“You’ve all been cleared,” Elder Smississ said. “The only ones here we don’t have records on are you two,” she pointed at the Sourdough twins. “But everyone else present vouches for you so you pass.”

“Oh, good, I cleared,” Intraveki let out a relieved sigh.

“Oh, you cleared, not that we liked what we turned up. Bit of a troublemaker and rabble rouser, are we?”

“Hey, I had nothing to do with this war…”

“Oh, of course not, you were a Shimmer zealot, trying to spread the word of ‘democratic revolution’.” Elder Smississ laughed at this like it was the greatest joke ever.

“Shut it, cap.”

Keller coughed. “By the way, ya know things ya shouldn’t. I don’t think I can keep ya from tellin’ your bosses later… but that’s fine, they can prolly figure out the whole moon thing themselves. So ya prolly can’t ruin nothin’. But…” His face suddenly hardened and he narrowed his eyes. “If ya do somehow screw this up…”

“M-message received!” Intraveki stammered.

“Good fox.”

“I am not a—” Intraveki shut himself up before finishing that. “Sure. Yes. Fox. Let’s go with that. I hope I never run into any of you crazies ever again.” With that, he bounded off.

“Think he’s suspicious?” Blue asked Keller.

“Oh, definitely,” Keller said. “But he ain’t our current problem, this secret war’s scared him just as much as us…”

“Perhaps I can show you all around Tin’nit while we wait?” Vaughan suggested.

“I probably know this place better than you at this point,” Envila pointed out.

“Double guide tour, yay!” Jeh said, throwing her fists into the air.

While the rest of the group discussed where to go next, the Sourdough twins slipped away. Keller was right, Intraveki was somewhat suspicious and probably up to no good, and it most likely wasn’t related to the war.

However, since they were waiting anyway, this didn’t mean the Sourdough twins couldn’t just… sneak off and find out for themselves, there was time. They didn’t even look all that out of place in Tin’nit, considering how many Kroanites and Shimmers were present, all they had to do was make sure Intraveki didn’t notice them following him.

And he was definitely watching to see if he was being followed. Constantly glancing over his shoulders. Making detours. Trying to make it look like he was perusing a shop when he was really trying to see if anyone was tailing him. He probably thought Keller was coming after him.

The twins had a few close calls, at first, but while Intraveki was pretending to peruse a shop for its wares, they purchased a pair of wide-brimmed hats from a Shimmer’s stall to hide their faces. They also split up, one tailing Intraveki from nearby, the other trying to circle around ahead in case Intraveki tried anything. Which he did, oh he did, he loved trying to duck down alleyways, sneak past a small group of other kitsune, go in a building and come out the back door… He was clearly good at this.

Too good to just be some nobody rabble-rousing revolutionary, the twins were realizing rather quickly. There was definitely something else going on here. They both realized this at the same time while they were on opposite sides of a street. They turned to each other, made eye contact, and grinned. They were onto something.

Suddenly, Intraveki took a road out of the city and into the jungle. This made it somewhat harder for the twins to tail him, forcing them to rely more on tracks than visual confirmation of his presence, but the ground was damp and even someone as careful as Intraveki couldn’t remove all traces—though his backtracking would have confused them if they hadn’t seen him tracking back. He would have seen them had they not hidden in a nearby bush and a particularly leafy tree.

Eventually, though, far off the main path that went through the Jungle, Intraveki sat down. There appeared to be nothing in the clearing, he just sat there, looking around for the longest time. Waiting for someone to meet, perhaps?

The twins were in different locations. One of them was high in the trees, sitting in a bird's nest. The loud squawking birds actually served to hide her—they were bright yellow and could easily explain anything Intraveki saw, while also masking noises she might make. The other twin was hiding in a bush, peering through gaps in the leaves at Intraveki.

Eventually, Intraveki took out a sheet of paper and started writing on it, holding the pen awkwardly in his jaw as his paws did not have opposable thumbs. It didn’t take him long to roll it up and place it inside a hollow in the tree’s roots. Completely invisible, and most trees around here had hollows like that. A perfect hiding spot. With that, Intraveki stood up and walked away—forward, so the tracks looked like he had passed through the area without stopping.

The twins waited several minutes before making their move. As a unit, they jumped out of their hiding spots and ran for the hollow, though the one in the bush was closer so she got there first.

“I win,” she said, unrolling the paper.

“Unfair.”

“I took the riskier spot, I get the reward.” She scanned her eyes across the paper. It looked like gibberish—pretty clearly a code of some kind. It was written in Karli script, though, and the words still seemed to be the same length as words normally would be, so it was most likely just a substitution of some kind. It couldn’t be that complicated of one since Intraveki wrote it down quickly, they could probably crack it.

Staying here to do that would be a bad idea, though, someone might come to pick up the message. One of the twins rolled up the paper and hid it in the folds of her dress before the two of them set out. They did not take the same path Intraveki took to get here, they took a direct straight line back to Tin’nit.

This proved to be their mistake.

Intraveki dropped down from a nearby tree right in front of them. “You two?”

The twins took a step back, balling their hands into fists.

“I was expecting if anyone would try to tail me it would be that Agent, but you two? How did I not notice… I was…” He narrowed his eyes. “You’re more than you seem. I thought it odd that a couple of random kids were on a high-profile government mission…” He sneered. “No matter. I wasn’t sure what I would do if that dumb Agent did anything, but you? Oh, I can take a couple kids…” He lunged forward, baring his fangs.

The twins pressed their elbows forward, pointing the spikes of their plast gauntlets directly at the incoming kitsune. He was already midair and couldn’t make himself stop, so the spikes skewered his jaw, sending blood everywhere.

The twins flexed their arms to the side, locking Intraveki in place. He would not be moving his head or biting anything anytime soon.

However. He had claws. And now the twins had their arms occupied. He clawed frantically at them, more out of panic than anything considering the pain he was in, but they were small and somewhat frail, unable to find a way to defend themselves besides frantic kicking. Gashes were torn in their midsections and upper legs.

One of the twins released her hold on Intraveki’s jaw so she could try to attack another way, but the pain in her legs made her collapse forward rather than doing any sort of actual attack. She rolled awkwardly into the flailing Intraveki, forcing all three of them over into an awkward pile.

Both sides, at this point, had lost all cohesion in the fight. Claws, gauntlet spikes, teeth, fists, and feet flung every which way. Eventually, though, one of the twins managed to get a chokehold on Intraveki’s neck, locking her gauntlet spikes together to prevent her arms from moving. Intraveki flailed wildly, but the other twin allowed herself to take most of the claws while the kitsune slowly asphyxiated.

He couldn’t do anything. His flailing slowly became weaker and weaker. His growls became whimpers. His eyes rolled into the back of his skull and he started twitching.

The twin who wasn’t choking him stepped back, pulling out some rope, letting out a pained yell as she was forced to move an arm she was pretty sure was broken. She tied Intraveki's legs together.

One of the kitsune’s tails flashed, vanishing into puffs of sparkling white dust. A pulse of energy went through Intraveki’s body, healing his wounds. His eyes suddenly flew open and he let out a cry of rage.

A twin stopped choking him and stepped back, limping on one leg, breathing heavily. The other twin who had tied the rope was letting out shaky half screams as she tried to fashion part of her dress into a sling. The limping twin made her way to her sister and assisted in the craftsmanship, giving the poor girl’s arm a rest. They had some Green, but they weren’t skilled enough to do anything more than heal up the cuts and bruises, the broken arm remained broken.

“You… you killed me! You took one of my lives! A couple of kids! I’ll get you for this!”

“H-how much blood have…” the one with the injured arm let out a wince.

“Too much,” the other said.

“Good! I hope you bleed out! Serves you right!” Intraveki shouted.

They glanced at Intraveki.

They knew they did not have the strength to carry him to Tin’nit. They were going to struggle to carry each other.

He would probably get out if they left him. But what choice did they have? They quickly tied a rope around Intraveki’s mouth to keep him from biting his way out. Then the limping twin put her arm around the twin with the sling and together the two of them hobbled back to Tin’nit.

They still had the message. In one piece.

~~~

“…Okay everyone, I’ve had enough,” Lila said, standing at the front of the ship addressing the entire crew plus prisoners.

“…How so?” Fred asked.

Lila gestured at the island in front of them. Multiple fires were easily seen. Then she gestured at the small crew size they had. Even with replacements, even with them not being in the heat of battle as often as everyone else, it was still terrible.

“Okay, good point.”

“So, I’m… I’m done with this,” Lila said, sitting down. “I can’t just sit by and let this keep happening. I don’t… feel like I need to explain myself to any of you. However, if… if I do this, I will be destroying the very cause so many have given our lives for, and that… is treachery. I will be betraying the other pirates and all the people who have sided with us. And so, you all have the right to overturn my rule as Captain and take over this ship. I will not fight you. Anyone, anyone, who wants to take over and throw me overboard… you won’t get any argument from me.”

Not a single person said anything.

“Right… in that case…” She lifted her head high. “Mekl, give the prisoners back their weapons and belongings. All of it.”

“Y-yes captain!” the small gray cat said, skittering away.

“Lila…” Suro said, approaching her. “Are you sure?”

“Not at all,” Lila said. “But I’m… taking a leap of faith, you could suppose.” She put one of her front paws to her heart and sighed. “Okay, look, ex-prisoners, you’re now part of the crew—shut up Dramais I’ll address you in a minute—and we’re going to return you to Embassy Island in order to stop all this.”

“Finally…” Alice said. “I was wondering how long you could sit in that turmoil puddle.”

Vaughan elbowed her.

“What? I speak the truth!”

“I believe your husband is bemoaning your lack of tact,” Lila said. “Don’t worry, I don’t mind, I’ve already yelled it all to myself at this point.”

“You continue to dream in unreality,” Dramais grunted.

“I said I’d get to you in a minute….”

“I do not care. Your first plan to rid the Tempest of us outsiders was doomed to failure, and this plan to end the fighting is also doomed to failure. Do you really think any of us will stop now? Give you back your lands?”

“All I want is the fighting to stop, you can… you can keep your lands.”

“Oh, like you can negotiate the surrender of all the remaining resistance groups? You? A pirate that no one even knew was involved?”

“I have to try something!”

“You just want to right your wrongs. You can’t.”

“Well then what do you suggest I do?”

Dramais laughed. “Give up all hope of ever finding a way out. This will never be fixed or made right. Your life is wasted. There is nothing for you to do.”

“You’re wrong,” Suro said. “It’s never too late for change. She has come around…”

“This changes nothing about what she’s already done! Guilt does not fix anything.”

Suro tilted his head. “Why not?”

Dramais growled… then sighed. “Bah, this is all pointless anyway. Let’s just hurry up and get to Embassy island so you can see how right I am.” He paused. “I will give you credit where credit is deserved, Lila.”

“And what is that?” Lila asked.

“You have the respect of your crew. They will follow you to the end.”

“…I don’t think that’s good anymore.”

“How…” Dramais paused, shaking his head. “People think in such strange ways…”

They sailed directly to Embassy Island, putting up a flag with three of Dia’s triangles on it, a symbol of surrender. It only took a few hours to arrive. There were dozens of ships of all three powers around the island, and a Kroanite ship was the one to meet them. The officer in charge was a gruff old human who was currently smoking something that let out purple ash.

He frowned. “Well, this is interesting…”

“I’m Lila. These are the prisoners that originally started the war. We’re giving them to you in the hopes of ending it. That’s… it, really. If you can find a use for us in ending this war, we will assist in any way we can short of killing our own.”

“…Imagine that, it was the pirates who had you all along…” the man shook his head. “You all… alright?”

“Believe it or not we were treated very well,” Alice said. “If I can make a personal request it’s that you don’t execute them and actually accept their offer for help.”

“Hey, they’re surrendering, we have a policy to accept that here without consequence in most cases. Can’t imagine why it wouldn’t apply here.” He frowned. “The people on the island might take issue. One of the Keepers was killed by pirates out at sea.”

“…Keeper Dimmrivoi…?” Alice asked.

“Ah, you know him. Sorry to be the one to inform you.” He sighed.

“It…” Alice took in a sharp breath. “We have other things to worry about.”

“If the people don’t like us, that is fine,” Lila added. “I wouldn’t expect a warm welcome, just… one to help end all this. Please.”

“I’ll take you up to the island and get you settled and inform my superiors. But…” the old man sighed. “I don’t think this is going to do anything. War’s ongoing, everyone wants more land, especially Vraskal. This war’s about much more than just a bunch of kidnapped people, now.”

“We… know that,” Alice said. “I… I’ve just had a thought. We, as the people who were kidnapped to start this whole thing, can probably leverage that to get our voices heard. We can send something to the Crown that’ll at least be read, a begging for peace from the very people this all started from. And…. Dramais? If…. You could…”

“That’s badly thought out,” Dramais said.

“Well, it’s worth a shot, isn’t it? Begging for the fight to stop?”

“…It’s not going to work.”

“But will you at least try with us?”

Dramais fell silent, looking out over the sea. He narrowed his eyes at a distant plume of smoke and tapped one of his hooves. “Do you know about my crew?” He asked, suddenly.

The human nodded. “They were reclaimed in the first week and were immediately set under Captain Jirov.”

“Hmm…” Dramais turned back to Alice. “Conquest has always been a part of the Empire’s way of life. But these islands… they were mostly beneficial to us as a trading hub, a connection across the sea, the resources here are not many. I have never thought we needed to take this place as our own. And…” he turned to Lila. “Revenge is a poor motivator for glory.”

“I am more in your debt than I can ever repay, even if this doesn’t work,” Lila said.

“It won’t,” Dramais said.

“…I choose to have hope,” Suro said. “Hope that it will change something.”

“And I choose to be realistic…” Dramais hung his head and shook it. “But I can see the comfort the hope gives you, and wish I could do the same.”

“…Time is wasting,” Alice said, once more addressing the old human. “Take us in, see what we can do.”

The man nodded. “Will do. Follow me, cable’s attached to that ship over there.”

