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"Dumb luck nothing. You had an active shield up before you hit the ground. You had a backup ready in case you lost your Dev—your, what's the word they use here, your focus. If half the mages I know thought like you, I'd be the one scared of them."

People were scared of her, then. That made sense; I was one of them. Wait a minute. "Mages?" I asked. "I don't think I've ever heard that term before." Outside of an RPG, anyway.

"It's a local thing. You've probably guessed I'm not from around here by now."

I had guessed no such thing—I was too busy denying that any of this was happening to speculate like that—but if she was in a mood to reveal some information... "It crossed my mind," I said. "Though that depends on what you mean by 'around here'."

"Earth," she said, and once again my mental processes came to a screeching halt.

"You mean...you live in the Nevernever?" There were always rumors of humans who had managed to survive the Nevernever for extended periods of time, or even live there indefinitely, but they were just that: rumors. If—

"No, no, " she said, laughing. "Much farther than that."

"Farther than the Nevernever? Then...what, you're from heaven? Hell?" She didn't look much like my idea of an angel, and even less like a demon, though one can't count on appearance much when it comes to those kinds of things. A shiver went down my spine as a different idea presented itself. "Outside?"

She rolled her eyes. "Now you're too far. Think somewhere in the middle."

I thought about it. Then I thought about it some more, as we flew over the inky blackness of Lake Michigan, on a twisting path that only made sense to the woman holding me aloft. A woman with more magical talent than I had ever seen, wielding a weapon that looked built out of higher technology than any respectable wizard had any business using, and hinting that she worked, or at least used to work, for a much larger organization with significant assets, financial and otherwise. On the run from said organization, which had no problem barging into a random Chicago motel on their own instead of working with the local authorities. And then, like a little lightbulb going on in my head, it suddenly made sense. Everything made sense, in a way I'd rather it didn't. "Oh. Oh, shit. You've got to be kidding me," I said aloud.

She smiled sheepishly. "I come in peace; take me to your leader?"

Oh. I was about to say 'time traveler'.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7620569/2/