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Master of Hearts

Connor felt like he was falling into a different country, a Cavern too vast to be possible and wide enough to fit several full-sized football stadiums plus parking lots inside. The sheer mass of the cavern felt impossible. Still, everything looked stable, with stone skyscrapers covered in hanging gardens and sweeping vines that wrapped around and decorated each support pillar of a building with floral life. The ceiling was an expanse of shimmering Silverline crystal, crystals that looked so small, but after seeing that a single stone was about the size of himself, he shuddered. There had to be trillions of dollars just steadily growing in the ceiling, separated like farmlands with colored quadrants, that looked like they might have labeled the city with their light. It wasn't a place of dirt and stone; it was a maze of a secret life, with towers connected by walkways, bridges, and floating platforms serving as elevators. The entire atmosphere of the stone city creating a strange sci-fi mystic that Connor wished he could be apart of, or at least share with some of his fandom buddies.

The small city didn't feel real, it was too sprawling to be real, but it was, Connor could feel it underneath his feet the vibrations of life and reality. The humming of thick magical energy flowing through the stone sidewalk like bolts of electricity charging the crystalline street lights, and the magical elevators that docked into the ground when waiting for passengers. The cold magically carved streets were packed with carts, and carriages pulled by harness locked Mincridarins, naked and clothed, no one wore Human style clothing. Everything they wore was designed to be light and comfortable, and the patterns and styles that walked the streets were reminiscent of Chinese silk dresses, Japanese yukata's, while others wore African robes patterned with polygons, fractal and mathematical patterns, some, though rare, looked like they wore thick leather ponchos.

However, for all of the life that surrounded Connor that stomped the ground beneath his feet, filling his ears with a cacophony of conversation, he was all too surprised to feel like he could breathe freely. The subterranean air didn't feel stale, dank, or pungent with the odors of refuse, which, whoever was in charge of the sanitation and recycling, had to be congratulated because of the spotless streets. In fact, the cold air around Connor smelled clean, floral, even like a bouquet of herbs, and a handful of lilies and roses.

Lilen said nothing the entire time, giving Connor the chance to relax and take in the world hiding right beneath his nose. Connor couldn't stop smiling, he wished he had his phone so he could remember his first moment there, he didn't even care about his training, he just wanted to lose himself in the city; spend the whole day just looking around at everything. But the Atmosphere of the entire cavern started to slowly change as Connor saw something he couldn't help but stare at across the street.

Figures that could only be described as elven, maybe fey-like, radiated magic, their semi-corporeal bodies glowing with their raw magical powers. Their hair flowing with the natures of their magic. Elementals, sitting and drinking tea, maybe coffee in front of a café that smelled of nothing but warm fresh pastries and ginger. While small hip winged dragons floated about carrying pitchers of water, with white aprons hanging from their neck waiting on their customers' every desire, with bright childish smiles. It was right then that Connor's eyes started to burn, magic pouring into them, forcefully marking them, a new world dragged into view.

The city lit of crystals suddenly became marked with dynamic rainbow-colored currents of magic that wisps and other floating lights used to get around. Then in a simple blink of an eye, everything in the city was doubled: the sounds, the life, the structures, and pillars even. The streets became packed like the downtown streets of New York, not just with Mincridarins, but with magical entities, spirits. Transparent beings, walking and living amongst the Mincridarins, some having the strangest shapes and forms. Some looked like horned Mincridarins, others were clearly demons, and angels, while some seemed distinctly different, like the floating animal masks, and the floral angelfish, with bodies made of leaves, and sweeping vine-like fins and tails covered in blossoming flowers.

An aura of magic filled the trapped sky, an aura Borealis of contained magic that seeped into the crystal ceiling, feeding and growing the planted gemstones in arcs of magic akin to solar flares. While floating and flying, spirits circled the buildings, avian animal spirits, like black luminescent shadows, chimeras, and mismatched animals that didn't even look like anything Connor had ever seen before on earth. Like the black lions, that jumped across the buildings, their bodies suddenly shifting into colossal kites before reverting back to normal once they landed.

Lilen kept Connor close, so he wasn't swept up in the hustle and bustle of the city, giving Connor all the time he needed to stare and look at everything, dragging him back whenever he started to wander away. Connor was smiling at everything, but even he was beginning to feel overwhelmed, so much so, he started clinging to Lilen's arm, his mind burning with questions, flooded with information and noise. The vast amount of information left him feeling weak in the knees and stifled. A mild ache starting to sweep across his brow. But he couldn't stop looking at everything, because everywhere he looked nothing was the same for a single moment. The city was so full of life that every second there was a different being or pattern that was exposed.

Connor pulled himself against Lilen and held his trainer's hand so he might not get lost. He had to close his eyes, he felt like he might collapse at any moment. Lilen smiled but didn't say anything.

But a bustling city was bound to have problems, and Connor watched as one of those problems finally appeared. Jumping between the buildings, a marbled fox, a spirit of snow and ash with a tantalizing long flowing tail somersaulted through the air, evading guards expertly with his dexterous jumps and rolling rotations. Guards that Connor found himself staring at because of their familiar garments.

