With the plans made, preparations began.
Not loudly.
Not visibly.
But everywhere.
The armies of the United Kingdoms had not yet begun moving toward their assigned positions. Doing so too early would risk revealing that they knew exactly where Alexandria intended to strike.
The Adventurers Guild was preparing quests that, to anyone reading the individual postings, looked like lucrative opportunities along Imperial roads.
Fairies were being quietly identified for reconnaissance.
Supplies were being counted.
Weapons were being forged.
Routes were being studied.
And Jax Darquebane was discovering that preparing for war involved surprisingly little actual fighting.
War wasn't just fought with steel and magic.
Sometimes it was fought with information.
Sometimes logistics.
And sometimes—
Stories.
The headquarters of The United Kingdoms Chronicle was considerably quieter than Jax expected.
He wasn't sure why.
Maybe because he had grown accustomed to Kat Virellyn.
The woman herself was currently sitting behind a desk covered in papers, reading one while simultaneously making notes on another.
She didn't look up when Jax entered.
"Sit."
Jax stopped.
"Hello to you too."
"Hello."
She kept reading.
Jax sat.
Several seconds passed.
"Busy?"
"Yes."
"Should I come back?"
"No."
Another few seconds.
Jax looked around.
People moved constantly between desks. Pages were being reviewed. Others were being copied. A young man hurried past carrying an armful of parchment nearly high enough to block his vision.
Nobody appeared panicked.
But nobody appeared particularly relaxed either.
Kat finally finished whatever she was reading, made one final mark, and placed it aside.
"Sorry."
"That's okay."
"What do you need?"
Jax smiled.
"I love the small talk."
"I've heard of it."
"Never tried it?"
"Once."
"Didn't like it?"
"Waste of time."
Jax nodded.
"Fair."
Kat leaned back.
"What do you need?"
"I can't tell you."
Kat stared at him.
Jax waited.
"That was an unusually short meeting."
She reached for the next piece of parchment.
Jax laughed.
"There's something happening."
Kat's hand stopped.
"I figured."
"How?"
"You've been meeting with Kings, Generals, Guild Masters, spymasters, and half the important people in the United Kingdoms for three days."
"Maybe we're planning a party."
"Are we?"
"No."
"Then I figured."
Jax leaned forward.
"I can't tell you what we know. Not yet."
"Then don't."
"But Alexandria is going to tell a story."
Kat's expression changed.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
"And you want us to tell yours?"
"No."
That surprised her.
Jax shook his head.
"I want to make sure theirs isn't the only one people hear."
Kat studied him for several seconds.
"That's different."
"I thought so."
"What do you know?"
"Can't tell you."
"Then what can you tell me?"
Jax considered that.
"Alexandria has been blaming the United Kingdoms for almost everything that's gone wrong inside the Empire."
"That's not new."
"No. But I think it's going to get worse."
"Why?"
"That's one of the things I can't tell you."
Kat sighed.
"You are making this remarkably difficult."
"I've been told I have a gift."
"Frequently, I assume."
"You have no idea."
She almost smiled.
Almost.
Jax continued.
"What happened to that young Imperial General?"
Kat's eyes narrowed.
"He died."
"According to Alexandria?"
"Assassinated by rebels associated with the United Kingdoms."
"Do you believe that?"
"Belief isn't particularly useful to me."
Jax smiled.
There it was.
"What can you prove?"
"That he died. That Alexandria blamed rebel agents. That the accusation came extraordinarily quickly. That he had recently been involved in operations against territories sympathetic to the United Kingdoms."
"Anything about him questioning orders?"
"Reports."
"Reliable?"
"Some."
"Enough to print?"
Kat looked annoyed.
Not with Jax.
With the question.
"Enough to say there are reports. Not enough to say they're true."
Jax nodded.
"What about him being killed because he questioned orders?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I can't prove that."
"Good."
Kat paused.
"Good?"
"Yeah."
"You expected me to say no."
"I hoped you would."
Kat sat back.
"Then why ask?"
"Because I don't want a newspaper that prints whatever I tell it."
Something in her expression softened.
Very slightly.
Jax gestured toward the room.
"This exists because Alexandria gets to decide what millions of people believe. I don't want us doing the same thing."
"Then what exactly are you asking?"
Jax thought about it.
"Questions."
Kat waited.
"Alexandria says we killed him."
"Yes."
"Can they prove it?"
"Not that we've seen."
"Then ask."
Kat nodded slowly.
"Why was the United Kingdoms blamed so quickly?"
"Ask."
"What evidence exists?"
