Chapter 11

Denial And Unwanted Verification

Ria exhaled after a few seconds of holding the breath, took a normal round of breaths, and then said quietly, silvery-grey gaze boring into him, "The problem is, Raistlin, that all of those places I just listed, and all the smaller places not listed within those places that could take an hour or longer to name, all the countless people said to be populating those places, were spoken of in books that were supposed to be fictional stories. Ansalon and all those places don't exist in this world. You will not find them listed anywhere on any map of this world. You will not find anyone who has heard of those places, even among the eldest and most seasoned of travelers and knowledgeable of scholars, unless they happen to enjoy reading fantasy stories in their spare time and have happened to read the series of books based on your supposedly-entirely-made-up world. I don't know how to help you get home because you are not in the world of Krynn anymore."

At first, the words, their meaning, made no sense to Raistlin. Ria might as well have been speaking in hisses and growls like her cat did. The family of the terminal patient not believing the tragic words they had just heard, not wanting to acknowledge that the news was even worse than they had allowed themselves to fear.

Then the words, and their meanings, started to sink into Raistlin's shocked mind…

Ansalon doesn't exist in this world… They can't be found on any map… Only spoken of as fantastical, made-up world… She was saying he was in a different world, not on a different continent…

And she had no idea how to reverse what damage had been done, if there was even a long-shot miracle cure to be found for the ravaged patient. That was a dire prognosis the shell shocked listener couldn't accept.

"NO!" Raistlin yelled, standing up from where he was sitting and glaring at the young woman before him. "I am not certain what sort of game you are playing at, but this makes absolutely no sense! I have spent all my life within Solace. I know for a fact that it is not a fictional place. Which means that it is on a map, it exists, and you are for some reason trying to confuse this situation!"

"What purpose would I have for trying to lie to you?" Ria asked quietly, looking up at him warily. A healer realizing the news was not going to be well received and trying to rationalize with the disbelieving patient before she was made the target of vented shock for being the bearer of the bad news.

"Perhaps to be spiteful for the scare you were given by my sudden appearance?" Raistlin suggested furiously, stunned mind trying to reason out the situation. "Perhaps you're one of the many who have a dislike of mages and thought you would take the opportunity presented to give me a fright and have a laugh at my expense?" Raistlin's tone became all the more accusing as he thought of another option. "Or perhaps you are a part of how I came to be here, some conspirator to me being taken from my home, and are trying to convince me I will have no way home for whatever purposes you may have in trying to keep me here!"

"If I wished to be spiteful, I could have let the police haul you to jail!" the young woman retorted, an edge to her voice. "As you yourself noted not ten minutes ago. If I wished to be spiteful, I wouldn't have offered you refreshment or shown you concern for your scratches! If I was a part of how you came to be here, don't you think I would have been prepared to see you in my living room?"

"That could all have been a part of the ruse, to try to throw me off from realizing your part in this kidnapping and gain my trust to manipulate me further! I may not be in Solace right now, I admit that, but I am still somewhere on the face of Krynn. Your outlandish claims to try manipulate me further will not work and I will find my way home, regardless of what treachery you are attempting to undertake at my expense!"

The young woman sighed and went silent, looking down at her hands in her lap.

Raistlin stayed where he was, standing on the opposite side of the table and glaring down at this possible accomplice to his unexplained displacement.

"Fine," Ria snapped out, though the word was barely above a whisper. She said a little louder, silver-grey eyes looking up once more and meeting his gaze with an expression that cut through him like a dagger, "Fine. You want to accuse me of lying? Of attempting to manipulate you? What if I said I can prove to you that you are not in the world of Krynn anymore? That you are, in fact, in another world?"

"And how do you propose to do that?" Raistlin asked stubbornly, letting his full disbelief and anger be reflected. "If you are a part of this ruse, nothing you show me is trustworthy. You and whoever else is a part of this could have made up this entire lodging to appear as foreign and daunting as possible. Any maps or books you show me could likewise have been forged to that end."

"Perhaps," Ria conceded quietly. "But I had something far more definitive in mind." She stood up slowly and, without another look in his direction, started walking out of the room. "Follow me, please, as you will need to see this with your own eyes obviously."

