--- Galanys ---

Galanys was seated next to the rest of team Nundru as they all watched the discussion between the Shan leadership and the Orukian delegate. She recognized the man as Count Nadokk, a second-rate politician who was already on his way down. He had probably drawn the short straw, for the Interim Council to assign him to this. However important signing a peace agreement usually was, the man really had no authority here and everyone knew it.

Their discussion was a farce. House Mardok very rarely got involved in politics, but when they did then even Old Powers fell in line promptly. Nobody wanted to make an enemy of Denissa Mardok. The signing was not a private affair, either. Many of the Shan Kingdom's most senior officers were present, along with other notable politicians, powerful adventurers, and war reporters. Even the Senior Dungeon Builder had been invited, presumably to report on this to the fey.

Adam had set up a stage, and cast some spells to amplify their voices. He even cast spells to record the proceedings from every angle. No doubt these recordings would be heavily edited later and would become preferred over the recordings made by other reporters. The whole thing was a manipulation of public perception and a show of power, but for good reason. House Mardok rarely acted overtly, so when they did they had to make a show of it, to make sure that the impression stuck in the public consciousness. The whole thing reminded Galanys of nothing so much as a stage performance.

She found it endlessly fascinating to watch. Adam was a master at work, and she scrutinized every little detail with rapt attention, from the way he dressed, to the movements of his eyes, to the exact wordings he used as he verbally eviscerated people.

Everyone on stage was accustomed to power and to being obeyed, and Adam was basically just handing them a list of demands and urging them to read more quickly. She liked Dov's parents, so she did not like watching them squirm, but you just didn't get an opportunity to see something like this every day.

"This list of concessions is shorter than what we discussed before." Count Nadokk complained.

"Yes it is." Adam replied matter of factly.

"...and? Can you elaborate why?"

"I could, but I see no point in it. I discussed this internally with Denissa Mardok's other advisors and we felt it appropriate to make some changes. The contract before you is what we decided upon. Go ahead and sign it."

"I see." The Count replied hesitantly.

Dov's parents did not look very happy with the contract before them, either.

"*The negotiations must be going great.*" She told Dov, who was sitting next to her.

"*Why do you say that?*" Her girlfriend replied.

"*You know the adage 'a good compromise is when both parties are dissatisfied'? Judging by their looks, the contract before them must be exceptionally fair.*" Galanys joked.

That got an amused chuckle from Dov. It wasn't much, but at least it helped to cheer her up a little. She could use a bit more cheer in her life, after all that disturbing business with the infohazards. And wasn't that a topic Galanys wanted to know more about! Even though common sense dictated she should leave it well enough alone.

"*I'm a little annoyed that he just showed up to end the war like this.*" Rania said. "*That was our job! We traveled here through the feywild and even had an adventure along the way, just so that we could explain what's going on. But then he just shows up and makes our efforts meaningless.*"

"*We made sure that the armies were notified an entire day earlier, Rania.*" Atrog responded. "*It may not seem like much, but this is a war. A lot of people could have died in that time. Don't beat yourself up over it, we did good here.*"

Rania emanated a feeling of happiness through the telepathic link at the praise.

"*I am worried that Denissa chose to intervene here at all, though.*" Atrog continued. "*Adam said they 'had bigger fish to fry', whatever that means. Maybe we are lucky and this is just about Cilia, but I'm not counting on it.*"

"*I agree. Adam already knew about Cilia for days. Why would that change anything now, and not earlier?*" Galanys responded.

"*It might just have taken a while for Denissa Mardok to react to it. She is not known for making decisions in haste.*" Balron added.

That was a good point, she thought. She expected Dov to add her own opinion. As a princess trained in statecraft she was the only one of them who could actually have an informed opinion here, but her girlfriend was uncharacteristically quiet. Could that have something to do with the infohazards?

Before long, Adam finished his performance and stopped torturing the politicians in front of him.

The peace treaty was officially signed. The war was over. Everyone in attendance started clapping and cheering, and team Nundru joined in.

"Now that this minor issue is out of the way, it is time to get to the reason I was sent here." Adam declared over the noise.

