Black became red. Red mixed with blue. Blue with green. A chill wrapped around him like a blanket and he shuddered. Wait— I’m alive? Pi’ve opened his eyes and saw nothing he could make any sense of. The ceiling was covered in glass, and outside there was— fish? He looked about, and indeed, not only was the roof glass; the whole room was covered in transparent glass which kept the ocean from rushing in.

  Pi’ve craned his neck to his left and found that his throat was hurting. He began to cough uncontrollably. Tears streamed down his cheeks. Terrors he did not remember brought aching and longing which made his chest feel like bursting.

  ‘Oh, good! You’re awake.’ A peculiar voice came from his right. Pi’ve turned and jumped as he saw a man with long black hair, before he succumbed to another coughing fit and closed his eyes. ‘Here, have this. You will feel better.’ The man said, and a small bottle was placed inside Pi’ve’s hand. He drank unquestioningly. Suddenly his throat cleared, and he could breathe again without the feeling of barbed wire lodged in his lungs.

  He took a few breaths before he turned to the man. Pi’ve found that he was not looking at a man at all, but rather… a merman? No, he had to be dreaming. Mermen— merfolk rather— were only in folktales and legends. They did not exist outside of songs.

  A distant memory carved itself to the forefront of his mind. Of a large black shape, and a ship— his father. Did it really…

  ‘Where am I?’ Pi’ve said, his voice sounding harsh.

  The merman took a moment before he answered. ‘You are in the Palace of Tharthilion, in Tharthilion. Thar meaning city. Thilion meaning mer— as in merfolk.’

  ‘So you are a merman!’ Pi’ve said shaken out of his hazy mind, latching onto something fantastical to distract himself. ‘What is your name? My name is Pi’ve.’

  ‘Well, Pi’ve, it is nice to meet you. Strange chance though it may be, but there we are. My name is Gaudol, and I am a Komadoron of Tharthilion. A wizard to you, if an equivalence is to be rendered to your kind.’ Gaudol said, and as he said it, feet appeared where he previously had resembled a huge, green and grey scaled fish.

  Pi’ve sat wide-eyed and looked at the man now in front of him. Gaudol rose from his seat, and began to walk around the room. Pi’ve saw clearly that this room indeed was the equivalent to what he thought wizards had; a room for alchemy. Table with intricate glass tubes that went from one large bottle of a clear liquid into expanded chambers of red, green and blue liquids before filling smaller vials at the end. Shelves upon shelves with flasks and vials of liquids from clear to everything between black and white. Cauldrons of various sizes and mortars stood on the tables about, and on the floor scattered. Shelves with jars of stuff he had never seen, but also of seaweed and fish remnants. But why was he in an alchemy room? Gaudol pointed to the ceiling, and Pi’ve allowed his gaze to look up.

  ‘I stood here, brewing, when I heard a thump above me.’ Gaudol said, reenacting the scene. ‘I looked up, and you were sliding down the glass dome. I opened a hole in it, and—’ Gaudol held out his hand, indicating that he had levitated Pi’ve down. ‘—placed you on my table. I drained your lungs with some tubes I had laying about— I did not know how your body would react to magic, or even if I would be able to only excrete the excess water, or if I would wrench you dry completely. I think I did well regarding the circumstances.’

  Pi’ve shook his head. It hurt. Though in astonishment he said ‘It seems so! I feel well—’ Pi’ve caught himself in a lie, though not a deliberate one. For a brief second he forgot his grief as the merman spoke, but he was brought back to reality, though he still did not quite understand where the pain came from. He had not been severely hurt. Not physically at least.

  ‘No, you are not. But you will be. When you are, I will bring you home.’ Gaudol said, and Pi’ve nodded.

  That day went by quick, as Pi’ve received food— fish— and they talked. It seemed that Gaudol knew that Pi’ve had been through an awful ordeal, and wanted to distract him for a while. He learned about the city of Tharthilion and Gaudol’s role in the city. Gaudol was much like wizards on dry land. He was their protector from creatures which threatened those who had no means to defend themselves, or from other phenomena which threatened them.

  Pi’ve received a makeshift mattress— a waterbed— and soon found sleep. He slept long. Then, as he awoke, he found no sign of Gaudol. A small panic emerged as he found himself all alone, and dreaded what might come back to his memory. Somehow, Pi’ve knew what had happened, but he would not accept it, and so he managed to fool himself that it was just a bad dream. Pi’ve got up and saw a small piece of parchment laying on the table where he had been rescued.

