We'd done one last pass through the vault looking for loot, taken that grate off the teleportation circle and copied down the runes so there would be a more direct route to the Duminere, and then hurried through Nusos again to get back to the surface. That trip had been way faster, because we weren't picky about where we exited from.

Cyne had most of us do our best to think about nothing in particular - or at the least nothing related to architecture - and then he and Sige and Mila who all knew what the style was in Erathik just got us to the right type of building and concentrated on trying to leave. We ended up coming out in someone's house, and were attacked by a woman with a broom - she had the same gold nose ring that Hugh had worn, and was yelling at us in a language my bracelet didn't translate.

We'd made it to Radagan, which was thankfully not too far from the capitol of Erathik which was also called Erathik. "The capitol and the kingdom are the same," Cyne lectured, "as it was their only remaining city for almost an entire grand cycle. The Clockmaker was busy fighting to subdue the other planes, and the Erathi people had made sure every city that fell cost the Clockmaker as much as possible. Eventually, he agreed to a peace treaty - he would leave them their capitol and never set foot inside, and in return they would do whatever he asked."

"That sounds a lot like being conquered," I said.

Cyne nodded. "There was a split between those that wanted to keep fighting despite the impossible odds, and those that wanted to take the deal and bide their time. The Erathi king finally resorted to fundamentally changing the nature of the government - he married his son off to Gwendil, one of the leaders of the other faction, and when he stepped down from the throne Gwendil became the first primarch of Erathik.

"The tradition has been kept ever since, with first child of the royal family marrying someone qualified from the general public or another political faction. That person becomes the primarch, and has the first voice in all decisions. Thus the royal line is unbroken, but the rulership continually renews its link to the common people."

"Okay so... there's a king and queen, but whichever one is the actual child of the previous king and queen isn't the one in charge?"

"Correct. There was little point in marrying into other influential families during the Clockmaker's reign regardless, unless they were going to marry the Clockmaker's daughter - and the people of Erathi would have never agreed to that even if it had been an option. Once the Old Empire fell at the beginning of this grand cycle, they quickly acted to expand and grow their territory. At that point some second or third children were, I believe, married off to make alliances - but the tradition of the primarch has held firm. I suspect you'll be meeting the current primarch, given the value of what this expedition has uncovered."

That brought up the next problem I'd have to face. It was time to get locked away until Brinkmar was aligned. Hammersmith would be pissed, surely, but in the end she seemed pretty goal-oriented and I didn't anticipate more than a lecture. I'd sat through plenty of those in my life. That was totally irresponsible, she would say, don't you ever think about other people? What if you had both died and we were left with no way into Brinkmar...

Some part of me squirmed at the thought, because the hypothetical Hammersmith I was listening to did, kinda, have a point. Connie had assured me the world couldn't end again - Ulren was dead, his lab destroyed, and the war going ridiculously badly for Halenvar. They needed to get into some sort of weapons storage or hazardous equipment room or something that was sealed with the full might of the Clockmaker from back when Brinkmar had been his... summer palace? Research facility? Planar outpost? I wasn't clear. But regardless, they should have no way to get at the doomsday device.

But was it worth risking?

With Telen dead and the Behemoth trapped on another plane - one that was apparently ridiculously hard to get out of unless you'd specialized in it as Sige had - it didn't seem likely that anyone else was coming for me. What I wanted, even though I knew it was a terrible idea, was to go off somewhere with Errod and Katrin and train up my Dumine. Dumines, plural. That was the other problem - if I got snagged by Hammersmith, would she find out I had three Dumines? What would she do about it?

I could tell her it couldn't be done again, and she would - presumably - believe me. But what if word spread, and other people all wanted a turn examining me? I wasn't going to be turned into a lab rat. Plus, if I wanted to explain it I'd have to tell them about the world ending and Connie resetting things and... it was a whole mess. I could try to make a deal where I was allowed some freedom, but that bridge was almost certainly burned after our escape. They'd be putting me in a deep hole and sealing it shut until the day came. I felt itchy all over at the very thought.

