Wanted in a New World Pt. 01

"I'm free," she said in shock.

"Ya, now run before..." I drifted off as I tried to stand up. Then, all at once, a dark-purplish glow flared all around my body. Then it vanished. I felt like I'd just gotten hit by a car. Every bone and muscle in my body screamed out in agony. This time, I knew I wasn't going to stay conscious. The last thing I saw was the worried expression on the maid's face as she looked over my writhing body.

"Young Master," I thought I heard her say, but then everything went black, and I seemed to fall down into a dark void.

***

"My, aren't you a strong one," a soothing voice called out to me. I had no sense of where it was coming from. It was everywhere and nowhere."Who... who are you?" I asked out loud, but my voice sounded muted. I asked again, but I only heard a sensual chuckle.

"It's time to go, little fella, but don't worry; we will see each other again real soon."

I felt something, like a hand, patting me softly on my cheek. Then all of a sudden, I was falling. When I looked down - or at least what felt like down - I thought I saw something that looked like...

... like Earth?

Chapter 3

My head was swirling as I drifted back into consciousness. As my vision started to clear, for a moment I thought I was back in my world - back on Earth - and that everything that I had just experienced was some wild, vivid dream. Maybe I'd been clipped by a passing car, or blindsided by a messenger cyclist, and knocked out, right there in front of the 7-Eleven. Maybe I'd suffered memory loss, so that even I didn't know when or where the accident had occurred.

I blinked a few times. I didn't see any natural light or blue sky above me. I didn't see anything that looked like the inside of a hospital, either. In fact, what I saw was a dirty, old ceiling - the kind you might find inside a decrepit church.

"Fuck."

"Young Master, you are awake," the maid said with relief in her voice.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice a little parched.

"You collapsed after you freed me. Here, drink this." She handed me a water skin. I took it greedily and downed the refreshing water. It helped me come to my senses; one of the first new things I realized was that I was half naked.

"Where is my shirt?"

"Ah," the maid replied, blushing a little, "you were gravely injured after your battle so I... had to remove your shirt to see your wounds, and heal you."

"Healed me?" I asked. "You can use healing magic?" I shouldn't have been surprised - by anything, really - but I was still out of sorts. I'd also just had the hope of all of this having been a dream snatched away from me. I wasn't in much of a position to be cool and take things in stride.

"Yes, I can," she replied. "It is the one reason why the head butler at the castle recruited me. I am pretty much useless otherwise." She sounded like she actually believed that. It made me sad, and a little angry.

"Oh I see," I said. I did a once over of my body, and discovered not a single wound; even the burn on my leg was completely healed. It was a relief as I wouldn't be laid up for weeks, but then something caught my attention. I was about to thank her for going out of her way in healing me, but something caught my eye. My body had changed since the last time I saw it. It was more defined.

"My body... it looks different, somehow," I said. "Did you do anything to it?"

The maid's faced twisted up in terror. "No no no no no, I didn't. I didn't do anything to your body. It's just..."

"What is it?" I snapped at her. I wasn't proud of it, but I was getting impatient.

"Your body didn't just suffer cuts and burns," she said. "It looked like your body was torn up from the inside. Like something reached in and ripped you apart. At first, I thought that was the reason you passed out after that mysterious purple haze enveloped you. Maybe someone cast a spell on you and tried to kill you. After I saw you fall, I rushed over and began to heal you, Young Master. Once I did, your body began to take on this form."

"I see," I said, regarding my new - and indisputably better-looking - form one more time.

"I guess Limit Break must have worn off," I whispered mainly to myself.

"Limit what?"

"Oh." I paused, as I hadn't realized that she was listening in on me. "Limit Break. Don't worry about it. It's, uh... the name of a spell that I used."

An amazing one, too, I thought to myself, as I regarded all the wreckage I'd left behind - including Brother Daniel's crumpled armor and destroyed body. Still, I'd better only use it as a last resort. I'd gotten pretty damn lucky that this young maid had had healing magic ready to go.

I realized I was getting a little tired of thinking of her as 'the young maid' all the time.

"Excuse me," I asked, "but what is your name?"

"It's Nyah, sir." The maid bowed her head.

"Nyah... no last name?"

