My leg was killing me. It was a constant throbbing pain that had kept me up all night. Our stock of painkillers was being strictly rationed. And worst of all I had nothing to distract me. The power was out at night and the plane was near pitch black outside of a few battery powered flashlights and the screens of the people lucky enough to be at the top of the list for our scavenged solar generator.

I was doing my best to run through my physics coursework in my head. I started with the thought experiment that was the introduction to Einstein’s Special Relativity. Have a light source across from a mirror and measure the time it takes for the light to be reflected and return to the source. Then travel close to the speed of light. The time it takes would be different depending on whether you measure while moving with the clock or are stationary back at the starting position. In other words the time you measure a moving object to get from one place to another is relative to the difference in velocity between you and the object. The full explanation takes about three blackboards of diagrams and another six of calculus. Not difficult calculus; but more than I could reliably do in my head. Owe.

I moved onto other topics. Proving that the gravity from a spherical mass with a density based on radius could be treated as a point mass when using Newtonian gravity took half the night. But I was proud of myself for accomplishing it. It was actually a harder problem than the relativity. But I had recently done similar proofs so many times that it had almost become second nature.

Dawn was just peeking through the window when I thought about asking one of the infirmary aids to grab my intro to quantum mechanics textbook. I was near delirious from lack of sleep. But I thought it made sense to get a head start on the next semester just in case our current situation magically reversed itself.

And then suddenly I saw a dim light shining in the corner of my eye. A fucking dwarf was walking down the corridor. And in the near pitch darkness I could his armour was glowing. I had heard about our visitors the previous day. But at that point I refused to believe it was possible.

When he saw me crane my head he started walking towards me. “Hello,” he said. ‘Can you understand me? If my petition to the Wanderer was successful I should be blessed with the ability to speak your tongue.” He had what sounded like a Scandinavian accent.

A sadistic part of me considered answering in my broken French. Alas, I had a more pressing desire. “Yes, I can understand you. Are you a cleric?”

“Good. Good. And yes, I am a priest skald of Vaeldric.” He replied.

“Ah. Do you have the ability to heal my leg? It’s not a major injury; but it’s kept me up all night.”

The dwarf smacked himself in the head. “I completely forgot you had more injured to treat. Give me one second.”

A brighter glow infused him. Suddenly the pain in my leg disappeared. Holy shit I thought. Magic is fucking real. Holy fucking shit. I felt like a five year old on Christmas morning. I got up from my seat and started dancing a little jig. I turned around and saw Dr. Singh fast walking towards me. “Simon, you shouldn’t be walking on that leg.” It was only when he saw the dwarf behind me that he slowed down. “I guess I’m out of a job.” I could just barely make out the huge grin on his face.

“Morning,” the dwarf said cheerily.

“You learned English fast,” exclaimed Dr. Singh.

“Blessing from my divine patron. My compatriots aren’t too happy about it. But if I don’t uphold my duty to protect travellers in need old Vael might just decide to rescind my calling.”

“So you don’t all worship this Vael?” Singh looked slightly concerned.

“You don’t know the Pantheon? Well, I’ve met my fair share of heathens in my day. Most priests of Vaeldric don’t discriminate. But you’d better be careful if you ever leave these mountains. The majority of people in the East are Disciples. But Hierarchists and Dominionists are influential enough to get you in front of a Triumvirate or Hierarchical tribunal in most of the Great Cities.”

Singh closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “I see we have a lot to learn.”

“Krieg’s rusty ballsack you do. Where have you all come from? There have always been stories of vast wealth hidden in these mountains. But most of them involve dwarves, trolls, dragons, giants or gnomes. A flying vessel full of humans is a new one to me.”

Singh was silent. Maybe my exhaustion was effecting my judgement. But we needed someone to explain this world us. And if the dwarf wasn’t lying to us he’d be one of the few friendly faces in the region. I decided to trust him.

I did my best to tell him everything. I don’t think I was making much sense. But Singh jumped in at points to clarify what I was saying. After maybe half an hour Phillip came into the infirmary to join the discussion. It took another half hour to explain everything to the dwarf’s satisfaction.

The Dwarf chuckled before speaking, “Most high priests and archwizards would damn you as some sort of fiend. Peasants and children’s tales speak of other worlds. But as far as I’m aware each and every one of these worlds has been definitively proven to be a Demesne of one of the Three Planes. There are eldritch beings alien to the Planes. But I sense none of the corruption they spread on any one of you. “

“I think the most likely explanation is that you’re from some isolated demesne of Firmament that is enclosed in an antimagic field. If the field failed at some point it might have been enough to draw you fully into Firmament Prime. The fact that your world is enclosed in a sphere might suggest it one of the lost moons.”

I tried to interject with an explanation of solar systems and galaxies and immense scale of our universe. He retorted that they were probably illusions to keep us trapped. Even exhausted as I was I could see the many holes in his theory. But he was convinced he was right.

Eventually Phillip interjected that it might be time to formally discuss what they would do next now that communication had been established. I followed them upstairs. No one argued; but Phillip gave me a sharp look I pretended not to see.

The dwarf formally introduced himself as Gorn son of Torv of clan Worldwanderer. And as a priest of the god of travellers he had a duty to help lost souls find their way. We were on the edge of civilisation in the foothills, at the time I assumed that to be a mistranslation, of a mountain range that was anathema to most dwarves. But escaped human and satyr slaves had colonised the region a few hundred years before. There were a few scattered holdfasts and a larger town maybe a week’s journey away.

“Of course the people of the Highlands are an insular lot. The environment is nasty enough they’ll help travellers in need. But they have peculiar ideas. They consider slave owning to be a crime worthy of exile or even death. They’re proud folk and the slightest insult can lead to a feud; but they’re more likely to spend years arguing about it than taking up arms. Death’s crotch knows how helpful they’ll be. I don’t think they’ll charge you much. Either they like you enough to help. Or they’ll leave you out for winter to freeze you all to death.”

I was too distracted wondering what ‘death’s crotch’ meant to catch Phillip’s reply. Damn ADHD.

The dwarf then said, “To most lowlanders this is more snow than they’ll see in their lives. But this valley is only slightly ahead of the rest of the region in terms of season. In a month everything will be frozen solid and monsters from the peaks will raid into the valleys. Dire frostwolves and frost trolls. Not the weak forest trolls and shroomlings that live here in the summer”.

Phillip put his face in his hands. “We need to send a team to the nearest town to request aid. Any volunteers?”

No one stepped forward. The dwarf waited a few moments before saying, “I can carry a message if none of you are capable. It’s too late in the season to farm mountain trolls so my team can’t complain.”

“I still feel more comfortable sending an envoy. My apologies Meacham; but it looks like you’re drawing the short end of the stick again.”

Meacham managed a “yes sir” with a grimace.

At the back of my head a voice said It’s a chance to learn magic you idiot. Volunteer. I raised my hand. I can join him. I’ve got experience hiking in winter conditions.

“It’s settled then,” Phillip said. “Simon and Meacham will travel to this Dragon’s Cleft to request aid. Take the rest of the day to prepare and set out tomorrow morning. In the meantime I want our experts to scour Gorn’s brain for anything useful. Dismissed.”