Mother of Magic

Hotel

Lodging turned out to not be an issue. Like the bar run by Viv, Miriam ran her hotel and was utterly willing to take the gold coins as payment.

Their room was on the second floor and overlooked the street. From the room window, they could see Viv's bar and the street traffic. Traffic was a mix of horses, horse-drawn carts, and the occasional cow-drawn cart. It was mixed in with fat-tired bicycles and one multi-passenger vehicle where everyone aboard pedaled. It also had fat, winter tires.

There were no gasoline-powered cars of any kind. Everything was animal-powered, humans being animals too. Off in the distance, they could hear the occasional train horn. They had no idea if it was steam-powered or diesel.

Stephanie studied the street for a few moments before she commented on the odd state of technological affairs. "Not a petrol-powered car in sight, Le. It's like we are back in the 1800s. Sort of. All the animals are wearing manure bags to collect offal and keep the road from getting fouled. Neat. Clean. Low tech. At the same time, there is electricity. Telephones. Look at this window. It is triple-glazed. All the buildings I can see out there are stone and wood. The street is brick. I have not seen one inch of synthetic fabric anywhere. Not even Rayon, and that was made early on. Like around the turn of the 20th Century. Made from Cellulose, and there are plenty of trees around here. Those sleeping blankets we had last night? They looked and felt like they were made of waterproofed Canvas on the outside, lined with Flannel, and stuffed tightly with goose down." Stephanie looked up and around, then added "No planes. Not one. Just birds."

"If you had any doubt about whether Ava dragged us out of our world to this one? The data pretty much shows we are not anywhere near our Earth. It is not just the technology. There is no professional baseball! We did not go back in time either, because as low-tech as it is here, there are still anachronism's all over the place. The phone by the bed? Not a Gram Bell-era one. It has a dial. A handsel. Looks like it's made of some kind of early plastic. Like Bakelite or something. Injection molded. Not sure exactly when that happened on our world, but it was after the 1800s." Le replied.

"Then there is that. An electric fan. Kind of Art Deco-looking. Metal blades." Stephanie pointed at the dresser where a gold and black oscillating style fan sat pointing at the bed.

Le pointed up. "12-foot ceilings.Pre-air conditioning design." He then pointed at the floor register. "Central heat. Probably some kind of furnace in the basement. Not a steam system with radiator coils though. Pure updraft."

"Viv mentioned Skinwalkers? And Weres? No Werewolves, but general Weres? Like WereCats too?..."

"WereGerbils?" Le offered, not quite able to take the idea of a Were-anything seriously.

"... Then there is Ava saying straight up she is a witch." Stephanie never looked away from the weird version of 'Fort' Collins they were in.

"Ava says you and I are witches too. No Baseball, but hey! Don't worry. At least you are a Witch, and witches are in charge in this world. Mostly. Except for Collins. If I got all that right. Too weird." Le pointed out and was not happy to say any of that.

"That and she said you and I have the exact same Aura ... whatever the entire fuck that means." Neither Stephanie nor Le were frequent users of profanity, and cussing now underlined for Le how out of sorts his wife is. He felt the same way, so it was only the rarity of the event that made any impression upon him. It seemed like if they were stuck here, that might become a more frequent occurrence. Baseball they both knew. Witchcraft? Not so much.

Stephanie closed the heavy drapes and went over to flop on the bed. She patted the fluffy top cover. "Cotton and goose down." She said as she patted. "Not all progress in our world is good I guess. This is pretty nice. At least in the Winter. If we ever get home, I'm thinking we need some bedding upgrades." She patted again. "Making love on this, and having a snuggle after? That would be pretty fine."