"Mersault? What's wrong?" Colter asked.

"Does everybody else see that sign?" I asked, fearing I had become delusional.

"Yeah," Nev replied while the rest of the group agreed.

"Okay, good," I replied.

"What does it mean?" Nev continued.

"They're letters. It stands for Korean Barbeque," I paused for a moment. "You can't read that?"

"It's not written in Standard, so no," Nev replied. "What language is it?"

"English," I replied, needing to take a beat.

Language had never been an issue for me here, but this sign raised a question I had never bothered to ask. How did I perfectly understand a foreign language, both written and spoken, everything looked and sounded like English to me, but obviously, this wasn't the case.

Answer; your Unique Feat: Information Broker automatically translates all incoming and outgoing written and verbal languages. Would you like to stop this feature?

"No, thank you," I replied internally.

"Well," Bert said expectantly. "What's a barbeque?"

"And what's a Korean?" Gemma continued.

I needed to figure out how to respond. I've avoided mentioning my former life out of fear of looking insane, but the lighting, tram, and even this food court mean there are others like me. Anything I hold back could mean death for anyone of my friends. I wasn't willing to let that happen.

"Guys, I have something to tell you," I started. "I think it's gonna take a while."

We found a table at a secluded corner of the food hall to have our discussion. Berthold and Neverel each grabbed a slice of pizza from Cigarros and were pleasantly surprised with the quality increase from the place that attempted it in Poilspont. Gemma grabbed a bowl of kung pow chicken from a Dragon Express. Leif got a sandwich made from plant-based meat, which seeing as some plants have sentience, makes it much less ethically friendly. Despite my protests, Colter decided to go for food court sushi and got a California roll. Too nervous to eat, I decided on a small side of fries that the rest of the group picked at.

"I'm sorry for hiding this for so long," I started as the group looked up from their food. "I'm not from here." "

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Yeah, I don't think any of us are from here, either," Berthold corrected.

"No, I mean, here," I said, gesturing toward everything.

The group looked around and then at each other in confusion.

"What I mean is, I came from a different world. A world without skills and feats. I mean, you could develop skills, but it's much different, like this..."

I grabbed a plastic fork off the table and disassembled it in my hands until it turned into tendrils of plastic whipping and undulating.

"This was new to me when I got here."

"Right..." Leif replied. "Forks..."

"No," Bert corrected. "He's saying he's a Taken."

"Ohh, that tracks," Gemma commented.

"I've always assumed, didn't think you were hiding it," Nev said.

"I'm sorry, Taken?" I asked.

"Let me guess," Berthold started. "You were living a normal life when you apparated buck naked out of nowhere."

"Pretty much nailed it," I replied.

"So, who summoned you? How did you escape?" Berthold continued.

"I, uh, woke up in a forest."

The group laughed in unison outside of Colter and me, who were not in on the joke.

"What's so funny about that?" I asked.

"I'm sorry," Nev replied while catching their breath. "It's just that normally Taken are summoned by Numina."

"Their influence normally gives those summoned uncommon traits," Bert continued. "So it's funny that some Numina decided to bring you into this world naked and alone without explanation."

"Yeah, hysterical," I replied. "I didn't know there were others like me, but this city is starting to make a lot more sense. The lighting, gondolas, and food, there are way too many similarities for it to be a coincidence."

"You think the Sindaco is a Taken?" Nev asked.

"Maybe. The better question might be if it's true, is that good or bad?"

Our group made shelter in a cliff face tucked away close to the Bastion. Using my abilities, it was simple to work to clear away a hole big enough for the group of us. Leif and Gemma gathered driftwood from the coast, which I then furnished into tables, chairs, and simple bedding. At the same time, Nev and Berthold gathered intelligence throughout the city. Colter seemed to be doing slightly better, but I would still catch him aimlessly wandering around our makeshift apartment.

"Hey Colt, do you still want to be a tailor?" I asked, hoping to break him out of his funk.

"I don't know," he replied with a pause. "Do you?"

He wasn't trying to be hurtful, but I had felt it all the same. I came to this world to have another shot at tailoring but found myself making clothes a tiny portion of my time. Ships, furniture, last-minute cave apartments, lately, I was making anything but clothing.

"I want to someday," I replied after thinking. "But there are some things I have to do first, like help your sister. Would you be able to do something for me?"

His eyes perked up as he nodded in response. I reached into my bag and pulled out a box given to me by Deanne a little more than a year ago.

"Now I'm letting you borrow this, understand?"

Colter grabbed the box and opened it tentatively, lighting up as his eyes locked onto the needles inside.

"Since I can't be a great tailor right now, I'll need someone else to do it for me. Do you want me to teach you what I know?"

Snot began to run down Colter's nose as his eyes welled up with tears.

"Please," Colter managed to spit out through tears.

I pulled a piece of simple cotton from my bag, split it evenly, and grabbed the needle, driving it through the fabric.

"Okay, Colter, watch closely. This one is called a blanket stitch."