"Oh, um, hello." I tried not to quake.

"Hello." The - calling it a snake seemed wrong - the monster's voice had a touch of… amusement in it? "Little Lord. And not even a wyrmling."

"Yes, I am human. My name is Edmon Valli." I straightened up and took a few deep breaths, letting some of the adrenaline drain out of my system. It left me a bit wobbly, but as I stamped down on my fight-or-flight instincts, my head began to clear. I gave a firm bow, trying for polite without being obsequious.

"I am Coatli." He gave a slow blink, which somehow seemed to mirror my bow. "You have the Heart."

It wasn't a question. I forcibly stopped myself from putting a hand on my pocket, where the Heart seemed determined to burn a hole through the cloth.

"Yes." I nodded. "I… have to admit, I sort of stumbled across it. I don't know anything about it. I've gathered that there was a Prince who owned it in the past—"

"Cuauhli."

"—Uh?"

"His name was Cuauhli." Coatl huffed gently, steam jetting from his nostrils. "My lord, Prince Cuauhli."

"Oh." I waited a moment, but he didn't say any more. "Yes. I've realized I'm not the first to own it, but I had no idea Prince Cuaulhi had left anything behind." For an instant, Coatli's eyes narrowed, and I wondered if I'd said something wrong. "I'm very sorry for trespassing."

"Heh." Definitely amusement this time. Coatli's snort flattened a small section of the jungle. "Underssstandable. It has been years upon years since his spirit returned to the sky."

"How many years are we talking here?" I asked hesitantly. Coatli was obviously no newborn, but I couldn't help wondering just how ancient this Behemoth was.

"Mmm…" The monster's giant eyes went unfocused. "Perhapsss… sixty—"

Surprisingly short?

"—decades."

Nevermind.

"Oh." I tried to put that into perspective. The Petran Empire was four hundred years old. "Wow."

"Ssso, what path do you walk, Lord Edmon?"

"Er." I thought for a moment, trying to disentangle his intentions, before giving up and just speaking my mind. "Truth be told, I'd really just like to make it off this island alive. I don't really have grand intentions or huge plans."

"Indeed?" Coatli rolled its head, focusing on me more closely. "You plan to leave?"

"Given the chance." I shoved my hands in my pockets, and tried to look more certain than I felt.

"How intriguing."

For a moment, silence fell.

"Would you, perhapsss, take me with you?"

"Um." For a moment I pictured my tiny Eigengrau, swamped in the coils of this huge Behemoth, and had to suppress a snicker. "I'm not really adverse to the idea, but first, why?"

"Hmm." His introspective noise shook the ground. "Boredom, mossstly. This isssland isss sssmall."

…I guess for him, it probably was.

"Can't you swim?" I asked carefully.

"If I care to." Again, a hint of amusement. "But I am no Leviathan."

"Ah." I remembered the fin, circling my boat. "The, uh, other worldborn?"

"You can call us monsssters, Edmon. I do not find it ofenssive."

I smiled weakly.

"But yesss. Even if I knew which direction to go, the Lords of the Deep are challenging, in thisss form." His voice dipped a few octaves, but was still penetrating. "Once, I wasss not so large."

"Makes sense." I rubbed my forehead. "I would very much like to help you."

His pupil narrowed.

"Not out of altruism," I said quickly, raising a hand. "Although I'm not stone hearted. But I would very much like to hear anything you know about the Heart. Whatever you're willing to tell me about Prince Cuauhli. However, as you are now…" I gazed up, and up, and up at his frankly monstrous size. "I don't think I could, even if I wanted to."

"And ssso I ask you again. What isss your path?"

"Huh?" I stared at him in incomprehension, until it clicked. That maybe-a-shop had definitely had a strange name. "You mean, the Path of Dreams?"

"Mmm."

"I… haven't chosen anything."

"Oh, indeed?"

"Honestly, I'm not even sure how to choose." I frowned. "There - well, you might know this, but - there are four things to choose from, but I'm not sure how to pick, or what it will cost. So I haven't made any decisions yet. I was hoping to learn more about the Heart first."

"Caution isss wise." He shifted slightly.

"Do you know anything about the Path of Dreams? What it is and how it works?"

"Little." There was a hint of frustration in his voice now. "Cuauhli had Glass, Divinity, and Sssky before I joined him. By the time I had risen to power, he had acquired Conquessst. Before his fall, he ssseized Ensnare."

"Five… no, wait. Seized? Are they not simply for sale?"

"We will dissscusss thisss. But now, are you willing to bargain?"

For a moment, a crushing, mind-numbing pressure filled the jungle. It shook my gut and nearly turned my knees to water. Never negotiate from a position of weakness, screamed my instincts as a trader. Not that I could do much about it.

"Yes," I croaked. "But I can't help wondering why you would bother."

And the pressure was gone, as if it had never existed.

"Willing and brave enough. Even better." Coatli's scales fluffed for a moment. "You have ssseen; I could have taken the Heart the moment I sssensssed it in Cuauhli'sss Domain."

"So why didn't you?" I coughed, trying to bring moisture back to my dry mouth. That was a test?

"I have ruled this isssland for nearly sssix hundred yearsss." A ripple-like shrug moved down his bulk. "I would much rather have an comrade. We will forge an alliance. I will give you knowledge, and you will give me adventure. Our ssstrengths will entwine, as brothersss."

"That sounds more than fair." Honestly, the best I'd hoped for was a little conversation. But if he wanted a friend, I could think of worse allies to have at my side than a Behemoth.

