Balls, crap, heck, spoot, shoot, dangit. Fudge. Fricklefrack. Hellspit and Fel Fires Lu. Ugh, why’d you have to get me thinking along these lines. I’m about to cast a telepathic bond with Kinzul, and she’s going to know exactly what I’m thinking as I’m drawing runes on her bare flesh. Ugh, you butt, you absolute butt. This embarrassment is worse than when Lil abandoned me with Fawns At Sunsets when we first met.

Lil, apparently taking a break from spending time in private thinkspace with Teuila, asks, “What’s worse than that embarrassment buddy? Just caught you thinking about Fawns. She’s such a good snuggler.”

I flush a fully heated embarrassment again and glare daggers at Luni, who bursts out laughing. Lil prompts, “Hey, what’s so funny? What’re you two going on about?”

I fail to keep my composure as I stutter basically a half-lie, “N-n-nothing. Don’t worry about it Lil. Luni’s just being mean.”

Lil’s telepathic avatar, currently in his spherical base form, glares at me suspiciously before shrugging. Lil offers up, “Eh, your loss, I can’t help out if you don’t clue me in buddy.”

Precocious, supportive, wonderful, clueless Lil. I shake my head incredulously, trying not to laugh. Lil chuckles at my train of thought, and bounds over to us, half-smothering Lucky’s telepathic avatar as he lands in on Lucky’s face, in our laps, wrapping his avatar’s tail around our avatars’ waists.

Teuila’s telepathic avatar shows up only an instant later, but immediately vanishes along with Luni’s avatar. It seems the sisters need private time to catch up. I can only imagine the fuel that Lu will feed Te to tease me with later. I sigh and loose half a laugh as I hug my best buddy in thinkspace for a while longer yet.

I mumble, “Lil, there’s so much that I’m so sorry for. I didn’t know—. I didn’t know.”

Lil’s spherical avatar scooches back to be able to look up at the face of my avatar from its lap as he asks, “Didn’t know what Rej?”

My shoulders drop as my muscles sag, not wanting to say it. Still, for Lil, I bring myself to answer, “I didn’t know how you felt about dragonforces. I didn’t even know they were a thing. I feel horrible that I need them to survive. The Sisters say I need seventeen total, so I need fifteen more. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry. If you tell me right now, to never take another dragonforce, I’ll do it. I’ll pass them all up. You have to know I’d do that, do anything for you Lil, buddy. I can’t bear the thought of you not knowing that I’d do that for you.”

Lil grumps, “Rej, this is real serious business, and I guess even Mom doesn’t get it, ‘cause it’s not like, cores and derezzing and stuff here. I feel like, like bodies are a thing. I didn’t really know about corpses and bodies for most of our time in Can’Z’aas, but seeing them here—. I, I just want them preserved, safe, honored. Momma doesn’t get how different it is for me, how much they impact me. I don’t want you to die though pal. If the Sisters say you need them, then you need them. I hate it, but I don’t hate you. ‘Kay? I don’t hate you. You don’t get to die on me, to make things up to me. That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works. So don’t go dyin’ pal. Okay?”

I sniffle and gulp down sticky saliva as I nod along with Lil’s response. That’s as fair as I could have hoped. After letting the sentiment linger in the air, and pausing for a beat, Lil teases, “Besides, like I’d let you off that easy!”

I can’t help snorting a laugh as I mutter, “Meanie,” while shaking my head incredulously.

I have to ask, “Lil, did you know that Lu felt like Lucky was her son? Was *our* son? Like, really, really together, our child.”

Lil’s brow expands as his eyes widen in surprise before he blinks several times, seemingly stunned. Lil then shrugs, and offers, “Nope, I didn’t get that sense at all. Had no idea. It’s nice to have a momma though, or um, any parent, in your case. How do you feel about Lucky Rej?”

I continue nodding as I answer, “We um, I really didn’t know until today, not with any certainty until a few minutes ago for sure. I got the feeling sometime while I was thinking about stuff from Can’Z’aas, while journeying on Rayileklia, but it really clicked now that Lucky’s here in our mindscape. I’m almost positive he thinks of the two of us as his parents.”

