“This is it,” Brian said, gesturing to a wooden door with the numbers one-one-three on it. It was made out of some species of darkened wood, chipped and cracked, yet oddly radiated with a welcoming warmth.
Joel approached to open the door with programmed muscle memory, but he found no handles. …A push-only door? He thought. There were no key holes, no locks, no mechanisms whatsoever. It was simply just a door. A naked door.
…This is the front door…Is security not a concern in this world?
Joel proceeded to push the door but it did not budge. The doors in the hospital always remained open for ease of access, so he had no familiarity with opening strange no-handle doors. In the end, he swallowed his pride and gazed at his father questioningly. He was twelve now, and he’d brandish that fact like a weapon.
Brian, so filled with anticipation of Joel finally coming home, almost didn’t catch his gaze until an awkward cough turned his attention. “Ah! The door is a bit old, but the wards should kick in any moment now.”
Right as he finished his sentence, an audible click was heard before the door swung open seemingly on its own, to Joel's startled astonishment. Magic doors…of course there are magic doors…
Joel snapped out of his stupor and observed what would be his new home. He was greeted by a small apartment-styled room, with the kitchen and living room together, and stairs leading to what he assumed to be the bedrooms. It wasn’t all too different from Earth apartments, just a touch more wood and more…unlit candles? Right, no electricity, no light bulbs.
“There we go,” Brian said and then stepped in. “Do you remember where your room is?”
Joel shook his head. Try as he might for the past two months, he could not fish a single memory belonging to Oran Joel from his mind. And…that gap in his memory continued to remain elusive. He felt that it was more than just a memory he was missing. There was a blank spot in his mind, a large hole within its functions, but he could not identify what it was.
“No worries,” Brian said cheerfully, “It’s up the stairs to the left, you’re bunking with your sisters. We’ll call you down when lunch is ready.”
Joel nodded and made his way up. The wooden stairs creaked and groaned under his meagre weight, signifying their immense age. A small, old home, he thought.
Whilst he lived a difficult life on Earth, at least he provided enough for himself to afford a small place not unlike this one. He wasn’t poor per se, in fact, the syndicate compensated him quite handsomely for his work, but he had no use in spending his fortune on material possessions. Joel cracked a smile. It seemed being deprived of basic necessities was something Earth and Oran Joel had in common.
A few more steps brought him to a short corridor with two wooden doors opposite of each other. The space was cramped but it had an odd cosiness that his previous apartment lacked. Perhaps it was the presence of life here, the lived-in effect he’d heard about.
The left door uttered a harsh cry as he pushed it open–again, it lacked door handles–and he saw two bunk beds where both bottom beds currently occupied his two siblings, each reading books.
“Joel!/Joel!” both said when they noticed him.
“Hey,” he greeted as the younger of the two sisters launched herself at him, while the older one acted a bit more reserved. Joanne, the eight-year-old, hadn’t really remembered Oran Joel due to her young age but had grown great familiarity with the current Joel from the past three months of interaction. "She is a little bundle of Joy, this one," Joel thought as he returned the hug, still a bit uncomfortable with the gesture. Even with his crooked cold-blooded heart from years of conditioning, she’d somehow wormed her way in. He admitted that he cared for her…for all members of his family. Perhaps, he cared much more than he’d like to admit.
Jill, on the other hand, had remained distant despite visiting as often as Joanne did. Conversations with her were short and infrequent, but she was always there to watch him as he recovered. Joel identified that there was something holding her back but chose not to pry.
From their conversations, the school that they went to–and soon to be his school, he cursed–was but a small distance away from the hospital, which was also a small distance away from their home. This allowed them to visit Joel every single day for the last three months, and while at first, Joel was uncomfortable with the level of attention shown to him, he had grown appreciative and…almost possessive of them. It was like a new drug he was addicted to. Familial love. Unconditional love. He was deprived of it and now, it was filling him like watering an empty well.
“Good morning, Jill,” Joel greeted with a smile.
“Morning, Joel,” she timidly replied, brushing a lock of her hair behind her ear.
