I blink, only mildly surprised at the sudden change in tone that Xayla presents. I hazard a guess, “You want revenge?”

Xayla nods emphatically, confirming my suspicions. I remember that they, like others, have had their clutch of eggs taken by Terrorzin, in some sort of fealty thing that had kept an uneasy truce, recognizing Terrorzin as the king of the dragons. Children that Xayla will never get to have were taken from them, stolen by some deal before they ever had a chance to have a choice in the matter, in order to keep an uneasy peace. Well, that truce is broken now, so we’re never going to let that happen again.

I nod along with Xayla’s nodding, and blush, feeling like a dork for mimicking their motion. I offer, “I’m not really sure what you mean by how we win though. Do you want to talk strategy, or the end results, or—.”

As I leave the or hanging in the air, Xayla cocks their head at a nearly impossible angle while they stare up-leftwards, evincing thoughtfulness. Xayla finally answers, “You.”

I’m a bit flummoxed. I know Xayla’s a dragon of few words, but even for them that’s cryptic. I guess they want to know what I bring to the table, and how my help might matter. It doesn’t hurt that I recited the same thing for Kinzul yesterday’ish.

I start out with, “My most powerful force will always be my friendship, my friends, allies, family, and everyone who has ever stood beside me, but if you’re asking specifically why Kinzul wasted the amount of dragonforce to name me an archmage under draconic conventions, and what abilities I have specifically that set me apart from any other squishy non-dragon, well,” I offer up an almost rote recitation of my abilities and equipment,

My Spells in order of complexity:

* 05/05 runes mastered: Frost Ray,

* 05/05 runes mastered: Prestidigitative Legerdemain.

* 05/05 runes mastered: Light.

* 05/05 runes mastered: Mending.

* 18/18 runes mastered: S P free Scrying.

* 18/18 runes mastered: S P Free Ghostly Steeds.

* 24/24 runes mastered: Telepathic Bond.

* 33/33 runes: Steely Body.

* 33/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Evocation.

* 48/48 runes mastered: Permanency-enhancement.

* 99/99 runes mastered: Telekinesis.

Those spells I’ve yet to learn, but have access to:

* 01/05 runes mastered: Splatter of Acid.

* 00/06 runes mastered: Gusty Wind.

* 08/24 runes mastered: Blast Frost.

* 00/24 runes mastered: Squall Wall.

* 03/24 runes mastered: Summon Swarm.

* 19/33 runes mastered: Detect Thoughts.

* 00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Conjuration.

* 03/24 runes mastered: Growth/Reduction.

* 01/33 runes mastered: Fireball.

* 01/33 runes mastered: Lightning Bolt.

* 02/33 runes mastered: Hailstorm.

* 03/33 runes mastered: Minor History.

* 05/05 runes mastered: Ghostly Hand.

* 06/66 runes mastered: Bypassed-Wall.

* 01/33 runes mastered: Incendiary Web.

* 01/33 runes mastered: Firewall.

* 07/33 runes mastered: Spectral Lock.

* 06/33 runes mastered: Spectral Knock.

* 042/128 runes mastered: Dispellation.

* 012/330 runes mastered: Prescient Moment.

* 003/660 runes mastered: Planar Traversal. This is its own whole can of worms

My Permanent Effects:

* Aura sensing(Detection of magic, souls, and runes)

* Pool of around six hundred S P safe to use each day, or after a good long sleep. I can push it up to a thousand, but over six hundred, my muscles stop responding, taking massive effort to move, and if I hit a thousand, I just pass out.

* Telepathic Bonding, I have several loved ones in a telepathic bond, and can now create other bonds between additional individuals, but it costs S P, and a fair amount of time, or a lot of S P, and a bit less time.

* Near immunity to thermal fluctuation, so fire or frost don’t bother me much. Lava could hurt after a while.

* Vast pain tolerance for lightning specifically, not immunity, but I can shrug it off.

* Comprehension of all written Languages

* Quickening of runotypical spells metamagic available, it increases the per-rune S P cost of my spells, but vastly reduces the time it takes to complete a spell.