…Well, I could think of better, too. But he was at least polite.

"It will be ssso. You must come with me."

I stepped back, nearly tripping over a root and thumping into a tree. He fixed me with a piercing stare.

"…Alright," I said after a moment. I'd be lying if I said I trusted him completely, but he was right in that he could have killed me. Even though he seemed friendly, I was basically at his mercy. "Lead on."

"That would be much too ssslow." Coatli said. "I will carry you."

"Um?"

"Climb." He rolled, inclining his head towards me. I wiped sweaty palms on my pants, and hesitantly grasped his strange serrated scales. They were warm and rough, and I was able to quickly scramble upwards. Before I was more than halfway, though, he started to move.

It was slow at first. However, as I reached the top of his head, he surged ahead with a jerk that nearly sent me tumbling.

"Careful!"

I had no idea if he could hear me over the incredible cacophony of his passage. He flowed downhill, moving like spilled mercury, pouring over boulders and gliding through the trees. Anything he brushed past was shredded to oblivion by his scales, pounded into the ground by the force of his passing.

I held on for dear life and tried to stay upright. After a few moments, I found myself almost enjoying the ride.

There was a feeling of inevitability to his progress. It was sort of like surfing, or running before a storm; the incredible energy thrusting us forwards crushed aside everything in his path. We descended quickly, the humidity going from thick to choking as he slithered down into the denser jungle nearer the shore.

Within minutes, the roar of destroyed plants and shattered rock subsided. I realized we had turned onto a track, beaten flat and worn to stone, that cut through the jungle like a knife. He must have come this way before, and not just once or twice. The trees flashed past, with the occasional splash of color from a startled bird or fleeing creature.

…Just what did he eat?

My attention was pulled back to the moment as he began to slow. The ground here was entirely flattened, a wide circle of polished stone that centered on an imposing monument. It rose in steps, pushing out of the basalt like it had grown there, reaching easily over the tops of the trees. Coatli turned in his path, slithering carefully around the building until he lay coiled around it in heaps and lumps. He ended with his nose nearly touching the thing. I gingerly loosed my death-grip on his scales as the last noises of his transit echoed off the surrounding jungle.

"Well?" His voice rumbled up from beneath my feet. "Enter."

I nodded, realized he probably couldn't see me, and gave a shaky "Alright." I walked down his nose, right between his eyes, and stepped onto the stone pyramid.

"You have entered a fallen Sanctum."

I paused at that. I'd begun thinking of my Sanctum as… well, not inviolable, perhaps, but definitely secure. The idea that one could exist outside of that flat white void was both intriguing and disconcerting. Was this what happened when a Lord died? Or had it led to his defeat?

The interior of the pyramid was dark and opulent. The black stone sucked up the sun, casting the ornate carvings on the walls into shifting shadow. I walked down a wide hall, and found myself in a mausoleum. A lightwell pierced the ceiling, admitting a sunbeam that slashed the darkness and pooled over a gleaming sarcophagus. The features showed a man with strong features, lined with life but untouched by age.

He looked… stern, but compassionate. I sort of wished I'd gotten a chance to meet him.

I paused, uncertain. "What now?" I mumbled.

"The dagger." Coatli's voice rumbled the stone. "Take it."

I moved closer, and sure enough, lying directly in the center of the sunbeam was a glittering black dagger. It was cupped in carved hands, resting atop the coffin.

Assess.

"This is the dagger of Cuauhli, regalia of a fallen Prince who cherished a crumbling empire. Deals extra damage against ice-aligned creatures. Wielding it grants the ability Shadow Bind. It may represent Royalty, Glass, Growth, or Incision."

I reverently lifted it from Cuauhli's carved grasp.

"Mark it!"

I murmured the words.

I'd expected a flash. I hadn't also expected a roar of shapeless noise, and feeling like a second skin settling across my body. The pressure wrapped me up, constricting my limbs and pressing against my skull. For a moment, I was consumed with blinding pain. Then it was over and I was left staggered, blinking spots from my eyes.

"You have revealed the quality of Growth. That which does not grow, cannot live. Prove your Path upon the land and reap your rewards!"

"You have claimed a lordly artifact. Those below you will look up in envy, those above will look down in avarice."

"By revealing qualities worthy of royalty, your title changes to Baron of Metzli. Your Sanctum changes to fit your new position."

"As a Baron, you are qualified to enter the Crossroads. Stand tall among your peers."

"Cuauhli's vassal Coatli has allied himself with you. Be true to him, and he will respond in kind."

"Took you long enough."

I turned at the sound of footsteps on stone. The voice was familiar, but when a slender draconian ducked through the door, I was surprised.

"Coatli?"

"In the flesh." He stepped forwards and clasped my shoulder. "It is good to greet you properly, brother."

"…Same." I looked him up and down. He had the same green scales, broken by curling patterns of blue and purple, highlighted with touches of red. His horns were ivory-white, curling around his temples like waves, and his wings were curiously ridged. He wore wooden sandals and the pelt of some spotted animal, and a long, flat club hung from his back, edged in jagged black glass. He fixed his ice-blue eyes on me and gave a grin full of needle-sharp teeth.

"I have so many questions for you." I clasped his shoulder in return, and we headed for the exit.

"We can talk as we walk." He looked up the mountain, towards my Domain. "We will have time."

I chuckled bitterly, looking out over the expanse of jungle.

"And the trip down was so easy…"