The pounding wouldn't stop. Thud, thud, thud, thud. In my head, over and over again. The pain from whatever had hit me was a dull ache, but the leftover headache was nearing migraine levels of discomfort. Several times I had tried to open my eyes since waking up, but each time the dim light of what I thought were candles seemed far too bright, sending needles right through my pupils.

Time passed slowly as I waited for the pain to subside. Back in the forest, I had been smashed over the head, and taken somewhere unconscious. Even without my sight though, I noticed things. I was pretty sure I was laying on some kind of hay bed, something straight out of the middle ages. There were no voices, but I could hear breathing, and the occasional sob. The smell of unwashed bodies and human waste hung in the air as a disgusting miasma. I was in a prison, perhaps? But why would I be arested... Well, besides being naked in the forest and likely acting a bit crazy. Still though.

After what felt like hours, the pain subsided. Slowly, I sat myself up, and tried to open my eyes again. The faint light was still painful for the moment, but at least I didn't feel like I was going to puke just looking around. Definitely a prison of some kind. Somewhat damp, moss dotted walls surrounded me on three sides. A tiny rectangular window with bars over it was near the cieling on the wall opposite the door to my cell. No way to fit through that. There was a bucket in a corner, and a jug of what I was pretty sure was water near the door. No food though. And fuck was I hungry. How long has it been since I ate last?

I glanced at my wrist, remembering the device. What was it called again? Oh right, the Paradigm Shift Device, or PSD. I wondered how much time I had left, and watched as a digital clock display appeared on the black band around my wrist.

> 43 hours, 23 minutes remaining.

Well, that was comforting. I had only been unconscious for four and a half hours. “Shit, thats really really bad for you, isn't it? I've got to have a concussion right?” As I thought about it, the display on the PSD changed, and the human body shaped outline appeared. Instead of the nice healthy green, the whole thing had started to turn towards a yellow color, with the head of the image a darker orange. “Okay, so this monitors my body's health? I'm going to guess if it turns red, that's probably bad.”

There was nobody around, except for the distant sounds of people crying and breathing heavily. Nobody answered when I spoke aloud either. Internally, I was freaking out a bit. Okay, a lot. I could feel my heart racing with panic, and my breathing starting to pick up. “Its one of those 'another world' deals right? I should have some powers or something then, right? Thats how it works. You go to another world, you get a cheat skill, something to help you survive that ends up making you ultra powerful?”

I thought about how the PSD had been a phone before, and it appeared as such in my hands. I even opened it up, unfolding it into the tablet configuration and started going through every page available. No abilities. No skills. Even the map didn't show anything. Perhaps because I was inside a building and had no idea where I was? Useless. I had to contain the urge to throw the damn thing against a wall. How had I turned it into a wristband before?

As soon as the thought was in my head, the PSD transformed once more, wrapping about my wrist. Okay, so the thing reacted to my thoughts, or perhaps my will? I practiced transforming it back and forth a few more times, until I noticed the battery getting lower. 10% “Well shit.” It had that solar panel on the back, but there wasn't any sunlight to even put it in. I willed the display to go dark, and sat back on the hay bed, waiting. At least until I felt the bugs start to crawl out of the hay. “SHIT!”

I was admittedly close to tears when the sound of heavy boots on stone started coming closer. I turned from my new seat on the stone, as far from the hay bed as I could get, and stared up at the man at the door to my cell. He was a gruff man, with a few days unshaved beard, poorly shorn black hair, and leather armor of some kind. A short, straight sword hung at his waist. He spoke, but the words were unfamiliar, a different language perhaps. I just stared at him, until he spoke again and smacked the cell bars with a heavy looking wooden club.

Then my wrist vibrated, and I glanced down, staring at the band on my wrist.

> Translation complete. New language learned: Iloxesh

“-ute boy? I asked you, have you attuned a focus? Answer or we will leave you here to starve when we move from this place!” The man looked at me with impersonal, uncaring eyes.

I started to answer, pausing as I realized the words leaving my lips weren't english, but rather this new language. Whatever the PSD was doing to translate was an active effect, on my body. “A fo-....” Strange feeling that. It was odd enough to break me out of the slowly building terror. Regaining myself, I answered more clearly. “No, I haven't attuned anything at all. What exactly is a focus?”

I couldn't keep from asking the question. Focus had been in my 'status' sheet as well, and I had questions about it then too. The man gave me a strange look, eyes narrowed. “A focus stone. You don't know what a focus stone is? Have you been living under a rock?” He let out a nasty laugh and leaned in, smirking at me. “Well don't worry, you will learn soon enough. If you live long enough.”

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He left then, and I watched him go. He went down the line, stopping occasionally at different prison cells to ask variations on the same question to other people. Eventually though, the man was out of earshot. I sat back down, resting against the wall, and waited. Something was going to happen, the way the man spoke nearly assured that. “This is so not good. And fuck, are they ever going to feed me?”

