Through continuous wobbling of my soul armillary I have arrived at more handy dead-world memories. The girls sitting around me in the Skyfall Express train compartment were indeed my friends in our past life, no… lives.

  I could remember bits and pieces of at least two separate lives before this one. The first one ended when I sacrificed myself as Alexa to stop Bob Proverra from killing everyone. The second ended when Vee, Ci and I freed Archangel Zadskiel from her bonds beneath the SimmiTech compound with Possy’s help.

  The continuous narrative of my being stretching past current reality like some kind of wobbly sideways endless chain was bewildering, yet wholesome.

  I wasn't insane. I wasn't alone. I was definitely a mess of wobbling souls but it wasn't my fault.

  The fractal, looped nature of reality was to blame for my misfortune. I wasn't entirely misfortunate however. I found my friends once again or perhaps they found me this time around as the structural arrangement of the world we inhabited shifted in less dire ways, leaving many valuable things like our soul-bond intact.

  As far as I could recall and sense, I still had bits of Omnid soul architecture in my soul that allowed me to do magic. I determined this by snapping my fingers and producing a small Electrofractal ball of lightning. A skill taught to me by Vee.

  “Aww, look at that cute, smol lightning ball,” Vee commented at me. “You precious creature. Trying so hard to impress your owners.”

  Her jab was pointy, yet it made me feel warm inside.

  Friends. I had friends! I had people who cared about me! It didn't matter if they didn't remember me, they were still interested in conversing with me. Maybe with enough interaction I would make them and myself remember who I was and why I was doing this.

  Were the Omnids I befriended and helped out in my last cycle doing better this time around?

  Was this cycle better or worse for everyone involved?

  How long have I been at it?

  I looked at Cinder. She seemed more confident, less broken and lonely. Vespera was smiling as she was chatting to Mags. Magdaline wasn't desperately chewing on a beast core like a shark trying to exist on land.

  Progress from my last attempt at fixing reality had indeed carried over in positive ways in a backwards and sideways sort of dimensional fracture propagation.

  Our Earth had plummeted a tick closer to its doom but the local aetheric density was now higher, which made everything fancier and more magical, made my Omnid friends less starved.

  A kitsune girl arrived with our a la carte orders filling our compartment’s table with plates of steaks and burgers. Everyone dug into their meals.

  “Thanks for the lunch,” I told Vespera with a smile as I chomped down on my burger.

  “Anytime, cutie,” she grinned at me, throwing blood-red steak slices into her gullet. “Gotta keep our kobold nice n’ plump in case we get hungry in a dungeon.”

  “You would nom on your own kobold?” I arched an eyebrow.

  “You look sufficiently snackable,” she reached out and licked my neck, giving it a small bite. “Nom.”

  I winced, shuddering slightly as her beak filled with a row of saw-teeth departed.

  “Ye,” she clicked. “Def’ nommable. I didn't think that I would find myself with a sudden tasty kobold and yet here we are.”

  “Oi!” Cinder looked up from her streak. “Get your own kobold! This one's mine! Don't just wing in on other people's stuff!”

  “Learn to share,” Vespera smacked Cinder with a wing. “We obviously claimed this knob together and just don't remember it.”

  “And why don't we remember it?” Cinder demanded.

  “Dimensional, temporal, Outsider, divine, or mental fuckery,” Vespera shrugged, bending her fingers. “Take your pick.”

  “And you are just fine with this?” Cinder asked. “With us sharing a kobold we didn't make? What if he's some kind of an incepted kobold, sent to screw with us by an enemy Omnicorp?”

  “I've never heard of such a thing,” Vespera shook her head. “Legit soul bonds are impossible to force and as a level four kobold he should not be able to easily hurt or betray his owners in the high forties. The magic soul bond itself guarantees cooperation and mental entwining.”

  “Meaning what?”

  “Meaning that the more time we spend with our kobold the more obedient and mentally connected with us he will become,” Vespera replied. “I dunno about you, but I'ma be a good master to my smol human. The dragon-kobold relationship takes both parties to reinforce the bond. A goodly dragon has a noblesse oblige to create a hoard to uplift her kobolds with skills. The more the hoard benefits the more the dragon grows in power! Also, I’m sensing a thing in his soul…”

  “What kind of a thing?”