"What do you intend to try to use to prove this outrageous claim?" Raistlin asked with sarcastic wariness.

Ria paused in the arched entryway between rooms and, though she didn't turn around, her sigh was audible. "As I said, follow me, please."

And with that, Ria walked out of the room. The healer leading the family of the patient to the undeniable evidence of the grim prognosis in hopes of allowing acceptance to take root.

Raistlin hesitated to follow her. Indignant anger and utter disbelief coursed through him. The young mage didn't want to acknowledge that growing terrified part of his thoughts that pointed out all the strange things around him as being far too foreign to be a probable ruse. Everything from the building's construction, to the furniture, to the strange devices, to the unfamiliar ointment, to the unrecognizable materials these things were made of. Her strange manner of dress and speech. Her familiar behavior with the things around her that indicated their innate normalcy to her.

Raistlin tried to smother the thought that perhaps she would somehow be able to prove he was in a different world. A world that believed his own to be nothing more than a collection of stories. As such, a world from which he may not have the ability to escape from and return to his own.

After an internal debate that threatened to become an all our war in his mind and end in an irreparably destructive aftermath, Raistlin brought the conflict to the only rational ceasefire he could conclude it with. He decided that there was nothing she could show him to prove something that was entirely impossible. When she failed to provide any substantial evidence for this ruse's veracity, he would find a way to force the truth of the situation out of her and subsequently find out why he had been brought here and how he would be able to return home.

Raistlin's long legs took him across the kitchen in a flash and he saw Ria waiting in the hallway between the sitting room and the bedroom. Once she saw he was following, she silently walked into the bedroom.

When Raistlin entered the bedroom, Ria was at the windows, unlatching one.

"Come out here on the balcony, and you will have your proof," Ria said quietly, and then she climbed out the open window.

Raistlin walked over to the window and looked out onto the shadowy balcony suspiciously, not climbing out onto it.

"How do I know you're not trying to get me out here to make an attempt to shove me over that tiny railing for discovering the truth of this matter?" Raistlin asked quietly, glare not abating as his gaze fell on the semi-visible form of the young woman to the far side of the balcony. The family of the patient hedging on entering the sick room, terrified to view the terminal patient and the mountain of paperwork and test results that would force them to acknowledge the truth.

"You asked for proof, I am going to give you proof," Ria said quietly, calmly. "But you need to be outside to see it. I can't force you to come out, so the choice is up to you."

Raistlin debated the matter for several more seconds. He may not be a very strong man, but she was just a petite teenage girl. Her outfit wasn't one that could likely hide a weapon, so it would be a matter of hand to hand combat. She may surprise him by being trained in such, but she didn't have the look of a fighter, the musculature of one, the attitude of one. Raistlin wasn't a fighter either, but he had seen his brother and Sturm spar on more occasions than he could count. Caramon had insisted without relent on the necessity of 'teaching my brother a thing or two. Just in case, you know, until your magic can do the fighting for you'. The student mage decided that the chances of himself being thrown over the railing were relatively slim.

Raistlin hitched up his robes slightly and climbed out the large window to the balcony. Having spent his entire life living in a town whose buildings were built within trees, he was not afraid of heights. That didn't stop his heart from give a small flutter in fear as he heard the metal balcony creak quietly in protest with his weight added for it to support. It was too dark to try ascertaining the balcony's exact construction, what state of repair or disrepair it was currently in, and just how well it had been attached to the building. Raistlin kept one hand on the window ledge, ready to lunge back through the window, regardless of how undignified it may look, if the little wrought iron balcony showed any sign of possibly collapsing.

"What now?" Raistlin asked sharply, wanting to get this farce over and done with.

"There's a lot of lights from the city, even if we're on the outskirts of it, so not all the stars are visible here, but all you need do is look up and to any side and tell me if you recognize any of the constellations that are visible. The moon, and we only have a single moon in this world, is visible over that way." The direction the young woman pointed in, in the opposite direction to where Raistlin was facing, was discernable as her bare pale skin stood out against the shadows. "And you will see that our moon looks absolutely nothing like any of the three moons in your world."

