Artyom awoke to a shocking sight; the room he fell asleep in last night. Sunlight shone through the window, carrying shards of silver, pink, and green mixed with the traditional white light in a kaleidoscopic mix.

  He wasn’t on Earth, he already knew, but the alien nature of this world wasn’t what surprised him. Rather, it was the qualities of his room. Warm, cozy, safe… and familiar. Each individual feeling was familiar to him, but as he thought more about it, Artyom realized he’d never experienced all of them at the same time.

  His room back at TOAL headquarters was safe and familiar, but furnished very spartanly. To Artyom, that was all it was: a room. It never had that special something that would make it more, but he didn’t mind. Most of his time was spent on missions anyway. Ones that would take him to worlds straight out of fantasy where he would wage war for what was right.

  He normally found himself making camp out in the wilderness in the middle of enemy territory, or in a tent at an allied basecamp. Rarely at an inn while travelling, but never for more than a night. Usually cold, rarely cozy, and never safe.

  But here he was, on a mission, surrounded by enemies more powerful than him who wanted the man dead. Yet he was safe. And he would continue to be, as long as he played his cards right. He was confident in that.

  There really was a first time for everything, Artyom thought as he got out of bed and began to get ready for the day ahead. After brushing his teeth and taking a bath, he headed downstairs for breakfast.

  A brown-haired woman was the first to greet him with a cheerful, yet knowing smile. She was young, likely in her early twenties, and had an air of innocence and naivety around her. To a very large extent, it was sincere. But at the end of the day, she was a rogue, and dishonesty was part of her job description.

  “Hey Artyom!” she exclaimed with a wave. “I already got us a table, just head to the front counter and tell them your order.”

  He nodded with a smile of his own and did as instructed.

  The inn’s menu was sparse, being an inn in a small town and all.

  Rather than ordering today’s special of grilled fish over rice, Artyom asked for the porridge with dried fruit. They had a savory variety of the dish, but he was sure they would mix in some fish sauce; apt considering the town’s chief export. He didn’t feel like eating fish today.

  He got his meal and brought it over to the table Neitra was at, and took a seat himself.

  The rogue just regarded him with the same bright, knowing smile as he took a bite of the hot meal.

  He took two more bites before looking up at her while his face was down next to the bowl. “Uh…”

  “Isn’t it exciting?” she asked in a hushed tone. “I’ve never been part of a conspiracy before!”

  “Isn’t that your job, though?” replied Artyom between bites. “Being secretive and all that?”

  “Only in combat, I’ve never been part of something big big.”

  “And we’re not in a conspiracy, we’re targets of one.”

  “I know the rest of our teammates except Tommy are trying to kill us, but I don’t just mean that. I mean with you! How you’re also from Earth!”

  Artyom would have been trying to shush her if he hadn’t already set up a privacy spell around them. Sure, the three so-called teammates trying to kill them would probably have a way of breaking it, but they were still in their luxury cabin with Tommy, the chosen hero of Earth summoned by the goddess to defeat the Dark Lord who plagued the land with his evil.

  Everything about that stank worse than a pile of fresh manure.

  This world was what his organization, TOAL, considered a Fairytale world; safe, innocent, and friendly. Even with a so-called Dark Lord on a rampage, nothing would get so bad as to surpass a PG rating.

  The first warband Artyom encountered brutally slaughtered the village he was staying at. And with everything else they tried while there, they would’ve made Genghis Khan’s golden horde proud, the way a toddler would to their parents. While they only tried committing additional war crimes, it’s the thought that counts.

  And when he and even Neitra tried joining the hero’s party, a group committed to putting an end to something so evil, the other members tried to kill them.

  There was a mystery brewing, and there were still two questions Artyom needed answering before he could consider his next steps: how did Tommy end up in this world, and what did the rest of the party have planned for him?

  “Are you listening to me, Artyom?” asked Neitra.

  “Huh?” replied Artyom, snapped out of his thoughts.

  “I asked what we’re going to do next. About… the other three. Things should be easier for us now that Lensa’s gone, but there are still the others. What are we going to do about them?”

  Artyom shrugged. “Do you know how we can hurt them?”

  “Besides with words, no.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Then we don’t do anything.”

  Wait, is that it?” asked Neitra with a pout. “You’re supposed to be this mega hero, like a supercharged version of Tommy! We have to do something.”

  Artyom replied with a cocky grin.

  “Wait, you’re joking, aren’t you?”

  He couldn’t help but laugh. “All we can do is try and find a weakness. Poke them with anything new we find, and hope it does something to them without getting their attention. And in the meantime, try to figure out what the deal with Tommy is.”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” said Neitra, letting out a chuckle. It turned nervous at the end. “Do you have an idea where we can start?”

  Artyom’s hand reflexively went to the phone in his pocket. It was his lifeline back to headquarters, doubling as a communications device and means of emergency escape. And most recently, access to the greatest superweapon in TOAL’s arsenal. It might work against the Fatewatchers, the mythological heroes that masqueraded as the hero’s core party members, but also against everything in a wide area around them. The collateral damage of the weapon was obscene, and with them always hanging on Tommy’s shoulder, he wouldn’t have an easy opportunity to fire it without killing the one person he was here to save.

  Artyom shrugged. “The next place we’re headed to is a magic school, so maybe there’ll be something there? New spells, ancient secrets, the kind of juicy power everyone wants to get their hands on.”

