“Do you remember about four years ago when I made a quick trip to Daiki Yamato’s hub world to let the leader of his side of their war know that he’d made it home?” Aquila replied. “That was her. The name was a bit different, though – Silversword or Silveraxe, or something like that. This must be this hub world’s version of her story. So, some minor variations, but she’s the same person.”

    “She was a substitute for your magical knight,” Kasumi said. “And that’s why you warned her today.”

    Aquila nodded.

    “And how good is she at reading people?” Cap asked. “Can she do what she says she can do?”

    Aquila nodded again. “You’d have a better chance of tricking Natsuki. During our cup of tea, she read me like an open book.”

    Cap sighed. “That’s a problem, then.”

    Yuri blinked. “Why? We’ve got nothing to hide.”

    “Yes we do,” Aquila said. “If she and I have this conversation she’s so intent on, there will be nothing stopping her from extracting the true nature of her reality from us. Remember what learning that did to you?”

    Yuri closed her eyes for a moment. “She doesn’t deserve that.”

    “Nobody does,” Aquila stated. A soft rumbling sounded from the southeast.

    “I think the battle just started,” Natsuki said, staring past the fence. Aquila turned to see flashes on the darkening horizon, followed by more flashes further south. Some of the rumbling grew louder.

    “That’s a battle, all right,” Cap said. “Just to be on the safe side, though...Aquila, is any of that Balthazar?”

    Aquila shook her head. “He’s not here.”

    “So, we have two options,” Cap said. “We pile into the tent and slip away to another world now, while the battle is going on, or we stay until the morning and risk an uncomfortable conversation that could hurt Lieutenant-Colonel Silverspear.”

    “That’s my read on it,” Aquila stated.

    “And is this Silverspear person one of the good guys?” Cap asked.

    Aquila nodded. “I’m pretty sure she’s the hero of this world.”

    “If we have this conversation, she’s also going to find out what we’re running from,” Natsuki pointed out. “She’s already been warned about Balthazar – she has the right to know the rest.”

    “That’s telling her about a war that she can’t do anything about,” Sayori stated. “Is there any point in worrying her?”

    “She can’t do anything about it here,” Cap said.

    Aquila shook her head. “I am not comfortable sending anybody to their death. Cap, if you’re not capable of doing anything against Balthazar, what can she possibly do?”

    “So we leave tonight,” Kasumi said.

    “No,” Cap said. “We need to leave tomorrow morning. If Balthazar was going to show up, he’d have done it by now. That means we have evaded him, and that gives us an opportunity to rest in safety here. We might not be that lucky on the next world.”

    “And what about Lieutenant-Colonel Silverspear?” Aquila asked.

    “We’re just going to have to hope that we can leave before she gets here, or that she can handle whatever answers we give her.”

    Aquila awoke to find the morning sun giving the fabric of the tent a warm glow. Kasumi sat on the bed beside her.

    “That dream about your magical knight again?” Kasumi asked.

    Aquila nodded and sat up.

    “Is there anything I can do?”

    “Besides hold me?” Aquila said, and then shrugged. “Kasumi, I murdered her, and I tortured her as she died. I even made sure her friends could hear her screams. I deserve whatever my conscience does to me for that.”

    “That’s not true,” Kasumi stated. “You deserve better than that. You atoned.”

    “Yes, I atoned,” Aquila said. “But that’s not the same as being forgiven or forgivable.” She pulled on her coat, popping the collar. “Anyway, let’s get everybody together. I think I’d like to be off before Colonel Silverspear decides it’s time to have that conversation.”

    Kasumi raised her hand. “About that...she’s been waiting outside for you for an hour. Apparently she’s getting along really well with Cap.”

    “Oh.”

    “Do you think we could get away with calling everybody in here one at a time and...”

    Aquila shook her head. “She’s too sharp for that. We should just get this over with.”

    Aquila took a deep breath, pulled on her coat, popped the collar, and stepped out of the tent. By the fire pit, Atria Silverspear was sitting and chatting with Cap and the others, her body language warm and welcoming. A brown messenger bag rested against her chair.

    “So somebody – and I’m not saying it was me – but somebody snuck into the depot and replaced all of the opposing force’s training rounds with weighted foam,” Atria was saying. “The exercise starts, and we’re the only ones firing live rounds.”

    “Seriously?” Cap asked, a grin on his face. Beside him, Yuri was chuckling, and sitting on the other side of Atria, Yukari and Natsuki were laughing.

    Atria nodded. “Seriously. You could hear the referees panicking on the comms. It was supposed to be this elite unit giving the graduating class a bloody nose to teach them some humility, but instead we wiped the floor with them. The COs were pissed. So pissed that they forgot to swear us to secrecy like they did every other graduating class after the exercise, and we told the next year’s class all about it...and gave them copies of the keys to the depot...and the contact information of the guy who provided us with all that foam.”

    “My army never did anything like that,” Cap said. “We went through basic and ranger training, and we did some exercises with other units, but then we were deployed. We didn’t have anything quite like what you had.”

