Michael was keeping watch in the dark, looking up occasionally at yet another unfamiliar sky. Fighting out of the castle and escaping had been hard. It was non-stop fighting out of the dungeon followed by miles of running, having to keep himself from moving too quickly and leaving the party of now nearly eighty of the lizardfolk. Luckily, they’d seemed to be planning to do something for a long time. They had their plan of attack figured out, the routes of escape, and even hideouts mapped. They’d just been waiting for something to give them a chance, an edge. Michael was happy to serve that purpose. Even the doorway into the castle itself being open had been their doing.

  After they’d settled in the cave Michael had taken some time to heal the injured he hadn’t yet gotten to, and once they were recovered he took some food to the cave entrance and kept watch. Partly it was that he was in much better shape than they were, even with all the fighting, and so was the best equipped to do it. He also wasn’t sure he wanted to fully trust them. In the moment, at the castle, he had to make a lot of bold decisions very quickly in order to survive, but he’d had more time to think about things now. While the lizardfolk were no friends of the horned men, that didn’t make them friends of his. He’d tried to use his eyes of judgement or eyes of love on them, but found them ineffective. Probably because his connection to the gods was lessened by distance.

  The prince approached him, speaking a few chittering clicking words to some of the others as he passed them. Michael felt a bit of magic behind him and then heard him speak.

  “An ugly sky, isn’t it?” asked the prince.

  Michael shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s got a beauty to it. There seem fewer stars than I’m used to seeing in the sky, and the moons seem jagged and rough, but that has its charm.”

  “I remember the skies of Gahen. There were more stars than could be imagined in the sky and our moon shone like a marble of pure silver.” He shook his head. “Many of the young were hatched here, so they have no idea what the sky of their home truly is.”

  “That could be better though, in some ways. They don’t have a sky to miss.”

  The prince nodded sagely. “There is some truth to this.”

  They both stood still for a moment, looking at the sky before the Prince continued.

  “I feel it’s necessary to formalize our partnership.”

  Michael nodded. “I’d appreciate that.”

  “You have already done much for us, and I have already told you that I will do what I can to return you to your world.”

  Michael nodded. That about summed things up so far.

  “The Ickthiss and their vassals are planning an assault on one of the cities in your world in only a few cycles.” He paused seeing the look on Michael’s face before adding a bit more magicka to his translation spell. “That would be two weeks. When this occurs they will burn through many of us to form fresh rifts in areas where the veil is weakest. That would likely be the best time for us to send you through.”

  Michael shook his head. “People will need my help before that, not to mention a warning from me if possible.”

  The Prince sighed. “If it was just me then I would agree to get you through sooner, but I cannot leave my people. In fact…” He took a deep breath. “Though it dishonors me, I must ask another great favor from you.”

  “Shoot.”

  “When I open the portal for you, I wish to go through it with you, and bring all those I can with me.”

  Michael took a moment to process that. “You want to live in the world I came from? Is that it?”

  “My world was torn apart by the invasion and proved a natural breeding ground for the bugs. My people are allowed there, but only to ensure they continue to have a steady supply of mages under their control. I cannot defeat them; I spent a lot of time meditating on that in the darkness you freed me from. What I want to try and do now is to build something new. Create a life for those I can on a new world.”

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  “That would be… complicated. There is no territory that is unoccupied or unowned in the world I came from. Not to mention that there would be a high chance of them trying to kill you on sight.”

  “That second part is what I ask your help with. When we cross over, could you convince your people to spare us? To give us a chance? We are willing to help fight, to earn our place, and I am willing to negotiate land and law with whatever leadership you have.”

  Michael sighed. “If we arrive during a battle then it’ll be chaos. Especially if we pass through a rift. I may be in some danger when I first cross through. The horned men will likely target me immediately, and I’m likely to catch an arrow through the neck from an ally if I step through at an unlucky moment.”

  “I and my people are willing to accept that risk.”

  Michael clenched his jaw, and turned his eyes from the sky to look at the Prince.

  “I will do all I can to keep your people safe when we pass through. If we even make it that far.”

  The prince nodded, satisfied. “We will need to move in the morning. Would you be willing to help me free more of my people?”

  “I’m stuck here for two more weeks. I’ll need to keep busy somehow.”

  …

  Ollie hadn’t expected rats. Based on the screaming, none of the others had either. Now, they weren’t exactly rats. They had three eyes and six legs. They moved like rats though. They bit like rats. They even squeaked like rats. Lately, all of the rifts had been the usual horned fucks and their scaly friends. They hadn’t expected something different. Maybe that was why the diviner that had been assigned to them, Wilks, had died so quickly.

  Blake screamed as she stomped, slashed, and crushed them as quickly as she could, killing them by the dozens, but it barely made a dent. Laird had managed to stay on his horse and was keeping it moving so that the rats couldn’t climb onto it. Lance had grabbed a small child that had fallen behind his parents and was carrying him and running as fast as he could to the outskirts of the small village in which they were fighting. There were a number of militia doing their best to help, but it was a tough thing to fight a swarm.

  Ollie switched hands, aiming his right and releasing a torrent of flame directly at the portal itself, incinerating as many of the rats as he could as they spilled into the world. He kept it wide, but in spite of his constant outpouring of magic they kept slipping through on the edges, and if he faltered they would overwhelm everyone almost instantly with sheer clawing and biting numbers. He would falter soon too. He could feel even his impressive magicka channels nearing their limit. He’d been casting non-stop for what? Thirty minutes?

  ~haha~

  “Yes. I’m going to die soon along with a lot of good people. Real fucking funny.”

  ~It is funny because you could simply live~

  “Our diviner is dead, the rift can’t be closed anymore, and I’m sure as fuck not running away.”

  ~You can simply close the rift yourself~

  “What? Like with a spell?”

  ~No. Haha~

  “Listen you cunt, give me a straight fucking answer right now!”

  ~Hard when you’re so resistant to me. You won’t even allow me to enter your dreams. Hurts my feelings. We both love jokes so much too~

  Ollie switched hands, his lack of magicka making him dizzy.

  “Cuuuuunt!”

  ~Fine! fine~

  ~When you arrive in this world, you absorb a bit of the barrier, a bit of the divine into your soul. Some of you take more than others, but all of you have enough. Enough to divine your own souls, and with practice, with focus, or with a good example to follow~

  “I can close them too?”

  ~Sure can~

  ~cunt~

  Ollie snickered at being cursed at by Nykas for a moment. He looked at the portal. He hadn’t ever done much divining of himself or ever given that much attention to it. He’d heard Michael talk about it, talk about the feeling of gripping the edges of the portal, of crushing it with his will and the power of the divine.

  He reached out, even as he continued to shoot flames from his hand. It wasn’t hard, his concentration was tremendous, but what was difficult was accessing the divine within himself. He struggled, confusing it for his magicka channels, trying to remember how it had felt to divine himself, what the sensation was. Then, he felt some guidance. He felt the shape of his soul shake just a bit, then shift, then… well, he felt it laugh. Feeling the shape of his soul and the divinity around it he began to push the energy of it, the golden fabric that surrounded him toward the rift in front of him. It landed on it, almost softly, then he began to close it.

  It resisted him, strongly, but his concentration remained firm and it closed further, and further, and further until finally, it sealed. He heard laughter in his ears as he dropped to the ground, landing heavily on a small patch of the remaining rats.

  His vision dimmed. “Are you happy you bastard?”

  haha~

  The darkness closed in. “How the fuck does Michael do this more than once a da-” he fell down, his consciousness fading completely.