All four inhabitants of my memory palace were gathered in the cramped space of the vardo wagon, whose real-world counterpart was presumably still being used by Katrin and Errod somewhere. I glanced out the window, not for the first time, and wondered if the dream scenery out there was anything like the landscape they were traveling through. Were they just relaxing somewhere? Having a leisurely breakfast and planning their day? Something deep inside me ached for a moment, but I dismissed it. That was silly. I was learning crazy new magic shit, and getting super badass training with Hugh, and I''d maybe just found Connie''s... something. This was great. This was exciting. It was everything I''d ever wanted, since I was a dumb kid playing with stolen knives in the alley and imagining that I was the protagonist of an adventure story. This was me living the dream.


    Though at the moment, this was me leaning against the door so nobody slipped out. My duplicate was sitting on the fold-down bunk, the quiet Calliope-spirit was laying on the lower bunk, and the anime-looking one was on the floor, playing with the chalk Elba had left behind. I''d just finished giving my duplicate the news about what I''d seen in Erima the night before, and was waiting on her to chime in. I''d deliberately waited until it was almost time for us to synch up, since I was hoping for as different a perspective as she could give. I''d already found that we simply didn''t diverge that much, though. At best I was getting some new ideas at the very start of brainstorming things, but then we''d quickly end up back on the same page.


    "I don''t know," my duplicate finally said, "she seems too happy to be Connie''s soul. I mean, don''t get me wrong - Connie still kept fairly positive most of the time, but I kinda got the feeling that underneath it all she was more... stabby. Like when she would flip out and then rewind time? This one hugs people a bunch."


    I''d thought of that one already. "Sure, but think where she is. We''re in a safe place, surrounded by our favorite people - ourselves - and she can just do whatever she wants and poke around in nice memories. If she''s mostly emotion-based, I think it''s reasonable she''d be happy here."


    "I guess. So you think the other one is her mind?"


    I looked at it, just laying there silently. "I think. I know it doesn''t seem like much, but remember that she didn''t have Thought magic or anything. There''s probably something in there, but without its connection to her body and soul it just... does this. Which is why I think I should bind her soul and mind together - as a ghost she''ll probably be able to talk to us again."


    There was an obvious problem with that theory, which my duplicate immediately brought up. "But we did already talk to her, which would imply she was a ghost, which would mean... like, what happened? She got torn back into two parts?"


    "For all I know she wasn''t even really dead yet. That whole conversation happened in the instant the temporal mana exploded. Or, I don''t know, she was briefly a ghost and then all that excess mana fucked her up?"


    The duplicate continued to voice my concerns for me. "And then we thought we saw her again, when your magic went all wonky during your session with Talia. Although... we were in the mind palace, and so were these guys. So maybe that was them fusing back together for a minute? Could that have been what caused everything to glitch out? Is it a bad idea to deliberately make that happen again? That one thread still doesn''t look right."


    I shrugged, not having anything to add. We were working with very little information, and there were a lot of questions. "I want to know why they arrived with all those other guys. Were all the others oydirme, and meanwhile her soul and mind had been hovering on the edges of my domain with them, and... I don''t know. I''m just making up stories over here."


    "They were all wearing the football jerseys," the duplicate said thoughtfully. The soul had almost immediately stripped naked, and the mind - if that''s what it was - had left the jersey on for a while but had eventually shown up wearing the same outfit I had first appeared in after unlocking my memory palace. Some jeans and a gym shirt that looked a decade or two out of date and said, where the name of the high school would have been, "SCHOOoL SCHOOL scHIGH SCHOOL". But yeah, they''d been wearing the jerseys like the others.


    "That was probably some stray thought of mine though. It might not mean anything. Actually, yeah, it for sure doesn''t because wasn''t Errod wearing one too?"


    The other me started to nod, and then froze. "Oh. Shit."


