Where she can mass-text a bunch of people about her disappearance being temporary and recorporate Lianelle.

Lianelle can wait a bit for May to catch up with people before she goes out and sees all the new universe things.

"Probably don't strike off on your own, there's no veil here and if you do anything odd you'll be noticed a normal amount."

"Okay, so long as you show me around."

"Will do, though first I need to talk someone into taking a trip around the world to find Sakir once she's resurrected." Text text.

Lia will admire her summoner in the meantime.

"I hope Arctic's up for it, I don't actually know her that well and just hook up with her partner sometimes."

"What's her power?"

"Clairvoyance. She can see into dungeons and over a couple thousand kilometers, and she can find what she's looking for pretty well; she'll be able to find Sakir if she doesn't land on, like, a container ship mid-Pacific, or something. But she'll have to fly around a bit for coverage."

"How will she know what she's looking for?"

"She can use names and identifying labels, does that for missing persons and dungeon victims all the time."

"What're you going to do with Sakir once Arctic finds her?"

"Probably invite her to improve on 'drop her back off in her own world' as a plan, I assume no court on the planet finds her bullshit to be within jurisdiction, but maybe it will take a few days and she'll have done local crimes."

"She uh, will probably either die or commit crimes or both back in our world, I think."

"Well, if she'd rather I just murder her again I guess I can but I'd rather not."

"Yeah."

"Especially since that would happen in a jurisdiction I would not immediately flee."

Nod.

"I would really rather not have more death when we just finished the tournament but don't know how to avoid it entirely - maybe she'll have some idea."

"Well, whatever it is can't be very expensive, or it'll be more total death of people who were asking for it way less."

Nod nod.

May calls her agent. It's amazing that her phone is intercompatible. Paula books her an airplane from Los Angeles home to Toronto for her and her new partner.

"Can I ride the outside?" asks Lianelle when she sees an airplane take off from the airport window.

"No, that would be bad for the aerodynamics of the plane and also for the peace of mind of anyone who saw you even if you could cling perfectly to the wing the entire time."

"Well at least I'll get to ride in it - how high do they go?"

"'Bout thirty thousand feet."

"Oh wow, definitely a whole lot higher than I can jump."

"I would imagine so, yes."

Is it possible for Lianelle to have a seat next to a window?

Yes, they're in first class and if Lianelle wants the window May will take the aisle.

Lianelle bounces in her seat as they take off, staring out the window intently.

"This is such a good invention - I love it. The future is great."

"Not just the future but getting to exist for more consecutive days than usual."

"My other tournaments as a champion were longer than this one actually, but I am looking forward to that. Also, I didn't get to go too different places so much, that's also great. 

"Not that you've existed for more consecutive days, but that you're going to, so it makes sense to introduce you to more things about the world and whatnot."

"Oh yeah... I wonder if I can fly this high if I tied wings onto my arms or something."

"I guess I can't rule it out but warn me if you're going to try it so I can keep an eye out and discorporate you before you hit the ground should you fall."

Nod nod. 

"Even if I did hit the ground it'd probably hurt the ground much more than me. And when if it somehow hurt me you could still recorporate me, it's just more expensive... Oh I guess I might hit something, that'd maybe be bad."

"If you'd rather crash if you crash you could go somewhere uninhabited but I live in a city."

"I can discorporate then - or make a day trip of it."

"I wonder if it still makes sense for me to run dungeons. Like, if I die in a dungeon, the spring and you are both kind of - inaccessible, right?"

"Yeah - I think I might go back to the spirit plane? I do want to try running dungeons myself and maybe you can use the Spring to do something?"

Hey Spring how are you at contingency resurrections.

Significantly more expensive than normal - the cheapest way that would allow her to keep the Spring afterward would work by connecting her soul to some sort of anchor that would pull her back to life should she otherwise be about to die. That would cost a few weeks worth of power to set-up, which is most of the reserves she kept from earlier not including what she has reserved to resurrect Sakir with.  Normal resurrections are one week of power.

Probably worth doing. What exactly would she be anchored to?

Up to her! Could be a person, place, or object.

...and would she then be ontologically dependent on this person, place, or object?

