When Connie first told me about the Necropolis, I was pissed off. I was trying to get an understanding of how magic worked, and it seemed like for everything other than the Necropolis magic was a power harnessed by living creatures, not by the land itself. And then out of nowhere there's this city where it's constantly sinking into a bottomless pit? I was infuriated. Was the pit actually bottomless? Seemed like. How fast did the city sink? Fast - well, fast in terms of a city sinking. It was about three feet a year, and more importantly this had been the case since literally before recorded history. The problem should be obvious, which is that no matter what was going on underground it just couldn't have been stable with them throwing building after building on top of this sinkhole. Just stacked on top of each other, a mile or more deep without collapsing? Ridiculous.

And they hadn't collapsed, for sure - people sometimes delved into the pit, going down and looking for things to steal. I had intended to ask more about why it wouldn't all be picked clean right away, or why people were okay with grave robbing after a certain amount of time, or... just the rules in general. But I'd gotten hung up on the engineering side of things, which I had at least as many questions about.

The city was almost perfectly circular, and laid out in rings. The outer ring was shops at the six gates and houses in-between, nothing too alarming there. Next came a thin ring where the only buildings allowed were ones that dealt with the dead - some temples, embalmers, specialized shops. And then after that was the actual Necropolis, a large area constantly being built up with shrines and mausoleums and organized stacks of bones. There weren't a lot of different gods worshipped in this world, but there were hundreds of different religions nonetheless - some didn't worship gods at all, and some shared the same gods but had totally different practices. Each had its own rules about how to respect the dead and what rituals to do when preparing them which made the Necropolis a fascinating place to walk through; some bodies would be on open display right next to a sort of sarcophagus which was, in turn, next to a building literally made from bones.

But the most interesting thing about the Necropolis was the hole in the very center.

You couldn't see as far down as I'd hoped, because lower levels weren't always lined up in quite the same way and so after a hundred feet or so your view was obstructed. But it was still an amazing sight, floor after floor precariously perched on each other and filled to bursting with the dead of the world. Bodies were shipped in from thousands of miles away, the rich transported in huge processions while poor folks were carted in by the wagonload all tangled together. Depending on how they had died and how far they had to travel it was likely they'd been mummified in some way, and others had been interred in their homeland and were only removed and brought to the Necropolis once they'd been reduced to bones by time. You could be buried in your home town in the short term, but eventually everyone headed to the same place.

Some were taken to a walkway over that pit and dropped straight down, presumably with a prayer although it still seemed odd to kinda chuck someone into a hole like that. But most were given a final resting place in a mausoleum or something on that inner ring, which just kept sinking year after year. As it got lower, they would build a new "floor" on top of it, though with all the different structures these floors were added on all at different times and heights. At the edge of the pit you could see that it was a mess of ramps and stairs, with little crawlspaces created by awkward joinings and some passages that were only three feet high right next to others with a clearance of fifteen feet or more.

I would have expected Cyne to lecture me on it, but when I finally got my answer about why the Necropolis worked so differently than everything else it was just some random cleric.

"Are you here to pay respects to a loved one?"

I was leaning on a low railing at the edge of the pit, trying to trace a path downwards on the opposite side. Just killing time. "Um. Not really. This is my first time here, so I'm actually just... taking it all in."

He nodded, and pulled out an ornate pipe whose bowl was carved like a pumpkin or some similar gourd. "Yes, it's fascinating isn't it? To be standing here, on the borders of another world."

"Wait is that... is that metaphorical or...?"

The cleric smiled. He was older, and was wearing a somewhat ridiculous straw hat that made me like him for some reason. "Ah, I shouldn't have assumed. But you have the air of someone who has had an education on these things. It's no metaphor, we are currently standing both in the land of the living and the plane of the dead."

"I only know a few of the planes. I was raised in a small village, we were very sheltered and the elders didn't like magic or the planes or... whatever. They said talking about it attracted monsters." This was a slightly more advanced version of the story I'd developed by workshopping it with Katrin over the last few weeks. I felt like the touch of backwoods superstition made it sound more plausible.

"Ah, a shame. Well, it is good that you're here now, seeing the world as it is. The plane of the dead is the thirty-fifth plane, which means it has the second longest cycle. It is only aligned with the land of the living every one thousand one hundred and fifty-five years, but more importantly it only is part of the Grand Alignment twice in the eighteen cycles which means it last happened eleven thousand, five hundred and forty-nine years ago. Give or take. We don't know anything at all about what happened the last time, or if this place even existed then."

