Windy Set/Story/World Hub (New: Solari and Ekl)

A MAP OF VOLARIA


Of relevance, that little area to the right of Oscura is a flat area controlled by Entela to function as a relay for the Entelan Transceiver Network, due to the concentrated heat and hunting that makes upkeep in Tirena very difficult.

Key:
Hollow circles are major cities.
The pentagon with a circle inside is the Elemental Seal, where the Faction Gatherings are held at the beginning of every month.
Small, solid dots represent villages not connected to the major city.
Darker lines represent faction boundaries or island limits.
Thin repeated lines represent mountain ranges.
Thin single lines represent rivers.
Dark green areas are heavily forested.
Light green areas are plains or grassland.
Yellow areas are desert.
Grey areas lack vegetation, either plateaus or stone mountains.
White areas are snow-covered.
Orange areas are volcanic in nature.

wind I love you but this article would be vastly less obnoxious to look at if it just went into detailing the notable differences between your fake world's project structure and real world project structure in lieu of condescendingly explaining what a project is as a concept for two paragraphs (real people also call working on a goal for a long time a project, it's not different and speshul just because it has a proper noun) and repeating earth project roles pretty much 1-to-1 at the audience

(The Extraction Project: Part One | The Entelan Outpost)

Sara looked out the glass wall of the otherwise metal hallway. The view from here, overseeing the city of Minei, was always a special sight for her. There was no sight like this on her home plane of Volaria, where the mountain looked over the city, and that was special in its own right. She cherished the days where she wasn’t too busy to watch what her fellow Entelans were up to, but this was not one of those days. She could see Haia’s light-grid preparing another tall building, and that was good enough for today.

Sara followed the metal hallways down a very familiar route, into an elevator and up one floor, then out and around the floor to the facility of magic. Two of the young children were practicing dueling with nothing but small elemental balls. One was Kinv. He was 13, though very tall for his age, and from the region of Veis. He wore very heavy, very warm clothing, and from what Sara could tell, he specialized in some kind of emotion-affecting magic. Or, at least, half of the two spells he knew were emotion-affecting. He was also taller than Sara, as if she needed more reminders of how young her body was.

The other was Rianne, who was 11 and from Saro, the center of Spellbane operations. She was about the same size as Sara, always wore some combination of blue and green, and had skills in both cryo- and chronomancy. She wasn’t the first young chronomancer Sara had ever seen, but supposedly they were supposed to be rare. Rianne was simultaneously the fastest learner and the fastest anyone had ever decided they wanted to leave their world for Volaria. When she was rescued a few months ago, she had already decided she was never going back home, and had been on her own for almost a year. It was only a few minutes after Sara introduced herself that Rianne decided she wanted to become Volarian.

“Got you,” Rianne said as a glowing blue sphere bumped against Kinv and dissipated. “Three?” Another Entelan oversaw the duel with a smile, and he raised a thumb to Rianne.

“Y-yes,” Kinv stumbled out. “Three.” Sara could not imagine the difficulty Kinv was having learning Volarian. She didn’t understand his Southern Veis dialect, and she didn’t have anyone to teach her how to speak it so she could teach him. Rianne had a similar issue with Saroan, but that language was already much more common, so Sara found someone to help tutor her on Saroan.

Rianne looked up past Kinv to Sara. “Oh, hi Master!” Kinv turned and then waved at her.

“Hi, I was checking how everything was going.”

Kinv responded first. “Uh… Good.” He then looked over at the Entelan man. “Ae… aether… Uh, science?”

Sara looked up at the Entelan and he looked back down at her for a moment. Sara nodded. “He has a class period in a couple minutes, right? You should probably lead him there; Hanashi's regional government wants us keeping a closer eye on them ever since the threat last week.”

“Right! Their Global Representative wants to talk to you. Should I let Kaiva know to send him up?”

“Talk to me?” Sara looked around. “Sure, send him in and we’ll see what he wants.” Sara waved off Rinsai and Kinv and returned her attention to Rianne. “How’s your inoculation going?”

Rianne looked at Sara like she was trying to remember what the word meant. The word must not have come up much, even though it described the entire process that would be enabling Rianne to live on Volaria. “They said it is supposed to be another month, but I’m supposed to make sure I don’t… ex… uh…”

“Exhaust?” Sara suggested.

“Yeah. Apparently it shouldn’t happen. I think they called it… uh…”

“Aether reliance,” Sara provided. “Volarians are aether reliant.”

“Yeah, and they say I should be aether resistant without the reliance. But, uh… sometimes things happen that shouldn’t happen.”

“Aether resistance without aether reliance, huh?” Sara made a motion to Rianne to follow her while she talked. “I thought those were the same genes”

Rianne watched her for a moment, then slowly followed her. “I did some reading. There are a lot of words I don’t understand, but bio… uh… it’s interesting.” She tilted her head as Sara lead her to the nearest elevator. “There’s, um… something they do that isolates the aether reliance during the inoculation. I don’t really know how they do it, but it works.”

“Hm… Maybe that’s how EDD works.” Sara moved her hand to slide open the elevator door and stepped inside. Rianne followed her nervously. “Thanks for sharing that. I’ll have to ask a bioaetherist more about it.”

“What’s EDD? … And, where are we going?”

“Oh, right. Do you want to meet Hanajin Global Representative?”

“I cannot speak Hanago though.” Rianne looked down at herself. “Just Saroan and Volarian. And even that...”

“You’re doing exceptionally well for two months of study.”

“Comprehension magic,” Rianne replied with a shrug. “It helps me learn and memorize faster, but I still need to… be taught.”

“Well, don’t worry, I can translate Hanago well enough.” Rianne nodded and gave her a thumbs up. “EDD stands for Elemental Dissociation Disorder, which is when a person’s body doesn’t interact nicely with elemental energy. It affected me before I became an elemental.”

Rianne locked eyes with Sara. “You’re okay now, though, right?”

“Yeah, being given an elemental body gave me a resistance I somehow didn’t have.” Now it was Sara’s time to look down at herself, though with more intent. “Though, in exchange for not dying, I’m 11 forever.”

“Forever’s a long time. How long did you say it was?”

“Uh… almost twenty-six years. It’s a long time to be a child.” The elevator opened into the hangar, a mess of Hanajin aircraft and Entelan aether technicians trying to help the Global Representative of Hanashi without actually being able to speak his language. The Hanajin person was dressed exceptionally well, in an almost perfectly white suit. Sara’s gold-trimmed black dress flapped lightly as she dashed to the man. Rianne followed her.

The man turned to face her with a smile. Sara was surprised he was even told what she looked like. Most people forgot to mention that she was functionally a child, even if it was an easy defining characteristic among Entelans in the facility. “Master Sara?”

“Greetings, Global Representative.” Sara looked over at Rianne. “This is Rianne, one of the Volaria-bound youth. She is a rather high-profile target of the Spellbane.”

“Greetings, Rianne,” the man said with a bow. Sara started to repeat the things he said into Volarian so she could understand. “I am Ishike, Hanashi’s representative in the Global Republic.” Rianne waved but otherwise didn’t say anything. Hanashi’s culture was very different to her. He returned his attention to Sara. “In light of the recent threats from Saro, I wish to see your facilities, to ensure you are keeping to our agreement while we move towards a potential war.”

Sara casually shrugged. “Very well, please follow me.” The first step would be language, then technology, then… Sara lead Ishike to the elevator while he talked to Rianne. Or, rather, while he watched Rianne use sharades to explain her transceiver and how it works.

As Sara stepped onto the elevator, she closed her eyes, and then stumbled backward into the wall with a sharp breath.

---

“Greetings, Saroan invaders!” That was her own voice. “I feel obliged to let you know that by attacking us, you will be walking into a facility filled with aether, the stuff we breathe to live, which will kill you over time once you contact it.”

An image of some kind of aircraft, not quite either Lerithan or Linelan, and definitely more advanced than Hanajin craft, flashed through her mind, as though she was standing at the hangar entrance and looking out over Minei. Explosions erupted across the city. They were attacking the city.

“Don’t worry, the children are isolated from it. We want them to stay alive. Be aware that you are making war against the entire region of Hanashi by making this attack.”

