The Venturer

Chapter 1

A Second Life

My name is Evan Corin. I have a middle name, James, which was given to me on Earth, but that is not needed here. You see, I’m a venturer, and not from this planet. I came here five years ago when I was twelve years old, utterly confused as to where I was and what was going on. Those questions still linger with me today, but what I do know is that I am worthy of this position as a battle commander.

I put the papers down, deciding not to read the other seven pages of my first application for the job I currently have. Those were interesting days, still trying to fit in with the people of Kobra. It seemed so long ago, but I only wrote it, what… a few months ago? After all, I had just finished my third battle.

“Dude,” a familiar voice called from the doorway behind me, “We get the coolest job, C’mon! Yasar is waiting for us to decide what to do with it!”

I turned around, pocketing the papers. It was Rion’s voice, of course. Rion was a year younger than me, but we’ve been best friends for three years now.

I didn’t see him when I turned around, he was obviously in a rush, sprinting down the great halls of Kobra’s palace right after getting my attention. He had thick brown hair and a strong stature. As far as I knew, he was still growing. I raced to catch up to him, jogging much faster than he could go.

“Where did you learn that word?” I asked Rion, coming up on his right. We got to the meeting room, not the huge fancy one for big meetings, but the little one that I usually didn’t go to.

“What word?” Rion asked, not turning to face me.

“Dude,” I said back, “I never told you that word.”

“Uh, yeah you did. You say it all the time, whenever you’re in a chill kind of mood.”

“Seriously?” I raised an eyebrow at him, “Chill?”

“What?” Rion finally looked at me, “You always complain that people here don’t use the modern Earth-words you’re used to, so today I’m trying it, It’s pretty fun, actually.”

Rion was a skinny kid, still growing though, unlike me. He had the lightest green eyes I had ever seen and thick dirty-blonde hair cut shorter than usual. His quirky personality fit well with his childish attitude, still loving pranks and games now and then. I gave up liking that sort of thing a while ago, but Rion never got the memo.

I stopped the conversation, knowing it wouldn’t go well, and turned to the pitch-black zweihänder laying on the table. The eerie darkness creeping out of it made it look rusty, but it was actually incredibly sharp, as I knew only too well. The black sword had split right through my battle shield.

Rion looked fascinated by it, he had never seen anything magical, really. I hadn’t either, nothing except for this, but I wasn’t geeking out about it. We retrieved the blade at the last battle I led, the one called “Death Front,” whatever that meant, I wondered who it was that had the job of naming the battles, and why it was even a job, but for some reason, every battle in our war with Mulgith had some epic name.

“What did you say it was called again?” I asked.

Rion picked it up, the darkness leaking from it like sap from a tree increased in power and seemed to glow when he put his hand on it. “Yasar,” he said, “The blade of souls, it steals the power of any soul it slays, cremating the body in wretched darkness, although it isn’t very powerful right now, because the souls are released every time someone lets go of it.”

“That was a surprisingly disturbing and specific description,” I said.

Rion shrugged, “I’ve done my research.”

“You probably shouldn’t be holding it, what are we supposed to do with it anyway?”

“Bazar is coming to get it from us soon,” Rion said, ignoring my advice, “We are just supposed to tell him where to put it, although it is a little obvious where it goes, right? In the battle treasury.”

“I think you misunderstood the order,” I said, “First, we are just supposed to give it to Bazar, so he can put it in the treasury, he isn’t coming to us. Second, it’s my responsibility, not ours.”

Rion’s shoulders fell a bit, “Well, I thought,” he stuttered, “Well, can I come with you?”

“Is that an order?” I asked, “Or a question, you are the prince after all.”

“Sure,” he said, “I order you to let me come with you because it’s awesome.”

I tried to raise an eyebrow, but realized it was already raised from earlier. It was true though, Rion was the only crown prince of Kobra, and ever since the ceremony for his sixteenth birthday, he was allowed to boss people around, but he never really did it much.

“It’s like it’s saturated in pure death,” Rion said quietly, bringing his face up to the blade to inspect it.

I took it from him, “That’s pretty accurate,” I said.

“Like mold made of deadly steel,” Rion continued his description of the blade. One of the several armored guards around the table couldn’t help but laugh quietly at the description, trying unsuccessfully to hide it with a cough.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I said, scratching my head, “It can’t be made of death and mold at the same time.”

“Why not?” Rion asked.

“Mold is made of cells like all the other plants, that means it’s alive. And besides, your description doesn’t even sound cool.”

Rion looked puzzled, “What the heck is a cell?” he said, the guard laughed again, this time more noticeable; and the guard next to him nudged him in the side, silencing him, “Is it like a prison cell?”

“No, It’s a microscopic base unit for all life,” I said the words in a complicated way on purpose. It was fun to confuse people in a medieval world like Vilos with earthly technologies and sciences.

Rion gave me an exaggerated look of boredom, cocking his head back with a low groan. “Let me guess,” he said, “is it made of electricity?”

“No again,” I said. We had many conversations in the past about electricity, and I knew Rion didn’t really believe me about most of the concept, but occasionally he still asked me about some things. His question, however, was sarcastic and rhetorical, and that’s why I answered simply. He never liked the fact that I knew about future technology and science. The idea of microscopic blobs of organelles and DNA that combined to form a plant or animal was just too hard to understand for someone like Rion, “You should just stick with your first description.”

I turned to leave the room, passing by two guards manning the open doorway. Rion followed. Together, with about ten guards from the small meeting room, we walked through the palace down to the treasury room. It was a long walk, considering the vast number of hallways and spiraling stairs that led to the chamber.

When we got there, a guard in a golden uniform moved forward to unlock the iron door.

I stepped into the room. It wasn’t only a treasury; the giant underground cavern could fit much more than epic battle rewards. Here, we found Bazar working on the catapult I told him about weeks ago, accompanied by several of his fellow engineers, all with golden uniforms.

A big reason that Kobra was considered one of the most powerful kingdoms in all of Vilos was because of our technology. Not things like guns and cannons, but simpler things like catapults and ballistas, with most of the ideas coming from me. I remembered a lot of things like that from Earth, medieval weapons that were easy enough to build that I could describe them to Bazar, and he would be happy to make them. There were even some things he designed that I had never heard of on Earth, like a large wooden machine that swung a boulder in a leather sling at a wall, sort of like a wrecking ball. His catapult looked like a similar design, but with the ability to detach the swinging boulder and fling it through the air.

