Eliot assumed he was hearing things, there was no way someone was at the door. This was his mind for god sakes, unless his mind has actual inhabitants, maybe all the people he's ever met has a duplicate life here. Maybe there was duplicates of his family in his mind living everyday lives.

Before he could question whether or not he actually heard anything, the previous knock came even louder then before erasing all doubt that there was in fact someone at the door. He got up and ran down to the wooden lounge area downstairs to see who it was.

“Maybe he's not here, this place is huge he could be anywhere. He might not actually even be here, I have no idea where we are myself.” He heard an all too familiar voice on the other side of the door.

“You have a point Katherine, we can't open the door so let's keep looking. I have a strong feeling he's here.” Came his mother Vivian's voice, before they could leave he swung the door open.

The whole family was here, his mother and sister looked relatively the same but his father had new luminescent pink irises. They seemed to fade in and out, as if they weren't really there. It was by chance that Eliot even noticed them. He couldn't help but think that these were copies of his family in reality; but they looked exactly the same other than the pink eyes and when he was blind he was pretty sure he never imagined his mom with that greenish skin tone.

“...Uh, how are you here right now?” Eliot asked with confusion evident in his voice.

Vivian gave Eliot a level stare “Are you going to invite us in, or are we going to stay out here like uncivilized people?”

“Oh, sorry come on in.” Eliot almost forgot his manners there for second, the situation is just so bizarre.

Everybody pushed passed Eliot and gave the place a once over, then sat down on the large couch getting comfortable as if it was the most normal thing to do. How is it that family can just invade your personal space without any regard, there is literally no escape not even in your fucking mind.

Eliot could only shake his head as he took a seat next to his mother, he looked over at Kat, but she was avoiding his general direction. His dad was still looking around, nodding at most things he saw.

“Eliot, where are we?” Came his mother's soft but demanding voice.

“...I'm pretty sure, we're in my head.” Eliot answered.

Everyone's eyes widened in surprise, and then looked at everything again with new understanding. Vivian looked at Eliot and sighed, “I think it's time we talk about our points and abilities. I'm tired of surprises, I honestly should have had this discussion with you all from the very beginning; I just assumed we would have more time.”

“Well we got a lot of time now, time runs relatively three times slower here. How did you guys even get in here anyway?” Eliot asked.

“You were sleeping with Anubis, we came to wake you up to talk. Then we were just in this beautiful forest filled with wonderful music. Nice music choice by the way I accept.” Vivian added helpfully, smiling at the end of her sentence.

“But that still doesn't answer how you got here.” Eliot said thinking he needs way more information on the Method of Loci ability.

James decided to join the conversation after he seemed to finally understand something. “Did you know this is exactly how my father's cottage looked when he was still with us. I took Eliot there once when he was only three years old; how is that this place looks exactly the same, you were blind, there's no way you could have seen this.

Eliot couldn't believe what he just heard, he just assumed this was a figment of his imagination, but now that James says it. It does seem a bit too real, everything else seems to be an alternate copy of the real world with major differences but this cottage looked like it was something from the outside.

“What day did you take me to the cottage?”

“You where three, so around fifteen years ago somewhere in march, why?” James asked.

Eliot didn't bother to answer, he got up and headed to his library of self, his family followed curious to how the rest of the house looked.

Once they reached the library, there mouths dropped open at the sheer vastness of it all. Eliot walked up a couple flights of stairs to get to a higher level where more of the old books where. It took him a couple of tries to find the right one but when he did, he was furious.

He was three years old, and he was looking into a crouching old man's face, he could feel his past self become overwhelmed with emotion for seeing for the first time. He was frighten beyond all recognition, but before he could scream or have a panic attack the old man put his hand on Eliot's head and put a finger over his bearded mouth and all of a sudden he was fine.

“Shhh, calm down my boy, it's me your grandpa George. I know this all new and frightening to you but you must listen to what i'm about to tell you. Is that understood?”

Three year old Eliot could only nod his head while looking at everything around him, he looked at the fireplace that was in the lounge and was entranced by the beautiful flames. George looked over to where he was looking and the fire instantly went out.

“Boy pay attention, in the future something is going to happen that changes the world. I can't go into details, and I can't interfere on any large scale but what I could do is nudge you guys in the right direction. You may hate me for this, but I am the one responsible for your lack of vision. It was originally supposed to be your sister but she didn't have the ingrained mentality for what I need you to do. In the future you will have the opportunity to obtain special uhh skills, I will give you all you need so that your recommended skill is the one you need. Everyone could obtain the skill but with certain conditions yours will put you above the rest, it will take time and dedication but I know you have it in you to do both. You won't remember any of this once your sight is gone but if you get the skill you will know. Also when you're ready to change I recommend three eyes, remember no details but I think you'll figure it out.”

Eliot just stared at his grandpa not comprehending anything the man just said, other than the fact that he was the one responsible for his blindness. But how was that possible he was blind since birth.

George could see the confusion written all over the boy's face, he could only sigh, he's done all he could; all he needs now is time.“Alright since you have a couple more minutes, let's go outside and let you enjoy it while it lasts.”

