She is something.

And then she is nothing, nothing but particles of matter drifting high above a vast ocean. Wind currents carry her up and down. Above, the spectacular glow of a red sunset paints broad orange strokes over clouds.

There is land. So little of it, dots against the deep dark blue, interruptions in the ocean’s calm surface. One of these dots is larger than the rest. It is there where each particle of herself lands. Atom by atom, her entire body rebuilds itself, from her feet upwards.

She feels pressure on the soles of her feet. Her lungs, newly materialized, rasp for air. She is alive, and reborn.

***

“Cora?”

Consciousness comes in flickers. Groggy, Cora peels open her eyes, sitting up, reaching to shut off her alarm–before her hand makes contact with rough fabric, and then the warm skin of another person.

“Callista?”

Cora retracts her hand. Sure enough, it’s Callista who is curled up on the end of the bed, halfway turned towards her. Callista’s breath comes out as a deep, long sigh. “I thought you weren’t going to wake up.” Before Cora can react, Callista hugs her. The contact is brief and her arms ache as she returns the hug. “Good to see you’re alright.”

“Yeah, about that–my body’s killing me.”

“I’m sorry,” Callista says, drawing back to her original spot.

“I didn’t expect to feel like trash. Don’t be sorry.” Cora frowns, looking around the room. “Where are we?”

Callista tugs on a lock of her hair, glancing aside. “Cerabin. On the outskirts of a small city called Duproseis. We got lucky and ended up in this abandoned house.”

Cora double-takes. “Cerabin? Like the world you talked about?”

She nods. It’s then that Cora notices the redness of Callista’s eyes, as if she had been crying recently. Rhodes. He’s not here. This was the place they were going to escape to.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Cora says quietly. It’s her turn to hug Callista, but with her entire body being sore, she freezes before she fully leans forward, arms glued to her sides. “Are you gonna be okay?” Cora tries to reign in her own surging empathy for Callista. All that comes out is a faint squeak on Cora’s end. She shuts her mouth, hating herself for having trusted the box.

“Yes… I took care of it yesterday. I’ll be fine.”

Cora doesn’t bother asking what it is. “If you need to talk to somebody, I’m always here.” Her words sound lacking in substance. She wants to add more, but decides that if Callista doesn’t want to bring up the subject further, then Cora will let her choose when to.

Callista nods, offering a small smile. “Thank you. Really, thank you. Your kindness means a lot to me.”

“I’m glad.” And Cora is. Callista deserves better. They’ve known each other for such a short time, but her presence is familiar already. “How long have I been out?”

“A whole day.”

A whole day? The last memory Cora has is going through the node. And then, nothing, until she woke up.

“Yes, a whole day. I don’t know why, and Liam doesn’t either. At least you’re here with us now.”

“Where’s Liam?” Talking takes effort, too. Her throat is dry. Even the bottled water would taste delicious to her.

“He’s out, too. Resting. His burns took a lot out of him.”

Cora struggles into a sitting position. She throws her legs over the side of the bed, half-amazed at the relatively spotless wooden floor. “I want to go see him.”

Callista throws herself off the bed onto her feet. “Don’t. He really needs peace and quiet. That’s what he told me before he slept, that is.”

Liam’s burns were bad, Cora recalls. His leg especially. A handprint had been burned through his pants into his thigh. His side and back had angry welts. No wonder he’s resting. “Can I just see him? I won’t talk to him or anything. I promise.”

Callista pursed her lips for a moment. “Yes. Can you walk?”

“Maybe?” Cora tests her weight. Her feet hurt beyond comprehension. She hisses and flops back onto the bed. “Yeah, that’s a no from me. I hate feeling so weak. I just want to see if he’s doing alright.”

Callista’s face softens in understanding. “I felt the same way about Rhodes, too. I’ll help you. Put your arm over my shoulder and I’ll take you to him.”

Cora nods gratefully. Callista helps her onto her feet. With some of the weight reduced, Cora’s feet don’t hurt as badly. They pass the doorway and go down a shadowy hall, reaching a door at the end. Callista creaks the door open. A sliver of light enters.

