Author's note : Welcome everyone! I've rewritten the chapters to make them longer, I hope you enjoy it better that way. Feel fry to point out any grammatical errors that I have missed. All comments are appreciated.

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“ Damn...  What happened ? Shackles ? I'm on a boat? What the hell?”

Aaahh... Damn it, what the hell is happening... Wait. Stop. Calm down. You are dreaming, you must have fallen asleep during the game session.. No, try again, these shackles really hurt... What the hell..

While I was coming back to my senses, I slowly started looking around me. I was definitely in a boat, it was really dark, I had iron shackles around my arms and legs, I was fucking cold and my … robe, I guess, didn't do much to heat me up. I could hear, and somewhat see, other people next to me, also chained to the wall like me. I heard tears, grunts of pain, muffled expressions of bewilderment coming from a stocky figure not far from me... And I also felt a throbbing pain on the back of my head. I tried to move a bit, but my movements were too restricted for me to check if I had anything special back there.

Somehow, it felt like a bad idea to start talking, so after a few minutes of trying, exhaustion overcame me and I fell into a deep slumber....

Morning came, but what woke me up wasn't the sun, but the noise. Cries suddenly tore the silent hold, violently waking up all those inside.

“Wake up, lazy fuckers! We're fin'lly here, so you better obey our orders and f'llow us quietly, or you might regret it a lot, uh? Now stand up and wait for your turn.”

Groggily, I slowly got up, before falling after the forgotten shackles that restricted my movements stopped me mid-way. After the pain woke me up for good, I sat down, unable to do anything else, while my thoughts started wandering...

My name's Ahriman... wait no it isn't, it's Yan! I'm a university student in Switzerland, 22 years old,

not really too social a person, but I still have a few good friends I can count on and talk to. However, when I look around me, everything is wrong. I am definitely not in Switzerland, we hardly have enough lakes to hold ships, nonetheless wooden ships with shackle-bound people inside... And why did I think my name was Ahriman? It reminds me of something, but definitely isn't my name... Oh god, am I completely crazy?

Yeah, I just saw an elf. Lithe body, pointed ears, long hair and a typical otherworldly look you would expect from elves of games and fantasy books. I definitely am crazy... and is that a dwarf? Seriously? Gaaaah, I have no idea what is happening to me...

While I was musing on my situation and more generally getting confused, the people around me slowly started getting up one after the other. They were nearly all bound only on the arms, and I could observe quite a variety of different people. The majority were human, of fair or slightly dark-skinned complexion. Most were wearing poor clothes, a lot of them what looked like woolen medieval clothes. But with the dim light that came from the deck, I could see that quite a few other prisoners were non human. A part from the stout dwarf, there were three redhead elves... no, one was actually a half-elf. But how did I know that? She did look a bit less skinny that the other two, maybe the ears were smaller? I couldn't really say... Anyway, I was still a human, but my body had changed quite a lot. I apparently had white hair, I was a bit taller and more stocky than I could remember. Was this reincarnation? If so, it was really shittier than I expected...

From where I was, I could see that most other people had a glazed look on their faces, as if everything was completely over, and that they never would see the light of day again. Well, most people, but not the elves and the dwarf, who were spending more time looking around more or less discreetly.

Suddenly, a ladder descended from the deck, bringing blinding light and a foul-looking... oh god, is that a pirate? I mean, come on, he even has the stereotypical eye patch! Damn it, what god did he offend to arrive here... Three of them total came down, two of them rough, dirty and by the looks of things grunts, and one other one only slightly better, but he had what looked like some paper and a quill, and he examined all the prisoners one by one while writing mysterious scribbles on his sheets, before sending them up after changing the manacles with rope.

When it came to the elves turn, who where visibly terrified, one of the grunts, who had a really lecherous expression, started moving on her, but the writing guy immediately snapped at him, saying the 'captain' had promised to cut the dick off whoever tried doing silly stuff to the merchandise...

Wait, merchandise? Are we to be slaves? Goddammit, this gets better by the second. Maybe I should quickly pray my Goddess to save me before I... wait, my Goddess? I'm atheist! Damn, these strange thoughts keep popping up in my head, I wonder where they come from...

As they moved on, they finally arrived before me. Before I can say anything, they looked at me and the quill guy said “Shut up you, not a word. If you even try your magic again, imma cut yer tongue out. Even if you can't do anything because of the chains, heh.”

He started separating the manacles from the wall and freed my legs, while I moved automatically while thinking, even more lost than before... Magic? I was a magician?

My thoughts started to be filled with visions of an academy, a magic academy? Harsh training sessions, familiar faces, even my... family? Oh hell, I'm getting so confused, is this the life of my body? Did I take over the that guy's body? Can I use this body memories?

While I was getting these strange visions, I arrived on the deck. There, I silently joined the ranks of the other futures slaves, while looking around me for more information about where I was. Under the increasing heat of the rising sun, I discovered in front of me a very unfamiliar surrounding.. In was clearly in a harbor of a busy town, there were loads of other boats around... But everything was so... primitive? Was I really in a medieval fantasy world? What the heck? Slavers, elves, dwarves, magic... “This is impossible!”, was what I thought, but just looking at the white mud and clay houses, crude fishing ships and filthy people moving everywhere, I couldn't do anything else but accept that I had been sent to a sad mix between a fantasy novel, Pirates of the Caribbean and apparently Lawrence of Arabia, if I could judge by the sandy surroundings and white houses extending into the dunes.

