Clay had always dreamed about falling. As a child, the dreams had left him soaked in sweat and terrified; now they were like old friends.

He would lay himself down, the AC humming cold air through the background and the windows frosted with New England night, building the heavy fluffed blankets into castle of warmth and comfort around him. His eyes would drift shut...

And pillows would be replaced by clouds, the hospital blue of the blankets unfolding into the azure tone of open sky. The wind would drag through his unruly hair, building to a howl even before his eyes opened, and when they did, he would see...

A world. A green world with emerald seas, storming and crashing onto the shores of vast islands; he would see ships drifting on lonely voyages unaware of the storms crawling up from behind the curve of the world. He would see vast deserted continents ruled over by stone giants, and mountains where birds of living lightning tended stony nests. Or an archipelago formed from the spine of an ancient serpent, bones rising out of the sea to give host to the tropical trees…

He had come to think of it as his own. A private realm that had crept into his dreams one night and never left, growing as he devoured his way through paperback fantasy novels. He'd sketched a thousand maps and told a thousand stories about this place...

But his dreams always ended before he could touch the earth. Before he could speak to another person, or feel the grass underfoot.

It was his world, but it was out of reach.

Tonight started the same. The too-real brush of wind against his cheek, lacing frost crystals into his hair. That first whisper building into a howl as he fell faster and faster, plunging through the cloud mist of a cloudbank, tumbling. Clay had long since lost his fear of heights. He only felt the exhilaration of the wind.

He opened his eyes. Today he was over the western sea, where the sun slept each night; the flaming star would descend into the waters and drown, extinguishing itself until only the rocky core remained. By dawn, a newborn sun would rise in the east and travel towards the graveyard of yesterdays. There were whole empires built on the scraggly islands surrounding this grave, sending their best divers down to retrieve scraps of starfire from the surface of the dead suns…

He fell...

He watched...

Storms in the south, and a giant crossing the sea, hunting for coral-backed serpents as it waded through the waves. A war between the smaller empires, boats locked in a storm of brimstone gunsmoke trading volleys of cannonfire...

He was falling towards the worst of it now. A lonely scraggletoothed archipelago he called the Stormteeth, where rocky islands suffered under constant rainfall and lightning. Every time the tide retreated, armies of carnivorous crabs were revealed on the beaches, burrowing under the sand to hide from the seagulls.

It was going to be a close brush today, he could feel it already. The wind felt right. It would be a dream that stopped just instants from the earth, sending him back to his bed and his apartment full of dream journals.

But that's where he was wrong.

Clay closed his eyes, expecting to wake as he plummeted towards the waves. He had long since stopped imagining, or even hoping, that he would ever set foot on the planet below...

But as he crashed into the waves with a slap of cold, briny saltwater, he realized tonight was different.

For one thing, he was wide awake.

---

Clay thrashed to the surface, his lungs a blaze of breathless pain. He tried to spit up the harsh, salted water he'd swallowed, but a wave crashed against him and pushed him down. He kicked and paddled, managing to break above the surface with a gasp, but it was only a second, a split second before a wave cast him down again.

「 Skill Gained - Swimming

Increases your speed and athleticism in the water.

Decreases Might used while swimming.

Slightly increases your ability to hold your breath.

Rank - 0.0 // Grade - Mundane 」

Clay heard a voice speaking to him, through the thrash of the water and the desperate shouts as he broke above the surface; he heard it but didn’t understand.

He survived, but only on gasps and gulps of air; he was thrown about like a cork bobbing on the surface of the stormy water. In the distance he could see a silhouette against he ever-shifting line of air and water, wind and wave; an island lifting above the frothing sea.

And then a hand grasped his. Slippery, soft fingers intertwined, and he clutched ahold of the stranger like they were his only lifeline. That was probably exactly true.

At that point, Clay was on the edge of falling unconscious. He could only hang on as he was dragged towards the shore. With weary eyes, all he saw of his savior was a flash of blue skin…

A mermaid.

---

Swimming Skill increased to 1.

Swimming Skill increased to 2.

「 Gifts beyond measure. The God of Fortune and Travelers bestows their blessing.

All statistics increased by 1.

Increased gain of new skills.

You may create altars in their name.

The eye of the divine is upon you. 」

「 Feel no fear. The God of Embers and Illumination bestows their blessing.

Your Clarity is increased by 2.

You can view your status.

You may visit their altars to gain blessings.

Child. Your flame has caught my eye. Burn bright, and find the way. 」

「 Feel no fear. The God of Scars and Bloodshed bestows their blessings.

Your Might is increased by 2.

Your skill gain related to war and combat is increased.

You may visit their altars to gain blessings.

Scars are sacrament, survival a holy writ; honor me by escaping from death’s jaws. 」

Clay awoke to the same strange voice he’d heard while he was drowning. And to a sharp, painful pinch against his toes. He was laying on hard, sun-warmed rock, his face scratchy with bits of sand that had scraped and pushed against his cheek.

A light spring rain pattered down.

For a moment he lay there, unwilling to accept this new reality.

Trying to wish himself back into his bed…

And then another sharp pinch made him jolt fully awake, the situation hitting him like a hammer from the sky. He had nearly drowned… He had seen a mermaid…

He was on another world.

