Five years and I can’t do anything about it. I don’t have the knowledge to make things go faster, and there are no plans I can make that’ll get me there sooner. I miss Grandma and I miss my family – miss home – but now there’s no choice but to make the most of what I have.

Nothing left but to enjoy my Isekai adventure.

The impact sent a rattle through my arm. My work was amateurish. I could use an axe, but that had never been to cut down an entire tree. But since there was a lot of work to be done, an extra hand was always useful.

Jacob stood to one side, a man in his late thirties, bare chested, his shirt tied around his forehead to ward away the sun. He was breathing deeply, watching me as I worked, likely trying to find a way to fix my technique while keeping in mind that I was technically of the nobility and practically a landlord. A part of me wanted to tell him to speak, but that would be an order and would be counterproductive.

A thunk reverberated as the axe sunk into the tree, and it stuck. It took two pulls before it got out and I got in another hit.

Jacob sighed and stepped close. I stopped. He offered a hand and I gave the axe over, he neared the tree and I stepped away; his legs parted and his arms did the same along the handle of the axe, then he swung, hitting twice in a downward arc but sometimes going a little up and catching the tree on its underside; then he handed over the axe again.

I kept that in mind as I swung, feeling the sun at my back and sometimes the sting of sweat in my eye. The work was something I could lose myself in the same way I had taken to training back in the castle, feeling the physicality of it, my strength being sapped by each motion.

Thoughts sometimes flickered through my head, memories more than anything: Ceremonies were a communal gathering and the work that went into one was also usually communal. Wood was very important because the cooking was done with a three-legged cauldron over an open fire; it was usually the duty of boys and young men to go out to chop the wood and stow it on a borrowed tractor, something I ran away from because I hadn’t liked the labour.

Five years before you can go back to that life, and with how time works, not a lot of time will have passed.

Another thunk jolted me out of my thoughts and anchored me in my increasingly tiring body. My arms were so weak that holding the axe was harder and each swing had less power. But I wanted to keep going, something about pounding the tree felt good.

Jacob stepped in and without speaking he motioned for me to give him the axe.

I did and before I could step too far away, a kid that was five or six eagerly offered me a leather skin filled with cold water. The boy beamed as I accepted it and took a deep drink, pouring some over myself to wash away the heat and sweat.

Ours wasn’t the only thunk in audible distance, a new set of work had begun after I’d come back to Clyde with the good news. The land was ours and we could start building. We were still waiting for a town charter to be brought in — official documentation that this land was rightfully ours — but that hadn’t stopped the work from beginning.

Matthaeus, using his hammer, had cleared and levelled pieces of land for building houses and gardens; the wood was for the former project and Surya had gone on a seed buying expedition for the latter project. It would be a while before the settlement could be self-sufficient, but the forward progress settled the idea that I was making a difference.

Through instinct my eyes went to the edges of the settlement where me and the others slept for the night. Matthaeus and Hatim sparred in front of a bound Corneleus. The man looked thinner than he had when we’d found him, a beard beginning to grow and an air of squalor radiating off of him — strange when Matthaeus offered him more liberties than were usually given to prisoners; maybe the pit he slept in was getting to him.

It had been three days since our meeting with Rowan and things had stalled.

Matthaeus and I had told the others snippets of our conversation, but beyond that there hadn’t been much discussion of the future. The prince had held a conversation with the Champion, but I didn’t know the details of what they’d talked about, or whether or not Rowan had accepted his offer. Only that Matthaeus had been quieter in the aftermath, more prone to silent ruminations.

“Rollo, come.” The air rippled and he materialised before me, on his feet with his mouth wet. I heard a little squeal of delight and saw how wide the kid’s eyes were at the appearance of my goat. For a moment I felt a hint of dissonance that I had come to accept teleportation.

“Hey kid,” I said. “What’s your name?”

“Josiah,” he said, his voice low and his eyes shaking with nervous excitement.

“Do you want to take a ride, Josiah?” I asked, looking at Jacob for permission. The man shrugged and gave a little nod. Josiah on the ground started to bounce with excitement, nodding his head.

