"The bulk of the forces will be provided by the Endless Empire," Hammersmith said, "with Erathi forces a close second. We also have some special assault teams from the Free States, and independent organizations including the Knights of the Storm and the Brotherhood of the Ebon Maw - though we feel certain the latter only volunteered because of the old rumors about a demon in Brinkmar."

There were only six of us in the room - Hammersmith, that Rylan guy that did security for her, Hugh, myself, and two people that would be in charge of guarding me during the operation. They hadn't really introduced themselves to me, so I didn't know what abilities they might have. Both just looked like generic soldiers to me, kinda big and beefy and very serious. It made me miss Betrad. I raised my hand, but didn't wait to be called on - I wasn't even sure that was a thing here. "Brotherhood of the Ebon Maw is a very cool name, but also - and maybe this is bias from my homeland - it sounds blatantly evil. What's their deal?"

Hammersmith smiled. "They believe that monsters from outside reality itself - demons - will one day attack us, either as a test from the gods or in defiance of them... I honestly don't recall. They believe it will be up to them to be on the front line of this conflict, and because some think the Clockmaker was brought low by a demon - and to be clear he was not - they wish to come along just in case. I may not agree with them, but they are extremely skilled and I would have to be a fool to turn away their assistance. The Knights of the Storm are a bit more... grounded... but have a similar philosophy. They are on guard for certain world-ending threats and old dangers, and were originally founded by refugees from Brinkmar which is why they're in control of one of the portals."

"What about the other nations? Markonti and the Patic empire and the Coastal Alliance and... uh..." I was forgetting some of the smaller ones.

"Patic and Romatna have sent a few token fighters just to show they're honoring the treaty," she said, "and Markonti... has sent excuses. The Coastal Alliance has more important things to be doing, and we told them not to bother - they do an incredible amount of work patrolling the waters between us and Calnon, it's best to leave them to it."

Hugh chuckled. "It is the reason they do not fear being taken over by the Endless Empire, yes? None want to disrupt the security they provide and be overrun by tainted creatures from across the sea."

I'd gathered that Calnon was covered in storms of chaotic magic and was basically the fantasy version of a radioactive wasteland, but this was the first I was hearing that people had to be on constant patrol because of shit coming across the ocean. Unless I'd seriously misunderstood, civilization had started on Calnon and then they'd blown each other up with wild magic until the Clockmaker had taken everything over and re-started things on a continent where you could count on waking up as the same species every day.

There were other landmasses out there, but most were also uninhabitable for various reasons. One straddled the equator and was so hot nobody wanted to live there, another was way up at the pole and covered in ice, and then there was a tiny one on the opposite side of the planet that had been taken over by retired demigods. Basically, other than some island nations and random little outposts this one continent was where all the people were.

Hammersmith continued, "The decision of which portal to use will be made at the last minute based on intelligence, practical concerns, and probability magic. They'll be doing the same on the other side, but we have more and better resources - while we expect heavy resistance in the initial attack, after that they should fall apart quickly. Our strategy therefore will rely on sending constructs through first, then elite strike teams backed by the best healing magic we have available. They should be able to absorb almost anything Halenvar can throw at them, preventing most casualties. As soon as they've cleared a way, it's all about numbers. We'll rush as many soldiers in as we can, as fast as we can."

Hugh was nodding, not like he agreed necessarily but just like he was following along. "And if they have a large attack planned for as soon as we are all through? A bomb, a planar incursion, a wide-area gravity press?" he smiled. "I know you don't intend to let these soldiers be funneled into a kill box."

"Correct. They'll be in marked groups, and each will have a breach specialist and a shield specialist. Every group will angle off in a different direction, making holes in walls as needed, and get some distance from the portal. Again, our advantage is in numbers and so we can afford to split up. If it goes well - something that's never guaranteed once the fighting starts - they'll be unable to target enough of our forces at once to be an issue and will then have to divide their attention as we spread even further. Meanwhile, more will just keep coming. If they choose to destroy the portal, we just have to re-activate it and it will open at a new location."

I raised my hand again. "What if they've been using probability magic to figure out where the new entry point will be?"

