A Djinn wanders the ark side of the moon. His eyes, distant, looking at nothing but darkness. His mind was blank and had been for so long. Now his mind finally began to catch up. It's dark. So dark. What am I even doing? The first coherent thought in a long time.
This world, no, moon, was perfect. At least that is what Aled had thought for the first year or so. The food was infinite with enough variety you were never bored of it. That was doubly true when they discovered the vending machines. Not to mention when they discovered the moving picture stories, people were highly entertained and so was Aled. At least until he noticed it.
He eventually saw the truth. It was in the eyes of a child, one only twelve right around the time they should change. It had been five years since the kid had joined them. When he realized the child hadn’t aged a day. The more he looked the more he saw children, teens, and adults, not a single one had aged in the slightest since coming here.
This place was nothing. A world out of time. Over the next few months, life became monotonous. Food lost its taste. Aled had fully stopped eating over a year ago now. I haven’t been hungry in all this time.
Eight years he had been on this moon. The last year he wandered the dark, his mind coming and going like a trance. Searching for something that might not exist, avoiding the light at all costs. He had looked upon the world below once. The longing that gripped him, and desperate need, was just too much. I wish I was stronger like the others.
Deep on a moon’s dark side, a Djinn falls to his knees, broken. Aled had nothing left, he lost everything the day he was tossed up a set of stairs to be disposed of. That was the day he surely died. Now he was cursed to wander, in this unchanging facsimile of life. If maybe the world moved, then he might be ok. Sometimes in the dark when he is alone he wondered if even his heart had stopped.
Light pierced the unbending darkness. Aled didn't look up. Too afraid the world below had found him once more. Had he stumbled all the way around again?
Before Aled could force himself to look a hand fell on his shoulder. He froze. Terrified of talking to anyone. Who was out here? Why had they come for me? Aled felt horrible for how good he felt that someone had come looking for him.
Gathering himself he braved to look up. The light was too bright he could only make out a man’s silhouette.
“It's time to go.” The voice was gentle, one he had never heard before.
“Go? Go where? There is nothing here. Except for that building.” Aled was shaking, as he whisper under his breath. “I'm not going back.”
The silhouette shook his head. “No. Somewhere else.”
The phrase through Aled for a loop, and for the first time looked beyond the silhouette and to the source of the light. Behind the man was an open door where no door should be. The light was bright and intense and he couldn't see beyond, yet he could feel it calling him.
Aled felt his heart speed up as he fearfully looked back at the man realization dawning on him.
“You're...”
“Yes.” Aled could hear the smile in his voice.
It took him a moment to process everything. “You’re letting me go?”
“You all were never my prisoners.”
“But”
“Shhhh” The man cut Aled off before pulling him to his feet, and a little nudge “Just go.”
Aled walked up to the entryway, before turning back. “Will...will the world start again.”
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Now he could see the Human. His pink skin, and lack of horns, would have been disturbing. Now he only saw a kind smile. “Yes.
Aled took a deep breath then moved, stepping across worlds. The last thing he heard was "New beginnings." As darkness enveloped him in a warm liquid embrace.
Suddenly the Djinn wondered how he got here. The last thing he remembered was being forced up a set of stairs.
#
A man and a doll stand on the dark side of the moon, having just watched a door close.
“You know. I thought the moment I saw them. I would still be angry, but now that I see them.” Nicki’s voice faded to silence. As he looked out across the moon. He let out a tiny chuckle. “It’s funny. I don’t know if another year was cruel or not.”
The doll standing next to him tilts her head.
“He was already here for seven years before I did my announcement. In that single year, he went mad. Sure he wasn’t great beforehand but still sane. Now though he will at least have a new chance when he forgets this place.”
The doll looks at the door and then back to the man.
Nicki laughed, “No. I didn't take the memories. It's just how this place works. I'm just supposed to be a quick weigh station. Give them something to help them out in their new world. Maybe a weapon, extra knowledge, and AI. The Gods deal with giving off blessings.”
The doll tapped her head confused.
Nicki started trying to decipher her question. When he rethought over what he said, “How, could, they learn things if they forget?”
She nodded.
Nicki scratched his head thinking, “So…From what I understand.” He started slow, “If they gain knowledge it’s like it was downloaded into their minds. They may or may not have access to that knowledge when they arrive in the other world. Depending on how they arrive. Reincarnators will not, as a baby will have enough issues with their former life’s knowledge but will learn extremely fast. Non-reincarnations can go either way. All depends on how much the Gods invest in the Hero.”
Drystia nodded, before holding up her sword and swinging.
“Training? You mean the tutorial?”
Drysia nodded.
“It’s the same for training. The tutorial, interesting enough, will be remembered in its entirety. They just won’t remember how they got there or why once they leave. Sometimes they get sent to their new worlds Deities after me to explain again, or explain their powers slash objectives. I know some of them claim they gifted them, which in a way is true.”
He felt a tap on his leg, he looked down at the doll tiredly.
“I'm rambling aren't I.”
She nodded.
“Well, we got plenty of work to do now.”
A man and a doll turn to find a door that wasn’t there before. Nicki opens it stepping into his office.
#
Deep in the dark. Where the light of the sun doesn’t reach. On a spinning rock floating around a world. A man and a doll jump from sight to sight, finding the lost Djinn. With every person, every file, he feels the depth of the broken.
“What happened? Why are there so many like this?” Nicki yelled frustrated. Only for nothing to answer. The dark contained no answers he didn’t already know. They had been tossed here against their will by a corrupt man. Many left their families behind. He had found more than one Djinn wandering looking for their child, or wife, or husband. Certain they had come here before them. Only for Nicki to have to tell them that they never were here.
“So many lost.” He mourned, as he found another in the dark, guiding them through. “My home was never meant to be like this.”
It was the ones in the light that were the hardest to help. They had given up and let themselves feel the desperate need. Staring up at their world, losing themselves completely, their final look at their lost home.
Three hundred Djinn were lost in the dark, and fifty lost themselves to their home. Nicki felt for them, for he knew the feeling, he remember looking up and feeling the pull. It was something visceral and uncontrollable. It was just torture for them to sit and stare like that. Even he could barely glance out.
Nicki walked behind own eyes watering tears flowing. Placing his hands over the Djinn’s eyes. One by one.
“That's enough.”
The Djinn would grab his hand grasping it tighter to their face. Their voice would shake, “Please. I can't. It's too much.”
“I know.”
“Don't let me see.” They begged. “I'm not strong enough to look away.”
Nicki would smile and pull them close, “You'd be surprised how strong you are.” Nicki pulled each one up. “Stand and come.”
They would stand Nicki’s hands never leaving their eyes. Protecting them from what they wish for most. Soon they stood in front of a doorway. Even without sight, they could feel something was there. A threshold for them to cross. Many would shake, and try to pull away. Others stood with their hearts beating fast, and many would say, “I’m scared.”
Nicki hugged those he could. “You will be wonderful.” Before removing his hands and letting them go right before the threshold. Some would keep their eyes shut, and others viewed their savior. A smiling human. One or two tried to attack, those he quickly kicked through the door. Others smiled back, before stepping through into their new life.
One by one he found the lost and the broken. The Djinn whose minds snapped. He sent them off. To heal. To find purpose. And be the heroes they should have always been.
* * *