The mage's eyes glowed as the radiant book floated in the air before him, brimming with energy, and Sion's eyes narrowed as he kept his gaze fixed on it cautiously. The pages flipped on their own and Sion braced himself for what was about to happen, but before he could even take another step.
A sudden shock wave slammed into him, throwing him across the ground and he groaned as pain surged through his entire body. His vision blurred, his muscles twitched uncontrollably as magic restraints formed in a glow around his wrists and ankles, tightening like vines across his limbs.
"You are lucky you are important for the time being," the mage muttered as he approached him. "Otherwise I would have made this a lot worse for you and believe me, that is not something that you want."
Sion gritted his teeth at his words, unable to move from the position he was in, helpless and frustrated. It was a feeling he was all too familiar with and he did not like it one bit.
The mage's eyes narrowed and he raised his hand as a glowing light surrounded them. In a flash, both of them vanished, reappearing in a cold stone chamber beneath the palace.
The chains clinked as Sion was dragged into a cold, dimly lit cell and unceremoniously thrown inside, landing with a soft thud on the ground. The bar doors of the cell locked behind him without a loud clang, sealing him inside and his brows furrowed as he glanced up.
"Stay there; someone will come to deal with you and explain your situation soon enough, especially after you just appeared in the summoning circle earlier; that was not supposed to happen," The mage said before walking away, leaving him there alone.
The only thing that followed after was silence and his shallow breathing.
Sion took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall of the cell, trying to process everything. His body still ached from the spell, while frustration simmered beneath his skin.
'So this is how my life here starts... Not with power, but captivity and a confusing situation...' He thought, before closing his eyes.
'What do I do now?' He wondered.
He slowly reopened his eyes and looked around the dungeon from within his cell. It was old, damp, cold and mostly empty; it almost felt like a special place. He could hear whispers echoing softly from the stone wall, almost like a secret buried beneath the surface.
While his gaze wandered, his mind raced. 'I cannot stay here long; the king clearly wants something from me or maybe know me or he would have killed me already after the stunt I just pulled.'
He took a deep breath to calm himself. 'Fine, if this is how it's going to be, if I cannot run from here, I will stay, I will listen, I will watch and somehow, I must find my way from the inside. I will play along to see what is really going on here because something about this feels off in more ways than one.'
Sitting in the damp silence of the dungeon with his back against the cold wall and his breath misting slightly in the cold air, he tried to relax his body in some way to lessen the pain. The world, the cell, and even his own skin felt alien.
He lowered his gaze to his hands.
Strong and slender. Not the thin, rough fingers he was accustomed to. His body was sharper, his muscles tighter, and the veins along his arms more defined. The image of his symmetrical face, pale eyes, and body that seemed to have been sculpted for both royalty and combat came back to him.
'Who are you really...' He muttered as he clenched his fists.
Sion lifted his shirt and looked at his body carefully, now that he actually had the time to think and focus. His eyes trailed the defined muscles and abs, something he did not quite have lying in a bed in a hospital room filled with machines hooked to his body.
A strange feeling of awe and discomfort swirled within him.
"This is not me... Not in the slightest, but whoever the previous owner of this body was... clearly had a difficult life... I need to know who I am here..." He muttered with his brows furrowed.
Sion sighed as he tried standing up, but his legs wobbled slightly, not from pain, but from unfamiliarity. This body was built differently from the one he was accustomed to. His entire balance was different from his original body; it was more confident, stronger and even taller than before. It almost felt wrong yet good in a strange way.
"What the hell...How can I be expected to play a game I did not ask to be in? I asked for a second chance, but this is different; this is someone else's life, someone I do not know and now...I am expected to change it, find out who and god knows what more..." He mumbled as he finally managed to stand up straight.
He paced slowly, trying to get used to this body, despite the shackles that were around his limbs. He stretched his sore limbs, memorizing the cells, even to the small cracks within the stones, his mind working overtime, his thoughts raced faster than his feet. It was almost funny.
'The gods or that woman must be a sadist in someway to have put me in this situation.'
Within the cell, he could hear small voices, echoes coming from the palace above. There were many things going on: power plays happening above, while he was stuck down here, in a cold cell like a caged animal, with no idea what was going on or what role he played in all of this, there was nothing but uncertainty surrounding his entire being.
Was I really just summoned to serve? Or was there more? The king's cold, calculating eyes carried too much weight to be a coincidence.
"Why me?" he mumbled. "Why this body, this face? What did she mean by all of that? I have to figure it out before it's too late; I need to do something."
He still remembered the woman in white, the strange realm between death and life.
Sion's thoughts turned to what she had said about this world, that it operated on balance. On change. On choices. Was this a second chance or a setup?