This was an odd day in Gnosis. Every day was at least a little odd, don’t get me wrong, but this was odd on so many levels. Michael found himself sitting on a log, getting warmed up by a campfire. In his hand was a stick, on which layers of meat and vegetables had been skewered. Since the orc sitting next to him mentioned he probably wouldn’t appreciate an all-meat meal. Like the slab of meat dangling from his stick.

Oh, yeah. That should be mentioned, too. He was sitting next to a real life orc. An orc!

He looks so much like Durotan.

“I get the sense that you know me, child. Or at least, others like me. Have you seen many orcs before?”

“Uhm, no sir. Not a one. You just look how I thought an orc would look.”

Michael decided to play it safe. Whether it was a Skill or simple instinct, the orc seemed capable of guessing Michael’s thoughts.

“Hmm. I admit my kin all fall into one single pattern. Even us magic users.”

“Are there many of you, sir? Magic users, that is.”

“No. Too few. I know of four orcs here at Gnosis. Only four.”

“I see.”

He kind of did too. In whatever game he played or movie he saw, orcs were the damage dealers. Brawlers, barbarians, warriors. Mages? Not so much. When they used magic, they were usually shamans or witch-doctors.

Not that Michael saw any totem staves or leather drums around.

“You are looking for something?”

Way too perceptive.

“Just… looking at where we are, sir. Are we still at Gnosis?”

Michael supposed they were. He had seen enough illusion rooms to know that the Academy was perfectly capable of recreating everything inside such a room and fooling all senses. And Michael’s senses were fooled.

Their campfire seemed to be situated in the middle of a plain. On a savannah. There was a forest some distance away, but near them Michael saw a field of tall grass. Some lonely trees were spread out, here and there, and the sounds of wildlife filled the night. He saw a huge moon overhead, bigger than any instance of the moon he had seen on Earth. It had… circles on it. Some concentric, some overlaying. Had this world’s moon been colonized? Yet it was barren as well and glowed the same color. At least the stars shone like they always did. He had missed that. The night’s sky. Missed it more than he ever thought he would.

“No. I did not want us to be interrupted. This is the product of a Skill. It recreates the world for me.”

“Oh. So… we got transported from Gnosis …here?”

“We have. Does it frighten you, child?”

“No. It’s rather beautiful, really.”

“It is.” The tall orc nodded. “My homeland. Though long has passed since I’ve last seen it.”

The orc seemed wistful. Yet content. However, without warning, he turned his head to Michael, piercing him with a solid gaze. Not wrathful, nor inquisitive. Solid. Like being looked at by a mountain.

“You are out of place.”

“I- I’m sorry.”

“Here. At this academy. You are out of place.”

“…so you mean to say I don’t belong here?”

“No.” The orc sighed. “I am not trying to be obtuse, child, but I do not share words often or without cause. You are out of place, because you are not of this place.”

Oh. Oh no.

“Could you elaborate on that?”

The orc raised an eyebrow, but continued.

“You look at me and your eyes fill with wonder. Though rarely I have seen a reaction that was not either fear or hatred. Even my own faction looks at me only with fear-fueled respect. My own kin here at Gnosis gaze at me with hatred. Yet you saw me and it was as if a dream appeared before you.”

“Well, I was told of orcs, sir and-“

“You were not told of orcs. You have not seen orcs. Do not lie.”

“…I haven’t. I am sorry.”

“I could have believed that you came from a culture where some people deified us. Those that love the whip. But for the other signs. You came here from a ‘transport spell’ malfunction. Gnosis makes no mistakes, else you would be dead. You reached the higher levels by mistake, when even High Mages try and fail to reach them by Spell and wit. Gnosis itself cannot or will not take one there. After that, once again Gnosis took you to safety. Down below, to disappear between the young ones.”

Michael had no words. The orc had a look that told him if he tried to lie, things would end up very badly for him. But what could he do? This orc, the Martial leader, was basically breaking through the lie that he had told everyone. If it got out…

“You feel fear. Good. Fear is health fed time. More signs than that, though. The test. It is proof of great potential. The old fool coming after you, all of them coming after you. Even my own. Some see only the test, others see deeper, yet they all smell the burning blood. Power. Even more yet. How time and chance wind themselves about you. Creating opportunity. Giving birth to events. Even Gnosis itself sings to you and I sense you sang to it back, though perhaps only for a single note.”

What… this is more like I would have expected Regitris to speak. Old and wise. Not… him.

“You are amazed at my words.” The orc said, smiling faintly. “Amazed one such as I speaks them. I wonder. Is the amazement from me being an orc or me being a Martial?”

“Well… honestly, both. Sir.”

