I walked across my bedroom, in the west wing of the royal palace in Carastra, bathing in the light coming in from the high windows. The heavy blue curtains were gone and it made the place much brighter. The wind carried a familiar smell. What was it again? I couldn’t quite tell where I knew it from, but I breathed it in, hoping it’d revive some old memories.

  The door opened on a new corridor.

  Oh, nice, they redecorated. What’s this opening right here?

  As I walked, the hardwood floor turned to a synthetic carpet. There was a sofa in front of me, and a coffee table near it. I knew where I was, and it felt incredibly heartwarming to know that the king had installed a shortcut to my parents’ place.

  “Alicia, they let you back!” exclaimed my mother from the kitchen.

  I nodded. “It seems so. I’m so glad to see you.”

  She ran at me and held my hands. My Mom. Just as I remembered her, with the cheerful lines on her face and the way she always rolled up her sleeves. She sighed.

  “Come on, sit down. We have a lot to catch up on.”

  “Sure, Mom.”

  “What is it like, being dead?”

  I froze. What is she talking about?

  “Who told you I was?”

  My mother frowned. “You’re dead, Alicia, remember? Run over by a van, right in front of your house. We buried you months ago, so, yeah, it’s nice to know they let you out.”

  “No, no, Mom, there must be a mistake. I didn’t really die, I was sent to this other world where I sleep in a huge bedroom, almost the size of this house, but apparently, they decided it was time to let me visit.”

  She looked at the ceiling for a split second. “Did you hear that?”

  “No, I didn’t. Look, Mom, I missed you so much…”

  And then I did hear the crash.

  My parents’ living room vanished from my mind, and I awoke to a pile of books collapsing from the nightstand.

  Judging from the lack of light between the curtains, it wasn’t daybreak yet. I rushed to the side of the huge bed and checked for damage. In the darkness, all the books I could make out looked properly closed and reasonably intact, so I lay down again, looking at the high ceiling.

  Dreams are funny. How could I think it was perfectly logical to suddenly have a portal from here to my native world? And why did Mom have a ponytail in the dream? She cut her hair short years ago!

  Still, absurd as it all was, I felt like I’d been ripped away from my family a second time, just as I thought I’d find a way to reunite with them. I squeezed a pillow. In an ideal world, I’d have someone to hug, but I was alone in my bed. The only person who might want to share it, Catalin Robi, my fiancée, didn’t feel ready to take that step yet. Besides, she wasn’t technically allowed in the west wing at night.

  I fell asleep again, holding the pillow with my arms and legs, and pretending it loved me back.

  With summer solstice coming a few days later, proper light awoke me again before I could even realize I’d been sleeping. I put all the books back on the nightstand. One of them had a slightly damaged corner, but since I was always alone in the palace library, I supposed no one would notice.

  “Sorry, Niras War Chronicles,” I whispered as I put it back into place.

  If I was more reasonable, or more dedicated, I’d read one book at a time, but I’d been living in this world for two months and I felt like I had to learn it all in one go. So I’d borrowed a bunch of books from the library in the west wing, just a few doors away from my room. Wasn’t it what libraries were for anyway? And I broadened my general knowledge whenever I could, by reading a chapter on whatever subject I wanted to learn about.

  But it wasn’t just any day, so I didn’t have time to read now.

  I washed, got dressed, snatched a quick breakfast from the kitchen, and walked out of the palace. Catalin would arrive in a moment and I didn’t want to miss her.

  On my left, newly planted trees took golden hues in the morning light. The dragon Kossi had kept his promise and restored the garden as best he could, but there was only so much one could do. Plants needed time to grow back, even with the best care. Some magic could probably help, but who’d waste precious magic on a garden? So the place looked like any freshly planted garden did. It was very tidy and full of promises, but a work in progress.

  Catalin arrived from the commons, where she’d lived for the past two months. She was wearing her University of Magic Arts uniform, a plain gray robe, and her thick cherry-red hair was partly gathered behind her rat ears. As soon as she saw me, she waved enthusiastically.

  “Al, you made it!”

  “Of course I did. I wouldn’t miss the presentation of your final assignment.”

  “Even though you won’t be allowed inside?”

  “I told you it doesn’t matter.”

  I smiled. Catalin’s assignment was the crucial step that would determine whether she could continue studying magic. Despite the difficulty of the exam, that most students failed, I knew her worth and I was pretty confident. I’d also helped her with her work. Even though I was unable to cast a spell of my own, I was good at analyzing and sometimes altering them, which proved useful when part of the assignment consisted in reproducing the effects of a spell while simplifying its casting.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  We crossed the bridge over the old dry moat, into the city of Carastra, then we turned right and headed west. The sun lit us from behind, casting our shadows over the cobblestone road. One human, one Zimeon. Two women from different worlds, still living apart in more ways than one, and yet willing to bridge the many gaps between us.

  The University of Magic Arts stood west of the river Rekario, its high blue roofs towering along a small tributary. As expected, I was allowed inside the building, but not in the examination room. I wished good luck to Catalin and let her enter the room, while I waited in the hall. The man who served as doorkeeper gave me a tired look.

  “You should go home, you know. Your friend will be in there for some time.”

  I shook my head. Friend? You know better. We got engaged inside this building, and all freshmen talked about it for weeks.

  “I want to be here when she gets out of this room. No student should be left alone after their presentation.”

  “As you wish, Great Hero Al.”

  Although I kept asking everyone to address me as Al, many people still used my honorific title. But there was irony in the man’s voice. As if he didn’t consider me as a proper hero.

