Tag: 2023

14. Cassandra

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

We ran the remainder of the day and most of the night and only stopped when we were all too exhausted to continue. When we finally stopped, we were deep in the forest, and it was still dark. We huddled together under the blanket I had brought, not daring to produce any light or use any magic for fear the glow would be seen. Lyre stayed awake first, still too keyed up to really sleep, and woke Silden a few hours later to take a turn at keeping an eye out and listening.

The dawn was cold and grey, the light of the sun having difficulty finding us through the trees but still bringing a relieving visibility. Silden stood and stretched as we started to wake, and began walking out to see if there were any nearby sign of habitation such as trails or roads, but he found nothing.

My feet were hurt and bleeding and I had a number of small scrapes from running through the underbrush and the trees of the forest. In fact, we all had small lacerations and scrapes across our faces and arms and legs. I closed my eyes to focus on healing, not wanting to walk on sore feet all day – and found that I couldn’t. Worried, I turned and placed a hand on Lyre’s arm – he frowned for a moment until the small cuts across his skin knit closed, and then he smiled gratefully at me. I sighed with relief, glad that I hadn’t lost my power at least, and performed the healing for both Larina and Silden as well.

But when I tried to heal myself again, the spell failed to take hold. Larina stared at me the entire time, her blue eyes full of worry as she realized what was happening. “You can’t heal yourself,” she said, which caused Lyre’s head to snap around as he focused on me, his eyes darting over me as he looked at each visible wound I had.

I shook my head and shrugged, allowing the glow to drop as I stopped concentrating on the spell. “I guess not.” A thoughtful look crossed her face, and Larina stood and walked for a bit, searching through the underbrush. Lyre reached out to run a finger along one of the larger cuts on my forearm, wiping away some of the clotting blood and causing fresh beads of crimson to bloom. “I’ll be okay,” I told him, almost feeling annoyed, but the deep concern on his face softened that feeling. He took one of the rags from the crate and summoned some fresh water to wet it, then set about cleaning my cuts as best as he could. I sat quietly through his ministrations.

After a few moments, Larina came back with a few plants, and using two stones that she had also found and a bit of summoned water, began to grind the plants into a paste. I watched her curiously. When she was done, she pushed Lyre gently out of the way and began rubbing the green paste across each visible cut and all over the bottoms of my feet. Whatever it was, there was no sting when it touched the open wounds – first there was a warming sensation, and then a cooling sensation. Most notably it almost immediately helped how sore my feet were. “There are some people that can focus their magic on making these things work faster,” she said as she worked, Lyre hovering over her to watch, “Nothing as effective as your magic, and I don’t even know that spell anyway. But the paste should still help with the pain.”

“Thank you,” I said, smiling at her. She smiled back and patted my knee, then shifted over to begin sifting through the crate, tossing clothes out at Lyre and Silden. She was shorter and slighter than me, so she had difficulty finding any clothes that would fit her. I gave her the blue tunic I had found before and my black leggings. I folded some of the ripped up fabric of old shirts to wrap around my feet and pulled my socks over them to hold them in place. As I worked on that, Lyre and Silden dressed. They both wore brown breeches, though Silden’s were a little short on him and looked more like capris. Larina had tossed Lyre a faded yellow shirt that was quite billowy and had buttons at the sleeves and near the collar, and Silden was wearing a faded green tunic that was almost too tight across his shoulders. Once we had rummaged for everything we wanted from the crate, Lyre tossed the robes into it and, speaking softly, set the entire crate on fire.

As we sat near the flames for warmth, Silden revealed what was in the bag he had grabbed from Wrasker’s cabin – a map and money. “Are any of the coins going to be useful in the Empire?” I asked curiously as Silden stowed the coin bag back into the larger bag he had brought.

“The Empire has different money, but the metal will surely still have value. Gold is gold, no matter it’s shape,” Silden said as he laid out the map. After studying it for a moment, he pointed. “We left the ship here, and entered this forest. I don’t know how far we’ve come, but we haven’t exited the woods yet.” He drew his finger across the map, a distance that made my heart sink. “The nearest border of the Empire is here.”

Lyre and Larina both leaned over to study the map as well. I could see some of the symbols and guess at the geological meaning of them – mountains, forests, cities. But I still had trouble reading all of the text. “We could cross the desert,” Larina suggested, drawing a line a bit south of where Silden had slid his finger across the map. “It’s not inhabited.”

“For good reason,” Lyre said ominously. But then he sighed, rubbing a hand against the side of his head. “But we could avoid capture by humans, as long as we were wary of the danger.”

“And what danger is there in the desert?” I asked. We could all summon fresh water, so we wouldn’t die of dehydration at least.

“Large beasts, that hunt other large beasts, and get hunted by even larger beasts,” Silden said absently, tapping his finger on the expanse that Larina had gestured to. “But because of that, no people, no roads, no trade routes. If we get past the soldiers that guard the perimeter, no one would know we’re there. And they only have soldiers there to keep the monsters in, not to keep people out.”

“Wrasker bought each of us based on our offensive capabilities,” Larina said. “With the spells the three of us know, surely we’d be safe.”

They both looked to Lyre. He was staring at the map, a frown creasing his brow. He glanced up at me. “As strong as we are, we’d still have to be careful. There’s also the problem of the ravine.” He pointed at a feature on the map that cut through the desert close to the Empire side.

“It’s a very wide natural feature, created by the Edlun River. It starts high in the steep mountains here,” Lyre pointed and traced a winding line down until it reached the desert, ”Forms deep cliffs through here, and then opens out into valleys and plains south of the desert. The mountains would be almost impossible to cross. The cliffs of the ravine would be especially hard…  we may be able to manage hiking down into the canyons and out across the other side. But travel too far south…” Lyre traced down near the southern end of the desert. “The valley leading out of the canyons are very lush farm lands. We’d start running into humans again.”

As we sat in silence, Lyre nudged at the pack he had given me, and when I handed it over he pulled out some jerky. He shared it around. We sat, chewing on the tough meat in silence as we stared at the map. “We need to be moving. The hunter could still be alive and after us,” Silden said after awhile, standing and brushing off the pants he was wearing. He stretched his legs out for a bit, frowning. “I’ve never worn pants before,” he said. “Feels kind of restricting.”

“Only slaves wear robes. Cassandra was right to bring these – we’d stand out too easily without them, even at a distance,” Larina said. “I suppose I could have improvised a dress of some sort for myself though,” she added as she waved a hand, her voice taking on the echoey quality as she snuffed out the flames. The fabric was ashes now, the remainders of the wooden crate a charred skeleton.

“Would you have really wanted to hang on to it though?” I asked. Lyre and Silden each took one rapier. They didn’t have belts, so some of the remaining fabric was used to improvise something like a belt to hold their weapons in place.

She grimaced, and kicked at the ashes contemplatively. “No. Not at all.”

And then we continued moving.

We kept going at a clipped pace and reached the edge of the forest by that evening. Although we hadn’t discussed it much more, we did seem to unanimously decide the desert was best, and so had looped generally toward the southern edge of the forest. Once there, we paused to study the map before exiting the haven of the woods. There was some concern over whether we should travel on the road or not before we even reached one. Lyre thought it best to avoid the roads, but Larina pointed out that we ran the risk of crossing someone’s farmland, and that some humans disliked trespassers on their property. Still, their hair was cut short and the tips of their ears were easy to see, so running into anyone on the road could be disastrous. We spent the next couple of days cutting through fields and forests and avoiding houses and villages, but stayed close enough to the road so that we didn’t lose our course.

