Giselle’s head was absolutely pounding, worse than she could ever remember before. Whatever she was laying on was immensely uncomfortable as well, digging at her poor body with small, sharp angles. She groaned and tried to shift, keeping her eyes shut. In her time with the demons, she couldn't ever remember waking up feeling quite this bad, even after the long torturous sessions they devised for her.

With a snap, she opened her eyes. A few wispy white puffs of cloud greeted her, drifting lazily across an azure sky. Could it really be true? With a shaking hand, she reached out and tried to grab one of the clouds. It passed by her fingers, caring not for the tiny creature that lay in a painful heap so far below it.

She wasn't in the Other Realm anymore. Pushing down hard, she sat up. The motion brought a wave of nausea and vertigo to her, her eyesight swooping into small tunnels of vision. Taking a moment to catch her breath and fight the rising bile, she steadied her breathing and closed her eyes again. Eventually the swimming stopped, and she managed a small smile. She wasn't in the Other Realm anymore!

Opening her eyes to the bright daylight again, she found her vision had returned. The nausea subsided, as long as she didnt move too fast, and she could take stock of where she was. The first thing Giselle noticed was the fact the damned Demon Lord had put her smack dab on top of an angular boulder. Of all the places she could have sent her, she had made sure she landed on a hard ass boulder. And not even a well worn boulder, this one looked fresh off the mountain side, with jagged sharp crevices covering its surface.

Stretching away, a sea of golden grass flowed around the boulder, which seemed almost like a lonely ship, lost in the waves of the meadow. At the edges of the meadow were trees. So many trees! Giselle couldn't recall a time in her life she had seen so many trees, and such a variety. Pines stood next to maples, who shared space with elms and aspens. The wind whispered through the trees, enough to give a dancing, shimmering display of greens as the leaves bounced softly on the branches. Giselle’s smile grew a little broader as she took in the majesty of this simple panorama of nature. She was alive and she had made it out of the Other Realm.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a small nagging thought was trying to push forward. Ignoring it, she gave herself a quick once over. Every bone seemed to be in place, and despite the bruising she was sure to find on her back, she seemed to be in one piece, unharmed. Giving herself a gentle push, she slid down off the boulder and landed among the waist high, to her, grasses. Running a hand over the stalks, she sighed in content.

But something was not quite right. That thought niggled at the back of her head, but that wasn't it. Part of her felt strangely empty, perhaps missing. All at once, the thought burst forward and her memories flooded back to her. She was here to get the Spear of Larnath for the Demon Lord Amarth. The feeling of being slightly off was her soul, it was splintered and part of it was still in the Other.

Placing a hand against the rock, she steadied herself as another wave of nausea washed over her. This time it was not the effects of the rude portal dropping, but the realization of what she had done. She had made a pact of sorts with a Demon Lord. In exchange for this weapon, she would be free to live out her days in the Mortal Realm again. And Gild. The thought of her husband squeezed her chest. She wouldn't be able to see him until this was completed. But how happy he would be once he saw her again. That poor man, though he would never admit it, had based his life around her. It was a large world, and she hoped he was far, far away from wherever she was.

That was the next step. She shook herself a little bit, trying to get off the feeling of despair that was trying to overwhelm her. She needed to find out where she was and decide her next moves. Looking around, she picked out the tallest tree at the edge of the meadow and started towards it. It was an oak, with strong bark and none of the sap that covered the pine trees. Since no people seemed to be around to tend to it, branches sprouted from the trunk near the ground and made their way up to the top, providing a natural sort of ladder for her to climb.

It was an easy enough climb, but she found herself panting and sweating as she neared the top. Years of laying in the bottom of a pit would do that to one's muscles. She thrust her head through the top of the canopy of leaves, and looked around her.

Treetops spread out in every direction from her. To the south was a mountain range, deceptively small looking, but the snow capped peaks told her they were scraping the home of the Seraphim themselves. To the north the trees seemed to stretch forever and to the east they started to thin, eventually giving way to what she thought might be an endless field. At least as endless as it looked to her, the world had to end somewhere, didn't it?

Finally, looking to the west brought civilization to Giselle. A town, larger than she would have expected since it had no discernable roads leading into it, stood. Smoke trailed into the sky, being pulled into twists and turns by the light gusts of wind. A river cut through the town, meandering on its own path, one there long before anyone settled its banks and one that would be there long after they had all left.

“That is a surprisingly large town,” she said to no one in particular. It felt good to speak aloud again and not worry about what she was saying bringing some form of retribution or punishment down on her. Keeping her body generally oriented in the direction of the town, Giselle climbed back down the tree, jumping the last few feet and landing roughly on the ground. She would need to exercise and to practice rolling it seemed.

Grunting, she brushed some of the leaves off of herself and started walking in the direction she had seen the town. It wasn't too far away and shouldn't take too long to get too. As she walked, she let her mind wander on what she should do next.

“Well, I can't just walk into the town and start asking about the Spear of Larnath,” she said to herself. Sometimes speaking out loud or to yourself was the best way to get past a problem. Keeping it inside changed nothing, but saying it aloud sometimes led you down different paths that you would not have realized.

