Niviem looked miserable, standing in an awkward pose wearing chain mail and a gambeson. He was also wearing Rem’s old open-faced helmet and small round shield while wielding the brigand’s spear. Completing his new armor set were leather gloves and boots; they were intended to save a little weight, but everything probably still added over a third again of Niviem’s total body weight.

Rem nodded, satisfied that the likelihood of a stray arrow killing Niviem was at least diminished now. For his part, Rem had upgraded to a visored helmet and sturdier kite shield. Checking his remaining funds, he found he still had 1 gold and 9 silver left- perhaps it would be enough to get his building project started.

Navigating past the piles of equipment on sale to the Dwarven shopkeeper again, Rem motioned to Niviem- “Thanks again for getting him set up; I’m sure he’ll get used to wearing it in time. On a different matter, I’m looking for a carpenter to build something for me- is there anyone you could recommend?”

“I know plenty; it all depends on whether you want to build a house, or just small bits of furniture.” she replied.

“I would need 3 bunk beds and a shed with a flat roof just large enough to place the bunk beds along the walls with a space in the center for a fire pit. The door needs to be sturdy and have a means of barring entry from the inside. I will also need a hatch on the ceiling and no windows please. I’m planning on reinforcing the walls, so they don’t need to be as sturdy as the door.” Rem answered.

Jotting down the details, she asked “If you’re going to be burning a fire, you’ll probably need vents leading to it, as well as a covered exhaust on the roof. Are you alright with thin sliding panels next to each bunk for air? Also, where would you like this built?”

“Yes on the sliding panels please, and you can build it anywhere that is convenient for you. We’ll be using it as a mobile shelter so, I’ll pick it up when it’s complete. Do you have an estimate on the cost?” Rem asked.

The shopkeeper perked up upon hearing this and after some quick calculations replied “That does sound quite interesting, and I’m also curious to see how you haul this structure off when we’re done. I would guess about 15 silver but come back in a couple of days and I should have a rough sketch as well as a precise estimate by then. My name is Moia by the way and my partner is the smith that forged many of the items here, in case you need something custom in the future.”

“Thanks Moia, my name is Rem and I will keep that in mind for the future. I will be leaving town for a few days but will check with you as soon as I’ve returned.” with that Rem nodded a farewell, before turning to gather up his teammates.

…

Rem sprinted toward Edward’s arcane domain only to be stopped almost dead in his tracks upon contact. He managed to slowly inch his way through but reversed direction as the progress was far too slow. Upon seeing this, Edward immediately dropped his arcane domain only to shuffle forward a quick step and reactivate it. Now with Rem trapped further in the slowing field, Niviem ran out from the back of the sphere and circled to the front before going through a mock stabbing motion to Rem’s back.

The party had experimented with Edward’s new skills by firing arrows against the arcane domain, which it proved very effective at stopping. They also staged mock fights in which Edward and Niviem were left to defend themselves. Edward’s ability to restrain monsters with his binding spell would allow Niviem to stab them from a relatively safe distance using his spear, but this skill could only be used intermittently. Rem had noticed how difficult it was for him to push through the arcane field, and the possibility a similar humanoid monster might just give up and chase after Niviem seemed plausible, so Edward was practicing a counter for that scenario.

Edward dropped the field and Niviem sank to the ground exhausted. It was late in the afternoon, and he had spent most of the day practicing with the spear and running drills while carrying much more weight than he was accustomed to.

“Let's take a break, then head back? In my opinion both of you improved significantly and there isn’t any point in getting injured from over exerting yourselves while training.” Rem asked.

Both Niviem and Edward listlessly nodded in agreement. The settlement could be seen fairly close by as the party had only needed some space to practice, but Anira had nevertheless been surveying the tree line in the distance for any trouble. A quiet moment passed with a welcome breeze flowing over the party and the plants around them gently swaying in response, then Edward lifted his gaze to stare at the ground in front of him.

