Marked Chapter Twenty Three

"Taylor. Calm down."

"That's easy for you to say," I respond plaintively. "You don't even know the dangers you have no defense against here."

"You could enlighten me," Naxylotriam responds. 

How do I do that without flicking her ego? "I don't even know where to begin! Nobody goes around openly armed except law enforcement. It's usually pretty safe not to, even in Brockton Bay, and unless you have a license it's illegal to carry a firearm-- oh, and we don't use swords and we don't have magic. If you look or especially dress odd people will assume you're a cape, especially if your face is covered. The Protectorate is the biggest hero organization in the country and they have not only lots of experience fighting really powerful enemies but they have a lot of resources, and once you get labeled a villain it's impossible to shake that label. And if someone gets a picture of you, especially on a public camera, that picture is likely going to be around forever to be found if someone knows to look for it." Okay, that was categorically the least helpful bout of verbal diarrhea I've inflicted on anyone in the last five years. "There's just too much. I don't even know all the things I don't know, much less know enough about the things I do know. I was trying to get a handle on that back before I started showing up here. Or in Eberron, rather." I sigh, holding my head. "I need a half hour with unlimited data and an internet connection..."

"What's an internet?" Chalmer asks curiously. 

"I am more curious to how information can be without limit," Nax comments, "and what one does with a limitless source of information."

"Mostly watch cat videos and get in arguments, unfortunately," I admit ruefully. "Uh, nevermind. The internet is a network of connected machines capable of exchanging information with one another with extreme speed. If humans have figured something out or learned something, or created something, it's probably accessible somehow on the internet."

I've never before heard two people do the heavy breathing thing. I'd assumed it was something exaggerated for memes. But then again, Nax has a treasure trove of dragonshards all filled with information about different dragonmarks or something, while this Chalmer guy is the wizard who figured out how to hold me on Eberron for longer than a few minutes and, if Nax is to be believed (NEVER say that out loud around her!), did it from scratch in less than a week. In hindsight I shouldn't have said anything when I'm trying to impress in them the importance of caution and hiding. "Okay, look, this is really important! I know you want to look at the internet but anyone finding out you're from a different world would be super bad for me AND you both. I think I could get arrested for it and I don't even know how the government would react to a real wizard and a real dragon."

"As opposed to a false dragon or spellcaster?" Chalmer replies with a bemused hum. 

"Myrddin is a cape from... somewhere in the Midwest, I think, who pretends to be a wizard. And Lung kind of transforms into a fire dragon? Doesn't look a whole lot like you, Nax, but eventually gets wings and can fly when he gets large enough. One of the strongest and most feared capes on the East coast, actually. So, uh, technically we do have false dragons and wizards. Or at least one of each."

"Chalmer, Taylor knows her home far better than we do, and she has been quite compliant with me in Eberron. I am willing to extend the benefit of the doubt to her, as it is not possible to convey fifteen years of cultural context in a handful of sentences. She has made the claim that this city has a population of three hundred fifty thousand-"

"Give or take, it's not an exact number but it's around there," I point out.

"-or a number in that general vicinity," she continues without missing a beat. "Such a number of people in one space is unlikely without significant measures in its construction, including water and waste management."

"Do you want me to pick up some books on urban planning for you?" I ask with an admittedly unfriendly tone of voice. "Since it's apparently going to be the barometer of my honesty in your eyes, I mean. If you find three hundred fifty thousand hard to swallow, then I'm just glad I don't live in New York or Los Angeles."

"Oh yeah?" Chalmer asks, apparently trying to play along for the sake of keeping the peace. "Are those the biggest cities in your world?" 

"No, just the country. I think the largest in the world is or used to be Tokyo, but geography isn't really my strong suit," I answer. I aim a nervous look over my shoulder. How long do I have? "How long can you be invisible?" I ask. 

"All day, if necessary," Nax responds. "But it will be limiting for me in certain ways; my resources are hard to describe and the issue of a lack of native magic to fall back on is concerning."

"The safest thing is to not be seen until you can blend in, which your clothes won't help with and not knowing the language or customs really won't help with. At some point, someone will notice the movement of your lips don't match the words they're hearing." I think for a moment. "What we really need is to get you both a Rosetta Stone program for English." Which will still be a couple weeks for Chalmer, more than likely. Maybe Nax can go through the whole thing in a day. Super smart dragon, and all that. Totally not jealous. 

A couple days ago, things were a lot simpler. When I could consider myself just a weak cape, when dragons were a strange dream. When I could feel at least semi safe at home. It's kind of depressing how easy that all feels like it would be to deal with, now. 

This is a real problem for me. When I agreed to meet with the bishop, I had no idea Nax would be here, nor her hereditary retainer or squire or boyfriend or whatever along with. That's exactly two people too many for me to be babysitting while speaking to a higher up church person. For a church that, and I cannot believe I have to remind myself of this, I do not consider myself a member of nor a believer in. "Everything just keeps getting more complicated," I mutter unhappily. 

