“Hey, Vee, what's the current date?” I asked Vespera as she pulled me out of the compartment by the elbow.

  “September 3,” she replied with a raised eyebrow. “Why?”

  “My internal clock is off,” I said.

  “How off?” She squinted at me.

  “My sharpest memories are telling me it’s January,” I said. “Was January?”

  “Dang,” she commented. “That’s some serious mental skewery. I should look in your head tonight with Dreamancy, see what’s what.”

  The Skyfall Express shuddered to a final halt with a sigh that sounded suspiciously like relief.

  The crystalline doors hissed open, revealing not a typical train station platform, but a town built from and around colossal basalt columns, a Giant's Causeway sprawling around us. Buildings were hewn directly from the dark grey stone, towering and imposing, yet with a strange, organic flow, like petrified trees reaching for the sky. The air was crisp and salty with the breath of the ocean behind us.

  “Right then, out, out, out!” Vespera chirped, practically shoving me towards the open doorway. “Adventure awaits! And possibly lukewarm beast-core ground coffee if we’re lucky!”

  Cinder grumbled, but followed, her silver feathers catching the faint morning light filtering through the basalt columns. Magdaline, headphones already back in place, glided out with an almost unnerving silence, her red eyes scanning the surroundings with her usual intensity.

  I breathed, tilting my head back to take it all in. “This is… something else.”

  “Giant's Causeway!” Vespera clicked. “Gateway to magical greatness! And questionable street food, probably.”

  “Street food?” Cinder’s ears perked up. “Is there… roast beast?”

  “Hope springs eternal, Ci,” Vespera chuckled. “But probably more like… enchanted hot dogs. Or sentient pretzels. You never know what you might get in these magogenic fault zones.”

  Magdaline suddenly stopped, her head tilting slightly. “Smells like… grilled griffin wings,” she announced, her voice low.

  “Hey, hey!” A voice barked behind us. I winced. “What the shit? What are you firsties doing with my family’s kobold?!”

  Ember manifested behind us, red claw tapping my shoulder, head igniting with dragonfire.

  “Ember,” I said, rotating and forcing a smile. “Fancy seeing you here. Thought you forgot about me there.”

  “Don’t ‘Ember’ me, nullie-brain!” she hissed, her gaze flicking between Vespera and Cinder with undisguised disdain. “Are you incapable of existing for five seconds without embarrassing the Stratos family? What have I told you about talking to random Omnids?”

  “You! Thunderbird!” She snarled at Vespera. “Let go of my ‘bold!”

  “Nah,” Vespera said. “He ain't yours. He mine.”

  “Since when?!” Ember growled.

  “Since I don’t know,” Vespera clicked.

  Ember’s entire figure ignited with dragonfire.

  Vespera pulled me into embrace. Magdaline stepped ahead as did Cinder.

  “You think that three firsties can stop me?” Ember growled, knuckles cracking. “Really?”

  “That’s him?” a sharp, cold, male voice suddenly sounded from our left.

  “Smells like him,” the female answered.

  I turned my head.

  A trio of Omnids stood there, staring at me. A man with piercing yellow eyes and two taller women in long, dark coats were there. A Wendigo and two Omnid enforcers. I saw antler-skull logos on their lapelles.

  North Acadian Wendigo Scrutimancers.

  The Frontenachii!

  Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  I was completely and utterly unprepared for them to find me after the dimensional shift.

  “What do you tardigrade-knobs want?” Ember looked at the Wendigo trio, distracted from the Omnid girls.

  “This human,” the Wendigo man pointed at me. “Stole an AI that belongs to the Frontenachii Clan and moved it to another dimension.”

  “What?” Ember growled. “When?!”

  “Around a week ago,” the Wendigo replied, digging into my face with unnerving yellow eyes.

  “Stole an AI?” Ember’s dragonfire sputtered, momentarily dimming as confusion warred with her inherent aggression. “My nullie brother? Please. He can barely tie his own bootlaces without setting himself on fire. What AI are you even blathering about?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The Wendigo man stepped closer, his yellow eyes never leaving me. They were unsettlingly bright, like burning coals in the dim basalt twilight, and they seemed to pierce through me, seeing things I didn't even understand about myself. His face was gaunt and sharp, framed by lank, dark hair that looked perpetually damp. The two women flanking him were equally unnerving, their faces impassive

  “An experimental GLM armed with interaction and music and visual composer agents,” the Wendigo stated, his voice a low, rasping growl that sent shivers down my spine. “Taken from the Frontenachii compound. Indisputable Astral signatures link its disappearance directly to this… individual.” He gestured at me with a long, bony finger, tipped with a nail that looked more like a claw. “Which of you claims responsibility for this human?”

  Ember gulped, gold-orange eyes flashing across the Scrut trio.

  I cursed myself. I wasn’t ready, didn’t have any of my tools, didn’t have Possy at my back.

  The dimensional shear created by the Archangel’s departure didn’t clear the board in the slightest as I had expected it to. All it did was skewer events ever so slightly and it seemed that ALL of my problems were just flowing right back into place like thick honey.

  “He couldn’t have stolen shit!” Ember found her voice once again. “I’ve been watching him like a hawk for the past…”

  “Wrong. The past you think that you are observing is wrong,” the Scrutimancer shook his head.

  “What?” Ember sputtered. “The fuck did you say?!”

  “There’s been a dimensional shift,” the Scrutimancer said, glowing eyes flaring at our group. “Some fools released an Archangel. It raised the aetheric density and rearranged physical reality ever so slightly with a planet-wide celestorm. Fortunately, the Astral Ocean remembers all. Did you think that you could get away from your crimes this way, foolish human? Did you think that you could overwrite your Astral imprint with a release of an Archangel, outwit us?”

