Atlantis, it turns out, is a league of city states spread out across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The capital and largest city is Poseidonis. King Orin, better known as Aquaman, says she is welcome to visit.

She settles on a day and when the time comes Transition.

Her ring takes her just outside one of the gates of Poseidonis, a large arch interrupting a stone wall. The city itself lies under a massive, glowing, translucent dome. This deep in the Atlantic Ocean, there is little sunlight, but the city is illuminated by various objects—some of which vaguely resemble light bulbs—glowing blue, green, or pink. Sapphire herself is surrounded by the indigo glow of her environmental shield, protecting her from the cold water and allowing her to breathe comfortably. Her hair and skin aren't even wet.

Two guards standing outside the gate startle at her sudden arrival.

"Who goes there?"

"Hello, I'm Sapphire Eyestone. King Orin said I could visit. You have a beautiful city."

"Er... what?" How is she speaking Atlantean? Why is she glowing?

"No, she’s right," says the other guard. "It was in the briefing yesterday morning."

"Right then. Sapphire Eyestone, you are free to enter. Welcome to Poseidonis."

"Thank you, is there anywhere in particular you recommend?"

"The palace gardens are open to the public, they're quite pretty. If you've been to Atlantis, I suppose you might want to try the food. Unless surface-dwellers eat algae, but I think it's probably pretty different up there. And of course Poseidonis is well known for its enchanters and craftsmen, so you could stop by Pearl Street if you want to shop."

"Thank you. Those all sound like excellent ideas." She'll head for the palace gardens first.

Poseidonis is built on a series of flat-topped hills that divide it into layers. Dominating the city's skyline on its tallest and central hill, there is a large, elegant building which can only be the palace. She starts heading in that direction. As she travels through the city, these are some of the things she might notice. The 'streets' are completely unpaved, just spaces between the buildings with a rocky or sandy bottom, probably because everyone swims around without touching the seafloor. Most of those people swimming around look human, although many have visible gills or webbed fingers. About a quarter of the city's population has far more exotic features. Some look like mermaids or mermen, some are humanoids with animalistic features, like fins, tentacles on their face, or scaly skin, and a few look like sea creatures with a few human features. The streets are also shared with actual sea creatures like crabs and fish that seem to live inside the city. Corals, kelp, sponges, and other plants and technically-animals-but-resemble-plants grow in the streets, on the walls and roofs of buildings, and anywhere else the space isn't occupied.

The architecture and design style, surprisingly, strongly resemble ancient Greek architectural and design styles, despite however many thousands of years of divergence there has been. The buildings are elegant, carved out of pale stones, heavily featuring columns, arches, and domes. Although none of the buildings are taller than three or four stories, the city is quite vertical in design—buildings have openings at all levels, and people are able to simply swim up to their destinations instead of taking stairs (which Poseidonis does not seem to have). They are illuminated with presumably magical lights in the shape of orbs, crystals, or long cords that look like christmas lights, shining blue, pink, green, and other colors.

She tries to get a better sense of the people, people watching has always been a hobby of hers. Are they happy? Does anyone look like they want to talk to her? Are there patterns in who is interacting with who? Are there uniforms or fashion differences that seem to indicate different groups? Do people with more or less aquatic features seem to have higher status?

Some look happy, some not, on average it seems about the same as any other city Sapphire has been to, if more tranquil than Manhattan. Many people are giving her weird looks, with some combination of confusion, curiosity, and hostility. Some look like they might want to talk to her, but none are approaching her. She can't really identify the social or class dynamics, although it seems like some, but not all, of the human Atlanteans look down upon those with animal features.

She'll move closer to one of the curious people who looks like they want to talk with her. "Hello."

A woman with long black hair and an iridescent fish tail for a lower body responds.

"Er, hello. Why are you glowing?"

"It's a side effect of how I'm breathing and moving around."

"And how are you doing that?"

"I got lucky and somehow ended up with a very special ring."

Well, that's a vague non-answer.

"Er, okay. So you're a surface-dweller then?"

"Yeah, I live on the surface most of the time. I guess I'm kinda a superhero by some standards but I do charity work not fights. My ring helps me do all kinds of things."

"Okay. Well, don't cause any trouble while you're here."

She swims off.

Well that was interesting. She doesn't feel like trying that again so she keeps swimming toward the palace.

