I don’t know for how long I cried before I fell asleep, but I didn’t feel any better the next time I woke up. There was no sense of time, no clocks, no windows to look outside of nothing. I looked in my pockets and fumbled around on the side table for any of the things that had been in my pockets but couldn’t find them.

“Please god, let this be a dream.” I said numbly to the darkness, my throat dry. “Or at least a nightmare.”

“I am afraid it is neither dream nor nightmare young William Amsel.”

"Jesus Christ!” I swore, nearly jumping out of my skin.

“An interesting obscenity. I dare say I have never heard it nor it’s like before.”

The two green flames that were Ahn’Khareen eyes flickered to life then, and again candles burst into flame. The skeleton was sitting as primly as possible in its high-backed chair, staring at me.

I closed my eyes for a minute, trying to force my fear and revulsion down.

"I trust you are feeling better.” It wasn’t a question, but to my surprise now that I thought about it, I was feeling better. There was still pain, but it was much duller than it had been, and it was easier to ignore.

“I am, thank you.” I said politely and trying not to freak out. My heart was drumming in my ears, but I forced myself to look at the skeleton. “May I ask where my stuff is? My phone, wallet, keys?”

“If you are referring to the items in your pockets, I have them right here.”

From a pouch on the skeleton’s belt it pulled out my things, laying them out on the side table. With a sinking heart I could see that my phone was wrecked, the screen was shattered and bent slightly. My wallet was not in much better condition, and as I flipped through it everything had been completely soaked and ruined by water. I guessed my fall into the river was probably the cause of both wrecked items. The only thing left reasonably intact was my keys, although I was beginning to doubt if they would be of any good wherever I was.

“Thank you.” I said, dismayed at the turn of events. “I really am feeling better though, what kind of meds I’m on?”

“Meds?”

“Medication, you know. Uh, drugs?”

The skeleton, despite not having any vocal cords, managed to scoff. Although to be fair, it had managed to do a great number of things without any kind of flesh before.

“Please, I know some medicine men and shamans use plants and fungi in their poultices, along with recreational narcotics, in addition to those charlatans claiming to be witches. I on the other hand, utilize the purest form of healing magics, bypassing the use of inefficient salves entirely.”

I blinked; pretty sure I didn’t understand half of what she had just said and was completely confused on the other half.

“Magic?” I tentatively offered.

The skeleton, Ahn’Khareen, sighed again. Sighing seemed to be something it enjoyed doing, considering how many times it had done it in the few conversations we had had.

"Mayhap I was too hopeful before, and you really are a simpleton.”

“But… magic is fake, it’s stories.”

“Then pray tell me how I exist, without magic to bind my soul to these bones?”

“Well, it’s a trick, right? Some screen, or animatronic? Is this a prank, or an experiment by the sociology department of some kind?”

“Interesting, you clearly know of what you are talking and yet I do not. I may have been asleep for longer than I thought if magic no longer exists for the common folk or is only told about in stories. What year is it?”

A sinking feeling filled my chest as I began to realize where this was going. “2019.”

That stopped the skeleton for a second, before it uncrossed its legs and leaned closer towards me. “That is impossible. Of what calendar?”

"Uh, the Gregorian Calendar?”

“I know not of this “Gregorian Calendar” of which you speak, but I am starting to believe that my inability to comprehend your words is not a failing of time, but instead of space.”

“I’m sorry?”

“What is the name of your star?”

My body felt numb. This had to be a joke, right? Somebody was playing a prank on me; this couldn’t be happening. “My star is called the sun, but I live on Earth.”

“I see. I will need to know more, but simply put William Amsel; I believe you are no longer on the star you once called home.”

"I… what… star?” I tried to swallow but realized I couldn’t.

“I know naught of the magics involved in such a translation of space, but I have heard whispered rumors of such things. They were far beyond the most capable mages of my time; I wonder in this age who would be capable of such things…”

“Where am I?” I cried, interrupting the skeleton’s ramblings.

“Oh. Of course. The scholars call this star Nimanys.”

“But what about my home, my mom, my…”

The skeleton looked at me, and despite its terrifying boney visage, I could have sworn I saw sympathy in those green fiery eyes.

“I am sorry.” It said simply. “But until I know more of the circumstances of which you arrived at my home; I can offer you no reassurances.”

The world went dark around the edges of my vision and my arms and legs started going numb as I sat on the bed, staring at nothing.

“This can’t be happening. This is a joke, a horrible joke. Or… or I’m dreaming. I read too many fantasy books and I’m dreaming.”

“My apologies. I see this news comes as a shock, and not a pleasant one at that, I shall leave you to your contemplations. I had thought… but no matter.” Ahn’Khareen stood and began moving towards the door. “Do let me know if there is aught I can provide for you.”

“Water.” I said, jerking my head to look at the figure, realizing how thirsty I was for the first time. Even if this was a dream I was still parched. “I could really use some water.”

“But of course.” It disappeared, and a minute later returned with an ancient looking vase which it placed onto the side table along with a simple handle-less cup. “I do need to attend to other matters, but I shall return in several hours.”

“Can you leave the candles?”

The figure paused part way through a wave, then inclined its head slowly. Ahn’Khareen turned and walked through the doorway again, vanishing into the darkness, leaving me alone. Despite the creepiness of a skeleton talking to me, when faced with being alone I desperately wished for it to return as soon as it was gone.

