In comes a young man from the backyard with a bag full of herbs and fruits, some of which glow flaintly.

He sees the boy with the panther, recognizes the face but immediatelly knows it can't be Kaede.

"Hello. What is your name?" he says with a flat voice.

He looks up from his book. "I am Eriol. It is a pleasure to meet you."

The panther looks up at Fernando, revealing a crystal embedded on its forehead. Its eyes and the inside of its ears are bright blue.

That is hardly the weirdest thing he has seen in Milliways. If anything a regular panther would be weirder by Milliways standards.

"I am Fernando. You look like someone I know. Their name is Kaede."

"How long have you been apart?"

Fernando looks at his wristwatch and then looks up and says without a pause, "Five hundred forty-seven days, eighteen hours, nine minutes. With a thirty minute error margin. But that is how long it was for me; due to time weirdness it could've been way longer on their end."

"It has not been as long for Kaede and Felix. It's... been longer for Sadde."

Fernando doesn't react. "I actually know it has been longer for Sadde - their world has reliable periodicals - but Kaede's doesn't. And how do you know that?"

He shrugs uncomfortably and averts his gaze. "It's complicated to explain. And Sadde's no longer in their world. Hasn't been for a while."

Fernando still doesn't quite react, but there is something there, like he is trying to remember how to emote properly. "And where is Sadde?"

"Right now? I'm not sure. Last I checked they were in a world full of magic, with terrible creatures of a winter that lasts years, but the way time works around these places, they could be anywhere right now."

"How casually can you check? What are the means by which Sadde is moving between the words? Can it be replicated or learned? How dangerous are the terrible creatures?"

"I can't check very casually. Sadde found a magical artefact of some sort that allows them to create doors to other worlds, but they can only be opened from one side, so Sadde cannot return through the doors they've made. The terrible creatures are very dangerous to humans, and that world is on the brink of war with them, but unaware of it. Sadde won't be harmed, though."

Pause while Fernando ponders on this. "Could you explain yourself to me? In the sense of what are your motivations and capabilities."

"I'm an alt of your Sadde and Kaede, from yet another world." One corner of his mouth tugs up. "I'm significantly older than I look, though."

The panther snickers at that.

"I developed my world's magic farther than anyone else, but this required sacrificing the largest part of my magical abilities, and I wasn't finished yet. So I died and was reborn. In two pieces. One piece has my memories and old magical powers—that's me—but the other is completely new and can develop their own abilities farther than I can. They're called Sadde, too, by the way. My world isn't paused, because I'm coming here in a dream, and I can't leave Milliways without waking up. I used to be able to see the future rather well, and managed to make myself immortal, but couldn't get farther than that without this little trick."

"I see. Are you two an item as well? Do you have one of me or my brothers?"

"I have not met my other self yet, and they don't know I exist. The manner through which I achieved this separation means I can't interact with them much without risking merging with them and losing all our progress, at least until they've developped and become distinct enough. They do have a you and a Felix but not a Thomas."

Fernando is quiet for a moment. "Is there any resource or information or anything else that you could share to help me? Help Sadde?"

He lowers his eyes. "No. There might have been, once upon a time, but nowadays I'm limited in what I can accomplish. I think... Sadde is going to find you, eventually, but it'll cost them dearly. I don't know whether Kaede and Felix will find you or the other way around. I'm sorry."

"I understand."

"I have been here by myself for about ten months. I have yet to find anything that could help." He doesn't know why he is saying that. It isn't useful.

"...you stopped time for your brother and Katur. It's only been seven months for them?"

"Yes. No point in making them go through another minute of unhappiness over it."

"I'm not sure either of them will thank you for this. And I'm not sure Sadde will disagree with you."

"I fully intent to let Thomas punch me in the face to get it out of his system. Almost wish Katur would react the same way."

Fernando shifts a little, which coming from him is a rather expressive gesture.

"Do you know how Sadde is dealing with things now?"

"...they helped the Golden Empire however they could, for a while, but they left without a second thought the moment they had the means to."

Fernando is quiet for a moment.

"I should've asked earlier. Is there anything I can do to help you? Help your Sadde?"

