Avery can't 'cooperate' with us immediately, since she seems to be busy trying to wake up the purple Canis passed out on the floor. Both the guards are back to their default stoic expression in a few moments and as soon as the purple Canis opens her eyes, Avery springs out the door.

Iris's tail twitches with aggravation, the sharp-ridged appendage at the end slashing through the air dangerously.

"Don't worry," I reassure her, "She'll be right back."

Iris's gaze slides towards the guards, her jowl twitching with displeasure. "We made that Canis up there pass out." she says, her voice so low only I can hear it. "What if they decide we're dangerous? We have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide."

I tremble. I hadn't considered going on the run again, and the thought of disappearing into the wilds of an unknown world is worse than the potential dangers of staying surrounded by Canii far more powerful than us. I've escaped given some pretty drastic odds before, but there's no Vivian here to save us if things go south.

Vivian...

She seemed so sure that we'd be able to help her and everyone else in the Factory.

"We're staying." I insist, a little more loudly than I had hoped to announce.

Iris seems unpersuaded, but she gives me a sharp nod.

At the same moment, Avery reappears, ears pricked and sky-blue eyes wide, though her excitement carries the bitter edge of an emotion I don't understand. Behind her, a white Canis with three sets of cream horns sharp as Iris's claws and half as long as her legs glides into the room like a ghost, her four wings glittering with phantasmic light.

Iris tenses. "That's her."

The Canis can be none other than the one who appeared in our dreams- the one who Iris attacked. She registers this as she watches us both, trapped like we're back at the Factory. A low leer like the blank stare of the Obsidians crosses her face, with so much force that makes me shudder. Iris spreads a wing across me.

"I've waited a long time to find you two," she informs us, though she doesn't seem happy to see us at all. "I trust Avery's told you that we believe you two to be the heroes of Hope and Determination, and likely the miracle we need to fight back against the looming threat of Obsidian invasion."

"She yelled something about Vivian and then the purple Canis passed out. I'd hesitate to call it informative." Iris replies, matching the white Canis's curt tone. Everyone else in the room seems appalled, and I can scent their shock from here.

"Vivian..." The Canis murmurs, wistfully, "After all these years. I'd almost given up any hope of seeing her again."

"It can't be, though- the Vivian!" Avery yelps. "No one knows what period in time she jumped to."

"Vivian... jumped through time?" I ask, curious. The notion of a Sentient ripping through time like fabric, or leaping through it like air, is bizarre. If the species of this world are so powerful, no wonder the Obsidians wanted to capture us so badly.

Grimly, the white Canis nods. "It is not out of the realm of possibility for Determination and Hope Keepers to gain the ability to rend the very fabric of space and time. In the olden days, when our reality was still settling about us, it was almost a certainty. Whether or not the same powers will manifest for you is up in the air, but you've already challenged me in your dreams with four wings manifest, a feat that would be impossible for most mere Canira."

Avery peeps up again, "But Heilin, if Vivian-"

Heilin, who must be the strange and luminous being before us, continues, "We will incorporate Vivian's rescue into our plans for storming the Factory. We can not risk tearing open a hole for the sake of a rescue mission right now."

"Storming the Factory..." Iris says, her voice hushed with respectful awe. She's still tense before Heilin, though I can't imagine I'm much better. The presence of the Canis is enough to still us both, and the two guards behind us have their heads dipped. Their shoulders tremble as if they're carrying an object of immense weight. If anyone, anyone at all could storm the Factory, it would be an army led by the likes of Heilin.

Avery nods, though her blue eyes watch the purple Canis (who has recently staggered back to her paws) and the wall behind her. "I understand."

"What should we do with them?" asks one of the Canis guards, whose fur is a curled and speckled gray.

"Let us out of here. If we're so important to you, then treat us like comrades, not prisoners." suggests Iris.

"After that incident, we can't have you running around the castle unsupervised, unfortunately." says the other guard, which prompts Iris to lower her ears. I can feel her twitching, desperate for freedom or at least some kind of answer.

"You can stay with them, right?" asks Avery. "No matter what they did in their dreams, I think we at least owe them a chance- and I'll come too, to help guide them around the castle!"

"Spira and Leto." Heilin says, and the Canis look up. Those must be their names. "I trust you can handle this. I managed to seal some of the magic of these individuals while they were unconscious, but if they do attempt to break for it-" her jowls quiver, "-throw them right back here, where they'll await trial. Vivian would understand if we came back for her without them, and we're more than prepared to continue our plans without them."

The last bit hurts a bit more than I expected. I barely know these beings, yet somehow the prospect of helping them was exciting. A resolve to do something, to mean something, fills me, and I look straight into Heilin's eyes. It's thrilling and terrifying to do so, and the massive Canis looks back with equal fierceness before turning, her wings folding back in on themselves and disappearing. Avery and the purple Canis file out with her, leaving only us and the guards.

