《The Purpose of Wings》


 A New Flock

    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.

 First Flight

    Talons rapped on the door and Bluemoon called out, "Afternoon!"


    Selen was sprawled across the bed. She had leftover spicy Thai noodles in the fridge; she could have those with coffee, check e-mail, and then get back to grading the undergrads'' homework.


    The scaly skin she felt when she rubbed her eyes, and the feathers brushing along her arm, brought her back to what passed for reality. She sat up and stared at her talon-fingers. Only three and a thumb on each hand, huh. She made herself stand up on her wobbly clawed feet. She hadn''t even undressed last night.


    She opened the door. "Hello?"


    "Time to get you some training! Come along. Did you get the hatchday notice?"


    "I did."


    Bluemoon trilled, and the feathers on the back of his head stuck up. "I wonder if you really were hatched that day, or if the gods accepted the day you came to us as a good-enough day to mark it."


    "I don''t know what the real day was. So, it may as well be. I saw a message saying I''m..." She blinked. "I''m sixteen. Huh." She''d been granted a substantial gift of youth, if her mysterious patron had told the truth about the Aves race having a Human-like lifespan.


    "Mental attributes, I take it?"


    "That''s what it said. Learning, Wits, Sanity, Charm."


    Bluemoon chirped. "Charm! I would''ve expected Will to be your other one, but the gods have decreed you a cute bird."


    Selen felt herself blushing, but wasn''t sure if it was at all visible under her feathers. She scraped one foot along the floor and said, "So, training?"


    He took her downstairs to the back courtyard, where they had to wait for a big deliveryman. Selen stared as a small horse emerged from the open basement ramp, and then at the fact that it was no animal, but a Centaur! She''d sort of been briefed that they existed, but it was different to really lay eyes on the elegant blended creature wearing heavy saddlebags full of letters.


    Bluemoon dipped his beak and said hello, then led Selen onward. Across a small plaza from the Two Hoots stood a flatter two-story building with people going in and out, including another of the hooved ones. Looked like a tavern with upturned spikes at the corners.


    "Nobody stole the ladder while my back was turned," said Bluemoon. "And no wind today. Perfect. Get on up."


    "And...?"


    "Throw yourself off, of course." He spread his wings and said, "Remember, stretch wide, feet up, concentrate on stability first."


    Selen climbed the ladder and crawled out onto a nearly flat roof with several chimneys. Here was what she''d signed up for: being part bird. The masked gatekeeper between the worlds hadn''t told her much about her new species, but this race or this particular identity came with a power called Slowfall. She busied herself trying to figure out how to ask more about it.


    "Well?" called Bluemoon from alarmingly far below.


    "Maybe we should start just one floor up?"


    "You can''t get good glide practice that low. Try hopping along the rooftop first if you''re worried."


    She turned around. She jogged along the wooden roof, then spread her wings. It felt ridiculous. Air whipped through her feathers and under them. Her talons clacked on the beams. "Slowfall, Slowfall, how do I do that?"


    The far side of the tavern loomed below. She squawked and skidded at the last second. Her mind raced. She''d be happy to start with the baby-level practice! Of course her family assumed she''d already mastered it. So how was she supposed to --


    An uneven board tripped her. Screeching, she went sailing forward and crashed onto the roof. But not so hard as she''d braced for. She got up and dusted herself off. Bluemoon probably hadn''t seen that. So she could glide? This time she ran along the roof and jumped, holding her arms out. Willing herself to come down slowly. She landed again without injury, but prone instead of on her feet. Okay, third try! Jump, arms, drop, then a staggering landing.


    Bluemoon said, "You need to do more than that to make real progress."


    She''d made progress and he just didn''t know it. Selen shivered, took some deep breaths, and muttered a prayer. Then she ran and threw herself off the second-story roof.


    Her wings snapped out wide before she''d thought of it. The dizzyingly distant ground rushed closer, but the wind held her. Paving stones and dirt blurred past.


    "Turn!" shouted her tutor.


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    Selen looked forward and spotted the long flank of another Centaur. She raised one wing to flinch away but the move didn''t translate to an actual turn. She crashed into the wall of horse and fell backward onto the pavement with a yellow haze in her vision.


    A message helpfully informed her: [Health: 20/25.]


    The Centaur wobbled and sidestepped, nearly stomping her. "What? Watch where you''re going!" His long ears flicked back angrily.


    Bluemoon flew just above the ground and skidded to a stop nearby. "Sorry, sir! She''s still training. Won''t happen again."


    Her target grimaced and rubbed his side. "Ow. Be more careful, kid." He trotted away.


    Selen stared at the pavement. The blur at the edge of her sight shifted from yellow to red. When she paid attention to it she got another message: [Stamina: 5/25.] She said, "I almost ran out of Stamina, I guess."


    Bluemoon helped her up. "That''s something to work on, but basic turning is more important. Remember, dip one wing like so. And while you''re at it, why aren''t you doing a basic flap?" He demonstrated a circular paddling motion, not just up and down, and the air stirred around him.


    Selen climbed the ladder and paid attention to the numbers again, learning to make them appear by reflex. Stamina refilled quickly while she was idle and drained while climbing, which explained the color shift: red for injury, green for fatigue. Her Health was still down but she seemed not to be in danger yet. And she''d survived the drop! She rubbed her talons together. Once Stamina was full again, she made herself run and jump off the roof.


    This time it seemed to take longer. She saw clear sailing below, no pedestrians. Sailing, yes, down through the air! Near the ground she risked trying the flapping motion Bluemoon had shown her. It strained her in unfamiliar muscles, somehow pulling her chest tight, and it didn''t push her much higher. But she got down safely to an unsteady stop. She spun and stared at the rooftop, then at Bluemoon. "Did you see?"


    "Better! Now do it again."


    Selen didn''t even have to buy tickets for this ride.


    She went up, caught her breath, and dropped to an arguably graceful landing. She stood there wheezing, seeing the green glow of low Stamina again, "How high up can I be and have this still work?"


    "I wouldn''t go more than two stories up until you improve. Now for spending Mana: the first spell!" He beckoned her to join him up on the roof.


    Bluemoon spread his wings and said, "The first user of magic was an Aves named Windriser, who learned to tame the air. In his honor the casting is called the Rising Wind, and we will call on him as long as the sky exists. You will tell this story to your own children, one day."


    Selen blushed. "How does it work?"


    He showed her something completely outside her experience. There was a way of concentrating on the space between her fingers, tapping into some hidden force. Bluemoon sounded impatient as he coached her, but then he gestured with one hand and pretended to hold something in his palm. "Now, touch this space."


    She poked the empty air he held, and something invisible prickled along her scaly finger.


    "Now, try to hold onto that."


    Selen cupped ber hands but felt the odd energy slip away. After a few more tries she contained it and he began coaching her on pushing this potential a little harder, like starting flame from a spark. The unformed energy waited there between he hands, pushing outward.


    "That''s Mana itself. Now you must learn to tune it." Bluemoon began explaining how it in terms of musical notes or flavors.


    But the word "tune" brought radio to mind for her, and the metaphor helped. There were different shades of the texture or pressure against her fingers. Every direction or focus seemed fuzzy, slippery, except one. "Only picking up one station."


    "What? Oh, just the single attunement? I''m no specialist, but you almost certainly have Wind there. Now, let it flow along your wings instead."


    She shivered as by unknown instinct the hidden power rippled through her feathers, making them feel like they were moving through water instead of air. "And then jump?"


    Bluemoon nodded.


    She hopped, and windmilled her wings again. This time the downward push worked, vaulting her as though she''d jumped again. And again, with another flap! Not just gliding but a real bounce into the air.


    Bluemoon snagged her ankle. "Now glide."


    Selen snapped out of the desire to go higher and higher, and instead spread her wings and let herself drift forward, swerving slightly to avoid hitting an oblivious Elf. She hit the ground running, nearly smacked a wall, and pushed off it to come to a safe stop. Her head spun and everything was tinted aqua.


    Her trainer hurried over to her. "When your Uncle Meteor was your age, he took off and lost track of Mana until he ran out and crashed. We all teased him about it, and then I did the same thing. You''re probably drained, right?"


    Selen reflexively thought of her Mana, the blue tinge, and saw, [Mana: 1/25.] "Um, that was maybe 8 per flap?"


    "Terrible efficiency, yes, but that''s normal. The city isn''t the best place for your training, but --"


    She hugged him. "That was amazing! I was flying!"


    Bluemoon bobbed his head enthusiastically. "Ha, yes. Quick learner. That''s got to be your main lesson for the day, though, since it''ll take you an hour to refill your Mana at your beginner level. You can still practice your gliding in between. Or get breakfast."


    As appealing as another brief soar from the roof seemed, she was hungry too. "Food first, please!"


    #


    The building she''d been jumping from was indeed a tavern, called the Shrike. It wasn''t busy this time of morning but a few birdfolk and a Centaur were sitting around. The spacious room smelled of spilled beer and sawdust littering the floor.


    Another bluejay sat here, this one plumper and wearing a sort of turban with an upturned feather that reminded Selen of a quail. "You will surrender the girl to me!"


    Bluemoon laughed and nudged Selen forward, saying, "She did great! How did you sneak past us?"


    "The canny Tradewind sees all. And you had eyes for nothing but her."


    Selen nodded, not sure how to react, and still giddy. She thought to give the lady a good look and saw her labeled as "Aunt" Tradewind. Okay, I have an aunt and an uncle.


    Tradewind beckoned her to sit, and shared a bowl of unfamiliar nuts with an orange sauce. "How does it feel?"


    "It was great! I can''t wait to try the magic again. Can I learn more spells? Can I glide farther?"


    "Whyever not? But that brings up a more serious question."


    The three birds sat together, and Bluemoon spoke up. "What do you want to choose for your first level?"


    Selen had two aliens staring at her, expecting her to be normal and to have all sorts of knowledge about common-sense things she''d never heard of. She tapped one foot nervously and felt it sticking to the messy floor. "I''ve really been rattled by the trouble yesterday."


    Tradewind said, "I heard. It may be best not to speak much of it in public. The Duke is merciful."

 Level One

    She gulped at the implication that there were limits to that mercy. "Yeah. Well. Could we go over my options again?" Fishing for information, she said, "I could be an Agent or a Merchant, right?" Tradewind, appropriately, showed up as a Merchant like Bluemoon.


    Bluemoon dipped a nut, cracked it with his beak, and gobbled it down, confusing Selen for a moment. No teeth. He said, "You''ve seen a bit of the Merchant lifestyle, and the peacetime side of being an Agent by running around with the delivery folk." His eyes narrowed. "And a bit of what being an Agent in wartime is like, unfortunately."


    Tradewind said, "Ask our mother sometime about Melody Bay, if you and she have had a stiff drink first."


    So Agent is something like a messenger, spy or rogue. Was that for her? No, she''d already spent enough time in a dungeon with people asking hard questions. "I think I''ve seen enough of that side of things. Magic seems like a lot of fun now that I''ve tried it."


    "She learned it right away," Bluemoon told Tradewind, puffing up. He added, "Mage is an option, though I suspect the thrill will wear off in time. Nothing wrong with experimenting a bit."


    "Not like I''m locked into it, right?" asked Selen, still trying to pry the rules from them.


    It seemed that there weren''t rigid social rules about allowed jobs. Her ancestors just a few generations ago, back on Earth, would''ve assumed there were.


    Bluemoon said, "No, you can switch if you don''t take well to the class. At worst you''re delayed one season in getting something better suited, and you might keep the first one as your secondary class. You could even go Craftsman if you wanted to try something different."


    "Or Bard!" said Tradewind. Bluemoon snorted and rolled his eyes, muttering about "useless carousers".


    Selen felt linguistic vertigo, because bird and bard weren''t similar words in this language. She had a chance at a whole new category of puns!


    She clicked her finger-talons together, hesitant to say more ignorant things. She stalled for time by taking one of the nuts and experimentally cracking it on the edge of her beak. The nutcracker function worked just fine, and she gobbled down the fragments with a bit of something like watered-down barbecue sauce. "I''d like to try magic for now."


    "I can help a little," said Tradewind. "Though of course you''ll need to deal with the guild once you go beyond the basics. A problem for another day."


    Bluemoon asked, "Will the first spell be enough?"


    "It should be. Selen, take the rest of the morning off and go do the meditation on what you want. If you have trouble, try this as a second spell." She held her hands together and let a trickle of magic flow up from them. With no explanation.


    Bluemoon dropped a nut into the air above his sister''s hands, and watched it bob in an updraft. The feathers on the back of his head flicked higher.


    Selen said, "Um, focusing the Mana upward?"


    Tradewind nodded. "Same basic spell, focused to flow from the hands, that''s all. Good luck! Now off to the temple with you; shoo."


    The two of them looked expectantly at Selen. She stood up and thanked them, then grabbed a handful of the nuts. They trickled through her fingers; her actual palm was small. She tried again and walked out to the street.


    Now, she fretted again. A temple? She didn''t know the name of the city, let alone how to find anything in it. She took a good look at her home tower and the tavern, then wandered off in a random direction. Slightly downhill. That brought her to a river that seemed to run north-south, assuming that the sun on her left meant an Earthlike planet in the northern hemisphere. Too many unknowns. She tried asking random strangers about "the temple".


    Many of the people walking the cobblestone streets were Humans, dressed in what she took for farm clothes or just low tech. One man told her, "Couple of streets north, west side of the river."


    The river smelled like these people had little idea of water treatment, though she''d seen that some form of plumbing existed. Now, she found some kind of drawbridge! A little island in the middle helped support an elaborate mechanical winch that could swing part of the east section out of the way for tall boats. More complex than she''d expected around here.


    She had a little quest to finish. She crossed with a gaggle of pedestrians and wagons. So far she''d seen the bone-and-vines Woven race, plus Elves and Humans. Then there were Centaurs, her own kind the Aves, a few lizardfolk, and a race of fuzzy fox people. She had a dozen questions for every one of them. But instead of being a complete nuisance she snacked on the nuts and made her way to an unmistakeable temple.


    It resembled an inverted basket, its wooden pillars curling around each other and meeting in a spiral. She opened the heavy door and found a pillared space smelling of pungent incense.


    A robed Human with his thinning hair in a ponytail -- a glance told her he was officially a Monk class -- was writing with a quill pen at a front desk. "A youngster. Are you seeking your first level?"


    "Yes, please. I want to be a Mage. I''m told I have to show off a spell?"


    "Yes; in your case no tangible items are needed. Go to the altar and demonstrate, then meditate upon your goals."


    Feeling slightly less clueless, she bobbed her head and walked up to an altar with a braided triad design, like Celtic art. Two other people, both Human, sat quietly on cushions. Selen picked an empty spot and tried her single spell.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    The energy of the element of Wind came to her only with struggle. Without a coach she hardly knew what part of her mind could touch this new thing. Was it really an updraft if it pulled her up, or more of a downdraft countered by Newton''s Third Law? Did physics even work in this world? She stood there with her wing-arms outstretched, her thoughts ceaseless and directionless.


    To some extent that was how they''d always been. In a faraway world her grade school had told her parents to give their kid drugs, to make her better at sitting still in a government classroom. Instead she''d been allowed to grow in her own way, and to find her own methods for getting things done.


    This new skill confused her, but it was demonstrably a real thing here. To concentrate, Selen pictured a certain abstract symbol and the act of drawing it, stilling all other thought processes until the simple mark stood bright in her imagination. She then directed all that focus toward recalling the way she''d reached into the pool of Mana, tuning it in the way that felt most natural, letting it enter reality as a bubbling along her fingers and into her wings. She spread out her feathers and gave a single magic-assisted flap, staggering forward as she did.


    Aha, it worked! She hopped back into place, feeling the feather-crest on the back of her head flick higher. Oh! I''m smiling? That''s what it looks like for my kind. So that was another bit of learning already.


    Before she could lapse into a mental discourse on non-human face expressions, she settled down onto the cushion and focused on the goal. I want to be a Mage. I want to learn all sorts of things and find a place here, and do amazing things like flying.


    Without casting another spell, she felt lighter, buoyed by something. Silver light flickered beyond her closed eyes. Then words appeared:


    [You are now a Level 1 Mage! You have chosen a geas of Learning. You have been given the feat of Slowfall.]


    It worked! She felt herself feather-grinning again, and let out a happy chirp. Now, what it all meant, she didn''t know. And Slowfall wasn''t what she''d used already, but some extra power? Neat.


    A mental itch caught her attention. Ah: it was an intuition just like the method for seeing the numbers behind her Health and so on. She attended to it and saw a more complete profile on herself:


    [


    Selen Moonlit, Aves Female


    Mage 1


    Physical: None


    Mental: Learning 1, Wits 1, Sanity 1


    Social: Charm 1


    Feats: Slowfall


    Skills: Literacy 2 (Learning)


    These meters are based on 25 + (10 points per stat):


    Health (Toughness + Will): 25/25


    Mana (Sanity + Will): 35/35


    Stamina (Toughness + Sanity): 35/35


    Go forth and advance!


    ]


    She returned to the man at the front and spoke quietly. "I got it! I have questions, though. Hope I''m not interrupting you."


    He''d been writing, but shrugged. "It''s what I''m here for, not this tedious copying. How can I help?"


    "I got a ''Geas of Learning''. What''s that?"


    "If you strive to learn something new each day, there''s a chance that the gods will tell you something interesting. I serve the god of Love, of course, so that I''m bound to try serving others each day. Naturally that''s easy in my job."


    Just as learning something ought to be easy in Selen''s position. "I know very little about these gods," she said, shifting her weight uncomfortably. She''d grown up with just one.


    "Labor, Lore, and Love. You may have your own favorite, but hard work and growth and devotion will all serve you well. Are you looking for specific methods of prayer, or the theories we have, or...?"


    "I should probably save that for another time. If I''m going to learn, I should study, right? Is there a good place where someone like me can read books without being rich?"


    "Your best bet is probably the Grandbridge Knowledge Society. Here at the temple we believe in basic education, so we offer training in the Literacy skill if you haven''t already got that."


