“So Tommy Boy, you regretting this yet?”

Thomas Archer-Kramer finished re-tying his boot, hoisted his pack back onto his back, and said with a smile, “Of course not, Darren, why would I?”

Darren Xanthopolous grinned back at his daughter’s fiancé. He had promised Lysis before they set out that he wouldn’t do more than lightly haze the kid. For one thing, Thomas reminded Darren of his mother – his birth mother Sophia, to be specific. He liked and trusted Sophia; he and she had been in government together for almost an Earth century, and while their portfolios couldn’t have been more different, they had both worked their butts off to help make Avalon the world it was today. Knowing the guys (and that one girl) that Amelia had dated in high school…well, Darren loved his daughter, but he would not have bet that she’d eventually settle on a calm, cool, and quiet guy who had a better-than-functional brain.

Still, he couldn’t give the Thomas a free pass; he had to make him sweat a little bit. And they were definitely sweating; the mid-day sun was beating down as they trudged along the creek bed. There was no trail to follow; this was virgin territory.

There were eight million Avalonians on a world with more landmass than Earth. Most of the world had never been formally explored, not even by Titans, and not even within the provinces. The territories – the Northern and Western Territories, to be precise – had barely been seen. There were a few outposts that had been staged by the military, and a few brief sojourns into the land along the coasts near Paletine and Ostia, but nothing significant.

The Wikipedia Foundation had met with Darren during his brief period as Special Envoy to Earth, and he had worked with them ever since; they had developed steadily from the quasi-reliable outfit Darren remembered from before he was abducted, and were now viewed as on the level of the Encyclopaedia Britannica for authoritativeness. They had worked through Darren to get an Archavian-language site up and running, first on Avalon, and more recently throughout the Empire; now, as part of their mission to catalog information, they’d funded a series of excursions to the territories to explore and catalog findings there. Darren had arranged for different two-person teams to cycle through the areas, including some rugged ex-Jacks for more difficult terrain in the North. But for this first leg – a jaunt around a few of the great lakes in the Great Western Rift – he had selected a team of himself and Thomas.

“We should be close,” said Thomas. “I think the brook picks up speed past the cut in the ridge.

Darren had been cutting a path through a field of tall grasses. He got up to the edge of the ridge, and stopped. “Damn hell,” he said.

They had reached the edge of the hill; from here there was a steady, steep descent. The stream picked up speed as it raced down toward its ultimate destination – a huge, placid inland lake, larger than the Caspian Sea.

He and Thomas stopped, and took in the sight for a good long while. Humans had seen this from orbit, of course, but it was doubtful that any sentient being had ever stood here, approaching its shore.

Darren felt a bit like his ancient forebearers, who had explored a continent. No – no, he corrected himself. They had been seeing things that had already been seen, taking land that had already been tamed by someone else.

This was something new entirely.

“All right,” Darren said, finally. “Tommy Boy, you want to find us a route down to the shoreline that won’t get us killed?”

Thomas shook his head; he knew this was going to be tricky, and he knew that Darren knew that he had no experience doing anything like this. But he didn’t complain; he simply said, “Looks like we can work our way down over there,” and led them forward.

Darren smiled. Yeah, he was gonna be a damn fine son-in-law all right.

* * *

They build a small campfire as the sun set; Darren had brought along a collapsible fishing rod, and had been happy to find both earthworms to use as bait, and to find that the lake (it was a lake; the water was freshwater, though the day would come in a million years or so when it would become part of the ocean) had plenty of hungry fish in it that the portable ed/pot scanner had confirmed were both safe to eat and, based on a quick DNA scan, a species of trout.

Darren hadn’t made Thomas clean the fish, though he’d shown him how to do it, and to the kid’s credit, he’d taken a whack at the second one. Wasn’t surprising, Darren supposed, that the son of a doc had a strong stomach, and while he more butchered than fileted the creature, it wasn’t bad for a first attempt.

It was funny, Darren though it had been a long damn time since he’d eaten anything that he caught. He’d taken his kids fishing a few times, but they threw the fish back those times. No, the last time he ate a fish he had caught was all the way back when he was a kid. He and his dad had gone up to Lake Buchanan, and he’d caught a striped bass. His dad had taught him how to clean a fish, and somehow, his mind had held onto it through all the years and worlds.

