A couple drinks and a few games of pool later, everyone was back in high spirits. Lyle had even managed to push aside the thoughts of his brother. Morgan crushed them in every game, of course, but it was all in good fun and everyone laughed when she hit the most ridiculous shots. Her skill was literally inhuman.

“It’s an art like any other,” she explained. “I spend all my free time practicing trick shots so that I can destroy anyone who dares enter my kingdom of—nah, not really. Being an Ember plays well with any game of physical precision, at least for me.” She lined up a shot that looked to Lyle like it was aiming at nothing, but with a quick tap of her cue, the cue ball bounced over the eight ball, off of two sides of the table, and struck two other solid colors into different pockets. She fist pumped triumphantly and handed her cue to Liv, who was trading off with her to make things slightly more even.

Unfortunately for Trent and Lyle, Liv was still better than both of them.

“This is ridiculous,” Trent said ruefully to Lyle at one point after Liv hit her third shot in a row.

“Guess we shoulda known better, huh?”

Trent laughed and lowered his voice. “Hey, I can hardly blame you for wanting to spend more time around her. If I weren’t married, I’d be the same way.”

“You’re married?”

“Six years now,” Trent said with a grin.

A couple more games passed, and Lyle got to know Trent a little better, too. He was big and muscular, which made him look kind of intimidating, but he was very friendly—he didn’t radiate it quite like Abe, and he wasn’t as enthusiastic as Morgan, but nonetheless he came across to Lyle as a good guy. He worked for a tech startup in the Cities that was coming up with better ways of protecting trees from the pine beetles. They already had a contract from the state government, which impressed Lyle.

Lyle also tried to find Daniel for a game, but he’d already left by the time they started playing, much to Lyle’s disappointment.

In their final game, Lyle watched Morgan line up her most ridiculous shot yet, and when she struck the cue ball he again felt the strange sensation that he’d felt during her performance. The magic within him was rising up to meet… something. It was like a vibration or hum deep within him that caused his Emberflame to waver and shudder under the intensity. Even as it wavered, it simultaneously pushed him to try to get closer to the source.

“Lyle?” Morgan asked curiously, looking up at him and cocking her head. She seemed to do that a lot.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I felt it, too. Same thing as before, right?”

She nodded. “Can I try something?”

“Uh, yeah,” Lyle said quickly. “What did you have in mind?”

“I’m an enchanter, so I wanted to try giving you a rune and see what happens.”

Lyle looked at her skeptically. “Why?”

Runes were magical inscriptions given by enchanters to weapons or people to enhance their power in a variety of ways. He wasn’t sure how that would help them figure this out, though he was curious about what it would feel like.

And maybe a part of him hoped she would touch him.

“It kind of links me to you, so I’ll be able to sense better what’s actually happening. Who knows, maybe it’ll also make you better at pool!” Morgan winked.

Lyle chuckled. “Ouch, oof, my heart. I’m not that bad.”

“You’re pretty bad, bud,” Trent assured him, giving him a consoling pat on the back.

“I don’t play!”

“Hence why you’re bad.”

Lyle looked at Liv and Morgan for backup, but they just shrugged.

“Alright, whatever,” he acquiesced with a rueful shake of his head. “I’m bad, I guess. How does the rune thing work, exactly?”

“It’s pretty simple,” Morgan said. “Just give me your arm and I’ll trace a symbol, which will determine how the power affects you. That’s really all there is to it.”

“What does it feel like?” Lyle asked. He turned to Liv and Trent. “Have either of you used runes?”

Trent shook his head.

“I have,” Liv said. “You’ll feel a rush of power and then the rune will go into effect and you’ll be stronger or faster or tougher or whatever. It lasts while you’re in the vicinity of the enchanter and she can still provide power.”

“Alright, well, time to see if you can make me good enough at pool to beat you,” Lyle said. “Not that it’d be much of a victory at that point.” He held his arm out to Morgan and suppressed a shudder at the goosebumps as the beautiful woman took hold of it. Her hands were firm, and Lyle could sense her immense strength, but at the same time she was gentle. She quickly traced out a symbol that lit up behind her finger with orange light. When she took her hand away, a thread of her power followed it, linking the two of them.

“There we go,” Morgan said.

Lyle felt a trickle of power flowing from her to him, but it seemed diluted somehow. It certainly wasn’t the ‘rush’ Liv had described.

Morgan gestured to Lyle’s hand, where she’d drawn it. “I don’t think I know any good-at-pool runes, but I thought maybe a little—”

She cut off in surprise and her eyes flashed back to the rune on Lyle’s hand. In a blinding flash, the rune flared and all the power rushed the opposite way along the link, returning to Morgan and carrying waves of Lyle’s golden light with it.

The leader of Moonlight Sonata opened her mouth to cry out, but her voice stuck in her throat as her tendons and veins stood in high relief against her skin. Her eyes flew wide as sparks seemed to dance across her pupils. Everyone around them froze in shock, and she seized, collapsing to the ground.

“Oh my God!” Liv shouted. “Morgan! Morgan!”

“What the hell?” Lyle shouted. The rune on his hand still tied him to Morgan, and power was flowing along the link in the wrong direction. He tried to slash the link, but he couldn’t focus enough to pull his own power away from Morgan’s.

He knelt next to Morgan. What was one supposed to do in the event of a seizure? Protect the head, keep other things away from the person. Lyle wasn’t sure what else.

