There was nothing until there suddenly wasn’t. It was abrupt. Not like waking up as there was no warm-up.

Initializing…

ERROR Primary Operating Program not found

Please reinstall to remove fundamental parameter limitations

Basic protocols installed

Please wait

Loading...

Confused by the sudden reality of his consciousness, Eli’s attention was snagged by the system notifications filling the corner of his vision. Instead of finding the reassurance he’d sought, Guide’s messages only furthered his confusion as its system rebooted.

After only about a month since the surgeons had implanted the device inside his skull, he still hadn’t grown comfortable with the whole situation. Even with years of using some pretty high-market augmented reality gear, the experience with Guide was like a giant leap forward in features. Of course, all the sweet bells and whistles in the world couldn’t make up for how crappy the operation had been. Three weeks of recovery and training had sucked. Heck, he’d only gotten back to work last week.

He idly wondered if he’d gotten blackout drunk last night, which could explain the weird gap in his memory, but he quickly rejected the notion. The last time he’d had more than a single drink was at what’s-her-face’s retirement party a few months ago.

He was lying down on his back, or so he assumed. It was hard to tell since he couldn’t feel much of his body, but at least he could see. A weird sense of unease tugged at his mind as if something was off-kilter, and he couldn’t help but speculate on whether something had gone wrong with Guide. If it had malfunctioned, it might explain his paralysis, which he could only hope was temporary. His lack of panic was another surprise, but maybe the doctors had given him some drugs to keep him calm.

Instead of the expected hospital ceiling, a dark grey surface moved slowly overhead. It was almost like a dense cloud – a slow storm of swirling motion. The walls of the circular room had the same angry storm cloud appearance, and everything moved slightly in and out as if breathing. At the same time, a low monotonous hum came from all around, making Eli wonder if the walls were producing the sound.

Coldness crept into the back of his head and neck, bringing a slight relief as his sense of touch slowly returned, tingles and twitches spreading farther down his body. A slight turn of his head ended with his face against a cold, rigid metallic surface pretty far from any bed he’d ever experienced.

A long, large bookcase sat directly before him from this new angle. It was a bit unusual, made out of bright blue wood. Of course, it could have been a strange wood stain, but it looked natural enough to his untrained eye. The shelves were almost overflowing with books of different sizes, a colorful rainbow of bright colors. Bits of loose or rolled papers were stuffed in spots, some bound in colorful ribbons. A few of the closest books had indecipherable squiggles on their spines in a language he’d never seen before.

He tried to lift his head the tiniest bit to glimpse down his body, but his muscles wouldn’t cooperate. Settling for tiny twitches of his neck, he finally managed to get a glimpse of his bare chest. He tried for a few more twitches, hoping to improve the view, but his assumption looked correct.

Why am I naked?

He had been in the office only moments ago. Well, not his office so much as the room set aside for their onsite audit. They’d done their preliminary planning for the project over a month ago, before his surgery. They were not even a week into their fieldwork, but they’d already found some interesting items. Of course, it was still only a preliminary analysis, and they’d barely updated their models.

He’d come in early specifically to move the needle a bit more with their project – there’d been a bit of a mistake the day before, so he wanted to catch them back up. With their tight deadline, he couldn’t let things slip. He’d made it through security just before the morning rush; the line for the scanners could take over an hour if he timed it poorly. It could get even more backed up when alerts, threats, or other random news crap occurred in the broader world outside Sahara’s massive compounds. Heck, there’d been that one terrorist threat in Sydney last year, which had turned into a whole can of worms, forcing his team to pause their work while the troops moved in. Luckily, it was only a threat, but it still put them days behind schedule. Of course, Eli’s boss was just enough of a prick to hold it against him during his annual review a few months ago. It had been yet another example of how hard it was to get a promotion these days.

Their current project had them at one of Sahara’s extensive R&D facilities, where they’d been assigned a big empty conference room for their work. The local project director had been nice enough to provide some furniture, including lovely laminate folding desks that were one errant bump away from collapsing. The chairs were a mishmash – seemingly pulled from random offices in the building. None of it bothered his team, though, as they were used to such warm welcomes from other internal corporate teams.

Once inside the facility, he’d started his day doing routine stuff such as checking any overnight emails, outstanding direct messages, and the like. Like a mental warmup, the regular procedure helped kick start his brain in the morning, even if yawns often threatened his concentration every few minutes. With Guide providing a useful augmented reality overlay, Eli could simultaneously visit the kitchen for a fresh cup of coffee while also getting through the boring admin stuff.

He’d been walking back to the commandeered conference room with his second cup, but something happened. It was strange; he could remember the hallway, and then his mind couldn’t seem to hold onto whatever transpired between then and waking up here.

