With a bright flash of starlight, Sparkles shifted from her grand draconic form into that of an older woman cloaked in simple white robes. Her hair was a fine, fiber-optic gray, with faint rainbows shimmering through several strands. A white opal, about half the size of my palm, rested at the center of her forehead, its light pulsing with the same subtle colors that cascaded through her tresses.

  Do I ask about the jewel?

  Or is that considered rude?

  When there’s only one being of a species, how would it even define the culture surrounding it?

  Her left eyebrow formed a great white arch.

  Oof. I was staring, wasn’t I?

  “You only need to strike it with the tip of your sword to end me.”

  I scowled. “I’m not gonna do that.”

  Her golden eyes crinkled. “You remind me of a very young—”

  “Raela?” Nora interjected, nearly out of breath from her sprint to join us.

  “Wrong,” Sparkles replied flatly. “I was going to say a very young and stubborn mountain goat. No matter how I tried to discourage him, he felt the need to linger where he didn’t belong.”

  Her tone was so casual now that it took me a second to adjust. The noble speech of the Origin of Fire was gone, replaced by the dry cadence of someone’s exhausted Nana who’d seen everything.

  Maybe her grammar was tied to her form?

  Sparkles gestured to a small pile of bones at the back of the basin. “Our conversations were a bit repetitive toward the end, but it bothers me that I have not been able to give him burial rites.” Her eyes bore into His Holiness. “You are best suited for that task, Relias-Sage.”

  He stiffened. “Honored I would be to undertake such a deed, if you would describe how to lay his kind to rest properly?”

  Her look of disdain deepened. “How should I know how mountain goats mourn?” She folded her arms. “Simply remove his remains from my runes and declare his Purpose complete. You can do at least that much, can’t you?”

  “Yes, Honored Dragon,” he answered. “I shall—”

  “By all means, now, Sage. None of us are getting any younger.”

  Nora and I exchanged a startled glance as Relias flinched and made his way toward the pile.

  “Uh…” Nora caught Sparkles staring at her. “I’ll go give him a hand?”

  Sparkles gave a stiff nod, though her eyes fixed themselves once again on Relias.

  I took a step forward. “I should also probably—”

  “When will that one grow a backbone?” she said with a sigh before turning to my sword hilt. “Well, come on out, King of Contradictions. Your transportation needs some exposition.”

  Oliver, looking much better than before, coalesced next to me with an exaggerated sigh, his brow locked in a deep furrow. “Why are you insisting that I do it?”

  “She’ll believe you more.”

  “She’ll be angrier with me,” Oliver corrected.

  Her eyes flashed. “Then it’s even more of a bonus for you to explain it, demon.”

  Several rattles echoed as Nora levitated the pile of bones with her staff. Relias led the way to the foot of the nearest mountain. Oliver watched the two of them for a moment, then sniffed. “It still does not count as proper compensation, dragon. Neither does excluding me from your aura of affliction.”

  “And I never agreed to pay you,” Sparkles replied. “And I can remove that exclusion at any moment.”

  “Enough posturing already!” I declared. “What’s this crap about me having to kill a dragon in order to get into Paradise?”

  “Just remember that I don’t make the rules,” Oliver murmured. “The Goddess does.”

  “At least she used to,” Sparkles clarified. “No one’s in charge now, so there’s no one left who can change them.”

  “What’s this got to do with getting into Paradise?” I asked.

  Sparkles sat down cross-legged, her hands resting in her lap. “I cannot let you access the entrance to Paradise for as long as I live.” She closed her eyes. “It is my Purpose to prevent anyone from entering.”

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  While she gave me time to contemplate her position, a hollow-sounding whoosh signaled Nora’s magical interring of the goat’s bones. Soft echoes that followed carried an incomprehensible version of Relias’s eulogy.

  Which situation here is more absurd?

  I took a deep breath and sat down across from her. “Look, ma’am… You seem like a reasonable being. And while I can appreciate taking pride in your work, there comes a point where you’ve got to admit that a task no longer applies to the situation we’re faced with.”

  Her right eye opened. “Go on.”

  “Wouldn’t you agree that we’re at that point now?”

  “Indeed.”

  “So just point us to the entrance, and—”

  “I cannot go against my Purpose. It was assigned by Euphridia herself.”

  “Look. Euphridia isn’t the perfect deity you’ve been led to believe—”

  “No matter how much I want to, I simply cannot leave these runes. I can’t defy my assigned Purpose.” She tilted her head, thrusting her chin at the glass remnants scattered on the slopes. “Trust me, kid, I’ve tried. All it got me was shards of suffering.”

  “You mean… You physically can’t leave this basin?”

  “Not while I’m alive, no.”

  I looked at Oliver. “You knew this?”

  He shrugged. “The sage and I hypothesized it.”