"I can't really bring anything with me when I leave." Pause. "There may be something I can do that will... I'm not sure if it will help, but... I would be remiss not offer. Do you want to look at the past?"

"Sure, assuming the cost-benefit is worth it."

"There is no cost—and the benefit will be strictly yours. ...perhaps your brother and boyfriend would like to be here for this, as well."

"As long you don't mind watching Thomas punching me - it might be wise not to be visible when they come in. I don't want to give them false hope."

And he and his book turn invisible. The panther is still there.

Fernando goes to Bar and asks for a weight and a chain. He shackles himself to the weight and then goes to the door.

Eriol might be able to see Thomas' back as the boy falls to the ground, like someone just shoved him.

"What was that for?" Thomas says half turning. "Where did you get that?" He points at the chain.

"Fernando?" Katur says standing up from where he was.

"Remember that violence in Milliways' main area can get you kicked out but I'm willing to go somewhere where it's allowed. I found a Kaede alt that can show us the past. It has been subjectively ten months on my end. I didn't want you to have to wait any longer."

Thomas tries to lunge at Fernando but, being on the ground, he isn't in a great position for an attack and Katur manages to restrain him.

"Fine! Where is Kaede's Alt?"

The panther raises its paw.

And Eriol becomes visible again, pushing the panther's paw away. "Don't mess with them, Spinel." He looks at Thomas and Katur. "Hello. My name is Eriol."

"Oh, hi. Of course the panther belongs to you," Thomas says, walking in.

Thomas is followed by Katur, who is keeping his arms around him. "Hello."

"I object to the use of the verb 'belongs' in that sentence," says the panther.

Pat pat.

"My sincerest apologies. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go outside and sock my dear-now-much-older-brother in the face."

He and Fernando go out to the backyard.

Katur takes a seat next to Eirol. "You can show us the past?"

"Yes."

"What exactly are you planning to show us?"

"Kaede and Felix and Sadde."

"Thank you. Is there anything we can do to help you?"

"I don't think so. I haven't been able to think of anything I can do to help you, either, but perhaps I am merely out of practice."

"Out of practice? Why?"

"I haven't tried... affecting the world... in over a hundred years."

"And you are a Kaede alt. Are you okay?"

He laughs. "There's another me, out there, who's affecting the world. My world, I mean. And eventually they'll be different enough I'll be able to just act again and they'll surpass me in power and that's exactly as I planned it. I do so love it when my plans work."

Katur smiles. "I guess you would."

The two-thirds of the triplets return. Fernando comes back with a purple eye that is fading before their eyes.

"Thomas would like to make it known that me staying here by myself was actually an act of absurd selfishness. Which I actually agree with and already knew at the time of decision."

"Funny that that's not the explanation you gave me earlier."

"I stand by the opinion that there isn't any point in them suffering for longer than they have to. But I was aware of their own preferences on the topic and I ignored them anyway, that is what made it selfish and bad."

"There is also no point in you suffering any longer than you have to, and you were unfairly prioritising their feelings over yours, and depriving them of the opportunity to help you as they're meant to. You were doing all the emotional labour by yourself, but doing emotional labour is part and parcel of loving other people, and just like someone would want to mourn a dead loved one, not all suffering is bad."

"None of that information is new. I am fully aware that what I did was wrong, I have been doing it for nearly a year. I had time to think about it."

Katur walks over and kisses Fernando.

He sighs. "I will let Kaede berate you when you reunite, it is not my place."

"I will make sure to nod along and agree with them."

"Alright, now that the tearfest moment is over, can you show us the others?"

"Yes." He half-smiles. "I do wonder if you've ever watched anime..." He stands up, reaches for his back pocket, and grabs a card. From another pocket comes a small golden key. "The key that hides the power of darkness, reveal your true form to me. I, Eriol, command you under our contract. Release!" The key grows into a long, golden staff with a large sun at the upper end, with light effects and wind.

"Genre of Earth-media," Thomas answers Katur's inquisitive look, "I can explain in greater detail later. So you have trading card game magic? Does your hair get spikey with golden lightning bolts?"

