Jay flicked through the list of System windows from the overwhelming amount that had been waiting for him, scared to dismiss any of them – much less make any selections – without being able to devote his full attention to them. Right now, his attention was elsewhere. Even through the windows, he could see his actual focus.

  Agensyx swept the last remnants of his tantrum from earlier into a container. Every so often, the snake looked back to see Jay still looking at him, then flinched.

  When the rubble was finally disposed of, Jay broke the tension, starting with the less serious thing he had to talk about. “You know that was creepy as hell, right?”

  What was? the familiar responded.

  Jay gave him a flat look. “‘I would not let them take you.’ You can’t see how disturbing that could be to hear while passing out?”

  No. The feel from across the bond was legitimate confusion. They would have harmed you more.

  “Do you know that?” Jay asked. He knew the answer.

  Not for certain. He shifted uncomfortably. But it was their trap that did… that… to you. Their cursed book. They were going to finish what they started.

  “Did they say that?”

  No.

  “Then why would you think that’s what was going to happen?” Jay snapped. “Why would you think they weren’t just trying to help?”

  No one sets a trap and then helps the prey that was caught in it. That would defeat the purpose of a trap, Agensyx insisted.

  “Why are you so convinced it was a trap at all? What makes you think they even knew about it?”

  Because, the snake spat, they are artificial. Created. Heartless and soulless in equal measure. Fled from the sunlight to avoid their own extermination.

  “What the fuck are you saying?” Jay asked. “What does that mean?”

  What about what I have said is unclear to you? These creatures are unnatural. Nonsapient, self-replicating abominations against every true ensouled entity in this world, created by a mage that was sentenced to an infinite lifespan in perpetual torture because death was too kind.

  Was his familiar horrifically racist? Where was this declaration coming from? Jay took a second to delve into the feelings behind the words, leveraging the familiar bond in a way that he was reasonably sure he hadn’t been able to do before his ordeal. It didn’t take any longer than a blink.

  “Oh.” That was weighty. And confusing. “They’re… your opposite.”

  The idea didn’t make sense to him, but it was there in Agensyx’s mind, as blatant as colors. Some types of creatures had clear opposites in a mimicry of predator-prey interactions. Spirits and the Asanti – and seemingly any similar living creations – were apparently victims of the same dynamic.

  Do not ever dig into my memories again, Jay Carter, Agensyx hissed. Literally hissed, before he controlled himself. Yes, they are our opposites. Naturally arising constructs of pure thought and no physicality balanced by creations of pure physicality and no thought. I had thought myself beyond that interaction as I had left behind my original cadre of instincts.

  I do not know if I was wrong on only this, or if both of those statements are incorrect. Perhaps I am still more spirit than I thought. Perhaps I have simply changed to such a degree that my core purpose has shifted.

  I have never had to seek for those impulses. Agensyx dropped to the floor, laying his head on his now-crossed front claws. I do not know how to.

  Jay didn’t know what to say to that. How was he supposed to comfort a dragon having an identity crisis? He pushed his way out of the bed’s thick covers and moved until he could put a hand on his familiar’s head. It was the closest thing to comfort he could think to offer.

  Alister uncurled from around his arm and wound his way down to Agensyx’s head, pressing his own skeletal head to it once he was close enough.

  Something changed with the familiar bond; the connection screeched like the mental equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. Jay winced, resisting the urge to try shutting out the noise with his hands over his ears. When the sound ended, there was a second thread twisting around the first, so tightly it was almost a single braid.

  A new voice, pitched much higher than Agensyx’s, joined their mental conversation. Do you need to hibernate?

  What? Agensyx asked. How – Who –

  Hibernate. To grow. To change. To learn.

  He didn’t pay attention to Agensyx’s response, too busy inspecting the new thread of the bond. The more he looked at it, the more he saw a clear directionality to it. The new thread was pointed squarely at Alister. Jay felt the need to check anyway. If the skeletal parasite had been able to talk this whole time, why hadn’t he? Maybe it wasn’t him at all.

  So he asked. “Alister?”

  The parasite’s skull raised up to look at him, an exercise that involved re-curling around Jay’s arm. Yes.

  “Why can you talk now?”

  My hibernation ended, the skeleton explained.

  You don’t look any bigger, Agensyx said.

  Growth in thought, not in body. This time.

  “This time? Wait, you hibernate?” Agensyx had taken whatever that meant in perfect stride, but Jay was pretty sure he was missing something. Alister didn’t seem to mean hibernation in the bear sense, which was the only type he knew about.

  Also, every word the skeleton thought to him itched in a way that didn’t connect to any body part. What was up with that?

  Lifecycle changes, I hibernate between. This… counts. Seemingly.

  “So this isn’t the first time something like this has happened to you, Alister?”

  No. The first was the shaking and the flood. Adaptation was necessary. I slept, I changed, I lived.

  I have never heard of something like this before, Agensyx commented, but it would not be out of the question. Magic lends an incredible ability to adapt and change.

  “No, wait, hold on. You say you were hibernating but you bit some of the training dummies. I got notifications about it,” Jay said.

  I stirred slightly on reflex a few times. I don’t know what I did while doing so, but there was a sense of danger that penetrated through the haze of the change. Possibly it was that.

  “What do you mean possibly?”

  Are you aware of everything you do while sleeping? Alister asked.

  “No, but at this point I’m the only one of the three of us that hasn’t either sleepwalked into a dangerous cave city or attacked something in my sleep, so I really think you should have something better than ‘I don’t know’ as an answer.”

  It’s all the answer I’ve got, Alister replied.