We camped for the night in a field off the side of the road. We all had bedrolls and the weather was pleasant, plus it was what I'd done for however many days while traveling to Theramas. I spent some time just watching the sun set and trying to picture where we were - Erathik was at the Northern end of the continent, which was also closer to the equator. Halenvar was to the East, and the Free States were on the other side of a huge mountain range I could just make out to the South. The peak I'd arrived in this world on was somewhere in that range.

When I went to set up my bedroll, I found it already rolled out with Katrin and Errod whispering over it. Katrin jumped a little as she heard me coming. "Callie! Perfect. We were just talking... you know they're probably going to be looking for you, right? In Erathik, I mean. Since they're allied with the Empire in the war."

"Yeah, I know. It's fine. What are you guys planning to do when they lock me up?" They could go practically anywhere, do anything. They'd be citizens of Erathik due to the terms of the contract, but they also didn't speak the language. Maybe they'd just pick a city somewhere?

"Well it's hard," Katrin said, "because we don't know if they're going to keep you in Erathik or send you to the Empire."

"They won't put you back in Theramas," Errod said, "the gate to Brinkmar that was there was damaged in the attack. Unless they were just spreading that rumor to trick Halenvar, but... even then, they won't keep you in the same city. I don't know where the other gates are, and I know Halenvar destroyed some of them when the war started. Or, destroying them was partly what started the war? Whichever order it happened in."

Katrin nodded. "I think you should convince them to let you stay in Erathik. That way we'll already be there with you, and won't have to track you down or something. I hope they don't want to do some sort of high security thing, I want to be able to wander the city."

"Wait," I said, "you lost me. Why would they lock you guys up?"

"Well hopefully they wouldn't," she said, "but there's a decent chance they'll want to limit how many people are coming and going for security reasons -"

"Or move you around, or hide you on another plane..." Errod interjected.

"- right, and so we'd have to just get locked up too or lose track of you entirely. But it's hard to plan anything without knowing. There's the option of trying to run, of course, but I don't think it's safe to have anyone else handle the Duminere contract for you - and once you're in there I can't imagine you could get away easily."

I felt... funny. "Why are you guys even... you don't want to get stuck with me. You're going to be loaded, and Katrin you can learn how to read your spellbook properly now, and... why would you worry about me?"

Katrin rolled her eyes, but it seemed affectionate. Errod put a hand on my shoulder and opened his mouth to speak a few times before hesitantly saying, "Callie... every time we left the apartment without you, you looked surprised when we came back. And when we were late getting back one time you packed all your things. I don't... I don't know exactly what happened to you, but between that and the look Connie got whenever she talked about having to stay somewhere against her will... we don't want you to do this alone. Okay?"

"We're your friends whether you like it or not," Katrin added, "so just get used to it. Is this about my spellbook? I really will tell you about it, I just... it never seemed like the time, and you had all your own stuff going on."

Something was wrong, my throat felt like it had a rock wedged in it and the corners of my eyes were tingling. I felt to make sure my bracelet was still on in case I was having an allergic reaction, before remembering I'd had an enhancer fix that permanently. "I just... I'm not good at having friends and I figured you were with me to get Dumines and... I don't know."

"Calliope," Errod said softly, "I absolutely have ulterior motives here. I very much wanted a Dumine. And I still firmly believe that I'm destined to become a knight of Brinkmar, and you're heading there so staying with you feels like the right thing to do. But that doesn't mean I don't also like you, and want to be your friend. And you'll use us, I'm sure, for... protection, and advice, and learning about this world that's still new to you."

I felt tears starting to drip down my cheeks. "And you'll use me for applying pressure when you cut something off while trying to protect me."

Errod sighed. "Probably, yes."

Katrin pulled our bedrolls closer, with me in the middle, and we tucked in all squished together. That strange dense band of stars was overhead, and for a little bit I just stared at it and let my mind go blank. Then, on some random wild impulse, I took Katrin's hand and tucked it into the front of my dress to rest on my Dumine. Then I pulled it out, and slid it under my hair. When her fingers touched that second Dumine there was a sudden silence as her breathing stopped.