Another flash. Arina, crying over someone’s body. Whose? It could be anyone’s. Fulmen, Hannah, even Sara herself. She strived to get closer but the image in her mind wouldn’t move.

“Be warned, Entela will not take kindly to an attack on our research outpost. Both Entelan and Shaidostan military will be here to defend it, if you decide to continue your attack.”

---

Rianne and Ishike were looking at her as she opened her eyes. When was that? There was nothing to use to locate the time, but she could be certain it was in the future. What could she do about that, other than be terrified of it?

“Precognition trigger,” she mumbled to Rianne. Rianne looked up at her with confusion, as if she had never heard either of those words. Sara explained to Rianne, and then repeated her explanation to Ishike. “I have an ability we call elemental precognition. It lets me… or, forcefully shows me aspects of our future.” Sara shook her head. “This precognition wasn’t useful in any way.”

Sara helped the discussion between Rianne and Ishike while she lead them down to the language facility. Rianne was smiling the whole time, as she discussed through Sara how excited she was about Entela. The facility looked essentially like a normal Entelan classroom, with desks and aether displays. Two older students were presently discussing back and forth, which sounded like typical young-love talk.

“There is nothing special here, it is a classroom,” Sara said as she went to show off the bedroom. 8 sets of bunk beds, each of which had a small storage create on either side. After a quick glance, Sara lead back to the elevator to move onto the aether technology facility.

This facility was more interesting for the Hanajin observer: three students were tinkering with small circuits, each sitting at a different table. From the looks of it, the students were being tested on the basic parts of circuitry. Tuners were carefully placed on each table. A door off to the side lead to another elevator that connected straight down to the core. “This is our aether technology facility. Core engineers work below, but all our students stay safely here.”

“And all of your students learn here?”

“Correct. We have 16 students, usually two or three of which are in a class at a time.” Sara continued to lead Ishike around the outpost. Rianne was now talking about her about one of her friends, a Hanajin child from the city that had been the first test of the inoculation.

Sara slowly entered the medical facility, careful to check if there was anything happening. No injuries, no inoculations at the time? Perfect. She waved the two into the room, which was subdivided by paper walls. One room had an operating table, which was kept clean in case of injuries that required emergency action. Two others had assorted aethertech that Sara was not entirely certain how it functioned. Another clever bioaetherist came up with the inoculation process, and Sara had been too busy to understand it fully.

“This is the facility where the Volarian-bound students undergo inoculation. Rianne is one of them; she has been here for two months now.”

“How long do your students take to become fully inoculated?” Ishike questioned curiously. He wasn’t making any notes, but Sara could feel as if he would remember everything.

“Depends on their particular affinity for magic, due to the process being reliant on it. Usually it takes an average of approximately a year.” Sara translated that sentence for Rianne, but then said something to Ishike that she did not translate. “Rianne has an exceptionally high potential, which has made her a target.”

“How high is exceptionally high, exactly?” Ishike looked at Rianne.

“On the scale of city-wide time stops and region-wide winters, if she desired to learn them.  She used small time spells to escape the Spellbane before, but we are helping her better control them.” Sara looked at Rianne and smiled. “She is quick to learn, and so excited about learning her magic safely. She will make a good Entelan citizen.”

“Do all of your youth become Volarian?”

“No,” Sara replied as she started to lead the others to the magical dueling facility. “If youth have no family, or no family that they wish to stay with when they age, we give them the option to permanently leave the Spellbane behind. Rianne had been alone for over a year before we rescued her.”

“I understand. The rest must return to their families when they are old enough to defend themselves.”

Sara lead Ishike into the magic training facility. Excepting the devices along the far wall that served as dispensers for elemental energy, this room was as noteworthy as the classroom before. “Have you learned what you hoped to?” Sara asked Ishike.

“I have, for now.” Ishike took a bow. “I will be back to ask more detailed questions, but for now, I must be off to report my findings. The elevator leads back to the hangar?” Sara nodded. “We are perfectly happy letting you continue to perform this project.”

---

Rianne looked up at Sara as the Hanajin representative left. “Master Sara… when you saw something in your... pre… whichever, you said it wasn’t… useful. But you looked terrified of it. What happened?”

“I… don’t worry about it. You have studies to focus on.”

“I can handle it, Master Sara,” Rianne pushed.

Sara sighed. “We are going to be attacked by Saro, I would estimate in the next two weeks. Minei will need to be ready to take cover. And…"  Sara paused and took a deep breath to avoid showing more emotion than she needed to.  "My best friend is going to lose someone. I don’t know who. It could be me, it could be her family.”

Rianne said nothing further but hugged Sara. Sara decided that was close enough to help.

(The Extraction Project: Part 3 | The Saroan Assault)

Arina held her hand up as she walked down the aethersteel corridor, her eyes scanning everywhere for potential ambushes. Every corner represented somewhere that Saroan soldiers could be. Every door was a potential hiding spot. She was watching not just for her own life, but for the lives of the black-cloaked duelists and archers that followed her command, and the lives of the children and researchers she was supposed to protect.

Flicking her hand past her face and the device on her ear, a blue screen generated itself in front of her right eye, illuminating many red figures across the outpost. They had some time before getting into combat, but it was not much. She tapped her transceiver and thought about where the locations of her allies were, and small blips of yellow lit up. Sara was still safely alone. The children and Seiva were all at the lowest place in the facility, the furthest into the mountain. A large cluster of people, presumably the Entelan forces, were engaging with a cluster of red figures. And then Fulmen, who was alone, seemed to be moving to engage an isolated enemy.

Arina took a deep breath, letting the aether exhilerate her. She could not die. She had a duty to not die, to her daughter, her partner, and her city. As she marched her forces along the corridor towards the enemy, she watched every corner. Her visor was not perfect, at least as far as she remembered. She could not be certain that everything was functional. Arina tapped her transceiver again, glancing at a few of her allies’ vitals. Her daughter, back home, was still alright. Sara had an increased heart rate. Fulmen showed perfectly normal. Seiva showed an excess internal energy, but not exceptionally so.

No magic. Arina remembered that command. They were fighting Spellbane members, with armor fashioned out of highly antimagic materials. Casting spells against them would do nothing, unless they were harmful in some other way. Entelan weaponry, as heavily aetheric as it is, would do nothing unless it had other effects. Arina’s rapier was on her side. “At the first sign of contact, attack,” she commanded. “The only people in this direction are Saroan.”

Arina raised a hand to halt her soldiers. The footsteps of the Saroans were all around. They were closing in, yet the images had not moved. That was exactly as Arina expected. Their antimagic likely disrupted her visor. She drew her rapier into her hand with a spell and looked around. A hallway crossed here, leaving both directions open for potential enemies.

A crossbow bolt flew by her face, striking the face of the first black-armored person that poked their head around the left corner. The body collapsed to the floor. “Engage them.” Arina heard the command from a gruff Saroan man. She repeated the command to her own troops.

On Arina’s command, half of her unit dashed across the junction, mostly consisting of daggers. Three crossbow bolts were fired into the dark suits of armor. Bright pulses of blue energy returned, striking down many of the people that made the jump. Arina’s breath caught in her throat. How were her unit’s daggers supposed to fight against armored enemies, even ones wearing platinum?

Arina regained her composure. She could not let either side see that she made a mistake. This was doable. “Activate your stealth spells. Do not let them see you.” Arina flicked her hand, creating four thick darts of ice. The dagger-wielders, mostly Shaidostan scouts, disappeared from her normal vision, save for the shimmer of light refracted at their edges. It was not true invisibility, but it was close enough. Arina turned the corner, sent one of her ice shards flying into one of the enemies, then jumped back behind the corner. If they could get access to one of those weapons, her crossbows would be in a much better position.

---

Fulmen recognized the armor of the Spellbane’s captain. He wore a helmet that showed only just enough of his face for Fulmen to recognize him. Jonah was the name he used. He stood now on the outpost’s terrace, covered in snow and built on top of the mountain’s stone. The edge was protected by a grid of faint magic, stopping people from accidentally falling to their deaths.

“Ah, Delcarlo,” he said, holding his hands apart. “It’s been quite some time. How has your Lily been?” The man remembered her name. The friend he killed. Why?

