As we delve into the Keep's labyrinthine depths, the air subtly changes—a gradual thinning, as though the Keep's essence is being siphoned away. Abruptly, a dense gray mist engulfs us, billowing from the walls and ground as if exhaled by the stone itself.

"Guys, do you see this?" I whisper, my words nearly swallowed by the thick fog. I follow up, addressing a plea to the fog, "Please don’t be what I think you are."

Not up for more prophecies at the moment, I’m trying to remain respectful as I expect a psychic Sister to pop up any moment now. We were, and are on good terms, and I’d rather not change that by accidentally lashing out due to my own snark or unsettledness. Even shielded by my psionic aegis circlet, I bet there are ways they could hear my thoughts, maybe reading a log of them from the future or the story written on the heart of my inner changeling self. Before anyone can answer, a voice wafts through the mist, uncanny and otherworldly, "Our young Nothing, friend of the Mists, the echo of Rayileklia's heartbeat, its pulse, begins to fade in our ears, in too soon a time we hear a silence that follows the storm."

The mist pulses with the cadence of the voice, and a figure materializes before us, well, me, as I’m cut off from my allies in a field of fog, once again. Just like the last time I was visited by a Sister Hidden In the Mist, I don’t see my allies, and they probably can’t see or hear me, nor hear her, even if they can see her. She’s draped in the same gray as the fog, her features obscured, though vaguely feminine, as usual. She extends a hand, and though I can't see her eyes, I feel her gaze upon me.

Her voice echoes and rolls in the mist, "Hero, Reggie, friend, your destiny has always aligned with the prime path, and yet yours and it converge upon a precipice from which there is no continuance, and no path of return."

The figure's form ripples as if in pain, and the voice continues, "The heart of the storm beats with a fury that will soon be silenced. The echo of its wrath will be felt across the realm, the whole of Rayileklia.”

A shudder runs through the apparition, and the mist around us thickens. "The threads of fate, friend Reggie, Hero, Void Dragon, grow taut and fray at the edges. Even as we stand upon the primary thread, even as we weave and mend, Rayileklia's tapestry yet unravels."

With a final convulsion, the figure seems to unravel, the mist swallowing them whole, a final warning uttered, "The loom of time grinds towards a halt, its weft and warp untangling, the pattern of the prime path unwinds, leaving Rayileklia bereft of a tomorrow at a date all too near." leaving behind a silence that’s almost deafening. The fog recedes as quickly as it came, the energy from the walls flickering and then stabilizing once more.

Teuila breaks the silence, "Did—, did a spooky sexy Sister speak to you again Airhead? Why could I see her but not you, and not hear her? Again! I thought they liked me. We kinda had a thing going.”

Despite the seriousness of the matter, I can’t help snorting a laugh as Teuila references snogging the faceless sisters with their terrifying featureless forms. Lil snorts a laugh along with me before he starts chortling at Teuila’s implication. And that’s despite him not even knowing the full context of Teuila’s attempts to smooch the Sisters for “novel experiences” as they called them. The time we spent in the Sisters Hidden In the Mists’ compound, seemingly outside of Rayileklia’s primary plane, was certainly eventful.

My features droop as my muscles sag, recalling Dawn. We lost her there. I failed her there. Magic, the curse unmade her, nearly stealing even her memory from us. I still don’t know anything that could have cured her. I haven’t stopped looking, always cataloging new powers and abilities, always the thought of her somewhere in the back of my mind, wondering if something new that I learn could have saved her. It’s not like I’ll ever stop looking, just in case I can somehow create a divergent timeline or something in the future that then rejoins the primary timeline, just with me having saved Dawn somehow.

Wait—. Wait. No. Could—? No. Right? There’s no way. What if I already did? No. That doesn’t make any sense. Dawn is gone. I saw her disintegrating, dusted, even her atoms demolished. I’d only managed to snag about three atoms of her soul itself, to prevent the curse from taking that, and our memories of her.

