As I sit in the captain of the guard’s chair in his office, the sergeant he called Lizette returns carrying a tray. I was so disoriented and taken back by suddenly understanding the captain and the existence of magic, that I didn’t even notice she was gone.

“Eat up, you need to regain your strength.” She says as she sets the tray down in front of me. I didn’t realize how hungry and thirsty I was until she brought it, and I immediately chug the cup of water and begin devouring the food. It’s this world’s version of a sandwich, although the bread is tougher and the meat and other toppings are completely unknown to me, yet it tastes sort of similar to a BLT.

The captain chuckles heartily at the way I eat and then continues to talk. “Well, at least you have a healthy appetite, that’s a good sign. What’s your name, young lady? Where did you come from?”

I swallow my mouthful (mostly). “I’m Mia. Where am I? I don’t really know how I got here.”

He seems confused for a second, and then responds. “Well, Miss Mia, you’re in Altria, the capital city of the Empire of Altria. How do you not know how you got here? You didn’t ride here in a carriage or anything?”

I stare at him, honestly more confused by his explanation than I was before. “Altria…? Where in the world is that?” I mumble under my breath, trying to recall if I’ve ever heard of any country of this name.

Lizette takes notice of my confusion and launches into a better explanation. (It seems that she has better social skills than the captain.)

“Miss Mia, you’re not from around here at all, are you? You seem to be confused and curious about everything you’re experiencing.” I nod as she continues. “The reason that the captain is confused about you not knowing how you got here is that the Empire of Altria is a frontier nation. Until a few generations ago, this land was entirely wilderness.

“To get here from another nation would take weeks of travel by horse or carriage through the wilderness, with very little civilization along the way. If you were coming from another town or village in this nation, it would still take at least a week of travel. To not know how you got here is very strange, unless it was by magic. But you’re clearly inexperienced with magic.

When someone inexperienced is exposed to strong magic, they usually have a similar reaction as you did earlier when I put the necklace on you. Combined with your clothing and your language, both of which are entirely foreign to us, this has become a rather sensitive matter, I hope you can understand. Do you remember anything before coming here?”

Having finished the food they gave me, I begin to explain. “I woke up last night and I was under a really big tree on top of a hill. I couldn’t really see anything so I just stayed there through the night since I didn’t want to get lost in the dark.”

“You just…woke up there?” The captain asks, still confused. “Do you remember anything before that?”

“Well, I’m not sure if this was a dream or if it really happened, but I woke up late last night in my bedroom and the house was on fire. My roommates were away for the night visiting family, so I was the only one home. I ended up having to climb out of the bathroom window and fell and I think there was an explosion from the kitchen or somewhere before I blacked out and then I woke up under the tree like I said.”

Both the captain and sergeant seem a bit confused, but then Lizette speaks up. “I don’t really understand everything you said, but it seems like there may have been some unique magic at work that seems to have saved your life by transporting you here. Can you tell us anything else?”

“Well, honestly, I think I’m in a completely different world. We don’t have magic where I’m from, nor do we have guards who wear metal armor like you. Well, not anymore at least. A lot of these things are written in books that we call fantasy though. To be honest, I was hoping someone here would know something about how I can get back home.”

“One of the royal mages in the palace might have an idea, but that’s my best guess. Sorry I couldn’t be more help with that. For now though, we’re going to need to do something about your situation. Obviously, we’re going to have to report this up the chain, but we also can’t have you wandering around here alone with no way to communicate. And it’s not like I can let you borrow that necklace indefinitely. And you don’t have anywhere to stay, any official papers, or any funds to survive. Honestly we also shouldn’t let you stay in the city unmonitored either.” The captain says as he strokes his beard, thinking.

“Captain, if I may interrupt, I have an idea for a possible solution.” Lizette interjects as he’s about to continue.

“Go ahead, Sergeant.”

“It might be a bit presumptuous of me, but I think a solution that solves or eases these problems would be for me to take her in at my home, and you could assign me to a special duty monitoring her. As long as there’s a member of the guard with her, her documents wouldn’t be an issue and we would be able to let her hold onto the necklace for a little while longer as well. It would also reflect well in your report that we’ve already established a short-term solution.”

“Well, that’s definitely a better option than holding an innocent young woman in the jail cells just to monitor her. I expect daily reports from you, Sergeant Lizette. You are hereby assigned to Special Duty as the Liaison Officer assigned to Miss Mia. You will also be provided a stipend to cover expenses at a later time. That will be all, Sergeant. Dismissed. And also, thank you.”

Sergeant Lizette snaps to attention and salutes the Captain, who salutes back and she heads out of the room, motioning for me to follow her. The Captain wishes me luck as I follow her out.

Sergeant Lizette guides me out of the guard barracks and into the city. Immediately past the city gates is a large market area, and as I follow her, she also acts as a tour guide, which I am thankful for.

“The capital is essentially divided into nine sections: the palace and eight districts. The eight outer spires of the castle have walls extending from them to the outer walls. Currently, we’re in the commerce district, so you’ll find all sorts of shops, stands, and restaurants in this area. You can think of it as a compass in a way. This market area is in the southern portion of the city. I live in the northeastern section. It’s mostly a residential area for the middle-class residents, like store owners, merchants, and some civil servants like myself. The majority of the military live in barracks inside the outer wall though.

