Eleven years, fourteen days, nine hours, twenty-four minutes and three seconds after the portal closed, while Sadde's running through the woods (because she can't handle opening doors, right now, she needs a break, she'll go crazy if she keeps at it), she spots a shiny thing. She almost, almost ignores it. Nothing's interesting anymore. It's just a shiny thing. But a sense of duty to her past self, who would have investigated, makes her run towards it to see what it is.

It's a key. It's on the ground, half-hidden by grass, and there's a tree right over there that would have obscured her view had she been running a foot to the right. It's alsoa very small key, as if sized for a child to hold, and it has a certain shine to it that's not quite like any other keys she's seen during her vampire life.

And once she picks it up, she becomes certain it's a magic key. It doesn't actually do anything, it doesn't explode or shoot fireworks or glow, there's no mysterious voice saying that she has found the Artifact of Doom or anything like that. She just—knows.

When she straightens up, she notices how she knows it. There seems to be a certain sense produced by the key, a feeling of sorts, that shifts and moves about as the key is moved through the air. She waves it around a bit, and reaches two conclusions: one, most spots in the air don't feel like anything; two, what a spot in the air feels like depends on the spot itself, and if she waves the key around a given spot multiple times she feels the same thing each time.

And for the first time in over a decade she feels genuine hope.

It's a key. It opens doors. That's what keys do. And the last time she encountered door-related magic? Well.

She runs to the nearest town. It's one that knows about vampires, so she doesn't have to pretend. She finds a door where the key seems like it would fit, and tries to open it. That doesn't work. She tries it a few more times on a few more doors before concluding it does not in fact open every door or turns a door into a Milliways door.

But she also notices that the "feeling" the key has is absent from all locks she tries it on. She tests it on a few more locks and becomes increasingly sure of a certain nagging suspicion. So she runs some more, and when she's far enough away from civilisation she grows wings, and she flies and flies and flies and she reaches the Chihuahuan desert—the exact spot where the portal used to be—and she moves the key to a spot that feels like something and—

—pushes it—

—into the air, as if there was a lock there, and that works, and she twists the key and there's the shimmering outline of a door right there and she exhales a breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding (since she found the key, actually), and she opens the door—

The door opens to a sandy beach. She can't see the ocean from this angle but the sound and the smell are unmistakable. The sand is the kind of white that sparkles like a rainbow and there are giant crystals between nearby palm trees.

Sadde closes the door, then opens it again; same world. The door remains there after she removes the key, but disappears if she "locks" it again. Unlocking it in the exact same spot continues leading to the same world. A few more tests confirm that the "feeling" she gets from different places corresponds to different worlds. There are some things they have in common, but she can't yet tell what if anything they represent.

She goes where she's staying, and packs clothes and other necessities into a backpack, then returns to that same spot and reopens the first door.

She walks through it.

Yup, this is a beach with crystals, she dan see a few coconut crabs at the distance. On a nearby island there are a few huts made out of wood.

This is probably not Earth. This is probably not Galatea. But it could be Elsewhere or Elan or somewhere else and she has to find out—

(is the sky weird?)

—she swims.

The sky looks like a normal sky with a sun hidden behind the clouds.

If she pays attention she will hear the sounds of at least a handful of people talking in what sounds like Spanish.

...another Earth, then? She did have the opportunity to eventually learn the language at some point. What are they talking about?

Domestic stuff about taking care of their homes; apparently their husbands return from a boating trip tonight or some such.

Huh. Can she see the boats anywhere?

Yup. They're that way away from this shore, it's a sail boat and looks rather like something out of a pirate movie minus the black flag. There is a crystal on the tip of the bowstrip.

Huh.

She swims to the shore, out of view of the village, undresses, dries off, then grabs a new set of clothes from her (waterproof) backpack and puts them on, leaving the salt-water wet ones to dry. She walks to the village, switching to normal human speed when she's close enough to be visible.

Is she wearing standard 2010's fashion? That might be the reason why the women are so surprised seeing her. Or maybe they don't get a lot of visitors. There are about six women; one of them approaches cautiously and say; "Hello?" in an inquisitive tone.

"Hello," she replies in the same language, neutrally. "What's your name?"

"Ana Luzia." says the woman. "Yours? How did you arrive here?"

"I am called Sadde," she introduces. "I'm from another world—probably a different version of this world—and I arrived here via a magical artefact."

Blink. "Oh, that is... wonderful," she says unsteadily. "Do you need anything?"

"I'd like to understand your magic, and find out whether your world is related to one of the worlds I know, and maybe help you with my own magic."

Ana Luzia nods, mostly out of politeness. "Oh, what does your magic do?"

"I have personal magic that makes me stronger, faster, smarter, immortal, and able to change my biology and generate anything living." She demonstrates this by growing an apple from her hand and offering it to Ana Luzia.

Ana Luzia takes the apple and completely fails to even consider eating until one of the other women takes it and bites down to have a taste. "For how long? How much did you have to lift to get that?" Ana Luzia asks.

