"Yer... yer an Interloper? Are ye… are ye from Earth?”

At first, all that I really felt when I heard those words was a kind of feeling of astonishment, and of wonder.

But, eventually… I managed to gather my wits up, and to respond.

“Yes… yes, I’m from Earth,” I said, slowly, as I lowered my own sword down towards my side. “I’m from Earth. I just arrived here a few hours ago, and I don’t mean you any harm – I promise. I’m just trying to survive, and to make my way towards some sort of town, or settlement.”

“My name is William, by the way,” I added. “Where are we right now, stranger? And… who are you, exactly?”

For a while, the man hesitated, as he tried to figure out what to do. But then, I saw his body beginning to relax, as he nodded towards me.

“I’m Torver, m’ friend. We’re in the Rollin’ Plains, a little to the south o’ a town by the name o’ Westfall. I’d tell ye more, but… t’ be honest, I still don’t know if I can trust ye jus’ yet.”

I was still very nervous right then. But I just did my best to stay calm, as I continued to talk to this man, and to try to get my way through all of this.

“Why don’t you think that you can trust me,” I asked, slowly.

“Well...” he said. “If ye really did jus’ get here, then… “

“… where’d ye get that armor from, m'boy...?”

Then, I looked down at my metal-studded leather armor…

… and I noticed once again that the emblems on my armor were nearly identical to the emblems on the armor of the dead man a little ways in front of me.

And at that moment, I understood why I must have been attacked, and what had made this man into my enemy.

And so as quickly as I could, I told Torver about some of the things that had happened to me so far, and about my adventures through this world.

At the same time, I tried to make clear that I had no idea who those men in the forest had been, and that I was just wearing their armor in order to protect myself, and to give myself a better chance to survive.

As I spoke, I could see that Torver was listening to my words very carefully, and with a lot of curiosity… and by the time that I was done, it seemed as if he believed me, and that he trusted that I was telling him the truth.

And then, after I had finished my story, I saw him relax his body language just about completely, as he gave me a warm, and friendly smile.

"Then well met, m’ friend,” he said at last. “It was wrong o’ me to charge at ya before. But, that armor that yer wearin’ is the armor o’ a slaver’s guild, and an especially vicious one at that. That was why I attacked ya jus’ now, and it’s why I tried t’ fight ya.”

That made sense, of course, given what those men in the woods had said before. And it meant also that there probably wouldn’t be any reason not to trust this man going forward, now that he had realized his mistake.

But, even still – if what he had said really was the case…

“Then, I’ll need to get rid of this armor at once,” I said. “I don’t want to be associated with a group like that, if I can avoid it. But… I don’t have anything else to wear, either – or anything to protect myself with.”

Then, the man placed his sword down upon the ground, as he looked towards me with a warm smile.

"In that case, why don’t ye let me help ya find somethin’ to wear, m’boy. If yer willin’, then let’s the two o’ us walk together for a ways. I’m sure that ye must be feelin’ pretty lost right about now, and I’d be glad to show ye the way ahead, if ye’d like.”

For just a moment, I sort of hesitated, as I thought about what to do.

I was still pretty nervous, after everything that had just happened.

But on the other hand, this man’s facial features and body language bespoke such a strong degree of amiable, and open-hearted warmth – and such a complete lack of deceit, or of conniving – that I really did feel like I could put my trust in him just about completely.

Plus, after everything that had just happened, the thought of having someone to guide me through these strange and foreign lands was really more than I could have hoped for, and something that I didn’t really feel like I could turn down.

And so, after hesitating for just a little while longer, I eventually placed my own sword down upon the ground as well, as I stepped forwards, and met him in the middle of the beautiful, and grass-covered field.

“It’s good t’ meet ya, m’ friend,” Torver said, as he embraced me tightly, and shook my hand, with a firm, but gentle grip. “There’s a little cave I slept in th’ day before, where I got some spare armor, which I took off o’ a couple o’ bandits I met along the way. It should fit ya just fine, I reckon… and after we grab it, I can show ya the way t’ Westfall, if that’s where ye’d like to go.”

“Thank you,” I said, softly, still a little overwhelmed that I finally seemed to be out of all of the danger that I had just been in before.

"It’s my pleasure, m’ friend,” he said, quietly, as he joined me at my side.

