Kiara stared long and hard at the screen shining in front of her. Her mind didn’t know what to do with the information. Weak connections only happened in the countryside—in parts of the world where people went to escape the spread of technology. She had seen videos of people talking about the rustic experience, letting them go to a place the world hadn't seen in centuries, but that was on Nandaxia; only a handful of miles away from any big city. If signals were only weak in places that close, where weakness was deliberate, what did it say about the closeness of the two worlds? Was Magdalea somehow in the countryside, like all sorts of stories seemed to suggest? Or, was there another explanation to this that she couldn't wrap her head around?

She pulled herself away from the screen, shaking her head as she turned back to the others. They were far more confused, aware enough to know this was a big deal but too ignorant to know where to start. How did she explain something like this to people who hadn’t even seen the old era of wifi? How could she explain the reception of this era, when she hadn’t even taken the class yet? She shook her head again, trying to find the words. If she could explain, maybe they could give her answers, and maybe something could come of what they’d solve.

“I guess I’ll try to explain it like this…” Kiara closed her eyes. Instantly, it struck her how to make this make sense. “It’s like the Conjurer Clash rings. You need them to play the game on the board right? Well, what if you could be in the Dark Lands and play the game with someone in the Green Lands? All you’d need is a place where the magic could meet. Like the playing field, except even that connects. Everything meets at the same point, and you can play as if you’re sitting right in front of each other.” Unless you were in the old era of wifi, but that wasn’t a horror story she needed to share. “For something like that, you’d need what we call a server on Nandaxia, and to reach the server, you need pathways for all the data.” She checked her audience, they seemed to be following along. “In some places, you can’t reach the pathways, so you can’t play Conjurer Clash from there. In other places though, you can play, but you can’t move as much magic to the server, so things don’t run as well.”

“I get it.” Diana nodded. “It’s like you have pipes for magic, and some pipes are great for moving it, while others are too thin. You can’t get as much pressure from a watering hose as you can from a hydrant, after all.” The boys nodded too.

“Right! And you can’t get water from a hose that’s not connected to the pipes. That’s how my mobile should be on Magdalea, but…”

“Apparently, you are connected, and your game is looking for a pipe that’s big enough to move the magic.” Diana clapped. The boys nodded again.

“So how does that work, exactly?” Keigo raised his hand. “Is your game saying there’s somehow a pipeline on Magdalea?”

Kiara wasn't sure and didn't answer. If there was some sort of pipeline, what would it be? Magdalea didn't have tech like her world—it didn't have cell towers or satellites, or even the ideas for the infrastructure. And if it did? How would something like that connect with her phone? How would any of this work? She looked at the group, hoping they could find answers, and surprised herself when she saw Danson pondering the thought.

“I wonder…” He murmured, and she perked up.

“Do you have a theory?” His attention snapped to her and he sat back.

“Well, I suppose it depends. What exactly is moving through the pipes. Your world doesn’t have magic, so it must be something else, right?”

Kiara nodded. “It’s data. Digital data. It’s like magic, but not…” She held that thought for a moment. Maybe digital data was magical in some sense. Or maybe magic was something like data? She’d have to think more about that later, but for now. “There are components in this device that lets it connect with things like towers and satellites. You can kinda think of it like mana, except people can’t use it to cast spells.”

“Then I do have a theory.” Danson nodded. “Diana, doesn’t this sort of sound familiar to you?”

The redhead started to tilt her head when her eyes lit up. Keigo stared on in confusion, but she nodded emphatically. “It’s like how Green Landers in the past spoke to the Celestial Realm!”

“Oh!” Keigo’s eyes widened.

Kiara raised her hand. “I’m going to need an explanation.”

“Well, there’s a long history to it. The Green Lands is kinda the place of using magic through physical objects. There’s a long, long story about artifacts and things like that. One such artifact though, was this pillar ancestral people learned to build. When they meditated under it, they entered an out of body state, coming in contact with the Celestial Realm. The Celestials were impressed they managed to do that, and shared knowledge with them as a reward. Those Green Landers were kind of terrible though, and the knowledge to build the pillar disappeared when they did. Still, things that could only be used to communicate with certain places sounds a lot like your towers and satellites.”

“And if they are alike,” Danson continued. “Maybe that’s what your device is trying to connect to.”

“But how would that work?” Keigo asked, surprising Kiara that the question didn’t come from her. They turned to her and her eyes went to the device.

