“The Child of Fyre will be my child?” “The only other time an offworlder was kidnapped specifically for breeding was to facilitate the birth of the Fyre Child."

Her name had been Rayne Hermit. Now, she was the second of the Elements to manifest ahead of the Rebirthing Rite. She was now the Erthe Woman.

Save for their colour, the bark of the trees reminded Abram of the white birch of Oerth, a tree he had only seen imaged in the archives.

Whomever had let me go gifted me two packs of smokes and filled my lighter. She’d left money on the dresser; a thought that made me smile.

The dragons are Aer Elementals, taken from the Silvergrey Sea. I think Erthe Woman’s mission is to bring them back to here.

The sky deepened to red as he pulled up to the senate building, an imposing truncated pyramid peppered with deep openings along its sloping faces.

The entrance to the Silvergrey Sea was a virtual tunnel with the Sea at one end and normal space-time at the other. The two merged into one another gradually.

He saw her, that unfortunate Hermetist, floating above the crater, clothing burning away as he watched, eyes blazing with white light.

I walked right to the edge and looked down. Between the treetops and I was nothing but a couple of hundred feet of warm, humid air. Not getting out that way.

The Order would spend years on new worlds learning, recruiting, then pillaging its knowledge, without ever revealing their existence to the population.

A sound, deafening and terrifying, like a returning echo of a scream. Abram could feel it in his chest. A shockwave rolled over the ship, knocking him flat.

I woke, glad of the opportunity. I was in no pain. Another reason for cheer. Daring to hope that three would be the charm, I opened my eyes.

The Hyborean had gone to Glyph. There was no effective way to trace him once he entered that city. They didn’t call it the City of Portals for nothing.

Nija had to dodge not only her fellow conspirators, but the chiefs of the Hermetic Order. She had to keep two sets of lies straight.

Drago had to have been born here three hundred years ago, not thirty-three years ago. I had to find out what happened on Hyborea back then.

The Silvergrey Sea Part Two: Serious Business A Dagger in the Night * * * In Drago’s judgement, Madame Josie kept a fine house. There was a library with a surprisingly deep collection of literature, some of it from Oerth. The food was good, the wine excellent, the whores amongst the finest he’d ever had. Dævara had been exceptional but the others, though not mages, where witches in their own carnal ways.

The Silvergrey Sea Part Two: Serious Business Forbidden Research * * * Rayne Hermit watched dispassionately as the latest trial spasmed out the last of his life at her feet. She waited a full minute after it stopped moving to crouch and feel for a pulse and respiration. Feeling exasperation but no longer any sorrow, Rayne stood and walked quickly back to the scaffold.

Finding myself lodging and settling in was my highest priority. That’s code for booze and broads, in case you, Gentle Reader, haven’t been paying attention.

The rogue group called the Meraculus Mercurius had left a time bomb that might yet destroy the Hermetic Order. The restless god trapped in the Silvergrey Sea had woken from its slumber and had birthed the Man of Watr.

To the anxiety I always felt when contemplating a trip outside of the f#cking multiverse was added the flinching anticipation of Abram’s idea of stress relief.