Fulmen leveled his gaze against the man and gritted his teeth. “I don’t normally wish harm upon others, but I’m a bit disappointed you’re still alive. I clearly failed to kill you properly last time.”

“Likewise. Your magic had a quite unexpected potential.” Jonah withdrew a large, heavy-looking sword. Among Spellbane, Fulmen could only assume this was arrogance. He could have an energy weapon like everyone else, but he didn’t. Fulmen channeled electricity into his hand. “But enough pleasantries. You should not be alive, and you won’t be after today.”

“Agreed,” Fulmen growled. “I’ll kill you myself.” Fulmen shoved his feet against the ground and ran towards Jonah. His hand made an arch against the air, and as Jonah’s blade came down, his spell released and contacted the blade like it, too, wanted to be a sword. Fulmen hopped back as Jonah swiped the air to close the distance.

Fulmen jumped beside Jonah’s next attack, unleashing a bolt of magic into Jonah’s armor that harmlessly dissipated. Fulmen made an exaggerated sigh. Stronger magic, then. Fulmen jumped back again and ran in an arc around Jonah, staying out of his sword’s range and electricity crackled in his hands.

Jonah chuckled as he turned and ran towards his enemy. His sword connected with another defensive spell from Fulmen, as did the follow-up slash. Fulmen stared at him, watching the swings of his blade. At his next opportunity, Fulmen pointed at two locations on the terrace, and a thunderous crash echoed off the mountain as lightning produced itself between the two points.

Jonah staggered for a moment from the force of the crash, but soon straightened himself. “You’re fighting like someone that has something to protect,” he pointed out. “A wife, perhaps a child of your own? I can’t wait to kill them too. It would be a poetic ending to your sad story, wouldn’t it? To the life of mages.” Jonah ran towards Fulmen and forcefully slashed towards him.

Fulmen jumped away from each incoming strike. He silently thanked Arina for all her training. It was keeping him alive, even if at the time it seemed that he could take a hit and then return a more powerful one. The fact that his magic was mostly worthless as an attack here certainly taught him that he could not do that. “You’re never going to get that far.”

Fulmen gathered more magic into his hand at he watched Jonah. What could he do? He had to do something. As Jonah made another dash to him, it clicked. Jonah’s armor had a space between his torso and his helmet, where Fulmen could get a spell…

He felt the sword pierce him first, and looked up at the eyes of the Spellbane man. His spell would be big enough for only one to do it. The man smiled as though he won. He shoved his sword deeper into Fulmen. Fulmen reached his hand up with as much strength as he could muster and gritted his teeth.

“Let’s go to hell together… Spellbane.” Fulmen watched Jonah’s face go from victory to shock, and then to nothing as Fulmen’s spell fried him with another thunderous crash.

Fulmen collapsed to the ground. Hannah. Arina. Sara. Seiva. Names kept going through his mind, coming and leaving as quickly as the strikes of lightning he wielded. He tried to lift his arm to his transceiver, but he couldn’t. This was it. Tears started to form in his eyes. I’m sorry, he thought to all those names.

---

Arina jumped to engage the enemy commander. As he took shots on her with his rifle, Arina pushed herself against the wall and rolled against the ground. Too many lives had been lost already, on either side. It was time to stop. Soldiers of both sides had ceased fighting to watch the duel between the two commanders. It was only natural of the Volarians, as Volarian law in wars stated that the war ends when the leader of one side falls. The Saroans seemed to have something similar, as they seemingly agreed that there was only one fight that mattered.

Arina pushed two more shards of ice at the commander, one of which pierced the armor in the commander’s shoulder and one completely missed. As Arina deftly avoided another volley of shots, she closed the distance and thrust her rapier, getting it blocked by the weapon. The crinkle of metal collapsing as she struck it tore against both combatants, and the other commander dropped his weapon.

“You may surrender,” Arina declared as she took another step to the commander and placed her rapier on his throat. “You will live if you do.”

“This place has a hellish air,” the man growled. “We will die anyways.”

“As prisoners of war, we would be obliged to assist your recovery. Bioaetherists can isolate the aether from your body.” There was only a moment of consideration before the commander nodded and raised his hands. The others in his unit agreed and raised their hands.

Arina shouted loudly to her transceiver, “Contact Sara Ylerne.” There were only a few moments between her contact and Sara’s answer. “We have captured the enemy unit. I am moving them to Medical now for aetheric isolation.”

“Understood. Good work, Arina.”

Arina disconnected and nodded towards the commander. One of her scouts picked up an energy weapon from the ground and pointed it at him. “Please, come with us.”

There was one more thing Arina had to watch. She tapped her transceiver twice to check her allies’ vitals… and her breath stopped. She stopped moving, beyond an involuntary shake. Seiva and Sara were still safe…

Fulmen: Dead.

---

“Master Sara.” One of the Entelan scouts returned. “Master Arina has taken control of the Saroan ranged unit. The Spellbane unit has been eradicated, including its captain.

“Great,” Sara replied with a sigh. There were lives lost, but the children were safe, and the attack was repelled. Maybe the attacks would stop. That was a bold hope, but maybe. “We are safe, then. What else have you found?”

“Miss Haia is still alive, though still in Saroan custody. Miss Seiva is alright. However, we lost more than three hundred people today, including our core engineer, and…”

“And Fulmen, I know.” Sara sighed. “I could’ve stopped him. I could have. There was more I could’ve done that I didn’t. But I didn’t. Even though I knew he would die.”

“There was only so much that anyone could’ve done,” the scout suggested. “If he won’t listen to instructions, what more could you expect to do?”

“Disable him. I have spells of my own.”

“That’s an unreasonable thing to react with,” the scout added. “You can’t expect that your reaction will be to disable your friend.”

“I suppose so…"

(The Extraction Project: Part 5 | The Global Council)

Kara was a very cold place today. There was no snow, but the sun did little to warm Sara up as she approached the headquarters of the Global Council. Large stone arches traveled over a raised chiseled pathway, surrounded on either side by somehow-not-frozen pools of water. Two platinum fences traveled along the outside edge of the arches, leading to an extravagant white, red, and gold building with massive glass walls. A digital map of Virilin hung on the front of the building, highlighting the Kara region and the exact location of the headquarters.

As Sara traveled inside, she noticed the cleanly polished basalt floors. These were so many materials she never saw on Volaria, but partially wished she could. She could feel the resistance the rock pushed against her, almost as powerfully as obsidian did. This was a floor that could resist aether, though it didn’t seem like it could affect the Virilin spellcasters.

A young man, probably about Fulmen’s age, had a concerned look on his face while he looked at a clipboard. He had an outfit Sara recognized from Fulmen’s stories, Who was he, Sara wondered. While she could probably learn herself with magic, she decided it was more correct to talk to him. As Sara approached, his look went from concern to something closer to exhaustion.

“Hi, is something wrong?” She asked in Hanago. Ishike told her that everyone would understand her if she spoke either of her Virilin languages.

The man’s reply was uncertain, but it eventually made sense. “First time as a Global Representative, and somehow it is about a multi-hundred year old treaty I don’t care about and a war. Ugh, why me?”

“Are you worried?” Sara questioned. “I could do something to help you focus, if you’d like.”

“I don’t believe a kid like you could help me, sorry.” The man paused for a moment. “Wait, why are you here? Kids shouldn’t be here alone.”

“I’m actually 37,” Sara explained. “I am Master Sara Ylerne of Entela.”

“You’re the Volarian mage, then?” Sara nodded and smiled. “Sure, why not. What else am I going to do?”

“Okay, please watch my finger.” Sara’s eyes flashed golden and a light spark appeared on the tip of her index finger. She held it up to show the man, and as he watched, she lightly drew a shape in the air before snapping her fingers. “Feel better?”

The man watched her. “Wow. I do,” he replied. “Thanks.”

“That’s what I do. Mostly thought magic.”

The man crouched down beside her to discuss better. “You know, I’m the Hasin Global Representative. One of your, uh… combatants, the one that lost his life… He was originally from Hasin.”

“Did you know him?” Sara asked. She connected her eyes with the crouching man. Somehow, this felt more condescending than just being significantly smaller than him, but she knew he wasn’t trying.