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Darren asked, as Herakleos rose to the east, and Sol Tarsuss set to the west.

“It is,” Thomas said. “Seen some pretty places, but Avalon is still one of the prettiest. Almost as pretty as Kembror. Though I guess we hit it at the pretty time of their orbit; based on what Pipidu says, I’m not sure if it’s worse there in the summer or the winter, but probably both.”

“Kembror, that’s the one that’s got the really eccentric orbit, in the Federation, right?” Darren asked.

“Yeah,” Thomas said. He smiled. “That’s probably the most extreme place we’ve found humans. I mean, it’s not like people living in a recycling center near a Titan city aren’t going through some things, but the Drifters…it’s amazing they lived long enough to pull things together, much less build what they built there.”

“We’re damn smart when we have the chance,” Darren said. “And damn stupid, too.”

“It’s funny,” Thomas said, “but there’s so much we don’t even know. You know they say the official number of humans in the Empire is around 300 million, right?”

“Yeah,” Darren said, “but I think that’s low-balling it.”

“It’s not even close,” Thomas said. “It’s hard to tease out humans from Titans in mixed worlds – the algorithms still aren’t tuned very well. You can sit in orbit around Earth and it will get it to the nearest billion, but in the Empire…anyhow, they keep trying to adjust based on what we’ve found. And the current best estimate is that there are over a billion of us. Might be as high as five billion.”

Darren shook his head. “I hope they aren’t planning on just you and Melia going to talk to ‘em all.”

Thomas laughed. “They aren’t. But…it’s daunting. We could still be finding humans for centuries in little pockets and corners of Titan worlds. I worry about them. Most of them don’t know that they’re free, and because of that…it’s not great if they end up taking risks to stay hidden when they don’t have to.”

“Plus, they’re living pretty tough lives,” Darren said. “You give them a chance to live a lot easier.”

“That’s not what it’s about,” Thomas said. “No job easier than pet, but I’m pretty sure there aren’t many humans who’d want to go back to that. The Drifters haven’t abandoned their home for one with climate control; they’re not uninterested in it, but they’re trying to make it work on their terms. Can’t fault ‘em for that.”

“Still,” Darren said, “doesn’t seem fair to keep folks from knowing that they can travel the stars, even if they grew up in a tribe. You ever meet a Terran acolyte pilot named Ahek Uɉa?”

“Think I’ve heard the name,” Thomas said. “Don’t think I’ve met her myself.”

“She was one of the Original Twelve pilots. Currently CAAG of Wing Two. Great pilot, great officer. Ted Martínez all but demanded I bring her in on the project, if you want to know how good she is. Anyhow, she’s Sentinelese.”

“I never have been good with Terran ethnicities. Is that like Chinese?” Thomas asked.

“Closer to Indian – South Asian Indian – and I think her mom is part-Indian, if I remember right. But no, the Sentinelese…they were the last tribe to make contact with the rest of humanity. They hadn’t done it in any real way when I was picked up with Twat – oh, they knew that we were out there, and we’d, like, waded up near the shore of their island once or twice. But they were pretty clear that they weren’t interested in talking, and fortunately for them, by the time we knew they were there….”

“Oh, you mean the Anoɉa! They were a case study when we were training, for how to do it right. Thurfrit loves their story, because the point is that they made the decision, and they worked through how to make it work for themselves. I didn’t know one of them was a pilot, but why not? If I remember right, their whole education plan is to teach the kids academics, as well as the skills they need to live on their island. So they work on making traps out of plants, things like that. They keep their ways alive.”

Darren stoked the fire a bit. “Gotta admit, that’s not a bad system. There are an awful lot of people who were happy and fine and living their lives when more advanced folks barged in and told them that we’d figured out gunpowder and a new god, and that was for sure something they couldn’t live without, and if they didn’t agree, well – we had gunpowder. And some of those folks were happier, but a hell of a lot of them weren’t, and a lot more didn’t live to have an opinion one way or another. Anyhow, by the time we figured out the Sentinelese were even there on their island in the ocean, we’d finally got it through our heads that maybe, if someone told us to go away, we should go away. India basically told everyone that if you tried to go there then you were better off getting arrested, because if the people on the island killed you, well, you were invading their land, and that’s on you.”

