A sharp lingering pain was traveling across Victor's face until it was replaced with a stronger one that overtook him. He heard voices, but he couldn’t make out most of what was being said or by who. Trying to open his eyes the light blinded him, even in the shade of whoever was standing above him as he tried to turn to block the sun.

“___ think he _________ up. Someone _________ water,” was all Victor could hear from the feminine sounding voice.

“What _________? _______ dying? Master _______ asleep for _______.” was next, but the voice was male. It was Doruns... wasn't it?.

Some light steps were heard alongside another feminine voice, “I found _______. If _________ it should _________ finish _______ him _____.”

Being moved by unseen hands, Victor was soon put into a more seated position, leaning against something as he found himself unable to keep his head upright.

While being held in place, Victor heard various voices overlapping, making it even harder for him to make out any words. His closed eyes could just make out some figures moving in front of him when suddenly he was startled. Some sort of overpowering smell flooded his nose in a way that he never felt before and sent a wave through his body.

All at once, his body seemed to jolt awake with a level of alertness that he hadn’t felt in a long time. His eyes shot open, causing him to cover them with his arm as he cut loose a string of expletives as he heard at least one person speaking words he couldn’t quite hear.

“What was that? What did you do to me?”

Slowly removing his arm from his face, Victor began looking around. He took notice that the sun was lower than he had remembered.

Thinking about what happened last, Victor recalled holding his card and telling it to remove the second card that it was holding.

Once the order had been mentally given, he remembered a blinding light and a sensation like his whole body had been forced to stay up for a whole week within one second of time and his clothing was replaced with a different outfit.

It wasn’t until Victor opened his eyes, most of the way, that he saw Alena holding some plant that was producing more smoke than he thought it should considering its size. The smoke had a smell that shook him to his core, like a harsher form of ammonia.

“Stop it,” Victor cried out, “I’m awake geeze. I must have just needed a nap or something why wake me up like that?”

Dorun stood strong but fought back a yawn as he spoke, “Master you have been asleep for over a day. The sun set and rose while you slept and it will set again soon. We still have the camping supplies set up because you weren’t waking up.”

Trying to get to his feet, Victor started to wobble, only to be caught at the side by Drelt.

“You’re telling me that I have been asleep for over twenty-four hours? Is that what you’re telling me?”

The small group looked at each other for a moment, giving Victor time to realize his mistake.

“I mean to say I was asleep for a full day. This isn’t just later in the day?”

Doliy had her arms crossed over her chest, not looking at him as Ruuz came into view before speaking up.

“That’s exactly it. Why did you do it? There was a big light and then when we came here you were asleep. You dropped some stuff we put in your pouch but you wouldn’t wake up.”

Ruuz was getting a bit more excited as she spoke as her voice got louder, “You were breathing though. It was like something took all your mana away, but there was nothing around you. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong and Doliy said if you weren’t awake by tomorrow morning we were going to leave without you and she wouldn’t have to pay you. Well, she said if you weren’t awake by overmorrow morning, but she said that yesterday. I think she was hoping you’d stay asleep since we are so close.”

Victor turned his eyes to Doliy, “I bet you would have.”

There was then a moment of silence before Alena sat down next to Victor. She had brought over some food and drink.

“You must be hungry and thirsty. This is a bit cold since it’s from our last meal, but it hasn’t spoiled. After that, I suggest you change into some clean clothes.”

Feeling a bit awkward, Victor ate, drank, changed his clothes, and did his best to clean himself off with the tools on hand. The cleansing wasn’t as effective as he would have liked so, to help cover up some of the stench, he put some flowers under his clothing.

Only once he no longer felt like a collection of filth did he allow himself to think about card two.

Hesitantly, Victor started to go through everything that was his, while the rest prepared to camp for the night.

Piece by piece he organized everything. While doing this, he noted the number of writing tools and lighters he had left since he found those were still very useful. In the end, though everything seemed how he expected, except a few coins were out of place.

It was only after he counted it out and did the math that he realized someone, likely a member of his group, had used his money to make change. At least that was the only reason he could think of for why he had more silver coins and less copper ones.

