I react immediately, stepping forward to grab the falling man. It’s only as I lower him carefully to the ground that I realise how the situation might look – and that there’s a man holding a sword just in front of me.

  Moving slowly so as not to startle him any more than we already have, I lay Nicholas down onto the ground, making sure his head doesn’t crack against the tiled floor. Then I shift backwards even as I straighten. I keep my magic at the ready – if the other guy lunges for me, I’ll defend myself. But I don’t want to provoke anything.

  It seems like the man isn’t spoiling for a fight either. The tip of his sword follows my movement, a slight tremble visible in the way it shifts, but he doesn’t attack. When I step back from Nicholas, he matches my movement, stepping forwards to stand over the other man protectively. Is he Nicholas’ bodyguard or something? He has that sword but isn’t wearing any armour – though what do I know about this world’s fashion? For all I know, normal clothes can be enchanted to be as good as plate armour.

  He’s reasonably tall, with perhaps an inch or so on me. He’s also broad-shouldered and fairly muscular, though I suspect that I would be able to take him – living in a primitive forest for a year has put muscles on me that I’ve never realised I could sport, and that’s even without my increased Strength stat. Of course, with Classes coming into play now, appearances might be deceptive. If he has a hundred in Strength, for example, even if split equally between Endurance and Power, I’m unlikely to stand a chance in a physical battle.

  But hopefully it won’t come to that. My Bound will support me – eagerly – but if we can avoid a fight in the first half an hour in this world, that would be good. Better, in fact, than my last trans-world travel experience. In the interests of peace, I consider that making a gesture of amicability might be a good idea.

  I indicate the man lying on the ground with a nod so as not to seem threatening in any way.

  “I’m a healer,” I say soothingly. “Maybe let me take a look at him? Check he’s OK?” His eyes are still closed but I can see he’s breathing and his heart rate felt fine albeit slightly elevated when I was touching him a moment ago. It’s still worth checking him out.

  The blond-haired man’s grip tightens on his sword and his posture shifts to be even more defensive. His eyes flicker around the room, probably identifying all of my companions and obviously recognising them as the threat they might be. His cautious eyes hold no understanding of my words.

  Dismay fills me as I realise that the garbled nature of Nicholas’ words wasn’t just some sort of disorientation from the gate. They speak another language here – of course, they do – and this man cannot understand it when I speak.

  Perhaps Animal Empathy could help me here? It helped with the samurans and I surely know more about humans than lizard-people?

  “Can you understand me?” I try. The other man narrows his eyes, his expression unreadable. He hesitantly says something, and once more I have the impression that I should understand it. But I don’t. Even when I try to use Animal Empathy to help me, all it does is highlight just how scared the man is. He’s on the edge of fleeing in fear of his life, but he refuses to do so while Nicholas is in danger. Which makes him more akin to a cornered rat than anything else. But he’s clearly not so frightened that he cannot interpret anything going on around him.

  Everyone relax a little. I don’t think we’re about to be attacked, and if we’re too tense, we might cause the fight which we want to avoid.

  I sense more than see my companions following my instructions. Even Kalanthia chooses to stay where she is rather than starting to explore as I can feel she wants to. She’s keyed up too, more uneasy than any of the others. Hints drifting through the Bond indicate that the surroundings are familiar enough to past memories to cause her to feel restless and to put her on edge. Out of everyone, she’s the one I’m most worried about starting the fight accidentally.

  Aingeal is the one I’m least concerned about – the fire elemental is tucked into my collar in his smallest form, actively dimming his light as far as it will go. It was the best way to bring him through the Gateway, I figured, and since I don’t know how fire elementals are considered in this world, I reckon it’s best for him to stay there for now.

  Perhaps reacting to the reduced air of threat which my companions are offering, the bodyguard relaxes just a touch. He still has his sword pointed towards me; he’s still standing guard over Nicholas. But he no longer looks a hair away from trying to run me through. Good.

  For the first time, I can actually take in what lies around me. There are no other people, just the unconscious Nicholas and the conscious blond guy holding a sword. We’re in a big, empty room. The floor is tiled with patterned white squares; the walls are panelled in a dark-coloured wood. The ceiling is far above my head, the roof held up with arched A-frames. It’s at least three stories tall.

  I risk a glance behind me. The gate must have appeared on top of that slightly raised dais that covers the final section of the hall – perhaps taking up about a quarter of it. There’s a small door which leads off from the dais but the main doors appear to be in front of me – behind the blond bodyguard.

  My Bound haven’t moved much – they’re still in a semi-circle around where the gate was, facing outwards. Kalanthia is crouched in one spot – probably where she stepped through. Lathani is next to her, teeth bared defensively. The raptorcats and samurans are hovering behind me, clearly doing their best to seem relaxed, but not succeeding very well. The rest of my Companions are looking around the rest of the hall suspiciously. The exception is Sirocco who has perched on one of the A-frames above and has a literal bird’s-eye view on the events.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  I can hear noises coming from somewhere else, Bastet informs me when I reach out to my Companions for their own impressions. We are not alone here. She sounds tense about that, and I don’t blame her. It’s much as I expected, though.

  This is a human dwelling, Kalanthia rumbles with a strong hint of discomfort. I can smell many of them. I do not like being trapped in this space. I feel just how much of an understatement that is.