He paused dramatically after his declaration and everybody immediately quieted down and paid attention to him. Galanys continued taking mental notes. She really had missed her calling: Being a bard looked so much more fun than being a wizard. Then again, she would never have met Dov or the others if she hadn't taken the path she took. On second thought, she was glad the way things were.

"Cilia Ulein has made an enemy of House Mardok.

"She has violated an agreement of non-interference between the Old Powers by attacking Xilly, the daughter of Vherdes. But this is only the lesser of her crimes. She has also violated Denissa Mardok's decree prohibiting research into the nature of the Marskelian Boundary."

"*He is referring to research on interdimensional travel.*" Dov supplied. "*I guess they still don't want to confirm that alternate dimensions even exist. Also, I'm pretty sure that that's not the real reason they are angry. Adam is keeping out a lot of details here. Do you think they know what happened to Cilia already?*"

"*Need I remind you that Adam can listen in on your telepathy? Let's hope he is distracted by his own speech.*" Balron pointed out.

Galanys felt a stab of shock and embarrassment from Dov. In all the excitement, she must have forgotten about that.

"*I can in fact multitask pretty well, and am rather difficult to distract.*" Adam added telepathically, during a pause in his speech.

Dov gave no outward reaction, but her emotions suddenly flipped to sheer terror. Galanys felt her stomach sink as well.

"*Calm down. You are not in any trouble. It's part of the plan.*" Adam added.

"Fortunately, this all ties into an ancient prophecy that Denissa Mardok has seen fit to call in now." He said out loud.

What? Denissa Mardok could “call in” a prophecy? What a fascinating claim. As the only person in the world whose magic could affect time, Denissa Mardok was rumored to be able to manipulate even fate itself. The only other entity with that ability was the Living City, which was smart enough to simply predict the actions of mortals and was thereby able to outmaneuver prophecies.

"I will now talk to team Nundru in private. The rest of you are dismissed. Go outside and celebrate the peace treaty. You have earned yourselves a break for surviving Cilia Ulein's machinations and you can rest assured that she will soon be brought to justice for it."

She felt shock from all of team Nundru through the telepathic bond. The prophecy was about them? Did that mean that they were some kind of heroes predicted in ages past?

As the others filed out of the tent, most of them gave team Nundru weary but respectful looks. Xilly gave Dov a smile and a thumbs up as she walked past and said "*You are really moving up in the world! Good luck!*"

After the last person left, Adam pressed a button on a strange magic device he carried and confidently declared: "We are talking privately now. There can be nobody listening in."

Galanys felt an intense surge of envy from Balron and she had to stop herself from laughing out loud.

"Please add me to your telepathic link, it's faster than talking and much easier for me than using an artifact for it." Adam continued, and Dov complied.

"*First things first. We already know about what happened to Cilia. We arranged it.*" Adam said.

"*No way! You are the ones responsible for all this anticlimactic stuff?*" Rania shouted in their minds. Then she shook her head sadly and declared "*I really expected better from Denissa Mardok! She is the Most Senior Quest Giver! She shouldn't just ruin other people's story arcs like that!*"

"*I will report your feedback to Her Highness. I'm sure she will be interested to know about it.*" Adam responded sardonically.

"*I apologize for Rania's rudeness.*" Atrog said. "*Please do not get her in trouble, she doesn't know who she is talking to.*"

But Adam just laughed and waved the comment off, suddenly smiling. "*Don't worry about it. I'm well aware of what she meant. It's all in good fun.*"

Wait. Was it just her imagination, or did he look a little bit nervous? It was hard to tell, the man was an expert at dissembling, but Galanys was very experienced at picking up subtle signs. Quite a bit better than she was a month ago, in fact. It appeared that the Law of Adversity recognized social manipulation as one of the things she was particularly good at, and so she grew more skilled at it far faster than normal. Where Atrog gained muscles that could block a hammer blow, she had gained cold-reading abilities that were slightly beyond the natural.

"*Now then. Dov, can you confirm that you have Cilia under control? It was a bit of a gamble on our end.*"

"*I can. Cilia has attached to me, and I have bound her. How did you know that any of that would happen?*" Dov asked.

