The man who had welcomed them out was a jolly fellow with a slight potbelly, almost unnoticeable warm eyes poking out from their sockets. He held out a hand, helping each of them down from the cart. “Cold, are ye? Ye’ll get used to it,” he spoke, a clear accent infusing his voice.

Gale-force winds made the air feel even colder than it already was, which was quite a feat given that they were cold enough they could barely feel the air. Jay gave him a shivering parody of a nod, at which the man smiled. “Now, let’s have ye enside.”

It turned out that the inside of the house was no warmer than the outside. The man sat them down on ice-cold chairs and started talking to them as their butts started getting frostbitten. “Now that all of ye are comfortabled, we can start with the tale.” He grabbed a piece of yellow, slightly clear… candy? Popping it into his mouth, he started chewing on it. When he saw Jay looking at him questioningly, the man spoke again. “Sweetened pine resin, lad. No cigars ‘ere, for reasons ye may be able to tell.” He gestured at the door and the cold outside. “Damn things don’t light!”

Jay nodded, getting his head to move smoothly. “Can you explain what we’re here to do?”

The man nodded. “Now, I’m the headman of Maanterin. I applaud ye for agreeing to come up here, en the cold. Few be brave enough to do so, unlike ye fellows. Well. We’ve been plagued by some little beasties, those wolves with black eyes and claws dark as night-” he shivered. “Can’t say I’ll be sorry to see them gone. So, ye see, we knew something was wrong as soon as they showed up, because wolves don’t live up here. It’s too cold for them. The only things that live up here be us, our turn’ps, and all dem bison.”

Crystal nodded. “Did the wolves kill anyone?”

“Nay, young lady. At first, they were content to kill our livestock. Then it changed.” The man’s face darkened. “Thee wolves turned on us. We lost three. We haven’t had any of dem attacks for a few weeks, though. Luck, I assume. There’s also a man. When he arrived, the little beasties stopped attacking.”

Jay nodded. “Where is he?

“Up at the top. He said we’d be safe as long as we cooperated.”

Jay nodded. He turned to the rest of the Dragons. “Crystal, you can keep yourself warm. Catherine, I’ll give you a… coat. Drake, I’ll do the same. Let’s go.”

Jay let glowing quicksilver flow onto Drake and Catherine’s bodies, Crystal conjuring fire to keep herself warm. The man pointed farther up the mountain. “Once ye reach the village, just ask for directions to the peak.”

Jay nodded. That explained why there was only one house here. “But be careful, lads and ladies. The peak is cold ‘nough that we people don’t like to go up there. I’ll see ye when ye come back down. Safe huntin’.”

And with that, their trek started up the mountain, walking up a steep, snow-covered slope, until they reached the first buildings of what they assumed was the village. “Hello!,” Jay shouted over the wind. “Which way is to the peak?”

Someone poked their head out of a door, pointing at a small path off to the side. Crystal nodded to the man, and they set off. “My fingies are freezing!,” Drake complained, but he quieted again, seeing that this was not a time for comedy.

They could do with some once they were off the mountain, but not just yet. The path carved up the mountain, ill-advised jumps sometimes necessary to continue. Soon, they couldn’t see anything, snow blasting across their face. There were a few close calls with Drake or Crystal stepping in loose snow and nearly falling off. Either Jay or Catherine caught them every time, and they eventually reached the peak.

The wind quieted, and a light sheen of snow was all that was visible, falling slowly down onto the flat peak, where the man they had come to find sat, unmoving, in the center. A white cloak lay by his side, but he stared calmly at the four approaching figures. Abyss wolves flocked around him, none aggressive, but none looking peaceful either.

“So, you’ve finally arrived. Four of different Schools. To kill me, I presume.”

He turned to Jay. “Fellow, join me. I can induct you into the School of Thought and we can dominate this mountain, then the world together.”

Jay, in response, summoned twin blazing quicksilver swords, driving away the surrounding cold. Then man sighed. “You’ll only cause your death with this.”

Drake appeared behind the man, who slapped him away, looking bored. Just before Drake fell off the side of the mountain, Jay caught him with a tendril, pulling him back onto the peak. The man sighed. “I’ll have to kill the rest of you before he listens, eh?”

