Changeling

(110): Heading Back

Riel, or Malik as he asked Nestra to call him in the privacy of his ‘estate’, turned out to be a pretty good host. He had snacks aplenty which partly explained his physique. Mostly, it was clear he missed speaking to other humans. After a few minutes of hesitation, Nestra might as well have been one. Using her human form certainly helped.

“There is a species of smart herbivorous creature with a technology level approximating the early iron age on this planet. They are doing... fairly well considering. I have had dealings with them. They are poor conversationalists, however.”

“Did you learn their language?”

“No. We communicate, but we do not ‘talk’. They seem to think I’m some kind of god.”

Nestra gave the massive A-class a speechless look.

“Imagine that. Oh, by the way, why did you try to send me to woop woop when I approached? What did I do? Did you recognize what I was?”

“No,not as such. I have met other portal-hopping entities, mostly powerful hunting parties that came from the bridge world to this place, I assume. They didn’t have space powers. I thought you were, hmmm.”

He searched for words.

“Like a door to door sales woman.”“What? You get a lot of those here?”Malik had the decency to look embarrassed.

“No. Maybe a huntress come to take my head. I do not want to kill, but I also do not want to be bothered.”

“That’s fair but... a continent away? Really?”

Malik shrugged.

“It is merciful.”

She jumped on the opening.

“Is that also why you helped unite the raiders of mankind? It was mercy?”

Malik leaned back in his chair, face scrunched with mild displeasure. It was probably not the first time he’d been asked that.

“Not mercy. I tried to help my whole life. I was... Emeritus Professor for the Department of Mathematics at the American University of Beirut. I also taught in other institutions in the city. Every year I sent students to MIT, or Jiaotong, Fudan, other prestigious places. They left Lebanon, yes, but some returned. And I helped them.”

He grew wistful. Nestra waited while he poured them some deliciously spicy infusion from some stone kettle that had seen much use. He was incredibly graceful considering the massive mitts at the end of his hairy arms.

“What was I saying?” he asked after a while.

“You were a professor of mathematics.”

“Yes. I always wanted to make the world better. I just got the power to do so on a larger scale. I took time to teach undergrads because I liked it, but my interest was always astrophysics. When I awoke as a, what is the term? Is it still user?”

“Yes, raider for a fighting user, and the slang is gleam.”

“Gleam...”

He winced.

“Yes, appropriate. Shiny and devoid of substance... No, I am being unfair. You are proof that good people stood together for decades while I was banished. As I was saying, when I woke up as a gleam, I immediately tried to see if I could lower the local energy density in order to... are you familiar with quantum field theory?”

“I graduated from police school,” Nestra replied with bravery in the face of shame.

Malik took a sip of tea.

“I see.”

“Look, I was trying to defend the city, ok?”

“I am only judging you favorably, young Palladian.”

“And for my true form, we don’t use, you’re making wormholes right?”

His face lit up.

“Yes! How did you know?”

Nestra shrugged and categorically refused to answer that she’d binge watched scifi shows during the dark years of her late adolescence.

“I’m not completely stupid,” she stated with confidence.

“I know this, of course. And yes, I use traversable wormholes between two points of the same universe. During the last battle, shortly after Cairo... I knew we were doomed so I tried a theoretical spell I wasn’t sure would function: a bridge between two different universes.”

Nestra nodded with enthusiasm. Riel was so cool to have figured it out.

“Thankfully the spell succeeded or we would have all died. As it was, we landed on a volcanic planet, and my throat was so damaged I couldn’t speak for two years.”

“What happened to the other lizardmen?” Nestra asked.

Riel shrugged, grabbing another handful of nuts. They looked so tiny between his fingers.

“They’re probably still there unless they found a bridge world. I surmise we can only use magic to bridge spots where magic exists, or the spell would toss me in the interstellar vacuum almost every time. There is an entire new branch of physics to be studied, you have no idea. For example, what if we’re always in the same ‘universe’, but at distances so vast light from other creations have not reached us yet?”

“I thought space was created by mass?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t preclude a common, hmmm, a common plane of existence animated by a series of successive Big Bangs. After all, physics obeys the same law in all the portal worlds.”

Nestra was pretty sure physics had taken one look at the Abyssar and decided to take a vacation. She didn’t share it though. Riel was Riel but he was still human. She didn’t feel like sharing much about her home dimension. It felt like a violation.

“But I digress. How do you travel, by the way?”

