Eventually the team came back together.

People relaxed.

People started talking again on the ship’s channels.

Eliot repaired damage, Lola and David and Derek grew plants, Tartu and Andria got to work on a better anti-fear engine, and Mark watched the sky. Isoko helped Sally with mana manifestation.

Isoko plucked the fragment of Mark’s fractal black mana out of the scanner and replaced it with her own. Mark didn’t see the display himself, but Quark replicated it for him on the deck.

4 layers, 950 km, 87% match.

“Well that’s plain awesome,” Mark commented, in Channel 4, Open Talk. “How so close?”

“It does not seem that unusual to me,” Tartu said, while he was working on something else. “Isoko is prismatic based, and she wants Sky Shaper. Practically any flying kaiju would suffice. Isoko’s Platinum Body nuances limit the search only a little.”

With excitement, Isoko asked, “We going after it?”

Tartu said, “We need to make some wind shields. If we had grav crystal then we could put a proper envelope on the ship, like a normal hovership, and that would help a lot. We could go to Kabberjaw and get that, first?”

No one openly teased him for deciding to ‘trade with dragons/exiles’, but Derek was the closest to actually saying something.

“Don’t want to go there yet,” Mark said. “Not without another Super Power on our side capable of killing a dragon. And that means Sky Shaper.”

Isoko said, “I don’t think Grandma ever killed any High Dragons, but… yeah.”

She was nervous.

Mark continued, “I’ll leave the ship to kill it as easily as I can, everyone keeps the ship away, and you be ready to fly in and burrow through PL 99 flesh with a sword I make for you, Isoko.”

“Got it,” Isoko said, making herself sound sure.

Eliot said, “Then we need better defenses. I want to integrate that brightspeed crystal in a few ways. Not sure howwithout a LOT of grav crystal, too, but we have a little bit growing in our vats downstairs. Enough to get started. Not enough to make a major hover ring, which I do want eventually.”

Andria spoke up, “A stronger mithril engine with that brightspeed crystal integrated into it… should be more than enough? To evade mostkaiju, anyway. I want to say it will be, but I don’t know. That is more brightspeed crystal than I have ever laid eyes on… You sure you want to use a whole 10 kilos in the mithril engine, Eliot?”

“Let’s go with 25,” Eliot said.

Andria went, “Ahhh… Need to make a bigger engine, then. So I need to meditate to make more mithril. It’ll take a few hours. And some directed Unions to help me with that.”

“On it!” Derek said.

Mark said, “So for now, we sail that direction.”

There was some hemming, hawing, and decisions about various small things, but Isoko got up to the controls and she put on the gas, and soon the Dreadnought was sailing through the sky, toward the target.

“28 hours to target,” Isoko calculated, “Maybe 2 days, if we take it slow. We’ll need to go through 3 other layers to get there, so howare we doing that? This ship doesn’t have an ego shield, right?”

“It does not have an ego shield, this is correct,” Eliot said, “But that’s one of the reasons why Derek is here.”

“And me, too,” Mark said. “All of us Union-users can function as an ego shield.”

Lola spoke up, “I would like to make sure everyone knows how this works, when there is no ego shield. Anyoneunclear on how to travel through Endless Daihoon? It’s not an often-discussed subject.”

Mark spoke up, “Everything is always shifting left and right and up and down in Endless Daihoon, like the auroras in the sky that they are. So basically, traveling in Endless Daihoon is about pointing yourself in a direction and then crossing a bunch of moving conveyor belts, all moving at different speeds, in order to get where you want to go.

“Below those layers of movement are actual lands, and once you get past the layers, which we are in right now, you might end up in an actual land. It’s like falling off of the factory conveyor belts, onto the factory floor. There are an endless number of factory floors.

“The factory floors disintegrate, too, and if you’re there for a disintegration you… uh, die.

“So if we fall, we will need to find the aurora in the sky that we fell out of and get back up there to get back into the layers.

“Moving between layers is a matter of mental strength and unity. An ego shield, which is like a Faraday cage but with a single mind inside of it, usually artificial in nature but a Tinkerer could do it, allows a single mind to convey the people inside of the ego shield into the new layer.

“So I’ll be working with everyone to point us in a direction, into another ribbon layer, instead of into the space between the ribbons, which would be landing on the factory floor.”

“Quite correct, Mark,” Lola said, feeling a spot of relief. “And from what I’m feeling from everyone, you all understand how this works, too. But know this: In theory, it’s easy. In practice, it’s hard. Those ribbons, those layers, are not nearly as close or as far as they appear to be out there.” Lola asked, “Any questions?”