"Wrong anime, I'm afraid. You'll figure it out when you look it up later today, as well as all the references. I have better excuses than your version of me, however." He shakes his head and suddenly Milliways becomes blackness. There is a circle of green light under Eriol's feet, and he throws the Card in front of himself. It spins and stops in place, and he says, "Return, undo that which Time has done, show us what has already come! Release!" He touches the card with his staff, causing it to glow brightly and then envelop their surroundings, changing them.

Or not quite: Milliways is still itself, but now there's a girl sitting at the bar, reading napkins, just before the door opens to welcome the tallest man they've met.

Their bodies have become ghostlike—not quite invisible, but perfectly straightforward to see through.

Katur hugs Fernando from behind and watches the scene. He almost forgot that he was the first one to meet her.

They start nerding about magic at each other.

It's cute.

It's adorable.

Yes, it is.

...

After a while of that he holds the door so she can go fetch the triplets.

It was a great first impression if anyone asks Thomas.

Fernando glances at the supernovas when past-Fernando is surprised. He doesn't move otherwise.

They discuss how to combine magic systems and solve each other's problems. Felix is his usual supersped, extremely loving and caring self, and Kaede is Kaede. The triplets and Katur's attraction to her becomes increasingly obvious, but the opposite is not true until she mentions she wants to flirt with them.

At which point Eriol clears his throat.

"...Yes?"

"It occurs to me you might object to my watching what follows. I wouldn't want to intrude in your privacy."

"I don't particularly want to watch that at the moment, no."

"Are you only capable of showing the local past?"

"No, but the fact that they go to different worlds will limit how far I can follow them. I can show what happened to any of them while the portals were open, if one of you holds the door, but once they close I will no longer have access to those worlds."

Katur kisses the top of Fernando's head and goes over to work as a doorstop.

He skips over some more time...

...and here's a boy falling in magical love with five people as he walks into the interdimensional bar.

Yeah, that was something else.

Yeah. There's more nerding and more content that will be skipped and then—

—they find out they're alts.

He smiles at this.

"Do you expect the other you to have this reaction?"

"—yes, modulo circumstances. They will be annoyed with me for everything they've been through. I will have some explaining to do."

"Everything they've been through?"

"I may have set off a potential apocalypse."

"Okay, why?"

"It's... complicated to explain without explaining more about how my magic works. If it helps, I could see the future at the time I did it, and I knew it was going to be averted."

"...Wait did you cause this to Kaede, Felix and Sadde?"

"The other self I mentioned earlier wasn't Kaede nor Sadde."

"I told this to your brother before he opened the door for the two of you. I died, a long time ago, and made myself reborn twice. I'm the half with the memories and the old powers and limitations. There is another me in my world—they are also named Sadde—and they remember nothing, but they are not limited by my sacrifices, and they can use the tools I made, so they can become much more powerful than I ever could. One of these tools is what threatens to cause apocalyptic damage, but it will be averted and the tool mastered and used for good."

"Cool. Anyway, maybe we should go back to the slideshow of tears? I want to see if we can make Fernando emote or if his facial muscles atrophied."

The slideshow of tears never really stopped. Past Katur holds the door just like present Katur is doing, and they follow their shades back to the great warehouse where they set their portals up.

Once the portal to Sadde's Earth settles, Kaede casts the invisibility spell on him and he grows wings. He's visible anyway, but that might be just because the spell anteroactively retains its exceptions for the triplets and Katur.

Eriol does not visibly react when Sadde strips naked which is perhaps evidence that the invisibility spell is working. Or perhaps Eriol merely doesn't care.

"Can your Sadde do that?"

"Undress? I do believe that is an ability we all share. Grow wings? In a roundabout way."

So apparently he can see Sadde in spite of invisibility, then.

"Man, I really hate the fact that Sadde is ultra-pentagamous."

"I'm surprised to hear you say you hate it," he comments, watching his alt fail at getting airborne.

"I meant that he is stuck with five people and it would be fun to have four of him in our lovepile."

Katur chuckles like the laughter is being extracted out of him.

"I have suspicions about how his... ultra-pentagamy... will interact with polyamory, but I do not trust them too far, being unfamiliar with the magic."

"How do you know as much as you do?"