"We don't think that's likely to succeed," Hammersmith said, "but even so it wouldn't change anything. They already have to gamble on which portal we'll come through initially and split their resources to cover the others somewhat just in case, and if they have to further divide their soldiers to cover backup locations... it's a losing strategy. If the portals were easier to destroy, we'd actually do that ourselves - send a bomb through, and then re-open to the new location. Sadly, there are too many problems with that plan and so we'll only attempt it as a last resort.

"Under normal circumstances, our victory would be assured. The danger and uncertainty in this case comes from the possibility that Gilbrecht Halenvar has opened one or more of the Clockmaker's secure vaults. If he has, and if those vaults were made to store devices that the Clockmaker himself considered too dangerous - as we believe is the case - we may have weapons used against us that are capable of catastrophic damage on a planar scale. I won't go into detail about the various contingency plans we've made, but know that they exist and we have a suite of experts ready to bring in for any situation. Calliope... you are one of those experts."

"Sorry, I'm what now?"

"We believe that during the collapse of Brinkmar, as everyone evacuated, Sahrger captured a high-ranking official and made a bargain with them to have one of their noble families... inherit... the captured human's security clearance. We experimented with the... with Connie... and were not able to transfer it to anyone else, so right now you and Gilbrecht Halenvar are the only two known entities with the ability to open the portals. We believe this could also extend to certain areas inside Brinkmar - there may be a door we cannot open, or another portal we can't activate."

"So you want me to come with you?" This was actually super cool. I didn't want to be in danger, but I was starting to be sure she wasn't going to let me see Brinkmar and I was, frankly, dying to see it in person after obsessing over the books so much.

"No," she said, destroying my dreams in an instant, "not unless we need to. You would open the portal from behind to minimize any risk to yourself, and then immediately come back here and wait to see if you're needed. If things go badly at our preferred entry point we may need you to open another portal, or if the situation is stable but some old security measure is blocking us we may escort you to it. At worst, we would bring you in just before the alignment ends and you would wait in an area we've secured until we've neutralized Halenvar. We would only do that if we expect we're on the verge of finishing the mission; if things have gone wrong enough that we don't have a secure area we wouldn't put you at risk and I would, with great regret, negotiate with you to have you open the portal again at the next alignment."

If they weren't keeping me next to the portal the whole time... "You can keep the portal open without me?"

"For a time. Long enough. We won't need it to return, there are ways to exit Brinkmar that were never locked after the call to evacuate - they're no doubt secured right now, but once the war is won we should be able to deal with that easily enough."

"And then you guys raid the vaults and go hunting for mana batteries."

"We would be foolish to do otherwise," she said, "but you have my word - and the other treaty nations have my oath - that anything dangerous will be dealt with appropriately. Our allies in this endeavor will also be receiving some of those mana batteries, so trust me when I say they have no complaints about the plan."

I got a glimpse at a map of Brinkmar, but there was nothing sensitive marked on it - I had no idea where any possible portals would enter, for example. Still, I was absolutely going to be using divination to snag a copy and hang it on a wall in my memory palace. If Hammersmith wouldn't let me in, I was going to find another way - all the remaining portals were locked down tight, but I was sure there would be someone that would be willing to give me access if they knew I could open it.

Just in case it mattered, we spent some time going over some of Halenvar's biggest threats - the Behemoth I knew, of course, and the others had been mentioned somewhat in Connie's journal. We didn't talk about Telen, or the other two that had been killed recently in battle as the Empire took over the capitol of Halenvar, since this was about being ready to recognize and deal with the people who might be in charge of the defenses.

"This is Cyra Howlek, we're sure she has Influence and Focus, and she may have a third gift. She hasn't been seen for six months, when rumors placed her somewhere in the Free States with a strike team looking for a powerful artifact from Brinkmar - we never got details. Intercepted communications from Halevar imply she never returned, but we don't want to count on that being accurate - the most important thing to know about Cyra is that she makes everyone around her believe they're dreaming. It will be hard, but if you find yourself thinking you're having a dream look for her and kill her as quickly as possible."

The picture was a drawing of some sort, but extremely detailed. We passed it around, and I had the thought that she looked like she could have been Katrin and Errod's cousin.