~~~

Vaughan was trailing along behind the rest of the group. Envila had turned out to be a far better guide than him, she knew Tin’nit as it was now, not as it used to be. Plus, he hadn’t even been many times when he was last here, just a handful. And considering how drastically things had changed…

Envila was currently showing them around a shop that specialized in the native art of growing plants into specific shapes. The shop mostly displayed art pieces, but the craft was often used for construction of partially living buildings and other larger projects. Jeh was slurping a somewhat small cup of romkar juice—even that small cup had been quite spendy, though.

“And take a look at how they decrease the weight of boats by growing romkars inside the planks…” Envila was talking about a model, but she still had everyone’s rapt attention—except Vaughan.

Vaughan was drifting in his memories. Memories of a happy time in his life that quickly turned sour, but also itself had happy times in it. Long ago he had stopped feeling physical pain from the memories… but emotions still came both positive and negative, almost in equal measure. Beauty and pain… friends and enemies…

“Psst! Vaughan!”

Vaughan looked over at the equivalent of an alleyway, though as this was the Tempest it was more than just a dark space between buildings, as it was overgrown with moss and vines and currently housed an entire nest of small mammals. There was a person in there, barely visible. A very familiar, if older, greater unicorn.

“Dramais…?”

“Vaughan, quiet, and pretend like you don’t see me.”

Vaughan did as instructed, putting his hands on his hips and looking at the sky. “What are your people doing?”

“That’s part of what I’m here to tell you.”

“You, betray the Empire?”

“I don’t think I’m betraying the Empire, I think the General is acting without orders.”

“That… oh.”

“Yes. I’m close enough to him that I know a bit more than the average footsoldier, but this does not strike me as something the Emperor has authorized. I’ve been looking for some way to get this out without suspicion for… a while, but… okay just listen I don’t have much time, and I trust you to know what to do with it. As should probably be obvious, our main goal is not conquest, that’s secondary.”

“What is it, then?”

“We’re trying to force the Guardian Spirit out of hiding so we can find the source of her power and take it for ourselves.”

Vaughan paused. “So that’s why she’s not getting involved…”

“Come again?”

“I just learned from the elders that she’s specifically refused to get involved this time.”

Dramais was silent for a while. “…So we’ve been fighting not only without real orders, but for no reason, that’s just…”

“I’ll make sure they know to take extra caution not to reveal her position. Dramais, we’ve sent a petition to her, we think we know how to get a message out without exposing anything.”

“Really? ...I’d ask how, but…”

“Bounce it off the moon.”

“…I don’t even understand how that’s possible but if anyone can make it work, you can.” Dramais paused. “Don’t tell them that I gave them this information, I’m high-ranking. I have done many things that they will know about, and if word gets back to my people…”

“I understand, I don’t think we need to know where this came from. …Take care of yourself, Dramais.”

“You too, Vaughan.” With that, the greater unicorn receded deeper into the vines and vanished.

“Hey! Vaughan!” Jeh called. “Slowpoke!”

“I’m not exactly slow…” Vaughan said, running over. “And there was a purpose to my hanging back. I have new information.”

Envila’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“I was contacted by an old friend… I know what the MIkarol Empire is really after. The Guardian Spirit’s power.”

Envila blinked. “…The hubris…”

“It may also just be a plan from the General that the Emperor has no idea about. Hence the immense care placed on this information blackout.”

Blue put a hoof to her head. “And I get the feeling it’s somehow even more complicated than it seems now…”

Suddenly, there were gasps from the population nearby. Cries of “oh my…” “are you okay?” “Who did this to you?”

It did not take long for the shambling forms of Rina and Rona to appear, breathing heavily and injured. Jeh leaped into action, pulling out her Green and using all the effort she could muster—but the wounds were too old, they did not heal properly. “We… we need a doctor!” Jeh shouted. “Anyone? Anyone?”

“We… have… secrets…” one of the twins said, pulling out a roll of paper. “Intraveki… it’s in code, probably a simple substitution…”

Keller took the note. Envila, meanwhile, immediately took out her emergency supplies and started bandaging up the kids. “You two…”

“We… think we’ll be fine…” one of them said as she sat down, breathing heavily.

“We made a mistake,” the other said. “We came back in a predictable path.”

“That… that kitsune tried to kill two children!?” Blue gawked. “How even…”

“He lost a tail for his efforts,” they said in unison.

Blue paled. “Wait… you two managed to…?”

“He’s probably free of his restraints by now, running who knows where.” The twin that had spoken shook her head.

“Rina… I…”

Rina looked at her sister in shock. They never used each other’s names. “Rona? Rona, no, you’re fine, we’re making it out of this…”

“I’ve… lost too much… Green’s not useful… vision… getting…” She grabbed her sister, as both of her arms were working, and no words were exchanged, they simply locked eyes.

Then Rona lost consciousness.

Rina took in a sharp breath, clearly trying not to hyperventilate. “Okay. Are there any fairies here?”

“I… haven’t seen any,” Envila said. “Given the war, you think I would have.”

“Jeh, hold her in Blue stasis.”

Jeh immediately took out Blue and slowed Rona’s speed down to a crawl. “Okay, but, this won’t…”

“We’re going to need a miracle, literally,” Rina said, matter-of-factly. Then she started shaking. “I… we… we can do this…” She took in a sharp breath and let it out. “We can do this…”

~~~

Keeper Dimmrivoi had a “private” room in the Sanctuary he was part of. However, he showed it to anyone who so much as asked. Even though he was long dead at this point, Alice and Vaughan did not feel unwelcome as they stepped into the dusty room.

It was a disorganized mess with papers strewn all about. Plants were growing out of cracks in the floor, and there was a table that, since it was made out of living wood but had no one to manage it, had grown a bit out of control and thrust roots into some of the walls.

The walls themselves, though, were immaculate. Hundreds of drawings, symbols, and red lines drawn to and from everything. Sketches of the Guardian Spirit’s statues were everywhere, surrounded by numbers scrawled in intricate patterns and question marks. A map of the Tempest had the locations of the statues marked, and a few locations marked with question marks, including the center of the largest volcano. The names of the various tribes were scrawled on one wall, the letters of their makeup in several languages getting rearranged to try and spell other things.

Then there were the shapes. Dia’s Triangle, Cora’s Square, The Unknown Goddess’ Pentagon, and Eyda’s Hexagon, they were everywhere. Many attempts were made to overlay the shapes over the islands. Dia’s Triangle was plastered everywhere in places of reverence, sometimes with an eye inside of it, usually imposed above the symbol for Ikyu, or above it, or one time two triangles were placed on top of each other in an hourglass shape. Cora’s Square was placed next to a hasty drawing of a black cube covered in more question marks around it than almost everything else on the wall. The Unknown Pentagon was connected to pentagon-shaped pedestals on some of the Guardian Spirit’s statues, as well as a connection to a section of the wall that was completely empty. Eyda’s Hexagon was one time divided into six triangles that seemed decidedly unsettling, and elsewhere the Hexagon was connected to a series of six stone pillars in which a figure that was presumably a dryad was standing.

“Remember when he went on about the dark dryad theory?” Alice said with a chuckle. “Their Glens have the six stones around them, a clear association with Eyda! Clearly, they must come from the darkness!”

“Not that he ever knew what the darkness was,” Vaughan said, placing his hand on a picture meant to represent a dark demon. “He’s never even seen one of these.”

“Most people haven’t, not everyone gets Pepper’s tour like we did.”

“No… of course not. Though I wouldn’t exactly consider us lucky.”

“Nightmares for weeks! But they were fun nightmares.”

“To you.”

Alice put an arm around Vaughan. “Exactly, which means you should be happy for me.” She tapped him on the nose, smirking.

“I am, but I have my own concerns as well.”

“Oh no, he has concerns, what ever will I do to make him care only about me oh woe is me…”

“I swear, you get more and more sarcastic with time.”

“Only because you make it harder to get reactions out of you! I’ve dulled you to shock at my antics, I need to come up with more extreme ones.”

“Oh please no…”

“You know you like them~!”

Vaughan chose not to answer, instead finding his attention drawn to the area of the conspiracy wall devoted to the Guardian Spirit herself. Questions like ‘what is she?’ and ‘who is she?’ were scrawled all around. There was the symbol of the Mikarol Emperor nearby with the caption, “none of the other nations have anything like her.”

Vaughan let out a hum. “Dimmrivoi seemed convinced she existed.”

“DImmrovoi was convinced of many things.”

“Still… I wonder, sometimes,” Vaughan said, scratching his beard. “It is unusual for belief in a being like her not to come with direct worship.”

“Perhaps she was based off a legend of a real person?” Alice shrugged. “I don’t think she’s watching over this land. If she was, she would have done something by now.”

Vaughan scratched his beard. Then he sighed. “I would have loved to talk to Dimmrivoi about this, see what he thought, what crazy idea he would push next…”

“Dia has him now. You’ll get to ask him eventually. Patience.”

“You? Asking someone else to be patient?”

“Ehe…”

“Vaughan! Alice!” Suro called to them, running down the stairs to the conspiracy room, Lila right behind him. Lila, notably, was wearing the robes of a Keeper, as she had started working the Sanctuary very shortly after arriving on Embassy Island.

“What is it?” Vaughan asked.

“It worked!”

“What worked?”

“Our message!”

Alice gasped. “Wait, really!?”

“Yes! We didn’t know it, but a few days ago King Redmind himself sent out secret messages! For the last few days one of the islands Kroan had conquered has been being turned into a refugee camp and anyone who wanted to get away from all the fighting could go there and be protected by the Kroan military, no questions asked! They’ve just gone to phase two and are now spreading forces around to protect other islands from being conquered!”

“My goodness… he’s really willing to go that far?”

“Apparently our letter touched his heart or something, or maybe he wasn’t on board with this war in the first place…”

“I think it’s a political maneuver,” Lila said. “Makes him look like the paragon of virtue, will force the others into stopping so resources will not be wasted, will make everyone come to the table so borders can be drawn…”

“Oh, sure, be a downer, I’m happy, something’s being done!”

“…Let’s go to this refugee island,” Alice said. “See if we can help.”

“A trip is already being planned,” Lila said.

“Lila, come with us,” Suro said.

“I should…”

“Lila. See this through to the end. We’ll welcome you.” He extended a paw to her.

“…Suro, you really are something else…” She met his paw with her own. “I have seen you break down into a shambling mess because you can’t handle the life that’s been given to you, but then you turn around and display the strangest kindness I’ve ever seen… you are somehow in exactly the wrong and right place at the same time.”

“Uh… thanks? I guess?”

“Even I’m not sure if it’s a compliment or not.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway…” She glanced around at the conspiracy wall. “…That Keeper really was a madman.”

“Yes, but a pleasant one,” Vaughan said.

~~~

Tin’nit was developed enough to have a proper hospital staffed with Kroanite wizards, but none of them could wind the clock back further than Jeh could, and so Rona could not simply be healed. Jeh was clearly the best at brute-force slowing her perception of time so even the Blue wizards on staff stood back and let her do her work.

She had a lot of energy in her and a deep desire to keep this up forever. But Jeh knew that, even though this wasn’t a tremendous drain on her, she would only be able to do it for a few hours, tops, and even if she could cycle off with the Blue wizards… time was still progressing, it hadn’t stopped for Rona. Eventually, the blood loss would take its toll.

The doctor they had found was a native shadow cat, but rather than wearing the traditional vine garb of the Tempest, he had a little white cap of Kroanite design. His expression was grim as he looked Rina over.

Only Jeh, Rina, and Vaughan had been allowed in the tiny hospital room.

“How bad is it?” Vaughan asked.

“I… don’t have anything I can do for her that’s reliable,” the doctor said, sighing. “She’s wasting away. The only shot I can think of is a blood transfusion, which only works randomly unless from a relative, and you, Rina, the perfect donor, definitely don’t have enough blood to give. You should be getting rest.”

Rina shook her head. “No. Can we… take blood from me and use Green to restore it?”

“Extremely dangerous,” the doctor said. “When Green doesn’t have the original material around to restore, it tries to anyway, and often fails, making the situation worse—or it could steal blood from someone else and might make it wrong. Biological structures are the most susceptible to this.”

“There’s got to be something we can do!” Jeh said. “Fairies could heal this…”

“We don’t have any. They aren’t a common race in Kroan to begin with.”

“But… but…” Jeh’s eyes started welling up with tears, but she closed them tightly and kept her focus on her Blue power.

“I’m sorry,” the doctor said. “I can’t do anything.” He turned to Rina. “I wish… I could do something for the two of you.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Rina said, clenching her fist.

“Rina…” Vaughan said.

“Whatever you’re about to say, don’t. Please.”

With a frown, Vaughan left the room and went into the hallway. The hospital wasn’t busy, though the waiting room was rather full with the rest of the group. It was a little odd to think they were in the Tempest right now—the hospital was decidedly Kroanite in construction and extremely clean, no sign of any living vine walls here.

Blue winced when she saw Vaughan. “Bad?”

“Bad,” Vaughan said, sitting down. “Rina’s right, we need a miracle.”

