Agony.
Blinding, all-consuming, and absolute. That was the first thing Leo Grant knew when consciousness clawed its way back to him. The wounds in his arm and leg weren't just aching; they were screaming, a searing, white-hot fire that pulsed in time with his frantic heartbeat.
"Can you hear me? Hello? Testing, one, two, three…"
The voice was soft, feminine, and sounded vaguely like she was doing a sound check. With a groan, Leo struggled to push himself up on his good elbow.
His vision swam. The first thing to resolve out of the blurry chaos was a pair of fluffy, white cat ears, twitching slightly. He blinked, rubbing his eyes with a shaking hand. The image sharpened. Before him stood a girl with the aforementioned ears nestled in a mane of snowy white hair. She was dressed in strange, flowing white robes, held a staff that was nearly as tall as she was, and was, to his immediate and confused surprise, exactly his type.
Except… she looked a little dazed.
She's a good person, a thought popped into his head, unbidden. Why does she feel so familiar?I bet I could totally trick her into giving me her wallet.
The last thought was so bizarrely specific that Leo mentally recoiled. Of course, he wouldn't actually do that. Besides, while the cat-eared girl might have a slightly spaced-out expression, her ears were pinned back and her long, white tail was held stiff and straight behind her. It was the posture of a predator on high alert. This was no simple girl.
"Ashem?"
The name slipped out of his mouth before he could think. He had no idea where it came from, but it felt as right on his tongue as his own.
The girl's ruby-red eyes went wide. "Eh? How do you know my name—Hiss! That hurts!"
Simultaneously, an electric shock of pain shot up Leo's wounded arm. "Gah! Hurts!"
They both clutched the exact same spot on their left arms, their faces contorting into identical masks of pain. Leo stared at her arm. It was perfectly smooth and fair, not a scratch on it. He looked down at his own, at the blood-soaked bandage.
He watched as the girl's cat ears folded back against her head like the wings of a jet. He realized with a growing sense of dread that every time a fresh wave of agony pulsed from his wounds, she would flinch, her whole body tensing as if she were feeling it too.
"What is going on?" Leo gasped, his mind reeling from the pain and the sheer impossibility of it all.
Ashem stared at him, her own confusion mirroring his. "Leo, you—wait. How do I know your name?" She shook her head, her focus snapping back to his injuries. "Never mind that. We need to get you healed. Stand by."
She raised her staff. "Divine Beneficence!"
A warm, green light enveloped her staff before flowing over Leo's body. The searing heat in his arm and leg was instantly replaced by a soothing, tingling warmth. He watched, dumbfounded, as the torn flesh began to knit itself back together under the gentle light. The exhaustion and pain that had been dragging him down began to lift, replaced by a feeling of profound relief.
"Looks like that worked," she said, sounding pleased with herself. "Let's top you off with another—"
This time, as the magic flared to life, their eyes met. His dark, terrified gaze locked with her brilliant ruby one, and a flash of white light consumed their consciousness.
—A magnificent, sprawling city of impossible architecture. —The sound of a thousand voices, raised in a fierce, passionate argument. —A dark room. A circular table. Fourteen masked figures, their faces hidden in shadow.
"The Ancients…" Leo heard himself murmur, the words feeling alien in his mouth. "The Convocation…"
Ashem's head snapped up, her eyes boring into him. "You saw it too?"
The crushing headache that had accompanied the vision receded as quickly as it had come. Leo's throat was bone dry. He felt like he had just stumbled into a memory that wasn't his, a switch that should never have been flipped. He could only manage a shaky nod.
The shared, impossible experience hung between them, making the air feel heavy and oppressive.
Following her gaze as it scanned their surroundings, Leo finally took a proper look at where he was. It wasn't a back alley in New York.
He was in a forest, but everything was wrong. The trees were a strange, deep indigo, their leaves a glowing, purplish hue that pulsed with a faint inner light. The air was thick with a cloyingly sweet scent, like a bizarre mixture of overripe fruit and rust. Most unnerving of all, there was no sun. The sky was a solid, seamless ceiling of pale golden clouds that emitted a flat, white light, offering no warmth, only a strange, suffocating pressure.
