Leaving Lyria was an irritating affair. They had to wait until after nightfall, long after the crowd of angry protesters had dispersed for the evening. There were still some people, but the majority seemed to head in for the evenings. Still, a dozen draken rushing through the streets was hardly a subtle affair. If the whole city wasn’t talking about the draken exodus by midday, Alyssa would eat her sunglasses.

If it was only leaving at night, Alyssa wouldn’t have minded so much. But it wasn’t. Since south of Lyria wasn’t a desert, there was no need to travel during the cool nights. As such, Brakkt wanted everyone to sleep at proper times. Apparently a tactic to make waking Irulon slightly less painful. They basically left the city, found a nice campsite down in the forest area south of Lyria, and that had been it for their first night.

Alyssa was just glad that she wasn’t in charge of rousing Irulon. Glancing over her shoulder, she smirked.

Tess joined them on their journey. She was the only one, besides Kasita, to not be riding her own draken. With her eyes squeezed as tight as possible, she squeezed her arms tight enough around Irulon’s middle that Alyssa had to wonder if either of them could breathe. Irulon looked distinctly uncomfortable as she tried to read a thinner tome that she had brought.

Over Alyssa’s other shoulder, another of their party looked somewhat unhappy with the situation as well.

Riding on the emerald green draken—named Pesca—Alyssa’s mother acted… rather like Alyssa had acted her first time on a draken. Her muscles tensed constantly and she didn’t quite know where to hold on even though Alyssa had told her that the smooth scales on the sides of the neck were easily the best spots.

Well, at least she hadn’t fallen off… yet. And, the few times they had done so, she seemed to have a better handle on dismounting than Alyssa had had at first.

A wave of motion in the corner of her eye made Alyssa turn to the draken furthest back.

Fela lost her balance. Swinging her arms like a harpy in an attempt to stay on failed miserably. She hit the ground hard, tumbling end over end through the dirt.

No one stopped for her. Not the orange and black spotted draken that she had been riding. Not even Alyssa. The first time had been a bit of a surprise, but now, Alyssa could only shake her head.

Without even coming to a stop from her tumble, Fela managed to find her feet and start running. Her sprint was fast. Not as fast as a draken at full speed, but their group wasn’t running as fast as possible. Just a brisk gait that was about on par with a horse at a medium-high speed. And Fela caught up to that speed in seconds. Once close enough, she pounced, landing on the saddle on all fours.

But she didn’t sit down like everyone else. No. She stood up. One foot planted at the fore of the saddle and one at the aft, she looked like she was riding a skateboard.

Brakkt had been a bit concerned about her riding style at first, but the orange and black spotted draken—named Dasca, apparently—had shrugged off his concerns. It probably helped that Dasca was one of the larger draken around. The only larger one was Brakkt’s blue-grey with a bronze belly. Ensou. All the draken were large. Larger than horses. But Ensou towered over all the draken when it stood upright.

They led the group, riding a short distance ahead of everyone else. Their… caravan, if it could be called that, was not sticking to the worn path that Alyssa had taken on her way up to Lyria. Brakkt wanted to spare travelers from having heart attacks, it seemed. Alyssa didn’t mind too much. The path had really not been all that interesting, even for it being a fresh new world at the time. For most of her trip up, she had been too worn out to interact with anyone. Even at the outposts and villages, she had basically asked for a place to stay, paid a small amount of money, and promptly passed out. Maybe after a meal of tasteless gruel.

If every night was like their first night, Alyssa would have no complaints. With only half the draken carrying people, the rest helped carry supplies. Supplies like a large tent rather like the one Oz had brought on their journey north. And, of course, food. Even some fresh food that Tess was in charge of cooking. Irulon had brought several bottles of Tyrian wine. Though she drank alone. The maple flavor was just too much for everyone else. Alyssa likened it to drinking a bottle of syrup.

