Part 762: Fish Out of Water

January 29th, 2021. Sarabiya, Egypt, 6PM.

A few hours earlier, Jason Hiro assumed the role of savior and freed all of Bahamut’s slaves. In doing so, he erased a tumor from the world, and also passed on the power of the Sphinx to Phoebe Berthold.

Now, with the initial hubbub having died down a little, but with many confused, angry, and even fearful former slaves having come to the realization they were not living in the same world as before, many eyes were directed at the two new acting directors of Sarabiya. Those two were a pair of women, Phoebe herself, and Jessica Harper, the Great Builder.

Jason had been ‘humiliated’ when the intelligent and brainy Jessica had put the Archseer in his place and established her authority, sending him packing. After Jason left, Phoebe stayed behind with Jessica and started interviewing each of Bahamut’s former slaves.

At least, that was the plan. It turned out Jessica was the one doing most of the talking, but Phoebe didn’t have any complaints. She was just as clueless about the current state of the world as all the others they were interviewing.

One of the first individuals they interviewed was Vex, the demon who had been the first to volunteer for the new SIGIL armor Jessica had invented. Even though he was a demon, he had instantly switched to becoming Team Humanity in a single instant. Gaining the power of a Duke made his morale skyrocket, and now he was all too happy to please.

"You understand you may be made to do unpleasant things, such as killing other demons." Jessica said, staring down her glasses at the skinny, wiry demon on the opposite side of the table from her and Phoebe. "Demons are currently the enemy of humanity, and the enemy of the Heroes. By aligning yourself with us, you’ll become an enemy of your own people. Are you sure you’re okay with that?"

Phoebe glanced at Jessica. Her short brown hair accentuated her facial features, making her appear mature and imposing. At the same time, her eyes had a magnetic quality to them, Phoebe sometimes wished she could stare into Jessica’s eyes for minutes at a time, before shaking herself out of her stupor and returning to whatever task happened to be at hand. She had no idea why she possessed such weird thoughts.

"Kill other demons? No problem!" Vex shouted, sending a huge thumbs-up in Jessica’s direction. "Demons already kill other demons. Who gives a shit if I’ve gotta kill a bunch more? Once my old buddies see how AWESOME this super-armor is, they’ll either be smart enough to join you, or stupid enough that I’ll just kill ’em anyway. I don’t wanna hang out with a buncha morons who can’t tell good from bad!"

"Are you only joining us because of the armor?" Phoebe interjected, directing a pointed question Vex’s way. "That seems a rather flippant reason."

"Sure it’s just ‘cuz of the armor!" Vex immediately admitted. "What other reason do I need? You don’t get my situation, do ya? Even if you didn’t gimme the armor, do you have any idea what kinda life I’d be livin’ in the Seven Hells, lady?"

Vex continued. "It’s a shitshow out there. I had to scrape and beg for a hundred years just to get my first few souls so I could be a Grunt, and then I had to kiss so much ass I’ve still got pubes stuck in my teeth before I could become a Lord! And that was another 200 years! Ever since, I was stuck in a rut, nobody taking me seriously. It’s a cutthroat life, living with the other demons! And I don’t mean literally cut-throat, cuz I’d totally slice some necks if it helped me get stronger! But you gotta know the right demons or you can’t go anywhere in life!"

Jessica nodded sagely. "I am well aware of the pains your kind endures. The Emperors kill humans, store the souls away, and only divvy them out to the demons they like most. With so many billions and trillions of your kind running around, there aren’t nearly enough souls to go around. You’re lucky you even made it to the rank of Lord in your lifetime."

"Damn right, lady!" Vex said, bobbing his head obediently to every one of Jessica’s words. "But don’t think just ‘cuz I changed sides once, I’ll be a floozy forever. I really respect that y’all are giving me this grand opportunity to be one of the first demons on your side! And furthermore, I’ve got a hunch that the old way of thinkin’s about to change! I don’t see the demons lasting much longer. I’d rather be on the winning side!"

