"And you saw her horns as if they were burned?" asks Avery.
"Yes."

The forest is thick around us. I have the knife at my back, hovering between my wings, and Indy is looking away. The air has returned to the trees, so that the verdant glades here can thrash as wilfully as they please, but the groves behind us still lie stagnant. I am grateful for the flat ground, but I can see Lotus behind us, around us, and in Indy, her face in his eyes, and all her grief, and all her fury. "See, because I was thinking-- that sounds like Illuet to me. She was one of the Sentients who ended the Dog Day Wars. It's easy to draw the comparison between the Plague and the Dog Days sickness, that is, the continued exposure to the Dog Days, but I believe that the nature of the powers might be different... perhaps the Plague was created from magical examination of the Dog Days sickness? But no one could possibly have that kind of information. It has to be something more sinister than that..."

While she rambles, I lean in towards Indy. "Are you okay?"

Indy looks back at me mournfully. "Rena, I know what I saw back there. I had to be the one who killed you and destroyed that castle. The whole world was calling my name."
I pause. "The betrayer is close at paw. What if it were Avery?"
We both look to Avery, who is staring up at the trees, muttering to herself. At last, her ears fly back, her whole face split with sudden excitement. "Oh, stars, I think I have it! Backwards time travel is impossible, as is backwards sight, but the circumstances could be replicated. There were some very suspicious cases about ten reigns back involving overexposure to sunlight and one's own powers during the Dog Days, later traced back to Heaven's Arc. If this was what they were after the whole time, well, they could have easily done those experiments to prepare for the Plague. Now, if we could reverse those effects, we might have a cure! What if that was what Lotus was trying to explain to us?"

"I..." I begin. This is her world now. These are her stories, her ideas, her theories... for all the memories I hold in me, so few of them give names or places. What I remember, in the end of things, is dizzy sensation. I remember the soft brush of pelts against mine, the way the sun reflects off of surfaces to color them, and the way the sound of a mourning howl can carry for miles, even if few are singing it. "That sounds promising." I tell her.

Avery nods again, vigorously. "So I thought. We'll have to tell the others when we get back. Even if we don't get anything on the knife from this, this is an incredible breakthrough. Now, continue?"

"I don't remember half of it." I mutter, which is a bright-eyed lie.

Indy lowers his face. "She said that Rena's betrayer is close at paw."

"But it was just the three of us there," Avery says. "Do you think she meant me? I was the Auspicia's closest ally at the time. I didn't do enough. It could very much be my fault, at least in part..." Why is she acting so young? Why can't we have an adult right now, who's somber and dejected about all of this as we are?

"I don't know," I say. "Did you kill me?"

"I was out across the continent. I have thousands of witnesses to prove this. I would've been evaporated in the blast otherwise." Avery says. "I'm sorry. I would lay down my life at once if there was the slightest chance it would bring you back."

You. I suck in a breath.

We get back at night. Sirius and Procyon are both obscured by clouds, although a few stars still shine through, their featureless light hardly brightening the dull ground below.

"It would be over quickly." Indy tells me as we walk through the weapon's room. The world is a thousand shades of silver, filled with blunted blades. So many of them were only ever Auma's, and without her, they might as well lie dormant forever. Indy stops to stare at a greataxe.

Avery passes us, then turns back. "Will you two be alright? I need to tell Verde about this. The whole world could turn on this breakthrough."
"You trust us, don't you?" offers Indy, that same friendly gleam in his eyes. Only I can see the distorted way it echoes off every metal blade in the room.

Avery nods briskly.

The blade begins glowing violently. Blue light ruptures through it, fully awakened, and Indy begins to sob. "Rena. I don't want to die."

"I'm not going to kill you." I say.

He shakes his head. "I don't want the whole world-- all our friends-- to suffer because of some mistake I made a long time ago. I love them so much, Rena... I love you, and you're never going to get out of this unless you let go of me. That's what she told you, didn't she? She told you to let go."

"Whatever she was going to say, she didn't finish it." I tell him. "We're jumping to assumptions."
"Or maybe we're just lying to ourselves." Indy says.

"I'm being honest. There has to be some other way. Some other reason." I say. "Please."

"Rena Swift," he whispers, and he levitates the knife from me, gently. "You know what you saw."

I shake my head. "Indy, no."

Fyera opens the door, her face full of disgust, and soon the entire group, all that's left of us, comes crashing down around our ears. The knife glows brighter as Indy moves towards him, and I catch Gale's ears in the crowd. He has the two moons look on his face. His muzzle moves to his left flank, and I know, without so much as a word from him, that this is where I would find the Plague's mark upon him if I were to look closely.

The only light upon us is from up the stairs, thousands of years away from us all. Fyera rushes forwards and twists the knife away from Indy, and holds it in her mouth, straining against the grip as it fades in her mouth. She drops it, where it clatters to the floor, and barks, "What happened to you out there?"

Indy's voice shakes in his throat. "We realized there's hope for us."

"There's always been hope," Fyera shoots back. "What did you think we were doing?"

Indy shakes his head slowly. He steps past the group, out of the crowd, and stands alone against the door. Pressed between the outside world and the last faint rays of the stairs glow, he says, "We've been biding time forever. I wanted to believe we could fight this war, and today I learned that we can. When we went out there, Lotus told us that the 'betrayer' was close at paw. Since I was the only one there who would even qualify as a suspect... I'm Rena's age, I share her magic, we even look like siblings. We could be from the same magic kin. I've seen the light around the Dog Days. I spent my whole life wondering why. I guess we know now."

"So you're going to sacrifice yourself?" asks Glaze, reproachfully.

"I won't be gone long. I'll see you all again in one life or another. Right now, though? Dreamland needs all of my hope." Indy looks deep into my eyes, then bows his head right below my neck. "Let me give it to them, Rena Swift."

I raise the knife. It is a long, mechanical movement, and everyone in the crowd goes silent. Avery appears in the doorway, castling long shadows on the group, and I hear a voice whisper, "Wait."

My head jerks down. The knife cuts through the neck like butter, glowing, and then the glow grows brighter. Blue magic cuts every vein, but nothing happens. I do not feel the whole might of Verhamera crash down on me. Nothing opens. Indy's eyes stare up at me as his body collapses to the floor, and his mouth is still open, the body still warm. I collapse into the mess of blood, alongside him, and whisper, "What do I do now?"

"Nothing." Arazel responds. "That wasn't him."

The crowd looks on with horror and fury. I catch Gale's ears twist in the crowd, his phantasmal form drawing closer, and I hear his footprints as if they were on the ceiling. "Rena." he whispers into my ear. "Get up."

The others move back in horror. A snout nudges my corpse aside.

"Rena."