Chapter 3 - Scattered

Darkness pressed in, a suffocating void where time and sensation ceased. Not merely an absence of light, but a chilling emptiness, devoid of even the faintest echo of existence. Was this death? This cold, silent oblivion? A wave of panic, raw and primal, clawed at the edges of what remained of my consciousness. Then, a distant warmth, a subtle hum of energy, seeped into the nothingness, a fragile lifeline against the encroaching despair.

A blinding flash – not just light, but raw *being* – shattered the void. It was followed by a kaleidoscope of impossible colors, a sensory overload that ripped through me. The scent of damp earth and blooming flowers, impossibly sweet, warred with the sharp, metallic tang of ozone. I gasped, lungs burning with air that felt both alien and strangely familiar. My eyes fluttered, struggling to focus on the swirling shapes that danced, taunting my comprehension.

"Can you hear me?" A voice, soft yet resonant, cut through the chaos. It was a melody tinged with profound melancholy.

I swallowed, throat dry and scratchy, the effort monumental. "Yes," I croaked, the sound a fragile whisper against the immensity of… wherever I was.

The swirling colors coalesced, resolving with agonizing slowness into the form of a woman. Breathtakingly beautiful was too simple a phrase; she was *archetypal*, with long, flowing hair the color of spun moonlight and eyes that shimmered like captured sapphires. A white gown, adorned with intricate, almost impossibly delicate gold embroidery, draped her slender frame, lending her an ethereal, otherworldly presence. But it was her expression that seized my attention – a profound sorrow etched into her delicate features, a weight of ages radiating from her very being.

"Who… are you?" I asked, my voice trembling, the question feeling pathetically inadequate.

"I am Lautnia, Goddess of Life," she replied, her voice a melody woven with threads of grief.

Goddess of Life? The words were alien artifacts, concepts too vast for my suddenly fragile mind to grasp. They echoed strangely in the vibrant, unfamiliar space around me.

"Where… where am I?" I stammered, heart hammering against my ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage. "Am I… dead?" The word tasted like ash.

Lautnia shook her head slowly, the movement a tragic ballet. "No, Worick. You are not dead. You have been brought to… Ambitus." Her voice cracked, the weight of her next words palpable, a crushing pressure in the air. "A world… teetering on the brink of destruction."

Ambitus. Another world. Another *reality*. The concepts were too immense, too impossible. My mind recoiled, struggling to find purchase in the swirling chaos.

"Why… why am I here?" I whispered, the question less a demand than a desperate plea for understanding, for *anchoring*.

Lautnia's sapphire eyes, brimming with unshed tears, locked onto mine. It was a gaze that held both infinite compassion and unbearable guilt. "I… I needed heroes, Worick. Champions to fight a darkness that threatens to consume all life. I cast a spell, a desperate plea cast across the… multiverse…" Her voice faltered, choked with emotion. "But… I made a mistake. A *terrible* mistake."

She knelt before me, her silver hair spilling around her like a shroud, a queen offering supplication. "The spell… it was too powerful. It pulled… more souls than I intended. Your entire class… perhaps even your entire school." Her voice was barely a whisper now, laden with guilt and a crushing regret that seemed to radiate outwards, chilling the air. "I… I don't have the power to… to send you back."

My mind reeled. My entire class? My entire school? Trapped in a *dying world* because of her mistake? Anger, sharp and sudden, warred with a dizzying confusion. It was a futile anger, directed at a being who seemed as much a victim as I was.

"And without your help," Lautnia continued, her voice trembling, a fragile thing on the verge of shattering, "without the help of the… others… we are all lost."

Her vulnerability, her raw, unveiled desperation, disarmed me. This wasn't a detached deity demanding obedience. This was a desperate, broken being, pleading for salvation.

"So… you need us… to save your world?" I asked, the words heavy, leaden with the weight of a responsibility I never asked for, never wanted.

Lautnia nodded, tears finally tracing paths down her cheeks, leaving shimmering trails on her perfect skin. "I know… it is an unfair burden," she choked out, "but I… I have no other choice."

The desperation in her eyes, the tremor in her voice, the sheer weight of her sorrow… it bypassed my fear, my confusion. A spark, small but defiant, ignited within me. A refusal to simply… break.

"I'll… I'll help you, Lautnia," I said, the words surprising even myself. They felt alien, yet… right.

A flicker of hope, fragile yet undeniable, ignited in her sapphire eyes. "Thank you… Worick," she whispered, the gratitude almost painful to hear.

"Where… where are the others?" The urgency in my voice surprised me. It was a flicker of purpose in the overwhelming chaos.

Lautnia's expression clouded, the brief spark dimming. "They… arrived before you. Time… time flows differently between our worlds. Some have been here for… for almost two years."

Two *years*. Lost, alone, fighting in some… war, while I was… A wave of guilt, cold and sharp, washed over me. It mingled with a growing, unsettling fear.

"I will… grant you power, Worick," Lautnia said, her voice regaining some of its strength, though the underlying sorrow remained. "Just as I have granted it to the others. But be warned… Ambitus is a cruel and unforgiving world."

A warmth spread through my chest, a tingling energy that pulsed through my veins, unfamiliar yet… exhilarating. I felt… *different*. Stronger. More… alive.

"Rest now, Worick," Lautnia said softly, her voice a soothing balm against the rawness of my emotions. "You will need… your strength."

Exhaustion, profound and overwhelming, pulled me under, a dark tide dragging me down. As darkness closed in, a single, clear thought echoed in the fading remnants of my mind: I will find Nathe.