“Evan, boy!” Bazar turned and greeted me in his gruff but friendly voice, “What do you have for me this time?”

I handed Yasar to him respectfully, “The Vampire Blade,” I said, “Put it in the highest security vaults. This thing can be dangerous.”

“Of course,” Bazar said, putting on his heavy gloves and accepting the blade, he turned and walked away toward the vaults, “Everything these days requires the highest security.”

“What is this for?” Rion said, regarding the catapult with awe. One of Bazar’s apprentice engineers grinned pridefully at Rion’s amazement.

“A catapult,” I said, “It was used as a weapon of war hundreds of years ago on Earth. I'm not exactly sure how the mechanism works, but somehow it launches giant boulders at things like brick walls and castles. It’s very effective.”

“Why don’t they use them anymore?” Rion asked.

“Because there are much more advanced things to use in wars, like missiles and guns.”

“How is shooting a little piece of metal better than a giant boulder?”

“Rion,” I said, “I wish you could understand, but some people just aren’t capable of grasping such concepts.”

Rion folded his arms, “I grasp perfectly. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Those sentences don’t go together.”

“Of course they do.”

“Uh,” the apprentice said, “Commander Evan? Would you by chance know how to construct something like a gun or a missile? The challenge sounds exciting, I would like to try it if it’s as useful as you say.”

I shook my head, “I might be able to explain some about a gun, but not enough, and a missile is way beyond my knowledge. I’m sorry, but a catapult is the best I have right now.”

The apprentice nodded with understanding, which was something I’d never seen Rion do, “Then, do you think you could help another way?” he asked.

“How?”

“Well, we have this weight balancer here I’ve been working on. It’s much too heavy for us to carry alone, and we need to get it up onto these beams…”

I smiled, striding over to the metal machine he was talking about, it looked about six-hundred pounds or so. Apparently the apprentice had known more about me than I had expected. I got a grip on the machine near the base and shifted my position, heaving it onto the large boards, it sat with a thud onto the wood and I pushed it back, sliding it into place.

The apprentice’s smile made it look like he wanted to start clapping. My odd variations in muscular strength and endurance were quite remarkable, even to me. But I had never been able to understand why I could do things like that. It was very useful at times. Particularly during Death Front, when my strength was estimated at around five times the normal power. That allowed me to be just about the most useful soldier in the army. For this reason, King Raegar made me general and commander of the Kobra armies along with Aeroth. Marshal Aeroth was insanely skilled with all sorts of weapons and acrobatics, but he was usually doing other things like spy missions and managing nearby city problems.

“All right,” Rion said, “I’m going to bed.”

“Bed?” I asked, “What time is it?”

“Almost middown,” the apprentice said, glancing at his complex gear clock on the wall, a machine that I have never been able to understand.

“Holy cow!” I said, “How did it get that late? You guys need to put windows in here.”

“Um,” the apprentice squinted in confusion, “We’re hundreds of feet underground, how do we-”

“Ever heard of a joke?” I asked him.

“Oh, sorry Sir.”

“You don’t need to apologize. You're welcome for the help. I gotta go to bed now.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

Right as Rion and I were leaving the room, Bazar came back, “Off to the dorms?” he asked.

“Indeed,” Rion said.

“What do you think of the machine?”

“Great,” I said, turning around to see him, “You are a genius of engineering, Bazar.”

Bazar laughed deeply to himself, dismissing the comment with a wave. He was too humble to accept compliments like that. “Well,” he said, patting his apprentice on the shoulder, “Gevin here came up with a lot of the mechanism. I don’t deserve all the credit. The lad’s got quite a lot of potential”

Gevin blushed, “I do my best.”

I nodded in approval, then followed Rion out the exit and back up the stairs.

Chapter 2

Spies, Butlers, and Queens

My night was dreamless, like it always was. The morning provided a lush banquet and a boring meeting as usual. Rion tried to avoid all responsibility he could manage, so I didn’t see him in the meeting room until the refreshments began.

“I got it,” he said, stepping up to the table next to me to get some lingo beans, a very sweet unhealthy treat that wasn’t made from actual beans.

“You missed the meeting, Rion,” I said, ignoring his comment.

“Bah,” he said, “I’m sure it was just as useless as the last one. But that’s not important, I thought of the greatest prank yet.”

I did my best not to encourage his mischievous plan. Which would probably involve tricking my butler, Arzo, into eating something nasty or falling in the pool again. “This time the meeting actually had something interesting in it.”

Rion looked from the variety of food near his plate to me and raised an eyebrow in obvious disbelief.

“Duke Tylandor tripped on the way to the stand,” I said with a grin, “It was great.”

“And let me guess, the rest of the meeting was basically pointless?”

I sighed, agreeing with him, “Another outpost was attacked by some random gang again.”

“That’s Aeroth’s thing,” Rion said, “He’ll take care of it, but in the meantime, I need to tell you about my-”

“Don’t want to hear about it,” I said, cutting him off, “Rion, sometimes you still act like the spoiled little kid you were a few years ago. I’m a war general now, I’d rather not be seen hanging from the ceiling dumping a bucket of water on Arzo. The poor butler needs a break.”

“Nonsense! Arzo said to himself; he doesn’t mind too much as long as we don’t use stuff that stains his suit.”

“That doesn’t fix the fact that we’re too old for this.”

“Maybe you are,” Rion said, “But I’m gonna do it.”

I stopped talking, and that seemed to irritate him, so after a few seconds he thought of a different way to annoy me.

“Here,” he said, plopping some yellow-green berries on my plate, “Try these, they're great.”

I almost threw up in my mouth, dumping the larvaberries back into the bowl, “You just crossed the line, Rion,” I said, not actually angry with him. I knew it was a joke. Larvaberries were just about the grossest thing I had ever heard of. They weren’t actually berries, they were the cooked up larva stage of some weird brown beetle. I’d never actually eaten one before. I was too revolted by the concept, despite their popularity.

I smiled and began thinking of ways to get him back. I couldn’t let him keep that mischievous smile on his face for too long, so I simply reached over and stole one of his frost rolls, popping it in my mouth.

“Hey!” he yelled. Frost rolls were his favorite treat and I knew it, “Now I’ll have to go get another one all the way across the room!”

“Oh, no,” I said sarcastically, “What have I done? Now you have to walk all the way across the room, such a nightmare.”