Poking me in the forehead, Te mutters, “Hey, Airhead, earth to Airhead, you got all sad before telling us what she said. What’d she say that got your face all screwy? Come on, you already had a prophecy of me dying today, it can’t be much worse than that for your emotions.”

Shaking my head quickly, sniffling, blinking back tears from thinking about our friend Dawn, I don’t need to burden Teuila with that sadness. Seeing a sister might remind her of Dawn on her own anyway. So instead I motion for us to resume walking, which gets us back in on track.

An instant later, since we’re on the move, I answer, “Oh, right, sorry, just more apocalyptic sounding prophecies, though she mentioned a storm a couple of times, so, I mean, if we kick Al’pa’ca’s ass, and stop him from wresting control of the Worldstorm from Kinzul, we’re gold I think. Right? Why would they risk dying to contact me to tell us to do what we’re already doing though? Plus, they’ve always been deliberate, and exceedingly intentional with their word choices. Though, again that circles back around to—.”

My Wings, Teuila, pauses her descent down the tunnel momentarily to cross her arms and tap her foot, raising an eyebrow towards me, and I realize I’d been literally about to talk myself in logic circles as she asks, “Are you going to be done figuring out that prophecy before or after the horde catches up to us Airhead? Maybe put it on the back burner. Yeah? Come on Air. Reggie. She—, she didn’t say anything too bad, did she? What exactly did she say?”

Perking up as his curiosity is piqued, we all continue our downward journey as Lil quips, “Yeah Rej, what’d she say pal? Give me something to think about other than how boring these gray tunnels are, and how much I want to kick Alpacker’s ass just for making me walk down ‘em.”

Both Teuila and I snort a laugh, roll our eyes and shake our heads incredulously at Lil, but I oblige my beloved Heart and My-Wings as best I’m able, “Okay, without writing it down, it was something like, uh, my destiny, and the path of the prime timeline are both about to like, come to a precipice, or hurtle over its edge or something, somewhere with no path forward, and no path back. Then also uh, something about an echo once or twice, like a pulse echoes in their ears for Rayileklia’s prime timeline, but that it’s going to cut out soon, them no longer able to hear it. Hm, a heart or pulse was mentioned a couple times too, though one was like, the heart of the storm, which is why I was thinking the storm stuff might fix everything. Uh, sorry, I’ll try to be verbatim as best I can.”

Taking a minuscule momentary break from rambling, I attempt to retrocognitively recall the Sister’s exact phrasing. I dive into the non, the absence, the lack of the flow of time, and take a brief pause in my mindscape, pulling up iterations of what she might have said, until I get the exact wording. This would be so much easier if we still had access to our Can’Z’aasian mental logs, or if any of the three of us could read my heart’s story within my Inner Changeling Self. Grumbling, I suppose I could get Alanea to take a look at that when we get home, since she’s the only Changeling Fae I know, and she knows how to read our stories. Bud knew as well, after a time. Sighing, I try not to get bogged down worrying about Bud. He’s at home in the Hidden Heart, recovering finally, after months of journeying with me with no hope of recovery.

Rattling my skull, or the skull of my mental avatar in my time-paused mindscape anyway, I return to focusing on recalling the Sister’s words. Huffing, I spend what feels like hours pulling and sifting through phrasing and wordings, despite no time passing in the rest of reality. Right, alright, this is about as perfect as I can get it right now, and my genre senses say that other than maybe some spelling, maybe some punctuation, and some capitalization, which I couldn’t have heard phonetically anyway, this is about ninety eight or so percent exactly what was said to me. Time to let go of the flow of time, to slip back from the non, rejoin reality, and gorrammit, try to remember gravity exists. Good thing I’ve got the wyverium chestplate, and my four telekinetic grips. I’m such a klutz sometimes.

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Deciding jokingly that walking’s for suckers, that I may as well save every bit of energy and every calorie I can for the battle ahead, I hop on my TK surfboard, drawing Teuila to me, and I provide a lift for Lil as well. Lil shrinks only partially, in order to use his, and his bulk still requires multiple squares, my TK grips. Since there’re no psychic spells, spellcasters, or traps nearby, I take off my psionic aegis circlet that blocks psychic energies, so I can visit Te and Lil in our shared mindscape.

