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Mana, Qi, Chi, Aether, Vigor, Energy. The Mana of the world is an energy field, slowly becoming denser the lower in elevation it gets. It penetrates all things, air, land, water. This energy field, slightly out of phase with the world is how the people of this world are able to create Powers to affect the world around them.
Without a Well or Network to channel this energy, it quickly becomes lethal.
- The notebook of Michael Hayes
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Flashes of light, the crack of thunder, chest pain, burning, tension, a feeling of pulling, stretching, more pain, cold, fast wind, the slight warmth of sand on a summer morning, the strength of arms put to years of work, the softness of a warm bed. These flashes of feeling, of memory, try to break through to Michael Hayes as he lay in bed, slowly awakening.
Waking up was exhausting, a trial just to open his eyes. It felt like every inch of his body was weighed down with chains or heavy blankets, all his energy gone as his body betrayed him and refused to move.
Parts, well most of his body felt wrong, strange. As if they were there but also not, almost like phantom limb syndrome but as if the limbs were never missing.
Phantom Limb? Right, I was talking to that amputee at the gymnastics competition earlier, how did I get home?”
Michael thinks, slowly remembering a First Aid event he had volunteered for the day before.
Groggily he cracks open an eye, caked with sleep and feeling cold water from a damp cloth on his head trickle down his face. He sees… not his bedroom, not a hospital or ordinary roof but, a wooden roof? With rounded beams like the inside of a log cabin.
Using all his meagre strength to turn his head to the side, looking toward a wooden door cracked open and a mug of what is hopefully water sitting at the bedside table he tries to move his arm but no luck. Even turning his head is too much for him.
“Where the hells am I?” he thinks, “I was just… I don’t remember anything after saying goodbye. I need to get someone's attention.”
Attempting to take a deep breath, shallow compared to what he's used to, he lets it out to softly moan in the direction of the door he’s still facing.
Hearing the soft patter of feet on wooden floors quickly approach, the door cracks open allowing a small child to peek into the room. He’s short, only like 14 or 15 if he had to guess
“Maybe he doesn't realise I’m awake.” he thinks and lets out another soft and laboured moan.
“Eidiue!, Ebo!, sni eiueiei ebtrou yii einiiwaiwinuili!” yelps the kid, running away from the door.
“Well, that’s not English. Where the bloody hell am I?”
A door opens down the hall and in rushes two older people, probably parents to the kid. All three have similar features making me think they are either a family or related in some way with all of them having tanned skin, brown hair (greying at the edges for the guy) a white, dirty shirt and tall with sharp, fit faces and frames. The adults are at or over 6ft, at least from this angle.
“I’m terrible at guessing ages so I’m gonna say they are in their 40s until they or someone tells me otherwise.”
The woman who entered, takes command and comes over to help him drink some water. Taking a sip is electrifying, pure ecstasy! Greedily he’d try to drink it all but she stops him.
“Jajsk skau kiiaascr yf okuwi aiilu aifrei cryp ouze ub ghki neq! uwi yp, uiior vev iebrie.”
She then mimes taking sips after staring at me for a moment before realising he probably cannot understand them. Doing so, he decided to drink the best water he'd ever had.
“Why am I so loving this water? It's like I haven't drunk anything in years! Agh, more!”
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Turning to the man, they have a quick exchange.
“Dxj equba oiaki Kiiref Rath yp, scna onkipeta sskkii iiukuiuaki! Opku pniki ypue scvo, ub oyna opku skipeta.”
“Uwi, aidy oebi ski ila” He says, leaving the room.
“Cool, wonder what he’s doing. Also, why am I not freaking out like mad? I was just at SOP and now I'm stuck bedridden! Something’s screwy is going on here and I need answers.”
The kid, looking closer looks nervous and asks mum something he cannot hear before she nods and the kid grabs a mirror from somewhere. With the water helping lubricate things he's able to speak a little.
“G-day, how's it going?”
