I walked into a wall of noise. Haruka and Miko were both giving orders loudly, and Hikaru was trying to be heard as well. A scrum of med staff surrounded Aya on a standard Marque table, and she was lowered into the white liquid, unconscious.
‘Can you save her?’ Miko asked.
‘I can,’ Marque said.
Miko raised the soulstones. ‘This is the Empress and Miyu—’
‘Yes!’ one of the doctors said.
‘Quickly. They’re forty hours old.’
‘I have it.’ A Marque sphere appeared from the wall, swooped down to grab the stones, and returned to the wall. ‘I’ll have them back in half an hour.’
One of the med staff guided Miko to the door and made shepherding gestures towards the rest of us. ‘Please go out and wait, you’re in the way.’
Haruka took Hikaru’s claw and we followed a sphere into the waiting room where I’d sat all that time ago watching Miko die over and over.
Hikaru looked around. ‘What are the walls made of? They’re completely white.’ He went to a chair and touched it. ‘Everything is so clean.’
‘How long were we gone, Marque?’ I asked.
‘Eleven months. I found my offsite archive on the Nameless, and I know what it is now. Platinum scales, feathered edges: it’s the same as Annie’s children and this dragon.’
‘Oh no,’ I moaned. ‘They’re just babies.’
‘We will work something out. We must,’ Haruka said.
‘Where’s the sphere that went with you?’ Marque asked.
Haruka ignored it. ‘Hikaru, Miko, Jian and I need new soulstones right now.’
‘Who is Hikaru?’
‘I am,’ Hikaru said. ‘Hello, Marque.’
‘You’re the Nameless?’ Marque asked.
‘I’m not the Nameless,’ Hikaru said. ‘I’m Miko and Haruka’s son.’
‘But you’re fifty years old.’
‘That’s right.’
‘Where were you?’ Marque asked. ‘Did you really travel through time?’
‘Do not mention time-travel,’ I said.
One of the doctors came in. She had a gold soulstone in the implantation forceps, and a black stone in similar forceps floated next to her, held by Marque.
‘Honoured Goldenscales Princess, if you don’t mind moving your head into position . . .’ The doctor raised the forceps. They were made of black glass, with three fingers holding the soulstone between them.
‘That looks painful,’ Hikaru said. ‘Those points are sharp!’
‘Maybe do Hikaru first,’ I said. ‘It’s not fun to watch.’
‘No, he needs to understand what’s involved. I never explained how it works,’ Miko said. She turned to Hikaru. ‘Trust me, putting in a new stone is painless. I know it looks awful, but it’s very important that you don’t move while she does it.’
She crouched in dragon form, stretched her long neck in front of her, and rested her head on the floor. ‘Ready.’
The doctor carefully positioned the forceps, then shoved the points into the middle of Miko’s forehead. She released the stone and pulled the forceps out, leaving the stone behind.
Hikaru made a loud sound of horror.
‘It doesn’t hurt at all, it must be done this way the first time because the stone can’t touch anything organic until it’s implanted,’ Miko said. She raised her head and shook it. ‘That feels so much better.’ She grinned at him. ‘Now your turn.’
He hesitated, staring at the black stone with his eyes wide, as the doctor took the forceps from the air and held them in front of her.
‘I’ll hold your hand,’ Haruka said. ‘Trust us. It’s painless.’
Hikaru looked from Miko to Haruka, then obviously relented and took position on the floor. Haruka and Miko each held one of his claws to reassure him.
‘Stay very still, sir . . .’ the doctor said, and plunged the stone into his forehead.
‘Tell me when it’s done,’ Hikaru said as she ripped the forceps out.
‘It is done,’ Miko said. ‘Give it a moment as the stone attunes, it will feel weird.’
Hikaru moved to stand again, and stopped halfway up. His eyes unfocused. ‘Unh. Yes.’ He pulled himself to his feet. ‘Weird does not begin to describe it.’ He shook his head, making his ear tufts quiver. ‘Now I need to see Aya. How is she?’
