Ad vitam reverto

The mercenary opened their eyes. The action oddly made them feel dizzy to the point of almost stumbling to the ground from their crouched position. Luckily, they were fast enough to catch themselves before falling flat on their face. By doing so, their hands ended up brushing against a shallow concavity. Once the vertigo subdued, the merc slowly reopened their eyes. A familiar sun mark greeted them, the letters inscribed in its circumference shining faintly. They remembered now: they were currently in a square of the second district to retrieve their lost items and leave the area as soon as possible. However, a part of themselves found it strange, as if they weren't supposed to be here. As the glow of the letters receded, the unhired blade finally got back on their feet. So I didn't imagine that weird flash of light. What does it mean? They shook their head. There was no time for questions; they had to escape from this district before the mage's spell broke off.

The soldier bent down again and retrieved their diary. When their right hand grabbed it, that strange feeling of dejection manifested again with a sort of hallucination. The image of a bloodied hand with only three digits overlapped that of their healthy hand, a tremendous pain accompanying the vision. The hireling succumbed to despair, a feeling they had felt in a past or rather future they couldn't remember. The sensation ended all at once just as it started, leaving them baffled and frightened at the same time. "What the fuck is happening!?" the private contractor spat while their body was trembling like a leaf. Their mind was in turmoil, trying to find a logical answer to what they had experienced. But no valid explanation came out. Then, the sellsword recalled the technique their father taught them to calm their nerves before a battle.

Imagine a clearing. The chirping of the birds. The gurgling of a river. In this place, nothing can harm you unless you so decide. Because this is a product of your mind, just like the insecurities or fears you are feeling right now. They might stem from external factors, but you are the one who lets these sensations insinuate themselves inside you and grow stronger. You have to acknowledge this before facing them. But if you still don't know how to approach the problem, then go on with your life. Worrying about it won't do you any good: the solution to the issue may come to you by itself once you are ready. Now breath in and breath out. Let it all go.

The sword fighter did as their father instructed in their remembrance. They could feel their body relaxing, even though the terror instilled by the vision was still there, lurking beneath the calm exterior. Once their body stopped shaking, they resumed what they were doing. They opened their diary and flipped through its pages, reading some of them as a distraction from the lingering hallucination. Strangely, when they reached the supposed last entry, that was their arrival at Soldra, the mercenary noticed that the next pages were filled with text and doodles instead of being blank. Strange. I don't remember updating my diary after arriving here. Then they started reading the newly added content. How is this possible!? The pages contained information about the most recent events they had experienced such as the meeting with the young magic user and the escape from the great tortoise. There were even small sketches of the two. They immediately thought that someone else may have tampered with their journal, but after a close observation, they could tell that this was their handwriting. The dread they had tucked under an apparent calm resurfaced stronger than ever. The merc couldn't understand what was going on anymore; their mind was in utter disarray. However, they had no time to reorganize their thoughts: a massive ripple shook the whole air barrier that enveloped them, signalling its impending dissolution.

Upon learning of this new development, the unhired sword instantly started running towards the stairs for the first district due to its closeness to their current location. Once they got to the stairway, the barrier began deforming again, urging the person inside to go faster. In the final moments of their mad rush, the runner tripped and tumbled down the stairs. They fell on the ground just as the spell deactivated. Then they slowly got up, grimacing with pain because of the bruises procured from the tumble. Bruised, but still alive. And a bit scared. The sellsword forgot neither the hallucination nor what was written in their diary. The latter was on the ground right now, just a few centimetres away from them. After lifting it off the ground and cleaning its dirty cover, they approached the wall of an intact house near them and leaned against it.

While catching their breath, the private contractor gripped the notebook tightly. They didn't know where to start. The brief acquaintance with a young magic expert who spoke like an old lady and the encounter with a giant spiked tortoise? Or the nightmarish vision and the abnormal despair that came with it? And of course, there were the new diary entries that they didn't remember writing down. A long sigh escaped their mouth, conveying all their exasperation to anyone who could hear it. I guess I can only read the new notes for now. With that thought, the hireling opened their journal and started reading it carefully, after sliding down the wall and sitting down on the street floor. The events narrated in the first few pages were known to the soldier since they summarized what had transpired from their awakening to the recovery of their belongings. But after the known facts, the sword fighter laid their eyes on pages describing situations they didn't recall experiencing.

The page started with a paragraph that was suddenly cut off. "I have just arrived at the first district after escaping from that big turtle. Now I think I-" The next one began in the past tense, indicating that something had happened since the last paragraph. "The young girl was right. Something wrong happened in this city and I'm certainly not going to stay here after what I witnessed,” the mercenary read and raised their eyebrows before continuing. "I met an undead. A real undead. I called him Joseph." They flipped the page, eager to know what happened next. Unfortunately for them, their reading got interrupted by a sudden sound of footsteps.