* Conjuration multitasking manipulation portion of my brain broke at Autumn Brook, might never be able to use mana construct spells that require concentration again.

* Telekinesis, x2. I can create and maintain two telekinetic grips simultaneously, permanently. I’ll be working to get them into subconscious subroutines, so that they’ll work for me even when I’m asleep.

* I’m technically a Changeling Fae, so I can morph my form around, and apparently I do so subconsciously, frequently, but I’m not good at consciously controlling it.

* Retrocognition. Basically paused time in which all I can do is think, and analyze things from sensory memory. Can’t affect anything or move or anything.

* With eight minutes, I can theoretically use abilities from another world. I had over fifty five hundred mana in a numerical interface in that world. Abilities I had there, that I can manifest here, are access to items in a pocket dimension, shapechanging, thermokinesis, a more powerful version of the electrokinesis that I have active at all times on Rayileklia, and a few other things. I had the power to send messages through time, but that would cost a massive sacrifice on this world, one that I’m unwilling to expend.

* Internal electrokinesis. I currently have to utilize it to bypass the nerve damage that I took in the fight against the Felgre horde while defending Autumn Brook. Bypassing nerve damage by utilizing it is mostly subconscious to do general movements, but I have to focus on where and how to control the electrical impulses for anything more coordinated. I basically operate on lightning, able to generate it, and do a few things with it.

My Current Equipment:

* 1x Danger Wraps

* 1x Billowy Cloak

* 1x Hyperdimensional Haversack

* 1x Enchanted scrollcase

* 1x Archsorc Staff.

* 1x Cap of Disguising Illusions.

* 1x Portable Hole (in my enchanted Scrollcase from Berinon)

* 1x Blessed anti-vampire, silvered stake (in my Scrollcase)

* 1x Holy Halefire wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow

* 1x Full Valkyrie armor set + kite shield

* 1x Pied Pipes of Rodent summoning

* 1x Neckchain,

* 3x Minor Water Walking Potions.

* Undisclosed/unidentified minor equipment from Milbert of Navica, the klepto necromancer in Victo

* 2x mysterious energy cells

Xayla furrows their brow at me, and I’m not sure if they’re taking me seriously. I’ve only omitted a few useless details, and remembered a couple of things that I hadn’t remembered to add for Kinzul to possibly take into account. Speaking of, I guess I don’t need to fill Kinzul in on the specifics that I’d forgotten to mention to her, since she can read my internal monologue of me saying this to Xayla.

Kinzul telepathically sends to me, “Indeed my Schism. Even such minor details as numerical limits to your powers will be taken into account should you be able to provide them, as you have. I thank you for offering your friendship to Xayla, she, no, they, are hurting, and they were already a withdrawn, nearly friendless individual before the hurt. I must politely demand that you tell me the nature of the sacrifice that you are unwilling to make, in case it could be something that would allow us to use this remarkable ability you spoke of, sending messages through time. We’ve lost our foresight by losing our Seer and Scholar.”

Gnawing my lip, I was afraid Kinzul might demand that information from me, but I don’t want to hide anything from her, specifically for the reasons she’s alluded to. Gulping, I divulge, “It’s an egg, a fertile egg from Can’Z’aas, it contains the child of a mythical phoenix, and his partner, a mythical roc. However, it doesn’t have a hatch timer like all other eggs would. In our world, eggs would have numerical indicators floating above them that determined how long until they would hatch.”

I pause, but quickly decide to add, “Lucky was also such an egg once. It’s why I’m loathe to even begin to contemplate risking spending the egg. If we get stuck in a timeline, where the message to the past failed, a life such as Lucky’s will be forever lost to us. I wholeheartedly believe that someday, somehow, I will find a way to nurture this egg, and it will be able to hatch.”

