The blue skies disappear behind us to indigos we've glimpsed from nights spent in the courtyards, but it hangs there instead of progressing to the silky black that is supposed to follow. Only the brightest of stars and the twin moons shine through it, but the moons, too, are frozen in time, suspended at odd angles overhead. I've been stalking these fields for what seems for hours and they haven't moved an inch.

We don't have the strength to move the cosmos yet.

"Iris?" I call, searching for her across familiar fields of monotonous gold grass, dappled with delicate flowers. She doesn't answer back. With a chill, it dawns on me that this might be what the other Sentients call dreaming alone.

The stars have come down to me. Light hangs in the air, disappearing as I come close enough to touch it, and emerging again a few steps away. I walk amongst the glittering spectacle, brushing through the grasses beneath me, and the cover grows thicker and thicker. It's hard to see anything, and with the slight warmth they all exude, I feel as if I am walking into the sun.

The earth slopes beneath me, tilting me upwards, and I see another shape there. My whole body shakes with relief before I realize it isn't her but a massive Canis, cloaked so thickly in darkness that she looks like a flat shadow. Three pairs of Verhamera's Horns slice the air and she turns to me with a gentle grace, dipping her head.

Iris, a flash of white lightning, pounces upon the Canis and tears her throat out. Black blood splatters the grass and the stars begin to flicker out around me, overhead, the whole world going dark between us, and blood stains her maw.

Her eyes, the last trace of light, fix mine, and I find that I can't step away.

***

"Torch, we need to leave." Iris says, prodding me awake that morning.

I roll over. We're sleeping in the garden- we sleep wherever we want, these days, and the garden is thick with natural, unkempt foliage and the air is warm. I revel in its comforts and murmur, "Why?" before the dream floods back to me, leaving a bitter taste at the top of my mouth. "Iris. Was that you? Was that really you?"

Iris, who is so close to my face that our snouts are almost touching, looks away and gets to her paws.

"That's not an answer!" I exclaim.

Her ears flatten. I can almost taste the guilt emanating from her. Her face is the same blank, emotionless slate she reverts to when she's not trying to tease expression out of her own features, thought it unnerves me more than any other look she could shoot me. As if being pulled upwards, I lift to my own paws, and she slinks out of the courtyard and back into the castle. The old oak beams surround us, reassuring me briefly, but there's still an underlying, bitter taste of danger on the roof of my mouth.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"Out." she says. The hallways are dim this early, with few wandering souls to traverse them, but as she passes candles spring to life and there is an electric glow about her that scares and thrills me. I couldn't break away from her if I wanted to, now. We form one unit and ghost through the halls. A few spare strangers pass by, but Iris pays no heed. She slinks through another gateway back into the sun, where light floods down on us. This garden is unkempt, unlike the rigid geometrical patterns of the other courtyards, and it's large enough to contain slight slopes. A tree whose branches, thick with leaves, drag almost to the ground stands near the corner. There's another mural there, echoing the one in the Font. A white Canis stood below this tree, head bent. The rest of the garden is filled with aging trees and flowers that resemble the ones from my dreams, white with gold and brown in the middle, faint enough that it barely detracts from the almost luminous quality of the petals. "She almost died here."

"Lotus, you mean." I say.

She nods. "This is where Vivian left for the Factory, thousands of years ago in their time. She lept into the future. Where does that leave us, Torch? Are we from their past or the future?"

"I... don't know." I respond, with a tilt of my head. "Are you worried?"

She turns, glassy blue eyes swimming with confusion. "Not at all. I did not mean to imply anything of the sort. It's only-" She grits her teeth, "Aren't you curious, Torch?"

"About them?" I ask.

She nods again, this time with a sharper incline. "It is information I do not have. Everything else on this planet I understand instinctively. But the past? My past? I don't know what it is I'm supposed to be, whether from the standpoint of the Obsidians or the Dreamlandians. I don't understand this... hope. I don't understand how I am supposed to save everyone and I am afflicted with dreams that feel more like maladies, even when I am close to you."

"I'm going to be right here, no matter what happens." I swear. "We don't have to follow their patterns."

Iris shakes her head. "I'd be certain, if we did, that I would die a hero."

