text: Ahkio told no one when he went to visit the heart of the temple again, despite the known danger. Liaro had told him the stone was broken, so what was the harm? After two weeks in the temple, watching Hofsha stride about the grounds as if she already owned the place, he was running out of reasons to put her off. A few days before, he had seen Nasaka escorting Hofsha around the temple, showing her every room like she was a loved and respected guest. He spent most of his days talking over paper, and he was tired of his own inaction. He needed the temple keeper's advice. He needed to know what had happened to Almeysia. He needed to understand Nasaka's plan for the temple, and how he would subvert it, and his Oras were too often bickering with one another to provide him many answers.
  
  He waited until he had sent Liaro on various errands, and Caisa was safely off at the Temple of Para. The only one who questioned where he was on occasion was Masura, who had taken up residence in the temple sometime after his ascension and had simply never left. When he asked Una why she tarried here, Una admitted that Masura had stepped down in all but name from her duties as Elder Ora of the Temple of Tira. He heard little from the harbor in all that time. Mohrai sent a missive that Lilia and the sanisi had arrived at the harbor and discussed strategy, but gave no details. He suspected that was prudent. Not even he knew how many in the temple were trustworthy. They were engaged in delay just as he was. Delaying the inevitable.
  
  He visited the heart of the temple the second time in the midafternoon as a heavy thunderstorm rolled in over the plateau. Novices and drudges rushed throughout the temple, shuttering windows and doors against the storm's incursion.
  
  Ahkio moved from this eerie darkness to the black basements, and put his hand on the stone for the second time in the flickering light of a flame fly lantern. As Liaro had said, the stone was broken. Ahkio examined it, wondering what it was he hoped to find. Whatever ward Almeysia had set on the stone must have done this damage, but to what end? To silence the keeper? To keep him from going through?
  
  He raised his hand to the mark on the stone, just to be sure it was inactive, and—
  
  –And he fell through the stone, or through time, or into the seams between worlds, and there he was again, standing in the brilliantly lit room, unstuck in time.
  
  He had thought to find it ruined, or mired in darkness. But it was still broad daylight. The sky had not moved. The moon remained, and the double suns rode over the tongues of the mountains. He stood at the center of the room and waited for the keeper to appear. The whirling lighted numerals were gone now, though.
  
  And so was the keeper.
  
  He shivered. It seemed he wasn't the only one playing with forces he didn't understand.
  
  Ahkio explored the room, poking at the large pieces of furniture, the end tables and desks. He half expected he would be able to pass his hands through them as he had through her, but they were solid. He rifled through what looked like large desks, but they contained no papers.
  
  He called for the temple keeper, but received no answer. He began to feel vaguely alarmed, as if he trespassed on some sacred space. And perhaps he did. He found a set of double doors on the far side of the room, and tried to open them, but they were locked.
  
  "Keeper?" Ahkio called, again.
  
  Something wavered at the corner of his vision. He turned, but it blinked out. "Keeper?"
  
  Nothing.
  
  Ahkio tapped the walls, looking for some other way in or out. How did the keeper come and go? What was she, really?
  
  "I want to speak to you again," Ahkio said. "I have more questions this time. I have–"
  
  The floor beneath him rumbled softly. Ahkio froze. He gazed out the great windows. Something flickered in the sky there, a flashing star. He walked to the windows and found a faint trace of lettering there, as if someone had pressed their fingers to the pain and written letters. It was in the Kai cipher. But how did a ghost write on a window?
  
  The same way a ghost became unstuck in time, perhaps.
  
  He had been writing in the Kai cipher for so long that he was able to work it out in his head:
  
  The Guide will show you to the engines at the heart of the temples. We will deliver the Guide. But you must lead the army.
  
  Now go. She is coming for you.
  
  A chill rose in the room. The floor rumbled again. The light went out.
  
  He woke suddenly on the floor next to the stone. He was sweating heavily. He stared up at the stone, and it was then he heard a noise, the sound of feet scuffling across the floor. Someone else in the basements. He shuttered the lantern and lay still on the floor, breathing softly. How long had he been out this time?
  
  He lay that way for an hour or more, listening to someone stumbling around in the darkness. He saw the light swinging somewhere in the tangle of the roots that made up this final basement of the temple, but it was far-off, indistinct. Even when it was well gone, when he heard nothing else, he lay there in the dark for a long time after.
  
  She is coming, the keeper had said, but he didn't know if she meant Kirana, or Nasaka, or Hofsha, or any number of other people he didn't know about. Ahkio had spent a long time trying to avoid doing what he knew he needed to do, but it was time.
  
