"That's none of your business," Mari replied, returning glare for glare. "If you have problems, you deal with me."
Alain saw Groveen's eyes focus on the air directly before her, her hands making those odd gestures before her. "I can't detect any human presence in that house or the surrounding structures. She's not here." The woman from Urth gave them a triumphant look. "My son is missing and so is your daughter, the same girl who asked to see him again! Do you think I don't know what's going on?"
"What is going on?" Alain asked, keeping his voice almost toneless, before Mari could reply.
"You convinced my young, idiotic son to steal an important item in the hopes of gaining favor with your daughter," Groveen said. "It's so obvious."
"And so wrong," Alain said. "Have you not overheard every word we have spoken to your son?"
"What—?" Thrown off balance by the realization that her opponents knew they had been spied on, Talese Groveen fumbled for a reply.
"We have every reason to be concerned about your son," Alain continued, still letting little feeling enter his voice, knowing that his speaking style would further discomfit the woman from Urth. "We will contact Queen Sien, and conduct a thorough search of Pacta Servanda."
"That would be a good starting point," Mari agreed, regaining her composure. "We should work together to—"
"I am not interested in delays that might imperil…my son!" Talese Groveen insisted. "He needs to be returned to me before he…" Alain saw suspicion appear on her face. "Just what has he told you?"
"About what?" Mari asked.
"He has nothing of value! Except what he might know," the woman from Urth said. "And even he may eventually figure that out. Time is of the essence."
"Yes," Mari agreed. "We will contact Queen Sien-"
"I intend crowd-sourcing this search," Talese Groveen informed them. "Far faster, and more efficient, and more likely to quickly locate my errant son and your daughter." She paused, eyes on that place before her nose, her hands moving rapidly before her.
Alain leaned to whisper in Mari's ear. "She lied about Jason having nothing of value. She is not certain that he knows the value of what he took, and I do not think she suspects he already told Kira or us the truth about it. But she fears that he will. Should we stop her?"
"We don't even know what she's doing! And how can we stop her without attacking her?" Mari mumbled in reply. "Not that I wouldn't like to at the moment."
Finishing whatever she was doing, Talese Groveen smiled triumphantly at them. "I have ordered my ship to send transmissions on the frequencies used by the primitive radios on this world, telling them that my son and your daughter are unaccounted for and must be found. I also offered a significant award for their-"
"You did what?" Mari shouted. "You told the entire world my daughter is out there? Do you have any idea how many people still want revenge on me?"
"If that concerned you, you should have-"
"You stupid, arrogant troll!"
Alain, accustomed to hearing Mari having to speak diplomatically as the daughter, felt a grim thrill at her letting loose on the woman from Urth.
"If anything happens to my daughter because of you," Mari continued with only slightly more control, "I swear that I will take you apart, piece by piece, and dump the pieces into the depths of the ocean so that any bottom-feeders desperate enough can choke on your venomous flesh!"
Alain, feeling the same anger as Mari, diverted it by using his Mage training. For the first time in a long while his face took on a full Mage aspect, so totally lacking in emotion that commons called such Mage expressions "dead."
Talese Groveen, seeming uncertain whether to act offended or angry, looked from Mari to Alain and physically recoiled at the sight of his face.
"You would be wise to leave here now," Alain said, his voice now completely devoid of feeling, and sounding all the more menacing as a result. "And take no other action without first gaining approval of the leaders of this world."
"Do not threaten me!" Talese Groveen cried, backing up another step.
"Oh," Mari snarled. "You thought that was a threat? It wasn't. It's a promise. Get out of here before I do something I might eventually regret!"
"We will do whatever we deem necessary to…to protect a citizen of Earth!" Talese Groveen insisted, but she backed away from them as she spoke, reaching behind her to fumble for the edge of the opening in her flier. "Tell your queens and emperors and other obsolete, barbaric rulers that they either deal with us on our terms or we will act as we wish!"
They watched the flier rise and vanish in the direction of where the ship from Urth still rested outside of Pacta Servanda.
Mari exhaled, then slapped her forehead. "Did I just start the war we were trying to avoid?"
"Not a war," Alain said. "I think Talese Groveen merely said openly the beliefs that the people from Urth have acted on since arriving. We are not, in their eyes, their brothers and sisters, or their equals. We are something to be…"
"Exploited," Mari finished, her expression growing determined. "Like a crop to be harvested. Why would Urth have sent someone like that?"
"Perhaps they have let those like the Senior Mechanics of the old Guild, or the elders of the former Mage Guild, gain too much power among them."
"The seed that gave us the Great Guilds must have sprouted from somewhere," Mari said. "I never thought of that before. All right. First thing, I get on the far-talker and start notifying people of what's happened, even though they'll all probably have heard that woman's announcement already. I need to try to get everyone to agree on how to deal with the Urth people now that things are out in the open. And do it in a way that doesn't sound awful when the Urth ship listens in. How do we keep any other Mage, including Dark Mages, from demonstrating their skills to the Urth people?"
An idea came to Alain. "According to Jason, the ship from Urth stole information about my powers. What if all Mages heard that what the Urth ship seeks is to steal their powers? That demonstrating even the smallest spell for them would give the Urth people the means to drain a Mage's power for all time so that it could be used by the ship from Urth?"
