Chris strode alone through the darkness, taking a deep appreciative breath and gazing at the sky. No light pollution here, which meant a vista you couldn’t find anywhere the common man walked. This was why he did what he did. Well, that, and one other reason.

  He was using a flashlight to guide his way. Be prepared and all that, though he’d never been in the scouts. Few people had the ability to think ahead, it seemed, though it was one of his talents.

  He’d left Daniel with the others after making sure he was ok. It didn’t seem like a moment he should intrude on, and the twins were still at the boat last he checked. Kara was in the Hunter’s Guild unpacking all the medical supplies that some of the braver offworlders had helped unload. A quick radio check proved things were still going well on both ends, giving him a few minutes more than he would have had otherwise to take the scenic route.

  Alien soil beneath his feet. It didn’t feel that different, but then again dirt was dirt. Take any rock, grind it down, introduce similar moisture content and you’d get a close approximation of soil, though color was another matter.

  When he was halfway back, the running lights of the yacht still distant dots on the horizon, a voice called out. “Stop. Make any sudden move and I will see just how fast of a learner I am.” The voice didn’t describe the exact nature of the threat, but a subtle feel towards his holster was enough for Chris. Empty.

  “I didn’t see you take it,” he replied calmly, not letting the gun pointed at him get him worked up. “Then again, I’m not too used to invisible thieves.”

  The one he knew was called Lograve took in a sharp breath before replying, more tension in his voice. “Who are you?”

  So, he had figured it out. To be fair, Chris had stopped hiding anything the moment he’d opened his mouth and spoken the tongue of the Octyrrum. “I think this is the part where I say ‘I can explain’.”

  “You very well should, starting with how you know what I look like.” There was an interrogative tone in Lograve’s voice, all business, leaving Chris to play the role of the fool. “Scar cream? I asked Daniel’s mother and she denied requesting it. This was you, which begs the question, how did you know about my scars? How can you even understand me?”

  “The cat.” Chris nodded appreciatively, not explaining but speaking a realization. “You didn’t translate what Emily said, just mentally repeated it. Daniel wouldn’t have noticed because he hears it in English. You were testing to see if I was like him. Clever.”

  “Seems I wasted the effort, seeing as you aren’t trying to hide the fact that you understand my language now.”

  “I wanted to speak with you alone when the time was right.” Chris shrugged. “You seemed like the type to enjoy a puzzle. Not that I thought you’d take it this way.”

  “How do you know what I look like?” Lograve repeated firmly. “I’ve been invisible since I’ve come here, and the only way to see through that is magic.”

  “Let’s just say I was there when you got those scars.” Lograve didn’t immediately respond, and despite his projected nonchalance, Chris didn’t want to risk turning and ruining everything due to an itchy trigger finger. “Going to drop the gun so we can talk?”

  “Of course not! What could you possibly mean by that!?”

  “That I’m the only reason you survived the first time you fought the lightning dragon.” He was right on the edge of the big reveal now. It had been a long time coming. Decades, actually, but the time had finally arrived. This hadn’t been exactly who or how he’d had in mind, but it was how fate had decided events should play out. Chris had nudged where he could of course, but only fools thought to control it. “Listen,” he continued placatingly, “I’ve got two people waiting on me to get back to the boat. Mind if I at least tell them I’m going to be delayed while I explain things to you?”

  Lograve huffed. “Oh, fine. Don’t think for a moment I’ll hesitate if you do anything else.”

  Bemused, Chris reached for his radio. At that moment, fate decided to remind him who was in charge. “I am attempting to speak to the ones who have come to Eido. You have either deceived us or have been deceived in turn,” the radio squawked, transmitting the voice of the local leader. Speaking English. They did learn fast. “We have spotted your second vessel. You were told the wreck was off limits. The attempt to take us unawares has failed. Explain yourselves.”

  What was happening? The island should have been protected, the only reason they’d found it was that he’d known where to go. For anyone else to would mean… “Fuck.”

  “What is he talking about?” Lograve asked sharply, but Chris ignored him. He hit the radio, not caring that he was broadcasting on a frequency the Commander would hear.

