(K'hab)

  K’hab put the mark down after signing off on his last quest for the day. He could practically hear J’aksun’s voice, telling him to switch over to a magitech quest network, for the hundredth time. Such a system would be much more efficient, but it was a slippery slope as he’d have to come up with another convenient excuse not to digitize all his books if they brought in a system like that. No, the imperfect nature of mark and scratch records suited him perfectly fine.

  His chair creaked as he leaned back to stare up at the ceiling. Most of the stonework in the guildhall was uniform and seamless. But that wasn’t interesting to look at. So, he asked Wedge for fractal patterns placed on the ceiling in his office, personal library, and chambers. Staring at them helped him disassociate when he needed a break. Letting his conscious mind disengage gave his subconscious more room to work through problems. There were more than enough problems to work on, but he was procrastinating.

  K’hab sighed, looking down at the neat stack of filed paperwork. His eyes wandered around the room as he searched for another distraction.

  ‘Maybe I should have dinner first,’ he thought.

  It had been a long day, starting with a detailed debrief from Wedge. Then he met with each of the initiates to review their trial, followed by the clerical and bureaucratic business of running a guild. News of a Riftgate up and running at Wanderly was exciting, and he was eager to schedule as many of his teams as possible.

  He’d sent Tome & Key first because a bored Dorian was trouble. Even the brief time he spent bonding with his brother, they’d managed to tear up one of the training fields and bother one of the neighbors, a judge, no less. His capacity for destruction was useful but required constant attention.

  It was time, and he was done putting it off. The chair chirped along the floor as he rose to his feet. “Alright, Hendritz,” K’hab said to the empty room. “It’s time we had a chat.”

  He slipped his hand into his pocket to retrieve a ring. It was a simple unadorned band that looked just like any other translation ring. K’hab had the ring enchanted to look the part, and that was the genius of it.

  Had anyone been desperate enough to steal the ring from him, it would appear to be a broken translation ring. And anyone with an ability to discern the difference would never steal something so worthless.

  The ring only worked for K’hab, and it was both the door and key into his dimensional space. He slipped the ring over his claw and past his knuckles. A shimmering portal appeared beside him. Only he could see or use it. If anyone walked in the room at that moment, they would have seen him simply disappear as he stepped into the event horizon.

  Shifting from one dimension to another always made him nauseous. And understanding the fundaments of molecular transcription didn’t make it any easier on his body. The only person he knew unaffected by dimensional shearing was the legacy himself.

  K’hab’s leather boot hit the dirt path underneath him as he stepped through. A clawed hand covered his mouth as he glanced at the void-enchanted bucket beside the portal. It’d been years since he had to use it, but his stomach threatened to break his streak every time.

  Swallowing back the bile, he looked around at his accumulated knowledge and wealth. The ground beneath him was packed dirt. There were no walls to contain the space; it stretched endlessly into the void past a medium-sized plot of land. He’d brought in his own bookcases to store the forbidden tomes and scrolls of restricted knowledge, their shelves lined with secrets too dangerous to exist anywhere else. Chests filled with gems and precious metals sat stacked in orderly rows, the treasures far too rare to eat. Other magical paraphernalia—runes, crystals, and enchanted objects—were haphazardly organized on nearby shelves, all surrounding a simple desk that seemed almost out of place amidst the collection.

  Like most draconi, he had a penchant for collecting, but every draconi’s hoard was different. Some collected gems, others sought only citrines or sapphires. Some hoards were less tangible, focusing on experiences—whether a lover’s tryst or a monster’s death. These collections were as varied as the draconi themselves, but K’hab’s vice was knowledge, forbidden and irresistible.

  K’hab’s vice was obtaining the forbidden—like his affair with Lord Kairos. It started back when he was just Kairos, before his death and reincarnation as a kronokai—one of the Time Lords. Even before coming back as a time elemental, he’d been born a Legacy of Time. Destiny had merely corrected the error of his elven birth with his death, allowing him to take his place as the leader of the Time Lords.

  His beloved Kairos had been part of his adventuring team, Endless Horizon. Back then, it was them: Kairos, Octavia, Hendritz, Sydney, and K’hab, against the world. Young, naive, and hopelessly optimistic, they often took on, and miraculously survived, contracts and quests they weren’t ready for.

  Out of their team, Octavia was the best of them. She was their brawler and didn’t let their tragic falling out stop her from becoming an epic-ranked adventurer. Her drive and focus on advancement put him to shame as he floundered at rare rank. Had he not settled down to create a guild of his own and foster the next generation of adventurers, he’d still be working his way toward epic. She was just that good, and if any of them might hit legendary, it’d be her.

  She was Kairos’ lover and eventual wife. They’d gotten together before K’hab had recruited them to the team. Their established relationship was the spark that lit his own desire, and his heart fell for them both. The driven kitsune was as much the ideal partner as adventurer.

  Supportive, loyal, and infatuated with her spouse, K’hab never could tempt her heart into straying. She deserved far better than either K’hab or Kairos. But it wasn’t their secret affair that had driven her away. She’d only figured that out a few decades ago.

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  No, Hendritz had been the reason it all fell apart. Octavia might have been the best adventurer of them all, but no one was a better friend than Hendritz. It was his kindness and protective nature that drove him to do the unthinkable.

  Continuously punching above their weight led to being exposed to greater and greater threats, and eventually, the stakes grew out of control. Being the underdog often required them to take shortcuts or worse, poor choices in order to come out on top. What started as doing whatever it took to save a city led to putting something even more impactful at risk.

  But the truth was they’d lost more than just a teammate; they’d all lost a part of themselves that night.

