The Luminous Library of Lu Feng (Part 2)

CUBE LOCATION: PLANE OF ACHERON
INFIRMARY AND HOSPICE QUARTER

June sat up in her bed, realizing she was out of her armor and in plain old robes. She looked around and sure enough, they were in an infirmary, surrounded by Lu Feng's family and apparently, goblin underlings.

"...Deimos... did you... are you ...is it just me, or do you also feel like you're missing some internal organs?" She asked, doubting she was all there. There was a feeling of numbness, of wrongness as she came out of her far realm edge-of-reality trip, even though she had all her fingers and toes, and the mirror showed June exactly as she remembered herself.

"...Hey ... that goblin janitor that left... did you see... what I thought I saw?" She then segwayed to another topic, having seen a most unsettling sight.

Life on the Cube though, was never idle. Heavy footsteps from the corridor announced the arrival of new company.

The three dragon warriors Sun Ce, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, were adorned in their full battle regalia as they entered the infirmary. Their more delicate female relatives made way, as only matters of grave importance would allow them to violate the sanctity of the infirmary. Behind them was a platinum blonde woman in resplendent white armor and white robes, with an air of superiority about her. Even the infirmary chief, who kept visitors and curious onlookers to a minimum, had to yield to this new figure.

"I see you are both awake. If you can stand and walk, you will come with me. This is urgent." She didn't request. She commanded.

"Whoa. Hold on a second. Who are you? You're definitely not... Lu Feng's family." June asked, her tone and stance on guard, as she recognized someone who was used to unquestioning authority.

With a deep inhale, already showing her frustration with the guests, she answered. "I am the angel Bellona Alcaldia. I am Lu Feng's right hand. I have the final say of all security matters on the Cube." She paused, seeing June unconvinced at her status.

"Lu Feng has fallen into a coma." She added, which got June's attention.

Deimos felt a pull as he walked in the door… but suddenly realized he was no longer walking. He was still moving, as if the world was spinning, he spreads his wings to stop himself only to continue the slow dragging into the eye or whatever storm had swallowed him whole. He fights it, shaking his head violently as it became first instinct to transform, only to find himself in an odd state between dragonic and human.

The eye opens and constricts on Deimos as his claws dig in to whatever fabric of space he was in, stars lighting the void around him , yet all crumbling and falling into dust just as quickly as they manifest through whatever magic Deimos seemed to be channeling at the moment.
The stars, the eye, everything suddenly dies in blinding daylight.

XXXX

With a gasp Deimos’s eye blind open and his wings stretch. Laying on his side as to mind his wings he lazily rolls over looking drastically different than when June had last seen him. The skin around his eyes had darkened into a half-mask of inky dragon scale, he still had his crown of horns he’d usually have as a dragon, yet seemed to perfectly fit on his human head.

Each finger laced with a long and thin claw that caught his skin as he pinches the bridge of his nose from the pounding headache, only to realize he had to have been out for a very long time. He could feel his beard growing in and felt the desperate need to shave. “Uuugh did we die? I feel like we died.” Deimos groans, giving sitting up a second attempt as the world spun. He was met point blank with a goblin that made his spine shiver, wings brightening as it skittered out of the room.

“Yeah, I saw the little fucker. I bet we can go get hi-” Deimos suddenly lurches as if about to vomit, but catches himself as he was about to stand. Legs weren’t happening right now. Just as he was about to make attempt number two, the blonde woman strides in as if she owned the place, which just seemed to set June off. Deimos wasn’t nearly as bothered by her as he was at the idea of a twisted little goblin scampering around the cube doing god knows what. The only time Bellona had his attention was when she mention Lu Feng was comatose. He looks back to June, trying to figure out how they survived the magical voodoo, yet the magical behemoth that was Lu Feng was worse for wear. That is even assuming he fell ill due to it, perhaps that little goblin had something to do with it.

Either way, they had to get up. Or at least one of them did. Shifting, Deimos places his bare feet on the cold floor, grimacing at the chill as he experimentally stands, back stiff and heavy with the weight of his wings from disuse. He offers a hand to June as he gains his balance. Meanwhile he tries to send her a mind picture, reconfirming he’d seen the goblin too… exactly as she had.

Knowing June was the stronger of the two guests, two of the dragon warriors flanked June. They were either going to help her up or forcibly take her along for interrogation. June raised her hands. "I'll come peacefully. Don't touch me... Wait. The goblins. Are they slaves? Did Lu Feng enslave them?"

"What? the little creatures? they are of no consequence. We saved them from slavery. We offered them paid work, shelter and security from an uncaring universe. Do not moralize to me, Dragon Girl."

Sun Ce approached Deimos. He wasn't exactly aggressive, but he did insist on grabbing him by the arm, and helping him steady himself. "whoa there little brother. We just want to talk."

"How in the world did Lu Feng fall into a coma, by the way? We were out for almost a month. Did he have a stroke getting his newest baby momma pregnant?" June asked, not really in the mood to have manners, seeing as her guts felt like falling out. She felt like taking a stab at one of his eccentricities.

The two dragon warriors helping June up snickered, while Sun Ce laughed out loud so unexpectedly he sprayed some spit on Deimos. "It's funny because it's probable!" He said, continuing laughing, before composing himself at Bellona's unamused stare.