"You think we’re going to win the war?" Jessica asked, raising an eyebrow. "Just because of this single armor system?"

For once, Vex quieted down a little. He leaned forward and sneered.

"Sister, just cuz’ I’m younger than most of the demon big-shots, that don’t make me a dumb baby who can’t tell his feet from his ass. I’ve seen lots of crazy stuff in the last 700 years. I even saw the short and sweet rise of that Joan Hero lady. You humans have always been waaaaaay behind on the military strength curve, see? But when Bahamut scooped me up a couple hundred years ago and I awoke in this weird future era, I started learnin’ all kinds of crazy shit had gone down."

"The last time I saw you humans, you was ridin’ horses and shittin’ in canals along the street." Vex continued. "Now, you guys have these crazy metal machines, weapons that can kill from a distance, and flyin’ machines are all over the fuckin’ place."

Jessica nodded slowly. She had already done one quick and short remedial class for the newly awakened Bahamians, as she had taken to calling them, but she’d only gone over the broad strokes. She was surprised Vex had paid so much attention. It seemed that despite his sketchy attitude and skeevy manner of speaking, he wasn’t as much of a nimrod as he first appeared. He was surprisingly bright.

"On top of ALL that," Vex added, "You have- how many was it? Like two Trueborn Heroes now and a dozen Lowborn in the wings? Even if you humans only had one Trueborn, with all these crazy military weapons you’ve been makin’, I wouldn’t wanna bet against ya, but now it looks like the human-demon war is a total wash! The demons are gonna lose, and they’re gonna lose bad. It ain’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when.’"

"And you want to be on the winning side." Phoebe repeated. "Well, your motivations are self serving, but they’re also oddly pure."

"I agree." Jessica said.

A long moment of silence followed. Jessica looked off to the side and fell into thought. Eventually, she turned back to Vex.

"Alright. Congratulations, Vex. You’re the first demon we’ll be adding to our ranks in the Divine Land of Earth. Someday, if you earn enough Merits, you might earn the right to see the Divine Land of the Stars. That will surely be an eye-opening experience for you."

"Just make sure you don’t betray us." Phoebe quickly added. "Even if Jessica doesn’t have the strength to chase after you, I certainly do. My Sphinx powers make that armor transformation of yours look like a toy."

Vex didn’t even bat an eye. "Of course I won’t! I’m a loyal backstabber, ladies! I’m on your side now, and I ain’t changin’ again! Now, you need me to sign a soul contract or anything?"

"Ah, no. That won’t be necessary." Jessica said, before adding: "I already marked you and all the others as soon as Phoebe released you from the Sphinx’s bonds. If you betray us, you won’t be able to hide anywhere in the galaxy."

"Haha… ha… haha…" Vex laughed, his voice weakening slightly. "…noted."

Vex eventually got up and shuffled out of the room. After he left, Phoebe and Jessica took a few minutes to chat about various things.

"I’m looking forward to meeting the pureblooded angel, Almar." Phoebe said. "I’ve never spoken to an angel before."

"They’re nothing special." Jessica said dismissively. "Some are better than others, and many are worse. Just don’t get starry-eyed by his mere presence. That Almar seems fairly noble, but you never know with his kind."

"You don’t like angels?" Phoebe asked.

"They’re fine. Like humans and demons, there are scumbags and paragons among their ranks. I simply don’t look up to them any more than I would an average human. I want to make sure you do the same so you won’t be fooled easily."

Phoebe’s heart was heavy. "Alright. I’ll take note of that."

Before calling in the next person, Jessica glanced around the room. "Hmm, it’s been a month and a half since you awoke… I guess now’s as good a time as any. I’m going to do the rest of the interviews myself. Why don’t I send you to visit the Divine Land of the Stars?"

