Wincing in the dark and dust, crushed in the small space, Tara stretches her arm. She finds the socket, inserts the plug, and hears a beep above her. Stifling a sneeze, Tara says, “I think I fixed your printer, Dr. Eisenberg.”

From across the lab comes a distracted, “Mmmm …”

She didn’t expect more. Scooting out from under the desk, she sees the doctor, back to her, sitting in front of a computer. Not turning, he says, “I love this interface for the dark energy detector you built me, Tara. I told you that you could do it!”

Tara smiles. “Thank you.” She hadn’t been so sure, but he’d convinced her to try, and she is pretty proud of the results. It’s not as special as he makes it out to be; she’d just combined low-frequency mining communication technology with dark energy detection tech. Still, putting that thing together, and designing the computer interface had been one of the more interesting things she’s gotten to do for her job. When she applied for the job for “network support specialist,” she hadn’t realized how many plugs she’d be inserting into electrical outlets.

Dr. Eisenberg’s voice rings with delight. “I can’t wait to see my first magical creature!”

It’s her turn to be noncommittal. “Mmm …” Dr. Eisenberg is new to Chicago. She’s lived here her whole life. She was here the day the world learned that humans aren’t alone in the universe. There are other realms, and some of humanity’s mythical gods and magical creatures—more scientifically known as “dark energy utilizing lifeforms”—are real. She watched the dust rise from downtown as Loki, the so-called Norse God of Mischief and Chaos, and a handful of AK-47 toting Dark Elves, turned half of Chicago’s financial district to dust. Loki vanished, the Dark Elves retreated to Eastern Europe, but visits by trolls, wyrms, and other nasties are fairly regular. Granted, the unicorns are pretty, Thor seems nice, and Odin’s people rounding up the Dark Elves and their collaborators around Chernobyl seem to be taking care of the radiation situation there, but her feelings on magical creatures are decidedly mixed.

Peering over his shoulder to check the readouts, her heart falls. Swallowing, she bites her lip, takes a deep breath, and fesses up. “Dr. Eisenberg, I don’t think you should thank me.”

Spinning in his chair, he looks up at her through his bifocals, a frown on his lips and brows furrowing. “What do you mean?” he huffs.

The small man goes from warm to ice cold in seconds. He’s more than a little plump, and right now his cheeks are trembling with what she knows is barely suppressed rage. He can be a difficult guy to work with, but Tara hates to let him down. He gave her, a Liberal Arts major without a computer science or engineering degree, the chance to work on this project, and she’s messed up.

Swallowing, she points at the readout. “Well, this is saying that there is a very large sustained energy disruption.”

“Yes,” Dr. Eisenberg says, eyes narrowing. “What are you getting at?”

Tara gulps. “The only thing that would cause this sort of readout would have to be a wyrm, or an invading army.”

Dr. Eisenberg’s pale skin goes chalky white.

Holding up a hand, she points to the office at the end of the lab where he’s been keeping Tara’s device. It’s designed to transmit through rock and concrete, and he’s been waiting for the guys from building maintenance to install it in the basement so they can test it. “If it was working, we’d have been eaten by now.”

Dr. Eisenberg licks his lips nervously. “It’s not in my office … or in the basement,” he whispers, and then spins in his chair. “Oh my god, oh my god.”

Tara’s heart skips a beat. She puts her hand on his shoulder. “We have to be calm. Where did you—?”

A deep voice booms, “Be calm about what?”

Tara turns to find Dean Kowalski at the door.

Spinning back around in his chair, Dr. Eisenberg cries, “I put Tara’s dark energy detector device in the abandoned Washington-State L station and it’s detected a wyrm … or an army.”

Tara blinks. Well that tells her the where.

“Why is your device somewhere other than this campus?” Kowalski demands.

Dr. Eisenberg pushes his glasses up his nose. “It’s Tara’s detector, George. You never give her credit.”

Tara’s eyebrows hike. Not the time to point that out, Dr. Eisenberg.

Kowalski roars, “Eisenberg, if you were in the abandoned L stop, you were trespassing!”

“You didn’t get me authorization to put it in the basement. Now we have to warn the FBI and call 911!” Dr. Eisenberg cries, raising his arms.

“Do you realize the laws you’re breaking by putting an unsanctioned surveillance device on public property? And how much money we get from city tax dollars?”

“There isn’t any law against that!” Dr. Eisenberg snaps.

