***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Astra***

Magnus bringing Isaac home involved a little drama, as my rather insensitive partner failed to prepare the boy for finding his mother in bed with her arm and neck wrapped in bandages.

“Mom!” Isaac ran up to the bed and took my good hand to place it on top of his head to hold it there while he began to cry. “Mom is hurt!”

“I will be fine!” I reassured the boy while ruffling his hair. “The doctors said I just have to lie down for a while and everything will be better.”

Then I looked at Magnus and raised an eyebrow. “And what required you to visit the crib? Please tell me you didn’t show up there covered in blood as you are now. No, why am I even asking? You did. Didn’t I tell you to change before going there?” Then a thought struck me. “Or even worse. You got yourself cleaned up and that blood is from the crib?”

“Hey, they told us it is important so I rushed there right after we received their request.” Magnus shrugged and grinned while he leaned against the door frame. “And nothing dramatic happened. Just a little disagreement between Isaac and another boy. And Isaac won! I am very proud of him.”

Right, who cared about a little bit of blood when talking to civilians who likely never left Mount Aerie’s living caverns in their entire lives? There weren’t many such people, but if they were to be found anywhere, then they would be crib workers.

I massaged my forehead. Normally, I should argue to make him see reason. Magnus was representing the Frosts out there. But right now I simply couldn’t summon the energy.

Isaac nodded. “Andreas was mean, so I shocked him till-”

“Till he got the message,” Magnus finished quickly for Isaac and petted him on the head reassuringly. “Remember what we talked about, Isaac? You did exactly the right thing in this particular situation, but going any further on the first offence would have been bad.”

I wanted to sit up and give those two a proper lecture. It was clear something inappropriate was going on, but a lance of pain went through my torso when I tried, so I relaxed back into the bed. “Magnus, I told you not to make the whole affair any bigger! Did you threaten the staff? What about the other boy? I hope he wasn’t injured! Isaac, you didn’t hurt another child, did you?”

Magnus gestured for me to calm down. “I haven’t threatened anyone. Honestly, your imagination is just wild, Astra. Trust your two boys a little bit more. I went there, allowed them to explain the situation, and concluded it to be a stupid fight between children combined with an inattentive caretaker who should have stopped the entire incident before things became violent. I was extraordinarily nice! Isaac is my witness.”

Isaac nodded. “Dad didn’t scream once, even though the caretaker and the other parents screamed at me. Dad was very calm with them.”

I coughed and groaned. “Why do I get the feeling the next time I show up at the crib I am going to have to listen to a complaint?”

“A woman’s intuition?” Magnus answered unhelpfully in a questioning tone. “And maybe because they think you are the nicer one between the two of us? No, seriously, I can give you the details later, but I think I was very lenient with them. You can tell them if they have complaints, they can take it up with me.”

That was exactly what I was afraid of.

“Right now I want nothing more than sleep,” I said, unable to muster any interest in dealing with the problem. “And maybe you could go and talk with my parents? Tell them everything is fine.”

Magnus gave me a thumbs-up. “I’ll tell them your best wishes and fill out those reports the military likes so much.”

“Mmh…” I hummed and closed my eyes, allowing my tiredness to take me to the land of dreams.

And that’s how I found myself sitting behind a desk while the entity continued her physics lectures as if nothing happened. How foolish of me to believe I'd ever get some true downtime. How my mind could keep functioning without going crazy was a mystery to me.

I sighed and told myself to get my act together before I narrowed my eyes at Gaia’s back, wishing to be able to drill two holes into it with the power of my mind alone.

Gaia stood in front of a chalkboard and was scribbling a set of formulas which explained the warping of space around a black hole. An exercise which, if duplicated properly, should allow Magnus and me not only to teleport and move at extraordinary speeds, but also affect gravity around us to a certain degree.

After all, gravity was an effect of spacial distortions, normally caused by mass.

Right now it was unclear how we could use this in combat since causing a significant gravity distortion would require a lot of power, but all of Gaia’s teachings turned out to be useful in one way or another.

When it became increasingly obvious that Gaia had no intention of broaching the matter of a sub-identity taking over my physical body, I cleared my throat.

Gaia stopped chalking away at her board and turned to face me with a smile on her lips. “Is there anything you haven’t understood? Maybe we should revisit the reason why certain speedsters can seemingly circumvent the laws of physics. And why you can bypass gaseous mass, but solids prove an obstacle?”

