Word spread very quickly."Remian"s back!" one guy exclaimed.
"Remian"s back? Aww, blast it. I thought I finally had a chance with Phoebe…" Another moped.
"In your dreams!"
"Who"s Remian?" a confused newcomer asked.
"Remian is back!" the shout rang out through the camp.
"Awoo!" An enthusiastic wolfcat joined the hue and cry, just for the heck of it.
Phoebe dashed out of the medical tent, a syringe still in her hand. She tugged off her facemask. "He"s back?!"
Seeing her unmasked face, somebody tripped over flat and even ground, landing almost facefirst into a pile of Wild p.o.o.p. "Ugaah!"
"Ow!" Someone else walked into a pillar, knocking an innocent tent down.
"UWOO!!!" Somebody else stepped on a bear"s tail. There was a brief moment as startled man and angry bear looked deep into each others eyes and then the man ran around screaming as he was chased by the bear for the next three minutes.
***
Mindy barged in at that point. She didn"t mean to barge in, really. She actually wanted to knock, but for some reason, between her shock and her eagerness, her light "knock" on the door ended up breaking the entire door off its hinges, and sending Mindy stumbling through.
She didn"t care. She looked at the communication crystal in the hand of Remian"s mother and yelped. "Remian? Remian, is that you?"
"Hi, Mindy." Remian sounded like he was wincing. "How"s the war against the Spectres?"
"We"re winning! We"re doing much better, since we Sealed the Rift. I thought… I thought you…" Mindy choked.
"Yeah, I had some trouble thanks to that Spatial Loop Seal. Good job on that by the way." Remian added.
"Oh, and… and…! Also because we found the Spectres" weakness!" Mindy exclaimed. "It"s water! And wood works well too!"
"Water?" Remian blinked. "Great! We"ve got plenty of that!"
"I know, right!"
"And even if we didn"t, we could magick up some more!"
"I know, right?!"
"In fact, we have specialized airships designed for firefighting right here…" Remian added.
"I kn-… huh?!"
"Yeah, apparently the Dragon Empire has firefighting airships. They respond to urban fires independently and I"m looking at one spraying water down on a whole housing block at the same time." Remian added. "I wonder if I can buy one."
"Could you? That could really help us out." Mindy said. Plus, she would be able to steal… um… Admire And Learn From their design.
"I"ll see what I can do." Remian promised.
***
Phoebe had a very private conversation with Remian, then George jumped at his turn with a burning list of questions all but exploding in his head.
"Remian! Are you all right? Are you healthy? Where did you go?"
"Yes, in fact, I"m more than all right. Did you know, I went to a world that didn"t have mana? And I ate this pill there that increased my vitality…"
"Great! That"s great! That"s… so great…" George suddenly found his mind blank of everything he"d wanted to ask.
"Then I went to a much more advanced world where I got arrested but they still let me use the earlier world"s money to pay for treatments, and I got those too! It was Quarin world! Oh, the Quarin are the Black Ruins Civilization! I saw the real ones, live and very obnoxious! They always look like they"re staring off into the distance, daydreaming, or otherwise gesturing in the empty air, but they"re actually not, it"s because they wear visors and see stuff on them and do things you can"t see without a visor. It"s such a pity I couldn"t bring you guys there. Actually, no, there"s a chance I could still take you there, but we would need to sell something valuable enough to get the Conglomerate to come pick us up… except that those things are really hard to get…"
"O-other worlds…?" George"s already blanked mind completely froze.
"Oh, I brought back a girl named Xiao Yan, she"s younger than you, so please take care of her... she"s from a Cla.s.s-2 civilization, which means they"re even less advanced technologically than we are… but their martial traditions are far more firmly established, it"s like everyone in their world practices martial arts or something, like there"s always some sort of war going on between themselves… oh, speaking of which, our whole world is in danger. We have some two hundred years before some terrible interstellar swarm of giant insects come and gobble up all other life in this sector…"
"Wha…" George felt like the ice in his brain was cracking to pieces, dozens of tiny, whirling pieces that laughed madly and randomly for no sense at all because all sense had cleverly given up at this point.
"Oh, and treat the dragons politely, will you? Apparently, the Dras Clan are the current owners of this planet, this whole star system and the star systems nearby. George? George are you there?"
"Uh… urga… woo gu?" George"s brain was already gone past the point of being able to articulate.
