"You're really leaving already?" Rezovekk asks. "You've only been here a couple of days."

We're currently just-outside the feasting area, some of the villagers clearing away the feast of a breakfast that concluded just a few minutes ago. Some of the tables have been moved away at my request, though Rezovekk is a bit confused by that because I wouldn't tell him why.

"I know," I put a hand on his snout and rub his smooth scales for a moment. "But there's a mystery that's going to bother me. It's going to make it hard for me to focus on stuff until it's solved, and it's one that I can solve soon. If I hang around here, I'm going to want to go into the Dungeon with your guys, and if we go into it, then I'm going to want to do the Forbidden World hidden within it. A Tier 3-2 Dungeon would take us at least two weeks if we did all of that, maybe even three since we don't know what the Forbidden World will be like."

I shake my head.

"I want some answers to something," I drop my hand back down to my side. "And I want them as soon as possible, Rezzy. Don't worry, though – we'll be back. After we go to the Temple of Forgotten Hopes and get some answers, we'll be back to hang out with you some more. Not just to do the Dungeon, we'll stick around for a few weeks."

"Okay," Rezovekk still looks sad.

Not that I blame him – I want to hang out with Rezovekk and his people longer, too. But we need to know who the Golden Knight is. Until we get answers about what their goal is, if they're a direct descendant of the original or just a line of apprentice after apprentice, and more, I'm not going to be able to focus on things.

At least, not now that I know the answers are only a couple of weeks away. Less than that, really. Since we were told that the Golden Knight communicates with spirits, there's also a good chance that he'll hear that we're on our way to the Temple of Forgotten Hopes and speed his way up to meet us.

Though it will still probably be about a week before we actually reach there.

Rezovekk did confirm that the Golden Knight was here, but he doesn't know who they were. They were here to check on the Heart of Lightning due to some odd rumors he'd heard about the item, and were quite surprised to find it was actually an ancient, slumbering spirit.

We did get some information about him, though, and that information only makes me more curious about the Golden Knight.

It's a catkin. Rezovekk said that while he smelled of the entire world, the Golden Knight had the scent and voice of a catkin. That means the current one has a way to travel between continents that isn't Akrazidonn's ship and has used it to get around, though it doesn't necessarily mean he's not from this continent.

The more likely possibility is that the original Golden Knight came over with my dad, and has had children, making it succession-based. Chances are, the Golden Knight has always been the stronger parent, resulting in the line continuing to be catkin. Less-likely are the odds of the previous one having apprenticed a catkin from the eastern continents.

Both are still possible, and there may yet be things I haven't thought of.

So many questions… yet no answers available. I need to meet the current one in order to ask.

"There is something I need doing," I tell Rezovekk as Akrazidonn jumps up onto my left shoulder in his animal form. "And I trust your people would be able to handle it better than others, even if I left detailed instructions for them."

"What is it?" He asks.

"On our way here," I begin. "I killed a dragon who was causing problems. I want his hide turned into leather. Your people can make use of the rest of him if they wish, but I'd like some proper dragon leather boots and stuff for Kyron and me. Think you can get your people to tan the leather for us? We'll be back before it's finished. As I said, though – they can use the rest of the stuff."

"Of course," Rezovekk tells me. "None save your father know better than my own the workings of dragon materials. I bring back all of my kills for them to work. They have perfected the art over the generations. You would be quite skilled at it, had you not run away before you were old enough for your father to teach you."

"I know," I say. "I'm still fairly decent at working dragon materials, though. Thanks, Rezovekk. We'll need people ready to grab the parts and collect the blood – the halves are in stasis in my ring, but I did slice him in two. The moment he's out, he's going to bleed all over the place."

"Before you do that," Rezovekk says. "Can you sing me a song? I'm sure your voice has only grown more beautiful as you matured, instead of turning deeper and worst like most men's do."

"Oh?" Kyron asks. "I can finally hear you sing, Caleb? I'd never thought about it before you mentioned recently, but I'm kind of curious what your song sounds like."

