Quinn was irritated with herself. She had been passing out way too often these days. Surely she could manage to stay awake for more than an hour, right? It was kind of outlandish and irritating.

Speaking of irritation, how could she even think? Surely she was asleep, but her consciousness was still active? How was that possible? Such an event breaks all her preconceived knowledge of the brain. Unless this was a lucid dream?

She looked around herself, confused by the questions pouring through her brain. She was standing- nay, floating in an empty void. There was nothing around her but darkness. It was unsettling, very unsettling.

Ah, but it wasn’t entirely empty. She could see a speck of light far away. Maybe that was her dream? Was she placed outside of her dream? Such a thing was absurd. Quinn thought she was going crazy. It only made sense that she was asleep, but why would she - the dreamer - be outside of her own dream?

With no other idea of what to do, she began walking toward the light. Oddly enough, she could walk on the void. Such an unrealistic thing could only happen in her head. There was simply no other plausible explanation for the events.

The light got brighter as she walked towards it. She could roughly make out what it was as she approached. It was a massive ball. Like a heartbeat, it pulsated with light. The ball emitted a soft blue glow, but the membrane of the ball constantly shifted in color. Below the shifting membrane of color, she could almost make out images, but they were too blurry to see.

Quinn watched the ball curiously. What a peculiar thing to appear in a peculiar dream. Was it supposed to mean something? Was she supposed to… touch it? She slowly reached up her hand to the ball, just about to lay a finger on the membrane-

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A man’s voice called from behind her.

She whipped around, surprised by the sudden intrusion. Behind her stood a man. Not just any man mind you, but a familiar man. It was the same elderly person who had come into her room previously. Alwin, she thought. Why was he here? What a truly odd dream.

The elder laughed lightly. “Ah, you think this is a dream, do you? Well, it isn- no, that makes it easier actually. Since this is a dream, would you mind doing this old man a favor?”

Was he about to say it wasn’t a dream? Quinn felt like she was about to go insane with confusion. Why did everything have to be so very confusing? After that portal got her, she had yet to receive a good answer on anything that happened.

Well, no matter. “What do you need, Alwin?” Wait, could he even understand her? He spoke a different language previously. For that matter, how did she understand what he had said just a moment ago? What an unrealistic dream.

The white-haired man reached into his cloak to a satchel that had somehow gone unnoticed. From it, he withdrew a book. It was an odd book, to say the least. It looked like a dictionary but seemed to pulsate with a soft glow, similar to the orb behind her.

He looked at the book. Since this was her dream, she could easily detect the slight sadness in his gaze. He then held the book out to her. “Here.” Before she could grab it, he withdrew the book with a speculative look at her. “Actually, what does this book look like to you?”

Quinn really couldn’t see the point of this. There were so many better things she could dream of. “A book. It looks like a dictionary, I guess. Oh, and it glows slightly.”

Alwin stretched out his hand with the book once more. “Interesting. Well then, take it.”

Quinn grabbed the weird book. “Thanks, I guess?” She opened it up, but it was all written in a strange language. It was definitely a letter-based language, just like her own tongue, but she couldn’t tell much more than that.

“Have you never seen one of these before?” Alwin asked.

Quinn shot him a strange look. “Of course, I’ve seen a book before.”

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“No, I mean a- oh never mind. That favor I asked for earlier. Will you just lightly tap the book to your head?”

Truly this dream was confusing. Nonetheless, she followed his directions and tapped the book on her head. It wasn’t like there was much else to do in this void anyways.

Instantly a migraine hit her. It was almost on par with the one she felt directly after being teleported. She closed her eyes and grit her teeth, dealing with the beats of suffering. Through the growing pain, a single thought went through her head. ‘If this is a dream, then how can I feel this pain?’ Thankfully, the pain quickly faded, as did the void.

Everything began to grow blurry around herself until she was following along the normal pattern of sleep.

