The healing bed had a sort of antennae that stuck out the top of the wagon and ran along the side of the roof, which I was almost certain still worked - there'd been some minor damage caused while disconnecting the bed so we could drag it out to heal Shitheel after that incident with the bounty hunters. That odd metal tube had been one of the reasons we'd needed to pay for it to be installed, along with those runic gravity plates that made the wagons lighter.

I felt absolutely exhausted from the healing - and the whole ordeal of the past half day - but I resisted the urge to sleep and climbed up onto the wagon's roof to make a mana well. It would cover me and the antennae, which was good because between me and Hugh the healing bed's mana capacitor was going to be dangerously low. I could charge most items but I hadn't unlocked any improvements so the rate was slow and there was some energy loss - and I could only use my existing reserves, not push ambient mana into things. So for now setting up a mana well was all I could do, and I would hope the antennae did its thing.

I dozed off a little, laying there, but couldn't go all the way to sleep - unlike the moskar, which were out cold. The sky was growing light which meant Hugh had pushed the beasts all night with minimal breaks - they would need some time before we could get moving again. I had enough mana to duck into my memory palace pretty quickly, so long as I didn't try to do any divination or whatever, so I popped in and sent out a feeler for... I really needed a name to use with her other than Callie, or maybe a name for myself. Either way, she popped in after only a short delay.

"I am coming closer to you, in case you find a way to sever the link between us. Are you still captured?"

"No, I think we've worked that out. I need to talk to Hugh still and make sure though, because we didn't actually have a proper conversation. I just made him stab me and he backed off."

She shook her head, looking disappointed. "I should have held out in our earlier conversation, I had no idea stabbing you was something I could demand."

"Yeah, don't get excited."

"Too late now, in any case. I already threw the Behemoth off your trail. I called, and said I had your location - I told him you were heading towards Sentortzi since I know that was the plan before you began hiding from me."

"Yeah, that's fair. I do want to get back there at some point. Might have to wait until everything else is over. I have a different way to get a lead on helping you though, so we'll be headed that way first. I guess I'll have to give Hugh some directions, god knows where he's been taking us the past four or five days."

"The Behemoth was guessing Granlan. Large enough to have a teleportation service, but not the closest or easiest, since those would be too expected."

"Well, I guess I'll find out. I'll... call you, I guess, when we know more. Thank you."

She vanished without replying, and shortly after I popped back out myself to watch the sun rise. The wagon creaked a little as Hugh climbed up behind me.

"Calliope Smith. I hope that little trick of yours was not too agonizing, though I would be lying if I said I hoped it did not hurt at least a little."

"Yeah, yeah, kids have to learn not to play with swords. Honestly? It was the ribs, way more than the stabbing."

"Yes, ribs can be quite the nuisance. Hard to wrap up properly as well, yes?"

"Don't remind me. That whole way down the mountain it hurt to breathe too deep. You remember? After we fought those guys with the... ser... sergotze?"

"Segozertze."

"Right. Because I had that healing stuff for the stab wound from that guy that... oh, fuck. I killed that guy. Oh shit."

"The tracker?"

I had absolutely murdered that man. And good riddance, obviously, but still. What had I said, exactly? 'Do me a favor and fucking choke to death' I think was the line. Had I felt that wave of cold, from burning more mana than I had available? Probably. I didn't know what that meant at the time, plus I was already extremely cold and going into shock so... I doubt it would have felt out of place. I'd wondered what killed him when I saw the body, and the soldiers searching for his Dumine argued about if it had been an accident or if Telen had choked him to death so... yeah, probably I made him choke on his dinner. That was terrifying.

And in theory I could learn to do it again - I had probability, I had enchantment. Hell, if I leveled it up I could even do it with fate magic which would mean those anti-enchantment charms wouldn't be able to stop it. I could be the world's deadliest assassin. But that wasn't what I wanted, not really. If I was going to kill people it was either going to be in self defense or it would be dealing with people that couldn't be allowed to walk away. In either case, cursing them to die at some future date seemed like it missed the point.

I was about to go down a rabbit hole thinking about the other uses for fate magic in particular - try to make a sword that's destined to behead the monster I'm after, or fate myself to win the lottery or whatever - but I realized Hugh was still just sitting there.

"Sorry. It's been a strange night. Uh, different guy, don't worry about it." He raised an eyebrow but if I knew Hugh he would just count on finding out later rather than pestering me for details now. "Anyway... are you really giving up? You drugged us, tied us up, threw us around like toys, and just because we made you stop beating our asses for a minute you're just... done?"

