In the middle of the Earth lies a far different vista from what people would see just a few centuries ago. A continent lies above the vast oceans, water shedding off its magically colored slopes as if it was forever breaching the surface.

There's a little trick you can do as you observe the planet.

First, keep the tectonic plate out of view, but keep the rest of the planet within your view.

If you are an ancient soul, or a particularly youthful one, not yet void of enthusiasm, you might admire the rest of the planet at this step.

The blue-and-green globe is aflame with rifts raging with the colors of Demonic Essence.

Roiling slowly, chased by mobile metropolises desiring the same perfection, rifts of the Elven Dimension build and deconstruct continuously, the faultless flora sprouting up and dying back.

The Demonic Rifts are reminiscent of classic hellfire and the other of a work of art so perfect as to make yourself ashamed of living wherever you have lived. The latter tends to be surrounded by artistic types. Entire metropolises form simply to catch a view of perfection and bring pen to paper around the perfect muses for creativity.

They are miniature storms visible all the way from space, and undeniably cool, but not the focus of this trick.

Second, turn juuust enough to see an edge of the Embassy Continent of the Familiars.

Instead of seeing what your line of sight should observe, flower petals of Yellow, Dark purple and black, Blue, Pink, and White completely cover your vision. No matter your senses, these petals completely obscure every single sense. These petals tickle you, their soft tumbling over your face fills your ears, they seem to have dense souls for those with the views of the soul, and far more. Then you find your vision filled to the brim with the continent. It is as if the rest of the Earth disappeared, your vision taken up by this continent far exceeding the size of the planet it is supposedly apart of.

Surrounded by tranquil waters clear as clarity, every crest tinted purple and black by a vast foundation extending titanic distances all around, the School of Magical, Demonic, and Altogether Eldritch Beings.

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The Sun's rays beats down beatifically on their best friend.

Big peacock-glittered crabs with huge oval eyes scuttle back and forth from shoreline to sand’s end like Mario Kart obstacles, a Magical Guardian laughing as he zips side to side to lunge past each of the sparkly crabs.

Barney-purple sand sprays on his turns, planting his heels to stop himself from drifting off like a racecar. The shirtless, ripped teen narrowly skirts the possibility of a full-on collision with one of the 7-foot wide and tall crabs with a bright smile. He hops like a sifaka lemur a couple times to get more ground from the crab racing toward him, laughing all the while.

The kid runs off into the distance exhilarated by the joy of his own two feet taking himself so fast the air builds up on his torso until it can’t help it and whips dust devils behind himself. The coarse pinpricks scrape refreshingly against the part just before his toes, as the digits scallop sand out behind him. He runs off into the distance, a warm, brown silhouette under the source-less Yellow light.

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My brother is...

I smile.

I'm at a loss for words and at a loss for breath.

The ripples in the ocean look especially beautiful today.

A seagull caws victoriously as it emerges from the waters, the vanes of its feathers bejeweled with droplets of salt water refracting the sunset's light. It grips a fat, chonky fish in its beak.

Bye-bye chonky fish.

It's all so magical today.

Wow.

Just wow.

Heh.

I never expected that I would be the one to fix him. My brow knits together. I'm still in disbelief. Maybe... in shock too. So much relief it hurts more than the glare of the sun of my eyes.

If I wanted to be morbid, but still truthful, the relief of having my brother back hurts more than the grief of losing my arm.

I fall down, my body just giving up on me as all the tension leaves me on the beaches' currents.

I can't believe it.

Images of my brother float by.

One of him laughing so hard, the nurse comes in to check on him. He couldn't catch his breath, so she had to give him oxygen!

HAH! Can you imagine how panicked I was? Stars above or below, I cannot deny it was not hilarious though!

HAHAHA!! There he was, with the cannister held to his mouth, and he's still wiping tears of joy from his eyes, the nurse looking delightfully put-upon as she tries to keep his hands from knocking off the Venturi mask.

Another where his tongue sticks out and his right leg lays across a chair handle, while his left swings in circles. He gets so hyper-focused while studying.

