“Hey Cal’, mind passing me the attunement wand ?”, asked Gregor. “That rune seems uneven.”

“Careful I left it in broad engraving mode” said Calian, expertly throwing the silver-streaked wand to Gregor.

After some muttering and hand signs Gregor turned back to Calian. “Yeah, it was a bit corroded, but it should be all good now” relaxed Gregor, throwing back the wand to Calian. “I’m going to start the test mode, you stay in here and check the mana flow ?”

“I always have to do the boring jobs, Greg !” winced Calian, burying his face in his hands, and sitting on the ground.

“Well, isn’t it what apprentices are supposed to do ? The boring stuff ?” replied with a touch of amusement the slender, middle-aged man. After enjoying his teasing, he sat next to Calian and continued. “I know it’s boring, I’ve been in your shoes once. But hey ! Six more month and you’ll be a full-fledged Dimensional Infrastructure Operator, you’ll make it !” he reassured.

“Yeah, I know, I’m not too worried about the certification, and the pay will be good… But that doesn’t make checking the stupid mana flow of every rune less boring damn it !” Calian grumbled while getting up.

Both men went to their respective task, Calian moving closer to the machinery, and Gregor setting up the control panels and the mana conduits.

“I’m ready over here.”, said Gregor, “tell me when to start.”

“Everything’s okay here, send it !” replied Calian, impatient to be over with his task.

“Alright, the valve’s open, it should be powering up normally.”, answered Gregor while concentrating on the fluctuating data of the control panels. After some time, he frowned and checked twice a reading. “Calian, get out now ! I’m pretty sure there’s a mana leak somewhere !”, exclaimed Gregor, with worry in his voice. “The thing is chugging twice more mana than usual, and everything is powering up at the same time !”

Gregor saw Calian slam the circuit he was checking on the floor and bolt towards the door. But as he reached for the door, a brilliant flash blinded Gregor. When he recovered, Calian was nowhere to be seen. An eerie silence permeating the area.

///

Calian screamed, or he thought he did, but the pain he felt didn’t leave him much room to think clearly. As the pain ravaging his body eased, he clutched his head, a sharper pain than before coursing in his brain. He cursed and screamed, the muscles in his neck bulging, his nails digging in his scalp. Calian struggled for a bit, but the pain, only growing stronger, knocked him out.

When Calian regained consciousness he took a sharp breath, sat abruptly and opened bloodshot eyes to check his surroundings. Well, he tried. His fuzzy perception and muddled thoughts caused him to need quite some time before he could process what was in front of him. When his eyes focused and he could identify the shapes in front of him, he recoiled and scrambled backwards, only to end up butting against a wall. Crouched in front of him was a hairy old man, staring at him with furrowed eyebrows.

“Well, you’re quite the strange sort, aren’t you ? You pop three meters in the air in a flash of light and then take a good nap on the floor,” said the old man with a raspy voice.

As a response Calian rolled over and proceeded to throw up on the wall, while the old man took a step back and scrunched his nose, muttering something about proper manners. Eventually Calian stomach calmed, and he sat again, focusing on the old man.

“Huh, where am I ?”, asked groggily Calian.

“Speak up kiddo, too old to hear you mumbling about.”, answered the old man grumpily.

Calian stared, eyes wide, “what did you say ?”

“I said speak up kid”

“Wait, you’re not speaking my language ! How… How can I understand you ?” said Calian,

“Ah crap, another druggie that forgot how to breathe !” said the old man to himself, clearly much colder towards Calian now. “How am I not speaking your language but you’re speaking English, kid ? Well, don’t try to answer that, I don’t care actually,” he said while leaving.

Still a bit fuzzy Calian fumbled to stand up and follow him, but the old man saw him get up and threw him a heavy object that made him collapse back where he sat previously.

“And keep your cursed bag !” shouted the old man. “Stupid thing fell on my head !” he mumbled as he left.