Aged brass golems, collared with gold, arms wrapped in gilded braces, the trio of figures slammed onto the upper walkways making them shudder, crumble, but not collapse. Their metallic movement slammed into the streets below as the charged at the fleeting fox who was leaps and bounds ahead of them, it was running to the elevator.

The marbled figure passed by, his dichromatic eyes glanced at Connor, gleaming white in the black marked right eye, and dooming abyss on the whitewashed left. Eyes that came to a full stop, as the fox slammed his heels into the ground, skidding to a halt, his claws scraping the ground as he pulled himself up and looked deep into Connor's eyes, looking puzzled but silent.

The clanging hollow steps were bell tolls of doom, the canine golems weren't slowing down for anything or anyone. The fox glanced at them and then at Connor, he smiled, and grabbed Connor's face, and forced his tongue behind startled lips; stealing a kiss, a passionate theft that Lilen pulled Connor free of before the fox left, stepping backward, and proud of his own debilitating action, he raised his hand in farewell, "Take care of that for me." The fox finished, before vanishing in a flare of gray light once he crossed the threshold of the elevator.

The thundering guards came to a booming halt as they stopped at the edge of the elevator; maybe they couldn't pass the threshold? Then their etched Egyptian masks turned towards Connor as if locking onto a new target, their muscular figures, brass pecs, and flexing metallic cannons that were their arms towered over Connor. Their black pit eyes were marked with emerald light and fell on Connor like heavy shackles. Their aggression all too apparent as one alone stepped forward, Lilen tugged Connor behind him and took a defensive stance, just as the lead guard was reaching out to take hold of Connor's shoulder.

The green gaze transferred to Lilen, and a dense hand came to his throat and locked Lilen in place, the Mincridarn thrashed like a fish out of water once he was lifted off the ground. Lilen coughed and kicked at what would have been the liver, but the brass only gave a hollow thud, it didn't even dent. Lilen's struggling was desperate, and it was clear he wasn't holding anything back, he was scared, Connor could see it in his eyes. The lead guards sealed muzzled cracked open, and death was exposed, a rotting fanged muzzle let out the smell of rot and decay and inhaled on Lilen's face.

Lilen wrapped his left leg around the golem's arm and used his right foot to push up against the front of the muzzle to try and close the rotting maw. The head barely cracked and shuddered against Lilen's defense. The fighting was futile and was finished when Lilen's leg was swept away, the shark's body slammed into the ground, the stone pavement cracking, into a web of deep wounds, that caused Lilen to wheeze and gasp for strangled air. The golem adjusted it self and inhaled Lilen's dying breaths, sucking a thin line of blue magic from Lilen's fanged maw; his magic was being drained, consumed, but it was more than that. Lilen was dying, the golem was going to kill him.

Connor was frozen, Mincridarins were monsters on the battlefield, capable of tossing tanks and cars like paperweights, and this thing, it was killing one. It was killing Lilen without any effort at all, what the hell could Connor do to stop it? A Mincridarn couldn't even make it budge let alone dent it.

"stop," Connor barely begged, it was the only thing his mind would let him do, his words held back by terror, someone was going to die protecting him again, Alan, Lilen. They died because of him, and he couldn't do anything to stop it.

"Stop." Connor cried, his heart tearing apart, as he watched the color drain from Lilen's body, his body turning into shades of gray. Connor heaved as he started to hyperventilate, his mind becoming delirious, as something, the thing from the beach reached out as he cried out his demand.

"I SAID, STOP!"

The etched markings on the golem's helm lit with the azure ripple of light that soon cascaded down its body, glowing blue only for a moment before fading into obscurity as the muzzle closed. Connor exhaled in confusion and met the green golem's eyes, eyes looked up at him for orders, as if searching for a subtle command. "Let him go..." Connor tried as he struggled to breathe and settle his panicked heart.

The clanging fingers retracted, and Lilen exhaled, coughing and rolling onto his side as he breathed. His body was still gray, and he still looked weak. "Give back whatever you took from him," Connor added, the Golem raised his hand and exposed an ankh. The Egyptian mark glowed and a stream of wavering blue light like lightning shot out and into Lilen's body.

Lilen's body violently tightened as if struck by a taser while his magic was returned. When the light faded, Lilen's body returned to normal, regaining the faded blue color across his skin. Kneeling beside Lilen, Connor pulled his trainer up and into his chest to keep him safe, before looking at the golem and giving it a final command, "Go away." Connor ordered, and with that single phrase, the trio of golems walked away as if resuming a planned patrol route. Their echoing steps fading into obscurity as they pushed past Mincridarins and spirits.

And for a city as packed with life as downtown New York, there was only silence as Connor pulled Lilen up and helped him sit up. Lilen was breathing, but unconscious, hopefully just sleeping off what had ever happened, but little by little the silence ate away at Connor until he looked up at the crowd circling him, everyone was staring at him. Connor couldn't help but cower under their gazes, even though many of them seemed scared of him. Averting their gaze when he turned to them, spirits most of all; more feral looking spirits turned tail and ran away at full sprint.

