Cassandra Pendragon
“What? How? That’s impossible! Poor creature. Can we get it out of there somehow?” Internally I was seething. If Viyara’s father hadn’t died I would have plucked each of his scales and shoved him into the deepest hole I would have been able to find. Trapped in a crystalline tomb for however long wasn’t a fate I’d wish onto my worst enemy and from the looks of it this one here was just for decoration, another oddity to spice up the hoard. My hands were shaking when I imagined the desperation and fear the little thing had had to go trough, all alone and unable to move, to breath but still alive and probably even able to think and feel. Maybe it was just my imagination but I’d have sworn that it was staring at us, its eyes full of pain and maybe a little hope.
Mephisto was much more collected than me and cautiously inspected the gem.
“Hmm, quite easily, actually. You could just smash the diamond but I’m afraid that’d kill it. If you want it to survive it’ll be a tad more difficult. Maybe we can teleport it out or disintegrate the gem around it but that’s not going to happen without ample preparation. For now I think you should store it. The enchantments on your stamp reduce the flow of time within immensely and we can take it back out when we know what we want to do. Until then it shouldn’t be aware as long as you keep it inside and I think the the crystal will protect it from any harm.”
“You’re sure about that? I’d hate to retrieve a corpse later on.”
“Quite. I can’t guarantee that’s it’s going to be fine but the odds are good enough. Unless you want to leave it behind there isn’t much else we can do anyways. Brute force will definitely kill it outright.”
“Fine, can you draw up the runes? And are any of the other creatures still alive? Please tell me that’s the only one.”
“It is. The others are only preserved but quite dead. There aren’t any enchantments on the diamond though that would explain how the snake could survive. Also I have never even heard of a species like that. Winged snakes? Sure enough. But with three sets of wings and that small? No idea what it could possibly be and that’s rather intriguing. My first guess would usually be that it is a chimera, artificially formed but it doesn’t look like it. Normally chimeras have some sort of defect, a fault line if you so will where the magic is anchored but I don’t see one on the little fellow. Combine that with its abnormally strong aura and it’s quite the mystery. As soon as we have a little more time I’ll make sure to get it out. I’m quite fascinated to tell you the truth.”
“Great, I’m really glad you found something to keep you busy but could you at least pretend to care about what happened to the creature? It’s a living being for crying out loud!”
“And what would that help? I already said I’d get it out and you’re sensitive enough for the both of us. Fret and cry for all I care but that’s not going to change a damned thing. Trust me on this. You don’t even know if it’s sentient. It could very well be just a dumb animal or maybe even a construct of pure magic.” Even though his inflection was nonchalant I felt like he was pretending. The way he eyed the little snake and the frown that crossed his face every time he looked at one of the crystals around us didn’t fit into his distanced and cold demon act. Considering what he had just said I had to wonder if there was a story there but he’d either tell me or he wouldn’t, not much I could do about it. Maybe once we were out of here I’d be able to wheedle something out of him but for now I had to let it go. I huffed and squeezed another drop of blood from the cut I had made previously.
“Do you honestly believe that a creature with an aura strong enough to overshadow all the artefacts around would be non sentient or artificially created? Would that even be possible? But if you say so, oh might demon, I’ll try to keep my idiotic compassion to a minimum.”
“No need to become snarky. It’s not my fault that you’re still too young to understand but you can’t just try to save every being you come across. It’ll kill you sooner or later but some people have to learn the hard way. But I find it kind of funny to have this conversation with someone who earned the moniker eater of immortals. You really have changed. I just hope we can survive your new found morales.” He was busily applying the runes to the diamond but I couldn’t just let that go.
“Eater of immortals? What does that even mean?”
“It means you were full of sunshine and rainbows in your previous life… idiot, it means you killed two angels and reduced a couple of demons to so much as stardust. And no, I won’t go into anymore detail. It’s still much too early and even though you seem astonishingly healthy for someone who went through two evolutions in quick succession I’m not going to risk triggering a third. The silver lines on your skin are already worrying enough. Ask me again in a year or two.” He had finished and the gem vanished into my stamp. When he turned around he poked me in the chest and added:
“Let’s focus on the present before we deal with the past, shall we?” Grudgingly I nodded. It wasn’t like I didn’t know that I had killed in the past, probably more often than I could even imagine but I’d still have liked to know why I had murdered two angels. If he at least told me their names I’d be able to tell if they had been Michael’s lackeys or connected to the corrupted pieces of reality Ahri had told me about but I knew it’d be pointless to ask.