A voice sounded within Jay. Take the man. Let your friends fight the wolves.

“Take the wolves. I’ll hit the cultist,” Jay said, the rest of his friends turning to him, surprised.

“You’ll die, man!,” Drake said, and Jay shook his head.

“This is my fight,” Jay said, with an air of finality, and Drake paused, freezing for a moment.

Lightning flashed, and a wolf turned to ash. Crystal shrugged. “Let him do his thing.”

Lamenting his foolishness, Jay charged at the man.

Whips of molten fury snapped all around the man, who dodged some, and pushed others away with an unseen force. Dodge right.

Jay blasted fire to his left, propelling himself to the right. Something cut a furrow in the snow behind him, an invisible attack of some sort, and he was grateful for the voice. Weapons out.

Jay summoned another revolver, firing it once at the man, who simply knocked the bullet off course. Jay immediately liquefied his revolver to create a sword. It superheated, and he swung it at the man, who parried it before waving his hand at Jay, vaguely as if he held a stick and was trying to thwack him with it. The man has a sword, the same length as yours. Fight.

He twisted, letting the sword fly past him, his own on a collision course with the man’s heart. He felt the unseen force hit his sword, once again, but Jay released his hold on it, just enough for it to turn into quicksilver, which splashed around the defense, and got on the man.

Jay jumped away just as he commanded the quicksilver to form into spikes and do as much damage as it could.

Nothing happened, the quicksilver ineffectively grinding against his clothes. The man laughed. “That caught me off guard, kid. You’re good. But not good enough to hurt me.”

Crystal shrieked, and Jay heard it from far away. “There’s something wrong here! He’s not a Thoughtwielder!”

The man chuckled, and time seemed to slow from its force. “Oh, children. You don’t understand what those ranks mean. They’re not even truly ranks, just what people can do. You should stop using them.”

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It’s true. No rank is a measure of one’s power. He… is very strong. You have no chance of beating him, in your current state.

Jay attempted to send a message back. Well then, what do I do?

The voice didn’t reply for a moment, as if conflicted, then did so. I… can help. If you share control of your body with me, I can wield your quicksilver and you can wield your flame.

Jay didn’t instantly reject the offer, for he felt a resonance, somewhere deep down. We already have a bond of some kind? We’ve worked together in the past.

Correct.

Jay nodded. If things get really bad… I’ll agree.

Good enough.

Jay charged the man again. Dodge when I tell you.

The voice, which seemed somewhat womanly, gave him perfect instructions on where to dodge, and he simply followed them, neatly avoiding all the attacks shot at him. Then a frown appeared on the man’s face. “To dodge these, you are far better than I thought. Last chance to join me.”

He’s actually trying now. I can’t help you.

Jay kept running, a couple steps away when the man sighed. A plume of force ripped straight through his heart. There was no warning at all. Jay looked down at his chest, the hole slowly filling with blood, and fell over.

“JAY!,” Drake shouted, appearing next to the man and furiously cutting, though his daggers hit nothing but air.

Bolts of lightning and fire struck everywhere the man was and could be, all of them somehow missing as the man was in places he simply couldn’t be. Blasts of water and sword strikes followed from Catherine as they all focused their attacks on the one man.

Try as they could, all three of them couldn’t hit him. “Well. So, I’m going to end this farce now, because the person I was keeping you alive for is now dead.”

“No.”

“Say what?,” The man said, turning around to look at Jay’s corpse. Still without breaking a sweat, he dodged the attacks now coming at him from behind. “You’re dying. Just be quiet and go faster.” He brightened. “Unless you want to join me?”

The ruins of Jay’s heart floated out of the wound, on a geyser of silver fluid. “You don’t get to touch them.”

A silver heart formed in its place and slowly beat. Thump. It sounded through the entire arena, far louder than any normal heart. Jay slowly rose as quicksilver poured out of half of his body, the other half gathering flames. The sky darkened as stars filled it. A red one gleamed, outshining the rest as Jay called upon it.

One side of his face grew long, silver hair, with feminine features and a glowing eye. His other half was completely normal, though on fire. His left half flipped a sword to his right hand, which caught it as his left formed another sword for itself. “Now die. The Second Calamity. Rot.”