It was… a vacation. For Fela, it was a literal vacation. She had been working hard over the last month and wanted a break. The Pharaoh apparently agreed with her. Or perhaps he just wanted her out of the city for a time to see if things cooled down. That actually seemed more likely.

Alyssa felt a bit weird about it all. Part of her screamed that she should be tense, that something was going to go wrong, that Morgan and Bercilak were going to jump out of the woodwork and attack, that Seraphim were going to show up and engage their exterminatus from orbit. But none of that had happened over the past month. Aside from scattered demon plague activity, it had been dull save for the parts where Alyssa had been foolish all on her own.

Lands south of Lyria, and especially Teneville, were supposed to be some of the safest areas in the entire continent. Teneville only had the mountainous harpies to worry about, and they tended to kidnap a single sheep every now and again. That was the extent of threats there.

So maybe treating this with a little less scrutiny and wariness would be good. Everyone needed some relaxation every now and again. Alyssa was no exception.

Besides, even if something did happen, they had a dozen draken, two Rank Six arcanists, the Black Prince—though his armor was currently stored in the bags of one of the riderless draken—a hellhound, a servant girl who was a lot stronger than she looked, a mimic, and… Lisa. Who, despite being hard to think about as anything but a mother, was a trained combatant, armed with knives and a pistol. Morgan and Bercilak would have to be suicidal to jump into all that. In fact, the only things that really could attack them and stand a chance were angels. Maybe dragons or some other rare monster, but the possibility of that happening was probably lower than Adrael popping up and throwing weapons around again.

Hopefully.

And it was what she had wanted anyway. So long as things remained peaceful. The draken were getting some much needed freedom and exercise. Izsha pounced around with another onyx-scaled draken, seemingly racing each other. Another one kept dashing off into the forest, then came back before dashing off to the other side of the group. That one brought back a rabbit which it shared with one of the others. All while running.

For how much the draken were playing, the caravan was making good time. Excellent time compared to her hike up to the city. By the time the caravan settled down for the night, Irulon estimated that they had traveled about a third of the journey. One day and one third of the journey. If they kept up the pace, the two week trip would last only three days. They could get down to Teneville, spend a few days there, and get back to Lyria all in the time it had taken Alyssa to hike just one way.

Draken really were quite amazing. They probably could have made it through the desert far faster had they not been waiting for Oz, Lumen, and Catal’s horses. Maybe even a single day from Lyria to the outpost and another day to return.

As Tess dove into the packs for meal preparation, Alyssa dragged Irulon off to the side, a bit away from everyone else. Hopefully out of earshot as well. It was up to Irulon to decide what to tell her brother or Tess. And Alyssa really didn’t want her mother hearing anyway. That would just start another ‘unnatural’ argument.

But before Alyssa could figure out exactly how she wanted to broach the subject, Irulon gave her a weary look.

“Just say it already. Or don’t. I can guess what you’re going to talk about anyway. The answer is no.”

“No?” Alyssa repeated, trying to figure out what Irulon thought she was going to say. Nothing she had to discuss really warranted a positive or negative response. “No what?”

“What?”

“Um… I was just going to mention a few things about your soul. Souls?”

“Oh?” Irulon frowned. “Oh.”

“What did you think I was going to say?”

Glancing over her shoulder, Irulon looked toward where Brakkt was… playing with one of the draken. He tossed a glowing orb into the forest. It had to be magically enchanted and not just because of the glow. The way it sailed off, weaving between trees, was far from what a normal ball could do. At a sharp vocal command, the draken took off after it, disappearing between the thick trunks. A few moments after, the draken came back with the ball between its teeth. Brakkt rubbed its snout, retrieved the glowing ball, and tossed it again.

Fetch.

He was playing fetch with dinosaurs.

Successfully.

“Nothing,” Irulon said, sitting down on a large fallen log.

“No. Not nothing,” Alyssa said, hands on her hips. “Now I’m curious. Why did you look at Brakkt? What is ‘no’ about him?”

