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Coming back through the portal was exhausting.
Kristin had known that what was coming would be dangerous, so dangerous that she had to get Phil and his friends out of there, but she'd underestimated how much it would affect her as well. She was a goddess, but the various dimensional effects that had overtaken the overworld made it difficult even for her to navigate.
It was a relief to be back in the End. Kristin watched the crows she'd found fly out of the portal after her: some of them circled the portal, others flew along the bridge Phil and Niki and Connor had made to the main island, cawing loudly. Kristin could already see that there were more buildings than there had been before: Phil and his friends had clearly been busy. There wasn't much building material variety in the End, but Phil had tried to make up for it by using different shapes and patterns as decoration. He'd clearly put a lot of effort into it! Her husband was so sweet.
"Kristin?" she heard him call. Phil walked out from behind the back of the house with a wide smile, a crow sitting on each shoulder and two more circling above him. "Are you back?"
He was looking straight through her. Kristin sighed. She'd worried that rematerializing would be too hard straight after returning to this dimension. Luckily it was only a matter of time until she'd gathered enough strength again to build herself a body again. Last time it had taken decades, but this time the shape was still there and only needed to be filled, and it was easier in this dimension anyway. She already missed having a body again, but Phil and she were sadly used to only being able to talk with each other, and this time they both knew they only had to wait a short time.
"Hi!" Kristin said, waving even though she knew he couldn't see. "I'm back! It took a bit longer than I thought, it's a mess up there."
Phil didn't react at all.
One crow cawed loudly right next to his ear, and Phil shoved it off irritably. "Shut it, you. You know I can't understand you here. Can you show me where she is?"
The crow cawed again, unhelpfully.
Oh no.
***
It took a while for the hope in Phil's face to fade. He called for her several more times and eventually walked to the portal, examining it from all angles, even though his face showed that he already knew it wouldn't tell him anything.
Kristin hovered behind him, unable to interact with him in any way. She'd tried shouting, but that only led to the crows becoming agitated and annoying Phil. She'd tried directing the crows to communicate with Phil, but the crows' enthusiasm far outstripped their discipline and ability. At some point she had to tell them to stop bothering Phil, which they didn't like at all.
"It's not like I did this on purpose," Kristin said irritably when they complained. "I really thought he'd at least be able to hear me! I'm not enjoying this either."
The crows didn't think this was a good argument. Kristin decided to ignore them.
Instead she kept watching her husband. He'd climbed up one of the obsidian towers and was sitting on the edge, watching the dragon fly around in the distance. When he sat on cliffs he liked the feeling of the wind in his hair and wings, but there was no wind in the End, and there were still stabilizing bandages around his wings.
She hadn't had a choice, but Kristin still wished she could have taken Phil to a nicer dimension. And she would! A dimension with mountains and forests and flowers and many exciting and beautiful places. They'd be able to take a beach vacation together, that would be even better than doing it alone. It'd take her some time to gather the energy for the trip, but she would definitely be able to lead them elsewhere. They just had to wait for Techno to come join them here first, because making the trip twice would be even harder, not to mention she'd have to keep checking if he arrived yet.
Fortunately it shouldn't be too much longer! At least, she hoped so? It was sort of hard to tell, with how messed up the overworld was, but she'd at least managed to send him a message. She was pretty sure he'd understood, so it was only a matter of time. Techno was resilient, he'd find a way. She'd tried to tell Phil that before, and that she knew he hadn't died because she'd know if he had. Phil had still worried, even though he'd tried to hide it, but she knew him too well for that. That's why she'd decided to go back to the overworld and contact Techno.
She had told Phil that that's what she was doing, right? She was pretty sure she had.
Phil was still sitting there. Some of the crows had returned after Kristin had shooed them away and landed on the pillar near Phil, occasionally throwing what they thought were covert looks her way to see if she noticed or cared. They were behaving themselves, so Kristin let them be. Unusually for him, Phil didn't even seem to notice them, much less talk to them.
That wasn't a good sign. Phil only didn't talk with the crows when he was either talking to someone else or when he was too deep in his own thoughts, and right now Kristin was pretty sure they weren't happy thoughts. And she couldn't even distract him, because he couldn't hear her! It was frustrating. They'd just had a chance to touch each other again for the first time in so long, and now…
Kristin didn't know how much time had passed – it was difficult to tell for her in general and especially here, where there was no sun – but she didn't feel any different than she had. How long would it take for Phil to be able to hear her again? And Phil knew that the crows had come from the overworld, and he knew that she wouldn't just leave him for longer than she had to. Her silly husband was probably worrying about her again. No matter how often she reminded him that she was the goddess of Death, he still worried. He was a worrier, even though he tried to deny it. It was sweet, except for situations right now, when it was clearly very bad for him.
But there was nothing Kristin could do right now, no matter how badly she wanted to reassure him and pick him up and kiss him until he was smiling again. She wanted to make things better for him, especially because so much had gone wrong recently. She'd wanted to stop him worrying about Techno and now he was worried about Techno and about her too, and that was in addition to losing his latest home and not being able to contact his other friends or Wilbur and still being unable to fly, and none of these were things she currently had the power to fix. She couldn't even help his wings heal faster: her powers were of death, not of healing.
