It took close to an hour for the mage to calm down. Despite everything she had attempted to do to Dallion, he couldn’t ignore the sheer terror that emanated from every fiber of her being. It had taken half an hour of talking—while also using the appropriate music skill—just to get her out of her panic loop. The state of dread was the same that someone experienced after learning their awakened abilities had been sealed. Initially, Dallion thought that had been the case; for a mage, maybe not being able to perform spells was on par with losing their awakened skills. However, after a while, he was starting to think that couldn’t be true. After all, the panic had only occurred after the mage had found them to be in another world.

Not too long after, the door swung open and Jiroh came back. The fury was carrying two large “cloud” bags, as well as a stone tray beneath her arm. Upon seeing the mage untied, she instantly collected several air currents and wrapped them around the woman’s fingers. The mage barely gave her a glance.

“You must have been busy,” Jiroh said as she placed the tray in the air a foot above the floor. “I brought you some food. It’s not much, but all I could sneak from home.” She emptied the cloud bags on the tray.

There was fruit that Dallion hadn’t seen before and also, thankfully, clearly recognizable bread.

“I expect she’ll have to eat as well?” Jiroh asked.

“At some point,” Dallion replied, taking a piece of bread. It wasn’t much, but having something to chew was very welcome. “How are things outside?”

“Fine, more or less…” Jiroh sighed. “I’ve been missing for over three years. There even was a brief inquiry. The only good thing about coming from a farming family is that no one cared particularly. When I let the constabulary know I’m alright they pretty much told me not to do it again.”

As much as that was a relief, it was also harsh. Normally, Dallion expected there to be an inquiry, or at the very least a brief talk to find out where she’d gone for the last three years. The local authorities had treated Jiroh as if she were a runaway. Well, in some aspects, maybe she seemed like one.

“Three years?” Dallion asked. He couldn’t be sure, but at least seven times as much had passed in the awakened world. “Why the same clothes, though?”

“Because they were the clothes I had when I vanished. Did you get any sleep?”

Dallion looked at Jiroh, then at the mage.

“Right.”

Once he finished the bread, Dallion ventured to try one of the fruits. As he did, the mage joined in. Jiroh probably took that as a provocation, for several air threats wrapped around the mage’s neck. It took Dallion’s assurance that the woman couldn’t cast spells for the fury to loosen her hold, although even then she didn’t completely remove it.

Quiet, the mage took one of the remaining pieces of bread. After a bite, she spat it on the floor.

“Disgusting!” she coughed, trying to get all taste out of her mouth.

“Sheltered.” Jiroh sighed. “What’s your level?”

The mage glared at her.

“Name and level,” Jiroh repeated. An aid thread pressed against the mage’s throat, indicating that it would be better to answer the question.

“Katka,” the mage said. “Katka, level sixty-four.”

“Sixty-four.” Jiroh nodded, slightly impressed. “What’s a sixty-four-level mage doing hunting us?”

“It was never about you. I didn’t even know you existed. The only reason I know about loverboy there is because of the Nerosal mess.”

“So, you were after the citadel.”

“The creatures that held the citadel,” Katka corrected. “The merchant told me someone else was looking for it.” There was a slight pause. “I thought it was something else. But after what you did, it would have been better if I came upon them.”

“Oh?” Jiroh had caught the note of spite in the mage’s voice. “Tell me about that.”

“You destroyed a dozen hearts in order to get back to your shitty world! Only an idiot would do that! And to top it all, you dragged us along with you! Have you any idea what you’ve done?”

“She already asked me that,” Dallion said, hardly paying any notice. The fruit, though sour, was not terrible.

“We’re not from this world. It’s more than just being out of place or having our powers sealed. This world is actively fighting to remove us from existence. It won’t start immediately, but eventually it will.”

“You mean freak accidents will happen?” Dallion asked.

“This isn’t a horror flick!” Katka snapped at him. “There’s no hive-thought. We’re just an element that cannot exist and as such will slowly be eradicated or broken down to other elements. Otherworlders can’t just visit each other’s world. Every moment we’re here, we’re slowly getting poisoned. Maybe it’ll take months, or maybe decades, but in the end…” The mage forced herself to try another bite of breath, this time managing to keep it in her mouth.

Poisoned. Dallion wished Nil was here to offer some clarity. There were no indications that the mage was lying, but no one could rely on her world, either.

“What did you need the hearts for?” Jiroh pressed on.

“Skill gems, what else?” Tears were visible in the corners of Katka’s eyes as she swallowed the bite of food. For a while, it seemed like she would vomit it all out, but that didn’t happen. “Cloud creatures condense into gems. Unless you waste their energy on something stupid such as this.”

