Kliss and I met Delta in our parents’ house in the late evening, when violet stars covered the sky overhead and the rings of Lunaria and Inaria cast their radiance down on the valley below, painting it in gold and silver-blue tones.

“Soooooo,” Delta grabbed Kliss. “How’d your date go? Give me the deets.”

“It was nice,” Kliss answered simply, blushing slightly.

“Deets damn it, stop hogging them,” Delta insisted. She spotted the dragonflies flickering about in the air, a few of them sitting on the dragon girl’s shoulders.

“Are those dragonflies?” She asked, squinting at the insects. “Did he give you… shiny dragonflies? Why are they so shiny?”

“They’re covered in dragonglass,” I said.

“You know Slava, boys ordinarily give girls flowers, not dragonflies,” Delta commented.

“Those are my new kobolds,” Kliss interjected. “They help me be more aware.”

“More aware how?” Delta demanded.

“Throw a pinecone at the back of her head,” I said.

“Okkay,” Delta walked around the garden, grabbed a pinecone and chucked it at Kliss's mane from behind.

The dragon girl’s hand came up with a snap and grabbed the pinecone out of the air before it struck her.

“Huh,” Delta said. “That’s… neat.”

“Go on,” I said. “Throw more things. I know you want to.”

Delta smiled giddily as she collected more rocks and pinecones, launching them at Kliss at random intervals. Dexterity-aligned hands allowed my twin to cast stones with inhuman precision. Kliss blurred in the air, hands catching the projectiles wherever direction they flew from. In about five minutes, the dragon girl had a pile of rocks and pinecones on the bench next to her.

“Very impresssso,” Delta panted, joining Kliss on the bench. “Now spill ALL the deets.”

I went into the workshop to check on the Violets, letting the girls chat. By the time I was back in the garden, they were still at it.

“What’s the in-between exactly?” Delta asked.

“I think that it’s… sort of like an Astral starscape within me,” Kliss said. “And within Slava. And when we are both in the in-between it’s sort of like a dance between the two Astral starscapes.”

“Yeah, but what does it mean?” Delta pressed on.

“I think it means that Slava and I are soul-mates,” Kliss said, glancing at me. “Cosmically entwined.”

“Soul-mates?” Delta asked. “That’s a thing? What about me? Can you take me into the in-between?”

Kliss nodded.

She hugged Delta and a burst of syntropic magic ignited reality around them, shearing my Infoscopes apart. I stepped back and reactivated my tools. There was something happening there, but I couldn’t get close enough without the scanning threads coming apart.

After a few minutes of hugging, they both opened their eyes and looked at each other.

“We’re soul-mates too,” Kliss said, biting her lower lip.

“Woo,” Delta grinned, squeezing Kliss. “Soul-mate besties!”

“Maybe everyone is cosmically entwined with everyone?” I asked. “You could be jumping to conclusions here. Around a third of my soul is in Delta's, so that could be affecting whatever you’re seeing in the in-between.”

“Hrm,” Kliss pursed her lips. “Maybe…”

“We have to put this to a test,” I suggested. “Go to the workshop and hug some of the Violets. Take them to the in-between.”

“Why must you ruin everything with science?” Delta lamented.

“Because I’m not jumping to the conclusion that Kliss and I are simply cosmically entwined,” I said, crossing my arms.

“Don’t you want to be her soul-mate?” Delta sent me an annoyed glare. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Soul-mate-ness isn’t a thing,” I said.

“Yes it is!” Delta insisted.

“Until I have specific evidence for correlation between soul convergence or whatever, I can’t accept it as a fact,” I replied. “Patterns provide us with evidence of how the universe works.”

“Fine,” Kliss said with a small frown, getting off the bench. “Let me go hug the Violets.”

She didn’t look like she wanted to do it. She marched off into the workshop, not looking back at us.

“Did you even bother to romance her properly?” Delta asked me. “Or did you just throw science facts and attach shiny dragonflies on her all evening like a dummy?”

I opened my mouth and closed it, not sure what to say.

“My poor unwise bean,” Delta leaned her head on my shoulder. “Must I teach you everything?”

“I’m plenty wise,” I defended myself.

“Not when it comes to interpersonal relationships,” Delta commented.