  “The kind of a thing I’ve been planning to build but never got around to doing it, on the account that I only turned eighteen recently which permits me to own hooman kobolds,” Vespera said. “A holofractal Resonance dish.”

  “A what now?”

  “A skill amplifier,” Vespera replied. “Kobolds naturally bounce their dragon owner skills off from themselves. This is sort of like an improvement on it. Considering how a thing that I only planned to make is inside of him, he’s def’ my property.”

  “I see,” Cinder replied with a somewhat sour look.

  Having finished her breakfast, the Quetzi-girl pulled out a guitar from her extradimensional case. Magdaline pulled her headphones off and Vespera leaned forward on the table.

  Amidst the autumns weary end

  With sky beneath our feet, forever crying.

  And in reflections birds and clouds, flying,”

  Cinder sang, her wings spreading wide, the chords and her magic-amplified voice making my insides melt.

  "Autumn, how long I’ve been without you.

  Autumn, ships burn into the sky.

  Autumn, take me, ever so high.

  Where, worry has gone awry.

  Autumn, I ask you why?

  Autumn, it is darkness and despair.

  Clawing at my soul, ever bare

  Autumn, life is too unjust and so unfair,

  Autumn, will I ask you, will I dare?

  Autumn, we must end this weary, bleak affair.

  And longer I know, why I simply care.

  Autumn, on my life, I here to you swear,

  Autumn you have caught me, unaware.”

  Cinder finished, strumming her guitar.

  “Very swank,” Vespera judged. “A bit gloomy tho. Why yo songs so gloom, Ci?”

  “Gloomy? It’s called ‘atmospheric’,” Cinder retorted, slipping her guitar onto the table. “Besides, life is gloomy. Haven’t you noticed?” She waved a hand at the gloomy storm autumn clouds above the Still Ocean waves that our train was plowing through.

  “Nah, life’s a party!” Vespera chirped. “It just sometimes needs more glitter cannons and less… existential dread. How about a happy tune, Ci? Something with… dragons slaying beasts and hoarding bolds' n' shinies?”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Cinder scoffed, but a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she glanced at me. “Maybe later. My soul’s still in ‘autumnal melancholy’ mode.”

  “Your soul needs a good kick in the tail feathers,” Vespera declared. “Mags, you got anything less… depressing on that shark-phone of yours?”

  Magdaline, who had returned to her headphones, blinked slowly. “Less depressing?” she repeated, as if the concept was alien. “Define ‘less depressing’.”

  “You know! Happy! Upbeat! Makes you want to… I dunno… fly into the sun and sing!” Vespera flapped her wings for emphasis, scattering a few sparks.

  Magdaline pondered this for a moment, then reluctantly removed her headphones again. “Upbeat… sun… singing…” She scrolled through her phone with a slow, deliberate finger. “Ah. Found something.”

  She tapped the screen, switching to the speakers and a moment later, a melody filled the compartment. A surprisingly cheerful, almost bouncy tune emerged, filled with bright, synthesized sounds and a catchy, repetitive beat.

  “Ooh, what’s this?” Vespera perked up, tapping her foot to the rhythm.

  “Bubblegum kraken-pop,” Magdaline stated matter-of-factly. “Chart-topper from the Abyssal Depths. Very popular with the younger Scrutimancer crowd.”

  “Kraken-pop?” Cinder raised an eyebrow. “Seriously, Mags?”

  “It’s… algorithmically optimized for dopamine release,” Magdaline explained, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. “Efficiently cheerful.”

  Vespera was already humming along, her wings twitching. “Catchy! I can dig it! Though… kraken-pop? Really? Is that even a genre?”

  “Everything is a genre now,” Magdaline replied with a shrug. “Genre proliferation is a natural consequence of hyper-information saturation. And Abyssal kraken have excellent musical taste, statistically speaking.”

  Cinder rolled her eyes, but even she seemed to be tapping her foot along to the beat. The kraken-pop did have a strange, infectious energy. It was so relentlessly cheerful it was almost… aggressively happy.

