“I would like to register my opinion that this will not work,” Jerik said. “I don’t think that we can possibly take the city back in these circumstances.”

Eric let out a long sigh. He could have tried to stifle the noise but felt it would be dishonest. “As I said the past four times you expressed this opinion, I don’t care. And we’re not taking the city back.”

“So you agree with me,” the man said, looking pleased with himself. “Knew you’d come around eventually.”

“No,” Eric replied, drawing the word out the way you might when talking to a rebellious child. “I don’t agree with you. It’s literally not our mission.”

He wondered for a moment whether or not he was being too harsh with Jerik. His short temper was, after all, because he’d now been away from his wife and daughter for a little over two weeks. He had met a druid group who’d contacted Shallow Brook to learn of their condition, and he’d been told that both were stable and safe, but it did nothing for his anxiety. The two of them were a source of joy and happiness in his life, and spending the last eleven days without them had begun wearing down his patience. The two weeks had felt more like a month.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to speak calmly and patiently. “We’re tasked with going to Sheran and making sure that the patrols along the coast are extra vigilant. With Milagre in enemy hands, we can’t risk one of the other countries mounting an invasion.”

“Couldn’t they communicate that via magic?” Now it was Johan asking. Like Jerik he did not approve of this mission. However, his reason for disliking their current predicament was closer to Eric’s. His girlfriend had been sequestered in the Dagorra Forest for sanctuary, and he wanted to be with her. But, like his leader, he recognized that they had to do something to help and not sit it all out.

The truth of the matter was that, yes, the very purpose that he’d shared with Jerik could be achieved with magic and quite easily. But there was a second part to their mission, one that he’d been strictly told not to share with anyone until the time was right. That time wasn’t until they actually reached Sheran, so he had to come up with a viable explanation that would convince Jerik to shut up and stop asking him so many questions. He let out another long sigh to show his irritation.

“Magical messages can be intercepted,” he said. “And at that distance, there’s a chance the spell could go awry and hit the wrong person. With how important this information is, we can’t risk that.”

“You’re telling me that magic can’t be that precise?” “Jerik asked.

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Eric replied shortly. “Without sending stones, it’s more of a broad radio signal.”

Jerik nodded in understanding and finally went quiet, seeming to accept the condition. Johan, however, frowned thoughtfully. “What’s a radio signal?”

Eric could have kicked himself for the gap in his knowledge. Sure, he knew that Johan was being sarcastically helpful. Johan was one of the few that knew Eric was from Earth, and while he might not actually know what a radio was, his seemingly innocent question was his way of letting Eric know he’d fucked up. Eric decided to take the hint and not reply to the question. Johan merely smirked, pleased that he’d caught one of Eric’s slips. It had been a while since that had happened, and he found it funny. But, as they so often do, a thought appeared to him, catching him completely without warning.

“Hold on,” he said, pulling lightly on the reins of the horse he was riding. The others halted as well, a second or two before him. Their delay resulted in their horses forming a sort of triangle in the road, with the other two staring at him in slight confusion. He turned to Jerik, frowning thoughtfully. “You know what radios are?”

“Of course-,” Jerik began. Then, stopping himself far too late, he made a fake cough and said, “Of course not.”

Eric met his eyes, sure that his doubt was all too obviously written on his face. He didn’t bother to leave the uncertainty in the air for long. “So. You’re from Earth.”

Jerik’s face didn’t change a bit, but he did lean back ever so slightly in his saddle. The man had very minute reactions, Eric thought. That slight lean might as well have been a start of surprise. He glanced at Johan as if trying to gauge whether or not he was in on the knowledge that another world exists.

“I know about Earth,” Johan said with a grin. “But only that it exists, and a few trivial facts that Eric has shared.”

“He’s from Ahya originally,” Eric said. “I’m from Alaska.”

Now Jerik’s eyebrow rose a few degrees to indicate his surprise. “You’re from Alaska? Where?”

“Fairbanks,” he said coolly. “You?”

“I was born in Anchorage,” Jerik said. “But I spend most of my life in New York.”

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“I knew there was something off about the way you acted,” Eric said, shaking his head in exasperation. But for once, it was at himself instead of Jerik. “You haven’t mastered acting like an Ahyan yet. It was a little hard to peg it, though. You don’t show much emotion.”

“Yeah, well,” Jerik said, idly fiddling with the reins he was holding. “That’s what sociopathy will do to you.”

“I can’t believe that Samuel summoned another one without telling me, though,” Eric continued. “I mean, it’s not like he owes me anything, but it would have been nice to know.”

“Who’s Samuel?”

Now that really set Eric’s head to spinning. He blinked a few times, trying to understand what Jerik had just said. “You know… Samuel? The mage that summoned you?”

