Chương 2: Through the Looking-Glass

"The transition is rarely seamless. To be plucked from one reality and grafted onto another is to experience a fracturing of the self, a dissonance that can unravel even the most resolute mind. The key is to not resist the change. Embrace the chaos and allow the new self to emerge." - From The Cartography of Souls, by Master Archivist Theron Va'el, 7th Iteration. MASON Am I alive? The thought lingered as I blinked awake, vision still foggy, my head aching like a five-alarm hangover.

Twinkling lights against inky black. Was I in the city? No. Stars. An endless field of them. Who knew the sky had so many stars? They were brighter than I would have thought it possible for stars to be. I sat up, wet grass under me. The air was unseasonably cool and it hummed with electricity, my body rippling with goosebumps. I had fallen... a hooded figure... the strength of his grip. And those eyes... I shuddered at the thought and rubbed my arm where he'd lifted me. There was no pain, no mark.

Had that actually happened? I was in a clearing. A pine forest? I must have been taken somewhere upstate. The moon was bright, illuminating the trees in a silvery halo. My body was lighter than it should be, the sensation making me want to giggle despite the pulsing pain in my temples. My head stopped pounding, some kind of artifact appearing in the periphery of my vision. I tried to focus on it but it kept slipping away, an amoeba floating in the vitreous humor of my eye. Who would do this?

I'd made some enemies over the years, it had to be said, but nothing that would justify kidnapping and dropping me naked in a forest. I rubbed the tattoo, remembering the searing pain. The ridges were smoother, sunken in, but it didn't itch. It was warm to the touch, almost soothing. My hair was completely gone. I felt for my eyebrows, gone. Chest hair, gone. Everything, gone. My kidnapper had stripped me naked and shaved every inch of my body.

A shadow crossed over the clearing, drawing my attention back to the sky. A massive winged creature blotted out the moonlight. A shiver ran up my spine. What was that? It was gone as quickly as it had appeared, a trick of perspective? I'd spent very little time in nature, but running through a catalogue of possibilities provided me no answers as I stood up on unsteady legs. Checking myself over for injuries, I found nothing seriously amiss. Aside from the headache, I felt energized, better than I had maybe ever.

Had I been drugged? In the distance, a hundred yards into the forest, an orange light flickered. Fire. My instincts told me to run the other way, but I never had listened to that voice. The grass was soothing on my feet as I approached the light. I'd never smelled air so fresh and clean. Bioluminescent ferns cast a bluish tint over the forest floor. I could see a hunched figure seated on a log, their silhouette dancing in the firelight.

"Take a seat," it said. The voice was familiar, though my mind was slow to register where I'd heard it.

"Where am I? Who are you?" The whole scene felt like a dream.

"Don't recognize me, you sniveling little shit? I'm hurt." He leaned into the fire's glow, the familiar features of my long-time chess partner looking deeply etched in the harsh light.

"Lawrence?! What the fuck, man? This some kind of elaborate prank? Where are we? You shaved me bald." I tried to game out what this could be but was left with a blank. We'd never gone camping together, I'd never mentioned an interest in it and he'd never offered. Had he had some kind of psychotic break? Trying to prevent me from leaving? Was this some twisted sex thing? He'd never raised a hand to me, couldn't even recall hearing him raise his voice. To do this? It didn't add up.

"We have a lot to discuss. Here, have some decency and cover yourself." He handed me a stack of folded clothes. Floppy leather boots, dark brown cotton pants with hooked fasteners in the crotch, a white linen shirt with a leather string laced up the front. They looked like they'd been plucked out of a historical re-enactment.

"What the hell is this?" I examined the clothes, a motion appeared in one eye, a visual glitch before blinking out again.

"What the fu-""Your System acting up? I was afraid that might happen." Faster than I would have thought the old man could move, he was standing next to me. He slapped the back of my head with surprising force, nearly knocking me over. My tattoo flared in sudden pain and then calmed, the headache easing.