Rion huffed, “I think you should go get another one for me.”

“And if I don’t?”

Rion hesitated, trying to think of a comeback. I chuckled.

At that point, Raben walked over, attracted to our ridiculous conversation. Raben was the son of Duke Willow and was around Rion’s age. He was one of the best infiltrators in Kobra when he was in the mood, but usually, he acted like Rion.

“What’s the deal this time?” he asked, leaning up against the wall and selecting a fudge cube from his plate, which was completely filled with them.

I stopped loading my own plate and walked over to the wall next to him, “Rion wants to pull another prank on Arzo.”

“Where?” Raben asked, grinning, “I want to watch this time.”

“See?” Rion said, coming over to the same wall, “Raben supports my genius plans.”

“I wouldn’t use the word ‘Genius’,” Raben said, “It’s usually you that I laugh at.”

That time I laughed out loud. Raben kept his laugh to himself, but I could tell he wanted to release it. He shoved another fudge cube in his mouth, he would probably get sick if he ate his entire plate of them.

Rion showed a look of defeat, but I knew he would still go on with the prank. He shuffled away to get another frost roll. Raben continued eating in silence, a triumphant grin stretching across his face.

“Do you wanna play chess or something?” I asked Raben, “I’m not busy today.” Raben loved chess. A few years ago when I taught it to him, he wouldn’t stop asking to play.

“Nah,” he said. “I’d beat you anyway.”

“No you wouldn’t,” I said, “I invented the game, I know all the tricks.”

“You only invented it on this planet.”

“True.”

And with that, Raben walked away, toward the fudge table.

The rest of the day passed without much excitement. I generally stayed around Arzo, in case anything happened, but Rion was never anywhere in sight. I had no work to do, so I spent some time helping Bazar with the catapult, followed by some work on a “totally original” painting I called “starry night”. I wasn’t very good at painting, though, so it was nothing special.

When it got dark that day, I caught up to Arzo in the hallway, matching his brisk pace.

“Have you seen Rion recently?” I asked.

“Ah, Master Corin,” he said in his practiced butler’s voice. It was a smooth deep voice that was supposed to be calming, “I saw him in the courtyard about an hour ago, he might still be there.”

“No,” I said, “I wasn’t looking for him, I was just wondering if he-”

“Not yet,” Arzo sighed, “Honestly, I’m not sure if he plans to go through with his prank after his conversation with you and Master Raben.”

“Maybe, I’ve always wondered when he’d grow up a bit.”

“I believe he has grown a lot in the years you’ve known him, just not mentally.”

“That’s not what I-” Arzo had a strange way of not understanding context clues, “Never mind.”

“Never mind what?”

“Never mind my never mind.”

Arzo showed a look of slight confusion, then stashed it away, continuing down the massive hallway. He often strode pointlessly through the corridors at night, claiming that it helped him think. He wasn’t going anywhere, I knew that. Sometimes that made it very difficult to find him.

“All right then,” he said.

When we had walked the entire loop around the dormitory section of the palace, Arzo turned and began down the great hall, I didn’t care to follow.

“See ya, Arzo,” I said.

Arzo stopped and turned, “Off to bed then?”

I shook my head, “Not tired, I’ve got a famous painting to work on by Vincent Van something.”

“Farewell then, I will let you know if I see-”

Just then, a thick stream of warm green slime fell from somewhere up above and landed, not on Arzo, but on me.

I sighed out loud, of course I was the target.

“He’s never done that before,” Arzo said with raised eyebrows.

Rion climbed down the wall using the decorative marble beams. A grin more wicked than any I had ever seen before stuck to his face, “That was marvelous!” He exclaimed.

“You know, Rion,” I said, “This time, I thought it would actually be a creative prank.”

“What are you talking about?” he said, “That’s the most creative one I’ve ever done.”

“Exactly my point! Did Raben help you with this?”

“Nope, Just me.”

I looked down at my drenched suit, the maids would have a hard time cleaning this one.I would probably find a way to make Rion do it for them though. Most of the substance had missed, however, and was splattered across the shiny floor.

“What is this stuff anyway?”

Rion’s wicked smile grew. I heard clinking metal behind me and turned to see one of five nighttime guards scraping some off of his boots. The guard smelled it and stuck it in his mouth, then nodded with approval, “Larvaberry juice,” he said.

I closed my eyes and cringed, trying not to throw up, “Are there any laws keeping me from strangling him right now?”

“Many, I believe,” Arzo said, this time understanding the sarcasm.

“That might be worth it for the reward,” I said. Rion started laughing quietly to himself. I opened my eyes and looked up, finding the beam intersection where Rion had waited. He was probably sitting there for over half an hour waiting for me.

Eza turned the corner and joined us, Arzo and the guards straightened their postures a bit. After all, she was the queen of Kobra. She was also Rion’s mother. Her expression showed that she understood exactly what had happened. She was a very kind and understanding woman, though, so I knew she wouldn’t get too mad at her son.

Rion didn’t pause when she came near. He just kept laughing.

“Great job, Rion,” She said in a playful tone. “Your only miscalculation is that now you have become responsible for this mess.”

Rion froze, “What?”

This time I started laughing, a couple of the guards did too, but they tried to keep it in. Eza put an arm around Rion’s shoulder, a playful grin now on her face as well, “You see, son, sometimes, you need to take responsibility for the reckless things you do.”

“But,” Rion said, looking at the mess.

“Lanson,” Eza said, turning to face one of the guards with the same friendly look, “Can you go down to the laundry chamber and fetch a few rags for Prince Rion please?”

The guard nodded and walked off. I stepped out of the puddle, still trying not to vomit. “Rion, can you wash my suit while you're at it?”

“No,” Rion said.

“He most certainly can,” Eza said.

That's what I wanted to hear.

Rion frowned and sighed, “Fine, I’ll clean it tomorrow. I assume I have to do it with the servants?”

Eza nodded, then turned to Arzo, “You are excused to your chambers. Arzo, thank you for putting up with my son.”

“Thank you, your majesty,” Arzo turned and strode away with his hands clasped behind his back.

“Can I go to bed too?” Rion asked.

“Are you tired?” I said, feeling perfectly awake.

“Of course I am,” he said, “Have you ever noticed that most people aren’t superhuman and actually need a decent amount of sleep?”

I shrugged.

“That’s a no, by the way,” Eza said. “If you wait ‘till tomorrow, it’ll be worse, so you clean it up now.”