"If you don't count the time I spent dead I'm almost four hundred years old and I spent most of that time refining and developing magic, and my magic system is rather good at information-gathering and divination."

"What are your suspicious about ultra-pentagamy?"

"My suspicions are that Sadde will not ever want to, themself, be with anyone other than the five of you, but that they will not care if you are with anyone else. I also expect they might join in any... activities... where you are involved regardless of who else is but won't have any enthusiasm for others."

"Poor thing, will have to console themself with only the five of us."

"If I understand their magic correctly I do not believe they see themself as unfortunate. It will be... confusing, I expect... to see alts of their mates, however."

"How about the rest of us?"

"You... should probably not open your eyes until the turning process is over and everyone else you want to mate to is around. Or, at least, everyone who hasn't yet mated on you."

"Duly noted."

"We are not sure if the triplets are going to turn. I am likely to."

"If you do turn, you will become as hyper-whatevergamous as Sadde is, though. And, yes, it's probable you'd be able to mate on yet more alts, and you'll meet more. You'll meet my Sadde someday."

"You can see the future?"

"Not as much or well or clearly as I once could, and there are limitations to how much I can see of the multiverse, but yes."

"Could you show us the future? Can you use it to..." Katur waves, "get messages from your future self with the answers you needed in the present?"

"I cannot really show the future, and when I say I can see it it's not anything as high-definition as this. I can get answers to certain questions, almost always vague, and I can know various things that will happen without actually being able to watch them happening. But getting answers from the future was how I figured out that the near-apocalypse was the best I was gonna be able to do."

"But still."

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything useful would be good. ...I originally asked because I wanted a cheat, so we wouldn't have to wait."

"I need something to look for, searching the whole future for a cheat would take as long as waiting for it. And with the portals closed I can't really see anything that involves other worlds."

"Alright."

"I'm sorry."

And Sadde finally gets the hang of flying!

Thomas puts an arm around Fernando.

"How long until he finds out?"

"Several hours. Do you want to follow him?"

"I want all the moments where he is still happy. Fernando is going to want all the misery, skip that."

...

So they fly after Sadde.

And Fernando watches. He is not only interested in the misery.

Sadde whoops in the air a few times, but mostly just flies straight to Washington.

They watch. It's odd, they spent so little time with Sadde and yet...

When he gets there he zips around, looking for the super exclusive spa. Eventually he finds it, observes it for a while, gets impatient and talks to the surprised clerk. He's informed they're in Europe, thanks the person, and starts flying back to the portal.

Well, time for them to brace themselves.

Sadde notices his mates' distress and the flickering of the portal from miles off. Several emotions fight for dominance in his face, but the one that wins is determination. He accelerates as much as he can, going incredibly fast—

—and they're back in Elsewhere as the portal closes for the last time.

Yup. Thomas looks away. He remembers all too well what happens next, the running around, the trying every possible solution. Calling their grandparents and asking for favors. Calling their parents and delivering the absurd news.

"Do you wish to follow Kaede and Felix?"

"Please. I am not a masochist like Fernando."

"What I am doing is not masochism. I find having the information preferable, not enjoyable."

So he rewinds time again to the point when they went through the portal to Galatea.

And they watch quietly.

They're at the foot of some mountains, and Kaede determines where they should go and they start going there.

"This is the best day. That was the best Bar." She looks at Felix. "It's not true yet, but given Sadde's existence it will be: I love you."

"I love you," Felix tells Kaede.

And a moment later he says, "Sadde, too. I should've said before he went to visit the Golden Coven."

...

...

"I shouldn't be surprised."

"We won't lack for opportunities to tell each other that. This should be a quick trip, anyway. By the way, how do you feel about flying there?"

"Entirely positive!"

She describes how silly gravity is and how it won't affect the gorgeous Felix and then he's flying! She describes no such thing of herself, though, and merely lifts up into the air.

Seeing that is very much on the bitter end of bittersweet.

They make their way to a very Game of Thrones-y city and she explains the situation to the clerk at the Explorers' Guild. Then they start making their way back to the portal.

And Fernando watches it with a neutral expression. Only vaguely wondering what the place's tech-level implies about quality of life for Kaede and Felix.