    "I seem to already have two points of it. So that''s good by the standards of, ah, Grandbridge?"


    The monk peered oddly at her. "For someone who''s obviously just begun using the System? Yes, it''s impressive."


    Selen winced. "Yeah, I was knocked around pretty badly the other day and feel like I''ve forgotten some important things. Maybe these gods are scrambling the rules on me or something, ha ha."


    "The gods do not torment us, ma''am. Their actions may be subtle, but not malicious. Do you need the help of a more experienced priest?"


    "I think I''m all right for now. Thank you. I might have more to ask later, but for now could you help me find this Knowledge Society?"


    #


    She left the conversation with directions and one other hint: the idea that she could improve one of her statistics per season, starting now in the spring. To do that she had to trade away three earned skills of the same type. So, she could be a point less good at Literacy and two other things to lift her Learning in general, boosting the skills'' base level with no net loss. Or train herself in three Strength skills to become a more beefy bird. How the heck this System could improve her mind or body, she didn''t know. It was not in her top five most urgent mysteries to solve.


    The Knowledge Society stood a quiet district of tall houses. It looked like a converted mansion, with its own surrounding brick wall and garden. An Elf man dressed in a fine brown jacket answered the door, saying, "Do you have business here?"


    "I''m told you have the best library in the city." It wasn''t exactly what she''d been planning to say; could that be the effects of that Charm ability? Never mind that.


    The doorman said, "Indeed. Are you a resident?"


    "I''m Selen, of the family that owns the Two Hoots."


    "Ah. You may enjoy the Public Room." He let her in, and paused at a niche with a bowl of scented water and a towel.


    Selen washed her hands, feeling a minor cut stinging. Alcohol for cleaning. Good. Satisfied, her escort took her to a room with comfortable chairs and tables, and... a single two-level shelf of hardbacks.


    "Is there any particular topic you seek?"


    "History, magic theory, and... just those for now."


    "I''ll leave you to it, then." He nodded and left.


    Selen huffed. No need for a librarian with such a small collection. No other readers here either. She got the sense that this man was here to keep out riff-raff and she''d barely passed muster. So! She browsed the shelf. Everything looked hand-copied, primitive. She grabbed a volume of Sundry Lands of the World and another on The Prepared Arcanist and sat down to read.


    She struggled reading the handwriting on the first one. But there were sketched maps, invaluable for someone like her. Okay! This area was part of a country called the River Kingdom, mostly lining the south-flowing Starry River for hundreds of miles to a sea coast. It included a good chunk of eastern land blessed with more rippling rivers too. West and northwest stood the Scaled Nation, a land of Kobolds. Ah, those must be the lizards she''d seen. The book called them "savage and hateful unbelievers". Her ruler was King Franz, who was of course a wise and benevolent lord. His palace was way south on the sea coast. Beyond the Kingdom''s east lay two more countries of "sorcery, blasted land and wickedness". Selen scoffed. No world map, and hardly even what a grade-school geography text would contain.


    One detail stood out though: something about "vast dungeons enriching the brave and foolish" in the east, "including the largest ever discovered". The word translated perfectly for her and it sure didn''t sound like these were prisons. Were they talking about the imaginary kind full of treasure? Ha, what a job it''d be to explore places like that for a living.

 Settling In

    The magic book mentioned them too, in the context of finding crystals called "magicite" to empower spells. Selen read gleefully about the elemental flavors of spells, the wicked art of necromancy, and the basic techniques of Mana use. The first-ever spell, it claimed, was Lorinari''s Sanctuary, a crude technique used by a desperate Elven hero for raising shelters up from raw stone.


    The footman returned, saying, "You''re not sleeping, are you?"


    She startled, wings flicking outward as she looked up from the book. "No, this is interesting! I just started using magic and this material is, ah, a lot more relevant to me than it was a few days ago. Did you know that this magicite stuff can emit energy even when it''s not being attended? I want to measure the output and whether it declines over time."


    He raised one eyebrow. "Indeed. What might it tell you if the output did decrease?"


    "It''s the difference between one of these crystals containing a fixed amount of energy, and being a permanent source. We could also measure the efficiency based on how quickly it wears out when actively used versus sitting on a shelf. This is a whole potential field to study. Can a heat-emitting crystal boil water?"


    The doorkeeper looked her over, then at each of the books beside her. He answered, "And you''re literate at your age? What did you make of this other one?"


    "The Sundry Lands? It''s more information than I had, but very incomplete. The author seems to have given up trying to describe the course of the Starry River."


    The man scoffed. "Any sane man would! You''ve probably never traveled it or you''d know its shifts and surprises."


    "I''ve never seen more than the stretch I crossed today. But I''d like to see it all."


    He said, "You''ve been here for hours. Shouldn''t you be out somewhere putting your knowledge to use?"


    She was starving. "Oh! Yes, I should go." She headed for the door but paused. "Where can I get ink and paper? I expect to need a lot of it."


    "There''s a stationer''s shop in the north market. But the Society has discounted supplies for members. You may want to join."


    #


    It was late afternoon, and chilly. Selen had no money in these clothes. Come to think of it, her torn outfit probably helped explain the snooty reception she''d first gotten.


    She found her way back to the river and from there to the Two Hoots. Twice along the way she practiced flowing Mana into her wings and giving a quick flap, lifting off and soaring for a second. The bystanders seemed not to care except when she strayed too close.


    Back at the home tower, messengers bustled around the rear door with its basement entrance and the exterior stairway. People of several species came and went with bulging bags.


    "Hey, Selen!" said a Human boy of no more than twelve. "Got your powers yet?"


    She flapped. "A level of Mage!"


    "Neat. Your Dad''s asking where you went, though."


    "Thanks."


    She went in. The first-floor inn was fairly busy now, with some rooms being cleaned by a bandanna-wearing Farpeak and a young Centaur. Several people sat around at the central tables to rummage through bags or look at maps.


    Bluemoon peered down at her. He was perched on his elevated desk and scribbling with a blue quill pen. "There you are! I thought you might wander off, but you really should have checked in after what happened last trip. Did you at least get a proper meal?"


    "Ah, no. But I did get the level, thanks to your lesson." She showed off the flapping again.


    "Good! Slowfall feat, or...?"


    "Yes, that."


    "That''s the best for us, really; it''ll give you more confidence in the air. Keep practicing. But goodness, you''ve barely eaten yet, have you! Shoo; off to the Shrike with you. See if you''re recovered enough to lend a hand in the mailroom afterward."


    Now that she''d gotten through the magic and flying and books and two or three of her thousand questions, she noticed she was starving. "I''m a little short on money."


    "Oh, that''s right. I''ll advance you your wages tomorrow." Bluemoon shook his head. "How bad was it, really? You seem to have bounced back quickly from the ordeal."


    "It looks like whoever attacked me, just rifled through my bags and left. I''m all right otherwise. I... am in better shape than I have any right to be."


    "I''m sorry if I seem unconcerned. I''m just relieved, really, because I don''t need to gather the family and take up our weapons again for revenge."


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    His matter-of-fact tone made Selen''s tail twitch uneasily. "Glad to hear it."


    #


    Selen went next door to the tavern, and asked awkward questions until she figured out that she had a standing tab here. Discounted for being a near-daily customer. There was a menu on a board, with pictures. She tried asking the bored Human teenager behind the counter -- some things carried over between worlds! -- for "the usual".


    That turned out to be a plate of vegetables, something like sweet potatoes served with a skewer of unidentified berries and a steaming-hot roll. She asked for some utensils and got a funny look from the nearest serving-bird. "You forgot yours?"


    In hindsight, the other customers had mismatched sets. "Uh, looks that way."


    They loaned her a crude iron spoon and she got to figure out how to eat and drink with a beak. Was she supposed to swallow pebbles to grind her food? She seemed able to handle this meal and didn''t need to cut it up.


    Now, if only she''d been allowed to borrow books! She thought back to her favorite restaurant and spending an hour or two at a time there, absorbed in a book on paper or computer. No such luxury here. The good news was that since she lived at a post office, she could probably get paper there, too. To write what, she wasn''t sure.


    She tried to learn what she could from watching the tavern crowd. The people mostly used copper coins. The customers were a mixed-species group, largely Aves like her but with some Humans and a Centaur and a few Elves. They seemed to get along. Some were gambling with dice, others playing darts. But hold on; this was a bar with no pool table? She could invent it and get the credit.


    Selen paused in mid-bite. There was a basic question that her mystery benefactor hadn''t answered in much detail: Why am I here?


    What limited answer she''d gotten, amounted to "it might be amusing". She''d committed to filling in as the new Selen. But otherwise, what did she want to do with this new life? Magic, definitely. She could use her mind to solve/create problems in a whole new way, and turn her imagination into reality. Besides that, maybe she could invent a few things too and make this world a little better-off. While getting rich.


    Meanwhile, she had some responsibilities. She finished off her meal and headed home to start learning her actual day job.


    First, up in her room, she rummaged for more intact clothes. Her cedar box held only a broad sash, one spare shirt, a skirt, and two pairs of underwear. (Probably a good idea if she were to fly around in a skirt.) She changed into her only backup outfit and looked at the messenger bag sitting beside the box. Then at the leather backpack on the other side of the room.


    That thing caught her eye. Unlike everything else here it looked brand-new. Focusing on it brought up a System notice saying, [Unique gift.]


    Her wings stirred. She''d been told, in that space between worlds, that she could have one special item handed to her. So this was it. Well made but not clearly magical. She hefted it and found it quite light.


    She was about to delve into figuring out what it did, but remembered she had work to do. She put the bag down and headed downstairs to the basement.


    The Two Hoots cellar was a low-tech shipping center for small packages and letters. Bins and shelves littered the room, attended by a Human girl, two different-colored Aves and even a Centaur.


    The grey-maned Centaur boy -- nobody here looked older than Selen -- waved to her. "Hi! You''re just in time. I need to head out; can you handle the sorting?" He patted an already-full pair of saddlebags he was about to carry off.


    "I''ll try," she said, since she was a little intimidated by all those hooves and legs.


    He squeezed past her, very like a pony trying to pass her in a hall. That left the others looking expectantly at her.


    Selen scratched her head-feathers. "I don''t know if you heard, but I got knocked around the other day and I''m kind of forgetful right now. Can you all please pretend I don''t know what I''m doing and give me some re-training?"


    The Human snickered. "We get to explain it to you? Good practice. Then come over here first, and look at today''s incoming bin."


    One of the birdfolk looked skeptical, his seagull-white head tilted. "Is that a real thing, forgetting your job? Do you lose levels and skill points too?"


    "I''m just getting started with the System anyway. So I didn''t have any, right?" Nobody corrected her.


    The group seemed puzzled by Selen''s ignorance, but played along with explaining the filing system. The Two Hoots was basically the only post office in town and worked on principles developed by her adoptive father and his siblings, "back in the war". They offered delivery even well outside town. They could take advantage of each species'' advantages, too: Centaurs for heavy hauling and quick jaunts. Humans for their "terrifying hiking stamina", as the girl boasted. Aves couriers offered air mail, but it took skill to get the endurance needed for anything but rapidly bouncing and gliding over the ground like a kangaroo.


    "I need to get a lot of skills," Selen said, while beginning to sort the various scrolls and envelopes and wax-sealed papers and packages. "I''m a flimsy bird for one thing, so how do I get, what, Toughness?"


    The seagull Aves said, "You''re lucky you get to start doing that stuff. I have it all planned out. I''m gonna be a Fighter. So I need Toughness and Will for Health, but --"


    "So what will you do?" asked Selen. She then realized that the pun didn''t work in this language.


    "To get Will based skills? Meditation, Resist Hunger that I really would''ve already earned if I had the System yet, and I dunno, that magic-pushback thing."


    "Repel Magic?" said the girl. "But for your flight stuff you kind of have to decide if you want more Mana or more Stamina. Or Health, yeah. Did you crash yet?"


    Selen blushed. "Just a little!"


    #


    Back in her room, she felt slightly competent. She''d gone outside to play with basic flapping every time her Mana refilled, and learned a bit about the city''s districts and streets, and knew a few of the skills she ought to pick up. Apparently she needed to cash in three abilities with the same underlying stat to raise that stat, which sort of raised the floor for everything she did with it. And she could do that once a season including now, so there was an incentive to get the bonus right away. Three of the stats had direct effects on the Health number and so on. She had a ton of possibilities. The best way to start was to learn everything and qualify for something good.


    As for that backpack, she tried putting things into it. She''d test her theory, from years of fantasy gaming, that it was a pocket dimension. It wasn''t... but whatever she put in there weighed practically nothing. Aha, that''s what it does!


    She owned a key to the basement. Though the post office was closed for the night, the Human employee and the Centaur had tiny bedrooms there. She crept down and performed an experiment, using the package-weighing scale to measure the bag empty versus containing a lead weight. Eighty-five percent weight reduction! Wow. She barely even knew how magic worked or what it could do -- yet.

 Earning Sanity

    The next day she took up the job of delivery bird again. She couldn''t do the long flights that some Aves could -- the Two Hoots employed a few older birds for that -- but practiced constantly. She flapped and trotted along with the Centaur boy, Newroot, for a trip across the Starry River and south to the city''s downstream gate.


    To her surprise, there was some kind of magical water purification station there. This district was called the Purity for that reason. Mostly little shops in that area that smelled of clean air and sizzling food.


    Her shiny grey, hooved companion clip-clopped pleasantly along the cobblestone streets. "I wish I could fly."


    "I''m sure you get to do some cool things too. You must be an amazing runner."


    "You should see me outside the walls. When I have my birthday I''m going to go right for some Stamina bonuses."


    "Race you to the dropoff point, Newroot."


    "Ha, I''ll give you a head start!"


    He dashed onward, leaning his upper body forward. Selen hopped up into the air and drove herself ahead, but just didn''t have the speed or enough magic-assisted flaps to keep up. She landed wheezing and Newroot laughed, his horse half working like a bellows. He said, "And I''ll be better at the long runs soon."


    "And you want to fight for a living?" she asked.


    "Well, maybe. I haven''t got the money or the family to get me an apprenticeship anywhere. At least your folks made sure we could all read."


    Selen had gotten a scholarship, in a place where sixteen or so years of schooling were considered normal. This world likely had very different ideas. Maybe not completely wrong ones, but still it stung her to think that her fellow workers considered basic literacy an end-point. She said, "If you and the others want to talk about arithmetic and magic sometime, that could be fun."


    "Sure!"


    #


    The next day, Selen was at dinner, tearing into sweet, dark bread. Aunt Tradewind said, "You want to join the Knowledge Society?"


    "They have books! I need to learn as much as I can, especially to be a good Mage."


    She adjusted her turban and answered, "I suppose it''s best to let you try different things and see if you really take to scholarship. You don''t seem to have done any cooking lately; are you sure you don''t want to pester the chefs again?"


    Selen''s actual academic background was in chemistry. As a graduate student in a university that nobody around here had heard of. Although she''d gotten interested in the field partly because of cooking, she hadn''t made anything more advanced than cake and peppermint sticks in years.


    "It''s time for me to try something different," she said. Although it might be helpful to watch local cooking, a little, just to be on the same page about how things boiled and baked and chilled in this world. "Might ask occasionally though. What about magic lessons?"


    "Come to the shop after we eat."


    Tradewind''s shop was near the tower, and more modern in layout than she expected. Not an outdoor-facing shop counter where someone asked what you wanted -- common around here -- but a big room you could walk into and browse. Or gawk at, in her case. Crystals with a white or soft aquamarine glow lit the place and were also on sale. Jars held items like "goblin ears" and "pixie dust" along with bottles of multicolored liquid and amulets of carved wood and a few books.


    "What are you so cheery about?" asked Tradewind, ruffling Selen''s neck feathers.


    "My aunt runs a magic shop!"


    "Ha, you call this knickknack stand a magic store? Mind your wings; don''t knock that over!"


    Selen had bumped into a rack of bottles, though really they were strapped in place.


    "So, you would learn magic? What for? Is it just your latest fancy, or do you dream about smiting your enemies?"


    "Good question." Selen scuffed one foot on the wooden floor. "All of it''s a novelty. But I want to master the flight spell, and go on to see what I can discover. What the limits of magic are."


    "That''s going to mean a Mage Guild apprenticeship, if you go that far. They work you hard for years. As non-members we can teach you the basics, but if you''re serious, you''ll need to be more serious and specific. And don''t tell them you want to be one of those adventurers, like your Uncle Meteor did."


    "I haven''t seen Meteor around lately."


    "Still on garrison duty in the west, I assume. Don''t worry. So. Pay attention." She held her talons together and focused. "What element is this?"


    Selen stared at the empty space. "I don''t see anything."


    "You do have a level in this. I can''t make it any more obvious without blowing up the shop."


    Tradewind''s technique was the same as her brother Bluemoon''s. Faint sparks stood out, but not real ones. These must be the bits of Mana she''d learned to gather, seen with the eyes but not along the normal spectrum. She gingerly reached out with one hand and the spell reacted, sticking to her and making her scaly skin prickle. "Feels like static electricity."


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    "Static what?"


    "Ah... lightning?" She''d used the English word first.


    "Right. Last time, you tuned what you were casting to the element of air. This one''s a little different. Show me your wind-attuned Mana. But let''s try that outdoors."


    Selen was gathering energy between her hands from somewhere as though letting water trickle from a faucet. The process was slow but began to be visible with the help of her new Mage level, as ghostly off-white wind. "Like this, and then I can use this on my wings."


    "Instead, hold that with one hand, then feel the lightning aspect here." Tradewind demonstrated a tiny finger-cage of sparks.


    Selen touched it and felt a weird sense of connection, aware of the nacent spell that her "aunt" held for her. Different element, and better contained, but the idea was the same. The older bird''s expressive head-feathers were covered but she still had an encouraging look to her eyes. Selen tried not to let her down. She focused on the bit of lightning, then on molding the Mana between her own fingers to make it almost the same. It rapidly leaked out, draining eight Mana points beyond the three-point trickle she''d wasted so far, and her vision blurred blue for a second in warning. Selen let go of Tradewind''s spell and held both her hands together, containing a little of the energy.