"I am pretty certain our magic works differently. I am not sure what you mean by 'lift.'"

"Ah..." Ana Luzia says.

"Lift the crystals," says the apple-eater.

"Yeah, you lift a magic crystal and wish on it." Ana Luzia amends. "How does your magic work?"

"I was born with one part of it, and the other involves a horribly painful turning process and a lot of other drawbacks. What kinds of wish can you make?"

"Can you share any of that?" Asks the apple eater.

"A lot," Ana Luzia answers, "but you need a crystal that is big enough to do it. You can ask for luck, for healing, for gold or objects, you can ask for protection or to bless crops, for good weather, for healthy children, for things that do magic... Nothing is permanent but some things can last a lot if you keep them away from water."

"You can't touch or see into someone's soul or ask questions," says a third woman, sounding like she is reciting something."

"I could turn you into a creature like me, but it would feel like Hell and I do not have the means of controlling a newborn."

"Creature?"

"I'm not human," she explains. "I'm a different thing. I used to be human, then I got turned."

The women take a collective step back. "What are you?"

She waves a hand impatiently. "Something that doesn't exist in this world, it doesn't matter."

Ana Luzia takes a step forward. "Okay... Why are you here?"

"Because I got stuck away from the people I love due to an interdimensional incident, and I spent the last eleven years away from them, and then I found the artefact that lets me go through worlds so I am going to find them."

The word "interdimensional" is a bit complicated for this group, but at least Ana Luzia gets the gist of it. "Okay," she says after a pause, "you could try wishing if you are strong enough, but a crystal can't just tell how to find them."

"Yes, this is why I didn't just move on, I wanted to figure out how to use the magic here. Where's the largest crystal you've ever seen?"

Before Ana Luzia can respond the apple-eater covers her mouth. "Can you give us something in return?"

"Sure. What do you want?"

"How many of these can you make? Can you make other things?"

"Can you make trees? Grown ones?"

"An unlimited number of them, yes, yes, yes."

Well, they find that exciting. Ana Luzia wants to be fair, but doesn't know the proper trading values here. She indicates how big the crystal is, nothing Sadde couldn't lift.

The other women mostly want Sadde to make what amounts to a vast orchard-garden that covers every square inch of the island with flora that they can't find it here. One of them wonders if Sadde can shape trees.

Sadde doesn't know proper trading values, but she will totally cover every square inch of the island like that—it will probably only take her a few hours—and then find crystals.

So the Island is covered in trees and Ana Luzia tells her where she can find the crystal on a nearby atoll. Easy to miss it if you don't know where to look. Sadde also gets the location of a couple more crystals for her trouble.

Sadde is very thankful for this. She bids them goodbye and goes looking for the crystals.

Ana Luzia shouts that she should recollect the dust, it grows into a crystal again. Then they wave goodbye.

The closest and smallest crystal is beneath a fallen tree on an islet.

How large is it?

About as big as her torso. It looks like it used to be bigger but was hacked away into more manageable chunks.

...how is she going to carry this.

Well. She grabs it, holds it up, and wishes she could find her mates.

The wish... doesn't go. Sadde can feel a pulse of magic that seems to kindly inform her that it failed.

She sighs. Of course it doesn't go. She tries variations—making her key take her to Elsewhere or one of the other worlds, teleporting her to her mates, taking her to Galatea—nothing works.

This is useless. She has a magic system that can be ridiculously exploited by her vampirism and she can't use it at all and what's she even gonna do, carry this rock around with her just in case? Madness.

She goes to find the other crystals, though. They might be able to succeed where this one failed.

Both fail.

Useless. A whole magic system, useless. She can't even bring these crystals with her...

...unless...

She lifts the smallest one and tries wishing for a bag of holding.

There is a sparkly special effect and then the crystal dissolves into dust. And now she is the proud owner of a bag of holding! There is enough room to contain the two other crystals. Also the contents of her bag are floating in the extra space.

...she hadn't actually expected that to work. Do the crystals still weigh as much inside it?

If she holds one (or anything else) it stops floating and starts weighing again.

But while it's inside the actual bag, is the bag any heavier?

Nope! It's like a legit bag of holding from a cartoon.

...okay. Weird. But she'll take it.

And this does mean she can go around collecting more crystals—time there isn't really correlated with time on Elsewhere or Galatea, according to Milliways, and she and her mates did have projects that could benefit from extra magic. Ana Luzia said the dust became crystals again, right? She collects as much of the dust of the crystal she just used into her bag of holding, puts it into her backpack, and produces a sieve using her power. With it in hand, she gets into the sea and swims back to the main continent.

The sieve collects more crystal particles, also some sand and the occasional confused aquatic life. Crystal particles seem to float closer to the surface instead of sinking down to the bottom of the ocean. There are more islands on the way to the main continent, some with crystals, but nearly no people. Eventually she will see more boats (most of which also have the crystal thing on the bowstrip), a couple of fishing villages and a place that looks like a trading port of sorts.