“I have prayed almost nonstop,” Envila said. “They were not fools asking for trouble, and they did much for us. I… hope their time has not yet come, they have much ahead of them. A dream.”

“To conquer the world…” Blue said, dully.

“Indeed. I think they will come to realize that they do not truly want what they seek, in time, but they both need to be here for that realization to come.” Envila crossed her arms. “Perhaps this is the moment they see the crack in their plan…”

Keller grunted. “Moments like this either make people broken or more determined. Could be either.”

Envila nodded in agreement but said nothing, closing her eyes and tilting her head upward.

Vaughan sat down next to Blue, letting out a deep, pained groan.

“…You sound old,” Blue said.

“I feel old.”

“…It’s not your fault they’re here, Vaughan.”

“Sounds like you need to convince yourself of that,” Vaughan retorted.

Blue was taken aback for a moment but then folded her ears back. “Yeah. I just… could we have checked better? Should we have checked better? We could have noticed they weren’t there but it was so exciting and…”

“I’m the one who shoulda checked,” Keller said. “It was my job. I failed. I’m the reason they’re here.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’ll take responsibility.”

“Keller…”

“Don’t tell me it ain’t, it is.”

“I just… I don’t…” Blue frowned. “Even if you are to blame I don’t want to blame you.”

Envila opened her eyes. “There is such a thing as acknowledging the truth of a situation without resentment, you know. Maybe it is his fault. He doesn’t have to be hated or even punished for it. Not even by himself.” She gave Keller a knowing expression.

Keller let out one of his smile-less chuckles. “Ya see right through people, lady. People like ya make my job difficult.”

“Fortunately this isn’t your job we’re concerned about right now, it’s your soul. A failure, even one that results in loss of life, is not the end of the world. For people like us, we are going to experience this more than most, we must come to terms with it.”

Keller said nothing but gave an ever-so-slight nod.

It was at this moment Elder Smississ walked through the doors of the hospital. “Seems like I’ve arrived not a moment too late. Come. The Guardian Spirit has agreed to meet with you. She has agreed to nothing further.”

Suddenly, Rina stormed out of the private room, eyes bloodshot but face determined. “Will she heal my sister?” was her only question.

“She can.” Elder Smississ said.

“I asked if she will.”

“…I cannot say.”

“We need to be careful,” Vaughan told the Elder. “I’ve recently learned that the Mikarol Empire’s real goal is the Guardian Spirit.”

“We are already being careful, but to have that confirmed… no matter, we do not have time. Lives are on the line and I am slow. I will send you with the cats. Hurry.”

“Get Rona on a stretcher!” Rina called.

The doctor poked his head out of the room. “What could even…”

“Just do it,” Elder Smississ told him.

~~~

As expected, King Redmind’s decree to switch Kroanite forces from attacking to defending the Tempest natives caused some problems. This was predicted, which was why they operated in secret for a few days with the transport of people and establishment of the official refugee island. Once it was made public, several tribes were very quick to rush there, as well as people like Vaughan’s group who just wanted to help, forming a place that would be safe from the war for anyone and everyone who wanted, no questions asked. There was no need to submit to Kroan, even, all a visitor had to do was accept that the Kroan fleet would defend the island.

And so the problems began when a contingent of Mikarol ships showed up armed to the teeth… and the Kroanite ships refused them entry. A dozen ships on either side, cannons pointed at each other, but not a single shot fired. Nobody moved.

It remained like this for multiple days.

On the other side of the island, a makeshift “town” was forming from various refugees and Kroanites, and a few Shimmers who had been left behind in the chaos. Not a single Vraskalian was present. There was a very small presence of Mikarol soldiers, led by Dramais, but they were a minority and clearly had no intention of starting something unless the situation out at sea exploded. Here it was almost possible to forget that there was a tense standoff that would likely explode in a firefight if even a single person got cannon-happy.

So far, though, everything had ground to a halt, and the little “town” was able to just live for a bit, subsisting off of jungle fruit and Kroanite hover clover rations.

Lila had ended up with the Keepers, specifically the group that was treating the sick and the injured. Suro, Alice, and Vaughan had taken more active roles in the community with their skills in arcane devices, and she could have done the same with her crew… but she chose not to. Here, running from person to person, exhausting herself with so much injury and death around her, horrifying her at every turn…

…it was more than she deserved really…

“Stop,” one of the Keepers said as she was running from place to place.

“Look, there’s a patient who—”

“I know a woman who hates herself when I see one. Don’t work yourself to death, you hear me?”

“I…”

“The longer you live, the more people you can assist.”

“Keeper, I am…”

“We are all sinners, and in this war many of us have become the greatest sinners. Dia sees past that, and we need to see past that too if we are to truly help these people. Now come, let us go help this patient of yours. Calmly.”

Lila forced herself to do as instructed and move more slowly. She wanted to shout at the Keeper, to put him in his place, to demand he let her do what she wanted. But that… that was the Lila that had caused this whole war. That Lila didn’t deserve to exist anymore… but she also needed to keep existing to help the others?

Her mind couldn’t handle that at the moment so she turned her attention away to herself and to the cat who had just lost a leg, checking on the bandages, the stitches, and everything.

To live for them.

An honorable goal, no matter how far in the dark you were…

Lila’s heart settled on it right then and there. She may have been working with the Keepers and taken on their robes, but she was just busying herself. Trying to work herself to absolutely nothing. But now, she knew, she would truly become one of them. Her self, both her desires for power and her desires for her own suffering and punishment, would become irrelevant.

She would live for everything but herself.

And right now, these injured people needed her. They needed her to tend to them, and not to exhaust herself until she keeled over.

Her frantic motions gradually became more methodical, more organized. Her breathing less haggard. Her determination more secure. She would come to accept this change in her being as a minor miracle in the future, that the moment she had given herself away, she had been given everything she needed to press on.

“You look… better,” Suro said on a visit.

Lila nodded as she wrapped a cat’s face in a bandage, hiding the fact that she’d lost an eye. “Everyone needs me. I can’t fall apart yet.”

“…Promise me that you’ll let yourself later.”

Lila paused. “I will. I don’t think I’ll have a choice. But for now… give me that splint.”

“You got it…”

Suddenly, they heard an explosion. The two of them turned their heads to the window, looking out at the sea.

There were Vraskalian ships. Dozens of them.

Firing on the settlement.

“Don’t they know that this place is under the Crown’s protection?” Suro gawked.

“Yes… they do,” Lila said, eyes widening. “But they’re all occupied with the Empire in their standoff…”

A loud, booming voice rang through all their minds.

“Any Kroan, Mikarol, or Shimvale citizen who hears these words: stand down and you will not be fired upon. We will take refusal as a sign that you have sided against us and will not hesitate to strike you down. This island is under Vraskalian control as of now.”

“They have a Crystalline One…” Suro said, starting to tremble.

“We can’t stand down,” Lila said.

“They might spare us if we surrender…”

“The natives weren’t mentioned in that ultimatum, they won’t be. Remember how brutal Vraskal has been for seemingly no reason.” She frowned. “I don’t understand them, Mikarol and Kroan were fighting for political reasons and assets, what is their purpose…?”

The few forces that the refugee camp did have moved to face the Vraskalian army despite being outnumbered—even Dramais’ troop, no doubt at their Captain’s command, rose to the challenge. The ships were destroyed almost immediately, but the bulk of the refugee camp was further inland. Troops had to be landed, and there would be a battle…

Lila spotted Dramais, Vaughan, and Alice running. Not toward the fight, but away—yet none of them looked scared. They were not fleeing… clearly they had some other plan.

Apparently, the Vraskalians noticed them, because a few of the occulari were sent after them specifically, drifting through the air right at them.

Alice laughed and held up her scepter, sending out a pulse of Magenta. The primarily magical bodies of the occulari disintegrated, leaving only their solid pupils inside. There were a few qorvids that were attacking as well, but Dramais took them on—he started spinning his Yellow blade so rapidly it looked like a bright Yellow circle, and several of the qorvids stared at it dumbly and fell out of the sky unceremoniously. Those who were not entranced pushed forward, only to find that the blade was in absolute control under Dramais’ telekinesis and could cut through them easily.

Vaughan was trying to fight as well, and while Red was the most combat-applicable of the Colors, it wasn’t exactly as flashy as the other two. He did light a few people on fire.

All this to say, the three of them managed to complete their flight, leaving the battle behind to rush through the jungle to the other side of the island.

“I wonder what their plan is…” Suro said.

“Presumably something desperate,” Lila added. “Come, there’s going to be more injured, you’re my nurse now.”

“Your what?”

“Move it, Suro!”

“C-coming!”

~~~

Rona was continually kept in Blue stasis. This made it somewhat awkward to move her, but Jeh was able to adjust her magic with a little force of will. For Rona, time moved at a crawl, not that she was aware of it in her unconscious state. Envila and Vaughan carried her in a stretcher while Rina walked alongside them. Rina was not doing too well either, but she had not lost anywhere near as much blood and was able to remain upright on the journey.

Jeh was riding Blue, allowing her to give her full focus on Rona’s stasis. Keller stood at the back of the group, watching for anything that might be following them, along with several cats. It was not one cat they were traveling with, but four, and only two of them were the normal cat race, one was a shadow cat, and another a metallic shard cat. Every last one of them had their eyes open and were careful in their movements—but they were also fast. The presence of a critically injured child gave some urgency to the situation.

Few words were exchanged as they made their way into the jungle… and then out of it, toward the center of the island.

“I’ve decoded the message,” Rina said, holding up the paper.

“What’s it say?” Keller asked.

To literally anyone:

It’s Intraveki. Maybe warn me before you start a war next time, hmm? I could have died!

There is a chance this message gets intercepted, so I will be brief.

There is a plan to get information out of the Tempest…

“And then it goes on to just describe our plan,” Rina said. “Nothing else in it. The only information in here that we didn’t already have is that Intraveki was somehow part of the group that is responsible for the war, but we could have deduced that simply by him trying to get our plan out. This…” She narrowed her eyes. “He’s a Shimmer, not a Mikarolian. I’m not sure what it means.”

“That they wanted the war as well?” Vaughan suggested.

Keller shook his head. “Don’t make no sense, the few here are fightin’ with the natives. Intraveki was a revolutionary, too… supposedly wantin' t’ liberate people, not enslave them.”

“I knew it would get more complicated,” Blue said. “But, right now, that doesn’t matter. We’re here to get help for Rona.” Blue paused, realizing it felt so weird to actually be able to identify who was who for once. It was not a pleasant feeling.

As they moved further and further from the jungle, there were only a handful of plants, and most of them were thorns of romkar plants. The fruit here grew big and bright, but as it was attached to so much rock the buoyant force did nothing—though, rarely, enough would grow enough fruit in one place that it would lift a new sky island into the air. There was also evidence of lava flow around, large black rocks frozen mid-flow down the volcano.

To everyone’s shock, as they went further and further into the island, and the romakar thorns got denser and denser… the thorns started moving to allow them passage.

“The Guardian Spirit awaits,” one of the cats said.

The thorns started to close behind them as they moved… and suddenly someone behind them shouted an expletive in Mikarolian. With alarming speed and great strain, he managed to jump through the vines the instant before they closed, skidding to a stop with barely enough control to avoid falling over. He was a black greater unicorn with a Yellow blade, wearing no armor.

“…Dramais…?” Vaughan said, confused. “What are you…?”

“Trying to be stealthy and failing due to unexpected moving thorns…” Dramais said, drawing his Yellow blade. “Looks like the gig is up.”

Vaughan's expression darkened. “…So is anything you told me true?”

“He was your source!?” One of the cats spat.

“I know him from before, I thought I could…”

“He’s the current General of the forces assaulting us!”

Vaughan blinked, turning to stare at Dramais in shock. “What… you… nothing you told me was a lie, was it?”

“No. The Emperor has no idea.”

“Then why? Why…” Vaughan narrowed his eyes. “You’ve learned something, you think you can take the Guardian Spirit’s power.”

Dramais smirked. “You are smart, Vaughan, but not quite smart enough. I really had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but…”

Everyone readied themselves for a fight… except the cats.

Dramais looked at them in confusion. “Uh…”

“Fighting is pointless,” one of the cats said. “The Guardian Spirit will see you and decide your fate. I expect death or something much worse.”

Dramais smirked. “Oh, you think I don’t have some kind of special plan or ploy?”

Keller smirked. “Whatever plan ya had, ya wanted t’ be sneaky. Ya don’t got that no more… and you’re outnumbered. …Search him.”

Dramais looked for a moment like he was going to try to fight his way through them… but he relented. His blade was taken from him. He had nothing else on him, he had forgone his armor in favor of stealth.

“Smash the blade,” Vaughan ordered. “He can get under your skin in more ways than one with it.”

The cats worked together to bend and shatter the Yellow crystal.

Dramais sighed. “My sword keeps getting broken… too bad Suro’s not here to fix it, eh?”

“I’m glad he doesn’t have to be here to see this,” Vaughan muttered. “Come on, we need to move.”

“Vaughan…” Blue said. “Can you explain what’s going on?”

“We don’t have much time… but I can try. I can tell you who Dramais… was.”

“I am the same man, Vaughan,” Dramais said.

“You worked with us to stop the last one, why are you starting one now!? Why are you going under the Emperor’s nose!?”

“Really simple; power.”

“And how’s that going for you?”

“Well, seeing as I’ve been caught and am being marched to my death… not all that well. But I had to try something, you clearly actually had a way to get a message out, and that would ruin everything. Didn’t plan for… living vines…” He glared at the romkar thorns all around them. “Stupid plant.”