  “Alex, Ami, if you can hear this, take the boat out to sea, now!” The gun fired and Chris inhaled sharply, checking himself for a moment before seeing it had been a warning shot. He turned and found he couldn’t even see the weapon.

  “I know I generally come off as a lackadaisical person, but I have run out of patience.” The Commander was demanding answers in the background as well, but worryingly, there was no response from the twins. Neither Daniel nor Kara either, but both were probably busy. He worried for both for a moment, but the immediate future would only see them being taken prisoner at the worst.

  “The cargo ship that ran aground here, the company must have hired someone to look into it,” Chris spoke quickly, his earlier calm gone. “I was following their press releases but this, it has to be something covert. I have no idea why they’d go this far. They would have been looking in this area but couldn’t find it-“

  “Until you led them here,” Lograve finished plainly. “That doesn’t in any way answer my questions.”

  Chris gritted his teeth, knowing it wasn’t the time for this but having had his hand forced. “Your friend, Murdon Darkscale, was fated to become the Tyrant of the Thormundz and fall to the same dragon that killed you. Changing fate is difficult, but a slight touch can move more than a heavy hand. I pulled you out of the waters of the lake before you were completely electrocuted and made sure you made it back to Hagain. Without my intervention, you wouldn’t be here.”

  “You can cross between worlds?” Lograve asked in disbelief.

  “I will gladly go through every detail later, but right now there are people in danger.”

  “Even without our powers, our Blessed have the strength of ten. The Commander, a thousand,” Lograve scoffed, though the worried note in his voice told Chris he was thinking in the right direction.

  “Say you’re able to fight this off, they’ll still take at least one alive. What do you think will happen when your Commander learns where this island is?”

  “… nothing good, for us or you,” Lograve admitted. The sound of a radio’s channel opening played, and Chris remembered the Arcanist had one himself. That it hadn’t echoed the Commander’s message, or his, meant Lograve had muted it. Chris had to admit it was nice to meet someone else good with foresight, even if they started the encounter pointing a gun at him. “Commander, this is Lograve,” he said in his native tongue. “I don’t believe this to be the work of Daniel’s group but people who have followed them here. I’m currently reaching out to anyone with one of these, we’ll need to have them switch to a different frequency that I will provide telepathically.”

  “Shit,” Chris cursed, knowing why Lograve was taking the precaution. “You can’t reach them, can you?”

  “No. We’ll have to hope they’re just asleep.” They both looked toward the yacht, and without having to confirm with the other, started running.

  …

  Money was the root of all evil. While the maxim wasn’t true universally, it was in this world. When the cargo ship Rigel registered under Shooting Star Shipping, or the Triple S company as it was sometimes referred to, went missing during a voyage between the eastern United States coast and Asia, it had been an incident of minor note.

  The crew presumed lost with the vessel totaled enough to be a minor catastrophe, with rescue efforts launched to cover a wide breadth of the Pacific. The projected area was too large, however, and the last reported position was before an unexpected storm had crossed their projected route.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Months then passed, with not a scrap from a destroyed vessel being found. Relatives and friends of those lost waited, first for rescue, then for news of any kind. Eventually, the search efforts dwindled, the already poor following of the story fading entirely. It was the kind of thing you could have easily missed hearing about if you hadn’t been paying attention to the news for a day or so. There’d be a niche podcast about it in a few years.

  One group never stopped looking, Triple S itself. While one could mark this up to loyalty of a corporation to their workers, this take would suffer from severe ignorance of the value of life in the modern economy. People were replaceable.

  Gold was not. You could put anything in a shipping container, and with the right connections, planning, and bribes, you could get away with anything. Over nine hundred and seventy two million dollars in what must have been illegitimately acquired lucre. It’d bounced around a few times after being brought into this world from the Octyrrum, unbeknownst to the initial buyers, until it finally changed into the hands of waiting foreign interests.

  The same levers Chris had pulled to accommodate Daniel’s requests could be used in other ways, and indeed that was how his actions had been noticed. Not to disparage the careful planner who was that man of mystery, but everyone has blind spots.