    "That''s a start. Now try to flow that back into yourself instead of wasting it." She watched Selen try, and chirped in amusement as Selen''s feathers stood up with static. "No, more like this. Oh well; you should still have some left. Next, copy this." She tried some slightly different flavor.


    Selen studied this one: sort of heavy, more tangible than the others. "Could this be stone or ground?"


    "You tell me."


    It was chilly. "Cold, ice, water? It''s a little slippery."


    "Ice, yes. Now, see if you can copy it."


    Tradewind got her to tune magic to this element too, feeling a spell that threatened to take full effect and freeze her fingers.


    "Don''t activate it yet. You''re still shaky. I want to do another lesson before having you turn the potential into real things."


    "Matter and energy," Selen said. "Is there some known conversion rate between Mana and other things?"


    They stood outside the magic shop as the sun''s last rays faded and the cold snuck through their feathers. Aunt Tradewind studied her and said, "Little owl, I heard that you were saying strange things to the Duke''s men."


    Selen looked aside, her vision clouded from Mana drain and the deepening night. The bluejay woman stood out brightly. "I know I''ve been forgetful since the trouble the other day. I''ll get better."


    "But you said something about memories of other worlds. Is there any truth to that? Did the gods give you a vision?"


    How much to tell her? Selen sighed and said, "Something like that. There''s at least one other world; I''m sure of it. More machines, much less magic, different rules. That''s why I want to learn more, and compare."


    Tradewind ruffled Selen. "I believe you probably saw something real."


    Selen''s eyes widened. "Really?"


    "The gods guide our fates and whisper secrets to us. I owe my life to a hint they shared with me, once." She bowed her head briefly and touched three talons to her chest. "Who is to say ours is the only world they watch? I don''t know what your vision means, but don''t let this favor you received go to your head."


    "I''ll try. I need to work hard and improve. I want to earn my keep." To be a good replacement for the old Selen.


    "That''s my girl. If your father doesn''t pay your admission fee for the Society, I will."


    #


    Selen trained. She regularly leaped off of whatever low roofs she could find, sometimes adding magic-assisted flaps, hardly ever crashing into anyone. She alternated between spending her Mana on the flight spell and on pure spellcasting, using it as quickly as it refilled. She tried gathering the motes of an air spell again and again and struggled to find ways of tuning the power to other elements by herself. In between her many practice sessions, she carried letters and boxes across the city, often building up muscle by not using her enchanted pack. She wasn''t prepared to draw attention to it and answer questions about it anyway.


    The work paid off. Just as the last freezing winds of spring faded out, there came a day when she got a flurry of the System''s strange messages crowding her vision. [Skill gain: Elemental Magic (Learning).] Then [Skill gain: Hiking (Toughness)], and again for Flight (Agility). Which was great, but now she had a problem.


    "I need three of the same stat," Selen said over lunch. "I was thinking of Sanity, since that''s the one that boosts Stamina and Mana. But what do I need to do to earn that one? Look at monsters from another dimension?"


    Tradewind gave her a strange look, but answered, "There are some ways to gain it from war. But for you, there are a few common options."


    They seemed to involve suffering. First, by staying up too late even for her. Her family gave the basement crew the evening off and let Selen spend all night sorting, filing and cleaning. Then she got hardly an hour''s sleep before having to get up and work on the second floor, up above the inn level. The big round room was an office of desks and shelves with a flight takeoff balcony she''d recently been using. Selen worked and paced while much better-rested workers were irritatingly cheerful around her.


    And then that night, after just another hour''s sleep, she got told to stay up again!


    In the office floor''s center stood a brass mechanical clock, the fanciest piece of technology she''d seen. It predated the use of the Two Hoots tower as a post office. In fact it was said to be one of the first things ever built by someone who mastered the Engineer class. Selen hadn''t even known there was such a class until she asked about the clock. There were Craftsmen and various specialized sub-groups of those, but the gods had made Engineer its own distinct class. The gods had apparently decreed that advanced machinery was something new.


    Selen found herself dozing off while contemplating the clock. But she had to stay up! The Sanity stat was a measure of mental toughness, a bit different from the more social Will. She talked to herself while cleaning and filing, learning the office''s setup in the process. "I met a traveler from an antique land, who said, two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert..."


    A red-feathered Aves startled and hopped away from her. "Selen! What are you doing up so late?"


    Selen squawked. "Cleaning! I mean trying to earn the Vigil skill!"


    "Oh, ha, that explains it. I heard the noise and came down. What were you muttering just now?"


    She''d been using English, not instinctively knowing how to translate the words of Shelley. "An obscure poem that I heard, once." Nobody in all the world knew of it.


    "If you''re trying to stay awake you might as well let me pester you. They don''t have you sorting all these bins tonight, do they?"


    "Unfortunately yes. Maybe I can get something to read tomorrow night." She returned to her work. Who was this, anyway? She looked him over and saw: [Sunflare, Agent 2.] Same effect as when she looked at other people she was supposed to know already.


    "So, what''s the poem?" he asked.


    She struggled to convert it. "Strange," said Sunflare. "Is that something from one of the other kingdoms?"


    "Yeah. I... think I know a few other stories from places like that." She yawned. "Some other time, maybe."


    He left her alone but checked on her again an hour later, when she was on the verge of falling asleep again. She waved weakly and returned to looking through random papers to better understand the filing system. "Pigeonholing," she muttered.


    The next night Tradewind loaned her a book about river trade from her shop, so that was enough to keep her up more easily. The Starry River was apparently a nightmare of shifting banks that had even helped to spark the recent war against the western Kobold-run country. She wondered if it could be tamed.


    After three awful days and nights of hardly any sleep, the notice she''d been waiting for popped up. [Skill gain: Vigil (Sanity).] She celebrated by falling asleep for the next sixteen hours.

 Study of Sanity

    This world didn''t exactly have "weekends", but there was a "temple day" that the population generally treated as free time. Selen''s family didn''t say anything about dragging her to the temple and many places seemed to stay open. The Two Hoots offices were an exception.


    She went over to the Knowledge Society again, wearing less than she was really comfortable with. After being asked why she kept wearing her shirts, and seeing how other Aves dressed, she took to wearing just her talon-boots, skirt, and a broad sash. "The feathers cover everything," she told herself, and it was considered normal. Meanwhile, Tradewind had pointed her to a Craftsman with a supernaturally quick mending power.


    Selen gaped as she watched the woman sew and seem to do half the cleaning and stitching by magic, restoring the bloodstained clothes perfectly. "What element is that?"


    The cleaner looked smug. "It''s not a spell; it''s a feat. Get a couple of levels of the same class and you can start earning some benefits like this, too."


    In any case, the doorman at the Society building wasn''t there today. Instead her greeter was a young-looking Elven girl in simple tan linen, who bowed politely and asked, "Are you a member, ma''am?"


    "I''d like to join, if you''ll have me."


    "You''re in luck. Master Zahar is present. Come in, and I''ll let him know you''re here."


    Selen went to the semi-public library and fished through the book on magic again, with a better understanding of it now. She fidgeted, feeling like she was waiting for an interview. "Need to get that Focus skill anyway," she said, and tried to ignore her worry.


    A slender fox-man in a fine vest and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up walked in. This was one of the Vulin race, said to be natural acrobats "and less honest things" according to Bluemoon. This one looked slightly down at her and said, "Hello, young miss. I''m Zahar, here on a social call. What brings you to our facility?"


    "I''m Selen, courier at the Two Hoots, and I''ve just started as a Mage. I want to get full access to your library, whatever you have beyond this one room."


    "For magic?"


    "For everything."


    Zahar chuckled, and sent the Elf away to fetch snacks. "It''s nice to see ambition and people gaining literacy before it becomes just another skill to check off. Have you studied anything interesting so far? I''m not sure the full library would benefit you much when you''re just starting off."


    Selen''s left eye twitched as she remembered a particular high-school teacher who''d underestimated her. "Have you got anything to write on?"


    He pointed out a chalkboard on the wall. Nice to see those around. He said, "What do you have in mind? Have you mastered long division yet?"


    Selen''s feathers flicked upward and she spoke innocently, taking up the chalk. "I had some thoughts about measurements." She wrote out some of the simplistic arithmetic symbols in common use, and the equivalent of an algebra expression for speed.


    "You know the notation already? Hmm."


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    "Yes, but you could do more with it. Let''s say you want to measure the total distance traveled by an object with a varying speed. What is speed, but the change in the distance traveled over time? We can express the relationship like so." She began drawing arcs and graphs and demonstrating the principles of calculus.


    "I... am not sure I follow."


    She drew rapidly. "That''s fine. Let''s consider a different problem, calculating the total mass of a cylinder. It can be thought of as a set of very thin circular slices, so if we find the mass of each slice and ''integrate'' that set of numbers it tells us the total, just as though we were combining slices of time and motion. Now, for the mass of a single slice we begin by imagining a single radius like so... Am I going too fast?"


    Zahar''s ears flicked back and forth and he didn''t speak until the Elf lady returned with a tray of pastries. He picked one up and stared at it as though it were a math problem.


    Selen told him, "I''d also be interested in applying this line of thinking to other systems like foot traffic and finance. You could for instance find the total amount of water being processed per day by the city''s water plant, by using the flow rate per minute."


    "Um." The fox took a bite and stalled. "And you came up with this?"


    "I feel that I''m only standing on the shoulders of giants."


    #


    Now that she had access to the main Society library, she took some time to learn another skill by intensive study. Not magic, though the topic was fascinating enough to help. Instead, she was trying to learn the skill called Focus.


    Which meant learning to ignore the group''s usual butler and doorman, along with Zahar''s assistant when she dropped by specifically to distract the new student -- by Selen''s request. Repeatedly she found herself sketching molecules while reading about this world''s alchemy.


    "What''s that?" asked the Elf girl.


    "It''s called caffeine -- nope, nope, gotta study!"


    "Are you sure you don''t want to explain it?" she teased.


    Selen snorted and buried her beak in her book. Only when the doorman came by to announce closing time did she snap the volume shut and quit taking notes.


    [Skill gain: Focus (Sanity).]


    "Finally!" she said. "Only took a few days though."


    "Improving your skills becomes more difficult at higher base levels of practice."


    She left the mansion and went out on a warm spring night. Grandbridge was mostly dark at this hour. She now knew why: "dungeons". As amazing as it was to have glowing crystals, the things only grew inside underground murder-mazes. So, her family and businesses like the Shrike had a few and could afford to replace them every so often as they wore out, but having them at every street corner was too extravagant. Gaslamps? Not invented yet. Burning lanterns? Seen occasionally, with magic assistance, but feared due to how many buildings used wood or thatch. So, she kept to open spaces and stayed ready to bolt into the sky.


    As for the dungeons, she had enough restraint to hold off on exploring those until she had some more power. A dark street was enough of a challenge for her, so far!


    She now had two of the Sanity skills, and Bluemoon had promised to find her a third skill to go with it.


    #


    The bird who arrived the next afternoon was a burlier brother of Tradewind and Bluemoon, with a few of his right-side feathers permanently grown pale. Uncle Meteor, who showed up in Selen''s scan as a Fighter first and foremost. She had yet to see what anybody''s second class was. "Heard you had some trouble on the road," he said, looking her up and down.


    "It was pretty bad, but I bounced back more than I had a right to. So you were stationed in the west?"


    "Of course. Just routine patrols; the lizards know better than to bother us. I hear you''ve been using your time well."


    Bluemoon had one arm over her shoulder. "She''s already flying, and making waves with the scholar types. But she needs some Sanity."


    "Don''t we all. Well then, we''ll do it the easy way. Fetch Sunflare."


    Selen didn''t know what Meteor meant, but she grabbed the red-feathered messenger and met up again with her uncle.


    Meteor led them to a dive bar outside the city, and started buying. The skill Meteor had in mind was "Endure Alcohol". He explained, "If you''re not planning to raise your Health just yet, which you should do soon, this is an easy skill to trade in."


    Sunflare added, "So that''s what you had in mind. I hear it''s traditional with Mages. Long study sessions, lots of ''potions''."


    Meteor said, "Steel yourselves, cadets, for the night is young."

 Spirit Quest

    Selen didn''t remember much of the next few hours. She did remember seeing something nasty outside the city walls. Then having a bucket by her bed the next morning and retching into it, then spending the next morning muttering about being a boneless chicken. The noise of the upstairs office was unbearable and they soon dragged her out of bed and made her sort papers. Meteor showed little sympathy as he made her get up on the tavern roof next door for some flying practice. Sunflare was a fellow student for that but too droopy to say anything useful.


    And then two days later Meteor made them do it all again. There were a lot of bars in this city. They were in a Vulin bar, smelling of fox musk, listening to Meteor tell stupid stories while patrons heckled him. They played darts against a Human with a score handicap for his kind''s deadly aim.


    Then, inexplicably, Selen found herself on a shaking suspension bridge over lava.


    She''d slumped over to one side and the boards creaked, startling her awake. She stood in a narrow passage between stone platforms, with something growling in the distance behind her. The light from below jabbed her in the eyes. She staggered forward, clutching the rope handholds.


    On a ledge, she caught her breath. "How''d I get here?" The way ahead was a stepping-stone path of pillars, but as she watched, blunt spears jabbed out from the wall. Not wanting to question it right now, she timed her first jump and staggered, catching the pillar''s edge. She flailed and jumped again, overshot, and plunged screaming into the lava.


    It thudded and shook like a drum. The heat rippled through her feathers and seared her eyes. A damage notice flashed blurrily in her vision. The light came from something fire-red beneath a net she''d landed on. She blinked. Now somebody was shouting -- several people, from a concealed window high along the wall. A hidden door clicked open and a man walked out holding a pole to grab.


    Selen hung on and got hoisted up to sprawl on the stone, next to the bridge and the spear traps. A staircase stood exposed where her rescuer had come in. "Didn''t think you''d get that far, kid. Stand up."


    Selen took his hand and was halfway up the stairs with him before dimly recalling what was going on. "Dungeoneers'' Guild?"


    "Go home and sleep it off."


    They reached a lounge with a bar and a bunch of tables looking down on a "dungeon" of pitfalls and mechanical hazards. Meteor was there, drinking water from one of the narrow-necked glasses meant for Aves. Sunflare was slumped over with something stronger, but Meteor shook him and said, "All right, lad, your turn at glory!"


    The red bird got up and headed for the door Selen had used, but Meteor steered him toward some other entrance. Selen leaned against a chair and laughed weakly. From the window overlooking the lava hall she saw swinging blades and a freestanding door chained shut. "An escape room! Used to do those. Did I get over that ramp?"


    "You looked like you forgot you can fly," said one of the patrons, a surprisingly burly Elf with hair like gnarled vines.


    She spotted Sunflare down there, flapping over a wall but banging into it. She winced.


    Meteor tapped her shoulder. "Get the skill yet?"


    "The what?"


    Meteor nudged her toward a Human who quizzed her: "Recite the spell elements." Meteor himself focused on watching poor Sunflare.


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    Selen squinted. There was a point to being out here. Drinking so she could get more magic and stuff. "Fire, steel, hydrogen, oxygen --"


    "What nonsense is that? Try again."


    The skill was to resist alcohol, not collapse from it. Selen thought back to a very different bar, in another world, but shook her head. "Fire, ice, wind, stone, light, dark, sound, lightning." Eight in all. Was that more limiting than ninety-two or so, or less?


    [Skill gain: Resist Alcohol (Sanity).]


    "Oh good," she said, and remembered nothing more that night.


    #


    The point of all that, she got reminded too early the next morning, was to get her feathered butt to the temple and meditate. She was in no condition for it but Meteor made her march around for practice, talking loudly about war or something. Selen finally was awake enough to sit down on a cushion and focus.


    Her formal profile of powers flashed before her eyes, though it took effort to concentrate on. Her three listed Sanity skills vanished and earned her a note of [Sanity +1!] Her new set of stats read:


    [


    Physical: None


    Mental: Learning 1, Wits 1, Sanity 2


    Social: Charm 1


    Health: 25/25


    Mana: 35/45


    Stamina: 35/45


    ]


    On the way out she saw a bedraggled Sunflare being ushered in to do the same thing. "Got it?" he asked her.


    She bobbed her head. "So you have to do that even harder to keep raising it?"


    "Yeah. Your uncle''s scary even when he''s partying."


    "I''m gonna focus more on other stats next time."


    #


    She had earned more Mana and Stamina from that convoluted upgrade. The effect was that she could now leap from the fourth-floor balcony of her home tower and, between the point of Flight skill and the extra resources and the Slowfall power, make it safely to the ground. In theory. Any minute now when she was ready.


    Meteor had to push her.


    On the ground a little later, he listened calmly to her string of squawking curses. "Wow, I never heard some of those before." He spread his wings. "Listen, fledgling, the gods gave you wings and Slowfall. If you know what you''re doing and you''re sober, you can survive almost any drop. If you''re scared, practice more."


    Her cheeks burned, but the soldier-bird was right. "Fine." She trudged back upstairs and, eventually, let herself fall. She even relied more on the gliding this time to save Mana.


    #


    The rest of spring went by quickly. Uncle Meteor came and went, she kept up delivery runs of the city''s mail, and she practiced to gain skill points. Learning was going to be her next buy, supposedly making her smarter and better at magic. It was a little scary to think that the System had hooked into her brain somehow and already made her more "sane" and better at things like focusing her attention. Could she become a superhuman genius by maxing the mental stats out? Maybe she''d start dyeing her pale owlish feathers black and calling herself Raven.


    Moonlit was her nickname, and it didn''t surprise her family that like her original identity, she tended to stay up late. But old-Selen had read maybe six books in total, whatever expensive hand-copied tomes Aunt Tradewind had in stock at various times and was willing to trust her with. And one of those had been a romance novel that Selen now borrowed "again" and found confusing. Her former self had apparently loved it.


