Kendrick was wearing his sunglasses. He sat in the front seat of his car. His fellow passenger sat next to him, but he didn’t see who they were; he was merely aware of their presence. Whenever he tried to turn his head, he was met only with shadow and an odd magnetic repulsion, as if the rest of his dream wasn’t entirely there.

The sunlit city had an orange tint to it. A city of metal and glass and concrete, where the only thing made of wood was the occasional streetside tree. Even now, he knew to take in every detail he could glean from these precious fleeting moments.

“I was thinking of getting one,” someone said. Their voice was muffled, garbled. All clues to age, race, gender, even their mood was obscured. “What about you, Kendrick? What do you think?”

“Me?” He looked out the windshield and saw a billboard coming into focus further down the curling stretch of urban highway snaking between skyscrapers. Despite his concentrated effort, he couldn’t read what it said. “I don’t know.” He let go of the steering wheel, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes.

“Kendrick!”

***

He woke up with a gasp.

The room around him was bathed in the golden sunlight of what appeared to be morning. There was no reliable way of telling in a world like this without asking the people around him, or at least that’s how he felt so far; he hadn’t encountered any clocks, watches, or even sundials. It was hard for him to conceptualize that this was only his second day in the Ecumene. It already felt like he’d been here much longer.

His bed was small and uncomfortably rigid, despite how welcoming it seemed when they arrived earlier that same morning. “Or is it the afternoon?” he wondered aloud. He hoped not; he hated having his circadian rhythm thrown out of alignment.

Bellara and Sahni had slept in the bed on the opposite side of the room. Sahni still slumbered, sleeping on her stomach with all of her limbs stretched out as wide as possible. She wore a silk gown of sorts that covered her from her shoulders to halfway down her thighs, where he felt his eyes linger. Then Sahni stirred in her sleep and he looked away shamefully.

Don’t be weird, he scolded himself.

The door opened abruptly and Bellara walked in, startling Sahni awake. “Are you two layabouts still sleeping?” she asked them. “Make yourselves decent! Midday breakfast is ready downstairs.”

“This place is a bed and breakfast? Awesome!” Kendrick exclaimed.

“A bed and breakfast?” said Bellara. “What in the Ecumene is that?”

Kendrick furrowed his brow. “In my world, it’s a place that has a bed... and... breakfast... Did... Did I really need to unpack that one for you or—”

“Just for that, I'm eating yours before you get downstairs.” She stuck her tongue out at him before hurrying out the open door.

Sahni sat up in bed, her aqua hair ruffled with sleep, eyes still groggy. “Well, Kendrick,” she told him in a scratchy morning voice, “I figured out what you meant.” She chuckled quietly through her nose and Kendrick smiled.

The lower floor of the inn was bustling with activity. Lithe, pointy-eared elves, girthy, snub-nosed orcs, and numerous flavors of human milled about in the tavern area and chatted over diverse foods and drinks. Kendrick touched the temple of his lens.

{ELF} {HUMAN WITCH} {JINN} {ELF} {ORC} {HUMAN} {HUMAN} {ORC} {HUMAN} {ELF} {HUMAN}

“This must be the only bed and breakfast for a long distance,” he said as he and Sahni joined Bellara at a table. He was about to ask what a jinn was when breakfast caught his eye—a long wooden tray of what looked like assorted colorful pastries as well as a platter of fruit and meats. “Whoa. Is this all for us?”

“Eat up,” the redhead replied, leaning back in her chair. “We'll need our strength for the journey to the next town on our list.”

Kendrick obliged happily, snatching one of the pastries that had duplicates so as not to take the only one from his traveling partners. The one he had taken was circular with a creamy yellow topping dusted with white powder. When he bit into it, it tasted sweet, citrusy, and yet with a savory afterglow that delighted his tastebuds. “This one is amazing!” he said around a mouthful of goodness. “What flavor is this?”

“That one?” Bellara asked. “I’m not sure.” She leaned uncomfortably close to him and took a bite out of his pastry. He surmised that either this world didn’t place much importance on the idea of personal space or she didn’t. “This one is... aurberry. Wow, that is good. I think I’ll have one.” She took the other aurberry pastry from the tray and began eating her own.

