His eyes shine with unshed tears. He vaults across the room, scooping up her hand and clenching it tightly. She can see on his face that he is scared to hug her as he repeatedly glances at her side. “You’re the one I should be saying that to! You, Mom, and Star – ”

“Aeserast,” Aeserast corrects, sighing as he stands up. “That nickname is never going away.”

“ – You just appeared in the foyer.” Codi clears his throat, disguising a sniffle. “Are-are you feeling all right?”

“I feel a little dizzy,” she admits, smiling faintly. “I might be getting sick.”

“Your body is adjusting to your Source,” Aeserast explains just as Surana returns with four small egg-shaped glass pieces in her hands. As soon as she walks in, they instantly light up and expand. Aeserast leaps forward and catches two that tumble from her grasp.

A man and a woman dressed in plain clothes follow her, carrying brooms and dustpans. Jonan quickly moves out of the way, and they immediately begin cleaning up the shattered mess of glass on the floor.

Codi lightly tugs on her hand. “Come on, Mara,” he urges, flashing a brilliant smile at her.

Ezra chuckles. “Wait just a moment, Codi.” He lets go of Mara’s hand, pouting a little. Ezra picks up a stack of clothes off a chair and beckons to Mara. “Come into the bathroom, sweetie, so I can check your side.”

Mara follows her mother into the little room perpendicular to the bed, her head still spinning. Ezra closes the door behind them and reaches for the shower knobs. “This one is hot water, and this one is cold. You have to turn both of them to get to the temperature you want.”

“Mom…”

Ezra turns to Mara and lifts the shirt’s edge, looking at the scar running over Mara’s hipbone. She frets as if wishing she can do something about the white mark.

“Mom, why won’t you look at me?”

Ezra’s eyes are shining with tears. “I’m so sorry, sweetie. It shouldn’t have scarred…”

Mara grabs her mother’s hands and yanks them away from the blemish. “Mom, it’s okay,” she reassures her mother even though she still doesn’t fully understand what is going on. “You know I’ve never cared about scars.”

Ezra strokes Mara’s hair and gives her a wavering smile. “I know.” She kisses her daughter’s forehead. “I’ll let you get cleaned up. Here’s some of my old clothes; Jonan and Surana never got rid of them, and they’re about your size.”

She escapes the bathroom before Mara can stop her. Sighing, Mara turns on the faucets, playing with the heat until it is at a comfortable temperature. She takes a quick shower, noticing only a slight ache in her side as she moves around.

Now dressed and clean, she steps out of the room. Codi turns around from talking with Ezra and grins. Mara’s breath catches in her throat and she nearly bursts into tears again; she had thought she would never get to see her brother again. She hugs him tightly.

He pats her back, chuckling. “Come on; we’ll show you around.”

“Kim,” Ezra calls to the blonde girl, smirking at the reunited siblings.

The girl forces a tense smile. “Please, Aunt Ezra, I… really don’t like being called that.”

Ezra covers her mouth, her eyes wide. “Oh, I’m sorry. Can you keep an eye on them, Kimala?”

Kimala beams at Ezra. “Of course, Aunt Ezra!”

Codi grins and grabs Mara’s hand, pulling her out the door. Mara chuckles at his eagerness. Kimala follows them down the hallway. They pass by fantastical pictures of odd-shaped flowers and colorful sceneries along the walls. Silver trees, red bushes, house-shaped brown flowers, and many more fill the spaces within the frames.

Kimala’s mood shifts as soon as they are out of earshot from Mara’s room. “Codi, slow down. She can still be injured,” she says sharply, all sense of respect gone from her voice.

“Kimala, don’t be mean,” Codi tells the girl. To Mara, he not-so-subtly whispers, “She’s upset because Mom called her Kim. She hates that nickname.”

“It doesn’t even sound like my name,” Kimala grumbles, glaring out the bay windows along the hallway. “It’s Kee-mala, not Kim-ala.”

“Oh.” Mara is still struggling to get used to the idea that all of her father’s and Aeserast’s stories are real, let alone trying to understand why Kimala doesn’t like that particular nickname. “Where are we going?”

“I say we go to the garden,” Kimala suggests, her voice cold. “No Source globes to shatter there.”

Source globe… that must be what those glowing orbs were. She stares at a flickering one as they continue down the long hallway.

Codi stops and turns to face her, looking as though someone had broken his favorite toy. He drops their linked hands. “I thought we could play a strategy game,” he admits, shuffling his feet nervously. “No one else here likes them.”