"Well? Come along then," says the silver guard, and I take my first steps out of the room and into a world that might as well be my birthright.

"Torch." Iris whispers in my ear, "Are you scared?"
I shake my head.

"You're brave," she says.

"You too. We survived the Factory together." I reply, pressing my tail against hers. She's warm. "We just need to trust them."

Her eyes wander over mine, snout turned slightly so that I get the full force of her stare, and she attempts the 'smiling' expression I tried to teach her in our shared dream. It's half hearted, but I try to smile back, too.

Avery meets us at the end of the white halls, a pink, feathered ball of fur against dozens of white doors and the distant but familiar smell of sharp blood mixed with sterile metals. It reminds me of the Factory, and I shiver. What have we really jumped into, and what have we really escaped from?

I get my answer when Avery tells us softly, "Sorry about that, Heilin's stressed. Don't worry, though- I have just the place to take you." She opens the door and I'm greeted to what I can only describe as paradise.

The world is a mixture of scents I've never tasted before, mixed with meandering Sentients and wood and food and plants, the distant sounds of laughter and casual conversation, and the entire area is full of life and wonder. Huge pillars arc overhead, with textiles and flowers hanging down from the wooden bars, with paint patterned into depictions of other Sentients or grand scenes decorating the walls. Hallways sprawl out before us, and the ground is soft underfoot with weird, fur-like grass beneath us. Iris lowers her head for a second and closes her eyes, likely to prevent the rush of sensory information, but I can't. I want to take this in forever.

"Welcome home," offers Avery.

Awestruck, we wander the halls, guards flanking us on either side. A few times other beings will come up and try to strike up conversation with Avery, but the guards move them aside. The gray, freckled guard in particular lets no one past, and the whole crowd moves out of her way as we move through.

"That's Spira for you. Such a viviante." Avery tells me, her voice a chirruping laugh.

Puzzled, Iris asks, "She's a vivian, too? Does that mean she's your 'Determination'...?"

"No, no! Viviante's an informal term for someone with a lot of fiery spirit, or an overachieving, loyal soldier, kind of like Vivian herself."

"So they... replaced Vivian? Why do you need her back, then?"

Spira snorts, and Avery struggles to reply. "N-no, she didn't replace Vivian! It's just a term-"

"This is very confusing," Iris says.

I nod in agreement, barely registering the conversation. We fall back into darkness, padding down a long and poorly lit hall, which halts at a set of doors flung wide open. Inside is a building with walls at least twice as high as the rest of the building, covered in elaborate murals made of colored glass that seem to spiral up into eternity. Light pours through them, speckling the ground with a thousand refracted colors.

Canii, Canira, and beings unrecognizable to me flash and soar across the walls, interwoven into one grand story that plays out around us. I catch battles tinged with beams of light and blood, huge figures with haloes cast about their face, and recurring pictures that seem to appear again and again, often bound by thin red strings. At the very top of the building, a six-winged Canis's wings glow with light from above, which shines a zone of pure white onto the ground below, which is elevated. The whole room is a series of concentric circles, which dip slowly and then raise so that there's room for a single being to rest above the rest.

"This is the Fount of Aerivas. Also known as the Aria Font, but it can also be translated, loosely, to Avery Font, which is where I got my name." Avery informs us, tail waving, "I used to sing here when I wasn't at work on the Library. Legend says the building was built from the ground up, glass and all, around the songstress Aerivas, who would sing day and night about the heroes of old until she entered a sort of trance. Artisans from all over the land would come to hear her and use her as a muse. Those who ad recently lost a loved one would come to mourn. Aerivas was inspiration herself."

"Will you sing for us?" I ask. The notion of song is a familiar one from old companions in the Factory. In some worlds, song was forbidden, in others a mere hobby, but to some species sound was life itself. I remember lyrical sounds from the mouths of three-beaked avians whose whole bodies would contort to produce a more powerful sound.

Avery gives us a 'hmmmm' in a pleasing note, and Iris's ears angle forwards, enraptured. Avery sighs, "I'm terribly rusty."

"Go on with it," Spira says, "We don't have all night. Heilin's made her terms very clear."

"Fair," Avery remarks, spreading her wings and making the jump to the center. "Well, I'll relay it the best I can." She looks up at the ceiling, a band of yellow light slicing across her snout, and we follow her gaze to a picture of two Canii, one green and white. They stand with tails intertwined, mirror copies of each other, before a blazing fire.

Avery begins her song, a wordless melody that drifts through the acoustics of the room and echoes across the walls. There is such a power to her voice that it naturally fits with the intricate designs, and we follow her song over the highs and lows of the story as it continues without her ever needing to add a word to instruct us...

