"And then the vision was over," I said, "which brings us to now. I think I've told you everything relevant from the past seven-ish months, plus most of the Earth stuff. I don't think I forgot anything... yeah, I think if anything that's more detail than you need. So anyway, the next big thing coming up is Brinkmar aligning again in... is it exactly one hundred days? Not that that's a significant number in base six."

"Query received," a voice replied, "the time between your vision and Brinkmar's next alignment was one hundred days, inclusive of both dates. It is now past midnight, and day counts typically count only the transitions of days, therefore the time remaining is ninety-eight days."

"Thanks, Exposition. During that time, I need to get some shit done. First, because it's time sensitive and I want to do it without Katrin and Errod telling me it's too risky or too illegal or whatever, I need to rescue Sige. This could be easy, if all I have to do is pay his debt. It's a business, right? Surely they'll just take the money. But also... I don't trust that. Gambling places are always shady, and these guys apparently will sell your body and shove you in a golem servant if you don't pay. So I'm prepared to burn the place down.

"Next, we have to find a way to kill Tindelus. There's a magic sword somewhere in Brinkmar that might help, though honestly it might be better suited to Poicelria's Golem or the evil fate thing itself. I'd hoped that that sword would be in Greg's stash, but it must still be somewhere on Brinkmar - and I'd prefer to have something figured out before we go there, obviously.

"Longer term, if I want to make my own ending to this whole thing I'm going to have to figure out exactly what fate wants so that I can technically check off all the requirements but not end up destroying the world or handing it over to some fascist control freak. Thanks to my freakishly large and melded lutore it seems that I'm generating potential way faster than a normal person, so I have some I could use to possibly learn to read fate threads."

I'd thought about doing it before, but something more urgent always came up. I was captured by the Behemoth, or I needed to bust out of that Empire facility to rescue Katrin and Errod, or I was desperate to punch through to another plane so I could go murder that woman that sold me a necklace made of magically-radioactive slag.

"And on the topic of fate, we probably need to find and destroy Poicelria's Golem since it's not only going to keep setting up people to take my place - which might mean it kills one of the Zoeys or their sister - but also because I presume it's doing other stuff to help ensure events go how the trapped fate wants. Actually, you can help with that by translating some stuff for me, things from Poicelria's old basement. I just need to figure out the best way to show it to you, since I can't just invite you into my memory palace and I don't want to write it all down."

There was an obvious option, which would be to use the fate thread I'd connected us with and just pump information through. Assuming I did it right, it would be like human Calliope scrying on me; the vision would be sent down the pipeline, and Exposition could translate as needed. But I'd had problems before with letting too much through, and I was very aware that getting too deeply entangled with a spirit could change my personality or even my body.

Ideally, I'd create a custom tether to Exposition that only did precisely what I wanted it to do. But I'd only unlocked this one - admittedly very versatile and powerful - type of thread, or of course the "blank" fate threads. I couldn't free-weave with Perception or Thought, and when I'd tried to learn how to do that I'd been told...

Wait.

The message was burned into my brain. This build is missing a key Perception component due to biological incompatibility. You would have no way of clearly understanding what you were doing, and would lack any of the guardrails that come with other magic granted via Dumines. I'd been very disappointed.

But the other thing that I'd been "biologically incompatible" for had been possible once I'd gained the third eye and tied it into my Perception abilities. So... was this also now possible? When I'd gained the ability to make threads, I'd specifically done it in a way that would eventually be able to tie into the broader use of them for other magic stuff just in case I could figure it out.

I went to query my Dumines, and everything looked different. I hadn't meditated on them since dealing wtih Grunkle, and something had fundamentally changed. The tangle of non-Euclidean lines used to give me a bit of a headache, but now it was all just... fine. Sure, things were still layered in impossible ways like an Escher drawing, but I could follow them without any difficulty now.

I spent some time just looking at what was already there, tracing each line that connected my different gifts and seeing how they interacted or split off. It didn't mean anything to me, but it was still cool to get to look at it properly for the first time. I could sort of zoom in, and as I did a little of the vertigo came back; lines would be larger the further away they were instead of smaller, or they'd angle off towards infinity but then suddenly explode out into a whole big tangle as soon as I shifted my perception slightly.

I could also see that the gifts I'd unlocked in the Duminere, which had previously felt like fixed anchors, were themselves complicated knots of other threads; they were attached to the Dumines rather than fully inscribed on my lutore, however, which was presumably why losing your Dumine made it so you couldn't use magic anymore.

