A purple haze hung in the air. Magic remnants scattered throughout the hidden castle room.

Once, this room served as a meeting place for shady deals between the nobility, but tonight, it was home to a ritual thought impossible.

That impossibility died last night. The link reestablished.

Twelve knights in black armor stood around a putrid circle drawn in dragon's blood. Even now the blood bubbled, gurgling with each new infusion of magic. Gravity weakened as they recited an incantation long passed down.

Their hair floated above their heads. Swords slowly slid out of scabbards. Still, the men remained unfazed.

Their leader, Brandt, stepped within the circle, holding his hands out before him. Soon, the ritual would be complete. Soon, the hero would once more land in his arms.

He turned to his right hand, Sir Gregory, and gave the signal. Gregory began the last part of the incantation.

“May a hero return, as a hero has left.

Back to a land in the throes of death.

May he return with power instilled.

Back to the land where there is evil to kill.”

The distortion formed before Brandt, chilling the air around him. The fabric of reality tore apart, making room for a being not of this world to inhabit it once again.

For years, he led the order, hoping for a chance to recall their leader back to this world. The man he called master. The savior of these lands. For years he waited.

And now it was time.

It all culminated in this moment.

The stone floor underneath their steel boots cracked. Dragon blood sank inside the newly formed crevice and disappeared. An eerie scream filled the room as reality protested its poor treatment. The torches in the room dimmed in unison, welcoming the darkness. The knights stood unflinching, their nerves hardened over many battles.

A blue sphere of illuminated light appeared for just a second before disappearing into the pitch black.

A weight gently fell over Brandt’s outstretched hands. He waited for the light to return to the room. But he did not need to wait to realize the form in his hands was far too small to be his master.

A shrill cry pierced the void and the lanterns all lit up at once.

“Kneel before the master!” Sir Gregory called out. At once, every knight in the room fell to his knees, head bowed.

Brandt alone stood, shaking his head in disbelief. “This… is not the master.”

Eleven heads shot up simultaneously. Sir Gregory was the first to find his voice.

“It’s a… baby?”

“What happened?” Sir Redrick asked. Voicing the concerns of all twelve knights gathered there.

Brandt stroked his beard, racking his brain for an answer. How did this happen? “Sir Talmot, this is your area of expertise. Tell us, what links the child to this world?”

Sir Talmot was a small, scraggly man. But what he lacked in size, he made up for with magic. He approached, tentatively holding his hand just a few inches from the baby boy in Brandt’s arms. A scarlet magic hex formed. A spell of searching.

Talmot’s brow furrowed, and the spell ceased. He looked up at Brandt. His eyes said it all. “I…I don’t know. There’s nothing. I don’t detect any links to another world. Something isn’t right.”

Brandt held the fragile form in the cradle of his left arm. With his other hand, he balled a fist and slammed it into the castle wall. Dust and debris fell from the ceiling. “Our enemies have made fools of us!” Brandt declared.

Sir Talmot’s eyes widened at the large dent left behind.

“But how? That should be impossible. Not even the king knows of this place, and we made preparations for the ritual in secret,” Sir Gregory reminded him.

“The link. We aren’t the only ones capable of searching for a link in the other world. That damned cult was one step ahead of us. They intercepted the ritual!” Sir Brandt was convinced now. It was the only explanation he could think of. It was the only thing that made sense.

If anyone was capable of such a thing, it was them.

“They… took the hero…and sent a stolen baby here instead!” Sir Talmot caught on.

Brandt nodded. “We must send a search party out at once. Ready the horses.”

“We don’t know where the master is, we’d be searching blindly…and they will have taken precautions to hide themselves away from us,” Talmot said.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Brandt swore. That should’ve been obvious to him. He wasn’t thinking correctly. He’d expected the ritual to summon the master, and now he was thrown off by failure. It wasn’t like him to be caught off guard. “What then?”

Sir Redrick raised a hand. “Perhaps we can use the baby. They had to have found him somewhere. If we find out where, we can pick up their trail.”

Brandt smiled. “Excellent. Inquire in the nearby towns. Talmot, send word to those we can trust. See what you can find.”

Redrick and Talmot each bowed, a few men joined each of them, and they strode from the room.

“And what of the baby?” Sir Gregory asked.

Brandt grimaced. “I have something in mind.”

***

One week later

Sir Brandt quickly found a home for Charlie, though his new guardians were reluctant at first. Their home was modest. A two-story house built by hand when they first moved into the countryside. Somewhere quiet after a lifetime of politics and waging war.

A village named Troa.

Charlie now crawled freely around his room, having escaped the abominable contraption they used to imprison him. Otherwise known as a bassinet.