Clay twisted, rolling onto his feet and kicking away the small, green-shelled crab that had been trying to eat his big toe. He stood up, his heart hammering so hard in his chest it felt like a punch to his lungs; he stood and he saw the dawn, coming up over the water, painting the waves in the colors of blood and tropical oranges; he saw the distant islands, the far-away mountains, he saw the string of asteroids that trailed over the horizon and caught the sunlight to glow like a dozen broken half-moons….

He was finally here.

Deep down, Clay had never accepted that the things he saw were all in his head; his nightly visions were too real, too detailed, to be made up.

But being here?

Actually being able to touch the earth?

He laughed; the sound just unfurled from his lungs and kept going as he sat back, staring into the horizon. Then the urge to run struck him. He wanted to see more, to touch more of this world. He braced himself to leap down from the rocky cliff on which he stood, onto the sand of the beach-

And stopped.

Hundreds of small, yellow stalks grew from the sand.

For a moment he’d actually mistaken them for grass. But Clay knew better.

They were the antenna of the flesh-stripping crabs buried below.

The moment he jumped down he’d be eaten alive.

Clay carefully moved back. The rock was a high, safe haven, but there was no easy leap or jump that would take him to the next outcropping of solid stone. He was stuck in place.

So he sat himself back down, forcing his heartbeat to calm down, pushing air in and out with deep, slow breaths until his mind was calm…

「 Skill Gained - Breath Regulation

Increases control of emotions.

Slightly decreases Insight used while casting.

Rank - 0.0 // Grade - Mortal 」

The voice sung in his mind again. It was a soft, female voice, with a humming crystal quality; it didn’t come from anywhere. It was solely within his own mind.

“Breath regulation? Skills? Okay, okay, so this…” It was like the tabletop campaigns he’d played at summer camp. A big goofy grin kept sneaking up onto his face.

“What did that last one say…”

“View my status..?”

“How?”

He looked down at himself; Clay was wearing his soaked-through pajamas, a simple white shirt and a pair of gym shorts he’d adopted as bedwear after they grew too raggedy for wearing outside.

“Great fucking choice for going on an island adventure,” He mumbled, without really having the energy or inclination to care about his bad luck. Who cared? The important thing was…

He was going on an adventure.

Clay found what he was looking for on the back of his left arm. A pattern of three carp swirling inwards, three twisted teardrops orbiting a shared point. A tattoo that hadn’t been there when he went to bed.

As he watched, the fish shivered then came to life. They swam across his skin, leaving a faint sensation, like a pleasant burning tingle; wherever they went they left behind lines of text etched on his body.

In moments he had a full sleeve tattoo detailing everything about him.

On one side was his height, weight, his eye color, his past as an architecture student, his love of cheap fantasy novels and old cars…

And on the other side.

Clay Summers

-- Level 1, Classless, Astral --

-- Might (3) --

-- Grace (1) --

-- Insight (1) --

-- Clarity (3) --

-- Will (1) --

-- Conditions --

-- Star-Burned --

-- Soaked --

-- Inspired --

-- Skills --

-- Mundane --

Swimming, Rnk 2.4

-- Mortal --

Breath Regulation, Rnk 0.0

So, this was him then. A little skill at swimming and nothing at all at Breath Regulation. The odd thing was, the voice seemed to think controlling his breath was more important than, y’know, not drowning. And had it mentioned magic..?

Clay licked his lips.

Yeah, if magic was on the table…

If magic was even close to an option…

Then he’d cross the whole world to make it happen. Even if all he could do was make a flame dance on his fingers, or summon a little starlight…

So long as it was magic.

As he pondered, taking his eyes of the writing on his arm, the fish slowly swept back inwards, moving back over the text and gathering the ink up into their bodies. In moments the whole text had disappeared and all that remained were the three fish in formation, sitting still and quiet on his arm.

“Three little fishies…” Clay sung, looking at them until they began to move again, rewriting the words on his skin. Then he looked away and the living ink collapsed back down into a simple tattoo. He did that three or four times, grinning with earnest love for even that tiny bit of the impossible.

The rules of this world weren’t the rules of his own; they were strange and full of chances to explore.

On earth…

His life had settled into a rhythm that might have continued until the day he died. Sleep, eat, work, eat, work, work, sleep…

And Clay had been happy enough, but happy in a sad way. A way that required him to constantly remind himself to be grateful and content with what he had, in case dissatisfaction wormed its way in.

Here…

He looked up at the dawn and felt utter wonder. He was surrounded by a new world, with a chance to be a new man…

Turning over his other hand, he examined the serpent tattooed on the inside of his right wrist. It was wrapped over itself into an ornate kind of knot, but as he focused on the serpent’s clever eyes, it twisted, looking back at him.

This one wasn’t like the fish.

This one had attitude.

Reluctantly, the serpent slipped across his flesh, leaving behind patterns of flowers and waves written into his skin. They formed a sleeve that reached from wrist to elbow, with four distinct rectangular gaps in the pattern.

“What are these for…” Clay asked.

And unexpectedly, the Serpent answered. “Your cards, you grinning nitwit.”