Without his helmet on, I noticed he too had a collar around his neck—as had the big guy, in fact.

The collars were as white as bone, seemingly featureless, with no apparent way to get them off.

Meanwhile, in the background, I realized I could hear commands being broadcast by an announcer through some unseen intercom—stuff like, "Numbers 173 and 174, report to the arena."

None of this boded well.

"Are you alright?" EUe asked.

"Am… am I alright?" I staggered away from the fountain. "What the fudge was that?!" I pointed at the fountain. "That fountain made me want to kill you!"

He nodded. "Yes, it really sucks starting off so hungry every time."

I blinked in disbelief. I stuck out my arms and wings and stomped my feet, tail feathers bristling. "What do you mean, 'yes'? This… this isn't normal! People aren't supposed to want to rend each other limb from limb for the sake of getting food!"

EUe's beak hung open. The serrated edges clicked against each other as he tapped his beak open and closed several times over. He spoke in an awed whisper. "Gods… you're not twEfE, are you? Your species, I mean."

I dusted off my wings and tail feathers. "You got that right!" I shook out my wings, spending a couple seconds fudging with how to get them to fold nicely against my back.

There.

"Now," I asked, "can you please tell me what the heck's going on?" I looked around. "This is really freaking me out, and that's saying something!"

"I'm sorry," EUe said, with a dip of his head. "I can only imagine how difficult it would be for another species."

"How difficult what would be?" I asked.

V hovered over to us. "As a species," he (?) explained, "twEfE are known for their intense aggressive and xenophobic tendencies, particularly concerning matters of food security and intraspecific competition. Due to their hyperactive metabolisms, insufficient nutrient levels pose a grave risk to their health. Even with psychological training and medication, they are prone to flying into murderous rage during periods of extreme hunger."

"Thanks, V," EUe said, with a nod. Clenching his fists, he looked me in the eye and then lowered his gaze. "We're taught to control our urges almost from the day we hatch. The Ecumene laced the central nectar supplies with sedatives, to help keep everyone calm." He glanced at the fountain. "At this point in the loop, I'd been so busy training that I hadn't had anything to eat all day, so… there's nothing holding me back." His wings drooped. "Even though I'm expecting it, every do-over still hits me like a punch to the face."

"Loop?" I asked. "What loop?"

EUe crossed his arms. "Do you know what it means to be stuck in a time loop?"

"Having to do the same day over and over again?" I said. "Something like that?"

EUe chirped in acknowledgement. "Yes, precisely."

Wait. I blinked, and then spread my wings in surprise. "You're in a time loop?"

"Yep," EUe said. He spat onto the stone floor. "It's fucking everlasting torment, made just for me. I've lost track of how much time it's been."

"I haven't!" V said.

EUe rolled his eyes. "Please don't."

"Eh?" I asked.

EUe shook his head. "V keeps track of the number of days we've been in here. He likes sharing fun facts about the numbers." He waved his hands in the air. "Today," he said, in a mocking imitation of V's voice and manner, "the number of days we've spent in captivity is the smallest positive integer expressible as the sum of three perfect cubes in three different ways, or whatever."

"It helps pass the time," V said.

"Angel, that's awful," I said.

"I'm being forced to relive my days in the gladiatorial circuit," EUe explained. "Every time I don't win a match, I get sent back here, mad with hunger."

I pressed my palms together, as if in prayer. "Alright, can we please slow down? This is a lot of information, even for me."

EUe scratched the back of his head. "I'm sorry about what happened back in the arena. I…" He shook his head. "I shouldn't have done that. It's… it's just been so long since I've interacted with anyone other than V or the voices in my head."

"Does your species have wings?" V asked.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"I wish," I said.

"Gods dammit," EUe said. He rubbed his eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"We don't have much time before they're going to make us fight." He looked over at me. "Since you reset alongside me, I'm gonna hope that means we'll be fighting on the same side. If not, this is going to be a really short loop."

"Actually, there have been fifteen loops where you had already died by now," V pointed out.

EUe flared his tail feathers. "I don't know what will happen if you get killed, so I need to show you how your body works before they throw us into the arena. As long as you can dodge, you should be fine."

"I have a lot of questions," I asked.

"As do I," EUe said. "Well… I guess we might as well introduce ourselves." He pointed at himself, and then at his floating companion. "I'm EUe, and this Vyx module here is my long-time friend V."

I bowed. "It's nice to meet you, EUe." I turned to V and bowed again. "V." I stood up straight. "My name is Genneth Howle; you can call me Genneth."

"As for what you said earlier," EUe said, "I've never heard of any Imprisoned Ones."

"The d'zd had another name for them: the K'rrt."

EUe shook his head and groaned. "Oh fuck them!" He spread his wings in anger. "They're part of the reason why I'm stuck here!"

"That… is news to me," I said.

EUe nodded. "That makes sense. If you've met with the d'zd, I'd doubt they'd be upfront about what really happened." He raised one of his wings, like an eyebrow. "What did they tell you?"

