A young human girl, scarcely nine years old, ran through the back streets as fast as her legs could carry her. Her short hair was naturally a bright, almost platinum blonde, but weeks, if not months, of dirt had rendered it almost brown; her pale skin was likewise covered in dirt. Her steel gray eyes were filled with desperation as she fled from the shouts of her pursuers, right hand clutching the pouch of nutrient balls that she had stolen from the food and food supplements vendor. Her treasure was a fairly tasteless one, but essential for keeping herself healthily fed when she lived on the streets. It was due to her willingness to steal such things that she wasn’t wasting away or experiencing stunted growth.

Unfortunately, she had forgotten the second rule of thieving: never steal from the same mark twice. The first rule – never get caught – she was in the middle of doing her utmost to uphold, but she wasn’t sure whether she was going to lose the people tailing her this time. Rather than the typical lightly-armored tough guy, the merchant had hired a pair of lean, swift young men who knew the streets, and her shorter legs meant they were catching up.

She jumped over a pile of assorted rubbish that an old, half-blind man was digging through, prompting him to yell at her. She rounded the corner, and moments later she heard the man yelling at her pursuers. She burst out the narrow alley and into one of the dimly-lit streets where various less-reputable shops were located, ducking and dodging between the pedestrians.

“Out of the way!”

“Stop that girl!”

Turning into another alley, she startled a cat and a couple rats that it had been stalking. She barreled into a man that was harassing a young woman, making him stagger sideways and giving the woman an opening to get away, then darted around him and kept going. The brief interruption shortened the gap between her and the hired men, however, and a quick glance back told her they were now within sight. Spotting a dead end up ahead, she bounded up onto a garbage bin, then jumped to a small balcony, grabbing the edge and hauling herself up. From there, she hurled herself at a hanging vine dangling from another balcony, climbed hand over hand, then leapt onto the roof of a nearby two-story building.

She heard the first of her pursuers land on the roof behind her before she had made it more than ten feet. Eyes darting around in a fervent search for salvation, she saw a well-dressed human and saurian that had a strange – but adorable – creature riding on top of the man’s head in the next street over. The man had an eccentric look, with red and purple hair and two different types of scars on his arms, while the saurian was the toughest-looking she had ever seen.

They’re my only chance!

She rushed down the roof, the two men in hot pursuit, and leaped off to land in a roll right in front of the odd pair just as hands reached out to grab her. She tried to stand, but fell back with a pained cry; despite a rolling landing, she was pretty sure she had badly injured her leg.

Her pursuers both landed right behind her a moment later. They didn’t get hurt, she thought, upset.

“Got you, thief!”

“Sorry about this. We’ll get this thief out of your way immediately.”

She looked up at the saurian, who was frowning.

“And what will you do with her?” the saurian woman asked.

“Well…”

“Well, what? Planning to administer your own justice?”

“Look, lady, it’s better if you don’t ask questions like that. This city isn’t like the others, where everyone gets everything they need handed to them and the all transgressions are forgiven with a little begging. If we bother to take the time to hand her over to the guard, the end result will be the same, given how much she stole.”

“And how much is that?”

“Fifty gold worth of—”

“Fifty gold?” the man said incredulously. “And what, exactly, is the punishment for stealing fifty gold worth?”

“Look, man, just turn around and walk the other way, and everything will be as it should be, alright?”

“You’re planning to kill her,” the saurian stated. “A child. You’re planning to kill a child.”

“Listen, lizard lady, that’s just how things work in this city.”

One of the saurian’s rings flashed, and suddenly she was wearing a different outfit, and a cloak over her clothing. In her hands was a weapon that was clearly Legend-grade: the haft was made of a silvery metal with decorative engravings along it, and the head, which consisted of an axe, a spear, and a spike on the reverse side from the axe, was made seemingly of gold, also with fancy engravings, such as the mark of a dragon. Precious gemstones ringed the base of the blade, as well as being embedded in the blade, and there were several down the length of the haft as well. The saurian pointed the two-handed weapon at the men with one hand.

“Listen to me very carefully,” she said. “My name is Isa Bloodscale, and I am a fifth circle mage and fifth tier warrior. If might makes right in this city, then you should carefully consider who is mightier in this situation and act accordingly. Or, put more simply: if killing is on the table, then what do you think will happen if you make me any angrier than you already have?”

“Uh… so… what you’re saying is…”

“The girl was definitely too quick and got away from us, so we have to regretfully go back empty-handed to our employer.”

“Very good.”

The hired men fled.

The red-and-purple-haired man held his hand forward, palm angled slightly downward. A ray of flames shot out, causing the girl to flinch, but instead of catching on fire, she felt a soothing warmth, and her leg stopped hurting. The saurian woman offered her free hand to the girl, who took it, careful to avoid the long, sharp-looking claws. The woman pulled her to her feet.

“Th-thank you,” the girl stammered.

“You’re a brave one, jumping off the roof like that in the hopes we’d save you,” the woman said with a smile. “What did you steal, anyway?”

“Food. Nutrient balls.”

