Kiara's first week on Magdalea closed with surprising peace. After the battle with Cucumber, and a personal battle of her own, Maple handed over visitor passes to a place that'd allow the group to unwind. It lay several miles north, sitting between the towns of Harmon and North Harmon. Nestled comfortably within a crop of trees, they found a well-built cabin that immediately came to life. The building was something of an exclusive retreat. A popular witch had been involved in its making, creating a home that took care of its residents. It fed you, prepared baths, and even tucked you in at night, providing the kind of comfort that any traveler would need. Even Arrowhead could be at rest, with the traveling cottage detached and a barn waiting to serve it. It would have felt like Kiara was on vacation if the rest of the party had taken the time to relax.

The trio had other plans, however, interrupted by neither the resort nor the recent battle. During their time here, Kiara had woken to their training, finding one or the other made the master for the day. Keigo taught lessons about the aura, offering tutelage in a practice called Gyo. Danson listened passively, choosing to teach Kiara instead, but Diana listened intently to everything the assassin said. When it was her turn to teach, Diana left everyone afraid. Danson deliberately avoided those lessons, but Kiara watched to see if she could join and wasn't sure her heart was in it. Diana didn't so much as teach as she came at you, testing your reflexes against a beastly urge to strike. Keigo proved agile enough to avoid them but always left sweating with his heart beating against his chest.

“It’s like getting thrown to the wolves.” He told Kiara one evening, wiping sweat from his brow as Diana grinned. The redhead couldn’t believe her ears, crossing her arms as she frowned in response.

“There’s no point in me trying to teach you my style when you have your own! I think the best method is to hone yours against a skilled opponent." She said proudly back. Keigo sighed.

"My skilled opponent has a weird version of holding back."

“I don’t use my magic!”

“You still fight like you’re trying to kill me though!”

“And that’s why I don’t train with Diana.” Danson chimed in, sipping a drink as he watched on the porch.

His lessons were the ones that interested Kiara the most, applying to her and Diana mostly, but still managing to catch Keigo’s ears. A great mage had good mana control, and in order to have that, your aura needed to know your spells. As Kiara thought up new names for her own, he passed on a bit of advice. Spells used in repetition became easier to forge, making them more powerful as the caster went on. It was great to have variety, but the best approach was to know what spells you wanted to use. With that advice he had the two girls repeat theirs, while Keigo was told to switch between forms. By the fourth day of their stay, Kiara felt a lot stronger, secretly finding herself eager for her next fight. She woke up almost tempted to challenge Diana, but when she entered the living room she found the group playing a game instead.

Diana and Keigo had rings on their middle fingers while Danson sat with a board on his lap. As he pushed up buttons and turned knobs, a platform rose between them and they held balled fists out. From their rings beams fired down, forming miniature figures. Diana's was a woman with short pink hair, a visor over her eyes, and gauntlets on her arms. Keigo's looked somewhat like him, with longer hair and a sword at its side. Pines rose as snow covered the platform. Danson lifted a hand, and with a wave, he started the battle between the two.

Diana's miniature took off much like her, blasting away from the ground with a thunder crash. She came at Keigo's like a cannonball, striking empty air as he slipped away. With his sword in hand, he swung for her back, catching her gauntlet as she spun with a punch. He slid back and she blasted forward, stopping suddenly as an ice spike stabbed up. Diana's eyes moved to Danson, smiling slyly. Keigo cleaved through it, splitting the miniature’s masks before she slipped away.

“Hey! Don’t ruin Six’s look!” Diana barked.

"You're going to heal it, aren't ya? It's a part of my game plan." Keigo's swiped again, tearing into Six's dark shirt. "I've already figured out how to win this, Diana. Maybe you should give up."

“Nah.” She shook her head. “I get the crown when I win.”

“If.”

"If what?" Six blasted snow up from the ground, disappearing into a cloud. A Striker Spray fired out, forcing Keigo to slash furiously in defense. She slipped out of the cloud while he was still at it, smashing her fist through his face. "Like I said, when.”

