B 3 C 28: MAYBE THE END ISN’T SO NIGH AFTER ALL

Luni calls out into my mind, “Shh, shh, it’s okay. I can finally tell you one thing. I have magic that lets me hide myself and others, completely, even our auras, and sounds and smells. If I had told you before now, someone would have found out, and knew I’d be too dangerous to let live, since they wouldn’t know where I’d be. I’m directing Linti where to go. We’ll go to your temple of time. We’ll rest there a bit while you get your other book. It’s okay, it’s okay. I love you, no matter how many ends we face. You’ve got this hero, always.”

How though? How can she be so sure? Is, is there some sort of, some kind of god killing spell in the books? I suppose anything is possible. Oh my buddy, my best buddy, we’re so far apart, and the world is ending.

Luni hems and haws telepathically before sharing, “I’m, ugh, this sucks, but you’re not going to get to see Lil for quite a while after what happens soon. Not even for some big things. I’m sorry. It’s better that you know now, and get it out of your system, so that you don’t mope. They’ll be here, but then, ugh. Just, just know that Lil will be with you in the end. Okay?”

Linti’s lightning leap lands us at the top of the temple, and we shuffle along the inside of its corridors mostly in silence. Even bumping into a guard or two just causes some to scratch their heads in confusion. We are really completely invisible to others, and all their senses, well, except touch. Hm, danger wraps should be able to tell me where Lu is when she’s invisible, because they’re a ranged tactile sense, but she has appeared as if out of nowhere several times near me. She might have always appeared out of range though. Hm, a mystery. It’s hard to gauge distance. Especially when it’s the mysterious Luni who intentionally keeps me guessing.

As we enter the final hallway, the one that dead ends at the hourglass statues, we approach somberly. We ride the rotating floor into the temple, and I’m at a loss for words for a moment. I adopt my nearly six foot tall form so that I can look them each in the eyes, as they’re all in their tallest forms.

I start, “I, I don’t know how to do this. Guys, I love you all so much. But you saw it, you saw my thoughts. Even you Linti, I felt your electricity riding my neurons. You know what I saw, and what’s c–”

Linti interrupts me by kissing me with a passion that I, well, I’m surprised by. I wrap my arms around her and feel myself embraced by all three of my inner circle that are present. I start to ask a question.

Linti interrupts me again though, “Shellcracker, Shellcrackers. That’s, that’s really world ending. Like hell I’m going down with any regrets. I, look. You’re all phenomenal, amazing. I, I friggin’ love you, each of you differently, but yeah. Luni, uh, Lu, I got some major jealousy vibes from you, and, and look, I’m really sorry, but life is way too short, especially now. Can we be pals? Or uh, y’know, no grudges, or something?”

Luni rests her head against Linti’s shoulder and feebly, lightly, socks her in the abdomen repeatedly, “You’re forgiven. It’s not fair, every time. They never notice. It’s not your fault. You’re pretty amazing too, even if I sort of hate you for it. You’re the, it’s not fair. So many times in so many different. Urgh, I hate you for being so pretty and strong and fun and funny, being from a brand new place.” Luni pauses to huff, then continues, “I don’t really hate you though, not really.”

Te chimes in, “Hey, not hating her isn’t enough for me, I like her, she’s tasty! In lotsa ways. Fun in a scrap, strong, handsome. I’m sorry we didn’t get to hunt together more before now. Just one day doesn’t feel like enough. I wish my dorky little dragbutt was here too.” Te sobers up at that last sentence and then clutches her chest, “Oh wow, is that heartache? Hell that hurts.”

The three of us nod, each of us experiencing heartache and yearning for those who aren’t with us at the moment. Possibly our last moments.

I croak out through a sob I didn’t realize I was holding in, “I, I want to try something. Linti I want to offer you a tether, and to tangle it with Teuila’s. But, but only if all of you are okay with it. It might hurt me, but Linti I want as much time with you too, it’s not fair to you, I’m about to retreat into thinkspace. We’ll have a thousand times as much time as you if I don’t do this.”

Linti scratches the back of her head, “Hey, I mean, I got no complaints. More time is more time. I’m down, but like, don’t kill yourself over it, capische?”

I nod while gazing at Luni and Teuila. Luni doesn’t say anything, but she squeezes my waist and kisses my cheek. Teuila just eyes me up and down, seemingly sizing up whether or not I can handle this. Teuila gives me a half shrug and a smile before throwing me a thumbs up.

