Brinkmar.

The magical kingdom I'd been fascinated with ever since I found that old copy of Jake Ross and the Forgotten Throne, sandwiched between John Grisham novels on a "take a book leave a book" shelf at the Long Haul Hotel. A former superpower, in control of the world's supply of mana batteries. The Clockmaker's extraplanar base, filled with wonders unimaginable.

And a total shithole.

The air was stale and sour, the landscape a monochrome field of gray plants that had died well over a century and a half ago but still stood - anything that would have helped them decompose also having perished. Likewise, ancient corpses of animals and even people were scattered around, desiccated into mummies. The once-great buildings were in disrepair - most probably damaged in the ancient war or the following evacuation, but some showing signs of much more recent conflict.

It was still exciting, of course, and I was desperately trying to remember as much as possible from the books so I could decide if I was walking where Jake Ross once had. Of course to do that I would have to have any idea where I was. We'd made a wide circuit of the area around the building we had appeared in, looking for landmarks, and now we were back inside huddled around a rough and ugly recreation of the map that Hammersmith had left on display during my briefing what felt like a year ago. It had really been about twenty-four hours.

"We have to be either here, here, or here," Katrin said, "and since we don't know which it would be best to just head towards Trallanar, in the center of the island."

She was probably right about where we might be, but it partly depended on the scale - we didn't actually know how large the island was, and so it was hard to say what would be visible from where or whether or not the shape of the coastline meant anything. "I wanted to see the palace, though. That's in Evellunis."

Katrin sighed. "We don't know what direction to go in to get there until we figure out where we are. And frankly... I was hoping we could get our hands on a mana battery. The ones from Brinkmar were extremely powerful, there's so much we could do with one."

The island was unnaturally triangular, though there were still little wobbly bits and coves and whatever. We were certain that Trallanar, in the center, was where the mana batteries were made - in the books it was described as a font of magic, this wellspring of pure magical energy that was harnessed in an enormous crystal dome and flowed out to the cities of Brinkmar. The way Katrin and Errod described it, things were a bit more... factory-like. Either way, we agreed it was in the middle of the island. I had my other mind go into divination mode while I talked to Katrin, and it pulled up my conversation with Harmid about Brinkmar just in case - he'd mentioned something about the batteries, hadn't he?

Oh.

"Okay you're going to think I'm just saying this so that we'll go where I want, but actually we for sure need to avoid Trallanar because it will one hundred percent kill my new brother."

Errod's eyebrows went up. "What? What do you mean? Is this about what that knight said?"

"Yup. That choad said something about Errod being thrown into the cursed crossroads, and I just remembered that when I talked to Harmid - Professor Yanipliss - he said some expeditions went back to Brinkmar to try and recover mana batteries from... wait for it... the crossroads! I didn't catch it at the time, I was thinking about a lot of shit. Anyway, that's got to be the place, which means it's off limits."

Errod looked like he wanted to play devil's advocate, but Katrin didn't even hesitate. "Yeah. Yeah. Okay, well then... if we head to the highest ground, we should be able to figure out where we are."

"Katrin. There's a battle going on. High ground means everyone will see us."

"Right. Sorry, I'm... I'm very tired. I was going to be executed earlier today, and I thought I was going to die a few times since then, and I still don't understand what happened when you opened the portal but it was like the whole world shifted or something."

I hadn't explained what I'd done with Yesrin's Loom. I wasn't really sure how they would react to hearing they'd been obliterated. "Yeah, I keep thinking back to every shitty decision I made and how it could have gotten us killed. Like, if that Master of Chains woman had used her gravity shit while we were still in the interrogation room - she could have just bounced us off the walls until we were dead."

Errod nodded. "There were probably wards in place, but she presumably could have done it when we came out before she told us to surrender. If we hadn't gotten to them so quickly, or if you hadn't made it so I could steal her sword... we need to talk more about that, actually. What precisely you can use it for."

"There's... man, there's some shit I have to tell you about that. It didn't seem like the time when we were running." They'd seen glimpses of my ghost popping out and attacking people, and Katrin had probably guessed what was going on there. But I hadn't talked about the oydirme duplicate, or the fact that I had two minds and souls and where they came from. I'd explained why I looked like Helma, and had changed myself back inside my memory palace. My body... would probably keep its Helma face for the foreseeable future. In fact, it would probably keep trying to shift my mental image back to match if I didn't stay on top of it.

