AMBROSIAAs we made it to the top floor without much incident, we considered waiting for them, but they seemed to be taking awhile. But seeing as how they were several hours late, we eventually wandered to the top, where we talked once again with the Aiken master.

    “You have returned, just as I asked. Have you come to answer the question I had for you?” the Aiken Master asked. It had been awhile. I asked, “What was it again?” The Aiken Master sighed, then explained, “I wanted to know, with all the power you''re getting, what will you do with your power? You''ve seen it around you. The Council has fallen, the money is such that people can''t spend, war is rampant, and people are suffering. You could easily topple the powers of this world and set things right.”

    I wasn''t sure about that. I had some cool abilities, but most of them were close combat stuff, not like waving a sword around and causing entire mountainsides to avalanche. Well, I''d never tried to use my power on a massive scale. But... there felt like there was something wrong with this approach, so I decided to ask more questions. “Well,” I said, “of course, I don''t want to use it to hurt others, even though I''m told I need to use it on a certain demon, but knowing you, the answer''s more complicated than that.” He nodded.

    He explained, “You''ve seen others with power. The whole adage ''absolute power corrupts absolutely'' isn''t quite true. There are those with power who have in fact used it responsibly, and those who haven''t. What do you think separated them? Why did Nevras''s mother and father seek to keep peace between countries, and why did it fail? What was the real problem?” I thought about this for awhile, pacing around a bit. Finally, I guessed, pretty much, “It seems what corrupts is not the power, but the thirst for it. When people are given power with responsibility, or put into authority because a problem needs to be fixed, they are more likely to keep their self-control than those who overthrow countries and stuff. The other country wanted Phoenix for land, so war pretty much happened.” He nodded, glowing with pride. I had guessed right?

    He asked, “Good answer. Since power was pretty much given to you, I don''t believe you fall into the latter category, but... how will you help people once you have it in full?” Hey. What''s this about my power being just given to me?!? I kinda worked hard for it.

    After some thought I answered, “Hmmmm... Well, I don''t want to follow the example of the Council. They tried to keep governments from existing, by intervening in all the governments of the world. That''s way too controlling and kinda hypocritical. On the other hand, if I do nothing, the world will crumble.” There were a couple of options available to me. But I knew the obvious answer. If I gave up, Belial was going to destroy the world. I had to get my final Crest, and make a difference.

    I asked for the Aiken Crest without explaining what I was going to do with it. I married Nevras, and like his mother, became ruler of the land of Phoenix. With my full Oracle powers, it was easy. I used my Four Gods and Thanatos Crest to take apart Kushiyama''s army. I dismantled the new monetary system, and forced the remaining members of the Council to work together again. But there were always those who wanted to oppress others. Rather than finishing my quest versus Belial, I was too busy dealing with the Resistance. These fascists kept rising up to defeat me, and I put them down brutally. They had to be stopped! For years this went on, and I admit, while I was very good at dealing with revolts, the finer points of helping workers stay prosperous and farmers be productive and bridges and roads be in good repair were kinda lost on me. Now that the Resistance was gone, the citizens themselves were revolting. So I used my power on them too. Eventually, Belial became free, and destroyed everything anyway.

    GOD

    Well, that sucked. Reset.

    AMBROSIA

    Hmmmm. Let''s try a different path. I said, “I could interfere with others, but then I''d be taking the role of the Council. No thanks. On the other hand, being the Oracle is now part of my identity. If I did nothing, Belial would destroy or rule the world, and that would possibly be worse than anything I could do. Though maybe I''m wrong, I haven''t really sat down and talked with him. Whatever. If people want advice after this, I''ll give it. I''ll help the Council, but only indirectly. They are probably still the best people for the job, and I don''t like how things are now. But otherwise, I think I''ll settle down and have a family once this is over.” Nevras looked at me, and I couldn''t tell what he was thinking, “Really?” Why was this a shock? “Pretty much, yeah,” I said, “I want my own life, and I can''t imagine making anyone give up theirs either. That''s the way I''d want to ''help'' others as you put it.”

    He seemed pleased again, “This answer is acceptable. I now entrust you with the final power of the Crest to unlock it.” My hand glowed with the awesome power of all the Crests. And looking around, I noticed that Aiken Master glowed too. And suddenly, to our eyes, he was transformed. I saw this person cycle through many forms, black, white, Jewish, male, female, and I remembered what we had seen in Kushiyama. It was Jesus!

