Jonathan was woken up the next morning by the sounds of children laughing, running up and down the hallway, and abrupt flashes of light passing by the door. He blearily sat up in bed. Although he still didn't have any way to tell time, his instincts were telling him that it was too dang early for this. He stumbled his way to the door and peered into the hall just in time to get an eyeball full of light from the flashlight he'd conjured the previous evening.

"Gah!" Jonathan cried, falling back a step.

"Sorry, Jonathan!" called one of the kids, and then the whole group was past him and off down the hallway. Jonathan made his way to one of the windows in the hall and pushed aside the curtains. The glass was awful, so he couldn't see outside, but he could tell there was barely any light in the sky.

Too early for this by half. Now that he was out of bed, he was also noticing that it was quite cold. Screw it, he was going back to bed.

Ten minutes of completely failing to fall back asleep later, Yanni, Bethany, and Kylus were all lurking by his bedside, and Jonathan sat up in a huff. "Do you need something?"

"We're hungry!" said Kylus. "Also, what is that lantern you created last night for Yanni? He showed us how to turn it on and off, but none of us can find a catalyst anywhere on it. How does it work?"

"It runs off batteries. They're, uh, like a catalyst that you don't need magic to use."

"Batteries? I've never heard of those."

"Well, yeah, they're from my world."

"Your world? You're a demon, aren't you? I thought you were from the Infernal Abyss."

Jonathan dragged a hand down his face. "It is way too early for this, but now I think of it, I haven't told you my full story, huh? Look, let's get everyone together for breakfast, and I can tell you about how I ended up here. I've got most of the powers of a demon, but I'm human otherwise."

For once Kylus didn't seem to know what to say. "…What?"

For breakfast, Jonathan conjured up a big pot full of oatmeal and a serving spoon, and it was indeed less effort than conjuring food into eight separate bowls. He'd have to sit down and brainstorm meals that he could conjure into his new pot. Oatmeal and sandwiches were getting old.

He didn't have a chance at the moment, though, because the kids were clamoring to hear about the flashlight.

"Kylus said you're not a demon," said Ethan, jumping straight to the attack. "Why did you lie to us?"

Jonathan looked at the pot of oatmeal he'd just conjured out of nothing and sighed. "I have demonic powers, but I was originally a normal human living in a different reality. For some reason, Abigail's summoning ritual pulled me out of my reality and into this one, and in the process I gained the ability to use Infernal Abyss magic. Thanks to the way summoning works I need contracts or I'll end up banished to the Infernal Abyss. I didn't bring that up originally because it would just complicate things."

Ethan didn't look happy with that response, but then again he hadn't looked happy since Jonathan had first crossed paths with him in Eldridge. Jonathan was going to need to sit him down for a talk at some point and figure out what his beef was.

It wasn't happening now, though. Before Ethan could even say anything, Bethany jumped into the conversation. "What's a reality?"

That was kind of a tough one. "It's—huh, how do I describe that? It's the physical world around you, and all the rules that define how everything in your world works. When I say I'm from a different reality, I mean that not only was I living on a different planet, but the rules were completely different. There was no magic, for instance. None of this five realms stuff, either."

Jamilah looked thoughtful. "Does that mean this 'flashlight' of yours works without magic?"

"That's right. It's using electricity that's stored in batteries to create light."

"Electricity?" asked Yanni.

"The same thing lightning is made out of, except a lot less of it at once."

Yanni looked impressed, though Jonathan wasn't sure why.

Kylus leaned forward. "Can you make more of these flashlights? What other things can you make from your world? How did you get anything done if you didn't have magic? Did you run an orphanage there, too?"

"Slow down!" laughed Jonathan. "I think making a few more flashlights is a really good idea, and I'm sure I can conjure more things from my world, but I'll have to give it some thought. Now that Mr. Geiller has given me a clean bill of health, I should be able to do more magic than before, but I still need someone to be desiring something in order for it to work. And no, I didn't run an orphanage in my original world." He paused for a moment. "Honestly, I don't really want to talk about that right now."

