It had been a hell of a day, and it wasn''t even lunchtime. I''d been adopted by Katrin and Errod, met a demigod and made a deal with him, learned how to package up concepts into an archive so I could remove trauma from my mind, found out the world might be doomed due to Connie''s flawed method of saving it, got into a fight with a chronomancer from a dead timeline that I''d been sure was already taken care of - a fight which ended in my favor due to the intervention of the human version of me I''d taken the place of as a child - and, finally, I''d just been arrested by Hugh as I tried to turn myself over to be imprisoned by Hammersmith. It was a lot.


    It was so much, in fact, that my brain just shut off and didn''t even try to process it. I didn''t try to figure out why, or what the plan was, or what I should be doing in response. I just stood there with a stupid look on my face. Helma Patak wasn''t any better, she was opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water - if I''d just walked in and didn''t have context I would have tried the Heimlich maneuver under the assumption she was choking on something.


    Hammersmith, cool as a cucumber and making us both look bad, just sighed. "Hugh," she started, only for him to cut her off.


    "Carol," he said. The soldiers behind her, upon hearing Hugh casually use her first name, looked like they wanted to sneak out of the room before a fight started. Also... Carol? Really? It was way too much of a mom name for someone that looked like she''d stepped right out of a superhero movie.


    Hammersmith shook her head. "Of course. You''re out of retirement. My apologies, lieutenant. High Guardsman, respectfully, what the fuck is this about? Is this some sort of last minute political positioning? First Citizen Patak, was there a dispute about the agreement you made with Erathik?"


    She sputtered. "No! They ceded to the Endless Empire without any requests!"


    "Well," Hugh said, "new information has come to light. Obviously I would never stand in the way of the Endless Empire in this matter, but as the girl is a citizen of Erathik and has now been arrested for crimes there... I''m afraid she will need to stay under my protection. I can escort her to wherever you need, but I will be present for any interrogations, any physical or mental inspections, things like that. I''m sure it won''t be any trouble, yes?"


    I was generally low on emotions even on the best of days, and this one had wrung me out like an old rag. But as my poor battered brain finally processed what Hugh was saying, and the fact he''d locked one of my Dumines despite knowing that wouldn''t do jack shit... I felt like I was going to cry.


    Her face now absolutely blank, Hammersmith called someone forward - Rylan, I''d head that name back when I was eavesdropping on her and Connie in the Cheese Cave back in Theramas - and an opaque dome appeared over the three of us. "Okay, we''re secure. What''s actually going on?"


    Hugh sighed, and looked... apologetic. "You fucked up. You made a bad call, yes? I know about the other timeline, and about the risk to this one."


    Before he could continue, Hammersmith held up a hand. "We have a briefing prepared for Erathik, and plan on -"


    "That is not why I am here, although the Primarch was... unamused that the Endless Empire has not extended their allies the trust they are due as part of the treaty. But I am here to discuss this young woman. I understand that Calliope must be protected - but you should have told her about what she is, who she is."


    At ''what she is'', Hammersmith glanced at me as her mouth tightened. I couldn''t decide what that facial expression meant, if it was chagrin or annoyance or what. "I made the call I had to make," she said, "I couldn''t give her another reason to have a mental breakdown or run off."


    Hugh shrugged. "As I said, you made a bad call. I... had an opportunity, the other day, to hear from several different experts in memory extraction who - relax, they saw nothing they should not have - but they all said the same thing. The collapse of the altered memories is well underway, and it needs repair or removal. You don''t want her to have a breakdown? She was filled with conflicting memories! They were coming out in dreams, she didn''t know what was real! It was a mistake. You mistreated a soldier under your care, however good your intentions, and you have lost any chance that she will ever trust you. That is the cost, for you.


    "Worse, most of the problems that have come since are the result not of Calliope''s mistakes, but of agents that were hostile to her for reasons you made sure she could not understand. Calliope has acted selfishly and erratically. But she is young, and was trying to fight a side of her she didn''t know existed. And during all of this, she neutralized that threat - she even fought me, risked her safety, in order to do so. Had she been properly informed, who knows? Her sister might be alive. Many of your soldiers might be alive.