They do not have Sadde's vision so they don't notice the flickering from miles off, but they do notice it. They accelerate.

They're not fast enough.

Well, at least this means that Katur no longer needs to hold the door open. He hugs the two triplets.

Fernando hugs back, with deliberate movements.

"You will see each other again."

"How sure are you of that? And are there any caveats like waiting a million years?"

"I don't know how long it will take," he confesses. "I just know I'll meet you again, and when I do you will have reunited."

"What level of confident should we be? Is it enough that we could risk visiting another world? Or do potentially dangerous things?"

"Given the way these things work, I cannot say. It is not impossible that by the time we meet again several years will have passed and you will have died and come back to life, see. You do reunite in Elsewhere, however."

"I see. So was my time here worthless?"

"You did practice your magic. And you did meet me."

"I apologize for implying that meeting you was worthless. I have been... poorly calibrated as of late."

"At this rate, you're going to scare him off dating his Fernando."

"My other self already is. And I'm not offended, I meant meeting me was worth it so you could be reunited with your brother and boyfriend and so you could see the past."

"Yes, thank you. And there is worth in... expecting something good like meeting more versions of us."

"Yeah, about that. Anything interesting you can tell us about them?"

"Many things. They are gryphons, and have anime hair. And I mentioned this to your brother but not you—they don't have a Thomas."

"Well, that is their loss."

"Do they have a me? Or are they going to meet one?"

"There is as far as I know no you in my world."

Nod.

"Well, that is two strikes against the anime-gryphon non-triplets. The four of them will be so jealous of the six of us when we get together."

He smiles a bit. "Somehow I have a hard time imagining 'jealousy' will be the dominant emotion."

"Well, I will settle for awed admiration of how incredible we are."

"How magnanimous of you."

"I try. Hey, are there more of us that you know of?"

"Yes. Many more."

"Well, are you planning on sharing anything about them or something?"

"I do not know them. I know of some, but not all, and of you I know most."

"Well, at least we have fun surprises ahead. Are there more of me and Katur?"

"Yes. I'm... not entirely sure there's a finite number of us."

"You can deduce that by just how many universes Milliways has access to. But are you like, directly aware of them or something?"

"I'm aware of a few more of you and Katur, yes."

"Aw, now I feel bad about the gryphon twins. They can't get the awesomeness of me. Unless I come in younger brother?"

"I don't know enough about that. Clairvoyance is not anywhere near as clear as that."

"I guess then you wouldn't know if I come in... with good parenting?"

He shakes his head. "But... I always come with... him. It seems to change who exactly he is, in my past life he was a teacher and master, my other self has him as a father—Kaede and your Sadde do, too—I in particular don't have a him but that's because I have all my memories. He's—important to mes, somehow."

Nod. Katur hopes other versions of himself don't have his father or his older brother. "Should we be worried for your version of Sadde?"

"...I'm not sure worrying will help any. Their youth was only slightly worse than your Sadde's, and much, much better than Kaede's or mine."

"I mean, is he safe now?"

"From Tobias, yes."

"That is something."

"We always eventually get rid of him, it seems. They don't typically care much by the time we're about fifteen or sixteen so if we have the means to leave we do. That... can change depending on circumstances, but seems to be the general rule."

"Did you do that?"

"Oh I ran away from home when I was sixteen."

"What happened this time around? I'm not entirely clear if you're reborn or just manifested fully formed out of sea foam."

"My birth parents gave me up for adoption and I was raised in an orphanage. But I set this up in advance."

"Huh, did you remember everything? That would make for a weird childhood."

"Did the orphanage handle the genderfluidity well?"

"I only started remembering things once I learnt to talk, and after that it took a while to get everything, but I was fully myself by the time I was sixteen again. And no, it did not."

"Katur, please hug him."

"Why Katur? Aren't my hugs any good?"

"Feel free to add to the hug, but he is our best hugger while Felix is away."

Well, that is very tragic, but Katur will just go over and give Eriol a hug.

The hug startles a laugh out of him. "Really, by the time I was twelve I remembered most of my nearly four hundred years of life, an orphanage mishandling my gender identity barely registered."

"That is not very reassuring!"