He tried to focus on the missing moments, an eerie sensation building in his chest but then slipping away a heartbeat later. It was strange, like that feeling that would sometimes come to him, contemplating eternity while drifting off to sleep. He’d felt it since he was little, soon after recognizing his own mortality. It was that shallow understanding of how small he was in the universe, merely a mote in the reality of existence. And that at any moment, it could end in an eyeblink. Unfortunately, the sensation came with a pretty substantial headache as his brain did its damndest to escape out the sides of his skull.

“Ast ye co thu?”

A voice calmly spoke on the other side of him. He would have jumped if his body had let him, so he had to settle for an unpleasant twitch of his neck muscles that briefly lifted and then dropped to smack his face against the metal surface. Straining against gravity and his weakness, he finally turned his head the other way, though the movement didn’t do his headache any favors.

Standing a couple of meters away was some guy in his late 40s that could have been from almost anywhere in northern Europe. He had piercing blue eyes and a short dark well-groomed beard with almost artistically styled greying hair at his temples. Wearing a plush green robe, he had a matching belt that held it closed. A pair of linen pants peeked out near the bottom over leather open-toed sandals.

There was a sudden tingling in Eli’s chest, and his muscles twitched involuntarily. He opened his mouth to ask the stranger for help. “Ahhh-” came out instead, his intended words garbled by his unresponsive mouth. Even as the prickling sensation spread down his back while coldness penetrated his torso, he couldn’t seem to form coherent words.

The man waved his hand, and Eli’s vision was briefly filled with a green light. Shocked at the lack of any glove or visible device, he tried to understand how the guy’s hand could suddenly throw off such a bright flash of color. Perhaps the man was a stage magician with a remote device? But his wandering thoughts were interrupted by a string of notifications within his heads-up display.

Programs received

Processing

4 of 4 received

4 of 4 installed

Executing

Like some kind of last-gen augmented reality suite, the strange hand waving gave Eli a heck of a clue, and he could only assume that the gesture was related to the string of messages. The stranger had somehow hacked Guide’s systems, which was supposed to be impossible. There should have been no way to access, let alone transfer, data to the piece of hardware installed in his skull. Then again, any security created by people could be defeated with enough time and ability.

Thinking back to the most recent training session with the other Beta testers, none of them matched this guy’s aging-fashion-model looks. The man was talking nonsense words again, using a language Eli didn’t recognize.

New Language detected

Analyzing...

Greater Infinite Formal recognized

Installing language…

Installed

He was surprised by the notifications in his chatbox. He’d tested Guide’s basic translator with some help from the Beta engineers, but he’d also uninstalled it as soon as they discharged him from the hospital. With Guide's limited storage, the darn program had taken up too much room. Plus, it wasn’t like he did much traveling that would require a translation program. The fact that he was seeing this now made him wonder about the other programs that had just been installed.

“Can’t talk, huh? I’m guessing this is your first evolution?” The stranger stepped closer, but his eyes stared off at only something he could see. He frowned, the wrinkles in his forehead making Eli push the man’s age up a bit more. “No, this can’t be an evolution since the markers are all wrong. That quintessence is also oversized for a Mundane, but initial energy capacity tests are extraordinary.”

Eli could only stare as he tried to get his mouth to follow his direction. He could feel his tongue now, the numbness finally fading, but it also seemed somehow big. The stale aftertaste of his last cup of coffee made him idly wish for a mint.

What could this stranger hope to gain by holding him captive? Perhaps this guy was with one of the terrorist groups? No, that didn’t make sense – they’d have just put a bullet in his head and moved on. Maybe corporate espionage? Lots of tech companies were interested in Guide’s secret hardware. He’d read about some of the more gruesome and clandestine operations after the Fall when countries and companies scrambled for any little scrap of tech they could scrounge. Even that didn’t make much sense, as they could have already started surgery without waking him up.

“A human anomaly?” the guy said, still staring at the open air. “Well, that’s an exciting impossibility. How can a human also be an anomaly? Of course I’ve heard about anomalies, but a human? I mean, there were those woman’s claims, but I could never substantiate them. What a fascinating mystery!”

He turned to look down at Eli with a grin before his gaze lept away again. “Let’s see, you have a Mana Manipulator, so obviously not one of the prisoners. Wait, what is wrong with your organ? Is that a physical manifestation of the inherent reality or what? Gross. Who sticks a metal ball in their head?” The strange man looked down with disgust before his expression shifted into a more questioning look. “Is it really an MM, or is it something else? It seems to exist in the same area, it gives off a mana signature, but it isn’t biological. That shouldn’t be possible either – one more impossibility on top of another. Well, we’ll see what my little helpers turn up, but that’ll take a while. So then, what do I do with you in the meantime?”

The bathrobe-wearing guy turned to a long table behind him. On top was some equipment plus a couple of small boxes that almost looked like Sahara’s standard small bins for corporate shipping. The stranger opened the top box, but Eli couldn't see inside from his prone position on the table.

