Jair waited by the transit platform for Yast to emerge, a few minutes into their infiltration. The elf finished opening the door and disarming the traps for Lorsit and emerged back into the open, arriving exactly on time as usual.

Yast followed Jair onto the platform, pressing Larenok's seal into the authorization slot and tapping in the code for Astralla City. They arrived at the public transit terminal, which was as unbearably hot, stuffy, and unpleasant as ever.

"We're not going to run or hide this time. We're going to sit here and calculate how long it takes for someone to come for you."

Yast looked at him uncertainly. "Come for me?"

"They'll be unhappy when they find out what we've done, and I need to know how long it takes for them to react."

"Oh."

Moving through Firdon’s maze took around half an hour. It was a very effective tool for slowing people down. That meant that they had around forty five minutes from the moment they reverted until the moment Ran and his sandshark would snatch Lorsit away from Firdon’s hands to safety.

A further half hour to travel around to the city, and that meant the soonest Ran could reunite with them would be over an hour away from the present moment.

"I thought we were going to try to escape."

"We will.” Jair sat down, crossing one leg over the other and leaning back on the sand-covered bench with his hands behind his head. “Don't worry. I won’t let anything happen to you. One way or another, I'm getting us all out of this."

Yast nodded hesitantly and sat down beside him. With nothing to do, he soon pulled out the authorization token and began prodding at it with his tools.

"If you're hoping to replicate its authorization patterns, don't bother,” Jair commented, watching Yast through half-closed eyes. “I tore that thing fully apart once, and the design is fused into the material itself. It's impossible to get at it without destroying it in the process."

"I want to see how it works in general. We do not require authorization for transit where I come from. Either you are allowed to reach the platform, or you are not allowed to use the platform. There is no locked but public transit like you have here. This is an ingenious creation."

"Of course the constructist is fascinated by the key." Jair smiled fondly and waved a hand. "It's all yours. I won't be needing it again, so if you break it in the process of dismantling it, I could not care less."

Yast’s face lit up, and his prodding at the token became more energetic, losing its edge of caution. "I thought you would be wanting it back."

"No. This is the only thing we needed it for. I'm sure they'll change the coding on the platform itself before long, as soon as they realize how we got in."

"Code on the platform? How does that work?"

"There is a series of authorization patches built into the direction triggers. Countless different patterns that all go to the same location. If any one of them is successfully filled by the token authorization, then that path is unlocked. The location key - that’s what you type on the control pad - is what narrows down the group of paths to their destination. Both halves need to be active for the transit to connect. If you don't have the right location tapped in, then the destination won't unlock. If the departure token and the destination don't connect, then it won't do anything."

"So how are new paths added? It sounds like it would become exponentially difficult very quickly."

This devolved into a discussion on the intricacies of transit platform programming, many of which Jair was fluent enough to discuss on a technical level that satisfied Yast, though he had never pursued it sufficiently to do it himself. It was one of those finicky tasks that required altogether too much patience, and Jair had never been accused of being an overly patient person.

After a time, the subject ran its course and silence fell.

"Can you tell me more about my Path while we wait?" Yast suggested hesitantly.

"Ask anything you wish." It wouldn't hurt anything, and it could be good to refresh himself on the specifics of Yast’s personality and preferences.

It had been a long time since he recruited the elf for anything. He had general ideas, as well as the few essential specifics pretty solidly memorized by now, but after living the same lifetime uncountable times, some details started to get hazy, while others disappeared entirely.

Jair’s mind could replay more fights with Sekir than he had experienced, both real and imagined. To the point where he sometimes didn't know which encounters were legitimate timelines and which were dreams.

Yast Mebort, as valuable as he could be, didn't rate as significant on the same scale.

“What is this other place you will need my help with?" Yast asked.

Interesting first question. But, yes. That made sense. Yast was always on the more impulsive, live in the moment type. He would want to plan for the next week, not care so much for the next decade. It was part of what made him so perfectly suited for Jair’s purposes, since Jair could readily take care of all the long-term planning. As long as he could convince Yast that the short term was worth doing, Yast would follow along without question. Well, with lots of questions, but without balking.

"You know the other man we brought with us? The one who went into the vault alone?"

Yast nodded.

"His ancestors were robbed by their Tollkeeper and deceived by a false contract. One of their ancestral treasures was stolen and has not been returned. It is our job to return it."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Yast looked at Jair with a long and searching look. "You know that you don't have to make up stories to convince me to help, right? I'm well aware that stealing things tends to be done more for personal benefit than as a sequence of righting ancient wrongs."

Jair laughed. "It does somewhat sound like a made up story, doesn't it? But, no. In this case, I'm not exaggerating at all. I will show you the first item once it is retrieved, it is certifiably mine and none others. You have not aided in senseless robbery. The AkTolue family treasure will be a harder one to prove, but you have my personal assurance that his need is as true as mine."

"I will accept your words for now."

"I'm glad. Did you have other questions?"

"My destiny. I do not know how this will lead to my destiny."

"I will not tell you the full path. You must learn it as you walk it, or it holds no value to you."

Yast nodded; this was an expected response from a pathmaker. It would have been more suspicious if Jair had answered it. Yast moved readily on to his next request. "Will you teach me your language?"

