The dining room was crowded with people. To Anika’s relief, the people in this world, or at least this temple, were generally quieter and less rambunctious than the people of earth, and rather than being assaulted by a wall of sound like she would be at a crowded restaurant, the chatter of people socializing and eating was kept to a tolerable volume.

  Anika looked around the room, checking to see if Lily had already made it to the dining room when she heard her name from down the hall in Lily’s chipper voice. She turned and saw Lily walking around the corner with a relatively young Pireta trainer that Anika hadn’t been introduced to before he escorted Lily to the Aether training facility. The Pireta had light gold skin, red eyes, and a firefly halo of red and orange hair. Anika waved at them as they neared, not wanting to shout down the hallway as Lily had.

  “How was training, Anika? I had so much fun! Tulor showed me so many cool things! I already knew how to use my magic, because the Gods made sure I knew how to use my magic, but Tulor is really good at Aether magic!” Lily bounded along the hall until she reached Anika, her speech fast and occasionally accented by happy chirps.

  Anika looked down at Lily and bent to give her a scratch behind her ears, causing Lily to purr. It also served to quiet the rush of excited words Lily had managed to fit into the short walk from the corner. Anika assumed that Tulor was the Pireta man next to Lily, and nodded acknowledgement of him, “Nice to meet you. It sounds like you all had a productive time.”

  Tulor nodded, “I would expect nothing but the best of a creature created and blessed by the gods as Lily has been, and I was not disappointed. She has excellent control of her magic.”

  “I was able to juggle multiple objects in the air! Now that I have Aether Manipulation because I am level 5, you won’t have to get my food for me! I can get it myself!” Lily’s tone was that of a child who had successfully tied their shoes for the first time, and Anika couldn’t help but smile at her infectious joy. “That’s great Lily! It will make it much easier for everyone at meal time! I can’t wait to see!”

  Anika stood up and gestured towards the door. “Speaking of food, I’m starving. Let’s go! You’re welcome to join us if you like, Tulor.” Anika said this to be polite, but hoped that he had other trainers to eat with.

  “Thank you for the offer, but I will sit at my usual table. We trainers like to use dinner to plan for tomorrow.” With that, Tulor slipped into the room ahead of Anika and Lily, heading straight to the buffet.

  “After you,” Anika gestured for Lily to head inside and, when she did, followed close behind.

  Anika recognized some of the food from breakfast. The salad of various greens was one of the first things on the buffet, followed by a platter of roasted vegetables. Some were familiar from earth, and Anika was confident that she had correctly identified both carrots and parsnips in the dish. There was a green vegetable that looked similar enough to a carrot in texture and size that Anika assumed may be some kind of regional variation, as well as chunks of a white and green spotted vegetable that was a bit off putting, given that the green spots made it look moldy. The green spots were clearly part of the flesh of the vegetable, however, so Anika added a few to her plate to try, in addition to a generous helping of salads and the more recognizable roasted vegetables.

  In front of Anika, Lily levitated a plate and was trying to jump up high enough to see what was on the platters. Lily may have mastered her levitation, but she had not, it seemed, mastered the ability to levitate items she could not see. Anika wondered if eventually Lily would be able to levitate herself, or if the only way to levitate one’s self would be through Air magic, like Epona had. Of course, Epona also had wings, so that may be an irrelevant thought.

  Shaking her head to focus back on the present, she reached over to the salad and grabbed a hearty serving of leaves with the tongs, holding them over to Lily’s floating plate. “Need some help?”

  Lily let out a high-pitched, airy whistling that sounded pitiful, “I wanted to do it myself but I am too short to see. I guess you still have to help me.”

  ”Don’t worry, I don’t mind. Besides, it’s still very helpful for you to be able to hold your plate. In fact, why don’t you levitate my plate too and then I can use both hands to serve us!” Anika gestured with the plate in her left hand, inviting Lily to control it with her Aether magic.

  ”Okay! Then I can be helpful too instead of you just helping me!” Lily immediately sounded more cheerful, and Anika felt the plate pull away from her loose grip to float next to Lily’s plate.

  “Great! Now, do you want some roasted vegetables? They look pretty tasty.”

  ”Yes!” Lily chirped.

