Blude.

20th of Ianua, 1492.

11:37 AM.

***

I felt sick when he smiled and I saw those dreadful eyes staring into me. I could almost feel them looking deep into my being to read everything there was to know. Every secret and every lie. Ever regret and proud moment. Every shameful thing one could imagine was laid bare to him as easily as opening a book. Then, he said the thing I was dreading the most.

“Congratulations, they can come too.”

The warmth of hope and a sigh of relief that betrayed my mind almost put me over the edge. But the excitement of Sam and Redd turned it into anger. And then, calm once the strange man spoke again.

“If you want to, that is. I won’t force you to come with me. But if you do, put on the clothes I’ll leave for you and meet me at the orphanage. Or, if you want to stay here, leave them where they sit and forget this ever happened. They’ll disappear after a few hours.”

With all the questions running through my mind, I could only nod. And he smiled as if he enjoyed it before dipping his head and walking behind Horace.

I raised my finger, silencing the rest of them while I counted to a minute. Then turned to their dumbly expectant faces.

“So, what’s the plan, Blude?”

“What plan, Redd? He’s a rich artificer! The plan is to live it up!”

“Wasn’t talking to you, Sam,” Redd growled. “Blude?”

“Are you two dense?” I looked at the two of them. “Do you know what he is?”

“Yeah!” Sam scoffed. “The artificer who put those castles in the sky!”

“We all prefer the water and you know it.” Redd quipped for no reason.

“Shut up, Redd.”

“Both of you shut up.” I sneered. “You saw his ears. He’s a drow. And those eyes? He ain’t normal.”

“But... drow have white hair. And their skin is almost never brown. And they have red eyes.” Sam talked back, pointing to her eyes to prove her point.

“That’s why he ain’t normal!” I growled.

“Aw, come on, Blude! You’re overreacting! He don’t seem dangerous. Strong. But not dangerous.”

“Yet!” I snapped off of my bench. “You two should know. What you see ain’t what is. So.” I sighed. Took a deep breath. “So, we see what is. And if we don’t like what we see. We find a way to leave. He seems reasonable enough to let us, I’m sure.”

“I’m guessing we won’t need to,” Sam giggled.

Rolling my eyes, I stood and put on the clothes I came here in and told Sam and Redd to do the same. Then stepped out to see the paper-wrapped parcels sitting before the door with our names on them.

Following my orders, we scooped them up under our arms and turned towards the town to see no buildings peering over the hills. Everything was just… gone.

I panicked for a bit before something told me to look up, where I saw what seemed like the entire town floating high above. But the other two were already running towards the lot it used to stand on. Towards two huge fur-lined tents raised next to a strange carriage, where Amun reclined, staring up at the second sun.

My eyes rose to it without thinking. And, as I looked at the floating boulders that held the orphanage and every other structure in town above in the sky, it clicked.

“Did you… make that?” I pointed to the second sun like a child and quickly put my hand down.

“I did,” he said calmly. “About six or so months ago. Everyone calls it the second sun. But it is not a sun. It is a world- er, like a realm. My first world, Mani.”

“Mani.” I heard someone whisper. Not Redd or Sam, but a recognizable voice all the same.

“It’s the gate to my home. But it’s also my eyes and ears in the sky. By looking through it, I saw and heard your wishes to be taken away from here. So.” He turned to us with a weak smile, “I am here."

I gave him a closer look over. He wore robes like a monk’s with a black tree on the front, lined in gold. But it was mostly covered by an artificer’s coat with a feathered collar that seemed to have been plucked from the black, starry-eyed owls perched on his shoulders, bouncing and bobbing as they stared at us. But of course, his eyes were even stranger. Pure white where there should be color and pure black where it should be white, with pupils that looked like a cat’s eye. Or, perhaps even worse, a dragon’s.

He radiated danger but… for some reason, he didn’t seem dangerous. So, I would trust him for now. However…

“I’m not calling you dad.”

He nearly fell over in laughter. “Good!” he bellowed. “I surely don’t expect you to! That’s not the type of relationship we have.”

