Soon enough, Faye had to leave Taveon to his role as Schoolmaster. It turned out that he was the only staff member of the town’s ‘school’ and spent the majority of his time teaching and supervising the children. Their system was different than what she was used to. Instead of sending all school-aged kids to Taveon all day, every day, they were sent in cohorts. As one cohort was learning in the classroom, the other cohorts were learning trades — from parents or mentors, depending on the needs of the town and families the children belonged to.

Taveon had told Faye that the best way for the children to earn a class that was useful for them, potentially useful for their entire lives, was to have them experience as many professions and situations as possible until one that fit their personality showed itself.

He did mention that it wasn’t always that simple. The children had to do what their parents told them to, more often than not, and that sometimes meant that the child who was most suited to a life of scholarly pursuits would be forced to learn to carve stone until his fingers bled, tears ran down his face, and his father screamed at him that he wasn’t good enough.

Faye had wanted to give the old man a hug, but he’d brusquely waved her attempts aside.

He’d gotten over it, long ago, he’d promised her.

She didn’t believe him.

But it did seem that he genuinely enjoyed his role as teacher to the town’s youngsters.

Leaving him to the children and their lessons, Faye wandered the market a little. She was trying to ignore the fact that she still had no money and that the food she had been given to eat that morning would not keep her sated for long. As she wandered, she thought about what she needed to do next.

Level ten. It was the only thing she could think about. If she wasn’t level ten, she wasn’t anything. She needed to get to that point before she could think of doing anything else.

What stymied her was that most of the people in this world spent their entire childhoods levelling up through performing many different tasks. The average age was 17, though the lower and upper limits on that range were wildly different. Taveon wouldn’t go into more detail; he had said it wasn’t relevant. But it still meant over a decade and a half’s time that she would have to spend as a minor.

She scowled as she wandered. There had to be a faster way. But the problem was that she had no idea what was normal and what wasn’t. Taveon had said that he’d never met someone like her before. The reports and books about otherworlders were sometimes so fanciful he had ignored half of what they said.

She had managed to tease out a promise from him that he’d research everything he could in the next few days to tell her things she might need to know.

In the meantime, Faye realised that there was something that she could do. When she’d arrived here, she had no level. But, thinking back to her first few nights, killing those creatures had given her experience and levels.

What did strike her as a little strange was that at level two, nothing had jumped out as being different. No magic, no mysterious changes to her body or mind. Then again, if children were gaining levels, it would be a little ridiculous to expect a child to use magic.

Leaving the town square behind, Faye marched straight to her patch of trees. The blanket and sword were exactly where she’d left them, which let a small knot of tension drain away.

I’m homeless, she realised. She paused for a moment to let that thought sink in. Less than a week ago, Faye had a flat of her own, a computer, a phone, a fully stocked kitchen, a couch, pillows, a soft double bed…

She shook her head. She’d heard that losing your home was something that could happen to anyone. She’d never expected it to happen to her, but she wasn’t going to sit and wallow. She needed to get back to a place where she had somewhere to live, to call her own. If it was here in this strange world, then so be it.

It was time to murder some innocent animals.

She paused, grimacing at herself.

It was time to leave the walls of the town, see if any crazy animals decided to attack her, and then defend herself.

Yes, that was more like it.

The walls of the town were at least twice Faye’s height, possibly more. Probably more, if she was honest with herself.

Because of that wall, Faye had no idea what was immediately outside the protected town perimeter. In what she’d been mentally dubbing the ‘west’, because it was roughly where the sun set each night, were mountains that scratched at the heavens.

It was hard to tell, but there was a voice inside that told her that was where she’d been before she’d been teleported to the town. She had no real way of knowing, but it was as good a guess as any.

Ignoring the western gate, Faye made her way to the opposite side of town. The town square wasn’t quite centrally located. It occupied more of the northern side of town, offset from the middle. Her little patch of parkland was located somewhat west and south of the square, so she made a beeline for the eastern side, skirting the square and the people there.