Nestra winced.

“Don’t share this because it’s confidential, got it? I’m pretty sure the Elders of my species will reveal it to Earth’s denizens at some point.”

Probably in the most spectacular and obnoxious fashion because when Aszhii could be coaxed out of their isolation, they didn’t do things by half.

“In the meantime, it’s not for me to share.”

“I can keep a secret,” said the man who had kept his identity secret for years.

“We create tiny portal worlds we use as passages. It’s not a science-based spell. Rather, I perceive space as four-dimensional. There is height, width, and length, but there is also depth. There are places where space is thinner and layered. I can reach through those layers to open a way. I’ll do it when we leave.”

“I can do something similar, but I must ask. How do you, ah, how can you tell which world you’re going to?”

“Oh they have, uh, taste for lack of a better world. I can recognize those I’ve already been to recently so I can kind of sort of tunnel my way back to Earth’s approximate location, and then to Earth itself. It’s more an art than a science. I think I need more practice, also. Elders can cross immense distances with a single portal world.”

“You mentioned Elders?” Malik invited.

Nestra explained about the diplomatic mission. By the time she was done, night was falling over this world and they decided to leave the next morning. There was no practical reason to do so because both of them could easily go days before sleeping, nor did they need light, or fear the local wildlife. Riel just had so many questions. After telling him about the Aszhii, Malik asked her about history and it was at that moment that Nestra regretted having spent some of her history classes doing math homework instead.

“I never expected I’d need to know my history lessons in case I turned out to be a plane-hopping alien who would manage to find mankind’s long-lost messianic savior, ok?”

“But how can you not know what year a major conflict tore Islam asunder?” Malik protested.

“Mate, I’m 26 and non-religious. This happened before I was born in a part of the world I’ve never been to.”

He grumbled something in Arabic.

“You are correct, of course, but I need to know what happened. I need to know if... ah, it doesn’t matter at the moment.”

“What?” Nestra asked.

Malik hesitated. Eventually, his large hands encircled the equally large mug he was holding, swallowing it entirely in his powerful grip.

“I was married. We had four children.”

Shit.

“I’m sorry,” Nestra apologized. “I was tactless.”

Malik waved her concerns away.

“Either they awakened and lived, or they did not, and they are dead. I need not rush, but I want to find out the truth.”

He breathed hard. Riel, no, Malik, he was Malik without the emblematic cloak. It was weird to reconcile the warm and expressive man with the figure of legend.

“Hmm. Shall we go then?” she suggested.

Malik nodded.

“I will pack.”

It took around seven seconds for the A-class to carefully bag and stack an entire lifetime of assorted stuff in his bag, a process during which Nestra took a moment to appreciate how lucky they were. Riel was some sort of benevolent papa bear and Shinran was a well-meaning bloodthirsty nerd with a monksona. If the two most powerful human gleams in existence had been assholes, the fate of the world would have been much different. She was a little annoyed that the two top Earth gleams were men, though. Maybe Rag would catch up. Nestra would absolutely catch up but she was a mixed species so it didn’t count the same way.

“Let us depart,” Malik announced from the now-bare home. “Ah, before we do, I should say my goodbyes.”

The A-class teleported them to some ziggurat city to hand-sign to some sort of goat people that he would leave. There was a ceremony that made Nestra a little queasy considering the goat people drew her face and they clearly felt a level of reverence that she didn’t deserve. Maybe people like Agathon enjoyed being treated like gods, but Nestra hated disappointing people and nothing disappointed people quite like their gods. Eventually, she switched back to her true form, and the long trek home could finally begin.

***

“I recognize this place,” Riel whispered, now dressed in his signature cloak.

Nestra looked around at yet another low-mana, relatively tame environment. This was a sickly marsh with fading plants fighting for survival. Blind fish as pale as corpses sometimes broke the surface with a muddy ‘gloop’, swallowing one of the dull insects buzzing around. It was a harsh place, yet full of life under the layer of grime and despair. She still wouldn’t vacation here.

Something about Riel’s remark woke her interest.

“Did you only travel to low mana worlds?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

Nestra clicked her tongue.

“Low ambient mana worlds such as this one, or Earth, or the one you paused in.”

“Why does it matter?” he asked.

She shrugged.

“And yes.”

“There are... regions of spatial convergence, in a way. Newer worlds added to the chain tend to be at the periphery, only linked to other weaker and newer planets while the capitals of old empires often sit at crossroads. I have been to a place with C-class horses used to casually drag carriages.”

