Suzanna had made a deal with the lead programmer of an MMORPG called The Undead Wars, a computer game based on a real world. For reasons she didn’t understand, he lived in Park Slope and had a portal to Thysandrika in his basement. And he had given her a choice.

Leave her daughters and the Earth behind, or remain a prisoner in his house. It wasn’t a hard choice. She hadn’t been allowed to see her daughters anyway, and they wouldn’t recognize her if they’d bumped into her on the street. The oldest would be almost ten now. If she were stuck in his house, she wouldn’t end up being able to send money to their foster parents, so there was no point in staying on Earth. Not when there was an amazing fantasy world just a portal away. No, it hadn’t been a difficult choice.

And what was the deal with Mrs. Bradsworth being reborn. She’d worked for her for years without suspecting. Ida Bradsworth was an exceptional woman, but she was human, or so Suzanna had thought. How had a portal ended up in Brooklyn in the first place, and why did more people not know about it? In the past few days, her entire world view had been rewritten, and she was completely unequipped to deal with it. It was a good thing she was in shock, or she’d shut down completely.

The surprises didn’t end there. She’d walked through a portal on Earth, into another world, only to find herself in the last place she’d expected to end up in—a coffee shop.

Behind the counter stood a man who’d have been completely at home in a New York Coffee Bar. He had thinning brown hair, a neatly trimmed goatee and he wore jeans and an Undead Wars t-shirt.

“Can I get you something?”

“I’m sorry, I’m a bit confused,” she said. “Can you tell me where we are?”

“Oh sure. The disorientation will pass. You’re in the Plains of Xarinos in a coffee shop loosely based on Starbucks. I’m Ted by the way. And we don’t call it Starbucks, because we don’t want to be sued.”

He grinned as if to indicate that he knew how ludicrous the statement was.

“What’s it called then?”

“The Coffee Shop. Not very creative, but it’s hardly like you can look us up on google. You’re in what amounts to an orientation village. It helps people from Thysandrika acclimatize to Earth and vice versa. It’s mostly people coming from Thysandrika, so it made sense to build an Earth town. There’s plenty of Earth businesses here, or at least facsimiles of them. We’re here to help people figure things out.”

“I don’t understand. Are you from Earth?” asked Eric.

“I am. From Brooklyn. I’m Nylus’s favorite barista. He offered me employment, and I took it. When he originally told me it involved travel, I thought I’d have a chance to see the world. Little did I know.”

“I don’t know what a barista is.”

“I specialize in preparing coffee.”

“I don’t know what coffee is, but I suppose I have time to find out. How long have you been here?”

“I’ve been working for the company for a couple of years now. Nylus told me he could stop me from aging and cure my arthritis. The price was never going home again. Seemed like a good deal. So I stay here, and make coffee for the people who pass through.”

“Do a lot of people come this way?”

“Not really. Anyway, I can answer any questions you might have.”

Suzanna was stumped. She wanted to know so much that she couldn’t think of anything to ask. Eric, however, seemed to be doing fine in that area.

“Are you reborn?”

“I am. I came through, got myself killed, and came back as you see me.”

“Wait, you’re undead?” asked Suzanna.

“I’m reborn. It’s a bit different from undead. But I want to stress it was completely voluntary. I knew what I was getting myself into. We all do.”

“What do you mean we all do?” asked Suzanna.

“Nylus has been on Earth for about fifty years now. Maybe a bit more. He started building his empire by offering rich and influential people eternal youth. Most didn’t believe him, of course, but after coming through the portal and seeing his power, they were ready to believe anything.

“They watched a few people come back to life, and signed on themselves. Then they returned to their lives on Earth and worked with Nylus to form the company. I have no idea how much power or influence he’s accrued during this time, but it’s surely substantial.”

“Do you know what his goal is?” asked Suzanna.

“Right now, he wants to make games. Loves programming he does. Completely addicted to it. And he adores coffee, which is why he made me an offer. I must say, you’re taking this better than most people.”

Eric shrugged. “I was born here, admittedly in a different body. Though I’ve never been in the Plains of Xarinos before. Still, I’m not surprised I ended up here.”

“That sounds like a very strange story,” said Ted. “And you never answered my question.”

“What question is that?” asked Suzanna.

“I asked if I could get you something.”

