“Wait, you were serious?” I asked in disbelief. “I thought you were joking.”

Marcolo sat at the other end of the manor’s table, only a metre or two away, while Gideon sat portly on the table beside. The dining room itself was not at large as one would’ve imagined given the size of the house, and the kitchen was open to it in a surprisingly modern fashion. Behind me lay the stairs up to the bedrooms and a hallway leading to the backyard gardens while in front was the mudroom and the entry.

“Why would I jest?” Marcolo didn’t look up from his plate, upon which half a fish sat. “Your father would kill me if I told him that you died.”

“Not even for an hour or two?”

“This sudden fascination is almost more concerning.” Marcolo said. “Why the need now? Can you not just sit tight for another month?”

“That’s exactly what I can’t do.” I argued. “How could I see more of the capital from Minua?”

“Such an inane reason doesn’t come above your safety.” He threw a stern gaze towards me. “Surely you can see that.”

I stifled a silent sigh. Marcolo was being a bigger pain in the ass than I’d originally anticipated. What was my luck that I got saddled with such a huge helicopter parent for a butler?

“By safety? From what exactly, the wind and rain?” I joked. “It’s not as if Orthungs roam the streets of Verol.”

“I didn’t think they roamed the Fires either.” He quipped back.

“And as of now: they don’t!”

“And neither does Lord Feanin.” Marcolo said.

I closed my mouth and glared at him..

[Christ], that was some heavy ammunition, don’t ya think Marcolo? It kind of dwarfed even my mother’s ‘finish your food because of the starving children’ line.

When he’d told me about it right before breakfast, I’d tried my best to act surprised about it all, going ‘Oh no!’ and ‘But why, cruel world?’. I think he bought it, but that performance made it a little difficult to just brush off such savagery now without looking like a psychopath, so I looked down to pick at my second fish instead.

To be honest, Gideon had been correct last night in that I didn’t know Feanin, so his death didn’t really hit me that hard. It was sad, of course, and I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone else, but it was the same kind of sad as a distant cousin dying, albeit one you saw the day before. Perhaps I was just unempathetic, but that was how it appeared to me. Especially because I hadn’t actually seen him die.

“Is it really so bad to be stuck in the house until you leave for Minua?” Marcolo stroked Gideon’s back, who sat irritatingly silent as always. “I can’t dare say you’ve left the house in the past year, so what’s the problem now?”

I rested my head on my fist while I chewed.

That statement sort of confirmed something I’d gotten an inkling of from my dreams of Saphry so far: that she was something of a shut in. Every memory I’d seen so far had been inside this house. Hell, just about all of the ones I’d seen last night had been of Saphry flipping through books in the manor’s library. It was almost no wonder that I’d gotten nothing enlightening like Gideon had: Saphry had very little to give me.

“I’ve just felt that I’ve seen so little in my time here.” I said. “I thought it a shame that I would leave with so narrow an understanding. Is that so bad?”

Acting too much in character would’ve had me accepting Marcolo’s decree easily enough from what I could tell, but that wasn’t really an option for me here, if Gideon and I wanted to get anything done potionwise. Ingredients needed to be found, equipment bought, and knowledge read, and not much of that could really be done from within the confines of the Astrian’s family manor.

I suppose we could just sneak out at night and when he wasn’t looking, but there were even problems with that as well. Namely that nothing was open at night, and we’d be forced to turn to theft and burglary to get what we wanted, which was a line I didn’t want to cross just yet. It’d be a bit hypocritical to turn into rogues at the first signs of struggle after all.

I was also a bit loath to needlessly antagonise Marcolo. He wasn’t really a bad guy, just overly protective.

“A lack of understanding can be solved with more studying.” Marcolo replied. “There’s nothing you can’t learn through books!”

“I guess…” I said, though I didn’t really agree.

I was fairly sure that we didn’t have any books on alchemy or thaumaturgy stocked in the house’s library, which made learning what I wanted kind of difficult. Hopefully he’d let up in a day or two.

“Good. Though you should still take it easy with even studying for a few days.” Marcolo nodded. “Hans said it would take longer to fully heal, so of course that means no staying up late reading those mystery novels you like so much and…”

I simmered as he rambled on, the urge to choose violence and burglary growing with every word.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

…

“Idiocy! Both of them!”

I angrily paced between my armoire and the window while Gideon sat on the bed. As I passed by the mirror again I stopped and glared at my reflection.

“Why were you such a bum!” I accused. “What is wrong with you!”

Now Ryder…

“I’m sorry, it’s just that I’m just now realising that this girl…” I pointed at my reflection. “...is some goddamn neet. I’m going to have to build her a goddamn functioning life if we’re to escape this!”

It’s not that bad.

I crossed my arms.

“Did you, by any chance, have anyone visit me while I was lying in bed close to death?”

Brother Hans did.

“That’s Marcolo’s friend.” I shook my head. “He doesn’t count.”

Then no.

“And that’s because no one knows her. She has no friends, no strength or abilities, and I’m like seventy percent sure her only job prospect is ‘leech off dad’. Hopeless.”

I glared at the reflection again, as if I could somehow communicate my ranting to the actual person.