  It read:

  Pi’ve. I will not be available today to be of company. As a guest of mine, you are to use my place as you wish. There are four rooms, though I would like to have you use the alchemy room and treasury sparingly, or not at all preferably. There is a kitchen and pantry out to the left, and a library out to the right. Eat and read as you wish. I will be back by tomorrow.

  Ps. Stay away from the narrowest shelf. The books can harm you.

  - Gaudol

  Pi’ve’s stomach rumbled. He was famished. He had not eaten much, except the few fishes yesterday and that hardtack before the— he winced. He suddenly became really hot. His cheeks was burning and his back was prickling. He ventured through the green stone arch towards the pantry. It dawned on him that he had not yet thanked Gaudol for saving him, and felt bad about taking food. His stomach did not feel this way though, and he agreed with it that he had to eat something, both for getting his energy up, and for his recovery. His headache had only worsened after he woke after all.

  In the hall, Pi’ve could see through the glass. Watervines rose high and swayed in the deep currents of the sea. He could not see through the tall grass outside. He turned left in the glass hall, and saw ahead a few shelves with glass jars.

  Upon entering the pantry, which had a kitchen to the right, he saw little variety in what the merman ate. His stomach growled aggressively. Maybe Gaudol ate when he was outside the dome usually. The jars upon the shelves contained all sort of fish in some liquid. Some jar had dried fish, and some had dried seaweed. There was also a large container which he opened and revealed frozen fish and other assortment. After a good think, Pi’ve decided that he would have fish.

  Pi’ve looked through another row of shelves to see if there were anything else. He doubted it. In the corner of his eyes, he saw something. His heart-rate spiked, and before he knew it, he had thrown six or seven jar across the room. As he slowly came out of the trance-like state he had been in, he saw what the jars had contained. Crabs. He was afraid what Gaudol would say. Pi’ve stood transfixed, unable to move as his vision went from one crab to the other. Memory from before he woke in this place surged through his head. Had the cry been his father’s last call? ‘Oh my goodness! Nobby!’ Pi’ve said, now sobbing uncontrollably.

  He leaned against a near shelf as to not fall over, but his feet was not strong enough to hold him. He remembered following the last arrow of Billo as it sped towards what had been their demise. A large, black crab which snapped masts like twigs. And Billo… He fell down to his knees, and threw up. A glass shard from the broken jars pierced his shin. The pain of it shook him out of his miserable thoughts. It did not bleed much.

  After a quick bout with nausea, his stomach felt like it would shrivel up any moment. He had to get some food. Gaudol did have bread— a pleasant turn— which he assumed he bought at some market in Thergiam while appearing in his human form, though there were no butter. Pi’ve made a couple of slices of bread and added some fish, both fresh and pickled.

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  Once he had eaten and had a few goblets of water— water which he had taken from a rather peculiar basin— he decided that he would spend the remainder of the day looking through the library. He needed something to distract him. He felt numb. Would he even be able to read? He wondered what books someone living in the ocean read, or wrote for that matter.

  He saw the library ahead as he left the pantry, and as he passed the hallway to the alchemy room, he saw that the library would be different than the other rooms. The were no glass to be seen, and it was darker than the others.

  He entered the room, and he could see that every wall was lined with bookshelves, and even some scattered about in the middle of the room. The room was lit by candles propped on sconces. To his left, he saw above the bookshelves a sign which read “alchemy”, and that shelf was the largest collection which Gaudol held. It was separated into general alchemy, land and water.

  As he looked at the books, he saw that most of them were written in a language he did not understand. Pi’ve surmised that those were the books which was concerned with the ocean and its creatures. The books written in the common language cared not with the ocean, save for those concerned with trade and voyage. Exhausted Pi’ve skimmed one book and found it hard to read. He had slept long and woken not long ago, but he felt tired. He skimmed some others. I could read these books for years, had I not been so sick. I wish I was a wizard. That thought only brought more pain.

  He put down a book on “the uses of cliff-side growths and their application in alchemy” in a hurry, for he saw another label on one of the book shelves. It was a narrow bookshelf, but it spanned from the floor to the ceiling. It was four or five books in width and the books had no titles or labels, except for the front which sported a rune the likes of which he had never seen before. Most books had one rune, others two. No book had three or more.