Calian, still holding his bag, leaned back against the wall, trying to piece together his last memories and to resist the lancing pain that still coursed through his head. After calming a bit, he started piecing together his memories. He’d been working on the teleporter machinery one moment and then everything went white. He vaguely remembered an unbearable pain splitting his head and then he woke up with this grumpy unhelpful old man facing him. Had he been teleported ? Oh, wasn’t Gregor trying to tell him about something ? Yeah, his mentor was definitely shouting about something dangerous. So, he was tweaking the teleporter machinery, a malfunction happened and he… He ended up stranded somewhere ?

“WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT ?” shouted Calian to the sky. “I had more chance winning the lottery thrice in a row than being alive and well after an undirected teleport,” he grumbled, while opening his bag.

He sighed, a bit reassured, when he saw that his bag was intact, that meant that he at least had a snack ready and some water, a knife and his personal notebook with his favorite spells. He put his knife in his pocket, ready to be used and ate the snack, he was not really hungry, but it couldn’t hurt either.

While eating he thought back on his previous encounter. “I was clearly dizzy, but there’s no mistaking it, he wasn’t speaking Gorlassian. And I understood him, but I’m sure I was speaking the Empire language,” Calian thought. Since he could get no answer from where he was, he decided to push it to the back of his head and try to understand it later.

Once he was done eating, he decided to burn the paper that once held his snack, an old trick he learned at the academy when no trashcans are nearby. He was quite used to the task, and it only required a thought from him to burn completely not even leaving ash behind. So, as usual, he focused on the paper, pulled a tiny bit of his personal mana and called for the ambient mana to respond to his call. But Calian felt like he’d tried to grab air, while normally he felt some natural resistance from the ambient mana, this time his mana encountered no resistance. Well, no. It wasn’t that there was no resistance. It was that there was no ambient mana.

Calian tried again, but there was no difference, he couldn’t feel any ambient mana. Yeah, he knew some places that had some pretty thin mana, but this was something else entirely. It felt wrong. He even tried checking his surroundings with mana sight, but it didn’t return anything. It didn’t return anything because there was nothing to return, at all.

“Well, that’s a problem” frowned Calian, an edge in his voice. He felt a chill run down his spine, a mage without mana was like a toad kept out of the water. He was going to be fine for a while, but he’d need to access mana at some point.

With nothing else to do Calian left the alley and walked into a clean, not too busy street. Since he was almost completely back to normal, only having a bit of a headache left, he decided he was going to walk a bit around the city, and strike a conversation with someone, who would hopefully be a bit more amiably disposed than the earlier grumpy old man.

Barely a few steps into the street, Calian was surprised by a loud noise coming from behind him, a red, fast moving, massive object was rushing toward him. His body reacting faster than his thoughts, Calian leaped out of the way, and pivoted to face the incoming enemy. Calian barely had the time to see a human inside the massive object looking at him with a frown, before the red mass continued the road.

Quite scared and recovering from the rush of adrenaline, Calian observed the road for a while, other similar objects of various colors were moving on the street. After examining those strange things for a while Calian finally deduced that these objects with people inside were some sort of carriages.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Then, Calian fell, clutching his head again. He barely contained a scream, but after a few moments of agony the pain receded. Calian was left panting and with some strange concepts inside his head.

Apparently, the objects he’d seen earlier were cars, and they were, in fact, definitely some type of carriage. Confused, Calian started browsing these new memories that had popped inside his head. He knew what cars were, what fuel they use, and maybe how to operate them, but he had no idea how he got such memories. More and more perplexed, he searched for more and more detailed information about “cars”. When he browsed what he knew about the engines, when he tried to know more, about how the engines are made, Calian realized that there was no information about that available in his head.

“So, this strange knowledge does have a limit.” He muttered, focusing his attention back to his memories. “Hell that’s a lot of strange event for one day, and I sure don’t believe in coincidence. I survive an undirected teleportation that’s rare enough, but I get the divine gift of understanding the language of wherever I end up in ? That’s not random. Factor in strange knowledge about technological marvels such as cars and violent headaches, I think I have the attention of a higher being on me.” He thought.

Calian wasn’t happy and reasonably so, higher beings were known to be whimsical, giving gifts to some unknown peon and take everything from emperors whenever they please. Although such interventions are legendary, when they happen some important aftereffects are expected.