"No, Young Master, I have no last name. My parents sold me off when I was quite young, so I can't remember it. They couldn't pay their taxes to the feudal lord, so they offered me instead. As I said, I am worthless, Young Master."

"Luke," I corrected her. "My name is Luke."

"As you say, Master Luke." She bowed fully.

"No it's just... oh never mind," I said in exasperation. I did not have the strength to argue with her.

"Master Luke, what is our next plan?"

"Our next plan? Why? Are you planning on leaving with me?"

"No, it's... I'm a dead woman," she said as she began to curl in on herself.

I asked what she meant by that, so she continued to explain.

"I'm dead if I go back to the castle. The king would execute me because I was caught by the Holy Order. He would dispose of me to hide any evidence of his crime, and if he doesn't, then that paladin that got away would just capture me again. I'm damned if I go and damned if I don't. The way I see it, the best way for me to survive is..." she paused, looking over Daniel. "... if I serve the man that bested three of the Holy Order's executioners."

So I'm her meat shield, I thought dryly.

I understood, though. She was stuck between a shitty rock and an even shittier hard place, and, even as a condemned man myself, I was her last hope to avoid getting crushed.

It's not like she was dead weight, either. Everyone who's ever played an RPG knows that having a healer on the squad is a huge plus. She was also a Lothrian native - probably not as well-informed as Enna had been, but Enna had turned out to be an assassin sent to kill me, so Nyah was probably an upgrade regardless. There was still so much I didn't know about this place.

The more I thought about it, the more it just made sense to have her tag along. Apparently, though, Nyah took my few moments of silence quite differently.

"Please, Master Luke, take me with you!" she blurted out. "I might not be good at anything, but I can heal you, I can carry your things, I can..." she reached out and began to pull the blanket she had onto the side, exposing a pale, full yet perky breast from her torn uniform. "... pleasure you, Master Luke."

"What!?" I asked in complete shock.

"I can pleasure you, Ma- Ma- Master," she said.. "You can use my body to your heart's content." She sounded miserable and uncertain, but, as I hesitated, she nevertheless reached her hand out and placed it upon my thigh.

"I am of age," she said. "The king had me service his noble friends that came to stay at the castle. The head butler even hires several women from a renowned brothel once a year to educate new maids in the art of pleasuring men."

She began to reach up even higher on my thigh. Her hand was dangerously close to my cock. I had never had a woman come on to me like that, but even though her hand felt nice, I could see the fear and unease in her eyes. Accuse me of chivalry, but I like it when a woman comes onto me out of lust and desire, not as part of a desperate transaction to save her own life. I quickly reached down and pulled her hand away from my thigh.

"You don't need to do that," I said. "You can come with me until we get out of the city. From there, you can go wherever you like. Now, let's get the hell out of here before that prick comes back with his friends."

As we got up, I found my ruined T-shirt. It was covered in dirt, cuts, blood - beyond salvaging. With no shirt, and without any spare clothes at all, I was left with only one choice: looting a corpse.

I knew it was going to be very different from a video game, but there was simply no way to prepare myself. The visual was horrifying, and the smell was already worse than that. I nearly puked trying to pluck ruined pieces of armor off Brother Daniel, and, even after I did, all I found was more guts and ruined clothing. Then, I actually did puke. It's just not possible for me to describe how bad it looked and smelled underneath that armor. After I finished heaving, it was all I could do to reach out and snatch what looked like a large coin purse from his belt. Even that took me a bunch of awkward tugs, all while trying to keep my face as far away from the half-pulverized corpse.

"Let's see what he has in here," I muttered to myself as I opened the thing and reached inside. I still didn't know what money looked like in Lothrian, but I figured Nyah would know it when she saw it.

Instead of coins, gems, or... anything at all, instead, my hand just kept moving deeper into the bag, until half my arm was inside. I yanked it out quickly - an instinctive fear response, but probably a good one.

"What the fuck!," I shouted, holding the bag at arm's length. I scanned my other arm - the one that had been inside of it - worried the bag might have done something horrible to it, even though it hadn't bitten it off or anything.

"Oh my," I heard Nyah say.

I looked over at her. Her eyes were fixed on the bag.

"That must be a dimensional storage bag," she said in awe. "I never thought I'd ever see one up close."

