Fiona, for one, was glad to do some catching up that wasn't inside a prison. But she was also taking it slow. Bianca might be okay right now, but she worried about the status of her bipolar disorder, whether it was gone…or replaced entirely by the entity known as Varith.

The biggest change was the mobile magical suppressor that had been supplied to her in prison. Bonnie examined it when they got back to the apartment, peering at the runes on the inside of the rather bulky-looking bracelet. The device looked like a jeweler's lens, with a shiny brass outer casing. "This looks almost like the one they put on Glados. Simple but effective, really. It short-circuits the magic flow of the marks. Keeps people from getting bad ideas."

Their new guest rolled her eyes. "They told me not to take it off. But, you have some other ideas?"

The kitsune nodded firmly. "Correct. We're still not entirely sure what Varith is–a byproduct of the mark, or something else." What Bonnie didn't say was that after their trip to the shrine under Doug's childhood home, Fiona had proposed that maybe Bianca was also the host for an unruly traveller. One who did not care for the well-being of their host and had more influence than Wingding.

She had a working theory: one or more other gods had taken notice of what Feo'thari did, and put their pieces on the board, which was how Bianca ended up with such a hostile mark. Varith could very well be a god hiding his true form, hiding within the mark itself. Whether he could forcibly take over was the bigger question. Or, maybe he could only suggest ideas, taking advantage of the fragile state of Bianca's mind. Preserving free will, but in a clearly twisted way.

Her current candidate: The Druidess of the Shifting Wilds.

There was just one problem: if the mark itself was the Druidess, what was Glados? Fiona was convinced that the blonde viper had more secrets than she let on. Or, worse, she was another pawn on this board, too.

She hoped Glados was just an evil witch she could smash with her hammer. The Bahn hammer probably was not up to the task of humiliating a god, let alone harming one. They needed to interrogate that woman and figure out what was going on with her, at some point. At least she was under lock and key, and the Guild was taking no chances with her.

Fiona kept those thoughts under seal while Bonnie examined the bracer. It was bulky, made of gleaming silver mage steel, and runic symbols were etched on the surface. A simple clasp loosened it enough to take it off over her wrist. Bonnie spoke after a few minutes of silent observation. "We're going to try to figure out what Varith is. And at some point, we're going to lower the inhibition power until we can figure out how strong the mark's influence is. We want to approach this smartly, because I worry that not dealing with it is a bad idea. If he is part of you, Bianca? Then, it stands to reason that trying to suppress him won't work. Not forever."

"Yeah. Like keeping him hostage in my body." Bianca let out a small tsk sound. "So, Miss Revere–or, can I call you Bonnie?"

"Bonnie's fine," she answered, and tapped her silver enchanting wand against the bracelet. The runes lit up with a faint gold light, and she captured the image with her datapad. "They really jacked up the suppression field on this one. The mana cell on this should last for a week or so. We have extra cells like this in the back of the shop. They're kind of a universal battery for magical stuff."

"But…don't magical weapons and other things not need any external power source?" Bianca asked.

"The enchantments and runes can fade in power, and do require a recast, or a recharge of the original spells used. But the decay is dependent on how much it's used." She tapped one claw against the bracer and noted the dull ringing sound. "Plus, we don't know how much influence you have on Varith. Or the other way around. Measuring this under controlled conditions would be optimal, but I don't think you want to be stuck in some arcanist lab for weeks or months."

"Nope. Being in prison for a few weeks was not fun," Bianca sighed. "I gotta ask though…Varith–I–we did some awful things, and you guys suffered from that. How can you just…you know…look past that?"

"Fiona believes in you. And I haven't known her to be wrong about the things that matter," Bonnie withdrew her wand, and the runes faded. Fiona felt a welling pride as she said that. "We'll run this as a baseline for a few weeks. Our current King said, and I quote, "I don't want Fiona causing another inter-kingdom incident.' Like our heroine here is capable of causing more than one of those at a time," she added with a barking laugh.

