In the dream, Lanala saw a beautiful, blonde-haired woman with pointed ears. She had a wonderful singing voice and strummed a stringed instrument, a lute most likely, to a happy crowd of patrons in a tavern. She didn’t recognize the place but the dream then shifted to someplace she did recognize.

Mageia. The island that housed Langiit, a city in the sky above Esterlin. The island she supposedly came from. She once again saw the beautiful, blonde-haired bard there, inspecting books and mumbling to herself. She seemed drawn to the place and found herself in a library of sorts. But the woman didn’t see the looming shadows creeping up behind her. Lanala wanted to shout out, to warn her somehow... but she didn’t have a voice. And she wasn’t in Mageia. She knew she was dreaming, at home in bed, and she could do nothing as the woman became engulfed in the shadows that patrolled the cursed, magical city, and left nothing behind. Even the book she had open on the table had been placed back on the shelf.

Lanala awoke with a start, reaching beside her out of instinct... then remembering that Artema had gone for the night. Back to Onellia for one reason or another. So Lanala was alone in her bed, in Dosette, having had another wild dream about Mageia.

It had to be real but she couldn’t figure out if it was something that was happening as she dreamed it or if t was yet to happen. And, with nothing much else to do and her mysterious bloodline still to figure out, she decided then that she might explore Mageia a little bit. After all, with her newfound power, she’d be able to fight off the strange, shadowy protectors of the island. And maybe save that startlingly attractive blonde woman in the process. She had to give her head a shake at the thought. Of course the woman she had seen was attractive but nobody could beat the purple haired amazonian of her dreams. Not in her eyes, anyway.

For this little adventure, she changed into her classic attire from Ikaatan. She missed the black outfit; the cropped, sleeveless top that bore her midriff, the short black skirt, the matching black, knee-high sandals and the leather arm bracers. Contrasting her caramel skin, orange eyes, and long, strawberry pink hair all done up behind her head, the outfit would work for her purposes.

Thinking of Mageia and closing her eyes, Lanala snapped her fingers and felt the world around her change. Power practically emanated from her surroundings. When she opened her eyes, she found she wasn’t looking down over the city like last time. This time, Lanala found herself in what appeared to be an office of sorts.

“Hmmm...” she said to herself. “Some books in here. Wonder who used to work in this place...”

She stepped first to the bookshelf and looked the ancient, leather-bound volumes over. The titles were written in a language Lanala couldn’t understand at first. But, somewhere in the back of her mind, she started to translate the words as though she had known them all her life.

Titles that read ‘Magic: A Written History,’ ‘Families of Mageia,’ ‘The Travellers’ Log,’ or even ‘The Census’ seemed to indicate that this office likely belonged to someone important to the governing body of the city. They seemed to be keeping track of the people and who came and went. Lanala’s eyes were drawn to both ‘The Families of Mageia’ and ‘The Census’ and wondered if she would find her own name in either one. Or, more importantly, her mother’s. Or even Jhana’s...

Choosing to look over the ‘Families’ book first, Lanala started flipping through the pages slowly, taking in the names and skimming over descriptions in the hopes of learning... something. She didn’t really know what she was looking for but anything about this place, its past, and her connection to it would be worth more than she could measure to Lanala.

She knew her family name, Sihira, so it would be somewhere toward the back of the book. But she skimmed other names as well, wondering if there were any connections there. Without finding much, she stopped when she noted a big, bold title written in red ink with very little written below it. It read: Sihira. The Immortal. Alhanna, Banished Empress.

“Banished...” Lanala said to herself. It revealed nothing about exactly what her mother had done but if it was enough to be proclaimed banished by the people of Mageia then it could not have been anything good.

Lanala heard a sudden sound of rushing wind behind her and the light from the windows went dark, casting thick shadows all around her.

“Crap... they’re here...” she said to herself. This time, however, she would be prepared. Her own power could fight back.

When she raised her hand, the sound of the wind picked up and the shutters on the windows rattled against the walls outside. Everything in the room shuddered and Lanala could swear that she heard a growl of anger from within that strange rushing wind sound. And in that sound, she could hear the faint whisper of words, steeped in rage.

