as me, if not worse, and he was doubly awful at trying to hide it.

He jittered beside me the whole damn way down to the level where a veritable jungle of other plants were being grown under more sun glass. However, he kept his tongue from rambling or saying something rude, even though I knew his impatience was getting the best of him.

It was amusing enough that it distracted me from my own gnawing need to know just what the darkhell this guy was talking about.

“Leader Elmer would like you both to pour the tea,” Madam Morta said once we were all settled in the greenhouse under a tree that had blue palm-looking fronds sprouting from its branches.

What was interesting about this tree was despite how humid and close the greenhouse was when we walked in, when we sat under the blue branches of this tree, we were all treated with a gentle breeze.

“Is the tree doing that?” Rylan asked, and he pointed upward while I poured out some tea for him from the pot on the squat table.

Elmer only answered with a serene nod and glanced up at the blue palm. “Zeeeephyr Treeeee.”

“It’s nice,” I commented and handed the iron teapot to Rylan.

He took it and carefully doled out a portion for the sloth-elder.

When Elmer’s cup was full, he took the pot from Rylan and then served Madam Marta. Of course, he took the longest with his pouring, and after about the second or third time the wily coot glanced up at me, I had a suspicion he was purposefully being slower then he really needed to be. I wondered if that was some tactic to get people to underestimate him, and if so, it was no wonder he was the leader.

It was also a wonder nobody assassinated him just to speed things along.

Eventually, I gave up the ghost and decided to go with it no matter how impatient I was feeling, and I took a sip of the fragrant tea in my hands.

The light floral taste of the tea reminded me of hibiscus and mint, and the more I drank, the more serene I felt, but not in a way that made me feel doped or drugged. Whatever this tea was made out of, it seemed to inspire or manifest the actual patience I had abandoned along the way, potentially even before I crash-landed on this place.

When I finished the end of my cup, I breathed in a heavy sigh and let it out as if I was cleansing my body of any and all tension.

Then I looked at both Rylan and the bat-woman, and their expressions both told a similar story to what I was feeling, and as I set my cup back down on the low table, I met elder Elmer’s milky eyes once more.

No words needed to be exchanged between us, just a mutual understanding and a light conversation with eye contact. I got the feeling as I gazed into his warm eyes that I wasn’t the first brash young person to cross his path, but I was perhaps the most willing to listen.

If this was the case, I wanted to live up to whatever standard he saw in me, because it was clear he conveyed more through his gaze than any words or sign language.

“Ah,” the bat-woman said knowingly as she also put her cup down. “I have never seen someone outside of Om tack onto the particulars of Omish communication as fast as you have. The people of this island see time differently, in both infinitely fast and infinitely slow speeds simultaneously. Speaking is a task, but nonverbal conversations can occur lightning quick.”

“Is it a form of telepathy?” I asked in fascination.

“Not in the traditional sense, like when it comes to the augur-women,” Morta explained. “It is more a harmony or a resonance between two beings that transcends language altogether.”

“But how is that possible?” I questioned skeptically. Telepathy was already a stretch to some of my more pragmatic reasoning.

“It is not as uncommon as you think,” she chuckled and leaned back on her cushy pouf that matched both Rylan’s and my own. “Surely you have been in connection with someone close to you, where you can pick up on the subtleties of their body movements, they’re breathing, the flickering of their eyes, what have you?”

I sat back on my own pouf and thought for a moment. It was true I had people close to me now, so I knew exactly what she was talking about.

Often, Zoie and I especially could forgo the use of language whenever we were passionately connected, whether that was in making love or in fighting side by side. We knew each other so well inside and out that anticipating the other’s needs was like second nature.

Even Horus and I on occasion were able to finish each other’s sentences or make each other bust up laughing with just a glance.

“I suppose you’re right, it’s not so uncommon,” I conceded to the bat-woman. “But I’m not sure I’m operating on the same level of nuance as old Elmer here.”

“Haaaaaaaaaaa,” Elmer himself chose that moment to break in with a drawn-out laugh that had me and Rylan snickering into our own hands.

“For brevity sake, I will continue to translate for him,” Madam Morta said with her own chuckle. “Just until you get the hang of how the locals speak. Don’t worry, you’ll pick up on it a lot faster than you think.”

“I promise I’ll try my hardest to learn how to communicate with you guys,” I said with a smile, but my tone was sincere.

It made me wonder how many conversations I could have with Arvid in the future if I didn’t have to wait five minutes for every word to come out of his mouth.

“So, let us get down to the roots, shall we?” Madam Morta translated. “You both are wondering how to get back to where you came from, however, did you ever think to wonder how it is you came here in the first place?”

I frowned and exchanged glances with Rylan.

“I was sleepwalking, right?” Rylan piped up. “I tend to do that a lot, and Dad tried to stop me.”

“Yes, it is not uncommon for you to do that, but what is uncommon is for me to do so as well,” I added. “When I found Rylan, I’d just woken up myself and had no memory of walking out onto the balcony.”

“What do you remember?” Elmer signed.

“The woman was screaming,” Rylan answered immediately. “I have Traveler blood in me, and I can hear people who suffer in their nightmares if they are close by. I was trying to get to her because her sobs caused me pain.”

“I didn’t know it was still so painful for you,” I said as I regarded my son once more, and now that we were in a brighter part of the tree, I could see the deep bags under his eyes. “Are you still hearing her?”

“Every night since I got back to Nata,” he admitted and then cast his eyes back down to the table. “Lately, I wake up in random places, but after what just happened, I’ve been trying even harder to train myself out of it. It was going fine for a while until I came to Terr with Jenner.”

“You’re still sleepwalking from this even back home?” I asked as my alarm ratcheted up a few more notches.

“It started small, but it kept growing,” he said. “It’s only gotten louder since we’ve been here. And now I can even hear her singing sometimes when I’m awake. You heard her singing, too, right?”

I racked my brain as the tattered pieces attempted to align, and a memory I thought was a fantasy born out of the painful fever dreams bubbled to my mind’s eye. It was the image of a pale-green face, garnet gem-like eyes, and indigo hair that defied gravity.

“Not only can I hear her, but I think I actually saw her,” I said when the memory finished coalescing in my mind. Now that I was clearheaded and had evidence that she was in fact real, I was sure if she’d been calling out for help before, she would still be in need of help now.

“What do you mean you saw her?” Morta asked.

“She was singing to me in the Dark Realm.” I felt my brow wrinkle as I tried to keep hold of that hazy memory. “Ever since I was damaged from a botched augur-mage trial, it’s become increasingly easier to slip down into my unconsciousness farther than I want sometimes. I was struggling really hard to not land myself there when I was feeling so weak because I knew I would be a prime target for any of the creatures down there. But instead of waking up alone and exposed, I was being watched over by this beautiful woman. I thought she was a Dark Realm creature herself.”

“What did she look like?” Elmer asked through Morta.

“She looked unlike anything I’ve ever seen on Aventoll so far,” I said. “If I had to describe her as something from my world, I would have classified her as a mermaid or better yet, a siren.”

“What is a siren?” Rylan asked me.

“It’s a legendary species of only females, and they live in the ocean so they could tempt sailors to their deaths through their beautiful singing,” I explained.

“That doesn’t sound very nice,” the kid said with a frown.

“It’s really not, but those creatures are just a myth where I come from, so I don’t know what her motives were. It definitely didn’t seem harmful.” I pursed my lips as I remembered her gentle voice and soft hands in my hair. “Quite the opposite, actually. But when I tried to talk to this woman, she got scared and dove into the pool of water next to me. After that, I managed to pull myself out of the Dark Realm, and I haven’t heard her voice since.”

“Lucky,” Rylan grumbled and rested his chin on the top of his hand. “I haven’t been able to truly sleep since we got here.”

“We’ll work on your meditation,” I promised and squeezed his shoulder before I turned to the elder. “What do you know about this woman?”

“The woman you are describing is a very rare creature indeed,” Madam Morta said. “She is what the Okoba call a Lakuna child.”

“What’s that?” Rylan asked and then looked into his cup for more tea, but his was long empty like the rest of ours.

“In the forest, there are large wells interspersed throughout.” The bat-woman took up the teapot once more and poured a little in all of our cups as she went on. “These lake-like wells are giant reservoirs where the groundwater has puddled up through the earth. These are what the Omites call Lakunas. The Lakuna children were known for their ability to call forth the groundwater through song, which creates the mist that these people distill their drinking water from. If what you say is true, and a Lakuna child has been reaching out to you in distress, it is imperative that we figure out how you can save her.”

“But why?” I asked and took another sip of calming tea when I felt my adrenaline starting to spike. As intriguing as the encounter with the siren-woman was, I really didn’t need to be launched on a time-consuming side quest at the moment.

“The Lakuna children are blessed by Mercedes, and are even said to be the offspring of the Sacred Fish,” Morta said.