"Hey, we all know who is behind this. Glados. Who may, or may not be…well…not exactly normal," Fiona suggested in a coded way. She'd have to fill Bianca in on all the other things in due time. "Anyway, we prepped the guest room. Bonnie and Greg will also be here."

"And the dragon boyfriend?" Bianca tilted her head, looking amused while Fiona tried to retort. "Oh, I guess I know where he's staying."

"It's not–" Doug caught himself and started over. "I can say with all honesty that this was not the path I thought our lives would take. It's a surprise even to me."

"Watch out, she nibbles," Bianca added with a Cheshire grin, chin resting on her hands as she leaned on the table with her elbows. Fiona made small, panicked sounds. "Oh, this is gonna be fun, Fi."

"Oh no, we're not airing all the dirty laundry, thank you." Fiona felt flushed and walked over to the sink, grabbing a cup and downing water as a brief reprieve, before turning. "Let's take it one step at a time. We already have plenty on our plates. Rikkard is slow-rolling dignitaries to our shop as a proving ground for Fiefdala and securing some trade deals. And, we still have the day-to-day funzies."

"As a head of state? Yeah, it sucked. Turns out you can't kill all the slavers in a country that's been besieged by them more often than not. More on that one, later. I actually wasn't terrible at it. Or, Varith wasn't." Her face puckered as she said that. "This is such a weird disjoint. Me, being two separate people. Like, I was aware, sorta of being Varith? It was like putting on a mask. Like that cursed mask from that kids' series we watched?"

Fiona shuddered. "Way to bring up my childhood trauma memories, Bee."

"Aiming to please." She stretched out now that Bonnie was done with her work. "But, yeah. I had a little time to reflect on it. It's…a lot to unpack. I don't think I'm anywhere close to done, either."

"What do you say? Me Bonnie and I get some food?" Greg suggested. "Darla, Doug? Wanna give these two a bit of time alone?"

"Oh, you don't need to all go," Bianca assured them. "There'll be time to catch up…just maybe not all at once."

Fiona glanced at Bonnie, her ears rising in anticipation. "You thinking McFly's?"

"Uh, we have Darla," Bonnie proposed with an elbow nudge to the darkling. Darla let out a low laugh in response. "Oh, what's this? Darla is also having a craving for Jarl's food?"

"He is one of the few people I will stop cooking for a night to enjoy his food. Jarl and his wife are almost as good as me. Maybe even tied. Be a dear and finesse his recipe for stuffed lake crab, will you?" The pouty air kiss from Darla sealed the deal.

"Ribs for me," Doug chimed in. "Make it two. Fiona will go to her default of noodles and healthy stuff floating in a bowl. If I let her."

"Oh, I love ribs too, Doug. I get menu paralysis," she deflected. The noodles were almost too good to pass up, every time. "Bianca, what'll you have?"

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"Magical world pub food? Man, Vale didn't have anyplace decent. I think the contract houses took all the good stuff. That palace was not as majestic as you might believe. I'll take anything that's fried in oil."

"Crisped fowl," Greg murmured as he jotted everyone's choices down. "We'll be back in a bit."

A short time later, Fiona started filling in the details of what had happened in the past nearly nine months, with Bianca listening in attentively. She took it well, all things considered. She did wince visibly when she described some of her closer scrapes, and displayed a few scars to prove it. Though the healing potions she'd used had left barely any visible scarring. Or, that was her elven body at work.

"I love the new you, Fi. fit and energetic. You worked so hard to maintain a decent shape, back then."

Fiona lowered her shirt after showing off the scar she'd gotten from dealing with a rather nasty bandersnatch. His pelt was now the insulative lining on one of her winter armor gear sets, due to the inconvenience of that encounter. "I think it's because I started taking better care of myself here. And, elves on Cepalune are all wiry muscles. Don't believe a word when they say we just eat greens, that's a bald-faced lie."

