Magic masked Jota’s dimension ship from any means the people of Earth had of detecting it. It was quite obviously there, however, as his crew were drawn up by the gravity channel and vanishing in the air. He stood outside the Asano Village grounds with his second in command, watching his people ascend.

“We could just make a move first,” Natala suggested. “Kill Kreegle, quick and clean.”

“He’s gold rank. I may be stronger than him, but there’s no ‘quick and clean’ option. If I start a fight, I face the same problem he does: the rest of the crew’s reactions. How many do you think would take sides?”

“Not many. Most would wait to back the winner. Of the ones that did step in, more would likely take his side, especially if you were the aggressor.”

“There you are, then.”

She nodded.

“It still feels wrong to just let the serpent slither up behind us.”

“Don’t concern yourself with the snake at our backs, Nat. Save your worry for the dragon in front of us.”

“You’re convinced Asano is more dangerous than we were told?”

“Call it instinct. Or precaution. When I was training, we were taught the ways the cosmic powers move. We know the World-Phoenix has been maintaining this world’s integrity. It prefers to operate through lesser agents, and what I’ve gleaned of Asano’s actions fit the pattern. If I’m wrong, we leave Asano alone. Kreegle needs him gone if he wants to return to Jakaar triumphant. That will be our time to push the fight.”

“And if Asano is a person of consequence?”

“Then we side with him.”

“And what of Jakaar?”

“He’ll thank us for not antagonising the World-Phoenix. There’s a chance the phoenix cult manipulated us to be here in the first place.”

“Why would they do that? We’re no threat to them.”

“It will not have been for them.”

“For Asano?”

“His world has just opened to the cosmic community. I suspect that we’ve been set up to become his first impression.”

***

The artefact city, in outback Australia, was waiting. Really a small town, most of the nine-thousand or so workers who lived there had been evacuated. These were shop attendants, janitors, gardeners and others who served to keep the city operating. They were carefully vetted and paid more than their jobs would earn them in a less secure location. Being removed in preparation for the coming altercation amounted to paid holidays as they were shipped off to Adelaide.

Evacuated alongside them were the personnel from the governments and factions who believed the city existed for their benefit. A handful of key staff remained, ensconced in bunkers beneath the city. There were also those influential enough to avoid being sent away, likewise bunkered down. Only the security force remained above ground, alongside Rufus and Taika. Anna and Gary were in the same bunker as Lenora, Barry and their key staff members.

The bunker had a series of rooms along a connecting corridor, not unlike a hotel. It also had a shared lounge and cafeteria area. The walls were stark, plain metal and the floor concrete. Large monitors on the walls were linked to the external cameras fixed on the standing stones, also displaying the now-active defence system. Magically enhanced howitzers and rocket pods had risen from their own secure bunkers and were now pointed at the air over the circle.

The last section of the bunker, outside of service areas, was the command-and-control room. The most restricted zone within the bunker, from which Lenora and her staff directed operations. Anna and Gary were not allowed access, and instead took a meal in a lounge area booth. In front of them were surprisingly palatable meals, given the functional nature of the bunker’s cafeteria. Barry approached with Anna’s brother in tow, leaving Terry behind before heading for the command room. Terry joined the pair in the booth where Anna introduced them.

“How did a young man like you wrangle an invitation to all this?” Terry asked Gary.

“He’s our technical expert for this trip,” Anna said. “He has a knack for practical solutions when it comes to magitech. Along with making sure our vehicle operates correctly, he’s here to spot any dirty little tricks people might play on us.”

“The number of listening devices my custom privacy tools have shut down is crazy,” Gary said. “Microdevices, robot insects, vibrational analysis. Is there anyone in this town who isn’t a spy?”

“Well, there’s you,” Terry pointed out.

“Uh… yep,” Gary agreed unconvincingly. “I haven’t placed any surveillance devices.”

Anna gave him a flat look.

“What?” Gary asked. “With everyone else doing it, I thought it would be impolite not to. Don’t worry; I made sure security would find enough to think they probably got them all.”

Terry let out a laugh.

“I like this one, Annie. Speaking of surveillance, though, there’s an awful lot of press attention on this. They aren’t letting people onsite, but there’s a veritable swarm of media drones up there. The usual outlets, plus they had me curate some appropriate influencers to be included.”

His expression turned uncharacteristically sober.

“I hope this doesn’t go badly for you, Anna. Mother reached out a couple of months ago, to try and have me convince you to distance yourself from the Asano Clan.”

“Unsurprising,” Anna said. “I note you didn’t do that, though.”

“I figured it was more of her manipulating, scheming crap, so I didn’t let her drag you into it.”

“Thanks, Terry.”

