I spot a tear trailing down the side of Lin's face, so I pull her close and kiss her as I wipe it away. I didn't mean to upset her, I never expected the conversation to end up here. Still, the fact that she is strong enough to be willing to do what is necessary is strangely comforting.

"I just want you to know that if it ever does come to that, I would rather die by your hand than anyone else's. I promise to be as careful as I can to prevent that, but I would rather die than become a real monster."

Lin says "For my part, I promise to smack you anytime I see you about to do something reckless!"

That sets both of us to laughing and helps to dispel the heavy atmosphere. When we finally stop laughing, after a few more kisses, I finally notice that we are alone. The others have already left the soulscape and I have no idea when they left.

Even Myria left without saying anything, I stopped watching her at some point. She probably saw the two of us having an intense conversation and was not willing to interrupt. I will have to remember to thank her for being considerate when she didn't have to.

"The others all left, did you notice?"

Lin says "Nope, I wasn't paying attention to anything other than you."

"Yeah, I didn't notice either. Luckily, this is my soulscape, if it was the real world that kind of inattention could be dangerous."

Lin says "Not really. We are on the ship, nothing could get to us without warning. That gives me an idea, do you trust Athena the same way you trust Yui?"

"Not exactly, at least not yet. I am fairly sure that she wouldn't betray me unless I was doing something horrible. However, she is still new to being a spirit and it is possible her personality will change. Why?"

Lin says "Well, from what you told me about how the tower made you feel safe, I thought we could work on getting the ship to be the same. If you can truly relax on the ship, that would definitely help you."

"That's probably true, but we will need to wait and see how Athena matures. In the meantime, I will try to let myself relax more."

Lin says "We may not need to wait. If you improve the defenses of the ship you should feel safer right away."

"The only way to do that would be to use formations and I am not allowed to play with formations anymore."

Lin says "Then I guess we just need to create a better language for magic."

"That will be even more dangerous. Are you sure about this?"

Lin says "Yes. I trust you and I will be there to smack you if you try anything too crazy."

"I get the feeling I am going to get smacked a lot. Wait, there might just be another option, but it could also be dangerous."

Lin says "What are you thinking?"

"Well, there is this dragon I know that is somewhat friendly towards me. He has taught me a lot. I am thinking maybe he would be willing to teach me the dragon's language."

Lin says "You think the dragon's language will have a written form that works for formations?"

"Oh, absolutely! Dragons are creatures of magic on par with deities. Their language will definitely be a magical language."

Lin says "Well, alright. So, how do we speak with this dragon?"

"Wait, we?!"

Lin says "Of course! I am not letting you do something dangerous alone!"

"Honestly, I am not sure how he would react to me bringing you, but if you want to go I won't stop you."

Lin says "Good! Now, how do we get there?"

Instead of answering I return to my normal form and lift her onto my back. Then I warn her to hold on and that this is probably going to feel really weird. I had an idea a while ago and now I am going to find out if it will work or not.

While concentrating I open a gateway to the hall of doors, but I don't go through it. Instead I concentrate on what the dragon's soulscape felt like and try to connect the gateway to it. The gateway starts bending and twisting until it looks like it is on the verge of collapsing.

In the end it does collapse and I am sure that I have failed to reach the dragon's soulscape. However, right after the gateway collapses a massive pair of doors appear in my soulscape. The doors are over a hundred feet tall, bright red, and very ornate.

Lin says "Ash, what is that?!"

"If I'm right, it is the entrance to the dragon's soulscape."

Lin says "Soulscape? Is that where we are going?"

"Yes. Still want to go with me?"

Lin says "I'll admit, I am scared, but I am going with you."

"Okay."

Before I can think better of it, I walk up to the doors and knock as hard as I can. Up close, the size of the doors makes me feel tiny, which is not something I am used to. After a tense minute or so, the doors swing open revealing a swirling vortex of energy.

Taking a deep breath, before I can change my mind, I walk into the vortex. Passing through the vortex feels like I am falling, spinning, and doing flips all at the same time. Faintly, as if from far away, I can hear Lin screaming, yet I can also feel her hugging my neck for dear life.

The feeling only lasts for seconds, but at the same time it feels like it lasts for hours. When my senses clear I find I am hovering in the air above a lake of lava in a huge cavern. The heat is really intense and I do my best to shield Lin from it with my body.

The lava shifts as something moves beneath it and then the dragon's head rises from the lava. He is in his real form so his head is big enough that he could eat me in one bite. When Lin sees that she lets out a little yelp and buries her face in the fur of my neck.

The sound and movement draw his attention and I can see his eyes focus on my neck. Instantly the temperature drops and the lava is replaced with a rock floor. The dragon also shrinks down so he is only about three times my size, much less intimidating.

Dragon says "Every time you show up you are more and more dragon-like. I can't wait to hear what kind of trouble you have gotten into since your last visit. First, why don't you introduce me to your companion."

"This is Lin and she is my mate."

Dragon says "Congratulations! It is about time you found someone. Hello, Lin, it is a pleasure to meet you. I will not harm you, in fact I wish you well. Ash is going to prove to be quite the handful for you to deal with."

Lin says "Oh, he already is! It is nice to meet you as well."