First things first--well the first thing now that Asenath and Shiori had been given the rundown about what was going on and what had been happening over the past few months for me anyway-- I had to check on my ghosts. I knew I still had some of them, at least, which probably meant they had been copied along with me, which opened up whole new questions about how all this worked. But I wanted to double-check.

So, while the other two watched, I carefully focused on summoning several of my ghosts in succession. I had been planning on going to the Fomorian homeworld with a full army, since we had no idea what would happen there. As it turned out, nothing we could have guessed would have prepared us for reality. Still, it meant I’d had everyone with me when I went through the rift, and the same thing was true now. Doctor Manakel, Grover, Seth, Emily, Chaz, Kaleigh, and Jason, all of them were there. And yeah, they thought it was weird that duplicates of all of them probably all existed everywhen else the other me’s had been sent along the timeline as well.

Also, the fact that phrases like, ‘everywhen else the other me’s had been sent’ seemed totally understandable just showed me, yet again, what an utterly absurd pile of nonsense my life had turned into. And yet, it was my utterly absurd pile of nonsense, and that had resulted in things like me getting my mother back, meeting a whole host of amazing people, and being able to fall in love with Shiori and Avalon.

Oh, Avalon, Valley. Obviously, there was a version of me out there who was with her right now. Meanwhile, I was here with Shiori, my Shiori. After all the time I’d spent missing her, missing both of them, I was here with her and another version of me was out there somewhen with Avalon. Sure, it was an overly-complicated way of finally being reunited with them, but still. It was something. It was worth it. Everything, all of it, was worth this moment when I could simply stand there and smile like an idiot at Shy while she giggled and blushed under the attention. This was what I had been missing.

Ah, right, I was doing something wasn’t I? The ghosts, my ghosts, right! I finished checking on all of them then, my own blush deepening with the realization that Asenath was smirking at me from the other side of the room. Smirking at both Shiori and me, really. She was clearly amused by how distracted we both were. But hey, from my point of view I’d been away from Shy for almost half a year, she was lucky I could focus at all right now. And even that was only because of how dire this whole situation was. If we didn’t find that rift and get me through it, and do the same with every version of me all across the timeline, then we wouldn’t just be dealing with ordinary Fomorians anymore. We would be dealing with Dragon-boosted Fomorians.

Yeah, no thank you. The thought of that was enough to sober me right up. The Fomorians were bad enough as it was. We really didn't need to add Dragon power into that equation. The idea of just how unstoppable those fucks would be in that situation was just… yeah, pants-wettingly terrifying. We absolutely couldn’t let that happen.

So, putting how much I had missed everyone out of my mind for the time being, I focused on the issue at hand. We needed to find that rift. Unfortunately, I wasn't exactly certain how we were supposed to go about doing that. But something told me we wouldn't get very far sitting around here. We needed to be out there scouring the area. The rift could be anywhere within a few miles of where we had appeared.

Standing at the open window as she looked out toward the line of men standing guard around the edge of the town, Asenath spoke up curiously. “Do you think the monsters that have the people around here all worked up so much are because of that rift?”

Grimacing, I reached out to take Shiori’s hand while giving a little nod. “I'd be pretty surprised if it was just a coincidence. Which means anything that's happened to them and their people is because I walked into that first rift.” That was another thought that managed to send a shudder through me. If people here had died because of what Ehn and I did when we walked through that rift… goddamn it. This was all fucked up.

I didn't even want to think about whether this was affecting the timeline or not. Or rather, how much it was affecting it. I was already terrified of the potential consequences of this whole situation. If we also ended up accidentally getting someone killed who was supposed to live, someone that could change history…

Shiori, however, gave my hand a firm squeeze before turning to face with a bright smile. “Okay,” she chirped in a way that was clearly meant to help me calm down, “so we just need to get you to that rift to fix this. What are we waiting around here for?”

Asenath cleared her throat. “Well, for one thing, I don't think the people out there are going to be very eager to let us walk out and start searching the forest. Even if they do think they're just protecting us. Sometimes even people trying to help can be a problem. It’s not as though we can just explain what we’re trying to do, or that we can fix their whole problem. The Bystander Effect isn’t anywhere near full strength yet, so they do believe in monsters. But that’ll probably just let them believe we’re monsters.”

With a frankly distractingly adorable giggle, Shiori slyly replied, “Well, then I guess Flick’s just gonna have to show us her fancy new teleportation power, isn't she?”

