Wanted in a New World Pt. 01

Part 1: I got kidnapped and sent to another world.

Big thanks to neuroparenthetical for helping edit my story.

Prologue

I walked out of my local 7-Eleven after a grueling day of classes. I'd gotten my lunch, and now I just wanted to get back home to my measly, loft-style, one-bedroom apartment, where my outrageous rent was two months overdue. I didn't want to deal with that, or the fact that my landlord was hounding me for the money. All I wanted to do was eat in peace, then lay my aching head on the slightly smelly, but oddly comfortable, pillow that lay atop my similarly-smelly-yet-comfortable twin bed.

Alas; that would never come to pass.

On that very day, at that very moment, a blinding ray of light enveloped me and whisked me away. I screamed like a little girl when it happened. I felt something pulling me up at an alarming rate; it was so sudden, and so intense, that I dropped the bag that contained my turkey sandwich. Then the light that enveloped me started to change colors and shape. It was hard to describe what I saw after that: streams of light of different wavelengths, swirling clouds, and some strange runic symbols rushing past my eyes. To me, it looked like I was traveling through hyperspace, while in the Tardis, while taking a massive dose of LSD. Then, just as suddenly as the ride had started, it ended with me hitting a stone floor: hard. Waves of nausea, pain and dizziness filled me, as I tried to get my bearings, but I felt like I was going to hear my lunch. It almost made me feel glad that I hadn't had the chance to eat my sandwich, or else that could have been really bad.

"^*$(_*&*&@#dads$ga^)ag^&*g@a# a^g&#$^& )ga &)#$^ ) 7 r3w6," a voice said from a far off distance, speaking in a language I had never heard before.

I tried looking in the direction where the voice was coming from, but that little trip hadn't just disoriented me. It had left my body exhausted and sore. Also, I was still seeing spots from the intense light show. Still, I persevered, and managed to get up on my feet, or atleast to my knees, and peer at what was in front of me. It was a group of people, all wearing unusual clothing. My eyes were still blurry, but they looked like they wore clothes from the Renaissance Era, like the people from Assassin's Creed II. Then I saw someone with a fancy crown on top of his head. The people around him, I realized, were loitering the way that royalty's attendants would.

"The King," I said in a groaning voice, trying to hold back the bile that was in the back of my throat.

There was a commotion among what I assumed to be the king's entourage; they were all still speaking in a bizarre tongue that I couldn't even begin to identify. At first, I thought they were some deranged LARPer group that took their role playing way too seriously, but then shit got real.

A ghostly woman in dark robes walked right up to me. She held a glowing orb and began to speak to me in that unknown language, but it had a more harmonic cadence to it. The orb began to glow brighter as the woman stretched out her hand towards my forehead. I tried to back away, as I was unsure of her intentions. I tried to get up on my feet, but my weakened body gave out under the strain and I fell right back where I started, which was bad. My stumbling gave the woman the perfect opportunity to reach out and grab my head. White-hot, searing pain flooded my head as I was bombarded with what I could only describe as knowledge. It felt like she was pouring hot laval from her hand, directly into my brain, but instead of hot molten rock entering my mind, images, pictures, and weird sounds poured right in and filled all the nooks and crannies within my own mind. I could only hope they weren't knocking anything else loose. It only lasted for a few seconds, but to me, it felt a hell of a lot longer.

"Whaaaat... did you... do?" I asked as I rubbed my temples, wishing away the mother of all migraines.

I turned to face the woman, but she quickly made her way back to the person with the crown. I was about to speak up once again to ask what they did to me, but I quickly stopped, as I noted something different.

" g80(* 7_R* ($y#& _&*YFH*$ _#&... his reading is null, Your Highness," the ghostly woman said in a language that I somehow understood. "My deviation can't seem to pick up any power coming from him."

"I see, so no power then?"

"Yes, your Highness. It's highly unusual, but..."

"What the fuck is happening?" I said as I wasn't putting too much attention into what they were saying, but the fact that now I was understanding them.

"She cast the knowledge transference spell on you, Young Master."

I quickly turned around to face the person who'd spoken. It was a woman dressed in a maid's outfit.

"The what?" I asked a little too loudly, which only intensified my migraine.