“I was working as a news reporter when I was sixteen,” the man explained. “Except for Seven Row’s local police, I was the first one on the scene, where I was told that thirteen-year-old Fulmen Delcarlo was travelling home after a late night band practice. Two people were dead, one electrocuted. The Spellbane’s public relations blamed them both on Delcarlo of course, but…”

Sara politely waited for the man to continue. Hannah got annoyed whenever Sara finished her sentence for her, even if she knew where it would go. “The girl was killed with a kinetic weapon.” He looked down, then back up. “What would a mage be doing with a kinetic weapon? That night, things changed for Hasin. Before then, even I was okay with the Spellbane… they kill the dangerous people, you know? But… that wasn’t what was happening. They were killing anyone with magic, no matter how harmless, and anyone else they really felt like.”

“Well,” Sara noted. “I’m here. Hopefully that changes. Hopefully that changes today.”

“I bet it will. After the other regions see what a mage is for themselves, rather than the… monsters that the Spellbane makes people think they are. Children are children, they can be taught to control themselves.”

Sara nodded and looked at the man. “If Hanashi agrees, I’m hoping to leave our outpost as a school for magical students that don’t have somewhere else to go.”

“I wish you luck. I want our children to be safe.”

Sara sat beside Ishike in a large cylindrical room at a table that she could only barely reach. Each of the global representatives sat at a table along the outer edge of the circle, 9 in total. Beside each of them were three other people, which Ishike told her were called Regional Representatives. A single speaker stood in the center, and above him were four screens, one in each direction, that currently had the logo of the Global Council. There were words below it in nine different languages, including two that Sara recognized, saying “Non-Proliferation of Magic”.

There were numerous looks at Sara. She assumed most of them were questioning whose child she was. The Saroan representatives certainly knew who she was. Knowing your enemy is vital, after all. The speaker paid no mind to her. He was too busy looking at everyone else.

The speaker clapped his hands. “Right,” he said in Hanago. “This is an emergency conference involving the state of affairs between Saro, Hanashi, and Entela. For those unaware, Saro and the Spellbane attacked an outpost in Hanashi, near the city of Minei.” There were at least two gasps from some of the regions, and one more cringe. “The attack was cited as an enforcement of the Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Magic. Hanashi called that the escalation to a full attack is unlawful, and has also expressed a desire to nullify the Non-Proliferation of Magic.”

The speaker stared at Sara. Already? “Miss Ylerne, please rise and introduce yourself.” Oh, alright, she thought. She stood and looked at everyone else, her hands only barely reaching the table now. What a time to be the size of a child.

“My name is Sara Ylerne, I am the Elemental Master of Entela. I am in charge of its military, resources, and laws. In this situation, I am also partially in charge of the Hanashi Extraction Outpost.” She looked at the confused faces of the representatives. “I am a hybridized human elemental. I was human, but a disorder required that my body be infused with magic to become partially elemental. I no longer age, so I appear to be 11.”

“Wonderful. Could you please explain where Entela is?”

“Entela is a city on the plane of Volaria, similar to how Minei is a city in Hanashi on the plane of Virilin. It is home to approximately three hundred thousand people, including many researchers and technicians.”

“Are you a spellcaster?” Was this an interrogation? Of course it is, Sara thought. The idea of spellcasters was terrifying to many people.

“I am. I specialize in thought magic.” Sara stopped talking aloud, but let a spell flow from her hands that transmitted her next sentence into the thoughts of each other person present. Telepathy like this, and temporary disabling spells are two examples.

“Would you describe any of your magic as lethal, or potentially lethal?”

Sara shook her head. “I do not cast lethal spells. I am not a combatant.”

“Thank you. Could you please describe your understanding of the organization known as the Spellbane?”

Sara looked around. At least a few of the people seemed that they would be receptive to humor. “Am I allowed to curse?” she asked, with no seriousness in her voice. Almost the whole room erupted into laughter, prompting Sara to smile. When the room calmed down, she continued. “The Spellbane are an organization created by fear of something that they have no reason to fear. They are people that attack students who have not had time to learn magical control, and use that fear to present themselves as a necessary threat.

“The idea of the Spellbane was to attack ‘threats’. Threats, in their eyes, are untrained children that may, in the future, become a combatant. But what are the mages they captured during their attack? A cook, an architect.” Sara leveled her gaze against the sitting Saroan representative. “The architect we know was aether-bound by sharp platinum implements and has grown exceptionally sick as a result.”

“Who is this architect you speak of?”

“Haia Kenei, an Entelan architect that was working in the city of Minei at the time of the attack. She assisted in growing the city’s two largest complexes, one of which was destroyed. When I last heard, she had been captured by Spellbane operatives and transferred into the hands of the Saroan government.”

“Thank you, please be seated. Mister Ven of Saro, please rise. This statement made by Miss Ylerne. Is all of this true?”

The Saroan man nodded. “Yes. We do have a Miss Kenei imprisoned, and her magical power has been disabled.”

The speaker nodded, but notably did not ask him to sit. “Mister Suratino of Hanashi, please rise. You say that you would like to nullify the Non-Proliferation of Magic. Could you please give a brief explanation as to why?”

If this is how soon we’re getting to this, Sara considered, it might be the fastest meeting ever had.

“Of course,” Ishike replied. “To me, the Non-Proliferation of Magic seems to be an old treaty intended to combat the use of mages in warfare. Since it was ratified, we have seen the rise of weapons of mass destruction, both chemical and biological in nature, and the development of kinetic and energetic weapons. Organizations like the Spellbane have developments specifically against magic users.

“The Non-Proliferation of Magic does not truly stop magic from reaching the front lines. In one sense, magic in the form of technology reaches the front lines all the time. What are the characteristics of magical weaponry? The treaty defines them in much the same way as weapons we have access to. But the treaty also prevents the use of magic for development, for more peaceful purposes.”

Ishike tapped his desk a few times, and motioned to the screen. Sara did not notice a spell cast, but the screen changed to a vision of Minei, both before and after Haia’s assistance. The difference of two massive buildings and three smaller, ornate ones were in the image. “This was the work done in two months by the architect and two other Entelan helpers, with magical assistance.”

The speaker looked at the image. “Impressive, indeed. Do you believe this would be the case in all cases with magic?”

Ishike looked across at Saro’s representative, then Sara, then at the speaker. “I do. If we could teach… if we could expand the studies of magic on Virilin… I think we could reach a better quality of life for everyone, not only mages. And certainly, I don’t think war would be any worse with mages than without.”

The speaker nodded and motioned for both Ishike and the Saro representative to sit down. “At this time, I would like to call for comments from all of you, regarding the following questions: Was Saro’s attack legal? Should the Treatise of the Non-Proliferation of Magic be nullified?”

---

“The Non-Proliferation of Magic threatens our world. If other worlds will have mages that can travel, we cannot keep Non-Proliferation of Magic.”

“An attack against a research outpost and school, not even a military location, is unforgivable.”

“Entela used a chemical weapon in the vicinity of youth.  Surely there should be some punishment for that."

“The potential for magical power to become more dangerous than any of our weapons is far too high.”

“Would it not make sense to punish the use of magic only when used as we would punish a weapon of mass destruction?”

“Minei’s benefit from magic is immeasurable. Certainly, this should be true everywhere.”

“Non-Proliferation is built on fear. We need to foster acceptance. The Non-Proliferation of Magic has been nullified.”

“Saro’s attack was decided to be illegal, as an escalation from a situation that should have been a trade sanction. It will be expected to pay compensation in the form of material resources to Entela and monetary resources to Hanashi. Both sides’ prisoners of war will be returned.”

---

“Our outpost has potential to be a school, and a connection between the worlds of Virilin and Volaria. While our atmosphere is toxic without assistance, we have methods of protecting people during temporary trips. After our current students finish their studies, the outpost will be adapted to fulfill the needs of a school of magic and aetheric studies, as well as a residence for a small number of Entelans.”

As Sara spoke, she looked at the Hasin representative, but her thoughts went to Fulmen, who fought to keep the students alive.  The Spellbane are gone.  No one will ever have to deal with them again.  Thank you, Fulmen.

How Drunk Were You?

