The boys exchanged looks. "You think there's something in our history that links the worlds?" Parmo said slowly.

  "It's possible," Shai said. "But I don't know enough about your world to say."

  Lee's eyes widened slightly. "Wait. The message. The one about magic reawakening. It said reawakened, not awakened. Which sounds like magic existed before, on Earth, in our past."

  Shai nodded slowly. "Then magic and these races likely existed in your world's history as well. Something must have happened. Maybe an event that wiped them out or changed the world in some way?"

  "That's something we can figure out if we get back. It's interesting but other than that it doesn't help our current situation." Paul said quietly.

  Shai's head tilted slightly. "Well on that point, you said you learned this magic in a day?"

  "Through the UI," Ste said. "Once we cast a spell the first time, it locks into the UI like a spellbook. We can cast it instantly after that instead of the longer method. We were out here trying to figure out how to make them stronger, work better, give us more control."

  "That shouldn't be possible," Shai said quietly. "In the empire, mages are selected as children and trained in schools for years. Knowledge is gated by the nobles, the church and those in other powerful positions. Magic knowledge does get passed down but unless you're someone with an important family, it takes a long time to get stronger or to have better control. To do it in a day is miraculous."

  "That may be true," Paul said. "But we're learning from scratch with no guidelines. We have no idea what we're doing. If we had guidance then yeah I can see why it would be OP."

  "OP?" asked Shai.

  "Yeah sorry, OP means overpowered. It's a gaming term. Kind of like abusing a method to get strong quick or being way more powerful than anyone else."

  "Oh, okay. Well regardless," Shai said. "You also said this UI improved you? Better strength and fitness?"

  "Healed injuries too," Lee said. "Paul's leg was badly damaged. It's fine now."

  Shai was quiet for a moment, her tail moving in slow, deliberate swings. "This UI is an incredible tool if you can figure out how it works fully then the potential is limitless." She paused for a moment before continuing. "If it's improved your bodies and your strength, what about survival? Can it help you find food? Store supplies?"

  "We can store things in it," Liam said. "We discovered that early on, with clothes, food, that sort of thing. We also found that we could store the goblin when it died." His face paled slightly before he took a breath and moved on. "It just disappeared. We can put things away and pull them out later."

  "Yes I saw Lee do that," said Shai as Lee smiled a little and looked away. "That is another thing that shouldn't really be possible but we can discuss that later."

  "It is useful but it can't create food," Paul added. "We have food left from what we brought with the town but it's running out faster than we'd like. We can try hunting and are already fishing but we still need to figure out what's safe to eat."

  Shai nodded. "Then you'll need help. A town your size can't survive on hunting and fishing alone. How many people are we talking about?"

  "Around three thousand," Parmo said. "Give or take. I think so far we're the only people that have ventured out of town. Like Paul mentioned we have people over at the marina doing the fishing but no one has tried hunting or foraging yet. We could try farming but that's more of a long term fix and with what's out there, it's a risk."

  Shai was quiet for a moment, her ears flicked back slightly. "Three thousand is a lot. My village has people who raise animals for sustainable food, and there are plants in the forest that are safe to eat. We can teach you what to look for, what to prepare. But gathering outside your town is risky." She turned and pointed north through the forest. "The Wilds start just beyond the border. That's where the real danger is."

  "You mentioned the Wilds before," Lee said. "What are they?"

  "A frontier of chaos," Shai said simply. "Where the Empire's control ends. Creatures live there that will kill you without hesitation. Not just goblins, there are things there that are far worse. Monsters that hunt in packs, old beings with strange magic of their own, creatures we don't even have names for. The Wilds are unpredictable and unforgiving." She paused. "That's why border villages exist. We're here to hold the line, to keep those things from spilling into civilised lands."

  "So we're right on the edge of that," Paul said quietly.

  "You are," Shai confirmed. "Which means you need to be careful. But there's another threat you should know about. The Empire." She looked at them directly. "If the Empire finds out about your town before you can stand on your own feet, they'll move in. They'll want to recruit your people, conscript your mages, by force if need be. They'll want to understand this UI of yours. If they realise what you have, what you know, they won't leave you alone."

  "What would they do?" Liam asked.

  "Control you," Shai said. "Exploit you. Your knowledge, your technology, your magic, all of it becomes theirs. The Empire takes what it wants from those it deems useful. And a town with three thousand people and access to magic they don't understand? You'd be very useful to them."

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  The boys were quiet. The weight of what Shai had just told them settled heavy in the clearing.

  Shai noticed their silence. She shifted slightly, her tail moving in slower swings. "What sort of weapons do you have? For defence, for when things come at you from the Wilds?"

  "Nothing really," Paul said quietly. "If we were still on Earth and the government was involved, the town would be able to get the army and their guns. If this was America we wouldn't even need the army. But yeah, no swords or anything like that."

  Shai tilted her head. "I don't know what guns are, but how can a town have no swords or anything to protect themselves? For that matter, why are there no walls?" She paused, looking toward the town. "I suppose if this part of town is originally from a central region of your original town that might make sense."

  The boys exchanged looks—not pity or confusion, but something closer to disbelief at the question itself.

  "Our planet hasn't used swords for a few hundred years," Liam said slowly. "We don't have walls because they'd be pointless. Guns, tanks, missiles that can be fired accurately from hundreds of miles away. Walls can't stop that sort of thing."