  Just as you could hide over a billion dollars in gold, you could plant tracking equipment in a yacht. Not that the boat would have been intercepted if the hunch had been wrong, the point of the recovery efforts at this point was to not be discovered if possible, but when it had vanished entirely a week into its uncharted voyage the call had been made.

  The discovery of the island had been a revelation by itself, something the mercenaries on the Menagerie hat set down next to the wreck of the Rigel couldn’t fully explain. Neither could they let it stop what they had to do. The company could figure out how the hell you cloaked a damn island once they recovered the gold and transmitted its coordinates.

  To that end, they geared up and prepared to take the Rigel first. There were clearly people here, some kind of city was visible in the distance, but they’d abandoned the wreck half picked over. The only reason they hadn’t pulled out and called for reinforcements at this point was due to there being no strong counter presence they could see by drone. No airstrips and only one other seaworthy boat. More prudence might have been necessary, but these were the kind of people you hired to take risks for you. It wasn’t as if they weren’t extremely well armed, and with something jamming long-range communications and a powerboat sent early to secure the other vessel they’d spotted, they were confident no call for help would go out.

  …

  The first thing Kara did was hug her son, which was a choice considering the patient accompanying the small group that had rushed into the strange city. There’d been some kind of argument on the radio, but before she could ask what had happened it had been taken from her. Unfortunately no one nearby spoke English well enough to explain what was going on, but one of the Blessed her son had known had simply told her to remain where she was.

  Kara had liked that term when she’d learned it. Despite the crisis of faith these past few weeks had given her, if not understanding, then some level of comfort. It had shaken her when she’d come to the inevitable conclusion that someone she’d thought dead had returned to life, but with such clear signs of the works of the divine, it made sense. How the gods of this other world fit into her beliefs, and vice versa, she wasn’t sure. Acting like she was a native of this Octyrrum didn’t give many opportunities for theological reconciliation.

  Now, however, it seems like the two worlds were colliding more forcefully than the first time. “Where are your sisters?” she asked while examining one of the strange new races. While this was one with at least a surface-level approximation of human form that she could attempt to extrapolate her knowledge to, something she was hesitant to do at all except in emergency, she knew there were stranger peoples that had come here with the island.

  “Back at the boat. They aren’t answering the radio,” her son replied hesitantly. “Lograve and Chris are going to make sure they’re ok.”

  The woman and her sister accompanying them, who Kara had learned possessed some supernatural gift that allowed them to suppress pain in others despite most of the Blessed being apart from their gods, asked something and became frustrated when she realized neither she nor Daniel could understand her.

  The hand she had pressed under the feathers to feel for a pulse trembled slightly when a voice intruded into her thoughts. I’ll need to make this short, we’re almost there. She’s asking if he’s alright.

  Bend the laws of reality and pierce the soul to ask a question she could have inferred. The way Lograve handled his powers so casually still surprised her. “His heart rate is within the average range I’ve been given. As far as his blood pressure, I can’t say. Our equipment isn’t made for his species.” What the medical field of these visitors had and didn’t have had surprised her as well. They knew of a simple germ theory, enough to get by on, triage protocols, ways to set bone, and even protocols for allergies that were mostly useless now that they didn’t have access to their usual treatments. That went without saying that these people were trained for the differences in every species, or at least those they’d commonly see.

  Heart rate was simple, you felt at the wrist or neck and counted while watching some kind of timepiece. The one man with scales she’d examined did have a very interesting pulse when she eventually found it, but otherwise, the theory held in practice.

  Pressure was different. You had to have a standardized, measurable unit, which they did not, and then a device to accurately replicate different pressures in the average person. Even with humans, you had to use different cuff sizes for adults and children. With the tough, leathery skin of an avianoid, their blood pressure would read far higher than normal, or be unreadable if she tried putting the cuff where you were supposed to and had feathers in the way.

  All this was to say that if she were in a trauma bay, she would have vitals, ultrasound scans, and X-rays to determine what damage the fall could have done, with lab draws and possibly a CT scan in the works. Here, she could only make a basic physical inspection on someone she was still learning the biological norms of.

