The Girl Who Dreamed of a Different World

by Niall Teasdale

They were all elves with pale colouration: shitagi.

  ‘What are you doing here, Correstir?’ Aneshti said before anyone else could react. She sounded annoyed rather than surprised.

  ‘You know full well why I’m here, Aneshti.’ The speaker was the robed figure at the back. He was tall, for an elf, and he had the same pale hair as Aneshti falling down around his shoulders. His eyes looked bluer than Aneshti’s and his features were more masculine, but there was a clear family resemblance and he was a handsome man. Somehow, Correstir was related to Aneshti, though Kana doubted the same was true of the men with him.

  ‘Then you can turn around and go home. Alone. I’m not returning to Shibella.’

  ‘You’ve a duty to–’

  ‘I do not. No one forced you to marry someone you hate in order to get easier access to shipping. How is Tellara, by the way?’

  Correstir’s brow furrowed. ‘She’s well. Or she was when I left Shibella. You know she gave us our second daughter last year?’

  ‘I’d heard. Soansha’s blessing on your family and home.’

  ‘Thank you. Now, we have a horse ready for you to ride. I’ll expect to see you ready to leave in the morning.’

  ‘Then you’ll be horribly disappointed. Tell me something, brother, when your new daughter is of marriageable age, will you

  be forcing her to marry some old man to further your mercantile goals? Will Tellara allow such a thing to happen?’

  Now Correstir scowled. ‘Tomorrow morning, Aneshti. You’ll come with me one way or another.’

  ‘Go home to your wife and daughters, Correstir,’ Aneshti replied.

  ‘That’s where your duty lies.’

  ~~~

  ‘Sorry,’ Sonia said. ‘I was hoping you’d get here before they spotted you. They’ve been here for a couple of months now. Asked around about you when they first arrived and then seemed to decide to wait rather than chase you south.’

  Neither lunch nor bath had been chosen as an immediate destination. Instead, they had decided to check up on things with Sonia at the Adventurers’ Guild. As expected, she knew all about Correstir and his retainers.

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ Aneshti told her. ‘I was not expecting whoever they sent to be ready to just wait. Then again, I was not expecting them to send Correstir.’

  ‘He’s your brother?’ Kana asked.

  ‘The eldest. He’s a good fifty years older than me. Married with two children.’

  ‘And a mage,’ Constance said.

  ‘Yes, but he learned from an old retainer my father kept on hand to work magic. Correstir took over from that man when he retired.

  Father must be annoyed with me to send his primary magical resource away for so long.’ Aneshti’s eyes widened in mock wonder. ‘Why, he’ll have to spend money hiring mages to take Correstir’s place.’

  ‘Does that imply that your brother is going to be highly motivated to drag you back to Shibella?’ Constance asked.

  ‘He’s motivated,’ Sonia replied. ‘He was thoroughly obnoxious about it when he first arrived. If he’s made friends in Hillock, he’s done so by splashing money around, because he put more than a few noses out of joint in his first week or so here. Spent a lot of time insinuating that we were hiding Aneshti. His fighters were quick to put their hands on their swords in a threatening manner. You know the kind of thing.’

  Constance scowled at no one in particular. ‘In that case, Aneshti, you’re not going anywhere alone. I doubt he’d even describe it as kidnapping.’ Aneshti scowled in turn but did not deny it.

  ‘What kind of mage is he, Aneshti?’ Kana asked. ‘What’s his speciality?’

  ‘Well, he’s better with water magic, obviously. All shitagi are.

  Beyond that, he’s learned a lot of magic for use in negotiations.’

  ‘Negotiations?’

  ‘Yeah. Things to help Father get the best price. Mostly it’s just reading those he’s negotiating with and figuring out how low they’ll go, but he’s been known to use, um, more forceful methods. He’s not big on combat magic, but he knows a couple of spells.’

  ‘That kind of thing would get him locked up in Alabeth,’ Sonia said. ‘Using mind control magic is strictly limited to self-defence. Of course, people still use it, but if they’re caught, the sentence is long. Here, we’d probably just run someone out of town.’

  Kana made a little groaning sound and Aneshti looked at her.

  ‘What’s up with you?’

  ‘I just had a vision of how things are going to go from here. I really hope your brother has more originality than that.’

  ‘Uh, well, Correstir has never been a particularly original thinker. I doubt he’d be here if he was.’

  ‘I was really hoping you wouldn’t say that.’