She killed the dragon! Dallion thought instantly. He didn’t have a lot of information to go on, but it sounded like something Katka would do, or if not someone like her—possibly a member of the “circle” she’d let slip. If things weren’t so serious, he would have had her answer for it, but right now, even he agreed that they had bigger problems. Even if he didn’t fully believe the whole poisoning thing, he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in a world of furies.

“If I had my magic, I’d be able to get us back. Or at least get in touch with someone who could get us back. After what you pulled, no chance of that.”

“Why?” Dallion asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Why can’t you cast spells?”

“If I could have cast spells, I wouldn’t be wasting my time here, eating this crap.”

“I mean why can’t you on a technical level,” Dallion clarified, ignoring her crap comment.

“No idea. Maybe this world doesn’t allow magic? Maybe there’s a negation field. Maybe passing through drained all the magic from me. Whatever the reason, I don’t have the skills anymore.”

“Maybe you do,” Dallion said. “You tried to make a pattern when you were tied up. What if you’re just lacking magic energy?”

The point was interesting enough to spark a conversation on its own. It was outright impressive how mortal enemies of hours ago slowly focused on exploring the topic in an attempt to find a solution. Possibly it had to do with the fact that both of them were human, and as such quick to adapt when their survival was on the line.

The discussions continued for a long while and resulted in two conclusions acceptable by all: one—both Dallion and Katka had to find a way to leave this world; two—they had to find more information in order to do so. For the second to happen, they had to find a place to stay… and somewhere different from this storage cave.

After some consideration, Jiroh agreed to have them stay at her house. During her three-year absence, quite a lot of changes had taken place. Two of her sisters had moved out, while her brother had built a place of his own several miles from her parents’ main house. That left enough space for Dallion and the mage to move in as guests, and since the house was made largely of stone, staying wasn’t going to be an issue.

To mask the human’s appearance, Jiroh dug out some old hooded cloaks. Thanks to Dallion’s sea iron exo-armor, it was possible to shove it on with some minor adjustments. The biggest problem turned out to be the hood which kept falling through his head, though that problem was solved by dismantling part of Dallion’s gauntlet and placing it on his head. In the case of Katka, things were a bit more complicated. Dallion’s iron soles had to be used to keep the whole thing in place. That made her appear much stiffer, though she could compensate due to her high reaction trait.

The disguise was farcical no matter how one looked at it, but Jiroh assured them that such instances weren’t rare on the ground. Moon sects, funnily enough, were quite common there, although the term was quite different. The sects’ philosophy was of a simpler life on the ground beneath the moon—the single one that existed in this world—in the belief that would bring real freedom to an individual. They were mostly harmless, although a large number of countries on Flora accused them of being undercover agents of one government or another. Even so, as long as they remained on the ground, virtually no one cared.

To make things more believable, Dallion and Katka would claim that they had taken a vow of simplicity—which meant not using air currents. And just to be on the safe side, Katka would pretend to have taken a vow of hunger as well.

It took a while for the humans to get used to their new clothes. Sitting was the greatest problem, followed by walking. After considerable practice, both of them managed to pull it off. Even with diminished powers, being an awakened had its benefits.

Learning fury speech was even longer, at least for Dallion. While both of them had writing skills, Katka’s were several dozen levels higher than those of him. All in all, it took her fifteen minutes to learn the grammar of the language and a large enough vocabulary to get by in most situations. Dallion, in contrast, required hours. On the plus side, he was the only one to get the pronunciation right. That was of extreme importance, since it was going to be his role to deal with all mishaps using his music skills.

When Jiroh was satisfied that both humans could pull off being moon followers, all three started the trip to her house.

Normally, the distance could be passed for five minutes. Walking, though, increased the time to almost an hour. As they made their way through the countryside, Dallion noted how similar this world was to Earth in a completely different way. It was as if ground and sky had been flipped. Wherever he looked, the land seemed in pristine condition, covered in meadows, forests, and more plants he could identify. It was the sky that had been built up, full of layers upon layers of clouds, like clusters of industrial islands filling the sky. In some spots, far in the distance, the clouds were so thick that even the ground beneath was starting to go barren. Jiroh had explained that to be the major problem of modern times: static cities. Their presence created patches on the land that couldn’t produce anything, however, at the same time, this was the only way to guarantee proximity to earth resources—more specifically metals. With the boom of the metal industry, more and more furies wanted to buy luxuries made of the material, not to mention that the war industry heavily relied on such supplies. Even technology had started incorporating metals, and lately lass, in exceedingly complex devices, creating automated devices that made life easier for millions.

“One last thing,” Jiroh said as the large stone building she called home became visible in the distance. “My family drinks a lot. That comes with living on the ground.”

“Do you get drunk a lot?” The mage smirked.

“I used to.”