I ignored the jab at my failure to exploit the opponent’s weakness. A weakness I should have been very aware of since I shared it.

“So you know what happened?” I narrowed my eyes even further, glaring at her. “I thought your interactions with the physical world are very limited. Has something changed?”

“Only as long as you don’t enter the dream, my dear,” Gaia replied without a shred of shame. “In here, you are like an open book to me. If you had paid as much attention as Magnus, maybe you could have avoided being turned into shish-kebab.”

“I know that I fucked up. You don’t have to rub it in!” I answered, still glaring at her. “What I want to know is how one of my damned sub-personalities can take over my body! Or how to explain why that personality possesses an entirely different combat experience from me! Am I experiencing the same problem as Magnus?”

Gaia let out a deep sigh. “Can’t you just be glad and say: ‘Thank you, oh goddess of mine! In your endless wisdom, you have given me the ability to survive against all odds.” She shook her head. “Why do humans have this need to explain everything, even if their limited brains have no hope of doing so? Curiosity is such a helpful character trait, but also annoying when it is aimed at something outside the human mind’s comprehension.”

She shook her head. “I messed up the whole evolution process. Maybe I should double down on that religious gene. Maybe people being a little more trustful towards the unexplainable would be a boon to humanity, hmm?”

“If such a thing as a religious gene truly exists, I believe it would backfire,” I replied with a deadpan expression. “Isn’t the whole problem with the Thich born from the circumstance that they have contact with an alien entity and trust it?”

Gaia answered with a so-so gesture. “Not entirely. First, of course, there is no gene which magically gives you the need for religion. But there is one which influences your brain chemistry. It makes you more perceptible to having ‘visions’, which are in truth dysfunctional optic nerves. Other side-effects are lowered aggression towards family while increasing aggression towards what you regard as 'not family'. In other words, it affects tribal behaviour.”

She began wandering from left to right in front of the chalkboard. “And as for the Thich, I am not certain how my opponents are influencing them. Are they influencing them at all? Or are they somehow taking advantage of a natural development? Humans are too chaotic, but that is by design. Without the ability to confirm for myself I can’t answer the question with certainty. Honestly, having a whole group of humans disconnected from me is really ‘unpleasant’, to use a term you might understand. So could you hurry up and do something about it?”

I blinked, then shook my head. I had to focus when talking to Gaia, she was prone to digress.

“You are still trying to distract me. I no longer buy the evasive bullshit you are dishing me and Magnus regarding our sub-personalities and instincts.” I crossed my arms. “Now spill, or I will find out what allows the Thich to disconnect themselves from you and use it!”

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Gaia gave me a displeased frown and we stared at each other for well over thirty seconds.

At some point, the entity must have concluded that I was serious with my threat because she put the chalk down. “Fine. The reason why Magnus and you are developing these minor issues is that you aren’t used to your abilities. Like I told you, you have to train using your sub-identities just like a muscle. It’s a psychic ability related to your mental state. Magnus discovered an advanced state of this early on because fighting and adrenaline made it easier. You went a level deeper when you combined the stress of combat with a simultaneous attempt at using precognition.”

So, what? Was she telling me that as long as we didn’t get a grip on staying calm during combat, we would be prone to turning into berserkers?

I mulled that over. “And what are the sub-identities? No, let’s rather ask, what are psychic abilities? I think the answer to that would get me closer to what I want to know.”

Gaia bit her lip, picked up the chalk, rolled her eyes, and then dropped it again. It was the first time I had seen her lose her cool in this manner.

She turned to the chalkboard and gestured at it as if talking with another person. “How am I supposed to explain to a slide ruler how quantum computing works?”

Now, that was just mean!

Gaia threw up her hands and gestured at the chalkboard while looking at me. “Do you believe a single human mind would ever be able to calculate the necessary variables to create a miniature wormhole without displacing yourself to a random location? On the fly no less? I had to find a way to allow you two to perform feats which require a totally inhuman intellect while not taking away your ability to interact with the rest of humanity.”

Gaia began wandering up and down in front of me. “I mean, I am trying to do ‘my’ own thing here. Becoming more than just an avatar of Earth and being a new Gaia for Tirnanog is stressful. Gah! It still feels strange to think of me as separate from the whole. Closing the Tibet gateway for good didn't do me any favours. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that the choice was either the current state of affairs or creating completely new agents to represent me in the physical realm and start from scratch.”