"Next we have Jeort Itzeilae," Hammersmith continued, making me snort a little. His name sounded like fancy Italian jean shorts. "He's got Comprehension, focusing on making runic devices, as well as Velocity and Mana. If he's gotten his hands on one of Brinkmar's remaining mana batteries, he'll have made some truly terrifying weapons. He's usually seen with a gear staff of his own making."

The staff in question was clearly pictured in the drawing, and basically it was a long shaft covered in gears. I knew it would work something like the cover of Katrin's spellbook, or the device Talia had used; he would be able to cast spells, and use pre-made runes to amplify and adjust them by clicking the gears into the right positions.

"Finally there's Turash Birrindo, who has Gravity, Focus, and Substance. They fight by throwing small objects that have somehow been imbued with an extremely powerful gravitational pull. The radius of the effect is limited, but if you're too close it's immobilizing at best and - much more likely - painfully fatal as you're crushed against the object or between it and something else that was caught in the radius. Don't ever try to catch or physically deflect anything thrown by them. Force deflections are a great option, and getting the hell out of the way works too."

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Okay, so they made tiny black holes almost. That was genuinely cool, but I didn't think I had a good counter for it which made it terrifying. The picture was... interesting. They were androgynous, with blue skin and very wide-set bulgy eyes. They also had a tail. "Hey, so... as you know I'm a little sheltered, are they from another plane or have they been altered?"

"They're bonded to an avatar spirit, some sort of lizard. The tail is prehensile, and their vision covers a much wider arc than normal. Most people who bond that type of spirit have mental side effects, but Halenvar must have worked to counteract or remove those. The extra features aren't a significant advantage in most encounters."

Yet another reminder that I shouldn't just randomly tether myself to things - I was almost certain avatar spirits all came from the same plane, but that didn't mean that all other spirits would be totally normal and have no effect on me. Presumably it was a very specific type of binding going on, something that overrode the self-image of the mind, but the tether I'd made was... pretty thorough. That brought my thoughts back to some of my plans, and I wondered if it was maybe time to discuss them with the wild mage.

She'd been downright pleasant, as we did practice runs in grocery stores and drove cars from memories. The nature of the memory palace made those kinds of activities a bit strange, since the further we went from the original memory the more dreamlike things would get. Products on the shelves would repeat strangely or not make sense at all, with some being brands that for sure never existed or even products that nobody would make - the box labeled "macaroni and salt and vinegar" came to mind - and when we drove the landscape could shift suddenly.

It had started to make me more aware of the underlying shape of my memory palace, though, because I was increasingly able to tell that most of the time the things around us were being created and then destroyed on the fly while other areas - the bedrooms, basically - were actually static. I'd known it had to work that way, since things left in the bedrooms would be exactly in the same spot the next time I returned, but the difference was that I could now just feel where everything was. We'd be driving through the remembered streets of Phoenix, and some part of me would think "the main bedroom is about twenty feet that way" with absolute certainty. It also made me aware that the car wasn't moving; the scenery was moving all around us. It was pretty fucking surreal.

As if thinking about human Callie had prompted it, Hammersmith moved on to discussing some other masked spellcasters - the Hierophants of Oblivion - which had gotten a brief mention both in Connie's notebook and in the supervillain monologue Ulren gave before getting his ass kicked. "The Hierophants of Oblivion believe that the world has failed in whatever goal the gods set, and that the responsible thing to do now is destroy it. To end everything, and let the gods begin again with a clean slate. They were one of the main groups that were being watched for by the joint task force assembled in preparation of the upcoming Grand Alignment, and Halenvar knew just how dangerous they were."

Hammersmith paused, clearly unsure about what she was going to say next. "While Gilbrecht Halenvar has been accused of being a religious fanatic due to his interactions with the Hierophants, we have multiple sources indicating he has his own goals that would not be served by the world ending."

"Yeah," I interjected, "Ulren mentioned him wanting to use a device the Clockmaker made to... to basically guarantee the kingdom of Halenvar became the new Empire and took over the world."

"While I doubt something like that could be accomplished with a single device, it was arguably the Clockmaker's driving goal to permanently safeguard his Empire against the uncertainty of the future." She stood and circled the table, gazing off through the walls at some memory. "At the capitol of the Endless Empire, there is a machine used in a ritual. It is symbolic, meant to show that despite the Clockmaker being absent his empire remains - an unbroken chain of custody that lends legitimacy to our rule.