Yes.

Sounds like a place is safest, what needs to continue to be true of a place to let it be a suitable anchor?

If it's a building the building would need to still largely exist, if it's land the land couldn't be thoroughly landscaped or dug up.

Ocean? The moon?

It can't be that large, and if she wants it to be cheap it has to exist as a conceptually distinct place - a named portion of the ocean or crater on the moon would work, though she'll be resurrected at the location if she dies.

Niagara Falls?

That'll work fine.

And can she change it later if it looks like Niagara Falls might be in danger?

Yep.

Awesome. "I'm gonna anchor my soul to Niagara Falls for a contingent resurrection," she informs Lianelle, in case there is something obviously dumb about this plan.

"I don't know where that is but it sounds like a good idea to have contingent ressurections."

"It's just across the lake from Toronto, and it's a big famous geographical feature that seems unlikely to take major damage and if it does I'll find out about it hopefully in plenty of time. I'm gonna save this for when we get home so we don't need to scandalize the flight attendants though."

"There isn't anywhere to have sex on a plane?"

"Nope. One hears about people trying it but there is not a designated place and it is not encouraged."

"That didn't really stop me from having sex during my lifetime but I've learned that not everyone is like me."

"Speaking of, at some point do you want, like, your memories back."

"Oh hm, I'm not actually sure if I'm missing anything but I suppose I wouldn't mind it back? Though if you are getting things back for me I might want you to resurrect Lucian at some point. It's not urgent or anything, I just think he'd enjoy the future."

"I can start a list." She does this. Lucian can be on it and a few prominent dead espers.

"It is very attractive of you to have a list of people you're planning on resurrecting."

"Is it now."

"Yep. It's cause it's downstream of how you're the best person."

It is legal to kiss on airplanes.

The future has such a wise and libertine legal system.

Anyway it's a long flight and May wants to get some sleep after they get their first class inflight meals (salmon, broccoli, rice pilaf, and a miniature cheesecake).

Cheesecake! 

Also before May falls asleep does she know how someone can... move around here? Lianelle is bad at staying seated.

"Uh, airplanes suck at that, you can walk up and down the aisles a little bit if that light is turned off and you're not in anybody's way though."

"Okay - can I do gymnastics if I don't get in anyone's way and don't break anything?"

"...you can maybe get away with anything you can do within the space of our seats without jostling the chairs in front of us, I don't know what that leaves, and you have to stop if the flight attendants ask you to."

"Hm, if I do gymnastics in the bathroom such that no one notices is that okay?"

"Even more cramped than the seats, but I guess?"

"I think there's enough room for me to do some creative exercise and that'll be better than nothing. I'll probably pace some too. And then rest in my seat while you sleep I guess."

"Sure. Don't hog the bathroom too long, people need to use it as a bathroom. And next time I need to take a long flight I can just recorporate you at the destination."

"I prefer not having a good time in a body to not having a body by a lot, actually."

"Okay. Maybe I can give you a longer leash with the Spring and then I'd be able to just effectively teleport you to wherever I was at any distance?"

"Feels a bit weird to call it a leash - but yeah that'd work for me. Spring might just be able to do teleportation outright too."

"Probably, yeah, seems not more complicated than the dimension hopping thing."

Nod nod.

Sleep time.

Lia figures out how to do pull-ups and various other activities in the bathroom by being very creative and good at gymnastics. She does so at speeds fast enough to tire her out quickly, and then repeats this a few times over the course of the flight when the bathroom is free. There is also some walking up and down the aisle. It's enough that she's not miserable but she is still kneading her arm and stretching her legs and would really rather this flight be shorter.

The descent - and view of the city above - is worth it though. At least this time - repetition might change that.

"You can jog a bit in the airport as long as you don't run into anyone," May tells her as they're deplaning. "And once we've got the bags if you want to carry me and them all the way to my house on foot there's no reason you should not, people'll just think you're a speedster esper."

"That sounds fun. Can I do some cartwheels in the airport if I'm careful?"

"As long as you have enough space that people don't have to trust you to be careful."

"Okay!"

And once that's the case she will do so many cartwheels in a row. And a flip or two.

