Vol. 1 Chapter 5: Second Contact

The walk back to the guest wing was not long enough for Serina to invent a respectable illness.

She followed behind Her Highness with Lara beside her and three servants pushing two carts loaded with the strangers’ belongings.

The folded black panels rested across the larger cart. Beneath them sat a heavy gray box, several smaller blocks, coils of cable, glass devices, metal devices, lanterns, clothing, food containers, and dozens of objects Serina could not identify.

She kept one hand close to the cart in case something shifted.

That was her useful reason. The less useful reason was that the cart gave her somewhere to look.

Captain Varris walked ahead of them. Alongside him were four other guards, their weapons remained sheathed.

The five strangers could move within the guest wing. They would be escorted elsewhere in the estate and stopped if they attempted to leave during the night.

Serina did not know what legal status that created. They were not prisoners. Nor were they entirely guests.

They were supposedly divine witnesses of a Crown Covenant that Aurelia had invented less than two hours earlier. Or whatever term fits them the most. Serina figured that Lara would eventually find an appropriate legal term for them. Or maybe create one and insist that the lack of an existing term was everyone else’s fault.

Captain Varris stopped before the chamber and knocked three times.

Conversation inside ceased. Then the sound of movement followed.

A few seconds later, Alexander Bennett opened the door.

His attention went first to Varris. Then at Aurelia. Then at the carts.

Seeing the equipment being taken into their room had taken some of the tension off his face.

“Your belongings,” Aurelia said. “May we enter?”

Bennett gave a short bow to her and stepped aside.

“Yes.”

Captain Varris entered first.

He checked the chamber with one sweep of his attention. The guards remained outside.

Aurelia followed him. Lara and Serina entered next. The servants brought the carts in behind them.

The room had been rearranged since Serina last saw it from the hidden observation room.

The long table had been pulled closer to the fireplace. A serving tray covered in unfamiliar writing leaned against one leg. Blankets and bags had been divided among the six beds.

Nicole Carter stood beside the open medical kit. Elizabeth Morgan held one of the thin glass devices. Robert Hayes remained wrapped in a blanket. And Kevin Mercer stood beneath the bronze ornament above the fireplace.

Serina had hoped he would be somewhere else.

Hayes saw the cooler on the second cart.

“Oh, thank God.”

Lara looked upward automatically.

Hayes pointed at the cooler.

“Expression. Not a prayer.”

The servants had barely stopped the carts before the five strangers moved.

Morgan went directly to the heavy gray box and lifted it from the cart with both hands.

One servant released his grip and stepped back.

Then she set the object on the end of the table, crouched, and pressed something along its side.

A dark surface lit with symbols.

She exhaled.

“Sixty-two percent.”

She immediately claimed one of the smaller folded panels, several cables, two black blocks, and a collection of connectors. Her hands moved quickly, separating the cables by length and shape.

Carter took the medical kit first. She placed it on a chair and began counting sealed packets, bottles, metal tools, and bandages.

Only after confirming its contents did she collect two glass devices. One was narrow and pale. Another was darker and slightly larger. The third was a broad, thin rectangle almost the size of Lara’s folio.

Carter stacked them beside the medical supplies, then added a power bank, two chargers, and several cables.

Mercer removed a short cable from the cart and let them rest around his neck like a strange black necklace.

His attention moved next to the larger folding panel. He unfolded one section, checked the seams, then counted the cables attached to the power equipment.

“That adapter yours?” Morgan asked.

Mercer looked at the black box in her hand.

“Mine.”

“No, yours has the scraped corner.”

“That is the scraped corner.”

Morgan turned it over.

“This is mine.”

Mercer pointed.

“Your connector is shorter.”

Morgan compared it to another cable.

“Fine.”

Serina watched them sort the objects without hesitation.

They knew individual cables by their length, their connectors, and the tiny marks left by previous use.

Bennett placed two glass devices on the table.

Then a pair of two tiny devices inside a larger case.

Then another flat metal device.

This one was thinner than the one Mercer brought and bore the image of a bitten silver fruit.

The room went quiet.

All four looked at Bennett’s device.

Bennett stopped.

“What?”

Mercer stared at him.

“You mocked me.”

Bennett glanced at Mercer’s heavy machine.

“I mocked that.”

“You brought a laptop.”

“It is a MacBook.”

“You brought Excel and PowerPoint into another world.”

Princess Aurelia’s gaze moved at Lara, who just gave the smallest shake of her head. Neither word meant anything to her either.

“We were not in another world when I packed it,” Bennett said.

Morgan looked offended on principle.

“You accused Kevin of bringing work camping.”

“I brought it for planning.”

Mercer raised his eyebrow.

“Planning what?”

“The trip.”

“We were already on the trip.”

“Bookings. Documents. Emergency access.”

“Spreadsheets,” Mercer said.

“Potentially.”

Mercer looked toward the ceiling as though appealing to a higher authority.

“My laptop can also play videos,”

“So can mine.”

“Yours weighs more than the cooler.”

Hayes had reached the cooler by then.

