A moment later, we emerged from the dark antechamber, and the priestess guided me into a large open room. Renard followed several steps behind. Natural light filtered through stained glass windows set high up in the walls, and candles rested in small sconces evenly spaced along the walls, casting a warm glow on everything.

The room was large, though not quite as large as the one with the goddess statue. There were paintings of various scenes on the walls, which I assumed were depictions of moments and stories important to the faith. There were several tables in this room, and each of them had a robed person sitting at them, quill in hand, scratching away at what looked like scrolls. I saw that Naya, who was dressed in blue and white robes today, was floating from table to table, checking in with the various writers, who were all dressed in the simple brown robes she wore when I first met her.

When my staff thumped against a chair, she looked up and smiled, cheerfully saying, "Bonan matenon, Alex!" before returning to her work.

The priestess walked ahead to a robed figure at the far side of the room. She beckoned for me to follow. It took me a while to get there, limping as I was between the narrow aisles created by the twenty-or-so desks in the room, but I got there eventually. The priestess patted me on the shoulder when I finally made it, offering a word of encouragement that I didn't understand but could totally feel. It felt patronizing, but also kind of nice.

I looked the man over. He was older, maybe around fifty, with long greying hair pulled back into a ponytail and a full beard. His skin was tanned, and he was rather handsome, looking shockingly similar to George Clooney. He didn't lift his head right away, opting instead to finish the section he was writing. I realized then that he wasn't writing but copying material from another document placed alongside the scroll. His handwriting was neat and efficient, and he wrote with practiced precision. I couldn't remember the last time I had handwritten much of anything.

He finished the sentence he was working on, then looked up at us. His eyes were brown, with dark rings under them, but his eyes sparkled with energy. A golden ring adorned his ring finger, and he had an amulet around his neck like the others, though his stone was black and circular.

"Bonan matenon, patrino," the man said in a strong baritone. His eyes scanned over the three of us, but there seemed to be little intent behind it. I thought that meant good morning.

"Bonan matenon, Arden. Ĉi tiu virulo estas unu el la postvivantoj. Mi volas, ke vi parolas kun li," the priestess said in her singsong accent.

"Certe, patrino." The man stood up and walked around the table, and the priestess gave him my hand. The man took it in his and shook it firmly. "Hello, friend. I'm Arden, a priest here at the temple. I'm pleased to meet you."

I didn't realize what I heard at first, but slowly the gears clicked in place. "Wait, you speak English?" It had been a while since I heard someone speak anything I could understand.

"I do, though not as often as I'd like anymore. It's amazing how fast our native language fades when we don't use it." He smiled and shook his head. "I'm happy to have the opportunity to practice."

"Native? What do you mean?" A couple of the brown-robed people in the room lifted their heads and glared at us. I realized the room had been quiet before we started talking.

"I'll explain in a moment. First, let's get out of here and stop disturbing the others. Come, my chambers are in the south wing. We can talk there." He turned to the priestess, bowed respectfully, and said, "Dankon, patrino. En la lumo." He turned and walked to another door set into the far way, opened it, and beckoned to me. I limped my way forward until I entered the doorway, which led to a long hallway like the one my room was in. We walked several doors to the right, then entered a room on the left wall.

The room was slightly larger than mine, with a large bookshelf on one side, a desk next to it under a small window, and a small bed along the opposite wall. There was a small table with two chairs set against the wall that framed the hallway.

"Sit," he pulled out one of the chairs. "Would you like anything to eat? Fruit? Nuts?"

"No thank you. I'm not hungry." I was, but it didn't feel appropriate to take the man's food.

Arden smiled at me and brought the bowls of fruit and nuts to the table anyways. "So, I'm sure you have a million questions." He popped a round purple fruit in his mouth.

I sat down and mindlessly pulled a few of the fruit off the vine. They were kind of like grapes, but less sweet. "Yeah, I do, but I don't really know where to begin." I thought for a while, and he was nice enough to wait while I did. "So, is this heaven or what? Because I got it in my head that that's where I ended up."

