Sinaya looked at Anika with a mixture of surprise and shock and replied “The Lika tea? It’s very popular as an energizing drink.”

  Anika’s heart sank a little. The nasty juice was caffeinated. Please let that not be her only option.

  “How do you DRINK that? It’s like someone left a Monster in a car all afternoon and then drank it out of an old dirty boot” Anika heard herself saying. Very tactful Anika. Go ahead, insult their popular morning pick me up.

  “I suppose it does have a strong taste compared to other drinks,” Sinaya gave a forced laugh, looking unsure how to handle the situation.

  “You drink monsters where you come from?” Lily asked, the picture of innocence.

  Anika paused, her disgust at the Lika tea draining in favor of the picture of someone putting an actual monster into a blender and making a morning monster smoothie “Uh… no. It’s just the name of a drink where I come from… I don’t really know why it’s called Monster but it’s not actually monster.” She sat down on the bench and looked at Sinaya, “Sorry… it’s just… I didn’t like it.”

  Anika hurried to change the subject, as Sinaya continued to look a little lost. “The one in the middle was really good though, what is that?”

  “That’s miyum. It’s from the root of a plant. It’s one of my favorites too. I like to drink it in the evening in winter to warm me up before I sleep and in summer it’s popular to drink it in a cold, frothy mix.”

  “Oo, like a Frappuccino! Nice.” Anika tried to be optimistic about the delicious sounding summer snack while considering the information that Sinaya drank it before bed… that meant if it had caffeine, it was probably a negligible amount. She sighed and picked up a piece of the kiwi-pear fruit from the plate and was about to take a bite before she paused, deciding she should keep Sinaya talking while she ate.

  “And what’s everything else I got?” Anika gestured at her plate with the fruit filled hand before taking the intended bite. The fruit was juicy and quite sweet, reminding her of kiwi-strawberry Snapple.

  Sinaya looked at Anika’s plate and started to list them as Anika chewed. “The egg and meat are both from a chicken.”

  “Weird, we have those on my planet too,” Anika said despite her mouthful of food. The discovery of chicken made her optimistic for bacon, at least.

  Sinaya continued, “The green fruit you’re eating now is a jiri, the other one on your plate is a grape, and the citrus Lily has is a pikat. Your juice is pikat juice, too. I saw you try the other drinks as well - the green juice is talorin and of course there is hot and cold tea. The leafy greens we just call greens usually. They are from several different plants, including the leaf of the miyum.”

  Anika wasn’t a big fan of salad, but if the leaf of the Miyum tasted as good as the root juice, she might be a convert. It was weird that some of the foods and animals on this planet were the same as Earth and some were different. She thought maybe it was just a weird coincidence that Lily was a capybara, or like the gods had somehow read her mind and pulled a random animal out to base Lily on, but now she wondered if there were actual capybaras on the planet other than Lily.

  “We have some of the same food and plants, but some different ones too. Are there more capybaras like Lily on the planet too?”

  “Of course!” Sinaya smiled. “They are a highly respected animal for the Mizeta. Our goddess says it is her favorite creation, next to the Mizeta, of course.”

  “Yes! I’m the favorite!” Lily cheered. She had already finished her plate of greens and was merrily munching on the pikat wedges.

  “Good to know.” Anika hoped they had some kind of Wikipedia she could read to learn about the planet. She’d even take a children’s book of animals and fruits, to be honest. Did they have computers or tablets here? Or books? They must have books – that tome that Zola received was a book. But maybe they also had scrolls – scrolls were always cool in movies and games. Maybe they would also have magical scrolls to learn new spells or abilities. It would be pretty sweet if she could just use a scroll and magically learn something.

  Realizing she had caught herself in a tangent again, Anika changed the subject, “So you were saying about today?”