The Grand Alignment was, if I understood it correctly, any time that the plane with the longest cycle clicked into alignment with the normal world. After eighteen times all the planes would be back in the exact same position and the whole thing would start over, although that took twenty-three thousand years (or more than twenty-seven thousand Earth years - that difference in the length of a year was already driving me nuts) so a lot of it was just speculation. The big one that was coming up was the exact middle of the cycle, and had the second-highest number of planes aligned.

"So this plane of the dead, it's going to be aligned on the next Grand Alignment thing? The one that's coming up?"

He nodded, and pulled again on the pipe before blowing out a huge cloud of bluish smoke. "It is indeed. Six hundred and eighty-seven days away now. I'm torn between wanting to be right here at the pit, and running as far as I can in the other direction."

"Will it be dangerous?" I had talked to Connie about the mostly-averted end of the world, but it hadn't occurred to me that there would be other things happening on that day. She'd said the alignment was a big deal, but she had understandably been focused on the specific plot that had obliterated an entire timeline.

"It will be a very dangerous day, one way or another. All but two planes will be in alignment, which will mean some very powerful magic can happen that day. In addition to this, some of the planes are very dangerous; monsters always escape into the world from Besetie when it aligns even outside of the Grand Alignment, so I can only assume it will be far more this time. I personally wonder... I wonder if this overlap will end. It could be that the center of this city will soon be a smooth, empty field. What will we do with our dead then? But I get ahead of myself. We will cross that bridge when we come to it."

He wandered away while I was lost in thought - he probably assumed it was something deep, pondering on the alignment of the planes and our uncertain future and the potential loss of this culturally important site. Really I was thinking about how his version of "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" was closer to "we'll pluck that bird when we catch it", but the bracelet had translated it over for some reason as if I couldn't infer what was being said. When I realized the cleric was gone I looked around to find him and apologize for zoning out, but he had disappeared into the crowd. Reluctantly, I headed back to the edges of the city to deal with the aftermath of my decision the night before.

"I thought of all people - well, aside from Errod maybe - you'd be the one most supportive of freeing those poor people. You're a pacifist, but you're okay with slavery?"

Cyne sighed, and rubbed his temples. "I think you've misunderstood. I was merely saying that the execution of your plan was... inelegant, and might have caused us quite a bit of trouble - and further, that it may still cause me a great deal of professional inconvenience if they hold it against me. I make my living transporting people through the planes, and you have increased the risk of entering Xeyul."

I tried to think of a tactful way to say 'sorry not sorry'. "I apologize for any inconvenience I've caused you earlier today and in the future. But also, if I had to do it again I would."

Aestrid looked thoughtfully up at the rafters. "My uncle had slaves. He lived in Markonti, and it's legal there. When I was young, I was quite smitten with one of them... Ualrak. He told me in his homeland he was a prince, and said if he could earn his freedom he would marry me and take me to live in the palace with him. Of course, when I removed his collar he beat me unconscious and tied me up in the basement, then went upstairs and murdered my uncle so he could free the rest of the slaves. At the time I felt quite betrayed, but I'm old enough now to just be grateful he left me alive and didn't light the house on fire or anything. I'd have done much worse, in his position." She sighed, and continued gazing off at nothing. "They never did catch him. I'm sure he was lying about being a prince, but I wonder if he's single?"

Everyone was silent for a moment, and then Sige decided to change the subject. "Okay, well we got out of that fucking mess and those assholes from Halenvar shouldn't be able to find us too fast. And they can't do anything while we're in Necropolis anyway. So what's the plan from here?"

They already knew the answer to that, but I suspected Sige was hoping I'd drop some more detailed information than Connie had - she was being secretive to ensure nobody could race ahead of us to claim our prize. Still, there was no harm in answering. "Connie has a specific crypt we're looking for. It's deep, so getting there might take a while. She has the location, but not a clear route. We'll need to get supplies and plan on camping down there a few nights, but assuming Mila hasn't gotten distracted and wandered right out of the city we'll be able to make a path almost straight down. Once we get what we need, the next step is to go through Nusos to our final destination."

