I gaze across the open cavern with the worked brick floor at my companions. There’s my brother, Mataalii, one who hated me, whose hate drove him to endanger his own family, our family, as he tried to kill me. My brother, one that I slew in a battle near the fire biome of Can’Z’aas. My brother sits sullenly at the furthest point in the cavernous temple room from me, his stare directed at the corpse on the floor.

The other assembled companions who crossed into this world with me after our death in Can’Z’aas include Teuila and Luni, otterfolk sisters, or at least they think of each other as sisters, since biology didn’t really happen back in Can’Z’aas in the early days. Teuila is the woman I first fell in love with, I call her my wings. She’s adopted her almost entirely human form, and she juggles two pebbles in a single hand as she gazes absentmindedly around the room. Luni, Lil’s first love, fought hard to get me to notice her love for me. She saved us all, time and time again. Her future selves being sent through the timeline into her own memories are how we got to the point where our family might be safe against the godly calamity about to happen back home. She had to keep so many secrets, and let horrible things happen in order for this timeline to play out as it did, but if I had learned of any of those events in advance, I’d have ruined the timeline, and we wouldn’t have been able to save our family in the end.

Despite it being me with the power to send messages, personality ghosts, and memory fragments back in time, I entrusted it all to Luni. Luni and I love each other as strongly as Teuila and I do at this point in our lives. Luni’s love for Lil is even greater than that, at least I believe so. Lil, my draconic companion, sits in their Lilagnewt form, their feraform stage, this small red dragon is at least the size of a hippopotamus, perhaps closer to an elephant at this stage. Their scales have come in nicely, as they used to be soft, newt-like skin. Their wings are also resplendent, similarly, no longer a soft, webbing-like pair of wings. But now rugged frames extruding from their impressive scapula, with dactyl-leather sturdier than a ship’s sails.

Luni and Lil fell in love with each other when they were both in their spheriform stage of evolution as the Can’Z’aasian critterfolk would call it. They looked like little blobular spheres with a few traits of the creature they were intended to be, like Lil’s scaly tail in that form, or Luni’s silky fur. Luni, like Teuila, has adopted her most humanoid form with her own evolution magic. The transformation includes clothing, and hers seems so out of place in a dusty temple, a cutesy dark dragon kigurumi. That’s sort of like a pajama with a hoodie and other features representing a character or creature. Like I said, Lu’s love for Lil above all is evident. At least to me. Lil after all was pivotal in saving her life after the Night of High Water.

The Night of High Water brought Teuila and I together too, but Lil and Lu’s story is key to so much in our lives and timeline. Luni had died and was in the process of derezzing, as critterkin do in Can’Z’aas. We, well, they, are made of polygons and pixels somehow, yet still flesh and, well, not blood, but fur and bone. It was a combined effort to rescue Luni from oblivion, but Lil had given up a fragment of their heart, their very core, while suspended in my inventory with Luni. Some of Lil’s heart also bled over into me. A side effect of the process is apparently that the two of us have a dragon’s longevity now, that is, immortal longevity. The three of us have had a psychic link ever since the episode, and, much later, through folly of my own, I nearly died, but also extended that psychic link to Teuila, and seemingly shared my portion of Lil’s draconic agelessness.

Our tale was full of so much struggle and strife, but also love and affection. A family whose nightly rituals included sharing stories, jokes, or songs until we were all ready for sleep, and then sleeping in a pile amongst one another for comfort, and safety. I gained so many magics in my quest to keep this family safe, the family that I joined during the Night of High Water. The last time I used my magics however, just using them nearly killed me. They’ve become so strong that my body can’t sustain their use any longer.

That might not be an issue here. The air feels different somehow, like a static charge permeates everything, that undetectable thrum of energy, or mana. It feels like it’s overflowing in the very atmosphere. Yet the difference is something more that I can’t put my finger on. The air tastes different, the color in the dimly lit cavern reaches my eyes differently. It’s like we exist in a realm with an entirely different spectrum for every aspect of our lives. I’m fairly certain we’ve left our entire world behind.

One of the clinchers is that corpse on the ground. It feels familiar somehow. As I was drawn through the darkness of eternity, the cool calm nothingness of non-existence, I was certain I was forever dead and alone. Yet when I arrived here, and sensation returned, Teuila’s outstretched hand had taken mine as she died along with me, and two things reached my brain. The tactile sensation of her silky-furred hand, and the sight of that corpse. When the sight registered, my brain immediately decided that the corpse belonged to me.