After some time understanding these foreign concepts, he decided he’d attracted too many stares by sitting still, looking at nothing, in the middle of the street. He went to explore this unknown city, this time much more carefully to avoid being hit by the urban traffic. Still musing about the strange events that happened to him, he roamed aimlessly the city.

///

During his afternoon walk Calian had come to several conclusions. When people deigned to talk to him, they all were ignorant of the concept of mana, and nobody had ever seen magic. He’d eventually noticed, after speaking to people for long enough that he could feel some differences between Gorlassian and whatever “English” they were speaking. And with conscious effort he could either speak English or Gorlassian. He’d had several more episodes of knowledge being poured in his mind alongside a strong headache, the strongest one when he tried reading a sign for the first time. Finally, shook from all these events and with nowhere else to go, Calian decided to try and find somewhere to spend the night.

He'd gotten water from some generous soul but had no luck finding food. He resorted to searching a bakery trash can and was about to eat a funky smelling bread, when a firm hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked the bread out of his hand.

“Don’t try to eat that, you’ll get sick” said a petite woman, any clothing or distinctive features hidden behind a long coat and a black cap. “You need some food ?” she added, seeing the lost look on Calian’s face.

Calian, both suspicious of the stranger and pushed by hunger decided to simply nod.

The woman simply handed him a round metal container, which, upon contact with Calian’s hand gave him yet another headache that forced him to sit on the ground and clutch his head. When he came back to his senses, he found the women crouched next to him, observing him intently.

“Are you okay ? Honestly, you look like shit, a ghost would find you pale…” she said, staring him in the eyes.

“I’ve had a… really long day. And I’m lost too.” Said Calian, still recovering from the sudden influx of knowledge. He found a nearby wall to rest his back onto and, seeing no initiative from her to answer yet, continued “I don’t know where I am or what to do, and I have nowhere to go to. Ah and I almost can’t use something that is really important to me.” He said, completely depressed. He rested his head on the wall, looking at the red hues of the evening, then closed his eyes.

“Believe it or not, I kind of understand how you feel. And I know others who went through similar things. Some lost their jobs, some did drugs, others lost someone close and never recovered from the loss,” she said softly. “You should eat first,” she said with a tone that left him no choice, handing him an opened tuna can. “If you feel comfortable enough you can tell me what you went through,” she said, sitting next to him and opening a similar tuna can.

“Why are you helping me ? That’s not in the spirit of what I know, most people are indifferent. Why do you care ?”

“Ah, I volunteer for the local homeless shelter, I give some food and chat a bit with the poor souls I meet. I was close to being homeless once and I like helping people that are in a rough patch,” she answered. She paused and looked at him intently before continuing “But you look different, most people know where to find food or some shelter, but you seem just plain lost. Do you want to explain what happened to you ? Sometime just talking about what’s wrong can help.”

“Ugh, you’re going to think I’m mentally ill, like everyone I talked to.” He mumbled, averting her gaze. “You may not believe it, but I come from a place where magic is real. And because of an accident I ended up here, with no way back and no magic available.”

“Oh, that was unexpected,” she said, frowning. “Can you show me some magic ? Because otherwise, I’m really going to question your sanity” she continued, chuckling.

Calian looked at her with a confused look, but seeing she was looking at him expectantly he decided to perform the most basic magic exercise. The gesture came naturally to him, and when came the time to rally the ambient mana to his will he once again met the unnatural absence of mana, but he persevered, pushing out his own mana to make up for the lack of ambient fuel for the spell. Finally, when he managed to compensate for the unusual conditions a ball of fire appeared in his hand. It was a bright orange fire the size of a fist, floating above Calian’s hand peacefully, projecting dancing shadows on the walls of the alley. To prove it was real Calian took a random paper and threw it in the fire, it was consumed instantly and flew up throwing little embers around it.

“Is that real enough for you miss ?” asked Calian with a smirk, satisfied with the shocked look he’d put on her face.

“That… is more than convincing enough, I have no idea how you’d have done it otherwise,” she said slowly, deep in thoughts for a moment before shaking her head and offering him her hand “I’m Melody, pleased to meet you !”

