[Dante Alan Skyisle]

I dreamt of the spires of Moscow, tipped with red, shining stars. The stars revolved, folded in on themselves revealing to me that within them was fractal endlessness. I could not draw my vision away from the eternally folding fractal structures above the spires of Kremlin.

“Smile,” the stars whispered.

I smiled.

“Work hard today,” the stars added.

I nodded, a smile etched onto my face.

I joined the throng of smiling, happy people. The smiles were everywhere. Some of their eyes looked sad, but that sadness was drowned, drained away every time when they looked upon the star-tipped marble towers.

Thick clouds rolled across the gloomy sky, rays of light cutting through the wall of clouds occasionally. Here and there hovercraft ships pierced through the clouds.

Warship Roraima hung above New Moscow, a ten kilometer long, black pyramid that blotted out the sun. The clouds warped, moved in a perfect circle around the warship as they were pushed away by its shields.

"Good tomorrow citizens of USSRA," the perfect, god-like, female voice of Wizard Revolution poured from the speakers. "Our war against the Oceania Imperium continues full swing. Tensions with Sol are escalating as well, but we will inevitably prevail. The USSRA representative flew into the capital of Oceania this week to discuss..."

I walked into my office building waving a hand to the pyramidal overseer floating over the entrance. The overseer glittered at me with its red-star eye.

“Good morning Dr. Kerenski!” My assistant greeted me with a huge smile, pushing back silver-blue hair. “How lovely to see you!”

“Morning,” I smiled back at her. “How are things?”

“The program you designed is working perfectly,” she grinned. “Population happiness is up across the board. Enemy propaganda no longer has any affect on our citizens. We’re installing the resonance-stars in every city across the USSRA!”

“Glory to USSRA,” my mouth made the words for me as my hand moved to my heart, closed into a fist.

“Glory to the USSRA!” My assistant placed a hand upon her heart.

We got back to business. There were more towers to build across our vast nation made up of nations.

Someday we will take control of all of the sectors. Someday, we will win and then I can finally…”

I woke up with a groan. My head felt like it had been boiled and squeezed dry like a lemon. I blearily pushed the freaky dream out of my mind. The vision had felt far too real, had far too many sharp details and colors in it was nothing like the dreams that Delta and I shared together.

That’s what I get for nearly frying my brain while trying to make Kliss a new body out of a dragon, I supposed.

I felt that someone was wiping my head with a damp cloth. I opened my eyes and saw the smiling face of my mom.

“Dante!” She said, her blue eyes looking me over. “You’re awake?”

I nodded. It hurt to nod. It felt like a train ran me over. Had I really overdone it… last night? Pushed my soul too far?

“How long was I out?” I asked, feeling like my mouth was made from cotton.

“Nearly two weeks,” she said. “I had to take care of you.”

“You?” I asked. “Where’s Delta?”

“Your Great Aunt is far too busy with running Skyisle,” mom sighed. “She told me that you ran headfirst into an Imperial skyship that was set alight by dragonfire and crashed into the valley. Why did you do that Dante?”

I ignored her question.

“Well?” She crossed her arms. “I’m waiting for a legitimate answer.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” I sighed.

“Try me,” she said.

My pulsating, aching head was making it hard to think. Even if my soul was that of an old Soviet scientist my teenage body was full of hormones that pushed me forward, made me brave and careless. I was an amalgamation of Dante and Vladislav, both and neither. My soul was ancient, but my body was young.

“No,” I said defiantly to her demands.

“Dante,” she said. “You nearly died from what I was told. You’re a wizard’s apprentice, technically an adult now. Please make better decisions in the future. Great Aunt Delta is very disappointed with you. I will be disappointed in you if you get yourself hurt again like this. You have to be more careful.”

I squinted at her.

“Dante?” She asked. “Why are you like this? What changed? You were so timid just a year ago… before you turned twelve you didn’t even step away from the path, always stayed within the light of the hex-lanterns.”

Something in me snapped. The headache and the far-too-realistic dream of the pulsating fractal stars that ripped people’s true feelings away and replaced them with those of false happiness made me really irate.

“I won’t tell you anything until you tell me something,” I said.

“Oh?” Cassandra raised her eyebrow.

"The Sons and Daughters of Alania rose up against the gods and built a mighty, prosperous Empire. Through the abyss-gate Alanian Archmages brought back our fallen heroes, to march upon the vile enemies standing at our walls. The enemy Archwizards had pulled the stars down from the sky and bathed our great cities in death. We, the Skyisle Sentinels, remember our legacy, a time when we stood as gods and reached for the cosmos beyond. We are last. We are the keepers of the hearth, the last outpost, the last light that must never dim - Skyisle. Descend into the white city and reclaim your legacy when the curse-effulgence ends, children of Alania. Let your Soul-Song guide you home," I narrated out the words of the Sentinel's song.

Cassandra's face paled.

"D-did Aunt Delta teach you what the song means?" She pushed the words out of herself. "Is... is that why you're acting out like this, throwing your life into danger?"

I didn't reply.

"I want the truth," I said, trying to derail her demands away from myself. "Tell me the truth about the song. The truth about everything, mom!"

Cassandra fretted for a few moments. I stared at her firmly waiting for the answer. After another minute of me silently glaring at her she finally gave in.

"It's my fault," she said. "Everything that happened is my fault."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow.

"When I was sixteen, I had a prophetic dream about having a daughter," she said finally, her voice trembling. "I went to the Church of Ishira at the center of the village and told the Priestess about the dream. The Priestess told me that my daughter would bring doom to Skyisle. The voice of Ishira used the magic of our Goddess to snip away the future that was not to be."