“There are people on Om who aren’t Omish?” I raised my eyebrows.

“There are people all over Aventoll who are manifested from magic and legends,” she continued. “If one has chosen you and manifested herself in front of you, then you are fated to help her or else suffer the consequences of a curse.”

Oh, great, more curses. What was it this time? Did I need to carry her on my back up a mountain like Madame Zeroni?

“I’m guessing this curse isn’t like regular curses, is it?” I asked with a fair amount of trepidation, and I figured I hit the nail on the head because Morta’s eyes got really big as she flickered them over to Rylan and back.

“This curse is something that tries to bring balance,” she explained. “In particular, if a fated person fails to help a Lakuna child, their own child might be taken as recompense. A child for a child. That is the way of this curse.”

Well, fuck me sideways. It seemed as if the side quest was no longer optional.

“Wow, I just love when my hand is forced like this,” I grumbled much to the amusement of Leader Elmer.

“Do you really not want to help her, Dad?” Rylan asked me, and it was almost like he hadn’t even heard the part about him being in Serious Jeopardy from this surprise curse.

I went to snap back something sarcastic, but I stopped at the look of innocent confusion on his young face.

“She sounds like she’s really in trouble,” he added.

“It’s not that I don’t want to help her,” I said as I dug my fingers into my brow where a headache was starting to bloom behind my eyes. “It’s just… I don’t even know where to start, and I don’t appreciate my family being threatened as a way to ensure my cooperation, no matter if it was the cosmos or the Goddess herself who designed the curse. But, of course, I’ll help her, especially because if she is a descendant of the Sacred Fish, I believe I owe them a favor anyway.”

That was putting it lightly, considering one of the large Leviathan creatures was the reason my Crew and I were able to escape the Endless Storm brewing off the eastern coast of Terr before we’d even arrived on the harsh island.

Even now, when I closed my eyes, I could see the vivid chrome irises of the black and green mega-koi. I’d begged it in my moment of need, and it had saved all of us as well as The Soaring Light by swallowing us whole in its gaping mouth. By doing this, the Sacred Fish was able to protect us from the hurricane, and it even brought us closer to Terr so we wouldn’t have to sail the broken boat any farther than we had to.

When I explained this all to the elders across from me, they both regarded me with matching astonished expressions.

“I have never known of such a thing,” Madam Morta finally said. “You have already been chosen by the Sacred Children of Mercedes in a way that is unheard of. But yes, it indeed might be the debt you are to pay back by saving the descendant of Mo’ah.”

“What do I need to do?” I asked. If I’d truly been called by this mysterious woman to help, then that must mean she was truly in trouble for the Sacred Fish named Mo’ah to cash in this debt.

“You must find the Lakuna she is in,” Madam Morta said. “Which actually shouldn’t be too hard considering there’s only one where the Lakuna descendants live.”

“There’s only one Lakuna?” I asked.

“Only one that still has life in it,” she amended. “The Lakuna Village by The Rock Quarry is your best bet, but it has been taken by the Overseer. He was appointed by the Asher Council to oversee the production of crystals being mined by the Tatabo Omites who live in the plains. He has appointed himself the Mayor of Lakuna Village and lives like a gluttonous swine off the backs of the villagers.

“This Overseer sounds like a fuck-ass,” Rylan said with a furious scowl, and I didn’t even correct him on his language because, yeah, he fucking did.

But I also made a mental note to curse less around him. Or at least teach him how to curse properly. One of the two.

“He used to be a benevolent man and would work with our people so we weren’t being overtaxed, but in the recent seasons, he has grown mad with power.” Elmer signed. “We were forced to cut off from our Tatabo brothers in the plains because the Overseer started acting more like a slave-driver. That is why you had a less than warm greeting when you ran into Ozzy. He thought you were one of the Overseer’s henchmen.”

“Ozzy, huh,” I said as I remembered the large sloth-man with the cyclops hood. “Remind me to thank him for not smashing our heads in.”

“You can thank him yourself because I imagine you’ll be needing someone by your side to make it to the Village,” the bat-woman said. “I’m sure he will fight anyone else if they try to volunteer as a way of making amends for attacking you.”

“He really doesn’t have to do that,” I said. “From what it sounds like, he’s the main reason why Rylan and I are still alive.”

“It is his debt to pay because his brother is under your employ,” Elmer signed for Morta to translate.

“Arvid is Ozzy’s brother?” I asked, and Rylan and I exchanged looks. “It really is fine, though. I threatened him, too, if I recall correctly.”

“You totally did,” Ry snickered. “It was funny because you were like, ‘I’m gonna fight you once there stops being two of you,’ and then you passed out.”

“I did not!” I said and playfully shoved him in the shoulder. “You’re super lucky. There’s not many people I would take that crap from.”

“Hah, it was totally true! You were even cross-eyed!” he joked back and tried to dodge my hand, but my reach was too long, and I ended up poking him in the ribs so he would laugh even harder.

Elmer and Madam Morta looked on with fond expressions in their milky eyes as I looped my son into a headlock for a noogie.

His laughter started out as that deep belly laugh but abruptly seized up painfully in his lungs like he suddenly had tuberculosis.

I immediately stopped my roughhousing and supported him by the shoulders, but his coughing continued on far longer than it should have.

“Rylan?” I placed a flat palm on his back in the middle of his shoulder blades as his face turned beet-red. “Breathe, buddy, breathe.”

Finally, he gasped in a rusty breath, and when he removed his hand from his mouth, his face went as pale as mine probably did.

Because, there in Rylan’s cupped palm, was a small but unmistakable pool of blood.

Chapter 21

“Why can’t I go?” Rylan asked me for the hundred thousandth time as he watched me pack forlornly from his position on the side of his bed.

Since I was mostly recovered, the Okoba people moved me into the guest suite Rylan had been staying in since we got here. It was a bit bigger than my sick room, with two beds and two wardrobes full of modest clothes we were allowed to use.

In lieu of answering his question, I pointed to a spot of dried blood that had dribbled onto his light-gray tunic after his incredible coughing fit. “That’s why.”

“But I feel fine!” he argued. “I just laughed too hard. It happens to everyone! Who says this is that stupid curse thing?”

“You don’t hack up blood for nothing,” I said while I looked over the canvas and twine that came with the pack to see if it was in good repair.

Lakuna Village was only about a solid day’s walk east from the Okoba Forest, but if it decided to rain at all, we would be forced to stop and camp.

According to Madam Morta, rainstorms on Om were no joke.

“It was the only time it happened, and I really do feel fine,” Rylan grumbled.

“Elder Elmer told us it’s a slow-acting curse, so it doesn’t matter that you feel fine now, you’re gonna start to feel it soon,” I explained with more patience than I felt.

“But you’ll totally help that girl long before I’ll even feel it, watch!” he said.

“As much as I dig your faith in me, you don’t know that for certain,” I sighed and buckled up the pack. “And I really can’t be worried about you while I’m trying to do this. You’ll be a distraction to me, and I can’t afford that. We’ve been over this.”

“You don’t know that,” he challenged. “Maybe if I am there to help, it’ll go faster.”

“I’m done talking about this,” I said with a huff and slung the pack over my shoulders. “You need to stay here where Meelo can keep an eye on you in case you get worse. Which you will.”

“But it’s a slow-acting curse, like you said.” He followed me out of our shared suite like an annoying little fly. “We’ve been here almost five days, and the only thing that happened was the blood thing.”

“Ry--” I attempted to cut in, but he steamrolled over me.

“Madam Morta even said the Village wasn’t that far away so we should be there long before I start to feel really bad, and--” he rambled, but I stopped in the corridor and gripped his shoulder.

“Rylan!” I snapped. “You are not coming, and that is final. There’s no knowing how rapidly you could deteriorate, and your well-being is not something I need to have constantly gnawing on my mind like a pesky little rat.”

His expression shuttered as his mouth snapped shut, and I knew I’d maybe gone a little too far when he stepped away from the hand I had on his shoulder.

“I get it,” he muttered.

“Rylan…” I sighed and tried to place my hand on his arm, but he took another step back.

“I’ll stay here so I’m not a pest,” he said flatly.

I bit my lip at the tone of his voice and tried to figure out how to soften the jaggedness my own worry and distraction were causing me, but there really was nothing I could say.

There were times I needed to put my foot down for his well-being, and I didn’t need to explain myself to him. He just had to deal with it, and when it came to something this serious, I was worried if I showed any signs of weakness, he might think I was softening to his idea, so I let my words be what they were.

“I’ll be back sooner than you think,” I promised and ruffled his hair like usual, but the gesture was awkward and forced.

“Okay,” he said, and before I could say anything else, he turned stiffly on his heels and went back to our room.

I watched him go with a gusty sigh.

Parenting angsty teenagers was never a walk in the park, but I loved him enough to endure the attitude and do what I had to for his own good.

