Planet Selara, year 2020 on earth
Cal didn't know what was going on.
Ever since the night their campsite had been attacked by the bandits he had been able to see in the dark.
He also found he could somehow see the signs of animals' passing, bent twigs and tracks seemed to instantly draw his gaze whenever he stepped off the road to take a break or camp for the night.
Mia also informed him that he was super warm and he had noticed he didn't need to sleep in his bedroll, the chill night air no longer bothered him.
Vera had been delighted to strip the corpse of the bandit archer and was happy to hunt game for Cal to eat while they traveled.
They had passed by bandits two more times but Vera's vampiric sense of smell had allowed the group to give them a wide berth, avoiding any more confrontations.
The trio came across a signpost pointing down a cobblestone road that split off to the West three days past and just now crested a massive hill, taking in the impressive sight of Ranock's walls in the distance.
An hour later they entered the city together, asking one of the guards at the gate for an inn recommendation.
Cal found himself at a pleasant looking building with flowers planted beneath the windows, he stepped inside and held the door open for Vera and Mia.
Cal got them a room and they unloaded their supplies before going back to the lobby to inquire after a bath.
They were directed to a set of unimpressive looking rectangular stone buildings and split up, the baths seperated by genders.
Cal took his time in the steaming bath water but still found himself waiting on a bench outside for almost thirty minutes before Vera and Mia finally emerged.
"Did you get lost or something?" Cal teased, a bit upset by the wait.
"This one." Vera tickled Mia's armpits causing her to erupt into giggles, "Made me chase her through the water before I could clean her."
All of Cal's frustration at the wait dissapeared, he couldn't be mad at Mia.
"I'm going to head to the library to see if I can find out what my passive mark is." Cal said. "I doubt Mia wants to be cooped up in there, so I'll see you back at the room?"
"Sounds like a plan, can I have a few coins to buy us some clothing?" Vera asked.
Cal gave her a few gold coins and they parted ways.
Cal made his way to the library after asking for directions and was stunned when he went inside, it was enormous.
A disheveled looking woman in a grey dress looked up at him as he walked in. "Need help finding anything dear?" She asked.
"I'm looking for a book on passive magic marks to find out which one I have." Cal replied.
"You don't know what your own passive magic mark is?" She asked. "I've read all the books on passive marks we have here, let me have a look and I'll tell you what one you have."
Cal walked over to her perch at a desk cluttered with books and took off his left glove.
"That's the assimilation mark." She said. "Completely useless unless you go around killing people."
Cal scratched the back of his head. "And if I do go around killing people, what exactly happens?" He asked.
She looked doubtfully at his nonexistant muscles and hairless face. "Well you'd get the passive magic of whoever you managed to kill." She said.
"Anything else I can help you with?" She asked.
"Um do you have any books detailing the abilities of a spatial mage?" He asked.
"Are you looking for an outside perspective or one written by them?" She asked.
Cal thought for a moment. "One of each." He decided.
"Wait here a minute." She said, and walked off to get him his books.
She returned a minute later holding two thin books and handed them to him. "Anything else?" She asked.
"Am I allowed to take these books out of the library?" Cal replied.
"Well in theory you are allowed to, but there's a deposit of ten gold per book." She said.
Cal opened his coin purse and counted out twenty gold, noting the surprised look on her face as he handed over the wealth.
He thanked her and left, glad to finally have an answer to his strange new abilities he had been puzzling over for the last two weeks.
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Sophia headed to the inn where Kyla worked to pick her up for their date, they were going to a fancy restaurant to celebrate Sophia's pay raise she received a month after starting her job.
She got there a bit early and sat at the bar watching all the customers while she waited for Kyla to get off work, her job as a royal guard had caused her to become very observant.
She noticed a man staring at her from a table with his wife and child and didn't think anything of it, but when she saw he was still staring at her after her third sweep of the room she grew suspicious.
Sophia pretended not to notice his stare and walked out the door, quickly standing to the side to see if he would follow her.
The man stepped out of the inn and she grabbed his arm.
"I can kill you in a split second, don't make any sudden moves. Why are you following me?" She asked in her best stern royal guard voice.
To her astonishment the man was suddenly standing across the street and turning back to face her, her hand no longer squeezing his arm.