“Are you planning to find out more about them? Those who summoned you here?” Edward quietly asked.

Rem nodded in response “I really need to; I don’t know what they even did to me. I will have to wait until I’m better prepared though. Right now even the local wildlife could kill me, so I don’t think I’d fare well against a shadowy organization that can teleport people between worlds.”

“I’d suggest caution as well. If you get noticed, you’ll be sticking our heads into the fray between at least several groups in the midst of an arms race. It is only a guess, but the people who sponsored me may have been at odds with these people, and they’re not doing so well as a result.” Edward sighed.

Eyebrow raised, Rem asked, “Sponsored?”

“Well obviously I’m not from around this here world; you do recall I said we’re all misfits eh?” Edward retorted.

Strangely unsurprised, Rem looked to Anira and Niviem, then asked in a tired voice “Were you two teleported here as well? Any other revelations to share?”

“We’ve got some regular people problems, nothing compared to you two though.” Niviem huffed.

Edward raised his hand- “Well, technically not teleported here, more like copied. This man’s body you’re looking at was a volunteer who was born here, but my original self is a little younger than Niviem and in my original world, probably still living a rubbish existence.”

“…’This man’s body’… does that mean this person’s mind was destroyed when you were... copied?” Anira asked.

“More overwritten than destroyed, although the end result admittedly is the same for him. My world didn’t have any magic, but we did have highly advanced technology. We had vessels that would dwarf the entire town of Ilona in size capable of travelling to other worlds. There is only one moon where I’m from, but it is home to multiple cities with millions of humans living in them, and the same can be said for many of our neighboring worlds.” Edward replied.

He continued a little more quietly “It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. I was contacted by an organization from this world who identified themselves as ‘the Pathfinders’. Although they probably could have just taken it, they spent the time to discuss what their goals were and asked me for permission to convey the information I had to one of their membership. What I hadn’t thought of is that all of us in my previous world are augmented; me especially so with attachments and extensions to my brain. Sometimes it wasn’t easy to separate out where my brain ended, and the machine began with regard to my memories. It seems whatever method they used had the same problem since it tried to dump all my extensive knowledge onto this poor bloke, erasing him in the process.”

After a few moments of digesting Edward’s story, Rem offered “I thought my transfer was rough, but it sounds like you’ve had it worse.”

“Which part? Being partially responsible for killing someone, then walking around in their body? Or worrying that I may be nothing more than a simple copy of memories devoid of any free will?” Edward muttered.

“Both.” responded Rem.

“Why would you think the second one? You seem pretty normal to me.” asked Anira.

“When we interact with people, we consider them to be capable of free will unlike inanimate objects like a cart for example. When a cart breaks, a sane person will regard that as the result of deterministic contributing factors leading to that end result and not blame the cart itself. If a person murders someone, barring extenuating circumstances, most of us believe that individual chose that action; that the true origin of the decision rests in that individual. For that to be mechanically possible it means all the normal contributing factors, a person’s biological makeup, history and recent events, all the inputs can be fed into this black box we call a person, and result in something that is not only unpredictable but a literal break in the chain of causality. If some part of me decoupled from the rest of the universe existed to allow my choices to truly originate from me, I don’t see how it can be copied with a memory transfer.” Edward explained.

Waving off any concerns, Edward continued “Anyway, don’t worry about little old me. Back home I was locked into a support cradle at a hospital; couldn’t even move let alone wander out on grand adventures, so it could be worse. Also, the Pathfinders I knew scattered to hide, but I was on good terms with them. I’m a bit more worried about you Rem- these people that ripped you from your world at great risk to you without your permission don’t exactly sound cuddly.”