“I thank you for the answer, child.” The orc said, now smiling fully. “Yet it does not distract me away from my point. Your magical prowess. Your sudden apparition. Your lack of knowledge, even though you tried to explain it away. And more than that, your reactions, so different than the rest. Both to me and to other happenings. You may have fooled the head of your faction, for in his thirst for power and influence, the old fool misses much. You may have fooled the mage of woods, for she thinks herself above such a thing. You may have even fooled them all. But I have walked a thousand battlefields. I have learned to watch and to observe. You do not fool me. And so, I tell you this again. You are out of place. Where is your place?”

Michael froze for only a second, but sighed. He had kind of already figured out there would be no lying to him.

I’m already extremely lucky I managed to make the others believe me.

So he told him. Everything. He told the orc from where he came from. About Earth. He talked of his homeworld and of its lack of magic. Of its lack of Classes and Levels and Skills. He told him how there was only one species or, at least, only one sapient species. Dolphins and chimps might count, but… yeah. He told him about how they built and survived and thrived based on their technology. Michael liked history. He could at least do that.

And he also told him of war. Of pettiness and wrath. Of alliances spanning continents killing each other and growing hate spurned by nothing if not stupidity. How the old problems of the world were still there and the new problems just kept getting added atop them. He was in the midst of explaining current world politics, when the orc stopped him.

“A strange world you have. I have learned of societies without magic. Yet none without Classes. Still, I can imagine what it looks like, thanks to you. I need hear of it no more.”

“You… but, I mean… aren’t you more surprised?”

“I am not a fool who treasures knowledge for knowledge’s sake. You tell me of a new world. I tell you, so what? Is this academy not a world of its own? You have seen the moon in the sky. Long ago, that had been a world of its own, with its own people and its own life. No more. Your world poses no threat to this world. Not even to Gnosis. This I feel.”

“I… kind of glossed over how bad the world wars were. There’s this things called the atomic bomb and-“

“I have Skills for this, child. I do not gain exact knowledge, but a city ending threat? Kingdom ending, should more be used? There are Spells to protect against such things. Mighty Spells, perhaps above what any living today can cast, yet still bound in artifacts of old. And you forget, like many here do, magic users are not the only ones with Classes in this world. A |Mason| of high enough Level could build a house capable of withstanding even my blows. An empire worth’s of such |Mason|s? There is a reason Gnosis wasn’t built by |Mages| alone.”

“So…”

“So. Your world poses no threat. And though I did not know of it before now, I did not think it impossible. Just as I do not think other such worlds are impossible.”

“Wait. You mean there are other worlds like mine?”

“You already know of two.” The orc calmly said. “Why should more be an impossibility?”

That… made an odd type of sense. It also made Michael feel kind of small.

“Do not worry. We each make our own worth. But. Though I care not for more words of your home, I must ask. Is returning your true goal?”

“Yes. I want to get back. I’m aiming at getting stronger, in all aspects of the world, so that I can use that power to find a way back.”

“I see. A half-truth. You wish to get back. Yet you also wish to grow, simply for the chance to grow. You do not admit it, yet it is there. A chance at a new life.”

“Can I ask how you’re doing that?” Michael asked, a little peeved.

“A Skill.” The orc grinned for the first time. “But I would be lying if I said instinct was not a great part of it.”

Skills. Magic. Whatever, I’m way over my head.

“Now, of course, just because I care not for this information, does not mean I will not use it. Can you guess what I wish from you, child?”

“To join your faction.”

The orc looked at him, frozen for a moment, before bursting out in laughter. Though it was a wry kind of laughter.

“Is this what my faction has become? What others think of us, that we simply force others to be one of us? No, child. It does not matter what my children do. We do not force others to join. That is not and has never been our way.”

“Really.” Michael deadpanned, even though he knew it was dangerous. “Because I remember one of your own really trying their hardest to get me to join. A couple of them really.”

“Had they managed to, they would have been punished. That they were not stopped from trying speaks to how much some wanted to see what your spirit was. Or do you not think it odd that, even after you have refused us, many of my children still admire you?”

Michael didn’t really have anything to say to that, so the orc continued to talk.

“No, child. We do not force. Not physically and not by other means.”

“But you just said you’d be using the information about my home”

“I did. I will use it, by doing nothing with it. As a show of trust.”

“…”

“Are you still impressed by orc wisdom?”

“I feel the answer might harm me. Sir.”

“Spirit. Good.” The orc laughed. “Yet to understand me, I hope.”

“I guess I do, sir. But, then, what do you want from me?”

The orc’s look took on darkness and his eyes got a dangerous quality to them.

“There is a sickness at the heart of my faction, child. I am too high atop for them, for my children, to look at me as anything else but a god in the flesh. I need you to help me cleanse this sickness. Attack it from both above and below.”

“You… want me to heal your faction.” Michael repeated, just to be sure he understood it correctly.

“Cleanse. Not heal. We are Martials. What cannot be beaten back into shape, will be broken and removed.” The orc said, a wild grin on his face.

Why do I have a feeling I’m not going to like this?