Explanations

“What do you mean I just halted time?”

“Do you mean to tell me,” Jaleesa began slowly, “that you did not mean for this to happen?”

“Alright!” Lubic threw his arms up to the heavens. “This dream is getting way too weird! I want to wake up!”

“Lubic,” Azalyn began wearily, “this is not a dream.”

“But if time has stopped, like you two say it has, then why are we all able to move?”

“I think it is the way you did it. You said no one was going anywhere, but you wanted answers from us. So we’re stuck in this with you, until you get your answers.”

“So, if that is correct,” Jaleesa said thoughtfully, “then this will end once his questions are satisfied?”

“Yes. So Lubic, start asking!”

“Am I the only one who thinks that this is weird?”

“Lubic! Can you please try to be serious?” Azalyn groaned.

“I am being serious! You’re the one who told me this isn’t a dream! But here we are, ‘magically’ in Africa, looking at a floating knife and discussing how I stopped time somehow. What the hell am I supposed to think?”

“Lubic, this isn’t helping!”

“And why the hell do you still look half fish, but everyone else doesn’t seem bothered by this?”

“You’re half fish?” Jaleesa turned to regard Azalyn curiously.

Azalyn felt her cheeks blazing. “Lubic, I told you, I'm an Imezzan! You’re the one who made it so everyone else sees me as a normal human!”

“Hey, and how come you speak English if this isn’t a dream?”

“I believe I can answer that,” the witch began. “Jared once explained to me that there was a law enacted in the aftermath of an ancient war between several races. This was from before even my time, and I am one of the first true humans to gain sentient life. The law states that Starlords and Spacelords can understand every sentient being. The ancients wanted violence to be the last resort for inter-planetary conflicts.”

“Alright witch, so who is Jared?”

“My name is Jaleesa, not witch,” Jaleesa regarded him coldly. “Jared is the Starlord of the humans on Earth.”

“You mean was,” Azalyn corrected. “Lubic is the Spacelord. There cannot be both.”

“I’m not a Spacelord!”

“So that is why I have not seen him in such a long time,” Jaleesa mused sadly. “He normally comes to visit me quite often.”

“Why would the old Starlord visit a witch who eats people?” Lubic asked suspiciously.

“I do not just eat people,” Jaleesa snapped. “It is their souls that I consume. Silver is the mirror to the soul, connecting the physical and astral bodies. By twisting it slightly, I created a dagger that could both sever that connection and hold the soul until I could consume it.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“No, but it answered what could have been another one. The old Starlord came to visit me because first of all, I am one of his people. Yes, I eat souls. But I am still a human.” She smiled wickedly. “Of course, the more important reason is that I have his daughter.”