He placed one protective hand on the lid.

“Do not involve the cooler.”

He then opened it and began inspecting the contents.

The first thing Serina saw was ice. A lot of ice was packed inside.

Then three bottles of amber liquid.

Several dark bottles Serina assumed contained wine.

Rows of metal cylinders.

More layers beneath those.

Packets of food in bright-colored wrapping.

Hayes looked inside, then slowly around the table.

Carter had three glass devices of varying sizes and one small black rectangle object with cables attached to it.

Varris asked whether this item was a weapon.

Morgan answered it is a power bank.

Serina doesn’t understand what it means but Morgan explained it as something that stores and holds charge or power for their glass devices

Bennett had three devices, including the one the group identified as a MacBook and a small box.

Mercer had the heavy laptop he brought from the sanctum, another glass device, a large folding panel Serina thought possibly as charging equipment, and enough cable to tie a person to a chair.

Morgan had claimed the heavy box, a smaller panel, and most of the shared charging system.

Hayes placed his own glass device, power bank, and one charger beside the cooler.

He looked around at everyone else’s possessions.

“So much for communing with nature.”

“We were camping for a week,” four people said.

The answer came almost together.

Hayes pointed toward the devices.

“You brought an iPad.”

Carter looked up from her medical kit.

“I brought medical references.”

“You brought two phones and a tablet.”

“One phone is older.”

“That does not make it part of nature.”

“The tablet has my notes, books, and downloaded references.”

“Nature has books now?”

“It was a week-long camping trip,” Carter repeated.

Morgan connected one cable to the power station.

“I brought the station because all of you expected lights, charged phones, and an electric pump.”

Hayes pointed toward the smaller panel.

“And Kevin brought a solar farm.”

“That is not a solar farm.”

Mercer opened one section of his larger panel.

“This is just three hundred watts.”

Hayes stared at him.

“That sentence did not defend you.”

“It can recharge the station.”

“You brought a gaming laptop and renewable energy.”

“It was an extended trip.”

“You also worked the first night,” Hayes continued to accuse Mercer

Bennett began arranging his chargers into a small stack as well.

Hayes looked at his own phone and single power bank.

“Am I the only person who understood the whole point of camping?” he asked.

Mercer looked at the small power bank.

“You were going to charge from your car.”

Hayes hesitated.

“The car is part of nature.”

“No,” Morgan said.

Carter took one of the wine bottles from the cooler.

“You also brought three bottles of whiskey, wine ‘for the girls,’ more beer and soda than I approved, and enough chips to cause kidney failure.”

Hayes took the wine back.

“The alcohol was communal.”

“Barely anyone drank the whiskey.”

“That is because all of you lack commitment.”

“You fell asleep before opening the bottle.”

For several moments, they had apparently forgotten that an imperial princess, a court scholar, a guard captain, a court mage, and three servants were standing in the room.

Serina did not think it was deliberate.

They were touching familiar objects, counting familiar cables, and defending decisions made in a world where the worst consequence had been mockery from their friends.

The servants watched helplessly while the five reorganized both carts into distinct clusters.

Carter’s medical supplies and three devices.

Morgan’s power station, smaller panel, and chargers.

Mercer’s heavy laptop, older phone, large folding panel, controller, and power infrastructure.

Bennett’s phones, silver laptop, wireless earphones, and chargers.

Hayes’s phone, small power bank, cooler, alcohol, soda, beer, and an unreasonable quantity of what was described as chips.

Serina had thought they carried a collection of strange tools.

They had the means to power those tools, connect them to one another, preserve information within them, and keep them functioning away from their homeland.

Now they were rebuilding it across Aurelia’s guest table.

One of the servants lifted a clothing bag from the cart and began setting it on top of Mercer’s folded panel.

Serina reacted before she thought.

“Not on the solar panel.”

The room stopped.

The servant froze with the bag still in his hands.

Serina froze with him.

Morgan slowly turned toward her.

“You know what that is.”

Mercer looked from Serina to the panel. Then toward the bronze ornament above the fireplace. The others followed his gaze.

The familiar argument disappeared as quickly as it had begun.

Aurelia answered before Serina could construct a sentence.

“We observed part of your conversation.”

Carter’s hands stopped inside the medical kit. Hayes lowered the cooler lid. Bennett’s expression became carefully neutral.

Mercer shifted his attention to the ornament again.

“From behind that.”

“Yes,” Aurelia said.

“There’s a room behind the wall.”

“Yes.”

“And you could hear us.”

“Narrow channels in the wall carry sound into the observation room.”

Mercer looked back at her. “So you spied on us.”

Aurelia did not soften the answer. “Yes.”

Mercer studied her. “At least that was direct.”

Aurelia’s expression tightened. “It was not presented for your approval.”

Varris spoke before Mercer could answer. “You may question what was done and why, Mercer. You will not grade Her Highness’s answers as though she reports to you.”

Mercer looked toward him. “I’m identifying which answers are complete.”

“Then identify it silently.”

A pause followed.

Mercer inclined his head. “Understood.”

