She had needed to apply a few stitches but not as many as I thought. The blood had almost certainly also destroyed a few of her towels and she seemed miffed by that but didn’t make much comment. While she was busy cleaning me up, I ended up telling her most of my story. I left out the bits about Percival, instead focusing on the fact that I had been dragged here from Earth. She was surprised but seemed to believe me. I asked her why no one was treating me as if I was crazy when I told them this story.

“Part of the reason we have steampower, actually, is because scientists and engineers from Earth were brought here a few hundred years ago.”

“Wait, this has happened before?”

“Wow, you really don’t know anything.” She poked into my skin again and thread the needle through. “Giaos, she’s kinda like the goddess that has adopted us humans, brought them here to unite the warring factions. I think us humans had a different idea of what that meant because things actually became even more segregated after that. It was like all the wealth was sucked into the four major cities. Anyway, that’s fine with me because it means I get baths and shopping!” She beamed at me like those were the two greatest things in the world. Hell, maybe they were, on this planet, which so far hadn’t impressed me all that much. She continued. “So while you’re an anomaly, it's not unknown to us.” She pulled at a stitch, tying it off, and I winced in pain. “Sorry.”

“All good,” I said. She continued to apply the last of the stitches, a feeling which I had never experienced before without proper pain medication. And let me tell you, it is a bitch of an experience.

My mind wandered back to first seeing her.

“Hey, how did you do that shapeshifting thing?” I asked, inquisitively.

“The illusion? Same as anyone else, silly. Through Devor.”

“Devor?”

“Wow, you really really don’t know anything.”

That comment seemed a little out of place, especially after the first one. “It’s the path of mind. It’s like the path that deals with all illusory things, mental tricks, faked experiences, the whole gamut.” She then, suddenly, lightly slapped me on the head. “Stop moving around so much.”

“Sorry.”

She tied off the final stitch.

“Here, let me show you.” She walked over to one side of the room, pulled out something from one of her drawers, and returned. In her hands was a mirror with runes etched onto the side: the magic tablet.

“Oh, I’ve got one of my own!” I said excitedly, happy to finally recognize something in this vast unknown land.

“Perfect.” She sat beside me on the leather bench and placed her hand on the tablet. Once again, the table appeared.

Hana H. Age: 21 Level: 16 Class: Mage

Abilities: Expand…

Specialities: Illusionist

Artifacts: Eye of the Beholden Divinities: Giaos Quests: None active

“You’re an illusionist,” I stated, rather obtusely. She nodded and then pressed on that designation. A new set of data appeared.

Specialty: Illusions Education: School of the Arcane, graduated rank 243 Master: High Mage Kirilia Abilities: Dual Mirage Tri-Mirage, Quad Mirage Camouflage, Decoy Manipulation

“I’m a graduate of the School of the Arcane, which, if you don’t know, is the most prestigious magic school on the whole continent.” She looked exceptionally proud of that so I decided to take the somewhat boastful tone in stride. Although, I did have to note that if their university system was anything like ours, then it meant wealth was a huge factor in admissions and if her room were any indication of her status, then it would be hard to not say it was a factor.

It was a two bedroom apartment, with a kitchen, two bathrooms, and a living room. The apartment didn’t have the central plumbing contraption that the apartment building from when I first got here had. Instead, it sounded like it was buried in the walls or something but it was nicely muted. We were in the living room, which was massive. The couches were velvet, the drapes silk, the carpets wool. A glass chandelier dangled over the center of the room. Two large windows allowed sunlight to stream through, creating a nice contrast between the artificial light and the natural kind. Overall, the room screamed an ostentatious display of wealth and it far exceeded anything I ever saw even on Earth. Hell, I think the baseboards were lined with gold.

“All the most important mages have gone through there, including the current High Mages.”

That caught my attention.

“The High Mages? Like Zeckmis?”

She stared at me, dumbfound.

“You mean Zeckmas? The Arch-High Mage?” Her voice barely contained her incredulity.

“Uh, yea, him.”

“He’s the one of the seven Arch-High Mages of the city, meaning that he is one of the highest ranking mages in the entire city. He-”

I couldn’t help but interrupt “Wait, what? I was talking with a couple in the floaters and he said he was going to set up a meeting for me.”

“Someone from the floaters knew Zeckmas that well? Wow. Well, I could definitely get you in contact with him. My father owns Horkheimer Industries, the steel manufacturing company of Mishan, so he has enough connections that you could meet with Zeckmas.”

“No way, really?”

She nodded in response, hair bobbing.

“Do you think he could help me get back home?” My voice raised but I couldn’t help it. I was too excited.

“Going to him is about the best chance you’re going to find.” She said with a shrug. And with that, she stood up and rang a bell by the front door. In less than fifteen seconds, a knock sounded. She opened the door and I caught a glance of the person there. It was a man, dressed like a waiter or something.

