An unspecified time ago, above the world…

The harmonics of the realmsphere sang through the crystal ship as it knifed through the interstellar darkness. The pilot felt it thrumming through the helm and resonating down to his bones. He bounced his foot impatiently; this was always the worst part, the final bit of waiting before journey’s end.

‘Proximity?’

4.5 cycles to arrival.

‘Status?’

Initial mission remuneration: received. System analysis: complete. Reincarnation protocol: still processing.

The pilot suppressed a groan. It was bad enough he was working for a god of mischief, but he had to go on mission as a blank slate. No memories. Minimal guidance. At least Questar, his ship’s A.I. would help guide him.

‘ETA on Quest Protocol Integration?’

3 cycles.

Questar’s voice, provided by the illusion matrix at the core of the helm, was usually stable, but for a moment feedback rippled through his words. It almost sounded like a giggle. The pilot frowned. A glitch in the system? This close to the mission?

‘Questar. Can you run a full diagnostic without compromising integration of reincarnation protocol?’

Affirmative.

‘Do so.’

The helm beneath him pulsed with iridescent light, refracting in waves through the visible spectrum. Red-Yellow-Blue. Red-Yellow-Blue. Red-Yello-Ding!

Diagnostic complete. All systems operating as expected under dictated protocols.

‘Carry on.’ The pilot frowned. Something—

Planetary visual within range.

Questar projected an illusion of the surface of the world beneath them onto the crystal screen in front of the helm. White and blue and green blossomed in a broad view of the seas and lands. The pilot caught his breath.

‘That never gets old.’ He’d been to missions on worlds across seven spheres, different magics, different kingdoms, different bodies, but the same sense of wonder every time. This one, with its cloud of continents floating through the aethers around the central sun, was unusual, but hardly the weirdest world he’d seen.

‘Are we in range of a visual on the initial target location?’

Questar hummed a bit and then the view shifted, zooming in closer to a kingdom-wide shot. Mountains and forests, roads and fields, a few castles dotted here and there. Fairly standard for a world with this concentration of magic and minimal command of the deeper magitech principles necessary for voyaging between spheres.

At least that was what his briefing suggested.

‘Scan for all known forms of advanced magitech, epic-ranked magics, or super sciences.’

It paid to be safe. Sure, he had the information in the briefing packet, but how often were those comprehensive? Clients always held things back. Usually it was oversight, or incompetence. Sometimes it was dangerous secrets. In any case, he always triple-checked.

Scanning…

The pilot took manual control over the view screen as he waited for the ship’s systems to complete their analysis. Where was the city he was supposed to start in? Ah. There.

He zoomed in. There was an absolutely massive tower at the centre of the place. There had to be magic involved in its construction. The thing was ludicrous. More like a man-made mountain than a proper tower or even a skyscraper.

He didn’t see any obvious evidence of magitech in the construction though. Epic magic? Advanced intelligence systems working with just a few higher level spell-chains? Hard to tell.

No active magitech currently detected on target landmass. Some evidence of degraded or slumbering magitech. Further specificity unavailable based on current data and scanning capabilities. Super sciences not present on target landmass. Epic spells and similar ongoing effects present at above-average levels compared to system data on similar worlds. Estimate several dozen epic-ranked individuals to be present on target landmass. End report.

The pilot pursed his lips. Could be worse. He’d been to cities that had mad goddesses overseeing all aspects of the local reality, and some of the rules there were punishing beyond belief if you broke them. Running into an archmage was unlikely enough here. He’d just need to be careful. Take care of his new body.

Well, as much as he could, given the circumstances.

In a little more than a cycle he would be down there, in a new body filled with only a select few pre-programmed memories and the absolute minimum in starting abilities. Anything else would draw too much unwanted attention. Frell. This was going to su—

Reincarnation Protocol established. Limited choices available fitting mission parameters. Suggest option shadeling or option human.

The pilot pulled up each option on the viewscreen. Human, standard biological, flexible, present in large numbers across the target continent. Shadeling, mutable biological, rare, but can possess shapeshifting powers advantageous for infiltration.

‘Set choice: shadeling.’ The pilot had less information than he liked to have, going into a mission like this. Some flexibility would go a long way to making things more survivable.

Plus it was the option recommended by the briefing material.

Priming Reincarnation Protocol.

The pilot turned back to consider the view on the screen. He’d be down there soon. New body. New memories. New mission. Not long now.

Too bad he couldn’t kit his new self out with a lot of magic items. That would be useful. It’d draw far too much attention though. The most he could do is order Questar to seed a few useful items in places they would naturally occur near to his origin point.

That, and trust to luck.

The pilot grinned. Good thing part of his fee for this mission was a massive whack of good fortune and the favour of a god. That was nothing to sneer at!

Quest Protocol integrated. Target Location within range. Connection strong need stable. Reincarnation Protocol primed.

Execute: Y/N?

No reason to put it off. He was as prepared as he could be. He’d just have to trust the guidance he’d programmed into Questar’s system interface was sufficient.

The pilot settled himself back down into his seat and made sure the restraints were secure and all the runes around him were glowing with power. Everything seemed in order.

‘Yes. Pull the trigger, Questar!’

As his consciousness was pulled from him and channeled down towards the surface he heard feedback ripple again, giggle-like, through Questar.

Wha—