Rollo dropped low so I could climb on, a little harder without a saddle. I pulled Josiah on and the two of us started to make rounds around the settlement, keeping at a slow pace because I could feel the kid’s heart hammering through his tiny body. As good an act as it was letting Josiah ride was, I realised it might have been a mistake as a whole bunch of kids started to follow us, no doubt expecting their own rides.

It turned into a job as hard as chopping wood as I juggled through a whole host of kids, doing my best to keep track of the ones I’d already given rides because some were tricky and took chances. There were some kids who were on the shy end and I had to look out for them because they were likely to be left behind. A lot of considerations in a task that seemed simple at face value, one that left me tired mentally but emotionally I was walking on air.

“I missed your smile, Khaya,” Ji-ho said as we went to our site in the early evening. She looked a lot like me – tired but smiling all the same; the woman had taken it as her duty to teach Madam Tulip and Sister Lavender all she’d learnt about healing, adding her knowledge to theirs. “I take it your mood’s lifted?”

“It comes and goes,” I told her. “Sorry for being a grump.”

She chuckled. “I’ve met many with worse dispositions than you, trust me.”

“Back at your temple?” I asked.

“And through my travels,” she said. My smile faded a little, lips pressing together. Ji-ho smiled. “You feel it too, then?”

“Hmm?”

“The uncertainty in our party,” she said. “It feels as though each of us knows the truth but we are too afraid to say aloud.”

“That we’ll be going our separate ways,” I said, having to push the words out. Ji-ho nodded, which made my stomach sink. “You probably have somewhere to be, don’t you? Adventures to look for.”

Ji-ho snorted. “The life of an adventurer isn’t one with a set path, Khaya,” she said. “They go where the danger and thrill is. At any rate, I’m not an adventurer.”

“Yeah? And what are you?” I asked. “Cause all your stories make it seem like you enjoy it.”

“I am a healer,” she said. “First and foremost. My fellow Sisters and I might have had disagreements, but the key principles of our Sisterhood are something I still hold near and dear.”

“And what are those principles?” I asked. “Sorry that it took me so long to ask.”

“Making well that which is sick,” she said. “Which means learning all that one can about the body so that I might be able to repair and manipulate it to greater degrees.”

“Like the healers in Kent?”

“Save we work primarily with flora and fauna as our ingredients,” she said. “Healing gems are a great boon, but there are only so many of them in existence and it seems that Kent holds them all. Plants, animals and peculiar minerals, however, exist in large numbers. They are the best alternative to work.”

I nodded as we climbed a short hill to reach the others. Surya and Luther had returned, the former had gone to the Village of Del to buy some seeds and the latter had been serving as tracker for the settlement’s hunters. We had been given a portion of the meat and now Hatim had already begun making our dinner.

My stomach sank as my eyes found Corneleus, not bound because with all of us here, it was unlikely that he would be able to run. He sat near his cousin, mouth set in a frown and his eyes hard as they glared at anyone who crossed their path.

The last three days had been spent in thought, considering the future of the settlement and how to get it to a healthy place. Corneleus was a very important factor — his ransoming would offer the settlement a measure of safety and security — but I suspected that he was also the only reason Matthaeus was still here, and as soon as he left, the others would follow.

I wanted to help these people, but the idea of those I regarded as friends leaving was giving me pause.

A sigh left me as I walked away, letting Rollo go and join the horses which stood on their own, tied around trees so they couldn’t run off. I settled around the fire with everyone, no sound save the crackling of the flames and the chirping of distant crickets.

“By Ris,” Surya said finally. “One would think someone died with how sombre you all are.”

Hatim snorted, grinning. “You’re a part of it too, friend,” he said easily. “The past few days are the quietest I’ve seen you except in prayer.”

Surya chuckled. “Why does it feel as though this is your confession that I talk too much?”

“I didn’t say that,” said Hatim. “But since it’s been said, I’ll admit it has a ring of truth.”

