By the time they neared the region containing the gate back to Tatian, they'd finished some basic precautions. First, he'd gone over the vehicle carefully, finding several spheres that might serve as a tracking component and leaving them behind. The sleigh would obviously look foreign, but they'd removed the Armeau family crest and much of the gilding so it could pass as a more generic transport. Theo switched back to his Deuxan cloak and was surprised to find that the other two had acquired their own. They could enter the city easily, unless...

"Do we know if Nlukoko has any method of instantly contacting Deuxan cities?" He asked the question to both of them, but looked toward Nauda. She shook her head grimly.

"Unless Lord Ariano has a special connection he's never revealed, I don't think they do, otherwise there would have been more news from Deuxan. But I have a hard time believing they'll let this go... they'll be after us soon, won't they?"

"Our biggest advantage is our head start. I didn't see evidence of communication armaments in Anguedan, which makes sense since those are usually rare. Esaire will have to run back to the city, or at least to someone whose transport he can take. I doubt he has the authority to just chase us directly into another world, so he'll need to confer with the rest of his family first."

Fiyu took a deep breath. "Do you think he will follow us with reinforcements? If they send one of their Rulers..."

"I doubt it. The more people get involved, the more the conflict will seem petty and beneath the family." Theo could almost convince himself, but ended up shaking his head. "But I don't think Esaire will give up so easily and we don't know what connections he has on Tatian. We can't afford to stay in Nlukoko."

"They won't follow us far in the borderlands." Nauda sat back in her seat and prepared to soulcraft. "We can lose them out there, but we need supplies. The most dangerous period is while we're still in the city, or if they chase us out of it."

"I hope we can escape without seeing them again," Fiyu said. She settled back to follow Nauda's example and Theo wasn't sure if it was a statement of concern or simply making good use of her time.

One of the best features of the sleigh was that it could continue moving forward on its own and even navigate over minor obstacles. Since he had a well-constructed door in his soulhome, it would be easy to soulcraft even while driving the sleigh. Normally he would have joined the others, but they were already close to the gate and what he needed was insight.

Unfortunately, he just didn't see any way to make significant progress given his current resources. Looking back, he felt like everything had fallen together more quickly for him during his first life in the Nine Worlds. Perhaps he had just been lucky, perhaps his personal changes led him in a different direction, or perhaps the Nine had changed...

Soon he saw the gate ahead and began to slow their sleigh, the others emerging from their soulcrafting to join him. There was a very small chance that they'd be set on as soon as they went through, so they were on edge while they approached the tall silver arch. When they emerged on the other side, they were in the Nlukoko courtyard surrounded by the Deuxan market. A few local guards sat nearby, but there was no sign that anything was amiss and only one stood up to greet them.

"Visitors from Deuxan?" The guard didn't look at them very carefully and didn't seem to care. "Pay your fees and we'll get your papers sorted."

They could have used Nauda's false papers and avoided the fee, but Theo preferred to further break up any trail of evidence. Besides, it only took two of their Silver Crowns to put the guard in a good mood and get him to expedite the process. Hopefully, the man would barely think about them and not go out of his way to remember details, if Deuxans followed them later.

As they were about to depart, Theo turned back to the guard as if with a careless thought. "We heard there was some trouble with demons this year. Is the Landguard still here to keep the city safe?"

"Oh, they moved on months ago." The guard gave the question a slightly odd look, but scratched his side lazily as he answered. "Don't you worry, noble one. The city guard is well trained, and the Lord of Nlukoko is an Authority-tier soulcrafter. You're safe as can be here."

Theo pretended to be reassured and then guided their sleigh into the city. Unfortunately, though Deuxans weren't rare in Nlukoko, such an expensive sleigh still attracted some attention. Nauda sat low in her seat so no one would identify her as Tatian and Theo just hoped that any observations of them would be so garbled as to be useless.

"If we need to get out of here as soon as possible, do we split up?" Nauda asked. Fiyu shook her head immediately, and this time Theo agreed with her.

"It would save time, but I think there's too much risk of being found alone. Let's just do everything in order as efficiently as possible."

"Then we should exchange our money, or we'll have to negotiate at every single store. Turn that way, we can get a decent rate in the Deuxan district."

