We’re approximately where Solace should be, or relatively in the right region anyway, but it’s nowhere in sight, because of the newly risen Worldstorm level. Ixeyla begins to hyperventilate beneath me, which is worrying, so I do my best to reassure her. I get it, if we don’t find some place to land, she’ll eventually tire, and tumble into the Worldstorm. The few peaks barely poking above the clouds provide barely enough room for a human-sized individual to sit upon, and even then their toes would be dangling and dipping into the Worldstorm, drawing lightning to them if not simply melting off.

Eugh, gruesome. Casting out my senses, I see why it seems like Solace is no longer reachable from the air. There’s a small tunnel in the Worldstorm, and a large pocket beneath it that contains Solace’s aerie. Smart. There’s enough to space to launch, gain upward velocity, shift forms small enough to slip through the hole in the storm, and return to form above the storm. Or in our case, enough room for Ixey to drop through in her human form, then either return to form and fan her wings to air-brake, or for me to catch us both in my telekinetic grips.

Reassuring her, I call out, “Ixey, over that way, you’ll just have to shift into your human form and fall through a tunnel in the storm, then transform back to slow your fall.”

Still panicked, Ixeyla freaks, “Are you kidding!? I can’t do that! I told you I’m not as good with shapeshifting as the older dragons in the Order! I don’t want to splat!”

Ah, that’s true, she did say that earlier. Cooing softly into Ixeyla’s mind through our telepathic bond, I assure, “It’s okay, it’s okay, if you want to shift to your human form, I can grip you with my telekinesis, and—.”

Frightened still, Ixey interrupts, “Nuh uh, nope, what if your brain magic stuff fritzes out or something and you drop me!? Can’t you just grip me with your arms like a normal person?”

My jaw flaps wordlessly for a bit as my index finger can’t decide whether to point or curl. I guess she’s got me there. Shrugging, I agree, “Sure, whatever makes you feel safer.”

At my agreement, Ixey climbs rapidly skyward, confusing me slightly. Apparently she wants as much distance between her and the storm as possible before shifting into her human form, not entirely trusting me to keep her from plummeting into it. To say that it’s awkward to have an entire adult dragon flip around and wrap their entire body around you mid-skyward-flight is an understatement and a half. Holding a deep breath, I try to orient our fall as we tumble erratically while Ixeyla shapeshifts into her gangly, lanky human form, its limbs locked around me.

When her form finalizes, I grip Ixey tightly, and feel her shivering against me. It’s easy enough now to angle our descent and lower us with my telekinesis, but I’ll keep my breath held while we fall, just in case. It’s so strange returning here with the change to the Worldstorm, but it’s what’s best for Solace at this point. It essentially shuts off one avenue of attack against us, while keeping us able to mobilize. The siege will be that much easier to manage, when we’re taking care of just the route towards Mah’ruke.

Hm, that reminds me of the ‘Neath. If Charles and other blacksmiths hadn’t pointed out the tremor damage, I wouldn’t have assigned a team to the ‘Neath. If I hadn’t done that, how much worse would the invasion from the ‘Neath have been when it happened? I shudder at the thought. We’ve already lost lives and suffered injuries. I’ll have Lucky do some, um, let’s call it landscaping, to shore up and block off any tunnels near Verdimenn or near the base of Solace.

Checking the security center through my goggles, it seems like most everyone is returning from their various assignments. I don’t spot anyone missing. Err, that was dumb. I find everyone accounted for that either had, or is near, a pair of goggles. Touching down upon the aerie with a crunch, the scritch of sand follows my footsteps as I plod down from the aerie into Solace proper.

It takes a few smirking faces, winking gazes, a heated blush near my neck, and waggled eyebrows for me to remember that I’m still carrying Ixeyla. Yes, sometimes I’m just that oblivious. I can’t even facepalm, since her limbs are still tangled about my body, and most of her torso, head, and hair are blocking my face from my hand. She looses a rueful chuckle, disentangling herself from me.

As Ixey backs away, she rests her fingertips on my shoulder, letting them linger for a long moment. I raise an eyebrow, but she just rolls her eyes before turning away to skip off while thinking about reuniting with her prince, Lil. I crack a grin and roll my own eyes while shaking my head. That pair are certainly smitten. With each other I mean, obviously.

Hm, I know I tried thanking Ixeyla earlier, but I feel bad not expressing gratitude fully, so I telepathically send, “Thanks again Ixey. Today’s stuff would have been a lot harder on me, maybe impossible, without you.”

Her response is terse, and slightly annoyed as she demands, “Don’t mention it. Seriously, especially not the stuff about the aerie. Get it?”