I smiled and that disappeared as Corneleus audibly sniffed, his expression curled in a disgust pointed primarily at his cousin. Matthaeus, whose expression had begun to thaw from a cold gloom, froze once more, his shoulders rigid as his eyes lost themselves in deep thought. He’d wanted his cousin to be free for a long time, but since the meeting with Rowan he’d stopped asking — which didn’t necessarily mean he didn’t still want the outcome.

Another silence settled over the grounds, awkward when Surya had done his best to break the ice.

“We need to discuss our next course,” Ji-ho said, sounding exasperated. “We all knew this was coming, didn’t we? So there’s nothing left to do but discuss the finer terms — we’re set to go our separate ways.”

As if the fire had been doused, the air around us grew cold. Luther’s expression was the easiest to read, hints of guilt touching his expression, but in the others there were glimmers of uncertainty. A bit of hope that some of them might stay sprouted and it left me afraid, nothing was worse than a dashed hope.

“Can we talk about this tomorrow?” I said as my gut told me someone was about to speak the words and make it real. I swallowed, a bit uncomfortable. It went without saying that I would be staying, between the land which was in my name and my plans for the settlement it was a given; the decisions of the others were ultimately of if they would leave me behind and I would be alone again. It had been easier at the castle where I had been unhappy – though even that had been difficult; but things had been okay since I’d met these guys, making the loss worse.

“We still have to resolve things with him,” I said with a gesture at Corneleus, hoping that I hadn’t spent so long in thought that it felt awkward, “and I’ve been planning to talk to Clyde about it.”

“Clyde?” said Matthaeus, his tone low and careful. “Why?”

“Because his opinion should matter most in how things play out,” I said. My eyes scanned each of the others, willing them to agree and extend us being together.

“I think that’s possible,” said Hatim. “I don’t think any of us have anywhere to rush to.”

Luther squirmed, and in that I knew that he would be leaving.

The dinner was spent mostly in silence, heads down and with a keen focus on our food. When it was over and Corneleus was being put into the pit, I left the group and walked into the tent grounds; they were long and round things, divided so four people called each tent home. Some were families, but most were people who had chosen to be together.

At the centre of the tents was a communal fire where most people sat in their groupings eating or chatting. One of the young girls played a lute, leading a song as people danced. I spotted Clyde, talking to a pregnant woman I assumed was his wife, one girl that was twelve or thirteen sitting in front of the woman getting her hair braided.

I hesitated, worried that my presence would be seen as an intrusion.

You’ve done scarier things, I made myself think. This is just walking through a crowd.

I took a deep breath and pushed myself forward, counting on the momentum to keep me going. My appearance caused some hesitance, conversations stopped and people’s eyes found me but I steadfastly ignored them, going around clusters until I reached a Clyde who had already sensed the atmosphere and turned my way.

“Champion,” he said, finding his feet. “I would like to introduce you to my wife, Layla.”

The woman stood with a bit of help from her daughter and gave me a bow. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Champion,” she said, her voice a whisper.

“Well met,” I said, the words sounding stiff.

“And this is my daughter Carla.”

“Greetings, Champion,” Carla said and I nodded at her, offering a smile I wasn’t feeling.

“Have you decided to join us? It would be our pleasure to host you?” Clyde asked, the loudest I’d ever heard him. A part of me wanted to believe that he was drunk, but alcohol wasn’t something we could make nor could we buy it.

“No,” I said. “I was hoping to talk to you.”

He sobered. “Oh. Of course,” he said.

“Can we walk?”

Clyde nodded and followed as I walked away from the light of the fires and the songs still filling the air. People watched as we moved, some still with hard eyes while others bowed to me. One of the kids I’d taken on a goat ride smiled and waved at me — much to the shock of his mother — and I returned it.

“I suppose you’ll want to discuss the matter of taxes before you and yours leave,” Clyde said, the words terse. I turned to him and saw that his smile was gone, his brow was furrowed in worry and I could only guess that a part of him was now waiting for the other shoe to drop. “It will be a time before—”

“No,” I said. “This isn’t about that, Clyde. I don’t think taxes can be a thing for a while, and…I was thinking about something I’d like your input in.”

