Eli opened his eyes, almost surprised to find himself in bed. Leaning up on one elbow, he glanced around but didn’t see anything amiss as the light coming in through his small window told him he’d slept past dawn today, and a look at the clock in his HUD only confirmed it. The breakfast requested last night from a passing servant should be delivered soon, and he idly wondered what they’d provide this time. He had plenty of time for a nice leisurely breakfast before meeting Wolf in a little while. There was no need to rush as he stretched in bed, the fantastic luxury of safety and free time bringing a smile to his face.

Excited and refreshed, he tossed off the thin sheet he’d been using as a blanket and walked over to open his window. It had been a tough week getting here, but it felt great to wake up safe in a bed instead of to assassins or on the trail. Best of all, he’d been able to get some solid rest and sleep for the first time since coming to this world. It was strange, but even a single night without nightmares was enough to make him feel like he had a new chance and lease on life as he stared at the countryside below, ready to conquer the day.

The sounds of a few people talking carried in the early morning air, but his tiny window blocked them from view. The slight whistle of the breeze across the narrow window’s opening and the gentle sound of the meandering river helped bury the meaning of their words, but the good-natured tone remained. He couldn’t help smiling, happy that no new calamity had sprung up while he slept, and he made a mental note to check in with Dara as they hadn’t had much time to chat yesterday. She’d seemed good, but they’d been through a lot together in the past week, and he wanted to make sure she was doing okay.

A knock brought his thoughts back to the present, and his door opened a moment later. Burying the frown that sprang up, he saw a new set of guards outside – two men this time. His stomach growled as they waved in a servant carrying a tray heavily laden with different foods.

Today is going to be a good day. Lots to do, and I have a safe place to do it.

***

Just over an hour later, Eli and Wolf descended the stairs from Wolf’s rooms on the second floor while behind them were their guards, a pair for each of them. He didn’t know Wolf’s guards, but his two new guys were Ethen and Jurg. Along with Yi and Reva, the four were Eli’s shadows during his stay in the manor. Wolf had explained his mandatory guards last night, with the two pairs of warriors tasked with assisting him in navigating the grounds while also protecting the inhabitants. Wolf didn’t give him any choice in the matter but softened the message, explaining how anyone with as much power would get the same treatment. Eli tried not to frown at his entourage, even if he found the idea unbelievable. Still, he should get to know the four since they were stuck together.

Continuing below the ground floor, they eventually ended up in a small square room with a heavy door on the other end. Walking through revealed a long hallway with the same grey walls but none of the beautiful artwork as the floors above. At the end of the passage was a stone archway with stairs leading even farther down, and Eli slowed as he glanced at the stonework. Time hadn’t been kind to some parts of the arch, with the edges rough as if wind and rain had worn some details away. It took a few moments of study, but he finally realized that the left side was filled with different creatures flying, running, and doing animal things, while the other side had people smiling, dancing, and enjoying life. At the top was an orb with wavy lines between the two depictions, looking like a fancy, stylized sun.

“Only a bit farther,” Wolf said, interrupting his thoughts. Waving at the stairs leading down, he descended as their guards peeled off to stay behind.

Eli started down the stairs, noticing how the walls changed from grey plaster to smooth rock. Slowing, he ran his hand over the surface and couldn’t imagine the amount of work it would take to dig into solid rock and then polish it to an almost glass-like finish. The steps were seemingly chiseled directly out of the earthen material or even molded into place, with each one precisely perfect and identical to the rest. At the same time, the ubiquitous lightwells illuminated their trek below the basement, and he almost stumbled with sudden vertigo. Holding a steadying hand helped orient him, but the way the lights blended in with the steps made him feel like he was almost falling for a second. He shook his head at the view, noting how the passage descended at a consistent angle, speaking to some pretty impressive engineering skills.

At the bottom of the stairs was a heavy stone door with a large iron ring instead of a doorknob. Wolf barely tugged on the darkened metal ring as the door swung smoothly, as if weighing nothing, with barely a whisper of sound. “I haven’t been down here in a while,” he said. “This was already here before I built my home, and we found the tunnel above with the steps leading down. There was no lighting, though, which begs the question of how they could see. There were no soot marks, so torches seem unlikely. Interesting, no?”