I heard Errod shifting around to look, though I wasn't sure how much he could see with the sun fully down and the small campfire throwing off more shadows than it did light. I repeated the process with him and then, still without saying anything, pulled my foot up and tugged my sock off before putting their hands on that Dumine, too. Then I tucked my foot back into the bedroll, and whispered as quietly as I could. "I think I broke something."

Katrin said, calmly, "Calliope can I wear your bracelet for a second?" and then once it was latched on screamed at my in English. "What the fuck! How would you even? I knew you took a little longer than normal in there, but I didn't think you were getting three Dumines! We're going to have to cover them up somehow. Wait. Was the one on your chest Connie's? It was hanging there, right? On the necklace? But why would there be three?

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Okay so you make your choices, you go to implant it and the one touching your chest implants too. But then... you... wait, did you use her ability to go back in time? It would have needed to inscribe it on your Lutore, but maybe since the Dumine was already developed it just did that as part of the implantation? And then you could have, I don't know, maybe you burned it out to go back and went far enough back you hadn't started yet and could make a third?"

"Holy shit. That's almost exactly right. You're really smart, you know that?"

"Well. Thank you. Oh, what are we going to do? We can't let anyone know. You, me, and Errod. That's it."

Errod nodded seriously, even though he couldn't possibly understand English. He had probably just heard his name and decided to nod along. I told Katrin my plan to cover the one on the back of my head, but beyond that I didn't have a lot of ideas yet. It was something we'd just have to figure out, and be careful in the meantime.

When we arrived at the city of Erathik, late on the fifteenth day of the month, any plans for subtlety were thrown out the window. We walked through the gates and an alarm went off, setting the guards off like we'd kicked a hornet nest. They seemed confused, and it took almost an hour for one of them to explain that they weren't actually sure what the alarm was for. They asked if we had anything dangerous with us, and I got to watch their reactions as we explained we had Telen's armor and sword.

Once we let them examine our things a bit more the consensus was that rather than Telen's gear the sword - or bladed club, maybe - that we'd found in the vault was the more concerning item. Nobody liked the feel of that thing. To be certain, we had to wait for another half hour until an expert arrived - to my surprise he was about my age.

"Call me Lute," he said, and shook everyone's hands - even the kids. He took it a step further, in fact, and after looking us all over knelt in front of Tig. "You are the one in charge here, yes?"

I could appreciate that he was being cute, but I was exhausted and nervous and we'd been waiting for an hour and a half while surrounded by guards so I wasn't in a great mood. I was about to interrupt him and tell him to get to business when I caught Katrin... well, swooning. Huh. I'd never been a great judge of who other people would find attractive, and especially coming from another planet with so many little differences in culture and history and, hell, facial features... well, it shouldn't have surprised me that I hadn't pegged Lute as good looking.

Not that he was ugly, just... the look on Katrin's face was a bit much. Or was she just that charmed by him playing with the kids? Regardless, I backed off for a second to observe the interaction and after just a moment more he straightened up and invited myself, Katrin, and Errod into the guardhouse. He asked one of the guards to make tea, and chatted casually with everyone. Or... not actually casually. He was interrogating us, clumsily.

"Your accent reminds me of a friend from the Southwestern end of the Free States," he said, "but you have a bit of the look of one from central Halenvar to you." Just a comment. Not even a question, and making reference to a friend in a way that somehow said this was all just a chat, that he was your friend too. And Katrin answered, of course, and after no time at all had not only told him that their family was from Yallowsben but also - after another encouraging comment from Lute - that they traced their lineage back to Brinkmar.

"Ah, of course! That would explain it, I know most refugees from Brinkmar ended up in Halenvar, yes? And you, Calliope, you cannot hide that grammar," he said, squinting at me playfully as if I'd been caught with my hand in the cookie jar, "I always know when someone learned the vulgar tongue from a translation band - ah, sorry, that is what we teasingly call Imperial in Erathik. I pride myself on being a student of languages, perhaps I know your native tongue?"