"Caleb never sang back home," Akrazidonn huffs. "I kept trying to ask him when he was little, but he always refused! Then he went and sang for this lightning-brain. It's not fair!"

"Do you want my dragon's song for you?" I ask Rezovekk. "Or another one?"

"So you're going to sing for him, but not me?" Akrazidonn whines.

"Shush," I flick his nose.

"Your choice," Rezovekk says.

I nod, then inhale. Slowly, I let the breath out, then I inhale again and begin singing. The moment my first note hits the air, several lesser spirits in the air begin to glow. Every few beats of the song, more of them begin to glow. People all around turn to watch and listen, though the 'watch' part ceases when the ambient spirits begin to move.

More specifically, the lesser spirits begin to dance. Some of them even begin adding soft music to the song. Villagers begin to dance to the cheerful, happy song, and even Kyron bobs his head a little to the beat. Akrazidonn flips back to his catkin form and begins dancing with some of the locals, and even other higher spirits join in – many more than I have ever seen around here.

That doesn't surprise me, though – all of the local higher spirits have likely made an appearance, some of them waking just to join in.

Rezovekk himself begins bobbing his head and thumping his tail with the song, occasionally moving his wings in his own little dance.

The lesser air spirits carry my voice further than it would normally reach, allowing more to hear it as I sing. Some dancing and some not clap at certain points of the song, and Kyron gets pulled into the dancing crowd by some of the kids. My song lasts for almost five minutes before it ends, the final note hanging in the air courtesy of those spirits.

Then all of the lesser spirits shine more brightly than most people would ever see them shine before fading back to no light once more. At the same moment the lesser spirits vanish from sight, the higher spirits all let out a one-beat cheer before bursting into motes and vanishing.

Except for Akrazidonn, who just transforms back into his travel form.

"Your song is still as beautiful as ever," Rezovekk nudges me with his head as his people clap. "Though I didn't know you knew that song."

"My father taught it to me when I was six," I admit. "I've just never sung it before."

"…the spirits appearing wasn't because of your voice, was it?" Kyron asks.

"Partly so," Akrazidonn corrects. "Axel sung a song called the Requiem of the Sacred Mists. To people, it's just a beautiful, upbeat song that tells the tales of the elements and adventure – the latter part only if they can actually understand that ancient tongue. To spirits, it's a song that resonates deep within us. We like it a lot, and when it's sung correctly, all of the spirits who hear it will join in.

"The song itself," Akrazidonn continues. "Was designed with the idea of spirits joining in to sing along with it. You need to have the right voice for it, yes, but you also need to be able to properly flow the words like Axel did. It requires skill with an ancient language that's only remembered by those who know the song. He learned it from his father, who learned it from his father, who learned it from his father, and so on."

"So it's a song known to Caleb's lineage?" Kyron asks.

"Not them alone," Rezovekk swishes his tail some. "There were several lineages on the eastern continents who know the song. I don't know about today, but a thousand years ago, we dragons had a rule that we would not take the boys of those lines. Those of such lines had some of the most beautiful songs to us. They were lineages like Caleb's – ones that resonated with spirits. A few of those lines existed here, too."

"You used them for your breeding program, didn't you?" I ask.

"I did," he looks proud of himself. "It has both ensured the lines continued and ensured better voices for my people. Thank you for the song, Caleb. Can you-"

"Are there people ready to collect the parts and blood of a dragon?" I ask the locals, and a few of them raise their hands or step forward. "Here we go!"

I summon the remains of the dragon from my ring, and the locals immediately get to work on harvesting it as well as catching the blood using their magic. Rezovekk huffs because I wouldn't sing him another song, and I just stick my tongue out at him a little before turning to Kyron as I slip onto my right middle finger a green-and-gold ring I pull from my spatial ring.

"What's that?" Kyron asks, and I show it to him.

Ring of [Flight Wind] Grade: Master This ring was crafted by an expert among expert spellsmiths. Forged of sky orichalcum and imbued with the element of air, it possesses a potent bonus with only a slight penalty. Though it reduces the Magic of any [Flight Wind] channeled through it by 15%, it also reduces the Mana Cost of any [Flight Wind] by 90%.