Leritha, 370 RVY, Month 4, Day 5

Lerithan taverns were strange to Fulmen.  They were kept very clean, and people here acted civilized, like they hadn't even tasted alcohol before.  At the same time, the stench of beer was on the air, and a bar full of fluffy jacketed pilots sat with glasses in their hands.  Menus were held by metal racks on the polished wooden counter.  The floor was kept to a similar standard, looking almost as though it had never been dirty.

The barkeep looked at Fulmen with his piercing gaze, polishing a glass in his hand as Fulmen approached the counter.  Fulmen wasn't sure what he looked like, but it definitely wasn't what the pilots looked like.  The barkeep placed the glass on the counter without breaking eye contact and asked, "What do you have?"

"Ryla and questions," Fulmen replied slowly.  "Looking for someone."

The barkeep nodded.  "Four bits per ryla.  I can help if you buy something."

Fulmen looked at the menu.  He was old enough to accept a drink once on Volaria, and with how long his search had been going for, maybe he deserved another one.  "Aerilis Wine," he eventually decided.  That looked... interesting enough.  Maybe it would be sweeter than the last drink he had.  He separated out two ryla from his pocket of coins, 8 bits worth, and handed them to the barkeep.  With a nod, he started fixing a drink beneath the counter.

"Who're you looking for?  Captain, otherwise?"

"Well, looking for my final partner.  Trying to do that lead me to here.  Looking for..."  Fulmen tapped the transceiver on his wrist to bring up his notes.  "Fris Etin, Merchant Captain?"

"Ah," the barkeep said with a nod as he set a cloudy white liquid in front of Fulmen.  He leaned over and tapped the counter in front of one of the men at the other end of the counter.  No words were exchanged, but instead there were a few nods, at least one in Fulmen's direction, and the barkeep motioned for Fulmen to go to that man.  Fulmen lightly picked up his drink as he walked and sipped at it.  That was good enough.

The man looked at Fulmen with tired eyes as he approached.  He had the same fuzzy brown jacket as everyone else, and a hat with goggles propped on his head.  Along the trim was a golden pattern that had no meaning to Fulmen, but he assumed was an indication of class.  Fulmen took only a few moments to ask, "Are you too drunk to answer some questions?"

"Pfft," the man started slowly, "Guy, after this week, I'm not drunk enough to answer questions.  But the folks here'll know me as the best drunk question-answerer, so if ya buy my next drink for me, I'll gladly answer you some questions."  Fulmen's coins were already on the counter by the time the man's sentence finished.  Anything to find her.  Anything.  "Great," the man said, lifting his hand.  "Yo, another ale over here!"

Fulmen grimaced.  Would this guy even know anything?  "You're Fris Etin, from the Merchant's Guild, right?"

"Yeah, that'll be me," Fris replied.  Fulmen sipped at his own drink while another glass was slid perfectly in front of Fris.  "What's it to ya?"

"Someone said you might have interacted with my final partner, Arina Nisita?  While visiting a plane called Ravnica."

"Oooh, little Volarian girl?" Fris asked, holding his hand far below Arina's height.  Fulmen confirmed with a nod while he continued, "Yeah, met her some three years ago.  She was havin' problems gettin' home, so I pointed her in the right direction, told her to tell Volaria we were waitin' for 'em."  Fris made a show of opening his arms towards Fulmen.  "And look at this, Volaria's figured it out, huh?"

Fulmen shook his head.  "Not yet.  I'm a planeswalker."

"Dammit, so she didn' listen then.  Thought I could trust her, ya know?"

"She, uh..."  Fulmen took a deep breath.  "That's why I needed to ask you.  She never made it home.  You're the last person that I could find that saw her."

"Iunno what the problem was," Fris said with a shrug.  "I told her, and I told her well, you go right past Theros, head on until you hit Intera and it's right there.  Iunno how you mess that one up."

It was at that moment Fulmen noticed the attention of a few other captains around him.  One female in particular, wearing literally the same outfit as Fris, looked at her fellow captain.  "You sent her where?"  she asked.  "Intera?  How drunk were you?"

"Not nearly enough," Fris replied.  Everyone except Fulmen and the woman laughed.  "Yeah I sent her to Intera, what of it?"

"You can't get off Intera!"  Fulmen's eyes widened and he took a deep breath to avoid panicking.  The woman connected her gaze to Fulmen, who set his drink down before he accidentally shattered the glass.  "We stay away from that place for a damn good reason.  Normally I'd say it's a lost cause..."  The woman looked down at her own drink, then back up.  "But that whole final partner thing is pretty important for you Volarians, right?"

Fulmen took a deep breath and slowly nodded.  "I... I need her back.  She's more important to me than my own life."

"Well, if she's still alive, she'll definitely be on Intera."  The woman looked at Fris with a sigh.  "If you need anything for you, or her, or both, get it before you go to Intera.  Heavens know that you'll never find it on the surface of that plane.  Especially aether, like you Volarians need."

Fulmen watched the woman for a moment, trying to remember how to breathe.  "You mean... there's no aether there?"

"None there, can't even grab it out of the Eternities if my notes are right."

Fulmen grabbed his drink and slammed as much of it back as he could.  "I've got to run, then," he said as he started to gather the magic to planeswalk.  "Thanks so much for your help."

If Arina had no aether, that meant she had no way to avoid overchanneling, no way to recover from injuries, and...  Fulmen stopped thinking of everything that would go wrong without aether.  Only one thing mattered, and that was finding Arina.

The City Gathering

Volaria, 387 VY, Month 4, Day 1

Here we are! Karina’s hand is in mine, held tight so we don’t get separated among the many people. I’m kinda used to being here, right in the middle of Volaria. I haven’t missed a single City Gathering since I was born. Or, at least, I don’t remember missing one. Karina’s never been here before, and there’s a lot of people. There’s a black-cloaked guy riffling cards over there. He’s not at a stand. I wonder what he’s doing.

Cobblestone paths like in Entela wind around haphazardly. There are stalls all along it, some selling food, some doing demonstrations, some— ooh, is that guy over there selling flowers? I’ll have to go over there soon. A bit further into the center of the paths is the dueling arena, which is made of some very pretty Litaran quartz. It’s like a 10-sided square, and there’re seats and stands inside that let people watch what’s happening in person. We’ll be heading there to watch Rianne duel a few times this week. A few aethertech displays — very definitely Entelan ones — float around catching different angles of the duels.

I tighten my grip a bit on Karina’s hand so she remembers I’m here. Not that she could ever forget, but just in case. “Rianne’s on in an hour, so we’ve got a bit of time to look around before she starts.”

“Okay, um…” Karina looks around. It looks like she’s thinking really hard about something. “So, what should we do?”

“Uh…” I try to avoid saying ‘everything’ yet. That’s not super helpful. Thankfully, before I need to make up my mind, the card guy does it for me.

“Observe,” he says with a bright smile, speaking to everyone but catching us with a glint in his eye. “Come see the magic of the magicless worlds! Tricks of the mind and tricks of the eye, all done without casting a single spell!” He tosses a card into the air and cleanly catches it on top of the deck. “How about you two? Care to watch me find your card?”

I look at Karina. She must’ve noticed the smile on my face, because she’s already leading me over to him. “Wonderful,” he says as we approach. “You two must have names. What are they?”

“Hannah and Karina,” I reply.

“Partners?”

“Not yet! Still only girlfriends.” Karina looks at me. I cutely smile back at her but don’t explain myself. I’m not ready to ask yet.

“Wonderful. Now, if you look over my deck, you’ll see it’s a perfectly normal Virilin set of cards. No magic on them, nothing missing, nothing strange…” The man fans the cards out face-down, collects them, and then does so again face-up. He collects the deck together, shuffles it, and presents it to me. “Here, take a card.” I take the top card and stare at it. It’s a queen of hearts. It’s hard not to recognize it. Dad used to teach me games with these same cards…

Why am I like this? I need to stay happy with Karina. I can worry about that later.

The man nods at Karina and continues, “You should look at it too.” I show Karina and she instantly nods at it. I guess they have these all over the place, then, and not just on Virilin. “Memorized it?” The man asks as he presents the deck back to me. I guess he wants me to put the card back. I nod.

The man takes the deck back and starts shuffling it, occasionally tossing a card in the air and catching it with the deck each and every time. How does he do that so well?