Raistlin said nothing in response and looked up at the sky in front of him first. Astronomy was something he knew well and he was confident he would spot some constellations he would recognize. Even if they were in a different part of the Krynn and the constellations viewable in Solace weren't visible here, he had seen star charts of those recorded in other parts of his world.

Raistlin searched the sky for those distinct and bright constellations he knew so well and would help give him a general idea of where on Krynn he was…

…And found that he couldn't spot any of them. He could see various groupings of stars, but none of them were close enough to the patterns he knew to be correlated to one another. Fear, as unwanted realization began to creep into his mind, started to cut through his anger and disbelief again. That fear took deep roots as his gaze scanned new sections of sky and continued not to find any constellations he recognized.

Almost of their own accord, Raistlin's legs moved, turning him around.

The student mage easily spotted the moon hanging above the roof of the house. There was only a partial moon showing tonight, but what was visible was enough.

It wasn't the bright silver tones of Solinari that shone stalwartly through the darkness.

It wasn't the warm shades of Lunitari that welcomed and embraced one in safety through the night.

Raistlin had never been able to see the moon named after the god of black magic, Nuitari, as he was not a black robed mage, but this moon was clearly not that moon either.

This moon was white with a pale yellowish cast to it, sickly looking, and didn't seem to radiate near enough light as it should, even for a partial moon.

Raistlin's grip on the window ledge tightened painfully, the edge biting into his fingers. His legs were suddenly feeling weak. His stomach lurched queasily. His face felt flushed and yet clammy, and his vision began to blur. Having often been sick as a child, and even on occasions as he grew older, Raistlin had the terrible realization in some part of his mind that he was very close to fainting from shock. But he couldn't bring himself to do more than grasp onto the window ledge for purchase and stability as his attention was still focused on the feeble, wavering parody of a celestial body.

"Where in the name of the gods of magic am I?!"

Raistlin didn't realize he had spoken aloud until he saw Ria moving towards him from the corner of his eye.

"You don't sound so good. Sit down before you pass out."

A gentle hand touched his arm and pushed him back a step. Raistlin felt the edge of a chair against the back of his legs and he released his grip on the window ledge to let himself slump onto the chair. The entire time, his gaze remained on the foreign moon, though only the top half of it was visible now that he was sitting.

Raistlin finally tore his gaze away from the thing that was loosely called a moon when he felt Ria's hand come to rest on his forehead. Her hand pulled away as his head turned, and Raistlin saw she was kneeling down next to him.

"In answer to your most recent question, Raistlin," the young woman said quietly, with no trace of mockery and a great deal of sympathy evident, "this world is called Earth. We're on the continent of North America, in the country called the United States, in the territory called New Hampshire, in the city of Nashua."

Raistlin crossed his arms on his knees and lowered his head to them, taking purposeful slow and deep breaths to keep from passing out or losing his composure. He heard no further noises from Ria, so he knew she was remaining nearby.

Raistlin's thoughts couldn't find cohesion for several long minutes, even as he felt his body begin to calm down and the warning signals of being in danger of fainting passed. His mind tried to process this overload of information without breaking from the strain, but it had rapidly shut down and barricaded the information out, trying to give itself time to gather up what reserves could be mustered to handle the onslaught.

Inevitably, though, the thoughts did begin to tumble into his mind as the temporary reprieve began to be broken through.

He was in another world… That wasn't possible… But apparently it was possible…

He was in a place that wasn't just far from home, he was in a place where people didn't even believe his town, the people he knew, the places in his world, existed.

If they didn't know Krynn existed in truth, how could he find a way back?

Another series of thoughts hit Raistlin, even more terrifying than those ones had been.

There was only one moon here.

Not the three moons he knew. The three moons of the gods of magic. The three moons that influenced magic.

He was in a strange world with a strange moon.

Did magic not even exist here? Or, in this foreign world, was that just another part of stories like his world was considered? Or, where he knew his world and magic were real, did magic exist here as well, even if there was a foreign moon orbiting a foreign world?

What if there was no magic here? He may only be a novice mage right now, a student, but he was still a mage with the desire to rise through the ranks of magic. Magic was his life. If there was no magic, no way to reverse whatever had been done and send him back home, what was he going to do?

