--- Lilian Weaver ---

Everyone had a lot of questions for Lilian, and soon Balron asked the group to move to a private section of the bar. For information security, he said. She was about to retort that the privacy enchantments on the private booths would not be enough to keep out professional spies, but then the dwarf started casting a series of security spells of his own.

He asked her a lot of technical questions. After her discussions with the experts in Northpass university over the past days she was actually able to answer most of them. For the questions she could not answer, she directed him to those same experts. They might not have believed her, but they still knew their stuff, and maybe they would be more inclined to believe a fellow member of the faculty than herself.

"If you are from another universe, then what happened to the version of you from this one?" Galanys asked.

"And what happens if you meet each other? Do you both explode because of the paradox? Can there be only one?" Rania added.

"That's not how paradoxes work, Rania." Balron said.

"I don't think so?" Lilian responded. "I certainly hope not. But it shouldn't matter because I asked around, and I'm pretty sure that the version of me from this universe went to Athar at the same time as I did, and disappeared there. My guess is that she ended up in my world, just like I ended up in hers. Or maybe it's more complicated than that and there is a circle of different versions of me swapping universes. But this is just speculation based on what I think Tonos would like."

"I know some things now that are still secret in this world. The War of the Two Eagles never happened here, and that event revealed some shady secrets. Presumably Tonos is going to use this outside knowledge of mine to kick off some more plots. The same might be true for the other versions of me. I haven't been here for very long, but I think there are a lot of small differences between our universes. For example, I confused Maru a lot earlier when I called her 'Fel-touched'. Apparently the word 'Fel-touched' isn't known here, and she is called a Tiefling instead."

The more paranoid part of her was afraid that her lack of knowledge about this world could also be used to force her into the role of the Damsel in Distress again. Maybe a spell of hers would fizzle out at the worst possible time, for reasons that were obvious to everyone but her?

Rania held up a finger to beg silence while she listened to Pebble: "Actually, Pebble wants to let us know that this has nothing to do with universe travel. Tieflings used to be called Fel-touched everywhere, but then some mad coastal wizards cast a spell to put the SRD for fifth edition under the Creative Commons License, which means we can use the word Tiefling now. So the spirits retconned the name and now they have always been called Tieflings. Pebble isn't sure how it's possible that you still recall the old name, and he thinks that maybe you fell through the cracks. He also says he is really confused about how this worked in terms of causality and he blames Circumstantial Simultaneity for it."

Lilian stared at Rania blankly, along with everyone else.

Rania shrugged. "I have no idea what Pebble is talking about, either."

Well, that was a little bit concerning, but hardly the weirdest thing that happened to her recently.

After a few seconds of silence in which nobody knew how to react to Rania's latest revelation, Balron spoke up: "I am concerned about the security implications of all this. If universal travel happened once, it could happen again. I don't know anything about this, and I do not like to be unprepared. For one thing, interdimensional travel could probably be used to bypass teleportation wards. Luckily this would most likely be expensive enough that it's not worth it for practical purposes. The greater risk is that passwords are no longer secure. I can not know if someone tortured me for information in another universe, so that he could use the secrets he learns to his advantage in this universe, where I am not aware of it."

"Wow. That's pretty dark." She replied.

"Yes, it is. And frankly, I am probably overthinking it. There might be other angles of attack that are more efficient that I haven't yet thought of. But better safe than sorry. I'm sending Whiskers to my office to run some old contingencies I made. They weren't really made for alternate universes, but it will be better than nothing. I would also like to give all of you some one-time passwords for secure identification, just in case we run into evil clones, or something. I would encourage the rest of you to do the same. And please make sure it's hard to guess this time. I'm looking at you, Rania."

He then started casting some spells for private communication and proceeded to give passwords to everyone at the table.

She wanted to ask if all this was really necessary, but one look at the others' faces told her that any complaint would fall on deaf ears. The only one who seemed to share the dwarf's interest was Dov, who asked him several technical questions about how his security mechanism worked. Galanys also made some comments and tried to poke holes into it by coming up with absurd scenarios, but it was clear to Lilian that she just wanted to see Balron's reaction to the increasingly bizarre special cases she proposed.