“Anjad? Really? C-class beasts who eat oats? The base level mana must have been...”

“Yes. So. The conclusion is, you’ve probably zipped from one new world to another along a, hmm, a horizontal line. You circled the same region.”

“Could I have found Earth eventually?” he asked.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Nestra shrugged again.

“I have no idea. How do you even travel?”

The marsh shook. Distant creatures hopped and slithered away as the ground rose, not moved with earth mana but reconfigured as space rearranged itself but its contents stayed the same. Watching geometry twist and bend to imitate earth mana with extreme effort, yet such effort to be handled so casually made Nestra’s mind stutter. She realized that Riel had become Malik, a mild university professor, in her mind. But he was still Riel. He had been A-class for sixty years. This was nothing to him.

“Huh.”

A hundred meters wide circle formed in the middle of the land. Sheer pressure carved elaborate spell circles barded with symbols with contemptuous ease, several spells worth of inscriptions performed every second all at the same time. Riel finished under Nestra’s baffled gaze. He noticed her gawping like a cow.

“I had a lot of practice,” he explained with humility.

Nestra had a second look at the construct. She’d trained in Shinran’s world and by herself even though spellwork was a secondary concern to her. She was by no means stupid or illiterate despite her blonde musclebrain tendencies, but this? This was beyond anything she’d ever seen. It was like being proud about understanding functions then getting PhD level calculus dumped on the desk.

“Wow.”

“This is the issue I’ve been having,” Riel said, pointing at a seemingly random end of the circle. “Rather than aiming the spell, I’ve been searching for the nearest most accessible destination to open the wormhole.”

“So the target is random?”

“It has been so far, but I’ve since developed a spell to identify a world’s, ah, unique mana signature. I will cast it now if you allow it. It should allow me to return here.”

He mistook Nestra’s neutral expression for judgment.

“This is an experimental technique in an experimental field,” he said, justifying himself in a gruff tone as if Nestra was in any position to comment.

“Oh no, I was just thinking, there is a question of range and spatial proximity. Obviously you open wormholes while I create temporary portal worlds so our methods differ, but the way you’ve been travelling tells me we probably suffer from the same limitations.”

Riel gave a rueful smile under his open helmet.

“Yes, except it takes me a whole week and a monstrous amount of mana to cast.”

“As you said, it’s an experimental field of science,” Nestra said to flatter the old monster.

“You are too kind. This is the perfect opportunity for me to ask you... how many worlds are there? Does your, ah, alien species know?”

“My coven — that is a small unit of female Aszhii sorry I should have explained that first — my coven says there are over ten thousand worlds but you won’t ever know the real number for sure because new ones get added, it’s possible some get destroyed, and by the time you return near the beginning after sneaking or fighting your way through the whole business, some of them would have changed so much as to be unrecognizable. S-class fighting can erase continents, or a traveling nature gleam can turn a desert into a forest in as little as a year if they’re A-class, and some do that. Massive wars can turn a garden world into a radioactive wasteland contaminated for thousands of years.”

“I get it,” Riel gently interrupted, “but the distances, the spatial network as it were, there must be some sort of stability. I doubt something on this scale fluctuates to a meaningful degree. The whole network would collapse. Although, this is just intuition.”

“Oh so you’re a vibe scientist?” Nestra asked before her brain could tackle her mouth.

But obviously Riel only chuckled because he was a good bloke like that.

“A vibe scientist! I like it.”

He gave her a very serious look.

“You know, I miss humor very much.”

“I would think you’d miss coffee more,” Nestra joked back.

Riel’s shoulders fell off. He completely tore off his helmet and Nestra was frozen by the intensity of his gaze.

“You have coffee? And you didn’t tell me?”

“Ah. Oops?”

***

They had coffee. And tea. And biscuits. Nestra moved them to a desert world on the way, one which felt closer to Earth since she was definitely a vibe traveler. Riel massacred his way through her food reserves with gusto, his mood much improved afterward although there remained a kernel of sadness and anxiety Nestra imagined would only fade after he found out what happened to his family. They kept moving, mostly through weak worlds that offered little challenge to the pair.

“No wonder our A-class progress slowly. There are no A-class portals, and very few B-class ones in this region of space,” Nestra thought to herself.