"R-really?" Phoebe asked. "It seems like an awfully secretive place, Miss Harper. Are you sure it’s okay if I go?"

"Yes. I want- err, I mean, the Archseer is interested in bringing you there so you have more time to grow and adapt to your new abilities… and your new life circumstances. Once you’ve been there a while, he plans to send you back down to Sarabiya to help me out."

"But we still have so many people to interview." Phoebe pointed out.

"I can handle the burden by myself, at least for now." Jessica said, waving her hand dismissively. "You’re needed elsewhere. Go."

Phoebe nodded. "Alright. Thank you for everything, Miss Harper. You’ve taught me a lot."

After standing up, Phoebe paused and looked at Jessica’s side profile. "Say, I’ve been wondering… are you and the Archseer…"

"We’re not married. Absolutely not." Jessica immediately retorted.

"I was going to say… related?" Phoebe said, causing Jessica to blink in surprise. "You and him are sort of similar."

Jessica looked at Phoebe for a long moment, then looked away and chuckled.

"Saying we’re ‘related’ is a fairly accurate assessment. I am Jason, after all. One of his soul-clones."

"What? You are??" Phoebe asked, bewildered.

"Yes. I was going to try and keep up the deception, but it doesn’t feel right lying to you. My Wordsmithing allows me to create clones of myself." ‘Jessica’ said. "And alter my appearance, or theirs. So I made a female clone. This is actually not even a ‘real’ body. It’s actually mostly mechanical."

"Mechanical?" Phoebe asked, cocking her head. "You’re… not human?"

"Jessica is not human, no." Jessica said, looking at Phoebe again. "This body is made of a nearly indestructible material known as… well, I guess the technical details are a little much, but basically think of me as an animated statue with super strength."

To emphasize her point, Jessica suddenly slammed her fist down on the table and made Phoebe jump in alarm. The wooden table practically exploded into splinters and fell apart all over Jessica’s lap before collapsing onto the floor.

A moment later, Jessica waved her hand, and the table’s fragments abruptly flew up into the air and rapidly rebuilt themselves back into the original table in less than two seconds. It was as if an army of invisible carpenters were hurriedly jamming every last splinter back into place and super-gluing them at a speed Phoebe’s eyes simply could not follow!

After that, Jessica fell silent.

"Wow. Incredible. You can even make duplicates of yourself." Phoebe said, looking admiringly at the ‘woman’ before her. She still found it hard to believe that this was really Jason Hiro.

But then, a thought occurred to her. "You are a clone… so that means, earlier, when ‘Jessica’ mocked the Archseer and made him look bad, that was actually a deception?"

"A ruse, yes. My goal is to make the Trueborn Archseer seem insignificant in brains and only valuable in terms of combat strength. In this way, the demons will think I’m a stupid idiot meathead and drastically underestimate me. Except, talking to Vex has shown me that I might be putting too much heat on my clones."

Jessica shrugged. "Oh well. If Jessica dies, she dies. I’ll just make another."

A morbid expression spread across Phoebe’s face. "Don’t you think talking like that is rather… foul? Jessica, you’re a person…"

"I’m not actually a duplicate of Jason." Jessica said. "I’m literally not. I, Jason, simply have a powerful brain that allows me to split my thoughts and soul into multiple bodies, controlling them all at the same time. Let’s just say this is not my first foray into cloning, and I’ve learned from my past mistakes. Everything ‘Jessica’ experiences is something I experience, and anything she says is something I would usually say."

Jessica shrugged. "Anyway, yeah. I’d like to bring you to the Divine Land of the Stars now. Are you okay with that?"

Phoebe nodded dumbly. "Of course, my lord. I only live and serve at your whim. I would still be enslaved by Bahamut and an ordinary woman without you."

Jessica fell silent for a while. She lowered her eyes.

"You’re anything but ordinary, Phoebe."

"What do you mean by that?" Phoebe asked.

"Someday, my words might make sense to you." Jessica said quietly. "That day just isn’t today."

