"You can have some if you want," I tell Torventozil.

The dragon's been staring at us as Kyron, Akrazidonn in animal form, and I eat dinner. He finished his bear awhile ago and is now laying on the ground about ten feet from the makeshift camp. It's not my first time being watched like this by a dragon, and probably won't be my last one, either.

Though eating has given me a little bit of time to think on things, and Kapiakoz suggested that my time is shorter than I thought. I guess the ripples I make are too much already. Kyron and I will need to talk about that. We already talked once, and he said that he'll be happy to be with me as the universe takes me, even if it means he'll die, too.

Together in life, together in death.

What does he think about what the First Water Spirit said? I could probably reduce my ripples a little, as much as it would go against my nature, but it would be worth it to make Kyron happy.

My father essentially did the same thing – by settling down, he reduced his effect on the world. Not as much as if he'd simply stopped doing things that influenced the world around him, but it's something I could do. The urge to create magic items to help others, to go off on adventures, to challenge Dungeons, to teach others, and so much more would be strong, but I'm sure I'd be able to resist.

Settle down in a nice place with Kyron, live off what we grow and raise, and minimize the impact of our actions on the world around us. If we started that after we finished dealing with meeting old friends, recovering our stronger items, and visiting some places from before our sacrifice, I'm sure we could add another twenty years to my life.

"I don't eat cooked food," Torventozil tells me. "Human food is strange. I prefer my meat raw."

"Your choice," I tell him, then look at Kyron. "Kapiakoz mentioned something, and-"

"About the ten-years thing," Kyron says. "I had a feeling that would be on your mind. Don't worry about it, Caleb, I'm willing to-"

"But you-"

"I know exactly what you're thinking," he says. "You haven't told me everything, and now that I know about the Truth, I guess it's because of that. But I've known you long enough to know enough about what creates the ripples and influences how much you make them. You're thinking that we could add some time if we settle down and go against your nature."

"We definitely could," I say. "I guess the Great Demon War was enough of a shift in our influence that it reduced things a lot more than I expected. The ripples are made up of active and passive factors. If we stop the active factors, it reduces-"

"And you wouldn't be happy with that life," Kyron says. "You like exploring. You like seeing new things. You like experimenting and making things and helping others. You like challenging yourself. That's why you let Torventozil add more restrictions to you during the sparring while I was hunting – to test yourself more."

"Yeah, but you-"

"I like the adventures we go on," Kyron tells me. "Sure, I'd be able to handle a calmer life, but I'd still want to teach people and help them out. I'd also much rather go on adventures and have fun with you than see you struggling against your nature in order to extend your life. As much as I complain about the stuff you get up to, I find our journeys fun."

"But you'll die even-"

"Even sooner, yeah," Kyron shrugs. "A decade of adventures with you is better than three of them seeing you struggle against your nature. So don't worry about me, okay?"

"You're really okay with sacrificing things just for me?"

"I'd rather have a shorter life full of fun, adventure, exploration, and challenges than a long life filled with boring stuff," Kyron tells me. "Even if the gods never set me onto the path of meeting you, I'd have probably started doing adventures of my own. I doubt the universe would've let me live past a hundred and fifty."

I snuggle up against my husband and give him a kiss.

"Are they always like this?" Torventozil whispers to Kizarvinat.

The spirit floats over to Akrazidonn and whispers that to him.

"Are you always like this?" Akrazidonn whispers to me.

"Like what?" I ask as Kyron chuckles.

"Snuggly with your husband," Akrazidonn answers.

"Trying to argue that the other's desires are more important," Kizarvinat says.

"Speaking of things I don't understand," Torventozil says.

They were thinking three different things.

"How do you not know this?" Torventozil asks Akrazidonn. "Aren't you close with him? I can't imagine a spirit traveling with someone he's not already close to."

"Krazzy and I haven't seen each other since I was nine," I tell him. "Which was only nine years for me, but a thousand for him. We just met each other again today. And to answer the questions, I love admiring my husband's body and snuggling him, in addition to doing stuff like sex with him. We try to be considerate of each other's feelings, though Kyron usually just lets me do whatever unless it's going to cause big problems, always saying he just likes coming along to adventure with me. I wish he'd be more clear about his own wants, though. And the reason what we were saying didn't make any sense to you, Torvvy, is because it included stuff you don't already know about."

