Her chair toppled as she surged to her feet, clattering loudly on the floor, hands instinctively flowing to her blades—but he quieted her with a gesture.

“Is okay, is okay!” Matteo said, still laughing. “See? Look! I show you.”

Smiling, he leaned forward in his chair and reached out, indicating for Karel to hand it to him. After a small hesitation, he did.

Then, he stepped back. Still within Catrin’s strike range, but not leaning over her anymore.

Matteo took the device, flipped it over briefly to inspect it, flicked a small switch on its side, then aimed it at the window and pulled the trigger.

They all flinched as the gun’s muzzle made a loud noise and began to spin.

Matteo stopped it and flashed them all a grin. “See? Is okay.”

They stared at him, every single one of them tense.

Slowly, Catrin forced herself to relax.

If it were a gun, Matteo wouldn’t be this at ease with it.

With deliberate moves, she straightened, removed her fingers from where they’d rested on her blades’ hilts, then bent to right the chair she’d pushed over.

She remained standing, though. Lightning still snapped through her nerves. It’d take a few minutes to quiet again, and she didn’t think Karel would mind if she paced.

She didn’t start yet. Curiosity about the device rooted her next to the table.

Nales, at least, had managed to keep his chair—which was good. If she were defending him, he needed to stay out of her way—but he sat a little tenser than he had. Eyes locked on the device, he made a small, inquiring gesture with his hand. “What is it?”

“It is for…” Matteo trailed off, brows furrowing as he searched for the right word. He muttered something in his own language and cringed, giving his head a small shake and sucking air through his teeth. “Creation? Making? …Walls? Small metal?”

Ah. He didn’t have the right words for it in their language yet—which put the device further into her favor.

They’d questioned him extensively about fighting, guns, and tactical topics. If he had no words to describe this thing, it probably had nothing to do with any of those.

Still. It looked like a gun.

What could it make? Was it like his gun, using fire light as energy?

Matteo’s lips pressed into a thin line. He started looking around the room, attention roving through the corners and joists to the window frame beside him, then the table, muttering the same word to himself in his own language as he searched.

Then, his eyes lighted on the worktable. He stared at its corner for a moment, then crowed a sound of triumph.

“There. Come see.” He stood, stabbing a finger in its direction. Eyebrows raised, Karel stood aside to let him pass.

She, Karel, and Nales crowded around the corner of the table as Matteo stepped to its side. Seeing he had their attention, he poked his finger at a nail in the surface.

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“See small sharp metal?” He positioned the device’s muzzle overtop, a hand-span away. “This make small sharp metal go around.”

He turned it on, making the muzzle spin.

This time, they didn’t flinch at the noise.

He pushed a switch on the side—not the one he’d pressed before, she noticed—and held it above the nail again.

“Backward, as well.”

The muzzle whirred again. Sure enough, it went in the opposite direction.

“Also make holes,” Matteo continued. Then he frowned and tilted the muzzle toward his face. One thumb brushed over the opening in the front, where the lens on his own gun sat. He made another gesture, indicating something thin and about the size of his finger. “Need special metal. Like—” He pointed to Nales suddenly. “Like a metal pencil!”

Karel gave a sudden bark of laughter. “It’s a drill!”

Recognition flashed through her. She could see it on Nales’ face, too.

“Or a screwdriver.” Nales gestured for the thing, and Matteo handed it to him. “I’ve seen things like this,” he said thoughtfully, turning it over. “The goblins have them. They use them to drill into rock. Never seen one portable, though. Not this small.”

“It would be incredibly useful,” Karel said slowly, his tone considering.

Catrin’s eyebrows quirked. She glanced back to the rest of the wrapped items on the desk.

What other useful, strange items had he discovered?

A half hour later, and much miming and creative descriptions from Matteo, they’d identified all the larger items, and were working their way through the smaller ones. Gold and silver coins. Necklaces and rings set with rare gemstones. A long, slender device Matteo revealed to be some type of electronic torch. Another long, slender device that, with a press of a button, turned into a knife made of a similar fire light as Matteo’s gun shot, but that he said was different. Two items were supposed to make sound, but had no ‘electric brain’ to connect to.

He identified one thin metal and glass box as that ‘electric brain’, which caught her interest. He played with it for a few minutes, pressing a couple buttons on its side, trying to turn it on, before proclaiming it to be ‘dead.’

At some point, Karel had fetched spare labels and paper and was dutifully scribbling names and descriptions down.

He had a steady hand and an elegant script.

Suns, he reminded her of Doneil.

“You found these in the swamp?” she asked.

“Marsh,” he corrected. “And yes. These were all in a large building. I was on my way back, and I had little… space left... for carrying things…”

He trailed off, brows furrowed as he hastily penned a description for something Matteo had described as a special children’s building toy. The image painted onto the box was bright with color and appeared to be a castle scene made from of an assortment of blocks that fit together.

Were castles that common in Matteo’s world? Odd. He’d seemed so… wide-eyed and enthusiastic about Pemberlin. Even now, he would look at the streets and buildings around them with a keen curiosity.

He was very enthusiastic about these items, though.

Perhaps he was simply excited about most things.

She mentally chided herself. How would she feel in his shoes? Suddenly pushed into a world she didn’t know, with a language she didn’t speak? Cast back in time? Suns—they didn’t even have elves there, apparently, except in stories. What if she were put there? Surrounded by strange things and strange people?

And how would she feel if, after a month, one of those strange people put a load of familiar things in front of her? Things that were very clearly from her world?

Yes. She’d be excited, too.

Matteo was still beaming, his eyes slipping over the items with happiness, but his enthusiasm had dulled somewhat. He hid his disappointment well, keeping that smile in place, but she could see the calculation in his eyes. A piece of longing, denied as he thought through the discovery’s meaning and quashed hope with logic.

She could almost see the conclusion he was drawing—the question.

Yes, seeing items so clearly from his world was exciting. But—weren’t they stuck here, as well? Just as he was?

Still. It would be well worth a visit. It was, after all, evidence of the very thing they were looking for, and she knew Prince Nales wouldn’t sit idly by with this confirmation. He’d want to investigate.

She’d already read that look in his eyes, much as he’d tried to hide it.

“Do you think you could tell us where it is?” she asked. “Mark it on our maps, perhaps?”

He laughed softly, the sound trailing off as he finished his last label—for a small, square thing with gleaming metal hexagons on it that was apparently an ‘important piece of electronic brains.’

Then he glanced up at her, a scheming calculation in his eyes and a curved smile on his lips.

“I’ll do you one better. Bring this one,” he said, flicking the back end of his pencil to indicate Matteo. “And I’ll come up with you with a spare packhorse.”