No one expected us back so early, and the fickle energy fields of Dreamland are in no hurry to return us home. We linger for days, and the Defenders try to establish communications with the Opphemrian guard while chasing out remaining Heaven's Arc stragglers. They interrogate several of the ones they catch and reveal mainly dragon-lead conspiracy, although many of the recruits were young, desperate and from rural areas, fed on misinformation about the dizzying terror of the situation they're in with the Obsidians. Defenders kick up artifacts and traces of magical misconduct from the tents and temporary structures. We come to meetings and get rations. Iris eats half hers and I eat enough for the both of us. We do not interact with them much outside of that. She is weak, which I learn is an unintended consequence of these 'photokinetic' abilities and the cold, and I am still sick somewhere deeper than my flesh no matter what I eat or how I close my mind.

Iris and I drift in and out of dreamless sleep, catching each other in flat, textureless landscapes that blur together the longer we stay here. The ground of our new dream worlds is cold, but it does not crunch like ice. It is unyielding and miserable.

"I don't want to go back," she mutters one day, and I think she might be talking in her sleep until I see her eyes, dead as Skye's and yet unmistakably awake.

"The Factory?" I ask.

"The castle," she responds, in turn, "I want to do bad things, sometimes, Torch."

"Oh."

"But there, too." she says, voice so low that it hardly raises above a strained whisper. "Sometimes I think I might not want to be anywhere at all."

The scent of burning fur fills my nose.

I do not answer her.

---

When we return home we get the same respectful distance, but it is respectful instead of fearful, which fills me with immense gratitude. I talk to anyone I can find who hasn't heard about my outburst- I see it in their eyes- and Iris and I meet the groundskeepers, speak with them while we doze in the sun together. Life returns to her fur and eyes and she steps away from the entire affair unharmed.

"I can't be here," she tells me again, one day. "It's back."
"I don't know what 'it' is," I say. We're in a field like the false one we were trapped in once, and I am rolled out in the sunlight. "You've never explained it to me."

"I don't know either. It's a feeling. I have something here to do, and it is not something that should be done."

If you'd just explain what it was, then maybe I could help you, I think, but my intuition insists she has to be honest. The idea of secrets between us, some intangible thing tearing the both of us apart, is too terrible and morbid to admit to. Instead, I drape the vague dread over both of us. "Maybe it's part of our history," I say. "I mean, not ours. Theirs. The Virtues."

Her ice blue eyes scan me. "You are thinking of the fire in your own veins."

"Maybe I am."

She nods. "There may be something we can find at the library."

My eyes adjust to the artificial suns of the halls as we enter, some of which are flames and others of which seem to be orbs that emit no heat. They've always unnerved me, but they still seem a better alternative than the electrically-powered bulbs of the Factory. Best I can tell, the orbs only need to be recharmed by one of the more odd Sentient species, a long and stout Sentient who Iris claims "resembles a ferret".

I don't know how I'd navigate the world without her memory banks, or without her. My back prickles at the thought of it.

The library is close to the gardens, and when we enter Avery is arranging books with the grumpy old librarian, the Canis whose name I can never remember. Trees, I think. "Iris, who's the Canis?" I ask under my breath.

"Maple." she responds. "We heard her name once."

"I forgot it."

She squints, confused. Avery trots up to us with a genuine smile. "Didn't expect to see you two here today. Are you doing alright?"

Are we? I think. "Yes. We'd just like to find books on Vivian."

"Oh!" Avery's ears perk. "I, err, heard what happened. With the fire?"

I nod, sparking up. Iris snuffs out a stray ember that bursts from my back and hits the floor. She narrows her eyes at Avery.

Avery pays no mind as she gestures for us to come with her. We follow her deep into the library, but this time, instead of heading back into the reference section, we begin ascending the spiral steps. We follow her along the interior of the room, turning up with the floors, and when we reach the illuminated to, whose arches hold shelves decorated with larger-than-life Canii and Canira, she stops. "What you seemed to have tapped into what's known, somewhat archaically, as a 'Virtue Manifest'. It's a little similar to auspexism."

"What?" I ask.

"Auspexism. It's a connection between two beings across worlds. If you ever see figures painted with golden eyes, or sometimes with ghosts manifesting behind them like a shadow, that's what it's meant to represent. See, across worlds, there are beings like us- all of us- who have identical magical signatures to our own, even if they're not Sentient beings. I mean, they'd be sentient, as in thinking, but not Sentients like us. At least not often."

"What does this have to do with what happened to me?" I ask.

"Okay. So the multiverse has infinite versions of these different beings who are for all intents that universe's version of 'you', but since the timeline split before your birth, that 'you' is different from you physically. An auspexism is when you pull outwards, across parallel dimensions, and access the energy stored by the connection created by that identical signature. However, those 'signatures' are composed of the nine elements or 'virtues'. Some other, less magically adept cultures believe it's four, some think they've found more than nine, but for our purposes that's what we'll use. Most everyone is pretty well rounded, with spies and dips, but a few beings- usually only one per timeline- will have insane spikes in one element and nothing else."