She gets some looks but nobody stops her.

They can get their baggage and then Lianelle can see where May's house is from here on the map.

Running time! She is so fast.

Wheeeeee!

And right up to the stoop with her finger out and pressing the doorbell.

"I can walk through the door and let us in that way, you know."

"Oh yeah, you can."

Ren is home, though, and comes to let them in and hug her daughter.

Lia can stand politely out of the way of the important hugging.

And then a cat wants a turn!

 A winged cat, which is extremely cool.

It is, yes.

"Lianelle, this is my mother Ren, and this is Cricket."

"Nice to meet you! I'm May's champion."

"What's a champion?"

"A spirit summoned to support and defend their summoner."

"Also it's really cool that you can talk."

"Yes, it is. Is it cool that you can talk or does that come standard?"

"Not all champions can talk. I think its cool that I can but not as cool as some other things I can do."

"Huh." Cricket resumes rubbing his face on May.

Relatable.

Arctic and Sparkler pack up to go around the world on a well compensated vacation, hitting cities such that she will be within a couple thousand kilometers of ninety-five percent of the world's population.

First of all, is this individual Traceless wants to find anywhere in range of Vancouver?

Nope!

Anywhere on the route from there to L.A.? Palm Beach? New York?

Still no!

Anywhere in Europe?

Yep.

Where?

Southern Italy,in a smallish city called Andria, in a seedy alleyway.

Thanks, Arctic.

Does Lianelle want to come even though it will mean being on another long plane ride?

Yeah, she won't let grueling travel get in the way of being by May's side during an adventure.

Off to Italy goes Traceless and her partner (who should have an esper passport, what does she want for a codename?)

"I don't know! Something associated with Lions maybe?"

"...Lioness appears to be free."

"Works for me."

New esper passport from the esper passport office for Lioness and they're off.

Can she get away with smiling at all for her passport photo?

Yeah, they're laxer about that kind of thing for esper passports, you're even allowed to wear a mask.

No mask, just smile.

Italy ho. Arctic and Sparkler are staying a bit longer in Athens for spot updates, May got them movable flights. Where is Sakir?

Blowing a guy in Andria.

Hopefully that'll occupy her for a while. Arctic can pan around to get an address and they can home in.

The address is a different alleyway than before, and she's out on a nearby street by the time May and Lianelle spot her.

May stalks her through the thin crowd.

"Ciao."

"Oh, you really are more capable than I imagined."

"Yeah. Is there a compromise you like, here?"

"I'm willing to be a well behaved denizen of this dimension if that's acceptable."

"Well, that requires either a lot of trust relative to how much you suck, or policing effort, on my part."

"I can direct you to my truth potion supply?"

"That also requires trust."

"If you have access to someone with the right sort of magic they'd be able to write-up another contract, though unfortunately the author of our contract was the summoner who died after it was signed."

"Right, but this seems like a major outlay of time and effort and magic when I could just bring you back whence you came and abandon you to the tender mercies of those you wronged."

"I assumed you didn't want to murder anyone."

"Yeah, well, guess who screwed up that plan."

[Can the Spring do contracts?]

Can it?

Yep! Less than a day of power for one that will bind someone without access to specific sorts of magic.

[So, yes, but at about one seventh of the cost of a resurrection - where I'm resurrecting not random and especially not particularly objectionable people, I will be resurrecting specifically the people who I think are the best to have alive plus probably some personal sentiment allowance I also super wouldn't spend on her - and also writing airtight magical contracts is not a skill I have.]

[Is it that much more costly than the time we've already spent?]

[I got work done on the plane, and getting Arctic on board mostly only cost money, which I expect to be rolling in as soon as I make it known I can resurrect people. I'm only following up with this specific shitty person in Italy out of all the shitty people in Italy because I feel responsible for the situation; I would like it to stop being a situation efficiently.]

[Could drop her off somewhere remote maybe?]

[I can't get her on an airplane here, she won't have ID. I can just bring her to the Italy of the Spring world.]

[Okay.]

"You think of anything clever while I went on a face journey there?"

