~Alyssia Sil’Vorken~
Looking down at her pale green skin, Alyssia sighed wearily. Considered a sign of noble birth in her homeland, it had led to her ostracisation in this strange new world she’d found herself in. Everything seemed so wrong about her current residence. From the weird metallic substance that the walls were all made out of, to the harsh white light illuminating everything that irritated her eyes so much.
It just all seemed so fake, a perversion of the natural world, so far from the earthy forests she once used to roam. These memories brought with them the familiar twinge of anxiety and worry, and she hoped that her family were doing well in her absence. The guilt of failing her younger brother came crashing into her, and she felt tears of fear prickling her eyes. If he doesn't make it, I'll kill every... Alyssia quickly shut down that line of thinking and tried to steer her mind towards more productive things. There was nothing she could do for him now besides hope and pray that the humans would be able to heal him.
“Humans,” she spoke the word aloud, her voice containing all the rage and anger she felt towards them, croaking with disuse. She had heard the casual manner in which they had debated whether or not to end her life before they had realised that she could understand them. And the cold indifference they had displayed to a dying child. She clenched her fists. This strange race knew nothing of honour, respect or hospitality. They completely disregarded the rights of Fai, Shan, never mind the universal decency of helping an injured infant.
Alyssia tried to calm herself down. These people are not Alverin. I cannot expect them to follow our laws and customs, she told herself. But still, it took all her self-control to not lash out against her 'captors,’ and only the fact that she would never be able to save her brother alone kept her from killing the emotionless mongrels.
At least their food was nice.
It was the only good thing she liked about this. She opened up the latest packet of her favourite snack. ‘Potato chips’ they called it and she was as amazed now with the delightful flavour as she had been the first time she'd had it. How does a vegetable achieve such a crispy texture and how do they make it taste like meat, she wondered, placing a handful of it inside her mouth. The packet was sadly finished in a matter of minutes and it took all her willpower to not request another one from the humans.
They had already taken her freedom, she would never let them have her dignity as well. Well maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask for another, her subconsciousness betrayed her. Alyssia shook her head, trying to clear it. She briefly suspected that the humans may have spiked her food to elicit such strange emotions from her but just as quickly dismissed it as panic-induced paranoia. There was just so much going on and life didn't seem to want to slow down to allow her to catch up.
She felt that if she actually tried to face her current circumstances with a level head, she would drown in the uncertainties of it all and lose herself, adrift in a sea of doubts and worry. That was why her meandering thoughts seemed so sporadic.
Alyssia was using the techniques taught to her by her friend to use when she was far out of her depth. ‘Focus only on the little things, not the bigger picture.’ Perhaps it wasn't the best method to confront the cruel reality she had found herself in, especially considering its questionable source now resided in the belly of a Drake, but it was the only way thing keeping her sane right now.
Once again, Alyssia cursed herself for not learning any healing arts and felt like killing her previous foolish self that thought such mundane magicians were beneath her. With a high affinity for augmentation, she had foolishly pursued it single-mindedly until she’d managed to achieve the Journeymen tier in it. Whilst it had made her deadly in combat, she was of little use elsewhere, and she had realised that crushing fact when she gazed upon the prone form of her dying brother.
If she had followed her sister's advice and taken some lessons in healing magic from the tribe's druid, perhaps she wouldn't be in such dire circumstances, completely at the mercy of those weaker than her. Alyssia sighed wearily. Regretting past mistakes would get her nowhere now and did nothing but weaken her already fading resolve. All she could do was make sure that she never made the same mistake in the future if she ever did get a chance to learn the healing arts.
Instead, it would be a much better use of her time to practice her magic and meditate on the battle that had brought her here.. Being well into the bronze zone of power, she should have easily been able to deal with the venom fang viper that had attacked her, and yet she had somehow allowed it to escape her senses and deal a mortal blow to her younger brother.
Such a mistake should never have been made, and Alyssia would finally get around to practising the latest channelling exercises she had been taught by her teacher. Being able to better use the ‘one source’ would ensure she’d never be so helpless ever again.
Now if only she could figure out what the strange message in front of her eyes was all about. It had filled her vision since she’d travelled through the dimensional breach and offered her a choice. Even after contemplating it for so many hours, she still had no idea what to do. She simply lacked the information to make a proper decision and Alyssia didn't trust the humans enough to ask them for advice.
Welcome to dimension 1471Ae5JJn2 Alverin.
Being a dimensional traveller and possessing substantial prowess with Ether [one source] you have the right to reject the mandatory system integration of this tier 1 planet if you wish to do so. This however ill-advised and may lead to certain complications occurring during your stay here.
Good luck, young magician.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Accept system [YES/NO]
Alyssia couldn't make heads or tales of the strange message, and the ominous mention of complications did little but make her wearier of accepting the system. At least she had an inkling of why the humans seemed to have a habit of staring into space all the time as if they were somehow seeing something that she couldn't. And the one source is called ether in this weird dimension, she mused. The new name seemed so shallow and empty to her, not capturing the essence of what magic truly was but she wouldn't fault those of this dimension for their terrible naming sense. Perhaps the profound meaning was lost in translation, after all her usage of the true source was far from perfect when it came to attempting to understand other dialects, never mind an entirely new language.
