It's dead. Stheno stalked away from the fragments of a dragon-crafted nightmare, trying not to let her knees shake. Later she might rage, and weep. Right now there was no room in her numb heart for anything but exhausted relief... and slow-growing, gnawing terror.

They should have died. They should have all died. A psiwasp nest - it took Euryale leading our forces to destroy the last. None of these players are as strong as she was! None of them could be. The game isn't even half over.

They should have died. Without Aeris' Healing Rain to aid Issin's firebird - many of them would have.

And Aeris' interference had cost them all. Every true youkai here had an icon hanging in their field of view; a red hexagon, scribed with Actions under GM review.

I'll review you, you fire-breathing lizard. Perhaps there are rumors of nests in Xen'drik. But there's no reason to throw these children against monsters none in Khorvaire have seen for centuries!

Unless the ancient red dragon knew something they didn't.

Stheno chafed her arms to ward off the chill, and looked for her adopted ashrat. Argo might claim she was fit to fight, but no one adapted that quickly to becoming youkai. In the true Aincrad it might not have mattered. In SAO - it could be deadly.

There.

The edge of the clearing where the nest had hung. There stood Argo, and the lump of sodden comb, and Fuurinkazan. And one young draconic lass half hiding behind Dynamm as Klein blistered the air. "What's happened?"

"Doesn't ever think, need a damn leash- um." Klein scratched the back of his head, bandanna bright in the afternoon sun. "Lady Stheno. Kirito just took off. Again."

Stheno stopped short, taken aback. "He left you in the midst of a quest?" She could hardly believe it. Yes, the boy was a loner. But he was a responsible adventurer. He'd never leave his party in mortal peril. Certainly not after he'd just rescued two of them from a horrible fate by fighting with all his heart and soul-

And magic. Stheno hissed a few curses of her own, rubbing at the base of a snake to ward off a threatening headache. Beniryuu said adoption would affect their spirits. But he never said his magic would avoid affecting those still human. Kirito is a warlock. You know what that means. "How long was he using darkfire?"

"Pretty much since we hit the nest," Issin told her. "He doesn't pull punches in a boss fight. Why? He never... burned through all of his magic."

"Of course he didn't," Stheno sighed. If he had, the damage would be so much easier to heal. "Sorcerous fire is not spellcasting. It is opening a channel in your own spirit for forces from beyond this world. Using too much, for too long, wearies the soul. A short fight is no more taxing than a battle-rush. An hour..." She winced. "I have done so, in the past. It is never wise. One feels worn thin. Heart-weary. As if all the world is sealed under a pane of glass. The magic we bear is not wholly of this world, and if one uses it too long, all about us feels alien and alone."

"Oh hell, that fits," Dale breathed. "Klein? I think she's saying Kirito's... depressed."

Klein wrestled with that a long moment, fingernails sharpening as his fists clenched-

Easing back to human bluntness, as the weretiger shook his head. "No," Klein bit out. "He promised. He's going to stay alive. Summoning that Serpent just spooked him. He's alive. We just have to find him."

"Good idea, Leader," Kunimittz sighed. "But how? This is Kirito. The kid's a freaking ghost in the field. Harry can't track well enough to find him. Who can?"

"Track a ranger with a ranger." Tae rose, and bowed to Stheno. "Lady Stheno. You hold Kirito in some regard. May we beg of you your grace, to contact the elan Vincent Valentine?"

Stheno smiled. "Look behind you."

"...Augh." Kirito kept it to a pained breath, even when his head felt like it was about to split. Prying out Dale's little push was taking a lot more effort than it should-

Something seemed to pop, like a dislocated shoulder finally settling back into its proper joint. Blinking away tears of pain, Kirito leaned back against the rough bark of a towering longleaf, and considered his options.

Same as they've always been. Solo. Show up for the boss fights; everyone knows they're taking their chances then. Outside of that - stay away from people.

He was going to miss Klein.

I'd miss him more if he were dead. Just... pick a direction and start walking.

He might be out of cockatrice venom, but he saved that for critical fights anyway. He had all the other supplies he needed. Right now all he wanted was a defensible spot, so he could take a nap before he decided which level to head for next.

Kirito opened his menu, calling up the map of this floor. The teleport plaza in Tinctoria might be an option. Those villagers didn't have any reason to connect the Black Swordsman with the weretiger-infected samurai they'd thrown out earlier. And Fuurinkazan probably didn't want to go back there.

