Hours later, Eli was sitting by the fire. He only had a blanket lightly wrapped around him as he wasn’t that cold, especially with the burning fire. He kept feeding it logs to keep it going, more for the comfort than the heat. The night had been crazy, and he finally had some time to think.

I killed people. I didn’t think I’d have to do that again.

His memories trailed back to his time in the war after the Fall when the world tried to pick up the scattered pieces of humanity. He hadn’t been anything special – just another sixteen-year-old drafted to help prop up their little piece of civilization as the forces of the desperate and angry rampaged through their cities. He’d fired his carbine many times at massing forces in that first year, but it wasn’t like Eli saw his individual bullets strike anyone. The first time he was sure he’d killed someone was from up close when he experienced just how fragile a body was when his knife slid so easily into that asshole’s throat. He still remembered how hot the blood had felt as it ran down the blade onto his wrist and arm, watching the bright blue eyes change from anger and fear to nothing with stillness in the eyes and face that no movie could duplicate. That moment of death replayed again in his mind’s eye.

Blinking away the bloody images, he looked at his hand, but it didn’t look any different to him. He wasn’t sure, but he thought his body had changed somehow since waking up in Lugh’s place. He’d seen the gruesome results of what happened when he threw a rock at someone and connected – the cultist’s head was pulverized, just gone, as if a cannon had hit him.

Daralis stirred in the little nest she’d made out of the extra blankets he’d provided, with even her head buried under the layers. A sizable pile of clothing lay near her, where he had left the three best dresses on top. They looked clean, at least. He’d also left a small line of shoes near the clothes for her to choose from when she awoke.

She had eaten a bit more after Eli’s flamethrower incident. Well, once she’d calmed down after he explained just how little he understood about what he’d done. Still, he’d noticed her eyes following him for the rest of the night.

She seemed to like the green block from earlier, so Eli had pulled another one out for them to share. He’d only taken a small piece for himself since he’d seen how she’d snagged even the crumbs from the last one. He counted his blessings when he took a bite; the grass and green tea flavor had been pretty gross.

The good news was that his status had changed to show a new buff for increased health regeneration. Adding that bit of detail to the other new buff he’d seen for increased mana regeneration, he had a pretty good idea that the rations were color-coded for different status effects. He could only hope that the other colors tasted better.

While playing around with his status, he’d also had Guide replace the question marks with a more appropriate name. After a bit of thought, he’d gone with “Flamethrower.” While the flames hadn’t been nearly as large as an actual flamethrower, it still felt somehow appropriate. Plus, he could always adjust it later if he changed his mind.

While she’d finished her meal, Eli had quietly put together a lean-to he’d pulled from his DS. They probably didn’t need anything for cover with the broad canopy overhead. Still, he felt like there was a sense of comfort and safety that a structure brought and thought Daralis could really use something. Heck, he appreciated it.

He’d started by looking for a tent, but instead, out popped another plastic tarp similar to the one they were sitting on. It was rolled tight, some wooden poles sticking out of both ends. Unrolling it, he’d found some coiled rope beside the poles. Seeing metal loops at the corners of the plastic material, he’d figured out a way to make it stand up to the slight evening breeze. It wasn’t the best thing he’d ever made, but he thought it was pretty decent since he did it mainly in the dark.

Daralis had rolled up in her blankets by the time he was finished. He’d offered to take the first watch since he had been pretty wired from the blue ration earlier. Plus, he’d wanted to take care of the bodies and search for anything useful. He’d made sure that she knew where he’d be, in case she woke up looking for him, but left her to get what rest she could after such a crazy day.

He had found the cultist’s campsite on the other side of the shitty stone-stabby-stabby place and explored the crazy folks’ camp. There were a few large square tents, each big enough to sleep at least a half dozen people. Inside were various bags packed with supplies like clothing, food, and other sundry items useful for a group out in the wilderness. Going through the clothing, he wasn’t sure what was for men or women. The fashions were different, with thick and heavy flowing garments. The pants were mostly made from a thinner cotton-like material. There were plenty of shirts, or maybe they were called blouses, with tiny pieces of jewelry and metal sewn in various places. He’d thrown most of the stuff back into the bags and then stored away a bunch of assorted clothing in a single pile before turning to his more grisly tasks.

Out among the giant stones, he found the bodies as still as he’d left them. The dampness in the air might have helped with the smell, but it was rank enough to make him breathe through his mouth while trying not to slip in the drying pools of nastiness. He’d gagged a few times when he’d first started, but the human body could get used to all sorts of disgusting odors, and he’d somehow managed to keep his dinner down.