“Sihira... Immortal blood... Banished!”

The thought occurred to Lanala that these shadows, whoever they once were, had figured out who she was and the bloodline she carried. It took some concentration but Lanala raised her hands and drew from the power within. She closed her eyes and placed her hands flat against each other in front of her face, as though in prayer, before pushing outward with them again.

The wind hissed as she did but the shadows dissipated and all fell silent. At first, Lanala thought she had pushed them away but she heard another word in the ancient Mageian tongue as the shadows disappeared.

“Interloper...” they said.

“Hang on... uh oh. That woman I saw. The one with the pointed ears...” Lanala said quietly to herself, remembering her dream. “The library... I have to find it!”

Lanala rushed out of the room and found herself confronted with a flight of stairs winding downward.

“Damn it... I’ll find it another way.”

Concentrating again, Lanala held the library she had seen in her dreams in her mind’s eye. She remembered the woman with the golden blonde hair, the green outfit, pointed ears, and striking green eyes. The peculiar hairpin over her right ear was a detail she hadn’t noticed before as she brought her dream back to the forefront of her mind.

The pin there, tucked into the golden tresses of her beautiful hair, Lanala could almost feel the magic emanating from it. It was not a power she was familiar with in any way. But she latched on to that in hopes of getting to the woman before she was captured by the shadows. Though someone as powerful as Lanala rarely had trouble taking herself where she needed to go, something on the island was... blocking her. Somehow. No matter she thought to herself. This will just take a bit more strength.

Drawing deep from all the power within herself, power given by her Mageian blood, the island practically quaked as she pushed herself through whoever was blocking her and kept her mind on the library and the strange woman. She felt the block getting weaker but it was still keeping her from transporting herself. Though she knew it would succumb eventually. Lanala just hoped she could get there in time...

...

It was the power. The oddity of it. That was what had drawn her here. The ancient elven bard had taken a detour from her usual adventures when she had stumbled across the portal and felt a power she hadn’t ever felt before. The portal seemed weak as well and she could tell it would only be there for a few hours at worst, or perhaps a day at best, before it closed again. And there was... something behind it. Something didn’t want the portal open as though to ward off intruders. But the magic that was there, ancient and powerful, yet mysterious and different... Lathiira had find out what was behind it.

When she stepped through, she found herself in an ancient city, isolated on an island in the clouds. Whatever world she had found herself in had strange magic indeed. Though, as soon as she arrived, something felt very wrong. The marble brick, gold trimmed streets were empty, completely devoid of people. The city seemed deserted but Lathiira felt... watched. And certainly unwanted. Whatever she needed to learn, she intended to do it as quickly as possible. Magic this powerful simply had to be understood. She hadn’t lived as long as she had without leaping at opportunities like this.

It took a few minutes of wandering before she found a tall, marble structure with a peaked roof and pillars dotted around the outside. Heavy set, wooden doors sealed the building shut against the marble walls behind the pillars. Though the language written on the sign above the door wasn’t one she understood, Lathiira could take a guess. Perhaps another side effect of living for more than a millennia was an ability to discern language. And, being a master bard as skilled with language as she was, Lathiira could figure out what was said on the sign better than most.

It wasn’t a complex language, though there were symbols mixed in with traditional letters, studying the sign for a few minutes revealed that it had a simple, elegant structure. Five syllables per word, as though in flowing like poetry. Though it was only two words it read like a verse of a poem as soon as she discerned how to pronounce the words.

“Mageileodis Viviloteka...” She said to herself. As for translating what they meant, Lathiira found her attention caught by the second word. It began “vivilo” which seemed to make it similar to other languages. It bore a striking similarity to a section of a word like ‘biblio.’ Add in ‘teka’ and, suddenly, the translation was easy enough to figure out. “Library...” she said to herself. “That could be what it means.”

The first word as well was similar to other signs she had glanced at on the way. “Magei” seemed to be a common pair of syllables in this city. Though it was used in conjunction with other syllables, there seemed to also be a soft ‘a’ sound at the end that was most common. Perhaps “Mageia” was the name of this place? Other signs seemed to label it as another two syllable word “Langiit.” With this in mind, it was possible this building was denoting itself as a library of the city.