Alyssia looked at the ‘clock’ on the wall. Such an ingenious invention though she'd never be caught dead saying it to her captors. It had been a quarter of an hourglass since the nice old man had told her they’d found another healer to try and help her brother. Alyssia almost sorted in contempt at the memory. The second-rate quacks they had lauded as the ‘best ‘ could barely pass for beginners in healing arts as if they had only been learning them for a week or something.
Though she did grudgingly accept that their spell casting was flawless. It was just so simple, though, almost as if they had spent their entire lives trying to learn a single word to perfection instead of the language it belonged to. It was a good, albeit difficult way of learning magic, and she had never seen it practised to such an extreme degree before coming here. Shallow but perfect learning.
It did have its merits though.
After all, Alyssia knew as well as any other Alverin the results of overly ambitious people using the true source and deviating from the tried and tested methods of channelling. More often than not, disaster would ensue, and the ‘lost one’ would have to be put down before the corruption of their magic destroyed them. Such battles always resulted in massive loss of life and she'd only had to participate in one such fight to realise that such bloody work was not for her.
Though her incredible physical prowess was no doubt perfect for such subjugation, she much preferred the security job she’d taken for the tribe. Her inner musings were suddenly interrupted when she felt a threatening presence enter the edge of her sensing range.
The individual was not particularly strong, in fact barely at the bronze tier and significantly weaker than her, but the barely suppressed aura they possessed was so incredibly dense and potent, it almost felt like it belonged to a baby apocalypse beast. She shivered in fear when she recalled that particular memory, quickly dispelling it from her thoughts. Now wasn't the time to revisit childhood traumas. No, she needed to learn what was going on.
The individual was no doubt the child of powerful parents, maybe gold tiers, as nothing else could explain such a rampant aura with such poor control. Alyssia felt a momentary stab of jealousy that she had not been born with such privileges. She quickly squashed that emotion down when she realised that the individual was coming towards her room and quickly tried to make herself look respectable, hastily disposing of the snacks she'd been eating and wiping her palms down.
Alyssia dreaded the meeting that would take place. Such entitled brats always seemed to think the world revolved around them and she feared that the one approaching her was of that sort, here to inspect the oddity that had come through the dimensions. A brat that had come because he was bored and wanted stimulation.
She grit her teeth, trying to quell her racing emotions, before trying to smile at the wall she could feel the presence behind. The humans seemed to like it when she did that, and it wouldn't hurt to make a good first impression even if she had to swallow her pride to do so.
~Arthur Ward~
Arthur looked at the open door, curiosity and anxiety warring within him. For some inexplicable reason, he felt like the coming moments would significantly affect the direction of his life and it was almost as if he was Pandora, with a box of temptations in front of him. Arthur knew how that story had gone, and he hoped that his own wouldn't end so badly due to any ill-thought decisions he made.
“I really wouldn't keep her waiting, if I were you.” Professor Jhonson said, his voice pulling Arthur out of his inner turmoil. “It's a bad decision to test a lady's patience, especially when she can probably throw you through the wall,” he added, trying to use some humour to lighten the grim mood.
He wasn't altogether successful, though Arthur did grace him with a smile, appreciative at least of the effort the old man had put in to try and make him feel comfortable. Arthur sighed, finally realising that this wasn't a simple game where he could let his guard down.
This could very well end up with a lot of people dead, himself included if things went badly. The chips were already stacked against him without the added risk that his inner nerd geeking out at the prospect of meeting an alien would antagonise the woman before he could even attempt to heal her brother.
He had an important task in front of him, it could very well determine whether or not they could take down Shade successfully without suffering any casualties.
Taking a deep breath, Arthur psyched himself up, hoping that he wasn't making a grave mistake as he started to walk forward. Perhaps should have paid more attention to professor Johnson's warnings. Maybe he really was making a mistake in coming here. These doubts ran through his head, and he knew that his uncertainty was in part probably induced by the pressure that the Alverin woman gave off. It felt like he was a deer caught in the presence of a wolf, and it taught him that for once, he really was outmatched, and not by a small margin. There's always a bigger fish. He walked into the prisoner's room.
The steel door sealed shut behind him with a barely audible hiss, cutting off his route of escape, fat chance he’d even get a moment to run if things actually went shit. He was now locked inside a room with an emotionally distraught Alverin woman, who his fellow humans had considered killing.
It didn't take a genius to tell him that the woman hated his guts, and the barely disguised contempt in her eyes really drove that point home. Arthur gulped and hoped that his fear didn't show on his face. This was a really fucking stupid idea, he yelled inwardly at himself, questioning why he had ever thought meeting someone almost thrice his level would ever be a good idea.
Arthur's heart skipped a beat when the woman suddenly got up from her seat, and it took all his considerable willpower to not step back, appearances be damned. What she did next however broke all his expectations and he briefly wondered if his frightened state had finally broken his mind.
Was he hallucinating?
The green-skinned woman got down to her knee and lowered her head in respect, kneeling in front of him. She placed her hands together in a strange gesture, almost as if she was praying.
“Alyssia Sil’Vorken of Arglare tribe greets the great one, “ she spoke, her voice filled with deference, a musical sound that made Arthur feel nostalgic for experiences he’d never had. It almost felt like he was one with mother nature, submerged in the comforting embrace of a sun-warmed lake. None of that mattered though, and Arthur was trying to come to terms with the fact that an alien chick was kneeling before him.
What in the world is going on?