Liam’s blanket is thrown over the bed. A figure lies on its side underneath, one hand dangling from the edge of the bed. Liam’s breaths are even and shallow, his eyes peacefully closed.

He looks a fraction of his former self. Where his shoulders had been pulled back and his body size was large and intimidating to the hunters, now he is curled up, small and vulnerable.

“Hey, Liam, it’s me,” Cora whispers. He doesn’t stir. “I hope you get better.”

“So do I,” Callista adds, before she closes the door gently.

Once they go several doors down the hallway again, Cora speaks normally. “Is there anything in here that can help him?” she asks. She can’t remove the image of his sleeping form. That position didn’t look like plain sleepiness. It looked like deep-set exhaustion, the kind that comes with a bad injury or illness.

“Nothing. When the node dropped us off here the entire place was ransacked. There were a few brooms and mops left, though. I cleaned up as best as I could.”

That explains the clean floors. Why grit hasn’t stuck to her bare feet yet. “You did a good job. I guess sleeping then is the best way for him to get better. Where’s the water?”

“In the kitchen. That’s where we’re headed. I figured you were thirsty. Hungry, too. Liam wasn’t, but I made him eat.”

Once more, Cora worries about his health. But Callista has been hard at work, too. “So, have you slept at all?”

Callista flashes a grin. “Not at all. I haven’t been able to anyways. There’s too much to do.”

“I can handle whatever it is you need me to do.”

They clear the entrance into the kitchen to the right. It is a small room with a single window fixed in the corner and a skylight above, illuminating the surrounding area in a vibrant glow.

The sky, she notices, is a vibrant blue. A little darker and richer than Earth’s, almost like turquoise. There are even veins sneaking through the sky, although they’re just elongated clouds. The effect leaves her in awe, though.

“Here,” Callista says, ignoring Cora’s offer. Cora unscrews a water bottle and chugs greedily. The bitter taste doesn’t dissuade her instincts to drink, drink, drink, until she finishes off the bottle and the dryness of her throat eases up.

“I’m serious.” Cora clears her throat. “I’ll handle whatever you need to do.”

Callista drinks a bottle of her own in response. When she finishes, she places the empty bottle next to Cora’s. “I have one more thing left on my list, and that’s to go out to the market.”

“Market?”

“Yes, out to Duproseis. It’s not far off, but the walk will take me a half a strike there and back. I figured we needed provisions since our food and water is only so much.” Callista wrings her hands and protracts her claws. She drags her fingers along the drywall, carving out a crude map of their position relative to Duproseis. “I’ve heard about this city. It’s on the second-biggest island, Noven. A lot of Endralovans live here. And I mean a lot. If I go here to trade, they won’t question it. But if you do…”

“They’re going to go insane,” Cora half-jokes. “I get it. Just one thing: what’s a strike?”

Callista’s face lights up. “It’s something I learned years ago. It’s outdated, yes, but we don’t have a clock. Here, I’ll show you.” Cora lets Callista take them out the kitchen, down the hallway back towards Liam’s room, before they turn right and exit a tall, narrow door.

Gangly weeds reach up to Cora’s knees. Callista walks through them as if they’re nothing, so Cora does too, ignoring the random jabs into her shins. They stop before an area cleared of all vegetation down to bare dirt. A near-perfect circle marks the center, along with ticks set in even fashion around the perimeter and a large stick shoved into the dirt. Its shadow lies between two tick marks.

“I had a whole day to learn how long a strike is. In Endralova I kept up this habit before the Fall. The days are longer here. How much longer I can’t say, but it doesn't matter. I figured this is how we could keep track of time.”

“Wow. I never would’ve thought of this. This is genius.” And that’s true. Cora relies on her phone to tell time. Wait. She can show Callista how her phone keeps track of time. It would be infinitely more useful for them.

And yet, Callista’s words ring in Cora’s head. “We’re going to have to talk about where you two are really from.”

So why is she apprehensive of telling the truth? Callista is their ally. Their friend. She could’ve escaped and left Liam and Cora to fend for themselves. Callista could’ve kept herself safe, but instead she chose to stay.

