"Amelia, may I speak to you for a moment?" Neetu had come over while I was sitting at breakfast with Erci and Raven, all three of us trying to puzzle out the strange result when appraising the Worldstone. We'd made some headway on comparing it to ancient rune systems from Earth, and Erci was currently writing out the alphabets of all the ones he knew.

There was some concern about Ref, and people seeing her and jumping to conclusions, but she assured me that she had enough to entertain herself with during my mandatory "social hour", as Erci had begun to call it, and I simply stayed away from every mirror I could see. If I couldn't see it, then it couldn't see me, after all.

"What is it, Neetu?"

He squeezed his considerable form into the corner seat, Erci being the gentleman and letting him through.

"It concerns you three, and your... legal status." Neetu eventually said, setting down a tablet with three tall goblets on it. I sniffed one and then tasted it. A little metallic, but good.

"While you are now free, it did not exactly happen legally. You see, the device in my basement, well, let's just say it's supposed to be in an Agent installation in the Nexus, not a dingy pub hanging off the Pathways, siphoning power through a repurposed Gateway Orb."

"So what does all of this mean? Surely there's a government office we can go to?"

"Of course, you could, and of course, you'd be registered citizens in no time, but you couldn't do it without incriminating me or Ska'an. I'm sure you understand."

And I did. If we went somewhere, got ourselves entered in the systems, whatever, they would want to know where we're from. I’d answer Earth, Erci’d say duluth-something and Raven would chitter a bit, they find out we're from a world that's not supposed to be open. Inquiries get started, reports are examined and Neetu takes the blame for everything.

"So what do you suggest?"

He perked right up. "Here's the plan. Ska'an is currently out, checking off some old contacts of mine who will get your preliminary identification so Amy can finally get her arm replaced and you can all get a mental evaluation..."

***

It proved to be a long two months before Ska'an finally returned with valid ID. Erci and I had started to help around the tavern, not wanting to live off Neetu's generosity forever, and he appreciated the help immensely. We painted the walls, polished floors, repaired cabling and soon enough what had been a few tasks here and there became a full-on renovation effort as the six of us did our best to repair the numerous damages the building had accumulated over the years.

It was Raven who discovered one of the most severe damages while surveying the building from the air - the main support beam pinning the Inn to the side of the platform had come loose; A few more weeks and a large section of the building would have fallen into the fog below. It was fixed posthaste.

Erci and I made ourselves useful carrying raw materials - wood, cabling, tools, metal - as well as doing the simpler tasks (laying out floors, painting walls, etc), while Neetu and Reya busied themselves with setting up structural reinforcement fields (Interesting device, that - a forcefield projector capable of holding something in place, giving it much greater strength than usual. Not ideal for extended use or load-bearing, though. And it couldn't make things float.), calculating structural load numbers and optimizing the power grid. Ref was invaluable as well - despite all efforts, we didn't manage to repair the original mirror shards, but there was no reason that creating another set wasn't possible. We used tiny shards of a freshly shattered mirror to allow her to look into tight spaces.

Something interesting to note, there - a mirror shard capable of this strange link had to be a shard specifically, it couldn't be a cut piece. It also couldn't be deliberately broken with a shape in mind, the act of shattering had to be a violent, single action to keep the association with the greater whole intact.

As such, I stowed the two matted shards (they could still come in useful eventually) and destroyed an old mirror of Neetu's. Fourteen years of collective misfortune accumulated, Erci and I picked out two good-size shards while the rest was stowed away in Neetu's storeroom. If we could somehow find a way to connect the shards for more than just Ref's manifestation abilities, there would be a way to set up an almost untraceable communication system; While there existed programs for the LD to send messages through the Network, the channels those used was relatively trivial to track, jam or block. Not read, though, which I found interesting.

