[Song is "Amseterdam" by Imagine Dragons]

Tony went home after he left the DMV.

He went back into Hope's room. Hope didn't keep pictures of herself in her room; everything was digital now anyway.

But her clothes and other stuff was still there. She was neat, though; it wasn't out in the open.

Still, there were plenty of things he found. Finally, after hunting through her closet and drawers, he found an old ID tag for a church camp event she'd supervised on years ago now.

Once he found that, he went to the den and dug out photo albums. They were dusty and hadn't been updated in years, but he found ones of when they were kids.

Then he waited.

His mom must have gone out on some errands, but she came back an hour or so later.

 His dad's work ended early in the day. He was getting on in years, so he no longer worked 8-hour days.

Tony's mom had been puzzled by his behavior, but he told her to wait till Dad got home for an explanation.

Finally his dad did get home.

"I hope you're going to explain yourself," he said, not happy still.

"Actually, I think I can, on the subject of Hope," Tony said.

His parents frowned.

"Mom, Dad, I know you're going to find this hard to believe, but you've got to at least try," Tony pleaded. "I'm not sure I can fix this without help. Now look." He held up the ID tag.

His mom's eyes widened.

"'Hope Ann Kane'..." she said. "I don't understand. No one in our family is named that."

That hurt.

"Look." Tony held up the photo album and opened the first page. "There's me, and that's my sister. It even says it's us."

His parents gaped at it.

Then at each other.

"I don't understand," his dad said. "Do you have another kid I don't know about?"

"How can you even say that?!" his mom said.

"Dad, you're in here with her." Tony turned some pages. "See. Right here at the hospital...and that's when she was in the school play."

They blinked.

"These haven't been opened in ages," his mom said. "This has to...be real...but...I don't remember."

"I don't understand." His dad looked so lost. "This is what you were talking about? But why don't I recall...?"

"Look, uh, this is going to sound crazy," Tony said, "but I met this woman. I think she's a witch or something. She claims that she's responsible for everyone not remembering Hope Ann. She owned up to it."

"You met a witch?" his mom said slowly. "Tony, that's crazy."

"I know it sounds crazy, but how can you explain all this if it's not that? You knew who she was yesterday. And the only weird thing that's happened since is Hope argued with this nutty woman at her job. And no one at her job remembers her either," Tony said hastily. "But all her stuff is here. Look in her room."

They went up there like they were in a trance and this time looked in the closet and bathroom.

"Someone definitely lives here," his mom admitted.

"All right..." His dad looked like he hated saying it, but he went on. "Let's say, for a second, I think this is plausible. Something does feel off about this. But witches aren't real.... At least if they are, they're just in those weird cults stuff. Not actually able to cast spells. Right? How could it be this powerful? We can't just forget our whole daughter's life."

"I don't know, Dad. Some people get amnesia when they have head trauma," Tony said. "What if someone could somehow induce the same effects as that, but on a short term basis? She said you'd remember in 3 months, when Hope returns. Maybe seeing her will trigger the memory. I bet you still have them, you just can't reach them. Like when people are on drugs sometimes."

"That's horrible!" his mom cried. "I still can't believe this is possible...but I feel deep down that you're telling the truth, and the evidence is right here.... How do I handle this?"

"Can you guys help me get her back?" Tony said.

"If for no other reason than I need to know what exactly has happened," his dad said, "absolutely. I want an explanation. If we really are drugged or hypnotized or something, it was without my consent. I don't go for that crap."

He sounded angry. Tony figured his dad was just trying to hide how much this freaked him out. He was very against superstitions.

But as long as he was willing to be active, Tony didn't mind if he got testy.

"I've got to find her," he said. "I bet there's a way to fix all this faster, but she drove off. She lives in Connecticut. But I think she'll return her rental car before that. It's not far from here. I need your help."

"Of course," his dad said. "What?"