“I’m not going to accept the existence of soul-mates without evidence for it!” I insisted.

“You could have just let it go,” Delta said. “Could have accepted that you and Kliss are destined to be together forever. Watch, she’s gonna come out of the workshop ten times as annoyed if she finds out that everyone is cosmically entwined.”

“If reality makes people annoyed, that’s not my fault… that’s reality,” I said. “The universe is a harsh place. It doesn’t care about us. We live on a suspiciously Earth-like planet that’s orbiting an infinite dead world.”

I waved my hand at the violet-silver-blue rings of Inaria pulsing far above us in the sky.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Dragonglass could be responsible for creating a syntropic singularity within Novazem that will likely begin to tear reality apart given enough time,” I said. “If Sasha is to be believed, the Wormwood Star will get here just in time to consume all intelligent life and to take apart all of my works.”

“Such grimdarkness!” Delta sighed.

“Such reality,” I replied.

“You’re hopeless,” she said.

“Am not,” I shot back. “I am focused on my goals. Interpersonal relationships are… complicated.”

“More complicated than fractal math?”

“Fractal math is very complicated,” I said. “Relationships are complicated for different reasons.”

“Such as?”

“Such as the gift of flowers you've mentioned,” I explained. “It’s a senseless, irrational, ritualistic behaviour which benefits nobody, especially not the flowers which perish slowly after they’re cut off from their roots. You’re an Agromancer, are you not? Would Leemy appreciate being cut off from her roots and put into a vase?”

“Leemy, unlike flowers, is sapient,” Delta huffed.

“Flowers feel pain,” I said. “Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose had proven, more than a century ago, that plants experienced sensations and were able to feel pleasure and pain just like animals.”

“Argh,” my twin rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible sometimes, you know.”

“Where is this going?” I asked her. “What do you want from me, sis?”

“I… want to tell mom and dad the truth,” Delta said.

“I don’t think that it’s a good idea,” I said. “They believe in Ishira and will see us as Astral Phantoms. The Soviet government couldn’t fix cultists, so they sent them all to labour camps.”

“Do you think that it’s a good idea to build a relationship on an ever-growing mountain of lies?” Delta asked.

I sighed.

“What do you think mom and dad will do?” She asked me. “They’re not going to throw us into the Valley of Death, even if we tell them that we’re phantoms. They love us, Slava.”

“They love the idea of us,” I said. “As their kids, as Destiny and Dante, not as the long dead ghosts of a Soviet administrator from another world and an Alanian Novitiate from a thousand years ago.”

“Mom sat with you for two weeks after you fried your brain trying to reconstruct Kliss,” Delta said softly. “She loves you. Don’t you get it? You're going away to Agamemnon soon on a hella dangerous mission. When was the last time you told mom that you love her?”

I pondered her words. The answer, as reluctant as I was to admit was, never.

“You’re right,” I admitted. “I’ve been so busy trying to save Skyisle… that I haven’t really accounted whom I’m saving it for.”

“Uh-huh,” Delta nodded. “See, this is why you have me. You never listen to your older sister.”

“You’re older by a few minutes at best,” I said.

“Details, details,” Delta waved me off.

“Where do I even start?” I pondered, looking at our parents’ cottage.

“Start by telling them the truth, duh,” Delta insisted. “Show them you care, tell them you’re scared, that you’re working on saving Skyisle… that you’re leaving to protect us. I’m pretty sure mom and dad are already hella worried about everything! It’s not rocket science!"

“Flight science is easier than human emotions,” I sighed, glancing at the cottage’s lit round windows. “What if they don’t get it? What if they reject me? I’m... not exactly their son. I’m more like a... ghost of an old man from another world that’s inhabiting the body of their son. A shadow from the deepest, darkest abyss that’s lied to them about his origins for thirteen years, no less."

“Eh, they’ll get over it,” Delta shrugged. “We’re adults, we have dragon magic on our side and we’re in control of Skyisle. Parents just want to see their kids happy, cared for, independent, strong. You have a family that loves you Slava. Don’t squander it!”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“I’m sure,” she nodded. “I know what it’s like. I got Leems now, since you’ve installed her avatar in my head, pestering me with her tree-meta-advice. She thinks that this is the right thing to do, that by doing this we secure our future, become stronger. Mom and dad already know that we’re different, strange. They knew that you were born with high stats and concealed this fact, convincing Tamara not to mention it to anyone.”