In the evenings, I fiddled around with the Network, getting used to its functions and reading historical documents in order to get somewhat up to speed. In the beginning, I let the Voice read them to me, but I eventually figured out how to allow them to be displayed visually as a ‘hologram’ only I could see, similar to what an appraisal showed. A few times, I stumbled upon the word Magic - which ignited something within my mind. I wanted to learn. But every time I got deeper than a surface-level report, I was blocked by mountains of red tape, redactions and warnings of “Stop! A Spellcaster’s License is required to view these records.” My research into those essentially boiled down into “shit outta luck, find someone willing to take you as an apprentice” - and the only person I knew who was possibly a mage was Ska’an. Ska'an, the stranger. Ska'an, the being I barely knew.

Ska’an, who actually did stop by two times - once to bring back my jacket ("new and improved, heh heh" apparently meant that somehow, someone had managed to fuse kevlar into the synth-leather at no detriment to either flexibility or weight - except now, it was fire and waterproof), and the other to inform us that one of Neetu's old contacts with the Nexus immigration commision had come through, and we were now the proud owners of new (fake) names. I was now Ara Jhay, immigrant from beyond the local cluster.

***

Ska'an's second visit was on one of the more mellow evenings, the day we'd restored the failing support structure. The three of us were sitting in the common room, around us the usual suspects, people I'd come to recognize and even greet by name during the last month or so.

Occasionally, someone new stumbled upon the tavern, and brought themselves inside. They were folks from all walks of life, some wearing tattered robes, others in metal armor with futuristic rifles slung over their backs, and yet others wearing nothing but their own fur.

They came with all sorts of stories, and many of them knew Neetu and Ska'an by name - often falling into hushed conversations that left both parties with more worried expressions than they'd started with.

That evening, a traveller arrived - not something too out of place, considering. They were a species I'd seen before, Syrv... Skyrv.. something like that, with deep blue feathers, a beak and two arms in addition to a set of impressive wings. Clad in a short linen robe that betrayed taloned feet as well as a massive backpack, they looked around from the door, eyes first finding the bar and waving at Reya, who nodded in response, then surveying the rest of the room.

When their gaze finally fell upon us, their eyes widened, and they began walking over. I sat up - I'd been approached a couple of times by the ones who'd been there at the day of our arrival, asking if I was alright, what happened to my arm, or what the 'strange green gemstone' had been. But the being was not aiming for me - it was bound toward Erci, who had noticed this a few seconds before me.

When he stood up, facing the being, it stopped.

"Can I help you, stranger?"

The being looked him over. "Your eyes, your build - you are Fey, are you not?"

Erci was visibly taken aback. "Ho- How do you know of my people?"

"I knew it! What fortune to run across you! I was paid to deliver a message to any Fey I happen to meet!"

"What is this message?" Erci asked cautiously.

"He said it will reveal itself should you pass the test. I am to give this to any I suspect of being a wayward Fey," they held out a small, faintly familiar looking crystal. "And to serve as a guide if they wish me to."

Erci took it out of the being's hands, and looked at the crystal with a strange look on his face. I appraised it.

Name:

[Fae Bloodline Crystal]

Rarity:

[Uncommon-Rare]

Type:

[Blood-Based Identification Device, ...]

Owner:

[Unknown]

Description:

[This device has the functionality of detecting the presence of Fae blood within the holder. If they are a full-blooded fae, the crystal will light up blue, a part-blood will glow purple, while a non-fae will glow red. A fae or part-fae of royal blood will be greeted with a golden aura in addition to their color. This object is also enchanted to carry a message for any part-blood, full-blood or royal fae it detects.]

Condition:

[Good]

Estim. Value:

[50-75 SYC]

I let out a low whistle. "Can I get a go, too? I wonder if I've got fey in my ancestry."

Erci shot me an exasperated look, breaking the tension. He squeezed the crystal in his hand, wincing slightly. Immediately, the stone glowed with a navy-blue light. He opened his hand, and a thin red mist floated upward from the stone, coalescing into the face of a beautiful fey woman wearing a diadem. It spoke.