Midweek our rations were starting to run out, as Lyre had only intended to pack enough food to feed one person. We had wondered for a bit if we should steal something from a nearby farm, when Larina pointed out that I was human. “You could take the coins and buy provisions in the next village.”

Lyre was shaking his head, ready to protest, but before he could speak, I said, “It makes sense, and it’d be easier and less risky than being caught stealing.” Silden was already pulling out the bag of coins to plop down into my hands. It was heavier than I was expecting. I frowned. “What should I get?” I asked.

Larina composed a short list for me, and when I expressed some uncertainty about what price I should expect, she gave me a good ballpark figure to run with. “We should have kept the robes,” Lyre grumbled. “Then one of us could go with you at least.”

“Too late to fuss about that now,” I said, tucking the list in with the money. I wandered into town – a small village called Feldbern that worked as the central community to the local farms sprawled across the area. It had a general store and a town hall, a blacksmith, a small schoolhouse, and a few homes. A tiny inn sat next to the general store. Once inside the store, I pulled out the list and, knowing just a bit of the alphabet, I attempted to sound out the words awkwardly to the clerk that offered to help me. Frowning and irritated, the clerk held his hand out for the list, and I handed the short scrap of paper over to him. He gathered the items for me as I waited at the counter.

“Traveling through?” he guessed. I wasn’t sure if it was just because he didn’t recognize me or if the provisions were a giveaway, but I nodded. He frowned, looking me up and down, and I realized I probably looked like quite a mess, in dirty clothes and improvised footwraps, my hair disheveled, my face and arms covered in cuts with the green paste staining my skin. He frowned more deeply as I produced the heavy bag of coins to pay. “How did you come by all that?” he said, his voice dripping with disapproval. I realized belatedly that I should have taken just as much as I needed and not the whole bag.

I wondered briefly how I should explain, and settled for hardening my expression and saying, “That’s none of your concern,” as menacingly as I could manage.  He grimaced and did not look threatened in the slightest, but asked nothing more.

As he was near to finishing up, I asked, “Do you have any belts?” He did, so I bought two. It was a bit of effort to heft everything and carry it out of town by myself. As I was on my way out, I glanced back to see that the clerk had left the store to stand in the middle of the road and watch me, his arms crossed, his expression still disapproving. I wondered nervously who he would tell about the strange woman buying traveling supplies. Just outside of town, I closed my eyes and took three, steady, calming breaths. Then I hurried back to my companions. When I met up with the others the weight got more evenly redistributed and Lyre and Silden had proper belts to attach their rapiers to.

We moved on from that village quickly. Despite my misgivings, there was no sign that we were being followed. The next several days was a routine of walking, mostly through the evenings, most of the night when we could manage it safely, and through the mornings. We followed the road, but stayed mostly off of it, and looped far around habitations. When there were stretches of woods, we’d travel through for the cover they provided. We had enough provisions at this time to last us until we arrived at the edge of the desert, and then we planned to buy more.

Annoyed at my lack of reading ability at our last stop, Lyre and I started the reading lessons again using the slim red book I had taken from the ship. My grasp of written Blest was stronger every day, and reading even this small tome was helping to expand my vocabulary. There were even some days when Lyre wouldn’t cast the translation spell, and the three of them would take turns having conversations with me to give me practice. One evening we were sitting very close together so he could see the page over my shoulder. Before I could start sounding out the words, Lyre cleared his throat. “We can skip this section,” he said. I frowned and considered the story leading up to this page, and then really studied the section in silence for a moment before feeling my face heat up. I realized it was a very vividly described sex scene.

I remembered suddenly the Captain’s joke about reading lessons and Lyre’s initial discomfort about using the book to teach me and realized that I was learning to read from what basically amounted to porn. In the same instant, I realized exactly how close I was sitting to Lyre and said, “Oh!” I pulled back quickly and flipped the book shut. He stayed very still and continued to stare at it, his face and the tips of his ears turning slightly pink, and I felt my entire body warm with embarrassment. “Why didn’t you just tell me what kind of book it was?” I asked.

He raised his eyebrows and looked up at me. “I wasn’t sure we’d get very far into it. Besides, it’s a bit hard to explain.”

“You could have just said it was the Captain’s smut.” I could hear Larina stifling a giggle from where she was supposedly sleeping, and Silden quietly shh’ing her. I ignored them.

Lyre coughed in a way that sounded suspiciously like he was cutting off a laugh. “I was quite surprised that was what he gave you to read. I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about it if you knew.” I sighed and flipped the book back open to where I had left off. “What are you doing?” Lyre asked, a slight frown on his face.

“Reading. Apparently I just got to the good part,” I said. Lyre froze, his eyes wide, his features reddening even more. I read silently for the most part, but a few moments later had to hold the book out to him. “What’s this word?” I asked, my tone dripping with innocence as I pointed to the page with a finger. With context, I could guess, but I wanted to see if he would say it out loud.

Silden chuckled and Larina did not successfully hide her laughter as Lyre turned away and curled up to sleep, completely ignoring my question.

13. Interlude

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

It was a normal morning for Jennifer Brand. She let her daughter’s geriatric golden retriever Larry out and watched him walk in circles to find the perfect spot to do his business, sipping at her coffee as she stood at her back door. Then she went through the motions of her light morning exercises – a  little yoga, a little jog on the treadmill – before jumping into the shower. She could hear her phone going off just before she stepped under the steaming water, but opted to ignore it for the moment. She dressed and prepared for the day, picking up her phone to check the time and see who had called earlier. Her daughter’s flight was arriving this morning, and she was going to pick her up from the airport.

Frowning, she saw that she had received several text messages and had missed calls from three separate people, two of which had left voicemails. A sense of dread crept up her spine – one of the calls had been her ex-husband as well, and he rarely called unless it was something dire. Swallowing hard, she opened her text messages and read them quickly, then immediately moved to the living room, grabbing the remote to turn on the television. She flipped to the news. She half hoped that it was some sick coordinated joke arranged by her friends and her ex, but she knew that was a vain hope even before she watched the flashing banners declaring the breaking news. News that Stateside Flight 5071 had suddenly and mysteriously gone missing overnight.

Flight 5071. Cassandra’s flight.

She stood, staring at the television, her mouth opened into an ‘o’ of shock, until they displayed pictures of the flight crew and passengers. Even as a small grainy image on the television, Cassandra was instantly recognizable to her – her shoulder length wavy brown hair, her high cheekbones that she had inherited from Jennifer, the heart shaped face. She felt like she had been punched in the gut, and sank into the nearest chair – a comfortable loveseat. Larry ambled over to her and placed his head in her lap, staring up at her with large worried eyes, and she absently stroked his fur as she continued to stare at the screen in shock. “I guess you’re staying with me a bit longer,” she said to him, and he briefly wagged his tail and whined. It wasn’t an important detail, but for a moment it was all her mind could grasp. But after a few more moments, she shook her head to rouse herself.

She ignored the other calls and texts that she received after that, not really wanting to speak to anyone. She knew that going to the airport wouldn’t help – they didn’t know anything yet, and there was nothing for her there. There were already people out searching for signs of a crash, and she didn’t think she was going to make a difference there either. Instead she sat, glued to the news or searching for details online, the day disappearing into a blur of focus like it used to prior to her retirement. She reached out to a few contacts she had that could tell her if the authorities had any information beyond what was reported to the news, but everyone seemed stumped. There was no crash site. No wreckage. The flight had reported hitting some mild turbulence, and then had disappeared from radar and, as far as anyone else knew, from existence. It had happened somewhere over Utah, or perhaps even crossing into Nevada. The entire plane and everyone and everything on it just… disappeared.