Kirito traced the best route that way, and frowned. Or I could just head for the stairs down. It'd take a day longer, but... that's why people don't go that way.

Most people. Orange players had limited options to get to a new floor. You couldn't use a teleport plaza unless you could get into town to begin with. And if you were orange, the NPC guards would drive you out of town with everything up to and including meteor strike spells.

So, not the safest route. But probably the one to take, if I'm going to steer clear of Fuurinkazan-

The message icon on his menu lit.

"You unmitigated idiot."

Lips curled back from a dragon's fangs. "Tread carefully, Lady of Shattered Stone. Your interference has already-"

"My interference?" Stheno hissed at the image in her watery globe. "I scryed the nest's beginning. You set it off after they cleared the level!"

"Danger can appear in the most unexpected places." Beniryuu smirked at her, steam rising from red nostrils. "We should not teach them to assume they have found all the perils of a land-"

"They have no clerics!"

Massive eyes blinked. "Surely you would not wish to draw the gods' attention to this little game." Ivory glinted in a wicked smile. "Euryale would never let you put Aincrad's seer at such risk."

So it is still a game to him. Stheno quelled the chill in her heart, and smirked right back. "Your game is out of balance, Kayaba. You know full well, no adventurers of Aincrad would assault a psiwasp nest without clerics and druids standing fast with them; to heal, to fight, to drive the undead and the abominations back into darkness. But you have given the players none of that strength. Instead, you've made healing magic rare and expensive. And the Moonswords whose magic claws back the darkness, rarer still." She shrugged, deliberately casual. "It's your game. Yours is the will that shapes the rules of this world. But without divine healing, without the power of the wild to help our warriors grow and survive... it is not truly Aincrad."

If there was one flaw dragons had, it was pride.

"...Aeris will not be allowed to interfere again."

Stheno nodded, grateful for obsidian lenses to keep her eyes unreadable. Most creatures would never risk a medusa's gaze to gauge their truthfulness. Beniryuu would.

"It would not be unthinkable for stronger potion recipes to be found. If they were willing to experiment." A puff of flame, as a human might blow smoke rings. "I'm surprised you ventured near enough to watch the fight. Your history with psiwasps was... interesting."

"You hardly challenged the players with an impossible foe just to see my reaction, Beniryuu," Stheno stated. "Why psiwasps?"

The dragon's laugh rumbled like thunder. "Why not?"

Crouched in the shadows of a granite boulder, Kirito watched Vincent manipulate an impossible menu.

Player: Kirito. Multiclass option: Yes. Sorcerer/ranger. Prestige class: Moonsword. Feats: Iron Will, Pass Without Trace, Psionic Resistance...

And on, and on. The skills list alone had almost made Kirito break cover. The eight or so he knew, like Herbalism and One-Handed Sword, were highlighted. But there were dozens he didn't know. The names alone made the hairs on the back of his neck prickle.

Autohypnosis. Concentration. Escape. Knowledge - abominations. Knowledge - Aincrad. Knowledge - psionics...

Things he'd seen. Things he'd done. Things that did not show up in his official character stats.

...At least, not in the stats a player could see.

The five minutes Vincent had mentioned in his message ended. The elan closed the menu, and took a breath. "Lady Stheno should be keeping our GM occupied," he said plainly. "And she has ways to cloak some of the system records. We can talk. For a time."

Kirito stepped into the rock-strewn clearing, avoiding tender herbs as much by habit as conscious thought. "...You're admins. The youkai lords. All of you."

"No." Ruby eyes met his. "That would imply we had some control over SAO. And what we can do is limited. We can grant quests. We can give advice. We can, at times, adopt a willing player. But we cannot fight beside you. And we cannot save you." Vincent's gaze was fathomless. "That, you will have to do yourselves."

"How can we?" Kirito demanded. "He's changing the rules. He's changing us. People are starting to think they're not human anymore. Klein... Fuurinkazan's a youkai pack now. I can feel them slipping."

And I'm part of Fuurinkazan. Not officially, but Klein doesn't care. What happens when more of them turn youkai?

He wanted to bury his face in his hands and hide. He didn't. "Why is Kayaba doing this?" Kirito said fiercely. "Why is he trying to - to pry us open, and pour someone else inside..."

