“Ah," Cedez glanced behind herself, noticing that her companions were looking at her with concerned expressions. "Allow me to introduce my besties, I'm sure they'll appreciate ya as much as I do."

  She waved her friends over.

  The dragoness and the man in gray robes approached our table.

  "This is Lord David," Cedez gestured to the human. "And his... girlfriend, Remicra."

  Up close, I could see that Remicra's scales slowly shifted through a wave of colors almost like a mood ring. She flushed a brilliant pink-orange at being called "girlfriend," her tail curling around her leg self-consciously.

  “This is Lord Protector, Christophorus and his… fiancées, Lady Voltara and Lady Castabriella,” Cedez waved a gloved hand at us.

  I smiled at the couple in front of me. "Quite the stunning lady you have there, Lord David. Seems like we share similar tastes in dragons who can change colors at will."

  Lord David's hand found that of his dragon girl. “I don't quite understand your joke, I'm afraid,” he said. “Are your companions not human?”

  "My Sovereign," I turned to Cedez. "I see that you're blocking out sound. Do you mind muting the view too?"

  "Sure," she nodded. With a subtle gesture, shadows bloomed around our table, creating a dark, intimate bubble that seemed to bend light and sound away from other patrons.

  "Perfect," I grinned. Then I turned to Cinder and Vespera. "Ladies, would you care to reveal your true forms for a moment?"

  Vee nodded, grabbing onto Cinder to manipulate her wings.

  Vespera's human form immediately began to shimmer and shift. Her pale skin erupted into dark and white feathers, magisteel talons replacing delicate human fingers. Her gothic dress and hat melted away, replaced by her magisteel armor and natural Thunderbird physique - sleek black and white wings, sharp gray eyes glowing from within with gold sparks. Her figure lengthened, stretched out in all directions.

  Cinder's transformation was even more dramatic. Her human form dissolved like watercolor paint, red hair melting away to reveal an explosion of rainbow feathers. Her blue summer dress shimmered and vanished, replaced by her delving outfit. Her wings unfurled - a stunning array of silver, blue, and rainbow-edged feathers that seemed to catch and refract light in impossible, mind-melting ways.

  Both of them suddenly loomed over me in their full Omnid glory.

  “Holy shit,” Lord David's eyes went wide as he stared at Vespera and Cinder. “Wings!”

  Remicra's scales cycled through a rapid succession of shocked orange-red-violet colors. Cedez’s jaw fell open.

  “Wowza,” the Sovereign-Sentinel of Shandria said. “Now this, I absolutely did not expect.”

  "Yeah," David let out. "That's definitely not something you see every day."

  "What are you?!" Remicra sputtered, staring with wide violet-gold eyes at Cinder’s wings.

  "Interdimensional tourists," I repeated cheerfully. "From Earth."

  "Earth?" David choked.

  "Oh, you know Earth?" I asked.

  He nodded, unable to draw his eyes away from Cinder and Vespera. "That's where… I'm from too."

  "You're from Earth?" I leaned forward. "Are you a tourist too?"

  "No," he sighed. "I was summoned to Arx by a bald, fat God-Emperor man amongst a million others. Ah, I might be getting excited over nothing. I guess you're from one of the other bazillion alternative Earths, judging by how you're a fox and your companions are some kind of..."

  "Cryptids," I explained. "They're classified by humans as cryptids and they call themselves Omnids. A Quetzalcoatl and a Thunderbird."

  Vespera grinned with her toothy black and white beak, leaning onto my shoulder like a shark, sparkling lightning dancing along her feathery mane and making my hair stand up with static electricity.

  "I see," David said, swallowing nervously, clearly intimidated by how tall and dangerous-looking my companions were. A typical reaction for a human from Earth who’s never seen an Omnid apex predator.

  Cedez and Remicra appeared somewhat spooked too.

  Hrm, maybe this was a bit too much. I totally forgot how unnerving and screwy Cinder’s wings and Vespera’s lightning and beak-teeth looked at first, got used to them over time. Oh well.

  “A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I glanced at my stolen smartwatch. "Alas, we have breakfast to nom and much to do today. Why don't we exchange Voicecast so that we can start to slowly work on our joint mission of taking over Shandria from above and below?"