“Fine. But now that you mentioned the silvery lines, could you at least tell me what they are? It felt like I could control my energy a little better once they appeared.”
“That’s no surprise. They signify that your meridians are already saturated with transcendent energy. You shouldn’t face anymore of the problems you had before when you channel too much energy, well at least not with the channeling part. You body is still far from that point and you skin and muscles can still break down but in theory you can use as much energy as you want, your meridians, at least, won’t crack. I’m just surprised you didn’t lose consciousness for a couple of days when Viyara pulled a spell through you and triggered the transformation. I have to admit, you’re much more resilient than I originally thought. Or maybe your immunity allows for some leeway, suppressing parts of the effect but either way you should thank your lucky star that you aren’t lying on the ground with blood dripping from your eyes and ears. I would also advise you to ask me the next time you intent to pull a stunt like that.”
“I would have, but unfortunately you were still in the middle of your beauty sleep. Next time I’ll talk to you before I try any form of new magic.”
“Promise?”
“Uhh…”
“That’s what I thought. Well then, we should be off. You said there was a second source of energy that caught your attention? Let’s head there and see what we find. Depending on how much space you still have left to spare afterwards I’ll decide which of the artefacts we have come across we’ll take with us.”
“Don’t I get a say?” “Sure, unfortunately you wouldn’t even recognise their properties never mind understanding them and explaining every single piece we stumble across would take ages. In this case you just have to trust me. Shouldn’t be too hard considering what I’ve already done for you.”
He gestured for me to lead the way and grumbling under my breath I walked off. He was infuriating but I had to admit, bantering with him had taken a load of my chest. I felt somewhat better, still worried about Ahri and my mom, not to mention the others, still tired and exhausted and seriously pissed at Shafeer for what he had done to his trophies but the spike of anger and the easy conversation had taken off the edge. Right now I was even looking forward to blowing up a ship and, if it went just right, a dragon. The fireworks would surely be worth it and with a little luck I’d be shot off the black, flying menace in an hour, maybe less. Then I could take care of whomever the emperor had sent to capture my family or at least get them to safety.
We left he macabre collection of encased corpses behind us quickly enough and headed into another part of the gilded labyrinth. We walked around several heaps of gold and jewels before a well organised section filled with enchanted items came into view. There wasn’t any order and most of the artefacts were thrown together hazardously, their auras mixing and intertwining. I had a hard time focusing on the brighter glimmer somewhere close because every little part of my surroundings now exuded a lot of energy in one form or the other. Rings, necklaces, gems, even boots and some dragon sized weapons made us slow down, carefully navigating around the precious objects. When we were nearly there and I could practically taste the powerful aura close by Mephisto stopped me.
“Grab that cane over there. The one with the emerald on top. It’s the first healing artefact I’ve seen down here. I think it’s chargeable holding up to five spells. It’s empty at the moment but we can ask Viyara to fill it. It works on life energy which should make the spells quite potent but it also means I can’t recharge it myself. You can break off the emerald if you want to, it’s the part carrying the magic. No need to burden us further.” I didn’t hesitated. Even if it probably wouldn’t work on me, I’d be more than happy to have something on me that could heal others. It was an immense solace to know that I wouldn’t have to watch idly again when my friends were injured. I slung my wings around the cane and held the gem in my hands. With a deft twist and tug the wood splintered and all I was left with was a chicken egg sized emerald, pulsing warmly with an inner light. On closer inspection I could see swirls of energy circulating through its depth, forming abstract shapes and complex constructs but they seemed somewhat hollow as if they were lacking substance. I assumed that would change as soon as it’d be recharged. Depositing the gem in my pocket I turned around and took a couple of more steps around a huge sundial with a base of silver and rods of a dark metal as arms. Behind it was an array of figurines depicting various hybrids.
