We stopped just a quarter mile or so from the walls of Good Charl, under some trees. like most cities, Good Charl rotated fields around the city with the used-up areas being turned into landfill which was then renewed by "druids" who aligned it with Lenderatze to instantly break down everything and turn it into trees and stuff. Then it was used as foraging, then logging, then back to fields. Around and around the city. Sige looked around again, as if worried we had been followed, and then sat down on a rock.

"Alright," he said, "spill it. Why do you want to talk to the Queen of fucking Candles?"

Hmm. How much to tell Sige? "It's more of that trouble magnet stuff. You'd probably be best not knowing everything."

"The shit you told me over dinner a few days ago wasn't everything?"

Oh yeah, I rattled off tons of stuff to him. Partly because it was funny to list it all out like that. "It's... related in a sort of meta way. I don't think I translated that right. Well, fuck it. I think I'm being messed with by fate, and I'm trying to get some insight or advice before I do anything that might play into fate's plans."

He laughed. "Did you think that was news? Shit, Callie - Connie, sorry - I just assumed that you had some fucked up fate thing going on. You're a Sahrger that thinks she's a human, hunted by the Empire and Halenvar, found a lost Duminere, had a twin that you've fucking merged with... and then all that shit about what you've been doing since then. But I guess I thought that by now it was either done or you knew what it was about."

"Nah, apparently it's like gravity. When there's one big fate thing, it bends stuff so all the other ones curve into it. Anyway, I think this new job is... it's for sure something strange. Something connected. And I don't know if I should run away from it, or towards it."

Sige went to push himself up off the little boulder with his bad hand, but stopped in time. He heaved himself up without using his arms, and took a deep breath. "Well... fuck, okay. Yeah. She's harmless, probably, but she freaks me the fuck out. I've never visited myself, but I've seen other people go in and she... looked at me. She smiled. I don't fucking know, it was creepy. So, uh. It's an easy one to do, no special tricks really. Well, there's one - you have to be thinking about how you want to talk to her. But it can be done from anywhere that's not warded, and then the only hitch is that she might just not let you in, and if she does let you in that's it. You only get the one time."

Well, no use in holding it forever. In my memory palace, I flipped through my reference books until I found the symbol for Ergizegigeiloek and clicked the dial on my bracer to that setting. Sige closed his eyes and started to concentrate, and I began sewing thread into the shape of a door. In theory Sige could do it himself and just think about it being for me, but I figured it was best if I contributed.

And then the door was there.

It was made from blood-red wood, and was slightly wavy as if it had warped from moisture. There was an odd brass handle made to look like a lizard, and a frosted glass window shaped like a teardrop. I only hesitated a second before opening the door and marching inside. The room I found myself in wasn't very large, and most of the space was taken up by an enormous desk - behind which sat the Queen of Candles herself. Her hair and eyes were so black they looked like holes in reality, and her skin was pale and waxy. In fact, I was pretty certain it was wax. Lit candles lined every wall and every surface, each a different size and color. As I watched the flame on one blew out, and the whole candle vanished - replaced immediately by a new one.

The Queen was wearing a red dress, the same blood red as the door, and had an ornate headdress on that looked like antlers but twisted around in a complex way like living vines - following the swooping lines, I couldn't tell if it just vanished into her hair or was connected to her skull. As I would have guessed, there were more candles perched all over the antler headdress. She smiled at me, teeth sharp, and gestured to the one chair that faced the desk. The door clicked quietly shut behind me. I was, I realized, totally cut off from my memory palace. My mind, soul, and ghost were all inside my body and it had happened so suddenly that it had taken me a moment to realize that I couldn't split them out. Well then. I sat down.

"Welcome," she said, her voice a dusty whisper from an open grave, "Unbroken Thread? What a fascinating name. I am the Queen of Candles, and I collect stories. I have allowed you into my domain because I believe you have an interesting story to tell, one that is worth my time. If you speak it to me, truthfully, then I may grant you a boon."

The world skipped. I was looking into a hand mirror and talking to myself, with nothing visible around me - just blackness. "Take the job. Only fuck with the boxes if the journal says to. Oh, and when you get a chance -"

A small skip this time. I was looking into the mirror again, and my expression was annoyed but also seemed like I was resisting smiling? Like... fake annoyed, maybe. My hair was a little askew. "Later, when you have a minute, think about the end of Jake Ross and the Shattered Crown. Picture reading it at Bill's house, late at night, while eating white cheddar popcorn."