"Where did you get orichalcum from?" Kyron asks.

"I stole it from Rezzy's hoard."

"Hey! Is that why you wanted to look at my cave yesterday?"

Akrazidonn starts laughing as the dragon gives me his most miffed look.

"Don't worry, I left a present in there for you," I give him a pat on the snout. "The penalty is something we can deal with, Ky, since I'm already pretty powerful. With me spending only a tenth of the Mana needed, I can support us both and take us faster without worry. We can arrive back at the Dungeon camp before dinner, and without any need to rest and recover. After that, I can recover my Mana, then make the fountains. We can have lunch first, and dinner after. Then tomorrow, we head to the spear, and after figuring out what's going on with that, down to Gubam. From there, we'll head over to the Temple of Forgotten Hopes. If I'm right, then the Golden Knight will show up within a couple of days of our arrival."

"What was the present?" Rezovekk asks.

"You'll have to go to your cave and find out," I tell him. "I'm sure you'll love it, though."

"It's a statue of him made out of lightning stone," Levalx appears, upside-down. "A few accents of lightning gold, with emeralds for his irises and obsidian for the pupils and strands of hair. A very well-crafted piece that looks incredible."

"Levalx!" I exclaim. "No ruining the surprise!"

The spirit sticks his tongue out at me before doing a flip, then vanishes.

"You'll be back soon, right?" Rezovekk has perked up now that he's heard what the present it.

"Shouldn't be more than a month," I tell him. "Assuming all goes well. Unless other stuff comes up, we'll probably stay through winter with occasional visits out to go do other things. You know how much I can't really just stay in one spot. Anyway, once winter passes, we'll leave to make a ship to take us to the eastern continents. I want to show Kyron where I grew up. Also to see how it looks."

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Alright," Rezovekk says. "I await your return, Axel."

"Oh, and Levalx only told you about one part of the present. Bye!"

I cast [Flight Wind]s and take off with my husband as Rezovekk tries to ask me what the rest is. Kyron just chuckles while shaking his head, and Akrazidonn full-on laughs. For a few moments, I watch Rezovekk, who's calling out after us before giving up and flying off to his cave to look at the presents.

"When did you make the presents?" Kyron asks once Rezovekk's village is out of sight. "I'm assuming you made the ring while waiting for me to wake up, but if you made a statue for a dragon you like… you put a lot of effort into it."

"I didn't get any sleep last night," I slip my left hand into Kyron's right. "While you were sleeping like a Kyron, I was busy making a present for Rezovekk. Slipped it into his cave after he left it this morning. That was the few minutes I disappeared on everyone."

"Even I don't know what it is," Akrazidonn says when my husband looks at him.

"It's… related to a truth about me that Kyron doesn't know," I tell Akrazidonn. "More specifically, about me as Axel. Rezzy's going to be excited for it."

"I'm learning there are many things about you I don't know," Kyron says. "I mean, I already knew that considering how little you spoke of your life before we met. Now, I've realized that you never even spoke of the time before you were nine – before you came to this continent, I'm aware. The fact that you specified that it's a truth about you has me really curious."

"You'll learn it soon enough."

"Wait," Akrazidonn says. "Is it that thing you keep preventing us from saying?"

"Yeah."

"There's something Caleb's stopped you from saying?" Kyron asks

"Yup!" Akrazidonn slaps my left ear with a paw. "The main reason Ryker and I didn't realize that Caleb was Axel. It wasn't just his name, outfit, way of speaking, and even his accent changing that made us not recognize him. There was something else he did that prevented us from recognizing him, something much more significant."

"You mean like being two years older and starting to go through puberty?" I ask.

"As if," Akrazidonn slaps my ear again. "You took 'blending with the locals' to an extreme, Axel. It's no wonder everyone thought you were from the Fire Plains – you even went with the element of fire, instead of earth and metal."

"Wait," Kyron says. "I thought you said your father's element was fire?"