I actually catch them doing something I’ve usually either tuned out, or always missed out on, because it’s the thing they do to privately bond with each other. It’s Lil’s “It’s-A-Secret” time with Te. I can’t help rolling my eyes and shaking my head incredulously while smiling a mile wide, listening in on the two goobers while they pilot their telepathic avatars in our mindscape simultaneously as we continue our journey.

It starts off simply enough, with Lil’s avatar complaining, "If these tunnels were any more boring, they'd be a lecture on rock formations. And I've read about rocks. They don't do much."

Teuila’s avatar’s response is a tad snarky, just a bit teasing, "Well, if you paid attention, you'd know they last longer than dragon attention spans. Maybe you could learn a thing or two."

Lil offers up, "I'd rather learn how to make these tunnels more exciting. Maybe with a race? I bet I could beat you to the next turn," and he had better be joking.

Thankfully Te keeps him from rushing on ahead, though more incidentally than intentionally, "Only if I carry you. Remember, no loud dragon footsteps—we're sneaking, remember? Or did that slip your mind like everything not Ixeyla?"

At first Lil begins to retort, "Hey, I can be sneaky! I'm like a whisper on the wind, a silent,” but then my poor, goofy, lovestruck dragon pal’s telepathic avatar makes googly eyes in our mindscape as Lil fawns over his red-dragon girlfriend, “Mm hehe Ixey."

Bringing Lil back to reality a little harshly, though endearingly so, Te quips, "A whisper on the wind that gets distracted by even the thought of his shiny new girlfriend. Keep it up, and I'll start calling you 'Magpie' instead of 'Dragon'. Or maybe Magbutt instead of Dragbutt."

Rattling his skull, rousing from his lovestruck stupor, Lil seems smugly cheerful while responding, "Magpies are clever, I'll take it. But I'm still a dragon. A clever, shiny-loving dragon. Speaking of shiny, how's your armor so polished when we're underground?"

Honestly I’d like to know the answer to Lil’s question myself. I’m pretty sure Luni has the soap stone. I really need to learn how to duplicate that magic item. Oh, wait, my prestidigitative legerdemain spell. Did Teuila somehow learn it? Or maybe one of the benefits of the Quick Change Rings is cleanliness. I don’t look at my own garb often enough to take note of it. Rattling my skull, I continue to listen in.

Teuila answers Lil’s query, "It's called maintenance, Lil. You should try it sometime instead of hoarding dirt like it's gold," and she simultaneously manages a playful dig at his hygiene.

Almost dejectedly, Lil childishly calls back, "Hey, dirt can be useful! You can grow things in it, hide things under it...” he trails off for a moment before concluding, “lose your friends in it if you're not careful."

I’m worried that this might start escalating when Teuila raises one eyebrow coolly, calmly towards Lil as she asks, "Is that a threat or a promise?” I’m further worried when she adds an edge of hostility to her voice while stating, “Because if you bury me, I'm taking you down with me. And I fight dirty."

Lil seems chipper as ever as he responds with his forthright, sincere nature, "I wouldn't dream of it. Who else would I have to tease?"

Teuila seems mollified as she rolls her eyes before answering, "Just remember Dragbutt, no roars. We're like shadows, deadly, silent shadows."

Still playful in our mindscape, while I’m maneuvering us along telekinetically, Lil nods solemnly, seemingly agreeing, "Got it. Silent as a,” until he interrupts himself to joke, “Wait, did you hear that? Just kidding!"

Rolling her eyes again, Teuila stifles a half chuckle as her mental avatar leaps at and tackles Lil’s while she teasingly chastises, "One of these days, your 'just kidding' will be a dragon-sized problem. And I'll be the one saying 'I told you so.'"

Laughing while wrestling across the grassy hill in our shared mindscape, Lil blows a raspberry before responding, "Until then, I'll be the life of the party. Even if it's a quiet, sneaky, shadowy party."