And then, after we had made our introductions, the two of us just went and picked back up our weapons, as we began to walk together up over the hills beyond, and through the meadows.

I was a little shy at first, and a little quiet. But, Torver was pretty talkative, and very sociable, and I found myself getting into a pretty natural rhythm with him after just a little while.

Towards the beginning of our conversation, he asked me a lot of different questions about Earth, and about what my life had been like back there… but then, gradually, I started to ask him a few different questions about this new world of mine as well.

As I began to ask him about those things, I felt a real sense of excitement rising up from within me.

What I truly hoped for right then was to finally be able to get some answers to the questions that had been rattling around in my head ever since I had arrived here.

But what I found out instead was that a lot of those questions weren’t going to be answered all that easily – if they would ever be able to be answered at all.

In particular… it seemed that it wasn’t going to be all that easy to figure just how I had arrived in this world, exactly – or to discover much of anything about the one who had brought me here.

According to Torver, no one in this world really knew who Kalia was.

All that anybody seemed to know was that, every twenty or thirty years, a stranger would arrive here from another world, having just experienced the same sort of thing that I had – a bright, blue orb of light, and a gentle female voice asking them if they would “like to go,” and then a message telling them who had brought them here, and what had just occurred.

But, that was all that Kalia seemed to do. None of the people who had been brought here by her had ever received any further contact from her after that, and nobody from this world had ever managed to speak to her either, or to interact with her in any way at all. As far as anybody here was concerned, she was just kind of like a ghost - and if she hadn’t brought people here from time to time, then probably nobody would have even realized that she existed.

Not only that, but no one in this world understood a single thing about how summoning worked either, or about what connection this world had to other places. As far as the people of this world knew, Kalia was the only one who could summon people here, and she was probably the only one who could send them back as well – although there was no record that she had ever done so. But since no one had ever discovered anything about her, no one had ever really figured out anything about summoning either, or about how any of her powers really worked.

That information was all very strange, of course… and at the time, I hardly knew what to make of it.

The only further hint that he could provide me with was that, in some of the oldest books of this world, there were a few suggestions that Kalia might have been some sort of a goddess once, and that she might have talked to all of the people of this world a long, long time ago, and given them guidance about their lives, and helped to care for them.

According to those same legends, however, there had then been a great, and a terrible crime, that had been committed in the distant past… and those legends claimed that Kalia had abandoned the people of this world entirely as a punishment for that crime, and that she had left the people of this world to wallow in their own violence, and their own cruelties.

But what that crime might have been, exactly, none of the legends could really say.

Nor could they explain why Kalia hadn’t returned since then, in all of the time that had passed - even after all of the people who had been responsible for that crime would have presumably long since have passed away.

For those reasons, then – along with quite a few others – I wasn’t inclined to believe that story much at all. And it seemed that Torver was pretty skeptical about that account too, and that he was also inclined to believe that all of that was just a myth, and not something to be taken all that seriously.

But… if that story wasn’t true, then I was just back to square one – and I realized now that it wasn’t going to be an easy thing to try to figure out who Kalia was, or why she would have brought me here - or to figure out why she hadn’t spoken to me once again, in all of the time that I had been in this world.

And so, I figured that it would be worth looking some more into those old legends once I had made my way to the town of Westfall. Once I was there, I’d try to find a few books about her, and to see if there might be any more hints or clues that I could discover.

For now, however, I didn’t think that I would be able to understand that much more. And so, I let my mind put that question off to the side for the moment, as I instead asked Torver about a few other things that had been weighing on my mind.

In particular… I asked him about the mark that had appeared on my hand, a little whiles before, and about what sort of significance it might have.

The moment that I asked those questions, I saw his eyes begin to sparkle… and then – after telling me that the mark on my hand was the mark of the “Interlopers,” which is what the people who’d been brought here by Kalia were called – Torver began to tell me a long, and detailed story about the nature of that mark, and about one of the greatest mysteries of this world.

Apparently, according to Torver, the mark on my hand was actually a kind of “key”.

And what that key unlocked – if the legends of this world were to be believed – were the doors to each of the ancient, and sacred vaults.

As he told it, this world had seven great, and indestructible vaults that were spread across its surface, each of which had been sealed for thousands and thousands of years.

