Darkness. Silence. I don’t feel … anything. No ground under me. Which way is under? No feeling of falling. I try to pinch myself but … I don’t feel me.

That’s when I begin to scream. But I make no sound and it’s just an internal scream. Which freaks me out further. I can’t really tell how long it takes me to stop. And to … can I really call it calming down? I guess to stop actively panicking.

A flash of light and a question pulses through me, not so much heard as infused:

“WHO ARE YOU?”

I respond, “Maeve r’Enatus”.

A voice that reminds me of … a secretary? Or maybe a librarian?:

“It is answered.”

And then I immediately ask myself “Really? The name of my main in Three Moons? Have I really been playing so way-too-much that I respond with that?” I guess I do kind of identify with … but before I can question myself further …

A flash of darkness and a question pulses through me, feeling like it is coaxing me out of me:

“what do you want?”

I manage to wonder how there can be a flash of darkness within darkness before responding. Maybe because I’m not sure what I want. What do I want? Will they give me time to think about this? Who am I talking to? Where am I? Will it matter to anyone if I come up with a good answer or just …?

The … stenographer? … again:

“It is answered.”

Wait. What? Did I answer? What did I answer?

The … scribe? … again:

“Evaluation complete.”

Seering brightness. I cover my eyes and then … oh, it wasn’t brightness, my eyes were adjusting from the complete absence of light. It looks like I’m outside around midday. 

And I’m standing?! It’s been a while since my legs worked well enough to stand with assistance, let alone just by myself. So naturally, I’m doing a little dance of joy before I can even think about whether anyone is around. Oh how embarrassing. Um …

Good, nobody around. Wait, where the heck am I? I’m in a clearing in I guess a light deciduous forest. The air’s cool but not cold. I hear my own movements and some animals and a breeze rustling the leaves. But no sounds of highways or other people. Oh, I’m wearing … wow, a full suit of leather armor in my favorite dark purple dye backed with riveted metal plates between the layers? No way. This is better stuff than the cosplay gear I got made for Maeve. This is her … no, this is my leather armor. This is awesome! Do I? Yep, I’ve got my sword and shield too. Rings. Backpack and belt pouch. No bow or staff though.

It was probably at least a good five minutes before I got over checking out my own gear.

What was I doing? Oh, Mr. Jansen was … trying his Incarnate spell on me. This is nuts. Am I really in the world of Three Moons? Either way, instead of standing around I should probably figure out someplace to go.

“I wish I had a map.”

Immediately a big and slightly translucent map appeared in front of me. Did I see that coming? Not even a bit. I was just talking to myself. When a big map unexpectedly appears in front of you out of nowhere, it’s more than a bit shocking. Naturally, I fell over backwards. Landed on my butt. Ouch. Tree root. $#%^! Oh, that hurts.

It hurts. Does that mean I’m not dreaming? Am I really Incarnated into a different world where maps pop up in front of me out of nowhere? Have I gone nuts? Things like this don’t happen outside like manga and roleplaying games. Do they? Hmm. If it isn’t real, I don’t seem to be waking up just by questioning it. And if it’s real, I’ll get myself in serious trouble if I treat this like it isn’t real. So time to get on with it.

Anyway, there’s Enatus a little bit to the southeast. I picked my name for my character’s hometown; r’Enatus means “from Enatus”. My character’s hometown? And I’m Maeve? So it’s my hometown now? I guess so. It’s a village near the eastern border of Selkir. Literally everything else is quite a bit further away, so maybe I should start with Enatus? OK. But I’ve still got a map in front of me. Huh.

“I wish it would close”.

Nothing happens.

“Close”.

Nope.

“Map.”

That did it. OK. Cool.

So I can do a map? This must be that “interface” Lars was talking about. What else can I do? Just how much is it like the game?

“Inventory”

Ooh. An inventory list panel. Cool. Cool. That icon looks like my Staff of the Arch Druid, but it lists as “Maeve’s Staff”. I don’t have a mouse to right-click. Maybe if I reach out and tap it? The panel seems solid; but tapping didn’t do anything. Grasp and pull? It worked! My staff is in my hand. Push … and I can put it back. Nice.

But no gold. Heh. I guess some things don’t change when you get Incarnated. Broke in both worlds.

“Character” “C”

Nothing. Apparently it’s not exactly like the game.

“Skills”

That did it. “Oh.” I’m seeing some of the skills I’m used to and a few weird ones including ones I can’t read. But unless the numbers are different from the game, skill levels are a lot lower than I had in the game. But I guess I am new to this world, so maybe that’s fair. It’s not like I’ve been over here leading a guild for years.

“Attributes”

Yikes. Level 1. [sigh] OK. So be it. But Health and Mana are 10,000?! Really?! Even with boosts, the record for tanks in the game is like 525 Health. And really min-maxed casters could get something around 650 or so Mana temporarily. Is the scale totally different? The rest is like I’d expect for starting off though.

“Ok, then. Let’s try, ‘Spells’.”

Spells:

{[Grasping Vines]} Grasping Vines

{[Cure Wounds]} Cure Wounds

{[Create Water]} Create Water

{[Flame]} Flame

{[Repair]} Repair

{[Compass]} Compass

{[Search]} Search

Each one showed the written rune symbols of the spell followed by the name of the spell. Shorter list than I’m used to, but I guess it’s a lot longer than the zero I had offline in my homeworld. Not familiar with those last three. But whatever. Utility spells, I guess. Now how do I cast? Tapping? Nope. Grasp and pull? Nope.

“Create Water”

Nada. Oh wait. Use the geek, Emma. Or Maeve? Hello dissociative identity. Who am I? Gah! Anywho … Use the geek. Like how many times did even my guild lieutenants tease me for knowing every syllable of the game’s magic system, right? Here goes.

“{[create water]}”

Cool! Water. I’ve … managed to water the plants in this clearing. Otherworld gardening. Hooray. No, who am I kidding with this blasé? This morning I was just trying to make the most of waiting for the rest of my muscles to fail on me, barely able to even play online games. Now I’m walking around and doing magic? This is awesome! And there’s a mana bar. Yay “interface”! As much as it’s strange to see one just floating in my field of vision instead of on a screen, it’ll be a lot more handy than having to check “Attributes” every time I want to know how much I have left. Or just not knowing.

There was more to it than just saying it. I don’t know how I pulled off doing the rest. But I guess channeling mana is some kind of instinct. Or the feeling of how to do it comes with being Incarnated with the spells. Or something.

Let’s see if this does what I expect.

“{[compass]}”

Yep, a HUD compass. Would other people see it or just me?

Whatever.

“Enatus, here I come!”