They say that lightning never strikes twice in the same place.

They were wrong.

I was on my way to math class at the University of Singapore when, suddenly, out of a clear blue sky, I was struck by lightning. It didn’t actually feel like electricity, contrary to what you might think. Instead, I felt as though I was struck by a blow from the heavens, followed by a split second of intense heat that dissipated quickly. There was a strange sensation of being suspended between time, as though everything had stopped in that moment, and I was existing in some strange alternate dimension. Then I snapped out of it, and every inch of my skin crawled as though every one of my nerve endings was tingling.

The next moment, time flowed again, and I realized I had been struck by lightning. At the moment that I was hit, I had fallen down to my knees and grabbed a pedestrian crossing sign, which probably saved my life by grounding the electricity.

However, just as I rejoiced that I had survived a once-in-a-lifetime accident, I was struck by lightning again.

Why me?! That was my last thought before I died.

***

I had no idea how much time had passed, but I woke up in some sort of Twilight Zone. My body was transparent and light, as though I was a ghost, and the world around me was filled with a gray fog.

“You can have it…” said a voice.

Looking around, I saw that there was a tiny spark of light beside me, so small that it was almost invisible. The voice had come from it.

“What is this place? Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m Lynette,” said the voice.

“But I’m Lynette,” I said.

“You can have my body. All I ask is that you save my mother,” said the spark. “Do whatever you like, but save her.”

“What?”

The particle of light replied by showing me a movie. A glowing rectangle appeared in front of me and showed me scenes from the life of a young girl who lived in a world of magic and science. The scenes flashed by rapidly, yet I could somehow understand everything. Born to a poor family of fallen nobility whose fortunes had failed two generations ago, she nonetheless had a happy life with doting parents, but tragedy struck when her father died in a train accident, and her mother fell into a coma.

Something about the movie seemed familiar.

“Wait, is this the world of ‘Chaos Blood Summoner’ and are you Lynette Aurelian? This is weird,” I said.

Chaos Blood Summoner was one of my favorite epic fantasy book series. It consisted of eight novels full of political scheming, magic, and wars. Lynette Aurelian was a very minor character who was mentioned only a few times, but I remembered her because she had the same first name as me. One of the rebel commanders, Tristan, was her ex-fiancé. During the battle of Ardeb-by-the-Sea, she perished when the royal army summoned a host of earth spirits to open a sinkhole beneath the city, killing everyone except for a few lucky souls who were whisked away by their air spirits.

When the movie finished, the world around me started spinning and I felt like I was being sucked downwards by a whirlpool. When I opened my eyes, I was in a different world.

Consciousness returned slowly. Where was I? My eyelids felt heavy, but I forced them open through sheer willpower, only to close them immediately when I was blinded by the glare of direct sunlight falling on my face. I instinctively raised a hand to cover my eyes.

I wanted to curse, but my throat was too dry. This time when I opened my eyes, I could see I was in a hospital ward with many beds, though mine was the only one that was occupied. Most alarming of all, the arm that I raised was quite thin and fair. My arm should be suntanned from my recent visit to the beach at Sentosa. I got up slowly, like an old woman, my muscles protesting at every move. I looked down at myself and saw that I had long wavy blonde hair.

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

My mind raced as I tried to make sense of what had happened to me. Okay, so I was pretty sure that I had died. I had an encounter with the spark who called itself “Lynette.” could that have been her soul? Though it really didn’t make sense, all indications showed I had somehow become the “Lynette” in Chaos Blood Summoner.

The fact that I was in a hospital bed made sense because the last scene the movie had shown was that of Lynette jumping from a bridge. She had just been to see Baron Urien, who could call on a spirit of healing, to ask him to help her mother. When the Baron had refused, she had left a suicide note and tried to kill herself to shame him into action.

This wasn’t in the novels! Then again, Lynette was mentioned only a few times. Nevertheless, she must have survived this even in the novel because she wasn’t due to die until a few months after the war started.