Earth’s gleams had outpaced the planet, which tied into what the Aszhii had said about her species, well, her adoptive species being fast and adaptable. She was so lucky she could just travel to cool places filled with edible challenges at will. After sufficient food and snacks had been eaten, Riel had them move again. Nestra guessed they’d need another few days to reach Earth even with her jumping long distances across space. Riel used the breaks she needed between portals to take his own measurements. On the fourth jump, they ended on a cliffside moor swept by the winds. It was cold and wet here with long blueish grass fluttering like waves. Thunderclouds roiled overhead. The scene was very paintable but since Nestra had zero skills whatsoever, she took pictures instead.

“I should have taken pictures before,” she complained.

Riel came to sit next to her.

“You know, after we’re done on Earth, we could travel around, map Earth’s surroundings.”

That made her super happy. Riel liked her!

“You’d travel with me? I would love moving around to find portals to raid. It would make for nice trips. We could even take people with us!” Nestra said with gratitude, getting hyped despite herself.

“That would be nice. It will take some time for me to settle down, of course. I expect I will have to shake many hands.”

“What do you want to do, anyway?” Nestra asked. “You’re a bit of a legend. You could do what you want.”

“It’s because I am a legend that I cannot do what I want. As for my goal, it is the same as before: to help whoever I can, however I can.”

His gaze clouded a bit.

“I think Earth must have become even more selfish and cruel than before. I will go to Threshold, but I think... perhaps I can unite the A-class in some form of council that would mobilize to protect mankind, stop kaiju... I could transport us wherever we are needed in moments so we can bypass the problem of logistics. Imagine: Riel’s army, but it’s only A-class and we face every kaiju as it surfaces...”

Nestra could see it now. It would be... a game changer. A power to stop every tide, maybe clear out lost cities. With Riel as a symbol and leader, there could be unity. Not... true unity, of course, because people were still human. But something.

“All dreams,” the legend finished with sadness.

“Hey we need dreams...”

Nestra stopped, feeling something.

“Do you feel that?” Riel asked at the same time.

“Massive spell, no, mana emission. To our right?”

“Yes.”

They exchanged a glance.

“Shall we look?” Riel asked.

“Obviously.”

***

Nestra wasn’t surprised to see a city shaped as a crescent clinging to the cliffs above a protected cove. What surprised her was the dual nature of it. Over the moors, simple hovels of solid stone nurtured patches of resilient cereals, a simple and practical architecture reflected in the city’s walls and the flat shapes of its outer houses. The heart of the city was different: a marvel of spires and buttresses as airy as they were impractical, a sight that would have impressed her more if it were not just basically five rain-stained towers with more ambition than majesty. There had certainly been an attempt. Now though, many of the outer farms were carved open by a squirming horde of furious sea and land creatures. Their screeches could barely be heard over the roaring wind, but they were familiar all the same. Nestra had already experienced it from closeup. Twice.

“Tide,” she said.

The waters churned in the distance. She couldn’t see the inside of the cove from her position, yet the cliffs were already decorated with the white remains of sails, from fishing boats she wagered.

“And kaiju.”

That city was absolutely fucked. By her side, Riel used some weird spell to act as a lens. Nestra didn’t have that so she just pulled her trusty Wellington binoculars from out of her storage. The advanced piece of gear confirmed her suspicion while also adding another surprise.

The secondary species were short beings, not unlike mana apes with coarse features but definitely a more peaceful disposition. The other species was fae. Their officers formed the spearhead of various formations fighting near the gates and over the wall, scaled armor painted a garish crimson. Many of them were wounded. The corpses of many beasts rested at the base of the walls and as barricades before the harried yet determined defenders.

“Huh. Fae. Must be one of their client races.”

She was surprised to see them in such a mana-poor world but she guessed those who’d settled there saw things long term. When she lowered the binoculars, Riel was looking at them with a wistful expression while his hairy fingers still formed the lens.

“What?” Nestra asked with a concerned hiss.

“It’s... nothing.”

Nestra hesitated then. They were fae, and portal world fae were horrid little shits, but... that was the point. Portal creatures were monsters and stayed monsters. These were real people.

“Look...” Nestra said. “I know they’re not human...”

“But they’re people,” Riel replied without a single second of hesitation.

Nestra’s mouth closed with a click when she realized: Riel wasn’t Sereth. He didn’t have to be convinced. He was just fundamentally a good and helpful person like she’d learned in history class. It was just weird standing next to him, so human she forgot Riel and remembered Malik until spells started flying. The dichotomy was giving her a headache. Anyway. Time to kill monsters.

