Of all the people his other self had known on the Octyrrum, Lograve scared him the most. Sure, Evalyn had assaulted him, Gadriel was kind of intimidating while at the same time inspiring, and Tak was… yeah, but Lograve was on another level.

  It had taken him two days to learn fluent English. Two days, and that was unassisted by any magic other than his improved intelligence attribute. It wouldn’t have mattered if he did have some form of translation power either, as only the ones he’d been actively focusing on had carried over to Earth.

  Not that that meant Lograve had been completely unassisted. Having Daniel as a universal translator was admittedly something of a cheat, but he couldn’t have done the same in the Arcanist’s shoes. He’d tried, a little, to learn the Octyrrum’s language and had been stumped. As for why no one on the island had been able to do this before, well, several reasons.

  It turned out that everyone had assumed the crew of the crashed ship had been speaking the same language. In reality, there was a mixture of English, Spanish, and Japanese speakers confusing the picture. The Octyrrum had separate languages, but they were more akin to regional dialects than full-blooded, separately grown tongues. Having that many distinct languages in a group of around a hundred people just didn’t make sense to the natives of another world. There was also the fact that these people were being effectively quarantined, if reportedly treated well according to his mother. He’d not been allowed to see them.

  A couple of weeks had now passed with Daniel living in a piece of another world that had been ripped out and sent to his, but no matter how much he’d been enjoying the absolute insanity of it all in an oddly contrarian way, that didn’t change the realities of his world. The end of the year was approaching, and that meant it was time for one of the most honored of American traditions.

  Lograve’s brief access to the internet could already be considered a gift in itself, as he’d been completely absorbed by the copy of Wikipedia they’d downloaded onto a laptop before bringing it back to Eido Island. While technology still worked here, whatever was shrouding the island from outside observation also affected satellite internet, which made sense.

  That hadn’t stopped other forms of long-distance communication, though. I have more questions.

  Lograve’s sudden intrusion into his mind slightly startled him, drawing Alex’s eye as she took another bite of the sandwich made from Octyrrum grain and Earth fish. My sister’s here, might as well bring her in too.

  Ah, delightful. Daniel pointed a finger to his head in reply to Alex’s questioning, chewing look and she nodded. The two were alone on one of the small hills, about a half hour’s walk out from Eido’s city limits. Their mother was off somewhere perpetuating a medical revolution, and as for the other two that had come here? That was the question, wasn’t it.

  “Is he going to link me?” Alex asked after clearing her throat.

  “Probably taking a second to find you since he doesn’t keep one active.” Daniel kept staring south, watching as the distant boat grew closer. “It’s still weird how casual you are about this. I mean, I’ve had almost half a year to think about this, but-“

  “Daniel, I performed with someone who had a beak today. If I can walk around with those half-birds-”

  “Avianoids,” Daniel corrected.

  “Half-birds, and not have a panic attack, I can handle your Vulcan friend.”

  I’m not sure if I should be offended or wishing you a long, prosperous life, Lograve replied sardonically, causing Alex to be startled in turn.

  “How-“

  It’s a fault of those unfamiliar with Telepathy. I can ‘hear’ what you are saying because you don’t screen it out of your thoughts. Not that I can read anything you don’t intend to be communicated, one way or another.

  Ok, Alex replied, switching to telepathic communication herself. And Star Trek?

  A fair number of these articles reference it ‘in popular culture’. The fiction of your world is rather imaginative.

  Not like we have actual magic to distract us. Daniel reconsidered his statement and barely managed to avert another witty takedown by the Arcanist. At least not until now.

  Quite. Your history is what I had in mind to discuss, actually. There are so many accounts of… There was a pause in the conversation of only a few seconds, the only indication of Lograve struggling with a language he hadn’t understood two weeks ago. Superstition, religion, various monsters, etc. I spent an hour combing through old horror stories, and it seems that other version of you had been holding out on me, Daniel. This world might just make for a good hunting ground if we can get the powers turned back on.