Kinzul, disheartened, agrees, “This is lamentable to hear. Yes, no, I could not fathom sacrificing the life of Lucky, or any other family member in order to *only-possibly* receive communique from the future. If you make any progress on unlocking the secret to hatching your egg, from such a mythical pairing, please inform me immediately. In fact, I should like to invest dragonforce in its development, to protect it, if you could show it to me soon.”

Xayla squints as they continue furrowing their brow at me, and they continue to loom and lean ever closer to my face. Xayla taps me on the forehead several times for my attention, and I return my attention from the telepathic bond to meatspace, blushing. Before I can apologize, Xayla asks, “Spacing out? What’s that about? One of your powers?”

I nod, and make my apology, “Yeah, sorry, Kinzul was talking to me. I kind of like to give her my full and undivided attention when she speaks. Whether that’s out here in reality, or across the telepathic bond that I’ve begun setting up for her, for us. It’s— intimidating, yet reassuring, that she’s everpresent, and can handle the load of hearing all of my thoughts, at all times. When I’ve created a greater network for her, with subnetworks of our other Onyx Dawn members, she would have to choose which subnetwork to actively be able to hear, and at that point, would likely narrow it down to only one or two brains that she parses the constant inner monologue of. It’ll allow for instant communication and relay across a wide area though, especially with Pawn having a subnetwork all her own, since she can get around so easily, and reach groups who might be out of range of each other.”

Blushing, and realizing I’ve rambled for what must have been a solid minute without breathing, due to my Shellcracker lung capacity, I’m about to apologize until Xayla suddenly offers, “Cool.”

Xayla once again throws their head at an odd angle, denoting their curiosity, and their eyes drift away in thoughtfulness as they ponder something. They ask, “Everyone, or just fighters, titled, and Aliased?”

Before I can answer, Xayla seems to be able to sense that I’d answer the priority would be the titled and Aliased and the fighters for sure. They hunch in on themselves, and manage to look demure as they ask, “Room for me and Ixay?”

My jaw hangs slightly slack, because I don’t know how to answer. I want to assure them that yes, I’d do that for them, but we’re on a time limit, stuck with my S P limit on runic learning and runic applications per day.

Kinzul apprises me of her feelings on the matter, “Reassure h-- them, we will find time to prioritize them and their sister, at some point.”

Taking Kinzul’s kind words I offer them nearly verbatim to Xayla, “We will find time to prioritize you and your sister, at some point. Kinzul said it was okay. I don’t know how soon it could be, but if you want, I can set it up so that the two of you are on a private subnetwork all your own, or the two of you just linked to Kinzul.”

Xayla looks increasingly bashful as they almost plead, “Three?”

Fumbling, I struggle to understand as I respond, “Three? I mean yes, if you include Kinzul, or did you mean you wanted a third person? I think eight or—.”

They respond by pointing at me while avoiding my gaze. Xayla asks in a whisper I can barely here, as meek as a mouse, “Friends?”

I don’t even need Kinzul’s words of encouragement to respond, “Of course, yes. Friends. Yes, I can be in that loop with you two, if you like. I—, I can definitely manage that. Anyone you like, up to eight or ten, but yes, I’ll definitely be there for—“

Xayla suddenly withdraws, pulling their pointing hand back as they manage to somehow further hunch in on themselves, almost doubled over in their gangliness. They mutter, barely audibly, “Cool. Thanks.”

Xayla begins to ask, “Safe?”

Before I can answer, or even contemplate the question, Lil and Ixeyla arrive, and Ixeyla almost teases, with her slightly-cracked voice, “There you two are, hit it off after-all, huh? Way to go sis. Put ‘er there sport.”

Ixeyla slugs me in the shoulder as she passes me on her way into the room, and offers me her lanky right arm, along with its hand with long spindly digits for a full-length handshake. She pulls me in close with the handshake, gripping me by the forearm, while glaring threateningly at me with a furrowed brow, but she continues leaning forward until her lips meet my forehead and she offers an exaggerated, “Mwah,” before whispering closely enough so that only I can hear, “Zayzi really needs a friend they can trust right now. Reliable, nothin’ else. If that aint you. Leave ‘em alone, or else.”