Lil admires Lucky in his response, “Lucky is mega smart, mega mega mega smart, for some sort of beast. Way smarter than any animal, except maybe Luna. He listens real well. He fights real good too. We’ve been buds since we had to be digging together back on Can’Z’aas. He didn’t complain, and he was a good enough snuggler that it wasn’t as lonely as it could have been. TQ wasn’t great company beeteedubs.”

I chuckle as I nod again, following along with Lil’s thoughts, agreeing, “Yeah. Yeah TQ was something else, for sure. What was it TQ called themselves? A conglomeration of all the wills of the beings who had wanted us to succeed across all the timelines where we failed? It must have been hard being them. To want our success, and to know how many millions of iterations of the timelines we failed in. I— glp. I’m sorry. For bringing up the timelines.”

Lil shakes his head, rejecting my apology, “No Rej, no. I had a lot of time to think about it, to finally get my head on straight. I get it. I really, really do. You pulled out all the stops. A million million of you across as many timelines pulled out all the stops, to get the best outcome, the highest chance of success. Then you put all of that on Lu. Now *that*, well, that’s something I don’t really forgive you for, but it’s not your fault. No one else could have kept the secrets she did. My Gal-pal is still even now sorting through some things.”

I try not to let on my thoughts about Lu and the things I know she’s keeping from us, for our safety, so Lil explains, “I don’t quite get it, and she’s tried to explain it to me, without filling me in on things that could hurt you guys. Still, I guess it is what it is. Because of you, because of what you did to the timeline, we’ve got a home to get back to Rej. I’m sure you’ll be the one to find our way home, and you’ll make a portal big enough to bring Mom along, or something. Promise me you’ll make it so I don’t have to choose between home, and my momma pal? Please?”

I’m struck by Lil’s request. I’d been thinking about similar things not long ago, but selfishly only thinking about the connections I’ve made on Rayileklia, not those that Teuila, Lu, Lucky, and Lil have made. I’d been steeling myself to admit that I would abandon these people I love on Rayileklia, to make it home to Can’Z’aas, to be able to cut ties if it came down to it. Yet I don’t get to make that choice alone. The others are putting their faith in me, but they aren’t all as willing to leave Rayileklia behind. I have to be considerate of the hearts and love of the rest of my inner circle.

Lil suddenly interrupts my thought train to excitedly add, “Oh Rej, pal! I can’t wait for you to meet some of the Onyx Dawn! Ixeyla especially, mm, she’s so cool, and, and hot, and stuff. Don’t tell her I said that, please. Or her egg-twin, Xayla. I’d die of embarrassment pal. I’ll, um, tell her myself. Maybe. Someday.”

I continue nodding, a bit more numbly. It’s yet another reminder that the rest of my friends have been forging a life here without me, trying to get by, not just focusing on apocalyptic scenarios, and ways home. Lil has a crush, a member of Kinzul’s Order. Also, huh, whaddaya know, another set of twins. I wonder what gender Xayla is. The name sounds fairly feminine, but I mean, that’s trying to judge reptilian, draconic names, by human sensibilities tempered by biases from Fakeworld, Earth.

Lil interrupts my thought train to answer my curiosity, “Xayla is a them, like you Rej! They’re real shy though, and don’t like to make a big deal out of it. They laid their first clutch, at least the first one since I arrived, recently, but the eggs were confiscated, and they’ll probably die. It’s so sad. Terrorzin is a bully, and a jerk, and everyone that serves him faithfully deserves what they get when things do go down. Grr.”

More numbness crowds my thoughts, as I can barely respond, imagining the pain of such loss. Even if the eggs hadn’t been fertilized, the precious possibility of life being lost must have weighed heavily on Xayla.