“Uh… I’m Calian Rhys,” he blurted, confused about her quick change of attitude, before quickly extending his hand to shake hers. “Nice to meet you too !” he added, snapped out of his confusion by the handshake, while standing up. He’d dispelled the fireball before shaking her hand and was checking his mana reserves, he was about forty percent full, and his little demonstration hadn’t helped.

“What’s up with the frowning, you can do magic, I’d be ecstatic !” she said, staring fixedly at the hand that held the fire.

“Well, I was born in a world where magic is almost common, so it was never so exciting as it is for you, I guess. But the biggest problem I have is that there is no mana here, I can’t replenish my mana reserves.” He said.

“So, you need mana to do magic ? it’s your magic fuel ? And, like, there’s no magic fuel here ?” she asked, clearly thinking hard about the implication of his issue.

“That’s almost it yeah,” he sighed, “Mana is like a gas, all around us and present in most things. It’s generated by living things and humans have developed a way to feel it and use it to cast spells. I use a bit of my personal mana to shape the natural mana into a spell. So having no natural mana around makes my spells really expensive to cast because I have to use my personal mana to replace the natural mana.”

“Yeah, could’ve just said there’s no magical fuel,” she deadpanned. “But you said living beings generate mana, shouldn’t you just slowly fill back up naturally ?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m currently filling back up right now, but that’s incredibly slow. Think a drop in a lake every now and then. I can’t regenerate my mana quickly because there’s no mana around to cycle in and out, no ambient mana to convert to my mana,” he sighed.

“Wait, wait, you’re going too fast ! I don’t know about any of this, so explain it in simple terms please,” she said unhappily.

“Okay, as I said, living things produce mana, they mostly do that by cycling it through their body. When a creature or plant is full of mana, they exhale the excess. Imagine that when you’re at rest you breath out more than you breath in,” he explained, checking if Melody was following. After a nod from her he continued. “That’s the same idea with magic. But what if you can’t breathe in ? You simply can’t breathe out because you have nothing to exhale. And since you can’t cycle mana, you can’t create more. One of the rules we’re taught in botany at the academy is : Mana creates Mana. I need some mana to create some more, and that’s why your world is so aggressive to me, I have no way to recharge and continue doing magic,” he explained. “And no way to get home without magic,” he sighed, almost inaudibly.

“Uh, yeah that’s a problem… “ Melody frowned. “Can’t you like, pump magic in a random plant and poof it creates a bit of magic and then you harvest it ?” she asked, a bit dumbfounded.

“Yeah, that could work if I did that in an enclosed space with no mana leaking out. Otherwise, the magic will just disperse in the air outside,” he answered, a bit dejected.

Having no obvious solution and still a bit overwhelmed by the recent revelations about Calian, Melody fell silent. They both finished their tuna can in silence. At some point, just before the sun went over the horizon, Melody turned to Calian.

“Hey, uh, do you have anywhere to sleep tonight ?” she asked, eyeing Calian.

“I told you, I don’t know anything about this place, or anybody. I don’t have anywhere to go either…” he answered, depressed.

“I normally don’t offer this to anybody, so if you want, I can offer you my spare room to sleep in for a time. And anyway, you’re clearly not cut for sleeping on the street, you don’t have anything to protect yourself from the cold, and you’d attract too much attention with your strange clothes,” she said.

“I’d normally be too proud to accept charity from anyone, but given my situation, that’s an offer I cannot refuse,” Calian answered, a smile creeping on his face.

Seemingly more energetic than before Melody got up and continued. “I have a condition though, I house and feed you, but I want you to teach me about magic ! And you promise you’ll work your hardest to give me magic,” she declared with a sly grin, clearly happy about the deal she’d tricked him into.

“I agree to your deal, not like there’s any mana to do magic anyway” Calian answered, unfazed.

After concluding their deal, Calian followed Melody to her truck, two streets away, she finished handing to the local shelter some canned food, before getting in her truck. She asked if Calian was ready and had everything, and when everything was ready, they both left toward the city outskirts, at the limit of the countryside. During the half an hour drive Calian, exhausted from all the events of the day, fell asleep against the passenger door.