The two Canii, sisters, flee their burning homeland and are greeted by a feathery white-and-pink dappled comet, (the Canis Aislyn, first High Auspicia, whispers Leto) who glows more brilliantly than anything else on the walls. The three Canii are met at the gates of a small castle by a fiery newcomer, and though she's much younger, I know her to be the Viviante. Her green eyes burn with passion, and she and the white Canis sister are enclosed in a brilliant oneness, tied together by red thread and burning petals.

Avery's voice raises so high it shouldn't be possible as the couple emerge, tail in tail, horns hooked, and Aislyn and the green Canis lie beneath, framing them. Aislyn's wings trail off into the infinite cosmos below, a thousand worlds which the four travel together, paw in paw. Pictures of their glory are spread across the walls as they save entire worlds, bound between universes, and destroy the Obsidians, who are unlit. Their presence against the glass murals is unsettling, and they are always shown beneath, crushed underpaw, blasted by light.

It stirs something dangerous within me, something like confidence.

The two Canii bound by red string are shown with shards of obsidian through their hearts on a foreign world at the end of these endeavors, near fatally wounded. My breath catches in my throat, unbelieving. Even though they're nothing but glass, I want more desperately than anything else for them to open their eyes. Obsidian darkness fills the panel below, encroaching on all sides, and Avery's voice stills as Aislyn's six wings raise around the group, bringing them home to Dreamland. The red Canis is surrounded on one side by darkness, and the other by the white Canis, who bares a thousand vines around her neck. Avery lets out one last, longing note that trembles at the end as the white Canis sister watches the red Canis, still blazing, disappear into time.

"She left," Iris says, "They failed, and she- the Hellhound- she-"

"Yes," Avery responds. "They could fight no longer, but Vivian refused to accept failure. She left Lotus, Keeper of Hope and her lover, and disappeared to fight the Obsidians far in the future, where she believed they might stand a chance. Lotus... did not take it well."

"So, we're... the successors to them. To that." I say, looking at the mural of the strangled white Canis. Iris looks to me from Vivian, disappearing, and I feel her shake against my fur. I can scent her fear, and I press into her, trying to promise what I can't give words to.

"It's beautiful," Iris says with all the wrong inflections. She sounds more Obsidian than Canira, more calculating than wonderous or even...

I shouldn't be thinking about her like this.

"... it will be different this time," Avery mumbles, though her voice still carries that haunting quality. "A lot has changed. There are more heroes, and more at stake. We can not flee from the present- we are that future, the end of times. We are all the world has left."

"W-we should go." I don't realize I'm crying until I turn, and my wet fur is touched by the unsettled air. Iris follows, but her expression is cold as ever.

"Yeah! Would you guys like food?" Avery asks, chipper as she came in.

I nod for Iris. Food sounds incredible.

When we reach the mess hall, it's just as massive and beautiful as the Font, though for entirely different reasons. I've never taken in so many odors, at least not pleasant ones, and the merry groups of Sentients just being, just existing, makes me happy for reasons I don't quite understand. They look at peace, with nowhere to go or to be, and their diversity is incredible. Iris is more fixated on the food itself, and when I get my mouth around a weird, puffy rock, I understand why. It sinks into my mouth with a crunch, sweet and gold all the way through. I let out a soft moan of delight, scarf it down, and then pick up a hunk of meat in my mouth and tear it to pieces. Other Sentients begin to assemble, but I can hardly see them through my frenzy.

This is the heaven Vivian told us about: simple moments you would never consider extraordinary if you'd always had them.

I gorge myself until my stomach aches, until I can no longer force my jaw to move, and I stagger out with our guards, Iris, and Avery. Amused Sentients watch us with their eyes aglitter, calling out to us even though they've never met us before. Their tails wag and their faces are kind, and they are warm as the fire and the rooms.

We return to our room and it flickers to the hallway for a second before settling back on the outside landscape of our dreams. Spira and Leto bow out, and Avery closes one eye and opens it again before leaving us in the sealed room. The door disappears and the bright meadows swallow us whole.

Iris puts her head on her paws, ears slicked back and her eyes fixed on the magically generated grass below.

"I thought coming here would fix everything," Iris said, "but we really are still prisoners, aren't we?"

I can't believe she's thinking this after what we just experienced, but I try not to let my shock show. "You heard what Vivian said. We're Canira. We belong here." I insist.

"Are we? I don't know what I am or how they made me." There is no remorse or sadness in her voice as she says it, just the cool, cold edge of fact.

The meadow shivers around us, aware that it is a fraud just as much as we are. It is a pale imitation of our dreams, which is a pale imitation of a world we barely know, even if I already feel such a fierce desire to protect it.

"What do we do next?" I ask, unsure of myself.

Iris gets to her paws, cold determination in her eyes. She glares right into the light overhead like she stared down Heilin, and demands, "I want to see the sun."