Sandra spoke up. "Who is Mr. Geiller?"

"Oh, right, you kids haven't met him yet, huh? Mr. Geiller is our neighbor. He lives in the house right next to the orphanage, and he's been helping Abigail out with magic."

Bethany's eyes lit up. "Do you think he'd teach us, too?! I want to learn magic!"

"I—don't know. He's not as awful as he first seemed, but he's still pretty cranky."

"His lessons are tough, Bethany," said Abigail. "He's not a good teacher like the docent was."

"What's a docent?" asked Kylus, and the kids' attention shifted to Abigail.

Jonathan sat back and poked at his oatmeal while Abigail tried to field the many questions the new kids had about living in an orphanage. Finding a solution to Abigail's failing health was a vast relief, but now that his off-the-cuff plan had succeeded, he was realizing he might have loaded himself up with even more problems. These kids all needed clothing, he still didn't have bedding for everyone, he hadn't figured out a way to bathe himself, much less a way for kids to bathe themselves, and as Abigail went on about the docent, headmistress, cook, and groundskeeper that had kept the orphanage running prior to it shutting down, Jonathan was feeling more and more like one guy with an army's worth of stuff that needed to be done. Granted, the orphanage as Abigail had experienced it had more than eight kids—from the number of beds, and what she was saying now, he figured there had probably been closer to twenty or thirty—but even so. He'd been having difficulty keeping everything clean and usable when it was just him and Abigail.

He was going to need help, and despite Bethany's starry-eyed vision of Mr. Geiller as a magic teacher, Jonathan was extremely pessimistic about him stepping up to take the role of the docent. There were certainly some things Jonathan wasn't liking about living with all these kids—it had only happened twice now, but he was not a fan of waking up to some child looming over him—but he was finding that he surprisingly didn't mind interacting with them. Unfortunately, he had never been trained as a teacher, and had no supplies, so even if he ended up playing the parts of the old docent and headmistress, he wasn't sure what he could teach them. Perhaps he could conjure up some books on the subject of teaching elementary kids? Actually, that raised an interesting question: everything he'd conjured from his old world so far was something he'd personally had experience with; the clothes, the flashlight, the BLT sandwiches…all of them were based off things he remembered owning. Could he conjure things that he knew existed, but had never personally experienced?

And maybe more importantly: how was he going to convince a bunch of kids that they should desire teaching aids?

Yeah, short term, at least, it would be really helpful if he could somehow convince Mr. Geiller to help somehow. He was going to need something to entice him, though…Jonathan's gaze fell on the flashlight, which Yanni had carefully placed near his spot at the table.

That might work.

It took some doing, but Jonathan was able to convince the kids that playing with a flashlight when it was light out wasn't nearly as fun. He also tried the argument that it was wasting battery, but it fell pretty flat when he could conjure more out of nothing.

Once he'd reclaimed it and scared the kids off with the threat of forcing them to help with the dishes if they couldn't find something better to do, he took a moment to examine the flashlight. It really was virtually identical to the flashlight he'd kept in his old apartment. Sleek silver metal a little shorter than his forearm, textured around the grip. A black rubber button to turn it on, and no bells and whistles. He unscrewed the base of it, and sure enough there were a pair of C-sized batteries nestled in there. He'd been halfway worried the insides would have been powered by some weird magic thing instead, but this was all completely familiar.

He was certain Mr. Geiller would be interested. He was pretty sure he could convince the old codger to at least meet the children, although what enticement he'd be able to offer to get him to teach them was somewhat unclear. The flashlight was good bait, but he suspected he'd need something ongoing to clinch the deal.

But for the moment, Jonathan just sat with a piece of his old world gripped tightly in his hands and tried not to cry. Evidently, he wasn't quite as acclimated as he'd thought.