"What is your prob-" A menu popped up in front of me, my mouth hanging open as I gawked at it. It was layered over reality, a translucent blue heads-up display, rectangles suspended in the corner of my vision crammed with stats, icons, and scrolling text.

Name: Mason Parker Race: Exaltian Character Level: 1 Class: Undeclared Rank: Iron Masteries: None Health: 160/160 Mana: 250/250 Stamina: 140/140 ATTRIBUTES: Strength (STR): 19 Dexterity (DEX): 14 Constitution (CON): 16 Intelligence (INT): 25 Wisdom (WIS): 20 Charisma (CHA): 16 Racial Traits: [Mortal Plasticity] (Human): Humans live fast and die fast, base Skill Experience (SXP) gain increased by 25% (multiplicative). [Locked]: Conditions for awakening not met. [Locked]: Conditions for awakening not met.

The numbers flickered, unstable. A wave of nausea washed over me and the menu fragmented, dissolving into a chaotic swirl of data before reforming. I nearly fell over, dizzy.

"Class? Rank? What the hell's an Exaltian?" I said, somehow even more confused than before.

"Just a translation glitch." Lawrence slapped my head again and the menu flickered, the race changing to show Human.

"Seriously, stop." I slapped his hand away.

"Translation from what?" I blinked, trying to focus. The interface was analyzing the clothes Lawrence had given me. As I held the linen shirt up, a small window appeared beside it, displaying a detailed breakdown. NAME: White Linen Shirt (Level 1) TYPE: Clothing (Equippable) MIN STAT REQUIREMENT: None RARITY: Common DEFENSE: +1 ATTRIBUTES: +1 Charisma DESCRIPTION: A simple, yet comfortable shirt made from high-quality linen. Provides minimal protection against the elements.

"Translation from High Telviri. It's the common tongue on this world. Your magic is scrambled. Going to take some time to equilibrate, expect some System glitches for the next day or two." I almost didn't hear him, the interface continuing to rattle off information, icons popping up and disappearing at random. I ran a hand over the rough leather of the boots as the nausea subsided. Another window appeared.

NAME: Superior Leather Boots (Level 1) TYPE: Footwear (Equippable) MIN STAT REQUIREMENT: None RARITY: Rare DEFENSE: +2 ATTRIBUTES: +1 Dexterity, +1 Movement Speed DESCRIPTION: Sturdy leather boots designed for travel. Provide moderate protection and improved mobility. The interface was glitching again. Lines of code scrolled across the world, interspersed with error messages. SYSTEM ERROR: Resonance Detected Calibrating… Calibrating… WARNING: Unstable Mana Flow"Wh-what is going on?" I stammered, clutching my head.

Lawrence watched me, his eyes twinkling in the firelight.

"It's a System interface; it's going to take some time to adjust." He poked at the fire, which flared with fresh oxygen.

"The transition wasn't exactly smooth, your body is still adapting to the ambient magic here. You've been living in a world starved of the source, it's a bit of a shock to your brain." Magic, the source, System interface. Was I dying? The moments before death were mysterious, but I knew they involved a rush of chemicals to the brain. Could that produce a vision that felt real, a waking dream? I'd always imagined I'd die in a violent way, though I hadn't even managed to put up a fight in the end.

"You're not dying, Mason, at least no quicker than anyone else. This is real." The answer to my unasked question only furthered my doubts.

"You're in Caldera. Welcome home." The messages stopped, a small blinking icon all that remained. It opened when I looked at it, the interface responding to my thoughts. SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: Calibration Sequence Complete It disappeared as soon as I'd finished reading it. I should have been scared but I was mostly just surprised my brain had chosen this for my end-of-life hallucination - there weren't even any women. I had little time to grapple with the thought as I shivered in the cold.

It certainly felt real enough.