Cassandra looked like she was trying not to cry now.

"I was so scared," she said. "I was so scared that my daughter... that my little Destiny would destroy Skyisle. The Priestess of Ishira told me that my daughter would find a way to get to the ruined Citadel-city of our ancestors, awaken the ancient weapons, activate the soul-powered golems that have been sleeping there for a thousand years. I made a pact with Ishira, a Vow of Sacrifice. My daughter was never born. Instead... I got you. I... I wanted to tell you this when you were a bit older, but it seems that Aunt Delta beat me to the punch. I'm sorry Dante. I'm... so sorry."

Things clicked together in my head, like a puzzle being assembled, like a clockwork mechanism ticking for the first time.

"It's okay, Mom," I said softly after I processed her revelation. "I understand now. I'm sorry I put you through this. I'm sorry that you had to make such a difficult decision."

Cassandra looked up at me with eyes that were no longer sky blue, but almost silver-gray and shimmering with tears.

"Ishira took my daughter's soul and instead gave me you. You're all grown up now, Dante," she said, tears raining down her face. "You have to be careful. You have to get strong so that you can grow to become a powerful mage... and protect Skyisle just like Aunt Delta does. It will be up to you to carry the Sentinel's torch into the future, to watch over this Valley."

It hurt my heart to see her like this. The real Dante, kid I left behind for more than a decade loved his mom, couldn't take it seeing her in this much misery and pain.

"Your daughter," I said after a minute. "Your daughter isn't dead."

"What?!" Cassandra's eyes grew wide.

"You've undoubtedly seen her running around Skyisle. A teenage girl with pale face, blue goggles and white curly hair," I said. "Delta Junior. She's... Destiny. She's your daughter."

My mother's mouth fell open. She tried to pull the words out of herself but she could only gape at me, looking broken and confused. Her boundless bewilderment was interrupted by metal boots marching up the stairwell.

Delta's pale face woven from spiderwebs appeared in the doorway. She was wearing her teenage body and white titanium plate armor.

"Someone's finally up!" She declared. "Look who I brought, you lazy layabout!"

Delta shoved another person into the room. It was a skinny girl in a black dress with hair made from ruby gemstones. The girl stepped into the light and her mane detonated with colorful reflections.

It took me a minute to recognize her.

"Hey Dante," Kliss said, her ember, slitted, cat-like eyes looking at me.

Mom's shock at my insane declaration finally wore off when she saw Kliss. She blinked at the gemstone-mained girl and then looked at Delta and then back to me.

"Hey Kliss," I got off the bed with a groan. "Damn my everything hurts like hell."

"Good! Accept the pain! It's a moral lesson to be less of a moron," Delta shook her head. "You're lucky I have modify skills too, otherwise you'd be a burned potato. You got off easy!"

"Yeah, thanks," I said, stretching my sore muscles.

"You should thank your mom too," Delta said, looking at Cassandra who was still in shock. "She was the one taking care of you the whole time you were out."

I looked at my mom and saw weariness, worry, confusion, and sadness in her eyes.

"Thanks Mom," I said softly, walking towards her and giving her a hug. She was stiff, but then melted into the embrace.

"I... don't understand..." she whispered, her hands trembling. "What?" She looked completely lost.

"Why does Cassandra look like she's been nearly mauled by a blood Elk? Delta raised an eyebrow.

I rubbed the back of my head.

"You told her something stupid," Delta guessed.

"I. Uhm. Uhg," I tried to come up with an excuse.

Kliss stepped closer to me. She looked like a diamond, like a prism, no a thousand prismatic refractions that warped, twisted and redirected the light cast into the room through the round windows. I stared at her. I had no idea that her hair would get this shiny.

The [monster>human] converter spell was all theoretical, worked on by Delta. To me it was mostly fractals and numbers and omnicode. When I poured power from the Dragon's body into the girl to reforge her, I had no idea what would come out in the end and by the time I had finished making her I was nearly delirious from exhaustion. The end result now standing before me was incredible, like a living, impossible sculpture, an amalgamation of a gemstone cluster and a person.

Kliss stepped forward. Her hand moved faster than my tired eyes could track it. The sound of the slap resonated across the room and I staggered back from her.

"That's for running into the burning skyship," she said.

I stared at her in shock. She had slapped me, not hard enough to hurt a lot, but hard enough to show that she meant it.

"And that's for saving my life," she hugged me.

I hugged her back, feeling incredibly awkward. Her embrace became stronger.

"Alright, you two, break it up," Delta commented. "I want answers."

I stepped away from Kliss, rubbing my stinging cheek.

"Yes?" I asked my sister.

"I'm glad you're awake," Delta said. "Now, explain this."

She pointed her armored hand at mom.

"I told her you're... Destiny," I said.

"What," Delta's metal boot clanked towards me.

"I told her that you're her daughter," I said. "My sister, that was never born."

Delta froze. She stared at Cassandra and then at me and then back at Cassandra.

"Why would you do that?" She said, her titanium-plated fingers twitching.

"I thought she deserved to know," I said. "Skyisle is our home. She's our mom. She deserves to know the truth. She's been living for thirteen years bearing the weight of her loss."

"Jesus Christ, Dante," Delta sighed and rubbed her temples. "Why are you like this?"

My mom looked at Delta and then at me.

"What? You... you're..." Cassandra whispered.

"Hi mom," Delta suddenly turned to her with a smile, seemingly having made a decision. "I'm your daughter... Destiny."