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I jerked awake, twisting underneath a mound of covers, unsure of where I was. The random string of words and symbols from my dream disappeared, forgotten from my mind before I could even register them. Light from above blinded me, making me wince and I had to cover my eyes until I could adjust to the bright white.

After a minute, the intense light faded, and the world slowly started to regain focus. I had a moment of panic as I realized I could only see out of my right eye. Thinking I lost my vision, I reached up to find a bandage covering the left half of my face. I’m confused and think about taking it off, but common sense tells me not to. There is a reason it is bandaged after all.

I can’t do anything about the bandage, so I dismissed the thoughts of blindness in favor of examining my surroundings. I moved to sit up on the small cot I was on to get a better view.

I must’ve moved too fast as this sent my world spinning and made me nearly pass out. Slowly, as to not repeat that mistake, I pulled myself into a seated position and tried to peer around the room, but everything kept an edge of blurriness. Apart from the light directly overhead, the room was cast in darkness. Off in the distance, I could hear the soft drip of water onto a metallic surface creating a steady melodious ping… ping… ping… that threatened to lull me to sleep.

As I turned to inspect my surroundings an opaque text box appeared in front of me.

{Status effect: Oblivion}

{Duration: Unknown}

Before I could fully consider its meaning, it quickly disappeared.

What the hell was that…

A burst of pain erupted in my head, right behind my eyes, then faded just as quickly. I felt like I was missing something important but couldn’t think of it.

As the world around me became whole and I could see clearly out of my right eye, I began to take stock of the room.

In the far corner sat a small work table and a single stool. On the table, there was the oddest assortment of books, beakers, vials, and other items which I had no clue as to what they were. Beside my bed was a small table with a few more books stacked haphazardly on top.

I threw off my blankets and swung my legs over the side of the cot to stand. As soon as I started to rise, my legs gave out and I fell to the ground. I reached out to try and catch myself on the table and accidentally knocked over an empty glass. The glass shattered as it struck the ground, sending broken pieces everywhere.

I fell back to the cot and sat there groaning for a moment when the door to my room burst open and a woman raced over to me, grabbing my arm to help me stand.

"Vega! Get in here!" the woman exclaimed. "He's awake!"

A man, who I assumed to be Vega, called from the other room, "Ha-Ha, Lena. That’s the third time you’ve tried to trick me. I fell for it last time but not again."

“No seriously, the guy is staring right at me!”

“If I come in there and he is still out then I swear I’ll make you regret it.” He chuckled as he said it. I could hear his voice growing louder with each syllable until in the open doorway stood a man of enormous proportions. He was easily seven-foot-tall and must have weighed upward of 250 pounds, all of which was pure muscle.

He entered the room and ran over to us. Vega then leaned over Lena to help me stand and causing his shirt to bulge at the seams as if screaming out in protest of the man who forced it on him. "I can't believe you're finally awake!" he beamed at me.

Stolen novel; please report.

My thoughts were fuzzy, and the room was spinning slightly. I sat back down on the bed and rested my face in my hands to steady myself.

"Where am I?" I stammered as I looked up at the two strangers. "Who are you?" A million questions raced through my mind, and I couldn’t hold them in. "What happened to me? Why is my face covered? What's going on?" I knew I was starting to panic but I couldn’t stop myself.

"Easy now, just breathe..." Vega instructed me while he crouched down to meet me at eye level. He had to practically get on his knees to do so which was almost comical. "Where you are, well, that would be in our base, Fin. My name is Vega, and this is Lena." He gestured to the beautiful young woman to his right. "Now as to what happened to you, well, we were hoping you could tell us." I looked at him, confused. "Your face is covered because you had a severe injury and it needed to heal."

I tried to think back, to remember what happened to me, but I was drawing a blank. "I don't know what happened," I said dejectedly.

Vega gave Lena a concerned look. She shrugged while bending down to gather up the shards of broken glass.

Vega continued, "As far as I know, some men were coming back from a mission when they happened upon you laying in the middle of the road, covered in blood, with a nasty wound on your head that was swollen and burned. They rushed you back here to our base where we had our healers and a mage attend to you. You were so severely injured that they barely managed to keep you out of Xolgonik's cold embrace."

I wanted to stop him, to ask him who Xolgonik was and what he meant by a mage, but he didn’t pause once, even for air.

