Magic masked Jota’s dimension ship from any means the people of Earth had of deteg it. It was quite obviously there, however, as his crew were drawn up by the gravity el and vanishing in the air. He stood outside the Asano Vilge grounds with his sed in and, watg his people asd.

  “We could just make a move first,” Nata suggested. “Kill Kreegle, quid .”

  “He’s gold rank. I may be strohan him, but there’s no ‘quid ’ option. If I start a fight, I face the same problem he does: the rest of the crew’s reas. How many do you think would take sides?”

  “Not many. Most would wait to back the winner. Of the ohat did step in, more would likely take his side, especially if you were the aggressor.”

  “There you are, then.”

  She nodded.

  “It still feels wrong to just let the serpent slither up behind us.”

  “Don’t yourself with the s our backs, Nat. Save your worry for the dragon in front of us.”

  “You’re vinced Asano is more dangerous than we were told?”

  “Call it instinct. Or precaution. When I was training, we were taught the ways the ic powers move. We know the World-Phoenix has been maintaining this world’s iy. It prefers to operate through lesser agents, and what I’ve gleaned of Asano’s as fit the pattern. If I’m wrong, we leave Asano alone. Kreegle needs him gone if he wants to return to Jakaar triumphant. That will be our time to push the fight.”

  “And if Asano is a person of sequence?”

  “Then we side with him.”

  “And what of Jakaar?”

  “He’ll thank us for not antagonising the World-Phoenix. There’s a ce the phoenix cult maniputed us to be here in the first pce.”

  “Why would they do that? We’re no threat to them.”

  “It will not have been for them.”

  “For Asano?”

  “His world has just opeo the iunity. I suspect that we’ve bee up to bee his first impression.”

  ***

  The artefact city, in outback Australia, was waiting. Really a small town, most of the housand or so workers who lived there had been evacuated. These were shop attendants, janitardeners and others who served to keep the city operating. They were carefully vetted and paid more than their jobs would earn them in a less secure location. Being removed in preparation for the ing alterouo paid holidays as they were shipped off to Adeide.

  Evacuated alongside them were the personnel from the govers and fas who believed the city existed for their be. A handful of key staff remained, ensced in bunkers beh the city. There were also those iial enough to avoid bei away, likewise bunkered down. Only the security force remained above ground, alongside Rufus and Taika. Anna and Gary were in the same bunker as Lenora, Barry and their key staff members.

  The bunker had a series of rooms along a eg corridor, not unlike a hotel. It also had a shared lounge and cafeteria area. The walls were stark, pial and the floor crete. Large monitors on the walls were lio the external cameras fixed oanding stones, also dispying the now-active defence system. Magically enhanced howitzers and rocket pods had risen from their own secure bunkers and were now poi the air over the circle.

  The st se of the bunker, outside of service areas, was the and-and-trol room. The most restricted zohin the bunker, from which Lenora aaff directed operations. Anna and Gary were not allowed access, and iook a meal in a lounge area booth. In front of them were surprisingly patable meals, given the funal nature of the bunker’s cafeteria. Barry approached with Anna’s brother in tow, leaving Terry behind before heading for the and room. Terry joihe pair in the booth where Anna introduced them.

  “How did a young man like yle an invitation to all this?” Terry asked Gary.

  “He’s our teical expert for this trip,” Anna said. “He has a knack for practical solutions when it es to magitech. Along with making sure our vehicle operates correctly, he’s here to spot any dirty little tricks people might py on us.”

  “The number of listening devices my privacy tools have shut down is crazy,” Gary said. “Microdevices, robot is, vibrational analysis. Is there anyone in this town who isn’t a spy?”

  “Well, there’s you,” Terry pointed out.

  “Uh… yep,” Gary agreed unvingly. “I haven’t pced any surveilnce devices.”

  Anna gave him a ft look.

  “What?” Gary asked. “With everyone else doing it, I thought it would be impolite not to. Don’t worry; I made sure security would find enough to think they probably got them all.”

  Terry let out a ugh.

  “I like this one, Annie. Speaking of surveilhough, there’s an awful lot of press attention on this. They aren’t letting people onsite, but there’s a veritable swarm of media drones up there. The usual outlets, plus they had me curate some appropriate influeo be included.”

  His expression turned uncharacteristically sober.

  “I hope this doesn’t go badly for you, Anna. Mother reached out a couple of months ago, to try and have me vince you to distance yourself from the Asano .”

  “Unsurprising,” Anna said. “I note you didn’t do that, though.”

  “I figured it was more of her maniputing, scheming crap, so I didn’t let her drag you into it.”

  “Thanks, Terry.”

  He let out a slow, frustrated breath.