  Agensyx hummed, the feeling floating across the bond one of acceptance. Clearly he thought that response was good enough.

  Jay chose not to respond, pulling all his new options back into view.

  He’d put some measure of thought into what he was going to slot points into first, but that was a much larger glut of them than he thought he’d be getting at the same time. He dumped enough into Knowledge to make it a round fifteen, filled in the rest to try to cover his weaknesses, and added a double helping for Resilience. Then he moved on to the traits. So, so many traits to move through.

  At least his choices had been fairly easy, even with that many options. Two Mythic traits were not what he had been expecting, but those had been cinches to take. He took the others for a variety of reasons, but they all seemed useful.

  He was never going to pass up one of the sensory abilities again after the last time. The others were a nice balance between what he needed, wanted, and just thought was cool. Jay shut all the windows he could – leaving only two – and sighed in relief. Just having that out of the way felt good.

  Until one sprang into being again.

  He’d known it was coming. Some of the books had mentioned the ten-level tiers as quantifiable upgrades to every portion of what the System gave. Despite his reading, he still wasn’t ready for the feeling of the upgrade.

  It started with tingles in his extremities that traced up his veins, joining together at every major artery until they all met in his heart. Then it shifted to a comforting warmth that spread from his chest into every portion of the rest of his body before guttering out. It was nice, honestly, and Jay almost wanted to go back to sleep while the feeling lasted.

  His better sense prevailed. Or, if not better sense, at least the sense that told him he should use his time wisely. Alister had squirmed back into his place as an armband at some point while he had been making his choices, but he raised his head again when Jay spoke.

  “We need to talk,” Jay started. “Mostly about these.”

  He read it out to the pair, then pulled the second one up and read that too.

  “I don’t know what this means. I don’t know anything about the creature that’s being referenced beyond that it seems to be the thing that tried to trap me in that book.” Jay took a deep breath. “And apparently at least partially succeeded. I don’t know where to go from here.”

  The braid of their shared bond was silent for a second as the two snakes seemed to process the messages.

  Alister shook his head. I don’t know anything about any of that.

  Agensyx didn’t say anything. It felt like he wanted to, like he had something to say, but he kept his mouth – and mind – shut anyway.

  Jay wasn’t having it. “If you have something to say, say it.” He tried to be encouraging without sacrificing firmness and wasn’t entirely sure he’d succeeded.

  The larger of the two snakes still didn’t speak. Frustration bubbled across the bond, echoing back and forth until neither of them knew where it had started.

  “Give. Me. Something,” Jay insisted. “You’ve said you know things. I’ve been trying not to press about any of that, but give me something.”

  The aggravation grew, but Agensyx remained quiet. The sense of words lingering just below the surface grew heavier, but they stayed unspoken.

  “Seriously, what are you keeping secret here? I don’t know where to go next. I don’t even know how to find out where to go next, since opening books around here apparently flays chunks off my soul. Whatever it is you’re stopping yourself from saying, this really isn’t the time for it.”

  The anger boiled over from Agensyx’s portion of the bond. I would tell you if I could. I have tried. I cannot speak.

  Alister was conspicuously silent, his mind radiating the stillness of a rabbit that fell into a wolf’s den.

  I have told you all I can. I have said what it is possible for me to say, Agensyx continued.

  “What does that mean? What could possibly be stopping you from saying something that isn’t your own choice?”

  I do not know, the snake said. I wish I did. He sounded more pissed about it than anything else. But it keeps me from communicating about certain matters. Even thinking about it locks my mind in place.

  Jay’s anger drained abruptly. “What could do that?”

  Did I not just say that I do not know? It remains true.

  That was fair enough that Jay couldn’t think of anything to respond. He was saved from the necessity of doing so by Alister mentally uncurling.

  He thinks we should go to Ayor, the skeleton said.

  How did you know that? And why can you say it where I cannot?

  “Same questions,” Jay interjected.

  I don’t know how I know. I just know I do. I also don’t know why I can talk about it, Alister said. Not beyond a guess.

  “A guess is more than I have.”

  There is a current in the back of my mind that glows gold. It whispered to me through my hibernation, imparting knowledge. Some of that knowledge came with rules. I believe it may be a similar situation with different rules, Alister explained.

  “That doesn’t make any sense. You two have next to nothing in common except…” Jay trailed off. “Except the addition of Divinity.”

  Which is golden.

  “That makes way too much sense. How did you figure that out so quickly?”

  In a very real sense, Alister began, I have never been without that voice. I don’t think I had a mind in the state I was in before, and am uncertain if I would have a mind were that current removed from me. There is a certain amount of understanding that comes with such a thing.

  Interesting, Agensyx hummed. Now his anger was gone, replaced by curiosity and something that felt suspiciously like overwhelming appreciation.

  “I told you that Divinity was going to have side effects on you,” Jay said. “I told you.”

  You seem to have been correct. Regardless, the small one is correct. Ayor would be my recommendation.

  “Guess you can talk about it now that someone else has said it.” There was a clue there about what the full situation was with the guidance of the current, but Jay wasn’t sure what it meant. “I thought you said Ayor was destroyed?”

  It was, on a scale unseen by any other recorded magecraft to my knowledge. However, I have learned not to underestimate the tenacity of your people. Earth magic is common. I would be surprised to learn that no portion had survived while under the aegis of another mage.

  “That’s fair. I guess we’re going to Ayor, then. Let’s hope they don’t have any cursed books.”

  The other two agreed and Jay made a mental note to try to tease out more information from Agensyx over the trip. If he could only talk about certain things after someone else brought them up, he’d have to find the limits. Who knew how much extra information was floating around the giant snake’s head?

  *