“They might not appreciate our decision for them now, but in time they will,” Madam Morta’s sage-like voice sounded from behind me, and I pulled my eyes away from the closed door of our rooms.

“I sure hope so,” I said as I followed her down to the base of the large tree where the bonfire was still blazing away even higher now that night had settled in.

The nine-foot-tall form of Ozzy stood out easily near the large arched doorway where Elder Elmer was already waiting.

I slowed in my approach so I could watch the two sloth-men conversing in that strange wordless way the Omites had with their gestures and signs, and I hoped I was able to at least pick up the basics because the journey was going to feel a lot longer if I couldn’t adequately communicate with my traveling companion.

“Brightwooood,” Elder Elmer droned in his worn-leather voice.

“Elder.” I nodded. “I was wondering if there was a weapons’ cache I could peruse. I’m afraid when I ‘left’ home, I left without any defenses.”

“The Om-folk don’t use weapons because they have no need for them,” the bat-woman explained.

As if to demonstrate, Ozzy raised his hand, brandished his three sharp sloth-claws, and clicked them together to prove his point.

“Ah,” I said. “I suppose I will just have to fashion something like a dagger or a spear on the road.”

When I said this, I was amused to see Ozzy turn slowly but pointedly on one of his large feet. “Gooooooo nooooow.”

I’d never seen an impatient sloth before, and the incongruous sight before me made me crack a smile. “I guess I’d better follow him.”

“You should,” Morta agreed. “He may not look it, but Ozrid can cover quite a lot of ground when he puts his mind to it.”

“Got it,” I said when I spied the big guy waiting at the large double doors that were in the process of unlocking about a hundred wooden locks, and he was staring like he could make them go faster if he just glared hard enough. “Any other advice about the land of Om I need to know about?”

“Other than the scourge that comes with the Red Sky, the creatures of Om are docile and either eat plants or rocks,” the bat-woman said. “However, as you may have noticed, everything on this island is quite big, so even though the creatures have no interest in you, they will defend their territories if they need to.”

“Any aggressive species I should especially steer clear of?” I questioned as I gripped the straps of my pack with hands that were already beginning to sweat. Going out to traipse through an unknown forest with the threat of a Red Sky Event was bad enough, and to leave the sanctuary of the ‘Home Tree’ without a blade or my crossbow was even harder, so I wanted to be prepared as much as humanly possible.

“All of them can be aggressive when they feel threatened, but especially stay away from the spiny-beasts,” she cautioned. “They live under the roots of the Okoba trees and do not like loud noises.”

“Okay, spiny-beasts don’t like loud noise,” I said aloud for the benefit of my own mental checklist. “And what do they look like?”

“They are masters at camouflage, and they are known for their eight legs,” she said.

“Oh…” The little wind in my sails vanished at the thought of what basically translated to Huge-Ass Invisible Spiders with Noise Phobias.

Awesome.

“Do not fret,” the bat-woman said. “Ozzy is good at identifying their nests.”

“Good for him, but I’m not sure what good that does me since he doesn’t seem to like me all that much,” I said as we both watched the sloth-man snort at me over his shoulder with a scowl. Now that the door was finally open to the night, I knew he was telling me to get a move on. “I wouldn’t put it past him to lead me into a nest just for taking my sweet time.”

“He is obligated--” Morta began, but I cut her off.

“Obligated does not mean willing,” I said with an arched eyebrow, and she conceded the point with a chuckle.

“He is cantankerous at times, but he is loyal to a fault,” she assured me with a matronly pat on my elbow. “The only other advice I have for you is try not to get separated in the mist. It has a tendency to play tricks on even the sharpest minds.”

“Take care of Rylan for me,” I said, and she nodded her white head.

“He is in good hands,” she vowed.

“Thank you,” I said, and with a final glance at Elder Elmer’s serene face, I turned and followed Ozzy into the light fog.

The trek onward was about as scintillating as I was expecting when traveling with Mr. Grumpy through a landscape I could hardly see through the darkness and mist. Logically, I understood the need to get as quick of a start as possible due to Rylan’s deteriorating condition, but the boredom combined with my natural circadian rhythm was starting to make me yawn more times than I took a breath.

About the fifth jaw-cracking yawn in a row, which gained me a dirty look from my companion, I decided to set my mind on getting Ozzy to crack his self-imposed silence. Maybe if he ended up liking me just a little bit, he could help me find a good sharp rock or stick I could fashion into a quarterstaff, so I began making banal commentary as we hiked along.

It started out as a steady stream of idle observations that I tried to turn into a game of I Spy, but the sloth-man was supremely unimpressed by my attempt to interact with him, so it ended up being a game against myself, which got old super quick.

After that, I just started talking about random stuff to see if there were any topics that might penetrate his tough, unsociable exterior. I covered a gamut of things from weather, to plants, to animals, and then even to cooking because I thought if he was really related to Arvid, then they might have at least that in common.

However, nothing I rambled about seemed to have any effect, so I gave up and just talked about whatever entered my mind.

I didn’t know when I caught on to it myself, but at some point my random stream of consciousness was no longer all that random, and I wasn’t sure when it was exactly that I started talking about my family.

Of course, I described my wives and Amaya first, since I was really missing them. Then I moved on to describing Nata Isle and all the things I missed about it as well as what my two estates were like with Mr. Jenner, the raccoon-brothers, and even Ms. Vela.

Nothing seemed to penetrate Ozzy’s shell, and he kept up his steady pace through the forest until I got around to talking about Arvid.

I didn’t notice it at first, but when I relayed the prank he pulled on me with the powerful Omite aphrodisiac dubbed Marriage Porridge, Ozzy slowed somewhat as if he was listening. And when I laughed at the forgone and rather frisky conclusion of that story, I could have sworn I saw the right corner of his mouth twitch as if he was struggling not to smile.

I saw my chance and took my shot.

“Sooo, you and Arvid are brothers, huh?” I asked.

The sloth-man came to a deliberate stop and glared down at me with a hint of a growl. “Sssshhhhhh!”

“Woah, alright,” I said as I held up my hands. “You don’t have to answer that--”

“Noooo,” he said and jabbed a claw at the ground where we were both walking. “Roooooots. Sssshhhh.”

I followed his gaze to the ground to our right, and when I raised my Stonelight, I was able to see the roots at the base of the nearest tree.

Most of the silent monoliths smoothly tapered down to the ground so their roots weren’t visible, but the tree Ozzy was pointing to was a different story. Instead of smooth ground, the roots of the tree were bulging up through the ground like veins.

My eyes widened when I remembered what Madam Morta told me, and I looked back at the sloth-man with realization.

Yes, his gaze seemed to say. Spiny-beasts.

I nodded to let him know I understood what he was trying to convey, and then I stopped when it occurred to me we sort of did the talking without words thing, and Ozzy didn’t seem ticked off.

The rest of our walk before we settled for the night was spent in silence, but I had the ghost of a grin the entire way.

I was confident I could wear him down with enough time, so I decided to give the big guy a break from my incessant chatter. We set up camp against the broad back of a non-infested tree in companionable silence, and I discovered we had a good rhythm. Going by the lack of Ozzy’s usual scowl as he tended to the fire, I figured he was chill with my presence, so I occupied myself with honing a piece of that jagged flat rock that seemed to be everywhere.

In fact, I actually underestimated how chill my travel companion had become, and I startled slightly when he spoke.

“Aaaaaarrrviiid?” Ozzy asked in a way that sounded like he was trying to sound casual.

“Yeah? What about him?” I asked just as casually and made sure to focus on my sharpening.

“Heee isss… goooood?”

I chanced a glance at him and saw him concentrating a little too hard on whatever he had bubbling in the pot.

“Yeah, he’s pretty good,” I said. “I haven’t known him for too long, but he’s a part of a good group of people I trust.”

Ozzy nodded slowly as he stirred something that might have been… stew?

“Heeee issss… haaaaappy?” he asked.

“Yeah, I think he’s pretty happy,” I said. “Why do you ask?”

The sloth-man huffed as he stirred the stew a little more vigorously, like it could help him find the words or something. “Maaaaaannny mooooons siiiinccceee…”

He made eye contact and held my gaze in a way that felt different than before.

“It’s been a while since you’ve seen him, yeah?” I completed for him, and he nodded. “Do you mind if I ask you why?”

“Hmmm,” Ozzy sighed with a frown. “Weeeee claaaaassssh.”

“Understandable,” I conceded. “Are you the older or younger brother?”

“Yoooounger,” he droned.

“Ah, I see,” I chuckled. Even though Ozzy was quite a bit larger than Arvid by two feet and at least a hundred pounds, it was amusing that he was the younger sibling.

“Arrrrvid issss diiiifferent,” he continued in a pensive tone. “Haaaard tooo uuuunderstaaaand. Slooower.”

“What do you mean?” I cocked my head because to me all of the Omites seemed slow.

“Caaaan’t…” He then clicked his claws together a few times and gestured like he and the Elder were before we left.