"Ask."
"What happened before he died?"
"Ask."
"Was he questioning orders?"
"If you can establish that people reported it."
"We can."
"Then ask why."
Kat's fingers tapped lightly against the desk.
Jax could almost see the article forming behind her eyes.
"He was a decorated Imperial officer."
"Yep."
"Young."
"Yep."
"Successful."
"Yep."
"And suddenly dead."
"Yep."
"With Alexandria immediately blaming us."
"Yep."
Kat leaned forward.
"And if I investigate this and discover Alexandria's version is correct?"
"Print that."
She stopped.
Jax shrugged.
"What?"
"You'd want us to print that Imperial accusations against the United Kingdoms were correct?"
"If they're correct."
Kat stared at him.
"That could hurt us."
"Probably."
"And you'd still want it printed."
"I'd want you to decide whether it should be printed. That's your job."
Kat smiled.
Not almost this time.
Actually smiled.
"Good answer."
"Thanks."
"Don't get used to it."
"I wasn't planning to."
Kat pulled a clean page toward herself.
"What else?"
Jax considered the question.
"Anything Alexandria doesn't like people putting next to each other."
Kat's quill stopped.
"Explain."
"Troop movements you can independently verify. Supply requisitions. Food purchases. Missing officials. Generals being reassigned. Taxes. Grain. Weapons production. Anything unusual."
"You're asking us to investigate the Empire."
"I'm pretty sure newspapers are supposed to do that."
"We do."
"Do it harder."
Kat laughed.
"That's not a journalistic term."
"It should be."
She began writing.
"And when Alexandria complains?"
"They already hate us."
"True."
"What's another strongly worded declaration?"
"Several thousand copies sold."
Jax pointed at her.
"See? You're getting it."
"I've always gotten it."
"Even better."
Kat looked at the page.
"You understand I won't let you approve these articles."
"I don't want to."
"You don't get to decide the headlines."
"Good."
"If your government does something worth criticizing, we will criticize it."
"I know."
"And if I think you're trying to manipulate us—"
"You'll tell me to get out."
"I was going to say something less polite."
"I cleaned it up for you."
Kat shook her head.
Jax stood.
"Facts."
Kat looked up.
"Facts."
"Questions."
"Questions."
"No lies."
"No lies."
Jax nodded toward the page.
"Then make Alexandria uncomfortable."
Kat smiled.
"That I can do."
Several hours later, Jax arrived at Eldrich's laboratory with Llandra, Pixelle, and Lexi.
They had come for one reason.
A door.
Technically, another door.
Jax wanted to know whether a second entrance could be added to the dimensional space Eldrich had already created.
It seemed like a fairly straightforward question.
Then Jax opened the laboratory door.
He stopped.
Llandra walked into his back.
"Why did you—"
She looked around him.
"Oh."
Lexi flew over Jax's shoulder.
"Oh."
Pixelle joined her.
"Oh."
Jax surveyed the laboratory.
He wasn't entirely sure what had happened.
There were pieces of metal everywhere.
Crystals.
Wire.
Wood.
Half-assembled devices.
Completely disassembled devices.
Something attached to the ceiling was slowly spinning despite having no obvious reason to spin.
A metal sphere in the corner periodically clicked.
Nobody liked the click.
A table appeared to have been burned through, repaired, burned through again, and then abandoned as a philosophical disagreement.
There were papers everywhere.
The only clear walking path through the room looked accidental.
Jax stared.
"This is what happens when we don't direct him."
"Apparently," Llandra said.
"I think he's been productive," Lexi offered.
Something sparked.
Lexi reconsidered.
"Busy. He's been busy."
"ELDRICH?"
A crash came from somewhere deeper inside.
"I'm fine!"
Jax looked at Llandra.
"I didn't ask."
"I KNOW!"
Pixelle hovered beside Lexi.
"How did he know?"
"I've stopped asking those questions."
Eldrich appeared from behind a collection of machinery carrying half a sandwich.
His hair was disheveled.
His shirt had a burn mark near one shoulder.
He seemed delighted.
"Jax!"
"Hi."
"You came."
"I said I would."
"People say many things."
"Fair."
Eldrich noticed the three women.
"Llandra."
She nodded.
Then he looked at Pixelle and Lexi.
His eyes widened.
"Fairies."
Pixelle folded her tiny arms.
"Yes."
"Fascinating."
"No," Jax said.
Eldrich looked at him.
"I haven't asked anything."
"I know you."
"That's presumptuous."
"Can I study them?" Eldrich asked.