“I wonder…”

Pieces of a press conference came to mind. The Leap, a new Lusario Co. Mobile device was better than all its predecessors. It boasted new tech, allowing strong connections in even the most remote places. Orbital flights were no exception. Only the regions that escaped this connectivity could escape the company’s design. Could Lusario have made a mobile more impressive than they had guessed? Kiara could see the commercial now. You could call your friends, even from another world. Well, almost.

“All I can really say is that the tech in this is better than its ever been. I can’t really explain it.”

Danson waved the thought off. “You don’t have to. I’m just wondering, what if your mobile can connect to Realm Relays?”

“Realm what?” Kiara was shocked again; the couple asked the question with her.

“Realm Relays, you know, towers that connect the realms?” Danson looked around the room.

“I mean, I guess I can imagine what those are, based on Green Land history. But this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a Realm Relay.” Diana crossed her arms.

“That’s not a surprise, I guess. I only know about them because of Avadyn history. Long before the first kingdom of the Green Lands stood in a dreamer’s mind, something happened within the outer realms. The Faeries of the Roaming Courts made contact with the Celestials of the Radiant Kingdom. They say this was caused by some sort of rare convergence. So rare that it never happened again. Still, the realms became connected—tethered—and on those tethers, the Fae and Celestials built the Realm Relays. For thousands upon thousands of years, Realm Relays stood as a way to traverse between the Courts and the Kingdom, avoiding the destructive forces in between.”

“And you think my mobile is connecting to one of these relays? Or trying to, at least?” Kiara looked at her phone again. What was Lusario building in their labs?

“It’s as good a guess as any, I think.” Danson shrugged. “Because relays sit at the place between realms, they can be almost anywhere. Finding one would be next to impossible, but there could be one here in the Calm Lands, after all, there’s a sylph village here. It already sits lopsided between this realm and another.”

“How many realms are there?”

Danson shrugged again. “Off the top of my head? The Radiant Kingdom, The Maelstrom, The Resplendent Veil, The Roaming Courts. Those are just the ones people know.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“You’re forgetting another big one.” Keigo suddenly said. There was a look in his eyes. It told them he had figured something out. “The Spiritual Realm, The Living Canvas.”

“I’ve never heard of The Living Canvas, actually.”

“That’s not a surprise. Only spiritualist talk about it. Most people have heard of the Long Road, the realm of the dead.” Keigo turned to Kiara. “The Long Road is apparently the place where all souls go after life is over. It is the test of death. Do you follow the road and see where it takes you, or do you linger at the starting line, afraid of what lurks ahead. In spiritualist teachings, The Living Canvas is one of the places you can end up. It is a realm forged by the emotion amass through life. It is a portrait painted by the world of the living.”

“I’m surprised you know all that!” Kiara gasped.

Keigo’s brow furrowed. “You shouldn’t be! I use spiritualist techniques! Even my magic is somewhat spiritual.”

“He’s also very spiritual himself!” Diana smiled. “I remember times where he’d disappear, then I’d find him in like, an abandoned building. Or sitting on a rock.”

“Oh…” Danson said. “That explains why we traveled a weird route through the seas!”

“You didn’t know? You know you could have asked, right?”

“It didn’t bother me. I figured you just knew how to avoid highly patrolled roads.”

The assassin sighed but shook his head. “Like Diana said, I still practice a little bit of the spiritualism I was raised with. Gyo is about manipulating the aura, but I was taught that the aura was just an extension of your own spirit. The soul is internal, the spirit is external.”

“So how do you figure The Living Canvas plays into all of this?” Danson asked.

“Well of all the realms, its the closest to this one. People die every minute. Sometimes, this will cause a spirit domain to appear, a place where The Living Canvas and the living realm come in contact. Spirit Domains sit on the tether between realms.”

“Ah. Which means Kiara wouldn’t have to look for a relay! You think she just needs a domain!”

“It’s worth a shot, right? I mean, if you want to pursue this, anyway. They’re a lot easier to find than you think. There’s one in Rial in fact, an hour north of here. Its a newer one, but old enough that if it was going to cause problems it would have already. None of the people seem to be bothered by it, and there aren’t a lot of spiritualists here, so it’s likely it doesn’t interact with the outside world much.”

“If we did go there, Kiara, you would basically be right next to a relay. If your device can somehow connect with it, we’d find out.”

