Suddenly, there was movement from my bag. The zipper slowly opened from the inside, and Nessy's head emerged.

"What's happening?" she asked, climbing out of the bag and looking around.

"I think Candace is having some kind of... breakdown," I explained, struggling to free myself from the tight grip of pradavarian claws. "She's ranting about time loops and being endlessly divided and—"

Nessy's expression shifted from concern to dogged determination. She quickly moved to Candace's side.

"Hey," she said, "Candace, look at me."

The fox-wolf's head snapped toward Nessy, glowing silver eyes wide and unfocused.

Nessy began to hum a relaxing, slow tune. She put her paws to Candace temples, the same way she did it at my grandfather's farm.

Gradually, Candace's hold on me loosened. Her breathing slowed, and the wild flares of Astral gazing in her eyes began to dim.

"That's it," Nessy murmured, pausing her humming. "Just breathe. Follow my voice."

Candace's body sagged, and she suddenly lurched forward, burying her face into Nessy. Her body shook with silent sobs.

"It's not my fault I'm like this," she whimpered at the husky. "It's not! Why won't Alec love meeeee like he loves youuuuuu? Why did I have to get divided so far he can effin' barely toleeerate meeeee…"

I sighed. She definitely wasn't taking my rejection well. The overly confident, flirtatious fox rapidly dissolved into a broken, desperate, sobbing mess.

"Shhh," Nessy soothed, stroking Candace's back. "It's okay. The stuff you see in the abyss, the things you feel... it's okay. It's all going to be okay. I promise."

"It's not okay," Candace wept. "Nothing's okay. We're all going to die again and again and again and it never stops. I don't want to be a two to the power of N number of me! We keep going around and around in a loop and nothing ever changes except I get broken more and more each time!"

Nessy's eyes met mine over Candace's shaking form, her expression questioning. I deduced that she wanted me to assist her.

I stepped closer and crouched down beside both of them. Reaching out, I placed a wolf paw on the trembling fox. "Candace," I said, "I don't know what crazy shit you're seeing in our future or the past. Just know this—you're not alone. You have us now. All of us."

"But you don't loooove meeee!" Her tear-filled eyes blinked at me.

I hesitated, unsure how to respond. "It's not about... love," I offered. "We barely know each other and you hurt me with your actions when we met. We're still establishing trust, building something real, becoming a team."

"I'm sorrrrryyy," she cried. "I didn't want to hurt you, I swear… I just got lost in your branches."

Candace sniffled, wiping her nose with the back of her paw. "You all prolly think I'm crazy. I'm not crazy, I swear! It's reality that's fucked and broken-as-shit! Damn it, I really need some T to stop coming apart at the seams!"

"No. No more Topaz," I said firmly, "that's not the answer. It's just masking the problem, not solving it."

Her wolf chompers snapped dangerously. "You don't understand! You can't possibly understand what it's like to see what I see! To know what I know! This shit is effin' killing me!"

The commotion of her weeping had drawn more attention. Her bag rustled as Kristi and Adelle emerged, climbing out and immediately taking in the situation.

"What's going on?" Kristi asked, looking between us and the sobbing wolf-fox. "What's happening?"

"Candace is... stressed out about things," Nessy explained quietly, still holding the trembling wolf.

"She's having an episode," I added. "Freaking out about repeating loops."

"Damn it, not again," Adelle muttered, moving closer to examine the wolf-fox. "Last time she got like this, she nearly clawed her own eyes out. Said she wanted to stop seeing the 'liminal fractals approaching the infinite edge' or some-shit."

Without warning, Candace suddenly went rigid. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed to the ground, the wolf body convulsing.

"What's happening?" I asked in alarm.

"She… must have snapped back to her own body!" Nessy declared, sniffing the air. She looked back into the bag containing Candace's real body. "Ah! She's stirring awake!"

The wolf girl's body stopped shaking. The silver light flaring in the depths of her eyes winked away, and her face shifted from mad despair to a relaxed expression.

Yura opened her eyes, looking around with complete bewilderment. "What... where am I? Wha—"

Adelle's fist connected with her temple with a whoosh of displaced air. The wolf slumped back to the ground.

"Adelle!" I spun to the cheetah.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"What?" The cheetah shrugged. "You want her raising the alarm? She's fine. Just taking a little nap."

I turned my attention to my bag. Unzipping it further, I saw that Candace was digging frantically through her bag pockets until she pulled out a slim, blue cigar and a metallic lighter.

"Candace," I growled. "Put down the cigar."

"Piss off! I need it!" Candace shrieked.

"Adelle, grab her!" I ordered. "Don't let her light that damned thing!"

The cheetah flashed into the bag via a Shadow-step leap. She smacked the cigar and lighter away from the hissing fox. Wrapping her strong arms around the thrashing fox, Adelle bodily lifted her out of the bag. Candace twisted and bucked, silver fur standing on end, eyes wild.

"Let me go!" She clawed at Adelle. "You don't understand! It's too much! The System, the loops, the divisions! I need the T to blur the edges, to not be sad about being forever alone and being endlessly divided!"

Adelle grunted as a particularly vicious fox claw swipe caught her cheek, drawing blood.

Kristi went into the bag and picked up the blue cigar and lighter.

