Mari


    The noise hit me first. At first seemingly that of a busy street but underneath that was a cacophony of animal sounds. In front of me appeared a very warped version of a New York street. There was a sidewalk and a road but on it walked and crawled and flew not only people but rabbits and birds and…a snake slithered right by my foot. I yelped. A monkey rode in a horseless carriage.


    I forgot to breathe for a moment.


    “Come, let’s get moving.”


    I gasped air into my lungs and even that tasted sweeter and felt thicker. “Why does the air feel like that?”


    We started walking. Kenna just gave me a raised eyebrow. But Blaise seemed to think, “It does feel different from your world, I wonder if that’s the aether you feel.”


    “I thought aether was your version of physics,” talking kept me from focusing on the fact that we just passed a tiger just strolling along meowing at a person who responded by meowing back. I sidled closer to Blaise.


    “The two are equivalent but that doesn’t matter, aether is a substance that dictates the rules our world survives by. For instance, the core of our planet is a dense ball of aether, it creates the gravitational pull we have on our planet and the magnetic field surrounding it.”


    I stared at Blaise, something tickled my memory, somehow it all sounded familiar.


    Getting past the unconventional people walking down the streets I noticed that not all the buildings were the tall phoenix skyscrapers. There were quite a few normal buildings of ten stories or less.


    “What are all these places?”


    Kenna jumped to answer in the same serious, formal tone she had used so far (except when she seemed angry or annoyed with Blaise, which seemed a lot of the time; another thing we had in common). “The capitol city of Gebyrd is home to all the clans inhabiting the nation of Volant. So many businesses and a lot of the housing keep the number of floors to a minimum as not to ostracize the aerially challenged.”


    Aerially challenged? Condescending much? I glanced at Blaise who shook her head seemingly reading my mind.


    “Where are we going?” I switched topics.


    “A magic shop, while as Kenna said, magic is used in most professions to a degree, there are still professional mages whose job it is to create spells to make everyday lives for our citizens a little easier. In your world you have technology that moves those cars we drove, in my world we power our vehicles with magic,” Blaise paused staring at a passing carriage. They looked like carriages to me, mostly open top, with large wooden wheels but there were no visible drivers, it moved on its own, “Though seeing the cars of your world makes me believe we can make our vehicles much faster. Oh and those screens that showed images, what did you call them, televisions!” Blaise glowed with excitement.


    “That’s enough, haven’t you gotten in enough trouble,” Kenna admonished while trying to hide her interest.


    “What is up with you two anyway? You fight more than cats and dogs,” I asked.


    “Professional rivals, would be the easiest explanation—" Kenna started.


    “We are both aiming for the same seat on the Council—except I’ve already done it for two lifetimes so of course it’s not much of a competition,” Blaise seemed to have forgotten that she was just admonished by that very council less than an hour ago.


    “That’s right, the Councilor of Magic, it is given to one that exhibits progress and discovery for our world through magical innovation,” Kenna seemed to stand up straighter, pride curving her lips into the smallest smile.


    “And what is greater than discovering a whole new world?” Blaise complained.


    “It’s supposed to be for the benefit of our nation, how is finding a new world exactly helpful?” Kenna snapped back.


    “But it could lead to innovation, like realistic pictures created with a snap of the finger.” Blaise smiled wistfully.


    I couldn’t blame her, I thought of my phone sitting useless in Blaise’s rooms.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Blaise


    Despite all the reprimand I couldn’t be sorry for going to the magic-less earth, it opened my eyes to just how big the universe was, to how much there is still left to see and do. By the Flame, if the Council insisted on punishing me I could just escape there for a few years until they got over it.


    We rounded a corner into the shopping district. The street opened up into a large square, a fountain stood in the middle with a statue of Ains, the red phoenix who formed the first Council. He bordered off Volant and sued for truce with the other major clans.


    Kenna was explaining the history to Mari in way more elaborate wording.


    “He was my ancestor,” I interjected to keep her from boring Mari to tears.


    “He was not,” Kenna’s annoyed expression would rival Mari if it were a competition.


    “He had red feathers,” I said.


    “Not every red feathered phoenix is related to you,” Kenna growled, “That’s like saying I’m related to Eth.”


    The thought made me shudder, “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”


    The beauty of the shopping district was no building was taller than two stories, I hoped it would put Mari more at ease.


