They didn’t eat Keith. Keith started to dissolve into dirt. Instead they played with Grayson’s accidental portal as they flew towards the next town on their route.

  “So you were trying to make your sword ignore it’s armor?” Fera asked, her voice raised slightly over Mink’s slow wingbeats.

  “We didn’t do much with darkness mana. Not compared with light, magic, and anti-magic. The typical uses are to absorb light, lengthen shadows, or suck stuff out of people. The most common use for spellswords is armor penetration. You coat the blade in darkness that strips off when it encounters something. Apparently thieves can also use it to walk through walls, but that’s incredibly dangerous and an illegal application. That should have been the last clue I needed really.” Grayson mused, poking a stick into and out of the sword.

  “Clue about what?” Fera asked.

  “It’s not light and darkness. It’s presence and absence.” Grayson said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Fera asked. She sounded faintly annoyed.

  “Presence, positivity, existence. The light is how we see. When the light is there, we see things. Light is reflected off of other objects and into our eyes.” Grayson explained. Physics in this world had advanced in some areas, but the fundamentals had been skipped… naturally because magic is bullshit and lets you skip steps on the road to knowing what you’re fucking doing.

  “Like when we look in a mirror we see the room?” Fera asked, trying to grasp Grayson’s explanation.

  “That’s part of it. The light reflects off the objects in the room, then off the mirror, then into your eyes. The mirror is the second time that light bounces.” Grayson said.

  “But what about color?” Fera asked.

  “That’s a whole other really long explanation. Simple fundamentals first.” Grayson said.

  “Okay…” Fera accepted, letting Grayson get on with his explanation.

  “The opposite of presence, positivity, and existence is absence, negativity, and non-existence. Darkness isn’t darkness. Darkness is where there isn’t light. Okay, strictly speaking that’s wrong on several levels, but it will work for this lesson.” Grayson continued. Fera gave an exasperated sigh.

  “And I guess that explanation will have to come later as well?” She asked.

  “Yes. But the basic point to start off with is light is where there is light and darkness is where there isn’t light. Heat and cold are the same kind of thing.” Grayson said, checking Fera’s understanding. She leaned back into him, tiredly.

  “Okay, I get that. So how does it apply to magic and what you’ve done with your sword?” she asked.

  “The way this spell works is to coat the blade in darkness mana that only affects the armor. You stab and the blade passes through the armor as if it wasn’t there. When you withdraw the blade, the armor is undamaged. The most common failure is when the blade stops existing. You stab through the armor and it passes through the armor and the person as if it wasn’t there. The way to activate this normally is to focus on the penetration aspect of the blade with respect to the darkness mana.” Grayson lectured.

  “But what I was focusing on was the hardened scales of the mana beast. Specifically on trying to pass through the space where those scales were. I coated my blade with a cut in space instead of a coating of penetration.” Grayson said, excited.

  “So where does the space cut go? What’s on the other side?” Fera asked.

  “I’ve got no idea. It could be last week. It could be ten million leagues away. It could be further than anyone has ever been… except me I guess. It could be a way home…” Grayson trailed off.

  Fera turned around and looked into his eyes. She was about to speak when Grayson smiled at her.

  “No. Here is my home now. Here with you.” He pressed her to him using the hand holding Mink’s reins. She nestled into him.

  “So what can you do with it?” She asked. Grayson dismissed the portal covering his blade, revealing that the blade was still there, then grinned.

  “Travel is the immediate thing. If I can figure out how to target a particular point in space, I should be able to remove the space between where I am and where I want to go. Time stopping may be possible as well by removing time if I can get my fingers into it.” He laughed.

  “There’s so much potential with this. If I can stab my blade through the portal, I can stab someone in the back while standing in front of them, or ten feet away. I can reach through a portal and pull people out of cages, possibly in another city. I could save anyone!” He paused. His excitement dimmed. “But I can’t save everyone. No matter what, I’ll need to remember that. Otherwise, everything you and Perimis have done for me will have been for nothing.”

  Fera understood what he meant. She’d done so much to ease his mind after his first night in her world. She’d seen the slow healing he’d gone through, understanding how he’d healed her at the same time.

  “So save who you can. You’ve gotten off to a pretty good start,” she said, snuggling into him. He chuckled.