She really, really doesn't care about all of these people. She'll get rid of marine life and dump sand and crystal dust into her bag of holding once she's on land again, and she'll run—very fast, looking for crystals, seeing how much they vary, where they're more likely to appear—

There is a sweet spot between the high and low tides where crystals appear the most. They don't form in dark places. As she gets closer to civilization they get smaller and smaller, likely because the big ones are just picked up. The cloud of dust inside her bag of holding becomes spherical. Where the sunlight hits she can occasionally witness the particles joining together into slightly bigger particles.

...

If she's in Europe, she runs south, towards Africa. If she's in South America she'll find Mexico.

In other words, she finds the nearest large desert.

She is in... Australia apparently.

—what, really? And people were speaking Spanish? Alright, whatever, she can find deserts here, too.

There are definitely deserts in Australia! Look at this one, it too has crystals on it!

Are they, as she predicts, larger than usual?

She guessed right! They seem less common than the beach crystals.

Yeah whatever she'll collect them it doesn't look like a lot of people are gonna get much use out of them in the Australian Outback.

Eventually, though, she'll deem it enough—no sense in depriving this world of its magic—and use her key to open a new door.

Eventually her bag of holding does run out of space; if only she could make another one of those.

The door opens to a snowy landscape.

She tests that the crystals still work in the other world by trying to make a new bag of holding there.

Still works!

Okay. Bags of holding go into her backpack, and now's exploring the new world.

She apparently simply landed in a cold wilderness somewhere, snow-covered forest, snow-covered clearings, snow-covered mountains, snow-covered dozens of zombies shambling through the snow.

What the fuck.

She—wait, she didn't test this before, can she put one bag of holding inside another? Yes, she can—puts her backpack inside one bag of holding, and that bag inside the other, no sense carrying that backpack around like that, then very silently leaps up to the treetops to watch the zombies from closer.

The zombies keep on shambling without noticing her.

Are they just ambling along aimlessly or are they going anywhere in particular?

Maybe it's related to that huge ass wall over there, the one that is so tall it that can be confused with a geographic feature. They are making their way there.

...okay before making her way there she'll explore a bit, see if there are other zombies, maybe zombie generals or whatever, someone leading them.

There are in fact "zombie generals." They don't quite look like zombies, more like mummified humanoids with white skin and white hair.

...she had not actually expected to be right. And are they really leading the other zombies to the wall?

Yup, not straight to it, but in that general direction. They might also pursue that couple of adult humans and a baby that just got in her sensory range.

...yeah she'll run towards them very fast.

Jump, really, amongst the treetops.

Well, eventually she will catch up with them. There are a lot of crows around and they squack at her, alerting the young couple of her presence. They jump at her sight; she might not look like one of the undead, but she certainly looks unexpected.

...she does not speak their language. Fuck. She drops from the treetops, hands raised in the universal peace sign—well, universal amongst humans, vampires don't really find raised hands very peaceful.

It takes a moment for them to believe that she isn't... something. They don't relax, but the man, a fat young man in black clothes, starts saying things that sound like questions.

"I don't actually speak your language," she shrugs. "One second," she says, raising a finger, then she zips to the zombies and asks, "Are any of you sapient at all?"

Her answer: getting attacked by the mindless zombies while the general zombie watches.

That's what she thought. She grabs one at random and zips back to the humans, stops long enough for them to recognise the zombie for what it is, then tears it to pieces. She wants to communicate that they are not her friends, and that she is a very scary thing that is very unhappy about mindless zombies attacking people.

The woman is very startled and takes several steps away. The man follows her, but he looks at Sadde in a way that conveys that he understood the message, but he is very confused.

Good. She grabs her bag of holding and reaches inside it for a crystal. She carves one of the appropriate size then wishes on it: these three people will be comfortably warm now.

They look more startled by the fact that she reached inside of the bag than the fact that the bag was too small to fit her arm or that they are inexplicably warm. The woman takes another step away, but the man stops her. He tries asking something again.

"It's pretty obvious we don't share a language," she sighs. "Look, dude, I just tore a zombie apart and made you warm, now can you let me save your life?" She hikes her thumb towards the wall, then points at them, and at herself, and mimes walking there.

The two talk among themselves and then the man nods. He mimics her miming.

Okay good. Sadde starts leading the way, unbothered by the cold—which is clear, given that she's not exactly wearing heavy clothing.

They follow her quietly. Given that they aren't currently bothered by the cold either, they don't find it abnormal that she isn't.

They approach the wall. The man looks meaningfully at Sadde then up. Watching the top of the wall and also apparently looking for something at the bottom.

"...what? I'd think there'd be a door—look, I can just carry the two of you—"

And she runs along the wall, fast enough that she doesn't even need to dig her feet into it to climb. It takes only a few seconds, she waves at them from the top—not that they can properly see her—then she unceremoniously falls back down from there.

That startles the woman. The man is just confused again. He mimes to themselves and then Sadde then up.

