Stricken, I looked down at myself, noticing how absolutely insane I looked. Metal grommets dangled from the fabric around me, jingling slightly every time I moved. The sheer absurdity hit me all at once, and I couldn’t help it—I laughed. Not just a chuckle, but a hearty guffaw that seemed to come from deep inside. What was I even doing? Wearing a curtain toga, talking to three alien strangers like this was all normal? Felix joined in, and then Cassie’s booming laughter followed, echoing in the small tavern. The casualness of it all seemed so insane given what was outside of this tavern—not to mention the crazy twisting room that had just tried to… what, kill me?

Wait—he had said something about Monster Hunters.

“Monster Hunters?” I asked. Felix nodded emphatically, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Yeah, does that mean anything to you?”

Monster Hunters? My mind raced. That sounds like a bad video game. "Monster Hunters... as in actual monsters? Big scary things that rip and tear?" I asked, a mix of disbelief and hope in my voice. I wasn’t sure what answer I wanted more—yes or no.

“Among other things,” Chas chimed in, grinning like this was just a fun fact. “And strictly speaking, these two aren’t actually Hunters yet.” He gestured lazily to the two younger companions.

That last part hung in the air for a second. “Monster or Mortal… huh,” I repeated, trying to wrap my head around the simplicity of it. Effective enough, I guess. Though it kinda sounded like something from a comic book. “I’m familiar with the concept, I think. Are you here, uh, hunting monsters? Or do you all live in that city?” Things seemed friendly enough, but my mind was racing. I needed information—fast—but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know what they’d say.

“Oh, no!” said Cassie, gesturing around the room with a casual wave. “None of this is real.”

I froze. My mind short-circuited, that familiar panic creeping back. Eyes widening beyond what felt physically possible, I turned to her. Not real? What the hell was that supposed to mean?! Felix flinched at my reaction.

“Cassie!” Felix said in a scolding tone. “Whether spirit realms are real or not has been debated by Arcanists for most of the age. He has blood on his head, so it sure feels real to him, right?” He turned to me with an awkward smile. But before I could respond, Chas spoke up, his voice calm but tinged with amusement.

“You’ve been scooped up by a nascent spirit realm, kid. Happens from time to time,” Chas said, his hands mimicking a little popping motion, like this was just another day on the job. “Bubbles of existence pop up in the multiverse. Sometimes they drag an event horizon across large areas of the physical realm,” he continued, dragging his hand across his palm like he was wiping away crumbs. “Things tend to come out of them into the physical realm, but the reverse happens often enough that we’ve got a procedure for it.”

I blinked. I tried—really tried—to process what he just said, but all I could think was, I’ve been sucked into a spirit bubble? What does that even mean?! My mind spun, racing to catch up with the insanity.

And then... weirdly... it made sense.

Sure, totally bat-shit insane. But given the golden circuits, the killer room, the way everything felt more and less real at the same time, I couldn’t exactly argue. Chas had explained it in reasonably simple terms. Spirit bubbles, popping into other dimensions? Sure. Why not? I grew up on Science Fiction.

“Oh,” I said, my voice coming out flat, my face turning contemplative. What else was I supposed to say?

Chas chuckled, clearly surprised. “That usually doesn’t work,” he muttered, looking almost disappointed, taking another swig from a small bottle.

“I think... No, I have a lot of questions,” I said, half to myself.

Cassie dusted herself off, still grinning. "Why don’t we start with your name. I've never met an Outworlder," she replied, clearly excited. “I have many questions too, but we can talk while we work. Felix, get us some light, will you?”

“Ben,” I said starkly and we exchanged brief introductions. Turns out I had their names right from their constant bickering.

Introductions done, Felix nodded, twisting his wrist out in front of him. I watched, intrigued, as multicolored rings sparked to life around a strange bracer on his wrist. He flicked through the symbols like he was scrolling through a UI on a futuristic tablet, the rings buzzing softly in the air as they shifted and rotated. It was... tech, but it wasn’t. Magic? Both? I wasn’t sure, but the mixture of familiarity and total strangeness was fascinating.

Felix frowned. “Damn. The runes have shifted. I can recognize my own, but I’ll need a point of reference to recalibrate my bracer. I don’t think you want electricity arcs lighting up the room right now.”

“Rookie mistake,” Chas grumbled, shaking his head. “Always check for shifts.”

Felix shot him a look. “And whose fault is it that I didn’t know that, Adept Blackwood?” His casual retort hit Chas like a verbal slap, and I noticed the sudden change in Chas’s expression—like he’d just been called out in front of his parents.