"I understand you're going to take some convincing but at least get dressed." I slipped the shirt over my head and it conformed itself to my exact proportions, loose in the arms and chest, cinched around the waist. The pants did the same, riding the contours of my body like cellophane. The supple leather of the boots hugged my feet like I'd been wearing them for years. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"Good, now sit down and let's talk. I'm sure you have many questions." He gestured to the other log, which I sat on reluctantly.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing. You've kidnapped me, stripped me naked, shaved me, and brought me out to the woods of god-only-knows where with some experimental tech implanted in my head."

"You're off on a few particulars." He took a bite of a cooked lizard on a stick, juices dribbling down his beard.

"I just told you where we are: Caldera. I certainly didn't shave you, good god Mason - the transition burned off your hair and clothes. And it's not an implant, at least not the way you mean it, it's a System interface, though I suppose it is a technology of a sort, albeit magical in nature." I was doing my best to keep a cool head as a man I would have moments before considered a genius spouted absolute drivel.

"Magic. Right. What, exactly, am I meant to be interfacing with? The alignment of the planets? Has the moon reached the seventh house?"

"Clever, but no. I know this will be hard for you, but consider for a moment, smart as you are, that at the ripe old age of seventeen perhaps there are things in the universe you simply don't understand." If I didn't know any better, I'd have sworn he'd joined a cult.

"I'm more than capable of accepting there are many things I don't understand, but magic?" I said, irritated.

"I'd also have to believe every scientist simply missed that gaping hole in their theories about the natural world." This was the sort of sophistry I'd expect from a loon in Times Square claiming to be a prophet, hearing it from someone I respected was galling.

"Earth was never seeded, deemed too far from the source." He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Look, this isn't going to be easy to hear, but the bandage has to come off. You're not from Earth, you never were. That feeling you've always had, that the world was never quite right, a bit too dim, filtered through a patina of muck? There was a good reason for it." He pointed up at the night sky behind me.

"Look over there, tell me what you see." I craned my neck to look at where he pointed. Large landmasses floated above us, orbiting planets visible beyond them, alien orbs that swirled and spun. My heart raced. It was impossible.

"That's..."

"Impossible? Those floating landmasses are a remnant of the cataclysm that brought magic into Caldera thousands of years ago." He said it like it was just common knowledge.

"Now they harbor all manner of strange creatures. Monsters evolving in isolation, biology twisted by the intense magic that permeates those broken worlds, waiting to be hunted by brave souls for their rare materials." He came over and sat next to me, pointing now at the large planet that filled most of the sky in that direction. It was a hazy outline against the firmament.

"That's Xintheros, though the locals call it Maristin. The civilizations here are not spacefaring, so nobody has ever been there - well, almost nobody." He clearly meant he had.

"It's populated by a race of humanoid fish, believe it or not, though they're still pre-industrial. The smaller one behind it, that's Pestesos, an uninhabitable rock, too small to hold an atmosphere, similar to Earth's moon."

"So what are you then? Some kind of god?" It seemed a logical question under the circumstances, though I felt stupid asking it.

"God? Certainly not. If gods exist, I've never met one. Zachias is how I'm known to people in this world, though I keep my interactions here to a minimum."

"This world..." My brain failed to finish the thought.

"Yes, a small planet by Earth standards," he continued.

"But not so small in the scheme of things. You'll find here much that is familiar to you, though I'll save you the complex explanations as to the why. Someday maybe you can learn those answers for yourself if you wish to." A small notebook materialized in his hand. It was full of ornate handwriting in a language I didn't recognize. He thumbed through it.

"Of all the worlds I've visited, this is one of my favorites. I think you'll find it quite the adventure. Knowledge is literally power here, and you have knowledge that could make you very powerful should you wield it wisely." I ignored the deluge of questions floating through my head, zeroing in on the most important.

"You said I'm from here? How is that possible?"

"Because I'm the one who stole you in the first place." He thumbed through the notebook absently with one hand, smiling at what it contained. The casual nature of his admission made my blood boil. I tried to slap the book down in anger, but it disappeared, leaving me to swipe at air.