“These cards are said to be magical on both Virilin and Linela. But, of course, they aren’t enchanted or anything.” The man fans the cards out again, first face-down, then face-up. Yep, I can agree they’re not enchanted. I’d be able to recognize the magic. “They believe these cards are tied to fate. And you know? Maybe they’re onto something."

The man offers the deck to Karina, who takes the top card and looks at it. Her eyes widen, as does the man’s smile as he continues to hold the deck out.

“Same card?” Karina looks up at him and nods. “I’d bet that means something special about you two. Ready for me to find your card?”

Karina returns the card to the top of the deck and smiles. The man tosses the card into the air, splits the deck in two, and catches it between the two halves, looking up at us like he just caught a snowflake. I try not to laugh. He shuffles the deck once more and holds it in one of his hands.

The man looks at me carefully and taps the top of the deck. Without looking at the card, he lifts it to show us. “Queen of Hearts.”

“Wow…” I breath out. “How’d you do that without any magic?”

“A street magician should never tell their secrets,” he says with a wink. “It takes the mystery out of it. Anyways, I bet this Queen of Hearts can only mean good things for you two. Enjoy the rest of your week!”

The man turns away to entertain some other crowd. I lightly pull Karina out of the way towards the flower seller. She seems concerned about… something, but I’m not really sure what. Maybe just the people. The flower seller’s kinda pretty. Not anyways near as much as my Karina, though. “He’s right, you know,” I say as I move to hold Karina in my arms for a few seconds. “We’re meant to be together. I’m gonna stay with you forever.”

Karina looks up at me, a smile growing on her face. I guess I’m helping. “I’d like that.”

I lead Karina over to the flower woman. She’s definitely Elancean. Her accent as she greets me helps, but she’s also wearing the very dark green and black that’s all over the official Elancean clothes. The flowers in front of her are a mix of a lot of different flowers, some I’ve never seen before. Ooh, these ones are pretty. They’re a really glowy green. I wonder how common these are in Elance. I’ve never really been there.

I kinda quickly point at a bundle of the green glowy flowers while Karina’s looking at the other flowers and say “Credit, Delcarlo-Nisita” in Ancient Volarian. I don’t know many words, but I definitely know that one. The woman nods and hands me the bundle. When Karina looks at me next, I kiss her and hand the bundle of flowers to her. She seems confused at first but accepts it.

“You know, I bet there’s some Entelans here doing engineering stuff,” I say as I look around. I’m trying to feel for the aether while I do that, but it’s hard with this many people being magical around me. “Maybe we should find them, then go get food.”

“Lead the way.”

I don’t know where the Entelans could be. I’ll have to remember to come back here and check out these Mileran guys, though. They’re showing how Mileran works on aethersteel daggers. Those daggers look really pretty too. One of them’s got a colorful blue edge. There’s a stall there with all kinds of bread. I bet those are really tasty. I make a note to where they are and keep going towards the food. I feel like if Mikara’s here like she said she would be, she’d have tried to set up near the food.

There’s a whole mix of spices in the air over here. Tirena and Theria seem to be trying to compete with each other about who can have the best smell, which ends up instead in this heavy mixture of great-smelling food. I wonder what I’m going to get. All the cities have such great stuff. And I’m still looking for any table of Entelans; are they all on the other side of the arena?

There they are. And I was right. I lightly tug Karina along to a tent that has a table with, among other people, Mikara. Looks like they’re trying to sell transceivers to other Volarians. They’ve also got a box that does something with an aether circuit and I’m not sure what. “Hey Mikara!” I greet as I get closer. “Having fun here?”

“Yep,” she replies, standing up to give a hug to both me and Karina. Karina’s getting better being around Mikara now. I guess it helps that now, she’s not walking into my room and finding some unnamed girl there. “Been convincing scouts from Theria and Litara that having transceivers is a good thing. It’s been pretty successful so far.”

“Are you working for Entela or are you guys here on your own?”

Mikara chuckles. “Just working for Entela this time. Don’t have any salvages to do yet, though I’ve heard something big just happened somewhere, so that might change.”

“Cool! You going to be watching Rianne?”

“Yep, I’ve got a screen right there.” Mikara stretches across the table to point at a screen somewhere across the way. “When she comes out, I’ve told her to come find you so you can help her find me. I’m kinda lost right now.”

“Got it!” I look at and motion to the metal box. “So what’s this do?”

“Oh, this thing’s fun!” Mikara leans down to something below the table and clicks what sounds like a button. In a few seconds, a ball of silver energy shoots out the side of the box and bounces a few time off the cobblestones before rolling away. I giggle as I watch people try to avoid stepping on it. I look up at Karina and smile. There, now she’s smiling too. “We get to do that so people wonder what’s over here. It’s hilarious.”

“I bet,” I agree. “Karina and I were going to go get food now, you going to be okay?”

“Yeah, you guys go eat. I get lunch soon.” Mikara waves us off.

I let Mikara go back to doing her job and try to figure out what I actually want to eat. There’s stands from all across Volaria here. There’s an Oscuran pizza stand over there, some kind of soup kitchen a bit over there. There’s a meat skewer barbeque, I bet that’s Ria-Demai…

“So what do you want to do about food?” I ask, looking at all the many options.

Karina only really offers me a shrug. “Whatever you’re getting.”

I laugh. “Right, uh…” Ooh, those Therian wraps look really good, and I bet they have milk to go with them. Therian milk tastes so good. “How about over here?” I lightly guide Karina into one of the many lines around here. This’ll be a while.

Eventually we get our food. This is, like, a bready thing wrapping around rice, vegetables, and meat? It’s got a special sauce in it that tastes amazing, but I have no idea what it is. Something special in Theria, I guess. Karina seems pleased too.

I know where to go now. We go into the Arena, along which there’s carved paths telling us where to go to be seated. The inside of the arena is a smooth stone surface, with grooves marking boundaries and starting positions. One side is lightly tinted with white, the other is lightly tinted with black. A person dressed entirely in white, who’s being the adjudicator this time, stands in the middle, between the two sides.

“Round 1, Duel 4!” An announcer shouts from… somewhere. I don’t actually know where the announcers stand. I never really thought about it until right now. “On the White Side, the eleven-year-old prodigy originally from far beyond the edges of Volaria, Rianne Astera of Entela!” There’s some cheers. There’s a few people that aren’t happy, but they’re mostly drowned out. Rianne appears at her place without even walking on. She’s getting good at that, huh? She smiles, sweeps her pretty blonde hair out of her face, and waves at the crowd. She’s also getting good at that. I remember she was really worried a couple weeks ago when Master Sara asked her to do this.

“On the Black Side, returning champion from the last City Gathering, Ken Irai of Mirora!” There’s more cheers. I remember some people were asking him at the end of that fight about the way he fights, since he makes life and then lets it go, but that’s something Mirora’s always getting in trouble for. Ken rides into the arena on the back of some kind of elemental animal. It looks like it’s made of water? Once he’s at his spot, the animal collapses into the ground, spreading water on the ground for just a moment before disappearing. He takes a bow to the audience.

“At the adjudicator’s mark, you may begin!” The adjudicator raises his hand, and a bright white glow of energy appears in his hand. Rianne closes her eyes, as does Ken. With a bright flash, the light disappears, and Rianne collects some kind of ice magic into her hand. I forgot she could do that too.

While Rianne does whatever set-up she’s preparing — which I expect means at least two different time spells ready to go off when she needs them — Ken collects a bunch of energy into at least three more water animals, one of which can… fly? Is that a bird?

I feel one really big time spell go off from Rianne, but it doesn’t look like anything happens. Aside from that Rianne’s breathing a bit more now. I wish I knew a bit more about what her spells actually do. Karina seems to know exactly what it does, and she’s already getting excited. Well, can’t let her outdo me, huh?

Rianne runs across the arena as fast as she can. The three elementals Ken made rush towards her, water being left behind in their wake. Ken steps into the water, probably expecting Rianne to land in the water too. She jumps to the side of the attacking animals, which stop and turn around. In the time it takes them to do that, Rianne lets her other spell go, freezing the water everywhere except exactly where Ken is standing. She jumps onto the ice and skates up to Ken. He steps back, slips, and a pulse of bright energy send him rolling along the ground.