Thinking more on the possibilities, Edward added “I know you mentioned you don’t know why they would want to summon someone like you but if I were to put myself into the shoes of an evil researcher, I would want someone exactly like you. Two identical humans, one born in another world with magic, and one born here with magic and the System. Does the one born here have their brain modified while they’re developing in the womb in order to understand the common language? Does the one brought here later have a hidden interpretation skill attached to their spell framework to accomplish the same result? Does this mean they also have the ability to accept more skills or classes artificially? Looking for deltas in two examples that should otherwise be mostly identical is a lot easier than dealing with an alien being that has ten heads, hyper dimensional limbs and a hundred other reasons why things could be different in their biology.”

“If they know about you, I think they’ll want you back for further experimentation.” Edward concluded ominously.

“That may be true, but I’m hoping I’ll see them coming or be able to hide myself if needed until I’m ready for them. I mean- the whole reason why they run their experiments out here in the wastes is to be able to conceal them, right?” Rem responded, then noticed Niviem who had been feigning death on the ground for the last minute or so.

Rem had originally seen him in his peripheral vision and thought he was simply resting, but looking at him now with his scrunched-up eyes and protruding tongue, the message that Niviem wanted to return to Ilona was clear. He was tempted to see how long Niviem was willing to commit to his silent protest, but Rem found himself getting hungry as well. “Shall we get something to eat Niviem?”

Niviem sprang back up onto his feet and beamed “It’s like you can read my mind!”

…

They had all returned to the guildhall to eat dinner and had an opportunity to quickly meet the teams that would be traveling to the forest the next day with them. With a short briefing on what Rem knew, they agreed to meet early the next day to set out.

Rem had been struggling to fall asleep both dreading another experience similar to the last while simultaneously needing to find out what was happening. Eventually, sleep claimed him, and he awoke to find that he or Ceira rather was being carried through a large chamber.

He knew this place as the summoner’s cavern.

The circle itself appeared to be functioning, slowly pulsing with mystical energies and being carried past the rooms in the rear section of the site, other robed figures could be seen busy at work in the operating rooms. The burn pit had several bodies within it in the process of being consumed by the flames.

Entering the room containing the prison cells, Ceira was roughly dropped onto the floor of the cell furthest from the door. Closing the door to her cage and then pulling the remains of another prisoner from a different cell, the figure exited the room.

Too weak to move, she continued to lie on the ground idly taking in the details of the flagstones which made up the floor. Ceira understood nobody knew where she was, or even if they did, why would they come for her? She was nobody, and she was now alone in this world. She also understood that her fate would be the same as the people she had seen burning in the nearby chamber.

After a moment, Ceira began to recall all the times she had gone exploring in the forest with her mother where she had seen her first grasshopper or the first time she had been to a lake and begun learning how to swim in its clear waters. These wonderful memories brimming with potential for what the future could hold, and visions of the things she had only heard of but never seen for herself swam through her imagination.

The more Ceira strained to see, feel and understand all the possibilities of the world she would never experience, the more she could feel something gripping and dragging down her heart as if to smother her.

Yet she persisted.

Rem had been in something of a similar circumstance in his previous world with the advancing undead hordes, but what had he done? Mostly try to become numb, perhaps lie to himself a little and convince himself that he had seen and done everything the world had to offer already. On the other hand, Ceira was well aware that she had only seen the briefest of glimpses of the world before her life was to be extinguished, and was doing everything she could to cherish the remaining moments.

Rem thought of himself as a tough, capable warrior with training and experience. He wondered how it was then, that this little girl’s courage could so thoroughly be putting him to shame. He silently pleaded with her to fall asleep and escape this anguish until he woke sometime later.

…

Still in bed and keeping his eyes closed, Rem could feel a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. Earlier he had thought Ceira was somehow broadcasting her experiences in real-time and that he was able to view them due to his experimental modifications.

Unless the organization that had summoned him had managed to repair all the damage to their outpost in a matter of a week, it seemed more likely now that he was viewing her memories. He still needed to travel there to know for sure, but he braced himself for the likelihood of what he would find as he quietly prepared to set out.