"Well, I have to try to head her off," Tony said. "I know what she looks like. But if I give you her home address, can you drive there? Or take a plane or whatever? I don't want you to talk to her or anything, in case she can do other stuff. I guess I'm immune because I was there when she met Hope, so I remember. I don't know why that changes it. Frankly, it's hard to believe any of this, but clearly it's real."

"Oh my..." his mom said weakly.

"I can do that," his dad said. "No one messes with my mind and gets away with it...but there's work."

"Oh, you've earned vacation days," his wife said. "It's just...wow. A whole child I can't remember.... Oh if I ever got my hands on that woman, I would flay her alive."

"Mom, could you stay here? In case she comes back to this town?" Tony asked. "I can draw you a picture of her. I got a pic of her license plate too. But don't let her know you know her. She's creepy as heck--I don't know what she'd do to you."

"You'll be all right alone?" his mom worried. "What if this woman is dangerous?"

"I've got to try. I don't know what she could be doing to Hope," Tony said.

They grimaced.

"Even if I don't remember her," his dad said, "any young woman being at the mercy of someone who'd do that, it just sounds like hell."

"I know. That's why I have to find her," Tony said. "3 months, if that witch would even keep her word, is too long. What if something happens? But I might end up kidnapped and sent to the same whacked out place as her...so I want you to record all the things we're talking about. Then put it somewhere you can find it easily, with a note or something. That way if I go missing, you'll have proof something was weird."

"Very crime show," his dad said. "That's good thinking, son. The same for either of us."

"Yes, let's do it now." His mom was spooked.

"Right, then I've gotta go. I've lost enough time already," Tony said.

He went to pack a quick overnight bag.

* * *

I passed a couple days relatively peacefully. I spent all the time I could studying or exploring.

In this way I learned the layout of my new house. And many of the servants' names.

I treated them all like I would have treated any working person, politely and as equals, and they all were puzzled by it. But I saw no reason to put on airs just because I wasn't working here. And just because it freaked them out didn't mean I was going to change my manners.

Of course I had to be careful that Lady Diane didn't catch me doing it, the result was that she'd reprimand me for speaking so familiarly with them.

Her reproves got on my nerves. I thought she talked to me like I was a child, and, as an independent adult, it was just insulting. But if I tried to protest it, she'd only double down on how disrespectful it was.

I gave up because it wasn't worth fighting over dumb stuff. I just avoided her.

Penelope avoided me as much as I did her, so that wasn't a problem. Tobias and I hung out when I wasn't holed up in my room. He was nice. If he was real, I'd have gotten really fond of him, but I knew I shouldn't form attachments to anyone who was a fictional character. I just hoped his story had a happy ending in the book. I'd feel bad if it didn't.

Olivia accepted my oddness, and, in private, she acted more like a friendly neighbor than like a servant. Though I know she wondered if I was crazy at times.

And Lorad Laurel, whose first name, I finally learned, was Melvin (I could see why he didn't go by it), was nice to me, but aloof. I got the idea he didn't know much about girls. He was never very talkative to Penelope either. Tobias, he would show around and talk to about some things he might start doing. All in all, Lord Laurel was just awkward with kids, I thought.

But I didn't mind it. At least he meant well. I could handle awkward. Malicious was my real concern.

I was not pleased to find some servants secretly looked down on me and my father for being low class before this. I guess they didn't like social climbing, in the sense that it was. 

They hid their disdain mostly from Lady Diane. I think she must have been higher born anyway. But when it was just me, they'd be slower to respond to my speaking, and act as if it was a real chore to do the simplest thing I asked. Even if it was just where to find a room in the house.

I relied on them as little as possible. After all, I didn't need servants to do much. It was just the size of the house that made me need them at all. No way one woman would have stayed on top of it. I understand now why they all had to have servants in the old days. Or modern days, if you were in the top 1%.

I learned a lot about magic. I won't lay it all out now, just as I need to, but it was interesting. More like Harry Potter than like cults, I think. I also learned that magic and sorcery were not the same thing in this world.