"The high sorceress cast the knowledge transfer spell," she patiently explained, "thus gifting you the ability to understand our native language. I know you must be in tremendous pain, but that will pass in time. Here, let me help." the maid reached out and began to massage my temples. As she was doing so, I heard her doing a chant. At first when she first touched me, it hurt like hell, but then a warm, soothing feeling started to bloom. Then just like that, the pain started to fade.

"Wait, the ability to understand your language?" I asked, my mind slowly coming out of the fog.

"It's why you can understand us," she said. "The gift is accompanied by... Well, that's not important. What's important is that we're all able to understand each other right away. That's why we give the gift freely to all Otherworlders."

"Wait, you said 'Otherworlder; what do you mean by that?" I asked in shock, as the pain was nearly gone, but then it was replaced by a new sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"You are an Otherworlder. We summoned you from your world to ours. Welcome to Lothian," She'd slightly bowed to me, now lifting her hands away from my head. The pain was still there, but now it was a dull ache.

I didn't quite understand what the woman was saying, nor did I have the time to process it, as someone came up behind me.

"That is enough," the ghostly woman said. "Leave us." The maid quickly bowed again and walked off to a wall, fear evident on the maids' angelic face.

"Come," the sorceress said to me, more of a command than a request.

Unsure what to do or what to say, I just got up and walked with the woman. I was still suffering from the effects of the mental download, but the pain was nearly gone. If I ever saw that maid again, I would thank her for that healing touch of hers. Still in that haze of befuddlement, I seemed to have left my backpack behind, which was the least of my concerns. I was finally able to get a good view of my surroundings, at least. Everywhere I could see was nothing but towering stone walls, each with glowing crystals mounted on sconces every fifteen feet or so. It looked like a castle or a fortress, but, given the circumstances, it came across to me more like a dungeon - and those crystals weren't something that belonged in any castle or dungeon from a history book.

For a few more moments, I still instinctively rejected the reality of what I was seeing, but that feeling faded on its own. None of my thoughts seemed to influence the process one way or the other. On our way to the stairs, we passed by a glowing window. Curiosity got the better of me, so I broke from following the dark-robed woman and moved closer.

"What the..." I said in shock.

What I saw when I looked through - or into? - that window was a large antichamber with a woman standing in the middle of it, wearing clothes like mine. The glowing aura was wrapping itself around her, as if she was controlling it.

Is that magic? I asked myself. My next few questions were more disturbing, but seemed much more reasonable as I silently ticked them off.

Am I unconscious, and not just asleep? Did I get knocked out? Do I have a concussion? Am I dying?

Even with all that running through my head, I wanted to get a closer look at that floating woman. Unfortunately, she had her back towards me, and the crystal window was a solid barrier, just like the stone surrounding it. All I really saw was that she had long, flowing, blonde hair.

"Excuse me..." I tried to get my escort's attention, but she quickly cut me off.

"Keep it moving," she said brusquely. Then she yelled for guards, and two hulking figures in full plate mail armor came up and flanked me on both sides. Not wanting to get in a tussle with the two men, I followed in the sorceress's direction.

We made our way out of the dingy, stony room, and, for a moment, I thought we'd gone outside. That's how bright the light was in contrast. After a moment, though, I realized that we'd instead entered a great hall of some kind. It was immense, and grander than anything that I have ever seen. Stained glass windows decorated the walls, marble flooring ran as far as the eye could see, and more people in fine but strange-looking clothing were walking about. I was about to ask where we were, but I never got the chance to. The ghostly woman quickly ordered the guards to grab me and toss me out of the castle.

"HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I screamed at them, trying to break their strong grip. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!? UNHAND ME!"

Unsurprisingly, they didn't listen to me. I felt I could have done a better job at breaking free of their grasp, but my body was still weak from whatever they'd done to me. Finally, they dragged me outside of whatever building I'd been held at, and I heard the sound of large, heavy chains being moved. Then, before I could even try to get my bearings all over again - as if I'd ever gotten them at all - , the two men threw me from their grasp, and I landed hard on a cobblestone floor several feet away from them. All the air from my lungs escaped from my body, which made it hard for me to get back onto my feet. By the time I did, there was a loud, metallic clang. A large iron gate slammed shut, with the guards that had tossed me standing on the other side of it. Then they moved to the side as two large, heavy, oak doors closed right in front of me.