“I can’t be seen in my Aszhii form. I will have to use the human one.”

Technically her second strongest was the heavenly one, but... there would be questions, from Riel, and possibly from the fae who probably knew of the existence of space elves. Humans were still a complete unknown.

“Then defend that gate on the left,” Riel said. “I’ll handle the port and the kaiju. Be careful.”

“No promises!”

Nestra put on her mask and sprinted at the same time, feeling suddenly much weaker like putting on a cold and slightly too small coat. Excitement still rushed through her veins. She liked ice! Her feet carried her over devastated fields and arrow-filled corpses. She closed her helmet and coated the Bellerophon as she approached. There were monsters still approaching from the sides but she ignored them for now. As the gate came into view, she charged electricity.

The gate was still held by the fae but it was a near thing. A dead, tortoise-like creature had fallen near the entrance with a smoking ruin where its head ought to be. The young fae mage leading a cohort of spearmen was breathing hard at the back, elfin face pale and sweat-streaked. He was running on fumes.

The defenders were so wiped out that they barely reacted to her presence besides a few shouts. Nestra overtook the tortoise, easily dodging earth spears surging from the ground to aim at her armored shins. This wasn’t her first time dealing with a slow-moving C-class creature. Sprinting around the shell she approached. One spear side-stepped, two... She had to goad it.

The head came out like a ram. Jaws snapped right in front of Nestra’s chest, so close she could smell the beast’s fetid breath through her closed helmet. She struck down. Her sword bit deep into the beast’s soft neck, but it was the full release of the electricity that did it in. It screamed beautifully while Nestra moved forward and to the side. She decapitated it in two blows.

“Am I getting rusty?”

Nah vertebrae were just tough. Ok maybe she needed to practice her human form a bit more just to get used to the reduced strength. Turning, Nestra approached the flabbergasted formation. There were other fae, she realized, all of them wounded and leaning against nearby walls for those who could still stand. Nestra deployed her zero aura behind her. Now, how could she convey her meaning. Hmmm. Hesitating, she pulled her visor from her pocket dimension directly on her nose. Accessing the offline fae dictionary was a matter of seconds.

It was still incomplete (except the slur section) but the instructions she needed were easy and common enough that she didn’t have to search for long.

“Itenos,” she ordered.

Go.

Then she pointed towards the other beleaguered gate on this side of the city. Ice grew at her back, forming large columns.

“Itenos. Zha Enurim.”

Go. I defend.

The pale boy didn’t react at first while the native spearmen under his command exchanged bovine glances. She twirled and skewered two rat-like monsters sneaking up on her while her ice still grew. Riel but was he young. He had to be a juvenile.

“Itaken,” he finally croaked. “Kusi, itaken.”

The formation dissolved as he gave more orders. Some of the natives went to carry the wounded deeper into the city while the rest trotted along the inner walls to reinforce another part of the city. Nestra focused her attention back on the defense as another wave gathered. Her mother could freeze and electrocute such groups in moments. Horde management was kind of her specialty when she supported her squad. Nestra couldn’t do that. Not yet. She had her sword though.

The tide slowed as the ice took over the lead element. Nestra aimed. Ice carried her thunderbolt into the freezing wounds of those at the front, then she was among them.

She’d missed this.

***

The gate was a frozen hell of blood icicles, grinning corpses and shattered limbs. For what felt like the tenth time, Nestra broke the outer layer of her frozen armor to allow the ichor to fall, leaving her with the black shards that were her signature. She’d hoped that as she accessed C-rank, her ice would have grown blue and unforgiving like her mom’s, but if anything it had grown darker and more wicked, like the ice clinging to a burnt city. The tide was finally slowing down.

Ok now she no longer missed it. Fortunately, the main attraction was about to begin. To her right, the churning sea parted. She moved forward to get a better view, her ice coming with her.

This kaiju was tiny as far as those creatures went, which meant it was only about a hundred meters or so long. It walked on all fours, yet remained strangely humanoid with a head purely made of tentacles around a massive mouth, with no eyes she could discern. It was grotesque. They were all grotesque in their own ways, though each one was different. The calm part of her mind wondered how they formed, not for the first time, but the other eagerly waited. Two forces of nature were about to collide.

Nestra realized the battlefield was mostly silent by now, a sign the horde had been mostly defeated. The massive beast reeled back. A distant figure appeared over it, manifesting from thin air. His tattered cloak fluttered in the wind.