    She''d been doing math to prove her usefulness to the Knowledge Society, without needing special recognition from the System. She impressed Zahar, the fox Engineer, by using algebra to explain the basic calculations for aiming catapults. That in itself was nothing new to him, but her approach and terminology were unique. So was Descartes'' concept of "graphing" equations, something that this culture just hadn''t hit on yet. The word she''d introduced for calculus meant something like "stacking pebbles", much like the original term, except that here it was an idiom for "child''s play". She was pleased to have added a pun to the language. She was close to the limit of both her knowledge and interest in math, though, and would seem to burn out young like many an Earth mathematician.


    But now, she had access to the main library! With Zahar''s approval she''d moved up from being a tolerated street urchin, to being trusted to walk into the big collection and not swipe anything. It was a decadent lounge by pre-electric standards. The room smelled of leather. It held the remains of some nobleman''s furniture including plush chairs meant for tails, a huge dining table, rugs, a fireplace, and a bust of a stern-looking Vulin man. (Not one of Zahar''s family; the Society itself owned the building.) Chandeliers held glowing gems. The book collection itself had disappointed Selen a bit, but it still filled three tall bookcases and had one of those sliding ladders. The full set was worth a fortune.

 Press Pass

    "I have an idea," she said one day to Zahar, of the Knowledge Society. The wealthy Vulin had been involved in half the major infrastructure projects around here. Those included the more modern parts of the sewer system that made this place not a literal cesspool; the drawbridge, and some siege engines on the western walls. He''d gotten more polite after hearing her talk about the catapults.


    Zahar had just walked into the main library, drinking the local version of tea. "Another idea?"


    "I''ve noticed that some of these books you have are printed by machine. Printing presses are pretty new, right? What if the Society bought one and made its own books?"


    "Whatever for?"


    "Making them available to everyone. My family makes a point of teaching all the employees who haven''t already got Literacy."


    Reading was a surreal thing in how it interacted with the System. The System had crammed the local language into her head and started showing messages with it. But she''d learned that illiterate folk perceived the rules in some picture format. There were illustrations of how that looked, with dots and icons.


    The fox still seemed puzzled. "To what end, though?"


    "The kingdom has you and other Engineers doing useful work. What if there were a hundred more people like you, who will never get discovered because they''re living as peasants?"


    "I''m not sure the world could handle more of me! But have you ever been to the outlying villages? Nothing''s there. It''s not fertile ground for scattering the seeds of knowledge."


    Selen had spent the last few years in a college town, and found Zahar''s attitude familiar and self-justifying. "What if you''re wrong, and someone out there could develop the next improvement in farming or dungeon-delving, if only she had access to more information? I''m adopted, you know."


    Zahar shrugged. "If you want to see more book printing, it can be something to propose at the next Society meeting."


    "Are you going to bring it up?"


    "No, you are. You can attend, discuss your ''calculus'', and petition for membership beyond merely browsing the library."


    "Thank you, sir!"


    Zahar smiled. "I wonder though, do you intend to be a purely abstract scholar? I''m part of the Engineers'' Guild, a small group. You could gain a level of Craftsman and then specialize the next season."


    "By converting the general Craftsman level to something else, right?"


    "Yes. Doesn''t have to be Engineer; you might spend a few months seeing where your talents lie, if you intend to use them."


    Feeling bold, Selen picked up a sheet of paper she''d scribbled notes on, and folded it into a paper airplane. "A good idea can come from anywhere." She tossed the glider and it looped, flew five paces and nosedived.


    Zahar grinned. "Nice little trick, but you may want to stick with your main pair of wings." He started for the door.


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    "Wait." Selen stood up and knocked her chair around while grabbing the plane. She threw it again and it swerved off-course as if to strike the fox.


    He caught it, managing not to crush and tear the fragile thing with his clawed fingers. He unfolded it slightly to show her notes on math and magic. "All right, it''s amusing. But what matters more to you, the shape of this toy or the ideas you''ve freighted it with?"


    Selen took the folded page from his hand and looked down into it. Had she been put here to teach what she considered modern science? She was no expert on it, by her reckoning. Nor had the original Selen been a scholar. What she could do in one lifetime was to spread more general ideas of learning and opportunity. That job seemed to be in accord with her family''s actions: adopting the orphaned old-Selen and taking in several other kids as employees with a place to live.


    She said, "In the long run, letting the knowledge fly far is going to matter more than exactly what the knowledge is."


    #


    She had a lot on her mind by now. Would anybody out there care if she managed to get more printing presses, more books, an attempt at industry? How much of it could she personally create?


    The Knowledge Society meeting was coming up soon. So her focus, during her free time, became the least useful thing she could build. It made sense, really. On the first day of summer, she went to the temple with the help of her young Centaur colleague hauling her latest invention. She quickly set it up in the temple and prayed nobody would flip it over for blasphemy.


    She announced to a confused priest, "I call it a ''pool table''."


    The device was the work of several days'' cutting and hammering and arguing with her family about exactly where to work on it. The result was passable. She''d even gotten green felt for the play surface. But she''d accidentally put an inward bump on one side that made it asymmetric. Best she could do at her very limited skill level. When she studied it, the System described it as [Pool table, poor quality]. The System seemed to name and define the thing based on her own intention.


    "Furniture?" asked the priest as he examined it. Selen had to explain it was a game, and bounce a few of the wooden balls around.


    There was some talk about having Selen sacrifice part of the device, and she ended up leaving behind one smooth ball as a token. She could replace it. That allowed her to sit and meditate again, to see if these supposed local gods would listen.


    I want to try building things, she thought. Alchemy, eventually, but really whatever I can do to get started.


    Her body shined with eerie silver light, and she felt herself floating as though underwater.


    [Agility +1! You are now a Level 1 Craftsman!]


    She had concentrated on three of her skills that were Agility based: Flight, plus newly acquired skills of Woodworking and Dodge. This last one had involved combat training on the ground and in the air. In other words, she''d invited her co-workers to try beating her up with padded clubs and thrown sticks. They gleefully helped out for several days.


    "Ow," she''d said, down on one knee. Her vision was tinged red from being dinged with many minor impacts.


    Bluemoon got between her and her attackers and spread his wings. "Enough!"


    "I''m okay, Dad," she said. But he shooed the others off and fussed over Selen until he made sure she was intact and safe again, never even asking if she''d gotten the skill point.


    Now, since she had gotten it and traded it in with the other skills, she let the System show her what she''d earned.


    [


    Selen Moonlit, Aves Female


    Mage 1, Craftsman 1


    Physical: Agility 1


    Mental: Learning 1, Wits 1, Sanity 2


    Social: Charm 1


    Feats: Slowfall


    Skills: Staff (Agility), Hiking (Toughness), Bureaucracy (Learning), Elemental Magic (Learning), Literacy 2 (Learning)


    Health (Toughness + Will): 25/25


    Mana (Sanity + Will): 45/45


    Stamina (Toughness + Sanity): 45/45


    ]


    She had a bottleneck problem already. No skill could advance more than two points beyond its underlying stat. She had Elemental Magic at 1, so in System terms her power could only improve by one more point until a season where she improved Learning. She''d cashed in Flight to raise Agility, so she wasn''t immediately better at the skill but had room to earn two more points of it. She wanted to raise Learning in the fall but also needed some Toughness or Will to raise her Health in case of trouble. Lots of options.

 The Crossroads of Worlds

    Selen woke up in a dome of false grass and painted blue sky. "What? Where am I?" The last thing she recalled, she was at the temple, earning her first Craftsman level. And then she''d blacked out and appeared here. She stood up from the grass and looked around.


    A door opened in the dome. A humanoid rat girl walked in, looking as confused as Selen felt. "Hello; I''m Pip. I just got a notice that a new player had arrived, but your record is glitched. New uploader?"


    Selen''s beak opened and shut a few times. "I''ve never seen your kind before. Am I a prisoner? And... wait, is that a Japanese accent? Are you from Earth too?"


    "No, this isn''t a jail, and yes, I''m an uploader. Are you just roleplaying here? I can do that." She coughed into one pink, clawed hand. "Hail, traveler! It seems that a summoning ritual has gone wrong."


    Selen held up her own hand. "Time out. I''m serious, miss. I don''t remember how I got here. Are you involved with the creature called the System?"


    Pip said, "This is above my pay grade. Excuse me." She turned aside and gestured, making red and white windows hover in the air around her. Selen couldn''t see what they said, or hear the words seeming to come silently from the rat lady, but it was the first time she''d seen the System appear in front of anyone else.


    A griffin appeared from nowhere. It had rippling blue feathers and stood on all fours, with an array of mystic wards visible around it. It spoke in a female voice, saying, "I apologize if this is rude, but who are you and what are you doing here?"


    Selen backed up. "My name is Selen Moonlit, and I was in Grandbridge just now, showing off a pool table. I''m really from Earth if that means anything to you, not this world. Or... wherever I am now."


    The rat asked the griffin, "Brain damage during the surgery?"


    "Surgery!" said Selen.


    The griffin shook her head. "No, you''re not my customer. I don''t detect a security breach and Misha is looking into it right now. You just appeared in the user list and data storage, as though a whole lot of cosmic rays flipped a ton of bits in exactly the right way to make a new mind appear." She blinked. "And I am detecting a weird energy spike in that server center."


    "And you''re speaking English," Selen said. "I assumed that if I ever heard English again it''d be from some other lost soul. But you say you''re ''uploaders''?" Selen smacked her forehead. "Oh. That explains part of it. I''ve been in a computer simulation this whole time, haven''t I? All this stuff about the System, magic, picking a new life; it was all a tutorial after somebody froze my brain and scanned it into a computer, I bet. How many centuries in the future is it?"


    Pip said, "Uh, it''s 2041."


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    The griffin said, "I have no record of you existing at all. Well! I can''t exactly call you a player of the Game right now, but since I''m not detecting any threats in your file I''m going to tentatively let you decide."


    Two doors appeared. One was dark and gloomy iron, one a perfectly ordinary 21st century door of aluminum and frosted glass; and between them was the secret door in the painted dome that Pip had entered through. A modern hotel room lay beyond it. "The iron door will just plain delete you, if you don''t want to exist. The glass one will take you to a holding area where you can hang out with some books and movies, no commitment. The hotel one will take you straight into my Game as a provisional customer. So long as you don''t cause trouble I won''t make you sign anything yet. Mostly because I still don''t know what you even are."


    Selen tried to gather her thoughts. She''d been used and tricked! Her family, her budding career; it was all a simulation! "Are you responsible for making up Bluemoon and Aunt Tradewind and the rest? Are they completely fake or was someone acting their roles?"


    The griffin said, "I have no idea who those are; sorry. You might have memories from some other virtual world I don''t control."


    "So you do control this one? Are you supposed to be the local version of God?"


    "I try to stay away from that question."


    Pip rolled her eyes. "She''s an AI. Look, have you seen ''Tron''?"


    "Yeah. How about ''Sword Art Online''?"


    The rat laughed. "We should talk once this gets sorted out. Yeah, basically that but don''t worry about perma-death. Ludo here is a nice overlord."


    Selen''s head still spun, but she said, "All right, I''m going to find out what''s going on. I pick this one." She walked through the hotel door.


    Pip waved. "Take all the time you want. Food''s down in the lobby and there''re books a few floors up in the Tower, all free."


    Selen thanked her, barely listening. She left the dome and found herself in a completely mundane Earth bedroom with a TV, an in-suite bathroom that was for some reason missing a toilet, and a bed with a mint on the pillow. The mirror showed her now-usual bird body. Below that was a basket of pamphlets with titles like "Dinosaur Adventures" and "Miyamato Serene Living". A fruit basket held a card that said "So Confused You''re Here!"


    Selen sat down on the bed, flicking her feather-tail under her. "Okay, what the heck is going on?"


    So this was a virtual world? She stood again and walked to the window curtain to pull it open. She could at least get some idea of whether this was a cyber city or what.


    She stared out at an impossibly tall white tower spearing a miles-wide cave. A man with a cape soared through the sky and a party of swordsmen were camped out by some stalagmites. The words [You have discovered Ivory Tower: Home of the University of Talespace] flitted across her vision, like a different version of the System.


    Selen whistled. "Looks like a nice place to fly, anyway."


    #


    Meanwhile, a young man named Vonn woke up groggy as the world bounced and jostled around him. He yawned and stretched, then discovered his wrists were tied. A sound like "Nyaa?" came from his muzzle. He opened his eyes and found himself in a wagon, on a snowy forest road.


    A battered Nordic man in blue said, "Hey, catgirl, you''re finally awake? Bet you were trying to cross into the Empire."


    Vonn looked down at his alarmingly full chest and tight leather vest, then over at the big dude with a gagged mouth, and finally at the village ahead. In a soft and purring voice he said, "Aw, man... I guess I can work with this."


    While the guard on the horse ahead wasn''t looking, he held his hands together and found he could summon a basic frost spell because their captors didn''t think about these things. Or about cat people having claws. He beckoned to the boss dude and leaned close to cut loose the gag he wore. Vonn returned his confused look with a thumbs-up. Time to get this party started early!

 Actual Combat Practice

    Selen accepted a delivery run to several villages to the northeast of Grandbridge, in safer territory than where she''d been attacked.


    It was her first time beyond the walls while sober. So, it was her first time to look back at her hometown and notice the outward spikes where several corpses hung.


    Selen stared up, open-beaked. No accident; the dark wooden spears were obviously an execution ground, and a warning to travelers. And this was on the east bank of the river, where the walls were lower and the occupants easier to see.


    "The Duke''s mercy," she muttered, and hurried away from that place. The city didn''t have much by way of jails.


    She traveled east and north. She couldn''t just soar all the way between towns with her limited flight; it was mostly a hike.


    She took the time to clear her mind and try to enjoy being out in the open, seeing nature in another world. Her beak didn''t let her have much of a sense of smell, unfortunately, but she could feel the too-bright sun on her feathers and stop every so often to rest and look at slightly unfamiliar trees and brilliant wildflowers. "I wonder if I''m seeing into ultraviolet!" A species of orange blooms had wavy designs in something like deep purple. She spent a while walking, squinting at things, and thinking about scientific uses for what she considered a minor superpower.


    It didn''t compare to the flying, though. She kept bouncing up into the air, rising from flat ground to reach a random boulder or find a tricky perch up in a tree. Several times she was proud of herself getting up onto a branch, only to fall off and need Slowfall to make it look like she meant to do that.


    She left behind the forested, swampy riverland for a more hilly region. There, she had to camp for the night. She was a world-hopper but not an experienced camper. She set up an Aves-style hammock dangling from a high branch, then tried making a campfire with her magic. Which failed completely. Her lessons with Tradewind had so far taught her the basic party tricks of wind and lightning but she had yet to master even the basic energy-gathering of other elements. Each person''s affinity was a little different, though Aves usually took well to wind.


    She tried taking her knife out of her belt-mounted messenger bag. The simple utility blade just showed up as [Iron Knife, good quality], and she''d been told by somebody more knowledgeable that it did 4 to 7 damage. The numbers threatened to drive her mad with figuring out exactly how much damage a loaf of bread could take, and the implications for injury and medicine. How much of her limited medical training applied around here?


    She shook her head. Use that Focus skill! That took no special effort beyond chiding herself for getting distracted. She set the blade''s tip gently into the ground and gathered a basic spark spell to zap it. Her touch made her feathers ruffle from poorly contained energy flow, but didn''t make obvious heat in the metal. Instead she tried again with just some bits of shaved bark, and made sparks to try igniting those. Still no luck. "Some wizard I am," she muttered. "Shouldn''t expect more from first level, I guess."


    Selen yawned, her beak clacking. There was plenty of time to improve, no matter what the numbers said, and any practice helped. She tried cycling her magic into different elemental tuning, getting a feel for the options. By luck she found a loose grip on something that created inky fog between her fingers. Darkness? She focused on that, lost it but pressed on, and managed to conjure it again. She released it carefully and let it float there like an anti-lightbulb. Just a handful, but neat!


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    Supposedly, no element had a moral alignment. And nobody spoke loudly to criticize necromancy, one of the fields outside of the elemental casting system. After all, the Duke of Grandbridge had been one of the people involved in creating those golems of bone and flowers that patrolled the streets.


    She flew around a bit for practice, then settled into her hammock with a thin blanket. The weather had grown warm and she had a feather coat.


    She dreamed of Earth, of eating delicious burritos and wondering why her teeth felt funny. And didn''t she have a thesis to work on? Application of hydrocarbon dyes to feathers, maybe.


    Selen woke up when something jostled her. A warm weight had settled on her legs like a cat. Its eyes glinted. She squawked, staring at a mass of hair and muscle that was clawing at her backpack, hanging on the next branch up. Selen kicked and unbalanced the hammock. The creature hissed and slashed at her, burning a line of pain along her leg. Selen fumbled to sit up. Her attacker clung to the tree-trunk, which freed her to grab the knife she''d kept on her belt. She jabbed wildly and only nicked tree bark.


    The mass of brown fur and ivory claws leaped to grab the dangling pack and tried to pry it open. "No you don''t!" she said, and tried gathering some of that magic energy she''d been practicing. The critter didn''t notice; good. Selen tuned it rapidly and lunged. Her talons poked it and a jolt of sparks rippled along its hide, making it convulse. The spell fed back on her and she flailed in the swinging hammock, overcorrected, and toppled. She barely got her wings spread in time to land on her feet.


    Selen looked up through the shadows. She had to get up there. She stepped back, made a running start, and kicked the ground away. In the dark her wings were pale flashes to either side, whooshing. She rose toward her target and screeched. The creature hissed again and its reflective eyes glared back. Selen''s left wing struck a branch and threw her off-balance, striking the trunk. Another red flash in her vision warned her of harm. She fought through it and lunged like her old primate self to grab the wood with her arms and... fail to do a chin-up. Her backpack fell and whacked her on the head. Selen crashed and landed slowly but dazed. The beast was up close again. Monkey? Cat? Didn''t matter. She shouted and slashed awkwardly down at it with her knife. "Hey! No robbing the mysterious summoned hero! Shoo!"


