The mage’s association reminds me of a guild hall from an RPG. It reinforces the fact that I am in a different world. There are mirrors along one of the walls, and I catch a glimpse of my dirty reflection. I desperately need to shower, and I probably smell pretty bad by now, but otherwise I appear the same. A five-foot tall, confused girl with green eyes and tangled brown hair down to the middle of my back stares back at me.

We approach the desk, and a middle-aged woman gives Liz a rather friendly greeting, it seems they know each other. “And who might this be?” The woman asks Liz, referring to me.

“This is Miss Mia, she just arrived in town. She wants to get a magic checkup, but could we be a bit discreet about it?”

“Of course, that’s no problem at all, Liz. Miss Mia, if you’d like to follow me to back room, I can take care of you now. My name is Annette, by the way.”

“I’ll be waiting out here for you.” Liz tells me.

Annette leads me to a room in the back, flipping a sign on the outside of the door before entering. Once inside, she locks the door. “Now, Miss Mia, what did you need me to do for you today?”

“I-I’m not exactly sure… I don’t know much about magic to be honest. L-liz told me that um, you would be able to see if there were any lingering effects on me.”

“In that case, could you please remove your garments for me?” Annette asks as she retrieves some sort of a wand from a drawer.

“I have to get naked?” I ask, confused and nervous.

“You said you didn’t know much about magic, so I suppose I’ll have to explain. In order to accurately assess any magic effects on you, your clothes have to be removed, as they could interfere with the reading, especially if they’re enchanted. Also I’ll need you to tell me if you’re wearing anything magical or any specific spells you’ve used recently. Although the second part doesn’t seem like a concern. Have you ever used any magic before, Miss Mia?”

I shake my head. “No, magic is completely new to me. Liz gave me this cloak to wear, she said it does something to maintain temperatures. And I also have this necklace I borrowed from the guards. They said it translates speech. I can’t understand anyone without it. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Honestly, that does make it a little bit difficult, but we can work around it. I suppose I should also assume that you’ve never had your magical aptitude tested, either?”

I shake my head again.

“Well, would you like me to test you afterwards?” Annette asks as I nod. She thinks for a moment. “Since I’ll need you to remove that necklace as well, it might be a bit uncomfortable for you, but I’ll just have to tell you what I find after you put it back on.”

I take my clothes off, and Annette gives me a weird look when she sees my t-shirt and shorts, but doesn’t say anything. This is so awkward. My first day here, and it feels like I’m at the doctor’s office for a physical.

Once I remove all my clothes and the necklace she looks at me, and then motions towards her ears. It seems I have to take my earrings out as well. I take them out and set them next to the rest of my meager (half-borrowed) belongings. Annette inspects me one more time and then nods.

She begins to wave the strange wand over me, and uses it to look in my eyes, mouth, and ears. It really does feel like a visit to the doctor. The gem at the end of the wand glows a few different colors during the exam and she takes note of it but doesn’t seem to have any reaction until she waves the wand over my navel.

The gem suddenly emits a bright sky-blue color, and then suddenly shatters. Annette gasps and looks visibly stunned for a moment. She motions for me to put the necklace back on, so I do.

“You could probably tell, but that’s not a normal response. I need to get a higher quality replacement, so feel free to put your cloak back on while I retrieve it.”

I nod and do as she says as she exits the room. A few minutes later, she returns with a similar wand with a much larger cylindrical gemstone, nearly half the wand is actually the gem now. She notices my curiosity and promises to tell me more afterwards.

We resume the test and the same bright sky-blue color emits from the gemstone, but doesn’t break it this time. She says a strange phrase (although without the necklace every phrase sounds strange) and the light projects from the wand, displaying what looks like text in the air. Annette seems immersed in it while I awkwardly stand there next to her, naked and cold.

After a short while, she says a different phrase, and the wand returns to normal. She continues the exam without incident and I put my clothes back on. With the necklace back on, I open my mouth to ask questions but realize I have no idea where to start.