Could the Clockmaker have made the categories anything he wanted? Was there anything fundamental about the thirty-six gifts available through a Duminere, or could there just as easily be a completely different set offered? Everything I'd seen from wild magic or natural magic - like monsters, or people from other planes - used stuff that could be described in terms of those gifts... but that didn't mean there was a direct connection. It didn't matter, but it was something to think about.

I got a little lost in there, zooming through the different patterns of lines and spent probably an hour just navel-gazing. Finally I was ready to get back on track and I once again tried to ask for a broader spellcasting-style use of the threads. I sensed the normal lower-level objection that the Dumines often gave to my shenanigans, saying what I wanted was impossible, but that other thing that seemed to be actually in charge didn't chime in at all and the new pattern snapped into place. Holy shit.

Thanks to the fact that I'd already bought the foundational ability to make threads, I could even afford it - though a feeling came through the connection that this was something I could always improve by spending more potential on later. With only the briefest hesitation, I locked it in.

It did not come with a manual.

At first, I tried to make a magical light. Light was easy, and since magic was based on intent and on influence from the Common Local Understanding there wasn't much danger that I would create anything dangerous despite how visible light just being one part of a spectrum with lots of shit I didn't want to make. I concentrated, tried to spin up a thread, and... nothing.

Abandoning that, I instead made a thread while demanding that it be attuned to Spirit. That one worked, and the thread showed up as yellow. Great. It also... didn't do anything. It was a totally useless thread that I knew would vanish as soon as I stopped thinking about it.

I continued to play with it over the next few days as I flew back to Good Charl, and found out a few things. First, I could now easily make threads that were associated with the gifts I'd unlocked. They didn't do anything. Second, I could also make them on the fate layer. Third, and this was the big one, if I made the old kind - the only useful kind I'd been able to make - and kept my third eye open while it was being created?

It was ridiculously complicated.

There were patterns and shapes and fourth-dimensional layers that I'd never been aware of before; it was like all this time I'd been viewing a painting from the edge so that it just looked like a simple line rather than a work of art. The finished threads had something more to them as well, but it was much more subtle - I had to look at them just right to see it, and everything was more compact. The fate threads also had more... texture... to them, with some even having tints of different colors like blue and green, but they were even more compact with nothing really sticking out from the thread at all.

When I made one of my useless threads, they didn't have any of that shit. Just totally plain and smooth. I decided that that meant I had building materials, but didn't know how the fuck to make anything with them. There was nobody to teach me, either, so I would just have to figure it out myself somehow. Would this count as wild magic, even though I was doing it in a way that was enabled by the Old Empire? Presumably it would, since it wasn't using the normal Imperial languages of spellcasting.

When I reached Good Charl I called Katrin on the communication device she'd given me - it was the same one she'd used to talk to Lute, and so there was always the risk of it losing its entanglement and becoming a paperweight. Still, I had promised to check in and tell her about speaking with the gods, and now I also had to let her know I could maybe - maybe - do magic with threads.

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I held the curved wooden device to my head and move the slider to the calling position, and Katrin picked up right away.

"Did it work? Did you speak to the gods? Tell me everything."

I couldn't tell her everything, not without the device running out of mana halfway through, so I gave her the short version. "I did, I'll tell you the whole thing later. Rather than defying fate, Urbunden - that's the god I spoke with - wants me to figure out how to technically fulfil the requirements of fate without actually doing what it wants."

"Well," Katrin said, "if anyone can find loopholes in fate I think it's you. You should have some more potential by now, can you learn to 'read' the fate threads?"

"Right. About that. I was thinking about it, but the most important ones aren't actually attached to me so that wouldn't help, and... also... I maybe just used the potential I'd built up to make it so I can cast spells with threads."

There was a moment of silence, long enough that I was worried the connection had dropped, and then Katrin finally replied. "Do you think that maybe... hmm. Calliope, I want you to promise me that you'll learn to read the fate threads next, no matter what."

"Yeah, for sure. It's the next thing on the list."

"Good. As for casting with threads... you have the Comprehension gift, I assume that you did this rather than learning traditional spellcraft because you want to do it on the fate layer?"