    Finally the critter got the message and scampered off into the woods. Selen stood there breathing hard, checking her stats. Middling Fatigue, Mana and Health down a few points, a different measurement than the normal-to-her sense of being winded and bruised. The backpack wasn''t damaged, at least, and nothing looked missing. She had packed it with an inordinate amount of mail and other supplies for its size, due to the lightness enchantment on it. She congratulated herself for keeping her knife in the belt bag instead.


    She huffed. A dim glow in the east told her she might as well get an early start. She worked on how to fly up there to her hammock without hurting herself. In the shadows and leafy branches it took her three tries to realize she should back off and approach the tree from a low branch on another trunk. She wobbled and managed to land in the right spot at last. Balancing up in the dark, one hand holding the trunk, looking off into the early dawn. Her wings stood out brightly.


    "Am I supposed to be a hero?" she said. She hadn''t been told outright, nor shown any prominent Dark Lord who needed defeating. She''d been given a place in this world with little explanation. It was a gift.


    Well, she had skills other than those that this System chose to mark. She knew chemistry, though it wasn''t clear if atoms and molecules even existed here. She had magic and definitely wanted to explore it more, but she could also apply what she knew from Earth to try improving this world. See what worked and what she could accomplish in one lifetime.


    [Skill gain: Flight (Agility)], appeared in her vision. She laughed, thinking about her unintentional practice just now. Whatever else she ended up doing, flying should definitely be part of it too.

 Special Delivery

    She came to a village of sod houses, like little hills. Most of the people working the fields were Centaurs, pulling plows, and all doors were built for them. Selen reached a pub called the Winter Hearth.


    She was there to drop off mail, mainly, but looked around at the spacious Centaur-centric furnishings. Hardly anyone was here this morning, but one Centaur was sitting at a high table with his back half on the floor and trying to force an axe-head onto a new handle. Looking guilty as he rapped the metal against the table.


    "Hey, careful," said the bartender, a Kobold with green-brown scales like old copper. "Bird, is that the mail?"


    Selen walked over and set down the stash. "This bundle here is for your town. I''m headed for, ah, Whispering Glen next so save anything headed back to Grandbridge."


    The Kobold rooted through the string-tied pack of little paper bundles, and pulled one out for himself. "You stare," he said, with a faint hiss to his voice.


    "I''m sorry. I haven''t had much chance to talk with Kobolds."


    "A city girl, yes. Fearful that we are all plotting against you."


    Selen waved her hands in front of her. "No, no! Just not familiar."


    The barkeep was compact and muscular, scaled as though perpetually armored. A pretty cool look, actually. Which reminded her... In the space between worlds, she had been given several choices of who to be, and had seriously considered becoming a Kobold. She said, "I haven''t been outside the city lately. Ran into some kind of tree-climbing thief critter last night."


    "Ha. A slinkeye. Did it steal much?"


    "I don''t think so. It stepped on me and woke me."


    "And you''re still here, so it didn''t bite you much. Good."


    Most of what she''d brought to this place was little boxes. Curious now, she said, "What exactly did I bring you?"


    The bartender seemed to be in charge of the pile or at least had made it his business to root through it. His claws cut through a bit of twine. "Letter from the Duke''s men, to pester us about farm progress no doubt. Gossip sheet. Medicine. Seeds of a different vegetable than we''ve tried here. Hopefully that thread my neighbor ordered. Ah, something from my cousin." He rattled a little wooden box and pulled out two magicite shards, glowing faintly.


    She stared at the thumb-sized crystals, a bit of magic being passed casually between towns. She said, "I''ve been talking with people in the city about printing. Getting books into more people''s hands. If it were cheaper, would that help people around here?"


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    His head tilted on his long neck and he peered at her from a different angle. "If nothing else, it would give a handsome letter-inspector more things to read aloud on dull nights. So long as they are not lectures from our betters."


    "I can understand that. What would you want to read?"


    "We have what we need here. We might buy a book of tales from far away."


    I could probably fill one of those, thought Selen, but she noted the market for just a single book. It didn''t occur to these people to buy several. She said, "Maybe your group could write one. Or something about how you do farming here with Centaurs."


    The Kobold''s tail twitched high and he drummed his claws on the bar counter. "Funny, bird."


    "I''m serious. You probably know some things that people in Grandbridge or a hundred miles downriver don''t, and maybe they''d want to learn. Think about it." She yawned. "I need to move on. If there''s no eastbound mail...?"


    The bartender looked through the package pile again, then met her eyes. "Not this week. If you do ever become a printer, speak with me again. It is odd to hear an outsider take an interest. Now, buy a meal and you can sleep here a bit; you look like you need both. You should still reach the Glen by sunset."


    She took him up on that and got in a nap before moving on. While nibbling on diced sweetroot chunks and cheese, she looked around the village. Almost all farms with just a few obvious shops like a smithy. A library was way too much to ask for. The people wore simple clothes of what was probably linen and used tools of iron. The most outstanding thing in sight was a public bath house along a stream, with a few attuned magicite crystals heating the water slightly. The farmers toiled through tall stalks of wheat just as they''d done for countless centuries in another world.


    "I want to give everybody better stuff than this," she said, as she walked and flew out of town. "But they''ll have to do most of the work."


    #


    She spent the long hike brainstorming. She''d been focusing on dyes or pigments where she left off, and knew by heart how certain types were made, along with historical tales behind them. A daring heist of red beetles. Roman laws about painstakingly harvested purple shellfish. The infamous green Victorian dye full of arsenic. It was foolish to separate the technology completely from its history, half because the background was so interesting and half as a cautionary tale. But here she was bringing ideas from a whole other world.


    While she was skimming along the ground and flying in low arcs, something slammed her in the eye. "Ack, ow, ow!" She spun out of control and crashed, getting mud on her clothes and scrapes on her hands. She''d gotten a bug in her eyes. Ugh! How did real birds handle that? She pressed on, grumpy.


    Only a dirt road with wagon ruts marked the way to Whispering Glen. As her shadow grew long ahead of her, she crested a hill and looked down into a valley of wind-rustled trees and a cliff face of brown and red. The wild forest gave way to apple orchards and stubbly grain fields.


    This village was mostly farmland, not surprising. A couple of Centaurs looked up from their work of planting, but there was a more obvious group of Kobolds and a few fellow Aves too. The birdfolk were tending basket-like hives of bees. Selen called out from a safe distance: "No protective gear?"


    "Feathers!" they said. They had goggles, at least. Selen watched them smearing goop on the hives, then moved on toward a log cabin marked with windchimes. A chilly breeze stirred them.

 The Dungeon Workout

    She found a shop that wasn''t the small-town inn and tavern she imagined. Though there was a room of tables and tankards, the main attraction was a display of swords and bows and armor. The shopkeeper, a young Human man, was busy counting coins.


    Selen said, "These weapons all look alike."


    The man completed a counting-stack and looked up. "They''re from the dungeon. Here to try your luck?"


    "I''m here to drop off mail." She regarded her muddy clothes and feathers. "And get clean."


    "Give me a minute." The clerk put his money away but for a small payment to Selen. He also had westbound messages and a small box. "Haven''t seen you here before."


    "I haven''t been outside the city much and I just learned to fly this year. So there''s one of those dungeons in town?"


    "Sure is. You''re welcome to see, down by the quarry entrance."


    "And you produce lots of weapons and gear for visitors?"


    The man shook his head. "No, most of this is made by the dungeon. Copied from objects lost there." He took two bows off his display rack and showed an identical scratch on each.


    Selen blinked. "That sounds more profitable than charging people admission to the dungeon itself."


    "Charging...? No, you can walk right in. So long as it''s not already in use and you don''t take more than one shard. Harvesting whatever else you find is good business, but of course it''s hit or miss or you could just get yourself killed. The Baron gets a share of course."


    Selen hadn''t investigated these living dungeons yet and really wanted to, but she was still too flimsy a bird to trust herself in one. "I might peek in," she said. "How much for those goggles? I saw the Aves wearing them."


    She ended up with a shower, and a sturdy set of tinted-glass goggles with a leather strap that wrapped around her head. Sunglasses! But there was little industry in this town, just a pottery shop and a smithy in sight. Getting free items from a magic maze sounded like a boon but it might be suppressing any real mass production.


    She hiked and glided downhill into the colorful cliffside area. Workmen were cutting stone from it. There was also a little stockade guarding a tunnel entrance. The half-height wooden gate showed a tag system and no sign of anyone currently using it.


    She went through to the tunnel entrance. It looked like an ordinary mine, from here. She''d heard of traps and monsters and a bizarre intelligence constantly creating and changing its threats in a symbiotic dance with explorers. These things fed on bloodshed and magic.


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    For now, Selen backed off, not ready for the challenge. "Someday, though."


    She stopped in at the quarry instead. The technology here was somewhat at right angles to her own. Men (well, mostly Kobolds) were tapping at the cliff with chisels. But one of them was stabbing into it with a jet of water, using a wand with one of the crystal shards worked into it. She stepped closer and watched. When the lizard-man paused she asked, "Why do people in the next village west of here, import magicite from the Grandbridge area, if you can get it right here?"


    The miner lifted the goggles he wore -- identical to her own -- to peer at her. "Depends on the spell. Ours are best for sonic effects. Better to use other sites'' gems for my work."


    "The dungeons create different types of gem? Neat. And what about the wand; does that do anything itself?"


    He snorted. "No, we only know how to strap a gem to a stick and chant at it."


    "I''m a beginner. Seeing how people really use magic is more useful than sitting with a book." Some instinct had told her not to boast about using a whole library.


    "Fine. You may watch."


    Selen pulled her new goggles on and watched him work, adjusting the tuning of the gem in a way she didn''t understand yet. The element called frost could create water, and people had the concept already of using a water jet in industry. It could probably be focused better, though. Zahar had rarely mentioned magic as part of his machine-crafting work and treated it like a completely separate field.


    She thanked the quarryman and headed back, hopeful for the prospect of people advancing their technology quickly from here. This society was close to something like an industrial revolution. Probably a good thing, but it was happening without her. It didn''t seem to need her.


    #


    She got back to Grandbridge without trouble and with a little profit for her family and herself. Now that she was both a Mage and a Craftsman, formally, she had more things to work on besides her actual job. And since she''d begun to strengthen herself physically, it was time to do some other training.


    For that, she worked out at the Dungeoneers'' Guild. (Intentionally, this time.) She''d paid a small fee for regular access, thinking of it as a gym membership. Uncle Meteor approved, though Bluemoon grumbled about it being "her adventurer phase".


    The Guild had a room just for fighting practice, where she''d worked with a staff and padded armor to get better at dodging. There was a regular, a Vulin girl in homemade patchwork armor, who liked to hop around on some balance beams to launch startling attacks from all angles. Selen sparred with her, asking, "Have you been to any dungeons yet?"


    The fox-girl breathed hard, leaning on her staff. "Last month my aunt snuck me out of my parents'' house to go to Whispering Glen. Oh, my folks were not happy. But I was with my aunt''s team, and we came back alive."


    "I poked my beak in there and said nope, not yet."


    "Good call, if you were alone. It''s a weird place. There are shambling things made of crystal that crumble to sand when you beat them, and puzzles of musical tones."


    "Puzzles? Are the dungeons intelligent?"


    She shrugged. "Smart enough to challenge people. Some are more fighting-oriented, or packed with traps or magical things. The magic stuff is beyond me."


    "I need practice with spells. Want to try dodging a basic zap spell?"


    "Sure!"


    Selen charged a bit of lightning energy between her hands, then chased the girl around with it. The Vulin said, "I thought you were going to throw the spell."


    Selen wasn''t sure how. She tried shifting the Mana, tuning it from lightning to wind, and pushed it out of her grip as though squeezing a bar of soap. A puff of air flew out and ruffled her opponent''s fur.


    "That''s it?"


    Selen shrugged. "I need more practice. Safer than lightning anyhow. Try dodging the next one!"

 Goblin Training

    The Guild''s main attraction was the practice dungeon. The full members usually monopolized that. It was like something from a game show in a country unconcerned with lawsuits: lots of falls, low-intensity flame jets (with staffers standing by to save unlucky contestants), and various swinging and falling things. Then there were the locks to pick and occasionally a volunteer Guild member to fight atop a tilting platform or in a cramped passage.


    One of those volunteers was Selen, paying her dues. One night she showed up and the guy in charge of training said, "Hurry; we''re short-handed. Put this on." He offered a ridiculous leathery green costume with a fanged hood.


    "I was just here to try --"


    He handed her a padded club. "Doesn''t matter. You''re Ambush Goblin #3 tonight. Get in place."


    Selen donned the heavy, padded cloak and took one of the side doors to enter the long, linear tunnel. She perched behind a fake stone pillar and waved to another hapless trainee. Already there were shouts and a thunderclap from up ahead, making Selen''s eyes widen. "How powerful?"


    Her fellow monster said, "Two guys, one a force mage. Jump him first."


    Selen laughed; it was her Vulin sparring partner again, trying to do a monstrous growl.


    Selen peeked through a slit in the false stonework. Any repeat customers had to know about the ambush. She hadn''t done this particular scenario yet but had gotten this far into the obstacle course, once. So right now the players were probably on the bridge.


    Sooner than she expected, a Human man leaped up two stairs and into view, wielding a huge shield. Selen and her companion hesitated, not seeing his friend. The warrior turned and swung a padded club at the other goblin, leaving his back exposed. Selen took the chance to leap and swing.


    Something struck her. She slammed sideways and skidded across the floor. A red Kobold with a wand and shield rushed up and aimed at her.


    "I''m down!" Selen said, raising one hand. [Health: 19/25], read her interface, and that was from one hit.


    "Down!" shouted the other minion under assault from the shield-bearer. She groaned as the man backed off and let her slump against a pillar.


    The two adventurers moved on to their final challenge, a heavily booby-trapped chest. Selen rolled over and accepted a hand up from the other goblin. "Ow. Thanks. That was over so quick I hardly saw."


    "They''re good. And a real goblin fights to the death."


    Selen watched the duo having more trouble with the box surrounded by nasty little spikes and spells than they''d had with her. "Haven''t seen one yet. They''re not real animals?"


    "Dungeon beasts. They don''t have to be sane."


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    "I don''t think I want to fight a frenzied murder-monster just to get a new sword."


    The "ambush goblin" pulled back her hood and grinned, exposing those sharp fox teeth. "I''m going to train more before doing another real dungeon raid. That and I''ve got an actual job."


    Selen nodded. "But I do want to try the real thing sometime."


    They watched the fighting duo solve the puzzle box and get cheered on by the bar patrons above. Selen asked, "Why do you suppose the dungeons exist?"


    "Gift of the gods, supposedly. Something meant to challenge us. They''ve got scholar types here in the Guild who study the things, to figure out how they grow. I''d like to work on a project like that, but there''s too much else to do, you know?"


    "I know the feeling."


    #


    Selen had set up a little laboratory. It was fine to have a dozen things going on in her life, but she''d cleared out one side of her small bedroom to be organized. On the desk she had several bottles and racks and an attempt at record-keeping and chemical processes. Or alchemical, as they said around here. The local word implied mystery and magic.


    It was a mystery to her, since she didn''t know how much of physics carried over. Her limited understanding of combat had taught her that losing a limb or suffering brain damage was almost unheard of, short of near-fatal injury. You could get beaten half to death in a dungeon and bounce back within days. Permanent scars were the mark of close calls. So did something as basic as blood behave the same way in this world as back home? The armor she wore in her practice sessions was rated as Armor 1 or 2, meaning it reduced each impact by only that much. People were more cavalier about getting hurt, if they could usually heal so easily. Even infection didn''t seem to be nearly as big a risk around here. That was great news, but it meant that she couldn''t make a big impact on this world by convincing doctors to start cleaning their tools. She had questions now about processes like baking and brewing, if microbes behaved differently here. Her basic medical training had focused on keeping the blood where it belonged, not on biochemistry.


    Selen shook her head, trying to clear it of her many distractions.


    There was a simple ongoing experiment: documenting the weight-reducing backpack. She hesitated to tell others about it, after hearing nothing about similar devices; it might get confiscated or lead to the Duke taking interest in her again. But she could still study it. Its magic effect was mysterious but measurable, and it was declining along an exponential curve. Several times she''d been spotted doing the weight tests and had to explain she was "testing some theories".


    Her main project this evening was ink. She''d used her connections with Aunt Tradewind and the Knowledge Society to get her talons on several varieties. Now she fiddled with the tiny bottles and with several bits of metal.


    "Still trying to invent something?" asked Dad from the doorway.


    "Pens!" she said. She held up her latest attempt at creating a ballpoint pen. "See, this bit spins and leaks ink at a controlled rate... Or it''s supposed to."


    "Keep at it," he said. "Just don''t make anything dangerous. You gave us all a scare, back in spring."


    She scratched her head, saying, "I think there''s somebody looking out for me. Did you ever hear more from the Duke?"


    "He''s been quiet. As long as he''s not interfering with our business, I can''t complain. Whatever the robbery was about, it''s over our heads."


    Selen stared into her tiny collection of experimental gear, including a borrowed magicite crystal. No angel had bopped her on the beak and given her a mission, which raised the question: "Why am I here?"


    She hadn''t meant to say that out loud.


    Dad ruffled her head-feathers. "Your purpose is something that you have to decide for yourself. Part of it is your geas; you''ve been trying to learn something daily, right?"


    "Yeah. It''s easy when you don''t know anything."


    "You''re young. It''s your time to figure out what you''re good at. Have patience." He patted her again and headed out, saying, "Good night."


    Selen nodded as he left, but there was one thing she did know about her life that he didn''t.

 Lost In Translation

    Maybe her intended purpose was right in front of her. The science. She''d been fiddling with this pen design off and on all week, and started to realize that both the ink and the tiny metal ball were inadequate. It was one thing to know about a device and quite another to be able to build it!