  He’s joking, Daniel assured his sister, as the consequences of just Lograve being let loose in the wider world would be disastrous if he wanted them to be.

  Even if he is… I see what you’re saying. Mom’s convinced all of this has to do with God.

  Ah, but which one? Lograve asked impishly. At least my world can agree on one pantheon. Yours is a bit of a mess. One of the most common here is fractured into hundreds of sects with penchants for internal conflict. It’s a wonder you managed to survive this long without any divine guidance to make you smarten up. The Arcanist winded down, and Daniel got the sense they were getting to his actual question. Still, I find it hard to believe there is absolutely no magic here. Your world is practically dead compared to ours.

  The one mostly taken over by ancient evil and monsters? Alex clarified. I can certainly see why you’d prefer it to one with air conditioning.

  We have climate control enchantments. In some places, Lograve batted back evasively. I swear young lady, your music sounds much more pleasant than your words do sometimes. One might take offense to having their home so thoroughly debased. Alex shot Daniel an eye roll, proving she was getting used to Lograve’s antics almost as quickly as he had their language. But as I was saying, it is hard to imagine there is no magic here. Daniel’s father somehow spirited away himself, and then a facsimile of his son. I suppose what I am asking is if any events from your history strike you as particularly inexplicable yet known to have occurred.

  Not off the top of my head, Daniel answered thoughtfully. I mean, there are hundreds of conspiracy theories from the past few decades alone, but they’re, yeah. Still gazing out to the sea, he smiled when, far above, a lone bird jerked in midair when it crossed the threshold of the island’s boundary. Even the animals were fooled. The only one I know for sure happened relates to my dad.

  And that rock he gave you. Which, unless I’m mistaken, somehow sounds like a piece of a godseed.

  What?

  Nothing. It’s all just… not as straightforward as I’d hoped.

  You make it sound like you should be able to just show up in a different world and have no problems understanding everything, Alex observed.

  Lograve managed to sound taken aback by that. Well, most people would have problems. I’m me.

  …

  A short time later, Daniel’s ship came in. And, it bore remembering, it actually was his ship. There was a sizable drain on his inheritance to prove it, only made worse by the mother of all shopping lists he’d given Chris before he and Alex had departed the island.

  While Alex was acclimating to everything about Eido, and his mother was getting by through force of will, Ami had taken… poorly to it once the initial rush was over. It might have had something to do with watching the Commander of Eido punch a few trees down after the meeting, having intended to carry the lumber back to the city. It was easy to gawk at a ‘half-bird’ as Alex had taken to calling them, but harder to realize you would be utterly incapable of stopping a Blessed that wanted to kill you.

  For the most part things had gone well enough, but he got it. They weren’t even sure if she would be coming back, since her job couldn’t have been that flexible with her ‘Pacific getaway’ when it was planned to be just a couple of weeks. Now? Personally, Daniel didn’t know when or if he was leaving.

  “I don’t see her,” Alex said, shielding her eyes with one hand as Chris eased the yacht into the dock that had been constructed solely for them. “That is a lot of crap you ordered though.”

  “A lot of it’s Mom’s,” Daniel returned defensively, though he had to admit the yacht looked like a pirate’s dream. There were packs heavily secured to the outer railings by cables, and stacks of boxes visible through the windows of the passenger cabin. Chris must have needed to carry extra fuel to get here with all of the weight and still have enough to return to port. “Plus a good amount of stuff like spices, nails, things to help win over Eido without having to bring in another cargo ship.”

  “You might as well have.” They both waved to Chris as he cut the yacht’s engine and quickly ran over to tie it down. By himself, it still seemed. “But an electric guitar?”

  “I told Chris that in confidence!” Daniel exclaimed, feeling every bit of judgment his sister was throwing his way. All of his special requests had been spoken only to his faithful butler, but somehow Alex had found out about at least one of them. Daniel blamed the Joker.

