"Sorry, sorry. Call Aitim and also call," he gives some other contacts.

He informs Tani and Dana.

Aitim gets the news simultaneously from two sources. "Calado shot you down - would the crystal have been damaged -"

"It's much harder than it looks and it can regenerate. It also grows a bit whenever a dreamshaper dies. Why the fuck did Calado shoot us down?"

"Because Calado is a catastrophe if it survived they're going to use it - fuck -"

Trevor clenches his fist and spends a few moments just listening as the perpetual storms turn the sky white.

"Aitim," he says in a dangerous voice, then he repeats with a softer tone, "Aitim, please, please, please give me a better alternative than expanding my dimension all the way over there and then creating an army of stormguards. I actually don't want to do it."

"Well, we're going to war with them. How do the stormguards improve on a ordinary well-equipped modern army using dreamshaping for transportation -"

"Mostly for the factor 'the aliens are capable of doing this by themselves, don't piss them off'. How long would a war like that would last? Can we even trust that other countries won't try to get the dreamshard themselves?"

"They might but you were sharing anyway - Tapa will probably help us out, they were a week away from getting theirs and we're allies and everyone's tired of Calado - advantage to you getting the crystal back over us is that then we don't have to offer them terms at all -"

"I want to get the dreamshard as fast as possible. It tells people to use it. A completely innocent child could use it. And Tani had to diminish the anti-sleep effect so it would last longer without her renew and wasn't noticeable during transportation. If we managed to retrieve it by ourselves people would still want to do something about Calado, right?"

"We're going to conquer Calado. How fast can you stretch your dimension all the way over there -"

"If I make a dimensional tendril as thin as possible... I can get a speed of twelve hundred kilometers per hour. Might be able to double that. Do you have borders with Calado? Is there an estimated site of impact where the dreamshard likely landed? ...Ugh. We might need yet another person that knows long distance magic detection."

"We've got satellite of the impact site but there's debris for a ways around. If it's that thin how do you get people there. We don't have a border with Calado."

"It's thin and uncomfortable, but still allows flight. I was actually talking about extending there and then creating a bunch of stormguards in place. This is not a time where we should be pulling our punches. Whoever is responsible can pay for the credits, before being executed."

"We are on the same page, then."

"I'm going to talk to Tani and Felix about creating new witch-queens. I had an idea that they might accept and it's safe. We should've done it a while ago. And we are going to need at least one magic user anyway."

"Are you? We can in fact win a war with Calado even with Tapa not all that excited about it."

"If Tani had died we would've been severely handcaped. She is not as good with non-mind magic and we need to find the dreamshard. There is just so many benefits from having powerful witchcraft around that not using it is criminal, but no one is suggesting that because you born-people think that created-people are creepy."

"More 'destabilizing' than creepy. Go for it."

"Cool. Keep me updated on the situation."

He finds Tani, Tama and Dana. He hugs the later while telling them what happened and their plan.

"How are you going to get us witches that are safe?" Tani asks.

"I won't. You will."

"What?"

"I actually got two ideas. You can make us a binding vow or something similar."

"Why didn't we do that before?" Dana asks.

"Complicated to do it and keep it up safely and without mental alteration," Tani explains, "requires deep knowledge of how their minds work."

"You can read their blueprints off Felix's mind," Trevor tells Tani, "can't get more detailed than that."

"And the other idea?"

"Doesn't involve you, but it should take longer. We would poke the random personality generator until it produces enough blueprints that are safe with witchcraft. Or safe under your supervision."

"That is less creepy than the binding vow," Dana observes, "you can't just ask for someone that is safe? What is the threshold of safe?"

"The level of witchcraft we want is rather strong." Tani explains. "We would need someone that wouldn't abuse it, or isn't easy to be manipulate, or piss off. That is a rather specific request."

"And the blueprints need to make some sort of narrative sense and most witch-queen level casters come as... they're not-malicious Felix's friends but not necessarily harmless."

"Ah," Dana says, "I see."

Tani opens her mouth, closes it, then opens again. "You could give me a family."

"What do you mean?" Tama asks.

"If they're my relatives they are less likely to require magical micromanagement and more likely to be the sort of person that yields powerful magic responsibly. ...It isn't the time to talk about it, but I feel weird for not having parents and siblings. I keep thinking about meeting people and then them asking... Not the time to talk about that."

"We can for try that," Trevor reassures, "it should work."

They contact Felix and explain everything. Felix thinks this is bizarre, but it should work. They get started.

Are there any survivors?

There were not.

He didn't even stop to think about-

They focus on their task and search through the offered options for potential witches.

Trevor multitasks and expands his dimension towards Calado.

Eventually Tani gets...