No one knew precisely where these vaults were exactly, or what they might contain. But the legends said that they were filled with all sorts of ancient and legendary relics from the Old World, and that they also contained so much treasure, and so much gold, and so many different kinds of precious gemstones, that finding a single one of those vaults would make you the richest man alive, and would provide you with the means to acquire anything that your heart desired.

Not only that… but according to those same legends, that mark on the palm of my hand was said to be the only way to open up those vaults… and the only way to get inside.

For that reason, a few of the accounts even called them “The Vaults of Kalia,” since it was her mark that opened up the way. And one of the legends went so far as to claim that Kalia herself was waiting inside of one of the vaults, in order to bless the person who discovered her… while other accounts said that each of the vaults contained a copy of her personal library, which revealed all of the secrets of her past, and of this world as a whole.

But however all of that might be, all of the accounts seemed to agree that the treasures that lay inside of the vaults were truly extraordinary, and beyond the imaginings of any mortal being. And all of them seemed to suggest that the person who found their way inside of one of those vaults would somehow obtain the power to change the very nature of the world itself… although what that statement meant, exactly, wasn’t quite clear to me at the time – and I certainly didn’t yet grasp the full meaning, or the full significance of those words.

But even still, the more that I heard about each of these different vaults, the more excited that I began to feel. The thought that I might be the only one alive right now with the chance to get inside of such amazing and wonderful places was just intoxicating, and it kind of made my head spin as I thought about it.

But… well.

On the other hand…

… the more that I actually thought about what Torver was telling me right then, the more that I just felt like I had to say...

"You said that no one knew where these vaults were, right, Torver? But, if they’re sealed by impenetrable magic, then they couldn’t have been destroyed, could they have? So then, if they really do exist, and if people really did find them once, then where would they have gone to exactly? And why hasn’t anyone found any of them for so long now, if they’re just on the surface of the world somewhere? Haven’t people been looking for them during all of this time? So, I’m not sure how they wouldn’t have been discovered.”

Torver could only sigh, as he nodded in a reluctant agreement.

"That, of course, is precisely why so many people believe that the vaults are nothin’ more than myths an' legends. It’s just as ye say – this ain’t a newly formed world, after all. People been searchin’ for those vaults for thousands o’ years now. Great and powerful tribes o’ soldiers and adventurers, walkin’ through every field and valley, usin’ everything they got, each hopin’ to find a vault, then make a deal with some Interloper to split the treasures that lay inside. But even so, no one has managed to find one o’ the blasted things in ages, and no one knows where they might be. If they are real, they must be pretty much undetectable by magic, and darned near impossible to discover. But o’ course, somethin’ that no one can find, no matter how hard they look, sure don’t seem all that different from somethin’ that just don’t exist at all… and it’s been so long now since anyone’s seen ‘em, that a lot o’ folks believe they’re just made up legends, that don’t got a bit o’ truth to ‘em.”

The man sighed again, remembering the quite convincing skeptical arguments that seemed to suggest the unfortunate impossibility of his favorite youthful fantasy. But then, the man was able to recover his spirits, and he soon broke back into a sly grin.

“But I believe in ‘em, m’boy! Perhaps someday, the two of us can go search for ‘em together, and find some fabulous treasures along the way. That would certainly be an adventure t’ be worth havin’!”

At that, he broke into a loud laugh, and gave me a hard pat on the shoulder.

I did my best to give an amiable response, and to go along with his fantasies and amusements. But still, I found myself not all that persuaded. I was something of a skeptic at heart myself, and the sheer excitement and boyish enthusiasm of this man made me suspect that these legends of vaults and treasures were probably nothing more than tall tales which young men had passed around in order to make the world seem just a little bit more exciting.

But, all the same…

… I wanted to learn more about these vaults, if I could. Because, if they really did exist...

And then, I suddenly felt a profound sense of excitement, and of wonder rising up from deep inside of me.

Apparently, I wasn’t quite as immune to that boyish enthusiasm as I might have liked to pretend.

After we had finished talking about that, the two of us then walked in a comfortable silence together for some time, as we each thought about Kalia, and about the vaults, and about what we were going to do next.

As we walked on ahead, I felt profoundly aware of just how little I really understood about this new world of mine.