  “If you think that’s going to win her over-“

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “It’s not about that,” Daniel sighed. “It’s just… it feels like what he would do for them. I don’t-“

  “No, you do,” Alex said with complete confidence. “But you are smart enough to know you don’t have a shot.”

  “Yeah,” Daniel admitted. “Would you believe me if I said that it was a gift for you?”

  Alex punched him in the arm, but it didn’t hurt much. “My multimillionaire brother had better have done something better than get me a guitar for Christmas.”

  “What about an all expenses paid trip to a fragment of another world?” Daniel asked, feigning a hurt look while grinning on the inside. If there had been one purely positive thing to come of this mess, it was getting back on good terms with Alex. “Hey Chris, did Ami, uh, not come back?” he asked, raising his voice before Alex could convince him to buy her something dumb like a high school.

  “Eh, not exactly.” There was a way to how he dragged out the words that made it clear she hadn’t fallen off the boat in the middle of the Pacific, never to be seen again, but it wasn’t much better than that. “She’s currently sleeping it off.”

  “It’s 3 pm,” Alex said disconcertedly.

  “Yeah. It’s been a trip. I think one of your orders helped, honestly, but this hasn’t exactly been a pleasure cruise.” Chris rubbed the back of his head, and Daniel noticed a healing scratch.

  “Everything got here ok?”

  “Everything you asked for did,” he said carefully. “Ami, well, you can guess.”

  “So she did get fired.” Alex shook her head. “I told her she was being stupid.”

  Daniel put the pieces together and wasn’t exactly surprised. “Wait, she didn’t have permission to come out here?”

  “No, of course she didn’t Daniel!” She said it like it was obvious, which, ok maybe, but Ami had a really great job. Or, did have. He just thought benefits were far more lenient in the corporate world. “She found some kind of loophole in their remote work policy and was exploiting it. I warned her this would happen, but she just said it was fine because ‘worst case, the family is loaded now’.”

  “Not that it’s my business, other than that I’ve been obliging her for the past couple of weeks, but she found out a day before we hit port.” Chris finished tying the last line and dusted off his hands, a reluctant turn in his head showing before he added, “That sister of yours can be a drinker. I think half the reason she came back with me is no airline would put her on a flight.”

  “There goes my backup liver. Mom’s going to kill her,” Alex sighed melodramatically. “I should go make sure she isn’t making it worse. Probably shouldn’t tag along if you’ll be using telepathy since Ami would get everything too now that she’s back.” Alex paused mid motion with that. She threw a glance at Chris, but by now the guy had earned at least a basic level of trust from everyone. “You think Lograve could be right about that being a bond?”

  “It would make sense,” Daniel shrugged. He could see the worry on Alex’s face and knew what that was about. His sister was fine with something like Lograve’s Telepathy, but was having concerns about the thought of magic changing her. “Look, if it is this place helping you make one with Ami, that’s not the worst thing. Octyrrum-Daniel had one with Hunter and… they’re good things, Alex. It sounds like if you have one, it only works here anyway.”

  “Thanks,” she said, somewhat comforted by that. “So you’re good going alone?”

  “Yeah, thanks for lunch Alex.” Daniel was about to walk on board himself and collect his things, but something struck him. It’s not like it wasn’t partially their fault, but both of them losing their jobs now? His early discussion on conspiracies must have been making that part of his brain light up, but even so…

  Chris walked up to him once Alex had entered the cabin, who did so carefully while watching her legs and quickly closing the door behind herself. “I have your requests packed. The one for the, uh, Hero took some greasing to get through customs quickly. You’re not in major distress, but you took more of a hit than I thought you would. Still over half the principal, but we’re getting closer to the mark.”

  “It’s fine.” Daniel brushed off the concern. If having half of effectively unlimited money was an issue then it was at the bottom of the list. He wanted to get on with the gift giving anyway. Most weren’t that much in the grand scheme of things, and kind of vain on his part in a way the others didn’t understand, but there was one that he hoped would have a life-changing impact. If not, then it might just make Evalyn hate him forever.

