You can’t succeed if you don’t take risks.

I’d first come to the realisation during the hunt in the mines, when there had been a choice between running or helping in the fight against the carrier mother. In retrospect the decision had been a good one, leading to the successes that had gotten me here.

My thumbs ran over the mitts, feeling the leather and taking mentally in the power they held. They went into my satchel and so did the crab-shell dust in its little pouch, then more clothes than I needed, some jewellery in case I needed to hawk it, a few loaves of bread and skins of water, and books with maps of Althor and the Commonality.

This would be another risk, but it was so much more terrifying to consider. I’d be going somewhere I had never been before, trusting people I’d only met once and whose allegiance I couldn’t be certain of. It was a lot of risk and the greatest leap of faith I had ever taken, but the alternative was being here for the rest of my life.

I took a deep breath – almost a gulp of air – and let it out.

I’d always felt like going back home wasn’t in the cards, that it was something Cicero had said to placate me, and Odysseus had all but confirmed it. The spatial mages in Althor didn’t know a lot about moving people from this world to the next, they’d stolen the ritual from Washerton’s mages — from Rowan — and when they’d pulled me here they had still been working on deciphering it. What were the chances they knew enough to send me back?

But in Rowan there lay hope. The was a chance he knew enough to help me get back home, but most importantly that I wouldn’t passively be reinforcing a shitty status quo; that had to be enough.

I went to my study and stared at the temporal sword. It wasn’t something I could use, but it might be useful and that was enough for it to be shoved into my satchel — which was starting to fill up. It wasn’t any heavier, but when I put more things in, I could feel them bumping into each other.

My body shook with fear and anticipation as I finished packing, my thought constantly going over how stupid my measly attempts at a plan were. But I couldn’t let my resolve falter. There might be no better opportunity.

The fear became more palpable and of its own volition my mind started coming up with arguments against escape. If I let it, this would be an easy life, more so than anything I would have ever been able to achieve back home; there would be riches and luxury, and if I played things right I might even become a mage.

But that would mean tolerating all of that badness, letting others be stepped over. It would mean accepting that I would never see grandma again, or the rest of my family — even with how shitty the politics of it could be.

“I can do this,” I muttered to myself. “It’s the only option I have.”

But it didn’t help, being alone with my thoughts was too heavy. I headed off to Odysseus’ quarters. The door to the elevator opened and my heart jumped, surprised by the prince on the other side. I’d been so distracted that I hadn’t held on to my image of how people were moving.

“Champion,” he said, chuckling to hide his own surprise. “You were off somewhere?”

“To find you, Your Highness,” I said. “I’m done packing. Just…feeling nervous.”

He chuckled again, not doing a good job at hiding how antsy he was. “So does my sis…” he stopped and took a breath. “So does Ally. She expects Father to change his mind — a strong possibility, I will admit. I’m surprised that we have yet to leave.”

“I’m sure they’re already on their way up,” I said. “Should we go to them?”

He nodded and took a step back. I followed.

Odysseus wore the chequered blue and white of the Mandaron colours, but the clothes looked tougher, leather with signs of elemental earth gems and diagrams carved into it, and his circlet visible through his messy mop. He didn’t have any weapons, but his pendant with the temporal gem was displayed proudly on his chest; over one shoulder, he carried a satchel similar to mine, tanned leather with vine-like engravings on it.

“What riding animals are you going to be bringing?” I asked, trying and failing to sound smooth.

“Dogs would be the best beasts to bring,” he said. “Though Ally and Jaslynn will no doubt bring their birds. For the life of me I do not understand what those two see in those beasts?”

“They freak you out?” I asked.

“As they should everyone,” said Odysseus. “They have a short temperament and beaks that could lop off a hand. Those beasts are hunters and they do not hold the long history hounds hold with humans.”

“But you also prefer horses.”

“Horses are statelier,” he said. “Not to mention that our Kennelmaster is unlikely to part with his dogs if he or his squires are not in attendance. Ally wants this to be a small affair, it’s better for this success…to belong to them.”

“Yeah?”

