Flashes…searing lights…the dark of the void. A buzzing saw cutting into flesh, the tissue parting and running blood, traveling the length of the autopsy drain to find itself swirling down the drain. Screams tearing at throats, mine, theirs…pain! *Pop!* Crimson mist speckling the energy field, setting off sparks and snap-crackles like a splash of water hitting a bug zapper…release…loneliness…starting over…flashes…searing lights…the dark of the void…again-and-again…

  Chapter 1: Breakfast, Robes, and [Bracket]s

  “We never should have crossed that damned field.” There, I’d said it. Now I could start my day, if I could shake off the remnants of the nightmare. More accurately, “The Nightmare.” It was always the same; screaming, autopsy tables, and red mist. Then there were the…creatures. I shook myself, both figuratively and literally, and tried to move past the…past.

  The first part of my morning routine complete, next came the hard part; getting out of bed. I’d always hated getting up, even…before. Next, I thought about what I was going to eat today. It was a bad habit, I know, but was something I’d done most of my life. Food was an obsession of mine; in the past, a very unhealthy one at that. Now, I burned so many calories a day there were times when I literally couldn't get enough. And not just in my head, but also for my physical wellbeing. This new body needed refueling faster than an American muscle car at the track. Burning through [mana] at the rate I did expended those calories at an alarming rate. I loved it.

  Throwing back the light coverlet I slept under, I greeted the mid-morning sun. Master Alric never opened his shop until noon, so I checked the [System] clock displayed on my internal HUD. I had plenty of time to get in a three-course breakfast before heading over and resuming my training. I grabbed a quick gravity shower, the [heat; minor; common] scroll stuffed in the pipes—patent pending—providing the perfect temperature, and the raining effect from the cistern overhead not providing the perfect pressure. Technically, there was no Patent Office here on Planet EH-103, not that the locals called it that. Great name, huh? Makes you wonder what happened to numbers 101 and 102. There was a guild where anything dealing with [mana] needed to be registered. Guild, actually, with a capital G.

  Getting dressed, I grabbed the bundle of cloth crumpled in a heap on the foot of my bed, pulling the plain apprentice’s robe over my head. I was starting to get used to looking like some sort of Benedictine monk, what with the rough brown robe and rope belt, and naturally thinning hair with the circular bare spot of early onset male patterned baldness in lieu of shaved pate. It felt less and less like a costume every day. The pointed, lobe-less ears staring back from a steam-fogged mirror were harder to get used to.

  Heading to the small yet nicely artificed kitchen, I found the usual cyclone of mess and clutter. Neither my roommate—a fellow Earther and abductee—nor I had a dominant cleaning gene in our makeup, despite the recent jiggering of said DNA we had undergone against our will. I will have to say, she was just a little messier than me. At least in my, totally unbiased, opinion. Oh, Tess was also my unrequited crush from our vastly different high school experiences. The cheerleader and track star versus the chubby nerd. It added “awkward” to our recent, shared traumatic experience. ‘Nough said. Anyway, the culprit was long gone herself, her job as a [Courier] demanding much earlier hours. Obscenely early hours and a day of running all over the place. Ugh.

  The modern-ish appointments told the tale of a race of beings who thrived on their stomachs. After straightening up enough to clear a workspace for myself, I went about feeding my hunger. I set to reheating some of Tess’s leftover porridge, since she always made more than she could eat. I then cracked some large, brown eggs to fry in the self [heat]ing skillet and put a couple of freshly sliced pieces of bread into the toaster. The horizontal slots on the small appliance, instead of the vertical ones like I grew up with, jarred me more than the pointy ears. One more little thing to remind me how far from home Tess and I were. Once the porridge, eggs, and slices of buttered toast were ready, I tucked into them greedily. Finishing with a fruit and yogurt mixture, I felt a pleasant fullness in my belly. One I knew from experience wouldn’t last nearly long enough. Done, I gave a quick, perfunctory clean to things and headed out. Pretty sure my haphazard swipe of the kitchen towel touched the counter. I think.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I used to head out to work with a deep feeling of sadness weighing down my gut instead of a healthy breakfast. Not anymore, I’m positively giddy nowadays. The difference between working at a dead end, scraping just enough to live on while finishing my degree in Creative Writing, and heading to my apprenticeship as a [Scrivener] was pure cliche. Night and Day; Black and White; Hot N’ Cold. Just the thought of it—Magic scrolls!—sent a shiver through my being. I got to write for a living and, you know, Magic! Not that I was writing the ‘Great American Novel’, but, again, Magic. With a capital M.

