----------------------------------------
Lionli’Laval, new chieftain of the Laval clans, kept his elder half-brother’s desiccated head as a war trophy. Propped it up on the map room deep in Secondhome.
“The Jean’in are in retreat. There are still some outposts on the coast. I’ve sent my… bird cavalry, as it is called in your tongue, to scour the foreign mines on the north coast,” Lionli said.
“That has the risk of prompting other expeditionary forces, possibly bringing multiple down on you in an alliance,” the Quarterchief said.
“Foreign islanders are foreign islanders. What is this ‘alliance?’” Lionli asked.
Literally what we are in right now! Maat wanted to say but thought wiser of it.
Michael pointed at a map. “If you want to ensure the Jean’in – the foreigners, rather, can never again establish a foothold on the island, you’re going to want to be able to produce some firearms of your own. Not just pilfer supply depots; all losses of the past half-year can likely be replaced by factories in the core isles within a month. You need industrial capacity.”
“Industrial… capacity?” Lionli wondered aloud. “I have up lifted some subaltern to try and produce this explosive Jean’in powder.”
“That’s a start.” Michael thumbed an area near the cliffs. “This should be a defensible position. Keeps anyone from damming up the stormheaths again. Insular enough that you should have early warning if more Jean’in ships come a knocking.”
Lionli pondered this.
“Whoever owns this armory.” Lionli used the Earth word here, unnatural on his tongue. “Will have quite the advantage. Maybe even dominate the island.”
“And we’re suggesting you take the initiative and establish it.” Maat said.
Playing kingmakers, is what his father had called it. But the island was already inexorably changed the moment the first generation of Earthlanders arrived here. And the Earthlanders, too, had been changed. And the political situation was ever-fluid.
Bird-herders had already used this new bird cavalry to great effect, muscling out smaller clans who were already hard-hit by the dry season and the war. While everyone was still nominal allies, it remained unclear how long that was going to last.
----------------------------------------
Rita and Aminia spent some weeks studying the portal “key,” formed from magic most foul. They used science and whatever stock deific powers a river god could use for these purposes.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
At the end of the studies, Rita and Aminia both concluded:
“This thing was prepared at least a month ago,” Rita said. “Rick must have been lying about it being ninety-nine percent complete. He could’ve activated it at any time.”
“Why wouldn’t he just use it and go?” Maat asked.
“Because he didn’t care about anyone that wasn’t him,” Michael concluded. “Wanted to use the idea of a ticket home to taunt us – me, specifically, even. To see the look on our faces when the price had already been paid.”
Functionally, the key was exactly as it looked: a roundish bauble of metal. Bit of blood mixed in. The details of how it was activated were at first unknown, but Aminia swore he could activate it with a substitute for whatever forge-magic it was meant to contain.
----------------------------------------
“Alright. Who is going to do this?” Hector asked.
“I volunteer,” Sara said.
“Me too,” Lloyd said. “Have to see what this mysterious other world is like.”
“You two…” Hector frowned. “It’ll be like walking on an alien planet. You need a guide at least. I’ll have to go, too. Might be a way to get some new glasses. Money might be a problem. Hopefully compound interest has done my bank account good in the past twenty-five years.”
“I hardly remember life before the bus,” Rita admitted. Nevertheless, she’d packed a rucksack. “Still, damn curious to jog my memory. Let’s hurry it up already.”
Aminia dabbled some blessed Torrent water on the stone’s ruby insert. The artifact slowly adopted a faint glow.
“This thing should open at will from this side,” Aminia said. “I’ll keep it in this temple. Stick around, maybe check on it on occasion. Should drop everyone off exactly where they fell through all those years ago. Your… colleague was very thorough with the coordinates.”
Michael sighed. “I’m not going.”
“Dad? Why not?”
“It’s been too long. It’s not like I’m just going to pick up where I left off, as star quarterback.”
“Well, I want to go,” Maat said.
“By yourself?”
“They’ll be with me.” Maat motioned to Rita, the twins, and Hector.
“We’ll be back this time tomorrow, to give the all-clear for the rest of the team to come through if they wish,” Hector said.
“Very well.” Michael frowned.
The Jean’in fortress had mostly crumbled into the sea in a sixty-hour period after the great battle by the river bend. Water only flowed even faster down the Torrent’s basin. The throne room remained unflooded, for now.
“We’ll keep the light on for ya,” Aminia said with a smile.
Michael nodded. “I’ll let you back in. Promise.”
With a whiff of magic, the bauble activated. An archway in the grand hall warped, the cold stone behind it being replaced with a brown avenue, paved ramrod-straight. The environment was flat with a few squat bushes and some wide-canopied trees further out. A four-legged, hooved creature with mighty horns gawking, confused, in the far distance.
“Hasn’t changed a bit,” Michael said.
“Things are pretty slow back at home,” Hector explained as the de facto guide. “Not a lot happening outside of Waco. Well, not recently.”
Hector chuckled to himself. Michael frowned. Everyone Rita’s age and younger dismissed it as some kind of in-joke.
Maat walked through the portal. The humidity of the stormheaths gave way to… something else. The sun here was less harsh, though that sweat-heavy heat still clung to the skin. The young man turned and waved.
Michael and Aminia were standing on the far side of a tear in reality. The only island on the only world Maat ever knew awaited beyond. With a wave of his hand, Aminia closed the portal. The scene dissipated, revealing only more road behind it.
“So, the first thing you need to know about this place? Only one moon,” Hector said. “Second, this world is a globe. No edge to fall off of here, no sir. Ah, see you've already attracted a mosquito, that's the third thing to know about Earth, here...”
----------------------------------------