I was just about to go shopping when the world dissolved around me. I looked around, slightly panicked and saw seven others, all having the same expression I did. We were in a huge hall, surrounded by savages in shining metal armor or robes.

“Welcome heros!” I couldn't help but groan, that was so cliche, in fact it was suspiciously so. The fancy old man looked insulted, but continued on moments later.

“You have been summoned to help us defeat the demon king.” “More like kidnapped.” I muttered.

One of the others seemed to share my opinion and spoke out too. “And how will we help you? We’ve never been in a fight before, and I for one have no intention of changing that. Can you send me back?”

“That is not possible, I'm sorry. I know you will fight though, or the demons will kill us all.” He said, casually predicting genocide. Well, if they decided we didn't fit the bill they would be able to easily kill all of us, so I decided to shut up and see what happened. Nothing much as it turned out. We were lead out of the room by some guards soon after, all others already strangely accepting of our fate, even the person that complained.

I really wondered what that was all about, I knew of no normal human that would really want to fight for their life.

“I'm not tired, do you have a library?” I asked the guys showing me around.

“We do, please follow us my lady.” One of them answered.

“I did so happily, still wondering why I was understanding them, they were not talking english at all. I wouldn't go anywhere they wanted until I managed to understand that mystery, surely it was convenient, way too convenient. NOBODY fucked with my mind! NOBODY!

We entered the library a few minutes later, where some old dude started showing me around. I asked him about magic, there had to be magic if they managed to teleport us so I wanted to learn about it.

He was all too happy to comply, it seemed he had noone to talk to. We chatted for a bit, until I managed to extract myself of the conversation and start reading the book ‘An introduction to magic’ - I felt like I was learning how to read the unknown letters perfectly while doing so - even more suspicious!

One had to be able to control some form of energy - mana - to use it. Mana was everywhere, no matter where you were. Apparently talented individuals were able to feel and influence it, at first their bodies would only let them use small amounts but those would increase with use.

I started the exercise mentioned in the book, closing my eyes and concentrating on feeling the energy around me.

That was most definitely not normal. I was easily able to feel mana, probably because I had never felt anything close to it, but I didn't feel mana only around me,.it filled me too. I tried exerting control over it, which I was able to do too. Hell, I could control all the energy around me with relative ease. That couldn't be healthy.

I returned to my book, jumping over everything that talked about sensing and controlling mana and searched for spellcasting. There. Casting spells could be done in several ways, forming runes to influence the environment, directly controlling mana to do what you wanted and more. Runes had the advantage that they were using the mana in the surroundings to do magic, and the only mana one needed to control was forming the rune.

Well, that was useless for me, but also very lucky - I could use mana to spare. I felt inwards again, and took control over a tiny amount of magic, willing it to create a small droplet of water in front of me. I felt the mana leave my control, and a drop of water landed on my pants a moment later. I grinned, that was awesome.

I had something more important to do though. I took control over all the mana I could and willed it to search myself for spells and tell me what they did without alerting the eventual caster.

I wasn't surprised, but a little disappointed to find my worries proven true. All but one spells were sinister in meaning, hell, they were even more sinister than I thought they’d be. Every single of the spells cast on me had a clause to worm itself into my psyche, permanently embedding itself, becoming a part of me.

I really wanted to burn down this fucking castle, they didn't even try to control me, they wanted to CHANGE my very being. I managed to control myself, the spells were still just that, I had to concentrate on the most important task.

Whoever cast these spells would be alerted if I simply dispelled them, I would have to be tricky. Well, these rune-spells were a lot like programming, and while I only knew the very basics they were enough. First I used my mana to contain the spells, trapping them in a fake mind. They continued to worm themselves into that mind, but mine was free.

Now that I’d taken care of the most immediate problem I could start more lasting countermeasures. I would like to attack the mind of those that did this to me, but someone like that was sure to have a defense against that. Yes, that was the next part, I wove a permanent spell, one feeding on the mana continuously flowing into me to create a copy of my mind around me, it wasn't aware, but was identical in any other regard. I added another feature, the spell would rely everything done to my mind to my real being, just so I knew what they wanted me to do.

I looked around for the friendly old man afterwards, and while I regretted what I had to do I would do everything to survive. I deleted his memory of ever meeting me, returning the book on magic back into the shelves. I had my guards - who had been waiting for me - lead me to my room afterwards.

“I hope I didn't stop you? That you don't have anywhere to be?” I asked them as we arrived in the luxurious room made for me.

“No my lady, we are to stand guard on your room until our replacement comes.” Good. Very good. I wiped every memory of my visit to the library from their minds. I went towards my room immediately after all.

I checked the room for spells too, and found some more, to no one's surprise. They would accelerate the spells in my mind whenever I slept, making the slow acting spells take permanent hold within ten hours.

Well, we would be learning magic in two days then. There were none that tracked me though, they only took effect when I was sleeping, and reported their time of use to the caster.

With a smile on my mind I went to sleep, ready for the bullshit I would have to see tomorrow - the spells already clued me into some of the things I was to expect.

When I

NO!

woke later I

NO!

Ves'ra forced herself awake, forcing the memories that appeared in her mind back into the depth of her being. She was Ves'ra, not some random human visiting a strange world without second hatchings and with mind control!

She’d think about that later, she had something more urgent to do, eating. She was positively ravenous, which was the only reason she managed to free herself of the foreign memories. She wouldn't be overwhelmed again - now that she knew what to expect she could defend against the being wanting to take over her mind.

Ves'ra inspected herself, noting that her evolution had already started to take effect, and that she shouldn't move much, it would be detrimental to her growth. She searched for her connection to Arvog, happy to find the bond intact. She contacted her familiar, asking how long she had been unconscious and informing him she was awake again. While he wasn't smart enough to answer in words he knew what she meant with days and sent her the image of the sun leaving the sky two times. And hunting, a lot of hunting.

She looked around her and was happy to find food, lots of food. She plunged into the food, happily gorging herself until she couldn't eat more.

After that she set to cure all the meat around her, it was more than she could eat before half got bad. She thanked her familiar for caring and protecting her. For now she would sleep again, she was still dead tired and would probably be until her body had changed to fit her new self.