"I thought you'd outgrown the temper tantrums. Don't you want to know why?"

"Why?" I asked through gritted teeth. His dark eyes were hard to look at.

"To save your life of course. The night I took you, your family estate was burning to the ground. Your parents were already dead inside." He said it so offhandedly I almost didn't understand. My parents, dead.

"It was a stroke of luck that I happened to be there when I did. The good news is, you're nobility here. A Duke." A Duke. A laugh bubbled up in my gut, the absurdity of it pushing it out into a cackle that echoed through the forest, tears spilling out of my eyes.

"Not the reaction I expected." The man who called himself Zachias ran a hand through his beard - a gesture I'd seen him make ten thousand times - which for some reason made me laugh all the harder. I tried to catch my breath, my head feeling light from the lack of oxygen.

"So, not only am I a magic man, but I'm a noble one from another planet and everyone I've been searching for my whole life is dead? If that's not funny, I don't know what is."

"I suppose we find humor in strange places." He flicked his wrist and the notebook appeared again.

"The universe is much larger than the limited knowledge of Earth would lead you to believe, I assure you there are far greater wonders than that ahead of you." He tossed the remains of his dinner into the woods, rubbing his greasy hand on his robe, my stomach growling.

"You're a smart kid, I'm sure you'll adapt as you always have."

"Even if I believed you, which I very much do not, what possible difference does it make if I'm nobility?" This figmentation had veered from fantastical straight into fever dream.

"I met an actual princess once at a Trinity party; she was a moron, bought cocaine off me for ten times the going rate."

"This isn't Earth, things work differently here. You'll learn just how differently soon enough, but there's great power in a bloodline, power that shapes kingdoms." Some kind of nut appeared in his hand; he popped it into his mouth with a loud crunch. I was beginning to suspect he was intentionally pissing me off.

"Kingdoms? You talk as if we're in the 13th century." I half expected him to say we were.

"In a sense, you'd be right. Magic has a way of stunting technological progress, those in charge suppressing innovation to ensure they stay that way. Magical stasis, blah, blah, etcetera, etcetera. Caldera particularly struggles with the hoarding of knowledge, but you'll understand that soon enough." He walked over to sit next to a bag leaning up against the log opposite.

"Good news for you, bad news for everyone else."

"You're telling me this is some kind of sword and sorcery fantasy world? Wizards and witches? And you expect me to buy that?" It was such a strange lie I couldn't even imagine the purpose.

"Expect? No, but what you believe doesn't shape reality. At least, not at your power level." He chuckled at his own joke, a glint of white teeth in the firelight.

"Prove it then. Do some real magic, and not this sleight of hand parlor trick with the notebook and walnuts." The hint of a snarl curled his lip.

"I'm not some nursing home magician doing dime-store illusions for your entertainment."

"Right, so it's all bullshit. Got it." He held up a finger and a tiny ball of light appeared above it, almost too small to see. He flicked it with his finger like ejecting a cigarette butt and it flew past me at incredible speed, zipping into the forest. It hit a tree trunk and burned straight through it, a small smoking hole in its wake.

"Was that supposed to be impres-" A massive explosion erupted a few hundred yards into the forest, the retort dying in my throat. The fire in our firepit went cold, oxygen sucked right out of the air as the sky lit up in a sudden flash of white hot heat that shook the ground, my feet unsteady underneath me, the world awash in chaos. A second later, a shockwave knocked me off the log, hot air gusting in a torrent of wind.

My ears rang from the explosion and my vision sparkled with red dots as the trees around us sprang back in protest. I sat flat on the ground, stunned.

"I THINK YOU RUPTURED MY EARDRUMS!" I had to shout to hear my own voice over the deafening tinnitus.

"If you insist on learning lessons the hard way, don't be upset about the consequences." His response sounded muffled. He looked around suddenly as if he'd heard something that alarmed him, turning his head to listen. Whatever he was hearing, I sure as hell couldn't make it out, the ring in my ears dulling into an irritating buzz. When he looked back to me, he was agitated, worried.