The whole discussion went over Lilian's head, and frankly she saw no point at all in listening. These precautions might be useful for team Nundru, but to her they would be useless. If Tonos decided that it would be more entertaining if she fell into some kind of trap, then that was what would happen. She had a tightrope to walk: Ignore security entirely, and there could be a story about punishing complacency. But spend too much time on it, and there could be a story about punishing hubris instead.

"Wait a minute." Galanys suddenly said. "Could this explain what happened with Captain Ambermoon of Bells End? The councilor said that he was still alive, even though we found a corpse that looked very similar to his."

"Thank you!" Rania suddenly shouted out in joy. "You did it! The spirits said that that is what happened. But I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about it, because knowing about other universes was supposed to be top secret. They would have gotten really mad at me, and all of you, if I had told you before."

She looked very sad about this.

"I really wanted to say something earlier, but before Galanys figured it out, talking about it would have been 'spoilers'. The spirits are super serious about preventing 'spoilers', and it is important to respect cultural differences like that." She nodded sagely at the part about cultural differences, as if it was a profound insight.

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"But Pebble says that I can tell you about it now, which is great. Now we are all on the same page. Unfortunately I don't really know anything more than that. Just that the guy was definitely an evil clone from another universe."

The others gave her perplexed looks.

"I have a question." Lilian said. "How do you know that that was an evil clone instead of just a regular clone? Did he have a goatee? Or was that a figure of speech?"

"That's a good question! He did not have a goatee, but he was fighting us, so he must have been a Bad Guy. That would make him an evil clone." Rania responded with conviction.

"Rania, just because someone fights us does not automatically make them evil." Atrog said. "I mean, don't get me wrong. That particular guy was in fact pretty evil since he caused the deaths of several people by messing around with that facility. But in general, it's possible for a person to be good at heart, and still fight us because of circumstances. I need you to understand this. You shouldn't just immediately kill people who attack us if you also have the option to disable them non-lethally. Sometimes it may be possible to talk them out of it."

Rania was quiet for a while, then said "Ethics is hard." and gave a frustrated sigh.

Lilian was very glad that Rania had found the team she had, if her suspicion was correct that she was not actually an elf. Atrog gave good moral guidance.

"It occurs to me," Lilian began, "that this discussion about interdimensional travel could be the real reason Tonos arranged for us to meet tonight. I will be happy to answer any further questions about that, but maybe you could help me piece things together first by telling me what you have all been up to since we last met? It sounds like there was quite a story there."

Rania immediately took her up on this and proceeded to tell the story of their adventures. The others occasionally interrupted her with clarifications and corrections. Without that, Lilian would have been unable to guess what a Middle-aged One was supposed to be.

Lilian took it all in, and then gave her professional verdict: "It sounds to me like you are being power-leveled."

"Power-leveled? What's that?" Rania asked.

"It's a figure of speech used by Niphia cultists." Lilian responded. "It means that you encountered creatures that were far more powerful than you should have been able to beat, and this made you rapidly grow in power. I think that Tonos is deliberately throwing overly difficult challenges at you, so that the Law of Adversity makes you stronger as quickly as possible. You are probably in for exciting times in the future."

"You think this all happened on purpose to make them stronger?" Dov asked.

"Yes. Most likely. Both basilisks and Elder Ones are incredibly dangerous. I would be surprised if you all didn't become much more powerful from that."

"They did." Dov continued. "I keep getting my ass kicked in our sparring matches, and that's even though I grew much more powerful myself. I didn't fight an Elder One, but I did kill quite a number of weaker things in my time in the Realms Below."

"The difference between us is not that extreme." Galanys added. "You are still much stronger than I am."

"No offense, dear, but you are a wizard who focuses on support spells." Dov responded. "You don't have any combat training, while I had some of the most powerful adventurers on the continent as tutors. It would be very embarrassing if I lost a one-on-one spar against you. Morgan would never let me live it down. Besides, your strength doesn’t lie in a direct fight. We all know that, so that's not a good point of comparison."

"Oh, you called her 'dear'. Are the two of you an item?" Lilian asked.

