I pushed book after book aside at the library, hoping to find something about other worlds. Even if it wasn’t helpful when it came to ether, it would at least be exciting to learn what other worlds exist.

  Ugh! I angrily pushed a book to the side. All the interesting books must be locked up in an equally interesting place—like Sylvis’ office! No, Elaina; now’s not the time to come up with conspiracy theories.

  Frustrated, I was about to give up. Wait, isn’t that Zephyr? The guy who was teaching the healing class? Maybe he knows whether or not these books even exist to begin with.

  “Can I help you?” He noticed me walking up to him. His expression was warm and inviting, just as it had been during his class.

  “Yes, actually.” I fidgeted with my hands. I’m probably the only person here interested in this topic… "Are there any books on other worlds?”

  “Other worlds?” Zephyr looked lost in thought for a moment as if he were actually taking my question seriously. “If you're looking for something factual rather than fairytales, I'm afraid not. If you want to know about other worlds, I’d ask Maverick or Rosalie. Rosalie, especially, has been to many different worlds. Not much can be said for Maverick. In the two hundred years he’s had that power, I don’t think he’s ever once used it. Why do you ask?”

  “Well… I’m from another world.” I answered and watched as his expression changed to surprise. “And my ether apparently isn’t working as it should because I’ve been stuck in my world for so long. I was wondering if there were any books on the topic.”

  “I’m afraid it’s unlikely unless Rosalie wrote one herself.” Zephyr shook his head. There was a long pause before he spoke again. “I’d like to apologize again for the other day.”

  “Other day— Oh, that’s not necessary. You didn’t know, and trying didn’t hurt, so…”

  “Hold out your hand.”

  “What?” I raised an eyebrow but followed his instructions nevertheless.

  “Perhaps your ether is damaged, or a surrounding nerve.” He held his hand over mine and I could see the faint green light of ether emitting from it. He was overexerting himself trying to help me…

  His arm came back down and he shook his head. “You’re in perfect condition. Almost too perfect I’d say… When was the last time you were sick?”

  “What? Last year?”

  “Interesting…” Why was this guy obsessed with my health?

  “What?” I asked.

  “Never mind.” He shook his head and smiled at me.

  “Hey… If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your Talent magic?” I asked, still partially paranoid that there were more mind readers in the manor.

  “Empathy.”

  “Empathy?”

  “I can feel how those around me feel. Right now, you’re feeling nervous.”

  “Whoa…” My jaw dropped in awe. “That’s… better than a flat-out mind reader I guess.”

  “You’ve met Finn.” He chuckled.

  “Yeah… I feel bad that my thoughts were… less than kind when I found out.”

  “I’m sure he’s used to it by now.”

  “Yeah…” I looked away. “That’s the part I feel guilty about…”

  Our conversation ended shortly after. If Rosalie was the only person to know what other worlds were like, even more than Maverick and Sylvis, I’d just have to meet her.

  “You want me to what?!” Marge inched back from me where she was sitting on the side of the fountain next to me. For a second, I thought she would fall back into it.

  “Introduce me to Rosalie!” I repeated myself. “You know everything about her, so surely you know where she is, right?”

  “Nobody knows where Rosalie is! I somewhat doubt even Rosalie knows where she is! She appears and disappears without rhyme or reason. Sylvis is the only one who can summon her. And maybe Maverick, but he’s a prick, so he’s not gonna do that. Also, he doesn’t like Rosalie.”

  “He doesn’t?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “I mean that literally. He doesn’t dislike her, mind you.”

  “How come?”

  “Because they dated! Duh!” Marge motioned with her hands as if this was common knowledge.

  “Maverick dated someone?!” My jaw practically dropped. This made me wonder what type of person Rosalie was that he’d pursue her. Was she a jerk, too? But then why would Marge look up to her so much but hate Maverick? Or was it that she didn’t like that he broke up with her?

  “That’s the rumor, at least.” Marge shrugged.

  “Wait… I thought you were against rumors?”

  “I’m against conspiracy theories. Juicy rumors are the best! Besides, this is a believable rumor given the fact that they’re both several hundred years old. Makes sense they’d pick each other to make their lives less lonely.”

  “Yeah, that does make sense…”

  “But why do you want to meet Rosalie? Want to take a peek into your future?” She inched herself closer to me, waggling her eyebrows.

  “…I hadn’t even considered that, but part of me is curious now. Can you see my future?”

  “That’s not how my Talent works.” She sighed, shaking her head. “I can’t control when it happens, and most of the time it’s useless information like if it’s going to rain or if an acorn is gonna hit you on the head.”

  “Hey! That acorn was vital information! That I ignored!”