Varris did not threaten him. Neither did not raise his voice. The boundary was still placed firmly enough that Serina felt it from across the chamber.

Aurelia turned toward the servants. “Finish unloading. Then leave us.”

The servants obeyed quickly. The remaining bags, food, lamps, and smaller equipment were transferred to the chamber. The tents and larger camping furniture remained in the adjoining storage room.

Once the carts were empty, the servants bowed and left. Varris pulled the door mostly closed behind them but left it unlatched.

Aurelia continued.

“I ordered the observation. Varris, Lara, Serina and I were in the room behind that wall. Serina was stationed at the viewing port you found.”

Every stranger looked at her.

Serina folded her hands together before anyone saw them shake.

Mercer glanced at the ornament. “So that was you.”

“Yes.”

“You closed the shutter.”

“Yes.”

His eyes remained on her. “Then you opened it again.”

Serina’s face warmed. “I thought you had moved away.”

Mercer said nothing.

She forced herself to continue. “You had already found the viewing slit. When I checked again, you were looking directly through it.”

Mercer looked toward Morgan. She shrugged once. He returned his attention to Serina.

“I understand.”

He glanced at Varris before adding anything else. Varris gave no visible reaction.

Bennett closed his silver laptop and looked toward the wall. “Is anyone still back there?”

“No,” Aurelia said.

“Are there other viewing ports?”

“Yes.”

That answer drew everyone’s attention back to her.

Bennett’s expression tightened slightly. “How many?”

Serina answered. “More than eight. They cover different parts of the chamber.”

Mercer looked along the wall. “All closed?”

“Yes.”

“Can you prove that from here?”

Serina hesitated. “No.”

Mercer waited.

“The shutters are controlled from inside the observation room,” she continued. “I can tell you they were closed when we left. I cannot prove that to you from this side.”

Mercer nodded slightly. He kept whatever assessment followed to himself.

Aurelia noticed anyway.

“The observation room will not be used again without your knowledge.”

“Knowledge,” Bennett repeated. “Not permission.”

“Correct.”

Bennett considered the difference. “We have not agreed to further observation.”

“No,” Aurelia said. “You have not.”

The answer seemed to satisfy him more than a broader promise would have.

Carter placed one hand on her medical kit. Morgan rested both palms on the power station. Hayes closed the cooler completely. Mercer remained nearest to the fireplace.

The equipment still covered most of the table.

Aurelia gestured toward it. “May we sit?”

Bennett looked at the occupied table. “Of course. Please give us a moment to give space”

They began moving things again.

Bennett took the silver laptop and placed it with his phones. Carter stacked her tablet beside the medical kit. Morgan inspected the stone floor before lowering the power station beside her chair. Mercer folded several cables with practiced loops and moved his laptop within reach of the wall. Hayes relocated the chips before touching any of the bottles.

Serina watched them preserve their separate clusters even while clearing the center.

Nothing was placed randomly.

Every object still belonged to a person, a purpose, or a shared system.

They arranged themselves around the table. Aurelia sat on one side. Lara took the chair beside her. Serina remained standing until Aurelia indicated the empty chair on her other side.

She sat too quickly and nearly caught her robe beneath one leg.

Varris remained standing near the door. Bennett and Carter sat opposite Aurelia. Hayes pulled a chair into a position where he could see both the table and the corridor. Morgan remained closest to the power station. Mercer chose the space near the fireplace rather than sitting fully at the table.

No one objected.

Aurelia removed her gloves and placed them before her.

“We should begin again. Properly.”

Mercer glanced toward the bronze ornament. “The first version was memorable.”

Varris looked at him.

Mercer stopped there.

Aurelia introduced herself first.

“Aurelia Valeria Veyr. Imperial Princess and Princess-Palatine of the Western Crownlands. I directly rule this city of Arvenia under imperial charter.”

Bennett nodded. The title clearly meant something different from what he had assumed, though he did not interrupt.

Varris spoke next.

“Captain Varris. Commander of Her Highness’s household guard and her security adviser.”

The strangers already knew his name. The office caused Mercer to look at him more carefully.

Lara straightened.

“Lara Edevane. Palatine Prothonotary under Her Highness Aurelia.”

Mercer looked at her white-and-gold robes. “So you’re not a priestess.”

“No.”

Hayes looked from the robes to the folio. “In our defense-”

“There is no defense,” Lara objected, apparently offended at the continued implication. Then she continued. “These are the traditional robes of my office.”

Hayes nodded in understanding. “So…what does a Palatine Prothonotary do?” he continued to ask.

“I oversee the principality’s legal records, official seals, charters, decrees, treaties, authenticated correspondence, and state archives. Formal acts issued under Her Highness’s authority pass through my office.”

Morgan looked at Lara, then at Hayes. “So... a lawyer?”

Hayes tilted his head. “More like the head of a chancery.”

Lara looked between them. “I am unfamiliar with that title.”

“The office that makes government documents official,” Hayes said. “Legal records, seals, filings, authentication. Somewhere between a chief clerk, legal officer, and secretary of state.”