"San Fran's public transportation really goes the distance huh?" The man asked.
"W-what?" Sophia stammered in astonishment.
"Nevermind I mistook you for someone else." The man said.
"Your'e from Earth?" Sophia asked, she hadn't seen this man on the BART when she arrived here.
"Oh so it is you." He said excitedly. "I was sitting across from you when this whole thing started, you rudely stared at my scars." He teased.
He was the scarred kid in the hoodie Sophia realized, he must have been healed somehow.
"How did your scars get healed?" She questioned.
He raised his eyebrow, "Surely you've realized magic is real here by now." He said mockingly.
"Yes I know that." She snapped. "I'm a healer and I know two other healers, none of us can heal scars."
"I was healed by a dryad, my name is Cal, by the way." He explained. "Anyways, how'd you wind up all the way here in Ranock?"
"Sophia, and I could ask you the same thing." She replied.
"I asked you first." Cal retorted. "Shall we head back inside? My friends are probably wondering what I'm doing, we can talk at our table."
Sophia headed inside with Cal and he led her to his table. She curiously took in the red eyes and pale skin of the people she had thought were his wife and daughter.
"This is Sophia, she's from the other world I told you about. This is Vera and her daughter Mia, they're vampires." He said like it wasn't a big deal.
"Uh vampires?" She asked, nervously scooting her chair back from the table a bit.
"Yeah like suck your blood, only die to a wooden stake through the heart vampires." Cal said, grinning.
"I do not see why the material of the weapon would matter, and there are many other ways to kill a vampire. Nice to meet you Sophia." Vera said.
"Hi! I'm Mia! You are really pretty!" Mia said excitedly.
The cute little girl made Sophia's fear vanish. "Thank you Mia, you are very pretty as well." She said with a smile.
"Who are your friends Sophia?" Kyla asked as she walked up to the table.
Everyone at the table looked to Kyla when she spoke, and Cal answered. "I'm Cal and this is Vera and Mia, they're vampires." He said, pointing them out in turn.
"I'm Kyla, Sophia's girlfriend. Nice to meet you but we need to go." Kyla said. "Ready to go?" She asked Sophia.
Sophia looked back at Cal, "Sorry I need to go we have a reservation, are you staying here? I have a lot of questions for you." She said in a rush.
"Yes, we have a room here, not sure how long we'll be staying for though." Cal said.
"Can you meet me here tomorrow at the same time?" Sophia asked, standing up to leave.
"Sure, have fun on your date." Cal replied.
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Cal was eating in the lobby of the inn they were staying in when a familiar looking brunette walked in the door.
She looked exactly like the woman who had been sitting across from him on the BART, but it had been a long three months and he couldn't be sure.
She sat at the bar and looked around the lobby a few times before getting up and leaving.
He followed her, he had to know if it was her, how could she have wound up all the way here in Ranock?
Cal exited the door and the woman grabbed his arm, telling him she could kill him in an instant.
Cal didn't believe her but he knew there were some crazy magics in this world so he chose to risk using his power in public and teleported across the street.
"San Fran's public transportation really goes the distance huh?" He asked to test if she was the woman from the BART.
"W-what?" She asked in confusion.
Cal frowned, Of course it isn't the same woman, the cultists probably chased her down and killed her like all the others. He thought.
"Nevermind I mistook you for someone else." He said.
"You're from Earth?" The woman asked, and Cal broke out in an excited grin.
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After Sophia was dragged away by her incredibly well endowed girlfriend Kyla, Cal headed up to his room while Vera took Mia out on a walk.
He took the rare moment of silence without Mia's babble to read both of the books he had obtained from the library.
They were both short and succinct, written like personal journals as opposed to an actual book.
The one written by a spatial mage described in detail what spatial energy felt like, and had a lot of warnings about teleporting into people.
Cal was horrified when he discovered that was a possibility, but it said that the spatial mage with the strongest energy should be unharmed upon such a happening.
Since Cal was the only spatial mage he assumed he would be the one to survive any such encounter, but he certainly wasn't going to try it on purpose.
The second book was written by a man shortly after what he called the great plague, and he seemed to believe it had been caused by the spatial mages.