The only sound that cut through the silence was the sloshing steps of a horse that pushed past the crowd and lowered its head in respect, or at least it looked mostly like a horse, as its ears were semi-circular fins, while its nose was whiskered like a catfish. It stepped up with subtle motions, stared at Connor as if to give him permission before crumpling to its knees and laying flat on the ground. The solid spirit of water nodded Connor on to it's back. Connor obeyed only to get away from everyone, but first he hung Lilen over the horse's spine before getting on himself, and pulling his trainer's body up onto his lap. Petting the horse's neck, the equine spirit shifted to adjust its self, but not to get up; its head suddenly lurching forward as if to dive into the stone pavement, but instead of crashing into the street, a whirlpool opened up beneath it and wrapped around them. The spirit didn't seem like it wanted to drown them because the moment they entered the whirlpool, a bubble wrapped around the spirits body, giving Lilen and Connor a pocket of air to breathe inside.

Almost instantly, the vortex's current washed away to expose the crystal-clear water of a sea. The horse's body slowly shifting and turning into something more aquatic, a killer whale with thick ribbed fins and familiar glue glowing tattoos; his. The moment the mounts markings rippled with completion, Connor's skin started to glow. The strange blue lines running down his arms and finishing at his hands. Then little by little, the whale swam across the crest of a cliff and exposed a decimated city lit with the blue flowing aura of magic that swam through the streets.

"Where are you taking me?" Connor asked, looking down at the whale between his legs, rubbing its fin, just to make him look like a friend, not food. Connor was met only with silence as the strange spirit dived, swimming to what had to be the front gates of the ruined city.

Ancient coral reefs smothered the cracked and shattered stones of forgotten roads, ruined with the jagged edges that formed hovels for small aquatic fish, fish that couldn't be terrestrial. The scale patterns, the colors, the mismatched body shapes, didn't seem right, purple and blue scaled flounders, spinning green starfish with bodies that physically transformed into pieces of coral once settled, before lurching and spinning away, even Long blue clicking fish, their sharp sounds uniting a small school from the recesses of the tattered structures that lined the streets.

Then Connor saw death, and it was the only thing that guaranteed that he wasn't on earth, at least nowhere on earth that was real, a wolf skull, a Mincridarn figure wearing rusted green armor mounted by coral. Connor tried not to look at the corpses that seemed to only build as he came to what had to be the center of the city, and to a Greek esque temple, but the ruined statue of the god standing before it wasn't human, easily guessed because of the whale tail behind two sturdy legs. The lightly robed torso shattered on the ground, the head nothing but undecipherable pieces of stone amongst the rubble.

The whale rolled up along the stone stairs, and Connor felt something in his chest pull him forward, his attention lurching towards the temple, he knew this place, there was something here that was his. That, however, couldn't be right, well, maybe it wasn't him that was being called, but the thing inside him, inside his soul.

Shadows parted, and the interior of the ruined temple became transparent thanks to the magic still radiating in the silver line crystal sconces. In the back of the hall on a raised platform, a dooming black door was walled off by rubble, but for all the damage around it, the door and its frame looked immaculate. Connor had felt magic before, but as he came closer to this monolith of black carved stone, his body started to become tingly and cold; his fingertips starting to freeze. The sensation slowly traveling up his arms, until the whale came to a stop, it's own body starting to become frosty white.

Looking around, Connor could see a visible outline of an aura, a bubble of cold that no fish seemed willing to cross. The bodies of Mincridarins and what looked like temple acolytes were preserved like museum pieces thanks to the frigid stasis, corpses of armored Mincridarins, aquatic and land-dwelling were cut down, their blood still staining the floor as eyes looked out frozen in pain. The soldiers or guards looked as if they had just died, but with all the damage and aquatic flora that had developed it couldn't be possible, whatever the place was, it had to have been left untouched for centuries.

From the edge of the doorway, just along with the frame, Connor saw bubbles rise as if someone was slowly drowning, which had to be impossible. There was no way someone could still be alive? Connor shook his head but knew he needed to check anyways, it was probably the reason why the spirit brought him there in the first place after all. Wrapping the water around his head, creating a bubble of air just for him, he leaned over and dropped out of the safe haven and plunged into the cold waters, shivering as he slowly swam forward.

The whale must have been protecting him with it's magic because the moment Connor fell free of the strange mount, his body felt like it was caked in ice, and he shuddered, holding himself tight, for a moment before swimming forward regardless. The frost slowly spreading further and further up his body as he came closer to the door. He came next to it's cracked form and watched as thick black ooze, a slime of some kind seeped out from the smallest of openings. Strangely it seemed almost alive as it changed shapes, creating something that looked akin to a hand for a mere moment before becoming nothing more than ambiguous blob all over again.