  “Oh yeah! Do you think I could learn magic?” Neitra exclaimed, as if having forgotten about their previous dour line of conversation.

  “If you’re willing to commit yourself, then sure,” said Artyom with a smile that only grew in response to hers. “There’s a bit of natural talent that plays a role, but if you spend enough time, you should be able to pick up enough to cast a spell or two.”

  Neitra somehow lit up even brighter, making Artyom do the same. At the end of the day, he was a mage, and seeing somebody else interested in magic made him happy.

  The two finished their meals, with Neitra theorizing what kind of spells would be best for her. Most however didn’t exist or were lesser versions of abilities she already possessed. But that didn’t waver her spirit, as she kept that spring in her step on her way out of the inn.

  Artyom followed closely behind her towards the team’s designated rendezvous point. It only took the rest of the team another half an hour to arrive, but when they did, the air turned somber.

  The hero Tommy made his way from where the luxury cabins all were, with three women flanking his sides, all deep in his personal space. He didn’t mind however, and it looked like he was the one trying to comfort them.

  He couldn’t blame them, however. They’d lost a teammate yesterday. She’d left for the frontier to keep the villages there safe from the Dark Lord’s warbands pillaging the region. Xerica blamed herself for Lensa running off all of a sudden due to how harshly she reacted to Lensa shirking her duties to the team in favor of protecting her family.

  Though she didn’t know why Lensa truly ran off. Her inner turmoil over that conflict reached a boiling point, where she decided the best means of redemption was to kill her family, then Artyom and Neitra, and finally herself.

  To her credit, she very likely wasn’t human. And everyone was still alive. And she was gone!

  That still left the other three members of the party, also very likely not human. Along with everything that implied. Stalemate or not, Artyom wondered why he considered the inn he slept at as safe.

  Xerica, Daisy, and Ecole glared at Artyom, but without the sheer passion of their hatred from yesterday. They still partially blamed him for Lensa’s disappearance since he was the one who created pressure for one of them to leave for the frontier, but the matching rage today was tempered by bleary and baggy eyes.

  “Good morning, everyone,” said Tommy with a yawn. “So I guess we’re headed over to your magic school now, Xerica?”

  She nodded, causing her perfectly combed fire-red hair to bob along with her head without throwing a strand out of place.

  “But before we go, I’ve got a bit of a surprise,” he said with a light, mischievous smile. “Someone’s joining us.”

  For an instant, the Fatewatchers’ faces lit up and Artyom’s fell, until they all realized what Tommy was actually talking about.

  “Hello!” shouted a feminine voice from the distance.

  They all turned to see a woman dressed in white robes with a blue vertical stripe going down the center walking up to them. By her side was a teenager.

  “Sister Elery?” asked Artyom, addressing the woman who ran the town’s orphanage. “What’s going on?”

  “Did Tommy not tell you?” she asked. “Do you want to do the honors, hero?”

  Tommy’s smile grew brighter as he addressed the rest of the party. “When I was at the orphanage yesterday talking to all of the kids, I came up with this super cool idea!”

  Everyone else pieced it together, but gave Tommy the chance to finish first.

  “Rotte here said he wants to learn more about magic, and since Artyom won’t be around to teach him any more, let’s bring him over to the magic school with us!”

  “That’s a wonderful idea, Tommy!” said Xerica, looking more relieved than excited.

  “I thought he was going to make Rotte a member of our party,” Neitra whispered to Artyom. “I feel kind of dumb now.”

  “You shouldn’t because I don’t think you were the only one.”

  “Hi everyone, I hope you don’t mind if I stick around for a bit until we get there,” said the boy, Rotte, in a voice that hadn’t entirely let go of prepubescence yet.

  “We should be able to get there within two days, so it should be fine,” replied Xerica. “You can use Lensa’s tent…”

  A wave of silence swept over the group. Even Sister Elery flinched and looked at Artyom and Neitra. She was essentially Lensa’s mother, having helped raise her. And yesterday she learned exactly who and what Lensa was.

  “I have enough supplies packed for all of us,” said Neitra, breaking everyone out of their fugue.

  “Really, wasting money like that?” asked Daisy, the blonde with a pair of curved swords on her belt. butting in with a sneer. “There’s no way you knew somebody else would be joining us.”

  “You got mad at me last time I didn’t pack extra supplies for somebody none of you expected to join us. You’re not allowed to be mad at me for both things.”

  “You can’t tell me what to do!” Daisy shouted back.

  Lensa just stared her down.

  The swordswoman stood her ground, but after a moment, looked to the side confused, before frowning and mumbling. “Whatever, let’s just get going.”

  It seemed that Lensa’s absence was messing with their mean girls dynamic. That, and Neitra was less scared of them than before. Despite also now knowing they wanted her dead.

  “For if we didn’t laugh in the face of death, we would instead cry,” thought Artyom to himself.

  Rotte looked for a spot in the group, and saw the three ladies glaring at him, as if daring the teen to get close to their Tommy. It didn’t take much more convincing for him to stand next to Artyom, on the other side of Neitra.

  The group waved goodbye to Sister Elery and began their trek towards Xerica’s alma mater: Holdbright Arcane Academy. Artyom felt it was going to be an interesting leg of his mission. Magic schools always were.