Thankfully for his skin, Bell was more gentle their second time consummating their relationship. The princess did scratch and bite, but also was just genuinely happy to see him again and actually hugged and kissed him and made him promise, with some very serious puppy dog eyes, he was not going to get himself decapitated in surprise attacks again.

He agreed, though his main thought was that generally nobody was trying to get their head cut off, and there wasn't much one can do about surprise decapitation unless he found a neck-guard artifact, and even then if someone hit him with a scythe the way the Bride did it would break his neck rather then protect him, and he'd still be mincemeat.

Still, he spent part of the night with Bell before the phone he had brought started buzzing, Bearer guessing correctly that he was 'getting some' and that 'after he messed the princess up' to call.

He did, feeling Bell warm up his back as he tapped the contact.

"Bearer. This is Corvayne."

"Oh no kidding? How many other dead-pan warriors do you think I know? What did you find out?"

Corvayne had to admit, he had less then he had hoped. "The empire seems to have merged into the Collective as Cascadia's rulers. I still don't know the extent of how they mesh geographically, or where a bunch of wildcards are. Argyle, Spears, Raven, Diamond, and the Bride. My own goal is still to see about investigating the portal under the palace once we find Diamond and can confirm all these other possible time bombs are dealt with."

Bearer hummed. "Use your... royal connection... to probe those details."

"Did Dawn have anything useful?"

"Mafia boss lady clearly knows more then she let on, but I didn't want to pick a fight in her territory and knock myself out for another month. She knows I'm an ally to Wick but doesn't trust me."

Corvayne thought about it. "I don't entirely trust you either."

"I'm hurt! But you are right, I'm still my own side in this. Trust nobody. Not even yourself."

Corvayne thought a bit. "I'm going to hang up soon, but I want to check out the source and see if the Spider is around, then verify we don't need to worry about the Raven."

"Check out your portal too, see if we can get to the rest of Nel'Feral. Do you remember offhand how big Cascadia's radius was? The Planet. Not the city. But also the city."

Corvayne didn't. Annoying. "I think it was close to 'Mud' which was the one they always had as the standard. I might purchase an atlas and see if I can remember..."

"You don't have any money, do you?"

Corvayne felt something warm and soft on his back and smelled the rose perfume that Bell was using. She drawled near his ear. "He's rich enough now."

Corvayne nodded. "It seems I have a sugar momma. I will work hard to get funds sufficient for upgrading my bike and doing a survey of Nel'Feral. Can you work on getting Spears up?"

"Yeah, but if she's hostile get your ass back over here." Bearer hung up, and Corvayne looked at the time. Too late to go out riding, so he turned around to give Bell more attention.

The next morning a bird-human missile hit him and Bell, forcing Corvayne to scramble to put clothes back on and causing Bell to yell at her daughter to give them time to get put together. Her suite in the palace faced out at the imperial township and over the pine woods that had replaced it's dusty fields. Bell was all too happy for the changes to her comforts, letting Corvayne know that if she was ever thrust back into her medieval society she was certainly inventing the shower as her first and perhaps only contribution to bettering her world.

Corvayne enjoyed breakfast in a private and very clean dining room that gave him a lovely view of a clear Cascadian morning. He counted the moons and saw that there were three, including a glittering orb. Not a great sign, as it didn't rule out Diamond dropping out of orbit on them. Corvayne would have to see if there was any activity from the moon that suggested she was reacting to him stepping on world. Actually they had a spaceport if he needed a way to remove Diamond's curse if it didn't take in the dungeons.

Hylal seemed very happy. "Let's get all your friends back and go play Corvayne!"

"I need to go see if we can find the Spider." And Undine was probably around. Wait, wouldn't that mean Hari was not restricted to finding a portal? Well, she knew enough about Cascadia that they could gather there. "Also, I want to go over the main threat on this world. Argyle."

There was a knock on the door right as he said it. Corvayne rolled his eyes, somehow sure that he was about to get face time with the murderous time monk.

Bell, not knowing that Corvayne had received the thought from on high, snapped her fingers and an attendant opened the door, letting the haughty monk in.