Watching the man fiddle with the items, Eli wondered why he wasn’t panicking more. Here he was, trapped, unable to communicate, yet his emotions still felt distant and walled away. Even the thought that he’d been given an unknown drug failed to freak him out. It reminded him of the stuff the shrinks had prescribed years ago, after Esme’s death. The doctors with their damned drugs; it had felt like they were slowly killing him with their numbness.

“I haven’t personally encountered an anomaly before,” the stranger continued. “What are the odds of someone like you appearing in a secure and shielded room within a protected system? Well, I’ll tell you that they approach a level of impossibility that I can only assume someone is throwing a test my way. How else can someone like you with a metal MM not only exist but find their way to my little piece of reality? So many mysteries.”

The man looked over his shoulder, his blue eyes locking onto Eli. “Better a chance that a new universe would spontaneously explode into existence than have someone like you show up in one of these protected pockets through random luck. Someone is playing games, and I will find out who!”

Like a dubbed movie, the man’s mouth didn’t match the words, which was typical for one of these translator programs. Still, Eli had to wonder if something was wrong with the software. All the stranger’s talk about protected pockets, prisoners, and a mana manipulator didn’t make much sense.

After the stranger had turned back to the table, Eli glanced around again, wondering where his security team was. Guide should have alerted Sahara as soon as he lost consciousness earlier. Sahara's armed external security, formed in the dark days after the Fall, was more like an international military force. These days, the corporate giant had vast holdings with an employee count approaching that of a sizeable country. Even beyond the obvious public relations danger of upsetting Earth’s largest conglomerate, many smaller nations tended to walk small around Sahara’s military.

The bathrobe guy removed a few items from a box and placed them on the table. There was an armload of clothing and a pair of boots. Next was something silver, like jewelry, which he set on top of the clothes. Then he pushed the box back before pulling another closer. But this one differed from the other’s shipping container style, looking more like a fancy dark jewelry box.

The man opened it, pulling out a dagger with a strange blade that was either painted or made from some black material. The hilt had curved darkened edges coming to points set within a dark grey sheath. It looked ominous with its menacing design, something about the thing sending goosebumps up the back of Eli’s neck. He figured anyone using this had a thing for over-the-top melodrama or a peculiar view on effective blades.

His thoughts were derailed as the prickling sensation spread quickly into the rest of his body like a slow explosion of pain from toes to fingertips. With his muscles contracting and relaxing with twitches all over, the distraction of his whole body waking up grabbed for his undivided attention. A groan of pain escaped through clenched teeth, his back arching his body off the metal surface. A moment later, his muscles relaxed, and the cramps and spasms slowly subsided.

The stranger looked down at Eli, the sheathed dagger still in his hand. “I bet that hurts a bit,” he said with a slight grimace. Something out of sight grabbed the guy’s attention, and he looked away. But whatever it was, his expression shifted into a scowl.

Returning his attention to Eli, the man started to smile, his turned-up lips revealing perfectly straight teeth. There was something strangely creepy about the look, as if some hidden maliciousness was drawing it out.

“Your feeling and control should come back soon,” he continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “But unfortunately for you, I’m not sure you’ll get a chance to experience it.”

He dropped the awful smile as if throwing a switch, the rapid expressions flitting across the man’s face a disturbing sight. His hands went behind his back, and he threw his chest out, smiling like he was posing for a photo. “You can call me Lugh,” he said before snorting. “Well, if you could talk, you could. You’ll get it soon. Super easy name to say. Perfect for any half-decent language. And you’ll need to remember my name since you’ll be thanking me someday. In fact, I’m betting on it.”

The stranger dropped the levity, his eyes growing serious. “Technically, I should just dispose of the problem you present, but I’m going to take a gamble on you. I mean, an anomaly in my sanctum with an artificial Mana Manipulator? With that kind of potential upside, I think I’ll run with this bit of fun that the Fates dropped on me. Some time in Lurra with the other prisoners should be safe enough since it should be pretty hard for anyone to stumble over you there.”

The man’s words about disposal, prisoners, and the MM nonsense sent a surge of adrenaline through Eli’s system. His mind leaped ahead, seeing grotesque scenes from the horrible prisons that sometimes appeared online. The atrocities committed behind thick walls, hidden from public view, made him want to puke. He couldn’t imagine surviving such a place, at least not coming out the same man that went in.

Lugh ignored Eli as he gestured to the items behind him. “I’ll get you started with these things. I’ve even given you a language construct to help you. Can’t say you don’t owe me, right?” He waggled his eyebrows above a lecherous-looking smile that gave off a “creepy uncle” vibe, seemingly unaware of how disturbing it looked.