Somehow I know, that's my corpse over there. The corpse is only maybe a couple of hours old. The only problem is, we're not in Can'Z'aas anymore. I peer at the corpse more intently. On the belt is a dagger in a bone sheath with alchemical symbols for antimony, arsenic, and quicksilver. If the symbols are more, well, symbolic, rather than literal, that’s a pretty good composition of things for, say, an assassin’s dagger. Wait a minute.

My jaw drops as I stutter, my mouth trying to keep pace with my racing brain, “Hey, that’s my, wait, the assassin, wait no, Aces’, wait, no, that’s Taylynn’s dag-“

Luni excitedly interrupts me, “You remember Taylynn?!” She meekly mutters a question that I can hardly hear, “Anyone else?”

Shaken from my brain stuttering episode, I turn to focus on Luni, “What? I mean, she’s a character from one of my dreams, well, a couple of them. Wait, how do you know Taylynn?”

Luni’s gaze immediately flits away from mine as she rocks back and forth on her heels, “Right, dreams, yeah, your memory logs I guess, or you must have been thinking about your dreams while I was riding your thoughts for so long.”

I peer more intently, trying to catch Luni’s gaze. She’s being exceedingly coy at the moment. We just died together, and ended up in a whole new world, but still with the secrets? Apparently perishing doesn’t put a damper on Lu’s plans. Regardless, I prod one last time on the issue, “I don’t think I had those dreams until recently though, and still, why were you so excited about me remembering her?”

Luni fumes with her cheeks puffed. She turns to stomp away while muttering, “Ugh, not her. She’s, I mean, she’s fine.” Suddenly she changes her mind and rushes up to me to take my hands and meet my gaze, “Never mind, anyway, Quick! Slow it down! if you ever want to see our family again, you have to slow down the connection. It’s even faster than thinkspace time, you have to make it slower. Please?"

Luni motions towards empty air in front of the body on the temple floor. Other than a swirl of sand from eroded brick in the barely-noticeable breeze in the room, there’s nothing to interact with. I'm mystified as I try to figure out what Luni's asking of me, but I sense a vaguely orblike presence near the corpse on the floor. I withdraw the impressive staff that contains a host of spells in it from my inventory, and cast its aura vision spell. Sure enough, there’s something there, a lumpy sphere. There’s four small bumps on it. But it’s as if it doesn’t want to be perceived by even the aura vision. It seems as if it’s trying to get away from notice, gaining its strength. The faint pulsing it gives off grows harder with each passing moment.

I start to comment on it, "There's, there's something there, it's invisible, but it's pulsing, faintly. I think it's growing stronger."

Lu affirms, "Yes, I know you couldn't see it, but it's, it's this one's soul, and our world. It's both, I’m sure of it. Please don’t ask how."

If it's that one's soul, and our world, and it's accelerated like our think space, then every moment passing here is thousands of moments passing there! Please don't be gone, please don't be gone. I reach towards the feeling of energy in the air, and a sensation passes along my brain that’s unfamiliar. The sensation is knowledge of magic seeking a way to teach me its secrets. There's math in my head along with the menus. I change a coefficient of something like ten thousand all the way down to something like one four hundred eighty thousandth. These are the values it wanted me to understand, or at least to use.

If my math is right, even the scant minute or two we've been here, it could have been days or weeks in Can'Z'aas. All that time with our families, lost. If they're even still alive. I try to view my mind's eye interface, my inventory, my family's party information, it all seems sluggish to bring up, taking minutes to gaze around. Eventually my mental menu grinds to a halt and fritzes out as badly as my early time in Can’Z’aas.

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I try not to think about the exact date that my menus used to look like this, and I fail. It was Day One, the start of it all, my existence after spawning, after having been a soul at the Miracle Oak. I drop to my knees, quaking and gasping for breath as my vision’s focus changes rapidly to a pinpoint of tunnel vision. My pulse throbs in my ears, threatening to hammer them out, off of my head. I begin to sway as I barely maintain consciousness.

Luni, misinterpreting my panic attack tries to reassure me, "I think we're okay, I think you got it in time. I think there was some lag time while we crossed over before we met the time acceleration, or rather the deceleration I guess, compared to what they were experiencing."