“A library could prove useful for learning magic in a place like this...” Lathiira said to herself.

So she strode up the still shining marble steps of the grandiose place and tried the heavy doors. Though it took some effort to push them open, they were not locked so gaining entry was simple enough. Inside the place was... quite stunning. Having seen as much as she had in all her years, Lathiira was perhaps a bit less impressed with the place than any other traveller might have been. But, even still, the sight of the shelves stretching to the ceiling, made of ornate and polished dark wood trimmed with gold, and filled from top to bottom and front to back with thick, ancient leather-bound tomes... it was quite breathtaking.

This impossibly huge mountain of knowledge stretched in front of her forever and Lathiira, though a being of high intelligence, did not have the slightest idea of where to begin. Though, helpfully, whoever built this place seemed to arrange the shelves with signs pointing her to alphabetized titles and even genres or topics as subheadings to those.

She walked for awhile, reading signs and trying to pick out words or syllables that seemed familiar before stopping at one labelled with a stylized letter that represented ‘M’ to Lathiira’s eye. And below it, subheadings on subsequent shelves down the aisle. One such heading was labelled, by figuring out the syllables from the letters and symbols, as “Mageia Iczeleffessi”. She hadn’t yet seen a word like the second one though just by saying it, she felt something within the island shift. The power of the place seemed to almost be whispering to her but it was incomprehensible. Still, with that kind of reaction, Lathiira knew she had to be on the right track.

There were desks and chairs placed every thirty feet or so along the library so Lathiira perused this section of the library and raised her hand up to the books along the shelf, walking along slowly. She hoped to feel something, a touch of the place’s magic, in one of the books. Finally, she stopped when her hand passed the spine of a book and she felt the slightest electrical shock from it. She grabbed it right away and pulled it down, reading the title.

The syllables were different this time. The first word was ‘Mageia’ for certain but the next one was... strange. It wasn’t five syllables like normal words of the language. So it had to be a name, like ‘Mageia.’ Based on what she could tell, it sounded almost like a person’s name. “Alhanna...Sihira... imperatora vesturkariba...”

Lathiira remembered one of the names. Alhanna... it was on a parchment styled like a poster on a wall outside. And one of the words imperatora... It had been on the poster as well. She had seen it elsewhere too on a sign pointing to a rather ornate building in the distance she could only guess was a palace of sorts. She could only guess that it meant something like ‘royal’ or ‘ruler’ based on the context she had seen it in. But she was distracted from her guessing game when the entire building around her started to shake. Lathiira became instantly enveloped in shadows and, though she was still in the library, she could see nothing but darkness even just inches in front of her face. She felt around and set the book down on the table and felt the power in room swell around her. Whatever inhabited this island was now surrounding her and it was not happy...

She could feel the anger in the air itself as the shadows swirled around her. “Pareisaadyon...” A mix of voices whispered that word. Over and over again as the shadows seemed to press in closer to her. Lathiira stepped away from the table where the book lay but the darkness didn’t lift. She tried walking a bit further but the whispered word continued.

“Pareisaadyon!”

Lathiira stopped in her tracks. If whatever it was had a voice, then it might have been speaking to her. So there was a chance it could be reasoned with.

“Hello?” Lathiira said. “Whoever is there... please. I mean no harm. I only came here in pursuit of knowledge. I seek nothing more from this place. We do not need to do anything rash...”

The whispers spoke again. “Isiichryosi... mageiilata... xenozimiju...”

“Listen, I can help you,” Lathiira said, not exactly sure that she could. But perhaps an offering of peace would be enough to appease the anger of this... dark cloud. “I am a bardic mage with centuries of my own knowledge. I may yet be able to help restore this place. It’s clear people used to live here. What curse afflicts you, friends?”

“Palaiosevecs... Pareisaadyon!”

The anger still in the whispers told Lathiira all she needed to know. Whether they could understand her or not, she made sure her tone remained soft and friendly while speaking. But it seemed her words, whether understood or not, combined with her tone did nothing to appease the whispering voice.