I imagine pulling back the too-wrapped too-warped tether that I gave to Teuila, and latching it around my heart, immediately it feels as if there’s razor-wire dragging tight circles around my heart. I pass a tether to Linti, entangling it purposely with that one. I crumple to my knees, gasping for breath. I feel blood dripping internally as my heart is actually shredded by the metaphorical wires ripping into it. Luni wants to beg me to stop, I can see it in her eyes, but for some reason she doesn’t.

Linti gasps and looks over at Luni, having heard my thoughts about her. It’s only a partially established link. Linti’s transformation is completing as a creamy gray silhouette. She gains more limbs. For some reason the words Asuraform and Indraform spring to mind. She has to be at least twelve feet tall now, six armed, and somehow scantily clad rather than more armored. I suppose if she’s self-actualized as a being of lightning, then she doesn’t really need to imagine herself equipped like Teuila did with her Valkyrie form.

I topple forward further, blood seeping from several orifices, all three of them want me to stop now, but now it’s too late. Stopping without completing the tethered link would leave me just as damaged.

TQ saunters in from seemingly nowhere and calls out, “Really? There’s a much easier way to do that you know. Come now, pick up your little love muffin or whatever you call them. Bring them along. You there, Lightning cat, drop that form if you want the time lord to live.”

Linti manually severs the tether somehow, which causes a rubberbanding effect that actually blasts Teuila into a nearby wall as the tether from me also snaps and flicks her away. She’s laughing as she collects herself from the wall, dusting herself off, so at least she isn’t hurt. Linti and Teuila are sharing glances, somehow I can tell they’re telepathically communicating, even if I’m not part of their thought waves yet. The two of them share an excited kiss as Luni keeps dragging me towards TQ.

TQ asks, “Which of you has the time book? Number five. This one’s book. No, don’t tell me, you left it outside, didn’t you? Hmf, I can probably manage to be corporeal long enough to retrieve it. Get them to the pedestal, I’ll be there momentarily. Hm, where is it going to be this time? Southeast corner I think.”

I black out momentarily, when I come to, we’re situated in front of the pedestals. TQ exclaims, “You will read one page, and one page only, from this book. This is yours, you could have already realized how to do this, you’ve just had your thoughts muddled around this time. I’ve opened it, read only this page. Then, enjoy your time with your loved ones. I’m already in need of recuperating. You three, don’t let them read any more than this page. Understand?”

I’m almost scared to even read the single page that I’m instructed to read, what with how insistent TQ is, but my currently-present inner circle helps me steadily stand at the tome. Apparently the fifth tome really is mine. It has my memory logs in it. But it has notes as if I had gone back and read them, and made suppositions. TQ was right, it’s simple, at least, for certain people. Not many qualify. The only other ones who I don’t currently share telepathy with, that do qualify, are Lucky, oddly enough, and Mataalii. Like that would ever happen. Linti wouldn’t normally qualify, but she does now, and only needed part of what I just did.

I follow the instructions that I’ve somehow laid out for myself, and suddenly my thinkspace expands to encompass all of us, including Lil and Lucky. That last bit is shocking. Lucky’s mental avatar bounds up and takes his full hunter hound form to bowl me over, licking me all over my telepathic face.

Laughingly I ask, “Haha, hah, what? How even? Lil? But we’re in the Nagas’ city. Where are you?”

Lil looks around for a moment, as if they’re in meatspace, trying to gaze around for my voice. They continue flying in their Lilagnewt form and keep looking for the source of my voice. They land as they begin to look hazy. Lil and Lucky disappear from our thinkspace.

In our accelerated thinkspace, I whimper as I curl up on my butt, hugging my knees to my chest, “No, but, but. My best buddy, my oldest pal.”

Luni’s telepathic avatar sits next to my right side and tugs me close, her left arm wrapped around my back to squeeze my left knee. Linti’s projected mental image tugs my avatar’s right leg down to lay across it into Luni’s lap. Teuila’s projection sits behind me in lotus position, her knees on either side of my butt, her arms draped over my shoulders as she leans her chin against the back of my head.

Lil and I never even got around to really practicing with the breath skill they taught me. Luni says I’ll see Lil again in the end, but I wish we had more time than that. I wonder if I can breathe any element that I have kinesis for. Yeah, I probably can. Breath skill also takes very little mana, at least in draconic form, since it’s almost innate. Hm, that might come in handy if I have to defend us against anything else between now and the end of the world.

Luni squeezes my left knee and right shoulder as she nuzzles my right bicep. I was so afraid that she was going to hate me, it felt like I hurt her so badly. She still seems hurt, but we still haven’t clarified some things. I guess that means we have some time left. I should take advantage of it. Either I will know when to go back, or give her messages, or she’ll tell me when. That time isn’t right now. I need to stop moping about the end, and take advantage of every moment left.

