The Girl Who Dreamed of a Different World Read online

  ‘Oh. Great.’

  29 th Sokarte.

  Kana opened her eyes, yawned, stretched her arms up over her head to work the kinks out of her back, and then grinned brightly.

  Today Sharassa had not come to wake her at some horrific hour of the morning. Light streamed in through the window of Kana’s little room from a sun that was fairly high in the sky. After five days of constant learning, the Master had declared that they both needed a break, and Kana had every intention of being as relaxed as possible about her day off.

  Apparently, the refectory served food all day long. Certainly, they had no trouble at all providing Kana with breakfast halfway through the morning. Breakfasts in the White Castle were hearty.

  People tended to have light lunches, many working through the meal. It was, therefore, important to start off with something substantial. Kana had frequently made do with a mug of coffee and a slice of toast at home, though she had partaken of the classic Japanese breakfast on occasions. White Castle breakfasts definitely followed that pattern, though the content was different. Today, she had a bowl of porridge, two sausages (mainly because the sausages were among the better meat products the castle produced), two eggs, and a small pile of fried potatoes. Actually, the sausages were good, but the potatoes were amazing. Still, Kana was starting to miss rice cakes and a few other staples of her usual diet.

  The next step in her plan took Kana to the bathhouse. Clean, she slipped into the heated water of the women’s pool with a sigh, closed her eyes, and soaked in the heat. After the obligatory period of adjustment as her body grew accustomed to the hot water, Kana’s thoughts turned toward her situation. She had more or less expected it: whenever she was not focused on something specific, she began thinking about what had happened to her. She had been in Soken for a week. This was the eighth day, in fact. A dream did not seem entirely reasonable any more. Time did not move the same way in dreams as in reality, so it was possible that she was dreaming a week in one night, but…

  A coma. Now a coma might explain things. She had been, um, hit by a truck on the way home from shopping. She could not remember a truck, but that could be trauma-induced amnesia. Yes! That could work. She was in hospital, in a coma, and she was hallucinating this magical world as a result. This theory had a couple of advantages. It explained the lengthy dream yet still allowed for waking up at some point. More importantly, if she had been hit by a truck on the way back from shopping, there was every chance that she had bought the cute dress in Harajuku. Win-win. She just hoped that the truck had not hurt too much.

  The sound of moving water brought Kana back to the real world –

  or what passed for it in her comatose state, obviously – and she opened her eyes to discover that she was not alone. It was mid-morning and the place had been empty when she had arrived. Now there was someone Kana had not seen before in the pool and, since the other woman was staring at Kana, Kana felt she could stare back.

  The newcomer was an elf, but there seemed to be something not quite right about her. For one thing, she was very pale-skinned and her hair was a silvery white. She had slanted blue eyes, like Sharassa, but this woman’s were a paler, almost icy blue. She was up to her chest in water, so judging height was difficult. Still, Kana thought this one was a couple of centimetres taller than Sharassa, about equal with Kana. A lot of that height seemed to

  be in her legs: the woman had long, slim legs from what Kana had seen as she entered the bath. She also had smallish breasts which tilted upward and were topped with quite puffy areolas. Like Sharassa, this elf had fairly small features: a narrow perky nose and a small mouth which came with full bowed lips. Her face somehow managed to be both narrow and rounded: high cheekbones led down into hollowed cheeks and a narrow chin, but there was still the impression of youth and roundness about her. She was quite beautiful, and quite fixated on Kana it seemed.

  ‘You’re staring,’ the elf said.

  ‘Uh, well, you were staring first,’ Kana replied.

  The elf looked away. ‘I was not. I was observing. You are the Master’s new project.’

  ‘Project? Uh, I…’

  ‘He summoned you here. He’s had you locked away with him in his study for the last five days. And yet, rumour has it that you’re another failure.’

  ‘He says I have talent and wants to know how much.’

  ‘Oh, really?’ There was far too much leer in the girl’s smile.

  ‘For magic!’ Kana’s cheeks were red, she just knew it. It was not like the old wizard had shown any interest in her that way. And if he had… Gross! ‘He’s teaching me about magic. He wants to see how well I can work magic. Or something.’