  ~~~

  Sinking into a hot bath felt positively heavenly. Kana let out a huge sigh as the water enclosed her body. No one commented, because they had done more or less the same thing when they had got in. Everyone except Rain, who was taking her time.

  ‘Come on, Rain,’ Mimi said as Rain dithered over washing herself.

  ‘You’ve got to take the, um, plunge sometime.’

  ‘I know,’ Rain called back. ‘I’ll be there soon.’

  ‘We’ve seen them already,’ Constance added. ‘No point in hiding them now.’

  ‘Not helping.’

  Kana splashed water into Constance’s face before their leader could say anything else. ‘Just ignore Constance, Rain. We all know she’s just jealous.’

  ‘I’m coming.’ Looking distinctly bashful, Rain walked over to the bath and proceeded to sink herself up to her neck in the hot

  water as fast as decorum would allow. ‘I’m here,’ she said. ‘You can stop encouraging me.’

  ‘You’re here and hiding everything,’ Constance said. Her own, quite substantial, bosom was hovering, iceberg-like, on the surface. No one had ever accused Constance of excessive modesty.

  ‘I’m not used to this yet,’ Rain countered. ‘It feels like I’m in the wrong side, even though I know I’ve always wanted to be here.’

  ‘Trust me. If you had gone into the men’s baths, there would have been a lot of noise and you’d have got a lot of attention.’

  ‘Yeah. Look, it’s crazy, I know. I’ve always thought of myself as a woman, and I’ve always wanted this, but I’m just not used to it being a reality. I thought I’d got used to it while we were travelling, but I haven’t. Being among people, especially people who knew me… It’s… It feels like I’m faking or something. Even Sonia didn’t ask what happened or anything, but I feel like they’re all judging me.’

  ‘I think they’re all wondering how you went from cute and boyish to jaw-dropping beauty,’ Constance countered. ‘I think, if anyone asks, we blame the slavers. Blame might not be the right word.

  The slavers took you, decided you weren’t good enough for what they wanted, and used a secret enchantment on you to make you…

  more voluptuous. Female gladiators have an image, just like the male ones. Big tits are part of the package.’

  ‘That’s even partially true,’ Aneshti said. ‘I mean, it’s almost entirely true, when you think about it. It leaves out one important part…’

  ‘That story works,’ Rain said. ‘I think that’s what we should go with. Aside from anything else, a story about a daring raid on a Sintari slaver is going to go down almost as well as Kana slaying a dragon. We don’t have anything else to tell and we do need to build our reputation.’

  ‘I kind of meant you might need help getting used to being you again.’

  ‘I know. I think, so long as you four don’t treat me any differently, I’ll get over it.’

  ‘You’re going to get propositioned a lot more,’ Constance said.

  ‘You’d better get used to that too.’

  Rain smirked. ‘I already am, Constance. Thanks to you, I’ve already had plenty of practice turning down offers to share my bedroll.’

  D
espite herself, Constance blushed, which resulted in more giggling with Kana joining in. ‘What can I say,’ Constance said,

  ‘I’m nothing if not predictable.’

  1 st Pakarte.

  ‘Your brother just came in,’ Rain said, ‘and I have a bad feeling about him being here.’

  ‘He’s not going to do anything here,’ Aneshti countered. ‘There are too many people about.’ Breakfast was being consumed in the Sword and Staff. The pub was far from empty since more than a few adventurers ate most of their meals there. ‘I doubt he’d even cause a scene.’

  ‘Famous last words,’ Kana said, but then she shrugged. ‘You’re probably right, though I think we should be careful. How’s the job situation?’

  ‘There’s a village on the north side of the forest that’s got a goblin problem,’ Constance replied. ‘It’s been on the board for over a week and no one’s taken it.’

  ‘Pay’s lousy?’

  ‘The pay is… not exactly great. A lot of the bigger groups think hunting goblins is beneath them.’