  Pi’ve went through the books sporadically. When he had looked so high up he could no longer reach another book, he found a ladder. There was something compelling about them. It was magical. He was drawn to them. Then, as he pulled out a book from the topmost shelf, a book which was misplaced behind the other books on the shelf fell down behind, crashed and thudded, and landed on the floor. As it crashed down he cringed and prayed the book had not been damaged.

  He climbed down and bent to the lowest shelf by the floor and pulled out some books. He found the book leaning against the wall. He pulled it out and brushed the back of the book for dust as he turned it over. It had no visible dents or scratches.

  Then he remembered what Gaudol had written. Ps. Stay away from the narrowest shelf. The books can harm you.

  Well, Pi’ve cared not for being hurt right now. Pi’ve squinted and looked at the cover. At first he had seen a large rune which covered most of the front, but then the rune was gone, and it now said The Jin. Pi’ve opened the book began to read it. In the preface it said:

  I am not a famous wizard. I am not notorious, nor am I someone who will be remembered, for I have not delved into arts which those who walk beside me care much for or think much about, but I have in recent years stumbled upon some interesting avenues of magic. Many says the Jin-elven mark on the world is long gone, and some says they are legends altogether. I say otherwise, and I have proof. I am that proof. I have collected all works of Jin-elven text the High-elves have, for they do not want it, and I have found some more in various places elsewhere. This particular book, I have written, save one page.

  You may find that when first stumbling upon this book that you saw a rune, and it was true, but as you blinked, text appeared and the rune had gone. It was no trick of the eye, nor some lowly magical apparition. I placed that rune there for you to be able to read the runes of the Jin-elves, for that is the power of the Jin-runes. They carry magic. They are magic.

  Now, before you stumble upon that which made me write this book, I must say only one thing. This book may never be found. It may never be read; as I said, I am not famous, and folk care not for what I do. This book will be hidden, for that is its nature, not only because of what it is, but also for what it brings. But if you happen to stumble upon it, then maybe the book decided to change your fate, for better or for worse. I know what it did for me… It was not chance. It was improbable— though with enough time, the improbable becomes certainty.

  Pi’ve suddenly wanted to lay the book down, and never open it again. Gaudol was probably right, he should not read these. Aversion streamed through his whole body, and it felt like his hand became a magnet holding another magnet, the same pole against each other. With strain he turned the page, for something told him, against his better sense of judgement maybe, that this book would change his life as the author said “for better or for worse”. Screw it. It will not get much worse than it already is… When the page was turned, the aversion subsided and he could read on without trouble.

  As the Jin-elves left this world, the means of the deepest understanding of the world left too, leaving an opaque veil for their descendants to see reality through. It has been gone, I gather, since the reign of King Orasaofa of the High Elves, long before the splitting of the East and West. Moreover, as I can attest, the average elf sees nothing and knows nothing of how the world actually works. Although they have retained some of their magic, almost all have been lost and forgotten. On the next page— and I urge you to turn it with caution— is a rune— a single rune mind you— which will transform how you see the world around you, and which will elevate everything of your being.

  It was strange. Something ominous loomed on the other side of the page, and Pi’ve was hesitant to turn it for a second, but then he decided that this was probably just a badly written book by some lunatic historian of old, and so, he turned.

  The rightmost page was blank. The leftmost page revealed a rune, and just like the rune on the front page, it suddenly turned into text he could understand. But before he knew the gravity of reading it, and before reading it at all, he had a rather strange premonition. Nothing would be the same after reading that rune. And then he did.

  “Jin start” was all it said.

  Anticlimactic, he thought. Just then, his vision was obscured.

  *Jin initiation commencing… Please wait…*

  Pi’ve dropped the book. What is this? Text had obscured his vision and floated in air.

  *Transporting (Pi’ve [human - lvl 1]) to tutorial*

  Transporting— me? Lvl what?— and then it went dark. He felt his body, but he could see nothing but black. He knew his eyes were open. He felt no ground beneath his feet, but he did not sense himself falling. Then, suddenly, he could hear a voice while simultaneously his vision gradually came back, and he stood before a silhouette which he could not make out.

  ‘Welcome, Pi’ve of Thergiam.’ A voice said, probably from the silhouette in front of him. Then another text came before his vision.

  *Tutorial loaded. Good luck*

  ‘Loaded? Good luck? What is going on?’ Pi’ve said out loud.

  ‘You have been initiated to the Jin, and I am your guide through the tutorial. Do you wish to enter, or leave?’.

  A new text came. A green [Enter] and a red [Leave].