It’s a hallway. It’s made from the same type of stone as the cell I was in and doors line both sides, the same as the one I just came through. Yep. We were all sorted just like I thought.

Bluey is right behind me, marching me along the corridor to a turn at the end, probably the easiest place for him to grab me if I try anything, but I don’t bother. This may very well be the last scrap of dignity I am afforded in this life so there is no point in wasting it.

We turn the corner and see some stairs. I don’t get the chance to pause and take it in because Bluey is not stopping behind me, so I keep moving and begin to climb.

I start counting the steps as I go. By the time I count up to 138 we're back on flat ground again, walking down a hallway, except there’s no doors lining the sides this time. Only a big stone door at the end that gets closer with every step. It takes no time at all before I’m in front of it. I turn to Bluey to see what he wants me to…

BLACK

***************************************************************************************************************

I wake up for the second time lying down on a hard slab of stone, feeling groggy, and having no idea where I am. I blink through my eyes to see a stone ceiling again except this one is further away and I can actually see it properly. Looks like they got the lighting sorted out for this room. I go to rub the sleep out my eyes, but it's not working.

I pause and look down.

I’m strapped to a stone slab by leather belts all the way from my feet up to the top of my chest.

And I’m completely naked.

Shit.

It looks like it was an alien abduction after all. I beginning to freak out and fight against my bindings, my head flailing about when I catch him in the corner of my eye. The Wizard.

He looks the same as before and he’s sitting to the left of me. He looks down at me with an expression on his face like everything is business as usual. But I forget to breathe. My mouth falls open and goosebumps rise as I begin to break out into a cold sweat.

“Nod your head if you understand what I’m saying”

Huh?

Again, my body just does what it wants and nods at the Wizard.

“Good. I was fairly certain I analysed your language accurately enough when I was examining all of you, even though none of my mind spells could extract any information from any of you.”

And we’re back to ‘Transported to a Fantasy World’

“Now you present a conundrum to me, but first let me explain to you what it is and how you will resolve it for me. Now as to why you are here. Part of my duties and research is to conduct probes and explorations of planes outside of this one through spacial captures to try and find useful resources to bring back here and cultivate for our benefit. You earthlings were simply the latest catch I caught in my net, so to speak.”

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Looks like my fish/fishermen analogy was spot on.

“But what is so interesting about you earthlings, is that you all have absolutely no, as you might describe it, mana. None whatsoever. Though the entire concept of mana is entirely fictional where you come from from what I understand. Here, it is the foundation of everything. Every person, animal, plant, stone, drop of water and speck of sand has its own mana. That’s what is so astonishing about you all. Your existence disproves one of the most absolute facts of life. That mana and all things are all inextricably connected, is actually, all just an assumption.”

He takes a moment to have a self satisfied chuckle and before I start to organise things in my head he continues.

“It took me entirely by surprise when I started to examine you all. I checked every aspect of you all. Every man and woman from child to elder. I looked at your blood, your bones, your organs, your brains…”

As he goes on I can feel chills occupy my body.

Aliens?

Fantasy world?

Who gives a fuck?

All that matters is that this sick fuck has been cutting us all up and experimenting on us, trying to figure us out. He’s talking about it like its’ so matter of fact. Even as he went through how he cut out the eyes of a little girl, dissecting them to try and see if there was any mana in the jelly of her eyes, no real expression came over his face.

I’m paralysed. All I can do is listen as my terror climbs higher and higher.

“...and so I came to the world shaking conclusion that the all encompassing mana permeation of matter is not a physical law of the universe but only the case here in this world. Truly astounding. Truly. But I digress. What all of these new findings means for me is that this new understanding has enlightened me. I’m almost completely certain I now know how to become a “Shevani”. Though I am a “Soofa”, I am not of the main house. Merely a ‘chosen’ adopted into the Clan. With this knowledge I can now establish my own line. Truly, what you earthlings have given me is priceless.”

During his little speech he had ended up staring out into space, his eyes lighting up with what I could only deem as obsession. But with his grand conclusion finished he turned back to me as the gleam faded away from his eyes.

“This is where the conundrum concerning you comes in little earthling. You see I have extracted all the information needed for my research, however you are still alive. And though I am not hesitant about disposing of you with the rest of your people, I am not one to discount fate and what it may lead to if I callously kill the last of those I owe so much gratitude to.”

Last of… I’m the last one left! I’m the only one left! I’m the only one who survived this fucking madness! How is that even possible!?

“So that is why I am unwilling to kill you. But what am I to do with you otherwise? Mulling it over I’ve arrived at two options which I will give you the responsibility of choosing. That seems a fair enough reward for what your people have afforded me. One, you will become my slave and you will work under me and my subordinates, doing whatever they assign you to do for me for as long as you may live. All the while, you will be safe and cared for as long as you are in my service. Two, I clothe you, give you food, money and drop you outside of this tower to make whatever of your life you can here in this world. Now choose.”

Gratitude?

Choose?

Bullshit!

You kill all those people and then for whatever supposed gratitude you have for how they unwillingly gave their lives, you ask me to decide to either be a slave or be abandoned, alone, on an alien world. All this while you have me bound naked to a stone slab as you look down on me like what you said is the epitome of reasonableness.

It takes me only a moment to realise that being this man’s slave is the worst fucking option. What if he made a mistake with his research? Or made a new finding? Then he’s going to need to start experimenting again isn’t he?

NO. Fuck slavery.

I’m getting out of here. Anywhere else has to be better than here.

My decision final, I swallow my spit and through the all powerful terror I’m still gripped by and I manage to cobble together a response.

“Leave… let me leave” I stammer.

The wizard nods, my answer completely irrelevant to him, then turns away from me and says something in some language that I can’t make heads or tails of before he turns back to me with his dispassionate gaze.

“Your new clothes and other necessities are on their way. So let me say farewell to you. Oh. And let me be the first to say…”

He leans down and I examine his silver hair, his grey eyes, his black and emerald green robes and the hourglass pendant still around his neck when suddenly, I see some mirth creep into his face.

“...welcome to Calzyn”.