"Stuff that's not widely known," Kyron adds. "And Caleb, I usually don't need to voice what I want to do because it usually ends up happening. I like going hunting to catch food for us, then seeing what you turn it into. I like watching you take on stronger monsters, just like you enjoy watching me battle on my own."

"Yeah, but-"

"I also like going off on adventures," Kyron says. "I don't mind not knowing what's going to happen on them, and since most of the ones you go on are things that just pop into your head, that works out for me. Don't worry, Caleb, I get my fill of enjoyment."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," he nuzzles me. "I'm completely sure. Don't worry too much. I like coming along for the adventures and seeing what happens. That said, if we're going to end up fighting a dragon to kill it, can you let me handle it if it's something within my abilities? I've never actually killed one entirely on my own."

"Sure."

"Awesome."

We finish eating dinner, then clean up everything. Kizarvinat reclaims the dishes and grill. They turn to metal blobs that float into him and vanish. As it turns out, they were all his – he summoned the metal from below the ground, then turned it into proper tools for Kyron to use. Chances are, he's probably returned them to their original states and locations.

As a spirit, he's able to influence the natural world on a level even I couldn't at the peak of my power. In a way, he is the land and water sources around here.

"You are staying here for the night, yes?" Torventozil asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "It's better than going to a nearby settlement for various reasons, and going to a settlement we'd be okay with staying at would take too long. The sun's already set, so it's better to just set up camp for the night. This island is actually pretty nice, even if we don't have a shelter."

"Okay," the dragon stands and stretches. "I'm returning to my cave. Don't come in there."

"We won't," I tell him. "See you."

The dragon stretches out his wings, then flaps them twice before flying into the air. He then soars toward his waterfall, flying through it and into his cave.

"Oh, good," I say. "I thought he'd never leave."

"You want to mess with the area just to screw with him, don't you?" Kyron asks.

"No," I respond. "Well, yeah, but I also don't like having sex with a dragon watching. Come on, hurry up and undress."

"You don't like having a dragon watching, but are fine with a pair of spirits?"

"You do realize that we've probably been watched by spirits and gods pretty much every time we've had sex, right?" I ask. "The gods are usually watching us while doing whatever else they're doing, and there are higher spirits everywhere, just in their non-visible form. Kizarvinat could return to his natural state, and he'd be able to watch us just because he is the island we're on. So in a way, we'd also be having sex on top of him."

Kyron just stares at me. I don't think he ever thought about it that way before. He knew that Volzaminat wouldn't be stopped from watching us if he wanted to, but he didn't think about the fact that every spirit could do that.

"If you want to avoid the risk of a spirit watching you," I tell him. "Make sure to be in a structure constructed entirely of stuff like wood, not stone. Also make sure that there's not a higher spirit with an air aspect around. Cover all the windows. You might get lucky. They might still come into it in mote form and watch."

"Don't worry," Kizarvinat says from where he's sitting on the air. "I don't mind you having sex on me."

My husband's face flushes. The more we interact with this spirit, the more I like him.

"It really doesn't bother you for spirits to watch you?" Kyron asks.

"No," I answer. "They're spirits, not people or monsters. Not having sex because a spirit is watching would be like not having sex because we're on an island."

Kyron runs the fingers of his right hand through his hair as he sighs.

"You have a point," he says. "I just… never realized that they might actually watch us even when they weren't visible. The fact that they pretty much are the land and air and ground around us slips my mind."

"Most people don't realize it," Akrazidonn switches to his catkin form again. "If it makes you feel any better, though, we don't have a libido if we wish it. We really only watch out of curiosity or boredom."

Kizarvinat nods in agreement.

"It was weird enough with Volzaminat watching and making requests," Kyron mutters. "And now there are two here."

"We can make requests?" Both spirits ask at once.

"No!" Kyron's face turns bright red. "We were ignoring Volzaminat's requests! Please don't make any, or so help me, I'm going ask Caleb if there's a way to effectively block your view!"

"Scoot back some," I gesture to the spirits. "You're a bit too close to us for this."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The spirits move back a little, and Kyron wrestles with his decision before beginning to pull off his clothes.

Once he's naked except for his ring, Kyron starts kissing me. He begins jacking me off with his left hand while rubbing my back with his right, and I reach up with my right hand to hold his face, my left hand planted firmly on the ground.

Kyron uses his body to start pushing me down, lying on top of me as he jacks us off together. I reach up and start rubbing his back as he slips his tongue into my mouth. My husband releases my dick and moves his hand to the ground, bracing himself against with his forearm while his right strokes my face as he begins grinding his dick against mine.

