Between the grip that Shiori had on me, and the one from Asenath, it was a bit difficult to breathe, let alone talk. And those knights on the horses were getting closer. They had clearly spotted us and were coming to--well I hoped they were coming to investigate and talk. For all I knew, they were on their way to burn us for being witches dressed the way we--okay just Asenath and Shiori were dressed. I didn’t exactly completely blend in, as I was currently wearing rustic clothes with brown corduroy pants and a white dress shirt, but they stood out even more. Shiori had pink shorts and a Mario tee shirt, while Asenath was wearing dark green jeans and a black Metallica shirt. Needless to say, the guys coming our way might have a few questions.

As much as I loved feeling Shiori’s embrace, and even Senny’s for that matter, I only let myself relax into it for a brief moment. Then I straightened up and gave them both a firm push back. “Guys, I--Senny, the sun?!”

“Protection spell,” Shiori put in quickly, still sounding rather dazed. “I--I sort of keep them handy, just in case. I put it on her as soon as we showed up here, before we even saw you lying there.”

“Much better than burning up, I assure you,” Senny noted a bit dryly. Now that I was looking, I could see where visible redness across her face was visibly fading. “Which leaves us to ask what exactly--”

“I’ll explain in a minute,” I interrupted in a quick whisper, “but right now, we should really make you stop looking like… uh, that.” The knights weren’t close enough to make out any details, but that would change very quickly. Especially given how fast those horses were charging. So, I put one hand against each of their shoulders, summoning a pair of prepared coins. They were supposed to be for my own quick change efforts for whenever I needed to change what my current outfit looked like. Two quick words triggered the coins, instantly changing Senny and Shiori’s shirts so they were blank rather than having those words and pictures on them. The coins also altered the structure of the shirts so they had buttons and looked a bit more… old. I couldn’t do anything about Shiori’s shorts, since those knights had definitely noticed her bare legs. This was just going to have to do for the time being.

Through all that, Shiori had been staring at me in awe. Asenath had turned her attention more to our incoming guests, but Shy was just gaping. Her mouth opened and shut a few times, and it looked like she wanted to hug me again. I met her gaze and swallowed hard. Dear god, how many nights had I laid there, unable to sleep because I was too busy missing her? In that moment, all I wanted to do was grab the two of them and teleport away.

Wait, teleport away. I didn’t have to change their clothes and all that, I could just teleport away with them before the knights ever got anywhere near enough to--

“Ho there!” The sound of thunderous hooves filled the air, as the horses galloped right up nearby. The knight in the lead called out to us while bringing his mount to a halt. He wore gleaming, almost glowing silver armor, with a sword at his side and a mace dangling from the horse’s saddle. “Hail, strangers, and well met. We’ve not seen your like here before.” His eyes moved over Shiori and Asenath, taking both of them in before adding, “You two have traveled far from the Orient. Is this one your guide?” His head bobbed toward me, before he repeated the question in--I was pretty sure that was Chinese, or at least one dialect of it. That bit was surprising, to say the least.

“Uh…” Shiori glanced sidelong at me, clearly still reeling from everything. And who could blame her? As far as I understood, one minute she had been back at the Fusion school, in the present day, and then she was suddenly here and now with me. It was a lot to throw at her. Fuck, it was a lot to throw at me and I had a pretty good headstart.

Asenath, however, wasn’t quite as distracted. She answered the man, also in that same Chinese dialect. Then she clearly asked him something, and he responded before turning his attention to me. “You, she says you’re called Lillian.”

My head bobbed easily. “That’s right, and yeah, we’re not from around here. We’ve been hiking for a long time and sort of… got turned around.”

I could hear the men behind our guy start murmuring to one another. I couldn’t see all of them, but my item sense told me there were six other men, all heavily armed. They didn’t seem to be hostile at the moment, just curious and maybe a bit amused. Which was good, I could definitely live with curious and amused. At least they hadn’t immediately decided we were some sort of threat. Or worse, targets.

The man in charge took in my words, looking back and forth between us before giving a nod over his shoulder. “You’re right about getting turned around, as you say. Come, we’ll give you an escort to safety. You don’t want to be out here when that sun goes down. The beasts that roam these lands use that time for their hunting. And I’ll not allow myself or my men to be responsible for leaving three young babes for their supper.” With that, he gave a sharp whistle and gestured. “Daegal and Morcant can guide you to the village.”

Part of me wanted to argue with that, even as those two specified men brought their horses around, dismounting in a sign that they would be walking with us. But honestly, what was I supposed to say? It was obvious that this guy didn’t want to let us go off by ourselves, and if I insisted, he might be suspicious. That rift that Ceili had mentioned was around here somewhere, and I really couldn’t risk pissing off the soldiers watching over the very area we needed to search. We were just going to have to play along for now. I’d explain everything to Asenath and Shiori as soon as there was a chance.

