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Sadie was feeling a bit bored and lonely. There were lots of places made for people facing just that predicament. There were bars. There were clubs. There were libraries. However, she felt that her best chance of meeting someone interesting would be meeting someone magical, so she powered up.

Then, after she hadn't even walked very far at all, she had that sense again, the aura. This one felt especially bright and nice. She followed it and found herself at a cute park. She had to dodge a few trees and streetlamps, but she covered ground much quicker than normal with these newfound powers, and before long she found herself face to face with a very magical looking girl. Success!

"Hello there," she said, the lamplight revealing a soft smile on her face, before she fully took in the girl's appearance and blinked a few times. "You're glowing," she said. "That's new, unless I've been missing something obvious which is extremely possible." She pulled down a glove and squinted at her elbow, which seemed to be its regular tan. That didn't mean there weren't markings hiding somewhere, but even she knew better than to start loosing clothes in front of a probable minor.

"Anyway, I'm Pendour, a Neptune Page."

Pendour reached out and gave a handshake, her grip maybe just a little on the light side. "It's a pleasure, miss," she said.

Then, her practiced tone gave way to a quick, light laugh. "Yes, I'm new." She reached down to fidget with her charm bracelet, twisting the little Neptune symbol between her thumb and forefinger. "Very new. I think I'm starting to piece things together a little, but I didn't know about Cosmos, for example, just the planets."

Of course if powers came from wonders, not just planets, that opened things up a bit. "But it's good to know I'm not the only one who's out in evening wear instead of armor, although you've got a little, and about the glowing. That seems both aesthetic and practical."

She stopped to think for just long enough to rub at her gloves, to reassure them that it was fine and that they were lovely even as not-armor, and then to run her tongue over her teeth. "How do you bond with a wonder, exactly?"

Pendour blinked. Questions? She'd come out to try to learn more about what was going on, but being directly asked what she wanted to know was too much. Instead, she just stared for a while as the other night talked about transcendence in a way that didn't quite make sense, her fingers still stroking her braid.

"Miasma?" she eventually mumbled. "Actually, that I think I can imagine. The Code, though? What's that?" She almost made it sound like some sort of weapon, but just the word code didn't sound so bad. A pattern, maybe a computer, not something that almost ate minds.

"Wonders. Maybe we should start with that. I've been wondering," she paused, broke into a small smile, gave a split second laugh. "Wondering. Wonders. Ah. Anyway, I've been... curious about what they are, exactly. You speak as if they're physical places, but they're where our magic comes from, yes?"

Pendour listened attentively until all at once a thought hit her and she smiled, first at her shoes, then, remembering, at Hyperborea. "So you're saying that there's a kind of power, a force if you will, that has its own consciousness and followers called Knights that oppose evil in various beautiful important places all over the galaxy?" Her voice was light, but not mocking. The other Knight seemed to know what she was talking about. "Well, this seems to have more than a little in common with Star Wars."

Quick parallels with science fiction movies aside, Pendour still didn't really know what was going on, and she felt that seeing, rather than hearing, would help clarify things much faster. "Of course there are obviously lots of differences, too. We're thrown into this instead of being trained, for one thing, and," she trailed off, chewing her lip. "Well, I can't comment on wonders at the moment, obviously, but basically, yes, I'd love to go with you."

So there were no lightsabers. That was probably good, all things considered. Then more people would just die. "Well, we have our bonded items from this Code, don't we?" she asked, summoning her ocarina to her hand with a small, soft smile. She glanced at it for a moment, then shook her head. "You're right. It's not the same."

That decided, she willingly reached out her hand to the other knight, listened to her speak, watched in awe as the city fade away, watched another city reappear in its place before she could blink. "Oh," she murmured as soon as she realized what had happened and got her first glimpse of the breathtaking landscape. Pendour spun slowly, drinking it in. It was alien, but not in the sci-fi movie way. It was more, well, magical, like someone had dunked Greek ruins into a bath of starlight.

"This is beautiful," she said. "This is beautiful." She turned back when the girl spoke and smiled at her little curtsy, but she was perfectly serious when she gave a deep nod and said, "Hyperborea, I am honored."

Then, she looked back up. "Have you found anything interesting here?"

Pendour blinked again as a deer popped into existence. She kept thinking that she'd accepted the fact that magic was real and then something else surprising would come up. At least it was another lovely thing. Eventually she was sure she would run into the so-called bad guys and whatever tricks they brought, but for now she would enjoy this place.

"Oh, you're beautiful," she said, reaching our to stroke Cerynitis's velvet ears and giving a bit of a laugh as she got nudged in return. She turned back to Hyperborea. "That sounds very useful, yes. Did you find her here, then?"

She followed the knight as directed, continuing to look around like a bright eyed tourist, her stares punctuated with the occasional "Oh wow." The trees were breathtaking. The buildings were nice as well, although they were a bit militaristic for Pendour's taste. She pursed her lips. "Hmm. Have you been to any other wonders, Hyperborea? How similar would they be?"

Although if the outfits were any indication, they might be different. Pendour didn't think she'd fit into a barracks in her evening wear, but well, they were knightsin the end.

Pendour's smile widened as Hyperborea explained her summon. After giving the deer a final par on the nose, she turned so that she could listen to the other knight more fully. The horn was yet another thing that was both lovely and seemed useful, which Pendour appreciated. "That's something I'll have to look out for," she said. "Did you know it was going to be able to summon her?"

She looked around as Hyperborea went on about the different places around the wonder, and she gave them each an appreciative look even as the overall millitary theme became more clear and something solid started to settle in her stomach. She hoped that there would be no armies on whatever place would be hers.

"Baths sound amazing," she said, and that was the truth. Magical trinkets didn't sound terrible either. She found herself liking the wonder despite herself.

Ask questions, don't assume, she reminded herself, and she said, "Do you now what the original purpose of your wonder was?"