"The rift is gone. I can't send you home,"

  The words rang in Mikayla's ears.

  Asika sobbed, a pearl of dismay escaping her throat. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I screwed up, it's all my fault and -"

  Mikayla stopped listening. Stopped seeing. Stopped thinking.

  There was nothing in the world but the sensation of all her hopes sinking into a bottomless abyss.

  It had been a long shot. She'd known that. But after all this fighting, all the pain and suffering she'd endured over the past days - the past weeks, really - surely she'd deserved a miracle?

  Well. Apparently not.

  "How long?" she finally managed to force the words from her lips, after a long moment.

  "Wha-what?"

  "It was a matter of time, right? Can you tell how far gone the rift is? Did we miss it by a day? An hour? A minute?" she pressed.

  Mikayla didn't know why she wanted to know this. No matter the answer, it was just torturing herself. But if it turned out that they'd missed her window to get home by only a few minutes, that the Giant Roc or Flyreh or whoever had delayed her for just long enough, then -

  Asika glanced at the readouts. According to some quick mental calculations, if they'd been here thirteen hours earlier, they would have made it in time. If Mikayla and Keldryn had arrived in Cliffwatch a day earlier, or if Asika had only taken two days rather than three to clear their Schema Locks, they would have made it.

  But knowing that wouldn't help Mikayla.

  So she dismissed the screen, shook her head, and told herself that a little white lie was the best chance she had to salvage this. "More than a week. It's long gone. Has been since before we even met. We never had a chance at all, not even if we'd somehow escaped and come straight here as soon as I told you we could,"

  Oblivious to Asika's manipulation of the numbers, Mikayla processed that. Strangely, it made her feel better. It was one thing to have tried and failed, but knowing they'd never had a chance at all? It was . . oddly reassuring.

  Asika hugged her, supporting her as all the tension seeped out of Mikayla's body. Mikayla rested her chin on the faerie's shoulder, returning the hug and staring at the scraggly grass underfoot. All her emotions and adrenaline and fatigue of the past month seemed to catch up with her at once, and the strength drained out of her legs. Asika's arms held her as she collapsed.

  "It'll be okay. We're here for you. We'll help you," the faerie quietly promised.

  Mikayla blinked, and suddenly they were seated on a fallen log. Had she blacked out momentarily? Keldryn had joined them on her other side, her two friends squeezing her between them.

  Something brushed against the small of her back, and Mikayla started for a bit, reaching back and finding fluff. It took her longer than it should have to realise that Keldryn had curled his tail around her. She was at long last getting the opportunity to touch it.

  It was just as soft and warm as she'd imagined, despite its unkempt appearance.

  And it was sobering.

  It was real.

  She looked down, and couldn't help but focus on Asika's blue hand clasping hers. For the first time she noticed its texture; the faerie's skin was smooth and almost crystalline, but supple and flexible in a way that could only be flesh.

  It was alien, her two friends were aliens, native to this alien world that Mikayla was lost in. Her parents would think she'd run away or been kidnapped, Cat would be inconsolable, her brother would never admit how much he missed her . .

  She was stuck. She was Stranded.

  Maybe forever.

  For several minutes, the three friends just sat together, letting Mikayla come to terms with her thoughts and reassuring her with their presences.

  At long last, she found it within herself to speak.

  "So," Mikayla forced the words out, doing her best to hold back the shivers. "I guess, in the meantime . ." Her jaw worked uselessly for a moment. ". . now what?"

  "Well. We do have programs set up for the occasion that someone Stranded decides they'd rather stay here in this world than go home. Rehabilitation, integration into society, learning skills, stuff like that," Asika gently explained, wearing a wan smile that didn't do much to reassure Mikayla. "You probably wouldn't get much out of the tutorial at this point, but you've got options,"

  Mikayla used her sleeve to soak up the tears brimming in the corners of her eyes. ". . I don't want to give up. There's got to be some way for me to get home, somewhere in this world. And, if all the spatial magic weirdness happens out here in the Kaiju Coast, then clearly this is where I need to stay,"

  "Not smart," Keldryn interrupted, ears drooping even as his face remained firm. "You've been lucky to survive everything that's happened so far. What happens if a Monster King passes by? Hell, not even a Monster King. Something half as strong as that Giant Roc would kill you if you're alone and can't use the Blessing of Teamwork. You're untrained, ill-equipped and underlevelled," Keldryn's dispassionate facade cracked. ". . Don't stay here. You'll die,"

  "Well," Mikayla hesitated. "Then how do I get strong enough to break this whole place over my knee?"