  Marge laughed. “If not to see your future, why do you want to meet Rosalie? Have I successfully hyped her up for you?”

  “No, that’s not it.” I chuckled. “I’ve heard from Zephyr and Finn that she’s been to other worlds.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “You’re meeting all the hotshots, aren’t you?” She raised an eyebrow, amused.

  “Hotshots…?” I raised an eyebrow, confused.

  “Finn’s something of a playboy. Despite reading people’s minds, the girls go crazy for him. I think. You never know what someone’s thinking. Well, unless you’re Finn, of course. But I’m pretty sure he and Aqua are together? Unofficially? They’re really close and have been practically since he first came here, so I’ve heard. Zephyr is really smart and has a way with people thanks to his Talent magic. Pfft, empathy. You know what would be a cooler Talent? Making people feel what you want them to feel. That would be cool.”

  “Sounds like you know a little about everyone. Or a lot about everyone.” I struggled to keep up with everything she said. It didn’t help that she tended to talk fast whenever she went on one of these ramblings.

  “I’m telling you, rumors! You have to consume the rumors, Ella! Feast on them like your life depends on it! Because in a lot of ways, it does…” She said that last part a little more darkly. “There’s something of a hierarchy here. The people on top aren’t your friends.”

  “And those would include…?”

  “Maverick, Rosalie, Finn, Aqua, and Letheria, to name a few.”

  “You included Rosalie on this list?” I raised my eyebrows.

  “Duh!” She exclaimed. “I may look up to her, but I’m not stupid. She’s very secretive and doesn’t say a lot. And even when she does, none of it makes sense! Not to mention, she’s never around. Definitely not your friend.”

  “Who’s Letheria?” I asked.

  “Don’t want to know.” She snorted. “Maverick doesn’t need an explanation. Aqua’s always with her posse, though not generally a bad person or a bitch. But don’t expect to get close to her. Finn moves from person to person… It’s like he breaks up and makes up with his friends over and over. Then you have people like Zephyr who mostly keeps to himself and more or less treats everyone the same. I mean, you can kind of trust him, but I doubt he’d be your friend.”

  “Then, who can I trust?” I asked.

  “Me.” She winked at me, and I rolled my eyes. “Buddy is pretty cool too, but he’s kind of shy.”

  “What about Aidan?”

  “Oh, that kid who was with you at the arena. I’ve never personally talked to him, but he doesn’t seem bad. That is — if you can actually get him to talk. Which… it seems you have. Huh!”

  “Yeah, he’s pretty nice. But there’s something about him that bugs me…” He’s lonely, that much is obvious. But why did it seem that he harbored so much anger…? Especially whenever Maverick is mentioned.

  “Back to my original question. Why do you want to learn about other worlds?” Marge pushed her palms down beside her, swinging her feet as she waited for me to answer.

  “Well… because I’m from another world. And apparently, that’s the reason why I’m struggling to use magic.”

  “Wait, what?!” I thought Marge’s eyes would pop out of their sockets. “You’re not from Etheria?!”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I’m from a world called Earth.”

  “Never heard of it! Then again, I haven’t heard the names of any worlds besides Etheria. What’s it like?”

  “Well, for one, it doesn’t have magic.”

  “That’s what you think, at least.”

  I gave Marge a puzzling look that signaled her to continue.

  “Nobody here believed in magic until their magic manifested,” Marge explained. “Well, besides some of the loony people who believed in the fairytales that I guess weren’t fairytales after all? Point is, there’s probably some secret organization that uses magic in your world!”

  “And that’s what caused all of our natural disasters?” I sighed, finding what she was saying hard to believe.

  “No! Now you’re getting into conspiracy theories!”

  “And you’re not?!”

  “Hey, it happened with Meridia. Why not your world?”

  Realistically, I couldn’t argue back. Everyone else in Meridia was living the same way I had been — blissfully unaware of magic. Wish I could go back…

  After telling an unrelenting Marge about my world, I decided to have dinner. Alone. Aidan was still with his sister, right? And it’s not like Maverick had any reason to pester me.

  I sat at the same table I usually sat at, table twelve. It was practically my table now.

  “Ella! Come sit over here!” I heard a familiar voice call out. Huh? Oh, it was Finn waving me over to his group of friends. Marge’s warning rang out in my head, and I was about to turn him down when I realized, one, it was very rude for me to be thinking about this in his presence, and two, what was the harm? I’m just eating dinner, not becoming BFFs with Finn.

  So, I sat across from him, a seat away from one of his other friends. There was no way I was going to sit directly next to someone.

  “This is Ella!” Finn beamed, motioning to me before a look of panic crossed his face. “Or would you prefer Elaina?”

