Darkness was the first truth she knew.
Not silence. Not sleep.
Darkness.
It pressed against her eyes like something alive - thick, unending, absolute. There was no shape to it, no distance, no direction. Only absence.
And then pain arrived.
A sharp pull around her wrists dragged her awareness back into something physical.
Rope.
Tight.
Rough enough to burn her skin every time she moved even slightly.
Her breath hitched instinctively. Her body reacted before her mind could understand why.
She was bound.
Somewhere.
But she could not see where.
A sound drifted through the air - slow, rhythmic, deliberate.
Chanting.
Not random. Not chaotic.
Controlled.
Like a script being read aloud by people who had done this before... many times before.
Her heart began to beat faster.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Each sound felt too loud inside her chest, as if it didn't belong to her body alone.
She tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
Her throat was dry - not from thirst, but from something deeper. Like her voice had been forgotten.
Then the smell came.
Smoke.
Burning cloth.
And something else beneath it - metallic, sharp, like old iron soaked in heat.
Her stomach tightened violently.
Fear surged through her, sudden and unfamiliar.
But something was wrong.
The fear did not feel like it started in her.
It felt... inherited.
Borrowed.
Like her body had already learned how to be afraid long before she arrived inside it.
A flicker struck her mind.
Not a thought.
A fracture.
A girl running.
Bare feet against stone.
A voice calling a name she couldn't fully hear-
"Ja-"
The image shattered.
Adelaide gasped.
The name stayed behind, though she could not hold onto its shape.
Something inside her whispered again.
Not her voice.
Not her memory.
But something inside the body she was wearing.
Jasmine.
The name didn't feel like a discovery.
It felt like recognition.
Her breathing quickened.
She wasn't alone in this darkness.
The chanting grew louder.
Closer.
Surrounding her now.
Multiple voices. Male. Female. Older. Younger.
All speaking in a rhythm that didn't belong to conversation - but to ceremony.
A ritual.
Her wrists strained against the rope instinctively.
Pain shot up her arms.
She flinched.
Her body knew how to struggle.
That realization made her freeze.
Why did it know that?
Why did it feel like this body had already been here before?
The smoke thickened.
Her lungs tightened.
She coughed - sharp, involuntary.
The sound echoed strangely, like it was absorbed by the space around her instead of traveling through it.
Something about this place felt wrong.
Not physically wrong.
Structurally wrong.
Like the world itself had been constructed rather than born.
Then-
Footsteps.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Approaching her.
Her entire body stiffened.
Not fear alone - something deeper.
Recognition.
No.
Not recognition.
Expectation.
As if this moment had been arranged in advance.
A figure stopped in front of her.
She could not see them.
But she could feel them.
Presence.
Weight.
Authority.
A hand brushed near her face.
Not touching.
Just close enough for warmth to disturb the cold air around her skin.
A voice spoke.
Low.
Measured.
Almost rehearsed.
"Hold her steady."
The chanting intensified.
Faster now.
Harsher.
Like a signal had been given.
Her pulse spiked.
Something was about to happen.
She didn't know what.
But her body did.
And it was afraid.
Suddenly, the world shifted.
Not visually - she had no vision to lose.
But spatially.
As if reality itself tilted slightly out of alignment.
Her ears rang.
The chanting stuttered for half a second-
Then continued.
But something had broken.
A crack in the rhythm.
A break in the script.
Then-
A voice that did not belong to the ritual cut through everything.
Sharp.
Detached.
Impossible.
"CUT!"
Silence.
Instant.
Absolute.
The chanting stopped mid-breath.
Even the smoke seemed to pause in place, suspended like frozen ink in air.
Her body went still without her permission.
The rope still burned her wrists.
But everything else... stopped.
The silence lasted too long.
Too unnatural.
Like the world was waiting for instructions.
Then-
Sound returned.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
Like a switch had been flipped.
The chanting resumed.
Exactly where it left off.
As if nothing had happened.
But Adelaide knew something had.
Her breathing became uneven.
"What... was that?"
The thought did not belong to Jasmine.
It belonged to her.
Abigail.
The name anchored itself inside her mind now - stronger than before.
Real.
Present.
Alive.
Her heart pounded harder.
This wasn't just a ritual.
This wasn't just captivity.
Something about this world was being managed.
Observed.
Controlled.
Like a performance.
Her body trembled slightly.
The ropes creaked as she moved.
And for the first time since awakening...
She understood something terrifying.
This had happened before.
Not once.
Not twice.
More.
Many times.
The realization didn't arrive as a memory.
It arrived as a certainty her body had learned to expect.
A cycle.
A loop.
Somewhere far away - beyond the chanting, beyond the smoke, beyond the darkness-
Something was watching.
And somewhere deeper in reality itself...
The world had just said:
"CUT."
Voices were heard, familiar ones approached her or it was familiar to Jasmine.
She felt the binds loosing and her hands broke free but one thing remained the Same.
Darkness.
Darkness.
Darkness was still everywhere but her body was unperturbed by it as if that was its nature.
" Jasmine" the first voice she heard called out that name again
Darkness still remained the same as she touched her face but felt no blindfold over her eyes.
" Jasmine" said the voice again
Her mouth opened or could she say her body moved reflexively and uttered "Yes, Professor."
Professor.
Professor.
Professor....
"I said that."
Professor Halritch had pointy ears, a light tan which was peculiar for elves in this world.
Abigail....
No, Jasmine was surrounded by young adults all cladded in a black uniform with the Tortoise carrying the Lion embelm of the Academy of Remy.
Abigail felt fragments of Jasmine's memories invading her mind or....
Wait, this wasn't her body.
How does she explain if this was her mind or that of .. Jasmine?
Transmigration, otherworld are things considered—
Unreliable by Abigail.
The thought of experiencing this barraged into
Her train of thoughts.
Science never allowed Abigail to accept, ummm...
Unreliability.
She is or was a final year Mechanical Engineering student.
Had plans for a grand graduation.
Masters, PhD was part of the PLAN.
So why this situation.
Darkness still surrounded her.
She could hear properly or rather CLEARLY.
Her body or rather Jasmine's body— eyes didn't seem to be bothered by the darkness.
Abigail heard the sound of wheels.
Wheels.
But something was off about it.
The ground was shaking.
No panic, no screaming.
Wait. Her body wasn't reacting as well.
The wheels and ground shaking was as a result of the vehicle.
A wooden bus-like vehicle with a beast resembling a lizard the size of an elephant.
Abigail will later come to know that animal was a land dragon and it was a HARMLESS animal.
" Young masters, kindly board the TRAIN."
Train.
Train.
The vehicle is a train.
The other students climbed into the train.
Sounds.
Sounds had a pattern.
Abigail could her different sounds and her mind understood it.
More like Daredevil style.
She did watch Superheroes shows.
She followed the sounds and entered the TRAIN.
"Jasmine, you're finally a student of the ACADEMY." A female voice whispered in her ears.
Academy.
Student.....