Connor craned his head and saw a female turtle with a cracked shell leaning against the door, her legs trapped by the rubble. Her freezing body looked up at Connor as bubbles escaped her lips. Trapping these bubbles around her lips and nose, he used his magic to cut, then lift the broken column shackling her, and moved it to the side.

Swimming up to her, Connor draped the female over his back and locked her arms around his neck by freezing her fingers together. Her added weight pushed Connor against the ground, forcing him to walk through water all the way back to the mount, his feet freezing with the sharp cold until he passed the ring of ice water. Setting the turtle on the back of the mount, Connor watched for a moment as the stasis finally broke, the cracked shell starting to bleed. Her blood sank into the water with enough speed that Connor knew he needed to get whoever she was to a hospital, or she could very well die.

Coming to the front of the whale, Connor rubbed the mounts nose, "I'm not sure if you understand me, but I need a healer, can you take me to one?" Connor asked, the mount nodded and turned around and flapped up its ribbed fan of a fin for Connor to hold. Wherever the thing was going next, hopefully, it was to a safer location, and to a healer like he asked.

A new whirlpool opened and swallowed them, and the moment the water passed, Connor found gravity and the shimmering light of the surface. Breaking from the surface, the killer whale snorted water, not like it needed to breathe anyways, but the strange sight was bound to catch the attention of the Mincridarins on the beach not too far away.

"Hey!" Connor waved, "I got sick and Injured over here!" Connor called out, washing the water from his face before waving again to the aquatic Mincridarins lounging about on the beach, some of them perked up while two started running and leaping into the water, surfboards made of ice formed under their feet and the figures darted forward as if riding jet skis, kicking up water until they came up to Connor.

"Human, can you get to the beach?" A gray spotted dolphin asked, sliding in closer before picking up Lilen to carry him away, "Yeah, I'll be fine, but the turtle, she needs help right now." Connor answered, keeping still and doing what little he could to help as a tiger shark did his best to not upset the wound by carrying the turtle against his chest.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of them." The tiger shark assured, before slowly gaining speed, thick V's trailing behind the two of them until they strut on to the beach.

Connor rubbed the strange water spirit's muzzle, giving his thanks before swimming on without it; whatever 'it' was, seemed willing to stay in the water anyway. Panting just a little, Connor picked himself up out of the water once his feet hit the sand. Climbing the sharp incline and kicking himself out of the rolling waves, he sighed, the swim taking more out of him than he would have thought, but he caught his breath after a moment, and looked around wondering where the aquatic's had gone with his friends.

"Human look out!" A voice cried out in shock, but before Connor could even figure out who was trying to get his attention, a dense volleyball smacked his face. Falling back, Connor saw only freckled darkness cloud his vision, he could already tell his nose was broken, he felt the blood rolling down his cheek.

"Is he dead? Did you just kill a human with a ball?" Strange voices questioned, their footsteps clapping and shifting the sand.

A komodo dragon looked down at Connor and laughed with a blissful release, "He's not dead, thank the gods. Mom would've killed me."

"Yeah, well why don't you go take him to the Den, and I'll go get the ball before you hurt anyone else with your bad aim." An iguana laughed with friendly enthusiasm before splashing off into the waves.

The Komodo dragon sighed and bent down, lifting Connor up like a princess, bracing him beneath the legs and across the back before walking him up the beach and towards a native vine wrapped tower. Though delirious from the impact, Connor wondered if he was back on earth again.

"Healers... Got another one!" The Komodo dragon called out with an uneasy laugh as a tiger shark strut up into view, "What in all creation did you do to him? I needed him for questioning?" The shark snapped in defiance, a dolphin pulled up to drag him back before he bit at the lizard, "Torrent, back down. We can question him later."

"Ano-," Torrent started before being roughly grabbed by the upper arm, "I know what Lilen means to you, but the human is in no condition to answer anything." Torrent swung off the dolphin's hand and stormed out of the small looking medical ward, while Ano, slammed the sliding door closed, their muffled argument blowing in with the sea breeze.

"Lay him down, right there?" A healer directed, a penguin with yellow whiskered eyes, before striping the sheet off the bed so the Komodo Dragon could lay Connor flat.

"He's going to recover, right?" The Dragon asked just for assurance.

"Dara, it's probably just shock from the impact. I'll clear up any damage, so don't worry about it." The healer answered before waving the dragon off; Dara nodded, trying to smile an apology down to Connor while his vision blurred with a green light and went black as he closed his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~ \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Connor woke up stifled by the heat of his blanket, and pushed the fabric off himself as he sat up. He felt his head, a dull ache still burning in his mind as he barely remembered what happened until he looked around. The open-air Ward dotted with Mincridarins recovering from combat wounds, probably from lousy sparring matches or full-blown fights. Healers dressed thin brown shawls and shorts were working quietly and diligently with every patient, including Connor, a small penguin reached up with a feral wing of a hand and pushed Connor back, and down onto the mattress.

"Lay back and relax, give your mind a chance to rest." The healer instructed before picking up a small steel mug and offering the straw to Connor, obediently trusting the healer Connor started drinking but soon regretted what he started Consuming as he coughed in protest. It was the same friken nutrient clay that Mail made him drink.

