“Possessed? No, how could he possess me?” Alora shook her head back and forth. She wiggled her front claw. “But, okay, yeah, this is Zyocuh. He ended up living in my claw due to circumstances. I’m not possessed, promise.”

Stella placed her hands on her hips, still half-embedded in Vur’s snout. “That’s exactly what a possessed person would say.”

Alora furrowed her brow and scratched her snout. How was she going to convince someone that she wasn’t possessed? Well, when in doubt, ask. “Um, what can I do or say to make you think I’m not?”

“You can recite Grimmy’s code of honor,” Vur said before Stella could say anything. “I told you it and not Zyocuh. Only you should know it.”

Alora’s face darkened. “Yeah, I totally know it…. Code number one…, uh, never bite Grimmy’s tail. Ever.”

Vur’s eyes crossed to stare at the fairy on the tip of his snout. “You’re right; she’s possessed.”

“I’m not! The code’s dumb and stupid and I forgot it, alright!?”

“His acting’s really good,” Stella said and nodded at Vur. “I almost thought he was actually Alora for a second. Why don’t you try hitting him with that purifying laser beam that Kondra used on you? It should cleanse her and fix her possession problem by removing Zyocuh.”

“That’s a good idea,” Vur said.

“Wait. Hold up,” Alora said. “Laser beam?”

Vur nodded. “It’s a skill that cleanses things until they have a pure heart.”

“Or die,” Stella added.

Alora took a step back as white light leaked out of the gaps between Vur’s teeth. “Wait a second, just hold—on!” She screamed and leapt to the side as a bright, white beam of light shot out of Vur’s mouth. It narrowly missed her head, hitting and incinerating the buildings inside of the empty town, leaving a line of destruction in its wake as if someone had taken an eraser to the earth. Alora turned her head behind herself. Her eyes bulged, and she whipped her neck back around to face Vur. “Hold up! What part of that is cleansing!?”

Vur tilted his head. “Why did you dodge? If you let it hit you, you’d know.”

“If I let that hit me, I’d die!”

Vur blinked. “Oh, right. You’re Zyocuh right now.” He nodded. “That’s why you dodged.” His throat shone, white light accumulating in the back of his mouth. His voice was low and throaty, “Don’t worry, Alora. I’ll free you soon.”

“You can’t hurt family members!” Alora shouted as she scrambled backwards and flapped her wings. “Remember Grimmy’s code! You can’t hurt family members!” She ducked, and a laser beam flew over her head, barely missing her temple. “You’re breaking the code!”

“Your aim is horrible,” Stella said. “You should’ve trained this instead of your lightning. Maybe you can’t shoot down a star with a laser, but at least you’d be able to cleanse a fleeing dragon. Look at how big she is, she can’t be that hard to hit.”

“Did you just take a jab at my weight!?”

“She really does sound like she isn’t possessed,” Stella said and clicked her tongue. “Zyocuh must’ve interrogated her beforehand, or he took a portion of her memories.”

“This laser is harder to aim than it looks,” Vur said and snorted. “Kondra was just really good at it.”

“Really?” Stella asked. “To me, it looks like you just point and shoot.”

“That’s why I said it’s harder to aim than it looks,” Vur said, his mouth filling with white light. “It looks easy, but it’s not.”

“Stop shooting! Let’s talk this through,” Alora said. “I’m really, really not possessed! I asked Zyocuh to help me get stronger and”—she dove to the side and rolled a few times, dodging three consecutive but smaller laser shots—“he just ended up inside me! Alora is still the one in control here!”

“If that’s really the case, then let Vur cleanse you just to make sure,” Stella said. “If you’re pure-hearted and not possessed, then it shouldn’t hurt at all.”

“Why do you think I’m pure-hearted?” Alora asked, peeking her head out from the building that she rolled behind. “If I had a pure heart, do you think I’d ask Zyocuh to help me get stronger in the first place?”

Vur tilted his head. “Why did you ask Zyocuh to make you stronger?”

Alora puffed her chest out. “Because of Grimmy’s code of honor!”

Vur blinked. “I thought you said you forgot it.”

“I can’t remember the whole thing, but I remember this specific one because I want to use it to spite Grimmy,” Alora said and nodded. “It went along the lines of a dragon always gets revenge, right? Don’t let go of the slightest slight or something like that?” Without waiting for Vur’s response, she continued, “And Grimmy slighted me. I have to get revenge.”

Stella rubbed her chin. “I can almost believe your story,” she said with squinted eyes. “But what did Grimmy do to you that’d make you ask Zyocuh to help you get revenge?”

“Well, Zyocuh actually asked me to help him,” Alora said and snorted. “He tried to trick me, but little did he know, my brain is literally bigger than his body, so of course I came out on top. But I only agreed to help collaborate because Grimmy….” A shiver racked Alora’s body, and she lowered her head. “He … did things I don’t want to talk about.” Her eyes lit up, and she raised her head, her mouth contorted into a snarl. “But he did them! And I’ll have my revenge.”

Vur glanced at Alora’s claw. “Then should I cleanse your claw?”

Alora tucked her paw to her chest and covered it with her wing. “Don’t you dare. I’m still using him to get stronger. He’s already helped me get new secret powers that I’m not telling you what they are because if I do you’ll tell Grimmy and ruin it for me.” She stuck her tongue out at Vur. “I just have one more giant to absorb, and I’ll be able to follow Grimmy’s code of honor by getting my revenge. You shouldn’t stop me from following Grimmy’s code.”