Morning came with golden sunlight streaming through the cracks of the wooden shutters.
Eddie blinked awake on a straw mattress that smelled faintly of smoke and lavender. It took him a few seconds to remember:Right.He wasn't home.He wasn't anywhere close to home.
The last thing he remembered was falling asleep beside a glowing lamp, surrounded by people who'd paid him with soup and gratitude instead of cash.
He sat up, groaning. His arms ached from all the repair work yesterday. His back protested with the kind of soreness that told him: Congratulations, you're alive but not young anymore.
"So this isn't heaven," he muttered. "No angels. Just back pain."
A soft knock came at the door.
"Um, Mister Eddie?"
He recognized the voice — the little girl from yesterday. Lyra, if he remembered right.
"Come in," he said.
The door creaked open and Lyra peeked inside, clutching her lantern again. This time, the light inside was steady and bright.
"Good morning! I brought breakfast!"
She carried a tray with bread, fruit, and a small clay cup of steaming liquid that smelled suspiciously like burnt sugar.
"Ah, salamat—uh, thank you," Eddie said, accepting the tray. "What's this?"
"It's hearth brew! Mama says it wakes you up. You… you fixed a lot of things yesterday."
He took a cautious sip. It was sweet, smoky, and strong enough to make him cough. "Whoa. That's… powerful."
Lyra giggled. "You talk funny."
"I get that a lot," he said, smiling.
They ate in companionable silence for a while. Lyra watched him curiously as he adjusted the screws on his screwdriver with muscle memory born of years of habit.
Finally, she asked, "Mister Eddie, what's an… elec-trician?"
Eddie set down his cup. "Hmm… back where I'm from, everything runs on something called electricity. Kind of like mana, I think."
"Mana?"
He pointed to her lantern. "The glowing energy that makes that light up. That's mana, right?"
She nodded eagerly. "Everyone has mana! It's what makes magic work. But most people can't use it directly, so we use crystals and runes to guide it."
Eddie scratched his chin. "So… mana's the power source, crystals are your batteries, and runes are the wiring diagram."
Lyra frowned. "What's a wiring diagram?"
He chuckled. "It's… like a map for energy. Shows where it flows."
She looked awestruck. "You talk like a scholar."
He laughed so hard he almost spilled his drink. "Kid, I barely passed high school physics."
After breakfast, Lyra insisted on taking him around the village.
The Village of Loryne was small but lively. Stone houses with thatched roofs, fields of blue-tinted crops, and a central well surrounded by merchant stalls.
Everywhere he looked, he saw faint traces of glowing lines carved into walls, roads, and tools. They pulsed gently like veins of light.
He stopped beside a street lamp and squinted. The base had a rune pattern — circular and spiraling inward. The metal was fused to a crystal core that flickered weakly.
He crouched to get a closer look. "These lines… they're conductive, huh? The mana moves through them like current."
"Current?" Lyra echoed.
"Yeah. Flow of power. Just like electricity back home." He touched the edge of the rune and felt a faint tingle — not unpleasant, but sharp, like static.
"So that's how it works," he murmured. "Mana circuits. Literal circuits."
Lyra tilted her head. "You understand this stuff?"
"Kind of. I mean, it's not that different. Power goes from the source, through the circuit, to the output. If there's a break, everything shuts down."
She frowned. "Break?"
"Like…" He grabbed a stick and started drawing in the dirt. "Imagine mana is water. It flows through pipes. If the pipe breaks, the water leaks out, right?"
Lyra nodded slowly.
"Same thing with mana. But here, instead of pipes, you've got runes and crystals. That's your wiring."
Her eyes widened. "You make it sound so simple."
He grinned. "That's the secret, kid. Everything's simple if you break it down."
They stopped by a fountain, where an elderly woman was scolding a young man waving a broken wand.
"It's dead again! I charged it all night!" the boy complained.
"Then stop overcharging it!" the woman snapped. "You'll ruin the core!"
Eddie stepped closer. "Mind if I take a look?"
Both turned to him, wary. "Who're you?"
"Just a repair guy," he said with a shrug. "No charge. I'm curious."
He took the wand carefully and examined it. The crystal at the tip was cloudy, with faint scorch marks on the base. The handle had tiny rune lines — one of them cracked.
"Ah, there's your problem. You've got an open line."
"A what?" the boy asked.
"Too much mana forced through a damaged rune. Same as plugging a busted wire into high voltage — it overheats."
The old woman blinked. "You… can tell that just by looking?"
Eddie smiled modestly. "Comes with the job."
He borrowed Lyra's hairpin (to her dismay), used it to etch a small bridge rune across the crack, then placed his finger over the connection.
The crystal flared bright. The wand hummed to life.
The boy gasped. "It works!"
The old woman crossed herself. "By the Light, you are blessed!"
Lyra beamed. "Told you he's amazing!"
Eddie rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "Just lucky. That's all."
By afternoon, word had spread: a mysterious stranger could fix anything.
When he returned to the inn, half the street was already waiting — with lamps, wands, kettles, and a few items that looked suspiciously like magical toasters.
"Wait, wait, I'm not even officially open yet!" he protested.
Too late. A smiling old man shoved a cracked crystal in his face. "Please, my heater's gone cold for months!"
Eddie sighed, glancing skyward. "Lord, you sent me to another world just to give me more work, didn't you?"
Still, he couldn't help but grin. It felt… good. Honest work.
As dusk fell, he sat by the inn window, finishing the last repair of the day. Lyra dozed off beside him, chin resting on her arms.
The lantern he was fixing flickered weakly. He adjusted the wire connections — no, the rune lines — with care.
"Mana flow's weak… maybe the crystal's drained," he muttered.
He pricked his finger accidentally on a shard. A single drop of blood fell onto the crystal — and suddenly, it pulsed to life, flooding the room with light.
Eddie froze.
"What the—?"
The glow dimmed to a gentle warmth, humming like a live wire. He could feel something — a faint current running through his fingertips.
Not pain.Energy.
It sank into him like breath. For a moment, he saw tiny arcs of lightning dance under his skin.
Then it was gone.
He looked down at his hands, trembling slightly. "Okay. That… wasn't normal."
Lyra stirred. "Mister Eddie?"
He forced a smile. "Nothing, kid. Just… static shock."
"Static what?"
"Never mind."
He watched the glowing lantern, his mind racing.If mana could flow through him… did that mean he could use it?
He leaned back, staring at the ceiling.
"Electrician, huh? Maybe this world needs a little electrical engineering."
Later that night, as the village lights flickered one by one, Eddie sat outside under the twin moons.
Lyra's repaired lantern sat beside him, shining bright and steady.
He looked up at the sky, smiling faintly.
"New world, same job. Guess some things never change."
A distant rumble of thunder echoed over the hills.The faint spark from his fingertips answered back.