Soleil didn’t inform Rosy Glow of any intention. She just checked in to see if they should be doing anything about Dragon Food. Rosy’s response was, “We always hope he’s going to be okay!”

The Princess had let slip to Derringer that she was going to go her own way, just not when or how. She speedwalked through the halls to the isolated corner that the Dragons had agreed on in the mid-levels of the Arch. It was as quiet and deserted as they would like it, for the moment they had it. She rounded the edge of the space, finding Arkuda and Acamar each meditating in er own corner. The timeframes of their emanations were aligned, and Soleil synchronized her movements as she joined them.

“We have discussed what we are able to accomplish with the two of us, and yourself,” said Arkuda, opening one eye.

“Can we go?” Soleil asked, controlling her breathing. This was the kind of window in time that was more recognizable to people who’ve had Dragon contact, when sound dampens and attention is drawn towards what draws it. They had spoken of this and of that; whatever it was, it was time, and Soleil was ready.

“We can,” Acamar rumbled. “There is a way to bring you out with us both and then to a place of utility. You will become as light in the void, while remaining yourself. Neither of us has done exactly this before, but together and with you as our passenger, we know how. Are you feeling courageous?”

“There is hardly a moment with you that doesn’t demand it, but I could scarcely find you if I weren’t.” Dragons appreciate honesty.

Arkuda chortled. “I, at least, am a familiar element to which you are better accustomed.”

“The rarest of privileges.” Soleil dipped her head to them in courtly fashion. She was wearing the versatile Vedani control suit again, with its impact armor paneling and optional chameleon camouflaging. “So, what must I do, how shall we begin?”

In this corner there was a little bit of the sunstrip wiring that Arjun Woollibee had recently installed, throwing a soft midafternoon glow. “Touch the sunstrip,” Arkuda prompted, “relax, soften your vision, and breathe deeply.”

A smile crossed Soleil’s face as she prepared thusly, extending the open palm of her other hand into the space in front of her. Arkuda, brightness, and Acamar, darkness, both placed their large scaled hands into her Human one. The two Dragons then dissolved steadily into their elements, swirling around Soleil, lifting her loose hair in a soft wind. Her being transmuted into these forces, now a swirl of light and dark herself. The Princess vaporized into a translucent evanescence that was then gone with a surge of sunlight through the Arch’s system, as their linked atomic information shot upward through the channel.