Thankfully, Annette leads the conversation instead. “You look utterly confused, Miss Mia. I’ll try to explain this the best that I can. For starters, the wands that I was using are embedded with a gem that we call Iricite-M. The ‘M’ stands for magic of course, there are other variants as the name implies. The gem essentially extracts and absorbs any magicules that it can, and emits different colors depending on the nature of the magicules it’s absorbing. The wand is a complex device made with data magic and a few other things, and with the proper spell, it can basically sort the raw magicule data from the gem.

“Now for the results, I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen a reaction that strong or that color. When I looked at the data, it was filled with words I didn’t understand, honestly. In addition, the composition of the magicules was extremely strange. But I can tell you from what I could understand, that it was definitely a very powerful and complicated form of transport magic. I’m not sure if this will mean anything to you, but I read something along the lines of [nanotech-infused intersecting universe teleportation spiritual exchange correction]. Again, I have no idea what that means.”

“Miss Annette, is it possible for you to display that data again?”

“Of course. [Display data]”

Apparently the necklace translates spell phrases as well, although I’m becoming somewhat skeptical of its translations.

I look at the sky-blue text in front of me. Of course I can’t read most of it, but some of it seem to be diagrams rather than text. A portion of it resembles a DNA strand and right below it is a molecular diagram. Of course, all of the molecular references are also unreadable. I ask her if she can translate any of them but she shakes her head.

“Honestly, no one is really sure what that function is about. It’s rather strange that it would catch your eye. We usually just read the text. Are you familiar with those diagrams?”

As a (former?) science major in college, I actually have a good amount of knowledge but instead I simply nod. It seems like magic has effectively replaced a lot of science in this world. “I’ve seen them a few times before,” I tell her simply, not wanting to dive into the heavy “I’m actually from another world” topic at the moment. “So I know I asked you to show it to me, but honestly I can’t read your language.” I laugh nervously as I scratch my head.

“Is there any way you could translate a few things on here for me? Like these specific letters? All you really have to do is just tell me what letter it is when I point to it” I ask as I point to the letters pointing to the diagrams.

“You’re really a strange one, aren’t you, Miss Mia? But I’m curious too, so I’ll try. That one is G, C, T, A, N, M, and the last two are actually symbols that I’m not sure I can quite explain to you. She tells me as I point to the letters referencing the DNA strand. “The same symbols are also seen here on the lower diagram.”

I ask her for a pen and paper and we spend the next hour or so copying and translating the data to paper for me. I need to learn the language here, if I’m going to get any better answers. The information that I am able to understand is as follows:

Magic is likely a form of science, and the people of this world seem to understand its application but have a very rudimentary understanding of its properties and structure. This is a very advanced form of magic, which requires scientific magic knowledge. Whoever used this magic is extremely powerful. This spell was used as an emergency magic to rescue me from the house fire before I would have died. There are four additional DNA identifiers in this world, likely leading to the ability to use magic. There also additional molecules/elements pertaining to magic in this world.

At least there’s some science behind magic, so I might eventually be able to understand magic. Once we’re done, Annette has me remove my clothes again and hold some sort of a crystal in my hands. Apparently it’s supposed to glow certain colors depending on what magic you’re compatible with. I pass out again while holding it. Maybe I’m just not compatible with magic at all being from another world. I think as my vision goes dark.

***

I think I’m dreaming. I’m in a white void. Am I standing or floating? I’m not sure. There are a multitude of colors swirling around me. The scene changes and I feel my body floating through space. My speed is increasing and suddenly I’m floating above my house.

It’s on fire and I can see myself trying to climb out of the bathroom window on the second floor. There’s a rumbling and the house explodes, and I see myself flying through the air. A transparent version of me, maybe my spirit or soul, is separated from my body and flies off in a separate direction, seemingly pulling me with it.

The scene changes again, and I can see the ghost of me landing on the ground underneath that tree on the hill. Color slowly fills in and I see myself gasp for breath as I wake up.

