I awoke to the sound of someone knocking at the door.

At least, I thought so for a second. Then I realized it was someone clapping. ‘Golf-clapping,’ as they call it. Slow, deliberate, maybe sarcastic. I opened my eyes, only to realize they were already open. It was just pitch-black.

“Hello?” I said. I heard myself say it, which was weird, because I couldn’t feel my lips. Or my ears. I had a sinking feeling as I realized I’d been in this situation before. For two minutes, allegedly. But it still felt like it might have been years, maybe cen…

“It was two minutes,” said a familiar Voice. The clapping stopped when it spoke. “But otherwise, you figured things out much faster than I thought you would. Won me a bet. I have to say, I’m impressed.”

“Are you the same Voice I talked to before?” I asked cautiously. Just because it sounded familiar didn’t mean that it was the same one. Especially since I couldn’t see them, and my distorted sense of time in the V…

“Would you stop that?” said the Voice, with amusement. “It was two minutes. I had to finish a call. I’m serious. I did not leave you in the waiting area for eons and then lie to you. It was two minutes.”

So it is the same Voice, I realized. The one that left me waiting.

“Who were you calling?” I asked, intrigued in spite of the fact that I should probably be terrified.

“Not important,” replied the Voice. “What is important is that you figured things out much quicker than I thought you would, which probably means I made your Leveling System too powerful. It’s really hard to judge these things.”

“Why is that?” I said, still being cautious.

“Do you stop to figure out exactly how many Newtons of force you need to exert to squish a bug or do you just squish the bug and try not to hurt your foot or break the floor?” came the reply.

“Please don’t squish me,” I said respectfully.

“I’m not going to squish you,” said the Voice with mock exasperation. It sounded much more… human… than it had before. Much more interested than it had except for when it was working the sales pitch on me.

“Thank you,” I said. “Are you one of the Powers? Please don’t make me some kind of cult leader, either. I would not be good at that.”

“I am not one of the Powers,” said the Voice, and I swear it chuckled. “The Powers are local gods. They have no influence in the Between. They know I put you on their planet, though. They’re actually pretty excited about it.”

“Please don’t let them make me some kind of God-touched hero,” I said with a hint of begging. “I don’t want to do that either. You promised me I could be a musician and meet cute girls.” I paused. “And you kept your promise, I guess. So thank you, I appreciate that.”

“You’re welcome,” said the Voice, still with a spark of amusement. “But don’t worry, you’re just getting started. And no, they are not going to mess with you. We have an arrangement. Which is why you’re here.”

“You’re not going to take me away, are you?” I said, suddenly worried. “I just met Meg, I was just figuring things out and…”

“I am not going to take you away. When we’re done here you’ll go right back.” The Voice sounded, I swear to… the Powers, or whoever… it sounded like it was enjoying my predicament.

“Thank you,” I said again. “We’re in the Between? Between what? Universes? Is that why it’s dark and I have no body?”

“Between,” they said firmly. “That’s enough for you to know right now. And it’s dark and you have no body because you don’t need one here, but if it would make you feel better…”

There was a… something. It almost felt like someone snapping their fingers, but there was no sound. It was just a feeling. Which was very strange, because up to then I’d had no body and nothing to feel with.

But suddenly I was floating high above a green meadow in a bright blue sky.

My real body - I mean, my Laroha.. ian… body was dressed in the clothes I’d appeared in. I looked down with alarm, but I just kept floating serenely. After I got over my spurt of panic, I realized I could control my floating around. Or, to be specific, that I was flying.

“This is amazing!” I said, doing the full Superman pose.

“I’m glad you like it,” said the Voice. “Is this more comfortable?”

“Yes, thank you,” I said. “But where are you?”

“I’m here,” they said. “But I know you like to have something to look at when you’re talking, so…” The snapping-the-world thing happened again and a figure in robes made of light was suddenly about ten feet away from me, floating in the sky just like I was.

It had a head, in that you could see something that looked like a neck emerging from the light-robe, but the head was glowing so brightly it had no visible features. Which was weird, because I could look at it and it didn’t hurt my eyes.

“Is that what you really look like?” I asked curiously.

“Asking what I really look like is a question that implies I have a look which is real, which is an assumption that really isn’t justified,” said the Voice. Or maybe now the Entity, since I could see it.. They seemed to enjoy this mindbender of a statement. The sound of its… voice… was definitely coming from the figure. So that felt real at least. Realer, anyway.

“Okay, “ I said. “But thank you for taking the trouble, this is much nicer.”

“It’s kind of fun,” said the Entity. The robes were shapeless, but they were shapeless in a way that was also genderless as opposed to ‘no shape because it’s a man and men are usually straight and not curvy.’ While I was studying the robes, they kept talking.

“Here’s the thing,” they said very genially. “You’re an engineering student and, it turns out, a dangerously genre-savvy fellow.”

I blinked and said, “Did you put me in an actual story?”

“No,” and this time they actually did laugh. “Except to the extent that all worldlines can be thought of as stories. Laroha is just as real as Earth is. But I put you in a magic world and you immediately switched gears with barely a hiccup.”

That didn’t really answer my question completely, but I got the feeling more would not be forthcoming.