I nodded and saw that Kliss emerged from Georgi’s workshop.

She marched to my side and looked down at me.

“You’re wrong,” she said, eyes flashing with orange-red coronas.

“Yesss,” Delta fistpumped.

“Extrapolate what I'm wrong about,” I said, ignoring my giddy twin.

“I took several Violets starting with Magenta to the in-between,” she said. “It’s not the same.”

“What’s different?” I asked.

“They aren’t entwined with me,” KIiss replied. “Not like you or Delta are. I think that… there’s something there, in the land of shared dreams. Like an unseen hand that binds us together, that makes sure that we meet across the infinite.”

“Which you, the Kliss or Aradria?” I asked.

“I don’t know!” Kliss shook her shimmering mane. “I don’t know and I don’t care.”

“Stop ruining the magic, damn it,” Delta jabbed me in the side.

“I’m not ruining anything,” I replied. “I just want to understand things.”

“Why?” Delta asked.

“Because I’ve reached the limits of my current understanding,” I said. “My current tools can’t tell me what this perfectly stable structure on my finger is, nor what the hell the ‘in-between’ is. And it’s frustrating as hell.”

“Get over yourself,” Delta rolled her eyes. “I don’t understand most of your nerdy jibber jabber about how crystals really work and it doesn’t bother me one bit.”

“So, what are the Violets like?” I turned back to the dragon girl.

“Everyone I checked so far is made up of an infinite number of stars,” Kliss reported.

“But you, me and Delta are… different?” I asked.

“Yes,” Kliss nodded. “We aren’t different, we are… connected. Each of our stars is entwined with the other, as if bound by some unseen force, influencing each other’s dreams. It’s really… I don’t know how to explain it, don’t have enough words. Maybe Sasha might be able to tell us what the in-between is and how it all makes sense.”

“But soul-mates as an explanation makes sense?” I asked.

“I think that it does,” Kliss said.

“What are soul-mates exactly?”

“Someone who’s meant to be together,” Kliss explained, her gaze fixed on mine. “Segments of a whole, connected across time and space. It’s like… an invisible thread that draws us to each other, no matter the distance or the obstacles in our way.”

“So… destiny?” I asked, a skeptical edge to my voice.

“No,” Kliss shook her head. “Not destiny. Destiny implies a lack of choice. But soul-mates choose each other, again and again, across countless lifetimes. It’s a conscious decision, a mutual recognition.”

Delta sighed dramatically, waving a hand in front of my face. “Slava, just accept love! Stop fighting it!”

I batted her hand aside.

“You’re also soul-mates with my twin,” I said. “How does that make sense?”

“Don’t know,” Kliss said.

“Does this mean that you like my sister… romantically?” I asked jokingly. “Which one of you is going to buy whom flowers?”

“Flowers?” Kliss blinked.

Delta buried her face in her hands.

“I don’t know what you're implying,” the dragon girl said.

“I don’t know either,” I huffed.

“You’re overthinking it, Slava,” Kliss said after a pause. “It’s not an equation, not a desire to buy flowers, it’s a feeling.”

“What kind of a feeling is it?” I asked.

“A deep, undeniable connection that transcends… everything. A feeling of… home,” she said. “Of belonging somewhere. Of everything being… I don’t know, right in some way, because there’s an undeniable connection there. Not just a single connection. Connections. An impossibly large number of them across… everywhere.”

“Riiiiight,” I said, drawing out the word.

“Yes, right!” Kliss insisted.

“You two are hopeless,” Delta peered at me from between her fingers.

“Am not,” I protested.

“You seem… tense?” Kliss judged my expression. “Are you worried about fighting the Inquisitor?”

“No,” I shook my head. “Delta said we should talk to our parents, tell them everything before we leave. I’m… not good with that stuff. It’s not like designing magic with math where I’m in complete control of the situation. I don’t want to mess everything up terribly by saying something exceptionally stupid.”

“Ah,” she said. “Do you… want help?”

“Yeah,” I admitted.

“Come on then,” she pulled me off the bench, gold-coated fingers radiating reassuring warmth. “Let’s go talk to them… together.”