The first thing I noticed was the pain, the second? The coolness of my right arm. My eyes opened with an acute snap, what greeted me was not what I was expecting. I had expected to be shunted into the Flowered Vale, where I had entered Earth from. Instead I found large thin trees with wide thick canopy leaves towering above me. The sounds of monkeys and birds that were all too familiar to me greeted my ears with their cacophonous symphony. I was home.

  Or, rather, I was under home. Through the broad thin leaves above me I could see the broken remnants of the Jade Bridge, shattered by the blasphemous Centralians all those years ago. Beyond what was once a gleaming curving bridge of solid jade was the floating archipelago of Granica. The land ruled by the Jade Sorceress with absolute divine right, and the seat of her grand throne in its capital city, Veilglow. It was a paradise of magic, of law, of innovation.

  It was not my birthplace, that much was true, but it was my home. She is my home. If I landed here of all places, on this dastardly island, then fate must have some plans for me yet. Groaning from the aches in my body, I pulled myself to my feet and futilely patted at my suit. The dust and grime would cling to the fabric like moths to flame, and I wasn’t in much of a position to properly launder the clothes.

  In fact, I was in a rather precarious situation. I knew intellectually where I was in Alaymrie. If I was right, and I suspected I was, there was little recourse for me. I shuffled through the foliage, swatting at the insistent bugs as they tried to bleed me dry, on my way towards what I could hope was the edge of this island.

  As far as islands go, it wasn’t a particularly big one, but it was a chaotic tangle of levels. The path would rise and twist, go heedlessly through gaps in roots and even required me to climb a few trees, much to my distaste. It seems, even in death, this accursed thing was nothing but a nuisance. Even with my slow and irritatingly meandering gait, I still found what I seeked within only a few hours.

  There, just as I suspected, were jagged spikes sharp ice facing both towards and away from island. Waves continuously crashed amongst these jagged spears of ice, and I knew that the waves were the least of the problems with the water. Deceptive and destructive currents surrounded this island in its entirety, pulling and smashing any who dare enter into a network of punishing pressure until they were not so much ripped apart, as completely pulverized.

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  I clicked my tongue in annoyance. I was essentially a prisoner here. There was no way off this accursed land. Just the I reached out and snatched a small round object out of the air. The sting of the catch barely caught my notice as I looked at what I had caught. A thick deep brown oval seed or nut, already cracked open. My eyes darted in the direction of where it had been thrown to find a large squirrel staring menacingly down at me.

  Its tail was nearly twice the length of its body, and the fur was colorful with blue, reds, and pale yellows. A malabar squirrel in fact. I gazed upon the objectively beautiful creature with grace befitting my station. These beloved creatures were natives of Granica, and it pleased me to no end to see they have found refuge here. They managed to avoid a terrible fate.

  I moved swiftly as I could away from the squirrel’s territory and tried to find a suitable clearing for my purposes. If I was going to be stranded here, then I needed to form some sort of shelter. This was by no means a skillset I possessed, but I will survive, even if I don’t thrive until milady finds me. There is no shortage of fruit and meat upon this land, impossibly fertile as it is.

  A few more hours of going through brush and root and walking along branches that reminded me of the Branchway of Wailing Wood, I found a small semicircular clearing. It was perfect for what I sought, simple. With nothing better to do I began to gather sticks and whatever dry plants I could find to eventually build a fire. I knew from experience how cold it could get here. With that settled, I found a small log of some long fallen tree lying nearby. Thanking milady for the good fortune, I managed to pull it into the clearing, only having to take a few breathers.

  Before I had left, this would have been a simple matter for me, but now everything was much harder. I wasn’t sure yet if age or O’Holland’s contract was to blame. I did know one thing though. I had a contingency in that contract, one that milady herself would be proud of me for. A smile stretched my thin and cracked lips wide. I could still feel a pulse of energy in the contract on my right arm. This told me two things.

  The first was that the contract has not been completed, so I can expect a message from Setzer. And the second?

  I lifted my eyes above, in perfect view of the floating archipelago and my wondrous lady’s land. My smile as bright as the blue sun that beat down upon this small island. I knew without a doubt, a sliver, or a mote of dissonance.

  My Jade was here.