"That's a big part of it," I said, "but it's also because I thought it might be more efficient to tie as much of my shit together as possible. Man, think about what I could do if I figure this out! The connection between me and human Calliope is just... permanent. What if I made a thing to reverse gravity and bound it in place all with fate threads? Would that just stay forever? I could make magic items. I could... I don't know, make it so someone is just on fire forever. I know, I know, that's fucked up, but think about it!"

There would be limitations. Making a simple fate thread was already super expensive, so doing something more complicated might mean Katrin had to stand next to me funneling mana through me and hoping it wouldn't build up and grow mana crystals in my veins or whatever. It might also be slow, or fail a lot, or... well, there was no point in worrying about that right now.

I asked Katrin for any advice about learning what the hell I was doing, and she had a suggestion.

"First, I'd say you should watch people casting spells with High Imperial. If you can see what they're doing and somehow copy it, that might work. I can help with that once we're back together. Otherwise, if that doesn't seem like something you can do, it might mean you have to make your own language which... probably isn't possible. You wouldn't have anyone else to teach it to, and with only you knowing it there would be no power behind it."

I felt like she was forgetting something. "But High Imperial is spoken and written, right? This isn't either of those."

"It's founded in spoken and written language," she said, "but there's a reason I can cast spells without audibly saying anything. And I told you before about those dancers in Erathik, the spells they cast by dancing are the same as ones you can cast with verbal language - there's a whole singing thing that can go alongside it. That's not High Imperial, of course, but the principle is the same. Even with runes and spoken language, those are two totally different forms of spellcraft but my spellbook uses the runes in the back to augment my magic. Clearly, different forms can be compatible."

That was something to think about. Since Imperial magic sometimes created threads, surely the reverse could be true. "Okay, good point. I can see more magic stuff now, there's funky lines all over the airship for example, but I think to learn I'll need to watch them being made."

"Well how far away are you?" Katrin asked, "You should be back soon, right? I can cast things in front of you all day if you need."

"Sounds great," I said, "but I actually just arrived at Good Charl. Now that the job is officially over I'm bailing Sige out. Should be pretty quick, I have the extra money we got out when we were pulling my Earth stuff from the bank in Erathik, and I should be able to just walk in and pay it off hopefully. If not, you know, I'll figure something out."

"Calliope," Katrin said, "when you say you'll figure something out..."

"It's fine. I'm good. Don't worry about it. Hey, the mana is low on this thing and I can't recharge it myself so I gotta go."

"Calliope..."

"Love ya, bye!" I disconnected, and put the phone down.

That had gone... fine. And anyway, this really was going to be no big deal. Walk in, pay, leave with Sige. I looked over my assortment of firearms, most of which were identical Glocks. There was one shotgun, and two M4 Carbines, which I didn't have as much ammunition for and which I had already determined was not safe for me to use. I needed a lot more practice, and that couldn't happen until I could fabricate more rounds.

I began disassembling one of the Glocks. I'd done it before in order to clean it, with the help of a tutorial I'd downloaded, but I was still pretty clumsy with it. I wanted to be a lot faster. Even if nobody here knew what a gun was, they still looked... weapon-adjacent. A disassembled handgun, however, looked very strange but far less threatening. If I wrapped some bits in leather, maybe strapped a less scary item onto it... yeah, the parts would either look like junk or random tools.

I considered getting my knitting stuff out and making the bullets into some sort of necklace, but that seemed like if anything it would draw more attention to them. If a search turned them up they'd be a curiosity for sure, but I could make up something. "Oh it's a solid copper hollow-tip bullet, they're used for making stained glass windows" would probably work, it's not like the bouncer would have any idea what the fuck I was talking about.

I was going to be leaving all the magic items behind, which made me feel cranky. I especially didn't want to take off my incredible planar bracers, but there wasn't any way they'd be allowed inside from what I understood and, anyway, I wouldn't need any of that stuff because I was just going to quickly pay off Sige's debt without any drama.

I un-hooked the ramp from the side of the airship, so that I'd be able to take off as quickly as possible. For no reason.

I reviewed the memory of us sneaking out of Good Charl while I walked, making the same turns that Sige had when he led us to the club. As I passed through the bad part of town I felt some eyes on me, but I just kept walking confidently. Only one person followed me, and as he got closer I popped my ghost out so it could shake its head at him. He nodded and turned around, walking quickly the other way.