“Arvid can’t sign?” I filled in, and Ozzy nodded in confirmation.

Then the sloth-man locked gazes with me in a way that was a bit more intense, and the less I tried to analyze his face for signs of what he was thinking, the easier it was to pick up on what he was trying to convey.

He had difficulty among our kind, his eyes seemed to say.

I blinked when I received his meaning without the utterance of a single word, and I got excited.

It was a type of communication that came almost as easily as breathing, but Madam Morta was right to say this was not telepathy. With telepathy, I could actually hear the voice in my head, whether it was Amaya or even Prosper, my faithful butterfly-pegasus. But speaking with Ozzy was different because instead of hearing a distinct voice, the sloth-man’s words were… felt inside me like a sixth sense.

I kept my gaze locked with him and attempted to send something back through our strange connection.

Can Arvid talk like this? I asked without words and pointed between us.

He cannot. Ozzy shook his head and then gestured with his clawed hand. And so he went away.

Mad? I scowled and bared my teeth for a second before returning my face to neutral, so to speak.

Instead of an answer, he snorted out through his big nostrils, broke eye contact, and busied himself with serving us up some questionable-looking stew from the small pot over the fire.

Apparently, the Omite brothers had a falling out of some sort, but I wasn’t exactly sure why. All I knew was Arvid had never mentioned his family, so I’d been under the impression he had none.

It seemed like a touchy subject, but when I took a bite of the truly awful meal the big guy had prepared, I couldn’t help myself.

“Well, the cooking trait definitely skipped you, didn’t it?” I froze when I realized what I’d just said and wished the ground would swallow me up.

After a moment, a low hissing sound could be heard, and it alarmed me enough my gaze snapped back up to him. The sight I saw made me grin so wide my cheeks hurt, because there was the giant beast of a man with a viciously clawed hand held up to his mouth, and he laughed one of those strange snaky laughs where it was all air hissing through teeth.

It was probably the best thing I’d seen since coming to Om, and when he continued to laugh, I eventually joined in.

“Iiiiittt’s truuuuue,” Ozzy droned and then pointed at himself. “Baaaaaad cooooook.”

We continued to laugh a little longer, and I was pleased to discover the frigid ice between us had finally thawed. I felt a lot more at ease with my traveling companion by the time we hunkered down for the night to catch a few Z’s, but because of all the rest I’d gotten over the past four days from recuperating, I found a rare opportunity to actually get some much-needed meditation in.

However, instead of letting my mind drift about here and there, I focused my will on something specific…

The Dark Realm coalesced around me, and when I pictured that mossy shore and that deep blue lake, the clearing where I had my first encounter with the mysterious Lakuna-woman came into view.

I gazed around for any signs of her, but there was none, so I decided to call out. After all, if she was able to “siren-summon” Rylan and me, then there was a chance it worked the other way around as well.

“Hello?” I said and tried not to feel stupid for talking to nobody. “Hello?”

There was heavy silence all around at first, but after a moment, I caught sight of a ripple in the mirrored surface of the lake, so I approached cautiously and took a seat on a tree stump to wait.

I didn’t have to wait very long, and it seemed as if I’d just made myself comfortable when a figure with deep blue hair slowly rose from the center of the pristine water like she was the Lady of the Lake in a King Arthur tale, and I got to my feet in a dumbstruck fashion when she started to slowly walk toward me on top of the water’s surface.

She stopped on the bank a few feet away from me, and I waited for the suspicious look in her maroon eyes to ebb, but it did not. She just continued to glare at me as if I was the one who had the audacity to disturb her when it was her wailing voice in my head that had been disturbing both me and my kid from getting a good night’s sleep.

Somehow, her standoffish posture irked me a little, and I huffed.

“Look, you’re the one who kept calling out for my son and me, and now that I’m here, you don’t want to talk?” I took a slow step toward her, but she quickly skittered back so she was hovering over the water again.

The gesture was clearly born out of fear of being harmed. It was a learned behavior, one that told me a little more about this mysterious woman, and my earlier frustration faded.

With both of my palms up, I backed away and took a seat back on the stump I was sitting on before.

She watched every one of my movements with laser intensity to make sure I wasn’t a threat to her, but I merely let her take her time and waited patiently with my hands folded in my lap.

Finally, all of my waiting seemed to pay off because the siren-woman left the safety of the lake, walked her light-green feet onto dry land, and stopped in front of me. When she was no longer over the water, the free-floating effect that had her hair waving gently around her face seemed to vanish, and the shimmering dark blue sheet of her straight hair fell to her knees.

I gazed up at her with an open expression on my face, and she looked down at me and searched for whatever she was looking for with those alluring maroon eyes.

“Where is… small one?”

Her speaking voice had a smoky little rasp to it, and the way she accented her words sounded vaguely South African.

“Small one?” I asked her, and she nodded. “You mean Rylan?”

“Small one. Smallest one.” She frowned as she struggled with her broken sentences. “Ry-lan.”

I smirked a little at her over pronunciation of my son’s name, but this seemed to be the wrong thing to do because she huffed through her nose, twirled around, and stomped away like she was going to go back into the depths of the lake.

“Wait!” I said as I jumped to my feet and reached for her wrist.

“Eeeeeyaaaah!” the woman shrieked like she’d been burned, and I let her go.

“Sorry!” I said and backed up to give her space.

“No touch!” she said sternly, but her delicate face was scrunched up rather cutely, so the effect was a little diminished.

“No touch, okay, got it,” I reassured her and took one more step back. “Just don’t leave again. I really am trying to help you.”

“Need Small One,” she said and continued to look around.

“He’s not here,” I told her, and she stopped and cocked her head.

“Yes,” she said with a deadpan look in her eyes that told me she thought I was about as intelligent as a toad. “Ry-lan. He close.”

“I can… call him, if you’d like?” I ventured. If she really wanted, I could probably summon the kid with our Dark Realm code word--

“No.” The woman made a slashing motion through the air with her hand. “He come. With you. He come. But not here. Where?”

I stared at her as a horrifying realization began to dawn on me.

“Fuck,” I groaned as I rubbed my aching head. “He snuck out and followed me again, didn’t he?”

The Lakuna-woman tilted her head this way and that, and a pair of ears fringed like fins around the edges popped out like she was a curious Labrador.

“Ry-lan,” she settled on, and then she followed me when I returned to my stump in order to meditate my way out of the Dark Realm.

“Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be back,” I told her, even though I wasn’t sure how much of my words she understood because she cocked her head to the other side.

“Wait,” she said, and my eyes flew open when I felt the lightest touch on my knee. She was now crouched down in front of me, and she was drawing a shape in the mud at my feet. After a moment, I could see the doodle was a little hut-like structure at the edge of what looked like the forest we were in, based on her rendition of the giant trees. “You and Small One. Find.”

“Find you?” I clarified, and she nodded once. “You’ll be here?”

She nodded again, and before I could ask anything else, she turned tail and dove back into the lake.

I sighed as I closed my eyes so I could return to the real world, and when I opened my eyes to the early misty morning, I was wholly unsurprised to hear a commotion taking place not too far away from our camp.

And it was the familiar sounds of my errant and incorrigible son caught up in some sort of trouble with a capital T.

Chapter 22

The screeching was what reached my consciousness first when I surfaced, and at first I thought I was somehow still asleep and suffering through a nightmare in which Crackers, the obnoxious pest, was involved.

A second later, however, Crackers himself rounded the broad tree trunk Ozzy and I had made camp behind, and he was screeching like someone was trying to skin him alive.

My eyes snapped open fully then, and my travel companion and I were on our feet seconds before Rylan crashed through our camp.

“Ruuuuuuuuun!” he yelled and flew past the sloth-man and me like the Devil himself was on his heels.

Ozzy blinked at me in utter confusion as the frantic kid blurred by us, but we didn’t even get to take a breath to try and sort ourselves before my worst fear rounded the tree by digging its eight clawed legs into the bark of the trunk before it landed down in front of us.

“Hsssssss!” The Giant Fucking Huge Ass Spider the same gray color and pattern as the Okoba tree hissed at us through a mandible packed with a whole mess of needle-like teeth.

“Fuck!” I said, and I barely had the mind to grab my pack as Ozzy and I both took off in the direction Rylan and Crackers did.

The spiny-beast did not like that, and I briefly wondered if the dozen or so eyes on its face aided it in its depth perception, or made it worse.

I hoped worse, but my hopes were dashed when the creature started spitting wads of stringy saliva at us from behind.

“Argh!” Rylan’s voice sounded ahead of me through the mist, and I aimed my trajectory in that direction.

“Come on!” I hauled him back to his feet with a rough hand on the back of his tunic and urged us forward even harder.

“Screech!” Crackers said, and the noise seemed to piss off the spiny-beast judging by the way the fine hairs all over its body trembled.

“Hsssssss!” One of the beast’s legs swiped at the orangish-yellow pest flapping around its face.

