Prometheus' Flame; level 1; torchbearer:

  Spread your flames far and wide, make the world bright, don’t try to keep it to yourself, for try as you might, your torch eventually will die.

  By the time I regained my consciousness, I was standing in the middle of a countryside road atop a flat hill. Beside me are wheat fields far as the eyes fenced off by a wall of mossy stone fences. I can feel the cool breeze blowing against my skin carrying with it the fresh earthy scent of Lusian mid-summer harvest as the tall grain stalks gently dance with its passing. Looking around I noticed that everything in my surroundings was infected with an indigo blue tint even the dimly lit moon was veiled by a shade of blue night clouds. The atmosphere is strangely calming but I felt out of place being the only thing that wasn’t covered in blue, dressed in my gray wool coat and black loafer shoes. In the distance, I can see a silhouette of a building sitting underneath the low hanging moon and felt the indescribable urge to go there.

  Gauging the distance it couldn't be more than 5 or 6 hilltops from the hilltop I'm standing on, a difficult distance for me in my leather loafers to go through but manageable nonetheless.

  I began to make my journey there treading along the dirty paths roads accompanied only by the sound of cicadas’ cry.

  Why did the previous parties fail to return? What happened to them?

  Are all planes like this, covered in this shade of blue or is this a phenomenon exclusive to this plane?

  The principal said that the plane has bizarre and alien rules, why haven't I experienced any of them?

  Those and many other questions that I don’t have answers to plague my mind and filled me with uncertainty as I made my way up the second hill.

  After reaching the peak of the second hill, I took a moment to examine my new surroundings. The scenery was the same, while not an exact replica of the previous hill the same wheat field stretches as far as the eyes can see fenced off by the same mossy stone fences. Looking at the structure in the distance, it remained the same size as when it was atop the first hill. Counting the hills leading towards there confirms my suspicion that I wasn’t getting any closer to it.

  Was this what the principal meant when he said that the rules of time and space might not apply in a plane?

  Wild thoughts and theories filled my mind as I attempted to prove them making my way down the second hill and on to the third, this time I slowed my pace to methodically examine any changes in my surroundings, hoping to gather some clue from the environment. I employed all my senses and tried everything, feeling the stone fence thinking there might be a hidden switch or button, sensing the direction of the wind, I even ran off the road into the wheat field; a painstaking journey on the way back. Nothing worked! I've made no progress and with each failed attempt my frustration grew.

  This makes my 7th, no 8th hill…...they are all starting to look the same.

  Perhaps it’s the prolonged isolation or perhaps it's the frustration of making no progress, I’m starting to feel oozy with a pounding headache in my head.

  Something about this sensation somehow feels familiar, the world feels dreamlike, and losing control over my body feels just like….

  I paused my steps.

  Just like the test…….

  Have I been manipulated from the start?

  I tried to calm myself with logic and reason, that even if I knew this beforehand wouldn't make any difference, but still, I couldn’t help but feel bitterly betrayed.

  Wait, if everything from that room was planned how can I be sure of what the principal was saying? My uncertainty slowly turns into fear, as this thought spreads.

  No, no, think about this Frankenstein.

  I started marching in large open steps, holding my chin down while looking at the ground as I often do when pondering.

  If they wanted to harm you they would’ve done from the beginning. The full might of the academy wouldn’t be afraid of the possible repercussion brought by a viscount family. If the goal is to throw me into the plane they don't need to tell me any information about the plane beforehand. Yes, yes, they do want me to succeed so at least the information they've told about the plane must be true.

  Having reached my conclusion I looked up.

  How many hills did I pass, it is difficult to keep track of. As I’ve found myself yet again on a hilltop.

  On this particular hilltop, however, I glanced something new, a scarecrow on the wheat field beside me far in the distance.

  Upon closely observing the object, I saw what I can faintly make out to be a crest on its left chest.

  Curious, I walked closer to take a better look, as the distance me and it became closer with every step I took, the symbol on the crest became clearer until I recognized it to be that of the academy. I gradually slowed my steps and eventually came to a halt as the whole figure became fully visible to me.