"This world isn't going to have a third chance." I say. "You know what the Obsidians do. You saw the murals. They ravage worlds. Everyone here could end up like us," I don't finish, drowning, because the thought of it is enough to fill both of our throats with water only one of us has ever felt. "We don't have the choice to fail nobly. We have to- they need us to-"

Iris is looking away again. Something twitches across her face, expressions she doesn't understand how to convey. The white fur of her ears shines in the sunlight, mimicking the delicate curve of the flowers. "Do what?"

I lower my head.

She leaps up onto a tree with one bound, wings unfurling into delicate, translucent beauty, and then with another jump she's on the roof, paws clattering against the tiles. She inclines her head to stare into the sun, eyes closing.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

She blinks. The light burns both our eyes, engulfing us in something warm and familiar yet bitterly painful. She shakes her head, teeth bared into a half-snarl, and steps down. "I can't be here. Torch, something is trying to get me to do horrible things- it's in my head- my programming- we need to go."

I am stiller than the trees, which rustle with a wind that seems to come from nowhere. The two of us share a bitter moment together, ways to get out without getting out racing through our minds. We begin to file out of the courtyard, tail's so close that they almost touch, again and again, an insistent closeness always breaking off right before either of us have had our fill of the moment.

The halls are swelling now, with Canii, Canira, and the occasional other Sentient species traversing in what look like makeshift packs. A few of those rabbit-ish ones are watching us and whispering, and a Canis's jowls twitch when they see us going nowhere. I can't help but see the surprise etched into their features.

Iris picks up her pace, and I follow her. "What's going on?" I say, quietly as I can, and follow her eyes to Marie, who has broken into a run. The blue Canira knocks aside a confused Canis with her massive tail and swings down the stairs, careening at a pace that would send anyone else skidding, but she rides the dips like waves. Iris rounds her shoulders and moves after, dragging me along.

When we finally finish the stairs, panting in unison, Marie turns back, her green eyes narrow. "Torch. Iris. I didn't expect to see you here. May I ask why you've been stalking me?"

"Er-" I start.

Iris, sensing that I have no clue what I'm doing, pushes me aside. "We're looking for the group currently departing on the Heaven's Arc mission. We figured you might be heading in the same direction."

"They're going on paw to the Intercontinental, so they can pick up a few operatives on the way. I'm just taking a shortcut out of the castle. The Intercontinental Transport is located in an old Spirit Canira graveyard, since there's enough power there to warp space the way we need. I'm surprised you got clearance, but well, I guess we do need to... give the two of you a bit of respect." Her lip curls, indicating a hesitance to do any such thing. "Not that you two need to know, seeing as you're not on it. Thank goodness. It'll be awful."

"Awful as in tricky and painful or awful as in potentially fatal?" I ask, staring Iris straight in the face.

"What?" Marie asks. "Both. It's... well, don't worry about it. We have a bunch of the Evelscan special forces on it. They can handle tricky. You two should go train. How does this afternoon sound for some one-on-on?"

"Would tomorrow be alright?" I ask, still keeping an eye on Iris out of the edge of my vision. She nods, her face serenely calm as ever.

"I don't see why not." Marie flicks her tail, then, with another awkward glance back at us that I could swear goes on forever, she disappears down the hall.

We watch her disappear around the corner. Iris looks to me again, her face dour. "Portals are this way."

"We're in so much trouble," I whisper as she leads me through halls I've never been through. To some small, petty extent, it bothers me there are places we don't go together. Sometimes we feel more like a unit than two separate beings. She looks like she could walk through these halls with her eyes closed, judging by the confidence in her strut. The dark halls remind me of the Factory, although they are enlivened with murals and paintings, along with the occasional board full of scribbles I can't read. The scent of Sentient fills the air, mingling with dust and metal and whatever makes up the walls. It becomes more metallic as we continue, until Iris practically headbutts a door. She dips her head.

"Pardon. Even after a few sweeps of the area, my knowledge is... foggy." she says as a map spreads across the wall opposite us, the wall molding into forests, ridges and valleys, all at their appropriate scale height. Parts of the map are blurred, but Iris pays no heed to this as she strides forwards in full confidence and the map centers on the mountain. The entire wall folds open, like paper, and reveals a great nothingness.

Iris and I step forwards, paw in paw, and find ourselves near the mouth of a cave. I turn back and see nothing but forest and in the far distance, a few spires of the castle. "Where are the other Defenders?" I ask.