    “What... how are you here? I thought Kushiyama forbade you from going anywhere,” I said. The rapidly shifting person settled on the form of the girl, and then explained, “Yes, officially, I did keep my vow. But do you remember what my other name is? Emmanuel, or ''God is with us''. I am in all people, you, Nevras, even the people who bound me to this law, for I am the connection between God and humans. So you see, while my body is there, my spirit cannot be anything besides everywhere. I am Jesus in Kushiyama, the Aiken Master here, and I am Mu''ad Dib in Qurac.”

    Huh. I''d heard of Qurac. They weren''t part of the Council because they had no interest in anyone outside their town. And they had some weird religion. While Aiken had walls everywhere, and was all about borders, Jesus in Kushiyama wandered about without much protection at all and in fact was sealed inside, and Qurac was basically an isolated town in the middle of a desert. Wait a second... “How can this be? You''re completely different from the guy in Kushiyama, and what he taught. How can you be the same person?” He smiled, “You remember how I died on the cross and got all those followers, right? Well, it could have made the world a better place, but of course things still continued to be fairly bad. And you know why? Because my later disciples held me up as some sort of morally perfect person, while those who saw their actions strongly opposed to my teachings became totalitarians and such. You understand the Tao, so you should understand that this is an imbalance. When I came again, I wanted to impress upon people that it was Grace (and forgiveness), rather than some moral law. We are supposed to love our neighbor, not try to hold me up on a pedestal. So I became several contradictory teachers, who nonetheless all preached different means of reaching harmony.” I asked him another question, “So are you also the Buddha?” He shook his head, “I am in the Buddha, as I am in all creatures in existence. But no, unlike the Aiken Master and Mu''ad Dib, I have never been the Buddha directly. He is a human who attained Enlightenment, allowing him to remember his reincarnations, much like Zoe. He''s a good friend of mine, though. He''s a really cool guy!” Somehow, I got a mental image of Jesus and Buddha sharing an apartment in Japan, and started giggling. He smiled, “You guys will have an interesting life. Be good to each other! Oh yeah, and you may want to revisit that island.” He touched my map and it glowed on a specific island, forming a clear dot on the map. “The portal to where Belial is trapped is there. If you want to stop him, you''ll need to enter the Realm of Void.” The Aiken Master resumed his form, and I started trying out my new techniques just in time for Lilith and Michael to rejoin us. “Did I miss anything?” Lilith asked.

    THE WORLD

    In this very same island, the sorcerer known as Yazim Jianne had managed to find all required materials toward releasing Belial. The urn was placed in the center of the circle, and the keys (which were basically some type of crystal) started glowing. The ground shook as by an earthquake, and the urn which before had to have a special summoning ritual to show Belial, now had a steady stream of black smoke pouring from just below its lid. The sorcerer, Yazim Jianne, was pleased. He believed his goals were at hand. “I have done as you command, Master. I have gathered the instruments to your freedom from that Urn. I await your reward,” he boasted. Yazim Jianne waited patiently for him to respond, to hear that he would get his reward after all. “Well? “ he asked, “you promised on your honor as a demon...” Obviously, Yazim Jianne had not watched much media, or he would know that demonic promises were no good.

    The black smoke thickened into a rough image of Belial, which began to chuckle and then guffaw like an evil demon. Which, he kind of was. “Huu?ha?haha?h?ah?h?aaah? !!!” Belial laughed. When unsealed, Belial''s voice could be clearly heard. If Yazim Jianne had heard his real voice, tainted with evil, he never would have trusted him in the first place. As it was, even the insane sorcerer began to be nervous.