"That is the nature of life," Nax responds from empty air. "Complications must at some point be dealt with, resolved, or come to terms with. Failing to do one of these tends to make complications accumulate until we are drowning in them." 

"Easy for you to say," I complain.

"This is true. Less easy to take action. Much the reason why many will offer advice but rarely take it when they ask for it in return. Thus the reason dragons teach their young to think for themselves. Advice is easier to swallow and follow when our own common sense provides it." She gives a small laugh. "You have responded well for what little time we have had; I wish I could have raised you from a much younger age." 

That sounds awful, actually. I don't think I'd much enjoy being raised in a cave, especially not a submerged one. I'm not dumb enough to 

meell her this; offending a dragon aside, I don't want to hurt her feelings, and whatever I might think of her home, she's obviously quite content with it. Instead, I try to change the subject. "If I'd had more time to prepare-- and the appropriate resources-- I'd probably hold you in a quiet location with internet access and about a month of orienting you both to the basics of American life." 

"But you have not had time to prepare, we are in-- I presume, by your anxiety-- a tenuous place that poses a risk to you and us, and most significantly, you are STALLING, Taylor." Ouch. That was a tender spot, and she's very right. I AM stalling. Mostly because I have no idea what to do next. The big problem I've been avoiding in my mind is the implicit breach of Father DiMaggio's trust that I'm considering. 

Because now, I'm stuck with a choice: either hide this whole incident from him, or else tell him and risk... a bad reaction. I can't even guess how he'd react to this, not just because of the whole 'people other than the ones cleared to stay here' part, but also the fact that one of those people I accidentally brought in here is a DRAGON. Do I tell him? I care about what he thinks of me. I WANT his approval. I dread his disappointment or disapproval. 

And as much as I like Father DiMaggio, I realize that I don't trust him. Not with this. No. I like him, and I think he means for the best, but even I know that dragons are supposed to be evil in christian mythology; it's one of the central premises of Saint George and the Dragon. And Nax doesn't feel evil to me, even if she IS condescending, proud, and bossy. She helped me through some serious inconvenience to her time and home, taught me about my mark, is even helping me make a career for myself. 

"Miss Taylor," Chalmer says suddenly, "you re-entered a mansion you made back in Eberron by creating a mansion here. Which suggests something odd has happened with the source of the effect, and I suspect it might be a side effect of the array I constructed to anchor your telepresence there for extended periods of time. I'm wondering if the array generalized itself to impact any extradimensional magics, not merely what was anchoring you to project into our world in your sleep." 

"I would have been happier had you mentioned this earlier," Nax says a little peevishly. "If it is true, then the mansion she has created is itself something of a semi-permanent demiplane. And given her ability to modify or alter it at will after its creation-" 

"She can do what now?" Chalmer asks, voice tinged with shock. 

"- that therefore implies that the doorway to Eberron may yet be accessible," Naxylotriam continues. "If she can choose which door she wishes to make active." 

I think about this, suddenly very concerned that I may have inadvertently made interdimensional invasions possible. I turn to face the doorway into the church bathroom. "Let's see if I can get you home," I say. 

I focus on the door. How would I go about doing this? Do I just focus on where I've made doors? Wait, maybe if I just sort of... envision the doorway to Eberron NEXT to it? 

Another portal appears next to the one to the bathroom. Beyond it is dark; I reach through it and pull my hand back, with no issue. "Okay... not sure where this one goes," I admit. 

Chalmer mumbles something, and suddenly there's light floating a few feet away from me. The light source tumbles forward like it was thrown, flying through the doorway into the space beyond, illuminating what I recognize as the inside of the hidden lodge I created for us on the outskirts of the mobile town, although the fireplace is dark and ash strewn. 

"Fascinating. I do not know whether to be pleased this rapid means of returning home now exists, or horrified that the sanctity of my world is threatened by the existence of a portal I have no control over," Nax observes drily. 

"Go with pleased; I can probably dispel it with a bit of effort from the other side," Chalmer responds. "Although this is quite interesting. With a research team and access to another suitably developed mark of hospitality, this could prove a solid competitor to the lightning rail. There's no reason this couldn't be used to travel from one place to another in Eberron." 

"To all forms of transportation," Nax says. "Although, Taylor's willingness pending, you DO have access to it already." 

As they talk, I'm trying to connect to other doors I've made in Eberron, but with no luck. "I wonder if it was because, when I made this Mansion I was trying to recreate the exact one I made for you," I comment. "But I only have one use left to experiment with today." 

"Are you certain it is not recharging rapidly still?" Nax asks. 

"Yeah, I made the portal hours ago, and that use hasn't come back yet," I confirm. "And I have things to do today, so I can't just come back to Eberron and test it out right now." 

"So what, then? You propose we all hide in the Mansion until the problem goes away?" Nax says wryly. 