He’d been looking for anything useful that they’d been carrying, and he had taken the shoes off them, not worrying whether they were male or female. The shoes were primarily sandals anyway, with only a few pairs of boots between the dozen corpses. It was a bit gross, maybe, but Daralis needed shoes if they were going to hoof it. He didn’t like looting corpses, but sometimes one must do what’s necessary, regardless of preference. That was life.

It was strange, but all of the bodies were smaller than him. When first starting, he’d had a panicked moment, thinking some might be kids. But after he’d gone through all of them, he’d figured that these people might just be naturally smaller in stature. It wasn’t like he was a giant back on Earth at just under 190 centimeters tall, but none of the bodies had come close to his size.

He did find coins and the stuff one might expect in random people’s pockets. He wasn’t sure what their value was, but they looked like copper, silver, and gold. He hadn’t bothered to examine them too closely in the dark but instead stuffed them into his DS for later. At least both of them had acquired some belt knives for protection, though he hadn’t found a belt big enough to fit his waist. He’d decided to keep his knife stored away within his handy bracelet.

Everything eventually got tossed into his storage to look at later when there was time and better light to see. He’d dumped the bodies unceremoniously in the pit, using the nearby handy shovel to push the dirt in. He’d been puzzled by the size of the hole. It was far too large for just Daralis, making him wonder if there was more to the ceremony. A few meters away from the fresh gravesite, another bit of mounded earth had sent chills up and down his spine. With the fancy bindings that had been driven into the center stone and how well their camp was set up, he had figured that this wasn’t their first time sacrificing someone.

It had taken him a couple of hours to search the camp, deal with the bodies, and all the other gruesome chores he’d never imagined having to do again. When he’d gotten back to their campsite, Eli had been happy to find that Daralis had managed to sleep through the whole thing and left the clothes and shoes for her to look through when she woke up.

With the gruesome yet necessary chores completed, his thoughts moved on to the next task. “Guide? Can we set up communication where I don’t have to verbalize it?”

User subvocalization option available but not recommended

Suggested Solution: Deeper Learning - Allow Guide access to User’s surface thoughts for additional interaction refinement

Enable Deeper Learning option?

No. That sounds like a can of ‘hell no’ if I ever heard it.

He thought about the prompt and how Guide worded that response, which triggered alarm bells since he knew how Sahara worked in some of the company’s verticals. They were the big dogs in this tech space and weren’t afraid to throw their weight around and could also be ruthless in getting their products to market.

I’m also a Beta tester who volunteered because I just HAD to earn those brownie points with the COO. I’m such a dumbass.

“Guide, set up a push-to-talk toggle in my HUD. Place it just above the chatbox. Have it set to enable when I look at the toggle and double-click it. Only then can you process my subvocalization. At other times when that is not activated, specifically by me, you will not process or otherwise try to discover what I am saying or thinking. Confirm.”

Guide will not process any communication by User unless User has enabled push-to-talk toggle

Toggle will be placed above the communication panel, as per User’s direction

Guide will not have access to User’s surface thoughts through Deeper Learning

“Confirmed Guide.”

Please enter the authorization code for command override

“The fuck? Command override? I’m not an admin. Use my authorization as the primary User.”

User authorization is not recognized for override authority

Oh shit. Not good. Like super, not good.

The programmers had assured him that the primary user, who’d foolishly agreed to have the tech installed in their head, had the final say. Eli’s override authority was supposed to be hardwired within the Beta parameters. There should be no way around the restrictions. Could this mean that he was no longer working within the parameters?

He remembered the hack earlier when Lugh waved his green hand at him. Receiving an external file without his permission should have been impossible too. Guide said it received and processed something, and Lugh mentioned a language gift. That was one good thing, but he had to wonder about the other three files. He wasn’t sure how much of the Beta training he could trust.

Does User wish to enable subvocalization?

“No, Guide. Not at this time.”

He had to think about this more since he really didn’t want to mess around with the thing in his head until he got somewhere safe and secure first.

Note to self: Don’t talk out loud unless I want Guide to listen to it. Holy crap, that’s scary.

Eli leaned back against one of the nearby large roots, sighing a little at the familiar feeling. Like many other times in his life, his body wasn’t that tired, but he was mentally exhausted and drained. A small part of him wanted to work on these mysteries, dig deeper, and figure more stuff out, but he shoved that nagging voice away. He was so done, at least for a little bit.

The shifting nest drew his eyes, and he felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

At least I did something good.

He had a potential malicious pill-sized helper in his head. He’d killed and buried a bunch of crazy people and was helping a woman who had been through a lot herself. Oh, and magic seemed to exist here since he now had a glowing rock inside his body.

***

Abi’s Kpop was playing off the sound system as she danced around the living room, mouthing the lyrics as she moved. Eli sat on the couch, fiddling with the controls for his Melody Max as it played a musical beat in his ears. He couldn’t really make music yet, at least nothing too complicated, but he liked to hear the percussion.