  ‘I see. This close interest will pass when he’s determined how good you are.’

  ‘I guess. Uh, I’m Kana, Kana Shimizu.’

  There was a slight rise in the elf’s eyebrows, but she recovered from whatever had surprised her quickly. ‘I am Aneshti, a student of the White Castle.’

  ‘Well, I guess I’m that too.’ Maybe giving two names had surprised Aneshti; it seemed like a second name was not as common here as at home. ‘And you’re an elf, right?’

  Now Aneshti placed a hand delicately over her chest and said, rather proudly, ‘I am a shitagi.’ Well, that sounded like a mushroom. ‘What you would call an ice elf and not to be confused with the vertagi, like Sharassa and most of the other elves here.’

  Ice elf. Well, that sort of explained the pale skin and the white hair. Kana had not seen another elf with that colouring, yet.

  ‘Uh, what’s the difference?’

  ‘Vertagi come from the south and are adapted to the warmth of the Great Forest,’ Aneshti said in a lecturing tone. It seemed like she was pleased with the idea of educating someone who knew less than she did. ‘Shitagi come from the north and are adapted to colder environments. Also, we tend to have an affinity for elemental water magic, especially ice magic.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll try to remember that. Those names? They’re the names elves call themselves, right? They don’t seem to translate.’

  ‘They are the Elven names for our races, yes. Translate?’

  Kana lifted her hand and displayed the ring she was wearing.

  ‘Magic ring. I don’t speak… Alabethi. Yeah, that’s what the Master called it. I don’t speak Alabethi, so he gave me this ring so that he wouldn’t have to cast a spell on me every morning.’

  ‘You’ll need to learn it properly if you’re to progress in magic.’

  ‘Yeah, I’d guessed I would. Can’t say I’m looking forward to that.’

  ‘The benefits are great. Magic is… wonderful. It is the greatest art in Soken. I’m studying to be a magical researcher because I have some considerable talent too.’

  ‘Oh. I think Sharassa said they were going to train me as a battle mage.’

  Aneshti’s cute little nose wrinkled. ‘Well, if that’s what you want.’

  ‘I don’t think I’m getting a choice. Whatever, all I’m learning now is how to make light.’

  ‘It’s a useful spell.’ Aneshti lifted a hand, index finger extended, and made a circle in the air with it. It was as though she were finger painting with light since a small magic circle appeared as her finger moved. There was a brief instant where the intricate design of circles, lines and runes turned in space, and then the disc shrank into a ball of light no bigger than a typical candleflame and no brighter. ‘I’m quite good at it. I read a lot.’

  ‘That is so cool!’ The Master had been drumming the spell’s words into Kana, along with a pattern of gestures to form the circle.

  Aneshti could do it with nothing but a twist of her hand. Plus the floating ball of light was kind of awesome, if only because it had been summoned out of nowhere.

  ‘Cool? Well, it’s not hot.’

  ‘Uh, it’s an expression from my world. It means it’s great.

  Awesome.’

  Aneshti giggled. ‘I like it. It’s just so appropriate. After all, I am an ice
elf.’

  3 rd Thokarte.

  There were things about Soken which continued to give Kana hope that she was just dreaming the whole thing. One of them was the calendar. Soken had seven-day weeks, though the names came from Elven and translated more or less as ‘First Day,’ ‘Second Day,’

  etc. The same was true of the months, which were numbered one through to twelve, but the point was that there were twelve of them and they even had the same number of days as the months back home. That was a really huge coincidence, or it was because her comatose brain could not come up with anything better. Kana preferred to believe the latter.

  Anyway, Sokarte had given way to Thokarte three days ago. Another five days of trying to get her head around the concept of making light out of thin air. Okay, so the spell was trivial and most of the time was being spent on actually getting Kana to understand how she was supposed to think in order to make it work. It was getting late now and she was beginning to think that she would need another five days before she could cast a spell so simple a child could do it. She suspected that the Master was getting a little exasperated too, but he plodded on.