When the last future slave came out from the hold, the Captain of the ship, I guess, came in in front of us and started talking to us. While he was doing the typical “don't resist or you'll regret it, better get used to it, don't disobey otherwise it will cost us money” head slaver speech, I started wondering if the fact that I understood the language while being sure it wasn't french, german, english or any other language I had heard before came from the body's original host. Must be it...

I noticed that the two elves where talking with each other discreetly in some nearly musical language I couldn't understand, while the half-elf was definitely looking around for a way to escape. The dwarf had a perplexed expression on his face, and he was concentrating on the head honcho's speech. Most other people where either listening or just keeping their eyes on the floor, as the slaver crew around us was watching us pretty tightly.

After the speech, the crew guided us through the streets to a big warehouse, where we were assigned a bed, told to follow all orders and not to cause trouble. The half-elf had somehow managed to free herself from the rope binding us to each other, but she had been caught by the guards and beaten before being sent back in line with the rest of us.

Once inside, we were freed from our bounds, but as there were guards everywhere, we didn't even think about escaping, as they were clearly stronger and had proper equipment. My own chains had not been removed, only loosened a bit, apparently they were stopping my magic, so I had to make do until I was sold.

Completely exhausted and famished, I passively followed the orders they gave me, went to eat a tasteless soup of probably unknown origin, then went to my so-called bed (straw mattress without the straw, apparently) then slept like a log. I saw that my bed neighbours where the dwarf and another guy from the boat, but I couldn't find the energy to try and talk to them.

The next day, we were ordered to do a battery of tests so they could evaluate our worth. I was lucky that time, because my failing to use any magic was taken as the side effect of having the magic manacles for too long, so I spent the whole day without them doing the physical tests and interrogations without them, of course with two extra guards watching me all the time. It was refreshing, but at the same time it stopped me from talking with anyone, as the guards hounded me whenever I wasn't doing anything that they judged useful.

I scored apparently pretty well in the physical tests, which left me sort of happy, as I was pretty proud of my physical capacities, before...

Night time came, and, tired again, I went to bed. This time, as the guards had gone to the main surveillance point, I had a bit more liberty to talk... However, I was pretty scared of not being able to do anything at the magic test tomorrow, so instead of actual presentations, the moment I judged it was safe, I turned to the dwarf and whispered...

“Hey, do you know how I should use magic?”

I felt quite stupid and embarrassed as the words left my lips, as it wasn't exactly the best way of starting a conversation, and why the hell would he know anyway? Therefore, I was pretty surprised when he answered me:

“Well, if you are not a priest, you are supposed to feel somewhere inside you some kind of magic core where all your power is stored, and you should be able to use the energy from that core to fuel spells that you have memorized, if the books are correct.”

Now, I was surprised at the useful and complete answer, but apparently he was even more surprised at his own answer. His eyes went wide and he even mumbled something like “What the fuck?”... Which led me to remember something... underneath the gruff tone and weird language, I could remember that voice! I stared at the dwarf, and after a little while, I murmured... “Clément?”.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

He stared at me, his eyes even bigger than before, then as revelation came to him, he answered, incredulously... “Yan?”.

As my hunch was confirmed, I was faced with even more questions. Clément, a friend of mine whom I saw regularly, was a tall skinny guy with a silly sense of humor and definitely no beard. Well, that was what he was supposed to be, but now he had been transformed into a dwarf?

Well, considering my own transformation, I shouldn't be that surprised. Although, I was lucky that I had heard him use his favorite expression, I probably wouldn't have recognized his voice otherwise, being a dwarf did affect it quite a lot.

Apparently he also had double memories, as he answered my question about magic so easily. I guess his body was a scholar... or maybe an undetected mage?

While I was thinking about what happened, I started making signs that we should sleep now and talk tomorrow, as my 'guardian angels' were moving suspiciously towards us.  He shook his head in approval, and we both shut our eyes and tried to sleep, our heads full of questions...

The next morning, we were lucky, as the guards assigned to me had stopped being as vigilant as before, meaning Clément could come and sit next to me when we went to eat our breakfast. While eating, we managed to chat a bit about what we could remember and what we should do. We didn't really come to anything conclusive, except Clément was quite sure that before we arrived here, we were together, and there were more people, two or three girls, he thought. That of course led us to wonder if they also had been transported with us, and if so, in whose body they were hiding. My instinct was telling me that three elves with the same hair color together were too much to be a coincidence, but I had absolutely no proof.

We decided that we would try to talk to all other women that had been taken with us (those we could remember, of course) and otherwise just follow the orders that our captors would give us. About the memories of the previous inhabitants of our actual bodies, it seemed like Clément also had problems accessing them, and that they would also randomly supersede his own, like it had the previous night. His body's name was Rokshar, a priest of some deity he hadn't managed to identify yet.

