You know, I read fantasy books growing, always thinking it would be cool, thinking it would be fantastical. Turns out I was wrong, and when me and my friend arrived in this world, it did not take long to learn my lesson.

Back in my hometown things had been largely tame, as it was a decent sized, mildly wealthy area. All you really had to deal with was gossip. Things had changed a little bit in recent years, as a nearby area was being redeveloped, and after many years of poorer housing areas getting priced out, an uptick in crime was happening. After a girl I knew was walking late at night, thinking nothing would happen to her, only to be surprised at what a bunch of angry men may do to a young girl all alone, some changes began to happen in the community. It was like a locust swarm began, as every basic white girl flooded to this nearby Krav Maga school. I won’t say I was above all that, but I came originally because I felt unsafe, but stayed because the fighting was intoxicating. All the fighting became an escape for me in a boring rich town. I had only been going to the school for a couple weeks when the jade doorway appeared before me and my friend. My friend, Sarah, wasn’t paying attention, she was on her phone, and we were just walking down a quiet street in our neighborhood. You might think we would have avoided it somehow, but it literally appeared an inch in front of me, mid step. My rushed attempt to stop, combined with her running into me, lead to us collapsing into a mess in some new fancy land.

We arrived outside some random city. Even that was hard to believe, as even a hundred away from the city, I never saw a single actual road. The closest thing I saw was this boulevard style brick pathway leading out from the city, and on some of the bigger “paths” in the city. You might think this was semantics, but there were never any cars on this path, just these medieval looking carriages. When Sarah and I finished gawking, she tried to do the most stupid thing I could think of, she went up to one of the seedier looking people who were in the line trying to get the city, and proceeded to karen her way into learning where she was. While I was definitely getting worried about where things were going, she didn’t let up with her questioning, not even the guy speak. Eventually, the guy must’ve gotten fed up and felt threatened, since I barely even saw the knife before it slammed into her stomach. By the time I took those few steps to get closer, two more stabs happened, and finally Sarah collapsed to the floor. I was immobilized, kneeling at dead body. Her death hit me harder than it should have, sure she was a friend, but deep down I knew in this foreign land that she should have known better to have acted this way. We were both rattled after the girl had those horrible things done to her back in our town, for all she acted stupid sometimes, she should have had more caution. It was this idea that something fundamental must have happened to her mentally to discard reason.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the gate guards walk over, as the line to get in had thinned some, leaving only a few people between our commotion and the gate. My inner white privilege was screaming that I would get justice here, that the man would be sent to prison. My hopes were dashed when my belief was crushed. Not only was the man who killed my friend apparently a notable person in the city, a respected merchant I later found out, but we were foreigners. The story the man weaved was the arrival of two young women whom he did not know, one running to him, screaming and acting crazy. When our clothes, ripped jeans and a crop tops, look like beggars clothes in this area, the man believed some crazy, drug addled woman was coming to steal from him. I was almost arrested myself, as my remarks about not knowing where I was didn’t help my case, but my innocent remarks about my clothes being a thing of fashion where I live, along with the deep depression I was beginning to enter, I think the man just took pity on me and didn’t press further charges.

Despite getting free from potential jail, my mood remained in disarray. An elderly woman took pity on me, allowing me to stay with her for a few days while I tried to figure things out. The first day may as well have been a blur, my sadness and shock blacking everything else out. I did nothing but drink the soup she gave me, bland as it was, in stupor while the rest of my day was spent under covers void of all thought. My second day was only slightly more fruitful, as she managed to get my name, Samantha Thompson, out of me as well as a slight introduction into the Jade Empire. The mention of the nation I was in, as well as mentions of Paths, Qi, and everything else sent me into a deeper shock that night. On the third day, when some reason was beginning to come back to me, and the renewed need to find a way to survive here was lit aflame, I knew I needed some job, someplace to live, but I was just a spoiled girl with only some moderate skill with Krav Maga to my name.

I wasn’t sure if to feel blessed, or worried about my well-being when some very well dressed, and well armed, men arrived at the door step of the house I was taking refuge in. Discussions between the men and the old lady happened for several minutes. I was too far away to get much from the conversation, but the mention of safe refuge and food gave me some hope. The old lady turned to me, and in private, told me they were from one of the most prominent and powerful clans in the nation, the Zhang Clan, and they had heard about my plight and were willing to offer you a place in their family compound, as long as I worked and earned my way. At first I was unsure how that would work, as I doubted I had much to provide to a powerful family, but then the lead man, leaned forward, and quietly whispered “we know you are not of this world, and we wish to provide a safe enough refuge for you to find your place”.