Isoko asked, “What are the lands below the layers actually like?”

Tartu answered, “They’re the Dreamlands. They’re manifested dreams of people, places, and purpose. They’re fragments in the Veil, anywhere from the size of a continent, to scattered asteroids, that are constantly being consumed and conjured. As far as I know, if you truly fall to the dreamlands then you need to kill it to clear the nightmare in the dream, or find the exit, back to the layer. Some nightmares are easy and the continents they create become stable things. Some nightmares will kill you too fast for you to recognize you are being killed.

“Let’s not go to any dreamland.”

A worry settled into the ship, but that worry bounced right off of one person.

Derek countered, “They’re not that dangerous! I’ve been to several.”

“And how many times did you die?” Tartu countered the counter.

“… like, 9 times out of… 9— But I’m weak as fuck! And we’ll all fall together and Mark is here, so I’m not worried.”

Whatever brief worry had touched the Dreadnought fell away.

Tartu agreed, “True enough.”

Isoko said, “Looks like we got 12 hours before we need to switch layers, anyway, and this is the right direction. So… Settle in for a trip!”

And so, they all settled in.

Mark hung out on the operations deck, watching the world go by.

Isoko came out and did some flying tests, which was pretty great to see. She buoyed herself on silver wings, flickering into the air, spinning and twirling, before settling back onto the ground. She said her Alteration was very stable, and she had updated it back when Mark was killing goblins at Goblinhome.

Mark said, “I thought I noticed better control.”

“It’s a 740 piece Alteration now,” Isoko said, arms out and down, legs slightly bent over each other, silver wind hovering her above the deck. “Twice as big as before.”

Mark smiled. “Ready to get Sky Shaper?”

“Don’t jinx it!”

Mark smirked, and then he turned serious for a moment, asking, “What happens afterward?”

Isoko landed, silver winds flowing, voice definitive, “Kaiju Squad. More magic lessons. Utility work. In-depth study of Endless Daihoon so we can come back and do more. Maybe we meet others that want in on this kaiju-killing train, and we elevate them, too. Very, very soon, if we come out of this intact and powered up, then it’s talks with Crystal Tower and also Aluatha and the Central Cities about big things. Big power.

“Sally wants to do political stuff. Not sure if I care about that.

“I want to follow where my grandmother knows to lead, in the HVP. My entire family is Wind Shapers except for me… Maybe Riku… Did I ever tell you about my sister?”

Mark said, “All you ever told me was that she never came back from Tutorial… 6 years ago?”

Isoko nodded. “Never returned. We thought she opted to head over to Daihoon, but then time passed and we accepted that she passed away, either in the Tutorial or afterward. So then this Resurrection Magic thing came along and… Well I want to do that, too, eventually. And your parents too, right? Everyone!” Isoko snorted, looking down and away, softly repeating, “… Everyone.”

Mark suddenly remembered something, and Mark wondered how to break the news to her…

Just tell it like it is.

Isoko suddenly eyed him, aware that something big was crossing his mind.

Mark began, “When I was fighting Wongod, he told me that he knew resurrection magic, and I think his entire kind might know it, because… Wongod… Well. I’ll get back to that. The big thing here is that Wongod said that when time passes, the resurrected lose memories.”

Isoko’s eyes went wide. “… Okay. Is that the whole thing… No. There’s a lot more.”

Mark decided, “I should tell everyone. So I’m going to do that.” Mark hopped onto Channel 4 again, and announced, “Everyone on to Channel 4, please. I need to say some things.”

Confusion spread, and then worry. Everyone got onto the channel.

Mark said, “So a lot of things happened when I was killing Goblinhome that relate to future plans to find Resurrection Magic on Endless Daihoon. To start with… The goblins are elves.”

“The FUCK do you mean they’re elves?!” Tartu instantly, almost violently asked.

And so began a long explanation that took about 30 minutes and which had Mark spilling a lot of secret information that he was probably not supposed to spill, but he was gonna spill it anyway. He didn’t talk about Reeni and dreamwalking, but Tartu demanded to know who he got his information from… And then, suddenly, Tartu backed off from that.

“No one should repeat this anywhere,” Tartu said.

“I agree,” Lola said. “But please continue Mark. I am absolutely sure that we should not be hearing this, but fuck the Empire. What’s this about the Green? Later, I would ask Tartu about the Deep Dreaming. You were going to tell us a story about that.”