    “Y?ou ?foo?l?!? ?W?h?a?t? ta?l?es ?have y?o?u e?v?e?r ?h?ear?d? o?f? demo?n?s? k?e?ep?i?ng ?their? oa?t?hs? ?D?e?mo?ns d?o? n?ot e?v?e?n? p?oss?e?ss ?h?on?o?r! ?F?a?r? ?fro?m rai?s?in?g y?our? ?w?i?f?e?, I? s?h?a?l?l d?o?o?m? you?r wo?rl?d to ?th?e Vo?i?d?! ?A?nd as? for? rewards...? ?Try ?thi?s? ?o?n fo?r ?s?i?z?e?!? ” he said. He waved his hands around, generating a large ball of Hellfire. Belial focused it in a circle around Yazim Jianne, then tightened it, closer and closer, intending to snuff him out of existence. The sorcerer had his own bag of tricks though. “門!” he incanted, forming a Gate under his feet. Yazim Jianne fell through the hole to somewhere, anywhere, but before he reached the other end of the portal, the Hellfire burned at the Gate. Normal spells were made of runes and gave out energy, and would follow people through the Gate, while Hellfire disrupted spells instead. The Gate fell apart, leaving Yazim Jianne somewhere away from Belial''s grasp. “Bl?a?s?t? i?t?!? ” exclaimed Belial, “H?e esc?a?ped! ?I m?u?s?t ?f?u?lf?il?l? my? co?ntr?act? ?t?o ?the V?o?id?,? w?it?h?o?ut inte?rfe?r?e?nce. B?y? ?t?he P?o?w?e?r?s? ?T?h?a?t B?e?,? ?I s?w?e?a?r th?at? whe?n? ?t?h?e? Lig?ht ?a?n?d ?Da?rk? ?a?re ?o?ne?, s?o ?to?o,? will ?f?a?ll the ?d?i?vis?io?n? b?e?twee?n th?e ?tw?o? ?w?or?ld?s?!? ?As? ?t?he? Sun ec?l?i?p?se?s ?the? M?oon, ?so t?oo? ?let ?t?he? Wo?r?ld of ?V?oid? ?ec?l?i?p?s?e? ?t?h?is f?r?ag?i?l?e ?E?ar?t?h?!?” On the ground near the urn, a large circle formed as though some unseen hand had written it, laying the foundations for what is to come. Obviously, it was a pentagram, because all pentagrams are evil, and this isn''t an oversimplification. But yeah, this magic circle looked very very evil, probably since it was also created by an actual demon. The circle was inscribed with markings in several languages, such as Qurac, Unified Japanese, and Greek, all saying the same thing, ??? ?????? ??? ????? ?? ??? ?? ?, ?Αφ?στε το κακ? να ?ρθει σε αυτ?ν τον κ?σμο ? ? 讓邪惡來到這個世界? In other words, it said, ?Let evil come to this world.? The heavens shook. Quite literally, in fact. Natural disasters rocked Heaven for a second, although God had made Heaven and Earth so it could not be undone, except maybe by his own hand. This spell certainly tried though. The evil spirits were released through a crack in the Afterlife, and possessed the living on Earth. The sky darkened, and an eclipse covered not just part of the land but all of it.

    Unlike most eclipses though, it didn''t end there. The eclipse that started as a simple lunar eclipse began to alternate, sun and moon, Yin and Yang, back and forth, until finally, the moon somehow took some of the light of the sun, making the sun black and the moon a red as blood. The two split again, leaving the state of things rather messed up. A dimensional rift, not a Gate, for a Gate was contained, formed around the mystic circle. And the stars themselves began to lose their light and fall like meteors, as they were sucked into the Realm of Void along with some sections of water, land, and air. A small urn also entered inside, despite the wishes of its prisoner. Meanwhile, strange things began to enter from the land of Void. Ghouls were common enough visitors already, but now some greater ghouls, and even Monsters began to roam the land. Antimagic seeped out along with some of the technology of that world. As more and more matter and energy traded places, the process of merging appeared to slow for the time being.

    As this was going on, the war between Phoenix and Kushiyama continued. Ghobli and Galaxia sided with Kushiyama, while Zuran and Aquamundo sided with Phoenix, so naturally, battle spread to those regions too. Galaxia had ships and crude submarines dropped depth charges , but they were chumps compared to a civilization deep under the waves that could attack them with tidal magic and enormous sea creatures. Zuran, dared do no violence near Aiken Monastery, so they fought mainly on the large deserts to the south, near Goji and the former state of Seikai. What they failed to note was just how much this war would piss off all the many spirits in this region, and many Exorcisms were undone. Soon, the only forces still in battle were Phoenix and Kushiyama. They fought with infantry, with mechs and golems, and with cavalry made up of everything from horses to ostrogoths to walruses. They had fought for a long time, so Phoenix tried a strategy. While King Charis''s main force sent their wizards and dragons and knights from the north caves near the Eastern Continent, they sailed ships to sneak in from the south through the mountain pass.

