The Sister holding the candle appears exceedingly nervous to my senses. She pauses long enough that I’m about to prompt again before she finally relents and speaks her answer, “We may only refer to that which we serve as the Boundless Divide currently. Its wish is to exist within a vessel that can traverse realities, to experience them. We, well, believe it has chosen a host, or will have chosen a host. It exists outside of the normal flow of time. It exists outside of the rules of all things, outside of all realities.”

That, huh. That sounds harmless enough. Normally when you hear about extradimensional entities they’re all horroterror this and mindblower that and skullflayer whoknows and insanity-warping him-or-her. Well, I mean, at least on Fakeworld, Earth, and its popular horror media. Ugh, how do I even know that? Why is that my basis for comparison? Friggin’ mysterious memories. Once again, they’re just wrong. I think. Unless I’m being lied to.

I slump back down to the floor and sit crosslegged between the Sister, and the Reggie vampire. What’s the right thing to do here? It sounds like they want to give, or have given, some alien entity access to our plane of reality. Is that okay? Should I stop them? Who am I to decide? Haven’t I had enough of having responsibility to make terrible choices slopped onto my plate? What if I choose not to decide? Hm, then I still have made a choice. The Sisters and my phantom fears struggle between kindness and whether or not to kill.

Huff. If I still have a choice, then I choose free will. I’ve no angel on my shoulder to be some celestial voice as my guide. What about vampire Reggie? They were dealt a losing hand. Huh, aces and eights, a dead man’s hand. That, that has been a long time since that came up. It’s why Aces named their dog Eights. Wow, the cyclic nature of my life, everything comes back in the end. I mean, even Olioli and Penina came back. Sort of.

I ramble, “I don’t think you have anything to fear from me, Sister, or Sisters. Who the hell am I to be the judge of all of this? I just, is there no mercy for that vampire Reggie? Are they in eternal torment? Wouldn’t it be a kindness to end them? Do you absolutely need their endless blood to maintain your presence?”

The Sister smiles as she approaches my shoulder. She lays a hand upon my shoulder, and produces a silver-tipped wooden stake from within her flowing veiled robes. The Sister says, “If that is what you deem a kindness, we will not stand in the way of your choice.”

She sets the stake gently on the floor next to me. She left a lot of questions unanswered. Ugh. Bud, what do you think? I know you don’t like spilling blood Bud. Oh, really? Even though you don’t like—? Okay, huh. I’ll, huff. I’ll think about it.

One last question I guess, “Sister? When was the last time this Reggie was fed? Would they have any semblance of their senses if they were given fresh blood?”

The Sister only reiterates, “If that to you is what you deem a kindness, we stand aside that you may make your choice.”

Hell’s bells, hellspit and fel fires these women are vexingly cryptic. Or evasive at least. Bud, I don’t think I can kill someone who’s chained up like that, someone who might be lucid if they were just given food. Get Teuila first? Sure. I, gosh. What’s she even going to make of this?

I stand up, snag the stake, and tuck it in to my scroll-case sheath with the elemental summoning stones, the abjurative scrolls, and the few other things that seemed important to have close at hand. We’ve still got two ‘of-blood’ potions. Wait. Would that be better or worse than actual blood for a vampire who might otherwise be far gone? Is vampire Reggie too far gone? Ugh, yeah, let’s go get Teuila.

I flub between bowing and waving at the Sister, since we haven’t interacted much in the last few days. I facepalm and simply stalk quickly away after embarrassing myself. I sprint down the hallways towards our suite, to find Teuila rocking back and forth, hugging her knees on the bed, sobbing. Oh Te. My wonderful, beloved Teuila. My Wings. I know how much it hurts. Tears well up in my eyes for Teuila’s sadness, for Dawn’s loss, for the fate of Rayileklia, and especially for the unknown fate of our family back home on Can’Z’aas.

I step close to the bed and tentatively lift a hand towards Teuila to lay it comfortingly on her shoulder, and she does something I don’t recall her ever doing, she swats my hand away. I’m left stunned, with my jaw hanging agape. I blink repeatedly, uncertain of what to do.

A moment later, Teuila launches herself from her position at me, tackling me towards the nearby wall, and I barely maintain my upright position to keep standing. She’s simultaneously sobbing and peppering my face with kisses. I’m still reeling from her shunning my attempt to comfort her.

Teuila’s telepathic avatar rushes into my mindscape, crying while calling out, “My Airhead, my Air, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I, I was caught up thinking about Dawny. I, I wasn’t thinking. I’d never. I. Ugh, I’m so sorry. Are you okay? Bud’s talking to Essie and Iceflame a mile a minute and they’re all trying to tell me something. Something about vampires? What the flub?”

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Despite having felt hurt and saddened moments before, I can’t help laughing at Teuila’s turn of phrase. My telepathic avatar holds hers close as I try to explain, “Teuila, Te, My beloved Wings, it’s, it’s so crazy. Remember the room, the suspicious one? I went in it. They didn’t try to stop me. It’s a massive runic circle painted in blood. Some of it from animals, and they do the animals up all appropriately, skinning them, parting them, setting each piece into usable piles and stuff. But, but most of the blood. It’s. Glp.”

Teuila prods my chest, prompting me to continue, “Come on Air, spit it out. What is it?”