  …

  Daniel, Evalyn, her sister who Daniel had met once, Gadriel, and the avianoid Cleric that usually tagged along with him met near the city, a stack of cases, boxes, and bags piled nearby through the combined effort of Chris and Daniel. Lograve was presumed to be lurking around somewhere too. While his disagreement with the Commander had chilled somewhat, whatever the Arcanist needed the enchanted items he was hoarding for was important that he’d kept covert. He hadn’t even given Daniel one for Chris’ supply run.

  Evalyn wasn’t quite glaring at him, which he took for a good sign. It wasn’t as if she completely hated his guts, Lograve had assured him, she was just… well, he hadn’t elaborated after that. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had carried a grudge for a decision he’d made surrounding his father. Alex was coming around, and surely once Evalyn had time to consider his point of view she would too.

  If not, he was going all in on the electric guitar. Lograve, you’re good with the connection right?

  Of course, I could allow for a mental conversation and bypass this little language barrier of ours, but since you have been faithfully studying my language as I have yours, wouldn’t it be simpler to just speak the one everyone else can understand?

  I brought you chemistry textbooks. Hard copy and online.

  Bribe accepted! An invisible throat cleared, indicating that Lograve was far closer than any of them had expected. “For all of our sakes, I am just going to speak and think at the same time. I know, I know, it sounds rather complex, but I think I have the talent to pull it off. If all of you could do the same it will somewhat make this easier, but more importantly, make this far less awkward.”

  Daniel, for one, couldn’t keep up separate mental and verbal conversations, but that was only if he wasn’t saying the same thing twice. “Thanks for meeting me,” he began, his words being auto-translated for Gadriel and Evalyn but requiring Lograve’s assistance for Masika and Emily. “In this, uh, part of the Octyrrum, we have a tradition near the year’s end. I know everything’s complicated and we’re focusing on getting you back home, but you guys took care of the other me in the Thormundz. I wanted to say thanks.”

  The cold look he got in reply from Evalyn wasn’t perfectly mirrored in her sister’s expression. Some part of the story must have been told, but Emily clearly either didn’t understand or didn’t blame him. He hoped it was the latter.

  “A show of gratitude is not necessary, Daniel,” Gadriel replied, his voice and mental inflections far less accusatory. With the need to keep Earth a secret from the Commander and other powerful figures in Eido, Lograve had opted not to inform Gadriel of certain details like what he’d done, just in case. “It is apparent now that the actions of your other self had a hand in our survival. Would I have been more vigilant, perhaps the need for that, as well as your companion’s death, could have been avoided.”

  The Cleric beside him rolled her eyes and swatted his shoulder, saying something that Lograve had to translate for him. Just smile and take the presents, Gade.

  “Uh, well I guess the first things are these.” Daniel went to one of the boxes and set it on the ground in the middle of the group, taking off the top. Inside were several pre-assembled handheld radios, what Chris described as three steps up from normal walkie-talkies. “They’ll help you keep in touch on the island without having to bother Lograve,” he explained with weak humor, too tense to make it casual. “Our, uh, enchantments don’t always work here, but these should. Be careful though, they’re about as durable as hardened clay, drop them from too high up or get them wet and they won’t work.”

  This is weird, Evalyn’s sister said skeptically, taking one of the radios and fiddling with the dial. I thought enchanted items were stronger than normal.

  “It’s because of the almost absent magic here,” Lograve explained with what technically wasn’t a lie. “They’ve had to develop rather unique techniques to get around this.” A user’s manual floated up into the air, the Arcanist unable to make himself visible despite there being no practical reason to remain concealed. “Seeing as you’ve still roped me into playing the role of these bricks, I might as well peruse these instructions and help guide the others. You do intend to gift a few to the city itself, yes?”