Fortunately, it was clear that I wouldn't need to explain that much to them. They both caught on immediately, and soon the three of us were walking together while our two escorts stayed on either side of us on their horses. I thought about using a privacy coin, but I honestly wasn't sure that would work considering the men were so close. They were also talking to us. One of them asked where we had come from. At first, I thought that would be impossible to answer. Then I reconsidered. Checking with the power that told me how far away I was from places I knew, I could instantly tell that we were four thousand seven hundred and fifty-one miles east from Laramie Falls. So, probably somewhere in the UK, I was guessing. Which, granted, didn’t give me a lot to work with. It wasn’t like I was some sort of expert in British geography. Still, it was enough for me to reply, “I’m from the mainland, down south a bit. Just a little village on the shore, barely enough people to fill the main hall for supper time. When these two came offering good coin and silks for a guide, I might’ve let them think I knew more about the place than I do.”

“Yes,” Asenath confirmed with a voice that was more accented than she had ever spoken with before. “Still, she has done a remarkable job of showing us such exciting things. The sea captain we bought passage from to this island assured us that we would find adventure if we continued traveling this way.”

The man on the left, Daegal, gave a hearty chuckle. “Well, he was right about you finding adventure. You've certainly come to the proper place for that. But I'm afraid you might be in over your heads. You don’t even carry any weapons for protection, and you certainly aren’t armored.” He looked us up and down, eyes lingering a bit on Shiori’s bare legs in a way that made me want to summon my staff and show him just how armed I was.

Resisting that urge, I offered the man a faint smile. “We can take care of ourselves. But what was that your, uh, leader was saying about beasts roaming the land at night? Do we really need to fear wolves?”

That made the two men exchange glances, before the other one, Morcant, shook his head. “If it were truly mere wolves, we might be tempted to allow you to see how you would fare. But the creatures who stalk these lands are far worse than that. They’ve already spilled far too much blood, both from the village and our outpost.” He nodded toward the ‘castle,’ which I now saw was more of an armored fort. “We’ve sent for aid from the king, but he’s quite busy these days. With luck, perhaps one of the Round may make their way here before things grow too dire.”

“One of the Round?” Shiori blurted, straightening up with surprise. “You don’t mean--”

Daegal chuckled once more. “So you have heard of them. That's right, you've made your way far enough to reach the edges of the territory claimed by the good King Arthur, and his people.” He paused then, giving us another curious look. “I may miss my guess, but somehow I would say you will not be as surprised as many about what you find here. But to that end, the beasts who stalk these lands are not to be trifled with. They are incredibly strong, fast, and almost impossible to spot before they are upon you. In shadows, they are all but invisible. They only hunt at night. You'll be safe in the village, where we have more of a guard, and plenty of light to spot them coming. Anything or anyone out in open land once night falls is on their own. And I wouldn’t count on ever seeing them again, at this rate.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Well, knowing my luck, I was going to go ahead and bet everything I had that the rift we were looking for was going to be out there and not in this nice safe village we were heading toward. And those monsters were probably the ones empowered by it. But at least having the night would give me time to explain things to Asenath and Shiori. And… boy was it going to be one hell of an explanation. There was a lot to catch them up on. Though, to be fair, they did seem to be rolling with it pretty damn well. Maybe that was just a sign of how absurd our lives were.

Or maybe they were just accustomed to how absurd my life was.

In any case, it wasn't long before I saw the village these guys had been talking about. It looked to be about the same size as Laramie Falls. Well, the one from the sixteen hundreds anyway. There were a bunch of lanterns set up on posts around the outskirts, ready to shine once the sun set. I could also see armed men in a line around the place, spread every ten feet or so. They weren't exactly fully-armored knights like these guys. Some were simply soldiers wearing chainmail armor and holding pikes or swords, while even more were clearly farmers and the like, dressed in makeshift padded ‘armor’ as they held pitchforks and axes. All of them were very obviously on edge. A call started to go up as we appeared on the horizon, before the men who were escorting us called back what sounded like a password. Only then did the troops nearest us on the line relax somewhat. But even then, they were still visibly tense.

Our escorts led us all the way past the line, introduced me to the men there, and informed them that we were visitors to the area. Then they climbed back on the horses they had been walking that whole time, before riding off to join up with their group once more. From what I had been able to pick up, those guys were one of several groups who were trying to hunt down the vicious creatures who were making night time so dangerous around here. But given this was their tenth night out on that job, and they still hadn't been able to find them, they didn't have much hope that tonight would be any different.

The men on the front line there gave all of us curious looks. And yes, Shiori got the longest ones. It was like these people had never seen shorts before.

Eventually, we were pointed toward a small inn. Well, they called it an inn. Mostly it just looked like a slightly larger than average house. The man on the front stoop gave us a long stare before grunting what was probably a price for us to stay there. Only then did I realize the problem. It wasn't like I could just hand these guys the money I had. Sure, I had coins that would have been accepted in the 1600s, but I was pretty sure we were a pretty long way from then. And there was absolutely no chance that these two would have--

“This should do.” With those words, Asenath held out a hand and gave the man several small jewels that glittered. The man examined them carefully, then smiled and spoke a little more clearly. Apparently whatever Senny had just paid him with was enough to get him to enunciate. “You get the room upstairs on the left. My wife will make you dinner and breakfast. Talk to her if you want to have any say in what that is.”