Taking his time, Victor finally drew out his card. The shine was not nearly what it once was. In fact, it was nearly faded to how it had looked before except, he thought to himself, it seemed a bit crisper. Turning it over he noticed that it seemed to have stacked itself upon a second card so he removed them from each other.

Turning the new card over in his hand, Victor thought that it looked like he remembered his first card looking. A simple blank look with nothing to make it draw anyone's eye beyond the overwhelming blandness of it. Just something to take up space without showing any real importance.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he had seen his first card go through the same process, Victor would have wondered if there was something wrong with it. A simple design for a simple item.

He started to think back to that day and thought about Glorias' bow. He hadn’t spent a lot of time looking at it, but he had managed to get a fair look at it, and everyone else's artifact. Glorias' for some reason stuck out to him.

Her bow, from what he remembered, was almost as tall as she was when stood next to her, but for some reason, there wasn’t a drawstring. The entire length of the wood had various intricate designs on it showing different plants and a few animals. It was colorful and had, by Victor's best assumption, three places that you could put an arrow.

Victor wondered why it would do that instead of providing a quiver to go with it, but he shrugged it off. Even if it was a bit odd it looked like it could be something amazing and he started to wonder if his cards would become something eye-catching like that in the future or if he would end up like someone from that cartoon about people playing a children's card games.

“I guess we’ll never know,” he said to himself quietly as he tried to picture what amazing visuals a card could have.

“Never know what?”

The sudden voice jolted Victor more than usual, causing him to turn to notice Doliy.

“Is there something you need to tell me? I know what you said, but your magic didn’t work the other day and then there is a flash of light and you are unable to be woken up for over a day. Are you sick? Are you dying? Are you some mixed-race person going through something because of an oddity of your lineage?”

Victor was hesitant. He didn’t want to lie, but at the same time, he wasn’t willing to tell her everything.

“I’m just not used to….. You know….. this,” Victor said choosing an alternate truth as he extended his arms around him, “Before I came here I was more of an academic. Not a top-level one but good enough. I had plans for a good job, but well some stuff happened and now I’m here.”

While packing up more of his things he continued, “I am not used to doing this sort of travel for one day and we’ve done it for so many days in a row I guess it just caught up with me. You can probably understand how if someone who is only used to maybe… riding horses or a cart has to follow it instead they will get more tired. It’s like that.”

“That doesn’t explain why your magic didn’t work,” Doliy countered.

Having already placed his cards away, Victor pulled out his money pouch and put it on the ground at his feet. Then he let the pouch surrounding the coins vanish into his first card, causing the coins to fall into a pile as a result.

“It did. I just didn’t want to use it on a beast like that when I could have Dorun work on it instead.”

He brought back the pouch and started to pick up his coins, “If I don’t give him anything to do he gets to be more than a little bit annoying. I almost wish his tongue was lost instead of his eye... Almost.”

Seeing the pouch vanish and return, Doliy smiled softly, “So you did learn something from me. You didn’t use your magic when you could have. Not the most ambitious lie, but everyone has to start somewhere. Keep it up and perhaps it will become a skill you can count on.”

The next few days passed without anything unexpected happening until they got within view of the capital.

It was Victor who first commented as they got within full sight of Skies Watch, “What is….. It’s got a floating mountain.”

He couldn’t help the shock in his voice as he started to look at everyone else, realizing they didn’t seem surprised.

“How is it up there? Castles don’t fly normally, right? What sort of magic tool is that?”

“No tool,” Ruuz said as she looked up at the sky.

“It’s made nearly entirely of quetihap ore, the land not the castle. It’s a metal that is especially light to the point that if you don’t mix it with other metals to weigh it down the finished product might slowly fly off with a strong wind. It’s even lighter before it is processed so most of it is found in the sky or deep underground. It’s used for armor more than weapons if I’m thinking right. Sturdy, but not heavy.”

Following the road closer, Victor noticed the chains on it and began to think about the possibilities of why that would be. That and how long and hard it would be to make chains that were so large they could be recognized from this far out.

“So the chains,” Victor asked, “Are they there so it won’t float off or something else?”