"No! No! Give it back!" Candace sobbed, tears streaming down her face. "Please! I'm begging you! I need it!"

"Get rid of it," I told the raptor.

Emerging from the bag, Kristi crushed and shredded both in her raptor claws, releasing and mixing the remnants deep into the muddy ground below with her clawed feet. The fox let out a sound of absolute anguish, redoubling her efforts to break free.

"Alec! What the fuck do we do?" Kristi asked. "We can't let her freak out like this, she'll bring every monster in the maze down on us."

I turned to the flailing fox. "Candace, look at me," I ordered. "Focus on me. You don't need that stuff. You are safe."

"Safe?" she laughed bitterly, struggling against Adelle's hold. "Nothing is safe! We're all still trapped in the infinite loop! You... You'll divide me again at the end, just like always! I can see it all—the sword, Systemfall, the Wormwood Star falling, me shattering to infinity!"

"Maybe we should just knock her out too," Adelle suggested grimly.

I shook my head. "No. There has to be another way."

Nessy sniffed the fox. "I think… there is!" She declared.

We all turned to look at her.

"What if..." Nessy began, then stopped, gathering her courage. "What if I offered myself?"

"What?" I blinked at her.

"I want to give Candace… my body."

"What?!" All of us stared at the husky.

"To... switch bodies?" I asked.

"No, not like with the wolves," Nessy clarified, "Topaz affects the soul, not the body. A fusion! Two souls bound into one body. If her soul is tormented by what she sees, maybe sharing a body with another, urm, calmer soul would... I don't know, dilute it? Give her something to anchor to? Reduce the need for Topaz?"

"Are you insane?" Kristi hissed. "Do you realize how dangerous that is?! What if you both end up trapped or… worse what if your souls fuse permanently, dilute into each other, make you into an Astral Phantom?!"

"She can do it," Nessy insisted, pointing at the struggling fox. "She's an amazing Binder. She can bind our souls together temporarily, until she feels better!"

"It sounds too risky," I protested, the thought of potentially losing both of them making my stomach twist. "There has to be another way."

"Like what?" Nessy challenged, gesturing at Candace, who was now biting at Adelle's arms. "She's going to hurt herself or Adelle if this insanity continues!"

"Candace, do you want to share my body?" Nessy leaned down to the snarling fox.

Candace suddenly went still, her attention caught by Nessy's words. "You... would share?" she asked.

"Yes," Nessy said firmly. "I would. Let's multiply instead of dividing, yeah?"

"Nessy, no," I began.

"It's my choice, Alec," she cut me off. "I'm offering. Voluntarily."

I looked at Candace, who had stopped struggling. Then at Nessy, whose extra-determined expression clearly left no room for argument.

"How would this even work?" I asked.

"I will create a binding between our souls," Candace explained. "Temporary, but complete. We'd share Nessy's body, consciousness, memories."

"And your body?" Kristi asked.

"Would go into a sleep state," Candace replied. "Alive n' dormant until I return."

I rubbed my temples, weighing the risks against the troubling situation. "And you're sure you can undo this later? Separate yourselves safely?"

"We'll snap apart on our own," Candace replied. "When the mana powering the binding spell runs out."

"And you won't perma-fuse together?" I confirmed.

"No," Candace shook her head. "The Dagaz pack pact will actually help keep us apart–the rune formation is impossible to break and it reinforces each of us as separate points."

I looked at Nessy one more time, silently asking if she was certain.

She nodded. "I want to help her, Alec. And maybe... maybe this will help me too. I've always had these dreams, these feelings of… something missing."

"Okay," I said after another moment of consideration. "Do it. I trust you both. Adelle, let her go."

Nessy smiled gratefully, then approached Candace. The cheetah released the fox from her grip. The fox didn't fret, simply stood there, staring at the husky with a hopeful expression.

"How do we do this?" Nessy asked.

Candace took a deep, steadying breath. "We need to be in physical contact. And you need to be completely willing—no doubts, no hesitation, no pushing me out."

"Got it." Nessy nodded, extending her paws. Candace took them and their fingers entwined.

"Close your eyes," Candace instructed. "And... think of yourself as an open door. Welcoming me in."

Nessy complied, closing her eyes. Candace began to murmur under her breath in a language made up from ever-shifting words, her paws beginning to glow with eerie silver light.

The air around flickered with sparks and warped like a mirage. A fractal web ignited across both of them. Candace's body began to tremble, then sway, and finally slumped backward, caught by Adelle before she could hit the ground.

Nessy remained standing, eyes closed, her body perfectly still. For a terrifying moment, I thought something had gone wrong, that both of them were now lost in some in-between space.

Then her eyes opened. Her right eye remained that familiar sky blue, but her left eye now shone with Candace's silver-gray spirals.

"Whoa," Nessy let out. Her voice now featured a new, slightly more cute, southern inflection. "Smack me sideways, it worked!"

A sense of overwhelming déjà vu made me shudder, as if I heard this exact voice before in my dreams... amidst endless halls, in the ruins of another world.

"Nessy?" I asked cautiously. "Candace?"

A soft smile graced her face. It was different from before, yet unnervingly familiar... as if her previous smile had indeed been somehow wrong, incomplete.

"Yep," she replied. "I'm… here."

"Are you both okay?" Kristi asked with a worried look.

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