"I really, really didn't care. It sounded petty and funny to me and I had no reason whatsoever to pay them any mind. You don't need to worry about it."

"That is good. But have you met Fernando? Inside that resting-bitch-faced shell he is consumed by righteous fury on behalf of all genderqueer children in the multiverse."

"I seem to have a deeper appreciation now of why mes seem so fatefully drawn to all of yous."

"Took you long enough."

"Oh, I understood it on an intellectual level, before."

"I literally couldn't believe that many wonderful people existed."

"I was including you in my 'all of yous.'"

"That was one of the nicest things someone has ever said to me." Hug.

He grins and hugs back. "You do give some pretty great hugs."

"I have to use the extra-long arms for something."

"He is the best big spoon."

He purses his lips and says nothing.

"Should I mention other things where he is proportionally... better?"

"I'm sure it's none of my business."

The panther, who remained silent all this time, snickers again.

"Well, at least you are not the kind of 400-year-old that hooks up with your alt's boyfriends."

"I'm not entirely sure it would be appropriate."

"Maybe someday you will meet adequately old version of ourselves."

"The age is not in fact the problem here. I'm fairly certain—though I do not know this for a fact—I will eventually become involved with my version of your brothers."

"But sadly not one of me. And maybe not even one of Katur. Dude, you are at a serious disadvantage."

"Perhaps so."

"How much time do you think you have here? Even if you can't bring back anything physical it might be useful to trade information."

"Hard to tell, especially with all the time shenanigans we've gone through."

"I still should give you some of the most important stuff. I am going to get them from my room."

He leaves to do so.

"So, the panther..."

"His name is Spinel Sun. He is my guardian."

Spinel inclines his head in acknowledgement.

"Guardian as in... a bodyguard or something else?"

"Something like that," he agrees, and shakes his fur a bit... making a large pair of dark blue butterfly wings sprout from his back. "My relationship with Eriol is more complicated than mere physical protection. It might be more accurate to think of me as a familiar."

"Not translating."

"Ah, it's an Earth folklore thing. They believed that witches had like, small animals that did their bidding or something like that."

"They also believed these witches' animals were a focus for and a well of power. These things are true." He huffs. "The small part is not."

"Yeah, I must say that even with the fairy wings you look cool. At some point Eriol needs to ride you to battle."

He huffs again. "I was not built for riding."

"Besides," he says, suddenly revealing eagle wings of his own, "I can fly."

"Okay, but I hope you two know how to pose really well for cinematic battles."

"Cinematic battles?" Fernando returns, with a pile of binders in his arms.

"There has been a shortage of cinematic battles in my life lately, I'm afraid. It's all just been boring politics and the end of the world."

Fernando distributes the binders around. They are sorted between things like "World profiles", "Tech resources", "Magic resources", "Issues and threats I", "Issues and threats II", "Plans and solutions", "Unsorted" and "Misc. & Etc." Which are further categorized and color-coded.

Yyyyep.

Fernando gives them a quick overview of the organization system. Mostly sorted in various forms of accessibility and priority. "My plan is to write all of this in multiple books for various levels of tech advancement so people can buy them. Books with sensitive information are going to be coded or ciphered. At least one of my books - likely my first - is going to be something with the codes. I am likely going to write "I dedicate this book to" and a list of pen names for my other books too."

"What's the point of publishing the code? Or letting people buy the books at all?"

"Publishing things allows Bar to sell them. This means we can facilitate the distribution of information by publishing things in our own world - we only need to sell three books and Bar can make them available to anyone that walks in. The obvious downside is that anyone includes potentially very evil people and Bar would still sell them, even if it was Adolf Hitler seeking nuclear secrets. I have tried, but failed to convince her to filter better. And all of Bar's information is already available, the most I can do is not make it easy for hypothetical Hitlers to get to it sooner. Thus I can hide under codes, ciphers and subterfuges. Most people wouldn't know me well enough to think it was out of character that I published a knitting book or something, but my alts, their families and theirs yous and Katurs would notice. Thus they would get curious and investigate and then find out the secret messages where I can condense the shortcuts for nuclear secrets and other sensitive information, or even personal things. It even allows for continuous one-way communication even if we never find Milliways again."