“I offer help. Please. We need not-mmmmpphh!” Something soft, like a cloth, was forced into her mouth from nowhere while another covered her mouth very quickly and tightly pressed against her mouth. In an instant, she felt something else, heavy and metal, snap closed around her neck and she began to feel weak.

The collar that attached to her seemed to be sapping all of her magic and blocking any use of her spells. But when she tried to reach up to it, something pulled her wrists behind her back and she found them stuck together by a coil of rope in less than a second. From there, the darkness pressed in tighter and Lathiira hardly remembered what happened from there.

Ropes were lashed around her upper arms, framing her chest, and pulled tight to pin them to her sides. More of the rope bound her at the ankles, calves, and two places on her thighs. In an instant, Lathiira was gone from the library and the shadows lifted, leaving no trace that the bard had even been there. Even the book she had looked at was placed back where it belonged on the shelf.

Everything fell silent as the heavy wooden doors slammed shut outside the library and the whistling wind was all that remained from where the elf had once been...

...

“Finally!” Lanala said when she found herself in the middle of a giant library after much work to break through the magical block and fight her way through her transportation. Though her heart sank when she realized she was the only one there.

“Damn it... Am I too late?”

Her answer came when the shadows surrounded her again and began their whispers. She heard them loud and clear as they cursed her family name.

“Sihira... Immortal blood... Banished!”

Lanala concentrated hard and focussed everything she had on the surrounding shadows, choosing to snap her fingers to make them dissipate. That usually truncated any magic she would pull off. For a moment, the darkness lifted and Lanala sighed with relief. But in an instant they were back, darker than before, and Lanala felt... strange. She could no longer keep focus. The power within her, though it was still there... it felt like it was getting weaker.

“What... what’s happening!?”

“Sihira... Daughter of the Immortal... Banished!”

Lanala gritted her teeth and did everything she could regain focus but she could no longer draw on all her power. It was as though she was being cut off from it.

“I can’t... I feel weak...” she said to herself. “What are they doing to me!?”

Soon enough, though she could still feel the power within her, it was as though it had been locked away and sealed. And now the whispers finally spoke in more complete sentences.

“Daughter of the Immortal... one with the blood of the banished empress... as long as you set foot in Mageia, your power is lost to you. Just as your mother before you, it is locked away from within. For her curse that afflicts us all... you are banished!”

Before she could even think of something else to try, her old power of lightning magic, anything, she felt a cloth forced into her open mouth and another sealing it away inside. The familiar feeling of ropes quickly lashing around her wrists, crossing and binding them behind her back, took over from there. Her legs were tied at the ankles, calves and thighs. Her arms pinned to her sides by ropes that went over them and her chest, framing it tightly.

Once again, like her last visit to the island, she was carried off someplace. Though this time, the power within her was not threatening to consume her mind. It didn’t leave her somewhere dark, like in that tower, but she was instead transported to a cell.

The marble building was immaculate and she could see the outside from within. Though steel bars obscured her vision from the cell she was now placed within, she could see an open doorway in front of her. The building she was within looked ornate, much like the rest of the city of Langiit, though it was a temple by all appearances. Celia told me about this place Lanala thought to herself. This is where she was held...

“Mmmph!” a muffled voice brought Lanala out of her thoughts and back to reality. She realized then that she wasn’t alone and someone had been trying to get her attention.

Looking to her left, Lanala’s eyes went wide when she saw who the voice belonged to. The beautiful blonde woman, with the pointed ears, the sharp green eyes, the strange magical hairpin... she was the one from her dream. So she had been captured after all.

“Whmm mmr ymmm?” the woman asked, furrowing her brow at the sudden appearance of a second captive.

The woman didn’t look old, short of three decades by her count, though Lathiira felt incredible power emanating from this pin-haired woman. She was certainly an unusual person by all appearances. Bright, orange eyes, the pink hair, the caramel skin and her rather revealing black attire... she wasn’t quite like anyone Lathiira had encountered before. But the power coming from this woman was obvious. Though something felt... off about it. Like there was a seal on it for some reason.

The two captive woman stared at each other for a while, wondering just how it was that they both found themselves in this mess. Lanala, upon looking at the woman, could feel more of the strange magic coming from her rather than just the hairpin. Though she could tell from the collar around her neck that it was being suppressed as well. Whoever she was, this woman had clearly come to Mageia for a reason. And the protectors of Langiit, as they had before, did not take kindly to her sudden appearance in their city.

