My friends came in using the tractor beam and we were off. We traveled on a southwest highway above the city. There was a map of the planet on display now that I had instructed it to take us to the University of Montressor in Promethea, the country neighboring Origin.

"Wow," I heard Jozeey whisper, "this is the best thing I have ever seen."

Dania gave him a side look and then looked at me. The thing is that none of us really knew him that well. He kinda always just clung onto a group, and he didn't say much or bother us so we let him stay.

"I mean, I haven't seen a lot so it's easy to impress me," he went on, "but you get what I mean."

Grady agreed wholeheartedly, "Same."

A video call request notification from Uma chirped right then.

"I am so sorry for what my niece did," she started abruptly, "since her father died she's been a bit irrational. She said something about a vision?"

"Kinda, yeah," I smiled forcefully.

"Her father died a few months ago, so she's been living on her own for a while and I didn't think it would do her this much harm. I really don't understand what has gotten into her or what she's talking about. "

"Will we be safe from her at he university?" Stacey asked worriedly.

"I don't know how you weren't safe in the apartment in the first place," Uma answered, "The UM is a safe place, especially with all those students training in defense arts."

"What are we supposed to do, even," Marco got up and pushed me out of the shot so he could be front and center.

"You'll enroll there and start lessons right away, if I'm correct," she looked sad, "The Dean's office will help, I'm sure. She's experienced in handling unusual situations."

"Thanks, Ms. Uma," Dania said softly, clearly seeing the emotion bubbling up in Uma, who had seemed hard as steel the first time I met her.

"Good luck, children," she looked away and turned off the camera.

"Did you see her?" Dania was the best at reading cues, but in this case it was obvious.

"I hope she'll be okay," Grady frowned, "I hope that Ipsiota girl finds her way."

"Okay but can we talk about how you went ape-shit crazy on her?" Dania laughed.

"I was the only one who could see!" she giggled shyly, "What was I to do?"

We sat in awkward silence, but I fidgeted a lot.

I figured out how to make the walls of the X Flier transparent and I managed to catch glimpses of a mountain range bordering the city to the west. We travelled southwest and eventually we left the city.

"Look!" I gasped, pointing at the ground beneath us.

"What?" Dania tried to see what I was pointing at.

"No suburbs. It just suddenly turns into rural."

"Why is that important?" Marco was annoyed. He looked up from his Statusin. Since he had figured out how to use it he had buried his head in the Empire's equivalent of YouTube.

"A major part of human city building is suburbs. What happened here? Why do people not live in wider open spaces?"

The Statusin answered my question, "Origin Nation Ordinance CPB234 states that all people will live within city borders in order to maintain the balance with nature and its inhabitants. This has led to innovations in vertical architecture and city planning."

"That's so cool," I murmured as we passed over a vast temperate forest.

"It's not," Marco murmured in return.

I had the Statusin on landmark and tourist mode. A volcano grew over the horizon and it was highlighted with annotations in English.

"We are currently in the vicinity of Mount Origin, an active volcano. It is the biggest such landform on Montressor and is the cultural reserve of Golemkind, who are known to be ancestors of the modern Promethean human."

"I feel like we're only getting glimpses of pieces of what this planet really is," Sabine said with awe.

We zoomed past the volcano with our vein of traffic still flying alongside us. Not long after that we reached the border.

"You have now crossed into the Promethean Kingdom, Magai Empire. No passport is necessary. Promethea is Origin's cultural sibling, and they have worked together for more than forty-thousand years for the proliferation of the Magai Empire. You may note that Promethean cities are much more spread out as a direct result of differences in home rule due to the great autonomy Empire nations enjoy."

We passed over a city that looked a lot more like the ones on Earth, but still very futuristic.

"Birthflame," the Statusin read out, "The ancient capital city of Promethea and home of King and Triumvir Oriys Eutos."

We passed over the city quickly and then we crossed Crimson. At this point I think I may have been the only one listening to the travel guide, but I don't know. I was reading up as much as I could.

"Named after the blood red of the flag of Promethea, Crimson was a war city-state in the times before the Empire. The roofs and façades of all the buildings must be some shade of red, according to city ordinance."

We reached more urban lands and eventually the university was just up ahead.

"The University of Montressor," the Statusin began again, "Renowned within the Magai Empire and in nations across the galaxy. It is curiously built on the cliffs of the Iceberg Ocean. The enchantment set on the building adds a new section on the side opposite the ocean every decade to follow the common architectural theme of that period. UM's goal is to train students to use their magical abilities, to teach sciences and history, and to expand this knowledge through experimentation. It is free of cost to all willing to learn."

"No unauthorized vehicles past this point," A more serious Statusin spoke.

"We're here," Grady jumped up out of her seat.

I got up just as quickly and we both went down the exit at the same time.

A less serious Statusin opened up and began speaking, "It is custom for new admits of UM to enter through the front gates then to walk to the front doors and request entrance. Groups of students typically use any of their powers to race to the front. Would you like to participate?"

