I play Kinzul’s words over in my mind, just to be certain I’ve heard correctly. My heart skips a beat before catching in my throat. In some ways, it’s the most respected, honored I could ever possibly feel. In others, it’s a burden I don’t think I can bear, and a title I don’t think I deserve. I’m stunned, and my hands stop their motion where they lay upon Kinzul’s back. Somehow, somehow it just feels right. The um, void dragon bit, and the alias of Schism, not, glp, not my hands. Not that the muscular, athletically toned, impossibly night-sky-black back of Kinzul is anything less than magnificent to gaze upon or touch—. I need to stop thinking.

While she has my attention, Kinzul further explains, “As we’ve lost one archmage, it suits us greatly that you may serve as Yisstendahl’s replacement in that regard, and you’ll be given full access to his private library. As Yisstendahl was technically sworn allegiance to me, we are therefore afforded his possessions. We will subsume his library into my own, and Nala will categorize and make all of it available to you. Further, your beloved Teuila shall be known as Guardian of the Onyx Dawn, knight, and sky dragon honoris causa, her alias shall be Tenith. None shall challenge the rights of either of you to claim dragonforces after honorable combat, and many combats you shall have.”

Tenith—! Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, Tenny, but, but how. Did Lil or Lu tell Kinzul about Tenny? Still, it’s so fitting for Teuila. I desperately want to hug Kinzul right now, to express how much I know this will mean to Teuila. I’m struck by tears of pride and joy. I’ve enough swirling emotions to override the embarrassment for the most part, so that I can finish scribing the permanency runes upon Kinzul’s exquisite bare backside. I’m beginning to wonder what the aliases for various other members of the Order of the Onyx Dawn might be, especially my inner circle.

Kinzul, sensing my line of thought, and keeping it directed away from embarrassment, sates my curiosity, “Lil is known as Star of the Onyx Dawn. His alias is Sun, because the light and heat of his flames are feared even among dragons much his elder. Luni is the Bard of the Onyx Dawn, and her alias is Muse. Lucky is the Hound of the Onyx Dawn, his alias is Hunter. Sometimes, simple does work best. Nala, whom you’d seen briefly is the Librarian of the Onyx Dawn, her alias is Curator. The others will introduce themselves to you in time, or at large-scale meetings of the Order. Many are not given titles, nor an alias. To have felt as honored as you did is only right, as is to dread the burden and weight of such a title. I have little doubt that you won’t fail to disappoint us.”

I have to parse Kinzul’s statement for a moment. The thoughts intrude as I’m left confused momentarily. Little doubt, don’t doubt, or not much worry, is certain—. Won’t fail to disappoint, or will disappoint. She is certain I will disappoint? Or is fail to disappoint its own thing, like be seen as a failure. That would mean she is certain that I won’t be seen as a failure, maybe?

Kinzul clarifies while chuckling, “The latter my Schism, the latter. Perhaps it is a quirk of the draconic tongue that leaves languid the language such that a turn of phrase may turn against us. You shall be revered nearly as highly as my Sun, my Muse, and more.”

I let the weight of Kinzul’s words sink in, the honor she’s bestowed upon me, the trust and faith she’s placed in me, the belief she has in me and my ability to carry out her will and to succeed—. The burden is a terrible, incredible weight, more than a mountain of lead, and yet—. Yet I’m lifted on high. Propped up by that same faith. There is support here, the Order, a family. Their needs, and their successes, are mine, and vice versa. We stand together.

I haven’t even met a fraction of the Order of the Onyx Dawn yet, and I feel as if I owe my life to them, and would lay it down for them. Perhaps I do owe it to them. They had tolerated the treasonous actions of Yisstendahl long enough that Teuila and I could be the ones to slay him, which granted me his precious dragonforce. While it may be mere coincidence, I can’t help feeling that there may be some greater fate at work, another story at play here, hidden beneath the surface. I wonder if there is some sort of magical influence from joining the Order, a kind of tie that binds.

Kinzul once again sates my curiosity, “Yes, indeed, which makes Yisstendahl’s treason all that much more saddening, and hurtful. It also provides the minuscule fraction of my power more heavily to those entrusted with higher duties of the Order. My dragonforce is tied up in many things across Rayileklia my Schism, and I will be relying upon you to reinforce them. It is no small thing to be named Hero.”

I nod in agreement. Kinzul has already saved my life, fought the flow of time, and set up a situation to our mutual benefit that continued to prolong my life by allowing me to obtain and absorb Yisstendahl’s dragonforce. She has also taken me in as part of a greater order, which itself offers a layer of protection in a hostile region, and of course, she has adopted and taken care of my best friend, and all of the Triple L Squad. For any one of these things, I’d view her as one of the greatest benefactors of my life, yet she has arranged and accomplished them all within a few hours of my knowing her, or prior to my arrival. I feel a twinge of guilt, as the admiration and gratitude I feel for Kinzul threatens to blossom into further emotions, in part thanks to Luni’s earlier teasing.

A melodious laugh that rumbles through the cavernous den shakes me to my core, as Kinzul easily discerns my most recent thought train, and what Luni must have said in private. I flush with embarrassment once more as I finish the final rune of the permanency enhancement for the telepathic bond with Kinzul.

Kinzul claps her hands together, and in a motion so smooth I can barely discern what occurs, she stands and shrugs such that her regal, silken clothing returns to its proper place about her immaculate physique. The leader of the Order of the Onyx Dawn turns to me, and asks, “Excellent, how many more can you do at this pace, and what more do you need in order to accomplish it?”