  Sinaya suddenly became all business as she started to relay the day’s information. “Yes! After breakfast I will take you to the armory. Magic is powerful, but everyone who adventures also uses more traditional weaponry, and you’ll need some armor as well. This is the largest temple in the Degeta region, and the only one that houses all five magical disciplines and trains all five types of clergy. There are some specialized temples in other racial regions that focus on worship of a single god and thus only train in one form of magic, and they often have highly skilled trainers, but we have the largest collection of skilled trainers from across disciplines. This temple has been the main training temple for hundreds of years, ever since they decided that joint training facilities would promote better team development and more successful clergy and adventurers. Because of that, we have the best and most well stocked armory and training halls. Our weapons master is one of the most skilled in the world! He expects everyone to learn to defend themselves without magic.”

  That did not sound as exciting in person as it was in a game – she had been somewhat hoping she could get by on magic alone. Mages were a class in most games, right? But she supposed she needed something to do other than run away if she ran out of mana. She was pretty excited to get armor, though. Fantasy armor was always cool.

  “I don’t have a whole lot of experience with weapons… I’m actually kind of clumsy,” Anika admitted.

  “We have trainers here who can help. We summoned you here to help us, after all, we don’t want you dying in your first dungeon,” Sinaya laughed, though Anika didn’t exactly find the thought of stumbling around and dying in a dungeon particularly funny. At least now she knew permadeath was on the table. She decided to withhold her comments as Sinaya verbally charged forward. “After you go to the armory, you can go to a dungeon!”

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  “Yay! I want to go to the dungeon!” Lily chimed in, as Anika sat slightly dumb stuck by the assertion that they were going to dress her up in armor, shove a weapon into her hands, then seemingly dump her into a dungeon like it was some weird survival game show. She may have been ready to get to a dungeon yesterday when she was tired of dealing with Morigan, but she hadn’t actually expected it to happen quite so soon.

  “Um… is anyone going to… I dunno… teach me how to do anything?” Anika managed to ask without sounding overly concerned. “Like use a weapon? Or my magic? This all seems like a plot to get the newbie killed as quickly as possible in order to martyr them and rally the rest of the troupes… and I’m not sure I want to be that kind of hero.”

  “Oh…” Sinaya paused, looking unsure how to handle the situation. Anika didn’t blame her… she was probably just a young, enthusiastic messenger and here she was, blundering through and saying everything that came to mind without bothering to filter it first. If they wanted to kill her off, the gods probably wouldn’t have bothered giving her a gift and making a big fuss. Hauling her disconcerted, confused, naked body off the ritual summoning circle and onto some weird altar to a blood god probably would have been sufficient.

  “Never mind… that isn’t your fault.” Anika knew she probably shouldn’t have freaked out on a teenager anyway, “Maybe you can at least tell me how my magic works? You’re a water mage right?”

  Sinaya looked relieved at the change of subject, but laughed awkwardly, “Actually… I’m a Fire mage…”

  “But you’re a Mizeta… didn’t the Water god or whatever make you? Doesn’t that make you all water mages?” Anika was now highly confused by this planet. She had water magic, so she had assumed they transformed her into a Mizeta because they all had Water magic too. They could have just let her keep her own body and found some other enchantment to make her breathe whatever their air was just like they made her speak the language.

  “I see why you might think that,” Sinaya explained, “Even though the goddess of Water created us, that doesn’t mean we all have Water magic. The gods would never be able to restrict the nature of the cosmos by forcing all members of a race to have a specific type of magic – that goes way beyond their power! I don’t really understand how it all works, but the priests explained there are some fundamental principles of the cosmos that means they can’t just make every Mizeta be a water mage. It has to do with a person's nature.”

  “But magical animals are different!” Lily spoke up. “They have inherent magic because the magic shapes their magical race. But the magic isn’t the same as what you have. Only the sapient races have full magic. But there are all kinds of magical and non-magical animals and monsters! Magical capybara have water magic! But I don’t… I think I was non magical first? And then the gods made me magical when they created me? I’m not really sure…” Lily trailed off a bit, as if trying to remember something, but quickly shook it off to return to her perky self, “but I know I have special Aether magic!”

  “I see…” Anika said… though she wasn’t sure she did. It just sounded like the right thing to say in response to Lily’s exuberant education. “Maybe we should just get to the armory. I’m done eating, and so is Lily, and it seems like we have a busy day ahead of us.”