So he still does that adorable pout, Mara thinks, smiling. “Yeah, sure.” Her smile slowly disappears as she stares at her brother. He looks so happy here… “Did you… run away?” Mara blurts without thinking, a twinge of jealousy spiking through her.

Codi stares at her, appalled. “And leave behind such a cute little sister? No! I was kidnapped.”

Mara freezes, stunned at Codi’s nonchalant way of saying it. He sulks down the hall, frowning. “Who kidnapped you?” she finally asks, taking deep breaths to keep herself calm.

He waves his hand in the air, dismissing the question as she follows him. “It doesn’t matter anymore; they died of some disease I carried over from Earth. The Brunets found me after that, so I’ve been here since then.” Mara recognizes her mother’s maiden name.

Codi pauses in front of a set of gilded wooden doors and grins at Mara. “You’re going to love this,” he murmurs, throwing the doors open with a dramatic push.

Kimala rolls her eyes. “Show-off.” However, she smiles a little, amused at Codi’s exaggerated movements.

Mara stares in amazement at the huge library stretching to either side of the double doors. The ten-foot bookshelves touch the ceiling of the gym-sized room, every shelf completely stocked. Genre labels classify the different sections. Reading niches and tables are scattered throughout the maze while huge bay windows with window seats are spread along the three walls, allowing ample amounts of natural reading light.

“Amazing,” Mara breathes. She wanders to the nearest window, staring down at a field that has sparring dummies and a little cluster of trees before reaching a short wall probably only three feet high. A town spreads out past the mansion’s little wall, splayed almost haphazardly with alleyways and crisscrossing roads. A fifteen-foot wall towers in the distance, forming a circle around the town with the mansion at the epicenter. It looks to be about three miles away.

People in an assortment of odd clothes walk along the litter-free streets; some even wear different colored robes, leather vests, or glistening armor. Weapons – some bladed and others like Ezra’s laser gun, only bigger – are carried openly. There is no sign of electrical poles, vehicles, or even streetlights – just hovering globes over some platforms sticking out from the sides of the oddly shaped buildings. Some of the houses have rounded rooms like hobbit homes or greenhouses sticking out from them; others have roofs with upturned edges to catch water for the gardens on them. A few houses have no corners other than the roof, made entirely of curves and soft edges.

It is definitely not Earth.

If what Dad and Aeserast had said when I was younger is true, then I guess being on a different world isn’t too far fetched… A million questions flit through her mind. Do they have plumbing and sewer? What about electricity? Vehicles? What do they do for food – is everything fresh or do they package and can certain goods? She narrows her eyes, her mind on overdrive as she thinks of endless possibilities. Finally, she turns to Codi.

“What can you do with Source?” she asks. She glances at her hand, watching a silver lightning bolt dance across her fingers in response to her excitement. Maybe she can find a use for this new ability. If there is a possibility to use it in a field she likes, she will leap on the opportunity.

“Oh, all sorts of things. You can build bridges, make weapons, become a medic…”

Wrong question, Mara realizes, glancing at the bookshelves. “Is there a book about it?”

Codi nods excitedly. He rushes to a shelf and tugs down two books, handing them to her. They read The History of Voyana on Blazhreia and The Basic Control Techniques of One’s Source. Before he can start rambling again, she sits down and opens the history book, assuming she needs to understand what it is before she can learn how to control it.

Kimala smirks at Codi. “Looks like your game is on hold.”

Codi yanks a book off the shelf and collapses in the seat next to Mara. “Shut up, Kimala.”

The blonde-haired girl storms away, snatching a book from a shelf and curling up in a windowsill.

After a while, the sun peers through the window and lights up the table as Mara frowns at the book. “Hey,” she gets Codi’s attention, pointing at a line. “This says the Voyana stuff can be used to split apart molecules and reassemble the atoms into other elements. Does this mean it reduces molecules back to their atomic state only to restructure them within only a few seconds as different elements off the periodic table?”

Codi nods. “It’s a bit confusing if you’re only just now learning it, but yeah, you got it.”

Mara shakes her head. “Splitting them might be easy, but restructuring it with just Voyana sounds a bit… sci-fi-ish.” She fights her urge to laugh. “I mean, what do you do, think your way into turning lead into gold?”

Codi shrugs. “There are some who study alchemy, but most just deal with relevant stuff, like the medical or scientific field.”

Mara leans forward, fascinated. “Wait, is there a whole school dedicated to this magic stuff?”