And now the man is being held, bridal style, and a few seconds later he is up the wall (she has to slow down enough to actually need to create footholds for fear of hurting him with her speed). Then down again and then the woman and her baby are up. And, on reflection, she doesn't think a wall this height was supposed to have footholds, so she takes a couple of seconds to make it smooth again. There, all done.

The woman apparently already accepted that Sadde is going to whatever. The man has to steady himself for a moment; he looks around maybe to re-orient himself. He points at himself and the woman, and then mimes walking, while also speaking slowly. Then he points at Sadde.

"No idea what you mean," she says, but mimes following them. She then pauses, points at herself, and says, "Sadde." Point at them?

"Sam," he points at himself and then at the woman, "Gilly."

She points at the baby.

That causes them to talk among themselves before agreeing on "baby".

Sure, that's as good a name as any.

She repeats a few words she already understood from what they've said—wall, wight, Night Watch—and then makes an inquisitive face.

Sam quickly understands what she is trying to do: Wall is the structure they are standing on. Wight are those monsters she attacked. Night Watch is... Sam? Or something related to Sam and his shirt.

She nods and continues asking about a few words and pointing at things while they walk—by the way, do they want to go down the other side of the wall?

Sam provides the words as needed.

There is more discussion among themselves. Sam tries to gesticulate that they want to stay together with her.

She nods. "I stay together," she tries in their language... but she doesn't know how to say "for now" so she omits that.

"Together," Sam nods. He signals they want to go down then.

So she takes them to the bottom on the other side.

They start walking. Sam starts teaching Sadde words again.

She follows them and learns words.

Eventually they will need to stop to rest and eat.

Yep. Do they want her to hunt some animals?

If she would be so kind, they would be very grateful.

Sure. Be back in a jiffy.

And a jiffy later she has food.

And they are grateful! Well, Gilly does looks a bit nervous around the mysterious magical apparently-friendly entity.

That's reasonable. She tries to be as reassuring as possible with what little vocabulary she has.

Maybe Gilly is just shy. Well, except when she has to breastfeed the baby.

Sure, then, Sadde can deal with shy. She'll just focus on learning the language.

Then she will learn! They covered pretty much everything they've seen so far and Sam is trying to teach her some verbs.

She's a very fast learner—comes with having an eidetic memory. She can do this until he has to sleep.

Sam tries to communicate something that eventually becomes clear to be the concept of taking turns sleeping.

"Oh, I don't sleep," she clarifies with her newly acquired vocabulary. "You sleep night."

Well, okay then. They sleep; good thing they are no longer bothered by the weather.

And she waits.

Then they will wake up and they will continue their journey. Funny how that works.

Isn't it.

But today is a boy day so he shifts into one after they wake up so he doesn't scare them.

Well, that will be... distracting. Let's go with distracting. Gilly in particular is very distracted.

It's hard to overstate how little he cares.

More walking and learning the language?

Apparently!

They can do that, then. Sadde will be conversational before lunch.

And at lunch, Sam works out the courage to ask what Sadde is.

"Something other—from very far. Very, very far. Other place—plane—" He doesn't have a word for 'world,' so he just shrugs.

"The Lands of Eternal Winter?" Sam tries. "Ah, eternal means... not going stopping with time."

He shakes his head. "More far."

"Farther away," Sam adds automatically. "...where?"

He shakes his head. "No words. All things? All places? Mine are different."

"World? World is all places."

"Different world," he says.

"No, no... different continent? Continent is a big many lands together."

He shakes his head. "Different world."

"How did you arrive here?" Sam asks.

"...no words." He gets his key from his bag of holding and demonstrates its use by opening a door to—

—well, an ice desolation with tall obsidian formations, apparently.

Gilly flinches away. Sam halfheartedly tries to interpose himself between her and Sadde. "What is... what?" He says.

This was a terrible example. He sighs, closes the door, and opens one to—

—space. That makes more sense, honestly.

And another door to a surface that seems to be made entirely of blue glass for as far as the eye can see.

"You used that key to get here," Sam says.

"Yes."

"Can you use to go anywhere?"

He shakes his head. "Can't control."

"Ah," Sam says suddenly. He thinks for a moment. "But you can use it many times?"

"Yes."

"Wights are coming back and winter is coming," Sam says suddenly.

"...?"

"The wights are attacking again, it had been centuries since their last activity. And Winter is coming... it will be a long Winter, last Summer was very long."

"I'm very confused."

"About?"

"Winter and Summer. They are not always the same?"

"The length of time varies. Usually long Summers precede long Winters and last Summer was the longest in recent history, it lasted ten years."

"...what's a year?"

"365 days, a day is the time between the two times the sun appears above in the horizon."

"Why is that a year?"

Sam looks puzzled.

"...what?"

"I think it was decided by movements of the sun."

"How?"

"It raises in slightly different positions during the year and they sort of cycle around."

"But the seasons last years?"

