Alex had learned two things since moving into the Red Tower.
One: not all professors were sane.Two: Yue was scarier than all of them combined.
Not in a loud way. She never raised her voice. She barely even spoke unless you asked her something first. But she had that stillness like a pond just before a beast rises up from underneath. Living with Haku and her under the same roof was like sharing a house with an old cat and a sleeping dragon. One would ruin your rug. The other might vaporize your soul.
Still, she was polite. Made tea. Always barefoot for some reason.
And, most importantly, they were friends.
So when Haku grunted something about "Find a way to make an ice golem and control it," and vanished into probably another Tavern, Alex went to Yue.
He found her where she usually was in the late afternoon, sitting on the roof of their temporary home, legs dangling off the edge like she wasn't twenty feet up. Her eyes were half-lidded, watching the horizon, like she was expecting something to crawl out of it. Hair loose, breeze catching it in slow waves. Peaceful, but in that way, you get just before a storm breaks.
Alex climbed up, careful with the tiles. "Hey."
Yue blinked once. Didn't look at him. "Hey."
"I need help."
"Obviously."
He sat down next to her, letting the wind catch his coat. "We're trying to fake a golem. I'm thinking a suit of armor with runes and some mana crystals of the ice nature, since that's the best I can do at my level to make it look autonomous. But I can't quite control the movement cleanly. If I push too much, it jumps. Too little, it falls over. Haku wants it flashy but not explode-y."
Yue nodded slowly. "You want stability."
"Basically. I remember you once said you were good with yin qi, which is comparable to Ice mana."
"I am." She turned to him, finally. There was something sharp behind her calm expression. "I can bind the joints with thin ice threads. Connect to them with my qi. Make it move like a puppet. Quiet. Clean. Beautiful."
Alex blinked. "So… you'll help?"
"Yes," she said simply. "But only if we do something fun first."
He raised an eyebrow. "…Like what?"
Yue smiled.
That was when he knew he'd made a mistake.
Five minutes later, they were in the clearing behind the house. Yue drew a circle in the air with her finger, and it began to ripple like someone had poked the sky with a stick and annoyed reality.
A rift tore open above them. Quiet. Smooth. No fireworks, no screaming. Just… a hole in the sky, leading somewhere very much not here.
Alex stared. "That's not legal."
Yue tilted her head. "Not illegal either. Just unknown."
"Where does it go?"
She didn't answer. She just grabbed his hand and stepped through.
The air on the other side was sharper. Brighter. Heavier somehow.
It was a forest, sure, but the trees here were older than kingdoms. Everything pulsed with a different kind of feel, not mana. The leaves shimmered faintly. The wind hummed like it was thinking. Somewhere far off, something roared, and the mountains echoed back like a challenge.
Alex spun around. "What is this place?"
"My world," Yue said, already floating a few inches off the ground like it was second nature. "The cultivation realm, as the duke called it."
She hovered for a moment, arms crossed, looking more alive than usual. "It's been a while. I missed this."
"I thought cultivators had to use some sort of portal to get here, I just didn't expect you to just make one."
"We can't. Until we can."
Alex looked down at his hands. "Can I even use magic here?"
"Try," she said, already walking off into the woods.
He followed her, trying a small fire spell as they walked. It sparked, then burst out faster than normal. More raw. Less filtered. Like the magic here didn't have laws, just instincts.
Alex smiled.
They walked deeper, until the forest changed, trees thicker, fog denser, everything watching them even if it had no eyes. He spotted the first monster around then some kind of three-tailed wolf, pure bone-white with blood-red teeth. It prowled silently behind the brush.
Yue didn't even flinch.
"Go ahead," she said.
Alex summoned a basic ice lance and lobbed it at the beast's flank. It dodged, barely, but that was enough. He was already moving, fire gathering around his hand. A few quick dodges, one stumble over a root, and then
Boom. One crispy three-tailed wolf.
'What is going on? I'm like a full-fledged mage here.'
Alex stood there panting. He'd overcast. The spell pulled harder here, didn't care if you burned out. He kind of liked it.
Yue looked amused.
"Again," she said.
And again.
And again.
He lost track of how many monsters they fought. They moved through the forest like it was a dream, Alex casting faster, learning to feel the rhythm here. He mixed spells, ice to trap, fire to strike, and lightning when he was feeling reckless, all basic spells, but the power was enormous here. Yue rarely helped. She only stepped in when something really nasty crawled out like that eel thing with wings and too many jaws. She sliced it clean with a finger.
She didn't even look tired.
By the time the sky shifted colors here, it didn't dim, it just… changed hue. Alex was on one knee, panting, but grinning like an idiot.
Yue was smiling too. For once, fully since Alex left for school.
"You're good," she said.
"Thanks."
"You'll be better soon."
"I'm trying."
She nodded, then drew a second rift in the air, smaller this time. It opened with a hum. "We should go. Haku will notice if we're gone past sunset."
Alex looked back once. The forest behind them was already healing. Trees straightening. Fog settling.
"Will we come back?"
Yue looked at him. "Only if you want to."
They stepped out just behind the house.
It was quiet again. Regular quiet. Dull, comforting quiet.
Yue stretched. "Same time tomorrow?"
Alex hesitated. "Yeah."
She nodded and floated back toward her room like none of it had happened.
Alex went inside, wiped the sweat from his brow, and tossed himself on the bed.
He was too tired to go back to the dorms.
Haku shouted from another room, "You better not have broken anything expensive!"
"Didn't!" Alex yelled back.
"Good! Armor puppet meeting in the morning! Bring snacks!"
Alex stared at the ceiling, chest still rising with leftover adrenaline.
He grinned.
He wasn't just going to fake the golem.
He was going to build it better than anyone expected.
And no one, not Haku, not Lyra, not the other professors, was going to know he was training in another world with a barefoot, sword-fingered monster who smiled like rain and broke mountains for fun.
Not yet anyway.