"So your goal with this is making this information more easily available to our alts, or...?"

"The coded information is meant for our alts, the non-coded is for whoever. Not everyone would know how to properly research Milliways' library."

"So you just want to make certain kinds of information more easily available. That makes sense."

"Exactly. Sorry for not being clearer."

Meanwhile, Katur has been paging through the binders...

"Fernando, why did you name a world 'Torturotopia'?" he asks nervously.

"I didn't. Its owner did."

...oh. He knows how this is going to go. He slowly closes the binder he's been reading.

Katur starts reading the description...

...but Thomas takes the binder from his hands. "Sorry, Katur."

Thomas inspects the binder - not the world profile, but the tags that mark the worlds that are similar to this world. He closes the binder.

"We need to leave this place."

Yes, they probably do.

Fernando turns to face him. "We shouldn't. This is a great well of resources."

"This place was designed to mock and torture you personally. That is the only explanation. A well of resources, a bunch of worlds to save, but everything requires luck, a lot of work and self-flagellation. It gave us Kaede and Sadde, but took them and Felix from us- and don't even think to blame yourself for that! And to top it off the entire fucking thing manifests in the fucking ridiculous fucking facade of a bar. This place is going to eat you alive until there is nothing for the others to return to."

Fernando is about to say something -

"I swear to the abyss, I am going to kill myself. Then the three are going to return to your hollow shell, myself at-best-resurrected and Katur traumatized. And it's going to be your fault."

"Thomas," he says in a warning tone.

"Thomas do not, that sort of mindset is not good for you."

"Don't talk to me about mindsets that are not good for me. You know what I was actually thinking when I heard about the ones of ourselves that come in twin? I was thinking 'I hope they can be functional without me' because the two care about every fucking thing and they are more likely to let that caring burn them from the inside out. Did you know that when they heard about scope insensitivity they spent a while wondering how to use magic to bypass it? And my reaction was 'that's what they look with a bias that tones down their behavior?'"

"Scope insensitivity -"

"I DON'T CARE!" Thomas shouts. "You need to leave this place! Go home, work on how to be a healthy human being without self-destructive streaks!"

"Thomas is right. You-you can't keep going like this. It's not even a matter of us allowing. You are just not good enough." Katur flinches while saying that last word.

And that hits Fernando harder than a punch.

"I know I am n-"

"You're fucking great, just not in a way that saves all of fucking everything."

"Fernando, you want to accomplish the most good for the multiverse. So do I. There's a reason I didn't write these binders, even though I could have. I can't affect it now, I don't have magic that does interdimensional travel, there would be no point and if I tried I would spend myself and end up not helping anyone. Now, you spent months here. Has anyone else walked through that door since?"

"They have. ...they are getting rarer."

"When was the last one?"

"The last patron was three weeks ago. But security and infirmary are usually staffed."

"It will become rarer," he predicts. "The landlords did not intend for Milliways to be used like this, and however much I disagree with them, the fact is that Milliways is not an effective way of contacting other worlds and fixing them. The actual consequences of spending yourself here while waiting for a world in need to walk through the door is that you won't have enough you left to help anyone."

Fernando steels his face again. "I was planning to publish the books in hope someone else with greater power could do it."

...

"He knew what he was doing. We need to fucking leave."

Eriol tightens his grip on his staff then says, in Chinese, "O Wind, hear my prayer and do my bidding, send this self-destructive ass out the door," and swipes the staff between Fernando and the door.

Magic can't open the door to a world not your own - Fernando tried. He stays pressed against the door.

"I will leave. I have stuff in my room, and the binders can still help."

"Okay, then Thomas and I - if he wants to - can go get that. And you are not allowed to look at the binders until we say so."

"Until Felix says so, how about that?"

"Yes, better."

"Good, Sadde and Kaede will want to look at that binder when they return." He closes his eyes. "And I am about to wake up."

"Sorry for that crazy display... look after your versions of my brothers? Make sure they are functional."

"They have three amazing people taking care of them, don't worry. Oh, and before I forget, the world I mentioned Sadde visiting with years-long winter was Westeros."

"Of course it fucking is. At least they are a ridiculously strong vampire."

He smiles.

And vanishes.