  I jumped up. “Can’t Relias just reassign her Purpose? Isn’t that what he did with King Saulus? Even I was able to do it with Prelate Dolus—sort of—with Absolutio Partialis…”

  I had pruned his Purpose more than replaced it, but the important part was that it had changed.

  Oliver spread his hands, his face strangely neutral. “He seemed to think it was impossible.”

  “Well, he should try anyway!”

  Nora and Relias were already returning from the foot of the mountain, so I didn’t have to wait long for his rationale.

  “It would be the same as trying to change my own Purpose,” Relias explained somberly. “I may defer my actions for a time, but I cannot entirely defy my Purpose. Fate itself will intercede on my behalf. In the case of Sparkles, fate has sealed her here…”

  I gritted my teeth and drew my sword, summoning my aura. “Try it anyway.”

  Relias drew back in surprise, the whites of his eyes shining. “Of course! I shall do so with all effort!”

  I held out my free hand. “And let me help.”

  “Y-yes! Most assuredly! Forgive me—for a moment I thought that you…”

  “What?”

  He glanced nervously at the sword, then shook his head. “It is of no moment.”

  Oliver stepped back, motioning for Nora to follow. “I doubt our presence and energy upon these runes will contribute to their task.”

  “But I want to watch!”

  “Your eyes will work perfectly from the periphery.”

  Relias inhaled and struck the runes with his staff, turning them gold. “Let that which binds be rewritten, let Her will be redefined. What was originally ordained be unmade, so that a truer Purpose may be aligned. Mutare Propositum!”

  A bright flash engulfed us, the basin fires vanishing in a blizzard of white.

  Access denied. Row-level security enabled for this Legacy record. Administrator password required.

  The light dispersed, and the basin fires burned sullenly once more.

  “My incantation did not bear fruit,” Relias murmured. “Forgive mine ineptitude—”

  “Administrator password?!” Nora yowled. “No one said anything about passwords!”

  I stared at my sword, the source of the mechanical voice in my mind, then shouted at Nora. “I want to know how you can listen in without holding a holy weapon!”

  Nora spread her hands, and a glance at both Relias and Oliver confirmed that neither had any idea what I was talking about.

  Relias started to pull his hand away, but I kept it in place.

  “Quick! What do you think Euphridia would use as a password? It’d be a phrase about Speranza, or you, or—”

  “Raela,” he replied immediately. “Or any one of her reincarnations.”

  ‘Variants’ was probably the better term for us.

  I let him go. “Ah, that makes sense… but how do we enter a password?”

  My sword flared again.

  Audio input activated. Please enter password. Be sure to indicate capitals as appropriate.

  “Aina? Is that you?”

  Incorrect password. Please try again. Passwords must contain at least eight characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and one special symbol.

  I felt tears of frustration sting my eyes. “Cancel… I don’t know the password…”

  There was a long pause.

  I know the password.

  I looked up at the sky. “Well, what is it, Aina?!”

  I am unable to tell you the password.

  “Well, what can you do, huh? Can you bring back the dead?! Because right now, I’m at an impasse! I can’t fix Naught if I can’t access it, and I’m not killing someone just to get the key!”

  I am able to modify all subroutines supporting Speranza. Functions include, but are not limited to: weather pattern adjustment, core temperature monitoring, and maintenance of the gravity constant.

  “Can you make the stars move?” Nora asked excitedly. “Can you spell out the password in the stars?!”

  There was only silence.

  “Well?” I prompted. “Can you?”

  Last query unrecognized. Please repeat.

  “Can you spell out the password in the stars, like Nora asked?”

  Nora not recognized. However—yes. I can spell out the password in the stars. Please confirm if you wish me to do so.

  “Yes!”

  The few clouds above us pulled away, revealing a tight hole in the heavens. Sunset erupted unnaturally fast. As the light dimmed, the stars winked into view and began zipping around like confused fireflies.

  With a sickening groan, I read the message aloud, calling out the camel case capitals as I went. More colloquially, the password read: “RaeIaMyBestFriendForever123!”

  How embarrassing… I wonder if she reused that password anywhere.

  Goddess, I hope not.

  Password accepted. Please indicate a new Purpose for record: Sparkles.

  A new purpose?

  I glanced at the woman, who had spent the entire time meditating as if already halfway to another plane.

  “Does she really need an assigned one?”

  Purpose field required for Legacy entities. Please indicate a new Purpose for record: Sparkles.

  I exhaled. “What purpose can a dragon possibly have, except to be a dragon?”

  Purpose accepted.

  Sparkles’ eyes snapped open. With a sound halfway between a roar and a laugh, she leapt upward, her body exploding into a kaleidoscope of light. Her wings unfolded, and with a scream of exultation, she shot into the night. A sonic boom echoed as she tore through the clouds, setting the sky ablaze in gold. The stars scrambled to reform themselves in her wake, erasing the mortifying message as quickly as it had appeared.

  “Uh…” I swallowed hard as everyone stared at me in horror. “Maybe I should have thought that through a little more.”

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