I reached the dead end I was looking for, and then had to do the hard part - getting to Itzele. I remembered how it had felt when Sige did it, but I hadn't ever done it on my own. If this didn't work, there was presumably some other way to access the club - but they wouldn't just tell any random person that came asking.

As was always the case, my divination flaked out when I tried to look at the moment of transition since it relied on the planar membrane acting relatively normally. Still, I knew that Itzele was in alignment and didn't have any special requirements - it didn't need a doorway, or plants, or water, or whatever. It could, in theory, be done anywhere. This would be fine.

After a few minutes of standing there looking constipated while nothing happened, I used divination on myself in this exact spot in Itzele six and a half fantasyland months prior. Time was an illusion. That was me, in Itzele, and there's also me, on the prime plane. Those need to be the same. Come on.

Slowly, I felt it working. The wall sagged as a hole faded into existence, and the light dimmed as early afternoon was replaced with Itzele's endless twilight. Hell yeah. I stepped through the hole and could see the bouncers up ahead; they clocked me right away but didn't look concerned, which I took as a good sign. I strolled over, and one of them - a woman with shoulders wide enough to put even Hammersmith to shame - opened the door for me and then followed behind me to block the exit.

Before I could worry about that, she held up a device that ended with a hexagonal plate about an inch across - just the right size for a Dumine. "Gotta check you, make sure you don't have a decoy before I put the lock on."

Ah. I pulled the front of my dress down enough to expose the Dumine on my chest, and let her tap the device against it. For a split second right before it made contact I had the sudden worry that somehow Tindelus would be able to take me over with this thing, but I hadn't seen any indication it worked that way. She grunted, and put a Dumine lock on me. "Probability, Temporal, and Comprehension? Who gets three gifts and doesn't go for Alchemy or Healing? Or at least something with more synergy to it?"

I grinned sheepishly. "When they made me take an oath about what I'd select, they fucked up and didn't count on me getting three."

She nodded, and started chatting as she patted me down and searched my bag. "Amateur shit. Fair enough. And I guess it could be worse, Temporal and Probability I can see doing something, and Comprehension isn't ever bad. Saw a guy with Negation and Focus once, had to pick those for some strange job someone wanted done."

She paused a moment to examine the disassembled Glock, but didn't even ask what the parts were before putting them back in the bag. "Then when the job was done," she continued, "he was stuck with that shitty combination. Anyway..." She raised her voice suddenly. "You're up, Kev!"

A panel opened in the wall and a bored-looking man that looked like he was probably from Theremas - dark hair, super sharp cheekbones but a bulbous nose, skin practically yellow - leaned out. "Stand still, please," he said, "and... Okay, no magic items on her... but the spirit check threw up an error. You a husk, lady?"

Ah. So they were scanning me somehow to see my spirits, which I was guessing would have been in my body if I was anyone else; this place had to be warded all to hell, which should force my mind and soul back into me if I hadn't swapped the connections with fate threads.

I could go with it, say I was a husk. It could mean they underestimate me. But they already knew I had a Dumine, which would mean I'd lost my mind and soul some time after that, and also if they saw me doing any magic they'd know that I had gotten past their security. Not worth it. I pulled my mind and soul into me and managed to look offended. "Excuse me? I am most certainly not a husk!"

He shrugged, and looked at something I couldn't see through the open panel. "Huh. Yeah, okay, it's showing properly now. Actually, there's still... hmm. Probability alarms haven't tripped, wards are intact... something isn't right, though. The signature is off, but it's faint."

Okay, that had to be the eye. It was made of spirit stuff, but the core of it - Grunkle - had been cleaned out. There wasn't anything I could really do about that, though. I pulled the front of my dress back down, making sure not to accidentally embarrass myself by popping out, and pointed to the patch of green 'skin'. "I was exposed to slag a while back, it's totally stable but it's... strange."

He nodded slowly, thinking. "Could be. Could be. Okay, I'm gonna hit you with a mana negation pulse, if it's any kind of wild magic effect that'll wipe it."

I felt a faint ripple pass through me, and a moment later the man gave a thumbs-up. "Not a device, not a spell, not a spirit, so I'm buying it's the slag. It's weak, it's disordered, so I'm calling it harmless. She's approved for all activities."

The panel closed, the other doors opened, and the bouncer headed back outside. Time to do this thing. In and out. Pay off Sige's debt, drag him out of here, and have a nice dinner before flying to Erathik. No drama, no chaos, no bloodshed.

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