I closed my eyes, trying my best to decipher the dumpster fire of information Gaia had just spilt on me. “I guess my most immediate concern is whether the children will be affected by this too.”

“Oh, they will be fine.” The speed of Gaia’s answer was reassuring. “They will have their whole lives to learn wielding their abilities. They never learned the ‘bad habits’ of you previously normal humans!”

As if on cue, Isaac popped into existence between the two of us. He looked around and fist-pumped before he ran to the door. “Hi, Mom, Aunty Gaia, I’m gonna play outside!”

I couldn’t help but smile as I looked after him. He was using every second of Gaia’s dream space to explore the surface world. So far, all he had ever seen were the few spaces he had been to in the living caves. Getting to play outside within the safety of the dream was… a blessing.

Then I steeled my expression and returned my attention to Gaia. “So, the sub-personalities?”

She tilted her head and looked at the ceiling. “Your brains are now more akin to a computer. If a doctor popped you open, I doubt they would recognize anything in there. But the main function your altered brain fulfils is to act as a sensor for other layers of reality. It allows you to sense other ‘you’s’ from alternate dimensions and create a Gestalt mind similar to mine.” She gestured with her fingers, indicating something very small. “Of course, an extremely dumbed-down version of myself.”

“Other dimensions?” I asked, baffled. Gaia’s wormhole theories indirectly implied the existence of other dimensions, but going there would likely require more energy than humanity could ever hope to harness. “Like in a fucking multiverse?”

“See!?” Gaia replied, sounding entirely too cheerful in my opinion. “I am so glad that Magnus isn’t here. That’s already getting into those far-removed topics you have absolutely no reason to know about. Just accept that it works, it harms nobody – except you when you lose control. So just train the ability and don’t lose control. Like, seriously, train the ability. Create sub-personalities till you feel like losing control and stay in control. It's like psychic training with Thalia. The muscle can only grow when exercised.”

“So, psychic abilities interact with other dimensions?” I tried digging to the bottom of this. “So the sub-identity which took me over-”

Gaia raised her hands. “Nonono! All wrong! It was just a copy of this other you. Pure information! As far as I know, there is no way to interact between dimensions. There is no information going from your reality to anywhere else. Your ability is purely observer-based. Is it so hard to accept that this is beyond your ken?” She gestured at her chalkboard. “It’s like you just learned addition and then you decide to jump directly to a Diophantine Equation.”

I frowned.

“Okay, how else to explain?” Gaia tapped her cheek. “All of you humans are using that UI so cheerfully, yet there is only one of you in all of Tirnanog who understands how it works. In the same manner, what’s the problem with using psychic abilities? They work, and I tell you they are safe to use, so learn to use them properly.”

It seemed like Gaia wasn’t willing to explain any further than this.

“I guess I will accept this – for now,” I answered hesitatingly. “So, what exercises do you believe would be effective for training these sub-personalities?”

***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Magnus***

It took me little time to wash myself and clean my equipment before I went to report on the outcome of the mission. Abusing a blood-covered getup to intimidate a few civilians was one thing, but I didn’t want to show up like a barbarian fresh from the frontline in front of the elders. Thankfully, maintaining iobeetle armour wasn’t as annoying as preventing rust on medieval steel armour. Hosing my armour down with water and soap was more than enough.

Since it was on the way, Gilbert was my first stop.

As expected, I found the forge master and his crew tinkering with the wormgate. It was currently our most valuable strategic asset, so maintaining and perfecting it was of the highest priority.

“Magnus!” Gilbert greeted me right away when I stepped through the gate and found myself in one of the flagship’s secure hangar bays. “Feels like you have been hiding from me recently. I bet you only show your face because you have ruined another armour.”

I grinned back at the elder. “I am proud to report that your latest masterpiece is still intact. Instead, I have a present for you this time. Though, I don’t know its value.”

Wrapped in a blanket, I handed Gilbert the two strange rapiers and one of the axes we had looted from the Thich raiders. I was keeping the other axe for myself because the weapons had shown great durability. Astra had shown no interest in the rapiers after she had already abandoned the weapon category altogether.

