To an anonymous reviewer: Your idea is intriguing. I'd certainly read it if someone else wrote it. If I really liked it, I might even plug it here. But this story's a bit too established in its tone to become that story.

There's always omake, though.

To all readers: Fallen London has a very good soundtrack, and I highly recommend listening to it during the relevant portion of this chapter. Or any other time, really. (Especially since the relevant portion of this chapter ended up being largely moved to next chapter. Oops.) Since FFN forbids off-site links, I'll just tell you that you should find it without trouble by typing "Fallen London OST" into your favorite search engine.

After a proper night's sleep, I was once again ready to face the worlds. Riku also seemed fully recuperated, as he had promised. So we were officially ready to head to the Fifth City.

But before we left, I wanted to speak to Aqua.

"Are you certain?" Yen Sid asked. "Her convalescence is of course being aided by magic, and she was to begin with in remarkable form even considering the length of her time in the Realm of Darkness, but even so, it will be some hours before she is awake. Can you afford such a delay?"

I considered it for a while. "Yeah, actually. In fact, it might be better. I don't know what to do when I get where I'm going, and some research on, like, sealing magic or the like could help."

So I spent the morning in the library looking for something that could prevent Points of Shadow from becoming spacetime-rending yin-yang bombs, while Riku and Sora helped Kairi and Lea train.

"Wait, Sora's not going out to hunt Heartless?"

"He also wishes to speak to Aqua."

And that settled that.

After skimming through a considerable stack of possibly-relevant books, I was despairing of finding anything I could actually use.

The problem, it seemed, with putting up magical shields, was that they would need regular reinforcement. Yet despite ambient background magic demonstrably existing, all of the spells I found required active reinforcement, and most required it to be done by the original caster.

One spell, lacking the original-caster requirement, looked almost promising, but it had to be reinforced significantly more often than any of the others, roughly three times every two days. I set that one aside, hoping I could get some instruction from Yen Sid on modifying spells and make this one work better.

The second problem, of course, was that all of the spells were far more powerful than what I needed; they were designed to block direct attack, and all I needed to block was the energy released by nearby combat.

I blinked at this thought. I closed the book, picked it up in both hands, and carefully smacked myself in the forehead with it.

"Uh... you okay, Tempest?"

"Oh, I'm fine, Lea. I've just spent three hours looking in the wrong section of the library." I reopened the book I had set aside, removed its check-out card, carefully printed my name on it, and dropped it in the box near the entrance. Then I did the same with another shield book from which I would study the basic Reflect spell, and the Magnet book from yesterday.

"This shield is meant for combat use. All these shields are. I'm looking for a different kind of barrier, and didn't realize they'd have their own section. And I'm getting a sneaking suspicion that I won't have time to start looking there. But I can probably modify this shield into what I want, it'll just be more of a pain than it could have been."

Lea shrugged. "Dunno how you guessed, but yeah. Aqua's awake and ready to chat. And Riku wants to move out as soon as you finish your conversation."

I nodded, placing the books in my bag. "Sure. I'll head down."

XXXXXXXXXX

Coincidentally, Sora was leaving the infirmary at just the moment I arrived. He was grumbling about something, though I couldn't make out any particular words.

"Hey, Sora. Everything going okay?"

"Not really... but I should probably keep quiet. 'Loose lips sink ships', you know."

"...Ships?"

"I mean, metaphorically. I was thinking about it, and... I accidentally leaked Riku's mission to you, didn't I?"

"Mm? How d'you figure?"

"Well, I did tell you Riku had a job in the Realm of Darkness. And you weren't at all surprised when he came back with Aqua. That surprised me - we met once, when me and Riku were kids, and Riku had to remind me who she even was. You knew she was there, didn't you?"

I nodded. "I have some unfair advantages when it comes to knowing things. I think most people wouldn't have been able to figure out Riku's exact mission just from the fact that it's in the Realm of Darkness. Xehanort probably would have, though, so yeah, you shouldn't tell anyone anything about future missions unless you think they can help."

Sora nodded, thinking about it. "Right now, I don't think there's much to be done, but I might get back to you on that. And now, I gotta go look for Maleficent's next big Heartless. See ya!"

And with that, he headed off. I entered the infirmary. Aqua was sitting against her bed's headboard, eyes closed in thought.