The world's name, it took me a while to find, but finally I discovered it was called Thesaurum. I know, it sounds like Thesaurus. Because it's the same root word. I couldn't figure out why a world would be named after a word finder, unless Karen was just that tacky...until I recalled the Latin classes I 'd had to take in college for my foreign language credits. Thesaurus means dictionary, but it also means treasure or storehouse, or just a large amount of things, period.

Sounds like a weird dinosaur, really. But the name, for a made up world, actually kind of made sense.

Speaking of treasure, I had to keep up with Karen's request to find her artifacts.

I found several in the Lord's house. Many would have been real valuable in my world, if they were intact. There was less fine silver than I think there would have been in a wealthier man's house, but there was copper, bronze, and china items, which would have been valuable to some degree.

And lot's of carved things made from wood. Some from metal, a few from stone. There were one or two statues in the garden, cheap I think, compared to the ones at the Duke's house I'd seen in passing, but no doubt fine for our level.

None of it seemed like anything Karen couldn't have thought of herself, and when I reported it to her, she said it wasn't the kind of thing she needed help with. She said to look for jewels and other unusual trinkets more.

The only one who'd have jewels was Lady Diane, I thought. And if I went through her room and she caught me, I'd be dead meat.

She wore some. I don't think they were really expensive ones, even for this time setting. But I had none of my own.

In my study of magic, I did learn that some jewels here were used to hold magical energy. They called it Mana. I think it was a term that Karen got from other writers. I knew I'd heard it somewhere before. I thought it was dumb.

Also they saw things like aura that let them know if people were blessed or cursed or troubled. Or powerful.

I hoped I didn't have one. It sounded like an invasion of privacy.

It didn't help me much with whether or not lacking magic would be a problem for me, but at least I felt a little more prepared.

I would almost have enjoyed the studying, if I hadn't missed my family something fierce. I hadn't been away from home for longer than a week or so my whole life. It might sound pathetic for someone of my age (I'm 22), but with college being so close, I just had no reason to move out and pay for more things. I did house work, and my parents said they didn't mind.

So I wasn't used to being on my own. Or around total strangers 24/7. Even the ones I liked.

Even a social person like me was going to get tapped out by it, and after a few days, I just wanted to go home and never read another isekai ever again.

But I couldn't go home. Karen gave me no further instructions other than I wasn't finding her what she wanted.

She also failed to elaborate on how difficult lacking magic would be for me. She only told me that not everyone used it, though most people had a little inside them they could have used, but only a select few had enough to make it worth developing.

It sounded like how that girl's show My Little Pony worked. My cousins had me sit through some episodes of it. I remembered a little about how that magic worked. I guessed Karen used the same logic that it was like any other talent: Some people had more of it.

I gathered that my lack of using it would not create any obvious discrepancy between me and the other characters if few developed it.

That did make me wonder: Why even bother including it in the world story at all? If most people lived without it, why did you need it for interest? The answer to that would only become clear over time (though I didn't have much hope of Karen's reasoning being anything impressive).

Finally, on the 4th day of my imprisonment in Thesaurum, Penelope intruded on my brooding in my room, holding up a piece of paper.

"What do you think, Hope?" she said. "We've been invited cordially to the first ball. It's to celebrate the war ending. And the marquess turning 25. He'll be old enough to take the throne."

"Really?" I said dryly. "They wait till 25? I thought it was 18 or 21 in most places."

"Well, normally." Penelope didn't catch my dry tone. "But when the duke is still alive, you know, they would wait longer, Mama says. But now he can pass the dukedom on to him even without being on his deathbed. That means he might soon. Isn't that exciting?"

"I suppose if the marquess isn't a prick," I said.

I had learned in my studies that the marquess was the title of the son of the duke, his oldest son. I never knew that before. So much for being a history buff. We don't have monarchy in my country.

"My maid told me that, in the village, there's a rumor that the emperor's son himself may attend, and his daughter," Penelope said. "Just think of that."

"I'm surprised they don't hold the ball themselves then," I said.

"It's because the duke's son is the one having the birthday of course, or they probably would. Oh, just think, in the future we could be invited to the imperial palace." Penelope sighed.