  “Might as well,” Daniel shrugged. “Let’s do Gadriel’s next. Sorry, I didn’t, uh,” he awkwardly trailed off as he found himself staring at Masika, the translation delay not helping.

  What, me? No, don’t worry about it. Gade’s blush when he tries to humbly reject your gift’s enough for me. It was still disconcerting to hear her gabble in an almost indecipherable tongue while Lograve filled him in on what she meant seconds later. Daniel just smiled, falling back on universal signals while trying to not blow his chance to salvage his reputation with certain other people here. Still, it was hard. Octyrrum-Daniel just didn’t get how much magic had smoothed over their social interaction skills. Evalyn was bad enough, if Tlara were here she could send him swimming home.

  Turning to a couple of long cases, he dragged them onto the grass and set them down. From the outside they appeared the same, though the foam on the interior had been custom molded to buffer different items. Daniel knew because he’d inspected them before they’d been carted out here, and, yeah, this was where his whims had come into play.

  “I know you have all of that going on,” Daniel said, gesturing to the two items on Gadriel’s wrists that almost hurt to look at, and that was for him. He’d heard through the grapevine that the level disparity of those items should be making the Hero feel like his arms were melting off, and that was with them in their passive state. His mom had offered to let him try what painkillers they’d had on the boat, but he’d refused. “These aren’t for hunting anyway, unless you can get other me to enchant them. It’s just, well, examples of weapons from here.”

  He unlatched the first case and revealed a beautiful, yet simple sword within. It was slightly longer than the one Gadriel had used the last time he’d seen him on the Octyrrum, with a flat, oval piece for the guard and a single sweeping edge. It was, well, don’t be judgy now, but a katana.

  Mind you it was a real one, as in far above mall ninja quality or even those put out by Japan for people who just wanted to own one of these, rather than use it.

  If he was honest, Daniel wouldn’t have been able to tell either way, but Chris had assured him it was both legit and the most expensive of the special requests he’d made.

  With a beckoning gesture, Daniel watched as the Hero slowly picked up the weapon and unsheathed it, his eyes observing its every facet closely. When the full blade was revealed Daniel almost expected something nearby to slowly start sliding to reveal it had been cut in half.

  “What level of Smith crafted this?” he asked, visibly stunned. Gadriel took a few steps to get some space and swung experimentally, his face growing more neutral and focused during that time before growing thoughtful again. “It is well balanced, but made for two hands. I sense no enchantment on it either, though if it were made here I suppose there wouldn’t be one.”

  “Do you like it?” Daniel asked tentatively, hoping he hadn’t gotten Gadriel this just because of how cool the Hero looked using it. The second gift was definitely for that reason, so at least one of them had to be functional.

  “It is an interesting design. My cutting power would be greater, and it is truly a shame Flying Sword is currently beyond my grasp. I feel any answer I could give otherwise would dishonor the work that has been put into this masterpiece.” Gadriel carefully sheathed the sword and held it awkwardly for a few moments before deciding to put it back in the case. “No matter my inevitable judgment, thank you.”

  “You saved me, or, well, a version of me the first time he hunted. You both were friends and I hope we can be that way too.” He hoped this was working. He really did, but checking Evalyn’s expression at this point would give the game away. “I’ll go ahead and show you the other thing now, but this time let me take it out first. They’re dangerous.”

  Daniel held his breath as he began opening the other case. Getting a sword for the sword guy seemed an easy win, but this next one was a riskier gift. Not the riskiest, not by far, but its connection to the first would be hard to see for non-Earth natives.

  Daniel could easily imagine the Hero as the protagonist of some movie where problems were solved by cutting down hordes of enemies that had wronged him, even if the man himself had an avowed avoidance of killing other humans. With that in mind, wasn’t there another trope he could fit?

  With the slightest bit of hesitation, Daniel opened the second case and prepared himself to introduce guns to the people of the Octyrrum.