Jason left the sword next to the spear leaning against the wall. There wouldn't be any point to taking it. He didn't have a sheath or a belt to wear it on and even then he didn't have the first idea how to use a sword.
He glanced behind him as he left, back at the great wooden wall and the few people he could see in the watchtowers. Perhaps it was just him feeling apprehensive, but they looked more alert than before. He had gotten absolutely nothing from his trip into the village except a more firm grasp of exactly how unwelcome he was here.
The sparrow had been silent since his outburst in the city. I must have looked like I'd gone completely insane, he thought in embarrassment. It didn't matter what the world thought of him, he still had standards. Jason continued following the road out of the village, though he had no intention of traveling along it very far.
He needed to get some information on this world one way or the other, but it seemed unlikely that trying to talk to someone on the road would help him in any way. At best, he figured he would scare them to death like he had the people in the village, and at worst they might just attack him on the spot. The more he considered it, the stranger it was. Even if he was some kind of criminal that everyone could recognize, why wouldn't people just deny him entry or force him to leave. It wasn't like he could just murder an entire city at his leisure.
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Jason had been hearing the sound regularly since he left the village, but he had been too lost in thought to think about it. He turned and glared at the sparrow who was flying in loops behind him. Was it trying to get his attention?
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As little as he wanted to hear from the bird, he supposed that that might be the only way he could learn anything at all about this world. "So you can hear my thoughts," Jason said.
It wasn't a question, but the sparrow answered anyway, "Yes."
"Do you know why everyone acted like that? And all I want is a yes or no," he warned.
"Yes."
Jason sighed. He had always considered himself calm and easygoing. It took a lot to rile him up, and even then he was pretty good at controlling himself. Now, though, he wanted to scream and slam the bird into the ground every time he thought about it. Maybe it was just how stressed he was. He still felt like he was in denial of what had happened, his body just moving on its own to keep him from falling into despondence. A part of him though, worried that this was just something that had been hidden his whole life coming to the surface. An aspect of himself that he didn't like at all.
Jason did his best to calm himself. He couldn't let himself be completely consumed by hate no matter what happened. "You will answer my question only. I don't want to hear anything about my destiny." The bird had flown down to land on his shoulder again, and Jason looked it in the eye. "If you can't follow these rules then maybe I'll just jump into a cliff or something. See how you do without your precious hero."
Jason didn't think he would actually be able to do that, which meant the bird probably knew as well, but if it did it didn't make any sign of it. "What is your question?"
"Why did all of those people treat me like that?"
"There was a problem with your reincarnation, so…" Jason gave the bird a warning look. "You are in a body that once belonged to a man named Dodek Dadrian. He was renowned across the whole world as a being of pure evil.
"So he was a part of the forces of darkness that you mentioned?"
The sparrow hesitated as if wondering if this might be something that would anger Jason, but it answered anyway. "No, he was not. The forces of darkness are all non-human."
"And why wasn't I stopped if they thought I was some evil person?"
"Dodek Dadrian was a being capable of leveling that village without so much as a thought," the sparrow said. Did it sound solemn? "There would have been no point in resisting and they all knew it."
"So you're saying that I have the strength to level cities?" Jason asked, alarmed. He had felt his strength, but it hadn't exactly seemed like anything superhuman.
"That is a complicated question. You, as a…Well, you should be significantly stronger than Dadrian ever was. That being said, because of irregularities in your…" It was struggling to explain through Jason's restrictions.
"Just spit it out," Jason said. Having it tiptoe around his instructions was somehow more annoying than it saying whatever it wanted.
"Because of irregularities in your summoning, you do not have all of the power that you should have. In fact, you have barely any of it. Your mana capacity is what it should be, but you will find yourself unable to truly put it to any practical use. Most of your abilities were tied to your world item, which was shattered during your summoning. The only part of it that you have are the boots you are wearing right now."
Jason had forgotten about the boots from before, but he looked down to see he was wearing normal, sturdy work boots. Had the boots he had put on in the in-between world just been symbolic?
"The boots are the same," the sparrow said, answering him. "Their adjusted form is part of your illusion magic."
"Illusion magic? When did I do that?"
"I had assumed that you already had a grasp on your abilities. You automatically shifted your boots into something more comfortable the second you put them on. You also showed adept mana manipulation to prevent yourself from tiring while running."
Jason hadn't done anything that he knew of. That had just been him running normally. He had assumed that his enhanced stamina had just been a part of his new body.
"So I can use illusion magic and improve my stamina, but you said most of my abilities were tied to some item that I don't have? What else can I do?"
"The boots as I mentioned are a part of your world item. They provide you with attunement towards one of your lost powers."
"Which is?" Jason asked, though he was pretty sure he knew what it would say.
"They attune you to the magic that you have the greatest affinity towards, illusion magic."
"So I can change the shapes of things and make copies of stuff?"
"Illusion magic is in many ways, the most complex of the basic arts. It's limits are not as concrete as the others. Some few even believe that there are no limits beyond what your imagination allows."
"And you're supposed to be a goddess so you should know the limits right?'
"I am the imprint of a goddess." the sparrow said patiently. "When you take a step in the dirt, you can see the outline of the bottom of your shoe and using that, you can often determine what kind of shoe and even such details as who might have worn it, but you could never tell for certain the eye color of the person wearing the shoe. Similarly, I can infer meaning based on the imprint of the goddess, but there is no way for me to know what isn't there."
That was a surprisingly intuitive metaphor, Jason thought, but not in the least bit helpful. Still, at least now he knew that he had some power at least. "Only limited by your imagination," he thought.
Jason imagined a giant meteorite falling out of the sky and hitting the sparrow.
Well, that would be a bit too convenient, Jason thought smiling to himself. He was surprised how good it felt to smile. He was still alone and without purpose, and he missed his wife and daughter something fierce, but if he was going to be here, he might as well have a little fun. Maybe the purpose could come along later.