“Oh,” she laughed. “Two tall cappuccinos, please.”

“Coming right up.”

“If I asked what that was,” asked Eric, “would I regret it?”

“I don’t think so. It’s just a hot drink we enjoy on Earth. You don’t have coffee here?”

“Not that I know of.”

Suzanna blanched. “I wish I’d thought to ask that question before stepping through the portal.

She sat down at a table near the counter, while Eric walked around examining everything. Ted even let him behind the bar to see the coffee maker up close. Suzanna recognized it as an espresso machine, but of course, Eric wouldn’t have ever seen anything like it. She watched his amazement with amusement. They’d just been through a portal from Earth to another world entirely, but he seemed fascinated by home appliances. Eric watched Ted make the coffees, then followed him back to the table. He sat across from Suzanna, while Ted placed a mug in front of each of them.

Suzanna took a sip and smiled happily. Eric looked at his suspiciously, then lifted it up and sniffed. Shrugging, he took a swallow.

“Okay. That’s revolting.”

“You’ll probably want to add sugar.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have hamburgers here, would you?” asked Eric.

She laughed and was about to comment, when the door opened, and a skeleton walked in. Mentally, Suzanna had understood that the reborn were some form of undead, but the shock of actually seeing what this meant left her completely speechless. She stared wide-eyed as the skeleton nodded to Ted and approached their table. Eric turned to see what she was looking at and jumped out of his seat.

“Calm down, Prince Eric,” said the newcomer. “There’s no cause for alarm.”

Eric nodded, but never took his eyes from the creature and didn’t seem to relax.

“I’m here to facilitate Suzanna’s introduction to Thysandrika and also to answer any questions that either of you have.”

Suzanna, still staring, reached for her coffee. Her hand shook as she brought the mug to her lips.

“I’d join you,” said the skeleton, “but coffee goes right through me.”

Suzanna had just taken a swallow, but it sprayed from her mouth and nose. A glance at Eric told her he didn’t get the joke, which wasn’t entirely unexpected.

“I didn’t know there were any reborn like you,” said Eric. “I thought most of them looked like people.”

“Most of us do. I’m a special project. You can call me Bones, by the way.”

“How are you talking?” asked Suzanna.

“It’s magic,” he replied.

“Oh, right. Magic.”

Eric retook his seat, but his eyes never left the skeleton.

“This is a lot to take in,” he said.

“Undoubtedly. That’s why there’s an orientation. But you have it easy, Prince Eric. Imagine how people from Earth feel—those who don’t believe in magic at all. I was created, at least in part, to make it clear that newcomers to Thysandrika aren’t on Earth anymore.”

“Are you from Earth originally?” asked Eric.

“I am. I was a chiropractor.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s a medical specialist that focuses on issues with the body’s skeletal structure and ligament system. Most commonly we help people with back and neck pain, headaches, that sort of thing, but it’s much more than that.”

“You’re a healer.”

“I like to think so, yes.”

“So, what happens now?” asked Suzanna.

“Now I show you to your house, and you can get yourselves settled in. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. Any of the teachers that work here will be happy to help you get it, or at least tell you where to get it.”

Suzanna looked at Eric, and he nodded. She took another few gulps of coffee but didn’t taste it. There was too much going on, and she really wanted to see more of the orientation village.

They followed Bones outside, and found themselves in what seemed to be a scaled down version of a small New York neighborhood. There were shops of every kind on the main road and houses down a few side streets. Just from where they stood, she could see an electronics store, a tobacconist, a stationary store, a newsstand, and what looked like an Italian restaurant.

“Over 200 people live in Orientation Village full time,” said Bones. “We have everything here—stores that sell clothes, restaurants, even a movie theater and a gym. All the comforts of home. Some of us were born on Earth, but most of the people living here are Thysandrika born reborn.”

“How many Earth reborn are there?” asked Suzanna.

“A fair few,” said Bones. “Remember, Nylus has been doing this for decades. He’s built up quite the following.”

The fact that many who lived on Earth were reborn disturbed Suzanna. Was the Undead King trying to take over the Earth?

There was nothing she could do about it. She was only first level, after all. So, learn what she could and deal with what comes up as best she can. Pretty much how she lived her life.

“How is this place powered?”