He let out a slow, frustrated breath.

“What happened to her, Annie? It wasn’t like this before magic came out in the open. Now she’s obsessed with becoming some kind of global powerbroker.”

“I don’t know,” Anna said. She put her hand over his on the table and gave it a squeeze.

“I think there’s something specific,” Terry said. “She contacted me again, a couple of weeks ago. She seems very convinced that things aren’t going to go well for the Asanos when Jason gets here.”

Anna leaned back, her expression looking like she’d bit into a lemon.

“She’s in on it, then,” she said. “That could end up being a mess, depending on how far they push it.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“In on what?” Terry asked. “Is it to do with why they’re treating Asano’s return like a military invasion? No one has told me a damn thing, and I’m meant to be in charge of the media response!”

“Yeah, it’s to do with that,” Anna said.

“The locals have brought in some ringers from outside our universe,” Gary told him. “There’s going to be a big old fight.”

***

The multinational security force was arrayed around the site, some half a kilometre back, behind the heavy weapons. Rufus and Taika were free to roam, not being under the command of the security force. Commander Higgins was not happy about it, but there was little he could do. There were a dozen gold rankers who had been called in for Asano’s arrival, and not one of them was willing to cross Jason’s two friends. Analysis based on their witnessed anti-vampire operations suggested they were the most powerful individuals on the planet, by a goodly margin.

Taika and Rufus meandered around, behind the security squads. Taika looked over at the emplaced weaponry, all pointed at the sky over the stone circle.

“I don’t think much of these defences,” Taika said. “Where are the spinny guns with a bunch of barrels? Where are the rail cannons? These look like someone burgled some weaponry off a boat and scribbled some magic runes on the side.”

“That’s pretty much what happened,” said someone from a nearby squad, his accent marking him as American. “I have a cousin in acquisitions who told me—”

“Mouth closed, eyes forward, Jenkins.”

“Keith,” Jenkins said, “you know we’re not in the military, right?”

“I said mouth closed, Jenkins. That’s an order.”

“Paramilitary at best,” Jenkins continued. “Technically, we’re private security contractors. Which makes you my supervisor, Keith, not my commanding officer. Also, you’ve got a real ‘war criminal’ vibe going on. They didn’t put you in charge of any prisoners, did they?”

“You want to get kicked out, Jenkins?”

“Yes, please. I signed up to fill out my awakening stone collection, and they totally did me over on the contract. Cheaped out on the stones, too. Elastic awakening stone? What’s going on there?”

The squad leader started marching over to Jenkins when the air was filled with a tingling sensation and a sharp smell of ozone.

“It’s like being near a power line in the rain,” Taika observed.

He had barely finished speaking when the standing stones lit up with gold, silver and blue light. Streaks of it rose into the air like colourful, inverted rain. It collected in a sphere that rapidly grew, the rising light growing thicker with each passing moment.

***

In the command room of one of the various bunkers, Lenora watched the light show with everyone else. Most of her staff were at various consoles.

She observed as the growing sphere finally stopped expanding. It floated in the air, colours swirling, then started to shrink and dim.

“Do we have an estimate on the size it reached?” Lenora asked.

“Around four-hundred and fifty metres, Ma’am. Also, the Network is reporting a large dimensional energy event is showing up on the grid.”

“Very useful,” Lenora murmured as her eyes remained glue to the monitors. “Whatever would we do without them?”

***

As the supernatural light dimmed and shrank, the observers were able to make out a shape within, slowly becoming clearer. It was a vessel, somewhere between dirigible, ocean liner and alien spaceship. Dark red panels were affixed on white cloud substance, from which wisps were teased off and sent drifting away on the wind. A set of spheres orbited the ship, like a ring around a finger. The orbs were dark, seeming to absorb the sunlight. Inside the orbs were orange and blue nebulas that looked like eyes.

As the last of the gold, silver and blue light dimmed, words written along the side of the vessel in gold became visible. Taika burst out laughing as he read them. Rufus let out a sigh.

“Well,” he said, “I have no idea what that means. Which at least means we know it’s Jason and not the people here to kill him. How can an ice cube be—”

***

“What does that mean?” Lenora asked.

“It’s from a song,” Barry told her. “Early nineties, if I remember rightly. By Vice-President Jackson, back when he was a musician.”

“I thought he was an actor. Like Reagan.”

“He was a musician first. Do you think Asano is making a political statement?”

“I think he’s going to give me a headache. Any sign of this group who are meant to be here to kill him?”

As if to answer her question, the sky above the city shimmered like heat haze, and suddenly a second vessel was in the sky. This one looked overtly like a spaceship, blocky and militaristic, but also with a clear magic aspect. The lines of the ship glowed and hummed with magic that essence users could sense even from the ground, powerful and intimidating. It was, however, much smaller than Asano’s vessel, some eighty metres long versus more than three hundred.