After about ten minutes of ring-assisted floating—that she's moving through the water without kicking or paddling with her hands is probably one of several reasons passers-by keep giving her looks—she reaches the palace gardens. They consist primarily of beautifully-sculpted corals and aquatic plants in a panoply of vivid colors, with paths converging in clearings with marble statues or animated light sculptures that resemble holograms.

She floats around slowly just taking in the ambiance. It's beautiful.

While floating around the gardens, she (proverbially) bumps into a young man wearing clothing that resembles surface fashion more than anything else she's seen in the city so far. He looks troubled.

"Hello, are you enjoying the gardens? It's my first time visiting."

"Your first time?" He turns around. "Oh, you're from the surface, I suppose that explains it."

"I am. I'm actually from a different Earth where as far as I know Atlantis is just a legend so I wanted to visit when I learned it existed here."

"Sapphire, I presume? Batman mentioned you. My name is Kaldur'ahm."

"Oh, you work with the league. They've been very helpful. And yes that's my name. It's nice to meet you Kaldur'ahm."

"You could say I work with the League. Although I am considering stepping down and returning to Atlantis full-time."

"It sounds like you're trying to make a big decision would you like to talk about it? People tell me I'm a good listener."

"I might as well. I haven't made much progress on my own."

"Two years ago, when I was a student at the Conservatory of Sorcery, Poseidonis was attacked. I assisted Aquaman in battle, and afterwards he took me on as his protégé. I paused my studies in sorcery and spent more time in the surface world. I enjoyed it, it was exciting to leave Atlantis and see the world. Recently, I... took on another role which involves spending most of my time on the surface. And now, I find myself missing Atlantis, and the people I left behind. Yet, were I to return here, I suspect I would miss my friends from the surface. I am caught between two worlds, and I have to choose. Or, I have to commit to one of them, and let go of the other, or I'll remain distracted and unsatisfied. Does that make any sense?"

"It does, there's only so much time in the day and it's hard to do everything we might want to. Friends are important and it's hard when we lose touch with them."

"I am able to visit, and spend time in both places, but I am not able to... live two lives at once. I cannot be both an Atlantean sorcery student and a surface world hero. Perhaps the uncertainty I feel is uncertainty about who I want to become."

"What do you miss about Atlantis and about being a sorcery student when you're on the surface?"

"In part it's nostalgia for the life I used to lead, but mostly it's... someone who I care for very much. I think that if I want to be part of her life, to be with her, I can't be occupied with being a hero on the surface."

"Oh, that sounds hard. Is it possible that she could join you in your work on the surface?"

"She could, but I do not think she has the desire to do so. And it's not something I would ask of her."

"That makes sense. I think if she matters this much to you, it would be worth talking with her about it."

"Of course, I certainly will."

"If you did return to Atlantis what do you think you would miss about your work on the surface?"

"My team. Making a difference."

"Are there opportunities for making a difference here in Atlantis?"

"Well, not for the kind of work I do. And if I were to move back here it would be to return to the Conservatory. Learning magic would still be useful, just less directly."

"That makes sense, it's useful in the long term but it's less immediate."

"Well, it was nice to talk to you, Sapphire. Perhaps we'll see each other again."

He swims off, in the direction of the palace.

"It was good talking to you too."

She'll continue to enjoy the gardens for a little while longer and then make her way to the market the guards mentioned.

Pearl Street is a broad thoroughfare on the west side of the city. It's lined with shops on three levels, selling a variety of goods, both magical and mundane: weapons, tools, jewelry, clothing, sculpture, furniture, and more.

She's most curious about magical goods, not really weapons but other things what kinds of effects are there. She'll pick a shop selling jewelry to start with.

She can find a variety of effects, including jewelry with gems that glow to look pretty, jewelry that can cast an illusion to change her appearance, and jewelry with a variety of different protective effects. In terms of utility, most of it isn't very impressive in comparison to the jewelry she already has.

The protective effects are interesting but she's still not planning to get into fights. She'll check out a furniture store next.

Atlantean furniture is made in shapes similar enough to what she's familiar with, but the materials are all different. Nothing is made of wood—instead, metal or sometimes stone are used—and the fabrics are all different, they seem to be woven from treated plant fibers of some kind. The more expensive items use fish skin.

Interesting, are there any enchantments?

The higher end furniture makes use of enchantments to make cushions more comfortable, because the unenchanted versions are mostly not.

Alright, she'll look over tools next. What kind of tools are they selling?