The book talked about the spatial mage's ability to build and charge portals, bemoaning the fact that in under ten years none of the portals would be functional without spatial mages to charge them.
The man wrote about how he had observed the portals being charged, but the part that grabbed Cal's attention was the man's complaint of the spatial mages being paid 'an absurd price for such a short expenditure of their time'.
The man didn't specify the exact price they had been paid to charge a portal, but Cal was seeing dollar signs.
He rushed back to the library with his books, hoping to find out how much they had charged and where he could go to get himself paid.
He barged loudly through the library doors startling a few of the people quietly reading at the tables and ran up to the librarian who had helped him earlier, setting the books down on her desk.
"Can you find me a book that might have a more detailed accounting of what a spatial mage was paid to charge a portal and who paid them?" He asked excitedly.
The librarian was not amused with Cal's enthusiam and seemed to take her time retrieving his book deposit from beneath her desk before replying.
"I'll see what I can find." She said, picking up the books Cal had returned and walking slowly off through the library to Cal's great irritation.
Cal was tapping his foot in impatience by the time she finally returned, he was sure she was paying him back for his loud entrance.
She handed him a tiny leatherbound book the same thickness as the previous two but half their height, it looked like a personal journal or a ledger.
"This is a ledger of transactions between the royal family of Ranock and the spatial mage's temple." She told him, and Cal quickly pulled out ten of the gold coins she had just returned to him, placing them back into her hands and thanking her.
He opened the ledger while standing right there and read the first few lines, they appeared to be names of nobles and the locations they had been teleported to and from, with the price paid and to who followed by the date.
Lord Stonuk - Ranock to Mount Freysia - 10 gold paid to spatial mage Dellin Ross 8/17/8705.
Cal skimmed through the book looking only at the numbers, they ranged from 1-100 gold and on a couple of the more expensive ones he saw that multiple people had been teleported at once.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Finally he saw a number much higher than all the others and his mouth dropped open.
Portal to Crossroads recharged - 10,000 gold paid to spatial mage Elder Cameron 3/22/8707.
After this entry there was a signature, King Emric Ranock.
Looks like I need an audience with the king. Cal thought with a smile, and ran off to find Vera and tell her the good news.
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Sophia finished her shift guarding the princess and the second her replacement arrived she ran to Kyla's inn, her mind burning with questions for Cal.
She owed Kyla a do over date now, she had been distant and distracted their entire meal. She took a moment outside the inn to catch her breath before pushing inside.
Sophia looked around the common room but didn't see Cal, she did see Kyla though, so she hugged her and apologized again for last night.
She sat at the table Cal had been at last night and watched Kyla work, waiting for Cal to arrive.
She finally spotted him coming down the stairs in the inn, Vera and Mia trailing behind him.
With her enhanced senses she noticed a small trail of red running from the corner of Vera's lips before she wiped it away with her hand.
Cal waved to her and headed to her table, taking the seat across from her. Vera sat to his right and Mia sat across from her mom next to Sophia.
"Was that blood?" Sophia blurted out when Vera sat down.
"Yes, it was my day to feed from Cal." Vera responded.
"Feed from Cal?" Sophia asked in horror. Cal grinned at her.
"Vampires don't eat much, and the whole turning you with a bite thing is mostly false." He said.
"Mostly false?" She asked. "Nevermind I don't want to know, how did you get to Ranock, how did you teleport across the street, how did you escape those cultists, were they after you, is this your fault?"
Sophia rapidly shot out the questions that had been burning in her mind since she met Cal yesterday.
"Slow down." Cal said. "You still owe me an answer to my question first."
Sophia stared at him in irritation. "Your question?" She asked.
"How did you wind up all the way here in Ranock a month's journey from where we arrived, and how did you escape from Taro's men." Cal responded.
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Cal listened as Sophia told him of his flight from the robed men, she didn't think they had even bothered to chase her.
She told him of her time in Crossroads and learning what two of her marks meant in the library there, finding out the other half from a healer named Mauve.
Sophia explained how Mauve had told her a rumour of a combat healer in Ranock who might be able to teach her to use her magic without the risk of killing someone with a touch and Cal finally interupted.