In the afternoon, the story shifted as people began to wonder if the plane had somehow been hijacked by terrorists. But that idea never seemed to pan out. She heard from one of her contacts that security had been amped up for certain areas just in case, but no one had claimed responsibility or come forward with demands or threats. The only unusual thing about the flight was that it carried a famous actress, and some of her fans seemed to think she’d been kidnapped. But it seemed excessive to take an entire plane full of people just to target one individual.

Hours later, no one had found anything, heard anything. If the plane had been hijacked, it may have been landed somewhere, but what could have made that particular flight a target? Jennifer sat, frowning as she rubbed at her temple and considered everything she had researched, hoping to find some missing piece to the puzzle to why she wasn’t picking up her daughter from the airport today. She heard Larry whining at the back door, and jumped up to let him out, feeling slightly guilty at having ignored him for so long. Had she even fed him? She glanced at the time, and once he came back in, she fed him and made sure he had enough water, then let him up onto the couch to fall asleep halfway on her lap.

Feeling the need to act in some small way, she set about returning phone calls and emails and text messages into the evening, letting others know that she had heard about the disappearance, that she had not received any more news, accepting well wishes and condolences (which she thought were a tad premature as there was no confirmed deaths, but what else could be expected, given the circumstances?). Eventually she fell asleep on the loveseat.

The next few days were a similar blur and a growing mystery, a constant topic on social media and television.

What had happened to Flight 5071?

No one was certain how long the website had been streaming before it was discovered. It was a simple page, displaying four simultaneous streams at once, set 2×2 and centered. At the top of the page, a bold font simply stated, “Ye are to be judged by they.” It garnered attention first and foremost when people began posting links to it on social media with screenshots showing Peyton Hobbs, the actress that had been on the flight, in one of the streams. “Is This Legit???” one famous post had asked when sharing the link.

The other three were quickly identified as well. Alexandra Saint, a young girl also known as AlphaSaint to her stream and game review fans, and another passenger on Flight 5071. Lucas Kearney, a man in his mid to late 30s who worked as an accountant in Reno, also a passenger of Flight 5071.

And again, her face visible on another screen, identified by internet sleuths. Cassandra Murphey. A passenger of Flight 5071.

People began recording the Stream almost immediately – there was even one individual that had a backlog of it mere hours after it had started, and their uploads were considered the source authority. Many people tried tracing where it came from. But no one was able to figure out where the site was hosted – or where the Stream originated – or what had happened to the other passengers of Flight 5071.

There was a theory that the missing plane was a publicity stunt by Peyton Hobbs to advertise this elaborate internet show. The other passengers and flight crew were looked into as people attempted to justify the theory, assuming that the rest of the missing were actually acting as behind the scenes crew or extras. But the families of the missing were very real and very vocal about their desire to find their loved ones.

The streams were pored over, watched and rewatched. People began to devote entire channels to summarizing and analyzing the events of the Stream. People began to screencap moments and turn them into memes. There were even people making music videos or compilation reels of themed moments, with much of the initial focus being on Peyton and Lexie since they already had an established fanbase. Though as the Stream continued, fan pages and trending tags for Lucas and Cassandra also started to gain traction.

Jennifer became obsessed with it all. She had never been a fan of internet culture, that had been a thing of Cassandra’s generation, but she found herself immersed in it now. There was a lot of focus on Cassandra too – why was she alone? How had she become separated from the others?

There was also analysis and complaints on why those specific four had been chosen. Was there something that linked them? Some people griped that it was all Americans, until it was pointed out that while she could do an impressive American accent, Peyton Hobbs was actually Australian. Some griped that Alexis Saint acted “too white” or was simply a token. Some people complained that there was a lack of LBGTQ+ representation. People from Eastern countries complained about being judged according to the actions of Westerners. The only real link anyone could find: all four had been on Flight 5071, a flight traveling from Ohio to Nevada, a flight that had disappeared and taken 132 people in total with it. And no one knew what had happened to the other passengers.

People also spent a lot of time theorizing and arguing about what the page meant. If it wasn’t real, where were they filming? How were they keeping a 24/7 stream going and adding all the special effects so quickly? Was this all prerecorded? And more terrifyingly – if it was real, what did it mean that they were all to be judged? Was that everyone in the world, or just everyone that watched the Stream? What did judgement entail? What was the time frame of this judgement? Some people thought God was behind it. Others thought demons, and spoke forbiddingly against watching the Stream in fiery sermons. Quite a lot thought aliens. Given the presence of magic and elves in the Stream, some thought it was the Fae. Everyone had a theory.

Jennifer watched every moment she reasonably could. She started to coordinate her sleep schedule to Cassandra’s, and would still watch summaries of the past several hours once she woke. During slower moments of her daughter’s day, she would watch videos of internet commentary about the Stream. It felt strange. Once, she had been so focused on her career that she hardly had time for Cassandra. She had missed a lot of important moments when Cassandra had been growing up, had missed a lot of time at home in general. It had driven her husband away (though she suspected, given how many times he had married after their divorce, that he would have cheated eventually anyway). She often guiltily thought of herself as being a bad mother, and that guilt had been a part of her decision in moving to Reno, to follow Cassandra and be closer to her.

But even here in Reno, she sometimes had trouble being there for her daughter. They were completely different people. Cassandra always had her head in the clouds, was always reading books with dragons and magic, and playing games that held little to no interest for Jennifer. She made a point of meeting up with her daughter for dinner and quality time once a week, but it was often an awkward and quiet occasion. They didn’t like the same foods, could rarely agree on a movie they would both enjoy watching, and had such vastly different life experiences and interests that they could rarely a hold conversation that lasted more than a handful of sentences.

Now though, her entire life had become about Cassandra.

There were practical things to take care of as the days went by. Stateside Flights had a lawyer reach out to clarify the terms of refunds on missing or crashed flights, but Jennifer didn’t much care about the money and succinctly told the lawyer to go to hell. Since it was clear that Cassandra wasn’t going to be able to come back anytime soon, Jennifer closed out her utility accounts and spoke to her apartment manager, who was understanding of the situation and didn’t require funds for the broken lease. She had Cassandra’s furniture and belongings moved into storage, which she was quite happy to pay for, and she had Cassandra’s car stored in her own garage. Instead of the temporary set up she had for the dog, she stocked up on supplies and touched base with his vet to let them know she was now his caretaker.

Soon, another lawyer reached out to her – strangely, an estate lawyer. “I’m reaching out to you in regards to your daughter’s will and a letter that she left for you to read in the event of her death.”

“As I’m sure you’re aware, my daughter is not dead,” Jennifer had said tersely.

There was an awkward pause on the phone. “Yes, it’s been a very unusual situation. It’s especially hard for the people who are still technically missing, but in regards to your daughter’s case, given that we know where she is and that it’s been stated in the Stream that they will not be able to come back to our world, we’ve decided to execute your daughter’s will. She left behind a series of letters for friends and family, and has left the remainder of her monetary estate to you as well.” Jennifer frowned, and agreed to meet at the lawyer’s office, setting up a time and date she would be by, and wondered why her daughter had been so prepared for her death.