After about a minute of that, Kyron kisses my chin, then my neck, moving down to my shoulders before kissing each nipple. He starts licking and sucking on them, gently biting them and tugging, just enough to pinch but not enough to really hurt.

"Ooh!" I moan, rubbing his head and feeling his hair.

I can feel my dick rubbing against his stomach and chest as he moves down my body, and as he licks my stomach from the base up to my chest. Kyron does that a few times before finally moving on to my dick.

He licks it a few times from base to tip before pulling back my foreskin and licking the head of my dick. Kyron swirls his tongue around it, sometimes jacking it, and eventually, he takes my entire dick into his mouth. There's just enough suction to make it pleasurable, then he goes all the way down, bobbing his head up and down.

Kyron alternates between going all the way down, just keeping the head in his mouth while adding some suction and/or moving his tongue around it, and licking my dick while jacking it off. He sometimes even takes one of my nuts into his mouth, sucking on it a bit before returning to my dick.

I try to hold back my climax as long as I can, but eventually begin shooting, my load blasting into Kyron's mouth as I let out moan after moan. My husband swallows every last drop and squeezes out what didn't make it, then starts licking and kissing his way back up my body.

Instead of letting him making it all the way, I sit up and push him down, then start kissing and sucking on his nipples, gently biting and tugging on them. Kyron moans as I do this, then I start licking and kissing and sucking on each segment of his abs, using my right hand to play with his dick and rub it against me stomach and chest.

I jack myself off a bit as I lick my husband's dick and bob my head up and down on it while it's in my mouth, and Kyron rubs my hair with one hand while playing with his nipples with the other.

Soon, I bring him to his peak, shot after shot of his hot, thick, and salty cum blasting into my mouth, hitting my tongue, the roof of my mouth, and the back of my throat. I swallow every last drop, then pull on his dick some to squeeze out the last little bit of it. I keep bobbing my head up and down on his dick for another minute, then I pull the jar of sex oil out of his ring and start slicking up his dick.

Once Kyron's dick is ready, I position myself over him and lower myself onto his dick, guiding it into my ass.

"Oooh," I moan as I feel it stretching my insides, at the feeling of it filling me up. "Unnnh!"

Kyron moans softly as I sink all the way down onto him, then I start bouncing up and down, feeling his dick sliding inside of me, rubbing me from inside. This feels good, and I close my eyes in pleasure, my head tilted up a little. I alternate between just enjoying the feeling and looking down at Kyron.

Additional moans start sounding out just as I sense Kyron is about to reach his peak, and we both look over to find Kizarvinat on his hands and knees, Akrazidonn penetrating him from behind. I hold back the snort as I look at Kyron, who's very clearly trying not to laugh.

"Keep going," he mouths to me.

I nod and continue bouncing up and down until I feel Kyron shooting into my ass, then I sink all the way down and let him finish. Once his climax ends, Kyron has me shift onto my hands and knees, then gets behind me and thrusts his dick back into my ass.

He thrusts hard and fast, the feeling quickly bringing me to a second climax. I shoot my load onto the ground this time, my ass clenching his dick with every shot. Kyron stops thrusting for this, and once my orgasm ends, Kyron pulls out and I lie down on my back, lifting my legs up.

My husband adds a little more sex oil to his dick, using his magic to slick it back up before he slides it back into my ass. This time, he bends over me and starts kissing me, gently stroking my dick as I feel his back, sides, arms, shoulders, hair – basically, anything I can get my hands on.

This time, Kyron is slower with his thrusts, making it feel more sensual, more intimate. I enjoy the feeling, and we sometimes stop the kissing to stare into each other's eyes, though we moan a little as well.

"I love you," Kyron's voice is barely a whisper, his climax finished but dick still in my ass.

"I love you, too, Ky," I tell him.

"I want to be with you forever," he pulls his dick out of my ass and lays himself on me, holding me. "Forever and ever, even in death. I want to be with you a very, very long time, Caleb. But I want you to be happy, too. I want to go on adventures with you, to see you discovering new things and having a lot of fun. I don't want to die within a decade, but I don't want you to have to suffer for that. I love you, Caleb, and I wish there was a way to make the universe back off, to let us do our thing."

I wrap my arms around him and hold him tightly. These are his real thoughts. He's not happy with dying sooner, but he's also not going to be happy seeing me fight against my nature just to make sure he lives longer. The two can't really mesh together, though – it's impossible for both to happen.