  “I do, even if I do say so myself. I saved a wonderful, cheerful, energetic, beautiful woman.” Fera preened a little.

  “Probably should have married her instead,” Grayson said with a grin. He prevented an outburst by kissing Fera into submission.

  “I love you,” he whispered into her ear. He felt her shiver a little as he said it.

  “I’m not going to forgive you that easily,” Fera said, pretending to be angry.

  “Then I’m just going to have to say it again,” Grayson said seriously, kissing her hair.

  Fera gave up. They rode in silence for a long time. Eventually, Fera fell asleep, resting on Grayson as they flew.

  Grayson.

  Yes, My lady.

  Grayson took care not to disturb Fera as he responded to Perimis.

  Don’t tell anyone else what you discovered about presence and absence. They aren’t ready for it.

  Grayson frowned.

  I won’t tell anyone else, but does that mean you don’t want me to use it either?

  Without knowing how you’re doing what you’re doing, they won’t be able to replicate it. Without your understanding of physics, they won’t have a chance.

  They’re close enough as it is. I can’t have been the first to work it out.

  You aren’t. But Gods telling people to keep something to themselves are quite convincing, Grayson. Things have been let slip, but the ability to steal isn’t why travelling through walls is a forbidden application of absence. There are things it can do. There’s a real possibility that it breaks the world if misused, more than anything else. Even in ways that we can’t put right.

  Grayson’s mind reeled at the thought.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The past cycles of civilizations?

  Some. And those ones, we had to let life evolve from nothing, rebuild the world, put the solar system back together. Once we had to rebuild the planet instead of just putting it back where it belongs. There’s a lot of power in absence, Grayson. We don’t like to intervene that much. It’s hard for us to intervene directly. But Crusaders will be sent after you if you go too far.

  I understand.

  Fera will know as well. Don’t worry about her.

  Thank you.

  Grayson really did understand. He also understood presence more than the Gods would probably be comfortable with as well, but had no intention of trying to form black holes. It would certainly cause more damage than anyone could fix. Not least because the whole damn world would be gone before he realized he’d forgotten to include an off switch.

  I caught that. No. Don’t do that.

  I was telling myself not to do that.

  I’ve seen what you do. You think for half a second then immediately do something.

  Those other times I was dying! I only had half a second to think. I had less than half a second to think.

  And I’ve seen just how much you can think in half a second. The problem is less how long you have to think and more doing insane things immediately.

  Okay. I promise not to make black holes or other similar gravity shenanigans.

  Good.

  Unless I really need to.

  If you actually manage to get into a situation where you need to create a black hole to save the world, I give you divine permission to make a black hole. But you’d better be facing an evil God in the flesh or something.

  Yes, Milady.

  You’ve agreed and yet somehow, I am not reassured.

  Sorry, Milady.

  Just don’t destroy the world, okay Grayson?

  I promise to do my best.

  Then I suppose that’s all I can ask for.

  There was a pause.

  Wait a second, what was that about an evil God?

  The twelve Gods and Goddesses of the Derantel Empire are not the only ones. There are others whose worship is either abhorrent, dangerous, or both. To worship the Goddess of Order requires one to reformat their soul into something abnormal. All the chaos that makes you human is gone forever, stripped away to leave you an emotionless husk. She is favored by slavers. People who have gone through her “ministrations” make for excellent cleaning staff.

  Grayson became revolted at the thought. Order had always been considered something to strive towards in his old world, as order and determinism was the basis of functioning technology. The elimination of chance in one’s endeavors typically led to success.

  But eliminating chance completely would remove one’s ability to choose. It eliminated sudden wants. It would eliminate the drive that would cause someone to begin an endeavor in the first place. Like Perimis said, you wouldn’t really be human anymore. You’d be a machine, like those computers long before the invention of true AI. Just serving a purpose.

  He suppressed a shudder, not wanting Fera to be part of this conversation. It brought a new perspective on what could have awaited her as a slave. Of course, not every slave would go through the process or else nobody would have been able to escape across the mountains, but if enough did…

  Grayson stroked Fera’s hair. She responded by shifting against him, trying to get more comfortable in her sleep. He felt Perimis looking at her through his eyes.