Another moment of awkward silence followed. Eventually, Jessica gestured toward Phoebe, and Phoebe’s vision turned white.

One second, she was looking at Jessica.

The next second, she was suddenly inside a strange room unlike any she had ever seen before.

Phoebe found herself standing in a room with glowing lights built into the ceiling. There was a brown table and chair with white accents to her right, and the design of them was somewhat feminine. She looked to her left and saw a bed with a white comforter on top, its edges brown, as if the opposite of the desk’s color scheme, yet the color coordination was impeccable.

She looked forward and saw a smaller sub-room with the door open. There was a rounded white seat of some sort inside, it looked like marble but was impossibly smooth compared to marble. Phoebe also recognized a ‘sink’ inside the room. She didn’t know why that word came unbidden to her mind. Perhaps she had witnessed something similar when she was under Bahamut’s control?

Phoebe eventually realized she was inside a bedroom. It seemed to match her stylistic preferences, too.

Was this…?

Suddenly, there was a faint displacement of air. Phoebe turned her attention to the young man who had abruptly appeared before her. She recognized him by his golden hair immediately.

"Hey, Phoebe." Jason Hiro said, gesturing around the room. "I decided to start you off small. This is your room inside Aevum. It’s your entire house, actually."

"My… room? My house?" Phoebe questioned. "The design is… unfamiliar. It seems…"

"Futuristic?" Jason offered.

Phoebe nodded. "Yes, my liege. Futuristic. That is a good descriptor."

"It’s just Jason." Jason reminded her. "None of that ‘my lord’ or ‘my liege’ stuff, please. You’ll make me feel awkward."

"I’m sorry, Lor- I mean, ah, I mean… Jason." Phoebe said quietly, flushing slightly when she said his name so plainly. "It simply… doesn’t feel right. I always addressed King Arthur as ‘King’ Arthur. Decorum is important."

"Well, maybe it was back then, but the times have changed!" Jason said, raising his voice an octave. "A new life awaits you, and a crazy world you’re sure to be surprised by. First, let’s start with a little tour of your new house, okay?"

Phoebe nodded. She followed behind Jason as he introduced her to the ‘bathroom’ with the ‘shower’ and ‘toilet’. As she had previously guessed there was a ‘sink’ inside. The fact water came out of the metal piece on top startled her. And the water was so clean, too! It was as clear as a placid pond!

"This is a hair dryer." Jason explained. "It uses electricity to create hot air. You can use it to blow dry your hair after you shower or bathe."

"Amazing!" Phoebe gasped. "This electricity magic is truly fantastical. It’s like the stories the seers used to speak!"

"It’s not magic. It’s… science!" Jason said grandiosely, before chuckling and lowering his voice. "Well, admittedly, I do use magic to create Aevum’s electricity, so you’re not far off."

"Ay-vum?" Phoebe asked, pronouncing the strange word carefully. "Is that the name for the Divine Land of the Stars?"

"Yes. Aevum is a place I built myself." Jason said. "It is not located on Earth. In fact, I built it amidst the stars."

"The stars… you mean the stars-stars??" Phoebe gasped, seemingly piecing together that the name was completely literal, and not merely a fun play on words. "We- we’re out in the stars? Up in the sky??"

Jason smiled. It was really adorable seeing Phoebe get flustered over such a small thing. Her expressions were really cute in his eyes.

But then his smile faded a little. A weird pit formed in his stomach, because the Phoebe he knew would not be easily flustered by news of this sort. She was a scientist, and a veritable genius, far smarter than him. Seeing her regress like this… it made him remember his real wife, not the false image standing before him.

Phoebe noticed Jason’s expression shifting between different emotions. "Jason? Jason? My liege?"

The unfamiliar term snapped Jason out of his momentary mental fugue. He quickly cleared his throat. "Ahem, didn’t I tell you not to call me that?"