Either we fight my nature and live longer so that he can have a longer life, or we let me fulfill my impulses and curiosity and needs, but die sooner. I would do anything to make Kyron happen… but there are some things that are simply outside of my abilities.

"I want to be with you forever, too," I tell Kyron. "But about death…"

"What?" Kyron sounds concerned.

"It's not exactly forbidden knowledge," I tell him. "But death is… our souls eventually snuff out. Unless we linger as ghosts… we cease to exist in death."

Kyron is quiet for a few moments, then gives me a tight squeeze.

"Anyone else, I'd ask if they were sure," Kyron says. "But with you… I'm okay knowing that as long as I get to be with you when it happens. And I guess the fact that I was able to learn this really means it's not forbidden knowledge."

"I didn't learn it from the Truth," I tell him. "My dad told me about it, and the God of Death confirmed it once, when I asked him."

"So the 'afterlife' is just our final end?" Kyron asks.

"Yeah."

Kyron gives me a kiss on the cheek.

"I think I'm okay with that," Kyron says. "Since I'll meet it with you. Unless the gods capture our souls before that and reincarnate us, I guess."

"Our souls contain the ripples, too," I tell him. "We'd be dead before puberty. Are you really sure you're okay with this?"

"Caleb," Kyron lifts his head up to stare into my eyes with those beautiful blue ones of his. "Being with you makes me happy. Being around you makes me happy. Going on adventures makes me happy. I'm okay dying within a decade if it means I can spend that time having fun with you. Besides, I'm sure living for centuries would be boring. No offense to the spirits over there."

"We find ways to amuse ourselves," Akrazidonn says. He's in his modified animal form, though still in a spirit body for it, and is curled up on Kizarvinat's lap. "But our perspective is different from a mortal's. As Caleb said before, we are our domain, in a sense. We're also in a sort of slumber state for most of our lives, really only coming out of it to interact with people if something has piqued our interest."

"So when a spirit says they've been asleep for centuries-"

"They really have been," I confirm. "They're still observing everything in their domain, feeling the shifts and changes to it, watching people settle down or grow up or have adventures or whatever, but they're essentially in a state of slumber."

"So all those times we've interacted with a spirit," Kyron says. "They not have actually been around for very long?"

"Yeah," I nod. "It's also why many of them are mischievous or like having fun, especially the older ones. You know how, when I get focused on something, time seems to slip away for eternity to me?"

"Yeah."

"Same thing happens with spirits," I tell him. "That's one of the reasons they tend to get obsessed with certain things. It helps 'ground' their minds, but they also don't notice the passage of time – which, of course, contributes to their difficulty measuring it."

Fire quickly blazes across Kyron, me, and the section we had sex on, cleaning everything up while leaving us and the ground unharmed. My husband gets up, and we sit beside each other, snuggling together.

"Boraniavos likes playing games and having fun because it passes the time," I tell my husband. "It keeps things entertaining. Some spirits make their presences known to mortals just to watch them grow. They don't get attached to people as easily as we do, and our lives are extraordinarily brief compared to theirs. A spirit can watch a family through several generations before getting bored of doing so."

"That's why a spirit might make itself known and get itself worshiped in exchange for assistance," Kyron realizes. "Only to disappear after a century or two, isn't it? That's how long it took for them to get bored?"

"Yeah," Akrazidonn answer. "With older spirits, the time it takes for that tends to be shorter. I gave up that bit of stuff a long time ago, and instead took to just messing around with things and seeing what kind of animals I could breed. Ryker asking me about helping him with the ship was the first big 'new' thing for me in ages. It was pretty exciting because it opened up some new possibilities, but I got bored after sitting around waiting for his occasional return to update me on things. That's why I decided to start messing with the townsfolk. That never gets old."

"What about you?" Kyron asks Kizarvinat.

"I don't have any towns in my domain," the spirit shrugs. "I'm young enough and weak enough that it only stretches a few miles."

"Wait," Kyron says as I slide my left arm behind him, holding his side with my hand. "Spirit domains overlap, right? So two spirits can share a domain?"

"Yeah," Kizarvinat answers. "There's actually a spirit just for this island and lake. He's pretty shy, though, and probably didn't come out because of the presence of an Elder Spirit. Meanwhile, my domain covers the area around this lake and island in addition to it. We're not dragons, we can share."