"The way you're staring off into space, I'm assuming it's complicated. It's fine if you want to get your thoughts together, but we should know what tools we have at our disposal."

"Yeah. Oh, speaking of! Katrin, that thing where you take mana from Errod and dump it into me is fantastic. Does the other person have to be willing?"

"I think so, for now. It's hard to test on Errod because subconsciously he wants to let me have whatever I need."

Errod smirked. "I'll try to be better about that."

"I wonder if I could attach you to someone with a fate thread," I said, "and have you drain them with that? They're basically a fancy version of the link between me and... the real Calliope. Man. I need to just stop fucking around and give myself a new name. I don't mind being Connie, we could go with that, but I'm curious what my actual name was. Human Callie didn't know, and my parents are dead, and it's not like I could just go ask the Sahrger since they're probably pissed at me."

Katrin patted me on the shoulder. "Sorry. If the spell could even fool the Duminere I can't imagine anyone else can pry your true name out of you. That could be for the best, true names can be used against you by some magic - it's mostly used with wild magic, but even Imperial magic can use that as a targeting parameter."

I started to nod along, and then my brain caught up. "Wait. Wait. What do you mean it fooled the Duminere?"

"Well you still didn't know you weren't Calliope Smith after getting your Dumines, right? So it must have fooled the Duminere."

"I'm not following."

Katrin looked at me like I was crazy. "When it said your name, as part of the greeting."

I couldn't use divination on my memory of the Duminere - I'd already checked - but the regular fallible memory was pretty crisp anyway. I pulled it up and began reading it off. They just nodded along with the first part, about oaths and restrictions and badges. The notice about an imperial override also didn't seem to be news. But when I got to the next line...

"Young, and then a note that says 'primary, two unclaimed', and then..."

"The word young, in Imperial?" Errod asked.

"No, it was all in English."

Katrin looked at me like I was being stupid, and asked very slowly, "And is 'Young' a surname on Earth?"

"I... thought that was just the word 'young'. None of it made any sense to me, I had no reason to think it was listing a name so I didn't really even consider it. That's... it's Bill's name. I guess... I'm sure he didn't..." By the sundered throne, by the name of the twelve kingdoms... "...adopt me. Uh. Maybe he... maybe he said something..." I was crying, and pretending I wasn't, and he handed me a business card? "...and maybe he just really meant it? I don't know how this works. It can't be worried about laws from Earth so I guess if we'd both... Wait, if Young is my surname that would mean my first name is... bullshit. Bullshit. My name is 'Unbroken Thread'? That's a terrible name. Jesus. That's... that's awful."

Katrin laughed. "Well you wanted to know, now you do. We knew it would be something like that, right? What were the other ones... Moss In Bloom, Last Bud of Autumn..."

I thought back - I'd reviewed the memory a few times, while wondering what it would have been like to grow up as a Sahrger. "Sees Past Walls was another, I kinda liked that name, and then... oh right. Yeah, it could have been worse. I could have been Hidden Crevice."

"It's interesting that it mentions thread," she said, "but it's hard to say what it actually means. I wonder if it's a coincidence, or if they knew you would do something with threads or fate or... something."

I felt my other mind get pulled away from the memory it was reviewing to another - that horrible void I saw when the I was using Yesrin's Loom, that gulf between the weaves that signified the world being destroyed, with a bare handful of threads bridging that gap. Most had swooped around, but one was strung right across - the one that I had followed through the pattern to my current location. A single thread, unbroken across the end of the world.

"It's probably a coincidence," I said. "Anyway, if Young is my primary surname - or was, I wonder if it would say Runelighter now - I guess the other two would be Smith and my Sahrger name."

"So, Unbroken Thread," Errod said, "do you think we should -"

"No. God no. I'm not using that name."

He just smiled. "But I am."

He was really going all in on this brother thing, right down to being a pain in my ass. "Errod? I love you, and I will miss you after I stab you to death."

Katrin cleared her throat, and very deliberately pointed at the map. Fine, fine, back to business. "If we head along the coast," she said, "then we'll eventually reach a city. Based on the incomplete map we can't be certain if that will be Evellunis or Pumurom, but it doesn't really matter. We're looking for a portal out of here... do you know if the ones whose other end have been destroyed will still work?"

