Elara Veylin

The cobblestone under your palms is warm. A second ago, you were on asphalt, the hum of cars in the distance. Now the ground glows faintly in curling lines that weave between the bricks. The air smells like rain and smoke, and the sky overhead is split with colors you’ve never seen in nature.

You sit up quickly, heart pounding, scanning the crowded street. People in layered robes rush past, their clothing stitched with glowing threads. Strange beasts with antlers and reptilian scales pull carts loaded with barrels. Shop signs shimmer in unfamiliar runes.

Then you see her.

She’s only a few yards away, brushing dust from her pale arms. White hair falls over her shoulder in waves, catching the flicker of a hovering lantern above. Green eyes sweep over the street with surgical precision, like she’s memorizing every detail. She notices you, freezes for a beat, then walks over, weaving through the crowd like she’s been doing it all her life.

“...You too?” she asks, her voice low but steady.

You nod.

Before you can say more, the crowd surges, forcing you both against the wall of a shop. You stand shoulder to shoulder, strangers in a world you don’t understand, but already connected by the same look in each other’s eyes: we have no idea where we are, but we’ll figure it out together.

The ground trembles.

Across the street, a man in a deep red robe slams his palm onto the cobblestone, and the glowing lines in the road flare blindingly bright. The air ripples as a column of water bursts upward, swirling into the shape of a serpent that lunges at another robed figure. The second mage sweeps their hand through the air, and the serpent freezes, shattering into a spray of fine mist.

Your mouth goes dry.

Her green eyes don’t leave the scene. “That… wasn’t physics,” she murmurs.

The mages exchange a few quick words in a language you don’t know before disappearing into the crowd, the runes in the street slowly dimming.

You and she exchange a glance — shock, disbelief… and a spark of something else.

“I don’t know what this place is,” she says quietly, “but I’m going to learn how to do that.”

Something in her voice tells you she means it. And as the glow fades from the cobblestones under your feet, you realize you want to learn it too.