Arden laughed, then replied, "no, we are not currently in heaven. This world is generally called Reial by its inhabitants, though the different races sometimes use different names."

"This world? Like, we aren't on Earth anymore?" I wasn't terribly surprised considering all the weirdness I'd experienced over the past few days, but it was still a bit disconcerting.

"Yeah, as far as anyone is aware, the world we are on is not Earth." He paused and popped a large grape-thing into his mouth, clearly enjoying the flavor. "There are some things here that are the same. Some animals seem to be the same, or similar, like the goats that I'm sure you've seen outside your window. There are many plants that are the same, and the sky is nearly the same color blue. Theory is that it isn't just humans and the like that get called here." He paused to eat another grape, then continued.

"However, there are many, many differences. The stars are different, and there isn't a sun for starters."

"Wait, what?" I said, choking on a nut that looked a lot like a brazil nut."

"Yeah. You probably haven't seen it yet, but there's a tower in the center of the kingdom. On top of it is this huge glowing orb that alternates being glowing brightly during the day and going out at night. I'm sure you'll see it soon. It's in the center of the continent."

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

"Wild."

"There're many races other than humans here too, of which I heard you've noticed. Naya was embarassed when you called out her ears. She's normally good about keeping them covered, but she often treats you at night and sometimes forgets."

I blushed at the memory. "Yeah, about that. What did I do wrong?"

Arden laughed, then answered simply, "the elven empire of Osreva is to the far southwest. Our kingdom, Istaera, has been in a... cold war, I guess you can call it, with them for a few hundred years. There is a lot of prejudice on both sides, though humans aren't permitted in Osreva except under special circumstances. Many elves have died or been enslaved along the frontier, and even the free elves like Naya are subjected to harassment."

"I had no idea." That sounded a little too much like home. I felt bad for Naya.

"You wouldn't know. It's simply part of life here." He paused and ate a few more grapes, giving me time to process things.

"What started it?"

"Well, there are at least two stories. One is that Osreva attacked Istaera when the Osrevan Empress Elysara eloped with King Hendry in 5E 54 under the pretense of a diplomatic gathering. The other is that Hendry captured the Empress during said meeting and forced her to sire his children. Emperor Elauthin charged his people with recovering the Empress at any cost, then died of unknown causes. Today, the heirs to both Osreva and Istaera sit in our capital, but the heirs haven't been recognized by Osreva, so their throne is still empty."

"Damn, that's a lot." History was always one of my favorite things. It was my major before kicking that guy's ass for touching my girlfriend. If I really was in a new place, there'd be a lot more history to learn.

"What else would you like to know?"

"Okay, so I'm on another planet—"

"World. It is unclear if Reial is a planet, but the evidence points to it being flat."

"So I'm on a different world. With different physics. And a different language."

"And monsters."

"And monsters. Wait, what?"

"Yep, monsters. They form from ambient, stagnant mana. It's a major job in this world to keep that from happening. Mostly because the sun will go out if we don't."

"Stop it." What the shit.

"Yep. The Sun Orb, and the other eight smaller towers that form a ring along Land's Edge, or the Reach as some people call it, relies on the flow of mana to function. There's a big wall that acts a boundary between the known world and the Wilds. The whole system is fueled by the world's mana. If it gets choked up, the orb goes out. It happened once. Wasn't good, apparently, but that was early in the fourth era, when some being calling himself the 'Dark Lord' formed. Not many people know about it though."

A glimmer of a thought floated into my head. "So is that what the eight-pointed star represents?"

"Yep! The goddess descended in the first age and tasked the elves to build the towers to bring light to the world. In doing so, she gave the people here hope, or so the story goes."

"Don't you believe it?"

He paused for a second before popping a few nuts into his mouth. He chewed slowly, obviously thinking. "I don't really know if it matters. What is, is, and I'm here to record it."

"Aren't you a priest?"