Raistlin tried to calm those panicked thoughts, forcing his self-control to return. He told himself he needed to calm down. He needed to think rationally. He needed to find out what he could of this world without jumping to fear-induced conclusions that would cloud his ability to do so. He needed to try to discover how he had come to be here, and therefore how to get back home. The prognosis was grim indeed, but the patient couldn't allow himself to believe the outcome was an entirely hopeless and foregone conclusion.

Raistlin heard shifting next to himself and lifted his head. Ria had apparently grown uncomfortable kneeling and was now sitting on the floor of the balcony. She was mostly hidden in shadows, but what light there was from the distant lamps on the street and the stars and moon above caught in her strange silver-grey eyes and red-hued hair.

Raistlin could also see the white blur of the cat, who had apparently snuck out onto the balcony while he had been mentally wrestling with this revelation, perched on the railing furthest from him.

"If you're feeling well enough," Ria offered quietly, "I think perhaps we should go back inside. We can talk more openly in there and you might be more comfortable. I'll try to answer whatever questions I can, and help solve this if I somehow can."

Raistlin let out a heavy sigh and rubbed the sides of his face in frustration, coarse stubble along his jaw rasping against the palms of his hands. He hated the feeling of stubble, the crude and unkempt appearance that most beards presented. Though he wasn't a vain person, not finding much about his appearance to be vain about, Raistlin did make it a strict habit to shave his face daily to keep the irritating growth away. Some part of his mind hoped that this world had some form of shaving razors. If not, he'd make due with a really sharp knife so long as it removed the facial hair.

Raistlin glanced at the window and gave another sigh. "I believe I may need another minute or two before I attempt to go clambering back through your window."

"Understandable… Would you like me to get you a glass of water or anything else?"

"I believe the only thing that would be able to aid me right now would be if you are able to summon up the gods themselves so they can explain just what in the deepest pits of the Abyss is happening and why."

"Unfortunately, that is not something that lies within my capabilities," was the wry response he received. "Otherwise, I would have done so sooner, as I have been wondering the same questions myself."

Raistlin looked back over to the young woman, still sitting on the floor of the balcony nearby, mostly cloaked in shadows. He could tell, though, by the light reflecting off her eyes that she was watching him. Her eyes shimmered in a way that almost reminded Raistlin of Solinari's light, if not nearly so bright, and her braided hair seemed a long banner of red stretching down through the shadows like rays of Lunitari's light. The thought, in relation to the young woman who was attempting to gently break the news of this disastrous situation and offer him aid, was almost a small comfort to the distraught and displaced mage. Almost, but not quite.

"Answer me this, Ria, as best and in full as you can," Raistlin requested, keeping his voice as impassive as possible so as not to reveal just how vulnerable the question made him feel to ask. "Do you know if magic exists and is accessible in this world?"

Ria hesitated in answering, and he couldn't see her face well enough to judge why that might be.

It took all of Raistlin's splintered self-control not to scream in frustration or allow his mind to jump to the absolute worst-case scenario. He needed to know if there was some hope of returning himself home. He needed to believe there was some chance of not being forever stranded in this far-flung and foreign world. Most especially, he needed to know if he was doomed to be without his sole driving passion in life. He had asked her to answer as best as she could, so he needed to give her a chance to put that answer into proper form so he knew just how remote his possibilities were.

He heard a sigh and the young woman shifting again. After she had repositioned herself to be more comfortable, she answered his question quietly.

"Magic exists in this world… But not in the ways that it is described as existing in your world. I honestly don't know if the differences are because they are different worlds, or because our understandings of magic and how to access it are different from those of people from your world… It's a very long story, a few thousand years long, to be precise, but the short and simple version is that magic and those who wielded it fell into public hatred a very long time ago thanks to the advent of a few intolerant religions and the overwhelming popularity they garnered. There were a lot of persecutions to magic users here. Similar to stories I've read that were incited by the Kingpriest of Istar, and the general populace after the Cataclysm, except reaching all over the world and not just isolated places. Temples, holy sites and libraries were systematically and indiscriminately destroyed on all continents over the centuries. Anyone even remotely rumored to be a magic user, even if they really were not and there was no proof, were killed if they were caught…"

