I dropped off the Rein, now terrified but alive. When I returned to the Vein, Imbersol’s corpse had vanished into the dust of ages. I kept Naked Eye active, not caring for the multiverse much right now with my own eyes. If I wasn’t keeping it safe for Imbersol, I might have swallowed it and taken my place as a Quad.

Perhaps I would be wasting my time. Near Miss seemed determined to have her gone.

But if it didn’t want to cooperate, neither would I.

I ignored the quest for Jadal Cai and left Auspice via door for the old familiarity of the Interstice, avoiding any random decisions.

Instead, I went home. Near Miss could deal with the consequences of the Garrison turning up at the Chapel’s doorstep and skirting an all-out war. We couldn’t fight them in the Interstice; they might as well be lured here where Fate would tear them to shreds.

Here, my body was filled with twisting pipes; receptacles for the constant rain. A few small reservoirs and water wheels kept the hydraulics flowing and contained. Practically-speaking, this form wasn’t much different to my old human systems, unless I wanted to drink water from the top of my head. I did not.

I entered the bathroom in a determined stride, ignoring the Irwolian feather shimmering with versal signature. My focus was on my reflection.

I couldn’t see it, of course, but the picture was clear. Within the mirror, visible at long last, I found Near Miss.

My core looked exactly like me. It knew I was watching, and glared back in a manner unbecoming of a reflection.

It was unmistakably an Arch. Defecting augments were rebellious gifts. Pars, quietly sleeping. I'd yet to see an Exalt to compare, but Near Miss was fully awake and was angry, spreading out far beyond the bounds of the mirror with arms spanning universes and time.

It was alien and exquisite, terrible and intimately familiar. I tried moving one of our hands – one of the ones that didn’t exist – and saw it twitch. Felt it move, because it was also mine.

Near Miss pulled it back, reasserting control.

“Why?” I snapped, no less angry. I wasn’t talking about the hand.

Unfortunately, Naked Eye didn’t grant magical hearing. My beautiful core glared through the mirror’s surface.

“You murdered my friend so that we could talk,” I fumed at it, watching its lips move in synchronisation. “Now I’m here. Talk.”

Near Miss didn’t answer. It couldn’t as long as I remained in control. It was still trapped, as surely as Imbersol in her orb.

I felt a sharp, stabbing fury at both it and the situation. I was trapped along with it, unable to access its abilities or understand its intentions. Naked Eye showed me clearly: the wall between us prevented us both from achieving our aims.

The knife from Auspice had made its way into my hand. Watching, the reflection in the mirror shifted in anticipation.

“Is what Imbersol said about advancement true? That I'll take over us both?” I brought the blade down on the glass, aiming for the face.

Languidly, Near Miss moved a finger. Fate shifted imperceptibly, and the weapon skidded off the surface with a screech. All I hurt was my knuckles, though they didn’t bleed.

Yes.

It made it look absurdly easy, as though toying with me. The insult only made me angrier.

I struck again, my full force behind it. “Are you loyal to the Chapel?”

The blade skittered off, but Near Miss didn’t move. The attempt left a small crack behind in the glass.

No.

As expected.

“Are you helping Jadal Cai?”

This time, the blade caught briefly in the crack. A small flake of glass broke off with the action, sending it falling to the tiles.

No.

“The Garrison?”

No.

“Then who? Me?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Yes.

“Did you kill Imbersol for me?”

The blade plunged in so hard that it caught on the way out and rebounded into my own upper arm, tearing a bloodless gash in the skin. But Near Miss didn’t move, even to avoid the injury. It wanted to be clear.

No.

“Did you let her die?”

No.

“Can you bring her back?”

Yes.

Some of my anger disappeared. I stared at the cracks Naked Eye called answers, and beyond them to the shape of my core. It simmered for me patiently; vast, devastating and unreachable.

Seeing it now, I could believe I hadn’t been carrying it so much as the other way around. Near Miss was the most unstoppable power I’d seen – it only needed a vehicle to execute its will. I could see why Imbersol had considered shifting loyalties.

After all, so had I. And I hadn’t needed to see it to convince me.

I asked the question I’d been putting off. “Do you hate me?”

No.

Then why did you let all this happen? I wanted to ask.