  “What happeo her, A wasn’t like this before magic came out in the open. Now she’s obsessed with being some kind of global powerbroker.”

  “I don’t know,” Anna said. She put her hand over his oable and gave it a squeeze.

  “I think there’s something specific,” Terry said. “She tacted me again, a couple of weeks ago. She seems very vihat things aren’t going to go well for the Asanos when Jasos here.”

  Anna leaned back, her expression looking like she’d bit into a lemon.

  “She’s in on it, then,” she said. “That could end up being a mess, depending on how far they push it.”

  “In on what?” Terry asked. “Is it to do with why they’re treating Asano’s return like a military invasion? No one has told me a damn thing, and I’m meant to be in charge of the media response!”

  “Yeah, it’s to do with that,” Anna said.

  “The locals have brought in sers from outside our universe,” Gary told him. “There’s going to be a big old fight.”

  ***

  The multinational security force was arrayed around the site, some half a kilometre back, behind the heavy ons. Rufus and Taika were free to roam, not being uhe and of the security force. ander Higgins was not happy about it, but there was little he could do. There were a dozen gold rankers who had been called in for Asano’s arrival, and not one of them was willing to cross Jason’s two friends. Analysis based on their witnessed anti-vampire operations suggested they were the most powerful individuals on the p, by a goodly margin.

  Taika and Rufus meandered around, behind the security squads. Taika looked over at the empced onry, all poi the sky over the stone circle.

  “I don’t think much of these defences,” Taika said. “Where are the spinny guns with a bunch of barrels? Where are the rail ons? These look like someone burgled some onry off a boat and scribbled some magies on the side.”

  “That’s pretty much what happened,” said someone from a nearby squad, his at marking him as Ameri. “I have a cousin in acquisitions who told me—”

  “Mouth closed, eyes forward, Jenkins.”

  “Keith,” Jenkins said, “you know we’re not in the military, right?”

  “I said mouth closed, Jenkins. That’s an order.”

  “Paramilitary at best,” Jenkins tinued. “Teically, we’re private security tractors. Which makes you my supervisor, Keith, not my anding officer. Also, you’ve got a real ‘war criminal’ vibe going on. They didn’t put you in charge of any prisoners, did they?”

  “You want to get kicked out, Jenkins?”

  “Yes, please. I signed up to fill out my awakening stone colle, and they totally did me over on the tract. Cheaped out oooo. Estic awakening stone? What’s going on there?”

  The squad leader started marg over to Jenkins when the air was filled with a tingliion and a sharp smell of ozone.

  “It’s like being near a power line in the rain,” Taika observed.

  He had barely finished speaking wheanding stones lit up with gold, silver and blue light. Streaks of it rose into the air like colourful, ied rain. It collected in a sphere that rapidly grew, the rising light growing thicker with each passing moment.

  ***

  In the and room of one of the various bunkers, Lenora watched the light show with everyone else. Most of her staff were at various soles.

  She observed as the growing sphere finally stopped expanding. It floated in the air, colours swirling, then started to shrink and dim.

  “Do we have aimate on the size it reached?” Lenora asked.

  “Around four-hundred and fifty metres, Ma’am. Also, the work is rep a rge dimensional energy event is showing up on the grid.”

  “Very useful,” Lenora murmured as her eyes remained glue to the monitors. “Whatever would we do without them?”

  ***

  As the supernatural light dimmed and shrank, the observers were able to make out a shape within, slowly being clearer. It was a vessel, somewhere between dirigible, o liner and alien spaceship. Dark red panels were affixed on white cloud substance, from which wisps were teased off a drifting away on the wind. A set of spheres orbited the ship, like a ring around a fihe orbs were dark, seeming to absorb the sunlight. Ihe orbs were e and blue nebus that looked like eyes.

  As the st of the gold, silver and blue light dimmed, words written along the side of the vessel in gold became visible. Taika burst out ughing as he read them. Rufus let out a sigh.

  “Well,” he said, “I have no idea what that means. Which at least means we know it’s Jason and not the people here to kill him. How an ice cube be—”

  ***

  “What does that mean?” Lenora asked.

  “It’s from a song,” Barry told her. “Early ies, if I remember rightly. By Vice-President Ja, back when he was a musi.”

  “I thought he was an actor. Like Reagan.”

  “He was a musi first. Do you think Asano is making a political statement?”

  “I think he’s going to give me a headache. Any sign of this group who are meant to be here to kill him?”

  As if to answer her question, the sky above the city shimmered like heat haze, and suddenly a sed vessel was in the sky. This one looked overtly like a spaceship, blocky and militaristic, but also with a clear magic aspect. The lines of the ship glowed and hummed with magic that essence users could sense even from the ground, powerful and intimidating. It was, however, much smaller than Asano’s vessel, some eighty metres long versus more than three hundred.