Also, we’re going to need to make a few stops before we head there, so if you could put this on before we go, please.” As she hands me a cloak, which I immediately put on, and despite the heat, I surprisingly feel cooled down wearing it.

“That cloak is enchanting with temperature controlling magic, so it will keep you cool during the day and warm at night. The temperatures here are extreme so it will help you, and also cover the strange clothing you’re wearing. Our first stop is to get you some normal clothes. I’d loan you some of mine, but I think they’d be a bit big for you.”

“Sergeant Lizette… I have a question for you.”

“You can just call me Liz, you’re not a part of the military so it feels weird having you address me by my rank.”

“Alright well, Liz… Not to sound ungrateful, but you’re really going out on a limb for me even though I’m a complete stranger and I was just wondering why you’d go so far out of your way?”

“Honestly, there’s a few reasons” she says as a strange spark appears in her eyes. “I’m pretty curious about your situation, and this supposed other world you come from, but also this might sound selfish, but a special duty assignment like this will give me a nice break from work. Especially since I won’t have to deal with any of the paperwork from today regarding your arrival.” She says as she laughs.

We arrive at a small shop with a wooden sign hanging over the door. It’s a completely foreign script that I can’t read. I guess this necklace only works on speech, not writing.

We enter the shop and Liz buys a few outfits for me from the storekeeper. After purchasing them, they get sucked into a ring on her right hand. I guess there’s some sort of storage magic in this world as well. This is starting to feel more and more like one of those books where the main character reincarnates in a fantasy world, except I don’t have any special powers nor was I visited by some crazy god on my way here.

We continue along the cobblestone roads, mostly in silence as I look around the city in amazement. We pass a strange church with vines wrapping around it up to the spire. Liz tells me that church worships the earth goddess. It seems that this country practices a lot of paganism and freedom of religion.

“um, Liz… I have another question, about magic this time. You and the captain seemed to talk about it like it was very natural, but I haven’t seen anyone actually using it yet, just magic items. Why is that?”

“Most common people don’t have much potential or ability for magic, and those that do usually only have ability with a few elements of it. So strong magicians with the ability to enchant items usually make their living from selling enchanted items. Some of them even form small groups to make stronger or more rare enchantments. Also, since it’s really just magicians putting a little bit of mana into an item, most common enchantments usually aren’t that expensive either.

“For example, the cloak that you’re wearing required magicians with an affinity for fire, water, and air to successfully enchant. Most magicians that can use fire can’t use water and vice versa. It’s the same between earth and air, and dark and light. But the enchantments on that cloak are very basic. Just heat and cold resistance along with an air flow enchantment.”

My head spins as Liz tells me about the basics of magic. It sounds so much like a game. She continues to explain magic to me as we walk.

Apparently, magic starts getting even more complicated when people get to advanced magic. A talented magician that can use air and water magic could learn to use storm magic to call down lightning from the sky or summon typhoons. Earth and water usually lends itself towards nature magic. The combination of air and fire magic is usually called Dragon magic, but Liz doesn’t say anything more about that. Apparently dark magic is the rarest form, as it can lead to gravity or time manipulation. She tells me that there’s also some outlier magic that doesn’t necessarily fit into any major category, such as transportation or creation magic. Magicians who lean toward light and air magic tend to have an easier time with transportation magic, but it apparently doesn’t follow the same rules.

It's a lot of information to take in and I make a mental note to study more about magic if it looks like I’ll be stuck here for a while. “Hey Liz, I was wondering how long you plan on having me stay at your house? How long do you think it will take for me to be able to see someone that might know how I got here?”

“Honestly Miss Mia, I’m not sure. Captain Devin is going to report this up, but there’s no guarantee that anyone at the castle will feel the need to respond to your situation or grant you an audience. I know he said that the royal mages would be your best bet for information, and they probably are. But getting in to see them is the real challenge.

Although, now that I think about it, we could visit the mage’s association in town to see if there’s any lingering magical effects on you. That might give you some answers, would you like to do that? If so, we should go sooner rather than later.”

“I think I’d like to try that.” I respond, although her answer depresses me a little bit. “Have you ever heard of anyone coming here from another world like me before? Like are there any myths or legends about it? Or any sort of summoning ritual?”

Liz thinks for a moment before she replies. “Nothing specific that I can think of. Although travelers and adventurers have found corpses or bodies with strange items on them before. I believe one of them had clothes similar to yours, if I recall correctly.”

“Bodies?”

“Yeah, like an adventurer will find a strange body in a dungeon on a very rare occasion. One of them was wearing shorts like yours, the kind that stretch without magic. He was also wearing a shirt similar to the shorts that didn’t cover his arms at all, the shirt had very large characters on the back too. I think it was in an ice dungeon, so he probably froze to death before anyone found him. I can’t say I know anything more about it though.”

At least it seems like I’m not the only person from my world to end up here. Although I might be luckier than the others. Sounds like some unlucky basketball player ended up here. What a horrible way to die though.

“Anyways, we’re here now.” Liz says as she motions to a nondescript building. Most of the other buildings along the street look similar to it, but with different squiggles on their signs. Liz holds open one of the double doors for me, and we enter into a spacious waiting area with a few different desks at the back.