Smirking despite myself, I gave a slow nod, “Yeah, I guess I will. But we’re still going to have to stay out of sight once we get out there. They've got those men out searching the forest for the monsters too, and I don't think they'd give us a pass if they happen to run into us again. Especially if none of their friends back here have any idea that we left. And I really don’t want to have to fight any of them at this point. They’ve been through enough as it is. We’ll have to stay away from those patrols they’ve got.”

Asenath lifted her chin before offering a shrug. “Good thing we can be rather sneaky then. Not to mention how good we happen to be at finding important things.”

Shiori gave my hand another firm squeeze, interlocking our fingers before cheerfully agreeing, “Yeah, I mean, between your senses and Flick’s ability to find any trouble within like a thousand miles, we should trip over that rift in like five minutes, tops. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll just have to go about the search more scientifically. Starting with gathering all the knights we can find and put them in a group to talk to each other.”

Blinking, I slowly asked, “Why would we put a bunch of knights in a group just to talk?”

Her grin lit up the room. “So we can get the Sir Conference of the area!”

I laughed once it hit me. Sure it was corny and silly and just--it made me groan. But it also made me laugh, because it was Shiori. I leaned in, touching both sides of her face to kiss her briefly. Then I tried to focus, but it was hard. Not only because this was a lot to try to work our way through, but it also didn't help that I was staring at an adorable and incredibly cute little Asian girl I happened to be in love with and had missed for the past six months. Every time I looked at her I just kept getting entirely too distracted.

Yer tellin’ us! Fathom put in rather enthusiastically. But you're right about that whole needing to save the universe thing, so maybe keep it in our pants and focus!

Of course, eager as we were to get out there, we really couldn't get ahead of ourselves. Yes, my first instinct--all of our first instincts-- had been to get moving as soon as physically possible. But now that we actually thought about it for a moment, we all realized this was more complicated than that. Those searchers they had working their way back and forth through the area looking for monsters would spot us easily in the bright sunlight. Besides, the protection spell might have been keeping Asenath from burning up in the sun, but that brightness still wasn’t doing wonders for the vampire girl. She wasn’t accustomed to being out in the light like that, and apparently it always did a number on her senses. She needed darkness to be fully effective.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

So, hard as it was to even think of sitting around, that was exactly what we did. Well, we rested, or tried to at least. For the next three hours or so, until the sun began to descend over the horizon, we tried to relax. Shiori slept in my arms for a little bit, in between talking. And God, just that by itself meant so much. We talked about things. I told them a bit about Laein, about running around with Gaia, about visiting the Desoto, all of it. I had six months worth of stories, and we barely had time to get into any of them. But hey, with luck, I'd have plenty of time for all of that once we were back in our own time.

While I was explaining things, I also told them about how I set off the Boscher sense now. Or at least, I sort of did. I had a couple things protecting me from that at the moment. First, that ability I had to not trigger the sense Alters had to warn them about Boschers also meant I didn’t alert the Boscher sense itself now that I was a Fae. But when I actively used my powers, that switched off and lit me up like a beacon that screamed at any Boschers who so much as glanced at me that I wasn’t human, that I was dangerous.

Fortunately, over the past month I’d spent ‘resting’ before going through that rift that had screwed everything up, I’d learned a bit from studying some of the ancient spellbooks that Story had in our Archive library. Specifically, I’d learned a spell to block that Boscher sense--well technically it was blocking the Reaper alert, but it worked well enough. It meant that as long as the spell was active, I wouldn’t show up as an enemy to every Boscher who looked at me while I was using my powers. That ahh, that seemed rather important.

I also told them about Liam Mason and what he was planning. To my surprise, as soon as I got into that, Shiori blurted, “So it was him!”

Then it was their turn to tell me what had been happening. And honestly, finding out that his testing for that fucking spell had accidentally resulted in the deaths of several Reapers couldn't even surprise me. Well, not that much anyway. It just fit with everything so much. Apparently the actual Reapers (whom the Carnival, Tristan, Denny, and a couple new girls including one of Kushiel’s secret Olympian children she had been raising to be her super soldier bodyguards so what the actual fuck had actually gone into the Prime Archives to meet) had given Earth an ultimatum to figure out what was happening and put a stop to it. Which was just fine by me--well, not the ultimatum or the idea of what they would do if we failed, but I was definitely on board for stopping him. Once we were done saving the world from this problem, we would have to deal with that one.

And then maybe, just maybe, we could have five fucking minutes where the world would just stay saved.

Either way, eventually, it was dark enough for us to head out. I still felt like we had barely scratched the surface of everything that had happened while I was gone (seriously, we kind of skimmed right over the revelation about the others going into the Reaper Prime Archives), but we’d get to more of that soon enough. Right now, we had a few more important priorities.

