It was Clive who portalled Jason to his destination. Jason had been to the target location before, but only once, and it had ged greatly since. When he and Farrah had arrived, years previously, it had been an uninhabited isnd, pounded by a localised magical hurrie from which the Sea of Storms took its name.

  Years ter, it was a very different prospect. The isnd had a rge town situated on it, and the windmill-like storm accumutors surrounding it offshore both shielded the isnd and delivered the magic that fuelled its infrastructure. All of this was a result of the isnd being purchased and developed by the Sky Link pany.

  Jason’s sed visit began in a town square set aside for teleport arrivals. He looked around at the building painted in vibrant colours. Blue, red, purple, pink, e and yellow, all bold shades striking uhe bright sun.

  “It’s hard to believe it’s the same pce,” he said. “I love it.”

  He opened a portal to his soul realm and people started p out, likewise looking around like tourists. They had been doing much the same thing inside Jason’s astral kingdom, iree city of Arbour.

  “This is pretty sweet,” Koa said. “It’s like being on a magical cruise ship and seeing all the fuinations.”

  Farrah directed Jason to a dock where he could set up his cloud pace to aodate the earthlings. The isnd was only set up to house the people who worked there, despite having the feel of a tourist town. He hoped that they could get the bridge established before the people of Earth caused any trouble.

  ***

  Jason had a meeting with Farrah and Travis, who owhe isnd, along with Danielle, Zara and Clive. They held it in a feren with rge open windows and robust privatments.

  “We excavated the hidden magical infrastructure the Builder pced here,” Travis expined. “Then we had the whole plex sealed off.”

  “As it stands,” Clive said, “Using that infrastructure to calibrate the dimensional bridge should take a few weeks. I’ve studied enough messenger astral magic to uand what we o do, and the only missing po is you, Jason.”

  “Why does it require Jason?” Zara asked.

  “Because of the anchor on the Earth side,” Jason told her. “The World-Phoenix relic I used to create it required me to be involved. Even though I kind of ate the relid we’re doing it the hard way now, that requirement is still in pce.”

  “I don’t foresee any insurmountable problems,” Clive said. “Just a lot of painstaking work to align this end of the bridge with the one iher universe. Getting all the details right. This ’t be one of those rush jobs I always seem to get stuck with when we’re out on adventures. We have to take it slow and do it right.”

  “But isn’t it more exg when there’s a tig clock?” Jason asked.

  “Yes,” Clive said with ft disapproval. “It is.”

  Jason chuckled, then turo Zara.

  “We o address the political aspect,” he said. “This isnd is isoted, and private nd, but it still falls within the boundaries of the Storm Kingdom. Creating a bridge to another universe is no small thing.”

  “Even if it won’t be useable without some hefty magic for around a decade,” Clive added. “It will take that long to stabilise, mostly because of Earth’s shaky dimensional membrane. Given that this will be perma, ten years isn’t a rge timeframe. It’s only two thirds of a Jason-going-off-to-fight-gods-or-whatever. That’s a new measurement of time I’ve started using, by the way.”

  “Did your wife e up with it?” Jason asked.

  “Let’s not get distracted,” Danielle cut in. “We were talking about the political aspect of establishing the bridge ihe Storm Kingdom’s borders.”

  “We got approval from the Storm King years ago,” Travis said. “Back when we bought the isnd. The isotion was a rge part of that.”

  “As was some quiet nudging from Soramir Rimaros,” Farrah added. “But the Storm King was ed with more than just dahis brings potential opportunities, as well.”

  “We shouldn’t just rely on a decade-old permission from a former Storm King,” Danielle said. “We could, but bringing this to the sitting monarch is a demonstration of respect. Getting his approval will smooth things out for us.”

  “And if he says no?” Clive asked. “ack up and do this somewhere else, but we’ll o build and calibrate new infrastructure. Weeks turns into months. Maybe years.”

  “If that’s what has to happen, we do it,” Jason said. “I know that I’m famous for pushing up against authorities, but there’s nent fight to be fought. We afford the time, and doing it outside of any national boundaries has advantages as well.”

  “The question is,” Danielle said as she looked at Zara, “how likely is the Storm King to say no?”

  “I don’t know,” Zara said. “It’s sidered bad form to overturn decisions by previous Storm Kings, but it still happens. Circumstances ge. And my cousin may want to make a show of not bowing to outside s.”