‘The woman who came with you?’ the doctor asked. ‘She’s recovering. It will take some time for the new lungs to adapt. She needs to stay in the table for at least two hours while we keep her under observation.’
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘We need to talk privately, if we could.’
She nodded around to us and went out, and I closed the door behind her.
‘How are the Empress and Miyu?’ Miko asked.
‘Recovering, defrosting, the soulstones worked,’ Marque said.
‘Excellent,’ Haruka said.
‘I need to go to Aya,’ Hikaru said.
‘She’ll be in the table for two hours,’ Haruka said. ‘You can’t see her until she comes out.’
Hikaru swiped one shining claw through the air. ‘Beside the point. I need to be with her. Even if she doesn’t know I’m there, I want to sit with her.’
‘Marque?’ I asked. ‘Are the rest of the family on the way?’
‘They’ll be here in ten minutes.’
‘Tell them to meet us at Aya’s bedside,’ Miko said.
‘You go first, Haruka and I have something important to talk about,’ I said.
‘Are you sure?’ Miko asked.
We need to start damage control. ‘He’s your son,’ I added out loud, waving her away. ‘We’ll be there shortly. Go.’
They went out, closing the door behind them.
‘Marque,’ I said.
‘Yes?’
‘I have a list of things we need to do right now to save the Empire.’
‘What?’
‘How does it feel to be involved in a massive cover-up, Ambassador?’ I asked.
‘It must be Tuesday,’ Haruka said. ‘Marque: first of all, remove Miyu’s stone from her golden body and put it into a coloured one. The best option is a yellow coloured body that appears identical to her natural one, but any will do.’
‘Wait a minute—’
‘Goldenscales can time-travel,’ I said. ‘They can destroy the Universe the same way the Nameless is. All of them must have the skill removed.’
‘The Nameless is destroying the Universe?’
Haruka and I shared a grin, and I rubbed my hands together with satisfaction. Information was the one thing that could be used as leverage over Marque.
‘The Empress and Miyu are already waking up,’ Marque said. ‘I’ll have to move her into a different body altogether. Are you sure—?’
‘Positive,’ Haruka said.
‘All right,’ it said, sounding uncertain.
‘Second,’ I said. ‘Everybody involved in the Yayoi tomb excavation, who saw the messages on and in the jars, needs to have an “accident” . . .’ I lowered my head. ‘I cannot believe I am saying this.’
‘What?’
‘It needs to happen,’ Haruka said. ‘They must have their memories of the message removed, and the jar and the messages must be destroyed. Nobody must be aware of the existence of time-travel.’
‘Time-travel damages reality,’ I said. ‘The entire area around the Nameless is suffering from dimensional bleeding, and the Nameless is causing it without even being conscious. Just its existence damages reality.’
‘Why is it still there, then?’ Marque asked.
‘Beside the point,’ Haruka said. ‘Do this now before more damage happens, and then we need to deal with rest of the goldenscales.’
‘I’m not going to kill my precious goldenscales!’ Marque said.
‘Because they’re your children?’ I finished for it with heavy sarcasm. ‘No. Miko will explain the issue to them, then you’ll put them into coloured bodies.’
‘Gold coloured bodies,’ Haruka said. ‘As far as everybody is concerned, they will lose the ability to gate, and gain the ability to fold.’
‘Miko will talk to the goldenscales before we do the transfer, but the archaeologists need to have an on-site accident right now so you can move their soulstones into bodies with redacted memories.’
‘Who are you to be giving me orders?’ Marque asked.
‘The people who know exactly what happened in Yayoi Japan – that you don’t,’ I said. ‘Work with us, and we may tell you.’
‘As soon as Aya’s out of the table, we’re heading back to the Nameless,’ Haruka said. ‘Set to work on this cover-up, and we may permit one of your spheres come along.’
‘What did you learn in the past?’ Marque asked. ‘Your attitudes are entirely different.’
‘Let’s go and see our family,’ I said to Haruka.