  “Either is fine.” I shook my head.

  “I’m Aqua,” Aqua introduced herself. She sounded genuine rather than snobby or insistent that I’d already know who she was because she was just so popular. Thankfully, her other two friends I had stumbled into before weren’t there.

  ”Cadren,” the guy sitting a seat away from me, introduced himself. He had short teal hair, and for some reason, I had this feeling that glasses would really suit him.

  “Frenica,” the girl sitting next to Aqua introduced. She had short dark blue hair that went to her chin. What was with everyone and their blue hair?

  “And I’m Bill!” the last guy introduced. The only one with a normal name. And normal blond-colored hair.

  “So Elaina, what Talent magic do you have?” Frenica leaned both of her arms onto the table and rested her chin on the back of her hands.

  “Uh, I don’t…” I replied, frantically looking between her and Finn.

  “You don’t…?” Frenica narrowed her eyes at me as if she didn’t believe me. What? Was it that unusual?

  “Ella has magic, but she isn’t able to use it quite yet, considering she’s from another world.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. That was not something I wanted everyone else at this table to know. He offered an apologetic smile. You owe me!

  “Really?” Aqua raised an eyebrow. “Are you pulling my arm?” She turned to Fin,n who shook his head in response. “What’s it like?!” Aqua was eagerly looking at me now.

  “It has cars and TVs and—” Finn was cut off by me.

  “Dinosaurs,” I finished his sentence.

  “Dinosaurs?” Frenica looked disinterested.

  “Giant animals that tower over buildings, eating people. It’s okay, though, because we can just get in our cars and drive away. Then we can enter virtual reality where we’re safe from the real world for a few hours.”

  Finn gave me a puzzled look, but I could tell he was trying to hold in his laughter.

  “Okay? That means literally nothing to me,” Frenica said just as boredly.

  “You can enter different forms of reality?!” Cadren looked interested. He summoned a notebook and pencil out of thin air, which surprised me. “How does it work?”

  “It’s quite simple, really. You just place a headset over your eyes,” I answered.

  “And that’s what transports you to another reality?!”

  I nodded.

  “Fascinating! Can you tell me what this “headset” is made out of?” He used air quotes.

  “Um… wires and electricity?”

  “What is—”

  “You can’t just say random words that have no meaning to us without explaining them!” Frenica shouted in my face, causing me to inch further back into my chair and discreetly check if any of her spit had landed in my food.

  “Hey! Be nice. She’s never had to explain what’s essentially common knowledge to her to anyone else.” Finn leaned forward so he could see over Aqua.

  “So, why are you here instead of your world?” Frenica asked.

  “I’m apparently a threat to my world since my magic can just go off at any time until I learn how to control it…” I glanced down at my hands hesitantly.

  Frenica rolled her eyes. “And we’re just supposed to shelter you until you do? Shit, you could just blow up the manor at any moment. You should be kept away from us. Or with—”

  “Frenica, that’s enough.” I was shaking so much that I could barely process that Aqua had stood up for me. “She’s new here, and you’re scaring her.”

  “Yeah, well, she’s scaring me.” She crossed her arm,s huffing.

  “I think I’m going to go to bed now… Thank you for letting me join you…” I picked up my tray, and it immediately iced over.

  “Ella, wait!” Finn stood up from his seat, but I just slammed the tray on the table and ran.

  I turned the corner and tried to catch my breath. Tears streamed down my cheeks. Why did everyone see me as a ticking time bomb?! Am I really only destined to blow places up with my magic that I can’t control?! I didn’t ask to be stuck in some weird manor in another world! And I definitely didn't ask to be born with magic! And why was Frenica so mean to me the entire time?! Did I really piss her off that badly?

  “Ella, was it?” Aqua’s voice caused me to jump, leaving an icy trail on the wall I was leaning against.

  “Y-Yeah?” My voice was an octave higher than usual and barely audible at that.

  “Don’t take anything Frenica said seriously. She’s… a bit paranoid. Not to mention, she gets weird any time a new girl is introduced. Especially if Finn’s there.” She sighed.

  “R-Right… Um, thank you…” I said as sincerely as I could. It actually meant a lot to me that Aqua, of all people, was sticking up for me. Maybe Marge had her wrong after all…

  “No problem.” Aqua smiled and for once, it didn’t look fake. “Tell me about your world sometime.” She winked at me before she left.

  Maybe I could make friends here after all—

  What was I saying? I’m not here to make friends. I need to get back to my actual friends… Gosh, they must be worried sick about me… I don’t even want to imagine what my dad is going through…

  Right, focus on getting back home!