Sophia

One of my biggest regrets. I know it wasn't my fault, but I still blamed myself every day. It all started before the shift...

=== One Year Before the Shift ===

"Hey, ----- come here."

"What is it Sophia, you know you should avoid talking. You can barely breathe."

"Look, if I'm not allowed to talk, what will I do to pass the time?"

"Just please be careful. I don't want you to reopen the wounds after you just had surgery."

"We've done everything, and none of it has worked before."

Sophia was always a very active person; she had asthma but never got to the point where she would be in the hospital for an extended period. What really got her there was when she developed lung cancer.

No matter what the doctors did it wouldn't go away, and they tried everything, from chemo and radiation therapy, to even surgically removing a part of her lung, but the cancer always came back, like she was destined to die.

Eventually, she passed away while she was sleeping. I was told it was at least painless. I don't know why I blame myself, it was out of my control, but a sense of guilt haunts me, against everything.

=== Now ===

I don't understand how she is here! She should be dead, I saw her dead, I was at her funeral! This shouldn't be possible. What kind of difference did the Shift make, bringing the dead back to life.

I mean when I think about it it makes sense. William obviously didn't have MP poisoning before the Shift, because MP didn't exist. This means that the Shift created a disease, so maybe it could erase one? Does that mean that Sophia never had cancer, or that a cure exists now?

People don't just come back to life. What am I supposed to do?

"Hurry up Jess!"

Ah, I forgot I'll just go see myself what is going on. I mean, Sophia has not shown up the entire time since the Shift has happened, so I just assumed it didn't change anything about her fate. I don't know why this happened.

Running downstairs, I see a familiar figure sitting on the couch. Mom must have let her in. I can't believe it's really her.

"Hey... Jess? are you crying?"

"Yeah... it's been a while, yeah?"

"About that... there's something I need to talk to you about."

Her hazel eyes and brown hair are the same. She's the same height as me now, but that probably has to do with me being shorter, not her being taller. She has scales on the sides of her face leading to her ears, which are hard and pointed. Seems her race changed too. I'm not sure exactly, but I'm guessing it's either a Beast-kin or Zodiac.

Walking up to my room, we sit down, her on the bed and me in my desk chair.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, doesn't everything seem odd to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I woke up this morning in the hospital, apparently I was sick or something. I checked the calendar and a lot of time has passed, around half a year. I was wondering how so much time had passed. then I remembered... well... wasn't I dead?"

"You remember that!"

"What do you mean?"

"Okay, I have an important question for you, what is the name of the country we live in?"

"The United States, right?"

"We are currently in the Elven United Territories or the EUT. You say you just woke up today, so you've been asleep for half a year? My mom was acting pretty casual, not the way that someone would react if someone who's been in a coma for half a year showed up at your door."

"That's the confusing part, apparently I haven't been asleep the whole time."

"What do you mean?"

"I've been moving around the whole time. Like normal. It was only recently I was admitted to the hospital and only this morning that I woke up with these memories. On top of that, I have no idea what's happened over the last half-year. Like why are you... you know?"

"Oh yeah, about that I have no idea. Around half a year ago something weird happened and the whole world changed. Elves, Beast-kin, all sorts of fantasy creatures right of legends became commonplace. Humans as we know them still exist and are called Sapients. Here, they are the minority and even face discrimination. I also became female, still no idea why though. I call it the Shift."

"The Shift? Yeah, you've never been for your naming skills -----. Oh sorry, you go by Jess now right?"

"Right now yeah. I don't even know what you called me just then. For some reason, I can't remember my old name. I can't hear it either apparently. I've gotten some hints of why I can remember the world before the Shift, but why can you?"

"Can most people not?"

"I'm the only one I know of who can."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope, you do notice how my mom saw nothing wrong with being an Elf, and you being... whatever you are now."

"I did think that was weird. I've not said anything, but a lot of this stuff weirded me out, seeing all these weird-looking people on the streets. I thought that there was a cosplay event or something at first, real quickly realized I was wrong."

"Yeah, I had to go to school the first day I woke up like this, it was awful, I had three language classes!"

"Really?"

"Yep, the main language here is Elvish, not English, but I'm still in English class. On top of those two, English and Elvish, I'm taking Japanese, so I'm taking three language classes. you aren't even speaking English right now. You are speaking Elvish. Not confusing at all, I know."

"So let me summarize everything you've told me, something weird happened around half a year ago, you call the Shift..."

"Yep."

"And this caused the whole world to change into some weird fantasy setting with a whole bunch of different races."

"Yep."

"And now you and I aren't normal humans anymore, but other races, and the normal humans, called Sapients, face prejudice?"

"Pretty much, except that every race fits under the category of "human" so here "human" is more of a catch-all term for all humanoid species."

"Okay, and I magically came back to life after the Shift, and seemingly just wandered around until today, where my memories for no reason just came back."

"From the looks of it, yeah. By the way, why did you come to my house after you got your memories back, also how did you find my house. It is technically in the same place, but it looks a lot different now."

"I just asked Siri to take me there, your address is still in my phone. And to why, I just felt for some reason you would have a sliver of an idea of what's happening."

"Yeah, no. I still have no idea why this happened. You should get caught up on the general knowledge of this world, I'll help you with that so you don't sound like an idiot."

"Thanks -----."

"No problem. Also, the fact that I can't hear you say my name is weirding me out, so just call me Jess."

"Kay."

"You should also figure out what race you are, and if you have an innate talent for a certain kind of magic."

"Wait... there's magic!"

"Oh yeah... you probably didn't know that. Yes, there is magic. I specialize in Gravity magic and have an innate talent for it. Innate talents are like cheats. It allows you to master and use magic within a certain system much easier."

"How do you figure out?"

"I mean most people show signs when they are younger. Like people with Fire innate talents will be more energetic, and people with Water innate talents will go more with the flow of things. You normally don't think before you act, but can act rationally when it matters."

"Was that an insult or a compliment?"

"Don't worry about that."

"I can just try different types of magic and see if I have one of these "innate talents" you are talking about."

"Sure, but let's not do that inside."

"Hopefully another mech doesn't show up and kidnap my family while I'm gone again."

"Wait what? Mech? Again?"

"Don't worry about it, I'll explain later."

"You better!"