The trio, despite their otherworldly origins and the chaotic situation, were surprisingly easy to talk to. Once the initial shock of meeting non-humans faded, their casual demeanor and easy banter reminded me of friends back home. They acted so… human. They even had human names.

Felix continued to tinker with his bracer, scanning the area like a man possessed, while Cassie and Chas moved rune-etched tables around the room, setting up what I assumed was some kind of base.

It turned out, they’d been trapped here for two days. Two days of wandering this bizarre spirit realm, trying to find a way out. According to them, they’d entered the realm through a portal of some sort, but the moment I’d arrived—my unceremonious crash into this world—a massive surge of energy cut them off from their escape. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one in the dark here.

Felix, without looking up from his bracer, explained that they planned to use the way I came in as their exit. He sounded calm, but there was an undertone of uncertainty that made my stomach clench. They didn’t have all the answers, either. Whatever had brought me here was as much of a mystery to them as it was to me.

Cassie broke the silence first, her voice cutting through the hum of Felix’s device. “Even across the city, the three of us could feel it—whatever it was that happened here.” She grunted as she slid a table across the floor, the dust thrown up around her amplified by the bright light. She coughed. “We immediately knew our way back was gone. Fucked, basically. We figured whatever caused it must be here, so we came looking.”

She paused, raising her arms dramatically. "We're walking for nearly a day - creeped out by the empty city - only to see some giant white energy beam slam into the damned star. It pierced a giant hole in it. Craziest thing I’ve ever seen!"

I blinked, processing her words. A hole in the sun? I remembered seeing it when I stepped outside. The image of a sun with a gaping wound, leaking cosmic energy like blood, sent a shiver down my spine.

Chas spoke next, his deep voice more subdued than Cassie’s energetic retelling. “Didn’t expect to find you here, kid.” There was a weight to his words, a kind of unspoken question behind them. “Normally, people just... turn a corner, and they’re inside a spirit realm. They don’t get dragged in by whatever this is.” He gestured toward Felix, who now looked like he was meditating, his bracer glowing faintly where I had woken up.

“We figured the surge of energy was just the gateway shifting,” Chas added, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at me. There was curiosity there, but also caution. They were trying to figure me out, same as I was trying to understand them.

Something poked at the back of my mind. What they described—the normal way people entered these realms—was nothing like what I’d experienced. I didn’t just turn a corner. I didn’t stumble into this place. I woke up in that insane room, where physics seemed to be constantly shifting, and I barely escaped with my life. I had no idea how I’d gotten there, but it wasn’t just some casual walk through a doorway.

Should I tell them about it?

My mind wrestled with the decision. They seemed trustworthy enough—at least as trustworthy as anyone can be in this kind of situation. If they were in the same boat as me, then maybe they’d have answers, or at least some context. On the other hand, they’d already labeled me an Outworlder—whatever that meant—and I wasn’t sure how much more of my strange story they’d believe. Would they think I was dangerous? Or worse, responsible for whatever was happening here?

I glanced at Felix, still deep in concentration. He was muttering something under his breath, fingers twitching as the bracer emitted a faint hum. Whatever he was scanning for, it wasn’t just idle work. He was trying to make sense of the energy around us, the same way I was trying to make sense of... everything.

I weighed my options, feeling the nagging uncertainty grow. They might already suspect something, given how I’d showed up. But if I didn’t say anything, and things got worse... that would be on me. Maybe they could help me figure out what happened back in that room. They knew more about this world than I did, and right now, I couldn’t afford to keep secrets.

“What’s the matter, Ben?” I snap out of it to see all three of them staring at me. I hadn’t realized how tense I looked, leaning heavily on Winchester, my knuckles white around the grip. I sighed, lifting the bottle of Deathroot wine to my lips. Good God, it tasted disturbingly awful—it reminded me of a bottle of Grappa my best friend Ryan bought for my 26th Birthday. I winced, swallowing the bitter liquid before taking a deep breath.

I told them. I told them everything I could remember in vivid detail. At some point, Felix broke away from his work, and all three of them started listening intently to the story. Even Chas, who had been smirking earlier like he knew I was hiding something, put on a stoic look as I explained what happened. Their eyes grew wider as I described the circuits of golden runes I had seen. They seemed particularly interested in that part.

“What’s a circuit?” Chas asked intently.

I paused, unsure how to explain it without getting too technical. That was a complex question I had a hard time answering in my head without referring to electronics. I had no idea if they knew what a computer chip was.