    King Charis was a brave and charismatic leader. He always led his troops from the front. King Yama, on the other hand, was a coward. While his forces fought off superior forces quite well from the north, he was caught from behind and killed by a flank attack. While it is tempting to see Phoenix as “heroic” or something because they ended the war while Kushiyama started it, the truth is war is seldom cut and dry. Survivors often look like they''ve gone through a meat grinder. Or worse, they look okay, but inside are an empty husk. And yet, the rule of a despot ended. But... Council rules required representatives from all of its founding nations. With King Yama gone, how would the Council survive?

    BAHAMUT

    I suppose it''s odd that I should be narrating right here, but as a dragon, I had a unique perspective, as I got to see a round trip of sorts that the others simply couldn''t witness. My sharp eyes could see much of what they did outdoors, and I could hear some of their conversation. I think. But it was kind of a bird''s eye view, so to speak.

    Ambrosia and the others parked their boat in Phoenix. It was easier logistically, now that the economies were all screwed up and inoperable. Why did people do this? You can''t buy human suffering! They blew the whistle, and I came even though I was contentedly munching away in the local flora and fauna around Galaxia. I didn''t care much for the war going on nearby, but they did their best to keep their battles away from me. I did get to see some action though, like when I blew up a warship too close to me.

    I flew straight there, urging them to get on my back. Having rested, I was more than able to carry the full group of them now, though I still wasn''t thrilled at hauling a pet rock around. I was a smart dragon, so I figured out from the map where this island was. I knew better to enter the island from too high in altitude though, as there had been a vortex that had been pulling things in. I could feel it from the powerful gravitational disturbance in the air. And so, I landed at the base of this island, and observed them from afar.

    Ambrosia''s hand began to glow, and so did a nearby rock wall with a matching image of eight Crests of trigrams on it. Mountain, Lake, Water, Fire, Wind, Thunder, Heaven, and Earth. Each of these was tied to an Oracle, according to legend, and each of them was part of the whole that was the Oracle''s power. Ambrosia didn''t understand it yet, but I knew the legends. The Tao is a whole, not only the parts. These eight trigrams have impressive power, but nothing compared with the Tao itself. She was not done yet, if the legends are true.

    The mountain opened up, and I watched the others climb up. I watched them from a safe distance. They walked up the mountain, climbing up a steep hill for quite some time before reaching the peak. When they reached the top, they pointed at something in the portal. I looked, and there was indeed something strange about the portal. “We can''t enter it yet,” said Aqorm, “not with that right now.” Azrael said something along the lines of, “We''ll take care of it. Don''t worry.” Then I saw the strangest thing, most of them walked all the way back down and Ambrosia shouted, “Hey Bahamut! Take us to Hinata. We''re taking a break and relaxing for a change.”I was confused but agreed to take them there.

    Hinata is far to the south, but since the poles are east-west, it has a tropical climate with a very nice long stretch of beach line. There are cliffs to the sides, but overall, Hinata is viewed as resort location with its hot springs, waterfalls, and forests to the southeast. I had heard there were trolls over in that direction though, so we mainly stayed close to town. Like Goji, Hinata had very Asian architecture, and the locals seemed to match. I dropped the group off, and they seemed to have some trouble communicating with the locals, but eventually Nevras and Ambrosia went to the hot spring to the north edge of town. The spring was a pool sectioned in with rock, entered by walking past a torii archway and split off into sides by a divider of wood, but Ambrosia and Nevras ignored it and entered the same area. They arrived near the off-season, for they had been traveling quite a long time by boat. From winter when they started, according to the stories they had told Michael and Lilith and me, up to the point where they had actually met us, to when everything started happening recently, it had been almost a full year. And what a lot of things had changed in that time! It was the 10th day of Monkey. As you know, the months are based on the Chinese zodiac, and the weekdays on elements. It has been this way since the New Earth started. The year was broken up into four seasons of exactly 3 months: for summer there was Tiger, Rabbit, and Dragon; for fall, there was Snake, Horse, and Ram; winter was Monkey, Rooster, Dog; and spring came again with Pig, Rat, and Ox. So to say the 10th day of Monkey, this means December 10. Very few people still celebrated Christmas, as it wasn''t a well known holiday anymore, despite you know, the Second Coming. But there was a rumor about a small town which appeared only during the holidays just east of Kirin, that had some mysterious man with a red suit and hat lived with reindeer, a child, and a way too hot elf wife.

