[Leaves rustling. Birds cry in the distance]
The very first thing I notice is how clean the air is.
No city smoke, no recycled ventilation. The very nature around me feels alive. There's warmth, not just by temperature but by pulse, like the atmosphere itself is breathing.
As I open my eyes, I can feel my sensitive cornea begging me to close. Everything is too sharp. Some colours shouldn't exist in nature that are bleeding into one another; blues too deep, greens too bright and the faint shimmer of gold running through the veins of every leaf.
As I lie on the ground, I stare upward for a while, as if waiting for this dream to end, waiting to wake up to reality.
It doesn't.
As I press my skin against the cool green grass, I can feel my body… It's different. Lighter, but not weaker, balanced in a way that my old body never was.
I examine my hands. They were smaller, leaner, with my fingers tapered cleanly. All the callouses I had accumulated from years of lab work were gone, as if they had never happened. I can feel my skin. It's warm, pale with faint bronze undertones.
As I push myself upright, a shock dwindles through my spine, like every nerve had been rewired. Decades of aches and pains that lived in my shoulder are now gone. The dull weight in my chest, gone.
"I must still be dreaming", I whispered. My voice now sounds softer and younger.
I stumble towards a shallow pool nearby to catch a glimpse of my reflection.
A stranger looks back.
Black hair that's slightly wavy, hanging just over my eyes. Pale silver irises with a faint ring of cold blue that hangs around the edge, they turn almost luminous when the sun catches them. My jawline is sharper, my body is lean but built to grow; the frame of someone around fifteen or sixteen.
"If only I had facial features like this on my old body, maybe I wouldn't have died alone", I exhaled.
"Oh, that's right, I died".
"It looks like I'm about the same height as my old body, around five-nine, maybe, but a lot younger this time".
Looking at my reflection, I can no longer see the frail researcher I once used to be, but the beginning of something promising. Something capable.
"Kael Arin", I muttered, testing the name that rang in my mind before I awoke. It's strange. I've never known of this name, yet it feels familiar enough that my mouth remembers how to shape it.
[AETHER FLOW: STABLE]
[BIOLOGICAL VESSEL: OPTIMAL]
[ENVIRONMENT: UNMAPPED]
"Huh".
I force myself to blink, and as I do, the screen fades.
I start walking, not because I know my destination, but because it feels wrong not to. With every footstep, I stir the grass, sending ripples of light across the ground.
"Physics exists here, but… it's been rewritten". I mutter.
I pick up a stone by my feet and toss it as far as I can; the arc is smooth. Too smooth. There's no resistance, no friction, it's landing causes the ground to shiver, the light along the grass dimming for half a heartbeat before recovering.
Energy transfer through medium density. Forward and backward reactions are equal, but regulated. The environment itself is compensating for the kinetic distortion.
The whole concept seemed ridiculous, yet beautiful.
[Stomach growling]
Hours have passed, or maybe minutes, I haven't seemed to figure out how the sun moves yet in this world. It hangs higher, glowing a radiant white-gold, surrounded by a slight blue flame.
"I guess adrenaline can only suppress your hunger for so long… It's starting to gnaw at me. But I have no idea what is safe to eat".
The Codex hums faintly again.
[NUTRIENT ANALYSIS: NON-TOXIC]
[CALORIC VALUE: 47]
"Oh, that's helpful", I murmured after plucking what seemed to be a citrus fruit hanging from a vine tree. The taste was sharp and sweet.
"It tastes like an orange but doesn't look remotely close to one," I spoke in confusion.
"Does that mean this world may have foods similar to the ones from my Earth?".
"Wait, so I might actually be able to have coffee? Possibly even a katsu curry??"
As my mind was racing through the potential of having my favourite foods, a shadow drifted over the forest, and then the Codex flickered softly.
[THREAT LEVEL: MINIMAL]
I should've known, whatever this world is, survival isn't guaranteed. What I needed was information, and soon.
As I continued walking, I spotted smoke rising from beyond a ridge. Something that looked like civilisation.
I could see a valley of carved rivers, with wooden houses planted beside them. It was a village, but it hummed like circuitry.