"So you really could've killed me just like that?" He asked incredulously.
"I haven't actually had to do it to anyone yet, but I'm sure I could." She responded, and resumed her story.
When Sophia told him of her meeting with Blackburn and her pledge to the king, Cal grew excited.
"You know the king!?" He asked. "Can you get me a meeting with him?"
"I don't know the king, I've only laid eyes on him once." She said.
"But you're a royal guard, surely you can put in a word somewhere and get me an audience." Cal responded excitedly.
"I suppose I could try, but why do you want to meet the king?" Sophia asked suspiciously.
"Well, that's part of my tale." Cal said, and began to tell her most of what had happened to him over the last few months.
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Sophia listened in horror as Cal told her about the day he awoke in captivity to find out he had killed the fire mage's brother, and then that same fire mage cutting off all his fingers and toes.
He told her Kira had tortured him for the entire week and Sophia reached for his hand across the table.
"I'm so sorry Cal." She said, feeling terrible she had just asked him if this was his fault.
Her mood only grew darker as he told her how he had been forced to sleep with a bunch of women, but she was also confused.
"Why were they trying to get pregnant with your children?" She asked, puzzled.
"Because I'm a spatial mage, apparently they don't exist here anymore." Cal responded.
Suddenly it all made sense to her, why the robed people had checked the old couple's hands before killing them, how Cal had teleported away from her.
"You can take us both home!" Sophia suddenly realized, hope blooming in her chest at the thought of returning to her fiance and her family.
Cal scratched the back of his head. "Should I continue?" He asked, not aknowledging her statement.
Sophia stared at him and he started talking again, not waiting for her to respond.
He told her how he had overheard Kira and Taro planning to kill him and made a deal with a demon that had been imprisoned in the basement.
Cal had been speaking calmy without much emotion up until this point but when he told her about how the demon had taken what he said literally and only spared the prisoners in the dungeon, killing all the other slaves in the estate, his voice cracked and he teared up.
He told her he had walked away from the burning mansion with just Vera and Mia, and Sophia noticed Vera look up at him questioningly.
Cal told her they had gone to Crossroads, finding out vampires weren't welcome there and continuing on to Ranock, learning how to use his magic along the way.
"And that leads to why I want an audience with the king, I want him to pay me to charge the portal to Crossroads." Cal finished.
"But we can go home, Cal." She said. "We can go back to our families."
Cal wouldn't meet her eyes. "I don't have a family Sophia, I don't have a home, not on Earth." He said with tears still in his eyes.
"The day we were on that BART I had just shot the man that killed my family in a drunk driving accident when I was twelve."
"If I go back the best outcome would be me sitting in jail for the rest of my life, if they don't dissect me in a lab to find out how my burns all healed that is." He said.
"You can bring me home and then come back here Cal." Sophia pleaded as she began to tear up thinking about her old life. "I had a fiance, I miss my family, please!"
Cal finally met her eyes. "There is no magic on Earth Sophia, I won't risk going there and not being able to come back, I'm sorry."
Kyla was walking over to their table having just finished her shift and became angry when she noticed the tears in Sophia's eyes.
"What did you do to her? Why is she crying?" Kyla demanded, rushing to Sophia's side.
Cal and Sophia didn't aknowledge her, still staring into each other's eyes. "I'm sorry Sophia." Cal said softly, and Sophia thought of all that he had been through.
She looked at Kyla and thought of her life here. "It's ok Cal, I understand." She said, wiping at her eyes with her gloved hands as she once again let her old life go.
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King Lucious sat on his throne as the attractive young brunette walked into the room with Blackburn once again.
This time they had something much more interesting to say to him than an oath of fealty.
"Your Highness." The woman said, bowing to him. "I have a spatial mage friend who wishes to meet with you to discuss charging the portal to Crossroads."
Lucious's eyes narrowed. "Spatial mages are extinct." He said.
"Your Highness, I have met this young man and examined his mark myself as well as seen a demonstration of his power." Blackburn told him.
"Well? Where is he then." Lucious asked in irritation.
"He is waiting outside the room, should I fetch him?" Blackburn asked.
Lucious nodded and Blackburn left the room, coming back a moment later leading in a young man.