“Killing a kid for stealing food. What is wrong with this city?” the man said. “We’ve been to a few cities already, but this one is the most messed up so far. Most of the others have minimal starvation and homelessness, but this place… and people here are so cavalier about those in any position of authority doling out whatever punishments they like to any sort of offender.”

“When rot sets in this deep, you know it can only mean the very core of the city – the Ruler’s Tower – is just as rotten,” the woman replied. “As powerful as we are, though, there’s nothing that we can do against a Ruler, let alone a Ruler and their entire Tower. I think we should just consider the trip here a loss and get out before I do something that the consequences will have me regretting.”

“I’m inclined to agree with you. We haven’t learned anything helpful here, and I doubt we will. That said…”

They both looked at the girl.

Are they trying to decide what to do with me? They helped me, so that must mean it’s not something bad… I know!

“Please! Take me with you!” she begged.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” the man said hesitantly.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Well, it’s better than leaving her here, Rai,” the woman – Isa, the girl remembered she called herself – said.

“But… I mean… as much as I don’t dislike kids, I don’t know if we’re exactly equipped to take care of one,” the man – Rai – said.

“I-I’ll do whatever you want! Just please, take me away from this city!”

“Yi-meep,” the cute creature on Rai’s head contributed.

“You want to bring her along?” Rai said. Can he really understand that critter? the girl thought. He’s obviously a mage, so… maybe he can.

Isa crouched down. “What’s your name, girl?”

“Sylvie.”

“Sylvie, my friends and I are traveling all over the continent, trying to find out how to get home, because we’re from… somewhere you can’t just walk, swim, fly, or even teleport to. We sometimes do pretty dangerous things, like fighting gigantic monsters. If you come with us, you’ll have to behave and do what we say, even if it doesn’t make much sense, and you’ll see some pretty scary things. Are you okay with that?”

Sylvie nodded.

“I need to hear you say it.”

“I’m okay with that. Miss Isa, almost anything is better than living on the streets in this city.”

“All right. Rai, she’ll be my responsibility. That okay with you?”

“…If you’re okay with it, I guess I can’t gainsay you, but… are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Isa stood and put a hand on top of Sylvie’s head. “I’m going to make her my apprentice. …Slowly.”

“Teach her how to fight, you mean?”

“Yeah. No reason she needs to be a Berserker, but I’ll make her a dragon warrior. Teach her to fight with a… spear, that’s easier than a halberd. And teach her to ride Skycloud. Make sure she knows a bit about medicine. You can teach her a bit about magecraft, too – enchanting and stuff – if you want… if she shows any signs that she might awaken as a mage.”

“She’s way too young to be showing signs of awakening. The earliest a human can awaken as a mage is adulthood, same as any other race… fifteen years old. How old are you, Sylvie?”

“Nine.”

“So, if she sticks with us for another six years and shows an interest, I’ll consider it.”

“Sounds good.”

“Oh, we should introduce ourselves. You heard Isa say her name; I’m Rai Flamme. And this cutie on my head is Braveheart, my familiar. She can’t speak aloud, but she can communicate telepathically with me. We also have two drakes, Paxta and Skycloud. They’re waiting for us outside the city.”

“Let’s not waste any time, then,” Isa said. She put one hand on Rai’s back and held the other out to Sylvie, who took it.

“Teleportation,” Rai said, his voice laced with some strange power. The world shifted around them, and suddenly they were standing out in the badlands outside the city next to a boulder.

“Skycloud!” Isa shouted.

There was a roar in the skies above, and Sylvie looked up. Two dragons, one purple and one light blue, were spiraling down.

“These are our drakes,” Isa said in amusement at Sylvie’s slack-jawed expression. “They’re not technically dragons. Think of them as the lesser cousins of dragons. They’re very intelligent beasts, but they are still beasts. True dragons are people, not animals.”

The drakes landed, and they both poked their noses at Sylvie curiously.

“Wow… they’re so majestic!”

“They have very different personalities,” Rai said. “This is Paxta, my mount. She’s pretty much a pacifist – she’ll hunt, but she prefers not to even do that. She won’t ever fight in battle, and she definitely won’t hurt a person.”

“And this is Skycloud, my mount and Beast Bond. He’s a valiant one,” Isa said. “He actually chose me, rather than the other way around. I tried to forcibly tame a violent, unreasonable drake, which dumped me in the middle of the air, and Skycloud saved me. He’ll definitely fight to protect, but he’s never an aggressor, other than hunting. I’ll be teaching you how to ride him, and when we fly, you’ll be riding in front of me.”

Sylvie reached out and placed a hand on Skycloud’s snout. “Hello, Skycloud,” she said, wonder in her voice.

“Shall we go flying? We’ve still got some time to kill before evening, so we don’t need to teleport back to the Thunder Isles yet.”

“Yes!” Sylvie said excitedly.

Isa helped her onto the front of the saddle, then sat behind her. “Up and away, Skycloud!”

With a happy roar, Skycloud pushed off and up into the sky, followed by Paxta with Rai and Braveheart. Sylvie let out a delighted laugh.

“You do this all the time?!” she shouted to Isa.

“Sure do! And one day, you’ll be taking Skycloud out for rides by yourself!”