Lara considered that.

“Crude, but closer than a lawyer.”

Silence followed.

Serina knew why.

It was her turn.

She remained seated one breath too long. Aurelia looked toward her.

“Serina.”

Serina stood so quickly that the chair shifted behind her.

“Serina Aven. Court Mage assigned to Her Highness’s estate.”

Her voice was too formal. Her hands were folded too tightly.

Morgan looked pleased. “I knew it.”

Mercer looked at her. “You guessed attendant first.”

“Then I corrected it.”

Hayes leaned forward. “We also considered younger sister.”

Serina looked toward Aurelia in horror.

“I am not related to her,” Aurelia said.

Lara looked far too pleased to contribute. “They rejected the possibility because of your hair.”

Hayes raised one hand. “That was Liza’s reasoning.”

“Royal families coordinate,” Morgan said.

“They do not,” Lara replied.

“They usually do in stories.”

Varris looked between Aurelia’s golden hair and Serina’s dark brown hair. “The conclusion was correct. The reasoning was not.”

Serina considered returning to the sanctum and asking the failed recognition formation to kill her.

Aurelia indicated her chair. “Sit, Serina.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

She sat more carefully.

Bennett introduced his group.

“Alexander Bennett. Alec is fine. I work in finance, sales, marketing, project management, and leadership.”

The translation provided individual meanings. Together, they sounded like several occupations that had been forced into one person.

Mercer looked toward Aurelia. “It means he specializes in public speech, selling creative interpretations of facts, managing people and tasks, and handling politics.”

“I prefer the term leadership,” Bennett said.

Hayes nodded. “That is the marketing part.”

Bennett ignored them.

“Nicole Andrea Carter. Doctor. Training to become a surgeon. My partner.”

Carter nodded. Her medical kit, three glass devices, and chargers remained stacked beside her.

Serina understood that profession better than the others. A physician pursuing specialized training to cut into living bodies and repair them.

It was reassuring that Carter appeared to be one of the calmest people in the room.

“Robert Benedict Hayes.”

“Accounting and law,” Hayes said. “Mostly accounting.”

Serina glanced at the red spear-and-shield mark beneath his sleeve.

Hayes noticed her. “I know. Ironic, isn’t it?”

“Elizabeth Morgan,” Bennett continued.

“Electrical and Electronics Engineer. Robotics, automation, and industrial systems.”

“Engineer?” Lara seems to understand only this one word but nothing else.

Bennett cut them off before Liza could start explaining anything.

“We can talk about it later. The important thing is that she can build, maintain, and operate machines where we were from.”

Morgan looked as though she was ready to give a very long sermon about her work.

Serina understood machinery, movement, control, and operating devices separately. With the cables and equipment around Morgan, the combination seemed slightly less impossible.

Finally, Bennett indicated Mercer.

“Kevin Mercer. Cybersecurity and infrastructure.”

Lara frowned. “I understood nothing about that.”

Mercer thought for a moment. “I maintain computer systems, keep them running, test them for problems, and look for weaknesses before someone else finds them first.”

Varris studied him. “Security.”

“Partly. A lot of it is preventing people from breaking things. The rest is fixing things when they break anyway.”

“And infrastructure?”

“The systems everything else depends on.”

Varris seemed to understand that better.

Serina did too, at least enough to put some of Mercer’s behavior into context. He had checked the room, questioned assumptions during Bennett’s discussion, found the concealed viewing port, and kept track of every piece of equipment returned to them.

Apparently that was simply how he worked.

Aurelia waited until the introductions ended. Then she addressed the room.

“You asked what happened to you.”

Bennett nodded. “Yes.”

“The answer is that we do not know.”

Morgan tilted her head, while Mercer and Bennett looked at their reactions.

Aurelia continued.

“I was in the sanctum because I was avoiding a reception.”

Carter blinked. “A reception.”

“Several noble families had arrived to discuss matters they insisted were urgent but had declined to explain in writing.”

Mercer nodded sympathetically before remembering Varris’s warning. “That is understandable.”

Aurelia looked almost grateful. The expression disappeared quickly.

“Lara had brought documents for me to review. Varris accompanied me. Serina had arrived to deliver a routine report concerning the estate wards. Several attendants, officials, workers, and guests were elsewhere in the sanctum.”

Serina felt the attention turn toward her. She resisted the urge to explain that routine reports were normally delivered during daylight and to people who were not hiding from noble receptions.

“And then?” Bennett asked.

“You appeared.”

Morgan stopped organizing a cable.

“What happened immediately before?”

“Nothing,” Aurelia said.

“No light?”

“No.”

“Sound?”

“No.”

“Movement in the room?”

“No.”

“Any structure activating?”

“No.”

Morgan looked toward Serina. “Magic?”

Serina took a breath. “I detected none.”

“Before or after?”

“Nothing before your arrival. Immediately afterward, I checked for active spells, spatial disturbance, mana residue, damage to the wards, or any formation that might have been triggered.”

“And?”

“Nothing that explained how you arrived.”