He was scrawny and boyish with no facial hair and an unkempt tangle of medium length brown hair on his head, but he had a harsh determined look in his green eyes.
The young man bowed to Lucious and then looked to him expectantly waiting for him to speak.
"What is your name boy." Lucious asked.
"Calibra, but people call me Cal." Cal responded.
"Teleport over there." Lucious pointed at a spot in his throne room.
In a blink Cal appeared at the spot Lucious had indicated.
Lucious's mind raced, the portal to Crossroads would bring massive amounts of trade and finally refill the treasury his traitorous wife had nearly depleted before he caught on and ended her.
"You will be payed one hundred gold upon charging the portal." Lucious said.
Cal snorted and Lucious had to supress his anger, he almost ripped him apart with his own shadow at his show of disrespect.
But this boy was too valuable to let his rage get the best of him. "You disagree with the price?" He asked through clenched teeth.
"May I approach and show you this ledger?" Cal asked, holding up a small leather book Lucious hadn't noticed him carrying.
"Give it to him." Lucious said, nodding to Blackburn.
Cal opened the book to a piece of string placed midway through it and held it out to Blackburn. Blackburn approached Lucious's throne and handed over the open book.
Lucious read over the page and quickly realized what the book was, a record of teleportation services.
He came across the section Cal had wanted him to see and grinded his teeth together in frustration when he saw the signature of his ancestor.
"You expect me to pay you ten thousand gold?" He asked icily, handing the book back to Blackburn and glaring at Cal.
"No, I expect you to pay me twenty thousand." Cal responded confidently.
"The spatial mages were being paid ten thousand when there were plenty of them, currently I'm the only one. Supply and demand and all that. You understand."
Cal's shadow writhed around him as Lucious tried to restrain his anger.
"Come back tomorrow morning and we can discuss the price, I need to speak with my advisors first and check the treasury." Lucious spat out while trying to reign in his magic.
He knew there was only a few thousand gold in the whole keep and he needed to come up with a solution before this boy decided to teleport off and offer his services to the elves.
Or even worse, the dragons. He thought.
Cal and Sophia bowed to him and then left him alone with Blackburn, and Lucious began to plot.
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"Are you insane?" Sophia shouted at Cal when they had left the keep. "You can't speak to a king like that!"
Cal grinned at her. "I'm gonna be rich!" He laughed. "Don't worry I'll give you a cut for your introduction."
Sophia glared at him. "You better." She said. "I need to get back to work, meet me at the inn tomorrow night to tell me how it goes?"
Cal agreed and they parted ways.
Sophia made her way to the training yard where Hellen and the princess were and resumed guarding, which consisted of standing around doing a whole lot of nothing.
She had been standing around watching Princess Alexandra train for about half an hour when King Lucious showed up with Blackburn flanking him.
"Take the rest of the day off, tomorrow too." He said to Sophia. "You as well Hellen."
As Sophia and Hellen walked off happily to enjoy their unexpected break, Sophia's keen senses picked up Lucious's voice speaking to his daughter.
"We need to talk." He said.
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Cal spent the rest of the day shopping with Vera and Mia, he was sick of wearing robes.
He found a tailor's shop with fancy looking suits displayed in the window and commissioned a few suits, also purchasing a set that already fit him decently well.
It was a deep blue collared shirt with matching pants, he bought a pair of nice black boots and gloves and a long thin purple cloak to finish the outfit.
Vera and Mia got a bunch of new clothes as well, buying warmer cloaks than him. The chill autumn weather still hardly affected him.
It would be October on Earth now, Cal's favourite month. He was happy to see the seasons worked the same here, admiring the many brightly colored leaves on the trees.
The next morning Cal woke up excited.
It's not every day you get to discuss how rich you're about to be with a king. He thought with a grin as he quickly got dressed.
He was a little too loud in his hurry to get dressed and Vera woke up in her bed she shared with Mia.
"Good luck today Cal. You better not turn him down if he only offers you ten thousand." She said sleepily, turning away from the sunlight and trying to go back to sleep.
Cal wasn't really expecting to get twenty thousand gold out of the king, he would probably settle for even five.
He ran the whole way to the keep, finding Blackburn waiting for him on the drawbridge. "Good morning." He said cheerily.
