Michael walked in or, to be more accurate, he was lightly pushed in by a stockier man right behind him.

"Well, get on in there. Burt doesn't bite" the new man chuckled as he continued to prod Michael in.

"Well, most of the time that is" he added before leaving Michael behind and walked up to the bar.

"You lot are new faces, wearing funny clothes too" he mentioned as he took a seat next to Charles.

"Ah. One of the usuals while you're behind the bar, Burt" he said as he turned the seat to face the rest of the group.

"Frobern" he said as he gave everyone a nod.

"Hope you lot stick with Burt, he can be a bit picky but he's a good sort"

The group was quiet, slightly bemused by the man's nonchalant attitude.

"Well then, what's your stories? I don't think I've ever seen clothing like that you're wearing and I've been through crystals from every sector. From the 000s to the 893 sector and what you lot are wearing is new to me" Frobern said as he patted Charles on the shoulder.

"We, uhh, ended up in town by accident. We hitched a ride and kinda woke up here" Michael said as he took a seat on the furthest side from Frobern.

"Pretty much as he said" Charles said as he offered a hand to Frobern.

"Charles. This is Nathaniel, Stephanie and Michael" he said as he introduced everyone in turn.

"You didn't have to tell him our real names, idiot" Michael whispered.

"Uh huh, woke up here. Right, what'd you do to end up here? Piss off the guys on high?"

Frobern asked as he gave them a quizzical look.

Michael returned the look before Nathaniel elbowed him in the side.

"Ah, yeah you could say something like that" Stephanie interjected with a smile.

"You look lost, kid. What, never heard of the Secluded, the Nine, the Ones on High?" Frobern asked in a joking manner as he looked over at Michael.

"He had a rougher morning than all of us. Woke up with his face in the ground" Nathaniel said as he put an arm around Michael's shoulders.

"This is the part where we pretend to know what we're talking about" he whispered into Michael's ear.

"Must have been one long night then" Frobern chuckled.

"To wake up in a shitty bar like this, no offense Burt" he continued as Burt scuttled along the bartop, distributing drinks between the party.

"Oh no, we woke up on the street" Michael said.

"Yeah some huge dude got angry at us for blocking the road" Charles explained.

"Seem's like our ride," Michael paused as he tried to think of an explanation, "ditched us."

"Ride, huh? What, like horses?" Frobern asked.

"Like I said, we hitched a ride here" Michael repeated.

"Honestly, none of us remember anything" Charles said.

"What are you lot even talking about? The roads here aren't wide enough or are too packed for the roads that are to fit a travel animal like that" Frobern replied.

Michael facepalmed as he muttered to himself.

"Right you got us. Rookie screw up on our part, we're a little new at this" Charles said as he gave a slight laugh.

"Right, we were teleported here. No idea why though" Michael said.

Stephanie and Nathaniel both sighed as Steph berated him "You aren't supposed to tell him that."

"I have no idea which one is easier to believe" Frobern gave a sigh of exhasperation.

"You ever seen one of these?" Charles asked as he pulled out some coins.

"Really?" Michael asked with a deadpan expression as he looked over at Charles.

"Or one of these?" Nathaniel said as he pulled out his phone.

"Really?" Michael said, getting even more annoyed.

"Or seen a book like this?" Stephanie said as she took out a basic survival guide from her backpack.

"REALLY?" Michael said, his voice raised to a near scream.

"You just said we were teleported here" Charles responded.

"That doesn't mean flash your valuables everywhere. We have no idea where we are and you're all going to get us mugged and stabbed in the back" Michael sighed as he looked at the rest of the group.

"Coinage looks a lot different, that's for sure. That paper doesn't look like any I've seen before and that box is clearly magical. What, you a wizard or something?" Frobern asked as he looked at Nathaniel.

"And your friend? He doesn't seem very accommodating" Frobern said, not giving Nathaniel any time to respond.

"I know right?"