Putting my hands up, palms forward in a mollifying gesture, I agree. Not that Ixeyla can see my hands, but I know she can sense the sentiment. I’m trying to keep from being snarky or smarmy about things. Our friendship is almost at the level where I might be able to get away with teasing her about something like that, but I don’t want to risk hurting her feelings. I also don’t want to risk having her want to kick my arse.

Chuckling to myself, I barely catch the ballistic missile of bountiful bounciness, and soft jubilation that is Luni. I’d facepalm at my brain’s awkward description, but I’ve now got my arms wrapped around Lu, and she’d pout if I took them away to slap myself. We can’t have that, now can we? Wearing a wry grin, I have another slight chuckle to myself while shaking my head.

In a whisper meant only for me, Luni comments, “You’re pretty beat up. It was a bit scary going there during some of that. Thank you for coming home to me, my hero, always. You always will, won’t you?”

Assuring her, as I oft do, I nod while answering, “Yes Lu, of course. I’ll always try my best. I have to admit, when there were so many foes on me that I couldn’t see anything other than flailing limbs, my heart was racing in panic. Some of those spells too, phew, I need to see if we can get some more adamantite shavings, because they tore through even my toughest defenses. Mithril isn’t going to cut it.”

Suddenly our mood becomes somber, both of us aware that the blacksmiths and volunteers have lost friends and family just this morning. I’ll need to take care of creating my own shavings. I’ll speed up the process by creating an adamantite grinder if I can. Sort of like a paper shredder for metal plates. Maybe Littlebit or Nala can help with its fabrication, if not at least its design. Luni redirects my thoughts, and my face, to hers.

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That bright smile, soft, and sad as it seems, beneath those brilliant blue eyes, framed by her dark bob-with-bangs hair feels like a masterful work of art meant only for me. We rest our foreheads together, and nuzzle noses. We love each other. We always will. There’s something more here, or perhaps there, waiting just out of reach, keeping Luni from being the happiest she could be. I loathe myself for that, at least a bit. I’m somewhat responsible for keeping some portion of happiness away from My Anchor, my dear precious Lu.

Cooing, Luni shushes me, “Shhh Hero, it’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. I just have to be patient. Promise me, that if I’m patient, I—never mind, sorry, forget I said anything.”

Furrowing my brow, I frown sadly at Luni, curious what promise she’d wanted to elicit from me before interrupting herself. She mumbles, “S’dumb, just me being selfish, ‘n’ jealous, ‘n’ stuff. Carry me around so we can snuggle? Since I know you won’t be coming to bed any time soon.”

Flashing a half smile at her, I acquiesce to Luni’s request. Skirting the crowds in the feasting hall, I skate and surf my way through the air of Solace, headed towards the security center. It’s where I last saw Kinzul in my goggles, but that was a while ago.

As I’m thinking about Kinzul, Luni interrupts me to sadly soothe, “Oh Reggie. Poor Kinzul, poor you. She’s so upset, so so upset that you denied her order, or request, or whatever. She’s torn up. She went somewhere for privacy.”

Tears well up in my eyes. Did I hurt Kinzul by denying or defying her? My breath hitches, catching in my throat momentarily. Gulping back a half-sob, I don’t know how to make it up to her. I can’t turn around and go seek out this hidden domain that Errissa told Kinzul to assign me to, or however that request came to be. Each hour passing makes it less likely that I could complete it and return in time for the final conflict. Plus, it’s not like I’m unneeded here before the final conflict. There’ll be plenty of minor skirmishes with advance legions, and guerrilla attacks on segments of Terrorzin’s forces.

Each day, I’m practically refreshed to my fullest, perhaps even better than the prior day, since my Can’Z’aasian skills continue to rise. The beatings that I can take, in place of any of our other allies, are assets in and of themselves. We’ll need them. Every injury that can come my way, instead of landing upon any other member of the Onyx Dawn is, well, I don’t need to explain this to myself. I know how self-sacrificial it sounds, but it’s just logical. If we were to roll out a map, place down some figurines, type out some character sheets for everyone, the numbers would speak for themselves.

My pool of health is vast, second only to Teuila I think, possibly even greater than hers, especially if taking my regenerative abilities into account. The thousands of damage that I can survive is itself an aegis against injury of our allies. Pft, I’m like a regenerating shield in those games where you’ve got a health bar that doesn’t regen, and a shield bar that regens quickly when out of combat. I’m a plot device for a gameplay element. Snrk.

Heh. Wait. That’s honestly pretty accurate. My genre senses are tingling. Or maybe I’m just itchy as my wounds are healing from acid blasts, disintegration rays, necromantic blights, fire, ice, lightning, thunder, sand, and everything else that was thrown at me. Poor Big O’Kuel. Okay, also, how the hell did it get out of my inventory, and how did it operate without a pilot? When Lil was in my inventory, they supercharged on my mana. I mean, he did, back when he identified with they/them pronouns.