  “After I withdrew the System,” Jason said.

  “Exactly.”

  “Well,” he said, “it’s not like I was unaware that there would be sequences. I even knew what they would be, more or less. I went into it eyes wide open.”

  “We could threaten to move the Sky Link pany out of the Storm Kingdom as well,” Travis said. “Not just the headquarters but the entire service.”

  “No,” Jason said. “It’s ohing to threaten a family, but pulling out of the Storm Kingdom entirely would harm the pany too much. It’s the main trade hub for two tis. None of us want your employees hurting for my sake.”

  “It would also backfire,” Danielle said. “Jason has already pushed the Storm King, along with every other monar the p. Pushing him again won’t work.”

  “She’s right,” Zara said. “Even if he wao back down, he couldn’t afford to, politically. He’d have to push back, even if it was bad for everyone involved.”

  “Except the Magic Society,” Clive said. “You bet they’d be tooting their horns about the ‘proven long-term stability of the water link system.’ The sky link hurt one of their major ireams.”

  “There’s also the fact that this is his nation to rule,” Jason pointed out. “Everyone here knows my feelings about ied css systems, but I don’t want us to throw our weight around, just because we . Yes, there is probably some bination of political pressure and political fihat gets us what we want. I’d rather focus on what we offer the Storm Kingdom, not what we force it into accepting.”

  “I appreciate that,” Zara said. They were seated o one another, and she brushed her hand over his lightly as she spoke.

  “That is the wise approach,” Danielle said. “We should discuss ecifiefits resent.”

  ***

  When everyone filed out after the meeting, Farrah fell in step with Jason as he left the building. She gave him a pointed sideways look as they strolled down the wide street, past the colourful buildings.

  “What?” he asked.

  She tapped her brooch, and a privacy s snapped into pce.

  “What was that?”

  “What was what?” Jason asked with unving innoce.

  “Are you going to make me drag it out of you?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Really? Do you actually think people haven’t noticed the sudden awkwardness between you two? We all have supernatural senses and the power to read emotions. You might keep a lid on your aura, Jason, but we also see your face.”

  “Okay, not nothing. But it’s not somethiher.”

  “Not yet.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “And somehow, I still heard it. Dangling off the end of your sentence like a man hanging from a cliff, fully aware that his immediate future will be very bad or very plicated.”

  “Okay, maybe there was… look, no one is rushing into anything, here. She has ambitions, and all I have to offer in that regard are plications. Aionship she has is going to matter, and I have a lot of baggage. Not just because of my political position now, but because of our past. After that whole debacle over a made-up retionship back then, a real retionship now would u any credibility she’s built up. Fifteen years of work as an adventurer, down the drain. She knows it, I know it. her of us are going to charge into something foolish and self-destructive. We’ve both learned our lessons in that regard.”

  “Well, that all sounds disappointingly mature. Here was me wanting to make fun of you for sneaking around like a teenager.”

  “Oh, the urge is there, believe me. I’m gold rank; I’m meant to have too much self-trol to be this horny.”

  She ughed.

  “What are you going to do, then?”

  “I don’t know.”

  They stopped at a café where they bought iced tea in takeaway cups of magic gss that would evaporate whey.

  “You’re about to be oh,” Farrah said as they resumed their walk. “She’s not a prihere.”

  “The thought has occurred to me. Yes, we could explore it, but what happens when we e back? It o end or beore serious than we’ll probably be ready for.”

  “I’m pretty sure Soramir would be happy to help you out.”

  “Don’t remind me. But what about you? Didn’t you have a guy around here somewhere?”

  “You mean Trench? Yeah, he’s sweet. And ear. He was always sensitive about the power disparity and the age difference, so we always kept things casual. Now that I’m gold rank, he’s been hinting that he wants something more serious.”

  “And what about you?”

  “I don’t know. I mean, he’s able. Mum loves him. You know I built a house on your old spot in Arnote.”

  “Yeah. You souant.”

  “It’s not him. I like stable. I want to be the unhinged one, you know? I just don’t know if I want that with anyht now.”

  “You know, I’m not the only one who could afford to try something out oh.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s a great idea. Drag some guy off to another universe, only to have it not work out and we’ll be stuck together until we e ba who knows how long.”