“Crackers!” Rylan ordered the screecher to heel, and the three of us were up and running again with Ozzy in the lead.

The sloth-man worked as an awesome bulldozer when it came to things like boulders and fallen branches in our way, especially since Rylan was starting to lag and stumble over his feet.

“Ry, you’ve got to pick up your feet!” I barked when I snatched the back of his tunic yet again and prevented him from face-planting and becoming spiny-beast chow.

“Ugh,” he wheezed harshly, and I briefly considered ditching my pack so I could carry him on my back again, but he dug down deep and kept stride with Ozzy and me.

“Raaaaaaaa!” Ozzy roared, and then in an impressive feat of continuous motion, the large sloth-man scooped up a basketball-sized rock, turned around, and launched the projectile directly at the monster behind us by using his own inertia.

The rock smashed into our pursuer and fractured into about a thousand shards similar to the makeshift dagger I was honing just the night before.

“Eeeeeek!” the spiny-beast squealed, and it was waylaid just enough to give us a bit of much needed distance away from it.

“Aheeeeead!” Ozzy pointed one of his long claws in front of us, and in that moment, the mist became sheer enough to see the edge of the Okoba Forest and where the Tatabo Plains started.

I knew from his meaning somehow that if we could just make it to the forest’s edge, the spiny-beast wouldn’t follow us, but it was still half a football field away, and Rylan picked the perfect moment to have a coughing fit.

“Rylan!” I yelled when he fell behind me and doubled over as the curse racked his young lungs and left drops of blood on his shirt and pants. “Stand up, come on.”

“Can’t!” he forced out before he dissolved into coughing again.

“Screech! Screech!” Crackers said and flapped around Rylan.

“I’m aware, Crackers!” I said, and I hauled Rylan into my arms and started jogging again.

“Hssssss!” The beast had caught up, and to all of our dismay, the commotion we were all making caused him to bring along a few friends.

Super.

“Raaaaaaa!” Ozzy stopped again to lob more of those exploding shrapnel rocks, but it was three of them against us. The sloth-man could also only move so fast, and on his next throw, one of the beasts shot out two wads of webbing to trap both his hands.

Ozzy roared and immediately started gnawing on the sticky strings, but I could tell it was going to take him a while, so I put Rylan back down next to a rotted log and pulled out the rough dagger I’d made, but my hope at doing any real damage with the things was looking grim.

“Hsssssss!” One of the spiny-beasts snapped at me with its razor-sharp teeth as I tried to divert the giant spiders away from my son, who was still coughing deep racking spasms that had him clutching himself around the torso.

“Hey!” I yelled and kicked a cloud of dirt up to keep their attention on me, which was supremely bad because, again, there were three of the huge spiders now pissed at me for being even more loud. “Come at me!”

“Hssssssss!” The one in the center lunged for me, but I danced away and slashed at one of its smaller pincers that tried to snip my hand off.

My adrenaline was pumping hard, and I didn’t know if the reason was due to my inbred phobia of the eight-legged freaks, but whatever the case, my time-trance was already champing at the bit for me to release it.

Tick.

The beast spat out another web ball, but the velocity slowed almost all the way down to a complete stop. I felt a tenuous tremble like the way a soap bubble shivers right before it pops, and I pulled the reins on my power so it was right on the edge.

If it evolved into a full-fledged time-stop, I knew I would only have a limited amount of time to hold it, and who knew if I was all charged up after being through the wringer. It was safer to rely on my more practiced time-trance, so I held that soap bubble on the edge of breaking for as long as I could…

Tick.

I dodged smoothly out of the path of the web-wad and then dove to the right so I could take out the beast heading straight for Ozzy.

Tick.

One of the beast’s back legs kicked a huge branch directly into my path, and I jumped cleanly over it before it even finished leaving the ground.

Tick.

Using the momentum I had, I ran up the bark-like back of the creature and then plunged the makeshift stone dagger deep into the top of its skull.

Tick.

I didn’t spare a second glance for the wretched thing, back vaulted off its head, and landed in a somersault. The moment I jumped back up to my feet, I was off in the direction of the second spiny-beast charging toward me, even though the beast behind me was still in the middle of its death throes.

Then several things happened all at once.

In typical spider fashion, the first creature I’d maimed flipped over on its back so it could finish dying upside-down with its spiny legs curling up in the air.

But because spiders are such fucking Drama Queens, the spiny-beast was still wailing its head off, and since I was directly in its path, the time-slowed doppler effect of its blood-curdling hissing blasted me like a sonic wave. It was a perfect imitation of Freddy Kreuger going to town in a chalkboard factory combined with the sound of a train derailing in slow motion, and I had no choice but to drop to one knee and cover my ears.

“Ahh!” I couldn’t help but shake my head like a dog as the unpleasant noise burrowed itself through my hands and into my eardrums.

It was torture, for sure, but compared to the freak show that was intent on charging me a moment ago, a little ear pain was nothing.

Then the second spider creature seemed to stumble into the sonic wave’s trajectory, and the spiny-beast stopped dead as if all eight legs were suddenly glued to the ground. Its bark-like exoskeleton began to blister and boil while its body began to tremble and swell, and right at the height of this grotesque expansion, the time-trance slipped from my grasp.

Sna--

Boom.

The recoil from holding that balance of power for so long combined with the sudden vaporization of the spiny-beast knocked me clean off my feet, along with everyone else in the clearing.

Fuck. Had my time-trance turned sound into a bomb?

“Shit,” I groaned and pushed myself up on my hands and knees as quickly as I could, but my hearing and my balance were currently giving me issues.

“… d?” Something muffled came from my left. “D-Dad?”

I tried to focus on Rylan’s pale face, but I had to fight to keep my vision from doubling, and I noticed his lips were starting to turn blue…

“Eeeeek!” The OG and last of the beast pack finally shook off its shock, and it was now looking around for someone to blame for its outrage.

“Fu--” I tried to curse, but before I could finish, another one of those shrapnel-rocks exploded in the spider’s face.

“Eeeeeeyaaaaah!”

I snapped my head over my shoulder expecting to see Ozzy, and I received a shock when a vaguely familiar indigo blur dashed past me and vaulted itself at the spiny-beast.

Then the Lakuna-woman from my dreams stabbed two rock daggers that were way cooler than mine into two of the beast’s eyes.

“Hssssssss!” it hissed, and it was momentarily distracted from me as it attempted to buck and fling the furious siren-girl off its face.

This allowed me to stagger to my feet so I could head in Rylan’s direction, and I saw he’d crashed down to his knees with two hands clutching his chest.

“Rylan!” I called.

“Eeeeeeyaaaaah!” the navy-haired woman cried out, but this only seemed to piss the noise-sensitive creature off even more, and it threw her off like a raging bull.

Rylan coughed a deep chesty cough that sounded wet and tight at the same time. It rattled out of him like the sound of a congested engine idling and on its last legs.

The sound was just as grating to the beast as the siren-woman’s ear-piercing cry, and it set its sights on him.

“Nooooooo!” Ozzy bellowed loudly enough to startle the beast so I could get a head start, and I sprinted straight for Rylan just as the kid pitched forward onto his face.

“Ry.” I skidded next to him and turned him on his back.

“I…” He hacked again, and flecks of blood dotted his bluish lips.

“You are so grounded, so don’t even think of dying,” I said as I hauled him back up into my arms and looked around for an exit.

“S-Sorry,” he croaked, and then his head lolled back as his eyes fluttered shut.

“Hsssssss!” The spiny-beast was now coming at me slowly but surely with its snapping pincered forearms, and I backed up, but my booted heel caught on something, and I landed hard on my ass with Ry still unconscious in my arms.

Suddenly, the Lakuna-woman was there helping me up to my feet again with her surprisingly strong hands around one of my biceps. It wasn’t the most graceful maneuver, and I nearly dropped Rylan in the process.

The motion ended up jarring something loose from my son’s trouser pocket, and with a crystal ding, the small serving bell Rylan had been holding on to for me bounced off the ground with another sharp ring before it came to a rest.

“Eeeeeek!” The spiny-beast recoiled from the bell like a circus elephant from a harmless mouse.

My eyebrows arched, and I exchanged a glance with the woman, who had a stunned look on her jade-colored face that probably matched mine.

Without taking too much time to dwell on it, the woman scooped up the bell Vela had insisted I carry and rang it once by the handle.

Ding.

“Eeeee…” the spider wailed a little softer, like it was being mortally wounded by the innocent bell with the high pitch.

“Auuuu…” The siren-woman matched the bell’s pitch in her clear piercing soprano, and that was enough to make the beast actually turn tail and run away.

I almost couldn’t believe my eyes, and I stared at the clouds of dust the creature kicked up in its haste to get away.

Then Rylan moaned and snapped me out of my daze.

“Boooooy?” Ozzy asked as he lumbered over, and he was in the midst of picking off the rest of the sticky strings from the web-wad.