If that’s not proof of her closeness, Cora doesn’t know what is. So she does what Liam refuses to.

“I have something to tell you,” Cora says. She digs into her pocket and pulls out her phone. With a press of the side button, the screen powers on. The battery is at an uncomfortable 14%. She always has her solar charger, but still she winces. Old habits die hard. “Back home we call this a phone. It can tell time, take pictures, edit them–it can do a lot of things.”

“That’s the thing you pulled out in front of the node,” Callista says.

“Yeah, I took a picture of it.”

Callista nods. “With that?”

“It’s saved into my phone. I can show you.” Cora unlocks her phone and goes to her gallery before remembering the pictures of Callista Cora first took. She quickly deletes them and taps the last picture taken, then turns the screen toward her. “Look.”

Callista’s face lights up in surprise. “This is incredible,” she mutters. Cora swipes to the last few images. Images of the forest where she and Liam had camped. A sparkling image of the mountains set in the background with the river taking up a large chunk of the bottom. “Those were the mountains of that world. And the river. It has color. And your phone–that tiny thing–has this amazing camera?”

Cora’s shared enthusiasm wanes. “You know what a camera is?”

“I’m not ignorant,” Callista says, frowning.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound rude,” Cora stammers. “It’s just I’m telling you this because… I’m not Magaraman.” Callista tilts her head to the side. “In reality, we have no idea what’s out there. Liam and I ran with the lie because we’re afraid. Both of us come from another place that I feel nobody else’s ever seen. At least, not here.”

It’s a long stretch if anybody does. As far as Cora knows, nobody on Earth thinks magic exists. Or other dimensions. Cold, hard science makes it impossible to be so. Made it impossible. And yet. She’s seen the impossible. The question is whether anybody knows about Earth.

“I was going to ask you if you were really from Magaram,” Callista says. She hesitates, and then slowly draws back, leaving Cora to stand by herself. The soreness and aches are tolerable as long as she stays still, but Callista’s newfound apprehension hurts her more than her current physical pain.

“This ‘phone’ confirms it. Even Transia doesn’t have technology like this. This thing is like magic.”

Cora bites on her tongue to block the laugh on the tip of her tongue. “Trust me, it’s anything but magic. What I find magic are all these gifts. Controlling all those animals. Light and fire coming out of your hands. Back home, if that happened, everybody would be going crazy because it’s supposed to be impossible. I still find it impossible.”

“So in your world… gifts don’t exist?” Callista takes a step closer.

Cora decides to open up. She’s sore and tired and wants to go back to sleep but can’t until Callista knows everything. “No. My phone might look special, but it’s advanced technology, nothing more. In my world that’s how we survived. All we had were our brains so we used them to make new stuff. Better and stronger stuff that did the work for us. Like my phone.”

“So you don’t know about the Transients, then.” Cora shakes her head in response. “Or all the gifts.” Another shake. “Or the grid, Protocol, who Magaramans even are–”

“Nope,” Cora says. “But I’ve been picking up some clues. I’m guessing Magaramans look like me, right?”

Callista’s jaw opens and closes, as if she forgot how to speak. “Impossible.”

“That’s what I said when I landed in that other world. But here I am.”

“Did you–did you hit your head out there in the forest?”

Cora smiles. “Does Magaram have stuff like my phone?”

Callista runs a hand through her hair. “Nobody really knows what Magaram’s like outside the military.”

“My world has another name. Earth.”

“Earth.”

“We call this earth for example,” Cora says, nudging some dirt with the tip of her toe. “I don’t really know how my world got its name. That’s all there is to it. Earth.” She notices that Callista is still. Her eyes look glazed. “I shouldn’t have told you all this. It’s the wrong time, isn’t it? I should’ve told you after you told us your story. We should’ve told you. I’m sorry.”

Within the span of a second, Callista’s eyes flash. She protracts her claws and groans, buckling until she’s on her hands and knees. “Callista!” Cora cries out. But the girl doesn’t listen. She stares at the ground and punches it.

