"As we shift our story back to me and my sister Vemi—to myself and Lupin—"
Shella's narration faltered.
The words that had travelled effortlessly across time and distance began breaking apart. Her voice repeated itself as though the story could no longer decide which version of the sentence it was supposed to follow.
Shella swayed.
Then she collapsed.
Her knees struck the ground first. Her hands followed, barely preventing her face from hitting the dirt. Her pink-and-purple wings sagged behind her as she fought to breathe.
Vemi rushed toward her.
Lupin reached Shella first.
Now returned to her smaller base form, the rabbit deity crouched beside the fallen Dragon-Wolf girl. Her cream-colored ears leaned forward as she began poking Shella's cheek.
"Awww," Lupin complained. "Is that it? Show me more."
Shella attempted to push the hand away.
Her arm barely moved.
Vemi stepped between them, shielding her sister.
"Lupin, back off."
Lupin stared at her.
Then she dropped onto her stomach and began kicking her legs against the ground like a child denied a toy.
"Awww, this is no fun!"
Vemi did not move.
Lupin eventually pushed herself upright and brushed the dirt from her pink-and-white clothing.
"She can change events by speaking them aloud," Lupin explained. "If the thought is strong enough, she doesn't even have to speak."
Her playful smile sharpened.
"But forcing a story to change takes something from its storyteller. Using that ability for too long places a terrible strain on the body."
Shella managed to raise her head.
Lupin waved cheerfully.
"Well, rest up."
And with that, the story continued without anyone left to tell it.
The fog moved. The trees dripped. Whatever happened next would happen whether or not there was a voice above it deciding what any of it meant.
The chain-bound Chaos Book suddenly jerked.
Red chains snapped tight around Lupin and yanked her backward. Her feet left the ground, and she was dragged several feet before landing in an undignified heap.
Lupin's ears shot upright.
"Number One?"
The black book floated in front of her.
A familiar voice entered her mind.
"Do not forget that this works both ways."
Lupin's playful expression disappeared.
"If necessary, I can control your body," Number One continued. "But that would only give me a borrowed form. I need the sentient skin if I am going to possess a separate physical body."
The chains tightened once.
"Until then, I am merely a book capable of moving."
Lupin crossed her arms.
"You didn't need to drag me."
"You were poking my injured child."
"She was fine."
Shella released another breathless groan.
Number One rotated toward her.
"These are my children, Lupin. If you intend to work beside them, then you will allow me to make certain they are safe."
Lupin rolled her eyes but stepped aside.
The Chaos Book floated toward Vemi.
She remained still as it approached. When the cover gently touched her forehead, the pressure surrounding it changed.
"Hello, sweet child."
Vemi's breath caught.
The voice came from a book.
The presence belonged to her father.
"I have a task for you after this is finished," Number One said. "Would you be willing to complete it?"
Vemi's eyes filled with tears.
"What?"
Her hands rose toward the book but stopped before touching it.
"How are you here?"
Number One remained against her forehead.
"You could have come with us," Vemi said. "You could have travelled through the portal with your children."
"This was the safest solution."
"You sealed yourself inside a book."
"A magical book was the safest vessel. It allowed part of me to travel into this period without forcing my physical body into a time where another version of me already exists."
Vemi's tears escaped.
She wrapped both arms around the Chaos Book.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then pressure flowed from its cover and surrounded her. It was not painful. It settled over Vemi's shoulders and back with the familiar weight of her father's embrace.
Vemi closed her eyes and held the book tighter.
Number One's voice softened inside her mind.
"I want you to find your mother."
Vemi opened her eyes.
"I can feel her presence," Number One continued. "She is somewhere nearby."
Vemi's rabbit ears lowered.
"Do not tell her you are her child."
"I know."
"If taking down the sentient skin is going to work, everyone needs to be here."
Vemi slowly released the book.
Her attention shifted toward Lupin.
"What about this crazed rabbit girl who has been carrying you?"
Lupin placed one hand dramatically against her chest.
"Crazed?"
"Is she another one of your children?"
Lupin stared at her.
Then she laughed.
"Actually, it is the opposite."
Vemi and Shella looked toward her.
Lupin twirled a strand of orange hair around one finger.
"My fur was one of the materials used to create your father. Other people contributed pieces of themselves as well. Divine hair, feathers, bloodlines, artifacts—quite a wonderful mess once everything was finally assembled."
She pointed toward the floating book.
"So I am not Number One's child. A piece of me helped create the person who became your father."
Vemi stared at the book.
Shella forced herself into a seated position.
The sisters looked from Number One to Lupin.
Understanding reached them at the same time.
"That is why the two of you work so well together," Vemi said.
Shella's exhausted eyes narrowed.
"You have been planning this from the beginning."
Lupin's smile widened.
"From the Soul Seam," Vemi continued. "From the moment Number One told you to put a chain around my mother and drag her back into her body."
Lupin spun on one foot like a ballerina and clapped her hands above her head.
"Yay! You guessed it!"
She stopped with both arms extended.
"Now what are you going to do with that information?"
Vemi clenched her fists.
Shella's claws pressed into the dirt.
Both daughters appeared ready to demand answers.
Then they saw the delighted anticipation on Lupin's face and reconsidered.
Whatever argument she wanted, neither of them possessed enough patience to give it to her.
The Chaos Book floated away from Vemi and settled in Shella's lap.
