“I distinctly remember you saying something along the lines of not knowing anything about me besides my name,” Sam said.

“Yeah, I did say that, didn’t I…” Sarah mumbled. “Sorry if it came out like I was misleading you. The truth is, when I said that, I was pretty much repeating the same phrase that I’ve been rehearsing in my head all day, ever since I was told about you. So up until I got here, I truly didn’t know anything about you besides your name. And even that I only got after pestering Maurice with a billion texts.”

“I guess that I can forgive your accidental deception then. After all, if I can’t appreciate someone who over-rehearses their conversation, then who can?”

Sarah nodded and sighed in relief before reaching down to her backpack. “Let me just get this thing out and then we can begin.”

“Holy shit! Is that an honest to god binder? Is that what we’re going to be working with?”

“This is something that my caretaker at Terr-Sec made for me in order to help me get acclimated faster. Everything a twelve-year-old Taken needs to know about the differences between Earth, the Web in general, and New Terra specifically. It’s chock full of information, sorted chronologically and categorized as best as possible. First a section about the Integration War and destruction of Earth, then New Terra, then the other races and so on. This is what got me through my first year here, when I kept coming up against stuff that I had no idea what they meant.”

“Does it also explain what happened to Google and Wikipedia, thereby necessitating the binder’s existence?”

“Very funny… I assure you, this binder is just what a Taken like us needs. How would you know to look up stuff that you don’t know if you don’t even know that you don’t know them?”

“Dammit. I didn’t know that you were aware of meta-ignorance as a concept. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made that joke.”

“You shouldn’t have made that joke anyway. This binder is very precious to me. It’s one of the few things that I brought with me to the academy”

“Oh shit, I’m sorry… Eh, did you being so few things with you because you’re only allowed a few things?”

“No. I just don’t have many other mementos.”

“OK… no, that’s cool. I’m probably the same way honestly. So are we going to go over the entire binder? Because it’s pretty thick. Also, and I’m not disparaging the binder in any way, but are you sure that it’s still accurate? After all, it was written whole eight years ago, and to a twelve-years-old at that.”

“That’s why I’m not going to read verbatim from the binder. Actually, I brought the binder just to use it to make sure I don’t miss any important topics in my haste; I’m still planning to explain everything on my own. That way, I can be sure that everything I say will be correct, or at the very least, let you know when I’m not certain about a topic. And also, we wouldn’t have to waste time getting into the minutiae that it sometimes gets into and avoid going over stuff that probably wouldn’t matter to you like the changes in fashion.”

“Changes in fashion?”

Sarah blushed. “Lisa still didn’t know me so well at the time, so for a couple of more… day to day, topics, she chose the stuff that she was interested in. But like I said, we don’t have time to go over those sorts of things today.”

“Why not? Sure, I don’t care about fashion, but it’s not as though I’m in a hurry to get somewhere. Who knows, maybe the other ‘boring’ topics will interest me. Does it have a TV shows category?”

“If that’s what you want. But I just think that we should focus on the more important topics, those that will help you get acclimated as fast as possible.”

“I get why you’re saying, but does acclimating as fast as possible even matter? Maurice said that the state is going to take care of me. So I can just spend a year or two acclimating, learning all about this awfully named world of yours in my own time and between sessions of losing myself to decadence. And once I’m all ready, just find a job somewhere being an office drone where I’ll be able to finish all of my work in two hours but will still have to stay the rest of the six because they’re not paying me if I’m not there.”

“But that will be such a waste! You are a Thread-Weaver, not to mention a Taken. You have so much potential. You shouldn’t just consign yourself to a regular life!”

“Putting aside the fact that I have no idea what—and excuse me if I shudder while saying this—a Thread-Weaver is. I’m not sure I even want to get into the whole magic business, which is what I’m guessing you’re alluding to.”

“OK, fair enough. I can’t say that I know what being a Thread-Weaver really means, either. But what I do know, is that it supposedly makes it a certainty that once someone reaches level 10, that they can also become a Ruler. And, because we’re Taken, reaching level 10 is guaranteed to be easier for us than for any modern—even the most gifted—person.

Sam cracked his knuckles before resting his chin on them. “I know this is sort of my fault, because I’ve already heard all the terms that you just said a couple of times, but they still don’t mean anything to me. However, I think it’s pretty obvious that what we’re talking about is becoming strong, combat wise. But even if I do have the potential for that, which, I honestly doubt, cause… I know me. Even if all of this is true, it’s not like I have to do this. I’m sure you guys will manage just fine without me. And yeah, obviously there’s a moral obligation for the strong to help the weak, but I’m only potentially strong, right? It’s not that right now I’m Superman. It’s that if I work really hard in the future, then I might become him.

“Look, I’m not saying that I’m definitely going one way or the other, just that I need to get a lot more information before I make my decision. I’m sure using magic is super fun and all, and god knows that I fantasized about having it plenty of times. But maybe in real life I’m just not suited to it, not to mention engaging in actual combat. Making all of this a moot point anyway.”

