The sky-train ended up being more of a mundane experience than I expected from a magic flying vehicle. Then again, I'd been on a lot of planes, and the overall scenario was similar.

I did enjoy seeing “the Master” and his flunkies getting kicked off at the first stop. He made a grimace when he spotted my face in the window. I almost wished I had kept his ticket to burn it in his face.

It took a few hours to get to the city of Lineria. I occupied myself by alternately practicing my fire control and trying to discover hidden functions in the helmet. I would have really appreciated a music setting.

There didn't appear to be any city maps for tourists in Lineria's station. Was that not a thing here? I resorted to asking the ticket seller if they knew where I could find what I was looking for.

The pointy-eared woman redirected me to a chunky terminal. Her face looked like I'd offered her dog shit with my question.

~Sorry I asked,~ I grumbled as I made my way over. The terminal had the appearance of a very retro computer. Apparently the magic version of computers were at the level of huge blocks.

I was about to ask the kid messing around to let me on, when I realised a problem. I couldn't read. How would I search for what I needed?

I stared into space, then refocused on the kid. I smiled and reached into my pouch.

Minutes later, I was strolling down the sunny street. The sights around me reinforced the concept of another world, as I was surrounded by fur, tails, scales, giants, pointed ears and skins in every colour of the rainbow.

My mouth twitched. I was reminded of a mark who once tried to hide in a dress-up convention in San Diego.

I was so captivated with taking in the details of the people around me that I nearly walked straight past my destination. After backtracking a few steps, I walked into the graceful three-storeyed building.

The receptionist in the building crouched behind her desk, intense in her pursuit of reading. As I got closer, I noted the angular features and feathered arms. Unlike the few I’d spotted outside, the wings appeared to be only half connected to her arms, with the two separating into individual limbs at her elbows.

“Hello!” she said cheerily. “What can I do you for?”

“I was hoping to join up? Could you tell me how to apply?” My fidgeting was not entirely feigned.

“Ah, well, unfortunately we’re not really looking for new talent right now. But if you want to leave your name and we’ll get back to you?” The woman’s smile was still in place, but I was expert enough in body language to know she had no intention of calling back.

Since she wanted to be polite, I decided to go with the pleading, pitiful route. “Can I at least show you what I can do? It’ll be really quick. I won’t make a mess either!”

She looked at me for a moment. “Sure, go ahead.” An undercurrent of impatience lined her tone now.

~That won’t last long.~

Ten seconds later, I was less smug and more worried that her eyes might actually fall out of her head. The girl was staring at the orange glow with the same expression as one who found the holy grail in a dump truck.

She grabbed my hand and took off down a hallway. When we flew up some stairs I nearly ended up eating dirt, but lifetime coordination managed to save me. She burst into a room as wide as the building, panting slightly from her impromptu sprint.

“Thelyris, I believe you know that practice is never to be interrupted, which can only lead me to believe that an event on an apocalyptic level has occured. Pray tell, before we all cease to be.”

The temperature was instantly freezing. It had nothing to do with the flames that winked out as we came in. My eyes landed on the eloquent speaker standing in the middle of the room.

The tall man exuded a palpable air of sophication and authority. Soft scales decorated his arms below the rolled up sleeves, and his ruler straight back trailed down into a sweeping heavy tail. He faced away from the door, but his attention was undoubtably on us.

“Ah, sorry sir!” gasped out Thelyris. A red flush flowed into her face. “I was just excited to show you, I completely forgot!”`

“Thelyris...” The atmosphere dropped another degree. I instinctively shivered.

“Right, sorry! Sir, you have to see what she–” I was grabbed, “–can do! It’s amazing!”

The man finally turned. Dark hair framed a bespectacled face, which carried an expression of impatience and irritation.

“You know full well that I have no interest in recruiting every passerby that thinks they have skills to perform in my....crew....” His voice trailed off as he gawked at the unrestrained fire at my side.

I simply smiled at him. After a moment he recalled himself, and looked me over critically. “Take off the top,” he commanded.

“Excuse me?”

“That formless rag you’re wearing, take it off,” he said brusquely. I swallowed my urge to turn and leave, reminding myself this was the ideal setup. It took me a minute to struggle out of the bag and poncho.

Standing in my form-fitting sundress, I was suddenly aware of the seven other women who had been in the room before I came in. Their gazes varied from curious to bored.

“Passable,” declared the lizardman. “Show me again.” The flames ignited, and he nodded. “You have a week to impress me. If you fail, don’t even dream of darkening my doorstep, no matter what tricks you come up with. Thelyris, make arrangements for her. The rest of you, start from the top.”

The girls drifted in position as I left. One cat-eared dancer nearly tripped as my flames held her eyes hostage.

I smiled and looked down at my own handiwork. At my side, fire poured from the stump of my left arm. They spiralled together then flattened out, ending in five fiery digits.

“How do you manage to construct an arm out of fire!?” Thelyris asked me softly. “Is it solid? Can you use it like a normal arm?”

She reached out to hold it. Panicked, I immediately dispersed the flames before she burned herself. She looked at me sulkily.

“Sorry, it’s just an image. It’ll burn if it touches anything,” I shrugged apologetically. She pouted anyway as we made it to the counter.

Her curiosity got the better of her a few seconds later. The questioning started up again as she dug through a drawer. “Your control is amazing! I’ve never seen someone hold fire in a static form like that. The best I’d seen flow the fire through patterns.”