  "Uh, sure," Lord David nodded.

  We exchanged bracelet taps. Vespera and Cinder Phase-Shifted into their human disguises once again.

  "My right hand man, Shash," I waved at Shash. "Will work with you on Arx to fulfill our part of the bargain as we'll be departing shortly back to our homeworld and likely won't be back for a while.”

  “What bargain?” Remicra asked.

  “I’ll tell you about it later,” Cedez grinned at her.

  “Uh-huh,” Remicra crossed her arms, her bothered expression eerily reminding me of Cinder.

  “How long will you be gone, Lord Protector?” Cedez turned back to me.

  “Maybe a year and a half,” I shrugged. “Maybe less or more. It depends. I’m currently operating on a borrowed gate, going to try to make my own. Don’t worry though, I’ll set as much as possible in motion before we depart. In due time, the institutions I’m setting up in Undertown will be at your disposal, my Sovereign.”

  David stared with a ‘what the fuck’ look at Cedez. She simply patted his head.

  “Aww, how nice of you, darling,” Cedez purred, turning back to me, sending me a toothy smile.

  Shash and I exchanged Voicecast ring and token taps with Cedez. Dave was still staring at Cedez with a deeply confused look. The Shadow-fox grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him and Remicra away to their own table, whispering furiously.

  Hyrei arrived with our breakfast. Four massive plates of Thundersnarg steak, Wyvern bacon, eggs, and an assortment of colorful side dishes landed on our table with a breeze of magically-focused wind.

  "Enjoy your meal," the maid said with a bow, fluttering away.

  We did.

  Occasionally, I glanced at Cedez, who was enjoying her own breakfast with her companions, pawing at both of them like she owned them and glancing back at me. Something about her, Remicra and Dave made me trust them. It was a weird, inexplicable feeling, like meeting a long lost family and best friends that I never knew.

  I wanted to spend more time with the odd trio, but there were a million things to do before our departure.

  “Hey, Vee, what do you know about Corpse Seekers?” I asked the Thunderbird.

  “They’re basically oversized Kitlix,” she replied. “Liquid crystal crystalline strata wrapped in hexmesh skeletal framework, living magic algorithms. They’re bred by the Seeker-Storm Omnicorp and fused with a bunch of beast core reactors and other extremely dangerous shit like dragon hearts. Living tanks. Can punch through almost anything. Move like a millipede-cat. Can reach speeds of 280 km/h. Can be permanently assigned to work with an operator as a familiar, and carry stuff or even a few Omnids inside them. Baller sense of magic. Very focused on goals. Not very smart. Generally used for retrieving Lazarus bracelets or dead/injured Omnids from dungeons and other nasty places. Waaaay more expensive to run than the Strand-Gliders, eat a shit-ton of crystallized mana and beast cores.”

  “Can you drive one?” I asked her.

  “Ye.” She nodded. “My Clan owns a small one. I rode atop it a few times. Most Omnids wouldn’t be able to drive or reshape a Corpse Seeker as needed, but they respond pretty well to electrical impulses.”

  “You only rode one?”

  “They’re hell-a-expensive.” She shrugged. “The ones operated by Omnid Institutions and Skyfall Academy are pretty big. Private ones are smaller, about the size of two lions or a motorcycle.”

  “I see,” I nodded. “Thanks for the info.”

  “Anytime, foxy,” she smiled.

  As we finished our meal, I noticed Cinder staring past me at the chasm behind us.

  "Something wrong?" I asked.

  "No," she sighed. "Just... thinking."

  Vespera leaned closer to her. "About?"

  "Her… song," Cinder said softly, glancing in the direction of Cedez. "About dungeons. About love surviving even when everything else falls apart."

  I reached out and squeezed her hand. Vespera's, soft, warm human hands intertwined with both of ours.

  "Do you sense it too?" I asked her, the Understanding suddenly arriving at an answer as to what I was feeling.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  "What?"

  "Them," I pointed at Cedez, Dave and Remicra. "I think that they're... us."

  "What do you mean, 'they’re us'?" Cinder sputtered.