After completing all the legalese and securing the electronic transfers through the bank and finally closing out the remainder of her daughter’s accounts, Jennifer found herself sitting in her car, staring at an envelope that had Cassandra’s familiar sprawling loop on it. Cassandra had quite a bit of money in her account – apparently she had cashed out the 401k that Jennifer insisted she open, which is how she had been paying for the extra time off work and the trips she had been taking lately, including the one to visit her father. “For Mom” the envelope said. She tapped the envelope a couple of times, feeling conflicted about reading it. She saw Cassandra on a screen every day, would see when or if her daughter did die. A part of her wanted to rip the letter open and read it immediately, but another part of her felt that it was supposed to be saved for Cassandra’s death.

And Cassandra wasn’t dead yet.

Once she was home, she put the letter away so it would be safe and out of sight, and no longer a temptation. She decided she would reach out to her financial advisor the next day and see about having her daughter’s money put in an account where it could at least usefully accrue a decent interest. Because her daughter wasn’t dead. And she intended for her to be able to step back into her previous life if she did find a way back.

Jennifer also decided she would do what she could to help.

In her life before retirement, she had worked as a handler in the CIA, had even been a field agent once upon a time before starting a family. She still had security clearance and contacts in the office, and she intended to use them. If there was already a team researching the Stream and attempting to find the missing passengers, she intended to be a part of that team.

And if there wasn’t one yet, she intended to spearhead that initiative.

12. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Sometime around the beginning of our fourth week, as the glow of the compass spell and the image of the last Grace faded, Raella quietly said, “She’s been walking much of the time we check on her, and the figure is getting larger day by day. She’s approaching our borders.” I had noticed that the figure had shifted slightly away from me, but if the glowing figure had been growing larger, it had happened too gradually for me to tell. I hadn’t thought anything of it until Raella had pointed it out.

Zolambi looked disturbed at this assessment. “What could that mean? Do you think she’s fleeing danger?”

Raella tapped a finger to her chin pensively, considering. “It could mean that. It could mean any number of things. Perhaps she has learned to cast and has heard that elves are mages as well, and wishes to learn more. She could just be coincidentally traveling to another place within human lands that is closer to our borders. Regardless, it will mean that we won’t have to travel as far into foreign territory to retrieve her. And if she is in danger, or seeking us out on purpose…”

“Then it’s time for us to leave,” Greyjon said.

Raella nodded. “We’ve got a plan for this. We need only pack the supplies. We should be prepared to leave at dawn.”

At dinner that evening, Master Zern visited as we sat in our own little dining area, and gifted each of us with normal looking knapsacks that could hold more than expected. “Like a bag of holding,” Lexie said in awe after Zern had explained the gift to us. She held her bag up and looked into it.

Peyton had also curiously reached into hers, but shook her head slightly. “I can feel the bottom, so I doubt it has the same capacity or rules as a true bag of holding.” She poked at the insides of the bag and I could see where her hand pressed out against the sides, although it was an odd effect because she was leaning her entire arm in up to the shoulders. It made it look like her hand ended a little above her elbow. She seemed to realize that the others were watching her curiously, and quickly pulled her hands out of the bag, folding it in her lap. There was a slight flush to her cheeks. “A most generous gift, Master Zern. Thank you so much,” she said, once again all poise excepting the telltale pink of her cheeks.

“You will be doing so much more for us,” Zern noted with a warm smile.

“Will we be returning here after we find the last Grace?” Peyton asked.

Zern shook his head. “No. After finding her, you will be traveling on to the seal. Owing to the difficulties of the past several hundred years, the seal is no longer within elven lands. You will initially be on a diplomatic mission to see if we can reach it. Raella shall be in charge there.”

“So straight on to saving the world then,” Lexie said, her artificial cheer only barely hiding the nervousness we all felt.

“And once that’s done? Will we be expected back here again?” Peyton asked.

I noticed that at her question, Chase and Greyjon both looked carefully at the table, as though something about the question made them nervous. There was a moment of hesitation, but then Zern said, “When it’s all done, you will be free to go where ever you please.”

“For now, we have many preparations, and you should pack whatever you don’t wish to leave behind,” Raella said, effectively ending the conversation.

As soon as we were alone again, Peyton and I exchanged worried glances. She opened her mouth to speak, but I glanced over to Lexie, who had returned to eating her meal. Peyton frowned, and directed a forkful of meat into her mouth instead, chewing thoughtfully. Lexie picked a dinner roll apart slowly, seeming to consider each piece carefully before popping the bread into her mouth. “I caught it too, you know. You guys don’t have to treat me like I’m dumb,” she said once she had swallowed. She put the bread back on her plate and looked up at us. “What’s going to happen to us once we do what they want?”

Peyton sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted.

“Should we be trying to run away?” Lexie asked. Her eyes were wide with worry, but she managed a level of calm I couldn’t imagine having at her age.

“I don’t know,” I said, echoing Peyton. “But we should go with them far enough to find the other person from our world and help them out too. The four of us are going to be in this together.”

“Yeah. I guess the four of us are kinda like family, being from the same world.” I wasn’t sure if I would use the word family, but I had the feeling that would feel truer the longer we were together. Lexie returned to eating her meal, seeming satisfied with my answer and her reasoning.

The knapsacks made packing easy. We each had three sets of clothes that had been gifted to us, but I still packed the clothes I had arrived in as well. I also took my wallet, phone, and keys – useless, but strangely sentimental. I shoved them into the very bottom, knowing I wouldn’t need to reach them anytime soon. I also took some personal care items wrapped carefully in a small face towel, and finally packed away my sneakers as well. Although more comfortable, I suspected the unusual style would give me away as a foreigner of some sort. If we were going to be traveling in public, it was finally time to get used to the leather boots.

I glanced around the room, wondering what else I would need to take with me. As far as personal belongings, that was all I had to my name here. Assumably the food and traveling supplies were being arranged by Raella and the others, as well as anything else we could need. I paced my room for a moment, like I used to pace hotel rooms before checking out, nervously wondering if anything would get left behind and lost. It was still light out, and felt too early to sleep, but I wondered if I should try anyway. I have no idea when I’ll be in a bed next, I realized. I should sleep in one while I have the chance.

Instead, I walked out of the room.

My thoughts raced. I could maybe defend myself in a physical fight if I needed to, but I still hadn’t managed any sort of casting. How dangerous was the world beyond? I had felt so stifled at the idea of being in the tower as a prisoner at first. And now I was terrified at the idea of leaving and traveling out in the world. I thought of every monster I had ever encountered in a fantasy game. Would there be giant rats? Giant spiders? Giant… giants? There was any number of mega-fauna in a game.

And not just giant creatures. What about living plants, or ghosts, or demons?

I walked up the stairs. I had heard that Master Zern’s quarters were in the upper floors of the tower. Just around the bend from the floor Peyton and Lexie stayed on, I ran into the barrier again.

I frowned as I absently rubbed at my nose, wondering if it had stayed up the entire time. They had allowed us to roam freely since the initial tour, but I realized I had never tried to go to the top of the tower after that. I tried to picture in my memory the spacious room where we had been summoned as I placed a hand on the barrier. I very lightly put my fist against it, wanting to punch it. There had been a time when I was younger and angrier that I might have. But what purpose did that really serve?

With a sigh, I turned and walked back down the stairs slowly. I decided to leave the tower, and breathed a quiet sigh of relief when I was actually able to exit at the bottom. The barrier being present up top had put me a bit on edge, almost making me feel as much like a prisoner as I had the first night here.

I decided to make my way out to the stables. Partly, I wanted to go and familiarize myself a bit more with my horse. But I also knew that Peyton spent most of her evenings there as well.