Rion groaned.

Eza looked up at me, I was a full head taller than her, but often felt shorter when she was around because of her royal status. “Do you have any idea why he is so childish?”

“I think he’s been bored,” I said. Rion obviously didn’t like the way the conversion was headed. “He skips all the meetings, so he feels like he has nothing to do. Because of that, he resorts to the games we did three years ago.”

“Maybe you two should sneak into the kitchen and steal some frost rolls next time he gets bored,” Eza suggested, “I can tell the guards not to notice.”

Lanson got back with the requested rags and Rion got to work. I considered Eza’s idea. Recently I had tried to do fewer things like that, but if the queen suggested it, it would probably be fine.

“Sure,” I finally said.

“Fantastic,” she said. “Good night, then, Sir Evan.”

I bowed and walked off to continue copying Vincent Van something before retiring for the night.

Chapter 3

The First King

“A deer!” I yelled excitedly, but the words seemed wrong coming out of my mouth.

“That’s a big ol’ buck isn’t it?” someone else said, I looked around and found the speaker sitting in front of me, but the image seemed fuzzy and distorted.

A woman sitting next to him began talking to him, although I couldn’t make out any words, as if my ears had stopped working. I was immediately struck with confusion, “Where am I?” I said in a panicked tone, but the words only sat in my head, my lips wouldn’t move. I tried to thrash, to regain some sense of control, but nothing happened. More and more, I got control of my mind, but less control of my actual body.

My vision flashed another image of a solid white tiled ceiling, then I gained control.

I sat up in my bed so fast that I fell out the front, causing Rion to jump back, startled.

“What the Heck?” he said.

I stood up, looking around. Everything in my room was normal, I was still in Kobra. I was panting.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Rion, a hint of anger in my voice.

Rion raised his hands, “You didn’t wake up when you usually do, it’s almost midday, I just came to check on you.”

I didn’t pay very much attention to his response as I wondered, what had just happened to me? Was that a dream? I hadn’t had a dream for five years. Before last night, everything in my head had just been blank when I slept.

Rion looked almost as confused as I was. Although he didn’t look nearly as light-headed as I felt.

“Rion, I just had a dream,” I said, “At least, I think so.”

Rion dropped his hands, “So?”

“I’ve never had a dream on this planet in my life,” I said, “Up until now I thought I was incapable of dreaming.”

“That’s not very strange,” Rion said, “I know tons of people that usually don’t dream.”

I waved a hand at him and walked out, “Oh, you’re useless.”

Rion didn’t follow me when I speed walked down to the library. It was a massive room that I rarely went to during my five years in Vilos. The room was scattered with scholars, teachers, and students of all ages.

I walked up to the front of the room. A large old man with a warm smile on his face greeted me, “What can I do for you today, young nobleman?”

“I need information on Earth, the planet. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

The man nodded slowly and looked to the side, his slow but calm thought process annoyed my hurried mood. Eventually I realized there was no reason to be in a hurry, so I calmed as well.

“My name is Adam,” the man said, “I am the keeper here at the library, the topic of Earth has always been a fascinating one for me, but we only have one book about it.”

“How did you get it?” I asked.

Adam stood up slowly and walked around the desk, his age didn’t show in the way he walked, “You don’t happen to be The Venturer, do you?”

“I am,” I replied.

“Ah,” Adam said, motioning for me to follow him through a maze of bookshelves, “I have been waiting for you to come here. I thought you would be eager to learn more about your shift between the worlds.”

I shrugged, following behind him, “I never expected there to be anything on the subject, but I think I just had my first dream in five years, and it showed things from Earth.”

“Odd,” Adam said quietly, “Well, I’m afraid this journal won't give you answers about that, but it will certainly be useful information.”

“Journal?” I asked, confused.

Adam selected the book off the shelf, it was in the political section. Something inside me expected it to be some ancient dusty book, but this one looked well-read and well-preserved. After all, Adam claimed to know about Earth, maybe he had read it.

The aged librarian handed me the book and walked away with the same friendly smile.

I scanned the cover of the book. There was nothing on it, front or back, except a name carved into the thick leather in the bottom right corner. Lias.

I grew more excited, eager to read everything the book had to offer, I quickly found a quiet table and sat down. If this book was written by the Lias I was thinking about, it was written by the first king of Kobra.

My destiny has been fulfilled, as the seers foretold, the first page read. My kingdom here in Vilos is the first ever of such stability. The Rage has been imprisoned forever, and the world rejoices because of it. I know I should be happy, I know I should rejoice with them, but something in the world still seems wrong. There is something else waiting to strike, but I might never see the day when that happens. I apologize for my introductory note, and it’s grimness. I supposed that if someone from the future was to read this, I should start off with something to think about. Who knows? Maybe the supposed threat I mentioned has already come and gone in your day.

If you are reading this journal, I hope you learn all you can about Earth. It is a fascinating place, the place where I am from. I loved it, but when the seers called me and said I needed to come to Vilos. I found my purpose here, establishing order out of chaos. As a side bonus, I was able to teach the English language to the newfound kingdom of Kobra.

I smiled to myself, this book was interesting already.

I read for several more hours before putting the book down, Lias never again mentioned the Rage or the seers, he seemed to purposefully stay away from that topic and shift gradually into the geography and culture of Earth. I could tell that Lias lived in the 1400s or so because of some things he talked about that happened on Earth near that time.

I enjoyed reading the journal, not only because it talked about Earth, but because it was fascinating to know there used to be another venturer. But as far as I could tell, I was the only one on Vilos at the time.

I observed the remaining pages of the book, which held three times as many pages as what I had just read. I would have to finish it some other day. I had other things to get to. People like Rion and the general committee were probably wondering where I was. I undoubtedly missed the most recent meeting. I heard we would talk about resolving the war with Mulgith during the meeting. Mulgith had been the only enemy of Kobra for the past thirty years. The people of Mulgith were not humans.. They were taller, with gray tight skin and bulging eyes. Children from Earth would consider them as some sort of undead zombie skeletons because of what they looked like. That wasn’t entirely untrue, though, they loved death. The city of Mulgith was a dark, wet, dead city in a moldering chasm called the Deep Divide.

