Kinzul, the black dragon Lil calls his mother arrives in a supernatural haste, almost moving between moments. In fact, everything else has slowed to a crawl, it’s as if I’m witnessing time frozen by someone else, for once the flow of time not held at bay by my own powers, in the time dilation of my death. She can sense that I’m dying, and even though the entire rest of the world freezes completely, she exerts her power so that she speaks to me alone in a moment between moments, “Your very life and death alters the flow of time itself, I’ve never experienced such an effect, let alone had to fight such a thing. You who are precious to my darling son, I offer you a choice, and a gift. Aid us in deposing Terrorzin, and stay with Lil, with us, or leave our territory, finish what you can with what time my gift affords you. Live out your few remaining days in peace, seeking what joys you might find. As for my gift, the barest sliver of my heart’s essence, the only infinitesimal fraction I can afford to expend of my dragonforce. It is no small thing to be able to offer this to you. It will buy you mere moments of a dragon’s lifespan. Perhaps hours, perhaps days.”
Kinzul takes a talon, and rakes it behind a scale on her chest. There’s a sound akin to a crunch as it penetrates her flesh beneath her armored scales, as even the most vulnerable bits of her body are harder than stone. The barest drop of blood, directly from Kinzul’s heart is offered to me, and I can see that the strain of holding back the flow of time is draining Kinzul, she seems to age decades in the blink of an eye, perhaps imperceptibly to anyone who hadn’t spent centuries training in a temple of time with a dragon. Yet the signs are there, the barest weathering of her scales, the minute tensing of her wings’ dactyl leathers, the slight sag of the furthest membrane on her wings. Only the barest of hints of those changes, yet they occur all the same. Kinzul gave up decades of life, and power, to give me a few precious moments, and as she said, that is no small thing.
Merely arriving on scene in time is costing Kinzul tremendously, and she’s doing it out of her love for Lil. What’s more, she’s offering me a chance at life, long enough to at least say goodbye as she presses the droplet of blood to my lips. It disappears, oddly enough, somehow absorbed into my very being, by my changeling true inner self. The inner me is revitalized ever so slightly, and it pushes back on the corrupted mana residue with a dark violet bubble of force.
Time resumes passing at a normal pace, and Teuila bounces off of Kinzul who hadn’t been there an instant before. The air that was displaced during her movement in frozen time bowls everyone but Lil over, and even Lil staggers back half a step at the arrival of his mother at such speed. Lil takes in her form, and obviously notices the sudden age difference in Kinzul from the last time he’d seen her.
Lil asks, “What, what just happened? Mommy? Rej was dying, but now it almost looks like you are. What’s going on? Why do terrible things keep happening!?”
Kinzul chastises Lil, “Son, perhaps a slightly more formal address in front of guests, but yes, your friend was, is, dying. I’ve bought him,” she looks me over, and corrects herself, “them, a few precious moments, and that is all I can offer, and what changes you see are the price I paid to offer this gift.”
Teuila and Luni are sitting on their heels, dazed, shaking their heads in disbelief, both looking defeated. Lil grumps, “Why do you have to pay anything? Why does whatever Rej has going on have to do with dragonforces? Those are sacred! Rej shouldn’t have to have them!”
Kinzul frowns in disapproval at Lil before responding, “Lil my darling son, what has gotten you so worked up about your friends’ actions? It’s custom when one dragon defeats another to eat their heart, or for their heir to eat it. How do you think I grew as large and powerful as I am? My dear sweet child. If the one adorned in wings is willing to f--”
Teuila understands immediately the implication as she interrupts to scream, “Who, where, point me! I’ll do it!”
Kinzul blinks at Teuila’s vehemence and audacity before responding, “Very well, yes, an Ice by the name of Yisstendahl has betrayed us on several occasions. We can’t write it off any longer. He should be just south of the M’ah’ruke obeli— And there she goes. Remarkably quick young woman isn’t she?“
I almost laugh, because Kinzul doesn’t know the half of it. I telepathically levitate myself to a standing position, almost out of habit, and each of the gathered stare in disbelief. Blushing, I mumble, “I um, picked up a few new powers on my journey.”
Lil exclaims, “No crap pal! What else did ya learn?" then under his breath, Lil snarks, "Please don’t tell me it was from eating dragons.”
Kinzul snaps, “Enough! My son. Whatever notion you hold, if your dear friend did manage to slay, and eat other dragons, then they are as much dragon as you or I. The fact that a dragonforce holds fatality at bay from their own life essence is all the more proof of that.”
His wings and head droop, almost into a bow, as Lil apologizes, “Sorry mother. We’re just from a whole other world, you know. I’m shook up, and I don’t want my buddy to die, and—.”