They all showed humanoid creatures with the heads of animals except for one female figure, a beautiful face, long black hair and butterfly wings made her look like a fairy. The rest were males with the heads of a jackal, a hawk, and a crocodile. Their clothes were meticulously portrayed with flowing robes, sandals and circlets over their brows. Every statue was heavily enchanted but the one that stuck out to me was the one with the jackal head. Now that I stood in front of it I realised that it had even more energy stuck within than I had thought. The other figurines were surrounding it and were covering most of its aura as if they were guarding or imprisoning it. The hawk headed one even had a golden copis in his hand the tip aimed at where the heart of the jackal head would supposedly be. I really had a bad feeling about this…
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Mephisto said quietly. “That doesn’t look like something you should just grab.” He focused on the figurines and even hummed a short chant. When he spoke again his voice was tense. “I can’t analyse it. They are chock full of soul energy and as good as my control over mana is, I can’t overcome their resistance. Crap. Can you see anything?”
“Hmm, they are all bright as miniature suns and I think it was their combined aura that led me here. But the one that appears surrounded by the others has the strongest glow. They are not alive, I can tell you that for sure but the energy within them isn’t ordered either like I would expect it to be if they were just artefacts. It’s chaotic, almost like an imitation or memory of something that once lived. Maybe we should just leave them.” He scowled, giving me a patronising stare:
“Really now. Do you think that’s the best idea? Just a couple of possibilities: your friend on the fiery throne wasn’t interested in Erya but rather this small gathering of whatever they are. Or, they really are something like remnants of once great beings and the ones on the outside really keep the one at the centre in check. The volcano erupts and the formation is broken causing who knows what. I don’t know what they are and you may call me paranoid but in my experience something like that will bite you in the ass sooner or later if you don’t know what you’re dealing with. Considering that we are standing in front of one of the most magical things in a dragon’s hoard that has no apparent use I’d bet it’ll be sooner.”
“I don’t necessarily disagree but what do you want to do about it?”
“I’ll have a look at that diary we found while you go and fetch Viyara, who knows she might have heard something from her parents. If we can’t figure it out we’ll put them into the ruby before we blow it up. Whatever they are, they won’t survive an explosion like that, at least, I think so.”
“Yessir.” I mockingly saluted and pushed my consciousness into my stamp and back out again all the while focusing on the immense, crystalline tome. With a displacement of air the thing appeared before me and the runes Mephisto had drawn on the cover disappeared with a puff of smoke. For a moment I was wondering how runes, that were dependent on the maker’s understanding and worked of the natural laws of the cosmos could be used up but I imagined that it might be an intended effect. If they didn’t have that property, retrieving the item would be neigh impossible. I didn’t bother asking though, I’d find out soon enough when he’d teach me how to create them myself.
When Mephisto opened the tome I unfurled my wings and quickly rose into the air until I could see Viyara’s horns peaking out between the hills of gold and silver. I angled my body and rode the streams of hot air that alway swirled above the sea of magma. Even though I could just forcefully push into the direction I wanted to go it was much easier to go with the flow, so to speak. My tails made for a formidable rudder and I easily glided towards the moving rods of solid silver. I wanted to cast a quick glance at the scrying spell Erya had cast on the wall of magma now that I’d be able to see it again but it was gone, probably dispersed when she had left for the library. Well, she’d tell us if anything happened to Pete, I assumed. A few seconds later I settled down on Viyara’s head which made her jump, albeit only slightly. It was hard to sneak up on someone to whom you were connected and who could sense you, after all.
“Hi there, found anything interesting?” I asked.
“Quite a few things but I don’t know how much we’ll be able to carry with us. What about you?”
“Oh, the same… your dad had a really sick sense of decorations, though. I thought stuffing Viyara into a ruby was a one time thing, but…” my voice trailed off.
“Oh, you found his species repository…,” a wave of shame rushed through her mind.
