I step off the dock and onto dirt.

Actual, real dirt.

“Finally.”

Zyneth pauses beside me. “We actually made it. We’re on land.” He takes in a deep breath, then winces.

“Not as refreshing as you were hoping?” I ask, amused.

“It smells fairly strongly of dead fish,” he admits. “Not for long, though. I’m sure the alpine air will be nicer in Harrowood.”

We both wait at the end of the dock as Noli exchanges her last goodbyes with Murrok. The two hug, and Noli wipes at her eyes. When she turns toward us, however, she’s all smiles.

Rezira gives me a skeptical look as she and Noli catch up. “You’re not actually going to lug that thing through the city, are you?”

“What?” I ask. She gestures to my feet, and I look down. “Oh.”

All the Attuned glass and fulgurite that I haven’t used to patch up my body (or turn into extra hands to use for signing) is resting at my feet in a beach-ball-sized spikey clump. I’ve been using a Void Whip to tow it around when I need to, and have Chained all the bits together to keep them from scattering whenever I set it down.

“Well I am not going to leave it here,” I say. “I worked too hard to make and Attune all this glass!”

“It will draw attention,” Rezira says. “More than you already do.”

“Attention is something I am used to.”

“She has a point, though,” Zyneth says. “You have to use mana to carry that around, don’t you?”

“Not necessarily,” I say. When the predator is controlling the void, it doesn’t cost me any mana. But since I lack its precision… okay yes it does cost me to do it on my own.

As much as I hate to admit it, they’re right: the loose glass is pretty bulky and inconvenient.

“Hold on,” I say, thinking.

When I’d had a complete inventory before, it had fifty slots, and each piece of glass counted for their own slot. But the size of the glass hadn’t mattered: a big piece and a small piece both just counted as one item. I’d also Chained some glass together back then, and when connected, those pieces had also just counted as one slot.

“Let me try something.” I step away from the boardwalk, pausing next to a span of water between two boats. I hold out a hand.

Echo, remove item from inventory, I tell her.

[Rock removed from inventory.]

A giant piece of jagged, white marble appears at my fingertips. It almost seems to hover there for a moment. Then it plummets into the water, sending up a geyser as the bay swallows the stone whole.

Noli jerks back in surprise.

“What the shit was that?” Rezira demands.

“Some rubble from Emrox,” I say, crouching down beside my Attuned glass next.

“Emrox?” Zyneth repeats, astonished. “When did you do that?”

Oh right, he’d been unconscious when I removed the stone from his leg. “Before we got back on the Prismatic.”

Zyneth shakes his head. “I can’t believe you just dropped a piece of an ancient and historically significant Ruin into the ocean.”

“You are right,” I say, touching the Attuned clump of glass. “I should have dropped it on one of the pirate ships.”

The fulgurite vanishes.

[1 volume of Glass added to Inventory,] Echo says.

A handful of frit drops to the ground; pieces that broke off, or I hadn’t properly Chained. No matter, though. These I can handle. I stand back up, gesturing the handful of pieces along with, and float them into my satchel, along with the rest of my loose and small bits of signing glass.

“Where did it go? Since when could you do that?” Rezira demands.

“Oh, he could always do that,” Noli cheerily signs. “He just didn’t when he was living with us because the pocket dimension was occupied by a void monster.”

“Right,” Rezira says flatly.

“What about Void?” Noli suggests. “Too on the nose?”

Zyneth abruptly laughs. “Sorry. I’ve grown so used to the strangeness of all this, that sometimes I forget it is even strange at all. I’m afraid if you two are really set on accompanying me, you’re certain to encounter things even more odd.”

As if Noli could be so easily swayed. “That sounds quite exciting, really!”

Rezira just sighs.

Ship departed, glass stowed, we make our way into town.

I drift closer to the group as we walk. Reuniting with Rezira and Noli—especially Noli—had been comforting. Even sharing a ship with Murrok hadn’t bothered me much, given they were friends of a friend. But walking through a city, passing strangers by… it’s a little unnerving.

I’m keeping a sharp eye on the predator, for one. It assured me before that it wouldn’t cause trouble, but that assumes it both remembers and honors the agreement. So far, it seems to be behaving. I can feel it watching our surroundings intently, examining each person we walk past. This makes me nervous, but I can’t feel any ill intent from it at this moment. Just curiosity and vigilance.

Then, there are the people themselves. A few of them glance my way, which is understandable, given the rarity of glass men walking through streets. But it’s not the way people glance at people. I’d never really noticed before how, when you make eye contact with a stranger on the street, they might flash you a brief smile, or quickly glance away. What I’m getting, though, are emotionless stares; because they don’t even realize they’re looking at a person. All they see is a homunculus.

We stop at the telepad at the center of town, and Rezira orders four passes for Harrowood, which won’t be until tomorrow morning. I stay toward the back, and stay quiet. I wonder if I should speak at all while out in public. I could do so with Murrok’s disguise, but their illusions are temporary, and I’m not sure I even want to.

