There was no toilet.

  In the entirety of that castle, I could find nothing resembling one. Not even a hole in the bloody wall. Nothing.

  “What kind of forsaken place have you brought me to?” I spoke out loud, hoping for that voice to answer. “No amenities? What am I supposed to do in this place?”

  [Directive Recommended: Pick up the Crown.]

  “Of course,” I sighed at the words echoing in my head as I made my way back down toward the spikes. “I also found no water, nor a place to rest properly. It’s like the last man who lived here was a damn vampire… wait.”

  I stopped, turning toward the spikes as they reformed into their pillar shape. “You are a funny little thing.”

  [What is the ‘Subject’ implying?]

  “Nothing,” I smiled, quickly turning toward the large, twenty-foot-tall decorated doors. “Let’s see what the Great Velvet Forests have to offer.”

  The situation I was in was far too concerning to trust the voice in my head or the spikes behind me. But how could I?

  What sensible person would, finding themselves in such a place, simply go along with whatever a supernatural entity told them to do, without question or hesitation? Madmen, that’s who.

  When something looks too good to be true, there’s always a catch. And this one dangled my wife as bait in front of my eyes as if I were some sort of fish.

  Still, I would play their game, see if they could be trusted. What did I have to lose, after all?

  But if they lied to me… then let’s just hope they can’t revive me more than once.

  However, there was one tiny problem.

  I cleared my throat and stared dumbfounded at the giant doors, imagining how many men would’ve shit themselves trying to push them open.

  Many, I would imagine.

  But… having nothing better to do, and after pulling up the sleeves of my shirt, I decided to find out for myself. Placing both hands on the cold stone. I pushed.

  “Hm,” I muttered as my face turned red with effort. “Move… you damned door.”

  [The ‘Subject’ is not the rightful ‘Owner’ of the Calcan Castle.]

  [Unless he becomes the 'Owner', he will not succeed otherwise.]

  [Directive Recommended: Pick up the Crown.]

  “How many times do you think you can revive a man?” I asked, annoyed, turning toward the spikes. “Show me that you can be trusted. Open the doors.”

  The voice stood silent for a moment. Then...

  As if mountains themselves had begun to move, a deep rumbling echoed from behind me. The floor trembled beneath my feet as the sound grew, heavy as stone scraped against the reflective floor, making me turn and freeze.

  Before my eyes, the great stone doors were being pushed open by nothing at all. Dust fell from their edges like dying snow, allowing sunlight to pour through the widening gap, blinding me and forcing me to raise a hand as my sensible eyes struggled to adjust to the world beyond the Calcan Castle.

  But when they did, I found myself standing before titans.

  Surrounding the castle stood dozens of trees, each easily two hundred feet tall. Their trunks were a creamy red, their crowns sparse with greenery that allowed the blue sky to make its way through the gaps like shards of glass.

  I was no biologist, but such trees were either impossible or, at the very least, exceedingly rare back on Earth.

  Yet there they were encircling the castle, sprawling across the nearby horizon in all directions, filling me with a sense of awe.

  I stepped closer to one, walking a slow circle around its colossal trunk. Twenty feet in diameter, perhaps more. The scale of it was enough to make me feel like an insect crawling across a god’s finger. And by the sheer number, it seemed this God had plenty of fingers to share.

  Once the initial shock began to fade, the rest of my senses reminded me I had more than just eyes.

  A deep, verdant scent filled my lungs, green and alive, with a faint sweetness to the air, like flowers blooming somewhere just out of sight.

  The heat, however, was merciless. Minutes after stepping out of the castle, sweat was already gathering on my skin. Making me strip off my coat and undo half the buttons of my shirt, letting the air kiss my chest in small, futile relief.

  I was still in all-black attire, hardly ideal for the heat. It had been perfect inside an air-conditioned funeral home, but in that forest, in that heat, it felt like bloody purgatory.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Julia would’ve never approved. She had taste in fashion, in beauty, in everything I lacked. I just wore what covered my skin best.

  Still, I would’ve killed for a pair of sunglasses right then and there.

  The sun wasn’t visible through the canopy of colossal trees, yet somehow it was brighter than the sun I remembered; it had that kind of heat and luminosity that cared not for shade. It forced me to sweat, blink, to squint, to shield my eyes just to see a few steps ahead.

  But past the discomfort and the alien forest I found myself in, I couldn’t hold it any longer.

  So after hiding myself in the shade of one of the trees and checking my surroundings, I undid my pants as quickly as I could and finally let go.

  Gods, it was the first good feeling I’d had in days, making me raise my eyes toward the sky and the massive wall of a tree blocking most of my vision.

  Then, feeling like a newborn, a thought crossed my mind.

  “Hey,” I muttered, turning toward the castle gates as they stood open, “Are you here?”

  [Yes.]

  I coughed at the flat reply, only then realizing what I was doing seconds ago. “I do apologize for having done my… business here.”

  [The Crown grants awareness of all Castle amenities.]

  “Now you make it sound tempting,” I sighed, kicking dirt with my shoe. “But I looked in every possible corner of that castle. There were no amenities there.”

  [Amenities Locked. Crown required.]

  [Directive Recommended: Pick up the Crown.]