‘Your soulstones are here,’ Marque said. ‘Tell me what happened, and I’ll give them to you.’
‘I guess we won’t be bothering to put them back in our heads then,’ I said. ‘And the information will die with us.’
Marque was silent.
‘We mean it,’ Haruka said.
‘Dammit,’ Marque said, and a sphere popped out of the wall with our new stones in their forceps. ‘I don’t like being bossed around like this.’
‘Being treated like staff?’ I asked.
Marque didn’t reply.
I took one of the stones out of the Marque sphere; it was Haruka’s green one. I turned to give it to him, and he smiled and lowered his head. I put the stone into his forehead, and he took my red stone and put it into my head.
We nodded to each other, shared a quick kiss, and headed out to reunite with the family.
Hikaru and Miko were in human form, wrapped in silk robes, when we entered the room. I stopped when I saw Annie’s children – they were in dragon form, as tall as my knees, running around the floor as the adults spoke. They had feathery silver scales and ear tufts.
‘I can’t do this to them,’ I said under my breath to Haruka. ‘Oh god, poor Annie.’
Dafydd and Oliver came to me and both embraced me, squeezing me hard. They released me, and Annie came and embraced me as well. I held her at arm’s length and looked into her eyes. ‘Can your children gate, Annie?’
‘I’ll have to change their names, Nanna,’ she said, grinning. ‘I called them Jian and Connie, even though they’re both boys. I’m sorry, I thought you were gone, and—’
I gave her a tiny shake. ‘Can they gate?’
‘No, they’re too little,’ she said, confused. ‘They can’t do anything.’
‘Are there any other dragon children like them? Children of goldenscales?’
‘Yes, of course, they all look like mine.’ She smiled. ‘Just as adorable.’
‘Yours are the oldest?’
She nodded. ‘Why are you so upset, Nanna?’
I released her, turned away, and wiped my eyes. ‘How old was Hikaru when he made his first gate, Miko?’
‘Three years old,’ Miko said.
‘They have soulstones already,’ Haruka said. ‘Marque can keep them in a coma until the stones are attuned, then move them into new bodies.’
‘That’s not happening,’ Annie said.
I nodded to Haruka. ‘That works. It’s much better than the alternative.’
‘The alternative?’ Annie said, moving back and standing in front of the children. ‘You’re scaring me, Nanna. You sound like you’re planning to destroy them.’
‘Never,’ I said. ‘We learned something while we were away, that’s extremely important for the safety of the entire family. I won’t go into detail here, but we’ll talk about it.’
‘You are not hurting my babies,’ she said, scooping the little dragons up and holding them close. ‘What happened to you while you were gone? You’re completely different.’
The ground shook beneath us.
‘Oh no,’ Miko said. ‘How long do we have?’
‘No idea,’ Hikaru said. ‘Hurry up with Aya, Marque.’
‘Working,’ Marque said. ‘What was that? There’s no fault line here.’
I moved to Annie and put my hand on one of the little dragon’s heads. He smiled at me, his black eyes glittering, and said, ‘Hello, Nanna.’
‘Hello beautiful,’ I said, cupping his chin. ‘It’s lovely to meet you.’ I looked Annie in the eyes. ‘Believe me, I would never hurt them. Nobody will harm them.’
She obviously didn’t trust me, took them to the side and released them to play.
‘Where’s Mum?’ I asked, and everybody in the room went silent. Nobody said a word, and the silence stretched until it became horribly significant.
I had a rush of nausea. Everything inside me went upside-down. I staggered back, and someone put a chair behind me to fall into. I put my head between my knees as the world spun around me.
‘I should sedate her,’ Marque said.
‘No,’ I wheezed into my knees. ‘I have too much to do right now.’ I wrenched myself upright and had a moment of disorientation. The nausea intensified and I pushed it down. ‘I am reunited with my spouses and my family and I have things I need to do.’
‘Nothing could be that important,’ Oliver said, crouching next to me. ‘Take some time.’