He shuffled along the wooden floor. The curtains waved slightly in the background as wind pranced through an open window. Charlie’s sole companion, a blue Dungeon Core, hovered just behind him.

“Hey kid, can you understand me yet?” the Core asked. It wasn’t his first attempt at communication. Orb had introduced himself several times by now. But the kid wasn’t much of a talker.

Charlie paused mid-crawl and turned to look at what he perceived to be a large, yummy marble. The baby eyed Orb with wide, blue eyes. A barely present layer of thin blonde hair crowned his head. He wore a blue and white onesie with his name embroidered on it.

He’d eaten Orb several times before, but now Orb always hovered just out of reach when the baby tried to grab him. Charlie tried anyway.

“STOP TRYING TO EAT ME!” Orb shouted, shooting out of the danger zone. “That’s what got us in this situation in the first place.”

Charlie frowned, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Please don’t cr—”

Charlie started wailing at the top of his lungs.

“Too late.” Orb sighed. He floated closer, and Charlie stopped crying immediately, taking Orb in hand. “Well, down the hatch.” He resigned himself to his fate. Charlie understood nothing of what he said, but swallowed him all the same.

A minute later, the Orb hovered behind Charlie again. “You realize I can just teleport out afterwards, right? You aren’t getting any calories out of this. It’s truly a waste of energy. Though you don’t really have common sense yet, do you?”

It was odd, facing this new reality. One moment, Orb had been a dungeon core, passively absorbing information from his environment. The next, a baby was swallowing him and their souls were entwined.

It’s funny how life happens like that.

He’d barely had time to process it when the knights summoned the two of them to this world. Luckily, they made real fools of themselves trying to figure out where Charlie had come from. He wasn’t so sure they would’ve let Charlie out of their sight otherwise. If they knew he was from a planet called Earth.

Orb’s memory before that was hazy. He remembered concepts. Celebrities, places, references… but he couldn’t remember anything else.

Why did a baby even have access to a dungeon core?

Why were they summoned here shortly after bonding?

He had a lot of questions.

“I don’t suppose you know the answers?” Orb asked, looking at Charlie.

Charlie blinked, reaching for the dungeon core again. Orb let out a mental sigh. Snack time was Orb’s personal, never-ending hell. It was time to try an alternative approach. A dangerous one, admittedly, but desperate times called for—

Charlie grabbed him. Putting the tasty marble in his mouth again.

“That’s it! I wanted to try this out on something else first, but I can’t take it anymore!” Orb really hoped this worked. He didn’t want his first accomplishment in life to be baby murder. He teleported outside of Charlie’s stomach and hovered several feet away.

SENTIENCE.

There it was. The forceful pull of magic draining from his body. His consciousness faded and the blue glowing marble plummeted from the air and crash-landed onto the wooden floor. Charlie laughed and crawled to grab his favorite snack before it could fly away again.

Orb awoke in darkness, unable to see. “Where am I?”

He tried to float, but found his body completely deprived of magic. That explained being unable to see. He needed magic for that, too. Considering he didn’t have eyes. So teleporting was also out of the question. “Wait, what was that?” A small vibration.

Something was shaking, gently.

“Charlie! What are you doing? Leave that alone,” a woman’s voice said.

Charlie started crying.

“What is it? You can’t play with trash?” The voice was familiar. Was that the woman who adopted Charlie?

“WAIT. I’m in the trash?” Orb realized.

The woman sighed. A familiar weightlessness overtook Orb as the woman pulled the trash bag from its home. “What is it? Did Richard throw away one of your toys by accident?” She rested the bag on the ground, peering inside. “I don’t see anything that looks like a toy.”

The bag was suddenly pulled in the opposite direction. “Charlie! I’m looking. Don’t pull—” she paused. Orb was set free from the bag, his body sent rolling. He hit something with a thud.

“Ow.” Of course he could still feel pain. That just made sense. Truly phenomenal design.

“Charlie no! Put that back! Dirty diapers are not toys!”

Orb was livid. “Wait. Did she just… was I in…What happened before I fell asleep? I used a spell, and then I passed out and… Charlie ate me, didn’t he?” He shook the thought from his mind. Sometimes, it’s better not to know.

“Orb? You there?” an unfamiliar voice asked.

A voice inside his head.

Orb went quiet. “Oh, my god. I’m a schizophrenic.”

“No. It’s me.”

“Begone voice! I’ve been through enough today! There’s only enough room in here for one of us!” He paused. “And it’s me in case you couldn’t tell. I’m the one. Dibs.”

“No Orb, it’s me. Charlie.”