  Just keep calm, I urge them all, sending reassurance to Kalanthia in particular. I’ll get this sorted out, I promise. Which starts with figuring out a way to communicate.

  Mime is a tried and tested way of getting meaning across when two people don’t share the same language, but at the same time, it’s limited in what it can communicate. I could probably get across the need for some water or food, but whether I can indicate my offer of healing, or then pass along any information I discover while checking Nicholas out, is another question. And both communicating our own lack of hostile intentions and seeking the blond guy’s promise of peace on behalf of himself and Nicholas is probably out of the realms of possibility too. For all I know, waving a white flag could be a declaration of war in this place.

  I try nonetheless, but my prediction turns out to be unfortunately accurate – the other man doesn’t seem to understand what I’m trying to get across, and every attempt to get closer to Nicholas just results in the blond stiffening and regaining that air of threat.

  It’s more than a bit frustrating. I didn’t really know what to expect from this new world, but my summoner suddenly collapsing definitely didn’t feature on the list of possibilities. I suspect that blondie is just as perturbed by Nicholas’ sudden collapse as I am – he doesn’t seem to know what to do except for standing over Nicholas and protecting him. He hasn’t called for help, though – why, I don’t know. That would honestly be my first reflex unless I was somewhere hostile. But that seems unlikely.

  And maybe that’s fine if Nicholas is only going to be out of it for a short time and then wake up and figure out a way for us to communicate. But it’s already been a few minutes since he collapsed – what if it takes hours for him to recover? We can’t continue this standoff, not for that long. And what if there’s something seriously wrong with him? He might have an internal bleed for all I know and be haemorrhaging to death right now. And if he never wakes up, then what? I can tell he’s alive right now – he’s breathing, at least. But who knows how long that will be the case? No, I need to be able to communicate with blondie.

  I sigh. There’s one easy answer, assuming it works. But I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I was able to pull the samurans into a Battle of Wills without an issue, and they’re just as sapient as humans. Surely the System doesn’t differentiate between humans and everyone else? Not that I’d attempt to actually Bind him – all I want to do is open a line of clear communication, and the Battle of Wills can offer that. I have the distinct feeling that I would really start this whole thing off on the wrong foot if I Bound Nicholas’ bodyguard as my first action in this new world. But if I just pull the guy into the grey space to talk to him, much as I did with Kalanthia when she was trying to kill me that time….

  Of course, it’s also possible that this guy has some sort of protection against that – Nicholas is the one to give me the Tamer Class. He should know what its capabilities are. Trying might actually provoke that fight we both seem to want to avoid. But what other options do I have here?

  I risk another look down at the unconscious form of Nicholas. He’s not looking great – his nut-brown skin is pale; his breathing light. And I feel my Bound and how several of them are more than a little unnerved. Given that some of them have never been inside anything but a natural cave, and none of them are used to an environment like this where there is no clear exit, I’m not surprised. Add in the completely alien sounds and smells and it’s like something out of a nightmare for them.

  It looks like trying Dominate on blondie is the only real option I have available right now. I cross my fingers and hope that there’s no enhancement or anything like that which will stop me.

  Catching the guy’s eyes is easy enough – he’s barely taken his gaze off me since Nicholas collapsed. Triggering Dominate is just as simple and fortunately it appears that if anything exists which can protect someone from being ensnared by it, this guy doesn’t have it.

  As usual, the colour leaches out of our surroundings and they blur to a grey misty space. The pressure against me is greater than I was expecting, but not unmanageable. Compared to Kalanthia, practically anything else is manageable.

  I push forward, but stop when I’ve only travelled about a third of the distance between my starting position and the figure of the blond man frozen opposite me. Already, I sense the touch of his emotions. He’s terrified. Far more than any of the others I’ve done this with. We should be able to speak well enough like this – pushing forward further is likely to be counter-productive.

  “It’s alright,” I tell him soothingly. “I’m not going to Bind you. I only want to talk.” Suspecting that he’s unlikely to believe me at face-value, I push my sincerity at him. And then I just stand still, patiently waiting for him to respond. My time here isn’t limitless, but I can sense that I have at least enough to give him a chance to calm down.

  My silent stillness seems to confuse him, and the sincerity and calm that I send him appear to encourage curiosity rather than fear. Little by little, his terror subsides, replaced by wariness instead.

  You’re not? The cautious question along with my observations so far tell me two things. That this guy knows exactly what’s going on and what I can do – and that he’s not surprised that it’s possible. The implications of those two conclusions, I’ll have to consider carefully later. But I can be sure of one thing – this guy is neither a Tamer, nor already Bound. Which raises its own questions in terms of why he’s reacting in the way he is. But that’s probably not too relevant now.

  “I’m not,” I confirm. “I have come to this world in response to Nicholas’ letter and as long as you and Nicholas deal fairly and in good will with me, then I will do the same with you. I have no desire to start a fight, and I do not believe you do either. We are clearly unable to communicate normally, which is why I pulled you into this space.”

  I see, the man responds and I sense a complex mixture of doubt and hope flickering from his side of the space.

  “Let me introduce myself. I’m Markus Wolfe.” I look expectantly at him.

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