----------------------------------------

Quinn awoke some time later, in the familiar position she had found herself in far too many times recently. She was laying on the wooden cot, resting her head on a pillow.

The room was exactly like the last time she saw it, but the woman from before was sitting on one of the chairs nearby. She was whittling a small piece of wood with a knife, completely ignorant of the fact that Quinn had woken up. It wasn’t until Quinn sat up that she finally took notice.

A great smile appeared over the woman’s face. “Ah! You’re finally awake.”

Quinn wanted to frown but felt it might be rude considering the woman’s mirth. The frown wasn’t due to the woman. It was due to her near-constant confusion. For some reason, she could understand the woman perfectly, but she was sure that the woman was still speaking that odd language from before. Maybe her brain had just lagged previously?

“Where am I?”

The woman nodded repeatedly as if she had been expecting that question. “Of course, of course. You are in Weildenbach, of the Halis Empire. Oh! And my name is Ada.” The woman put down her knife and stuck her hand out happily.

“Quinn.” She shook Ada’s hand. Her confusion was mounting by the second. She was sure she never heard of somewhere called the Hallis Empire. And the moniker of Empire was horribly outdated. Most countries tended to just go by a single name these days.

“Nice to meetcha Quinn. Now then, how are you feeling? Is anywhere hurt?” Ada’s happiness quickly turned to concern.

Quinn moved all her limbs slightly, trying to get an image of what all was injured. Most everything felt fine, but her ribs still definitely hurt. “Just my ribs, I think.”

“That’s to be expected. Even with Alwin’s medical expertise, it’ll probably still take you a couple of days to be in top shape.” She stood up and outstretched a hand. “Do you think you can walk?”

Quinn accepted the woman’s offer and stood up. Her legs felt surprisingly fine, considering that both of them felt broken when she was walking through the forest. She took a step, nearly stumbling. Ada caught her and helped steady her.

“It’s fine if you can’t walk, no need to force yourself.”

Quinn vehemently shook her head. “It's not that I can’t, I just have poor balance.” It was true. Ever since she had lost herself in research, her once perfect balance had been ruined.

Ada smiled brightly. “That’s great! Alwin thought you might need some more time to walk, but I’m glad he was wrong.”

Quinn walked a few more steps around the room, careful not to fall over. “I appreciate you helping me, but who are you? And who is Alwin?”

The woman took no offense to her questioning. “I’m Alwin’s daughter, and we run the clinic here in Weildenbach.”

“How much do I owe you?” Quinn really couldn’t afford a medical bill. She was just barely making enough as is.

“Hmm… you came in with severe muscle deterioration, several broken bones in your legs, and the majority of your ribs were fractured. So maybe a silver piece? I don’t really know. Usually, my pa takes care of the money.”

A silver piece? Why were they using such ancient means of commerce? This country must be very far removed all things considered.

Ada walked to the door and opened it.

As soon as she did, Quinn could hear loud raindrops hitting the roof and thunderous reports. “When did the rain start?” The room must have been soundproofed quite well for her not to hear that. But she couldn’t see any signs of the normal tactics for soundproofing. Maybe they had their own method?

“When did it end, more like. You must not be familiar with Hallis.” Ada said. “We aren’t called the Empire of Storms for no reason.”

“Are you saying it rains all the time?” She had never heard of a place so outlandish. It was impossible for a place to rain all the time. Surely there must be at least a bit of downtime.

“Well not here, since our province is near the edge of the Eternal Storm, but the majority of the Hallis Empire never stops raining. My pa said you might have amnesia, but I didn’t think it was this bad.”

Seriously, what was going on? Places she had never heard of, languages she had never seen, impossible storms, and confusing attire? Just where in the world had the PM-1 misfired her to?

“You coming?” Ada said from the open doorway.

Quinn decided to put her confusion on the back burner. First and foremost, she needed to figure out how much she owed the father-daughter pair. Especially considering she didn’t have any money on her.

Quinn walked out the door, following Ada.