“Sounds like a detour!” Diana perked up. The boys let out tired sighs. Kiara looked at them.

“There’s a story here?”

“When I first met Diana, there was a detour.” Danson crossed his arms.

“That bet we had to see when he’d wake up? That was technically Diana’s fault.”

“I don’t know what they’re talking about, they loved it!”

Keigo chuckled. “So here’s how that went, Kiara.” Keigo waved a notebook at her.

She learned recently that it was called a Wanderer’s Note, a journal that could communicate with others telepathically. It was the closest thing Magdalea had to text messaging, and it worked exceptionally well. They didn’t need towers, just a person writing their name on a page in the book.

“Diana sent me a message out of nowhere!”

“It wasn’t completely out of nowhere. I used my tracking sense every so often to see if he was all right!”

“And she says, ‘Keigo, you’re nearby! Come to this town tomorrow!’.”

“Apparently,” Danson sighed. “We were going to be heading the same way for a bit so it was a good chance. After seeing Keigo write to her for about a year, I wanted to meet Diana too.”

“So we meet up, and eat at a tavern. They get heavy drinkers at night and didn’t want kids around bothering them, so we were eating in the afternoon. You can pretty much guess how one of our conversations were going. Danson and I were laughing, so we missed it when this guy comes into the place and Diana got a sharp look in her eyes.”

“It was the type of look that says, I’m about to get into trouble with someone.” Danson nodded.

“The mood changes, and after this guy skulks up to the barkeep and gets whatever he wants, he leaves and Diana says to us, ‘That guy has a pretty big bounty on his head. He’s not wanted by the council either, just a nearby town he’s been harassing. Apparently, he’s been extorting the enforcers of a neighboring town, making them ignore the road so highwayman can rob their goods. It’s been pretty bad.’ And we were listening, wondering where she was going with this.”

“When we say nothing, she says, “You guys want to split the bounty?” And it immediately catches up to me that she already decided she’s going after this guy. She doesn’t know how strong he is, what type of magic he uses, or how many people he has. She probably doesn’t even care, between his crimes and the number on his head, she’s already made her decision.”

Diana popped the cap on a bottle and leisurely enjoyed the drink with the story. The boys snickered, and Keigo went on.

“So she says, It’s just a little detour, it won’t keep us for too long. And that was a lie.”

“It only took us, what, a couple of days to resolve the stuff with Pialla? Well, imagine that trip took two weeks!” Danson’s brow furrowed, but a smile stayed on his face.

“Turns out that a guy extorting the Enforcers of a whole town isn’t just someone you can knife in the back in a day. Then you get the fact that we have bounties on our heads and everything’s a mess by day three.”

“But!” Diana said dramatically. “It worked out and they got their split! And the point of that story is that detours are always fun! After all, their detour let them meet you!”

Kiara smiled. Suddenly, an idea wormed into her mind. “Let’s bet then!” She looked around the room. On top of a Wanderer’s Note, the Blulate had given the girl a few things. She had more money on Magdalea than she ever saw on Nandaxia, and it meant she could be a little liberal with her spending. “Let’s bet on who’s going to turn this detour into a battle.”

Keigo laughed. “Two-thousand phens that it’s Diana.”

“I’m with Keigo on this. Two-thousand easily.”

Diana brought a hand to her chest. “No take backs then! This has Keigo written all over it. I’m betting Four-thousand that he’ll be the one.”

Kiara checked their faces for a moment. She considered what she knew about them too. Diana did seem like a safe bet, but the redhead also had a point.

“Two-thousand on Keigo.”

“It’s a shame you’re about to lose, Kiara, with this being your first time and everything.” Danson shook his head.

“We’ll still be taking your money though.”

Diana flipped her hair. “You should’ve bet more, Kiara. The rule is that the losers pay the extra.”

“Go call Arrowhead! We’ll see who’s the loser in an hour.” Keigo grinned. The redhead ran off to do just that, and Kiara produced her Wanderer’s note.

The message was going to Pialla. Something weird happened with my phone, so we’re about to leave the cabin for a bit. We’re going to a Spirit Domain, apparently! I’ll tell you more about it when we’re back. The words appeared as fast as she thought them.

Just as fast, a message came back, That sounds like fun! I cannot wait to hear more! Remember to be careful though!

Kiara laughed. Even though she suggested the bet, it felt more like a joke. From what Keigo said, this place would be safe. How careful would she have to be?