Kendrick licked a stray drop of topping from his lips and shot her a judgmental look. “Why did you wake up today and choose conflict?”

Sahni touched her index fingertips together awkwardly. “Um... Kendrick? May I try a bite of your aurberry—”

“Have the rest,” Bellara sighed, handing over her pilfered treat to her friend. “You two need to lighten up a bit. It’s only the end of the world, you know.” She smirked cynically and leaned back in her chair again. Sahni initially looked happy to receive the pastry, but as she took her first bite, her gaze drifted downward, as if feeling the weight of Bell’s words.

Kendrick took a slice of cured meat from the platter and tore off a strip with his teeth. “So, you mentioned a journey. Where are we headed next?”

“The town of Shroudmoor, to the north. Travel there should take us three days if we leave today.”

“What’s in Shroudmoor?”

“More training. What else?” Bellara took a swig from her mug. “Their problem is a bit different than Oakenpost’s, though. Apparently they’ve been attracting imps for some time. Harder to put down than shades. So far, the numbers have been low enough that it isn’t a complete disaster, but with Underworld forces getting bolder and traveling farther west all the time, that might not be the case for much longer. That’s why we need to go there and help stamp out the problem for them.”

Kendrick remembered that vile, ugly, malicious little creature that had tried to pounce on him the night before in Oakenpost. Its black eyes, the way its mandibles clicked hungrily, and the flailing of its bony little limbs... just the memory of it was enough to make his hairs stand on end. And this place sounds like it might be crawling with them, he thought. Great. Just when I was starting to feel comfortable with how much progress I've made.

“You two should try this one,” Sahni interjected, covering her mouth as she chewed a bite of a different doughnut. There was one more on the tray, a pinkish oval flecked with dark green speckles and oozing something lime green. “The filling is made of mushplums. You remember, Kendrick, the dark green fruits I showed you yesterday and that you picked for us?”

He gestured to the doughnut. “Do you want to split this one with me, Bellara?”

She held out her hand and shook her head. “No, thank you. I’m stuffed already. You should have it.”

“Well, thank you. Don’t mind if I do.” He lifted the hefty confection to his mouth to take a bite, but when his jaw closed, he tasted nothing but air. He also knocked himself in the nose with his hand. “What?” The pastry was gone. Mysteriously, it was back on the tray where he left it. “Is this thing messing with me or what?” He went to grab it again and the same thing happened—it vanished from his grasp and reappeared back on the tray, except this time there was a bite missing from it.

He looked at Bellara, who was chewing discreetly and looked like she was fighting hard not to smile. “What?” she asked without meeting his gaze.

“It was you,” he realized.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bell, give it to him,” Sahni giggled.

“Give what? I’m minding my own business.”

“Are you done messing with me?” Kendrick asked plainly, trying himself not to validate her antics with a smirk.

She looked over at him with only her eyes and smiled. “Okay, yes. I was just having a bit of fun.”

He nodded. “Okay then.” He reached for the pastry a third time and it vanished from his hand, and this time when he wheeled around to accuse her, she laughed so hard she sprayed lime green filling clear across the tavern. An elf glanced at her disapprovingly. Some of it got on the shoulder of an orc, who didn’t seem to notice.

Even Sahni was cracking up now. Kendrick couldn’t help but relent and laugh along with them, especially when Bellara took the remainder of the pastry and placed it in his hand. It made him smile to think that these girls could find happiness and humor even in times like these.

***

It was midday when they had packed up their gear after breakfast and set out on the long walk to the town of Shroudmoor.

“We’ll have you take a crack at imps next since shades are fairly straightforward,” Bellara explained. “We’ll get your aura up, get your battle knowledge up... Then we’ll work on tackling the bigger and scarier threats from there, when we’re all on a level playing field. How does that sound?”

Kendrick shrugged. “Sounds like a good plan to me, I guess.” And it did. He was privately grateful that they weren’t throwing him at the big problems right away—that would probably defeat the purpose of bringing him here in the first place anyway.

But deep down, he couldn’t help but feel like it didn’t really matter how he answered her. What difference does it make? Kendrick thought. I’m stuck here either way. What would they even do if I said no? It’s not like they’ll just send me back home.

Wherever that is.