Less sternly, with more compassion, Kinzul coos, “Enough, my beloved son. My general in the coming war. It is permissible to experience tumultuous emotions, it is even encouraged to work through your feelings in fashions you find necessary. But try to see things from your friend’s point of view. How they must have longed to see one as precious to them as you are to me, and then they were met with your reaction.”
Lil gulps and hides his face in shame, in his own right shoulder. The glow lichen that lines the corners where the wall meets the ceiling casts shadows over his face, highlighting the gloom in a fashion. I can’t stand it any longer, and I levitate myself to Lil’s fore, spreading my arms wide, and I remain a hair’s breadth away, hoping beyond hope that Lil accepts my hug. When Lil notices that I’m there, he meets me the last fraction of the inch, and finally the enmity is gone, and I’m allowed to remind my best friend how dearly I love him. My bottom lip quivers as tears stream down my face, as I continue to mutter my love, and apologies, in whispers, over and over.
Lil sniffles and complains, “Rej, don’t cry, you’re gonna make me cry. You um, maybe should probably catch up to my It’s-A-Secret. Yisstendahl is no joke, his power was going to play a key role, so we overlooked things that coulda maybe sorta been seen as treasonous. I’m pretty sure he’s a sleeper loyalist though. Terrorzin’s gotta go. He wants to watch the world burn.”
I gulp back a sob as I nod and hiccup. Kinzul orders the Triple L Squad to remain, “You three can not yet be seen acting openly hostile. The preparations are not yet in place, so you must leave this act to the outsiders, who are as of yet unpledged to any alliance. This may be the last you ever see of your friend. I’m sorry to say.”
I armor up immediately, instantly equipping the suit of Valkyrie armor from within my pouch, knowing that Kinzul speaks the truth. I understand the importance of her mission. Lil’s expressions run a gamut of emotions in record time, and he suddenly adopts a human form, bare, and sexless, but with a slightly masculine haircut, and slightly masculine facial features. He embraces me in a hug as strong as any of Teuila’s, such that I hear my armor creak. I tilt his chin towards me so that I can stare him in the eyes, and I softly kiss him on the lips.
Struggling to fight to be able to see through the tears that stream forth from my eyes, I state simply, “I love you best buddy. Forever and ever. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry for so many things. I hope we have time to work through them, but please remember I loved you. No matter what.”
I kneel to grip Lucky’s snout on both sides, and roughhouse with him playfully, before kissing him on the forehead, offering him a silent mental apology, for not knowing how much he might really mean to us, to me, for never understanding just what our relationship was, until possibly too late.
Luni steps back, and holds a hand up, with tears in her eyes, as I approach her, and I nearly crumple at the seeming rejection. She shakes her head at my line of thought and grips my hand, to drag me around a corner, out of view of the others. I start to ask, but she interrupts both my question, and my ability to think, by pressing herself warmly against me, and bringing her lips firmly to mine, kissing me hungrily, achingly.
Lu mutters around the kiss, “They know, they understand, just, just right now, if this might be my last chance ever, it had to be just us. You’re special beyond anything I’ve ever told you. Please come back to me. Please remember. Come back to me.”
My heart aches, because it feels like Luni is talking to someone else. I could easily interpret it at face value, the desperate admission of love for me before I head off to a scenario that quite likely ends in my demise as I either run out of time, or am slain by a dragon. She knows that my genre sense informs me that there is subtext, another meaning. Memories I’m not allowed to have, hidden within me. A me that she deserves is trapped within me, and she wants them back. I don’t know how to give that to her, and Luni is one of the most precious beings in all the universes. Her plea is almost hypocritical, since she warned me only moments ago that I can’t go exploring thought trains.
One thing I can give Luni is our telepathy back though. I don’t know if Teuila has to be near, but I’d want to enchant it onto the five of us, the whole Shellcracker Adventuring Party simultaneously, just to be safe. I know it might be a bit silly to include what some might consider the family pet, almost a dog, but Lucky is more like our son than anything else. He deserves the opportunity to frolic in a peaceful, grassy, sunny, idyllic mindscape. I resolve to survive this fight, and extend that spell amongst us once more.
I pull my lips from Luni’s for the briefest of moments to state, “Lu, whoever you’re calling to you, you deserve them. I’m sorry for not being the person you’d hoped to see. I do love you though, as much as anything else in all the worlds.”
Luni shakes her head, dragging our lips side to side as she sighs in a mix of contentment and resignation. She explains, “No, no you’re definitely the person I’d hoped to see. My hero. You always have been, and always will be.”
I melt as Luni’s words reach me, signifying her heart is fully open to me, as she uses the most meaningful words in creation, when strung together by her. Through a cascade of tears, I sob aloud, “Oh Lu, My Anchor.”
She sniffles and helps wipe my tears away before playfully ordering, “Go knock ‘em dead, My Hero. And *you* come back to me.”