I get lost in thought. I can’t make sense of what Luni was trying to tell me as I’m running for my life in my mind, away from the terrors of Day One. I try to escape in any way possible, and I realize I can’t retreat into thinkspace, or browse my logs, or manipulate my inventory. My assembled companions busy themselves with excited chatter and questions, but I find myself unable to concentrate or listen to what they’re saying as I ride out my panic attack. After nearly ten minutes, I briefly pop into my thinkspace as my telepathic avatar. Shortly after that, my mental logs flood my mind’s eye. Immediately afterwards, several items materialize from thin air, ejected from my inventory. Each activation of an ability only happens for a moment.

There’s a warmth along my back, someone had been stroking my shoulder to comfort me, perhaps multiple someones. But I couldn’t be shaken from that panic, so they gave me space to breathe.

I mumble as I postulate, "Guys, I don't think our powers work the same here, it's like, they're on a really long delay. Almost as if we have to call the energy all the way from another world to activate our abilities. I mean, if we're lucky, a dragon is still going to be able to fly and breathe fire, and Valkyrie might still be able to jump crazy far and fast, but our other powers that required energy won't activate until way later than we need them."

No one seems to notice my rambling mumbles, but Lil hops over to me to snuggle their impressive maw against my thigh as I remain lost in thought once more, no longer in a panic. Hm, the tattoo tendrils will work, that's good, they're potent, those will keep Luni safe. Lil's cloak of anti-hostility illusionry will keep them safe. I have a feeling that dragons probably aren't welcome wherever we are though. I'm not sure if the staves or crossbow will work. My danger wraps seem active though, as I can still sense the area around me with their strangely comforting ranged tactile sense.

I stand and embrace Lil’s neck and shoulders. My best buddy from before I even started journeying or adventuring. Lil and I have been through thick and thin, hell and high water together. Quite literally in that last phrase. For the last few months though, we had been apart. Lil was instructed to dig channels for the ley lines of our world, and I had to dig a moat, a canal, and a lava reservoir. I also had to talk to the four gods, finish a dungeon with Teuila, and work on the construction of the Shield of Lacrimosa Trifecta. Life was fairly busy in those final days.

Wow, how many people can wax poetic about their final days as an afterthought, looking back? I suppose maybe Olioli and Penina could. They’re two of our smallest family members that died on the Night of High Water. Through some miracle or another, they respawned as eggs much later, in entirely different locations. The people that hatched though, didn’t have memory logs, and seemed unable to talk. It’s almost as if they were truly babies for the first time ever. Most of us spawned with a full head of knowledge, and the ability to self-actualize our way into various forms and evolutions. Thus, age, like biology, due to their digital nature, really wasn’t a thing for critterkin.

That brings to mind how things seemed to be changing though in the final days. More physics and nature seemed to apply to the rules of our world, and so many laws of our reality seemed bent to the point of breaking. Things I took for granted as being impossible became commonplace. While originally it was only me and Lil among all critterkin who had inventory magic, by the end I couldn’t keep track of how many people were gaining it. Well, in the middle we found a way to break the rules of the system to grant inventory magic to an incredibly limited number. Magic bags from a dungeon that was destroyed. That was the first hint that the world was reaching a tipping point. The cragbeasts had originally fought amongst themselves enough to keep their population down, but they stopped for some reason, and their population was about to boom. If the Shellcracker Adventuring Party hadn’t gone in when we did, they’d have been able to break the red barrier on their own and be unleashed on the land, with their destructive tendencies aimed at anyone and anything else.

The next hint that things were changing was when we suddenly found a human settlement. We had originally thought I was a human, perhaps a human child due to my cherubic appearance, but that was definitely proven wrong. I now know I bore more resemblance to the changeling Fairies from the Miracle Oak. Despite all that, we thought I was the only human in existence, or that humans simply didn’t exist, and our memories that we spawned with, the ones that detailed things like science in a human society, were glitches of our world. Yet there it was, Eimsas, frontier-town of Geawerene. Humans existed in ways contradictory to critterkin. They ate by masticating, rather than digitally consuming, they had biology and waste and children and everything that wasn’t supposed to exist in our world.

