A knock at the door interrupted Dellen’s contemplation. “Come in,” he said without looking up from his desk.

“It’s odd seeing you at such a low Trinity.”

Dellen’s head whipped up from his work, “Who are you?” He said to his visitor, a tall woman, taller than him, she moved so smoothly that she seemed to almost float over the ground. He frowned, “I know you… But that’s impossible.” He felt his forehead crease, her voice, her voice was familiar, almost like an itch in his brain.

She nodded at him without approaching further or making any threatening moves.

“Ember?” He said, almost feeling the name out for its rightness.

An encouraging nod had him continue, “Ember… Brightwell.”

Her shoulders relaxed, and she exhaled, “You do remember, good.”

Dellen rubbed his face, “Why do I know your name?”

A frown marred her face, “Can I sit?”

Dellen waved a hand in front of him at the two chairs before the desk in his office, “Please do.” He waited for her to sit, “So we’ve met.” He chewed on his lower lip and squinted at her, “And you remember me at a higher Trinity.”

“That’s right.”

Dellen steepled his fingers and stared at her, debating what to say next. She had information that he very much wanted.

“I’m not sure we can trust her,” Gilgamesh said, coming out from an alcove near the door to Dellen’s study.”

Ember turned, then jerked in her chair so hard that its legs scraped over the wooden floor, “What the hell is that?”

Dellen felt oddly calm, “You can see him?”

“She can see me!” Gilgamesh said, “This is such a relief, Dellen is not always the most dazzling of conversationalists.”

“Perhaps we can wait just a few minutes before you start in on the casual deprecations,” Dellen suggested.

Patches of shadow thickened around Ember’s hands.

“She’s going to attack me,” Gilgamesh screamed, hurrying behind Dellen.

“Stop that,” Dellen said irritably to them both. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Then he stared at Ember until she released her shadows, “Clearly, you use Umbral Aether.”

“Yes, you helped me, will help me, reach Third Trinity.”

Dellen held up his hand, “And I will again.” He blinked and reviewed what he had just said, a casual promise to help an almost total stranger. Odd. She knew him, maybe she knew something useful. “What can you tell me about myself?”

“No, no questions out of you. What is that?” She asked again, pointing at Gilgamesh, who was cowering just below Dellen’s chair.

“That’s Gilgamesh, he came back with me when I was pushed back in linear time. We’re looking for a way to get him home.”

“Is he why we’re having these time loops?”

Dellen’s eyebrows shot up, “You’re aware of the time loops.”

Ember’s shoulders rocked from side to side, “In a limited sense, yes, I suspect they’re more prevalent than I realize. They’re,” she frowned, “Disorienting and sometimes a bit subtle.”

“Disorienting, yes, subtle, no,” Gilgamesh said.

“I’d rather you keep your mouth shut until the adults finish talking,” Ember said.

“I don’t much care for you,” Gilgamesh replied.

Ember graced him with a disdainful eyebrow before returning her focus to Dellen, “Are you comfortable saying it’s not dangerous?”

Dellen shrugged, “He says he’s a he. As to dangerous, it’s only been a few weeks, but yes, I’ll vouch for Gilgamesh.”

Ember nodded and relaxed into her chair, “Well, that’s good, one fewer thing to worry about.”

Dellen stifled an internal groan, “When you say one fewer thing to worry about, can you tell me what else there is to be worried about?” He gave a small shrug, “So that I can be sure we’re working off of the same list.”

Ember narrowed her eyes at him, “We need to find everyone else before Langdon does.”

“Everyone else?” Dellen asked, even as the name Langdon slammed into his memories with the subtlety of a lightning bolt. Memories etched into crystal tore across his mind, facing off against a one-time friend, Electrical Aether streaming from each of their hands, bolts of searing white connecting them in battle. “Langdon,” he repeated the name. Langdon had been a friend, once, before a falling out. “Why did Langdon and I come into conflict?”

“You were both always in conflict as long as I knew you. You were never willing to talk about it, neither of you were. All I knew is that you were friends before you met me.”

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Dellen’s eyebrows furrowed, “Why does that matter now? We’re probably further back in time than the first time I met him.”

“Because you and he were racing to forge the Alloy of Time, and he succeeded first.”

A cold weight settled in Dellen’s stomach, “And what did he say he was going to do?”

“You were worried that he was going to snuff you out before you had a chance to forge yourself even once.”

“Well, he doesn’t sound like a nice person,” Gilgamesh muttered.

“No, he’s not an especially nice person,” Ember agreed, “You didn’t remember Langdon?”

“His memories were scrambled when he lost his Aetherforging,” Gilgamesh said.

“Thank you, I can speak for myself,” Dellen locked gazes with Ember, “He is not incorrect, I only seem to have disconnected fragments from before.”

“You’re also an unusually quick learner.”

“Again, I can speak for myself.”

“That makes a kind of sense,” Ember said, “Even if you don’t remember things properly, you probably have some sort of a subconscious familiarity with them.”

“Perhaps,” Dellen agreed, “Now, who do you mean by everyone else?”

Ember let out a small groan, “You weren’t even going to come looking for me, were you? No, don’t answer that. I don’t want you to answer that. Everyone else would be Victoria and Angus.”

“Does she mean Lady Lockridge?”

“Yes!” Ember said, sitting up straighter, “I mean, of course you found Victoria. She’s also from Copperopolis. Wait, how did you come across her if you don’t remember much of anything?”

“Suffice to say we are in regular contact with Victoria,” Dellen said, “Now, please, tell me more about what you remember.”