    Oh. Oh shit indeed. Was this Errod''s fault somehow? Katrin hadn''t been wearing a jersey. Human Callie hadn''t. And then Errod had refused to try going into my memory palace again after that. "What would that mean?" I asked, not really expecting an answer. "And how the fuck would it also involve Connie''s ghost? Or ghost-parts. Whatever."


    "They tried to take the mind and soul with them when they left. But one of them also grabbed human Callie and she stabbed him really bad so they just bailed. Where do you think they were taking them? Where did they go?"


    "I... the glove, maybe? It for sure moves on its own."


    "You think the glove is filled with spirits or ghosts or little guys or something?"


    It was as good a guess as I could come up with under the circumstances. It just didn''t help us much. It made me want to tether Errod and pull him in to talk, but it was also arguably a very good reminder of why that sort of thing could be dangerous. Would it pull in a whole bunch of people in football jerseys? And, like human Calliope, would they learn to get in without being expressly invited? I could tag Katrin instead, and make her ask. That was tempting. I wasn''t too scared of having Katrin be able to get into my brain, because I was pretty sure I could trust her to ask first. We could set up an entry lounge, with a... doorbell or something. But a bunch of mysterious guys that might live in a glove? Nope.


    "I just realized I don''t know how to tether these two. I think at least one of them would need to be there with my body. Right? Because - "


    "- Because it''s originating there and it doesn''t feel like we can direct both ends to somewhere distant, yeah. But maybe we can? We just haven''t tried. Actually, we haven''t tried doing anything where our body wasn''t the anchor point yet, even in person. It doesn''t feel like a restriction instinctively, but it might be."


    "Or if it''s not it might be something we fuck up. Yeah. Okay, so we need to be responsible and test. Shit."


    But that just brought me back to the original problem, which was that I didn''t have anything safe to test on. Half the shit I wanted to test also involved tethering stuff to myself or things I cared about, and with the threads being permanent at this point that wasn''t really a great move either. Although... there was one thing I could try and do. It was a terrible idea, deeply irresponsible. It was reckless and stupid and very, very tempting. And it would be scientifically interesting, because it would answer some questions about how threads behaved under some very strange circumstances. If it didn''t kill me.


    I felt pretty sure it wouldn''t kill me.


    I explained it to my duplicate, who also thought it was a terrible idea and wanted to see what would happen. "Oh fuck this could be so cool, or so bad. Could we roll dice about it? With all these fate threads, wouldn''t they make sure you don''t kill yourself in a stupid way?"


    It was a thought I''d had a few times. The trick was, I didn''t know for sure it worked like that and I also would need to seriously mean it; it had to be a situation where I was one hundred percent dedicated to following through regardless of what the dice or coin flip or whatever had to say. And then when I got the answer, I still wouldn''t know if it meant anything. If I flipped a coin and got tails, how would I tell the difference between it just landing the way it did due to regular chance and it being influenced? Even if fate could do that, and it seemed like it should be able to, what if fate was too weak a force to work all at once like that? What if it relied on longer term but smaller adjustments? Or what if fate was fine with me fucking up?


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    That was a real concern. Sure, it probably didn''t want me dead. But could there be a world where it wanted me to be crazy or injured or something? Absolutely. That could drive me to do stuff I otherwise wouldn''t, seek out different powers and people. I really needed to figure out what all the threads were for. Wait. "Hey, am I being dumb or was there nothing in Harmid''s office about where the fate threads went? Even if he didn''t finish, I should have found something."


    "You think he''s still with wild Callie? You could ping her. I should be able to ping her, not sure why you get all the body stuff - it''s the same link now."


    "Okay let''s synch up first. I want to be at my best, and also you''re starting to get bitter about not being me and that''s annoying."


    "Yeah, it gets worse over time because I keep thinking ''oh, I''ll just use divination to... whatever...'' and then I can''t. Each time it''s fine, but it really grates after a while."


    I rolled my eyes. "I know, I remember all this shit too."


    "No. I thought that too, but it''s different in the moment. It''s fine, we''re probably going to slowly get used to it."