Both women seemed to be working out her own suspicions about the other. Why would she be here when no one else was? What brought her here? In any case, both decided that if they were both attacked by the shadows and being held captive... they were on the same side. At least at the moment.

“Mmmnnmm knmmmtphh?” Lathiira asked, trying her best to communicate with the powerful woman bound and gagged beside her.

She could try to reach out to the woman’s mind but the collar on her neck... it just suppressed everything. Clearly whoever had restrained her was used to dealing with powerful magic users.

Lanala tried her best to understand what the woman had said but she just couldn’t figure it out. She tried to speak back. “Wmmt dmmd ymm smmm?”

Lathiira, whether through her own training or otherwise, was no stranger to finding herself tied up, gagged, and trying desperately to communicate with a fellow captive. So she had a perhaps more honed ear than most when trying to understand words through a gag.

She did her best to enunciate her words. “Cmnnn. Ymm. Fmmnnnd. Mmnnym. Knmmttphh?”

Lanala understood the words ‘find’ and ‘knots’ from the woman’s gagged speech and figured out what she was trying to say. She just shook her head.

“Thmmph rmmpmph dmmnnt hmmf mmnnmm knmmtphh,” she said simply.

Lathiira just sighed and tested her bonds. She had been searching, of course, but the woman beside her was right. There were no knots to be had on these ropes.

“Mmf cmmrmmph...” Lathiira said. She shuffled over to her fellow captive, saying nothing, and tried gesturing with her hands. She reached up as high as her bonds would allow and motioned toward the other woman’s face.

Lanala realized what she wanted and shuffled herself forward, leaning down toward the woman’s hands and pressing her face as close as possible to her.

With some effort, Lathiira just about got a grip on the cloth gagging the woman beside her and pulled it down from her face. It hung loosely around her neck while Lanala used her tongue to spit out the wad of cloth still in there. She took in a deep breath and worked a tired jaw a bit.

“Thank you...” she said. Lanala shuffled herself as well, turning until her back was to the blonde woman and bent low as she had, trying to reach up. “Let me get yours off too.”

Lathiira had to shuffle in her bonds as well, finally managing to turn around and press her face close to the other captive’s hands before she felt the cloth pulled down from her mouth and hanging around her neck as well. Forcing the cloth out of her mouth, she sat up and leaned against the bars, a bit worn out from the struggle.

“Thanks,” she said, taking in several deep breaths.

Lanala shuffled around again to face the woman and they were finally face to face for real. She knew by the look on her face that they both had questions in that moment but Lanala remained silent and waited for her to speak first.

“So... who are you?” Lathiira asked.

“I’d ask you the same thing... but without any answers we won’t get anywhere,” Lanala said.

“Fair point. So... mind telling me?”

“My name is Lanala. I’m um... well... a sorceress, I guess.”

“I’m Lathiira,” the blond woman said. “Bardic mage.”

Lanala furrowed her brow. “Bardic? So you sing songs of magic?”

“Something like that.”

Lanala nodded. “So what are you doing here?”

“You first,” Lathiira said.

Lanala sighed. “Fine... My... my family is from this place. I wanted to learn more. And I only came here because I dreamt about it. I saw you in the dream.”

Lathiira raised an eyebrow. “Did you now? You have prophetic dreams as well?”

“Not as much as I used to. But yes. I saw you get captured by the shadows.”

“Well, you saw right then,” Lathiira said.

“All right. Mind telling me what you’re doing here?”

“I’m not... from this world,” Lathiira said.

“I gathered that much.”

“I’m an elf, as you can see.”

“Elf? Like those fairy tales?”

“You don’t... have elves in this world? I suppose that’s not unusual. I’ve been to many where we are simply folk tales.”

“Still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here,” Lanala said.

“I live in a city full of... well, portals. Doors. Gateways to other worlds. I travel to many places. And I found a new one that opened and this strange, powerful magic I haven’t felt before. As a seeker of knowledge, I had to know what it was, what it’s source was, and possible even learn how to harness that power.”