    But there were still discoveries to make. Selen switched to another project she''d been wanting to try. She filled a basin with water and fetched an empty beaker, first. ("Beaker" was another of those puns nobody but her could appreciate.) She added a little salt, clamped the empty bottle upside-down in the water, and used both her hands to perform magic.


    With her improving skill, she still couldn''t shoot lightning, but she could create voltage. Probably. She sank both sets of finger-talons into the basin and tried electrifying it. Her hands tingled as she tried to contain the energy without hurting herself this time. Sure enough, there was a distinct sense of energy flow between her hands rather than a vague "lightning power", and the liquid seemed to boil. Instead of growing hot, bubbles rose. She kept the spell going for as long as her Mana held out, several minutes of continuous low-level zapping. When the blue glow of Mana exhaustion obscured her vision, she said, "I''m a nine-volt bird-ery!" and carefully pulled her bottle out.


    "If my hypothesis is correct, this beaker is now full of explodium." She had been separating water into its components of oxygen and hydrogen, capturing the latter and a bit of chlorine from the salt, and she could now use it for a variety of experiments she wasn''t equipped to do. Or she could just set it on fire, but her family probably wouldn''t appreciate that.


    She carefully took it down to the basement, held upside-down in a metal stand. That was a tricky task since she had to hop over the section of stairway the family kept retracted at night. But she made it down, to weigh her bottled treasure on the postal scale. She frowned. "Not sensitive enough to tell."


    "Now what are you doing?" asked the Centaur employee, yawning and trotting over to her. Young Newroot wore silly-looking hoof slippers and a matching pajama blanket over his silvery hide and chest.


    Selen looked down at the scale. "Trying to measure a bottle of special air."


    "Special magic stuff?"


    "Not really. See..." She tried to come up with an explanation.


    Newroot chuckled. "I can''t sleep either. Want to go for a walk?"


    "In the city streets?"


    "Just around the Shrike. And I''ll kick anybody who bothers you." He thumped his chest.


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    Selen feather-smiled and nodded. She went outside to turn her beaker right-side up and let its little mystery escape into the moonlit night.


    "Going for an Alchemy level?" asked Newroot, as they walked away.


    "I think so. Oh, it''s your birthday tomorrow, isn''t it?" She was pleased with herself for not forgetting after Tradewind told her this morning.


    "Yeah. Then it''s training time for me!" He paused, staring at nothing. "Ha! Just got the System message. I guess I was born at night, so I''m eligible now."


    Selen offered a hug, and he accepted. It was strange to feel something like Human arms around her again, and she leaned up to rest her head on his shoulder. "Congrats."


    "It''s been great living with your family, Selen. I don''t know what I would have done otherwise. Gone down the river and looked for a place, I guess. But then Ma would''ve been alone."


    All of the family''s downstairs employees were a rotating cast of foundlings of one sort of another. None but Selen were formally adopted, and Bluemoon pretended he was only keeping them around as cheap labor, but Selen knew he was funding a party for Newroot tomorrow.


    Selen walked around the Shrike Tavern with him, listening to his muffled hoofbeats. "I''m glad you''ve been here. I''ve been feeling like I''m not from around here, myself, and I can''t tell Dad or anybody without sounding crazy."


    "You did get quiet about whatever happened to you. But you said you remember things?"


    "There''s more to it than that, but yeah." She paused, and blushed under her feathers. "Listen. Nobody in the whole world has ever heard this."


    She began to sing, if not very well. "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound..."


    After a verse, she felt Newroot staring, and looked up into his eyes. He said, "What language is that?"


    "It''s called English. It means... something I don''t feel qualified to try translating. But I remember stories, too, that nobody''s ever heard."


    "Like what?"


    She reached for something easy and fun. "I''m not sure how this lines up. It''s got different kinds of people in it, made-up ones. Guess I could name them using the real races. So. Once, there was a little Vulin living in a hill, comfortable and rich. One day a mighty Human with a robe and wizard hat showed up and asked if he''d like to go on a quest..."


    Newroot listened, his ears flicking back and forth, but then he laughed when Selen got to an early scene. "Well, that doesn''t translate! Don''t go telling it that way around any Kobolds."


    "Why not?"


    "Don''t you know? Kobolds are all crazy for Dragons. You''re describing it like the gang of Kobolds barged into the guy''s house and recruited him to kill their gods."


    She blinked. "I had no idea. Have to add it to my giant list of mysteries to solve." Come to think of it, she''d missed a hint about that when being offered those other lives to live.


    "Hey, you don''t have to keep it all to yourself. Even if it seems crazy, some of the music and storytelling is probably worth showing off."


    She looked into the sky. The Silver Moon was high and full, almost like a warm Earthly night, reflecting brightly on her feathers. The lesser Copper Moon peeked out from a cloud. "You''re right. Thanks."


    "We should probably get home, though."


    "Yeah."


    They turned and trotted back to the Two Hoots. Newroot grinned and suggested, "If the Alchemy thing doesn''t work and you want to tick off your family, tell them you want to be a Bard!"


    She laughed as they parted ways.

 Elemental Science

    "And so, we might call these five substances ''material elements'', and look for far more of them." Selen took a bow, blushing before the assembled twenty dilletantes of the Knowledge Society. She''d had a busy few weeks of doing the most basic tests she could think of, to recreate the periodic table. Now she''d come to the library-mansion for magically chilled wine, squishy cheese and wild speculation. Her chemistry talk had overtaken her calculus presentation; she''d save that one for next time. The goal here was to get respected and welcomed back for more meetings.


    Zahar the Vulin Engineer clapped politely. "These are interesting experiments, miss Selen. Not entirely original, but worth following up on. You didn''t speak much of the applications, though."


    "I''ve mainly been learning the basics. Got the Alchemy skill point. But next I want to work on dyes."


    An Elf with skin like bark asked her, "These ''elements'' you claim don''t seem as provable as the known elements of fire and frost and sound."


    "Ice shouldn''t even be an energy type. But if I can isolate a pure substance reliably, then until someone can demonstrate breaking it down further, it should be considered a fundamental type of stuff. It''s as real as a fire spell."


    "But the gods gave us a clear distinction between fire and lightning and so on. Not between your different flavors of steam. I have a specific bonus to the effects of my earth spells, an element recognized by the System itself."


    A Human scholar said, "Maybe she can get a boost to steam but only if it''s the right color." A man beside him laughed.


    Selen''s talons clenched. Science here was different, and people''s understanding of arbitrary "divine" rules probably held it back. Her isolation of hydrogen and a few other substances overlapped with known alchemy, but went slightly beyond the usual ideas about mixing various metals and odd liquids and spells. When the result of some bartending ritual was a "healing potion", most people were inclined to keep repeating the known good result.


    But hey, maybe this was the place to question that policy. She said, "I believe there''s a lot of room to experiment with the details of how these non-magical methods interact with spellcraft. Can we make a more effective potion, for instance, by understanding the specific processes that trigger the System to judge something?"


    A usually taciturn Human man in a grey cloak spoke up. "There''s merit to this approach. Miss Selen, I would sponsor your apprenticeship to the Mages'' Guild if you''re so inclined."


    "Thank you, sir. I can''t commit much time to it right now while I work on Alchemy, but I''d love to get more training."


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    Zahar coughed. "Miss Selen, I believe you had another topic?"


    "Yes! Right. I would like to see the Society get more involved in printing. Buy a printing press and begin producing simple reading primers and basic works of science and magic."


    "It wouldn''t do to have just any peasant begin flinging magic around," said the Mage Guild man.


    Zahar looked to Selen to respond. She said as practiced, "What you''d be doing is teaching the safe and responsible use of magic, and the idea that people with a talent for it should seek out suitable teachers. And that material would be only a fraction of the total content. You could gather insight from every village and compile that into more books to pass around."


    Another scholar said, "What good would it do to have a printing press for that part? Just go around collecting data on farming or some other topic, determine the best practices, and then inform each local lord."


    She felt these people had half of a good idea. "If we spread basic literacy and encourage people to read and write on any subject they want, that increases the pool of potential scholars who might come up with their own great ideas."


    "And customers for your postal business, eh?"


    Reading the crowd, Zahar said, "It''s an idea for another time, maybe. Thank you for bringing it up, though. We have other presentations tonight."


    Selen thanked everyone and sat, wondering in what century "another time" might be. The other Society members were mainly noblemen or others in the Duke''s good graces. People who''d already established themselves socially. She was the youngest by far.


    So she spent the rest of the evening listening politely and nibbling little fish she couldn''t afford at home. The other members were doing a good job for people starting at a low technology level. It really was educational for her to find out what they knew, what was different here, and probably some things she''d been ignorant of on Earth. For instance they had clockwork (and a specific skill for it) along with windmills and cranks and basic cranes. River traffic in a few especially tricky areas used ropes and winches. One noble was interested in breeding better crops, and she asked a few questions to try prompting him toward the idea of natural selection. There was some knowledge of geology, too. South of here was a spot where the Starry River had bounced off a huge boulder, gouged away the topsoil, and exposed mineral veins. Which led to speculation about "why the gods put the silver there specifically", and how to find other good mines. They were basically scientists here rather than pagan mystics.


    Which was great, although it made her own potential contribution smaller. Maybe? She couldn''t awe the natives by making a baking-soda volcano like her first grade-school science project. But she had a civilization with tools and materials ready-made to progress with.


    As the meeting broke up, Selen took Zahar aside. "They didn''t vote on admitting me."


    The fox''s ears drooped. "It wasn''t the right time to bring that up, after all. I sensed they didn''t like the printing idea."


    "But why? How can you be against more books?"


    "It''s a matter of where the Society puts its money and effort. And, crucially, whether the idea seems to come from an upstart commoner who isn''t even a full member yet. I apologize, miss Selen. I should have encouraged you to stick with the calculus presentation after all, and to save the suggestions for later."


    She told herself to have patience. "Fine."


    "Don''t be sour about it. You''re clearly fit to join; you just haven''t established yourself enough yet. I''ll formally invite you again next season."

 Level Up

    She sighed and nodded. "Thank you, sir. I''ll keep studying. One thing I''ve been wondering about: why there isn''t more machinery combined with magic?"


    "There aren''t that many people able to exert a powerful force by magic, compared to the might of a Centaur or a big Human or a Kobold brute."


    "I was on the receiving end of a force spell, down in the Dungeoneers'' practice hall."


    Zahar laughed. "But again, there are fewer good Mages than muscles. And while you can make a magicite shard hot or noisy or what have you, the sizes large enough to do anything useful outside of a wizard''s hands are rare treasures. I''d focus on more accessible inventions. A hundred decent non-magical drills are better than one good magical drill, yes?"


    Selen nodded. "That''s sort of what I was thinking about having more readers. But yes, that''s true for tools."


    She''d heard vague things already about experiments with steam, so maybe a steam engine could exist here -- or the strange physics would just make it not work. She wondered about gunpowder now and whether that was arbitrarily off-limits. Nuclear power? Electric power? She had too many ideas now, and too little experience and credibility. She went home feeling blunted, spread out across too wide a field. It might be nice to go downriver sometime and see where nature itself had proved the power of blasting one focused stream at something.


    #


    Couriers Sunflare and Newroot invited her to an early dinner at the Shrike with them, and with a pretty young Centaur mare that Newroot had met. Selen felt vaguely jealous, then realized she was on a double date, and got flustered.


    Sunflare told the newcomer, "Selen here built this game table. Want to play?"


    They took over the pool table. Sunflare had boasted about conning people into betting against him. Wooden balls clacked and bounced. Selen had sold two more of the simple games to other taverns at a slight profit, which she''d spent on snacks for her co-workers, but hadn''t quite re-earned the Woodworking skill. Both customers had asked her to copy that notch in the playfield that she''d introduced by mistake.


    "Let''s hear one of your stories," said Newroot.


    She thought back, and related something she''d already told to Zahar and his assistant. "After a civil war in a certain land, that nation was known for being clever Engineers. A club among those people worked with Alchemists who had a worrisome interest in explosions. One day, one of them said, ''What if we could build a device to blast ourselves into the sky, so hard that we fly from the world to the Copper Moon?''"


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Her friends laughed but she went on, trying to tell Jules Verne''s story in a way they could understand. The idea of intentional explosions was still unfamiliar to most, but the new Engineer class had gotten a reputation as mad scientists already. The culture was prepared for tales of the future being different and better, like some of Selen''s favorites.


    #


    On the first day of autumn, Selen had a new project to show off. After frustrating experiments with pigments that kept fading or washing out, she went to the temple with a brand new sash. This one had swirls of red and blue in a style nobody seemed to have heard of. Tie-dye!


    She beamed as a few townsfolk turned to look. She arrived in the crowded building to find a trio of Humans, a few years older than her, showing off the horned head of a scowling monster. "Where''d that come from?" she said.


    They''d come unarmed except for one man who had a dented shield and the other a bent spear, as their respective trophies. "A dirge-singer from Melody Bay, carried all the way here just to display it in a better town."


    "And because we live here," the spearman said.


    The priest on duty was obviously impressed, but ushered them over to the altar of the Triad gods to get their meditation over with. "Fighters all, yes?"


    "Of course."


    Selen tried to sit apart from them and concentrate on her own work, but kept peeking with one eye. All together, the trio reached the sort of enlightenment you could get from killing things. The silver hovering effect was real, yet another magical thing she had no way to explain.


    She shook her head. Come on, focus. She thought about her fancy cloth and the way she''d found the right chemistry to make it take up the colors and keep them through washing. She had ideas already for recreating Egyptian blue, an ancient color, if she could get a furnace hot enough. The work was alchemy, officially, but she was working within the System to see how much of her old knowledge applied. Not just copying knowledge but refining and adapting it.


    The System''s judgement soon appeared in her vision. [Learning +1! Craftsman level converted. You are now a Level 1 Alchemist!]


    She''d forfeited Craftsman to get a more specialized class she could raise later. Then she''d traded in Elemental Magic and Literacy, one point of each, plus one point of Healing Magic, a topic she''d studied a bit and wanted to improve. She''d also quickly gained a point of another magical area, the control of raw force. Her teacher, the man from the Knowledge Society, had basically shut the door to her further learning until she agreed to join his guild. But he''d seemed startled by how well she took to the lessons, or at least was trying to seem encouraging.


    She took stock of what she had now.


    [


    Selen Moonlit, Aves Female


    Mage 1, Alchemist 1


    Physical: Agility 1


    Mental: Learning 2, Wits 1, Sanity 2


    Social: Charm 1


    Feats: Slowfall


    Skills: Dodge (Agility), Flight (Agility), Staff (Agility), Hiking (Toughness), Bureaucracy (Learning), Elemental Magic (Learning), Force Magic (Learning), Literacy (Learning), Storytelling (Charm)


    Health (Toughness + Will): 25/25


    Mana (Sanity + Will): 45/45


    Stamina (Toughness + Sanity): 45/45


    ]


    Not bad for being only three seasons into this new life! She was hitting every possible chance to upgrade. It was a System-directed kind of progress, though, that kept her thinking about problems like the numeric cap on her magic skills. Or special abilities, which she hadn''t yet qualified for. Or the fact that each increased level required greater and greater deeds.

 Rubber and Symbols

    With her new level, she stood and headed out, but one of the three Fighters who''d been praying here with their new trophy stopped her. "I like the colors, Aves. Where''d you get that?"


    Selen smiled and tugged at her sash. "This? I made it myself. Earned my first Alchemist level with it, just now."


    "Think you could make me one like it?" He flashed a gold coin, considerably more than it was worth.


    "Sure!" They talked colors and size, and Selen went away whistling. A good start to an Alchemist career!


    #


    She worked and worked. The Two Hoots basement crew wanted to get in on the cloth-dying business because several other people wanted to buy the stuff, attracted by a hanging display that Dad put up in the inn''s common room.


    "It might be better to hire somebody else, if I have to expand," said Selen, sitting around that room on a slow night.


    Newroot said, "Aw, why? There''s money to make. You don''t think we can do it?"


    Selen twitched her tail and fidgeted. "It''d mean mixing business with family. Not just us being co-workers, but having our own side business."


    Red-feathered Sunflare said, "We could work on it together and have some fun."


    The Human girl chimed in. "There''s not much room for it though. Where would we even put the vats? Bluemoon was not happy when you got ink on those letters."


    Selen winced at one of her early mistakes. "I might have to commandeer space upstairs --"


    "Where I can''t go," said Newroot, tapping one hoof.


    "Or find a room for rent nearby."


    Sunflare said, "Maybe we can find someplace. If we do that, will you help us with the funding and the Alchemy tricks?"


    They all looked eager. Selen hated to turn them down. "Yeah, all right."


    #


    Selen pestered Aunt Tradewind for supplies. She was the one able to deal with the river traders bringing all sorts of goods along the Starry River and from inland. Some dyes from the sea were outrageously expensive, but she was coming up with alternatives that might make her a profit apart from the sale of finished cloth. She was already afraid of running afoul of the city''s small Tailor Guild. She might be forced to join that too, if she got too popular. But she didn''t want to be a clothier.


    [Skill gain: Fashion (Charm)], said the System one day, when she''d finished showing off wares to a friendly white Centaur mare who dealt in cloth. Selen snorted. "This isn''t why I''m here."


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    Up in her room, she paced, letting one of her experiments bubble. She turned in the little space, with her wings folded behind her. "So there''s the dye project. Basic chemical science to reinvent. Potion-making. The Mage Guild offer. Actual Mage levels. And that''s without recreating any books and getting more printing presses up, or making batteries or steam engines or doing anything at all to improve the lives of anybody. Dear God why did you put me here?"


    There was a soft knock on the door. Selen said, "Yes?"


    Tradewind leaned in. She wasn''t wearing her usual turban, which let Selen see the patch of ruined feathers on one side of her head where she''d been scarred in the war. "You''re muttering again."


    Selen blushed. "I''m scatterbrained. Wait! No, I am not going to let this boil dry." She turned to the chemical burner she''d rigged on her desk, and triumphantly shut it down at the right time.


    Tradewind said, "I was going to remind you there''s a big delivery run tomorrow. All wings on duty."