  ‘Take it slowly, Kana,’ he said, his voice far too even. ‘Slow and steady. Remember the phrasing and timing. Make your gestures carefully.’

  Kana heaved a sigh and raised her arms, fingers spread with the middle finger pointed carefully upward. ‘I summon by my power the light of distant stars that they may illuminate my way.’ The nonsense sounds had begun to make sense three days ago. She was not sure how or why and did not care; the words that made sense were easier to remember. She moved her hands together so that the palms touched, making sure she kept her middle fingers pointing upward. ‘Light!’ Swiftly, and in time with the last word, she snapped her fingers together in a praying posture and rotated her wrists to bring her middle fingers to a perfect horizontal. Just like she had done a hundred times before. This time, something just seemed to click. She felt the shift in her head, but she saw the white circle – just like the one Aneshti had made – appear at the tips of her fingers. The circle was there, and then it was gone, replaced by a small, glowing ball of light which hung in the air. It stayed there, still glowing like a white candleflame, when she stepped back from it. The light of stars, apparently, was not particularly amplified by being summoned here, but it had come when she called it.

  Kana let out a giggle of joy. ‘Yes!’ Without thinking about it, she reached out a hand, index finger extended, and formed another circle in the air just as she had seen Aneshti do. A second ball

  of light joined the first. Kana giggled and said ‘Light!’ and a third ball popped into existence.

  ‘That, I believe, will be enough,’ the Master said. When Kana turned to look at him, she thought she glimpsed a slight look of surprise on his face, but if it had been there, it was gone before she could be truly sure. ‘Congratulations,’ he said, ‘you can make light. And, it seems, you have the talent to do it easily with very little training. How did you know you could bypass the full spell?’

  ‘Uh, I met an elf, an ice elf–’

  ‘Aneshti.’

  ‘Yes. I said I was learning the light spell and she cast it. Just by circling a finger.’

  ‘A word of advice, Kana. Don’t let on to Aneshti that you can cast that spell with no more effort than her. She won’t take it well.’

  ‘Uh, okay.’

  The old wizard nodded. ‘Good. Now, leave me. I’ll discuss your tuition from here with the other teachers. You’ll need to be taught Alabethi before we can teach you more magic, but I’d imagine we can begin your martial training sooner.’ He paused, his eyes narrowing in thought. ‘We’ll begin next week. Take some time to become more used to your new world. On Antora, your education will begin. Be ready.’

  10 th Thokarte.

  ‘And how does your new student match up with expectations?’

  Sharassa asked.

  Master Vadoven did not take his eyes off Kana as she repeatedly smacked a short staff into a practice dummy’s head. ‘Her technique is… adequate,’ he said. ‘Whoever trained her taught her how to hold a sword and strike.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘But she’s inexperienced and her tactics are either weak or actually detrimental in a real fight. It seems this kendo she practised is a game of some sort, as she described it to me.

  There are rules. There’s no such thing as a rule in combat.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘When it comes right down to it, she’s got a basis to learn from.

  I’m not starting from scratch. But she’s going to have to unlearn a lot of bad habits before I can turn her into an effective fighter.’ Vadoven was a Skonar, a human from the north of Soken.

  He was a big man with shoulder-length blonde hair he kept tied into a ponytail and hard blue eyes. He looked like he belonged on a Viking ship. He was an expert in a number of different weapons and he acted as the castle’s military commander whenever that was needed. His outlook tended to revolve entirely around armed combat; magic was a problem for someone else to deal with. ‘She’s polite, I’ll say that. Bows a lot.’

  ‘I hadn’t noticed. You’ll have her in the mornings as long as you need her.’

  ‘And in the afternoons?’