"No."
"See? Presumptuous."
Pixelle moved slightly closer to Jax.
Lexi laughed.
Jax looked at Eldrich's sandwich.
"Having lunch?"
"Trying."
"Trying?"
Eldrich's expression darkened.
"Someone keeps stealing them."
"Your sandwiches?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
"If I knew that, they would no longer be stealing my sandwiches."
That sounded vaguely threatening.
Jax looked at Llandra.
She raised an eyebrow.
Eldrich suddenly brightened.
"But I solved it."
"Of course you did."
"Come."
Eldrich hurried toward a workbench.
The others followed.
On the bench sat a wooden box.
It looked surprisingly normal.
Jax immediately distrusted it.
"This," Eldrich announced, "is the solution."
"To sandwich theft."
"Exactly."
Jax stared at the box.
"Does it lock?"
Eldrich looked offended.
"Locks can be opened."
"That's generally why we put locks on things."
"No. Locks merely create the illusion of security."
Llandra stepped closer.
"What does it do?"
Eldrich smiled.
That was not reassuring.
He opened the box.
Inside sat another sandwich.
"Observe."
"From where?" Jax asked.
"Not there."
Jax moved.
"Why?"
"Trajectory."
Jax moved farther.
"That word concerns me."
Eldrich closed the box.
He took a wooden rod and slowly lifted the lid from several feet away.
Click.
THUNK.
A knife shot from the side of the box.
Then another.
Then three more.
The sandwich exploded.
Bread flew across the table.
A piece of meat slapped against the wall.
One knife buried itself in a cabinet.
Another quivered several inches into a wooden support.
Silence.
Everyone stared.
Eldrich frowned.
Jax looked at what remained of the sandwich.
"So."
"Calibration issue."
"You built a box that murders whoever steals your lunch."
"It doesn't murder them."
Jax pointed toward the knife embedded in the wall.
"That would've gone through me."
Eldrich looked him up and down.
"Probably not you."
"That doesn't make it better."
Llandra stared at the destroyed sandwich.
"It also destroyed the thing you were trying to protect."
Eldrich looked at it.
"Yes."
"Which means you still don't have lunch."
Eldrich frowned.
He apparently had not considered that.
Pixelle floated backward.
"Whoever is stealing his sandwiches can have them."
Lexi nodded.
"I think they've earned them."
Jax pointed at the box.
"We're not selling that."
"I wasn't offering."
"Good."
"Although the mechanism has applications."
"No."
"You don't even know what I was going to say."
"Still no."
Eldrich shrugged.
"Fine."
He picked up what remained of his other sandwich.
"Come. I've made progress on thermal excitation."
Jax followed reluctantly.
"Did I ask you to?"
"No."
"Of course not."
The next device looked considerably more sophisticated.
A metal chamber surrounded a crystal lattice. Thin enchanted lines ran across its surface.
Eldrich opened it.
"Food."
Jax stared inside.
"Yes."
"I've been experimenting with rapid heating."
"Okay."
"Fire is inefficient."
"Sometimes."
"It heats from the outside inward."
"Generally."
"Primitive."
Jax looked at Llandra.
"He's judging fire now."
"Apparently fire has disappointed him."
Eldrich placed a plate inside.
"Instead, I excite the moisture within the food using controlled magical resonance."
Jax stopped.
"Wait."
Eldrich closed the chamber.
The device hummed.
Jax stared at it.
That sounded familiar.
Very familiar.
After several seconds, Eldrich opened it.
The food was steaming.
Jax's eyes widened.
"Eldrich."
"Yes?"
"Did you just—"
Then the food began glowing blue.
Jax stopped.
Llandra stared.
Lexi stared.
Pixelle stared.
The mashed vegetables pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
A piece of meat gave off a faint blue shimmer.
Jax slowly leaned away.
"Why is it glowing?"
"Residual mana."
"Should food have residual mana?"
"Everything has residual mana."
"Should it have that much?"
Eldrich looked at the plate.
"Probably not."
Pixelle flew behind Jax.
Llandra pointed.
"Does it always glow?"
"Currently."
"Is it safe?"
Eldrich hesitated.
"Define safe."
"No."
Jax immediately backed away.
"Wrong answer."
"It's hot."
"That wasn't the question."
"The temperature is perfectly acceptable."
"The food is glowing."
"Yes."
"Food shouldn't glow."
"Why?"
Jax stared at him.
"Because nobody wants to eat glowing food."
Eldrich looked genuinely confused.
"Are you sure?"
Everyone answered at once.
"Yes."