"I think I've played nursemaid long enough. You'll have to stand on your own two feet now."

"Just like that? You drop me out here in the middle of nowhere, tell me I'm a wizard Duke with dead parents, drop a megaton bomb in the forest, and then disappear? You didn't even tell me my real name." Even if I wanted to tell myself this was some end-of-life waking dream, the fear gave away the game.

"Official records indicate your parents named you Cassius. More precisely, Cassius Constantine Petracca, sole heir to the Duchy of Eastwatch. If it's any consolation, official records also declared you dead quite a long time ago and your titles were re-issued by the King." Great consolation indeed. So not really a Duke after all.

"Now I've told you what I can, there are rules, I've already broken too many of them intervening the way I have. You're going to have many more questions, but you'll have to find the answers yourself." He stood up, grabbing the bag at his feet.

"The System will be overwhelming at first, it's not going to be easy, but I know you well enough to know you'll figure it out."

"The System? Come on, Lawrence... Zachias... whatever the hell. You can't just leave me here." I felt untethered, like a rowboat cut from its mooring in the middle of a hurricane. A new screen popped up, startling me. I'd almost managed to forget that I had some kind of video game system inside my head. After everything else I'd just seen, it was hardly registering as odd. SYSTEM MESSAGE: ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - "The Survivor""Most minds fracture under the strain of displacement, yet yours hardened.

You have accepted the reality of the System without breaking. Resilience is the foundation upon which all legends are built." REWARD: Title - [Survivor] Rarity: Common Equipped Effect: +1 Constitution. Hunger and Thirst accrue 10% slower. Display Effect: Merchants in disaster zones offer slightly better prices (Sympathy bonus).

"What is this?" I read through the message again, the words making me uneasy. I'd been given an Achievement based on my trauma. I dismissed the message and it minimized into an icon that remained hovering at the periphery of my vision.

"Read it, do what it tells you. It's not complicated. I have to go. When the sun comes up, head north, which is that way." Zachias pointed in a direction behind me.

"You'll hit the King's Road after about an hour. Head east from there and you'll end up in Eastwatch by early afternoon. There's an Adventurer's Guild branch office there, they'll be able to confirm your identity. Maybe don't mention the off-world stuff, they'll think you're touched in the head. I hear amnesia is a good play in these situations."" I think I'm touched in the head." Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that somehow all of this was true, that he was revealing what I'd always known.

Even the absurd name slotted into my brain, the last piece of a puzzle I didn't realize I'd been assembling.

"What if I say no? How do I get back home?" He looked disappointed.

"If you want to return to that life that made you so miserable, I know change can be hard for humans, head west when you reach the road. Eventually, about a day on foot, you'll end up in Kelna. There's a man at the Hestian cathedral there, Marcellus, tell him I sent you. You'll need to act quickly though, once the spheres are out of alignment there will be no way back. You have two weeks, maybe three, to make up your mind." I didn't even bother asking what all that meant.

"Why not tell me the truth before? Why do it this way?" He stood up, slinging his bag over one shoulder.

"We both know you'd have never believed this place existed without seeing it yourself, and I didn't have time to convince you. I had my reasons for doing what I did the way I did it, but for now that'll have to be enough. I've shown you the truth, it's your choice what you want to do about it."

"Will I ever see you again?" I asked. Captor or not, he was the only father figure I'd ever had.

"I certainly hope so, but that'll be up to you." He turned to leave but stopped.

"Oh, you'll need this, it was your father's, it'll prove who you are." He tossed me a ring and I caught it. The ring was ornately crafted and made of silver with an intricate coat of arms etched on the face. It showed a rearing griffon on a field of ash inlaid with a diamond at its eye.

"I don't know who killed your parents, but they were already dead when the fire started, so you might want to be a bit careful who you show that to." He turned away, then snapped his fingers and blinked out of existence like a candle going out.