  “Yes, yes,” I waved my hand at the infuriating repetition, turning away from the castle.

  It was vexing to see how much that voice focused on the Crown. But for my sake, it would be wise to find out if that voice and those Custodians could truly be trusted.

  It was a waste of time to linger here with no purpose and no way to get my Julia back, just as much as it was risky to take the bait they dangled before me without doubt.

  “Say,” I spoke aloud as I walked farther and farther from the castle, doing my best to ignore the heat while focusing on my surroundings, “Does this voice of yours have a name? I grow tired of thinking of you as just a voice in my head. It makes me sound mad.”

  [Yes.]

  I stood silent for a while, waiting for a reply.

  “I’ve had finer conversations with my dead wife,” I sighed after two minutes of deafening silence. “Please, don’t let me hold you back.”

  [...]

  [Ephemera.]

  “Gorgeous name,” I blinked, taken aback by its beauty. “Though I’m not sure it means the same thing here as it does on Earth. There, it would sound… tragic.”

  [It does not.]

  After Ephemera replied, I stopped and waited for the echoes of her voice to fade away from my cranium before focusing on the world around me.

  Silence rewarded me with what I wanted: the sound of running water, somewhere nearby.

  By the sound alone, it had to be a creek or small river.

  “Would it be a problem if I call you Ephe?” I asked, pleased by my small victory and the promise of quenching my undying thirst.

  [The ‘Subject’ is free to call ‘Me’ as They please.]

  “Ephe it is, then,” I said, nodding to myself as I headed toward the sound of water.

  Ten minutes later, after wandering through what felt like an endless sea of colossal trees, I knew I was drawing closer to the sound of running water. It grew louder with every step, echoing ever closer like a beckoning voice.

  The walk had done me another favor; it slowly let my eyes finally adjust to this world’s harsh sun. I no longer needed to shield them with a hand, though the squinting and constant blinking remained.

  It was enough to see that the even ground ahead gave way to a narrow valley, no more than ten feet wide and three to four feet deep.

  At its center, a shallow creek wound its way downstream through a bed of stones, debris likely gathered over the centuries.

  Only then did I realize I’d been walking down a subtle decline. The river’s course made it clear that its source lay somewhere upstream, east of Calcan Castle.

  More concerning, though, was what the narrow valley itself revealed. The exposed sediments and carved banks provided me with enough information to know that this place was no stranger to floods or heavy rain, the kind that could triple the size of a small creek, turning it into a roaring river.

  But that was the extent of my knowledge on such matters.

  If someone were to ask me about the daily diet of Roman citizens or the military genius of Hannibal Barca during the Second Punic War, I could talk for days.

  But if that same person asked me anything about geography, I’d barely manage the basics.

  Such was life, after all. No mind could learn everything.

  And all my mind knew was that I was parched.

  “Say, Ephe, is this water drinkable?” I asked, searching for a safe foothold to climb down into the narrow valley.

  [Yes.]

  [Recommendation: Boiled.]

  “Well, I assumed it would be best to boil it, but that seems impossible here, especially with what little I have,” I replied, finding a decent patch of dirt to step down into the valley, walking toward the gorgeous sight of running water.

  With a quiet groan, I crouched down and lowered my hands into the stream. The cold was bliss as it bit into my skin, pure dopamine flooding my brain, pulling a sigh of relief from my chest.

  Slowly, I cupped my palms and brought the water to my lips, letting it run down my throat and cool me to my core.

  By instinct, I reached again, drinking until I could no longer. When at last I stopped, I washed my face, dragged my wet hands through my hair and down my neck, then sat by the creek’s edge, letting everything finally hit me once more.

  My wife was dead.

  And I, whether in my grief or by the will of Gods I did not know, had either gone mad, or crossed into another world, as Ephe said.

  But it seemed to be all hinting at the latter rather than the former. After all, there was no man in existence mad enough to conjure such convincing hallucinations.

  The earth felt real, clinging to my wet hands.

  The air was hot and full of life, filling my lungs as I inhaled.

  And the water… it was of a winter cold, running downhill into an unknown both the creek and I didn’t know anything about. A new world. A new reality.

  A new reality in which, if the Custodians were to be trusted, I could bring my Julia back to me.

  “Fine,” I sighed, letting go of my paranoia, “I will-”

  [Danger.]

  I jumped to my feet in a panic, heart pumping adrenaline throughout my lean body.

  [The ‘Subject’ is being watched.]

  I turned, trying to spot who or what was watching me. There was nothing surrounding me besides the colossal trees.

  [Intent: Kill.]

  I froze like a deer in the headlights. Killing myself or being killed by others sounded far too different to my ears.

  [The Most High has decided to Intervene.]

  [...]

  A loud screech echoed in my brain, stunning me from my search for seconds as I tried covering my eyes as if able to protect them from a sound that came from the inside.

  But then, Ephe continued.

  [Failed.]

  [The Fracture Widens.]

  [The Custodians have decided to Intervene.]

  [As a sign of ‘Goodwill’, the Custodians grant the ‘Subject’ access.]

  [Reigncraft Level 1: Seed - Unlocked Temporarily.]

  [Current Directive: Continue Existing.]

  Fuck.

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