"Trust your instincts." Vincent's movements were silent as a falling leaf. But a forehead rested against Kirito's, warm and solid. "He is trying to do exactly that."

Kirito froze. No. I won't lose my self-

"But like a dragon, he does not understand the resilience of the human spirit. And youkai are more human than most of them wish to believe. You have the strength to face this." Vincent stepped away, giving him room to think. "Shall I tell you a tale of Aincrad? I warn you, you will not think well of us afterward."

Answers. Even if I don't like them - we need answers.

Silent, Kirito opened his inventory. And materialized a recording crystal.

"Hmm." The glint in ruby eyes was a cat's subtle smile. "Well played."

"Stop the world," Dynamm groaned, curled up half-naked on burlap over a pile of hay. "I want to get off..."

"Tell me about it," Klein sighed, leaning back another bale of fresh alfalfa. The Mistfeathers had been pretty understanding, all things considered. Lusliat, the head of the family, had frankly stated the last thing Shaman Tetsutora needed was a cranky youkai pack in her infirmary, apt to commit homicide if strangers got too near Dynamm while he was turning. But if Klein thought he could keep his pack under control, he was welcome to the north side of the ranch hayloft. Defensible, hidden, and about as cool as you could get in an Aincrad summer afternoon outside of an icehouse. And speaking of ice...

So while the rest of the clearers were partying hard with Zack, a short blond tiefling, and his fire-rain girlfriend, Fuurinkazan plus one was up here with barbecued pork, fresh bread dripping with butter, odd crinkly greens that tasted like a tango between spearmint and kale, and enough iced lemonade to float a barge.

Dynamm hadn't had much in the way of an appetite these past few hours, but he definitely appreciated the lemonade.

Tae gulped back tears, watching the skin of the fighter's bare back redden and swell. "I'm s-"

"No more of that, 'kay?" Dynamm gripped her hand, obviously trying not to squeeze too hard as another spasm shook him. "You didn't know. Who could have known? S'not like... any player's ever adopted somebody before..."

Tae shuddered. "I should have! Father let me hold a Bloodstone. He's never let me do that before. A-and then it just pulled..."

"First Klein, now you, Dynamm." Issin nibbled on a rib, whiskers flicking. "New sets of armor are going to take a bite out of the guild budget."

"Ouch," Harry One agreed. He didn't just look like a pirate; he had a mercenary way with numbers that had surprised even Agil into giving them a bargain, once or twice.

"We got a good bonus from the nest raid," Kunimittz shrugged. "And we're going up levels anyway. We'd have to trade it in sooner or later."

"Point," Dale agreed, rubbing a sasumata made of thought between his fingers. "If we have to get higher-level armor made anyway, getting it made light for a flyer won't cost that much more."

Dynamm's going to get to fly. Klein couldn't hide a grin. This is going to be awesome.

Though there was one tiny detail they still needed to get straightened out. "Tae? Said it before, but I'm going to say it again. Good job following those wasps."

Pearly scales glowed against her blush. "I - I had to. Someone had to."

"Just one thing wrong with your plan," Klein said seriously. "You didn't have any backup. Not in the air. Kirito's fast, but he can't fly."

Tae winced. "You're right," she said in a small voice. "That was stupid."

"Not stupid," Klein said firmly. "Just, not good. You could fly. We couldn't. Somebody had to chase them." He shrugged. "So, looks to me like Dynamm could end up in the same mess, if the monsters keep getting worse. We can all try to get rings of air-walking, but those aren't cheap, and I don't know if any player wizards can make them yet. That means the only ones out there are drops, and you never know when those might run out of charge. So..." He looked around his guild, one brow raised in a silent question.

Five nods. And if Dynamm's was a little fever-fuzzy around the edges, his smile was bright enough to light the whole loft.

"Tae Mistfeather." Klein held out his hand. "We'd like to invite you to join Fuurinkazan."

She blanched, cheeks almost as pale as her hair.

Huh?

"I want to." Tae chafed her hands over each other, pearly claws ticking against each other like a distant keyboard. "But there are things you don't know about me." One tear trickled down her cheek, followed fast by another. "Things you wouldn't ever believe."

Klein drew a breath to object-

Feathers. Human. One of ours.

He grinned instead, glancing toward the black shadow silently pulling himself up into the loft.

Kirito rolled up to his feet, looking over them all; lips tightening, just a hair, when he saw Dynamm. "Tae Mistfeather. Of Clan Mistfeather, of Snow Springs. They might believe more than you think."