"This is serious. He fell into a Coma three days ago. Then you two wake up. None of our healers can revive him, but we discerned the attack was psychic in nature. A very powerful psychic attack."

"...Psychic? then call Amora. She's the mind master here isn't she?"

The room fell deathly quiet. The Cube inhabitants looked at June with a confused expression.

"Who ...who is Amora?" Bellona asked, acting as though she has no idea what that name meant.

The question disarmed June. How could she not know one of Lu Feng's time mages? She looked at Bellona, the dragon warriors, and Deimos. Something was wrong. very wrong. " Wait...What?"

= = = =

= = = =

Meanwhile, far in the future, on a farm in the Philippines

A large tract of land was filled with diverse foods – root crops, vegetables, fruit trees, and so forth, and a lone woman in plain farming clothes was tending to this garden of life.

The Storm Bringer she was called once. Dragon Girl as well. Now she was just Ja-eun Yeong, or rather, a much older version of June, far enough in the future to bear witness to casual space travel, space elevators, off-world colonies and more. Old enough that gray hair and wrinkles showed on her head and face, despite her draconic blood. Under her vigilant gaze, the world had narrowly averted environmental catastrophes, apocalyptic invasions, unceasing wars, alien encounters, and knew lasting peace, a peace protected by new heroes, new Dragon Girls, and now she had found solace in the simplest life – the peace of a farm.

  There were many automated machines now, but there were sections that were cultivated by hand. It was here that an anomaly, a strange temporal event occurred, as Lu Feng – or rather, one of his time displaced simulacra, shuffled and limped towards her. June clapped her hands together to wipe the dirt from picking sweet potatoes out of the ground.

“Help me… June… something terrible has happened in the timeline… Please… come… whatever you do, don't let them wake me up from my coma.” The simulacra reached out with an ornate pocket watch, which would aid in their travel through space and time.

In a flash, June stood where the simulacra dematerialized, a breeze following her movement making the crops sway and bend. She looked at the time piece with her one good eye, the other covered by an eye patch… and the destination. Memories from her youth began to slowly return. “The Cube. My, my, how nostalgic.”

A simulacra with the same message and time piece would reach Deimos, wherever he was.

Deimos’s eyes were fixed on the door in a semi-predatory manner, as if looking for that goblin again as the dragon men grabbed him. He snaps back to reality with a growl and grumbled much larger than himself out of habit.

“How would we survive this, but Lu Feng be the one to get seriously injured?” Deimos asks, completely ignoring Ballona for the moment. “We have to go see him. If anyone has answers it’s Lu Feng and I may have an idea on how to wake him up.”  Deimos was filling through his head on every spell book he’d ever read, remembering a book he had on after effects of illithid encounters. He had no idea if it would work, even if he managed to find the book here, but he had to try everything he knew. And with Amora seeming to… well… was disappear the right word? More likely to cease to exist apparently, it seemed he’d have to learn how to handle psychic damage.


----

The future of dragon and human kind alike in the realm of Elysium, once full of strife and draconic bickering, now in somewhat peace between the mortal races and the dragons. Upon it’s shining throne in the palace of the sun darkened by night.

King Deimos, the star touched lazily sits upon his throne, the crimson dragon-bone warhammer forged from the femur of Lurabelle the Mad set across his thighs as he reads the never ending pile of paperwork from the realm. Part of him understood why King Helios had adjudicated, never wishing to rule in the first place, the other was glad to take the burden of ruling in fair favor for both dragon-kind and the mortal races. The centuries made his face grow slightly more aged but the environment of Elysium did preserve his youth much better than Earth would have. The only hints of his true age was the sparse strands of silver running through his well maintained beard.

Enough time had passed such that all his children were grown and had keeps of their own, some choosing to go back to earth with their mother, who he still lovingly referred to as ‘drakka’, his oldest daughter Selene stayed with him, choosing to be his most trusted advisor and wardeness of the house Deimos had inherited.

He stands, about to retire to the office to get some work done as his throne room is illuminated by a simulacra of non-other than Lu Feng. He shakes his head, half expecting that the old codger had finally croaked and this was a funeral invitation, but oh no, it some something far more interesting than that. Trouble on the cube.

Running a hand through his hair the dragon king gives a light smile at the idea of revisiting the cube as he turns the timepiece over in his hands. With a seemingly effortless wave of his hands a portal generates itself before him in a shimmer or magic and moonlight. “Selene. The throne is yours while I’m gone. Don’t start any wars.” He jokes as he sees his daughter sauntering into the throne room with yet another pile of grievances, event invitations and accounts.

“No promises, dad. Eos has been eyeing us funny again.”

“She always eyes us funny. Seriously. No war with Eos. I’ll be back sometime soon.”
And with that the dragon king is gone, warhammer in tow.

Sun Ce had one arm on Deimos and was now putting on the squeeze. He produced a set of special Dimetrium shackles, the sickening anti-magic properties palpable. The two dragon warriors meanwhile, produced the thickest adamant chains for June, knowing her monstrous strength.

June stood up and for a moment seemed to relent. Then she glanced at Deimos, trying her damnest to do that mind-picture thing. What resulted was some kind of 2D early 80s game pixel art level of quality, but it was clear enough- screw Bellona, screw this noise.