"Not particularly, but if it's not a terrible burden I'd like a few more minutes to decide whether I'd prefer to just ask one of you to strangle me personally rather than allow my enemies the opportunity to dispose of me in a less interesting fashion."

"I don't feel all that inclined to do you personal favors that leave me guilty of murder on the planet I live on."

[Is it a terrible idea for me to do it if she asks.]

[Yes, because you would then be guilty of murder on the planet we live on.]

[If I insist on only doing it on her planet then? I've already murdered there a bunch of times.]

[...I guess.]

"I'd do it after we go back to your world, if that's what you want."

"Oh good. A minute to think then."

May sets a timer on her phone.

It's not actually a difficult decision.

"I will accept a ride home withouit the murder - however much I wish to see your champion's reaction to doing so up close. I will have to be satisfied with only your discussion about the possibility."

"You know, not every thought you have about how you kink on being a huge creep needs to be voiced out loud."

Back to the Spring's universe of origin.

Well, she'd be quieter if May didn't make such delightful faces of discomfort about things. It's not really even a kink - though the distinction isn't particularly important.

"I'm aware."

"Buh-bye now." And back to her own universe.

"I don't like her," says Lianelle once they are alone agian.

"Me either! Let's go home."

"Can I run us to the airport?"

"Be my guest."

Being helpful and running are both nice after such an unpleasant encounter.

And they have a long flight back to Toronto, during which May researches and organizes her People To Resurrect list.

May watches the take-off and than May for some time, admiring both, and then heads to the bathroom to discover whether there's a way to tuck her legs so as to do a flip without disturbing anyone.

It's really a very small bathroom and it's not long before someone wants to do bathroom things in it.

Lianelle is pretty sure she can get this but will let someone else have a turn and return later once she's thought through the mechanics more thoroughly.

It's really a good thing they fly first class.

Lianelle is back in her seat as required and watching the view closely when they descend.

And they're back in Toronto!

Oh good, more running!

"Is it okay for me to keep sharing your bed?"

"We should swap my bed and the guest bed, the guest bed is bigger, but yes. You're actually probably strong enough to do that without taking them apart, maybe."

"I'm sure I am!"

"I'll scootch my nightstand over and stuff while you're doing that."

"I could do this with one arm," she says hefting it, "but I'm not sure it wouldn't break."

"Presumably you've surmised I'd rather it not break."

"Yes, you're very reasonable like that."

And eventually the beds are swapped and they can go to bed (the bigger one).

Well, in Lianelle's case she'll rest rather than sleep as she's still just a spirit. But it's very nice to rest in the bed, cuddled up with May.

In the morning:

"...I think the Spring's stopped refilling, or slowed down."

"That definitely shouldn't be happening."

"Yeah. I can't think how Sakir would have had an opportunity to sabotage it or anything..." Spring, what gives.

The spring is sucking up all the ambient magic from this dimension, as designed, there just isn't nearly enough to equal the Spring's original dimension.

...ah.

Can it go hang out in its original dimension until she needs to use it for something or would she have to go there?

It's either connected to her and in the same dimension or not connected to her at all.

"I don't want to go live in that dimension," she grouses.

"Does the Spring need it?"

"To absorb the ambient magic, yeah, and it's attached to me."

"Ah."

"I don't like it there at all and furthermore don't have ID or anything to live there and will accidentally mind control anybody I lie to slightly incorrectly. Ugh."

Hug.

Hug. "Also people there might try to murder me for the Spring magic."

"That part I can help with, at least."

"Unless anyone heard that it worked to draw me out the last time some asshole took an entire TV studio hostage!"

"You did kill her really soon after that so hopefully they'll know that too, if they know any the TV station at all? And not about the resurrection bit."

"That's more hopefullies than I like in the odds of someone taking hostages to get my attention."

Nod nod.

"What's the situation on scrying magic, I know there is some because Sakir wanted to be protected against it but how hard would it be for me to just set up somewhere and not be known to be on the planet at all?"

"Things connected to you can be used to scry you, I think? The Spring should be able to block it but I don't know how much it would cost."

Spring, comments on this topic?

A few hours will protect her against anything normal, though there's some more esoteric stuff that will take two days to protect against.

