Eli stood in the Hightower family vault, the most secure location they knew of in the entire realm. It was protected by multiple layers of security – both mundane and magical – and held some of the accumulated treasures of the Hightower family: priceless artifacts, magical weapons, mountains of gold and jewels, and even a cordoned-off area for Isla’s hoard. The first few times he’d been down here he couldn’t help but marvel at the ostentatious display.

  This time was different, however.

  Stashed amongst all the material wealth was an oversized hospital bed with a single occupant. She was laying on her back, allowing Eli to see her human-like face and long black hair. While a white sheet covered most of her body for modesty, Eli could still see that her neck and chest had pale skin. As he looked outwards to her arms, he could see that the skin transitioned to prismatic scales – ones that presumably covered the rest of her body.

  He moved closer and inspected the various monitors and intravenous drips attached to the hybrid, taking great care to avoid stepping on her long reptilian tail that draped onto the floor. They beeped in time with the rise and fall of her chest, keeping track of her breathing and heartrate.

  “The healers assured me she’s not going to wake up – at least not for another few hours.” Aria said from behind him. “The dose of medication she’s on at this point is borderline dangerous, but it’ll keep her down long enough for us to do this.”

  “No point in delaying any longer then.” Eli nodded before turning to the angelic woman next to his elven princess. “What’s the incantation?”

  Minerva opened a paper notebook and flipped several pages before adjusting her glasses. “There’s no incantation. It says here that this spell, like most Royal Blooded magic, is instinctive.”

  “Uh…okay.” Eli replied, scratching the back of his head. “So what do I do?”

  “Well, it says that Royal Bloods can sense someone’s magic.”

  “Yeah, he can literally see it.” Aria said.

  “Well, yes.” Minerva nodded. “But this is different. See this verb here? This means ‘to sense’ in an ancient dwarven dialect. If it was ‘to see’, it’d be written with an f instead of a v. I think the choice was deliberate – they meant sense.”

  Eli raised one eyebrow. “Like… something distinct from sight, smell, touch, etc?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “Okay. How do I access this… 6th sense?” He responded, doing his best to reserve judgement.

  “There’s several paragraphs about entering a zen-like state, blocking out all light and sound to focus better.”

  Eli furrowed his brow, considering for a moment that the process may be more difficult than he originally imagined. Never one to give up, he began thinking of ways to achieve the state Minerva described. His eyes drifted towards the bag of medical supplies left by the various staff who were charged with visiting the hybrid regularly and keeping her asleep.

  As he gazed at it a thought occurred to him. He walked over to the bag and unzipped it, finding a roll of gauze and a bag of cotton balls. Grinning, he returned to the two women and handed them the gauze before opening the plastic bag.

  “Do you mind helping me wrap the gauze around my head, covering my eyes like a blindfold?”

  “Kinky.” Aria grinned in response, wiggling her eyebrows as she did. “Of course.”

  “That’s one way to accomplish it.” Minerva nodded while blushing before trying to change the subject. “And the cotton balls are for your ears?”

  “Exactly.” Eli said, stuffing one in until he couldn’t hear anything out of that ear. “Any other instructions before I continue?”

  Aria carefully started to wrap the gauze around Eli while Minerva spoke. “It says you need to clear your mind of all thought. Once you have done that, reach out with your consciousness. You should be able to…well…sense… the hybrid’s energy. Follow it back to her, and you will enter her mind.”

  “I’ll do my best.” Eli nodded, blocking his other ear as he did.

  After Aria tied the gauze into a knot at the back, Eli sat on the cold metal vault floor. While the makeshift blindfold and earplugs blocked out most of the light and sound around him, he could still make out the muffled noise of Aria and Minerva talking and see faint outlines of the magical lights which illuminated the room. He considered asking them to get him a real blindfold for a moment before dismissing the notion.

  Taking a long, slow deep breath in he closed his eyes before exhaling. His first experiences with magic proved invaluable here, as they taught him how to enter an almost-meditative state. He recalled those first few lessons in Talaedra’s dungeon, focusing on steadying his breathing while allowing the mana within him to flow throughout his body.

  I need to talk to the hybrid. He thought to himself before shaking his head in frustration. Shit. That was a thought. I need to be emptying my mind of thoughts.