Our world! Our family. We left them at the Miracle Oak, surrounded by a hoard of mite-hulks to the north, and encroaching giant insects from the south. Linti, Lightning Hunter, a humaform cat woman whom I adore beyond words was left behind as their strongest defender. Despite her prejudices against the Nagafolk, she was left in charge of their evacuation to the Miracle Oak, to hopefully get them within the shield before its activation. We’re hoping the shield keeps out both the surrounding hordes, as well as whatever apocalypse is coming when the four gods combine. Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate, was wise and kind. Lady Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, was friendly and silly and fun. Lady Maka-Akari, Gaea’s Cradle was practical, calm. Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River, however, was basically hatred incarnate. The four are fated to combine any week now. Their combination in the Hallowed Maelstrom heralds an oncoming cataclysm that wipes the slate of our world clean, at least the continent on which we resided.

I want to get back to them, I want to ensure their safety more than anything. Of course I long to be with them, but more than anything else, I just want them to be safe, to be able to go on living, to find joy. Laomati and Agwai were going to marry! They learned about it from humans. They deserve the happiness of sharing their love in a ceremony for their loved ones to witness. We have to get back to them somehow, just to ensure their safety.

While standing at the orb that is both soul and world, I ask no one in particular, “Can we just use this to somehow go back? I’m worried about the activation of the shield, and our family.”

Luni approaches me to embrace me. While there she says, "Some day, we'll be strong enough to go back and save them, or, well, strong enough to go back at least, and try. The world will be stronger then, too. I'm almost sure of it.” Luni rests her chin on my shoulder and slumps against Lil momentarily. Lu fidgets as she turns towards Teuila, “But um, anyway, T, please tell me you remember? You remember now, right? You have to. Can I tell them now? Please?"

Teuila looks completely lost at Luni's request.

Luni frowns, pouts , and stomps, "Ugh! It's not fair, you, you butt! You're a butt, and you!” Luni turns to face me, her cheeks puffed and reddened, “You're a butt too! You're both butts!"

I'm a tad flabbergasted at Luni's tantrum. We're missing something that must be important to her. What did we forget, and when?

Teuila tries to make it up to Luni, “Luuuu, what the heck is that about, c’mere! Look, I’ll, um, oh I know, I got something cool while we were fighting our way down, here, you can have it, because you’re my favorite sister.” Teuila looks puzzled as she tries to access her inventory, "I, I can't really use my inventory or menu, but I can still talk. I feel myself talking, and I can understand you guys. I only just now realized we’re not doing it like normal."

Luni pauses her tirade to take on a quizzical expression herself, "Huh, you’re right. That’s sort of unexpected. Though, I guess I honestly didn't expect us to even keep these bodies."

I raise an eyebrow at Luni’s phrasing, "I don't think any of us expected to keep our bodies Lu. We thought we were dying."

Luni’s gaze darts away from mine as she mutters, "Right, yeah, never mind."

As I’m about to press Luni on her foreknowledge, Mat grumbles, "That's it, I'm out of here."

He looks constipated as he scrunches his face and leans forward. I raise an eyebrow as I grimace, unsure what he's trying to do. Luni tries to stifle a laugh, and Teuila beans Mat with a pebble that she had been juggling in one hand.

Te calls out, "Hey rocks-for-brains, are you trying to gas us to death after we just died, or what?"

Mat angrily replies, "Just shut up, I'm trying to fly away. I'm done with all of you, this is as much as I agreed to. Hell, it's more. We saved the world, or our family, or whatever, maybe, probably. My flying isn't working though."

As I thought, our abilities either won’t work, or won’t activate for several minutes at the minimum. If abilities took an hour to use or regain the energy from, would they take four hundred eighty thousand hours now? The magic that reached its way into my brain, to teach me about the mathematics of our time connection to our world, wanted those numbers specifically. I suppose if abilities took a millisecond to begin to work originally, they might take something like eight minutes or so to engage now. The problem is focusing for eight minutes on maintaining the idea of what you want to do eight minutes after each second that’s currently passing.

Sure enough, as Teuila and Mataalii bicker with each other for several minutes, while Luni cuddles Lil, about eight to ten minutes pass. Suddenly Mat’s feet leave the ground out from under him, raised into the air behind him as he floats for a fraction of a second then falls flat on his face.

Teuila bursts into laughter, and Lil snickers. Lil turns to face me, “So, buddy, can I kill him now?”