Cassandra Pendragon“Repository?” I asked. “Was he preparing for the world to end?”“Not quite, he was just convinced that a dragon should have a sample of every mythical creature that inhabits his lands. You know, like a collection of blue prints of sorts. He said that species die out constantly, some when their environment changed, some are hunted to extinction. As a guardian it’s a dragon’s duty to remember them and, if need be, revive them.”“Than why are you ashamed of what he did? To me that sounds like a good idea, maybe a little arrogant but who am I to judge?”“Because he, well, he thought the young were best suited for what he wanted as their bodies were still growing. To make things worse… did you know that the body changes once you die? It starts to decompose and even seconds can make a huge difference in how your organs and everything else behaves. So he… he froze them while they were still alive!” She was pawing at the cover of gold coins she stood on nervously. “Can you
Mordred Pendragon Getting drunk had been fun, having a hangover, not so much. But I had needed it, dearly. Ever since the battle for Boseiju, things had been strange, to say the least. True enough we had lost our home and my father but that wasn’t why I had reached for a bottle the first chance I had gotten. After Cassy had smashed the jewel I had used to bind a part of Amazeroth’s power, I had felt his presence leave me instantly but right along with it, a fog or rather a blockade had vanished and I had remembered how my trip back then, when I had first found the island, had actually happened. Ever since, my feelings were in turmoil, old grudges, forgotten under Amazeroth’s spell had hit me again in full force. My envy, the suffocating anger, it all came back in a rush. During the battle it hadn’t mattered too much, I had been much too occupied with staying alive but afterwards… well, it had become a chore just being around my family, especially Cassandra. To make matters worse, ev
Cassandra PendragonIt was strange to not fly on my own, even more so as I didn’t see my body nor Erya’s, well at least not with my eyes. While we had been within the hoard clouds had been rolling in from the south and the night was dark enough to make me feel almost blind if it weren’t for my second vision. It allowed me to see Erya and the swaths of energy that swirled around her close by, her hand firmly wrapped around mine while she worked her magic on us, keeping us invisible and airborne. Once again she was channeling her magic through the focus Greta had made and we rushed through the night, not more than another blurry shadow in a sea of black.A stiff breeze tousled my hair and ruffled my tails, it carried the smell of rain and a faint scent of seaweeds with it, chasing away my fatigue. If I focused hard I could still hear the sounds of the animals on the green slopes behind us. We had left the crater not 5 minutes ago, after a last exchange with Pete and the others. Over a h
Cassandra Pendragon I hadn’t been paranoid. In hindsight it had been painfully obvious: Galathon could use portals in his humanoid form, probably better or at least as well as Mephisto. I had even seen it before. Absently I pulled my cloak closer around myself, not that it helped much, soaked as it was. It had started to rain half an hour ago and thick curtains of water had drenched us to the bone within seconds. A veritable tropical storm. I was huddle down between Viyara’s horns, her warm scales a welcomed contrast to the cold that was slowly creeping through me. Mephisto had retreated into his coin soon after our departure, his energy all but spent, and Erya and Pete were silently talking further down Viyara’s back. Barzuk was gone. Shuddering I relived the last hour once again… Erya and I returned to the lair quickly. In the throne room, Barzuk helped Viyara put on a complicated array of bags and ropes, a hastily improvised harness that’d allow her to carry a heavy load without i
Cassandra PendragonThe first warmth of a new day carried away our grief and worries and left behind a tranquil companion ship while we allowed the beautiful colours the fresh light cast on the seas below and the clouds above to sooth us. As an old poet I had been quite fond of in my previous life had written: the morning steals upon the night, melting the darkness from your heart. A bit cheesy but when I took in the red and yellow streaks across the horizon that painted the underside of the looming clouds purple with shades of white, black and grey I thought I understood what he had meant. A new day always brought hope to those that were ready to seize it. Carpe diem and some such. “How long do you think we’ll still be in the air until we reach the island?” I asked Viyara.“Not much longer, we should be able to see it pretty soon. We’ve been going for over 5 hours. Why don’t you try to contact Ahri again? Maybe she’s awake. I’ll talk to Erya, she’s been trying to reach me after Pete
Cassandra PendragonPete was…fun to talk to. Even though we quickly came to what he knew about the acolytes the round of introductions was still enough to get a sprinkling of his humour. He even took it in stride when Erya renamed him from “Lucky Pete” to “Smelly Pete” and doused him with a jet of conjured water even thigh the rain had washed away most of the filth. He had the necessary distance to what had happened, especially in regards to Viyara “putting away”, his words, not mine, most of the people he knew and the way he talked about his childhood as a street urchin wasn’t bitter, maybe even a little proud. I understood his “the devil may care” attitude and quite enjoyed his quips. “When the going gets tough the tough get going” was his explanation, for example, why he had, “poised and in complete control of his mental state”, stoically asked for help. He was also a treasure trove of information and gave us a brief overview of how the pirates were organised and what we should ex