    She sagged. "I''d forgotten that. I''m overwhelmed."


    "It''s fine for someone your age to try many things, but maybe you should slow down. I don''t think you''re sleeping enough."


    "But I don''t know what to do. I could be of some use with a bunch of different things, but there are too many."


    "Your generation hasn''t got a disaster to focus on. Be glad. What you should do is pick just one or two projects for now." She tilted her head. "Perhaps one of them should have bright red feathers?"


    Selen blushed and covered her face. "I don''t even know. I should be in high school, getting shoved into lockers or something."


    "In what?" said Tradewind.


    Selen flapped in frustration, lifting slightly off the ground. "Imagine that you''ve seen another world with ten thousand things different about it, and you might be able to bring some of them here but you''re just one bird. What do you do?"


    Tradewind spoke quietly. "How clear are these visions you had?"


    "Enough that I know some of the history and alchemy. That''s why I want to recreate them."


    The older bird studied her quietly. "The gods can''t be expecting you to do everything. You have many years to work, so I still say to try a few things at a time. Remember that you''ll need to do more and more impressive feats to earn more levels, so that''s a good reason to start small."


    Selen nodded. Recreating some complex plastic would get easier if she had a stack of Alchemy levels, which she could only earn by easier projects. "I imagined I''d have one specific goal, though, if I was given all this."


    "The gods are mysterious," Tradewind agreed. "Be patient, and make yourself worthy of whatever comes." She patted Selen on the head and jumped off the balcony, to go out to her shop.


    Selen checked on her experiments once more. The latest beaker''s contents had condensed into a grey goop. She fished it out and dropped it, and it bounced. A form of rubber, as planned. As with some other things she''d asked about, it existed but wasn''t yet widely available. It was something, anyway! She might not do anything heroic with it, but it could make other people''s lives better in a variety of ways. Bouncing balls, raincoats, mechanical gaskets.


    Before going to bed, she shut everything down. She didn''t want to get blown up and maybe put some other soul in charge. But she also took up one of the more paint-like dyes she''d been working with, and drew on the inside of her bedroom door. A simple cross design, kind of a reminder. She might never learn why she''d been given wings. But whatever plan was at work, she should at least be diligent and grateful.


    Her feathers prickled and her cheeks burned. What if her family asked in detail about it? What could she possibly say to them? She''d sound insane. They knew nothing of the context. She picked up her brush again and modified the design, carefully turning it into an Egyptian kind of thing. A pair of scales weighing a toony heart and a feather, a divine judgment of one who''d earned an afterlife. That symbol was at least distanced from her own real culture, but still sort of true.

 Joining the Club

    She had another shot at joining the Knowledge Society, and dressed in her fine new sash. She''d also decorated the tips of six feathers on her right wing with dye, by accident, but it looked fashionable at least. It''d eventually wash out.


    She showed off her feathers, held together and then spread wide, as part of her lecture on calculus. "A continuous ink stain can in fact be separated into many small points..."


    It got a laugh, as planned, and her math lecture went over well. Most of the Society wasn''t sure what to make of it but she explained as clearly as possible, hinting at applications to engineering and alchemy and many other fields. Zahar had cleared time for her to then launch into her Alchemist work, in case that didn''t impress the group enough.


    So, she bounced a ball on the table, amusing everyone. She talked about her method of producing the rubber, but she was also feeling out how much trouble she might get into with the Alchemists'' Guild. Those guys hadn''t even sent anybody to this meeting.


    Zahar the foxy Engineer said, "I''m interested in the price of this material. I''ve tried a different version of it and found it useful, but expensive."


    "I''m onto something, then," said Selen. "I''d make more, if I can do that without some years-long apprenticeship."


    "We can speak to the Alchemists'' Guild about it."


    "Why haven''t they got anybody here in this meeting? Do they not care about knowledge and innovation?"


    The Mage rep who''d given her teaser-level training spoke up for the Alchemists. "There are traditional formulae, well-known types of equipment..."


    "But they could do better."


    Zahar said, "Probably. But it''s up to them how much they want to change their industry."


    "Why?"


    There was an awkward pause. The Mage finally said, "Young Selen, there was a rogue Alchemist a few years ago in Grandbridge. He sold ''healing potions'' at remarkably low cost, becoming something of a folk hero. But it was cover for his real business in poisons and his enthusiastic hobby of vivisection and amateur necromancy. My own guild had to get involved, after a string of disappearances. In the end, he and his associate hung on the city walls. That''s the sort of problem we each regulate in our own fields of study. I''m sure Guildsman Zahar could tell you stories of his own."


    Zahar stalled, nibbling on a pastry and flicking his ears backward. "Ours is a younger tradition."


    "But you will have problems if you don''t keep track of the people involved."


    Another of the attendees changed the subject to something about boats. Selen fumed quietly. There''d be trouble if she continued her experiments and didn''t sign up for yet another group, that one less interested in hearing from newcomers like her. In fact, she''d gotten the impression that half the respect she had was due to being from a "good family" if not noble. Which brought her back to the notion that there ought to be more education around here, which didn''t look likely to happen unless she pushed for that. Arrgh.


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    She had to push sometime, though. When the meeting was close to breaking up, she raised one hand. "I''d like to petition for Knowledge Society membership." It hurt that Zahar had once again not brought it up himself, probably judging that she''d put her foot in her beak again.


    The group''s chatter stilled. "With what field of study?" asked an Elf woman who specialized in geology and mining.


    "Mathematics," Selen said, trying to move that foot to get in the door instead. It wasn''t at all what she wanted to do long-term, but the value of "her discovery" so far was undeniable. If they wouldn''t acknowledge her value in alchemy and other fields... well. They didn''t recognize it yet.


    Zahar brushed back his ears with one hand as though hiding the way they wanted to flick and express his mood. He said, "I nominate her for the group. Her perspective will be valuable to us all."


    The other members kicked her out of the room, leaving her to pace and grumble in the hall. The math wasn''t even hers, just something she''d scavenged. The things she really valued from her past didn''t seem relevant or wanted here; this world had its own gods and kings and traditions.


    She took a breath and shut her eyes. No one else would ever really understand her. Still, she could do valuable service for this world just by relaying what she knew. She was a courier by trade, after all. Anything she accomplished in terms of new discoveries was just a bonus.


    Zahar finally stepped out with his ears high. "You pass. Congratulations."


    "Thank you!" she said, a little surprised.


    "You deserve it. Do try to lay low a little, for your next few meetings. My ears are burning; I know the others are now talking about me behind my back."


    "You''re worried they don''t really approve?"


    Zahar said, "We''re not disciples of pure reason. We represent various groups with their own agendas, and you seem determined to step on everyone''s tails." He sighed. "But that''s the way of innovation, isn''t it?"


    "I think so, yes."


    Her sponsor was an Engineer, part of a field that only existed as a formal discipline because the System had declared it so. Maybe the more established scholarly groups had some resentment.


    She added, "I think a lot of big discoveries are out there, waiting. The questions are when, and who benefits."


    "Then you understand the situation better than I thought," he said.


    #


    Selen continued doing too many things, including her actual job duties. The nice part was that she was trusted now to do some longer-range delivery trips including one to the east, out to a farming town in the middle of an autumn gourd festival.


    She got pulled into a silly dance and offered something like pumpkin pie, the closest thing to proper spicy food she''d had in too long. She got a little choked up.


    "You all right?" asked the old lady who''d shared a bit of the party food with her.


    "Thinking of home," Selen said. "Thanks. I''ve been too caught up lately in trying to be a wizard and other things that I hadn''t thought about my old family much."


    She patted Selen''s feathery shoulders. "Keep them in your prayers, if you''re distant. If it''s magic you''re interested in, maybe you should go to Summerhearth just east of here. The wizard Ralator is usually willing to spend a little time with students, if they''re polite." She frowned, though. "He''s a Kobold, though. Is that a problem?"


    "Why would it be?"


    The lady laughed. "That takes me back. I have some hope for your generation."

 Elemental Expansion

    By noon the next day she made it through a lonely forest trail to a mining-focused settlement. Nearly everybody in sight seemed to be one of the reptilian Kobold folk. Their scales came in at least half a dozen colors and ranged from nearly salamander-smooth to an armored grid she could play chess on. "Chess, yet another thing to invent."


    She saw the hues of various minerals in the stone and soil of the hillsides, and wondered what uses they might have. A geology degree was just one of the many things she lacked. If she had become that Kobold miner on the list of identities she''d been offered... well, it would''ve been a different life, and she wouldn''t have met the friends and family she had now.


    A tower shimmering with mirrors dazzled her during a short flight, even through her cool goggles. She landed nearby and looked it over. A focusing apparatus for a smelter. Neat, though she doubted it''d collect useful heat without lots of magic. The building stood as tall as the Two Hoots.


    She knocked on the door. Then staggered backward in pain; the metal knocker had zapped her! She was down a few points of Health.


    Then the door opened. A Kobold in a kilt stood there, his scratched and worn silver scales seeming to reflect hidden firelight. "What now?"


    Selen discreetly shook her stinging hand and attempted to bow with the other wing. "My name is Selen, sir, and I''m a student of magic. I was hoping you might deign to teach me something."


    "Didn''t I already?"


    Selen considered. "Expect a wizard to be well defended?"


    "Something like that. Hmm, I have a little time. Come in."


    The first floor of the tower held a laboratory of powders, bottles, burners and shakers. She said, "I''m jealous! You''re doing alchemy here? I have just one level each of Alchemist and Mage so far."


    "Planning to do both?"


    "I''m not sure yet. I''ve created a form of rubber and I''m testing a theory that there''s a set of physical elements comparable to the magical ones. So far I decomposed water with electricity to make a flammable gas."


    The old lizard opened his toothy jaw and paused, then laughed. "One of my old tricks is exposed! Ah, it was bound to happen eventually. And you did that at first level?"


    "I did, sir. I just got accepted into the Grandbridge Knowledge Society but there are guilds controlling how much I can learn."


    "Which is why I''m not a member of those. So they let a young one join? Surprising."


    "I''m told there was some debate."


    "Have you taken full advantage of the Society library?"


    "Can''t say I have, since there isn''t enough time to read it all. But I''ve learned the basics of wind enough to fly, and lightning enough to send a controlled zap through liquid, and enough force magic to push things a bit. I''ve studied significant healing but don''t have a skill point to show for it."


    Ralator raised one eyeridge. "How do you know much about that without the skill point?"


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "The System isn''t everything, and it''s not the same thing as real understanding. I... I know things that don''t fit neatly into it."


    "Such as?"


    Selen shut her eyes. "When examining a wounded victim, check first for airway, breathing and circulation, the ABCs. I guess that doesn''t translate. The patient needs to be checked for possible spine injuries before moving him. As a paramedic your role is to be a first responder who stabilizes people long enough for professionals to arrive."


    The wizard frowned, puzzled. "That isn''t the Healing Magic skill."


    "No, it''s medical training. I''m thinking back to the use of tourniquets to stop bleeding in emergencies and splints for broken bones, but there''s a lot I don''t know about infection."


    [Skill gain: First Aid (Wits).]


    Selen blinked. "And I just got a formal First Aid skill from reviewing what I know, somehow."


    "Better to be denied the prize a while and keep learning, than to get it quickly and stop. You''re an odd one, then, studying several subjects like that at once."


    "Magic and medicine and alchemy? They''re all related. I want to know how this world works."


    "And you don''t seem to be some idle noble''s child, or at least you''re not dressed like one. What is that colorful thing you''re wearing?"


    She tugged at her sash. "My own invention, sir. Anyone can make it with the right dyes."


    "Hmm. I can''t place your accent, not that I can tell silly birds apart very well."


    "I''m from the courier family in Grandbridge, lately, but I''m adopted."


    "There is some odd bit of Winter about you," Ralator mused, and Selen had no idea what he meant. He shouted upstairs, "Zat! I haven''t eaten today, I think. Fetch the other students and we will remedy this."


    #


    The wizard''s assistant ushered her to the local pub, a dimly lit place called the Crowned Sun where tattered banners and worn spears lined the walls. Ralator held forth there at a large corner table, discussing the magic of the elements. Most of the class were youngsters eager to earn their first few levels, putting Selen in good company.


    "The bird here is a good example," Ralator said in the middle of his lesson. "Greyfeather, demonstrate your wind magic."


    Put on the spot, Selen tried her basic spell that held motes of swirling air between her hands like captive bees. She held it, watching her Mana meter tick down.


    The wizard said, "Each of us is better attuned to some elements than others. As an Aves, she takes most naturally to wind. But none of us is innately limited. Girl, have you ever used the stone element?"


    "Not successfully."


    Ralator snapped his clawed fingers and pointed to one of his students. "Green, coach her through that one."


    A green-scaled Kobold frowned. "She''s an outsider." This one was a little higher-pitched and Selen took her for a girl.


    "All the more challenge, then. Have you got the skill to teach outside your own kind?"


    Selen''s fellow student impatiently gestured for Selen to hold out her hands, then did the same. The Kobold concentrated and made a flickering ghost of a pebble appear. Then several more in a constellation. "Like this."


    Ralator hissed. "Did I just say ''like this'' to you?"


    "Then, try to notice the weight of the raw mana. Focus on that aspect. Bring it forward."


    Selen concentrated. Mana was a vague thing by default, hardly real, a mutable idea.


    "Dream stuff," she said.


    The green one said, "Master Ralator says there''s no fundamental difference between the types. So focus on the most earthy feel of it."


    Selen squinted into her spell, and tried to make that solidity and weight more prominent. Other potentials like the tingly vibration of sound or the chill of ice faded away as the spell decided what to be. It flickered and turned to sparkling dust and gravel that slipped through her fingers onto the table.


    "That''s right," said the wizard. "Attempt all eight versions every so often even if you fail, and build up your flexibility. That''s more important in the long run than raw power."


    One of the other students said, "But you can blow things up!"


    "That was a long time ago."


    Selen knew, now, that whatever fireball spell Ralator might know was aided by hydrogen. She picked up a pebble. "If things like fire and light are types of energy, then isn''t this different? And it''s a specific kind of stone, but which? And the force magic I tried seemed to work with this neutral magic I start with, so does force really count as just another element?"


    Ralator chuckled. "You''re not the first to have these questions, but it''s good that you''d ask. For now it''s best to focus on the basics and save the advanced theory for later."

 Fire-Powered Ship

    Selen left town with more mail to carry, and the guilt that her family might worry about her for extending the eastbound trip by most of a day.


    The kind wizard had given her a lot to think about. The Knowledge Society generally treated magic and technology as separate fields and seemed not to understand when she proposed doing more. She''d run the idea of a steam engine by Ralator because of his strange mirror setup, and she knew he was open to the idea of using alchemy products to modify spells. But even he showed just mild interest, saying it "seems like more of an Engineer job".


    Selen hiked and flew enough that she regained a second Flight skill point and was probably close on Hiking. To get the Flight point she''d been slightly daring, seeing how high she could go while carrying these mail bags. Pushing both her Mana and Stamina. Once the extra power showed up she was at a new peak of flying skill, and could stay up a bit longer. Maybe Aves were the natural people to push for a combination of physical effort and magic. Then again she''d heard of Humans doing the magical kung fu thing in this world, and she knew their kind was capable of amazing progress.


    Sometimes. In some cultures.


    She headed home, dutifully practicing all the way. The System told her, [Skill gain: Elemental Magic 2 (Learning).] It was nice to have tangible rewards for that sort of work, but the points themselves didn''t get her the status and respect she needed.


    #


    She had hardly gotten home to check in with Dad and drop off the latest incoming packages, when it was time to wash up and prepare for a Knowledge Society meeting.


    The mansion was crowded tonight. Selen walked into a ground-level hall with a demonstration being set up. An Elven man in the grey and black livery of the Duke''s own servants was watching quietly. "What''s the occasion?" Selen asked Zahar.


    "Him," said Zahar, nodding.


    A Centaur man in long leather aprons was fussing about with something under a blanketed table. His assistant was a scrawny long-limbed colt who looked too young to use the System and had the same wild red mane. The hidden showpiece began to make clanking noises.


    At last the inventor bowed and said, "Thanks for your invitation. I am Firefern and this is Steamflower, studying to follow in my hoofsteps. It''s good to finally see the Grandbridge scholars in person. Unfortunately I wasn''t able to bring the Molten Dream all the way upriver, but I shepherded a smaller model. Behold!"


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    His son whipped off the blanket, revealing a toy boat. To Selen''s eyes it was a tugboat, with most of its deck taken up by a metal contraption. A wisp of smoke now trickled up from a stovepipe as something spun within. "Is that a steamboat?"


    The inventor said, "I''d been calling it a fire-harness paddle boat, but that''s a good name too. It''s just starting to boil, so we should see it move."


    The boy also pulled aside part of the tablecloth, revealing that the underside of the table held most of the device''s bulk. A tiny stove was burning charcoal and sending its heat up through pipes to the toy boat.


    Selen said, "We may want to open some windows."


    "Yes, good idea."


    Zahar nodded toward his Elf servant, who hurried to ventilate the room better. He said, "So, the fire energy of the wood turns it?"


    Firefern nudged his boy to do the talking. The son said, "Um, yes. The steam wants to rise, so it pushes past a wheel. And it''s like a little waterwheel or windmill that makes this bit wiggle." A rudder began to slowly flick back and forth on the toy, like a fish''s tail.


    The father opened a compartment to show that three red crystals were there, too. "In this demonstration unit I''m using lesser shards of magicite to provide extra heat. On the real boat, we use a greater shard."


    Which wasn''t easy to get, Selen knew; they were legally the local lord''s property, and "mining" them meant dungeon-delving.


    The Mage that Selen had been working with said, "But you''d just have the crystals sitting there, shedding heat. It''s not a spell."


    "Yes. Heat is a form of energy, and we can harness it just as we do the flow of water or the pull of muscle."


    Zahar didn''t have the intimidated look of the Mage, but his tail still lashed uneasily as the machine grew louder and emitted smoke as well as steam. "All this rumbling to move a toy?"


