"Morning, world!" I yell to the hallways. The hallways stare back, confused, but that seems to abate a little when the realize that it's me doing the yelling. I get a few respectful nods these days, which fluffs up my fur and preens my feathers. I'm off to the dining hall, feeling alive, when I see Iris and Torch sitting together at the head of a table with all of the younger Defenders. The two of them have a whole head, ears included, on everyone who isn't a Fauna, dragon, or other larger Sentient species. They're sitting crammed into the same seat, looking bewildered, and I squeeze in between them and the giddy Fauna at the far end.

"Who are you?" asks the Fauna.

"Her name's Avery," Torch answers for me. "She's a strategist."

The Fauna nods and scoots towards her friend. I draw my head towards the table, trying not to make a scene, and take the last meager piece of meat-stuffed bread and bite down. The taste is sweet on my half-awoken taste buds. When I gulp it down, my tongue hunting for more in the barren wasteland of my mouth, I ask, "So. I'm on my way to a meeting. We're finally making decisions about who stays and who goes to the Factory."

"No one told us." Iris states, licking crumbs from her bared white teeth. Her reptilian eyes follow mine.

"Really? I guess you don't have to come, it's not like they'd want to burden you with anything else. I figured they'd at least tell you about it, seeing as you two have already been selected."

Torch's back glows with heat. His face is straight as Iris's.

"You two don't want to go back at all, do you?" I whisper.

They turn to each other, mouths sealed shut and eyes wide and puplike.

"We can't talk here." Iris looks down the table. They're all watching our 'secret' conversation with glee, and even if they haven't heard a word of it, it won't be long before rumors start flying across the table. A few young Defenders are looking up, tails twitching to prepare for a brawl, and I am convinced at once they would go to the ends of the world for these near-strangers.

I nod. "Talk and walk?"

We move like shadows across the arc of the day, disappearing from under the hot light overhead in one quick movement. Both of them relax as we enter the hallways, cool air and the intense scent of old wood filling us all. "I'm sorry for scaring you two."

"So that's what this feeling is..." Iris whispers. "It is not a feeling that passes through me often, but it is poisonous."

Torch follows, "Sometimes when I'm in between the waking world and my dreams, I think I might be drowning."

Horror strikes me, my ears rising. "Oh my stars. I can't believe I-"

"We're not upset with you for telling us the truth, Avery." Iris hisses, beneath her breath. "We should have expected as much from 'destiny'. Glad to know we're of some use, dead or alive."

"Destiny didn't seem too concerned the years we rotted in the Factory." Torch says, his voice thick in mimicry of Iris's dead tone. "Avery. If we're friends... is there any way for us to get a breath? Not today, maybe not tomorrow, but in general. Is there anywhere around the castle we could go?"

"The forest, but the Dog Days are in three days." I say. "They're really bad in these parts. No one knows how you two are going to react, but expect to be followed most of the day."

They look crestfallen.

"Do you want to come to the meeting with me? If there's any word I can put in for you, any conditions you want, I'll be your advocate." I offer.

"Fate is fate." Iris sighs. The two of them slip away.

I pad into the room downcast, though I lift my head with the semblance of enthusiasm I can muster. It's a nice day in HQ, with light shining through the windows, and there's an even larger assemblance of tacticians, diplomats, and other important personnel than usual. Even the Auspicia and Natrina, who sit on opposite sides of the table, are present and serious as I've ever seen them. Athena's own headquarters and a shaky screen packed with Ceilvyran council members shine through the room from above.

The arguments have already begun. The battle map of Dreamland, across the table, is vividly simulated across the table, alight with rainbow pinpricks and crosses that represent troops and drop zones. As they revise plans, pinpricks change about, dashing across the board in moments. It's merely a draft meeting, far from final plans, but the room is still grim.

"Then we can widen the portal here by a small margin, making it the third largest. If we're certain these colder conditions will make it harder for the Obsidians to shapeshift..." says one of the smaller Canii at the table, a speckled, long-eared female whose name I don't know.

Sweep speaks from her end of the table, "That's a lot of strain on our Evelscan units, and we don't know that the conditions will deter Obsidians. They're flexible- shouldn't we place ourselves where the widest range of Defenders will have the highest possible advantage?"

Marie responds, "Evelsca has the most unpopulated space of any continent. Sending the Obsidians into more populated zones is going to be a nightmare, even if we're just talking about vagabond territories. Furthermore, the Evelscan Defenders are sixty-percent winged or otherwise capable of aviation. They'll be best suited for this, more so than our Defenders will be in desert zones."

"It's risky." Sweep warns. "and it's not as if the Opphemrian Defenders can't handle those extra three steps on the portal themselves, is it?"

Marie's eyes widen, flecks of green like broken glass shards visible in her irises. "What do our other Evelscan representatives think? Surely, we're not taking queues from a deserter, are we?"

Sweep's wings twitch. She growls, "We're taking this outside."

Heilin looks to Athena, who flicks one of her whiskers, her demeaning gaze roaming over the Auspicia's. "I think my representative is capable of fighting her own battles. If you'd like yours to step down, go straight ahead."

Heilin responds, "Motion carried. You two are free to recess, but if there's any permanent injury, expect a suspension."