He was an ameteur at this but not terrible. Just a bit obvious. What he lacked in subtlety he made up for in charisma, at least as far as Katrin was concerned. Maybe he would have been able to do better if he hadn't immediately set off my alarms - he was one of those guys that could made a hobby of pulling introverts out of their shells or something, and as someone that was a loner weirdo in public school I instantly had walls up. Errod seemed a bit bristly as well, probably because he'd noticed Katrin's reaction to Lute. That at least seemed to confirm he wasn't using magic to loosen Katrin up, since it would surely do at least something to Errod and I.

"Oh, it's a local dialect from a little outpost in Calnon. I'm sure you wouldn't have heard it. But listen, we really need to get in to talk to someone, we have important business we need to finish up. Is this going to be much longer?"

Katrin seemed to snap out of it, and looked a little embarrassed. "Thank you so much for the tea, of course," she said, "but we do have some sensitive business and we've come from Radagan on foot."

Lute put on a look of 'shocked and apologetic' as if offended by his own behavior. It was only a little over the top. "My apologies! Of course. I did hear that you reportedly have proof that your party eliminated General Telen of Halenvar - that would be welcome news here, yes? Of course I can help arrange a meeting with someone, I currently have an internship at the Nokarash. Er, the... bureaucracy? 'The Hall of Desks' would be the literal translation. Also, I've determined the likely cause of the alarm, and it's nothing to be concerned about."

I had a few things to process there. I wasn't surprised that he'd heard about Telen, he'd supposedly already been on his way by the time we'd talked to anyone about it but someone could have intercepted him or magically radioed him or something. But he hadn't seemed to do anything since arriving that would tell him about the alarm, and despite getting Katrin to chat with him over tea she hadn't said anything all that interesting. Finally, I was somehow caught off guard by him using the words 'internship' and 'bureaucracy' because even though it was translation magic and not actually English they just didn't feel like they belonged in a fantasy world.

The only catch was one I expected, which was that before we could talk to the important people they wanted us to get in front of someone who could make sure we were telling the truth and promise that we weren't spies for anyone, weren't planning any harm to Erathik or its people, and weren't trying to take over the city on behalf of the Clockmaker - an old traditional question, apparently.

After that it was mostly just paperwork. Literal paperwork - I'd never thought about the possibility of a fantasy adventure ending with several days of poring over contracts with lawyers, but of course it wasn't as simple as me scribbling down a copy of the contract out of Connie's notebook and waltzing off into the sunset. I knew nothing about the laws of the kingdom of Erathik and the translation band they'd tried didn't stack with mine so I had been assigned a lawyer - but because I'm a fucking mess this triggered some sort of minor anxiety attack.

Thankfully I was self-aware enough to stop and think about why my heart was beating faster and why I suddenly wanted to just skip the whole thing and run away, and no big surprise it was all tied in with my childhood bullshit. In the foster care system you get assigned a guardian ad litem - basically just a lawyer that argues on your behalf in court since obviously if you're in the system they can't make that your parents' job.

Mine had been... fine. The first one, before my mom ditched me in Arizona, had smelled like cigarettes and was always drinking coffee and then sneering at the cup as if it tasted funny. Whenever she looked at me or at the case file in front of her she would sigh and then gaze out the window as if she was contemplating just running off and joining a convent. In retrospect I don't think she had anything against me - when I was grabbed for shoplifting or trespassing that wasn't something she made a big deal out of. I suspect, though she would never have said this to a ten year old, she was just annoyed the state hadn't severed my mom's parental rights so they could focus their efforts on getting me adopted by someone that wouldn't abandon their kid in the hardware section of Sears.

I'd had a guardian ad litem in Arizona too, the same one from the time I was twelve until I left the system, but I didn't see her much. After the very brief arguments over whether a twelve year old could be abandoned without repercussions under the safe haven law there wasn't a lot to go to court about. I usually avoided getting caught when I was up to no good, and on the occasions where I did end up in the police station I typically just got sent back to the group home, or switched to a group home for "children with special behavioral needs", or Bill talked the police into letting me go.