“Yes,” stated Dorun from behind, “The dwarves were very detailed in the preparation of the castle.”

“So this is a dwarven kingdom?” Victor asked as his mind started to imagine an underground tunnel system below it, wondering why a dwarf would want a flying castle.

“Mostly human actually.”

Doliy was tapping her fingers at her side as she spoke, “Sure, some of them have married royals from non human kingdoms, but that is usually people quite far down the line to the throne. I think the one closest to the throne who hasn’t married another human is fifth in line."

"They have no laws that forbid non humans from taking the throne, but so far they haven’t done anything to encourage it either.”

Victor found himself looking up at the castle as they walked. For some reason, this castle in the skies looking down at them was more of a wake up call to the reality of being away from earth than the dead dragons and magic had been, and it sunk into the pit of his stomach.

“So is this where you tell me Ruuz is actually a princess and we get to take her up to the castle? I know you like to lie so I won’t be surprised at this point if you lied to me to get some help.”

“I am no princess. Don’t even joke about that. Mom was already pushy enough about study and proper this and that saying I’d need it when I go to the capital.”

Victor let out a small chuckle, “Sorry I guess I just read so many….”

“I’m a bastard.”

The word gave Victor pause as he looked at Ruuz. He turned to look at Doliy who nodded.

“You shouldn’t be surprised I lied to you. You seem the type to worry more about helping over getting more money and I’d rather keep a bigger cut of the escort reward.”

Pointing at Ruuz, Victor's voice wavered a bit, “She’s a….. She’s….. I thought you said she witnessed a murder not…. No no…. Ok, so you’re….. Well, fuck it’s… Is her…. Alright, one second.”

Victor took a couple deep breaths as they walked, albeit at a slower pace.

“Is her dad royal or something?”

Doliy crossed her arms, “I’m not at liberty to provide any information related to her lineage.”

“He’s a military lead…” Ruuz managed to get out before her voice was cut short.

Doliy ran her hands through her hair and let out a silent scream. Victor couldn’t help but wonder if she was actually staying quiet, as he had done on occasion when he was wanted to scream but wasn’t in a place to, or if she was using her magic to prevent it from getting to him.

“Ruuz why did you tell him?”

“He’s interesting and I like him. He’s a smart idiot and I want to introduce him to da…. my Uncle.”

Victor caught the word change and thought he got the basics of what was going on.

“Tell you what Ruuz,” he said while slowing to a stop, “I’ll stay nearby and work at the guild for a while. I need to go from black to red anyway, and since it’s the capital I can probably make some money and learn things. You can tell your uncle about me and if he wants to meet me let him. Or if he is ok with you meeting me again you can. If not don’t worry about it.”

Doliy waited until they were walking again and grabbed onto Victor's arm roughly.

“You’re not going to tell anyone about her or her situation are you?”

“I have no reason to. She’s a cute kid and deserves to try for a family, even if it’s just her uncle. Not everyone gets that and I wouldn’t do anything to risk a good family for a kid.”

Doliy began to look Victor up and down, walking in a circle around him even as he walked closer to the capital.

“I guess you did what I hired you for. Even if you are more than a little lacking in every way. I honestly think the only thing you were any help was by being an extra body that made some people and beasts warier because of the size of the group.”

Victor stayed quiet after hearing the possible insult as they continued to walk. Eventually, after getting close enough to the capital, they could see the line of people waiting to get past the gate. Following the path at first, Doliy grabbed him by the arm and pulled everyone aside.

“We’re taking another entrance.”

Not questioning the woman, the group followed the curve of the wall that seemed to keep stretching as they walked. Eventually, they stopped at one section of the wall that looked like any other wall. From where they had stopped, there were no gates, roads, or other people in sight.

Doliy took a deep breath and closed her eyes, knocking on the wall in a few places as she held her ear close.

When asked what she was doing Doliy didn’t respond. Victor assumed she was using magic to have the sound work more to her liking. If not, he couldn’t imagine her not at least reacting to tell them to be quiet.

After, roughly, half an hour passed the wall seemed to split and force itself open as if a door was pushing out from a crack that suddenly appeared before their eyes.

