A week later, Stephen appeared in Clodor, in midair where he’d been when he left previously, while falling through the air after being saved by Feyrith and Falco. The pirate captain, Emilia Blackthorne, strode across the deck of the airship Stephen had brought with him, shouting orders to her crew of cyborg golems.

“You should have everything you need, Captain,” said Stephen. “You won’t find much technology here, unfortunately. But the cyborgs should be good at salvaging anything you do find. If you die, I’ll just release you, then unleash you again. So there’s nothing to fear.”

“Not everything I need,” she said with a suggestive leer. She chortled at Stephen’s discomfort. “You’ve gone over everything repeatedly. We know what we’re doing here. Clodor is going to learn to fear the ‘Iron Wraith’. Get going before your hunters show up.”

“I just want you to know, even though I traded you from Falco, I don’t consider you my slave,” said Stephen. “I appreciate what you’re doing for me here…”

Three dimensional travelers appeared nearby. Mid-sentence, Stephen unleashed his dimensional travel card and disappeared.

“Who are you and what mission has your Master given you here in Clodor?” one of the travelers asked Emilia.

“Fire at will, mateys,” shouted the pirate captain as she drew her rapier. A bullet shot from a golem's firearm hit one of the dimensional travelers as the travelers raised a protective barrier.

“Tell us what we want to know, or we’re going to make things unpleasant for you,” demanded the traveler who had previously spoken. Bullets from the golem crew rained against the protective barrier, a blue circle of energy appearing each time a bullet struck it.

“Keep firing,” Emilia ordered as she advanced on the three intruders. “Things haven’t ended well for people who try boarding my ship,” she said to the travelers. As she approached the barrier, she saw that the first traveler, who had spoken, was a tall, blonde haired, blue-eyed man with a neatly trimmed beard. The traveler that had gotten shot through its arm was a lithe, reptilian individual. She couldn’t guess its gender. The third traveler was a middle-aged woman.

“This can’t end well for you,” the man said, gruffly, watching her approach. The reptilian creature hissed, “If they break through the field, I’m leaving. They shot me!”

The middle-aged woman looked decisive, then said, “Enough of this.” Unleashing a card, a fireball exploded behind Emilia. The pirate captain didn’t allow herself to be distracted, but two of the golems were knocked overboard by the force of the blast. Most of the others were knocked to the deck, and the airship sails and deck were on fire.

Reaching the barrier, Emilia passed through it. “Guess your protection just works against ranged attacks,” she said, grinning. As she began to stab at the reptilian traveler with her rapier, it unleashed a card that had the captain fall to the ground with a shout. Bumps appeared on her skin and burst open. Hot, red steam gushed out of the ulcers, cooking the surrounding flesh. All liquid left her body and her skin drew tight around her skeleton. A desiccated corpse remained, with a grimace of agony, and a tight, bony grip on her rapier.

The reptilian traveler's bullet wound closed and healed.

“We had planned to capture and interview any champions,” said the middle-aged woman mildly.

“We can come back with someone who speaks with the dead,” the reptilian traveler suggested. “I’m not getting shot and stabbed for us to have someone to interrogate.”

“Avin’s almost a bigger pain in the ass dead than he was alive,” said the man. “We ran off Crawford, that’s enough for today.”

The remaining golems had gotten back to their feet and resumed firing at the barrier. The three travelers exchanged glances, then vanished one after another.

***

“We made our way to Silicon Valley,” said Blargh, providing an update to Stephen in the dining hall later that day. “And it turns out that’s not where most tech companies data centers are anymore.”

“They’re not?” asked the man from Earth. “Where are they?”

“Virginia, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta,” said Blargh. “In the U.S., anyway. There are other big centers in other countries.”

“Ah,” said Stephen. “Live and learn.”

Blargh gave him a dark look. “It was a pain making our way across America to Silicon Valley. You know the highways are all covered in abandoned vehicles, right?”

“You were able to find corporate headquarters for some of the companies though, right?” asked the former physics grad student. “They had useful equipment and data, I imagine. Should we start shuttling it back? I don’t know why you’re annoyed at me. I can’t know everything. That’s part of what we’re doing here, figuring out the best way forward.”

“I did try to caution you about the data centers,” HAL said. The A.I.’s seed had been moved back from Riowiver and was currently in one of the cyborg clay golems.

“You didn’t warn me very clearly, considering we made a pointless trip to San Francisco,” said Blargh. “We’ve shuttled back the most important things, but we’ve been able to set up a hub in San Francisco. The computers are connected, and they’re processing the data the cyborgs have gathered.”