I whisper in our thinkspace, “Thank you Lu. You’re the bravest and kindest among us. Sorry Te, Sorry Lin. Teuila knows though, we went over it once. I wasn’t supposed to guess, but Teuila caught on when Lil was lashing out. I hid my guesses from back then, about Mat, but Teuila has known what I guessed for a long time now. You more or less confirmed it since then Lu.”

Looking at Linti, I ramble, “If you’re confused what I’m talking about Linti, Lu here has been leading us throughout time, fighting to keep the right secrets to keep us on the right path. She has been suffering so hard, for so long, and none of us could possibly have taken on the path that she has. I would have saved or killed Mat earlier had I known any of this was going to happen.”

I pause, reflecting, “But then you and I might not have met. Or if we had, you definitely wouldn’t have joined the Lavaborn Alliance. I’d have died to the kraken because Teuila couldn’t have gotten there in time to save me without your speed. I couldn’t have beat it without your lightning. I might have died earlier in the final match against Lluxop and Rastoc without the bit of electro resist I had already gained from you. I might not have developed a draconic form without sleeping with Fawn. I mean, uh, you know. But, you’d still have your home. I’m still tempted to go back and change things, but I trust Luni to death and beyond. If this is the way things have to happen for something even bigger than the Night of All Burn, then we’ll persevere in this timeline.”

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Linti whistles appreciatively as she comes to grips with the ramifications of what Luni has been dealing with. She runs her pawed hand over her furry scalp and shakes her head in disbelief.

From her position in Lu’s lap, Lin states, “Hell of a story Shellcracker. I mean, with all I’ve seen, I believe you, obvee. Jeez though. Really Lu? All this time, all that? You had to watch us go through things, knowing what we’d suffer? Knowing you’d have to get jealous of me? How did you even do it? This entire family is crazy strong willed. You’re a special kind of gal. Mad respect babe.”

Luni half-frowns at Linti’s complement. She tries to roll her eyes, but can’t hide her pride for long. She leans down and smooches Linti’s forehead in gratitude for the kind words that were exchanged.

Linti grumbles, “I really want to be hunting, or with my family, but, but this is special too. I don’t know how long we have. I’m so torn. I never thought I’d have to choose something like this. We’d play a game something like this, we’d go around asking ridiculous questions in a circle. Sometimes one of us would come up with something like, ‘you only have one day left to live, how do you spend it?’ I never took it seriously, never even put thought into it. I didn’t even play the game. If I could go back, I wouldn’t have been so standoffish with my family. I’d have played along. But now, now I don’t know who I want my last moments to be with.”

We all nod along with Linti. We’re all feeling that same ache. Do we risk spending time traveling, when a God of Fire might wake up and blanket the landscape in an endless blaze before we make it to our family? Or do we just take solace in the time we have?

Thinking about the God of Fire, I ramble an apology, “Lu, Lu, I used radiance at the volcano, I’m so sorry. It nearly consumed me, it nearly changed me without you there as my anchor. Worse, a massive chunk of forest died somehow, I think because I used it.”

Luni nods, “You can’t use it again okay, promise me? I could tell you did, but that’s the last time you can ever use it during, well, it’s just the last time. Please promise?”

I nod, gulping back a knot caught in my throat. I was afraid that this might cause her to shut me out again, but she’s so understanding. She’s the best of us.

Still, Luni’s words, and my own thoughts on our time travel loop gives me some hope. The books are somehow key, right? Maybe if we set all six up, something happens? Four of them are already set up. Luni has number three, Teuila gave me number two after she snagged it from the Kraken, at some point since then. Still, if we need Lil here to be able to read the first one, I’m not sure if they’ll do anything. Also, does Lucky need to read book two? That can’t be right. It just, it doesn’t make any sense. Yeah, it can’t require Lucky, it just can’t. Maybe the Nagas know something about the books. They had the fifth book just laying around for a long time. The chameleons absorbed knowledge from Lil’s book. Apparently the fifth book is mine. Does some Naga librarian have bits of knowledge about me and my memory logs?

For now though, we can spend about a month in accelerated thinkspace before I try to see if there’s anything left to do, to rail against the end of the world. It’s less than an hour of meatspace time, with three amazing people who now share some of the strongest possible bonds in the entire world. A tightness squeezes my heart as I yearn for Lil’s presence in this time, but I need to take the solace that I can, before I try to face whatever destiny lies ahead.