June started her resistance by doing a judo take down on the unsuspecting dragon warrior, smashing him into the other one then throwing her bodily at Bellona. She trusted Deimos to get away from Sun Ce, as she was now going to fight a celestial being… but plans change, especially since they still had one friend on the cube.

The ground opened up below them both, sending them gracelessly into a dark narrow tunnel below. The angel shouted for a ferromancer or geomancer to get here to follow them, but it was not forthcoming. They were not followed.

Niao emerged from the darkness of the tunnel with a pale jade light in hand. “…Hayaaa, just as I thought you are both too big for the goblin service tunnels.” She said, her 4’10” frame fitting comfortably into the 5’6” high tunnel. June found out the hard way and hit her head on the metal ceiling. The ceiling got dented.

“Niao! Thank god, your family has gone mad, and your head of security is a total bitch. They don’t know who Amora is. Something’s wrong.”

“Something is wrong. Namely, I want to know who this Amora you keep mentioning. Deimos, you’re the smart one, please explain what you know? In detail.”

Jeebus, Niao too. But she was at least skeptical about it all. “How many times do I have to explain. Amora is-” As if there wasn’t enough going on right now, the Cube began to shake violently.

“P-PLANAR SHIFT!?” Niao said in a stammering, worried voice.

= = =
FUTURE DRAGONS

Perhaps intentionally, the use of the pocket watch device brought the Storm Bringer and Deimos to the exact same spot they arrived centuries ago, though not precisely at the exact same time. This was at first time they visited the Cube. The dwarf war machine grave yard, the arch, and the metal flower bed. Old June realized it wasn’t just the Cube, but the Cube in the distant past… oh dear, were their younger selves still here? They were due to go back to earth on this day. The timeline HAD to have been affected.

“I always hated this place. Let’s make an adjustment.” Old June’s eyes lit up with primordial elemental energy, as storm clouds began to gather in this dimension completely bereft of moisture. In a matter of minutes, it started to rain on the Cube’s exterior, something not meant to happen.

The Cube, detecting a most powerful anomaly, initiated its automated defense in response to the freak weather. It plane shifted – just as June expected, knowing the Cube’s defenses – to a new dimension.

THE CUBE CURRENT LOCATION: THE SAVAGE LANDS

The rusted red sky of ACHERON was now replaced by a vibrant green paradisal vista, a jungle landscape as far as the eye could see. What made it extra special was the second landscape “above” it, like a sandwich. The Cube had transposed itself in the zero gravity well between the two landscapes, comfortably suspended in the air. Wild flying dinosaurs flew overhead, shocked but also very curious. The storm clouds June had conjured in Acheron stayed there, and she was in no hurry to call up a new one with an environment she agreed with.

“What a lovely view. Well then, off to find the entrance. Where was it again?” Old June was not one to rush, even by the pleadings of a time lord. She even decided to go and admire that nice flower bed Niao made. Although, not realizing Deimos was also invited to the party, June would be unaware of his seconds later arrival.

Deimos blinks, trying to not think about the sudden disappearance of Amora and appearance of Ballona. It was as if she was replaced in a way. He wasn’t about to jump in a fight with Ballona, instead studying her, as if the try and discern if they shared a role on the cube or if it was an imperfect replacement.

He didn’t have much time to ask anything as the ground suddenly swallowed him whole and shoves him into the cube further as he scrambles to get upright. He lands in the goblin tunnels with a thud and a groan of pain as his body still was feeling the effect of the dreaded brain-scramble. He moves to stand only to slam his newly-formed horns into the ceiling and forcing him back down and holding his throbbing head.

“Ah, Niao, am I glad to see you. Things have not been great- ah.” He groans as his claw nicks his skin. He winces as the ladies argue, ringing in his ears beginning to die down.

“Uh, Niao. Something strange is going on. I don’t know how, or why. But before we took the forbidden knowledge, Lu Feng’s right hand was an illithid. Her name was Amora…Whatever happened, she no longer exists. I don’t know how an entire person could be not only deleted from a world, but replaced entirely. Ballona did not exist last we were awake.” Deimos tentatively stands, ducking to dodge smacking his head again.

“You said this is the goblin tunnels?” Deimos thinks out loud, remembering the messed up goblin from earlier just as the ground begins to shake.

------
King Deimos’ portal opens to a familiar dry wasteland of dwarven skeletons. The draconic king appears from his darkened portal into the nostalgic pile of war machines and beautiful steel flowers. Just as he’d done in the past he leans down and plucks up a razor sharp flower, but rather than bleed as he did the first time, his skin withstands the cutting edge.

Deimos still wore his regalia, clothes of fine darkened silks and high quality cloth. Atop the loose clothing was a heavy cloak that at first appeared to be black, but near the train it began to glimmer alight with stars just as his wings did and along the collar was snow white fur that mixed with his dark brunette beard. Each of his horns wrapped in spider silk fine silver chains with glistening gems around him like rain or stars.

Once the planes shifted he could feel the caress in his mind of familiarity. June. He turns, realizing not only was she here, but she had the same idea he had. With a light smile he closes the razor bloom in his hand, the bright gleam of magic surrounded the mage as he opens his hand to a much larger bouquet of white peonies and as blue evening glories, with the occasional spray of Baby’s Breath or Alyssums to fill it out. “Well this feels familiar.” He laughs under his breath, voice having lost it’s boyish trill and dropped into the low tone of a sitting regent, yet it still held a bit more care than had he been talking to a subject. He offers June the bouquet as it still seemed to be expanding, blooming and flourishing with life. “How old were we when we came here? Had to be five hundred years at least.”