I didn’t spot her at first as I entered, as they had many animals handled here, but as I stepped further in to where my horse was kept, I passed by Peyton in the stall with her horse. She was feeding it from her hand, murmuring quietly to it as she did so. I leaned against the entrance to the stall and studied her. She had a very angular face, with high cheekbones and a long thin nose. She also had a very strong jaw and chin for a woman, and even without make up, she had enviously clear skin.

Sensing my presence, she glanced up at me and smiled. “Hello Lucas,” she said. I nodded in response, feeling a bit too tongue tied to respond properly. We didn’t spend a lot of time together one-on-one, and it still sent my mind reeling just thinking that in our own world she would never have any reason to speak to me, and I would never have the guts to speak to her. She glanced out at the fading light of the day. “Should probably head back to the tower soon and try to sleep early. Could be the last time we’re in a proper bed for who knows how long,” she said, echoing my earlier thoughts. I nodded again, my mind drifting back to everything else I had been thinking earlier as well.

She continued rubbing a hand along her horse’s neck, and frowned at my extended silence. “Are you okay?” she asked, sounding sincerely worried.

I considered all the things running through my mind. I didn’t want to share all of it – maybe it was insecurity, maybe it was just that I didn’t think she’d really care. So I settled for saying, “I was just thinking about how many giant animals there are to kill you in fantasy games.”

She smirked. “I had my suspicions that you were a full on nerd, but you really don’t say much.”

“Well, you know. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”

“Hmm. Who said that originally?”

“No clue.”

She chuckled, but then kind of grew contemplatively quiet herself. “You know… if Lexie and the other one don’t know, we’ll never be able to find out where that quote is from.”

I considered that for a moment, and wracked my brain trying to remember the source of the quote. Finally giving up, I said, “Well, we’re in a new world now, so maybe it’s mine. I said it here first. Maybe we should just claim all those little nuggets of wisdom as our own? Publish an entire book of quotes, attribute them to ourselves.” I grinned, and with an overexaggerated dastardly tone, added, “No one would ever know.”

She gave a brief laugh, and then seemed to consider the idea further and descended into a fit of contagious giggles. I found myself laughing along, though I found the idea more sad than funny. But maybe that was the funny part. Then shaking her head, she dusted her hands off on her pants and whispered good night to her horse.  She turned to face me, practically glowing in the light of the setting sun, the copper in her auburn hair glinting. “I’ll walk you back to the tower, if you like?”

Seeing how beautiful she looked, thinking about her laugh, I felt slightly taken out of the world again. Something like this would never happen to someone like me. It had to be a simulation. “Oh, no, you go ahead. I’ll head back later. I came down to check on my own horse.”

“Fair enough. Goodnight, Lucas,” she said, “Don’t stay out too late.” And then she walked past me and out of the stables. I watched her go, rubbing at the side of my head, then walked over to my own mount’s stall and started to brush her out. I didn’t have a lot of experience with taking care of a horse, although one of the stable hands had shown us before and I had watched others do the same things. Regardless, Drifter, the mare that had been assigned to me, was very patient with my ministrations.

I went back several minutes later, took the last bath I was sure to have for awhile, and settled into my bed. I stared at the ceiling that I had become used to over the past few weeks.

I didn’t get a wink of sleep.

I heard movement out in the dining area and Lexie’s muffled voice enthusiastically thanking Alissa for the food and I groaned. It had been an awful night of feeling like I should drift off at any moment, without that moment ever actually arriving. There were no windows so I couldn’t see the lightening of the sky, but I knew that it was happening even if I couldn’t see it. I could just feel the coming day laughing at me. But I couldn’t clear my mind. It wasn’t just the dangers of the world, but what was going to happen to us if we completed our mission. Or if we’d even be able to complete our mission if I never learned to cast. Or what would happen in this world if we chose not to complete our mission. I had wondered what kind of person the fourth Grace was. I wondered how uncomfortable sleeping in the woods would be, especially after riding all day on horseback. I wondered if Raella teaching history was as boring as learning history back home.

Finally, I forced myself up and splashed some water on my face and went to go eat breakfast. Peyton raised an eyebrow as I sat down at the table. “Didn’t get much sleep, I take it?” she said.

I grimaced at her in response and shoved a sausage into my mouth to chew it silently. She did her best to suppress a smile and continued to eat her own breakfast. “Wow, you look like shit, Lucas,” Lexie said cheerfully after she swallowed her own food.

I gave her a long, flat wordless stare.

After breakfast, we said our final goodbyes to Alissa and Quince. Alissa presented us with some new clothes and said we might want to change into them before we left – more comfortable travel and riding clothes. “Since part of the mission is a bit diplomatic, I’ve also given Raella some more presentable clothes for you to wear at a royal court,” Alissa said.

“You’ve been so kind to us, Alissa, Quince. Thank you for taking such good care of us, and for everything you’ve done,” Peyton said.

For a moment, Alissa seemed to want to say more, but then Quince placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled at us. “You’ve been the ones that have been kind to us,” he said simply.

“It’s been an honor,” Alissa said, her eyes bright with tears.

After that, we left for the stables.

They had a wagon and our horses saddled nearby. “First, we’ll perform the compass spell to get our bearing,” Raella said, all business. They arranged us and began casting, the light of magic springing up around us. Once again, the fourth Grace was walking, and did seem to be slightly larger in size. She was still mostly south west of us. Greyjon mounted his horse as soon as the spell was finished, as did Zolambi. Raella and Chase climbed into the wagon and sat up front. “We do have your horse ready for you,” Chase said cheerfully to Lexie, gesturing to the animal tied to the back of the wagon, “But I figure you’d be more comfortable riding in the wagon?”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Lexie said, giving her placid mare a wide berth to hop into the back of the wagon. I watched Peyton easily mount her horse in one fluid motion, patting it on the neck and whispering in a low voice to it as I clumsily pulled myself up onto Drifter. I wondered how sore I was going to be by the end of the day.

“Well, if we’re ready then,” Greyjon said. Zolambi was very quiet and very pale in the morning light, and though his face was calm his horse was skittishly shifting back and forth, like it could sense his nervous energy. I wondered what it was like for a former slave to knowingly return to the land that had enslaved him. “Let’s be on our way,” Greyjon directed, and started out at the head of our procession.

11. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

The next day started out much like the previous one. The clothes that I had worn the previous day were taken away to be washed and another set provided. This set was still loose and soft, but this time the pants were a light khaki and the shirt was white. I wondered for a moment how easily they might stain during our training sessions, but wasn’t going to complain about what was provided. Alissa and Quince had prepared a simple fruit salad for breakfast, with cottage cheese and more bread. Lexie scrunched her face up at the cottage cheese and picked at the fruit a bit, but did eat several slices of bread that she generously slathered with butter. Since I liked cottage cheese quite a bit, that suited me fine because it meant more for me.

Quince was beginning to clean our rooms and the dining area as Chase arrived to collect us. We met with everyone but Master Zern in the same courtyard as the day before. Once again, they performed the compass spell that allowed us to briefly see the other Grace. She was in the same position in the circle as before, this time sitting and eating a bowl of soup. She was such a small figure that it was hard to make out specific details about her.

After that, Greyjon put Zolambi in charge of leading Lexie and me through a series of motions and some sparring with the staffs, while he pulled Peyton aside to continue sparring with the wooden swords. It was warm this day too, and I was still concerned about getting the crisp white shirt dirty, so I pulled it off partially into the morning’s practice. Lexie whistled after I deposited it on the stone bench. “You’re actually pretty fit for an accountant,” she said.