They entered the room beyond, finding a sort of entryway with more lightwells shining bright inside. It was a square space with three more doors, not counting the one they’d just entered. Like the stairway passage, the walls were incredibly smooth, with their light-grey stone almost shining. The ceiling was oddly high for a stone room so far underground with no supporting pillars.

Wolf pointed to the three doors in sequence, starting with the door on the left. “That’s the room I use for my experiments. Not a lot in there you’d be interested in, but please don’t go in without me. The door in front of us will be your workspace. The door on the right is storage for the manor, and please don’t go in there either.”

Eli felt almost giddy by the idea of somewhere private to tinker. He’d always liked his own office and hadn’t been looking forward to trying experiments in his room upstairs.

“Eli?” Wolf prompted, standing beside the open door, waiting for him to enter.

“Sorry,” he said. “I kinda got lost in my own thoughts, but this is a seriously impressive place! So you just found it empty? No doors, but all the stone and rooms were here?”

The room was dark, but Wolf touched a panel near the door moments later, and more lights turned on.

“Wow!” Eli said as he looked up and around the open space. It was mostly empty except for two sizeable wooden tables against the closest wall, and a few rolled carpets or rugs leaned in one corner. Besides the light panel, the only other feature within the otherwise bare walls was a small square metal board on the far side. The ceiling was taller than the one in the entryway, and he toggled on Tracking for the one feature that still seemed to work well. Two arrowheads appeared on each end of a dotted line within his vision, following his eyes as he looked around the space. A moment later, he confirmed the roof at a hair over ten meters with the longer sides at around forty-one, making the room a sizeable stone cuboid.

“The doors were here,” Wolf answered. “The main door was closed, sealing these rooms away.” He gestured behind them to the big stone door in the main room. “The entrance was buried under loose dirt, rocks, and debris. We had to dig this all out, which just adds to the bigger mystery.” He walked around the spacious room, looking more closely at the walls and ceiling as if trying to understand their secrets. “This existing complex was one of the reasons I built here,” he continued. “I could see the value in a hidden training space, and the lands nearby are plentiful if dangerous. Also, I thought there might be more to this mystery, and I wanted time to explore it someday. So far, I haven’t found anything, and I still don’t know what it was originally intended for.”

“Are there other places like this around?” Eli asked, his eyes almost pulled to the ceiling, somehow suspended overhead. “How does the ceiling stay up without any support? This stone is so smooth!” He ran his hand along the wall near the door. It didn’t feel like cold stone but like smooth glass, slightly warm from some unknown source. He toggled on Manasight. “Oh my goodness, this is amazing. It’s like the walls are made out of magic!” he said with wonder as the walls, ceiling, and floor all glowed brightly with his ability. Instead of the slight glow he’d seen in Herria’s Lodge, these walls were like a second set of lights in an already bright room.

“By Vessi’s frozen balls, your eyes!” Wolf almost barked as he took a step back.

“Huh?” Eli said as he looked over in surprise.

Wolf had a complicated expression as he stared before taking a step closer. “Eyonne, Tanca, and Ghlan all told me that your eyes changed color while healing me, but I didn’t realize how much they glowed. Eli, who knows about this?” he asked with some intensity.

Surprised, he thought back over the last week as he mused, “Well, Dara, of course. Then there were the bandits and the people in your room when I was healing you. Oh, and a group from the Lodge in Herria. After chucking Oyett through a wall, I didn’t think to hide my eyes while Dara checked his body, so likely another twenty or more. At least with the bandits, three of them are dead. I guess the last guy who ran off into the forest is still alive. Why? What’s the matter?”

“That last bandit is dead or will be soon,” Wolf said with a head shake. “No one survives leaving the trail in Eld Forest. But with so many people, there’s no way we can control this information. Spirits help us if it gets to the wrong ears.”

“My eyes changing color is that significant?” he asked with some confusion. With all the magic and abilities he’d already seen or heard about, he couldn’t understand the big deal with his eyes changing color.