My face is ashen as I try to come to terms with what I’m about to say, “It’s from me.”

Teuila’s face contorts. She slaps me on the shoulder and doubles over with laughter. Teuila, through laughter, exclaims, “Hahah, oh you had me there. That look on your face, and dragging Bud into it. Jeeze Air. Thank you I guess. I guess I was kind of caught in a rut.”

I flash Teuila a half-sad half-smiling grimace that slowly draws back further and further. Her gaze catches my expression, so she pokes me again, prompting me to continue, “Well, it’s, um, glp. It’s from a me from another timeline. There’s a vampire me chained and bolted to something. They stab that me, and that me bleeds. Friggin’ hell these sentences are so weird to say. But that me’s wounds close up right away, and they seem to just continue regenerating endlessly. I, there were so many thoughts going through my head.”

Teuila’s face contorts further and further until I’m almost sure her left eyebrow is about to pop off her head. Teuila tries to shush the other three voices in her head as she works it out, “Essie, Icey, buddies, shush for a sec. You too Bud. Air. Are you freakin’ serious? I could have two of you at my side? One that’s invincible? We just gotta go bust them out or something?”

I shake my head as I try to formulate my response, “No, err, maybe. Te, it’s, they. That me? They’re wild, crazed. I don’t know if it’s because they’re starved for blood, or because they’ve been being stabbed, or if the vampirism itself has made them crazy and maybe evil. The Sisters simply begged that I choose kindness, but didn’t answer me whenever I asked if one option over another would be a kindness. They were really evasive, but also permissive. They’ll let us do whatever, whether that’s freeing the vampire Reggie, killing them, letting the Sisters keep vampire Reggie locked up, whatever we want.”

Teuila’s confusion is evident as she asks, “But, why would they be so, so, uh, laid back about it? Or, or whatever.”

I gulp as I try to summarize, “The runic circle? You know how this whole place is like, sort of out of phase with Rayileklia? The runic circle is painted in blood, and has to keep having fresh blood applied. It’s the only thing tying them to Rayileklia. We could destroy the circle, the room, the vampire Reggie, their source of blood, basically anything. If we did that, the sisters might never be able to make it back to Rayileklia, at least probably not for along time, if ever, or this place might collapse in on itself, or any number of things. They’re scared of us Te.”

Teuila grumps, “They didn’t seem scared of me when I was giving them ‘novel experiences’ back when we first got here. But, now that you mention it, they have been avoiding us, haven’t they? That’s super sketch ay eff.”

Super sketch ay eff? Sketchy as, right, right, but that’s more contemporary Earth slang. How does that stuff keep cropping up in Teuila’s lexicon? Well, whatever. She’s right though. I nod in response to Teuila’s question when I realize I haven’t responded.

Teuila’s telepathic avatar looks quizzical as she tries to puzzle out the right course of action. She rambles, “Well, I mean, I’d give my non-existent left kidney for another Airhead, especially one that regenerates from every wound as instantly as you make that one out to be. But what if, even if they seem good, they’re secretly evil, and they sneak off to drink peasants dry until they’re dead or something, and they start a whole vampire army cult or some crazy thing like that. But, but I can’t imagine just killing a you, I just, I can’t. Please, we can’t do that. We’ll try other routes. The Sisters can have that you if we can’t figure out if they’re evil. Please Air. Don’t kill you.”

My jaw hangs ever so slightly slack while my brow is tilted to one side as I stare at Teuila. My right index finger can’t decide whether to curl or to draw back towards my chin. Teuila slugs me playfully when she realizes what I’m doing and what I’m reacting to.

Te grumps, “Ya big meany, you know what I meant. Seriously. I’m begging you love. Any option other than that. I couldn’t take it. Not after Dawny. Seeing a you burst into flames or fade to dust or crumple or whatever vampires do, it would break me so hard. Please Air. Please just, just. This weight on my heart, on my chest, you know how strong I am, but it feels like it’s crushing me, like I can hardly breathe, whenever Dawny pops into my head. I, glp, well, I don’t know if I could survive two of that.”

I stroke Teuila’s left cheek with the back of my hand while staring into her eyes. As she finishes, I sift my fingers through her hair. Teuila then catches my hand and brings it to cup her cheek so she can nuzzle into it while holding my hand in place. I definitely don’t want to kill vampire Reggie now. I don’t want Teuila to suffer even more than she already has. My Wings, my poor beloved Teuila. It’s so hard to move on from this. I think we need to make our choice though, and leave immediately after.

As much as I want to head to that bubble room, and seek answers amidst all the written works in the world, my ticking clock nears its expiration date. I don’t want to put Teuila through another mourning process. I mean, I also kind of want to live, ya know? Yeah Bud, I agree. I have to find this cure, even if it means finding a den of evil dragons and battling through an entire horde of them. I’m almost positive several dragons were recently at The Gap, outside of the Derbrightmine Dwarven Dominion. Given the state of the stone, and my darkened scrying sensors, I’d hazard a guess that they might still be in the area, tearing it up.

Don Derbrightmine was certain they’d come, and that they’d bring hell with them. So, I guess the only question left to ask ourselves about our last few hours here has to deal with the vampire. To feed, or not to feed?