Or... no, when was that? After Universal Servicing Systems? That couldn't be right, that was after Bill quit.

Either way, I'd spoken to her maybe once a year. It was odd to think that even with neither of my assigned lawyers being around too much or causing me any trouble I was feeling anxious because of the parallel. Stupid trauma. Stupid broken brain. Once I got past that it turned out the lawyers in the kingdom of Erathik were ridiculously nice and helpful, and when I handed over the first draft of the contract they descended on it and began arguing with each other excitedly like it was a game.

My lawyer slipped into his native tongue as he got further into the document so after a few minutes I couldn't understand anything being said between them, but I was exhausted by the past couple weeks anyway so even if he had somehow spoken English I doubt I could have really paid attention. He would occasionally turn back to me and go over some minor edit, mostly things which seemed like errors Connie and I had introduced - someone had translated the original contract into Imperial, then Connie had translated it to English, then I had translated it back to Imperial, and now we were trying to get it back into Erathi.

So it wasn't a shock that some parts were a bit... muddled. "This line," my lawyer said with a smile, "as written it would make you property of the kingdom, yes? We will change it, the context implies you mean to say you will be a citizen."

They all spoke with the same accent as Hugh, and most had those gold nose rings. I had finally started to hear the "yes?" at the end of sentences as being the same thing we joked about Canadians doing back on Earth. It was just the Erathi version of "eh?". This revelation somehow shifted my perception of them somewhat, and made everything feel just a little more casual. The lawyers were very patient, and didn't seem bothered by me wanting to optimistically including Aestrid despite also admitting she was dead, or asking to include some provisions for the rescued kids but then not knowing anything but their first names.

That part turned out not to matter much, as they had a way of using a Dumine as a signature. It also meant I could avoid the questions about where I'd come from, as using my Dumine - the one on my chest - as identification was something that would perfectly identify me. Or, that was the idea. In reality, I could presumably establish two other identities by using my other Dumines - not that I could imagine any reason I'd want to.

Lute was still kind of hanging around, and I was aware that he'd been spending time with Katrin while I was tied up with the lawyers. I wasn't sure how to feel about that. He seemed nice enough, but I couldn't get past the thought that he was hiding something or acting as a spy. Or hell, maybe he wanted some of the money.

"I think he's probably fine," Errod said reluctantly, almost like he would have rather had a reason to dislike Lute, "and anyway he won't be coming with us."

We were re-packing our things in nicer, newer bags Errod had bought. The lawyers had been nice enough to give us an advance on the money so we could live comfortably while the contract and details got sorted out.

"He'd better not try to come along. Can you imagine? Hey Errod, is this that glove you found down in the vault?"

He looked up from his own bag and nodded. "Oh. Yes, I tried it on down in the vault and it didn't seem to do anything. Cyne and Mila both looked as well, they said it's probably just an old glove left behind by whoever cleaned out the place. But... I don't know, I guess I just kept it to remember the journey by."

I slid it on. It was well made, and comfortable - though a little bit large on me. It looked like it was designed to fit fairly snugly, and it extended down onto my forearm. If it was old, it had held up remarkably well. I pulled it off again and thought I felt a slight static-y stickiness, but thought it might just be my imagination.

I examined the inside, and didn't see any sign of runes or anything. It didn't look like some sort of special material, though I obviously didn't know enough to identify the type of leather. So. No runes, no special material, and no obvious magical effect. If it was a magic item or even an artifact, it was subtle indeed.

I tossed it over to Errod so he could pack it, and he slid it on for a moment as well. "Shame we didn't find the matching one. It's got the correct grip for sword fighting, but it's a left glove and I'm right handed. I suppose it's silly to keep it." He sighed, and went to pull it off but then stopped.

"Is something wrong?"

Errod tugged at the fingers again, then looked at me with his lips in a tight line. "No. It's fine. I think I might leave the glove on for now though."

I put down my bag and raised an eyebrow at him. "Errod. What's going on?"

He sighed, and held up his left hand. The glove, formerly plain, now had delicate gold stitching in a vine pattern around the cuff. "It um... it won't come off."

Great.