When the door opens slowly to reveal a cautious-looking Sarran, I relax a little. My first worry was that the door had been locked – it wouldn’t have been an issue exactly, but it would have been a bad sign considering the conversation I had with the man. My second worry was that Sarran might have brought a number of guards with him, prepared to attack us. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case – the manservant is alone.

  My worries are probably more paranoid than anything else – Nicholas is the one who reached out to me and summoned me here. Considering we didn’t come out in a cage or facing an army ready to threaten us until I agreed to do whatever they wanted, I can only conclude that he wants my willing cooperation. In that case, it would be stupid of Sarran to do anything in Nicholas’ absence which might cause me to be reluctant to cooperate with whatever it is he wants from me. But people do stupid things when they’re afraid, and Sarran is still very clearly fearful of me and my Companions.

  I stand slowly and move closer to Sarran. I know it will be hopeless to try to speak to him, so I just mime walking, point to the door and then tilt my head to one side with a questioning expression on my face. Hopefully even humans on another world have similar expressions.

  He seems to understand well enough and nods in a slow, exaggerated way. I can only hope that that means ‘yes’ – I know that on Earth nodding isn’t a universal way to indicate assent. The way Sarran turns and moves back into the space beyond while leaving the door open seems to confirm my guess, though.

  “Alright, let’s go. Remember – don’t attack anyone unless they actually move to attack you first. And please try not to read a threat into someone just scratching their arse or something,” I ask everyone, trying to inject a bit of humour – despite relaxing a little bit together, with Sarran’s entrance, we’ve all gone back to being on high alert again. Which we should be – we still have no idea what’s waiting for us, really. But being too alert can also be a problem.

  Bastet and Ninja slip past me, falling into the usual scouting position, though they don’t advance very far forwards – it’s better that we stick together in this new environment. Sirocco flies down from the rafters and reduces her size to more easily manoeuvre through the doors and into the space beyond. Aingeal follows her, zipping back to hide in my collar when I ask him to. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m about to burn their house down – they might not recognise a ball of fire as a sentient being.

  I lead the rest of my Companions through, unconsciously pooling mana in my hand and holding it in tension for use. I don’t transform it into any type of magic yet, but not having to pull it from my Core will make the process just that much faster.

  We emerge through the tall and wide doors into another large space opposite another pair of tall, wide doors. These are already open, revealing the outside. I get my first glimpse of this new world and find it rather similar to what I’ve seen outside period houses in the UK on our odd visits to a National Trust place.

  A blue, cloud-spotted sky is the first thing that I see – an immediate relief. Having two moons in the other world was disorienting enough; I don’t want to think about what it would be like to have a pink sky or something. The next thing I see is an expansive driveway. Trees, bushes, and flower-beds are noticeable, but my view of the ground is a little limited from where I am. Still, I don’t see any army, just a couple of sentries standing on either side of the door. Other than them, the place seems deserted. Maybe it’s always this way or perhaps Sarran organised for everyone else to be absent while we were moving between locations.

  I drag my gaze away from what is in front of me to see what surrounds me – if I’ve learned anything from my time in the forest, it’s that threats can come from anywhere.

  We’re in a grand-looking entrance hall. It’s not covered in gold or anything, but the dark-panelled walls are carved where they’re not hung with richly-coloured tapestries. There are also statues dotted around the space because of course there are. What kind of fancy place doesn’t have statues?

  Two flights of stairs curve away from us on either side up to a mezzanine which is probably on the level of the rafters in the hall we’ve just left. I can imagine that from the front doors it’s a striking view – the stairs framing the double doors of the hall. The floor is also tiled, though it looks like natural stone rather than the pigmented tiles in the hall. Marble? If not that, something similar, from its appearance.

  The ceiling is even higher here than it was in the hall – it’s got to be the height of a four-storey or even five-storey building. Above the mezzanine, there’s another balcony, though this one has no stairs leading to it. Definitely some sort of manor, I decide. Not that I’d been expecting anything else from ‘lord’ Nicholas. Then again, given what he’d said about his family, it was possible that he’d be a lord with nothing more than his title to his name. Though I truly have no idea how all that works here – lord might not be hereditary in the way I’m expecting it to be.

  I forcibly stop my speculation in its tracks – my focus needs to be on my surroundings, on getting myself and my Companions to somewhere where we can feel more comfortable. Figuring out what Nicholas wants from me will best wait until I can actually communicate with him about it. Otherwise I’ll just be going over the same ground I’ve done countless times again – I haven’t received enough new information to make any difference.

  Using Inspect to feel out my environment and check for hidden enemies takes my breath away when the results return. I don’t see any hidden foes – though it’s possible they’re capable of cloaking themselves from my Inspect – but a rainbow of colours has revealed itself to me. There’s the usual gold which halos multiple objects around me, though it almost seems random – why this tapestry and this statue, but not that tapestry and that statue? Then there’s a touch of purple and red in various spots – I take note of those for later. But it’s the blue and green which surprise me.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The blue seems to be sunk in the walls, floor, stairs, and ceiling while the green is strongest around the spears the two sentries are holding. Looking behind me, I narrow my eyes as I realise that the spear Catch is holding has the faintest of green to it too. I’ve never noticed it before, but I suppose I might never have focussed on his spear while using Inspect. Besides, it’s very, very faint – if I hadn’t considered that it might be there, I would have probably missed it. Looking down at my own belt, I realise that my mace is not green at all but my knife is and much more strongly than Catch's spear. Could it be indicating enchantment? Or that it’s a bladed weapon?