“It isn’t that they change color,” Wolf started to pace as he spoke, his hands gesturing to punctuate his words. “It’s that they glow so bright. It’s from an old story. Damn, and I didn’t send you that codex last night. Well, I’ll make sure it’s delivered when I get back upstairs, and you should read the first section at least.”

“Can you give me the short version?” Eli asked with concern.

Wolf stopped and turned to face him with a severe look, the wrinkles in his forehead more prominent as he frowned. “It’s probably nothing,” he said as his expression relaxed slightly. “Just an old oral tradition about the beginning and end of our world. Like many forgotten stories, it’s mostly about our punishment from the gods, the Greater System, and how we screwed up something perfect. One particular tale, where we only have broken fragments, foretells how some powerful being with glowing eyes will save or break our world. A few crazy people still get excited about the story,” he finished with a sigh.

“Oh. Well, shit. I didn’t know. How big of a mess is this going to be?” Eli asked with some worry. He should have known better with how strangely Dara and Wolf’s people had reacted to his eyes. He’d obviously screwed up without thinking again.

Wolf tried on a smile even with the worry in his eyes. “What’s done is done. Perhaps nothing will come of it, but be careful with that gift. I doubt you’d want any zealots to come after you,” he said. “Up here in the north, where life often balance’s on the blade’s edge, many believe in the old stories. The recent surge in monster attacks and blood cultists over the last century haven’t helped.”

“Really? How so?” Eli asked, genuinely curious about the monsters. He’d talked with Dara about it a little, but outside her descriptions of Boruta, she hadn’t seemed too keen on the topic.

The older man sighed before leaning back against one of the nearby tables, crossing his arms as he frowned. “I don’t know what my daughter told you, but Northmarch is a dangerous region with pockets of wild lands largely untamed by humanity. You both walked through Eld Forest, the nearest example of such a place. The farther North one goes,” he gestured vaguely at one of the walls, “generally the worse it gets, and there are no Alliance settlements as far into the wilds. More than anything else, this military installation exists as a physical shield against the monstrous unknowns. Those here have a sworn duty to guard these lands and sacrifice our lives if it means protecting our families within the Alliance. Over the last fifteen years, we’ve rebuilt the nearby village three times while the people sought safety behind these walls. Only last month, we lost nine people to a pack of baukas while they were out gathering silverberries in the nearby hills.”

“Oh,” Eli murmured at the sobering words, wondering how lucky he and Dara had been to only face some human trash on their journey.

“Look, it’s not all bad,” Wolf continued, injecting a bit of warmth into his words. “Danger and opportunity are often found intertwined. Living out here, even with the constant threat of monster attacks, a person can truly test themselves to their utmost, earning resources while defending our lands. People come here to gain strength, and anyone in my manor or village signed on with that understanding.” He gestured at the ceiling. “This very complex is such a boon, even with its mysteries. We’ve managed to explore half a dozen tunnels under the manor, and there are likely more to discover. Who knows what we’ll find?

“But with that, I do need to get back to work. I’ll make sure the codex is delivered to your room.” Wolf gestured broadly around the space with a slight smile more felt than seen. “Enjoy yourself. Oh, and I’ve set the lights so you can control them locally. Just over here next to the door,” he said while gesturing to a metal half-circle about a meter from the door, set into a dark wooden square frame. “Press this once to dim the lights and press it again to drop them completely. Once again, to bring up to dim. Then one final press to get them to where they are now.”

“Okay, so three light settings and pushing this cycles through them?” Eli asked, distracted as he thought about the older man’s words.

Wolf nodded and slapped him on the back before heading towards the exit. “Sorry to worry you. Just be careful when you leave these walls and try not to show off those glowing eyes of yours. Hopefully, the stories won’t spread,” he said just before closing the door behind him.

Left alone, Eli pushed the new worry away as he looked around the large open space. As Wolf said, what’s done was done, and he couldn’t change the past, so he just resolved to do better in the future.

***

The morning and afternoon passed as Eli laid the groundwork for his experiments. With his notes from the day before, he continued to expand on them as he kept Manasight active, studying his own body. His goal was to understand the ability better, though he frequently grew distracted at seeing the mana or energy inside himself. It was like pure magic, and he could happily study the various lights inside his body for hours.

