Vancouver I

The words blurred. I gagged, pressing a hand to my mouth to keep myself from vomiting.

I still couldn’t do it.

I had been trying for a whole week to write the new Ana and the Emperor, but it wasn’t working. It wasn’t that I had writer’s block. Rather, it was like every line dragged energy out of me. A similar thing had happened to Sai-ee in the original—he’d been exhausted all the time, being forced to work as a magician all hours of the day.

It might’ve been harder because this world didn’t make as much logical sense. Being happy wasn’t illogical, but there were things like—I had to reverse the technological development Ry’keth had gained from imprisoning magicians. Except that technology helped people in their everyday lives, so I eventually left the important stuff in, noting off to the side that an Asan inventor had managed to come up with it because he wasn’t oppressed/dead. That was a good enough explanation, but I couldn’t explain why they didn’t imprison Sai-ee. Something in their state constitution?

When I didn’t explain things, writing dragged more energy out of me. When I tried to explain everything, it gave me a horrible headache. Actually, I got a headache either way. It was a horrible frustration, clawing at a wall and nothing was taking. And I was still in the hospital…

Priya was threatening to take my computer away. I was on chapter two, but I had a sinking feeling that this one wasn’t taking.

Three teenagers fell to the ground in front of me.

Huhwhat?

I whacked my computer shut. When I tried to get up, my legs gave out and I felt dizzy. I sat down and stared. “Jayla?”

Oh, she was bleeding again. This was a nightmare.

“H-hey, Naomi, right?” Lil said. “My memories are—I remember you but I’m forgetting other things.”

This was real?

Sai-ee was trying to heal Jayla, who was bleeding, shot through the chest.

Hey, we were in a hospital!

I slammed the button to call the nurse.

“Can you heal her?” Sai-ee asked.

“The hospital should be able to—”

Lil was holding a little book, the edges vanishing. She held out a page to me. “Engrave these, quick!”

It was the page for heal. Vanishing way too quick to copy from; I snapped pictures of it with my phone.

A nurse arrived. “What is it—what the fuck?! Ah, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t’ve said—”

“Get her in treatment,” I said.

“Is she—are those body mods?”

“She’s not human, but her biology is pretty similar, the same medical techniques will work on her pretty much, now get her to care, she’s been shot.”

The nurse dialed her boss with one hand and got Jayla, now unconscious, onto a wheeled hospital bed with the other.

Lil and Sai-ee’s clothes transformed in that time. Lil’s looked almost the same, a different cut, a little simpler, while Sai-ee was in the fancy Ry’keth court magician outfit instead of the casual Koteran clothes he’d been wearing a second ago. Sai-ee looked around, confused, then slouched down.

“What happened?” Lil asked.

“Pretty sure I should be asking you that.”

She blinked at me. “Naomi?”

“Hey. You have any idea what’s going on?” As I talked, I followed the nurse to another room, where a group of doctors hurried in.

“I know the situation’s odd,” I said, leaning on my crutches, “but just help her, okay?”

“Are you her family?”

“We’re friends, close friends.”

“What about…” She was looking at Lil and Sai-ee.

They were both confused and out of it. I said, “Acquaintances.”

I wanted to stay near Jayla, to make sure the doctors didn’t try and study her biology or something for starters, and I was supposed to be resting in bed, so I called Priya to ask for metal and engraving supplies.

“You need what?”

“I don’t need a laser engraver or anything, just stop by the hardware store.”

“You’re supposed to be resting! Hey, what are you resting from again? Oh, right, getting shot. You’ve got weird hobbies, Naomi.”

“C’mon, Priya.” My parents were in town now, so I’d maybe call them if Priya wasn’t willing, but they’d probably have even more questions.

In the end, she came and gave it to me. I stood to block her view of Jayla in the bed so she didn’t ask more questions. I couldn’t hide Lil and Sai-ee, though. Sai-ee sat on the floor, while Lil looked curiously at her.

“What’s with this strange lost child?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“...Get back to bed.”

I had to answer how old Jayla was, if she had an emergency contact (me), and if she was a Canadian citizen (no) or resident of Canada (no). Finally the doctors told us something—

That this was most likely a fatal injury. Jayla had been resuscitated, was alive now and would continue to be for some time, but it wasn’t tenable.

I waited for the doctors to leave, took what I’d engraved, rested it on Jayla’s chest, and sent through it that magical power which I could barely feel in this world.

She awoke gasping, breathing heavy breaths.

Oh, god, she was awake. Alive and awake. I hugged her tight, burying my face in her hair.

“What’s going on? Where are we?”

I laughed, caught up in the rush of it all. “Hey Jayla. Welcome to Canada.”

“Sai-ee,” Lil said, tugging on his sleeves. “We’re in a hospital and you have healing power.” With a big smile: “Let’s go around!”

“I don’t even know how we ended up in this hospital, and you want to go around helping people we don’t even know?” Sai-ee protested. “Last time I saw you, you were getting dragged out of a truck going to get executed a second time!”

“How did we…” Jayla started to ask.

“I don’t know. You three must’ve gotten here somehow—I haven’t done anything. I’ve been trying to rewrite the world.”

“Maybe the rewrite versions of us did something.”

“...That’s very possible.”

“We’re safe now,” Lil said. “Let’s figure it out later. That worked so well—guess how many lives we can save now!”

And so began our brief period of enjoying the modern world.