The kid smiles, a bright toothy smile while the mum has a slight grin at his minor recovery. She goes to hand him the mirror before moving to have it over his face.
“What the bloody hell?”
His body is a mess, the chubby cheeks and weight is gone. Hair and beard looks like he hasn’t had a cut in ten years. Leaving him with a strange sense of unreality, that this can’t be his face, he can almost see each bone and tendon!.
“I look like a concentration camp prisoner, the hell happened? No wonder I’m so weak, my face is as sunken as a shipwreck.”
“Why am I so calm?”
She’s about to say something after seeing his widening eyes but hears the door opening again from the other room. The three of them face the door as a familiar man comes into sight. The dad is back with another guy in fancy looking robes and yet another in a grey coat and bag appear behind him.
Pulling the kid aside and letting them in, the guy with the bag comes right up and starts looking over him. Upon closer looking that cloak of his is filled to the brim with tools.
“Wonder what those do?”
He's similar to the family, with a slightly lighter tanned skin and a bit less fit but similar features. It's the other guy in the fancy robes that's the outlier.
Short blond/grey hair with glasses, pale skin like he would get sunburnt via candle (or Irish) and a light brown librarian looking robe, faded in spots. Almost like a kimono, while the cloak guy is bent over him waving some stuff about, the robe guy stands at the end of the bed and looks right at him.
After a head twitch that looked like a nervous tick he smiles and says in a very rough version of English. As if repeating what someone is saying after hearing it for the first time.
“Hello Michael, my name is Abcier. A local priest of Knowledge, you must have several questions but don't be alarmed. All will be answered once you are well enough to talk and stand once the doctor is finished with you. Oh and also, magic is real here.”
And as if like magic, a cool wind blows in. Signalling changes to come.
- - - - - - - -
17th-Triloth-3407 LDII - Moments after Michael Hayes Arrival.
Institute Research State - Piclifton City - Long term Power study and Limitations Lab.
A long, dimly lit corridor has several tanks lined in rows with viewing ports, the long term storage room is where automatic testing of Powers are trialed, where the possible limitations of the time may change due to an Outworlders appearance or some other discovery.
This room has not seen many changes in some time, some crystals in these tanks are ancient. Holding the nascent will of its creators in their intricate carvings, a will, a wish, that a Power that acts or creates the way they want it to will one day be created.
And until it is, they will continuously run their programming till something fundamental changes, then it's for the researchers to find what new information has made this change.
But this sleepy duty, sometimes, rarely, becomes more active than you can imagine.
Alarms sound from a tank, then a second, third, and more and more, dozens of tanks sound alarms. Their crystal programming has finally been completed, the Powers their creators had spent sometimes hundreds of years to create and still failed have finally worked!
In the hours and days to come these tanks will be monitored by a great many people, and many will be given the opportunity to test these emerging Powers. But it is clear to everyone: That whoever recently arrived is from a world that has discovered some deep understandings, and they will need this Outworlders “help” to see what discoveries they have made.
They will find him through any means necessary, after all… They’ve done it before.
17th-Triloth-3407 LDII - Minutes after Michael Hayes Arrival.
Institute Research State - Piclifton City - OutWorlder Sensor Array Control Room.
A large room has several maps along the walls showing the whole continent, different maps showing elevation, population density, weather patterns and possible domain city movements.
A larger map sits embedded into a large table showing many holographic golden dots with dates hovering next to the dots, too many to count. Floating above it, an overview of the Domain of Air and other clouds that cover the planet.
Suddenly a golden glow appears above the Domain of Air and a golden dot appears. It starts moving down toward the east but suddenly goes out. A man monitoring the map in a grey uniform takes notice of this as an alarm sounds, filling a crystal with mana he speaks aloud.
“Sir, Alert 14. An OutWorlder has arrived and was headed toward the East, but before we could get a lock on its position it disappeared. We will require further investigation to narrow it further down.”
“Inform our agents to the East, from the centre longitude of the continent to the far East and even the islands. This one must be found.”
“Understood”