    "And so, I am doing what I must to ensure she is properly protected while in your possession. She has always maintained that she would do what needs to be done, as her other self did once before. We agree that she cannot run around the continent causing trouble, but you will need to accept your responsibility in this situation. That means putting me in charge of her."


    Hammersmith looked frustrated and impatient, her perfect metallic face furrowed. "What was the threat? How was it neutralized? This is the first that I''m -"


    "Stop. Stop. That''s just the thing I have been telling you, yes? You have lost her trust, and now you don''t get to ask those questions. Nor will I allow you to tamper with her head to get answers that way. You could ask for an official report from the Primarch, and I''m sure she will extend you all the cooperation and courtesy that your empire has shown to her." Oooh, shade. It was good to have confirmation that Hammersmith hadn''t been telling her allies everything. "In the meantime Calliope will wait with you, patiently, and then open the way into Brinkmar. And when the threat is over you will thank her and let her go, and I will retire once more, yes?"


    Hammersmith took an incredibly deep breath, which was a sight to see from someone with shoulders that broad. I half expected when she let it out it would blow us all across the room. "You had to charge in here and make a scene?"


    Hugh grinned. "Would it have worked otherwise? Besides, I hadn''t decided for certain until this morning, and you have to admit you like my cape, yes?"


    She raised an eyebrow. "Mine is better. Let''s go, the teleportation circle is waiting."


    We teleported three times, and each time switched rooms and mages. Only Hammersmith, Hugh, and myself experienced the whole journey. Even more, when we finally arrived at our destination it was underground with no windows. I found a moment to check the fate threads in case I could guess at where we were or at least how far we were from Katrin and Errod, but all of them trailed off into nothingness. So, another plane.


    Really, it made sense. I was still emotionally overwhelmed about Hugh standing up to Hammersmith on my behalf, especially considering how much he respected her, but the more I thought about it the clearer it was that part of her mistake had been building the new contract on top of Connie''s old one and trying to keep those promises. She should have told us what was going on, yeah, and she should have... I don''t know. Recognized that Connie was hanging on by a thread, I guess? But being logical she also should have had us locked up somewhere like this from the start. Agreeing in theory wasn''t making me like it any more, though. It felt like being shipped off to prison.


    Between the first and second teleports, I''d been ushered to a cubicle and told to change clothes. Hugh had made sure he was the one to supervise, although I was mortified when I realized he really was going to watch me change. But it felt very businesslike, and he stayed a few feet away. He let them know I hadn''t palmed anything or transferred anything from one outfit to the other, and made sure they in turn swore I''d get my belongings back. This meant I was wearing a one size fits all outfit that looked like cheap pajamas and some slippers that felt like they were made out of cardboard. Looking cool or pretty had never been the most important thing to me, but that didn''t mean I was completely indifferent - on those rare occasions I ended up wearing something really nice I did feel better about myself, and the reverse was also true for this awful outfit.


    I didn''t get to see where they would have put me if Hugh hadn''t come along, because instead we sat and waited awkwardly next to a guard checkpoint while a suite with two bedrooms was arranged. Hugh took the one on the left, I got the one on the right, and there was a tiny living area in-between. The toilet was just a nice seat over a chamber pot, though there was some sort of ventilation to keep the odor from getting into other rooms. There was no kitchen, and as with the rest of the facility so far, no windows.


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    That first day, or half day, I didn''t do much of anything. I couldn''t reach my memory palace, but even if I''d been able to I realized right after checking the fate threads that it was possible someone would somehow detect that I was using magic despite the lock. I needed to lay low, especially at first, and if that meant being bored - since all my books were in the memory palace - then that would just make it even more legitimate. I did ask for my stuff back, so I would at least have The Paradox of Fate to read and my knitting stuff to entertain me, but I was told that would all arrive the next day after being thoroughly checked.


    I wondered what they would make of Sentortzi''s template - I hadn''t had a chance to examine it, but I was assuming he had a way of making sure nobody else could read it. If not, that was his fuck-up. I''d vowed to "make all reasonable efforts to keep it safe", and considering the attack from Ulren and Sentortzi''s own guards escorting me to the teleportation hub I hadn''t had a lot of other options. Even if I''d had a chance to hand it off to someone else, it wasn''t clear that would be more safe. It did get me thinking, though, and so I told Hugh I had some important intel for Hammersmith.