The four of us spend a month together, learning everything we can about one another, even those of us who have spent years in thinkspace prior to now manage to continually surprise one another. Linti has the most new info to share, of course. We also play the game she spoke of, where we ask random, possibly inane questions, and try to answer as best we can. We even pretend to be our close friends, family, and loved ones, imagining how they might answer. It’s both heartwarming and heartbreaking. We share so many laughs, tears, kisses, cuddles, frustrations, yearnings, and simple thoughts.

As much as I want to stay and enjoy this with them, I’ve never been as good at multitasking in thinkspace while operating in meatspace as some of the others. I need to face my destiny though, in case there’s a window of opportunity that I have to meet. I don’t know what the big salvation is going to be. Maybe we’ll just save some of my family to my inventory as the world ends around us. I have no idea. Something tells me that either Luni or I will realize before the end. I haven’t sent our messages back yet.

For now, I kiss each of these people that are so beloved to me, possibly for the last time. It’s hopefully a temporary farewell, but they need to remain here and rest up while I talk to the Nagas. Luni could sneak around and follow me, and bring the others with, but that’s a completely unnecessary risk.

I have a new trick to try out. Linti had to nearly fry my brain to get images of an event at first, but I think learning the words that someone is speaking might just take the tiniest spark of contact. Linti was able to send a message with an almost imperceptible electrical tingle, so I think I can have the same spark return with whatever is said to me. Hopefully I can finally talk to people if they’re willing to maintain physical contact. I think Dehlia’s brother is probably the first person to try this with.

I wander around the Nagas’ society in draconic form, searching for Dehlia. There are some looks of recognition from various Nagas who must have been spectators during the impromptu tournament. It doesn’t take too long to spy Dehlia. She looks fairly surprised to see me though.

Telepathically she states, “I didn’t expect to see you back any time soon. It sounded like you were going to be busy building a whole city from the ground up. To even begin that, it would only be once you had found somewhere to found such a city.”

I nod, “That was the plan, but something big came up, really big. End of the world big. Do you know who was looking after the books on the southeast corner of the temple?”

Dehlia gazes at me, bewildered. Her puzzlement is expressed in her words, “I trust one such as you to not toss around such words lightly. How are you so certain? What does this have to do with our uncategorizables?”

I adopt a half smile. That makes sense, a tome that steals time would be among their books that couldn’t be categorized. My expression becomes somber as I reply, “We sort of stole a book from there, kind of. It’s my book. It would have had an indicator of being the fifth of six books on the cover. It steals time from anyone who isn’t me that tries to read it. When I read it, it’s just my mental logs. I think. There’s a bit more to it than that. As far as how I’m certain, my brother awoke a God of Fire. It’s so massive that it’s like the entire Fire Biome itself is going to get up and begin walking around. That’s only a slight exaggeration to its size. It’s large enough that a volcano is just one of its dorsal ridges. I was able to slow it down, maybe temporarily put it back to sleep, but in doing so, I killed off a massive swathe of nature.”

Dehlia pales at my description of the beast’s size. She knows I wouldn’t lie to her about a matter so serious. We’ve been through some deadly things together already. We’ve each saved each other at least once.

I’d better ask before I forget, “Oh, also, one other favor, could you convince a Naga friend of yours that isn’t in our party, to hold my hand as I try to talk to them? I have a new power that might let me communicate, they might feel a tiny shock or a small tingling sensation. I was going to ask your brother to try it, but I realized we’re in a party through Lil, so it wouldn’t guarantee it would work with non party members.”

Dehlia raises an eyebrow, she knows that I was killed by an internal lightning explosion. But obviously I’m not going to do that to one of her friends, or anyone really, hm, well, almost anyone.

Dehlia introduces me to the librarian, she says she’ll translate for me if needed, but this Elder Sthenic is polite and agreeable enough to be willing to try my electro-pathy. Telelectro-pathy? Something like that. I like EP better than TP for a power acronym. I’ve been subconsciously messing around with my electrokinesis since gaining it, whenever I can, and my lightning enhanced senses are now boosted by over an entire percent. One percent faster reactions might not seem like much, but who knows what the fate of the world is going to come down to in the end? I guess Luni might.

Elder Sthenic rambles about his book collection, or rather, the books he curates, they’re not his personal holdings. There are some mysterious ones that seem to be collections of maps that are not of this continent, possibly even this world, tomes that seem like some artist’s nightmare sketchbook, a grand variety of mishmash and mismatched unsolvable, or unusable literary or artistic works. When I bring up book five, he begins to fetch it for me while I try to apologize, mentioning I already have it nearby.

Elder Sthenic says, “Oh? How in blue blazes did that happen? I hadn’t seen you come in yet, have I? No no, I’m quite sure of it, I’ve an eagle eye out at my entrance and my collection. How very curious.”