“Can you send a telegram to my father? Tell him to schedule a meeting with Arch-High Mage Zeckmas.” The man bowed and she closed the door.

“Done.” She said, turning to me with a smile.

That was that, I guess. I was still in a bit of shock, with how fast she moved and how fast she got things done. She was a flurry of activity, suddenly dabbing away at the rest of the blood on my head.

“You know, he has a mage initiation ceremony today. We’d be able to see him from the stands, at least.”

“What’s that?”

“Oh, it's just a way to show off the new mages as they graduate from school but it's also a way for the old mages to show why they're the top dogs. Everyone wins. But if we want to go to that, you need to bathe first.” The last statement was coupled with her dragging me to the bathroom. For a second, I could almost forget about that nagging thought in the back of my head, the one yelling “there is a fantical serial killer coming after you!”

♠

The initiation ceremony actually took place in a large arena. We were located down in the patrician seats. It was the lowest level of the arena and the seating was far nicer than what the plebeians got above. Sitting right at the midline, we could see it all.

Most of the lower-tiered mage masters had already gone and done their displays. It seemed that the ritual here was first a showing of the master’s ability and then a showing of the disciples. Each disciple specialized in a particular field or subarea and the master’s showing pertained to that field or subarea. This allowed for the audience to really gauge how much the disciple learned.

I had already forgotten the name of the current High Mage on the field. Her disciple was a fire specialist. I think Hana called it the Deva path but I couldn’t remember. Apparently this was the lady Hana impersonated when we first met and, man, was she strong.

When using their magic, mages caused the air to refract around them, looking almost like an asphalt road on a hot day. The larger the refraction, the more they were opening their path, or something…

This High Mage’s channeling was pretty big, extending at least a foot out. Suddenly, a fireball appeared above her. It was larger than the average man but only slightly. The ball of light started to dance around, spiraling around her before breaking into three separate smaller orbs. They continued to swirl around her as she slowly drew one hand to her mouth. Palm upwards but fist curled in, she blew into it and a stream of fire followed. Damn, it looked super sick. Her control was so fine, in a way that I hadn’t seen so far in the other mages that it certainly made sense why she was one of the few High Mages.

“She’s incredible, isn’t she?” Hana nudged me, totally engrossed by the spectacle on display. “Her speciality is Deva but her Devant path was just as impressive, right?”

Devant was, apparently, the water path.

“Yea, I’ve never seen anything like it before.” That got a chuckle out of her.

The fire orbs were still circling around her but three pillars of flame arose out of the ground. She moved one of her hands to the left in a simple flowing motion like she was a composer and the pillar immediately responded by changing shape, revealing an outline of her, mimicking her exact gesture. A burning silhouette frozen in place.

She did the movement twice more, creating two more doppelgangers, each taking a different stance and gesture. It honestly almost looked like some sort of power ranger formation but way cooler.

With a flourish, she bowed and all the doppelgangers did too, a breath of life suddenly animating them. With that, they vanished and it was her disciple’s turn to go.

“What’s needed to do magic?” I asked Hana. She leaned back a little further in her chair.

“A lot of things, really, but the most important is a contract that’s established with Giaos. Through her veins, magic is channeled.”

“How do you make a contract with her?” I had to admit, this shit was pretty wild and very cool. I wondered if I could try my hand at magic before I got teleported back home to Earth.

“It’s become something of an aristocratic affair,” she said, sounding rather businesslike. “But you need a master to initiate the contract.”

Bit of a bummer. I didn’t think I was going to be able to find a master in time to get one going, especially since I didn’t even think I was staying.

The crowd roared, their loudest yet and conversation between Hana and I became untenable.

Zeckmas had entered the arena, the other two participants having already filtered out.

“His first disciple is a Deva specialist. You can tell by the runes on his robes.” Hana said to me, eyes fixed to the two at the center of the arena.

The runes on the disciple’s robes were glowing but he was currently watching his master.

The aura around Zeckmas suddenly flared up, extending almost twice as wide as the previous High Mage’s own aura. A ball of fire appeared above his, this one being large enough that I could feel the heat emanating from it, almost uncomfortably so. With a twirl of his fingers, it erupted upwards, turning into a pillar of flame shooting high into the sky, easily surpassing the large arena in terms of height and even some of the bigger buildings outside. Hell, it looked like it was scraping the clouds.

The pillar of flame twisted in the air and started to bend near the top half. I realized, somewhat belatedly, that it was taking shape, becoming dragon-like. It rolled through the air, creating a lazy yet threatening circle. While the previous High Mage’s fire doppelgangers were just outlines, with this one you could see the individual scales, its eyes, its jagged teeth. It continued to circle around the sky, making small loop de loops or spirals in the sky, easily larger than two trains.

Two more emerged from Zeckmas’s orb and I suddenly realized why he was one of the most powerful mages around. Three dragons now danced in the sky, twisting and twirling around each other, a terrifying display of raw power and fine control.