"Yes, Jason. But it’s just that, for a brief moment, you looked so sad… it took me by surprise. Are you feeling alright?"

Jason forced a weak smile, but it didn’t fool Phoebe. "I’m… I’m about as alright as I can be. Let’s not talk about my mental state. There’s a lot of other interesting things to discuss, after all."

"Okay…" Phoebe said quietly.

Jason proceeded to explain the general concept of Aevum to Phoebe. She struggled to follow along, particularly when he accidentally strayed toward certain high-level topics.

"This… time… trans…ference… shifting… I am sorry, my liege. I just don’t understand…" Phoebe said, lowering her head in shame. She knew her stupidity was confounding. For such a genius like the Wordsmith to take time out of his day to teach her, and for her to learn so slowly, he must be feeling quite vexed. Perhaps he might even be debating whether or not he made the right decision bringing her here.

"No, it’s my fault." Jason said, a stabbing pain in his heart. He reached out to touch Phoebe’s shoulder reassuringly, only to stop halfway and retract his hand. "Temporal stuff is just… never mind. All that matters is that a day on earth means 365 days in Aevum. If you leave a year from now, you’ll return to Jessica on Earth with only one day having just passed."

"Oh." Phoebe said.

That was all she said in response. Judging by the look on her face… Jason knew she didn’t understand at all.

"Let’s just look around the house some more." Jason said.

He took her out of the bedroom and showed her the kitchen. Phoebe started feeling dizzy due to all the terminology he threw at her.

"Yes… yes, Jason. I see. Re… free… free-fridge… rator… stoah-ve. Oh, knives? I know knives. Mixing bowl? It uses electricity magic too?"

"And this is a microwave." Jason said. "If you put a plate or a bowl or even a cup of food in it, you can quickly heat the food up! But be careful, if you cook things too long they will be really hot! It’s best to use short timers and stuff. I’ll be giving you an assistant to teach you how to use everything here."

Phoebe looked at the strange white rectangular cube. She felt dizzy. She was becoming so disoriented from all the futuristic jargon that she started to wobble unsteadily on her feet.

"So next, we have- Phoebe? Hey, Phoebe! Are you okay??" Jason asked, before quickly reaching out and grabbing Phoebe’s shoulder right as she started to fall.

"Uhh…" Phoebe said, as the world started to shift unsteadily around her. The next thing she knew, she saw the counter rushing toward her face, before she stopped just short of slamming her teeth against it.

Jason had, fortunately, managed to catch her before she fell. He carefully wrapped an arm around Phoebe’s shoulder and eased her to the ground, looking at her with deep concern.

"Phoebe? Hey, Phoebe… are you okay? Normalize."

A Word of Power escaped Jason’s lips. Phoebe’s vision cleared up and she found herself in Jason’s arms, sitting in a heap on the floor.

"Huh? I- I’m sorry!" Phoebe cried out in embarrassment. "I suddenly felt faint, and I, I just- I’m so sorry, my liege!"

Jason carefully let go of Phoebe’s shoulder. He pulled away and looked at her for a few long moments.

Then he sighed.

"No… I’m sorry. I’m rushing you through all of this. There’s so much to learn, it was probably too much for you."

Phoebe balled her hands into fists. She felt tears welling up in her eyes at her own incapability and stupidity. It was obvious she’d gotten flustered and embarrassed herself. Now the Wordsmith was really going to think she was an idiot and a fool.

"It w-was my fault." Phoebe said, fighting back tears. "I’m the one who should be sorry. I told you before, I… I’m not the right person for the job. I know you must be terribly disappointed in me, my lie- I mean, I mean Jason."

To her surprise, when Phoebe looked at Jason, she found that he was stifling tears of his own, and this was such a surprising sight that it startled Phoebe out of her own state of distress.

She simply couldn’t understand why he would be on the verge of tears. If anything, she thought he would be angry, or maybe disappointed. Just what sorts of strange thoughts were going through the young Hero’s mind for him to be… sad?