"YES!" Grady cheered, and we all agreed. Even Marco seemed excited to use his wings again.

"I bet I can beat you, stupid," Marco looked at me, specifically.

"Let's go!" I yelled.

"Would you like a countdown?" the Statusin offered.

"Set it to 10," I replied.

We stepped off the platform, and the Statusin began counting. We all got ready. The doors to the inside of the campus were on the long side of the building. They were only a couple of miles away, maybe?

"GO!" it flashed green.

Jozeey pulled up a mound of earth beneath him and made a windmill motion, moving him along faster than if he were running. We were all surprised that he hadn't told us anything about it.

Marco wobbled into the air, still inexperienced, and glided along behind him. Daniela dashed at inhuman speeds just after them, and Stacey skated on a frozen path she continuously created before her, Frozone-style. Sabine turned dark and flew into the air, trailing just behind Jozeey. Dania rode a tailwind that she summoned with a graceful flowing motion of her arms.

"What are we gonna do?" Grady asked, as we got left behind.

"Who even knows! I don't!" I said enthusiastically, picking both of us up and floating us, quickly catching up and surpassing the other guys.

"NO!" Marco yelled as we flew over them.

"Dammit!" Jozeey and Stacey yelled in unison and began to manipulate their elements faster.

Grace and I caught up to Sabine and the three of us tied with Daniela seconds behind us. We had just finished the long tram, without even putting in any strenuous effort.

Sabine enthusiastically play-fought Daniela over who would ring the hologram doorbell.

When she rang, the freakishly tall doors opened. Inside, we stood in a giant hall, where students scurried around in a long hallway that ran across the building. Again, a great portion of them were not human and a larger portion of the humans had different dress and appearances than ours.

"Wow," Dania said in a whisper, "This is nerd heaven."

Just then, a pixie woman hovered before us and stared at us.

"Welcome to the University, my name is—" she made a series of gurgling noises, then clicked her tongue, "You may call me Hellan. I am from the island of Hada," she stared again.

"Do you do that often? The whole staring thing?" Marco asked rudely.

She ignored him, then said, "You are to be registered for classes, yes? The school day is almost over, and admission is automatic as per Empire law, so you may stay in the dormitories," she stared off, then continued, "The next three days are a field trip. Prepare yourself for an intense clobbering."

"Now, now, Hellan, let these children in without harassing them," a tall woman scolded the fairy.

She looked at us now, "My name is Andrelos, I am the Dean of the University. You probably will not see me much after this, but do know that I care deeply for all of my students. For now, before registering for classes, we'll put you in the middle of a Previous Century History class. You should learn something while you're here, today, even if it's not much."

She waved a finger and suddenly the eight of us were sitting in an auditorium classroom with a glowing blue faery for a professor. She was a foot tall and the amplification system caught the sound of her wings. Our Statusins transcribed her faery-language words as she said them.

Professor Allant was lecturing about the hole in the atmosphere. About how Merlin Talanjanix was able to seal it up. She spoke of a war that happened before the one-hundred year period the class was supposed to cover. A civil war between the nations of the Empire in which Origin was attacked with the light bomb.

It sounded powerful. Allant described it as a fusion of magic and tech that released devastating amounts of light that burned everything in a thousand-mile radius. The cities of Orange and Rose were obliterated, killing hundreds of millions of people. The lands surrounding the cities became burnt and unusable. The bomb damaged the atmosphere so badly that a hole gradually grew over the next two hundred Montressor years leading up to Merlin's impossible feat.

I realized at some point that years on Montressor were significantly longer than the ones on Earth. I pulled up some calculations and I found out that on year on Montressor was five-hundred orbits of the suns around the planet, which converts to nearly five of Earth's orbits around the Sun.

Clearly, I got distracted by that. I stopped paying attention.

We were teleported without warning to some dormitory pods room right after the class ended. I didn't think that was normal, but we rolled with it.

A Statusin gave us instructions on how to use the sleep pods. We'd be in deep sleep, if we chose, until the next school day started. The days on this planet lasted eighty hours. Eighty hours.

"What the fuck?" Marco remarked at that. I agreed.

We could be asleep for the next twenty-six hours. More than an entire day. Apparently the native species were just used to that.

"Well we won't feel it...probably," I tried to reassure everyone.

"That means we're going to be awake for two entire Earth days after sleeping?" Stacey was doing math in her head, something I couldn't do.

The Statusin explained that the sleeping pods would keep us awake after exiting. Our neurochemistry would be changed drastically.

"Let's do it," Sabine shook her head and she looked a bit sick, "I'm not feeling so good."

Stacey side-eyed her, but I followed suit.

The sleep pod was sleek and egg-shaped. Its exterior was white and shiny, and there were instructions on it in English for me to walk directly into it. The sleep would be instantaneous.

"I sleep, therefore I am," I joked for encouragement. I didn't look at any of my friends.

A step forward was all it took.