"And that's us." Iris says.

"Yes. Anyone with that signature will often follow similar patterns and act more similarly than other auspexisms. More importantly, they're crazy powerful. Many believe that these 'Virtues' are mythical beings, or the origin of the entire magical field in the first place. Whatever they are, they can tap into all their auspexisms at once, which is kind of like... threading a bunch of worlds together at once, across time and space. It's the kind of power that could destroy you if you're not careful." she says, then takes one look at my face and hastily amends, "Not that you two aren't capable!"

The memory rushes back over me, burning under my skin. There's nowhere to escape from it. Myself. I mutter, shaken, "They were so angry."

"It figures." Avery cuts herself off. "You know, uh, Vivian and Lotus were in their Virtues all the time. Vivian probably was when you met her, if she was still alive. Back then, there weren't many 'others' to echo, but now, this far forwards in time... you know what? I'm going to stop talking." She passes me a book. "Don't worry. Pictures."

I flip it open, and sure enough, there are dozens of brightly illustrated pictures. They give Vivian a kinder feel, like a candle's flame instead of the torches or... my fire. These show Vivian without the cloud of smoke around her head or even the longer horns and blazing markings. She's a normal red, even ruddy colored Canis, with a few highlights around her eyes and dark marking on her flank. I flip a page and she bursts into flame again, eyes gold and paws ablaze.

"I don't get it." I say. "The pictures help, but I don't get it." I pass it to Iris. "Can you read?"

Iris shakes her head. "I am working on it, but it is not a function I was intended to take."

Who cares about intended functions, I think. "Hey, Avery, do you know if there are any drawbacks to the Virtue Manifest? Is it... dangerous?"

"It's..."

"Be honest with us." Iris thunders.

"It didn't kill them, and it won't kill you, but not everyone who's ever done it has lived. There's a lot of history, many stories, and they're not often kind ones. Thank goodness you're okay, though- do you know how upset we'd all be if that had killed you?"

"Certainly," Iris responds for me. The two of us close the distance between our pelts, a unit once more. "Who would fight the Obsidians for you, then?"

Avery's eyes widen, and I wince seeing the pure betrayal and shock on her face. She regains her composure immediately,"No! Not that at all. I'm worried for you two because even if you look my age, you're young, and this world is new to you, and it's honestly not that fair that you got dragged into all of this. I'm worried because you two are my friends." When we pretend to be fascinated by the pictures, Avery continues, "You don't think everyone only cares about your welfare just cares for you as a weapon, do you?"

"We don't 'think' anything. It is what it is." Iris says.

Avery sighs and returns to the shelf to pick up another book. The air is cut by the thundering of wings behind us, and Sweep runs across the library to find us, her face dire. "Aves. I've been looking for you."

Avery drops the book. "What's going on? Is everyone alright?"

"Where's Marie?"

"What?" asks Avery.

"I need to see her." Sweep says, swinging her head upwards. "Important personal biz."

"Not an emergency." Avery says slowly, like talking to a child.

"No!"

"I haven't the slightest clue," Avery says. "I wish you luck. If it's not an emergency, though, you should come help me look through these books for information on the Virtues. We're having... fun."

Sweep nods. "Hm. Now that you mention it, you two'd better hustle too. They want you downstairs in the training barracks."

"Us?" I ask.

"Uh, yeah. I'll see you later, Aves." she winks. Sweep takes off again and locks her wings, plummeting down to the first floor. Avery watches, rattled, and then, a strange heat emanating from her fur, returns to us.

"What's this?" Iris asks. She has the book open to a picture of a flower like the one from the Factory, like the flowers of our dreams. In fact, it's a perfect match.

"That's an Espera Lily. They're Lotus's symbol." Avery explains. "Lotus herself had a magnificent lily across her back, which dropped pollen, and that in turn created a new generation of flowers with the luminescent coloring hers had. They're rare, but they've been determined to have a small pull on the magical field in the 'hope' or light element, moreso than any other non-Sentient object. It's said that if you feed the petals to the dying and Lotus confers their blessing upon them, they will return to life."

"Did you say 'light element'?" Iris asks. "What would happen if someone injected the DNA of those flowers into..."

"You don't think the Obsidians did that to you, do you? I don't understand why they'd inject it into a Canira, given the drawbacks of being part plant, but if you used Espera Lilies in particular, you could augment some degree of..." Avery pauses again.

"Go on." Iris says.

"No, honestly I have no idea. I've read books about elemental augmentation, but..."