Our last battle with the Mulgithians was a bloody one, but a victory nonetheless. It was where we obtained Yasar, one of Mulgith’s most powerful artifacts and weapons. Whatever soul the blade took would add to its power, becoming more and more deadly until the user of the blade let go of it. In the battle called “Death Front,” I put an end to the growing power of the blade by stealing it from Malgor, the monarch of Mulgith.

I ended my thoughts about Mulgith and instead forced myself to think about other things. I bookmarked the journal on page 276 and brought it to the front, finding Adam with his nose in a book of his own.

“Find what you’re looking for?” the man said, not looking up at me.

“Yes,” I said, “Well, not exactly. None of it explained my dream or how I got to Earth, but I got hints about my questions.”

“Did you finish the journal?”

I shook my head, “I would like to borrow it, if that’s okay.”

Adam finally turned his head away from his book to look at me. Sighing again, he said, “That book shouldn’t be for rent, but I suppose you could be the exception. You are learning so much, and I’d hate to stop that progress.”

I looked down at the book clutched in my hands, “Well, I’m not really learning anything. I feel like I know more about Earth than Lias does, but it’s just fun to read and I’m hoping to have my questions answered.”

“I understand the feeling,” Adam said, “I have always been quite interested in topics like magic and myth. I must say I am honored to be in your presence, young venturer.”

“You can just call me Evan,” I said.

“Will I be seeing you more here?”

“Probably, I’ll have to come back to return the book anyway. Perhaps if I keep reading on the topic I can find out more about how or why I came here.”

Adam nodded with pleasure, “I am happy to help whenever you need me.” He took the book from me and wrote a note on the first page showing when I needed to return it, he gave me over a year.

I nodded happily back at the man and headed for the open doorway.

Later that day, I joined Rion on the training grounds doing some practice drills with the other soldiers. Rion had always liked training. He was technically above all the knights and guards around him in status, but he claimed to feel like one of them when doing battle exercises.

After the drills, Rion decided to stay and practice his own way. He didn’t like using swords and bows, and I believed it was because he was terrible with them. I followed him to the back of the grounds, but never managed to fully take my mind off the journal. In fact, I didn’t really want to take my mind off the subject at all.

I stepped up to Rion in the lane next to his, a fifty-foot lane with a red and black target at the end, designed for archery.

“You wanna play knives?” Rion asked, spinning one of his personal throwing daggers between his fingers.

“You’re asking me if I want to get my butt kicked?” I replied, knowing by experience how much talent Rion had when it came to throwing things.

Rion shrugged, “You can stand ten feet closer.”

“Sure, whatever.”

I went first in the hopeless game, throwing three steel knives across the archery lane and sticking each of them fairly close to the center, better than I thought I could do. It was a total of seventeen points added together, assuming Rion didn’t stick any of his knives in the same rings, then he would cancel out my points. After he threw three, I would throw one more, that way it would be slightly even. The person that went second usually had an advantage because they had more chances to negate the other player’s points, so the first thrower got to throw an extra knife at the end.

I stepped back from the lane and let Rion throw. His first shot hit right by my eight-pointer, negating my points in that ring and putting me at nine. Then his next shot purposefully hit by my six, putting me at three. His last shot hit dead center.

The score was three to twenty-four. I had no hope of winning, as I had expected. The best I could do was to hit his ten, putting him at fourteen and me at thirteen. I didn’t even bother trying.

“Do you ever wonder,” I said, finally thinking of a good way to explain to Rion what I read, “Why do people on Earth and Vilos speak the same language?”

Rion shrugged, “Not really. There are a lot of people from Vilos that don’t speak English, like the Mulgithians. And there are a lot of people on Earth that speak other languages too, according to you at least.”

“Right, but don’t you think it’s at least odd that we speak the exact same language?”

This seemed to stump him, he didn’t say anything for a few seconds, “I expect you’re going to tell me something incredible about what you read?”

I raised an eyebrow, “You knew I was in the library?”

“Of course, you were acting stranger than ever this morning, and you left in a rush, I had to see where you went.”

“Well then, yes,” I said, “I read about Lias, actually.”

Rion looked intrigued, “My ancestor?”

“Well, you see, the book was a journal written by him, he was from Earth too, Rion. He was a venturer like me.”

Rion’s face was unreadable for a little while, then he just nodded his head as if pleased.

“Cool,” He finally said, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” I said, “He established Kobra and taught them all English.”

“Why don’t I know about this?” Rion said, “He’s my ancestor after all.”

“I think most people don’t know about it, close to none. I don’t even think your father knows. In the journal, he doesn’t really talk about it like a secret.”

“Does,” Rion said, “Does that mean we’re related?”

“What?” I almost yelled, “No, that’s not how it works, not unless he was somehow my great great great great uncle or something. He never had any children on Earth. He came here when he was twenty years old.”

Rion shrugged again, “He could be. You’re both venturers after all, maybe shifting between worlds runs in the family. That’s my theory.”

“Your theory doesn’t make any sense,” I said.

“Are you gonna throw that or what?”

I looked down at my knife and smiled, then threw it at the target as hard as I could. It didn’t stick in. Well, not necessarily. It ripped straight through the leather and out the other end, the tripod target was hurled backward and two of the wooden legs snapped at the impact of it hitting a brick wall.

A large portion of the training grounds around us went silent, staring at the crumpled target. Rion just sighed and walked forward to get his knives.

“Hey,” he said, “You got nine points with that.”

A sergeant came over, his face ablaze with fury and confusion, “What the devil happened here?”

“Well, the target broke,” Rion said, “obviously. Can’t you tell?”

The sergeant looked even more baffled.

“What are you waiting for?” Rion said, “Go fetch us a new one.”

Chapter 4

Intruders

It had been twelve days since my dream, and I kept having more of them, but they never got more vivid. They were always just as confusing as the first one. The most recent one included someone putting some suitcases into the trunk of a car.

I tried not to think about the dreams too much. The fact that I expected them each night made them less startling, so I was soon able to wake up normally again. But why were they happening now? What was different? I had no idea. The book provided no more information on my predicament.

“Sir,” Arzo said, catching me in thought while staring at the mirror.

“Yes?” I said, breaking out of my trance.

“You have a nighday meeting approaching,” he said, “It’s labeled with utmost importance.”

“Ah, yes,” I said, fastening the buttons on my recently cleaned suit. It was one of my favorites. I chose it for this occasion, with a blue silk lining and white strings woven into intricate patterns. It was probably worth more money than the average citizen had. That didn’t mean they were poor, it just meant they weren’t rich. A few months after being taken in by the nobility, I did my best to make sure the citizens of Kobra had enough food, water, and other necessities, but their situation didn’t need much improvement. The people of the kingdom were well taken care of and naturally happy with their lives.

