I stepped into room which was just opposite of Gareth"s room, room was modest, having some kind of mattress on the floor with a grey-looking bedsheet on it. The furnishings were sparse to the point of being depressing—a small wooden chest in one corner, a single unlit candle on the floor, and nothing else.
My body was urgently asking to lay down on the bed, and I obliged without resistance, my muscles aching from a full day of farm work that this younger body wasn't quite used to despite years of doing it. But sleep was not coming as easily as I thought it would be. My mind was full of activity, full of questions and concerns that refused to quiet down no matter how exhausted my body felt.
There were a lot of things swirling around my mind, an absolute mess of thoughts and memories and fears. All of the things that had happened today kept replaying in an endless loop—the accident with the truck, my soul fusing with someone else's body, this new world with its impossible physics, two suns hanging in the sky like watchful eyes, and magic that was apparently real.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that truck hitting me, felt the impact that should have ended everything, and then the disorienting sensation of waking up in a body that wasn't mine.
There was absolutely every significant piece of information unavailable to me as of now, and that bothered me more than almost anything else about this situation.
I was in military intelligence in the last two years of my service, working in a capacity that I couldn't discuss even now out of habit. I knew with certainty that information was valuable for survival, that knowledge was the difference between living and dying in hostile territory. And right now, I was operating blind, stumbling through a world I didn't understand with rules I hadn't learned.
But first, let's find the answers to some very significant questions. Why? Who? What? Those were the fundamentals, the building blocks of any intelligence operation.
Why did I come here?
That was the big one, the question that kept circling back no matter how many times I tried to push it away.
Why and how did Everett die? The timing was too perfect, too convenient.
What caused his death at the exact moment my soul apparently needed a body to inhabit? The coincidence bothered me, suggested something more than random chance at work.
Why and how was there a truck on that road which never showed trucks? That violation of normal patterns, that break from established routine, screamed of manipulation or interference.
Although last but not least, what the hell is this Guide thingy that everyone kept mentioning but nobody would explain? So many questions and no definite answers, just fragments and hints and frustrating gaps in knowledge.
Let's not dwell on these questions which I don't have any answers for right now, I told myself, trying to be practical and focus on what I could control. But I intended to find out at least one answer tonight, assuming this revelation thing actually happened the way Alden seemed to think it would.
Due to exhaustion from working all day in the fields, my eyes closed automatically despite me not wanting to sleep right now.
I fought against it for a while, forcing my eyelids open again and again, but eventually the weight became too much. The darkness pulled me down, and I surrendered to it because fighting seemed pointless.
After some time—I don't know how long, could have been minutes or hours—my eyes snapped open due to a very warm feeling spreading around my whole body. Initially it was just warm, like early summer sun on bare skin, that pleasant heat that feels good after being cold. But it started going more intense, building and building until it felt like I was burning from the inside out. The warmth became heat, and heat became fire, and fire became agony that radiated through every nerve ending I possessed.
Due to my pain tolerance, honed during military days through training exercises that deliberately pushed us past what we thought we could endure, I was able to remain composed. I didn't scream, didn't thrash, just gritted my teeth and rode out the burning sensation with the stoic acceptance of someone who'd learned that panicking only made pain worse.
I could hear Gareth's painful whimpers through the wall, and that worried me more than my own discomfort. The kid wasn't trained for this, had no framework for dealing with this kind of suffering.
When I thought I was going to burn literally, when I was certain my skin would start blistering and peeling away, something appeared in front of my eyes. It materialized out of nowhere, hanging in my vision like text on a screen, glowing with a soft blue light that didn't seem to come from any physical source.
WELCOME TO THIS UNIVERSE OTHERWORLDER
NAME: EVERETT SKYFALL (CHASE SULLIVAN)
AGE: 15 (38)
TIER : 1
BLOODLINE: SKYFALL BLOODLINE (Dormant)
DESIGNATION: HONORED OTHERWORLDER (HIDDEN) (UNIQUE)
TITLE: ???
CLASS:
1. Runemaster
2. Authority of Sel (Hidden) (Unique)
REVELATION COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY
YOU MAY FOCUS TO SEE IN DETAILS
BECAUSE OF YOUR SPECIAL DESIGNATION YOU MAY ASK ONE QUESTION
YOU MAY VIEW STATUS ANY TIME BY SIMPLY SAYING 'GUIDE'
ASK YOUR QUESTION NOW AND WE WILL ANSWER FOR THIS ONE TIME
YOU HAVE ONLY 1 MINUTE TO DECIDE
0:59
0:58
I was shell-shocked, my mind reeling as I tried to process what I was seeing. What the hell is this, some kind of game system? I had played some role-playing games before, back when I had free time and fewer responsibilities, but this was nothing like those. Where was HP? Where was MP? Where were the stat points and skill trees and all the familiar mechanics?
This Guide system was entirely different from what I knew, it was structured in ways that didn't match any game I'd ever encountered. And the implications of that difference downed me because it meant I couldn't rely on that knowledge to navigate this situation.
0:30
Oh shit, I nearly forgot about the timer. The numbers were counting down relentlessly, each second ticking away while I lay here frozen with indecision.
I would have one question answered by this apparently all-knowing entity—perhaps truly all-knowing because it already knew about my situation, knew that I was Chase Sullivan inhibiting Everett Skyfall's body. This was my only one chance to get real information, and I was wasting it by overthinking.
0:10
Think, you moron, think quickly , I berated myself.
My mind raced, sorting through all the questions I wanted to ask, trying to prioritize.
What would be most useful? What would give me the best chance of survival?