Joanne squirmed in his embrace to peer up at him with her doe-like eyes, “Joel! Want to visit the Zoo? They have rabbits and crocodiles and bears and tigers and birds and–”
“Okay! Okay,” Joel interrupted, chuckling. Once again, a warmth he did not know of filled his soul…perhaps he was going soft…“We’ll ask Brian and Ellie to see if we can go later.”
Joel was still not accustomed to calling Elena and Brian, ‘mother’ and ‘father’ but they weren’t adverse to him calling them by their names. He’d eventually settled on calling Elena by her preferred nickname–Ellie–to her delight. To them, he was still their Joel, even without the memories.
Guilt had been prevalent in his interaction with them. He had hijacked their son’s body, and he could not bring himself to tell them the truth about who he really was. But over the weeks of their quiet and comforting presence, that guilt had morphed into a burning responsibility.
Joel peered down to the visage of his little sister’s face-splitting smile, with dimples amidst a handful of cheek, and a missing front tooth.
Joel was not daft. He was anything but, in fact. He knew this was his second chance, his repentance for his sins. He would protect this smile and all their smiles…or die trying.
*****************
“Here you go, sweetie,” Elena said as she handed over a plastic card.
It was an ID card, Joel swiftly identified, with all things other ID cards had in common but with some peculiar differences.
It read:
Name: Joel Sinclair.
Date of Birth: 12-06-1286 A.E
Address: 113/86, St.Vincent's St, Sector 10, Juno city.
Card Issue date: 24-08-1298 A.E
Card Expiry date: Valid until testing date.
A.B: n/d
“What do A.E and A.B stand for?” Joel asked as he placed the card in his pocket. He looked toward Elena as she started to clear the table, which prompted Joel to get up from his chair and help.
He’d only stacked up two plates before recognising the stagnant silence that settled over the room, and the tingling sensation of having someone observe him like a strange specimen.
“Umm, Joel…what are you doing?” Elena asked, looking bewildered.
“I’m…helping?” Joel responded, freezing in the action of picking up another plate. Is…this another thing Oran people find weird? Helping with the plates?
A stringent pause lingered for but a few seconds before Elena let out a quiet giggle…then she bellowed a laugh. “A man!…helping with women things!” she exclaimed between her bouts of laughter, “What a pleasant surprise! Ha! I should get Brian to do some of the lady’s housework, Lord knows how hard it is to just keep this house standing all by my lonesome.”
Joel could only watch as she continued laughing as if seeing a man help with dishes was the strangest thing she’d ever seen. They’d always had a rotation of washing duties in the syndicate’s quarters.
Then, as if some invisible thing had whacked her on the head, her expression went from one of amusement to one of shocked recognition.
“Oh! Joel!” She said, “I’m sorry. I did not mean to make you uncomfortable. I know how hard things are for you without your memory, and here I am laughing about it.”
Joel gave her a smile to show that he took no offence to it. “Is it strange, Ellie, for a man to help out with cleaning dishes?”
Elena let out another giggle that was somewhat unbefitting of someone her age, but Joel took pride in drawing out Joy from the members of his long-yearned-for family–be it faint amusement or outright laughter at his strange antics.
Perhaps he was a bit too desperate for love. He wondered if it made him come off as pushy, or strange in any way, but Joel could not fault himself for trying at something he was never good at. He would try his damndest to learn what having a family entailed, even if it made him look like a fool.
As Joel stood by her side on a small stool normally reserved for Joanne or Jill, he started washing the dishes with oversized rubber gloves and a strange self–moving drying cloth. He had to keep reminding himself that he was currently twelve, and things that seemed would normally fit his old body, would look humongous on his new one, and to also not be surprised by strange Oran magic.
“What was it you asked?” enquired Elena, “–Ah yes, I remember, A.B stands for Aether blessed, sweetie, and A.E stands for ‘After Emergence’ which are the years after the emergence of Aether energy,” Ellie said, “The expiry date on the card, as you’ve noticed, is only valid until the testing date for Aether capacity, due when you reach fifteen…Speaking of which, your older sister, Jill, is about to get her’s next month.”