  "Alternative versions. Us but... in this dimension, on Arx," I explained. "Like how Katherine's book had characters that seem to mirror us. I feel this… inexplicable.... something when I look at them. Connection.”

  “What kind of a connection?” Ci asked.

  “Look how happy they are together,” I pointed out. “Just like us."

  "Lots of people are happy! That doesn't mean that they're us," Cinder objected.

  Vespera tilted her head, her fingers drumming on her chin thoughtfully. "Alternative versions... Hrmmm. An interesting theory. But why would they be us?"

  "Because," I said, watching Dave, Remicra and Cedez interact, "look at them. A human and a rainbow-dragon, both seemingly out of place yet finding each other. Cedez protecting them both, acting as a kind of... cheeky shadow-guardian. Sound familiar?"

  "Maybe," Cinder's feathers shifted through skeptical orange-violets.

  "It's weird," I said. "On one hand I want to talk to them. On the other, I just want to see them smile. And on the third hand, I'm sort of afraid of my soul imploding or withering away if I touch David's hand. Maybe it’s his magic skill or whatever, but he’s like this… invisible storm of stars.”

  "Third hand? Since when do you have three hands?" Ci commented.

  I laughed. "Metaphorical third hand, obviously."

  “Duh,” Vee added.

  "How are you even sensing this stuff?" Cinder asked.

  "I gave Lexy my Holofractal sight skill and I'm currently bouncing it off his insides. He's using it quite effectively to scan people and things," Vespera said.

  Cinder rolled her eyes, her feathers shifting through amused purples. "You're such dorks."

  "Your dorks," I winked.

  "Unfortunately," she muttered, but her hand kneaded mine affectionately.

  Shash flickered for a second. "M'lord, our people secured a large, capable group of adventurers for whatever jobs you may require." His voice sounded deep in my ear, almost like he was speaking from the inside of my skull.

  "Excellent," I said. "Break them into the following groups..."

  After breakfast, the girls dragged me into a fanciful clothing shop featuring an elaborate Art Nouveau green and gold front and the “Silenerra’s Spellbound Styles” sign. Inside, I was made to stand in front of a wall-to-wall lavish mirror as seamstress Silenerra had her Kitlix run circles around me.

  "What am I being measured for?" I asked, glancing at Vespera and Cinder, who were huddled together with the seamstress, whispering and occasionally sending mischievous glances my way.

  "Nothing you need to worry about," Vee said, handing a bag with jingling coins to the seamstress and showing her something on her phone.

  Lady Silenerra nodded enthusiastically.

  "So," I asked Cinder, as we walked out of the outfit shop, "what should I get for your family? Any ideas?"

  "I... don't know," She muttered with a wince. "Ugh. I... haven't really talked to them properly in ages."

  "Come on. What do your parents like in general?" I asked. "I'm thinking of practical gifts that show thoughtfulness."

  “Ughhh.” Cinder looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Dad likes magic artifacts and arbalests, I guess. Collectible long distance weapons and such for when he goes out to murder dragons and stuff during his occasional savanna trips to Arx with his Justice Dept friends. I heard him a few times boasting about his magic arrow collection. Mom appreciates cooking tools."

  Vespera's talons sparked with excitement. "Ooh! We passed a magical weapons shop earlier! And there's a kitchen supply store that looked fancy!"

  "What about your little sis and big bro?" I elbowed the Quetzi.

  Cinder's feathers shifted through uncertain colors. "Let me think.... I recall Lenny bugging my parents for an extra-rare pet from Arx. And Lance? He's into delving gear."

  "Ah, I know!" I said. "We'll bring Lenny one of the clear-crystal Kitlix from our tower. That's a super rare critter! Let's go into the weapons and delving shop first, I gotta replace Lance's katana and get him some other cool stuff as thanks!"

  With a multitude of presents bought for everyone shoved into my dimensional bag, Vespera dragged me back into the clothing shop.

  "Ta-daaa!" She declared with a flourish as seamstress Silenerra brought out a leather jacket. Vespera rapidly pulled it on me.

  "What?" I asked.