The world skipped again, and I was stepping out the door back onto that same spot where Sige was still waiting. The door clicked shut behind me and vanished as I was still waiting for my eyes to adjust to the sunlight. Wait. What the fuck? "How... how long was I in there?"

Sige shrugged. "The door opened back up pretty much as soon as it closed, but that's always how it works. Uh. You're wearing different clothes though, and I think your hair is longer."

I reached up and felt the braid that hid the Dumine on the back of my head, and it did feel longer. It had also been re-braided in a totally different style, one I couldn't do by myself. The dress I'd been wearing was gone, and in its place was a much nicer one made from what felt like silk. It was green, with vine patterns all along it. I had a fancy leather courier bag slung over my shoulder, and inside were my boots - I was barefoot - and a small leatherbound journal with a candle embossed onto the front. Huh.

As I looked at myself from the outside with divination, I noticed something about the green of my dress - it was the exact same shade as the strange patch on my chest, which had grown slightly. It now covered an oval area with the Dumine at the top, and the skin there looked pretty normal other than the color. After growing a leaf that first night I'd been expecting bark, or vines, or something - but it was just green and... maybe the texture was different, more like a plant. I tried threadsight, and the pattern there looked even more stable than it had before, if a bit larger. There was also something else, though it didn't seem to be directly related. I had a new fate thread, but it was oddly colorless... not gray, not white, not clear... sort of the opposite of color, something that could never exist in the real world. It tapered off and ended just past my skin.

"So... was I there for weeks, or something?"

Sige shrugged again. "Fuck, I don't know. I told you she creeps me out. You don't remember?"

I didn't. But I felt... great, honestly. Like I'd been eating well, sleeping well. As if I'd finally gotten that relaxing vacation I'd been after. But then why couldn't I remember it? My soul was already back in its domain, and I'd shunted my mind directly to the divination room, but now I had it wander the memory palace in case there were any clues. Almost immediately I came across a huge shelf, with a lot of numbered nooks. Five of the nooks held boxes, each of which had a candle carved into it. Hmm. I pulled out the journal, and it had numbered sections for each of the nooks - all were blank except the ones with the boxes.

#1. Open when you get back from this job.

#2. Open in case of imminent world-ending catastrophe.

#3. Open in case of shocking transformation into an inhuman demigod.

#4. Open in case of beheading. Feel free to research the Trophy Collector ahead of time.

#5. Open in case of the Third Fate being freed.

Well, none of that was at all concerning. Great. I promptly tried to just recover my memories, using divination. Nothing. The whole stretch of time that I was in the Queen of Candles' domain was inaccessible, even the small part I remembered. Huh. I flipped through the journal again just to be sure I hadn't missed anything, and this time I noticed a scribbled note in my own handwriting at the bottom of the flyleaf. "You have a plan. Don't fuck it up. And don't worry, not all the boxes will be needed."

I remembered the trick I'd pulled when I was a guest of the Empire, that hidden cache of memories and plans that I'd prepared in case I needed to break out. This... had to be something like that, right? It was going to drive me nuts, but at least I'd told myself not to worry - that wasn't going to work, of course, but it confirmed that I wasn't for sure going to get beheaded or anything. I put my boots on without flashing the Dumine on my foot to Sige, and then as we walked back into town I had half of my mind try and find that memory of reading Jake Ross and the Shattered Crown.

Before, I had had trouble getting to a specific memory because... well, I didn't remember it. This time, not only did I have a location and a sense memory to aim for, but it also felt like I'd maybe accessed the memory before. That made sense, I would have had to in order to tell myself about it. What others did I look at? Why wouldn't I want myself to know? Or was the Queen of Candles manipulating me? Either way, I'd found the memory and there was no point in not looking at it.

I was in my room, the one that had first been reproduced in my memory palace. It was dark other than a little reading light clipped to the headboard, and I was eating white cheddar popcorn out of a bag as I neared the end of the book. The words were only in focus as I read them, so as my eyes skimmed down the page the letters I'd already passed became indistinct or jumbled. I read along with myself, bits of the book coming back to me.