"It's doable, with some more recharging. I might want to wait a bit just to give anyone actively looking for me more of the runaround, though perhaps it's been long enough, I don't know how much looking they'd be doing or how long they'd be about it. And maybe do that recharging in the sticks so it's harder to figure out where I might be residing once I do more residing."

"The sticks?"

"Not in the city, way out where there isn't much around."

"Oh, yeah. More camping then?"

"Yeah. Though this time we can gear up here in this universe where I have lots of money."

Nod nod.

"I can carry a lot of stuff too."

"And if people see you here it's fine and if we get far enough into the wilderness there nobody'll see you where they'll get mind controlled about it, though let's keep it slightly under control and not have you arrive carrying an entire Winnebago."

"I might not actually have to carry it in the wilderness on the spring world if we go somewhere in this world and travel over from there?"

"Yeah. I guess I should look into RV rental." She does that.

Lianelle has no idea what RVs are but can keep May company and provide hugs.

She can derive what an RV is by looking over May's shoulder.

"Oh, looks cozy."

"Very close quarters, but that's no hardship in this case."

"Mhm."

She rents one, and a campsite out in the middle of nowhere.

Can Lianelle get a cozy blanket and a rainbow lantern this time?

Yes she can.

Oh good, in that case Lianelle has everything she wants in life.

They camp out for a bit. When she's got anti-scrying amounts of mana saved up she implements that and then returns the caravan to its original world and owner. Then she attempts to rent an apartment in Spring-world (...Vernal? Artesian?) in Toronto, using her esper-world money and documents after checking that they pass muster. This works fine and presently they have a place to live there. Cricket elects to stay behind because he likes being able to go out and fly around and hunt pigeons and if he did that in the Spring-world he'd mind-control all the witnesses just by being a winged cat. He might change his mind when the weather is bad enough that he'd do it less anyway. May's pretty upset about this situation depriving her of her cat but at least plans to stop back in her own world for an evening a week and will see him then.

There's not a ton to do - she can work on her blog, but only by downloading all the things she wants to use as research material in advance. She organizes her reading list. She browses the Spring-world internet.

Spring-world internet is going sort of nuts about the image of the three-headed velociraptor monster from the news article a few days previously Apparently it is not just a car accident, and somehow no one noticed this. People are split on whether this whole thing is somehow a hoax, with the image edited in after the original article was published.

Evidence for the image being what was actually published abounds - there are physical copies, videos of it coming up on a screen while news anchors discuss the accident, and absolutely no sign that there was any other image in the original article.

Proponents of the opposing theory, that this is all somehow a hoax, argue back that this is an absolutely ridiculous claim that would be better explained by an elaborate hoax creating all the other evidence and modifying all original copies. Yes, it's a stretch, but alternative explanations seem way less reasonable. 

Additionally, the image is clearly CGI. It's not even good CGI! The monster has shiny scales that if you zoom in you can tell don't actually reflect the surroundings! This is notably a feature of early CGI - in fact, the velociraptor heads look really uncannily close to those in Jurassic Park. 

Some people are pointing out prior instances of similar phenomenons - a woman with three glowing eyes going unremarked about in a story about a charity dinner, a gas leak article with glowing orbs around the wreckage, and a moment at the Oscars where an actor appears to be lifted off the ground by a whirlwind and deposited on stage to accept an award. 

She really hopes this is enough for them to work it out eventually.

"Do you want to try doing some magic on purpose so the internet can find out about it?"

"I don't yet really have a plan for handling that and still don't want to be found by any angry local wizards."

Nod.

May low-key impersonsates Ren, while the Spring fills up - if she has to live here she has to fill her time with something and Ren wrote the book on filling time with something. They can go to all the museums and concerts and theater productions and weird restaurants that this universe's Toronto has to offer. She considers taking up an instrument or painting or ice skating or something. She audits random university classes.

When she's got enough magic (and a little extra in case of emergency), she wants to try resurrecting someone. Eventually she's mostly going to be doing high leverage espers with good track records from back home, but she wants to test it out first. Lianelle wants her friend Lucian, right?