  Growling slightly, Eli refocused on his breathing and brought it back down. He inhaled while counting to 4, held it for 4 seconds, then exhaled while counting to 4 before waiting another 4 seconds and starting the process again. Gradually he became aware of the soft beating of his own heart, keeping time with some cosmic rhythm as it pumped his mana-rich blood across his body.

  Time passed. In this sensory-deprived environment, Eli couldn’t be sure if it was minutes or hours. He deliberately did his best not to think about how much time it had been, acknowledging the thought every time it came up before gently dismissing it. He knew that if something important happened Minerva and Aria would wake him up.

  Like a flower opening its pedals to receive the morning sun, Eli felt his consciousness expand. He immediately understood why Minerva had such a hard time describing it – the feeling wasn’t as much of a sense as it was awareness. He couldn’t explain how, but he knew that Aria and Minerva were sitting next to him, just out of arms reach. They appeared as outlines to him, with their magical auras glowing blue and white, respectively. Minerva’s was tinged with yellow emanating from a ring on her hand – one that he knew helped her keep her race’s obsessive compulsive tendencies in check.

  To his surprise, he saw that their natural auras weren’t the only colors surrounding them. Both of them were encompassed by a translucent bubble with a gold tinge – one which had a thin string leading away from it. His consciousness turned to see that the string led back to him, and that those two strings weren’t the only ones. Leading away from his body were 7 more strings, all of which led towards the vault’s exit.

  As he considered what the strings meant, he abruptly realized that he was staring at himself. He could see his body slowly swaying back and forth as it shone with a soft golden glow. His hands laid palms-up on his knees, and he could see the regular rising and falling of his chest. Looking down, he saw that whatever his current form possessed no actual body – he was completely invisible and transparent.

  A literal out of body experience. He thought to himself, surprisingly serene at this turn of events.

  Remembering the original reason behind his being down here, his invisible ghostly spirit rose upwards and turned to look at the hybrid on the table. At first glance he thought a solid green light surrounded her, but as he looked closer he saw that interspersed between green there were notes of yellow. He looked closer still to find that the aura wasn’t solid at all, but made up of tens of thousands of tiny tendrils attached to her body like hair or fur.

  Follow it back to her, and you will enter her mind. Minerva’s voice echoed in his memory.

  Without anything else to go on, Eli moved towards the tendrils near her head – the ones that lead to her mop of black hair. He mentally reached out and grabbed a slightly longer one, envisioning himself using it as a tether to pull himself towards her. Her sleeping form flinched slightly in response, and the tendril wrapped around his finger tightly.

  Suddenly, Eli felt a swirling sensation as he was pulled towards her. He cried out soundlessly when the world around him quickly went black. Gritting his teeth, he mentally prepared for the worst before the space around him was suddenly filled with swirling grey mists.

  Well, that was…something. He thought to himself. I don’t think I’ll be using this ability very often if it’s like that every time.

  He narrowed his eyes for a moment, willing the hybrid woman to appear. After a brief pause she did just that, blinking into existence on the ground in front of him. She stirred slightly before opening her dark brown eyes, her brow furrowing in confusion.

  In the blink of an eye she stood, holding her arms up in a fighting stance. She began to slowly circle him, her eyes darting from him to the mists that surrounded them as if ensuring there were no other threats. Eli moved with her, turning to face her while mentally preparing in case she attacked. Finally, she called out to him in a language he didn’t understand.

  Eli shrugged in response before responding in Elvish. “I don’t speak…whatever that was.”

  She furrowed her brow before trying again – this time also in Elvish. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Eli.”

  “I see. And who am I?”

  Eli blinked several times in confusion at the question. “Sorry…what?”

  “Who am I?” She repeated slower.

  “I understand the words you’re saying.” Eli replied, shaking his head. “I just… don’t know how to answer that question. You don’t know who you are?”

  She paused for a moment. “I have…memories. Thoughts. Knowledge. I know it’s not my own though.” She looked around furtively. “Where…are we?”

  “We’re in your mind.” Eli said, seeing no reason to lie. “You’re asleep right now.”

  “Asleep?” She questioned.

  “Yeah.” Eli responded. “This… look, it’s complicated. There’s this thing called ‘magic’, and I-”

  “I know what magic is.” She interjected. “I know I am a hybrid between lizardkin and naga, designed by Serpentius Rex in a lab to solve the problem of cross-breeding between my constituent species.”

  “Good.” Eli said, suddenly relieved. “Because I was definitely going to fuck up explaining that.”