"And you have pointier canines." Biance pointed that out, and Fiona felt slightly more conscious of that. "Elves are just a more lively version of vampires. Without the blood sucking."

"Was that really a thing back on Earth?" Darla asked. "We have things that eat just blood in Underlune. They use unwary travellers as a bit of a blood pouch. Squeezed dry. It's not pretty."

"Gross. Maybe one of those will eat Karlin, if I'm lucky, and render this whole gold theft on a mass scale to resurrect a goddess plan moot." Fiona knew, however, there was no way she'd luck out in that way. Karlin had a destiny with the broad side of her hammer.

"I don't think your fortune is that good, Fi," Bianca cautioned. "I've got no idea where he is, because if I did, I'd be out there, hunting him down, too. Last I checked, Aegortin was not happy about the theft of gold once they figured out what was going on. They are troublesome, with a capital 'T'. Even Varith didn't want to mess with them."

"Would he have? I mean, would you have?" Fiona asked.

Bianca twirled her hair gently. "Given how I was mad at the whole damn world? Maybe. Luckily, we didn't get to test that matchup. We still might, but that's another day."

Greg and Bonnie returned a little while later, and they soon were busy enjoying a hot meal courtesy of Jarl and the diner. Fiona had to admit, the bison ribs were really good. She wondered if Doug could do the same. She had a feeling he could, given his prior experience.

Bianca dove into a basket of fried fish, likely caught from the local fishery drilling into the ice. "Fish and tubers. My god, Fi, thank you for talking some sense into me. Because I would have regretted missing this."

"On that note, I saw something weird." Fiona set her ribs down. "When I filled out the forms for release…just how many different worlds do the people of Cepalune hail from?"

Doug wiped his chin of the tangy sauce on the ribs, and considered it for a moment. "Earth is the one that gets brought up most. I know there are others. Some fractured world split apart by the gods there…Oh, I forgot the name. Kali's species or a variant of them hail from there, too. At least, from what I've been able to glean."

"A broken world?" Fiona echoed. "How broken are we talking about?"

"Like if someone built a series of concentric, annular shell worlds, and blasted it apart. I don't know much about it. Not even my mother knew much about it." The kobold wiped his snout after Fiona subtly pointed at her own lip. "Oh. Sorry."

"What I find surreal is that it's not the only world I've heard of," Greg chimed in, having grabbed a salad filled with sliced chicken and colorful greens. "Luckily, summons are now in the realm of the gods and goddesses. Mostly. You still find someone dangerous enough, or crazy enough to try, every now and then. The Unified Kingdoms put a stop to a lot of that in the last hundred years."

"Disturbing, that they have it in surveys like it's routine," Bianca grumbled. "I told Fi that Earth wasn't a lost cause, either. I mean, hell, seeing a dragon shooting crystalline shards at an eldritch dragon titan was pretty impressive. Unfortunately, I didn't see the outcome."

"If the mages of Earth were actively fighting back, it's possible," Doug explained. "No matter what, you need to consider that we may not hear about the outcome for some time."

Her head sank a little as he said that. "Yeah. Sucks to know that it was pretty awful-looking before I got yanked. I hope that whatever I'm supposed to destroy isn't going to trigger Varith like he's some kind of contingency."

"With that bracelet? Doubtful," Bonnie said skeptically. "We'll have to examine the mark. In a way, they behave almost like enchantments or runes. There are layers of complexity to them that you can examine with the right tools and equipment. Strangely, Glados knew a fair bit about them, too. Before she became a backstabbing viper, I mean. My professors from the Mage College could help, too. I already gave one a ring."

"Well, in any case, I'm not going to be dead weight. I have Fi to thank for this second chance. One that…I honestly believed I didn't deserve." Biana's candid admission made Fiona realize this was still a fragile peace. It would take a lot of work to keep it that way.

"Bee…you got a raw deal when you first landed. So, of course, I want to help."

Her friend raised an eyebrow. "Not related to failing shops and a meltdown on your part?"