He examined the bright white energy inside his body, how it flowed like a liquid swirling inside his baseball-sized sphere, and traced how the power from his core moved. As noted before, it somehow didn’t displace or disrupt his organs or tissues as if it and the related energy and systems connected throughout his body were in another dimension.

What did people back home look like under Manasight? Did I always have this core, but no one had the instruments to see it? Maybe this happened when I was dumped in Lugh’s lab?

He followed the energy tracks and how they moved out to his limbs. The channels looked like his blood vessels, but they didn’t quite follow the same path. Some sections had little fat spots alongside his knees, elbows, hips, and shoulders as if the joints were tiny pools where the energy collected before traveling further down the line. He toggled between Manasight and Lifesight, comparing the two different systems.

So my blood vessels with veins, arteries, and capillaries move blood around while this mana system moves my energy around.

After a long day of copious notes and pushing his Manasight as much as possible, he was rewarded with a cramped hand and an impressive headache. He ended the day by stumbling up to his room late and stopped on the way up the stairs to flag down a passing servant to see about room service. He resolved to find the dining hall at some point soon, as he really wanted to meet a few more people and get a fresh hot meal without inconveniencing the local staff.

Entering his room, he found a thick oversized book in the center of his table, and he flipped open the cover to the first page. Instead of a title page, there was a strange geometric star with far too many points. The ruler-straight thick black lines stood out in stark contrast on an otherwise blank white page, and his fingers traced the shape as he counted the twelve vertices. The different lines in the center of the star created a corresponding twelve-sided polygon, though it almost looked like a circle if he squinted enough.

What kind of a star is this?

He riffled through a few pages near the back, where he found text and pictures with a bigger font than expected and easy to read. However, the images were an interesting and confusing hodgepodge of shapes, diagrams, and simple depictions of animals and plants. Like the many-pointed star at the front, everything was dichromatic in just black and white. Flipping through the rest of the book, he didn’t see any other colors.

A knock brought Eli’s attention back to his room as Yi opened the door to let in a servant with dinner, and he closed the book again as he resolved to study it more in the morning since he was far too exhausted to try and make any sense of things tonight. After the servant left, he worked through his food quickly as his headache pounded like drums at his temples. He only barely finished eating before rolling into his bed, asleep too fast to worry.

***

Eli became aware of the darkness around him. A single light, tiny with distance, captured his attention.

The scene blurred as the tiny light shot towards him, resolving into a simple lamp barely illuminating a single bed. An old woman with light auburn hair streaked with grey strands lay almost still. Her blanket was tight and tucked in as shapes moved like shadows around her.

“Eliakim?” the woman’s raspy voice whispered. She struggled as if trying to sit up but soon collapsed back into her rough pillow. One of her hands twitched as if to hold onto something but then relaxed again.

He felt himself move closer without his volition as the woman’s features grimaced in pain. Only a few meters away, his motion stopped again.

“Nana?” he said as he finally recognized her. “What’s happening? Where are we?”

He looked around but couldn’t move any further, no matter how he tried. When he looked down at his feet, there was only darkness. He tried to hold up his hands, but there was nothing but the dark. Only the single light and his grandma in bed were clear, while even more shadowy figures moved in the distance.

“Why’d he leave me?” the elderly woman asked as her eyes watered. A single tear started down one cheek as more pooled for their own descent.

“Nana, no. I’m right here. Eli’s here. I wouldn’t leave you!” He almost shouted, but his grandma didn’t react. It was like she couldn’t see or hear him. She grew more agitated as she turned first one way, then the other, as if to climb from her bed, but her body failed her. She kept trying to move while the shadows closed in.

The light and his grandma started to pull away as if on a slowly moving platform while he stayed locked in place. He tried to reach out to her, to grasp her hand and hold her one more time, but nothing happened. He tried to speak, but even his voice failed him as he could only stare as his grandma disappeared into the distance. When the light was barely a pinprick in the distance, it suddenly winked out.