In her experience, it was extremely important to understand the social dynamics within a team of adventurers. It was essential for accurately predicting the flow of a story. She knew that she must sometimes come across as a nosy person who asked intrusive questions about people's private lives, but really it was all necessary for her to do her job. People's very survival sometimes depended on how accurate Lilian's understanding of their love lives was and she spent a considerable amount of time maintaining and updating a shipping chart.

"We both enjoy each other's company." Dov said.

"If you know what we mean." Galanys interjected while wriggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"...but I'm missing a lot of memories right now." Dov continued with a flicker of amusement. "So we decided to just keep things casual for now until I have my memories back. I wouldn't want to make any promises I can't keep, and I don't know what I can promise while I'm not even fully myself. I do hope that none of my memories will change anything when they come back, though. Galanys is a lot of fun to be with."

"So is she!" Galanys added. "And she is teaching me so many wonderful things, too. For example, did you know that the phrase 'casual sex' implies the existence of ranked, competitive sex?"

Lilian caught on quickly and could tell how this conversation was going to go, but it would be more fun to feign ignorance and see what exactly Galanys had to say first.

"Oh no." Rania suddenly interrupted. "I'm sorry, but I need to stop you right there. I know how the two of you are, and I can see the kind of looks Atrog and Maru are giving each other, too."

The two of them briefly looked at each other, then both of them blushed.

"What is up with you all of a sudden?" Asked Galanys. "You have never had a problem with that before."

"Oh, I don't mind what you do with each other." Rania said. "I'm happy for you if it makes you happy. But can you please not do romantic stuff where people can see?"

"What do you mean?" Asked Balron. "We are in a private area. I put the enchantments up myself. Nobody can see or hear us here."

"Yes, that's true." Rania said. "But if this was a play, then we would still be on the stage because we just had an important talk. The audience would still be watching."

Lilian found herself nodding subconsciously. Her reasoning made perfect sense so far.

"I don't understand what the problem is." Galanys said. "I wouldn't mind being watched."

"Behave." Dov responded.

"Make me." Countered Galanys.

"That's exactly what I mean. Please stop that. I would really prefer to be in a story that is appropriate for all ages. That way there would be a bigger audience, and we could be more popular. And it would be much safer for us, too."

"...what?" Atrog said.

"Think about it. Doing R-rated things increases the chance that you are in an R-rated story. R-rated stories can have more bad things happening in them than stories rated for younger audiences, because too many bad things would make the children cry.

"Therefore, you can't do anything adult until well after we are done with plot-relevant stuff, or else you will invite disaster on us all.

"I mean. Probably." She admitted. "It's not an exact science."

Lilian was amazed. This had never occurred to her before, but it made an odd amount of sense.

"That is so weird." Galanys said.

"It is not! It's perfectly obvious if you understand anthropic reasoning." Rania responded.

"Nobody understands anthropic reasoning, Rania." Balron said. "I have known professors who went insane trying to understand more than the basics of it."

"Well, Pebble says that he understands anthropic reasoning pretty well, and he says that what I'm saying makes sense. He also says he is disappointed though, because he was hoping for lewd things to happen. I don't really get why a rock would want lewd things, but to each his own, I guess."

"That is a really fascinating idea, Rania." Lilian said. "You need to tell me more about this later. But let me just check if I understood you correctly: The problem is that you think that we are still in the same scene as before, when we were discussing very important plot-relevant stuff, right?"

"That's right." Rania agreed.

"So that means that if we manage to end the scene early, then all of this no longer matters and we can do whatever we want, right?"

"Yes, I think so. But how would we end the scene early?"

"Oh, that's simple. No story would ever focus on a scene that is boring for the audience. So there is a pretty easy trick for ending any scene. Watch this. Hey, Atrog."

"Yes?" Atrog answered. "I'm busy trying to keep my brain cells from committing suicide over here. I'm going to regret responding to you, aren't I?"

Lilian ignored his response and said "I recently started doing my taxes, but they are very complicated. You look like the responsible type of person who would know this. Could you please explain to me in detail how I am supposed to fill out form 3A on my income tax?"

Atrog gave a deep sigh, then responded. "Alright. Why not? The important thing about that form you need to know is that..."