Galen did not know how long he was in the void. Everything was dark, and he didn’t know if he was asleep or awake.

  He didn’t know how much time had passed before he began to regain consciousness.

  Galen slowly awoke to the sound of gibberish. His mind felt fuzzy, his ears rang, his mouth felt cotton dry, and it took considerable effort to breathe. The air felt heavy with… something, but he didn’t know what.

  He gasped as he tried to get up from the ground, but his limbs shook. His body felt weak.

  So very weak...

  The sounds of gibberish intensified. Galen barely managed to push his chest off the ground before his limbs gave out and he collapsed back down.

  He thought he heard the sound of someone approaching him over the ringing in his ears. He wanted to open his eyes to see where he was and what was happening, but the second he cracked his eyelids open he shut them tight and hissed in pain.

  “Easy now,” what sounded like a man with a deep voice and strange accent spoke to him, “the summoning must have taken quite a toll on you. That was... unexpected. Rest a moment. Your body should regain strength soon.”

  Galen grimaced as he tried to focus on the man’s words as much as his addled mind would allow. It felt as though he was trying to hear while his ears were stuffed full of cotton. His weakened hearing made the gibberish he heard even more incomprehensible.

  He did as the stranger instructed. He didn’t know how long he lay on the ground, but the feelings of weakness soon began to fade. After he recovered enough strength, he began to push himself up. He felt someone aid him in standing. His legs wobbled only for a moment, quickly stabilizing.

  “Easy does it,” the stranger said.

  Galen could hear him far more clearly now. The man had a weird accent, and it was one Galen was COMPLETELY unfamiliar with. He could also better hear the gibberish around him. It sounded as though people were muttering and whispering around him, only he couldn’t make out their language at all. Which was unnerving considering he knew several languages, courtesy of his grandfather’s training of course. Yet the tongue that was being spoken was completely unlike any he knew of.

  Where the heck am I?

  He took a deep breath, and slowly opened his eyes.

  The sight that greeted him was baffling.

  He was in a stony room lit by bright lanterns, with glass windows that were shut tight. The people around him wore robes, and looked as though they could pass for either priests or monks. Around their necks, many wore a necklace with a strange symbol. The symbol looked to be an open eye with… was that supposed to be bolts of lightning shooting out of it?

  “How are you feeling?” the stranger speaking heavily accented English asked.

  Galen turned to the man. Then had to look up. The man was tall, muscular, and dark skinned. His hair was cut short, and he had a neatly trimmed beard. His brown eyes seemed kindly enough, yet they were also full of both wariness and worry.

  He’d mostly recovered his physical strength, yet his mind still felt sluggish, so he was slow in asking, “Where… where am I? Who are you?”

  “My name is Aleksi,” the man responded, “and you are in Ignis, the capital of Axis Mundi. A Realm under the rule of the Athanasius Dominion.”

  “Wait… what?” his fuzzy mind unable to make sense of what he was told.

  He shook his head to try to clear his mind. He had never heard of a place called Ignis or Axis Mundi. And he certainly never heard of a country called the Athanasius Dominion! Being as big a fan of history as he was, he knew he should have come across that name in his studies. However he was drawing a blank.

  Which could only mean that the stranger, Aleksi, was pulling his leg.

  Okay, so I still have no idea where I am, Galen thought, the sluggishness of his mind finally fading, how did I end up here? The last thing I remember is-

  The recent memories of what had happened hit him like a semi-truck going full speed.

  The unnatural surge.

  The earthquake that followed.

  The sky cracking and breaking apart.

  A hole in the fabric of space.

  Everything after he passed through the hole felt fuzzy. He thought he’d had a nightmare, but the memory of it was completely gone.

  Then there was Serenity…

  Oh, Serenity…

  Galen felt as though he went numb again as he remembered seeing her falling into the chasm. He could still clearly see in his mind the look of terror on her face before the darkness consumed her...

  He could barely register what Aleksi was telling him, “The Athanasius Dominion has summoned you for a special purpose. Though, we ought to let you rest for a bit first and get your wits about you before we get into all that. Come let us-”

  “Send me back…” he muttered.

  Aleksi paused, “Apologies. What did you-”

  Galen suddenly reached up, grabbed Aleksi by the collar of the tunic he wore, and yelled, “SEND ME BACK!!!”