“I don’t--” Rylan gasped and coughed up some more foamy blood.

“Ry,” I said and quickly set him back down on his side in case he was going to vomit.

“Small One…” The woman came closer, but I shot her a fierce glare that made her stop in her tracks.

“What did you do to him?” I demanded.

She blinked her maroon-colored eyes in confusion, and a frown creased her delicate eyebrows.

“What… do?” she asked and knelt down a few feet away.

“The curse,” I spat as Rylan huffed and wheezed while I rubbed his back. More sputum came out of his mouth as he coughed weakly. “It’s why you brought us. To help you. So, here we are, dammit. Now, please, tell me what I need to do to repay my debt.”

“Muuu…” the woman vocalized sadly and shuffled closer on her knees. “Ry-lan.”

“Yeah,” I croaked as I watched some of the icy exterior melt from her frigid frame, and she slowly approached us with her hand outstretched, and her maroon eyes shimmering with tears.

Seeing her obvious remorse was the only reason I let her stroke her fingers through Rylan’s hair.

“Not… mean to happen,” she said and met my eyes. Hers were dark with sorrow, and her tears flowed freely down her shiny cheeks. “Not mean to hurt.”

“Then help him,” I demanded through gritted teeth.

She nodded and snatched her hand back so she could wipe away the moisture from her face.

“Come,” she said and leaped to her feet. She gestured with her hands that we should follow her, and I pulled Rylan back up and hurried after her as fast as I could with Ozzy at my side.

The rest of the way out of the forest was spent in anxious silence, and the thumping of my son’s head against my chest reminded me of how limp and weak he felt, almost as if he’d lost ten pounds overnight.

Even Crackers was worryingly quiet and docile as he glided overhead, and when we finally broke through the tree line, I couldn’t even appreciate the vast lilac plains of this new world.

I was a little preoccupied with the armload of trouble I currently didn’t know how exactly to handle on top of-- oh, yeah. Everything else under the sun.

A structure became visible as we made it over a low rise, and a manor in dire need of repairs came into view. The roof was in a sorry state of pitch and missing shingles, and when we got closer, I could see how the entire building was situated on the edge of a large lake that looked like it used to be a crater. Several large and weathered beams were haphazardly anchored into the lake-shore below in order to prop up and support the manor, so I guessed over time as the cliff eroded, the foundation under the structure became unstable, and instead of rebuilding somewhere else, more and more beams kept being added.

“That’s where you live?” I couldn’t help but blurt out as she led us to a path that clearly led to the sorry cesspool.

“Come,” she said like nothing was out of the ordinary, but she stopped briefly so she could pick a sharp pebble from the sole of her bare foot.

It was then I noticed not only was the house in a sorry state, but so was this woman who claimed to live here. Unlike her goddess-like appearance when I first saw her in the Dark Realm, in the real world, the Lakuna-child’s indigo hair was disheveled, and she wore tattered rags that were no more than a scrap of brown cloth wrapped around her upper half like a tube top and a loincloth made of the same worn material. She wore no shoes, and when the wind moved her hair off her neck, I could see several knobs of her vertebrae through her skin.

She… really did need help.

Had needed help for quite a while, it seemed.

“I’llll waaaaait.” Ozzy gestured to the area right next to the rickety wooden stairs leading up to the crooked house’s entrance.

“Probably a good idea, Bubba,” I said as I hefted Rylan higher up in my arms. I was afraid if we even looked at the stairs wrong they might collapse.

“Inside!” the woman said down at me from where she was already halfway up to the house, and I hurried to follow her as best as I could while holding a lanky teenager.

When I managed to get us both into the cramped and cluttered house, I followed her to the small galley, where she gestured to a small pallet bed set up next to the hearth.

It was clear this was where she spent most if not all of her time, like some poor scullery maid.

“Thank you,” I grunted when she helped me tuck probably her only blanket around my son. “For letting us stay.”

“He come, and you come,” she said as searched through the small kitchen space, and then she came back with a clean cloth she dampened and placed on the kid’s brow.

I dragged a small stool closer to the small cot and flipped the cloth when it was warmed up by his skin.

He was as still and as silent as a grave, and I put my head in my hands as I listened to his labored gasps.

“Small One…” the woman hummed and then shook out a pretty green blanket she was obviously trying to keep in one piece, so the gesture of her extending it to Rylan wasn’t lost on me.

“Why do you call him Small One?” I asked as she tucked the edges under the pale teen’s shivering form.

“We three,” she began and held up three fingers to demonstrate. “Ry-lan, Mozz, Nova. All.”

“You know Mozz as well?” I asked and then cleared my throat. “And your name is Nova?”

“Nova,” she confirmed and pointed at herself. Then she pointed at me. “Al-ex Bri’ood.”

“Close,” I said with a weary smile. “Brightwood.

I looked deep into her eyes for a moment before she ducked and pulled a sheaf of papers out from under the cot.

“Ry-lan,” she said again and handed me the papers.

“What are these?” I asked as I skimmed the ones on top, and my face fell when I read about Rylan and his father, Kavo.

There were also some brief sketches of Rylan in his canterfly form, but before I could read more, Nova put more papers on top that briefly talked about Mozz and her in relation to Krev Alda, Kavo’s brother.

“You and Mozz are related as half-sisters?” I asked as I continued to skim the pages. Eventually, there was some talk about all three of these Dark Realm children and their unique gifts, but the papers kept coming as Nova kept pulling them out from under her bed.

The new stack had a lot of back and forth with Krev and a guy who kept calling himself Yates, but it wasn’t until I saw an official seal with the title of Overseer next to Yates that I knew what the man’s role was.

Nova then pointed at a letter from Yates and then jabbed that same finger down at a letter from Krev.

“Yes, they were talking,” I said with a little frustration. “So?”

Nova shook her head with an equal amount of agitation.

“Yates, Krev,” she said.

“Yates and Krev…” I repeated.

“No,” she tried again. “Yates, Krev.”

“She is trying to tell you Yates is Krev,” a cold voice said from the doorway to the scullery and caused both Nova and I to jump to our feet.

The man standing there was balding and mild-mannered looking on the outside, but something about his muddy-brown eyes lacked any signs of warmth or light. His skin rippled slightly, almost like a snake skin would undulate from time to time as it digested a large meal.

That was an apt description of the man standing in front of me now with the same seal of the Overseer pinned to his cloak. The way his skin sagged around the cheeks when he attempted a flat smile looked as if someone was just wearing the man as a body suit.

“That’s impossible,” I said to the stranger. “Krev Alda is dead.”

“Are you absolutely sure about that?” he said as he slowly walked closer.

Then it clicked.

Krev Alda was a known shape-shifter.

A shape-shifter who apparently faked his death and was now masquerading as the Overseer.

“You’re Krev, and you’ve been stealing Duelist identities for Mercedes’ only knows how long,” I surmised.

“Oh, good for you.” The man with Yates’ face smiled a twisted smile that made his stolen face wrinkle and bunch. Then, like a rubber band snapping back into place, his smile dropped, and he pulled out what looked like a double-barrel crossbow. “Now, leave the brat on the bed, and we can all finish this little chat outside.”

Chapter 23

Yates-Krev forced Nova and me out of the house with the point of his deadly crossbow until we were walking back down the path where we’d left Ozzy.

The poor guy was bound and gagged with some rope, and I wondered just how in the world this man who was actually shorter than me by a couple of inches managed to sneak up on the sloth-man and tie him down.

We were forced to pass him by, and I sent him what I hoped was received as an apology with my eyes.

“That’s far enough,” Yates-Krev said when he marched us down to the lake shore almost directly under the rickety structure above us. “You know, little Nova, I must thank you for delivering my brother’s whelp to me. It’s a little sooner than I had planned, but Rylan will make a good addition, especially after I get rid of you, you onerous pest.”

“You… brought Rylan into a trap?” I asked the siren-woman.

“No!” she gasped and wrung her pale-green hands. “Never for trap! Only for bring out… weapon.”

“Aw, you thought you could use Rylan to what? Conjure you a blade to slit my throat in my sleep?” Yates-Krev spat. “Or maybe a poison you could sprinkle onto my morning meal, yes? You always did think you were so clever.”

Now, Nova was actively sobbing as she sank down to her knees in a low keening wail that seemed to pierce me right in my heart.

“Nooo,” she sobbed as her plan for freedom seemed to deteriorate before her very eyes.

“It’s not the first time my own daughter has tried to kill me, you know,” Yates-Krev looped me into the conversation as if we were two dads at a barbecue talking about their unruly children. “It’s truly disappointing, as I’m sure you know. It was noble of you to take in my brother’s maligned offspring, but you can stop pretending it’s such an easy cross to bear. We both know how disgustingly needy children can be. In fact, if you leave me Rylan without a fight, then I will let you go this time.”