I ransacked the contents of the drawer on the nightstand until I found a mirror.

“Oh no,” I said. My voice was raspy, and it hurt my throat to speak.

The mirror showed the same face as the person in the movie.

I was doomed!

If I really was Lynette Aurelian then I was a nobody in a kingdom that was on the brink of a disastrous war. I had no money, a dying mother, and I was destined to die in a few years. The thought of my eventual fate fatigued me so much that I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes again.

No, I should think about this logically. I mentally listed down all the things that I needed to do.

First, find out from the hospital staff who I am.

Second, confirm that this is really the world of Chaos Blood Summoner.

Third, if both those things turned out as I feared, think of a way to save Lynette’s mother.

Those were my immediate priorities. Once I had calmed down enough, I got up and searched the room for something to write on.

The hospital ward was long and narrow, with high ceilings. The walls were painted a pale green, and the floor was covered in a cheap, black linoleum. There were ten beds in the ward, arranged in two rows of five. The beds were all metal framed and had thin, white mattresses. Each bed had a small nightstand next to it, and a small window above it covered in thin, gray curtains. The place was hardly the sort of hospital that you would expect to find a member of the nobility in, even one as minor as Lynette.

Eventually, I found a small notebook and pencil that some patient had left behind. Then I wrote down everything that I knew from the books. I could remember most of the big events, but it was hard for me to recall specific places and dates. The information about Lynette that I remembered was very little, but somehow the movie the speck of light had shown me was very comprehensive, and I knew a lot about her. Me? Was the girl from the movie now the “me” of this body?

Just as I finished writing everything, a nurse with dark brown hair neatly pinned up under a white cap appeared and started fussing over me. She told me to lie back down on my bed then left to get the doctor, an avuncular old man with white hair wearing a three-piece suit that had seen better days.

My heart sank when he called me “Lady Lynette.” The nurse took my pulse and temperature, and the doctor shone a light into my eyes, asked me a few questions, then pronounced me fit enough to go home.

I asked after my family, and the two of them exchanged meaningful glances.

“Ah, I’ll inform your household that you’ve woken up,” said the doctor. “You can ask them your questions.”

Come to think of it, wouldn’t Lady Lynette have a maid? Why had I woken up alone?

“Now, now, dearie, don’t worry,” said the nurse. “I’m sure everything will work out alright.”

I certainly hoped so. I asked for a newspaper, which she was glad enough to produce. Based on what I read in the paper, I was in the country of Prythian, and it was the 46th year of King Vortigern’s reign.

So it was true. I really was in the world of Chaos Blood Summoner.

That afternoon, my maid, Brunhilde, appeared and brought me back to my family’s townhouse that was situated in a fashionable area in Penhurst, the capital city of Prythian. It was a tall, narrow building with three floors and a red brick façade. The ground floor was home to a series of large rooms, including an entrance hall, drawing room, dining room, and library. The kitchen and servants’ quarters were in the basement, and the upper floors, which contained five bedrooms, were reached by a grand staircase. Though the furnishings were elegant, they were a little out of date and slightly shabby.

I would’ve been cheered by the splendor of my current residence if I hadn’t known that the house and everything in it were rented. The Aurelians had a little money, but not enough to live the way an earl would be expected to live.

With this in mind, I met with the family solicitor and disposed of everything that I didn’t need. I dismissed the servants except for Brunhilde and sold all of my mother’s jewelry in order to get enough money to move her into a country hospital. A summoner with a minor healing spirit would keep her stable until I found a way to heal her.

That was the least that I could do, considering that I now inhabited Lynette’s body.

Yes, I was definitely Lynette Aurelian now. Maybe it was a good thing that I had to move quickly, or I might break down into hysterics if I had time to think.

My plan was simple: bet everything on Duke Marius of Westmoreland of the rebel faction.

To do that, I had to enroll in the Royal Academy of Magic.