"Yeah he'd really like the future - especially that science museum yesterday but everything else too."

"Do you want him back here or in my world where he won't be subject to the veil?"

"Your world? Though I'm not sure which he'll choose once he finds out about magic."

"I wonder how that'll affect, like, metacognition..."

Back to her own Toronto. She requests a spare empty silo - Paula mostly just knows that she dropped off the face of the Earth for a couple days and that she's now indefinitely on leave "working on something", but she can still get a silo on demand. In the spare empty silo -

- she resurrects the dead.

"Well, I appear to have guessed wrong about the non-existence of life after death."

"Good to see you too!"

"The year in this universe is 2034 but in your home universe it's ten years earlier. I did the resurrection here because in your universe there's a lot of magical interference with forming beliefs about magic if you're not already in the know. Hi. I'm May."

"I'm Lucian - are you human?"

"I'm a human. In my universe, in 1971, some humans started turning up with magic powers, I'm one of those; and also hostile pocket dimensions started kidnapping people. Your universe has had a completely different kind of magic all along instead."

"I see...Lianelle, the Magyar -"

" - were magic. So was I."

"Well, that goes a way towards explaining things about both."

"It explains what was up with the Magyar - me being weird was mostly just me. Well, I guess the last month or so of my life involved a lot of magic."

"Yes. I gathered the Magyar had some sort of means of crafting story and myth to have a shocking degree of persuasiveness, and I assumed that was also involved in your last month or so of life."

"See, I told you he was clever."

"What was it that they were doing that looked like - persuasive storytelling?"

"Everyone, including me, firmly believed that several specific villages were the victims of unfortunate fires, which I discovered had specifically spared their informants and allies in those villages. I concluded there must be some other explanation, such as there having been soldiers who attacked those villages, and that the Maygar had some way of hiding this so persuasive that it caused even their enemies to believe their lies."

"Huh. Pretty close."

"Well, I had Lianelle's help, as she seemed resistant to the stories more so than me."

"Yes, you were better at noticing that than other people."

"I was only able to roll back the most recent update to the veil, for some reason a lot of people have been invested in strengthening it over the centuries."

"I imagine the Magyar would have preferred me not able to see through it as much as I did."

"I'm pretty sure they thought you were a mage."

"Anyway, welcome back to being alive, I can take you to your own world if you'd rather - I have to live there to refill the magic but you don't."

"I may need more information... I assume Lianelle had you bring back Katia before me, where did she end up deciding on?"

"Who's Katia?"

"What?"

"Your wife, Katia of Quiteria."

"What."

"So, uh, maybe I should've pushed harder on 'do you want your memories back'. You had a wife? That long ago?"

"I don't think that was even an option?"

"It really wasn't! But you were set on it regardless. We had to talk you out of kidnapping a priest to do the ceremony."

May is snuggled right up to Lianelle about the backlash but was, fortunately, not expecting to be able to immediately excuse themselves from Resurrected Lucian to have sex, and accordingly is not disappointed by how much she can't do that with her maybe married amnesiac champion. "I don't really know things about religion but I don't think there would be any level on which that would be better than not doing it. Lianelle, I think you should probably have your memories back. And possibly your wife. You will not need to kidnap a priest about it in modern day Canada."

"If you say so."

Huh.

"What are you two to each other, exactly?"

"I'd use the word 'partner' but that probably means different things to me than to you. It's a standard configuration for espers because our power use has side effects that get 'guided' away with contact with a compatible person. Lianelle's not technically an esper but she counts as compatible anyway."

"And that means you get to decide she gets her memories back?"

"No, having the magical thingy from your universe means I can do that, I'm not going to do it if she doesn't... want them... but if I'd forgotten about having a wife I'd certainly want to recall!"

"Hm." That doesn't really address why Lianelle was acting so weirdly deferential towards May about it.

"She's my summoner."

"I don't know what that means."

"I was brought to Earth to serve as her champion in the tournament because I'd make a good champion for her, and that doesn't stop just because the tournament ended?"

"And champions have to listen to their summoners or something?" 

"No! Well, kind of but that's not what's important here."

"Uh-huh."

"I'm not making her do anything!"