I walked out the door and down the hallway. Arzo proceeded to tidy up my room after I left as he always did. He claimed to enjoy cleaning things and often did more than he was asked to do.

After a short walk down the busy morning hallways of the palace, I reached the meeting room, the big one, and seated myself near the front. The chairs were made of oak wood, and there were decorative banners covering the rough stone bricks in the walls.

Judging by the lack of participants, I was early, although I would never be able to tell otherwise. I never learned how to read the complex Vilos clocks that somehow depicted the position of the sun. Bazar claimed that his uncle had invented the machines.

I knew that it was around nighday, a time of day a few hours past morning, when the sun was rising above the horizon. People in Kobra called morning daybirth, right when it started to get light outside. After daybirth was nighday, then midday. So the time segments were larger on Vilos than they were on Earth. After midday was quarterday, then dayset was when the sun was leaving underneath the horizon, dayset was followed by middown, then midnight, nightend, then daybirth again.

After a few minutes, more people showed up to the meeting. A lot more than I usually saw. Even if Rion’s mom didn’t try to make him come, he would be required to anyway, so he entered a little late, talking to Raben on the way in.

They sat at the opposite side of the room, too busy with their conversation to stop and find where I was sitting.

“We gather here today,” Duke Willow said from the front of the room, “To conclude our debates concerning the war with Mulgith. Today, we allow and encourage all of you to join in with any ideas or opinions you might have. Thank you for your participation.”

Duke Willow left the stand. He was likely the one chosen to begin the meeting because of his loud demanding voice, one that didn’t match with his son, Raben, who was usually quiet around others.

Commander Kujai stepped up to the stand next, as he would lead the meeting. I wondered if this time they would choose me to lead the meeting, as one of the highest ranking generals. But it was not a surprise that they didn’t. After all, I am quite young for my position. It was mainly my enhanced strength and skills that got me the title.

“As we all know,” Kujai began, “The Mulgithians have attempted to take our lands for years, but this month, they are preparing for something bigger than they have attempted in the past. Our spies have spotted armies of trained mulgithian soldiers practicing in their ranks. We have discussed this threat in previous meetings, but have not come to any conclusion so far.”

“Kobra is the strongest nation in the realm,” General Opus said from the crowd, “My opinion holds firm. We should prepare an army larger and more powerful than theirs and defeat them. We have more soldiers and better technology. As long as we double our scouts, we can predict when they will strike and raise our army against them.”

“This is a possibility,” Kujai agreed, “Our armies have the-”

“No,” I said, interrupting because I was expected to share my opinion during meetings like this one. I was a very important person among these people, “The soldiers of Kobra could very well defeat any army Mulgith brings to us, but they would suffer from it. Hundreds would die, and their families would suffer as well. We only bring our armies to war when we have to. There are other options.”

General Opus shrank down in his chair, mumbling something to himself.

“And what other options do you have in mind?” Kujai asked.

I folded my arms. “We do something to hinder their army, or make them not want to fight. Maybe even a peace accord.”

“We already know that they don’t want to debate with us,” Duke Tylandor said, “It seems they like their rotten chasm, but they want our fields to grow better food.”

“Commander Corin has a point though,” King Raegar said, “We mustn't risk the lives of our soldiers if it is unneeded.”

The room always hushed whenever the king spoke. I was proud of myself for saying something he accepted as a good idea, so I decided to speak again, “We can convince them to retreat. If we show them our forces, they might leave without a fight.”

“A plausible idea,” Tylandor said.

I smiled within myself again. In meetings like this, saying anything of good use always helped one’s reputation.

“The Mulgithians don’t have minds that work the same as humans. They won’t care if they all die, they would just raise another army. If we did that, they would still engage in war, just like they did last time in Death Front,” Kujai said.

“If we bring our army to them,” Opus said again, “We can stop their army from scaling the chasm by dropping things on them, and they might retreat.”

“A slightly ridiculous plan, but it might work,” Kujai said.

“It won't,” I said, “Our soldiers are trained to fight. We can’t bring enough people all the way to the Deep Divide to do that plan, the landscape is too rocky and unknown. And plus, we don’t even know when or where they will climb the chasm.”

“True,” Kujai said. As leader of the meeting, he was supposed to consider each option brought up.

People fell silent for quite a while thinking of another plan. I considered other options in my head, not coming up with anything. I felt like the easiest time to share my opinion was when Opus spoke, since he wasn’t the brightest one here.

“There is another way to hinder their forces and make them retreat before they attack,” Raegar said in a thoughtful tone. The entire room perked up. “We take out their leadership.”

I squinted in confusion, how would we do that? I wondered why the king even made such a comment. Such a thing was not possible while the Mulgithians remained in the chasm, and if they came out of the chasm, it would be with a massive army. Even then, it wouldn’t be easy to capture their leadership. Once they were obviously defeated in a battle, they would run back to the chasm. Their lightweight, less durable bones let them run much faster than even our horses.

The rest of the room seemed just as confused as I was.

“And,” commander Kujai said, “I’m sure everyone here is eager to hear your newfound plan.”

The king smiled, he did that whenever he was on a roll in a meeting, apparently he had quite the genius plan. “We are in a war, people. Mulgith has tried a number of times to assassinate our leadership, including me and some of the high ranking generals and commanders. Let’s return their kindness, shall we?”

“We cannot just walk into Mulgith and assassinate the king,” general Sting said with his nasally voice. He was usually a quiet, thoughtful general during meetings, tall and lean. “There are only two people in our entire kingdom capable of scaling the chasm with enough wit and skill to survive at the bottom, and one of them, Marshal Aeroth, is on another important mission.”

The other one would be me, I thought. I hoped I would never have to infiltrate Mulgith, even if I was with Aeroth. The man had no physical enhancements, but he was a genius, a master with all martial arts, and a skilled fighter with all weapon tactics, and almost as good as Rion at throwing things.

“I believe Sting is right. With Evan and Aeroth sent into Mulgith, we would have a good chance of success, but we’ve never needed to do something like that,” Tylandor said, “And now, when we need to, Aeroth is gone. It would take weeks to retrieve him from his mission in Baxting, and by then the attack would’ve already happened, assuming our sources are correct.”