"Master Aqua?" As we were total strangers, I figured the polite approach would be optimal.

She started at the sound of my voice. "Please... don't call me Master." Swingnamiss.

"Uh, hm. So, what should I call you? Lady Aqua? Miss Aqua?"

"Just- just Aqua is quite sufficient," she said, sounding exhausted already.

I nodded. "I'm Tempest. Just Tempest is fine for me, too, or Miss Tempest, if that's too familiar for you."

"All right, Miss Tempest," she said. Rather pointedly. Dang it. "I don't believe Yen Sid mentioned your business here."

"Here in general, or here with you?"

"I meant with me, but both would be enlightening," she said, smiling faux-sweetly.

"Well, ah..." I have made several mistakes this minute. "In general, I'm trying to help stop Xehanort and Maleficent and Organization XIII, since they're all kind of a big danger.

"And as for why I'm speaking to you..." I summoned my Keyblade. "As far as I can tell, I just got this one day out of nowhere. I'm entirely self-taught. And while it's worked out fine so far, I literally do not know what sort of vital information I'm missing without a proper teacher.

"Now, I know you're in no shape to do training right now, and that's fine. Myself, I'm too busy with all this to sit down and do training either. But... at some point, when things have settled down a little, I'm going to need an expert's instruction."

Aqua closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm... I want to say I'm honored that you would consider me. But... I'm just not w-"

"And, I mean, you don't have to decide yet!" I couldn't stop her from thinking it, but I would still stop her from saying she wasn't worthy. I had no real grounds to judge that, but still. "You're still recovering, I'm still busy. Just think about it, for now." A knock at the door. "And that'll be Riku. I'll head out for now, and you can get back to resting." And I quickly slipped out before she could voice any more objections.

It was, indeed, Riku knocking on the door. "So, how'd it go?"

"Total bust. In retrospect I clearly shouldn't have sprung this on her at the literal first available opportunity. Oh well, mistakes made, can't unmake 'em. I'll just have to adapt."

"Well, I look forward to seeing that." I raised an eyebrow - what did he mean by that? But he just grinned mysteriously and held out a book. "You might want this, by the way."

I glanced at the cover and blinked. Best Long-Term Fortification Spells Of The Late '80s. "Why yes, I very much do want this. Thank you, Riku."

"You're welcome. Now let's get to the ship."

It seemed that I would have to rethink my evaluation of Riku. Of course I knew he was smart, but this was... significantly more insightful than I had been expecting.

... Is the late '80s recent in this calendar system, or ancient? What year was it now? Actually, which world was that book even written in? If it wasn't this one, literally any amount of time could have passed, and there'd be zero good way to tell. Groan.

XXXXXXXXXX

One of the less-utilized features of Gummi Ships is that their frames are held together entirely by magic. This means that one can rearrange one's ship's parts in whatever configuration one desires, which proves remarkably useful when attempting to disguise a spacefaring vehicle as a zeefaring one.

As Riku pulled the ship into port at Wolfstack Docks, I rummaged through my possessions.

"They won't take munny here, or not directly. The Bazaar does buy currency from other parts of this world, so we could probably exchange munny the same way. Failing that, of course, we have all these shards and gems to sell. Will they let us stop by the Bazaar before paying the docking fee? How else could they handle new arrivals?"

"Relax, Tempest. Axel got in and out without trouble, didn't he?"

"That's true," I admitted, recalling the tale Axel had told. "They must have something."

The two of us debarked, and while Riku handled the matter of the docking fees, I began trying to track our target.

"I wish I'd paid more attention to the map of this place when I had one..."

"Psst!"

I looked up. "Er... who's there?" I asked cautiously.

"Down here."

I looked downward in the direction of the voice. "Oh! It's a cat! Hello there, cat!"

"Hello yourself, human," said the ginger tabby. "You're an outsider, aren't you? I don't mean from the Surface, I mean even further away than that."

I rubbed my neck faux-nervously as I knelt down to pet the feline. "I believe I'm contractually obligated to answer that question with a 'no'."

"Ahh, I knew it. You have the same smell as those two fellows in black cloaks. Thought they were being sneaky, they did, but they weren't even trying to keep out of our sight."

"Oh y'know, I think they might not realize cats here are sapient. Speaking of which, I probably should have remembered to mention that to my partner..."

"Oh? Are you two together?"