    We crossed the square to a large shop with a phoenix inside a potion vial for a logo; the sign read Beil’s. While the shop was large it was also cramped. A display of healing stones in various sizes stood right by the entrance immediately catching Mari’s eye. I left Kenna to explain the fine details and entered the store. Inside was sectioned into aisles with little labels marking what each section stocked. But that wasn’t my goal either. A line formed by the register, the little rabbit girl Beil hired as an apprentice manned it. Tsk. Where was that black feathered bastard? I didn’t need Kenna noticing I’d slipped away.


    Then I heard it. That slick little laugh. Standing at the curtain that sectioned the store from the backroom stood a tall, deceptively thin man with long, black hair, his handsome face in what most would assume was a genuine smile. He spotted me out of the corner of his eye, smoothly pulled away from his current conversation partner and hooked his arm in mine.


    “Blaise, long time, come,” and he pulled me behind the curtain.


    “Let go if you want to keep that arm,” I brushed him off.


    My coldness didn’t faze him, the excitement in his green eyes would have rivaled a child’s, “Did it work?’


    I grinned back. “Yes, the Skinless world is real and amazing! I brought one with me.”


    His eyes bulged, “Here, with you? Now?” he peeked out of the curtain.


    “I need more ingredients, I need to send her back in the morning.”


    “What did the Council say?”


    “They weren’t happy.”


    Beil laughed but at least he gathered what I needed at the same time. “You’re the only one who thought they would welcome a world changer like that with open arms.”


    “They’re supposed to appreciate a great feat of magic, at least Inga…nevermind,” I gathered the supplies, left a letter of IOU that he could use at the bank to collect his funds and went to rejoin my group before they noticed I was gone.


    Mari had her arms full of knickknacks, “Can I get this?”


    I rifled through it, healing stones, refilling water bottle, and a sleeping study aid? “Sure.” I handed her golden coins.


    As we stood in line to pay I saw Beil, his gaze never leaving Mari. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have told him she was Skinless.


    “I’m hungry,” Mari said as we were leaving the store.


    “What did you buy?” Kenna eyed my bag suspiciously.


    “Do you know a good place around here?” I blew her off.


    Kenna took us to a restaurant just outside the shopping district; the sign outside read Gluttonous with a picture of a phoenix sitting on its butt, patting a stuffed belly.


    “Really?” I rolled my eyes.


    “Don’t judge, their food is delicious,” Kenna snapped but it lacked the vehemence of her previous statements. Aw, was she warming up to me at last?


    The volume rose dramatically when we entered the restaurant. It smelled of heat and chicken but like most eateries there was not much to give away how good or bad the place was by the smell.


    Kenna found us a small table in the corner of the room and waived a waiter over. While Kenna explained the menu to Mari, I excused myself to use to restroom.


    Mari


    I was curious what the bathrooms looked like when Blaise said she needed to go but definitely not curious enough to investigate the possibility of finding a room full of animal feces.


    The menu was pretty simple. The only meat they seemed to make was chicken, when I asked Kenna she looked horrified, “Of course, we can’t eat rabbit, or bird, or fish, even if they are the unintelligent cousins of the Clans, it would be disrespectful.”


    There were intelligent fish?


    The conversation trailed off into an awkward silence. I fished for something to say, but I am not a social person and small talk never came easy for me.


    “I’m sorry if I scared you,” Kenna’s voice came out gruff like the words were having trouble making it past her lips, “I am in charge of the tower’s security and…”


    “That makes sense,” I said quickly no need to prolong a needless and awkward apology, “I did appear like an intruder.” That had to be in the top ten statements I never thought I’d say.


    Blaise came back and thankfully we could focus on the food. The chicken turned out to taste exactly like chicken at home. The vegetables though, I ordered something called The Stockpile, were delectable. Something that looked and tasted like potato, popped in my mouth in an explosion of buttery, salty goodness. Carrots, at least I think they were, snapped with a crunch and felt like satin on my tongue. There were at least three other vegetables I couldn’t identify but all were equally amazing in my mouth.


    “So what’s next,” I asked as Blaise paid. The currency still weirded me out, they were gold coins like in all the medieval fantasy movies but they were so thin that they weighted about as much as paper money.


    “We’re going to a concert,” Blaise grinned like a devil.