Kujai nodded, “Does anybody else have a proposition?”

Opus began speaking again, but I didn’t listen to him. From my many months in these meetings, I learned not to pay attention to him too much. His plans usually involved brute force, which was sometimes a good thing, but not this time. Instead, I looked over at Raegar. He was still smiling in thought.

That’s when I understood. The king’s plan was making sense to me, “There is one other person capable of coming with me to Mulgith,” I said, cutting Opus off mid-sentence, the room turned to me and the king's smile broadened.

“Yes, Corin?” Kujai said.

I gestured toward Raben, who immediately seemed to shrink with fear, “What?” he asked, baffled.

The king stood up, “Precisely,” he said, “Raben has worked as a spy for months now, and he has got to be one of the most talented infiltrators Kobra has ever seen, aren’t you, boy?”

“I, um,” Raben stuttered, “I don’t think I deserve to replace Aeroth. Those are some big shoes to fill.”

“You’ll do great,” Raegar said, “All you have to do is sneak into Mulgith and kill Malgor. Simple.”

I enjoyed the king’s blunt humor when he showed it. And I agreed with him too. The mission would be dangerous, but Raben was a master of stealth. He used to steal pastries with Rion and I sometimes, and we never got caught with him around.

“The plan is possible,” Duke Willow said, “But I’m not sure if we can fully predict our success. Raben is a master, but he has room to improve.”

Raben nodded slowly at his father’s defensive rebuttal.

“I have made my decision,” Raegar said. “If we don’t take risks like this, we could lose hundreds of soldiers, maybe even thousands, in open war. We have a good enough chance to try, and we cannot think of any alternative plan worth executing. Besides, Malgor wouldn’t kill them, it isn’t his way, the war is coming to an end, so a couple of months in Mulgithian prison wouldn’t be too bad for the lads.”

“What if they torture us for information?” Raben said.

“We have no information to hide from them, and they know that,” Raegar said, “And anyway, you won't get captured because you’ve never been captured before.”

The rest of the room slowly began to agree. Kujai rang a deep bell at the stand, indicating that the meeting was over. “That does it then,” he said, “The lads will leave at nightend tomorrow.” I stood up, surprised at how short the meeting was.

We went to bed early that night to get enough sleep for the mission. Although I didn’t need to sleep very much, it was helpful for the stress.

We woke up a little past midnight when the kingdom was mostly silent. I had a fresh boost of strength to last me the day. I got them at seemingly random times, bursts of strength and energy that lasted around one to three days, slowly diminishing. It was one of the stranger things that happened to me, I couldn’t explain.

I met up with Raben just outside the city. He was doing stretching exercises in his black infiltration suit. Two horses and a few trainers and guards stood nearby.

“You ready?” I said, loading my pack onto my horse, Jaeger.

Raben stood up and exhaled, “Of course, this’ll be a piece of cake, as they like to say on Earth.”

“Sure, a piece of cake is a perfect representation of something being easy,” I said sarcastically.

“Good luck, soldiers,” general Yemen said, interrupting our conversation, “You must leave as soon as possible. The possibility of a spy within our meeting yesterday is highly unlikely, but it is possible. We made sure no one left the city tonight, so you will be the first since the meeting. You must move quickly though. We should never rely on trust too much in a war.”

Raben hopped onto his jet black horse, Bullet, and nodded at the general with visible stress in his eyes. Then he took off in the night.

“And Corin,” Yemen said, “Keep the lad safe,” the general smiled.

I nodded reassuringly, then took off after Raben. His horse was faster than mine, but he wasn’t going at full speed. It would be a twelve-hour trip to Mulgith, and horses didn’t have unlimited stamina.

The terrain changed slowly over time. Raben and I seldom spoke while riding, usually only during breaks for water and food. Raben had been to Mulgith before to spy, unlike me, so he knew the way there, including places we had to be quiet, or places where we needed to go around an area. The massive rock formations that got larger and larger as we went along obscured a lot of view ahead, but Raben said it would be good for us, giving us cover.

I never got tired during the ride, although Raben did. I wasn’t exactly sure how horseback riding was tiring. After all, you are just sitting on a moving animal. But it was no surprise that I didn’t get tired.

Eventually the ground beneath us lowered and blackened, signifying the beginning of the Deep Divide. We hid our horses in a cave. Once the entirety of the chasm came into view, I was astonished at the width of it. It was far larger than any chasm or canyon on Earth, that was for sure. I thought there must’ve been some supernatural force that created it, and its blackness.

The last time Raben had been here, it was just a spy mission, in which his crew discovered the Mulgithian army training in their ranks. It was helpful to have him along to know the best way in. But this time was different. We would be the first citizens of Kobra to completely reach the bottom of the Deep Divide, if there was one. Some speculations on the canyon guessed that it never ended, and that the Mulgithians lived in buildings carved into the side of the canyon. As we got further down, however, we soon figured out that that was not true.

Repelling down the chasm was very tough. Even with Raben’s gear, we ran into many obstacles that slowed us down quite a bit. The rocks, as we got deeper, became blacker, wetter, and sometimes moldy moss spread a stone surface, which made it slippery, slimy, and basically impossible to climb.

Finally, we reached the wet misty base of the canyon, which gave me a chill right when I landed my feet. I looked around a bit and couldn’t see Raben anywhere. My panic began to rise, but fell back down when he whispered my name. I turned in the direction of his voice and was barely able to make out his dark silhouette in the black fog.

“Evan,” Raben said again, this time a little louder. I felt a little stupid when I realized he couldn’t see me either. He was whispering my name to try to find me.

“I’m here,” I whispered back.

Raben turned to look at me, and it took him a bit before he finally found where I was standing and walked over to me.

“The Mulgithian city is north of here down the chasm,” he said quietly. “The area we are in is too rocky and slimy for them to inhabit, so they probably don’t have any watchtowers this far away from their civilization.”

“Got it,” I said. We began walking slowly. I wondered why the Mulgithians would even think to create a civilization down here, where the terrain was barren and disgusting. For a while I assumed they had some better area deep in the chasm that we’d never seen before, with grassy fields lit by crystal light or something.

When the city came back into view, Raben nudged me in the shoulder to stop me, “Do you see it?” he whispered.

“I saw it before you,” I said, nudging him back, although I missed his shoulder because of the darkness and sort of jabbed him in the neck.