"HEY!" I yelled at them through the door. "If you are going to kidnap someone and then let them go, at the very least you could call them an Uber or something!"

I was pissed as all hell, but the more rational part of my brain was relieved that I was no longer a captive of that strange group of people. I thought I was in the clear until I turned around and took in my new surroundings. What was in front of me was something out of a fairy tale: large stone buildings, rolling fields, and horse-drawn carriages rolling down the cobblestone streets. Everything looked like it came out of Cinderella. I was so shocked by the scene that I quickly ran forward and then turned around to see where I had just been. It was a castle - a fucking castle, like the kind one might see in Game Of Thrones, or some other fantasy show. The place had long archer towers with archer slits, and battlements where guards in plate mail were walking about, as if on patrol.

As I looked up at the towering structure, I tried to remember what that girl in the maid's outfit had told me, and put all the pieces together: the large, towering castle; the Renaissance Era clothing; suddenly having been able to understand a language that I hadn't been able to even guess at - well, either that, or one of the best-organized flash-mob con jobs in history; what I assumed to be magic being performed by that blonde girl - or, again, a group of people who'd spent an ungodly amount of time and money to play a massive prank on a complete nobody; and, finally, all the very real pain I'd felt.

It was the pain that tipped it over the edge for me. It was the raw, physical sensations I'd felt - and was still feeling, a little bit. I hadn't been kidnapped by some strange LARPing group. I hadn't been targeted by a bunch of rich psychos for a million-dollar prank. No, Luke J. Morris, certified nobody, had been ripped from the world he knew, and summoned to some other one - one with magic, and with a bunch of total fucking assholes who'd just kicked him out of their castle without ceremony or explanation.

"DAMMIT!" I screamed to the high heavens.

Chapter 1

"MMMMMMMMM."

That was my stomach, growling in pain.

It had been several hours since I'd been tossed out of that castle, and I was now sitting under a bridge that ran over a stream. I had made my way through the city streets and found several cart vendors, but I'd had no money to pay - well, nothing that they'd recognized as money. Broke as I was - had been? Still was? - I'd had a few dollars in my pocket when I'd been magically-vacuum-sucked out of my old life. It wasn't the first time I went hungry. There were times where I would skip meals, just so I could pay off my overdue rent.

"MMMMMMMMM," my stomach growled once again. This time it felt like it was upset at me for having dropped that turkey sandwich earlier, and for having skipped breakfast, and dinner from the night before.

"Fuck," I said to my erstwhile kidnappers, even though they weren't there to hear it. "You summoned me to a new world and immediately tossed me out on my ass. The very least you could have done was give me a sack of gold or something." I stared bitterly at the silhouette of the castle, off in the distance. I had a mind to start screaming at it, but decided against it. Screaming wouldn't accomplish anything, or satisfy my empty stomach. Luckily, the bridge I was at was right next to an orchard grove just outside the city. If I couldn't pay for my food, then I would just have to steal. I had never stolen anything before, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Deciding to follow my stomach and not my good sense, I got up, dusted off my jeans, and headed towards the orchard.

Before I got there, I heard someone call out to me.

"Excuse me, are you okay?" It was a feminine voice. I turned towards its source.

"Ah ya, I'm okay," I said to her, trying to hide the fact that I was about to start my life of crime.

She looked at me for a good long while. I was afraid she might run away and call for the city guard or something, but instead, she asked me a very important question.

"Are you an Otherworlder?"

"Ahhh," I paused, unsure of what the consequences of the truth would be. Then I decided I probably looked strange enough that anybody looking to give me trouble would have already. I also needed help. I needed a lot of help.

Also, she had a pretty face - not like a supermodel's, but soft and pleasant. That shouldn't have mattered, but it did.

"Yes I am," I admitted. "How could you tell?" I tried to play off the last bit as a joke, but I was hungry and exhausted. I probably didn't manage it.

"Your clothes," she replied with a very disarming smile. "I know it's a very big question, but... may I ask where you came from?"