"It was earth, with a metal affinity," I say. "Much like you having water with an ice affinity. They were probably expecting me to have the garb of a mage of the earth-metal affinity, not a mage of the fire affinity. It was a bunch of little things that added up to them not recognizing me, and I really only did it to avoid standing out and drawing too much attention."

"Ha! Too much attention, he says," Akrazidonn pokes me in the cheek. "As if you could ever not draw attention, Axel. You're like a magnet for it, and you don't even try. He caused a rock slide when he was seven."

"That was an accident."

"You asked a spirit to do it."

"Correction," I say. "I asked a spirit if he was able to make a rock version of a waterfall. I wasn't trying to ask him to actually do it, I was just being curious. It's not my fault he decided to make a rock slide and then ask me if that's what I meant. And nobody got hurt!"

"They had to get some earth mages out there to clear it!"

"They had the path open again in a few hours."

Kyron laughs as Akrazidonn and I bicker about the event for a few minutes. Once we stop, Kyron asks me what the truth about me that he doesn't know is.

"Hm…" I say. "It's less a truth about me, but about something I can do. Just like with knowing the Truth, knowing this thing about what I can do will change a lot of things for you. I'd rather wait until we're back at Rezzy's place to tell you. That way, you have time to get used to it before we head to the eastern continents. Also so that it doesn't affect things while we're traveling about."

"Alright," Kyron gives me a kiss. "But you know this curiosity is going to eat at me, right?"

"If all goes well, you'll know it within a week," I tell him. "That's much less time than I have to wait to explore a Forbidden World."

"That's by your own choice," Kyron says.

"After what Rezzy said?" I ask, then shake my head. "I need to answers about the Golden Knight. A catkin? That just creates so many questions. We've had a curiosity about the original one since he appeared before us. Now that we know the line has continued for a thousand years and that there's been several…"

I shake my head.

"If it were possible for people to live that long," I say. "We could assume that it was the original Golden Knight. People aren't able to live longer than two or three centuries, though. The way our ripples influence thing is too different from the way a monster's does, so we can't just remove a portion of our power and be fine."

"Are you sure about that?" Kyron asks. "What if it is the original Golden Knight, and he found a way to sustain himself?"

"Ovrodonos mentioned that the method isn't even possible for people," I say. "And with all the things I know, and even knowing the Truth, I am unable to extend my life in any form, not to that extent. Do you think I want to die in the next decade, Kyron? Or even in a century or three?"

"Well, no, but-"

"If there was a way," I shake my head. "I'd have already known. I even asked Tyzlevir if there was a way to fix me. He doesn't know of a way to reduce my influence on the world."

"You asked the King of the Gods?" Kyron asks.

"If someone would know of such a thing," I say. "It would be him. I even asked Adzamvi and the God of Death. They would know of a way to extend my life, if possible. But we don't know of any way to reduce ripples."

I fidget for a moment, my [Flight Wind] faltering for that moment. Quickly, I catch us and resume our journey.

"What is it?" Kyron asks. "You never lose control of a spell, Caleb. What's on your mind?"

"When I asked them…" I hesitate here. "They offered to reincarnate us. When we die, before our soul snuffs out as it should, they can 'cleanse' our soul. It would erase the ripples and power we have, then they can put us into developing babies for whom souls did not attach. Future stillbirths. We wouldn't remember anything, but as long as our paths crossed, we'd find ourselves drawn together. The core parts of our personalities would remain intact. My curiosity and love of magic and spellsmithing. Your enjoyment of going on adventures and talent for weapons-based combat.

"It was the only solution they had," I tell him. "The universe would leave us alone until our ripples became too great again – if they ever did. With me not knowing the Truth or affected by it anymore, we could potentially live to the two or three centuries."

"We just wouldn't be this version of ourselves," Kyron says.

"But it would still be us," I tell him. "Just… a different version of us who had no knowledge or memories of this version. It's… it's like if someone got amnesia when they got a reset, and also had to grow up again. Tyzlevir said that if we agreed, he'd even give us information about each of the worlds in the-about each of the worlds we can be reincarnated on. Enough that we could actually pick the worlds. And even what species of people we were."