"No. Hammersmith did say there were other ways out, stuff from back when Brinkmar was evacuated. So that should be in any of the four larger cities I assume, and maybe other places as well." There were a few labels on the map that I assumed were little villages but were maybe farms or military bases or whatever we were at now - a loose scattering of buildings we couldn't guess the purpose of. There had for sure been villages in the books, but the map had been totally different and I wasn't sure what else was made up. In the books Brinkmar had been saved and the curse broken, so... that was already a pretty big difference.

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Errod got a faraway look, as if he was listening to something. He nodded and then focused back on us. "We need supplies. We have the water purifier from the wagon, and in a pinch that should be able to make enough for us. But we don't have any food, and clearly we can't forage. Our best bet would be to search the bodies left behind from a recent battle - I saw smoke not far away."

Katrin didn't look happy. "What if they're still there?"

"I don't think it's likely," he said, "since they're in a hurry. They'll be pressing in, trying to clear out the other side as quickly as they can... hopefully that means they don't take the time to pick over the bodies. We need water, we need supplies, and the boots I stole from the keep don't fit me very well."

"Yeah. Yeah, it's a good point. I think that needs to be the plan. Thank whichever sword fighting ghost from your glove suggested it."

Errod looked like a deer in headlights. "I... it's not..."

"It's not what? Dude, you have a magic glove filled with the ghosts of... probably everyone that has worn it before, right? Or copies of them, maybe. I know it. Katrin knows it. We saw them, when you tried to go into my memory palace - and don't pretend that's not why you refused to try again, there's no way you're just not interested. I don't know why you're being so strange about it. Your hand detaches itself and runs around sometimes. I've seen you play Tactics against it, and I've seen it reach over to adjust your grip or your stance or whatever.

"And it's clearly on our side, at least generally. It saved Elba, that was cool, and it saved us from being eaten by the Behemoth, and it helped bust you out of the keep. Or, they, I guess, not it. Whichever. But it's strange that you won't talk about it. We're being watched by these guys, they're chiming in through you on what we should do next, and you keep pretending they don't exist for some reason."

Errod looked almost like he was in pain. "It's... tradition. They don't like to advertise what they are, how the glove works."

Katrin snorted. "That's ridiculous. If that were true they would be better at hiding it. It's been getting harder and harder to not comment on it, so I guess if we're doing this I might as well say my part. You know sometimes when you're asleep I play Tactics with them?"

His eyes went wide. "You what?"

"I set up the board one night and invited them up to play, and after a few minutes your whole hand popped free and picked out pieces. I don't know how many people are in there, but some are better at it than others. They switch mid-game sometimes, which for the record I consider cheating."

Errod shrugged, then looked down at himself with his brow furrowed. "Don't use me to shrug. I know you don't have shoulders of your own, but it's... rude." He looked back up at us. "It's... they're not supposed to do too much. They made rules, so that the wearer gets to... live their own life, be their own person. Also, sometimes they don't agree and if they argued in a way I could hear it would probably drive me mad."

That was an interesting aspect of it I hadn't considered, but just as I was about to comment on it I realized I was getting sidetracked. "Okay but no, that has nothing to do with whether or not you could tell us about it. You were fully keeping it a secret."

"You want to talk about secrets, Calliope? Fine. Tell me what's going on with you."

"You're going to have to be more specific man, I'm currently wearing someone else's face because I had to break out of an Empire facility and then into Storm's Keep and then out of Storm's Keep, and I spent the last nine weeks stuck in one place which I hate."

"I'm talking about the way you killed those people in the Keep. People we'd already defeated, that we could have just run from or pushed into a cell."

Oh my god. "Jesus, really? This is some moral high ground shit? We were fighting for our lives! They were assholes that wanted to kill you! It made perfect sense to eliminate them as a threat."

"It's not about - it made sense, in theory, to sell that captive soldier from Halenvar into slavery with the Sahrger as well."

"Yes! It did! Because we needed to give them something, and he was the enemy! Two birds with one arrow. But you got all snippy about it, and then Callie took your - I mean I... took your side. I... I mean, I agreed with you but..." Katrin and Errod were both giving me a very strange look. Not scared, exactly, but a step past concerned. Shit. "Okay so, this is... I needed to be stronger, to get to you guys. And it's also Errod's fault somehow, even if I'm not totally sure how."

"What's Errod's fault," Katrin asked, "what did you... wait, Errod, why do you look so nervous all of a sudden?"

"This is... maybe... one of the reasons I didn't want to talk about the glove." He muttered.