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  She snorted in response, the ghost of a grin appearing on her face at his comment before disappearing just as quickly. “Why did you not wake me to have this conversation? Why cast a spell to speak to me in my mind?”

  He considered his options for a moment before responding. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to wake you up, to be honest.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Serpentius Rex had some pretty extreme views. He tried to kill me and some other people I love. I wanted to make sure you don’t share those same views.”

  “Did you kill him?” She asked, narrowing her eyes.

  “Yes.” Eli nodded.

  She dropped her arms. “I suppose there’s no point defending myself against you here, is there?”

  “Not really, no.” Eli said. “I’d much rather sit and have a conversation anyways.”

  As he said the words, two chairs appeared between them – one facing the other. To his surprise a pair of potted ferns also appeared right next to the chairs, adding to the ambiance. The hybrid cocked her head in confusion before making her way over to the chairs and sitting in the one with a cutout at the back to accommodate her tail.

  Well that’s…handy. He thought to himself as he took a seat next to the hybrid. I can work with this.

  “So.” He began.

  “So.” She mimicked.

  “Are you a self-destructive, power-hungry, slightly genocidal maniac?”

  “No?” She replied, slightly bemused. “If you don’t mind me saying, you’re not very good at this.”

  Eli chuckled, shaking his head. “This is actually my first time being in someone’s head.”

  “I see.” She responded, letting the silence hang for a moment.

  Taking a moment to center himself, Eli began again. “Listen. I’m pretty sure you know this anyways, so I’m just going to lay the facts on the table.” As he said the word, a table appeared in front of them with the word facts in giant red letters on it.

  “I…okay.” She replied, looking between him and the table.

  Doing his best not to appear as surprised at the table’s appearance as she was, he continued. “If I wake you up, you’re going to have influence. I know your pheromones were used to control the non-sapient hybrids that Serpentius Rex created. I have no idea if they’ll work the same way on regular lizardkin or naga.” He paused for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “Even if they don’t work though, you represent the culmination of decades, maybe even centuries of work. You’re going to be a powerful symbol to them, and when you make requests I have no doubt that they’ll scramble to do what you ask.”

  As he spoke, images began to appear in the mist. Scenes of lizardkin and naga lining the jungles of Serapenthra appeared, with all of them bowing to the hybrid as she walked by. She strode confidently up the steps of a stone ziggurat-like building before reaching a platform with a throne. As she took a seat on the throne dozens of attendants rushed to her side, each of them offering food, drink, treasures, or even themselves.

  She raised one eyebrow as the images played out before disappearing. “In my memories, Serapenthran jungles don’t look like that.”

  Eli rolled his eyes. “Look, my imagination may have been influenced by…outside factors.” He finished, unwilling to admit that he’d filled in the gaps in his knowledge with ideas from video games. “The point is that you’re going to have influence.”

  “I understand.” She responded.

  “That’s just the start though.” Eli continued. “I have no doubt that one way or another, the lizardkin and naga are going to figure out how to pass on your genes. You might be the first sapient hybrid, but I can pretty much guarantee you won’t be the last. As the first though, you’re going to have the ability to sway an entire society.”

  The images resumed, this time showing a more domestic scene. The hybrid sat in a cozy-looking room with a pair of young hybrids fast asleep on her lap. All around the room attendants quietly tended to a clutch of eggs, each of which clearly held a still-gestating hybrid.

  The hybrid sitting on the chair in front of him couldn’t help but keep the smile off her face. “I would like that.”

  Eli let her enjoy the image for a moment longer before willing it to disappear. “Here is my concern: if you wanted, you could direct the lizardkin and the naga down a dark path. You could cast the regular lizardkin and naga down as second-class citizens. You could enforce hybrids as the dominant members of your society. Even outside of your own realm though, you could start a war with other races, or do more subversive things to gain power.”

  She nodded, seeing where Eli was going with this train of thought. “And you are worried that I will do this because of the memories Serpentius Rex implanted in my mind.”

  “Exactly.”

  “What would you do? If I started to go down this ‘dark path’ that you spoke of, what would you do?”

  “I would try to convince you to stop.” Eli said.

  “And if I didn’t?” She pressed.

  Instead of replying with his words, Eli summoned another image. In this one he hovered over the stone ziggurat. In one hand he held the hybrid by her throat, her arms clawing ineffectively against him as he choked the life out of her. With his other hand he shot beams of golden light into the mass of lizardkin and naga below, cutting them to pieces and starting small fires in the jungle. Beneath him an army of orcs, dark elves, and demons poured through a portal before roaring a ferocious battle cry.