I waved the bag around, alerting her to the fact that she was about to get even closer to it. When I was confident she understood, I tossed it to her. She caught it deftly, and ran her hands all over it like it was some prized artifact.

"So?" I asked expectantly.

"Ah, yes," she replied bashfully. "Apologies, Master. These bags allow their owners to store an unimaginable amount of items without being burdened by either their size or weight. Rumor has it that they were created by an Otherworlder."

"Okay," I said, "so what was this asshole doing with it?"

Nyah looked up at me. I could see the moment of disbelief, before she remembered what I was.

"The Holy Order rounds up near anything and everything in the name of 'safekeeping,' Master Luke," she said, "whether it truly comes from Otherworlder magic or not. It's no surprise one of their members was in possession of it. They've never shied away from using every bit of power to do... what they do."

She packed a lot into those last three words. I couldn't blame her. Enna had been my introduction to the Holy Order of Xion, and then Michael and Daniel had stormed in just to make extra sure I knew how horrible it was.

She handed the bag back to me. I took it warily.

"Don't suppose you know how it works?" I asked.

"They say that in order for you to retrieve something, then all you must do is think of it as you reach inside the bag. They say the bag could sense your intent."

"Ok, but I have no idea what this asshole had stuffed in this thing?"

"Oh, well," Nyah looked up at the ceiling and pondered what to do next. Her thinking face was quite cute, but I didn't say that to her. Didn't want to distract her. Then she made a little ah sound and looked back at me.

"Maybe you could just turn it over and shake it until something comes out."

"I see," I said as I opened the bag once again, and flipped it upside down. Then with both hands firmly grasping the bag, I gave it a hard shake. At first nothing was coming out, but then a single short sword came tumbling out. Surprised by the sudden appearance, I continued shaking the bag, and just like Santa's bag, things started pouring out. After a minute or so of shaking, nothing was coming out of the bag, so I tucked it neatly away and went over my plunder; potions in glass vials, a couple of extra swords, daggers, another war hammer, a bag filled with perishable foods like stale bread and jerky, a coin purse with actual coins in it, and last but not least, a clean shirt. After I quickly put it on, which was a must as it was getting a bit chilling, I went back inside the bag. I found a few more things, like scrolls, and extra pieces of armor, a key with a logo of a boar on a lanyard, but what seemed to catch my attention the most, was a metal collar that looked oddly similar to the one Nyah had around her neck. It came with a letter attached to it.

I handed Nyah the letter, and asked her to read it over. Meanwhile, I stuffed everything I wasn't going to use immediately back into the magic bag. It was just as weird stuffing it back in as it had been taking it out. I even found that if I looked too closely at the mouth of the bag when larger objects were sinking into it, I started to feel a little dizzy and sick.

Once I was finished, I looked over to Nyah expectantly. I assumed she didn't learn anything from the letter that I needed to know right away. I motioned for her that it was time to go. It was probably long past that time, but I couldn't complain too much. I'd been lucky as all hell to find this magic bag.

Nyah didn't move right away, though. "Master Luke, what about her?" she asked, pointing to the still-unconscious Enna.

"Shit," I said. I'd completely forgotten about my would-be assassin. She was still knocked out, and she'd suffered some pretty bad injuries, but she didn't seem like the type to let that stop her for long.

I knew if I let her live, I was going to regret it, but I wasn't a cold-blooded killer. Daniel had been literally torturing me, and Michael had been about to rape Nyah in the meantime. That had been the mother of all emergencies. This would be murder, straight up. She wasn't even awake.

"Are you going to let her go?" Nyah asked. I could hear her own hesitance and uncertainty. She knew it was fucked up to kill an unconscious woman. She also knew who and what Enna was.

"I can't," I said, shaking my head. "She's all-in with this Holy Order stuff. She won't forget about me just because I spared her life. She'll come for me." I tightened my grasp on the short sword's handle.

"Then are you going to kill her?"

I drew the sword and walked over to Enna. She looked half dead. She was barely breathing.

"I think I have to."

That's what it came down to. I was in a fight for my life, against the most powerful organization on this entire planet. Michael was a member, and so was Enna. Her body, here, in front of me, was helpless, but Enna wasn't just Enna. She was the Order. She was one of its many, many weapons. She was dangerous, because that Order was just going to pick her up again and keep trying to kill me with her - and with Michael, and with anything else they decided to throw at me.

