His second was that he couldn't move his arms.
The third thought didn't come. Just aquamarine text hovering in his vision, too bright and too close. He blinked. It didn't move.
Hands pressed against his chest, gentle, but insistent. He turned his head. Shapes. Voices in a language that slid past him like water.
One of the shapes leaned closer. A woman, maybe. Rough cloth, darker skin, and…
Drew's breath caught.
Vines. Growing from under her sleeve, twisting down her left arm. Not wrapped around it. Growing from it. Where her ring finger should have been, there was only vine. Green, smooth, alive. No skin. No nail. Just plant matter fused to her hand like it had always been there.
The two women exchanged words in a language Drew didn’t recognize, then nodded in unison and raised their vine-grown ring fingers toward him. A pale green light slowly snaked out from their fingers and traced the surface of his body.
A gentle warmth settled across his skin followed by a tingling sensation in his chest. As the tingling intensified the aches and pains in his body retreated.
The green light faded, sputtered and disappeared replaced by a hovering message in the corner of his vision letters highlighted in a neon aquamarine.
[System Interface Initialized…]
Welcome, Drew Wilson. You have entered The Looming Drift a high-altitude biosphere of storm borne isles and evolving kinships.
Minority linguistic pattern detected. Your neural pathways show no dominant Drift-tongue alignment.
To proceed, select a Primary Communication Framework for system interfacing:
Espa?ol (Spanish Rooted – Espa?a Legacy)
Arawinaya Kétza (Spiritual Rooted – Echo of the Sky-People)
Note: Language choice will influence cultural alignment, faction relationships, and quest narrative tones.
Language may be restructured with effort. Operational advisory complete. Drift well, Stormborn.
[Awaiting Selection…]
Was he hallucinating? Shifting his head slightly left to right the message annoyingly stayed in the center of his vision.
Also what was the language Arawinaya Kétza? He had never heard of it. Was that what the people around him were speaking? Still should he pick a language he had never heard of?
Mentally he selected Espa?ol.
Immediately a second message popped up in his vision with aquamarine letters.
[Biostatus Interface Activated…]
Foreign vine integration detected.
Neural pathways adapting to non-native graft.
Graft Designation: Lúmivolt Root (Hybrid Class)
Emergency Vital Stabilization complete.
Two Solákata’s Thread carriers have administered:
- Aetheric enzyme infusion
Vitals:
- Heart Rate: Stabilized
- Neural Load: Mild trauma
- Aether Conduction: LOW (0.3%) — pending graft synchronization
- Graft Status: Dormant / Incomplete Interface
New Condition Acquired: [Aether Scar]
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Residual lightning-born trauma detected.
Your nervous system retains memory of extreme aether discharge.
Temporary Perks Unlocked:
- Residual Charge — Release a single pulse of kinetic discharge (10 ft radius, non-lethal)
- Stormsense (Passive) — Detect nearby aether fluctuations or unstable weather pockets
Note: Temporary effects will decay unless proper graft-bonding is completed.
Current Location:
Arawinaya Sub-Band Territory — “Skyridge Hollow”
Blinking slowly Drew re read the message over and over. And over. What was going on?
A hand gently but firmly shaking his shoulder brought him back to awareness of the world around him.
“Are you okay son?” A gravelly voice asked him. Looking around the two women and the other man were gone.
“Are you okay son?” The voice repeated.
“Yes” Drew responded but thinking it over his own words sound more like “Sí”. Huh maybe he did learn Spanish.
“How hard did the lightning hit you boy?”
Drew snapped back in the moment. Laughing Drew responded with “I was underground so the lightning couldn’t have struck me.” Then promptly had a coughing fit. God his whole body still ached.
With the fit stilling he looked up at clearly nonplussed man.
The man was large and loomed over Drew. He had a bald crown of head with his head shaved in a circle. The hair he did have on his dome was black but speckled with grey. The scruff of several days growth of facial hair he had was fully white. He wore rough spun tan robes with a rosary made from vines around his neck.