This was the only solution the gods had for the problem of how big our ripples are, especially mine. We're too influential on the world around us, to the point that even my bloodline is detrimental to my life. They can't do anything for us while we're living, or even while we have these bodies.

Though they can cleanse a soul, they can't just cleanse part of it, and they can't do it unless the person has already died. The only way for us to live longer and be together longer… would be to die and forget everything.

"I take it you asked them this in the last few days?" Kyron asks. "Since that's when we found out you have less than a decade left before the universe comes for you?"

"Er… well…"

"What?"

"I asked them… after our first encounter with the Golden Knight," I admit. "While you were sleeping one night, I told them I had a question and asked if we could talk. They showed up and gave me this offer. I was kind of supposed to talk with you about it, but… I wanted to focus on the war. And now, I just wanted to focus on having fun with you."

"But now that you know how soon your death is," Kyron says. "It's on your mind again. And our regular discussions of it lately has made it weigh more heavily on you. Why didn't you talk to me about it before, Caleb? I'll be happy to be with you in the next life, too, Caleb. After all we've done, and how much the gods like you, do doubt they'd make sure we met in our next life, too?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Caleb doesn't like thinking about dying," Akrazidonn says. "He likes more cheerful thoughts. As such, I officially declare this discussion over until his mood has improved! Let's play cards while we fly! I want to play a stripping game, and once someone is naked, every time they fail, they have to let me put a painted paw print on them."

"One," I say. "We're not playing cards while flying, manipulating the winds to avoid blowing them about is annoying. Kyron and I tried that before. Two, the last time I played that game with you, you kept writing weird words on our backs. Three, you aren't even going to participate in the game, and that sort of thing is more fun when there's at least four playing."

Not inappropriate words, just weird ones. The worst part was that we couldn't exactly see what was written, so we had to rely on what others told us he'd written. I'm still not entirely sure if they were honest that he'd written "magic puppy" on my back or if they were just playing with me. Knowing both Akrazidonn and those boys… it could have been either one.

"You've done that before?" Kyron asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "Such games weren't uncommon back home, on the eastern continents. A few of us boys decided to see if we could talk a spirit into playing with us, and he decided he'd do paw prints on our back."

"What was the normal condition for one who lost after they were naked?"

"Depended on age," I say. "For us kids, we would jump into this really hot mud pot, climb out, then jump into this cool spring that wasn't too far from it."

"How did that work?"

"Magic influences the terrain in weird ways," I shrug.

"Well, it was a spirit, but close enough," Akrazidonn says.

"What?" I ask.

"That ravine you boys were always playing in?" Akrazidonn asks. "Yeah. There was a water-earth spirit that made the spring always cool. It was specifically so that boys could do that. He started it a few centuries before, when he noticed some boys daring each other to jump into the mud pot. Wanted to give them a way to quickly cool off after. He even lowered the temperature of the mud pot so it wasn't as dangerous."

"Huh," I say. "Never thought it would be a spirit doing that, just thought it was a weird quirk of the area. But since spirits are their domain, I guess it makes sense. Hey, was that giant block of ice that never melted and was always-"

"That was non-spirit natural," Akrazidonn interrupts. "That one really is just a weird quirk of the land as a result of the way magic influences it."

"What was it always doing?" Kyron asks.

"It let out a deep thrum every now and then," I answer. "Would last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. There are typically about twenty of them in a day, but can reach up to a hundred on some days."

"And that's natural?"

"The never-melt ice was, yeah," Akrazidonn confirms. "It fell off an ancient glacier a long time ago, and over time, as the terrain shifted, ended up underground. The glacier is further to the north now, and partially in the ocean. As for the thrum, that's just it reacting to a miniature-earthquake that happens around there. They happen all over the world, and that chunk of ice is just something that makes such a noise when it vibrates, sort of like a glass someone flicked. You should hear it during a full earthquake."

"Huh," I say. "That's actually really interesting. I wonder if I could replicate the effect at a place like Boraniavos's. I'm sure he'd love to have something like that. Rezzy might, too."