“I didn’t want to...” Chas started, but the tension was already palpable.

I shifted awkwardly at the bar, keeping my distance but leaning forward just a little more. This device... I’d seen something like this before. It looked familiar in a way that tugged at the edges of my memory. But it wasn’t just the tech. It was the symbols—runes. The same runes I’d seen before, scrolling through the light in that twisted room. I felt Winchester doing that same buzzing that was there but wasn’t.

I moved closer, circling around the bar, my curiosity overtaking my caution. The runes flickered and shimmered on Felix's bracer, each one more mesmerizing than the last. Then, suddenly, I saw it—familiar, but not. Not quite like the symbol for light from the killer room, but close. Illumination? No, it was more complex than that.

“Wait!” I blurted out, startling myself with the urgency in my voice. Felix glanced at me, surprised but not annoyed.

“Go back two symbols.”

Felix raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue. His fingers moved back through the floating interface, and there it was again—the symbol. My heart quickened. I knew it. Not entirely, but I knew it.

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“That one,” I said, pointing. “I... I don’t know how, but I recognize it. Sort of.”

The symbol pulsed gently in response. It was like the light glyph from before, but it felt... heavier, deeper. There was another influence. Something I couldn’t quite grasp, but it pulled at me.

“You sure?” Felix asked, his hesitation obvious. “We’re looking for an Illumination spell. The calibration…” His words seemed distant.

“I’m sure,” I said, stepping closer. The words felt like I wasn’t saying them, but I knew it was right.

Felix tapped the rune, his finger drawing it out from the interface, and the rune seemed to vibrate in the air, protesting. “Brace yourselves,” he muttered, scrunching up his face as if bracing for something himself. The air around us buzzed with tension. Then, he flung the rune forward like a magician casting a spell.

The room exploded with light. Not just any light, though—radiance. It was bright, too bright, and for a moment I flinched. It felt like every surface in the room was reflecting the light back at me from impossible angles.

Ben was bewildered at the sight and noticed Cassie and Felix stagger backward, shielding their eyes, but Chas was staring at me, the swirling energy in his eyes seemingly focused. It was almost like he knew something I didn’t—or maybe he was testing me. We seemed less affected by the light, although it did hurt my eyes—it wasn’t that bright. It was like turning on the lights after waking up from a deep sleep: uncomfortable but manageable.

On the other hand, I couldn't stop staring at the source of light floating in front of me. Did Felix just mention a spell? Like... A magical spell?

The two recovered quickly, glancing around the room, taking in the hundreds of runes burned into nearly every surface.

“Oh! Illumination,” Felix nodded sagely. He said it so matter-of-factly, but I could tell that wasn’t quite right. The symbol pulsed in my head, not with light but something deeper.

“Radiance,” I corrected. “It’s radiance. I don’t know why I know that.” The words came out with certainty. Where was this coming from?

Felix’s eyes widened slightly, a flicker of panic flashing across his face. “Radiance? Like... radiation?” He shifted nervously. “I don’t know a lot about that, but isn’t it supposed to be dangerous?”

I paused. Radiation. It wasn’t that, was it? I glanced at the source of the light again, still casting an eerie glow across the room. It wasn’t radioactive—at least, it didn’t feel like it. I remembered the infrared light from the killer light room, how it felt different. Wasn’t that technically radiation too?

“Is it dangerous?” Felix pressed, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Radiance is a different concept,” Chas interrupted, his gaze sharp but curious. He was watching me closely now, studying me. I nodded, agreeing with him even though I wasn’t entirely sure how I knew that either. It felt like some long-buried instinct had awakened, guiding my understanding of these symbols.

And strangely, the panic that had clung to me earlier began to fade. I wasn’t calm exactly, but... it was like my brain had quietly decided that this was the new normal. There were other people here now, and somehow, that made it easier to cope with the sheer insanity of the situation.

Cassie darted around the room, her jaw dropping as she took in the sight. "Gaia’s sweet tits!" She practically yelled. "Look at the runes over here!" Gaia? That was a familiar name. Was it Greek?

Her reaction was contagious. I had noticed them before, sure, but now that the room was fully lit, I could see just how overwhelming the number of runes really was. The walls, the ceiling, even the floor—all covered in an intricate tapestry of black symbols. It was like the room itself was alive with ancient magic. They seemed to stop halfway up the bar, almost forming a circle with my arrival point at the center. Were these here because of me? Or had they been there the whole time?

