“What you’re telling me,” Lenora said, “is that my little city is going to turn into a gold-rank battle zone.”

  “Yes,” Anna told her. “Jason will try and take it out into the desert, but there is a good ce these invaders will front him here.”

  “They o challenge him at the first opportunity,” Rufus expined. “To justify their presence here. They may be here already, but the dition for their being allowed oh is to remove Jason. If they don’t do so swiftly, they’ll be in viotion of the Rules of Intrusion.”

  “And if that happens?” Lenora asked. “The space polie and arrest them?”

  “The Rules of Intrusion,” Rufus expined, “have always been in py world they mostly apply to holy wars, where one faith ihe domain of another. But, as it turns out, they also govern dimensional invasion. There has been flexibility in the rules, going back to before the birth of our worlds, but that has ged. Retly. ic w is much mid now.”

  “Why?”

  “The rules of the os are enforced by something called the ic Thro was damaged long ago, but the throne has beeored and the rules are more dangerous to bend, let alone break. I don’t know the sequences of breaking those rules, but entities beyond any of our uandings are wary of vioting them. You be certain that these pirates will be.”

  “That was a really long way of saying you don’t know,” Gary said. Lenora happeo agree but said nothing as Rufus and Anna gave the young leonid a gre.

  “Mr Remore,” Lenora said. “While I appreciate the text, my job is more ed with the practicalities. Somewhere in there you said these people might already be here. We’ve seen no activity through the standing stones.”

  “The magic circle here only serves as an anchor for the liween worlds,” Rufus told her. “It is both unnecessary and useless to the invaders who will have their own means of traversing the astral. Their dimensional magic will be more advahan any that either of our worlds has access to. The only group oh that would have the ability to detect them would be Boris Ketnd and his people, and they aren’t trag magic globally.”

  “That they’ve told us about,” Anna amended. Rufus nodded his aowledgement.

  “If they are here, then,” Lenora said, “we have no way of trag them down.”

  “Correct,” Rufus said. “Which is good, because we ck the power to front them. Jason will be here in roughly three days, disting any time anomalies iral. We should hope that, if the invaders are here, they remain wherever it is they are hiding.”

  ***

  Jota Withers rather liked his current aodation. The magid teology were both incredibly primitive, not even ied with one another, but there was something calming about the simplicity of it. It was the design he appreciated: a house dug into a rocky bluff, overlooking the o. Part of the house the bluff to remain accessible, but most of it jutted from the cliff face itself, with gss walls to make the most of it.

  He sat in a fortable armchair, reading from a tablet provided by his hosts. He had spent his time oh learning what he could about his enemy. He had certainly found it odd that he was being hosted by a group called the Asano , in a pce called Asano Vilge, while he waited to kill a man named Jason Asano.

  That anomaly was resolved when his sponsors oh started providing him with the information he requested. It turned out that there were three s who used the name Asano oh. One was a historical of cultural significe, iime before Earth’s magic was in the open. Another was an offshoot of that within one of Earth’s the magic societies. This was the group currently hosting Jota and his crew. The third group had been founded by Jason Asano himself.

  Asano Noriko was matriarch of the Asano hosting Jota and his crew. She had been making daily visits to che his needs, along with the servants she had provided full time. As Jota had questions the provided information didn’t answer, he invited her to verse on one of her visits. She took a seat opposite him, with a table holding a tea set between them.

  “What may I help you with, Captain Withers?”

  “I have questiarding the various iterations of the Asano this p.”

  Her expression showed nothing but a woman happy to aodate, but he could feel the swallowed bitterness in her aura. He suspected that, to her mind, there was only orue Asano . He didn’t particurly care, his only i being an uanding of his target.

  “My uanding,” he tinued, “is that your inates iion of Japan, while Jason Asano’s inates here, in Australia. They were the ones who built this vilge, yet now your is here, and they are oher side of the p. Iory overrun with vampires, no less. How did that e about?”

  “There was a lot of chaos in the first few years after magic came into the open oh,” Noriko expined. “During that time, Jason Asano created spiritual domains in Europe.”

  “Spiritual domains?”

  “I don’t know the specifics. Pces of power that belong to him that have higher levels of magic than most of Earth. Most of his family and their various hangers-on relocated there, before the vampires took over. Also at that time, the majic secret society went through a schism as magit public. The gover here sided with one of the fas, and that was not the ohat had Jason Asano’s supporters.”

  “But it was the one your beloo?”

  “It was. You are an astute man, Captain Withers.”

  Jota didn’t respond to the praise, instead gesturing for her to tinue.

  “In order to solidate their retionship with the new fa,” Noriko expined, “the gover seized ownership of this nd from the remnants of the upstart , and gave it to the true Asano . The dregs of the false fled to joihers.”

  “And this happened only after Jason Asano had departed this world, I take it.”

  “It wouldn’t have mattered. He owerful, for a silver-ranker, but that is as far as it goes. He ’t fight aire nation, even if he is gold rank now. Alien allies or no.”

  Jota raised his eyebrows and Noriko paled.

  “I apologise, Captain Withers. I meant no disrespect.”

  “What of these spiritual domains? They are not the normal power of a silver-ranker.”

  “Exploitation of unique magical ditions, using knowledge from the other world.”

  Jota strongly suspected that her obvious grudge was leadio dismiss the threat Jason Asano posed. He did not fully dismiss her position, however. It ossible that the people looking to elimihe man had been oversold on his power. One particur point in the information he was given strongly supported the idea that they were overestimating Asano.

  “What do you know of the purported liween Jason Asano and the advent of the System?”