  “Of course!” Sinaya rose and immediately started heading for the door, “It’s just right around the corner, follow me.”

  Anika and Lily trailed after Sinaya as they went down another hallway, this one with fewer doors than the bedroom areas. Anika figured this area of the temple must be where a lot of the communal rooms were, which would make it easy for those living and working in the temple to go between the daily activities. Barely a minute later, they were walking through the large, double doors of what looked like a giant dance studio, with wood floors and a large mirror on one wall. Bright lights lit the room in a harsh white light compared to the soft amber glow of the dining hall, and around the edges of the room were a variety of weights, targeting dummies, and other tools that look relevant for both physical training and weapons training. On the left was an open doorway leading into a smaller room that Sinaya was headed towards.

  As they approached the doorway, Zola exited behind a young Kineta likely serving the same purpose for them as Sinaya served for her. They carried a pile of armor, a mix of leather and heavy cloth, as well as various adventuring accoutrements like belts, bags, and, Anikas eyes light up to see the last, a very fancy looking scimitar. “That’s a nice scimitar, Zola! Very cool!”

  Zola glanced at Anika as they walked towards her, “It is sufficient for my needs. You know how to fight with a scimitar?”

  “Oh, absolutely not,” Anika stopped and laughed, “I just think it looks cool and I’ve always wanted to swing one around like a pirate!”

  “Hm.” Zola replied noncommittally. Without pausing for pleasantries, Zola spoke as they exited the larger training room. “I wish you luck choosing a weapon. I leave for the dungeons shortly.”

  Anika watched them leave. “Zola is a little intense, aren’t they, Lily?”

  “Yeah, they need to have more fun!” Lily continued bounding towards the armory door, catching up to Sinaya, who had paused to wait for them. Anika hurried after her.

  As Anika entered the room, she saw shelves full of armor and various supplies, as well as racks and racks of weapons. Some of them were weapons she had barely heard of, much less could identify. She, not for the first time, wished she was slightly less clumsy and that she had stuck it out in martial arts as a kid. Maybe she wouldn’t have quite so much dread as the realization struck that she was about to gear out for some kind of combat mission into an unknown dungeon of monsters. Zola seemed perfectly comfortable with the pile of armor they had, and Anika had no doubt they knew exactly how to use the scimitar they had chosen. But unless they had a weapon that let her operate them remotely with a keyboard and mouse, she was absolutely in over her head.

  “Look at this stuff!” Lily spoke with awe, “Isn’t it neat! You are going to have the best armor and weapons and we are going to go have fun dungeon parties!”

  “I still don’t think we are going to be partying in the dungeon, but we will be a good party.” Anika laughed, “now… how do I choose?”

  “I will assist you with that,” a deep male voice from the corner called. Anika hadn’t noticed him when they came in – he was standing in a corner of the same wall the door was on, and Anika hadn’t done a full 360 upon arrival. He was Kineta, larger than Zola or the priests Anika had met yesterday, with gold crystalline skin that sparkled and stark white, almost translucent hair and slightly disconcerting black eyes. “But first, you must tell me what training you have.”

  “Uhh… training? Not really any? I did a little karate as a kid, but I wasn’t very good at it. I tried sports, but they weren’t for me…” Anika trailed off as the look on the man’s face turned dour, “Oh, one time, at summer camp, I learned archery!” That had been a fun year, like playing a real life D&D campaign.

  The Kineta moved towards Anika, his metal scale armor clinking with each step, as Sinaya interjected, “This is our Weaponsmaster, Master Vok.”

  As if only just noticing Sinaya, Vok spoke, “Leave, Sinaya. This will not be a short encounter.” He turned his gaze back at Anika, sizing her up in ways that were likely more than just physical, Anika realized, as the back of her neck prickled.

  “Now, what am I going to do with you,” Vok asked. Anika stared back quietly. She wasn’t always the most astute conversationalist when it came to reading people’s intentions, but that right there was DEFINITELY rhetorical.