I HATE making bricks. I HATE carrying bricks. I HATE laying bricks. I HATE BRICKS. Yet all day everyday I work with bricks.

Why you might ask?

Because I am a slave. Not just any slave, a slave owned by the city, which unlike normal slaves who are bound to one master, anyone with a amulet of city office can give me an order. I don't have it all bad. It's illegal to damage a city owned slave so I am protected for the most part and I'm fed enough to keep me from starving.

The bad part is that every morning at sunrise some twat walks into the slaves communal room and tells us to get up. If we don't get up in two seconds, the tattoo on our chest starts to burn. If you go without obeying long enough the pain gets so bad it can kill you. 

So after the twat wakes us up we have ten minutes to eat before we get to work. We work until dark before we eat our dinner and fall asleep.

I don't even know how long I have been doing this. Last I checked I should be something like fourteen or fifteen, but it has probably been several months since I asked so I am not sure. The days blur together, never stopping. Sometimes we finish a building but we are quickly moved to an empty plot of land to start another.

That is until one day my routine changed.

One of the twats that controls is called for me, me specifically which is unusual. He took me to the shack that the planners and supervisors use. He told me I was being sold. I was actually kind of glad. Any break from this hell was welcome, even if it was a different hell.

So what if the guy buying me wore furs instead of cloth clothing. So what if he had a amulet with an eye etched into it. So what if he had a crazy gleam in his eyes?

Even if I didn't like it I had learned long ago not to complain. They made some alterations to the tattoo on my chest so that I was now bound to the crazy guy. He handed the twat of a supervisor five coins, I didn't know how much they were worth though, I had only ever seen copper coins before.

Crazy guy led me through the city to a old warehouse, and inside he led me down a staircase underground. Inside a small stone room, populated with a table with wired crystals and glass stuff on it and two chairs. He told me to sit on one of the chairs. After messing around with something that looked like a stone twig of a few seconds, he pulled op the other chair in front of me and told me to show him my tattoo. I did so and he started running the stone twig over the tattoo lines.

GAHHH! IT BURNS!

I didn't make a noise and simply bit my tongue to keep from crying out. Most people liked their slaves silent. The crazy guy finished after several minutes. Looking down, I was surprised to see the tattoo was gone.

Hu?

"What I am about to do won't work if you have the slave crest." (Crazy guy)

Oh, that explains it.

He walked over to a section of the wall and pressed on it. A section of stone the size of a doorway receded back into the wall and moved sideways revealing a tunnel.

I was led down the downwards sloping tunnel to a large dome shaped chamber.

Shit

I had no magical talent, if I did I would have been sold to a mage to be his assistant. But even I with my non existent magic knowledge knew this was bad.

Ten other people were in the chamber, all dressed in furs like crazy guy, and each looked equally crazy. There was also a huge pattern carved into the floor, like a big circle with a hexagon in the middle and a square in the middle of the hexagon. And the grooves were filled with blood, always a bad sign. Crazy guy who bought me started speaking.

"A suitable vessel has been found for our Lord! He will take this child and use him to return to our world! He will plunge this world into chaos and rise a new order from the ashes!" (Super crazy guy)

Oh well, at least I won't have to make bricks any more.

The crazy guy pushed me into the circle and all the people started chanting.

And I blacked out.

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-Where am I? (???)

-Who are you and why are you in my head? (Me)

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

-Me? Who are you and why are you in MY head? (???)

-Your head? Why would I be in your head when you are clearly in my head? (Me)

-I don't know! How about we try and look and see who's body this is, that should tell us who is in who's mind. (???)

-Makes since. (Me)

-Annnnnnddddd...... EYES OPEN!...... It didn't work....(???)

I gave it a try and found I could open my eyes normally. I was staring straight up at the ceiling of the domed chamber I had been in.

-Ohh, I can see! Kind of.... Why is it like I am watching from the end of a tunnel? And is that stone? (???)

-Ya, looks like the same room I was in before. (Me)

-Thats more points towards me being in your mind.... But to be sure try looking at your hands. (???)

I held my hand up above my face, what I saw was my regular hands, dark from spending all my days in the sun and heavily callused from constant work, even though they were average in size they were very strong from the constant work.

-Its hard to tell with this tunnel vision, but those aren't mine, mine are much better looking. Are those yours? (???)

-Ya. (Me)

-Seems like I really am in your mind. Man this is weird. Talk about fantasy material right here. This doesn't feel like a dream, but if it is I am definitely writing a book about it when I wake up. But back to the point, what did you do for a living to get hands like those? (???)

-I was a slave. I did construction. (Me)

-A SLAVE! Talk about crazy. Are you still a slave?! (???)