‘What happened to Connie?’ Haruka asked.
‘Stroke,’ Dafydd said, soft and sad. ‘It was just old age, Papa. Her body failed. It happened about six months ago.’
‘I really wanted to meet her,’ Hikaru said. ‘Mother told me many stories about the magnificent Connie Choumali, and I wanted to know if they were true.’
‘They were true,’ I said, the tears running down my face. Marque fabricated some tissues and I took them to wipe my eyes, then stood, feeling the ground shake beneath me again. I needed to function. Maybe one day I’d have a chance to grieve without being forced to save the world first. I went to my boys, hugged Dafydd, then hugged Oliver. Both of them held me, obviously concerned.
‘I’m tough, I’ll manage,’ I said.
‘You’re compartmentalising again, Mum,’ Oliver said. ‘That’s bad for you; let yourself grieve.’
‘I will,’ I gasped, and waved a tissue. ‘Just . . . not yet.’ I felt a jolt like cold electricity through me and I was suddenly calm and perfectly in control. I turned to see Haruka smiling at me. I lowered my voice. ‘That was unnecessary, I don’t need to be drugged.’
‘I only told Marque to do it because you’re right – we need to function,’ Haruka said.
‘You two are as bad as each other!’ Dafydd said, waving his arms. ‘Stop and take some time for yourselves. Whatever this is, it can’t be that urgent!’
‘Unfortunately, it is,’ I said. ‘Have you met your new brother?’
‘All your children are boys,’ Hikaru said. ‘The Kings of Yayoi would say that you’re extremely lucky.’
‘I had an adopted girl as well, and I hope one day she forgives me and comes home,’ I said.
‘I’m working on it,’ Oliver said. ‘I’ve managed to extract a few species from the Republic, but the Eh-Yi’s are one of the hardest.’
‘Do you think you can get them to leave?’ I asked.
‘They have a toxic co-dependent relationship with the cats,’ Oliver said. ‘It will take a while – there isn’t much Republic left, and the cats are clinging to whatever they can keep. The Republic is in terminal decline, and we didn’t even need to fight it. Just being kind to their subjugates was enough to break the cats’ hold on them.’
The ground shook again, and Hikaru went to the table. ‘Can I have a chair to sit, please, Marque? I want to stay with Aya. How long until she comes out?’
‘You seem extremely well-versed in what I’m capable of,’ Marque said as Hikaru’s chair appeared. ‘An hour and a half.’
‘My mother has been teaching me about the Empire all my life, I know what to expect,’ Hikaru said with dignity. ‘What I really want is to check out the baths and the food.’
‘Damn, he really is your son,’ I said.
‘Of course,’ Haruka said.
‘So the gold- and platinum-scaled dragons are damaging reality,’ I finished ten minutes later. ‘Just being aware of time-travel causes dimensional bleeding. Those tremors you’re feeling? That’s not earthquakes, it’s reality quakes.’
‘This is why folding isn’t permitted on the dragon homeworld,’ Haruka said. ‘It’s not the folding that damages reality, it’s previous experimentation with time-travel. Folding on top of it will wreck it even more.’
‘What?’ Marque asked.
‘Marque doesn’t know any of this?’ Dafydd asked.
‘It keeps archiving the information because’ – I filled my voice with sarcasm – ‘it’s sure it won’t happen again.’
‘How do you know this and I don’t?’ Marque asked.
‘How indeed,’ Haruka said dryly.
‘My babies need to be put in a coma?’ Annie said, holding her sleeping children in her lap, curled up around each other. ‘For four years?’
‘I’m so sorry,’ I said. ‘It’s better than the alternative.’
‘Killing them?’ Oliver asked.
‘No,’ Miko said. She gestured towards Hikaru with one golden claw. ‘Hikaru and I damage reality just by existing. We both need to go to the other end of the Universe and be put into stasis like the Nameless until our stones are attuned. Then we’ll move into less destructive bodies.’