We left after eating and I followed the guards into my magic test. Somehow, my stress level had gone down, maybe I had really been convinced by Clément's words? I still didn't know how to access the 'magic core' inside me... I was brought in a small room, where two more guards and a mage were waiting for me. He definitely looked like a proper mage, I could see the magic runes on his clothes, which resembled greatly the typical robes and staff mages from the fantasy films. Heck, if his clothes were brown and he had a squirrel on his head, I might just have called him Radagast.

As I came in, the mage told me to stand at a three meter distance from the wall in front of him, and fire some spells. He added that any illusion or enchanting magic was prohibited to be casted, and I had to declare whichever spells I could do in these kinds of magic. He would be checking on my casting in real time, and any tentative of being 'smart' would be quickly and painfully punished.

When they moved me in front of the wall, I desperately started searching my memories on what spells I should be able to do, and how to do it. Usually, mages in books or films could launch fireballs, maybe I could do that too? I closed my eyes, trying to imagine forming a fireball, and.... my body started acting on it's own, forcing me concentrate and activate my magic. I suddenly felt some form of energy moving from my … heart? to my arms, then leaving my body before coalescing into a small ball of fire right in front of me, which I then sent against the wall by the sole force of my will. It exploded with a small noise, then the energy dissipated. The words that came into my head as I felt the magical ball of fire was created were [Orb of Fire, Lesser].

Elated, I was so happy I had actually managed to use magic that I nearly forgot where I was. The mage wasn't very impressed, however, and he asked me to use two more of the strongest spells I could manage. At that time, I must admit that I was slightly exhilarated by the whole idea of being able to practice magic, and I wondered if I had anything equivalent to the Hadoken I could use... And my, well, by body's memory answered with [Burning Hands]. Suddenly, a cone of fire left my hands and roasted the wall in front of me as I used a combination of movement and words while taking energy out of my 'core'.

As my memory started to synchronize with my host's, I finally started to understand how my magic powers worked. As a [Warmage], I had learned how to cast a certain number of spells by heart, and I was able to easily choose between any of them at any time, as long as I had enough energy to cast them. The spells I knew were divided between [Cantrips], the lowest level of spells, and [1st level spells], which used a lot more energy. Incidentally, I could also feel that my reserve of energy for [1st level spells] was half depleted, which made me wonder how much use magic really had if it became exhausted so quickly. Not that I dismissed magic, I clearly sensed that both those spells could have been able to kill, or at least seriously injure someone. But... yeah, it was only a small orb of fire, I was expecting a huge fireball.. Maybe that came with higher spell levels? I would have to try to understand that later. Also, why did the orb simply shoot out without any movements or words?

I finished my required spells with a [Magic Missile], then turned to the mage for my next orders. I was surprised he didn't ask for another [1st level spell], but I figured out that I shouldn't volunteer too much information, so I kept quiet. I managed to peek at what he was writing, and I read [1st level sorcerer] on his notes. I noticed that his hadn't guess my actual class, so I could definitely try to trick others if needed. However, [Warmage] was a word that rang a bell in my own fuzzy memory... I would have to talk with Roskhar.. erm Clément, about it.

I was expecting more tests, but the mage simply motioned the guards to send me back to the beds and left. I came back to the wharehouse and went to lay on my bed, thinking about what was happening. Somehow, I felt like I was less terrified and confused that I should be. There was this whole feeling of familiarity about the whole idea of being transported to another world, of magic and fantasy... Somehow it also felt 'right', as if I had decided that myself, altough I had absolutely no memory of that. Maybe it was because of the slow fusion between my memories and my body's? I didn't know, and that part was the scariest. How much would I remain myself? How much would I become Ahriman? Furthermore, how would my family and friends react to my disappearance? Would I ever be able to go back?

All those questions were interrupted by a sudden whisper from under my bed.

“Yan?”

I nearly jumped at the quiet, feminine voice that called me out. I tried to act as nothing happened so that the guards didn't notice, then whispered back:

“Yes? Who are you? How do you know me?”

“I am Morgane, I was in the boat with you before and Clément managed to talk to us earlier today. I sneaked in to tell you that we all there. I will be going back now, but you had to know that we are all here.”

“Morgane? You're here too? Wait, who is 'we'? And how will I recognize you?”

“Coline and Lauriane are here too, we are the elves.”

I heard a soft rustle, then a small red flash near the entrance of the room. I slumped back onto my mattress, while all the new information rushing through my mind left and right. Morgane, Coline and Lauriane, all friends of mine that I also saw periodically.  

As the pieces slowly came together, I started widening my eyes at the sudden and mind-boggling conclusion that started to impose itself on the situation.

The five of us were supposed to meet at a common friend's place, some time... ago? Yesterday? I couldn't be sure. We were planning to get together for our first session of Dungeons and Dragons. Could it be... that we had been sent into a D&D world?

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Spoiler :

YanNAMEAhrimanRaceHumanClassWarmage

ClémentNAMERoksharRaceDwarfClassCleric

MorganeNAMEUnknownRaceHalf-elfClassUnknown

ColineNAMEUnknownRaceElfClassUnknown

LaurianeNAMEUnkownRaceElfClassUnknown