I turn the page. There's a picture of Vivian leaping through a portal, one that will take her far from everyone she's ever loved, and Lotus, left behind, with her petals wilting and her simplified eyes welling with tears. A white Canis with wings and pink freckles, who must be the first Auspicia herself, stands on one side of Lotus. A much younger Natrina is on her right. The rage of every Determination virtue floods my ears again, making them ring. "Does it happen to all of them?"

Avery pauses. "There is a tendency towards tragedy," she says. "Across the board. It's destiny."

All this sadness, all that weight. Destiny.

"Am I- are we-" I don't say death, gripped by old superstition.

"We are leaving. Thank you for your assistance." Iris gets up, steps towards the balcony, and leaps off. Avery rushes to the edge and watches her glide down to the surface, unharmed.

Avery yells down, "I'm sorry-"

"Thanks for telling us the truth. I don't think anyone else would have." I don't meet her eyes. The sincerity is too much for me to handle.

I bound down steps until my paws are sore. Iris and I take the halls over as we walk in near silence, eyes on the floor. "I think I learned enough," I say, "and we'll learn what's up with you, too. We'll work this all out in the end."

"Thank you, Torch." Iris says. My heart flutters, and I even manage to force a smile for her. It almost rids me of the feeling crawling up my back, the pictures of Vivian leaving fresh in my mind. How many ways could our story end in tragedy? Iris doesn't bring it up. I wait for her to do so, watch her with pleading eyes, but she's not even looking at me.

We open the doors to the Defender barracks together, in the type of synchronicity that only comes from knowing someone better than you know yourself, and we are flooded by Defenders. Barking, leaping, rowdy Defenders, a rainbow sea of faces who immediately engage us from all sides. Many are small, like Skye, young prodigies headed for hell. Iris and I are larger than them in physicality, but though our lives must be (at least mine must have been) longer, it is hard not to feel young and small when confronted by how much living they've all come through. Years of effort exhausted to reach a near-impossible goal is not a foreign concept to me, but family is, as are the communities they babble about.

"When I get back from my three years here, I'll be able to bring back not only honor but additional privileges and food rations for my whole pack. We've had some hard farm years, and I know agricultural Natural-based Canira aren't supposed to be that strong, but there's a rumor you're Natural-based too! I know they say you have to be light-based, but magically, it's not impossible, and if it is true, I can't tell you what an inspiration it is to have you-" babbles a dark-furred Canira with a small flower twisted around her ear. Her eyes are the same color as those of the gem-studded Canira from earlier.

She's pushed aside by a Fauna with streaked, prismatic fur markings mixed in with her brown. "Are you bothering them? After I spent all that time trying to approach them in the forest, really, Elu, you're impossible."

"Ho-ho, not bad." another Sentient scampers up onto the Fauna's head, small and bushy-tailed.

"Sorry, sorry, these hooligans are my partners. We're kind of fans." Elu explains, abashedly.

Fans, I wonder, looking to Iris, who has her head tilted. I guess we're both going to have to pretend we now what they're talking about.

"Kind of? Yeah right," yells another Defender, this time a Canis.

"They're not fans at all in comparison to me. I touched Iris's ear once." yells a Canira, and Iris jerks her ear back as if it will retroactively amend the gesture.

A white-furred Canira, works her way through the crowd and yells, "We're heading to the training room! Everyone, this way." She looks to me. "Apologies. Our newer recruits are... well."

"They seem young." I say.

"Magic peaks young. High death rates." Iris's eyes swing to me.

I imagine the crowd decimated and something swells inside of me, deep and bright and furious.

"Name's Echo, by the way. Part time Defender, part time Defender wrangler. Would you like to train with them a little?"

I hesitate, but Iris decides for us, "Yes." Echo dips her head, respectively, and Iris nudges me as she trots off. "Stop worrying."

Not minutes later, I'm firing up with all of those tiny eyes on me, and Iris pushes me up to the target range. Most of the room is a mess of chewed dummies and obstacles, but one wall, going down far as I can see, is just circular targets like a thousand eyes peering out at me. I take in a breath, letting the air fuel my flames, and the fire shoots out glorious and in control, spreading a gray star of ash across the center. I want to flame every target, smoke rising from my nose, and I turn back to get swarmed by Defenders again. Dozens of others shoot out all the targets around us, and despite being in the firing range myself, I don't feel afraid. This isn't the hostile territory of the frozen mountains, this is a room full of the young and eager and it feels safe.

I get caught in a whirlwind of fur and feathers, practicing techniques and exchanging jokes. They talk about their lives, their passions, and I think I could get caught in them forever. I think I could be young and ephemeral if I wanted to, instead of something older than time.

It's the kind of place where you could hide from destiny, maybe even disappear.

(A/N: I figured that somewhere in revision I would grow to loathe myself for the name 'Candeflit Lily'. Hence I've already changed it here and will continue to use this name in all future revisions.)