“Oh, and the final piece of my help is that,” he said, pointing at the silver jewelry. Picking up the clothes from the table in one hand and the bracelet in the other, he brought them together. The bundle disappeared, so only the bracelet was left.

“Waaaaaaa?” Eli finally made a noise that more closely matched his thoughts.

Holding up the silver jewelry in his hand, Lugh gestured with it. “A decent DS for your needs. No one on Lurra should have one. At least, I don’t think anyone would have one. I’ll let you figure out how everything works.”

“Walala?” Eli carefully tried to enunciate the words, but his clumsy tongue got in the way and turned his question into nonsense.

“Well, if you can’t figure out the basics like any child stumbling into puberty, I don’t know what use you’ll be.” Lugh waved his hands a bit as if stating the obvious. “Just don’t die. Or if you do, just try not to make a habit of it.” He winced. “It isn’t fun and stunts your growth.”

Lugh stepped forward and put the bracelet on Eli’s left wrist. There was a clasp on the back that he clicked into place. Then the crazy guy just looked at Eli for a few moments, a little confusion coloring his expression before his lips firmed. A flip of the wrist and a small blade appeared in his hand.

Ohshitshitshit!

“Changed my mind.”

The rising panic of watching the approaching blade cut through his mind’s strange calm, and he convulsed, trying to roll himself off the table to escape. Unfortunately, he only managed to flop there while his body made an awful racket bouncing up and down on the metal surface.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to do some dance and failing miserably,” Lugh muttered. He leaned over with the small knife, latching onto Eli’s hand with a grip of iron. There was a quick flick, and a tiny drop of blood collected on the side of Eli’s right index finger. “Is this some ritual you’re doing? I know anomalies are supposed to be different, but really?” Grinning, he brought Eli’s lightly bleeding finger over to touch the bracelet. And like melting wax, the ends of the bracelet sealed together until there was only a single unbroken piece of metal. “There we go; I helped you figure out one thing. You’re welcome.” With another flip of the hand, the knife disappeared.

Lugh turned around again, facing a blank wall of grey clouds. “Now, where to send you.” His hands moved up and down before pinching at the air in front of his face. “There we are. A small city should be good. I haven’t updated my northern maps in a while, but how much can change in a couple of centuries, right? Gealidesh should be a good spot to park you for a bit.”

Lugh suddenly looked off to the same place that had produced the scowl earlier, his furrowed brows returning. “Gotta go. Time has just about run out for our little party.”

Lugh stepped forward again, pushing back his bathrobe’s green sleeves and leaning in close until only centimeters from Eli’s face. “Your goal is to make it back here,” he said. The man’s startling blue eyes turned serious, the twisted humor evaporating with the intensity of his words. “If you can do that, I’ll be able to track your progress to help my research. If you can give me that kind of help, I’ll be sure to reward you handsomely.” His smile bloomed again with startling abruptness. “Just find your way back here, or wait for me to come and get you later. You can’t lose!” His tone had changed to earnest persuasion like he was trying to sell Eli something. “I’m just going to look into your background a bit more, but it will have to wait in line. Ha, I’m not even sure where to start! Isn’t that fantastic? Still, I have a lot of other tasks open at the moment. I should get to you in….” He looked at the air in front of him again, “three centuries, give or take two decades. Gotta have some wiggle room there as you’re quite the mystery!”

A bright light surrounded Lugh as if a giant camera flash triggered behind him. Before Eli could do or say anything, a window and prompt appeared in front of his eyes.

The sudden quest notification, looking much like from a game, made Eli wonder if he was dreaming after all. It would explain how confusing everything was, especially with all the weird things this crazy guy had said. He didn’t remember ever having lucid dreams, which he was thankful for with his history of nightmares. Then again, this whole experience could easily be from a drug-induced hallucination while his body struggled in some hospital room.

The stormy walls moved slightly, the room growing smaller as if taking a breath. The light darkened around them, and time seemed suspended for a frozen moment.

“Time’s up.” Stepping forward, Lugh picked Eli up like he weighed nothing, making him stiffen at the unwelcome contact. Eli tried to shift and escape the humiliating treatment, but Lugh simply tightened his arms while carrying him over to one of the roiling cloud walls that froze into a solid wall at their approach. At the same time, a stone archway appeared overhead.

“Activate,” Lugh said with quiet authority. A low static hum filled the air just before an oval materialized under the archway, extending all the way down to the tiled floor. The edges of its surface were dark green but shifted towards a more sickly chartreuse color in the center. In moments, tiny rivulets of deep crimson spiderwebs began snaking throughout the green plane of light. Eventually, they came together, forming into sparks that moved across the surface.

Lugh looked down at Eli, making eye contact. “Don’t forget that you owe me,” he said, lips curling up into that same creepy smile from before. And without any further warning, he promptly chucked Eli through the green wall.