The 8th & 9th of Aggrave, Year 373 P.R.F. (High Lunar Cycle)

  The Cetimos Ministry of Summoning’s Testing and Isolation Facility #2, on the outskirts of Drebos Altimas

  When Rudolpho and Lady Elutria made their way back to the abandoned circle of chairs, Hesra had excused herself and left to have a quiet word of her own with them. I’m not sure exactly what she said, but it seemed to result in a change in plans. A quick working from Rudolpho unsealed a portion of the patio floor, revealing a staircase that descended back into the tower’s interior.

  I was asked to join them again, and they led me a short distance to a new hallway, one lined with pleasant instead of intimidating doors. One, halfway along, was opened and explained to be my room, while apparently Lady Elutria and Hesra occupied the rooms on either side. They offered me food if I was hungry, which I wasn’t, was told I could knock on either of my neighbors’ doors if I needed anything, and then they left me in peace.

  There I sat quietly on the bed and watched the sun for a while, as it finished its journey across the sky and began to set for the night. I don’t recall thinking or feeling anything in particular as I sat there. I just sort of drifted.

  When the sun finally disappeared from the sky, the sky itself grew increasingly dark. Stars came out. Stars arranged in constellations I’d never seen, nor would anyone else ever see on Thersia, no matter which continent they stood on or which season they peered up at the night sky.

  Eventually, I could no longer see the foreign arrangements of stars for my tears. Curling up on my side, too exhausted to bother with getting under the sheets, I slept.

  *****

  Morning came early for me, heralded more by my empty stomach than the sun’s rays. Or maybe that had more to do with the positioning of the sun and the mountain at my back, given where on the horizon I had watched the sun set yesterday. Either way, it was at least light enough out to obscure any unfamiliar stars. They were still there, of course, waiting, but I could ignore them to deal with other things for awhile.

  Rising, I checked my appearance in the mirror. It's not that I expected to see anything amiss, but yesterday had continually startled me with one surprise after another. If nothing else, I'd prefer not to share Lady Elutria's tortured hairstyle, even unknowingly. Thankfully, the person I’ve always been was reflected back at me.

  Short, tan fur and bright green eyes. A few darker stripes in the fur framing my face well complimented my pointed hedrex features, if I do say so myself. A pair of crafters’ lenses perched carefully on my nose, mostly held in place by some clever extensions from the nosepiece, hidden from casual sight beneath my fur. But a thin chain extended from the outer edge of one lens, following the line of my cheekbone. The small but sturdy hair clasp on the other end ensured that I wouldn’t lose my good lenses if the nose piece lost its grip.

  My hair itself was about mid-length for a woman, mostly tucked up at the back of my head. My triangular ears rose up through my carefully arranged hair like a pair of volcanic islands rising above the sea. And if I wasn’t careful, sometimes they could be just as active. Long practice had allowed me to still them largely into immobility. No other hedrex would see me as a mature adult if they were always twitching this way and that, and most of the longer-eared races of Thersia judged matters in the same light as well.

  My face and clothes may have looked familiar, but nothing about the room reflected behind me did. Someone had used multiple different kinds of wood to create artful bands of natural color along the walls. Cloth hangings broke up the expanse of the wall here and there. No images or scenery was depicted; just patterns in various colors. The wooden furnishings that occupied the room tended more towards solid construction than delicate touches, but much like the walls they employed multiple woods with a variety of natural colors, which kept them from feeling as dark and heavy as they might have.

  I might go so far as to call the whole effect… kind of pretty, even if it wasn’t home.

  My stomach had no more patience for my ambling thoughts than it did my sleep, however, so I steeled myself for the possibilities of a new day and stepped out into the hall.

  *****

  The hallway forced me to confront a new conundrum. I had been told to ask next door if I needed anything. Supposedly, behind one door was Hesra. I wasn’t sure exactly what hour of the morning it actually was, though, and I’d rather not disturb her if she was still asleep. But behind the other door was Lady Elutria, and asking her about breakfast… was not to be considered at all.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  The trouble was, I had absolutely no recollection of which door was who’s.

  Chided along by another angry message from my stomach, I picked a door at random and went to knock… Nope! Can’t do it. I could not deal with Lady Elutria right now, and wasn’t about to take the risk. Turning away from both doors, I headed off down the hallway away from the stairs we’d arrived by, in search of new things to sample. Particularly food.