She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to avoid people’s gazes, but she felt like she was doing something she shouldn’t be, carrying her sword around without the scabbard, that she’d lost in the mountains. Shivering at the thought of that thing and its greatsword, Faye carried on attempting to look as guiltless as possible.

Holding the sword reversed, so that the blade’s tip was just behind her ear, she had the lower part of the blade in her palm, one finger hooked around the cross guard. It was about as neutral a hold on the sword that she could have. There was no way she’d be able to deal a blow of any kind. She hoped the townsfolk, any that she might come across, would think the same.

From what Faye had been able to tell, the walls were mostly uniform, made from large pieces of stone and wide enough for guards to patrol across the top. There were crenellations along the exterior side of the wall. She assumed that there were towers at the corners of the town, and probably over the gates, but she hadn’t seen any.

The buildings the people here built were small compared to what she was used to, only two stories at most, but they were much closer together for the most part. It was hard to see over them.

Eventually, the paths she’d taken proved her right. She emerged into a roadway between the buildings and town wall that was empty, and wide. She looked left and right, seeing that the wall curved a little here. Soon enough it went out of sight behind the buildings to either side of her.

Knowing that she’d been a little lower than the central line of the town, she imagined that the gate would be to her left. It wouldn’t hurt to try, at least.

Both guesses had paid off in her mental navigation of the town, which surprised her. She had always used her phone to get around at home. There were still times she found herself still reaching for her pocket or scrambling for the ‘missing’ phone. The lost feeling would take a while to dissipate, even after realising that the phone was long gone.

The wall changed into a large gate soon enough, and there weren’t any pedestrians around. There was, however, a pair of guards.

They eyed her as she approached. She tried to swallow the ball of nerves that was threatening to erupt from her stomach. This was more nerve-wracking than stepping into the sword ring and facing an opponent she knew was tough.

“Good day,” one of the guards called. The pair were strangely matched. The one that had called out was short, almost as short as Faye, and built like a marathon runner. The other was almost wider than they were tall.

“Hello!” she called out. They were still a distance away, so she smiled as she approached. “I hope you’re both well today?”

The one who’d spoken nodded. “Aye, no complaints from us.” He did hold up his hand, though, stopping Faye in her tracks.

“Is there a problem?” she asked.

“I’m curious about your weapon,” he said. He leaned to the side a little to look at it, hidden as it was behind her.

She nodded, and slowly, carefully, let it drop in her hand until she was holding it by the hilt, the blade placed horizontally across her left palm. She offered it to him to look at.

“It’s a simple design, a little weighty. It’s designed for two hands, as you can see, and at the ricasso you can see blade-catchers, called Schilden.”

The second guard stepped forward, too, so that they could both look it up and down. They glanced at one another, the larger of the pair nodding slightly.

“That’s fine, thank you for showing it to us. It is unusual…” He shrugged. “But it’s not dangerous.”

Faye nodded.

“What are you planning on doing with a blunted blade?” the second guard asked. Their voice had a curiously sonorous timbre that made the hairs on Faye’s neck stand on end.

She dipped her head a little, allowing her hair to fall in front of her face.

“Ah, I was going to practise.”

“Practise?”

“Yes, I like to hone my skills in different environments.”

It was a half-truth. At home, Faye had never wielded her sword outside of the sparring halls and dojos of various martial arts institutions; it was illegal. Knowing that people were arrested for less, Faye had never tempted the police with even a blunt sword.

But now that she was here, in this place where weapons and defending yourself seemed more ordinary, she did want to learn to wield her blade in more environments.

The smaller guard turned to look at the open gates.

“And the environment you’re looking to practise in…,” he trailed off.

“Just in the… forest,” she said, looking past him to see the trees and grassland outside the town walls. “Not too far!” She smiled brightly.

“Miss,” the large, sonorous guard said, “we cannot allow you to leave the town perimeter.”

Faye froze. She was still holding the sword in both hands, as if presenting it to the guards. She lowered it so that its point was lightly resting on the ground.

“I cannot leave the town?”