“I see,” Joel said as he placed another washed dish on the drying rack, which the floating, drying cloth quickly started to rub itself all over. Scrutinising it, Joel asked what was on his mind for the past months: “What is ‘Aether’, exactly, Ellie?”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Ah, The Aether…” Ellie contemplated, “Very few have asked of it in recent years…so ingrained with its existence we’ve become.”
Joel noted that she’d finished off her sentence with a faint bitterness and, Joel recognised, a bit of disappointment. Whilst Joel was subpar at interacting with other people, he was excellent at reading them. Even the most stoic person will let out micro-expressions that betray their thoughts, and Joel had learnt long ago to pick them out from his time dealing with slavers, thieves and politicians. Elena might as well be an open book to him, and it didn’t take much effort to detect that something about the Aether made Ellie terribly upset.
“At fifteen years of age, one can either be blessed with it,” She continued, “or they won’t.”
Ah. That was it. Elena was not one of the people that were ‘blessed with the Aether.’
“And what becomes of them? Those who are blessed and not blessed?” He asked.
“Well the blessed are likely to go on to do a great many things…” She responded, “The unblessed…well they are expendable.”
Elena had said the second half of that statement with such resentment that Joel did not have to bother looking at her expression to feel the bite in her tone.
He concluded that there was some sort of systematic belief here that these…‘unblessed’ people were considered…inferior to the blessed. A belief that Elena seemed to not agree with.
It brings no surprise to him that discrimination, whether it was by race or skin or blessed or unblessed people, transcends even into different worlds, or for that matter, universes–he still hadn’t figured it out yet.
Joel had long understood that such things were a part of human society. He knew that for there to be ignorance, there is to be terrible judgement that would eventually give birth to hateful discrimination. Oftentimes, ignorance was disguised as wisdom, being but two sides of the same coin, easily exploitable by mass influences such as religions and governments. Though, he cautioned himself, he did not have the wisdom to preach on such matters, for he had never cared for such things. When one spends their life fighting to see the next day, they did not spare too much thought on anything other than what would benefit them. He knew that his opinions were skewed by his harsh circumstances.
Joel stopped dwelling on such philosophies; he had a family to take care of, a family to keep happy. He had something to fight for, now, to live for.
Joel wanted to ask more questions about the Aether but sensed the mood had taken a sour note. It also seemed that the dishes had finished washing themselves in their short conversation, and it was almost time to head to the Zoo.
“I will look more into it in my own time,” Joel said.
Elena smiled at her son. “See that you do, Joel. Don’t be afraid to ask me questions.”
*****************
“Holy Shit.”
“Joel!” Elena exclaimed, “Don’t cuss!”
“Sorry, Ellie,” He said. Yet, he still could not fathom what he was seeing.
“Shit! Shit!” repeated his mischievous little sister who was bouncing up and down in excitement.
“Joanne, if I hear you saying that again, we’ll be going home,” Elena said.
“Shi-u-u” Joanne deflated from the scorching gaze of her mother, “o-o-t. I said shoot.”
The snickering of Jill and Brian two steps behind them showed no effort in staying hidden but was immediately silenced when Elena’s piercing stare travelled to them.
“Sorry,” Joel said, “I’ve just never seen anything like this.”
Joel had plenty of surprises since waking up in Oran. What he initially thought was just strange technology that powered their buses, cars, and other electronics, were not electronics at all, but magic. Every device in this world was powered by magic–or Aether energy, which he deduced was its technical term.
There must’ve been some sort of Anti-Electronics crusade that went through Oran’s history, Joel pondered, for he had not heard even a hint of anything indicating knowledge of electricity or electricity-based technology. Yet, Joel perceived that Oran was far more advanced than Earth ever was, especially in its recent times. Being in century-spanning wars, Earth’s technological development had ground to a halt since the early 2000s. Not to mention the giant backwards leap after everything they knew was nuked into oblivion in the 2200s.