I can see groups of children chasing each other between the cottages, strange small orbs of light spinning around their hands. Farmers lifting baskets that float half an inch above the ground. A woman sweeping her porch while humming a tune that vibrates softly through the air, causing the dust to drift away.
"I guess there really is magic everywhere, and it seems that for everyone but me, it's a casual occurrence. Ordinary".
The Codex stays silent, as it watches.
A young man spots me from the road, eyes narrowed as if they were inspecting. He wears a short brown tunic with a belt containing faint runes etched along the fabric.
"You a traveller?" he asks with caution.
"I… think so," I manage to respond.
As he studies me, his expression softens. "You look half-dead. Come on over to my house before my mother sees me letting someone freeze to death out here".
I couldn't help but internally laugh. 'Freeze to death', me? Ironic coming from a person wearing clothes that looked like they fit someone several years younger than the man in front of me.
I held myself back and accepted the young man's show of good faith.
We head down the valley together, towards a cluster of homes. I could smell the scent of freshly baked bread in the air, causing my stomach to growl audibly.
The young man heard this and grinned.
"My name's Edrin. You?".
"Kael", I answered. The word feels real this time.
As we approached Edrin's house, a small but warm stonewood building, a woman greeted us from inside. Her apron tied, her hair dark like mine but streaked with silver.
She freezes for a moment when she sees me.
Her sharp grey eyes widen for a fraction before she turns her expression into a smile.
"Well, Well, Well Edrin," she said softly, "It seems you have a talent for bringing lost ones to our house, you've brought one again, haven't you?".
He laughed. "He was wandering by the ridge".
She nods to me. "Well, might as well come on in, dear, you look like you've walked through half the gods' forest".
I do as I'm told. I can feel the warmth of the heat wrap around me. I take a seat and inhale the smell of herbs and stew brewing around me. She ladles soup into a bowl and slides it across the table.
"Eat. We'll speak after".
Each bite of the stew tastes like a memory, warm, earthy, real. Edrin chats about nothing I understand, the harvest festival, the academy, the capital and something about the storms from the northern mountains. As I listen, I pretend to understand.
The woman, his mother, watches quietly. Her eyes glance toward me when she thinks I'm not looking.
A while later, she asks me a question, "Kael, was it? Where are your parents?".
I stop my spoon halfway to my mouth, regretfully pausing my bite of the food. "I… don't remember".
I mean, it is true. Oddly enough, my old memories are starting to feel distant, fogged by whatever brought me here.
Edrin frowns. "Hit your head, Kael?".
"Maybe," I responded.
His mother sets her hand on my shoulder. "Then you'll stay here tonight. The rain will start again soon; no need to put yourself in unnecessary danger".
She was right. By the time night arrived, a storm surged, gentler but constant. We all sat by the fire. Edrin starts to doze off, and the woman studies me in silence.
"You remind me of someone," she says finally.
"Who?" I wasn't particularly interested, but I felt like I had to ask her.
I could see a slight upward curve in the corner of her lips.
"No one you would know. Old ghosts".
There was something in her tone, reverence mixed with fear.
I knew I should've left it alone, but curiosity got the better of me. "Is your family from this village?".
"For generations," she answered too quickly. Then softly: "Though some say our blood carried from the north once. From the line of those who could speak with the stars".
Her gaze met mine. Sharp and assessing. "But that's just an old story. You should get some sleep".
She leaves.
The door curtain sways once, and the house settles into late-night silence, with only the fire being heard.
Edrin, who I thought was asleep on the bench, shifts and cracks one eye open.
"You know, you ask some dangerous questions for someone who just fell out of the woods," he muttered, voice thick with drowsiness.
I turned toward him. "Sorry. I didn't mean to pry".
"Nah, it's ok." He pushes himself up, rubbing his face, trying to wake up. "Ma just doesn't like it when we talk about anything beyond the Basin. Says if it doesn't feed us, then no need to bother".