Erm, getting sidetracked. Did my mana, or will, or something, somehow get infused into Big O’Kuel while it was in my inventory? Somehow, I feel like that isn’t exactly what happened. Hey, where’s my lightning spiritswarm? Oh. Well, I guess that could be how Big O’Kuel was able to move around, once it was out of my inventory. I’m not entirely sure how it got out in the first place, but it seems like the lightning spiritswarm intended to buy me a chance to escape, one way or another. A favor for a favor it seems. Hopefully the swarm finds peace as a stream of lightning, perhaps traversing the Worldstorm.

I guess that also explains why Big O’Kuel wasn’t utilizing all of its abilities, it was just my lightning spiritswarm stuffed into the robot’s inner workings. That left it vaguely operating as a humanoid-shaped creature would. Why does it seem like elemental spirits around me are doomed and destined to sacrifice themselves for me, in one way or another? Sighing, I rub my itchy eyes while Luni cuddles up against my chest. Speaking of elemental spirits, I need to get the foxfire icon into a fire as soon as possible, in the hopes of conjuring forth Zorro. I hope my little friend survived and dissipated, and won’t undergo some drastic personality-change from the stress of dissipation.

My heart skips several beats in fear, thinking of where Zorro likes to nest in the pouch about my neck. Phoenixes are certainly fire elemental creatures, and the one that I knew was semi-intangible, like most elemental spirits. Is the Dracorocnix going to be an elemental spirit? Will it also be doomed to sacrifice itself for me? I barely restrain myself from wailing in anguish at the thought. Luni strokes my face, cooing and shooshing me, both of us blinking back tears.

I’m never entirely certain when Luni is comforting me, if it’s because she knows something won’t turn out the way I worry, or if it’s because she’s just such a sweetheart that hates to see me in pain. I suppose it doesn’t truly matter in the end, because I have faith in her, and take solace in her comfort. She means the world to me, worlds perhaps. I’d hate to ever let her down, though I’m sure I have in several—probably many—ways, over and over again across the timelines, perhaps even just in this timeline. Still, we’re here together, in Mount Solace of all places.

If you can’t take solace in your dearly beloved’s comfort in Mount Solace, then your despondence is far beyond what words can describe. I suppose that has been the case for several denizens of Solace as of late, or over its history. Kinzul and Prinrin lost The Platinum, over and over. Prinrin and Farzhis lost the Order’s previous The Blue. The Vivant lost Orthral, and of course that includes Prinrin. Oh hell. How much pain must Prinny be carrying around, to have been the sweetest, best friend, or lover to so many that have passed, been lost to us, over the ages?

I vow to endeavor to share affection with Prinny as much as possible throughout the rest of the war, trying to help keep her being her positive, loving self. She’s lost so much. I suppose that’s a bit of an over-dramatic way to express that I want to be there for, and comfort a friend who’s suffered a lot of loss in her time. Kinzul has suffered loss as well, all of those lost in the Order were precious to her, like her own children. Heck, with her being of progenitor age, most living dragons might be related to her descendants. Phew. Can you imagine if Terrorzin was a brother or son or something to Kinzul?

I blink several times rapidly, stunned. I’m fairly certain that that isn’t the case, since we already know how Kinzul reacts to her children and relatives being amongst our foes forces. At least if her reaction to Astridus is any indication. Squeezing Luni tightly for a moment, I nuzzle into her neck as we surf towards the security center on our way towards Verdimenn.

Gnawing on my lower lip and the inside of my cheek, I query, “Lu? Do you know about Terrorzin’s aura? It barely clipped me, and froze bits of me, destroying my defenses.”

My anchor just shakes her head as she nuzzles against me. Puffing a breath, I shrug. We’ll have to come up with a countermeasure, or keep enemies off of Kinzul’s back so that she can handle Terrorzin. I might be able to land some long-distance spells on him, in order to help her out with the battle, but I’m probably the asset with the greatest range and versatility in the order, and even I’m not sure if I have anything that could reach from far enough outside his aura. If only my supportive spells weren’t self-only. I’d gladly buff up Kinzul.

Could you imagine an adamantite, lightning-wreathed, dragon-form Kinzul? I snort a bit derisively at myself. Keep dreaming Reggie. Luni looses a quiet, sleepy giggle at my thought train. Asking her what she did today earns me a mumbly response of, “Stuff,” with Luni trailing off and drooling on me as she passes out. She’s going to wake up with her cheek covered in her own drool again, and blame me again. I roll my eyes and chuckle while wearing a wry smile, shaking my head incredulously. I’m glad she’s alright, even if she is tuckered out.