Dashing through the rain, I ran to the palace. I was moving fast enough that the guards instinctively raised their weapons to stop me. I explained that I was near being late to see the high advisor. After a quick glance at me and each other, they let me through. There must be a benefit to having such distinguishable hair! I was escorted to the high advisor’s office, slowly walking through the palace of course.

The bell tolled just as we arrived…safe.

“Greetings,” Sir Aborisey said to my dripping self. “You seem to be a bit out of breath. Did Sir Buckhold actually make you train in this weather?”

“Sort of,” I said. “We were tasked with indoor training this morning. But I actually ran here.”

“To practice on your own and to add running in this weather…commendable.”

Well not exactly…but let’s just go with it.

“Last we spoke we were discussing the political overview of Altear and you were off to research the library. Then let’s begin with a review of political etiquette,” he said motioning for me to sit. “Begin with the nations of Altear, their governmental structures and their predominant races.”

With my cataloging trait it was a simple matter to recite the information back to him. I wondered if this was what it was like to have an eidetic memory.

The high advisor’s eyebrow twitched. Perhaps I had gotten something wrong?

“That was very good,” he said. “Tell me have you always had a memory this sharp or was this a blessing from Ulla?”

“No. I had a pretty good memory back on Earth, but since my blessing it’s like I can remember every detail. I feel like my mind is working faster and more efficiently. It is truly an odd feeling.”

I explained that there were people on my world with what we called eidetic memories who were known to be able to recall images, sounds, and events with uncanny accuracy.

“Fascinating, please tell me more. Are these people common? Do they recall all senses? How precise are their memories?”

I explained that I once watched a documentary explaining various aspects and variations within eidetic memories. About individuals able to create incredibly detailed photograph-like art.

That of course led to questions about documentaries and photographs. I did my best to explain without going too in depth into the fields of television and optics. Although I was sure I would eventually be discussing those with him or Perceval.

“It is likely that there are such individuals on Praecantio as well,” I said. “Even without a god’s blessing. It is really about statistics.”

“Statistics?”

Great another topic…

I described the mathematical field of statistics in the simplest way I could. Using a simple coin toss as an example. I had never actually studied statistics in any depth, just a few documentaries here and there, so I didn’t want to misrepresent the subject too much.

After we discussed topics from Earth, Sir Aborisey began to describe the military significance of the nations of Altear. The dwarves were skilled craftsman who build high quality weapons and machines to fight, the passer or birdfolk used their flight in similar ways to the demon armies, attacking from the sky well out of range of traditional weapons, demons would often use cultivated monsters in a type of proxy war, etc. It seemed as if species had its own unique style of military power. Which made sense. Different fantasy races have different characteristics and therefore different strengths and weaknesses.

Sir Aborisey explained that after the fall of the birdfolk tribes, the demons were mustering forces preparing to attack the dwarven realms which were well suited to defense from direct demon attacks. This pre-war time allowed the nations of Altear time to prepare their counterstrikes and bolster their armies. Which was why Bella had been summoned.

“Then are there other heroes as well?” I asked.

“Quite probably,” Sir Aborisey responded. “Acone is not the only nation with knowledge of summoning spells and with the wide variety of gods who bestow blessings it is quite possible others besides her highness Princess Laeanna were given the ability to enact such spells.”

That led me to wonder. Would the other heroes be brought from Earth too or would they be brought from other worlds?

Unfortunately, our time ran out. Sir Aborisey had other matters to attend to and I was left with greater curiosity than when I entered…I hoped this didn’t become a pattern.

I made my way to the library to meet with Fiena. I got all the way there before I remembered that we had already had our session and she had moved onto working in the palace. I guess I could still be forgetful even with my boosted memory…that’s a good thing to remember.

I decided to try looking through the atlases and globes of Praecantio. Perhaps I could figure out the location names based on context from what Sir Aborisey told me the day before. I was particularly interested in the quality of their maps and the locations of Acone, Picham and Kaj’Ajasia in relation to the regions the demons had conquered.

Once again, I saw a red haired Alea sitting at the table in the middle of the library. I wondered what she was researching with all those texts, but luckily my self-preservation overpowered my curiosity.

Instead I began looking for Beth.

I found her climbing and shelving scrolls on a second-floor balcony ladder.

Once she safely descended, I asked her about the maps of her world.

“Oh, I see,” she said as we descended the stairs. “are you interested in any particular region?”

That’s right they don’t have specific topic sections. Then all of their maps would be scattered throughout the library. How frustrating. I really needed to introduce them to a more modern library classification system.

“I am interested in the nations of Altear at the moment. Specifically the locations across the continents and the nations of Acone, Picham and Kaj’Ajasia.”

“I see…”

She led me first to the large globe on the first floor of the library. Uncomfortably close to the princess. Luckily she had her head stuck in a book.

“To give you an idea of locations this is the known globe of Praecantio and the locations of the two known continents.”

The globe showed a vast ocean with two vertically adjacent continents. It showed Praecantio with incredibly precise coastlines, but the demon continent was more of a large blob. It was at least twice the size of Altear and not at all defined.

‘Interesting,’ I thought. I suppose if they hadn’t crossed the ocean then they really wouldn’t know much about the other continents, but this globe showed these two continents as taking most of the planet. I wondered how accurate the scales were.

“There are, of course, more detailed maps I can locate for you. Why don’t you examine the globe while I find those for you?”

Leaving me she went to search the library.

“So you are interested in our world?” I heard a cold voice say from behind me.

I suppose it was inevitable.

“Yes,” I said. “I have been studying with the high advisor and he has told me about Acone, Altear and Praecantio.”

“Humph. And what do you think of our world so far?” Princess Alea asked. “Was it worth your trip?”

What she really meant of course, was it worth the death of her sister.

“I am sorry about what happened to your sister,” I said, turning to look Alea in the eye. “But we were not summoned by our own will. We were pulled here.”

It seemed like an aggressive stance, but I was shaking in my boots. What if she pulled that sword she was carrying? What if she attacked?

Instead I saw a tear welling up in her eye. Had I misread the situation?

“And you think it was her will to bring you here?”

With clenched fists she turned and walked into the maze of bookshelves.