“I wasn’t summoned,” Jerik said. He smirked at their bewildered expressions. “I came here myself.”

“But that’s impossible,” Eric countered at once. “We can’t just decide to go wherever we want. If that were the case, you’d hear about it. If it’s not some ‘transported to another world’ type story, it just doesn’t exist on Earth.”

“Ah,” Jerik said, his smirk widening into a full grin. “But I didn’t get the power on Earth.”

Johan’s jaw had dropped. “There are other worlds apart from Earth and Ahya?”

“Well, I only saw the one,” Jerik answered, turning to look at him. “A world called Menora. I helped them kill a really strong enemy and got a wish granted.”

Now that really did sound like one of those fantasy books, Eric thought. He wouldn’t have believed it if they weren’t standing in a fantasy world at that very moment. “So not only have you left Earth, this isn’t your first time?”

Then a thought occurred to him, and he sat bolt upright in his saddle. “Wait. Is that what happened to the ten thousand people that went missing?”

Jerik looked at him sharply. “You know about that? It happened so long ago.”

“It was only a few months before I came here,” Eric said, frowning. “So, a little over six years ago?”

Jerik let out a laugh. “Try eleven. A lot of wild things happened while you were gone. I only caught a little of it when I went to visit, but we definitely don’t have enough time for that.”

“At least tell me this,” Eric said. “What year is it on Earth?”

“Well, I was there a few months ago,” Jerik said. “And it was two thousand and twenty-two.”

Now it was Eric’s jaw that dropped. “I came here in twenty-eleven. Are you really telling me that six years here equals nearly twelve there?”

Jerik offered him a slight shrug. “Fantasy world, man. Kinda makes sense that the time would be different.”

Eric tried to wrap his mind around that. He had no way of knowing that, just two weeks ago, Megan had been confronted with the knowledge that time worked differently, even in two places in Ahya. Time was a fickle thing, Eric thought. Maybe Oras only had control over Ahya. So that meant that one of the worlds he’d seen in his strange vision had been Menora. He wondered what the fourth world was for a moment before giving up on the idea if only to save himself from more headache.

“Well,” he said, bringing them sharply back to the present moment. “Let’s keep any mention of Earth to us alone. It’s not wise if too many people learn that we’re not from Ahya. I’d suggest you watch how you talk and act. Anything strange can catch attention quickly.”

“Sounds like you speak from experience,” Jerik said with a snort. “At least Ahya got normal people and not Nexians.”

There it was again. Proof that so much on Earth had been completely missed by him. He resolutely chose to ignore the tantalizing hint and spurred his horse forward into a light canter, then a gallop. The others quickly followed his lead and rode on either side of him. It was a strange thing, he thought, but the more he tried to push the thought of yet another world’s existence away, the more it stubbornly kept popping to the front of his mind.

“Is that why you don’t do magic?” He asked Jerik finally after half an hour had passed. He had to wait until they’d passed a merchant’s wagon to be sure nobody else could hear him. “Because you weren’t given a magic-capable body by Samuel?”

“Again, I have no clue who that is,” Jerik replied. “But I have no clue if I can do magic or not. I haven’t bothered to try.”

“But everyone here can do magic,” Johan said. “Not everyone studies it, but everyone has the capability. Was that not the case on Earth?”

“Well, there are a lot of mythologies that say magic used to be a thing,” Eric said. “But nobody knows for sure. I personally thought they were just stories.”

“As did I,” Jerik agreed. “But who knows? Maybe magic really did exist before. Like demons, angels, and dragons. They exist in Ahya, don’t they?”

“Not demons,” Eric answered him. “I think the closest thing to angels are the Divines. But unless they had wings before they ascended, they don’t normally have them.”

“Oh, thank god,” Jerik said with a laugh. “Those tropes are so overplayed.”

They rode on for another two hours without incident. They only talked sparingly when a question arose but for the most part, enjoyed the peace of the day. The sun continued to beam down on them without interruption, and the roads were significantly less busy than expected. After three hours, Eric decided that they might as well stop to camp. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, and he knew that foraging for firewood in the dark would be annoying.

“Let’s call it here,” he said. “We can get to Sheran tomorrow.”

They were all too ready to agree, sore as they were from a day in the saddle. They dismounted with sighs of relief, and all three quickly went to work setting up a basic camp. Jerik took care of the fire while Johan prepared their travel tents. Eric took care of the food, making a basic but tasty stew with meat from a rabbit he’d killed and cleaned earlier in the day. The stew was fragrant and hearty, and they all enjoyed three bowls before lying down for the night, with Johan taking the first watch.

It had been a deceptively peaceful day, Eric thought. He should have known that, somehow, that peace wasn’t going to last. But as fate seemed to like doing, he didn’t realize the potential trouble until he saw the approaching Infernal the next morning.