  Octavia was throwing herself into her work, recklessly pushing herself as an adventurer in the wake of discovering Lord Kairos’s heart belonged to another. Nearly thirty years later and she was still working through the weight of his betrayal and manipulation. If it wasn’t for her natural talents as a fighter, he might even be worried about her safety.

  Lord Kairos had left him, too, taking to the elemental plane of time—the origin of the kronokai. He made a choice to put his kingdom first, family second, and his heart last.

  K’hab had been their corruptor but hadn’t progressed further into rare rank. Always the underdog, and the only one of them trying to prevent the disaster heading their way.

  Sydney, their mender, naturally blamed herself for their greatest failure as a team. She never learned that taking care of someone didn’t mean you were responsible for their actions. It was a concept that many menders struggled with. K’hab was worried that Nathan would continue to fall into that flawed idea as well.

  No one had heard from Sydney since the night she disappeared with the skill book. They’d decided as a group to get rid of it. Not only was it far too dangerous to keep around, but it’d be a constant reminder of what they’d lost. Had he known then what he knew now, he’d have been the one to abscond with the book in the middle of the night.

  And Hendritz, their juggernaut, was resting on K’hab’s desk.

  “Hello, Hendritz,” K’hab said to the leatherbound book. There was a familiar twinge around his eyes as tears welled along with his emotions. The skill book was all that remained of his best friend.

  “Sorry we haven’t spoken in a while.” K’hab sniffled sharply. “She did well in hiding you. I was beginning to worry she’d taken you off-world.” He reached out but stopped just before touching the cover. “I wonder if she’s still alive. I like to imagine she is, even if that means she’ll be coming for me next.”

  K’hab took a seat at the desk. “I think I’d like that.”

  “Listen, I don’t know if you can hear me. But from what I’ve learned, I believe you can.” He slowly traced a claw around the edges of the book, careful not to touch it.

  “If there were any other way…” K’hab’s voice trailed off as he let out a laugh. “Mother, I sound just like you did.”

  He shrugged to himself and continued, “You of all people should understand…” K’hab sighed, his face breaking into a smile. “You always did understand me.”

  “Just so you know, I get it now. I get why you did it. And I forgive you.”

  K’hab’s mind split as he activated Quantum Thoughts.

  “I just hope they can forgive me.”

  He placed his hand on the skill book and a message appeared. It had been years since his actions earned him a System message.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: Initializing, wait.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: WARNING: Using this Skill Book will incorporate a new soul.

  K’hab was aware of skill books and their risks, having studied them for decades. They called it fractured psychosis—the result of adding another soul to an existing one. Additional alternate identities were common, often accompanied by shifts in existing personalities and vivid, full-sensory hallucinations.

  They called it fractured, not because it was accurate, but because it was the effect. Other psychological effects were attributed to fractured psychosis, but they weren’t from the merging of souls. They were from two souls trying to occupy a single soulspace. Insanity was just its inevitable outcome.

  But that wouldn’t happen to him. His passive, Quantum Thoughts, should negate, or at least minimize the side effects. Instead of multiple identities fighting to control a single headspace, he could provide each of them their own, ensuring his original identity remained intact and fully in control.

  Also, he was draconi, a race known for soul amalgamation. It was how they reproduced, forging two or more mimicked souls, collected from their lovers, into one. His passive, combined with his heritage, gave him the confidence that using the skill book wasn’t a death sentence.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: Requesting permission to activate. Choose one.

  [Consent] [Deny] [Cancel]

  K’hab waited as the message displayed in his vision. He’d forgotten how distracting it could be. It persisted even when he closed his eyes.

  The moral quandary of using a book crafted from the soul of another person wasn’t an issue for him. But there were other concerns that did warrant consideration. On top of putting his mental and physical health at risk, there was no way to determine which ability he’d end up with. The skill book could grant any ability the adventurer had, which meant he had only a one-in-twenty chance of acquiring the ability he needed.

  K’hab mentally selected Consent and the book began to disintegrate.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: Consent acknowledged.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: Injecting soul, wait.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: Destiny framework not found.

  “Infernal Mother!” K’hab cried out, slamming his fist down on the desk.

  It needed to be Void, not Destiny.

  Hendritz had a unique Void ability that would’ve been able to contain Lord Kairos. Stasis abilities usually involved Time magic, which, of course, would be useless against a Time legacy.

  His plan had failed.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: Installing Destiny framework, wait.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: Framework six of five installed.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: New passive [Death Sense] unlocked.

  Death warns you of its approach.

  That was the same passive Hendritz had, and why they had to book him instead of just killing him outright. They had the element of surprise because transformation didn’t count as death. To think, they’d saved their entire world on a technicality. This was definitely a huge boon for K’hab, but he was too upset to appreciate it at the moment.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: Inheriting ability with Willpower influence, wait.

  [Hendritz Skill Book]: New ability [Hendritz’s Words to Reality] acquired.

  Ability sealed - Insufficient rank to use this ability.

  “Words to Reality…?” K’hab said out loud.

  The fact that the ability remained sealed at rare rank all but confirmed it was a wish power—abilities like that could only be used starting at epic rank. He never knew Hendritz had an ability like this—none of them had. But more importantly, this might work even better than his original plan. But first, he’d have to find a way to hit epic rank.

  K’hab allowed himself to get distracted with the implications of what might have happened if they’d allowed Hendritz to reach the rank of Epic adventurer. Without knowing the limitations of the ability, K’hab’s mind ran off with the possibilities. He wasn’t paying attention as a new identity formed in the empty headspace left used.

  K’hab heard a voice that wasn’t his own. “Hello, old friend,” Hendritz said.

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