I opened my eyes and peered around. I was lying on the floor in a small room. I immediately stood up. Where were my friends? I could not see them anywhere in this room. I crossed to the door and tried the handle. To my surprise the door wasn't locked. I flung it open and glanced up and down the corridor outside. Closed doors lined the walls. I started walking along the hall; checking every door to see whether or not it was locked. Most of the doors swung open at my touch, but finally I came to a small door at the very end of the corridor.

I pressed down on the handle but it wouldn't budge. My eyes lit up. My friends were most likely on the other side of this door. I rattled the handle uselessly for a few seconds, wondering how I was ment to open this door. I could always use my fire magic, but I might end up burning down the whole building if I wasn't careful. No, there had to be another way. I looked down and saw a key jutting out from the door's lock. I frowned. I was standing here, wasting my time while the key was sitting in plane sight? Typical me, I thought. I reached for the key and turned it. The door opened and I looked into the room beyond. I saw my team-mates lying in various positions on the floor. For a minute I wondered if they were all unconscious but then A.C sat up. "You're here, finally." I frowned at him. He was talking as if he had been expecting me, and I was extremely late. I was about to respond with a sarcastic remark, but then I thought better of it. "Come on. We have to get out of here before our kidnappers find out that we're free." A.C got to his feet and pulled Roger up beside him. Roger seemed a bit dazed, but he didn't complain as Elise and Ash followed us all out the door.

We were about half-way down the corridor when someone suddenly fazed in front of us. We all stopped short but before any of us could react, the person clicked his fingers and my team-mates all vanished. I stared around in panic, before turning my eyes back to the man. He was scanning me intently with deep emerald-green eyes. He looked to be in his early twenties and he had sleek reddish brown hair. I frowned. "Are you First Mage Ezra, by any chance?" I asked but he didn't answer. "Are you the one that got us kidnapped?" Still no response. "What do you want?" I finally snapped, losing my patience. "You need to go back to where you came from. You are an exception, and do not belong here. I sent that scroll addressed to team 13, which was supposedly from their guild asking for urgent assistance. I knew that you would follow them out here," he said in a calm voice. I nodded as I remembered how I had thought that there was something strange about the writing on that scroll. I guess it made sense now. Ezra had probably used some kind of strong magic to write the messageon it. "So do you know why I was teleported here in the first place?" I asked Ezra. He frowned. "You were teleported here? By who?" I shifted my feet. "How did you know what I looked like? That man we met in Nightshade Forest said that you were looking for a girl with my exact features," I said trying to change the subject. I did not know how Ezra would take the news that Alvin was the one that had teleported me into Alyncia. "My sources told me. Now answer my question." he said. I hesitated. "I, just ..." "And don't lie, or you might never see Team 13 again." I tensed. "Fine. I just got a weird message on my, electronic device, before being teleported here." Ezra frowned. "Who sent the message?" "Um, it was... someone, I..." Ezra tapped his fingers impatiently on the wall and I took a deep breath. "I'm pretty sure that it was Alvin who sent the message." Ezra's face remained neutral, which surprised me a little.

Anyway I suddenly realised what a plausible answer to the question of why Alvin had sent me here was. "Could the reason that I was teleported here be that Alvin wanted me to discover that I could use advanced fire magic?" I said, more to myself than to Ezra. Ezra's eyes widened. This was the first time that his face had been more than expressionless. "You can do magic? But aren't you a human? Humans' are usually unable to cast spells ..." Then he looked back down at me. "What's your family name?" I blinked. "What?" "What's your, sir-name?" I had no idea how my sir-name was related to the fact that I could cast magic, but I decided to tell him anyway. "It's Kenley." Understanding flickered in Ezra's eyes. "Well, it makes sense now." He focussed his gaze on the wall to my left. "Back when humans were welcome in Alyncia, your family was one of the first to come here. They were very interested in magic and began trying to find ways in which they could learn it. They ended up being very powerful mages, with fire spells that most Alyncians could only dream of. Some say that this is another reason why humans began to be despised in Alyncia. People were jealous that mere humans could be that powerful when they themselves didn't know spells as advanced." I stood there in shock. This meant that my great great grandparents could have lived in Alyncia for a while, but then how come I had never heard about any of this from my parents or relatives back home? Before I could ask Ezra this question he looked at me and announced, "I will give you a choice. You can either stay in Alyncia for the rest of your life, or you can go back to the human world and never come here again since you coming and going often could create more holes in the barrier protecting Alyncia." I stared at him. A choice? He was actually letting me choose?

Then I began thinking. If I stayed here, then I could rebuild my relationship with Team 13. We could all go on amazing quests together and I could formally join Timecrest. I could be a mage, maybe even an idle for other mages training in fire magic. I would never have to listen to people babbling on and on about how Timecrest wasn't real and telling me to get my head out of the clouds. My sister wouldn't be able to control my life anymore, but then there was the other side of the coin. If I went back to the human world, I would be able to see my friends again. I could eat my Mom's home-made meals and I wouldn't need to fend for myself, which I would need to do if I wanted to join a guild. Friends were one thing, but what about family? Despite the fact that Mae could be really annoying when she wanted to be, she was still my sister, with whom I had created many happy memories with. Could I really abandon her that easily? I hadn't even said goodbye to her when I teleported to Alyncia. This fact made me feel really bad and I decided that I could not leave my family behind, especially after all that they had done for me. I sighed as I opened my mouth and threw away the possibility of ever becoming a proper mage. "I would like to go back to my world," I told Ezra, "but before I go, could I please say goodbye to my, to the team? We have all been through a lot together ..." Ezra nodded and clicked his fingers.

My body fazed out and soon I found myself standing in front of A.C, Ash, Roger and Elise. Ash and Roger looked relieved when they saw me. "We were so worried when we suddenly found ourselves here and you weren't with us. What happened?" Ash asked. "Well ..." I quickly told the Team what Ezra had told me. Then Roger held up his hands. "Wait, you mean to say that your family used to live here, and they were mages?" I nodded. "I was pretty shocked myself, to be honest," I admitted. Finally, my speech came to the last part. "Then Ezra told me that he would give me a choice. I could either go back to the human world or stay here forever." I paused. "And what did you pick?" Elise asked. "I, I'm so sorry, but I want, I need to go back. My family are there, and I can't leave them behind without even saying goodbye." After a moment Ash turned to me. "I understand." Roger nodded as well. "Me too. No matter what my family have done to me in the past, I could never just forget about them like they didn't exist." Elise sighed. "Well, I guess this is the last time we'll see you, Westlyn." Before I could reply Ash suddenly ran up and hugged me. I blushed bright red, before hesitantly hugging him back. After a moment he let go and went to stand with his friends. Then I shook Roger, Elise and A.C's hands. Roger's pail blue eyes were sad as he said, "You will be remembered as a hero in Winsorhowl. You saved a lot of people from those sand worms." I smiled. Then A.C stepped forward and shook my hand. His grip was firm, and my eyes focussed on his sword which was sheathed at his side as usual. I kind of regretted that I had never asked him to try it out. I would have enjoyed shouting, "Eat The Breakfast" at least once in my life. Elise was last in line. "It was interesting meeting you, westlyn. I enjoyed killing things alongside you." I smiled. "Me too, Elise."

I glanced at a sad-faced Ash, and then Ezra fazed in next to me. "Are you ready?" I took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes.""Definitas!" I glanced at Team 13 one last time but their sad faces faded away as my vision went black.