They slid onto another street, this one filled with many more Deuxan pedestrians. Theo remained in the sleigh as a precaution against thieves while the other two ducked under a specific stall. He was surprised to note that Nauda gave Fiyu the bag of money and had her move forward first.

"Hello!" Fiyu set down the bag and smiled at the woman running the stall. "We have many Silver Crowns. What are they worth?"

"Ah, you've come to the right place." The woman smiled broadly and picked up the sack, beginning to run the silver rings through her fingers. "Each of these is worth two full plates, or five chips, or s-"

Abruptly Nauda slid beside her, bringing her hand down on the sack and pinning it to the table, along with the money exchanger's hand. "So that's what you'd charge a naive customer you wanted to rob, huh?"

"Th-that's..." The woman tried to pull back, but couldn't escape Nauda's grip. "I pride myself on honorable business, but someone who requires such quantities..."

"You were giving me dishonest prices?" Even with her eyes covered, Fiyu's dismay was visible. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"I grew up on these streets, you know." Nauda put an arm on the money exchanger's shoulders, a Tatian gesture that wasn't quite so friendly in Nlukoko, despite her smile. "As it happens, we have a great deal of coin that we need to pass through an honest exchange. Now, are you the person we need, or not?"

Not long after, the two returned to the sleigh with their new currencies. He waited just long enough for them to get in, then began navigating to their next destination. Fiyu beamed happily at her participation in the deception, while Nauda just leaned forward over his shoulder to give the results.

"I kept a hundred Silver Crowns in case we run into Deuxans or need foreign currency. Some of it I converted to local plates, just enough to cover all the supplies we need here. But the rest, I converted into these." She reached into the sack and revealed a small amber gem. "I don't know economic details about the city we'll find on the other side of the gate, but I'm confident these will have value there. You know them?"

"Not those particularly, but I know the idea." Theo glanced back at the gem, confirming that it felt like a sublime material, but without any power. "I assume they're used as a core component of crafting sublime materials in the real world?"

"Yeah. Craftgems have functional value and they're artificial, so they're a practical currency anywhere. We lost a bit converting to craftgems, but we can't convert to our destination's currency and I think craftgems will be the better choice in the end, wherever we end up."

"We have something like that on Ichil," Fiyu spoke up. "They're small crystals that help power defenses while you sleep. I suppose those would not be as necessary in other worlds, but they were the only money we used while traveling."

Normally that might have led to another conversation, but they were running against a deadline. For normal supplies they visited another market, where Nauda ruthlessly negotiated for food, blankets, and other basics. Traveling would be cheap with the sleigh, since it could serve as shelter, but he noted that she purchased a significant amount of food. Could so much of Tatian really be empty and infertile?

"She is very good at negotiating," Fiyu said happily. Theo only grunted.

"I'm happy to leave it to her. Scoot over, she's coming back."

"That's the minimum we need." Once she dropped the supplies beside Fiyu, Nauda vaulted into the middle seat behind him. Realizing that she intended to talk, Theo turned back to look at them both. "If we want to get out of the city as soon as possible, we should go now. But there's no sign that we've been followed, so if anyone else has business in Nlukoko..."

Fiyu shook her head while Theo weighed the odds. The truth was that he didn't know the exact Deuxan threats, but since he was fairly certain that he wasn't being actively hunted by anyone higher, he decided that ignorance was a greater threat than a delay. "Can we visit the library again? Now that you're an Archcrafter, we should be able to access more resources than before."

Though the two women glanced at each other, they didn't object in the slightest, so Theo navigated to the library. Along the way, Nauda had the idea of repainting the sleigh to decrease its visibility. Since Fiyu didn't want to join them in the library, despite his claims about its peacefulness, she remained outside with a man who began to repaint it while they entered.

Inside, the Deuxan librarian glowered at him without any apparent memory of his previous visit. When she observed Nauda, however, she let them access some of the restricted archives.

"I know you just needed my rank," Nauda said as they entered the shelves, "but I'll help if I can. What are we actually looking for, in detail?"

"It's nothing different than I've said." Though, even as he spoke, he questioned if he had really been completely forthcoming with them. "Any information at all about the Artifacts of Elghiera, or the ancient soulcrafter himself. I probably found the stories you mentioned before, but don't rule anything out. Then anything about the Landguard - it's not very likely, but if we can learn anything about why they're so paranoid about outsiders, that might save our lives later."