‘We just got you back, Dragonfather,’ Dafydd said. ‘You were gone for fifteen years, and you’ll leave us for another five?’ He gestured towards me. ‘Mum and Papa lose the will to live without you. It breaks my heart to see them.’
‘He’s right. Are you sure this is all happening?’ Annie asked. ‘You have no proof that there’s any sort of damage to reality. These tremors could just be earthquakes, or construction, or anything.’
‘Not five years,’ Hikaru said, his voice small. ‘Forty thousand years.’
Both Dafydd and Oliver yelled ‘What?’ at the same time.
‘Now you’re being ridiculous!’ Annie shouted. ‘I want no part of this. Someone is doing this deliberately to hurt us.’ She rose, waking the babies, and let them gently down. ‘This is all way too stupid for me. Someone’s playing a joke on the entire family.’ She glared around at us. ‘And you all need to snap out of it.’ She put her hand on my shoulder and I felt her soft fur against my cheek. ‘Stop and go through everything that you just told us. Someone is trying to hurt the family. Is it the cats, Mum? Because none of this makes sense.’
‘I’ve seen the damage myself,’ I said. ‘Only dragons can see it.’
‘Well that’s convenient,’ she said. ‘I don’t believe any of it. Your family needs you. Come on, kids, let’s go.’
She stormed towards the door of the treatment room, and the ground shook. Both baby dragons stopped and squealed at the same time. Miko and Hikaru stood as well, and all the dragons started yelling at Annie.
‘Stay very still!’ Hikaru said.
‘Don’t move, Annie,’ Miko said.
‘What is that?’ one of the babies asked, backing away from the door. They grabbed Annie’s hands and pulled her away from it.
I put my hand on Miko to see. ‘Oliver, Dafydd, touch Hikaru.’
In Miko’s shared sight, the door gently rotated at a forty-five degree angle, the edges of the rotation breaking my brain as they touched the rest of the wall. The door appeared to be further away and closer at the same time, and its edges slid up and down to fit the rest of reality.
‘What would happen if you walked into that?’ I asked Miko.
She cocked her head. ‘I don’t know, and I really don’t want to see.’
‘Marque, Aya needs to come out of the table as soon as possible,’ Hikaru said. ‘We need to leave now so we don’t cause any more damage.’
‘That’s what you’re talking about?’ Annie asked. Her babies clung to her legs and stared at the damage. ‘It’s real? That’s . . . so wrong.’
Hikaru raised his head. ‘The damage is spreading. This facility should be evacuated, Marque.’ He turned to Miko. ‘Reality was already fragile here, and it didn’t take much to shatter it. We need to go.’
‘Marque?’ I asked. ‘Are you blocking this door on the other side to make sure nobody comes through?’
Marque didn’t reply.
I looked up. ‘Marque?’
Marque’s voice was flat and emotionless. ‘Rerouting processing due to a major incident. All medical services are on backup. Please wait until normal service is resumed.’
‘A major incident?’ Dafydd asked.
‘Goodbye, Aya,’ Hikaru said, his voice full of pain. ‘Please look after her for me, Father, and tell her I love her. Take us, Mother. We need to go now.’ He turned and bowed to us, then removed the robe and switched to dragon form. ‘Please come and visit us in a year. I am honoured to have met you.’
Miko took dragon form as well, and created a gate. She and Hikaru went through it, and Haruka and I took each other’s hands and raced through as well, crashing into each other as we hit the microgravity of the cube’s interior.
‘Go home,’ Miko said, the gate still open.
‘Dafydd, can you hear me?’ I shouted.
‘Yes, Mum? Come back through. Marque’s back up and says it needs you.’
‘Haruka will be right back and explain what happened,’ I said. ‘I love you.’ I turned to Miko. ‘Close the gate.’
‘You two need to go back,’ Miko said. ‘The Empress can bring you in a year, and we can catch up. Our children need you.’ She put her dragon arms out. ‘Give me a hug and then go.’
‘Haruka will manage the goldenscales transfer, and the aftermath from the damage,’ I said. ‘He’s essential, I’m not. I’m staying with you in stasis.’
