Falling.

  The panic abated with the realization he was stationary. For a moment, the desire to return to sleep seduced him. He'd been comfortable before being roused by the phantom dropping sensation. As he lay there, the mumbling of voices gradually penetrated his repose.

  He’d been unconscious for quite some time, he felt. As his eyes blinked up at a metal ceiling with sterile lighting, confusion set in. Where was he? The environment held a vague familiarity from his time traveling aboard War Barge Kevin. Years had passed since then. What happened? Some momentous experience awaited still within the depths of his mind. He reached for those memories.

  Hector abruptly sat up.

  He was alive. Disjointed moments spun through his mind. The dark tomb of a Dragon’s gullet, from which he never expected to emerge. A big fall. A conference room where a voice spoke to him.

  Rather than probe at that last memory, Hector shifted his attention to his realm. It was just as he knew it would be: quiescent and content in the absence of miasma. The metaphysical space he constructed was at peace in the moment. Given the proper stimulus, it would cease to be so.

  The moment he’d shattered the Dragon’s soul played through his mind. He’d not felt a single iota of doubt when he struck. Fresh from forging his realm, anything felt possible. And it might as well have been, given what he accomplished. The Dragon was dead. Terra was saved. He lived.

  Hector pulled the covers back and slipped out of the bed, noting that he was in one of those awkward hospital gowns. It was a recurring motif in his life that he wound up nude after a lot of his adventures. Superhero movies didn’t prepare him for that aspect of having a durable body. The Hulk could even change sizes and somehow his pants were always still there. Must be nice.

  After a moment spent tying the back of the gown tighter, Hector began to walk towards the voices. They were from beyond the closed partition around his bed. He pushed the curtain aside and stepped closer to another closed off bed. His attention focused and he picked up the words.

  “There are challenges, but it is working.” That was Restoration.

  “Joint workings are my specialty. Once I even orchestrated a ritual that destroyed an entire world by empowering an antimatter weapon.”

  Hector’s heart stopped. That could not be who he thought it was. How would she be here? This had to be a dream. Was he still recovering from his advancement? In his moment of distraction, he stubbed his toe on a cart, denting the tin contraption horribly with a foot harder than diamond.

  The curtain yanked partially open and the face of Restoration appeared. “He’s awake.”

  Suddenly Zelda was leaning past the Sage. “Hey Hector!”

  He went with the most eloquent response he could manage. “What are you doing here?”

  “I think you’re supposed to talk to Cruiser Erin about that.”

  Restoration pointed towards the hatch door. “We’re doing a medical consult, so you need to leave now. I promise we’ll talk later.”

  Hector hesitated.

  “Leave, Hector. This is a medical facility which means I outrank you here.”

  He obeyed Restoration’s command and went through the hatch, closing it tight behind him as he found himself in a narrow hallway. This was without a doubt a Mercom military vessel. He heard the familiar whirring of life support, noted the over-engineered architecture, and even felt copious legal energy running through everything.

  It was also very clearly not a war barge. The scale of everything was too small for that.

  A Jinn woman approached from down the narrow hall and paused to offer a brisk salute. “Sir, would you care to follow me?”

  “Uh, sure. What is going on?”

  “Cruiser Erin wishes to welcome you aboard.”

  Hector followed the woman, one hand pinching the back of his gown together to prevent his ass from peaking out. They went up a level and he entered a familiar conference room. The woman remained outside as she closed the door.

  “You were not in the best condition when we met,” a woman’s voice said from speakers throughout the room.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “Things were a bit crazy at the time. I… remember some weird things.”

  “Like slaying a Dragon?”

  “You know, that was a typical exploit for the knights in stories of my world.” Hector sat in one of the chairs around the table. “I’ve learned since leaving home that the major powers do not treat Dragons as a subject for children's tales. Not at all.”

  “Yours is only the second to die by human action.”

  “Yeah. I’ve heard about War Barge Elliott, the Sage of Severing, and the Lord Annihilator joining together at the time of the Dragon Compact. I’m guessing what I did is a pretty big deal.”

  “I cannot adequately express how big.”

  Hector nodded. “Before my nap… you said some things.”

  “So you remember!”

  “Maybe. I was pretty out of it. I’m not sure if I heard right.”

  “Did you hear me name you?”

  He swallowed. “I’m obviously not a Lord. I never will be, either.”