  Perhaps… put that more optimistically, the disembodied voice recommended, making it clear he hadn’t translated for her.

  Sighing, Kara continued carefully turning the head while inspecting for injuries. Again, trauma bay rules would have the man completely stripped during this process, but considering he was purportedly one of the Blessed she had less concern. Those favored by their gods had some definite physical improvements to durability and healing rate, at least among the ones she’d seen.

  “He isn’t bleeding anywhere, at least externally. There are a dozen tests I would like to run, but I can’t. Without those, optimistically, the best we can do for him is let him rest under monitored care.” She saw the familiar sight of concern only slightly being mollified as the family, or whoever this woman was to her patient, was given an early update on their status while the translation was carried across. “What about my daughters?” she asked when it was done.

  Her heart slowed as the mental voice began to sound like it was giving its own bedside report. I can’t sense their minds on the boat. That could just mean they are sleeping, but… there are several others nearby. I will have news in half an hour, no later. The connection then cut, leaving Kara with nothing but her patient, her son, and her fears.

  …

  There are six of them. The four you can see, plus two inside.

  I only see the two at the dock.

  So, you don’t have improved attributes, Lograve noted privately. Someone with good wisdom could make out more in the near total darkness in this part of the island, though completely defeating it required either a higher level than he was or a specific power like the one Hunter had had.

  How potent are these weapons? Lograve asked, holding the gun in his hand. He had seen records of their use in wars, entries on medical complications and survival estimates from being shot, as well as a list of historical and fictional weapons that had taken him a few minutes to realize weren’t all real. The perspective of a native was important, though he wasn’t sure if this ‘Chris’ qualified.

  For handguns, a normal person usually won’t survive a shot to the head. It’s possible but unlikely. The man gestured to where he thought he was, getting it adorably wrong. You, without your powers, wouldn’t want to let someone unload on you while standing still. A graze or hit outside twenty meters would hurt but might not break skin. Still wouldn’t recommend getting hit in the head.

  Solid advice there. It looks like the ones on the boat are carrying bigger ones. Rifles, I believe they are called. Does the same hold true?

  Chris grimaced. Yes, and no. If the ammo is nothing special then it’s not that different per shot. You could stand up to a burst from those, though again, with only your attributes they can eventually kill you.

  So familiar with enhanced attributes for someone without them. Lograve still didn’t know what to make of the man. His claims of having saved him from the lake, as well as what he’d said about fate, were ridiculous at face value. Yet here he was in another world, gripping a weapon that could put any unenchanted crossbow to shame. He projected his thoughts back to Chris, the two relying on Telepathy due to their proximity to the boat. So, I shouldn’t try to play the invisible Hero and single-handedly save the day?

  Not if you want the twins to come out of this alive. I wouldn’t put it past these people to kill them if they get attacked. ‘If they haven’t already’ hung between the two for a moment.

  That was another thing. Lograve had learned about the phenomenon of duplicate births on Earth from Daniel, who had been surprised to find such a thing didn’t happen on the Octyrrum. Every pregnancy always resulted in one child. Not that this was immediately relevant, it was just one of the things constantly whirling around his magically empowered mind as he considered his next option.

  Then I find them first, Lograve replied. Even if they are coordinated, they aren’t magically active. I can evade them as easily as I evaded you.

  That would work, but it looks like they’re getting ready to take off. Probably sailing back to wherever their main ship landed. I’d say we have a few minutes and you’ll need half of that getting on. I’d like to get them out of there entirely before people start shooting, hard to do that in the open ocean.

  I suppose I could impersonate their conscience, though that would also risk the hostages. Lograve continued to think, narrowing options, until time pressed his hand. If you’re not just here to mysteriously brag about saving my life, then I’d appreciate if you could help me with a distraction to save a few others. I’ll even give you back your gun.

  Let’s say I agree. What exactly are you going to do?

  Daniel may have thrown me into this magicless wasteland with hardly a care for how I landed, Lograve explained, a thin smile invisibly growing on his face despite the focus in his eyes, but he at least left me with a few working artifacts to play with.