“This time?” I sneered. “Generous of you.”

“It is, trust me,” Yates-Krev suddenly snapped, and his overly familiar and nonchalant tone from before vanished as he pulled a chain out from under his tunic. On the end of it were four to five blackened Duelist Stones amid the one currently shining its soft light. “Do you think I got all of these by asking? No. I saw what I wanted, and I took it by absorbing their essences until there was nothing left. And that is what I will do to you.”

Absorbing essences? That was what this Traveler could do? That was fucking terrifying, but I made sure to tamp down my unease and pulled out my cocky Asher arrogance routine that seemed to serve me well in these situations.

“You aren’t going to challenge me to a Duel?” I asked.

“Didn’t you just hear?” the man snarled. “I don’t need to do that to drain your essence.”

“Essence, schmessence,” I said, complete with a flippant hand gesture. “Who cares about that when you can actually gain a status for real?”

“Why would I need that?” Yates-Krev scoffed, but I saw him shift on his feet, and it must have been an Alda family tell, because I knew I’d seen that same move from Rylan.

“For one, you would have a true Asher status that doesn’t have all that bad karma associated with you sucking the essences out, or whatever,” I said with a shrug. “Aventoll has a way of exacting her debt, as I’m sure you’ve come to realize over the years.”

Yates-Krev’s jaw twitched, and the sallow skin on his face moved grotesquely. “I could drop Yates.”

He said this last part aloud, but I didn’t draw attention to the fact.

If his “crazy” really was starting to spring a leak, I needed to help encourage it along.

“Last I heard, even Kavo was gunning for a proper Duelist Stone,” I said and glanced down at my nails.

“You lie,” he accused.

Which, yeah, no shit, but he didn’t need to know that, so I merely shrugged.

“You Duel me, and you don’t have to force anyone to give you anything.

His eye drifted upward to where my son was still sleeping in the cot inside the house, and even though I didn’t know what he was planning with Rylan, if I could just get him to take the bait, then I wouldn’t need to know until later.

After he was dead.

“And that would be one up on my bastard of a brother.” Krev’s toothy smile stretched across his sagging face, and I tried not to grin back when it was clear he was falling for the bait. “Alex Brightwood, I challenge you to a Duel.”

He spoke the words with conviction, and by doing this, he unwittingly bound himself into the Rite of the Duel.

Come hell or high water.

It had been a while back when I was first finding my Duelist legs, but I remembered something about dire curse consequences if he didn’t go through with his promise after invoking the Rite.

Although, now that the man was warmed up to the idea, that didn’t look like it would be a problem.

“Okay,” I said, and we began to circle one another as battle foes.

“Now, pick the weapon of choice for this Duel, Brightwood,” the man sneered. “If you have any.”

I was up shit creek without a blade, but I’d also recently stumbled across a really cool trick.

“I’m afraid all I can really fight you with is what I have brought along in my pockets,” I said. “So, we will fight with whatever we both have on us.”

“Very well,” Yates-Krev said, and he flicked the safety off his crossbow at the same time as I brought out the little handbell from my pocket. “Prepare to die.”

He placed the stock of the crossbow into the crook of his shoulder and aimed his sight down the barrel, and I plunged down deep into that inner well where my time power was stored.

After the most recent debacle in the forest, I was kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel on what reserves I had left, but that was okay because I only needed to hold the trance for a second…

Tick.

My opponent’s finger moved over the trigger at the same time as the world began to slow down.

Tick.

The bolt flew from his crossbow like it was traveling through thick ballistics jelly, and before the trance had a chance to settle, I pushed a little harder until I could feel the tenuous tremor of that “soap bubble.”

The bolt slowed even more until it barely looked like it was moving at all, and I could feel the edge where it almost became a time-stop like it did before in the forest. Then I tried my hardest to replicate what occurred with the spiny-beasts by visualizing a funnel of sound that a certain pitch could be condensed down to.

It wasn’t an exact science, and some of it relied on wild speculation and a heavy dose of optimism, but seeing the way the giant spider had reacted to the innocent high-pitched bell made me wonder if I could recreate what happened in the clearing.

So, I aimed with one hand at Yates-Krev’s potato sack face, and with the other, I brought out the bell.

Diiing.

Voosh.

The sonic waves impacted me in the chest with a jerk similar to a rifle’s recoil, and it actually caused both the bell in my hand and the bolt sailing toward me to disintegrate.

As for Yates-Krev, he boiled sickeningly just like the spiny-beast did before it vaporized, and I let time snap back before I drained myself completely.

“Ahhh--” was all the bastard managed to say before he, too, exploded into a fine red mist and a pile of clothes with that necklace of burned-out Duelist Stones. The last of them still glowed faintly even as its shiny surface became dull and clouded.

I looked down at my own Stone, and I wasn’t surprised to see it remain unchanged from my Sixth-Rank status. Yates-Krev was just an imposter Duelist with a sick power, which had allowed him to hide under the radar for a long time.

There were a lot more questions I had about the whole thing, and about why he especially seemed so interested in Rylan that he was considering letting me leave no questions asked.

Of course, that was what he said. Who knew if he really would have let me walk away scot-free had surrendering Rylan been an option. But it wasn’t an option, so it was all moot now anyways, and as the red mist of what used to be the notorious Krev Alda settled, I found I didn’t give two flying fucks.

Especially because watching Nova walk toward the pile of clothes her abuser left behind was a lot more captivating.

Her steps were unsure at first, and she kept looking around like he would pop out from behind one of the heavy wooden beams or something, but soon her curiosity got the better of her, and she made herself bravely examine the pile just to be sure.

I made sure to stay as quiet as I could while I watched her try to wrap her head around the fact he was really gone, and my plan was to stay mostly out of it while she came to terms with everything.

However, when Nova collapsed down on her knees with a sob, my feet moved of their own volition, and I found myself kneeling down next to the beautiful navy-haired woman. Seeing her in so much distress caused me to reach out to comfort her with my touch, even though she’d made it clear earlier about how she felt about that.

This didn’t occur to me until I was halfway through executing the motion, and by that time, my hand had already found itself on her shoulder.

Nova cried out again, but instead of jerking herself violently away, she surprised me by doing the complete opposite and burrowed against my chest in a rib-crushing hug.

“Oof, Nova!” I grunted and then stroked her wrecked hair.

“Sorry,” she murmured in her lilting voice. “Nova sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” I asked and gently tilted up her chin so I could see the emotions swirling in her garnet eyes.

“Brought you,” she said and gestured vaguely. “Brought Ry-lan because he do what Krev said. He is Conjurer.”

“You were going to ask Rylan to bring something you thought up from out of the Dark Realm?” I clarified. I was pretty sure I knew what she was talking about because Ry and I had experimented with the same things. How Krev found out was just another thing I was going to have to put a pin in for now. “What did you want him to bring out for you?”

“Was going to poison…” Her words faltered, and she buried herself deeper into my embrace.

“It’s okay, now,” I said, and I continued to stroke her hair as we sat on the soft bank. “He’s gone.”

Those words made her stiffen up in my arms, and I thought this was the end of our impromptu cuddle session as she broke away a little so she could look me in the face.

“Gone?” she breathed with wide eyes shining almost like rubies. “Forever gone?”

“Yeah.” I smiled down at her as she continued to process this, but once she did, I would never forget the grin that split her face wide open, nor the laugh that burbled out of her mouth a second later.

But I especially wouldn’t forget what happened next because Nova’s enthusiasm grew exponentially, and all of a sudden the atmosphere between us was charged with a different kind of intensity.

“Alex,” she said demurely, and when she raised those stunning eyes up at me, I felt myself fall.

“Hm?” I hummed as I brushed my nose against her petite green one, and a sweet aroma like flowers enveloped us and made my collar feel hot.

Her tiny inhale was the only warning I got before she tackled me like a rugby player and messily devoured my mouth with hers.

The kiss was inelegant and unpracticed, with a bit more teeth than was strictly comfortable, but the sheer passion she poured out into it made up for her lack of experience. The scent of flowers and fresh spring wells floated up around us again and made my higher thought processes pleasantly syrupy, and I let myself just sink into the sensations.

I cast away all other worries and just rolled with it, and we tumbled a few times along the mossy bank like two hormone-fueled teenagers whose hands had a mind of their own.

Mine, for instance, managed to ruck up her flimsy tube top to expose her creamy breasts and darkish nipples, and hers managed to untuck the tunic at the back of my trousers so she could get her surprisingly hot hands against my back.

“Haa!” I hissed when the remaining sensitivity from my healing scars zipped and zinged in ways that were intense and definitely not unpleasant.

“Touch,” Nova whined, and then she arched under me so prettily I had to pull away for a second to admire the sexy woman spread prone underneath me like a feast.

“Yes, touch,” I groaned and got to work.

“Oooh,” she breathed when I dropped my head down between her gorgeous breasts and nibbled and sucked on the unfamiliar terrain.