Odysseus nodded. “She—” He stopped and frowned. “I have no idea how you change your speech so, Champion, especially when the language is not natively yours. It feels as though it is something I have to constantly think about.”

I shrugged. “It’s one of those things that you keep doing and then get used to,” I told him. “I don’t think there’s a magic solution. Part of it is changing how you see a person, and in this case how you see your sibling. Have you talked to them?”

He shook his head. “I have no idea how I would even approach such a thing,” he said.

“I don’t know how to answer that. You know your sibling best.”

The doors opened and I followed beside him, people stopping and bowing as we passed. We found Ally and the others in the armoury where they were still packing their bags, much bigger and heavier than ours, with a few pockets in them.

“You look to be travelling light, brother,” they said as they saw us. “Do you perchance have your own tents in those thin rucksacks you bear?”

“No,” Odysseus said shortly. “Surely you have enough for all of us. If not, Champion, we should requisition bigger bags of holding and get back to packing.”

“Ooh,” I said. “I’ve really been wanting to pack more stuff. That’s what…? Going to be another hour before I’m done? I wanted to bring more books.”

“Your attempts at humour are not amusing,” Ally said, though they wore an easy grin. The same atmosphere ran through much of the room, a bit of jostling between Cybill and Ellora. A knock came from the door and after a word it opened, revealing a young spatial technician. “Have the riding beasts been transported?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” the man said. “As we speak they are being tended in Glimmerwood.”

“Good,” said Ally. “That will be all.”

The technician bowed and walked out, closing the doors before him.

“I honestly cannot wait until our mages unravel the secret of that necklace your goat wears, Champion. To have a beast I can have close at hand always would be a boon.”

As much as I wanted to dig at that, I focused on what the technician had said.

“Is that where we’ll be hunting?” I asked. “Glimmerwood?”

The earldom of the Black Pastures touched Lake Altrine to the south, and bordered Susserton in the north, near its centre it was cut through by the Low Mountains of Lent. I had hoped that that would be where we started our hunt, meaning I wouldn’t have to find a pass through to reach Susserton.

Glimmerwood — the castle and the surrounding forest — were at the south-most point, and it made my stomach fall to think that that would be where we started. If I escaped, everything would be harder and since they had all the resources, they could teleport ahead and cut me off at the Low Mountains.

It was stupid of you to depend on hope in the first place. If I wanted to succeed, then I’d have to take more of an active hand. You managed to think your way down a fall that could have killed you, this is easier. You know these people and know what they want. You can use that against them.

But what would be the words?

“No,” said Ally. “As much as it looks like we are free, Father will no doubt send people to keep track of us in the shadows — he did much the same when Matthaeus and I went on our trips. We will not make it easy for them, Matthaeus was a good teacher.” Ally’s smile slipped and melancholy took its place. Odysseus had the same sad smile. “We will go to Glimmerwood, yes, but from there we will bribe some technicians to send us elsewhere. Our true destination shall be the Gnarl of Gamesh.”

“Home,” said Jaslynn. “If I ask, they will make sure our trail is lost.”

The Gnarl of Gamesh was near the border of Ashfield, further north than Glimmerwood, but still on the wrong side of the Low Mountains.

“Father will not appreciate this of us,” said Odysseus.

“Father has kept us cooped in this castle for an eternity,” Ally said, frustrated. “After this is done more of the same will follow I am sure of it. We will not have our freedom until Rowan is dead and we have no need to worry about him.”

Cybill turned to face me, her expression hard. I stayed deathly still, keeping my expression from showing the panic I felt inside. Did she know? Did she suspect?

“We have very little to lose,” Ally said.

“More risk, more reward,” I added, because the Gnarl of Gamesh was better than Glimmerwood.

Odysseus sighed. “Okay,” he muttered, “but will that not be the first place they go to?”

“Yeah,” I added, a little too eager. “We should be going further away and be smarter in how we do things, to make sure whoever’s going to be trailing us doesn’t just catch us or whatever.”

“It sounds as though you have an idea,” Ally said, and I couldn’t help but find suspicions in the words. I swallowed, almost holding my breath, worried that I might have given things away.