And in the distance, piercing the horizon, was a colossal Crystal Tower that pulsed with its own inner blue light. That was definitely not on Earth.
"This… This isn't New York," he stated, the obviousness of the sentence sounding stupid even to his own ears.
"This is the First," Ashem explained, her voice soft. "I was summoned here from the Source. It looks like you were, too. We appeared at almost the exact same time."
For a guy who had already woken up in the Marvel Universe, being teleported to a second alien world was surprisingly easy to digest. He was just rolling with it now.
"The person who summoned me already made contact before I came," she continued, her brow furrowed in thought. "He was developing a spell to summon people across worlds, but… well, he's not very good at it yet. He accidentally pulled the souls of some of my companions here before me. You and I showing up together probably means he messed it up again."
Leo didn't know what to say to that. "Uh, so that's it? A magical oops?"
Ashem stroked her chin, her ruby eyes scanning him with an intense curiosity. She walked a full circle around him, then pushed a pair of glasses he hadn't noticed before up the bridge of her nose. "You know," she said, peering at him, "I feel a strange pull toward you. An attraction."
She was standing so close now he could smell a faint, clean fragrance, like fresh linen and something faintly floral. For a single man who hadn't been this close to a girl in years, it was enough to make his face flush.
"Um… yeah, me too," he stammered. "Is this… is this what they call love at first sight?"
Ashem rolled her cat eyes. "I think you might be me from another world. Otherwise, there's no way to explain why I feel your pain. I already checked; neither of us has a curse on us."
"Huh?" Leo's face fell a little. "But… we don't look anything alike."
She shrugged. "Just a theory. To know for sure, we'll have to find the guy who brought us here." She stood on her tiptoes, scanning the horizon before her gaze settled on the distant tower. "There's a Crystal Tower here, too? He's probably there." She sighed, relaxing now that she had a goal. The vigilant warrior was gone, replaced by a slightly exasperated tourist. "Okay, so I got summoned, but he pulled an extra person, and we're completely in the wrong location. His summoning magic definitely needs more practice."
They started walking, Ashem taking the lead through the glowing purple forest. Leo, trailing behind, noticed she moved with an unnatural silence, her feet barely making a sound on the strange foliage. He could see the glint of metal armor under the hem of her white robes, and the tall staff she'd been holding was gone, replaced by a weapon that looked like a cross between a fencer's rapier and a magical focus.
"Are you a mage?" he asked, trying to fill the silence.
"Nope!" she said proudly over her shoulder. "I, the Warrior of Light, am proficient in all disciplines! Melee, ranged, caster, healer, tank… you name it. I'm also a master-tier crafter and gatherer in over twenty different fields."
A random fact surfaced in Leo's mind. "Last I heard, you won the Culinarian of the Year competition in Limsa Lominsa."
Ashem stopped. "Eh?"
Leo pressed his fingers to his temples, a fresh headache blooming. "Wait… why do I know that?"
"See? I knew it," the cat-eared girl said, a smug grin spreading across her face. "You have to be me from another world."
Leo just stared at her. "It's still a little hard to wrap my head around." He gestured at her. "You're this legendary, all-powerful hero. You're beautiful. Someone literally invented interdimensional travel just to get you here. You're a walking protagonist." He then pointed at himself. "Me? I'm just… some guy. I'm so painfully ordinary."
A faint blush touched Ashem's cheeks. "Hehe, well, hearing myself from another world praise me like that is a little embarrassing." She waved a dismissive hand. "Look, our situation is weird, but it's not hurting anyone right now."
"Wait," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. The playful, smug girl vanished in an instant, replaced by the alert warrior. "People. Up ahead."
She stopped, carefully pushing aside a thick, glowing fern.
Through the leaves, Leo could see a simple, makeshift camp.