It was long enough to get awkward that we stared at each other. I don’t know what he, the other me[?], was thinking, but I just wanted to remember who the hell he was. I knew he was me, or at least another version? There was something instinctual tethering us together. Did he have my other memories? I should know what his name was at the very least, but nothing came.

  The other dragonkin in the room shifted a bit in their seats, except for a shackled orange one in the corner. Finally, the tension was broken by three goblins barging in behind me. Sudden embarrassed looks streaking across their dumb faces told me they knew they interrupted something.

  The golden dragonkin cleared his throat. That version of me spoke in a weird guttural language before addressing me in English. “Tell your goblins to leave us alone; we have rather important matters to discuss.”

  “Do you three mind waiting outside?” I asked them in goblinesse or whatever the hell it’s called. “This might take a bit.”

  “Yea… you got it, boss. Are you doing alright? We’ve been trying to see you for some time. Seemed like that book thing put you through hell,” Fi said, concerned.

  “Yea, yea, I’m fine, give me a bit. Lot happened while I was out, if you can believe it.” This was more important than they were. Everything I’ve seen recently was more important than some minions I got on a whim.

  “We’ll get back to training, but we’ll have to celebrate getting out, alright boss?” Bobo said as they began to leave.

  “I don’t know if you’ve saved us or you’ve fucked us,” the golden dragonkin said after the room was cleared. He was clearly annoyed about something.

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Yea, your ass was sleeping while things turned to shit. I was almost executed because, for some fucking reason, the gods here now think we’re evil or something.” He glared at me. This wasn’t the reception I was expecting.

  “You're me, right? Or we share part of a soul or something stupid like that.”

  “Yea, somehow that’s what helped me. Put me in their good graces because of your dumbassery,” he grumbled a bit after.

  “The fuck do you think I did? I’ve only been trying to survive in this stupid world.”

  “You somehow got this world's gods to think we should be killed.”

  “That wasn’t me, that was our GM.”

  “Morgan? … that bitch?… makes sense.”

  “Look, can we start from the beginning? I don’t have a lot of my memories, and I don’t even know who you are. I’m Le-” I wasn’t sure where that came from, but I cleared my throat. “Dato.”

  The dragonkin squinted his eyes at me. “Yea, I got your name before I came here. I’m Draxis. But yea, my memory’s fucked as well. You don’t happen to know our real name, do you?”

  “Kinda hoping you would.”

  “Then what were you going to say your name was?” He asked angrily.

  “I don’t fucking know.”

  “Hm, it fucking died with Darell then.”

  “Darell?”

  “The third us,” he said, with a scowl. “Got killed by some rogue fucking ice dragon.”

  “Oh.” I thought back to the ink statues. In so many ways, they looked like random people. Hell, I couldn’t even identify Draxis, let alone Darell. We can save our people. A voice inside me called out. “We could save them, you know. Not Darell, but all the others.”

  “Hm?” He grumbled.

  “Everyone else, all the other players. There are a lot of them still out there. We find them, you’ve got dragons and stuff. And I have new powers and knowledge.”

  “What’s the point? I’m not about to risk my hide for their sake. They’re on their own. All you need to do is help me clean up one thing. A mess you caused, then we’ve guaranteed our own safety. Their asses can guarantee their own.” He got up and started walking over to me. “You can blame Morgan all you want, and I’m sure she’s to blame. But that doesn’t excuse what you’ve done. I had a pretty good thing going until you fucked me, you little runt.”

  In a flash, he dashed over, pinning me by the neck against the floor and squeezing. “I was a prince, living in luxury. Until some dumbass Priest summoned me, saying I angered the dragon god. I hadn’t done shit. Now I’m out here. You want to know why? Because your dumbass somehow let slip the fact that we’re from another world. I’m not doing shit for you. And for some dumbfuck reason, if I want to get my life as a prince back, I’ll need to kill or subjugate those ice dragons. I’m not putting my neck on the line saving those losers who couldn’t make themselves a half-decent backstory.”

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  My hands clawed at his claw-like hand wrapped around my throat. What the fuck was this? We’re the same person, right? I felt the energy flowing through my blood. It was screaming at me to release it. As his grip tightened, I let it, or a good bit of it. It felt dangerous to let out completely. My body buzzed with electricity, and Draxis’ limbs began to twitch as he lost enough control of his grip for me to wiggle free.

  “The fuck is wrong with you! It wasn’t like I had a choice anyway. Some fucking book was trying to kill me! We’re the same person. And I’m so fucking glad you had it easy, I was a fucking slave for a month!”