"Would Mages believe that?" Mari asked.
"Mages know that devices of Mechanics can do things that Mages cannot. They know that Healers can directly do things to the body of a person, which Mages cannot. They do not understand those things, but they know others can do them. Mages are not supposed to admit to fear, but one thing they all fear is the loss of their powers. That was one of the strongest tools the elders of the Mage Guild used to maintain their control, that deviating from the wisdom the elders proclaimed would cause Mages to lose their powers."
Mari nodded, her eyes distant with memory. "You told me that a long time ago, that you had feared losing your powers when you fell in love with me. You've never admitted how much that must have scared you."
He smiled at her. "My powers were nothing compared to what I felt for you. That has never changed."
She shook her head at him. "I got so lucky. All right. You can get those rumors going? Spread them as rapidly as possible so any Mage would hear them?"
"I can. But we must also think of Kira."
"Do you think I'm capable of forgetting about her for even a moment?"
"When the Empire hears that Kira is away from our protection, they will see a great opportunity," Alain said, trying to keep his own anger under control.
"Yeah. A lot of people will. Plans have changed, Alain. We need to find Kira."
"She will be doing her best to hide from everyone."
"I know. And with the Urth ship listening in to our far-talkers there's no way to tell her who to trust." Mari had been worn by her responsibilities as the daughter, by the challenges and dangers they had faced even since the end of the war with the Great Guilds, but now as she looked at him Alain saw once more the woman who had first saved him in the wastes outside of Ringhmon and stood with him in the face of a charging dragon. "Ready?"
"With you?"
Alain said. "Always."
* * *
Jason complained.
The easiest part of the trip had been in the Urth flier, things that Jason called screens showing images of the outside world zipping past as if they were windows. Kira had sat in one of the seats, a strap fastened across her to hold her in place. As the flier's hatch had closed, glowing symbols and marks had appeared before Kira as if inviting her touch, but she kept her hands in her lap. An odd humming sound and a slight vibration were the only signs of whatever power the flier was using as it zipped through the sky.
"What do you think?" Jason asked as soon as the flier settled on its course.
"I prefer flying by Roc," Kira said.
"A Roc? You mean a giant, mythical bird?" Jason said with a brief laugh.
"Yes. I rode one up to Danalee once."
"Uh, yeah. I mean, for real."
"So do I," Kira said.
Jason had given her a troubled look, but afterwards stayed mostly silent with worry until he set the flier down just outside of Sima's Crossroads, the predawn darkness hiding them from sight. After Jason entered some new commands in the flier, it rose back into the air and darted off in a different direction.
Kira led them into the town, waiting impatiently until a store opened, then leaving Jason in an alley while she hastily bought some clothes, including spares and a pack for Jason to carry them in. After he changed again, she buried the old Mage robes in a refuse container. So far, everything had gone as she had hoped.
But Jason complained. About how uncomfortable his new clothes were. About how badly his new shoes fit. About how far they had already walked. About the food that Kira had purchased from a sidewalk stall for breakfast. About the way the water tasted. About the way the air smelled. Jason complained.
Kira, having spent the morning battling increasing worries and self-doubts, finally snapped. Just before they entered the train station, Kira shoved Jason into an alley, locked a fist on his shirt, and pinned him to the nearest wall. "Knock it off! I'm beginning to think that saving millions of lives may not be a worthwhile trade-off for having to spend another moment with you!"
Jason glowered sullenly at the ground. "Okay."
"And stop saying okay! Nobody says that here!"
"Okay!"
"Did you do that on purpose?"
To her surprise, Jason took a moment to answer, and began smiling as if he couldn't stop himself. "No. But it would have been funny if I had, wouldn't it?"
"No," Kira insisted, but found herself unable to stop from smiling as well. "You could try being funny more often," she added, releasing her grip on his shirt. "If you do, I think I might someday be able to tolerate you, if I don't kill you first."
Jason grinned. "That's the nicest thing any girl ever said to me."
"I can believe that." Kira stepped back. "You need to watch how much you talk where other people can hear. Keep your voice down. Your accent is unusual. Just stay beside me and be quiet while I buy us tickets to Julesport."
"Aren't you worried about being recognized?" Jason objected. "You look so much like your mom."
Kira hesitated. They were still pretty close to Pacta Servanda. The odds of running into someone who had seen Mari were uncomfortably high. "You're right. I'm going to coach you on how to say 'two tickets for Julesport' in a local accent. I'll be right there but pretend I'm looking somewhere else so my face isn't too visible."
Jason stared at her with that puzzled expression. "Wait. You're not going to argue with me?"
"Why would I argue? You're right. We're still too close to home."
He blinked at her, shrugged, then listened with what seemed to be an exaggerated amount of concentration as she led him through the phrase several times until Jason could say it with something like a local accent.
When the station agent, who once would have been a Mechanic Guild apprentice but since the fall of the Great Guilds was just a normal worker, gave Jason the price, Kira kept her face averted while she passed him the coins. As she led him to a bench to wait for the train, she noticed that Jason was grinning with delight. "What?"
