The room was a mess. There were papers strewn across multiple desks, and across the floor, the floor was covered in both blast marks and strange runes that made me nauseous and gave me a headache just by looking at them. A fine layer of ash and dust lay on the floor as if it hadn’t been cleaned for months. There was also a wall in the middle of the room that was black with soot on one side. The party of three, as I had begun to call them, were discussing something with the aged man as I walked in. Once they noticed I was there, they stopped and looked at me as if they were expecting me to do something.

“What are you looking at me for?” I questioned, even though I knew they couldn’t understand me. That seemed to satisfy them as they turned back to each other to continue discussing whatever they were talking about.

I continued to look around to see if I could find anything interesting or familiar. There were lines of racks on the walls with all sorts of different materials. Some of the things looked more magical than others, like the vibrating metal compared to the pile of rust. There was an orange mushroom, a lump of pink dust, and a transparent, egg-shaped rock among the few things around. I had started reaching for a jar of yellow liquid when I heard a shout. I stopped before my hands could touch the vessel and turned to look at where the party was standing. The aged man had clearly seen me, for he was walking toward me with quite some vigour for how aged he looked.

“What do you think your doing, trying to touch my stuff?” He shouted, forgetting in his rage that I couldn’t understand him. “You're lucky I stopped you, as that lightning essence could have killed you if you handled it wrong.”

I raised both hands up and slowly backed away as he was ranting about something probably to do with the jar of yellow liquid. He looked at me, saw that I was backing away and then seemed to remember that I couldn’t understand him. He looked off to one side, muttering under his breath for a moment before turning back to me.

“There, can you understand me now?” He questioned in English. I nodded, and when that didn’t seem to mean anything to him, I said, “Yes, I can understand you now.”

“Good. That means we might finally figure out how you got here.” The aged man grumbled as he was turning back to the party. He shouted something I couldn’t understand, and they came rushing over.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“So, boy. How did you end up here?” The aged man asked with an inquisitive glint in his eyes.

“Why should I tell you?” I responded, wary about how he could suddenly speak and understand English.

“Because, at this point, no one else would be able to understand a word you say. But I, on the other hand, could make you a translator or make it easier for you to learn the languages if you want to go that route.” He replied with a chuckle. I had read enough books to know that if you can’t talk to people then it would be hard to make a living here. I also wouldn’t be able to learn how to do magic.

“As far as I can tell, a crack in space,” I answered, shuddering at the memory of the agony that came with it.

“Did you walk into it, or how did you get here from where you were?” He inquired while writing down notes on what I presumed was how I got here.

“I was actually running away from it when suddenly everything hurt,” I replied with a tremble in my voice. “The pain was worse than any other and I doubt I will ever feel something worse. It was like my whole body was dipped in acid while being set on fire. The pain was everywhere and it was everything.”

As I was talking, my voice sped up as I tried to get away from the topic as fast as possible. By the end, my whole body was trembling, and I felt the start of a panic attack bubbling up. I hadn’t had one for years now, and now is a terrible time to be having one.

“Calm.” The aged man uttered with an odd intonation. Immediately I felt myself calm, as muscles that I didn’t even know were tense, loosened up. Then my mind caught up to what had just happened, and I became alarmed this time.

“Was that mind magic?” I asked, feeling threatened by the possibility of mind control.

“What else do you think it was?” The aged man answered with a snort. “Of course it was. There has been mind magic that has been going on in you for longer than you’ve been here. Tongues is also mind magic if you're asking.”

I looked at the party with mixed feelings. On one hand, I could finally talk to someone, but on the other, they used mind magic on me.

“Before you jump to conclusions, I will tell you what happened.” The human of the party stated. “I was out hunting monsters when a massive confluence of elemental energy suddenly appeared nearby. It was the largest one I’d seen by a long shot, and I have seen a Prime Dungeon form. When I got there, all there was, was a ruined body that looked vaguely human wearing clothes I didn’t recognise. Thankfully I had a soul trap on hand and caught the soul before it got dragged away by the elemental currents. I brought the body and soul over to the nearest hospital I could find and was lucky enough that they had someone with Revive. The weird part was that after the body was revived, you immediately began to thrash about as if you were in agony, which you clearly were from what you have told us. I cast Deaden Pain on you then, and you fell unconscious right there. We moved you to an empty bed in one of the wards and waited for you to wake up. It didn’t take long as you were up within the hour. The spell Tim can feel on you is Deaden Pain, and I don’t think removing it is a good idea just yet.”

I stood there while listening to him as it slowly dawned on me that I had died. This combined with all the other crazy and horrifying things that had happened in the last hour proved too much for me. I began to feel light-headed when suddenly the world tilted to the side and went dark.