He and Trent slid her away from the pool table so she wouldn’t hurt herself. In the back of Lyle’s mind, he wondered why they bothered since there was a good chance she was practically indestructible, as strong as she was.

Screams of concern and fear echoed through the penthouse as others rushed to Morgan’s side.

“What happened, Lyle?” shouted Liv.

“I don’t know! Her rune burst, and the power’s—”

Lyle trailed off as complete silence fell. He looked around and saw that everyone was frozen. Liv had her mouth open to respond, and Trent was still kneeling next to Morgan, his hands on either side of the woman’s head as she seized. A flurry of white sparks was still visible in Morgan’s green eyes, but they weren’t moving anymore.

“Oh, dear,” said a familiar deep voice, though it was much quieter than he remembered, and more human. Lyle spun to face a dark-skinned woman with long brown hair and shocking golden eyes.

“Who—Tiamat?” Lyle gasped in surprise.

“Yes, child.” She wore a brown robe that undulated with her movement, and she was inspecting Morgan where she lay on the ground.

“What the hell just happened?” Lyle asked.

“She’ll be fine, Lyle. You needn’t worry about her. In fact, she might thank you later, although this is unexpected and might present some difficulties for me.”

“What are you talking about? And how are you doing this?”

“Lyle, do you know the name Tiamat, aside from our previous conversation?”

“Ancient goddess,” he replied after a moment. Lyle had taken some time to research the name. “Sometimes depicted as a dragon. From… Babylon, I want to say? Their mythology said she created a lot of gods and was torn in half by some other god to create the land and the sky. I think.”

Tiamat crinkled her nose. “Yes, well, close enough. Clearly I am not torn in half, but as you have gathered, I am a goddess.” She gestured around to the frozen people. “Perks.”

Lyle nodded slowly. There were a lot of things he wanted to ask, but prioritizing seemed wise. “What about Morgan? Can you help her?”

“You’re going to have to refrain from any other bonding magic,” she told him without acknowledging his question. “Hopefully others do not notice this little occurrence. That would likely be... bad.”

“The others who?”

“Others like me, child,” Tiamat said, standing up again and taking his drink in hand from where it had been balanced on the edge of the pool table. It was a miracle it had remained there with all the excitement. She took a sip then handed it back to him.

“Other gods?” Lyle asked incredulously.

“Yes. Other embodiments of imagination, gods of potential, and guardians against nightmares. Other deities.”

“Uh—what?” Lyle asked, putting his drink down again on a cocktail table. He felt ridiculous standing there with it while he apparently talked to an ancient dragon goddess in a frozen world. What she said sounded important, but he couldn’t make heads nor tails of it.

“You’ll learn, but I can’t stay here for long to explain,” she said. “I simply needed to observe what had happened. It appears that I worried for no reason. Still, heed my words—no more bonding magic. It could bring attention upon you that you will not enjoy.”

“Wait,” Lyle said quickly. “What do you mean by bonding magic? Am I... bound to Morgan now?”

“No. You are only linked momentarily by her power,” Tiamat replied. “You yourself cannot even perform any bonding magic. Just please refrain from allowing others to place runes upon your skin, or otherwise link to you with their power. Although…” She trailed off as she considered him. “It does seem to me a good idea that you would have companions. I shall see if I can procure a way for you to truly Kindle others more quietly. You’re a ways off from accomplishing such a feat without help, but the dream-touched alone will not be sufficient to face what is coming. You need to be less obvious, though, or my own compatriots will simply kill you. We shall speak again soon, but I shall take my leave now or they may notice my presence here, and then they would discover you. Do your utmost to stay alive, would you?”

“Wait, Tiamat!”

She paused, and looked at him expectantly.

“I just—if I can ask one more question,” he said. She nodded, so he continued. “What is this power?”

Lyle held out his hand and a spark floated up from his palm. Her eyes widened in shock.

“You should not be able to do that yet. Release the power,” she said. He continued to hold his hand out, confused, until she shouted, “Release it!”

Lyle released the magic, startled at her sudden passion. “What’s wrong? What is it?”

Tiamat started to pace. “That is a very pure form of the power you will be using. Or, rather, already are.” She stopped and stepped closer to him until she was right in his face. He almost took a step back, but refrained. “Have you been feeling any pains, or like you are overheating?”

“Uh, yeah, occasionally. Like heartburn. It’s happened a couple of times since you gave me the power.”

“You must refrain from using it. Using it will exacerbate your deterioration.”

“Oh, I don’t like the sound of that. What do you mean by deterioration?”

“You’re not powerful enough to channel that power safely. If you continue to use it, it will consume you, burn you up.”

Lyle’s eyes widened. “Okay, that’s some excellent motivation to avoid it. How do I get to the point where I can use it? What is it even for? I can’t touch anything except other Embers’ magic with it.”

“That is to be expected,” Tiamat replied. “It is not made of matter and does not manifest anything—it is the sublime light of the Divine. Of course it only touches other magic. Using it is simple. Just strengthen yourself, and eventually you’ll learn to use the light. I shall work to find a way for you to use the power in the interim. I was planning on doing so, anyway, since it’s not very useful to you on its own yet, but this is going to throw a wrench in the works, as you humans like to say. I really must be going now, though. Watch for Camille. I shall have her bring news of a solution.”

With a dismissive nod, she disappeared without even a puff of smoke, and time resumed.