Fishing equipment, knifes and machetes, a lot of stone-working tools, cooking implements, and metalworking tools, including the all-important rock-enchanted-to-be-hot-but-not-boil-water.

A lot of the things you'd normally find in a hardware store, like hammers, saws, and screwdrivers, are nowhere to be seen.

That's interesting, it makes sense given that wood isn't a building material. She'll go look at some sculptures next.

Atlantean sculpture heavily features: Atlanteans, sea creatures, and ornate renditions of plants, corals, and more abstract organic shapes. There are a few more abstract pieces, but it doesn't seem to be a popular style. Also available are beautifully decorated vases, mosaics and bas-reliefs, often designed to tell a story, sometimes enchanted to be animated.

The enchanted vases are pretty. She'll peek at the clothing then go in search of something to eat.

Atlantean clothing tends to be close-fitting but flexible, in simple, but elegant cuts, and bright colors. It's not... entirely clear what the fabric is made out of, but it looks comfortable enough. And expensive.

After leaving Pearl Street, Sapphire can find a reputable-looking restaurant. They serve fish, shellfish, a surprisingly large number of varieties of algae, kelp, and fish.

She'll go for a vegetarian sampler platter if she can find one.

Atlanteans don't really do vegetarianism, possibly due to the lack of good vegetables, but she can get an algae sampler plate. Atlantean currency consists mostly of small copper coins, which Sapphire fortunately did stock up on before visiting.

The algae tastes... surprisingly bland. Perhaps it doesn't help that she can't really smell anything.

Ring, can you allow aromatic compounds to filter through the environmental shield in safe amounts?

"Affirmative."

She braces herself a little and then Do so.

"Compliance."

She can now smell some things, but it's still much less than she'd normally be able to. The algae tastes a little better, but it still seems off, like it's missing something.

Ring create a pocket of the surrounding water about twice the volume of the solid food to accompany each piece I bring through the environmental shield. Release it when it's inside my mouth and my mouth is closed. She tries eating again.

"Compliance."

This makes the food a lot wetter, but doesn't seem to help very much.

Ring evaluate the following instructions and assess any risks: allow the water to touch my face and create a barrier to ensure the water doesn't go down my windpipe.

"Course of action likely to result in suffocation of user unless windpipe is also supplied with fresh air."

Amend the previous instruction to include supplying air and then execute. And more food.

"Compliance."

Once Sapphire's nose and mouth fill with water, she it at last able to taste this food as it was meant to be tasted! Aromatic compounds only soluble in water rise up from the algae and stimulate her olfactory nerves in ways they have never been stimulated before! Each bite is an explosion of flavors which can scarcely be described by the english language!

From outside the restaurant she hears several dull thumps that sound like... explosions?

She savors the flavor for the few bites she manages before the explosions start.

Ring store the remaining food and five liters of the surrounding water then return the environmental shield to the state it was in before I started eating. Maintain the protection of my windpipe until it's no longer necessary. She moves outside to try to see what's happening.

"Compliance."

In the streets outside, guardsmen are fighting people dressed in full-body black armor, wielding some sort of underwater stun guns.

Ring scan those in black armor and recommend means of non-lethally subduing them.

"Compliance. Recommend targeted electrical stimulus to central nervous system or application of tranquilizing drugs."

"Can we do either without making it obvious it was us doing so?"

"Negative."

She debates with herself for a few moments then If you're confident in safe doses then tranquilize all those wearing the same type of armor in range. She can tell this is going to be hard so she focuses on her compassion for all these people seeing their city attacked. She does her best to push away her distress at the line she's crossing here. She doesn't see a good alternative.

"Compliance."

Tendrils of Indigo Light leaps out from her ring to eat away some nearby fish, then again to touch each of the attackers. After a moment, they go still, floating limply in the water.

"All targets within range determined by current Compassion output tranquilized."

The guardsmen look around in shock when their opponents are disabled, then stare at her.

She floats over. "Hello, do you know who those people were or why they were attacking?"

"These men are from Black Manta's crew. They're pirates and raiders. I don't know why they'd set off bombs in Poseidonis, it looks like it's just senseless violence."

"Or it was meant as a distraction," says another guard.

Ring how far did the tranquilizing reach? Also run a scan and tell me how many more are in the city and still awake.

"All targets within a radius of 48.42 meters tranquilized."