Though – that wasn't the only way to fly. Back when Phil and Techno had conquered a world, they'd used flying machines: not the same as wings, of course, but they came with their own advantages. And elsewhere people had made their own wings. In fact…
"I'm going to get you wings!" Kristin told Phil excitedly. "I remembered, there are probably some still around here somewhere in the old cities! They won't be as good as yours but it'll be the next best thing while yours heal! I'll be back soon," she added, even though she knew he couldn't hear her.
The crows cawed in excitement and approval, some even flew in her direction. Kristin waved at them and then made her way to the outer islands, faster than they could follow. There was no time to lose. She didn't know the area, but from what she could remember, the cities were big. Finding them couldn't be that hard.
***
Finding a city had taken longer than Kristin had expected, and then she hadn't even found any wings there. She'd found some in a ship near a second city, but they were half-broken and ugly besides, clearly not well taken care of. Phil deserved much better. The wings she'd found near the next city had been in slightly better shape, but their color and shape didn't suit Phil at all. The next city didn't have any wings either, and the wings she found at the next city weren’t terrible but not ideal either…
Maybe she was being too picky. Kristin looked critically at the seven different pairs of wings laid out in front of her. None of them were good enough for her husband, but to be honest there was no way any artificial pair of wings could ever be good enough. Phil's wings were perfect the way they were when they were whole, and anything else could only ever be a stopgap measure. And as such, one of these would surely be good enough. There was a chance that she could find a better pair in another city, but that would mean that she had to spend more time searching, and more time away from her husband. He might not be able to see or even hear her at the moment, but it was still nice to see him. Besides, what if she did regain enough power to talk with him but didn't even notice? That would be a terrible waste.
Experimentally, Kristin tried calling to him, but he still didn't react to her voice. Not yet, sadly, at least not over such a distance. But it could happen soon! Especially if she was closer. She wouldn't know if she wasn't there. Clearly returning was the sensible thing to do.
Decided, Kristin picked up the wings – all of them so that Phil could choose the one he liked best, and spare pairs for Niki and Connor and for Techno when he arrived – and made her way back. Her search had taken her further away than she'd anticipated. Thankfully, as a goddess, travel times were not quite as bad for her as for mortals, but she'd already been away for some time, and so she hurried.
Finally she could almost see the central island when her old friend the dragon crossed her path in a clearly deliberate way.
"Hi!" Kristin greeted her.
The dragon nodded at her and then tilted her head in a clear question.
"I was getting wings for Phil," Kristin explained. "His are still healing, and I'm not a healer, but I thought he could use these in the meantime." She retrieved a pair from her inventory to demonstrate. "They're not as good as his own, of course, but they'll do for now."
The dragon flew in a circle around her. She opened her mouth and dragonbreath surrounded Kristin.
"Hey," she protested, putting the wings away again. "Careful!" It couldn't hurt her, of course, it only tingled a little, but she didn't know how breakable the wings were.
Her friend was clearly laughing at her as she flew off.
As Kristin came closer to the island the crows flew toward her, cawing loudly and complaining that she had taken too long. "Shush," she told them, laughing. "I'm back now."
"Kristin?" Phil called, sounding shocked.
"Phil!"
He was running toward her, a wide smile on his face.
"Kristin! You're back!"
"You can see me again!"
Despite that she half expected Phil's touch to go through her, since she hadn't had the time to focus on forming her body again. Instead Phil crashed into her at full speed, throwing his arms around her in a desperate hug.
"I missed you," he said, his voice choked up.
"I missed you too." How wonderful it was to touch him again! She hugged him tightly in return. "I was right here – well, since the crows returned, at least – but you couldn't hear me!"
"You were here the whole time?" Phil asked. Kristin moved away slightly and saw that he was blushing slightly. Her husband was so cute.
"Not the whole time," she corrected. "I got you a present!"
"Oh?"
Kristin stepped back and took out the artificial wings, holding up the first pair excitedly. It was the pair the dragon had breathed on, and it shimmered with dragon magic. "I got this one, and also…"
But Phil had already reached out, an amazed expression on his face. As soon as he touched it, the wings brightened and then disappeared in a flash of purple light.
"Uh, Kristin? Was that supposed to happen?"
"I don't think so," Kristin said, frowning. "I think…"
Phil grimaced and bent over, closing his eyes.
"Phil?" Kristin asked in alarm.
"It itches," he complained. "It's fine, it's already getting better, I think."
"What itches?"
"My wings." Phil paused and then carefully moved one of his wings. "Can you get the bandages?" he asked hesitantly.
"Of course." The multiple complicated breaks had healed enough that there had only been a few splints and bandages remaining and half of those only as a reminder not to use his wings yet, and it was quick work to remove them. As soon as she had, Phil snapped his wings out to their full wingspan and then moved them, slowly at first and then faster. Purple dragon magic shimmered briefly across glossy black feathers. As he'd done a thousand times before, he jumped into the air and flew.
Kristin beamed as she watched him. She'd have to thank her friend for this.
Phil only flew one circle before coming back. He landed right in front of her and gave her a passionate kiss that she was very happy to return.
"Thank you," he said, "thank you so much. I'm so glad you're back!" He was wearing a wide smile, one she hadn't seen in a long time.
Crows were flying around them, cawing loudly in appreciation, and this time Kristin didn't mind them at all.