    As I say, it was off-season, although not yet the point of actual snow. As a result, the two of them appeared to have a choice between hot water and ice cold rain and would probably be dunking and coming up the whole time. They stripped to their undergarments to bathe, and I decided to give them privacy. After some time, Nevras walked out alone. Ambrosia stayed a half-hour later before she also left the spring.

    Time passed, and it became night. The group headed to a pub in town, a building built in a different style from houses around it, obviously intended to cater to tourists. Dragons can transform into human form, but they have to create a gigai, a layer of false flesh in order to do it. I was not doing to subject myself to discomfort just so I could get a few drinks and join them. I spent the night hunting nocturnal birds as I watched Ambrosia and Nevras head to the inn, probably to sleep early. Elias and Aqorm had gone to this pub (funny, but I didn''t see him as a type to do heavy drinking), along with Michael and Lilith. As I waited outside, I saw a spirit of Azrael floating near me. “Have you died?” I asked. The spirit shook her head, “This is my astral form. I won''t be able to maintain it very long. The two of us have exorcised demons and Monsters at the portal. We''re going to take a breather at the shore of the island. Tomorrow, you''re welcome to join us.” An hour later, Elias was chasing Aqorm outside, shouting, “You know what you did! I won''t forgive you for that until you apologize!” Lastly, at around final call for the night, Lilith dragged Michael over her shoulder. It was late, so I headed to rest at a nearby forest.

    The next day, I flew the remainder of the party back to that island. The rift had stabilized into a regular Gate, and was no longer sucking matter inside or pulling it out. I was able to land much closer as a result. The group rejoined Azrael and Zoe, who looked much stronger as a result of fighting difficult battles, but were tired enough that I hoped they didn''t encounter anything inside. They stepped ever closer to the Gate, obviously nervous but willing to enter a strange new world. But then... “ I think this is as far as we go together,” said Nevras. “Sorry.” Ambrosia looked shocked, as was I, from my rather distant perspective overhead, knowing little about their problems. “But why?” she asked. He sighed, and then made up something that was obviously an excuse, “I don''t really feel like I know you that well yet, and going to another world takes a lot of commitment. I''m just not ready. Besides, I''ve got obligations to take care of at home... You know, at the palace.” She sighed, “I understand.” He got on my back, whispering, “Take me home, please.”

    NEVRAS

    There are many reasons why I could have left. But let''s talk about some of them. I''ll start from the top, where we went up the hill with the big portal. The portal as it was, was more than a little unstable, so we looked closer. I saw a black tentacle extending from the portal, for just a second. I stepped back. Then I saw five or six hands try to reach for us. “Looks like there''s Monsters and Elder Formless inside the portal,” I said. “We can''t enter it yet,” said Aqorm, “not with that right now.” Azrael said, “We''ll take care of it. Don''t worry.” As we flew off, I noticed Zoe casting spells into the rift, while Azrael used Exorcism and Banishment. I didn''t envy them, fighting strange beings nonstop while we rested at a resort, but they had volunteered for this.

    We were dropped off at the entrance to Hinata while Bahamut decided to do... dragon things. We humans however, settled on exploring the town. ?日向宿 ? it read. We asked Elias to translate everything, so he did. “Hinata Inn,” he said. I looked at the quaint architecture of the cottage, as we entered the building. Apparently, a monk of some sort was running the temple, as he was dressed in strange robes and carried around a staff similar to the one we had seen when fighting Alexander, what Elias called a shakujo. He asked us something, “滞在しますか？ 僧侶として、私は請求しません.” Elias explained that he asked if we wanted to stay, said he was a monk, and that he wouldn''t charge us. Which was good, lately our money had been no good anyway. We booked a room for a night, and then explored the town some more. Along with loads of houses around the neighborhood (which were no good because we''d run into people who would say something like “わかりません” as I''d heard frequently from people who didn''t understand us on the street), there was a pub run mainly for foreigners, a Taoist temple, a surf shop, and a hot springs. I later learned that the surf shop was run as a secondary business for the Taoist temple to supplement their income.