    We did the merge, and the memory test, and all that shit. Then I had no excuses left to not ping human Calliope, so I did that and waited. Nothing. I popped out, ate breakfast with Hugh, headed past Barick the trouble-detector, and then let Hugh dramatically remove the Dumine lock as if it meant anything. Best to keep up appearances. I immediately popped back into my memory palace but there was still no response, so I got some of the sparring out of the way to make Hugh happy.


    "You have hit a plateau, yes?" he said when we took a break.


    "Yeah. I think so. Partly I''m trying to figure out some ways to use my memory palace," I said, a minor lie but I had to explain all my time there and didn''t want to discuss the spirit clone things, "since my win against you there isn''t exactly something I can reproduce in a real fight."


    He nodded. "The divination in particular has potential. I have learned to notice when you are making your body move while in that other place," he said, "and I have met those who can have their body do a task while their mind places its attention elsewhere. I would like to use this last week before the alignment to train with your body unattended, or with as little attention as you need to give it."


    "Wait. You want to fight my body when it''s on auto-pilot?"


    "An interesting term. Yes! I would go easy on you, yes? It would be no replacement for your undivided attention, but in an emergency - if you are under mental attack, for example."


    "Hell yeah, that sounds amazing. I had trouble even getting it to walk at first, but the day I got here at one point I had it running and it even avoided some stuff without me thinking about it. I haven''t been directly practicing it lately, but it''s probably gotten a little better just from me using my abilities so much."


    "There are other opportunities to use your divination in combat. Have you considered any?"


    It felt like a test - he was almost certainly thinking of something specific. "I had the thought that I could like... make things I wanted to pay attention to be in color while everything else was black and white, or add little visual indicators to things, but I had to think about it too hard. I used it to get a look under Ulren''s robes so I could see how the device he was using looked, but copies of magic items don''t work in my memory palace so I can''t figure out what something does that way. Um. You remember kicking my ass when I tried to mess with my perception of time, I haven''t come up with a solution for that. It''s still potentially useful I guess - especially if you can get my body fighting on its own."


    "It is related to time, but it is something you cannot yet do. You have Probability and Temporal affinities?"


    "Yeah."


    "Then what is stopping you from learning how to see what your opponent is about to do?"


    A lack of free potential, and a laundry list of other things I''d been working on. But... yeah, that should probably be extremely high on the list. Still, even without that I was starting to feel really good about myself. I''d held my own okay against those new recruits that attacked us on the road when I first arrived, but since then things had been... mixed. I mostly let other people do the fighting in the Necropolis and Zistarne, and while I got some good shots in during the fight on the way to Sentortzi it ended with me being squished by the Behemoth. But now?


    Okay, the Behemoth would still squish me like an overripe banana.


    But someone else, someone who wasn''t the size of a minivan and didn''t regenerate instantly? Yeah, I felt good about my odds. Part of it was that Hugh''s relentless training had gotten me in better shape than I''d ever thought I could be in - normally someone training that hard would just injure themselves, but with frequent rests in a top-tier healing device I''d been able to seriously bulk up. I didn''t look like a bodybuilder or anything, but the muscles were... pretty noticeable. I''d lost my magic throwing knives with the force push effect when I was captured, but at this point I could sink a totally mundane knife pretty deep in the target. I was still going to get more of those magic ones, though.


    My aim had improved, but if someone got in close they were in extra trouble. Maybe I couldn''t beat Hugh in a fair fight, but I was consistently getting hits in now which was pretty damn impressive. That man had built up his powers specifically for combat, and had boatloads of experience. There was always going to be someone better, stronger, whatever - but I was going to be that someone for a whole lot of people now. It almost made the last eight weeks of torture worth it.