“This is serious,” Raben said, his whispered voice almost too quiet to make out.

“I know,” I said, “I tried to hit your shoulder, it was an accident,” I tried to whisper as quietly as possible while still making it audible, the only other sounds we heard came from the city, and they were just distant shuffles and other strange noises. For the most part, though, the city was as silent as the rest of the chasm. Maybe the culture of the Mulgithians involved hushed conversations and quiet steps to match the dark abyss they lived in.

As far as we could tell, Mulgithians could see well in the dark, which gave them an advantage in the Deep Divide, but there were still arches, giant boulders, and natural pillars down here to obscure the view, so we could hide from them. Thankfully, the wet moss and mold muted out the sound of our steps as well, which gave us another small advantage.

Multiple times, in the darkness of the chasm, I wondered if any of them were following us, or if they knew we were coming. I checked behind my shoulder several times, but there was nothing. Even with Raben close by, I felt alone in the blackness, fighting back the constant eerie feeling that we were being watched.

Raben placed his hand on a thick, black brick wall in front of me. The outer wall of the city. Once we got over it, or around it, or whatever we would do, I could finally get a good look at the details of the Mulgithian buildings.

I paused, watching Raben think. He stood there for quite a while, thinking and observing the wall, then he motioned for us to go left. I followed hesitantly.

A squeak coming from up ahead as we crept nearly startled me to death, but it was just a black rat that scuttled away when we came near. Unrealistic suspicion told me that the rat was a spy, but that was stupid.

As we went, Raben and I constantly checked for guard towers or Mulgithians watching from the stone brick wall, but there was nothing. The silence that came from the city made the paranoia even worse. I felt like it was only a matter of time before an ambush.

We walked across the entire width of the canyon, staying close to the wall, but not up against it, lest they would see us better. We instead stayed about fifty yards away from the wall to let the monoliths hide us. Once we got to the end, Raben led me back up to the wall and checked it as he did the other side, feeling along its surface and base.

Eventually, he laid his hands on a patch of squishy mold just under the wall, sinking his hands down into the gray slime. I cringed at the sight.

Raben took his hand out and stuck a long wire into it to check its depth, then removed that as well and slid over to me, crouched down.

“I found our way in,” he whispered, “I’ve been observing this weird mold on our trip over here. It grows as moss on the rocks, then when it rots, it liquifies and droops down. The liquid moss, turned into mold, is corrosive, and melts through the stone. I found this out when I stepped halfway into a large puddle of it on the way here. Since then, I’ve led us around the masses of sludge. But the fact that they pool together in bodies of slime will be useful. This pool here is thick enough and deep enough for us to climb through. If my guesses are correct, we can arrive at the other side by surging through the mold. Got it?”

I wanted to vomit at the idea, I’d rather swim through larvaberry juice than this smelly stuff, but it was a good idea nonetheless, “Yeah,” I said, “Are you sure it goes to the other side?” I pictured myself surging through the muck just to reach a dead end.

“Only one way to find out,” Raben replied.

“You said the stuff is corrosive?” I said, suddenly finding a flaw in his plan, “Won’t it burn our skin?”

“I don’t think so,” Raben said, “It is acidic, but just barely, I just put my hand in it, and it didn’t melt off, so I’d say it’s safe.”

Not really wanting to step into a pool of squishy mold, I tried to think of another excuse, but couldn’t think of one. I eventually nodded.

Raben gave me an end of the wire and gripped the other end himself, “I’ll go first,” He said, “You stay on the surface, I can hold my breath for a while, so I’ll climb into the sludge, if I hit a wall or can’t get to the other side somehow, I’ll tug twice. If I get to the end, I’ll tug thrice, and you can come down. Got it?”

“Yeah,” I said again.

“How long can you hold your breath?” Raben asked.

I shrugged, “Maybe half an hour?”

“Right,” Raben whispered, “I forgot about that. We should leave our packs here.”

I set my pack down next to Raben’s, all we needed when we got inside were our assassination gear Kobra provided for us, and that was strapped onto our belts and clothes, along with some rope. Raben had said never to be without rope during a mission like this.

Raben slowly stepped into the wet mass of mold, it didn’t make any squelching noise like I imagined. His foot sank in about a foot until coming to a stop, then he did the same with his other leg. Once the muck was up to his chest, he took a deep breath, gripping onto his wire tightly in his hand, and went under.

I got a spike of anxiety when he disappeared, the surrounding chasm seemed darker without Raben in my sight. I stepped closer to the pool of slime, giving him slack with the wire as he descended. I stood in silence for quite some time, feeling like a child checking under his bed as I looked around nervously for disturbances in the nothingness. That stopped however when Raben finally tugged three times on the wire.

I prepared myself mentally, then stuck my foot in the muck. Doing my best to step in the same places Raben did. The mold felt warm and alive, which grossed me out even more. This would probably be the most disgusting thing I would ever do, so much that Rion probably wouldn’t believe my story.

Putting one foot in front of the other, I found that the substance was easier than I thought it would be to move through, it was like pushing through chunky rotten pudding. The rocks on the bottom were thankfully not too deep, and I could tell that the mold went all the way under the brick wall.

Once I was completely submerged, I was overwhelmed by the stench of the fluid. Even though I wasn’t breathing, I could still smell the rot. The warm muck covered my body and drenched my clothes. I tried hard not to imagine creepy mold monsters living in the stuff, but failed.

I kept pushing, longing for the nightmare to end. I couldn’t see or hear anything, and all I could smell or feel was the mold. I surged my free hand through the gray fluid as I walked, placing it on anything it could find to give me a sense of direction.

The pool of muck went much deeper into the ground than I had hoped, but it wouldn’t make very much sense if the mold formed a perfect tunnel under the wall and to the other side.

Finally, the miserable descent became an ascension as the rocks rose again. I desperately climbed to the top of the pool, gripping the wire and stones around me for balance. My hand was the first thing to surface, giving me the first feeling of hope or success I had felt during the entire mission. 

When my face emerged, that hope died. It wasn’t Raben clutching the wire on the other side, it was one of several skeletal Mulgithians with weapons and chains, one of which was holding Raben by the neck.

“Smart,” one of them said. I was surprised it could speak English, “Using the ergai mold to get past the wall was not something we expected. You should pride yourselves for getting this far.”

I tried to duck back into the mold but was struck in the side of the head by something I couldn’t see. My vision went black and I lost consciousness.