The Kobus drift high above us like lanterns, lighting our way through the thick darkness of the forest. Animals preferring the dark dart away at their presence with various squeaks and chirps of disapproval. A creature with a massive wingspan is particularly upset, blasting air against its wings as it propels into the Grove’s treeline and flying away with a dark purple glow.

Large animals drift around us in the bushes, massive and furry like Dark with wide antlers fractaling. They pay us little mind.

"Why did you kill Inbetween?" I ask. It might not be the easiest question but I know I have a right to know.

"Too many childish reasons, but primarily loneliness. I existed on accident while Inbetween did not, but nothing is intentional. Not really. I didn't see that until well after what I had done," It replies.

"Which is why you kept that piece of Inbetween?"

"I already tried to absorb one and it created Life, so I suppose I was keeping it around hoping for something like this. I'm grateful it wasn't in vain. The only thing I managed to do was use it to enchant the Willways. I'm sure you've felt a connection to it."

"It's why I could get into it in the first place," I say. The longer we're down here, the more familiar it feels, like I've been living here the entire time. This Grove feels like the heart of it. The Willways either bloomed from this spot or one of these spots.

We gradually get to the lighted areas. A blue-green hue bounces off the trees until it’s only blue we see. We come to a clearing overlooking a massive cave set into a hill. Clusters of lights hallmark its entrance. A ball of blue energy dances in places on a set of stones. Tall stone pillars frame it yards from the cave entrance, all joined by hanging orbs of light. Many Kobus gather around it, a grand one in their center with a glorious cap with pure blue hanging like dripping lights. They're distinct from one another now that we can get a good look at them.

While they all glow, their under colors vary from creams to blues and yellows, not one completely the same. Frills hold up their caps, some small and others wide and grand, the biggest one with the grandest cap. It looks at us, raises its cap to show us eyes and a tiny mouth, and produces the smallest smile from it. This leader, the Queen, is a lime green under the light.

"Our siblings from the surface talk about your species often but we've never seen one for ourselves. Now we have you. Wondrous," the leader says. The voice is light and matronly, echoing against the cave walls with a beautiful reverberation. This gentle place is filled with an even gentler aura at her presence. It puts me at ease.

"You guys are up there too?" Kikito asks.

"Only as food, but we communicate."

We look at them awkwardly at that, none of us sure if we should apologize for eating their family. I can't stand the texture of mushrooms but I let still people use them in my food for the flavor. The Queen laughs. "No need for embarrassment. Life and death are really just words, if you haven't noticed. Thanks to this relic, we transcend this dimension when we wish and travel the Willways. We can speak with each other no matter how far away we are from each other. We’ve felt your presence in the Willways and we watched you. And we know you now must take the relic."

"Not because I want to," I say. I can't help feeling like I'm dooming an entire race by taking this away from them. These gentle guys didn’t do anything to deserve that.

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"Nonsense. What's been done to us by the relic can't be undone, except by you. But our Creator will live! What's not to be joyous about?"

The Kobus resume dancing, enclosing us in a tight circle that pushes us closer together and closer to the relic. Dark steps over them out of the circle to watch from the sidelines. Kikito and Mirana’s eyes are aglow from their radiant lights. The Queen hops over to it and takes it into her tiny fingerless hands. She approaches with way more reverence than I deserve.

"Take it, Creator, and live so that we may live by your Image." The Kobus repeat her statement in their language and I understand it. I try to protest but the words fall flat when I look at it. It's mine and it's me and I must have it. There’s no way to untangle that.

I take the blue from them, scalding and tingling with energy, and it drips through my hands like water. It dribbles out and floats around me in droplets that hit my skin and soak in like water drying. It's more a surreal experience than absorbing Life, partly because it's not exactly a dead friend, and it's much more pleasant. I'm filled in internally with color. My skin glows a light blue and it doesn't go away. I feel the rest of me, scattered across and within the planet, the children of myself as creatures on and under the surface. I feel more like me while feeling a marked detachment from the conventional me.

"Talk about becoming a glowing target," Kikito jokes, breaking the ethereal monotony of the experience for all of us. I snap back to reality but still feel the remnants of the energy dispersing in me. Dark has no expression but contentness exudes from him.

"More like a snake with bright colors. It's screaming 'attacking me is a bad idea,'" Mirana jokes back and they share a small laugh together.

"How do you feel?" the Queen asks me, putting her nub of a hand on me.

"Really good," I say, "better all the time, actually."

She smiles and says, "Wonderful. You will have an easy time navigating the celeste now. We have nothing else to offer you except our gratitude."

"I should be thanking you."

"Thank yourself," and the Queen bounces away towards the inner cave, the others hopping after her. They leave us, the area considerably darker without the blue. We look at Dark.

“I didn’t realize how deep the Kobus’ power went. With that piece of Inbetween you can gather the others on Earth without making the entire journey,” Dark says.

“What about the one in Underearth?” I ask but Kikito shakes his head.

“That one’s inside a giant creature, way bigger than the Sound Flayer. You can try but you might want some backup. Or at least him wandering around with those giant antlers of his. How do you do anything with those?” Kikito chimes in.

Dark turns his head and says, “What do you mean? They don’t get in the way.”

“Forget that. I’m just saying you shouldn’t go alone, Kev. And also don’t leave us in case you’re the strongest thing we got right now - I’d like to survive this but I’m not stopping shit with some visions. Can you do anything Mirana?”

“Not yet, but creatures don’t like me anyway. The bugs here sniffed at me but they weren’t interested.”

“They didn’t care about Kikito either when he was dead. It might be because you’re technically a walking corpse,” I say.

“Gee you know how to make someone feel good,” she jokes.

“You know what I mean.”

“Obviously, but it is interesting. And to expand on your question, Kikito, I haven’t developed any super cool powers yet. I can see in the dark, but that hasn’t really helped me out yet.” Kikito nods and scrunches his eyebrows as he tries thinking of more questions.

“Kelvin needs to project to those other remains and take them,” Dark says slowly to draw us back to the topic, “and then we can go to Za’at.”

“And how do I go about doing that?”

“You gotta focus on them and where they are. If it’s like the visions you’ll see some crazy colors and patterns. There’s these rips that pop up and maybe you’ll be able to move through them. I can’t really control where I go other than the idea of what I want - it kind of just pulls me through,” Kikito says and sits down on a rock, patting the one next to him and leaves his hand outstretched. “Let me help you. I’ll go with ya.”

I sit down, our hands clasp together. We both close our eyes. Nothing but normal stuff behind the eyes for a second but shapes start popping up. They quickly become more complicated and explode with color until they’re overwhelming me. I open my eyes and see the same. Innumerable pathways of geometric shapes before me, spiraling into tunnels going every which direction. Several light up with the brilliant blue we’re looking for

Kikito’s hand is in mine, his eyes closed tightly. I nudge him. He looks at me and around him, bewildered. He catches the blue and we head towards them.