It was dark.

A silhouette of a man sat huddled tightly against beneath a wall.

It was cold.

His head was stuffed between his soaked knees, an arm wrapped around his head, the other dangled at his side.

It was agony.

His thoughts were in disarray. His ears rang, opposing voices screamed within his head, their shrieks reverberated within his skull, threatening to tear his head apart.

A pulsing red light pestered him, its glare pierced his brain, though it was the least of his worries.

Rene flinched, he flicked his head to the source.

Light?

The recoil from his sudden head movement amplified the torture, he winced in response. Still, he didn’t ignore what he saw: it was an impossibility.

A hallucination?

No, in the distance, an ethereal red dot flickered with unparalleled brightness, Rene nearly squinted his eyes in response to the glare. It was far too real to be fake.

“Saffry?” He muttered.

But the light ignored his words. They slowly pulsed with uninterrupted stability, there existed no elements that could disturb its aery incandescence.

Though a newfound hope, the man found the strength to stand up. The light was strange, though he could clearly see its ruby luster, but it didn’t seem to light up his surroundings. All he saw was a glistening ruby bordered in the blackest black; like a lighthouse enveloped by a stormy night, it called to him.

Rene walked towards it with stumbling steps, through the darkness, through the unknown.

“FUCK!”

He fell to his knees and used his remaining head to grasp his head; he had walked headfirst into a hard surface. The pain from his migraine instantly snapped him out of his trance.

Catching his breath, Rene stood up and used his hand to feel the thing he had just walked into. He could still see the red dot in front of him, but there was certainly something blocking his way.

The only explanation was that this light was somehow shining through this obstruction. Rene shifted his perspective by moving slightly sideways, to find that the light stayed still.

The appearance of the light was nothing short of a miracle, Rene resolved himself to determine its source. He pushed through the pain and walked alongside whatever was blocking him in hopes of finding an opening.

Along the way, Rene heard more voices, whether they were his own or from someone else, he didn’t know; he ignored them all, his only focus was getting to the red light, nothing else mattered.

Rene walked and walked. Were his shoes still on or was he walking barefoot? He wondered, as there was no longer any feeling below his thighs. He didn’t dare to bend down and check with his hand, the reality of him not being able to stand up again was too real.

Finally, his fingers felt air, the obstruction disappeared. It was a path that went the same direction as the red dot. Rene didn’t think twice before going in. The location of the red light had only barely shifted when he arrived at the alleyway, it was evidently very far.

Rene suddenly shivered, not from cold, but from a bad premonition. In fact, it was warm here, too warm; no winds blew.

Isn’t this path too narrow?

A narrow path might not continue long enough to reach the red dot, but what was the alternative? To back out and search for another wider one?

If the current path led to a dead end, would he have enough energy to back out and search for another? Yet, he may also never find another path like this one if he were to leave.

Rene was left with his muddled, psychotic mind. He had to make a decision.

He recalled when he saw the city from the air, he wasn’t in the brutalist portion as the wall he ran along was clearly cobblestone; it was built using the style of the latter half. Curvy lanes and narrow streets, that was the characteristic of the latter city. A street as narrow as this one would definitely not travel straight. It would not continue in the direction of the red light.

Rene stood motionless for a few moments before taking a step forward. He would gamble, he would leave it up to chance, he had already learned to not trust himself.

One step after another, Rene walked on.

He imagined the street narrowing ahead, shrinking until it was the width of his shoulder, then his head, so that he would have to squeeze himself through the crack in order to move forwards. Eventually it would become so narrow that he would be trapped, unable to move even back.

Apart from the occasional voices, he moved forwards unheeded, yet these thoughts never disappeared, they only became more—loud. They threatened him to turn back, to give up, to end it all. His only source of solace was the red light, he stared at it unblinkingly, so that his entire being was focused on the light, so that he wouldn’t be coaxed by the voices around him.

One step after another, Rene walked on.

Something was happening to the light as he moved closer; it was slowly diverging into three. Rene saw three red dots now. Their brightnesses were slightly different, Rene aimed for the brightest one.

There was another trend, the voices were becoming more numerous, it was subtle at first, but now he had been drowned within the ear splitting cacophony.

He licked his lips, they were chapped. His feet were as heavy and lifeless as bricks, his legs felt like stumps. He could no longer sense his broken arm, the only note of its presence was the pain it produced, as for his other arm, it was probably gone already, there was no longer any sensation of it. He dragged his shoulder along a wall to know where he was. Rene felt like he was walking in a corpse. Despite this, he ignored it all, he ignored the outside, he ignored himself.

One step after another, Rene walked on.

Just then, he saw the shadow of a figure on the ground ahead.

This-!