Wow. The crowd cheers, Karina cheers, I cheer. She must’ve learned that from Mom. I’ve seen Mom do that so many times. Ken quickly jumps to his feet, and Rianne watches him for a moment before blinking back to the place that she started. Ken looks very confused. I guess most people are like me and don’t know exactly what Rianne’s capable of.

Ken directs his elementals to take a less direct line this time. Instead of running straight at Rianne, the two ground… things, run to her sides. Rianne looks up, trying to keep an eye on both the ground-creatures and the bird at the same time. She makes an attempt to run forward, out of the paths of the elementals, but too many of them are attacking at once and they ram into her, breaking like a wave on a cliff. She stumbles a bit, coughing like she’s been punched. I think I can see the water dripping from her hair. There’s cheering from all across the arena.

When I look over at Ken again, he’s added another five elementals to his control. Two more birds. A deer? A lion. And another… thing. “Do you know what that is?” I ask Karina, pointing to the strange thing. She just shrugs at me.

Rianne gathers magic into her hand again, holding it across her body. When Ken commands the elementals forward again, Rianne flicks her hand across her body, and a wall of ice creates itself between the two, crossing the entire arena. There’s a reason the seats in the arena are higher than the arena.

Rianne walks calmly up to the wall as Ken tries to move around the arena, looking for a way to see where Rianne is. Karina leans in a bit to watch what’s happening, and Rianne stands almost perfectly still while Ken moves around. What’s she doing?

Apparently she found what she wanted. She pushes out against her ice with some kind of spell, and a large section of the wall pushes itself outwards into Ken, sending him across the floor again. The wall dissipates. Ken’s elementals collapse into water. Rianne watches Ken. Is that it?

And Ken raises his hand. The arena cheers. Karina cheers louder. I cheer, but let Karina be more excited than me for once. There’s lots of cheering. Rianne looks around, raising both her hands. The audience cheers louder. I wave when Rianne looks at us. She waves back.

“Ken concedes! Rianne wins!” the announcer calls. A healer runs out with a restoration vial for Ken, while Rianne keeps looking to the crowd. I lightly pull Karina so we can meet up with Rianne when she leaves. They’ll need her out of the way soon anyways. I trace my way with Karina down to the entrance, where Rianne comes rushing out only a few minutes later.

“You guys saw that!” she exclaims. “How’d it look?”

“Awesome!” Karina replies.

“You took down last Gathering’s champion!” I congratulate, “You must be pretty happy.”

“He’s kind of reliant on his elementals doing the work for him, and people slipping on the rocks when they run to him. It happened to me the first time too, so when I did it again I made sure I froze the water and he was left helpless.”

When you did it again? I don’t have time to ask the question before Rianne continues. “Anyways, Mika said she’d see it. Do you know where she went?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, she’s just…” I lean over, trying to hold Karina’s hand for balance while I point around a corner, “That way a bit.”

“Great! I’m going to go make sure she saw it too!” Rianne waves as she runs off.

I watch her go for a moment, then turn back to let myself get lost in Karina’s eyes. Well, that’s not what I was hoping for at first, but now I’m here. I smile at Karina.

384 VY, Month 5, Day 30 - Who's This?

Hannah looked down at the blue dress in her hands. It was ornately patterned. Mikara said it came from Hanashi, but Hannah could only tell it definitely wasn’t Entelan. “Are you sure it’s not too much? We’re not really doing anything special, it’s just dinner.” She looked back up at Mikara, who was presently sitting on Hannah’s bed, looking up at her.

“I’d say it’s not enough. You don’t see her every day, so you’ve got to take these opportunities to try.” Mikara stared at the dress deeply, watching the patterns. “You know, maybe we could go find a hat, and—”

“No, no hats.” Hannah’s gaze looked up to the wall behind Mikara, though Mikara’s confused expression caught her attention. “It’s a long story, you can ask her about it later. Are you sure she’ll like the blue one more than, iunno…”

“It’ll look great, trust me. Or maybe—” Both Hannah and Mikara caught the shift in aether that indicated a nearby planeswalk. “That’ll be her. You duck into the bathroom and get changed, I’ll keep her busy.”

Hannah looked nervously at the door to both the outside and the bathroom. “Okay, okay.” She took the dress and hid herself in her bathroom, changing as quickly as she could into the confusing dress.

Mikara watched with a smile as the door opened. Karina seemed… tired, probably from a day of work. Hannah talked about her job in exceptional detail whenever she got the chance. Like everyone else in Entela, Karina wore a transceiver, though she kept hers on her left arm. She wasn’t particularly well dressed. Her short hair was messed up, almost like she hadn’t combed it between her work and the present. Even so, Mikara could tell why Hannah was so attracted to her. She was definitely in for a surprise when Hannah came back out.

“Who are you?” Karina asked. Her voice quickly escalated, “Where’s Hannah? What are you doing here?” Before Mikara had a chance to respond, a brightly glowing spear materialized itself into Karina’s hands, and she held it across her body. Mikara stepped back, instinctively telling Karina to relax in her native Hanago tongue. She watched Karina’s eyes, considering how to keep Hannah’s surprise a surprise.

“Where is she?” Karina repeated.

Mikara’s eyes shot to the door, then jumped back to the spear. The tip of the spear glowed with a brightness Mikara hadn’t seen before. “Those’re some quick reactions. You’re the one that’s supposed to protect my sister, right?”

“... Sister?” Karina’s eyes connected with Mikara’s. That was long enough for Hannah to push her way back into the room. Karina’s breath stopped for a moment as she gazed at Hannah in her dress, and both Mikara and Hannah breathed a sigh of relief.

“Don’t worry, I’m okay,” Hannah finally said with a smile. She made an exaggerated motion to Mikara. “This is my sister Mikara. She was helping me figure out what to wear, and, well…” Hannah stepped forward and grabbed Karina’s hand, lightly looking up into her eyes. “I’m glad you were worried about me though.”

Karina lightly leaned her spear against the wall while Mikara continued. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Didn’t expect you to actually be like everything I’ve heard about you.”

“I, um…” Karina looked at Mikara. Was that supposed to be a compliment? “Sorry I—”

“Don’t worry about it, that’s a good thing.” Mikara winked at Hannah. “Anyways, I’ll let you two get on with it. You didn’t come here to talk to me, you came here to be with your adorable girlfriend.” Mikara saw herself out, smiling as she left the two.

390 VY, Month 12, Day 5 - Happy Birthday

Rianne took a deep breath. She looked around at her room from her seat on her bed, at the small desk and chair, the kitchen table that held neatly stacked books and never more food than granola bars. She calmly considered the rest of the day. Today's classes had already been great, but she was even more excited for tonight. Rianne was very familiar with this process. If something went wrong later? No problem, she'd just try it again. But if it went well, Rianne was ready to do it all over again and smile the whole time.

Rianne closed her eyes, smiled with focus on her magic, and felt the spell lock inside of her. Now she was ready. Everything that was "now" was committed to memory. The aethersteel ceiling glowed with agreement. Or maybe it glowed because the panel on the wall told it to. Rianne decided that "both" was an acceptable answer.

A knock on her door drew a bit of her attention. "Hi," she called. The girl that entered was a friendly Mikara, dressed today in a fancy white Hanajin robe and with her hair carefully braided. She always looked much prettier then Rianne expected of Princess Kagemizu's bodyguard. Was looking like a royal part of the job? "Hiya Mika, what's up?"

Mikara crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway with a grin. That was more like what Rianne expected. "Wanted to say happy birthday before my best friend goes off on her date." Mikara looked Rianne up and down. "Shining blue in your eyes, cute blue dress, carefully brushed hair. Yeah, I'd say you're ready."

"Heck yeah, I am," Rianne replied with a grin of her own. She jumped to her feet and moved to the door. "We're going to that new Hanashi food place. I've heard no one on Volaria's got food like it."

"You've got that right. Hanajin cuisine's the best in the multiverse." Mikara put her finger to her mouth for a moment while she considered. "Though I guess Aeryl's stuff is close."

"I'm really excited! Have you had anything from Hanashi since you left?"

"Only every time I get lunch during school," Mikara teased. "The school on the other side of the tunnel is in Minei, remember? I know everything there like I know the inside of my backpack."

"Oh, right! I forgot you were born in Hanashi."