“Just… a misunderstanding on my part,” Irulon said without looking directly at Alyssa. “You were saying? Souls? If this is about what those angels were talking about, I haven’t changed my mind.”

“I just thought you should be fully informed of what I see. Neither Iosefael nor Adrael properly explained what I’m seeing right now.”

“Alright. I’ll bite. This is all because your eyes are glowing, isn’t it? What are you seeing right now?”

Alyssa took a deep breath, glancing around before taking a seat alongside Irulon. “I can see souls. And I think I can see them in the same way that angels can, or similar enough anyway. Describing them is… hard. They don’t have shape or color. They’re just… forms that sit inside people. And monsters. They all interact with each other too. Little bits of Brakkt’s form are coming off, shared with the draken he is playing with. The same is true in reverse. The other draken around too, though their sharing of bits isn’t quite as much as the one he is directly interacting with. Tess is the same, so is my mother, Fela, Kasita. You and I are as well.

“In your case, however, it is… strange.”

“I have two souls,” Irulon said, nodding. “This sharing phenomenon is… normal I suppose?”

“Yeah. And I don’t think it is harmful either. The form I see never shrinks. Even if someone is sharing a lot more of themselves than they are receiving in turn.”

“But mine is? Or ours, perhaps I should say.”

“Not quite. You stand out instantly because of your twin souls, but it took me a while to figure out just which was yours and which belonged to the dragon. It became obvious when I started watching for interactions with outside sources. The dragon doesn’t interact with anything but your soul. And the way it interacts is violent. It rips and tears. And your soul does the same in turn.”

Irulon didn’t say anything. She tilted back, leaning so that she could stare upward at the starry sky.

Not wanting to interrupt whatever thoughts—or conversation?—Irulon was having, Alyssa simply stared as well. It was a shame that the rings around the planet weren’t more interesting. They weren’t nearly as intricate as the pictures of Saturn always made its rings appear to be. No gaps and lines drawn through them. Like the moon used to be, they were flat and uniform except for one single dark streak in the sandy color.

An idle thought crossed her mind. If she were to hold up an Annihilator and maybe wave it around a bit, would she be able to carve out designs in the rings? Some places on the planet might get more or less daylight because of the rings. The sun might even reflect off the underside, keeping the other half of the world lit for far longer than the sun actually stayed up. A sort of inverse of what happened around Lyria where the sun dipped behind the rings earlier than it would otherwise set. Punching holes into it without thought might ruin entire environments. Things were stable, at least around Lyria, so it was probably best not to muck with something that had been around since who knew how long.

“Who is winning?”

“What?” Alyssa glanced down. Irulon still wasn’t looking at her, but instead of the sky, she was just staring off into the woods.

“Me? Or the dragon? We’re tearing at each other, so who is winning?”

“Oh. I don’t know if either of you is actually shrinking in size. Maybe if we watched for longer. The angels did say—”

“Keep an eye on it, will you?”

Alyssa nodded slowly. “Of course. Sorry if that was all too abstract. It’s all hard to describe. I just wanted you to be aware of all the circumstances. Or at least the ones I can tell you about.”

“I appreciate it. And I would appreciate more information if you find anything else out. For now, I don’t think it is anything worth being concerned over.”

Blinking twice, Alyssa raised an eyebrow. If someone had told her that her soul was being torn apart, she would have been greatly concerned. Even if she didn’t really know what a soul was, it would have been something to worry over. But she did have some inkling of an idea regarding souls. She knew, at the very least, that they were intrinsically tied to who someone was. Having that torn apart?

It was enough to make her shudder.

But Irulon just shrugged as she stood. “It’s been happening for a few years now. I’m sure another few months aren’t going to kill me.”

“I hope not.”

Waving a hand, Irulon sniffed at the air. “I think Tess must be nearly finished. Let’s eat, unless you had something else to talk about?”

Alyssa glanced toward Brakkt again, still somewhat curious about why Irulon had brought him up. But she didn’t have anything in particular to say and Irulon was already walking back, so Alyssa let it drop for now.