"Wayward brother, heed my words. Whether you were separated from your kin during the escape, or if you have been on your own for longer, this need not be. Seek your people at the edge of the region named Ginnungagap, but do not dally, we will only be waiting for a year at most. If you do not wish to rejoin us, be warned: home is gone. Do not return there."

Then, the face dissolved into mist once more and was absorbed back into the crystal, which lost its glow. Erci stood stock still.

"Erci, who was that?" I finally asked into the relative silence - it seemed as though every patron had stopped when the woman spoke.

"She was my Queen." he whispered, almost too quiet to hear. "The queen of the fae people- my kin, alive..."

He looked at me, and I was shocked to see unshed tears in his eyes.

"I though- thought I was the last, like you, like Raven... Fae are not supposed to be on their own. I was lucky to have you, Raven and Ref, you kept me from being lost in grief and anguish, but if my people are alive... I can't..."

"You want to join them, do you?"

"More than almost everything else! But I do not want to leave you alone, what if you are in danger because I wasn't there?"

"Erci, I'm touched by your concern, but you don't need to worry for me. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. Just... promise to stay in contact if you go, alright? And visit if you can."

"Amelia... Amy. You saved me from myself- I was ready to die, and you talked me out of it. You are easily the most compassionate human I've ever met. I am proud to call you my friend."

Now it was my turn to tear up, and Erci pulled me into a tight hug. Once I was released, he started digging through his bag, and placed a set of three leatherbound books onto the table. He reached into it once more, and withdrew a small bag filled with something that clinkered slightly as it was put on the wood.

"These are books on fae magic. The small one is a notebook by a mason working on our travel-circles, the thick one is an encyclopedia of the Anchor Stones' enchantments, and the last one is a textbook on crystallurgy. Take it, please."

"But-"

"No buts. This is yours, now, and I won't take any of it back."

Tears threatened me once more, and the messenger from before took the momentary silence as an opportunity.

"Master Fae, I was paid to serve as a guide as well as a courier. I know where the provisional camp is located, and I am to lead you there. We will have to make haste, as I picked up this message some time ago."

"How long ago?"

"Perhaps four or five months? The journey will take some time, so we must not dally."

***

Erci departed the next day, accompanied by his new guide, Avos The Sunseeker, whom we'd spoken with the entire evening. He was a courier for hire, and stumbled upon the fae remnant camp during one of his travels. They’d apparently started hiring anyone who met them to carry the word out - a lot fewer fae arrived outside than escaped from the inside. Ska'an did not trust the message in the crystal at first, but a thorough examination revealed no tampering. It was genuine, and Ska'an joined us.

Surprising everyone except me, Reya actually decided to accompany them, having gotten closer to Erci over the last months. I'd often seen them talking animatedly over something or other, and personally hadn't missed the way she seemed to hang onto every word - not that I missed Erci stealing glances at her when he thought nobody was looking either. Initially, I thought Neetu might be sad to see her go, but one saucy remark from him and an angry retort from her later, that worry was dispelled.

Raven simply sat on my shoulder and locked Erci down with a stare for a few minutes. When he finally began to sweat, she flapped onto his head and pulled on his nose, before joining me in laughter with her cackling.

In the end, both of them hugged all of us, among promises to call regularly. Avos activated the large blue Gateway, which sunk toward the ground. The three of them, clad in travel fatigues (and in Erci’s case, his newly repaired armor) and bags over their shoulders, stepped into the swirling blue orb and disappeared.

True to his promise, Erci did contact me and Raven and Neetu relatively often over the following months. His flickering holographic form was sometimes joined by Reya's as well, the two of them lighting up the dark common room and telling stories or describing the sights during their journey toward the edge of the local cluster.