First things first, before we went anywhere, we needed to make sure that we weren't about to have our well-meaning hosts come upstairs to check on us and find out we were gone. Nice as they seemed to be, I really didn’t think they’d keep our disappearance quiet or just ignore it.

Fortunately, the moment I brought up that concern, Asenath was right on top of it. She went downstairs to have a conversation with them. Which left Shiori and me alone. My fingers brushed gently over her hair and down over her face before I leaned in to kiss her once again. It was a sensation that made me shiver, my voice a very soft whisper. “God, I missed you, Shy. I know how bad this whole situation is, how dangerous it is. Seriously, this could basically end the universe as we know it. It's so very, very dangerous. And yet, part of me is just really happy right now. I’m so happy that you're here, that I get to see you and touch you again.” With that admission, I rested my forehead against hers. “Does that make me a Galaxy-sized piece of shit?”

“Oh, Flick.” Shiori shook her head and whispered in a way that made me shiver. “You’re not even a small hill with strong ambitions-sized piece of shit. I missed you too. And we’re gonna fix this. We’re gonna make sure every version of you makes it through those rifts. Besides, this wasn't your plan, remember? This was all Ehn’s doing. Of course you assumed he knew what he was talking about. I mean, look at the guy. This isn't on you. It's not on any of you.” She said that part while leaning back to put her hands on either side of my face so she could stare into my eyes. “Flick, Fathom, and everyone else inside there, all of you listen to me. This isn't your fault. Yes, we have to fix it, but that doesn't mean it happened because of you. Just remember that, okay?”

Well, what was I supposed to say to all that? Oh wait, I knew one thing. “Thank you.” My voice trembled just a little with those words before I leaned in to wrap both arms around her. Squeezing tightly while a soft gasp escaped the other girl, I murmured a quiet, “Thanks for being here, and for being you. I've needed you for a long time. Not just these past six months. I needed you through my whole life. Then I found you, and you found me. Everything in my life is better when you're part of it. I love you, Shiori.”

With a tiny, barely audible whimper, she held onto me, literally trembling. “I love you, Flick. I need you. We need to get through this. We need to fix this so you can come back to the present, so we can all get back there and go back to our real lives. You know, the lives that are always crazy and violent and just… terrifying, but so much better because you’re part of them.”

As if on cue, Asenath returned with a plate of bread and cheese. There were also a few fruit slices. She explained that she had told Colin and Danaih, the couple who owned this place, that we were just going to eat this quick meal and then sleep. She told them that we'd had a very long trip, so we were exhausted. Then she paid them just a little extra to make sure we weren't disturbed. Not enough to stand out too much or make them suspicious, hopefully. But enough that they would be incentivized to stay away from the room and not come check on us. It was going to have to do, since we couldn't just sit around. That rift was out there waiting for me. And, quite possibly, producing the monsters that had all these people so on edge. With any luck, we could kill two birds with one stone and save these people by sending me through the damn thing.

On the plus side, now that I had been here in this room, I would be able to teleport us back to it at any point. Though I was really hoping that wouldn't end up being necessary. Seriously, could we please just find this rift on our first try and go through it without ever having to come back here? Not that these people weren’t just lovely and all, but seriously, we needed to get this done.

So, after warning the other two that we were about to be in a new spot, I focused very briefly while looking out that window. Just like that, we were standing in the distant forest, past all the lookouts they had surrounding the town, and well away from the roaming search party we’d been able to see lights and other signs of up along the distant ridge. Sure, we had no idea whether this area was anywhere near the right spot, but we had to start somewhere.

As soon as we appeared, Shiori jumped a little bit. Even with the warning, she was still surprised. “Oh,” she blurted, “geez, you weren't kidding about how quick that is. I didn't even feel anything. It's like we were in the room, and then a second later we were just here.” She gave me a quick smile. “That’s amazing, Flick. And it’s not even like--a power you absorbed or whatever. It’s just your power. It’s part of you.”

I couldn’t help but blush a bit under her attention, shaking my head quickly. “Yeah, it’s been super-useful, trust me. And I kind of need every little bit of ‘useful’ I can get.” Which just reminded me of how helpful having the Cryptseeker would be right now. Unfortunately, I didn’t happen to have the skull ship stashed in any of my pockets, and it wouldn’t show up here on Earth for… a long time.

Looking around the rapidly-darkening forest, listening to the sounds of animals all around us as well as the much more distant sound of armored humans on horseback, I let out a long breath. There was so much more I wanted to say, so much I wanted to tell them and ask them. But it would have to wait. Right now, we had to focus. “Okay, well, no time to waste, I guess.

“Let’s go find that rift.”