Reawakening

It was a long time since I was last truly unconscious. Sleep was never a thing that came easily to me, even back home. In the body I was given in this new world, it was worse. At most I could reach that point where you are between awake and asleep, but I was never able to truly dream.

“Wake up…” a voice called me. “Wake up!”

There was only darkness.

I could not feel a single thing. I was not even sure I even had a body at that point.

“Please, come to me, Bastion!”

My eyes sparked with life.

The first thing I saw was her face, blemished with flowing tears.

“Sybille…?” I muttered.

She sighed with relief and smiled.

“Ah… Bastion…” said Sybille. “Thank goodness…”

My head was resting on her lap. We were in a forest, somewhere. I could hear the rustling of the squirrels, the fluttering of the birds, and the crackling of the bonfire beside the two of us. On the other side of the bonfire was a horse, as well as a wagon, and a tent.

“Where are we?” I asked her.

I left her lap, getting myself to sit upright against a tree.

“We are in the Ranolkian Empire,” she said. “We escaped. Barely.”

“I was in that town,” I said. “That castle town. The Master made me breach the gate. And then…”

He tore my soul out with a single spell.

“I know,” she said. “They buried you with the rest of the corpses after they took the castle. As soon as I recovered from the rebound, I went looking for you, but… you were nowhere in the tower. When I asked Master Croghan, he told me you went haywire. You… you are not someone who would go mad with violence all of a sudden. He... he forced you to do bad things, didn’t he?”

There was pain in her eyes.

“He made me break that gate,” I said. “His monsters started killing civilians. When I tried to stop him, he… he used some kind of spell on me.”

Sybille nodded.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “If I had been there, maybe I could have stopped him.”

“What happened to the civilians?”

“The civilians? Oh, you meant the ones in the castle town. The Ranolkian forces managed to take down most of the slimes, so casualties were not as high as they could have been. However, Master Croghan and his forces did manage to take over the castle, then left you buried outside.”

At least there was that.

“And how did you find me?” I asked her.

Sybille gulped.

“When I found out what happened,” she said, “I escaped the tower, and went to the fortress where they buried you. I dug you out with magic, then took a horse and a wagon to take you away from that fortress. I took us here to the woods, and used what traces of a soul was left in your body to pull in the rest. You should be mostly fine now… I think.”

I opened and closed my hand.

“I do not feel that different from usual,” I said. “But Sybille, Master Croghan used some magic on me. He called me by my real name, and then…”

“Oh, don’t worry about that!” she said. “I found the rune responsible for that function and destroyed it, as well as anything that the Master could use to control you. Now you don’t have to worry about him anymore!”

She looked so proud as she said that. To be honest, hearing that was one hell of a relief.

“I don’t need to listen to the old man anymore?” I asked. I was still doubtful of that, but I wanted it to be true.

“You don’t,” said Sybille.

I looked up to the sky.

“Then, what now?” I asked.

“What about now?” she replied.

“What do I have to do now?”

“Bastion… you don’t have to do anything anymore. You are free.”

Free.

For the first time in my life, counting both this and the last, I had nothing to do. No responsibilities, no expectations, no debts to repay, and no concerns for tomorrow. This peace felt foreign. It was almost menacing. Something had to be out there, I thought. Something that I had to do.

“Not anything?” I said.

Sybille smiled.

“Not anything, Bastion.”

For some reason, I felt sad. I felt lost. Just what was I supposed to do now? With this body, I did not even need to worry about food or shelter. I could just live off the land’s mana. I could live forever.

Just why then did I feel so lost?

“Bastion,” said Sybille, resting her head against her knee as she met my gaze. “Is there anything that you want to do?”

I thought about it.

Anything that I wanted to do? I wasn’t sure. Maybe getting some bits and pieces of my humanity back… a sense of smell, a sense of taste. That, among other things.

But above all that, there was one thing I always wanted to do.

“I want to see the world,” I said.

Sybille smiled.

“An adventurer, hmm?” she said.

“Yes,” I responded. “An adventurer. I can help people. I can explore places. I can just… be.”

“Then, it’s settled,” said Sybille, standing up.

She walked to my side and offered me her outstretched hand.

“What?” I said.

“Then, let’s become adventurers together!” she said.

“But your work with the Master…”

“Bastion, come on. Do you think I wanted to work with that psychopath? I am now practically a fugitive. Besides, you need someone to guide you around in the world.”

“That makes sense.”

“So, are you going to take my hand?”

I took her hand.

“Heave-ho!” I went.

“Wha- wait!”

I pulled, trying to stand up with her help.

Yeah.

That went about as predictably as I should have seen. I ended up pulling Sybille down towards my chest as I fell back down to the ground. She barely managed to brace for impact and pushed away just fast enough to not hit her head.

She looked at me with a surprised expression.

“Ah…” I said.

“Aha…” she nervously let out. “Ah, hahahaha!”

She laughed.

“Ha…” I returned. She laughed, and so did I. “Hahahahahaha!”

“Ahahaha!”

“Hahahahaha!”

We both laughed like fools, carrying on without a worry in the world.