  Shai went very still. Her ears rotated back, then forward. "From hundreds of miles away? And accurately?"

  "Yeah," Lee said. "They're weapons. Long-range weapons."

  Shai was quiet for a long moment, processing the implications. Weapons that could strike from a distance so vast you couldn't even see the target. Accuracy from hundreds of miles away. Her mind struggled to imagine the scale of power that represented.

  Lee continued. "Imagine a bow that fires arrows smaller than your finger, at a speed you can't see with your eyes. They can shoot fast enough to fire maybe 500 times a minute. No need to draw the bow string, just point and squeeze your finger. No need for anywhere near as much time on the range either. That's a gun. You could have 20 men with swords and full armour versus one man with a gun. The man with the gun would win most of the time depending on range, their skill and the type of gun."

  "Yeah," Parmo agreed. "Tanks are worse. I imagine you have catapults for sieges right? Well a tank is kind of like that, except it can travel faster than a horse and instead of rocks it fires ammunition that can blow holes in like 30 inches of steel. It's also fully armoured and the crew can load it without having to leave the protection that armour offers."

  "And there are things that make those look like children's toys in comparison," Ste added quietly.

  Shai's expression had gone very still. Her tail had stopped moving entirely. When she spoke, her voice was quieter than before. "Your world didn't just advance past swords. You created weapons that render everything I know about warfare obsolete."

  Shai was quiet for a long moment after the boys finished talking. Her ears had rotated forward again, her tail beginning to move in slow, graceful swings.

  "Your town can't survive on its own," she said finally. "Not out here. Not so close to the border, or if the Empire finds out you exist." She looked at each of them in turn. "My village can help you. We can teach you what's safe to hunt and gather. We can help you build defences, understand the Wilds, stay hidden from the Empire's notice. We can offer your people training if that's something you would like. But this isn't a decision I can make alone."

  "What do you mean?" Paul asked.

  "I need to speak to my elders," Shai said. "The village council. They'll want to meet with your leaders, understand what we're committing to. If we're going to help your town survive, we need to know who we're working with and what that looks like." She paused. "But I'm going back to them with a recommendation. Your people need our help, and we have reasons to want you to succeed."

  Lee nodded slowly. "We'll tell Mike. He's the one making decisions for the town right now. We can set up a meeting."

  "How long will that take?" Shai asked.

  "To get back and tell him? We can do that today," Liam said. "A meeting with you and the elders? That would take longer to organise."

  "Tomorrow then," Shai said. "I'll return tomorrow with word from my elders. We can arrange the details then."

  Lee took a breath. "Tomorrow works. But we need to make sure we're meeting at the right time. How do your people track time?"

  Shai tilted her head slightly. "We have a village bell. It rings every hour starting at sunrise til sunset."

  "We measure time differently," Paul said. "We use hours and minutes. We have watches that show us what time it is."

  Lee unclasped his watch and removed it from his wrist. Behind him, the other boys shifted back slightly and kept quiet. An unspoken nudge. Lee didn't notice, but Shai's ears flicked forward as she caught the movement.

  Lee held the watch out toward Shai. She took it carefully, turning it over in her hands. Her ears flicked as she examined the face, watching the hands move.

  "How does it work?" she asked.

  "The numbers around the edge mark the hours," Lee explained. "There are 24 hours in a day, but the watch face only shows 12. So the hands go around twice before a full day passes. When both hands return to where they started, that's 24 hours. One full day." He pointed to the numbers on the face. "We're meeting at eleven tomorrow. When the small hand points here and the big hand points here."

  Shai studied the watch, nodding slowly.

  "The days here seem about the same length as on Earth," Lee continued. "And since all our watches are set the same, as long as you arrive when the watch shows eleven, we'll both know it's synchronised."

  Shai nodded, committing it to memory. "Eleven. I'll be here."

  She handed the watch back, but Lee shook his head. "Keep it. It's a gift. You didn't need to step out from the trees or to offer support and information. You've helped us so much already." He smiled. "Plus you'll need it to make sure you get here for eleven."

  Shai closed her fingers around the watch carefully, as if it might break under her grip. She looked at Lee for a moment, then nodded once. "Thank you. I'll take good care of it."

  She turned west, back in the direction of her village. The boys watched as she took a few steps, then paused and looked back.

  "Stay close to your town," she said. "Don't venture into the forest if you don't have to. There shouldn't be a reason for the empire to come here but keep an eye out for anyone you see nearby. I'll be back tomorrow, there shouldn't be anyone else from one of the border villages coming by, you're right on the coast so we're your closest neighbour."

  "We'll be careful," Liam said.

  Shai nodded, then turned and ran back towards the trees. Her movements were fast and agile, within moments, she was swallowed by the shadows between the trees.

  The boys stood in the clearing for a moment, waiting until she disappeared before any of them spoke.

  "Well," Paul said finally. "Quite the day."

  "Yeah man, what the fuck just happened?" Parmo said then let out a long, deep breath. "We need to tell Mike everything."

  Lee was still looking at the spot where Shai had disappeared into the forest, the watch in her hands a tangible reminder that this wasn't a dream.

  "Come on," Liam said, turning back toward town. "We've got a lot to explain."

  The boys turned and headed back toward the barricade. Behind them, the forest was quiet again. Ahead of them lay explanations, decisions, and the beginning of something neither world had expected.