All of the water around the kaiju disappeared in two seconds flat, sent falling in distant waterfalls kilometers away by shimmering portals catching the sunlight through a gap in the cloud cover. The kaiju stumbled.

Portals opened. Thick bars of solid magma so bright they eclipsed the sun skewered the creature’s limbs at speeds that broke the sound barrier. The pressure had to be impossible. The creature roared, mortally wounded. A network of smaller portals carrying thin strands of water opened around the screeching head, then the prism of interlocked jets closed and the head cleanly fell off.

Kaiju: dead in five seconds.

“Holy shit,” Nestra whispered.

***

For the second time, Nestra was surprised by the real life fae when an old servant in shining liveries very clearly requested them to follow him. Riel had decided to agree so Nestra had also decided to agree, and now the two humans walked through the streets of the city. It was, Nestra had to say, a rather sad affair. Rain had stained every wall and the stone that formed most of the buildings were as gray as the sky, yet there was undeniable care and attention paid to every building, giving the cobbled streets a certain enduring charm. The natives were already running around to fix the damage, or carting the most butcherable monster carcasses so the calamity could be turned into a boon. After a moment of uncertainty, all bowed to the humans’ passage. Even the fae civilians and soldiers elegantly saluted the newcomers though their faces remained grim and worried. They understood Riel’s power, and fae culture wasn’t big on altruism.

The castle was nice, and would have been more impressive if Riel and Nestra were not so damn tall. A row of soldiers in crimson armor formed an honor guard leading up to a sort of throne room. It was amazing how all bipedal species evoked power by piling shinies and having the top dog sit high while others stood low. Xenoanthropologists would have a field day after the worlds opened. Anyway. The city leader was a powerfully built (for a fae) man in, unsurprisingly, crimson armor that had seen much use. Fire flickered around him, and Nestra wasn’t sure but she thought she saw a degree of familiarity between him and the boy who had defended the gate. Said boy was nowhere to be seen, which was wise of the leader. He was also B-class, and as far as Nestra could tell, one of only five around.

Yeah Riel had definitely saved the place. Nestra wasn’t even sure they could have evacuated successfully.

The local, well, she would go with baron. The baron greeted them in a slow voice. Nestra belatedly activated her visor translation software. Thankfully, the baron was keeping it simple. His relative had probably told him Nestra could sort of speak their tongue.

“Immense gratitude for salvation. Have you demands, strangers?”

Nestra translated for Riel.

“Your computer really understands what they’re saying?” he asked, keeping his voice low and solemn so as not to alarm the locals.

“It’s a visor, and yes. Mostly.”

“This is frankly amazing. Tell him that we will go and that he should forget us.”

Nestra patiently input the short sentences in the visor. A moment later, she very carefully enunciated every word. Obviously it hadn’t been that good because the majordomo who’d guided them here flinched, but the baron didn’t seem to mind.

“We have no demands,” Nestra said. “We leave. Forget us. It is better to forget us.”

The baron made a gesture Nestra didn’t recognize. There were whispers at the back.

“Please wait, honored guests.”

Two comfortable seats were offered. Nestra declined an elegant fae woman in a sublime dress who came with a bottle of something tasty, but she had no intention of showing her face and neither did Riel. After an hour or so, the baron returned alongside four elite guards carrying the freshly harvested kaiju core.

It would go for easily 20 million creds back home, even though it was on the small end of cores. The baron signaled for the core to be offered. Riel stood and, with much ceremony, pushed the core in his dimension bag, an action which led to more whispers of awe. Yeah, neat stuff. The baron then turned to Nestra. The elegant woman returned with what was clearly a weapon case.

“Thank you for salvation our son,” the two said in unison.

The case contained a golden sword of exquisite make. Nestra didn’t have to touch it to know it was thunder aligned, and massively powerful. Probably suitable for a B-class. It felt like it might be a portal treasure and it was definitely a heirloom.

Nestra grabbed it. She pulled the blade by only a few centimeters, showing an equally golden blade engraved with furious ruby runes. oh yeah, that was the good stuff. She gave a nod of appreciation then sent her current sword in her dimension pocket much to the wonder of the crowd. The golden sword came to rest at her hip. Nice. Very nice indeed. There were a few more exchanges of respect, then Riel just teleported the two of them away. They watched the city from a distance.

It would recover.

“Well done,” Nestra said.