“The last time I saw you, you were Eighth Trinity, standing in the lab where I was assisting you, and you, at least partially, botched the forging of the Alloy of Time.”

“Botched?” Dellen asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ember pointed at Dellen’s office, then at both of them, “Look at us, you had damn near transcended your mortality, and I was Sixth Trinity. Now I’m only Second Trinity, and you are no better. Does this look like success to you? You were Dellen Northcote, the Terror of the Northern Steppe, the Walking Thunderstorm, and now you’re a Second Trinity bureaucrat. Does this look like success to you?”

Dellen winced, “No, I suppose not. I’m sorry, please tell me more. Were we working together because of your dual affinities?”

Ember glared at him, “I did not have a dual affinity before that alloy of yours exploded and embedded a shard in my chest.”

Dellen was swallowed by his own recollections. He was back at the top of his tower. He had just placed the Alloy of Time in his chest, and the tongs holding it had shattered, sending shards of metal hurtling through the room, “That was enough to give you Chronometric Aether?” He asked, not quite able to keep the incredulity out of his voice.

“Yes, no, sort of.”

“How illuminating,” Gilgamesh said.

“Excuse me?” Ember said, glaring at him.

“I, ah, sorry, ah, people can’t usually hear me,” Gilgamesh said.

“Please explain.”

Ember returned her gaze to Dellen, “I don’t think I have Chronometric Aether, any more than you have Pyro Aether. I’m just not completely unable to interact with it anymore. I can see him,” she narrowed her eyes at Gilgamesh, and gifted him with a frown. “Can Victoria use Chronometric Aether?”

“I can’t even use Chronometric Aether,” Dellen replied, “And I’m reasonably certain that my Chronometric Cradle is a good deal more advanced than the rest of my Aetherforging.”

“Maybe that’s the problem?”

Dellen drummed his fingers on his desk, “How do you mean?”

“Maybe your body isn’t ready for more than whatever it is that you’re doing now.”

“I was Eighth Trinity when we had the accident. What, do you think I need to be Ninth Trinity before I can use this properly?”

“Hopefully not, but I’d bet you need to be more than Third Trinity. Why are you sitting here… Founding a school?”

Dellen spent a moment gathering his thoughts, “Before I came back, Copperopolis was protected by a barrier of thin or nonexistent Aether, which only the Mercantile Guild knew a path through, after I stopped the city, the Aether returned, and now people can freely visit the city, some of them are experimenting on the unforged, I think in order to grant themselves a second affinity.”

“What kind of monster experiments to give themselves a second affinity?” Gilgamesh asked the room at large.

Dellen ignored the interruption that doubled as a gibe, “Unfortunately, those experiments involve cutting people open and excising their cores.”

Ember nodded, not looking particularly troubled, “Yes, that makes sense, but why the school?”

Dellen blinked a few times before continuing. It was alarming that Ember thought that made sense. “Only the unforged are being experimented on. Aetherforged are worthless to them.”

“I see,” Ember said, staring at him as though waiting for him to continue, then clarity flickered in her eyes, “Oh, you feel responsible!”

“Yes.”

“You shouldn’t,” she said with a shrug. “The suppression field around Copperopolis was destroyed in our original timeline, as well as large portions of the city, which killed quite a few citizens at the same time. Whatever depredations you’re seeing now are a shadow of a shadow of what happened originally. Regardless of what you’re seeing or will see, thousands upon thousands of lives will be preserved. Your ledger is clean.”

Dellen’s mouth twisted, “I’m not sure I agree with you.”

Ember shrugged, untroubled by his ambivalence, “You’ll come around, if only by necessity, you cannot protect everyone,” she looked at him with judging eyes, “Especially not as a Second Trinity.” She gestured at herself, “You all but dragged me to Third Trinity. I expect you to help me again.”

“How?” Dellen asked.

“Well, you organized the expedition where we found the starshadow. Beyond that, you pushed me to master my Umbral Aether, even like this, I would wager that I could best most with an Umbral Affinity of up to a Trinity above me, which is not something I say lightly.” She looked distracted for a few seconds, “I’d probably be pretty battered by the end of that fight, though.”

Dellen quietly agreed with her, his time with The Order left him feeling that he could challenge many of the Third Trinity, but that unless he surprised them with a technique they had not seen before, then it would never be an easy contest, a fellow member of the Second Trinity though? They were probably not much of a threat.

“Dellen, are you listening to me?”

A gentle shake of his head let him break out of his own thoughts, “Sorry, I got distracted.”

“That at least hasn’t changed,” she said, almost looking relieved by his moment of inattention. “I was saying, we need to find Angus, and we need to get up to Third Trinity. Abandon this school of yours. Put it aside, you have more important things to do.”

“No,” Dellen said, voicing a decision he had not been aware he had been weighing.

“No?” Ember said her voice high as her eyebrows with confusion, “What do you mean, no?”

“You saw me at Eighth Trinity?”

“Yes,” she said, still sounding confused.

“How many people do you think I crushed underfoot on my way up the mountain?”

“There’s no way to know,” she said with a disinterested shrug.

“How many people, Ember?”

“I don’t know,” she said with annoyance, “Thousands?”

Dellen winced, but continued, “Yes, probably, I, we, have the opportunity to do better. We know we can improve. This time I will at least try not to leave so many bodies in my wake.”

Ember sighed, “And you’re adamant about this?”

“He is,” Gilgamesh said.

Ember pinched her nose, “Fine, though I’m telling you now, this is a mistake.”

Dellen just nodded at her.

“How do we get started?”