"That's for sure" Charles and Stephanie responded.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Charles took off the ring that he, and everyone else, had been wearing.

"Now you can't understand me, right?" Charles said, slightly unsure of himself.

"And now he speaks a tongue I've never heard before" Frobern said, a slight look of amazement on his face.

"Ok, you convinced me"

“Anyways, could you tell us where we are Mr...” Michael paused as he looked at the rest of the party for help.

“Frobern. As you can tell, we’re kinda lost” he finished as Stephanie whispered the answer into his ear.

“‘Where’ he asks. Well, we don’t exactly have some official name for this place. Guess we just know it as the Capital. Most people just call it home though.” Frobern said as he sat there contemplating the situation.

“Then what about its neighbours?” Stephanie asked, clinking two cups together as a demonstration.

“None of the islands float close enough to us here or into the housing blocks that stretch above us to really call them neighbours. Closest islands to us would be the 000 section” Frobern replied.

“‘Float’? What, like we’re on some flying islands or something?” Michael joked as he elbowed Nathaniel.

“Exactly like that” Frobern replied.

“So what are we the capital of?” Charles asked.

“Collectively the scholar types have been referring to the landmasses as the Shards of Altera, though all the islands are pretty self-contained” Frobern said as he took his first mouthful of his drink.

“Whew, that’s the stuff. You still make ‘em good, Burt” Frobern said as he gave Burt a thumbs up.

“So hey, before we go and forget about it, is there any parts of town we should be worrying about?” Michael asked as he started thumbing the ring he had been wearing.

“Not really. If someone looks like trouble, just shout or run. Someone’ll see it, almost impossible for nobody to see it around here.” Frobern replied with a shrug.

“So quite strict law enforcement then?” Charles asked.

“Not exactly. Either the “law enforcement” gets to you or you throw the guy off the side of the island. Nobody’ll report you for either” Frobern said, taking another swig.

“Great, sounds just like home” Nathaniel replied as his hand slipped to the hilt of his sword.

“Yeah, ignoring him, I take it that’s not a fall you’re meant to survive?” Michael asked.

“Eh, from what I heard it's the starvation or dehydration” Frobern said as he belched out literal flames.

“So, the takeaway from this is we don’t fall off the edge” Stephanie stated as she looked into her jug of water.

“Last time someone did, the poor mage tried to teleport back onto dry land. Too bad it didn’t stop his momentum” Frobern said, a disgusted look on his face.

“Wait, let me clarify. There are wizards here, right? Like, magic and that sort of thing?” Michael asked, gradually getting more excited.

“Yeah” Frobern replied with a confused look.

“What, that a surprise? Your friend there seems to have some magic on him. You sure as hell didn’t arrive here in no normal means too” Frobern chuckled.

“We told you, we got teleported. Didn’t exactly have the time to register that in our minds as anything unusual yet” Stephanie replied.

“Well, it wasn’t us doing it” Michael replied.

“Don’t like, wizards summon things from the ‘Great Beyond’? Maybe they were trying that and ended up with us?” Charles questioned.

“Right. Like WE were brought along like some stupid fantasy story to this place” Nathaniel replied in a joking manner.

“You never know, we’re pretty good” Stephanie said with a grin.

“Good as we may be,” Charles shared the smile, “but we’re going to need a paycheck eventually. What’s an honest man like you do, Frobern?”

“‘Honest’? Maybe at one point” Frobern chuckled.

“Mostly just a job from the guild every now and then. Mostly just take one of the higher paying ones, live off of the gold for a couple months before going back for another job.” he said as he shook a small pouch at his side.

“The guild?” Michael asked.

“Anyone who don’t like the usual lifestyle tend to take up Guild work. Y’know, merc stuff to expeditions to helping out on a farm temporarily.” Frobern replied, miming some farm-work.

“How do you sign up?” Charles asked, eagerness in his voice.

“Oh, and how do we get some training” he added on.

“Simple, just go down over to the Guild HQ on the Cilian landmasses” Frobern replied.