I guess most girls would love that.... I admit I was curious, but I wasn't anything like that starry-eyed about it. Castles were just okay in my book. Kind of shadowy and creepy sometimes.

Not that I didn't like that one scene in The Princess Diaries 2. I mean, who didn't want a huge closet like that?

I knew Penelope wouldn't have come in here just to be excited with me, no way.

"So what do you want?" I said impatiently.

"I just wanted to make sure you weren't planning to do anything embarrassing," Penelope said.

"I don't even want to go," I said.

"But you have to. His Lordship won't let me go if you don't." She looked horrified "The younger without the eldest? That's a social faux pas."

How did she know a French phrase? Karen, really, the accuracy.

That made me think: Is Karen writing the words we were saying? And that made my brain hurt and feel odd.

I focused instead on Penelope.

"I guess Father will make me go," I said, trying not to speak with an accent, "if that makes you feel better. I'm sure I'll be bored to tears."

"Just so long as you come, but don't hover around me like a bee," she said rudely. "It's embarrassing."

"I do that?" I said.

"You did at the birthday party," she huffed. "Just because you're too shy to make friends doesn't mean you have to spoil my evening."

I had no idea what birthday party she meant. But I took that the me of this world was shyer than the real me.

"I'll leave you alone," I said, shrugging.

Penelope scrutinized me. "You seem different," she said suspiciously.

"Do I?" I said vaguely. "Well, whatever. Get out of my room, will ya? I'm busy."

"All you ever do now is read," she sniffed. "Mama says that hurts your eyes."

"So does looking in mirrors and down yer nose at other people, and that ain't never stopped her," I said.

Penelope winced at my grammar. "I hope you don't sound like that at the ball. I would just die of mortification."

"You ought to be less fragile than that," I said flatly. "Go on now. Why don't you go look at dresses or something?"

She must have wanted to do that, because she didn't argue with me. She just left.

Great, I thought. Another boring social function where I can show off how ignorant I am of the way the world works.

I hoped I could just smile and nod at people.

On the other hand, it would be good for research. I still needed to know who the main characters were. That way I could avoid them and thus avoid trouble, I hoped.

* * *

The ball preparations took all day the day of the event, and I was right sick of it long before we ever left the manor.

Lady Diane was not invited, which was a mercy. It was because it was held in the honor of the Marquess, and the old Duke thought the 'young people' should have the chance to celebrate undisturbed, save for the servants and official chaperones of people who were too young to be "out", as Olivia put it, without one.

I had a very different idea of the words 'coming out' now, but I knew that they used to mean being presented socially at a certain age and able to marry and so on. I think it's still used that way in some circles.

I discovered that I was "out" in this sense, and Penelope was, but only on condition that she was chaperoned by either myself or another qualified person. 

She prefered me, not because she liked me, but because, as Tobias told me quite frankly, she thought I'd let her get away with more and that she could avoid me more easily than an older woman who'd not have anything else to do at a Ball.

I was insulted, naturally, but also relieved that I could avoid Penelope without her reporting it to her mother. Apparently, she'd insisted that she only needed to go with me.

I think Lord Laurel thought she was trying to give me a fair chance as a stepsister, and he didn't insist on anyone else accompanying us except for our footmen and our maids, who would just wait outside the ballroom with the other maids.

I'd rather have been a maid in this story, I thought. I wished Karen had at least taken my own position in life into consideration before she wrote me as the character of a lord's daughter.

I had wondered if I was replacing a character she'd already written, or if she'd made up all of this just for me. That didn't make me feel special, more like a puppet.

I put on one of the stupid dresses Lady Diane had had made for me, on her insistence.

Olivia clucked her tongue a little at it.

"What's the matter?" I asked her.

"I just...well, it's not for me to say," she said.

"Oh, go on, speak your mind. I don't care," I said.

By now she was more used to my frankness, and knew I never got mad at her for being more blunt than a servant probably should have been.

