“Where have you two been?!”

Kayden had been worried sick. Standing in the forest clearing that was the planned rendezvous, he grabbed Tham’s shoulders, as if to make sure he was real. Merdilen next to him had his arms folded and his lips pursed.

“Okay, so, long story short…” Hassah next to Tham started explaining, “we went to buy supplies, but started getting chased by what turned out to be three big rats in a trenchcoat. They called out an alarm, but before imperial guards could catch us, Tham Spacebent us, uh, underground. We got to a strange vehicle called a ‘train’ that was headed to a realm called ‘infinity,’ but before it carried us out of this world, we managed to make it leave us on the surface. A few hours and a lot of walking later, we were found by Haroken and the Mimicker.”

“It was quite the adventure,” Tham nodded. “You guys would’ve been proud.”

“Well, I’m not,” Kayden snapped. “You could have gotten hurt, captured, or worse.”

Tham pursed his lips. “...Well, at least we got some information.”

“What is it?” Merdilen asked.

“We’re famous now,” Hassah said. “All compiled information about us –whatever that is– is now neatly packaged and available freely to the public. Needless to say, that includes our faces and names. It’d have been good to get a copy of the info to at least know what’s being said about us, but, well… stuff happened.”

“So, we need to hurry up with whatever we do next,” Tham added. “Before everything gets harder.”

Kayden sighed. “Great. Did you at least get the supplies?”

Silence.

“At least you’re back!” the Mimicker exclaimed happily. “You can’t eat anything if you’re dead.”

“...Yeah,” Kayden muttered. “We’re glad you’re back. We were… worried, yeah. The sun is already setting. You two get some sleep; the rest of us will take care of the guard shifts.”

“But–” Tham protested.

“I mean it,” Kayden said. “You need to sleep. The last couple of days have been long, and from what you’re telling me, what comes now will be longer.”

Tham sighed, but nodded. “Okay. …Thank you.”

Kayden was relieved to have Tham back with him. So long ago, when Tham had gone to fight wolves all by himself and try to awaken his powers, Kayden had absolutely freaked out. This had been a hundred times more stressful, and Tham, along with Hassah… had overcome the problem without Kayden’s help. Tham had grown a lot, that was for sure. Kayden wasn’t sure how that made him feel.

– – –

“Hey, uh, Kayden?” Tham asked as the two of them were walking around the camp during Kayden’s guard shift. The tasteless food Merdilen had had to Transmutate for them wasn’t exactly bad, but the aftertaste was really, really strange. Tham couldn’t get the feeling out of his mouth.

“What is it?” Kayden said.

“Something weird has been happening,” Tham said. “Between me and Hassah.”

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“Oh?”

Even in the darkness of the night, Tham could practically hear Kayden smile.

Tham frowned. “It’s not like you think. It’s just, I think our minds are… linked? Somehow?”

Kayden slowed down his pace. “What? How do you mean?”

“I can feel what she’s feeling,” Tham said, feeling stupid. “I can sense her heartbeat, and her general emotions.”

“Um,” Kayden hesitated, “you sure?”

“Yes,” Tham said. “I don’t understand why, or how, but we’re connected. Right now, she’s probably awake. Her heartbeat’s not slow enough for sleep, I think. That’s why I’m trying not to talk too loud.”

“Wait, really?” Kayden replied. “That’s actually pretty cool. And you’re telling me this hadn’t happened before? How could that be?”

“I don’t know,” Tham said. “It wasn’t like this when I first met her, only after… only after her distraction at the Unbound air mines. …Oh.” Tham’s mind was rushing. “Could it be… that the Unbound air she ingested for the distraction’s sonic explosion came from the same power vial she had given me earlier? That we both ingested the two halves of the same vial?”

“I… don’t think it works that way,” Kayden muttered.

Tham didn’t understand, but he knew something had happened, then and there. There was no other explanation for that.

“Well…” Tham then said, “...What if it does?”

“...Huh,” Kayden said. “Well, it’s a gift. Make good use of it. Those sorts of connections don’t happen often. And I have a hunch that… that you’ll need it.”

– – –

“Here we are,” Kayden said as Haroken started to slow down, after only about an hour of travel. The way to the faraway city had proved to be no challenge for Haroken the dragon –after all, though he had no wings, he was still ridiculously fast. “The international capital of art and knowledge. Anthalopus.”

Kayden and Tham would’ve taken weeks, if not months, to get there by themselves.

The city, perched all across the mountainside of one of the tallest mountains in Athoren’s longest mountain range, was colorful, to say the least. Every house had its own distinctive style, its own colors and design. Even so, the city’s layout was set up in such a creative way that, looking at it from afar, it was much more of a piece of art than the sum of its buildings would make one think.

“This is beautiful!” Hassah exclaimed. “I’d never even known a city this pretty could exist!”

“Yep,” Tham nodded with a grin. “I’d heard of it, but it’s even better when I’m looking at it myself.”

“If the information we’re looking for is not here,” Kayden said, “then it doesn’t exist. So we’d better hope we find it.”

“...I’ve been through this already,” Merdilen said softly. “Looking for information in the world’s biggest information center. And if there’s one thing I learned from my first time, it’s that everyone expects us to do just that. This won’t be easy.”

“Shall we search somewhere else?” Haroken asked, heading towards a safe spot behind some tall rocks for the rest to jump down.

“No,” Merdilen said. “It’s just… let’s do our very best. Because this will be hard. Still… I’m looking forward to it. Our first big act as the Skyguard.” He grinned. “It feels nice to have a team again.”

“Agreed,” Kayden nodded. “We’ll fight hard. Now… where exactly is this city’s information nexus?”

“The tallest tower!” the Mimicker said. “It’s always the tallest tower.”

“The Mimicker’s probably right,” Merdilen said. “It always is.”

Kayden breathed in deeply.

“Okay, then,” he said. “Merdilen, can you Transmutate for us, um, really good costumes? We gotta scout ahead.”

Merdilen frowned. “You didn’t think that would work back then to buy supplies and you think it’ll work now to enter a state-of-the-art imperial capital?”

“It’s not that,” Kayden grinned. “It’s just that I’m ready for action now. We are ready for action now. So let’s go. Priorities: all we can learn about the Unbound air mines and about the mysterious Oath of Megalo. Secondary objective: food. Hehe. Let’s show them what the Skyguard is really made of. Let’s go.”