“And when they asked for help, the government that controlled their territory didn’t demand obedience; they worked to keep them protected and supported,” Thomas said. “And that’s the way the Aenur Foundation approaches it – we don’t want to ‘civilize’ humans. If the Drifters, or the camp near Trantor, or whatever, if they’d told us to go away we would’ve. We don’t want them to join us or die, we just want them to have the option. And frankly, if they don’t want to join Titan society, well…what they did for the Anoɉa, that’s what we want. Know where they are, help if they want help – and make sure that they’re left alone if that’s what they want.”

Darren nodded approvingly. “It’s good work. Glad you and Melia decided to get into it. Sometimes you go out to a Rixie’s and have a beer, stroll down the street at night, and you kinda think that we’ve fixed it all for ourselves. Yeah, there’s the war, but we’re kicking thorax there; Smitty’s in the Cabinet and Hillary’s the Floor Leader and it’s almost like we’ve finished the job. And then, you remember how much is left to do.”

“Yeah, there is,” Thomas said. “But we also know that we’ve made it a long way already. I remember what Atlantis was like growing up, and that was after the Civil War. My kids, hopefully, will just remember all that as their dad’s boring stories.”

“Gonna have kids?” Darren asked.

“Eventually,” Thomas said. “Timing will be up to Amelia, and while I’ll have a say…your daughter is pretty stubborn when she wants to be.”

Darren laughed. “She can’t help it. I’m stubborn as a Texas mule and I’m the mellow parent. But still…remember, when you two get married, she ain’t the boss. There ain’t a boss.”

“I know,” Thomas said. “And if Amelia gets her way on something, well…she’s not bossing me around if I’m letting her win.”

Darren nodded, and refilled Thomas’s mug with water. “You’re gonna take to this marriage thing just fine, Tommy. And if you ever need backup…I’ll send Lysis.”

Thomas smiled, and raised his mug in a silent toast. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. If it does, Mama Sophia will parachute in – on Amelia’s side.”

“Damn right she will,” Darren replied with a chuckle. “And that’s when Sophia and Lysis and Amelia all get together and turn on us.”

“And it doesn’t matter if we bring Mommy and Mat and Dad and Pop in,” Thomas said. “We won’t win that fight.”

Darren laughed. “Son…you would have been a helluva Tol-Bot player, ‘cause you can sure identify a bad match-up.”

* * *

The next day, they walked along the lake, taking images of the plant life and what animals they could catch sight of; about two hours in, Thomas grumbled. “We’ve lost uplink. Hope we’ve got enough data storage.”

“Got plenty,” Darren said. “Knew we’d lose signal for a few hours. It’s a good reminder, though, we need to get sat links up on this side of the planet. Can’t rely on line-of-sight to Valhalla or Ragnarok. Just because there’s nobody here now doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan for the day someone is. Enjoy it, it’s hard to get out of range these days.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Thomas said, taking a swig out of his canteen. “Even in deep space there’s usually a commlink.”

They entered a pine forest, which was nice, as it cut down on the relentless light of Sol Tarsuss. “You know, I know that Persnickety’s family took a whole bunch of plants and critters from Earth, but still…it’s a strange feeling. This could be Earth. Too flat for Colorado, but maybe somewhere like Michigan or Manitoba.”

“I have no idea where any of those are,” Thomas said.

“It’s right around where your human daddy grew up; Manitoba’s right next to Minnesota, and Michigan…that’s where Izzy grew up. Heck, lotta Midwesterners in our little club. Alex is from Wisconsin, you know.”

“Yeah, Dad and Alex always fight about football – gridiron football – because of the Vikings and Packers,” Thomas said. “I’ve tried to care, but honestly, not a fan of the game. They keep taking breaks.”

“That’d be heresy in the America I grew up in. But honestly, they’re both wrong. Everyone knows that the Cowboys were and always will be America’s team.”

“I always liked association football better,” Thomas said.

“Nothing wrong with soccer,” Darren agreed. “My mom’s family loved it. My uncle Luis….”

Darren trailed off, and held up a hand; it took Thomas a moment, but he too stopped, and looked around.

“Huh,” Darren said after a minute. “That’s weird. Got a feelin’ I haven’t had in a long time. I think, maybe….”

But before he could say what it was he was thinking, he heard a quick wheet, and suddenly his knee felt like it was on fire, and he crumpled to the ground.