"When what?" Keigo smirked. His miniature's body went gel-like, coating Six's body as it fell upon her. An arm stretched out, reclaiming its blade, making six pale as he stabbed through. Diana cried out, and Keigo laughed. "Still the Clash King." His miniature posed dramatically.

“I would have had it if Danson didn’t interfere!”

Danson shook his head. “You said you wanted map hazards, all I did was oblige.”

Kiara's eyes sparkled. "What are you guys playing!" She couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice.

"Conjurer Clash," Danson answered. "It's a popular game from the Dark Lands. I picked up a set while Keigo and I were on the Summer Sea. Turns out it's great for training magic control."

"And it's a great way to remind Diana that sometimes I'm just better." Keigo shrugged.

“Rematch me!”

“No!”

Kiara wanted to know more about this game, but another question filled her mind first, “Why do you guys call it the Dark Lands and the Calm Lands sometimes, but their proper names other?”

"Because of the Journeyman's Logs," Danson answered. Kiara's eyes asked for more. The other two smiled.

“The Journeyman’s Logs!” Diana grinned as she produced a book. Keigo and Danson did as well, each one bearing a different cover. “The Journeyman was an Ufanyn who traveled the world like, two-hundred years ago. He wanted to make an accurate account of all the nations, and chose names based on what he saw and heard.” Diana opened her book. “The people of the land seem to call it two names. Those in the North use a name that means Fair Travels, while the kingdom that takes up the rest of the land prefers Nithellan. As I look upon it I see its lush green fields and rolling hills. The land reminds me of rolling waves, vibrant with the healthy life of nature. Rather than settle for either of the natives' names, I think I shall call it the Green Lands.”

Keigo held up his book. “At a time I heard the land of dragons was a mere rumor. Stories were told of the caverns in which they sleep, where the heat of the volcano offers their kind the perfect home. I found here that dragons do not simply live like wild beasts. Their caves are connected like a community of hives, making their volcanic home a nation in itself. Though, I suppose the word nation would neglect the history of the land. The humans to the south—migrants from the west—have a name for it themselves. Those mountains are the Dragon Dens.”

Kiara's gaze moved to Danson, waiting patiently for his chance. He cleared his throat, and like the others, shared the story. "It is in the Elven Kingdoms that I first started my journey. I went first from the sandy beaches of the lowlands to the plateaus rising in the north. With each step, I saw what made each kingdom the home of its kind. Could I have gotten lost if I were affected by the land's spell? Perhaps, and it truly would have been a shame."

Kiara nodded, almost sated but for the new question on her mind. "Do you guys all only carry your homeland's book?"

“Come on, Kiara, only Danson is that vain.” Keigo laughed. Danson pointedly ignored him, but Diana grinned along.

“It’s just the first Journeyman Log you’ll find. He wanted people to set out if they wanted to complete the collection.”

“Have either of you?”

The room shook their heads.

“I’ve been from the Green Lands to the Divine Provinces and Blue Peaks.”

“I’ve been to the same places as Diana, except the Blue Peaks. I’ve hung around in the Mainland for a bit, but it wasn’t called the Mainland when the Journeyman was alive, it was the Center Lands. The book doesn’t talk about it as it is now.”

“As I said before, Keigo and I have been through the Summer Seas. Otherwise, I’ve been to the Elven Kingdoms, of course, and as far as the Distant Islands. For the record, I wasn’t born in the Elven Kingdoms though, the book of my homeland would be White Hat.”

“How many books are there?”

“A lot!” Diana exclaimed. “They all vary in size, but the Journeyman always started a new one when he landed in new places.”

“How long did it take him to finish them all?”

“Decades! He traveled mostly by beast and foot. He really earned the title, the Journeyman.”

Kiara nodded. She'd have to get her hands on one later. Sated now, her mind went back to the game and her eyes followed. Conjurer Clash sounded self-explanatory enough, and the mechanisms seemed simple. Danson controlled the arena with his board, while the others used rings to conjure their fighters. They probably got the chance to design them and they could share their magic. She had seen what a victory and a loss looked like, and as ideas for her own fighter began to fill her mind, another question leaped to the front.

