Entering the Gremlin’s Timepiece was different from usual. Upon seeing the fury, Hannah promptly chased out the few regulars, then closed and locked the door. Dallion was tempted to use the opportunity to go to the kitchen to get a proper meal. That was going to have to wait, though.

“This is Hannah,” he told Diroh. “She helped me when I first got here. She also helped Eury and your sister.”

Diroh looked at the innkeeper, not knowing what to say.

“An otherworlder?” she asked.

“Very much from this world.” Hannah smiled in an attempt to mask her rough voice. “You’re Jiroh’s sister, aren’t you? She told me a thing or two about you. Said that you had your own inn.”

“Yeah. It was a hunter’s inn. It practically ran itself. I was just there to keep it clean and collect the money.”

“That’s the most important part. Are you hungry?”

The fury shook her head.

“I’ll have Aspan make something for you.” She turned towards the kitchen door. “Aspan! Make something nice! Jiroh’s sister’s here, so no skimping!”

An appropriate response came from inside. It sounded very much real. All this time and Dallion still wasn’t sure whether the shouting matches were just an act or the real thing. Lately, he was inclined to think that they were a mix of the two.

“Fine. I’ll let you talk about me in peace,” she said with just a hint of disapproval, then strolled into the kitchen. A few moments later, Skye emerged from Dallion’s backpack in the form of a cloud and followed.

“A cloud creature?” Hannah asked, not in the least bit surprised.

“A cloud fox.” Dallion nodded, reaching for an empty mug at the counter. “It belonged to Jiroh.”

“Anything else I should know about?”

“Can you keep her here for a while? At least for a while. I’ll cover expenses. I just don’t want her out in the open for now.”

“I can’t hide everything, Dal!” the innkeeper grumbled. “I can keep her for a while, give her something to do, but despite what you think I’m a place, you can dump stuff on me whenever you feel like it!”

The grumbling was just a front, of course. Hannah had risked more than her fair share, taking in people who no one else would. At the time, Dallion thought he had been exceedingly lucky. In truth, it had been a lot more than that. It was easy for awakened to get work, though not under such conditions. Normally, tavern awakened earned good pay, but weren’t given special rooms, and Dallion’s room was more luxurious than any of the ones available. And then there was Aspan. Whose mere presence in the real world was a crime in the eyes of the empire and the Order of the Seven Moons. Not only was the cook a member of a banished race that had tried to take over the world, but he was the one who had spearheaded it.

“Thanks, Hannah.”

“I bet you are!” she snapped at him. “Is she alright?”

“No. Halburn has gone to crap. There’s—”

“Halburn became part of the empire a couple of days ago,” the innkeeper interrupted. “A new addition to Priscord’s county.”

“Huh?” That had happened sooner than expected. Dallion suspected conquest might be the reason an imperial legion was there, but none of them seemed particularly aggressive from what he had seen. Neither did any of the other factions, for that matter. On the other hand, the threat of a legion was enough to make a town preemptively surrender.

“It’ll be made public in a few weeks.”

“You learn things fast.”

“That’s how I keep people safe. I know what to look for and keep up to date with the important stuff.”

There was no hint of how she had managed to get the news so fast, though. While Dallion hadn’t run all the way back, he didn’t take his sweet time doing it, either. She had to have used an echo ring. That was the only explanation possible. And if she could converse with echoes, that meant that she had to be an awakened.

“Captain Adzorg told me,” Hannah said. “There was a merchant he used to do business with there. Learned the moment it happened.”

That’s convenient. “Any details?”

“Not much. The Order went out, the imperials came in, and the local ruler pledged allegiance to Countess Priscord and the Emperor. Most likely not in that order.”

Dallion snorted.

“The captain told me one other thing, though. Apparently, a hunter got a local noble quite upset by beating him up. An exaggeration, to be sure, just as a “fury princess” that was taken out of the city.”

That was more difficult to laugh at. Dallion looked at his empty glass, shook it a bit, then straightened up.

“The noble had it coming.”

“Dal, it’s not your place to decide that. Not yet.”

“I know the score. Nobles are petty and powerful.”

“What was he after? Jiroh’s sister?”

“I’m not sure. He didn’t seem to be particularly interested in her and definitely didn’t know she was a princess.” Not that made any difference. With the furies all but reduced to servants and mercenaries, even the rulers of the remaining countries weren’t seen as particularly special. Fury nobility was only a few tiers above a common village chief. “I think he was more annoyed at me not playing by his rules.”

The innkeeper shook her head in disapproval.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense. I made the mercenaries back off, so he showed up. If it was anything more, he wouldn’t have let me get near in the first place.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.”

Better tell her about the other thing, Nil urged.

Dallion considered it. Most of his problems in the past had come from him keeping secrets from people that were ready to help him, making the whole matter worse. Keeping the detains surrounding her awakening would be risky as well as stupid.

“There’s something else,” Dallion said at last. “She awakened,” he whispered.