"Your friend is weird." A young girl"s voice sounded on the other side of the communications crystal.
Tim burst in. "Remian! When are you getting back?"
"Um… I"m not sure. I"m in the Dragon Empire now, if you guys could send an airship to pick me up, that could help…"
"There"s no need to wait that long. The Song Clan are sending airships over to the Bog Marshes. They"re helping Song Chen build the Great Docks, and they said something about the Dragon Empire sending a fleet of some sort to fight the Spectres… except that we"re still waiting and they still haven"t arrived."
"Song Chen"s Bog Marshes? That sounds good. It"s closer to Three Pines than KarGoth. Can Song Chen get me an introduction or something?"
"I"ll get Song Chen!" George said, his thoughts finally coherent, and dashed out, leaving Tim to talk to Remian.
"So… how are things with you?" Remian asked Tim.
"Other than the war with the Spectres, it"s going great. We"ve completely taken over Fal"Herim, and everyone and everything in it listens to me, including Khar"al-dras himself." Tim a.s.sured Remian. "We get to hire anyone we want, build and sell whatever we like, and sell at whatever price we like. It"s awesome."
"Khar"al-dras? Since when did you get involved with dragons?!"
"Since we needed more power to fight the Spectres. I investigated the underground Draconian ruins and found out how to properly ask him for help. Actually, it"s just waking him up nicely and getting him breakfast. Otherwise, he"ll be grumpy."
"Not grumpy is good. The last time Khar"al-dras woke up grumpy, he destroyed half the city. Question is what would happen once the Spectres are cleaned out. Do you know how to put him back to sleep?"
"He"s already itching to do that." Tim a.s.sured Remian. "As long as the threat is over, he"ll just happily go back to sleep. There"s also a bit of a ritual for that, but I know exactly how to do it. Don"t worry."
"Ritual? You mean there"s some magic phrase?"
"Yes and no. Like the phrase to wake him up, there"s also a phrase to help him along the way to dreamland."
"Great! I"m actually surprised it"s a secret. You"d think something like that was important enough to share around with everyone."
Tim chuckled. "Oh, it"s not really that much of a secret. In fact, I dare say everyone at Fal"Herim knows what the phrase is. They use it all the time."
"Really? What is it?"
Tim solemnly spoke it. ""Fal"herim, Khar"al-dras"."
There was a short, stunned silence. A phrase that everyone there knew, indeed!
Tim went on. "In Draconian tongue, it really just means "rest well", or "good night". There"s no magic or anything, it"s just being a pleasantry."
Remian sighed. "Of course. The phrase was so important, they named their whole city after it. There was absolutely no way anyone would forget it then! They just forgot what it was for."
"Only the royals knew what it was really for, and the last Desert King died too suddenly to share it with anyone." Tim surmised. "Keeping it a secret from the rest of his family was probably his way of ensuring his own power."
Tim went on to tell Remian about the war, such as it was, including the Flame Emperor"s fall, Max"s death, his old orphan friends he found that Mindy brought to the Academy, Tang Yin, the Seal, and the Church battle fleet.
"Goodness, you guys have been busy." Remian managed at last.
Then again, he was one to speak. All they had gone through, they did in a matter of weeks. He, on the other hand, had been studying for ten years.
Finally, George arrived, pushing Song Chen in a wheelchair.
"What happened to him?" Tim asked George.
"Broken legs, broken arm, and more bruising than I ever want to see." George summarized. "Song Chen, Remian is in the Dragon Empire. Could your people bring him along with the next batch that comes over?"
"I"m not sure." Song Chen said slurrily. "There are too many people, not enough airships."
"Your Clan is that big?!" George was astonished.
"Not just Clan. Hired workers. Builders." Song Chen managed.
"Well, I was going to buy a firefighting airship anyway. I could simply join the fleet for the trip." Remian suggested.
"Yes… need more airshis…" Song Chen slurred. "More peoples… lesh time… pleash… elp."
"I think he"s done for." George observed him. "Lydia gave him something for the pain, but it seems to make him drowsy."
"Ah. Right. He should be sleeping. Just tell us who Remian can talk to and how to join up."
"Song Han… Capital… say phrase… thrumming melody."
"Find Song Han at the Capital, and tell him the phrase "thrumming melody". Got it." Remian said. "Thanks."