"*I'm afraid that's classified. Before we continue, I need you to explain to me what Cilia told you about her plan. We already know most of it, but this is an opportunity to fill in the details.*"

"*There are infohazards involved. I haven't told the details to anyone, yet.*"

Adam sighed. "*Why can nothing ever be easy? In that case I will need to talk to you in private, Dov. Don't worry, all of you. This is probably much less scary than you think. Denissa used result-oriented magic. We didn't know what it would do, just that the results would be what we wanted. Dying to an infohazard is not something we want, so it's not going to happen.*"

The telepathic bond was flooded with equal parts relief, confusion and incredulity at the announcement.

"*I have never heard of result-oriented magic before.*" Balron declared, echoing Galanys' own thoughts.

"*Few people have.*" Adam responded.

He didn't ask them to keep it a secret, Galanys noted. She suspected that he said this deliberately to spread yet another rumor about Denissa Mardok's capabilities. She gave it about even odds that he just made that up, but that still meant there was a 50% chance that Dov wasn't in any danger from the infohazards she claimed to know.

They all left the tent while Adam talked to Dov in private.

"They are probably making plans in there." Rania said after a few minutes. "I'm so glad that we can't hear them. For once I don't have to actively ignore what people are saying."

"What are you talking about?" Atrog asked. "Wait. Do I even want to know?"

That gave Rania pause. "That's a great question! If you don't know how the Unspoken Plan Guarantee works, does that make you doubly ignorant, and therefore make the trope twice as effective? Or does it cancel out and it just doesn't work? I will have to think about it!"

"If the unspoken plan guarantee is based on keeping things secret, does that make it similar to infohazards?" Galanys mused.

"I don't know! But that sounds like it would be really cool if it's true!" Rania responded.

Galanys saw her chance and took it. "Well then. Let's say that someone makes a plan that is an infohazard, and doesn't talk about it, and the person who doesn't know about the plan also doesn't know what an unspoken plan guarantee is in the first place. That would be three different levels of ignorance. And since infohazards are super powerful and dangerous, they should compound extra hard. So the question is, how well would that plan work?"

Rania just stared at her for several seconds.

"Great, you broke Rania again." Atrog commented.

"Atrog, I need you to promise something." Rania suddenly said.

"Yes?"

"When Dov tells you to do something that sounds ill-advised and dangerous, but it has to do with infohazards, then you need to trust her blindly and just do the thing. I think that will work really, really well."

She stared at him with an intense expression until he eventually sighed and said: "I promise."

A few minutes later, Dov called them back into the tent.

"*Good news!*" She said. "*It looks like we are not all imminently going to die! I was worried about that before.*"

Galanys felt the relief flush through the telepathic link and responded with the mental equivalent of squeezing her hand.

"*Yes, everything seems to be going according to plan so far.*" Adam said. "*I am going to talk about the prophecy soon, but first things first. You all are aware by now that other universes exist and travel between them is possible. Denissa is keeping this information classified for a reason. You do not need to know what that reason is. Dov knows it, and if circumstances change then she may decide to tell you. Otherwise, don't ask about it.

"*You are also aware that Cilia Ulein was responsible for all of this, and that Dov has neutralized the version of Cilia in this universe quite effectively. She is now aware of Cilia's plan, or at least what the local version of Cilia believes to be the plan. That might be the full version, or it might be a deliberate self-deception. I will remind you that Cilia is considered an Old Power for a reason, and she is quite capable of altering her own memories to gain a strategic benefit. I'm not saying that's what happened, just that we should keep the possibility in mind. Stay vigilant.

"*Now, I am going to do something highly non-traditional: I will explain what the prophecy is about before I actually tell it to you.*"

"*No way!*" Rania said. "*Why would you do that? It kills all the suspense!*"

Atrog sighed again. "*We don't want suspense, Rania. We want to succeed without drama. I would much prefer to know what it's actually about.*"

"*No no, she is right.*" Adam responded. "*It's normally better to tell the prophecy first and add explanations afterwards, preferably while providing several alternative explanations. It has to do with anthropics. The details are classified, so don't bother trying to figure out why. But this prophecy is special, and so I am going to give the explanation first.*"

"*Our prophecy is special! That's so cool! I wonder if it will be even cooler than the prophecy Zephyrion the Genesis Dragon gave us?*" Rania said excitedly.

