Hallie awoke to knocking on her door. “Are you awake?”, Luke yelled. 

“I am now,'' said Hallie as she opened the door. “What time is it?”

“It’s 10 o’clock. I already went grocery shopping and I spoke with Warlen and he wants to meet you after lunch. I also bought you some clothes. I had to guess your size so I hope they fit.”, he said as he produced a bag of clothing. 

Hallie carried the bag over to her bed and looked through the clothes. “They seem to be about the right size”, she said. After looking through the bag some more, she found a beautiful flower patterned dress made of a soft pink and yellow fabric. “This one is amazing! Where did you get these?”, Hallie exclaimed. 

“I have a cousin named Alice who owns a local clothing shop. You are about the same size as her so I told her to pick a selection of things that she would wear. I am glad you like them.” Luke said. 

“I love them! Do you mind telling her thank you for me?”, Hallie asked.

“You’ll get to tell her yourself. You are going to need more than three outfits if you are going to be staying here while we work on getting you home. I was thinking we could go to Alice's shop and get some clothing made for you after we meet up with Warlen.”, Luke said. 

“Okay then. I’ll get ready.” Hallie says. 

As he is walking into the hallway, Luke said, “Be ready in an hour”

15 minutes later, Hallie is fully dressed in her new dress and is ready to go. Upon opening her door, she could smell toast cooking, so she immediately walked over to the kitchen. Upon arriving there, she finds Luke making grilled cheese and soup. 

“It smells delicious”, Hallie said. 

Immediately Luke dropped the spatula that he was holding and took a breath before saying, “I didn’t hear you walk in. You scared me.”

“Sorry,” said Hallie softly

“It’s okay. I thought I might have time to surprise you and finish everything before you got ready. I thought girls were supposed to take forever to get ready,” replied Luke. 

“Not all of us.”

As they eat, Hallie notices that Luke has a refrigerator and a stove and she remembers that Koda had mentioned using technology was breaking the law, so she asks, “How do your refrigerator and stove work if electricity isn’t allowed?”

Luke replies, “It isn’t necessarily that electricity isn’t allowed at all, it is just that only certain people have the ability to manipulate it beyond everyday use. For example, refrigerators, stovetops and lights are all either powered by technology or magic, but people aren’t able to turn this technology into something different or they will be punished severely. Anything that could be vaguely interpreted as a weapon is also confiscated and leads to punishment. This is why many people outside the major cities prefer to live the most simple life that they can. They are fearful of the power and destruction that technology and magic can bring.” 

Hallie answers with a simple, “Hmmm” as the two of them finish their food in silence. Hallie lost in her own thoughts about this new world she has found herself in and Luke in admiration of Hallie’s insight and hope that her curiosity of his world will prompt her to stay a bit longer. 

After finishing breakfast, Luke and Hallie head to the Teca to meet up with Warlen. Upon arriving, they find Warlen in the main room of the Teca. The room was filled from floor to ceiling with shelf after shelf completely filled with books. Warlen immediately stands up to greet them and gives them both hugs as though he has known them forever. 

“Hello, Hello. So this is the Earthen girl you were telling me about. She does have an interesting quality about her. You brought the shirt you mentioned?”

“Yes, we did.” Luke replied. 

“Good, good. Come with me. You two can watch the process.” Warlen says excitedly as he leads them towards a door at the back of the Teca’s main room.

They walked into an elaborate laboratory. Filled with books, potions, ingredients and technology that neither Hallie nor Luke had ever seen before. “This is amazing!” they said with wonder while taking in the details of the room. Even Luke, who had been a scholar for a few years now, had never been inside of this room up until this point. 

“Oh this, this is nothing. Just wait until you see the facilities at the Capital. Anyways we are going over here. This here is the scrap of fabric that you mentioned was similar to the fabric she was wearing. We will put them both through the machine, which will use both technology and magic to assess whether they are made from the same material and whether they were made at a similar time to each other. It should take no more than a few minutes.”

“Okay.” Luke replies. 

“While we wait, would it be okay if I maybe asked you a few questions, Hallie?” asked Warlen. 

“Yes.” replied Hallie quietly. She had no idea what sort of questions Warlen might ask her. Would she even have the answers? Would he punish her if she didn't have the answers? The truth was that she didn’t even know this man, of course, she didn’t know Luke either. But, she could trust Luke, right. He has kept her safe so far. He hasn’t given her a reason not to trust him… and neither has Warlen. Feeling a bit better about the situation she elaborates, “I might not know the answers to all of your questions, but I promise to answer to the best of my ability.”

“Good, Good” said Warlen. “Let’s see… What do you remember before you woke up here.?”

“I was walking home from work. I had been called to work a shift that my coworker was supposed to have. It was storming out and lightning had been flashing quite close. I remember seeing a flash of light and then everything went dark.” 

“Aaah… Interesting. You see, I have done some studies and have managed to manipulate lightning in a way that allows me to bring creatures to and send them away from our planet, but I never imagined that I would be able to influence another planet. My results always seemed sporadic, and hard to replicate. My magic must have been affecting other planets. The night before Luke found you, we had a thunderstorm. I tried a small variation of the original going away spell and it must have brought you. The scanners show quite a bit of magical build up in the area where you were brought in.” 

“You brought me here?” asked Hallie

“It seems I did.”, stated Warlen as he looked at the machine. 

“Can you send me back?” asked Hallie, hope creeping into her voice.

“I can’t control where you go back to. I may send you to an inhabitable planet way out in the solar system or I might send you to Earth but at a different time. It is highly unlikely that I will manage to send you back to the exact time and place where you came from.”

“Oh” Hallie said quietly. 

The machine began beeping and several papers shot out of the end of it. Warlen picks them up and shouts, “They were a match! This is amazing! We have a living, breathing, Earthling on our planet! She will be famous. We will be famous, my boy!”

“Famous? We just found out that she can’t go back home and you are worried about fame? Really?”, Luke asked, growing increasingly agitated.

“Well, I try to look at the bright side, kiddo and besides it we make her famous, maybe some of the other scholars may be able to find a workaround or make the part of the spell precise enough to send her back. The capital is probably going to be our best bet for finding someone to help study this.”

Luke watched as hope filled Hallie once again. Her bright eyes shone with determination as she straightened to look Warlen in the face. “I will do anything it takes to get me back home.” 

“That's the spirit. I would like to get to work as soon as possible. We can head to the capital later today. I have a few things that I have to finish here first so what do you say we meet here at 7 o’clock. We can take the train there.”

“Okay, I’ll be ready.”

“Alright then, it's settled. Off you go now. And remember to meet back here later.”