  The robed people in the room seemed taken aback by his sudden outburst. Aleksi himself was as well, but a mask of calm soon replaced that surprise. He gently put a hand to Galen’s wrist, and said in his heavy, unfamiliar accent, “Easy now. I know you’re confused, but you need to remain calm.”

  “To hell with that!” Galen yelled, his fury rising, “the last thing I remember is my little sister falling into a chasm! I need to go back, now! I have to save her!”

  Aleksi’s calm mask faded. A pained, sympathetic look appeared in his eyes, “Oh, lad. I’m terribly sorry to hear that.”

  “I don’t want your sympathy. I want to be sent back home!”

  “I’m sorry, but-” Aleksi began before one of the robed figures strode forward and lowered his hood.

  The man had a bald head but a full, dark brown beard to compensate. He had a fair complexion, stern green eyes, and two scars on his face. One across his left eye, which still looked functional, and one across his cheek and under his right eye. He spoke with a similar accent to Aleksi’s, “We can’t send you back.”

  “The hell you can’t!” Galen said, letting Aleksi go and striding toward the man, “you better send me back otherwise I’m going to-”

  “You misunderstand, Champion,” the man interrupted, speaking as though he were explaining something to a belligerent child, “you seem to think that I mean that we WON’T send you back. That isn’t what I meant. I meant that we literally CAN’T. As in we currently lack the capability to do so.”

  Galen’s fury magnified, “You expect me to believe that?! You said you summoned me in the first place. How the hell can you summon me, yet lack the ability to unsummon me?! Make that make sense!”

  The bald man raised his hands in a placating manner, “Apologies, chosen Champion. But I do not know the specifics. Please, Lord Athanasius will soon arrive after learning the summoning was successful. As the god of our people and empire, he is the most knowledgeable and capable being in all the Realms. Assuredly, he will have the answers you seek. Perhaps he can even fulfill your request to be returned.”

  Galen didn’t want to wait. He wanted to be sent back right this instant. He had to get to Serenity. He had to save her. He had promised her he wouldn’t let anything happen to her!

  Aleksi put a hand to his shoulder. It took every ounce of willpower for Galen to not try to snap the man’s wrist.

  “Listen,” Aleksi said in a sympathetic tone, “you must calm yourself. For your own good. I understand you’re panicked, being in a new world and all. You’re probably confused. And it sounds like they summoned you while something terrible was happening in your world on top of that. However-”

  “Damn right something bad was happening! That’s why I need to be sent back NOW,” Galen yelled, “I need to save my sister!”

  “Lad,” Aleksi spoke with a sympathetic tone, “you said the last thing you saw of your sister was her falling into a chasm. I’m sorry, lad, but…”

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  Galen began to shake his head. He didn’t want to hear what Aleksi was about to say. Yet his own mind was trying to tell him the same thing, to get him to face reality.

  All the fury within him left all at once as his own mind and Aleksi spoke in unison, “Your sister is most likely already dead.”

  In place of the fury, grief began to flood in. Galen could feel hot tears begin to flow down his face as he shook his head and fell to his knees, “No… NO! She… she can’t… I’d promised I’d…”

  Galen grabbed his head with his hands let out a heartbroken cry of agony as he sank further to the ground.

  ***

  It took four days for the so called “god” of this empire to arrive. Galen had spent the entire time locked in a room, huddled in the corner on the bed, despondent. It wasn’t that Aleksi and the others had imprisoned him. No, he’d chosen to remain in the room. He was in too much grief, too much shock to do much else.

  By now, he had run out of tears to cry. Guilt tore him apart on the inside as he endlessly played the events of the last day he spent in his world. The guilt had grown stronger every time he remembered Serenity falling into the chasm.

  A knock on the door briefly brought him out of his stupor. He’d stopped answering the door on the third day. They had simply unlocked his room with a spare key, greeted him with a reverent bow, left him food, bowed again, and left. He stopped eating by the end of the second day however, so they also took back the previous uneaten meal while they dropped off the fresh food. Once they left, he would simply re-lock his door and lie back down in bed, unresponsive to everything else.