"*Please don't get your hopes up. The reason I wanted to have this conversation in private is because, quite frankly, the prophecy is fucking stupid.*"

"*What?*"

"*Prophecies aren't all made by mystical old sphinxes that exude wisdom with every breath. Some are made by deluded people on drugs instead. I'm not saying that's what happened here, but please don't get your hopes up that this prophecy is going to sound great. It's not the sort of thing I would write down in a book for the public. I don't want the truth to get out, and I'm certain that by this time next week the rumor mill will have produced at least a dozen better sounding prophecies, which will be politically convenient for us.*"

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Galanys was not looking at Rania, but she could practically feel the elf's face fall. She had to suppress a giggle. Rania wore her emotions on her sleeve as always, and it was adorable.

Adam's pronouncement was certainly surprising to her as well, but Galanys was already busy thinking through the implications. Was this a common thing? All prophecies she ever read about sounded grand, but maybe that was just a bias? Accurate but boring prophecies would be no fun to talk about. But exciting and vague ones that invited people to argue about their interpretation would naturally become popular.

"*Regardless of how stupid the prophecy sounds, we know it to be very reliable.*" Adam continued.

"*Oh! Pebble says you are fibbing!*" Rania interrupted him. "*But he also says that it's fine, and I trust him on that. He just wanted to let you know that he is onto your games and thinks they are funny.*"

To everyone else, Adam barely reacted to this. To Galanys, it looked like Adam was on the verge of panicking. Even so, he quickly caught himself and continued talking.

"*Well, I'm glad to hear that he finds it amusing, whatever he believes he knows. I do hope he will like the prophecy: It is about a quest for team Nundru!*"

"*No way! You have a Quest for us!*" Rania shouted excitedly. "*The Most Senior Quest Giver of all is giving us a Quest through a special prophecy! This is so awesome!*"

Galanys almost had to suppress the telepathic bond she was a part of as Rania's sheer excitement threatened to overwhelm her through the shared emotions.

"*The prophecy says that you need to go into other universes to hunt Cilia Ulein's alternate selves.*" Adam said. "*To do so, you need to enter the Library of Akash. This is normally incredibly dangerous, but the prophecy explains a way for you to survive this.*"

"*Does this mean we need to leave everyone in this universe behind?*" Balron asked with concern.

"*Yes, but no. You will not be traveling to other universes, you will be copied to other universes. Your originals will still be around, and your copies will save the other universes from Cilia. Of course, from a subjective point of view the copies won't feel like copies. You will just feel like yourselves, whether you are the originals or not."

It was a lot to take in, and nobody was sure how to respond.

After a few seconds, Rania broke the silence: "*Wait a minute. Are you saying that we will get to go on ALL OF THE ADVENTURES AT THE SAME TIME?*"

"*Yes I am. I'm glad you like it.*" Adam responded.

He really did sound glad to Galanys, and even a little relieved. Why would Adam care so much about that?

Galanys noticed Dov weaken the strength of the telepathic bond. It was necessary to prevent them all from getting overwhelmed by Rania's emotions.

"*This is the happiest day of my life!*" She said. "*I'm so happy I can go on ALL OF THE ADVENTURES with my friends! You guys are the best! And you and Denissa Mardok are also the best for giving us ALL OF THE QUESTS! This is so awesome! I can't wait to beat ALL OF THE BAD GUYS and save ALL OF THE INNOCENTS!*"

She looked kind of delirious at this point, and they all decided to wait a few minutes for her to calm down.

"*Alright then. If everyone is ready, here is the prophecy:*" Adam said when Rania was coherent again.

"*It will come to pass that she who wants to get better at all of the things will kind of overdo it. Hard. Which, you know, is kind of in character for her, so that checks out. Anyway she is only trying to help, honest, but is kind of a delusional moron about it. And that makes her the Bad Guy!*"

What the fuck.