  Keldryn's eyes shifted, and she followed his gaze to see that Asika had perked up. "Sounds like you want the Goliath Guard integration track! It's not that uncommon for Stranded people to get traumatised by the Kaijus into wanting to get strong enough to control their fate," She rolled her head back and forth on her shoulders. "Or, at least, strong enough to feel confident that they won't just die if a Kaiju attacks them at home. I guess there's something reassuring about being able to summon a fifty-foot-tall killing machine at will?"

  Asika waved at the air, conjuring a System screen that depicted a large and sprawling complex of structures in the shadow of a set of huge mountains. The buildings looked like a university campus mixed with medieval China. "For people like that, we send them to the Cloudscraper Academy! It's the place where all the rising stars in the Goliath Guard get trained. It's pretty exclusive, but the Cosmic Scales has an arrangement with their Dean. As long as you don't mind taking some remedial courses, I'm sure I can make it happen!"

  Mikayla considered it. She had been a university student. Would resuming her education be such a terrible fate? "How long do people attend Cloudscraper for?"

  "The curriculum is three years. Two years of general training, then a third of more focused studies depending on what sort of career you're going for," Asika sketched more diagrams. "Like, that Giant Roc we just fought, normally the Guard would call in someone who spent their third year specialising in aerial combat for that. Or you could focus on management, or druidcraft. Though I think you'll want to go into the Magical Research and Development course for your third year," Asika winked.

  Mikayla could read between the lines. Cloudscraper Academy wasn't just a place to learn to fight; it was a pathway to become part of what sounded like this fantasy world's equivalent of the scientific community.

  Maybe, with enough contacts and research, she could build a way home. Even if it took years. It seemed like a long shot, but she just didn't have it within herself to give up.

  "Then . . yeah. Yeah, I want to do that," Mikayla determined, balling her fists.

  "If you're sure," Keldryn was failing to hide his disappointment and worry. "Hey, maybe you can teach me some of the fancy tricks from Cloudscraper. I'm sure you'll have it better than whatever backwater edge-of-nowhere school I'll get packed off to while they train me up to the standards of a Goliath Guard Ranger,"

  Mikayla quirked an eyebrow. "Asika, is there any way you can get Keldryn into the same course as me?"

  "Don't bother. I don't have the pedigree or the backing to go down there with the elite snobs," he brushed her off, ears drooping.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Mm, tricky but probably doable," the faerie overrode Keldryn, and Mikayla stifled a chuckle at how his ears suddenly pricked up. "If I make the case that she needs you for emotional support, and get the right people who won't cause a fuss about bending the rules to sign off on it, then," Asika hummed thoughtfully.

  "Oh, yes. Very emotional. Much support. I couldn't possibly go anywhere without him," Mikayla nodded, grabbing at Keldryn's arm.

  Asika peered at them and weakly giggled. "If you brush up on your acting skills, it might just work!"

  Hope was stirring in Mikayla's heart. There was still a way forward. With Keldryn by her side . . with her new best friend, at least in this world.

  She couldn't help the faint smile that crept onto her face.

  <=====}—o

  Night had fallen by the time they'd returned to Cliffwatch. They found Anza searching through Lahlee's paperwork in the Goliath Guard offices.

  Her face crinkled in sympathy when she saw Mikayla. "It didn't work?"

  Mikayla forced herself to smile, blinking away tears. "I am officially and indefinitely Stranded,"

  "I'm sorry to hear that," Anza offered consolingly. "Have you decided what you're going to do now?" She knew that Mikayla needed to keep moving forward. Losing herself in despair, as would be so easy, was a worse fate than she deserved after coming this far.

  "Yeah. The Cosmic Scales has integration programs. I'm going to Cloudscraper Academy to learn to fight as well as you do,"

  There was fire in the young woman's eyes. Anza was relieved to see it. She'd be okay. "Are you? Awesome. I learnt my stuff there too. It's a good school. So long as you avoid the politics,"

  Mikayla raised an eyebrow. "The what?"

  "Don't worry about it. Y'all're foreigners, you'll only have to deal with it if you're an idiot. Just learn as much as y'all can and never talk to the locals 'bout stuff from outside school," Anza assured her. "So, you need to talk to Dean Wujing?"

  "Eventually, yeah," Asika confirmed. "I'll put in an official request, let bureaucracy do its thing. It'll probably take a while, but -"

  "Nah, don't bother with all that. If I remember the calendar right, term starts in less than a month, and doing it the bureaucratic way might mean you kids miss it. Ain't any reason to risk that when I've Wujing's direct contact details. I can introduce y'all to him when I make my report. He'll be relieved to hear from me, I've been out of contact for two weeks,"

  "Your report?" Mikayla questioned.

  Anza blinked. "Oh, right! I forgot. I never told you three that I'm on a secret mission from Dean Wujing," She chuckled. "Eh, don't tell anyone 'bout the secret mission part, kay?"

