A masked creature from beyond the world had assured Selen she wouldn't immediately die in her next life. She had a completely new body, one with feathers and a beak and talons, and no idea where she was. So when some Duke's men took her to a musky, stuffy stone room to ask at length about who had robbed her, Selen claimed amnesia. She bore no false witness against people she'd never met, in a universe not her own.

One of her interrogators was pointy-eared with hair like green vines, dressed in somber grey and black. After a long break he re-entered the room and spoke calmly. "Please repeat what you said about the 'other world', miss Selen."

Selen sat on an iron stool, trying to keep her breathing steady. She had told the truth. "I remember things about a world with no magic and a lot of machines. I could tell you specific things about what countries it had, and what the map looked like." She had mentioned bits and pieces already, but the questioners hadn't seemed to care about the details. They were probably checking whether her delusions were logically consistent or an attempt to prank them.

The main thing she was holding back was that her strange claims weren't just some fever dream, but her knowledge of the real world. Or at least the one she'd been born in.

The green-haired man gave her another skeptical look. "Your lack of memory is convenient, and your imagination bizarre. But you don't register as lying. You really know nothing of the Scaled Nation? Nor even your home, the River Kingdom?"

"No, sir."

He spoke quietly with his colleague, an unsmiling woman in black who'd said little. He concluded: "We'll continue investigating the theft in our own way. In light of your family's good standing, you're hereby released. Return home."

Selen glanced toward a rack of metal tools that had been looming this whole time in one corner, unmentioned and unused. She shuddered and said, "Thank you. Can you show me where that is?"

The man peered at her once more, saying, "Hopefully you will at least remember the Duke's mercy." He turned away and whistled.

An automaton walked into the room. It was an elegant skeleton wreathed in vines and white flowers, smelling of oil and pollen. Its yellow-white bones were carved in runic designs. A sort of robot? Undead? Whatever it was, it studied her with eyes of tinted glass.

"What is that?" said Selen.

"A Woven," said her interrogator.

As Selen stared, one of this world's bizarre "System" messages appeared before her in glowing letters: [Woven.] Selen had asked earlier what her questioner was, and the System echoed his answer by telling her, [Elf.]

"Take this girl to the Two Hoots and release her."

The Woven nodded stiffly, and beckoned to Selen. Tiny bells chimed when it moved. Selen got up from the iron stool to follow it.

Her tail brushed against it. She had a fan of feathers trailing behind her, matching the pale ones covering most of her body. She stood on feet with four talons, one facing backward, and her hands were similar collections of spindly claws. But her arms were also wings, as though she wore very loose sleeves.

The Woven was waiting, and only the interrogation room lay behind her. Selen walked onward with the strange bobbing gait she'd been given. Everything was new, and it seemed she'd get the freedom to start learning about it all.

#

They blindfolded her and had the skeleton creature lead her somewhere through cold cobblestone streets, several times steadying her from falling. "Do you talk?" she asked her captor.

"I haven't been told to speak with you," it said, in a voice like bells in a whistling wind.

"Sorry, I don't know anything. Were you built by somebody?"

"Yes."

"What for?"

"To defend the Duke's territory."

It didn't answer her other questions, and only let her stagger along its confusing route. The blindfold came off. She stood in the light of a bright moon... and a second moon like a copper coin. A cityscape of stone and wooden towers surrounded her, the most prominent right ahead. Chilly breeze rippled her feathers and made her stagger back, not used to the force of it on her arms.

Her escort said, "You may go."

"This is my home?"

It looked back at her, expressionless, its eyes reflecting moonlight. "I don't know if your condition is real. You seem impossibly ignorant."

"Ha, yeah," she said, figuring out how to bend one wing-arm to scratch her head. "I don't even know your name."

The Woven hesitated, then said, "I am City Defender Three. In time I might be something else. Good night, Aves, and keep out of trouble." It turned and began walking away with a faint whirr and jingle.

"Good night," she said, alone again. A whole city surrounded her, and a new world beyond that.

She walked up to the stone tower's broad double door. A sign above it had a logo of crossed feathers and the name "Two Hoots". It was then that Selen finally realized that the writing wasn't in her native English, and nor was any of what she'd just said or heard. Her new beak hung open and she mentally reached for the old words, as for a weapon at her side. Speaking aloud she said, "When in the course of human events... hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium... Mercury, Venus, Earth."

She remembered Earth and the laws of science and her homeland, and felt vertigo at the fact that she might be very far from any of them.