Dinner was some kind of bird. It wasn’t turkey or chicken or even duck. She had never had pheasant or anything more exotic. It certainly wasn’t anything Alyssa was familiar with. Perhaps it was something that had gone extinct on Earth, or maybe something that had never existed at all.

It wasn’t a harpy, thankfully.

The texture was thick and juicy, a lot more like red meat, maybe like a steak, than anything bird-like that Alyssa had tried. Tess had ground a few spices into its flesh for some seasoning, but it probably would have tasted fine without it.

Still, she wouldn’t have minded some steak sauce. Just a few drops.

“So, enjoying our vacation?” Alyssa asked as she sat next to her mother, offering a wooden bowl of the bird.

“Some parts of it,” she said, glancing toward where the draken were tearing apart some poor creature that a few of them had caught. Maybe a bear. “Other parts are a little nostalgic. I haven’t sat around a campfire in years. Not since…”

Alyssa took a deep breath. “Since we all went with Clark to the caverns?”

“Yeah…”

“They’ll be fine, mom. Both Dad and Clark.”

“I know you’ve said that before, but I just don’t know what to think. Being here, in this world, is trying. I want to be happy with my daughter back,” she said, resting a hand on Alyssa’s shoulder. “But it just feels like I’ve traded them away.”

“You didn’t,” Kasita said before Alyssa even had a chance to feel guilty. “And neither did Alyssa. Neither of you had a choice in the matter. Not a real choice, anyway. Alyssa could have let you die, but that wasn’t much of an option. So just take things for what they are and enjoy your time here, with us.” A grin spread across the mimic’s face as she deepened her voice and put on a British accent. “Ufu~ Don’t think about it as if you’ve lost a son, so much as… gained a daughter.”

“Kasita. Now is not the time to be quoting—”

A laugh interrupted Alyssa. Just a small, singular chuckle. But it was a laugh from her mother nonetheless.

No one spoke in a long while. When they did, Irulon and Lisa started talking about the stars and how they might be used for guidance in this world given their differing patterns compared to Earth. Which just resulted in a long and drawn out ordeal of Alyssa showing Irulon as many images of the night sky as she could in an attempt to locate where Earth might be in relation to Nod.

Alyssa wasn’t even sure that they were in the same universe, but it was a nice distraction from more emotionally draining topics.

The following day of travel went by peacefully. Alyssa’s mother seemed to warm up to the idea of riding draken, though it was a stiff sort of warm up. The group made it all the way down to the base of the mountain path.

There was a cave not far away where Alyssa had come across her first monster. An injured harpy. Over dinner—a few fish freshly caught from the river—she relayed the story of finding it and helping it. While Alyssa would have found it interesting to meet the harpy again, she doubted that any harpy would show themselves. The draken probably wouldn’t have much compunctions against eating one if they managed to catch it. Though, maybe they wouldn’t bother. They seemed to be getting plenty of fish from the river.

In the morning, they set off through the mountain pass. It had been a three day journey by foot. The draken made it from one end to the other in a few hours. Noon had come and gone by the time they emerged into the rolling grassy hills that surrounded Teneville.

Another hour passed before the village actually came into view.

Alyssa had only spent a few days there. Maybe a week, if she remembered right. But it had been the first thing she had seen in this world. It stuck out in her mind, fresh and clear. All the little buildings made of cobblestone and wood were still there. She could pick out Yzhemal’s inn and the leatherworker’s shop. The brewery had smoke billowing from its chimney.

But there was something wrong. That much was obvious with only a glance.

When Alyssa had first left her house and spotted the village in the distance, Tenebrael’s temple had cast the entire town in its shadow. It towered above everything else, though it didn’t reach even half the height of the palace. Still, it was a large Gothic cathedral seemingly carved from obsidian. It stuck out like a sore thumb.

Where it had once stood, Alyssa only saw a rubble-filled lot.