“Alexia is a conjurer, right?” She hadn’t seen the bibliophile on that last day with the Blulate. After the battle, the woman retreated to her room, using the days to recover from the effort. “But she uses books. How does conjuring work exactly?”

Danson answered, "You need an item to use as a focus. Alexia's books are actually a good choice. She conjures with the monsters' descriptions and only has to maintain them while she fights. With certain magic items, anyone can be a conjurer. The school is mostly about manifestation."

“Would it be possible to conjure something without focusing?”

“You’d be a summoner at that point, and that means a few different schools. Some people say summoners are better than conjurers, but the latter is more versatile.” Kiara put her hands together in thought. Danson smirked. “You look like you have something intense on your mind.”

“I don’t…” She started. “I mean, it’s not a big deal. I was just thinking about one of the games I was playing with my friends recently. In it, there’s this building where suits of armor spawn guards. They’ll appear even if you knock them over. They’re annoying, and I’m trying to figure out if that’d be a conjuring or a summoning.”

“Conditional summoning.” Danson nodded. “I hear that there are places like that in the Dark Lands. There are even rumors that say that if Morduunal ever disappears, a dangerous abomination will be summoned into the world.”

“Hold on!” Diana held up her hand. “Your world has games like that? That sounds more like a choose your own adventure story.”

“Yeah.” Keigo’s eyes lit up. “I’m kinda curious about it. Tell us more!”

“I can do better than that.”Kiara took out her mobile.

She hadn't had a reason to spare it a second glance since she landed on Magdalea, but the solar-powered device still came on, painting its translucent screen with her apps. She flicked through a couple of pages and pushed one that looked like a star, holding her hands above it as lines traced down her fingers. A screen rose as she placed it down, and the star upon it spun into a title. Shining Conquest II. It felt like a lifetime had passed since she played the game last. Her fingers twitched and the screen moved forward, flashing to a scene where a dark-skinned girl stared out a window. Another twitch and a small voice spoke.

“Welcome back, K-Air.”

“K-Air…” Keigo snickered. Kiara ignored him.

She took control of the dark-skinned girl and moved her to the window's edge. A town stretched out beneath her, and Kiara's brow furrowed in preemptive frustration. It had been a lifetime since she touched the game, and with their conversation, she remembered why she paused. She still had a mission to complete and didn't have the first clue how. Meanwhile, the others looked at the display with complete wonder! She forgot about them for a moment but quickly explained.

“It’s called Shining Conquest II. It’s a progressive RPG you can play with up to eight friends. Each of you pick a nation to side with, and the goal is to make your nation the ruler of the world.” Her audience nodded excitedly. “I was with the North.”

“Was?” Danson raised an eyebrow.

"My friend Shin—with the south—attacked me first. I thought I had time to set up since he was so far down, but he built a General character and got into his king's war room. The North didn't expect a Southern attack, and so we got crushed in like the first month." She frowned as she recounted the defeat and Shin's gloating the next day. "He messed up though because Taylor in the East claimed crucial territory in the central area. He has to be careful now because some of her spies can slip into his kingdom."

“I’m guessing this Taylor is a ruler then.”

"Yep! She married the prince and assassinated his father. Now they rule and she has full control." It was honestly impressive. Shin regretted that when the game was updated.

“Who’s in the west?” Keigo asked.

“Tristan…” Kiara wasn’t sure if she should call him her boyfriend. “He’s being super sneaky. He’s like a Developer or something, and he’s been pushing magic research in his kingdom. He’s going for the long game, but Shin and Taylor think he’s taking the diplomatic route.”

“And how do you know he’s not?”

"I'm a spy," Kiara smirked. "The north lost, but being a spy means I can act without their resources. Right now, I'm pretending to be a soldier from the south. I'm in a neutral central territory, but if I can trick the leader into thinking the south has made an attack, I can delay Shin's counterattack against Taylor."

Diana gaped. “Did I say this was like a choose your own adventure book?” She shook her head. “It’s more like you have another world in the palm of your hand. Are you sure Nandaxia doesn’t have magic?”

Kiara laughed. “No. It’s just really good AI. The world is as alive as technology is currently able to make it.”

