Mirror, Mirror

[DragonSong]

@MadEmperor

[Continued from here]


With Kit pushing himself, just a bit, the dragon and two riders made it to the Connlaothian border in a little over a day. Kit insisted on flying partway through the night to get them to the edge of Vythe before finally setting down--Kiara only agreed because the dragon aptly pointed out that with their dreaming selves now more "linked", their timeframes seemed to have settled more accurately against each other.

Meaning they only had a few days before Dan and the other Kiara would reach his estate. And that was only because their Kit still had an injured wing and couldn't fly for long stretches.

"I really wish we had more time to gather intel," Kiara muttered as she paced around their camp, uselessly arranging and rearranging a pile of firewood. "We only know what this place is like from their world, not ours."

[MadEmperor]

"Us? Knowing what we're walking into?  That's crazy talk." He smirked from his seat by the fire, but his usual irreverent frivolity was missing something that made the joke seem forced.

"Yeah. The situation..."  he sighed slowly, "... could be better."

He perked himself up. "But hey, we've walked in with less information than that and things worked out. "We didn't even know Volke's research outpost was there."

[DragonSong]

"You were shot and almost died, and I did actually die for like five minutes," Kiara replied, deadpan. Kit shot her a warning look accompanied by a low growl and she threw her hands wide. "What?! It's true! Never talking about it doesn't mean it didn't happen," she snapped.

Clearly, the situation was getting to her. Though less "puppyish" than Grav, her preferred method of coping had always also been humor. Focusing only on the negative had never been her go-to.

"We're going in practically blind and I can't even light a fucking campfire without switching realities," she growled, glaring at the fire that Kit had lit as though it personally offended her.

[MadEmperor]

Grav looked like a puppy that just got scolded. He knew it was true, but he also thought he knew her well enough to know that her outburst was really about how powerless she must feel without her magic.

Gaining some resolve, he stood up and walked over to her to put a hand on her shoulder. "It sure as hells can't be much comfort, but look at it this way: the way the link is working now, that might actually be an advantage. Well, if we can learn how to use that without anyone falling unconscious, anyway."

[DragonSong]

"...Right."

She reached up to cover his hand on her shoulder with her own, then made a noise that was caught halfway between a sigh and a groan and turned to let her forehead rest against his shoulder.

"Sorry," she mumbled, both to him and to Kit, who she reached out toward with one hand until she felt the dragon press his muzzle into her palm. "I'm...I just...sorry."

[MadEmperor]

Grav put his arms around her, holding her close. "Hey. I get feeling like a stranger in your own skin. It sucks enough when it makes you stronger."

"So... What do you say after this we find an adventure that doesn't place us in lethal danger?" he joked.

[DragonSong]

She laughed--tired and a little sharp, but it was a laugh--and nodded against his shoulder. "Yeah. That sounds good."

Kit crooned quietly and arched his neck back as he settled himself more comfortably around the campfire. "Maybe there's a trade job in Yoreiq. That place is pretty quiet, by all accounts."

[MadEmperor]

"Ooo... A tropical vacation sounds amazing." Grav grinned at the thought. "I'm actually sad my first trip outside of Serendipity is freaking Connloath."

"We're so doing that, right? Right?" If he had a tail, it would be wagging furiously.

[DragonSong]

Kiara laughed quietly and Kit huffed, flicking his tail out to scrape over the top of Grav's head.

"Don't see why we can't at least look, Puppy," Kiara chuckled, shaking her head. "Though that does mean getting through our current situation, y'know...alive."

[MadEmperor]

"If we can best a lich, we can best a minor noble," he assured with a certainty he didn't quite feel. She was worried enough for the both of them, so he had to be optimistic.

"So what if we basically have to face him twice? There are six of us."

He gave a chuckling groan. "Okay, this may be a bit of a headache to plan even if we had intel."

[DragonSong]

"Again, I don't know if that's your strongest argument, seeing how close you came to dying in that particular venture," Kiara grumbled, but the bite had bled from her tone.

Chuckling, she shook her head and noted, "It might be considered facing him...half-way? Partially? Damn, yeah, I don't know."

Kit groaned and let his head thump onto his front paws. "Would the two of you get some sleep already?"

[MadEmperor]

Grav laughed out loud. "Okay, okay, we're going. Don't get your scales in a bunch."

"Off to dreamland then?" he asked Kiara.

[DragonSong]

"You know, I can't wait until that phrase is significantly less literal for us," Kiara sighed. "Most people don't actually go anywhere in their sleep."

"World's weird," Kit commented as she settled herself into the curve of the dragon's body, still holding one of Grav's hands as she did. "Who knows? Maybe we're not the only ones."

She huffed a laugh. "Gods help the poor bastards."

[MadEmperor]

Grav nestled against her side, chuckling all the while. "It could be worse; our other selves could be assholes. Or worse; boring."

He yawned. "But enough banter. It's sleepy time."

[DragonSong]

"Dreamland", for once, looked much the same as the world in which they had fallen asleep.


"We need to have a more detailed plan than just walk in and hope for the best," Kiara said, pacing in front of a campfire much the way her counterpart had been doing—though this fire was lighting a gloomy dawn rather than a star-strewn evening.

[MadEmperor]

"Then we are lucky that I know the place like the back of my hand," Dan said with a light smirk as he dutifully turned the spit over the fire, where upon was skewered the wild hare Kit had somehow brought them in one piece. The last thing she had probably expected was that he could cook; that was servant's work, after all. It would have seemed odd, had he only known, that his counterpart's attempts tended to cause property damage.

"I know where my brother takes people when he seeks to gloat, for instance. And I know where all the secret passages are to said place. Of course, he does too, but he underestimates me; he always has. That is the advantage we have. And if my counterpart is listening right now, they will share some of that advantage."

[DragonSong]

Kiara groaned and ran a hand back through her hair—something she'd been doing so much lately that rather than being a somewhat untamed mass of curled it was essentially just one big ball of frizz.

"Gods. Forgot about that. Guess we're being spied on all the time now too." She paused, then cut her eyes sidelong toward Dan. "Did you, uh...have one of those dreams last night?"

[MadEmperor]

"I did. She is concerned about going in without intel, and he is trying to stay positive," Dan reported. "Apparently they are quite used to danger."

"More curiously, my counterpart suggested we try to master this world-swapping business and use it to our advantage. I rather agree that it is worth attempting. It would become much easier to coordinate our actions." The puppy did, it seemed, in fact have a brain.

[DragonSong]

Kiara breathed out heavily through her nose. "Yeah... Okay, yeah, I can see the benefits," she admitted after a moment, "but how are we supposed to do that? My dreams are...different. Fuzzier, not as clear. I have no idea if the other me is experiencing the same thing, but I don't get the kind of clarity you and Kit seem to."

She looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers a few times before muttering, "And we can only...switch, properly switch, when she tries to use her magic. Which, what with her seemingly not having any magic anymore, seems like a hazardous process. How do we make that happen?"

[MadEmperor]

"That..." he sighed. "... would be much easier to work out if the two of you could talk to each other. I believe we will just have to hope it is less hazardous than the purpose for which it will be put."

His lips curled into a thoughtful frown. "Of course, that is easy for me to say when the risk is yours."