  “Even if your sobriquet is never more than honorary, it is greatly deserved, Lord Dragonbane. Terra still stands because of you. As do countless unempowered worlds. None of your Xian peers possess noble deeds that can compare to that one act.”

  Hector shook his head. “All of this… Evelyn? She is the one who told me about doing art with my soul. Inside the Dragon, I assumed it was just good luck that I had enough of an idea to get started on a realm. She said that to me years ago.”

  “The Sage of Foresight indeed guided events. She left a recording for you.”

  “Evelyn isn’t here?”

  “Unfortunately, she could not join us. Should I play the video?”

  Hector nodded and one of the walls became a screen. On it, a hollow-eyed Evelyn appeared. She drew a deep breath as she looked towards the camera.

  “I am sorry.” The words exploded out like she could not hold them back. “I looked for other ways, I did, but I never found one that would work. You had to be in the belly of the beast and you had to believe you were going to your death. I don’t know why it was necessary. You – future versions of you – claim it was the perfect environment for what you had to do. I’m not sure about that, but I do know that outright telling you to make a realm would create a pellet gun instead of a nuke. We really need the nuke, Hector.

  “I’m not justifying myself. I just want you to know why. Not that it even matters. You won’t care. You’ll be happy to be used if it saves lives. But I’m not okay with any of this. This isn’t how I treat friends. God damn it, I hope you’re listening to this recording. That would mean we’re on the right timeline and the multiverse isn’t collapsing around us.

  “If you are there, then your job isn’t done. I know you care about the Reconquest, so this will be welcome news for you. There’s a possibility we take Aes back. But there are obstacles on the way to that future. Persuasion and Erin know what pitfalls to avoid, so listen to them. You have your own retinue, chosen by alternate timeline versions of yourself. Conflagration is there as well, but there is a chance he will get bored and wander away once he realizes your transformation of miasma is nothing like burning.

  “The path forward is pretty simple. Hide from everyone trying to find you. Advance as soon as you can, but definitely don’t take longer than a year. Then head to Aes. Piece of cake, right? I wish I could smooth your way, but I’m going to be a martyr for the cause. I believe in you, Hector. It’s the ‘save the multiverse’ campaign this time. Do a good job here, and who knows what I’ll have you save next.” She gave the saddest smile Hector had ever seen. “Good luck, big man.”

  The screen went dark, becoming just another wall panel in the conference room. Hector blew out a breath. Evelyn looked rough, like someone consumed by inner demons. No doubt carrying the weight of the future brought immense stress with it. The part she’d emphasized in that video, though, he thought misplaced. If she said things needed to play out the way they had to get him in place, he believed her without question. Even without her testimony, he knew what he had felt. A better environment couldn't possibly exist for him to construct his realm. The contrary pressure exerted by the Dragon made it easier to mold his realm with such fine precision, causing the threads of his aperture to snap into proper position as if pulled by a magnetic field.

  He held no animosity towards her for necessary manipulations. It sounded like she knew that would be the case and it didn’t assuage her guilt. Her necessary actions violated her personal code in a way she could not accept. As someone who had a minor moral component to his insight, Hector could understand how that dissonance might eat at a person.

  “What did she mean by saying she was a martyr for the cause?”

  “Foresight was the face of the entire operation on Terra. Any attempt to join us would draw attention to our escape attempt. If she succeeded in her plans after we parted, the agents of Mercom and Svarga are going to spend as much time sabotaging each other as they do hunting for you.”

  Hector drummed his fingers on the table. “Is Evelyn in trouble?”

  “Foresight explained that you should heed my advice. Do not attempt to free her. We are on a strict schedule. Even if you do not advance, you need to increase your strength before we return to Aes. There is no time for unnecessary heroics, Hector. Our goal is saving the multiverse.”

  He calmed himself with an effort. “You are lucky I’m not questing anymore.”

  “I’m certain that is the case,” Cruiser Erin said. “Currently we are on an unempowered world that used to be an Amarat interest. In the next few days, a Xian merchant will arrive with resources to assist in your body enhancement. Most of your retinue is outside securing the estate where the exchange will happen. They would be pleased to see you up and walking around.”

  The change of topic and suggestion to visit with his friends seemed like an attempt to prevent him from stewing over Evelyn’s fate. Such manipulations weren’t necessary. He keenly felt the burden that had been passed from the shoulders of Foresight onto his own. There couldn’t be any unnecessary detours on his route to Aes. Too much was at stake.

  “Before I run outside, is there any chance I can get some clothes?”