“We have our own generator, but we also have a solar farm nearby. Don’t ask me how we got everything here through the portal in Nylus’s basement, because I don’t know.”

“It wouldn’t be hard,” said Eric. “Dimensional magic, the way they make backpacks that are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside could do it, obviously on a larger scale. It makes it easier to transport large items over a long distance.”

The skeleton stopped walking. “Absolutely fascinating. I shall have to do some research. Anyway, we have computers, but we don’t have the Internet, for obvious reasons. However, we do have a very large streaming library people can access, should you want some entertainment. It’ll give Prince Eric something to do while you attend classes, Suzanna.”

They continued down the main street and then turned right onto one of the side streets. Suzanna marveled at the setup. It reminded her of the World Showcase in Disney World, where miniature versions of countries were set up around a lagoon. When you were in any of them, you might feel for a moment that you were actually in that country. She had only been to Disney World once, but the World Showcase had been one of her favorite things, since she’d never had a chance to travel.

The Orientation Village, while standing in the middle of it, made you feel like you were in New York City, or at least one of the outer boroughs. She’d seen areas of both Brooklyn and Queens that looked like this.

At the edge of the area, however, easily visible from where they walked, was a rocky badlands that stretched as far as the eye could see. The Plains of Xarinos and, presumably, their undead hoards. The place that had invaded Death’s Doorstep some fifteen years earlier. And she was here. It was hard to believe that earlier this morning, she was getting ready to meet the lead programmer of a video game in Brooklyn, and a handful of hours later, she had walked through a portal into another world. And now a skeleton named Bones, of all things, was taking them to the house they’d be staying in.

The houses looked nice at least. They reminded her of the copy and paste housing developments that were springing up all over the suburbs. No house was unique. Nothing stood out. They were painted in pastel colors chiefly sky blue and lemon yellow, but a few others sported shades of lavender. Every house looked like it was part of a matched set. All with perfectly manicured lawns and a couple of small trees in diminutive front yards. It seemed surreal to Suzanna, like Hollywood’s interpretation of suburbia, so much so that she felt she was on a film set rather than in an actual neighborhood. The only stereotype missing was a white picket fence. Maybe they could get a dog.

Bones stopped at the third house on the left side of the street. There was a mailbox on a post in front of it sporting the number five.

“This place is yours for as long as you want it. It has all the comforts of home. Your address is Five Old Soul Road, in case you get lost.”

“Old Soul Road?” asked Suzanna. “That’s an odd name for a street.”

“Not here,” said Bones. “This area was designed to mix Earth culture and Thysandrikan culture, so you’ll see a bit of both. Not in the houses so much, but in what you learn and how things are called at least. You two should get some rest. Classes begin tomorrow.”

Bones bowed to them and walked away back toward the center of town. Eric shrugged and started walking down the path that led to the front door. Suzanna followed.

This was all going to take some getting used to.

*

After claiming and exploring the house, Eric and Suzanna ended up in the sitting room. Suzanna plopped down on the couch.

“This is like the the television set for an eighties sitcom,” she said, laughing.

Eric shrugged. “You know I have no idea what that is.”

“You have no idea how much I envy you.”

Eric looked around. The sofa looked plush and Suzanna seemed comfortable enough. He’d run his hand over it earlier and it felt very soft against his skin. It was cream-colored, matching the rug. The only other place to sit in the room was a leather recliner. Then there was a coffee table and two end tables. The only thing missing was a television. Suzanna sat on the couch, feet curled beneath her, while Eric chose the recliner. This was the first chance they’d had to talk since he’d woken up in Danny’s body that morning. First they were in a car with Mrs. Bradsworth and the chauffeur, then at Nylus’s house and then in the coffee shop. This was hard enough for Eric, but for Suzanna, it surely changed her life. A life Eric knew very little about. It was time to remedy that situation.

“I didn’t know you had children.”

“Oh,” said Suzanna, immediately dropping her gaze. “I don’t really. Not anymore.”

“Would you like to tell me about it?”

Suzanna took a moment to look around the room, as if looking for an escape route. Then she sighed and settled back onto the sofa. Her brown eyes found his, and she nodded once. When she spoke, it was little more than a whisper.