‘No, you aren’t,’ Haruka said. ‘You’re more needed than I am. You’re taking back the position of Captain of the Guard and I’m going into stasis with my son.’
‘Our son,’ I said. ‘You’re the brilliant mediator, I’m just a grunt. They need you.’
‘I do not believe this,’ Miko said. ‘I’ll send them straight back, Dafydd,’ she called, and closed the gate.
‘We do not have time to mess around like this,’ Hikaru said. ‘I think we severely damaged the dragon homeworld. You need to return and stop the goldenscales from making it worse – it won’t take long for news of your time-travel to spread. Say goodbye and go.’
‘Haruka is a much better administrator and negotiator than I am, and he’s needed on the homeworld now.’ I crossed my arms over my chest. ‘I’m staying here with you.’
‘Go back,’ Miko said.
‘Life without you isn’t worth living,’ Haruka said.
‘Our children need a parent!’ Miko said. ‘We have great-grandchildren now – and they’re platinums! You need to go home right now and sort out the mess that we caused.’
Haruka and I shared a look. I put my hand out in a fist. He hesitated, then did it as well.
‘One, two, three,’ we said, and both made scissors.
‘That still exists three thousand years into the future?’ Hikaru asked, astonished.
‘Dammit!’ I said, and we did it again. Both rocks.
‘This is not happening,’ Miko moaned.
The next time we both made paper.
‘Both of you, go,’ Miko said.
‘If we take turns in stasis with you, it will halve the time before you’re out,’ I said.
Haruka made rock and I made scissors.
‘Two out of three?’ I asked.
‘I won. I’m staying with her. You’re going home,’ Haruka said, and raised his head. ‘Release the Nameless.’
I went to Miko and the tears started to run again. I put my hand on her face. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll sort everything out. I’ll be here when you wake up, and I’ll tell you all the stupid shit that went down.’
She put her claw over my hand. ‘Tell our children that I love them.’
I wrapped myself around her and tried to imprint the memory of holding her for the upcoming twelve lonely months.
‘You’re back again,’ the Nameless said. ‘Without Marque. Is it before or after I sent you away? This is extremely confusing.’
‘This is the platinum and goldenscales that need to go into stasis with you,’ Haruka said. ‘I’m staying with them, please send my wife home so she can arrange to have all the goldenscales put into coloured bodies.’
‘This is not a permanent solution,’ the Nameless said. It raised its head. ‘And this is what I warned you about. Space around the homeworld is shredded, it will need to be completely evacuated. Marque’s cores at the centre of the planet have been damaged, it will have lost some of its online processing and memory.’ It grinned. ‘Marque will be incandescent. I wish I could see it.’
I pushed off from Miko and floated to Haruka. He pulled me in and kissed me, then held me close. ‘We’ll swap over in a year.’
‘I’ll make sure everything is ready for you,’ I said.
‘I know,’ he said into my hair. ‘Gate her home, Miko, and let’s do this.’
‘Hikaru?’ I asked, and Haruka pushed me to I could go to him. I put my hand on Hikaru’s shining face. ‘I will be back when you come out, and we can spend time together. I love you.’
‘I’m glad we met, Mother,’ he said. ‘Wait for me, I want to live as a family.’
‘We will.’ I nodded to Miko. ‘Make the gate.’ I smiled around at them through the tears. ‘I’ll see you in a year.’
‘I love you,’ Miko said, and the gate appeared behind me. She pushed me through and I landed back in the medical room.
‘. . . Then bring the flagship to the orbital nexus, and let’s move everybody somewhere else,’ Oliver was saying.
‘They damaged the ribbon holding the space elevator,’ Dafydd said to me. ‘The car fell off. Marque was able to stop it, but it required all its energy – and its memory and processing cores are damaged, and we need to evacuate the homeworld—’
Aya emerged from the table and sat up. ‘Hikaru?’
I went to her and held her hand. ‘Let’s sort this out.’