I’m on this planet now. Permanently. I’m in this body. Permanently. So what sort of future do I see for myself here? I could find ways to make their illusions more permanent. Disguise myself with enough magic to play a convincing human. But that doesn’t feel right. It feels exhausting, and a little sad. The alternative is to convince those around me I’m an actual person. Certainly, these three see me as me. I could probably get there with others, too. It will just take some work.

But what doesn’t?

We stake out an inn, then Noli excitedly tugs Rezira toward a marketplace where meats are smoking on an open fire. With little else to do until our time slot at the telepad the next morning, we wander the streets and peruse the stalls. After sea monsters and pirate ship battles, it feels weirdly… normal. Like the time Zyneth and I spent in the Miasmere bazaar. Which reminds me: I owe him a new knife.

As the sun sets and the living party members’ appetites are sated, we head back to the inn. I don’t follow the others inside, however.

“The agreement with the predator has not ended just because we are no longer at sea,” I tell Zyneth.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He doesn’t look happy about this, but he doesn’t argue. “I had suspected as much. Keep safe.”

“I will,” I promise. I hold out my satchel for him to take into the inn; the predator certainly won’t be using it.

Probably looking a lot more stoic than I feel, I leave the inn behind and search for the edge of the city. It gradually thins out, giving way to pines and leafy trees. I keep walking though, ignoring the predator’s pestering for as long as I dare. I know getting far away from the city won’t really mean anything. It will be able to find its way back, and we have to return in the morning anyway. But the distance from all the townspeople helps calm my nerves a little, even if it might just be a placebo. Finally, nervously, I turn control over to the predator.

But I needn’t have worried. Under the moonlight we bound through the woods, marveling at our new surroundings. The padding of leaves beneath our glass. The chirp and squeak of small animals in the dark, fleeing before our sudden appearance. And the smells! The rich earthiness of the dirt, the cleansing petrichor of the air, the small sweet green things—flowers! Yes, flowers—all folded up upon themselves for the night. It’s so different from the ocean. So new!

Like all previous nights since that time on the rocks, we don’t notice any distant pinpricks of familiarity. And with so much to explore, we don’t go looking for it anyway.

----------------------------------------

The glow of the telepad flashes white, and the group of merchants standing on the platform vanishes. The spell circle carved into the stone goes dormant, the glow leaking away. A bored looking elf steps up to the circle, flipping through a book. They find the page they’re looking for, consult the diagram, and touch the platform. Magic funnels from their fingers into the telepad, lighting runes and lines carved in the rock–slightly different from the previous lines that had been lit, I notice. In fact, there seems to be an iteration of patterns carved over the stone: I wonder if it’s as simple as each pattern representing a different destination, or if the teleportation magic is much more intricate than that.

“Next port: Harrowood.” The elf yawns, glancing around the square.

“Oh! That’s us,” Noli signs, skipping up to the pad worker to present our tokens.

Two other travelers, a human and a felis, also join us on the platform. Noli is the only one of the six of us who appears particularly excited—or awake.

“Pad activation in two minutes,” the operator reports.

I guess we wait.

“Will you be alright?” Zyneth asks.

“About what?” I ask.

“Well, the telepad…” he begins.

“Oh.” I shake my head. “No, it does not bother me. And I traveled with you to Miasmere, remember? If anyone, it is Noli who…”

I trail off, even though I’m using my translator and she wouldn’t be able to hear me anyway. She’s smiling pleasantly, her hand tucked around Rezira’s arm, head leaning against her wife’s shoulder. The same happy Noli she always is.

But when I look close, when I really look, her grip is tight, her jaw clenched, fingers digging into Rezira’s skin.

Noli ended up stuck in that toy octopus because she took a telepad at exactly and impossibly the wrong time. Even if there’s no predator waiting for us Between anymore, even if there’s likely no magic collection spells cast into the void by senile wizards, the fear is still there.

I get it.

I probably get it more than anyone.

Rezira glances at me out of the corner of her eye and gives the smallest shake of her head.

“Departing for Harrowood,” the pad operator announces. When no one comes running up at the last minute, they activate the spell.

A flash of light.

A moment of dark.

And then we’re out the other side, standing in an all too familiar city.

Noli lets out a breath. Rezira pats her hand, and the elf flashes a smile up at her wife. I feel like I should say something, but I’m not sure what. As I hesitate, the Harrowood operator ushers us off the platform. Noli’s hand drops to Rezira’s, all the previous tension gone.

That’s right. She doesn’t need me to say anything; she’s got Rezira. Some things don’t need words.

“Inn first,” Zyneth says as we start into the streets. “Just one night. I don’t know what Vardi wants, but her jobs often send me out of town. And yes, I know I said both of you can help,” he adds to Noli and Rezira, “but for this initial meeting it would be best if I were alone. Or at least, appeared alone.”

“That is my cue.” I crack my knuckles. Well, I pretend to crack my knuckles. No one would have been able to hear it over the city’s noise anyway, so the gesture still works.

“Should I go like this?” I ask. “Pretend to be a servant, like with Gillow? Or I could come pocket-sized.”

“The latter,” Zyneth says. “The other way didn’t work terribly well with Gillow.”

“It worked perfectly well!” I object. “Did you see how surprised they were when I spoke the first time? They did not suspect a thing.”