“I don’t like talking about it. I haven’t told anyone. It’s deeply personal, and it’s embarrassing. But we’re linked, you and I. Danny has been my life for years now, and you’re part of him, at least in my mind. It’s the only way I know you. And if you’re going to continue to visit Danny when you sleep, it means you and I will be spending a lot of time together. You’re entitled to know the kind of person you’re dealing with. That said, it’s a common enough story. I’m just another girl from a broken home who tried to escape and picked the wrong man to help her. I made mistakes. I hurt people and was hurt in turn. In the end, I turned my life around, but there was a time, not that long ago, when I had given up altogether.”

“Tell me,” said Eric, and it wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command. Suzanna looked hesitant at first. She tensed then relaxed.

“I hope you don’t think less of me when you hear what I have to say.”

“I don’t think I will. Even if what you did in the past was wrong, we’ve all made mistakes. What you did doesn’t matter as much as what you do now. Anyway, as Old Man Marko once said, you should never get on the wrong side of a healer. You never know when you’re going to need one.”

He favored her with a tentative smile, and she laughed, which is all he had wanted.

“I came from money. I wouldn’t call my parents rich, but they were well to do—at first. I was spoiled when I was young. My mother doted on me. My father bought me lots of toys and gifts and paid attention to me, though he worked a lot and I didn’t see him that often. But I knew I was loved, and that’s the most important thing to a child.

I was still young when money got tight. There weren’t quite as many gifts. My mother was far more stressed and had less energy to pay attention to me. I didn’t really understand what was going on until much later, but it turned out that my father had developed a gambling problem. At first he hid it from my mother, but I guess she found out about it at some point. They started fighting more and more. She kept threatening to leave him and take me, usually when she thought I wasn’t listening. He’d apologize and beg for her to stay, but he kept gambling. He ended up embezzling money from the company he worked for, got himself fired, and fled before the police came around to arrest him. I never saw him again

“I must have been eleven or twelve at the time. My mother tried for a while, but it was hard. We lost the house. We weren’t getting along, a portion of which was my fault. I was the typical rebellious teenager, and she was a woman who’d given up on life.

“I didn’t understand how a woman could be brought to that. She wasn’t stupid. She was pretty enough. She could have had another relationship, found some happiness, but she never managed it. I saw it as her failure, and certainly saw her as failing me. I spent less time at home, starting hanging out with friends, drinking and partying. I didn’t realize just how much I had been adding to her pain.

She looked at Eric as if to see if he was following. He never took his eyes off her, but he didn’t say anything.

“That’s when I met Charles. Everyone called him Charlie, but not me. He was always Charles to me. He was older, and he had money, and I never asked myself why an older successful man would be interested in a young woman like me. I thought he loved me. Maybe he did. I never really figured it out, even after all this time. But even if he did, Charles wasn’t a good person. He liked to control things. He liked to control me.

“I didn’t realize it at first. I wasn’t old enough to see the patterns. I didn’t listen to other people when they warned me. I didn’t even know he was married at first, and by the time I did, he was all that mattered to me. Does that sound terrible?”

Eric looked sympathetic, but never answered the question.

“Where did you meet him?”

“At a bar. A friend stood me up and he was there, and we spent a few hours talking and drinking. I let him take me to a nearby hotel where we spent the night. I had thought it would be a one night stand. I didn’t expect a relationship. I wasn’t looking for one. But Charles knew all the right buttons to push and, though I didn’t realize it at the time, I really missed my father. He filled those shoes. I never had to worry when he was around. He would take care of everything.

“I fell in love. I didn’t know much about him, but we’d meet at the bar a couple of times a week and have sex. I was spending less time at home, fighting with my mom all the time, and eventually I asked him if he’d take me to his place. That’s when I found out he was married. But he said he was leaving her. That it had been over for a while.

“I didn’t believe him. Guys always said stuff like that. Imagine my surprise when he did. He got an apartment, and I moved in with him. That’s when he started to change. It didn’t happen all at once, but he become more moody, got angry when I didn’t do what he wanted, and you know, it was just easier to comply. I sat around and played video games while he went off to work and then we’d go to the bar together at night, or stay home and watch a movie. Life wasn’t bad, even if he did have a temper.

“It changed again when I got pregnant. He became protective of me. Even stopped getting as mad. He seemed happy. I think he always wanted kids. I never asked why. Perhaps if I had I’d have gotten the hell out of there.