  Placed on the cross was one of the members of the expedition, his uniform shows. His head crooked at an unnatural angle looking off to the side, his neck broken demonstrated by the protrusion of his broken spine, his hands, and one of his legs tied to the cross. The putrid scent of rotting flesh hits my nostril and I reacted as you would expect of someone who has never interacted with a corpse up close. By regurgitating the entire content of my stomach.

  Facing away from the corpse while bent over vomiting I noticed something, as I mentioned before the world around me is all painted in a shade of indigo blue, everything except for me. I thought that was because I wasn’t on this plane. But this corpse, like everything else, is shaded in blue, and just now I observed a blue tint growing at the base of my shadow. What would happen to me if the blue takes me over? Looking at the corpse, I found the answer to my question.

  Panic sets in. If this is a dream it has just turned to a nightmare.

  I ran.

  Ran across the wheat field.

  Ran all the way to the next hill as if I was being chased by some horrible entity.

  Ran until I was out of breath.

  When I came to my senses, I had realized that my glasses had gone missing, it must have fallen out when I was running.

  I reluctantly went back in hope of finding my glasses.

  Walking back to the previous hill the scenery was different, I can't seem to find where the corpse was, little details on the rods and stone fences also show that this is the same hill I was on.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Strange, I retraced events that led up to me on that hill and what the trigger could be but as far as I can recall I did nothing different than I did when I passed all the other hills. Perhaps it was what I was thinking, the most ridiculous yet the most plausible assumption, popped up in my mind.

  I tested this theory by walking down the hills this time filling my mind with thoughts of the academy. Sure enough, I was back at the hills with the academy person’s body in the distance, looking around I found my glasses just behind the stone fences, thankfully the lens isn’t cracked.

  I can safely conclude that the thought of the academy led me to a place that has to do with the academy if that's the case would that apply to the structure in the distance?

  Back atop the hill I looked at the structure in the distance, closed my eyes, and let that image seep in my mind. I took a step forward.

  Upon reopening my eyes I saw in front of me a black bricked mansion with warm lit light coming out of its window.

  After a brief moment of hesitation, I opened its door….

  As my feet stepped on a maroon door mate, the blues growing on my body escaped through the doorway entrance. The interior was bright and filled with rows and rows of bookshelves stretching endlessly onwards.

  Beside me is a wooden counter; seated behind that counter is a womanly figure with brown hair knotted in a twisted bun in the back of her head, round glasses with etched silver engravings on the side and an ink-black sleeved gown decorated with trims of white. She looks she’s in her late 20s at most early 30s, fair-skinned and currently had her head down in the process of reading a book. It seems as if she didn’t notice me though it's hard to tell with her eyes blocked off by the reflection of the glasses.

  “Excuse me.”, I asked as my mannerism dictates.

  She looks up at me, “O sorry, we don't get many customers here.”, she put a red bookmark on the pages before closing the book.

  With a slight smile on her face: “Welcome to Maggie’s bookstore. I am Maggie and this is my bookstore. I'm sure that you will find a book to your liking amidst all the growing collections.”

  For a split second, there is a change of expression on her face as she just noticed something but quickly her expression returned to normal.

  “That’s strange, you are not a walker of the path, not a god either. What’s a mortal doing here? Tell me, what’s your name?”

  Something about her response that intimated me to respond: “Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein.”

  “Victor Frankenstein? Frankenstein...” she mutters as she closes her eyes, gently rocking her head left to right as if trying to recall something.

  She opens her eyes and with a smile, she says: “I got just the book for you,” got up from her chair, and wandered off into the rows of bookshelves before I had a chance to ask anything else.

  Like that I was left at the entrance not sure of what to do, staring at the far off bookshelves as it enticed me to explore its content.

  This is a bookstore, right? Then it is fine for me to browse around. With this reason in mind, I ventured off to the rows of bookshelves.

  The books on the shelves seem to be arranged by their respective colors. Red, green, yellow, brown and other colored books fill the shelves; I first browsed the shelf of blue books. When I opened one of the blue book smells of fish and ocean filled the air, their pages were pitch black but somehow I can see movement in the pages. By scanning through a couple of the other blue books I saw that their pages were all covered in the same shade of darkness. I brought my eyes closer to the pages trying to better examine what was inside their pages. Suddenly an image of an eye appeared on the pages, out of fright I closed the book as adrenaline coursed through my body. I put the book back on its shelf.