Thomas did not react immediately; it wasn’t so much as he was scared as that he didn’t quite believe he was seeing what he was seeing. But that only lasted for a moment, and he shook it off, and quickly rushed to Darren’s side. It did not occur to him to be frightened for his own safety; he was focused on the job at hand.

He saw very quickly that Darren had received a much worse injury than an arrow in the knee would suggest. The arrow had nicked an artery in the leg – Thomas wasn’t sure which one, and knew it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that blood seemed to run out of Darren’s leg like a faucet.

“Gorram,” Thomas said, and dropped his pack to the side. He fumbled for a moment before he found lattice gel – hopefully enough to stop the bleeding, or at least slow it down. He paused for a moment; the best use of the gel would be to pull the arrow out, and quickly backfill with the gel, which would stabilize things. Leaving the arrowhead in would continue to aggravate the wound, and possibly reopen it. But if he pulled out the arrow and the gel didn’t seal….

“Knife? Arrow?” Darren asked.

“Arrow. Looks like…maybe stone.”

“Pull it,” Darren said. His breathing was shallow, and he was pallid, but he looked on at Thomas intently.

“If we’re wrong….”

“Then I made the wrong call. It’s my leg. Pull it.”

Thomas nodded, and said, “This is going to hurt. A lot.”

“I know,” Darren said, gritting his teeth.

It took Thomas a few moments to get his grip on the blood-soaked arrowhead, and an agonizing few seconds to work it loose, as Darren groaned in pain. He had already opened the gelpak, and as soon as the arrow came loose, he dumped it in, a bit at a time, until it almost filled the wound. He looked down at the readout on the container, which showed that it had identified a significant blood loss and was sealing, but that based on initial readings it could not repair all damage. Another warning light lit up, indicating that if this was in a limb, the activity of the gel could cause permanent damage to it. Then another lit up, warning that it was reading significant hypotension, and that it was going to begin converting raw materials around it to oxygenated particles – which changed the “could” in “cause permanent damage” to “will likely.”

“Probably tellin’ you I’m gonna lose the leg,” Darren said. “I might. Don’t know why they haven’t shot again.”

“Maybe they figure we got the message, whatever that message is.”

“Or maybe they’re trying to figure out if we’ll return fire.” Darren swallowed; the world was swimming, and he knew that between the blood loss and the pain that he was likely in shock. He dug under his vest, and pulled an object out, and pressed it into Thomas’s hands.

“You might need this,” he said. “And if you need to abandon me and get to cover…you do that.”

Thomas looked down at the standard-issue Avalonian Guard service pistol, which was an older model, but otherwise in pristine condition. “Not gonna abandon you, Darren,” he said. “Lysis would kill me if I did.”

“Melia’ll kill you if you don’t,” Darren said.

“Don’t try to talk,” Thomas said. “Rest.”

He rose, and faced toward where the arrow must have come from, and raised the gun, and fired.

* * *

A few moments earlier, young woman had cursed herself, and fumbled for another arrow. “Terrible shot!” she muttered, trying to get it nocked. She would take out the younger one next, and then….

“Sintiwa! What in the name of the Big Lake are you doing?”

A young man holding a large staff was running at full speed toward her position, with two others in tow; one carried a knife, the other a bow not unlike Sintiwa’s.

“What we should have done when we first saw them,” Sintiwa said, starting to raise her bow. “Killing them.”

“I command you to stop!” the young man said.

“And if I don’t? Will you break our bond?” Sintiwa said.

The young man stopped, and said, “Asesa, train your arrow on Sintiwa. If she shoots, you shoot.”

Sintiwa dropped her bow in shock, and turned in fury. “Jotr, you wouldn’t!” she hissed

“No, I wouldn’t,” Jotr said, and indeed, Asesa had not even unslung her bow. “But it got you to stop, didn’t it?”

“For the moment,” she said, turning back. She saw the younger man examining the arrow. She hadn’t killed the older man, but he was bleeding enough that it might still prove fatal. Another shot and the younger man would die, and….

…and she suddenly realized why Jotr had been insistent that they only track the pair, and try to gauge their intentions. “Big Lake,” she muttered. “They…they know we’re here.”

Jotr finally reached her, and said, “Yes. They do. And now that they know of our existence, they will bring us to her if they can.”

“So we should kill them both,” Asesa offered.

The other man with them, Xuta, shook his head. “If we kill them, will she not come looking for them?”