  “See? Much better!” Vespera declared, grabbing a steak slice and waving it in the air to the music. “You! Kobold! Dance!”

  I blinked at her. “Dance?”

  “Yeah, dance! Show us your moves! Earn your keep, kobold!” Vespera grinned, tossing the steak slice towards me. I caught it automatically, sliding it onto my plate.

  “I don’t don’t dance on command,” I crossed my arms.

  “Pff, sounds like ya lack rhythm,” Vespera scoffed good-naturedly. “Fine, I’ll show you how it’s done.”

  She put her talon on a wall and closed her eyes. The compartment around us wobbled and suddenly stretched, opening up more space in front of the door. The Thunderbird hopped off her seat, surprisingly not smacking anyone or anything with wings, and started to move to the kraken-pop beat.

  Her movements were… chaotic, a mix of flapping wings, jerky steps, and exaggerated poses, but somehow, they were also strangely… captivating. She was clearly enjoying herself as she sent sparks flying all around the compartment, gray robe flapping open to reveal a blue dress and sparkling magisteel chainmail armor framing her curvy body.

  Cinder and Magdaline watched with varying degrees of bemusement. Even Magdaline’s usually impassive face cracked a small smile.

  “Wow, Vee,” Cinder commented. “You’re… surprisingly terrible at dancing.”

  “Terribly awesome, you mean!” Vespera corrected, striking a dramatic pose with one wing outstretched. “It’s called ‘Electrofractal freestyle’ darling! Very avant-garde! You wouldn’t understand.”

  “I understand ‘embarrassing yourself in public’,” Cinder retorted, but she was laughing now.

  “Public? We’re in a train compartment, Ci,” Vespera chuckled, continuing her dance. “Unless you think the leather seats are judging me? Wait, it’s you who’s judging me, isn’t it?”

  “Bingo,” Cinder nodded.

  “The leather seats have seen things,” Magdaline said darkly. “Terrible things.”

  “Hrm?” Vespera tilted her head. “Wait. Is it… lewd things?”

  “Very,” Magdaline flashed red. "Damned upperclassmen."

  Vespera broke out into a fit of laughter.

  Magdaline squinted at Vespera and then put her headphones back on, returning to her kraken-pop world, staring at a wall.

  “Does she do this often?” I asked.

  “Eh, Scrutimancers,” Cinder said, rolling her eyes. “Obsessed with the past, with secrets, with… smelling things that aren’t there. Mags is a good egg most of the time, but sometimes she gets… weird.”

  “Weird how?” I asked.

  “Weird like… she once spent three hours staring at a crack in the wall, convinced it was a ‘portal to forgotten anxieties’,” Cinder explained. “And she talks to furniture.”

  “I see,” I nodded.

  “Ya know wat’?” Vespera grinned at Cinder. “I’ll show ya how to judge me!”

  She grabbed and pulled me out of my seat, setting her phone to play a modern Thunderland-sounding beat.

  “Try to keep up, Lexy,” she whispered into my ear, taking me for a spin.

  Despite my initial reluctance and stumbling, I found myself following her lead, muscle memory from past lives helping me match her rhythm. Eventually, I took the lead, and slotted the Architect to the forefront of my soul armillary, making her spin.

  "See? The kobold's got moves!" Vespera called out to Cinder, who was watching us dance with green rainbows dancing on the edges of her feathers.

  “Whatever,” Cinder rolled her eyes.

  “Haha, thass' right,” Vee added, panting ever so slightly in the break between songs. “Stew in your jealousy.”

  Cinder pursed her lips, sending the Thunderbird a draconic glare.

  “She stewin’ hard,” Vespera whisper-grinned at me. “S’fine, she’ll catch up in no time.”

  “And you?” I whispered.

  “I don’t remember you,” she replied, resting her beak on my shoulder as we spun. “But I feel like I really should. This is nice. Didn't think that owning a kobold would feel this nice."

  The train shuddered again, slowing this time. I glanced at the window. We were moving by Giant's Causeway now, gargantuan hexagonal columns framing cliffside walls. A chime echoed through the compartment, followed by a crackling female voice over the intercom.

