He had been warned by his mother not to seek the confounded witch, that her prices were high and her terms were fickle. He should have heeded the warnings, because he had been threatening her to bestow otherworldly fortunes upon him one minute, and the next… his existence blinks open in the middle of somewhere. Certainly not his own bedchamber. Nor anywhere he’d ever seen before.

The difference in scenery alone is more than enough to make his head spin, but add the noise and the sheer volume of people… He can only stand there gaping like a fish, unable to do much more than struggle to keep from being knocked over by the constant flow of people.

What manner of place is this? he thinks. And though he loathes to admit it, he’s more than a bit frightened. He shoves through the throngs of people in their odd clothes with their odd hair, trying make his way to a small side street. He finds a moment of reprieve, a wall to lean against as he attempts to calm his heart, to catch his breath.