After the cookies were eaten and the tea was sipped, Chance and Guilaq finally received word that the empress was ready for them. They were led by the same beautiful maid through a wide hallway off the side of the tower and down a flight of stairs.

Again Chance had to pinch himself not to stare at the thighs that occasionally peeked through her slovenly-worn robe. This challenge was far greater than even PT, it took every ounce of his effort not to stare.

“Here we are.” The woman eventually beamed with a flourish toward the simple door. “Sinnit has already explained the procedures when…”

“Yeah we got it.” Guilaq interrupted with a wave. He couldn’t hear another word of that protocol repeated to him. Chance on the other hand was more than willing to keep listening to her, but he was silently outvoted as Guilaq pushed past the maid and wrenched the door open.

What met them on the other side of the door was a warm room lined with shelves of scrolls and books. Lanterns hung flickering from sconces on pillars scattered around the room, and opposite them, two figures sat patiently awaiting.

Somehow ignoring the pressure, Guilaq happily strode through the doorway without hesitation, forcing the Captain to awkwardly do the same.

“Your highness.” Guilaq graciously offered with a deep reverent bow.

“Why am I not surprised to meet you again N’son Guilaq?” Empress Yuzui remarked with an upturned dimple. “You may both be at-ease.”

Unable to make his own introduction before her order, Chance shifted his footing to the appropriate ease, and then mirrored Guilaq in sitting cross legged on the cushion.

“So, where do we begin?” Guilaq asked, throwing his gaze between the Empress and her nearby advisor.

The consul spoke up first, pointing to a page from the stack of parchment on the small table between them. “Your response to her Highness’ first proclamation was quite harsh towards some of the imperial ancestors, I wonder if you would elaborate here and now on those thoughts. And beyond that, the wording of this final entry is completely unreadable I can’t fathom how you believed this was a logical statement.”

“All I said was ‘Emperor Kamraq was afraid of his own shadow’ which is factually accurate according to the Vind Kamar writings. And besides it’s clearly in jest as you can see from—”

“Those translations aren’t verified, we have no idea what the deeper meanings th—”

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“That enough.” The Empress waved, cutting off the Consul before the arguments could get out of hand. None of this was why she extended the invitation to the two authors, obviously she wanted to hear directly from the man claiming to be summoned from another world.

Turning to meet his gaze, Yuzui paused as she assessed the middle-aged man. He appeared a few years older than she or Guilaq, but his expression was far more curious than would match his age. His appearance aside, what shocked her most as she gazed at him further was that his eyes never skirted away.

“Is the sky also blue on your world?” Yuzui eventually asked, allowing her own curiosity to bubble to the surface.

“Yeah,” Chance grinned as the array of memories began pouring into his head. “But the sunsets here last longer, and they’re much more beautiful.”

“Does rain fall from the sky and create beautiful ribbons of color?”

“It does, but I’d never seen a triple rainbow until we got here.”

Yuzui blushed as if Chance’s compliments to this world were directed completely towards her. Finally, she settled her smile and considered her next query in her mind carefully. “Has your world achieved peace?”

“Not even a little.” Chance admitted without hesitation. “Sure, some people in well-off countries may feel peace but the world as a whole? Never. Not in recorded history and unlikely in the unwritten future.”

“I see. Fine then, the empire will welcome the united fleet conference, but we will not support passages beyond unless we can be sure that this direction is truly the one towards a lasting peace.” Empress Yuzui stated after carefully considering the options left open to her. The appearance of ‘the pilot’ changed many things, if the mid-continent nobility had already summoned ‘heroes’ then the empire would have no choice but to open their port to the conference. If not, who knows where the nobility would point their new blades instead.

“I’ll send word right away.” Consul Binigal nodded, rising from his knelt position in order to relay her command without a moments delay.

As soon as the door shut behind him, the empress returned her glare towards Guilaq. “Honestly, why did it have to be you? Have you spoken with anyone, no strange women? This is far to coincidental; you can’t refute that can you?”

“It’s a bit weird sure.” Guilaq shrugged with a casual wave of his hand. “But I haven’t met any witches that I know of. Look, now you’re getting him all confused, lets back off a minute.”

“If we back off a minute we lose.”

“Yuz, this isn’t a game where we win or lose, we-”

“Don’t call me that.” The empress growled with a heavy slap to the table.

“Sorry about her, she gets like this sometimes.” Guilaq explained in a quiet whisper to Chance.

“Are you and the Empress…” Chance began to ask with fluctuating fear for his life.

“Yeah, She’s my twin sister.” Guilaq explained with a strangely smug grin.

“That’s… what I was going to say.” Chance choked out as he awkwardly glanced between the two. “So I was crashing with imperial royalty?”

“It’s a long story. Try not to go spreading it around,” Guilaq continued with another shrug. “Not that anyone would believe you. I mean really, orphan growing up in a backwater village is the long-lost brother of the empress, too crazy to believe.”

“That explains why you were calling this a coincidence.” Chance murmured as the earlier topic clicked in his head. “But what do you mean by witches?”

He’d witnessed magic firsthand in the form of the strange chanting that healed his various wounds in the forest, so how were witches different?

“Maybe you’d have heard the term Seer instead? I believe that’s what they call them in the mid-continent.”