Rina glared at him. “I think you’ve still got a plan.”

“You’ve destroyed my sword, I’m being led to my judgment, what could I possibly do?”

“I don’t know. But you’ve got a backup somewhere. Maybe you just want to see the Guardian Spirit, and that’s all that’ll be required…”

“Kid, that doesn’t make any sense, what could I do just by seeing the Guardian Spirit?”

“Perhaps you think you can get a message to a Crystalline One you have, or something,” Vaughan said.

The cats chuckled. “The Guardian Spirit can scramble all magic. Do not worry. Information will not leave unless someone leaves with it. It does not matter if it is a Colored crystal, an attribute, or anything else, nothing he can possibly do can surpass her at this point.”

Dramais frowned. “Surely…”

“Ah, there’s the realization of hubris,” Envila said. “She has power beyond your comprehension, Dramais, did you really think you could take her?”

“…Then why is she hiding?”

A cat glared at Vaughan. “You told him that!?”

“I trusted him!” Vaughan retorted.

“Maybe those Kroanites are right, we need better security…”

“…I think we need to understand who Dramais is,” Blue said. “So, Vaughan, if you would?”

Vaughan sighed. As they continued to travel through the moving and winding thorns, he told them what he knew of the once-Captain Dramais… it would not be a pleasant tale to remember, but it was long past time to do so.

~~~

Vaughan, Alice, and Dramais ran as fast as they could across the island. Now that they were not in active combat, they could afford to accelerate themselves with Blue. However, Vaughan and Alice weren’t the most experienced with it, so they sometimes pushed it too far and started lighting themselves on fire, which they had to stop to put out. Already several dark marks were forming on their robes. Dramais’ armor was completely unaffected, but it slowed him enough that he was roughly the same speed as the two running wizards.

It was several minutes of running and gasping for breath for the three of them, but for the outside world the Blue got them there in seconds.

“What in the…?” a Kroan slime in a small boat said upon seeing them arrive at the shore. “What do you…?”

“The Vraskalians are attacking the opposite coast!” Vaughan shouted. “We don’t have enough forces!”

“…The sneaky shadowy mongrels!” The slime spat. “We can’t really do much right now, as you can see! If we move, the Empire moves in!”

“I’m going to speak to the General,” Dramais said. “Just take us to him.”

“…But that’s…”

“We do not have time, slime!” Dramais shouted. “The longer we wait the more death occurs at the hands of those Vraskalians!”

“Okay, okay! Get in!”

The slime somehow managed to ripple his membrane in such a way as to move the boat off the shore and toward the Kroanite fleet. “Vraskalians have attacked the other side! I repeat, Vraskalians have attacked the other side! We are going to the Mikarol Fleet to negotiate! I repeat…”

The Kroanite soldiers on the boats they passed clearly got the message and everyone started scrambling. However, even though the warriors of the Empire could clearly hear the same message, they made no move. They would not without orders, not in a situation like this.

“I am Captain Dramais of the thirty-seventh company, and this is Alice and Gideon Vaughan, names you should know well. I request an audience with the General concerning the military situation.”

“You have that right,” another warrior said. “Bring them aboard. Leave the slime.”

Vaughan, Dramais, and Alice were led onto the lead ship of the Mikarol fleet, and were taken directly to the meeting room. It had several people in it, all in full armor, but one was clearly the general; even though he was in full humanoid armor he was clearly a rigid of some sort as his limbs whirred when he moved, and his helmet was far wider than anyone else’s, with a rectangular shape. Through the eye slits they could make out a soft blue glow.

“Apparently the Vraskalian dogs have decided to ignore the unspoken truce,” the General said. “I am only slightly surprised.”

Dramais put his front hoof to his chest. “General.”

“Captain. Be at ease.” The general sat down in his chair and folded his arms together. “As much as you can be.”

“I am here to plead.”

“No doubt you are. I suspect I know what you want. Your heart goes out to those people you have spent so much time with and you wish to see less pain, so you wish us to join forces with Kroan to defy the Vraskalians in a great battle.”

“They have insulted us by going behind our backs.”

“Indeed they have, Dramais, but we have bigger concerns.”

“Our honor will be—”

“Our honor is only one of them. My primary concern is that such an action will trigger a vast war. Until now this conflict has remained in the Tempest. Taking such action may result in a far wider conflict. Vraskal borders the Empire, Dramais, they will be able to inflict much damage.” He tapped his fingers on the table. “I need a reason to justify possibly starting a major war over this. I do not think you have one.”

“Some of your people are already there, being attacked,” Dramais pointed out.

“As much as I want to grind those Vraskalian stalkers into dust for their arrogance, we can reasonably claim they were independent powers and that their actions do not reflect on the whole of the Empire. This is nearly unacceptable but in the game of war we have to balance lives.”

“I know this, General,” Dramais said. “But I think the balance shifts the other way, in this case.”

“And you have yet to convince me otherwise,” the General said. “I must apologize, but your request for us to go to battle against Vraskal has been denied.”

“Then… how about this?” Alice asked, stepping forward. “What if you just promise not to attack the island?”

“…I’m listening.”

“If Kroan wasn’t occupied with you, we could go to the other side and fight the Vraskalians. I know we will go to our people’s aid, and Vraskal is across the ocean from Kroan. Just promise that you won’t attack; recognize the island as Kroan territory.”

Vaughan stared at her, eyes wide. “Wow, I hadn’t thought of that…”

Alice gave him a smug smile. “Sometimes I impress myself!”

“…Easier to justify, but still difficult,” the General said, folding his fingers together. “We have been laying siege on this island for days. We would have to admit defeat.”

Dramais pushed on Alice’s idea. “But we admit defeat all the time in regular war, a single battle lost does not ruin our honor beyond recovery. And the battle that begins will potentially be a decisive battle in this war, rather than a slaughter, that might bring everyone to the table to talk and finally decide where everything goes, what land is whose. Give a little bit of land, and Kroan will thank you in return. The alliance that has been tested in this time will become strengthened.”

“This… is a far better proposal…”

“Simply let us take the fall for you,” Alice said. “Please. All we need is your word that you won’t attack. That is all. But hurry, we do not have a ton of time.”

The General tapped his finger on the table. Then, with great bravado, he stood up. “I hereby declare in the name of the Emperor and the Empire itself that we, the Mikarol Fleet of the Tempest, wi—”

An explosion went off in the middle of the meeting room, engulfing everything in a wave of heat and metal shrapnel from the structure of the craft itself. The entire ceiling was blown off, blood sprayed everywhere before being cooked into a brown char, and cries of agony went up to the sky before being cut brutally short.

Vaughan kept hold of his scepter and surrounded himself in Green. This did not fully cure everything, it couldn't remove the physical metal beam running through his leg, but it got him healthy enough to properly scream at the pain.

The ship was a mess, with beams of metal twisted at unusual angles, people impaled with flaming spikes that were being put out by other Mikarol soldiers, and there was a noxious smell in the air of burning flesh. The General had somehow been split into two pieces, sparks flying from the one part Vaughan could see.

Vaughan moved to heal the person closest to him next, Alice, who was lying on her back with blood running down the back of her head. Dramais next, and then some other Mikarol soldiers, and then…

…then he realized that, even healed, Alice wasn’t moving.

“Alice…?” Vaughan, despite his leg being skewered by a metal beam, reached over to his wife and turned her over.

Her body was pristine, healed properly, and not impaled by anything. Her face was beautiful, her hair whipped in the breeze, and a triumphant smile was fixed on her face.

There was no life in her eyes.

“No… no no no no,” the words soon stopped being coherent as they flew from his lips and tears started running down his beard. He could say nothing, do nothing, and the pain in his leg entirely vanished as he held the form of the person most precious to him in all the world.

She had been so close to saving everything with her idea… so… so close… and now…

“We have been assaulted!” Dramais shouted, lifting his sword up high. “Those of you who were here, the timing cannot be denied! Our General’s order was suppressed before it could be given! I will make no claims as to what that order would have been, for to do so would be folly. But what I will say is that there was only one group who would gain from silencing the order; Vraskal. I am putting my honor on the line—they have assaulted us, thinking they could keep us away from them! I say this has been a step too far—they think they can stop us? Well, they thought wrong! We will not just stand back and let this assassination slide, we will ride into their fleet and tear them limb from limb! For the Glory of the Empire!”

“FOR THE GLORY OF THE EMPIRE!” The rest of the warriors shouted. Now everyone scrambled like the Kroanites. It was time for war.

Dramais turned his head to the other surviving members of the meeting. “I have put my honor on the line. If you wish to contest me, now is the time to do so.”

A higher-ranking officer chuckled. “I won’t complain if you take the fall instead of one of us.”

“You may be considered complacent.”

“Still on the hook for less than you at this point. Hope it goes well for you, Captain.”

Dramais nodded. Then, and only then, did he turn to Vaughan. Using his blade, he carefully cut the iron bar from Vaughan’s leg. “She will not die in vain, my friend. I will see to that.”

“You… don’t do something… she would hate…” Vaughan blubbered.

“I fight for the people her heart cried for in addition to the Empire,” Dramais said, turning his head to the sea. “I will make her proud.”

~~~

When Vaughan reached that moment, he broke down. “W-what if she could see you now, Dramais? What would she say?”

Dramais tried to keep his face stern as they continued to walk through the romkar thorns, but this blow was hard enough to make him visibly grimace. “She would be absolutely horrified and disgusted, Vaughan, I think you know that.”

“And you can just disrespect her memory like that?”

“While I have an immense amount of respect for Alice and what she did, her legacy is not the most important one.”

“What is, then? Huh? The Empire?”

“Of course! I am a career soldier who has served the Empire from birth until now!” Dramais stamped his foot.

“And yet the Emperor doesn’t know about any of this! You’re a traitor to that as well! Dramais… what happened to you…?”

Dramais turned away. “I’ve seen things, Vaughan. I’ve learned things. Seen… what can happen if things go too far.”

“…You sound insane,” Blue observed.

“Maybe I am. But I am sure of what I do, even if it has failed. Go on, lead me to my judgment. I suspect it is not much further.”

“To some,” the cat said. “To others… well, at the very least, you’re about to feel something.”

One by one, they all felt as though a slippery, slimy membrane passed over them, despite seeing absolutely nothing, and looking back at the way they came they saw nothing change.

Dramais paused.

“Any clever ploy you may have had is pointless,” a cat said. “All magic is now known to her.”

“Her power truly is incredible…”

“Beyond what you can know.”

They continued on. The romkar vines moved a lot more now that they were past the membrane. Some specifically lashed out at Dramais as he passed, but never struck him. Others actively grew out of the ground and stroked the injured form of Rona with extreme care. Another thorny protrusion erupted from the ground and started carrying Rina, somehow not stabbing her with a single thorn. “W-woah…” Rina stammered.

“She sees your plight,” one of the cats said.

“This is a good sign,” another added.

“Why doesn’t she just come out to meet us?” Dramais asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Keller asked. “So whoever ya have trynna watch from outside don’t see it.”

“Couldn’t she just stop that too with her power?” Dramais snorted.

“Maybe. Maybe not,” Envila offered. “Perhaps she is slightly paranoid. Though you have given her good reason to be.”

“If she was paranoid she’d just have me killed.”

“Maybe she has some use for you.”

Dramais had no response to this.

They eventually came to what appeared to be a solid rock wall. Without warning, it was as though the wall was suddenly on both sides of them, and the sky was blotted out, and then they were inside a cavern with the wall behind them.

“What…?” Blue said. “That… I didn’t… huh?”

“That’s not even the most impressive thing she can do,” Vaughan said.

“What kind of attribute is this?”

“Since she’s a unique creature, I’m not sure it can be called an attribute…”

“What is she, then?”

Vaughan shrugged.

They continued their way, now through a completely enclosed cavern. Blue realized that she could see, but there were no torches… light was somehow coming from the rocky walls themselves. As they went deeper in, once again they saw the romkar thorns, but they also saw entirely different sorts of plants that had bright blue auras around them, trailing up and down the cavern walls. They rang with pleasant, alien notes.

Slowly, the ground below them became clear, but felt just the same as any other rock. Below them were flows of lava, yet they did not even feel the heat. Soon, the walls and ceiling followed suit, clearing up, revealing lava to be everywhere around them, flowing all around, easily visible through the clear rock and mysterious plants. They could see the system or roots that were the romkar plants, threading through the invisible soil, not a single portion burned, but also not a single fruit growing this deep into the mountain.

Jeh started fidgeting, getting uncharacteristically nervous. She glared at the lava with… distrust.

“…I can’t even begin to explain this…” Blue said.

“The world holds many mysteries,” Envila said.

“Wanderlust said the past sought the answers of magic rather than space…” Rina said, putting a hand to one of the walls as the thorns carried her, wonder in her eyes. “I… I wonder if this is one of those mysteries…”

They soon arrived at their destination. An almost spherical cavern constructed out of the strangely clear rock, threaded with both romkar thorns and the blue plants. The floor, however, was solid, and cut the spherical cavern in two. The material it was made out of was a shimmering metal that changed the colors it reflected seemingly randomly to every hue in the rainbow, glinting with no pattern and yet striking beauty.

In the very center of this cavern was a green orb. It glowed, but it was not Green—it was a foresty, verdant color. It was smaller than Jeh’s fist.