“Imagine that,” she grimaced slightly. “Some pale, withered gnome covered in filthy rags comes climbing out of the forest, ranting on and on about some magical and ancient weapon. I'd be at best ignored, and more likely thrown in the looney bin with the other crazies. No, that wouldn't do at all.”

“I need somewhere that has a large amount of information I can peruse at my own rate,” she walked quietly, tapping a finger against her chin, “The library! Even if I have to ask someone about the Spear, it would just be for research and not the ravings of a nutter! Perfect!”

Smiling to herself, she found a small skip in her step. “Even if the library doesn't have exactly what I need, I'm sure it can point me in a direction that would. Shoot, worst comes to worst, I can visit the town hall and check the records for anything. But it seems big enough,” she squinted at the quickly approaching town, now that she was out of the majority of trees. “I’m sure they have a sizable library I can use.”

She couldn't help but be fascinated as how she approached the town it just seemed to start. One moment she was walking through a grassy field, robust and thick trees behind her and an occasional cottage around her, and the next, she was on a cobbled road, surrounded by buildings of an impressive array of different architectures.

They were amazing, the buildings! Though they had different styles, to include the A framed buildings of the north humans and the squat rock-like dwellings of the dwarves, they all seemed to blend together in a way that suggested planning, but a subtle sort of planning. The A framed buildings blended with the Sun Elves swooping and pointed roofs, similar in shape but so different in ornamentation. These gave way to the wooden longhouses favored by the Star Elves, with the squat dwarven buildings not too far beyond those. It was an eclectic mix, but a wonderful grab bag of styles.

And the people! So many different humans of every color, from the darkest of nights to the palest of snow, walked around her. Intermixed with these humans were Sun and Star Elves, keeping a haughty distance from the other races. She even caught sight of a few dwarves, making their way quickly through the crowds on some important, at least to them, errand. Once or twice she was fairly certain she saw other gnomes, but they may just have been stocky human children. At a distance or in a crowd it could be difficult to tell.

Giselle found she had wandered into an intersection of two large roads. Looking around, she couldn't see any signs to direct her to the library, town hall, or anything really. Rows and rows of buildings with small signs were the only indication of what she was near. As she stood there, looking around, a young boy, not much shorter than she was, approached her. He had a skip to his step and was grinning broadly, revealing missing teeth and a smattering of too big for his face adult teeth.

“Mornin’ missus! Can I help you with anything?”

She looked him up and down, one eyebrow raised. The smile never faltered as he watched her give him a once over. “Sure, I actually need directions.”

“Where are ya headed?”

“The library.”

His head bobbed up and down in an eager nod. “Sure thing! I can get you to the library right quick. Turns out, you were almost there yerself!” He turned on his heel and gave her a quick wave. “Follow me and we’ll get you right there.”

He took off at a surprisingly quick pace and she followed. Using his smaller stature, he was able to weave between the taller persons walking through the town without their noticing. As he walked, he kept talking about something, but she wasn't really paying attention to him as he babbled. Something about the town and the stores around them, as if he was a tour guide.

They kept walking, taking a few turns and finding themselves on smaller streets, less packed as the main avenues, but still enough people around to suggest it was a lively area of the city. And what a strange city this was. Giselle couldn't help but gawk around her at this bustling town that had nothing coming into it except a river. That would have to be where any shipments the city needed came in. The fields to the west could provide food, but a city this large could not be entirely self-sustaining. The wealthy would want items that were not available nearby as a display of their ostentatiousness, and that would have to come in from somewhere.

The boy turned down an even smaller road, barely more than an alleyway, and slowed his pace, still going on and on about something. Giselle rolled her eyes and slowed with him. This was the oldest trick in the book, one she had used many times as an orphan in the Gnomish capital.

“Are you actually going to take me to the library now?,” she interrupted him mid speech, causing him to falter in his words. “And tell your friend behind me to keep her grubby little hands away from the robe pockets.”

She turned to see a young girl, probably the same age as the boy, frozen behind her with one arm outstretched towards the pockets on the side of her robes. She would find nothing useful in them if she had managed to pickpocket Giselle, but teaching the kids a lesson was more important right now.

Giselle pulled at her mana reserves, happy to find the small pool she had cultivated before trying to pact as a warlock was still there, and conjured a small flame in her palm. The two children's eyes locked on the flame.

“Now,” Giselle said softly. “I think you are going to show me the actual way to the library. No tricks, no foolery, just a straightforward guide to where I asked to be. And next time, take a little bit longer to study your mark before you try to steal from them. You should at least start towards the place they wanted, that way if you decide it's too risky to steal from them,” she made the flame grow slightly bigger, “You can at least earn a copper doing lawful work.”

They children nodded in unison and turned, scampering back the way they came. She started after them, chuckling softly to herself. She extinguished the flame in her palm. Such an easy trick. The children led her back onto the main avenues and towards a large building that was unmistakably a library. People in robes and spectacles were bustling in and out of a large, intricately carved door flanked by two marble pillars.

At least she wouldn't have to worry about finding Gild in the library.