  Mikayla chuckled. "Sure,"

  "You're a secret agent?" Keldryn was skeptical.

  "Nope. That's why I'm perfect for the job. Supposedly," Anza rolled her eyes.

  "I don't follow that logic," Keldryn mumbled.

  "Ask teach about it, he's good at the rhetoric and junk," Anza brushed off. "C'mon, we've got nothing better to do. We'll use the Ataraxia Node here to call him,"

  Several flights of stairs later, the motley group were arranged around the Ataraxia Node that they'd been fighting over earlier that same day. It didn't take long before Anza had the screen displaying a video chat - another point in favour of this world being much more advanced than the medieval fantasy it passed itself off as.

  The recipient was a man with blue skin and thick, gnarled horns jutting up from his brow, bushy grey eyebrows and a matching beard. This was Dean Wujing, who looked profoundly relieved to see Anza.

  The teenagers waited patiently as Anza reported the adventures they'd had together, as well as Mikayla and Keldryn's circumstances as an interdimensional Strandee and a trainee who'd been taken advantage of, respectively. Mostly it was information that Mikayla already knew, except for one detail; Anza's perusal of Lahlee's paperwork had informed her that the cult's official name was 'The Regressors'. Asika joined in at the end, contributing, "I'm gonna petition my bosses to sponsor these two both attending Cloudscraper, under Clause 22-A and D,"

  "The emotional co-dependency clause, I'm familiar with it," Wujing looked amused. "Go ahead, it's not like we're ever at maximum intake,"

  Mikayla had a strong theory that the old man had seen right through them, but he wasn't raising a fuss so she didn't press the issue.

  "Overall, it sounds like you've been doing just as good a job as I expected, Anza," Dean Wujing nodded. "But you have gotten somewhat sidetracked by this Regressors business. What have you found regarding the people who were looting Astralia's Spear?"

  Anza opened her mouth. Then she blinked. ". . Sun Archiver, I completely forgot about that whole thing!"

  Wujing raised his eyebrows.

  "Um," Mikayla raised a hand. "Wait. Your secret mission was to find out who broke into Astralia's Spear?"

  "Yeah. Why?"

  "Yeah, so, that was me,"

  And so Mikayla took her turn regaling them all with everything that had happened since she'd found herself in this world. With some details left out, of course; she didn't mention Nocturnus' presence at all, or even that her Armour Core was a Black Knight model, just in case that was too much of a hint. The detail about Nocturnus' old sword having turned out to be the key to Astralia's workshop was also left out, instead she invented a story about the wards having already been on the verge of failure and collapsing entirely when she tried to force her way in.

  Furthermore, she brushed off the second half of her adventures by concluding with, "And when I woke up, I was in the cells with Anza and Asika, and you've already heard the rest," He had not heard about the Demigod of Teamwork parts, but he didn't need to know that.

  Wujing mulled it over, digesting her story. "I see. Astralia's wards were only hanging on by a thread after all this time, then. That explains it, I suppose. You certainly were quite lucky, young lady,"

  Mikayla bit her lip. "I'm not sure I agree with that statement. But thanks,"

  Wujing's gaze softened. "If it makes you feel any better, you have good timing. The next intake is in a bit less than a month," He nodded to himself, smiling. "I'll ask my secretary to start making the necessary preparations. I look forward to meeting you in person," He looked at Anza, and nodded respectfully. "It sounds like the mission was a success, too, on more counts than we could have reasonably anticipated. Excellent work. Well, until we next meet,"

  "Oh, by the way, you want this back?" Anza asked, waving the Sports Car Core at him.

  "Mm, no, keep it. They're going into mass production soon, a lost prototype is easy to write off. Consider it payment for your trouble. Ta-ta!" And with that, Wujing cut the connection before anyone could say goodbye.

  "That guy had horns," Mikayla finally burst out.

  ". . he did," Keldryn wasn't sure why she was stating the obvious.

  "And that's normal. I see," Mikayla looked around. At her alien friends and the medieval clothes she was wearing, at the magical bangle on her wrist containing a two-hundred-year-old ghost and her own personal giant robot. "I guess this is just my life now," She took a long, slow breath. "Hey, there's something I've been wondering,"

  "Yeah?" Asika gently encouraged.

  "What's this world called? My home planet is named Earth, which is kinda dumb if you think about it, but this is a different world, so," She trailed off, digging her fingernails into her palm to stifle the looming dread. "I figure I should know that, if I'm going to be . . staying,"

  "Raibalie," Keldryn answered.

  "That's the one. That's our world. Raibalie," Asika looked like she wanted to say more, but held her peace.

  "Alright then," Mikayla nodded to herself, lips pursed. "This is the beginning of my adventures in Raibalie,"

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