“So you came here because... it was interesting?”

Lathiira chuckled slightly and nodded to herself. “I suppose, if you put it that way... yes. We came here for similar reasons, though yours sound much more personal.”

“They are.”

“And did you find anything?”

“Not much. Not before the shadows found me. What about you?”

“I don’t know the language so I had to do what I could to translate it through context... needless to say, I didn’t get far before I was caught by the shadows. What are they, anyway? I heard voices whispering... were they people once?”

“I think so. I’m not entirely sure myself. This place was cursed a long time ago by.... someone very powerful.”

“I see... and you know who this person is?”

“Well um... does it matter?”

“I suppose not. What matters now is how we get out of this place. Speaking of... I felt your power. It’s perhaps stronger even than mine and I don’t run into that very often.”

“No luck there... I don’t know what they did but I guess it has to do with my bloodline. My family... came from this place. And I suppose they know how to seal away the power inside me and prevent me from using it.”

“I could sense a seal of some sort. So then... any chance of escape the old fashioned way?”

“Not from me, unfortunately,” Lanala said. “I never was much good at untying myself. It’s happened often enough.”

"Same for me. I'm usually pretty skilled at this, but without my magic, it'll take some time to work my way out of this. If I even can without knots I can untie...."

“I get your point. We’re stuck then.”

“It would seem so,” Lathiira said.

Lanala took in a breath and closed her eyes. “Hang on... I’m going to try something.”

“Something? Like what?”

“I’ve been here once before. This power, before I contained it, had a mind of its own. It threatened to consume me. And it told me things about this place. Said it was ‘mine by birthright’ or something. So maybe something within it, somewhere, will listen to me.”

“Listen to you... how?”

“I don’t know... but if I concentrate and try to connect with it in my mind... it’s all I can think to try.”

“By all means, try,” Lathiira said. “If it’s all we’ve got...”

Lanala tried to draw on her energy but it failed, of course, as the seal blocked off the power within her. But she reached out with her mind anyway, picturing her Dosette bedroom and concentrating on it while calling out to... something. The island. Mageia. Langiit. If she could command it, maybe it could send them back to Esterlin.

The thoughts came slow at first and nothing happened for quite some time. Lathiira watched Lanala as she leaned back against the bars and kept her eyes shut, concentrating hard. Finally, the world seemed to shift and Lathiira saw the sky outside blink from blue to black and back again.

“I think it’s working...” Lathiira said.

Lanala didn’t answer, instead now putting all of her thoughts on her fellow captive and her bedroom back in Dosette. The island, Mageia, Langiit... they were listening. The power of the place was at her command. In her mind, she asked the power to take her and Lathiira back to Dosette... and felt a warm sensation come over her body. It stayed with her, comfortable and familiar, for quite some time before it dissipated and she opened her eyes.

She was still tightly tied up, as was Lathiira beside her, but now they were sitting together on her bed in the royal palace of Dosette.

“Well...” Lathiira said. “I suppose that worked. Where are we now?”

“Home. Well, one of them,” Lanala said. “For me, anyway.”

“You... live here? What are you, some kind of baroness?”

“I’m um... I’m a princess here, actually. And my wife should be back soon. She’s a princess in this world, too. It’s a long story...”

“I can only imagine,” Lathiira said. “Though I do enjoy a good tale.”

“I’m sure you do. But you’re the storyteller, what with your ‘bardic mage’ business. I am no storyteller.”

Lathiira shrugged into her bonds, feeling rather comfortable and the soft, wide bed sitting beside Lanala. “So... now what?”

“Um... at least we’re out of that place?”

“And you didn’t use that power to untie us?”

“It was hard to concentrate. I could only think of one thing at a time. So... I guess we wait for Artema to come back.”

“Artema?”

“My wife. She’ll help us out.”

“Well I’m eager to meet her then, if only to get out of these ropes....” Lathiira thought for a moment about some things Lanala had said. “So... this happens to you often, does it?”

“What?”

“Getting tied up like this.”

“Well, it did for a while. And my wife and I, we practice on each other all the time. And not always for, um... training purposes.”