    She was presumably busy - if I understood right she was one third of the leadership of the Endless Empire... Eternal Empire? No. Endless, right? The words were almost the same in Imperial, but I was sure someone would be annoyed if I used the wrong one. Anyway, I expected to meet with some slightly lower-ranking person but instead was invited to lunch with Hammersmith herself. Hugh, as promised, tagged along. She asked if my room was acceptable in a tone that made it clear she was being polite rather than actually asking, which might have annoyed me if I thought other people here were in the lap of luxury. Really, the room was fine other than the lack of windows which I was certain nobody had.


    After that we ate in silence for a few minutes - strips of the generic red meat and some root vegetables covered in a sort of gravy, nothing fancy but not bad - and then she dabbed her lips with a napkin and prepared to get down to business. "So, I hear you have some intelligence you''d like to share?"


    "Not exactly," I said apologetically, "I actually have some intelligence I''d like to sell you."


    Hammersmith was unamused, her lips a tight line. "I see."


    "I''ll make you a deal," I said, "and I promise it''ll be worth it. I''m not interested in antagonizing you or trying to squeeze too much out of you."


    "If this is important information, you could be risking lives by withholding it."


    "Oh, we''re going to talk about withholding important information? Great, let''s talk about that. Were you going to tell me I''m a Sahrger and that my memories had been fucked with? No, I guess not. So I don''t want to hear about it. You''re worried about risking lives by not knowing everything? Then I guess you''d better agree to my terms, or that blood is on your hands - not mine."


    "And what are those terms?" she asked, back to looking calm and reasonable.


    "I''m going to make a list of people. You, without seeing that list, are going to agree ahead of time that the Endless Empire is going to give them... shit, I absorbed most of the language between using it and just wearing the bracelet, but I don''t know this one. A... release from any crimes they may have committed."


    "A pardon?" she asked, the word having similar enough roots to ones I remembered for me to know it was the right one.


    "Yeah, a pardon. You promise to leave them out of this, and not charge them with any crimes. Once you''ve done that, I''ll tell you what I''ve been up to. You''ll also have to promise that you''ll let me go once I''ve opened the way to Brinkmar - if you fuck this up and need me to open it again, we need to negotiate a new agreement because I''m not staying in this windowless tomb the whole time. On that note, I want access to a room where the wards are a little lighter and where I can have Hugh take the lock off my Dumine; I know you want it warded against most stuff, but surely you have places where people can have their mind and soul reach out to their domains and speed up mana regeneration. I want to be sure I can train a little, improve my magic while I''m here."


    She nodded. "We can do all that, but we would need to scan your Dumine to determine what gifts you have and ensure it''s safe."


    "Nope! Not on the table. If your guys are too incompetent to deal with me having access to my Dumine in a single room of your choice then your security is just as bad as it was in Theramas, and that''s your problem not mine. Deal with it. In fact, just because you asked I''m also not to be observed with any special senses. You can have someone keep eyes on me, of course, but you''ll swear that nobody is going to be trying to use magical senses on me or scan me in any way."


    "Absolutely unacceptable. You want to mock our security and then put ridiculous limits on it?"


    I took another bite of lunch, and chewed extra slowly. When I finally swallowed, I looked back up at her. "You''re right," I said, "that''s a pretty crazy thing for me to ask. Sucks to be you, I guess. See, I have vital knowledge that you need to have in order to be prepared. That''s not bullshit, I''ll swear to it. You need to know what I know, and I want my privacy. You''ve got me surrounded by soldiers, confined to rooms except when I''m being escorted, and I came here willingly."


    She rolled her eyes. "You were bound by an oath not to leave the grounds of the Grand University, you hardly could have resisted."


    "Just shows what you know, your intelligence team is slacking off." I took another bite, talking around my food. "See, this is why you need to make this deal. I was fully free of any oaths and capable of sneaking out of the city and vanishing if I''d wanted to. Hell, earlier in the day yesterday I attacked a guard and ditched him. I, uh... I had a good reason."