Tara looks at the computer screen and the steady yellow dark energy indicator … if it’s real, it’s a wyrm … not an army.

“Of course there is, and if there isn’t, there should be—”

Taking advantage of her invisibility, Tara slips out the door, whips out her phone, and types out a quick warning on her social media channels.

Thought I saw a wyrm at Washington/State L.

She tags @ChicagoDE—the FBI’s handle for their Dark Energy Branch in town. Tara’s message is not technically a lie, even if she “saw it” on a readout on a computer. Brow furrowing, she also tags @godofradioshack and @godofsmallengines. They tweet a lot about magic detection devices—she’s almost sure they’re government techs.

She gets a reply from @godofradioshack almost immediately.

Thanks @ChiQueen. We’re on it.

They trust her. She smiles grimly. This isn’t the first time she’s let information like this out into the wild when Kowalski had a meltdown about procedures, or proprietary technology, or just “you didn’t get my permission for that!”

Moments later, @ChicagoFBI posts a yellow alert for the L line, and Tara nods in satisfaction. Yellow alert is perfect. Red alert would have people trampling each other to get to the exit. Yellow will have them griping about a possible false alarm—which it might be—but heading for the exit anyway. Wyrms are giant, gray, venomous snake things. After you’ve seen one wyrm, you don’t want to see another.

Kowalski storms through the door, not even glancing at her as she slips her phone away. Crossing her arms, she rolls her eyes at his back. His deliberate ignorance of her existence is probably not because she’s black, or female, or doesn’t have even a Master’s degree. It’s probably all three. She sighs. She didn’t take this job because she wanted to be famous, she took this job because she likes it. The hours aren’t stressful—well, they weren’t before she started working with Dr. Eisenberg—the health insurance is great, and it seemed like the perfect job to have if you wanted to start a family. She frowns. Not that she has a family, or even a significant other.

Shaking her head, she pats her phone in her pocket. She may be invisible, but she’s an invisible person saving the world, and she’s ready for any crisis Kowalski, or magic, sends her way.

Lionel stands in the lone Light Elf outpost in the Delta of Sorrows and wishes he could make himself invisible. The night wind is gusty, and branches of the skeletal black swamp trees clack against the outpost’s wooden walls. He hears the sounds of beasts and insects in the swamp. Soldiers pass by him, scrutinizing his steward’s attire with hard eyes. Around him, he hears whispers. “A steward should not be able to open a World Gate,” someone says. Someone else replies, “The peasant who approached us on the Golden Road was his mother … Peasants shouldn’t rise to the level of steward to Her Majesty, either.”

Lionel feels his ears flush. It is unusual that a peasant as young as Lionel is magical enough to rise to the level of steward. He hates attention being brought to that … it brings up too many awkward questions. Who is your mother? And worse. Who is your father? He shifts on his feet and tries to ignore the gossip.

It’s harder to ignore the way his skin crawls to the points of his ears. The Delta of Sorrow’s waters twist magic inside out and backward. Even though he’d ridden in on a horse, and had been a good pace above the effluent, the whole trip he’d felt like his hair had been brushed the wrong way. Now he feels like the black trees, angry beasts, and dark waters around the outpost are ready to swallow the tiny piece of dry land whole. He doesn’t know how the Dark Elves can live here.

He turns at the sound of footsteps. Finding himself facing Lady Light Leaf, a member of the armed escort that brought him to the desolate place, Lionel bows.

“Steward, come with me,” she says.

Lionel falls into step as she strides toward a bare patch of land atop the tiny hillock within the compound. He can feel the flush of magic on his skin as they draw closer to it. Lady Light Leaf says, “You’ve never been to Midgard or encountered wild humans before?”

Lionel keeps his eyes focused on the muck. He has been to Midgard and met wild humans, but it’s a subject as difficult as his unconventional rise in ranks.

Taking his silence for an affirmative, Light Leaf continues, “Wild humans are not like Odin’s recruits, the Einherjar who visit the Queen’s Palace. The Einherjar don’t just get immortality when they eat Idunn’s apples, they become magical, and magic bestows nobility … before that, they’re savages.”

Lionel’s ears twitch. His experience is very limited, but that is not how he remembers all the wild humans he’s met.

“If you get caught, they’re liable to take you for a leprechaun and torture you until you lead them to your pot of gold,” she finishes.