"Princess Bellithica... Princess Hylal. My apologies for bothering you this early but there is a situation in the high plains."

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Corvayne locked eyes with him, and Argyle met his gaze and raised an eyebrow a little. He still felt the man's predator instincts, but there was in his eyes now a waiver of hesitation, and Corvayne swore he saw the man shiver before straightening up.

"Hmm. I did not know you had taken a consort." Argyle said, rubbing his chin and looking at Corvayne. A bit of defensiveness overtook him. Had he been aiming for Bell? Keep your eyes and hands off my girl!

"Corvayne. And you must be Argyle, in charge of Cascadia's security. The Baron picks his men well." Corvayne considered how fast he could pop this clone with his shadow hands now. It wouldn't be easy without any gear. Argyle, likewise, was almost assuredly also gauging how to best kill Corvayne. Likely he did that for every stranger.

"I wouldn't say I'm in charge. I am a liaison for the Baron. Princess, is he cleared to...?"

Bell nodded. "Yes."

"Fine. Across the breach there's a rogue agent stirring up trouble. A group of his ruffians went and crossed the portal line into my no-mans-land. From the survivors, they work for a man who calls himself The Raven. I would appreciate you using your imperial agents to pinpoint where he is." Argyle tapped his staff and Corvayne suppressed the urge to try to bolt and store it.

Bell looked over at Corvayne. Corvayne looked over between her and Argyle. Unlike the police, there was an element of diplomacy here. Argyle respected Bell on some level, and maybe feared her?

"I'll see if we need to call my brother out. More likely my consort here will consider hunting him a good warmup." Bell scratched her white energy scars. Corvayne felt a foot rub his under the table. He guessed it was part of her way of showing she was eager to fight. Or that she liked watching Corvayne fight. Well, if he had to take on Argyle right now, it would certainly be a fight.

"Warmup? Hmm." Argyle sized him up. "Might be interesting to spar with you. Don't get many good fights out this way." The monk's voice was low and his eyes narrowed. Jealousy or perhaps just instinct kept Argyle trained on him. Corvayne felt a hint of murderous intent and it was almost a relief.

"If you are not busy the next few days, I think we will find time to fight." Corvayne said noncommittally. Not before he grabbed a boat load of treasures, and maybe after he had Growl-Whine backing him up.

Bell stood up. "Either way, I don't want you to say we don't keep the area around your claim clear. We'll take care of it. After all, he was on our radar as well. It should be simple to find him."

Argyle smiled. "Then you don't mind if I tag along with you? I've been wondering if I would have a chance to see those light weapons your empire uses in action."

A little later, Hylal was on her way to class for the day and Corvayne and Bell were riding with goggles over the high plains. Wind whipped Corvayne, as he hadn't put a shield on his bike. Bell had stopped trying to talk after spitting dust out a few times. She pointed to help guide him, though Corvayne had Compass active and trained on the Raven.

Argyle, meanwhile, was following in his black helicopter. It irked Corvayne to have someone so lethal following behind him. He was well aware how fast a bag of seeds would shred their ride and them with it. However, through the ride there was no attack, letting Corvayne position himself right above a large camp.

Corvayne could see rows of black tents on the scrub plains, set up in arrays that suggested they were planning to march on the wall that Corvayne could see over his shoulder. He then tipped the nose of his hovercycle down and aimed for a controlled drop into camp. He saw Argyle swerve his chopper and follow in.

Bell hissed an intake of breath, but Corvayne activated [[Unity]] and pushed confidence through the link, calming Bell down. Oddly enough, curiosity and caution came from further behind him. With the same mission of finding and taking out The Raven, it seemed that the pact treated his would-be enemy as an ally. It might give him a few seconds to evade if their 'ally' turned on them.