I raised the sword over my head and took aim for her neck, hoping that I could at least make a clean kill.

Just before I could bring the sword down, Nyah spoke up. "Wait Master Luke!" she cried out.,

I was grateful, but also a little annoyed. Like, seriously, the last fucking moment? I thought to myself. Really? I even stumbled a little, panicking at the thought that I might stab or slice the unconscious assassin by accident.

"I think... I think there might be another way." Nyah said. She held up the letter I'd given to her. "This missive says that that collar isn't merely an enslavement collar, but a special one."

"Are you sure?" I asked. I kept my grip on the sword. I don't know why, but I was also suddenly paranoid that Enna might wake up and try to cast a spell - or that she was playing dead.

Nyah offered the letter, and I took it. I lowered the blade, but never released it.

Once again, I struggled with a stray feeling of gratitude for that sorceress from the castle. When I looked at the letter, I knew that it wasn't in English, but I could read its contents just as easily as if it had been.

"Brother Michael, Brother Daniel,

As you travel to Mort in the Bartfort Kingdom, I want you to keep your eyes and ears open. Rumor has it the King is planning on summoning Otherworlders to shore up his weakening position. He is a fool if he believes that the Holy Order does not know all. That being said, I believe that we can benefit from his foolishness. This collar is uniquely powerful; use it on an Otherworlder - the most powerful one you can snatch, if there are more than one. The collar I sent you is a very powerful enslavement collar, made by our finest artisans. If possible, subdue and enslave the Otherworlder that King Bartfort summons, and we can use their power to suit our own needs. Our faction in the order is growing stronger every day, but the power of an Otherworlder can greatly tip the scales in our favor. It is time we the Holy Order of Xion finally take over this ratchet plant like when our founder Lord Sullivan did over a century ago. It is our divine right as Followers of Xion to finish what Sullivan started. Go forth and complete your mission in Mort, see the slave traders in the underground, and eliminate all those that stand in your way. For the Might of Xion,"

As I put down the parchment, I let the message sink in. 'I was summoned in the middle of the cold civil war among the most powerful forces in the world, and I was stuck in the middle of it.' I thought to myself as I put the parchment down. Luckily I had no intentions of fighting in their stupid war, but I did need to do something about one of their priestess. Luckily the solution to that problem was already brought to me.

"Well I know you aren't going to like this," I said, "but it's either this or death, so I hope you can understand." I was talking to Enna - or her unconscious body, anyway - but I suppose I might as well have been talking to Nyah too. It had been her idea, but she'd only blurted it out because she'd been about to watch me murder someone. I could feel her wince when the collar went around Enna's neck. It was only going to get worse from there.

I made a small wound on the outside of my forearm with the sword, and got a few drops of my own blood. I'd read that somewhere - that it was beyond stupid to slice your own palm. I smeared it on the collar, then looked back at the letter. I wanted to make sure I didn't fuck up the incantation.

"Bound to my blood, bound to my line, open hand, lowered head. Your wellspring, mine. Serve. Obey. Defend."

It sounded just about as horrible as magically-enforced slavery should, I supposed.

The collar glowed to life. A loud metal click echoed around the church, as the glowing grew brighter and brighter, until it encompassed Enna as a whole. Then all of that light collapsed around the collar, only to shoot towards the back of my hand as a concentrated beam. I flinched at the sudden attack, but instead of searing pain, I only felt a mounting tingling sensation. A strange-looking sigil began to form. When it was complete, the sensation faded. I looked at the weird pattern and design, and I could only surmise that it was the mark of a master. Then I looked over at Enna's collar again, and saw the same mark upon it.

"He never said that part," Nyah whispered. "About a wellspring."

"Huh," I said, looking back towards her. "I guess maybe every collar's different?"

Nyah shrugged. I could tell she was in a bad place. I'd figured she would be, seeing some other woman suffer the same fate as her. I realized that it must be pretty complicated and confusing for her, on top of just being plain awful to watch. The same guy who'd so gallantly freed her from her own enslavement without a second thought had just taken a slave of his own.