“Oh?” I crossed my arms defiantly. “What is it then?”

“You three can think of me as your… older cousin.” He pointed at me and quickly retracted his finger with a smile. “An older cousin you didn’t know you had. Now that we’ve met, you’ll join me as party members on my adventures.” He smiled wider.

I recoiled. “We’re children! I’m nine!” I slapped my chest.

“Yet you smoke like you’re twenty-nine.” He snorted again. “And anyway, that’s irrelevant. You’ll grow.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What-”

“As your caretaker,” he continued. “I’ll provide for you and keep anyone from killing you for the rest of your lives. And over the next few years, I’ll educate and train you to protect yourselves, I’ll give you sorcery and other powers and other things before you’re ready to become my adventuring companions. And when you’re finished we’ll all be the same age.”

I stayed silent for a few moments in an attempt to make it all make sense. But there was no way it could have. And there was no way he was going to wipe that dumb smile off of his face to explain. And, it was cold. So... “What am I supposed to do?”

“Put on your new clothes to warm up.” He snorted out a laugh. “And then, whatever you want. Whatever you’ve always wanted to do. Whatever your dream is, I’ll help you achieve it. What I won't do is control your lives. For now, though,” he jerked towards the pile of rocks. “We’ll eat and tie up some loose ends before we get out of here.”

“Where are we going?” Sam asked.

“Shujen.”

“Sh- Shujen?!?” I shouted. “I heard that place is dangerous.”

“I gave you my word you won’t be killed, Blude.”

"We won’t be killed." I squinted at him. “But we’ll be harmed?”

“Of course!” He proudly nodded. “How else will you get better at fighting?”

“I know how to fight,” I growled.

“But you can always be better at it.” he smiled more. “For now, however, I want to introduce you to a few more of our companions.” He gestured at the tents and they seemed to… growl in response, forcing the three of us back a step from the muggy gust that blew over us.

Slowly, the two tents lurched and rolled and stood. Then, the black one opened its eyes to reveal blazing jewels of orange that flicked between the three of us quickly; as did the other pair of ice-blue eyes as groans and yips boomed against our ears.

Then, they pounced at us.

I fell onto my ass and felt scalding a cyclone of wet breath whip around me as the black beast sniffed me. And somewhere in the mix, I heard Amun’s voice. “That’s Skoll.”

With the winds gone, I opened my eyes thinking the beast had distanced itself, and found the three of us had been herded into an alley. Except, the buildings breathed and were made out of fur. The one to our left looked at us through burning orange eyes that seemed to reflect off of the golden streaks of fur breaking up its black body.

“H- hi, Skoll.” I heard Sam whisper, and it responded with a bassy woof before it turned to look forward so the other, blue and white one could look at us.

“And that is Hati.”

I thought about responding this time, but another voice suddenly cut me short. “What about the owls?”

I spun at once after that innocent voice rang through my ears a second time and I soon found my heart dipping and rising in elation and fear after seeing a young girl sitting in a… floating egg.

“Iris!” I ran towards her and she gasped upon seeing me, then looked to Amun.

“Are they coming too?”

“They are.” Amun smiled at her warmly. Then pointed to the owls on his shoulders. “And these are Dusk Owls. This is one is a girl, her name is Muginn.” He pointed to the larger one. Then the smaller one. “And this one is Huninn, a boy.”

“That sounds like human!” Iris giggled.

“It does!” Another voice giggled behind her. And I nearly fell on my ass again.

It was a woman. A human woman. But with inky black skin and glowing green marks scarring her face. Yet she smiled so gently as she reached her cold hand out to me. “I’m Lana,” she said. “I’m going to make you four into strong women.”

I grabbed her hand with hesitation, and with much less certainty in my voice than before, I said. “I’m already strong.”

“Oh?” She recoiled, a playful smile spread across her face. “In that case, I’ll make you one of the strongest women in all the realms, how about that?”

“O- okay.” I stammered, unsure of what to say as she tugged on my arm.