Blackburn glared at him and didn't reply, turning around and leading Cal into the keep. Must not be a morning person. Cal thought.
Blackburn led him in a different direction than they had gone the day before and Cal found himself entering a large room with a long rectangular table surrounded by dozens of chairs.
He saw a huge map covering one of the walls and wanted to study it, but Blackburn pulled out a chair and looked at him.
Cal sat in the offered chair and surveyed the faces around the table. There were only four people in the room.
Cal, Blackburn, King Ranock, and a beautiful blonde a few years older than himself that he thought must be the princess, he could see the resemblance.
Blackburn remained standing uncomfortably close behind him and he fidgeted in his seat.
"The Kingdom of Ranock is broke, Cal." King Ranock said abruptly. "But I have another offer for you."
Cal was confused, this city was magnificent and the keep was decorated with rich looking rugs, furniture, and tapestries.
"Broke?" He asked dumbly.
"My late wife ran the treasury dry, I'm afraid." King Ranock replied.
"There is a castle a days ride to the North of here, it is almost worthless to me because of its design."
"It was built on a mountain with no road or stairs, and currently is occupied and maintained by my cousin who is living there in seclusion as punishment for a past mistake."
"I would like to offer it to you as partial payment." The king said.
Cal frowned, "Apologies but why would I want a castle on a mountain that is difficult to get to?" He asked doubtfully.
"Because there is a portal at the base of the mountain leading into the courtyard of the castle, and you're a spatial mage." He answered.
Cal became excited and opened his mouth to accept but the king continued speaking.
"You will also receive two thousand gold and my daughter's hand in marriage." He concluded.
So that's why she's here. Cal thought. "Your offer is generous, and I am humbled you would offer me your daughter's hand, but I would be happy with just the castle and the money." Cal said.
The princess was beautiful but he didn't want to be stuck in some loveless political marriage.
King Ranock's face turned bright red, a vein throbbing on his forehead as he struggled to contain his rage.
Cal would have found it funny if it weren't for all the shadows in the room writhing around like snakes.
"The marriage is non-negotiable, if you are going to hold land in my Kingdom you will be tied to the royal family." King Ranock snapped.
Cal looked at the princess, she was batting her eyelashes at him and didn't look like she was against it but he still didn't want to marry her.
"How about just the gold then, two thousand is less than I was hoping for but It will have to do." He decided.
Cal expected the king to accept and thank him profusely for offering to charge the portal so cheap, and so was caught completely off guard when the king rebuked him once again.
"No." King Ranock said. "You will marry my daughter or be banned from my kingdom."
Cal became angry and prepared to tell the king to go fuck himself, but before he could speak the princess spoke for the first time.
"Am I not appealing to you Cal?" She asked in a hurt voice.
"No. I mean yes, you are, of course you are you're beautiful." He hastily assured her, his cheeks burning.
The princess beamed at him, "You think I'm beautiful? Then why don't you wish to wed me? Are you already with someone else?" She asked.
Cal scratched the back of his head, "No that's not it, I don't even know your name, I don't want to marry someone I don't love." He replied.
"Then court me for a week before you decide." The princess said confidently.
They both looked to the king and he sighed. "Very well. You will have one week."
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Sophia spent her second day off at Kyla's inn, getting to know Vera and Mia better.
Vera was just telling her that yes, vampires can have children, and of course they don't burn in the sunlight, and no, they certainly aren't afraid of garlic or water blessed by some priest, when Cal arrived.
To Sophia's confusion Princess Alexandra and Blackburn came in right behind him.
Cal grabbed Alexandra's hand and walked her over to the table, introducing everyone. "This is Princess Alexandra Ranock."
"Alexandra this is Vera and her daughter Mia, they're vampires, Sophia you already know I believe." Cal said.
Vera sighed, "You do not always have to introduce us as vampires Cal, anyone but you would know that at a glance. A pleasure to meet you Princess." Vera said.
"You're a princess!?" Mia practically screamed, "Where is your crown? Do you have a horsie? How many maids do you have?"
Alexandra smiled and graciously answered all of Mia's questions, Sophia's eyes were glued onto their clasped hands.