Once all of them were in the cavern, it suddenly expanded in size to about that of a person. Five darker green eyes appeared in the center of the orb, without pupils, but these eyes fused into three, and then the middle one closed until there were only two eyes. Then a pair of wings emerged from the back of the orb, splayed wide, but not flapping. Within these wings there was suddenly texture. Sparks like stars whirled through the ethereal feathers, large spheres with rings surrounding them danced around each other in patterns that Blue quickly recognized as mathematical. Shapes of all kinds sparked off the orbs before dissipating, the dominant shape being that of a pentagon.

A body slowly began to take shape beneath the orb and wings, forming into two arms and legs with gauntlet forms similar to those of a gari… and there was also a tail, but it had a hand at the end of it that was almost comically large.

For a single moment, there was a burst of light. In that instant Blue saw lines stretching off to infinity with numerous arcs of light between them crossing at every angle imaginable, spreading far into the lava yet still possible to see for they were far more important. Blue felt as though the very life in her body was rejuvenated just from the vision itself.

But then the vision was gone, and all that remained was the glowing humanoid gari-like creature with a handed tail and a strange orb-like head.

“Welcome,” she said in a completely normal-sounding voice that made Blue double-take. She waved her tail-hand and generated a chair out of the blue plants, sitting down in it. “I am the Guardian Spirit of the Tempest. This is my personal Sanctum.”

~~~

Vaughan could not stay with his wife in the heat of battle, and he knew it. He also knew he could not ask them to dock to let him off, for time was of the essence—he was lucky that a Green bladecaster had been experienced enough to fully heal his leg. So he took her below decks and set her on an empty bed. He gently pushed her hair out of her eyes and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

That triumphant smile was still on her face.

“Did you somehow know it was going to work no matter what?” Vaughan asked. “Did you… did you have faith?”

She was silent.

“How can…. How can I have faith? You… you were the one leading me. I… I don’t know what to do.”

Her triumphant smile was her only response. But it was all Vaughan needed.

He needed to see this through.

He quickly returned to the deck of the ship, standing by Dramais. The Mikarol ships moved side-by-side with the Kroan ones, all going for a single target—the attacking Vraskalian fleet.

The Vraskalians knew they were coming. This was not unexpected, if they really had planted the bomb, they would have been watching very closely. This was good, actually, since it meant they had recalled much of their forces from the island itself in order to wage a proper naval battle.

Dramais levitated a metallic cone to his mouth to project his voice. “I am not giving you any chances, Vraskal! You have assassinated our General, and for that we will strike you down! You can either face us… or run!”

“We will not run,” the voice of a Crystalline One came to them. “We will face you, fools. In the ensuing desolation perhaps you will finally understand our pain.”

“…What…?” Vaughan said, tilting his head. “Their pain?”

“They always go on about that,” Dramais grumbled. “Life is hard in Vraskal, the land desolate. The Emperor thinks it makes them respectable. I think it makes them depressed wallowers that want to bring everyone else down to their level. They cry and moan and beat their chests, but they are so proud as to think that since they have survived the worst of the worst, that makes the rest of us worthy of derision.”

“That is… not the impression I got.”

“Most of them here are those who left that way of thinking behind, but their leaders… their leaders are a different sort.” He growled. “They are going to give us no pleasure, and Vraskalians rarely surrender. This will be brutal even with our numbers.”

“…But it’s going to end it.”

“This will probably be the last major battle of this war, one way or another. But it could just end up in a larger war expanding far beyond the Tempest…” Dramais shook his head. “I hope I made the right call.”

“…I trust you, Dramais. I think you did. We stand united. If larger war does break out… we will come to your aid after this.”

“Good. Now, Vaughan, if you cannot fight, I understand…”

“I am seeing this through.”

Dramais nodded. “I hope you come out the other side, friend.”

“You too.”

The ships finally got into firing range.

It was chaos. Bloody, unrestrained, violent chaos. Ships exploded. A Red Crystalline One melted the armor of dozens. Wizards threw volleys of spells left and right. The occulari gave everyone visions of torture that they then proceeded to exact upon those who could not handle the sights. Waves formed in the usually calm ocean. Armored warriors were thrown into the waters only to sink to the bottom with no one to help them.

Yet, even so, there was hope. The few ships that had not been destroyed on the attack of the refugee camp set out to the water—mostly native-built dinghies that had been ignored, but they carried in them soldiers, wizards, and natives who wanted to fight in what was clearly going to be the last battle.

In the end, through chance, happenstance, and bizarre events, the great stand of the Tempest saw the natives, Kroanites, and the Mikarol Empire fighting the Vraskalians as one.

It should have been easy. They had the numbers, they had the unity, they had superior military training, and they had a variety of approaches.

But it wasn’t.

More of the united front’s ships were sinking than Vraskalian ships, and Vraskalian ships kept maneuvering in unusual ways, somehow predicting the motions of ships that didn’t even know their course…

“How are they…?”

“Seers!” Lila shouted from aboard her ship, which was definitely not supposed to be out here in the condition it was in, but the sea serpent was able to support it and drag it along. On board was Suro and most of her crew. “They have seers, they can see the future! They must have a lot of them if they’re this good at it!”

“Do we have any!?” Drmaias asked.

“Unfortunately, no!”

Dramais let out a swear in MIkarolian. “We’ve got to figure something out! How can you beat people who can see the future without being able to do it yourself?”

“Overwhelming force!” Lila shouted. “Fred?”

“You got it!” Fred poked his head over the edge of the ship. “Hey, little friend… destroy everything!”

“No.” The Red Crystalline One said, appearing in the air in front of them. “Do you really think we did not know of your secret asset?” The water began to boil around the ship.

Fred gasped. “Run, girl, she’s going to cook you!”

The sea serpent looked hesitant for a moment, but then relented, fleeing through the waves.

“You save a serpent at the cost of your own lives,” the Red Crystalline One said, lighting the now-sinking ship on fire. “It was you who should have ru—”

Dramais rammed his blade through the Red Crystalline One’s facets, shattering her in two, though, naturally, his sword broke as well. He levitated the hilt back to him and glared at it. “Never fails…”

Vaughan used Orange to levitate the large chunks of Red over to him. He may not have been much of a combatant, but he was a Red wizard, and he knew some tricks. One of the greatest weaknesses of Red was that it could only heat, not cool, and the cooling problem was the bane of wizards everywhere. However, there were a few clever workarounds. For instance, Red could be used to put out fire if there was a large volume of water nearby… such as the ocean.

Vaughan created a ring of heat around the burning ship, immediately converting vast quantities of the ocean into steam. The steam lifted into the air, increasing the humidity around the boat to absurd levels, to the point where the boiled water rained down, damping the flames.

The ship was still ruined without the sea serpent, but now that it was burning significantly less, Lila could order everyone off and onto Dramais’ ship.

“I thought you were with the Keepers tending the wounded…?” Vaughan asked.

“When I saw everyone leaving on the ships… I knew I had a way to get mine running,” Lila said, sheathing her claws—they were covered in blood. “I may hate this now, but I am good at fighting. I can help.”

“She has already,” Suro added. “And it looks like your plan worked!”

“Not that we’re winning,” Dramais growled. “It feels like they’re cheating…”

“Yes, well…” Suro paused. “…Where’s Alice?”

Vaughan shook his head, turning away from Suro. It was time to focus on the battle right now, not… that.

“Vaughan…”

“Later.”

“He’s right,” Lila said. “Later.” She took in a sharp breath. “Okay, so, they know what moves we’re going to make, and being random won’t help. We are losing because of this… we need to find a way to find their seers.”

“How?” Vaughan asked. “Most people aren’t even convinced they really exist! They could be anyone, it’s not like an attribute or anything! It…” He paused. “But… but it might be magic, it might be scrambled…”

Dramais turned to the crew. “Find as many Magenta bladecasters as you can! Put them on the front lines and get them to scramble everything!”

“It’s too late.”

Suddenly, all of them looked up to see a black occulari floating in front of them.

“We have seen your defeat,” the occulari said. “Nothing can stop us now. We will take this island for Vraskal, and you will all learn, those of you who do not perish.”

“What is your problem!?” Lila shouted. “Why are you so… so brutal?”

“We are simply returning to the world what it gave to us. Suffer as we have, until the books are balanced.”

And then the main island’s volcano erupted.

It was not a normal eruption. The lava did not come out in awkward spurts and flows, nor was it an explosion followed by a ton of smoke. No, a full stream of molten rock launched into the air, sailing into the sky far higher than should have been physically possible. Green light intertwined around the lava, twisting around it in a double helix pattern. This pattern somehow diverted the lava flow across the Tempest and all the way to the war zone. The massive plume of lava crashed into the sea, taking several Vraskalian ships with it.

A massive cloud of steam began to form from the immense heat, but this steam was quickly dissipated by a bright flash of green.

An orb with five eyes easily larger than any one of the ships dominated the view. It had five glorious wings that seemed to be windows into another realm entirely, sparkling with stars and rings and orbs spinning around each other in intricate patterns beyond Vaughan’s understanding. They had depth that should not have been there, and lines that extended out from them with neon power stretched off into infinity, beyond even the Wall, according to Vaughan's eyes.

Molten globs of rock emerged from the sea, spinning around the green entity, forming into large blades that looked as though they were made out of thorns, despite their entire makeup being molten rock. Translucent green plants appeared, not wholly real, over the entire battlefield; flowers that were somehow both serene and threatening. The water itself lost all waves and became so calm it was unnatural, one could almost mistake it for ice.

“I have had enough,” the Guardian Spirit said in her very normal voice that nonetheless reached everyone’s ears. “I tried to let you be yourselves. To let you work out your hatred. And at this moment, I was hopeful that it would finally be over. But then a hatred and a cruelty I do not understand perpetuated it, one that, as far as I can tell, just wants to see the world burn out of a misguided sense of injustice. Well, if that is how you want to balance your books, I will not permit it.”

There was utter and complete silence. Several people dropped to a knee and bowed to the Guardian Spirit, and it wasn’t just natives, several warriors and others were doing the same. Her presence was just so all-encompassing, so incredible, so big. It made everyone else feel small and insignificant.

Whatever she was, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that she could end all of them in an instant without even breaking a sweat.

There was no more fighting. Not even the Vraskalians dared oppose her. But there was little done for the longest time, for most were simply taken in by her presence.

Vaughan could not stop staring at her. He could not understand what she was. But his heart trembled in her presence.

~~~

Vaughan stepped forward. Even now, with the Guardian Spirit in this smaller, more friendly form, his heart still trembled. “Oh… Guardian Spirit, we beg of you…”

“The child is already healed,” she said, gesturing at Rona coughing and standing up, only for Jeh and Rina to pull her into an extremely tight hug.

“Okay, I know I almost died, but…” Rona gagged. “I need to breathe…”

“Breathing is secondary, hug is now,” Jeh said.

“Mmf…”

The Guardian Spirit continued to address Vaughan. “Even if you gain nothing from this meeting, I hope that will be enough to make the journey worth it.”

Vaughan fell to a knee. “Th-thank you, it makes it far more than enough…”

A smile formed on the Guardian Spirit’s unusually smooth face. “Good. I’m glad to see that character in you, Vaughan.”

“It… it almost feels shameful to ask you for anything else…”

“And yet what you request is mostly not for your sake, but for the sake of my islands.” The Guardian Spirit folded her hands together and tilted her head. “Send a message to the Moon so it can be sent to Kroan without revealing my presence? A clever idea. I even believe it will work.”

“Will you?”

“I…” she glanced at Dramais. “Am considering it. But I am no god, despite how many of my people treat me. I cannot know for sure what the conspiracy surrounding me is. I am… considering it, even as I talk to you and learn of who you are.” She drifted over to the Sourdough Twins and Jeh. The hug had broken up at this point and the twins were testing out their now completely healed arms and legs… and had danced around each other enough to once again confuse people as to which was which.

“Such determined souls…” the Guardian Spirit said. “My people had a good amount to say about the rest of the visitors, but you, not much was known, and then you went and got yourselves injured…”

The two sisters stopped just enjoying each other’s continued life almost immediately and went into ‘serious mode.’ They bowed to the Guardian Spirit in unison and spoke as one. “We cannot express how thankful we are to you…”

“I know. Don’t worry about it.”

“What can we do for you?”

“Well, you and your friends are trying to provide a way to end this war. If you need to think of payment, I accept that attempt, though it is completely unnecessary.” She patted the two of them on their heads. “May you have long, fruitful lives. And take fewer dangerous risks.”

“…We’ve got a long ways to go,” one said.

The other nodded. “But not even this is going to make us stop on our quest.”

“I don’t even know what your quest is and I already wish you well,” the Guardian Spirit said.

“Their quest is world conquest,” Blue deadpanned.

The Guardian Spirit stared blankly at her for a moment, and then laughed in one of the most beautiful, almost melodic laughs anyone had ever heard. “Ah, children…” She shook her head. “And you, Blue, the genius.”

Blue narrowed her eyes. “I’m not going to deny that…”

“Nor should you. Perhaps you are right to be cautious about your pride, but the truth is the truth. Your intelligence exceeds my own, and I ‘cheat’ quite a bit. I could help you cheat quite a bit as well, but I think the gratification of your work will be far better if I don’t.”

“Is that why you aren’t managing the lives of everyone on your islands?”

“Told you you were smart. Yes. I take a distant approach so everyone can have their own gratification. I tend to act in places where they have no control and cannot see my hand. Very few are allowed to see me. You all have a very special situation, one where I wanted to see who you were personally. So far… you have actually exceeded my expectations for the most part, which surprises me. How did so many people of good heart end up in the same place on the same task of ‘going to space?’ “

“Just… random, I suppose,” Blue said. “Most of us are here due to a very odd sequence of events.”