Phoebe might not be all that bright, but she was a quick thinker. It only took her a second to realize exactly what the Hero was thinking about.

He thought he had made her collapse, and he was feeling deep guilt!

That was what made the most sense. He was just a young man, after all, and seeing her faint must have made him tearful because he felt it was his fault.

Phoebe thought this was a rather silly reason for a man to cry, but it was also touching that he cared for her well-being so much.

Jason had told her in the past that he was hundreds of years old, but Phoebe didn’t believe that was really true. Humans couldn’t live forever, and they would definitely age as time went on. How could he be hundreds of years old and still look like a teenager? Obviously, he had been fibbing to try and look more masculine. No young man would want to appear weak, especially when they possessed such a formidable Heroic power.

But then again, didn’t he say he had the ability to change his appearance? Hmm…

Phoebe was slightly perplexed. But all these chaotic thoughts intermingled, and eventually, she couldn’t help but let out a slight laugh.

That’s right, a laugh. She suddenly guffawed at the absurd realization that she had been thinking the Hero hated her, when actually he was feeling guilt and thinking she had fainted because of him. It was absurd, and it was funny!

"Hah!" Phoebe laughed, before suddenly clapping her palm over her mouth.

There were still some tears brimming in her eyes, but she was genuinely smiling, and this made Jason raise his head to look at her.

Now he was perplexed. Wasn’t Phoebe about to cry? Why would she suddenly laugh? Was it because she saw him about to cry? Did she think it was funny he was about to cry?

The absurdity of that situation, and the fact he knew Phoebe definitely wasn’t the type of woman to laugh at a man exposing his feelings, also made Jason stifle a laugh. Here he was, feeling deep guilt at overloading his not-wife’s head, and now she was laughing, and that made him laugh.

"Hah!" Jason laughed too, making question marks pop up over Phoebe’s head.

And thus, like this, their strange and awkward moment shifted gears what felt like ten times over the span of mere seconds, their emotions a turbulent roller coaster.

With Phoebe seeing that Jason was stifling a laugh, and Jason seeing that Phoebe was stifling a laugh, they suddenly couldn’t hold it in, and both of them started laughing even harder. What followed was thirty seconds of uproarious confused laughter where both of them were laughing at each other and themselves. They were laughing for reasons they didn’t even understand! Neither one knew what the other thought was so funny, but the comical mixture of tears of sadness and genuine laughter was like a tonic that shook them out of their stupor.

Jason grabbed his belly and roared so hard he thought he was going to throw up, while Phoebe suddenly got the hiccups, which made her giggling even funnier to Jason, and made him break out into another fit of laughter.

It took five entire minutes for both of them to stop giggling like little children. Even so, the residual giggling fits continued for another minute before Jason and Phoebe both managed to steel their faces, the corners of their lips still twitching.

"You… why were you laughing?" Jason asked.

"I don’t know." Phoebe admitted. "I just thought… oh, it’s not that important. That was such an awkward situation, I hope you’ll forgive me, Jason."

"Yeah, it’s fine. I was feeling guilty I made you faint with all my fancy words." Jason said, partially lying, yet accidentally ‘confirming the truth’ in Phoebe’s mind at the same time. "Um, so, yeah. Let’s just cut the tour short, eh? I think I can show you around without making you fall over from confusion."

"I’ll try to understand better, Jason!" Phoebe said, once again turning crimson from embarrassment. It seemed he really had felt guilty about overloading her head! Phoebe cursed her tiny peasant brain for being so bad at understanding all his jargon.

Jason and Phoebe both got up off the floor and after dusting themselves off, Jason led her into the living room.

"Look, forget all that other stuff. This is the room where you’ll be relaxing most of the time if you have nothing to do. I installed a TV with all the programs you’d ever want to watch from Earth on it."