Sam nods. "Fall and spring last months. But winter and summer last years and each time it changes, but long summers come before long winters."

"...why."

"I don't know why."

"...okay. And you want me to use the key to get the wights far?"

"That could help, but I was thinking you could open doors to warm places so people could escape or maybe bring in supplies. There is an army of wildlings - people that live beyond the wall - that are coming to fight the Night Watch who might just want somewhere warm to live."

"...don't know if it's a good..." He gestures around his head, vaguely.

"Thought? Idea? I am not sure how to define idea... Something that starts existing in your head. You see something bad and an idea shows up in your head to stop the something bad to happen." Sam explains distractedly. "...why are you not sure?"

"Idea," he nods. "Other world," he explains. "Not this one. Far from home."

Nod. "But far from danger."

"I can kill wights anyway. Easier."

"There are a lot of wights. And there are a lot of wildlings too, with their children."

"...children?"

Sam blinks. "Yes? I don't know if they are going to fight, but the wildlings would've brought their children along. They are trying to make their way down south."

"I don't want to fight them. I don't know if you're right."

"You could take the ones that want to go to other worlds?"

"...I guess."

"...I think a lot of the Night Watch might want to go to other worlds."

He nods. "Okay."

"That is not a good thing. Less of us to fight."

"I don't want anyone to fight."

Sam nods. "It doesn't mean you can stop them."

"I can," he says, confidently.

Puzzlement.

He sighs and runs as fast as he can until he's out of sight then back. Then he removes a tree from the ground and holds it above his head with one hand, then he throws it into the sky, and jumps after it so it won't fall on any unwitting bystanders. "I'm fast and strong enough. I'm—" He gestures around his head again.

Well, Gilly will react to that by being terrified and setting off her own baby. Sam comforts her.

"Come on, I carried you all the way up the wall, you knew this."

Gilly is certainly too busy to reply to that.

"Can you be two places at once?" Sam asks.

He zips to one tree, shakes it, then zips to another, and shakes it, too, and there is so little time between the two events that to human senses they're practically simultaneous. "Almost."

"I am not sure they can fight you, but I am not sure how well they fight."

"I can figure it out."

"They might have magic. And giants."

"I can figure it out," he insists.

"Would you at least talk with one of my superiors before doing anything too harsh?"

"Yes."

Sam relaxes marginally. "I will have to talk to them first so they don't get scared of you."

He nods.

Well, now they just don't know how to continue the conversation.

He seems perfectly comfortable remaining silent.

Good. They can walk quietly until they need to rest again.

And Sadde can stand watch then.

He can. Vampires are pretty great at standing watch, since they can perceive things quickly.

Which makes it all the more puzzling when he notices the three-eyed crow on that branch over there.

Not that that prevents Sadde from following when the crow takes off. Sadde runs after it until they reach a clearing with a large wolf.

The wolf's fur is silver and smoky grey, its eyes are yellow but have a sign of intelligence behind them that is hard to put into words. For some reason the wolf can't walk and Sadde knows it needs to reach its destination. So the vampire picks it up, and for once there is no sign of irritation typical of animals dealing with vampires.

Sadde with wolf in arms turns and goes back to the Wall, running fast enough he runs up it. The three-eyed crow follows.

There is a bright light.

Sadde finds himself exactly where he was, standing watch over the three humans.

He'll wait for Sam to wake up.

Which eventually does happen.

And Sadde tells him of the... vision... thing.

Sam frowns. "That might be one of the Starks' direwolves. The previous lord of the North had six children and each had a pet direwolf."

"—and, what, am I supposed to bring the wolf to the other side of the wall?"

Sam's frown deepens. "No, I think it's a metaphor of sorts, maybe you are supposed to bring one of the children there or something?"

"...why?"

Helpless shrug. "All I know about this kind of vision is that they tend to be symbolic, but meaningful. ...They are sort of messages."

"From whom?"

Even helpless-er shrug. "From whatever these things come from. I don't think you should ignore it."

"Well... where should I find them?"

"Do you remember where you went in your vision?"

He points.

"Could you take me there?" He looks at Gilly and the baby. "Just me, we won't be gone for very long."

"Of course. Now?"

Sam nods. They go there. Sadde finds the place, but there is something off about it... there was supposed to be a castle over there. At least it was there in his memories.

He informs Sam of this.

Sam hears this and thinks. "That sounds like the castle Gilly and I were going to before we crossed paths with you... it would also be a good point to cross the Wall if you were coming from this side."

"So why'd I dream it was here?"

"My guess is that he is there."

"So why did the vision take me here at all?"

Shrug. "I don't know, maybe you're supposed to start the journey there from here?"

"So we should perhaps get Gilly and the baby."

Sam nods and they do that. The castle isn't terribly far away even by human standards.

Off they go then.

He eventually will be able to see the castle Nightfort and soon after that a convenient breeze will throw a scent his way. Multiple humans and one wolf-like creature.

The Nightfort uphead is a very large castle, old and ruined, but not enough that it couldn't shelter people.