"Compliance. 32 targets match specified parameters."

"I'm pretty sure I didn't get them all. What I did only reached about 50 meters out from here."

"We saw explosions in other parts of the city, they're probably attacking all over."

"I'll go try to find and treat the injured unless there's something else you think would be more helpful."

"Well, if you could do whatever you just did to the rest of the attackers, that would be useful. Or if you could figure out what they're after."

"But treating the injured would also be very helpful, and we're grateful for anything you can do for us," the other guard cuts in.

"I'll look into it." Ring are the remaining attackers concentrated near any specific building?

"Half of remaining attackers are located in or near the Poseidonis Science Center."

"A bunch of them are at the science center, I'm going to investigate. I can bring at least a couple of you with me if that would be helpful." Ring what's the current charge level?

"Er, yeah, we would appreciate that. I've heard the Science Center recently brought in some interesting new sample, so it's plausible that's what they're going after."

"70% charge remaining."

Ring how many can we bring with us while expending at most 20% of charge and with my current levels of compassion?

"Two humans."

"I can take two with me. Are you ready to go?"

"Sure."

Ring transition us to an unoccupied corridor inside the science complex. Then repeat what we did earlier to subdue nearby attackers.

"Compliance."

With a surge of indigo, she transitions into the Science Center, and tendrils of light spring forth from her ring, routing around walls, through the building.

"Neptune's beard!"

The guardsmen thought they were ready, but they weren't expecting to be teleported. Then, from further inside the building, a different voice cries out.

"Neptune's beard!"

Ring did we get all the attackers in the vacinity of the science center? Can you assess whether anything was stolen?

"All attackers tranquilized. No thefts detected and attacker submarine has not been loaded."

She turns to the guards. "Can you help me find whoever's in charge here so I can talk with them?"

"Uh, sure? They'll probably be closer to the fighting."

They start heading towards the center of the building.

She follows.

Shortly they reach the center of the Science Center, a large, tall chamber topped with a glass dome. Inside, what looks like a giant starfish is frozen inside a chunk of ice. Kaldur and another Atlantean are floating around looking confused.

"Sapphire? Did you do this? Are they alive?"

"I wouldn't kill people, not like this, they're just tranquilized. Do you know what they were trying to steal?" She's slightly offended that he had to ask but she understands that he doesn't know her.

He gestures towards the starfish.

"That. It was brought in a few weeks ago. Vulko says it's the most exciting thing they've seen in years, but I don't know why Black Manta would want it."

"Well then, let's take him to the cells and the guards will interrogate him," says the other guy.

Ring scan that starfish, attach that scan and sensor records from when the first bombs went off and forward them to Batman. Hopefully this isn't a case of showing off in ways that mess up his plan but he should know just in case.

"Compliance."

She really needs to figure out if she can get more of the Green lantern database. Oh well, the theft was stopped. "I don't recognize it either. Hopefully you'll be able to figure it out. I think I'll go look into healing people who were injured. Are there any injuries among the guards here? It's also possible there's still more of them in other parts of the city though maybe they've retreated at this point." Her mind is racing a little now that the crisis has passed and she's filtering less than usual as a result. She isn't just in the background anymore. She hopes this wasn't a mistake.

"I think all of the guards who were posted here got knocked out by Manta's crew with those stun guns. They might have suffered nervous system damage, or they might wake up later and be fine, I don't know."

She's not done yet. "Can you take me to one of them?" Ring can you assess the risk of long term damage? Cross reference with a scan of one of the weapons if that will be useful."

"Sure. Garth, can you help the guardsmen secure these guys?"

He leads her outside, to where there are some unconscious guards. A few are bleeding, but it doesn't look like anything serious.

"Minor damage to central nervous system. Eventual recovery is likely."

Ring heal the unconscious guards within line of sight. She focuses on their families and how happy they'll be to have them back safe and sound. She feels more comfortable now. Healing feels right it isn't complicated like hurting people is.

"Compliance."

A moment later, they start waking up.

"I'll go look for other people who need help now. It looks like people will probably recover on their own but I healed them anyway."

Sapphire travels around the city healing everyone injured by the attack. Thankfully, it's nothing she can't fix. The guards finish rounding up the attackers (and impounding the Manta-Sub). The people of Poseidonis are relieved to have gotten off so lightly, and give her friendlier looks than she got when she entered the city.