Lionel presses his lips into a thin line. The ancient peasants in his village who’d lived in Midgard have a take on humans that is very different. “There are bad humans,” he was always told, “but they’re so small and stunted, you can’t help but want to help them! And anyway, unless you do something stupid, like become indebted to them, your elven charm makes them next to helpless.”

His brow furrows. That helplessness was before the humans started using gunpowder to make weapons.

To Lady Light Leaf, he says, “Of course.”

The whisper of arrows makes Lionel look up. Elves on the northwest turret are releasing a steady volley. Beside him, Lady Light Leaf commands, “Stay down,” and jogs off.

As a peasant who spent his youth at the border of the Dark Lands, he is proficient at a bow, and a fair hand at a blade. He could help them if he was armed, but no warrior would dream of offering a weapon to a steward. His fingers reach the magical key that hangs at his wrist. Marker of his station, it can open any of the doors in the palace. But more than that, it acts as a magical reservoir, and he can use its power for feats of magic he wouldn’t be able to accomplish on his own. It is his only weapon.

There is a sound like fireworks outside the gate. Shouts ring around him and warriors rush by.

Lionel swallows, remembering his mother’s words. “Why does the queen care about Dark Elves trading for weapons with the humans? It’s Odin the All Father’s job to round up magical creatures who break the law by going to the human realm.”

“Odin’s forces are thin, Mother,” he’d replied. “If we don’t act, the Dark Elves will wage war against the queen before Odin intercedes.”

“But you’re no warrior! Why should she put your life in danger?” she’d pressed.

Lionel didn’t dare tell her that the queen’s orders had put him in danger before, danger greater than collecting Dark Elves trading for weapons with humans in Midgard. And he hadn’t tried to explain that he relishes the hard and dangerous tasks the queen gives him. No one had expected him, a peasant, to succeed as a steward. It was a matter of personal honor that he more than succeed, he had to excel. He wasn’t about to fail now.

Instead of saying all that, he assured her, “They just need me to open the gate, Mother. I won’t be in the fighting.”

The sound of fireworks brings him back to the present. He swallows his fear, realizing it’s “gunfire,” and far too close.

“Got him!” someone says.

“Retrieval party!” someone shouts. “At the gate now!” Lionel watches in fascination as four warriors climb down from turrets and jog to the gates.

Lady Light Leaf’s voice at his shoulder makes him start. “Be glad it’s not you, Steward.”

Lionel nods politely. There is no disagreeing with royalty.

She beckons, and he follows her to the open space at the center of the fortress, the feel of magic intensifying with each step. Twelve warriors wait there. All are taller than him—as befits their station—and all wear the queen’s livery of ivory and pale blue. Their hair is held back by clasps of gold, revealing the points of their ears. Lionel feels their eyes on him. Someone clears his throat. None of them expect someone peasant-born who is only a few centuries old to be able to open a World Gate. All elves can sense World Gates, but not all can walk through them, much less hold them ajar for others.

Lionel takes a half step forward and feels a fissure in the air. Lifting his arms, he drags his hands through the air, and feels the fragility of space and time beneath his fingers.

“I’m ready,” he says.

Lady Light Leaf’s eyes go toward the gate of the compound and narrow. “We go now.”

Lionel nods. Closing his eyes, he reaches up and grasps “the Veil” of space time and folds it back. He opens his eyes. Nothing appears to have changed, but he lets out a breath. “It’s done.”

Light Leaf nods to the warriors, and they step through in barely perceptible shifts of light. From the compound comes whispers of disbelief. “Stewards shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“It must be a special talent,” someone else says.

“Lady,” Lionel says, inclining his head to the gate. Opening World Gates is a special talent of his, but the effort of holding the Veil back is tiring.

“I never doubted you’d be able to do it, Steward,” she says. “The queen doesn’t make mistakes.”

Lionel can only nod in response. She has to know the strain of keeping the gate open is costing him.

“But riding here, I was surprised that you could ride a horse so well.”

The Veil slips through Lionel’s fingers, and the gate closes with a fizz of magical energy.

Bowing his head, he looks up at her through his eyelashes. There is a smirk on her face. Lionel’s skin heats, prepared for her to berate him for letting the Veil close.

Instead she takes a step closer to him, head cocked. “Well? Aren’t you going to tell me how you got such a good seat?”