THE YOUNG DRAGONS

“Bellona was there in another part of the gallery activating a remote lock on the archive. I will vouch for her. She is honorable, the safety of the Cube is her highest priority, and yes, she is very strict. But I can’t risk you being injured by her in her… enhanced interrogation.” Niao explained, vouching for the harsh captain of security.

“Figures. You two are the only ones to provide me with information I have found nowhere else. Yes, these are the goblin tunnels, our servants expanded them throughout the years and use them. It is the only place away from prying eyes.”

Niao handed Deimos a large book, a ledger more like, filled with tables, dates, and numbers. Mundane things such as supplies, but also library records.

“I found some thing was wrong reviewing the monthly ledgers and library records. Supplies are unaccounted for, and I cannot find them nor can I get a straight answer from my nieces and nephews. There are books missing from the library but there are no written records of their removal.”

“Secondly, while my memory- my senses- tell me the sage Abiz’eal accompany you and father to the secret archives, the physical logs do not align. Abiz’eal was not in the Cube during the archive visit. So either the logs had been tampered or Abiz’eal was not there. And it is very difficult to tamper with the entry/exit logs. All of this points to something wrong inside the Cube. You are the only two I hadn’t spoken to yet, and this… Amora character… is the first new piece of information I’ve heard in a week.”

June listened intently to Niao’s fine logical deduction of the situation. While they benefited from a psychic protection from the visit to the forbidden archive, Niao had found out something was wrong through mundane book keeping. June had to give it to their little ‘cousin’. “You… you figured out something was wrong on the Cube by… accounting? Niao, you’re amazing!”

Niao was genuinely taken by surprise at June’s compliment. “…Th…thank you! You are too kind. But we cannot dally. I can take us directly to my father’s quarters without detection. Come, we’ll have to walk like commoners, if I use my powers too much they’ll find us.” Niao turned around and spoke to someone further down the tunnel. “Do Bi, please come and meet my friends. It is safe.”

A little green face peeked out from the corner, a small meek creature wearing a janitor’s outfit. He approached slowly and reluctantly, then bowed to June and Deimos. “Hello. Do Bi is very afraid of large friend of mistress. but Do Bi obey mistress and greets you.”

June scrutinized the goblin named Do Bi. He did not exhibit the corrupted influence the one from the infirmary earlier did. She knelt down to meet him eye to eye, and spoke in a reassuring tone. “…Toby is it? It’s nice to meet you too. I’m June, and that’s Deimos. Can you tell me about … anything unusual with your people?”

“It is Do Bi, oh large friend of mistress. But you may call Do Bi whatever mistress desires. Do Bi has felt something strange about other goblins. Goblins got sea meat, but it makes goblins… different. Makes Goblins stay away from other goblins, keep secrets from goblins. Do Bi does not want to eat smelly sea food. Sea food is unnatural to Do Bi.”

That confirmed it beyond a shadow of a doubt. June was a bit miffed, as she was a huge sea food fan.

“We should go and attempt to awake my father. I have a spell of awakening.”

“Du Bi will lead mistress’s friends to master’s chambers!” He said, gesturing them to follow. His little feet moved quickly through the tunnels, but it was not difficult to follow behind.

Toby led them up into a secret passage into a large walk in closet, Niao and her little goblin butler simply walking through but June having to crawl on all fours ahead of Deimos. Here Lu Feng kept his large collection of fine clothes and jewelries, but also those of his late wife, still in pristine condition. They waste no time to go to his bedroom, where the old dragon himself was lying in his bed.

They also came face to face with a couple of new faces, who had entered through a passage behind a large family portrait. June was about to ask who they were, but June was suddenly very confused, to the point she avoided her usual smash-first questions-later approach. The bearded old man gave off the same bio-electric signal as Deimos, while the old lady… a sensation she never felt before. She was very familiar, but June had never in her life recognized her own bio-electric signal.

Niao came in seeing two people had emerged from the secret escape hatch, as her father lay comatose on his bed. Being overly protective, she shouts, “Assassins!” and very quickly uses Ground Sand on Old Deimos and Old June, turning solid stone into an explosion of fine sand. Then she wastes no time peeling off some metal wall paneling to wrap them up.

“Deimos! The scroll of awakening! Father must awaken!” she told him urgently, indicating the scroll on her belt. They could not have been aware that this was not a desirable outcome.


THE OLD DRAGONS

June was criminally under dressed compared to King Deimos. She was fresh from the farm and was just wearing a big white blouse, some denim rolled up to her knees, barefoot and wearing a straw hat. A humble retirement for the mighty Storm Bringer, the Eater of Cities, the Dragon General.

“I was not expecting you, your highness. Have you eaten before your journey, your highness? Do you require a foot massage your highness?” She said, her head still bowed, in the cattiest tone should could muster. When Deimos gave her the flowers she gave big beaming smile and took a moment to admire them. Old June had learned to mellow out and smile more. “Why thank you your highness, it is a beautiful gift.”

