The clanging of steel on steel resounded throughout the room as Dantae was slowly and carefully being reforged. Shar’s powerful muscles rippled with each strike, and soon the area around him became too hot for us to withstand.

I was loathe to leave Dantae in someone else’s hands, but Hazeel, being less affected by the heat than Leresa or I, volunteered to stay and watch the man perform his craft.

The Silver Continent Princess and I took a walk down the street to a nearby cafe, where she ordered a cinnamon-smelling drink and I just had water. “Why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind? Rexy is already going to pay you back even more after this, so he wants to make sure you have everything you need when you need it.”

I looked her in the eyes, and found a slight curiosity there. “Are you fine with that? He seems to be putting in an awful lot of resources into me, despite not getting anything more in return.”

Leresa nodded. “I don’t know if you realize how much we gained back when Queen Belladonna essentially gave us our islands and people back for nothing but the promise of peace. Rexir is a kind man underneath his sleazy and calm persona, and he wants to repay the favor back with everything he has, especially since it put him in such a good position for the future.”

“I see.” I simply muttered, transitioning us into a comfortable silence. The waiters eventually brought us our food, none of which was as good as the food Chef Sakaki served at the palace, but I managed to down it nonetheless.

Once I was halfway done eating, she tried broaching the topic again. “If you would like anything, or even just gathering information from me, I can help with those.”

Instead of replying right away, I smiled at the woman. “You must really love Rexir, huh? That’s nice. I’m glad for both of you.”

The princess blushed furiously and tried to hide her embarrassment by wolfing down the rest of her food. She eventually finished, and we got another round of drinks afterwards.

After sitting for a minute, I sighed. “I suppose I should tell you, given that you’ve already helped me in a big way.” Leresa nodded and set aside her glass, waiting a moment before I did the same.

“Is there a place to do this that won’t have the potential to get us eavesdropped on?” Leresa hummed at my question.

“I suppose the palace. The throne room is usually empty. Hold on, I’ll call over a-” I held up a hand and stopped her from saying more.

“No need. I suppose I should give you a demonstration of my power, regardless.” Leresa sighed with a confused look on her face.

“What are you,” I reached out to the photons in the world, and sent Leresa and myself through the void and into Rexir’s palace tower. “Doing?”

Leresa looked confused as one moment she was speaking in the restaurant, and the next, she was finishing her thought in the tower’s throne room. She looked dumbfounded.

“What do you think? This is my power. It’s called-” I stopped speaking as the Silver Princess scrambled past me, a hand on her mouth and obviously trying hard to suppress a rising tide of bile.

“Oh, whoops. Forgot about Void Sickness.” I watched guiltily as Leresa barely made it to the trash bin next to the throne.

She turned her head to me, face flushed and tears in her eyes. “What in the Gods four realms-!” Was all she managed to get out before another wave of sickness hit her.

I waited, and finally she stopped dry heaving and stood up next to the throne. “Ah, crap. I forgot to pay at the restaurant.”

“Is that really on your mind right now! Explain this at once!” Leresa was fuming, so I decided it would be best to get right into it.

“This is my power. Using photons - a form of matter which I doubt even your brightest minds have discovered yet - I can open portals to places that I have been to before.”

Leresa, having calmed down and gained a bit of rationality, asked, “How does that work exactly. How are you not blindly sending yourself somewhere dangerous?”

“Years of training,” was the start of my answer. “As it turns out, each location has its own unique photon signature. Some places are more saturated than others, and I can use that difference to tell them apart.”

“I’ve never heard of such a power used in all of the Silver Continent’s history, much less any others.”

It was when I was contemplating telling Leresa a joke about how I was the last scion alive from a long-forgotten bloodline that I realized how much of an impact Dantae’s reforging had already had on my mood.

I shook my head to get me out of that mindset, and started telling Leresa the truth. “I would hope so, it makes it easier for me if I don’t have to think of countermeasures.”

“Countermeasures?” Leresa said, confused for some reason or another. I gave her a quizzical look and shook my head.

“Yes, countermeasures. Believe me, I’ve had to do it a number of times already, and it’s not even remotely fun. Having to keep track of photon flow mid-fight is a pain in the ass.”

Leresa shook her head and looked me in the eyes. “No, not the fact that you had countermeasures, just who did you fight?”

Ah, that was what she meant. Should I just rip off the band-aid? “Well,” I began slowly, causing her to look my way. “I guess it’s kind of natural. I am from a different world, after all.”

She just stared at me. A moment passed in silence, and then, she started to laugh. It was loud and barely controlled, and it lasted for quite a while. Finally her gasps shortened, and she calmed down, wiping a tear from her eye.

“Ah, that was great…” She stopped talking upon seeing the expression on my face, and she went slack jawed. “Y-you can’t be serious.”