You’re looking at this wrong. Gideon flew over to my head to gaze into the mirror as well. This is a valuable opportunity. Saphry is unknown, is pretty, and has the resources of a noble house, even if she apparently doesn’t use it. That’s a perfect vessel for making inquiries and researching obscure magicks. And even better, you don’t have to worry as much about keeping her life in one piece.

…Huh.

He was right, maybe this actually was a blessing in disguise. Could I have been a little too focused on the physical capabilities?

“I suppose you have a point.” I turned away from the mirror and walked to the window.

Outside, the people of Verol were scurrying about the canals and walkways like dozens of ants, carrying boxes and crates to and fro. Further north I could see the mists that had plagued the city this morning drifting off through the valleys and cliffs. In the far distance I even thought I could see smoke rising from behind a snow-covered hill, and of surrounding crop-bearing fields clear of trees. I still found the sight idyllic and refreshing after living in the cramped dorms for over a year.

“You mentioned researching?” I asked after a minute. “What do you mean by that? Do you not already know the recipe?”

Do you remember how I mentioned that I discovered something about alchemy while you were asleep? Gideon redirected.

“Hazily.”

Well, I didn’t just sit around and stare at you while you were unconscious. Gideon announced. I was flying around attempting the simplest of alchemical processes to see if they transferred. I wasn’t sure they would after you demonstrated your dead magic after all.

“Smart I guess, though I assume they worked? I figure I would’ve heard about this by now if they hadn’t.”

Indeed, they did. Gideon confirmed. Most of them, at least.

My heart dropped as he said that, a dark fear rising inside me.

“...Most?”

All of the methods worked, or in other words everything that I could actually try worked.

I reached up to my head and plucked Gideon off, holding him in front of me like a wet cat.

“No riddles please.” I said. “Is it ‘most’ or ‘everything’?”

Like I said. The drake wiggled. Everything I could try. The recipes I couldn’t all require specific objects like cotton, pine needles, or salmon scales.

“And… why not?” I raised an eyebrow, turning away from the window. “Why didn’t you try those?”

Ryder, please. The drake rolled its eyes. This world has a completely different ecology than Earth. Their textiles are not cotton, their trees are not pine, and their fish are all furred.

Oh. But didn’t that mean…Wait, furred fish?

“Do none of the recipes from Earth work?” I asked, suddenly horrified.

No, some of them only required minerals and elements that appear to be more universal. Copper and iron for example. While yet others need only more generic resources, like ‘wood’ instead of specifically birch or pine. Those all have analogs.

“Then… does the portal potion that brought us here work?”

Gideon sighed.

No. It requires the skin of a lemon.

I slumped down, defeated.

“So that’s it then.” I said. “We can’t go home.”

A sudden homesickness came over me as the revelation came to light. Memories of my family, my friends, and the installing preorder on my laptop came to mind, only to pulled back out when Gideon spoke again.

Not quite! The drake thought quickly. I had the same reaction initially. Until I remember one specific branch of magic that we barely used back on Earth.

“Which one is that?” I asked, kind of confused by the emotional whiplash.

Transmutation. The magical conversion of materials.

Ah yes, that one. Technically it was a branch of thaumaturgy, or ‘casting’, which was why Gideon had never used it, and I had never bothered due to the cost. The basic idea was that [gold] could be transmuted into just about anything and everything, as long as you had a lump of the stuff just as heavy as what you wanted to make and a good couple days to waste. Being a college student and seeing very little combat use in carrying around heavy lumps of [gold], I had never studied it.

“Can you transmute organic things?” I asked. “Especially specific organic objects like [lemons]?”

I wasn’t too up to date on that branch, to be sure, but I had always been under the impression that it was used for metals and minerals and stuff like that.

Of course. I’ve studied at least the very basics of the craft.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Looking to break into thaumaturgy, were you?”

Not at all. Gideon snorted. I had little use for most such barbarities as combat casting. Transmutation is a rare exception.

“That’s pretty disrespectful given that our lives have already been saved by those ‘barbarities’ here.” I smirked. “It would’ve been useful to know!”

I don’t think ‘but what if I get sucked into a different world where I’m forced to fight?’ is a very good reason to learn how to do anything. I wasn’t exactly planning on going to war or anything back on Earth. And I owned a gun, which worked about as well.

“Ha, fair enough.” I set him down in front of the mirror with a chuckle. “So what’s our estimated departure now then?

I still kind of hoped to be back before finals hit. Thankfully, most of my professors back in the college were of the ‘no due date’ type so theoretically I could still pass this semester if I got back in time. Assuming my body hadn’t atrophied away or been buried or something like that of course. It was better not to think of things like that.

Hold up, I said I’d studied the basics, not that I knew how to do it. Gideon thought. We’ll have to figure out how to do that first.

“And where do you plan to do that?” I asked sceptically. “Does the local library have books on how to destroy the national economy lying around?”

They might. Gideon sniffed. It’s not like the catalyst is very common. But no, I was thinking of going through the channels you’ve already opened up.

“Already opened up?” I sat down on the window bench and hugged my legs close to my chest. “I haven’t done anything of the sort. Kind of busy being half dead, ya know.”

A sudden loud knocking snapped my attention, drawing it to the direction of the front door downstairs. Gideon preened as he heard it, as if he were expecting its coming.

And it looks like that channel’s here now.