June reciprocated the flowers with a big hug at least, and a peck on the cheek. Peck was all Deimos would get, as she was for clean shaven men. “Oh yes. We were young and casually accepted horrific knowledge that would scar us for life. How I wish this was a sightseeing tour. The Savage lands are… well… savage and beautiful.”

The pterodactyls flying overhead emphasized June’s statement.

Once they were together, their pocket watches synced up and spawned another Simulacrum. “If you two are done can we please get to the mission at hand? This is such an emergency Lu Feng didn’t even program me to tell a dirty joke… There, under the trebuchet, a secret passage into my chambers, where I lie in wait. Remember, I cannot wake up until… conditions are met. Good luck, friends.” The Simulacrum ends and winks out of existence.

Dusting away the dirt, the secret hatch was easily found. June appeared to struggle with the siege engine, but she was really more considerate of having others participate, making Deimos feel needed. When did the Dragon Girl ever need help carrying things? “Could you be a dear and help me with this? I’ve been working on the farm all day. I might throw my back out.”

The hatch was a straight drop into a small chamber, hidden behind a full-length family portrait of Lu Feng and Niao’s mother. Once the large blast door was rolled aside on its tracks, They emerging into Lu Feng’s personal chamber. What they found was definitely this century’s high light in their long lives, as young and old finally come eye to eye.
“Oh. Ohohho. How delightful!” June let out a chuckle. She turned to Deimos- young Deimos – and was being like a doting grandma. “How cute you were when your beard didn’t fully come in yet!”

Old June’s mood changed a bit when she saw Niao and something in her sharp tactical mind put some things together. They had just come in through a secret escape hatch, into Lu Feng’s room, the old codger lying in bed in a coma in the middle of the room. That man’s favorite child was standing on the opposite side, in this room made mostly of stone and metal. When she shouted ‘assassin’, Old June decided to just wait and let Niao restrain her. But not before opening with a blast of sand transmuted from the solid ground, into both their faces.

“Niao wait, you can’t wake- Ah! Ground sand! fighting dirty as usual! Cough! cough!” Take out the target’s vision, possibly foul up verbal spellcasting, then use the metal wall paneling to wrap around Old June and Old Deimos. Standard Niao tactic. June didn’t resist and simply waited for the justifiably angry girl to cool off.

Deimos was oddly quiet for a moment, reaching up to scratch at the beginnings of his beard, flinching as his grown out claws dig at his skin more harshly than originally expected. He remains quiet as he flips through Niao’s ledger, reading at a speed only someone who spent almost all his free time reading spell books of mind boggling complexity could.

“She’s right. No Abiz’eal here. No Amora either. Good Work I-” Deimos stiffens at the sight of a little green goblin, the few scales he had left lining his spine bristle lightly as he at first, assumes it had something to do with the demented little green thing from earlier. This one seemed to be fine, and something about June having to crouch down to see it made him crack a smile.

“Sea food? June… I think your wriggling sashimi-goth thing from earlier is causing a goblin problem.” Deimos was only thinking what everyone knew out loud as he lets the book fall shut in his left hand. He leans down through the doorway only to have more questions about the treasure trove. Seemed he had a horde of momentous proportions, part of it made him want to start his own horde, however, as far as he knew, hordes were to feed hatchlings and he hadn’t even considered having any yet. And he didn’t know where he’d keep one. His parent’s place was already overflowing with his book collection.

This thought was only jarred by the incredibly strange feeling of familiarity when met point blank with a bearded stranger.

======

Deimos’s stiff and regal demeanor softens as June does her usual act of taking the piss right out of him. He lets out a light snort, then a bit of laughter as she leads right in to steal a kiss of his cheek. “Yes, I ate before we came, it was about noon when I was called here, and no I do not require a foot rub, although perhaps later.” He retorts as the pterodactyl screech above him. “How old were we? I couldn’t have been older than twenty.” Deimos tries to think back, realizing he didn’t know how old he actually was anymore anyway.

The simulacrum catches his attention as King Deimos rolls his eyes. “Conditions. Crazy old coot.” He grumbles before being the gentleman to get the door for June, who he picked up on as throwing him a bone. He hauls up the trebuchet with ease, giving an over-exaggerated gesture as if to say “ladies first’. As June leaps, so does he, wings lightly spreading to cushion the steep drop.

The king was about to make some kind of witty remark about how June never changed, leaping straight down a hole with reckless abandon. Only to be met point-blank with himself. A young pup he truly was, beard barely more than peach fuzz and his horns barely curving back off his head. He has frozen just long enough to get grabbed and be send into a coughing fit by fine powdered pocket-sand.

The younger dragon snaps out of his shock faster than his older counterpart, taking Niao’s scroll and pulling it open. He began to read as his mind was suddenly filled with pictures. The touch in his mind was clear and firm, the images clear as day. He sees the simulacrum his older-counterpart had seen, speech unfolding in his mind just as King Deimos had seen it.

“Don’t read another word. Were you.’ The voice rang in the young dragon’s head as he began to close the scroll, the azure crackling of magic in the air around him fading away as the spell died before it was cast.

“Um… June… What am I looking at?” Deimos asks as his already frazzled brain begins to fry further.

Niao... Can you let us go now? Please? The kings voice dips a bit in minor annoyance as he spits the last bit of sand out.

June laid a hand gently on Niao’s shoulder, assuring her they were not enemies. “Niao, please let them go.”