  Anika moved down the buffet a few steps, Lily walking in front of her with the plates floating over her head. The next item on the buffet was three different types of meat. The first was a platter of sliced white meat that, based on breakfast, Anika assumed was chicken. She took a hearty portion of meat, assuming it would be the safest choice. The next platter looked like some kind of game meat. Anika was not yet sure what other animals they had that were the same as earth, so she gingerly selected a small piece to try. The third platter held smaller chunks of meat cooked in an orange sauce. Having nothing else to go on, she added a small portion to her plate and moved on, knowing Lily would not be interested in the meat.

  The last thing on the buffet this evening was a selection of bread products and fruit. There was no way bread wasn’t a safe choice, so she took a slice of dark brown bread that looked like wheat and a light tan roll. There was also a flakey bread that looked suspiciously like puff pastry turnover, so Anika had to add one to her plate. Or maybe two of those, just to be sure she got enough if they ran out quickly. She took a second pastry. She recognized the Jiri fruit from breakfast, and immediately put several on Lily’s plate while taking one for herself as well. She also took a piece of a purple fruit that looked soft like a banana and put a healthy portion of them on Lily’s plate.

  “Do you want any more food than that?” Anika asked Lily. “There’s one other type of fruit I don’t recognize, if you want to try it.”

  ”No, I think this is good. I will try that one next time.”

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  ”Ok, Let me grab some drinks.” Anika moved over to the ceramic canisters that were in the same position as they had been at breakfast. She filled a bowl of water for Lily and, not feeling particularly adventurous this evening, decided to not experiment to see what was in the other canisters, instead getting a glass of water.

  Looking around the room, Anika noticed a group getting up to leave and vacating a cozy looking table in the far corner of the room. Anika didn’t feel much like meeting more new people today, so began to head in that direction, telling Lily to follow her, which she did without complaint.

  Anika sat on one side of the full-sized table, her back towards the wall so no one could sneak up on her, then lifted Lily up on the bench next to her so she could maneuver the plates into position in front of them. Anika put the bowl of water next to Lily’s plate and took a sip of her own water before putting it down. Lily, barely reaching the top of the full sized-table, moved her food kinetically to the edge of the plate before nibbling each item. Anika tried not to laugh, as it was both adorable and funny to watch.

  The day had been long, and just sitting down felt wonderful. She couldn’t remember the last time she had done so much in a day. At home, she usually tried to manage her energy by scheduling short activities and balancing them with plenty of time home alone, preferably with her computer or a good book. After a day of people, magic, and monsters, she dreaded what tomorrow would bring.

  While Lily enthusiastically nommed the salad on her plate, completely focused on her food, Anika picked at her plate, caught up in her chaotic thoughts mixed with the fog of fatigue. She tried the mystery meat and, while she couldn’t identify it, decided it was not off putting. The chunks in orange sauce were the best thing on the plate. The meat tasted like chicken, legitimately, but was not. The texture was more like a firm fish. The orange sauce was sweet and tangy with a citrus flair, reminding her of an extra saucy orange chicken at a fancy Chinese restaurant. The strong flavor restored some energy to her weary body, and she managed to muster some more enthusiasm towards her plate of food.

  As she was about to move on to the bread products, having successfully tasted and decided she didn’t like the strange white and green spotted vegetable, a dark form slid into the bench across from her, placing a plate and glass on the table as he gracefully sat down. Lily, having just finished devouring the last of her food, beat her to the greeting.

  “Hi Panu!”

  Panu greeted them with an easy smile, “Hey Lily, hey Anika. How was your first day?”

  Anika inwardly groaned, not sure she could handle a conversation with the outgoing Panu. But, he was in the same situation as she was, being summoned to a strange new world and all, and that made her at least willing to consider a conversation. Hopefully it would be brief.

  ”Hey Panu. It was busy.” Anika paused to collect her thoughts, wondering how to describe the day with enough detail to be friendly but not so much that it would take the last of her introverted energy reserves.

  Lily, however, immediately launched into the tale of the day’s activities. “It was so fun! But also so scary! I leveled all the way to level 6 when we killed a big Scary Captain,”

  ”A Scurry Captain,” Anika interrupted, “Remember, it was a big squirrel.”