  He stumbled upstairs into the light, and asked what day it was. The novice he asked looked at him as if he were mad, but told him. She gave him a date that must have been wrong – the date she gave was the day before he had entered the basements. And it was clearly evening, not the middle of the day.
  
  "Are you… sure?" he asked.
  
  She cocked her head at him. "Are you all right?"
  
  "Fine," he said. He went to the scullery and asked a drudge. He found Shanigan in the banquet hall and asked the date. They all gave him the same date. He sat down next to Shanigan then, suddenly dizzy.
  
  "What is it?" Shanigan said.
  
  "We had a meeting today," Ahkio said. "You called me a fool boy."
  
  Shanigan laughed. "That meeting is in a few hours," he said. "I thought you said you were going to rest upstairs? Why would I call you a fool? No, wait. I can think of several reasons."
  
  Ahkio tried to work out why he would have gone back, and a terrible fear came over him. What if he wasn't in the right world at all? What if he hadn't gone through time, but he'd gone... somewhere else? Where was the "he" from the day before? He gazed at the staircase. Was he still up there, in bed? Were there two of him now?
  
  He sprinted upstairs and burst in on Liaro. He was in a dance class with Ohanni. The whole class startled at his appearance.
  
  "Liaro!" Ahkio said, breathless. He called him away into the hall. Liaro looked just the same way he had the day before. He asked him question after question. "Do I look the same? Are there two of me here? Who is Kai? Is Nasaka alive? What day is it, really? Who teaches mathematics?"
  
  "What in Sina's name is going on?" Liaro said. "What did–" He came up short. Frowned. "You went down there again."
  
  "I didn't lose time," Ahkio said. "I… I don't know what I did."
  
  "You're going mad," Liaro said.
  
  "I have an extra day, but… nothing of importance happened, not really. Why would I get an extra day that isn't important? Why would–"
  
  "Because this is all mad," Liaro said firmly. "Ora Nasaka warned me–"
  
  "When did you talk to Nasaka?"
  
  "Who do you think is talking to Ora Nasaka for you now that you threw Caisa out? I don't care who she was, she was your ally – an ally to both of us – and that leaves me to ferry your little orders to Ora Nasaka while you avoid her."
  
  Ahkio turned away from him and ran up two flights of stairs to the Assembly Chamber. He was out of breath by the time he reached his own quarters. He flung the doors open.
  
  The room was empty, but the bed was unmade, as if he had indeed been sleeping in it. He walked to the side of the bed and pressed his hand to the sheets. They were still warm. He shivered.
  
  He had moved, somehow, between one time and the next.
  
  Liaro came into the room behind him, swearing and huffing. "What's going on?"
  
  "I'm not here," Ahkio said.
  
  "You aren't making sense."
  
  "I have extra time," he said. "Why was I given extra time? Why did I jump from one day to another and back again?"
  
  "Maybe it means nothing, Ahkio. It's not all signs and portents. The sky is in chaos. There are people from other worlds running around. Everything is mad and means nothing."
  
  "No," Ahkio said firmly. "It's time." He turned to head back downstairs.
  
  "Where are you going?"
  
  "To Hofsha. Call Ora Jakobi and Ora Naori. Have them meet me in the foyer."
  
  "No, wait–"
  
  But Ahkio did not wait. He needed to put her out of the temple. She wasn't going to walk around like she owned it any longer. He had delayed enough. The longer she was here, the longer she and Nasaka schemed. The one thing he had not done the day before was finish things with Hofsha. He had let her stay here, continuing her long and oppressive occupation of their temple. Now was his chance to act.
  
  He asked for and found Hofsha in the Sanctuary. The evening was warm. The light of the moons glittered against his skin. He moved as if he were in some dream. A day repeated. He had spent this day doing nothing but arguing over paper. He had spent the night alone while Liaro went out with Ohanni. A wasted day. He would not waste it again.
  
  Hofsha raised her head when he entered. "Kai," she said, as he crossed the broad room. Her smile was large and ungainly, if only because it showed so many teeth. It put him in mind of the posturing of some predator.
  
  "I've come with a response to your offer."
  
  "So soon? I've enjoyed the hospitality of your temple the last two weeks. We can wait a while longer."
  
  "Your boats block our harbor. It gave the impression you would like a quick resolution."
  