***

I wake to find myself fully clothed again, laying on an unfamiliar couch in an unfamiliar living room. Liz is sitting across from me and immediately gets up and rushes over to me when she sees that I’m awake. “What happened?” I say as I try to sit up and end up laying back down holding my head. “My head is killing me.”

“Something happened that I can’t really explain. Wait for a moment so I can get Annette.”

Liz quickly retrieves Annette, as well as an unfamiliar man who follows them in. I’m told that he’s the Director of the Mage’s Association. He introduces himself as Levi and tells me that he’s going to examine me quickly to make sure that I’m okay. After he finishes, he asks if I’d like to know what happened.

Of course I do.

According to him and Annette, as I blacked out every color imaginable came out of the crystal and shattered it, creating a barrier around me, in which it seemed like I was frozen in time. Apparently this lasted for about an hour before the barrier separated itself back into the original colors and swirled around my body as I reabsorbed the magic.

They said they’ve never seen anything like it. Apparently the crystal is only supposed to glow, and they’ve never seen the lights take on a physical form like that. Their conclusion is that I’m compatible with all (or nearly all) magic, which has never happened before as far as they know, so there’s really no precedent or reference for it.

After they finish explaining, I decide on my course of action. “I have a strange question to ask you. When Annette was checking me for lingering magic, she was able to use the wand to show a display of data. Is it possible to do that again, but on myself overall?”

Director Levi responds, “I’m not sure why you want to do that but I can. I’ll warn you though, the [Display Data] spell basically just shows a bunch of incomprehensible data when used on people. It’s the same format though.”

“Please just use it.”

After he uses the spell, a large projection of white text is being displayed from his palm. It shows an insane amount of text, a DNA strand, and an extremely complex molecular structure. Looking at the scientific portion of it (which garners strange looks again), I confirm that my DNA and cellular structure contains the symbols referring to magic, an extreme amount of them as well.

“That’s all I needed to see. I somewhat have an idea of what happened to me. To begin with, I’m not from this world. The world that I’m from doesn’t have magic. The diagrams that you can’t understand in the [Display Data] spell pertain to the composition and structure of whatever you use it on. I can’t say that I’m an expert, but it's rather well-known knowledge in the world that I’m from. The difference here is that you also have unique magical elements, so I was able to conclude that my bodily structure now includes magic. I’m not sure whether the scene you saw was me gaining it or unlocking or what, but I definitely have magic in my structure now, and a lot of it.”

Both Levi and Annette are quite shocked by my explanation. Lizette is also surprised, but not to the same extent.

“So you’re telling me that you can make sense of those diagrams?” Levi asks.

“Well, I don’t know your language at all. In fact, I need this necklace just to be able to communicate. And it doesn’t really do anything about written language, but I had Annette help translate the strange spell on me earlier, so I can more or less differentiate the magical and natural parts of it.”

Levi looks lost in thought for a moment. “I’d really like to learn what you know about it, but it seems like the language barrier is going to make it very difficult.”

The gears in my aching head start to turn. This world has next to no knowledge or application of science. This could be beneficial to me. I’ve heard of books where the main character goes to another world and uses their knowledge to make things that they had no idea could exist. I think I have some sort of a plan now and magic is definitely where I need to focus if I want to find out what really happened to me or find a way back home.

“Director, what do you know about those diagrams? Has anyone ever figured them out before?”

“No, not to my knowledge. You’re the first person I’ve heard of that had any idea what they were. This could be revolutionary, honestly.”

“Then I have a proposition for you. I’m planning to learn the language here, and once I do, I will come back and teach you what I know and help research it. For proper compensation, of course.”

“That would be amazing. But what do you want as compensation?”

“We can discuss it later on. I’m very exhausted and would like to be able to sleep in a bed, so I think it’s time for us to go.”

We say our goodbyes, and Liz leads me to her home, where I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow on the bed in her guestroom.