"I smell people and something that's a lot like wolf but not quite," he says.

Sam nods. "It must be it. He won't know who I am but I can introduce myself regardless as a friend of Jon."

He nods, and they make their way there.

The other group meets them the halfway. It's a very odd group. Two teenagers that are likely siblings; the second tallest man Sadde has ever met (Katur remains the tallest) and, carried by the tall man, another teenager... and there is something about his eyes that is similar to the eyes of the dream wolf.

The smell of direwolf lingers, but the creature isn't nearby.

Sam greets them and identifies himself as a member of the Nightwatch. They identify themselves as Jojen and Meera Reed, Hodor, and Bran Stark.

"I saw your coming," says Bran Stark. "You're the creature of cold stone and fire lips that could heal me, but won't."

"—I'm afraid not. You're too young—you'd kill everyone—"

Nod. "That wasn't a request," Bran says sounding a bit torn. "Would you mind taking me up the Wall? I think you were actually supposed to do that while the others went through the castle."

"—castle?"

"There is a secret passage," Sam says. "How did you know about it?"

"I didn't," Bran says, "but I've been having many visions in the last day." He rubs his temples.

"I see. And... is there a particular reason why I should take you over the Wall while everyone else goes through?"

"...I think we should talk. That is all."

"Okay, I guess. Now?"

Nod. "Hodor, let me down." Bran asks.

"Hodor," says the tall man agreeably. Bran is unstrapped (with some help from Meera).

Sadde waits until he's sure the others will go through alright then carries Bran over the Wall.

And once he is there, Bran asks for a moment so he can enjoy the view.

"I have... a message for you."

"From whom?"

"I don't know. But I had a vision that I think you should know about."

Pause.

"First, could you explain... you?"

"Immortal, very fast and strong and great senses, drink blood, from another world."

Bran shakes his head.

"I the last day I had more visions than the rest of my life. Because of you. And I wanted to know what sort of person causes that and none of that feels like the right answer."

"Well if you tell me about the visions I might be able to tell you more about myself that could explain them."

"Hard to explain, I saw you walking around the world, maybe worlds and... walking away even thought you knew the things that people needed, but I think that was for the best."

"—oh." He looks away. "I'm—I'm not okay. I can't—I don't have the—" He stops talking, biting his lip.

Nod. "I don't think my message will make it easy."

His head turns around to look at Bran with an audible stony crunch. "What is it?"

"It's not directly from him but..." Bran closes his eyes, "he already loved you when you two came apart and he wished that you knew."

"—who did?"

"I thought you knew? Blue eyes? Warm smile? ...He was with a woman and he told her he loved her too."

"They're triplets but that's probably Felix—aretheyokayaretheytogetherwherearehisbrotherswhere'sKatur—"

Bran makes a helpless gesture. "That is all I know."

He looks away again. "Thank you," he says, in a broken crystalline voice.

"I am sorry."

"I think that was all I needed to tell you."

He nods. "Should I take you to the other side?"

Nod. "Then we wait for my friends and you can go back."

So he carries Bran down again.

And eventually the group shows up. The siblings are quiet while the giant occasionally says "Hodor".

Okay and he can go now, right?

Yup. Sam and Gilly are waiting for him inside.

"Let's go? Fast?"

They nod looking... not exactly awed and not exactly terrified.

On they go.

And eventually they will reach another castle, this one far more populated.

Oh good, can he find anyone in charge? He's sure his outfit—and particularly the complete lack of anything appropriate to this cold—will draw attention.

Yup. So is Sam's presence alongside the wildling! That is an interesting sight alright. The two of them (Sam and Sadde) are brought to someone in charge right away.

...well Sadde isn't super sure on how to act, here, so he'll defer to Sam.

It turns out that the people in charge are three men, one of which is quite likely the oldest human in this pre-industrial world. The previous Lord Commander of the Nightwatch is dead (or presumed dead) alongside Jon Snow (which Sam takes personally) and they hadn't held elections yet. Meanwhile, Cotter Pyke, Denys Mallister and Maester Aemon (the very old man) have been leading the Nightwatch and therefore are the people to whom Sam explains everything. They take Sam's testimony first and he omits meeting Bran Stark. Then they want to hear from Sadde. Specifically they want Sadde to tell them that yes, poor Sam is high on something and they probably should execute the fat crazy brother.

Instead of doing that he crosses the room in less than a tenth of a second, lifts the cupboard with one hand, puts it back down, then returns.

One of the guards tries to stab him.

They fail.

When the guard tries another swing, Denys tells him to stop being a fool. Master Aemon is a bit shocked at this scene, but says he doesn't need rest. "It's true then. And you don't want to employ these abilities in battle?"

"I—perhaps. But I'm not sure what the best way to do it is, or why those zombies do what they do, or how long, and I don't know how long I can—take—"

"There is also the problem with the wildlings which is more... pressing," says Mallister.

"And I'm also less willing to do anything about it. They're humans."