“Yeah! I want to hear it!” Derek said.

“But after this Green stuff,” Derek said, “Never heard of this before.”

“… I’ll tell that tale later,” Tartu said.

Mark continued, “So the Green was weird, and it makes me think of the Dreamlands that you mentioned, Tartu, but less solid. Anyway. Wongod was this giant tree with a spike stuck in him and everyone else were goblins in the mist, and they pulled apart memories, I think, from the darkness that they surrounded, eating those memories, those dreams…”

Mark spoke for another half hour, which was mostly filled with a recap, from the top, as requested by Lola.

“And without interruptions, please,” Lola said to everyone else.

So Mark got through all of that, and soon he finished.

Lola spoke, “Thank you, Mark. I will have to think about all of that, though I do not know where to even begin to understand all of that. Perhaps Tartu’s history with the Old Gods might help?”

“… Okay, but you’re gonna have to give me an hour. We got time,” Tartu said.

“Sure,” Mark said, adding, “And if you have any ideas about how to actually kill goblins forever,or how to get rid of them, I want to know. I’m assuming that getting rid of them is easier than killing them.”

“Why do you even want to deal with them anymore,” Tartu muttered. It was not a question.

Mark said, “Wongod is not going to stop trying to kill humanity, so we need to kill him permanently, first.”

Tartu’s vector snapped a bit, in that moment, and he spat, “I don’t fucking know anything anymore! Just… Just…” Tartu took a breath, and said, “Apologies. I must think.”

Lola spoke up, “Take the time you need. Sally, David, and I will be preparing meals soon. Mark, would you like more of that fish? Did you like it?”

Mark went with the flow, saying, “It was great, yes. I’ll be… sitting out here, on alert.”

Mark turned off Channel 4 and took a deep breath.

Time passed, almost serene, despite the many small panics happening everywhere on the ship, all the time. Mark did a Union of Good and Bad the whole time, linking with Derek, primarily, and everyone else secondarily, but only really because Derek was a network of people unto himself. Good vibes flowed in, bad vibes flowed out.

Emotions calmed.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Everyone talked about ‘goblins are elves?!’, and then about the Green, and about the goblin problem. The most immediate solution was ‘kill Wongod and maybe that would work if you actually managed to kill him, even if he did come back; install Goofy as new leader; give them a ship and tell them to find a place on Endless Daihoon for themselves’. Tartu shot that down as a nonsensical solution, and not onlybecause expecting people of any kind to make a life on Endless Daihoon was crazy, but because...

“It wouldn’t work,” Tartu said. “It physically would not work.”

“Why though?” Mark asked, “Physically?”

“I’ll… I’ll explain after I figure it out. I’m busy on this brightspeed interface right now.”

The conversation moved on.

Lunch was served, and Mark got to eat some truly amazing fish again. It had texture! It had flavor! It vanished into his body and he had no idea where it went or what it became, because Mark hadn’t pooped or peed in a week! Still, it was good fish.

Hours passed. People spoke of this or that.

Sally asked about a sleep schedule, and then other decisions were made and Eliot started furnishing bedrooms. Mark had been keeping everyone awake with a Union of Wakefulness and Sleepiness every now and then and Derek slept 5 of himselves most of the time, which made a good Sleep-sink, but everyone was ready for the real thing. Everyone but Mark had been up for at least 30 hours, and Mark would continue to stay awake until he found his kaiju, but everyone else needed sleep, and badly… Everyone except David, apparently.

“I power-napped when no one was looking,” David said, “I’m expected to do that a lot more, and I’m good.”

“Well neat!” Mark said.

And then Tartu spoke on the comms and his voice was not a normal conversational voice at all.

Tartu intoned, “It is nearly time for sleep for many of us, and so, I will soon tell the story of the Darklight. I will tell the story that was told to me, passed down from my father, and then from my mother, who learned it from their father and mother, who learned it from their father and mother. Please, if you are on the sleep schedule, get to bed, and lay down.

“If you are on the wake schedule, which should just be David, Derek, and Mark, please remain at post.

“I will begin the story when we’re all ready.”

Silence, and surprise.

Mark softly said, “Well you all heard the man. Bed time!”

Isoko snorted in the comms.

Sally muttered, “Fine by me.”