“To advise you in any way would be an honour, Champion,” he said, bowing.

“You’re still on the run — your people — and the only thing keeping them safe right now is me.”

“And for that we are eternally grateful,” Clyde cut in.

“Okay,” I said, “but…I’d like it if that situation was resolved. I don’t like the threat of violence hanging over your heads. I want to give you the opportunity to have a home of your very own. A place like before, but now you don’t have to worry about a noble coming in and taking your stuff.”

“You are our liege lord now, from everything I’ve seen,” he said. “If you think this way, then surely things will turn out for the better.”

“Maybe,” I said. The land I was granted was small and inconsequential, but it could be the starting point of something much bigger and I couldn’t help but focus on that. I wanted it so that no one was at the whims of the nobility, but I wanted to be careful about how we got to that point.

Rowan was right, there were a lot of shitty things in this world, but he’d had his own ideas about what was right and what future this world should have — something that for me was too deeply attached to my world’s colonial past for me to perpetuate it. Which was the reason it sucked that I hadn’t thought to talk to those at the bottom rung to gain an idea of how they wanted things to be.

Hopefully that’s not a mistake I’ll make again.

I took another moment, gathering my thoughts before I said, “Your people will be an inspiration to others. They had their assets taken by a lord and spent months roaming before they found a new home. You survived raiders and bandits, and fought off a small army that sought to send you back to your lot in life. The trials you went through are setting a precedent, and that’s more important than most might realise. It’s also the reason you’re so dangerous.”

“You make us sound much bigger than we actually are, Champion,” Clyde returned, a bit of fear shining in his eyes.

“Power is a fragile thing,” I told him. “I didn’t realise it before I came here, but it’s been reinforced over and over. It’s an axe whose head isn’t properly fixed to its handle, it can still hurt you if it strikes, but too harsh a swing could have the head fly away, leaving people with only a piece of wood. You and your people have disrupted that power in the smallest of ways, you have shown the nobility that you bring value, that they need you while the only thing you need is a piece of land to work. That idea you birthed is something others will tell as stories, and it might be the last thing on their minds before they move out of a bad situation.”

I let out a breath. We stopped. The tents were far enough away that there weren’t people around, and the kids who had been trailing us had gotten scared off by the darkness.

“My friends and I have been talking about what to do with Corneleus for a while now,” I said. “The guy with the hammer, Marcus, wants him returned to his family because hurting a noble too bad is bound to get us in trouble, and I agree with that, but there’s a few things we don’t agree with. Marcus posed the idea that the life of a nobleman is a thousand over the value of a commoner…”

I waited and was gratified to see he understood. “His life could be used to buy ours?” he said.

I nodded, my stomach still roiling with discomfort. “I could offer Corneleus over for ransom and say that I want you as mine. I’m given to understand such a thing is allowed in Althor?” Clyde nodded. “Or I could offer him for gold so we can build up this place. Now, everything up front, there are other ways I’m thinking about getting gold so I don’t want you to feel like your options are limited. This is essentially about you and how you’ll get your freedom — will you be bought, which has its advantages and disadvantages, or will you be those who escaped from subjugation and who continue to fight for their freedom — which is not going to be easy.”

Clyde turned quite for a long moment, hand at his chin, rubbing it. “It seems as though this is a choice between the greatest good for all, and the good of my village,” said Clyde. “And from how you speak, Champion, you’re making me feel like there is a right and wrong answer.”

Fuck.

“Sorry,” I said. “I guess…I’m biased. There’s something I want, but…my main thing is helping you, Clyde. Your people. I want to help everyone else, but right now, you’re my focus. So whatever option you choose, I’ll roll with it, and I’ll do my best so that there will be no judgement.”

“You’ll do your best?” he said.

I shrugged. “That’s about all I can do. We can’t really control what we feel, only how we react to those feelings.”

Clyde nodded gravely. “Do I need to answer now? Can I have some time to gather council?”