"Yep! That's why Emperor Kagemizu asked me to help Miya." Mikara tilted her head. "Speaking of which, have you seen her today?"

"Hm…" Rianne thought back to her travel back from school today, which was noticeably harder when she kept trying to hold her memory of "now". It didn't help that she did the trip every day, just like every other Entelan resident that went to school there. The only difference between her travel and Miya's was that Miya lived in Hanashi, so it was easier for her to live near the school than literally a world away. "Not since bioaetherics this morning. Are you sure she came over?"

"She was supposed to. I don't know if she never did or if she came and then peaced or what." Rianne stared at Mikara trying to decipher what the new slang meant. Rianne thought she had a firm grasp on Volarian slang, but Mikara kept seemingly coming up with more. As she considered the word, Mikara started to step back into the aethersteel hallway. Rianne eventually gave up and followed her.

"I'll let you know if I find her. She's probably in the city center somewhere if she came over." Rianne let her door close and then dragged her fingers across it so it actually locked.

"That's what I thought too. I'm gonna head down to the labs and make sure she's not getting herself into trouble."

Rianne glanced at her wrist-mounted computer… transceiver for the time. Enough, she concluded. "And I'm gonna get out. Good luck!"

"You too! Though of course, you don't need luck." Mikara winked at Rianne as she turned to find a downward staircase. Rianne headed off in the opposite direction to find the right staircase up. Navigating the maze of underground hallways in Entela wasn't made easier by focusing on the "now" memory.

In only a few minutes, Rianne found herself on the surface. The sun was starting to set, which just meant it was time for the many elemental-energy lamps to kick in. Rianne still wasn't used to all the people not driving cars or riding bikes everywhere. Supposedly there was a network of teleportation circles, but Rianne never needed to go farther than the city's center, and that certainly wasn't changing tonight.

As it turned out, Rianne wasn't the only one ready for dinner. Kein was waiting for her on the surface too. He was only a year older than her and liked to brag about studying "perfectly normal" physics, without ever defining what that meant. By this point, Rianne could only ever define "perfectly normal" by the things that it wasn't. He was dressed very casually, just a t-shirt, jacket, and pants in colors that were probably chosen at random. As a result, he was speechless when he saw Rianne, and she loved it.

“You look way more beautiful than normal, you know?” He asked, taking Rianne’s hand and starting to guide her along the cobblestone streets. She didn’t object, even knowing exactly where to go and how to get there. She listened to their footsteps as she smiled back at Kein.

“Well, I tried today,” Rianne replied after a few seconds of figuring out the correct answer. In the corner of her eye, she caught the extravagant dress of a young princess going into Aeryl’s restaurant. Mika’ll be happy to see that, she thought. Rianne looked back up at Kein. He smiled at her like he was expecting something. Did he say something while she was distracted?

“Did you hear me?” He questioned.

“Sorry,” Rianne apologized, “Hanashi’s Princess Kagemizu went missing and my best friend was looking for her.” Rianne looked down at her transceiver, noted time, then looked back up. If Miya was going into the restaurant, she would probably still be there by the time Rianne got to her own restaurant.

“Don’t worry about it. I just asked if you normally try.”

“What?” A pause. Oh, she noticed, he means try to look beautiful. “Oh, a little bit. I tried more today, though.”

“Well, it sure worked today. You ever tried Hanajin food?”

“A little bit. It was really expensive in Saro though. You know, completely different region and…” What were the words she was trying to say? Rianne paused while Kein watched her. “And they kinda hated each other.”

“When did they stop?” Kein asked. Rianne started to think of an answer, but got distracted from that. First, she wanted to keep remembering “now”. Second, the two arrived at the restaurant. The outside was the same dark wood and stone that made up the rest of the outside Entelan structures. It was a bit fancier, using some Hanashi techniques. As they stepped inside, the bright white walls and brilliant lights contrasted heavily. The carpet looked like a bunch of beige, red, and black squares, the tables had white tablecloths with a red trim on them.

Kein held up two fingers to the server at the desk. The server nodded excitedly at him and then went… somewhere. When Kein turned back, Rianne had an answer. “They stopped after the attack. Saro stopped working with the Spellbane, thank g… thank the Spirits.” Rianne looked up at Kein and smiled. Kein looked back down, and Rianne lost herself in his dark brown eyes. When her attention came back, his smile had vanished.

“That explains everything,” he said. The care in his voice when he spoke to her had gone, and was left with nothing but cold, steady speech. “I can’t believe it.”

“What’s wrong?” Rianne’s heart sank. “You don’t just say things like that.”

“I thought something seemed different about your eyes. You were getting distracted more than usual, but you do that all the time.” He looked into Rianne’s eyes again, but the softness was gone, and instead it felt like he was staring into her soul. “I knew you could do it, but I never thought you’d do it on a date.”

Tears started to form in Rianne’s eyes from his sudden change of tone. Rianne blinked them away. Focus, she thought. “What do you mean?” Her voice shook more than she wanted it to. She wanted to sound confident, but she couldn’t.

“What, you mean that you intended to just rewind all of this after you’d had your fun? That I can’t ever know if the things I do matter because you might just decide they don’t?” Kein raised his voice, attracting the attention of nearby diners. “I can’t believe you’d try this. And not only this time, but that means you could’ve done this any other time and I didn’t notice! How many times, Rianne? How many times have you done this?”

Rianne started to respond, but the response got caught in her tears. She had a defense, but she couldn’t say it. All she could do was remember “now”, be ready to go back there, and come back without…

“Just go,” Kein said sharply.

Rianne’s breath caught and her eyes widened as she tried to look up at him. “What?” She fought to get the word through her tears.

“Do your rewind thing. Whatever it is you do. Go away, and don’t come find me next time.” Rianne could do nothing but stare at Kein, watching as he walked right past her, leaving her all alone with the audience. Rianne collapsed to the ground in tears. No one came to help her. Do your rewind thing. Don’t come find me next time. Rianne felt her tears on her cheeks, felt the piercing gaze of the surrounding people. If she hadn’t been learning this exact spell for half her life, she might have lost her “now” in that conversation. But she didn’t. Rianne reached into her mind, and triggered her spell.

She found herself back in her “now”. Safely in her room. She wasn’t crying, for the moment, but her body quickly remembered that it was crying in the previous timeline, and it began crying again. Rianne collapsed herself into her blankets, wrapping them around her in a ball of tears and heartbreak.

Rianne was only vaguely aware of Mikara’s knock on her door. She tried to breathe, to say something to Mikara. Instead, Mikara let herself in. “I felt your spell,” she said. “What happened? Who hurt you?”

Mikara was nothing but a blurry mess to Rianne, but Rianne at least remembered going through this the first time. “I… Kein…” Rianne took as deep a breath as she could manage through her tears. “My magic…”

“It’s okay, I’m here now. “ Mikara lightly plucked a comb from her pocket and started combing Rianne’s hair while she calmed down. Rianne continued to try to breathe until eventually something worked. “Try it again. What happened? Who I have to hurt for hurting you?”

“Kein… Kein saw the spell in my eyes. He got upset… and…” Rianne wiped the tears out of her eyes again. “He told me… told me to rewind. Then not to come find him next time…”

Mikara gasped. Rianne couldn’t tell if it was an actual reaction or exaggerated. “That mother… how dare he? Like, I didn’t like that guy anyways, but now this? On your birthday?”

Rianne nodded into the blanket. “I didn’t think there’d be something wrong with me using my magic.”

“I mean, he’s not only the biggest son of a…” Mikara paused, looking for a word that wasn't a swear.  “Whichever that’s ever lived, he’s also stupid. You can be literally the best girlfriend. If you do something your boyfriend doesn’t like, you can fix it. Come on, you don’t need that guy. Once I find Miya, we’re taking you out to have fun the way Hanajin girls do, with games and stories and lots of sweets.”

“Miya… Miya’s at the Ebony Phoenix in about…” Rianne looked at her transceiver again. She was finally starting to be able to breathe. “15 minutes.”

“See? That’s something only you can do.” Mikara pulled Rianne out of bed and helped her stand up. Rianne just wrapped her arms around Mikara, letting herself feel something other than sadness. “And don’t worry. I’m gonna make that guy feel it tomorrow.”