    The Taoist temple was set up differently from what we would know about temples in Western culture. The Jewish and Christian services are basically identical except possibly in their approach to atonement, and a few Jewish-specific prayers. A Christian service involved lighting the candles, then readings, then psalms and prayer, a sermon to interpret the readings, songs between some of these, a confession and forgiveness of sins, communion, and then the candles were snuffed and dismissal. It might have bread or wine, but I think this was mainly for Messianic Jews. I''m not sure. Most of this was stuff was Elias explaining to us, so I got mixed up between the two religions, but here I could tell the difference between that church in Kushiyama and this temple. Christian temples ranged from wood and plaster (usually white) to marble or stone cathedrals. They were not typically painted elaborately, but had simple structure and possibly stained glass. Jewish temples were also pretty simple, letting the building simply act as a vessel and not draw attention to itself. The Taoist temple apparently didn''t get the memo, as its design was ummm... garish. The walls were covered with paintings, and sections of the room had red plaques with yellow lettering, there were tables and stools, flowers, and artwork. It looked like it had been arranged this way to provide feng shui balance or something, but it also wound up looking like color exploded inside this room. As my senses calmed down, I looked around and saw several familiar things. First, the side walls had those Trigrams that I saw on Ambrosia''s hand. Then, I noticed the Four Gods were painted in the corners of this room, in each of the cardinal directions. I noticed the building itself was octagonal, and seemed to be a giant trigram itself. Finally, I managed to puzzle out the significance of all of the objects in the room, and suddenly, it didn''t feel like a mess at all, but everything laid out according to plan. Taoist ceremony goes a little different from Jewish and Christian. It starts with building a sacred space, yes, much like lighting the candles in the other cases, but this was a ritual in itself. Next, there was the performance from the Taoishi (a Great Master) and his four assistants. These people did the whole service, from processions and dances to songs and prayers. Unlike the other two, Taoism focuses on orthopraxy, meaning the slightest wrong dance step or bad note could ruin everything. He burned talismans in an incense burner, he initialed documents, and so on. It was almost like watching someone pray to some sort of divine accountants, it was sacred and yet very bureaucratic. At one point, he rose and performed the "dance of the stars," or Taiyi, where he went into almost a fetal position as he said prayers and such to the universe, climbing small steps to the altar. There he presented the memorial. The memorial was a petition to the gods, stating the name and purpose of the ritual, its date and location, the names and addresses of the participants, and a vow (different from service to service). Standing again, the master burned the memorial and scattered the ashes, gathered his escorts, said some more prayers, sang more music, and then the ritual space was undone. Then as he started breaking down the ritual space, all talismans, writs, and other markers of the ritual space were burned. It was interesting, but I wasn''t sure what I was seeing without explanation from Elias.

    I left the temple, and most of the others wanted to go back to the inn, but I went to the Hinata Spring, or as the sign said, ?世界清潔 有性復原 彈簧 .? Huh, that didn''t say “Hinata Spring.” Even I knew that. This bath was nude bathing only, as the spring was meant for healing and relaxation, and there were strict rules against bathing suits. I gathered my clothes in the container provided, and put on a towel before entering the pool. I had already begun to soak when another towel dropped near me. I turned around to see Ambrosia''s lovely nude body. I saw her curvy hips and her somewhat heavy breasts, which dropped a bit without support. I had always seen her in that silly housewife outfit (well except for when we were in Hell, that is, and there we spent a lot of time arguing). It was raining, and it was the start of winter, so I didn''t much time to ogle her before we both were so cold and wet that we ducked down into the springs at about shoulder level to keep warm with the icy rain. “There''s... there''s supposed to be no mixed bathing!” I protested. She responded, “Yes, but you went into the wrong side. This is the women''s section.” I see.

    Some time passed, in awkward silence. “The water is pretty nice,” I said, trying to break the silence. She did talk, but on a completely different subject. It had been several weeks since we had talked, and it felt like we were on different wavelengths as to what we wanted and what we worried about. Her first thoughts were of her mission, as she said, “You know, soon we''ll probably defeat Belial, and his people, what happens then?” So I asked her, “What do you mean?” She said, “Well, after our quest, we might just split up and never travel together again. I want more time with you...” She leaned forward as if to kiss me. All of a sudden, a bird dive-bombed us and pecked at her.