***

Eliot closed the book thinking about how his whole life has been nothing but sounds smells, and vague feelings. All because this old man felt the need to fuck with his life. He tried to think rationally but just couldn't, how did his grandad even know about this shit.

Clearly the old man knew some magic, when he pulled that fire trick in front of him, and the fact that he could just enabled and disable fucking blindness spoke volumes.

He stormed downstairs, getting ready to scream and shout at the injustice; but with every step he just slowly stopped caring, what's the point in holding a grudge with a dead man anyway, it would solve nothing. There situation called for rationality not temper tantrums, the old man was just trying to help in his own fucked up way.

He took a deep breath and approached his family, they turned to him and Kat ran up to him giving him a hug.

‘What the fuck?’ Eliot thought as his sister strangled his torso.

“I'm so sorry El, I never knew thats how it always was for you. It's was so dark, I was you for one day and I almost went insane.” Kat had tears in her eyes smudging it all over his shirt.

“What do you mean you were me for one day, the books work for you guys?” Eliot assumed since it was his memories it would only work for him, this is not good.

“Everyone out!” Eliot screamed pushing his sister off, ushering his family out of the library. He couldn't just have people in his in head going through his memories, he's going to have to find a way to keep people from just appearing in his mind like this.

When they returned to the lounge area, they all took their seats. Eliot thought it through and decided it was best to show his family what happened fifteen years ago. He passed the book around and watched everyone go through the motion of gaining his memory of that day. Everyone seemed to have different reactions to the new knowledge.

Kat looked relieved, probably because she realized she dodged a bullet with the whole blindness thing. His mother seemed to be in deep thought, and his father was livid with anger to the point his face turned red as an apple.

“How dare he! How fucking dare he!?” James was standing up now, clenching his fist.

Vivian gently touched James arm and looked him in the eye “James calm down, I understand your anger but think about this rationally please. Your father gave us a clear advantage in this new world. Im taking it this ‘skill’ he was talking about is the ability that allows us to be in Eliot’s mind with a upper hand in time?” She was looking at Eliot at the end he just nodded, not trusting himself to not get angry at how easily she accepted that her father in law took her son's sight.

“Look Eliot went through some tough times, but who doesn't have to in order become a stronger, better person. A blade isn't forged through pillows and rainbows, it's beaten and put through the fire continuously to become the deadly weapon it knows it can be. We all need to be put through the forge if we want to survive this, thralls are most likely the least of our worries, and we need to be prepared.” Vivian explained while eyeing the whole room.

Eliot couldn't help but admire his mother's pragmatic thinking, it still hurt that she didn't show any emotion when she figured out he wasn't supposed to be blind; but not that much.

“Mom is right, I can see now so there's no point in worrying about that. What we need to do is discuss our points and abilities; and talk about how granddad knew this shit would happen fifteen years ago.” Eliot said nodding towards his dad.

James was clearly still angry but he could understand where they were coming from, it was not the time for this.

“Eliot you start, since we are in your mind it's only polite.” Vivian added with a smile.

“Well, I started off with around 7,400 points, I brought the Method of Loci ability, the same skill that we're in right now; for 5,000 points and you've seen my dagger and plasma pistol, I only got those because they were cheap and i'm glad I did. I also bought this necklace of shielding that been hanging around my neck for 1000 points along with a book called Tut and its uses in shaping the universe it's about hand magic I haven't had the chance to use any of it yet but it's coming along I think.; that was 500 pts. Really cheap in my opinion for something so useful.” Eliot took out everything he had and put in on the coffee table.

Vivian nodded her head and looked over to Kat, she pulled of her gauntlet and took of a ring with a small crystal and put them next to Eliot's items on the table.

“I had about 2,500 points, the gauntlet was 800 and the ring of deflection was 1,000. I got the gauntlet because I thought it looked cool and the ring because I needed some protection I guess. I don't even know if it works.”

“Ok, good choices they've served you well so far, but the gauntlet is impractical you would need to be close up to your enemies at all time. What if they were stronger than you. You need more versatility, but good nonetheless for the amount of points you had. What about you James?”

James put all of his gear along with the others. “Plasma rifle 1,500 points and field gauntlet 3000 points. I started off with 15,000, so I have 10,500 points left, I'm saving for a bloodline.”

“Which bloodline?” Eliot asked

“The Hephaestus bloodline.” James answered

“.....You mean the Greek god of crafts, the one that costs 70,000 points”

“Yes the very one, with it I can obtain multiple abilities that would allow me to make incredible things.”

“Oh, ok.”

Eliot knew his father was an engineer but he didn't know he wanted to continue his career in the new world. Good for him.

Vivian decided to finally enlighten everyone with her purchases. She was the most curious one, she clearly had a bloodline of some sorts.

She put her staff on top of the pile of gear, and looked at everyone.

“I started off with 22,000 points and chose the Dryad bloodline that was 20,000 points. The tree staff comes with the bloodline and is kind of apart of me now.”

Over twenty thousand points, how is that any fair. Eliot really needs to figure out how the initial point distribution works.