Hitomi Kanzaki finds herself transported from her Japanese high school to the world of Gaea, where she meets Van Fanel, prince of the kingdom of Fanelia, and gets pulled into his effort to rally Gaea's scattered nations against the advancing Zaibach empire. Along the way she starts to uncover fragments of Van's own hidden history and the truth behind Escaflowne, the towering mecha that carries him into battle. This light novel novelizes the original 1996 anime.