"Investigative partner," I clarified. "He's rather too young for me in the other sense... He's totally going to flip when a cat talks to him. Possibly literally."

The cat made an odd noise that seemed to be the feline equivalent of a chuckle. "An amusing image, that. You seemed to be looking for something."

"A map of the city, for starters."

"Oh, certainly. But the black-coated men had maps, and they couldn't find it."

"Oh? But I think they don't actually know what they're looking for. They probably know that I'm looking for something, and trying to beat me to it."

"And they won't know it when they see it?"

"Unlikely. It's a place, not a thing, and I'm not aware of any visible indicators. Though here in the Neath, maybe it's different..."

"Prrrhaps. City maps are easily found in the Bazaar, which is that way. And unfortunately, I have other business to get to, but before I do..."

The cat leapt onto my shoulder and leaned closely into my ear to whisper:

"Beware. The Taciturn Stalwart still lurks the Neath."

"What? Why-" But the cat was already gone.

XXXXXXXXXX

"So what?" asked Riku. "I've beaten Lexaeus before, I can do it again."

"I'm not worried about your ability to beat him, I'm worried about the Point. Sora and/or Kairi did tell you what happened, right?"

"So we make sure not to fight him at the Point. I'm hardly pure light like Kairi is, and I've gotten the impression that Nobodies aren't actually pure darkness. With that relatively little contrast, I bet we'd need to literally be on top of it."

"You're lighter than you think, Riku - and more to the point, we don't have any idea of my light level."

"Okay, a little caution is called for. But that's different from panic. And the radars have been pointing near due north the entire time we've been here, so it's clearly pretty far away."

"I do hope it's not at the Avid Horizon... I don't know how to get there without Seeking the Name."

"And we can't just do that, I take it?"

"Well, it'd kill us repeatedly - we'd get better, but then we'd be stuck here. It's terrifyingly self-destructive, and also just terrifying in general. It would drive us mad, again repeatedly. Also, it'd take months, and we're on a time limit."

"Right. No Seeking the Name, then."

"Anyway, it might not be at the Avid Horizon at all. We should definitely establish where it is before worrying about bizarre requirements to get there."

Riku nodded. "Hold up. You hear that?"

"Heh, I was wonderin' how long it'd take you two to notice." A Grubby Urchin dropped nimbly from above and gave a little bow. "You two're new round the Neath, right? People're wantin' to know what you're addressed as."

"Addressed...?" asked Riku.

"Y'know, like 'sir' or 'madam' or 'lord' or 'captain'. I see you're a Keyblade Master, I can tell people to use that title too."

"Whoa! Me being a Keyblade Master is a secret. Keyblades being a thing is a secret. Don't tell anyone either of those things."

"Awright, I'll keep my mouf shut. See, that's why I ask these fings! Look, if you need a moment to fink, I'll ask your friend first." He turned to me.

"Oh, well, I prefer just my first name, Tempest. Miss Tempest if that's too familiar. And she/her pronouns."

"Awright, Miss Tempest. And you?"

"Riku. He/him."

The Grubby Urchin nodded. "Just so you know, there's a lot a people in London what won't like callin a stranger by 'is first name. You got somethin' less familiar those folk can use, or should I tell 'em to shove off and do it anyway?"

"I guess if they insist, you can tell them to call me Master Riku. Just don't tell them what I'm a Master of."

"Course not. Top secret." He made a lip-zipping motion. "I'll make sure people know. Fanks."

Riku watched the Grubby Urchin zip off into the rooftops to spread the word. "That was weird."

"Ehh. I wish there had been someone like that back in my world."

"Yeah, that would be a net benefit... But I was referring to how he could tell I was a Keyblade Master."

"Oh, that? ... I think he can just tell when people have accomplishments that entitle them to, uh, titles. Either that or the Mark of Mastery is an actual detectable quality, rather than a metaphor for being good enough at Keyblading to be a Master."

Riku snickered. "No, the first one sounds much more plausible. Anyway. We've got work to do."

I nodded and opened up my map of London.

... Y'know, I had expected the preparatory intro bit to be shorter. Instead, it took up, what, more than half the chapter? If I had outlined this, I would have seen it coming.

Next chapter: more Fallen London! Probably no boss fight, because Fallen London doesn't really have those, and also we're specifically trying to avoid clashes in this story.