  I then browsed through the red books, immediately I could smell the sweet scent of blood coming from the book. I paused, split on whether or not to open the book, but against my better judgment I opened it. The book had a pulse; I could feel it throbbing on my thumb as I opened its cover. As if that wasn’t disturbing enough when I flipped through the pages I received a cut on one of my fingers. I saw the blood is absorbed into the pages then the book became aggressive like a shark who’s tasted blood it tries to free itself from my grip. Through our struggle, I finally managed to shove it into the spot on the bookshelf where I got it from where it stopped moving short afterward.

  I then moved on to browse the brown books, through the previous encounters I learned to be more careful. Upon observing the books I noticed that unlike the previous set of books where the titles on their back were written in a foreign language, these books had theirs written in Lusian tongue. I shouldn’t say that these were titles because written on these book’s backs are names, among those names one struck me. Harold Lee, the name of the leader of the academy's first expedition of this plane.

  “Find anything you’d like?”

  Maggie’s voice sounded behind my back, she gave me quite a scare.

  “Sorry for waiting. Here you go.”

  She hands me a green book, its title written in a language alien to me, it appears normal more than the other books here at least.

  “O right, you don't know how to read these. Here, let me show you.”

  She grabs my hand, for someone of such small build she had enormous strength, and placed it palm down on the book.

  Just as I was wondering what she was doing, I felt it reacting under my hand.

  Black inking words crawled out of the book and wrapped itself around my arm, climbing upwards like a snake climbing a tree. I don’t know what was happening and when I tried to lift my hand off the book I found my hand glued to the book’s cover.

  As the inky tendril approached my eye I saw it stand like a snake observing its prey before delivering a fearsome bite entering through my eye. I felt my mind begin to burn and the pain caused me to let out an excruciating scream.

  “Ehg...Ahhh….!!!!!”

  This burning sensation in my brain lasted about half a minute.

  I found my mind filled with brilliance and my questions filled with answers. Everything made sense, every ‘why’ I had answered, the world is composed of secrets and those secrets are exposed to me.

  Looking back at the book I found it crumble away into ashes.

  Maggie stood there smiling, “Well, is to your liking?”

  “Yes… this is amazing...I,” I stumble for words trying to describe this feeling.

  Looking at the brown books on the shelf I was suddenly reminded of the word of the principal, where once I had my guesses now I’m certain.

  “I also need this book,”, I took out the brown book titled Harrold Lee out of the bookshelf.

  Her smile fades and her attitude grows colder, “So, you are one of the academies. Take him; he’s gathering dust in here anyway.”

  I could tell her attitude was less friendly when she knew the academy was involved.

  “So, how much is for the book?”, I’m a bit embarrassed to say this but I only have a couple of silver eagles on me.

  “For him, just one silver eagle will do,” as she says this a silver eagle levitates out of my pocket and makes its way into her hand.

  She cracks up laughter looking at my amazed reaction: “As for the other book, it's already been paid for. ”

  “What?”

  “Shhhhh”

  She put a hand on my shoulder.

  “Do tell the academy if they never come here again I’ll be paying them a visit.”

  She gave me a shove that upset my balance.

  As I took a step back, I felt the control over my body was in someone else’s hand. Time seemed to flow in reverse, everything I did play out in front of me in reverse. When I opened the door to the mansion, when I discovered the corpse, when I walked those hills, and finally when I saw the blinding light. The same blinding light that took over my consciousness had done so once more.

  The voices were the first thing I heard, it sounded like numbers, sets of digits.

  “1.…...4…….2…….”

  I felt the cold sensation of the floor against the back of my head.

  “F…….s……..n”

  Finally, my consciousness returned from the void.

  “Frankenstein!”

  I opened my eyes to the sound of my name and found myself lying on the marbled floor of the academy.

  “Frankenstein, you’ve returned. Did you…”

  “Frankenstein?”

  Back at Maggie’s bookstore, Maggie puts the new collection of books into their respective bookshelves.

  “Frankenstein, O Frankenstein what will you do when you learn what fate have in store for you. Will you stay a pawn or will you become the player?”

  The book that Maggie was reading sits on the counter, the title on the cover when translated reads ‘Frankenstein’.