AH! He's such an awkward sitter.

At the time of this memory, he thought then that he'd be back to working on college classes in just a few more months.

The doctors thought it was just an infection. Put him on some heavy-duty antibiotics, some bed rest, and he'd be fine. When his feet paralyzed one night, it was only then they realized they had fucked up.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Man... I shouldn't have trusted them. Or Mom and Dad to advocate for what he needed.

No... they were too focused on their jobs.

"Ptew!" I spit on the ground.

Blue Magic leaks uncontrollably out.

It dies down.

"But today is a wonderful day!" Sand shuffles off of me as I get up.

A huge grin splits my space as I stare into the poppin' pink of the sunrise.

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Dennis throwing water balloons.

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Whining as his curly, light brown hair got brushed.

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Taking a picture with Mom and Dad.

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I close my eyes in further reminiscence. The breeze flows over my eyelashes, pulling tears away from my eyes. Sunlight warms my dark skin with honey lighting. A corner of my mouth uptilts softly, a cool breeze wicking away its moisture.

My eyes open and I'm elsewhere.

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Pulling along my girlfriend Elisa with both hands, yelling back at Dennis to hurry his slow butt up.

We all get on our knees in the sand, digging and sculpting in fierce competition, giggling and laughing. Dennis tells some humor as pitch-black as the coffee he would have in his thermos.

Maybe something about beach crabs and cancer, ending in the punchline "the constellation Cancer!" or something like that. Me and my FRIENDS would find it extra funny because it's a stars-themed joke.

Elisa would try to one-up him.

I'd be the one rolling as my sides spit in giggles, trying to put one more crenellation on my sand castle but I just can't do it, starshdarnit!

Externally, I play-act the motions and whisper the words, laughing aloud as I frolic around in my imagination.

HAAAH! Neither would understand each others' jokes. Their mindsets are too dissimilar. But it'd be amazing.

The vision of what can be - no, what will be - ends.

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After all, I want to live in the present too, not just the past and the future.

I feel at such peace, and allow myself to express it. A modicum of fine-tuning the expression is still necessary though. I haven't forgotten the Lady of Death & Taxes. The weather is enjoyable and my heart sings with the waxing and waning of the wind, pressing against me and my brother.

Inclining my head, I glance at my brother lovingly, I fall to a crouch, reaching out to ruffle his hair. An armor plate of my gauntlet gets caught in one of the many golden rings his hair has curled itself into.

My Miasma and Magic really changed him. He now has hair as gold as my Orbs of Vanity, without the black of their pupils. His hair is ceramic tan, a milky brown and sleek.

Unconsciously, he leans in, nuzzling into my palm. And it breaks my heart just seeing him capable of that little motion.

We just sat like that, him sleeping genuinely restfully.

'Without a horde of machines hooked up to him,' I think spitefully of the painful cacophony uncaring of the patient's comfort.

Unbeknownst to me, I snarl.

It was something I was never able to fix for him. None of the doctors there had auras to silence the beeping for the patients and none of the information on runes I was able to dig up allowed me to do anything. The doctors forbade me from setting up runic arrays, insulting my intelligence by acting like I hadn't tested its interactions with the equipment before I used it around my BROTHER. Fucking idiots! ARGH!

... Sneaking in to set it up after testing it thoroughly saw them threaten to forbid me from visiting. Just about buried my scalpel in the man's eyes for even suggesting that.

I shake my head. My frustrations don't matter.

This special time soaking in time with my newly healed brother does.

And we would have more of these moments, of that I'm sure.

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He shifts under my palm, and I leap to, head on a swivel as I look over him as a mother hen would do over a moving egg.

His eyes open, a brilliant shade of blue.

"EEK!!! You're awake, you're awake, you're awake!" I babble excitedly. "How are you feeling? Any sensation of discomfort and pain? Are you able to vocalize words or should we stick to nonverbal communication?" I gently grab his shoulders, still wary of his fragility.