"Oh, that's definitely part of it. And we'd better buckle up, in the meantime. Knowing Karlin is still out there doing scheming, and Glados has some secrets left to spill, I'd say normalcy is going to be hard to come across," Fiona replied, crossing her arms and feeling confident.

"You guys know that she's a nutcase, right? Nothing good will come from keeping her stuck in a jail cell," Bianca pointed out. This triggered a different reaction for her.

I'd better err on the side of caution. "Faaake," Fiona said, booping Bianca on the nose. She blinked and shook her head.

"What was that about?"

Fiona shrugged. "Just making sure."

The inside of the Adventurer Guild's detention center had even tighter security than the penitentiary. But strangely, better food.

Glados paced her cell as she did to keep up her routine, stretching her legs and using her bunk to do chin dips, all part of her morning workout. With the suppression bracelet on, she couldn't assume any forms. Or use any magic whatsoever.

I hate to say it, but Swiftheart might have done me a favor. Aegortin was coming here to shut me up. After everything I did for them? Why did they stop having faith in me?

What it felt like was a betrayal. And it wasn't the first time.

She was so unaccustomed to getting sweaty, and her matchstick arms had taken two weeks to get to this point, where it wasn't difficult. The failed breakout from Barry would have probably left her dead or answering to an angry minister once she was shipped back. Not that she hadn't been doing her best to destabilize Fiefdala and Vale.

She'd almost pulled it off and scored a bonus of a chance at godhood. She'd been far too careless. I can fix this. I have to. Or they'll never let this go. So what do I do?

The answer was obvious. Dissect Swiftheart, find out what that probable mark of the goddess did for her, take it for herself, and then find Karlin and forcibly take every bit of Aurelium he'd gathered.

She couldn't let her empire down. She owed them everything. She would have been a scab girl who amounted to nothing if they hadn't shown up in her village. She would have done anything to stop the bullying…the bruising…the dread of seeing the empty bottles with noxious scents toppled in her parents' kitchen.

No. She had to fix this. Bring them a prize they'd sing songs of. And if I get that far? Well, I can always put Aegortin under new management if they're not grateful.

But that was about ten steps ahead. She still needed to finish step one: getting out of here. Step two involved getting Barry to annul his mark. That one was going to be trickier. She couldn't actively harm anyone, or the mark would likely finish her.

The spectacle of her working out had drawn attention from the guards, who rotated shifts, so there wasn't one guard who was a regular here. They were told not to approach within five feet, except for meal sessions. She hoped an opportunity would arise at some point.

"You do know that you're going to be spending a long time in a cell, right?" one female guard asked rhetorically, arms folded and looking on with interest. "Might as well pace yourself."

She lowered herself from the pull-up and gave the guard a slasher smile. "Oh, you think I'm here by inconvenience? Give it time. I'm sure that the higher-ups will have a change of heart someday soon."

"Doubtful." The woman didn't look convinced, either. "I can't wait for the trial, Miss Hennaway. Must be a bit of a setback, going from being the advisor of the regent king to a jailbird."

"Oy," a green-feathered avian guard protested nearby, but his beak broke into a smirk a few seconds later. "We're just borrowing her until the king cleans the house. No telling who else she was working with."

Glados pursed her lips, leaning toward the bars. "Innocent until proven guilty, Gilbert. We do live in a kingdom of laws, still."

"Don't let her rile you up; she's not going anywhere," the female guard dissuaded. Glados, in the meantime, surveyed the detention center. She couldn't just walk on out of here. And they were too cautious to ever let her close to anything she could use to disable the bracelet.

Hmm. What I need is an opening. I need…to bring in someone volatile. Someone who will act on emotions, give me an opportunity. All I need is a relay and a bit of wire to short this bracer. Maybe.

And I know just the person.

"Hey, Alice?" Glados said sweetly. "Pass on a message for me. I'd like to see my counsel. I'd like to make a deal to save you all the trouble."

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