“Come. Go change. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

I studied the horseless carriage before I was ushered inside and noticed it was much bigger on the within than I expected. A lot bigger. It was wide enough to make me feel as if I was standing in a royal courtyard. There was a path lined with stones cutting through the verdant space, a central pond, and several benches with tables strewn throughout the wide rectangular space. Instead of buildings, five mounds that looked like oversized cabinets covered with dirt and grass lined each side of the interior, making what felt like balconies with grasses and flowers positioned before wide windows. A second later, I noticed a similar structure in the upper corners of the ceiling. Only, they were separated by ladders pinned into the wall, making a total of ten on each side with another three in the rear.

Four of those ladders were labeled with our names, and we all promptly began stepping toward them before Lana stopped us. “Don’t worry about going to your rooms just yet. We’re going right back out.”

Nodding, I went behind a plant and ripped my package open to find above all things, a note attached to a slender box with a pull handle on the top.

Following the instructions, I set the box on the floor and pulled on the handle. In turn, the slender box grew taller and taller right before my eyes, ending just above my height to display ten or so neatly labeled pullout drawers.

Desperate to cover myself, I ripped the first drawer open and slipped on the underwear, shirt, trousers, and belt without thinking and audibly sighed in relief as a wave of warmth came over me. And then I looked it over.

It was a fine three-piece suit that seemed to be made of some type of exotic silk. But it was oddly warm for being so thin. Not wanting to keep Lana waiting, though, I continued slipping on some very nice and shiny black leather shoes from the 2nd drawer and opened the 3rd to find a feathered cowl stuffed inside the 4th drawer, containing fine leather gloves and a gilded headdress.

Each drawer was somehow larger than would seem otherwise and they all contained something better than the last. The 5th held an adventuring pack filled with all sorts of equipment and the sixth, most surprisingly of all, had a huge bar of gold alongside a note that claimed it to be my weekly allowance.

According to the whooping hollers of Sam and Redd, they received allowances too. But that was hardly the best of it, for the 7th drawer held the most amazing thing I had ever seen. It was a clock that I wore on my wrist. And it was filled with magic.

There was also a golden necklace, several rings, and a hairpin to secure my headdress, but the watch was the most amazing thing. Or, so I believed.

There were two drawers left, and they both contained something amazing. The first nearly knocked me off my feet as soon as I saw it. A weapon. More like a triple-pronged knife or broken pitchfork and a handle just long enough to grip it with one hand. When I picked it up and lifted it, however, the handle suddenly grew long and smacked against the ground with a dull thud. And that was when I realized, it was a trident.

I felt… something, pulse from the weapon or me or both. Then it… disappeared. Leaving behind a note that said I could recall the weapon whenever I was in trouble. And yet... there was more than that. I felt as if something lingered within and more, that something was now missing from that grand gift.

Even as I pondered those things and came to terms with the conditions, I still couldn’t believe it. That was why I became utterly confused once I opened up the final drawer to see a box similar to the one the small clock- the watch, came in. But this one was a piercing of some sort. I didn’t know where it was to go, but it looked like a tiny skull.

Although it wasn’t my style, and though I had many earrings already, something told me to put it on. Further adding to my confusion. But it wasn’t until I went to remove one earring to replace it with the new one was I knocked off my feet again.

The thing just… vanished from between my fingers. But it wasn’t on my ear, I could feel that clearly. Wiping my head in frustration, I began to look around at my feet. And that was when I felt it. Somehow, without me feeling it, the little jewel pierced my eyebrow. And, no longer was it a tiny skull. But a ring.

I couldn’t even begin to think how or why before lights began to flash before my eyes, condensing into tendrils of energy that formed words I assumed only I could read; conjuring a voice I assumed only I could hear.

{“User verified. Designation, Chako Blude.”}

That was it for the voice. But the lights soon formed what looked like windows with letters written inside of them that grew to fill my vision before they shrunk into thin shards that remained at my peripherals. Yet, perhaps due to shock, all I could focus on was the central message that remained as a sort of greeting.

{Welcome to NoxNet.}