"I..." Tae shivered, bundling herself in her wings for warmth. "I'm not from your world."

Hay was good, Klein decided. Stiff enough to catch you when your knees felt floppy, but enough give so passing out wouldn't hurt you. Passing out definitely sounded like an option. "Say what?"

Dynamm was grinning, sweat and all. "So that's why you thought Star Wars was a play."

Tae's wings fluffed up, spots of angry color blooming on her cheeks. "You said it was a play!"

"No, I didn't," Dynamm objected. "I said it was a movie."

"That's what I said!"

"Wait." Kirito held up empty hands before the argument could escalate to did not-did too levels. "Tae. If what I heard is true, then we've been enchanted to understand your language."

"Enchanted?" Issin said in disbelief.

"Just as you've been magic-touched to understand ours," Kirito pressed on, keeping his eyes on the draconic girl. "When we say play, what do you hear?"

He was serious about this, Klein realized, shocked speechless. Kirito actually believed Tae might be from another world-

She never complains about forks.

It was a little thing, in a world full of monsters. But it was weird. Even after months here, Klein couldn't shake a guilty sense that he should be using chopsticks, like any other grown man. But only a few places in Aincrad seemed to know what chopsticks were. And if you used them, all the NPCs looked at you funny.

"A play is a play," Tae said, uncertain. "A story on a stage with actors. What else would it be?"

Kirito nodded. "And what do you hear when we say movie?"

Klein listened. Hard.

"Argentia-plega?"

He heard the sounds. They definitely weren't Japanese. So why did his brain keep insisting he'd heard eigu?

"Lledrith-arian," Kirito said firmly. "The game translates into what you know. Once you know enough Draconic... I've heard a few things. Silver illusion. What is that, where you come from?"

"It's... illusionist plays," Tae said quietly. "Sometimes with players, sometimes not... they make stories with magical images, to show you things ordinary actors could never do on stage. Have a dragon show up. Or see someone turn to stone. Things like that."

As if it were normal. As if there were nothing else a movie could be.

"Definitely have to get you to see Star Wars," Dynamm said wryly.

Harry One had to shake his head before he found his voice. "Are you saying... you're from a world where there really are FX wizards?"

Tae swallowed. "I... this was a mistake. I shouldn't have said anything-"

"Tae." Kirito opened his inventory. "Harry. If you won't believe her - maybe you'll believe this." Materializing a recording crystal, he tapped it.

"It's not uncommon for young rangers to panic after their first summoning." Vincent's voice, low and deliberate. "Many of us have no elder mentors when we first nurture the wild lands. We protect the wild, knowing it will kill us if we are careless, or even unlucky. It shakes the soul to find that it will begin to care for us in return." A soft breath. "A Moonsword draws on magic even more inhuman than the wild. I should have considered the reaction might be more intense. But there are none left who could have warned me. Or you." A low growl. "Karrnath missed Stheno, despite their darkest magics. But Breland's Dark Lanterns are skilled, and the gnomes of Zilargo had their own reasons to add assassins to the pot. By the end of Galifar's Last War, all your predecessors were dead."

Kirito's voice echoed from the crystal, even as the Moonsword himself sat by Klein. "You think they'll try again?"

"When they learn of you? Yes."

"Oh, great," Klein muttered. "More people out to get us just because we're... wait a minute."

"Even though I'm human?" Kirito's voice asked.

"Especially because you're human." Dry humor rasped in Vincent's tone. "Powers such as yours come from an ancient bargain with dragons. The humans and demi-humans of Khorvaire have good cause to be wary of such creatures, and all magic that springs from them. Dragons believe in the Prophecies. And they're known to take measures to see them come true."

Klein pursed his lips in a silent whistle. Swim with a shark before you soar with a dragon, one Aincrad saying went. The shark just wants to eat you.

"Aincrad's in the Prophecies."

"In several of them," Vincent acknowledged. "Perhaps. No one knows for sure." A quiet shush of wool over leather, as if the cloaked elan had leaned back. "Nine years ago, Aincrad beat the Five Nations back, almost at the cost of our existence. Many youkai clans were obliterated. Some races, like the medusas, are all but extinct. Those of us who lived, despaired." A sigh. "So when the ancient red dragon Beniryuu approached the Council of Lords... they listened."