Lathiira smiled. “I can understand that. It can be a... sensuous experience. I often do the same with a woman I know.”

“So your... girlfriend?”

“I suppose.”

“And what about you? You seemed to say that you found yourself tied up a lot.” Lanala said.

“I do. It can be relaxing. And quite fun, in the right circumstances. But I’m usually better at escaping than this. Especially with my magic, though I don’t like to rely on it too much.

“Oh, me too. These days I can just make the restraints fall off me with nothing but a thought. Though I try not to do that with Artema. Especially when we’re having fun. Speaking of...”

Lanala went silent and tried to snap her fingers behind her back.

“What are you doing?”

“I um... I like to snap when I use my power. It’s... well, it’s satisfying.”

“I see. But why would you try? Isn’t the seal still on it?”

“It shouldn’t be. They said as long as I set foot in Mageia... oh.”

“What?”

“I thought I’d be able to get to my power again once I was back home. But these ropes... they’re from Mageia. So they’re keeping the seal on my power.”

“Ah. So we are stuck then,” Lathiira said.

“Seems so.”

Lathiira sighed and leaned back on one of Lanala’s soft pillow. “I suppose I’ve been in worse situations. Though I have a... history with the bedrooms of princesses.”

Lanala furrowed her brow. “That doesn’t sound good...”

“It wasn’t...” Lathiira said. “But I got out of it. This, by contrast, is infinitely more pleasant. For one, you’re pleasant to speak to. And not trying to use my power in any way.”

“Well I’m glad you think so,” Lanala said. “I have to admit, things have certainly been worse for me, too. I’m just happy I’m not tied up in leather and chains this time.”

“You don’t like those?”

“I was locked in this prison once. One of the scariest times of my life. Almost got turned into some kind of statue.”

“An actual statue?”

“That was the plan until... I discovered my real power that day.”

“I wouldn’t mind hearing that story,” Lathiira said.

“Ah, it’s not that great. Most of my old stories are about how much I’ve been captured, locked up, imprisoned, tied up...”

Lathiira chuckled. “I can relate. I can’t even count how many times all those exact things have happened to me.”

“Me neither,” Lanala said, chuckling herself. “Say... you ever been locked inside a giant, walking set of enchanted armour?”

“That happened to you?”

“Chained up and stuck in the back of it like a prison cell. That wasn’t too far from here, actually. Right in this world.”

“Sounds unpleasant...”

“I didn’t enjoy it, no.”

“Well I was once almost a sacrfice for a dragon,” Lathiira said. “Didn’t much like that one, I’ll tell you.”

“A dragon? Really? None of the worlds I’ve been to even have dragons. Though where we all originally came from, they used to exist, apparently. Their spells are still around to this day but whatever happened to them is wiped from our history.”

“Strange...” Lathiira said. “So you’ve never seen one?”

“I don’t think I want to. They don’t sound pleasant.”

“Well this one wasn’t. I even spoke to it. That didn’t stop it from wanting to roast me alive, though.”

“Like I said... They don’t sound pleasant,” Lanala said.

The two women chuckled as they reminisced on the strange things they seemed to have in common. Lanala heard a bit about people Lathiira knew, like Kate the huntress or Isari, her apprentice... though she seemed a bit reluctant to talk about her.

Lanala told Lathiira about the Order of Ikaatan and the Weston Agency and her friends and how much they, too, had been in similar predicaments. But Lathiira noticed how much Lanala’s eyes lit up when she spoke about her wife, Artema. It was such a sweet sight to see someone so in love, and Lathiira smiled at Lanala’s genuine love for the woman she described to Lathiira as an ‘Amazonian Goddess.’

“So... big, strong and beautiful then?” Lathiira asked.

“Yeah...” Lanala said with a dreamy sigh. “She’s the best.”

The heard a thud in the room outside as a door was closed and Lanala smiled wide. “Speaking of her... I think she’s here.”

“Good. It’s been fun but my arms and legs are getting sore,” Lathiira said.

Artema called out to Lanala from the outer chambers. “Lanala? I’m back. Where are you?”

“We’re in here!” Lanala said.

“We?” Artema said as she approached the bedroom and pushed the door open.