Diving into the line of tents and ignoring the screeching of the sky-knights, Corvayne slid the bike next to the huge black tent that his compass power was pointing to. He rushed into the tent, spotting the wiry frame of the Raven sitting on a bed. Next to him was a badly injured but alive victim. Corvayne didn't waste time, throwing shadow hands into The Raven and activating [Cross Skill: Shadow Stealer]. The Raven's shield flared up, and his shoulder cannon fired at Corvayne, forcing him to roll out of the tent. A moment later, the Raven rolled out of the tent. Bell was behind him, clearly having kicked the orb.

“You got stronger Bell.” Corvayne said, impressed. He dodged the carbon knives the Raven was packing, using his spear to gently parry the mans poor knife work. His shadow hands were digging into The Raven but the shield kept Corvayne from scoring a serious hit.

A stern voice behind him said. “Step back.”

Corvayne dashed back and Argyle stopped time to move to the Raven's flank, with a wave of his aging skill destroying the shield belt and most of The Raven's weapons with a sweep of his hand.

Corvayne followed it up with a spear in the Raven's throat, interrupting whatever protest the man had with a swift death. He took a moment to wipe it off on the bandit lords cape. Screeching from all around told him there were already packs of Sky Knights converging on them, and Corvayne directed his shadow hand to clip their wings rather then go for kills.

He turned back to see Argyle give the body a little kick, then nodded. “No hesitation.”

Corvayne righted his bike and pulled Bell back on. “Never when I'm killing monsters.”

The monk smiled. “Ever consider working for the Baron?”

“Probably did, in a different life.” Corvayne revved his engine as Bell strapped herself in behind him. Argyle swept a hand and shards of his chopper formed around him.

They flew low out of camp, Bell turning and using a handgun to try to plink fliers. With the wind whipping them and the speed Corvayne was gunning for the wall, there was no chance she scored any hits.

Argyle slowed a little once they were on the other side of the Imperial border. Corvayne took a moment to look around, seeing two moons and a faint hint three others, including Diamond's moon, as if they were transitioning between worlds. The monk lifted his cockpit.

“Impressive skill at finding the leader immediately. If you tire of serving The Empire, my offer stands.”

Corvayne felt it likely by the end of the week one of them was definitely going to kill the other, but the Dust-Man's suggestion bubbled to the surface, as did a shard of black crystal. Corvayne dug the knife shard out, switched to [[Strength]], and thought about diplomacy. If he could operate without Argyle bothering him, all the better. “There's going to be a surge of Portals opening this week, everywhere.” He wasn't 100 percent sure that was true, but he suspected that's why the Baron ended up cutting Argyle loose in the previous loop.

“Enough that even with all your copies, there's going to be more then you can survey. My counter offer is to split the ones in Cascadia up so we are not stepping on each other's toes.”

Argyle sneered a little, laughing. “If you know what portals are, you know that there's generally not enough space that sharing works.” The monk thought a little bit. “You seemed to track where The Raven was, however, without any visible means. All right, what's in it for me with a truce?”

“Access to a nest of portals that's going to open on the High Plains, without interference from it's guardian.”

“I can bash it's face in and enter at my leisure.”

Corvayne shrugged. “I suspect if you become The Spider's enemy, you will start losing clones long before you ever see it's face.”

“And what of Goule's men?”

Corvayne knew that both Wick and Nyx considered the man an enemy. Not a hard one. “We work together if they try to interfere.” Corvayne held up his phone and networked Argyle's. It shot to the top of the list, with Bearer next and Mister I third. He really needed a better contact list then one friend, one person who screwed with him non stop, and a guy who actually killed him.

“Fine. The Baron had stated I should learn a little... diplomacy. Stay out of my way, I'll stay out of yours. You better not have wasted my time with this little story.”

Corvayne smiled. “If you feel that way, well, there's always a bit of friendly sparring.”

For some reason, Corvayne's attempt to be nice drained some of the color from Argyle's face. The monk slammed the cockpit closed and turned to fly off. When he was gone Corvayne relaxed a little bit. That was one less life and death fight on the list if it stuck.

Bell rubbed Corvayne's back. “For all you were talking him up this morning, he folded pretty quick.”

Corvayne wondered about that too, but instead revved his bike to buzz them on out to his next stop: The Source.