The sight of it reminded Victor of more than one magical movie he had seen before, except instead of a welcoming door, as if it was a house, it was a solid metal door with some sort of spinning mechanisms at just below eye level.

“Just so you know,” Doliy said with a harshness one degree higher than she normally had, “If you try to get through here without support it will probably kill you. I don’t recommend trying it without proper guidance.”

With a twist of both of her hands, Doliy started to twirl the dials on the door. In a way, they reminded Victor of a lock on a locker, except with another lock within the lock and more than one lined up in a row.

He couldn’t help but think that the motions of her hands were almost like that of a street magician moving cups or cards to try to trick money out of tourists. Although in this case it wasn’t done for show, but for a practical purpose. That was unless, he thought to himself, this was another one of her lies.

Dorun slowly started to move in front of Victor but didn’t block his view of the door. Only once Doliy stopped with her hands did he stand in front of his master.

“Master, do you really wish to enter this way? What if it is a trick to capture someone with magic as unique as yours?”

Victor patted the man on the back a few times and walked past him, following to the door that Doliy and Ruuz were entering.

“If that’s what she wanted she had better options,” Victor stated, thinking about the morning she was first in his bed, “I don’t trust her, but I trust her.”

Dorun was about to say something when Drelt put a hand on his shoulder, silently getting him to stop.

Once everything was set the group went through the tunnel. It winded and turned a bit as the path began to move with a downward ramp that eventually opened into many pathways that Doliy seemed to be able to navigate without concerns. At least once she started a torch to keep enough light so they could keep their sight.

The twists and turns were more than Victor was able to keep track of as he followed the person in front of him. By his best guess, he thought they were going through twists and turns for just under an hour when they came to another ramp that started to take them upwards.

“Everyone stay at least ten steps behind the door for now. Once I get to the top of the ramp I need to talk to some people and then everyone else can come up. Yes, Ruuz that includes you.”

Ruuz was about to speak when she was cut off and everyone saw Doliy get ahead of them. After a moment she began to press on some stones on both sides of the place she indicated a door would appear.

Eventually, a door did form and began to open, in the same fashion as the previous one. It slowly opened up letting in some light, causing Doliy to pass the torch to someone else.

Between the torch and the light leaking in from the door, the hallway was lit enough that everyone was able to regain their bearings, although they still kept close to each other.

By Victor's best estimates about ten minutes passed with Doliy just beyond the door, a pack she had been carrying keeping it from shutting. It was during that time that Ruuz had been clinging to his shirt and staring at the light.

“She didn’t forget we’re out here did she?”

Victor patted Ruuz on the head softly without looking away from the light, “I doubt it. For her to bring us this far and then forget about us, she would have to be a bigger fool than I am.”

Ruuz clung to Victor's side until the door opened properly and Doliy poked her head enough to be seen.

“The guards need to check you four against the wanted posters, but Ruuz and I are going now. I left your payment with the guards so don’t come looking for us.”

Doliy took Ruuz by the hand and led her into the light as Victor spoke.

“I’ll be working for the guild for the time being. Come find me if you want.”

Even though he knew that Doliy could have easily stopped his words from getting past the door, Victor hoped that they would both hear what he had to say. Over the weeks he had gotten used to them both and now that they were gone, he wondered how different it would feel to be without them.

Taking a few deep breaths Victor left the corridor with his slaves and looked at the guards. He was reminded of his time with the guards after he first came to this world. The uniforms looked nearly the same, except with some different markings that he recognized as writing.

He couldn’t help but notice that this time there were no painful shocks to his system or over the top interrogations. Just some basic questions and examinations of their features and the earrings that the slaves wore.

In the end, Victor was given a bag that made the sound one would expect from money being held within it and escorted out of the building in a rush. He wasn’t even able to ask which way the guild was before he found himself on a road with his back to a wall instead of a door.

With his slaves at his side, money in his metaphorical pocket, and another new place before him where almost nobody knew him, Victor took his first steps forward. With each step, a new worry or a burst of excitement that he could become better than who he was, filled him up as he looked at his slaves.

“Let's go. We need to get settled.”