"We do not want to encounter them before we enter the portal." Iris says. "This is, as you say, a back entrance to the Spirit Canira's place as resting. The Canira guide informed me they were 'great tricksters' as well as 'wildly secretive'. Luckily, like us, they also 'did things that were by and large not in their jurisdiction to do', such as creating massive underground reservoirs of magic using the bodies of deceased loved ones. Not that we're doing that. We are trespassing, though."

"I'm pretty sure those are two very different things."

"Yes." Iris says.

"Before we go. Are you sure tagging along on a mission will make you feel better?"

"Absolutely." Iris says. "We can help without being around, we have the protection of other Defenders, and I don't have to be in the castle. There are no downsides to this arrangement."

"What about betraying the Auspicia's trust?" I say. "What about-"

"No downsides."

Iris leads me into the dark, but surprisingly, even in the dimmest parts of the underground lair it's still easy to see. A pink-ish hue penetrates the area, glimmering off minerals that line the sides of the well-dug, well-traversed tunnels. I can even see the pawprints of long ago Canira who have passed before us. Some have left necklaces and other personal items besides the crystals. Most of the Spirit Canira are buried far enough below the ground that we can't see them, but arcing overhead once we've almost leveled out onto the bedrock is a skeleton, crystal bursting from its chest. It's a grotesque beauty.

"Do all Canira form crystals when they die?" I ask.

Iris shakes her head. "Remnants of Canira souls can manifest as any kind of natural minerals or organic artifacts. Plants are common. Certain breeds have higher dispositions towards certain kinds."

"Wonder what ours will look like."

"We may not have souls, Torch."

My heart stops, not because of the statement, but because of an interruption: there's a whisper around the corner, the echo of an echo of someone's voice. We pick up the pace. Iris practically flies with each bounding step, and when we emerge into the main cavern, we see Marie and two or so Defenders, all filled with trepidation. Overhead is a massive portal, lined on all sides by Spirit Canira crystal, but the darkness is ebbing fast.

Marie swings her head our way. Her face breaks into a confused snarl.

"What do we do?" I ask.

"Go!" Iris shouts.

We both dash for it. I feel Marie slam my side and Iris sends her flying back with a kick, both of them airborne for a heartbeat. The other two Defenders rush forth with attacks and Iris's eyes gleam as I fall through the portal, my tail clipping the boundary, and I feel her close to me as we emerge into a place that is all white, like the opposite of the desert.

Though both places are equally desolate, this place is cold like the innards of Factory halls dialed up to an incredible degree. My paws begin to burn cold and I shake inside of my fur. I begin to spark up, but to my surprise, the sensation maks me no warmer and even a little dizzy.

"Why are you here?" asks a Canira with tilted ears, silver and lithe. She stares down at us with rueful dislike.

"We want to be." Iris responds.

"Great. Pupsitting." laughs a Canis so large and so shaggy that their horns barely appear over the tips of their pelt.

"That's what you're worried about? We're going to be in so much trouble if Marie finds the damn Virtues are tagging along on an elite mission."

"I kicked her in the face," Iris says. "I can take blame for any further infraction."

The silver Canira's jaw drops. The other Defenders, sparing a few, rise into a chorus of delighted howling. I realize that many of them bare the Evelscan crystal. These must be the troops they just recruited. No wonder they have no love for Marie.

"Now see, I was worried about the Virtues being Heilin's precious pets, but it looks like we have fighters on our paws." a white Canira says, three colorful orbs that emit no heat glittering around her neck. They highlight a small knife, not much larger than a dragon's tooth. "Echo, you have to admit they have guts."

"Epanza, this isn't the time for guts. If either of them die out here, morale will be crushed, but if we wait for the portal home to open, it could be weeks to set the coordinates up again. Seasons, all of you are reckless..." the silver, slanted-eared Canira fires back. "Being stationed in the Seas was better than this."

"You wound me." Epanza grunts.

"So the mission's not cancelled?" peeps a Canis from the back, crystal-less and shuddering.

"No." Echo snarls. She looks to us, and snaps, "Keep up."

Struck with the magnitude of what we've just done, I almost fall over, but the last thing I want to do right now is fall into the white, powdery ice. Instead, I stand still and freezing, trying to walk fast as the operatives, and Iris, colder than the weather, presses herself gently to my fur.

We are fire and light in a world of neither, once again, and I remember once again what it is to be afraid and cold.

I'm doing this for you, I think, and I feel braver. For you.