Morgan frowned. “Nothing at all?”

Serina hesitated before answering.

She glanced towards Princess Aurelia. She just gave her a nod.

“Your campfire produced ordinary fire. Our wards and spells remained active. But there was no detectable magical effect connecting your arrival to the sanctum.”

Mercer spoke carefully. “Nothing happened, or nothing happened that you could detect?”

“Nothing I could detect,” Serina answered.

“Could a more experienced mage have found something?”

The question landed exactly where Serina’s confidence was weakest.

She could have lied. Aurelia would have known. Lara might have corrected her. Varris would have remembered.

“Yes,” Serina said. “Possibly.”

Mercer did not react.

She continued before the silence became worse.

“But I found no damaged channel, no mana displacement, no residue, and no interruption in the surrounding wards. Whatever brought you inside did not behave like any transportation spell I was taught to recognize.”

Bennett looked around at his companions.

“We can explain what happened on our side.”

Carter nodded. Morgan put down the cable she had been holding, Hayes adjusted the blanket around his shoulders, and Mercer remained near the fireplace.

Bennett gave them the shortened version. They had been camping in a forest in their world, with no ritual, prayer, ceremony, or intention to invoke anything. The forest had gone unnaturally quiet, their electronic devices had failed at the same time, and a golden boundary had formed around the campsite. The marks appeared only after that boundary was already in place. Moments later, everything inside it stopped moving, and then the five of them and most of the campsite appeared inside the sanctum.

Lara's attention went immediately to their arms. “You are certain none of you possessed the marks before the boundary appeared?”

“Certain,” Carter said. “None of us did.”

Serina looked again at the symbols beneath their skin. Whatever the marks were, they had appeared during the same event that brought the five here. They had not simply identified five existing bearers and transported them afterward.

“And there was no voice?” Lara asked.

“No,” Bennett said.

“No vision, command, offer, or instruction?”

“Nothing.”

Aurelia looked toward Mercer. “No sense that you had agreed to anything?”

“No.”

Aurelia held his gaze for a moment before nodding.

Whatever had happened in the sanctum, the five had not knowingly answered a summons.

Morgan looked back toward Serina. “So from your side, we were simply there.”

Serina straightened slightly. Her fingers tightened together in her lap. “Yes.”

“And from ours, everything happened before we arrived.”

Serina gave a small nod.

Morgan frowned. “Then the event may have happened entirely around us. Your sanctum could have just been where it ended.”

Serina hesitated. “Possibly.”

“Could the destination have been selected?”

Her fingers shifted against the fabric of her robe. “Possibly.”

“Could it have been random?”

Serina took a breath. “Yes.”

“Could something have hidden the arrival from your wards?”

Serina paused again before answering. “Yes.”

Morgan stared at her. “You say possible a lot.”

Serina’s face warmed. “I have very little evidence.”

Morgan considered that, then gave a small nod. “Fair enough.”

Some of the tension left Serina’s shoulders.

Lara asked about what had crossed with them. The soil itself had largely remained behind, as had most of the grass. Loose objects inside the boundary had crossed, including the tents, equipment, fire, and ash. Stakes driven into the ground had either pulled free or been cut at the edge.

That interested Lara and Morgan immediately.

“So it may have selected enclosed volume rather than individual objects,” Morgan said.

“Or separated what could move from what was fixed in place,” Lara replied.

“Or treated the ground as a boundary condition.”

Bennett let the exchange continue for less than a minute.

“We are moving into speculation.”

Morgan looked at him. “We need to understand the mechanism.”

“We do. We also need to finish establishing what each side actually knows.”

She looked unhappy about it, but nodded. “Later.”

Aurelia gestured toward the collection of glass devices surrounding them. “Those allowed you to communicate without speaking where we could hear you?”

“They allowed us to communicate without speaking,” Bennett said.

Lara looked at Mercer. “They are not magical?”

“No.”

“They produce light, images, writing, and communication.”

“Electricity.”

“What is electricity?”

Morgan opened her mouth.

Bennett looked at her. “Later.”

She closed it again.

Mercer picked up his older phone. “For what matters right now, these devices can store and process information. Some can also communicate by sending signals through the air.”

“Mana?” Serina asked.

“No.”

“Could one of our wards detect those signals?”

Mercer thought about it. “I have no idea. The observation room couldn't hear our messages because there was nothing to hear. That doesn't tell us whether your magic could detect the signal itself.”

Serina glanced toward Varris.

He had already understood the security implication. His expression barely changed, but she had begun to recognize the look he used when something had entered an internal list of problems to investigate later.

“The program is called WalkTalk,” Bennett said. “Kevin built it before this happened.”

Aurelia looked at Mercer. “You created it?”

“It was a prototype.”

“For what purpose?”

Mercer held up the phone. “Short-distance communication without cellular service. Phones can connect directly to each other. We were also testing external radio accessories that could extend the range much farther.”

“Where is that accessory?” Varris asked.

“At home.”

Morgan nodded solemnly. “Kevin failed to predict being transported to another world.”