“Things changed after the birth of our daughter, Sandy. Sandra, you know, but I think of her as Sandy. She was so small. I don’t think I’d ever seen anything that small, and helpless, and dependent on me. But no one had had to depend on me for a long time. I was the dependent one. I wasn’t ready for motherhood. But I wanted to make Charles happy, so I tried. And for a while, things were okay.

He worked a lot, but he was a good father and there was always money when the baby needed something. Time passed, I got pregnant again, a couple of years later and had Lucy. When I look back, I don’t know if this had been his plan all along, or he just got tired of me, but suddenly he didn’t want me in his life anymore. I think he’d met someone he liked better. I had the girls and did the best I could, but I was still young, and I was still damaged from my upbringing.

Charles came home with a black eye one night. He was in a terrible mood, like the old days. He didn’t to talk about it, and eventually, after a couple of tries I stopped asking. I didn’t have many friends anymore, but I had the girls and life wasn’t that bad. That was before the police came to arrest me.”

“Arrest you? For what?”

“Assault. He said I had attacked him. He had the injuries to prove it. Pictures. Witnesses even. I’d never seen any of those people before. He’d been planning it for a while. He was issued an order of protection from me. He left me the apartment but took the girls. The judge was convinced that I was a danger to them. Looking back, I think he only was with me for the girls, but I didn’t know it back then. I didn’t understand anything about what was going on. I didn’t understand why he’d be like that.

“But he had money and, suddenly, I didn’t. And the courts took his side. I was prevented from seeing my daughters and after the divorce, I wasn’t allowed to see them again.”

“That’s terrible. There was nothing you could do?”

“Charles had done a pretty good job of convincing me I was a bad mother. I didn’t fight hard enough to keep my girls and when I finally realized what he had done, it was too late. If he was still alive today, I’d have fought harder to get them back, but he died in an automobile accident, and his sister took them in. They were older at that point. They didn’t know me. I didn’t know me. But the worst of it was, and I found this out later, they had found drugs in his car. I think he might have been drugging me while I lived with him. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that was the case.

“It took me years to come out of that. I got help through government funded programs, got jobs, went back to school, studied hard, became a nurse, probably because I missed taking care of the girls. I was okay as long as there was someone else to take care of, and I didn’t have to focus on myself.

“And his sister never had the kind of money Charles did. I think most of his money went to pay off debts and legal bills. There wasn’t much left. His sister had never liked me in the first place, and she believed everything he’d told her about me, whatever that was, so the one time I tried to contact her, she rebuffed me pretty hard. But I still sent her money when I could, because they’re still my girls—even if I couldn’t see them.”

Eric looked like he wanted to cry. “This is awful. How can something like this happen?”

“It’s a common enough story, Eric. Woman are often in positions where they’re abused by the system. I was young, inexperienced, needed some sort of security, and Charles used me. I guess maybe I used him too, I don’t know. But once he had what he wanted, he didn’t need me anymore. To this day I have no idea if the entire thing was premeditated or just happened, but I do know I didn’t deserve what had happened to me. I look back at that life and realize, I wasn’t a bad person. I’d been taken advantage of, but I didn’t know how to fight for what was mine. I didn’t even know I hadn’t deserved it. Charles had been so good at manipulating me that by the time I realized he’d done so, I’d lost everything.

“I’d been out of contact with my mom for years, and it took me a while to get the nerve to see her again. She was older, sadder, and though she welcomed me home, I saw immediately that she, like me, was a beaten woman. She had nothing left to give. I stayed with her for a few years, then she moved out of state, and I was on my own again. I had a fight with her before she left. I felt like she was abandoning me. Running away. But she left anyway.

“She never told me she was dying. I’d have been nicer to her. She had been diagnosed with cancer, and she didn’t want me to watch her fade away, so she moved. I only found out after she died.

“I wish she could have seen me finally make something of myself. That would have been nice. What do you think happens after you die, Eric.”

“I don’t know. No one does. It’s called the great mystery. Se Karn, he’s the god of death, claims our souls and guides them on the next stage of the journey, but that’s all we know. We just believe death is not an end.”

“Well, it’s not in this place, certainly. What did you think of Bones?”

“He seemed nice enough.”

“Eric, he was a skeleton.”

