Amolot and Umbra feared Prince Nox. Still, they paid me no familiarity or deference. In fact, they often referred to me as “mongrel” or “contaminant.” Their efforts to discredit me were otherwise harmless. Courtesy of their execution of the Primary’s orders, rumors spread quickly of my exotic genetics and the fabricated dangers therein. No woman on Cinder considered me for paternity material, but they certainly considered me for practice. And complements of the rumors, they regarded me as mysterious, potentially dangerous, and attractive.

It made a fun game to play, and I never wanted for company.

[SS]: We both know I’m not the jealous type, but I’m worried because of his age at that time. He was like fourteen for us. And I say as much.

Kissing. Petting. I was already well-versed in these things. Despite my childhood, I don’t think I’d consider my interactions promiscuous until I was equivalent to sixteen or seventeen in your years. It was always within my control under consent of all parties involved.

[SS]: While he’s explaining, he’s brushing a hand down my cheek, offering me reassurances.

Not to worry, amos. Once I went under Nox’s protection, no one abused me again.

[SS]: Hearing him say it that way… It really puts into perspective why he sided for so long with his King. And for the first time, I’m wondering what was so special about me to come between them?

Patience.

Let’s change the subject.

Has Xelan ever told you that once upon a time he was actually fun? Precocious, even?

[SS]: Of course, I’m laughing. We all know Xelan is fun, but I raise an eyebrow at precocious.

Well, there was this one time. After the excursion to Elden’s Temple—the one where Many Feet suffered some kind of seizure—they retired the ol’ girl to her upgraded pen of ostrich-feathered mattresses, a trickling spring with the freshest black water Cinder wept, and all the mushrooms she could eat.

But no more adventures or games.

So for our wrestling matches, I had to sneak down there to play with her. The behemoth play-bowed like an Earth dog; one with a crocodile’s snout and red scales. Sinking into its spread front legs and panting through a wet grin. Of so very many teeth.

I leapt onto her immediately, and we tumbled until I pinned her. Her four hind claws lifted me into the air over her abdomen as she readied to launch me further into the cave.

The sore loser.

“Uh. Uh. Uh. Do that and there will be no belly scratching.”

She cocked her head to the side with a mewing sound and released me to my chore, which I endured with delight. Hellkites purr and kick their leg at the same time—

What? Why are you looking at me like that?

[SS]: Oh, goodness. I managed to go so long beaming at him without outright laughing, but now I can’t stop.

Right. Back to Xelan.

Out of nowhere, his voice called to me in the cave. “Join us at the Spire’s gate in ten minutes, Korac.”

Many Feet and I exchanged a look before I asked, “How did you—”

“You always come here after instruction with mother. I first noticed Many Feet’s fatigue during her evening feedings some time ago, but she seemed fine otherwise. So I followed you. That aside, are you coming?” He kept entering calculations into a handheld device. Supposedly a gift from the Tritans. Now I wonder if it was some unorthodox attempt for the Primary to know his son.

“Yes. Of course.” I slid off the beast’s belly and headed for the cave’s mouth. Many Feet rolled to her six claws and lumbered after me. “Can she come with—”

“Not this time.” Xelan pressed the device twice. “Our combined weight will already exceed the limits…” He muttered the rest of that sentence to himself as he walked away.

Kissing Many Feet’s snout, I assured, “I promise to bring you to my room tonight, girl. My solemn vow.”

[SS]: I want to mention that during this entire story he pulled Thubgy—Pisces’ Hellkitten—into his lap. I don’t think he’s even realized he’s recreated the interactions using the little guy.

Prince Nox awaited us at the Spire’s entrance. “What trouble are you making now?”

Xelan grinned, as if he couldn’t help himself. Wicked on a ten-year-old. “Yes. Yes. This will be good fun. Can you carry us and this?” He dragged along a heavy sack of his experiments.

Nox rolled his eyes, hefted it over one shoulder, and held out his arms for us. We weighed nothing to him. His wings expanded as he looked to his younger brother.

“Ignis Desert.”

The trip took three hours with us discussing the various terrains of Cinder and considerable restoration projects to undertake once one of them ascended the throne. This conversation interested me well enough as I anticipated Nox’s inheritance the moment someone finally tired of Umbra and decapitated him. But I also wondered at our destination.

My future King often traversed to the basalt lava fields of the Ignis Desert. I followed him once, to my detriment. For one, it took six hours to reach on foot. And for another, the environment tested even my mettle. Volcanic rivers blighted the earth for miles in fields of molten fury. Beautiful in its awesome determination.

Upon our arrival, Nox alighted on one of few blackened islands with only scarce rivulets of magma.

“Excellent, Nox. This location is ideal.” Xelan rummaged through his pack the moment Nox dropped it to the ashen dirt.