"Well, sure, but faith doesn't have much impact on what I do. Our magic works with or without faith, and faith has no bearing on my ability to copy old texts. I suppose I'd like to believe, at least because that means I'm here for some reason and not by chance. Thinking that way makes losing my wife and kids a little easier to bear."

That took me aback. That sounded horrible. "What about me being here? Could that be chance?"

"I have no idea. Humans aren't native to this world. Well, basically no one is originally from here, though most are natives at this point. Every year, people from Earth arrive here. Usually, it's after accidents or near-death experiences, at least for us humans. The other races seem to have different experiences with being called. If people aren't found and helped, most will die again, but some survive, like you and me. That's part of what the church does. We receive visions when people are called, and we're tasked with finding them."

I paused for a while, trying to arrange my thoughts. "So, what do we do here? What's the point?"

He laughed, then simply said, "survive. Just like back home. I assume you were American by your accent?"

"Yeah. Florida. You?"

"Michigan."

Holy hell.

"You know how back in America there was the idea that you could be or do anything if you tried hard enough?"

"Yeah, that myth of meritocracy bullshit. Totally."

"Exactly. It was bullshit there, but here it's kind of true." He fingered the amulet around his neck.

"Explain."

"Well, you can become much stronger here than back home. More skilled. More knowledgeable. Whatever you might want, there are ways to pursue your interests. That isn't to say there isn't the same bullshit, and in some ways the hierarchy is more strict here since people are actually stronger than others. But the hierarchy is based on things other than only wealth, which is a plus. Stuff gets shaken up more."

"So what, can we become superheroes here or something?"

He shook his head. "Yes and no. It's kind of like this game I played before I went to the army. You fight monsters, do stuff that relates to your classes, and complete quests, and you get stronger. But it's not just fighting. In fact, most people don't really focus on adventuring. Some people master trade skills, while others focus on status and wealth. It varies. You just have to do something to impress the system, and it decides what you'd be best at by giving you a class. That's the hardest part. And since we aren't from here, we aren't born with racial or heritage classes, so we get the distinct pleasure of starting at zero."

"What about you?" I was genuinely curious. This was crazy.

"The church found me, just like they found you three months ago—broken and face down at the side of a road, vultures eying me like a holiday meal. Mother Varga brought me back here, healed me up, and gave the choice of where I'd go next. I felt like I owed her, so I stuck around. Learned the language through interacting with them and copying their books and writing, then fell in love with the world and its history. I felt like I finally found my purpose, and I still feel that way today, even if I still think about my family a lot." He smiled as he spoke. "I read so much I got the scholar class."

"That's awesome, man. I'm happy for you. Except for your family, that's terrible." I stumbled over my words. How the hell do you navigate this kind of information? Then his words his me... "Three months?! No wonder I look like shit!"

"Yeah. Healing superficial and fresh injuries is relatively easy, but you'd been laying in the road for at least three days before Naya found you and got you back here. You were nearly dead." His perpetual smile faded a bit. "If it weren't for Renard and Varga's strength and Naya's diligence, you'd be dead twice."

"Holy shit." I thought about what he said, then asked, "you said Naya was at my bedside most nights. Why?"

He frowned. "She lost her family a few years ago in a monster attack. How you looked when she found you reminded her of when she found her brother. She couldn't save him, but she was able to save you. If it weren't for her, I don't think we'd be talking right now."

Shit, poor girl. "What about you? How were you when they found you?"

"Back then, Varga was a junior priestess like Naya is now. She found me in a ditch in Llyn, the closest town to our temple. She carried me here on her back and personally healed me. I wasn't so bad off as you, but I wasn't in great shape either. Took me a few months to recover."

I let all of it sink in for a moment. This was a lot. A question popped into my head, and I couldn't help but ask, "what happened to you? Back home, I mean."

His mouth twisted, and a distant look cross his eyes. "A bridge collapsed. You?"

"I got struck by lightning. Twice."

He laughed. "That can't be all. I mean, not that that isn't enough, but you were torn up when Naya found you."

We continued talking and laughing, steering to lighter topics, like how a tree exploded with me next to it and if America was still in the Gulf War.