What did I absolutely need to know right now?
Yes, I had it.
"Why was I brought here and why did Everett die?" I asked hurriedly, forcing the words out before the timer could reach zero.
0:05
0:05
It stopped. The countdown froze at five seconds, hanging there like the universe itself had paused to consider my question.
HONORED OTHERWORLDER YOU HAVE ASKED TWO QUESTIONS INSTEAD OF ONE BUT WE HAVE DECIDED TO ANSWER NONTHELESS BECAUSE BOTH ARE RELATED
I felt a surge of relief so intense it was almost dizzying. They were going to answer both parts, not make me choose between them or punish me for being imprecise with my wording.
EXACTLY 12 HOURS BEFORE THERE WAS AN ENERGY SPIKE THAT HAPPENED ON SEL, WHICH REPRESENTS GROWTH AND DECAY FROM WHICH EVERY MAGIC AND EVERY ABILITY ORIGINATED. THAT ENERGY SPIKE TRANSCENDED SPACE AND TIME AND SEEPED INTO YOUR UNIVERSE WHICH GENERATED A PHENOMENON THAT BROUGHT YOU HERE IN EVERETT SKYFALL'S BODY.
So it was random. Or at least, not specifically targeted at me. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the backlash of some cosmic event that reached across dimensions or realities or whatever separated Earth from Divitara. The truck that shouldn't have been there, the timing that seemed too perfect—it was all because of this energy spike, this magical radiation or whatever it was that had punched through the barriers between worlds.
AT THE SAME INSTANCE EVERETT SKYFALL DIED HERE BECAUSE OF HIS BLOODLINE, WHICH STARTED TO MANIFEST EARLY, THE SKYFALL BLOODLINE IS ONE OF THE MORE SIGNIFICANTLY POWERFUL BLOODLINES IN THIS WORLD. IT HAS VERY SPECIFIC CONDITIONS TO MANIFEST. EVERETT MOONFALL WAS UNSUITABLE TO HAVE THIS BLOODLINE FROM BIRTH SO HE DIED NOT KNOWING WHAT CAUSED IT.
That was darker than I'd expected, more tragic. This poor kid hadn't been killed by an accident or disease or violence. He'd been killed by his own potential, by the very thing that should have made him special.
His body couldn't handle the power that was trying to awaken inside him, and it had literally killed him from the inside. And because the manifestation happened early, also because whatever conditions were required had been met ahead of schedule, he'd died alone in the field without understanding what was happening to him.
And then I'd arrived, my soul displaced by that energy spike, and found a vacant body that was still warm, still functional. The timing was perfect because it had to be—if Everett had died hours earlier, the body would have been too damaged. If he'd died later, my soul might have had nowhere to go.
The coincidence wasn't a coincidence at all. And Why this kid has a surname ?, Because any info i have gathered from memories there were no one in this entire village which has a surname , not even Alden had it. He is hiding something crucial about Everett , now i am absolutely sure of it.
WE HAVE ANSWERED YOUR DESIRED QUESTION
HAVE A PLEASANT STAY HONOURED OTHERWORLDER
The glowing text faded from my vision, dissolving like smoke, and I was left alone in the darkness of my room with far more questions than I'd started with.
Yes, I knew why I was here and how Everett had died. But what was this Skyfall Bloodline(Dormant)? What did it mean by dormant ? What were these classes—Authority of Sel, Runemaster, and whatever that title was that the Guide had hidden behind question marks?
And what did "Honored Otherworlder" actually mean? Was it just a title, or did it come with expectations and obligations? The fact that it was marked as both "Hidden" and "Unique" suggested it was important, but important how? Important to whom?
Although, Guide had informed, that I can expand them for more details. Lets leave them for tomorrow, today was hell of a ride.
I lay there in the darkness, staring at the ceiling I could barely see, my mind churning through implications and possibilities. The burning sensation had faded, leaving behind only a faint warmth that pulsed in time with my heartbeat. I felt different somehow, like something fundamental had shifted in my body's architecture. It wasn't painful, but it was noticeable, a awareness of systems and powers that hadn't been there before.
Through the wall, I could hear Gareth moving around, the creaking of floorboards as he got out of bed. He was probably experiencing the same thing, trying to process whatever his own revelation had shown him.
I wondered what abilities he'd received, whether they were common or rare, whether they would be enough to give him the adventure and the food he dreamed about.
I should get up, I thought. I should check on him, make sure he was okay. That's what Everett would do, what a good friend would do. But I couldn't quite make myself move yet.
I was still processing, still trying to reconcile Chase Sullivan's memories and personality with Everett Skyfall's life and circumstances..
Eventually I would have to figure out who I was going to be in this world. Not Chase pretending to be Everett, and not Everett with Chase's memories riding along like a passenger. Something new, some synthesis of both that could function in this reality without going insane and from revealing himself as imposter to everyone.
But that was a problem for tomorrow. Right now, I just needed to breathe and accept that my life—both of my lives—had fundamentally changed in ways I was only beginning to understand.
I was an Honored Otherworlder, whatever the hell that meant, and I had a pleasant stay to look forward to according to an omniscient entity that spoke in glowing text. The absurdity of it all would have made me laugh if I wasn't so exhausted and overwhelmed.
Tomorrow I would talk to Alden, and i would try to get whatever information he'd promised about coming of age and abilities , past secrets about Everett and the wider world beyond Greenvale.
But tonight, I just closed my eyes and let the darkness take me again, hoping that sleep would be dreamless and expecting that morning would bring clarity instead of more confusion.