Kirito's voice, low and determined. "What did he say?"

"I was not there." If that wasn't a quietly disgruntled ranger, Klein would eat his bandanna. "Years passed. Strange rumors spread, of some subtle magic the Council of Lords wished to see accomplished." The claws of a metal gauntlet clicked, curling into a fist. "Then last year, in the Month of the Holly... I was asked to visit a dream."

Klein held his breath.

"What dream?" Kirito asked, as if he had to drag the words past clenched teeth.

"You already know."

Klein reached for lemonade, throat dry. If he's saying what I think he's saying... oh man. We are so screwed.

"I have aided those I met in this dream," Vincent went on. "Both those born of Aincrad, and those who might choose to become of Aincrad. And I will continue to do so, while the magic that lets me visit this dream lingers." A deliberate pause. "But one day we will wake."

"One day we'll go home," Kirito insisted.

"Dragons' lies are darkest when they lie with truth," Vincent stated. "Beniryuu's enchantment brings your mind to this realm. It cannot bring your body... yet."

"Beniryuu's enchantment?" Kirito pounced. "We were told - the Dark Pack-"

"The red dragon has taken human forms in the past," Vincent growled. "A mage. A merchant. Even a crafter of... games."

Dead silence in the loft. Klein smelled fear, and anger, and winced even imagining the curses his guild was keeping behind closed teeth.

"For now, his magic binds you in a waking dream," the elan went on. "But I am one of many who have been sent on missions to acquire... very odd things." A hiss of breath. "The Council of Lords seeks to build an eldritch machine. I have not been informed what it will do. But I know what the Council wants."

"...Lady Stheno called us defenders of Aincrad."

"Did she." Vincent sounded thoughtful, but unsurprised. "Rangers are defenders of the wild. It has its rewards; but we are not as most men. Even those of us who are human." A slow breath. "I would be honored if you would choose to fight with us, Kirito, Black Swordsman of Aincrad. But I know what it is to be tormented into becoming other. Fight for your life. Fight for your soul. Beniryuu may slay you, but he cannot change who you are." A dry chuckle. "In the meantime... let me see if you've done damage with that recklessness at the nest..."

Kirito switched the crystal off.

"It sounds too crazy to be true," Kirito said into the numb silence. "A real Aincrad. Dragons plotting with youkai lords to force human gamers to... what? Learn to live in their world?" He paused; Klein saw him swallow. "But if it could be true... there's one thing I've never been able to figure out."

Fuurinkazan glanced at each other. "What?" Issin prompted.

Kirito drew his knees up to his chest. "What happens to an infected player?" Black eyes were distant, numb. "Why do they turn on us?"

"System takes 'em over," Klein shivered. "Makes 'em an NPC..."

His guild was looking at him. Partly worried glances, as if to reassure themselves that yes, he was still alive. But the way those glances lingered just a little too long, with subtle nods of respect- weird. "Um. Guys? Clue me in. I was kind of tied up at the time."

"You fought it," Kunimittz said quietly. "You failed the save. You turned. But you didn't attack us."

Klein had to look away. "I was trying not to," he said thickly. Oh man, he did not want to remember that. "Everything was all blood and fire and wanting to kill... but I knew it was you guys. I had to fight it. I couldn't... couldn't just let it use me to kill you."

Issin's hand from one side. Kirito's, tentative, from the other.

Calm.

Like cool water for a parched spirit. Klein took a deep breath, and let the fear out with it. "You've got to teach us that trick, buddy. You're like the best fluffy blanket ever."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kirito turn red.

Harry One snickered. "More like one big black ball of fluffy yarn... ahem." He straightened his face, eyes still dancing. "Leader, he's right. You fought it. If the system just took you over as an NPC, there's no way you could have."

Because when you came down to it, SAO was a computer program. At its base, it was all about numbers. There were no coincidences, no last-minute lucky breaks, no heroic saves from pure willpower. Just numbers.

"I hate to bring this up." Dale glanced uneasily at Tae. "But why aren't we asking somebody who should know?"

That quick, calm flashed into determination. Klein tensed to move; Kirito probably wouldn't hurt anybody, but he'd heard Agil's story about the first boss fight, and the Beater-

Dynamm reached up and pulled her close, fever and all. "She's a player, Dale. She doesn't know anything that will help, or she'd have told us."

Dale grimaced. "You don't know that."