    Because of that confidence, it was strange to watch Hugh come at me like he was fighting a toddler. He was doing mostly open-hand slaps and shoves, and I was struggling to not pay too much attention; if I watched closely I''d reflexively give my body commands, so I had to sort of hover nearby where the fight was in the corner of my eye. Not watching via divination at all was off the table - when I''d tried that, my body did nothing more than flinching. Hugh was moving fast enough to register as an attack but no faster, because he wanted to make sure that any attempt to dodge would be rewarded. By the end of the day I could tell he''d sped up a little which was a good sign, but it was too early to say what the actual rate of improvement would be.


    The last thing we tried, though I didn''t tell him what exactly I was doing, was to have my duplicate watch the fight while I left the area entirely. I''d found that as long as I started the divination I could leave it up while I went to other parts of my memory palace, so I laid in bed and read a book until I ran out of mana. The experiment was a success - even though my duplicate couldn''t directly control the body, having her watch closely meant it reacted way faster and even took a few counter-swings. This wasn''t some huge breakthrough, since I couldn''t think of a situation where I couldn''t just control the body directly while my duplicate did whatever else I needed, but it was still good to know.


    Klinec and his head lackey showed up at the end of the day, just to ruin my otherwise good mood. Worse, he seemed to be in a good mood as well which made me suspicious. I was tempted to check him for iron again, but I was running on empty and I liked to have at least a smidgen of mana on hand for an emergency on principle. He mused on the fact that there were only five full days left before the alignment, offered me a private meeting again, and then left with a smirk that was... worrying. Even Hugh looked like he''d just caught a whiff of a fresh turd. I was on edge on the walk back to the room, but nothing happened. Of course not, they needed me. For now.


    I''d thought a lot about ways they could break our deal, and none of them felt likely. Still, I wasn''t going to relax until I was free.


    Back in our rooms, I ate dinner and then ducked into my memory palace - I''d regained a little more mana, but even if I hadn''t it cost me almost nothing to be in the memory palace so long as I didn''t use divination or anything. I was just heading for the book pile when the wild mage popped in.


    "I felt you seeking me earlier, but I was busy."


    Well, good thing it hadn''t been an emergency I guess. "Yeah, uh. Are you still with Harmid?"


    "Not at the moment, but I may visit him in Sentortzi after I take care of some business. He believes it is safe for him there again, and for some reason wishes to return to his job."


    "Damn. Okay. Well, I''ve kinda made some progress but I don''t think you''re going to like it. I can make fate stuff now, including reproducing the cool parts of the spell that''s connecting us, but I still don''t know how to break them. I''m working on it. Actually... there''s a thing I could try. I could try to replace the connection we already have with my new one, and that one I can just... shut off. It would still be there, but I can make it so nothing is coming across. I''d still try to figure out how to cut it entirely, but in the meantime you''d know we''re actually separate."


    She stared at me for what felt like fifteen minutes before nodding curtly.


    "I can''t do it right now, it''s hugely expensive. But I''ll give it a shot tomorrow or something. If it works... well, I guess it would make the most sense to not turn everything off right away - not until we''ve talked about it, anyway. Just because... well, if we need to arrange a way to get in touch."


    She was fidgeting like she was nervous, but her brow was creased and she was frowning. I couldn''t decide if she was angry or constipated. "You offered me something, before. You said... you would teach me about the life you left behind."


    "Oh! Yeah. Yeah, that''s fine. I know you''ve seen bits and pieces but... what do you want to know. Like, my - your - social security number and stuff?"


    Still scowling and fidgeting, looking anywhere but in my eyes, she muttered something unintelligible. I asked her to repeat herself, and she sighed. "I... need to know how to... shop for food, and use a bank, and... how to use a phone?" It was like admitting that had done physical harm to her.


    Part of me wanted to laugh at her; she''d been so eager to kill me, and now she wanted me to teach her basic life skills? But then a little fragment of a memory floated through my mind, Bill helping me make a grocery list. "Yeah," I said, "I can do that. Let''s do a few hours every night. Come on, we''ll start with some of the basic shit and work our way up to how to bullshit your way through an interview..."