Here in Oran, everything was either somehow automated or programmed into convenience. Automatic doors, self-flushing toilets, presence-sensing lights, things he’d only ever read about in Earth’s old-world novels. He’d observed rune markings in some of the older devices, like his bedside lamp, and he’d guessed that it acted equivalently to electrical wiring in Earth terms but carried a different form of energy–Aether energy.
It was through his various observations that he decided to get caught up as fast as possible in Oran history and culture when he had the chance to. As of this moment, he’d only gone off of his observations and general hearsay. He’d promised to at least pretend to not be surprised by anything…a notion that hadn’t lasted long at all.
The buildings he’d observed on his way from the hospital to his home, and now his home to the Zoo, had left him gobsmacked. Skyscrapers, apartments, malls, and all that infrastructure were perturbed by growing plant life between the cracks in its walls. While on Earth, which would pose a risk to the building’s integrity, Joel suspected that Oran had no problems with it. Thick giant trees rooted themselves on the side of tall thin buildings in a way that did not seem possible without the whole thing collapsing.
Here, it seemed that this…Aether magic was the answer to everything.
Oran appeared to be a more creatively-built Earth. There were no dull grey buildings that loomed over cities, imposing and ugly, but all the buildings here were more elegant, designed in a way that made the whole city seem like one cohesive unit. Joel’s knowledge of architecture was too inadequate to explain what he saw but it was as if the lines of each building somehow found a way to connect to the next. That, along with the abundance of greenery, had finally brought home that Oran was a foreign, alien planet to Joel, so very different from Earth.
Now, standing before the Juno City Public Zoo, that fact had finally hit him square in the face.
Literally.
As not a few steps were taken past the gate, Joel was immediately assaulted by a tiger. His instincts had kicked in but unused as he was with his new body, he’d reacted as if he was in his old one…so he tripped on his own feet and stumbled…then he got mauled. He’d never wanted to curse his inability more than that very moment.
It had taken him a few moments to notice that he wasn’t being turned into a red smear but was rather licked like an icicle on a hot day. The guffawing laughter of his family only affirmed that he wasn’t in any real danger at all–that is, other than the damage done to his pride and dignity.
Apparently, Oran Zoos had no cages. There was no need for it as through magic, these animals were tamed and docile–which was far different from what he saw in the wild creatures of Earth.
As they explored, he found that the Zoo was made up of multiple terraformed zones, each providing different atmospheres, climates, and environments. Joel could barely believe what he witnessed as the world changed itself around him. It was like the laws of nature were but an excusable footnote in the eyes of Aether magic.
Even now, as he examined the giant striped cat walking beside him in bafflement–somehow deeming itself their tour guide–he could not swallow shock after shock at seeing the world shift from different zones of Arctics to Deserts to Jungles to swamps to…wherever he was now.
“Bear! Bear!” Joanne exclaimed as she pulled Joel by his hands to the ‘Forest’ zone.
This can’t be real. Joel thought as he observed his eight-year-old sister deliver herself into the vicinity of a five-hundred-pound grizzly bear.
“Holy shit.”
“Joel!”
*****************
It was the sound of tires screeching that alerted Joel to the bus’s presence. There were no usual sounds of gas-powered vehicles, no rumbling of the engine, no roar as it took off. Vehicles were as silent as the night, like an earth EV.
The door opened and Joel struggled to get through it with the oversized bear plush toy currently engulfing his twelve-year-old form. His clumsy journey to an open seat drew a few chuckles from the passengers on board, much to his embarrassment. He was the Assassin Executive for god’s sake! It’d take him but a few seconds to end everyone on this damned bus! Now they were laughing at him! It seemed that being at the expense of your loved ones sometimes required a reduction in self-pride but he’d already discovered enough of that today.
“Sorry.” “Excuse me.” “Coming through.” “Pardon me.” His little sister was calling out for him every time he grumpily bumped into someone. He, apparently, didn’t discover enough of it yet.
