The moment I opened my eyes, I knew I wasn't in Seoul anymore.
Two moons hovered in the sky one full and bright, the other a pale sliver that looked barely tethered to the heavens. Beneath them stretched a forest unlike any I'd ever seen. The trees towered above me, pale-barked and impossibly tall, their leaves silver and whispering even though no breeze stirred the air.
I sat up slowly, my body aching as if I'd fallen from a great height. Maybe I had.
The disc still warm in my hands was quiet now. No more pulses. No light. Just the weight of something ancient and unknowable pressing into my skin.
I looked around.
No buildings. No signs. No civilization.
Just mossy ground, glowing fungi along the tree roots, and the endless silence of a world untouched by modern life.
I stood, unsteady, and instinctively reached for my phone. Dead. I tapped the screen...nothing. No signal. No Wi-Fi. No GPS. Just a useless slab of glass in my palm, stubbornly silent.
I was completely cut off. No way to message anyone. No maps, no calls. No connection to the world I'd left behind.
"Okay," I whispered, trying to keep the panic down. "Don't lose it. You're not hurt. You're just... lost. Dreaming. Maybe."
But dreams didn't make you feel cold. Or this awake.
I walked a few steps, the forest quiet save for the sound of my footsteps. It was too quiet. Not peaceful unnerving. Like the trees were watching.
Then I heard it. A soft crunch. Then another.
Not mine.
I turned just as figures emerged from the trees, three of them, cloaked and moving with practiced, silent steps. They paused a few meters away, partially hidden by shadow.
I froze.
One of them stepped forward. Tall, confident. His face was angular, half-hidden beneath his hood. He spoke a few words, calm, steady, but completely foreign. The language rolled off his tongue like water over stone, elegant and impossible to place.
"I-I don't understand," I said quietly, taking a step back.
Another figure, a woman, perhaps gestured toward the disc in my hands, then to me, then back to the tall man. She said something in the same fluid language. Their voices weren't threatening, but they were intense. Focused.
They had seen this before.
After a few moments, the leader motioned for me to follow.
I hesitated.
I didn't know them. I didn't know this world. But staying in that forest alone, weaponless, with no food or direction? That was worse.
So I followed.
—
The walk was long and silent. The forest grew darker as we moved deeper, and odd lights shimmered in the distance, glowing orbs drifting lazily between branches. They weren't insects. They moved like they were aware of us.
At one point, I heard something growl, deep and low in the shadows. The tall man raised his hand. The others paused. For a long minute, no one moved. Then, with a nod, we continued.
Eventually, warm light began to break through the trees.
Lanterns.
Buildings.
A village.
Small wooden homes with sloped rooftops nestled among the roots of massive trees. Rope bridges connected platforms in the higher branches, and glowing stones lined the narrow paths between homes. Villagers emerged cautiously, their clothes woven in earth-toned fabrics, eyes wide as they looked at me, this stranger, this outsider.
Then I saw it, etched into an arched stone near the village gate:
Aurenholt
I couldn't read the script, but I knew what it said. Somehow, the name echoed in my mind like a whisper I'd heard before. It felt old. Sacred.
The man who led me gestured toward a stone building with vines wrapped around its columns. Inside, a dim fire flickered, casting shadows on the walls.
I stepped over the threshold.
And my new life, in a world I never knew existed, quietly began.