Quinn followed Ada out into a hallway. Along the hallway were several doors just like the one she came out of. Four of the doors were open and three were closed, making hers the eighth. At the end of the hallway was a closed door with a pool of water in front of it, at the other, closest to her door, was a spiral staircase.

The hallway was significantly chillier than the room. Who would have thought that a simple wooden door would block the cold so much?

As Quinn followed the cloaked woman to the door, she couldn’t help but curiously look into the rooms. All of the open doors were carbon copies of her own stone room with some slight variation in the furniture. All of them were empty.

The closed door seemed to have patients in them. She couldn’t tell for sure since every room most likely had the same soundproofing as hers, but it was the most logical reason since this was a clinic.

Ada put her hand on the handle, pausing as she looked at Quinn. “Hmm… actually, why don’t cha wait here for me. I’ll be right back.”

Quinn waited at the door as she watched the young woman head for the stairs. She disappeared up them, returning after nearly a minute had passed. In her hands was the same gray cloak-thingy that she had around her shoulders.

“Here.” She handed it to Quinn. “Wouldn’ want cha’ to get soaked and catch a cold. Would suck to have you come back so soon.” She must have seen the confusion on Quinn’s face. “This is a sagen. It’s to keep the rain out.”

A sagen? Quinn had never heard of such a thing. She followed Ada’s directions and slung it over her head. She pulled it down, just like a t-shirt. Instantly, she could feel the chill disappear. Although it shone like plastic, it was surprisingly comfy, like a soft wool sock.

“It’s got a hood to protect your head. And,” Ada slightly pulled down her own, revealing that the neck gaiter was a part of it. “It’s got a mask to help negate the wind. These things are a lifesaver here in Halis.” That said, she flicked her hood up and opened up the door.

Quinn followed her actions, moving the hood over her curly brown hair. She was instantly washed with rain from the open doorway. The sagen did its job, blocking most of it that hit her, but her feet still got soaked.

Wait… her feet? She looked down and sure enough, her shoes were gone. She hadn’t noticed earlier, too caught up in her confusion to notice much of anything for that matter. She was about to ask if she could have some kind of footwear when she saw Ada also didn’t have shoes. A frown wormed its way onto her face. She realized she was in a poor area, but surely shoes were quite common in areas where foul weather was the norm. If not shoes, then maybe just sandals? They weren't all that hard to make, just a simple slice of leather with a rope around one end.

Ada had already walked out the door and was holding it open, causing a slight wind tunnel. The lanterns along the sides of the hallway flickered with the wind, casting a ghastly shadow along the stone walls.

Quinn walked out the door, taking her first look at the outside world. It was dark. Very dark. The darkness, the hard rain, and her own lack of vision made it really difficult to see what was going on in the village. She could at most see a few buildings down before her vision was cut off.

The buildings were quite odd too. They reminded her of the times she had been to Renaissance fairs in her youth. They were seemingly made of stones with some kind of mixture sealing the gaps. A wooden frame sat every couple of feet, to support stability if Quinn had to guess.

The roofs were odd though. She couldn't see much from her angle on the ground, but what she could see was curious. They looked like a normal thatch roof, but they were all covered with a black tar-like substance. Quinn figured the coating was some kind of water repellent since the rain bounced right off the roofs and slid down onto the streets.

The streets themselves were very narrow. Definitely a foot traffic kind of area. They were actually brick, which would have been surprising if she hadn’t been expecting it. There was no way a place plagued by an “Eternal Storm”, as Ada had put it, would have dirt paths. That was just asking for them to wash away.

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That being said, the area around the paths was just plain old dirt. Oddly enough, the dirt wasn’t mud. As soon as the rain of which there was plenty hit the dirt it was almost sucked down, leaving the top soul perfectly fine.