"I have never been one to follow the path others set for me. My parents wanted me in politics, so I joined the military. They wanted me to go into a position of leadership, so I joined the royal guard - still a very prestigious position but... and when they attempted to pressure me to become captain of the royal guard I retired. I respect Lord Protector Hammersmith immensely, but I do not enjoy forcing someone down a particular path. I decided that I would leave it to the gods, try to stop you, and if you escaped? Well. It would mean you were capable enough to be safe."

"I think I know why you were picked to carry that letter to me, Hugh."

That eyebrow went up again, but of course I couldn't answer his implied question. He'd never met Connie, and didn't know there had been another timeline. Hell, I didn't even really know what all they had gotten up to - just a handful of extremely vague comments. I shifted and looked out at the sunrise, and thought about what to say. I had to give him something, I owed him some sort of explanation. I just couldn't tell him anything about the doomsday device.

"Someone tampered with my memories, Hugh. I don't know why, but from what I can tell they took the happiest year of my life away. Maybe there was a reason, maybe even a good reason, but Hammersmith knew about it and didn't tell me. And she also knew some things about my family, some important shit that I didn't even know myself, and she kept quiet about that too."

He was quiet for a moment while we watched the sun rise. "Well. I see why that would make you hesitant to trust her, yes? Lord Protector Hammersmith will always keep her word, but... she has sworn first and foremost to keep the Eldred Empire safe from threats, and that means making choices that may not line up with your morals at times." I thought he was going to segue into why I should trust her anyway, but instead he shook his head and chuckled. "She made a mistake, this time. It was a gamble, she must have known that if you found out without being told by her you would hold it against her. Presumably she did not anticipate you being outside her control until you had given her what she wanted."

"Well I'm still going to give her what she wants. And if you want to come with us you can, although... I don't want to put you in a shitty position, and I also don't really want to be worrying that you're going to drug me again and ship me away."

"Speaking of taking a gamble and having it held against you..."

"No, not really. It was smart, and I know you could have kicked my ass way worse. You could have left me my jacket though, that was purely defensive. Would have stopped me from being stabbed."

"Ah, but getting stabbed was what ended our battle. So you should be thanking me."

"I guess. Anyway. No hard feelings, and we can stick together if you want. You just can't cook, and you'd have to promise to not contact Hammersmith. I don't want her changing your mind."

"No, I think we should part ways, for now. When we arrive at our destination - it should be later today, otherwise I wouldn't have drugged you yet - I will teleport back and let Lord Protector Hammersmith's clerks know that you are safe and still plan on meeting her in time to perform your duty."

"Okay. Oh, can I try to guess where we're headed? I don't think we're being watched anymore, but seriously I'm almost certain the wild mage is on our side now."

"With the sun up and the nature of the spying being visual it would be too late in any case. It's no matter, at this point it is unlikely they would be able to catch up. Has your knowledge of geography improved since the conversation we had while disembarking from the boat last week?"

"No, but I heard a name. Are we going to Granlan?"

"Ah! A good guess. It is not the most obvious choice, which makes it the most obvious choice. But then, others would expect that of me."

"So you go to the actual obvious choice instead?"

"No, too obvious."

"Of course."

"Instead, you go somewhere mildly inconvenient and which has already been eliminated from the search. We are going to Sentortzi, as you first requested."

He was smiling, probably assuming I would be pleased. "Oh! Cool. Yeah. So when you say that they would be unlikely to catch up, how does that change if they had a few more hours warning? Like, just hypothetically, if I'd told the wild mage to send the Behemoth somewhere else to keep us safe and she picked Sentortzi since she knew we weren't going there?"

Hugh continued to smile. "Hah, yes. Yes. That would be... most unfortunate. If you will excuse me, I feel the sudden need to move the wagons to that copse of trees where they will be less visible from the air."

"Should I call her back, tell her to send the Behemoth back to Granlan?"

He hesitated halfway down from the roof of the wagon. "You can try. Switching again so soon might tip him off to her change in allegiances, but it could still leave him uncertain."

"Sorry."

"It is possible," he said as he disappeared from view, "that you are cursed. Consider that, Calliope Smith."

I pulled up the fate vision and looked at all the threads extending from me. It was certainly possible one of them was a curse, but I'd miraculously survived so far. One more time hopefully wouldn't find the limits of my luck.