"Barely. If they manage to break through they are going to pillage and burn every village, kill every man and rape every woman and child."

"That sounds very far-fetched. And I'm not about to just kill or disable every one of them for you, I don't actually know that you're right, and—and I can't figure it out, my brain isn't working right, every second I'm spending here is a second I'm not spending with them and I'm not functional enough to run a way and I—" His voice breaks and he turns away. "I have to go. I'm sorry."

And he runs.

Well, they can hardly stop him.

Enough that's enough he's been repeating Bran's words in his brain over and over and over—

—he opens another door and steps through.

Vast grassy savanna. No soul in sight unless one counts antelopes.

He—

—she runs a lot.

There's no one.

There's no magic.

Next world.

The next world lacks people too. And unless she is mistaken this is a very primitive Earth millions of years before dinosaurs.

The third world... used to have people. Hard to tell what got them, but she can find several population centers. There are skeletons on the street half as tall as a human but otherwise similar bone structure. They didn't reach a tech-level beyond stone castles before dying out.

Next world.

This one doesn't have any life, but a large number of moons.

The next one has rather boring lifeforms and a blue sun.

Very interesting life all of which runs away from her. Even the things that look like plants suddenly take flight with their bioluminescent wings.

This world is like a large ball of sand and nothing else.

An acid-breathing pterosaur attacks her as soon she opens the door to this one.

There was some sort of recent extinction event on this one and she finds a lot of dead and dying animals, but no sign of people.

A bunch more of completely lifelesss worlds and he finds an Earth a couple of weeks after the Berlin Wall falls.

...another Earth? Where is she on this Earth?

Spain, fairly close to the Strait of Gibraltar.

...okay. She should probably figure out whether there's anything obviously different here.

From what she can hear on the streets (and she luckily landed near a historical event) things appear to match, same deal if she checks newspapers.

Library? History book?

Both of those things exist! In fact multiple instances of libraries and history books exist! They all match what she knows about her own Earth's history.

So it could have a masquerade just like her Earth.

...

She'll run to Volterra.

The trip is non-instantaneous but nothing gets in her way. Volterra is still there, but the vampires are noticeably absent.

...do they have a Saint Marcus holiday here too?

Not really. Saint Marcus' day is the same, but it isn't a day of any importance.

Hmm.

He'll swim to Seattle.

Which takes proportionally longer, obviously. But nothing stops him from doing that.

And that one house where the Washington capital is, near Forks...?

It doesn't exist, nor any similar structure in the area. If she cares to go to the reservation she will find that nothing smells like wolf there either.

...she has no time to go looking for a masquerade.

Next world.

Rocky planet. Jungle moon orbiting a gas giant. Island in the middle of a goo-ocean that she can walk on (or rather bounce). A world that appears to be perfectly spherical and covered in a thick layer of nacre. Three worlds with dinosaur-like beings in a roll. Stunning moutains. Stunning moons. No moons. Cavern system that takes them a day to find their way out of and opens to an ocean of stinky water. Spiders swarming half of a continent. River in the middle of a flood. Barren desert.

Then in the middle of the air, between trees of a park, there's the middle of a city and the place is packed with vendors belonging to at least fifty different species. There are three suns in the sky.

Three whole suns. A millionth of her brain wonders if she'd spark prettily in it.

She looks around.

She landed in a market of some sort. There are maybe thousands of people - from many different species - selling various things. There is a fish-monster thing with a glowing antenna selling small five-legged birds over there. Next to that there is a vendor selling weird vegetables and fruits, some of which have eyes that follow people around. Way over there a furry-butterfly person sells musical instruments demonstrating how to play them if you have more than two arms. They all speak the same new language; some have accents that are likely influenced by their different species' vocal apparatus, but there is definitely a regional influence as well.

However, there is someone she understands, a hooded fox-person announcing "Magical rings! The best magical rings! We have rings of protection! Healing! And translation! In a variety of designs to match your personal tastes!"

...she makes her way over to hooded fox person.

She gets some really confused looks, but no one really stops her. The fox keeps expounding on the qualities of the rings. The shop is filled with rings behind glass cases. Behind the counter there is a Fox-person stirring a cauldron that glows blue. A third fox - presumably the person who actually does the sales - approaches Sadde and asks something that the vampire can't understand.

She shrugs and shakes her head, tapping her right ear.

Salesfox tries to speak louder, but the one stirring the cauldron speaks up. "Are you having trouble understanding the language?"

"Yes, I do not speak it, although I am learning more by the second."

"Oh, is there anything we can help you with?"

"Possibly everything. I do not know this place or its magic but it looks useful. Especially translation."

The salesfox says something to which the cauldron fox replies, "Pay for the one you lost. And I am going to be done in a few seconds. Well, we have rings of translation. 700 hexagons, do they use hexagons where are you from?" Sadde recalls that the coins they've used are hexagonal and made of gold.

"They do not use hexagons where I am from. I can produce endless amounts of any form of biological matter, though."

