The soul’s consciousness stirred before the body had finished knitting itself together. An electric jolt of memories, both physical and mental, rushed in to fill the emptiness. The consciousness expanded, stretching out until it filled every cell of its new body. Piper Corbin lived again… almost.

  Memories settled into place. What she had been, she became again. Only, not every memory settled. Some inconsequential, but memories of significance failed to assimilate as well. Piper’s mind tried to grab a hold of them before they vanished, but they slipped away. Gone…

  Each lost memory had left in its wake a small reminder of what it had been, an emotional impact. She wanted to cry, to scream, to laugh all at once, but she could do none of that. Helpless, she could only ride out the wave of clashing emotions until they too faded and abandoned her.

  Then a woman’s voice from the darkness, muffled but nearby. “More mana… she’s nearly complete.”

  Piper felt like her ears were full of water, but then, she also felt like she was floating, weightless and warm, buffeted by a gentle current, which made some sense of the previous. The feeling calmed her, and soothed the chaos in her mind

  Another voice, deeper than the first, and just as muffled, spoke. “Time to rise and shine.”

  Her eyes opened as if they obeyed the command of the unknown voice. Shapes loomed above, ghost-like in a pale blue light. The source of the voices? She tried to move, but her body did not obey her own will. She could only stare straight ahead.

  No, she could do more than see… she could feel. She floated in a liquid of some sort, something thick that pressed in on her like a weighted blanket… and she hated it. It felt like she was caught in a trap, like she couldn’t breathe. When she realized she was, in fact, not breathing, panic took over. Her mind raced, but her body still did not move. She could not make herself breathe, and after a short while, she realized she didn’t need to.

  This had to be a dream, a nightmare like she’d never had before. She’d gladly exchange it for a dream where she ran and ran and never moved while the monster chasing her had no such problems.

  Then, something came for her, not a monster, but tendrils of light descending from above. They settled on to her body. She could feel them moving, wrapping around her waist and her limbs. How could light have mass and weight? The strands went taught, and they pulled her unresisting body upward.

  She broke the surface of the liquid and hung suspended in the cool air.

  She stared at the expanse of stone high above her. Before she could make sense of what she was seeing, a flare of light enveloped her, blinding her unblinking eyes. She shifted position from horizontal to vertical in a single sudden movement, but remained suspended.

  Her vision returned slowly, bringing the two figures that occupied the space into focus. They both wore white robes with complicated pleats and drapes that defied physics, remaining steadfastly in place with no sign of belts, buttons, or even pins.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  She took a deep, gasping breath. The air smelled of damp stone and incense—earthy, spicy and pungent.

  The woman had her hair up in an immaculate and complicated array of braids and twists, with spirals of curls at her temples. She had the air of someone in her element, confident and self-assured. She didn’t notice Piper’s gaze, her attention focused only on manipulating the strands of light that wove in the air all around her. Piper could sense the power coming off of her. The air crackled with it.

  The man must have stood over six feet tall, barrel-chested, thickly muscled and handsome in a rough around the edges sort of way. His pleats hung a little crooked, and he wore a scuffed leather cuffs about his wrists and heavy boots instead of the delicate sandals that the woman wore.

  When he moved to the woman’s side, Piper realized that though she appeared smaller than the man, the two were roughly the same height. They began to work in unison now. The man generating power that the woman added to her own. The crackle in the air grew to a grew to a crescendo, and the light deepened in color to a shade of indigo so dark that it made Piper’s head hurt. How could light be dark and yet shine so brightly?

  Then the man looked Piper straight in the eye, a look of surprise spread across his face.

  “Ummm, Runa?”

  She followed his gaze and frowned. With a slight gesture of her hand, a strand of light bent toward her and nudged her eyelids shut. “Eager to wake up,” she said. “A good omen, I hope.”

  “I’m eager for her to wake up, too. Are you finished? Why are you taking so long with the connections?

  Connections? Piper, no longer feeling as. What connections? Where the hell was she, and what the hell was going on? A single word with no memories attached, imprinted itself in her mind. Rollins. A feeling of unease and anxiety stirred within her. She didn’t know what it meant, who or what it might be, but she didn’t like it.

  “Give me a minute. Her brain activity is spiking. I don’t know why everything has to be so difficult today. I’m going to give the Administrator a piece of my mind. This is totally unacceptable.”

  “Maybe you’re losing your touch.” The man chuckled.

  “I will not dignify that with a response.”

  “Yeah, yeah, you’re the killer-diller of us all. Learn to take a joke, Runa.”

  “Learn some respect, Cyrillus.” She shot back.

  Before Cyrillus could continue their exchange, Runa cut him off.

  “Hold,” she said. “The connection is complete. She’s ready for System integration.”

  “Sorry for this, Miss, can’t be helped, but at least you won’t remember it,” said Cyrillus.

  Before Piper could consider what all that meant, the pain began. It lanced through her skull like the world’s worst migraine, riding on the end of an ice pick, being driven into the base of her skull all the way through and out the other side.

  [SYSTEM INTEGRATION INITIATED]

  The words appeared imprinted in her mind, followed a stream of data that scrolled by too fast to make sense of until a warning appeared flaring bright red in her mind's eye and replaced the stream of data.

  [SYSTEM ERROR: INVALID WRITE]

  WARNING: ACCESS VIOLATION

  WARNING: BUFFER OVERFLOW

  Something alien spread through her body. It coursed through her veins, and it burned through her nerves like molten fire. Every muscle tensed until they quivered from the strain, and her bones threatened to snap under the assault. She barely clung to consciousness as more warnings and errors blinked into her field of vision.

  [SYSTEM ERROR]

  EXECUTING HACK_SCRIPT_KYBERIA

  UNKNOWN SKILLTYPE

  EXCEEDS MAXIMUM PARAMETERS

  [SYSTEM ERROR]

  UNEXPECTED OUTPUT

  PATCH COMPLETE

  WARNING: REBOOT REQUIRED

  And then blessed oblivion…