General discussions had broken out among the witches. Several of the elders engaged Josarl and Coseph in conversation while everyone finished their meals; however, Josarl found it difficult to focus. His interest y with the other guests. He felt a feeling. It pulsed strongly from within; unfamiliar in tone, yet reted to the fear he felt every time he took his helmet off in a new environment. It sprang to life when they arrived and he needed to know if he was simply imagining things, or if the feeling came from some new sense being honed through experience.

  As the remnants of the meal were cleared away, Lucy returned. Hoof beats thundered away as she approached Josarl and Coseph. “There’s been a development,” she said somberly. “Roundian cavalry’s been spotted in these parts. The Nokadol are shadowing them and riders have been dispatched to the Corvians for aid, but you two best be on your way tomorrow. The Roundians have been itchin’ to get back at the Corvians and we’ll just be colteral to them. It ain’t your fight. I understand that. But if you stay here, it will be.”

  “Thank you for letting us know,” said Josarl. “We will leave tomorrow morning then. We’ll need a guide back to the cave.”

  “Helena can do that. And she can also get you set up in the guest rooms. Helena!”

  The girl appeared.

  “Would you please set these two up in the guest quarters?”

  “Sure thing, Lucy!” Helena replied with a cheerfulness that made Lucy cock an eyebrow. “Right this way, gentlemen! Come Pushie!” The bck cat cmbered up onto her shoulders.

  Helena led them to the north end of the central hall, where a pair of stairways branched out east and west. She led them up the west stairway, (the east stairway went downward) to the second floor where they went through the interior to a rge room on the south side. It had four beds of reasonable size. Cityscape paintings full of bricks and rge chimneys belching smoke as bck as evil and store fronts with many pretty things in the windows hung at the head of each bed. A few pnts, including the first cactus either man had ever seen, acted as the primary decoration and the window opened up onto the grassy pins they would have to cross to get back home, currently occupied by a herd of reasonably fed white cows with auburn splotches.

  There were a few chairs pced neatly in the room and Helena threw herself into one of these as she asked, “So how does your portal thingy work, specifically?”

  She received no response. Josarl and Coseph were clustered around the cactus. It looked like a short round fluffy thing. The fluzzy appearance came from the numerous spines that pricked any attempt to touch the pnt. For a minute or two, they tried to interact with the pnt until Helena’s patience ran dry.

  “So, portal! How does it work?” While she paused for an answer, Pushie wandered out of the room. “Boys?”

  Josarl deliberately pced his helmet on one bed before sitting on a different one. “We’re not allowed to tell you that. Even if we were, it’s a little hard to expin. Specifically because we do not have much knowledge ourselves. Some of the Acornial engineers would know more, but even their knowledge has rge gaps. For example we do not know why it goes where it does. We think that each time it opens it is a new reality, however why it jumps around as it does is a mystery.”

  “You must have some rather advanced machines to build such a thing.”

  Josarl shook his head. “Not really. The gun on your hip is far superior to anything we’ve got just for its compactness. The gate is powered by Radia collected at the Royal Collector Array. It’s more magical than engineering.”

  “But you’ll get to go pces with lots of machines, right?”

  Josarl and Coseph gnced at each other. “I’d assume so,” said Josarl. “There’s no guarantee where we go, so it is at least a possibility. Why are you so fixated? You don’t know us and we’ve both told you no and that you’re trying to sign up for an extremely hazardous mission.”

  Helena took off her hat, revealing ink bck hair drawn up into a bun that fit neatly under the hat. “I have a powerful interest in machines. The Crones don’t like it since it ain’t in harmony with nature. They point at the Corvians and say ‘them’s folk with no respect for nature’ as if an interest in science is so bad. Our alchemy ain’t so different. Experimentin’ and learnin’. But I like the machines. I really like the steam trains.”

  “Don’t we have steam trains?” asked Coseph.

  “Do you really?” asked Helena like every dream of hers could come true.

  “We have a train that runs between Volthund and Grakad. It’s just a pything of Counts Erofall and Horntrip. Coseph and I would never be allowed anywhere near the thing.”

  “What about me?”

  Coseph and Josarl shared a pained look.

  “You know what a prostitute is, correct?” said Josarl slowly.

  “I don’t see what that- that’s what they use it for?”

  “I hear they like them as young as possible,” said Coseph.

  “That’s-” started Helena.

  “The privilege of the nobility,” said Josarl sharply. “We don’t question whether it is right or wrong, merely obey. And fantasize,” he added under his breath with murderous tone.

  “I reckon every society has rich folks that don’t account for nothin’.” Helena’s voice was awash in dejection.

  “I’ve been to two other realities besides my own,” said Josarl. “I saw one or two strange things in the st trip. There’s a chance we may come across the a world without that kind of person. The point of the program, however, is to find a solution to our problem. We’ll begin actively looking for a more advanced society once the Compendium Gate’s… problems are sorted out enough.”

  “I would love to see something like that,” said Helena. “Most complicated mechanical devices we have are these here six shooters. Everything else is simple tools or magic.”

  “Why do witches need guns?” asked Coseph.

  “Not every hag form has offensive abilities. That’s something even achieving crone form wouldn’t fix. And just about all of the magic we wield is fairly mundane. Wrangling smoke, operating tches from across the room, Dust Pull, nothing particurly impressive like summoning rock slides or building golems.” Helena sighed. “I need to feed Pushie soon. If I can find him.” she added when she gnced around the room. “It was nice talkin’ to y’all. Good night.”

  “Good night,” the pair replied.

  When Helena had withdrawn, Coseph stripped off his upper coverings.

  “Would you like help getting out of the armor?” he asked.

  “No,” said Josarl. “I will sleep in it.”

  Coseph blinked. “But, why?”

  “I spent a month in it on the st expedition. I don’t want to acclimate to sleeping without it too much or a simir experience will be just as bad.”

  “I suppose it was very dangerous, for you to keep the armor on.”

  Josarl shook his head. “The armor isn’t for the dangers. The trip’s biggest danger was at the end, when I had to cross a volcanic pin.”

  “Were there va flows?” asked Coseph as he inspected his shoes for holes and dirt.

  “No, the air was just bad. The only violent encounter we faced was some mystical rider that could talk to the hammer and he never threatened me directly.”

  Coseph pced his shoes neatly at the end of his bed and slipped his lower half under the covers. “Did your decisions change because of that?”

  “I always tried to remain as neutral as I could. We must do that here, too. Our mission will become difficult if we become entangled in other’s affairs.”

  “I know that’s what the Duke said, but I never understood what that meant.”

  “Neither do I. I suspect that they just don’t want me to be making agreements that they then have to honor.”

  “Not sure how. We could just never return to a reality if the nobles really wanted to sully their honor.”

  “I know that if I took sides, I very well might be dead. I know a sample size of one is not much to go on, but it may still be worth mentioning. Now, I believe we should try to get some sleep,” Josarl said, lying on his side. “Tomorrow we’ll need to move quickly to get out of the area before any violence ensues.”