To top it off, I added a stack of papers. They were a set of Gaia’s transcribed lessons on wormhole theory. It wasn’t anything revolutionary, but the knowledge should be condensed enough to allow Gilbert to optimize his machine. The elder was a magician with machines and he was rapidly developing into our top expert on adapting creature cores, but he was no wormhole specialist.

“Ooh, steelbone weapons, and big ones,” Gilbert took out one of the rapiers and flexed it appreciatively. “Those are rare. Whoever you took them from must have been a big shot. And the papers, wormhole theory?”

“You know of the material?” I asked and nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been researching all the wormhole theory I could get my hands on lately. This is a condensed theory guide on optimizing steps for the wormgate. Hope it helps, though I wash my hands in innocence when it comes to the ‘hands-on’ stuff.”

“Oh, I will be sure to read it.” Gilbert nodded and raised the rapier. “The Thich have an animal similar to the iobeetle in their region, but it’s very rare and only the bones are useful. The creature’s bones are usually no larger than a human thigh bone. It’s very unusual to see weapons this big. Normally, the bones are just big enough for knives, spearheads, arrowheads… small things. Never seen them make armour out of it.”

“So you can make use of the materials?” I asked.

Gilbert shrugged. “To be honest, repurposing these beauties would feel like sacrilege when I can use normal steel or iobeetle shells for the same purpose. These things are a statement of wealth.”

I nodded in understanding. “Well, just add them to your weapon collection then. It’s not like you haven’t given us more than enough for free.”

“What is this!?” He suddenly pulled out my short sword which I had tugged beneath all the other weapons, hoping it would go unnoticed till I was out of there.

The weapon was still roughly sword-shaped, but using it as a projectile for my latest artillery skill hadn’t done it any favours. One side was intact, but the other was patterned after the rocky underground it had hit. As if it had been cold-forged, the previously diamond-shaped cross-section was now more crescent-shaped. This made the weapon awkward to handle and essentially useless for a serious fight.

I scratched the back of my head and patted the axe at my side. “Aw, don’t worry about a replacement. I have found a liking for this axe hammer as an off-hand weapon.”

Gilbert snorted. “Well, the speed at which you have been going through my swords, an axe or a hammer might indeed be the better choice for you. In other words, that looted axe seems perfect. Just tell me what you did to this sword.”

“Threw it at the enemy,” I replied. “He dodged, but the ricocheting debris took him out.”

It was a gross simplification, but I didn’t have the time to reiterate the whole fight. The central command was assuredly already waiting for a report.

Gilbert only raised a doubtful eyebrow but didn’t ask any more questions. “If that’s the case, then I suggest not repeating the feat with your new axe. It’s more durable than steel, but I expect it would break just the same if you do whatever you did to the sword. Steelbone is harder and more durable than steel, but it is also comparably brittle. You would likely end up with a pile of shards.”

“Noted,” I assured him I would find a better projectile next time and excused myself.

The next stop was filling out the mission documentation in duplicate for Astra and visiting the command centre where I found Matriarch Vanya and Skye Rumen studying a table with morose expressions. Gunnar was also there, wearing a sour expression while a diminutive creature hid behind his legs, Chitters if I remembered correctly.

“Magnus reports back with a successful mission,” I stated cheerfully and slapped the mission report onto the table. “Am I qualified to learn the reason for all the sour expressions?”

Vanya threw up her hands. “Someone infiltrated our flagship’s holding cells and killed all the high-profile prisoners we captured at the battle for Jeng’s Mother Tree! All that intelligence about Thich’s forces and their fortress city – just gone!”

“We believe it was the spy who Chitters and I are searching for,” Gunnar added. “We know of nobody else who would have the skill to walk into a high-security prison and kill twenty-four people without leaving a trace.”

“Uuh,” I pursed my lips. “Sounds like that spy just jumped to the enemy of the state number one. And good that Astra and I just caught ourselves another high-priority prisoner.” I brandished the, as I just learned, precious axe. “He had two of these and Gilbert said only people with lots of funds can ever hope to get their hands on one, let alone two.”

Vanya looked at me, blinking at the axe before a Cheshire smile stole itself onto her face. “I suppose you aren’t up to play bait for us?”

I stopped brandishing my new axe. My premonition tingled ominously at whatever plan was just spawned inside the Matriarch’s brain. “Bait?”