He swiftly turned around, shaking off the migraine produced by the recoil of turning his head. It was a pale dot—yellow in color. The sun had risen behind him.

Warm tears slid down his pale lifeless cheeks. He subconsciously wiped them with his sleeve. Thank god, his right arm was still there.

It was a sickly white and covered in blood. The skin on his fingertips were completely scraped away, replaced with five red circles. He tried to make a fist to find that it wouldn’t close, nevertheless, he was glad to see his arm still attached.

His left arm looked much worse. It was bloated and had a shade of blackish purple. Rene looked away almost immediately from the distressing sight.

He looked down to see his shirt and pants covered with holes and sprinkled with blood, at least there were still shoes on his feet.

After examining himself, Rene reluctantly turned around from the sun and kept treading towards the brightest red light.

The sun at his back had given him a newfound energy, despite his legs screaming for him to stop, he kept taking another step, and it kept working.

He was almost there, the red light now shifted with every footfall, moving relative to his change in perspective. He could see the progress made with his every stride, he could see how close he was. The sun allowed him to see one final obstacle blocking the source of the light. The voices were now unbearably loud, but now that he was so near, Rene gritted his teeth and pressed onwards.

KEEP GOING!

Left… right… left… right…

Rene’s inner self screamed to suppress the other voices. There were multiple instances where he nearly tripped on the flat ground, but somehow, the other feet allowed him to maintain stability.

Finally, he had done it. The last obstruction was passed.

THIS-!

Rene’s stiff jaw fell agape with shock, the source of the light had surpassed his wildest ideas. His rigid body quivered as he stood frozen while staring at the scene in front. There were thoughts that it was a hallucination, though Rene held absolute confidence that no part of him, conscious or unconscious, could have created what laid ahead.

It was a water fountain draped in red, bordered in black, and surrounded in shadow. The water which flowed beautifully off the fountain’s multiple tiers glistened with ruby luster. At the very top, a vermillion dot pulsated with unparalleled brilliance. With every pulse, red rays pierced the darkness, bringing Rene a long forgotten feeling of warmth.

The multiphonic dissonance almost brought him to his knees, yet, he stood but a few dozen meters away from the audio recorder he and Saffry had planted, as if Rene would allow some sounds to stop him.

Ignoring the pain of moving his head, he tilted the world to an angle so that his left ear was covered by his left shoulder. With his right hand, he covered the other ear. Like this, Rene tread on.

The last stretch of ground felt the longest. The echoes resounding within his head increased with every step he took, they made his mind spin and his body tremble. He was going to lose sight of the light. What was so wrong with stopping right here?

Tap.

His foot bumped into something. Rene opened his eyes which he had closed along the way. He was now at the dazzling red base of the fountain. The serene sounds of crashing water freed him from his mental prison. He stepped into the chilled water.

They came back again, the cries, the whispers, the screams, the calls, as loud as a machine gun firing beside his ear, as numerous as the raindrops in a storm. Rene keeled over from the assault and fell into the water. He gritted his teeth, got up, and began climbing the steps of the fountain.

Three large circular bowls were pierced through the center by a rotund column of stone. Water fell like a stream from top to bottom, from one tier to the next. With one hand, Rene grasped the bowl in the middle of the fountain in an attempt to hoist his body onto the lowest level. It slipped, his face smacked into the lip of the third bowl. Was his nose bleeding? He didn’t know, he didn’t care.

Rene tried again. His leg accompanied his arm this time. He lifted his leg with great difficulty and placed it into the third tier. Paired with a hop of his other foot, his body fully rolled into the third bowl.

The top of the fountain was still a distance away, he repeated this process again for the second bowl. The floor was now smaller, and now he had to adapt to slipperiness of the third tier. He lost count of how many times he tried, but eventually, it was accomplished.

Standing on the second tier, the source of the light was right in front of him. Without hesitation, he reached out for it.

It vanished within his hand.

Panic and despair quickly overwhelmed him. The voices were drowned out by a delirium, the pain vanished, as with everything. What remained of the light was reclaimed by shadow.

**********

It was dark.

I’m alive?

Rene examined his body.

I’m laying down… There’s something soft under me… It’s no longer cold?

It was just then that Rene noticed his eyes were closed, apparently his cognitive dissonance had not entirely faded.

He opened his eyes to see a dim light on the ceiling, it wasn’t the sun, as it was too white in color. Despite this, it provided just enough light for him to see his surroundings.

I’m… in a room. I’m in a bed… There’s something covering me.

He quickly sat up to his immediate regret, his sudden movement made his headache immediately relapse. After the initial pangs of pain, the first thing he noticed were the red lights. Two remained, their luster shined through the walls and met his eyes. After being mesmerized by them for a while, he managed to remove the blanket and see his body.