Before long, the family were all seated and were talking animatedly with each other. Brian sat with Jill in the row behind him, and Elena sat with Joanne. Joel was sitting with the damned plush toy. Joanne had deemed it worthy as a memorial souvenir for this day, one to celebrate Joel’s recovery. Though Joel knew that she just wanted an excuse for her parents to buy the thing. Joel never had use for material possessions; everything he’d owned was either guns, blades, books, or clothes…but he guessed he could make do…just this once…The things he’d do for love…
Joel suspected that his family visited the zoo often, seeing as it was public and free for everyone. Joel admitted that he, too, wanted to come back to spend more time with the docile animals. He found a strange kinship with that tiger, which he found was named Zoe. She’d been a playful thing for a fully grown feline of death and destruction and Joel hoped he’d gain some sort of wisdom, seeing that he, too, wanted to be more…family-friendly.
The bus suddenly slammed on the brakes, pulling him from his thoughts.
“Thi-” a voice came from above his head, seemingly from some sort of magically powered speaker system, “This is an emergency broadcast, Villain warning in Sector 9. Please evacuate if you can, be calm and contact the forces if you cannot.”
The announcement was repeated again before it was cut off, and the instant after, faint sounds of sirens alerted him to oncoming authority. Joel was immediately on alert, his body tensed, and his instincts tuned to perceive what he could of his surroundings. He, once again, cursed his current incapacity. He was still recovering…and in the body of a twelve-year-old…he was the furthest thing away from working order.
“Joel,” Brian said from behind him, “Stay calm, we need to make our way out as soon as possible, understand?”
Joel nodded, but he could see the worry in the man’s eyes though most of it was directed at him. Perhaps Brian feared that I would have some sort of terrible reaction? PTSD, perhaps?
As if catching something in his silent, stoic expression, Brian let out a relieved sigh. I was right. Joel thought.
“Alright,” Brian said, “let’s go-”
BANG.
Everything became bright, like the sun itself had settled down in front of them. He felt the ground being yanked away from him. A scream was heard, no, multiple screams and Joel was catapulted to the side of the bus, his head banging against the windows, then his feet found the ground again. It took him a moment to recover but Joel could barely distinguish the sounds over the ringing in his ear. Something loud had temporarily taken his hearing. A flash grenade?...some sort of explosion that nearly tipped the bus…
Joel felt someone grab his arm and haul him out of the bus’ side door. It took a few more seconds before realising it was Brian, being as disoriented as he was. They were all on the sidewalk next to the nearly collapsed bus and he quickly noted that his family were all present, safe. Jill was somehow unharmed, and Elena was carrying a crying Joanne but both showed no signs of injury. Joel breathed a sigh of relief.
“What happened!” He asked Brian.
“Villain attack,” Brian explained, “The warning said it was in sector 9, we’re in sector 9.”
Joel once again scanned the immediate situation. One of the buildings on the other side of the road, right next to where the bus stopped, had smoke coming out of some of its windows. Definitely an explosion. A bomber?
“Brian, Joel,” Elena said from his side, “We need to leave.”
Joel could barely utter a response before he was yanked in the arm and pulled along with the group. Other passengers from the bus were also making their escape from the rubble and they all headed towards the alleyway between the city’s high-rising buildings, away from the source of destruction.
BANG.
It was not a moment too soon as Joel witnessed something collide with their bus. The bus that they had just been on a few seconds ago…
It was up in flames now, a scene of molten metal and lung-cancerous smoke.
Joel’s legs were still underneath him despite what felt to be a small earthquake caused by the collision. What was that? A bomb? A grenade? Was it launched from the building? He stopped running for a second to observe the scene.
Something moved from the flaming rubble of the now-destroyed bus. From its depths and hand shot out like a zombie from a grave. Someone’s in the fire.
But…something was off. The person had already postured up to a stand as if the flames from the ruined vehicle were beneath their attention. Joel believed it was a man from the width and musculature of his frame. The man turned to look at the building, then to the group running away from the wreckage. His group. Joel could see a smile forming on the man’s lips. A smile that turned into a giggle, then a soft chuckle, then maniacal laughter.
All of a sudden, it clicked in Joel’s head. Not a bomb…a person. A person is causing this …with nothing but his own two hands.
The man screeched: “LET THE WORLD KNOW FIRE!”