The brief silence in Danika's workspace was broken by her assistant dragon, who announced, "Shinichi is messaging you with concern about ZipZing's sudden departure through both his game account and directly to your phone." It looked proud of itself and she couldn't help but smile.
After a moment she nodded and took a deep breath. " I just want to check a couple more things, and then I'll return. Tell him I'll be back in a few minutes," she instructed her assistant.
Next she summoned the King of Cats, who appeared normally, with lazy insolence. She hadn't been sure that he would, even though the snow leopard cub had just delivered a message for her.
"Just checking that no one had eaten anyone else," she announced to all three AIs without explaining.
The Jade Emperor seemed to understand what she meant though, because he replied, "I have been careful to retain all of the gods and guardians."
She eyed the Emperor warily for a moment and then told him simply, "Thanks, I'll log back in and tell you what I think of the Path of Blood after I see how the quest reacts to my decision."
Next she dismissed both the instance of the Emperor that she'd summoned, and the King of Cats without asking him anything. She then messaged Lin Hao: "Did you know that the Emperor is currently independent enough that he just released a new repeatable quest?"
She glanced around her empty white workspace and then logged out.
--
ZipZing reappeared in 'Living Jade Empire' in what was presumably the same place that she had left it. The dragon and the pixie seemed to have wandered off, but ShinZing's messenger waited. Her assistant had summarized the message well, and it included a small bag of healing potions.
She sent him a quick message of thanks, and shivered. Her brief absence hadn't altered ZipZing's half frozen state, but if this was a test, then she didn't want to use the warmer but semi-automated mobile version to navigate it. She attached as many sparks as she could to her light cantrip particles and hovered at the center of a small warm firework display. She wished that she'd thought of doing the same thing for her firefly, since this way none of the sparks burned her.
It wasn't long before the two guardians rapidly approached her again. The wind blew her sparks away and the Pixie repeated its earlier question, "What will you trade for your life, and which path will you choose?"
Danika glanced between them. She had reasons to want to choose both. The dragon was what she'd planned to be from the beginning, and the pixie was what Shinichi had chosen so that he could match her better.
She smiled at them as the cold seeped back into her and replied, "I choose to remain as I am, I am just here to help my friend Jade reach the Jade Emperor."
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"Are you certain?" the dragon asked with a puzzled expression. "Wasn't your original wish to be a real dragon?"
"It was," she agreed. "But I'm certain that I don't wish to change."
"Haven't you wished to match your master, to be lovers on equal footing, and to walk on air together?" the pixie questioned.
She blinked and then blushed, and felt rather glad that no one else was there to see the pink sparkles that seemed to melt through some of the icy crystals that clung to her skin. "Er, I suppose that I have, since I did go ahead and weave the transformation for a pixie into my belt," she agreed. "But I do not wish to change."
"What about the other who entered this path with you, you only mentioned that you wish to help one of your companions," the dragon questioned with a hint of impatience.
Danika didn't reply right away, she pulled her menus up and checked the locations of her party members and friends. Only Jade was listed oddly as 'between places'. "Do you mean the flying pig?" she asked uncertainly. "Does it need assistance? I thought that our paths had been divided?"
They had followed the little pig quite a ways, but it had consistently refused to associate with them, so she didn't think that it would be considered a companion. However the pixie grinned sharply and answered, "Didn't you try to reach that one's path earlier? Which path will you choose?"
She remembered how the fish named Dreamheart Dragon had refused her help, because if it didn't finish its climb on its own, it would fail its quest. She had referenced that journey in her notes on the Path of Blood. But she had also written down several conflicting possibilities. The possibility that a friend, family member, or loved one might be able to share the cost, if they chose. The possibility that only you could change yourself, and so the price was that you needed to challenge your own flaws. The possibility that the wish would be granted like a priest's prayer, a simple Karma transaction.
The Jade Emperor seemed to have created a literal Path of Blood to the character creation room, and Danika couldn't guess what else he'd chosen to include from the thousands of storylines available to him.
"You must choose where you will go from here," the dragon warned.
Danika nodded and checked her menu screens again. Jade's health and energy seemed stable. And even though both characters were AIs, the pig had more to lose, since Jade was just playing a character here. She worded her reply as carefully as though she were speaking to the Witch, "If my assistance won't prevent the pig from making its own choice, I will help it first."
The dragon shook its head and sighed before turning away. The pixie grinned at her and then a thousand icy wind blades cut her to shreds before she could move.
She didn't meet the twins though, she hovered invisibly in a dark place surrounded by shards of scales and sparkling wings. Her menus popped up normally, but like when she'd been inside her egg, a system message announced that she couldn't access her inventories until she had completed her trial. Her quest menu had a new listing: 'Reassemble Yourself'.
She quickly wrote a summary of her adventure so far for ShinZing and Jade on the guild board. A familiar voice asked curiously, "What doing?"
She spun her invisible self to face the King of Cats, which was more disorienting than it seemed like it should be, as he was floating upside down, and one or both of them were drifting slowly. "Um, I'm supposed to reassemble myself?" she explained uncertainly.
"Hurry," the cat demanded.
Danika waved at the thousands of pieces and replied dryly, "I think sorting through all of these and fitting them in is going to take awhile."
The cat gave her a look and recommended, "Use only pieces of self, much faster."
She let herself spin slowly and surveyed the fragments again. It still looked like a mix of scales and glittery fragments that were probably her wings. "They all look like pieces of ZipZing," she replied doubtfully.
"Even this one?" the cat asked. When she turned, he was biting a shiny dark piece with no color on it anywhere.
"Maybe it's part of the inside?" she suggested after a moment.
The King of Cats tossed the piece it the air and then snapped it up again and swallowed it.
"Hey!" Danika protested.
"Tiny fairy dragon only has five pieces," the cat said crossly. "Not need extra eye."
"Only five…" Danika began, but then she spotted one. It was her tail, her whole tail. Like the cat had said, it was tiny. She found a pair of glittery wings next, but they were the wrong shape, they were pixie wings. She wasn't sure what all of the glittery pieces were if the scaled pieces were from the full sized dragon, but she found her hands next.
When she had all five pieces of herself, they suddenly snapped together and her vision went dark again. When she opened her eyes, a very worried looking little flying pig was staring back at her.