She dropped to her knees as she looked at me. “How… How did you get past the Gods’ barrier? You’d have to… you’d have to practically be a God yourself.”

I cocked my head at her. “I think you’re a bit mistaken. I never encountered anything like a barrier. In fact, the entire reason I came to this world in the first place was an accident.”

Leresa said nothing, so I took it as a sign to continue. “You see, there were various circumstances that led to me fleeing my home world. One of which, as you’ve seen already, was my ‘divine blade’ breaking. Unfortunately, I was being chased at the time, and had suffered an attack which sent me plummeting from the stratosphere in freefall.”

Leresa stared at me, mouth agape for the second time this conversation. “Haha, apparently I ended up becoming a shooting star, and the heat and force from my impact evaporated a pretty large lake in the Azure Continent. The blow gave me amnesia and I forgot pretty much all about this until last month.”

Leresa stood up and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “It must have been rough. I can’t even imagine the amnesia.”

I might’ve been more comforted by the act if she wasn’t trembling, and gazing at me with a faraway look in her eyes. “That’s alright.” I took her hand off of me. “My memory loss was the reason I didn’t come to have Dantae repaired earlier.”

“I see. Regardless, in order to leave this world, you’ll have to pass through the barrier of the gods.” Leresa smirked upon seeing my confused look, and elaborated on her point.

“Long ago, the world was in turmoil with beings from other planes of existence. These beings tore the world asunder, and consumed large chunks of this planet, killing many in the process.”

My mind raced as the familiar description hit me like a ton of bricks. ‘This world had Dimension Eaters? But how-’

“Seeing that the inhabitants of this world were on their last legs, the gods decided to break their non aggression pact and intervene in this world’s affairs. They beat back the beasts, and cast a strong spell that sealed this dimension off from the mindless beasts. Ever since, travel outside of this dimension has been impossible for spatial mages.”

“That doesn’t make sense. How did I get through the barrier if that was the case?” I was deep in thought, and only realized Leresa had started talking again when she poked my arm to get my attention. “What was that?”

“I asked if you had tried to leave this world before?” I shook my head, and Leresa followed up with, “Well, go on. Try it then.”

I reached for the surrounding photons, and reached for Earth once again. I felt the familiar tug on my gut and- nothing. “I- I can’t. Why, what was the difference… of course! I was carrying Dantae when I fell here the first time.”

“That name again.” Leresa frowned. “I can’t understand the meaning of that word, even though you’re speaking Aurian. Does it have some special tie in to your original world?”

I smirked at the princess, but wiped it off my face when she frowned at my reaction. Suddenly, I felt a pulse of photons. A pulse of curiosity, concern, and fear. The smile returned to my face, and I said, “No, but it has a special meaning to me. One you’ll find out about soon enough.”

No sooner had I spoken the words when Rexir’s concubines appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and pointing blades in my direction, encircling me.

“I swear to the Gods above, if you do anything that may harm Rexir or the future he is trying to create, we will kill-” once again, I pulled Leresa into my black hole, transporting us back to the front of Shar’s smithey.

“You.” Leresa finished lamely, and soon again she adopted the position of spilling her guts in front of the shop.

“I don’t appreciate threats, and my comment wasn’t one either. Follow me inside, and I’ll show you what ‘Dantae’ truly means.”

She looked at me skeptically, and with more than a tinge of bitterness in her gaze, but eventually stood up and walked to the door. I opened it, and much to my surprise, a rainbow colored haze shot out, obscuring my vision and making me cough horrifically.

“Ugh, for the Gods sakes, come in and close the door!” Shar shouted through the haze, and I immediately complied.

Leresa grabbed the back of my shirt and followed me in through the haze. While I had just regained my bearings, the Silver Princess was still shut-eyed and coughing profusely.

“All done lad. Good as new.” A goofy smile made its way onto my face, and I ran past a very tired-looking Shar to greet Hazeel, who was cradling Dantae in her arms. The wood elf handed me the repaired sword gingerly, and I took it in my arms. I set the blade down on the ground and ran my hand over the familiar handle.

“Contract, be released!” I shouted and a white circle of light appeared above the sword. “That’s new.” The sword was engulfed in light and photons, although only Hazeel and I could see the latter.

When the light show was done, Vanessa was lying on the floor, unconscious and naked, her head full of lustrous silver hair, and her whole body intact. “Gods above! What in the seven hells is that!” Shar cried in surprise, and Leresa was shouting something at Hazeel, but I ignored them all, and cradled the woman in my arms.

It had been a big gamble, with no guarantee that she would have healed at all, but I was so relieved. I felt a hand on my shoulder, but chose to ignore it, as the tears I had been holding back for the past two months finally came forth all at once.