  “We’re not the same. Get that stupid notion out of your head. I don’t care what edgy period of our life you were going through to make something that dumb, but I’m a pure-blood golden dragonkin. Not some stupid goblin. Don’t put me at your level.”

  “Don’t go on with that shit. That’s Draxis’ soul influencing you, that's not who we are.”

  “Pfft, this is who I am! I’m not being influenced by shit. How about this? You want to play hero? Be my guest, but you owe me. Owe us. Pay it back before you go off and save the worthless nobodies.” He spat at the ground in my direction. “I’m hunting the dragons that killed Darell. The Great Drake’s wanted them dead for a while since they’re born of The Great Betrayer. He seems to think that since they killed some worthless version of me, I’d be more than willing to join in.”

  “Fine,” I said. I knew Dato’s soul was manipulating mine. Surely Draxis’s soul was manipulating the part of my soul he possessed as well. It wasn't like I was going to get through to him here. He had his mind set. If I wanted to free him then I’d need to sever their souls apart. “If you want someone to actually blame, then blame our GM. Apparently, it’s all her fault from what I know.”

  “Yea, whatever, get your goblins ready, we’re heading out tomorrow. You’ll get one of the storm dragons to carry you all.”

  I slunk out. The electricity in my blood was running wild. It was happy to have been used. It wanted to keep going. I had held it back as well. If I went all out, it might’ve killed him. It was a frightening thought. The dragonkin regathered in the house after I left.

  I looked over at one of the hobs standing slumped and lifeless. Fuck was I really that much better than Draxis? “
  “Yes, master Dato?”

  “Where’re the gobs at?”

  “They departed to train in yonder woods.” The hob corpse pointed off in a direction, and several others followed suit. “One of us is with them, should you desire an escort.”

  “Yea, let's do that,” I mumbled, heading off where
  It didn’t take too long to find them.
  “I can halt their training if you wish to speak to them, Master Dato,” Kae said in its usual monotone voice.

  “Don’t bother. Hell, I probably need training like this eventually.”

  “Negative. Lord Soccra bestowed you with power and the instincts to use it. The training that they are partaking in is beneath you.”

  I opened my hand. Instincts, huh? It started slowly, electricity rushing and racing through and between my fingers. But that urge inside me, wanting me to release the energy, wasn’t satisfied. If anything, it was angry. It had more to give me, not in raw power but in ability. I let it trickle up to the palm of my hand. Even Dato’s soul was itching to see what we got. Until a loud thunderous boom erupted from the palm of my hand. My ears rang, and I could see Kae saying something I couldn’t hear. My goblins’ training came to an abrupt end as they rushed over to me. Fi managed to fix my hearing with a spell.

  “Was that your new powers, boss?” Bato asked rather excitedly.

  “Yea… guess so. We’re going to be leaving tomorrow. Joining the dragons here on their mission. I figure it could be good for us. We’ll be fighting a different group of dragons. Get some gold and loot from it, no doubt. It’ll set us up for what comes next. They’re only giving us one dragon to ride on, though, so we’ll need to figure that out.”

  “We’re fighting… a dragon? Boss, ain’t that a bit much?” Bobo asked.

  “Shut up! If the boss thinks we can do it, we’ll do it!” Fi glared at Bobo, then back at me. “I can make us a basket to ride in. You can take the saddle.”

  “That’ll be good.” I gave a smile. I was glad I could save them, and it was good that they were training. They’d need to be strong enough if we were going to save all the other players trapped here.

  Fi’s nature magic began wrapping and mending vines together into a basket. The rest of us pitched in after the base was done. Trimming sections where there was some branch growth and generally doing our best to make it a comfortable ride.

  We all gathered outside before getting ready to leave the next morning. All of Kae’s vessels stood around us except for the maid one I first met. That one was standing beside me. The maid raised her hands, and simultaneously all the other vessels fell over as thin, slimy tentacles began to swell from them. The bodies withered and convulsed. Seeming to have mummified in an instant. Their essence or fluids flowed towards Kae’s now singular body, which wore a satisfied smile. The dragonkin, except for Draxis, watched with horror, as did I and my goblins.

  “What a delightful meal,” Kae said, seemingly satisfied.

  I didn’t really want to acknowledge what happened. I went ahead and got on one of the yellow storm dragons. “Come on, you all, let's get this over with.” One of the cobalt dragonkin held the reins.

  Kae, Fi, Bobo, and Bato got into the basket as the dragon began to take off and grab it. Draxis mounted the gray-scaled air dragon while the rest of the dragonkin mounted the other storm dragon. The collared orange-scaled dragonkin was being dragged along in a storm dragon’s talons. Thus, we flew off to avenge the third me and slay a dragon.

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