There was another sigh from Ria. "I'm sure you get the picture pretty clearly without all the gruesome details… Some of those ancients are fabled to have had extraordinary abilities like mages in your world do, but no one these days have them. Magic isn't as hated here as it once was, at least, not in some places, but what is left of the knowledge of magic is extremely broken. Accounts of true events related to magic were passed down over generations as myths and mutated with each retelling. Nursery rhymes or folk songs with hints to important information. Fragments of tablets or scrolls about magical rites or languages recovered from ruins. Magical symbols and designs hidden in decorative clothing and jewelry fashions. That sort of thing. Even for those who have an interest in learning magic, who try to combine their efforts to piece everything together, there isn't much that is reliable to learn from anymore and no one aspect can be pieced together completely. Even in the places where the idea of magic is becoming more tolerated, we don't have schools or towers of magic like there is on Krynn. Only small and subtle things can be done successfully with magic, as far as I know. Where you're a trained mage from Krynn, even if you're still a student, maybe magic will work differently for you than it does for us and you'll not notice a difference. Or maybe not. I honestly don't know about that, though I have wondered ever since I first started reading the stories about your world."

"You're one of those people who are trying to learn what's left of magical knowledge in your world," Raistlin stated with certainty.

The aspiring student mage had heard an all too familiar and unmistakable tone of longing in the young woman's words; a longing for magic out of reach. He heard an undercurrent of anger when briefly describing the destruction of places of magic and any who might use it, and a great deal of sadness. Her usage of the word "we" and "us" for those trying to piece together that lost arcane knowledge. He remembered, among her books, those many volumes on history and those collections titled as being mythology and legends. The realization made Raistlin feel a stab of guilt for how he had accused Ria of perhaps lying to him because of a harbored hatred for mages.

"Yes, I am," Ria admitted matter-of-factly. "It's one of the things Maggie, and friends of hers who have become my friends, are teaching me." She added, a slight bitterness creeping into her words, "I have far less magical capability than even a student mage would, though. And even my mentors' abilities are limited compared to a true mage's, even a novice who has just passed his Test. Which is why I'm not sure how much help I'll be able to be when it comes to trying to figure out how you came to be here or how to get you back home. Inter-world travel is not considered, even among magic users, to be truly possible. At least not with what we know of magic's capabilities. It is only a subject theorized for stories."

Raistlin considered what the young woman told him, trying to do so as rationally and realistically as he could force his overwrought mind to do.

"Well, I am honestly not certain at this moment what I can even do to get myself home," Raistlin managed to say the words without breaking down from anxiety over that sickening admission. "But, if magic exists in any form within this world, there is hope of finding some way to my own if it can't be discovered how I came to be here in the first place… And whatever my reason for ending up in your world, perhaps I awoke in your home because you would be receptive to the fact I am not from this world and be willing to help me find the answers to this predicament I find myself in."

"Perhaps…" Ria agreed pensively. "I'll try to help as I can."

"Do you think your mentor and her friends would possibly be receptive to offering aid if asked for it?"

"If I can convince them that you're really from Krynn and not someone pretending to be because they're obsessed with the stories," Ria replied, sounding contemplative still. "Which might be difficult, but they are relatively open-minded. If I can, they'd be willing to help if they can. They're decent people who try to help whenever they see a need for helping others."

"What made you believe I was telling the truth about being from my world?" Raistlin asked, feeling a twinge of curiosity as to her reasoning. "Why didn't you allow the guards to arrest me, as you had threatened to do?"

"That isn't a simple one example or reason answer."

"Indulge me? If what you say is true and I am the only trained mage in this world, a vote of confidence might help my own confidence in being able to solve the larger issues at hand."

"I'll seriously consider your request, but only if you agree to go back inside," Argyria counter-offered. "My backside is starting to hurt from sitting on a cold metal floor and our coffee is getting cold. This is going to be a long night and I need a cup or five of liquid awareness if I'm going to be cognizant enough to answer all your questions properly."

Raistlin held back a laugh. "I suppose those are acceptable reasons to defer on an answer."