Sure, sounds good. They can try to trade for artifacts if they're still interested in that.

Yes, definitely. For reasonable amounts of return payment of course.

He's sure it'll work out.

So he goes and asks the athra for a refuge and a forge. The athra agrees to this.

The refuge is stunningly extravagant. It takes the athra a week to construct. A hundred lengths of thread-fine silver chain, which, when hung up so that both ends touch the ground, form portals through which only a human can pass, and on the other side, the hundred portals form a wide ring around a beautiful landscape full of rolling hills and green pastures, under a dome of cerulean sky that comes right down to the ground in the gaps between the portals. You can stick your arm into the sky. It feels weird and looks like thick haze and if you try to walk in you find yourself walking back out from the same spot. There is no sun and no day cycle, but sourceless sunlight pours into the dome from all angles.

After he hands off the bundle of chains to Tiro, the athra expresses his intention to "make the forge my second heirloom. It will be treasured, yes?"

"Definitely," says Tiro. "So treasured."

The athra puts on a smile, and then stops making facial expressions and sits down and goes completely still, much like it did when it was spending a week on constructing the refuge. This time, though, its physical form fades from view gradually over the course of several hours.

The immense gratitude he's earned through the refuge and the fountains will surely have people mentioning him enough to sustain him. Not to mention people talking about the socio-economic and religious consequences of eternal youth.

(A surprising-to-some number of people abstain from the fountains, mostly on religious grounds.)

The refuge is strictly used for evacuation and rapid deployment. They're already hatching plans to build an entire miniature railway inside, using what parts can be hefted by the various teleporters, at least those who can target the place.

...None of the teleporters can take Tiro home, apparently, though two of them say they could feel it almost go. Maybe if he describes 'home' to them very thoroughly.

Tiro can describe home all day. He has a good memory and a lot of feelings. He can talk about the Clouded Mountains so vividly you almost imagine you're right there.

They're right there.

Scatter sits down on a rock. "Woo, that's a rush."

Tiro beams.

"You all right?"

"Burns a whole fuck of a lot of mana to teleport between worlds apparently. Give me ten minutes?"

"Sure. I'll go tell my parents where I've been."

"I'll be here."

She stands back up after two minutes and looks around for him. "Keep forgetting I'm not thirty five anymore..."

It's a very pretty mountainside, with grass and trees and flowers and a mostly gentle slope down into a charming little valley. Tiro went valleyward.

And with a little 'fwip' sound she's walking next to him. "Looks peaceful here."

He grins. "I like my mountains."

"They're pretty good mountains. Feel somewhere between Black Forest and Appalachian-y, except neither."

"Remind me where those are? I've seen most of Earth by now but it went by pretty fast."

"Gentle, rolling sorts of mountains. Eastern Liberion - Roanoke was close. Black Forest was a little sharper but their namesake is ash now, you didn't visit the area. Neuroi."

"Neuroi," he sighs. "Well, maybe if I panic enough athrai they'll solve the Neuroi problem for you and then you'll get to keep all your remaining mountains."

"Here's hoping. If there's a big enough uninhabited area here they might colonize and evacuate people. Anyway I should find a place to set up the refuge-chain sooner or later once we're down there, so the actual diplomats can come through without burning through my mana."

"Yeah. I'm sure my family can find somewhere to put it."

She whistles a little tune, looking around at the landscape.

"Kinda want to teleport all over this world. New places are neat.

"That sounds like a lot of fun. Careful, though. We don't know much about the rest of the planet, but I know athrai can be different in different places. Might not be safe to hop around."

"Caution and sense ruining my fun again. Ah well."

He laughs. "I'm sure somebody'll make time to tell you about all the prettiest places in Haela if you want to tour the country."

"That'll be delightful, thanks!"

"No problem!"

That house up ahead seems likely to be Tiro's. They'll be there soon. It's a pretty nice house.