It splinters around her knuckles. Callista groans and punches again. This time, she flinches under the influence of her own power delivering blow after blow. Her knuckles split open on the third punch. After the fourth, she stops.

Cora holds her hands to her mouth as the other girl retracts her claws and stands on shaking legs. The light in her eyes fades back into their normal amethyst. “I scared you, didn’t I?” she whispers. Cora stares at her injured hand. Did that just happen? “I had to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Because you–your existence should be impossible. I wouldn’t have believed you, but your phone backs up your story. You’re from outside the grid.”

Now Cora understands what just transpired. She rotates her forearm so the crescent-shaped scab comes into view. Part of the scab has fallen off, revealing pale skin. Her own little scar reminds her of her first day. “When I first came here, I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. All I knew was Earth. I thought going to other worlds was impossible.”

“I thought the grid was all that was possible. You’re the living proof that it’s not. But then…” Callista closes her eyes. “If Transia finds out about you, about Earth–”

“They won’t,” Cora says. A tiny part of her worries about what will happen if they do meet. “I’m going to keep pretending that I’m a Magaraman. You only believed me because of my phone. So, nobody else has something like it?”

“Nothing like that. We do have clocks and cameras but they aren’t combined, and especially not something like that.”

Every tidbit of knowledge helps. So the technology out there isn’t that far behind from Earth’s. Cora finds that both intriguing and disturbing. “I want you to teach me about everything there is to know about the grid. If you want to. And I’ll tell you everything I know about Earth if you want. It’s only fair.”

“Deal. I’ll act like what you told me is normal.”

Cora’s ankle itches as she brushes past several weeds. The soreness prevents her from moving properly. “I’m sorry for dumping the truth on you like that. I couldn’t keep onto it when I know you’re trustworthy.”

“I appreciate you doing it now than later. Otherwise I might’ve found it hard to forgive you because you didn’t trust me.”

Cora is brought back to her silence with Liam about what really happened. Why he’s here and not home. Why she’s here at all. She can’t tell him. It’s not an option anymore. It never really was in the first place.

Callista rubs her injured hand with her non-injured one. “I shouldn’t have done that. It’s Endralovan custom to do this if we want to test if we’re in a dream.” Then she bites down on her lip. “My hand hurts a lot.”

“Do you think the market might have medicine?”

“Oh, they will. It’s the cost that worries me. ” Callista bows her head and glances at the circle and its markings. “I saved two elikanders for trading if you don’t mind. I need your backpack, though.”

“That’s fine. You’re the one doing most of the work.”

Like Liam, she thinks, feeling utterly useless in her current state. Between Callista and Liam, they’ve carried the slack, leaving Cora behind. They don’t seem to mind, but it’s how worthless she feels compared to them, especially knowing that the reason both of their lives were upended were because of Cora’s actions.

She wants to feel like she’s doing something for the people whose lives she ruined. She wants to be more than dead weight. Isn’t that part of the reason why she opened the stupid box in the first place?

“I’m sorry for leaving you like that. I’ll take you back to your room if you want to sleep.”

“I want to sit on the couch and think. That’s all,” Cora says. Callista nods and allows Cora to drape an arm over her. Together, they break past the weeds and step onto the wooden floor. They reach the living room. Cora sinks into the couch, hands on either side of her, feet barely touching the floor.

“Are you gonna go in those clothes?” Cora asks. As far as she knows, those are clothes Transients supposedly wear. The hunters did. Callista does, too.

“I didn’t think about that,” Callista says. One hand goes over her mouth as a slow yawn escapes. “Yes, how obvious. I can’t risk going out like this.”

An idea suddenly emerges from the nebulous depths of Cora’s mind. “I’ll trade clothes with you.”

Callista tilts her head. “Are you fine with that? I can try searching again for some other clothes.”

“You look like my size. Besides, it’s either that or having everybody after you because you look like a Transient.”

Callista purses her lips. “I’ll go into the kitchen. Throw your clothes in there and I’ll throw mine out so we don’t see each other.”

To Cora, her situation still feels like a dream. But there’s a shared sense of companionship as she looks into Callista’s eyes and nods. “Let’s do this, then.”