I beamed. “Yes. Yes,” I said. “Don’t know why I didn’t think about that. Um…can I tell you something about my world’s history? And you can do with it whatever you want?” The man shrugged. “The world is made up of different people, different races like I’ve seen in the Commonality. There are people like you, termed white, me, termed black, people like some in the Sunward Empire were termed East-Asian, and some of those I’ve seen from the Sky Cities are Indian.

“For the longest time people like you travelled my world and conquered other countries. They changed their structures and put themselves in control of the governments that followed. So when it came to laws or making decisions for what worked and what didn’t, they focused on themselves and not everyone else who was living in that country. These people were often old, white men, and therefore the people who were more likely to succeed with the rules they set were old and white and men.”

Clyde hummed. “I think I can divine the meaning of your story,” he said, “and I will keep it in mind moving forward.”

“And then there’s the other thing,” I said. “Which…I don’t want to order you around, Clyde, but…I’m going to put a lot of my attention into helping in the rebuilding of this place and it’s with a particular idea in mind. I want this village or town or whatever follows to be a safe haven. There are people who are leaving Althor and going west to Washerton for new homes, I want to give people in the north of Althor the same option and since this place is one of the first town there’ll come across, I want them to be able to stop here and be able to choose whether they move on or choose to stay.”

“There will be danger in that idea,” he said, his tone filled with worry. “We might get our freedom for a time, but when the next group of travellers comes along, we will have another lord to worry about.”

I nodded stiffly. It felt like I was already going against my beliefs.

Clyde sighed and gave a tired nod. “I will speak on this with the others,” he said. “See where they stand on the matter.”

“Sure,” I said.

The man turned and walked away for a few steps before he stopped. “Champion,” he said. “If you are not too busy, I would be honoured if you were to dine with us. Perhaps during the time of tales, you might intrigue the children with the stories of your people. I saw you with the children today, and I think you might enjoy it as much as they enjoy your company.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling a little nervous. “I’ll be there.”

With a final nod Clyde was off and I went to join the others. They were around the fire and I could detect Surya flying in the air. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was dangerous doing that at night, or if his eyes had been magically altered. He swooped down and landed before I could reach the others.

“Greetings once more, Khaya,” he said, flapping his wings a few times before he finally tucked them.

“Ah…hey,” I said, a little awkwardly. “What’s up?” Surya frowned and then looked up. His eyes flashed with sudden worry before he frowned, his mouth started to open. “Please don’t say it,” I cut in, which earned a large amount of confusion. “That means what’s going on. It’s not literal.”

He chuckled. “In the Falconers, when one asks, what is up, they usually mean what threats fly through the skies. I was both confused and worried,” he said.

“Oh. Uh, neat,” I said as my mind turned over the fact that we hadn’t talked in a while, making things feel awkward.

“Was your talk with the leader of the village productive?” he asked.

“We’ll see,” I said. “Mostly this was about posing an idea and now I have to wait to see how things fall out.”

“Ris be blessed,” he said, sounding dour.

“What’s up?” I asked again. “And by that I mean what threats exists here,” I pointed and tapped my head and then heart.

Surya took a deep breath and said, “Ris forgive me, but I admit that I am quite irate at you, Khaya,” he said. I frowned, thinking back to the comment I’d made about his body. A part of me wanted the earth to swallow me whole. But I stayed quiet. “I am the one who said we should help these people so they were not attacked. This is an issue I feel strongly about, and yet, when the battle was done, I wanted to be done with this place while you were searching for a final solution to their plight. It has made me question my convictions, and how far I am willing to go for my ideals.”

“I…didn’t mean for that to happen,” I said, because even with the time provided by the temporal ring, I couldn’t think of what to say.

“No,” he said with a chuckle. “You didn’t. Yet here we are.”

He clapped me on my back as we reached the others and settled in for the night.

***

I’d asked the others to give me until tomorrow before we discussed the future, but as the day stretched on to three without a decision from Clyde, I appreciated that they didn’t rush things. I decided that since this might be our last days together, it was better to get in as much time as possible with each of them.