“What’s your plan, Champion?” Cybill asked, genuine interest in the words.

I swallowed. “It’s risky.”

Jaslynn smiled. “Promises are often grand, but they pale against reality,” she said. Maybe I had gotten so used to the craziness that I’d forgotten who these people were; for Ally and her ladies, it was highly likely that the ambush had been something they enjoyed. “What I wouldn’t do for some excitement.”

“We could expand on what I’ve been doing during training,” I said. “With Rollo. Misdirection. We start off as a group, teleport to Glimmerwood, and then we split into smaller numbers. We teleport to different cities and then teleport again to where we want to go. We meet there in…maybe three days or four so we can’t be tracked directly.”

“The last time we split apart we were ambushed,” Odysseus said, his voice tight.

“But you survived,” said Jaslynn, “and the Champion was left stronger and with a warrior’s spirit in the aftermath. Imagine what would happen if a few more close calls were to befall him? Perhaps he might even defeat Owain junior.”

“I don’t think I’ll win against Owain, the odds are too set against me, but Prince Odysseus said something that’s had me thinking in another direction,” I said, the thoughts only half formed but burgeoning into something real. The feelings running through me were much like when I’d stood against Owain, letting my mouth run and being surprised by how much my bullshitting made a semblance of sense. “Being Champion is about the legend. We could…just lie. Create a narrative while we’re out there, a story that’s believable but still props me.”

“Such deceit would be dishonourable,” said Freda.

“But they would not be the first person to do so,” said Odysseus. “The Champion said something a while ago, that history is written by the victor. This is true. When King Hadrian of the Fallen Kingdom of Caldwell won his seat, the first thing he did was burn a repository of knowledge, then he had his scholars write new histories of his rise and claims to kinghood. To read them one would have thought him a paragon, born secretly into power but his throne stolen from him. Such a thing happened constantly in the times of old and more subtly now; half the battle of being a historian is cross-referencing these stories so you get the true-truth at the base of it all.”

“Do you agree with the Champion’s plan, then?” Ally asked. “Are you willing to lie when your love is seeking out the truth of the past?”

Odysseus frowned, his brow furrowed before he said, “Our brother taught us that family comes before all. In the end he could not live up to his own words and he left us, but…”

“The words stuck all the same,” said Ally with a short nod.

Odysseus nodded. He swallowed. “Might we have a moment, Ally and I?”

Is this the moment to talk about this? I thought, especially when I waited with anticipation to know if they would follow a plan that had been thought of on the spot. It felt foolish, with still a lot of work to be done, but the Mandaron siblings were invested in me. Right now it was the only tool in my disposal and I had to get all the mileage I could from it.

Jaslynn throwing an arm over me jolted me from my thoughts. “If they agree to this plan of yours, Champion, then you and I will travel together. Not that I do not trust my fellow ladies, but the last time you were apart from me you almost died.”

“I’d—”

“And I will not take no for an answer,” she said, speaking over me. “I have a few ideas of how to actually build this legend of yours instead of relying solely on deceit. Perhaps we might hunt some bandits? Father always warned me away from travelling north over the Low Mountains, those lands had very close relations to Susserton, and they are a brutish folk.”

My heart quickened and sweat lined my forehead. The memory of the hunt stood at the fore of my mind, the stale air, the sounds of dripping water and the white of the spiders as they flew to me, ready to stab, to kill. My skin prickled where Jaslynn had touched it and my mouth was dry. Thoughts were harder to form.

“Champion,” said Cybill with a hint of concern.

I started and then slid out of Jaslynn’s hold, stepping back and getting some distance. It helped. I took a deep breath and then let it out.

“Narlen’s Grace,” I said. A smile appeared but it was shaky. It felt risky, as if they would know that something was up, as if they’d jump to the conclusion that I was planning something.

“What of it?” Jaslynn asked.

“Can we teleport there? Do they have spatial mages?”

Jaslynn nodded. “The lands grow crops, so I would think so,” she said.

“Then it’s the closest place to Susserton that has a teleportation hub. If the people of Susserton are brutish, the people of Narlen’s Grace are going to be the most brutish in Althor.” I chuckled but it sounded false, put on. “Maybe I’ll be like King Zeus and save my own princess there. Wouldn’t that be a good story?”