  There is no such thing as fate, but without your intervention she would likely have been sent to Lyranna for conversion. I would have lost her. There would have been nothing I could do.

  Grayson felt the deep sadness, rage, and regret in Perimis as the pair of them stroked the young woman’s hair.

  I understand.

  He shared a long period of companionship with his Goddess. Helping to soothe the almost impotent rage she felt with the touch of someone they saved. There were a great many people that Perimis had seen taken into the Muric Empire and other kingdoms where the Goddess of Order was worshipped. People rarely went to those temples willingly.

  One more thing to pay those bastards back for.

  Grayson felt the grim smile of Perimis as it tugged at his lips.

  This is why I like you so much. Look after her, Grayson. She has important work to do at your side.

  Grayson felt Perimis fade from his mind, her presence slipping away with a touch that lingered as if she didn’t want to leave. He continued stroking Fera’s hair, looking down at her, new horrors haunting him. He made a silent vow that she would never feel that pain, and that the Goddess of Order would be paid back for every soul she took.

  They stayed overnight in the next town, gathering rumors and making friends. They shared some of the gossip from the North and heard what was going on to their South. It was in the tavern that Grayson picked up on something said by a couple of grizzly older men wearing rough clothes with rougher hands.

  “Aye, the magic stone mine is almost empty. We haven’t found anything large enough to be worth pulling out in the last few days. Soon we’ll be packing up and looking for another,” the first man, slightly taller and with dark brown hair said to the barman. The barman sighed.

  “It’s a shame, but I knew it was coming. You boys have been coming in here since around the time my lad left. You were always griping about how it was barely worth coming out here to begin with. We’re glad you came though. We managed to afford some nice things, thanks to you.” The barman was shorter than the two men, also with dark brown hair, though his was flecked with grey. Grayson called over to them.

  “Excuse my interruption, but you said there’s a magic stone mine around here?” The men chuckled.

  “Aye, or what’s left of one. ‘Twas never particularly rich, but what we’re finding now is barely worth the cost of shipping it to a city. We’ll be looking for another vein soon.”

  “If I worked in it for a couple of days, could I be paid a portion of the stones I mine?” Grayson asked. The men looked at each other, then one of them turned to shout over to a slightly better dressed, but still rough-handed man sitting at a table with three other miners.

  “Hey, Trevor!” The man looked up from his conversation with a frown, then looked over to see the men at the bar.

  “What?”

  “This Crusader says he wants to work in the mine for a couple of days. Wants to be paid in stones,” the man at the bar said.

  Trevor stood up and walked over to Grayson, looking him up and down.

  “You know how to swing a pickaxe?” He asked, eyeing Grayson’s relatively unblemished hands.

  “Well enough. I’m strong enough too.” Grayson said. Trevor snorted, then shrugged.

  “Ten percent of what you dig out, you can keep though I doubt you’ll find much.” He looked at Grayson’s hands again. “And dig out less.”

  Grayson spat on his hand and held it out. Trevor’s eyes widened a little in surprise, then followed suit. They shook on the deal. Grayson trusted his ability to see mana to give him an edge in finding stones. An understanding of how farms could grow stones through churning Earth would also help him to extract stones without damaging them. As much as the miners doubted him, he was pretty confident that he’d manage to find enough to satisfy his needs.

  Hey, Queuecy! Still need those thirty magic stones?

  Nah, that’s why it wasn’t in the list of quests when you asked about it this morning.

  Ha ha. You put thirty as the number on the quest, but is that stones or kilograms of stones?

  Stones. The actual weight I need is more like five kilograms. I based it on the average size of stones I’ve seen because I was kinda assuming you’d buy them instead of mine them yourself.

  Okay, but we’re technically poor.

  You have the financial equivalent of several hundreds of… Well we were in England so several thousands of pounds. 2200’s pounds specifically… Currency is hard to reference for time travelers okay?

  Point taken and fair enough. But do you really think that’s enough for thirty mana stones?

  I guess not for real ones. The manufactured ones are just batteries where these actually filter and produce mana from the environment. Even the best you can do is a cheap imitation.

  Exactly. So we need to find the rough equivalent of three hundred mana stones to get enough for the skeleton upgrade.

  HOLD THE FUCK UP!