She had died. Instead of Heaven or nothing, she'd found herself somewhere outside reality, in a maze. Offered a chance to take over for someone who'd passed away in another world. It had seemed like a ghoulish idea to wear somebody else's skin, but she'd been assured that the original owner of this bird-girl's body had already moved on to whatever normally awaited souls in this place. And that to answer her next question, she was in no sense willingly signing away her own soul.

"Are you God?" she'd asked the masked creature called "System" that had said these things. Its cloak and mask hid a sense of distant light.

"Not as you see things. You may call me System. Now, here are six prospective lives. Do any interest you?"

"System" had dropped her into the new world with little explanation. All in all, she'd gotten a good deal so far. There was much to see. In theory she could run away from this whole society and explore on her own. But it seemed she'd inherited a family.

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Selen, or rather the Earth native who'd taken her name and role, knocked on the tower's door. All the while she was thinking, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want..."

The door opened and a giant bluejay wearing a vest stared at her. Then he wrapped her up in his wings and said, "You silly owlet! What happened? The Duke's men said they were questioning you!"

Looking at him revealed the message, [Bluemoon, Aves Male, Merchant 4. Father.]

Selen froze, surrounded by warm feathers. Here was the place where she had to lie. Or was it a lie? She thought she'd reconciled herself to the new job, but being handed a family all at once... She owed them an attempt at the truth. "Um," she managed to say.

"Don't stand there in the cold; you remind me of the day you first chirped on our doorstep. And heavens, you're a mess, again!" Bluemoon released her and waved her inside. "Sit down while I have someone draw you a bath."

The large, round room she'd entered was full of tables and surrounded by tiny wedge-shaped hotel rooms. Selen figured out how to sit at one of the central benches without squashing her new tail. Across from the entrance stood a raised platform with a big desk and a dangling sign advertising "Rooms and Deliveries" in pictures and that unfamiliar language.

Bluemoon's sky-blue tail twitched and he lifted slightly off the ground as he made for the back of the room. "One moment." Then he was gone.

Selen turned around, befuddled. She was literate in this local tongue, which got her wondering how common books were. And printing. Ironworking. Industry. Education. Thinking about the technology couldn't calm her completely, because Bluemoon was already coming back to scoot onto the bench across from her. "Come on, tell me. You were doing that hush-hush delivery run, and then what?"

Selen wiggled her feet and felt her talons click on the wooden floor. "I'm told I got robbed. I woke up mostly all right, but --"

"Mostly! Is that blood on you?"

Selen hadn't paid close attention to it, but her clothes were a mess. She wore a plain brown vest and shorts that had been gashed and stained with dirt and disturbing sticky, rusty spots. She'd also begun with odd flexible boots that left her toe-claws bare. The outfit wasn't warm enough for this chilly weather.

She looked at the stains again and said, "Looks like it. But I feel intact."

"Are you at full health?"

Selen blinked. "I think so."

"Then what happened? You just woke up and the Duke's men seized you and you don't know why you were attacked?"

"Yeah. They must have been upset about whatever I was carrying."

"Ticks! This is my fault. 'Have someone inconspicuous carry it', they said. And oh, I said I'd give it to a messenger who doesn't even fly. I'm sorry, girl; I put you in danger."

"I can't blame you. There's more going on here than we know about. Um... I will get to fly, right?"

"Of course! I was ready to teach you if not for all this. But then, what is going on? Did the Duke's men tell you?" He turned his head like a turret and looked suspiciously at the closed hotel doors around them. He continued more quietly: "They said you were talking nonsense, saying you remembered another world."

Selen took a deep breath. "I have to tell you, for honesty's sake. I'm not quite who you think. Really I'm kind of from another world. I could tell you all about it."

The jay studied her, his avian face showing little expression. "I see. Are you willing to at least go back to pretending to be my daughter?"

She nodded, feeling that she'd just make things worse by insisting. "I'd like that. You'll have to remind me of some things."

"I hope that doesn't include bathing."

"No, no, I think I can figure that out."

"Good. Now get yourself clean and sleep well. We'll celebrate your hatchday tomorrow."

Faint chirping drew Selen's attention to a dull-feathered bird who was carrying two buckets to a back room. Bluemoon said to Selen, "It's best that you not upset your Granny."

Selen nodded and left him, to whatever he wanted to believe. It'd just hurt him to keep insisting she was someone different.

The older bird smiled at her and beckoned her into a primitive bathroom, where the two buckets of clean and soapy water sat next to a bench. "Whatever happened, I'm just glad you're safe. Rest now."

The room stank faintly but not so much as she would've expected. Selen said, "Thank you." Meanwhile she looked her helper over and saw, [Farpeak, Aves Female. Agent 5. Grandmother.]