She's glad she could be helpful. Before she leaves she finds somewhere to retrieve the rest of her food and finish it. She savors the flavors. Then she transitions home she needs a vacation from her vacation. She flops into bed and does her best to push away any worries about what will come because of today and fall asleep.

The next day, Batman gives her a call.

"Thank you for sending me that scan. I forwarded it to the Green Lanterns, who informed me it's a type of creature known for enslaving entire planets with mind control. Needless to say, we had it thoroughly destroyed."

"Wow, you're welcome I didn't realize it was anything like that I'm glad it didn't fall into the wrong hands." That means it was worth it. This wasn't just an ordinary attack. She didn't know it at the time but now she can move forward with no regrets.

"It was something we had no idea to look for, especially frozen in the arctic. The lanterns say it's almost unprecedented for one of these to lie dormant for so long. What troubles me is that Black Manta had some reason to try to steal it. That's something we'll be looking into."

"That is worrying. The main reason I sent you my records was to confirm I hadn't revealed too much about what power rings can do. As it turns, out this was important enough that it would probably be worth it, but did I?"

"You revealed to a few guardsmen that you were able to detect people from a few kilometers away, if they even think about it in such general terms. From an information security perspective, that kind of leak is best avoided. But probabilistically, I think it's extremely unlikely that information will spread beyond those guardsmen, or that they will infer general knowledge about your capabilities. If I were in your position, I would have left for the Science Center alone, without saying anything to the guard about where I was going, but otherwise I don't think you made any mistakes."

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you." That is not what she expected the problem to be.

Sapphire returns to her normal routine: locate and kill pathogens—she's making good progress on measles—let people at STAR Labs ask her ring technical questions (which they are very excited about), and get ready for school. Time passes.

Next week, she starts class at Columbia University. Ordinarily, one would have trouble getting admitted on such short notice, or transferring credits from 'I went to college in an alternate universe, I promise', but she mentioned these problems to Batman. A week later, she got a letter informing her she had been admitted and would be able to take placement tests to skip the classes she's already taken. How did Batman accomplish this? Who knows, but there's got to be a reason everyone is scared of him.

Junior year classes aren't focused on the part of psychology she's most interested in but she manages to mix a therapeutic focused class in with the mostly experimental psych load. She doesn't ask questions about what strings Batman pulled.

She found a tasteful pair of rainbow patterned gloves with exposed fingertips that hide the glow of her ring and don't obviously bulge to wear when she's trying to be incognito.

Fortunately, she planned ahead so she's living within walking distance of campus and she walks instead of using the ring to get to go to her first class on experimental methodology. The school was kind enough to mail her the welcome packet and her ID as a transfer student.

By the time she gets to class, there are a few empty seats left. One of them is next to a long-haired guy who looks vaguely expectant.

She walks over. "Is this seat taken?" She asks quietly.

"Evidently not. Unless you're taking it."

She stops herself from rolling her eyes. "It just looked like maybe you were waiting for someone." She sits down.

"It would seem that I was waiting for you."

She smiles, that was a little nicer than his first comment. "I'll introduce myself then. Sapphire Eyestone."

"My name's Sid. Pleased to meet you."

Oh good he isn't 100% snark by volume. "Nice to meet you too."

Class begins. It's fairly typical for the first day of a college course: this is what the class is about, this is the syllabus, this is how it's going to work, here's an introductory lecture.

Sid sporadically takes notes in a small, pocket-sized notebook. He looks faintly bored.

That makes sense this kind of thing is boring.

Class comes to an end and people start leaving. Sid hasn't identified anything else interesting around here, so if he's onto anything at all, it's probably her.

"Hey, Sapphire, what do you think is the most important thing in life?"

"Other people. They're what makes life meaningful and what keeps it interesting."

That's not the way he was expecting her to frame the question. Teaches him to have expectations.

"There are a lot of other people. Do you think any are more or less important? Or are there circumstances under which other people are more or less important?"

"That's a hard question. It's always easier to care about the people in front of you or who you know personally but I don't know if that makes them more important in any real sense. And when people are fighting with each other it's hard to really show concern for them both without it seeming fake. There's also only so much time in the day. I do think I see people who are actively hurting others as less important and that plays out in my actions. I wish I understood why people do it though. I feel like understanding is always the first step to showing people a better path."

"That why you're a psychology major?"

They start walking outside.

"It is, why wouldn't I want to study the discipline that's all about understanding people?"