Rolling her own mental avatar to throw Lil’s, and rolling her eyes once more, Te grumbles, "Keep it up, and the next party will be a search party—for you. Now come on, let's focus. Reggie’s probably bored to tears without their psychic network on."

Pouting, Lil acquiesces, "Fine, fine. But if we find a treasure room, I'm calling dibs on anything that Ixey might like."

Snirking, y’know, smirking with a half snorted laugh, Te starts an eyeroll but thinks better of it before agreeing, "Deal. But let's focus on not becoming permanent residents down here first, okay?"

When Lil nods I simply smile and set my circlet back on, as we’re nearing an area with more magical traps. As much as I wish I could be a part of their teasing and banter, right now our mission is too important to risk all three of us simultaneously getting caught in any kind of psychic trap. Firstly, it’s one of my few weaknesses in general, secondly, all of us are vulnerable to getting locked down by our brains, trapped in illusions, mentally dominated with control spells, and a whole lot more. It’s too bad that the same principle that enables those spells, is what enables the psychic network, the telepathic bonds I’ve put up on us. To be immune to those spells, I have to cut myself off from our bond, one of the favorite things I have in all of existence, the telepathic connection with my inner circle.

While we continue downward, I do my best to use my additional senses to map the shortest, safest route for us towards where I sense all the lightning being funneled down to. As I’m doing that, I recite aloud the Sister’s words verbatim for Lil and Teuila’s benefit. Or at least as close as I could guess to verbatim, with the skills I have. We all feel the pain in our chests as this prophecy reminds us of the fact that Kinzul is fated to die, for me to stand over her corpse someday, though I know not why. I couldn’t have handled telling Lil about it. I’m glad he’s got Luni and Kinzul as well, and not just me for emotional support.

When Lil’s lower jaw quivers and his voice trembles out a single word, “Momma,” it hangs in the air, a longing that’s already prepared for the loss he knows he’ll have to suffer one day.

My heart aches and tears well in my eyes. I know Kinzul is my wife now, but she adopted my best friend first. Her love for him, his happiness that he found in her means worlds to me. Thinking about Kinzul brings my brain back around to the prophecy though. Kinzul could definitely be the heart of the storm. She’s the Administrator, the originator and maintainer of the Worldstorm. She wouldn’t unleash an echo of hatred or wrath though, not after fostering and nurturing mercy and kindness, even in me, even in my darkest moments, for all this time. There’s no way she’d put something in place that would bring about an armageddon after she died.

Then again, I say, “for all this time,” as if I’ve known her forever, when I’ve only been in the Spine of the World, Mount Solace specifically, for something like three weeks. I only met Kinzul the day she pretended to kidnap me and Teuila to save us from being food for Ka’thuul and the Emerald Dawn order. My genre senses tell me that deeper cons have gone on longer. But this is Kinzul we’re talking about. Ancient dragons, empathetic, whirlwinds-of-emotion ancient dragons feel the same way about her that I do, and they’ve known her since maybe the dawn of Rayileklia for all I know.

Anyway, huff, focus on the present Reggie. We’re down another level, quite likely the last, or second to last level before whatever chamber Al’pa’ca’s main sorcery takes place in. Or at least darn near. Hm, based on my senses, there should be an extra path off here to our left, but it looks like a wall. Testing it out by cautiously floating up to it, and sticking a dagger through where a wall appears to be, sure enough, it’s an illusion. I knew we’d find at least one of these in a place like this. I think there are also some rooms that seem to not have exits, that my three dimensional retrocognition say, floor-plan-wise, must have a secret exit into a neighboring hallway or neighboring dead end as well.

So ol’ Alpackers is packing tricks aplenty, hiding paths with fake, illusory walls, and making actual paths seem like dead ends. Clever, but not clever enough to stop us. I glance back at Teuila and Lil, who are both giving me that 'we're ready for anything' look. It's a look I've come to rely on. It warms my heart, soothes my soul, and keeps me pushing forward.