"Please continue drinking, it'll help your mind recover from the healing process." The healer pressed, offering it to Connor again, who groaned but accepted the disgusting paste into his gut.

The penguin smiled when he was sucking up air, and put the cup down before putting the wing back on his head to test his temperature, "You're already looking much better." It assured while Connor still looked around the crystal lit room.

"Am I on Earth?" Connor asked bluntly, the penguin glanced down in confusion but nodded.

"Maybe you should stay the night and let your mind reorganize itself, just as a precaution." The healer offered, but Connor sat up, the penguin kept him down. "Please don't agitate yourself by moving, stay, and rest human; the guards want to ask you some questions anyways."

Submitting himself to his familiar position, Connor laid back and just exhaled a bitter, "Fine" before looking down the lane of beds to see Lilen still asleep. While the turtle, she was lying on her chest, her shell exposed so the healers could close the long crack running from her right shoulder to her tail.

"Is the turtle female going to be alright?" Connor asked, the penguin followed his gaze before nodding. "She will make a full recovery, her injuries were severe and she very much would have died without your help."

"And Lilen, how is he?"

"Sleeping, his fin was broken, but he should be fine once he wakes up." The penguin answered, "The guards have been waiting for you, wait here while I get them." The healer added before walking away, it's wings hanging in front of its chest before opening the door and whispering beyond the right side of the door frame.

Stepping aside, the healer let the guards enter, the very same spotted gray dolphin and tiger shark from before, but this time they were wearing simple shorts, maybe as a formality, and sat to the right side of Connor's bed, on stools the both had dragged in with them from outside. The dolphin sat the closest and offered his hand in greeting, a very human thing to do, but Connor accepted it regardless, "Hello, I'm Ano, and this is my partner Torrent, we're guards working down her in the 'Depths', we'd just like to ask you a few questions about what happened earlier if we can?"

"Yeah, ok." Connor agreed with a nod, "What do you want to know?"

"Well, would you mind explaining how that female over there," Ano started nodding to the turtle, "got injured?"

"I don't know, I found her like that." Connor answered, but Ano seemed doubtful, "You found her like that? Where did you find her?"

"I don't think you'll believe me if I told you," Connor replied, but Ano shook his head, "Just tell me what you know."

"I found her trapped under rubble in a ruined temple," Connor responded, his answer so distinct that it took a moment for the two guards to look at him, both entirely certain he was lying but neither wanted to say otherwise.

"Maybe he's one of those special humans, the mind broken ones?" Torrent whispered, trying to smile off his words to feign innocent.

"Maybe, but the captain wants to know what he has to say." Ano mostly agreed just as quietly before looking back at Connor and smiling a bit harder, "Where is this temple human?" Ano asked with a drawn out slow monotonous tone as if that would help Connor understand.

"A spirit took me there, the whale... you saw it didn't you?" Connor sighed, saying nothing to the guards because it's not like he could really explain what happened; he had no idea where he had gone.

"Yes, very nice spirit, do you know where we can find it? We want to talk to it." Ano persisted, speaking in an agonizingly demeaning manner.

"I've been in here the whole time, how am I supposed to know?" Connor disputed gesturing to the ward, the guards glaring at one another, retaining their tension as they were really trying hard to be accommodating even if it made then look like idiots.

"Do you know what happened to Lilen?" Torrent asked, but Ano raised his hand up in protest, "Go slower, he might not understand you if you speak too fast."

Connor finally relented before Torrent could repeat himself, "I'm not autistic, I just really don't know what happened." Connor groaned, "All I know is that Lilen was taking me here to train me, but some canine golem attacked us. It nearly killed him, by sucking up his magic or whatever." Connor explained, sitting up to face them and leaning up against the back wall. "Then this water horse comes out of nowhere and lets me ride it, and before I know it, I'm floating over this destroyed city at the bottom of the ocean filled with Mincridarn corpses except for her. So if you want to know anything about what really happened, you have to talk to her." Connor finished as he gestured to the unconscious turtle.

Ano raised his hands to calm the human down and steadied his own breath as he leaned closer, "You're in a Den, please breathe, there is no need to get agitated like that." Connor rubbed his brow, his head was still aching, "Sorry, I'm just trying to tell the truth, but I don't know what happened or why those golem things attacked us."

"Ok, breathe, and tell us about these golems; let's just start there." Ano advised, as he laid a hand on Connor's thigh, stroking it to try and keep him calm.

"They were chasing this spirit, a marbled fox, this spirit kissed me and then disappeared in the elevator in a flash of light." Connor exhaled, crossing his arms, and Ano nodded.

"That spirit was probably fleeing back to the Veneer, the border between realities where spirits can travel freely; the elevator serves as a gateway for gray spirits to enter and leave this reality." Ano partly explained, but Connor only shook his head, "What?"

"Focus," Ano asserted, pushing the conversation forward. "Tell us about the golems, what did they look like?"