  Oh, the brackets? Those are [System] imposed on my psyche. I try not to see them, but there they are, floating in the air inches from my face, highlighted in written text, inhabiting my mind's eye, and in all their green glory. Yes, green.

  Walking the cobbled streets straight from a fantasy novel, the sight of Oakheart's stone and timber buildings never failed to instill a sense of wonder. As the capital city, it showcased the glory of the Matriarchy, with the seedier sides tucked away out of casual sight. Trees lined the lanes, like sentinels at watch, projecting a sense of comfort and serenity. As for actual sentinels, they were few and far between—at least to the naked eye. The city planning paid heed to nature, with copses of trees and open glades, in a more appealing way than I was used to in North America. I soon reached Master Alric’s shop, “Papers & Powers”. The sign overhead was simple, some might even say plain, but well-constructed, a testament to the shop owner’s style. I’d found it one day on one of my courier runs.

  Why no brackets for me? For Tess it was a [Class], and for me a temporary job. A job that was as miserable as I was miserable at doing. The only reason I’d kept that particular job as long as I did was because of Tess. It was a perfect match for her, being the high school and collegiate track star she was. The owner’s lit up at the sight of her completing every job ahead of schedule.

  A little back-story here. Jez and Terrin, proprietors of “J&T [Courier]s” —noticing a theme to the native naming culture on EH-103? —had given us a job when we first dragged ourselves into town. We had been dirty, bedraggled, and wide-eyed, limping the streets in desperation. Terrin was out cleaning the windowfront of their new business venture and immediately took pity on us. She had a thing for strays, from cats and dogs to apparently humans. Not that she knew we weren’t natural-born elves, which we both now looked like, of course. Terrin’s wife, Jez, had just sighed and pointed us to the runners’ dorm in the converted storage room in the back of their shop. Needless to say, Tess gelled with them from the start, while I was just part of the package, and a reluctant one at that. Grateful, but reluctant. I hated exercise way back then, a lifetime ago. Still not a fan, but it was downgraded to dislike by now.

  It had taken me weeks of chatting up Master Alric to get him to apprentice me. Apprenticing was a big deal here, not undertaken lightly. All sorts of rules and commitments governed the partnership. Plus, I had to show some actual potential and be able to access this world’s [mana]. It took me a cool minute to summon a sufficient amount of the invisible energy of creation, but I did it! With the help of my bioengineering and implants, obviously. No mere Human was capable of doing this; not pure-blooded anyway. Seeing the special ink used by [Scrivener]s’ glow with an inner, ethereal light sang in tune with my very soul. Poetic, maybe, but no other description comes close.

  When I announced I’d be leaving J&T, three of the four of us tried to hide the enthusiasm while a huge grin took residence on my face. I didn’t care one whit for their fakery of sadness on my leaving. My grin just grew wider, fueled by the poor concealment. The only downside of the new situation was the loss of my living arrangements. And paid for meals. Oops.

  Luckily, an official apprenticeship meant an official code of conduct between Master and Apprentice. This code stipulated an allowance for lodging and food. A small one, subject to the whims of the Master in the picture. Alric wasn’t one to waste a single copper more than necessary on anyone other than himself, but it was still there nonetheless. His Master’s robe was expertly tailored and made of the finest materials, his pudgy fingers bedazzled with ornate rings, and his rotund belly spoke to his personal expenditures. And like I said, using [mana] burned calories like crazy, so Alric’s physical opulence was a testament to a love of food greater than my own.

  Anyway, Tess and I combined her wages and tips—always high for her and non-existent for me when we’d worked together—and my living stipend. Our money pooled together, we rented a tiny apartment roughly equidistant between our jobs. We’d decided we should try and stick together in this new existence of ours.

  Enough history, too much expounding. Time to get to work.

  December the future