"She's really not."

"Mm, if you say so."

May buries her face in Lianelle's shoulder. "What else do you most want to know about the modern day or magic or anything, I'd rather revisit the Lianelle's amnesia and wife and whatnot topic when I'm not backlashing."

"How would returning to the same universe as you two affect my ability to follow what was going on given the magical interference in belief forming?"

"I don't know, I haven't experimented with this."

"Can we do such an experiment before I make my decision?"

"Yes. Not right this second, when I go between worlds I wind up in the same geographical area and this isn't where I want to make a crossing into the other Toronto - I don't like doing magic in front of people who'll be veiled about it."

"That seems reasonable."

"I was able to roll back the most recent update to the veil, which covered recently-invented communication technology, so it might work to have a webpage that you can consult for what you need to know."

"What would I need to know?"

"Beyond that magic exists? I'm not sure."

"Does it come up in everyday life?"

"No, most people seem to be leading magic-uninfluenced lives most of the time."

"Including you two?"

"Sometimes we talk telepathically? Otherwise yeah. I've been going to a lot of concerts and museums and stuff. The Spring takes time to refill its mana to allow for stuff like resurrections. I used to use my powers more but Spring-wielding is way less replaceable than dungeoneering. - the hostile pocket dimensions that kidnap people are called dungeons."

"Oh. Does the Spring help with that?"

"It can, I'm going to get rid of some of the big ones. And most of my resurrections are probably going to be of espers who were doing good dungeoneering or support work before they died."

"What's good dungeoneering consist of?"

"Rescuing people from the dungeons and finding the dungeon core to kill it off so it doesn't come back later."

"Oh, sounds like something Lianelle would be good at?"

"She would be! It's really annoying for that among other reasons that I have to live in the spring world - I guess I could live there without Lianelle, I'd have to quit using my powers casually but I could do that - Lianelle, would you rather be set up here to do more dungeoning -"

"Not if you're not here, though I'd definitely like to do it if we have time when we visit."

"It's not that we don't have time, we've got oodles of time, it's that me spending time here trades off against refilling the Spring. We might be able to set something up where you can do a quick one while I'm visiting my folks and Cricket anyway, though. Not while I'm doing a resurrection though since I need guiding then."

"That sounds fun!"

"Why don't you visit here and do them without May?"

"It wouldn't be costly to drop you off, yeah."

"I don't think the champion bond would stretch that far?"

"I guess we have not actually... tried it..."

"We can - my guess is it won't but I could be wrong?"

"If it doesn't what happens?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe an experiment best saved for after I resurrect Tomorrowgirl then. - precog esper."

Nod!

Mhm.

"- would there be a place for me to stay if I want to settle on my home world after the extent of the influence of magic on my thinking is determined?"

"I have enough money to spot you rent for a while."

"And food? Or a recommendation of occupations I might find feasible even with my skills rather out of date?"

"Yes, and food - food is less expensive than rent these days. I'm not sure what you'd be best at in the modern day but we can certainly go over possibilities."

"That might be helpful."

"So any complaints about the resurrection itself, or does that seem to have worked fine?"

"As far as I can tell it worked fine."

"Glad to hear it. And it sounds like your language updates came through. - my backlash makes me talkative, I have to be talking about something but if there is a topic that would be more useful please feel free to steer me."

"- I suppose I'm curious how the future differs from the past."

"We eradicated smallpox! It's easy to talk to people from across the globe and not that hard to travel there in person either! Literacy is near-universal in rich countries and almost every baby born reaches adulthood. Religiosity is down, human beings have nonmagically walked on the moon, effective contraception exists, horses are obsolete, and global trade has done amazing things for most every sector of the economy but right now all the examples I'm thinking of are food."

"Oh. Well that all sounds extremely good."

"They also figured out how to make much softer blankets, which isn't nearly as important but it's still very good!"

"You're cute," May accuses her.

"So are you!" Kiss.

"- were they monogamous," May asks Lucian.

Sigh.

"No."

Kiss!

Oh good, she hadn't thought of that possibility.

But not too much kissing because they cannot escalate in front of Lianelle's recently resurrected friend.