The fingertips on his right hand were wrapped in with some type of darkish green tape, his left arm was also wrapped in something similar, but there was more of the stuff. It reminded him of a cast. He also noticed that he no longer felt hungry or thirsty, apparently he was fed food and water before he awoke.

Either way, it was evident that he had been rescued and treated by someone, how lucky he was, his torment would continue.

His legs were incredibly sore but they still worked. Standing up, he found that his clothes had been changed. The room he found himself in was like a cube, Rene walked near the wall to examine it.

Dark, smooth, and rectangular. Am I in the brutalist portion of the city? Then again, there was that brutalist library, which was located in the latter part…

He also saw the evidence of a door, it had no handles, but its existence was indicated by a door shaped rectangular seam in the wall. At head height, there was a shiny rectangle as black as the night.

Rene quickly stepped away from the door, recognising that he had developed a strange new phobia.

Not being able to conclude where he was, he sat down on the bed and began to ponder about the nature of the red light.

There were three red lights, so if the first one corresponded to the recorder at the fountain, it's very possible the other two are the other recording devices we planted.

Rene racked his brain to remember.

The other two… one was in some lecture hall, the other—the third floor of a library…

The library—the last place Saffry and I went to before she abandoned me. Wait, abandoned?

His eyes widened, in his moment of despair, he had automatically assumed that Saffry had left him, but was this truly the case?

Would she leave me here on purpose? No, no, it wouldn’t make sense. I know about ‘Lorn’, yes, that’s the name of the organization that recruited me.

‘Lorn’, what an odd name, perhaps it was an acronym for something. Unfortunately, Rene didn’t get a chance to ask.

That’s right, my existence is a massive security risk, a compromise to the secrecy which ‘Lorn’ values so much. It wouldn’t make sense for Saffry to simply leave me here…

Then, it was an accident?

Rene’s body lightly shook from this realization, he had uncovered something of major importance. His focus went back to his time in the library.

Assuming that there was an accident, then the most likely suspect for what caused the accident is that library. But what exactly went wrong… and when? Was it immediately after we entered or at the very end?

Saffry noted that the strange matter density in the library is abnormally high, it also increased tenfold with every floor… But this itself isn’t enough to explain the issue, she also said that the density was greater in the train station. But nothing happened there… or did the problems start there?

We weren’t detected by the natives either, there was no alarm… or are alarms silent in this world?

Getting nowhere, Rene attempted a different approach. He closed his eyes in concentration, as he tried to recall all the times Saffry spoke, from the moment they arrived to the very last line.

Various scenes played within his mind, Saffry’s words blended together to become monotonous noise, Rene’s face contorted as he desperately tried to organize them into something that made sense.

Wait—

He had noticed something about Saffry’s speech pattern.

Every time we teleported, she would announce it beforehand…

Before they teleported to the marketplace:

**********

Flying above where the two cities merged, Rene admired the view.

“Where to start…” Saffry pondered, before finally deciding, “There.”

**********

 

Before the teleport to the lecture hall:

**********

Rene hovered next to a water fountain at the center of a plaza. The silver marble flew from his hand and melded with the top of the fountain.

“Now, onto the next location.”

**********

 

Finally, before they teleported to the library:

**********

Within the large lecture hall full of students, Rene stood at the very back.

The silver marble in Rene’s hand flew out to the center of the room and disappeared into the ceiling.

“And last, written language.”

**********

 

And in our last interaction…

**********

Rene floated next to the bookshelf, looking at the silver marble scanning the books.

Where are we going next?

“The place I promised to take you: The most beautiful place in the universe!”

**********

 

He shivered, he was starting to feel cold again.

More scenes played within his mind, something was starting to form out of the chaos.

**********

“Ahem, teleportation, believe it or not, isn’t the most subtle way of transportation”

“What worries me is that the density of strange matter emanating from this building is very high”

“Our sensors in space were never able to see through the atmosphere, and with my onboard sensors being clogged by some invisible gunk, I’m just as clueless as you are in regards to the —details on the surface.”

“It’s because of the interference.”

**********

 

It’s because of the interference—

It’s because of the interference—

It’s because of the interference—

Her last line echoed within his head, like she was trying to tell him all along.

Saffry had attempted to teleport them away, only for the strange matter in the library to interfere and disrupt the process. That was Rene’s theory of what happened.

Rene’s state was quite peculiar, it even shocked himself to a degree. His breathing was slow but his heart rapidly beated. He stood staring at the two red lights, dazed by this realization.

Eventually, he expressed a faint smile as he murmured;

“Silly AI, you dun goofed.”