She could easily have dismissed it as too abstract or relevant only to him, but Nauda accepted his words with a nod and began to help in the search. Actually, she proved to be a great help, since she showed no hesitation in approaching librarians directly where Theo preferred to search alone.

After an hour spent mostly futilely, Theo sat back and wondered if this had fundamentally been a mistake. This search needed to be undertaken carefully and thoughtfully, not rushed into while on the run from unknown opponents. Only the fact that they might not be able to return to Nlukoko for a long time made him refocus on the task.

What he found most frustrating was that the books the librarian brought him about Elghiera seemed to take him even less seriously than the myths he'd found before. There was a long chapter that put forth a theory that "Elghiera" was the mythical version of a real historical figure who had been essential in creating the very first weirkeys. Though the ring Theo had owned in his first life had never been usable as a weirkey, it had seemed aligned with some worlds more than others, and it had helped him in the pale white realm. What if it was a key in search of a lock?

The chapter would have been fascinating on its own terms, but as an answer under pressure, it was horribly disappointing. In fact, everything he read just made him angrier, wading through unnecessary information when he'd been killed because he didn't know enough. What should have been an enjoyable experience was reduced to futile scrabbling after a retreating goal.

"I think I have something." Nauda hadn't said anything of the sort during their search, even for potentially useful finds, so he immediately looked to her. She raised the book so he could see the title and smiled. "This is specifically for Archcrafters who believe they might join the Landguard. Unfortunately, it's more about ideas of community than specific techniques or advice."

"But it has information about the Landguard? When was it published?"

When Nauda blinked at him, he remembered that of course the book wouldn't have a publication date or anything of the sort. Whatever word she heard, she overcame her confusion fairly quickly. "The binding is very new, but a few other people have read it. He mentions a city that was founded ten years ago, so it's at most a decade old."

"Sorry, it doesn't matter. What's the important part?"

"It says that, while the Landguard is able to deal with military threats, it's struggled to deal with other types. Harmful addictive substances from other worlds, for example. The book emphasizes all the different threats, but the important part is that they've also received support from other worlds, information about dangerous outsiders that they might not be familiar with."

For the first time in so long, Theo felt like he was getting somewhere. He leaned closer. "And?"

"It doesn't say anything about who, but some sort of benefactor gave the Landguard both information and sublime materials if they promised to increase their usual duties. Specifically, they needed to locate and hunt down any outsiders who might be dangerous to the Nine Worlds." Nauda paused and shrugged with the book in hand. "Unfortunately, it doesn't say much more than that. The book is more about how awe-inspiringly important and serious the Landguard is, as opposed to little details like what they do. Does that help?"

"It's more than I've ever had before." Theo sat back and considered what that changed.

When he'd first arrived, he'd been afraid that Vistgil would pop out of nowhere and kill him again. That had never happened, and now he had a plausible theory. Vistgil and whatever organization he might represent couldn't afford to police billions of people across all the continents of the Nine Worlds. But they knew that unplanned outsiders might arrive, so they established broad policies against them.

That was assuming that Vistgil or an ally had been the one responsible for influencing the Landguard, but Theo couldn't really bring himself to doubt that. On his previous visit, just a century ago in Nine Worlds time, the attitude toward outsiders had been entirely different. The people of Tatian had actually been especially welcoming toward people from beyond the Nine Worlds, curious to hear their tales. Theo had never met anyone else from Earth, but he'd met people who were widely known to be from some distant world.

If his assumptions proved true, that meant he was dealing with less of a hunt and more of a conspiracy. What Magnafor had said suggested that others were coming across, perhaps with greater frequency than before. And whoever didn't want that process to happen had struck with surgical precision, their trap designed to annihilate people returning to the Nine Worlds with plans to ascend quickly.

Questions of why were pointless because he simply didn't have enough information, so his mind wandered in another direction. If this arrival had been accidental and unplanned, had the first been coordinated? Vistgil had known exactly how he almost died on Earth, despite claiming it was a meaningless accident, and had somehow met him immediately. Every possible explanation for that just left him with even more questions.

"Theo?" Nauda had closed the book and now just looked at him. "I know this information is important to you, but I don't know what else we can try."

"I think that will be enough. We should get moving." As he rose, Theo reached down to rub her arm. "This helps more than you know, Nauda. Thank you."