Lil, sweet, innocent, juvenile, oblivious Lil, only noticing that I’d supposedly gotten kissed by Ixeyla, grumps telepathically, “Awe Rej, what the heck pal? How’d you get her to kiss you so fast?”

I almost facepalm as I roll my eyes mentally at Lil’s childish question, but I’d have slapped Ixeyla’s face if I did. Instead, I turn my attention back to Xayla, and ask, “Do you like the nickname Zayzi? Do you mind if I use it?”

Xayla nods quickly in response to my query, then realizes they’re nodding to both questions, begins shaking their head, then frowns. Finally they whisper, “Yes first, please do.”

I flash a smile towards Xayla and nod affirmatively. Ixeyla seems pleased enough by the interaction, so backs off out of my face. I’m tempted to spoil Lil’s obliviousness by announcing his enamored nature to Ixeyla, so that they can stop pretending they’re not courting each other. I won’t do it though, since Lil asked me not to. Still, I roll my eyes at my best bud as he stares dreamily at Ixeyla, not really saying anything, only following her around with puppydog eyes.

Since I’m thinking about their relationship, Lil manages to telepathically plead, “Rej, hey, pal, how many eggs do you think we should have? Our kids, children, would all be red dragons like us, right?”

I bite my lips to keep from laughing as I respond, “Lil, maybe get to the point where you can actually speak to her before thinking about having kids together. I can’t imagine a horde of rugrat Lils, so maybe just one is enough buddy.”

I don’t mention the fact that, since Lil is Can’Z’aasian, he doesn’t have the biology to have kids the natural way, so they wouldn’t have to all be red dragons, since he’d either be adopting, or um, Ixeyla could get some uh, help with her eggs from another source. Jeeze bud, maybe get to the point where you think to work out the logistics of something like that before thinking about that. Sure, we can shapechange, and maybe alter our physiology somewhat because of it, but I really don’t want to imagine Lil doing that, for that reason.

The pair settle in on the ledge of the spring, which prompts Xayla to sit near their sister, and virtually huddle up against her. For her part, Ixeyla chats excitedly to Lil, about some matches and sparring she’d done, wrestling with other dragons, and Lil nods along, listening intently. I figure that’s as good a cue as any to excuse myself, so I do. Xayla meekly waves my way, their fingers not even fully extended. I flash them a smile and a nod while mirroring their wave.

I find myself wondering if Ixeyla wants to be part of the fighting force or not. The two are still almost children, or barely beyond being children anyway. They’re just entering their adult stage of their dragon lifecycle, so they do have the power of adults, and the full forms and such, but that’s not the only reason I’d hesitate to ask them to join the battle.

Another reason is that there’s a world of difference between enjoying sparring, and wanting to actually go to war, and harm or kill others. I think I could probably convince Ixeyla one way or the other, due to her bond with Xayla, as I’m fairly certain Xayla won’t be fighting. If I wanted Ixeyla in battle, I could convince her it’d give her sibling the best odds at surviving, or if I wanted Ixeyla to remain, never joining a battle, I could convince her that Xayla wouldn’t do well worrying about her going out to battle. I could formulate better arguments if I felt like it was my responsibility honestly. I know we could use every ally we can get, but a large part of me wants to have as many people as possible just enjoying peace, enjoying their lives, not having to take part in the struggle.

Kinzul comments, “Trust that part of your heart. It’s why you bear the burden of the title Hero. I want nothing more than for Rayileklia to be at peace, for all dragonkind to subsist, and enjoy a moderate life. Ka’thuul would have dragons farm all smaller beings like cattle, humans and Fae included. This is the most pressing concern that reduces the effectiveness of our alliance. Yet that is yet another problem for tomorrow’s Order.”