“Can’t be.” Hannah put her head back. “At that age she’ll have to be an otherworlder, and she doesn’t look like one.”

“That’s not it. Someone put a skill gem in her realm at some point… when she wasn’t an awakened.”

“By the Seven.” The innkeeper slammed her hand on the counter with far greater strength than Dallion expected. “Whichever idiot did that deserves to get his arms and legs torn off.”

“There’s more…”

“What more can there be?!”

“The skill gem grew into a creature, an icicorn. I managed to get things right in her realm, but it changed into something different… ever heard of a skill called Hailstorm?”

“Hailstorm?” Hannah thought for a few moments. “Nope. What is it?”

“That’s the question. None of my guardians know, and neither does Nil. I hoped that you or Aspan might have a clue.”

“With a name like that, I can only be magic. Are you sure it isn’t?”

“I saw her awakening room. She’s only got a single attack skill, and only the basic traits. If the gem was magic, it would have appeared and made a trait appear.” He looked at his glass again.

“You’re worried about something. What is it?”

“It might be something from the Star.”

“Oh, come on!” Hanna stood up. “You’ve been obsessed over this ever since the two festivals ago. The Star isn’t after you. You were useful while you were in the Icepicker guild. That’s it. He’s not spending all his time watching you. With war breaking out in the north, the Crippled’s probably busy convincing some minor kingdom to try to take over the world again.”

“Those are the only skills that won’t obey the rules.”

“Let it go, Dal. The Crippled isn’t out to get you. Go get some sleep, then some food. I’ll take care of the girl.”

“Hannah, I—”

“Rest!” she snapped, pointing at the stairs.

Dallion knew better than to argue when she was in such a state, so he quietly stood up. Of course, he didn’t go to the stairs either. Walking to the kitchen door, he opened it and peeked inside. Jiroh was there, eating something Aspan had whipped up. The aroma was enough to make Dallion’s stomach growl.

“Things alright, Di?” he asked.

“Err, yes?” The fury looked at him.

“I’ll go get some sleep. Hannah will explain things. If there’s anything, she knows where to find me.”

“Sure.” As she sat, Skye floated down onto Diroh, changing into a hooded cloud cloak with a face.

“I’ll talk to you later, Aspan,” Dallion said, then closed the door again.

Back in his room, the first thing he did was to lie on the bed. His exhaustion was enough to get him to fall asleep at the moment, sadly it didn’t help provide the dream he was hoping for. Thoughts and memories merged together, creating the usual chaos that occurred. Dallion saw himself fighting a lake of clouds, talking to a riverboat about chess. It had been a while since he had dreamed things from Earth. In the last few years—or centuries, if one counted the time spent in the awakened realms—he had rarely dreamt about things from Earth. Having riverboats was an unusual touch. Before Dallion could do anything remotely interesting, though, he woke up. The reason wasn’t that he had gotten enough rest, but because he had sensed someone.

Bursting into instances, Dallion jumped off the bed in various fashions. In some he managed to grab a weapon, in others not. When he saw who had entered his room, however, all the instances faded away, leaving the one with Dallion sitting on the edge of the bed.

“You’ve improved a bit,” Aspan said. He looked exactly as Dallion had seen him a few hours down in the kitchen, but he knew it was a copy—the guardian of the room’s door would have said something if anyone had opened it. “Next time, try to act before I get in.”

“Thanks for the advice.” Dallion wasn’t sure how to react. “How bad is it?”

“Depends.” The copyette went to the bed and sat down next to Dallion. “The fury’s awakened. Also, she’s not a fury.”

“She’s a copyette?” Dallion asked the first thing that came to mind.

“Maybe I should have said that she isn’t an ordinary fury.”

“I’m guessing you don’t just mean that she’s a princess.”

“She’s an ice fury.”

There was a time when Dallion would have kept blinking for half a minute and still remain speechless afterwards. Having seen a lot of impossible creatures in the wilderness, he took it in stride.

“I take it those are rare?”

“They’re accidents that aren’t supposed to exist. There’s always a few every generation. You told me about the blood fury in Linatol? Well, this one is similar, only her thing is that she can start blizzards.”

“Magic?”

“Yes, but not the one you’re thinking of. It’ll take a lot of training, such things usually do, but when she masters it, it’ll be almost as devastating as the powers of a thunder fury.”

“So, that was what the noble was after.” It made sense that he couldn’t openly admit to having such a being. Unfortunately, it also meant that he’d want her back.

“Not impossible, but I’d say unlikely. It takes a lot of time to make such a fury, and trust me, such furies are always made. Thunder furies are the only ones that occur naturally. Everything else requires magic.”

“The Academy made this…”

“That’s one possibility. Magic has changed a lot since my time. Some of the spells are weaker, but there are entirely new fields that are stronger. Someone could have experimented, but that’s not the key part. You told Hannah that there was a skill gem involved.”

“That’s right.”

“That can’t be right, either. There’s no skill that would bring for the transformation. The only exception would be a gem that grants magic, but such a thing doesn’t exist.”