  "You look like an absolute knobfold in Lance's oversized clothes. This is dragonhide n' scales middle lining," Vespera chattered, dragging me to the wall mirrors. "Highest-tier shit that doesn't eat the user's mana. Inner lining made from Xellaricon-Strand spider webs. Outer black leather is from Nitoroc panther's hide. Basically extra protec’ for my pink fox.”

  "Neat," I examined the jacket, slipping my hand into a pocket. "Oh wow, how deep do these pockets go?"

  "Extradimensional pockets!" Vespera grinned. "You can shove lots of stuff into each, so you don't gotta carry it all in the backpack."

  I slipped the overpriced Void-arrow arbalests I bought for Justice Nova and Lance into the jacket's pockets to test it. The pocket swallowed the weapons with no issues whatsoever, stretching out ever so slightly to embrace the wide edges.

  “Got you a set of pants, boots, n’ gloves too,” she said. “Same reinforced stuff.”

  “You didn’t have to,” I began.

  “No, no,” she said. “I legit felt verrrry bad when that arrow went through your lung. That was totes my fault. This is me making it up to you. This stuff is marketed as impervious to magisteel arrows. Go on, put it all on!"

  I did.

  I looked at myself in the wall mirrors. The back of the jacket featured swirling jagged rose patterns and the flag of… the North Acadia Znetc reservation. A Native Acadian rock formation resembling an igloo with silver stars on both sides and a silver, triple-peak mountain rising up above it.

  ‘North Acadia’ was embossed below the flag in a lavish font.

  “So,” Cinder asked, with a shy look. “What do you think? Vee n’ I split the bill for it as a present for you.”

  The jacket felt warm, incredibly soft, light and sturdy. The Nitorox dark leather sparkled subtly with emerald waves, catching light in ways that made the fabric seem alive. Silver threads woven through the North Acadian design glinted.

  "I..." Let out, letting go of Alexander Glock and Christophorus Elijah, leaving only Martin Kilborne there. “Wow. Thank you guys.”

  Cinder blushed, smiling back at me.

  “I think it's... perfect,” I breathed out, staring at the flag. “It… Reminds me of home. Of Mom. Now that I think about it, I don't think that anyone's gotten me a present since I... lost her. Uncle George wasn’t big on gifts.”

  Cinder hugged me tightly, wrapping me tight in her human embrace. So did Vee. I felt myself cracking like an eggshell, sparks dancing at the edges of my eyes.

  "Damn it," I said, blinking tears away. "I... I think that I… love you guys. Both of you. Really. It's probably too early for such dramatic declarations, but that song Cedez sang about the dungeon and the adventurer... It struck a nerve with me too. Vee is right, I'm constantly walking on the blade of a knife and I… I just want to express how happy I’ve been since I found you."

  "More like crashed into us," Cinder’s ocean-blue eyes searched mine.

  "Like a train without brakes," Vespera rubbed her face against mine, her skin feeling both soft and electric at the same time. "Our lovely, chaotic, perfectly orchestrated, wild disaster."

  I looked between them - Vespera's mischievous stormy-cloud grays, Cinder's deep ocean-blues. Two girls so fundamentally different, yet bound together by something inexplicable. By me. By us. Maybe by something beyond us, if we also were somehow together on Arx as a fox, dragon and human.

  "I never thought I'd find a connection like this," I said, my voice cracking. "After losing Mom, after everything with the Frontenachii Clan... I thought I was just going to be running forever. Never stopping. Plotting. Executing. But never truly living, never letting the Martin part of me take the wheel or push on the breaks. Not even for a moment… It finally feels like I'm standing still now... like I actually belong somewhere. Thank you.”

  Cinder reached out and kissed me. Her kiss was soft, tentative, filled with a vulnerability that her dragon-Quetzi form rarely showed. Unlike Vee who dove into pawing at me headfirst, Ci was quite shy in every aspect of a relationship and even more so as a human. It was clear that she’s had no experience with expressing her feelings, especially since the Lake Eerie incident that almost entirely destroyed her emotional balance and trust.

  Vespera's hands traced electricity across my cheek, her kiss following when Cinder finally let go of me. Where Cinder's kiss was a soft whisper like the sound of a rushing brook, Vespera's was an intense thunderbolt, the rumbling sound of thunder and current that rushed across my entire body, making my hair stand on end.