  “Maybe?” My lips replied, feeling like a thousand invisible hooks were digging into my head.

  “Well, you were wrong,” the Frontenachii Wendigo grinned with sharp, bone-yellow teeth. “Scrutimancers can see beyond causality-altering events created by Celestorms. The Omnicorps are already working hard on repairing the dimensional fissure your actions created, adjusting the physical wherever they are able. You’ve made many enemies, boy.”

  “Wasn’t exactly my fault,” I said. “At least I don’t think that it was.”

  “All of the Astral threads point to you as the culprit. It doesn’t matter. We’ll figure out exactly who’s fault it is soon enough,” the Wendigo said.

  “Crimes?” Ember’s voice rose an octave, dragonfire crackling brighter. “What crimes? He’s a nullie who belongs to my family! He’s incapable of committing crimes! Screw off with whatever this is!”

  “Incapable?” The Wendigo man’s yellow gaze focused on Ember. “Stratos lineage. Pyroclast House of Skyfall. You are blind to dimensional shifts, girl.” He turned back to me, his voice dropping to a low, menacing purr. “The AI, human. Where is it?”

  “AI?” I repeated, playing for time, my mind racing.

  Yulia. Possy. The Archangel. Dimensional shift. Arx.

  “Look, I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My lies felt flimsy, useless against the intensity of his gaze.

  “You took it to Arx?” The male Scrutimancer frowned ever so slightly. “Hrmm. No matter. We’ll get it back.”

  “Don’t play games with the nice Scruts, nullie-brain,” Ember snapped. “If you stole something, just admit it and we can sort it out. Stratos family honor and all that.” Her tone was still aggressive, but a flicker of unease was visible in her golden eyes. Her body trembled ever so slightly. Even Ember, the queen of bullies, was absolutely intimidated by these Wendigos.

  “‘Sort it out’?” The Wendigo woman on the left chuckled. “Theft of Frontenachii proprietary intelligence is not ‘sorted out’ with a stern talking-to, dragon-spawn. It is ‘sorted out’ with extradition, interrogation, dissection and potentially… other measures.” Her gaze lingered on me, cold and calculating.

  “Extradition?” Vespera scoffed, stepping forward, her voice laced with amusement. “To North Acadia? Good luck with that. Saxtland doesn’t extradite to anyone, especially not over some… dumb ‘stolen AI’.” She emphasized the words with air quotes.

  “Saxtland jurisdiction is irrelevant when Omnicorp interests are involved,” the Wendigo man countered, his voice hard. “This is a matter of interdimensional law. And this human…” He pointed at me again, “…is a thief and an incredibly dangerous fugitive.”

  “He’s my kobold,” Cinder growled, silver feathers bristling. “And you’re not taking him anywhere!”

  The Wendigo trio exchanged glances, a flicker of surprise–or perhaps amusement–crossing their gaunt faces.

  “‘Kobold’?” the Wendigo man repeated. “A… pet? You are defending a thief because he is your… pet?”

  “He’s soul-bonded to me,” Cinder clarified, puffing out her chest wings flaring out and sending brilliant rainbows around us. “He’s mine! Screw off!”

  “Soul-bond…” The Wendigo man’s yellow eyes narrowed, focusing on Cinder. “A Quetzalcoatl. Interesting. But even dragon-spawn law does not supersede Frontenachii interests.” He took another step forward, his two female companions mirroring his movement, forming a semi-circle around us. “Step aside, dragon-girl of the Nova. This does not concern you. If you fight us, we will break you.”

  “It concerns me,” Ember growled, stepping up beside Cinder, her dragonfire flaring again, hotter this time, licking at the basalt columns around us. “He’s my little brother. As such he’s under my protection!”

  “Brother?” The Wendigo man actually laughed, a chilling, mirthless sound. “Protection? From what? From the consequences of his own actions? Stratos, you embarrass your lineage.”

  “Shut your tardigrade mouth!” Ember roared.

  Fighting three Wendigo Scrutimancers in the middle of Skyfall station sounded like a spectacularly bad idea. Especially when I still felt like my brain was scrambled eggs, information trickling back in at an irritatingly slow rate.

  “Stand down or…” The Frontenachii Scrut began.

  But Ember was already beyond listening. With a guttural cry, she unleashed a blast of dragonfire, a searing wave of heat and orange flames aimed directly at the nearest Wendigo.

  The Wendigos didn’t even flinch. The Wendigo woman on the right simply raised a hand, and a shimmering, invisible shield dome materialized in front of her, deflecting the dragonfire in a brilliant arch. The flames roared against the shield, casting dancing shadows on the basalt columns, but failing to penetrate.

  “Crude,” the Wendigo woman commented dismissively, lowering her hand. “And predictable. You are a low level spawn threatening high level Omnids.”

  Vespera raised her talons, and the air around her crackled with energy. Electrofractal tendrils, shimmering with blue-white light, snaked out from her fingertips, lashing towards the Wendigos like living lightning whips from below.

  The Wendigo man reacted instantly. He thrust his hand forward, and a wave of grey energy pulsed outwards from him, colliding with Vespera’s Electrofractal whips. The lightning tendrils flickered and dissipated, the grey energy washing over them like static.

  Vespera hissed, taking a step back, her wings flaring defensively. “Nullification field? Argh. These foldknobs are packing serious heat!”

  “We are the Frontenacii,” the Wendigo man said, his voice cold and even. “We are equipped to deal with far more than… amateur displays of elemental magic. I will give you the count of fifteen seconds to release the fugitive and criminal to us. If you do not, we will break your arms and legs and take him regardless.”

  Beware of Kittens!