Derek teased, “I’m still in bed! Should I wake up for this or—”

“This is not something I undertake lightly,” Tartu said, cutting through Derek’s mirth. “Decide what you want to be for this right now, Derek. Awake or asleep. I venture you should be awake right now. All of you. Everywhere. Telling this story while a person is asleep will give them deadly nightmares, and I am not sure if you qualify as asleep right now. So wake, and stay awake.”

“… Oh shit,” Derek said, “This is the real fucking deal, huh?”

Mark felt the sleeping Dereks wake, and then Derek was all awake, at least on the ship.

He was probably still asleep in at least one location, somewhere, just to see what would happen.

Derek said, “I need a bit more time. I’m waking up. There’s a lag between worlds. 5 minutes.”

Tartu magnanimously said, “That is acceptable.”

Mark sat on the forecastle of the ship, watching the sky for monsters, for kaiju.

Big Silver’s visit had scared everything away, but there were some Calls echoing out there again. It was a light noise. A light Fear. That Fear crashed against the golden shields of the ship and remained outside of the Dreadnought.

Isoko sounded off first, “Ready.”

Sally, Andria, Eliot, and Lola all soon reported ready as well.

David was upstairs, at the controls, and Derek was scattered around the place, awake and watching the world from many different ports in the hull, and from on deck here and there. They reported ‘ready’ as well.

Mark said, “Ready.”

Tartu took a breath.

His voice carried on the comms,

“Here, in the twilight, I will tell the story of the Dreaming, and in the telling, wish all sleepers good dreams, and all wakers good luck.

“For those who sleep, I pray you know that the Darklight shows many things, but we are not letting those things hurt us tonight. For those who watch the night, I pray for you, for those things can and will hurt you, and us, if you should fail to watch well. May the Darklight comfort the sleepers, and stay away from the wakers.

“May the visions of old dreams cast no illusions on anyone here tonight.

“Hear now the story of the Dreamer who Dreamed of Demons.

“Once long ago, there was a world of normalcy. The sky was blue, the sun was bright, the land easily gave bounty and the oceans held a myriad of fish. People wanted for nothing, for the world provided everything. People helped each other, and neighbors gave freely. Back then, everyone could speak to everything. Communication was easy.

“A man could ask the seas for fish, and fish would come.

“A woman could ask the ground for grains, and grains would come.

“A man and a woman would ask the world for a child, and then they would have a child, and thus humanity continued.

“And then there was a man who wanted more. He wanted to understand. To know. And in the knowing, to do. The man was notthe Dreamer, for he was concerned only with worldly matters.

“This man was called Seed.

“Seed talked to the world, and the world talked back. Seed discovered how to talk to the stars, and the stars showed him places far away. Seed discovered the language of bodies, and he healed his neighbors of their small cuts from pulling plants out of the ground, or fishing fish. He helped women give birth. Seed linked small tribes together by finding out the language of roads, which was a variation of the language of land and of travel, and which was Seed’s first created language.

“Seed created many variations of language. New languages.

“New possibilities.

“Seed’s ultimate creation was the Language of Civilization, and he wielded those Words of Power for everyone. Seed became a king, raising his people up. Mud huts became stone buildings. Stone became rock, became metal, and then Seed flew among the sky with his people, the message of civilization spreading far, touching all, further creating the Language of Civilization.

“But Seed passed on and no one knew all of his languages, and so, came the split.

“Civilization shattered.

“A million peoples became a million purposes with a million new kings, vying for the power of their former king.

“And now, we come to the Dreamer.

“The Dreamer was a man who wanted more for his people, like all other Kings of Seed. But he was different, for he did not Do, so much as Want. He wanted new things that had never been thought of before. He wanted new Words of Power, made in new lands. But there were no new lands, because all of the world had been filled already. Too many peoples. Nowhere to explore. Nowhere for new possibilities to be created.

“Seed had colonized the world, and the world was full.

“The Dreamer closed his eyes on the real world, knowing there was nothing there for him, and in the dark behind his eyelids, he imagined more. He Dreamed.

“And so, the Dreamer Dreamed of More, and he discovered the Language of Dreams, of Darklight.

“Of lands untold.

“Of purposes forever greater than what came before.

“The Dreamer Dreamed of the impossible made real, and in that dreaming he split the world, stepping through reality, to unreality, to pure creation.

“To new lands, and new places.

“The Dreamer walked the Darklight for a time, but little did he know he had a reflection in the dark. A helper. A Doer, who Did when the Dreamer could only Want.

“Eventually the Dreamer found that Doer, but as a Darklight reflection.