“That sounds reasonable to me,” Sarah said after a pause. “And that’s why the war is one topic that we are definitely going to cover today.”

“I thought that we weren’t supposed to mention the war?”

“OK… Ha ha, I walked into that one... So did Maurice already tell you about it?”

“He just said that there’s a war going on and that the front is really far from here. What I got from that was that the war is not existential in any way.”

“That’s… probably not what even Maurice thinks. The war is absolutely existential. See, this is why it’s so important that we go over all the big subjects as fast and as early as possible. Every day that passes without you making a decision for your future is a day that you might regret losing later.”

“If I decided to become a soldier?”

“If you decided to study and train with magic. You don’t have to be a soldier if you don’t want to. You can be a doctor like Maurice, for example.”

“So what’s that called? A wizard? A mage? An even worse name than all the stupid names I heard so far?”

“It’s not called anything. Everyone can use magic, so giving a name to someone who does would be superfluous.”

Sam nodded and took a long breath, trying to gather his thoughts. He was being obstinate; he knew this, trying in vain to reject this new reality of his. Instead of just sitting down and letting Sarah lecture him like he ought to have done, he kept interrupting her and dragging the conversation to every other topic. And there was only one reason for his actions, and only one solution. He had to get his doubts out of the way, his fears as to this world’s veracity. Get rid of the same nagging sense of dread that lurked in his mind ever since he woke up in the void. What if all of this wasn’t real, an invention of an ailing mind stuck in a paralyzed body? Why bother if the world was fake and all his possible actions just a furthering of the illusion?

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Let me tell you what’s bothering me,” he said. “And after I get it off my chest, hopefully it will be enough for me to sit quietly and have you tell me everything that you want to.” He got up from the chair and started walking back and forth next to the window, trying to make up his mind on how to say what was on it.

“You see… In essence, what I’m dealing with is a simple epistemological problem, a degeneration to the sordid mindscape that is solipsism. In other, less pretentious words, what I’m dealing with is the lack of validity as to the existence of this new world of yours. For all I know, this all reality could just be a figment of my imagination, or even worse: of someone else’s.”

“Like in Matrix?” Sarah asked.

“No, nothing like Matrix. In the movie, we discover that what we thought of as our reality was fabricated and that the world outside is, in fact, reality. What I’m dealing with, is going from being sure as to the objective existence of my world to doubting the reality of the new world I’ve been indoctrinated into.”

“But it’s the same world. Why is there any difference? If you believed the world to be real before, then you should still believe it so now.”

“Because the argument that I have built for myself in order to prove the existence of a reality outside of myself is no longer as valid as it was. I can see you’re confused, so let me try and explain. Are you familiar with Rene Descartes?”

“Sure; ‘I think, therefore, I am.’ We studied him last year.”

“Yes! Exactly! ‘Cogito, ergo sum.’ Forgive me for being a pretentious fart, but it’s one of the few Latin phrases I know, so I can’t just let an opportunity like this go. So the main idea behind that phrase is that we can be sure of the existence of our very selves as a result of the act of thinking, right? Our consciousness guarantees to us the objective reality of our own existence, our very selves. Thus, something, our sense of self, is saved from the abyssal maw of radical skepticism.

“But! But, here comes the problem, because I’m not really trying to deal with Ronnie’s justification, or any other rationalists’, for the existence of something beyond the self. He’s just the first guy that you learn about when doing epistemology and so I plied up all of my mental baggage on him and his theory. Because I don’t actually agree with him. Something inside of me riles against the notion that my world of experience is completely devoid of any objective ground. You see, up to today, my rejection of Descartes’ minimalistic conclusion, or more like scepticism—or even idealism—at large, didn’t come from the tried and proven method of building a philosophical argument. But rather from an instinctual dismissal that was based on a core belief that I’ve already adopted earlier in my life.

“My counter argument was simply: ‘So what?’ I thought to myself that it does not matter whether Rene is right or wrong, not even if he isn’t skeptic enough. Because up to now, I’ve only been acquainted with one world, one reality. And so, there is nothing to be gained from doubting the existence of the external to myself, for it is one of a kind. It’ll be fruitless to discard it while I have no replacement at hand.

“And yes, you can disparage me for having based my knowledge of the sureness of reality on such unphilosophical grounds (at least until I learned what pragmatism was). But the problem still stands. I was sure as to the validity of existence because of knowing of only one world. But now, with me being introduced to a world so unlike the one I have known. I see no recourse but to lay doubt as for its presence being truthful.”

Sam sat back down, having tired himself from his incessant strolling, and waited for Sarah’s obvious reply. It never came. “There’s also the whole Ship of Theseus paradox to consider,” she said.

“Yeah… you’re not helping. I’ve already decided to blacklist that line of thought until when the magic drug finally runs out. Which is probably not a very smart idea.”