"Yes, he does." Kirito's voice was steel. "Use your brain. The youkai lords are quest-giving NPCs. Whether they're admins or not, they're not floor bosses. They get to respawn. All the quests do. Beniryuu made a deal with them. He wants something; they want something. I doubt he'll kill them. Not if he wants them to build this eldritch machine." He looked the draconic girl in the eye. "You're a player. You have as much to lose as any of us." Black eyes softened. "Maybe more. No one's going to attack our families in Japan. But if the Five Nations decide to invade Aincrad again..."

Wrapped in Dynamm's arms, Tae crumpled, tears flowing free.

"Hey," he whispered. "Hey, it's going to be okay."

She tucked her head against his cheek, shivering. "I've been so scared."

Dale blinked, and reddened. "Seriously? You think - but people don't just go around killing other people! Not when nobody started a fight-" He cut himself off, jaw clenched and grim. "But Tinctoria Village threw us out. We were there to help them. They were marked as friendly NPCs. They could have called for a healer. They could have done something!"

"No, they couldn't." Tae scrubbed at her tears. "They don't... humans don't h-have shamans. And farmers don't have strong clerics. They're all in the cities. If there's no forest with a druid nearby..." She wrapped a wing around Dynamm, and shuddered.

"Then they don't have anybody who can treat someone who's infected," Issin said heavily. "All they can do is protect themselves." He eyed Klein. "Guess we should count ourselves lucky all they did was chase us out."

"I don't think luck had anything to do with it." Kirito tapped fingers on one knee, brows drawn down in dark contemplation. "They knew Fuurinkazan was strong enough to kill the monsters attacking their village. And they knew you wouldn't kill a bakeneko youkai. It doesn't take a high-functioning program to calculate that trying to kill Klein would go... badly."

"No shamans. No high-level healers at all?" Kunimittz closed one hand around his other fist, thinking. "And no Moonswords."

Tae nodded, swallowing her tears. "They're just legends, now," she said, voice ragged. "My father says they almost all died driving the daelkyr back to the Plane of Madness. The last one he'd heard of was a medusa, Connlan of Swiftwater Pass. And..." Her shoulders slumped. "The Karrnathi killed them all."

Dynamm held her. "So Lusliat really is your father?"

"Sometimes." Her voice was soft, even to Klein's ears. "Other times he's just a golem. A... programmed NPC. Is that the right word?"

Klein winced. "That's got to be awful." Though he guessed awful didn't come close. Something that looked like your father, but part of the time it wasn't... horrific sounded a lot closer.

"That's not the worst." Pale, Tae rubbed her hands over each other. "I've asked him. If we're really dying." She gulped. "He won't tell me."

Ooof.

Kirito rolled the recording crystal between his fingers. "I'm going to give this to Argo. If anyone can figure out how to tell people what's going on without everyone panicking, she can." He paused, glancing away.

Now or never. "We'd appreciate it if you help us finish the quest first," Klein said, trying for casual. "We got this far with you. You ought to get part of the XP when we finish it. But whether you do or not..." He opened his inventory, and materialized one of the pendants Grandma Tiger had given him when they all staggered back to Snow Springs.

Bond of the Pack: Weretiger's Fang.

One of the Demon Weretiger's Fangs, set in mithril and strung on silk as red and white as Fuurinkazan armor. Razor-sharp ivory had been carved with Draconic sigils, inlaid in ruby enamel and sealed in transparent lacquer with a glitter of gold.

"This used to be part of my demon." Klein kept his voice steady with an effort as he cradled the pendant in his palm, all too able to imagine what would have happened if he'd lost it that night. "Shaman Tetsutora says if you have this, you'll know if I'm in trouble." He shrugged, face serious. "And if some crazy monster nobody's heard of before carries you off while you're going solo - then we'd know. And maybe we could do something about it."

"...Okay." Kirito opened his hand, as if he expected someone to drop a wasp in it.

Klein resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he pressed the pendant into a gloved palm. Don't care how he takes it, as long as he does.

"Such enthusiasm," Issin said dryly, as the fang vanished in a glow that meant Kirito had equipped it under his coat. The shaman had caught Dynamm from the other side as another spasm shook him; now he cast a minor heal that eased Dynamm's white-knuckled grip on Tae's arm. "You're a Moonsword. A lot of your magic's aimed at fighting lycan infections, right?" His whiskers fanned out as he braced his guildmate; flattened back as reddened skin discolored and stretched. "Don't suppose you've got anything that could help this go any easier?"