I respond, “It’s a long story, but the book contains some of my memories, maybe all of them. Anyone else that tries to read it ends up losing time, maybe learning a word or two at most.”

Elder Sthenic studies me up and down as we maintain contact. He states, “Hm, then you know far more about it than I do, my boy, or, my lass. I apologize. I’m not quite certain on draconic genders.”

I chuckle, you and me both Elder Sthenic, you and me both. I don’t know what gender I am, or want to be, in any form. Draconic or otherwise. I don’t bother explaining this aloud however.

This seems like a bit of a dead end, so I thank Dehlia and Elder Sthenic for their time. I mention that I may have some friends within the city that may be covertly leaving soon, or staying hidden within. I’m not certain what the right course of actions is at the moment. For now, I guess I can check in with Luni and find out what sort of deal she made for a settlement for the Lavaborn Alliance.

Back in the temple of time, I find the three most beautiful creatures in the world lazing about entangled with one another. There’s a mixture of waves at my approach, a shy playful wave from Lu, an excitable wave from Teuila, and a casual hey there style wave from Linti. Right now Teuila is sandwiched between the two of them, Luni is cuddled up as the big spoon to her big sis’s back, wearing a bit of a pout. Te and Linti are nuzzling fairly intimately, so I don’t want to break up their fun.

I sit in lotus position near Luni and raise an eyebrow. She rolls away from the flirtatious pair of warriors and plops into my lap, exuding a soft sound of glee as she wraps her arms around my waist behind her head. I shift forms to cherubic Reggie, and play with Luni’s hair beneath her dragon kigurumi hoodie. She drops her own form back to the curvaceous otter form in the lovely green and white dress.

I start, “Lu, I–”

Luni interrupts, “Bup, bup bup bup bup bup. Just a little bit longer. Please?”

I chuckle as I smile and nod. Of course, anything for you, I know you can hear my thoughts.

Luni emits the Shellcracker Family Squee, that single elongated “heeeee” laugh from a closed-eyed nearly closed-lipped smile. She then plaps my face with one of her hands, I chase it away with one of mine, her other hand settles on my face, I chase that one away, we repeat several times until she lets me catch her hands. We interlace fingers and stare into each other’s eyes. I shift back into my tallest form, to hold Lu closer, but she surprises me by morphing into her taller form again as well, turning to sit with her legs wrapped around my waist. The shift is so sudden as she turns that our noses and foreheads end up bumping into each other as we shift positions. We chuckle as we blush while lost in each other’s eyes.

We kiss like it might be our last kiss yet again. It seems like we’re only partway finished enjoying a long kiss when she pulls away.

Luni starts, “You’re right to want to know about the settlement. For now, they’re going to let everyone stay with them, the fairies that is. The ground based homes and buildings have the fewest people, and they’re the ones that most of ours could occupy anyway. Some of the humans can fly, so they’ll be able to live with some of the dryads and nymphs and fauns with wind magic in the boughs of the tree. They very much want peaceful cohabitation. As long as Priss maintains her sanity, we have a shot at this working out.”

At that last statement, she huffs a weary sigh, “You know our fams will make it work anywhere, but all the refugees really need this to work out. It’s the only place that will. Shellcrackers will persevere, y’know, but the rest of them are struggling so much. If you didn’t teach Spice how to make magic shops that create food and stuff out of nothing, they wouldn’t have lasted this long. It’ll take some doing, but between some huntable hostiles, and some evolution magic shenanigans, everyone should have enough currency and supplies to keep buying what they need.”

Luni ponders for a moment, then adds, “They’ll try to make a big lake around the tree eventually, like a moat. They’re pretty sure that using your blueprints for expanding water and fish spawns, they can get a nice thing going. Without being able to offer as much as we can, we might not have been able to make this deal. All of these discoveries were your ideas. You weren’t even there, but you were the hero. My hero. Always have been, always will be.”

I blush at Luni’s praise. I won’t accept that word from anyone else. It’s special between me and her. From anyone else it’s just a papercut, an annoyance that stings. Somehow from Lu, hearing it tells a story of our love for each other. A story that transcends worlds and lifetimes by how deep the emotion seems to feel. If only I could express this thought even half as eloquently to Luni. Oh, wait, crap.

Luni giggles in my lap, she squeezes my waist with her legs once, before shoving off of me to stand up. She offers me a hand up as she states, “Someone’s going to be arriving that you’re going to want to see. Well, two someones. Well, more or less. Just, just remember some of what I said okay? Try not to get disheartened. Things aren’t over yet. You got this.”