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.

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.