"I can't believe it! You're awake!" I squeal.

"Ohhh shit, I totally forgot to grab the lexicon; so, super sorry. you're moving and you no longer have cancer! Is there anything I can-"

His eyebrows rise and I promptly shut my trap.

His blank expression rises into a smile. He had smiled with just his eyes before, but that full joy expressed with the grin in his mouth, the pink in his cheeks, and the crinkle in the bridge of his nose, stretching all the way to his ears, lifting them up just a smidge...

It is something truly special.

It feels like the clouds had stopped obscuring the Sun, and now its warmth could embrace us both in a family hug, warming our hearts.

He looks around for a moment, briefly uncharacteristically bewildered, before staring at the Sun with a very suspicious glare.

He dismisses it, reserving it for later thought, while I dismiss his clearly odd reaction with willful ignorance, both of us are eager to see if he could talk. He glances down at his mouth, or at least tries too. He doesn't have the Skills like I do.

But what he does have...

"H-hi, lil siss."

Is some variant of Advanced Recuperation. The nitty-gritty of it doesn't matter! All that matters is that he can talk now.

A sniffle breaks the silence. Tears well up and stream down my face. I stumble down into his arms, sobbing.

"Hi, big bro."

He chuckles, "So emotional. Are you sure you're my lil sis?"

I pull back, look back at his teasing expression, and then start full-on bawling into his chest, tears trickling down his waterproof hospital gown. "I-it w-w-was so hard, a-a-and I'm sos-s-s-s-s-so-oh sorry that..."

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Dennis

I looked down at my sister, the very little girl in my arms. Very much changed in so many ways in so few hours. I couldn't really understand what she was saying through the snot and hiccups, but when I heard something about apologizing, I made sure to shut that down quickly.

"Sh-, sh, sh, shhhhh, Shhhhhhhh. There is no need to apologize for... whatever you're apologizing for. It's all ok. You did more, far more, than you should ever of had to do. More than anyone could have even expected of you to do. Thank you, thank you so, so much. You're safe. You're safe now."

Her sobbing grew even louder. He smiled, more out of deep sorrow than any amusement. It was sad that only now was she releasing all of this repressed emotion. He hasn't seen her cry in years.

"I tried so hard," she wept, punching the sand next to me, "I tried, so, so hard, and they all kept leaving me. And you were in such pain. You kept asking me to you leave, to pull the plug, and I couldn't. I couldn't!" She pulled back again from the hug, watery purple galaxies distraught and in pain.

I pet her frizzed-up hair. It's normally so well-kempt. She was so frazzled. Inwardly, I marveled at marveling being able to move my arms.

"Oh you sweet, sweet sister of mine." She shivers at my affirmation of her gender. Had my precious little goblin heard this when I was delirious and still capable of speech a couple years ago. Or did she cold-read me and figure it out even earlier?

"You're a bit too perceptive sometimes, sis," I say lovingly, squishing her close in reassurance. "Some things aren't meant to be known, because they come from the subconscious, a wild place which speaks of things better forgotten than taken as gospel." I looked off into the sunset.

A real sunset.

My eyes blink rapidly, my face scrunching up and turning red as emotion floods my face.

Tears start falling down my face too.

Real tears. Not bloody ones or ones caused by excruciating pain, I reach out my one free hand into the pink light, the other taken by the one arm she had.

How did she lose the other one? So much has happened in... 10 minutes? My sense of time is sketchy.

I was held hostage by a Torment, fell unconscious, woke up with a full head of hair, and I'm seeing my sister changed in so, so many ways... I still feel like I'm on one of my medicinal alchemical trips.

"Well...." I tilted my head, staring thoughtfully into the clear skies and open waters.

Questions later, play now.

"Hey," I say impishly.

She looks up, furiously blushing in embarrassment at her breakdown.

She's probably thinking something dumb like 'I should have been helping Dennis celebrate his new health, not having him comfort me in my childish tantrums.' Always too harsh on herself.

"Want to build a sandman?"