He also introduced himself as Colin, while his wife's name was apparently Danaih.

I actually wanted to ask him several more questions about those monsters out there, but it was more important to get these two updated on what exactly was going on. So, after thanking him and promising to visit his wife, we made our way upstairs. The promised room had two beds in it, along with a small, rickety table and a few chairs. Soon, we were all seated on those chairs, with the other two staring intently at me.

“I--” That was as far as I got before Shiori launched off that seat, throwing herself at me. My chair tipped over, and I nearly fell before reflexively summoning a ghost to catch us. Just like that, Shiori was on my lap, with the chair halfway tipped over and a ghost floating there to hold it steady. My girl barely seemed to notice, her eyes locked on mine as she wrapped her arms around my neck and held on tightly. “Flick,” she breathed my name in a way that made me shiver. “You're really here. We’re really here. How? What's going on? How did this happen? How are you… how?”

Swallowing hard, I had the ghost set the chair up and kept my arms around Shiori. “Okay, um, I know saying it's a super-long story is pretty cliché at this point, but it really is. I'm not even sure where to start. Um, I can explain a lot more detail as we go, but I think the most important thing right now, is that there's a rift somewhere around here, within a few miles of where we started. Ehn was taking Percy and me through this other rift to the Fomorian world, and--”

Well, that got a reaction. Both of them started blurting out questions, Shiori even leaping off my lap while they demanded to know what the hell I was talking about. For some reason, hearing that I had been taking a portal to the Fomorian homeworld freaked them out.

Holding up my hands, I rose from the seat while dismissing the ghost. “I know, I know. Trust me, I get it. Like I said, it's a really long story. I'll explain the details, I promise. But the gist is, we were going through that rift and something happened… uhh… happened.” First, I told them about Ehn wanting to use the rift, found by Odysseus, to grab a couple living original Fomorians. “But really the whole rift got started because of that whole thing with Godfather--”

Oh yeah, they didn't know about that either. I realized that as soon as the two started enthusiastically asking what I meant by a thing with Godfather.

Letting out a long breath, I managed a soft chuckle before reaching out to pull Shiori into a tight hug. “I missed you. God, I missed all of you. It's been way too long.”

Asenath reached out to take my hand, frowning a little. “Longer for you than for us, it sounds like. Exactly how long have you been gone, from your point of view?”

I offered a slight shrug. “Close to half a year? Somewhere around that. We’ve jumped around a little bit.”

“And where is he now?” Senny, who seemed to suspect the answer, asked flatly.

Giving a long, slow exhale, I watched both of them. “Ehn’s--I think he’s dead. I mean, they said he was dead. That--” I was getting off into the weeds, so I cut myself off.

“Not that this news is making me want to cry into my pillow or anything,” Asenath informed me simply, “but what do you mean, he’s dead? What happened on that… on that planet?”

“That’s the thing, we never got there.” Quickly and succinctly, I explained what had apparently happened when Ehn went through the rift. I told them about how he had apparently been warned not to go through it and ignored that warning, and that when he did, his power basically acted like throwing a match into a room full of gasoline fumes, disintegrating him and sending his power straight toward the Fomorian homeworld back in the present, where it would empower the entire Fomorian species with full dragon-boosts. Unless, of course, I managed to throw myself through not just this rift in this time period, but a bunch of other rifts in other time periods where apparently other duplicates of me had been sent. Along with, of course, more of my friends, taken from the present and scattered all across the timeline to help me.

Once I was done with that, they both stared at me for what had to be like… ten seconds of silence. Finally, Shiori gave a slow, deliberate, “Wow.” That was all she could say, and I’d barely scratched the surface of everything I needed to tell them.

Senny recovered a bit sooner, or was just quicker about realizing she wanted to hear the whole story. “But how do you know all this? Who sent us back here to help you? Who could possibly do something like that? Was it Ehn? And wait, you said something about Godfather--Maestro, whatever he called himself.”

Taking a deep breath before letting it out, I looked into her eyes. “Who knew about that whole thing and is strong enough to do all this? Right, okay. That’s all stuff we need to get into.”

“Do we have time to just sit around?” Shiori asked before quickly assuring me, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I could sit in this room listening to you talk for days if there’s time for that. I missed you so much and you are… weirdly hot right now. Just--I think I missed you even more than I realized because holy shit, Flick, you are doing it for me.”

Under her breath, Asenath muttered something about how she must’ve missed me a lot too.

“But,” Shiori pushed on, “what about those monsters, and Ehn’s power going into the future unless we get you to that rift? We still need to find it.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” I replied easily, “I’ve had a couple hundred ghosts searching this whole time, ever since those knights rode up. They’re staying invisible and all, but they’re scouring the area. Whatever they find, they’ll let us know.”

They were staring at me again, Shiori’s voice low. “You’ve had… a couple hundred ghosts… searching this entire time?”

My head bobbed distractedly. “Sure, and a couple dozen around the town to keep watch just in case. Don’t worry, they’re staying up in the air to keep away from the villagers.

“Anyway, I guess it’s time to tell you how my vacation has been going so far.”