***

About a week after his departure, Ska'an finally managed to snatch an appointment at the Nexus Healer Centrum, and it was my turn to use the Gateway. At Ska’an’s urging, I had my sword strapped to my back, my staff and the Stone with me, alongside the re-remembered and quickly re-forgotten antimemetic cloak stuck into an inside pocket. It folded into a surprisingly small square, all things considered. Raven was sitting on my shoulder, apparently not intent on missing out on a trip to the metropolitan center of the local universe.

And so, the three of us left Neetu to finish up the renovations to his inn, and stood before the large blue orb which served as an arrival and departure point for it. I appraised it for good measure.

Name:

[Dimensional Gateway Device (DGD)]

Rarity:

[Rare-Uncommon]

Type:

[Paired Stationary Teleporter, Power Source, ...]

Owner:

[Neetu-sin Al-Ba'al]

Description:

[This structure allows a being in possession of a Lexicon Device to 'dial' compatible recievers, and functions as a reciever itself. When activated, it forms a subspace-tunnel construct through which matter and mind is transferred to its destination. It is based on technology reverse-engineered from the World Entry Point of Nexus. These devices are relatively uncommon in this age, as safer and more efficient designs have replaced them.]

Condition:

[Excellent]

Estim. Value:

[1900-2400 SYC]

"You need to become proficient in the use of this kind of device. While it is possible to dial purely through mental commands, this is tedious and inefficient. Once you are in possession of a new arm, we shall get you a standardized multitool attachement. For now, use this." Said Ska'an, holding out a small metal frame, inside of which a bright blue holographic screen sprung to life.

As my fingers approached, I felt a tiny prod to my LD.

Foreign request of information - Linguistics (English, contemporary). Grant?

Yes, I confirmed mentally, and the letters displayed crumbled, the entire screen became static, and then resolved itself into a more familiar shape of keypad. The letters were aligned alphabetically, though.

"Simply type 'The Nexus' and then the specific gate we wish to target. Its name is 'Sliver of residence 655, circle 12, NHC segment'." came Ska'an's eerily calm voice from beside me.

Using the keypad was tricky, but Ska'an held it with infinite patience as I struggled with the weird layout. Eventually, I maganed to type everything they'd said, the small screen winked out and the Gateway began descending with a quiet hum. It had a glassy surface that the pale blue... something was swirling inside of. When it finally stopped a few inches above the ground, Ska'an pushed themselves into the surface, which bent inwards to accept their entire form, then snapped back together when they passed it entirely, only wobbling a little.

Weird as hell.

I pushed an experimental finger into the glassy surface as well, being generally unsurprised by the lack of resistance, and stepped inside fully, at which point I felt squeezed from all sides, and spun apart into a blue spiral.

***

After a brief, disorienting moment of that, I stumbled from a circular portal, the inside losing a haze-like quality after I emerged. I caught myself on the nearby railing, taking a few breaths of the unfamiliar air. Ska'an, who had appeared beside me, spoke.

"The first transport using the orb is always the strangest. It will get better." I looked up, and froze. Ska'an had started saying something else, but I didn't catch it, because my eyes had spied the world past their hood.

I'd caught my first glimpse of the Nexus, which was everything I expected and more. The portal we'd exited from stood vertically on a small circular square, surrounded on all sides by towering skyscrapers with many windows. They were made of mostly dark concrete, metal and glass, and absolutely covered up by large, undecypherable holographic screens in the higher areas. There was graffiti along the foundation of every single one I could see, some specifically impressive pieces (one of them moved, how crazy is that?) cordoned off and under guard by strange metallic beings in militaristic uniforms. I thought they were statues at first, but I saw an identical one stepping up, shooting a series of synchronized lights from its eyes, and then both switched places. Creepy.

An orange sun was in zenith, shining down a warm, tinted light on everything from directly above, some of the larger spires reaching for it like longing fingers. There were things moving between the towers - small, flying car-like vehicles floating along invisible highways, as well as long, snake-like trains winding between the tallest spires.