"It's worked for me before," I counter, remembering the junkyard. "Sort of. But no, the first problem is..." 'Getting you guys home?' No, they'll never go for that. But getting them somewhere that they can safely satisfy their curiosity? Might be more doable. "... Well, let's start by sneaking out of the church," I add. "Everything else can come after that part."

"Easily accomplished," Nax announces, and I feel a hand on my shoulder. "Lead the way."

I do so. Stepping out into the bathroom is tricky; it isn't particularly large, but I manage to get the three of us, two is whom are invisible, out into the hallway without much trouble. We move single file down the hallway, to the kitchen, where I look at the fridge with a sigh.

"I should leave a note for Father DiMaggio, let him know I'll be back soon." I look in the general direction of Naxylotriam and Chalmer. "Here's the plan. We know the time differential is about seven to one, right?"

"... Of course," Nax says after a second. "You wish to set up an outside fallback position, return to Eberron for an hour of time there, which will be a little over eight and a half minutes here, then you will have full use of your powers. Am I correct?"

"Yeah. That's the idea." And I hate how she can just figure out almost anything I'm planning like that. It makes me feel like, well, like a child. Which, to her I am, but still. It's demeaning. "The idea being, I can set you guys up on a computer at the library, with an easy escape route, then take the mansion back here to meet with Father DiMaggio and the Bishop he wanted to introduce me to." 

"And these computers, what are they calculating?" Chalmer asks. 

"Uh..." How do I explain this? "They're the information machines I was talking about before. That connect to the internet. On the most basic level, they manipulate numbers in binary at extremely high speeds, billions of operations per second on higher end chips, doing layers on layers of calculations to process information and do, things. Display images. Create games to play. Store and retrieve information. Control other machines. Communicate with other machines. They're really versatile; I have a class-- HAD a class-- at Winslow that I was doing really well in, despite the students... Well, never mind. Point is, I can teach you the basics of browser use quickly, and since you have perfect memory, Nax, you'll probably figure out more than I know by the end of the day, if you have that long. The library opens at seven thirty which is more than enough time to walk there from here- or crawl, for that matter." 

"I do not intend to walk or crawl; while matters necessitate remaining unseen I will at least take the option of flying." 

"Just make sure you don't bump into anyone or anything. Especially low flying planes or..." I trail off. "On second thought, do your level best to not fly too high, or you might run into a traffic helicopter while you're invisible, and that would be disastrous." 

"Helicopter?" both Nax and Chalmer ask. 

This is going to be a long day. 

---

Sneaking out of the church isn't particularly difficult when there's nobody there to see or hear us. At Nax's urging, we go into the back parking lot where there's no view from the street, and Nax does whatever she did to make herself invisible, only on me. Then, we're airborne, and flying higher as I'm carried by invisible dragon hands. Somehow, flying in Brockton Bay is much more frightening than it was in Eberron; maybe it's because part of me still finds the fantastic, otherworldliness of it to be insulating, putting a layer of unreality over it all. In the early morning with the sun rising to cast long shadows and red dawn over the buildings and streets of my home town, I can't help but think that it really IS pretty big. From up here we can see the suburbs well enough, rich neighborhoods to the west and the south, middle class and poorer to the north and northeast. The charred scar of Winslow is readily visible and I can't help but smile faintly to myself at the knowledge I'll never have to walk those miserable halls again. 

"I had scarcely believed it when you said it," Nax says softly. "But there it is. I do not know the exact population of the city but I can easily imagine it holding hundreds of thousands, maybe a million within it." 

"A lot of those are businesses, not residences," I reply. "Like those really tall ones in the center of that- uh, shoot, I can't point at anything meaningfully while I'm invisible like this. To the south of us, kinda a half mile from the shore there. Those skyscrapers might have one or two people who own a penthouse but for the most part, those are almost purely offices and administration for business." 

"I see them. The Towers of Sharn are a mixture of many things, and the wealthiest live and work highest on them. But this city is spread out, rather than up." 

"Well, we're going to need to go down,soon. Up here, it's hard to be sure, but... I think that's it down there. Uh, minus seventy ish degrees vertical, to the right by uh," I begin estimating the angles by cutting them in half mentally. "Ninety, forty five, twenty two, eleven... fifty six degrees. Ish." 

"That squat building with the pillars?"

"That's the one." 

We land on the steps with a jarring thud. Part of the paving cracks and I see some chips of concrete spin off to ring against the hand rail support pole to our right. Oops. "Next time, a little lighter on the landing. People will ask questions." 

"As you say. I misjudged the current coming off the ocean." 

I give the glass front door a calculating look into the unlit library behind it. "We're gonna have a little bit of a wait. We got here pretty fast." A though occurs to me. "Hey, Chalmer, you're still here?"

"I'm here," empty air replies. 

"... If Naxylotriam was holding me-" 

"I was riding her," he finishes. 

"Not for the first time," Nax adds with a note of humor, eliciting a cough from Chalmer and an invisible blush from me. 

"I SO did not need to hear that," I mutter. 

The silence while we wait for the library to open is awkward, to say the least.