The guards shook their heads. “It is unwise for one of your level to leave the town, especially alone.”

“I’m not untrained. I have some skill with the sword, I can protect myself.”

Here, the shorter guard scowled. He crossed his arms.

“I’m sorry, but we don’t care what you think you can do with a training sword, it’s too dangerous. It doesn’t matter what you think you know, or which crested adults you push over… you aren’t allowed outside on your own.”

It was Faye’s turn to scowl. The guard might have been there when she’d pushed that teenager over, but she didn’t like the fact that guards assumed her to be a troublemaker from that one incident.

“It’s not like I’m running off into the wilderness,” she said. “I’m looking to train a little, in the trees there. I just want a different place to practise.”

“No,” the guard said. “And I mean no. Children are not allowed outside.”

She clenched her teeth together to stop herself from saying something she didn’t necessarily want to say.

The larger guard pointed a hand at her.

“If you refuse to listen to us, I will be forced to placate you.”

“It won’t be pleasant.”

She looked from one to the other, their gazes unyielding. The larger one was still holding a hand out, palm facing her, as if he was getting ready to push her. The other had taken a slight step back, to open his stance a little.

It seemed that they took their jobs seriously. And that the prejudice the adventurers had mentioned was definitely alive and well.

“Fine.”

She turned and walked back the way she came.

What the hell am I going to do now? She asked herself.

Unfortunately, nothing sprang to mind.

Faye tried to go back to the town square and find Taveon, to ask him where the best place to train would be. Unfortunately, he’d already gone from the square — as had the kids — and Faye didn’t like the looks that people were giving her.

Whilst carrying a weapon wasn’t something the guards would stop her from doing, it certainly seemed that some people were less than happy about it.

Swiftly choosing a main road out of the square, Faye decided to explore the rest of the town more. Maybe there would be some kind of arena that she could practice in.

As she wandered the streets, she took careful note of what people were doing. There were obviously enough commercial jobs for people to do, but with the way that society seemed set up she didn’t imagine that many people would be shop assistants in this world.

The question of what everyone did for work and pay was a minor one, but something that she felt she really needed to know. If she couldn’t get herself hired as a shop assistant, then she needed an alternate form of income.

It wasn’t as if she could go out of the town to find rare herbs or something similar.

Her knowledge and skills were useless here, because no one would pay her to learn from her. She had zero authority.

All thoughts of how to earn money fled the moment that a large building came into view.

Faye had found herself at the north end of town and emerging from the road she came upon a large, paved area that was mostly empty. The buildings around the edge of the open space — smaller than the town square but larger than just a street — were grander than what she’d seen elsewhere. Most of them were still made from timber and wattle and daub, but they were freshly painted, constructed with extremely straight timbers, and roofed with dark tiles.

But more impressive still was the single building that dominated the north side of the area. It was three storeys tall, the foundation that elevated it from the ground made of dark stone and the walls made from a combination of pale stone and a vertical tile that ended up looking like the scales of a dragon, or something.

Faye could hardly believe that a building like this existed here. It was out of place. Where the rest of the buildings looked like Tudor England, this was straight out of a fantasy story.

The roof was sharply inclined, rising for an extra floor at least. And at the back right corner a small tower rose above everything else in the town. Faye suspected it had an unobstructed view of the surrounding area, as well.

The building had large double doors that were clearly made from hardwood. The pattern in the timber was eye catching, looking like nothing Faye had ever seen.

“Now, that’s impressive.”

As she approached it, she saw that the ground in front of the building had some kind of design made from different coloured paving slabs, she wasn’t sure what it was, but at the pathway up to the double doors, she saw words made out of dark stone embedded in the floor. She couldn’t read what they said, but she was impressed, nonetheless.

“This has to be someplace important.”

There were no guards, no one in the square at all, actually, and no indication that she couldn’t enter. So, she walked up the wide, shallow steps to the front of the building, grasped the ring on one of the doors and pulled.

Nothing happened.

She twisted it and pushed, and this time, the door opened on relatively silent hinges.