"You did die for about twenty seconds, but the healers managed to bring you back and Wren used a spell that sped up the healing process. However, your wounds were so extensive she was not able to heal you completely, so we have had to keep the wound covered and let time heal it the rest of the way naturally. That was nearly a month ago, and you've been asleep ever since.”

“I…” I started to say but Vega continued with his long-winded explanation.

“We don't know why you didn't wake up sooner and no one could find anything else wrong with you, aside from the dying bit and the slight damage to your face, but we didn't know if you would ever wake up. Now if you would, please tell us who you are and what you remember about what happened, then maybe we can finally have some answers." He drew in a huge lung full of air as he finished speaking. It was quite impressive how much the big guy could talk.

I sat silently for a few moments trying to understand what he had said; however, it became apparent that something was wrong.

I reached up and felt the bandage covering my face. Some of the things he had said and the strange names he had used made no sense to me. I had no clue who Xolgonik was, what he meant by a mage, or what had happened to me.

Horror began to spread through me as I sat and thought. I quickly realized that not only did I not know what had happened to me, but I also couldn’t even remember who I was. I couldn’t remember anything before waking up.

"I... I... I don't know," I whispered. Fear gripped me like a vice, and I couldn’t think straight. "Can I... Can I take off this bandage?" I fumbled with the edge of the bandage before Vega gently grabbed my hand guiding it away.

"I was on my way in here to check on you," Lena informed me as she finished gathering the pieces and stood back up. "You are nearly healed, so you probably don't need it anymore, but wait and let the healers remove it and make sure everything is okay."

I dropped my hand and stared at the floor with a mess of feelings fighting for dominance. I couldn’t think clearly; my thoughts were jumbled. "Okay," I agreed on autopilot.

"So, you don't know what happened to you?" Lena asked as she walked over to the stool next to the work station, deposited the broken glass on the table, and sat down.

"No," I barely managed to squeak out. I’m at a loss for words.

"Hmm…What was that?"

"No!" I yelled, surprising us all.

I’ve started to panic, terror building inside of me, and I felt close to bursting from the fear. "I mean yes… I don't know. But it’s not just that, I don't remember anything!" I screamed going into full-blown panic mode.

I tried to stand again. I suddenly felt the urge to run as far away as I could but instead, I just collapsed with Vega barely managing to catch me and sit me back down on the cot. "I don't know my name, where I'm from, or anything else. I don't even know what I look like. I can't remember anything from..." I dropped off mid-sentence.

"Hey now, calm down..." came Vega's surprisingly gentle voice as he reached out to grip my shoulder to steady me. I didn’t think a man like him could be so gentle. "Breathe. Just breathe and lay back down. You had a serious wound to the head. To be honest, I'm not surprised you can’t remember, but we will figure this out. For now, just take deep breaths and calm down."

I lowered myself back down onto the cot hoping that my head would eventually start to clear, and my panic would subside. I looked over to see Lena with an apprehensive look on her face that she quickly tried to hide. Exhaustion began to creep over me, and I felt my eyes grow heavy.

"Yeah, as Vega said, we will figure this out. First things first though, you need food. We have been using a special potion to sustain you while you were asleep, but there is nothing like a hot meal in your belly to help clear your head. Then you can see the healers. If anyone knows what’s happening, it's them.

“I'll just go prepare something for you to eat and let the others know you are awake. Jupiter will want to meet with you as soon as possible. I will send for the healers to look you over and remove the bandage and see if they can help with your memory," Lena rapidly said as she got up to exit the room, reminding me very much of how Vega talked. Now that I thought about it, they both looked a lot alike. Maybe brother and sister?

I only managed to catch half of what she said as she started toward the door, but I knew I heard something about a hot meal which caused my mouth to salivate and my stomach to growl in agreement.

A soft chuckle came from Vega, and I relaxed a little as I began to realize that they really wanted to help me. "Now, you lay there, and rest and I'll bring your dinner in, then the healers can take a look at you."

As he stood to follow Lena out, Vega whispered to me, "I am glad you are awake, try not to worry too much, we will figure this out. They will be by soon, so rest in the meantime."

"Thank you," I weakly called out as I felt my eyes begin to slip shut. Vega replied but whatever he said I don't hear as sleep called to me and I am pulled into unconsciousness.

Right before my eyes fully closed another opaque text box appeared before me. What it said made my skin itch and my mind race. I wanted to ask about it, but I was too far gone.

{W$%^YA4*8 ability unlocked}

{Impending release detected}

{2%.... 3%....}

{Time before active: unknown}