  I’d better try to experiment later when we’re in a safer spot where pulling out a whole load of weapons and spending time looking at them isn’t an action that’s likely to start a fight.

  We advance cautiously towards the front door. As we get closer and the pleasant heat of the outside replaces the slight chill of the inside area, my field of view expands wider. By the time we’re at the doorway, the space big enough to even let Kalanthia through without needing to duck her head at all, I can see exactly what awaits us outside.

  A flight of steps leads downwards to a graceful sweep of a driveway that curves around and then disappears into a load of trees. The areas to either side of the driveway are clearly well-maintained gardens. Directly next to the driveway is mostly grass spotted with neatly-manicured bushes and trees, but one side that then flows into a rather nice-looking garden reminiscent of a private park, and the other side has a stone wall which is high enough that only the roofs of the buildings beyond can be seen. From the smell and sounds that drift over from that direction, I have to guess that there are horses, or the equivalent. A stable, then.

  Sarran leads us down the stairs. The sentries have tight grips on their spears as we pass them, but they seem determined not to move a muscle. Whether it’s because they don’t want to appear a threat to us, or because they’re fearful of provoking an attack, I’m not sure. If I had to put money on it, I would say the latter, though – although I can’t see much of their body language past their metal armour, I get the impression that they’re barely daring to breathe.

  I guess that my collection of obvious carnivores is a bit intimidating at first glance, so I suppose I can understand why they would be fearful.

  We head straight for the garden, which I’m both pleased and disappointed about. I think my Companions would feel more comfortable among the trees that the driveway disappears into, but I, personally, am interested in walking the garden. It feels a bit of a treat to be able to enter a space that’s been clearly cultivated to be beautiful after so much time in wild, natural beauty.

  Because the world I’ve left was beautiful in many ways, almost as much as it was dangerous. But seeing so many familiar things, even if it kind of feels like I’ve stepped back into a period reenactment at a National Trust or English Heritage estate, is awakening desires which I’ve kept buried for the last year. Longings to eat a meal I haven’t had to cook – and all too often also hunt – sleep in a proper bed, even if my mattress has made sleeping so much better, and stay in an actual house.

  Or, rather, mansion – that is even more evident from the outside than it was when standing inside the cavernous hall and entranceway. Nicholas’ manor house is about six storeys tall, and has two wings which stretch even further at slight angles to the main house. Not at right angles, interestingly enough.

  And then we walk deeper into the garden and I find myself distracted by my surroundings. Beautifully arranged trees, bushes, and flowers draw my eyes in all directions. I struggle to even look for threats – I’m too distracted by the contrast of shades and textures, something to look at wherever I glance. Hidden within the beds are often little statues – a creature in a tree here, a little man peeping around a trunk there, a bird perched and looking ready to fly on that branch. And sometimes the bird is actually real, as I discover when one abruptly takes flight.

  It’s almost like entering another world – the dry heat of the driveway has transformed into a cooler, more humid atmosphere. I feel several of my Companions relax a little as we’re surrounded by nature, for all that it’s carefully cultivated rather than growing wild.

  It’s also a maze – we travel through pathways that only appear as we get close to them, emerging into spaces which are separate entirely from the space where we were before. I might imagine that we’re travelling through a series of pocket dimensions if not for the sky which remains constant and the glimpses of the house which we continue to see from time to time.

  And then we emerge into a new space and Sarran stops moving. I look around the area and nod in approval – this will do nicely. It’s a clearing beside a small grove of trees surrounded by bushes and flowers. They’ve clearly been carefully cultivated to appear as if they’re growing wild, but having lived in a jungle for the last year, I can easily tell the differences. Still, it offers shade, and shelter, and it’s at least similar enough to what my Companions are used to that we should be able to relax a little here.

  Sarran makes a gesture with his hands as if to indicate the surroundings and tilts his head with a similar questioning expression as the one I used earlier. I nod exaggeratedly, as he did at the time. He smiles, looking relieved. Then, seeming to reach into midair, a six-seater table abruptly materialises in his hand.

  Huh, so that’s what pulling something out of my Inventory looks like from the outside, I realise. This is probably definitive evidence that Sarran does have a Class, though I suppose it’s possible that a society like this is capable of creating extra-dimensional storage devices which don’t rely on a Class. Though that wouldn’t explain how he can easily hold a large wooden table with one hand so Sarran having a Class still seems the most likely option.

  Sarran continues by placing multiple dishes on the table and my mouth waters as I realise that he’s offering food, proper food. I can only hope that it isn’t poisoned – intentionally or accidentally. He finishes by pulling out a large carcass of…something. A cow? It looks rather like one, though it has two sets of horns and six legs.

  He then draws back, looks at me hesitantly, then pats the air with his hands. Is he telling us to stay here? Probably. I nod again. He bows, inclining his body at the waist with his hands at his sides, then straightens and strides away. Using one of those cleverly-concealed pathways, he quickly disappears from view.

  I turn towards the table, almost rubbing my hands together. I’ll check the carcass is fine for my Bound to eat first and then hopefully, it’s time to feast!

  here!

  here!

  here!

  here