  She returned the book she held to the shelf. He made note of it – she was in the section containing the epic romances, the great early stories of Faith Ahya and Hahko forging their way across the wilderness from Dorinah to Dhai. They were operatic tales of alliances and betrayals, hardship and the tornadic nature of love.
  
  "Where is Ora Nasaka?" she asked. The smile remained. Her tone was light.
  
  "I fear you may have been mistaken about Nasaka's role in this country," Ahkio said. "She is my religious and political advisor. To that end, I'm happy to listen to her counsel on all matters. But at days' end, I must be the one to speak for Dhai."
  
  "Of course," Hofsha said. She folded her hands in front of her.
  
  He squared his stance, but did not take a step back. "I appreciate your own Kai's… your… Empress? Well, I appreciate that she took the time to make this offer. We've been happy to host you. Unfortunately, I'll need you to tell her–"
  
  Hofsha raised a hand. Her smile was less boisterous now. She showed no teeth. "Before you continue, I urge you to remember our ships lie ready." She leaned over, and picked up the cage of birds. She set them on the table beside her. The birds twittered madly, fluttering their little wings, hurling themselves at the cage.
  
  "I remember."
  
  She folded her hands again, standing just behind the cage so he had to look past it to see her. "Very well."
  
  He hesitated. The droop of her shoulders, the look of resignation, surprised him. "How many others have you made this offer to?"
  
  "A few."
  
  "And how many take it?"
  
  "Not enough," Hofsha said. The birds rattled the cage.
  
  "You know, then, that I must refuse."
  
  "Perhaps you should speak to Ora Nasaka again," Hofsha said. "I could stay another day or two–"
  
  "I'm afraid that's my final word, Hofsha. Now you will leave peaceably."
  
  She reached for her hat on the table, a broad-brimmed thing that Ahkio had only ever seen Aaldians wear. She ran her fingers over the brim.
  
  "Spring is here," Hofsha said, "and that's not so bad, is it? You'll be dead before you have to see another winter." She put on her hat, and took up the cage with the other hand.
  
  "What are those for?" he asked.
  
  "Oh, these?" she held the cage aloft, smiled brightly. "I love birds. I love to cage them, you see, because when you first do it, they fight so terribly hard. They are so alive, so defiant. I measure how long it takes for them to lose their spirit. To stop fighting. To resign themselves to their fate."
  
  "And how long does that take?"
  
  "It depends," she said.
  
  "I'm sure there are some who never give up," he said.
  
  "Oh no," she said. "They all give up, eventually. They are all in a cage, you see. There is no way out." She touched the brim of her hat and strode to the door, swinging the cage.
  
  "Hofsha?"
  
  She paused, hand on the door. "Kai?" Hopeful.
  
  "What were you looking for in Saiduan?"
  
  She grinned. "A very good question, isn't it?"
  
  Hofsha opened the doors, and left him.
  
  Ahkio stood alone in the Sanctuary for a long time, wondering what would happen on the day Nasaka decided he wasn't worth saving anymore, either. Would she burn the temple down around them?
  
  The door opened, and, as if thinking summoned her, Nasaka entered. "Was that Hofsha I saw in the foyer? Tell me you didn't speak a word without me. Tell me you had the sense to call on Ghrasia and Mohrai first."
  
  "It will take time for Hofsha to–"
  
  "No it won't, you fool," Nasaka said. "You're lucky Liaro came for me. They open tears between worlds to send messages. That invasion is going to start. There's no time to warn the harbor. They could be inundated as we speak."
  
  "How do you know that, Nasaka? How do you know how they communicate?" He knew, though. He had always known.
  
  "The invasion has been primed for just this moment. All she waited on was your refusal."
  
  He pushed past her and into the hall.
  
  "Where are you going?" she asked.
  
  "We need strong lines of supply," Ahkio said. "You'll be stepping down as my political and religious advisor. I'll be appointing Ora Shanigan."
  
  "What?"
  
  "You're confined to your quarters," Ahkio said, "until further notice."
  
  Nasaka barked out a laugh. "And who will hold me."
  
  Ahkio peered further down the corridor where Jakobi and Naori waited. He called for them, and turned back to Nasaka. He had thought he would need their help to escort Hofsha out. It was a bitter irony that it was not Hofsha he had to use force against.
  
  "We'll start with Ora Jakobi and Ora Naori," Ahkio said. "I have no problem using the gifted arts against a woman who refuses my order."
  
  "You're very lucky my star is in decline," Nasaka said, low. "You have committed us to war."
  
  "No," Ahkio said. "You did that when you betrayed me this country."