“You’re way too young for me to be comfortable with you saying that,” I responded, feeling my face turn red. I wondered if I should have just left the shirt on, but didn’t want to appear too self conscience by retrieving it immediately. “But yes, I try to go to the gym regularly.” In truth I hadn’t been going much the past year, which was part of the reason the morning exercise had been kicking my ass. But she didn’t need to know that.

She studied me for a moment, a look of mock sympathy on her face. “So how long ago did you get dumped?”

I heard Peyton laugh briefly and shot her a look. She was very purposefully pretending to not pay attention to us as Greyjon led her through a series of parries, though they were both smiling at the conversation. “I didn’t start going to the gym because I was dumped,” I lied. “I started because I have a family history of diabetes and heart attacks. My dad was diagnosed when he was my age, and his dad died of a heart attack a little older than I am now.”

“Wow. You’re heart attack age? Isn’t that like… 50?” Lexie gaped at me openly.

“My granddad died when he was 40. I’m 36,” I said, feeling a little annoyed at the conversation.

“Oh. You would have looked great for 50.” I was under the distinct impression she was implying I did not look great for 36. “And for the record, it’s not like I’m a little kid. I’m 14.”

“That’s totally still kid-territory. Besides, you look 12.” She rolled her eyes at me, and I stooped to her level by sticking my tongue out at her.

Once we were done with the staffs, we moved on to using the bows. When it was time for lunch, we were led back to the tower to eat, as Chase planned to have us practicing magic indoors this time. Chase had Lexie working on hovering small items to teach her to properly gauge how much power was needed for the task while Peyton and I were set to meditating and learning some basic Primordial words from Zolambi.

The first item Lexie attempted to lift was a very thick, very heavy tome, but she put too much power into the spell and the book went slamming into the ceiling before falling very close to where I was sitting. “Should we be doing our lessons somewhere safer?” I asked Zolambi, and the sheepish look on Lexie’s face shifted to a scowl.

It wasn’t long before our days faded into that similar routine, though near the end of the first week they also gave us riding lessons in the afternoon. Once again, Peyton had prior experience – her family had owned horses when she was a child, and she had to ride horses for a few of the roles she’d had in the past, so there was very little actual training that she needed. She bonded with her horse nearly instantly, and would sometimes stay late at the stables to brush him out. He was a handsome deep tan in color with a dark nose and socks, and a black mane and tail. His name was Vayl.

I didn’t have much experience with horses, but I had always thought of them as beautiful creatures. I tried to apply what I had read about them in books to some degree, though I was uncertain how helpful any of it was. I was under the impression they specifically chose very calm animals for us anyway – my own horse was a mare that was brown and white in spots and so docile that it was hard not to be instantly fond of her and her patience for me. Lexie, on the other hand, was terrified of horses. “They bite, you know,” she said, and kept an obsessive watch on where her very placid brown mare was keeping its head. It was funny watching her jump every time the horse turned to her.

“At least we’re not riding giant spiders,” I joked.

“No one’s ever been able to tame one of those,” Zolambi said very solemnly. I couldn’t tell if he was adding on to my joke or telling the truth, and I felt a shiver run up my spine as I wondered if there were real giant spiders in this world.

We were also allowed to roam freely and without oversight when we weren’t receiving lessons, on the condition that we never leave the University grounds. I spent the evenings of my first week going on long strolls across the campus grounds after dinner, sometimes being joined by Lexie, or both Lexie and Peyton, but never Peyton alone. In a way I was grateful for that, because I never knew exactly what to say around Peyton. Lexie was easy to get along with, having a good sense of humor and being a naturally chatty person, which suited my usual silence. Sometimes I just walked through the gardens, and it relaxed me to see familiar sights from our own world – flowers and plants that I recognized, even if I couldn’t name them. Trees with familiarly shaped leaves. Finches and cardinals, and even a hummingbird once. We may have been in a completely foreign place, but nothing in it was completely alien to us.

I visited each of the guard towers in turn to look out past the University grounds. The University sat on a hill outside of the city, so you could stare off into the surrounding country side that stretched off into vast grasslands. But looking down into Rygalium was also interesting in its own way. You could just barely make out the people entering or leaving the city, and the traffic on the road that looped around the University and out further east. Another road bypassed the city heading west. I stared at it often, wondering if it was the road we’d be taking whenever we finally left.

I also spent time walking through each of the buildings after classes were done for the day. Sometimes a few evening classes would be in session, and I was careful to avoid interrupting. But most evenings the halls had the eerie ambience any vacated public place had when it was empty, and I always enjoyed that feeling.  Even when they were around, the students seemed to avoid me. Occasionally if someone caught me alone somewhere without any witnesses, I’d get a series of questions about what my world was like and how I was adjusting to theirs. They were always very brief conversations, full of worried glances to see if we’d be spotted. It gave me the impression that the students had been warned against talking to us, and might face some sort of repercussion when caught. It bothered me that a lot of them seemed… overly sympathetic? It was hard to put a finger on exactly, but it felt almost like pity.

Sometimes for lunch we returned to the tower, other times we joined the staff in the dining hall located in the building adjoined to the tower. There were some outdoor picnics very similar to our first day as well. Only once we ate in the student dining hall – at first it got really quiet when we entered and filled our plates, and then after we sat at our table, it was suddenly very loud as the students’ curiosity swelled at our presence. But similar to my outside walks, none of the students approached.

It didn’t take long before Lexie was conjuring her own water and baths, and could summon a gust of wind and direct it into a daredevil swirling around us in the courtyard. She could start a campfire, and quell it. She still had trouble balancing items once she had them floating in midair, but she was no longer at risk of slinging them like projectiles.

It was harder for Peyton and me. They tried teaching us some degree of Primordial, but that didn’t work for us as easily as it had for Lexie. Still, through careful practice and meditation, Peyton was able to feel magic by the end of the second week, and was quickly starting to learn all the basics that Lexie had already learned. It didn’t take long for them both to outpace me.

We had moved on to using moving targets with the bows as well, and though I wasn’t bad with the stationary target, I could barely hit the moving target. I was getting better with the staff, but I couldn’t use a sword, and I couldn’t cast any spells. All I could do was ride a very gentle horse and think about whether there really were giant spiders in this world or not. There probably was. It seemed in every fantasy setting, there was always giant spiders.

Once Peyton had accessed her casting abilities, Raella came to visit us one evening in the tower and asked that we sit with her. We saw her every morning for the compass spell, but she usually departed to take care of other details immediately after, so this was the first conversation we’d had with her since the first few days we’d arrived. From what I understood, she was sending communications out to the city-states nearest the borders of the human lands to try to gather information on where it might be best to sneak into the foreign territory. After the Fracture, the human kingdoms had become very protective against Imperial incursion, so the borders were well guarded. But since every city was its own independent government, it was sometimes hard to get information from them without providing information in turn.

We were seated in the dining room this time, shortly after having finished dinner. Alissa and Quince were clearing everything away when Raella arrived and asked to speak to us. Quince had gone to get Lexie, who had finished early and already returned to her room. Raella sat calmly at the table, her hands steepled in front of her as she waited patiently for a curious Lexie to arrive and slide into a chair.

“Now that two of you are able to cast, I wanted to discuss something that comes up in the texts about the Graces. Something that usually happens once they begin to use magic.” I frowned at the table, feeling too embarrassed to look up at anyone as she said that. I doubted that anyone really cared about my insecurities, but I couldn’t not feel them, and it annoyed me. “For some it happens immediately. There are a few that it never happens to at all. But at some point, it is very likely you will begin to hear voices.”

