I was about to take my hands off my eyes when I realized I was out of my body, seeing the motionless bodies of Kasamarchi and Ana from above.

The frozen smoke looked like scattered, dirty cotton balls, my ears ringing from the silence once again.

So shortly after…

After what?

The last time-stopping occasion was quite a long time ago. Our battle with the Guard. Wasn't it?

No!

There was a more recent one.

I remember it. I remember everything that happened in the Forecaster Valley.

"Kill that abomination, Ana!"

"Come, come!"

"Kasamarchi, destroy those saints…"

"Shut up, all of you!"

"Perfect timing, all of you."

"It's your brain that's made of metal."

For some reason, I was sure I'd forget it all again once Asp unfroze time.

Not that I really cared.

My gaze slid farther ahead, to where I had seen that explosive flash.

That must be them. The first Volcanite. Why do they look like…?

I realized it before even finishing my question.

Of course.

I expected the Volcanites to look like they did in Erderak's memories: fiery-bodied soldiers in blazing cloaks.

But this one, hovering in the air with his wings spread and his head down, looked like Asp. Like his lava twin covered with fiery patterns instead of scales.

These patterns were deep-violet in places and crimson in others, giving way to orange and dazzling-white.

The Volcanite was alone.

As was Asp.

The other animated things would not come to life. If they did, each one would have immediately been matched with an identical copy made of fire. I was pretty sure about that.

And I didn't need to play any scenarios to know what would happen next. The old chastener's memory retained the images of the Volcanites mirroring every move of their enemy, their fiery bodies condensing under the blows to become as hard as metal, their strange power casting deep burn wounds on human bodies without even touching them.

Then I heard a voice.

Why are you here?

No squealing of the tiny clones. No sonorous blaring of the Worm. Just a strange voice in my head—or rather in Asp's head, considering I was now seeing the world out of it.

Really. Why?

Up from my memories came a talk I'd had with Kasamarchi a long time ago, sometime in that past life when we had been roaming Crealia's roads together, avoiding the Guard patrols. We must go to the Volcanites. They're a tribe of fiery creatures and metal-tamers. They can make Asp almost invincible.

I looked at the Volcanite still hovering in the frozen smoke like a shimmering wax figure.

But somehow I knew: they heard me.

Is that all? The same voice asked in my head.

The memory transported me to dawn on the Ironsea shore, at the practice bay where Kasamarchi had spent a week training the four newly-made Budrahs, three of whom had given their lives later that day to protect us. If we make it, we'll take the crocs to the Volcanites. I hope they can make them into a stronger crocoboat. The one we can use to cross the sea.

Again, I was sure the Volcanite had heard that.

Then a sudden realization dawned on me. So that's what the Forecaster did when he touched Asp. He gave me the gift of hearing and speaking in frozen time. Some sort of Diplomacy skill.

"Good," the Volcanite said. "We will help you. But first, you help us."

"Help? How?"

"The Fiery Mountain gave birth to Plasmor who's destroying the Volcanites. He's growing stronger and stronger. We can't mirror him, as he's already too big and we're too few."

"Why don't you just leave?"

"This world is cold. If we stray too far from the Fiery Mountain's warmth, we will die. We're born from the Mountain's womb and nursed by her fire. We plunge into it to die when the time comes. Now the Mountain's interior has been taken over by Plasmor. He has left us no choice but to fight or to die. And you. You now have the same choice. He knows you're here. He's coming out."

Too much information.

Poor Asp's mind was about to break as I struggled to wrap it around this new knowledge.

No room for thoughts.

Only fragments of some popular science broadcast coming to the surface of my memories.

Silicon-based polymer chains have better resistance to high temperatures than carbon-based ones. Plasma-based life forms are theoretically possible under certain conditions where they will be able to breed. The plasma is contained inside a delicate molecular-and-crystal shell.

That's what the Volcanites are. A plasma-based life form. And Plasmor, too.