Jake Ross had defeated Thanatos - I didn't remember details of the battle but I did recall that it was sort of cliched, calling on the innate power of friendship or something. Knowing what I did now, that Jake Ross either didn't win or ran away or had some sort of pyrrhic victory, I assumed that Marjorie West had just made something up that she felt was more appropriate for a young adult novel. The actual scene I was reading was the very last bit in Brinkmar, with all his friends standing around him as he was thanked by the queen. I found myself remembering Dorin's corpse on the ground, the queen skewered to her throne.

She offered to send him home but asked him to stay, said she would step down and allow him to rule. He declined, everyone cried, they tried to talk him into staying... and then he said that he needed to leave, to save the world. Huh. What the fuck was that about? My question was quickly answered as he explained that none could possibly resist the incredible power of the Heart of Brinkmar, and that to keep it from the hands of those who would misuse it he had to take it with him back to Earth.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Huh. That... yeah, there had been a whole thing in the first book with Thanatos trying to tap into the 'Heart of Brinkmar' but that... that hadn't been about a physical object. I was sure of it. Another change, maybe? I tried to find other memories, and after a lot of trial and error I did come across me reading a passage about it. I was standing in Bill's kitchen holding an empty glass - clearly I'd been getting a drink and had gotten distracted trying to finish the chapter. Despite having to bounce around through multiple memories, this one clearly happened right before the other one.

The battle was over, Thanatos's lair was collapsing. Jake tried to save him, but Thanatos betrayed him at the last second by trying to pull him into the yawning chasm their fight had opened in the floor. They both fell, but the cape that Lady Gwendyll had given him caught on a jagged beam and kept him from dropping into the churning darkness that Thanatos' demon-summoning ritual had created. As his companions pulled him to safety, he had each of them grab a part of the summoning device and then made them swear to hide them, each in a different place at the far corners of the world, so that nobody could ever try to summon the demon Tindelus again.

I thought about the Knights of the Storm with the loom, and Katrin's spellbook that her family had kept hidden, and wherever Hallenvar had gotten the key to the vault. The old artificer at Storm's Keep had said there were two other orders of knights descended from the original survivors of Brinkmar that were now defunct, and this scene had to be some version of their founding. Nothing I hadn't basically already heard, of course, but it was still interesting. Not that I could take it too seriously as a historical record; in the books the demon was Tindelus but in reality he was... what, a construct? A spirit? And Yesrin's Loom, at least, had been used with the Rivet - the Causality Engine, the thing Halenvar had been after - rather than anything with Tindelus.

At any rate, after this - as they escaped the collapsing portion of the monastery Thanatos had holed up in - Jake revealed that he had saved the Heart of Brinkmar. The book described it as a crystal globe enclosed in a brass frame covered in mystic runes, but it didn't go into any detail about it and I couldn't remember it being a big deal prior to this in the book. I had a dim memory of being annoyed at it, because it felt shoehorned in. "All the power of the ancients is contained within," Jake said, "and if it had been destroyed, Thanatos could have seized control. He would have had enough power to completely remake the world in his image."

Yelrick had made a bad joke about how shitty that would be, Algie smacked Jake on the back and he almost dropped it, everyone laughed, end of chapter. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I let time synch back up, and let both minds pay attention to my surroundings. We were almost back to the meeting hall, and while most of the people had left a few were milling around. I didn't see Errod yet - he'd come with me back to the ship to get Sige, but we'd actually run into the big orange bastard on our way there so Errod had continued on without me to get the long range communications device Lute had given us. I'd expected him to be back before me, but it was possible Grunkle had cornered him about something.

Matlyn and Orick were going over some sort of paperwork, but Orick noticed me and elbowed his sister. "Oh! Connie, so good to see you're back! I hope you're still interested, when you left I thought you might have changed your mind."

"I had to check something urgent. But... yes, I'm for sure interested. Did you finish the interviews for your planar expert?"

Orick grimaced. "Everyone is capable enough, which isn't surprising considering it's just Nusos, but the ones that were willing to immediately commit to a long job were... well, I suspect they're available for a reason."

Matlyn shot him a look. "It's fine. Most of them seem like lovely people, and we just need to pick one."