  ”Right, a Scurry Captain! And he had lots of little squirrels with him and I turned them into more capybaras and then…” Lily proceeded to haphazardly tell the story of the day in less than chronological order, her story telling skills matching that of a 4 year old telling their parents about the day they had at preschool. Anika occasionally interjected to correct Lily’s enthusiastic embellishments but mostly nodded along. Panu, for his part, listened to every word the capybara said with appropriate reactions of surprise, shock, awe, and occasional sympathy.

  ”And then I was so excited that I could levitate stuff and I practiced so hard and I could get my own food tonight but then I couldn’t even see the food to levitate it and so Anika had to help me anyway and then I ate the food and it was yummy.”

  ”Don’t worry about that, Lily, you won’t need to actually see things to levitate them for long.” Panu consoled her as she ended her story. “My sister has Aether magic, so I saw all the things she could do, and she not only learned to levitate herself, she also learned to levitate things by feeling them with her magic - she didn’t even have to be able to see them!”

  ”Really?” Lily asked, “That is so cool! I have to practice a lot so I can fly like Epona!”

  ”That would be pretty neat,” Anika nodded enthusiastically.

  Panu held up a hand, “It may take a while to get there though. Most Aether mages aren’t able to levitate themselves until much higher level, as they weigh a lot more than their magic can handle. It also isn’t quite like flying, at least, my sister didn’t have that much control. Just, like, some basic floating off the ground. It means you’ll never get your feet wet though!” Panu laughed, as if this was the funniest joke in the world.

  ”But I like getting my feet wet!”

  Anika laughed. “You are meant for swimming!” She patted Lily’s head.

  "Hmm..” Lily said thoughtfully, “I am small, so maybe I can levitate myself soon! And do more than just float! I will practice.” She nodded resolutely.

  ”I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to practice,” Anika said, “Goodness knows I will need to do a lot of practice with my magic to catch up with everyone else. I may have lifted a lot of water today, but it is going to take a lot of practice to learn to control it better. And I have so much experience to earn to catch up to everyone.”

  ”You earned experience from your practice today though, right?” Panu asked. “When you’re low level, magical practice can earn you a lot of experience quickly! I leveled up fast because manipulating fire was a good way to show off. I got a lot of dates that way,” Panu mentioned with a suspiciously charismatic smile that showed a mix of fondness and something a bit more carnal that Anika did NOT want to know more about.

  ”Oh, I completely forgot that Leka told me I would earn experience from practicing my abilities. I didn’t even check my character sheet.” Anika had a lot on her mind, and there was so much to learn and remember it was hard to keep it all straight. She quickly checked the experience box of her character sheet and reported back to the group, “It looks like I got around 2800 experience from practicing. That’s about a third of what I got from the Scurry Captain! I didn’t feel like I practiced for very long, so that seems like a lot.”

  ”Yeah, I don’t quite understand the experience gain, but I know the more difficult the task you are trying to practice and the more mana you spend, the more experience you get. If it was only your first day practicing and you were manipulating a lot of water, it probably was pretty difficult and gave you a lot of experience.” Panu explained, somewhat helpfully.

  ”I got 3113 experience while I was practicing and using my magic today!” Lily added.

  “I guess we are going to have to prioritize practicing our magic abilities a lot. I’d much rather be able to actually contribute to the fighting next time we go into a dungeon rather than getting carried by Philip.” Anika paused, realizing that she hadn’t asked Panu how his day had gone. She knew that they were all supposed to go to dungeons today, and since he asked about her day, she should ask about his. “But that’s not important - how was your day, Panu?”

  Panu’s smile turned mischievous and he hunched forward on the table, his voice taking on a hushed tone. “I played a little practical joke on the Princess in the dungeon and the way she squealed was so funny - she is so easy to tease. I had a blast!”

  Anika wasn’t a big fan of Morigan and the way she carried on the first day, but she wasn’t sure playing jokes on her was very nice. But Morigan had been pretty mean to the rest of them, so maybe she deserved it? Anika decided it would depend on exactly what this joke involved.

  Anika raised an eyebrow questioningly. “What exactly did you do?”

  Panu’s grin turned positively evil, “Well… “

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