"If you're worried about specific worlds you can keep track of when it is there through Bar, who's getting publication updates without even the hassle of conjuration, and if you're worried about generic worlds that seems unwarranted since my understanding is that time is running at completely inconsistent rates in all of them and it's not much more likely that the difference between getting them sooner and getting them substantially later will be 'hanging out here for a few centuries' and not 'pausing to tie your shoes before racing out the door'."

"Well, that's something. Wonder if Rosalie's world is still standing."

Cam conjures a newspaper from Rosalie's town. "Yep."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

And they can snuggle and occupy themselves while Findekáno has his time to think.

"I think I do want an alt of me who can be told the things I can't," he says after a while. "I am not clear on how alts work but it seems like it might solve the problem."

"Okay. I'm going to make one of the reader machines--we've got one already but it's in Cam's room where Cam and a conscious Maitimo are, so. This'll take a minute."

"Okay."

She makes the machine. She makes the chip. She runs it through.

She forks him.

"I'm really sorry about this."

He's lying on the floor of a room with an unfamiliar starscape out the window and - someone who looks just like him - and Maitimo, asleep on the bed, and a demon who is apologizing.

Well, that's not ominous. He stands up. "What happened?"

"Uh, hi, I'm the demon the Valar blamed for Alqualonde, I didn't do it, I swear. Literally swear, I have a chip--" she superimposes the last bit with osanwe "--and a while back subjectively just now objectively I found a door to an interdimensional bar called Milliways where I met another demon from my Hell who had gotten summoned by accident to a world that doesn't have its own Hell and when someone's in Milliways and the door's closed time stops in the dimension you came through in and the other demon was from a world a lot like yours except minus the summoning and the Valar and Maiar were weird magic god things and that world's you invented a way to fork people using demons so your alt here," she nods at him, "which is from yet a third world, where Valinor and Endore are different continents on the same planet and they're fighting Magic God Morgoth with swords of all things, asked me to fork you in because he needs help figuring stuff out because his Maitimo is evil."

He closes his eyes. "How many people know that demons can fork people?"

"I don't know how many in the other demon's--Cam's--world--we're calling it Singularity, ours Abbadon, and this one's Mirror. Of people from Abbadon, no one who isn't currently in Milliways."

"How long has it been, subjectively, since you discovered this place -"

"I haven't personally been keeping track and time passing isn't always consistent between parts."

"Can you explain how other Ardas work, what a magic god Vala is like, are all worlds variants on Arda..."

"No, they aren't. Nechar who does security and Rosalie who did security for a while definitely come from non-Ardas, and the bar itself, who is sentient, female and magic, can produce anything 'published' in any world and many of the worlds are not Ardas. I...am not the best person in this room to ask what a magic god Vala is like, your alt grew up under them."

"Magic god Vala -"

He sends it.

"Huh, okay. And evil Maitimo. You have an evil Maitimo."

"I actually want to head down to Security, there's someone who can clear oaths, and ask him to clear any oaths you are under. Then I will tell you about the evil Maitimo."

"Wait, really? Then orcs might not be horribly fucked forever, how does he do it, can it scale? And I am not under any oaths."

"Then it won't be a problem. I can tell you about my Arda on the way."

"...okay." And to Edie, "can we leave?"