  “Approaching Skyfall Station. Please prepare for disembarkation. House sorting will commence upon arrival at the Academy. Welcome, Mystagogues, to Skyfall.”

  “Ah! House sorting,” Vespera perked up, letting go of me and clapping her magisteel talons together. “Showtime, ma’ peeps! Strategic house placement, remember? World domination starts now! Also, I'll be very annoyed if we end up in different houses.”

  Cinder stretched her silver-green wings, which rustled against the compartment walls. “Whatever. Just want to get this over with and find my dorm room. And food. I'm starving to the point of eating my kobold whole.”

  “Hungry already?” I squinted at her.

  “What?” She asked. “I’m a dragon. More magic steaks I eat, the stronger I get.”

  Magdaline nodded.

  “So,” Vespera said, turning to me with a gleam in her grey-gold eyes. “Kobold-Lexy. Which house are you aiming for? Strategic house placement is for everyone, even… acquisitions.”

  “Aiming for?” I blinked. “I… hadn’t really thought about it.” Houses. Cunning, Ambitious, Practical, Meticulous, Nurturing, right? None of them particularly jumped out at me as ‘me’. “What would you guesstimate me at?”

  “Hrmmm.” Vespera considered, clicking her beak. “Gorefield. Trash panda house. Sewers, builder tech, ethics optional. You strike me as a smelly sewer dweller.”

  “Hey!” I protested. “I’m not a sewer dweller!”

  “Could be,” Vespera shrugged with a teasing look. “Or maybe… Hexacomb? Meticulous. Bees. Obsessive perfectionism. You seem a bit… twitchy and quiet. Maybe you’d fit right in with the obsessive perfectionists.”

  “I’m not twitchy!” I huffed. “I’m… dimensionally skewed! There’s a difference!”

  “Dimensional skewery twitchiness,” Vespera amended, clicking her beak. “Semantics. Why are you dressed like a peasant?”

  “My family doesn’t care to spend money on me,” I shrugged. "Son of a kobold and whatever."

  “That won’t do,” Vespera marched over to her suitcase and dug into it, throwing me a gray robe. “Put it on, ya knob.”

  I did. The wide and bulky robe adjusted itself over me, trim-hexagrams flickering.

  “What do you think, Ci?” Vespera poked the dragon as I finished dressing. "Is he a coon or a bee?"

  Cinder snorted. “He’s Silverfox. Obviously.”

  “Silverfox?” Vespera and Magdaline echoed, turning to Cinder.

  “Cunning house,” Cinder elaborated, rolling her eyes. “Foxes. Silver Tower. Manipulative, deceitful, overly secretive. Sounds like him, doesn’t it?” She gestured at me with a claw.

  “Manipulative and deceitful?” I asked. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

  “You smell like a little manipulative shit,” Cinder said. “I’m certain of it now.”

  “How certain?”

  “Very,” she said.

  “Do you have proof of this claim?” I arched an eyebrow.

  “No,” she replied. “But I have a feeling.”

  “What kind of a feeling?”

  “Hrm.” She considered. “Like a scratch that I can’t seem to reach. Like a deep hole in my heart. Like you switching from shy stumbling to inexplicably in-tune dancing with Vee. Sus. You're very sus, kobold."

  “Filling heart holes with sus skewered nully-bolds isn’t a very healthy way to cope with things,” Vespera commented.

  “Are you telling me what to do?” Cinder growled, her face stretching and becoming more draconic.

  “You’re gonna get sorted into Pyroclast with this attitude,” Vespera rolled her eyes. “And I’m going to be stuck in the house of dum’ dragons at this rate.”

  “Nobody asked you to follow me like a hanger-on!” Cinder barked.

  “Aww you break my Thundery heart, mah bestie,” Vespera held a talon over her chest. "Ya kno' I love ya, right?"

  “I’m not coping with shit,” Cinder crossed her arms. “So you can piss right off.”

  “She’s coping hard,” Vespera whispered to me with a grin.

  “I heard that!” Cinder huffed indignantly.

  Beware of Kittens!