Jotr sighed. “This is what I was trying to avoid. It is likely that the Goddess knows where they are, and what they are doing. If they do not return, she will send others to find out why. And if they do not return, even more will follow, and more, and more, until they find us.”

He looked out at the two men. The younger one had pulled the arrow away and was pouring something – probably a medicine – on the leg. It looked like it had stopped the bleeding, but given how much blood was already on the ground, there was no guarantee that it had been stopped soon enough.

“If they survive to go back to the Goddess,” Sintiwa said, “she will come for us anyhow.”

“We do not know that,” Jotr said. “We only know that she has not come for us yet.”

The younger man stood up, and looked around, looking toward their position, though they were hidden in the undergrowth. He raised a silver rock of some sort into the air. And suddenly, there was a large clap of thunder that seemed to emanate from him.

“He calls her!” Asesa whimpered.

“No,” Xuta said. “I don’t think so. But what is he doing?”

The younger man knelt, and conspicuously set the silver rock down, doing so slowly and carefully, to make clear what he was doing. He then stood again, and held his open hands out wide.

“Is he praying to the Goddess to come rescue him?” Sintiwa asked.

“No…I don’t think so,” Jotr said. “I think…I think he means to show us that even though he has a weapon that can summon thunder…that he will not use it against us, even after we hurt his friend. I think…I think he means to show us that he does not want to hurt us.”

“It could be a trick,” Sintiwa offered.

“Yes, it could. Which is why I want you and Asesa to be prepared to strike him down. But do not fire unless I tell you to.”

“Jotr, what are you…..”

“I am doing what I am called to do as our age group’s shaman,” Jotr said.

And before Sintiwa could object, he rose out of the underbrush, and walked out into the clearing, holding his arms wide. “I am Jotr, son of Tja,” Jotr said. “I will not hurt you, if you do not hurt me.”

* * *

“No kuok Jotr tab Etja. No nejo nik jixokek nex jo neno nik jixokek.”

Thomas was caught between a dozen emotions. There was part of him that wanted to be angry at this young man. But he was mirroring Thomas, and Thomas had enough training in first contact to know that they do not always go smoothly. Slowly and carefully, Thomas put a hand to his chest. “Thomas,” he said. He gestured to Darren, and said, “Darren.”

“Tahnas. Tahrun,” the young man repeated. He then said, quietly, “Jibiok…tajix nik jiok wun von kuok sor.”

There was one word that sounded vaguely familiar. Tajix…it sounded an awful lot like Mαjαэ.

Goddess.

“Of course,” he said. “She would still be a part of your mythology. Probably the central figure in it. The authority you fled from…and you would probably think that we were here to take you back.”

He looked the young man in the eye, and said, =Λε мαjαэ)=

The young man’s eyes widened. “Ana tajix?”

Joseph frowned, and then cocked his head. He would have to hope that he was interpreting this man’s intentions correctly, and that the young man was interpreting his in the same fashion. If not, well….

“Come with me,” Thomas said, gesturing with his hands, and walking toward his pack. “Darren, how are you doing?”

“Not great. Dizzy,” Darren said. “You’re talking to ‘em?”

“Gonna try to see if he’ll let me hook a translator up to him. Here,” he said, kneeling, and picking out a small gray disk, about the size of a half-dollar. He looked back at the young man, and pantomimed putting it on his own left temple a couple of times, and then held it out to the young man, who was looking at him with utter bewilderment.

Jotr took the small object, still confused by it; the younger man – Tahnus – was signalling for him to place it to his head; Jotr was not altogether sure that he was not going to be marked for the Goddess to recover. Though he thought the man had been trying to tell him that he would not tell the Goddess about him.

He decided to throw cast caution on the lakes; the young man could make thunder, he could have found easier ways to kill him. So Jotr put it to his temple…and found to his surprise that it did indeed stick there, at least for a moment.

There was a sudden jolt of…not pain, exactly. More like discomfort. Then there was a brief ringing in his ears, and then…then he was fine. As if nothing had happened. At that moment, the object released from his head, and dropped to the ground. Tanhus didn’t react to it; instead, he simply said, =Эπpεκι)= When Jotr looked had him quizzically, Tanhus repeated, =((Эπpεκι))= and then held up his hand, and pantomimed it repeating the word.

“I am just supposed to talk?” Jotr asked.