"We consider ourselves the caretakers of the Empire, and take vows to serve and obey the Clockmaker in the belief that he will eventually return. This ritual, and the machine that serves as the focal point of it, date back to the Clockmaker. They were meant to... trigger a contingency plan, perhaps, or otherwise alert him of the collapse of the Empire. Some have argued that we should stop performing the ritual in the hopes it would force him to return."

It was strange hearing Hammersmith speak so confidently about the Clockmaker coming back, when most people seemed to be of the opinion that he was dead.

"Regardless, if there had been a device that would somehow make the Empire forever prosperous we would not have had hundreds of years of war and a fracturing of the Empire into so many nations, including several that all claim to be the legitimate continuation of the Clockmaker's vision - nor countries like Erathik, which openly reject the Clockmaker's Empire." She smiled at Hugh. He'd explained to me before that it was easier for the Empire to suck it up and work with Erathik than it was for them to work with people who fundamentally agreed with them but thought they were illegitimate. "We don't know why Halenvar thinks he can succeed where the Clockmaker failed, but the fact that whatever he's looking for is locked away in the most secure vaults in Brinkmar imply it may be deeply dangerous."

That brought us full circle back to the Hierophants of Oblivion. "As part of their dedication to finding ways to end the world, the Hierophants have become very talented in breaking down wards and barriers. We believe that Halenvar has brought them to Brinkmar to break into the vaults, and has foolishly agreed to let them have one or more of the devices contained there. If he truly believes that he can guarantee his nation will be forever prosperous, it could be that he thinks that will prevent the apocalypse. Possibly he would have been right, if the other person he brought there to help - Ulren - had not been working with the Hierophants for his own reasons.

"I personally have met Gilbrecht Halenvar, and while he is not a great mind, he is also not a fool. He would know that the Hierophants of Oblivion, at least, are not safe to work with on this sort of project. It is not a mystery we need to solve, but it means we must be aware that we are clearly missing some of the nuances of what is happening in Brinkmar right now. This could be to our advantage; if they don't trust each other and both sides are planning a betrayal, that would be likely to help our efforts. That being said... it's nothing we can properly plan around."

With that out of the way, she went over a little more about what to expect when fighting the Hierophants of Oblivion. They almost all were spellcasters, which meant they were highly versatile but a little less powerful on average than someone that dedicated themselves to one trick. They wore matte black masks with no visible eyeholes, which sounded super cool, and they were very willing to get themselves killed if they could take out a bunch of other people with them.

By the end of the briefing, it seemed like the message was "if they're not dressed like a normal Halenvar soldier, kill them extra fast". Not that it would matter if everything went to plan.

I was sent to bed right after dinner, like a child, since we would be moving the second the planes were aligned which was ridiculously early in the morning. Of course, rather than getting proper sleep I met with the wild mage instead. I'd already gone through most of the obvious Earth stuff with her, a process that had brought up mixed memories - most of the group home stuff where we were taught how to be adults was after my time with Bill, and so I actually put effort in sometimes even though as far as I was concerned I'd been taking care of myself for ages. Even with it being so recent and me being such a paragon of mental health, I would have expected to feel strange about the parallels.

Instead it was fun. It was nice to be the expert, to be someone that just knew her shit. Granted, it was just simple stuff like how to buy food, but it was still something I knew better than anyone else in the world. I was also getting better at changing my domain around me, since until these exercises I'd mostly just sat in static areas or memories.

"Why," human Callie asked, "is there a giant duck?"

"I wanted to see if I could do it, that's why. I think I should get more oydirme in here, just to have them play roles. Right now the people from my memories don't really deviate from their roles, and if I make a new person they're... flat. I need proper spirits."

"You have too many already. They will drain your mana."

"A little, maybe. It doesn't seem bad. Hey, but speaking of spirits. And, uh... ghosts. Do you know if I could tether a spirit here, or a ghost, just to keep it from going anywhere?"

"You would imprison someone's ghost here?"

"No. Well, mostly no. I'd be making a body for it and bringing them back to life, eventually."

