The fact that the women didn’t run seemed to give them pause as they stopped before reaching us. I could only hope they had orders to bring the women alive. Maybe a little fear could win this fight, since in this world, you really can’t know who’s powerful just from a look.

"Your boss is dead in his pleasure alcove, do you really want to die for a dead man?" I said in a confidently relaxed tone.

The newcomers didn’t even flinch, but the three assassins looked at each other and slowly withdrew. The others stayed to fight, but they seemed more like novices. I didn’t even do that much; the women seemed really bloodthirsty, and who knows, maybe a win is what they needed.

They did manage to strip the clothes off the attackers and were now looking more like a ragg-tag team of assasins than prisoners.

We encountered some difficulty navigating at night, as it was evident we were lost. However, when daylight broke, we were able to consult the map and eventually locate the road leading to the others.

After meeting with the caravan and traveling for a few days, as we were still descending from the mountain, we could see in the distance an enormous sprawling city, well, for this planet at least. It had a lake almost comparable in size on its side. The other defining feature was a black spire in the center of the city.

"I heard stories of its size, but it doesn’t do it justice," Alira wasn’t so easily impressed, so I looked at her with curious eyes.

"Don’t tell me the city doesn’t impress you?" she said, rolling her eyes again.

"I mean, the black spire looks ominous and all, but other than that, in my world, this would be a medium-sized city." Was I supposed to pretend to be impressed?

"Medium?" Mara replied, but I could understand her skepticism.

"As I said, without magic, people had to do stuff differently." But maybe I was too harsh. It did seem a beautiful city, and the spire was tall as a skyscraper, clearly built with magic.

"The tower looks incredible though. Is it more like a library or a place of teaching?"

"A little of both," Mara looked like she wanted to say more but stopped herself.

A little question popped into my head. "Are mages there the kind who share knowledge or hoard it to exchange it later?"

With a sad expression, what she said confirmed my fears. "As we mages say, knowledge is power."

"It is ironic that we have that saying, but it has a completely different meaning. Here, it's in the literal sense. In mine, it was figurative." Having said that, the main city street drew my attention as it was made of something resembling marble. They even had a sewer system, as I could see little grates in the marble once in a while.

The tower looked even more imposing when every building near it was a tenth of its size. Alira and the others went to notify the authorities, so it was just me and Mara at the steps.

As we entered the tower, Mara went ahead to get us an audience with her master. They must have had some sort of transportation system, as she arrived faster than I expected.

Her face was weathered, with deep wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. Despite her age, she walked sure of herself, wrapped in long flowing robes adorned with symbols that glowed with soft pulsing light.

Mara made the introductions. "Master, this is Tiberius, a mage of remarkable strength. Tiberius, this is my master, Magistra Vivienne."

She first sized me up, then addressed me. "So, what can you do that has one of my best apprentices so impressed?"

"I happen to be from a world with some knowledge you may want and am willing to trade for it." She looked already dismissive; I guess living in this tower did make one feel a little above the plebe.

"Let's go to the 35th floor where I have my study," and we followed her to some sort of elevator. It was a squared platform made of some kind of metal; the power source was maybe in the two columns that seemed to be on each side of the platform, but it did look impressive and dangerous as there were no side rails or anything.

As we were climbing, they both looked quizzically at me.

"How do you like the elevator?" The Magistra asked me.

"It seems a little dangerous, no side rails whatsoever. I mean, children could seriously get hurt riding this thing." Again maybe they expected awe, and I was just complaining.

"Why would children be permitted to ride them?" like it was the most preposterous idea in the world.

"We have similar things in my world, and they are in a lot of places, and children are really curious so you really can’t keep them away."

"How do you handle the power requirements on so many platforms?" finally, a little curiosity.

"It’s not easy. Power generation and transport are very complicated and involve a lot of people and resources." As I was finishing the sentence, we reached the destination, and the platform blended into the floor.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

While walking through the corridors, she continued with the questions "Mara mentioned your propensity for learning spells," again said in a fake pleasant tone.

"Some of them, at least," I smiled at both of them.

"Here we are, this is my office, please take a seat." The room was circular, with tall narrow windows overlooking the surrounding landscape. The walls were filled with shelves containing scrolls upon scrolls. A large wooden desk sat in the middle of the room, very organized. Surprisingly, there was no fireplace, so it must have had some sort of magical heating, or maybe there were no winters here.

"So, what can you offer us?" At least she was down to business.

"I don’t know much about spells, but I have general knowledge of the world that seems above yours. So, tell me what you want to know, and if I have it, we can discuss what I want." I could do the serious and business tone as well, hopefully.

"You're not even offering specific subjects. I can ask for what I want?" she looked skeptical.

"Well, I want to make a friend here, might help me along the way. So, I was thinking I make a good first impression." It was a fine line. I didn’t want them dismissing me but still interested enough to want me around.

She smiled, like she thought of a question. "My area of expertise was always spell creation, and while we mastered fire and water, lightning eludes us. But since I hear you already have a lightning spell, maybe you could share this knowledge."