"They were Egyptian, they looked like Anubis, but made out of brass and covered in gold braces," Connor simply described, and the two guards stared at each other in shock, then back at Connor, "Are you sure?" Torrent questioned; Connor silently nodded.

"Yeah, what are they?" Connor asked, and Ano steadied himself looking at his partner, "No, I can't be the Anuni; they'd be dead if it was. Maybe it was a forgery of some kind." Ano tried to explain off, Connor could feel the tension through the dolphin's palm.

"The Anuni?" Connor pushed, only causing Ano to sit up and raise a hand for him to settle, "Just as we are guards that protect sanctuary hills, the Anuni serve as guardians for the underworld. They keep the peace between demons, spirits, and mortals. They are ancient and powerful, if the Anuni wanted you, you wouldn't be here; your soul would be rotting in the abyss." Ano stiffly expressed, his ominous tone nothing to scoff at, the entire explanation causing Connor to close his eyes and breathe, his mind was filling with even more questions.

"How are you alive?" Torrent asked while Connor pulled his legs in close and crossed them.

"I told them to stop and fix Lilen," Connor answered, watching as the two guards looked at one another, smiles cracking their lips as they started laughing like idiots.

"See, I told you, they had to be fakes, there is no way the Anuni would listen to a mere human." Ano breathed, Connor, was only lost in the laughter, "What? why?"

"The Anuni only obey the will of Cerberus, the first son of the god of Dimen, if they obeyed you, that would make you some kind of firstborn to the gods, and that's impossible." Torrent explained while Ano tapped his partner's shoulder, "Or a god?" that single comment only made them riot harder.

"Cerberus? You mean like the band?" Connor questioned, and Ano inhaled, nodding as he wiped the tears from his eyes

"Their one in the same, the gods have given him permission to come to the mortal plane to help prevent magical chaos from spreading too much. He separated his soul into three beings so he would blend in amongst us." Ano explained while Connor could only stare. The band he fell in love with was, in fact, a child of a God sent to protect earth? That couldn't be possible.

"What? No, are you sure? Does the military know?" Connor pressed for answers, and Ano nodded.

"OF course they know, they're the ones that fund him. Sending him across the world to secretly pacify threats that could otherwise lead to disasters."

Connor rubbed his forehead, massaging the complex idea into his mind, "How does the entire world not know?"

"Cerberus is a child of the God of Dimen, a child of structure, do you really think he couldn't alter reality to fit his needs?" Torrent waved off, while Connor backtracked, "Ok, fine, but what is up with all the spirits here in Red Rock? I thought the barrier around the tower was supposed to keep them out."

"That's a lie your Military made up to keep people at ease." Ano replied, causing Connor to throw up his arms in defeat, letting them slump down, "What?!"

"Yeah, the American Military has been lying since the beginning of our first appearance. The spirits are one of the few reasons why the Earth and this reality still exist. They help coordinate defense and offer supplies and services; no mortal can simply get anywhere else. While the Gods try and fix this magical surge that exploded into your reality."

"How the fuck does no one know about this?" Connor demanded, and Ano raised his hand for Connor to calm down, "Do you remember your Red Rock ID?" Connor nodded.

"Do you remember the contract you signed to get it?" Ano asked with a knowing smile as Connor shook his head. "That contract you signed to get into Red Rock opens you to a world of truths, but you can't share these truths. Any conversation you have with another about spirits or about what is really happening, will come out as either silence and or gibberish. This Contract is a binding mark on your soul, so you cannot avoid it because it senses what your trying to do and counters it. It's impossible to escape, and once accepted or read init's entirety it erases the memory of the signing or the lack thereof."

"That can't be legal, how do I know I didn't give up my soul because of something like that?" Connor asked as he fell back against the wall to think about how all the pieces connected, the gods, the spirits, and Mincridarins.

Ano shook his head, "Your American military didn't write the contract. The Gray God did, and fundamentally the Gray God cannot abuse power; it serves as a true and impartial witness between all things and protects the mortal world as the need arises. That is why no one knows, but the people here in Red Rock; the truth is kept under soul bound lock and key."

"Wait, if the military has been lying since the beginning... What about the gate opening and the first Mincridarins? The Soul Bursts?"

"It's been a ruse since the beginning, we were asked to come here by the Gods of Creation to help keep the peace and teach humans how to protect themselves. The gate opening was a lie to connect the dots between the magical chaos and our arrival. But we didn't arrive here until months after the soul bursts started happening. The American government played it off like a short term conspiracy to make everyone believe we were the cause of the world's suffering." Connor shook his head at the horrible abuse of Mincridarins, and the very idea that they served as scapegoats to keep the peace was sickening.

"And you're ok with that?" Connor asked, and the two guards fell silent, not out of racist wounds but out of shame.

"We hope to make amends for our greatest mistake." Ano finished as he got up from his chair. "Sorry, we have enough to make a report, Connor," Ano blatantly lied as he retreated with his partner before Connor could get any more questions from them, something that only made his mind burn.