Mercer looked at him. “I was going camping.”

“You already brought your work laptop and solar panel.”

Aurelia appeared to understand that exchange more easily than the technical explanation.

Carter closed the medical kit.

“We have told you what happened.”

The room quieted.

Until then, they had discussed sequences, wards, boundaries, equipment, physical displacement, and methods of communication. Carter returned the conversation to the question none of those facts answered.

“Can you send us home?”

Serina looked toward Lara. Lara's eyes dropped briefly to the folio in front of her.

Aurelia answered.

“No.”

Morgan stopped moving. Hayes lowered his eyes. Bennett reached beneath the table and took Carter's hand. Mercer's expression became still.

Aurelia continued before the silence could turn the answer into something more absolute than it was.

“We do not know how.”

Mercer spoke after a moment. “You cannot, or you know it is impossible?”

“We cannot,” Lara said. “We do not know that it is impossible.”

Morgan frowned.

“Any reliable record of travel between worlds?” she asked.

“No.”

“Anything unreliable?”

“Religious stories, legends, accounts of visitors from stars, dreams, lands beyond death, kingdoms beyond the sky. Nothing with a repeatable method.”

Morgan looked at Serina again.

“Could the sanctum send us back?”

Serina shook her head, carefully wording her response.

“There is nothing in the sanctum that I can connect to your arrival.”

Mercer looked at her. “So there is no mechanism to reverse.”

“None we have identified.”

He was quiet for several seconds.

“You also don't know whether time is passing normally in our world.”

“No,” Lara said.

“Or whether returning would put us back at the moment we left.”

“No.”

Mercer drew breath for another question.

“Kevin.”

Carter's voice was quiet.

He glanced at her.

He glanced at her. Her expression had tightened.

Mercer held her gaze for a moment, then stopped.

Bennett rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. “We'll come back to it.”

Lara lowered her gaze. “I am sorry.”

For an instant Carter looked angry. Then she only looked tired.

She nodded once.

Aurelia waited before speaking again. “We will examine every relevant record we possess. I will not promise that a path home exists. I will promise that the question will be investigated.”

Mercer looked toward her. “Because helping us helps resolve the crisis?”

“Yes,” Aurelia said. “And because you did not choose to be here.”

He considered the answer.

This time he said nothing.

Morgan eventually looked down at her forearm.

“What about these?”

Lara opened the folio.

“The marks were tested only after you arrived. I recognized similarities between them and symbols associated with recorded divine domains, so I asked Serina to activate the recognition formation.”

Serina nodded. “It was inactive when you appeared. I activated it only after Lara requested the test.”

“So the threads had nothing to do with bringing us here,” Morgan said.

“Not that we can determine,” Serina replied. “They were used to examine the marks afterward.”

Lara turned the folio so the five could see several copied symbols. “Four threads remained connected long enough to produce recognizable classifications.”

Bennett adjusted his left arm and examined his mark with growing curiosity and interest.

“Light,” Lara said. “Historically associated with authority, oaths, protection, justice, public legitimacy, reputation, and the ability to rally others behind a person or cause.”

Mercer looked at Lara for a few seconds. Then he looked at Bennett. “That sounds a lot like marketing.”

“I prefer leadership.”

Hayes nodded. “Of course you do.”

Bennett ignored both of them.

Carter exposed her own mark.

“Life,” Lara continued. “Healing, growth, birth, endurance, preservation, and in some traditions the understanding of living structures.”

Carter's attention sharpened. “Understanding?”

“Not merely restoring them. Some records describe knowledge of how living things function.”

“Biology,” Mercer said.

“If that means the study of life, then yes.”

Carter looked down at the branching green mark again, more thoughtfully this time.

Hayes pulled the blanket farther over his arm before Lara turned toward him.

“War.”

“I know.”

“You have not heard what it encompasses.”

“The spear and shield tells everything.”

Lara continued anyway.

“Conflict, courage, strategy, discipline, defense, conquest, and the direction of force.”

Hayes stared at her. “But I am an accountant.”

“And studying law,” Morgan added.

“Unfortunately.”

Varris spoke for the first time in several minutes. “I see no contradiction.”

Hayes turned toward him. “There are several contradictions. I do taxes. I’m not a soldier.”

“Armies require money, supply, contracts, records, and law. A person does not need to swing a sword to become useful in war.”

Hayes looked genuinely offended that his profession had just been successfully repurposed into military logistics.

“That does not make me feel better.”

Lara turned to Morgan.

“Magic. Mana, spellcraft, transformation, discovery, and the controlled manipulation of mystical forces.”

Morgan stared at her mark, then at Serina.

“You mean actual magic.”

“Yes.”

Her eyes brightened immediately. “How does-”

“Later,” Bennett said.

Morgan looked at Serina anyway.

Serina could practically see the questions accumulating. That would become another problem.

Lara's attention finally moved to Mercer.

His mark remained mostly covered.

“Your thread behaved differently.”

Mercer pushed back his sleeve. The black lines beneath his skin overlapped in uneven layers, as though several versions of the same symbol had been placed over one another slightly out of alignment.