"I guess this means it went well?" She asked.
"I wouldn't say it went well." Cal replied. "I have a week to get to know Alexandra before deciding if I want to marry her and be given a castle or be banished from Ranock forever."
"That doesn't seem like a very hard choice." Sophia said.
Cal just gave her a big shit eating grin.
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Cal returned to his room at the inn with a big smile on his face.
"So, how was your date Cal, is she as nice as she seemed?" Vera asked him.
"She's wonderfull." Cal said as he flopped down on his back on his bed, noticing Mia wasn't in the room.
"Where's Mia?" He asked.
"Sophia took her to see the princess's horses." Vera replied. "She asked me how I was doing with the princess and you dating. I think she assumed we were together."
Vera and Cal looked at each other and laughed, Cal loved Vera, but he had never thought about her romantically.
At some point on their journey he had come to think of her like the older sister he had always wanted, Mia his adorable niece, and Vera had told him she felt the same way.
"I was bored while you were gone and read through that whole ledger you had." Vera said, suddenly changing topics. "I found something you might be interested in."
Cal got up from his bed and walked over to sit next to Vera on her bed. "What is it?" He asked.
Vera held the book out to him, "Read the entries on this page." She told him.
Cal read through the page and his eyes widened in astonishment., several of the entries named the spatial mage being paid for teleportation as Tarkin Dair.
"Your ancestor maybe?" Vera said. "Dair is an unusual name."
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Planet Earth, Tibet year 1576
Rina Dair woke up on her sixteenth birthday more excited than she had ever been.
Her father had promised to tell her why they looked so much different from everyone else they knew and why she could do the things she could do.
She woke her sleeping parents up, she couldn't wait any longer.
"Father today is the day. Get up. You promised." She said.
"Rina let us sleep, I'll tell you later today." Her father mumbled, pulling the blanket over his head.
"Tar kin she has waited long enough. Get up you lazy bones." Suzu admonished him, rising from the bed and giving Rina a hug.
"Happy birthday my beautiful girl, I love you." She said while smothering Rina.
"I love you too mother." Rina said, wriggling out of her arms while her father got up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"Well?" Rina asked impatiently.
"After I have some tea." Her father said, stretching.
"Father!" She shouted.
He grinned at her, "Happy birthday honey." He said, giving her a quick hug.
He walked to the fireplace, ignoring Rina's continued pestering and trying to rekindle the smouldering coals. "This will go faster if you fetch some water Rina." He said.
Rina sighed in exasperation, "Fine." She grumbled, taking the metal teapot and heading out to fill it with water for her father's tea.
Once the water had boiled and the tea had steeped Rina's mother poured them each a cup. Her father waited until he took a sip of his tea before finally speaking.
"I came here from another world to warn your mother about a disaster that was going to befall her." Her father began, and she leaned forward on her knees in rapt attention.
"In the world I came from everyone has a silver marking on their left hand like you do, it is called a passive magic mark, around half of the people there also have one on the right hand, that is called an active magic mark."
"My active mark was the ability to shift myself through reality across great distances and my passive mark showed me your mother and this world in a vision, allowing me to come here with my active magic to rescue her." He explained.
"But father you do not have a mark on your right hand. I would have seen it." Rina said, confused.
"It vanished when I came here, leaving me stranded away from my family and home." Her father told her.
"I have a present for you Rina." He changed the subject, holding out his closed fist.
Rina stuck out her hand underneath her father's fist, wondering what it could be. He opened his fist and the silver ring she had always seen him wear fell into her palm.
"You are giving me your ring?" She asked, puzzled.
"That ring is the last thing I have from my world. It allows you to learn any language just by hearing someone speak it." He told her.
Rina was astonished, such a thing could not possibly exist. "How?" She asked.
"Just wear it on one hand, and hold a finger from your other hand on the symbol while you listen." He said, and then started talking in the strange language her parents sometimes spoke to each other that no one else seemed to know.
Rina slipped the ring on her finger and pressed on the symbol, and after half a minute she could understand a few of the words.
A couple minutes later she could understand everything he was saying, he was telling her how much he loved her and how proud he was of her for concealing her abilities her whole life.
Tears glistened in Rina's eyes and she hugged her father.
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