“Dia waves fate to lead to things like this,” Envila offered.

“Ah, you would say that,” the Guardian Spirit said.

“It… does not surprise me that you do not believe.”

“I used to.” The Guardian Spirit’s vague facial features somehow became wistful. “There was a time when we fought against darkness… the woman who was like a mother to me led us with unwavering faith…” Her expression became dark. “But there was no salvation for us.”

Envila nodded. “I have seen such things happen many times, you have my c—”

“Know your place.” For the first time, the Guardian Spirit was clearly upset. “Think for a few seconds about what kind of war I could be part of and lose. You can’t, even one as old and wise as you doesn’t have enough experience to even grasp at the beginning of what it means to be me.”

“…Forgive me, I have spoken out of turn.”

“…And I did give the impression that you could…” the Guardian Spirit sighed. “I should apologize for going off on you, I had no right, even from my station.”

“I do feel compelled to ask… what can you tell us of yourself? You are spending a good amount of time examining us and our hearts.”

“You are examining mine as well.”

Envila nodded.

“What do you find?”

“I find a closed-off woman who has a burning heart that has been seared by experience, trying her best.”

“Completely correct,” the Guardian Spirit said.

“…Is it our place to know more?”

The Guardian Spirit paused for a moment and then shook her head. “No… no, my origins and life before the Tempest are long behind me and really… are not relevant at all to the place we find ourselves. As for what I am, I am unique, and from far… far away. Further than you can imagine.”

“…Did you come from another planet?” Jeh asked.

The Guardian Spirit chuckled. “Of course you would ask it like that… the strict answer is yes, but not at all in the way you are imagining. You are the Space Program, after all… I will tell you that if you wish to uncover secrets of the world relating to me, you would seek out the intricacies of magic, and not that of the stars.”

Jeh tilted her head. “Um… okay?”

“And you really are quite the piece of work… Jeh.” The Guardian Spirit placed her hand on Jeh’s cheek, focusing her eyes on the girl. “…I do wonder, is it truly possible to replace a soul? Are you really… someone else?”

Jeh tensed. “I… I don’t wanna talk about…”

“I will not force you to. You are like a child once more, you should enjoy it. I will ask you this, though: how is Wanderlust doing?”

“You know her?”

“Oh, yes, not at all surprised she went off to the moon without telling anyone, but thousands of years… I worry for her.”

“She’s… not all there in the head but is personable enough? Told us all sorts of things about space and was really excited to talk to someone again. If you can send a message you can talk to her! She’ll welcome it I’m pretty sure, though I don’t really know what all the light signals me—oh!” Jeh switched into Standard. “She understands when I talk in Standard, can you?”

The Guardian Spirit stared at her for a moment. “Are you… speaking Standard as it was spoken before the Second Cataclysm?”

“Um… Yes?” Jeh said in Karli.

“…Of course, I don’t know what I was expecting…” the Guardian Spirit shook her head. “I know the last form of Standard as it evolved before it died out, I don’t think I could speak the old form anymore, took me a while to… parse your sentence.” She paused and then patted Jeh on the head. “Part of me wishes you could have a simpler life, but that seems to just not be an option for you.”

“So… my turn then?” Keller asked.

“Absolutely,” the Guardian Spirit said. “Though admittedly I don’t have much to say to you, you… are doing your job and you’re very good at it and very loyal. Nothing I’ve said here is something I’ll hold you to keeping secret, knowing you’ll tell your Crown anyway. Though some of the things you are going to conclude are likely to be hilariously wrong.”

“Not surprisin’.”

“Keep protecting them.”

“Will do.”

“And so…” the Guardian Spirit’s expression soured. “We come to the biggest hiccup in this situation, the reason I am wary to run into any plan lest I have made a mistake.” She drifted over to Dramais. “I cannot see into minds.”

“What would you like to know?” Dramais asked.

“Namely, who you actually work for.”

“Myself.”

“Hmm. A lie. Remarkable actor though you may be, there are other ways to tell beyond your reaction.” She drifted away from him, crossing her arms behind her back and scratching her “chin” with her tail-hand. “Let’s try this again. Who do you work for?”

Dramais remained silent.

“Ah, silence won’t help you either. Do you work for the Emperor?” She paused. “Hmm… no.”

“How are you doing that…?” Blue asked.

“Blue!” Vaughan coughed. “You don’t just as—”

“Oh, she can,” the Guardian Spirit said. “There are chemical traces within the lines of his brain that I analyze. Thoughts may be hidden from me, but the rate of chemical transmission is not if I’m looking closely, at least not in a biological form such as his.”

Dramais’ face did not shift. His powers of expression control were truly impressive. But they were not enough.

“You have become very afraid. You thought such a power was impossible, even after all you’ve seen? Let me guess… you’ve withstood the tortuous images of occulari as a form of training, hardening your mind to all stimuli? It is true that you have remarkable control over yourself. It simply is not enough.” She sighed. “I don’t like doing this, but you clearly have a lot hidden… let’s see. Vraskal? …No. Kroan? …No. Pirate remnants? …No. Any nation on this planet? …No. Any group I’d know? …You think not. Well well well… that’s fascinating.”

Blue’s eyes widened. She turned to Dramais. “The secret society that refuses to take a name that acts from the shadows and tries to control knowledge of themselves.”

Dramais was motionless.

The Guardian Spirit was suddenly inches from Dramais’ face. “Interesting… your chemical signals say yes.”

Dramais’ eyes darted around the room.

“I think he’s looking for a way to kill himself to avoid giving me information…” the Guardian Spirit tilted her head. “What could inspire such loyalty… in a man once devoted to the Empire?”

“I… I have no idea…” Vaughan said. “Dramais… you’re fighting for something. Whatever that secret society fights for, you’re on board…”

“I have never even heard of such a society…” the Guardian Spirit said, scratching her chin.

“We only heard about it because of Benefactor,” Keller said. “She’s told us… quite a bit.”

“I can tell you’re not supposed to tell me,” the Guardian Spirit said. “However, the information is extremely pertinent. I wish to know what I am up against here.”

“Some of that information not even the rest o’ the Program knows,” Keller said. “Knowin’ certain things makes the society mark ya for death. They already know too much, they’ve just got other concerns, we think.”

“They’re clearly already targeting me for some reason,” the Guardian Spirit said. “I know you have the authority to share on a need to know basis.”

“…Got a way I can tell ya without tellin’ anyone else?”

The Guardian Spirit nodded. Suddenly, there was a wall of green sealing her and Keller off from the others.

Dramais immediately ran toward one of the romkar thorns.

“Oh no you don’t!” Blue shouted, grabbing him in her telekinesis. “You’re not offing yourself, got it?”

Dramais tried to push back with his own telekinesis, but Vaughan and Jeh added their Orange on top of everything. “You are going to doom the world you idiots!” Dramais shouted. “You…”

“Explain to us how,” Vaughan said. “Maybe we’ll believe you.”

“You… you wouldn’t accept… your heart is too soft, Vuaghan…”

The wall vanished and the Guardian Spirit looked sad. “Dramais, just because I had the wall up didn’t mean I couldn’t hear you. I have… learned much from Keller.” She raised a hand to the greater unicorn trapped in Blue’s telekinesis. “You have been horribly, horribly misled.”

“I’ve seen the truth.”

“The truth can be used as a weapon outside context.” She shook her head. “Even among your ranks, the full truth is not known…” She paused for the longest time. “Wait. Wait. If your goal is not power, but knowledge, then… you were a distraction.” She opened all five of her eyes and suddenly grew in size. “Where is it… where is it…”

“They have shapeshifters,” Jeh said. “Look for those.”

“Shapeshifters…? Hmm, they might be able to hide…” She placed her hand on a nearby romkar thorn. “Think, have you seen any movement…?”

“…You’re talking to the plant,” Blue deadpanned.

“Yes. Romkar here is a person just like you and me, she helps me by being able to see in more places across the Tempest than I can at once.”

“But… all the plants are different… and separate… and…”

“She can split herself and still remain one mind, that’s what the glowing blue signals are for and… aha, yes, there’s one. Trying to figure out how to get out of the mountain… extremely stealthily, invisible to light, invisible to sound, only noticed by touch.” With a clap of her hands, there was a flash of green… and then nothing.

Jeh cocked her head. “Huh?”

“There is an invisible shapeshifter in front of us,” the Guardian Spirit said. “Fascinating, I have not seen materials like this since…. what incredible control over his body. If I wasn’t holding him in my magic I’d have basically no way to know he was there and… oh, there appear to be Colored crystals inside of him, let m—”

There was an explosion.

It did not come from the shapeshifter the Guardian Spirit was holding. It came from below them, shattering the ground. The clear rock that held the lava at bay was shattered, and heat flowed into the cavern, searing everyone and everything within…

“You will all die with me!” Dramais shouted as his fur lit on fire. Everyone started screaming, even Jeh—though her screams were those of terror, not of pain.

The Guardian Spirit lifted her hands, encasing everything in a green shield and cooling it off. “Desperation does not suit you. A second shapeshifter, hidden below us, really?”

Everyone stopped screaming in pain. Jeh’s screams continued a few seconds longer, but the twins held her tight and she began to calm down, tears running down her face. “Why am I…?” She shook her head, deciding now was not the time to think about it.

Vaughan stood up. “What in the…” He looked through the hole in the floor. There, entangled in a very dense bundle of Romkar’s vines… was a black cube.

“There it is! Your secret! We knew it!” Dramais pointed at the cube. “You use that which you should not!”

The Guardian Spirit glared at him. “And how, pray tell, are you going to get out to tell your society about this? Even your precious shapeshifters could not figure out how to leave without alerting me, and your attempts at destr—” There was suddenly a deep, ominous rumble from all around them. The Guardian Spirit’s eyes widened. “Did… did you just trigger an eruption?”