“Yeah, I noticed. But he’s not the first reborn I’ve met, and I’m not sure being reborn automatically makes you bad. These people seem like they retain something of themselves. I mean there are bad ones like Striker, she’s the one who kidnapped me and Dahr, but others I’ve met don’t seem quite as bad. In my mind, Nylus is the enemy.”

“Nylus? How?”

“He’s the Undead King.”

“Wait, what?”

“I’m pretty sure. Striker had told Dahr and I that the Undead King had been on Earth for about fifty years.”

“So that’s how you knew.”

“I didn’t know. I made a guess based on what little information I had. But it makes sense. Somehow, he ended up in control of a portal between Thysandrika and Earth. I don’t know if he created it himself, or discovered it, or someone made it for him. But I do know that he has control of it. You need to get into his basement to pass through the gate and you can’t get back because it’s sealed behind a door. I don’t know how it all fits together, there are still pieces missing, but he’s the enemy. I’m not sure about the rest of the reborn. How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay. I’ve spent years getting to this place. I think I’m more okay because I have Danny to take care of. As long as the focus remains on someone else, I’m fine.”

“That’s why Sylinar accepted you, I’d wager.”

“Maybe.”

“We should get some sleep, if we can. Tomorrow is going to be…interesting.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“I haven’t really told that story in full to anyone. You’re the first.”

“I’m honored.”

Suzanna laughed. “It felt good to finally say it all aloud.”

“Well, I’m glad I could help.”

She stood up, smiled wearily and turned to go. “Goodnight, Eric. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight.”

Eric joined her, leaving the light on behind him, because he didn’t know how to turn it off and was too tired to figure it out at the moment.

The room he’d taken reminded him of Danny’s room back on Earth. Just a bed, a dresser, even a television. He decided not to bother with it until he get some much needed rest.

In spite of his fatigue, it took him ages to fall asleep. When he finally did, he was out cold for the duration. When he finally woke, he lay there, completely disoriented. Then he remembered. He had been on Earth, in Danny’s body. He had gone to sleep in a house they’d been assigned in the Orientation Village, and he was still there.

He felt groggy. Tired. Achy. The entire experience had been stressful. Meeting all those people, learning about this strange mini-world he was living in. That such a place should exist on Thysandrika amazed him.

And then, suddenly, he was awake, sitting bolt upright in bed. He’d slept—but he’d not returned to his body.

Eric jumped out of bed and threw on the clothes he’d worn the day before. He ran into the corridor, saw the door to Suzanna’s bedroom open and glanced inside. She wasn’t there. He charged down the stairs and found her in the kitchen sipping a cup of coffee.

“I didn’t return to my body when I slept.”

“What?”

“I was in Danny’s body all night. Dahr is alone right now with Eldiss and Aisha, and I’m not there to protect him.”

“From what you’ve told me, I’m not sure Dahr needs protection, but I understand why you’d be worried. Do you have any idea why you might not have gone back?”

“No. Also, being stuck in this body means that I can’t really make use of my skills and leveling. Leveling changes you physically, but Danny never leveled. Using some of my skills might hurt me in this body. At the very least, I’m going to have to start working out. Building up Danny’s strength and endurance. If I’m going to be stuck in this body, I have to make it more useful.”

Suzanna frowned, but before she could speak, Eric cut her off.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean Danny was useless. But I’m a tank. And for that purpose, this body isn’t up to scratch. I have to improve it. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt Danny.”

Suzanna nodded. “Yes, okay, I can see that. Have you tried praying to Sheba?”

Eric looked embarrassed. “No. I came to tell you first. I should try.”

Eric closed his eyes, and prayed. “Sheba, please tell me, will I ever return to my old body?”

There was no answer. More than that, Eric, for the first time since he’d transitioned, couldn’t feel his connection to the goddess.

“I can’t feel her. Even on Earth I could feel her. Hang on.”

Eric held out his hand and tried to summon his shield. Nothing happened. “I’m cut off from her here. I think it might have to do with being in the Plains of Xarinos. We have to get out of here!”

“Okay. If that’s what you need to do.”

She said the words, but he could see the fear in her eyes. She was going for him. She didn’t need to or want to go herself. He could understand it. She was new to this world and had none of the skills to fall back on that he did.