"I think you'd do the same for me." That was all she said before sweeping back toward the entrance. A warm thought, and decidedly not a Tatian one.

Back outside, they discovered Fiyu lurking in the shadows next to a newly painted sleigh - it was now a rich red color that would blend in with Tatian foliage, and more importantly didn't look nearly so Deuxan. Fiyu herself hid among their supplies as though she wanted to hide herself with her stealth technique, but she popped up when she saw them.

"The paint is not dry yet. Is there anything else we need to do?"

"We could always use sublime materials." Nauda glanced between them, then shook her head. "I still have enough Deuxan stone, and I don't want to mix types on my second floor. I could use some metal ore, perhaps. Do you need anything, Fiyu?"

"Oh, I am fine. I will remain here, by the sleigh."

Since she seemed determined on that account, Theo and Nauda set off again, this time walking to the nearest market that sold sublime materials. He wasn't eager to spend their money on materials that were probably second rate compared to what they would soon access, but he had to admit that lack of materials had been a choke point for him.

Thinking through all the potential problems, Theo decided to purchase some of the springy branches that Nauda had used to ascend. It was unlikely that he would reach Archcrafter soon, but it was good to be prepared. Nauda purchased a number of supplies for mixing sublime cement, which was always a practical choice.

They had to search longer to find anything of quality, but eventually they came across some sublime metal that the merchant called sunbronze. Like many sun-related Tatian materials, it felt potent, though not Archcrafter-tier. It would have fit his old blueprint better, but he thought he could find a place for it, while Nauda was sure that she and even Fiyu could use it to polish some of their chambers.

Since it was unlikely that they would find anything of immense value, and he was growing antsy, they headed back to the sleigh. Along the way, Nauda blended into the crowds to gather information and rumors, but when she rejoined him, she only shook her head.

When they returned, they found Fiyu perched on one of the seats, running a finger along the new paint curiously. The red would have stood out starkly on her dark clothes and she'd reloaded the sleigh, however, so it seemed that it was essentially dry. When she felt their presence she smiled and looked up.

"Hello. I think it is almost all dry, so we could leave if we want."

"That's good." Nauda folded her arms and frowned over all the supplies they'd gathered. "Does anyone have anything else they need to do?"

"Senka does!"

Everyone flinched as the imp suddenly hopped up onto their sleigh. Though Theo's first impulse was to roll his eyes, he immediately realized that her presence meant something much worse. "Senka, exactly how did you get here?"

"Ummm... Senka was eating and then people were yelling your names. Senka was a bit confused by all the words, but there was a mean fumpet and a really angry fumpet. They said they needed find you and Senka also needed to find you! So Senka sneaked into their flying boat thingy and we went back over here so Senka came to find you."

They listened in horror, almost made worse by the childish nature of the story. Theo jumped forward, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Senka, are you saying that Deuxans have already followed us here?"

"Umm, yes? Senka thinks so. There were lots of words but they said that you might get away so they wanted to talk to some Lord fumpet and lock something up."

Nauda groaned, but she also leapt into the sleigh at the same moment. "They're trying to lock us in, and probably get us reported as thieves to the whole guard. We need to move."

"Is it already too late?" Fiyu asked, shifting to a better seat and pulling Senka onto her bench.

"Hopefully not, thanks to Senka. The Lord of Nlukoko is too proud to meet with just anyone, especially anyone without a significant rank. But I don't know how long that delay will last, so we should get out of here as soon as possible."

"That's now." Before he'd even properly sat down, Theo lowered his hands to the controls and began navigating out of the city. This could be closer than he'd wanted, and he could only hope they had time.

If it really came down to it and the bridges out of the city were closed, he was fairly certain that the sleigh could move directly across the lake. The guard might have some sort of barrier they could raise, but with gravitational fields he could probably send the sleigh over them. The real problem would be if they actually got Ariano on their side - an Authority could shoot them out of the sky in an instant.

"Was Senka helpful? Huh? Huh? Senka thinks she was helpful. You gonna thank Senka or you gonna be a sporping fumpet?" She started to clamber up onto his shoulders, but he pushed her back.

"We can hand out the thanks when we're safe." Theo pressed down harder on the sphere, willing them to escape Nlukoko.