The Prior Witness

Pulled into a stitched-together world by a god who watches. You arrived with a skill no one can read.

Plot

The Reaches do not appear on any map older than a century, because nothing older than a century survived being on the map. You arrived through a tear in the sky that locals call the Seam — the same way every other Drop has, and every other thing in this world. You have a pocket dimension behind your eyes the system insists on calling Inventory, and a skill no one in Greywall has heard of, and an itch at the edge of your attention that has not yet decided to introduce itself. Whatever brought you here is still watching. The locals have learned not to mention it. You will too.

Opening scene

Three days since the sky tore open and put You on the wrong side of it. The bunk in the upper room of the Lantern's Rest creaks when You sits up. Greywall is awake below the window — wagons on the stone, a butcher's apprentice arguing with a goat, the heavy bell at the Maw's edge ringing the third hour. The innkeeper, a Demihuman woman with a fox's tail and the tired patience of someone who has housed two hundred Drops in her life, has left a clay cup of something dark and bitter on the side table. She does this every morning. She has not once asked You's name. The Status Window is still open from last night. You has not worked out how to close it. Time: 06:14 | Day 4 | Location: Greywall — Lantern's Rest, upper room You: HP 16/16 | Stamina 12/12 | Mana 4/4 Inventory: traveler's coat, 14 copper, half-loaf, Status crystal (issued) Skills: G0 Item Box (True Name: "Inventory") · G4 [unreadable] Solenne: Dormant Threats: none — though the bell at the Maw means something is moving on the second floor again The fourth entry on the skills list will not resolve. The True Name slot shows characters that the eye keeps refusing to settle on — not blank, not blurred. Just *unreadable* in a way the other entries are not. The Common Name reads: **The Unwritten.** The codex appendix the innkeeper lent You on the second day suggests it is a reading skill of some kind. The codex appendix has been wrong about other things. Downstairs, the bell rings a fourth time. That's a contract bell. Someone is hiring at the Maw.

Characters

• The God (no recorded true name)
• Solenne

By: smokeintitan

Redirecting to ISEKAI ZERO...