  Like before, Galen heard the rattling of keys and the unlocking of his door. He saw that it was Aleksi, the first man he had met in this world, who had opened the door.

  This was the first time he’d seen Aleksi since he was first summoned.

  Aleksi took one look at him, a sad look in his kindly eyes, “Oh lad. You’re doing worse than I feared you would.”

  Galen didn’t respond, and returned his gaze to the floor.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Galen saw Aleksi stride over, walking into the room and noticing that he had left another meal uneaten.

  Aleksi sighed and sat down on the bed next to him.

  “Athanasius has arrived,” Aleksi announced, “once he is situated, he would like to speak with you as soon as possible.”

  Galen sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing his face. He really didn’t want to do this.

  Aleksi actually chuckled at his reaction, “I know, I know. Personally, I’d have given you more time considering… what had happened in your world.”

  He felt a stab of sadness and guilt at being reminded again.

  Aleksi must have noticed his expression darken, because he turned and seemed to chide himself in the gibberish language of this world. In English, he said, “Sorry to remind you of that, lad.”

  Galen slowly shook his head, “It’s fine.”

  It wasn’t, but he wanted to be left alone as soon as possible.

  Aleksi remained quiet for a moment, before he asked, “Tell me, lad. Was your younger sister the only family you had in your world? Any friends, or other loved ones?”

  Galen paused, closing his eyes once more and swallowing hard. He figured Aleksi wasn’t going to leave him alone, so he answered, “My parents were visiting my grandparents. They should’ve been far enough away that they were unaffected by the disaster. As for friends? I didn’t have many, but I don’t know if they survived the quake that devastated my home.”

  Aleksi nodded, “So, at the very least, your parents are alive and awaiting you in your world?”

  Galen nodded. He could tell what Aleksi was doing. He was trying to give him some hope, some motivation.

  He wasn’t in the mood.

  “They should be,” he chuckled bitterly, “but what does it matter? You lot already said you can’t send me back to Earth after dragging me here against my will.”

  Aleksi winced at that. He gathered himself though and spoke confidently, “They said they couldn’t send you back, now. That they currently lacked the capability to do so. That doesn’t mean they will forever lack the ability.”

  Galen frowned. He felt something stir within him. He tried to push the feeling down as he asked, “What do you mean? Is there a way to send me back?”

  Aleksi shrugged, “I don’t know how the whole process works. But Athanasius just might. He is the ruler of the Dominion, and its people worship him as their god. He’s the single most powerful being in the entire empire, and has lived for centuries. If anyone knows a way, it’s him.”

  Galen closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, “And just how long will it take to send me back? How long will it take to do everything that I’m required to do?!”

  Aleksi sighed, “I’ll be square with you, lad. Probably a long time. But… forgive me for bringing this back up. With there being nothing you can do for your sister now, there’s no need to go back right this instance. But you do have family, you do have people, waiting for you to return. Isn’t that reason enough to try?”

  The stirring in his chest grew stronger.

  “And also,” Aleksi added, “take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt. Because as I’ve stated, I don’t know how exactly the transfer between worlds works. But I believe time flows… differently between your world and mine.”

  Galen frowned, “What does that mean?”

  “Like I said, I don’t exactly know. But when you speak with Athanasius, remember to ask about the First Champion.”

  “The First?”

  “Yes, you aren’t the first Champion we’ve summoned, lad. To be exact, you’re the second. The First Champion was summoned long, long ago.”

  Galen considered that. He hadn’t been the first one summoned to this world. That fact in and of itself threw him for a loop. If someone from his world had been summoned long ago, then that explained how Aleksi could know English, despite it being a language from Earth. Perhaps this Athanasius and his empire really did know more about this summoning process.

  That meant… there was hope that he could return to Earth.

  That was what that stirring in his chest was. Hope.

  He’d failed Serenity, and that failure would haunt him to his grave. But he had to find a way back home. If, for no other reason, than to return to his family, his parents, and tell them what had happened. And to make sure they’d only lost one child rather than both at once.

  Galen slowly stood from his bed. Aleksi seemed surprised at first, but a kindly smile formed on his lips. He stood as well, towering over Galen and looking down at him with a grin, “So, are you ready to question the ruler of the Dominion, lad?”

  He looked up into Aleksi’s eyes, and nodded in affirmation.