Eldrich frowned at the plate.
"I don't understand why that matters."
"Because people generally like knowing their dinner isn't going to change them."
"Change them into what?"
"Exactly."
Eldrich stared at the food.
Jax stared at the device.
Then back at the food.
Then at the device again.
The concept was good.
Really good.
The glowing part was less good.
"Can you make it not glow?"
"Probably."
"And still heat the food that quickly?"
"Eventually."
Jax looked at Llandra.
She already knew that look.
"No."
"What?"
"Whatever you're thinking."
"I haven't said anything."
"You have a face."
Pixelle leaned toward Lexi.
"He does."
Lexi nodded.
"Definitely."
Jax pointed toward the machine.
"If he fixes the glowing—"
Llandra sighed.
"Here we go."
"Restaurants."
Lexi looked at the device.
Jax continued.
"Inns. Taverns. Homes. Ships. Anywhere somebody needs food heated quickly."
Eldrich blinked.
"I designed it to accelerate thermal testing of organic materials."
"Congratulations. You accidentally invented something people actually want."
Eldrich looked mildly offended.
Jax smiled.
"That will be popular."
Lexi studied the machine more carefully.
"Very popular."
Llandra reluctantly nodded.
"I would use one."
Pixelle peeked at the glowing meal.
"If it stops doing that."
"Obviously."
Eldrich looked between them.
"You would pay for this?"
Jax laughed.
"Oh, yeah."
"Why?"
"Because people like hot food."
"They already have fire."
"Fire takes time."
Eldrich looked at his machine.
Then the plate.
Then Jax.
"People will pay money to avoid waiting?"
Jax smiled.
"Welcome to commerce."
Lexi was already thinking.
"How expensive are the crystals?"
"I don't know."
"How often do they require charging?"
"I don't know."
"How difficult is the enchantment?"
"I don't know."
Lexi frowned.
"You built it."
"I was determining whether it would work. Those are production questions."
Lexi stared at him.
Jax laughed.
"Don't worry. We'll direct you."
Eldrich looked irritated.
Jax looked back at the machine.
New fortune obtained.
Probably.
Assuming nobody's dinner continued glowing.
"Great," Jax said. "We'll become richer later."
He turned toward Eldrich.
"Door."
Eldrich blinked.
"What door?"
Jax stared at him.
"The reason I came."
"Oh."
Eldrich's entire demeanor changed.
"That door."
"Yes. That door."
They moved through the laboratory toward a cleaner section near the rear.
Cleaner was relative.
Jax stepped around something that appeared to be vibrating.
He decided not to ask.
The dimensional doorway stood against the far wall.
From the outside, it looked almost disappointingly ordinary.
What lay beyond it wasn't.
A space that shouldn't exist.
A dimensional room larger than the physical structure containing its entrance.
A transit space.
Eldrich had insisted on making it enormous.
Jax had complained about that repeatedly.
Until now.
Jax stopped in front of the doorway.
"You remember all the times I complained about how big you made this?"
"Yes."
"Specifically?"
"I maintain records."
"Of my complaints?"
"Some of them are useful."
Llandra smiled.
Jax ignored her.
"I might owe you an apology."
Eldrich stared at him.
"No."
"No?"
"I want to enjoy this."
Jax waited.
Eldrich took a breath.
"Continue."
Jax shook his head.
"The room is big."
"Necessary."
"You've said that."
"Repeatedly."
"And the doorway anchors us to this location."
"Correct."
Jax pointed toward it.
"Can you add another one?"
Eldrich stared.
"Another dimensional space?"
"No."
Jax shook his head.
"Another door."
Eldrich didn't respond.
Jax continued.
"Same room. Same dimensional space. Two physical entrances."
Eldrich's eyes moved toward the doorway.
Then the wall.
Then nowhere at all.
He was thinking.
"Someone enters here," Jax said. "They enter the same space they do now. But instead of having only one way back out—"
"A second anchor."
Jax stopped.
Eldrich walked past him.
"Independent physical location."
"Yes."
"Shared dimensional volume."
"Yes."
"Separate stabilization point."
"If that's what it needs."
"It is."
Eldrich was already pacing.
"Distance becomes largely irrelevant once the dimensional threshold is crossed."
Jax glanced at Llandra.
She was listening carefully.
"The difficulty isn't distance," Eldrich continued. "It's identity."
"Identity?"
"The space knows where it belongs."
Jax stared.
"The room knows?"
"Not literally."
"Good."
"Probably."
Jax decided not to pursue that.