    “Aquila!” Atria called with a friendly smile. “Please, have a seat – I made sure I brought my own. We were just getting to know each other better. You’ve got quite the group here.”

    “Thank you,” Aquila said, sitting down in the empty chair facing Atria across the fire pit and taking a deep breath.

    “Oh, relax,” Atria declared. “This is a nice, friendly discussion. And once we’re done, you’ll be free to take your group back off world.”

    “Good,” Aquila said, seeing Cap’s surprised look from the corner of her eye as Kasumi sat down beside her. “How did you know that?”

    “I was able to piece it together,” Atria said. “And you just confirmed it. It’s amazing what you can learn about people just from watching body language. For example, if yours was a military unit, just from the way you look at each other, I would say that you, Aquila, would be its commander, that Ms. Agawa would be your aide, and that the Captain here would be your second-in-command. You can even determine the relationships between people, just from the way they glance at each other without even realizing they’re doing it. So, I know that for protection, they are relying on you and the captain. How am I doing?”

    Aquila held her hands in her lap to stop them from trembling. “Pretty good so far.”

    Atria grinned. “I thought so. I’m very good at this, you see. It’s not just keen observational skills, it’s the intelligence officer training I got during command school. Know what questions to ask, what signs to look for, and you can even determine world views and what romantic relationships people have.” Atria kept smiling, but her eyes grew cold. “So, for example, if I wanted to keep you on this world indefinitely, all I would have to do is detain Kasumi Agawa and Yuri Nakano, and so long as there was never any threat of violence against them, you would not take any aggressive action to free them. I also know that such measures will not be necessary here, will they?”

    “We’re not a threat to you,” Cap said.

    “I know,” Atria said. “I figured that out yesterday. I’m far more worried about what you’re running from. Threat assessment is part of my job.”

    “Can we just get this over with, please?” Aquila said, trying to keep her voice steady and failing.

    Atria’s smile faded. “I’m faced with a very concerning puzzle here. Seven people appear, lying about an explosion. They’re not saboteurs, but their reactions to seeing the line of battle mechs is, to say the least, revealing. These war machines are capable of causing tremendous destruction. Yukari Fujii, for example, reacted with excitement – the sort you see from an enthusiast. Natsuki Toshiro, Yuri Nakano, Sayori Sakamoto, and Kasumi Agawa all reacted with trepidation. None of these are out of the ordinary. You and Captain Infinte, however, assessed them to not be a threat at all. So, I must conclude that I am faced with two people who I now know are from another world with sufficient power to single handedly take on a Type VIIb, sub-type III mech, who are running from a man in a grey coat with even greater power...and one of whom not only knows who I am, but has a sense of comradery with me, despite my never having seen them before in my life. So how do you know me, Aquila?”

    “You resemble somebody I had a cup of tea with on another world.”

    “What was her name?”

    Aquila swallowed. “Atria Silversword, or Silveraxe, or something like that.”

    “That’s quite a resemblance,” Atria said. “Who was she?”

    “She was a version of you.”

    Atria sat back. “Now that is interesting. And you sought her out?”

    “Yes.”

    “Why?”

    Aquila took a deep breath. “Because she was the leader of one of the sides of a war on the world she was on. I had led the other side of a similar war on a different world...and I had murdered her counterpart during it. Talking to her was the closest I would ever get to talking to the person I killed.”

    “What did you talk about?”

    “I told her that I’d helped a mutual friend of ours get home, and we talked about wanting forgiveness from the people we had killed in battle.”

    “That’s a lovely fantasy,” Atria said, “being forgiven by those we’ve killed.”

    “I know,” Aquila said, her voice a whisper.

    “How is it possible that there’s a second version of me?”

    Aquila shook her head. “Please don’t ask me that. The answer would only hurt you. Look, we can tell you all about the one who is chasing us, and–”

    “Establishing context is vital,” Atria said. “We’ll get to who is chasing you in a moment. How is there more than one version of me?”

    “Look, miss...ma’am...,” Natsuki stammered. “There are things about reality that you don’t want to know. Trust me – finding out tore me – tore us – to pieces inside. If Aquila, Kasumi and Cap hadn’t rescued us–”

    “They rescued you?” Atria said, looking at Natsuki with her cold eyes, and then the eyes warmed. “Good. I know good people when I see them, and I don’t like it when they are in danger.” She sighed and looked at Aquila, her eyes remaining warm. “I know how scared you are – how scared all of you are right now. What I have to do can be intimidating, but it is necessary, and I’m trained to do this a certain way. I have an unknown threat that I have to assess, that you may have brought into my world. And that means that I need to learn everything I can, and you are the only sources of information I have. And if that includes disturbing revelations about reality, then so be it. No harm will come to any of you on my watch.” She turned back to Natsuki. “Do you believe me, Natsuki Toshiro?”

    Natsuki swallowed. “Yes. How did you know that...”

    “That you’re as observant as I am?” Atria asked, and then smiled, her eyes remaining warm. “I watched you observe.”