“Well… maybe this will help. In retrospect, I can say for certain that I was the same person before and after being taken. The effects of the magic were just that, effects. They ran out, stopped affecting me. Or how about this? I assure you that this world is just as real as the one in which we grew up in.”

“Of course, it helps if I take your claim at face value as the objective truth. The problem is that I can never be as certain of the objective truth as I was before, now can I? After all, my version of reality turned out to be false. The world I believed was real didn’t have magic in it. So either I go back to believing in the existence of of reality, this time of this brand new world, despite it already having proven false once. Or I adopt some sort of skepticism, Descartes’ maybe. As long as I don’t look up the arguments for why his, second meditation, I think, doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Of course, there’s always Hume—Look, it doesn’t actually matter. All this philosophy is just bullshit meant to disguise the fact that I no longer know for certain that what I’m experiencing is real. I’m just scared of committing to myself to this world and it turning out to be fake.”

Sarah surprised Sam by laying her hand on his shoulder for comfort. “I know what you’re going through, Sam. I really do. And even though I didn’t go through the same complexity of thought—or ‘disguise’, as you called it—as you have, I still understand what you’re feeling. I wish there was some way for me to truly assure you, just as there would have been some way to assure me. But there isn’t. We just have to believe that this world is just as real as the one we left behind. And that our actions here matter just as much now as they did before. Maybe even more.” She smirked. “Now that we can basically become superheroes and someone built us a body that’s perfectly suited for that.”

Sam nodded his and gave Sarah a small smile, after which she took her hand back. “You’re right, obviously. And honestly, even if this world is just a figment of my imagination, that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t strive to live as good of a life as I would were it real. It’s just that this day… it just came at me all at once, and it just keeps piling on and on. I just wanted to vent my frustrations a bit to someone, and this is what I’m most occupied with currently. I apologize if this took too much of our allotted time. Like I said, the rest of the night is all yours. I promise to try and stop interrupting, even if the joke I want to tell is really funny or clever.”

Sarah smiled. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about. In fact, maybe I should be the one apologizing for trying to rush you through today, like it was some sort of initiation. It’s just… I spent not only the entire day, but also the last couple of weeks focusing on getting stronger in a very practical sense. And I guess that once I heard about a new Taken, especially an adult one and especially a Thread-Weaver, that I got ahead of myself and attributed to you the same conviction that I was guided by when I was imprinting today.

“So let’s try this from the start. My name is Sarah and I’m a Taken just like you. I’m here to help get you acclimated, because I know what it’s like to be in your shoes. I’ve tried to prepare some material that we can go over in order and thus cover the most basic stuff you need to know. But, we can do whatever you like really. If you just want to just ask me questions, that’s fine. Or maybe just talk about nothing important like what TV shows we like. And if you’re just tired and want to go to sleep, that’s fine as well. We don’t have to cram everything into a single day. That’s just stupid and whoever thinks like that is an idiot.”

Sam laughed. “As much as I’d like to judge you based on your taste in television, I feel like it would be more fun after we’ve known each other for more than an hour. Asking question seems like a less efficient way of going about information gathering than what you have planned. And there’s no way I’m falling asleep anytime soon. So if it’s up to me, it’s back to your orientation plan.”

“If you’re sure… maybe you’d still like to get more comfortable and lie down on the bed? That came out wrong. I meant that maybe if you lay down, you’ll eventually fall asleep, and until then we’ll be talking.”

“You’re talking about a bedtime story. You want to read me a bedtime story and for me to fall asleep like a widdle baby boy.”

“I just meant that maybe we’ll try to get two birds with one stone. First, we’ll be getting you up to speed, but we’ll also maybe help you fall asleep.”

“Forget it. I take my sleep hygiene very seriously, and the first rule is to never use the bed for anything other than sleeping.”

“Isn’t it also for sex?”

“I wouldn’t know. But speaking of sleep hygiene, I would be open to taking a melatonin supplement in oral form before bed, if you have one.”

“I doubt it. There’s a pattern—that’s a sort of magic—that can make you fall asleep pretty quickly. It only requires level 2 to imprint, so everyone that has trouble sleeping pretty much just uses it.”

“And can’t I make use of this magnificent contraption because I’m not level 2?”

“Yeah. Maybe the pattern is simple enough that we could have you trace for the same effects with someone like Maurice supplying you with magic. But you can’t even trace until you’ve had your Awakening and are able to sense magic. That reminds me, you’re lucky that after I was returned Maurice decided to learn English, because the universal translator requires tracing through it once for it to start working.”

“Oh, you guys have a universal translator? Awesome, I never was good with learning new languages. And forget about the sleep for now. It doesn’t matter. I’ll either fall asleep or won’t, but that future, perhaps even tomorrow’s Sam to worry about. Right now, I think it’s about time we get started with this long awaited lore dump.”