"It's just that I question if this dress is in good taste, milady," she said.

I glanced over it.

"I don't like it," I said. "It was Lady Diane's selection. But I've got to humor her."

"Oh, of course." Olivia knew all about that. She nodded. "I'm sure it'll be fine. You're a pretty lass after all. You can make it look classy."

I eyed the overly shirred and frilled ensemble in the mirror. I did not think it matched my tan or my build at all.

"What exactly about it is in ill taste?" I used one of their phrases. "I'm not used to the fashion here."

"Well, milady, it just is a little overly decorated. The duke's house is known to value elegance and restraint," she said. "But there's nothing to be done. And at least it's not low cut. It's quite shocking when some young girls show up to these events looking like street harlots."

If the low cut was the same as I'd seen in movies, I thought she'd be shocked to know what it would be like in my own time. But I didn't say anything about it.

"I guess Lady Diane likes gaudy," I said in a low voice.

Olivia, very professionally, did not laugh. Though I thought she looked like she wanted to.

"Best just to get on our way. Being late is never a good thing," she said.

Cinderella be danged, I guess.

I sighed.

But we went down to the carriage. I was really looking forward to riding in that claptrap again.

I was surprised, however, to see that Penelope, with her own maid, was waiting there, and she was dressed much differently than I was.

Much less decorated, more simple but still expensive, and it made her look older than 15, which I'd finally discovered was her real age.

I blinked. I would not have thought she'd dress less frilly than I would.

Olivia took it in and then looked at me oddly.

"Is that the dress you picked out?" I asked.

Penelope looked surprised that I even asked. "Mother suggested it," she said, shrugging. "She told me that they value elegance at the Duke's house."

I gaped at her.

Before I could get my mind around it, they hustled us into the carriage and we went off.

Olivia was shaking her head in sympathy, but she was silent. She knew that Penelope took it as an impudence if the servants talked to us around her.

I realized, once I had time enough to think about it, that Lady Diane must have done it on purpose.

That made my blood boil. Of all the conniving, backhanded ways to make someone look bad.

It came back to me then that the antagonistic women of these stories were always pulling tricks like that to make the girls they didn't like look bad. Women in these stories were nasty, for the most part.

Made me wonder if the people who wrote them were taking out some kind of latent middle-school trauma on the characters. But I couldn't picture Karen ever going to middle school.

I decided to try to put it out of my mind. After all, likely no one would care nearly as much as Lady Diane thought. People would have other things to worry about besides my clothes. And if I did nothing to stand out, I doubted they'd remember I was even there.

This made me feel a little better, and I was composed when we arrived at the Duke's grand mansion.

It was all lit up on the outside with lanterns and candles. Some were different colors, and I thought they were magic.

I shivered a little. Better not to think about it.

We went up those horribly long stairs again, and this time we were escorted up yet another flight, to my chagrin, and then to a huge room that even I would have known was a ballroom even if I hadn't been told.

I admit, it was gorgeous, laid out in flowers and finery and a dessert and snack table that took up nearly one wall.

I wanted to beeline it for that and avoid mingling, but we had made our entrance, and we were announced by someone who probably wished they had a more interesting job.

People stared at us for a moment, and then most went back to talking to whoever they were speaking to.

We were on time, so not everyone else was there yet, but there must have been at least 30 people who I took to be nobles or the children of such, and then a few more who were chaperones.

I spotted the Duke's two legitimate sons off to one side, speaking to a man who probably was a noble they already knew. They didn't seem interested in the rest of the party.

To my surprise, I saw Reg also. He was along a different wall. And no one was talking to him except one of the servants.

There was a gaggle of ladies around my age, with a few a bit older or younger, more towards the front of the room, and then a few stragglers of both sexes wandering awkwardly around.

Basically it was the royal version of every high-school dance I had left early in my younger days. Give me a hoe down with country dancing anyday. Much less awkward.

I only knew how to waltz, out of any ballroom dance, so I hoped they'd all leave me alone. If they wanted to doe-so-doe or riverdance, I would have been into it.