Niao relents, and puts all the metal sheets back into the wall. Then causes all the remaining sand on them to fall off. She huffed, and went to sit behind dear old dad, getting a wet towel to put on his head. June slowly approached the time travelers, confirming definitely what she was perceiving.

“Hmmm. To be honest I thought you’d open with a spinning heel kick. Or a jab-straight-spinning back. You're remarkably level headed right now. can tell, can’t you Ja-eun?” Future June said in Korean, addressing her younger self by their actual Korean name pronunciation.

June then turned to the younger dragons. “Guys. I don’t think I’ve told you this before, but I have an extra sense. I can sense unique bio-electric fields… like a shark. King of the Vikings here has Deimos’s exact same signal just... alot older. And this lady…” she points and pauses dramatically.

“…has mine.”

Niao listened and put together the story of what was going on here. She raised a finger and her voice the moment it made sense. “Time travelers! My father must have sent for them in case of an emergency!”

Future June gave them a warm smile. They were smart kids, they just needed time to figure it out. She channeled Jules Whitfield in affirming their answers. “Correctamundo! I knew you three would piece it together.” She makes a cheery clapping motion.

“Wait. It’s just you two? Where… didn’t father call for me too?” Niao asked afterward, wondering why the merry band added only two members instead of three.

“Dear, you know your father. He’d never put you in danger.” June said, and at her age could relate.

“Hmph. I will have words with him if he wakes up.” Niao said indignantly, hating being patronized- and coddled- even for good reasons.

June looked at them both, and doubled down on her counterpart’s rather carefree attire. “Jeez. You dress like mom.”

“I know. I miss her fried chicken too. BUT we have more important things to talk about. This…” she points at comatose Lu Feng. “…this did not happen when we were going back from the Cube. Deimos- future Deimos, I think you can explain the time stream thing better?” Future June asked Deimos, then turned to see a diminuitive green skinned creature hiding in the corner. “Toby! Oh you are a sight for sore eyes!”

“Do Bi does not understand. Do Bi see four friends of mistress but they are the same.” The little goblin model of loyalty approached, looking back and forth.

“Do Bi. Your master must have left instructions. Did he say anything at all to you?” June was seeking out all the clues possible.

“Do Bi remember. Master tell Do Bi do not touch master’s mind. Instead, find him in dreams.” The little goblin said.

“Dreams… unconscious. The dream scape. I guess that is your cue, dear husboooo- Deimos.”

June’s eyes opened and her jaw dropped when future June addressed future Deimos, dropping a future bomb she was not prepared for. “HOLD UP. WH-WHAT WERE YOU GOING TO SAY?!”

Meanwhile both Deimos were having a full blown conversation with pictures in their minds. Bringing up pictures of mom, June, however King Deimos was being guarded, not letting the younger probe his mind too deep to pull more information from him. Both were snapped out of their trance of staring at each other by future June calling him.

“Ah, Yes. Wait viking?” Seemed he was still Deimos, distracted mid sentence. Shaking it off he waves his hand, signature blue shimmer falling off his hands, but rather than it being crackling and wild when current time’s Deimos did it, it was smooth, almost flowing like a liquid in the space as it began to form spaces, two figures looking just like future Deimos and June. and then flattening it out into what looked like a bunch of tree roots, with one strand coated in gold.

“So when we left the cube, none of this ever happened. Lu Feng was fine, we fought the monster, killed it with the knowledge Lu Feng scorched into our brains and all was good, which led to the timeline we’re from.” Another branch on the tree is suddenly highlighted in red. “However something went grossly off course on this timeline resulting in all this mess.”

“So someone is messing with the timeline?”

“Exactly. Timelines are infinite, and change with each choice made. Each of these branches is some event or choice that has already happened or is soon to happen. Notice some of them intersect, because some choices or events can lead to the same end outcome. This is where Lu Feng comes in.”

Deimos was busy studying his future self’s handiwork. He sucked at illusions right now, but these images were crisp and looked so fantastic. Good to know he’d at least get better at this eventually.

“Lu Feng, although eccentric, is not dumb. There are mages who’s sole job is to ensure certain timelines keep some end result as not to ruin the chain of events that leads to present day conditions. Thus the Theory of Funneling.” King Deimos gives another wave of his hand, to which green tendrils connect themselves to the ends of the many different frayed roots and pull them all in to meet with the main timeline and bring it all to the same end. “Lu Feng has funneled this portion of the timeline, essentially if anything were to set this chain of events on a course with different results, measures would be taken automatically to correct it back where the same conditions in the future are met with minimal change. In this case, the measures are us.”

“Lu Feng knows Funnel Theory?”

“Lu Feng is one of the pioneers of Funnel Theory. And it really isn’t even treated as a theory at this point. Rather an entire school of magic in itself, even if time magic is frowned upon for reasons you’re currently witnessing.” With another dismissive wave of his hand the illusions were gone. “Essentially we are here to correct an event that either didn’t happen the right way or is about to happen.”

Deimos was too fully enraptured in his future self’s magic lecture. Was it bad to fan-boy over one’s future self? The only thing that snapped him out of it was Do Bi and then June’s slip up.