I didn't see that coming.

I was ready to fight the Volcanites, hoping that Asp had some way to turn their mirroring power against them.

After resolving the conflict in the Forecaster Valley, I was even ready for negotiations.

But these heat-resistant, silicon-based polymer chains hiring us as mercenaries to fight in their local war? That was a nightmare made real. Worse than any of the many nightmares I had seen lately.

He knows you're here. He's coming out.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I envied Kasamarchi's having no part in all of this as he stood motionless in Asp's freeze-frame, leaving me to make the choice.

The choice I hated.

Fuck it all.

I was so pissed off, I no longer cared. I just stared at the hovering Volcanite. "Why are you silent, winged thing? We don't have a choice, do we? What should we do?"

"Each of you must merge with their fiery twin. Then merge all together. That's the only way to defeat Plasmor."

"What next?"

"If we prevail, Asp will take Plasmor's core: the Volcano Breath. And we will give him the Firmness. The very thing you came here for."

"And the crocs?"

"If you agree, they will enter the Khoronum Caves once you unfreeze time."

The Volcanite did not move, but I sensed a mental impulse pointing at one of the smaller mountains: the twin-peaked one, with a black cave entrance.

"Why?"

"The cave system will take them to the seashore across the Fiery Mountain. It is not far. Half a day's journey here on the surface. But down there, time flows differently. Seven years will pass for the crocs. They will mate, lie down for a sleep, and give birth to twins that will become a sea-crossing crocoboat. What do you think, Ana? Do you agree?"

"Of course I do. Anything is better than dying in this ashy place. Now quiet."

I finally saw the scenarios. This sight calmed me down, my anger giving place to passive contemplation.

Soon I came across the chain of events I needed.

Sighing with relief, I unfroze time.

Contrary to expectations, I was still in Asp's head.

No time to think about it.

Time jerked into motion.

A humming sound came.

The puffs of smoke drifted past me.

The fiery patterns on the Volcanite's body flashed up, changing colors.

The crocs dashed off toward the twin-peaked mountain to vanish into the dark hole.

Break a leg.

I looked around for Kasamarchi or myself, but all I could see were the rising Cammoths and the towering bulk of Angel with the buzzing tornado of hornets over his head.

The next moment, the space was torn apart by dazzling flashes of light. Sounding like claps of thunder, the Volcanites appeared out of thin air between the hills: two fiery mountains with tusks, a blazing figure with a whip and a trumpet, a trembling cloud formed by spiraling insects, and a red-hot half-horse with a spear.

From beneath the black veil of smoke hiding the volcano came a high-pitched whistling sound. It was growing stronger, merging with another sound, low and humming.

Plasmor. He was coming.

I locked eyes with the Volcanite serpent.

Time stumbled for a moment. Then my double reappeared in front of me.

A burning stream of lava poured into my mind.

There was no pain, just heat spreading through my body and the strange power filling me to the point of overflowing.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Angel, the Budrah, the Cammoths, and the hornets merge with their fiery doubles.

Then a strange power pulled us together to bundle us up into a huge snowball—or rather a lava-ball.

I still couldn't see myself or Kasamarchi. I probably remained in Asp's head for a reason.

One.

Plasmor appeared from beneath the black veil and crept down the volcano slope. Looking like a giant medusa, it moved through the air smoothly, with deceptive slowness. In truth, it approached rapidly, the whistling sound building to a howl. Thin tentacles shot from its jelly-like silvery body, with blue flashes of electricity dancing between them, breaking stones in their way.

Two more rocking moves and the medusa would reach me.

Two.

It took me just a second to see myself as a new entity, a single creature made of animated things multiplied by their lava doubles. My mind, embracing theirs, was now cramped—and full of contradictions. We have a shared blood flow. Or lava flow? The Volcanites must have lava instead of blood.

Three.