  *****

  “Uhh… you can understand me, right? So are you okay in there?”

  “Yes, I’m fine! I’ll be out in a second!”

  Some indeterminate amount of time later (too much later, too hungry) and my explorations had located a lounge of some sort. Also what appeared to have once been an arcane laboratory, but was now just an empty room with mysterious stains on the walls and floor (and one bright blue stain in the vague outline of a person, somehow on the ceiling itself, that didn’t bear thinking about). And after finding a hallway that doubled-back behind the lounge, what was almost certainly a kitchen.

  A kitchen seemingly bereft of food. After checking various drawers and cabinets, I returned to one doorway that seemed like it ought to be a pantry, at least in terms of size and placement. It had been stacked with pots and other cookware when I checked it the first time, but I had noticed a spell pattern I didn’t readily recognize carved into the back of the pantry door. When my search still hadn’t turned up anything edible, I became convinced that this working must swap the contents of the pantry with an alternate space, one in which all the ingredients must be kept. Granted, there was very little I could interpret of the working to support such a theory, but I was hungry, gosh darn it!

  Parts of the spell pattern extended beyond the edges of the door, and I had shoved my head amongst the clutter to see what shapes they contained. Unfortunately, the small hill of cookware had resented my intrusion and decided to exit the panty under its own power. That power being gravity. Which presumably is what drew Master Thomas to this kitchen, unless he was also hungry and knew how to make this dratted pantry surrender its food!

  I backed gently out of the pantry and hoped against hope that Thomas wouldn’t be able to recognize the signs that a hedrex is deeply mortified (hint: it doesn’t involve blushing but can still be spotted from across a room, if you know what to look for). I hadn’t met any hedrex in this world yet; near as I can tell all four of the mages I’ve met here so far are human. But if I’m lucky, the local hedrex are no more inclined to share our more embarrassing tells with other races than hedrex back home.

  “So… was there something you were trying to clean?” he asked.

  “Clean?”

  “Since that’s the wash closet, yeah. You know, stack it full of dirty dishes, channel your magic into the sigil, remove clean dishes? A wash closet?”

  “I… Oh.” And if I thought I was mortified before… Some master of the magical arts I am. The emblems for renewal and purity were plain as day, now that my hunger-addled brain wasn’t trying to force a resemblance to an extra-spatial conjuring.

  “So not cleaning?” Whether he could read my body language or not, he definitely was trying hard not to laugh at me. At least, not aloud. I’m pretty sure the battle not to laugh at me at all was well and truly lost, assuming he had tried to fight it at all.

  “I was trying to make something to eat.”

  “With what?” he asked, which means the smirking jerk knows the kitchen is devoid of food.

  “If you have any suggestions, I’m open to hearing them.”

  Instead of a third smart aleck remark, he turned away with a snort and started walking away. I followed to see where he’d lead. Either there would be food in short order, or he could be food in short order. I’d never considered eating another person before, but I was in a new world. It seemed important to be open to new ideas.

  Eyes narrowed, focused intently on my provisioner or my prey (as circumstances dictated), I once again set off in search of food.

  *****

  In the end, Master Thomas lived to snark another day. It was a very near thing, though. He led me to a small dining hall in a completely different part of the tower, and one with its own kitchen. Apparently, however, this kitchen still wasn’t stocked with anything immediately ready to eat, so I was forced to sit and wait while Thomas cooked us something. I entertained myself by imagining Thomas’s arm suddenly dropping into the sizzling skillet he kept shifting as he worked. It’d probably taste terrible, but at least I would finally feel full again.

  “You were hungry. Or else you eat more than most people I’ve met.”

  A suggestion fully worthy of a kick, but either gratitude for the meal or a mini-food coma stayed my wrath… this time. I don’t know exactly what he prepared; it wasn’t a dish I recognized. But it was a hot meal, rich and savory and most importantly, filling. Asking questions about what was what would have been time wasted, when the most important thing had been inhaling any and all food within reach.

  Now, however…

  “Master Thomas, why am I here? Why was I summoned? What is this all for?”

  He flinched just as hard as if I had kicked him.