  It’s fine by me. I saved the kingdom, I did my job as the Great Hero, and now, I just want to improve the wellbeing of as many citizens as possible. If I could spend the rest of my life without walking across dark forests or fighting traitors, I’d appreciate the improvement.

  I pointed to the door with my chin. “Why is the presentation private, by the way? Is it to save the students additional stress? They’re only freshmen, after all…”

  “Not at all.”

  The man pointed a thumb behind him.

  “I know your girl doesn’t come from the same background, but most kids in there have affluent families. Influent ones, even. And since most of them fail the exam, let’s just say the University had its share of contestation and attempted bribery in the past. So families were banned, but they sent agents instead, so the problem was solved by not allowing any public in the examination room. Not even Great Heroes from prophecies.”

  I grinned.

  “Did you notice I didn’t try to get in? I’m not above rules. I just wanted to know why this one was established in the first place.”

  He looked sideways. He didn’t trust me and I could tell he wanted me to feel uncomfortable. But this was a school, and I was a teacher before I became a hero, so I felt more at home than he probably thought, and I certainly didn’t want to leave before Catalin finished her presentation.

  This place had a library, much bigger than the room-with-books at the palace. It was just at the end of the hall. I walked there, my steps echoing under the majestic central rotunda, and picked a book from the first section on the left. Easy to remember. Easy to put back in the right place. I looked down at the book in my hand.

  A History of Slavery in the Southern Apridges.

  The Apridges was the name of the mountain range that defined the northern border of the kingdom. With all my reading of the past two months, I hadn’t come across a single reference to the existence of slavery in the area. I frowned.

  Well, I’m here to learn after all.

  I walked out of the library in silence, without checking out the volume. I worried that an alarm might blare at my apparent theft, but nothing happened. Nobody ran after me. I went back to the door of the examination room, found a chair, and began reading.

  The author’s foreword explained how hard it had been for him to investigate on the slave trade of old, as most traces had been thoroughly wiped out after its abolition, over three centuries ago. However, not everything could be covered up or forgotten. So I plunged into a part of my new world that I’d never heard about.

  The door opened and I startled. Catalin appeared like a celestial creature, her ears twitching, her shoulders pulled back, and an unmistakable spark in her terracotta eyes.

  “What was it like?” I asked, jumping to my feet. But I already knew.

  A smile bloomed on my fiancée’s face. “They said it was great work! They loved my simplified spell.”

  The one I helped her design. I felt so proud of her, and proud of myself, too, for being able to help her. But mostly of her, even more so after reading that most Zimeons of Brealia were descendants of slaves brought from across the mountains. Did Catalin know about it? Her family probably knew about their ancestors, but such things would remain unspoken around strangers.

  “Congratulations, Catalin, you’re the best! I take it you’re admitted to second year?”

  “Of course, Al! I still can’t believe it.”

  “But you deserve it all, and more.”

  I hugged her for a second.

  “Let me bring back this book I borrowed, and then I’m taking you to a bakery.”

  Catalin giggled. “With you, everything has to end with cake.”

  “Of course! How else should we celebrate?”

  I held her hand as we went to the library and back, then we exited the University of Magic Arts. I already knew where I wanted to take her. After a few weeks of impromptu snacks, I knew a handful of great bakeries, and there was one right on the west bank of the Rekario, with a lovely view of the river.

  I just didn’t know we were expected at the gate.

  Catalin let go of my hand and ran to the petite Zimeon woman waiting outside.

  “Mom! You remembered!”

  Their hug was more heartfelt than ours. I shouldn’t feel jealous, but I do. Why?

  Luta Balingu, Catalin Robi’s mother, looked quite small and frail, far from my idea of a mother of seven. She also looked old, not much red left in her gray hair, arched back, wrinkles. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the fact that she was younger than my own mother.

  She covered her daughter in kisses and gave me the usual suspicious look.

  “Of course, I remembered. My precious Catalin, my baby, tell me all about your exam! I threw the Dice and they told me you’d succeed.”

  “They were right, Mom. I passed the exam!”

  They kept hugging as they talked, caught in a mother-daughter embrace I’d never get to know again. Catalin told Luta about the jury and the questions she’d answered. Her mother nodded proudly.

  “I knew you were better than all those humans, and the Dice don’t lie.”

  Why did she look at me when she said “those humans”?

  I let them walk ahead. I’d met Catalin’s family a few times, and though their reactions had been diverse, none of them had really accepted me. Luta, in particular, was openly wary of me. I was a woman, significantly older than her youngest surviving daughter, but most of all, I was human.

  Zimeons were brought to Carastra to be slaves to humans, and I can bet some memory of these times lives on in the family. How could Luta not see our relation as me taking advantage of her daughter? Besides, because of me, Catalin nearly died and was held in a keep without food for a few days. I’m the worst possible daughter-in-law.

  “Al!”

  I tried to smile to my fiancée, who was looking at me as her mother walked her away.

  “It’s alright, Catalin. It’s better if you spend time with your family. We can celebrate later.”

  “Or never,” muttered Luta under her breath.

  “Mom!” protested Catalin.

  I waved at them.

  “Have fun! Say hello to your siblings from me!”

  The two of them disappeared around the corner. Catalin’s sister Lorna was a cook in an eatery upstream. They’d probably join the rest of the family there and have a meal together.

  I sighed and looked up at the blue sky. I’d waited in a hall for an hour, only to see my fiancée snatched from me, but I’d been the first to congratulate her. That probably counted as a victory.

  I decided I’d cling to that idea, go my own way for the day, and wait for Catalin to come back to the palace. I couldn’t resent her family for feeling the way they did.

  I could only hope Catalin wouldn’t end up rejecting me because of them.