  He would get the answers he wanted. It didn’t matter that it was a supposed god that he would pry the answers from. Nothing would stop him from finding a way home.

  ***

  Aleksi led him to the top of the castle.

  Galen hadn’t realized just how enormous the place was. The interior of the tower had a medieval aesthetic to it. The walls looked to be made of brick, with red carpets on wooden floors, and equally red banners decorating the walls. They had the same symbol that he’d seen on the robed figures who’d summoned him. A seemingly all seeing eye with a storm coming out of it, shooting bolts of lightning.

  Along the walls were several enormous windows, and taking a peek out of one of them, Galen froze as he saw, for the first time, the strange skies of this world.

  Aleksi noticed his pause, “Lad?”

  He pointed towards the skies, “What’s up with the skies here?”

  The skies of this world were not a blue color like they were back on Earth. Here, the skies were covered in swirling red, orange, and yellow lights. The closest phenomenon he could compare it to was the Aurora Borealis in his home world. Only with the color of the lights here, the sky almost looked like it was on fire. Clouds were still clearly visible, so the lights were clearly far higher into the sky than he initially believed.

  “Ah, I’d read that the skies of your world were different,” Aleksi explained, “the skies here are this way because of all the Fire Ether present in this Realm. It is also a direct result of the Great Fragmentation.”

  “Ether? Great Fragmentation? Realms?” Galen asked.

  The man chuckled and shook his head, “All things you will learn with time, I’m sure. Come, best not to keep the Emperor waiting.”

  Reluctantly, he pried his gaze away from the alien sky and followed.

  I really am in another world, he thought with equal measures of awe and melancholy.

  As they walked, Aleksi seemed to grow tense the closer they got to the top of the castle. Galen leaned in close and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “Hmm?” Aleksi hummed.

  “You’re pretty tense. Is there something we should be worried about?”

  Aleksi visibly forced himself to relax, “Ah, sorry about that, lad. It’s nothing. We should be fine.”

  “Should be?”

  Aleksi took a deep breath through his nose, “Yes. It’s unlikely anything bad will happen. Just…”

  The man looked around briefly to make sure no one was listening in. Galen didn’t know why he bothered since they were speaking English. As far as he knew, only Aleksi and the bald, bearded man from when Galen was first summoned knew this language.

  Aleksi spoke with a deadly seriousness, “Lad, heed my advice. I know you’re angry about the fact that we summoned you here against your will. But do not, I repeat, do not antagonize Athanasius. If you offend him, well… I don’t think he’d kill you. It took utterly absurd amounts of Ether to summon you. The amount used can neither be easily nor quickly replaced. But if you offend him enough then executing you and waiting to summon a new Champion may become an appealing option to him. Know that you do have a lot of leverage considering the role you were summoned to play. You can use that to get the information and accommodations you need. Just… be careful, alright?”

  Galen internalized Aleksi’s warning, “Alright. Dying serves against my goal to return home, obviously. So I’ll try to play nice.”

  Aleksi nodded. He seemed genuinely more relaxed now. Which was in contrast to the growing apprehension within Galen as they got closer and closer to their destination.

  It didn’t take too much longer to reach the massive double door that led to the chambers where Athanasius awaited. On either side of the door were two guards, wearing armor as black as night with a clear jewel embedded into the center of the chest piece. Their helms completely obscured their faces, and gave them an unnerving visage. All in all, they almost appeared to be shadows manifested in physical form.

  Aleksi stepped in front of Galen and greeted the guards using some form of salute. He then put his two hands behind him, standing strong and proud. He briefly reminded him of his grandfather, who had been a tough as nails soldier.

  “I have brought the summoned Champion to meet with Emperor Athanasius, as the Emperor himself commanded,” Aleksi announced.

  The guards nodded silently. Their bodies didn’t move an inch as they acknowledged Aleksi’s words. The massive double doors began to open inwards into the chambers. Aleksi stepped to the side, as if ushering Galen forward.

  He felt his nervousness spike as he strode forward towards the large chambers. Aleksi gave him a smile of encouragement. His eyes seemed to say, “Good luck, lad.”

  He was surprised to feel encouraged as he prepared to meet and speak with the one person who might have the answers he needed.