I make a quick mental tally of the S P I’ve used, and the amount of ruby dust I’ve used, and would need. I could maybe do twelve more without risking any sort of backlash, sixteen more and I’d be pushing my runic limit. I could only manage far fewer if I tried to quicken either the permanency enhancement, or the telepathic bond spell itself. The permanency enhancement has no S P cost as long as I don’t quicken it, and the runes are easier to craft, due to being two dimensional in nature, but it’s still a mildly lengthy process. I would however prefer to keep working on my dispellation rune mastery, so I can get that done as soon as possible, in case we have to deal with other archmages. I begin to open my mouth to explain as much to Kinzul, but she nods firmly at me, having been taking part in my train of thought.

Oh gosh. I blush deeply, trying hard not to think about how having such an impressive, capable, dynamic, influential, attractive, regal woman riding my thoughts might catch my brain thinking about the majesty of her physique, the contours of her body, the luster of her cascade of hair. I facepalm, having just thought the exact thoughts I didn’t want her to hear. Kinzul sends a modicum of pity my way across our temporarily private wavelength, as her face is adorned by the briefest of smirks.

Kinzul’s admonishment is almost playful, almost a tease, “My Schism, I do hope that such thoughts don’t affect the quality of your work as The Order’s Hero. I am disheartened to hear that your learning, and enchanting, are mutually exclusive, but I trust your priorities, and trust that you’ll avail yourself to me at the earliest possible juncture. If the range on this link can be increased significantly enough to stretch throughout the entirety of my domain, I shall need you to accomplish that as soon as is feasible.”

Blushing, having thought I was done, I motion for Kinzul to take a seat again as I explain, “I can actually do that now, I have enough of the right grade and quality of gems to layer it up twice more, which should provide a multiplicative growth to the range at which you’ll sense the other psychic subnetworks that I’ll set up, nearly exponentially. You’ll also be able to hold conversations with individuals, or their entire subnetwork of a telepathic bond, from anywhere within you’re region, as long as you’re not on the exact opposite ends. Based on the size I imagine your region to be.”

I resume casting, and layering up the telepathic bond that will mark the psionic center and backbone of the network for the rest of the telepathic bonds. I’m very tempted to quicken the casting, because of how foolish I feel for having assumed I was done. I’ll refrain however, so that I don’t waste S P in the long run, because I don’t know which will cost us more of the moments of priority time, me possibly taking a quarter day longer to finish learning my spell before resuming the creation of the telepathic network, or these minutes where I require Kinzul’s physical presence, and her time.

I apologize telepathically, “I understand how valuable your time must be, to oversee something such as your own domain, and The Order, I do hope you forgive me for begging so much of it.”

There’s a short scoff before Kinzul replies, “My Schism, your time is nearly equally valuable, which is part of the reason that you hold such a high position amongst The Order. I give this time to you freely, as it affords me precious moments I can sit peacefully near my beloved son. Such chances will grow quite fleeting in the coming months. I actually thank you, for drawing this out, so that I may see the joy grow upon his face as he reunites with you and yours.”

I mumble a mixture of apologies and thanks to Kinzul, unsure what to make of my own jumble of emotions, besides feeling honored, humbled, and simultaneously feeling pride for Lil. I can’t begin to express the joy it brings to me to see Lil having found family, and love, on Rayileklia. After the way our lives ended on Can’Z’aas, without him ever getting a chance to say goodbye to our family, it means the world to me that Kinzul and Lil found each other, that Kinzul adopted him. My muscles hang slightly more and more slack, as a tension I hadn’t known I’d been carrying slowly loosens its grip upon me. My eyes blink slowly slower and slower.

I manage to finish another layer of the enchantment upon Kinzul, bringing her range out several thousand feet, perhaps a few miles. Breathing as deeply as I can, I try to retain my focus. I wet my lips, and exhale a soft sigh while fighting my suddenly sleepy eyelids. Oddly enough, Kinzul looks peaceful as well, nearly to the point of sleeping. In fact, Teuila, Lil, Lucky, and Luni are all sleeping. Lil, as usual, snores cartoonishly. Teuila is drooling on the edge of an arm of the loveseat she currently occupies by herself. Lucky shows evidence of dreaming.

Kinzul and I exchange a glance, and begin drawing on our dragonforces to fight the effect. I dive into a moment between moments, as I settle into the absence of time, I try to analyze my most recent thermal snapshot. There is a figure, most definitely not sleeping, approximately a hundred meters down the hallway that leads from the den. If I can look back at other thermal snapshots from moments prior, I might get an idea of what’s going on, but first, I need to return to reality and report my suspicion to Kinzul.

Kinzul’s challenge roars out, “You would dare!?”

I send Kinzul my flash of insight, but I don’t know enough about the members of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, and their usual activities, to determine what is and isn’t suspicious. Was the agent acting alone? That seems like it would be foolish, unless it were an assassination attempt. The sleep suggestion is powerful, but certainly not enough to catch a dragon as powerful as Kinzul completely unawares before she exerts her resistance upon it. My genre senses, or perhaps my retrocognition tell me that such an “attack” is more likely a diversion. The only problem is, I don’t know what it’s supposed to be diverting our attention away from.

Kinzul’s incredible roar did not wake the others, so they’re likely out until the end of the effect. Our leader, the Lady of the Order of the Onyx Dawn orders me, “Schism, capture or kill the intruder. Verify your suspicions at the very least. I shall attend to my agents and subordinates.”

I nod assent, silently wondering how much of my new dragonforce it cost me to resist a spell of this magnitude. I lift myself into the air, and begin telekinetically surfing towards where my thermal senses indicate someone that might be an intruder is located. I truly hope my retrocognition, or intuition are correct. Actually, I wish I could be certain I was wrong, that my friends were just sleepy. Sadly, every fiber of my being is screaming otherwise.