The voice I'd overheard while snooping in the healer spa place turned out to be Helma Patak, a... council member? Senator? An important politician of some sort. She talked as if I would already know how it worked, and I hadn't been in a hurry to show my ignorance. It went pretty well, all things considered.

"You've gotten the attention of some important people, and much of that attention seems to be negative," she'd said, arranging papers in front of her idly just so I'd know she had a whole file on me. When I used divination to read them all after the meeting half had turned out to be blank or totally unrelated, so they were just there as props.

"Well it's not all bad. I found a lost Duminere, and we killed Telen."

"The death of General Telen is certainly considered to be a problem by the King Halenvar," she replied, but I could tell she was just trying to make me sweat a little.

"Come on. Gilbrect Halenvar is holed up in a bunker and his country is swarming with soldiers from the Eldred Empire and whoever is allied with them at this point which is - as far as I can tell - everyone that matters to this situation. I'm not going to get arrested by anyone there."

She smiled and leaned forward, "Oh, but that's not true at all - is it? Because as you've said the Eldred Empire is there and they certainly don't seem happy with you."

"Hammersmith never got me to promise anything, and never officially arrested me or anything. If she's mad at me for leaving, well, she can die mad. And yeah, I heard, the kingdom of Erathik also wants to talk to me. But I didn't have anything to do with that, it's a misunderstanding. I was feeling particularly empathetic that day and I told them to split my insurance money between the people that died in the robbery and... well."

"So they mistakenly assumed you wanted to include one of the thieves?"

"No, they got that right. For all I know he was forced into it, it didn't sound like he was actually part of the team from the way the guy described them. People fuck up, he already paid with his life. I figured maybe he had kids or a sick mom or whatever that would need it."

She sat back again and squinted at me. I thought she probably believed me but I wasn't sure nor did it really matter. What mattered was what she wanted to do about it.

"Regardless, they are eager to discuss the situation with you. I suspect, given the war and the treaties between the two nations, they would agree to have you sent to the Lord Protector for now and send a representative to interrogate you there."

"Hey, I just had all my fingers peeled - can we not use the word 'interrogation'? They can ask me some shit, I'll tell them what I just told you. But we both know that neither of us want me to get handed over to Hammersmith yet."

"Oh?"

"I don't want to do this whole coy act where we hint back and forth. I heard you talking to someone yesterday, you want me to request asylum so you can drag your feet and get Hammersmith to offer you something in return, right?"

She didn't seem bothered by my eavesdropping. "Normally I have that sort of conversation somewhere properly warded, but I thought the risk was low and I needed to calm him down. Ah well. Yes, I'd like you to help me stall somewhat. I don't think there's a way you can avoid it entirely, and I'm not stupid enough to give you the chance to just walk away, but I'm sure we can work out something beneficial."

"Sure. I'll promise not to leave the city, and -"

She held up a hand. "Already I need to disappoint you. Your friends can come and go, but I don't have the resources to monitor you if you have the whole city to wander. We can have you plan any trips within the city in advance, possibly, and many things can be delivered to wherever we put you."

"See, the thing that makes me not get along with Hammersmith is being all locked up like that. How about this - the university is nice and big, and there's a wall all around it. What if you find me a place to stay in there? I can visit the library, I saw some places to eat within the walls, and you already have guards around."

And just like that she agreed to quarantine us to the part of the city we wanted to be in anyway. There was this moment before the other shoe dropped where I had a somewhat premature revelation. It started with the thought that on Earth I would have been immediately thrown in jail, not just in this situation but several different times throughout my journey. Earth-Hammersmith would have locked me up rather than giving us an apartment. Earth-Erathik would have quietly had us killed and kept the lost Duminere a secret. Earth-Hugh would have arranged an ambush to get me shipped back before we even got on that boat. Earth-Patak wouldn't have risked letting me roam the whole university.