"Because it's about understanding people in a very specific, and rather limited way. Because it focuses mainly on studying what can be measured, which at best is a rather narrow domain, and at worst causes researchers to force a difficult-to-measure reality into tidy, but misleading, metrics. Because psychology as a discipline is very far from properly understanding the human psyche, and what it does know might not do you much good."

"I don't know, I'm skeptical about the value of the whole thing. And when I want to understand people I usually just talk to them."

"I think that's mostly a critique of experimental psych. I got into this in hopes of being a therapist. I think that side of the field has less problems. As for how valuable the insights are, I think I've gotten at least as much from talking to classmates as in the actual curriculum but that's still an opportunity I wouldn't have had."

"Mm, therapy. I'm skeptical about that too, but your point is taken."

"I think a lot of the value people get out of college is being close to other people learning the same things as you. It's funny, they charge everyone so much money to be in the same place as each other."

"I think my understanding of therapy is that it's about safety. Your therapist is someone who you can rely on not to judge you and so you can feel safe showing them the parts of you that you hide from everyone else."

She sighs, "Maybe if the world was better people would feel safe enough to not need therapy for that."

She shakes her head and chuckles. "As for charging people for the privilege of being in the same space, I think that's true. The other major piece is really charging for prestige and credentials. For a piece of paper saying that some respected institution thinks you're competent."

"Oh, god forbid some respected institution think I'm competent."

She giggles, "I don't know you well enough to comment."

"It's sort of like... I want to be good at the things I care about, in a real way, and not in the fake way that, uh, respected institutions find legible. And I don't feel like making an effort to make myself legible when I don't have to."

"Why are you here then?"

"Oh, I'm not a student here. Did you know you can just walk onto campus and sit in the lecture halls?"

"Alright, that just makes my question more important to me. Why did you decide to audit a psychology class specifically when you have a low opinion of the discipline?"

"I thought it would be interesting to figure out what stuff they're teaching you, what academic psychologists consider the normal way of doing things."

And because he's been playing with bone casting lately and wants to figure out if it works.

That answer doesn't really make sense. "Do you do this often or is it just a coincidence that we ran into each other?" 

"Oh, I've snuck into a few classes before, when the mood strikes. Is it a coincidence? That's a much more complicated question."

That's slightly concerning. Ring can you set things up so that if we fall out of contact the Justice league knows something is wrong? She doesn't like being paranoid but she isn't really hiding her identity and she has set herself against powerful people. "How so?"

"Affirmative."

"I went looking for something interesting, and I got I feeling I'd find it here. So I came here, and I found you. And you're pretty interesting, or at least you could be."

"So maybe that doesn't count as coincidence, I'm not sure."

Do that. "Do you have feelings like that often?"

"Compliance."

"Well, not really. In this case, I was fucking around with some bone casting, and I thought the bones were telling me to do this. But of course I could have misinterpreted them, or done it wrong, or it could have been complete bullshit."

"Ah, magic. That makes sense. I expect that it worked correctly in leading you to me even if I don't know much about magic myself."

"Ah, so you are interesting, then! My divinatory skill is vindicated."

"Is magic what you do full-time?"

"I don't really do anything full-time, but magic is a good way to make money."

"What sorts of things do you do with magic?"

"A variety of minor stuff. Small illusions, sparks, making plants grow, and divination, apparently."

Illusions huh... that might mean he's tricking people into giving him money... she'll just not ask about that. She hasn't known him long enough to have any chance of talking him out of that. "What other things do you occupy your time with them since you said you didn't do anything full time?"

"Oh, whole bunch of things. Whatever I feel like doing, really. Trying to learn magic, gardening, my boyfriends, reading, exploring. Columbia has a bunch of tunnels connecting the buildings, and lately I've been looking for a way into the ones they've sealed off."

"That sounds fun, do you know why they sealed some of them off?"

"There was a student strike in 1968, the strikers occupied a lot of the buildings on campus and used the tunnels to move between them. And what I've heard is that they sealed off a lot of the tunnels after the strike to stop that from happening again."

"That's unfortunate. What have you tried so far?"

"So far I'm just mapping out the system and locating the access points. A lot of it is bricked up, but I'm hopeful some of the connections to the buildings might just be behind a locked door."

"Huh, that makes sense." Ring can you make a map of the tunnels for me without giving any visible sign?

