Jonit Alba the "White Knight" was standing on a grassy hillside overlooking a small coastal town. Behind him was a forest from which an assortment of people were trailing out of as they made their way down to the market. The town itself was vibrant, as it appeared to be nearing midday. In the distance, boats meandered through the waters bringing in the catch for the day. People bustled around, weaving through the rough streets, laughing, living their colorful lives.

As Jonit stood there taking this all in, he felt a bit cheated. He had been an agent of the old Oligarchs; to his enemies he was a deadly assassin, to his superiors, an outperforming operative, and to those he worked with, a caring mentor. Throughout the Corporate Wars, he had played key parts as an agent to the Hallaway Family (which may have contributed greatly to their rise to power and later on their Eternal Presidency). There, he had earned the name "White Knight" due to his odd, almost chivalrous, sense of honor despite the nature of his job. The many families and their accompanying mega corporations had struggled for power ever since they had begun colonizing the 11 other planets in their solar system where the central government of their home planet Thear could not easily reach. "Home" it was called but records showed Thear was yet another colony of a long forgotten civilization.

After hundreds of years of working dangerous operations he, perhaps due to the peculiarities of this "mission", had expected something more exciting. After all if he had been awoken from retirement something serious must have happened. He had expected to have to hit the ground running and could not imagine what sorts of perils were supposed to occur in such a rustic peaceful looking town. As he stood there trying to figure out an objective, he drew stares from passersby: some with curiosity, others with a more matter-of-fact gaze as if they had seen this a hundred times before. Some onlookers seemed just as intrigued by his armor and the White Knight realized they had probably never seen anything like it before. He suddenly felt very out of place.

The Knight was a fair-skinned man with blonde hair. His skin was pale from years of lack of sun exposure. He had a strong jaw-line and sharp pale-green eyes that sparkled when he smiled. He was clad in a relatively well-fitting white gray colored suit made of heavy durable material. It looked plain on the outside but was quite the complicated piece of tech. It responded well to each of his movements amplifying their power, and it ran on an internalized power source that could last a few centuries. The suit came with a myriad of tools including a powerful cutter knife, ranged ballistic weaponry and a cable rope. It could also seal up completely providing internal atmosphere and oxygen control for up to 40 hours. His sword, however, was a different matter.

It had similar cutter technology to the knife, but it could also be "overcharged" using charge capsules that could extend its range and power. There were 7 of these built into the sword and these charge capsules could only be replaced using specific machinery found in the armory back on the capitol world of Thear.

"Hello there stranger!"

He turned to see a woman gazing at him with a friendly expression. She was wearing a light orange dress, perfect for the warm sunny weather. She had blue eyes and long wavy reddish-brown hair tied back in a rather messy ponytail. Beside her was what appeared to be a large iridescent green beetle pulling a wooden cart upon which sat a young boy. The boy shared her curious blue eyes but had dark brown hair that stuck up in awkward places.

"You don't look like you're from around here." The woman said, looking pointedly at his armor.

So they spoke the same language, Jonit pondered.

He responded, "I am currently on a ... mission of sorts. I was wondering if you could tell me where I am?"

She gave him another look and replied, "I could tell you that that there..." she gestured at the coastal town, "is First Line Port, but I don't think that would give you much information." She glanced at his body armor with its glowing lines running down its sides. "Where exactly are you from?"

"I..." He looked confused, "I'm not entirely certain how to explain."

She gave him a knowing smile, "Don't worry, we get a lot of visitors here." She looked down; the small boy was tugging on her clothes. "Want to head down to the town with us? You can tell us your story along the way. "

"Sure why not?" He pointed at the large creature pulling her cart. "By the way, is that a beetle?"

"Oh yes! Her name is Yan. You've never seen one before?"

"Well I've seen beetles before, just not so big. Can I pet it?"

The lady laughed, "Hahaha! Sure, but it doesn't do much, the Cargo Beetles don't really respond to it."

She gave him a curious look with clear blue eyes, "You are so interesting!"

Jonit gave the beetle a pat on its smooth head. The head was flat in shape and approximately twice the size of a human's. Coming off the head was a very large black horn that arched upwards. It had 2 antennae, a few thick hairs and 2 bulbous shining black eyes around the size of his fists. At the center back of its black head was a dull greenish spot. Its antennae twitched a bit as he pat its head, but otherwise it did not react.