There were many other questions that remained unanswered, like the reasons why the recorders pulsed red and why they began to light at that particular time? Or why Saffry tried to teleport when she knew there was risk? Most importantly, would ‘Lorn’ come back to ‘retrieve’ him? Surely they wouldn’t want to risk someone who knew of their existence running around… Right?

His ears twitched; the sounds of footsteps from outside echoed within his boxy chamber. Rene found himself suddenly on his feet.

His breathing was no longer slow.

He looked towards the door and quickly backed away from it. The bed was attached to the ground, he couldn’t upturn and hide behind it. Instead, he balled up in the corner furthest from that dreaded opening.

The footsteps rang louder.

Tap, Tap, Tap—

I’m blind and deaf—

I’m blind and deaf—

I’m blind and deaf—

The footsteps stopped behind the door.

Rene froze, he held his breath and stuck his head between his legs.

A male voice spoke behind the door.

“Ah, you’re finally awake—huh? Why are you sitting on the floor?”

I understood him…

I understood him!

Rene instantly perked up, he could instantly tell that clearly it wasn't English, as for how? It was through some intuitive means. This was the same language spoken by the man who kicked him. His thoughts scrambled to uncover the reason for this new development.

“After receiving a couple… dozens of reports, we found you collapsed near the Ulai’s fountain in a bloody mess. Now, you gave us quite a shock! It’s not everyday that we find an unconscious Artharian in our backyard.”

The fountain, the fountain! of course! The recorder! It was responsible for deciphering the language! I managed to touch it before blacking out, did I also absorb the knowledge? Ulai’s fountain… so that's the name. What does Artharian mean?

Despite his lively thoughts, Rene remained completely still on the outside. He stared at the door with a blank stupor.

Seeing Rene’s reaction, the man behind the door went silent for a few moments before he spoke again.

“Oh right!” A slapping like noise quickly followed, as if the man had just facepalmed himself.

“Silly me, you’re not wearing any contacts are you? I frequently forget that Aphelion is draped in darkness for other races.”

There was a lot of information contained in that line. Rene stayed silent as he attempted to process it all.

“Hang on, I’ll go grab you a pair of glasses.” A flurry of footsteps was heard when he announced his departure.

After a while, the man returned.

“Here, I don’t know your size, but hopefully they fit.”

On the door, below the black rectangle, another rectangular compartment slides outwards. On it layed a pair of dark glasses with a silver trim. It looked identical to the ones Rene saw the dark skinned people wear.

Too many things were happening too quickly, his vision, which had caused him so much trauma, was going to be cured so simply? Hearing the man’s friendly disposition, Rene stood up and slowly moved closer to the glasses. Though he still had intrusive thoughts of the door suddenly opening to reveal the man pointing a little stick at him.

There was no way the now exceedingly careful Rene would put something unknown on his face. He took the glasses and quickly scampered away from the door. He then held them up to the singular light source on the ceiling examining it with what little light he had. They looked like ordinary glasses however, he couldn’t tell what made this thing so special.

Apparently the man had been watching strange Rene’s behavior.

“These devices are called ‘Aon glasses’, they were designed so that their curved arms would go over your ears, the indent between the two panels would rest on the nose bridge. It’s a local produce of Cessa”

More terms I don’t know…

After being lectured on how to wear glasses, he felt slightly embarrassed. The old man also didn’t have a hint of malicious intent, so Rene put them on.

Darkness vanished and the shadows receded. The once dim light on the ceiling became a blinding sun. Rene squinted at the sudden change in light level, he nearly took off the glasses on instinct, but no matter how bright it was, he could never go back to that dark world.

Rene shifted his vision to the red lights, they appeared dimmer—wait, he lifted his glasses, their brightness remained the same. It seems like the luminosity of the red lights were not affected by the glasses at all, they only appeared dimmer because Rene’s surroundings had illuminated to such a degree.

The pitch black rectangle on the door turned out to be a window, through it, he saw the man outside, white hair, black eyes, wrinkly white skin and a white mustache. On the window, Rene also saw his own reflection; there was a bandage on his head.

“How is it? A good fit?” The old man said with a smile.

Rene snapped out of his daze, he was about to respond to the old man by nodding but stopped himself in time. Obviously, this wouldn't share Earth’s social conventions.

“Uh… y-yes.” To Rene’s surprise, he replied not in English, but in this new language. It came naturally to him, like he had spoken it his entire life.

“Fantastic!” The old man’s smile widened as he clapped his hands.

“Of course! I forgot to introduce myself, the name’s Lorett. Now, unsurprisingly, we don’t have your ID on record, so if you’d be so kind, I’d like to ask you a few details.” Lorett took out a notepad from his pocket and held his index finger like a pen.

“Your full name please?”

“I-it’s Rene.”

“Rene Spring.”