Time passed slowly as I waited. There was nothing to do but wait and watch what I was starting to think of as my magic watch. Watch my watch, boy that sounded awful to say. Either way, only about 30 minutes passed before the sound of footsteps started again. I counted three sets of steps this time. They stopped by 2 cells before making it to mine.

The unshaven man was back, along with two others. One had better armor, a nicer sword, and had recently shaved, his dirty blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and well groomed. The leader of this group of whatever they were. Bandits? They unlocked the cell and tossed me some clothes. Finally. Being naked had stopped being fun about 2 minutes into the process, and I was glad to have something to wear. None of the three talked much. Simple instructions. “Get on the clothes. Come out. No sudden moves.” They lead me up a flight of stairs and across to a courtyard.

When I finally made it out into the open air, I took a good moment to look around. The place seemed to be an old decrepit castle. Crumbling walls were covered in moss and ivy, and the whole place had a very 'abandoned' feel to it. Except for the center of the courtyard, where a perfectly preserved archway sat above a set of stairs that led back underground, right into the center of the place. Creepy...

The walls around the courtyard were somewhat busy as well. Gruff men and women sat atop them staring down at us. They were all armed with bows. Bows and swords and castles. Okay, so I was in what? The past? The more I found out, the less sense things made. And I was missing things, realiziations were coming too slowly. I had just accepted the swords and armor without asking a single question after all. I had to have a concussion.

My attention was called back soon however, as the best dressed of the group stood up in front of the archway. He began to speak in the same language as before. He was more eloquent than the gruff guard, and I could almost feel the danger oozing off his body. I could FEEL that he would be able to kill us all without a second thought, I was sure of it.

“I. Am Roquain Alehan.” He paused, as if expecting something after announcing himself. The three of us were silent however, all waiting. Jeez were these two young.... the boy and the girl beside me couldn't have been older than 14. “You three, our prisoners, have been found to have no focus. Before you can be sold, your focus must be determined so that we can get a proper price for you. Luckily, my partners and I have a map of all the old trial grounds in this part of the world. This...” He tapped his hand on the archway. “Is one of the older ones. It hasn't been used in a few decades, so I'm sure each of you will have great results!” He let out a nasty laugh, and I felt a shiver down my spine.

I turned to look at the kids beside me. Both of them had gone rigid as boards. I however, was just confused. Trial grounds, focuses, and why did the age of the trial matter?

“As I am sure you know, the magic of trial grounds grows if it is not used up. One like this will be quite dangerous, but the focus stones it produces should be particularly powerful for you three, should you survive.” I still wasn't getting it. But I certainly wasn't going to open up my mouth either. Whatever that man had going on, I wanted to be in his sights as little as possible.

Of course, just as the thought crossed my mind, the leader, Roquain, stared at me. “You, you are no child just coming of age. How is it you do not have a focus stone?”

Well shit. I bit my lip for a second, trying to come up with a convincing lie. “Ah... my village is poor, and it doesn't have a trial ground of its own. They couldn't afford to...” And now for the big guess. Geez I hoped this worked.... “They couldn't afford to send me anywhere that did have one.” And fuck, it sounded more like a question than an answer.

He stared at me for a long moment, as if trying to determine the truth. “Well, no matter. If you had one and tried to go through the trial ground, it wouldn't work anyways, and we would kill you for lying.” His attention turned to focus back on all three of us at once. “Each of you will pass through, one at a time. If you survive the trial, then we will take you to the city. If you don't....” He shrugged. “Well, one less mouth to feed, at least.”

The third man, the one I hadn't spoken to at all, stepped up. He was wearing robes instead of armor, with a pointy wizards hat. Fuck, I think I wanted one of those. Now that I had noticed it, I could hardly pull my eyes away. The brim wobbled as he walked, and the pointed tip seemed to dance side to side. It was amazi- The archway lit up, glowing with a greenish light. The wizard looking guy stepped away, and the leader's eyes fell upon me.

“Now. Normally, you'd go in one by one, but, since this trial has been unused for a very long time now, I'm gonna have all three of you go in at once.” The captain stared at us, we stared back. Nobody moved. I wasn't sure what the hell was going on, and the kids, and they were kids, were terrified for what I was beginning to think might be a very good reason. “Did I stutter? Get in there, or I'll start cutting things off!”

I glanced to the kids, and took a breath. “Don't worry. It is going to be okay... Somehow.” I took a step forward, and could hear the kids behind me. They started walking as well. We paused in front of the archway, the green plane of light shimmering slightly.

“Hurry it up!” a voice said from behind, and suddenly, all three of us were pushed, stumbling forward into the archway.