“So let’s take a step back then.” Keigo came to stand behind her. It wasn’t necessary, he could see clearly from where he sat, but the change in position felt almost conspiratorial. “How are you planning to trick the central leader?”

“I was going to fail an assassination against him in his keep. Unfortunately, his stupid summons keep attacking me before I can get close enough.”

“Sounds about right.” Diana nodded. “No noble or high ranking person with the resources would ever have cheap magical defenses. You’d need the front door to be wide open to make it easy for you.”

“Which means she should try to get the doors open.” Danson offered. “What’s the likelihood of you tricking the guy into thinking you’re a friend.”

“Low. The fall of the north made his paranoia high.”

“How does he look to his people right now?” Diana came to stand beside Keigo. “A paranoid leader looks bad in a time of war.”

“He doesn’t seem like it at all. He regularly goes through the town as if everything is normal. Even though the north fell, no one here is on edge.”

“Clever! It’s all about the performance.”

"It also means that Kiara's plan is a good one. He'll have to play a strong hand if it looks like the south is attacking. How is she going to accomplish this though?" Danson joined them at last, and Kiara found herself waiting.

"Don't assassinate him in his keep," Keigo spoke. "We know he's safe in there because of his summons, but he's been going around town. He probably has guards with him, but if he's trying to look strong they are either watching from the shadows, or their numbers are low. If this game is as realistic as you say it is, I bet that the best time to attack is going to be while he's doing his circuit."

“Right!” Diana clapped. “And if you play it up well enough, you can really sell the plan. A covert attack says that the south is being sneaky, but a direct one will be a slap to the face. Even if the guards push you back, the people will still see that the south attacked.”

“Which means Kiara has to make sure the guards don’t push her back too hard. She’s already making sure people think she’s from the south. The guards will be looking out for someone like that. How do you make sure they don’t kill you right away?”

“Aww.” Kiara pouted. “I have a way, but I was saving it for when I met Shin on the front line. I got my hand on some of his southern magic. It’ll make me a lot stronger, but it’s limited.”

The three looked at each other and nodded at the girl. It seemed her council decided on the plan, and with a sigh, Kiara used the magic. It turned her into a spectral thing flowing through the streets with a skeletal face peering out. People gasped and cried out as she rushed past, moving like a beast to the trodding of hooves in the distance. A three-horned deer turned its head at her approach, and the gaudy man on its back visibly gulped. Hidden guards tried to attack, but their blades passed through her as she slithered up the walls. She fell like a cape toward her target, dodging a blast from his hand as he raised an attack. Landing on the beast she drew a blade, and the assassination was almost a success when lightning hit her. It flung her into a stand as the man panted wildly. A guard loosed the spell, and Kiara let a bit of hers fade as she slithered away. The trio cheered as they realized what she did. There was no declaration of war from the south, but they did see its flag designed across her back.

Kiara cheered too! If the game could update, she knew Shin would be shaken by the news spreading through the land. The aggressive Southern Kingdom would never be able to prove it didn't launch the attack. The central leader would take a stance and likely throw his hands in with Taylor. It'd be delicious, and rather than take the credit, she'd continue through the game. The next thing to do would be to see what Tristan was up to. She almost wanted to laugh but shook the thought away.

“You guys really helped me out!” She turned to them, each smirking confidently.

“It helps that each of us has thought about taking out one high ranking official or another.” Danson laughed, and the others joined in.

That put a whole new series of questions in Kiara's head, but before she could ask one she found her eyes drawn to Diana. The girl was confused by what she was seeing. Kiara turned back to the screen, but it was easy to explain. A man sat at a desk, typing away on a typewriter. As unreadable lines filled the page, Kiara spoke.

“This is how the game updates major events. If it could connect to the server, he’d take the page and send it off with a bird.” Alas, Shining Conquest II would have to wait.

"Error!" A small voice chimed. "Connection unstable, please move to a stronger access point."

Now Kiara was confused.

“What does that mean?” Diana asked.

“If I couldn’t connect, he’d place the paper on his desk. That message only supposed to happen when my reception is bad…”

“Which means?”

“There might be a way for me to connect to my world…”