Then it switched to "am I not giving Earth enough credit, or is it a cultural difference? Or is it me, somehow?" I had to admit that I hadn't personally suffered as many consequences as I deserved on Earth; I'd had some bad shit happen to me but I'd also broken the law about a million times. I was constantly trespassing and shoplifting until I was sixteen. But there'd for sure been more of a feeling that I was getting lucky, while here even the big authority figures kinda shrugged and said "yeah we'll trust this random stranger, why wouldn't we?" to some extent.

It almost made me feel a bit guilty about the fact that I was planning on immediately betraying that trust and escaping... and then she called in the Oath-taker.

I'd known this was a thing, but had somehow forgotten. Hammersmith hadn't just been a push-over, she'd thought Connie was bound by magical oaths. Right. And those had only failed because they were technically oaths to an alternate timeline version of the Eldred Empire, which had been utterly destroyed. Even then it took Connie a lot of time to convince herself. The ability was tied to the 'leader' gift, one I hadn't seriously considered getting and which didn't factor into any of the hypothetical combat scenarios I'd planned in my head, so I had sort of let it slip my mind.

I insisted I wanted it to be limited to the immediate situation, and to have a clear expiration on it. The whole idea creeped me the fuck out and what I really wanted was to avoid it entirely, but I had to admit I preferred the idea of a temporary mental restriction to being chained up in a cell which was almost certainly the only other option - it wasn't like I had any actual rights. The oath-taker was sadly not a chump, and the very first sentence of the first draft was already worded in a way that told me he wasn't going to leave loopholes in. I'd lucked out with that mind reader because he'd probably been forced to help the Behemoth under threat of death and wasn't used to interrogating someone, but this dude was in his element and there was zero chance I was going to sneak some gotcha wording past him.

We moved a few clauses around and tweaked the wording, but in the end this is what I was left with:

"I hereby swear to follow the terms of this binding agreement, both in the literal meaning and in the intent as I best understand it. While in Sentortzi I will do my best to follow all laws of the city and obey any reasonable orders from Sentortzi guardsmen. I swear to make no attempt to leave the grounds of the Grand University in Sentortzi, or to passively allow myself to be removed from the grounds of the Grand University in Sentortzi. Should I leave the grounds of the Grand University in Sentortzi for any reason, I will do my best to both return to the grounds of the Grand University in Sentortzi and to alert Sentortzi guardsmen to the incident as quickly and efficiently as possible. Should I suspect that an attempt is being planned or enacted by any party including myself to remove me from the grounds of the Grand University in Sentortzi, to circumvent or remove this binding oath, or to bring harm to the people or property of Sentortzi, I will do my best to provide Sentortzi guardsmen with this information in detail as quickly and efficiently as possible. I will do my best to read an official and accurate copy of this agreement each day within four hours of waking. This agreement will be dissolved automatically one year after being sworn, and can be dissolved or suppressed for up to one hour upon voluntary and uncoerced verbal release from no less than three different Sentortzi guardsmen who are aware of the agreement's details."

It wasn't great news, especially the part where I had to rat myself out for coming up with an idea on how to get out of it. I got some assurances that there was no way for a paradox in the instructions to make my head explode, and then gave up and went through with it. Arguing any longer would be as good as flat out telling them I was going to run the second I figured out how, and refusing entirely would just mean getting locked up and then shipped off - though I considered that, as in many ways it was easier to get out of.

I finally gave up and read the damn thing, though it took two tries - the first time I didn't mean it, and it turned out you couldn't just force or trick someone into a magically binding contract. They didn't hold that against me though, and in fact the otherwise very serious oath-taker smiled at me when it failed to take hold.

"This is your first time taking a binding oath?"

"Yeah."

"It rarely works the first time. People naturally resist. Don't worry if it takes several attempts."