“We’ll give it a few days. We need to learn what we can here before running off. If we’re in the middle of the plains, it could take many days to reach the border. Going off into the wilderness without the knowledge to do so safely is a mistake. We’re in enemy territory now. We can’t wander around without knowing more.”

Relief flooded Suzanna’s face, and in spite of the morning’s events, Eric felt relieved with her. There had been too much running. Too much reacting without knowing what was going on. Too much that had been out of his control. He needed to think, formulate an actual plan, and not just ride the tide of events. For all he knew, this was part of someone else’s plan.

If Eric were going to destabilize an enemy, he might well change the playing field. And trapping Eric in Danny’s body had certainly done that. Running off might be exactly what the Undead King wanted him to do.

“Let’s get the lay of the land. I know you’ll be starting your orientation classes, and that might be useful. Keep an ear open for anything else that we can use. At least here, I think we’re safe.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because the Undead King guaranteed our safety, and I’ve never heard of any instance where he’s lied. The Undead King is known for his honesty.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He’s had a treaty with Lorelei for over a hundred years, and he’s yet to break it. I don’t trust him. I still think he has a plan. I just don’t think harming us is part of the plan. I think we can take him at his word when he says we’ll be safe here. Which means leaving might be a mistake.”

“How so?”

“It would be you and me, alone in an unknown area, where I can’t use most of my skills. You’re a healer, right?”

“Yes. But I’m only first level.”

“We have to be smart about this. You take your classes, I’m going to start working out. Let’s see if we can’t at least swing the odds a bit in our favor. The good news is, Dahr is on his way here. He might well be coming to us, and this is where we think we’re supposed to go anyway. At least, I hope that’s the case.”

“So you just want to stay here?”

“I don’t know yet. For all I know, tonight, I wake up in my body again. We give it some time, and see where the situation takes us, and when we have sufficient information, we devise a plan. Until then, we just allow events to carry us.”

“Okay. That makes sense. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“I’d rather fight a Pasdara. Do we have tea?”

“We do.”

Suzanna stood up and fetched a cup, and put on an electric kettle to boil water. Eric watched tight lipped as she put a teabag in the cup.

“What the hell is that?”

“It’s a tea bag.”

“This is not how you brew tea.”

“Oh, right,” she said, laughing. “It’s how we make tea on earth. Let me show you.”

Eric spent the next few minutes learning about toasters and coffee makers and electric kettles. Even here, Suzanna assured him, they weren’t magic.

Technology had come to Thysandrika.

*

There was a well stocked refrigerator with Earth foods in it, so Suzanna cooked them breakfast of eggs, and bacon. There was bread and butter, both seemingly fresh, indicating that the kitchen had probably been stocked only shortly before they’d arrived. While they ate, she decided to begin her education.

“Eric, what can you tell me about the gods?”

“They’re pretty much the center of our culture. The most powerful people in the world have classes which they get from the gods. That means that people without classes don’t have the same skills. They die more easily, which is why it’s up to us protect them.”

“Everyone feels this way?”

“Well, no. There are plenty who see people with classes as superior to people without them and take advantage of those people. Remember, though I’m tethered to the goddess of honor and you’re tethered to the goddess of healing, some people worship the the god of thieves, or the goddess of war and suffering. Each god sees things differently, so the people who worship them all have different mindsets.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Sylinar. There wasn’t much of a chance. What does it mean, do you think, that we’re cut off from the gods here?”

“I don’t know. The only place I know where this happens is in another god’s temple. Sylinar has no power in Sheba’s temple and vice versa. I have no idea why we have no connection here.”

“Okay, then just tell me more about the gods.”

“Okay. Sylinar is the mother goddess. That means she created all the other gods. It’s why we call her the mother, but she’s not really a mother. She didn’t give birth to them. Though the gods do have a father.”

“They do?”

“Yes. His name is Arimen. He’s the greatest warrior that has ever lived. He’s strong, fast, skilled, honorable—and was so even before he become immortal.”

“How could he become immortal?”

“Sylinar got lonely and wanted a companion. One that lived as long as she did. So she blessed him with immortality, though it’s said he can still be killed. After they’d spent a few hundred years together, Sylinar decided she wanted a family.