“So there you go, that’s useful. We have a factory and data processing center set up on Earth now,” said Stephen.

“We could use a better way to get around,” said Blargh. “Maybe Avin’s airship that Gorg recovered from Riowiver?”

“I traded for a new champion from Falco, and she’s using the airship in Clodor right now,” said Stephen. “I studied it with Adam and captured it, so I’m sure we could build another if it’d help you. You could also find an airplane and move around that way. That’d be faster than the airship.”

“Not interested in going up in an airplane,” said Blargh gruffly. “Besides, I don’t know how to fly one.”

“Find a pilot,” suggested Stephen. Blargh nodded glumly, then changed the subject.

“We had a bit of a dilemma,” said the former innkeeper carefully. “Some of the people there have general information, like where data centers are located. HAL wanted to connect them to his computer system. The way the previous version of him did. I think it’s a good idea, each person is chock-full of useful data, and it’d multiply the number of cyborgs we have working for us massively…”

“Do it,” said Stephen grimly, cutting off Blargh. The rough man looked at him appraisingly.

“You understand that people aren’t going to volunteer for this?” Blargh asked. “We’ll be grabbing people, then forcibly converting them into cyborgs. The technology will make them do what we tell them. We’ll be surgically enslaving them.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Yes,” said Stephen impatiently. “I understand. Go ahead. Once we figure out how to go back in time, none of this will matter. Once you’ve… incorporated… a few people, I’m sure some of them will have knowledge of flying. There are a lot of people with flight training in the U.S.”

Blargh looked towards HAL and shrugged slightly.

***

After his meeting with Blargh, Stephen travelled back to Clodor to see how Captain Blackthorne had faired against the travelers. Standing on the deck of the crashed airship, Stephen saw the golems attempting to make repairs to the heavily damaged ship. He looked at the desiccated corpse of Emilia, then released her card, which caused it to vanish. He began directing energy to it to charge it again. He walked off of the ship, then released it as well. The golems that were working on it fell a short distance to the ground.

Unleashing Emilia, the pirate captain appeared, standing on the ground next to him. Stephen began charging the airship’s card.

“I thought you said we’d appear in midair,” the captain said, looking around herself. “Where’s my ship?”

“You were attacked after we arrived,” said Stephen. “I left, but the travelers that came apparently attacked and killed you. They also damaged the ship.” Stephen released the airship, and it appeared, moored to the ground nearby.

“Good as new,” said the man from Earth.

“Can’t say I care for people killing me,” said Emilia. “If they come back, I’m going to shove my rapier up their arses.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Stephen, then disappeared.

***

Days later, Stephen said, “So, I got a message from K’rezzik earlier,” to the cyborg clay golem walking next to him as he followed the path out to Shomos’ mystic grove in his pocket dimension.

“Who’s K’rezzik?” asked HAL.

“The reptilian traveler we shot in Clodor,” said Stephen absently. “I still don’t know if it’s a he or a she. Either way, it wants to trade with us. It liked our cyborg clay golems and would like to trade us for a few.”

“Why not?” said HAL. “I’ve prepared summaries of card values for you. We’ve already given some cyborg cards to Falco and Feyrith, so if it wants one, it can get them somewhere else if we don’t trade.”

“Doesn’t it seem weird to you?” asked Stephen. “First it attacks us, now it wants to trade with us?”

“Might be a good way to make it less enthusiastic about hounding you,” said HAL.

Arriving at Shomos’ hut, a dozen other druids who Stephen had captured were with the druidess.

“Welcome, Stephen Crawford,” said Briarheart. “You honor us by meeting with us.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” said Stephen, glancing at Shomos. “Why don’t you ever talk about what an honor it is for me to meet with you, Shomos?”

The druidess rolled her eyes. Tea was poured and a variety of snacks were put out for the group.

“If any of you would like to live at the Wizards' Guild, there’s plenty of space,” offered Stephen. “There’s an army of golems to take care of things around the place.”

The assembled druids looked scandalized. Shomos sighed and said, “We’d all be happiest tending to our territory, but thank you for the offer. We wanted you to come meet with us because the layout of the various territories in your pocket dimension are haphazard. There are freshwater lakes next to deserts and arctic mountains next to tropical jungles. As we’re managing the ecosystems, there will be harmful effects from this chaotic geography. When some of the druids were complaining about it and discussing how to mitigate it, I mentioned that you could adjust the distribution, and we all think this would be a good idea.”