“Quite.” The older brother scanned the area with tension in his gaze. “Mind sharing your itinerary with us?”

The young Prince raised his tablet. “Right. Right. I want to test a new technology I developed based on this pad.”

I took a step toward his pack, peering with thinly veiled curiosity. “What is it?” Less and less I felt the need to hide my developing personality from them. I appreciate how much Nox noticed in his Verse.

Impatient, Nox held the flopping bag open for his brother, who retrieved a massive object with a cry of delight.

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“A frictionless skate. I want us to try it on a river of lava.”

The very same skids Enki uses for their oceans. He innovated the design before ever setting foot in the Dyson’s Sphere. I was thoroughly impressed and eager to try it out. It smelled sterile and felt cool to the touch.

Nox looked skeptical. “I have all the faith in your design, but should mother hear of this…”

Xelan waved away the concerns. “I tested it many times before when I followed you out here, to no avail. Now. I need your help. Strap your feet here. Fly up with us and the skate. With some decent speed, alight in one of the rivers. Gravity will do the rest.”

The future King kept his arms folded with a quirked brow for his brother. He gave me the full weight of his gaze where I stood behind Xelan. I was often the tie-breaker. I never doubted their uncanny ability to get us out of any predicament.

I trusted us.

Aware of the dangers, certain of the fun, I smirked.

Nox relented with a groan reserved for pestered older brothers. “Very well.” He stood on the skate, and Xelan strapped him in. Within minutes, we flew over the broadest river in the desert. Molten rock poured and churned before cooling in a lagoon several miles away.

Xelan assured, “The skate will take us there. You barely need to steer.”

Nox scoffed, “You never mentioned steering!”

The baby in the family patted the brother he so clearly admired. “I have faith in you.”

Nox chuffed but maintained course.

It approached awfully fast in a larger than life, holy shit we’re about to crash into magma, kind of way.

I may have gripped tighter when the skid first made contact. Nox easily glided it onto the fluorescent orange stream. He lowered Xelan and I on the glass. The frictionless contact did the rest.

We were lava boarding. Soaring through molten rock without a single splash. Occasionally, the heat vented at us or the liquid popped a boil, but Nox expertly steered from danger.

Xelan laughed with glee. “I do love our outings.”

“You have a way of escalating the fun.” I spared him a rare grin.

He beamed.

Nox crouched, and we picked up speed. “Release me for a moment. I want to test the maneuverability.”

In my recollection, I think that was him masking the Weapon’s depleting “leash” or fuse or whatever. He could touch Xelan without lessening it, but not me.

We let him carry us into rapids. Lava. Rapids. Jutting rocks with splashing magma. I wish I could describe the thrill to you, sprite, but you’ll have to settle for the secondhand telling. Because the rapids were a sign that Nox drifted us down the wrong course of the river. One side led to the lagoon via a long and gentle slope. But option number two—

“Oh, shit.” The baby cursed.

“Xelan!”

“Chastise me later, Nox. You took us the wrong way. This takes us to the lavafall.”

I barked out in laughter. Of course, we went the wrong way. “Try to stop.”

“Well…”

Nox put his face right in Xelan’s. “Well, what?”

The boy visibly swallowed with an audible gulp. “No brakes as such.”

Well, that sucked the laughter right out of me. “You said you tested this?”

He tapped his index fingertips together, abashed. “Yes. With Many Feet. And she survived just fine. But I always directed her to a lagoon where the skid eased to a stop.”

I recoiled at his objectivity.

Nox gaped. “You used your infirmed pet as a test subject?”

“Can we please focus on our immediate doom? I calculate we have exactly two minutes before we go over the edge.”

Holding out his arms, Nox commanded, “Climb up. I can fly away—”

Xelan squeezed his brother’s big hand. “No. The skid is fixed to the surface until it stops.” The boy’s eyes widened to spilling tears as he pouted. “I can unstrap you, but my invention will fall to ruin.”

“Sixty seconds.” See. I contributed.

The edge came closer and beyond it lay a sea of fiery lake. I had to admit. This was a fun way to die, and there wasn’t better company to do it in.

Nox searched his brother’s bereaved expression and threw on that cape he often wore for the baby’s benefit. “We ride it down. The lagoon is beyond the lava lake. We can make it. If I stay upright, the skate should take the vertical drop.”

I know why he set aside sense and reason. It was for the ecstatic and radiant smile on his brother’s face. Xelan even jumped up and kissed his cheek.

Thirty seconds from the most exhilaration I experienced so far. The steam from the approaching lavafall brought water to my eyes. This would be fucking rough. “Plan. Someone tell me the plan.”

“Hang onto my legs. Let go at your peril. Take a deep breath at the top. Let it go at the bottom. Either way, it will end quickly.”