"How do you get it to do what you want?"

The woman looked delighted at this question. "Well it's a rather obscure sort of magic local to this region."

"Oh I see... magic" Jonit responded. Of course there was magic. Perfectly ordinary.

"It's been passed down for generations amongst us Horizon Range beetle keepers." She spoke animatedly. "We use magic to give them basic commands with our thoughts. It takes quite a lot of practice to get down. But once you do, they are a very versatile vehicle. More so than any mechanical ones we have."

The Knight put his hand on his chin and nodded. "That's quite impressive, I don't think I've ever heard of anything like that before. But it makes perfect sense." It didn't make any sense to him at all.

Suddenly, there was a loud crackle from above. He looked up and for the first time noticed the strange patterns across the sky. It was light blue with sparse clouds appearing almost normal, but he noticed what appeared to be faint bluish hexagonal lines stitched across it stretching out into the horizon. As he looked closer he suddenly realized there did not appear to be a sun, the sky was simply bright on its own. Hanging up in the sky there was what appeared to be a large rectangle that buzzed into view with foreign symbols appearing and disappearing. The rectangle made a humming noise while flickering before giving up and fading away.

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"There goes the midday signal." The woman sighed, "We'd better hurry if we are to sell anything." She tapped the large beetle on the greenish spot at the center of its head causing it to make chuffing noises, then some clicking noises. She turned back toward the Knight and said, "By the way you can call me Leyna'' she gestured toward the boy, "this is Paern, my son..." The child blinked at the Knight, then suddenly asked, "Where's your shield?"

Jonit, still feeling rather confused by the sky, gave him a bewildered look.

"What?"

"Well you're a knight aren't you?" The child gestured at Jonit. "He's got armor, there's his sword" he pointed at the silver hilt poking out from under the Knight's cloak. "but where's your shield?"

Leyna smiled ruffling the boy's hair, "You're very observant aren't you? Maybe he isn't from the Golden Order?"

Jonit gave the child a smile, "Well I don't have it out all the time, but if you want to see it:'' he extended his left arm and tapped a few buttons on his arm. There was a hum (not unlike that of the sky rectangle oddly enough) and a silvery white elliptical shimmer appeared, generating a faint barrier reaching from his upper arm down past his fist, it covered approximately half his height. He tapped a few buttons on his arm again and the shield disappeared. The boy looked intrigued.

"An energy barrier" Leyna gave him a thoughtful look. "that's either very new, or very old..." Then she said abruptly, "We should get going." She tapped on the beetle again; it had started gnawing on the bark of a nearby tree. "Would you like to join us? Sir...?"

"I don't really have a name." the Jonit responded. He wasn't quite sure yet if he should give away his real name, "just call me Knight."

"I'm sure there is a story to that." She commented briskly, "But for now..." She turned and moved down the hill. The boy jumped onto the cart filled with crates as the large beetle plodded after her. The Knight followed.

***

"The Cavern Mite is a very useful creature." Leyna explained as the Knight helped unload the barrels near their stand. They were near the western edge of the town near the docks. It was very crowded, but because of the open space, it seemed quite airy. "Most people just eat their chewy inner meat, but its blood, if you can call it that, can be used to make various medicines. Another thing you can do is grind up its thinner shell parts to make a powder used in flavoring soup, and the thicker shell is often carved into bowls."

She opened a barrel revealing it filled with large dome shaped insects. They moved sluggishly waving their legs feebly in the air. She reached in to grab one approximately the size of her head, holding it by its domed shell. It had six sharp strong looking appendages each with small spines running along their length.

"As you can see, its claws can be very dangerous, as they are strong enough to dig into the solid rock walls of the Horizon Range caves." She paused, "That's where we came from by the way." She pointed in the direction away from the sea where the strange rectangle was floating. "This village that we are in right now is known as Over-angle Port. Named for it being the only village past the Sky Rectangle. All of the rest of Passaway (which is what we call our world) is on the other side of the Sky Rectangle."

"What is that thing anyways?" The Knight asked, pointing at the rectangle.

"What thing?" Leyna looked around.

"That thing in the sky"

She looked at the sky blankly, then looked back at him thoughtfully. "You're really not from around here are you?"

"Guess I'm not" Jonit responded.

Paern suddenly jumped up from the barrel he was sitting on by the stand and started walking off. Leyna called out after him, "Want some money?"