Cyne shook his head. "Unless it's another life or death situation, we shouldn't risk going into Nusos while deep in the Necropolis. It can take some time to get from one type of environment to another, and if we start out somewhere so filled with thoughts of death and decay we'll be immediately beset by the local creatures. It would be much safer to come back up and go to another city."

"Sure, fine. I guess it doesn't matter. I was just talking to someone that said it's a whole other plane down there, so I was figuring it might not even work."

Sige waggled his head in a gesture I had come to understand as "kinda sorta", but didn't elaborate.

Katrin, Errod, and the recently-liberated kids from fairyland were in the next room. We were staying in a sort of rental house that was barely nicer than a barn, and was intended to give a whole extended family somewhere to crash when transporting the body of a loved one. Connie was somewhere else, having vanished into the city the moment I came back without telling anyone what she was up to, leaving me to take a turn dealing with our three mercenaries which was fair considering I'd snuck out the moment I woke up from my stupor.

The big question that Connie had refused to discuss and thereby left me with was our new... wards? Refugees? They were young, maybe twelve years old in Earth years. They couldn't just be sent off on their own. Aestrid, who was coming up with all sorts of odd comments and asides, even suggested bringing them down with us into the deeper levels of Necropolis - but that got shut down fast, by literally everyone else.

"More fucking people means more food and water," Sige said, "and that's more to carry. Plus they're fucking children, I don't want them getting killed down there."

I sighed, wishing for the hundredth time that doing the right thing was the same as doing the easy thing. "He's right. We can't take wagons down there, so we have to plan on everyone carrying their own supplies. More people won't help. But... maybe Connie can spare some money to keep them set up here, and... well, I don't know. We'll figure something out."

Once I'd confirmed that we wouldn't be leaving the following morning Cyne headed out to visit a temple of some sort, dedicated to someone named Sithlan. Getting caught up on the religious beliefs of this world were on my to-do list, but not anywhere near the top. "Well, assuming Errod can keep an eye on the kids we rescued from the Sahrger I'm going to go practice magic with Katrin. Let me know if you need anything, and I'll give an update tomorrow morning at the latest."

Aestrid waved vaguely in my direction. "Yes, good. I'm fine thank you. I have plenty to eat."

"Um. Okay? Sige, you look like you want to talk. You alright?"

He nodded, and pulled me aside. I still wasn't used to the fact that I was hanging out with... not quite an alien, but for sure not a homo sapien. The fine orange curls on his wrist tickled my arm as he guided me to the corner. "Not my fucking business, right? But you're new to this stuff so just a tip. You want to practice magic that's fine, but don't let Katrin help you. She's going to hurt herself."

"Wait, what?"

"I saw her after she tried that tether trick. She was shaking like she'd gone skinnydipping in a blizzard. She overextended, burned some of her life force as mana. She needs to take a few days off."

I remembered the woman we'd gone to measure my mana capacity back in Handoleren. She'd mentioned that using more mana than you could handle was bad, and when she had charged me up to full I had felt oddly warm. It made sense that Katrin chattering and shivering after she had cast the spell was related.

"She was like that before, after she cast a spell that made a... well, a very thin force field. She saved us from some soldiers that were charging us, but I remember she was shaking afterwards."

"How long ago?"

"Um. Eight days? I think?"

"Fuck. That's even worse. Twice so close together is bad news. You want my advice, you'll take that fucking book away from her and not give it back until she's laid off the magic for at least a week to be safe. No fucking point in her doing permanent damage."

"It could have partly been nerves or something. Sometimes in life and death kinds of situations you can feel really cold." He raised an eyebrow at me, and I shrugged. It wasn't that, and we both knew it. She had been casting spells both times, ones she had openly admitted were beyond her skill level. "Fine. Yeah. I don't think she'll want me to take it away, but I'll make her promise on pain of death to chill. Pretty sure she's only been practicing the simple stuff lately though, so maybe she already knows."

"She shouldn't even do simple stuff for a bit. And like every asshole that finds a spellbook she's fucking obsessed, so good luck getting her to stop without taking the book away."

I hated to admit it, but he was probably right. "Okay. Well, thanks for the heads-up. I really appreciate it. I figured it was going to be something about Aestrid acting funny."

"Naw, she's just been eating all that Sahrger food you brought back."

"Bitch! That was for me!"