"I will get you started, and then I will refer you to someone else who can complete your teaching. I do not have the time to oversee it all personally, but I will find you a tutor who has my personal guarantee."

"You say personal guarantee a lot."

"Is that not the correct term?" Jair knew it was, but sometimes it was more valuable to feign ignorance than to always flaunt knowledge.

"It is. It is usually used on legal contracts of the most binding nature, not casual conversation."

"Do you believe my conversation is casual?"

Yast considered this for a moment, observing Jair frankly, then shook his head slowly. "I believe you are right. This conversation is not casual."

"I'm glad we understand one another. Is there anything else concerning you?"

"I do not know much about you. You know everything about me. It feels strange. I knew in my mind that it would be this way when I found my pathmaker, but I did not expect it to feel so… uncomfortable."

"What would it take to reassure you?"

"I don't know. The specifics…" Yast shrugged helplessly. "I do not know enough about your culture to know even what to ask."

"If you ever think of a question, ask. I will answer, unless there is good reason not to."

There was a long silence during which neither of them spoke.

"Will I ever find love?" Yast blurted.

"You may. That will depend on your choices. The people you accept into your life are not predestined, nor are they part of the path I make for you. Whether you walk it alone, or with whom you share it, that makes no difference to me."

Yast nodded and fell silent.

Neither broke the silence before the Hyperion Guard arrived to take them away.

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"Jair Welburne?" Larenok stared at the report, incredulous. The little bogscum had resorted to a break-in just to try and get his sword a few months early? He must have finally accepted he'd never be good enough and resorted to violence to assuage his childish pride.

Larenok's eyes narrowed as he stared unseeing, mind working. Welburne’s motivations didn't matter. The boy had gone too far. He couldn't be allowed to get away with such a blatant attack on decency.

"I need a list of every graduate who's passed second tier. Where they are, what they're doing. I don't care what it costs."

If they had nothing else to go on, then the stolen soulsword was the only clue. If it had been stolen by anyone else, Larenok would have assumed it would be long gone. Sold, traded, or otherwise passed on. But Welburne? One of his trouble students, but not one with any connection to the underworld or even the wealthy.

Welburne couldn't have been more than a pawn in this scheme, much like the elf they'd captured. Whoever was pulling his strings had promised him the impossible, and the gullible idiot had walked right into it.

The Hyperion Guard believed this was nothing worth being concerned about. Larenok knew better.

But he could be patient. One step at a time. The elf led to Welburne, Welburne would lead them to the others. As long as you had at least one thread to tug on, the whole scheme would unravel sooner or later.

It's why Larenok himself never allowed any loose threads to remain hanging.

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"Forty two minutes,” Jair reported after Ran reverted them safely back to the start. “Even if we were to rush back together as quickly as possible, we couldn't do so before they get close. When we do this for real, we’re going to need to travel separately for a while."

Ran nodded. "That sounds about right. I'm not as good at keeping track of time as you are, but that's the same range I had. Forty five minutes or so."

"Those three minutes might matter."

Ran waved it off. "So, what's next? I think I've got it down. Firdon hasn't caught us the past four loops."

"Good. I think my next play will be to go to Vaes City instead of Astralla."

"That's a long way."

"Yes. I need to see if transiting there will throw people off more, or perhaps slow down whatever tracking they are using. If it's something that can be tracked regardless of distance, that's also good information to have."

Ran shook his head. "What kind of power can track people regardless of distance?"

"There are many soulspells that can do it. Either by tagging the person, tagging the location, or any number of other methods. The good news is, if it’s one of those, it’s likely not reusable so the rest of us will be in the clear."

"Can I get one? I'd like to be able to track people."

"We can get you any soulspell you like. Just remember you only have forty of them."

"Only forty." Ran giggled, a little bit manically. "Only forty soulspells. That I get to choose. Oh no. Such limitations."

Jair joined in the laughter. He had to admit, from an ordinary perspective, Ran’s power was one of the most insanely broken ones he could imagine. The fact that it seems to be causing him soul level strain already, and very well may escalate further in the future… they’d deal with that later.

"Okay,” Ran said, once their mirth subsided, “I get the shark, Yast gets the door, Lorsit gets the sword, and you get Yast out. I head to, where? Astralla? Hang out with Dad?"

"Yes. Let's try that for now. Afterdrift doesn't last for more than a few days, so by that point anyone they're going to track, they will have already. If they can follow Lorsit and you, that means there's probably a tracking trigger somewhere in the vault as well as whichever one Yast triggered by doing his security thing, but I think you should be in the clear."

"Is that really how it works? You can just… arbitrarily track someone?"

"Most soulspells of that type are one time use. You set a trigger at a location, or on a person, and it follows either that person, or the first person to enter that location. I don't know anyone at Astralla Institute who has that power. It’s possible they just got lucky, but unless afterdrift tracking has advanced far more abruptly than I ever imagined, it's either a scanning construct or an outside contractor with the right soulspell doing the tracing. Which one, we’ll have to run some more tests to narrow down.”

Ran gave a short laugh. "I guess you're right. Speculation can only help so much. Better to run through the scenario a few times and see what happens."

"Exactly. Speculation has its place, but experimentation is almost always the superior option."

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