  [You're not alone anymore,] Vespera's electric whisper-thoughts hiss-danced in my head. [Not ever again. Mine. My shiny human. My hope. My key to my freedom.]

  The seamstress discreetly looked away, smiling at her Kitlix from behind her counter, satisfied that our group was happy with the procured outfit she had modified with the addition of the North Acadian flag.

  Vespera dragged me out of the shop and shoved me into a wall, burying me in kisses.

  Cinder grabbed Vespera's shoulder. "Hey! Stop molesting our... boyfriend in public!"

  "Can't stop won't stop," Vespera breathed out, panting. "Too precious. Too many feels."

  "Weren't we supposed to...." Cinder began.

  "I know, I know," Vee let out, still pressed against me. "It's just so different, okay?"

  "What's different?" Ci asked.

  "Being in a… relationship where both partners actually give a damn. Being human. Feeling everything so... intensely."

  "Oh yeah?" I asked, catching my breath.

  "Ye. The ‘current’ sensations are super different too," she nodded. "Everything is... soft. Unpredictable. Messy. Flowy. Squishyyyy... Eeeee."

  "Okay, hornknob," Cinder commented. "Should we go get a room?"

  "Ughhh, stop teasing meeeeee," Vespera waved at Cinder. "Yes, I obviously would like a room to melt in. But... our husbando has big plans, yes? Clan work more... More important than..." She bit her lower lip. "Having rawd fun. Hissss."

  "Yep. Many plans," I nodded.

  "Okay, maybe a few more," she buried me in kisses again, pawing all over me like a drowning person clinging to a life raft. "Just... a few more."

  Lance's anti-scrying hexastone was humming in my hands, muting all sounds around us as we stood on an empty side street.

  "This one is perfect, I think," I pointed my hand at a cyan Mage Tower that reached high into the sky. "Can you and our men nab everyone currently inside it?"

  Shash looked at the tower. "I think so, M'Lord. Tis’ an Infix Mage Tower. There shouldn't be too much in terms of security inside. It's part of the Information Guildnet that stores Shandrian citizen data. Magical registration records and such. Nothing important since it's stuff that's shared across other similar towers and has scroll backups in the catacomb archives of the Adventurers Guild cathedral.”

  "Thought so," I said. "Put this in the corner facing the bank. Make sure it faces the right way.”

  My assassin grabbed the device.

  "Any specific instructions regarding collateral damage?" he asked.

  "Minimal," I said. "Knock out everyone inside the tower. Also, knock out and kidnap everyone along the line of buildings down the street and directly near and behind the bank. Do not harm anyone. Make the mooks announce that this is a takeover in the name of Dragoness Emerald Stratos, servant of Lord Zalimar Evernacht and that all Shandria will tremble when the Necromancer returns with his army of the dead. Tie up the tower personnel in some warehouse somewhere and demand one million gold for their lives. Don't actually collect any gold or answer the authorities. Just let the Infix Bureaucrats be rescued... with minor delay. Set up some shoddy traps around them or something.”

  I showed him a picture of Zalimar that had been modified into a simple black-on-white logo by Yulia's Stable Diffusion image to image agent.

  "Whenever you need to do something unwholesome from now on, leave this logo on a wall nearby," I said. "Burn this skull with three eyes and a dark crown into the street behind the tower using beast acid or another chemical. Make this logo appear in the sky too."

  "Understood," Sash said with a smirk using his illusionist skills to copy the skull tattoo onto his wrist. “What about the bank?”

  “At exactly 11:45, blow up a bag inside it filled with basic glowing cave mold, while yelling that it’s Duskbloom, so that the bank is evacuated,” I ordered, handing him the bag in question.

  “Got it,” Shash said.

  “Off you go then,” I ordered.

  The assassin melted into the shadows, leaving me alone with my dates.

  "What was that?" Cinder demanded. "Why are you kidnapping Guildnet Tower personnel?"

  "All will be revealed in time," I grinned at her.

  "I don't like this cryptic-ness," she crossed her arms, making a pouting face.

  "The less I talk about the plan, the less chances there will be that Foresight mages figure out what I'm doing," I said. "Let's proceed to the execution. We have us an Em and Co to taunt."