Connor's head ached not from the pelting he got earlier, but because of the questions, the reality he was just forced to bear and piece together. There was still too much he didn't know, so much he needed to know, his mind raged for answers, but such a throbbing intensity couldn't be quelled only stemmed. He threw himself off his bed and stormed past the Healers as they tried to stop him.

"Let me Go!" Connor demanded as he struggled against their hold, "I need to go on a walk!" Connor yelled in frustration to try and getaway.

"Let him go; if he wants to leave, that is his choice." A Senior healer agreed, a white crane who waved everyone away. The healers obeyed, and Connor said nothing else as he left the den, so he could walk along the beach to clear his head and relax.

His mind was torn between knowing too much and not knowing enough, part of him just wanted to collapse on the sand and just fade into oblivion. However, he still moved forward, irritable and frustrated, until he came to the far wall of the cavern, and sat in the isolated shallows of the beach, watching the waves roll back and forth across the water. Hoping to be hypnotized by the crystal colored currents and given all the answers he needed, while time just seemed to sweep away and fade with the dying waves.

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"How are you feeling?" Newport called out, the smooth whisper was a strange sound that caused Connor to exhale as he tossed sand out into the windswept waters, the coarse grains settling onto his wet shins. "I'm fine," Connor answered, watching from the side as Newport laid out his suit jacket on the sand and settled on top, loosening his tie and pulling it from his throat, he sighed, trying to smile.

"So that ball hit you pretty hard didn't it?" Newport asked as he folded his tie over his hands.

"You felt that?" Connor exhaled as Newport nodded, twisting the tie in his hands, looking apprehensive.

"I did, I spilled my coffee all over my boss because of it. Normally I can prepare myself for these kinds of things because I'm the one causing the pain, but when it ambushes me like that, it's hard to suppress the feelings. I couldn't walk or think for about an hour."

"Sorry," Connor apologized, but Newport shook his head.

"I'm not blaming you Connor, this week has been a little hard on the both of us." But Newport finally pulled the conversation to a head and tossed his tie out on the jacket between his legs. "I talked to the guards, and they told me everything, everything they told you. I know you probably blame me for not telling you the truth, but I promise I was going to, I was trying too. That's why I wanted Lilen to take you down here to train so you could see the spirits and he could talk about them, and everything...We weren't expecting you to spar today or really do anything, not with everything we planned on telling you."

"So, it's all true?" Connor asked, looking at Newport so his mate couldn't lie to him.

"Yes...yes it is," Newport answered, looking Connor in the eye so nothing could be hidden between them.

"Then what's really going on? With the Gods, the Magic, what really happened?"

Newport took a breath, before leaning on his right knee, "In an ancient era before Earth's recorded history there was a race of imbeciles who found one of the gray gates that regulate magic in this reality."

"Gray Gates?"

"Connor, think of this reality as a castle, with all that can possibly exist and has existed, stored behind the walls of a keep. A castle has gates, and these gates were never meant to be opened unless a unique key forged from wisdom and knowledge of a transcended race was used. Once this key is used, it would open the gates and let magic into this reality and allow mortals to traverse the Veneer freely, just like any other gray spirit. But this ancient race found the foundations of this gate, and instead of doing what the gods had envisioned, they threw every cataclysmic weapon at it; and it cracked." Newport breathed, watching the water just as much as Connor was, "The gate finally collapsed, and with its destruction, you're dealing with the fallout those idiots left behind."

"But because of their own magical laws, the Gods are barred from undoing the damage because it was done by mortal hands. The only thing they can do is prevent a cascading failure." Newport continued, grabbing Connor's attention, who looked at his mate for clarification.

"The gods of Creation don't just live in the confines of any one select reality, they aren't part of one select society or pantheon, they live above it all, regulating all possible realities no matter how small. This includes magical and non-magical realities, this reality was always meant to have magic at one point. When that happened, the Gray Gates that bar magic from the reality and siphon it out were all supposed to open at once, gradually allowing the reality to slowly adjust to the new powers. One gray gate is completely destroyed, and magic is pouring in faster than the other gates can siphon it off, and their cracking, if they all shatter at the same time. It would cause this reality to erupt and shatter, the fallout would be felt across every adjoining reality, and they, in turn, would collapse, killing everything that existed within those realities. This magic problem, it's not about the earth, it's about the nature of your universe and how it's fundamentally changing too fast."

"Well, can't we do anything to help?" Connor asked, but Newport shook his head.

"This isn't some TV show drama where the main character can fix everything if they try hard enough. You're not a god, and we're just mortals, if the gods need our help they will ask us to do something, but till then all we can do is live and hope the gods can prevent the cascading failure, or else they might cut their losses and collapse this one reality and start from scratch."

"But if that's the case, then why send you here if you might die as well?" Connor asked, and Newport smiled, "The gods knew this reality would need teachers to help humans understand their new powers, and to establish peace in the chaos created by the fallout... So we're here to escape our world and help you piece yours back together and hope that's enough."