Quinn didn’t have time to speculate on why that was since Ada had already begun walking. She hurriedly followed down the dark streets as she felt strong winds buffet her and rain splatter off of her new clothing. She almost lost her footing several times; a fault in which the weather and her poor balance no doubt played a part. Everytimr she did, she just barely managed to stay upright using the full dexterity of her feet. The lack of shoes actually helped her keep traction on the slick bricks.

They walked past a couple of houses before arriving in front of a different building. This one was two stories tall and had windows on the first floor. The rain was hitting the windows too hard to actually see through, but the light from within was spilling out. Just like every building, it was made of stone. The difference, however, was that most of the walls and the door had the same tar substance covering them.

Ada opened the door and looked back. “Hurry up! We don’t want too much rain getting in!”

Quinn could barely hear her yelling voice between the wind stealing and the thunder uproariously drowning the noise. She picked up her pace, feeling her ribs grinding in protest as she did. Her already lacking balance nearly made her tumble onto the bricks.

She stepped through the doorway and was surprised at what she saw. It was an obvious building, of which she had no doubt in its purpose. The scent of stale alcohol, an unfortunately familiar one, filled the air. The building was a bar- nay, a tavern by the looks of things. There was a bar covered in drunks singing. Several tables were set out with even more people being jolly. It had a warm atmosphere, almost inviting her in to have a drink. A couple of people - in contrast to the feel of the place - suspiciously glanced up from their drinks as she walked in, but most simply ignored her, too busy with their own worries.

A warm fire crackled to a side of the room. A young girl equipped with the gray sagen that almost everyone else wore busied herself tossing thick, silver logs into the fire. As soon as they smacked down into the embers and ashes a burst of warmth through the entire place, driving back the chill she had felt on the walk from the clinic. The light crackling of the fire was a nice background piece to the thunder off in the distance.

As soon as the door closed behind her, the noise of rain and thunder unnaturally cut off. It was as if she entered another space entirely. She had to admit, their soundproofing tech was super impressive. Although they were poor bumpkins, they had some extraordinary know-how. But, she supposed, that was only to be expected from people that hadn't been spoiled by the abundant hand of modern society.

What really caught her attention was a man off to the side. He stood out like a sore thumb compared to everyone else. He had a fine shirt and pants on. They, unlike the rest of the clothes, looked manufactured instead of handmade.

Of course, he also had the sagen on, but his wasn’t the dull gray-nearly black shade that she had grown accustomed to seeing. His swayed with a deep red, which was the first she had seen of that particular color since her ‘accident’. Even just a flash of memory through her head caused phantom pains along her body. She would definitely have to settle down somewhere and organize herself later. There was simply no way she wasn’t traumatized.

He played the lute and sang a song, but the surprising thing was floating in the air near him. Around him were several holograms. They were playing scenes of vast battlefields and scores of troops fighting in time with his music.

She was quite surprised by something so technologically advanced in this village. She hadn’t even seen anything electric - heck even the tavern’s lights were lanterns - and here this man was with working holograms. She looked around for the projector.

“Ah, I see you have an eye for Mikeal. I’m sorry to break it to you, but most of the women here do too.” Ada said. “It’s not every day a mage specialized in entertainment comes along, after all.”

Quinn froze as her brain caught up with Ada’s sentence. “Mage?” Like magic mage? But there was no such thing as magic. All of science had looked around for even a hint and found not a clue. The countless legends and tails of fantastical creatures were all made up after all. Magic simply didn’t exi-

“Yeah. Specializing in illusion magic, I think. Quite rare to see someone like that here.”

With Ada’s input, the gears started to crank in Quinn’s head. An idea that she had thrown to the back of her head due to how ridiculous it was began to grow. It was truly an insane theory. A theory that she herself had thought was too crazy.

The languages she had never heard. The weird clothing. The almost ancient way of creating buildings. The handcrafted nature of everything. The country that she had never heard of. The “Eternal Storm” that never stopped. The magic! Quinn felt her world of logic and reasoning crash as a single thought ran through her head: the portal had sent her a lot further than she thought.