“Does it not bother you that one day, they might be adversaries?” Riel asked.

Nestra shrugged.

“They could be friends too. Maybe. This world is clearly a shit assignment for fae nobles so they may be more humble than the average ones.”

“How do you know?”

“Low ambient mana means fewer resources,” Nestra exclaimed though she thought it should be obvious.

“Ah, you are correct.”

“Anyway, we did what we could. That’s all we can do.”

There was a pause, then both spoke at once.

“Just wish we’d taken some meat.”

“Shame about the kaiju flesh.”

Nestra smiled under her visor.

***

Lava bubbled on the flank of the active volcano. The air smelled like the rear end of a dead skunk. Nestra frowned. This was it. She could feel it.

“I think I can get us home in just one jump if I force it.”

Riel stood by her side in his emblematic tattered cloak. It really felt like standing next to a living legend now that they were so close to their destination. Earth beckoned.

“Is there a risk?”

“No, no risk, I’ll just be wiped.”

Nestra resisted the urge to cough. Fucking volcanoes. She didn’t even need to breathe, really. Not in her true form.

“I’ll just do it,” she said. “I have you to cover me if we end up in the wilderness.”

“Ah, yes, regarding this... I would really like to go check on my family as soon as we are back.”

They exchanged a glance. Well, Nestra looked at his faceplate, more like.

“I will make contact with Threshold shortly after. Obviously. You have my word. But I must know.”

“Yes,” Nestra replied. “Of course, I understand.”

If she’d been away for that long, the first thing she would do would be to check on her family also.

“I will only leave after I know you’re safe.”

Nestra nodded. She then waited for another hour and decided she was well enough to try and pierce towards Earth. She could see the distant strands.

It was a mistake. She knew it as soon as she started, but it wasn’t a big enough mistake to stop. The Earth strands kept avoiding her. Eventually, she managed to find one that was ‘downward’ which made opening the portal world feasible if not easy.

“Riel!” Nestra exclaimed.

“Yes?”

“Oh. Sorry. Help me up?”

They moved through the overly long tunnel. Excitement filled Nestra’s chest despite her exhaustion. They wouldn’t land in Threshold, but she would be on Earth and then maybe she could even catch a plane home and wouldn’t that be nice? Her accounts probably weren’t frozen.

Although, her identity was kind of known so...

Bah, it would be fine! She was B-class and quite strong. She could just hide if things went south! With a few more steps, the pair stumbled out on asphalt still radiating heat after what must have been a long day under the sun. It was early night. There was a long street some distance away with lone cars zipping past. A restaurant waited to her right with a large ‘Liz’s Diner’ neon sign blazing in the night. It was very mildly fortified, which always annoyed Nestra but matched the low ambient mana. She switched to her human form as it was more comfortable.

“Where are we?” Malik asked.

Nestra fished out her secure phone from her dimension pocket. It opened without too much fuss and she still had 27% battery left. Amazing!

“I sent us where ambient mana was the weakest because it made a downward funnel... it’s a bit hard to explain but, yep, we’re almost on the other side of the planet compared to Threshold. We’re... east of Pennsylvania. Hey, we’re in the US!”

“Good, then as discussed.”

“See you later!” Nestra said with some forced enthusiasm. It would be fine.

He was gone in moments.

The smell of grease floated towards her nostrils, promising fries. She hadn’t had fries in forever. Those smelled like good fries too, the real stuff made by people and not processed by an uncaring robot. Nestra approached the entrance of the joint which showed they accepted visor payment. A blonde waitress gave her a worried glance from the other side of reinforced glass. Nestra gave her a little wave.

Suddenly, her phone rang. It was Rag. She was fast.

“Hey hey I just got back!” Nestra yelled as a way of greeting.

“Clytemnestra Palladian, why is our GPS tracking placing you near Philadelphia?”

“I landed there! Well, I didn’t expect that I would end up on the literal other side of the planet but it’s fine if you can’t help me get home. I’ll just wait six hours, open a portal out and portal back in near the Beacon. Just don’t —”

“Nestra, we’re at war with the US.”

Nestra froze. Her heart skipped a beat. Behind the windows, a frowning, worried waitress was reaching for her visor.

“You... you’re joking, right?”

“We are at war with the US. Hot war. We attacked their fleet eight days ago. They’ve struck back at us. The Beacon was just hit by a ballistic missile yesterday."

Nestra almost dropped her phone.

“Oh shit.”