"Huh," Kyron says. "So… wait, so we're basically sitting on two spirits right now?"

"Five, actually," Kizarvinat says. "Only if you include higher spirits. There's one whose territory comes from that direction and extends to there, and another whose territory comes from that direction and extends a little past that edge of the lake. Then there's another spirit who's territory is immense, and which I don't know the boundaries of. It's beyond my ability to sense, and I can't really leave my domain to explore it. That's one of the only two spirits whose domains we're in at the moment I haven't met. The other is a sky spirit with a vast domain, too. I think they're both slumbering at the moment."

Kyron watches the fire as he thinks about something, and I watch my husband as he does that. After a few moments, he snorts.

"Makes me wonder what the gods do to entertain themselves," he says. "I doubt they go into slumbers, and I'm sure seeing the same old stuff happen over and over gets tiring for them more quickly, especially they don't really interact with us mortals."

"The gods are outside of time."

"What?" Kyron gives me a baffled look.

"A thousand years has passed since the war, right?" I ask, and he nods. "To the gods, that's been but a moment in time."

I gesture toward the dying fire with my right hand, and a small stream of flame rises up, then separates from it and turns horizontal.

"To us mortals," I weave my hand back and forth, the flame stretching further and further forward as I do, however, the back end of it fades at the same time. "Time is linear. It always moves forward, never backward. We only live in the moment that currently exists."

I continue weaving my hand back and forth, and a second stream forms above the first as the stream reverses direction. This second stream moves forward with the first one – but unlike the first one, it never fades, creating a line of fire that continually grows.

"To the gods, however," I say. "Time never stops, never ceases to be. They live in all moments that have been, at all times. That's a crappy explanation. Basically, to the gods, time is something they observe happening. They cannot move forward or backward in it, but they are not a part of it. They do not need to worry about filling their time, because they have none of their own – only the time of us mortals."

"It's why a god can not interact with someone for a thousand years," Akrazidonn says. "Then greet them as if they had just met. To a god, there was no passage of time that put distance between them. There was simply the then and the now."

"Plus," I say. "We aren't the only world the gods have access to. There are dozens of them, and each world is different from the others. If a god is truly bored, they can just put more focus on a world that's piqued their interest. They also aren't as restricted as we make them out to be. If they want to entertain themselves, they can manipulate events. Also, they have their own little domain where they're all more like powerful people than actual gods, and they can do stuff there to fulfill needs or desires."

"And you know all of this… because of the Truth?" Kyron asks.

"Partially," I confirm. "Some of it is stuff the gods have revealed to me, some of it is stuff they'd revealed to other mortals in the past. With a much bigger playground, the gods pretty much always have something to do. If they want a break, well, they can take a break, too."

"I guess that makes eternity better," Kyron says.

"Yeah," I nod. "Honestly, I think being a god would actually be fun, if I didn't know something that I did."

"Er…"

"Ignore what I just said."

"Kind of hard to."

"You know me," I tell Kyron. "Just babbling."

"What do you know that would make being a god not fun?" Akrazidonn says.

"The Truth."

There's absolute silence all around, apart from the roar of the waterfall and the crackling of our fire. I add some more wood to the fire, then pull out one of the furs I nicked from the Dungeon camp to take with us for warmth.

"Anyway," I spread out the fur on the ground to use as a bed, then pull out one to use as a blanket. "I'm actually fairly tired, so I think I'm going to get some sleep. You going to cuddle with me tonight, Ky, or going to talk with the spirits some more? Because I'm sure I'll pass out pretty fast once I lie down."

"Hold on," Kyron protests. "If knowing the Truth would make being a god not fun, then that means there's something that ruins things for the gods?"

"Er, well, not exactly," I say. "It would ruin things for me. I can't speak for the gods, and since they seem content with their existences as gods, I can only assume they don't really care. I guess the makeup of the gods is different enough that the Truth doesn't affect them the same way."

I try hard not to think about that, though. It has some terrifying implications.

"Anyway," I stifle a yawn. "I really am tired, Ky, so I'm going to sleep now."

I lie down, and my husband snuggles up behind me. Akrazidonn takes on a more physical form, then comes over and works his way under our makeshift blanket, snuggling up against my chest.

"Good night," Kizarvinat says.

"'Night," Kyron responds.

"Sleep well," Akrazidonn yawns a little.

"Dream of things that are real," I murmur as I feel sleep overtaking me. "They're more fun than things that aren't."