“Husb-”

“Oh, would you look at that? Guess I gotta send you to the dream scapes! Have fun, don’t get lost, now go the hell to sleep!” With a clap of his hands and a whisk of magic Future Deimos suddenly assaults their younger selves with a deep magical sleep spell. Once satisfied the youngsters were out the king turns to his wife and shakes his head. “You know how he is… er I was. Do you want his brain to explode?”

DREAM SCAPE

Lu Feng’s memories were surprisingly pastoral. The young dragons would be greeted by a gentle sloping hillside, with bamboo forests all around, overlooking a large garden pond. An ancient stonework arch bridge crossed the pond towards a modest but well-manicured landscape, an ancient Chinese home sitting in the middle on the other side.

June and Niao were peacefully still passed out on the grass, though the Sage of Steel was slowly stirring… “five more minutes” she grumbled, rolling to the side to keep sleeping. The sky… the sky was most interesting, as it was still a bright azure day on the side of the home, but here on the grassy field they were on, it was already dusk.

Deimos’s keen ears would likely pick up the sound of a child crying by the pond. A small child was weeping loudly, and the reason was easy enough to see – her little toy junk with its sail had gone out of the water, now out of her reach. A cursory glance at the child would reveal that it was Niao – an even smaller more helpless version of her, apparently without any metal controlling powers yet.

“Boat!” she chirped, she really wanted it back.

THE WAKING WORLD

“I know, I know. You had yet to find your… confidence.” June gave Deimos an apologetic hug, then proceeded to take care of their unconscious wards. Carrying the two girls then Deimos like big dolls, Future June carefully set the ‘kids’, relatively speaking, to comfortably sit by the bed. She made extra certain of their comfort by giving them pillows.

Lu Feng still lay unconscious. By now Deimos would likely have detected what was going on- a 99.9% Time Slow Spell had cocooned the old man, his milliseconds being stretched out to hours. Though it fell to the youngster to find out why.

“I’m sorry for the slip up. But, as long as things don’t change so much, he will find it on his own. Eventually.” June said, then thought about other considerations. “You… don’t happen to have something for their memories, do you? Like, for after we fix things. When we fix things.”

The heartfelt moment was interrupted when the locked doors shook with great force, then an invisible force began to undo the security mechanisms on the door. June went over and laid one of her hands on one of the chains driving them lock. The intruders could not budge it further with June holding the chain. She lifted the viewport to glimpse the outside.

“You! Whoever you are, if you lay a hand on Lu Feng, you will regret it.” Bellona threatened, as she told the Luminous Time Sage’s descendants to quickly open the door.

“Bellona! It’s so nice to hear from you again. Oh wait, we haven’t met on good terms yet, have we?” June said with a cheeky smile.

“I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t open this door, right now…” Bellona threatened, but June closed the viewport, still holding the chain. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about this?” She asked.

She was met with a most hostile response. Bellona’s fiery golden blades slowly seared through the door, June having to avoid the burning touch of those energy weapons by weaving around it. The door was thick, but her fiery blades were powerful. “I suppose not.”

THE SAVAGE LANDS

Meanwhile, out on the plane of the Savage Land, herds of prehistoric creatures roamed. However, a malevolent will from the Cube, powerful and ancient, slowly reached out and touched the minds of the great beasts – dinosaurs – bringing them under its will. The beasts go against their nature, and begin to approach the floating cube en masse…

DreamscapeXXXX

Deimos stirs, left wing fluttering, tucking up against his side in light irritation as a noise catches his ear. He raises up groggily, hair all kinds of messed up and rubbing some sleep from his eyes. “Ugh. I hate magical sleep.” He groans, lamenting at himself for that being his own first reaction to any kind of threat.

This place was beautiful, almost too pretty to be true. All his sense were tingling with magic, however since this was a magical sleep, he could only come to the conclusion that had to be what was throwing all his senses out of whack. His eyes lock on a child on a bank, tears flowing from her face.

Deimos stands, shaking off the last bits of sleep, choosing to let the girls remain. He rolls up his pants legs as he goes down the hill. “I can get your boat.” He assures, not really making the connection as to who this kid was. He rolls his pants up the last bit over his knees as he steps in to the shallow pond, choosing to go carefully just in case it would suddenly get deep. He reaches for the boat, scooping it up just as the water got up over his knees, soaking his pants, but he walks it back to shore before the realization hits him.

“Wait… Niao?”

XXXX

“Confidence, right.” The king agrees as magic continues to flow from his left palm. Deimos’s sleep spell was concentration, meaning he had to be continuously flowing magic to keep it up. Luckily experience kept him from having to make too much effort to keep it up, but he still had to juggle it in the back of his mind. As June lays their younger selves down to sleep he takes the time to shift Deimos off his left wing and rolling him to his side, only from his own preference. He found sleeping on his back would impair blood circulation to his wing, ending in them being asleep.

“If I toy with my own mind too much, I run the risk of forgetting something important. Knowing him, He’ll overthink it into oblivion. I don’t know what you will do though. King Deimos sits at a bedside chair, reclining, keeping his left palm open to keep the spell working. “Old man managed to cloak himself in enough magic to slow time around him to almost a stop. If I wasn’t so impressed at the effort, I’d be kicking his ass for being such a pain.” His voice trails as he begins to think. “I… Don’t remember how this ends. Means a change has already been set in motion and the past has been rewritten to alter the future. We can only hope it’s the change that was intended.”