"That was money!" Jason whispered. "Real money!"
"Um…yeah," Kira said. "You've never paid for anything before?"
"Sure I have! Lots of stuff! But I've never used money!"
"What do you use?" Kira asked.
"An auto-link to a payment app."
She nodded slowly at him. "So you don't use money on Urth?"
"Sure we do. We just don't use money."
Urth must be incredibly strange. "What do…I mean, you asked me once what we do for fun. What do you do?"
"Back home?" Jason slumped, looking at the wooden floor of the station moodily. "Play a lot of games, I guess. Do my classes."
"Don't you go out with friends?" Kira asked.
"Sometimes. I mean, just people I know. Nobody like…like you."
Not sure what that meant, Kira dismissed it with a shrug. "Yeah, sure. I'm exotic, you said."
He gave her a curious look. "Does that bother you?"
"Of course it bothers me. I don't like being judged by how I look, and I don't like other people judging how I look."
"But…it's good. Saying you look exotic is a good thing."
"Not. The. Point. No one else has a right to decide whether I look good or bad or exotic or whatever."
Jason frowned at his lap. "You wouldn't be happy on…where I come from. Everybody judges everybody else all the time. Usually on how they look."
Kira studied Jason, recalling some of the things he had said, and how the other members of the crew of the ship from Urth had looked oddly similar. "People got down on you for looking different?"
"Odd guy out," Jason said, trying to sound uncaring and failing.
"Didn't the people who knew you—"
"Everybody." He looked at her. "We're all linked. People you've never met feel free to comment on what you look like, what you said, what you did…"
Kira stared at him, trying to find words and failing, horrified at the idea of mobs of people criticizing others they didn't even know. Fortunately, at that moment a rumble and the hiss of steam announced the arrival of the early morning train.
She started to walk toward the passenger cars at the back of the train, but suddenly realized that Jason was standing still, gazing at the steam locomotive as if entranced. "What are you doing?"
"I'm…I'm…" Jason took a deep breath. "That is so great!"
"The locomotive? Yeah, it's a nice design. About ten years old with some improvements to make operation and maintenance easier. Let's—"
"Operation and maintenance?" Jason's stare shifted to her. "Can you do that?"
Kira shrugged, feeling strangely selfconscious. "Yeah. Some I learned at school, but Mother also took time to go over it with me."
"You can drive a steam locomotive? For real?"
"Yes," Kira said, wondering why a boy who had come to another world in a silvery ship would find that impressive. "Come on! We need to get good seats."
Jason followed, staring around like a kid from the Great Woods encountering his first Mechanic devices. Fortunately, there were still enough people like that on Dematr for his behavior to attract only a few amused glances from the others getting on and off the train.
Remembering some of the stories she had heard from her parents and their friends, Kira led Jason to seats at the back of the last car. She wasn't expecting trouble this early, but better safe than sorry.
Most of the car was still empty, the other passengers clustering near the front so that Kira felt safe speaking in a low voice. "We're lucky this new rail line is finished. While the Great Guilds were in power they didn't allow new rail lines. We would have had to ride or walk to Minut to find a Mechanics Guild train, but then by the time my mother and father came to Tiae the city of Minut had been controlled by warlords for years and the rail line abandoned."
"How come you don't have more going for you?" Jason asked, frown
ing out the small window beside their seats.
"Excuse me?" Kira said, thinking that she must have misheard.
"Why haven't you developed more? You ought to be a lot bigger in at least a couple of areas."
Kira stared at him, mingled rage and disbelief freezing words in her throat.
Jason glanced toward her and flinched away at her expression. "What?"
She finally managed to get a few words out. "How…dare…you…"
"I'm sorry! I just wondered why you guys hadn't developed your technology more in at least a couple of areas! I didn't realize you were so sensitive about that!"
"Our technology?" Kira looked away from him, inhaling and exhaling slowly. "What does the word develop have to do with technology?"
Jason looked at her as though he wasn't sure the question was serious. "You know, it means introducing new technology and making it widely available."
"Oh. Jason, during the centuries that the Great Guilds controlled this world, no one was allowed to introduce any new technology. We must have lost that use of the word develop during that time."
"Yeah," Jason said, nodding. "I can see how that could happen. What did you think I—"
"Never mind! Um…it takes time," Kira told him. "You can't just suddenly start making really advanced devices like I've seen in the tech manuals. It requires having the right tools and capabilities. We're in the position of having to build the tools that can build the tools that might be able to build the tools we need. We've had to build new foundries and new workshops and new mines. There are a lot more trains than there used to be, and new tracks being laid all over the place. More steam-powered ships, too. Far-talkers are much more common. And…and a lot more Mechanic weapons. Rifles and pistols and cannon."
"It figures people would make those first," Jason said, sounding sour.
"I'm sorry we disappointed you," Kira whispered angrily.
He glowered out the window. "I didn't mean it that way. To be honest, a lot of people thought we'd be a lot further along. Technology back at my home, that is. But we mostly seem to have hit another ground state."
"Ground state?" Kira asked. "Uncle Calu has told me about that. But that's about particles, isn't it?"
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