“Heheheheh… yes!” Dramais laughed. “Now the secret you hide will be forced out! Even you cannot oppose the might of Ikyu itself!”

~~~

There were four seats at the negotiating table set up in the depths of the Guardian Spirit’s residence. They were intended to represent the four sides of the conflict: the Tempest, Mikarol, Kroan, and Vraskal.

No representatives from Vraskal had come. They had all left the Tempest after the Guardian Spirit appeared. So one chair sat empty, the light of the lava shining through the clear rock intertwined with the glowing blue plants and romkar roots.

The Guardian Spirit sat at the head of the table, alone. She had taken a form very close to that of a gari, but with very simple hair, no ears, and no facial features except for the eyes. She also had a tail with a hand on it.

The seat to her left was occupied by the somewhat young King Redmind. He had not come alone, his wife Queen Riikaz stood behind him in her wolf-furs.

Opposite King Redmind was none other than the Mikarol Emperor himself. He wore armor with a sheen of gold. His helmet was off, revealing a white-haired man with a short beard and stern eyes. He was obviously far smaller than the armor around him was; clearly there was some arcane device inside that permitted him to move and even fight in the massive suit, but the mechanisms behind it were unknown and hidden from view.

“It looks like it’s just us,” the Guardian Spirit said, forming a frown on her face where no mouth had been previously. “That’s… not ideal.”

“At the very least we will come to an agreement faster this way,” Redmind said, folding his hands together. “Emperor Nathanial Horatio Vibrovsky, it is an honor to finally meet you face to face, and I wish it were under better circumstances.”

“I as well, King Redmind Kroan,” the Emperor said in a voice that was scratchy, but not gruff, and with a tone that was surprisingly soft for a man of his reputation. “I also must give credit where credit is due to the Guardian Spirit of the Tempest, this realm of yours is truly impressive, and sends a clear message.”

“I’m going to be honest, I’ve lived in here so long it didn’t occur to me that holding lava above your heads was a threat until you arrived.” The Guardian Spirit put her hands behind her head. “I mean, it is true I could end this all in an instant, but I don’t want to do that.”

“Which is the only reason I came,” the Emperor said, folding his arms together, armor clanking as he did so. “You know the retribution that would come, and have a vested interest in peace.”

“Exactly!” the Guardian Spirit said. “So... I submitted my suggestions to both of you.”

“Very generous, I must say,” Redmind said. “I’ve never heard of a request being sent that wasn’t a list of demands to be talked down. I wonder if you’re playing too soft… you want all your land back, but are willing to compromise?”

“Should you not fight for it?” The Emperor asked. “The battlefield of negotiation is as much war as the physical confrontation.”

“I suspect I can simply convince you,” the Guardian Spirit said, folding her hands. “It will be in everyone’s best interests if all the land is returned to the Tempest’s tribes.”

“How so?” The Emperor asked. He did not treat her suggestion as a stupid one, or an insulting one—he was a man ready to listen.

“See, the Tempest, prior to all this mess, had been the only place in the world where the nations across the ocean could come together as equals without being threatened by greater political weight. After Redmind here explored the Tempest for Kroan, everyone came and settled on Embassy Island, blending five separate cultures together. Great trade took place there, trade that was more from nation to nation, with the Tempest as merely an avenue of neutrality by which everything could be carried. I propose that you return each island its sovereignty, both of you, and in return I will see to it that the Tempest remains a neutral ground for the meeting of nations. Even Vraskal, though I highly doubt they will return in any significant capacity after this.”

Redmind scratched his chin. “I can see the benefit…. However, it will only work if both Kroan and Mikarol pull out. And I do not mean to be presumptuous, Emperor, but I know the value of holding land to a warrior culture. My wife is from a much smaller land of similar ways.”

Riikaz nodded. “Your honor is different from ours and held in even higher regard. Can you let these lands go?”

“That is the question, isn’t it?” the Emperor said. “These lands have been added to the great Mikarol Empire… except they offer us little to nothing in the way of resources, are extremely difficult to occupy given the presence of the Wall, and have natives that will continually form resistance cells. The Empire needs not only to conquer, but to hold places, and if we attempt to hold without absolute dominance it will be a drain on our resources rather than a benefit all the way out here.”

“That is the logistical reason,” Riikaz pressed. “Can your society handle the backlash of giving land up?”

The Emperor frowned. “…I will have to order a campaign of some other kind to push attention away. I would target the Vraskalians but I do not want that large of a war at this time. I will have to pick a smaller target, one that will be easy to win and hold. Easier, anyway, but it can be done.”

“Replacing war with war…” the Guardian Spirit shook her head. “I do not approve.”

“Your displeasure with our ways is noted,” the Emperor said. “And disregarded. I do not wish to waste resources holding islands that will be a detriment to us rather than a benefit, and I too wish to take advantage of a neutral ground for trading, as well as capitalizing on the recent goodwill afforded us for charging against the Vraskalians in the final battle.”

“…I am glad you are reasonable, at the very least, if a bit devious,” the Guardian Spirit said.

“Thank you.”

“You don’t run your people directly, Guardian Spirit,” Redmind said with a sigh. “The clever deviousness is kind of a requirement in politics.”

“Annoyingly,” Riikaz added.

“And yet you were able to pull out without a question,” the Emperor pointed out. “The values of Kroan are clearly vastly different than that of the Empire.”

“Our primary goal is not conquest or greatness in battle, but greatness in academia,” Redmind offered. “The Academy is our pride and joy, and we will use it to improve our nation and stake our greatness on that.”

“You are an interesting man…” the Emperor gave him a hint of a smile. “You are also not how your reports painted you.”

“Neither are you.”

“Good, I’m supposed to be terrifying to anyone who doesn’t know me.”

Redmind laughed. “And I’m supposed to be unapproachable and infinitely wise!”

“It is good that we are allies.”

“Distant though we may be, I’m sure we can be great friends. And agree on one thing.”

“Oh?”

“That our people get up to some really stupid stuff when we’re not watching them.”

The Emperor entered a fit of uproarious laughter and slammed his hand down on the table, breaking it. With a roll of her eyes, the Guardian Spirit reformed it. “Glad to see you two getting along.”

“I’m glad to see it too,” Riikaz said. “Maybe one day I’ll visit Mikarol, see what your warriors have to offer…”

“A visit from the Queen of Kroan would be most welcome at any time. Should you wish, I could even put you in battle, though I suspect your husband might object to the danger.”

Redmind chuckled. “There was a time when we were explorers, you know. In our youth, these islands were our playground, with danger around every turn…”

“I have children now, though,” Riikaz said. “I have to live for their sake, Emperor.”

“Ah, an honorable sentiment.” The Emperor tilted his head slightly to her. “I wish you luck. Anyway, it seems we are in agreement… should we perhaps hammer out the finer details so the lawyers can get to the actual writing of whatever treaty this is going to lead to?”

“I have one request,” the Guardian Spirit said. “That you help rebuild what has been destroyed.”

The Emperor paused. “I cannot justify moving of resources…”

“You will have people here who will be standing around not fighting. Have them put to work. You don’t even have to call it a military application.”

“And we can provide the resources,” Redmind said.

The Emperor nodded. “Very well. Guardian Spirit, you will have my people to assist with reconstruction. I will provide no resources aside from manpower already present.”

“That is sufficient,” the Guardian Spirit said. “And now I must ask… as we are to become a neutral ground, what of the others?”

Redmind put a hand to his chin. “Shimvale will obviously attest to the neutral trading ground. Vraskal…”

“Oh, Vraskal will attest, trust me. They may be strong and able to wage a long war against us… but they know they would lose if they tried. I can strongarm them into something of this magnitude.”

Riikaz whistled. “War without firing a single shot.”

“It’s often the most fun kind!”

And with that, the Tempest Incident resulted in no one winning, really. The Vraskalians were driven out, the Kroanites and Mikarolians got no land, and the inhabitants of the Tempest had much of their land ravaged.

~~~

The Guardian Spirit was clearly trying to think of a way out of this while the rumbling beneath them became more and more intense.

“You’re trapped!” Dramais shouted. “You’re wasting energy saving everyone in here, but you know that won’t stop the force of the eruption! You won’t be able to hi—”

A green thread suddenly stitched his mouth shut. He seemed annoyed, so it must not have actually hurt to have it there.

“I do grow tired of the gloating…” the Guardian Spirit muttered. “Okay, here’s the situation, I can protect us all, but this eruption is going to shoot us into the sky. Where whatever resources they have will be able to observe us despite all my power, and they will see the black cube and know where it is, which they want.”

“What does it even do?” Blue asked.

“Black cubes hold magic powers beyond the standard reality called ancestries. This one holds power over storms and winds. Romkar uses it to maintain the Tempest’s storm.” She was silent for a moment. With a twitch of one of her eyes she removed the stitching on Dramais' mouth. “The cube of prophecy vanished in the last incident… you… you were responsible for that too, weren’t you?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Dramais said, smirking. “I wasn’t taken on yet.”

“Agh!” the Guardian Spirit growled. “We’ve got to keep them from finding out about it and…”

“Throw it into the lava,” Blue said.

“Eh?”

“Throw it into the lava. It’s completely indestructible, the lava won’t take it out.”

“But then I won’t be able to find it…”

“You mentioned the cube of prophecy. Clearly, attaining one of these ‘ancestries’ does not require constant contact with the cube. Romkar already has it. Just junk it. No one will ever be able to get it.”

“…In thousands of years, it may surface again,” the Guardian Spirit said. “I know this can happen.”

“But that’ll keep them from knowing, right? If they don’t know what causes the Tempest, how can they act against it…?” Blue tilted her head. “I’m understanding this, right?”

“Yes… you are.” The Guardian Spirit narrowed her eyes. “Fine. This is going to be distasteful, but I have to do it.” Suddenly, the black cube was ejected, passing through the Guardian Spirit’s shield and into the lava below. “I am pushing it as far down as I can… which is very, very deep and… I’ve lost it.” She took in a deep breath. “The eruption might eject it, it might not, I don’t know, it is very deep. However, there is something else I have to do, and it is something I try never to do.” She turned to Dramais. “I apologize, but you need to be dead so you cannot tell them anything.”

Dramais growled. “You… you are using power you should not have! If you know as much as you seem to, do you not understand the danger?”

“I understand the danger better than you.” She snapped her fingers.

Dramais and two previously-invisible shapeshifters dissipated into green sparks.

Vaughan reached out for the sparks as they passed his hand. “D… Dramais…”

“I am sorry, I would have given you more time if we had it,” the Guardian Spirit said. “But we do not. Hold on!”

Then the volcano erupted. Romkar’s roots were severed from her main body, but this meant little to her. The Guardian Spirit had to strain to keep the force of lava and its heat from entering her green bubble, and so working on keeping everyone comfortable was a secondary concern. Everyone was pressed to the ground due to the immense acceleration.

Envila fared the worst. The others…

“Look at us, Blue, in a bubble being shot at the sky…” Vaughan said with a chuckle. “Remind you of anything?”

“Even when we’re not in a spaceship we can’t get out of being launched at the sky!” Blue groaned. “It’s ridiculous!”

Then, suddenly, they were in the sky. Below them there was a great plume of red, gurgling lava spurting out a newly formed hole in the side of the main island's greatest mountain. They just… floated there, in the sky, a green orb surrounding half-demolished invisible rock, vines, and a bunch of people visiting the Guardian Spirit.

Suddenly, there was an Orange Crystalline One floating next to them.

“Oh look, a visitor!” the Guardian Spirit said. “Sorry, as you can see we’re a little busy here, is there anything you wanted?”

“…You were just… curious.”

“You know, even though I can’t tell for sure with Crystalline Ones, I’m like almost positive you’re lying and have some sort of ulterior motive that you can’t execute now and are currently very frustrated about.” She winked at the Crystalline One. “So, got anything else to say?”

“…No.”

“Oh, and if you are related to whatever caused this war, maybe stop it before I stop it for you? Hmm?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The Orange Crystalline one descended down toward sea level.

“…That was unnerving…” Vaughan said.

“This is cool!” Jeh said, pointing out at everything, all traces of her previous panic attack just gone. “Hey, Guardian Spirit! You could make a spaceship with this!”

“I’m not making you a new ship,” the Guardian Spirit said.

“Aww….”

“However… as there is no longer any point in me hiding… I suppose.” She cleared her throat. “Everyone in the Tempest who can hear me! This is the Guardian Spirit! I have had enough! So everyone better stop fighting right now or I’m going to have to come down there personally…” She paused, laying her hand on one of Romkar’s thorns. “Ah, the Mikarol are not stopping at all. Figures. I’m going to set you all down in Tin’nit while I go deal with this, it was a pleasure talking to you.”

“…So it turns out we didn’t need to send a message at all?” Blue asked.

“Oh, it was a great idea, and I would like to talk to Wanderlust so I’ll probably ask for it later, but yeah uh it’s all good now due to a… that was a very funky series of events. Don’t go spreading my secrets to just anyone, y’hear? Have fun!”

And with a green flash, they were standing in the middle of all the elders.

“Well,” Elder Smississ said. “I guess it went well?”

“Eeeeeh…” Envila said, tilting her hand side to side. She was still sitting down, out of breath. “Space travel has made you all strong…”

“We were weak when we first landed,” Jeh commented. “So eh.”

There was an explosion elsewhere that sent a beam of green into the sky.

“I think she’s lettin’ out some frustration,” Keller said, lighting up a smoke.

“She’s been forced to sit and watch, hiding herself,” Blue said. “I’d be blowing up things too.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

“Are you insinuating something?”

“Not very subtly,” Keller said with one of his signature bizarre chuckles.

Blue narrowed her eyes and then turned to Jeh. “By the way, you were… not doing well. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. The lava… didn’t like it. Not sure why.” Jeh shook her head. “It was fine when it was behind the rocks, just unnerving, but… when it started coming in… I just…”

“I can imagine even for someone like you being trapped in lava would be very unpleasant. It’s probably too thick to even try to swim in.”

Jeh shivered. “Maybe… but I don’t remember. Just… would rather not be near lava again. Even if the view at the end was amazing!”

“It really was something…” Blue said, turning to Vaughan. “Vaughan? You… okay?”

Vaughan stared at the sky. “Am I supposed to wish I knew why Dramais did what he did, or count myself lucky that I do not?”

“I… I don’t know.”

Vaughan sighed. “You think you know a man…”

~~~

Vaughan laid his hands over a coffin marked with magenta highlights.

“Taking you home…” Vaughan said, voice cracking. “You’ll get to see your sister… though… I guess you’re already seeing her… heh…” He sighed. “I want to blame someone, Alice. I want to blame myself for not being able to protect you, I want to blame you for leaving me, I want to blame DIa for letting you be taken, I want to blame whoever that assassin was… but… none of the grudges hold water. They slip right off. You had no intention of leaving me. I had no intention of letting you go. Dia is watching you now. And I don’t even know who the assassin is, and I can’t bring myself to just hate Vraskal…” He shook his head. “I would say I’m sorry but I know that this is what you would have wanted anyway, so I’m just… hollow.”

He stood there in complete silence for the longest time.

“…I’ll complete our Journey, Alice. I’ll tour the rest of the border. And then… I’ll find a place to settle. Truly settle.”

With that, he turned and left the coffin, exiting the cargo hold and returning to the balcony of the ship. It was a Kroanite ship, one currently docked at the surprisingly lively and active remnants of Tin’nit. Even though it had only been a few days, reconstruction efforts were already well underway. He wondered idly what it would look like once they were done, the entire beachfront was basically rubble at the moment, the city would look very different if he ever returned.

It finally settled into him at that moment.

He was leaving.

He might never see any of this place again.

“Thinking about staying?” Suro asked from on top of the railing.

“…The thought had crossed my mind, but no. You?”

“Yes. I have.” Suro frowned. “My business is still here, I could stay, but… I think if this adventure taught me anything, it’s that I’m not suited to this life. I was in way over my head.”

“Well, if you really do stick with me, you’re gonna have a few more adventures, I’ve got to finish the rounds of the Kroan border.”

“The Kroan border is rather peaceful, this is the most chaotic place… in the world, probably.” Suro laughed. “I… will miss the people, but I will not miss the excitement.”

“Sounds like Willow Hollow might be a good choice for you.”

“We’ll see,” Suro said. “We’ll see…” He shook his head. “I think we’re going to need some time to just… think about everything that’s happened to us.”

Vaughan nodded, putting his hands on the railing. “…I think you’re right, too, a quieter life would suit us better.”

“Have room for one more?”

The two of them turned back to see Lila behind them, a triangle necklace around her neck.

“Lila…?” Vaughan said, confused.

“There’s nothing left for me here. My family will want nothing to do with me due to my actions, my crew is too loyal and I don’t need to be a leader, and… I don’t think I can live among everyone I hurt. I would be living a lie. I need… a change. So I’ve decided to go to Kroan, and the Keepers encouraged me.” She jumped onto the railing next to Suro. “You’re free to reject me, of course.”

“I won’t,” Suro said.

“You know, somehow I knew you would say that.” She chuckled awkwardly. “Even after all the pain I caused you, even after you have no reason not to be nice… you just are.” Lila paused. “I don’t see myself ever being like that.”

“Careful, I hear the Keepers tend to get the exact blessings they think they’ll never receive.”

“Oh, psh, I’m barely a Keeper, and only by technicality. They… for reasons I don’t understand, accepted me.”

“Maybe one of them has prophecy, knowing you’ll turn into something great.”

“As if.” Lila shook her head, turning to Vaughan. “And you, Vaughan. You can reject me too.”

“…I won’t,” Vaughan said with a sigh. “No matter how much I try I just can’t seem to hold resentment in my heart. Makes me feel old, and my hair isn’t even turning gray!”

“You’ve got a ways yet.”

“Yeah… I do. And I intend to do something with what I’ve got left.”

“Good man. Better than me.” Lila shook her head. “Though that’s not really a contest…”

“I… I don’t know how to say this and make sense…” Suro said. “But forgive yourself.”

“I don’t think I can do that, Suro.”

“Yet.”

Lila stared at him for a few seconds and then broke out into a smile. “Oh, all right, we’ll see if it works out in the end, silly man. You are way too soft.”

“It seems to have had an effect on you though.”

“Yeah… it has.” Lila gained a wistful expression and turned to look at the Wall. “…A new adventure awaits…”

~~~

“Dodge!” Envila shouted.