I edged to the side as quickly as I could.

Penelope made a beeline for some younger girls she must have already known. I could hear her greet them.

"Lady Annette." She curtsied. "Lady Julia. Duchess Felicity. Lady Rowena."

They all curtsied or nodded back.

"Lady Penelope," they said. 

"Penny, who is that girl you came in with?" Lady Annette asked, with a strange look at me.

"Yes, she looks like a milkmaid," Lady Julia snorted. "Did you see how tan she was?"

"And what is she wearing?" Lady Rowena added, though less loudly.

I still heard it.

Great, I thought. I found the clique of this world. Why do they always have one of these? Can't anyone be more original?

I felt a bit uncomfortable though. I'd gotten made fun of in school for being too country a few times by the more city slicker chicks who lived only in town.

I wasn't, as you can tell, a farmer by any means. But even owning chickens and a backyard garden put you a step too close to being rural, and therefore a hick, for the people who didn't come any closer to dirt than a playground or mudroom.

On the other hand, I wasn't near a farmer enough for the relatives of mine who did actually farm, who I'd been spending summer break with my entire life. Some of them didn't even use laptops still.

Yeah, being in between those two things could be awkward, but most people had never cared. I hope that these girls were also outliers and the other nobles would have better things to do with their time.

Not that, I thought, it mattered. They were book characters. They were written to be cliches. It wasn't like any of them had ever had an original thought. Just because I had some unpleasant memories they reminded me of didn't make their opinion worth two craps.

Telling myself this, I walked out of earshot and toward the snack table.

I had better just get to my observing. I knew the people to watch would be the Duke's sons. If I had my guess, they were main characters. Maybe all three of them were.

I'd bet at least one of these ladies was also one. I knew to stay away from anyone's love interests, who'd be jealous of any woman in the area, whether or not she was even interested in marriage. They were always so irrational.

Beyond that, I had no idea who the key players would be. It varied from story to story. But with political unrest still going on, I doubted anything so big as a ball would not have an important plot point in it.

I was even kind of curious. Might as well know what kind of story I was in if I was going to be stuck here.

Unfortunately for me, I was not left alone to figure it out.

"Why, hello again." Reg had spotted me. "Lady Hope Laurel." He bowed and held out his hand.

I think I was supposed to give him my hand so he could kiss it. But I was way too bashful about things like that to just do it. I stared at him awkwardly.

"Of course," he said, straightening. "I would not want to tarnish your reputation. I just meant to formally greet you."

I think he was hurt but unsurprised.

Then I saw that some of the ladies were watching us and so were his two older brothers.

I knew I should have just walked away, but...well...it was just too tempting.

"Oh, no, you're misunderstanding me," I said, trying to speak without my accent. I curtsied as well as I could.

Olivia had had me practice many times in the last week after I told her I was no good at it. I could just barely pass if you didn't look at my feet too closely.

"I was just surprised," I said primly. "I'm not used to these...customs yet."

There, that sounded pretty good, I thought to myself. Beat that, Elizabeth Bennet.

Oh, who was I kidding? She'd have been way wittier than that.

"Of course, I didn't mean to startle you," Reg said. Relieved, I thought.

"You don't have to go." I considered him a buffer from anyone else. "I don't know anyone else here."

"I'm not sure I would be the most conducive to you remedying that, Lady Hope," he said dryly. "I was really only invited as a courtesy, I suspect. But perhaps I can present you to my friend, Lady Stella before I make a polite retreat."

I was a bit interested in her after before.

"I sup--I mean, thank you kindly," I said. 

I don't think that was right either. He looked amused.

"You needn't try so hard, milady," he said. "I think I understand your meaning."

I reddened, not because I was flattered, but because he could so easily tell what I was doing.

Perhaps most girls would have melted at his effort to help, but actually, I found it annoying. It was like he outed me instead of just pretending he didn't notice.

I brushed it aside. I knew he meant well, but I was not charmed.

I followed him to a different part of the room.