=((Joqα)) Mαz jι εxzι)=

“All right,” Jotr said. “I don’t understand, but…I can talk to you. I think…you said you won’t take me to the Goddess. If you will not do so, we will help you and your friend. We really…we don’t mean you harm. The arrow was…I mean…we just….”

“You just goddess no want,” Tahnus said, with a smile.

The words were Jotr’s people’s words.

Jotr’s eyes grew wide. “How…what magic is this?”

“Not magic. Machine. Like arrow,” Thomas said, keeping his words and syntax simple. “It will get better as we talk. Machine in your head, and mine. Teaches us each other’s words.”

“That is…much more than an arrow,” Jotr said. Thomas shrugged.

“It is…but only because those who came before us had arrows. If it was unclear…I am Thomas, and this is Darren. Darren, how are you?”

“Been better. You opened your translator up to train mode, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Thomas said. “I thought….”

“I’d wanna understand the jibberjabber. Damn right. Gonna…gonna rest. You negotiate.”

Thomas knelt down by him; his pulse was still quick, but steady. He checked his gool chronometer; still hours until signal reacquisition, and hours after that for them to recover them.

“I am Jotr, son of Tja,” Jotr said. “I am…starting to understand your words better. How….”

“I do not understand this machine myself,” Thomas said. “Only that it works. It is amazing, isn’t it? What is more important…my machine will learn your words and help me say them, so any friends of yours will understand me. I think…if I understand, you are worried that we will take you to the Goddess, correct?”

“Yes,” Jotr said. “The Close People left the People of the Goddess many hundreds of seasons ago. We do not wish to live under her rule. She is not a true god.”

“She would agree with you,” Thomas said. “There is no goddess. There never was. Just a lie that was told long ago.”

Jotr looked confused; Thomas sighed. “It’s a very long story; there is a group of people who are…they are called titans. They are like us, but much larger, so much larger. They brought your ancestors to this world. And to keep your ancestors from arguing amongst themselves…they told us the lie, that there was a goddess. One goddess, who they had walk among us. She was giant, and so we thought, she must be telling the truth. She is so big! But she was not. She was giant, but in all other ways, she was just a person. No different from you or me, except for her size.”

Jotr sat down heavily. “You say she was different, and yet you know of her…she lived hundreds of seasons, no?”

“She has lived a long time, but not that long. They would replace her, when she got too old – have her daughter take her place. it was not hard to convince people that it was the same goddess, she was still giant, and gods can do magic. But the last person to be given this role, she was honest. She decided she could not pretend to be the goddess…she would tell the truth. She was just a person, and then she promised to help us to be free, to rule ourselves. And so we have.”

“So you will not take us to her?” Jotr asked. Thomas laughed.

“Honestly, I will offer you the chance to meet Pryvani – the woman who told the truth – because she is very kind. Her husband is a human…a person like you and me. I think she would be impressed with you and your people, and that she’d want to hear your story…but I also know that she would sooner die than force you and your friends into a life that you did not want.”

“And how do you know this?” Jotr asked.

“Because she almost did. A coupla times,” Darren said. “Percocet…is a fine woman. And when Trell attacked us, she tried to fight her….”

He trailed off. Jotr looked back at Thomas. “Trell?”

“This is an extremely long story,” Thomas said. “But if I can ask…this man…he is the father of my partner. And I am worried about him. We can summon friends to help him, but not for some time. Are you…can you help me to tend to him?”

Jotr smiled. “I am the shaman for my age group, and the grandson of a shaman. I have learned about healing. He is not unwell, knowing how much blood he lost.” He paused, and said, “I am…sorry. We did not….”

Thomas rubbed Darren’s forehead. “I know,” Thomas said. “You wanted to remain free. And if we had been here to take that from you…well, I understand why you were afraid.”

Jotr nodded, rose, and turned back. “Sintiwa! Asesa! Xuta! Come here. We need to help this man.”

The three came out of the underbrush, and approached cautiously. Sintiwa slung her bow back over her shoulder, but held a stone blade in her hand. Thomas smiled, and walked over and picked up the gun; he checked the safety, and put it away in his pack.

“I think that this should be starting to work. No noök keok ren wox jinok tu jo biok bot.”

“What…what magic….” Sintiwa said, taking a step back.

“Not magic,” Jotr said. “A machine.”