She paused and looked at each of us in turn, as though waiting to see if any of us would speak up and admit we had already been hearing these voices. I glanced over at Peyton and Lexie – Peyton’s face was a calm mask, revealing nothing. Lexie frowned. “So we’re going to go crazy?” she asked, the faintest hint of fear in her voice.

“No. The voices are very real.” Lexie grimaced, and I could tell that she didn’t like that answer any more than the thought of going crazy. “As you pull on your divine abilities, the individual that we have summoned you here to seal will became aware of your presence in this world. As we said before, the seal weakens over time, and being near divine himself, he is able to sense the Graces. He will attempt to reach out to each of you, to convince you to let him free. It is said in the texts that he will use different voices, make any claim, promise anything you want to convince you to help him. But you must not listen to him. He is desperate, and he is a liar.” She spoke the last sentence with a finality that said that there was no questioning the fact.

“If we do start to hear this voice, do we tell you about it?” Lexie asked.

“Yes. As immediately as you can.” Raella again looked at each of us in turn, her golden eyes seeming to almost glow against the darkness of her skin. “If for no other reason than posterity. Being the expert on Divinities and the seal, it is important that I record everything about our current quest, so anything you can tell me about your experience here will be appreciated and important to future generations of scholars.” She stood, her fingers sliding along the tabletop. “I am not… easy to approach. I understand that. But I hope you also understand the importance of keeping me informed on everything, and that you cooperate to the best of your ability.”

Peyton gave a brief, formal nod. “Of course,” she said, her tone warm although her features betrayed nothing of what she really thought. Raella’s lips thinned for a moment as she studied Peyton, but she nodded and left with little fanfare.

Lexie bounced to her feet and was out of the room almost as soon as Raella was gone. I studied Peyton for a moment, who was staring at the exit, her expression still unreadable. I wondered what she was thinking about. I wondered if maybe she had already heard voices. I wanted to ask, but also didn’t want to pry. With a sigh, I slapped the table and stood, and made my way down the hall to my room. I glanced up as I stepped into my door, and could see that Peyton still sat quietly at the table, apparently lost in thought.

10. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

It turned out that magic did not come easily to any of us. Chase started us with some meditation, which was a welcome break after the very physically exerting morning. She spoke calmly to us about finding a center of power and accessing it, but if there was some deep well of power inside of me, I couldn’t sense it at all. Chase wasn’t upset. “In all the records that Raella has studied, no one was able to cast in their first lessons. Magic isn’t natural for any of you like it is for us – we’ve been able to feel it, see it, our entire lives. For you, it’s like being blind and reaching for an item that someone else is telling you is there. You have to take their word for it, and until you accidentally brush against it with your hand, you have no concept of what it actually feels like –  not the texture, or the shape, or the heft. But it’s there. You just have to keep reaching.”

Lexie sighed dramatically and flopped back on the grass, her limbs splayed out. “Man, I really wanted to be great at this. Magic!”

“You will be,” Chase reassured her. “Some of the records say that it takes an awakening for some of the Graced – a moment of danger or extreme emotion that forces you to pull the magic from within you. Raella thinks it’s a little different than normal magic because of it’s divinity. But the basics of it are still there.”

“We’ll also try teaching a few words of Primordial and see if vocalization and gestures help you to cast,” Zolambi said. He was sitting near the bench where Greyjon was napping, watching our lesson intently.

Lexie groaned. “I don’t want to learn a whole ‘nother language.”

Zolambi chuckled. “You won’t have to know the specifics of it. You can say something as simple as “fire, burn” and it directs a flame for you.”

“Why did you choose to learn Primordial for your casting?” Peyton asked.

Zolambi’s features darkened momentarily before his face became unreadable again. “I did not have a choice,” he said simply, but didn’t elaborate. Peyton nodded, taking his tone to mean that he did not want us to press further, and re-settled into lotus pose, closing her eyes to focus on meditating again.

Lexie sat back up. “What do you mean by that?” she asked. I cleared my throat and poked her with my foot. She frowned at me and I frowned back at her and just barely shook my head no. She seemed confused, but didn’t say anything further.

Zolambi seemed lost in thought for a long moment before saying, “Some elves are kept as slaves in the human kingdoms. They are taught to cast using Primordial, and don’t know that vocalization isn’t necessary for magic. I suspect it makes it easier to control them, to keep track of when and what they are casting. As if they don’t have other methods of control.” The earlier concern about the fourth Grace being in human lands seemed to have a very reasonable answer, I realized. But if she was human like us, certainly she’d be fine?

Lexie’s jaw dropped open. Her facial features shifted between a whole array of emotions as she studied Zolambi. Then frowning, she looked away. We were all very quiet for several long moments – I realized I was staring absently at Zolambi’s scar and twisted my head to watch Peyton continue to meditate, seemingly untouched by the entire conversation. Then Lexie growled and tossed herself back on the grass again. “Man, that just pisses me off!” she said. “Maybe I’ll get to set a slaver on fire though.” The slightest twitch of a smile pulled at the edge of Zolambi’s mouth.

“Some people do find it easier to control magic by vocally commanding it. I’ve been teaching Primordial at the University here for some years now,” he said, his tone lightening.

“So how do I say this, ‘fire, burn’ phrase in Primordial?” Lexie asked, sitting up again. Zolambi pronounced the words for her, and she did her best to mimic him with some mild correction. She repeated the words quietly to herself, her eyes closed for several moments. Then she opened her eyes and stood – dramatically sweeping her hand in front of herself and shouting the phrase.

I don’t think any of us were expecting anything to actually happen, but a light enveloped her as she shouted, her voice took on the same strange resonant timber that Zolambi’s did when we had seen him cast, and a short bursting wall of flame sprung up under the path her hand had taken through the air. Chase and Zolambi jumped up, Chase squealing in delight, and Peyton’s eyes flashed open to watch.

“Holy shit, I did it!” Lexie screamed, jumping up and down excitedly. I realized that my mouth was agape and snapped my jaw shut with an audible click. Lexie paused, her eyes wide with wonder and excitement, her face flushed. “I think I can do more! Even without the words,” she said. And this time, without vocalizing, she swept her arm in front of herself again – the light sprung up around her once more and a wall of fire bloomed into existence, spiking out and away from her in a very dangerous, very hot wave.

“Oh, that’s amazing! But oh… oh! Let’s not set the gardens on fire!”  Chase said, also bouncing up and down, as excitable as the younger girl. Lexie nodded, but didn’t seem to know what to do to make the fire go away, so Chase and Zolambi began extinguishing the flames instead.

After the magic lessons, we were given a more extensive tour of the campus. There were several buildings with classrooms and auditoriums, and two dormitory buildings, spread over a sprawling series of courtyards and gardens. We weren’t taken into the buildings themselves, but did see students and teachers walking outside between the buildings and through the gardens, and gathering for outdoor classes or activities. I noticed that we garnered quite a bit of attention, with people pointing at us and whispering to each other. The entire campus was contained within the confines of massive stone walls. The entrance was open, and there was a long building that turned out to be stables set just inside the opening. Immediately outside the entrance of the campus were a few small University owned farms that provided food for the students and teachers, and past that small expanse of land sprawled a city. There were guard towers set along the walls of the campus grounds, but the University did not employ guards or soldiers to man them.

It was from one of these towers that Greyjon showed us the lands beyond the University walls. I watched Lexie lean precariously over the stone ledge, and kept an eye on her balance, ready to reach out and grab the back of her shirt if she started to fall. Peyton stepped up and placed her hands on the ledge – I watched the breeze catch her hair and blow it out of her face, the sunlight catching coppery glints as it shifted. Then I realized I was staring and forced my attention beyond the walls.