Shit.

I wrapped my arms around one of those redwood trunks and peeled my eyes wide open. I wanted to see the whole way down. Xelan snagged my gaze across from me.

Grinning. The boy was grinning.

Fucking infectious.

We both grinned and looked forward as the skate tipped over the edge.

I screamed. I won’t lie to you. The adrenaline and the joy—all of it escaped from my lungs. I barely heard it over Nox’s thunderous roar as the giant Icarus kept us impossibly upright. Xelan fucking cackled like a maniac. At a ninety-degree angle, we rode a lavafall on a glass skate without so much as a splash. Surprisingly agile, it hugged the surface all the way down even as we righted on the lake.

Smoother than a stone, we skimmed the lava into the lagoon, where it cooled into solid rock. Unfortunately, without the liquid, the skate lost its sleekness and sent us careening with it across the aggregated pumice.

I cussed more at the road rash than the plummet at the edge of the world. “I demand brakes, your majesty.” I hissed as I held up the sleeve of my robe, tattered and ruined.

“Yes. Next time, I will try to secure some form of safety harness—”

“Next time?!” Nox was ass over head, twisted in a pretzel with the skate tangled at the center of his legs where it was still strapped to his feet. “Next time?” His incredulity left the earth quaking.

No. It was actually quaking.

I groaned. “What the fuck is it now?”

I wished I hadn’t asked.

Xelan whistled, impressed, when a geyser of methane gas exploded not six feet from us. The smell of it sent me crashing to my knees, retching. The young Prince held my hair back for me. Distantly, Nox groaned and grunted as he straightened himself out.

Righted, he unstrapped his feet and grumbled. “All those in favor of returning home, say ‘Aye.’”

“Aye,” I gasped out between heaves.

Reluctantly, sullen, Xelan caved with a slight whine. “Aye.”

Ten minutes later, we undertook the long journey. We needed food, baths, and a tailor. Maybe the last was only me. The flight was a quiet one.

We arrived at the Spire, alighting in time to hear Para shout, “You live! For now. When your mother sees you boys are alive and well, she might well end you then and there. What were you thinking running off for the better part of a day without so much as a note—”

Nox gripped her shoulders to cease her ranting. “Para, where is she?”

The tiny woman clicked her tongue, folded her arms, and jut out a hip with some sass. “Oh, now you care?”

Xelan, whose cuteness at that age could diffuse a nuclear bomb, tugged on her shorts. “Para?”

Her shift into her sweeter side was immediate.

I grinned and hid it quickly behind the tower that was Nox.

“Yes, little Prince?”

“Where is mama?” He laid it on thick. Batted those lashes over his big midnight eyes. Manipulative little shit.

The Valkyrie practically cooed. The sap. She ruffled his dark hair. “She has the bath ready for you. Elden knows you need it.” The last she snapped at Nox, who took it like a shield.

We ran, not flew—Nox claimed he was tired—to the highest floor that harbored the royal wing. Savis and Karter awaited us, bemused, in the baths. We stank of char, volcanic gases, and the remnants of adrenaline.

The women left us alone to splash in the hot water and get clean. We ate seconds and thirds at dinner. Although Savis claimed her ire was born out of the Wrong Side of Eternity, I’m sure she prepared an especially sturdy meal for us. Even Umbra grumbled by at some point, showing some faint interest in Xelan’s invention. None of them seemed that interested in the King’s approval. Nox always appeared poised to kill him. Given what little interaction I had with Umbra, I imagined the history that led to that murderous look in my future King’s eye for his father. But sometimes, I saw it for his mother, and that vexed me.

At the end of the night, we weren’t yet ready to part from our adventure.

Xelan begged, “Please, Nox. I promise to clean it all tomorrow.”

The older Prince groaned. “Fine.” He pointed in Xelan’s face. “First thing tomorrow.”

The boy beamed and disappeared to collect all the sheets and pillows. For a moment—less time than it took me to blink—distress crossed Nox’s face. It went deep, like it cut into his soul. So deep that it startled me when it disappeared.

I assume from his Verse that when I captured moments such as this, that it was him reviewing the remaining time in his “leash.” Even after he told me of his affliction much later in our lives, I never connected it to this far back until now.

When Xelan returned, dragging a mount of linens and Many Feet, I helped him set up the forts and pallets on Nox’s floor. We talked late into the night, reliving our brush with death. The young Prince described upgrades to perfect the skate. Rather than reject him out of hand, we entertained the notion and offered suggestions. It was impossible to discourage him. The subject drifted and discussing politics eventually put us to sleep, where we dreamt to the sound of the Hellkite’s snoring purr.

Home.

I would give anything to protect this. To shelter and keep it safe. But even as my life began to feel solid, it sifted through my fingers without my ever realizing we were sinking.