I looked around and my gaze fell into of the streets extending away into the distance. At first, I thought we were in a valley - the ground made a a very slight curve upwards, but as my eyes moved higher and higher, my eyebrows did the same as it simply seemed to curve up without end, the buildings and streets and squares all blending into each other as they slowly rose into the sky until everything became lost in the haze.

As we walked down one of the larger streets extending from the portal square, Ska'an pointed out random things here and there, naming beings, wares, restaurants, stores, vehicles, technologies, street magics and telling me about them in short sentences. There were an innumerable amount of beings about, minding their business, having conversations, dining in a roadside restaurant, everything. Everywhere I looked, I saw something new - A store with something blinking inside the window. A streetfood vendor with snacks made of metal. A group of militaristic metal men jogging down the street in a synchronized formation, identical rifles slung over their backs. A woman with feathers for har in red-brown robes sculpting a flame into a tiny, dancing representation of random members of the crowd around her. A hovercar flying low, grazing by one of the skyscrapers, another craft in pursuit. An armored group of beings consulting a paper map, standing before another one of the circular portals, the embedded ring spinning slowly.

We were accosted twice - once by a furry being clad in small bags out on the streets, who found his hand stuck in one of Ska'an's many pockets until he was handed over to one of those mechanical beings in uniform ("An Agent", Ska'an confirmed while hurrying me away, the mechanical being's luminous, red gaze trailing after the pocket which held my Stone), and the other time by the front gate of a large, white spire with a symbol above the entrance - two horned snakes, hissing at each other, coiled around a long rod. It looked somewhat similar to the one Asclepius was depicted with on Earth, and I contemplated it while showing the stone giant my metal ID card, after which he waved us through.

***

Once inside, we were greeted by a four-armed being in what looked like a white hazmat suit, the same symbol as was above the entrance displayed on its chest, which took one look at my missing arm and silently directed us toward a large elevator, followed by a series of tight gestures, before swiftly walking toward a small crowd forming by the attendant’s desk.

We got into the elevator, Ska'an pressed a symbol on the screen in the wall, and began to ride past innumerable floors at blinding speed. It was too fast to catch anything except when someone got off or on. I saw a number of wards, some pure white, some so dark there was an attendant with a lit candle standing by the door and some reminding me of hospitals on Earth. One of them seemed to suppress all sound, leaving everything in an eerie silence as two beings walked into the dimly-lit hallway. At some point the elevator slowed on our level and the doors opened. Ska'an pulled me out as the doors began to close again, pointed toward the attendant's desk and spoke.

"The fitting will most likely take some hours. After that, ride to floor 12-A for a mental eval. While you are busy here, I will go to the local administrative branch and start the procedure to change your fake name into your real one and register your identity to the LD. When you are done, wait for me by the gate. Do you understand?"

I nodded and Ska'an began to float back toward the elevator, when I remembered something. "Wait! How am I supposed to pay? I haven't got any money!"

"There is universal healthcare!"

And the elevator snapped shut.

I shook my head, and walked to the attendant, who spoke in a very droning voice without looking up. "Welcome to the cybernetics ward. Do you have an appointment?"

"Yes, my name's Ara Jhay, I'm here to fit a new arm?" I handed over my temporary ID card.

"Everything seems to be in order," the being said after inspecting it, "proceed down the corridor to room Theta-Four, but please relinquish any weaponry here"

I handed over the sword and my staff, the attendant examined both for a second, put a small sticker on each and then snapped both to the back wall, where they hung among a variety of other weaponry strangely advanced and strangely primitive. Shooting a glance at a nearby floor plan, I joined the sparse crowd hurrying through the corridors.

I found the waiting room I'd been directed to and perused the slightly bizarre magazines, quickly becoming engrossed in 'The Magnetron', a tabloid from a world where life was based on magnetism. The fact that the downright bizarre pictures moved was simply the cherry on top.