The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

The guide notes that while travelers can bring anything they legally own into their dimension, they can never bring anything back. Dimensional offshoots possess less "substance" than the primary reality, meaning objects or people from the dimension would simply vanish in transit to Earth. This interlude also warns against traveling "downstream" into unstable dimension branches. A disclaimer notes that Frugal Wizard Inc.® is the only company that has never been convicted of a major violation. In Canada.

John realizes he must find Ryan to warn him that he is being hunted by Ulric. Thokk says she saw Ryan heading into Wellbury two days ago. John identifies Ryan as a fellow aelv, and Ealstan suggests inquiring about him with the reeve, Wealdsig. Sefawynn is reluctant to meet Wealdsig, whom the group describes as devoted to Woden. Yazad mentions Wealdsig once nailed himself to a tree as a sacrifice 40 years ago, leaving him without the use of his right hand. Ealstan says Wealdsig is not likely Ulric’s full supporter and might listen to them. Sefawynn insists they sneak into the city to avoid Ulric’s lookouts. Yazad offers to smuggle them in with his apple delivery.

John tries again to enable his inactive platings and receives a message that they were forcibly disabled by external command. He fears if he digs deeper into his past, he won’t like what he learns about himself. He finds Sefawynn by the forest, and she confesses that most skops’ boasts and bindings no longer work, but she still performs and takes payment because people want to believe. She fears being recognized because the protections she promised have failed, including at a nearby settlement that was destroyed. John empathizes with her life on the run, and a bond of honesty grows between them. Back at the hut, John’s wight has interacted with the preserve’s offerings and requests, producing a pile of woven mats and a giant mound of butter from the reeds and milk left out, but unraveling the shoes down to their fibers. Sefawynn is shocked by the wight’s power.

That evening, the group travels to Wellbury. John assesses the town’s wooden palisade and moat as vulnerable to large-scale Hordamen attacks. Using the cover of dusk, Yazad’s group carries baskets of apples to the gate. Yazad chats with the guards while John, Sefawynn, Ealstan, and Thokk, hidden among Yazad’s followers, pass through unnoticed. John is struck by the stench of the small but crowded town but is also surprised by the diversity of inhabitants. Yazad leads them to a storehouse, gives John a staff made of apple wood, and departs. Thokk insists on accompanying them, and Ealstan and Sefawynn agree.

The handbook addresses the massive linguistic impossibility of the locals speaking modern English with an accompanying cartoon of a banana and other unique creatures with talk bubbles speaking in English. The page essentially dismisses the concern with the simple, lazy answer: "Apparently not."

The group approaches the reeve’s manor, where a large black runestone glows blue. Sefawynn explains the runestone might weaken John’s wight and that skops can perceive a wight’s presence. Their plan is for John to find where Wealdsig is holding Wyrm and distract the reeve while the others rescue the boy. John tries a locked back door and, unable to pick the lock, leaves out a berry offering and asks his wight to open it. The wight disassembles the mechanism.

John bursts into the manor, calling himself Runian and announcing he can foretell the future. Wealdsig, delighted, demands tricks. John uses his hearing augments to listen to Sefawynn’s whispers from a nearby window, correctly identifying objects Wealdsig selects behind a cloak. Amused, Wealdsig calls John more entertaining than the other outlanders. John creates thunder with his vocal augment and demands information about the outlanders. Wealdsig confirms that Ulric went to Maelport and expects visitors from another world in three days. He says Wyrm is imprisoned in a pit near the compost heap. John tries to distract the reeve long enough for Sefawynn to rescue her brother. A woman who was with Wealdsig earlier returns with Quinn, who recognizes him immediately and calls him “Johnny.”

Quinn reveals the trap was set for Ryan, not John. He mocks John for stealing a dimension key and his failed life. The confrontation triggers John’s memories. He is not a cop but a police academy dropout who became a grifter and then Ulric’s door guard. After Jen’s death, he wanted to escape his life and thought Ulric would never notice if he stole one of his many dimension keys. Quinn explains they have been hunting Ryan Chu for 10 years and have set traps using kidnapped children. Quinn snickers at John for choosing to hide in the very dimension where Ulric has set up a base. He offers John a chance to save himself by acting as bait for Ryan.

John realizes Ealstan and Sefawynn are walking into the trap. To get Quinn out of the city, he lies that he saw Ryan heading to Maelport to attack Ulric, and has his wight disassemble Quinn’s phone. Unable to communicate and believing John’s lie, Quinn rushes to Maelport to warn Ulric. He tells John to run, saying he owes him for something related to Tacy, but John doesn’t remember the reference. After Quinn leaves, John hears shouting and learns that Sefawynn and Ealstan have been discovered.

John and Wealdsig go outside to find Ealstan surrounded by soldiers while protecting Sefawynn and Wyrm. Thokk is nowhere to be seen. An archer shoots Ealstan, striking him with three arrows. The sight triggers more of John’s memories. Three years ago, he was a prized fighter in the Enhanced Fighting League, and Ulric, who had paid for his augments, ordered him to take a dive in a title match against Quinn. Ulric had John’s chest and skull augments compromised to ensure his humiliating defeat in front of the cameras.

Tired of believing he is a coward, John attacks the soldiers, and his arm platings activate as he uses his fighting skills to knock several men down. Several archers hold him at arrowpoint. Seeing Ealstan dying, John surrenders. An unfamiliar voice in his ear mocks him for not being worth the trouble, prompting him into action. John yanks the arrows from Ealstan and initiates an emergency person-to-person transfer of his medical nanites. He cuts his palm and presses it to Ealstan’s wounds. The nanites heal Ealstan’s fatal injuries, leaving everyone stunned.

John claims he can restore the dying to life and uses most of his remaining nanites to repair the old injury in Wealdsig’s hand. Awestruck, Wealdsig reveals he lost all seven sons to battle and sees John’s healing as salvation for his people. John realizes these people are more impressed with preserving life than by killing. Sefawynn bows and calls John “Great One,” a reverence just as the handbook promised, but John feels sickened by the undeserving title and misses her playful teasing. With his memories recovered, he takes an honest look at his life and recalls thinking of himself as a smooth pickup artist who knew how to be the boss of women and judge whether they met his high standards, when in reality he always left the bar alone.

John bluffs that Wealdsig cannot defeat them because John can heal everyone. Wealdsig agrees to let them go if John promises to kill Ulric and Quinn. As John leads his friends away, he accepts that he is skilled at lying because he has spent his life lying to himself.