I’m constantly awestruck by Kinzul’s compassion and empathy, despite all that she has experienced. Huff. Kinzul’s right, that is a problem for the future. There have to be people left to protect, to worry about keeping them from being herded like cattle. If we can at least rely on Ka’thuul’s help to avert at least one of the apocalypses, it’s better not to rock the boat just yet. I gulp, as I realize a caveat; unless of course she decides to bulk up her food reserves and meat stores by raiding some of the last bastions of free civilization. She would jump much higher on my list of priorities to take down if she did that, or if she overtly betrayed the Order, instead of the subtle, almost childish plays at grabbing and snatching wealth and resources.

As I’m wandering back towards the feasting hall, I notice the din of grinding stone has died down, only to be replaced with that of raucous conversation. I try to drown it out, since sensory overload could shut me down for a long period that I can’t afford, by thinking about something else. My thoughts land on Kinzul. Not her perfect features, or majestic bearing, or anything like that, or the status of megababe that Teuila conferred onto her. No, what springs to mind is that she, like Lil, advises me to follow my heart. Despite going into a war where we’re vastly outnumbered on all sides, where hardening one’s heart to the inevitable losses would prove a boon, Kinzul urges me to trust and nourish the compassionate, peaceful part of my heart, that which wishes for others to experience joy.

It makes me wonder if Kinzul is more certain of the outcome than she lets on. Either that we’ll lose, and those that can, should enjoy the time we buy them, or that we’ll win, because there are cards she hasn’t revealed, that trump any possible play made by our foes.

Lil, suddenly paying attention, because I’m thinking so much about his mother, quips, “Yeah! Momma’s got a secret weapon! She can open up holes in the sky! And that’s not all, but the other secret you’ll see soon. The only other one that can really do any flying is anyone with Astridus because of her Latent, and Momma’s gonna kill her first thing.”

I gasp as I receive the news. We have air superiority and mobility? We can strike from positions hidden above the deadly, lightning-filled acid cloudcover of Rayileklia? Holy crap. There’s the tiniest hint of humor, and perhaps an even tinier hint of smugness residing within Kinzul’s telepathic wavelength as I can feel her virtually smirking as I assess the advantage. Wow, that’s, that’s going to make this guerrilla warfare. We’ll be able to launch tactically precise offensives, striking priority targets, and, unless our foes want to try to siege our home, we will get to pick the fields of battle. I personally have an answer to the siege problem. Respawning resources. Digitally summoned and constructed goods. It breaks all the rules that a reality is supposed to have, but we’ve seen that Luni’s shop worked, when we deployed it at Daffodil’s home.

We’ll certainly still suffer losses, but to be able to cross Rayileklia at the speed of dragonflight, without needing to maintain nearly ground-level flight, actually being able to use wind currents, instead of having to tire oneself out flapping for every brief burst of speed is— It’s incredible. When I saw Ka’thuul flapping away from where we’d slain Yisstendahl, I could tell that each flap was an incredibly significant amount of energy, since it had to propel her enormous mass, and created jet-like turbulence behind her. If we do find that our enemies have mobilized, we can catch them while they’re exhausted, resting their wings.

I parse the other bit of information Lil left me with, since I know we’re going to be part of the vanguard offensive, Kinzul is going directly for Astridus, while we handle other foes in whatever force she’s with. That will be partly because Astridus has some sort of Latent that provides mobility for our foes, and also because of whatever happened between the two of them. I’d be heartbroken if it turned out Astridus was one of Kinzul’s daugh—. Oh Kinzul. I’m so sorry.

Tears well up in my eyes as I sense Kinzul’s emotions tense in apprehension of my conclusion. I sense her heartbreak as she wordlessly confirms my suspicion. Hell. Just. Just hell. I turn my back on the feasting hall, looking down the hallway I’d just arrived from, as I weep openly. Kinzul manages to keep her perfect poise upon the meager half-throne she sits upon, where she gazes out over all those that she considers her children. Some perhaps are actually her children, biologically. Others are perhaps officially adopted, such as Lil. The rest of us feel her love all the same.

It takes me several minutes before the tears stop flowing, as I process the heartbreak Kinzul has already suffered, and will have to suffer. Gulping, I turn around, and barely process my silent sonar’s directions to avoid bumping into Vylon.