Farpeak leaned close and rubbed her beak against Selen's, startling her. It was like having swords clashing in front of her face, with a thump and scraping and pressure. Confusing. The older jay said, "Good night, Selen."

Selen sat alone in the bathroom, trying to settle her thoughts. It seemed she was safe for now. So many questions, though! She stretched out one wing and stared at it, feeling the feathers shift and align like a fan unfolding. They had a blue tinge as seen in the light of... what was lighting this place, anyway? She looked up and saw a faceted crystal in an iron cage on the ceiling. She'd have called it quartz what with the hexagon shape, but this one was glowing milky white and it seemed to stir the air toward the room's high little window.

Focusing her attention on it brought up another comment like a window in her vision: [Crystal]. Unhelpful. But having such a thing around was a promise: she'd landed in a world with magic! And it was apparently being used to keep a medieval bathroom smelling decent.

"That's actually a good sign," she said to herself. "Means it's common. I'd rather have magic be something everyone uses, than reserved for mad hermits and dark overlords."

She turned to the buckets and found she'd been given a few rags too. Awkwardly, she tried to scrub along her feathers and wherever under them she could reach. She had blood and dirt on her and discovered bruises she'd been ignoring. Along with some other weird bird anatomy she didn't want to think about right now.

She spotted her reflection in the clean-water bucket, and another of the mysterious System's messages appeared. She stared at her old name, hovering in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. "No. I agreed to become Selen. That's me, now."

The English letters shattered and reformed, and became a different message written in the new world's language.

[

Selen Moonlit, Aves Female

Congratulations on living through your sixteenth year!* Based on your natural talents, your attributes have been assigned.

Favored Type: Mental

Learning 1, Wits 1, Sanity 1, Charm 1

It is recommended that you commit to a Class and Geas to begin making full use of the System.

]

The asterisk led to a further note adding, [Approximate.] She'd thought at first that it just referenced her role as an understudy for the real bird-girl. But from piecing things together, it sounded like she was adopted and nobody knew her true "hatchday". And the System didn't care, or was fudging things because of her unique situation, and...

She let out a squawk. "The exact reason doesn't matter. I have enough things to learn already."

When she'd cleaned up as well as she could manage, she dumped out the water and figured out where to toss the dirty rags. So now, where did she live?

The elderly Farpeak was busying herself with a broom made of straw, as an excuse to keep watch. Selen nodded politely to her and said, "I've had a tough day. Would you mind coming with me to my room?"

Farpeak tilted her head, looking puzzled, but said, "All right." She opened the door at the rear of the main circular room. A spiral staircase with a big patio ran up the outside of the tower, and apparently down through a locked basement door too. Selen made her way upstairs, thinking her family had to be rich to have these, what, four floors of space in a city. Other towers nearby, some made of wood, had aerial bridges linking them to each other and to a city wall.

"You must be exhausted!" Farpeak said, tugging her by the arm to keep her from going past the third floor. Selen got ushered into a more private living area divided mostly into four bedrooms. Farpeak stopped with one hand on the nearest door, her shoulders fluffed up in an odd way, her head rearing back and tilted. "Whatever happened out there, was it really that bad?"

Selen sighed. "Most of it, I don't remember. I'm sorry, um... Granny?"

Farpeak snorted faintly but accepted the name.

"I don't remember everything I should. If you'll bear with me and remind me of some things, I'll try to be normal again."

"Normal! Now that's one thing I don't expect from you, girl. You'll be better off with a good night's sleep." She spread her wings wide.

Hoping she read the cue right, Selen stepped forward and let the woman hug her. "Thanks. I'll get better."

Farpeak bobbed her head and retreated into another room, giving Selen a glimpse of clutter. Selen slowly opened the door to the home of the person she was replacing.

The original Selen had left behind a workbench and stool, a cedar-scented chest, a bed of rope netting and straw, a backpack, and a chalkboard with notes about addresses and deliveries. And Selen was supposed to move right in and take over? She'd already committed, so yes. Now if she could just sit down without hurting herself...

She lay down on the bed with her new tail tucked beneath her like half a skirt. She was behind a closed door and didn't have to perform or pretend. Her beak opened in a yawn and clacked shut again.

"Bird officer's log, stardate unknown. Several kilotons of emotional trauma are safely shoved behind containment fields. Wish I had at least a tape recorder."

This new body was exhausted, but her mind still raced. She'd seen hints of a halfway-decent society here. As far as she knew, a random medieval peasant would be lucky to have her own room. This family seemed to be innkeepers, not aristocrats.

She still had a hundred questions but could hardly keep her eyes open. She silently gave thanks for having more time to figure everything out.