-No, not really, my slave crest was erased not long ago. (Me)

-Ok that's good. But are you in danger? (???)

-Maybe, it was some crazy guys who did this to me. (Me)

-WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? CHECK AND MAKE SURE THEY AREN'T TRYING TO STAB YOU! (???)

-Oh shit your right! (Me)

I quickly climbed to my feet, which brought on a bout of dizziness. When I looked around, all eleven of the crazy guys were laying on the floor unmoving. The circle I had been on was now drained of blood with no evidence it had even been there.

-Hmmm, are those the crazy guys? And are they unconscious? Damn tunnel vision. (???)

-Not sure. I will have to check. (Me)

I walked over to one of the me on the floor, he appeared to be middle aged, raven black hair and pasty white skin. I held my hand under his nose, no breath. I tried slapping him. No reaction.

-He's dead. (Me)

-Looks like. Oh and just so you know, it seems that I can feel everything you feel, but my sight and hearing are seriously dampened. I guess I will have to wait to test taste and smell. (???)

-You can't smell that? It smells damp and musty in here. (Me)

-Oh. Nope don't smell it. Wait.... Do you feel that? (???)

-Feel what? (Me)

-THAT! It just started coming out of the body! Oh! And I can smell it to! It smells like smokey meat! (???)

-No, I most definitely don't feel or smell anything like that. (Me)

-I wonder if I can eat it? (???)

-HEY! Don't go and do something weird! (Me)

-Oh. My. God. It's so good! I want more! (???)

-WHAT did I just say!? (Me)

-Sorry, sorry. Oh? The other corpses started leaking to? More for me! (???)

-STOP! You don't even know what you are eating! I don't even know what your eating! (Me)

-Tooooo LATE. That was good! (???)

-Are you done? We don't know if these guys had friends. We should get out of here and find a place to hide for awhile. (Me)

-Your right. But search them for money first, you will probably need it. And clothing, you will probably need that to. (???)

As much as I hated to admit that he was right, I really would need money and different clothing. A quick search found that each of the eleven had their own money pouch, each with no less than ten coins, not that I really knew what they were worth. I wasn't about to wear the furs they were wearing, but I was able to find a cloth shirt that fit me, before all I had to wear was a wrapping around my waist. I considered taking the crazy old man's eye amulet, but decided it would make me to easy to identify.

After I relieved the dead of their possessions, I made my way out the way I had been led in. Luckily I met no one on my way and safely arrived back out on the streets. This city was a common sight for me, but apparently not for the other guy.

-Woh, from the context I was expecting something like a medieval society, but this looks more like an ancient Egyptian city, maybe with a hint of Greek... Hard to tell with this sight though... (???)

-Not going to pretend to understand that, but cities are not like this were you come from? (Me)

-No... Not for a very long time. (???)

While I walked towards a busier area I decided now was a good a time as any to learn about this person in my head.

-Who are you? (Me)

-Hmmm, I guess now is a good a time as any for introductions, call me John. And you are? (Jo-hann)

-Jo-hann? Sounds foreign. And I don't have a name. Slaves can only have a name if their master wills it, but I was owned by the city so they never bothered. (Me)

-No name! That's terrible. I will start thinking of a good one for you right away! (Jo-hann)

-Just don't give me a name like Jo-hann. (Me)

-HARSH! I will have you know that John is a very popular name where I come from! (Jo-hann)

-Where do you come from? (Me)

-Ever heard of Earth? (Jo-hann)

-Nope. (Me)

-Then you wouldn't know it. (Jo-hann)

By that time I reached one of the more well traveled streets, because it was still the middle of the day it was still packed with people.

-PLEASE tell me you feel THAT! (Jo-hann)

-No, I don't feel anything. (Me)

-They all have it! That energy that the bodies leaked out! (Jo-hann)

-PLEASE don't eat anyone! (Me)

-Nah, I tried but it seems I can only eat it when they are dead. (Jo-hann)

-WHAT is wrong with you? (Me)

-But its weird... They all have it but it's in different amounts, some have almost none others have more, but all of them have less than the guys in the room back there. Maybe because they were already dead? (Jo-hann)

-Mana. (Me)

-Huh? (Jo-hann)

-Everyone has mana in different amounts, the only people who can increase that amount are those who can control it. (Me)

-I see! And when a person dies the mana in their body gets released! (Jo-hann)

-I suppose its possible. (Me)

-Good to know, but more important is for you to find some food and shelter. (Jo-hann)

-No, first is to find out how much each of these coins is worth. (Me)

-Your don't even know your own currency system! (Jo-hann)

-Nope. Slave remember? (Me)

And so my new life with a voice in my head began.