She seemed nice, and she had a pretty face. I was so tired, and so hungry, that that was all it took. I told her everything that had happened to me since I'd arrived in her world. She nodded along, and seemed satisfied that I'd started at the ending, rather than telling her all about Earth.

She was very sympathetic towards me. She told me that she was sorry for my misfortune, and even offered me some food. She pulled something out of her rough sack, and it was an actual turkey sandwich.

"Hmmm, thank you," I said between giant, ravenous bites. "You know, I was almost about to go in there and pick some apples." I jerked my head towards the orchard.

"Good thing I came then," she said, again with that disarming smile of hers. "You know stealing is a crime. By the way, my name is Enna. I am a priestess for the great Lord Xion, but people just call me En. What is your name?"

"Luke. Luke Morris," I replied. I still hadn't filled my stomach enough to remember my manners. I just kept eating and talking at the same time. "So you're a priestess; what does that entail?"

"Followers of Lord Xion follow his ways of peace and true justice. We help the weak and punish the wicked, but, since you didn't steal anything, I suppose I don't need to break out the whips and chains." She smiled at me again. I gulped a little.

"Thank you," I said, "But the lousy king who summoned me didn't leave me much of a choice, did he? Not very peaceful to kidnap someone, is it? Not very just to toss them away in a brand new world without a penny. So what do you say? Can Lord Xion help me out? I'd say I qualify as weak, and the people who brought me here seem pretty wicked."

She sighed, and glanced towards the castle. "Your words ring true, Luke Morris," she said, "but my church is very poor. I have little else to give. Shelter, perhaps, for a time."

I stood and smiled at her. "That's definitely something," I said. "I'll take it!"

We started to make our way to her church, and, during the walk there, she began to tell me a little bit about her world: Lothian.

"So wait," I interrupted her, "sorry. Big question. Magic is real here? Spells and witches and stuff?"

"Well," she replied gently, "as you might imagine, it's a lot more complicated than 'spells and witches and stuff,' Luke Morris, but the simple answer is yes."

As we traveled, I couldn't help but notice Enna's appearance. She was pretty, but in a subtle way. Her body was slender, and the way that she moved told me that she possessed a certain grace, even though she was trying to hide it. Upon closer inspection, her face was also quite attractive; again, she just wasn't doing anything to accentuate her natural beauty. She was also, as far as I could tell, well-educated. Since I apparently understood her language completely, I could tell that she was speaking a bit formally and using fairly advanced words from time to time. Unfortunately for me, I could also tell that she wasn't telling me everything. In fact, it seemed like she was making a real effort to hold back something pretty darn important. That didn't sit well with me, but I didn't want to alienate the only person so far who seemed interested in helping me. I kept my mouth shut, and we entered the city.

As we walked down the bustling street, En kept up a running commentary, pointing out places, people, and various facts I'd definitely need to know. She'd also informed me that summoning Otherworldsers wasn't an uncommon sight, but she'd also said that nobody knew how to send Otherworlders back to their own worlds. That sent a very motivating wave of fear and dread through my whole body.

"Am I really going to be stuck here forever?" I thought to myself, as the sudden realization was finally setting in. Still I tried not to show it, and continued to listen on to En's helpful commentary, like the city we were in.

The city that we were in was Mort, the capital of the Kingdom of Bartfort. According to En, magic was what ran Lothian, and it was powered by something called Ethereum - more commonly called 'Ether.' Ether could be found everywhere, according to her - , from the fields of grass to the very tops of the mountains; from the sea; and even from the air. People also had Ether inside of them, but only the skilled or the blessed could harness its strength. Those people wound up being wizards, sorcerers, or even adventures, the latter of which was a true profession.

The more she talked about adventurers, the less surprised I was. They sounded exactly like the guys you'd play as in a Dungeons & Dragons game. They were morally flexible, ready to risk their lives, and spent much of their time scouring dark corners of the world for treasure, or killing monsters, or both. Sometimes they'd get hired for a particular job, but sometimes they'd just head out into the world and see what they ran into. Then they'd bring back rare ores, gems, and even Ethereum shards, and the folks back in the cities would use them to craft strong weapons and magical items.