Mushrooms grew on him, eating him alive as magical parasites ravaged his insides. No matter how bad he had it, though, his opponent definitely had it worse. The Lonely Star enacted a price for its help, but the price was always lesser than the help offered.

“Out of curiosity, who are you?”

Jay paused along with his other half, perfectly in sync. “I am Amondrienne, soulbound companion and friend to Eternity for as long as I exist.”

A memory pulsed into Jay, of him holding out a hand to a lady made of silver liquid. It disappeared, and it was his turn to speak. “And I am Jay, one of the Dragons.”

Drake piped up from farther away, shadows crawling up his body. “Me? I’m Darkness.”

“Prepare yourself. We will win. We four are the Dragons.”

“Know me as Memory,” Crystal said, the world seeming to blur around her.

Catherine laughed, an insane chuckle that carried water up and around her. “I’m the Depths.”

The rest of his team stepped up behind him. “No more holding back.”

“Yessir!”

“Eh.”

“Got it.”

The man smiled back at them. “A good fight. Finally. And I see you’ve each discovered your true name, a name you’ll use for the rest of your life.”

A sword appeared in the man’s hands, and this time Jay could see it. Amon, can you connect your senses with mine?

Oh yeah, I forgot.

His vision sharpened as he suddenly grew sight out of his other eye, as if he’d opened it. “Well then, fight me!,” the man said, looking exultant as the team rushed him.

Jay rocketed forward, cutting straight through the man’s sword of Thought and into his stomach, through the invisible shield coating the man at all times. He watched the cultist’s eyes open, surprised, as they struck with their other hand only to get it lopped off by Amon. Her tendrils also struck him straight through the eyes and gut, only to pull out and leave grisly holes. “That was far easier than expected. Too easy, in fact.”

True to his words, the man’s wounds stitched back together, healing over in a matter of seconds. His eyes regrew, and Jay finally saw an expression of concern. “Do you know why I serve the Abyss?”

“I don’t need to know.”

The man continued on heedlessly. “I wanted power. And the Abyss gives you power, if you sign up. However, your soul gets given to the Abyss once you die. I find I don’t really care about that part.” He shrugged. “But the power. It’s nothing insignificant. Until this point, I’ve been relying on my skill with Thought.” The cultist winked, wagging a finger. “You’re actually right. I’m not a Thoughtwielder. I’m a Thoughtstriker. I’m also better than most Thoughtmasters, which proves that ranks mean nothing. But, evidently, it’s not enough for you. That means it’s time to use the Abyss.”

“Let’s show you why we’re prodigies.”

The cultist’s flesh bubbled, black wings growing out of his back as his eyes hardened, turning into red orbs that almost pulsed, as if they were small hearts. The skin on his hands ripped, revealing nightmarish claws that curled in, to rip and tear. “Now, let’s fight.”

The cultist stepped forward, and Amon took the first strike. The cultist dodged, but Jay was right there, his sword stabbing towards the man, who gained traction on the air somehow and brought a claw up in an abnormally fast flick. Amon conjured a gun, which Jay supercharged in a split second, firing a hole through the claw. It stuttered for a moment, enough for Catherine to bash it into a bloody paste with her hammer, held in reserve until now, and Crystal to fire multiple psionic bolts into the demon, whose eyes flickered at each one, staggering backwards.

The red eyes gleamed, and a black ball formed in the demon’s intact hand, but Drake was there, slicing through the muscles and bone, cutting the hand off. After all of this, the man simply sighed. “Well, this is a problem. Now I have to transform completely, and that’s never a good thing.”

Amon conjured another gun, firing a supercharged bullet through the demon’s head. It was completely ignored, the wound healing almost instantly. The pulped arm pulled itself back together as the other hand snapped to its stump, sealing in place. The man’s flesh boiled, once again. It turned black, cracking open to let out light that somehow was… black. The light pulsed in time with his eyes. His skin turned to a mottled grey, smoothing out all the human imperfections upon it, though his ribs still showed.

“I’ve only once ever taken this form before. Congratulations on being the second group to ever make me do so. You have your own names, but I have my own. I am the Tyrant of the Vale. Goodbye.”

Jay and Amon raged together in response. “We are Eternity. And we do not lose.”