“The what? I’m sorry, but we did just get here” Stephanie asked.

“Ah, sorry. Just go down to the Hall and take the crystal to Cilgard” Frobern explained.

“Gunna cost you a pretty penny though. 100 platinum for membership.” Frobern added on.

“Platinum, like the metal?” Michael asked.

“Ah, right. Gotta explain that too, don’t I? 100 copper coins to a silver, 100 silver to a gold and 100 gold to a platinum” Frobern said as he took out a platinum coin from his pouch.

“Guys, they can use platinum as currency” Michael exclaimed.

“And?” Nathaniel asked.

“That means it's common enough to do that. Imagine how much money we’d make selling that stuff back home” Michael explained.

“Yeah, imagine how much that’d be worth back home” Charles added.

“If we get home” Stephanie said as she motioned everyone to calm down.

“You know, if we want to go home” she said after quietened down.

“I mean, that’s gunna be a hard sell” Nathaniel replied.

“OH. Do they have like wizard school, Frobern?” Michael asked.

“They’ve got colleges associated with the guild for people wanting to learn stuff like that” Frobern said as he motioned at a small patch inscribed with various runes shaped into a sword on his shoulder.

“Ah. Damn tuition. The bane of my existence, even here” Michael said as the life seemed to leave him.

“No problem, comes as part of the registration fee and the Guild gives out loans to those who can’t afford to pay it off. With interest of course” Frobern said with a grimace.

“Know a guy who hasn’t paid it off 10 years later. Already retired from the life to take up baking” he said with a slight chuckle.

“That raises the question. How much actually is that?” Stephanie pondered.

“Yeah Frobern, how much does a gold get, for lodgings and such” Charles asked.

“Hmm, well it’ll get you lodgings and food for at least a month. Maybe more, maybe less depending on where you eat and stay. I usually blow through a gold in a day or two, but I like to eat at the fancier places. Live life and all” Frobern said.

“If we fail at that, guess we can always use our skills to be some pretty good bureaucrats, eh?” Charles said with a grin.

“We’re here, we might as well put ourselves in mortal danger. Not like that changes much, from what Frobern’s said” Michael said with a small shrug.

“So I take it that Michael here wants to be a mage of sorts, what of the rest of you?” Frobern asked as he looked everyone up and down.

“Nathaniel, you look like a swordsman, eh? I noticed you going for it every time you felt a little scared” Frobern said, eyeing the sword.

“It was always a hobby of mine. Not exactly good at it though and,” Nathaniel drew the blade halfway out of the scabbard to reveal a slightly rusty and dulled blade, “it’s not exactly well maintained.”

“Ah, disappointing but I can understand. Most people don’t even come close to that here” Frobern said with a slight nod as he looked over to Charles.

“I’ve got a bit of training with a bow and a sword. Did some fencing before, at least. Always preferred a sabre though, but that’s semantics.” Charles said with a shrug.

“Hope you do well. I certainly think you could do well with one” Frobern said as he took a closer examination of Charles.

“And you missy?” Frobern said after finishing his examination.

“Well, I’m not exactly a fighter so I guess I’ll end up doing magic too” Stephanie said.

“Hey, just because I got a blade doesn’t mean I ain’t gunna try learning magic too. You think I wouldn’t?” Nathaniel replied.

Hours passed as Frobern continued to explain the various types of training people in the guild offer. Michael had never once doubted his choice to be a wizard and had decided to fall asleep on a nearby couch as Frobern was talking. Eventually, Charles had decided to check out the Rune-Knights which Frobern was a part of and the Tamer’s Assocation. Stephanie had also decided to join Charles in his journey to the Tamer’s Association while Nathaniel had gotten very excited to learn of the Necromancer’s Union.

To repay him, the party had, in turn, answered Frobern’s questions of their homeland. They explained to him the world of the mundane, where they used complex chains of reactions and their understanding of the world to create buildings that reached to the skies and flew through the air as he inquired further and further.