“Vessel immortality,” Isaiah hummed.

  Burn smiled. “Man said that, judging by my power now, I could handle Urien and Romeuf at the same time and they wouldn’t stand a ce. Then, about your father, the… Demon Lord…”

  “It is well enough to address him thus. I possess ivity towards it,” Isaiah smiled.

  “She said I’d handle his situation with ease,” Burn said.

  Isaiah nodded in agreement. “By thiions towards the outsiders, verily, if thou hadst walked the earth in yonder days, my father would never have found himself as strong,”

  “So, was the situation back then handled poorly?” Burn asked.

  “Nay, ‘tis not as poorly handled as thy tongue would suggest. The world then y divided, not solely ‘twixt races, but between kin and s of the same blood. All was in disarray. Hence, when the Demon Lord did ma, the folk were ill-prepared to ter him,” the dragon expined.

  Burn crossed his arms. “Man… no, never mind.”

  Isaiah smiled, “Dost thou harbor curiosity regarding thy wife?”

  Burn nodded.

  “She shall most likely divulge all thou seekest,” Isaiah said. “And if aught she ceals, it be assuredly to shield thee from that knowledge,”

  “Precisely,” Burn said.

  Isaiah led him outside of the cave. Looking at the sky, it was strahat they could no longer see the moon because they were on it, and could only see the blue p.

  “Man Le Fay is the purest soul I have ever entered,” Isaiah said. “As her junior and rade in many a fray, I do hold her i reverence.”

  Bur a straingling in his heart. It wasn’t like him to feel this emotion, but it was all too familiar. Aion he had always had in his heart, since he was little.

  Jealousy.

  “Hast mine words struck a tender chord?” Isaiah smiled.

  Burn married the stro woman in the world, who also happeo be the most beautiful and kind. It would be weird if he didn’t feel some jealousy, but more so, ay.

  He always believed that ay emerged from one’s inability or insecurity, but that wasn’t always the case. It was human to feel the fear of losing one’s most cherished. And feelings like that weren’t all that ive.

  “To me, Lady Momo is my cherished senior, a bea of virtue. She was the first to extend her hand to my humble self. This gift she hath grao many. Her might doth not lie solely in her infinite soul or her celestial beauty; nay, it is her absolute kihat shines brightest,” Isaiah said.

  Burn remembered the day she embraced him, even though he thought she would push him away. Fag someone like that, even a ball of mud like him would fall in love.

  “So, I’ll ask you the most important thing,” Burn said. “Do you romantically admire her?”

  “Good heavens, forsake me from such musings; I am no lunatic,” Isaiah felt goosebumps running up and down his body. “She may be devastatingly fair, inparably strong, and ultimately benevolent, but after all the bizarre acts she hath done?”

  “Ever?” Burn asked.

  Isaiah fell silent for a moment. “In youth, the Holiness was the coveted white moonlight and the inaugural crush of many. Even yon Urien… Cast not aspersions upon me for this.”

  So it was her own fault no oually loved her deeply. Superficial love from appeararength, and kindness alone wouldn’t t because loving her for who she truly was went deeper than that.

  Then why him? Or how could he?

  “All this sapient discourse doth drain the spirit; men such as we seldom indulge in such fessions. How we, of all folk, engage in this?” Isaiah felt a bit awkward and disgusted. “Social intricacies art never my forte.”

  Burn shrugged. “Yeah.”

  Silence.

  Not even a wind sihis was the moon.

  “Oh, cease this awkwardness! Why dost thou wax seal all of a sudden?!” Isaiah’s face was a bit red, more from embarrassment than anger.

  “Felt like speaking with a close friend,” Burn said suddenly.

  “AAAAAHH! CEASE! FIVE HUNDRED YEARS HAVE I LANGUISHED UPON THIS DESOLATE MOON! DO NOT SUBJECT ME TO THIS!”

  Socially awkward dragon—no, introvert dragon.

  “HAST THOU NO SHAME?!” How could this humahis vulnerable in front of him? Is he crazy?

  “They say two men who have sparred and cshed ons are closer than married couples,” Burn smiled.

  “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!” Isaiah clutched his ears. “DISGUSTING!”

  Burn’s shoulders trembled with ughter, while Isaiah, who had just experiehe first gay joke ssh ‘kiss the homie goodnight’ in his long life, almost pulverized into pure light.

  ***

  Walking back to the hall, Burn found himself increasingly exasperated with the mode of unication here on the moon. Using mana to vibrate sounds directly into his ears felt less like a casual chat and more like enduring a relentless ear bug.

  The peculiarities of lunar gravity and the absence of atmosphere rendered meaning an odd and sluggish affair—any object that fell plummeted at a fixed speed, but also slow.

  “Doth the dition upon the moon eo vex thy mind?” Isaiah ventured, his tone a delightful blend of sympathy and mild amusement.

  “Mm,” Burn replied. “My body has adapted, but my brain is starting to feel like it's swimming through mosses. The mental exhaustion is a bit too much.”

  The vacuum that enveloped them was a stant reminder of the moonscape’s harshness, a stark trast to any sembnce of fort.

  Still, here was this dragon, an a being that had somehow navigated the absurdity of lunar living for over five turies. Speaking to him, clearly, Isaiah had developed an ho, awkward, and dry sense of humor as a defense meism.

  Upoering the hall, they were met with the sight of Man, blissfully unaware of the irritations surrounding her.

  Her eyes were closed, and Mnemosyne’s Aeons spun and whirred in front of her. The s on the ceiling fshed details of the rift over the p, as though it were mog the very notion of peace.

  Both Burn and Isaiah exged gnces, a silent agreement hangiween them: interrupting her now would be bad. Whatever mystic ballet Man performed was undoubtedly important.

  After a while, the catalyst ceased its spinning and whirring, and Man opened her eyes.

  “What were you doing?” Burn inquired as he ambled over, extending a hand as if kindness or perhaps just a lifebuoy.

  Man turned, her smile bright as a et, and grasped his offered hand. “Just simple calcutions.”

  “For…?”

  “Esg,” she replied. “I’ve found some hidden pear this gaxy to stash our world away, rest peace.”

  Isaiah and Burn narrowed their eyes. As if hiding a p was akin to tug a wayward soder the bed.

  Memories of Man's earlier feat fshed in Burn's mind—how she had meticulously studied the discreet location of hermere and crafted a ten-circled barrier to further hide the world.

  And now, here she was again, pting relog the world, hiding it once more.

  “With magic?” he asked.

  “Just expl some options,” Man shrugged.

  Burn closed his eyes momentarily, smiled helplessly, and nodded. “Of course, Madam. Why not add pary migration to your resume?”

  He g the massive rift looming over the p, a dark specter tethered to their existe didn’t just hover ominously; it moved in tandem with the p's trajectory, as if it were a shadow chasing the suio engulf everything in its path.

  “But you know I don’t like that idea, right?” Burn asked.

  Man nodded. “Of course, you’d prefer the approach of fronting them head-on. I know. I believe it’s also the most effective method. Running away is just postponing the iable.”

  “Yes,” Burn nearly interjected, his tone sharp. “You don’t have to martyr yourself for the world again.”

  Man raised her gaze to meet his. It was a rare moment to see Burn appear solemn. “Let me share the burden with you.” He then smiled. “By now, you should’ve been tired of it, right?”

  Man snorted.

  “Let’s go home.”

  .

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  Ohh, there's still lots of things I've pnned for this story. I hope I won't die before I finish this book :v