This was not as reassuring as it sounded to me, as my suspicion was raised, and clearly there was signs of mutual benefits, but as I did not see any lust in their eyes, I thought it was the best option I would get. I went with them back to their compound, and saw for the first time that while they had little actual technology, they had magical equivalents for a lot of things. I was brought to a room and told this will be my room, I was given some clothes that they said should fit for now, but in the coming days would be getting measured for better fitting attire. I looked down at was brought to me, and found out I was given a very formal looking red dress that had slits down the sides of the dress, and what almost looked like a suit style collar to the dress. While the dress was more like a long skirt, nonetheless it was more restrictive than I was used to, definitely showing off the moderate curves I had. I decided it would be important to take a shower and properly get cleaned up before I would wear something like that. I had the servant that was brought along, show me how to work the shower and just generally use the stuff in the room.

Once everyone was gone, I sat down on my bed for a minute, taking the time to properly get oriented in my room. The room was fairly large, roughly the size of a the masters bedroom my parents had, although it was restricted to a full size bed. Despite the smaller bed, it seemed to have additions in the room to make it a more livable room, rather than just a place to sleep. It had all the general stuff a girl would want, a large closet, although not a walk in closet, a good sized wardrobe, a nightstand, even a little bench at the end of the bed. But it also had a moderate sized desk in the corner with a magical lamp, another stand up table with a mirror, presumably for make up, as well as a connected bathroom. The bathroom had both a decent sized shower, a large copper bathtub, and surprisingly a wider bathroom sink. Everything seemed to be up to, if not beyond the standards of a bedroom I had in my previous life. After my quick look around, I finally got in the shower and stayed in there for a few minutes before even getting cleaned. I had missed having a hot shower and finally having one did a lot to dissuade my fears, even helping to deal with some of the unprocessed shock I hadn’t dealt with yet. Just knowing I had access to basic amenities much like those in my world really helped to show that I wasn’t in some medieval hell. Finally getting clean, I got out and was drying off when I heard a knock at the door. A servant said through the door that I was being summoned to the Branch Head’s room in half an hour, and to hurry up with getting dressed so I didn’t get there late.

I spent the next ten or so minutes getting dressed, making sure my hair was dried, and getting dressed in the super formal dress. I spent the remaining time trying to do my makeup in such a way that matched the formality of my clothes without being too gaudy. I was more worried that I may look too inappropriate or seemingly lack culture than anything. With my dress and makeup looking as good as I would be able to get it, I opened my door, finding a servant walking up to my door. Greeting the servant, I let the servant guide me through the winding corridors until we eventually arrived at a large open room, with one man huddled under a lamp looking down at some papers, at the end of a large table.

When I walk in, I barely get any reaction from the man, but then I notice a few guards located ar the edges of the room, and understand that I am not known to be a threat, but even then, he wouldn’t need to worry with his protection. Once I walk closer the man finally speaks, “well Samantha, you are quite the conundrum I am hearing. Not of this world, alone, but grieving the unfortunate loss of a friend who died under a series of misunderstanding and lack of cultural context. Before I can be of significant help to you, I will need to know a few things”.

“Yes?” I ask, hesitant and what may be the answer.

“The simple stuff would be about your Path and rank, as that would most widely determine what I may do” he replies, continuing on he mentions the “college” questions, such as what I wanted to do with my life, but also more serious stuff such as do I have any hostilities towards the empire.

“Well sir, I understand the murder of my friend wasn’t the Empire’s fault, but it’s not like I feel any particular fondness towards the the Empire. I have only just arrived and while the death does sour my general mood towards Empire, the other positive interactions I have had show that the people, and the Empire to some extent, aren’t inherently hostile to me”’ I answer back, finishing my response with talking about how I have yet to decide my future.

“As for my Path, I wasn’t really paying attention to the notifications I got while sleeping, but I notice that I am on the Path of the Fighter, rank one at that. But that doesn’t make sense, the only fighting I did was the little bit of Krav Maga training I did in the weeks leading up to my arrival here”, I add.

The man finishes the conversation by saying that our Path isn’t always just what we do, but who we are and what we will become. The last thing he says to me before waving me off was the knowledge that if Krav Maga is a martial art like he believes, the Fighter Path evolves into the Martial Arts Path, if not the specific Martial art I trained in.