"Chaos? Order? Whatever. What I care about is when I'm going to get my sandwich" – a neutral philosopher

"Remember your side of the contract, lesser brother."

Alex wakes up slowly, the light worming into his-

'Where am I, what happened, how am I able to think so clearly?'

Alex rubs the sleep out of his eyes…

'eyes?'

Alex touches his eyelids, but his fingers keep going.

'…'

'So… no change there, but how am I able to see?'

Alex' looks' around a bit more, only to notice something different.

'everything's monochrome and a bit fuzzy.'

A grove of apple trees grows up into the sky, faint afternoon light filters through their branches, and the gurgle of a stream can be heard in the distance. Alex, wobbly but with less effort than he would have thought, gets up and stretches.

'Now that I'm free, I need to consider that.'

Alex remembers what his father's last words had been so many times. He then shivers for a moment before shaking his head.

'Not worth it, never worth it. Especially if I'll just be going back to that.'

Alex starts to slick back his hair before his hand passes over something cold and angular, while his hand does his sight disappears, replaced with a monochrome screen of nothing.

After touching it for a few more moments, he comes to the conclusion that something is embedded in his forehead, and that it might have something to do with his newfound sight.

'It must have gotten there during the fall, but that doesn't explain how it's connected to my sight…'

Alex thinks for a few moments more.

'If that was Ivona, I hope she's okay.'

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Alex then walks over to a tree before slumping down against it.

'Now what? If I was able to use magic, I could just conjure my way out of here, but since I can't, I guess I'm stuck?'

'Well, if I have to survive out here, the first step is water.'

Alex gets up, pats himself off, and follows the gurgles of the stream he heard.

After a good 30 minutes of walking and stumbling into things which prompted Alex to think 'I can see so why does everything creep up on me?', Alex finds a gently flowing stream of water.

Alex cups his hands and drinks his fill.

'Probably should have boiled that, but too late now.'

Alex then leans over to see his reflection staring back at him. His once short hair now long and where his eyes once were are now is simply skin and stone.

'stone?'

Alex sees dark stone runs up along Alex's face covering where his eyes had once been, and framing as if a crown jewel an even darker stone a bit above the intersection between his brows.

'…'

'I've been avoiding it, but that hallucination must have been real. Is this what he meant by fixing that person's mistake?'

'…'

Alex stands up, gray-black stone encircling his head like a crown, and a red jewel in the bottom part of his forehead. Shoulder length gray hair, becoming more of a tangled mess by the moment, sweeps this way and that as he stands, his birthday-suit exposed to the world.

'…'

He then sighs and starts walking towards the pass between the two mountains in the distance.

'There should be a road there, and then civilization…'

He continues walking, his bare feet becoming slightly sore, but not to the extent he would expect.

'I'm not sure how I'll be received there with this appearance, I know that people have been killed for less.'

He continues walking.

'But… I think I'll be fine, as long as I don't stay in any place for too long.'

His pace quickens as he sees the sun starting to set.

'I wonder what that thing wanted…'

He sighs once again.

'I should just admit it, what that magic beast wanted.'

It still amazed Alex that a beast as powerful as that, as all magic beasts are wont to be, would spend the time to talk to someone like him.

'Though it did mention me as something like lesser kin, right? I wonder what that means.'

While Alex ponders the implications night sets, yet he does not stop.

'He wanted me to kill something if I remember right, and wasn't he rhyming the whole time?'

Alex shivers from something other than the night's growing cold.

'He didn't give me good directions though, I mean, what am I supposed to kill?'

His neck tingles for a moment.

'The center of the continent? That'll take ages to get to, do you have any other targets then.'

His neck flares up, and he falls to the ground in pain, coughing blood once he reaches it.

'Center of the continent it is then… Damn, it seems like this contract is dangerous.'

Alex wipes the blood on his arm and then continues stumbling towards his destination.

'I hope they have a trading post near the pass, and clothes too.'

He continues to stumble, falling every once a while. His breathing becomes labored.

'Everything is becoming the same color, is this what night looks like to my new sight?'

He continues to stagger forward.

'I'm close now, I can almost see it.'

He then enters a clearing, and on the other side is a cabin and a couple shanties.

'I'm here.'

He then sees someone outside tending to what seems to be a garden.

"Hello ther-"

Alex then falls over from exhaustion.