"How are you holding up?" Number One asked.
Shella looked down at him.
"That ability wears you out quickly. Still, obtaining something so powerful is remarkable. You did an excellent job."
Shella remained suspicious.
She could not decide whether Number One was genuinely praising her or attempting to slip past her defenses.
His voice became firmer.
"Do not overuse it again."
Shella's ears shifted backward.
"You have activated Storyteller and Narrator five times since arriving in this period," Number One continued. "You shifted Lenora and Crysha together. You directed Lewd toward a memory of my younger days. You allowed her to witness what I thought and felt while my body began shedding."
Shella attempted to speak.
"I only—"
A sharp jolt tore through her body.
Shella screamed.
Her back arched, and her wings snapped open. The Chaos Book lifted from her lap as Vemi caught her.
A second wave of pain struck before Shella recovered from the first.
Then another.
All five uses of her abilities had accumulated a price. Now that Shella was no longer forcing the story to obey her, every consequence arrived at once.
Vemi lowered her sister carefully to the ground.
"Shella!"
Shella remained conscious, but her body trembled uncontrollably. Every breath came through clenched teeth.
The Chaos Book floated toward Lupin.
Number One's voice entered her mind again.
"Listen carefully. Even after I obtain the sentient skin, I will not be able to use it whenever I please."
Lupin watched Vemi tending to her sister.
"There are rules," Number One continued. "There are limitations. The skin may give me a physical body of my own, but I will not be able to remain inside it permanently."
Lupin crossed her arms.
"Now you have Shella's and Vemi's abilities stored inside your pages. Why don't you let me try Storyteller?"
"No," Number One answered. "I am suggesting that you try it."
Lupin looked at the book.
"Me?"
"You wanted to see what the ability could do."
Lupin's smile slowly returned.
"Nah. Not yet."
She examined the forest.
"I want to make sure…"
Her voice trailed off.
Her ears turned — not toward the trees, but toward something far behind them.
"Hm."
"What."
"Two things are running this way. Big ones." Lupin's smile did not change. "One of them has three heartbeats."
"How long."
"Not long enough to be interesting."
There was a brief pause.
Then Lupin's ears rose.
"Oh."
Her smile widened.
"It seems luck is on my side today."
Something moved in the distance.
A hunched creature crouched over a helpless victim. Its stitched purple clothing dragged across the ground while long rabbit-like ears hung from its hood. Black horns curved above the stolen face it wore, and a scaled dragon tail rested behind its wolf-like legs.
The creature was eating.
Whoever was underneath it had stopped moving some time ago. There was a shawl near the body, and a basket, and a small lantern that had gone out. Somebody had walked out into the fog tonight for an ordinary reason.
Shella attempted to raise her head.
Vemi went still.
The Chaos Book rotated toward the sentient skin.
Before Lupin could move, a small figure charged from between the trees.
Lewd summoned her gauntlets.
The mouse girl drove one armored fist into the creature's stomach. The impact lifted the sentient skin from the ground and forced it several steps backward.
"You wear my lover's face!" Lewd shouted.
Her ears were pressed against her head as she raised both gauntlets.
"You stole his voice!"
The skin's head tilted.
For one moment, the face it wore resembled Derpy's.
Then its mouth stretched wider.
It moved faster than Lewd expected.
One arm wrapped around her and pulled her close. Its teeth sank into her side.
Lewd screamed.
The creature tore away and tossed her aside as though she weighed nothing.
She struck the ground and rolled through the dirt. One gauntlet disappeared while her hand immediately pressed against the wound in her side.
The sentient skin began walking toward her.
The distorted piano returned.
Its broken melody became clearer with every step. The creature's body rocked from side to side. Its arms remained bent as they swayed loosely with the rhythm, making it look as though the stolen remains were dancing.
Lupin stared at it.
"Your rejected emotions are completely unhinged."
A red chain erupted from her back.
It cut through the air toward the skin.
"Lupin," Number One warned. "Do not do anything serious yet."
Lupin stopped the chain.
Her eyes moved toward Lewd.
"It just ate part of her."
"I know."
"She is losing blood."
"No," Number One said calmly. "She will be heading toward the Soul Seam now."
Vemi's head turned.
"That's Lora's mother."
The Chaos Book did not answer her.
"Father." Vemi was already halfway to her feet, her bow half-drawn without her deciding to draw it. "That is my sister's mother. Lora is not here. Lora does not exist yet. If that thing finishes—"
"Then Lora will not be born," Number One said. "Yes."
Vemi stopped.
"Sit down, sweet child."
"You're going to let her die."
"I am going to let her arrive somewhere."
Vemi looked at the book she had been holding four minutes ago.
She looked at the woman bleeding in the dirt, and at the shawl beside the body nobody was going to come back for, and at her sister shaking on the ground behind her because she had spent herself trying to change how any of this went.
Then she understood what her father had done to her mother, forty years before her mother ever met him.
"You did this to Mom."
"Yes."
"She was chained to a bed and murdered by strangers, and you were waiting on the other side of it with an offer."
"Yes."
Vemi's bow arm lowered very slowly.
"…Did she ever know she had a choice?"
The Chaos Book was quiet for a moment.
"She asked me that herself," Number One said. "I laughed."
The distorted piano continued playing.
Lewd struggled to remain conscious while the creature danced closer.
Number One's cover turned toward her.
"Let us see how this plays out."