“Will we be able to go into the city?” Lexie asked, glancing back at our guides.

Greyjon was leaning against the doorway again, his arms crossed. He stared out at the city, a slight frown on his face, and remained quiet. Zolambi stared passively at Chase. Both seemed to be waiting for her to answer the question. Chase flushed slightly, but then said, “It may not be safe. The ritual isn’t widely known about these days, the tales of the resealing are treated like ghost stories. Only the people here in the University know that it is time and that we have successfully performed the summoning rite. And since it’s not common knowledge, the people in the city might be confused about a human wandering freely in our lands.” I thought about the people that had pointed and stared at us as we toured the campus grounds earlier.

“That’s a bummer.” Lexie sighed and stepped back from the ledge, much to my relief.

“What’s the name of this city?” Peyton asked.

“Rygalium,” Chase said. “It was once the capital of the Empire, but since the Fracture, it rules itself. The grandson of the former Emperor is part of the council that rules the city. Since the University brings in students from across the land, the University Master is also a part of the council and has a lot of say in political affiliations across the city-states.”

“And you, Greyjon – you’re on loan from Kimber? What is that place like?” Peyton turned to lean against the ledge, her hands still on it to support her weight. She was giving her full attention to our guides now.

Greyjon nodded. “Kimber is a smaller city.”

“Most cities are smaller than Rygalium,” Chase noted.

“Yes. Kimber is more militaristic than most. Everyone is trained for battle from a very young age. We’re ruled by a daughter of the former Emperor and her sons. They’re advised by a council of Generals and Warlocks.”

“What distinguishes a Warlock from another mage?” I asked, a bit curious.

“The war part, mostly,” Greyjon said wryly. “They’re powerful mages, that have trained their entire lives to use magic in battle – commanding fire similar to the little wall you created earlier,” he nodded to Lexie, who grinned in acknowledgement, “or putting their minds to applying magic to destruction or force.”

“Most elves can control some degree of basic magic – to give themselves light, or start a fire in a hearth, or conjure water, or make it easier to move small items around,” Chase said, and with a flourish of her hand and an enveloping light, she conjured a small flame in the air. It flickered and danced as she moved her fingers, bound to her will. “But a larger fire requires strength. Directing it farther away from you and toward an enemy requires more refined control. Making sure it burns deeply enough to immolate your enemies…” With a flick of her fingers, the flames snuffed out, and the light enveloping her faded. “It requires more than our natural grasp of magic. It requires power and intent, which requires training.”

Peyton stared at where the flame had been, deep in thought.

Lexie held out her hand and a small flame flickered into life above her palm as the light of magic also enveloped her. She focused on it for a moment before making it disappear. “Yeah, what I did in the courtyard earlier definitely tired me out,” she said.

“As you get used to casting, you’ll get stronger. It’ll take practice and time. But you’re guaranteed to be on par with the most fearsome warlocks. Every Grace is.” Chase smiled. “For now, we should get you back to your tower.”

As we followed Chase and Greyjon down the stairs, Zolambi fell into step behind us and Lexie lingered to walk near him briefly. She was quiet when she spoke, but I could still hear her say, “My ancestors were slaves too. I’m sorry that happened to you.” Glancing back briefly, I could see that Zolambi was studying her curiously, slightly taken aback by the statement. Lexie was staring at the steps in front of her, seeming almost too embarrassed to make eye contact.

Feeling this conversation needed more privacy, I moved forward a bit faster, and if he responded, I didn’t hear it.

Back at the tower, Quince and Alissa provided us with dinner and more water, as well as steaming hot water for the tubs. Alissa briefly admonished me for moving the dishes last night, saying they could handle the clean up, to which I simply shrugged. I wasn’t sure what to say, as I didn’t really feel sorry to help. She narrowed her eyes at me as she gathered most of the dishes.

As he was finishing up cleaning the dining area, I asked Quince about whether they brushed their teeth, and he followed me to my room and showed me some other items I had near the counter, which included a small pot of a gritty paste and a strip of linen rag to rub the paste onto my teeth with. I thanked him again, remembering that Peyton had been the one that had reminded us of that basic nicety, and feeling a bit guilty that I hadn’t thought of it sooner.

When he was gone, I used the paste, and swished some water around my mouth thoroughly to rinse it out. It was fairly salty, and had a herbal taste to it that wasn’t completely unpleasant. Still, it was something I would have to get used to. I kicked off my sneakers and decided to try on the leather boots they had left me. They fit well but were a bit stiff, and would probably hurt my feet until I wore them in properly.

I took them back off and considered taking a bath, but the water was still too hot for my tastes, so I wandered out of my room and upstairs. I was thinking of grabbing the things I had left on the table the night before – not that my wallet or keys would ever be necessary again, but they did hold some sentimental value at least, and a few pictures that I wanted to keep.  As I entered the common room on that floor, I saw that Peyton was there, curled into one of the armchairs with a book.

It looked like she had already bathed and was dressed in a loose nightgown. Her hair was still damp but had been combed out. I paused sheepishly before entering the room, feeling like an intruder, but was glad to see that my keys, phone, and wallet were still on the table. She glanced up at me, and I gestured to the book in her hands. “Can you read it?” I asked curiously.

She nodded. “Everything looks like it’s in English. It hurts my head even thinking about how that’s possible. Are our minds just automatically understanding what we see and hear and translating it? What does it really look like?” She shrugged, lowering the book as she spoke to me, her finger marking the page she was on.

I finally stepped forward to grab my stuff, then hesitated for a moment before sitting on the couch. I looked up to see that she was watching me, her head slightly tilted. “And what’s the book about?”

“It’s a recipe book.” I blinked in surprise, and she chuckled at the expression on my face. “I asked Alissa if she had any books for me to look at. I was curious if I’d be able to read the language. This was all she had though. I probably should have asked Chase earlier, but I didn’t think about it until dinner.”

I nodded. There was a silence for a moment. I wanted to express how impressed I was over how she was handling everything, but suddenly felt worried about coming off as a giddy fanboy, or sounding condescending if I phrased things poorly. I turned my wallet in my hands, feeling the smoothed leather in my palm. “You’ve been handling this all really well,” I finally said, after taking the moments to carefully contemplate my words.

“Have I?” she asked, bemused.

I looked back up at her. “You’ve thought of things very carefully, just based on the questions you ask when you have the chance. You already have skills that are going to help you here. You’ve been incredibly calm throughout, despite how… unreal any of this is. It’s impressive.”

She smiled, a bit sadly. “I don’t feel calm or impressive though.”

I studied her thoughtfully. “That makes sense. But if you aren’t… you’ve held it all together really well.” She nodded, tracing a hand over the cover of the book. I watched her for another long moment before saying, “What do you think of this entire situation?”

She sighed. “I used to daydream about something like this.”

“Who hasn’t? There’s a reason it’s a popular fiction genre these days.”

“True.” She smiled. “But being here is something else. There’s a lot to learn, and a world to save. It’s… daunting. And I get the feeling there are things they’re keeping from us. But they seem so open that I’m having a hard time pinning down what.” She sighed and shifted position in the chair. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. It’s good to have our guard up.” I stood to leave.

“And what about you? While you’re quietly observing all of us… what do you think of all this?” she asked.

I paused by the door and glanced back at her. “I’m not even sure any of this is real.”

Her lips thinned slightly as she considered that as well. “I hadn’t really considered that possibility. I get the sense it is real though. It all feels real.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Of course you’d say that if you were part of the simulation,” I said, only partially teasing. I could hear her laughing as I stepped out onto the stairs.