"*And though the Bad Guy's actions will threaten all the worlds and all of their Innocent Civilians, great heroes will arise to oppose her. And one among their number will be The Chosen One, for she will have secret knowledge and goals beyond ordinary adventurers.*"

Adam wasn't joking, this was terrible. It would be better if it sounded like the ramblings of a madman, because then at least the style would be consistent instead of all over the place.

"*She will understand well that destroying the world is bad and shouldn't happen. And she will persevere through great challenges, through her powers derived from general awesomeness, and from being so super nice and helpful to everyone, and from caring about people's sum aggregate happiness and wanting to satisfy the values of all humanoids.*"

...that really did not sound like a normal prophecy at all.

"*And she will clear up cultural misunderstandings and help with open communication. And she will understand the struggles of the common man, for she will have been born Perfectly Normal, but with a Super Secret Backstory. And to everyone's surprise she will turn out to not be normal at all, but Super-Fated instead.*"

Adam looked at Rania.

"*Wait. I am Perfectly Normal, and I have a Super Secret Backstory! Is the prophecy talking about me?*" She asked.

"*Yes, you are the Chosen One. But please don't let it go to your head.*"

Rania squeed, and Dov again had to weaken the telepathic bond to keep them all from getting overloaded by her emotions.

"*I am totally going to let that go to my head!*" Rania replied deliriously.

After giving her a few seconds to collect herself, Adam continued: "*And lo! The Chosen One and her friends will have to travel to the Nexus at Akash. But to overcome the many dangers of Akash, they will first have to prove their worth. Through other prophecies, which are less cool than this one but still pretty cool, and which will be introduced later at a dramatically appropriate time.*"

Wait. Did they just get a set of recursive prophecies? Galanys hadn't known that was even possible.

"*And the first of these prophecies shall be revealed as our heroes contemplate the nature of mirrors, at the mountain of the forgotten rivers. And the second of these prophecies shall be revealed at coordinates 37°45'44.3"N, 122°24'53.1"W.

"*And through these prophecies, the heroes will acquire all they need to brave the dangers and enter the Library of Akash, where the Nexus awaits!

"*And once they step beyond the veil, they shall get totally tangled up in the Bad Guy's plot and machinations and all sorts of quantum fuckery and mind control and stuff. Which is surprisingly a good thing and allows them to fight right back. Because Sympathetic magic is a thing that exists and is cool and should be used more often. Like seriously a lot more. It has much more potential than people give it credit for.*"

Galanys noticed Rania nod at that. Sympathetic magic was a rarely used kind of magic that really only shamans used at all. Was it only her or did it sound like whoever made that prophecy was trying to convince people to use it more? This prophecy kept getting more and more bizarre with every sentence.

"*On her adventures, the Chosen One will beat impossible odds. And once beyond the Nexus of Akash, she and her friends will help everyone, everywhere, all at once. Through the powers of friendship and generally being nice and social people, and definitely not murderhobos, they will prevail.

"*And together they will stop the Bad Guy everywhere, and everyone will live happily ever after, including all of the Innocent Civilians that people normally don't really care about or even mention in the epilogue.

"*And throughout it all, the Chosen One will teach the spirits to chill the fuck out.*"

Adam stopped talking, and silence reigned for a few seconds.

Finally Atrog spoke up: "*I think I speak for all of us when I say: What the fuck.*"

"*I agree. This is not how I imagined the prophecy to go at all.*" Galanys added. "*I wonder if many of them are like this and we just never hear about it?*"

"*I don't think so.*" Dov disagreed. "*My parents told me about plenty of prophecies they encountered, and none of them were this weird.*"

"*Well, I think the prophecy was nice.*" Rania said. "*And not just because I am the Chosen One. The spirits all loved it, too! I wish you all could see how they are shouting and cheering right now, even the ones who normally stay quiet and don't say anything at all. It's a great prophecy! A bit unconventional, but cool. It must be, or else the spirits wouldn't love it so much.*"

"*Well, I am glad to hear that at least some beings appreciate it.*" Adam said.

He really did look quite glad and relieved to hear that. How interesting that he would care, Galanys thought.

Then Rania spoke up again: "*Pebble says that he has very strong opinions on the prophecy and he wants to tell us all about it.*"

Adam suddenly looked alarmed.