Ji-ho woke up every morning in search of flowers for her potions. Sister Lavender had taken to joining her since the young woman’s lessons had begun and I woke up early to join them, mostly being a bother by asking about all the different plants and what she’d want to get from them. Luther loved spatial magic and made me recount tales of the small spatial column we’d used to visit Rowan and the device Quinn had used to beckon a call.

As much as I hated it, I started sparring with Matthaeus whose teaching style reminded me a lot of his brothers — basically telling you what you were supposed to do and expecting that you would know it from description alone. Hatim enjoyed cooking and I helped him out, and Surya and I entertained the local children — I gave them rides on Rollo, while he took the braver tykes into the skies.

The sense of foreboding was still there, but I let myself forget about it, letting myself enjoy this life in a way I hadn’t since my arrival.

But eventually the short reprieve ended and things began to chug forward once more.

“I did as you advised and spoke to the others,” Clyde said. Instantly my body was rigid and tense, waiting on bated breath for the possibility that the answer might not be one I liked. “We…”

Yep, I thought, bracing. It’s coming. Why did I expect that he’d care about abstractions when there are people here he’s known all his life?

“I know the answer you want, Champion,” he said gravely, “but…I have to think about the well-being of my people first, and their safety is something that has been weighing on my mind for months. Now the possibility of true safety is before us…I don’t think we can turn it away.”

I was nodding, I realised, leaning on the ring to work through the disappointment swirling around in my stomach. But this was good, ultimately, even if I didn’t like it. This wasn’t my choice to make, only mine to accept.

“What did they say about the other thing?” I asked. “The haven?”

“It didn’t seem as though we had much of a choice,” he said.

“Input is still something I’d appreciate,” I said.

“We think it’s good,” he said, but there was something in his voice that told me there was more he was hiding. I gave him a long look and he finally shrugged and said, “We see this as what it is, Champion, the price of your help. It is not the worst price that could be levied on us.”

“But it’s still a price,” I muttered. “Okay. I’ll get started on things with Corneleus. A few weeks, maybe, and then he’ll be out of our hair. I think…it might also be a good idea if you were there for the meetings, so I don’t speak on your behalf. So it seems less me buying you, and a decision you’re making for yourself.”

“If you deem it necessary, Champion,” he said. “All I want is an opportunity to rebuild.”

“Okay,” I said, still bobbing my head. “I’ll loop you in as we do things.” The words spoken with me already moving, a double sinking feeling in my stomach.

Corneleus would be gone soon and that felt like the endpoint of my friendship with a bunch of cool people. So far it felt like I knew where two people fell — Luther really wanted to be a mage and he wasn’t about to miss a chance to work with Rowan; and Matthaeus had to keep close if he wanted their deal to pan out. In the beginning Hatim’s ambition had been attending an expedition into the Blighted Lands, but that hadn’t been mentioned in a while and I couldn’t be sure if that was still something he wanted to do — a part of me hoped, as selfish as it was.

Surya and Ji-ho, I couldn’t be sure about but I didn’t want to get my hopes up that they’d stick around either.

“It’s time to deal with the issue of Corneleus,” I said on reaching the others. It was one of the rare times when we were all together during the day. The man himself was bound by a long thread of rope, giving him the ability to move around some, but still so we always knew where he was.

“Have you decided what the ransoming will look like?” Matthaeus asked and something in his expression gave me pause. Returning Corneleus home had been something he’d been pushing for since the very beginning, but now it felt like some part of him wasn’t looking forward to his cousin’s release.

“Clyde did,” I said, doing my best to keep the edges of resentment out of my voice. “We’ll be using him to buy the freedom of every villager here. How are we going to play it? How are we going to send the message?”

“The messenger box,” he said. “I think after losing you, the family will leap at the opportunity to gain favour with the Marlin branch.”

“I thought you were on Rowan’s side,” said Hatim. “But it seems you’re still trying to secure your family’s power.”

“No,” said Matthaeus, and from his tone alone I believed him.