As the two dismiss, side by side, Natrina scoffs, loud enough for the whole table to hear. Athena attempts to flick her right ear, a strange, rigid movement given the massive crystal collective that takes up not only most of the area but stretches across her face. "To carry the discussion, I agree with Marie, but my own Defender has a point. Evelsca is proud to have the avian fleet we do, as well as technologies and magicks that could help with temporary flight for non-avian species and breeds, and all we know about the Obsidians and the worlds who have fended them off- think the battle of Enderra's Scales, in the mountain worlds of the ice dragons- point to their abilities failing at higher rates in the cold. That said, we'll need part of your own fleet. Both continents."

"We'll assist, but we need aerial units here as well." Heilin argues. "We need to be flexible. We don't know what the Obsidian strategy is."

Natrina breaks her silence. "The Obsidians don't do strategy. They do overwhelming numbers and brute strength. Few empires they've attempted to destroy have ever managed to stand up long enough for them to need to attempt such, and where they don't succeed at once they shatter and regroup. Assuming they know we're sending troops into the Factory, they'll know this is the end, so expect them desperate and unable to retreat."

There's hopeful murmuring around the group. I hear dull noise from beyond the near-soundproof door, and my heart hurts a little bit. I tear myself away from the group.

"Can I go after them?" I ask.

"You sure, Avery?" Plumeria asks.

I nod. "Won't be a minute."

"Carried," Heilin says.

"Shame. I was hoping we'd be hearing from Heilin's pet again. You've got quite the voice on you, you know that?" Athena asks.

"Athena, let's keep this professional." I respond, and disappear into the halls. They're further down, and I let the door slide shut, trying to press myself against one of the doorframes, sheltered in the arch by virtue of my own puny bulk. They don't seem to hear me over the frenzied yelling, although I catch the glint of gold in the halls and stick closer, just hoping to hear a word.

"We were just working things out!"

"I don't know how you expect me to work with you when you don't want to explain this to me, Sweep."

"I think you know enough."

"I thought I did, but you- you couldn't possibly have left just to desert. It doesn't make any sense. Everything I know about you screams against it."

"Well, I did. I know you've never felt like the whole world hates you, but those Defenders? There were death threats. The entire public was in upheaval about my failures. All because they'd never seen me falter before... and suddenly, I wasn't invincible anymore. When all the yelling became too much, when I couldn't handle all of the voices and the messages running through my head? I tore it out. Do you know what that's like, in Evelsca? I made myself an outsider in my own nation."

"No one is invincible."

"Sometimes you feel like you are. I hate that."

I hear Marie's breath catch and when I peek out, the two of them are touching noses, their heads at an incline like something out of a story I would write. Sweeps front wings spread in a wide arc, flaring around the two of them. They are so still and my heart thrums with it, this sudden realization, and I am ashamed to admit that I am flushed with jealousy for a second.

Then, like a receding wave, it pulls from the shores of my mind. "You're needed inside." I say.

Sweep jolts away. "Aves!"

"Avery, are you kidding?"

"Make outs later," I say, "End of the world now."

"Ri-i-ight." Sweep folds her wings again.

"You make me feel unprofessional." Marie says.

"Oh no, don't worry. Athena and Heilin? When they were young, they were worse than either of us." Sweep explains, watching the arches. "Thanks for getting us, Aves, and apologies."

I nod dumbly and escort them back in. They take a silent seat, I reseat myself next to Plumeria, and we continue deciding the fate of our world. Every small adjustment is scrutinized. Not a single argument grows more heated than the one prior, in spite of this. Heilin, Athena, and Natrina speak more than any of us, and the Ceilvyran council, which I learn has a few griffins on it (a griffin! In legislature!) is more or less silent.

When we are satisfied with the map, we are adjourned, and I re-enter the library to find it closed. Only Aidan remains, manually shelving books from carts to the light of a few lanterns and two orbs, which follow him. "I don't suppose you've come here to rub your status in my face, have you?"

"No." I say. "It was long. A little boring, I guess, but fascinating material. I was hungry almost the whole time."

"Hm." Aidan mumbles, pressing small tomes into the rarely-used pup's section.

"Sweep and Marie are a thing now."

Aidan blinks. Humor lining his mew, he asks, "You're kidding me, right?"

"No! They had a fight, went out in the hallway, and-"

"How are you taking that? I know you were pining after both of them."

"I'm fine." I say, stuffing in his book the rest of the way.

Aidan fixes me with a dry stare.

"No, I think that's the problem." I explain. "I am fine."

"In one day? Were you already over both of them?" he asks.

"Of course I was crushing on them!" I tap a paw against the ground, trying to convey something meaningful from the critical mass of confusion swirling in my mind. "Maybe I've just changed over the course of this. I'll know what I want out of relationships later. Right now, I need time to do my job and figure things out."

Face half-lit by the orbs, Aidan suggests. "I'll likely still be open."

"Us?" I ask, taken aback.

"I'd considered going solo for the rest of my life, because I promised my parents I'd only take another Felis or a Nyuhenge, but first and foremost, I actually like you. That puts you forests ahead of everyone else here."

"Us." I say. The idea isn't repulsive, but it is new, and I begin to search my memories of us. Had I missed some small gesture along the way? Ignored some small cue? "Aidan... I'm going to take a breather. A long one. I can't handle any more stress than I have on my back right now. When things settle down-"

"At the castle? Settle down?"

"When this is over. We can talk."

He dips his head, and guilt surges through me, but I know I love him like a brother. In fact, right now, I feel liberated from the idea of romance. My mind is fraught with buzzing ideas and the impending doom of the Obsidians, and it seems for now that everything about Avery as an individual, Avery as someone with a personal life, that is far from me now.