And then it sank into me, like this web slowly settling onto my brain. I didn't like the feeling, but it faded quickly and I felt pretty normal until we reached the grounds of the university - as I stepped through the gates I had the urge to turn and run, then the urge to find a guard and tell them I wanted to run, a panicked thought that I needed to do whatever it took to get out of this contract if it was going to be that bad, and then the urge to also tell a guard about thinking I wanted to avoid the contract.

I didn't actually go to the guards, though, and after a moment my brain settled. The agreement didn't say I needed to snitch for idle thoughts. It didn't say I had to like it, or couldn't passively think that I wanted out. It meant plans. Actual concrete plans. I opened my eyes and the clerk that had been walking with me was just standing there patiently.

"Deep breaths," she said.

I nodded, and took some deep breaths. It had felt very much like one of my panic attacks. Nearly identical, especially the part where thinking about it made it worse. The clerk patted me on the shoulder.

"It won't happen like that every time, not unless you're actually trying to fight it."

"It had better not, that was fucking awful. Thanks though. I see my friends, I guess I can take it from here."

Katrin and Errod smiled and waved, but I scowled at them and just handed off the written version of the agreement. They took turns reading it, and I caught Errod grimacing.

"It's bad."

"It's... fairly thorough," he said. For a moment he looked like he wanted to reassure me, but either he couldn't think of anything positive to say or he was worried that it would violate one of the clauses because he shut his mouth after a second. Katrin showed me to some old stables where our wagons were parked - they'd been partially repaired but still needed a lot of work - and then Errod went out for lunch while I made Katrin the happiest girl on the planet by doing what I had promised and walking up and down every single accessible aisle in the library.

I intended to talk to Professor Yanpliss, but I wanted to save that for the next day when I was feeling more settled in. So instead after eating what Errod brought back - it reminded me of a gyro, tzatziki sauce and all - I just wandered the borders of my territory, following the walls and nodding to the guards who I noticed all kept eyes on me. They'd been told. When I made it back to roughly where I started I found Katrin waiting, reading through what looked like a very dry book about the nature of magic.

I knew I had important things to look up - the actual history of Brynnklar, more information on Errod's glove since he was still putting off that conversation, books about the Sahrger in general and changelings in specific, maybe information about the oracle that we had been planning to go to before everything went to hell. But as with the professor, that all went on the list for the next day. Instead I just sat around people watching, and eventually spotted one I knew.

"Elba!" I yelled, and then as she turned towards me with a furious glare my brain caught up. Not Elba. In fact, I noticed, there was an iron chain running from her waist to a distracted-looking older man who was writing in a book as he walked.

"Choke on a diseased pile of rat corpses, bitch."

"Hi, Mossbloom. Good to see you too."

The man looked up at Mossbloom, then at me, then at Mossbloom. It was clear he had totally filtered out the bit about diseased rat corpses as just part of Mossbloom's normal background chatter.

"Ah! Excuse me, how do you know this... ah... person?"

"I'm the one that brought Elba back to her parents," I said, and then had to clarify since he looked a little blank, "the human girl she'd taken the place of?"

"Ah, yes. Of course. Did you bring her with you?"

"What? No."

"Ah. A shame. I'd hoped her parents had changed their minds and consented to the tests, I'm afraid our progress will be sorely limited without a matched pair."

I was going to ask about what they were specifically hoping to find out, but Mossbloom picked that moment to suggest an extremely detailed course of action I could take with the rest of my gyro and the man got all flustered and dragged her away. I filed it as yet another thing to follow up on - at least it was clear I'd have plenty to do even confined to the university.

For the time being, there was only one activity I really wanted to work on. I laid down under a shade tree, ducked into my memory palace, and began to plot. For now I was where I wanted to be, and once I was being handed over to Hammersmith - because there was no doubt in my mind that was who had dibs on me - the agreement would be dissolved. The one redeeming part of that stupid contract was that it only covered my time in the city; I was free to plan any escape I wanted so long as it happened a millimeter outside the gates. I was going to be meek, I was going to follow the rules, and I was absolutely going to vanish the second that contract was lifted.