"No I'm fine" came the reply. He disappeared into the crowd.

Suddenly, a beaming thin bronze haired man with a flourishing mustache appeared. "Hallo! Leyna! Good to see you this week! How did I miss you at Range Central?"

"Why hello there Lerot. We left early, a week ago, the mite harvesters were lucky this year and we filled our quota earlier than usual. But how are you doing these days? I hope business is still going great?" Leyna dried her hands on a rag.

"Ah alas, if it were only so! The Tower Knights recently put a severe limit to imports from the Ironcast, my investments are wavering!" Lerot waved his arms and over-exaggerated gestures. "'Cracking down on the spread of suspect artifacts' they're saying! They just don't want technology mingling with their precious magic monopoly. The less people depend on their spells, the less they can charge for them."

Leyna leaned on the stall counter, "It's probably to do with the recent 'border engagement' with Horizon, they must be very suspicious of technology after that. Still though, the recent technology boom ought to count for something."

The mustachioed man let out an exasperated sigh, "You would think so wouldn't you? But no, the newest fad in Prismasia these days is in 'bio-avatars'. Some sort of new creature made from organics, computers take the back-line here, used only for channeling magic into these mindless balls of plasma." He then leaned in close with a conspiratory look on his face. "Even if they WERE buying, I wouldn't throw more than a handful of Pieces their way. One moment all's well and the business is growing strong, next thing they are all blown to bits from some crazy experiment or other-- along with all your money too."

"The Endless Horizon of Discovery..." Leyna surmised.

Lerot flapped his hand dismissively, "There's a limit to what you can and can't do. That 'endless horizon' they keep talking about isn't going anywhere so what's the rush? You're hardly ever gonna get anywhere if you keep blowing yourself up. And it's only caused more problems! 'Border engagement' my behind, that was nearly an all out war!"

A young man walked up to the stall. "Heya Leyna! How are you doing! Looking beautiful as ever!"

"Good day Kent."

"I'll take 1 full mite if you please. Disarmed and cracked, as usual."

As Leyna set to the task, chatting with the patron, Lerot finally noticed the Knight.

"Why hello there! Didn't notice you sitting there in the shadows!"

"Ah... yes, I'm rather new around here. I recently met Leyna and so she's been showing me around."

"Oho is she now? " He gave him a rather mischievous look, but then he suddenly noticed the Knight's armor. "By the heavens now just hold on one moment!"

"Now what is that you are wearing!" He leaned in close and started prodding the Knight's armor. "This looks quite revolutionary! Was this something recent the Ironcast made? Oh but my it seems like Tower fashion almost!"

"I am a traveler of sorts this is simply my... uniform for the task I was assigned" The Knight answered rather cautiously.

"Ahhhh... You wouldn't happen to be a... Journeyman would you? Or well, that's what we call people of other worlds who make their way through ours. It happens often enough, but not too often I suppose!" he said with a laugh. "Either way, every now and then we get a very confused person wandering about. Sometimes there are repeat visitors: tourists of sorts. Once or twice there's been some kind of mad scholar hell bent on taking dominion over everything. Those are quite the pain."

The Knight gestured at himself, "Which one do you figure I am?"

Lerot guffawed, "Why the confused wanderer of course! You should see the look on your face!"

The Knight shrugged, the man was right: he did feel pretty confused at the moment. "So what's the deal with that? Why do you guys get so many travelers?"

"Well you see, the big brain scholars at Ironcast believe that Passaway –that's the name of our world by the way– is within a fold of space which is easily broken into from different parts of our universe." He waved his hands around then intersected his fingers to try to demonstrate.

"People often stumble in either accidentally or on purpose. At least that's what I understand from it, it's all a bit wishy-washy for me." Lerot said with another flap of his hands.

He suddenly took note of the ornate watch on his left wrist.

"Well goodness is that the time?" he said with a start. "I must get going! There's a shipwright nearby that I must sign-off with on a deal!"

"Come by the labs at Range Central if you have the chance! I'd like to get a good look-see of your armor if you're willing... or at least get some of my smarter folk to do so." He handed him a card with Trans-Trans Continental emblazoned on it. "Just show that to anyone in the city, they'll know."

He grabbed his box of Mite Blood jars in one hand and with a quick "I'll see you around" to Leyna, he was off.