"Well," I said, "my friend Sige here is actually an expert on planar stuff and he knows -"

"I'm going to have to stop you there," Orick said, "the team will have to... blend in... and the population of the area is all humans. An U'rmun would draw too much attention."

I smiled, picturing Sige walking around on Earth. Yeah, that would be interesting. "He's not available at the moment anyway, but I was going to say he could tell you who he would recommend. If you'd like. We know all sorts of specialists. For example, my sister is an expert at working in low-mana environments."

Was that too obvious? Was I tipping my hand? I'd thought of this on the fly, and I hadn't been sure if there was going to be another chance to slip it into the conversation. I certainly wasn't prepared to just announce that I knew about Earth - I wanted to figure out what they knew first, and how they knew it. Matlyn and Orick stepped aside and started whispering, but I snooped on them with Divination.

"That's just what we need!" She exclaimed - switching to a whisper halfway through.

Orick frowned. "It's a bit too perfect, isn't it? Where did she go? Did she somehow get more information about us?"

"She... could have learned that we were buying mana crystals?"

He nodded. "With the family in such terrible financial shape, it does stand out as odd. Someone could have easily put three and three together. Still... before we finalize anything, I suppose we could see if it's a legitimate offer. It would be an awfully big coincidence if it really is her sister, but... well, Connie is the best we've seen at templating, and if she really can get into Nusos we can use her as a backup for whichever one of these others we tap to be our planar expert. I suppose if she knows someone they'd be sure to work well together..."

Matlyn smiled. "It sounds like you've talked yourself into it."

"Not entirely. We planned on it being a party of three. One to template, one for the planar access, and one... security for the first leg of the journey, or some other wildcard. I suppose that could be someone that helps you with the mana concerns, but she would have to be worth it. Well. Let's see if Connie can produce her for us before we have to make our final decision."

I played dumb as they came back over and told me they might be interested, and then pushed my luck by saying that if they held off on hiring anyone other than me I'd buy them a very nice dinner. They went for it though, so after saying my goodbyes I located Errod - he was finally just arriving - and took the communication device from him. It was not unlike an old phone handset, with the curved handle made of wood and the ear and mouth pieces formed from some greenish metal. Lute had asked that we not use it too often, partly because he didn't want it to be out of mana when we most needed it but partly because every time it was used there was a slight chance it would break, with that being more likely the further the two sides were from each other.

We'd been planning on calling Katrin soon anyway, but this was now an emergency as far as I was concerned. I pushed the sliding switch on the back into position, and waited. "Calliope?" It wasn't Katrin. It was Lute. Ugh. "Ah, it's good to speak with you. Katrin is well, she's asleep at the moment. I'm afraid I kept her up all night talking about philosophy and government and... she has strong opinions, yes?"

"Hey Lute. Prince Lute, whatever."

Errod's face had been eager, but when he heard it wasn't his sister on the line the smiled noticeably dropped.

Lute chuckled. "I am technically a prince, yes, but it hardly matters. You know how we choose our leaders, yes?"

"Yeah. The king and queen's first born marries the most worthy commoner, and that person becomes the primarch and theoretically is the one to actually rule."

"Not just theoretically. And not always a commoner - we have some noble families, that more often than not marry back together. It is not intended as an aristocracy, but naturally those families tend to focus more on preparing to rule. Still, we frequently do choose those from outside any of those families these days. There was a time we seemed to be on the verge of just setting up a rotation, and the people solved that problem with some very vigorous protests that lasted over a year and saw two entire noble families banished. History can be quite exciting, yes?"

I really didn't want to talk to Lute. "Uh, sure."

"My point," he said, "is that as a third child I will not be marrying the next primarch and even if I did she would be the one to rule; instead, I expect to have a boring job at the Nokarash. I will not deny that I have certain... privileges, but I am not particularly important in the grand scheme of things. Far less so than you, in fact. You are, arguably, heir to the Old Empire - that could include the Endless Empire, Halenvar, Markonti, and a number of smaller nations that claim to descend from the Clockmaker."

Hmm. Had Katrin been talking too much, or was he fishing? "Lute, I don't know what you're talking about."

