After finishing the old, stale bread, Lainus and Tia sat together in a corner of the cell, away from the other cellmates.
Lainus was in deep thought. There were many gaps in his mind — questions buried within the memories he carried, gaps left by the old host's fragmented recollections. There were too many blurry pieces, too much he didn't fully understand.
Some strange words kept surfacing in his mind: Spiritual Core. Awakening. seed? What did they mean? Were these what gave people supernatural powers in this world? — Those words continued echoing through his thoughts like very important, half-remembered truths, that felt very familiar, yet unreachable.
Lainus closed his eyes, forcing his mind to dig deeper into the hazy memories. The process wasn't very effective; the harder he tried to decipher those fogged memories, the more painful it became. The blurry images refused to clear. His head began to throb, a dull ache spreading behind his eyes as veins started protruding across his head.
His face flushed red from the strain.
Tia looked at him, confused, watching as his expression twisted with effort.
'Is he... sick? Does he need to use the bathroom?'
She started to move away, thinking her brother needed privacy.
But Lainus grabbed her hand.
After all that struggle, he'd only managed to extract a few scattered words. He gave up trying to force the memories and decided to just ask directly.
"Hey, Tia... um." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "What does 'Ethereal' mean again?"
Tia blinked, staring at him as if he'd just asked what color the sky was.
"You... don't remember?" she whispered, concern creeping into her voice.
Lainus gave her a faint, tired look, his expression pained.
"Master Vek's cane hit my head pretty hard yesterday. I'm having trouble remembering some things. My head still hurts."
Tia's face fell. Guilt flickered across her eyes as she remembered the overseer beating her brother until he stopped breathing.
She hesitated, then nodded slowly.
"Ethereals are..." She paused, searching for the right words. "They're the masters of this world. They're awakened mortals who can use strange powers that elevate them into higher beings."
Her voice carried a mix of fear and awe.
"Awakening? How does that happen?" Lainus asked plainly.
"Umm... that's when something inside them awakens. Here." She touched the center of her chest. "An invisible shape forms... like a seed, I think? People call it a Spiritual Core."
Tia sounded uncertain, as if trying to explain something she didn't fully understand herself.
"When someone awakens their Spiritual Core, they become Ethereal. They stop being mortal like us. They become... invincible beings that can do impossible things. They can grow stronger, faster, they can even expand their lifespan, living for hundreds of years or more."
"That's why us mortals, who most likely will never awaken, are mostly sold as slaves to work for the Ethereals. We can't fight back. That's why Master Vek and the guards can do whatever they want to us. We're just mortals. Fragile. We cannot be compared to Ethereals. They..." She swallowed hard. "They're... something else entirely..."
Lainus could only grasp fragments from her vague explanation — as Tia's words were frustratingly incomplete, and she seemed to speak with uncertainty.
But some missing pieces in the old host's memories began to surface, becoming clearer. They mostly matched the information Tia had shared. What she said seemed like knowledge gathered from traveling merchant slaves and overheard conversations; it seemed that unawakened mortals didn't really know much about Ethereals or their supernatural powers. They only lived in isolated, hidden villages, fearing the very existence of Ethereals.
Lainus turned to Tia, his expression carefully neutral.
"Ah, I see. I remember now. Thank you for reminding me." He forced a faint smile.
"I'm tired. My head still hurts." He didn't wait for her response. "Good night."
Even though this body had just woken from unconsciousness, it was still exhausted. Forcing those memory fragments to surface had worn Lainus out completely. For now, he had nothing more to ask Tia, and it seemed she didn't know much anyway. That made sense, considering she was only eleven years old.
He lay down on the hard, cold ground, turning his back to Tia before she could say anything more. There was a very bad stench rising from the ground. Dampness seeped through his ragged clothes, and the smell of rot and waste filled his nostrils.
But Lainus didn't pay it much attention.
His mind was already working, processing the fragments of information he'd gathered. Spiritual Core. Awakening. Ethereals. Mortals as slaves.
'I need to understand this world's power as soon as possible. If Ethereals rule everything, then becoming one is the only path to freedom. But how does awakening work? What triggers it?'
His thoughts spiraled, planning, calculating, analyzing every piece of information that was in his head.
After some unknown time of deep thinking, exhaustion eventually overtook him, and he fell into a restless sleep.
The next morning, Lainus awoke to chaos.
Loud voices. Footsteps. The clatter of metal and wood. A strange, bright light pressing against his closed eyelids.
He frowned, still half-asleep, and opened his eyes.
Sunlight.
Blinding, direct sunlight was pouring into the cell from between the iron bars, that now occupied where solid stone walls had been just hours before.
Lainus sat up abruptly, his eyes widening.
The walls were gone.
Completely vanished, as if they had never existed. In their place, more iron bars stretched in every direction, fully unveiling the space beyond.
He could see everything now.
The cells turned into cages.
Dozens — no, hundreds, of cells stretched out in front of him and behind him, forming long rows like a train of cages. Each one was packed with slaves — mostly children, with some adults, all wearing collars just like his. Their faces were hollow, eyes empty, bodies frail.
And on the other side of the cage, the world unveiled itself before Lainus's eyes.
He was in the middle of a massive trading ground, seemingly a dedicated sector for selling slaves, yet only a small part of the vast marketplace in the heart of a large city. Buildings surrounded him on all sides, mostly constructed from wood and stone in a style that reminded Lainus of medieval Earth.
Humans walked past the cages without even glancing at the slaves inside. Some wore gleaming armor and carried ornate weapons, likely Ethereals or wealthy merchants, while there were others that looked poor, dressed in rags, begging on street corners. But even the beggars lived better than the slaves being sold in the cages like animals.
Lainus stared, completely stunned by the sudden transformation.
'What the hell...? Did we get transported overnight? How—'
Then, fragments of the old host's memories surfaced.
_'I see. I understand now.'_
The walls hadn't been real, not in the permanent sense. They were manifested. Created through some kind of supernatural power.
Every night, the slave traders used magic, or whatever power the Ethereals wielded, forming solid stone walls around the cells, sealing the slaves in complete darkness. It appeared to prevent theft of their precious stock.
And every morning, the walls dissolved. Vanished into thin air as if they'd never existed, revealing the city and the trading ground.
'So that's how it works. The walls are... what? Conjured? Magical power... maybe? Something that creates temporary structures?' There were many unanswered questions in Lainus' head that still didn't make any sense. He was still newly adapting to this magical world.