“The recognition thread reached your mark,” Lara said. “Then it vanished.”

“Broke?”

“No.”

“Rejected?”

“We cannot determine that.”

“Formation failure?”

“Not in any way Serina or I recognize.”

Serina nodded reluctantly. “The thread did not return to the formation. It did not disperse normally. It simply ceased to be there.”

Morgan leaned closer to inspect the mark.

Lara opened a less orderly section of the folio.

“The difficulty is that your symbol resembles a disputed divine domain. Current Church doctrine calls it Corruption.”

No one moved away from Mercer.

Morgan tilted her head.

“Hmm… Yeah that makes sense.”

Mercer looked at her. Morgan pointed at Mercer’s mark.

“It looks like corrupted data.”

Lara frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Damaged information,” Morgan said. “Something can still have a recognizable structure even when parts are missing, duplicated, unreadable, or in the wrong place.”

Serina looked at the mark again. It somehow looked both complete and damaged at the same time.

Bennett turned back to Lara. “You said current doctrine. Was Corruption always the name?”

“No.”

“What was it called before?”

“Wisdom in several surviving records. Knowledge in others.”

Hayes frowned. “Those are nowhere near Corruption.”

“No.”

Carter leaned forward slightly. “How did it change?”

Lara rested one hand on the folio. “After an incident more than four centuries ago.”

“What happened?”

“The surviving histories disagree.”

She turned several pages.

“The modern Church account says the bearer corrupted a royal court, turned officials against religious authority, and caused a violent uprising. Other accounts say the bearer had already been detained before the violence began. Another claims the local ruler attempted to seize the bearer from Church custody.”

“So nobody agrees who started it,” Bennett said.

Mercer looked at the pages. “Were the records altered?”

“Some copies were. Other differences may be the result of conflicting witnesses, copying errors, or later interpretation.”

“What happened to the bearer?” Carter asked.

“We do not know.”

Lara said it plainly.

“The later records become more sermon than history. Accusations, miracles, curses, betrayals. They tell us what each faction wanted remembered. They do not reliably tell us what happened.”

Bennett's expression tightened. “And current doctrine?”

“A confirmed bearer of Corruption can be detained and prosecuted under Church and imperial authority.”

Carter looked at Mercer's arm.

“For possessing the mark.”

“Yes.”

Hayes sat straighter. “That's the entire case?”

“The doctrine assumes the mark itself represents a danger.”

“That is not evidence.”

“No,” Lara said. “It is doctrine.”

Bennett turned toward Aurelia.

“Is Kevin confirmed?”

“No.”

Lara answered before anyone could mistake the distinction.

“The recognition formation did not identify his domain. His mark did not illuminate, and no classification was produced. I recognize its similarity to the disputed fifth domain. Similarity is not confirmation.”

Mercer kept examining his arm.

“So does that mean I’m now a criminal?”

“No,” Aurelia said. “At present, you have an unidentified mark that resembles one associated with Corruption. That is not the same thing as being a confirmed bearer.”

Mercer looked up at her.

“At present.”

“Yes.”

Lara rested one hand on the folio. “There is also very little precedent. No confirmed fifth bearer appears in the public record after the incident four centuries ago.”

Carter frowned. “Meaning there weren't any?”

“Meaning none were recorded.”

Morgan looked between Lara and Aurelia. “So either nobody received it again, or anyone who did was never entered into the public record.”

“Yes.”

Hayes glanced at his own arm. “What about the other four?”

“They appear intermittently throughout the historical record. The most recent recorded bearer of War lived fifty-three years ago, during an imperial campaign.”

Hayes looked down.

“That is also not comforting.”

Bennett remained focused on Mercer.

“What happens when the Church hears about him?”

“They will demand an examination,” Aurelia said.

“Can they force one?”

“That is a more complicated question.”

“And if they decide the mark is Corruption?”

“They will claim jurisdiction.”

“Can they take him?”

“Not from this estate tonight.”

The wording was deliberate.

Bennett noticed immediately.

“Later?”

“That depends on imperial law, Church authority, what evidence is presented, and what position all five of you choose to take.”

Mercer looked at Aurelia.

“So the failed recognition thing protected me.”

“For the moment.”

“And it also protected you.”

The room quieted.

Aurelia did not deny it.

“If the formation had identified you as Corruption immediately after I publicly claimed to have invoked the Crown Covenant, my enemies would have a very convenient sequence of events.”

Bennett understood first. “You summon five divine mark bearers.”

“Yes.”

“Four recognized domains, and the fifth is the first confirmed Corruption bearer in centuries.”

“Yes.”

“All under your protection.”

“Yes.”

Hayes leaned back slightly. “That does look terrible.”

“It would,” Aurelia said.

Mercer lowered his sleeve.

“So neither of us benefits from anyone reaching a conclusion too quickly.”

“No.”

For a moment, no one spoke.

Then Aurelia rested her hands on the table. “Which brings us to what happens until we have better answers.”

Bennett’s attention returned fully to her.