  The whole city had tensed up, poised for whatever was about to happen. Two figures emerged from the sed ship to appear, riding on simple round disks. They flew towards Asano’s vessel, as one person emerged to meet them.

  ***

  Jota watched the person he imagio be Asano float through the air towards him. The man was using his aura to fly, like a messenger. He was a known outworlder, so it could be some unique ability, or there could be a e to the messengers. They were invading the linked world and, if Asano had thrown in with them, it would expin having the astral magic to world hop.

  Asano’s aura offered no further clues, being otherwise imperable to Jota’s sehat was a surprising level of aura mastery for someone from such a backwards world. Jota had discovered the auras oh to be execrable in their level of training.

  The clothes Asano was wearing were iing. He had no battle garb, and no magic items of note, beyond a pair of what were probably amulets on a neckder his shirt. Otherwise, Jota sensed only basic clothing entments, although the man’s underpants had oddly potent resilience magi design, he had a shirt with a colourful floral print, tan short pants, sandals and a straw hat.

  There were a souple of small scars on his face, and another mostly hidden by his shirt. Such things were usually affectations in essence users, but Jota suspected that these were not. For someone who uood what a genuine scar indicated, it put a very different spin on the seemingly casual man.

  “G’day,” Jasoed Jota and Nata as they drew close. “I suppose we should have a chat.”

  Jota couldn’t pce the nguage. He was clearly using a transtion power, but unlike any he’d entered. It was like the words slipped into his head to impart their meaning, which was unnerving. He also sensed something about the words that was hidden.

  “That’s not your true way of speaking,” Jota said.

  “No,” Jason aowledged. “Things tend to go better when I do it this way.”

  “Deception is not the best way to start a retionship, Mr Asano.”

  “I suspect this retionship will go poorly regardless, but your point is a fair one.”

  Asano’s words, though simple, resonated like thunder in Jota’s ears.

  “So be it. I am Jason Asano, as you have surmised. Would you care to introduce yourselves?”

  Jota’s eyes widened a little. There were various names for the manner of speaking that Asano had used. On the world where Jota had been born, it was called the divine voice.

  “My name is Jota Withers. This is my friend and sed-in-and, Nata Spiro. I had been w if all this was a setup, and now, I find myself vinced.”

  “vinced enough to turn around and go home?” Jason asked.

  “Yes, actually. Unfortunately, things are not that simple.”

  “They never are.”

  “I’m afraid that if I try to turn around, one of my crew will take the ce to unch a long-pnned mutiny. Kill us both, take my ship a bay admiral.”

  “And Jakaar will accept that?”

  Jota gave Nata a side gnce as she stirred, but she remained silent.

  “Admiral Jakaar likes results and dislikes trouble,” Jota said. “As long as he gets the results he wants, he won’t begrudge an obvious lie. A living captain is more valuable than a dead one. Of course, the admiral is not getting what he wants here, is he?”

  “He is not,” Jason said.

  Jota nodded.

  “He doesn’t waas with the Cult of the World-Phoenix. Or the messengers. Which of them are your backers? Or is it both?”

  “her. I’ve been ally and eo the messengers and the World-Phoenix at various points.”

  “You’re not a of the World-Phoenix?”

  “You could say I have been, from a certain point of view. The World-Phoenix owed me a favour, which is why she set you up like this.”

  “My crew has twenty-seven gold-rankers. you match that?”

  “Numerically, yes. How good are your people?”

  “In terms of skill? Capable enough, but probably not the match of those who came up fighting monsters in a rural backwater. I suspect our equipment is better than what your people are armed with, however. By quite a margin.”

  “How many will stand aside?”

  “Three or fht join the fight on our side. Some others might stay out of it, but I ’t be sure.”

  “You will not fight with us,” Jason said. “If you want to stand aside, then do so, but we will not offer you our backs.”

  “As you wish.”

  “And, just so you know, your ship is forfeit.”

  Nata stirred again and Jota gestured her to stillness.

  “We came to your world in search of plunder,” he said. “I uand that there is a price to that, and we will be in little position to iate once most of my crew is dead. But all you offer now is an iive to work with my crew to kill you and finish my differences with them after.”

  “This isn’t a iation,” Jason said. “This is me deg if as to live after. If you ever get to leave this world, Mr Withers, it will not be for some time. That is the price of ing here.”

  Jota turo look at his ship.

  “I would ask for some time to discuss this with my panion,” he said, “but it appears that my chief mutineer has run out of patience. Good lu your battle, Mr Asano.”