“No problem,” said Stephen. “Just decide on what layout makes the best sense and I can change it. It probably doesn’t matter to you, but when I put cards in my library, they disappear from the pocket dimension. I can remove the territories, then withdraw them in an order that will give you whatever layout you want.” The assembled druids began to excitedly chatter with one another.

“Now that all of you have joined us, there's an opportunity to deploy more champions,” Stephen continued. “I was hoping some of you might be willing to travel to the various dimensions and pursue our objectives there.” The druids' happy chattering turned dark, and some of them gave the former graduate student and Shomos dirty looks.

“As I just said,” said Shomos sternly, “we’re happiest tending to our territory.”

“No pressure or obligation,” Stephen said, raising his hands. “I just thought some of you might be interested in studying new lands in new dimensions and helping me select which territories to integrate with what we already have here. But if you aren’t interested, I can move forward in other ways, and we can get your opinion on the best ways to lay out new territories as we capture them.” The druids looked intrigued by this.

“Some of us will help with this,” conceded Shomos.

***

A week later, standing on the ground outside Riowiver, Stephen looked the druid Briarheart in the eye. A newly constructed airship was tethered nearby and its cyborg clay golem crew were busily preparing it for take off.

“So, I should track down this Gorg fellow and give him the airship,” Briarheart said, looking around the new dimension.

“Yes, please,” said Stephen. He boarded the airship so that when he returned to this dimension, he’d be standing on the airship instead of outside Avin’s fortress. “After that, you’re welcome to stay with him or to investigate the lands of Riowiver on your own. If you take some of the golems with you, that should help us track you down. Alternatively, I’ve been coming back to the fortress here at sunset, two days after the full moon each month. If you meet me here then, I can bring you back to the pocket dimension or get you any supplies you need. I’ve been coming on the same schedule for Gorg, but he’s never here.”

“If you’re planning to leave while standing on the airship,” said the druid thoughtfully, “in order for that to be where you return, then won't you be moving away from the fortress? How will you come back to the fortress to meet us?”

“Yeah, that’s the issue,” admitted Stephen. “I’ll be on this airship, either with you or Gorg if you pass it along to him. For our meeting, I’ll have to arrive in Riowiver, on this airship, then travel back to the fortress from wherever the ship is. What I’ll probably do is come back a little bit earlier, with another airship, give it instructions to come here, then leave and come back at our appointment time with the second airship landed here. Hopefully whoever I leave in charge of the second airship is better at following instructions than Gorg is.”

“I thought you were being hunted by other dimensional travelers,” said the druid, looking around. “You don’t seem very worried.”

“I’ve been able to travel away as soon as they attack. They haven’t figured out any way to immobilize me,” said Stephen with a shrug. “I think they’re losing interest, they don’t show up as frequently as they used to. I’ll probably be leaving soon, just in case.”

“Until we meet again,” said Briarheart. “Wish me luck in tracking your barbarian.”

***

The next day, Rurth thanked one of the cyborg golems that served tea and snacks to Stephen, Feyrith, and Falco.

“The cyborg clay golems are a real update to the originals,” said Falco, spraying some crumbs from the cookie he’d bitten into before speaking. The others pretended not to notice the spray of crumbs. “The skill upgrades that happen automatically through their… ‘network’ is it called? Amazing. I’m going to have my golems bake up some of these cookies when I get back home.”

“Yes,” said Stephen. “They’ve been making life easier in all sorts of ways.”

“Should you be sitting around with us drinking tea?” asked Feyrith. “Isn't The Griffin Club still hunting you? Aren’t you a wanted man?”

“Technically, yes,” said Rurth. “But they’ve been losing their enthusiasm for the hunt. Stephen just travels away every time they come after him. I’ve found us contacts in the club and Stephen has been trading and communicating with them. I actually have some news on that front. There was just a meeting at The Griffin Club. I consulted with some dimensional travel legal scholars, and I’d made the argument to some of their members that what we did wasn’t actually attempted murder. Since we left the body to be resurrected, it can be thought of as an assault in response to Avin raiding Earth and Mecond. Some of our friends in the club put forward that view and, given their waning interest in hunting Stephen, they've agreed with that interpretation. They’re willing to settle the issue in exchange for reparation in the form of a few cards of modest value.”

“They’re demanding cards from you?” asked Falco. “Outrageous! Tell them they’ll never get as much as a single battery from Stephen.”

“Actually,” said Stephen, “that’s wonderful news. “Talk to your HAL copy about what the best set of cards I can offer them would be, and let's settle this.”

“Avin won’t be happy with you,” said Feyrith.

“I’ve been unable to make Avin happy since I met him,” said Stephen. “I’m done trying.”