Rania continued: "*First off, he says that it's actually a recent prophecy and not an ancient one. He says that it sounds kind of fake and the phrasing is suspicious, like the Most Senior Quest Giver made it all up herself. I don't know what he means, but he says that he can tell from some of the words and from hearing quite a few prophecies in his time. He also says that the recursive prophecies probably don't even exist yet, because she is trying to hedge her bets and will make them up later.*"

Normally this would be the point where the bard of House Mardok would interrupt and ask someone to repeat that, and everyone would back away in fear. Slandering Denissa Mardok was an extremely bad idea for anyone. And yet, Adam did not react, and his silence spoke volumes.

Rania did not appear to notice any of that as she continued: "*But Pebble also says that all of that is ok, because Denissa Mardok is very old and wise, and that means she is allowed to make up prophecies. He says that she is a grey hat hacker and a sneaky bugger, because the prophecy is an adversarial input for spirits. He also says 'nice try', but he is not falling for it. I don't know what he means by any of that. He says that it is beyond our comprehension, but that it needed to be said. Which is fair, I think.*"

Once again Atrog gave voice to what Galanys was thinking: "*I don't know what is going on, but this sounded important. I would really appreciate it if you could slow down the world shattering revelations for a bit. I am still processing the last two.*"

"*Maybe I can simplify things?*" Dov added. "*Cilia says that she has thought about the prophecy and that we should think of Denissa Mardok as a mostly benevolent character with a hidden agenda that will have untold ramifications in a sequel. The bit about the adversarial inputs sounds like something we should not think about. It's related to an infohazard. Pebble's insinuation that Denissa Mardok was the originator of the prophecy may be some kind of metaphor, and is also an infohazard.*"

Was she reading that right, or did Dov look like she was lying when she claimed Pebble was being metaphorical?

Atrog sighed. "*How nice of Cilia to speak Rania's language. Surely nothing bad can come of trusting her.*"

"*In this one case I agree with Cilia.*" Adam said. "*I do not know what Pebble knows or what he is trying to achieve, but yes, this is something you should avoid thinking about in detail.*"

"*Pebble knows infohazards?*" Balron asked.

"*Of course.*" Rania responded. "*I know he doesn't talk much, and most of his comments are jokes, but he is very smart and wise in the ways of the world.*"

"*I would like to remind you all that infohazards are dangerous, so please show some discipline and just stop talking.*" Adam rebuked them all. "*Dov knows more, and she should figure out how they relate to the prophecy on her own.*"

"*Great. No pressure.*" Dov joked.

After that, they asked some more clarifying questions about the prophecy, and Adam handed them all a reference manual that explained what their experts thought each of the lines of prophecy meant. Rania complained that a reference manual took away all of the mystery, but Atrog managed to convince her that not dying because of a misinterpretation was more important.

Galanys and Dov both committed the manual to memory, and then they spent several comparatively boring hours going over the details of the prophecy and their possible interpretations.

In the evening, she decided to review the prophecy in her mind again. Her eidetic memory comboed nicely with her cold-reading ability, and she kept reviewing Adam's facial expressions in her head. He had been nervous and evasive while talking to Rania several times, and it could hardly be a coincidence. Now that she thought about it, Dov had looked somewhat nervous about Rania as well. She reviewed those memories as well, and found that Dov had been especially nervous about Rania before she had her secret talk with Adam, where he reassured her that the infohazards weren't an immediate threat.

It all pointed to one conclusion: One of the infohazards was Rania, or related to her.

There were many reasons to keep that thought a secret, and many reasons to address the issue. In the end, none of those mattered. Curiosity was Galanys’ driving force, and all other arguments would have been justifications after the fact.

"*One of the infohazards is Rania, isn't it?*" She asked Dov, who was alone in the room with her. "*Is it something Rania has done? Or she herself? She is a fey of some kind, right? Or is it about Pebble instead?*"

Dov gave her a look of shock and horror. "*What part of "don't think about the infohazard" don't you understand? And stop trying to cold-read me!*"

Then Dov turned away from her and walked out of the tent. "*Come find me only when you have stopped being an idiot.*" She said. The disappointment that came through the telepathic link was palpable.