  He dismissed the image before locking eyes with her. “I don’t want to do that. That’s not who I am. But believe me when I say that I am fully capable of everything you saw there, and I would do it if it meant protecting the people I love.”

  She stared at him for a moment with mixed fear and respect. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because as much as I hated his methods, the one thing I could respect about Serpentius Rex was the fact that he was trying to do something for his people. He cared about them, in his own sick way. And I think you do too.” He replied.

  “I do.” She confirmed.

  “If that’s the case, then I need you to be honest with me. Are you planning on leading your people down that dark path? Because you can save a lot of their lives by just telling me the truth.”

  She took a breath, locked eyes with him, and nodded. “I am telling the truth. I have no designs of my own for power, nor do I wish for war. I think that Serpentius Rex intended on keeping me as a tool once he woke me up – nothing more. My only real desire is to create the next generation of hybrids – my children – and keep them safe long enough that they can have children of their own.” She paused, looking at him. “I suppose I owe you a debt of gratitude as well – for saving me from becoming a vassal in service to Serpentius Rex.”

  “Nobody deserves that fate.” Eli said. “Let’s not dwell on that though. Let’s imagine what life could be like if we worked together.”

  An image of a utopian society appeared in the mists. Hybrids walked amongst lizardkin and naga, stepping into and out of shops along a busy thoroughfare. Other races were present too, from elves to dwarves and even orcs. It was a completely mundane vignette from a world where coexistence was the norm, and somehow it still brought tears of happiness to the hybrid’s eyes.

  “I’d like that very much.” She said with a smile.

  “It’s possible to do. I’m not going to tell you it’s easy, but…that sort of peaceful life is already possible in Irandell, and we’re working towards it on Purgatory.”

  “Did you help in making it possible?” She asked.

  “I had some influence.” Eli replied. “But I had a lot of help from people I care about. And it required some drastic actions.”

  “Like removing those in power who disagreed with you?”

  “Only when there was no other option.” Eli replied. “Like I said: I’d much prefer to have a conversation.”

  She thought about what he said for another moment before speaking. “My ‘memories’ tell me that power can be a double-edged sword. Being the one in control can be isolating and lonely. I have the memories of many leaders in my mind – all of them felt this, to some extent.”

  “You’re not wrong.” Eli admitted. “But that’s why it’s important to surround yourself with people who remind you why you’re doing this. People who will help keep you away from the dark paths. People who aren’t going to be mewling sycophants, but instead will tell you the difficult truths you sometimes need to hear.”

  As he said it, images of his bond mates, retainers, and friends drifted through the mist. “You appear to have those people.”

  “I do.”

  “I do not.” She said. “Will you help me in that regard? Will you be someone I can call upon when I need help making a decision? Or even just someone who will stave off the loneliness of leadership?”

  “I can’t be in a romantic relationship with you.” He replied instantly. “It’s one of the requirements of the spell.”

  “I’m not asking for romance.” She clarified. “I am asking for a platonic relationship. One built on truth and mutual respect.”

  Eli smiled. “You mean a friend?”

  “Yes. Will you be my friend?”

  “Of course.” Eli nodded. “I’ll be your friend. I still don’t know your name though.”

  “Why don’t you give me one?” She asked.

  “I’m not sure I’m the right person to do that.” Eli shook his head. “Don’t you want to pick your own name?”

  “I’m sure I will have many names. This can be the name shared between us, as friends.” She said. “I insist. As a friend.”

  He paused for a few long moments before shrugging. “How about Seline?”

  “Seline?” She repeated.

  “Yeah. It’s a human name. Since I’m a human, that feels like a good mix of our worlds. It’s also got a bit of a serpentine sound to it, which feels right for you.”

  She smiled. “I like it. It feels…right.”

  “In that case, it’s nice to meet you Seline.” Eli said, holding out a hand towards her. “I think we’re going to be good friends.”

  A look of confusion crossed her face as she looked at him. The moment passed awkwardly before she held out her own hand, mimicking his motion. He smiled encouragingly and grasped her hand softly, shaking it and making them both laugh at the absurdity of the situation. A soft golden glow began to shine from where their hands touched – one dim enough that it went unnoticed by either of them.

  “It’s good to have friends.” She said finally.