  “That’s a fair point. Look, I don’t know the situation with you and Trent, and I know that when people live as long as we do, keeping things casual be the way to go. But, just from what you’re saying, it doesn’t sound like he wants to keep things casual.”

  “He doesn’t. Not forever.”

  She sighed.

  “I told you that I like stable,” she tinued, “but maybe it’s the idea of it, more than the reality. It scares me, if I’m being ho. I’m not like you, looking to make that emotional e. I’ve always kept a safe distance.”

  “You have to make yourself vulnerable if you want to build trust.”

  “So I’m told. But letting yourself be vulnerable makes you, well, vulnerable. You know that. You’ve been hurt that way.”

  “And I keep doing it anyway. What does that tell you?”

  “That you’re a fool.”

  He ughed again.

  “Oh, yes. That’s a big part of it. Maybe it’s time for you to be a fool for once. You o sider what’s stopping you. Is it that it’s not what you want? That this isn’t the guy? Or that you’re just scared? Because if it’s the st one, Farrah, then you o harden up. You fought your way out of a torture plex and came back from the dead. I’m not going to let you run away from a boy because maybe he likes you too much.”

  “ing from a guy who ’t stop making eyes with the pretty girl with the blue hair.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe we both have a little ce to work up.”

  ***

  The Storm Kingdom diplomat ined his head.

  “Princess. It is, of course, a delight to have you back. Unfortunately, your cousin was called away and won’t be attending. Affairs of state; I’m sure you uand.”

  Zara stepped up to the man, drawing raised eyebrows as she moved into his personal space.

  “Lord Alberto, if my cousin wants to slight me, that is his prerogative as the Storm King. You, however, are not. You will address me as yhness, and you will bow in my presence, rather than nod as if you were passing yreengrocer ireet. You are a man who has practiced statecraft for lohan I have been alive. Because of this, any failure of etiquette on your part only be strued as disrespect, delivered with deliberation and i. Should I be agaied as an adventurer instead of a princess of the realm, I will hold you personally responsible, and respond in a manner ary to adventurers. To wit, I will drag you out oreet and peel you like a piece of fruit, is that uood?”

  Alberto gulped, then bowed.

  “My apologies, yhness.”

  Zara swept past the man, Jason and Danielle Geller in tow. The air shimmered around them as Jason used his aura as a privacy s.

  “Are we sure than going that aggressive, that early is the right move?” he asked.

  “It is,” Danielle said. “Addressing the princess in such a way was calcuted to position her as Zara Nareen, noble dy, not Zara Rimaros, princess of the royal house. If she had accepted the slight without ent, she would be tacitly accepting their assertion. By not just asserting her position but bringing the king’s o it, she puts Lord Alberto in the position of accepting responsibility, or aowledging that the king put him up to it.”

  “I still have a long way to go in these diplomacy lessons, don’t I?” Jason asked. “Are you sure you want me pying good cop here?”

  “It’s yic bridge,” Zara said. “It is best for any deal struck to be unambiguously struck with you. Just try to avoid promising anything too drastic.”

  ***

  “His majesty feels,” Alberto said, “that the threat of unknown danger outweighs the promise of unspecified opportunity.”

  “An uandable position,” Danielle said. “The acceptance of our request by the previous Storm King showed the assuredness of a man who has lohe throne and fully embodied his role as supreme power within the kingdom. His heir is barely a decade into his tenure and we are sympathetic to his hesitancy.”

  Alberto glowered.

  “Your attitude in this matter is noted, Lady Geller, but you will find that prudence is the wisdom that his majesty brings to this table.”

  “By proxy,” Zara pointed out. “Given that he was too busy to actually attend this table.”

  “I do respect the king’s position on this,” Jason said. “And I would very much like to alleviate the unknowns with which resented him, while also expanding the opportunities on offer. As such, I would like to offer the Storm Kingdom something that has been requested by a number anisations and always refused: a position in our expedition to the other universe.”

  Alberto leaned ba his chair.

  “Under what ditions would you make su offer?”

  “What ditions would you like, Lord Alberto?”

  “You say a position in the expedition. Do you mean a representative, or a delegation?”

