Welcome to Chapter 18, which picks up soon after Chapter 16 left off. Please note that this chapter gets a bit darker and more intense than some. Nothing beyond the usual "hard PG-13" range of content, but if you have specific triggers you'd like a warning about, feel free to email us or DM me on Discord to ask.

I'm using a new style of speech balloon for direct Morphus-Companion telepathy this chapter, so it'll be easier to tell apart at a glance from telepathy between a Morphus and someone they're not bonded to (like Kip talking to Ranon or anyone else in the previous chapter). If you need a worldbuilding refresher, Morphyx can initiate a temporary two-way telepathic connection to talk with a person nearby. A bonded Morphus also has a permanent telepathic connection to their Companion, which is active at all times when the pair are within a few miles of each other. Think of it as the Morphus having two separate text message threads or chat windows open.

Update to the comic archive page: The pages are now listed with thumbnail images along with the page numbers, and you can click on chapter headers to view the pages (so you don't have to scroll through 600+ thumbnails at once to find something). Thanks to Andy of The Lost Things Club for help in getting the code to work!

And thanks again to everyone who contributed art to share during the break! I'll leave the guest art posts up till next week and then move them to the Extras page.