"From my limited understanding of spells and how to modify them, you first need to understand how it works and then visualize the result. So I can explain how lightning forms in the clouds and how you can visualize it. But obviously, I can't promise you will be able to achieve any results." Better to temper the expectations.

"Naturally. And what would you like to know?" she asked.

"I think I would like to worship the goddess Aurora, but information is scarce about her." Hopefully, they won’t find it too weird and start digging deeper.

"Yes, she is one of the most obscure gods, but I’ll see what I can find." Clearly, she didn’t believe me, but it was a good reason, so she had to let it go after a bit of normal curiosity.

"That's it?"

"I have four companions. Maybe in the future they would remain in your good graces should they require help." Who knew where my quest would lead me. Better for them to have some safety net.

"We have a deal," she said eventually. It’s good that she was happy; I’ve made enough enemies in this world.

"So, tell me about lightning?" And for the first time, she seemed to lose the superiority complex.

Guess we go from the beginning. “There are four fundamental forces,” well, ignoring magic that is. Who knew how magic fit into all of physics?

"One of them is electro-magnetism. Like magic, it’s all around us, and the reason you are not falling through the floor is because of that force." That seemed to get their attention.

It was not easy explaining since they didn’t even know what an electron was, let alone fields or equations, so I had to stick with comparisons like how water flows, which seemed to help visualize it.

After spending all day going through theory then practice, they could create a sort of static charge mini-arc. They seemed to be really proud of that. We even had some sort of philosophical discussion as I didn’t remember all the Maxwell equations, and even if I did, I blocked the math part as PTSD in college. So for them, they would have to believe me that what I explained worked as it should, while I did the math at one point so there was no faith involved. That difference could cause variations in how the end spell came out.

It turns out I was right, and the spell is taught a certain way only because it’s easier to learn compared to other interpretations. So masters spent time learning the same spell in different ways hoping to get a glimpse of inspiration to improve it.

"Any other questions before we leave?" I said.

"Not a question, but you were fortunate to arrive just before the annual ball. The Mages Guild would like to invite you to join." She handed me an invitation. "It’s for two people."

"Thank you." I said politely as I took my leave.

Alira found me later that evening while I was at dinner reading the books they were able to find in the library on the goddess Aurora. To say they were a dry read would have been an understatement. Lots of rumors and stories and third-hand accounts, it was almost impossible to find anything worthwhile.

"I heard you are quitting becoming a jester for teaching," she said with a smile.

"Not enough money in the world for that," I replied, maybe a bit too harshly.

"Was it that bad?"

"They were perfect students, but trying to explain concepts that require lots of other concepts as a base and without the math to really glue it all together is almost impossible," hopefully it would take a long time until the next lesson.

"Where are the rest?" I said, looking around.

"Elara has ‘issues’ with crowds, so they went to an inn near the lake."

"But enough about me, how did it go with the evil empaths?" Hopefully, the bureaucracy here wasn’t as bad.

"We were lucky you saved the mind-controlled women. They were ready to dismiss the mine prisoners as a local issue and empath accusation as hearsay, but their testimony meant they couldn’t ignore it. They are preparing some kind of intervention."

"That’s good to hear," exhaling loudly as I was frustrated by the book. I continued, "What do you say about some light reading before bed?" looking to the stacks of books on the table.

"I gather there’s not much in them so far."

"Not yet. They go on and on about every aspect of the rituals but nothing on locations." It was infuriating.

"I’ll take one of your hands." She somehow ended up picking the narrowest book out of the stack.

"What?" she said as I gave her a disapproving look. "I have to be careful. Gods are really touchy about the competition."

"By the way, do you have any plans for tomorrow night?" I asked trying to be casual about it.

"No… why do you ask?" she seemed a little curious.

"I think they want to impress me by showing me the high life of the city, so they invited me tomorrow to a party of some kind. It would be rude not to come. I’m trying to make a few connections. And they said I could bring a guest." It's not like it was a date or anything.

"So, are you asking me as a date?" she said with a grin.

I suddenly felt like a high schooler but took a deep breath and responded with a simple “Yes.”

"Usually, I hate balls, but you’re usually fun, so why not?" She still had a grin on her face.

"I don’t have anything to wear," she immediately switched to worried.

"Yes, I know exactly how you feel pointing to my clothes that were basically rags at this point." No wonder the magister didn't take me seriously at first.

"Is the reward for the basilisk enough to squander some money on clothes we’re only gonna wear once?" I asked. We needed the dinari, but I had to admit I was curious what kind of party or ball or whatever they had going on.

"We should be able to find something for people not to laugh at us," she said.

"At least I’ll have an excuse that whatever I wear resembles the fashion from my earth," I really did hope they did not have weird fashion like wigs or canes.

"Perfect, then we’ll use most of the funds for my dress." She started laughing at her joke and I joined soon enough.

The only problem was, the goddess did say to keep a low profile. But how much trouble could a ball cause?