I want to ask, but I hesitate. This is the first time I've had access to someone who actually lives in this world, a real, native source of data. The Codex is excellent, but it can't tell me about the world's geopolitical layout. To understand this world, I need to understand this.
"Then… can you tell?" I asked. "About… here. The world. Beyond the Basin".
Edrin blinks at me as if I've asked the dumbest question in the world.
"You don't know?".
I rubbed the back of my head and made myself look like I had head trauma; that was the most straightforward explanation. " I can remember bits and pieces. Places and shapes. Not… names".
He whistled softly. "Guess the gods did throw you hard into the woods, huh?".
I didn't correct him. Felt like the best way to get the information I needed.
"So? How many lands are there?".
He leans back against the post beside his bench, firelight painting his face in orange. "Three continents. Everyone knows that much".
"Okay," I said as I sat a little straighter. "Start with all three".
"Sure, sure, Mr Scholar." He grins sleepily. "First, there's Elyndra - that's us. The very heart of Aether, centre of the Academy, and where the ten great families reside, or make noise, depending on who you ask. Then, to the far west, you've got Vandros—a big, harsh place, where you'll find more beastlands than cities. And way south, past the broken current of Aether, there's Myrrhalis. I don't know much about that place, but I have heard that people there follow the moon."
"The moon?" I asked.
"Yeah, they say the Aether there moves like the tides in a tsunami, although I wouldn't know. Never been. I'm a Basin boy." Edrin responded with a hint of disappointment.
Ok, so there are three major landmarks: a central magical continent, western wild lands and a southern lunar one. As Edrin explains all this to me, I immediately start mapping automatically. The Codex already has information on trade, leyline density and any possible magical divergence.
Wait. Why do I know what a 'magical divergence' is?
Forget it, I can think about it later.
"Which one is the strongest?" I ask.
"Elyndra." He snorts. "And Elyndra knows it." He nods towards the window, where rain trickles. "This is where Aether's the thickest. Where the old ley lines still sing. Where the Academy is, do you want to be someone in the world? You come here."
So this is the main continent. The one I reincarnated into, either by coincidence or on purpose, I'll have to find out.
"What about the others? Vandros and Myrrhalis?" I pressed.
"Vandros is full of clans, not like our Houses. They don't pass power through books and politics — they pass it through hunts. Lots of Aether beasts there. Lots of dead people, too." His tone is matter-of-fact, not dramatic. "Good warriors, though. Some ships come from there in the summer. They sell scaled leather and bone cores."
Bone cores and Aether beast materials. Sounds like there's an entire magi-biological economy in this world. Cool.
"Myrhallis?" I asked.
He lowers his voice, as if the word itself should be quiet. "Like I said, I don't know much, but they're strange. They don't use Aether like we do — all lines and circles and family blood. They dance with it. Sing with it. Ma says their mages can call the sea up from the bay without touching it. They don't send many students to the Academy. Maybe once every few years."
"Why is Elyndra the centre?" I asked.
Edrin gives me that look again, as if I just asked him something obvious. "Because it's where the ten sit."
"You mentioned that before, what do you mean by 'the ten'...?"
"The Ten Great Houses," he sighed. He speaks slower now, like he's telling a child a story they should already know. "Valenhardt the Flame of Dominion, the Crystal Archives of Veyrannis, the Storm's Breath of Caelvarin, Nythra and their Shadows Between the Stars, Solvane and their Frost Sovereigns, the Verdant Pact of House Thornevale, Renora and their Vein of Aether, the Iron Bloodline of House Drakovar, House Lysoria and their Songs of Resonance, and finally, the lightbearers of House Ardentis."
I see. Looks like power on the continent is centralised, particularly by bloodline. This was precisely what Edrin's mom was dancing around; she knew I'd ask, but just didn't want to be the one to say it.
I say, "So the Academy is theirs?"
"Mostly." He shrugs again, rough and casual. "They say the Academy is 'for all of Elyndra.' But the heirs go there. The ones with old blood. And a few like us, if we test high." He nods at me. "You look like you might."
"Tell me about Elyndra itself. Not just the Ten Great Houses." I asked.