Newport was hesitant to say something; he was fringing on the topic, but he was tiptoeing and choosing his words carefully, and though they were talking about apocalyptic fallout, whatever Newport was hiding felt worse than what he was revealing. "What are you not telling me?" Connor finally dared to ask, when the silence between them grew too deep.

"There used to be humans on Ecorein?" Newport finally admitted as he dipped his hand into the sand and curled his fingers beneath the coarse grains.

"Used to?" Connor dragged out, and Newport nodded before looking at Connor so he couldn't escape the truth, "We committed genocide during the age of blood, a long and bloody war filled with atrocities and monstrous tactics. A hundred years of mutilation, death, and pointless slaughter. Just racist hatred that had long lost any value; centuries ago, we had good reason to start a war. But as every year passed, that meaning faded into nothing but revenge and turned into something horrifying, filled only with stupidity, and battles of superiority. Until... at last, we... won." Newport explained, turning away, his voice low and heavy, he held his face in shame and covered his eyes to breathe.

Connor struggled to accept the very idea, he didn't want to believe it, but in the end, he just couldn't debate the ninety percent of his mind that told him to believe it. There had been a lot of lies, but genocide wasn't something to play around with, especially Mincridarins. If humans knew... Connor shook his head, he saw the logic of silence. "How did it start?"

"From what the war journals tell us and ancient Adestrian texts say, it started with an assassination attempt on the king of Mincara, Wolfric the first, it failed." Newport shrugged rotating himself so he could look at Connor, "It was a human assassin, and after violating the human's soul, the royals at the time discovered who had hired him. The human assassin was an agent of King Rein, the human king that our lands shared a border with. Wolfric the First declared war on King Rein and sought out to conquest his lands in defiance and strip King Rein of his crown, but after four years, logic and history were forgotten. Only the battles are remembered, along with propaganda and stories. Only after the final human was slain, their blood used to sign a contract formalizing an alliance with the Adestrians did the war actually end, and since then. That pact we signed has been the shame of our nation and people."

"My forebearers slaughtered and entire race Connor," Newport answered with crying disgust, "that contract is nothing but a curse and a reminder of what we can be, and that's nothing to be proud of, and that is why we are trying our fucking hardest to set things right. We don't want to fight you, humans, not again, never again. That is why we are so obedient, why we are such good little American pets." Newport continued, covering his face as he hid his frustration and pent up anxiety, exhaling in long drawn out stifled breaths to calm himself down.

"I get it...I-don't blame you," Connor faltered, trying to steady his resolve, before exhaling his tension, "It makes sense."

Newport fell silent as he stared at Connor, seeming almost relieved but confused, "You weren't the one fighting, I can't blame you, no matter how wrong it was; it's apart of your race's history, and honestly, there's been too much going on today for me anyways. Right now, I could just go for some fucking tea or a soda because I really can't deal with anything else right now. I just don't have the energy." Connor explained, rubbing his brow, trying to bear the world on his mind.

"You're not mad?" Newport asked as he dried wet eyes.

Connor shook his head, "I just fucking learned that everything I know is pretty much a lie, and that the race I admired committed genocide, but it's history now and yeah a lot of its atrocious, but what can I do about it? It happened, and there is nothing that I can do to change it. I'm just too tired to be emotional."

"Oh... ok... but now what?" Newport asked, and Connor shrugged.

"I don't honestly know; I kind of get why everything needs to be secret, the Genocide of humans mainly, but I'm still struggling to understand this alternate reality stuff... Stuff like that only was in movies and books before now, but I guess it's going to be something I have to live with now. I just didn't think about it too much."

Newport nodded, reaching out a hand to tap Connor's ankles with a broken smile, "I get it, I'll do my best to explain everything... but do you want to get lunch or something?"

"I think...I think I'm to confused to be hungry." Connor admitted, baffled with the foreign idea, smiling and chuckling at the new sensation he had never experienced before.

Newport chuckled along ever so quietly, smiling partially as he bowed his head in agreement, "Alright, do you want to take a walk? Or something?"

"Can we just watch the waves for a bit?" Connor asked, and Newport nodded, pulling himself closer, lifting Connor's arm over his shoulder before leaning into his side, "Sure, we can do that. I've never really watched the waves like this before." Newport admitted while Connor tightened his hold on his mate and hugged Newport's side.

"I've always wanted to live next to a lake, or the ocean, a rolling river would be fun too; but I just always wanted to live near water so I could watch the waves." Connor sighed, "I kind of wish we could live down here."

"We can always move Connor, it's just the two of us after all." Newport offered, but Connor shook his head, "It wouldn't feel right, moving down here. I'd have to help pay for everything, and then finding a place big enough to play around in."

"We can talk about it after our joining, and when you find work." Newport agreed, rubbing Connor's inner thigh to comfort him. "Yeah, that would be fine."

"Lilen's going to love the idea I know that much." Newport laughed, something Connor added too, "I'm sure he would, he'd probably end up being our realtor... Newport?"

"Yes?"

"How 'did' you get down here?" Newport smiled and wrapped his fingers between Connor's, pulling them ever so tighter against his side. "I have my ways."