"You can give it a try after we return to Rezovekk's," Kyron says. "Though I'm sure you'll now want to study the actual chunk of ice in-person, too."

"Oh, definitely," I say. "But that will have to wait until next year, since we still need to get the ship built and I want to hang out with Rezzy for awhile."

Kyron asks more questions about stuff from where I lived as a kid. Interesting terrain features, games we'd play, differences I'd noticed between the two cultures, and more. I'm happy to indulge his questions now that he knows the truth and we'll be heading over there at some point.

The more I talk about it, the more I want to go over there. But I also want to hang out with Rezovekk for awhile, or I'd probably just ask Akrazidonn to let us borrow his ship right after we finish up with the Golden Knight.

Soon, we reach the Dungeon camp, and I land us near where Meredith, Tasha, and a couple of men I don't recognize are discussing something. The men are dressed in the garb of earth mages, though one also has the markings of a fire mages.

Everyone jumps when we land, startled by our sudden arrival, while the men stare at us in shock.

"They look like the Sage of Fire and Saint of Frost," one of the men says.

"That's because they are," Meredith says. "I was actually about to tell you about them. Caleb, Kyron, these are royal mages, here to assist with the construction of the town's core. They just arrived a few minutes ago, themselves, and I was about to tell them about the two of you and how you gave us the directions for building enchantments and how to make features like your cooling and freezing boxes and the baths."

"Pleasure to meet you," Kyron says. "I know it can be difficult to accept us as the real deal, but you can just ask any spirit around, the gods, or even Ovrodonos. Chances are, you'll run into one who isn't the spirit hanging out on my husband's shoulder at some point, if you're around us long enough."

"HI, OVRODONOS!"

"CALEB!" Kyron exclaims as the giant turtle jumps out of the water. "Stop yelling the greeting!"

Akrazidonn laughs at both my husband's reaction and the royal mages' startled jumps and expressions when Ovrodonos lands on the shore. Meredith covers her mouth, though I can see she's smiling. Tasha is doing her best not to laugh, and it's causing her body to shake.

"Hello again, Caleb," Ovrodonos says. "I was too far to come over when you were here last time. I heard through the spirits that you have Akrazidonn with you. Been a long time, you little cat."

"Hello, Ovrodonos."

Ovrodonos's aggravated tone and Akrazidonn's cheerful one suggests that they have a history. I'm going to ignore the shocked expressions the royal mages have.

"You knew he was here?" I ask.

"He may have been able to fool others," Ovrodonos says. "But he was not able to fool me. Normal cats don't paint ancient, sleeping turtles with phrases like 'happy pumpkin' and 'fiery oak staff'. It wasn't hard to put two and two together, having heard tales of what he did on the other continent and the fact that the cat was the same design as the ones he'd made."

"Oi!" Akrazidonn retorts. "You can't play pranks on people and then not expect spirits to play pranks on you!"

"I'm not complaining about it," Ovrodonos says. "But what even is a 'melon song', Krazzy?"

"Oooh! I love the melon song!"

That causes all of the people around to look at me while the spirit and the beast continue to go back-and-forth.

"It's a children's song where I grew up," I quickly clarify. "Well, actually, it comes from a region about two hundred miles east of there. Back when I was a kid – that was a thousand years ago, for those who don't know – they were famous for six varieties of melons, and a song was made up so that children could easily learn the different ones and their perks. It's pretty catchy. We made up our own version of it back home to be about candy."

"Hello, Enziakos," Kyron greets the spirit, who manifested while I was talking.

"Hi!" Enziakos greets us. "You're back! Ready for me to model for the statues, Caleb?"

"I think we should clarify things with the royal mages first," I say. "They might explode if they get anymore confused."

"Oh, okay," Enziakos looks at the royal mages. "This is Caleb, the Sage of Fire who killed the Great Demon King a thousand years ago. He and his husband, Kyron, the Saint of Frost, who helped him do that, were both recently resurrected by parties unknown. Now, if you don't mind, he has spirit stone and is going to make a fountain of me! Two of them, with Meredith being in one! Alright, Caleb, things are clarified! Let's get to work!"