Both of the twins tried to duck and roll, but Envila managed to slap both of them in the head with the wooden staff she was holding, knocking the two of them down.

“Nice, you almost dodged that time!”

“Ow…” one of the twins mumbled as she got up. The other one took a bit longer, rubbing her head and looking a little dizzy.

“Okay, again.”

“You’re relentless,” they said in unison.

“I probably don’t have much time to train you and you two are going to keep throwing yourselves in danger, so we’re going to continue Envila’s Lightning Training. Now… dodge!”

Jeh was watching them from the edge of the jungle clearing, sipping on her fruity drink. She had originally been training with them at the start of this endeavor, but she was clearly much better than the twins and didn’t need training so much as ways to unlock skills she already had, which Envila couldn’t provide. Envila noted that for some reason whenever Jeh went on the offensive she liked punching, despite her punches perhaps being the least effective part of her body. Perhaps she should invest in artificial gauntlets, or just stick with magic.

“Again!” Envila called.

“Are they still at it?” Blue asked, sitting down next to Jeh.

“Yep. Envila’s Lightning Training is brutal.” She turned to Blue. “Anything happen out there?”

“No Kroanite ships yet, but some Mikarol ships arrived with the Emperor.”

“What!?”

“I haven’t seen him myself, but apparently he’s been going around executing people.” Blue shivered. “Apparently the reports being sent back were discovered to contain false information through some kind of security check and he’s livid.”

“So the problem would have resolved itself?”

“Well, had we not been here and gotten the Guardian Spirit to intervene, there probably would have been a big battle against the Emperor. Probably wouldn’t have triggered a Civil War, but you know.”

“Not really but politics is weird so I’m not going to try to understand.” Jeh finished her drink and disintegrated the cup with some Red. “So… do you think volcanic eruptions are a viable way to get into orbit?”

Blue snorted. “No, they don’t have enough force. The Guardian Spirit is probably a better avenue and she seems to want us to figure things out for ourselves.” She frowned. “Though… I don’t think solving the mysteries of space will solve her mystery.”

“We can’t solve everything.”

“…Didn’t I teach you that?”

“Probably?” Jeh shrugged.

Blue chuckled. Then she put a leg around Jeh. “…You’re probably related to those secrets.”

“And if you figure anything out, you tell me if I need to know. Otherwise… I’m Jeh.”

“No matter what happens, you will always be Jeh to me,” Blue said, giving her a quick nuzzle.

Jeh put her arms around Blue’s neck and just let out a contented hum.

Unbeknownst to them, Romkar was watching, and decided this was worthy of showing the Guardian Spirit. She vibrated and communicated the information to the great green entity.

The Guardian Spirit turned away from the scroll she had in front of her that described the light code used to talk with Wanderlust. “I’m glad.”

Romkar gave a quizzical vibration.

“She can be happy this way, start again for real. I don’t think it matters if her spirit is the same as Jenny’s or not. She has rejected what came before. Which, honestly, might be for the best, both for her happiness and for everyone else…”

Romkar vibrated again.

“Hmm… I do wonder…” She paused. “You’re not upset that we lost the cube, are you?”

Romkar paused for a moment before shaking a branch.

“Oh wow, I don’t even need to try to analyze you to know that’s a lie. Romkar! You still have your power and we needed to keep them from knowing about it!”

Romkar’s vines twitched and sagged.

“…I know it had a lot of sentimental value. I… am sorry. But I don’t think we’ll be able to find it for a long, long time…” She paused. “Romkar, once they finish developing the efficiency of this space technology in a century or two, the Wall will serve little purpose. They’ll be able to get in and out of here just fine. We should… probably think about what we’re going to do at that point.”

Romkar shook her thorns.

“You’re right, I suppose. If we can keep our status as a valuable neutral territory for that long, the problem will solve itself… but still, we should come up with some contingencies.”

Romkar jutted a spike out quickly.

“That would be sad, but we’ll be keeping track of all Crystalline Ones just in case of that eventuality.”

~~~

“Well… here it is,” Vaughan said as they emerged from the largely evergreen treeline. “Willow Hollow!”

Lila and Suro, tails intertwined, looked out over the town.

“…Gonna be honest, looks like a dump,” Lila said.

Suro raised an eyebrow. “This is far more developed than many of the tribes of the Tempest.”

“And most of those were dumps.” Lila grinned. “I like it.” She nuzzled Suro.

“You two have become almost insufferable,” Vaughan said with a chuckle. “Anyway… we won’t make our decision right away, but… this was Alice’s favorite place on all our journeys. I think I’ll be settling here, even if you two don’t.”

“It’ll be a nice and quiet life…” Suro said, tilting his head to the side. “An attractive possibility…”

“And you two have skills that can help a fledgling mining town like this,” Lila added.

“You do too! I don’t think they have a Sanctuary yet,” Vaughan offered.

“…Oh. Well. No, wait, I shouldn’t be in charge of…” She paused and shook her head. “…I’ve been led here, let’s see how it goes.”

“A little experiment?” Suro asked.

“Yeah. A little experiment.”

With that, the three of them entered Willow Hollow. They had some doubts in their heart, but those would soon vanish. This place would be their home.

From the top of one of the few rigid “trees” in the forest, a pink gari watched the three of them, juggling a potion in her hand.

She smiled warmly.

~~~

It was time to leave the Tempest. A single Kroanite ship had arrived, but it was a large one designed to hold smaller ships inside of it and protect them from the Wall, obviously chosen to hold the Moonshot. The decidedly mangled craft was already loaded into the bay and the crew was ready to set out. All that remained were the goodbyes. There weren’t that many to give, most of the elders were busy dealing with the aftermath of the conflict, the Guardian Spirit had already bid them farewell herself, and they hadn’t exactly made any friends during their stay here. Envila was there—she wasn’t returning with them, she was going to hitch a ride on a Mikarolian ship and continue on her journey around the world.

However, there was one other individual of note who had come to see them off.

The Emperor himself in all his gold-armored glory.

He towered over them… but when he took his helmet off, the face of an old man with a gaunt face greeted them. He smiled, he was a man with joy in his heart, but his wrinkled face struggled to hold it. “So, this is the Wizard Space Program I’ve heard so much about.”

Everyone except Jeh dropped to a knee, and after a moment she did the same once she realized what everyone else was doing. “You grace us with your presence…” Vaughan said.

“This is more out of curiosity than anything. I just wanted to see the faces of the intrepid explorers who went to the moon and then fell out of the sky in the middle of all this chaos.” He crossed his arms, armor clanking against armor. “Quite the group you have. And what a legacy! Gideon Vaughan, returning… it really sounds like something from out of a legend!”

“They really are the stuff of legends,” Envila said.

“You would know, wouldn’t you, ancient fae?” the Emperor asked.

“My, did the Guardian Spirit speak of me as well?”

“To some extent. I hear you are returning to Mikarol. I invite you to my craft, I suspect you will make a fascinating conversation partner.”

Envila gave a bow of her head. “It would be my honor.”

“And as for you all…” the Emperor turned to the Wizard Space Program and nodded. “I might have to start up my own Program when I get back.”

“I’m sure the Princesses w-would be willing to g-give…” Blue stammered, taking a deep breath to calm herself. “S-such a close ally a l-lot of notes!”

“Ask them to send some over when they get the chance. And tell Queen Riikaz that it has been too long since her last visit, we would love another one, and I am getting old. Oh, should I expect these notes to arrive via spacecraft or boat?”

“I… don’t know.”

“Ya’ll know when it arrives, Your Majesty,” Keller said.

“Good! Now… I shall not keep you any longer, you all clearly wish to return home. I simply wished to put some faces to the names. Faces that will no doubt go alongside mine in the history books.” He chuckled. “Good luck on your quest!” Suddenly, he leaned down to look specifically at the twins. “Even you, little ones. If I can find a way to live until your conquest begins, I will, and you will find yourselves a worthy opponent.”

The twins put their hands on their hips. “Don’t underestimate us.”

“Rina! Rona!” Blue hissed.

The Emperor laughed. “Ah, you sound just like how the legends paint the first Emperor… utterly insane but determined. May your Empire reach to the stars.” With that, he bid them goodbye and left.

“…That was weird,” Blue said. “That was weird, right? The most powerful man in the world just walks up to our boat, has a chat, and leaves?”

Envila shrugged. “Dia has given you a unique fate, I would expect things like this to keep happening.”

“I liked him!” Jeh said. “He sounds like fun!”

“He’s also a warmonger,” Keller pointed out. “Not as much as his predecessors, but Mikarol thrives on conquest. We’d all do best to remember the character of our ally. He did just execute hundreds of officers.”

“They did betray the Mikarol law,” one of the twins said.

The other nodded. “Though many of them might not have been aware of it.”

“Egh… politics…” Blue muttered. “Why do we have to deal with it? Actually, scratch that, dealing with politics makes sense, we’re changing things. Why do we have to deal with conspiracies? That’s worse, those are far more life-threatening and all over the place. We keep running into a group that’s trying to keep itself secret from the world for crying out loud!”

Vaughan scratched his beard. “I think we keep running into them because our goals are entirely opposed. We seek to understand the universe. They, for whatever reason, seek to keep knowledge of certain things hidden. Our philosophies are in conflict, it is almost as if we are destined to clash. I suspect we will continue to run into them.”

“Uuuuuuugh…” Blue groaned. “Fine, I guess if we seek the truth we just have to deal with this. But I don’t have to be happy about it!”

“I don’t think anyone would expect you to,” Envila said.

“Mmmf…”

“Save travels. And may Dia bless your destiny, which is clearly a complex and dangerous one.”

“Bye Envila!” Jeh shouted with a wave. “It was good to see you!”

“Next time I see you I hope you’ll take me to the moon,” Envila said with a chuckle.

“We’ll see what we can do!” Jeh grinned. “Maybe we’ll even take you further out! I bet we’ll figure out how to travel in space without magic soon!”

“Jeh, I don’t even have the foggiest idea how to restore air without magic,” Blue grunted. “…Wait, never mind, plants. Plants can do it. Uuuuugh that’s going to be a logistical nightmare…”

Envila chuckled. “Good luck!”

With that, the boat set off, toward the Tempest wall.

People slowly made their way below decks, but Vaughan, Blue, and Jeh lingered a bit longer than the others.

“Hey, look!” Jeh said, pointing at the Wall. A long, slithering form poked its head out of the stormy cloud, a reptilian entity floating above the ground seemingly effortlessly.

“A sky serpent!” Vaughan said, eyes wide. “It seems that they know the conflict is over and are seeing if they can come back out!”

The sky serpent looked down at them and, seeming to decide they were no threat, emerged from the wall and drifted through the sky over to the islands of the Tempest. A few smaller sky serpents of different colors followed after, slithering through the air like it was a thick syrup.

“Wow…” Blue said. “Just… wow.”

“We want to be like them,” Jeh said, eyes wide. “Untethered to the ground…”

Slowly, the six of them turned back to see the Wall. It was still a fair ways away, but they would be arriving soon and needed to get below decks. Still… they looked forward, not so much at the Wall as through it. For in the direction they were going laid Willow Hollow.

Their home.

Very, very far away…

…there was a town awaiting their return.

And in a tall rigid “tree” next to that town, Seskii stood, juggling a potion in her hands.

“So much has changed…” she said, looking down at Willow Hollow. Already, there were more buildings than there had been when the Wizard Space Program left for the moon. There would be more before they returned. Wounds had been opened, but other wounds had been healed.

The change wasn’t about to stop anytime soon.

Seskii smiled warmly, catching the potion in her hand and gripping it tightly.

“This time…” she paused. “What am I doing? That’ll give too much away!” She laughed and threw the potion over her shoulder where it just happened to hit a moss bear and turn him blue. “We’re all going to just have to wait and see how this goes… to the moon, and beyond!”

~~~

While there was some science in this chapter, methinks I’ll keep Movie Length chapters without one, to start a sort of tradition. …If I ever write another movie-length chapter before the finale, that is, I don’t exactly have the chapter structure planned out in specifics you understand, since at any moment I could realize it’s scientifically impossible to do something.

We will return to our normally scheduled Space Program antics next time. Space travel beyond the moon has quite a few hurdles that need to be overcome first...

A question, though. Where do you think they should try to go next?