My conciseness returns to me with a start. Color overcomes blackness as I open my eyes again to the world around me.

I see my two friends standing over me looking concerned. I reach up and clutch my head. It hurts. Really, really, bad. I think I might start crying and I can already feel the tears forming in my eyes. It's odd, I've definitely felt pain way worse than this in the past, and I never once showed my emotions like this. The last time I cried… it was….

A new wave of pain racks my brain as I curl up in a fetal position. I scream out. Why does it hurt so much!? What is happening to me?

I hear the sounds of one of my friend's footsteps running off to get help. I think his name was…

A white-hot arrowhead embeds itself into the nape of my neck. Images flash in my head. A dilapidated building. A forest, some guards, a baker, and a butcher. Each image brings with it new feelings: familiarity, excitement, nervousness, guilt, fear.

Memories of my past flash through my mind, each one as strangely unfamiliar as the last.

Asto. That's his name. My friend, and the leader of our threesome. Although I feel like I've lived with Asto my whole life, at the same time I know this is the first time I've seen him.

My mind is a muddle. Man-made megastructures and megacorporations built of steel and glass clash against the stone terraces and blocky streets filled with passers-by on their way to market. Friends I've grown close to in my few years of life suddenly remind me of rivals, political opponents, and underlings. Friends…

More images race through my mind, each one more bizarre than the last: tall buildings, impossibly high, are lined up in rows like wheat, while people ride in strange metallic bird-like crafts traveling higher and faster than any airship I'd ever had the chance of glimpsing. People dressed in clothes designed to impress wander from memory to memory. First feelings of trust, of kinship, then betrayal after betrayal. I can tell just by looking at them that they're all motivated by greed and a lust for power - control. They wish to control a little slice of that world even if it means trampling on our shared trust.

I was never a very social person, I can see that looking back from an outsider's point of view. I'm thankful for that. The fewer false smiles, hollow promises, and unsightly humility that I had to go through, the more time I was able to devote to my own power. My first goal had been money. I created a tech startup, creating a device that could either be implanted or worn on your wrist that allowed one to interface with any NFC devices nearby. Doing so secured the funding I needed to begin working towards my other goals.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I used the money from my company to fund campaigns, bribe politicians, and rig elections. With the politicians on my side, I could further spread my company with significant ease, buying up other startups and smaller companies and creating a brand synonymous with the technological future. I absorbed the employees and hired managers to manage them, and directors to manage the managers. All to free my time to gain more power for myself - personal power.

I began to focus on my body: arm wrestling, karate, judo, boxing, fencing, kendo, tai chi. I learned what I felt to be the bare minimum of combat styles, and participated in MMA tournaments to prove myself. I was no champion fighter, but I had my fair share of wins.

I practiced using weapons: Swords, rapiers, bows, and guns (although I felt they were impersonal). Guns give power to people otherwise powerless, They give the weak an instant advantage against anyone. Strong, weak, powerful, no matter what position you were in, guns evened the playing field. One’s skill with a firearm would often determine the winner of a duel, but that’s only if the other side was playing fair. The powerful never play fair. Sure, they might abide by the rules, but they bend them and twist them to their advantage. Finding loopholes and exploiting vagueness, the powerful make the rules work for them. That’s how I got to where I am. Bending and exploiting the rules, and when I was sure I couldn’t be penalized, I would bend the rules until I broke them.

Foreign technologies and past memories dance to the beat of my throbbing head as my conscience jolts back to the present. The smith in my head seems to be finished forging my mind and my own whining voice reaches my ears. It seems like I was howling like some dying beast. My sudden collapse must have scared the other boy, Khuno, away. Luckily I seem to be on the edge of some tropical jungle with nobody else in sight. Normally we are forbidden to go this far out of the city, but we wanted to go somewhere exciting for my fifth birthday. Asto and Khuno said they had something special to show me out here, so I was excited.

It's odd how I have feelings and emotions for the two. Time spent stealing from the baker and getting chastised by the sister running the orphanage. The story of my secret scar and my dreams of forming an adventuring party with Asto and Khuno. These feelings of brotherhood are very foreign, something I've never experienced before, but now feel like I’ve had for my whole life. The difference is jarring, but whatever is going on, some things are obvious. Currently, somehow, my mind has taken over that of a young child living in a city of stone walls and massive temples. I still have my old memories, but I also have this child’s memories of living in the city of Caxamalca.

The child, Amaru, remembers Caxamalca as a city wrapped around a trio of mountains, with stone and rope bridges stretching across gaps across a jungle valley, and terraces clinging to the edges of cliffs to cultivate crops. This is certainly far from the packed city streets of my company headquarters in Seol where I had just been trying to secure a business deal. As I sit up and look at my surroundings, I breathe in the fresh mountain air and drink in the stunning mountain vistas. This might be my chance to finally have a head start on the world.