"It was the alarm you set off, actually. When you first arrived at Erathik? It was meant to alert us to the breaking of an ancient vow - a promise that the Clockmaker and his people would not enter the city. That last shred of dignity we preserved when we all but surrendered. After speaking with your group, and learning that Katrin and Errod's family came from Brinkmar, it seemed they were the most likely culprits."

"And so you cozied up to Katrin, since she's the oldest?"

A soft sigh came through our connection. "It was a consideration, yes. But then I told no one, and... Calliope, I have... great affection for Katrin. I don't know that it is fair to call it love, with how little time we have actually spent together, but... well. My point, if I have one, is that my interest in Katrin is purely romantic. I no longer believe that she has any connection to the Old Empire, or not one that matters to current events. You, meanwhile, were needed to open doors in Brinkmar that no other could open. I should be clear that I did not learn this from Katrin, but from uncle Hugh."

Wait. "Hugh is your uncle?"

"He is... the word does not translate well into the vulgar tongue. Hugh guarded my family at many points in my childhood, whenever there was no urgent need elsewhere. He is not literally my uncle, in the Imperial language's meaning of the word, but we are family regardless, yes? He is... beginning to recover, by the way, but it will be a long road. For the first few days, I feared he would take his own life. Thank you for saving him, Calliope."

I'd avoided thinking about Hugh. It came easy to me - out of sight, out of mind. But I did care, and now that I was picturing that hollow look behind his eyes as we'd dropped him off I could feel it tugging at some deep part of me. "Well... tell him that his training saved my life a few times already. And that I'm going to bring him a bunch of new mushrooms to try, shit he's never had before. Anyway... Lute, I still don't know why exactly I could open those doors. I think it's because I'm from... from the same place as the Savior of Brinkmar, inaccurate as that name might have been. And I'm not the only one that can open them, we saw someone else doing it too. So it's not that I'm the heir or anything, it's... I don't know."

"It doesn't matter, Calliope. I won't interfere. You are a citizen of Erathik, and a sibling of Katrin, and possibly an avatar of chaos. I intend to stay out of your way, and offer any support you may ask for. Within reason, yes?"

I had to admit Lute did seem like he was cool, and probably my mild dislike of him was unwarranted. Probably. "Well listen, if you really want to help me then you're going to have to wake Katrin up. It's something important and private. She won't mind, I promise. Is she... can she use magic?"

"I'm already headed to her room. Magic? Yes, she should be fine now. We put her in a mana exclusion room and the crystals broke down very quickly. After that her body just needed some rest - she has been told to avoid using magic for another few days, but that is a precaution, yes? In actuality she should be fine now, and if not she should feel the exertion and be able to stop and rest longer. I would say... do not count on her for any particularly large uses of magic yet, just in case."

Before I could tell him that wouldn't be a problem, Katrin got on the line. "Calliope? What's wrong? Is Errod okay?"

I switched to English. "Hey! Good to hear your voice. Yeah. Errod is good, he's right here and you can talk in a minute. Everything is fine, but I'm going to need you to make your boyfriend arrange a teleport to Good Charl to meet us. We're doing a thing. I don't want to talk about it too much even in this language, just in case Lute's parents are listening or something and somehow can translate. Uh. Okay, so in the original timeline I... I mainly remember Connie telling me this when we were in Theramas, rather than remembering it as Connie. But there had been a thing I had found a reference to, some people from a city called Steel Tooth who wanted to go somewhere and sample plants. And I thought it might be where I'm from, but then Steel Tooth was right by Halenvar and it burned to the ground in a battle and everyone was either dead or scattered to the winds so there was no way to follow up on it.

"I don't know what happened in that timeline, but in this one... they're here, in Good Charl, and they're hiring for the expedition. It's got to be the same people. And one of them has a working cell phone, which means they've been there before. I know, technically speaking, this probably isn't the most important thing happening in the world. But there also might be some valuable lost artifact there, and for all I know it could help stop Tindelus or fix what's wrong with the timeline or something."

There was a muffled sound, and then some clunking. After a second, Katrin's voice returned. "Sorry, I'm sorry, I missed most of that. I'm - no, Lute, no time for that, just find my other shoe - sorry, I'm trying to pack everything and I didn't hear anything after you said 'they're hiring for the expedition'. I'll be there in an hour, is that too late?"

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