The whole city had tensed up, poised for whatever was about to happen. Two figures emerged from the second ship to appear, riding on simple round disks. They flew towards Asano’s vessel, as one person emerged to meet them.

***

Jota watched the person he imagined to be Asano float through the air towards him. The man was using his aura to fly, like a messenger. He was a known outworlder, so it could be some unique ability, or there could be a connection to the messengers. They were invading the linked world and, if Asano had thrown in with them, it would explain having the astral magic to world hop.

Asano’s aura offered no further clues, being otherwise impenetrable to Jota’s senses. That was a surprising level of aura mastery for someone from such a backwards world. Jota had discovered the auras on Earth to be execrable in their level of training.

The clothes Asano was wearing were interesting. He had no battle garb, and no magic items of note, beyond a pair of what were probably amulets on a necklace under his shirt. Otherwise, Jota sensed only basic clothing enchantments, although the man’s underpants had oddly potent resilience magic. In design, he had a shirt with a colourful floral print, tan short pants, sandals and a straw hat.

There were a souple of small scars on his face, and another mostly hidden by his shirt. Such things were usually affectations in essence users, but Jota suspected that these were not. For someone who understood what a genuine scar indicated, it put a very different spin on the seemingly casual man.

“G’day,” Jason greeted Jota and Natala as they drew close. “I suppose we should have a chat.”

Jota couldn’t place the language. He was clearly using a translation power, but unlike any he’d encountered. It was like the words slipped into his head to impart their meaning, which was unnerving. He also sensed something about the words that was hidden.

“That’s not your true way of speaking,” Jota said.

“No,” Jason acknowledged. “Things tend to go better when I do it this way.”

“Deception is not the best way to start a relationship, Mr Asano.”

“I suspect this relationship will go poorly regardless, but your point is a fair one.”

Asano’s next words, though simple, resonated like thunder in Jota’s ears.

“So be it. I am Jason Asano, as you have surmised. Would you care to introduce yourselves?”

Jota’s eyes widened a little. There were various names for the manner of speaking that Asano had used. On the world where Jota had been born, it was called the divine voice.

“My name is Jota Withers. This is my friend and second-in-command, Natala Spiro. I had been wondering if all this was a setup, and now, I find myself convinced.”

“Convinced enough to turn around and go home?” Jason asked.

“Yes, actually. Unfortunately, things are not that simple.”

“They never are.”

“I’m afraid that if I try to turn around, one of my crew will take the chance to launch a long-planned mutiny. Kill us both, take my ship and report back to my admiral.”

“And Jakaar will accept that?”

Jota gave Natala a side glance as she stirred, but she remained silent.

“Admiral Jakaar likes results and dislikes trouble,” Jota said. “As long as he gets the results he wants, he won’t begrudge an obvious lie. A living captain is more valuable than a dead one. Of course, the admiral is not getting what he wants here, is he?”

“He is not,” Jason said.

Jota nodded.

“He doesn’t want entanglements with the Cult of the World-Phoenix. Or the messengers. Which of them are your backers? Or is it both?”

“Neither. I’ve been ally and enemy to the messengers and the World-Phoenix at various points.”

“You’re not an agent of the World-Phoenix?”

“You could say I have been, from a certain point of view. The World-Phoenix owed me a favour, which is why she set you up like this.”

“My crew has twenty-seven gold-rankers. Can you match that?”

“Numerically, yes. How good are your people?”

“In terms of skill? Capable enough, but probably not the match of those who came up fighting monsters in a rural backwater. I suspect our equipment is better than what your people are armed with, however. By quite a margin.”

“How many will stand aside?”

“Three or four might join the fight on our side. Some others might stay out of it, but I can’t be sure.”

“You will not fight with us,” Jason said. “If you want to stand aside, then do so, but we will not offer you our backs.”

“As you wish.”

“And, just so you know, your ship is forfeit.”

Natala stirred again and Jota gestured her to stillness.

“We came to your world in search of plunder,” he said. “I understand that there is a price to that, and we will be in little position to negotiate once most of my crew is dead. But all you offer now is an incentive to work with my crew to kill you and finish my differences with them after.”

“This isn’t a negotiation,” Jason said. “This is me deciding if anyone gets to live after. If you ever get to leave this world, Mr Withers, it will not be for some time. That is the price of coming here.”

Jota turned to look at his ship.

“I would ask for some time to discuss this with my companion,” he said, “but it appears that my chief mutineer has run out of patience. Good luck in your battle, Mr Asano.”