  “I think a diplomatic delegation to eh the polities of Earth would be entirely appropriate. After all, what will be a difficult bridge to cross in the immediacy will bee an open passage in years to e. I think that those who will trol each terminus of that passage should have the time to set terms of what manner of border it will be. Let us say, forty people, including security staff.”

  “And what restris will you put on who those forty are?”

  “No diamond rankers. The World-Phoenix isn’t letting any diamond-rankers ih until I have reached diamond rank myself. Also, until the magic levels rise further, the magic there could only sustain them iain areas.”

  “What else?”

  “Nothing else. If you want to make a deal with the Magic Society and ship some of their people in, that’s on you. I would look down on such behaviour, but I will tolerate it. They will be your people to choose, Lord Alberto. And yours to be responsible for.”

  “And what do you mean by responsible for, Mr Asano?”

  “I mean that if I have to kill any of them, Lord Alberto, you will have to answer for that.”

  “Please remember,” Danielle said, “that any aodations we make are gestures, made out of respect. The Storm Kingdom has nothing we need.”

  “If the Storm King chooses to revoke the permission granted by his uncle, my father,” Zara added, “then all it will r Asano is time. Time that he very much afford.”

  “There are advao operating outside of any nation,” Jason said. “And I have no doubt that many tries would leap at the ce to grab the opportunities you seem so retit to accept. In fact…”

  He got to his feet.

  “…I think we’ve reached the end of what be productively achieved here. I have a feeling that the Storm King’s deliberation on this matter will leave us time to explore our alternatives.”

  ***

  The iations were mostly occupied not by whether to approve the bridge, but in how many cessions the Storm Kingdom could get out of Jason. That turned out to be not many, as he had already promised to carry whoever the Storm Kingdom chose to send, so long as it wasn’t a Builder cultist or someone. Any deals they made with the powers of Earth would be for them to iate and enforce. Jason did agree to have them taught several Earth nguages.

  To Jason’s surprise, he enjoyed digging into the nitty gritty of calibrating a dimensional portal. It was good to get bato the astral magic theory he had studied under Dawn during his time oh. His instinctual grasp of dimensional forces also helped guide them, but even that paled in parison to Clive’s mastery of the theory. Once again, he was staggered by the sheer intellectual power of his friend.

  Jason socialised with some of his old friends from Rimaros. Autumn Leal was an adventurer who he met while w tracts, before his fame had risen. She made an old in-joke about Jason avoiding princesses, only to the Zara. Princess Liara visited the isnd for a barbecue, along with her husband, Baseph, and her family. Their daughter, Zareen, had gotten herself assigo the Rimaros diplomatic delegation to Earth.

  Work on the bridge aused for a few days so that Sophie’s mother could finally, after many deys, gh the treatment to remove the materials actively brainwashihe results were a success, but siderably taxing and Melody psed into unsciousness soon after. Like Jason once had after overtaxing himself, she ime to heal that no magic could accelerate.

  More friends arrived to join the earth expedition, along with others Jason had invited. Valdis and Rick Geller both arrived with their teams. Vice cellor of the Magic Research Association, Lorelei Grantham, arrived with a cadre of magic researchers. Travis and Farrah were bringing along a host of employees, to better learn magite Earth. Jory arrived with a team of alchemists and things definitely wereremely awkward with Belinda.

  The most unfortable inclusion was Gabrielle, priestess of Knowledge and Travis Noble’s now-wife. As Humphrey’s ex and someone who had long and publicly disapproved of essentially everything about Jason, she was not the most pure on the ship. Time, however, had seemed to soften her rough edges. No one cared about old teenage romance, and Gabrielle had e to accept that if Knowledge could favour Jason so much, she could at least tolerate him. She didn’t get a lot of invitations to bame night, though.

  The activation of the bridge did not e with any fanfare, reat explosion of aura. Those sensitive to dimensional power would notice, if close to the isnd, but most had no idea that anything had ged. For now, the bridge was only open to those with the power and knowledge to cross the scathing uy of the deep astral. Jason would use his cloud ship as a ferry, with the prote as a guide wire.

  Deep underground, a massive chamber held a series of standing stones, set out in a giant ritual diagram. Jason’s cloud ship floated over them, a ramp leading up to an opening in the hull. He boarded, alongside his panions, the Rimaros delegation and the outworlder refugees, finally set to go home. In a swirl of rainbow light, the air ship vanished, finally setting out for Earth.