A thousand fucking years! Knowing that little tidbit, R&D would sift through Keya’s genes with a fine-tooth comb. Lee blew up chat the moment Kay dropped the bomb. Fuck the rest, 30-10 DNA samples were a treasure trove. Sampling that Direwolf was next on his to-do. Damn, he’d have to put it in cyro; there goes my first New World steak.

Fuck it; this could leapfrog them a hundred years or more in genomics. Securing this magical mad land could elevate his entire branch to Main Root status. There were, unfortunately, a shit-load of ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’.

First and foremost was clearing quarantine and avoiding root condemnation. Stabilising Epsilon 30-10 took priority one. We gotta orient and mobilise; I hope she's up to it.

He sat across from Kay in a living room armchair. The embedded coffee table screen was up showing a very spotty map of the surrounding landscape. “Alright Ms Ces, our first order of business is intel and an FOB.”

Keya made to interrupt.

“Yes, you don’t know what that means. You're my ‘woman’ on the ground as it were; what we in the biz call a fixer. You know the lay of the land, its people, customs, cultures, and dangers. At the very least better than I do. I’m sure you’ve spent enough time with me to know I’m a blabbering goof.”

“Not precisely the words I’d have chosen. Though I grasp your meaning: you most certainly do not and would not fit in, anywhere.”

“Domo arigato gozaimashita! So, you’re lead in most of our engagements and interactions. Do you understand what that means?

She shook her head.

“When you say ‘shut-up’, I shut-up.”

“Does that apply now?”

“And when you say ‘kill’… I will most likely bring to bear lethal force.”

“I thought not.”

“Discretion is largely yours to regulate; I have no point of reference for the range of shit to Shinola of your world. You’re the compass. Capiche?”

Kay nervously shifted on the sofa recognising the burden he was giving her, a good sign. “I do not think I am sufficiently knowledgeable or wise to bear such a hefty responsibility. You must understand, Master, whatever lofty potential you believe I have; I am still but a mere village girl. My decisions may be no better than yours, in fact, almost certainly worse.” She continued. “You have displayed insights to knowledge at times that I could never hope to achieve. Surely you see I am no leader.”

“Let me put it this way, I know what you don’t know, and I know you don’t know it. However, I don’t know what I don’t know, and that is especially true for your world. I need a guide.”

“That’s uncannily similar to what Gran-. Well, a guide sounds like a far simpler assignment.”

“It’s the same bloody thing! You point, I shoot!”

“You have a bow? The goblins smashed mine.” The elf wrung her fingers.

“Not as such. That aside, can you do it?”

“I-” She looked past a curl of her blond frizzed hair falling loose, pulling it back. “I understand Master. I will try as you ask, though I fear woeful inadequacy.”

“Ii desu yo, trying is a start. And no more of this ‘Master’ stuff, it’s giving me weird vibes. Call me, Kel, please. If for no other reason than it'ill blow our cover world-side. You need to appear my superior, and I, your aide.”

“Why on earth would subterfuge be necessary?”

“Oh, we have big plans. Don’t you worry.”

“For some reason that worries me further.”

He gave the briefest of smiles on an otherwise deadpan face. “Next, check this map on the table. Coverage is still spotty, coz I was tailing Gavin, and the balloon network was secondary. I deployed them at night to avoid detection.

“As you can see, my balloon scouts found a few rivers and bodies of water. I’m hoping you can assist.”

“Of course Mas… I mean Kel-sun, though I doubt my cartographic knowledge could match the expert artisans you have at your disposal.”

“Believe it or not, your data points are essential,” he said slurping hot coffee. “Evy has a map recognition algorithm running in the background, and I’m gonna show you most likely matches. Sea-level and erosion diminishes reliability, but you can confirm it. Look at these outlines and tell me which best fits your world.”

The program outputted white line overlays attempting to match the imagery. Maybe one per cent was mapped relative to the partial continental outlines. It began with images of Asia, then the Middle East, and so on with iterative orientations. Jon had been here very briefly, and intel was mere crumbs. He would have to speed that along since full-blown narrative decay had set in. No more worrying about butterflies at least.

Kay leaned forward intently studying the lines.

“No, no, next, no, wait, go back, I recognise this land; it is called Reka.” She pointed to Italy. “We are further north.”

“Very nice!” Another earth was par for the course, an outlier even at Epsilon depths was inconceivable. Then again, so was magic. “Evy, stick to Europe.”

“There!”

“Evy, Stop.”

“This is Ravis my-, what was my home, correct?” She pointed to the red pin geo-locating the most recently deployed rift.

“Yep.”

“Then we follow the river North,” she traced, “to the human city of Bovan. 'Tis the closest city to our village, about a week’s ride by cart.” She pointed to a scanned town Gavin had passed through on his way to her village. Ravis was situated just south of the rift, and the city of Bovan, north. Both of them located on the Rhine in Western Europe.

“You’re certain?”

“Absolutely, my homeland is Elgelica across the channel.”

“It’s a Bingo!”

“It’s a Bingo?” Kay was expectedly quizzical.

“It’s just bingo, actually.”

“What is Bingo?”

“You see, now you’ve gone and spoiled the joke.”

“I am not laughing.” She wasn’t; her turn for deadpanning had arrived.

“It means: ‘it’s a match’. The joke was for Lee, not you. You owe me 10 grams Au, Lee!

"I'm still beating you in Multiverse Bingo, bro." AR was offline in the Bunker, but comms still worked. Kay was unable to hear their banter.

"Sore loser."

"Kel-sun?"

"Nothing. So, we’re in Europe, Huh? Not surprising but useful. Evy, insert greyscale placeholder map. We’ll update as we go.”

“So this is the world!” Kay was enraptured as the continent filled out. “My, such an expanse!”

“This is not the world; this is the world.” And he pulled out with a pinch on the screen, their tiny area becoming a few coloured pixels on the coffee table. She covered her open mouth. Zooming to globe view, he spun it with a casual flick.

“It cannot be! I have heard of lands to the south and east, but this much!”

“Yep, this much. I’ll try limit your mind blows to one a day, but I give no guarantees.” Jon rested his cheek on a fist.

“What are these lands to the west?”

“The Americas. Spoiler alert, you’ve found less than half of your planet!”

“This knowledge... if true, would be priceless to any kingdom! You best not be jesting with me, Jonathan Kelly!”

“Often and repeatedly, but not now.” There were, of course, innumerable things she simply couldn’t accept yet, it would take time. “Remember never to take my word for gospel, Kay. Simply take it as provisional. If nothing else at least you know more of what I claim to believe.”

Nursing her finished coffee cup, Kay rocked slightly.

“Your behaviour is confounding Kel-sun. First, you make claims of certitude and show me arcane wonders to boot. Then you implore me to exercise doubt. Which is right? Which is true?”

“Exactly! You decide. I give you tools and suggest ideas, but the picture is yours to paint.”

Low volume music still played in the background as he watched her ruminate, those sharp eyebrows knitting together below her frown.

“For once, you appear to make sense Kel-sun.” She beamed affixing him with evergreen eyes.

Watch where you aim those things girl, a smile like that is downright weaponised.

“Cool. On to business,” With a tap the map zoomed back in. “Where is the closest open field, away from people? You’re either gonna hate or love this!”