Kirito looked at Dynamm, and Tae's worried tears, and their entwined hands. "...Let me check some notes."

Somehow, it didn't surprise Klein that Kirito had a lot of notes.

Argo says they keep poking what they know about Draconic, Klein recalled. Issin's bought some interesting augment phrases off of her...

And Kirito had stopped flipping, lingering on a specific page. Klein leaned forward, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to read half the words floating in air. "Found something?"

"Maybe." Kirito's lips moved soundlessly, shaping the words. He frowned. "The spell wasn't meant for this. But darkfire's tied to the Plane of Shadow, so maybe..."

"What does that mean?" Dynamm managed, panting. "I thought all the outer planes were tied to Aincrad's moons. And there's no shadow moon."

"Shadow's not an outer plane," Issin filled him in, handing Tae a cloth to wipe some of the sweat off her boyfriend's brow. "Shadow's a part of this world; just like the ethereal plane is, where you find ghosts and spirits. Just kind of... sideways to us."

"Sideways, and behind," Kirito agreed; half-gloved hands fingering air, testing out the motions he'd need to cast. "Shadows holds reflections of everything in this world. Even magic already at work. Argo has some ideas for double fireballs..." He let the words die, and took a deep breath. "I have a spell meant to let you adapt to a deadly environment. Like a blazing desert, or a hoarfell, or even a typhoon trying to drown you."

"Um." Klein scratched his head. "That's not exactly what we've got here."

"It all depends on how you define environment." A fleeting grin lit Kirito's face. "If you're caught in a fireball - that's an environment, too."

"So you think," Dynamm sucked in a breath, "you can use a spell to adapt to an adoption?" He whistled. "Heh. Sounds like it wouldn't make anything worse. Go for it."

Kirito nodded. Raised his hands, and whispered.

Klein had heard enough spells tossed in boss battles to pick out a few words. Reflection was one of them, though he'd usually heard that in illusion spells...

Violet fire blazed around Dynamm. Shadows tilted the wrong way; the world flickered blue-gray and cold. Klein heard Dale gasp, and saw Tae's breath frost white-

With a sound like a knife through cartilage, darkness unfolded from Dynamm's back.

Flames flickered out. Shadows swept back to where they should be. Klein drew a breath, feeling summer's warmth seeping back into the hayloft. A loft which seemed a bit smaller, given all the black feathers spreading out over there.

"Oof." Dynamm blinked, trying to untangle black wings from pearly white. "Um. Help?"

Tae sniffled, and giggled, carefully easing her wing out of the feathery snarl. "Don't think about it too hard. It's a little like hugging. Reach out, then pull back. Slow and easy."

"Definitely take it easy." Issin ducked away from one flexing wing, then leaned back in to rub clawed fingers over a few black scales freckling Dynamm's face. "Spasms quit, your pupils look okay again..." The shaman felt his forehead. "Tae's a little warmer than we are. So it feels like you're still got a little fever. Outside of that, looks like you're over the hump." He glanced at Kirito. "How long does the spell last?"

"It's already over." The Moonsword straightened, catching his breath. "It lasts a few hours, or until it absorbs a certain amount of damage." He rolled his shoulders, as if trying to shrug off a phantom ache of wings. "If it was expended that fast... you might want to keep another heal ready."

Ouch, Klein winced. Leaned back against hay, watching the rest of the guys lean in and snark as Tae fussed and fidgeted with Dynamm's wings, running claws and wing-claws through feathers to get them to lay just right. And thought about guilds, and idiot stubborn solos, and obligations. "You know we'll pay you back for the venom, right?"

"This wasn't a boss fight. It was a rescue." Kirito fixed him with a stern look. "I would have gone in for anyone."

Yeah, you probably would have. And the kid thought he didn't like people. "Still-"

"If you want to pay me back, help me get the mats to make more," Kirito shrugged. "Argo says the Knights of the Blood Oath found a new wizard's library near their latest headquarters. I want to spend a few hours away from the front lines to do a little research."

Oh, and that didn't sound ominous. "Research?" Klein said warily. "Into what?"

Kirito's smile was cold as shadows. "How to slay a dragon."

A/N: tiefling - someone with a bit of demonic blood. Yes, thinking of Cloud's canon wing in KH...