I popped my ghost out, and dropped my other mind into my body. It was the first time I'd done that, and it felt strange to be sitting next to myself in the real world. "To be clear," I said with my body, "the ghost isn't Connie. Or... it is, but... it's just all me. I'm both. If anything I'm mainly your Calliope, because Connie was... degraded... but the ghost -" it waved "- is Connie's soul and newer Calliope's mind. Then the other soul is sitting in Erima doing its thing, and the other mind is - well right now it's me, talking to you. But I've been keeping the ghost in my body, and the other mind in my memory palace so I can multitask. I also have another me in there, but it's not as functional - that one is a copy, imprinted on an oydirme which is a spirit that normally takes on roles in your dreams."

Katrin had scooted over to get right next to my ghost as I talked - she was pushing a trickle of mana into it and watching as its extended hand became more solid. "This is amazing, Calliope! But why does it have anything to do with Errod?"

He looked miserable. "I think... she was stuck in the glove. When it's not on someone, it can - eventually - run out of energy. Normally it just goes dormant and then wakes up when someone puts it on. But it was in that tomb for too long, and it must have been basically broken. The first thing they remember is Connie showing up, but... disjointed. You put the glove on, remember? In our room in Erathik? The part of it that's supposed to ensnare its wearer so it can keep them attached to it when they die must have gotten confused and grabbed Connie's ghost instead. She must have been with you, somehow, ever since she died.

"I don't know if she was already damaged, or if the glove did it, but she pulled apart into her mind and soul. I'd heard that could happen, but my understanding was that it was almost unheard of. At any rate, I... I didn't know. I couldn't hear them at first, the connection built slowly over time. And then when it did start, it was more like a... reflex, or instinct. It was only my hand in the beginning, but that's been changing too. On the way to Storm's Keep I almost stepped on a monster in some high grass, and without me having seen it I jumped sideways to avoid it."

"How does it see? Sorry. Later. Finish what you were saying."

"It doesn't see, but it can... sense... things. And it can see, I suppose, through my eyes. At any rate, the first time I realized there was something going on that involved Connie it was because... I don't know if you remember, but I learned English faster than Katrin even with her Comprehension gift."

"Holy shit, was she - was I - I don't remember this."

"It wasn't like she was giving me lessons. I think it was partly something about the interaction between her mind and the bracelet when I wore it. But I did realize, eventually, what had happened. I saw her there, with the others in your memory palace, and it got me thinking. And then I could feel that I wasn't learning English as fast anymore, and I wasn't sure for a long time but I finally asked, when I could actually communicate with them, and they did their best to explain. I wanted to say something, but I wasn't sure what to... I knew she wasn't coherent, and by then she was back to where she'd - presumably - been before she was pulled into the glove."

"I mean you could have said something. If I'd known, I... I was going to have Rutlen, the healer that fixed your arm, I was going to have her maybe grow a new body for Connie. Or, me. God this is strange to talk about. And it's fine, this is... I don't think she would have had much of her memories, and the new body wouldn't have had a Dumine or anything - this is better, I'm good. But what the fuck, you absolute dick?"

"I don't know!" Errod yelled, jumping to his feet. He started pacing like a caged animal, repeatedly opening his mouth to speak and then just closing it again. Finally words started to spill out. "I could have gone to someone, tried to have the glove removed, but even before I could talk to them I could feel... something. I knew it was going to make me better. And I wanted it, needed it, because all anyone could talk about was how shitty I am at fighting! Hey Errod, remember when you cut your toe off? Hey Errod, why do you need another new belt? Oh right, you cut it when you were trying to sheathe your sword even though that's a ridiculous mistake to make and you'd almost have to be deliberately trying to do it! Errod, how did that person with no magical abilities or even gloves manage to grab your sword by the blade and take it away from you?

"But then, then, when they did start training me it was really just that they're... they're doing it for me, you know? I'm like a baby, they're holding my hand for - yes, you are, shut up - and I can't be proud of it. I finally can fight, but I didn't earn it, and it's not even really me. I thought... I had that vision, and it was so clear. I was a knight of Brinkmar, and the greatest swordfighter I'd ever seen. But that wasn't me. It was never me. It was a whole collection of dead sword fighters trapped in a glove, and someday I'm going to be in there too and I'm going to be useless. Whoever wears it after me - probably the person who kills me - isn't going to learn a damned thing from my ghost. I'll be in there, useless, forever. I won't be able to join my ancestors in the afterlife, and if I try to help whatever poor idiot is wearing the glove I'll just get him killed and then he'll be trapped in there with me, hating me.