    "It can move a real boat already. A similar device could move your drawbridge, or lift heavy things."


    "It seems like it relies on resisting all this boiling heat, this vibration; I half expect it to shake itself apart."


    The boy muttered, "Wouldn''t be the first time."


    Selen felt upstaged. What did this world need her for, when this sort of thing was already happening? From the skeptical tone of the speakers she felt the need to step in, anyway. She said, "This device is going to depend on getting reliable parts carefully made to the right shape. Alchemy might help with that, for better seals and heat resistance. But I''m sure you''re onto something important, sir. ''What use is a newborn baby'', right?"


    "Alchemy!" said one of the Society members. "Are we going to just throw every academic discipline at the thing to make one device work correctly? Maybe we can tighten the bolts by throwing your math equations at it too."


    Selen faced the scholarly Elf who''d spoken, and told him, "Yes. Yes, a rigorous study of the math might make it more reliable. Isn''t that what we''re here for? Alchemy and magic and mechanisms aren''t completely separate languages. What if we could make, oh, a steam-powered saw to cut trees, or a wagon that rolls along without horses?"


    Firefern said, "I''d been wanting to try the wagon as well."


    "But we have horses," said the Mage.


    "I can pull a plow myself if need be, but even I would love to have one that hauls its own weight. It''s just a matter of time and funding." He grinned viciously. "Would anyone like to bet that in one year''s time, I can''t show you a more reliable model?"


    Selen wouldn''t take that bet; in fact nobody did.

 Get Equipped With...

    She was sitting around at the Shrike, drinking weak beer with her friends. "It makes what I''m doing feel pointless."


    Newroot was busy with a salad. "It sounds like something from one of your stories."


    "Yeah, sure, but that means these things don''t need me involved. Sure, I could probably sell parts like the rubber I made, but if I don''t there are plenty of other Alchemists. My special knowledge doesn''t matter."


    Sunflare was abstaining from the beer lately, saying he''d "trained enough". He leaned back in his chair, occasionally flapping for balance. "Just because the gods told you strange things doesn''t necessarily mean you''re meant to be the only important person around. In fact, are you sure you''re not meant to be a Bard?"


    Newroot said, "Could you tell us anything you remember about ships like that?"


    "Maybe that''s the point," Selen said, fiddling with her drink. "Share what I know, hope it inspires somebody. I can tell you already that ships like that are prone to exploding if you don''t know what you''re doing."


    "So he''s wrong to build them?"


    "Not at all. It''s just dangerous to get started." She nibbled on a kebab. "Imagine that these ships become big and reliable. Think about what that does. You can sail against the wind and current, you can carry huge cargoes, and you can explore the whole world or ride to another continent just to look around."


    She talked about bits of history, war, exploration, trade, the work of missionaries and the building of canals. Her friends listened, looking puzzled.


    Sunflare eventually said, "You have this all worked out in more detail than I''d expected."


    Selen shrugged. "It''s one thing to talk about a single ship, and another to think about what happens when there are a hundred. We might be in for a future where that happens and more, and it''s best to plan for it. Just for starters, the Two Hoots business could expand much farther." Rolling her eyes she added, "Maybe that''s my purpose. Founder of Feathered Express... gah, the pun doesn''t work."


    They looked at her strangely. As everybody would, for the rest of her life. That''s me, the crazy outsider.


    #


    The first day of winter came to Grandbridge. Selen sat in her room, holding a borrowed magicite shard. The stone was about two inches long, hexagonal like quartz, and it emitted a frosty chill that numbed her fingers. She concentrated and its pale blue glow darkened, drawing in light until it was surrounded by deep black fog. Then she tuned it again and felt it prickle with barely contained voltage, glowing yellow-white like lightning.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "So this is my future," she said. She''d finally mastered the trick of tuning the gems herself, a worthy feat for any junior spellcaster.


    Which was her best path in life, it seemed. Not trying to climb the infinite mountain of starting a technological revolution, because others were already doing that and her role was small. Maybe she could contribute something, so long as she didn''t expect to be hero material somehow. Her real accomplishments were going to be in the slow spread of education and maybe this world''s attitude toward commoners like her.


    Selen dutifully went to the temple to improve herself. There, she sat before the altar of these alien gods and tried to clear her mind. She had gained a skill of Meditation and was using it now. She''d also taken lessons in the pushback skill called Repel Magic, and tormented herself to learn Resist Hunger. Those were all Will-based skills, good for more Health and Mana when she spent them -- which she did right now. [Will +1!]


    As she''d been told to expect, increasing a class made another benefit appear.


    [


    Congratulations on your second level of Mage! Select a feat as your reward. Details available by focusing on an option.


    -Updraft Mastery: Maintain an upward wind spell efficiently, at half the Mana.


    -Amplified Darkness: Dark spells create twice the effect for 50% more Mana.


    -Stabilize: An easy emergency healing spell to prevent death.


    ]


    It was nice, at least, to see the System''s mystic benefits for playing by its rules. The first option would give her better flight with her Rising Wind spell, and a boost to whatever else one could do with an updraft. The second choice would empower that darkness element, which still puzzled her. It seemed like an absence of energy, yet acted as a clinging, syrupy fog with its own uses. It''d be interesting to explore more. The third offer, the healing power, was a nod to her old life''s skills. She''d done little with healing in the last year.


    She thought back to her first appearance in this world, in the spring. It''d been a good time so far. Flight felt like the best thing to improve, for now, because it was part of this new identity. And if she kept going with wizardry there''d be plenty of chances to learn different powers. She picked the Updraft Mastery power, then sensed its inoffensive fine print like a flicker of wind beneath her. She felt vaguely sturdier as well from the extra Health. Then came her updated profile, showing the numbers.


    [


    Selen Moonlit, Aves Female


    Mage 2, Alchemist 1


    Physical: Agility 1


    Mental: Learning 2, Wits 1, Sanity 2


    Social: Charm 1, Will 1


    Feats: Slowfall, Updraft Mastery


    Skills: Dodge (Agility), Flight 2 (Agility), Staff (Agility), Hiking 2 (Toughness), Bureaucracy (Learning), Elemental Magic 2 (Learning), Force Magic (Learning), Literacy 2 (Learning), First Aid (Wits), Fashion (Charm), Storytelling (Charm)


    Health (Toughness + Will): 25/35


    Mana (Sanity + Will): 45/55


    Stamina (Toughness + Sanity): 45/45


    ]


    Less than four seasons lived so far. Four levels gained, counting the one she''d converted to Alchemist, and four stat points earned. Plus various skills waiting in her wings to be upgraded or traded or whatever. In the System''s terms she was doing wonderfully.


    She wondered what it was that the System had seen in the original Selen, and what her own God had seen in her, and whether there was any meaning in it. She could at least find her own meaning.


    For now, she prepared her formal application to the Mages'' Guild to better fit in with her new people.

 Words From Beyond

    There was much studying to do to prove herself to other Mages who hadn''t already met her. Her main wizard contact in the Knowledge Society sponsored her, citing her "unusual insight", but also seemed worried she''d be snatched up first by another group. The Alchemists around here weren''t much competition for Selen''s excitement because they seemed more interested in control than in improvement. The Engineers just weren''t where her talent lay, though maybe she could convince Zahar to look more into incorporating magic into machinery. A darkness spell could, as a strange example, act like oil. "Change your Mana every 5000 miles," she muttered.


    "Huh?" said Newroot, sitting beside her with Sunflare at their usual table in the Shrike Tavern.


    Selen startled out of her daydreaming. With one hand she''d been sketching a molecule of carmine dye, a mass of hexagons. "Thinking about magic and engineering."


    The others had gotten started on their own planned careers. Newroot still dreamed of being a Fighter and had taken a level in it through training with the Dungeoneers, but had waffled about whether to take the decisive step of formally entering the city guard or volunteering for the actual army. (Selen still had little idea how it worked, as the politics around here wasn''t high on her priority list.) So he''d chosen to take a level of Agent for the moment, the versatile class that her business employed as messengers.


    "I''m now in my third season with the System," he said, "and I don''t know what to do for a third level. I may have to sit out and not gain one this time."


    "Kind of a shame," Selen said.


    "For a second level of Fighter, I''d need to do some actual battle. Can''t just earn it with another practice session. Unless maybe it''s a really tough one. And for more Agent levels I don''t even know what I''d need to do."


    Sunflare, sitting beside him, was more determined. He was a bit older than Selen and had three levels of Agent already, meaning that he''d missed his chance to advance in the fall. He said, "A tough delivery run, like a rush job or a heavy load -- heavy by Centaur standards of course."


    "Or actual sneaky stuff, right?"


    The red Aves preened worriedly at one wing. "Yeah. I haven''t had much opportunity for that. Or I could try specializing into Merchant. I still don''t know what I''m doing. You''ve suggested going for Mage as a second class, but what if that''s a dead end for me?"


    "It can''t hurt," Newroot said. "Just go for it and if it fails, drop it and pick something else."


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Selen volunteered, "I can certainly go over the basics of magic again." She had been teaching whatever she could to the basement crew, along with basic math that''d help them if they went into business.


    Newroot asked Selen, "How come you were never interested in being an Agent and going to Merchant like your dad and aunt?"


    "I felt like I can do more this way. Had big ambitions about inventing things."


    "Because of the visions last spring?"


    She nodded. "But now, focusing on magic and building up a reputation probably matters more."


    Newroot said, "I guess I could try Mage also, but then I''d have three classes and that would start making it harder to improve any of them. Maybe it''s time to try a dungeon trip, to learn more about what we''re good at."


    She feared the two of them just weren''t getting as much out of the System as they should. The need to keep finding bigger and bigger achievements caused most people to plateau too early with their class levels and not necessarily even get every possible stat point. Selen added, "Both of you can get farther in whatever you''re doing. I want to help."


    A stray phrase caught Selen''s attention, off to one side. A grinning Human in beat-up leather travel clothes was earning his dinner by telling a story to a mixed group at his table. The man said, "Then Mister Land asked about the strange armor aboard the Nautilus, and Captain Nemo said, ''With these suits you can walk around beneath the sea.''"


    Selen fell out of her chair, recovered, flapped, and crashed feet-first onto the far table. "What did you just say?!"


    The dinner crowd had scattered in fright. Selen''s left foot was shredding a salad and beer had pooled around her right. The storyteller had jumped backward and reached for a knife, saying, "Whoa, girl! Whatever you heard, it was no insult."


    Selen''s feathery cheeks burned and her toe-claws squashed through the food. "Oh God, I''m sorry. It''s just..." She looked back at her equally startled friends. "You two! Did I ever tell you a story about Capain Nemo and the underwater ship? It had a tentacle monster and a whirlpool; you''d remember it."


    A wide-eyed Newroot shook his head. Sunflare said, "No...?"


    Selen turned back to the talespinner, barely avoiding a basket of bread. She looked down and said, "Then who told you?"


    The man let go of his knife hilt. "I heard it on the river."


    "What else? What other stories did the river tell you?"


    Newroot had trotted up and tapped at Selen''s tail. "You might want to get down."


    She hopped down, but still had eyes only for this traveler. "Please, where exactly?"


    Her target slicked back his hair and brushed lettuce off his shirt. "There''s a bar in a town called Shieldpoint south of here. They''ve had some weird stories the last two times I stopped by. There was this one about knights with glowing swords and flying ships, and one about a different flying ship that goes to other stars."


    "What was that other ship''s name?"


    "Venture."


    She was pretty sure it was the closest translation for Enterprise. Selen quivered, her wings and tail twitching. "I didn''t tell anybody those stories."


    "What''s wrong, kid?" asked the man. Her friends had gathered too, with the same question.


    "Unless I''m greatly mistaken, I''ve just been slapped upside the head by some god or other." She looked at the disrupted dinner. "I''m sorry; can I pay to replace some of that?"

 The Reply (Ending!)

    Selen found Bluemoon tending to the inn customers on the ground floor. She fidgeted and grabbed him at the first opportunity to say, "I''ve got to go south to Shieldpoint tomorrow."


    Sunflare and Newroot had followed her home. Bluemoon looked the three over and said, "You look spooked. What happened?"


    Newroot said, "She heard someone telling stories like hers, and started jumping on tables and interrogating a guy."


    "It was only one table," said Selen.


    "Okay, but why?"


    She covered her eyes with her hands and took a few deep breaths. "These things I remember, the vision I had this spring. I''m not the only one. Not alone in this. I have to find the storyteller."


    "And do what?"


    Selen wrung her hands. "Bluemoon... Dad... I''ve been wondering ever since the spring, why I''m alive and living here. I have to know if there''s someone else out there who had the same thing happen. The same shared dream, let''s say. So let me fly south and find out."


    Bluemoon said, "Silly owlet, there''s no need to panic. Whatever the gods may have wanted with you, you''re safe here. We can chase down this rumor when it''s safer to travel."


    "What if whoever it is, leaves town?"


    Sunflare stepped forward. "I''ll go, then. I can travel faster, and there''s mail due to go south soon."


    Bluemoon clapped Sunflare on the shoulder. "If you''re willing, then find this storyteller if you can. Hopefully it''ll help settle Selen down."


    Sunflare turned to Selen. "Is that good enough? You shouldn''t rush off to a place you''ve never been, to find somebody you don''t know, when you''re this flustered."


    She sighed, wanting to argue. "You''re right. Thank you. Let me write a letter before you go."


    "You didn''t think I was going to leave right this minute, did you?"


    She blinked. Bluemoon ruffled her head-feathers and answered for her. "She wouldn''t be that demanding, I''m sure. Let''s all get some rest."


    #


    Selen couldn''t sleep. She paced in her room, looking at a blank sheet of paper. What did you say to somebody in her position? If there were someone else from Earth, that changed everything! She wouldn''t forever be thought crazy for knowing these strange outside things. And she''d had a burden on her all this time to decide how to use that knowledge. Was it all pointless, not some plan of God but a whim of whatever force called itself the System? It seemed that there was some rhyme and reason to it after all, even if she still didn''t know quite what. She wouldn''t be alone. Not the only one with the potential to invent and reconstruct things from home.


    She looked at the painted design on her door, which she''d never been able to adequately explain to her new family. Even the heart design wasn''t a standard icon around here.


    Maybe the exact reason she''d been chosen, didn''t matter. The idea that there was more than one person like her, was its own kind of message. It was an opportunity to start working together and seeing what they could build.


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


    Selen started writing, scowled, and scratched it out but saved the paper. She started with a fresh page, and this time she wrote in English. She''d used it sometimes for her more private notes. Now, the mysterious alien language was not just a way of hiding her feelings, but a way to share them with someone.


    "You might call me a Moonlit Messenger. If you can read this, I''m betting that you had a really bad day and got invited by a gloved guy to stand in for someone. We should talk..."


    And who was this guy? There were those other lives she''d been offered as options. The princess? The Kobold? Someone else entirely? And what kind of person on Earth had been plucked out of that life to come here? "Please, God, let it be someone good."


    She wrote a little about her skills, her family, her Earthly chemistry studies. What else could she say? She babbled a bit and finally wrote, "God be with you."


    No. She was being presumptuous. This might be somebody who''d hate and fear her, call her a crazy bigot or something just for being a believer. No need to start off on the wrong foot with a total stranger. She scratched the message out and just wrote, "Good luck!"


    Only then was she able to sleep, fitfully, several times waking to look out at the moons. Just how many worlds were there, and how many people had been flung from one to another to cross-pollinate this greater kingdom of Heaven?


    And how hard would it be to get pizza delivered at this hour?


    Selen giggled, chirping. There was someone in the world who might appreciate a stupid idea like that.


    #


    She saw Sunflare off with a hug the next morning, and with a little joke to go with the letter. "He or she will probably want to throttle me. But then I''m making assumptions about who it is, where he''s from. Has to know some of the same tales."


    Her messenger pulled on a wing-compatible sweater. He rubbed his beak against hers, making her blush. "Don''t wear yourself out speculating. I''ll find out what I can, and then you''ll have answers about whatever''s going on."


    "Thanks again."


    #


    Selen felt she was lurching along. Sometimes pacing uselessly, sometimes intent in study. Anything she knew might be useful, after all. A single educated person from Earth might not do much, but maybe two could. If this other was science-trained too, and if he cared and if they became friends.


    And what about those other prospective lives; had there been other cases like an Elf princess mysteriously having a narrow escape from death? She asked around with more enthusiasm than she''d ever had before, but couldn''t get clear answers. There was a wizard who''d been blown up in the eastern lands, for instance, but whether he survived, nobody knew.


    She tried to make herself useful with mail filing and short delivery runs. She didn''t dare leave town and miss Sunflare''s return. And there were spells to study, alchemy ideas to think about, and books to browse in the Society library.


    One frigid morning around a week later, Sunflare returned and whistled outside Selen''s door. She rushed to open it, saying, "What happened?"


    He laughed. "Can''t you buy me a drink first?"


    "Oh come on! Quit stalling!"


    "All right. In short, there''s a Vulin boy about your age who made those stories up. He seemed just as shocked as you were, to hear someone like him existed." He handed over a letter.


    She read it, the first words in English she''d seen in anyone else''s hand in far too long. "Vonn," she said, greedily absorbing details about a young inventor who mentioned things like ''the Net'' and who wanted lenses and rubber and a hundred other widgets for his work. This was someone who knew of a world with many wonders and who felt motivated to try sharing them.


    "Thank you," Selen said, shutting her eyes. To this unknown friend, to God, and to the Aves who''d been watching her. "I''m not alone."


    "You never were," said Sunflare.


    "I definitely owe you that drink," she said. "Let''s go."


    They took off from the balcony together into the morning light. She had a hundred little things to do, but they might be multiplied now into something that really mattered. And these wings that carried her over the city, this new life and the friends and family she''d been given, were a gift she wanted to repay. Fly. Explore. Create. Bring the best of your old world to the new. Not exactly a clear divine command, but it was a meaning she was happy with.


    Selen and Sunflare circled the tavern a few times for fun before landing, worn out and full of things to talk about.


    The End