Jaslynn laughed, delighted. “You really do surprise at times, Champion,” she said.

“Maybe it’s worth a try,” said Ellora. “If you are committed to this plan of yours.”

“I’m not committed,” I said. “But it’s for the best. We want to make sure that Ally succeeds, and they only do that through me. We have to be willing to play the system, get me whatever advantages we can so she doesn’t have to marry Owain.”

Cybill shifted and then crossed her arms.

That felt too directed to just be bullshitting. Have you ever thought that you might just be manipulative? You seem to have a way of getting under people’s skin.

I pushed the thought away, right now it wasn’t helping any.

“What of the king?” Freda asked.

“What of the king?” Jaslynn asked.

“He will be irate and Odysseus might face the brunt of it.”

“You do not know that for certain,” said Jaslynn. “Is this an opportunity we can so easily throw away, Freda? When Ally invited us into her service she promised us adventure, but most of what we have been doing for the past while is sitting here in this castle.”

Freda looked like she wanted to say something then stopped herself, letting out a soft sigh.

“Why?” I asked. “I mean, why would Odysseus get in trouble?”

Ellora glanced towards the doors. Still closed tight, with my spatial sense I knew that the siblings were far away from the door.

“Odysseus shares much in common with his uncle, Duke Aeleus Mandaron of Belfry,” she said, the words a whisper. “And rumours in the castle say that the king does not much like his brother. Why else would he have been given the meagre lands of Belfry?”

“Belfry is still blessed with celestial gems,” said Cybill.

“Nonetheless the lands are meagre in size,” Ellora continued. “In all my time spent here I have heard nothing of Odysseus being promised lands of his own, it seems as though most of the work is done by the queen who seeks to marry him off for a parcel of land.”

“Is that why some people are shitty to him?” I asked. “Because they know he doesn’t have a lot of prospects in rising up the ranks?”

“That’s new,” said Cybill. “Something that happened after Prince Matthaeus disappeared.”

“I still don’t know a lot about him,” I said. “They don’t talk about him a lot.”

“Prince Matthaeus loved his siblings,” said Ellora. “All knew that when he took the throne, they would all be elevated into whatever positions they saw fit. Ally was to become a knight, hunting bandits and dire beasts as it pleased her; and Odysseus was to run his own duchy.”

Cybill nodded, pain lancing across her expression. I could intuit the unspoken words. It would have been unlikely that Ally would have been married off if Prince Matthaeus had still been here.

“He was the reason Odysseus left the temporal school,” Freda said.

Jaslynn sniffed, the sound ugly. “And then he disappeared in the night,” she said. “So many promises, making his kin think they would escape the burdens of their obligations only to leave them in the wind.”

“That must suck,” I said dumbly, feeling the weight of what I was going to do.

“The worst betrayal is the one you do not expect,” said Ellora, which felt fucking ominous.

The doors to the armoury opened and their expressions were hard to read. There wasn’t any anger and no one looked like they'd been hit, so that had to be a good sign. They beckoned us back in.

“Allyceus and I have spoken on it, and we think there’s merit in the Champion’s plan,” said Odysseus.

“Allyceus?” said Jaslynn.

“You are my trusted allies,” they said, their voice shaky. “If I cannot share this with you, then it is unlikely that I will be able to share it with anyone else. Cybill and I have already spoken on it, but I have plans of having healers change this form of mine. I want it to better reflect my future aspirations of becoming king of Althor. I do not know how long that will take, but my name is the first step, and I would appreciate it if you treated me with all the name entails.”

Eleus and Elea were probably like Daniel and Danielle, with the one being a gendered variant of the other. I didn’t know enough if Greek words worked the same, and King Zeus probably hadn’t either, just some kid making up the rules of a language the people of this world didn’t know. But it didn’t matter, only the significance of the declaration.

“Allyceus it is, then,” said Ellora.

Allyceus stood taller, as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders.

“We should leave the castle, find an inn in Glimmerwood and discuss this plan in further detail.”