Zyneth gives me a skeptical look. “Regardless, we’ll be trying a different strategy this time.”

Right—strategy. I nudge the predator, who’s rather distracted by all our surroundings, but answers my request to reach out and touch my mind.

I remember the plan Zyneth and I came up with. “Ah, okay. I would hide my glass and void in your clothes, and in case anything went sideways, I would be there and have some fighting power as well.” I figure saying it out loud will help me remember this conversation, even if I won’t remember the original. “And I could use some of my glass for scoping out the area, too. That is a good idea.”

“Glad you think so,” Zyneth says.

But I think I’ve got a way to make it better, now. We hadn’t taken my Inventory into account before. With it, I’ll be able to covertly bring a lot more firepower than just what could be hidden on Zyneth’s person.

Actually, I’m kind of eager to see how it works. If I could Inventory my whole body—except my core—this opens up a lot of possibilities. The only thing that I’d really have to deal with is all the void, but given its range, I could hand over control to the predator and have it hide somewhere nearby. Assuming I’d feel comfortable doing that, and that the predator would even cooperate.

But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t want it all to go sideways. I want Zyneth to get in and out of there without any trouble.

Even though it would be fun to attack Vardi.

I pause at the intrusive thought, mentally turning to the predator. Sure enough, it’s been listening in and is eager for some action.

We are not attacking Vardi, I tell it. Not unless she does anything to try to attack Zyneth first.

She has hurt Zyneth, though. She hurt his arm somehow, even though she was far away.

That’s different, I think, though his debts are far too complicated for me to try to explain to a sociopathic void monster with no concept of currency.

The predator grumbles about my inconsistencies as it slinks away.

We find a place to stay not long after that. Rezira and Noli take one room, while Zyneth and I take another. Noli finds this highly amusing, and appears ready to make some insinuating comments before Zyneth cuts in.

“We’ll be departing momentarily,” he says. “Kanin and I can meet you two back here in an hour or so. I don’t expect the meeting to take long.”

“So soon?” Noli asks.

Zyneth brushes a hand over his arm. “Yes, I would prefer to address this as soon as possible.”

The women take the hint.

“We’ll see you back here, then,” Rezira says. “Don’t do anything stupid without us there to bail you out.”

Zyneth smiles. “Noted.”

There’s not much to do in our room. I dump my clothes and satchel on the bed, then pull my Attuned glass from my inventory, and swap it for my body. It works exactly as I’d hoped.

“Now we just need to deal with that.” Zyneth gestures to the floor.

The void is puddled like a three dimensional shadow. I can’t leave it behind, since it’s connected to the predator and the predator is connected to me, but it’s a bit conspicuous like this.

“Maybe it can pretend to be your shadow?” I suggest, reluctant to go through with the original plan we’d agreed upon.

I mentally mold into the shape of Zyneth’s shadow. If you weren’t looking for it, you might miss it. Then Zyneth takes a step, and the void follows half a step behind. It’s eerie, and very obvious.

“Cloak it is, then,” Zyneth says, opening up his bags.

From the memory the predator now owns, I hadn’t liked this part of the plan then, and I still don’t like it now. Keeping the predator tucked up close to me is one thing; having it tucked up against Zyneth is very different.

But we’ve already had this argument. The predator means Zyneth no harm. Zyneth finds this solution the best available. As he shakes out a cloak and then secures it around his shoulders, I bite my metaphorical tongue.

The predator, who does remember our plan, lifts from the ground to climb its way up the cloak and spread across the interior of the fabric, blending in with the shadows. Through the void, I can feel where it’s resting against Zyneth’s back. It’s too close to him. He’s too trusting. I hate this.

“Remember the rest?” Zyneth asks, holding out his hand.

“Yeah,” I grumble. At least, with the predator’s help, I do. I climb into his palm, and he holds me at his side. I hook my glass legs around his belt, then Chain them together on the backside so I won’t accidentally let go. Resting next to his knife, I am a very convincing potion bottle.

“I think that’s everything,” Zyneth says. “Are you ready?”

“I want to get this over with as quickly as possible,” I say.

Zyneth chuckles. “That makes two of us.”

We head back out into the streets, and Zyneth walks purposefully through the city. He takes us out of the main thoroughfare and along some back alleys I hadn’t seen the last time I was here. It’s almost frustrating how much faster he’s traversing the city than I’d been able to manage as a little glass bottle. Then again, the me of today would be able to maneuver the city much more quickly as well. It’s strange how much has changed in less than half a year.

The crowds thin and the roads become more grimy. Not dangerous, necessarily, but the ground is tacky, and the peeling and fading paint on signs indicate the establishments here seem far less concerned with appearances. Finally, Zyneth slows, coming to a stop before a tavern with a sleeping dragon carved into the sign that hangs over the street. Zyneth pauses.

I wait a moment for him to go in, but he continues to stand there. “What?” I risk asking aloud, as we appear to be alone on the street.

Zyneth shakes his head. “This is not what I was expecting.” He holds his hand beneath me, so I un-Chain my legs and drop into his palm. He lifts me up to the door to see. A board is nailed across the door, bearing a message that’s simple and to the point:

CLOSED.