Surprisingly he didn’t strike which put me into a dilemma. Now I actually had to think about if I wanted to attack him instead of just burning the shit out of him without a moment’s pause. I just wanted to get in unrecognised and, once I had the ring, I hoped I’d be able to smooth out any problems I created along the way. On second thought, that wasn’t much of a plan without even considering that I only had a vague idea about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do afterwards. Alright, a talk it was. We could get back to bashing our heads in quickly enough, anyways.I spread out my wings and came to an abrupt halt, a couple of meters away from him. Chaleb was a big boy, his current incarnation came from one of the technologically advanced, humanoid races. They had meddle with his body in the stereotypical mad scientist with a gruesome laboratory fashion when he had first displayed a part of his heritage. As a knight he had easily pulled through and, as far as I knew, there was st
“I’d usually say someone is trying to frame me for cutting off a demon’s horn but since you’re not already jumping down my throat I assume I have a good alibi.” I leaned forward in my chair and carefully picked up the horn. It was surprisingly heavy and upon closer inspection I realised it wasn’t made of solid gold but had a dark, organic base with golden glyphs drawn over it until it appeared like a piece of metal. Residual energy still lingered within but it was dormant, cut off from its source. The silvery taint at the bottom was slowly spreading through the reservoir of magic in the horn and gradually turned it into something else.No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t clearly make out what was going on. From my point of view the horn was filled with golden energy that had some streaks of black and red running through. A single thread of silvery-blue light curled through the centre and minuscule changes appeared wherever they came into contact. The Gold, Black and Red didn’t trans
Cassandra PendragonHer eight eyes followed me wearily while I rose ever higher into the air, my wings slithering around the statue like the coils of a hunting serpent. I could feel the enchantments and spells the dark granite had been imbued with give way without offering any resistance and slowly the inner working of the statue became visible to my second sight. Most of the magic wasn’t actually in the legs, they had been crafted as conductors and to inflict pain but the truly ingenious parts were hidden in the torso and head, both of them ablaze with the energy that flowed through them. The way I saw it, everything Shassa could offer, from her life force to her soul, could be torn from her and channeled through the legs towards the centre of the statue. What I thought to be the seed would then start to fill with power and once it had accumulated enough, a purified pulse of what I suspected would be transcendent energy, was going to be sent towards the head. An intricate array of e
Cassandra PendragonUnbelievably, the body was still moving, faint twitches and the occasional shudder made it obvious just how much pain she was in. Crap, I could already feel the urge to help her, to free her of her binds without any form or reassurance or gain on my part. Pity was a damned nuisance.“Great, now what?” I mumbled.“Don’t be daft, I know you can cut through spells. Go ahead, you’ve done it before, haven’t you?” “And then? Do I shake you until you wake up?” She rolled her eyes and that was quite the spectacle, like a wave that ran across her face.“Heal me enough to communicate but not more than that or you might come to regret it. You can do that, can you not?”“I hope so, probably… maybe? Uh, won’t there be two versions of me, anyways?”“No, the path you’re trying to reach hasn’t been walked yet, it’s just a dream of the universe in a way. It’ll become reality once you cross over, there won’t be two versions of you but I’m not sure where you’ll end up. You could also
Cassandra PendragonOne might ask why I had said eight legged monster, there hadn’t been much to see after all, images don’t usually linger on the edge of dreams but the longer I communicated with Shassa, the more real everything appeared to me. From exchanged memories lived through between two fluttering thoughts the scene around had developed into the grey of the mind scape, a place I was starting to get familiar with. I had a body and sensory impressions but there was nothing there except for a hazy silhouette, still hidden behind a veil of fuzzy thoughts. With every contact, every exchange she had become clearer until I saw her for the first time and the disembodied memories flowed together to show me whom I was dealing with. Her body was that of a huge spider, bloated and black with red markings in the shape of a reversed cross on her back. Eight bowed, chitinous legs held her upright, each one of them at least 2 metres long with a sharp, deadly claw at its end. Her torso ended