"Scanning will cause ring to glow, although this is unlikely to be visible beyond gloves."

"I'm kind of surprised you took me seriously about the magic thing. A lot of people don't think it's real, or don't think I know anything about it."

"People don't believe in magic when Atlantis is real? And you did randomly show up in one of my classes. You seemed to be expecting something too and it definitely wasn't the lecture considering how bored you looked."

"It's not like anyone knows much about Atlantis, I don't really think it's existence is compelling evidence of anything. I did show up in one of your classes, but that could just as easily have been coincidence."

"...Unless whatever is interesting about you is so interesting that it couldn't have possibly been coincidence."

"I've visited Atlantis so I guess it's not as abstract for me as it is for most people."

"Oh, that is interesting. It's magical, I take it?"

How did she do that? Sid would give... at least two of his toes to visit Atlantis.

"They openly sell enchanted items and one of the people I met was going to school for sorcery. I don't quite know if the whole city is enchanted somehow but it is on the ocean floor and I don't think the pressure was as high as that would imply. It's possible that everyone there is just able to survive pressures that would kill a normal person."

"Are you able to survive pressures that would kill a normal person?"

"I expect so, I can survive a lot of things normal people can't. I've also been to the moon without a spacesuit."

"Sounds like a pretty useful superpower to have."

Something occurs to him. "You didn't see any wizards on the moon, did you? There are some rather persistent rumors."

"I didn't explore throughly but no."

"Hmm. Good to know."

He writes something down in his notebook.

"Don't suppose I could hire you to buy some of those Atlantean enchanted items for me?"

"Maybe, what kind of thing are you looking for?"

"A variety of relatively cheap stuff I can reverse-engineer. Literally anything would be useful, they've got to have a completely different style than anyone up here."

"I should probably check with some people but tentatively at least that seems like something I'd be open to."

"Oooh. It has been very interesting to meet you, Sapphire."

"It's been interesting meeting you too. Do you have some way we can stay in touch or should I just expect you to show up in my experimental methods class from time to time?"

"I'm still planning on auditing the rest of the class, and I'll probably be there for most of the semester. But I'll also give you my phone number."

He tears a page out of his notebook, writes it down, and passes it to her.

She take the number. "Alright, I'll see you in class then. I have another class to get to."

"See you later, mysterious girl!"

"See you later Mr. free spirit."

After classes she looks into contacting Aqualad. She sends the watchtower a message asking for contact information.

Aqualad has a phone number she can call.

She'll do that then.

It's kind of weird to get a call from... somewhere, without a phone number.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Hi there, it's Sapphire Eyestone. Is this a good time?"

"It's... fine."

"I was wondering if you know why there's not more trade between Atlantis and the surface."

"For most of its history, Atlantis was completely secluded from the surface world, kept secret. Even now, surface visitors are not typically welcome. Many Atlanteans have no interest in contact with the surface, or actively oppose it. So not only is there little infrastructure for trade, there's also a lot of opposition to the idea. It's not strictly illegal in most cities, but it could become illegal if someone were to start trading in volume with the surface."

"I met a surface magic user who asked me to buy some enchanted objects from Atlantis so they could try and understand how they work. Is that something you expect people would have a problem with?"

"Some people would, yes, if they found out about it. But it would probably be fine, you wouldn't be able to buy anything that reveals anything about Atlantis' magical secrets."

"That makes sense. I did notice that a lot of the people in Atlantis distrust those from the surface. Do you know what's behind that?"

"Part of it is old prejudices and beliefs about Atlantean superiority. Part of it is that most of the direct contact Atlantis has had with the surface has been negative. Since the industrial revolution, humanity has often polluted or over-fished the ocean. It also doesn't help that Black Manta and most of his crew were originally surface-dwellers."

"Thanks for explaining... I wonder if I could do something about the pollution. I'll have to look into that."

"If you could, that would probably go a long way towards improving relations with the surface world."

"I'll see what I can do.... Is there anything you'd like to talk about before we conclude? I have some time."

"You might be interested to know: I have decided not to return to Atlantis. I discovered that... it was already too late for me to lead the kind of life I was imagining."

So the person he had a crush on is dating someone else. Sometimes she wishes she understood the whole romance thing better. "I see, I'm sorry. I hope your work with your team and the League continues to be fulfilling."

"Thank you. If there's nothing else?"

"I don't think so. I wish you well in the days to come."

"And to you."

He hangs up.