The king's eyes fell back on June, realizing what this was risking. This mission was part of what brought them together, what made him willing to follow after June for the years it took to make them what they were now. They were risking the years of happiness they had together by altering the past, however he dare not say a thing. Even if the world were ending, or at least their world, he would still choose to be here with her.


Snapping from his nostalgic thoughts from the angry angel, he stands. “I liked the illithid better.” He groans, shuffling around in his components pouch at his belt with his free hand, drawing what appeared to be a deck of cards. Soon all 72 cards flow out of the box, enchanted into a circle as he dismisses the box and shuffles through cards as June holds off Bellona. One card centers itself in the middle of the circle of cards and flips itself to show the devil card, the beast's face glaring from the imagery on the card as one of the many rings of Deimos’s right hand glimmers red, taking on the role of holding two concentration spells at once. Black chains snake from the card’s face, enwrapping the door and swallowing up each magical strike the angel throws at it, stopping her from throwing fire in his wife’s face.

Deimos buried the feeling that things were about to get bad. Here he was keeping the youngsters asleep with one hand and barring the door with another. If things kept getting worse he might have to get a bit more drastic with the amount of arcane magic he was spewing. He shuffles through more cards, floating them by his eyes, trying to come up with what could be to come and what could help them escape it. “We need to keep her out as long as we need. She definitely won’t listen and I can’t keep this spell up and fight a pissed off angel at the same time. If she breaks through, can you take her?”

THE DREAM

The two ladies finally awake in the dream scape, Niao almost instantly realizing where she was. She saw as Deimos was coming back with a familiar, little toy boat, when at that moment tentacles spring up from the water. The alien appendages grab at Deimos and Niao at the water’s edge. The child cried out in fear.

“June! Be a hero!” Niao pushed June into full coherency with the mightiest shove she could muster against the much larger woman. Niao disrupts the monster’s plans with a large rock telekinetically hurled at it in the water, temporarily dazing it.

“What… what?” June looked around and took precious seconds to comprehend the situation. Deimos and a child were being attacked by monsters from the water. She rushes to the child first, squeezing as hard as she could on the appendage as to make it burst like a balloon.

Adult Niao knelt and performed arcane gestures, before putting her hand to the ground and performed a transmutation, creating and pulling a steel polearm from earth. She rushed to the shore to hack at the thing’s limb that was trying to pull Deimos into the murky water, the earth extending out onto the water to give her more space to maneuver.

= = =

THE WAKING WORLD
“Oh. I suppose I can indulge in some rough housing. Let me out then, and close the door again behind me.” June says, cracking her knuckles and smiling ominously. The nice old lady act was dropped, and she began to crackle with electricity, her powers awakening her limbs' hidden strength. A strength that brought queen June the mantles of The City Breaker, the Storm Bringer, the breaker of giants- the queen of war.

“Alright Bellona. Let us spar, for the first time, again.” June said, taking a rather cool semi-prepared stance, her palms facing out. Bellona, a seasoned warrior, took measure of June and began with overhand swings, the much older half-dragon anticipating the underhand swings, moving her body just enough to avoid and exerting no excess effort. June yielded three steps, the solar blade grazing her forearm, and Bellona takes the bait and overcommits to a body thrust.
June moves out of Bellona’s line of attack with an outside parry, the angel committing to this attack. The veteran warrior of ages traps her hand, preventing it from attack then following it up by using her weight and strength to pin her to the wall, leaving no room for her longer weapons to swing.
“I won’t be beaten by such elementary-” the war angel’s bravado was cut short as the sword trapping technique was followed up with a left punch to Bellona’s nose bridge, then an equally heavy blow to the liver. The hallway visibly shook with each punch, incredible concussive force barely negated by her plate and scale armor. Bellona’s solar blades shortened to solar knives, but June keeps her cool and keeps her adversary off balance with shin and knee kicks, June parrying and counter-striking with quick punches or hammer fists, demonstrating pugilist skill even in plain clothes. Bellona’s disciplined blade work was being pulled apart by June’s technique and it frustrated her, having her make mistakes. Bellona attempted a deceptive corkscrew thrust from a kneeling position, but June read it like a book and performed a cross block, grabbed her arm and twisting it to bring her bodily down. June stomps her in the chest, the entire floor cracking, Bellona spitting up blood.

Bellona’s will to fight was as broken as the floor tiles, her face and mouth covered in her own blood. June’s skill bought her some respect. “Who taught you to fight like that?”

“Ironically, you did. Or rather, you will.” June answered rather curtly, finding the irony of the situation all too amusing. Future Deimos learned the many mysteries of magic and reality. June just got better at fighting.

“I hate time travelers.” Bellona proclaimed, staying down and letting herself pass out. By the end of it, even the other half dragon warriors were awe struck.

= = =

OUTSIDE THE CUBE

The outer Cube was soon overrun by the prehistoric megafauna of the Savage Lands. The beasts pass by the Sentinels, but the Cube's defenders lay dormant. The giant beasts take the opportunity to smash the sentinels to pieces, guided by an alien intelligence.

At the Main gate, the geomancer ladies and big warriors who were on duty looked up from their books and saw the arrival of the massive herd. "Oh gods!" One exclaimed, rushing to sound the alarm, while the rest braced to secure the gates. The Lu family itself- in their own fortified home- was being attacked.