Galanys was left alone in the tent, and she felt miserable.

Yeah. She deserved that. She had fucked up. No two ways about it.

There was a time and a place for her curiosity, and this was decidedly not it.

Infohazards were just the worst. It was like trying not to picture a pink elephant. She had an eidetic memory! The pink elephant she imagined in her head had more details than most professional drawings of elephants. Her creativity and curiosity were her greatest strengths, and now they had turned into liabilites.

How would an elephant turn pink anyway? Was it the result of biomancy? Or an illusion? Being pink would be a maladaptive trait for an elephant to have in the wilderness, so clearly it could only happen if "a wizard did it", as the saying went. Except maybe the color pink could warn away predators, like rocs? Bright colors in nature often indicated that an animal was poisonous, after all.

...gods damn it. Now she couldn't stop thinking about pink elephants.

She just didn't have Dov's mental discipline. Among her girlfriends many admirable traits was the ability to meditate. She could just decide to think only the thoughts she wanted to think. Galanys wished she could do that, too.

Don't think about pink elephants.

Don't think about Rania, in case she is the infohazard.

Yeah, like she could do that. If thinking about Rania was dangerous, they were all doomed anyway.

It had been a lot of fun to talk to Rania about her "backstory" and poke holes in it. If that didn't trigger anything bad already, then it would probably be safe to continue thinking about her. Besides, if Rania was secretly an eldritch horror, then she was the nicest eldritch horror that Galanys had ever heard of.

Wait. That was a suspiciously positive thought. Maybe Rania was mind-controlling them, and she was actually objectively horrible while making them all think she was nice?

Galanys spent a few minutes reviewing her memories of their adventures, and tried to think of them from the point of view of a third person, as detached from it all as possible. None of it sounded terrible to her. So Rania was probably not a secret evil mind controller.

There weren't a lot of entities that could do that in the first place, but they were exactly the kind of entities that she would expect to be involved in infohazards.

There were the Mind Warpers, for one thing. That they had actually encountered and killed an Elder One did not bode well. But for all their power of mental manipulation, their influence was detectable. If team Nundru was still affected by the Mind Warpers, people would have noticed it by now.

Maybe the bug aliens whose artifact Dov interacted with? Xilly said they were called the Xeltek, and they sounded really fascinating. But she hadn't said anything about the Xeltek being able to react to people's unspoken thoughts and plans, and in the end that was what defined an infohazard.

The only entity known to have that ability was the Living City. If anything on Hyd was involved in infohazards, the Living City was definitely it. Dov said there were three separate infohazards, so the odds were good that at least one of them had to do with that place.

The Living City could sense when people thought of it, and react to that. Combined with its reputed precognitive abilities and its great intelligence, it made for a terrifying strategist and manipulator. It was said that it could read the minds of enemy generals and position its troops in advance, so that a war was won before it even began. The details of how that worked were kept secret by order of House Mardok. All of that practically screamed 'infohazard'.

The only reason it was at least somewhat safe to think about it normally was because the Sapient Wish that controlled the Living City had a limited capacity for attention. Ordinary people simply did not matter enough for it to pay attention to them.

But team Nundru weren't ordinary people anymore. They were now important enough to matter internationally. Important enough that the Living City might be paying attention to them.

Some Old Powers actually avoided thinking about the Living City to avoid drawing its attention, using meditation techniques. She used to think that was an exaggeration, but Dov told her once that it was true. She knew from her mother that Vherdes the Hedonist recommended not to think about the place too much.

Galanys really hoped she was wrong.

She mentally reviewed what she knew about the Living City. Unlike its name, the city's nature was not a secret. It was a well known tale that served as an object lesson against the hubris of wizards:

A long time ago there had been a great and powerful country. The country was named after its capital, which had been the greatest in the world in many ways. One day the many powerful wizards in charge of the country came together and combined their powers: They each uttered a Wish. Their wishes were carefully planned and constructed in advance to combine with each other in an unprecedented way: Instead of altering reality just once, the magics merged into a single spell matrix.

