"No!"
I screamed and jumped out of my bed, startled.
It took a while before I managed to calm down, repeating to myself that I was safe in my room and it was just a dream.
I plopped down on my bed and buried my face in my hands.
"Sigh… what on earth was that nightmare?" I muttered. "It felt so real."
After rubbing my temples, I raised my head to look at the mirror right across the spacious room… way too spacious for a twelve-year-old.
I was in the typical long-handed cream shirt and simple boxers. My black short hair was untidy, and there were dark bags under my crimson-colored eyes.
Seeing my face again, I grunted. 'What a waste. I am labelled 'cursed' because of these eyes, yet I can't even manifest flames like I did before. What's the point of being cursed if I don't have powers?'
That was why I couldn't wait for the end of the school year for me to finally join the Knights' Academy and become a Squire.
Twelve long years, that was how much time had passed since I arrived in this world.
Anyway, it was time to get ready for school.
As soon as I thought that, Gildy, one of the two maids we have in the Black Manor, entered my room. She was donning the typical black and white maid outfit, and was about seven feet tall and was just as wide, with her brown hair tucked into a bun behind her head.
Her eyebrows were extremely faint, and her brown eyes were round. And as expected of someone her size, her cheeks were full.
"Good morning, Gildy," I greeted, but she just smiled, nodded, and went to the bathroom to ready my bath. Her silence was common. Ever since I came to Black Manor, she had never spoken, not even once. So I just concluded that she was most likely mute.
I walked over to my bedside table and stared at the open books. I thought for a few seconds and sat down to pen down a new entry in my journal about the nightmare I just had.
After dipping the pen in ink, I began:
"7th Day of the Morrowind, Year 2199 DE…"
The dating system of this world had seven days of the week, starting from the first day: Day of Life, Day of Sun, Day of Sky, Day of Earth, Day of Sea, Day of Moon, and Day of Death.
The days of the week told the story of the creation of the world and the cycle of life for man.
There were thirteen months in the Divine Calendar, with 28 days in each and one extra day between the starting and ending months, and another on leap years. Morrowind was the second month of the year.
The Divine Calendar was the universal calendar used by the entire world, created at the inception of the five orthodox beliefs after defeating the Ancient Dragon Empire. Hence, the term 'DE', which stood for Divine Era.
The five orthodox beliefs were, namely, the Order of the Golden Sun, the Church of the Night, the Temple of Holy Mother of Life, the Church of the Holy Trinity of Storms, and the Fellowship of Death.
In addition, there were only five continents in this world: Arceope, Sansea, Bavana, Nuchia, and the Islands of Critea.
The five beliefs were all mostly spread out across the continents, with certain parts not welcoming the other.
For example, in the Holy Solean Empire—which took up most of Arceope—apart from the Golden Sun Order, only the Night Church and the Temple of the Holy Mother of Life were permitted to proselytize and build churches.
Over the past few years, I learned more about this world and assimilated quite smoothly. I may have been seen as a young prodigy because I learned how to read and write quite quickly, but I didn't try to stand out after that.
I could draw the blueprint of the light bulb, but then I may just be hanged the next day for sorcery. In the Six Kingdoms of Solea, the church ruled and decided everything.
With the information I had gathered about this world so far, I finally got a picture of the state of the society was in.
What was true was simply decided by those with power. And not just any kind of power, but the divine kind. As someone with the aim of returning home, I considered this my greatest enemy.
Simply because every other form of power was seen as blasphemy and heresy. That would have been alright… if it wasn't punishable by death.
The Dragon of the Beginning mentioned Ares, Athena, Ra, Horus, and Metatron. But in this world, the gods that are served have no names. If I recalled my knowledge of myths from my previous world to replace those names, that would be: War, Wisdom, Sun, Vision, and Burning Holiness. Oddly enough, they all had something to do with the concept of the 'sun'.
I took a wild guess, hinted from the Dragon calling me a 'feast for the gods', and had the radical idea that maybe, just maybe, the 'Sun' being served by the Church was… multiple gods. And these multiple gods wanted to eat me for whatever divine reason.
The thought alone felt so blasphemous that I couldn't sleep that night. I began to understand why my path only led towards destruction.
Shortly after I was done bathing, Gildy dressed me up in an ash-colored woolen suit with fine embroidery, paired with pants of the same color and boots.
After Gildy was done, she left to attend to other things. Not much of a conversation could transpire between a twelve-year-old and a mute older woman.
I went over to the standing, full-body mirror and observed my stature. I was now 5 feet 4 inches tall, taller than most children my age already. My short black hair was now coiffed back delicately, and my skin was reminiscent of burnt ivory.
"Williem Grey, bastard son of House Solman," I said to the mirror and grinned slightly.
I noticed something at the periphery of my vision and turned to look. Standing there at my room door was a lady in the typical maid attire with long pitch-black hair and ebony eyes, staring at me with visible disdain. She had a beautiful pale complexion that seemed kind of surreal when stared at for too long.
It was Selene, the other maid, who hated me for reasons best known to her. Father had brought her to the manor when I turned five, and had been this way since the beginning.
However, the weirdest thing about her yet was that she never tried to hide the fact that she was a Witch from me.