"This is... incredible," Cassie murmured, her fingers hovering just above a cluster of runes near the bar. "I've never seen anything like this before. The complexity, the sheer number of them..."

Felix nodded, his eyes wide with wonder. "It's like the entire place is one giant runestone." He ran his hand along the surface of the bar, fascinated. "But it’s all inert now, like an afterimage. Almost like something was here, but... left."

Chas stroked his beard thoughtfully, his gaze distant. "Remember why we're here. Let’s get to work.”

His voice snapped me back to the present. I watched, fascinated, as the group sprang into action. They were so casual about it, moving with practiced efficiency, like they’d done this a thousand times. Cassie's fingers danced along the walls, tracing intricate patterns in the air above the runes. Felix continued to manipulate his bracer, occasionally muttering under his breath as he recalibrated something. Chas, meanwhile, leaned back against the bar, seemingly content to let the younger two handle the grunt work as he uncorked a bottle.

"So," I began, trying to piece together the fragments of information I'd gathered, "you all came here... on purpose?"

Cassie nodded, not looking up from her work. "Two days ago, this realm just... appeared. Popped into existence like a soap bubble."

"Realms usually come and go," Felix added, his eyes still fixed on his bracer. "Like cosmic hiccups. But this one stuck around."

Chas uncorked the bottle of Deathroot I had placed on the shelf earlier. "We were sent to investigate," he explained, pouring some liquid into a mostly broken pewter cup he’d found on the floor. "Standard procedure for anomalies like this."

I felt a sudden surge of panic. "Wait!" I cried, lunging forward. "That's Deathroot! You can't drink that!"

Chas paused, the cup inches from his mouth, quirking an eyebrow at me with amusement dancing in his eyes. He didn’t seem concerned at all.

"Of course, it's Deathroot," he said with a chuckle. "Couldn't you read the label, kid?"

I blinked. "But... Deathroot? Isn't that, well... deadly?"

A deep chuckle rumbled from Chas's chest. "It's Deathroot wine, not pure Deathroot. Perfectly safe for Florans. Probably."

Florans? It took me a second to process what he said. Up close, I noticed the subtle differences in his appearance. He didn’t look like a normal human, now that I could really see him. He had smooth black skin that reminded me of Cast Iron. His hair... no, not hair—a cascade of delicate, grass-like strands were tied into a smooth ponytail held together by what looked like a vanilla flower.

Chas took a long swig from the pewter cup, grimacing as he swallowed. "Ah," he said, coughing, "smooth."

Cassie’s curiosity got the better of her, and she reached for the bottle. "Let me try," she said, pouring a small amount into a mostly intact glass. She brought it to her nose, sniffing cautiously before taking a tentative sip. Her face scrunched up immediately, and she coughed, sputtering.

"Tastes like ram's piss," she choked out, voice hoarse. Ram? Like a sheep?

Felix, not one to be left out, grabbed the bottle and took a swig directly from it. He immediately regretted it. His eyes watered as he forced it down. "Agreed," he gasped, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Definitely ram's piss. With... notes of sulfur?"

I stared at them in disbelief. Felix, too? He was... a Floran? Now that I looked closer, I could see his bronze metallic skin, the way his beard shimmered like delicate copper wire. And Cassie... I squinted. She wasn’t human either. Her features were too perfect, too symmetrical. Her eyes... they weren’t just light gray. They were actual gray.

"Wait," I said, my mind catching up. It all clicked. “You’re not human, are you?”

Cassie scrunched her face up. “Not sure what a human is. I’m a Gaian, child of the First Ones.” She said it with a kind of pride that made her companions groan.

“Is that what you are?” she asked, eyeing me up and down. “You’re pretty scrawny and plain for a Gaian, but you could probably pass as nobility with the way you speak—all polite and proper.”

I nearly laughed at that. "Right, yeah. I’m a human. I’ve never heard of Florans or Gaians before, but I guess we all look alike." I shrugged, accepting that we came from different worlds or dimensions, or whatever this was.

"And wait." I turned to Cassie, then Felix. The opportunity for humor was too good to pass up. “You,” I pointed at her, “and you.” I pointed to Felix. They both looked at me, confused.

“You’ve both tasted ram’s piss before?” I raised an eyebrow. The absurdity of the situation was still overwhelming, but if I didn’t joke about it, I’d lose my mind.

Both of their faces melted into bewilderment. Cassie’s face shifted to a bright shade of pink while Chas burst into laughter, his deep cackle betraying his age as his booming voice filled the room. For the first time since I’d woken up in that insane room, I felt a little more... grounded.