  ‘But ridding a village of them is a noble goal,’ Mimi said. ‘Sort of. Anyway, it should be easy enough. Find the goblin camp. Kana drops one of her explosions into the middle of it. Then we mop up anything that survives. I kind of feel sorry for the goblins.’

  ‘I guess that works,’ Kana agreed. ‘Never let it be said I refused to drop a Firebomb in the middle of a goblin encampment.’

  ‘You do it to bandits too,’ Constance said. ‘Let’s not forget the bandits. I think that was more satisfying. I’ll let Sonia know and we’ll head out tomorrow. Shouldn’t take more than two or three days to get there.’

  ‘And it gets me out of town,’ Aneshti said. ‘Maybe Correstir will give up if–’ She stopped and shook her head. ‘What was I saying?’

  ‘Getting out of town would be good,’ Kana said before anyone else could respond. ‘Hold still a second, would you?’

  ‘Uh, okay…’

  Kana gestured, circling her finger in the air, and a magic circle appeared beneath the bench Aneshti was sitting on. Kana smiled.

  ‘Nothing to worry about. Just checking.’

  ‘Just checking what?’

  ‘That you haven’t put on weight since we left. I thought you were looking a little wider around the waist than the last time you were sitting there.’

  ‘Hey! That’s not funny.’ Aneshti’s assertion was countered somewhat by everyone else bursting into laughter. Then the laughter stopped.

  ‘It’s time to leave, Aneshti,’ Correstir said as he walked up to their table.

  ‘Of course, brother,’ Aneshti replied immediately. Leaving her breakfast half-finished, she got to her feet.

  ‘Aneshti?’ Mimi asked, looking puzzled.

  ‘I’m going with my brother,’ Aneshti said.

  ‘Okay,’ Kana said, smiling and waving a hand to silence the others. ‘I’m sure we’ll see you again sometime.’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Come, Aneshti,’ Correstir said. Aneshti trooped along behind her brother without another word.

  ‘Charm spell?’ Constance asked as soon as the door was closed behind the couple.

  ‘Uh-huh,’ Kana replied. ‘I can’t counter it. I’ve never studied that kind of magic.’

  ‘I have, but I don’t know counterspells. That said, I do know of a perfectly good way to counter that spell.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Yes I do. If brother Correstir wants to play dirty, then I say we play dirty right back.’

  Alabeth Forest.

  Not far north of Hillock, the road to Dvartim passed through the edge of the Alabeth Forest. Occasionally, travellers would be waylaid there by bandits of one sort or another and locals were extra careful when passing along that section of road. Anyone reasonably well versed in the ways of surviving road trips was more careful, in fact, and Correstir’s party was no exception.

  They were on the lookout for anything which might be a problem, but not really expecting anything. When fire began to rain from the sky in front of them, they pulled up their horses in surprise.

  ‘Encircle Aneshti!’ Correstir ordered. It could have been an order to protect his sister, and it maybe even was meant to keep

  her safe, but given that Aneshti was now riding with her wrists tied to the saddle and a cloth gag in her mouth, there might have been another reason.

  Like burning hot sleet, more fire began to fall on the road behind them. They could have pushed through the trees on either side, but the ground was uneven and they would have had to move slowly. Correstir suspected that going through the trees was the last thing he should be attempting.

  ‘Not taking the only way out then?’ Constance said as she stepped out from behind a tree and walked up the slight bank to the road.

  ‘We had traps and everything laid out in there. It would’ve been so much fun.’ Correstir raised his hand toward the necromancer.

  ‘If you so much as start casting a spell, you’ll have an arrow and a Firebolt through your chest before you can gesture. I see you let the Charm spell lapse on Aneshti. How about you let her go and save us all a lot of trouble?’

  ‘She has a duty to–’ A sphere of rock rocketed past Correstir’s head and he jerked sideways, his horse shying in the process.

  By the time he had the animal under control, Mimi was standing beside Constance and she looked as annoyed as she ever got. ‘You call yourselves elves? Elves believe in equality of the genders.

  Your entire culture has taken far too much from the northern humans, but you… You and your family should be ashamed of what you’re doing. Say anything more about her so-called duty and I won’t miss with the second stone.’