    We had been together for quite a while, but for some reason, we could never get close. Not emotionally, because she held her feelings under lock and key. Not physically, because whenever we tried to kiss, it failed. There was the attempt to do so on the mountain where we spent time training under Lao Tzu. But the whole thing was interrupted when everyone started gawking, and besides she didn''t even remember it. Then there was the pub at Gruumi, where she started looking for her keys when it was clear I wanted to kiss her. And then when I wanted to have a serious talk with her, water sploshed me on the boat. Was it a sign?!? Were we not supposed to be with each other?

    That night, we slept in the same bed. I saw the others sneak out to the bar, but we stayed in. No, not slept together, we kinda cuddled close instead until going to sleep. But while Ambrosia relaxed and slept in my arms, I was preoccupied. Thinking back on it, I should have told myself to shut up, because I was ruining what we had. But at the time, I couldn''t stop thinking. I decided that the reason all of this happened was because of destiny. Now, I''d seen Ambrosia change destiny on a regular basis, but I always felt trapped by it, born into the position of royalty. What could I possibly do to make things work? I was stuck, as I saw it. I began thinking of other excuses why we shouldn''t be together. Ummm, I mean reasons... that''s it, reasons. Like, my family was royalty, and there were certain expectations of me, while she had a weird life and a weird past, and anyway she would never belong in court. And then there was the whole deal where I felt like somehow her amnesia was all a show and that she was hiding things from me, so there was missing trust. And then there was the whole fact that we were going into a world where according to legend, the world slowly erased people from existence. That sort of thing really puts a damper on romances, you know? Eventually, I wasn''t sure what reason was the real reason, or even if there was a real reason. I finally fell asleep from exhaustion more than anything.

    When I woke up, Bahamut flew into our town, freaking out all of the villagers. She told us that Azrael and her beau had gotten rid of all the evil critters, and now the portal was safe again. Her tail hit one of the houses on the way out, and she apologized before managing to get aloft and heading for that mountain. Then we came to the mountain, and as I walked toward the edge of the portal, I suddenly couldn''t manage anymore. I lied and told her something about obligations at home. I don''t remember what I said exactly, since it was just whatever I could say to keep her from following me back to Phoenix.

    As I rode Bahamut back home, wind whipping my hair around, I asked Bahamut, “Hey ummm, can we chat?” She said, “Hold on, I''ll drop you at Phoenix where there''s ground.” She landed at the foot of Phoenix Castle. Bahamut took a moment, and she surrounded her body with a gigai, crunching her bones down to fit inside the much smaller skin. “Clothing,” she said, and I scrounged around my backpack for ummm... extra clothes. Obviously not mine, of course. A girl with green eyes, and onyx hair that glistened like the rainbow with a borrowed brown cotton dress looked back at me. “Well? What did you want to talk about?” I opened with a question, “Bahamut, have you ever been in love?” She shook her head, “Dragons don''t reproduce sexually, so we only form close friendships. Romance isn''t really a thing.” I must have looked confused as I asked, “But wait, Tiamat was male! How can...?” She nodded, “Females of the dragon race produce fertile eggs, but our males are sterile. We produce our men more often than our women, so I suppose the males love us as their mothers, but we don''t really feel any romance for them.” I wondered, “Does Ambrosia feel that way about me? Was it one-sided? Is that why things never got serious?”

    She giggled, “C''mon now! I don''t personally know about love, but I''ve seen you humans. I know it when I see it. She''s definitely into you! What''s really the problem?” I explained my weird fortune. Her giggle turned into a noblewoman''s laugh, “Ohohohoho! You silly human! If you love her, tell her how you feel! Don''t let your terrible luck ruin your life! You go to her.” I thought about it and said, “You know what? I will go back to her! I can change my destiny. Only...” She asked, “Only, what?” I explained, “Only, she''s probably given up and gone in by now. My best chance is to wait at the portal, because I''ll get separated if I try to go after her inside there. It''s a big world in there, but she''ll have to come out there!” And so, I waited for a long time near the coast of the mountain. Eventually, they told legends about people like me. You''ve heard some of them. Greyfriar''s Bobby, the Odyssey, and Evangeline. Those didn’t turn our so well... Sёar?h the novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.