"And Connie was... she was worse, really, because she did know a lot of stuff and she was useful but without being joined properly into a ghost she was just this sad fractured shell and I just thought that if you knew, if you were around her in your memory palace thing seeing her like that and knowing what she'd become... but if you fixed it somehow, if you made her into a ghost, most of them are crazy. They're violent. You... you have a spare mind and soul, and still have a body, and you're stable. But if your choices were to know she was just this empty thing in your mind fortress or try to bring her back and have her maybe try to kill you and need to be put down? What would you have done?

"And I kept just thinking about it, how this was another thing I'd messed up. And I wanted to see Earth, but I didn't want to see what Connie had turned into and I didn't want you to see all the people from the glove, and I didn't want them to see me either, because I couldn't stand the idea of the looks on their faces, of the... pity, or disgust, or... the dread of being stuck with me as a student and as a... roommate, I suppose, in this bizarre afterlife. Callie, I've watched you grow more and more powerful, and Katrin! I've seen how hard you've worked to learn magic and how amazing you are at it. And no matter how much I want it I'm just not going to be that person. I'm tagging along. I'm not jealous, I hope you know that. I'm happy for you. But the team is you two, and the glove. I'm just the thing giving it a ride around.

"So I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I was so busy being conflicted and depressed about having a very cool magic item - that I wanted to have - that I made a stupid, cowardly choice and didn't tell you about your... well, about you. I let my own feelings of inadequacy make me even more inadequate. I should have told you about what happened, to her and to me, and then I should have... I don't know. Had the glove removed, somehow. I wanted to be a knight of Brinkmar, but who have I protected? I've just gone along with all this, and risked everyone's lives. It's my fault we got captured by the Knights of the Storm and made you come rescue us."

Katrin looked like she was about to cry. "Errod, no, that's not true."

"What Katrin is trying to say is that you're a dumbass. You saved my life a bunch of times, and some of those were before you had the glove. Also, so what if you had some people training you? I just went through a ton of training with Hugh. Big fucking deal."

He stormed over to the far window, feet crunching on the broken glass. "It's not the same. It's not me. It's - shit!"

He stumbled backwards a step as a spear thrust out of nowhere and missed his face by a millimeter. He'd barely gotten his sword out by the time seven Halenvar soldiers had piled in, surrounding him as half turned to face Katrin and I. "Well," he said, "time to let the glove do its work."

He attempted to switch his sword to his left hand, but it dodged. And then the glove did something I hadn't even thought it was capable of. It flung itself off, to land across the room. Errod's eyes went wide, and then he had no more time to react because three spears and a sword were coming at him. A huge sweep of the hooked blade deflected the spears as he dodged the sword and lashed out with a boot to the man's knee. Errod ducked closer to one of the spearmen, grabbing the weapon as he swung at another and nearly beheaded him, and then pivoted to follow up his kick with a slash across the swordsman's chest - the hook pierced into the man's armor and then black lightning shot through him, mirrored across the room by a blast of lightning from Katrin that arced between two other attackers.

Errod dodged another attack and pulled the sword back to his hand - it dragged the twitching swordsman with it, and he dodged to the side to take the man's weapon as he passed rather than worry about wrenching the hooked blade out. He lunged, parrying the spear and forcing the man back, then knocked the haft aside so hard that it nearly shook itself out of its wielder's hands. He kept charging, and the spearman kept backing up, but after only a few lunges the man hit the wall and Errod's relentless attacks overwhelmed him. Another was right behind him, but Errod just let the man stab him and trusted in his armor to hold against at least a few hits - still, that had to hurt.

Finally he called the other sword again, causing it to trip the man from behind as it continued to drag the poor bastard he'd hooked like a fish. The spearman wasn't expecting it, and the momentary distraction cost him his life. Errod turned to look around, and came face to face with the last of the three that had come at Katrin and I - he was retreating after seeing how brutally Katrin had dealt with the two that had been a step in front of him. Errod laid into him, and while the man parried the first few attacks it was clear he was badly outmatched. Errod made him look like a child, effortlessly deflecting every swing as the man became more and more desperate. Finally, Errod cleanly executed him and stood there panting.

"Hey dummy," I said, "did you just wreck like five guys at once without your glove? Put it back on, tell it it made its point, and let's search these guys for food so we don't die here."

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