Codi sighs. “I thought it was magic when I first got here, too, but it’s not,” he says. “It’s – ”

“A biochemical, I know. It just seems so… magic-like.” Mara flips back to the first chapter. The history sounds pretty similar to Aeserast’s and Dad’s stories. I guess they were trying to teach us of this world in a subtle, roundabout way.

Codi rests his chin on his hand. “Voyana is an energy supply to the world. It’s used in place of other things, like gasoline. Better?”

Not really… Mara thinks to herself.

Kimala, who had been studying in the sun with a medical book, huffs and repositions her long legs. “Voyana means energy, Mara, not magic,” she explains matter-of-factly. “It’s a multi-function biochemical energy source that can be used for a multitude of things. For example, medics use it to look at internal wounds and clear out debris without ever making an incision. Being a microscopic atomic particle, it can pass through nearly any material, so all of the debris is broken down and then restructured to be helpful instead of harmful to the body. The rest is filtered out through the pores before clumping into a disposable solid.”

Mara tilts her head to the side, contemplating. “So… what about me?” she asks, thinking of her scar. “Why does it look like I got stabbed?”

Kimala stares out the window. “There were… complications. There’s an illegal material called neivir commonly used among assassins and murderers of other countries. The only way to remove it is by pulling out the shards by hand, which is dangerous because the neivir can slice through the tools like butter.”

So that’s what they had been talking about, Mara realizes, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. Dad had been shot with a similar bullet…

Codi’s head pops up. “Wait, you understood that?”

“Yeah.” The history book snaps shut and Mara rests her long fingers on the cover. “It’s some advanced invasive biochemical from another world that some radiated species decided to dump here.” She tosses the book at Codi and he catches it. “Of course I would understand jargon like that.”

“If you want something harder, try Alkina’s History of Science,” Kimala murmurs absently, resuming her studying. “You’ll probably need the Earthling-to-Xharos language dictionary, though. That will be five rows down, to the left along the wall between the two bay windows in a group reading area.”

“Thanks,” Mara says, surprised at how helpful Kimala has been this afternoon despite her cold attitude toward Mara.

“That’s super-hard stuff!” Codi hisses.

Kimala shrugs, twirling her honey-colored hair around her finger. “She didn’t grow up here, so she needs a crash-course. Simple as that.” She snaps the book closed and stands up, giving Mara a sickeningly sweet smile. “Have fun, Earthling.”

Mara watches the girl sashay out of the library. She smiles and stands up.

“You’re not seriously going to take her suggestion, are you?” Codi asks, incredulous. “She’s trying to make a fool out of you.”

“Oh, I know.” Mara goes to the history section and pulls down the ‘recommended’ book. She smirks at Codi. “But imagine her face if I don’t make a fool out of myself.”

Mara reads to her heart’s content, eager to learn anything she can about this new world. She does not want to be caught unaware by her cousin’s spontaneous quizzes, such as what the social ranking system is or how Voyana had been created; anyway, it is too fun seeing Kimala’s stunned face whenever Mara is able to answer the girl’s questions correctly.

Surana insists on making custom clothes for Ezra and Mara. Unsure how the process went, Mara just tells her aunt what she likes – non-binding clothes, earthen tones, nothing flashy, fully practical, deep pockets – and left it at that. She ends up with several different types of outfits, but Mara’s favorites are the snug yet non-binding sets that she can train in.

Mara likes the reading niches in the windows, enjoying the view and the sunlight as she scribbles away in the little notebook her mother had given her. However, after she finds the garden maze made out of lattice walls and ceilings, she lounges outside and plays strategy games with Codi in the dappled sunlight as Aeserast sits nearby and sips on his tea. As soon as Ezra permits it, Mara helps Codi with his self-defense in the mornings; he had gotten rusty after not having a proper sparring partner. He fumbles through the moves, finally having to work for a win with her. Mara is happy to just have her brother back again and thoroughly enjoys reconnecting with him over their old habits.

Mara is stunned to learn Jonan, Surana, and Ezra are tein’fu, the equivalence of a duke or duchess in this world. Mara, Codi, and Kimala are tein’stra, or the children of that rank. She is shocked yet again when she finds out her mother had been a high-ranked medic and the assistant of the head of the medical facility in the capital of this continent, Quasala, and that she had been considered one of the best on all of Blazhreia. The lack of formality baffles Mara; people greet Ezra like an old friend, not paying any heed to her old title as medic advisor or as tein’fu.

Mara feels as if she is learning of a side of her mother that she never would have known about if they had not come back to Blazhreia.