Lionel feels the heat of magical compulsion in the air, tightens his grip on his key, and lets its magical energy fuel his resistance. It’s not the first time he’s been propositioned by someone above his station, though she is the first warrior to do so. His eyes fall to where her sleeve is rolled up, revealing her soulmark: two arrows aimed at the sun. He’d seen the same mark on one of the warriors who’d just stepped through. Elves aren’t monogamous before marriage, nor even supposed to be jealous, but a dalliance with someone below her station might cause trouble for Lionel.

“Well?” Light Leaf smirks.

She is as tall as him, her skin bronzed, her eyes the color and shape of almonds, and the magic she radiates feels just slightly older than his. He might have been interested just minutes before, but she’s playing games while warriors are stranded on the other side of the World Gate on a strange world with guns. They may not be his caste, but he still finds the heat of anger rising in his chest on their behalf. At the same time, he finds a misconception crumbling. He’d thought that a warrior, accustomed to death, might hold onto life and their paramours with more emotional energy. Lionel’s too often been called overly emotional. He doesn’t like to share; he would like someone more … invested. But Light Leaf doesn’t hold even to her soulmate with any urgency, apparently.

“I was born a peasant,” he replies. “I can ride horses, hadrosaurs, hippalektryons … all sorts of beasts.”

She huffs. He isn’t sure if he’s insulted her or titillated her, but he’s parried her advance well and has plausible deniability. “Shall I open the Veil again?” he asks.

“Yes,” she replies, her eyes narrow and gleaming.

He rips it back with perhaps too much force, and she steps through and winks out of sight. Following her a moment later, he finds himself in a strange misty purple-orange twilight, blinking at Light Leaf’s soulmate. He’s smirking openly at Lionel. “Couldn’t hold the World Gate open, Steward? I’d hoped for more stamina from you.”

The hairs on the back of Lionel’s neck rise. The lord knew of his lady’s advance, and by the look on his face, approved of it. They are in a foreign world, facing possible death, and the nobility still play games. The memory of an ex-lover’s voice fills his mind. “We’re elves, the only true immortals. We have to play games or we’d die of boredom.”

Turning away from the lord and the memory, Lionel looks down the narrow street and feels magic on his face. “Someone magical approaches,” he says, grateful he has an excuse not to answer the lord’s question.

“Strange,” says Lady Light Leaf, walking in the direction of his gaze. “I don’t feel—” She halts in her tracks and her eyes go wide. She lifts her hand, bows rise, and a few swords come out. Lionel’s hand goes to his key.

The sound of birds fills the narrow roadway, and Lady Light Leaf signals the archers to put down their bows. Out of the mist a group of Light Elves emerge. They are led by a tall elf with dark brown skin, nearly black eyes, and long dark braids held back with bands of gold. Lionel bows, recognizing Lord Beddel of the Sun Kingdom of Alfheim’s Middle Continent.

“You’ve brought a mage to man the gate?” Beddel asks with a frown.

Lady Light Leaf gestures to Lionel. “By the queen’s command, I have brought her steward.”

Lord Beddel narrows his eyes at Lionel. “Are we stretched so thin?” he murmurs. “Steward, listen to me. As soon as we apprehend the Dark Elves, we’ll bring them here. I will be busy constraining them. Your task will be to open the gate. Understood?”

Lionel bows again. “Of course, I will wait.”

Beddel stalks closer. “The humans’ magical chariots pass through this way. We have some intelligence they may be self-aware. They can crush you on a whim. Don’t get hit.”

Taking a step back, Lionel says, “Yes, sir, of course not.” Due to one of the queen’s whims he hasn’t told his mother about, Lionel had seen one such chariot, and thought much the same. Confirmation of his suspicion doesn’t make him feel better.

Beddel waves a hand at the others. Where there had been elves, round-eared humans appear, wearing strange blue uniforms, their bows invisible. Lionel notices Beddel doesn’t use a magical object like his key to power the illusion. Lionel’s magical skills are strong for a peasant, but nowhere near the other man’s.

Beddel waves his hand again, and the warriors depart.

Lionel waits for them to be out of sight. He promised his mother he’d come back to her, and the night feels cold and dangerous. He decides to use a skill he isn’t supposed to have. Grasping the key tightly, he lets its magic rush into him, and uses it to compel the photons to pass through him as though he doesn’t exist. Even with the key to power the invisibility, it is draining. Leaning against the wall for support, he waits, ready for any human or magic chariot that might set upon him.