She snorted. "Ambitious. But... I believe only one person or spirit can be truly tied to each domain. Otherwise there would be more chaos with the Sahrger nobility."

"You lost me there."

"This plane, Ematse? It has one domain for each person. But this is not how all of them are created. Xeyul has only three, and for hundreds of years was ruled over by three queens. One was killed by the Clockmaker, and as she perished she bound her domain so none could inherit it. She said it would belong to the one that killed the Clockmaker. But this left them with only two queens, and without the extra... competition... one eventually was dominant enough to force the other to be nothing but a figurehead. If you could have more than one person bound to each domain, however, more Sahrger would force themselves in to the palaces and try to become nobility."

"Okay but... that bond - for here in Ematse - breaks when someone dies, right? Do you know why?"

She shrugged. "I never studied this, but I believed it is simply that different planes call to their own spirits. Minds belong on Ematse, so they come here and seek out a domain. Souls go to Erima. Ghosts go to the plane of the dead."

I wasn't sure if that meant all the old domains of dead people were still floating around in Ematse, and the wild mage didn't seem to know or care. Regardless, it was bad news for me. The experiment I wanted to do was dangerous enough as it was, and if I couldn't connect my mind more thoroughly to my memory palace it might be suicide. I could feel the edges of my domain, and by extension I could feel the center, but neither was giving me any real information. I was pretty sure I'd need to be in Ematse in person to figure it out, if it was possible at all.

"I am with Harmid again," she said, "and I asked him your question. He had a map of where some of your threads were pointing, but it was never in his office - he gave it to Katrin and Errod. One went to the false guru we visited, one to a place called Storm's Keep, one to the Observatory of Jenkutierra. Others were either unclear, or seemed to point somewhere of no importance."

I was surprised to hear one was pointing at the guru, since it seemed like I'd skipped that quest. The observatory one sounded familiar but I couldn't place it, and Storm's Keep was a no-brainer. That was one of the places that had a portal to Brinkmar, so I was sure that would turn out to be the one we were using. Instead, when Hugh and I were escorted away and teleported in the morning - or very late night - we appeared in Theramas. We were underground, but I knew immediately where we were - the look of the place was familiar from when I was briefly locked up there. So, somewhere under the fortress on the hill - from the angle of my fate threads not too deep - which meant Halenvar's attempt to destroy the portal to Brinkmar there had failed.

There were thousands of soldiers in a massive warehouse, all grouped into squads. I saw uniforms I recognized as Empire or Erathi, and some I didn't recognize at all, and a few people that hadn't bothered with uniforms but looked so calmly confident that I was sure they were some sort of specialists. And then I saw a large group of men and women with huge, hooked swords. Swords identical to the one wielded by Elrebar Iron-Fist, the asshole that had tried to kill us in Sentortzi. Shit.

"Hugh, who are those guys?"

He glanced where I was looking, unconcerned. "The Knights of the Storm, I believe. You look concerned, Calliope. Is everything okay?"

It wasn't unexpected. Elrebar had referenced Yesrin's Loom, and the Knights of the Storm were its caretakers. But still, he'd tried to kill us and now his buddies were supposed to be on our side. It could be unrelated - he'd seemed to be concerned with Katrin's spellbook, or maybe with murdering Errod. There was nothing to do about it for now. "Nah. It's fine. I met one of those guys before, and he was a shit-encrusted ballsack. But yeah, it's... it's all good." I wasn't about to admit to killing him anyway.

As the moment approached, I was led to a large polished stone rectangle. I didn't get a great look at the front but it was clearly covered in symbols, whereas the back was just plain, smooth stone. I touched it, and felt... an echo? Something, bouncing my senses back at me somehow. Hammersmith nodded at me, and I thought about it opening, about a hole forming to Brinkmar. I couldn't see it happen, but the quality of light in the room changed abruptly and the sounds of combat began to echo through the room.

Soldiers were streaming into the other side of the rectangle, and the light was flashing as spells were thrown around. Someone grabbed me by the arm and hurried me back into a hallway and into the teleportation chamber, and with a flicker we were back where we started. "Wait. Wait, that's it? After all that time? I didn't even get to see through!"

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