“Your belongings have been returned except for the weapons and anything presently considered an obvious hazard. You will remain together. You may move within this guest wing, and guards will escort you elsewhere in the estate when necessary.”

Carter looked toward the door. “Outside the estate?”

“Not tonight.”

Bennett did not immediately object.

“No representative of the Church, Imperial Council, military, or noble houses will speak with you tonight without my authorization,” Aurelia continued. “You need rest. We need accurate records. Everyone else needs enough time to become less frightened.”

Hayes glanced toward the guards outside.

“So we're protected from everyone except the people protecting us.”

Varris answered him. “You are protected from anyone attempting to remove you, separate you, recruit you, interrogate you, or harm you before this situation is understood.”

Mercer looked at him. “And if we try to leave?”

“You will be stopped.”

No one pretended otherwise.

Mercer accepted the answer without comment.

Bennett's attention shifted toward the serving tray leaning against the table.

“There is one thing we still have not resolved.”

Aurelia followed his gaze.

“The Crown Covenant,” Bennett said. “You told everyone in the sanctum that you had invoked it.”

Lara shifted slightly beside her.

Serina looked down at her hands.

Aurelia answered without hesitation.

“There is no recognized rite, office, or doctrine called the Crown Covenant.”

For a moment, nobody responded.

Bennett frowned. “You mean it is not an established institution.”

“Correct.”

Mercer looked toward Lara. “That explains your reaction.”

Lara straightened. “I understood the words. I had never heard them used together in that context.”

Bennett returned his attention to Aurelia.

“So when you said you had invoked it...”

“I was giving the room an explanation for what had happened.”

“An explanation you invented.”

“Yes.”

Hayes slowly raised one hand. “Completely?”

Aurelia looked at him.

“The name was.”

Bennett stared at her for another second.

“Why?”

“Because five strangers bearing possible divine marks had appeared inside a restricted sanctum in front of guards, officials, workers, and minor nobles without any explanation.”

“We did not threaten anyone,” Carter said.

“No. But nobody knew that yet.”

Aurelia looked around the table.

“There were unfamiliar weapons. Unknown equipment. Five marks associated with divine domains. Enough confusion for the first confident explanation to become the official one.”

“So you supplied it,” Bennett said.

“I supplied an explanation that discouraged immediate violence.”

Hayes looked impressed. “You invented a religion in under a minute.”

“I invented two words.”

“Then Rob made it a religion,” Mercer said.

“I accepted the role offered to me.”

“You negotiated benefits for a position that did not exist.”

“And it worked.”

Varris spoke before the argument could grow. “It did.”

Hayes looked pleased by the support.

Varris continued. “That does not make it binding, sacred, or wise. It means it lowered the weapons.”

Hayes’s pleasure diminished.

Princess Aurelia rested her hands on the table.

Bennett looked at the tray. They had written down almost the words Princess Aurelia declared in the sanctum that they can reconstruct from memory

“So witnesses…”

“Witnesses could not easily be ordered to act before hearing the facts.”

“Judgment,” Carter said.

“Created a reason to delay demands.”

“Guidance?” Hayes asked.

“Allowed the possibility of cooperation without declaring allegiance.”

Mercer watched Aurelia. “And Crown.”

“Authority.”

“Covenant.”

“Protection and obligation in both directions.”

Lara looked faintly offended by how well the explanation held together even when discussed in front of the five.

Bennett looked impressed.

“You really invented all of that on the spot.”

“I invented enough of it on the spot.”

“And if we rejected it?” Mercer asked.

“I would have said you were confused, exhausted, and in no condition to understand the rite you had just answered.”

The five stared at her.

Hayes looked at Bennett. “She had a backup lie.”

“I had several,” Aurelia said.

She was not smiling.

Bennett folded his hands on the table.

“So the Crown Covenant is a cover story.”

“Yes.”

“And you expect us to maintain that story.”

“Temporarily.”

“For how long?”

“Until we establish a status that does not make you my property, foreign infiltrators, Church possessions, or an excuse for another faction to use you against me.”

Bennett considered that.

“So the Covenant buys you time.”

“It buys all of us time.”

Mercer looked at her. “Why are you doing this?”

Lara’s attention shifted toward him. Varris remained still.

The question was direct but not discourteous.

Aurelia answered in the same manner.

“Because I would rather have nobody else march into my estate while I determine who you are and what to do with you.”

Mercer studied her. “That I believe.”

The princess’s eyes narrowed.

Varris spoke. “Mercer.”

“I am not mocking her.”

“No. You are still evaluating her aloud.”

Mercer looked toward Aurelia. “She admitted the self-interest instead of disguising it as charity.”

“That does not require your approval,” Varris said.

Mercer inclined his head. “My apologies, Your Highness.”

Aurelia looked mildly surprised.

Then suspicious.

“Accepted.”

A brief silence settled over the table as Serina looked around the table.

Carter released Bennett’s hand and looked across at Aurelia.

“All right,” Carter said. “We understand the problem.”

Princess Aurelia met her eyes.

“What do you need from us?”