It didn’t make any sense, and yet nothing else did either. How else could I explain moving from a sidewalk on my college campus to the middle of a forest? Or the goblins or a talking skeleton? It was just like the shows and the books. A lone hero gets summoned to another world to save it from destruction. But if that was the case, where were the people who had brought me here? The righteous knights, the honorable king, the beautiful princess? It wasn’t supposed to start with being hunted by goblins through the woods. The memory of that alone made my heart race with fear, and I curled up into a ball on the bed. A sob escaped my throat as I stared at the stone wall in front of me, and after a minute of resisting, I couldn’t stop the tears from silently streaming down my face. What would they tell my mom? That I had just disappeared into thin air, and she would never hear from me ever again, or ever know what happened to me? That was no way to live, and it would absolutely destroy her.

Something dark stirred deep inside me then as my mind latched onto something Ahn’Khareen had said earlier. The skeleton had wondered who could be capable of such a thing, which lined up with what I knew about these kinds of stories. Also in the books, more often than not, once the mission of the hero was completed, they would be sent back home, changed for the better. Taken together, that meant that there must be a mage somewhere who had done this to me. I didn’t know how long it would take, or what I would have to do, but I swore to myself that I would find the people who did this, and I would make them send me back home. Or I would make them pay.

--##--

Righteous anger at having been stolen from my home and my mom may have lit a fire that let me plan my revenge for hours, but even that wasn’t enough to keep me awake overnight. My body, as it so rudely kept reminding me, was still recovering from being shot with arrows, and despite healing faster than what probably should have been possible it wasn’t back to normal yet. I didn’t even remember falling asleep, but when I woke back up again the candles that had been left by Ahn’Khareen were little more than stubs.

I opened my mouth to call for the skeleton and blinked when that sentence had even the vaguest semblance of making sense but checked myself before I said anything. The candles weren’t emitting much light, just enough to fill the small room I was in, but they were being held in rather nice silver candelabra. A candelabra that wasn’t attached to the wall or anything, and the doorframe that connected my room into the rest of the…

I actually didn’t know what to call where I was. I remembered running through a rock cluster in the side of a hill, but the inside wasn’t natural, it was all carved and separated into rooms. I didn’t think it classified as a building, but it wasn’t just a cave either. The only word I could think of to describe this place was what all the video games called it. A dungeon.

The thought of this being a dungeon sent a shiver down my spine, because if it truly was a dungeon, then that meant that Ahn’Khareen was probably it’s final boss. The fact that Ahn’Khareen was a literal talking skeleton that could use magic only seemed to confirm my theory. And talking magical skeletons usually turned out to be a bad thing for the heroes of those games.

Regardless of the nature of Ahn’Khareen and the place I found myself in, the doorway didn’t actually have a have a door in it. I could see the remnants of the door in the far corner of my room, rotten into useless slivers of wood. It took me only a few seconds to make up my mind but quick enough I hopped off the bed, staggered for a moment as my body got used to standing again, then grabbed the candelabra and made my way out of the room. After all, and this was a big chance that I was taking, I hadn’t been told that I couldn’t leave the room.

The hallway outside of my room was made from the same heavy blocks of stone that I had seen before, and the roof was almost uncomfortably low with maybe just over half a foot of space above my head. Considering I was only five-foot ten, it was probably one of the shortest hallways I had ever been in. The hallway stretched off to the right from my room and progressing slowly down it I found five other doorways before the hallway branched off to the left. Poking my head through each of the openings I found small rooms just like mine, except in even worse states, with beds almost completely rotted out. In the last room there was an overwhelming stench of decay, and I hefted the candles higher, I saw a skeleton still in the bed, with traces of flesh still on its bones and shreds of clothing scattered around it.

It was a miracle that I managed to put the candelabra on the ground before I threw up. I didn’t have anything in my stomach however, having thrown up during the chase from the goblins, so I mostly retched and heaved until bile spattered onto the stone floor. I stared at the ground and the vomit for a minute, trying to ignore the dead body in the room in front of me. Technically Ahn’Khareen was a skeleton too just like the… thing in the room, but it was different. At least I tried to tell myself that. Ahn’Khareen was different, it moved, it talked, it wasn’t really a skeleton at all. Except it was, and my savior was the walking remnants of an actual person, somebody who had been alive once and now was dead. Or undead, as these things apparently went in this messed up world.

I tried to throw up again, but my stomach was completely empty, so I sat down on the ground outside of the room, leaning back against the cool stone wall and closing my eyes to try and steady my breathing.

“There lie the remnants of the last fool who tried to awaken me.”

Letting out a startled yelp I jumped up, looking in terror at Ahn’Khareen who was standing over me.

“I cannot remember how long it has been. At least fifty years, judging by the decomposition progress. He was sick when he came to me, desperate to learn the secret of eternal life and to escape his suffering.”

“Did you tell him?”

The glowing green orbs of fire stared down at me mercilessly. “Does it look like I gave up my most precious secret? No. He was unworthy of the honor, the privilege, the responsibility of life never-ending. I gave him a merciful death, which was the furthest extent of what he deserved.”

"What are you?” I asked, voice trembling.

“A lich. In my life I was a mage, and I dedicated the entirety of my waking moments to the understanding of death and how to overcome it. This,” Ahn’Khareen gestured at its skeletal form. “Is the result of my studies. A pure form unmarred not by age nor weather, wounds nor life itself. Hundreds of supplicants have tried to learn my secrets, and countless more have tried to sunder my form and scatter my ashes to the winds for my crimes against the gods. To a soul they have all perished by hands, for my secrets are mine to keep.”

“Are you going to kill me?”

The lights in the skull narrowed to tiny points. “Would you like me to?”

“I don’t want to die.” My voice was barely more than a whisper, and tears streamed down my face.

Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, a skeletal hand extended down towards me.

“Then take my hand William Amsel, and learn what it means to truly live.”