  ‘I’m already feeling like shooting them and getting it over with,’ Kana said from the opposite side of the track. ‘The only thing stopping me is that I might hit the horses.’

  ‘I won’t hit the horses,’ Rain said from beside her. Rain had her bow drawn and aimed at the nearest fighter.

  ‘It’s not looking good for you,’ Constance said. ‘Let Aneshti go, and you can go home without needing to stop to have your wounds tended along the way.’

  ‘There are five of us and four of you,’ Correstir countered.

  ‘And you’ll all be on the ground before you can get to us. You’ve nothing with range, Correstir. Aneshti told us that you know a few combat spells. Maybe your friends have some since most elves can use magic if they learn. But we’ll drop you before you can get a spell off.’ Her face hardened. ‘We’re not joking. Cut her free.’

  Correstir’s jaw tightened. He stared at Constance for a long second and then glanced around at the rest of his sister’s guards. ‘Cut her free,’ he said through gritted teeth.

  Free of the saddle, Aneshti hurried over to stand beside Constance and Mimi. The flaming rain on the road to the north died away as soon as she had done so. It was a clear indication as to what Correstir’s next action should be, but he did not move.

  ‘How did you get ahead of us?’ Aneshti asked.

  ‘Oh, Rain got us some horses on loan,’ Constance said, her eyes on the other elves. ‘Turns out, the people of Hillock don’t like the idea of someone using mind-controlling magic to take someone away to an arranged marriage. We had to turn down offers of help.’

  ‘Quite forcefully in Roland’s case,’ Mimi added.

  ‘True. If I were you, Correstir, I wouldn’t think about trying to sneak back for another try. There are one or two people in Hillock who are likely to get a bit rough with you if they see you again.’

  ‘It’s not like this lot exactly made themselves welcome before they kidnapped Aneshti,’ Rain said. ‘The stories I heard at the stables…’

  ‘This is not over,’ Correstir said, but he pulled his mount around and started riding north, away from Hillock. The burning rain began again as soon as the horses were clear of it.

  ‘I do like that Rain of Fire spell,’ Constance said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Kana
agreed as she walked over to join them. ‘I was thinking I might use it on the goblins. You know, for a change.’

  ‘No explosion?’ Aneshti asked.

  ‘Maybe a smaller explosion, plus burning rain.’

  ‘I think you’re getting worse.’

  ‘Hey! My burning rain just saved your butt. Anyway, I can’t believe your brother went with the most clichéd way of handling this he could. We might still be wondering why you suddenly changed your mind and went with him if some sort of mind control wasn’t the clichéd thing to happen at this point.’

  ‘I did say that Correstir wasn’t big on original thinking.’

  ‘You did. Maybe this is an indication that I’m not dreaming all this.’

  Aneshti frowned. ‘Oh. How so?’

  ‘Well, if I’m the author of all of this, I’d have hoped I’d display more imagination. Or at least given you a bit more

  agency. Like having you overpowered and knocked unconscious before they dragged you off over the back of a horse.’

  ‘That sounds a lot more painful. Plus, that’s already what happened to Rain. Can’t have it happen twice or people will complain about repetition.’

  Kana shrugged. ‘Just saying. We have a sucky screenwriter. Let’s get ready to cook some goblins.’

  Chapter Fourteen: The Chase

  Hillock, 19 th Pakarte 6024.

  ‘So, basically, nothing to report,’ Kana said. She was talking to Sharassa, all the way north in the White Castle. There was nothing to report because nothing much had happened. Aside, anyway, from the demise of a small goblin tribe, its members either dead or still running and unlikely to pose a further risk to humans.

  ‘As we suspected,’ Sharassa replied. ‘However, I have something to report to you.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘We’ve received word from another of our people that there have been some… unusual happenings in Skonar.’

  ‘Sharassa, this is a world where we have to chase off goblin tribes, dragons occasionally need killing, and there are talking trees. I have developed an entirely new understanding of

  “unusual” since coming here.’

  ‘The cobbles along a five-hundred-foot stretch of road in the middle of town began to spontaneously rise into the air. A warehouse on the docks spontaneously exploded, which might not have been too strange except that it was burning with green flame. It also rained blood for an hour in the harbour.’