"I got a couple conflicting accounts. What they agreed on was that there was some group of traitorous Vyxit who tried to rise up and conquer the rest of the fleet. You stopped them, but, with some help, the traitors were able to kill you and plunge the Vyxit into civil war. The d'zd disagreed about who killed you."

"Oh really?" EUe asked. "And who, pray tell, did they say did the deed?"

"The T'dzd'ch d'zd said the K'rrt killed you, while the Vvz'zsh d'zd said the T'dzd'ch killed you. Both groups agreed that the K'rrt were the ones who got sealed away at the end, though they disagree about the reasons. At first, I thought the Vvz'zsh had it right, but then I discovered that the K'rrt were running the T'dzd'ch Dominion from behind the scenes, and now… I don't know what to think."

EUe's eyes gleamed like black pearls as they widened. He let out a harsh, chirruping, feather-bristling laugh. "Of course they'd do that!"

"What's so funny?" I asked.

EUe flicked his wings in aggravation. "The K'rrt were the ones who imprisoned me."

I blinked in confusion with my beak slightly ajar. "But-but… you're a hero to the d'zd! They even built statues of you. Big ones, too!"

EUe waved his tail feathers. "I'm glad someone appreciates me."

"So why would they imprison you?"

"EUe…" V said, with a nervous shake of his body.

"I'm afraid we don't have enough time for me to explain this," EUe said, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "It will have to wait."

V flew over to a nearby hallway. "He's coming!"

Then the little Vyx module hovered back over to us, and, speak of the Norm, I saw the shadow of a twEfE approaching us from around the corridor.

"Hey, EUe," the newcomer said, "who's your friend?" The speaker stepped into view, accompanied by two other twEfE.

EUe sighed.

They were a motley crew of three, as rugged as the armor they wore, which exuded an earthy exuberance, accentuated by their personal décor. One had amusing combat doodles on his leather breastplate, mostly depicting various slain opponents, twEfE an otherwise; the second had blue lituui tattooed on his face feathers, like fresh fern fronds, while the third had mashed the feathers cresting atop his head into a bright orange mohawk.

They seemed friendly enough. They definitely had strong deuteragonist energy.

But when I glanced at EUe, I realized he'd closed his eyes. V had turned away, pointing his glowing front end toward the wall behind us. Before I could even ask them what they were doing, EUe stretched out an arm, levitated a naginata off one of the weapon racks and swept the weapon through the air with a forward fling of his arm in a magicked strike that cut clean through the three newcomers' necks. Their bodies plopped to the floor, beaks stammering in shock. Heartblood pumped out of their severed necks in steady streams.

I admit, I freaked out. I stuttered and yelled, flapping my wings in distress, but then EUe opened his eyes and, in a calm voice, said: "Don't make a fuss; they're not real."

He held his naginata the way a wizard would hold their magic staff.

A couple seconds later, the three dead twEfE flickered, briefly turned insubstantial, and then vanished, blood and all.

I rubbed my eyes and then looked again.

Yep, they were gone.

I gave EUe a real good stare. "W-What's happening?" I pointed at where the bodies had just been. "Did you just—"

"—I told you already, they're not real." EUe stamped the base of his naginata's staff on the brick floor. "None of this is."

I tried to get myself to accept that, but it wasn't easy.

"Even then, why did you kill them?" I asked.

EUe tilted his head to the side. "Why do you care?"

"I'm a doctor," I said, "it's my job to care. Well," I lowered my voice, "it was."

Sighing, EUe ruffled his feathers and laid his weapon against the wall.

"Do you want me to explain it to him?" V asked.

EUe shook his head. "No, I'll do it." He turned to me. "Those three are false friends."

"How so?" I asked.

"They exist only to make me miserable," he explained. "Trust me, we're better off without them." He shook his head. "Now, please, we don't have much time. If you're not twEfE—"

"—I'm not," I said.

He whistled softly. "Do you know how to fly?"

"With wings, you mean?" I made an attempt to unfold my wings.

"What do you mean, with—" but then EUe cut himself off. "Huh." He crossed his arms. "I'll ask you about that later, then. For now, I need to teach you to fly, otherwise our loops are going to be exceptionally short."

"Learn to fly?" I asked. "Right now?"

"Yes, right now."

I couldn't help but think back to my attempts to master wyrm flight. It made me worried. What if it went badly?

"Alright," I said, "what do I need to do?"

— — —

As it turned out, the answer to my question was die; more specifically: die repeatedly—though I'm getting ahead of myself.

I was still trying to get the hang of beating my wings quickly enough to make them buzz when I learned what the collars around our necks were for: pain.

Without any warning—at least none that I could discern—our collars jolted us with enough electric shock to immobilize us long enough for the arena's workers to pick us up and dump us into an antechamber that let out onto the arena.

As EUe told me, the overseers in control of them were, in his words, "Far too button-happy for their own good."

The antechamber was filled with quite a few racks of weapons, shields, and other pieces of armor. EUe grabbed a naginata and told me to dual wield a pair of shields.

"You'll need them," he quipped.

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