I smiled wryly. In truth, I had no idea how to do it either. It was during my practice in the cave that I’d discovered that as long as I manipulated the form and intensity myself, the helmet was willing to hold the magic for me.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Thelyris pulled out a measuring tape. Soon she had my measurements, and was staring at my bare left stump. I tried not to be too irritated.

“Is something wrong?” I asked. She jumped, and waved her hands apologetically.

“No, no, it’s just...I thought you’d have a formula tattoo, since I didn’t hear a chant when you did your magic.”

“Formula tattoo?” I cocked my head.

“You know, a magic circle tattooed in the skin so you don’t have to chant the entire spell? Something like that fire arm has got to have a long incantation.”

~Uh-oh. This sounds like something super basic.~

Thankfully, the excited receptionist provided me with an out. “Oh, no way! Do you recite it mentally? That’s why your control’s so good, if you’re capable of controlling your mind through an entire chant!”

I smiled and shrugged, as if she’d seen through me. ~Got to remember that excuse for later.~

Nodding to herself, the harpy carried on. “Okay, so I’ll get you a practice uniform, I think we have an extra that’ll fit you. I’ll hand it to you tomorrow when you arrive. Where are you staying?”

“Actually, I was hoping you could point me in the direction of a hotel or something? I just arrived in Lineria today.”

“Really? Oh, then, you can stay with me?! That’s perfect!”

“No, really, it’s fine. I can find a place to stay myself.”

“No way! It’s super expensive to stay in Lineria, you’ll end up broke in a week.” The harpy crossed her arms and glared at me. It was the most intense expression I’d seen on her plain face.

She did have a point. I’d normally have no issues with spending money, because I could always steal more, but I needed to learn more about this world before I could confidently go out robbing every Tom, Dick and Harry.

“I guess I’ll stay with you then,” I said resignedly. “But I’d still like to explore the city a little.”

“Of course!” She glanced at the clock, then grabbed a single strapped bag. “It’s a bit early, but I can take my break now and show you around a bit.”

As we explored the city, I looked around through my energy vision, tuning it down to the minimum. All of the building I saw were covering in varying intensities of green, along with focused sections of blue, red and purple.

~I’d guess the green is some structural support magic? Although I’ll need to test that before I try anything.~

We were walking back from an open air market when a sudden notification came up in my vision.

Incoming communication.

Connecting….

I turned to Thelyris hurriedly. “I think I saw someone I know, can you stay here for one second?”

Not giving her the chance to reply, I tossed my bag to her and dashed away, finding a small alley to duck into.

A voice filtered into my head as I leaned against the wall. “Hello? Piper, are you there? Hello?”

“Janus? Where the hell are you?”

“Still on Iburn. I’m just checking to see if you got through alright. Are you somewhere safe?”

“Yeah, I’m in a city. Looks pretty similar to my own world.”

“Alright, that’s good. Sit tight for a bit. It’ll take a lot of energy to get you, if this connection is any indication, so I’ll have to deal with Ore first.”

“That should be alright.” I paused. “Is Elli…okay?”

“I haven’t had a chance to look at her yet, but I’m sure she’ll be fine,” came the casual response.

“What? It’s been four DAYS! How could you not look at her!?”  I was immediately incensed.

~What is this asshole? The woman got an arm through the stomach for you!~

There was a pregnant pause, then Janus’ voice came with notes of surprise. “Four days? Piper, it’s barely been four minutes. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“What are you talking about? Even this damn helmet you gave me says four days.”

“That’s strange, the dilation shouldn’t be that bad. Unless….” I could almost hear his eyes widening. “Dammit! Piper, I won’t be able to come any time soon, but I’ll send some help. It’s going to take about 15-30 minutes, but with your skills you’ll be able to last a few weeks, right?”

“What? Why would I need to wait a few weeks?” Now my anger was battling with confusion.

“I can’t explain now, I need to go. Just hang in there for a couple of weeks, okay?” And with that hurried dismissal, the connection cut.

The alley briefly experienced a violent rearrangement. As I walked out, I caught the eye of a terrified cat.

“Sorry,” I mumbled sheepishly. I quickly strode away from the evidence of my venting. In the time it took to make my way back to Thelyris, I went over the conversation again. Apparently time here was flowing faster than in Iburn. That meant even Janus’ fastest response would likely be at least a few days.

It didn’t really change my plans though, since I’d started out by assuming I’d be stuck on this world forever.

Thelyris was in a huff all the way back to the marble theatre building, but recovered her good humour as we stored things in the cold pantry and went around the living quarters.

“This is pretty big for just you,” I commented.

“Well, it was originally designed for the whole group, but most of them have their own places in the city, so they’re not really interested.” The harpy removed her buried head from the cabinet it had been in. Accompanying it was a bucket, which she promptly filled with water.

She marched over to one of the doors and rapidly spoke a few singsong words. The water in the bucket flew up and sprayed into the room she was facing. As I tried to peer around her, the water dashed back into the bucket, now a distinctively darker colour.

“There!” Thelyris proclaimed happily. She turned and jumped when she realised how close I was. “I’ve just dusted the room out. Feel free to make it completely your own, it hasn’t been used in forever.”

Following a few more organisational details, and a time to expect dinner, I was finally alone in my new room. I collapsed on the bed.

Going over the day’s events, I marvelled at how similar this world was to my own, while at the same time vastly different. I would unconsciously become settled at the information age culture, then see a floating vehicle rush down the street.

From a professional view, this world would be more of a challenge. Not only would I have to learn magical security systems, but there were so many more obstacles to overcome in terms of logistics, alibis, the enhanced senses of live security......a wide grin spread itself over my face.

This world was going to be so much fun.