“Like... a set of pathways for energy?” I said thoughtfully. “Uh, a closed loop of energy between multiple uh.. Runes? Branching out into multiple paths with more runes in a giant sort of connection.”

Felix nodded like he immediately knew what I was talking about. “I’ve not heard of them referred to as circuits, but did it look like this?” He spun his bracer around, revealing a blue rune hovering in the air. The rune was a dense cluster of twisting lines and symbols, like two or three runes in a sort-of constellation, their paths chaotic and intertwined. It looked... forced.

“Yeah!” I said, “But the ones that I saw holding back the room around me were more… elegant? Natural? It was like instead of runes, each point in the connection was made up of more of these,” I pointed at the strange symbol in front of Felix.

Felix looked taken aback. “Ben, that’s a tier three spell,” Felix said. “Crazy powerful magic. I can’t even read it, let alone touch it.” He waved his hand through the image to demonstrate.

“I mean, based on how it was bending reality around me, I suppose that makes sense... So the energy that surrounded me was a really complicated magic spell?” I asked almost sarcastically.

Felix exchanged a look with Chas. “Something like that,” Felix said slowly. “Tier seven or eight, maybe?”

Yes of course, magic! I continued the story, getting more comfortable with being the center of attention. The room had taught me a rune, according to Felix. That was a standard kind of test done for most people as their understanding of the world started to hit a certain point. Apparently, those rules applied to me as well, since I now understood something about light runes.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Everything after that, though, the whole story seemed to baffle them. Physics shifting around, gravity changing, falling through nothing surrounded by golden energy, and finishing off with the thin white beam of power fired at me by the shifting angry reality above. The more I talked, the more intense their expressions became. Even that beam of energy wasn’t enough to destroy the golden runes, only managing to burn a piece of it before getting deflected away.

After my story ended with waking up here, I noticed Chas was staring at me in a way I wasn’t quite sure I liked. His usually friendly face had hardened, his gaze sharp and calculating. Did I make a mistake?

“You said one of the sigils in the spell reminded you of two planets colliding?” He asked abruptly, his voice stern. “Have you witnessed this before? The death of two worlds?”

He was serious. Dead serious. “What? No! We don’t even have these runes or uh, magic at all really - just stories. Nothing like that at all. The only place you’d see that is in a... movie?” I say timidly. Chas’s face was telling me to elaborate, something inside of me was screaming to talk faster. “Stories, uh... recordings? Like a really believable play.”

Chas’s expression shifted, confusion replacing suspicion. “Must be a damn good play,” he mumbled.

Cassie stood up abruptly, her eyes narrowing as she pointed at me. “You’re full of shit,” she said directly. Chas moved to stop her, but she kept speaking. “No magic? How would you survive? Life can’t flourish without it.”

Wait, what? Her words hit me like a brick. It was accusatory, almost like I was challenging her very beliefs. Uh oh.

I raised my hands defensively, my mind racing to find the right words. "Wait, wait! I didn't mean to offend. Maybe we just... call it something different where I'm from?"

Cassie’s eyes narrowed, her posture tense. It felt like the room had grown smaller, her presence pressing down on me. I could feel the others watching, their curiosity mingling with suspicion. Chas didn’t seem quite as friendly now. I took a deep breath, trying to channel the wonder I felt when I first arrived in this strange world.

"Look, we have... something like magic, I guess. We call it science. It's how we understand the world, how we harness its power." I gestured wildly, grasping for examples. "We have machines that can fly through the air like birds, faster than the wind itself. We can speak to people on the other side of the world in an instant, their faces appearing on screens kind of like magic. Hell we even know what magic is, sort of, but we just don’t… have it."

Felix leaned forward, his eyes widening. “Screens?”

"Yes! Like... like windows made of light, showing images from far away." I was on a roll now, the words tumbling out faster. "We have healers who can see inside the body without cutting it open, using invisible light rays. We can split the tiniest particles of matter, releasing energy so powerful it can light up entire cities."

Cassie's hostility seemed to waver, replaced by a mix of confusion and intrigue. "But how can you do all that without mana? Without runes?"

“We don’t need mana, or rather... we just don’t have it. We harness the energy that's already in the world around us. Electricity, like Felix’s lightning. Chemical reactions. The power of the sun itself."

Felix's eyes lit up with excitement. "The universe didn’t give you many tools, so you... use the universe? Lightning is a natural thing. You’re saying your people simply capture it for use? But the sun, wouldn’t that be mana?"

Cassie seemed dumbfounded, but the explanation seemed to break through her religious-style thinking. She slumped back into her dusty chair at the bar.