Phoebe felt a hint of fear in her stomach.

"…Tee-vee?" She asked, wincing in preparation for another jargon-filled reply.

"Uh. You know what? Just think of it like a magical box." Jason said. "Have you ever watched a play?"

Phoebe nodded slowly. "King Arthur put on many plays in his court for his knights to enjoy, yes."

"Alright, well, it’s sort of like that. A box with people doing play-acting, where they act out fantastical stories, all of them fake to some degree, as well as stuff like sports, where people play games where they try to earn points. Here, let me show you."

Jason sat on the couch. It was true that he needed to show Phoebe around Aevum, but starting with something a little lighter sounded better. Phoebe sat on the opposite side of the couch from him, marveling at how comfortable the cushions were. Wasn’t this like a bed for the king’s servants? She could only imagine how comfortable her own bed was in comparison!

Jason picked up a remote and turned on the TV. Phoebe jumped slightly when a man suddenly appeared with a strange object in his mouth. Phoebe hesitantly identified it as some sort of long burning stick… perhaps a drug of some sort? The man wore a wide brimmed hat and an outfit that was completely foreign to her. Then he took a strange metal object off the side of his waist, aimed at it another man and-

BLAM! BLAM!

That was the first time Phoebe had ever heard the sound of thunder coming from a man’s hand. She flinched in fear, wondering what evil magic he had just used.

"This is called a ‘western.’" Jason explained. "It’s a type of movie where a ‘cowboy’ fights outlaws. Think of it like a futuristic knight hunting down bad people from back in your time. And that thing he just did? That’s called firing a gun. He used a revolver and shot the other guy."

"He shot him?" Phoebe asked, her eyes as wide as saucers. "Is… is the other man okay?"

"Probably not." Jason said. "But remember, even though this looks real, it’s all fake. It’s just like a play from your time, with magical effects. The man you see is a… he’s a play-actor. Even when he shot the gun, it was a fake noise. Real guns are much louder than that."

"They are??" Phoebe asked in bewilderment. She prayed she wouldn’t start getting dizzy again.

"Indeed. Tell you what, it’s been a while since I watched any TV. Let’s just put on something a little more… mellow. Something to ease you into the idea."

Jason thought for a moment, which translated into dozens of minutes with his accelerated thinking speed. Eventually, he decided to put on the simplest sort of program he could think of, a nature documentary about the Amazon rainforest.

And so, like this, Jason carved a couple of hours out of his schedule to sit with Phoebe and watch a few programs discussing the geography of planet Earth. Phoebe was much less startled by all the novel moving images, and she became extremely enamored with all the cute and scary animals that were portrayed on screen. With a narrator slowly discussing the beauty of the world she knew, Phoebe quickly grew to enjoy the concept of ‘the TV’, though Jason knew better than to simply hand her the remote. She was not ready for that big of a leap.

"Wow… this forest looks incredible. I would like to go there someday…" Phoebe said wistfully after the documentary ended.

"We absolutely can, and sooner than you think." Jason chuckled. "But not right now. We do need to get to work. I just wanted to sit you down and ease you into life on Aevum. Because of Aevum’s time acceleration, you don’t need to worry about the state of affairs on Earth so much."

Phoebe blinked. "Yes… the time… acceleration."

Jason sighed. She really didn’t understand high level concepts at all. It was extremely jarring compared to the Phoebe he was used to.

"Well…" Jason eventually said. "Are you ready to go outside and see what the rest of Aevum is like?"

Phoebe tensed up. Jason had already smacked her in the face with 8,000 confusing new terms and names, she wasn’t excited to be hit with more.

Seeing the earnest look of excitement the young man was wearing, Phoebe had no choice but to grit her teeth and force a pained smile.

"I… can’t wait!" She said.

"Great! You won’t regret this!" Jason said with a big smile.

Phoebe prayed he was right. She was just a simple peasant girl, after all.

A fish out of water.