“So tell me about this arrangement, please,” I said instead.

“Right. The arrangement is, no creating an industrial revolution or anything. It’s not time for that yet, and it would create a huge imbalance of power. Worse than the one you had on Earth and you know how that turned out.” The amusement had faded from the Voice’s… voice… and it sounded like a very emphatic teacher.

“I understand,” I said. I don’t want to create a huge murderous colonial power. “What about science?”

“You can use it for yourself all you want. But likewise no starting a school and teaching physics and biology to all comers.”

“Do physics and biology even work the same way in Laroha?” I asked tentatively.

“They do until they don’t,” said the Voice. “Which is enough. If you cross the line, I will appear to you in a dream like this one and explain to you what you did wrong. Once. If you cross the same line twice we will have a very different conversation. Am I understood?”

“Yessir,” I said almost reflexively. “I mean, yes. Sorry. Should I call you sir? Or ma’am?”

“No,” said the Entity, chuckling again. It took a second and then I smiled ruefully. Don’t call them sir or ma’am.

“In return,” continued the Entity. “The Powers will leave you alone so long as you don’t start any religious crusades or anything.”

“That sounds like a very reasonable arrangement, thank you,” I said sincerely.

“You’re welcome,” came the faintly amused reply.

“So why are they excited, then?” I asked, returning to my very cautious tone.

“That would be telling,” said the Entity. Their amusement was definitely no longer faint. “I’ll just say, you are allowed to use your magic as best you can manage, and if you apply your knowledge of musical theory to the magic of Laroha, that will cause quite enough of an uproar, especially considering what you can do already.”

“Meg totally freaked out when we made the Dream Water,” I said. “Are people going to call me a demon or whatever if I go around Harmonizing?”

“Unlikely,” said the Entity in a much more serious tone. “Laroha has magical monsters that are real, and the Powers don’t encourage witch-hunting or anything, so they don’t have a lot of stories or myths about demons and things like that. You’ll see. Mostly they’ll stand around and say, ‘That’s impossible.’”

The Entity said this last in a jaw-droppingly good imitation of a very pompous professor I had who didn’t so much teach as make pronouncements at us for an hour. I had a jaw here, which was good, because my jaw dropped so hard it would have been weird if I hadn’t had a jaw to feel the drop with.

“Will they try to stick me in a lab, then?” I asked, still feeling very nervous on this topic.

“If you’re dumb enough to let too many people know you can make Song Mages, they might,” said the Entity, returning to their amused tone. “Are you that dumb? Let me know now so I don’t make any more bets on you.”

“Nope, nope, nope,” I said, shaking my head firmly and holding up my hands. You don’t realize how much easier it is to talk when you have a body to gesture with until you don’t have one. “Low profile it is.”

“Good boy,” said the Entity.

“Thank you,” I said again. “Can I just ask you about…”

“I will not answer any questions about the Leveling System,” said the Entity firmly. “I’m not going to nerf you…”

They know the term ‘nerf?’ I thought with wonder.

“Of course I do,” said the Entity, interrupting themselves, which shouldn’t work, but it did. “As I was saying, I’m not going to nerf you, but neither will I give you any hints. Figuring it out yourself is part of the arrangement.”

“Aren’t you the Help System?” I said dubiously. “Doesn’t that count as hints?”

“No, I am not the Help System,” it said in the same firm voice. “And I won’t answer any other questions about the Help System, either.”

“I understand,” I said. I meant it in the I accept what you’ve told me and will not challenge it way, not the I actually understand why you are saying what you are saying way, but once more I had a feeling that arguing would not be productive.

“Can I ask one more question then?” I said.

“Why not you?” said the Entity, with great amusement. I mean, it was bordering on glee.

I laughed.

“You got me that time,” I said, still laughing. “Hard to surprise someone that can read your mind.”

“I can’t read your mind,” said the Entity smugly.

“What?” I said, stunned. “Then how do you…”

“I know your mind,” it said. “There’s a difference.”

I thought about this for a minute, idly looping about in the perfect blue sky. The Entity seemed content to wait for me to answer.

“That’s terrifying,” I said. “Can you predict everything?”

“Nope,” said the Entity. The longer it talked, the more colloquial it got. “Like I said, it honestly surprised me how fast you figured out how to Harmonize and recruit a Band member. And no, I did not send those thugs, either. You got very, very lucky.”

I shivered, thinking about the swords again. “Do I have a resurrec…”

“I said, I will not answer any questions about the Leveling System. But you would do well to make no unsupported assumptions.” The Entity instantly returned to ‘emphatic teacher’ mode.

“I understand,” I said again. This time, though I meant it in the I actually understand way. The Entity was telling me that if I died - again - I’d probably stay dead at least as far as Laroha was concerned.

“Excellent,” replied the Entity. “That’s really all I needed to tell you, so back you go. Be good. And try to be entertaining. It helps.”

“Helps what?” I said with confusion.

“It just helps. ‘Bye now.”

Just that fast, I was back in my real body, lying on the bed in my room at the Merchant’s Rest. I realized three things very quickly. One, I was still naked, which was easy to see in the sunlight that was now streaming through the window. Two, Meg was nowhere to be seen.

And three, somebody was knocking on the door.

Again.