But May's so good!

"Ahem."

"Sorry. Using the Spring magic without being burned backlashes me a lot."

"And this requires kissing women?"

"It requires close contact with someone compatible. Most espers aren't at all compatible with most other espers. Also, since my backlash is loneliness, and compatibility requires oppositeness, the most compatible esper I've ever met backlashes into social aversion and won't talk to me and can barely let me touch her. My secondary partner is much less compatible and lives across the country. Strictly speaking kissing doesn't have to be involved but it's pleasant and works really well."

"Wow, those backlashes sound horrible."

"All backlashes are bad, all can be dangerous at high levels if only by tempting people to commit suicide, and there's people I'd trade with but nobody who just gets their magic powers without any horrible."

"Are they what you let resurrect Lianelle and I?"

"So what happened was that for no discernible reason I got yanked out of my world and into the ritual where a bunch of people all agree to fight to the death to control the Spring, a big ol' mana accumulator that appears every quarter-century. I did not want to be in a fight to the death but I wasn't able to opt out and in the process of enrolling me the ritual supplied me with Lianelle to be my champion. After we won I got the Spring. Most people can just use up what it's accumulated and then let go of it, or they die doing a little more, because pulling more mana out of it beyond that first moment is harmful, but it turns out my esper power lets it go straight through me harmlessly, so with commonsense backlash reduction precautions I can keep using it indefinitely but it only refills properly if I live in its universe."

"Huh - how fast can you resurrect people?"

"About one a week if I'm not using it for anything else but I will be as things come up - putting Lianelle's memories'll be something else, getting rid of the big old dungeons which I should do before the next time they recur will be something else."

"Ah, yes, I suppose one a week would require you to consider trade-offs carefully."

"Which is why it's going to be mostly espers, they're the highest leverage single individuals in saving more total lives."

"What sort of capabilities do the espers you'll be resurrecting possess?

"So I'm not solely sorting by power, because esper efficacy depends so much on partnerships - for example I'm not going to bring back this one big Chinese esper who was an incredible dungeoneer because after she died her partner and husband very loudly remarried his secondary he'd apparently been having an affair with and talked shit about his dead wife in every media outlet that would listen and I have no way to be confident that she'd shrug that off and find a new partner and go back to clearing dungeons if I brought her back. But the combat esper powers that work the best are really varied, my list's got everything from psychics to this one Guatemalan who made things explode. And there's healers, and sensors - sensors are the ones who case a place in advance so everybody else isn't going in blind - and teleporters, who do logistics to get the most important powers to the places where they're needed. And a few people whose own powers are useless but who were supporting their heavy hitter partners who've since gone inactive."

"I see."

Not so different from if she were trying to resurrect an army.

"If it's all right with you I'd like a minute alone to collect my thoughts."

"Sure, there's another room over there." Point.

"That was sort of a lot," comments Lianelle once he's gone.

"Yeah. You don't sound super excited to have your memories back?"

"I... don't know? It would be really weird if I suddenly had feelings for someone else."

"I can see how that would be weird, but... if I died, and you went back to the spirit world, and in a thousand years you were somebody else's champion, and you didn't remember me..."

"Yeah...I.... yeah I'd want to want them back."

"Yeah. And I know you weren't a champion specifically before, but - that's some of your you, that you don't have, and it sounds like it was important, and I kind of super don't trust whatever process led to you forgetting it."

"Yeah." Lianelle rests her chin on Mays shoulder. 

"It's scary but probably the right choice."

Pet pet. "What's scary about it?"

"That I'll change? That I'll lose you?"

"- well, I'm not going anywhere. We're not even sure if we can be that far apart, so, uh, I might need to poke the Spring a bit about that, or Tomorrowgirl, lest I be in Katia's way all the time when there's no guarantee we'll get along."

Nod nod. 

"It's just that...I think if I married someone it would mean they were the center of my world. And right now you're occupying that spot and I don't know what happens if there are two people there."

"Yeah. That does sound scary."

Cling.

Hug hug hug. "We can ask him more about her, while the magic's refilling; might help get used to the idea."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"How long do we have till it's full enough?"