  “That it’s utter nonsense,” Noriko said.

  “I am ined to agree. The System is a shift in the ic order. There is even talk of a new great astral being. What impae gold ranker from a pce like this could have entirely eludes me.”

  “Exactly,” Noriko agreed, nodding her head sagely. “He is a man with a big mouth, low ing and more than his share of luck. An opportunist.”

  Having gottehing productive he could from Noriko, he dismissed her. After she left, Jota’s first officer, Nata, paid him a visit.

  “Jota, Kreegle is rabblerousing again,” she warned.

  “When is he not?”

  “The Rules of Intrusion mean we are cut off from the outside until we fulfil the ditions of the deal by removing Asano. This is a ce fle to make a move.”

  “I handle Kreegle.”

  “He’s riling up the crew.”

  “He’s bitter because he wahe captaincy that went to me.”

  “He’s not the only one who resents you. Many think that you believe yourself too good for the rest of us.”

  “And what do you think, Nat?”

  “Holy, I think you do believe you’re too good for the rest of us. At least a little. But Jakaar put you in charge for a reason. Where you came from, the training you’ve had. You are just better than us. Some look at you and want to catch up. Most would rather just drag you down. If the normal crew plement turned against you, odds are that you could hahem, as long as one or two stayed loyal. But this extended crew gives Kreegle an opportunity. Sitting around for days on end, like this. You’ve been holed up in here, what? Reading?”

  “Studying our oppo. Preparing to face him.”

  “And while you’ve been doing that, Kreegle has been preparing to face you. Cutting deals and making promises.”

  Jota waved Nata into the chair Noriko had vacated as he pted what she’d told him.

  “He’ll have to make his move during the frontation,” he mused. “While a few of the crew might be fully on his side, most will balk if he moves too early. Either at the prospect of open mutiny or of fag me undistracted. His best case would be making it look like I was floundering against Asano, aepped in to save the day. It’s not pusible, but it doesn’t have to be if I’m dead. So long as I am, and he’s in charge by the time it’s over, he spin any tale he cares to.”

  “What will you do?”

  “I’m not sure. The more I learn about this man, Asano, the more certain I bee that he’s not what we’ve been told.”

  “How so?”

  “Things that don’t add up. My information is ing from the people of this world, so I’m having to ihrough the gaps in their knowledge. They’re so frantic to exploit the ges that have e to their world that they seem terminally incurious as to the underlying causes. Petty s over petty power. I suspect Asano to be a of the World-Phoenix, sent to stabilise this world.”

  “How certain are you?”

  “The information given to me is less than well-curated. But Asano was known for having two panions from other worlds here. The ohey know the most about is a person from the ected world. The other they know less about. Asano was isoting from the local powers by the time they moved together more frequently. Her reported power levels are insistent, but would fit someone using different levels of avatar. And it’s almost certainly ce, but her name was Dawn.”

  “As in, the former First Sister?”

  “Yes. This would have been around the time she stepped bad Helsveth took on the role.”

  “That…”

  Nata shook her head.

  “…that would ge things. It ’t be that big. it?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s a big os. How many trillions were named after the First Sister?”

  “Probably a rger han I know the name for.”

  “If Asano does have that level of e, though, it would suggest a wider design to our presence here. Someone using the Jakaar Fleet — and us in particur — to make a carefully measured point.”

  “What do we do?”

  “We be flexible. These are just jectures, and wild o that. If everything is as it seems, then we py it out as intended.”

  “And if Kreegle makes his move?”

  “Then we may have to make an ally of the man we came here to kill. In which case, we should hope that my jectures are not so wild.”

  ***

  Sitting alone in the dining hall of his cloud ship, Jason looked over at Jory, sitting with a group of his alchemists. They were chatting with Clive, Lorelei and some of their Magic Research Association members. Iime he’d been away, Jory had gone from small-town alchemist to a leader at the forefront of his field. Clive had gone from a disaffected member of the Magic Society to a formidable rival. Travis and Farrah had ied global teleunications. His friends had remembered him, in his absence, but their lives still moved on.

  So much had happened in his absence, and that was among the long lived of Pallimustus. Oh, the ges had been massive, but his s were for a very small slice of it. The family he left behind. Isoted by vampires and the ambitions of the powerful. His niece had grown from a girl to a young woman, and he had missed it. He hadn’t beeo spoil her, or to give sketchy advice that her mother wouldn’t approve of.

  He was beyoh, now, but he was not beyond time. In a few days, he would be in the most dangerous battle he’d ever faced, at least in a mortal body. He couldn’t die, but if his avatar was destroyed, the price would agaiime. Again, his friends and family would remember, but again, they would go on with their lives.

  Farrah slid into the seat o him at his otherwise empty table.

  “Why the sad boy face? Worried about this fight?”

  “No. Just thinking about what losing would e. Reminding myself why I have to win. And I will. We will. I’ve been preparing for this fight for twenty years. N into a metaphor to fight the remnants of a god’s power. No super-powerful bird form, or spiritual war ay soul. Just me and my friends, fighting like adventurers. The people of Earth ’t uand what I am. They don’t have the frame of reference. With this fight, they’re going to see who I am.”

  “Battle isn’t who you are, Jason.”

  “Yes, Farrah, it is. It’s not all I am, but right now, it’s the part they o see.”

  “I get that. But it not being all you are matters. Maybe you should let them see some of that too.”

  “Oh, I’ve got that covered.”

  “Jason, what did you do?”

  “Why do people keep askihat?”

  “Because we’re not from Earth, Jason. We already know who you are.”