Zach dreamed of humans and elves, of wars that raged for decades at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. The battlefields stretched for miles, scattered across the forests, fields, and river valleys of what would have been the northeastern United States.

Humankind had the advantage in numbers, but the elves wielded terrifying magic like it was an extension of themselves. A single elven sorcerer was capable of cutting down a dozen armed soldiers with a sweep of an arm and the resulting chain lightning spell. Electricity arced from man to man, leaving nothing but charred bodies in its wake. Mankind had little defense against such destructive power.

Zach awoke feeling exhausted and out of sorts. If that was what invocation magic could do, he finally understood why the Princess had cautiously interrogated him about it. What he didn't understand was why the humans and elves had been fighting in the first place. And had that war occurred in the past, or was it a vision of the future?

As Zach came to, something felt entirely off. It took him a moment to realize what it was: he was still in the same bed he had gone to sleep in. For the first time in over two weeks, Zach hadn't flipped in the night.

Something else was strange as well. It was to be expected that his right hand was wrapped in silk and couldn't move freely, but he couldn't move his body either. He was lying on his stomach, pinned down by a weight on his back.

He turned his head to the right and encountered a wall of orange, lit by the sunlight streaming in from the window. Ah, I think that's Riley's hair. Which means that the weight on my back is also Riley. She wasn't kidding about being clingy in bed. She's literally laying on top of me!

"Hey, Riley? Are you awake?"

"Hmmm, wha?" she mumbled, directly into Zach's ear.

"Can you get off me? I'm kind of stuck."

"Yeah, one sec," she said through a yawn. She sat up and tried to stretch, but her hand was still attached to Zach's. She untied the handkerchief, then finished her stretch. Only when she had finished did she look down.

Riley was straddling Zach's hips, wearing just her underthings. Zach was laying face-down, but that was the only thing keeping it from being an incredibly indecent position. She leapt away with a high-pitched squeak, taking the covers with her. She knelt at the foot of the bed, wrapped in the blanket, and said, "Um, sorry about that."

"Nah, it's fine," he said as he turned over and sat up, facing her. "In fact, I'm incredibly grateful to you for staying with me." He reached out and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you, Riley."

"Y-you're welcome, but I'm not wearing much under this blanket, so can you…"

"Wah, sorry!" he said as he scrambled away to the other end of the bed. He stared into the corner of the room and said, "I'll look away while you get dressed."

While Zach's thoughts kept trying to drift to the beautiful woman getting dressed behind him, he forced his focus onto the fact that he had successfully controlled the flipping. This was a huge development that could affect his future. He could stay a few days in a row to work on larger business deals, or just to take a break from having to return to his own world.

After about a minute, Riley said he could turn around. He turned and saw her in that tan and black dress again, short and sporty. Her hair was a bit messy, but she still looked well rested and put together.

Zach said, "I don't have a proper brush, but I have a comb in my bag, and you can use the inn's guest bathroom to clean up, or even take a shower if you want. It's at the end of the hall."

"Just the comb is fine. I prefer the baths at the castle, anyway." She took the offered comb once he dug it out of his bag, then said, "I'll be right back."

While she was gone, Zach changed into clean clothes and got ready for the day. He planned to go shave after Riley got back from the bathroom. Coordinating all these morning activities should have been awkward like the events of the night before, but for some reason it wasn't. It was like Zach and Riley had used up all their embarrassment and didn't have any left for the little things. At least for now.

They had time to eat a quick breakfast together, which Zach gladly paid for since Riley had saved him some major money, before setting off for the castle. Zach was eager to share the news that he'd successfully stayed in New Albion, but he was soon disappointed. They found out from another maid in the castle that the Princess wouldn't be available until nearly 11.

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Riley shrugged. "Want to wait with me and Beebee in the Princess's room?"

Zach hesitated, then said, "Uh, if that won't distract you from your duties."

"My main duties are to tend to the Princess and her guests," she said, pointing at Zach as she said 'guests'. "And Beebee's the same, except she's even less likely to get roped into other work. She can be a handful."

That aligned with Zach's impression of the girl. "Alright. I actually wanted to talk to Beebee about something, so this is convenient."

Riley raised an eyebrow. "She's a little young for you, Zach."

"It's not like that," he sputtered.

Riley grinned. "Oh, I know that. I'm more your type, right?"

Zach faced away, a feeble attempt to hide his red face. "Let's just head up to the tower, okay?"

"Fine," Riley said as she started moving. "You know, I thought it'd get boring, teasing someone who never fights back, but your reactions sure are fun."