I had the urge in my lust-filled hindbrain to stake my claim and leave my marks all over her gorgeous and exotic body, but logic intervened enough to where I was satisfied with just three to four hickeys peppered along her luscious neck and leading down to her midline where her tummy was soft and bitable.

“Fuck,” I said when her wandering fingers finally found the bulge in the front of my trousers, and I helped her free my stiff member with shaking fingers.

But I was so keyed up, I had to stop her after a couple of strokes.

She giggled sweetly and then turned over on her stomach, arched her back, and pressed her supple ass up against my hard dick. Her loincloth shifted enough for me to feel her bare pussy lips, and I pressed my shaft between her shapely thighs a few times.

Mercedes, that felt good, but I didn’t want to rush into the main event just yet, so I pulled back, flipped the back side of Nova’s loincloth up, and pulled her hips toward me.

“Oh!” she yelped when I tongued her moist slit, and then her arms collapsed out from under her as she raised her pelvis higher for me to access her sweet spot. “Auuuuu!”

She warbled as I teased her shy little clit out from under its hood, and after that was accomplished, it barely took any touching at all before she was coming brilliantly against my mouth in a sudden gush.

A burst of her fragrant juices ran down my chin, and the taste of her sweet nectar almost made me dizzy with desire.

I had a feeling I could have kept bringing her to climax over and over again just like that, but the fierce ache in my cock couldn’t stand another minute without plunging into that wet, slick channel.

I would make her cum until it hurt next time, but for now I lined up the head of my cock with the dainty hole of her pussy and eased my way inside.

“Goddess,” I choked out at the feeling of her heat and rippling muscles already trying to milk me for all I was worth, and we hadn’t even started moving yet.

“Uhhhhnn!” Nova groaned and rocked her pelvis impatiently against me, and I had to stop her quickly with a hand on her lower belly. “But…”

Then, before she even had a chance to know what hit her, I brought us both up on our knees and started driving inside her like a piston on a steam engine.

She squealed and squirmed on my cock, but my grip behind her elbows kept us locked together, and I jackhammered us both to a violent orgasm that left me feeling somewhat weak as I pulsed spurt after spurt of my seed inside her womb.

Nova’s climax, although simultaneous with mine, lasted much longer, and we were both locked together tightly as a few more jerks and spasms caused my hips to buck every time her inner walls contracted. This made the mind-numbing sensation go on forever, and even when I was over sensitized, she refused to let me budge until she’d wrung me dry.

When the tempest of our wild fucking was finally over, I pulled out of her creamy sheath carefully, and then we collapsed side by side facing each other.

I smiled at the siren-woman, but she only stared intensely back at me with those mysterious maroon eyes.

“He is gone,” she whispered at last, and I nodded and moved a sapphire ribbon of her tangled hair out of her face. “But now… me?”

I tilted my head a little as I tried to parse what she meant. “Are you worried what is going to happen to you?”

She bit her lip. “Yes. Never know… anything else.”

“There is time to figure it out,” I said. “But no matter what you decide, you will never have to be a prisoner again. I promise.”

At that, she gave me a curious look but didn’t say anything further, and then she pulled back so she could situate herself.

I did the same by putting my own clothes to rights, and soon we were back on the little path that led up to the rickety manor.

“Mmmmmmphf!”

“Oh, shit, my bad, Oz,” I said to the sloth-man I’d temporarily forgotten about, and I helped free him from his bindings as Nova continued on ahead.

We were only a few steps away from the door when I stopped short.

A strange fear gripped me just then that I would open the door only to discover a still and pale Rylan who would never get up to get on my last nerve or roll his bratty eyes at me again.

Which was stupid, because by all rights I broke the curse and was even thanked with some pretty awesome sex, so the fear keeping me frozen was unwarranted and completely irrational.

“Yoouur booooy isss fineee,” Ozzy droned, and I was simultaneously embarrassed he knew how vulnerable I felt in that second and yet grateful I had him as a friend to snap me back to the real world.

So, I stopped playing Schrodinger’s Cat and opened the damn door.

“Dad!” Rylan’s bright voice greeted me a second before a small messy-haired cannonball impacted me right in the chest as the teenager gave me one of his signature rib-cracking hugs.

I didn’t hesitate from hugging him back just as tightly, and I was mildly surprised when I immediately dove into the Don’t You Ever Do That To Me Again Diatribe common for parental units when their spawn was in mortal peril. If I wasn’t so caught up in the moment, I would have rolled my eyes at how my rant swung wildly back and forth between “I’m glad you’re okay,” to “You are grounded until the poracks come home.”

“Screech.” Crackers decided he’d had enough of the mush fest and flapped into the room so he could land on Rylan’s head and get all of our attention by taking a shit on the kid’s shoulder.

“Hey!” he yelled at the pest, and Crackers flapped up to the top of a dusty bookshelf.

“I think he’s mad at you for the stunt you pulled, too,” I snorted as I watched the stubborn screecher turn his back on the room.

“I wouldn’t have even gotten caught if it hadn’t been for him shrieking,” the teen grumped. “He still won’t give me the stupid message that started all the fuss.”

“No, you started all the fuss by sneaking out after Madam Morta warned me about the spiny-beasts and how they don’t like loud noises,” I said as I tried to shake the bookshelf a little so the beast would come down. “Come on, Crackers. I want to see what your letter says.”

“Screech,” he said and even flicked his beak up at me in a way that gave “flipping the bird” a whole new meaning.

“Brat,” I growled, and I shook the shelf harder until a thick tome came free and fell right on my head. “Ow! Now, come on, you little shit!”

A string of bell-like giggles stopped me from bringing the whole case of books down on top of me as Nova entered the room. Her skin color was still bright from all of our exertions, and when she walked past me, she made sure to kiss me gently on the forehead where the spine of the book hit me.

It was hard to stay frustrated after that, and Rylan and I watched as she made clicking and cooing sounds while offering a hunk of jerky meat.

And, just to be a dick, Crackers fluttered down to her shoulder and cuddled up in her indigo hair like it was the most cozy nest in the world.

“Letter,” Nova said as she handed me the hard-won missive.

I huffed a laugh through my nose and then bumped her lightly with my hip.

“What does it say?” Rylan asked as I rapidly skimmed over the words I’d been wanting to hear.

“Amaya and Anwaar finished their assessment on Alem,” I said as longing and excitement filled my heart at the same time. “They said they are only two days away from Eng.”

“Should we tell them to meet us on Om?” he asked.

“Eventually, yes, but now that we have Crackers, we need to send a message to Jenner and the airship to meet us here,” I said.

“Noooo neeeed,” came Ozzy’s rumble, and I turned toward the sound only to see the sloth-man dangling halfway out a window. “Iiitt’s heeerrreee.”

“What?” Rylan and I exchanged astonished glances and then rushed outside at the same time.

“How did they know?” Ry asked as he waved at Bodin, who was visible in the wheelhouse.

“I’m not sure,” I said as I waved as well. “But I am sure fucking glad they did.”

And as the magnificent airship lowered itself toward us, I couldn’t help the light buoyant laughter that filled me up inside. Whatever happened next, even something as crazy as falling from the sky on some unknown land, I knew I would always find my way back home.

Or it would find me.

Either way, the day was bright and full of promise.

End of Book 7

End Notes

Thank you for reading The Duelist 7! I’ll start writing The Duelist 8 once this book hits 100 reviews, so leave your review right here!

Don’t forget about my Patreon! You’ll get advanced audio chapters (for your ears) or written chapters (for your eyes), and nude/sexy versions of my covers (for your… uhhh… well…) I also have an audiobook subscription so you can get 3-4 of my books every month at a discount along with all the other stuff. Check it out here! Or search for my name on Patreon.com.

Amazon doesn’t update readers when an author comes out with a new book unless you follow that author on the store. Make sure you click this link and then click on the follow button. Then Amazon will update you a few weeks after my next book comes out.

If you want to get notified of my books the day that they come out, make sure you follow my Facebook author page and join my Facebook fan group. If you don’t follow me on Amazon or join my Facebook page, you’ll never get alerted that next Summoner book is out.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2021 by Eric Vall

.

Patreon

Don’t forget about my Patreon! You’ll get advanced audio chapters (for your ears) or written chapters (for your eyes), and nude/sexy versions of my covers (for your… uhhh… well…) I also have an audiobook subscription so you can get 3-4 of my books every month at a discount along with all the other stuff. Check it out here! Or search for my name on Patreon.com.

Amazon doesn’t update readers when an author comes out with a new book unless you follow that author on the store. Make sure you click this link and then click on the follow button. Then Amazon will update you a few weeks after my next book comes out.

If you want to get notified of my books the day that they come out, make sure you follow my Facebook author page and join my Facebook fan group. If you don’t follow me on Amazon or join my Facebook page, you’ll never get alerted that next Summoner book is out.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2021 by Eric Vall