The growling that escapes Lil would almost surprise me, but he begins to rant, “Terrorzin is just, just evil! I hear rumors that, that he sometimes, with the eggs, he forces them on someone else, like, special girl dragons, that can take eggs into them. Or maybe they’re just loyal, or whatever, but he has these dragons that no one sees, because eggs go to somewhere, and what comes out, a long time later, isn’t dragons. It’s Draconiacs. It’s where they all come from. Not natural hatchings. Some kind of incubation thingy that changes what’s inside the egg, forces them to grow, to grow fast, and, and stuff.”

Lil’s rant intensifies as he growls further, “Grrr. Momma is pretty sure he has some kind of queen, or queens, and that’s how and why his forces keep growing, why he needs the eggs. They all remember being *in* somewhere, somewhere that isn’t the egg, someone maybe. It’s weird. Not all the Draconiacs are instantly loyal though. Like, like you’ll meet Nala, she’s sorta not even from around here, sorta like the others, kinda. I’m sure you’ll like her, she’s a nerd like you Rej.”

I can’t help chuckling at the subtle dig Lil manages to slip in at the end of his rant. The rest of it though, the rest is a serious matter indeed. Stealing and altering life, and lives, quite possibly forcing someone else to bear them, it’s beyond reprehensible, it’s monstrous. I rattle my skull to try to lose the thoughts, because that thought train is unbearable.

As I’m beginning to return my focus to meatspace, Lil teases me, letting me know they’re not quite so clueless to what Luni had been teasing me about after all, ordering, “Don’t get too pawsy with my momma while you’re feeling her up with runes, pal.”

I topple over in meatspace, and momentarily hide my face beneath Lucky’s nearest talon. Lucky lets out a “whuff” and shrinks down in size to lay his neck across mine, managing to bury my face. Thanks Lucky, son. I’m not sure if Lucky instinctively understood my desire to hide, or if he’s just enjoying the warmth of my blushing face beneath his neck. Coughing, I nudge Lucky aside so that I can stand, and dust myself off as I present myself towards Lady Kinzul.

The sly, devilish smile that spreads across the darkened, smoky lips of Kinzul’s picturesque face speaks volumes. Those lips are thin wisps of curling cloud cover in an endlessly beautiful night sky, and—. I need to stop my brain. With her far-too observant nature, and immensely keen intellect, Kinzul comments, “It seems a great deal has transpired in so few moments. I await in heightened anticipation of, well, let’s just say I’m certain we’ll find many amusing topics of conversation.”

I bite my lips as I attempt to keep a straight face, and to prevent myself from breathing funnily. Gulping, I draw a deep breath through my nose, and hold it. I wish I could draw the permanency enhancement before I casted the telepathic bond. The few short minutes pass as I awaken a connection between my mind, and Kinzul’s, while I slowly set up the telepathic networks, and set the ground for the subnetworks that she’ll have access to.

Kinzul, for her part, seems to remain placid as she observes my work without comment. Yet I can sense the marvel as her emotions betray her, and my heart races, to be appreciated by such a powerful being, who presents herself as such an elegant beauty. Ack—. Kinzul turns my way to meet my gaze. There’s the faintest smirk that plays across her luxuriously soft-looking lips as she shakes her head, with the mildest of disapproval, and a touch of humor. I gulp as I attempt to resume my task.

I’ve so often failed at hiding my emotions from others within my telepathic bonds, and it’s not like I want to deceive Kinzul, but the embarrassment of having even my appreciation for her beauty on display, directly into her mind, is mortifying. I try instead to focus on my desire to depose Terrorzin, to aid Kinzul and the Order of the Onyx Dawn to complete their quest. My heart races, as I’m flooded with a mixture of fury, ambition, passion, and sorrow. I know the truth of the horrors of war, what we stand to lose. I know loss, as does Kinzul. Her emotions become turbulent, as she acknowledges my train of thought.

Kinzul addresses me privately across a telepathic wavelength, for the first time, “I’ve decided on the title for your position child. At the insistence of Luni, my son’s beloved, I name you to be Hero of the Onyx Dawn, archmage, and void dragon honoris causa. Your alias shall be Schism.”