The medusa covered the distance between us in a matter of seconds, shooting a tentacle at me. Angel's whip knocked it down. Plasmor shot out another tentacle. A moment before it reached my stomach, the affected spot became heavier, filling with hardness.

A powerful blow came. The monster that was me staggered back a step to keep its balance. The metal bulge on my body where it had been hit by the tentacle thinned and melted away.

I looked up and saw bluish smoke rising from Plasmor's ripped hood; it was the mirrored blow.

The medusa struck me with electricity, again and again. Metal bumps appeared on the monster's body where it took the damage; I could feel the Volcanites die inside me.

Barely keeping my balance and seizing a moment between two shots, I flapped my hornet wings.

Four.

The buzzing cloud of fiery bullets came over Plasmor, covering its silver hood with black, smoking holes. The medusa's howling became ragged. It swole up like a ball—and suddenly spewed lava at me!

I was ready for that fountain, having seen it in the scenarios. A moment before it could hit me, I recoiled, dodging the blazing stream.

So that must be it. The Volcano Breath.

The Volcanites whispered that I did not have to fear lava while they were part of me. But I knew that they were now fewer than before. And Plasmor's spewing could be inflicting other kinds of damage on top of that from the lava.

I will get you. Just give me time.

Five.

I pushed off the ground and rushed in to attack, knocking the electric flashes down with my whip and shooting more and more hornet clouds over the medusa's smoking hood.

Plasmor stopped howling. With its medusa hood sinking like a pierced air mattress, the vile thing dashed up to hide in the volcano's mouth.

Get it! I commanded.

The monster took several giant leaps up the slope, plunging into the smoke veil. Plasmor vanished into the volcano's mouth. I gripped at the stone edge with my giant hands and flung my colossal body into the boiling lava.

The medusa dove in, leaving a bluish smoky trace and a flash of light. I followed, feeling a pleasant warmth and tingling all over my body.

Six.

Plasmor was losing its strength to heat resistance as it stubbornly struggled deeper into the mountain's womb where it had been born. I was gaining on it with mighty strokes of my arms, somehow knowing my way in the lava.

Seven.

I cornered the wounded thing at the mountain wall and thrust Asp's harpoon stinger into the tattered hood. The medusa's body arched in agony, shooting its remaining tentacles into the void. I sensed Asp suck the enemy's core in through the harpoon.

Eight.

That was all. I had to get out. Pushing off the scorching-hot rocks at the bottom, I rushed for the surface.

The monster soared over the volcano's mouth. I saw the Ironsea washing the mountain from another side, the crimson lava coming up through the cracks and creeping down into the azure water.

The sight of the clashing elements, cold blue-and-green and hot crimson-and-orange, was captivating. The places that held the most violent fighting were hidden by puffs of vapor.

I dashed down the slope, feeling the surviving Volcanites leave my body.

Landing at the volcano's foot, I was pulled back into my own body.

At last.

Kasamarchi stood by my side. He smiled and nodded at the gaping cave mouth, an adult crocoboat coming out of it.

I struggled to believe my eyes. They had been just two babies such a short time ago! The crocoboat looked a lot like Twina-Twin, except its body was dark-green, not rusty, and it had strong, big flippers instead of small crocodile legs.

The Volcanites had delivered on their promise.

But still, there was something off.

My hair was still down over my shoulders, and our animated things were still out at large.

I looked around.

The next moment a giant bat stormed from the black smoke, followed by a bunch of violet cloaked soldiers coming from behind a rock.

I heard their crossbows click.

The first arrow hit Asp. I saw a metal bulge swell on the serpent's neck, repelling the arrow with a clang. At the same moment, the crossbowman screamed, clutching at his neck, blood and smoke coming through his fingers.

That was the power of Firmness.

Flapping his wings, Asp craned his neck and belched a dazzling-white lava stream at the attackers, evaporating the bat that got in the way.

That was the Volcano Breath.

No deception on the Volcanites' part.

Time began to freeze.

For yet another time today.