"What do you mean?" asks the fox. "Hold on a moment."

The cauldron starts bubbling and then a large bubble surfaces and pops. There was a weird winged thing inside it, and the fox catches it with a pair of tongs.

"So, what were you saying?"

"That I can magically generate infinite amounts of biological matter at no cost."

The fox blinks. "How?" She swiftly puts the winged thing in a cage alongside others of its kind.

"Personal magic."

"Oh, is it complicated to use? How does it work?"

"It is, as I said, personal, which means I cannot share it, it is intrinsic to me. And it works by me shapeshifting some part of my body into the desired material and then severing the connection."

"Oh, could you demonstrate that?" The fox starts searching for something inside wooden boxes.

She produces a pearl in her hand.

"Ooooh, and you can do that indefinitely? Do you think you could create alchemy ingredients?"

"I do not know what alchemy is or what ingredients it needs, but yes, that is what I meant by 'endless.'"

"Where in the worlds do you come from? I've never heard of that ability."

"Different world, far away, long time ago."

"Ah, okay. This is interesting. Do you mind if I inspect that pearl to see if it's real? You haven't lied to me, but you could be mistaken."

She hands them the pearl.

The fox takes the pearl, sniffs it, then puts on a ring that makes her eyes turn bright-blue. "Ooh, fascinating. Do you think you can do other materials? And what sort of thing would you like? We could trade for our merchandise."

"I do not know what-all your merchandise is."

"Well, if you promise not to steal anything, I can show you our list and lend you my translation ring."

The fox retrieves a list of paper and starts retrieving several other weird things: a flower that looks like a pair of lips, berries with tusked faces on them, a very colorful feather, a five-legged bird...

Okay but what do these do?

The various things are ingredients that the fox wants to see if she can copy. They are used as materials to make other things, like the rings they sell - it's not immediately obvious how the five-legged birds are used in ring creation.

The list contains an inventory of the rings. The vast majority are personal effects of various sorts: translation, increased strength, protection, regeneration, improved hearing, lie detection, flight. Some are more esoteric, like the "ring of pointing" that emits a focused red light meant to distract cats and help with business presentations. The ring of bees just produces bees constantly while worn; it's stressed that the bees are not under your control. The ring of bad handshakes is self-explanatory.

There are rings that can protect against emotional pain, or make you focus on other things, or allow you to be functional despite "heartbreak and loss".

...she's interested in those last ones, what exactly do they do? And perhaps lie detection and translation. How do they work? Mechanistically, too, where does the knowledge come from?

Lie detection tells if someone said something that can't be construed as true to their knowledge; it can be tricked by technical truths or misleading truths - otherwise it could be triggered by a "hello" because it is a greeting not a true statement. It is technically a form of mind-reading, but only on a very surface level and the wearer doesn't get more information than "true" or "false".

Translation recognizes and catalogues languages, offering the meanings of words it knows very seamlessly. The fox doesn't know how to explain further than that.

The heart-soothing rings sort of diverts your mind from the emotions and feelings you don't want to focus on - the fox makes an analogy to "turning your head in the right direction," making it easier not to feel whatever is the problem. It comes in three grades. The heart-shielding ring is a bit more extreme and stronger, being more forceful at stopping your emotional pain.

What are the three grades and how is the heart-shielding ring more extreme?

The grades are just based around on how strong the effect is and in this shop they label them 1, 2 and 3. The heart-shielding ring is stronger than heart-soothing level 3 and can make a wearer behave oddly unless they precommit to things before putting the ring on. It's highly recommended to be taken off once per day and before receiving any bad news.

...what are the actual subjective effects of this last ring?

It is very similar to being... really distracted? Like when you sometimes forget the hurtful thing and it doesn't hurt in that moment.

...she wants translation and that one.

Excellent! The fox does some mental arithmetic and figures the materials they want from Sadde and in what quantities. She offers a ring of pointing as an extra and asks if Sadde wants them gift-wrapped. If not the fox just offers the rings and waits for Sadde to produce the relevant materials.

Sure, Sadde can produce them, and no not gift-wrapped thank you.

And soon enough, Sadde will have her rings. All rings have a simple design that goes with anything (according to the fox) and they only work if just one ring is worn per finger. if She can keep the ring of pointing on a finger to negate the effects of the other two if she feels like it. They also adjust to fit her finger perfectly.

The effect of the ring of heart-shielding are obvious the moment she puts them on...

As she expected, it does not trump the mate bond. It couldn't possibly do that. They're still the most important things in her life.

But it trumps literally everything else. Everything else is pain, everything else is heartbreak, and all colour gets drained from the world the moment she puts the ring on. She drops her arms to the side and looks around. Hundreds of people, so many species, and she's not curious. She doesn't care. There's nothing else, nothing there, it's all gone.

Everything, everything but them. They're still there. And she has a mission. She can focus.

She does not thank the fox. She opens a door right there and walks through it without sparing the people and worlds she's leaving behind a second thought.