The result was a self-sustaining spell: The Sapient Wish. A perpetually ongoing version of the most powerful spell known to mortals.

The Sapient Wish was not a person, nor a creature, nor a god. It was a continuous reality warping effect that predicted the future, read minds, and altered reality, all in accordance with the wishes that created it.

The exact nature of these wishes was not publicly known, but it appeared to be something to the effect of: "Increase the glory of our city". It didn't sound too bad on the surface, but it went so very, very wrong. The mistakes of these wizards of old taught the rest of the world a valuable lesson in wishcrafting.

The problem was: Glory was a subjective term, and had little to do with goodness. Military conquest brought glory. Ruthless dictators were usually thought more glorious than benevolent rulers. Brutal and ruthless soldiers earned more glory than disciplined ones.

The Living City used mind control, curses and blood magic. It created werewolves and vampires, and many other monsters. It did not do so out of malice or evil, but for one simple reason: As horrifying as these weapons were, they were also impressive. People talked about them, both in hushed whispers and in open fear. They brought more glory to the Living City than ordinary warfare did, and that was all that mattered to it. The difference between ordinary evil and the evils of the Living City was presentation.

The Sapient Wish's desire for glory was part of the reason that the city's original name was struck from all history books. Denissa Mardok had done something to keep it that way, preventing even the servants of the Living City from uttering its name. As the Sapient Wish desired glory above all else, lacking a name to be referred by severely weakened its power.

Of course, the other reason its name was struck from living memory was that thinking about the city by name would make it easier for the Sapient Wish to read your mind, or to influence you in your dreams.

Thinking about the Living City meant that you assigned it some degree of glory, and the Sapient Wish could use that connection to reach back into your thoughts and influence you. If you knew its name, that effect would be even stronger.

Or something like that. It was all apocryphal and there were multiple contradictory accounts on how exactly it worked. Given that Denissa Mardok certainly knew the truth, this was a sure sign that there was an infohazard hidden somewhere that went even beyond the fact that the Living City could allegedly mind-control people at range.

It was a scary thought, but Galanys was never one to shy away from such things. If a thought was so uncomfortable that a normal person shied away from it, that meant that few people thought about it, and therefore thinking about it would be more likely than normal to yield a useful, creative result. There was a reason that Unir, the god of creativity, favored Galanys.

Being scary just made it more interesting to her as a thought experiment.

Suppose there was glory to be won in stopping team Nundru. That would be the sort of thing that drew the Living City's attention.

Why could that be? Maybe because of Rania?

And what would the city do about it? Attacking with monsters was out, the Shans had bigger ones. But mind-control might work. The Living City was good at that.

Galanys spent several long minutes considering these questions before she suddenly startled herself.

What in the world was she doing?

Hadn't she decided just a few minutes ago not to think about the info-hazards? And now she was thinking about the one thing on Hyd that everyone knew was unsafe to think about?

Uh. Stupid pink elephants. Galanys needed to distract herself.

She left the tent. It was evening now, and the sun was just about to set. The cold air would have inconvenienced her a month ago, but her recently empowered adventurer physique allowed her to shrug off the minor discomfort with ease.

She wanted to ask Balron for advice on dealing with the infohazards. The old dwarf probably had a spell to help with it. Maybe auto-hypnosis? Or a spell that read your own thoughts and just reminded you when they veered too close to a certain topic? Dov had told her that spells like that existed. They were useful for learning meditation.

She sighed out loud. After talking to Balron, she would go find Dov. She wanted to apologize and ask for advice on mental discipline.

As she passed the camp's main entrance, she saw a small army standing in front of it. They appeared to be a detachment of Shan soldiers, and their leaders asking the guards to grant them entrance.

"Alright, it looks like your credentials checked out after all. Sorry for the wait. Can't be too careful after what the Orukians did." She overheard the guard.

The guard stood aside, but curiously the newcomers made no move to enter. How odd.

"May we come in?" Their leader asked.

What an odd thing to ask. The guard was already standing aside, so why ask explicitly?

Wait.

"No!" She shouted in shocked realization.

But it was too late, as the guard responded "Of course" at the same time.

The vampire leader revealed his fangs, and the guard was dead before he knew what happened.