Lathiira was quite impressed with the woman standing in the doorway. Broad shoulders, thick muscles, a shapely, feminine figure, bright purple hair, strong green eyes and an authoritative voice... she had the makings of a legendary warrior, for sure.

“What in the... who is this?” Artema asked, her intense gaze falling upon the blonde woman on Lanala’s bed. “What the hell have you been doing, Lanala? And why are you both tied up?”

“Oh Artema... get that thought out of your head!” Lanala said. “I went back to Langiit.”

Artema sighed. “Lanala...”

“I know it’s dangerous but I had a dream, I saw her get captured in it, and I’ve been dying to find out about that place.”

Artema took a wide stance and folded her arms. “So... you two got captured. And you can’t escape why?”

“They.... put a seal on my power.”

“And I could escape as well,” Lathiira said. “With my magic. If this collar wasn’t on my neck.”

“That’s another thing... who are you?”

“I am Lathiira. I’ve just been having a lovely conversation with your wife since we arrived. She got us back here from that city.”

“I see...”

“I’m honoured to meet you,” Lathiira said.

Artema relaxed her stance a bit when it was clear her paranoid suspicions had proven false. “Likewise, then,” Artema said. “I’m Artema. Though, this is a strange circumstance to be meeting new people.”

“No argument here,” Lathiira said.

Lanala smiled sweetly at her wife. “Do you think you could untie us, my darling, sweet, wonderful bride?”

“Don’t try to butter me up. You know I’ve warned about going back there. I told you it was dangerous, even for you. It’s where your power came from. Don’t you think they know how to use it even better than you do?”

“I do... now,” Lanala said.

“And you... what the hell were you doing there?” Artema asked, turning to Lathiira.

“Well I... I came across this portal and it felt different and I wanted to find out about the magic of the place-”

“So you were snooping in a dangerous place too. Without even understanding what might happen?”

“I suppose you could say that.”

Artema said nothing and crossed the room, opening a drawer and pulling out a pair of soft cloths.

“Artema...” Lanala said.

“This calls for a lesson,” Artema said. She reached toward her wife and stuffed the cloth into her mouth, pulling the one around her neck up over her mouth again.

“Hmmmph!?”

“Maybe this will teach you how to escape properly,” Artema said. “And I think a little while longer won’t hurt. It ought to teach you what might happen if you charge in recklessly to places, unprepared.”

Lanala sighed. “Mmmpphh...”

“You too,” Artema said, walking around the bed to the side Lathiira was sitting on. “You’re in our domain now. I don’t know where you came from but I’m sure this could be a teachable moment for you.”

“I don’t know about what I’ll learn, exactly,” Lathiira said. “At my age, there isn’t much left to teach me.”

“However old you are...” Artema said, looking at Lathiira’s pointed ears. “I need to impress upon you, too, what it means to go to strange places unprepared.”

“So you’re just going to leave us here?”

“For a few hours, yes. Then I’ll let you out. I’m sure Lanala can help you get back to wherever it is you came from by then.”

Lathiira shrugged as far as her bonds would allow. “Not a terrible arrangement. It might prove quite relaxing, actually.”

Artema rolled her eyes. “Whatever, just open up.”

Lathiira did as the mighty woman asked and accepted the cloth in her mouth as the one around her neck was pulled tight over her mouth again. “I don’t want to hear any complaining from either of you. I’m going to have a drink and relax for a while. Use this time to think, meditate, whatever. I don’t really care. I’ll be back.”

Artema left the room and shut the door behind her. Lanala and Lathiira could only look at each other and laugh into their gags. It wasn’t exactly how they had thought it would turn out but, considering they weren’t exactly uncomfortable, the two bound and gagged women could stand a few more hours of each other’s company. Even if conversation would be difficult with the gags on, they could always find a way to remove them again now that Artema wasn’t looking.

For the moment, however, they both just leaned back on the bed and closed their eyes. Even though they were still tightly tied up and freshly gagged again... it was rather pleasant. Rather than take in Artema’s scolding, the pair of them chose instead to enjoy the moment before they would struggle and get their gags off again. Until then, it was time to relax.

Story Theme Song: Rush- La Villa Strangiato