Also, it beats Abi’s stuff.

Wait, no. No. Not now. This already happened. Please no. This isn’t real. He tried to pull back, but he was trapped in it again a second later. He was only a passenger and unwilling participant, even as his body and voice carried on following a script that he didn’t understand.

Muffled voices. His eyes looked up to find his mom in the room, standing behind the couch, her eyes on him but with the hint of a smile. Without his direction, his hands took out one of his earbuds. “Huh?” he heard his voice say.

“You two,” shaking her head before frowning at Eli’s sister as she hopped around the space. “Abi, turn down the music. Eli, don’t have that volume so high. You’re going to hurt your ears. Do I need to limit the sound settings again?”

No, mom wasn’t home. She wasn’t here. It was dad who was here. I have to wake up. Guide! Wake me up. Please wake up.

Abi turned around, stopping her dancing with a smile. She played with her phone for a moment, and the music happily got quieter. “No problem, mom!”

Abi wouldn’t act like that. This isn’t real. This isn’t happening. No!

A loud rumble started in the distance. Lights flashed outside as if a fireworks display had just kicked off in their yard. He looked up out of their large living room window. Somehow, he could see into the distance, as if from a mountaintop. The whole world was shaking, glass was breaking, and there was so much screaming. Sirens blared into the descending night before absolute darkness swallowed him.

***

Eli opened his eyes, the residual fear feeding his thumping heartbeat. Recognizing the campsite from the night before with a handful of trees in the distance, he focused on controlling his breathing to slow his racing heart. There was a strange comfort in knowing it wasn’t his first nightmare – nor even his hundredth. He lay there for a bit, concentrating on breathing as he pushed the dream away.

Talay.

It was getting lighter out, and dawn was approaching. Feeling eyes on him, he glanced over to where Daralis sat nearby in her little nest with two blankets wrapped around her.

“How do you do that?” she asked.

Confused, he asked, “Do what? Sleep? You seem pretty good at it too.” He made another attempt at a charming smile, hoping to dispel some of the fear lingering in her eyes.

“It’s barely above freezing here,” she added. “I’m surprised it didn’t snow, yet you sleep with a single blanket against a tree. A tree that can’t be that warm. So how do you do it? Is this another gift? Do you have more than two?”

“Is it strange to have more than two?”

“I noticed you didn’t answer my question,” she replied quickly and gave him a look that he recognized as if she had caught him out.

He smiled with a nod, tacitly acknowledging her point. “I don’t know what to tell you, Daralis. I just don’t feel temperatures like I did a couple of days ago. It’s the same with the fire. It’s warm but not as warm as I’d expect. It might be bad, now that I think of it. I know that people that can’t feel can accidentally hurt themselves. I’ll have to keep an eye on it, but I’m not sure there’s much more I can tell you. Oh, and to answer your question: As far as I know, it’s not an ability. How’s that?”

“What are your plans for me?” Daralis shifted and oriented her body towards him. Even under the blankets, he guessed she was poised to move. He couldn’t blame her. Given her recent history, a healthy fight-or-flight instinct was a good thing.

“I don’t have any plans for you,” Eli said. He scratched his head for a second, thinking of what to say and how to say it. “Let me explain. No, there’s too much. Let me sum up,” as he made his best Inigo impression. He smiled, but she kept looking at him. He sighed, almost angry at himself for making a movie reference in another world. He had a strong inkling that much of his humor, heavily influenced by Earth’s media and entertainment, would fall flat here.

He tried again. “I said before, my name is Eli. I honestly don’t know where I am. I got thrown here through a green wall thing. Just a day ago, I was working as an accountant.”

Daralis opened her mouth to interrupt, but he continued.

“And before you ask again, it’s someone paid to do business stuff in trading or banking or something close to that. In my case, I ensured companies were doing what they said they were doing, at least in a financial and operational sense. Now, here I am with a trash bag full of stuff on my wrist, I killed a dozen people somehow, and I don’t know how to get home.”

His voice lowered a bit. “I don’t know if I can even get home. I’m kinda just stumbling from one crisis to another. I don’t have a lot of answers here. I can tell you a few things, though. I don’t mean you harm unless you try to harm me. I don’t know who those asshats were,” as he jerked this thumb in the direction of the stone circle. “I’m sorry I had to kill anyone, but I’d do it again if it meant them or us. Now, I’m just going to help you and hope you’ll reciprocate with some local assistance. You know, help me understand this place I’ve found myself in?”

Daralis studied Eli, her expression not as piercing as before but still calculating. Then her tense pose faded, and her eyes lost their sharpness. “Do you have any more food?” One side of her mouth inched up as if acknowledging their strange situation.

Smiling, he dug around in his DS again to find some food.