That gets him talking. Maybe he's proud. Perhaps he's bored. Or it could just be that Basin boys like being listened to.
"All right," he says, shifting closer to the fire. "Elyndra's shaped like a hand, kind of. North is cold — mountains, old ruins, storms that carry Aether in the air. Mama thinks our family came from somewhere up there a long time ago. Capital's more central-east — Valoria. Big, bright, full of towers and floating rings. That's where the Academy is. The South is where the farms and river cities are. West is rougher — forests, old Aether scars, places where the ground still glows at night."
"Glows?"
"Yeah. From the wars." He says it like weather. "A long time ago — before the ten settled things — mages fought over leylines. Some places got burned through. You go there now, Aether still leaks. Makes things… wrong."
So it seems like there were 'Aetheric wars', probably territorial over resources. Guess you get political wars on territorial claims, no matter what world you're in.
"What about the north?" I ask. "You said storms carry Aether."
"Mm." He rubs his neck. "You get sky-fire there. Not lightning. Aether itself. You can trap it if you're brave. Or stupid. The big Houses sometimes send people up. For research, they say. For weapons, I think."
Weapons. Of course. You find a high-energy natural phenomenon, you weaponise it. Some patterns really don't change across worlds.
I keep my voice neutral. "So everyone just… accepts the Ten ruling?"
He huffs. "Everyone who wants to eat. Look—" He gestures with the spoon he hasn't realised he's still holding. "They're not all bad. Valenhardt's strict, but they patrol. Veyrannis keeps the barrier towers running. Caelvarin couriers keep the sky roads open, and the other seven all have important roles. If the Ten fell apart, beasts from the west and mercs from Varakar would be in our fields in a month."
Okay, looks like it's stability through logistics, rather than blood pride.
I hear myself ask, "And commoners? Basin families like yours?"
"We live." He says it without resentment, but there's weight. "We send the smart kids to be tested. If one of us gets into the Academy, the whole village celebrates, because that means one voice in Valoria that remembers we exist. That's how it works."
I study him. "You wanted to go?"
"Still do." He smirks. "I'm not dumb. I can cast. But I'm not heir-born. So unless I test high, I stay here and swing a hammer."
There's a flicker of something like envy there — not toward me, just toward anyone who gets out.
Right. I got some good information. I should start thinking about what I have to do. Step one is clearly to figure out how to use the Aether on this planet, considering I have a 'Codex' that analyses Aether, I should be able to use it. Speaking about the Codex, Step two, figure out what the hell the Codex is and what it can do, I'm gonna need to if I wanna survive in this world—finally, Step 3. Enter the academy. From the inside, I can obtain information on restricted knowledge about the ley lines, origin wars, and–
"Hey." Edrin leans forward, squinting at me. "You're making a face."
"What face?"
"The 'I just found a puzzle' face." He laughs. "You talk quietly, but your eyes are loud, you know that?"
I look back at the fire so he won't see me smile. "I just like… knowing how things fit."
"Well, you're in the right place for that," he says. "Elyndra's nothing but people trying to prove they understand Aether better than the next person. That's all the Houses are, really. People whose great-great-great-grandparents figured out something first."
That last line hits harder than it should. Because that's precisely what I am now: someone trying to figure it out first.
And then another thought slides in, cold and sharp: if power here is built on who understood Aether first… and I have a system that lets me understand faster…
Yeah. That's going to get me noticed.
"Edrin," I say quietly, "has anyone ever… I don't know… used more than one kind of Aether? Not just what they were born with?"
He looked at me like I had asked if anyone had ever flown to the sun. "Hmm, well, usually no. You get what you get. But it's not uncommon for people to eventually become dual-affinity, particularly if you're a high ranker. In fact, there have been magic users with three or four affinities recorded in the past. Actually, now that I think about it, the Head of House Veyrannis has three magic affinities."
He scoffs.
"But all attributes? Only the old legends speak tales of that."
Old legends, huh. Then tell me, what does that make me?
I look back at the fire.
The Codex flickers again.
[ENERGY REACTION DETECTED
[AETHER AFFINITY: UNCLASSIFIED]