“Who are you?” Drew tentatively asked.
“I am Fray Hernando de Talavera. Your name and where you hail from?”
“Drew Wilson and Denver, Colorado. Where am I?”
The man’s eyes narrowed.
“You are on Skyridge Hollow near the Arawinaya territory. To what territory does Colorado belong too?”
Feeling like a school kid in front of a principal Drew responded “Colorado is a State in The United States of America. Have you never heard of it? I have never heard of the Arawinaya other than what the messages in my vision have told me.”
“America so you are from the Terra de Origen. I wondered that. Where did you get the Lúmivolt Root vine?”
Drew shifted uncomfortably “In a crevice where I was hiking. I found it while I was sheltering from a storm.”
There was a pregnant pause in the air. Drew stared deep into the man’s eyes which glared back without blinking. Drew lost the staring contest several times over before the man’s head bowed and a grave words fell out of the Fray’s mouth.
“Bend the root, but do not break it.
Guide my path, O Lord of storm and flame.
May my blood flow true through holy graft,
And may Your will twine deeper than my fear.
In shadow or sky, I walk where You will me.”
"You are going to be quiet and not ask any more questions. You are in great danger by being here. The Lord himself only knows why you are here. All of us humans here are from the Land of Origin, but recent travelers from there have brought… complexity."
Drew shifted uncomfortably and opened his mouth to respond.
"No questions," the man barked. "You do not understand anything, and you are only shielded by the fact people do not know who or what you are. What you are now might be more dangerous than who."
"Wait..." Drew pushed himself up on one elbow, ignoring the pain that flared through his chest. "You can't just tell me I'm in danger and then refuse to explain why."
Hernando's jaw tightened. For a moment, Drew thought the man might leave. Instead, he took a step closer, looming over the cot.
Something shifted in Hernando's expression, not quite approval, but recognition. He exhaled through his nose.
"You want the truth?" His voice was low, dangerous. "Fine. The vine I implanted in you is a hybrid unlike any I have seen. People will think you are Tzoma Kai and fear you. You will pretend to be a privateer—a corsair detached in a storm and stranded here."
Drew blinked. "Privateer? Like a pirate?"
Fray Hernando didn't answer. Instead, he turned and began walking toward the door.
"Wait…where are we going?" Drew called after him.
Hernando stopped in the doorway, silhouetted against the crystal glow beyond. "Somewhere you can learn what you need to survive. If you're smart enough to keep up."
Drew used his arm to brace himself against the hut frame, wincing. His legs shook, but he stood.
Sucking in a breath and wincing at the pain it brought, Drew followed Fray Hernando… into a cave. Drew blinked. Then shuffled along to catch up to the retreating form of his new found guide.
He was about to ask where they were going when the Fray spoke again.
“The vine you touched. Do you remember the color? The way it felt?”
“Aquamarine,” Drew said, “like lightning in water. It… it hurt. A lot.”
“It should have killed you,” Fray Hernando muttered. “But it didn’t. Which means either God is testing me… or something is changing.”
They reached a wall of weather-worn stone shaped like a crescent arch. Hernando placed a hand on it, whispering something too low for Drew to hear. Vines stirred. A hidden seam cracked open.
A staircase. Cut into the rock. Leading upward.
“Where are we going?” Drew asked.
The Friar’s mouth twitched. “To the surface. There is someone I must show you to. And you need a map, boy. If you are going to pretend to be a privateer you will need to learn where you have drifted.”
A blue notification flickered into Drew’s vision:
[System Notice – Hidden Quest Unlocked!]
Stormborn Lies (Unique Quest)
Objective:
Assume identity of a privateer stranded by an aetherstorm
Learn the geography and factions of the Looming Drift
Conceal hybrid vine origin from hostile parties
Rewards:
+750 XP
Drift Map (Fogged)
Unknown Bond (???)
Consequences for failure may include imprisonment or vivisection. Do not fail.