    Hammersmith stood up without a word and walked out. Hugh seemed amused by this, but didn''t say anything either. Unsure of what was going on, I figured I might as well finish eating and so I did that, and then just as I wiped the last of the gravy off my plate with a piece of flatbread Hammersmith returned. She looked defeated.


    "Sentortzi confirmed?" Hugh asked, grinning.


    Hammersmith sighed, sitting back down and idly poking at her meal. "Technically they refused to confirm, but I talked to some contacts and I can add three and three. If she was able to attack a guard and ignore his orders, even with good cause, it would imply she was not under oath - or that the oath was deeply flawed, though that seems less likely in my opinion. And so... I am willing to come to an agreement with you, although we''ll need to be careful to define the details in such a way that it won''t compromise our security."


    I nodded. "And for my end, that I only have to tell you the shit I think is actually relevant - I''m not going to get into personal shit more than I need to. Also, that pardon is going to have to come with a promise that you won''t rat me out to any other nations for any crimes I mention committing there."


    She pushed her plate aside. "This is giving me a headache already, and - no offense - I''m concerned that I''m going to regret making this bargain. I''ll need to go to the capitol, an old edict from the Clockmaker that carried forward means I can''t make a binding deal with the Sahrger without approval from the other Custodians of the Empire."


    I wasn''t sure how I felt about that, but whatever. I asked her to follow up on me getting my shit back, and sure enough a few hours later I was delivered my bag. Pretty much everything was accounted for, with two exceptions. The template from Sentortzi was gone, which wasn''t a shock, and something was missing from my little pouch of trinkets. Yasna''s crystalline flower, a feather from Shitheel, the hollow stone hexagon that used to frame Connie''s Dumine when it was around my neck, an old Tactics piece I''d found in the ruined city where we''d made camp, and a six-sided die I''d taken from the guard''s break room in the lost vault where we found the Duminere were all there as expected. But my keychain was gone.


    Mister Bagmaw had given it to me, to celebrate me getting my own apartment - it was shaped like a little house from a kid''s drawing, and I''d used it to hold the key for the chest in the wagon as well as my key for the apartment above Mila''s shop. It was nothing valuable, other than the fact it was one of the few things I had from Earth. In fact, it was possible that it being from Earth was the problem. Everything else I''d brought with me was either destroyed, in a vault in Erathik, or tucked away in the wagon. Still, if they didn''t give it back at the end of all this I was going to cut someone.


    After getting changed and putting my bag in a little nook in the wall, the boredom started to seriously sink in and with it the feeling of being a caged animal. That first afternoon had been fine, and then the morning I''d been distracted with the upcoming meeting, but now I was just sitting and waiting to hear back and realizing how little there was to entertain me. Up until I had my knitting supplies and The Paradox of Fate I could pretend those would keep me busy, but now that they were in my hands I wasn''t in the mood. I wanted to take a walk. I wanted to climb a tree. I wanted to find a little hole in the wall restaurant.


    Basically, I wanted to do anything that I couldn''t possibly do here.


    I stepped into the little common room between our bedrooms and called out to Hugh. "Hugh, I''m bored and I wanna leave." I didn''t even try to not sound like a petulant child. Hell, I leaned into it - I figured Hugh would appreciate the honesty. His door opened and he stepped out, and immediately I was flying through the air at the rock wall behind me. I tilted my head forward and tucked my elbows in but still hit hard, dropping to the ground in a heap.


    "Not bad," he said, "for your first advanced falling lesson."


    Oh, shit. I''d forgotten about his falling lessons - though those had just been how to drop to the ground or get knocked down in a way that I could quickly recover from, they hadn''t involved me being force-launched at a wall. Thus the ''advanced'' part, I guess. I started to get to my feet and before I was at all ready he rocketed me at another wall - I twisted midair and almost landed on my feet, but succeeded only in twisting my ankle. Was he trying to just be a good teacher, or was he getting revenge?


    It looked like I was going to find out, but either way I was already regretting telling him I was bored.