Damnit, Zach thought, Another world, another Erin teasing me. But in that same moment, he felt happy. Teasing or not, he couldn't deny that he'd made a close friend.

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Riley opened the door to the Princess's room and a loud crash immediately answered. The cause was Beebee, who was now sprawled across the floor next to a toppled chair.

"Uh, what was that about?" Riley asked, already approaching to help the girl.

Beebee got to her feet, brushed her maid's dress down, then said, "Oh, I was leaning back in the chair, counting the gems on the ceiling, when the opening door startled me and I fell backwards. I would ask you to knock in the future, but that probably would've startled me just as much."

"O…kay?" Riley said, puzzled by Beebee's explanation. "Are you alright?"

Meanwhile, Zach was distracted by the ceiling of the room, which he'd never really looked at before. There was a mural of a star-filled sky there, and each star was represented by a bright gemstone, glimmering against the dark painted background. It clearly depicted the Milky Way, the same one from his world, and he found the thought comforting. The two worlds weren't all that different, at least in a physical sense. Magic had changed the creatures and the way society had advanced, but the physical details were all the same.

Zach was wondering whether mountains, caves, and mineral deposits were the same between the two worlds when a cheerful face appeared mere inches from his own.

"Zach! Don't think I forgot about your promise to go to the equinox festival with me!"

"Uh, 'promise' is a strong word, but—"

Beebee was already pouting, her lower lip sticking out pitifully.

"—I actually wanted to talk to you about that," he finished. "I'm going to be running a vendor stall, and I wanted your help. Riley's too."

Riley finished righting the fallen chair and said, "Oh? You're taking me up on my offer?"

Beebee said, "What offer? What are you selling? Ooh, I wanna help!"

Zach nodded at Riley first, handling one question at a time. "Yes, I'd like to hire you to keep the coffee cold."

"Coffee!?" Beebee was literally bouncing left and right, her wide black and white dress swishing and bumping into the furniture.

Then she stopped abruptly. "Wait… Cold? I thought coffee was hot?"

Zach said, "The way I like it, and the way I hope people here will like, is chilled with milk and sugar in it. I bought the cane sugar from the same merchant that had the coffee, and the sugar was far cheaper than I'd expected."

Riley said, "Why would you expect it to be expensive? Sugar is the main export of the Southlands. I heard they can grow sugarcane year round, and it's just one or two bridges to get it here."

"There's that word again," Zach said with a look of confusion. "People keep saying 'bridge' like it means something other than a road over a river."

Riley's face took on a similar confused look. "Wait, you don't know?"

"Know what?"

Beebee giggled. "He actually doesn't know! He really is from another world!"

Zach glared at the girls. He usually knew at least something about common topics, and he didn't like being out of the loop. "Just tell me already. What in the world is a 'bridge'?"

Riley said, "You know how Riders are important for getting people and supplies across land?"

Zach nodded.

"Bridges are special casters that do the same for water, only even faster. They can cast a spell that lets a boat travel instantly to any water-connected location, as long as the Bridge has been there first. It's a form of connection magic."

Beebee jumped in. "It's amazing. A big window appears on the water, and the boat just has to sail through, and BAM! they arrive where they were going. It's really expensive through. I've only been through a bridge once, when my family moved here from Okwata, but I was too little to remember it."

Then Beebee went uncharacteristically still and a sad look appeared on her face. She added, "I don't remember Okwata either."

Zach thought he had heard the name Okwata somewhere, and he could assume it was another city in the kingdom. But he had no idea why Beebee got so sad when she thought about it.

Riley cleared her throat and continued, "Yeah, so that's why Bridges are so important. Ever since the bridge spell was invented 200 years ago, it's changed the way humanity lives in a huge way."

"Wait," Zach started. "The magic spell is called 'bridge', the portal it makes is called a 'bridge', and the person who casts it is called a 'Bridge'? And there are still bridges that go over rivers and stuff? That's really confusing. Don't you have trouble understanding what people are trying to say?"

Riley shrugged. "Not really. Just use context to figure out which one they mean."

Zach rubbed his forehead. "If you say so…" Then he lowered his hand. "Anyway, before we got derailed, I was saying I wanted to hire both of you for the festival on the 22nd, the day after tomorrow. Are you in?"

"Derailed?" mumbled Riley, unfamiliar with the term, since trains didn't exist in her world. "Nevermind. Yeah, I'm in. I had the day off anyway."

"Me too!" Beebee cheered.

"Wonderful. I guess while we wait for the Princess, I can go over my plans for the festival, and what I'll need the two of you to do…"