“The Dreamer had Dreamed his Demon into being.

“At first, it was good.

“At first, the Dreamer and the Demon invented, created, conjured, declared, and made real the worlds of Darklight. Every sleep was another split. Every dream was another world, just inside the Darklight. In time, the Dreamer made a stable world inside the Darklight, one he liked, and he opened the portal and invited his myriad of people through.

“They called their creation Daihoon.”

Mark felt the vectors in the ship shock at that idea. Mark was shocked at that idea, too.

This story was old.

Tartu took a breath, and continued, “Of the world we came from, we do not know where it is, or what it is called, but we assume that if we ever find the name that we can find our way back, but let us leave that to the side and continue with the story.

“The Dreamer’s people spread throughout Daihoon, creating, conjuring dreams of their own into being, conjuring their own demons, their own Darklight reflections. Each demon helped create, each person anchored that creation to the edge of Daihoon, expanding the dream further and further.

“But endless possibility caused strife eventually, and the Dreamer’s Demon wanted More, just how the Dreamer wanted More. But the Dreamer was content with his gains. The Demon was not. The Demon wanted More, so very much More.

“And so, the Demon did what demons do.

“The Demon killed the Dreamer, and in so doing severed our connection to our previous world.

“Daihoon was cast adrift in the Darklight, and the way home was lost.

“But the Dream remains, and people still dream all the time. They still imagine better possibilities, and better worlds. You can still see those connections out there, in the sky. That’s what the auroras are.

“And sometimes, when a person Dreams most deeply, as we all do sometimes, they might conjure a demon from the Darklight, and the sky will gain another light, and the knot of lights around the moon will gain another tangle as another demon is born on Daihoon and they reach up there, to Arakino.

“Perhaps one day you will meet your demon in your dream.

“Perhaps tonight.

“But do not worry about your Darklight reflections in the dream, in the Darklight. There are no binding agreements in the Darklight. There are no monsters when you sleep, for we are already in the world of monsters, and dreaming lets us escape this world, even if only briefly. So never lose sight of your dreams, for dreams are amazing things.

“Perhaps, one of you might even dream of the world we used to come from, and in doing so, open the way back.

“Now Pray with me.

“Pray to the Darklight for good dreams of our own, and pray to the Darklight that the dreams of monsters are kept far away by the spears and arrows of those who remain awake.

“Praise be the Darklight.”

The story was over, Tartu was done.

The comms fell silent.

Mark stared at the myriad crossroads of former dreamers, crossing Endless Daihoon, wondering how much of the story was real, or a myth to explain things to superstitious people. But then again, dreams were real, and Mark had ventured into his own dreams to see his Binding, right alongside Quark, who was kinda like a ‘Darklight Reflection’ of him… But also not? Mark took a breath, using lungs he was pretty sure he imagined into being, and his heart beat in a way he imagined it should still beat, and his brain fired off electrical signals in ways he was sure should still exist… but did they? Or was it all an illusion of his mind?

Who was he?

Did he have his own ‘demon’ out there, on Arakino?

Or… rather, did Mark have a demon here on Daihoon?

Was the Tutorial of the System a dream creation, to give power where there had been no power before?

What wasthe System?

What was anything?

Everyone was having deep, weird thoughts.

Isoko asked, “Is that a real story?”

“It is as real as anything,” Tartu said. “Now sleep, sleepers, and watch, watchers. Good night, and good dreams.”

Isoko, Sally, Eliot, Andria, Lola, and Tartu’s vectors went inward and then deeplyinward as they all drifted off to sleep. Mark was pretty sure there was some sort of magic involved, but it was subtle. Quiet.

Derek, Mark, and David were fully awake, and they would remain as such.

Mark asked on the comms, “So that was magic, right?”

David said, “Yes. It happens every time the story is told properly, which Tartu did, which Lola told me about before it happened in case it did happen. Tartu warned us it would happen, too… Didn’t know he could actually do that, though.”

“Anyone can do it if they know the full story, and if the environment is amenable,” Derek said, in an uncharacteristically stable tone. Usually he was joking in some way, but he wasn’t joking right now. “I’ve never seen it actually work.”

“Will monsters come out in the ‘night’?” Mark asked, looking at the sunny ‘sky’.

“Probably not,” Derek said, “Those guys are gonna have some special dreams, though, and we will too, next time we sleep. But for now… eyes peeled?”

David said, “Eyes peeled, everyone.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Derek said.

Mark softly echoed, “Aye, aye.”