Ahri AreteThe smell wasn’t as bad as one might imagine. The continuous scrambling and scratching was another matter. The noise produced by an army on the rise was horrific, a constant, piercing pressure against my ears that made it impossible to focus on anything but the moving assembly of spare parts and limbs before me.Mordred and I had retreated under the shadow of the statue, Reia alongside Shassa’s withered body between us. Eight stone claws pinned her to the ground and even though the wounds had dried up long ago a distinct metallic odour still lingered around her prone form. Her eyes were closed, shrivelled and blind, eight deep holes on top of her head like windows to an empty room. Reia was still and pale, her mind had fled from the sensations that were racing through their connection, from the pain that had flooded her once the spell had started working. Viyara was hovering in the air, sparks of magic running along her talons and fangs while she surveyed the amassing hord
Ahri AreteHer knees buckled, her wings vanished and she fell. I was barely fast enough to catch her before she hit the ground but with a few frantic wingbeats I managed to sling my arms around her lithe body before she could add another injury to her growing collection. I was still angry, nay, furious and maybe a little shocked but when her soft curves came to rest against my chest and her fluffy tails circled around my middle reflexively I couldn’t help it, my anger melted like snow under the midday sun and I was simply happy to hold her again, dirty and mangled as she was. She wasn’t wounded anymore, as far as I could tell but her skin had a feverish colour and heat radiated off of her as if she was still fighting for her life, spasms making her muscles twitch against me constantly. Her body was liberally coated with the remains of her rampage, but the few untarnished spots showed the same alabaster hue I had come to know so well but now there was distinct sheen of silver to it,
Cassandra PendragonNope, neither sunshine nor rainbows but at least I didn’t find myself in the middle of the ocean. When I had stepped through the portal, a brief moment of vertigo and disorientation had led me into an atrium, for want of a better word. From the corner of my eye, I saw a doorway and the first steps of a wide staircase that vanished into the earth. The walls were bare but polished stone, a reflective surface crisscrossed with lines of shimmering metal, glowing faintly in the dark. Behind me the energy of the portal still hummed reassuringly, my way back was still open. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite concentrate on my surroundings, a still bleeding corpse in the middle of the room commandeered most of my attention.There, practically at the centre of the chamber, laid a chimera, with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent. Black blood oozed from deep gashes in its hide, some clean and narrow, others wide with frayed edges. It looked like the
Cassandra PendragonCould it possibly be meant to connect to someone else rather than something else? I had always wanted to learn how to heal, after all. Mephisto had basically told me that my new body would be formed in the image of what my soul desired, without the rationalisations an active mind would use to ignore the sometimes darker nature of what I might long for. If that was true, it wouldn’t be too far fetched to imagine that I had given myself a way to restore what shouldn’t be lost. Unfortunately I didn’t how I could try it out without a Guinea pig. Right then, every time I wanted to move my energy through the wing, I encountered a resistance, a blockade that wouldn’t allow my powers to pass. It felt like knocking at the door of an empty house, in theory it was supposed to open but someone was needed to turn the key and invite you in. For now, it wouldn’t be more than a fancy streak of colour among the silvery torrents of energy.Much more confident than I had been two min
Cassandra Pendragon“You’re a bloody idiot, that’s what you are. But you got balls, at least metaphorically, I’ll give you that.” “Thanks, by now you’ve repeated yourself enough times as well that my tiny brain can retain the information.” I was long past the initial rush of gratitude I had felt when I had first regained a resemblance of consciousness in a grey world of nothingness. By now I was mainly annoyed and a little worried.Unbelievably my stunt hadn’t been the end. I should’ve been dead, my very personality obliterated in the truest sense of the word, my core clean for another spin of the wheel but… I wasn’t. No thanks to my efforts as Mephisto kept on reminding me. He had saved me, in a way. The unbound energy that had been released in the chamber prior to my temporal displacement had been more than enough to reconstruct his reservoirs and the interwoven sparks of transcendent energy had allowed him to perform a miracle, his words, not mine. He had come to when I had collap
Cassandra PendragonI was somewhere in between. I could still see the circular chamber as an afterimage of sorts while I struggled with the sensations my own body was providing me with. Every muscle and tendon connected to my wings was burning as if it had been dunked in acid and I could feel torrents of blood gush down my back, a warm stream of sticky liquid that formed a dark puddle beneath my feet. I couldn’t remain upright, spasms raced up my legs and along my back and I collapsed face first into my own blood. My wings felt like they were about to be pulled out of their sockets, a much stronger force than I had ever experienced had taken hold of them and was constantly trying to rip me a part. My ingenious manoeuvre had worked, I was in my own time stream and still anchored in the alternate version. Unfortunately that also meant that right now my wings were the only thing connecting two separate streams. In a way I was a stick thrust between two wheels. If the wheels were turning