I no longer really had any doubts that all of this was real, and that Kalia was the one who had brought me here. But… I didn’t have any comprehension of who or what Kalia might be, or of how I could ever discover the answer to that question.

If the mark that she had given me was really a kind of key, and if that was the only way to open up the doors to those vaults, then maybe they really were connected to her somehow, and maybe I could figure out something about her if I could make my way inside.

But if those vaults didn’t exist at all – which sure seemed pretty likely – or if I couldn’t ever find them… then I would probably spend my whole life in this world not really understanding what had brought me here, or why I had come to this place at all.

That was a strange thought of course. But, I suppose that it wasn’t that different from how things had been back on Earth. After all, it’s not like I had known just why that world had existed as it did, or what the answers to all of life’s questions had been. Perhaps there were just some things that you really couldn’t know that much about one way or the other, and perhaps there was no point in giving any mind to them, in the end.

Of course, I didn’t quite believe that just yet… and so, I wasn’t inclined to give up on those sorts of big, cosmic questions anytime too soon.

But for now at least, I didn’t think that there was that much more to think about.

Once I had made my way into town, I would want to investigate as many of the old legends as I could find, in order to see what I might be able to figure out about the vaults, and about Kalia. From there, I could determine what I should do next, and whether there might be any way to discover the truth about any of these different sorts of mysteries.

That would be a good starting point, at any rate. But…

Well, there was also one more part of what Torver had said to me that had kind of struck a chord with me as well.

I was probably never going to be able to go back home.

That didn’t really bother me all that much, honestly. I didn’t have much of a home to return to, and I hadn’t really left much of anything behind.

But, it did mean that I was going to have to start to figure out a lot of more ordinary and practical sorts of questions. If I was going to be here for the rest of my life, then I would need to figure out just what I was going to do for work in this world, and how I was going to support myself.

I hadn’t given any thought to those sorts of questions in a long, long time… but, those seemed like the sorts of things that I would need to figure out pretty soon, at least. After all, I didn’t even have a single coin to my name, so I wouldn’t be able to rent a room, or to buy any food, or supplies.

For now, I could probably just live off of the fruit of the trees, and sleep in the caves, or the forests. But, I didn’t want to have to do that for too long if I didn’t have to. I had been homeless once before, and I didn’t want to live that kind of a life again. So, that meant that figuring out how to make a living would have to be one of my top priorities, and that I’d need to figure out how to do that just about as soon as I was able.

Still, even if I didn't have any of these different questions figured out – neither the simple, practical ones, nor the big, cosmic ones – I was at least glad that I had found someone that I could rely on, at least for a little while. For now, I could travel with this man for a ways, and then venture into town, get situated there, and just start to live my life. Hopefully, once I had started to get used to things out here, I could figure out how to make a living, and I could start to wrap my head around the mysteries of this world.

For now, though, I just started to appreciate the fact that I had finally found my way out of danger, and that I now really did have the chance to start to make a new sort of life for myself in this strange, and beautiful new land.

As the two of us walked along, I felt the rays of light from the beautiful spring-like day gently beating down onto my arms and legs. Somewhere just a little ways ahead, a few small birds were swooping down through the air, as they danced together, and played across the clear, blue skies.

Then, the two of us crossed over a hill, and down again into another purple-grassed meadow, which was covered in the same deep blue and golden flowers that I had seen before.

And then, with a gentle sort of excitement, and a lot of gladness about where my path had taken me, I just let myself imagine all of the different things that my future might hold in store… and the life that was awaiting me, just beyond the hills ahead, and through the valleys.

The only thing that troubled me at all, right then, was a small, thin voice, at the back of my mind.

It was whispering to me, over, and over again, that something was really wrong with the fact that Kalia wasn’t speaking to anyone here… and it was telling me that things in this world might be a lot more dangerous – and a lot more disturbing – than they at first appeared.

But even though that voice was a little troubling, the sheer beauty of the environment – and the sheer pleasure of having made my way out of any sort of immediate danger, for now at least – was enough to set my heart at ease.

And so, with only a few reservations, but otherwise in quite good spirits at the turn that my fortunes had begun to take, I just made my way ahead through the meadows and the valleys, as I tried to prepare myself for what was coming next, and for my entrance into the town of Westfall.