  ‘In the afternoons, she’s being taught to speak.’

  ~~~

  It was, Kana thought, a little humiliating. There were children in the castle’s population and the Master was firmly pro education. Hence, the children were taught the basics: proper grammar, reading and writing, and basic arithmetic. Kana needed to learn to understand spoken and written Alabethi, so she was sitting in a room in the keep with half a dozen six-year-olds and a teacher.

  The only cool bit about the process was that the teacher was using a spell to allow him to speak Japanese. Kana was not allowed to wear her ring in the lessons, so the teacher needed to be able to explain things in a way Kana could understand where necessary. Mostly, he seemed to be using it to complain about Kana’s lack of progress after an hour at most.

  ‘You will never get anywhere with Alabethi if you don’t learn the vowels, Kana,’ he said. It was about the fifth time he had said it.

  ‘I am trying, Capin-sensei,’ Kana replied. Capin was a mage, but his primary duties at the castle involved basic education. Kana had never subscribed to the adage ‘Those who can’t do, teach,’

  but Capin seemed to embody it. He was ageing, maybe in his late fifties, and balding. He wore a robe similar to the one the Master wore, but Capin’s was a dull grey. Capin had a nose which seemed to be the basis around which his entire face had been built. His lips were thin, his eyes were small and watery, and he did not seem to have an abundance of patience. Maybe he was the teacher here because no one else wanted the job.

  ‘Pay attention.’ And he went on sounding out the sounds of the Alabethi syllabary so that Kana and the children could repeat them. It was tedious, and a terrible way to learn a language, but it was what Kana had to work with, so work she would.

  ~~~

  Kana ate her evening meal – a meat stew with fresh crusty bread, accompanied by a mug of light ale – listening to the sounds of the conversations going on around her. She was reasonably sure that everyone was speaking Alabethi. She could make out the odd word now. Mostly, that meant ‘yes’ and ‘no.’

  The language sounded more like English than it did Japanese.

  There was something about the sounds which pointed toward European languages. On the other hand, it did not sound very much like English, just more so than Japanese. After a day of being taught it – if you could describe what Capin did as teaching –

  Kana was feeling like she would never get the hang of Alabethi.

  A voice broke her out of her musing and she looked up to discover that Aneshti was standing over her. Kana slipped her ring back on and Aneshti gave her a disapproving look before repeating herself. ‘Your first day with Capin?’

  ‘Yes. Well, I was with Master Vadove
n this morning. I think I’m going to spend the next several months wearing bruises.’

  Aneshti shook her head and took a seat opposite Kana, putting her own bowl of stew down as she did so. Myshta and Orin took seats at the same time. Myshta was Aneshti’s friend, fitting into the role of ‘slightly plainer girl who makes you look good in comparison.’ Given how attractive Aneshti was, that still left Myshta being very pretty. Myshta was human, but blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Orin was Myshta’s boyfriend, a handsome young man with jet-black hair, hazel eyes, and a fair amount of muscle layered over a solid frame. Kana had only met the couple once or twice, but she had begun to suspect that Orin was dating Myshta primarily so that he could be closer to Aneshti. Aneshti largely ignored him.

  ‘Master Vadoven will let you get bruised,’ Aneshti said, ‘but if it gets too bad, he’ll call for a healer. He won’t allow something like that to stop you training when there’s a simple solution. Capin will bore you to death and complain that you aren’t paying attention when you die.’ Myshta giggled at that.

  Orin gave an indulgent grin.

  ‘To be honest, I’m more bothered about sitting in class with the children,’ Kana countered. ‘They seem to think it’s really amusing to have someone my age being taught to speak their language.’

  ‘How old are you, Kana?’ Myshta asked. ‘If you don’t mind me asking.’

  ‘Fifteen. I was summoned here on my fifteenth birthday.’

  ‘That’s young to be starting battle mage training. Orin is eighteen.’

  ‘But I’ve been training for a couple of years,’ Orin said. Kana had been told that he was also training to become a battle mage and, if Kana were honest, she suspected that he looked the part more than she did.

  ‘Not full-time.’

  ‘Oh, well, no. Fifteen is pretty young.’

  ‘I,’ Aneshti said, possibly to get the conversation back under her control, ‘am thirty-six.’

  ‘Really?’ Kana asked, her brows rising. ‘I wouldn’t have put you older than twenty. I’d have guessed at eighteen if asked.’

  ‘Elves age more slowly than humans. I could easily live for three hundred years, but we mature more slowly too. An elf isn’t considered an adult until they’re thirty-five.’