Near Miss shifted to look at me, like I was on the edge of the right question.

“Did you?” I asked.

No.

“Was it Jadal Cai?”

Yes.

“How? Was he going to do something worse?”

Yes.

The mirror in front of me was now in bad shape, but Near Miss was stationed through all of them. I followed it round to the next panel, where our own face stared back. Suffused through it were the twin tangles of Gear Shift and World Slide.

“Will you help me stop him?” I asked.

Yes.

“Can you ensure Flinpen will bring the third-tiers?”

No.

I massaged my temples, frustrated at the difficult progress. All the answers I sought involved more information than simple binary responses. Knowing something could be done was infinitely less helpful than knowing how. “Do you know another way?”

Yes.

I frowned and repeated the question, this time thinking of the consequences of advancement.

Yes, the Arch answered again.

Of course there was another way. Making plans fail was Near Miss’s speciality. If Jadal Cai tried to target it, it could save itself. If it wanted to not be sublimated by advancement, it could do the same. I knew it could, because it had already done so twelve years ago in order to be caught by a despairing young man on a fortune-forsaken world. If it wanted to stop Jadal Cai, it could.

Assuming I cooperated.

“Right?” I asked, to be sure.

Yes.

Then those would be my triple goals, at least until we could communicate more easily. Advance without subsuming Near Miss, resurrect Imbersol, and bring down Jadal Cai. And since it didn’t matter which universes I invaded for the purpose of Flinpen catching up, I figured I knew a good place.

If Jadal Cai had found something in the Empire’s Black Waste, it would be a good place to start. Naked Eye and my versal sense were well-suited to finding things; advantages I hadn’t benefitted from before.

A cocktail of uneasy relief and apprehension washed through my body. We were back – I hoped – to where we were before Imbersol's death. Though it wasn’t truly the same; my confidence had been shaken and trust tainted. I had to take it on faith Near Miss spoke the truth and wasn’t running me through an elaborate manipulation.

And though I’d carried it around – or it me – for twelve years, seeing its actual shape admittedly intimidated me. There were no such things as gods, but if I’d had any religious inclinations I might have had second thoughts.

At least Naked Eye agreed with me, labelling it augment, soul, Arch, and reflection. Beside those, in a worrying undercurrent, I also made out contaminated.

Mainly, though, it just called it Lamutri.

Unprompted, Near Miss turned its head in the mirror. Moving more than I’d ever seen it, a new hand formed into existence and pointed into the room behind me with the tip of an extended finger.

Cold shivers ran down my spine until I realised it was just the feather. The Irwolian trophy was still depositing its endless trickle of water into my shower drain, and had been since I’d last left it.

It shouldn’t have been able to. Local magic never crossed universes.

The feather even had a versal signature – slight, but there – and I’d been too preoccupied to pay it any attention.

I stabbed the mirror. "Was the legendary summons on Irwol a versal creature?"

Yes, replied Near Miss.

“Ugh,” I muttered. “This is another complication, isn’t it?”

Yes.

I looked at the giant feather. Infinite water and on-demand wind were cute and would save entire villages from drought under the right circumstances, but it wasn’t exactly a convenient piece of baggage to be carting around. “Should I take this with me?”

No.

The arm slowly retracted, fading into another universe midway up the limb. I felt it grasp something on the other end and settle in, which was disconcerting, but then the feeling faded.

Near Miss turned its eyes back to me.

I let out the breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding. Part of me wanted to stay here, drinking it in. The more practical part recognised time was of the essence when it came to Jadal Cai.

My core moved a different arm somewhere far away, and a Garrison notification slid into my awareness. I brought it up to read.

[Emergency – everyone to gather in the palace for an urgent announcement. Expeditions and anyone off-world must return home immediately. No exceptions.]

“Are you buying me time?”

Yes.

Imbersol might have been better off here with Fate to watch over her, but in the end I kept her soul with me, strapped in its pouch. Leaving her out felt like a dire insult after everything she’d given.

“Then do we give Flinpen’s plan priority, or first the Black Waste?” I asked my reflection. “'Yes' for the former, 'no' for the latter.” I stabbed the mirror one final time. There hadn’t been any anger in it for a while.

No.

Then the Black Waste it would be.