This is amazing! The wind, the motion, being far above the ground… It’s like I’m a bird! Or a dragon! If this is what’s being promised to me, I’ll follow Miss Isa forever!

They flew for about an hour before landing. Rai healed Sylvie’s soreness with another healing flame bolt, and then teleported them again, and then again, arriving the second time inside a place introduced to her as the Ruler’s Tower of the Thunder Isles.

“Back again… no luck in your latest – oh, a young child,” the ancient elf greeted them.

“This is Sylvie, a street urchin that I’m taking in as my warrior’s apprentice,” Isa said.

“Ah, I see… Welcome to my Tower, young Sylvie. I am Archmage Arcanius, the Mage-King of this Tower.”

“O-oh!” Sylvie. “Um… the honor is mine, Your Majesty!”

“Heh. No need to try to be formal. Treat this place as your home for as long as you’re here – but don’t make a mess or break anything.”

“Yes, sir!”

They dismounted.

“Now, I’m going to go out and find some good wood for a spear haft so I can make you a spear,” Isa said. “Braveheart, watch her for me?”

“Yi-meep!” the cute critter said, puffing out its chest.

“Thanks.”

Sylvie soon found that the new wonderland she found herself in was a paradise beyond any she had ever dreamed. In the following days, she split her time between relaxation, learning a foreign language that Rai and Isa said was their native language, and learning to wield a spear from Isa. The Archmage claimed that he could tell she had the potential for being a mage as well, and so began teaching her how to meditate to prepare her for the future.

After about a week of this, they started leaving her with the Mage-King for a day or two at a time, during which time they were searching for a way home and she was given a more comprehensive education by the Archmage. Day by day, she felt more and more at home in her new surroundings, eagerly throwing herself into every task laid out before her.

However, she noticed that Isa and Rai were slowly becoming more and more frustrated with their inability to find a way home as time went on. Autumn gave way to winter, which in turn progressed inexorably toward spring.

“Master Arcanius,” she asked one day, “Where are Mister Rai and Miss Isa from that’s so hard to get back to?”

“You’re only just now asking this?” Arcanius said in amusement. “They’re from the distant future.”

“From the future? I… don’t understand.”

“They weren’t born in the past. They haven’t been born yet. A terrible incident took them from their own time and threw them back thousands of years to our present. It’s why their native language is different from the one that we speak. To get home, they need to travel not across space, but through time.”

Sylvie’s eyes widened. “That’s crazy!”

“And that’s why they weren’t going to tell you until you asked. They wanted to build up your trust before telling you of something that seems so impossible. To be honest, I actually have a hypothesis for how they can return home, but I don’t think my patron deity would want me to tell them about it yet.”

“What’s that?”

“First, let me explain about the future they come from and how they were sent here.”

Sylvie listened to the story and to Arcanius’s hypothesis.

“But that’s so simple!”

“Simple, and not at all certain. But I’m still studying the fragments at the behest of the God of Knowledge, and—” Arcanius coughed. “Excuse me.”

“Are you okay, Master?”

“I’m fine, just old. I probably only have a few years left at most. I am the oldest recorded living elf, after all, and I have no intention of turning myself into a lich or anything to cheat death.”

“What’s a lich?”

“A form of intelligent undead. Evil, unspeakable abominations, but ones that are very resistant to being destroyed. Many mages over the years have sought out the forbidden rituals required to become one, but even those with the best of intentions are twisted by the process, becoming a mockery of who they were in life.”

“…If you die, what will happen to this place?”

“Likely, the magics will continue to sustain it until the Black Sun Starfall, during which it will probably be destroyed. It’s a pity, but I don’t have a successor, and less than three hundred years remain until the end of civilization as we know it anyway. Don’t worry about it. Instead, focus on making full use of it while you are here, eh?”

“I will!”

Not many days after, Rai came to Arcanius while Sylvie was studying.

“Lord Arcanius… Isa and I are getting very close to breaking through to the sixth realm. That being the case, we’re in need of methods for developing to the seventh realm. I know that’s a lot to ask of you, but—”

“Nonsense, child. What would be the point of me hoarding secrets from you at this point? However, nothing in this world is free, and I would be coddling you to simply hand you manuals teaching you how to advance – especially since, by your own admission, nobody is that high realm in your own time. To become seventh realm, you must be ready to embrace your responsibility as a mover and shaker in your time. Whether you choose to attempt to revive knowledge of our civilization or go somewhere completely different with the knowledge and power you’ve obtained in your stay here is up to you, but don’t be like me, trying to live out your life alone and apart from the world around you. Be a leader.

“To that end, I have some tasks that I would like you to accomplish, and I will only give you instruction on further advancement after you have completed them.”

“You have only to name them.”

“Wait!” Sylvie said, abandoning the children’s book she was attempting to read. “I want to be part of it too!”

Both men turned to look at her thoughtfully.

“Unless you plan to abandon her with me when you find a way home,” Arcanius said, “it would be good for her to experience what it is like to be alongside you in action.”

“Very well; I’ll let Isa know.”

“Ahem. Now, listen up!”