Eldrich moved to a table and began throwing papers aside.
"Every dimensional structure requires an anchor. The doorway isn't merely an opening. It's part of the definition of the space."
He found a blank page.
"Adding another entrance means teaching the same dimensional structure that it belongs in two locations simultaneously."
Jax smiled.
"Can you do it?"
Eldrich didn't answer.
He drew.
Fast.
Lines.
Circles.
Symbols Jax didn't understand.
Llandra moved closer.
"Would the second doorway destabilize the first?"
"Possibly."
"Could someone become trapped inside?"
"Possibly."
Jax frowned.
"Could the room collapse?"
Eldrich stopped drawing.
"Possibly."
"You're really selling this."
"You asked whether it was possible. You didn't ask whether it was pleasant."
Jax waited.
Eldrich continued drawing.
A minute passed.
Then another.
Pixelle landed on Lexi's shoulder.
"Is he going to answer?"
"I think this is the answer."
Eldrich suddenly stopped.
"No."
Jax's heart sank.
Then Eldrich scratched out half the page.
"No, that's stupid."
He grabbed another sheet.
Jax exhaled.
Eldrich drew again.
"If both anchors attempt to define the dimensional boundary independently, they interfere."
"Bad?"
"Very."
"So don't do that."
Eldrich looked at Jax.
Jax shrugged.
"You said it was bad."
"Remarkably insightful."
"Thanks."
"But if the second doorway isn't an independent anchor..."
Eldrich stopped.
His eyes widened.
Jax knew that look.
He had seen it before.
Something had just happened inside Eldrich's head.
"The second doorway doesn't define the room."
"Okay."
"It references the first."
"Okay."
"A subordinate anchor."
"Still with you."
"No, you're not."
"Not even a little."
Eldrich grinned.
"It could work."
Llandra stepped closer.
"Could?"
"Yes."
Jax folded his arms.
"How much 'could'?"
Eldrich considered it.
"Enough that I want to try."
"That's not comforting."
"It wasn't intended to be."
Jax looked at the dimensional doorway.
"How long?"
Eldrich frowned.
"To determine whether the principle works? Several weeks."
"No."
Eldrich looked at him.
"No?"
"I don't have several weeks."
"Then why did you ask a question requiring several weeks?"
"Because I need the answer sooner."
"That's not how time works."
"Work with me."
Eldrich sighed.
"How long?"
Jax glanced at Llandra.
"Days."
Eldrich stared.
"That's unreasonable."
"Probably."
"Dangerously unreasonable."
"Probably."
"Potentially catastrophic."
"Can you do it?"
Eldrich looked at the doorway.
Then at his drawings.
Then back at Jax.
"Probably."
Jax smiled.
"There it is."
"That was not a yes."
"It was close enough."
"No, it wasn't."
"How soon can you start?"
"I already have."
Jax looked down.
Eldrich was drawing again.
Of course he was.
Llandra stepped beside Jax.
"If it works, we need to know exactly what its limitations are."
"Agreed."
"How quickly people can move through it."
"Yep."
"Whether equipment can pass."
"Yep."
"Wagons."
"Yep."
"Soldiers."
"Yep."
"Large Shadows."
Jax looked toward Eldrich.
Eldrich stopped drawing.
"How large?"
Jax smiled.
"Let's solve the second door first."
Eldrich stared at him.
"I dislike when you say things like that."
"Why?"
"Because it implies another question."
"There will definitely be another question."
"I knew it."
Jax turned toward the exit.
"Second door."
Eldrich waved him away.
"Yes, yes."
"Days."
"Go away."
"No glowing food."
"That is unrelated."
"No knife sandwiches."
"The sandwich wasn't armed."
"The box was."
"Technical distinction."
"Important distinction."
Pixelle flew past Jax.
"He's insane."
Eldrich looked up.
"Insanity and Genius are just constructs invented by mortals to put moral labels on people."
"Interesting concept."
Lexi followed, laughing.
Jax took one last look at the dimensional doorway.
One door.
For now.
If Eldrich could make it two, the war they had spent an entire day planning changed.
Distances changed.
Reinforcement changed.
Movement changed.
Five separate battlefields became a little less separate.
Jax stepped outside.
No soldiers marched that day.
No horns sounded.
No banners rose.
But copies of the Chronicle were already being prepared.
Guild contracts were being written.
Weapons were being forged.
And somewhere behind him, a brilliant man with no understanding of why people didn't want glowing food was trying to convince a dimensional room that it belonged in two places at once.
The Empire had thirty days.
Jax intended to use every one of them.