“I didn’t understand any of that,” she sighed. “Which means it’s beyond me, I suppose. But if Felix gets it, I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually.”

Chas laughed and slapped me on the shoulder. It hurt. “A proper Outworlder!” He practically shouted. “I didn’t understand half of that either, but welcome to the shit, Ben” His demeanor had totally changed. Gone was the goofy old man drinking quietly in the corner. His swirling eyes sparkled until they settled into… regular eyes. They were brown and sharp now.

“He’s not lyin’,” Chas said, giving me a genuine smile.

“How was I?” Cassie asked from her seat, her tone much more casual now. “Did you think I was crazy? The script says I’m supposed to challenge what you’re saying so you’re off-balance. Helps Chas figure out if you’re telling the truth. But seriously? No Magic?”

My mouth dropped open. I looked at Chas, who tapped the side of his head wickedly. My stomach sank. They were acting? I started to back away, but that little voice that had been screaming at me recently was quiet. They were behaving... pretty much the same as just a few minutes ago?

“Oh, don’t look like that,” Chas said, his grin widening. “We just met! Had to make sure you weren’t some kind of abomination or something. Look, I don’t think any of us understood more than half of what you were saying about your home, but it sounds like they’re doing okay without mana. If there’s a way we can get you back there, we’ll help. But right now, we need to get out of this spirit realm before it voids out.”

That last part hit me like a hammer to the chest. Voiding out? I thought the sun’s gaping hole was bad enough.

The three of them seemed to snap back to work, moving methodically. Cassie effortlessly lifted the door back onto the frame, using the hilt of a blade to bang the hinges back together. The door wouldn’t function, but the lightning blast had kept the door mostly intact, and the bent hinges held it in place.

"Voiding out?" I asked, my voice a little shakier than I intended.

Chas turned, all humor gone from his face. “The star in the sky out there is the source of mana keeping this place stable,” he explained. “A giant hole in it? That’s a problem. Eventually, the mana flow weakens, and the realm starts to break down. What’s left is a void—a place where reality falls apart and creatures crawl out, looking for mana to feed on. They’re small, but they’re endless.” He crossed his arms, looking back toward the door. “Abominations.”

Cassie chimed in as she gave the door one last shove. “The problem isn’t just the monsters. The longer the void exists, the stronger those things get. And then... well, let’s just say it’s would suck.”

I swallowed hard. “And how close are we to... that?”

Chas shrugged. “We’ve got time. Days, maybe. Hours if we’re unlucky. But we’ve got a beacon, and there’s enough mana floating around here to get us out before things get ugly.”

“Beacon?” I asked, glancing at Felix, who had stopped fidgeting with his bracer and was now watching me with an unreadable expression.

Felix nodded, producing a long metal tube from his pack. He twisted one end, and three little feet extended from it like a tripod. “The way out is gone now,” he said. “We thought there was a gate here somewhere, but there isn’t. And you clearly didn’t just accidentally walk through something to get here. But there’s a ton of pure mana floating around in the air. We’re going to use it to get us back home.”

Chas snorted. “There’s a shitload of mana,” he said. “But not a fuckton.”

Cassie laughed, clearly more relaxed now. She took the rod from Felix and walked to the center of the room, where I had woken up. “Feels more like an assload,” she muttered, slamming the rod into the floorboards, the tripod sunk into the wood.

I couldn’t help but chuckle, the absurdity of the situation breaking through the tension. “You’d... know?” I asked, wincing as she shot me a mock glare. This time, Felix joined Chas in a cackle.

The light mood was welcome, but my mind was still racing. “So... if this beacon thing works, we’ll just... teleport out of here?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

Felix nodded, adjusting the beacon’s settings. “More or less. It uses the ambient mana to create a temporary gate back to our world. But the trick is stabilizing it long enough for all of us to get through.” He glanced at me. “You’re a wildcard. We don’t know how your... species interacts with the magic here. So we’ll have to be quick.”

My stomach twisted again. I had barely begun to process everything that had happened, and now they were talking about teleporting me back to their world. Could I even handle another leap like that? This was starting to feel like a dream again.

Chas must have sensed my unease. He clapped me on the back, his grin returning. “Don’t worry, kid. If the beacon works, it’ll be smooth sailing. If it doesn’t... well, we’ll have plenty of company in the void.”

Cassie rolled her eyes. “You’re not helping, Chas.”

I looked at the glowing beacon, feeling like I was standing on the edge of a cliff. Was I really ready for this? Did I have a choice?