“Iorana was the first. Sylinar created her by combining her essence with that of Arimen, just as humans make their children, though of course it wasn’t a physical coupling. Iorana didn’t start off as a child, she was created as an adult. And Sylinar gifted her with the aspect of magic to oversee. Sheba was made some time later, how much later no one really agrees on, but no one disagrees with the order of the first five gods at least. Sylinar gave her the aspects of honor, combat and the hunt.

“Originally Sylinar oversaw every aspect, but slowly she released parts of herself to her creations, which I guess is why they’re gods. Sarith was the third of her children, but she was different than the first two. She was rebellious and unhappy, again, no one knows why, but she refused Sylinar’s gift, the aspect of nature. Instead she asked for War and Suffering. As she was a goddess, Sylinar allowed it.

“We’re taught that Sarith is an important god, but I don’t know anyone that worships her.”

“Who would? Why would you worship war and suffering.”

“They don’t really worship it. But if you tether to Sarith, you’re really saying that war and suffering are inevitable parts of life and that sometimes, they aren’t really bad. Like the war that ended The Kingdom of Lethe, which during the years of its existence dominated much of the the world through fear and cruelty. I bet a lot of Lethians were tethered to Sarith.”

“Let’s get back to the gods. What happened after Sarith was created?”

“Then came Se Karn, the god of death, followed by Mitra, goddess of lore and learning. They’re the last two major gods. The days of the week here are based on them, which is why we have six days a week, mostly anyway. We start off with the Day of the Mother, that’s Sylinar’s day, followed by Day of the Mage, Day of the Soldier, Day of the Dead, Loresday, Day of the Father and the Day of the Lesser Gods, which we only get once every other month.”

“You have a day of the week you only get once every other month?”

“Yes, the first week of every second month has an extra day in it, the day of the lesser gods, for those who don’t worship the gods I’ve mentioned already. They need a day too, but they’re not as important, so they only get one occasionally.”

“Why aren’t they as important?”

“It’s hard to explain. The first gods, the ones Sylinar created, contained Arimen’s essence as well as Sylinar’s. They were created first, and it was a big deal. But the gods that came later, weren’t a conscious effort on her part. They emerged from her unbidden.”

“How can you know this?”

“Mitra is the goddess of lore. A lot of the information we get, particularly about the gods, comes from her.

“I see. How many lesser gods are there?”

“Hundreds. I’ve heard it said that they’re lesser because fewer people worship them, but I don’t think that’s right. Some are like the god of travel or the god of creativity. What is travel to honor, or magic, or death?”

“Okay, I can see that.”

“Anyway, there are six days in the week, except the first week of every other month, giving half of the months thirty-six days and the other half thirty-seven.”

“That’s so strange.”

“On Earth, you have different numbers of days in different months too.”

“Yes, but we don’t have an extra weekday every other month. Our days of the week are always the same.”

“Okay, I get why it would be confusing.”

He was about to say more, when a bell sounded. Eric looked up in confusion, but Suzanna stood and walked to the door.

She opened it, and Bones waited outside.

“Ready to go? I’m here to take you to your first class.”

“What about me,” asked Eric. “I don’t need beginner classes in Thysandrika.”

“No, you don’t. But if you come along, I can show you our gym. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting, maybe even useful.”

“Okay…” he replied uncertainly.

Bones didn’t enter the property, but waited until they joined him outside.

“Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” said Suzanna.

“Bones, why are we cut off from our gods here?”

“Ah, I see you’ve noticed that. No one knows. This place has been a dead zone to the gods since long before the Undead King rose. I’m not sure anyone knows why.”

“It doesn’t bother you?”

“No, when you die, your connection to your god is severed. Some people are more affected by it than others. The higher your level, the worse it feels. As a human from Earth, I didn’t have any levels at all. I’ve never been tethered to a god, so my first experience being tethered was to the Undead King.”

“Wait,” said Eric. “Are you saying the Undead King can tether a reborn like a god?”

“No, not at all. I’m connected to him, that’s all. He can talk to me, and I can talk to him. It’s how I know that you’re Prince Eric and not just Danny. But he can’t give me a class or levels.”

“Oh, okay. Still, that’s very strange.”

“This is all strange to me, even after the years I’ve spent doing this. But it’s a living, or in my case, a dying.”

He looked expectantly at Eric and Suzanna, but neither laughed.

“Tough crowd,” he said, as he continued to lead them to the main street of Orientation Village.