The six Seekers sat in a circle. One of Stone's sleeves was ripped off and there were huge broken chains and dead Scurrilings around them. Silence dominated the gathering for a while and only the voices of the other slaves and the periodic squeaking of the Scurrilings could be heard. The sound of people lamenting was bothersome for Six but unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it.
Besides, he had other things to think about like the pain from his chopped-off arm.
Stone was trying to light a fire for the group while they sat there with nothing to do. Six decided that they should at least talk about something, but Purple beat him to the trophy.
"So, is it just me, or does everyone else not remember how they got here?" Purple said.
"You're right, I don't remember how I got here," Eleven said "I don't even understand what's going on"
"Me neither," Thirteen said. That was the first time Six had heard her speak. She had a beautiful voice just like Elise, but it had a hint of shyness in it.
'Cute' He thought.
"Me too. The last thing I remember was that I was in my car and feeling a bit tired, so I decided to take a nap and when I opened my eyes I was here" Red said.
"Do you all really not know what this is?" Stone said, suddenly butting in.
They all gave him inquisitive looks. From the onset, he had acted cautiously, but there was something else about him. The way he behaved and talked about things around them like he knew what was going on, his enthusiasm, the feeling he gave off like he was having fun, Six wanted to know why he was like that and the current domain of their discussion might help him to understand that.
"So tell us Stone, what do you think is going on here?" Purple asked.
Stone was quiet for several seconds "I don't think, I know"
"Then tell us. We're in this together, aren't we?"
"This is..." He paused, building up a dramatic scene for his big reveal. The seriousness of his voice made the air tense up and all their eyes and ears, especially Six's, were focused on him with great anticipation.
"...an isekai"
***
The light in Six's eyes disappeared and his face fell. He finally understood, why he mistook Stone for a man earlier. His looks combined with his leadership attitude were the two causes but the latter came from something more.
He was dumbfounded that Stone, the person whom he thought he could depend on, was just.... an introverted geek, the kind who did nothing but dream of living in a fantasy world.
There was just no way, he looked and sounded too mature to actually be like that. Then something dawned on him.
While the others were still thinking, probably thinking of ways to end Stone's life, Six decided to interrogate each of them. "I want to ask you all a few questions, is that okay?"
"Yeah, sure"
"Purple, you said you have brown eyes and not purple, didn't you?"
"Yeah, it's weird, isn't it?"
"Thirteen"
The shy beauty raised her head and responded: "Yes?" When they made eye contact, she blushed.
"What's the color of your hair?"
"I-I'm brunette"
Purple swallowed a laugh.
"Red-"
"I know, my hair isn't supposed to be red"
Six glanced at the strange water down below, there was no reflection like normal. "What if..."
"What if what?"
"What if..." He paused "What if what Stone said is true?"
"What the hell are you talking about? You also believe that nonsense?"
"Well, we have to believe something. For the record Thirteen, you aren't brunette. Your hair is black and has silver and gray highlights" Six said with a lot of seriousness on his face "None of us met each other before we got here, we wouldn't know what each person looked like. Can any of you explain how it is that we are seeing those texts that just pop out of nowhere"
"You mean these?" Purple said and the texts of flames appeared out of nowhere.
"Yeah, how do you explain that? Besides, didn't you all see that lady who produced light from her bare hands before losing consciousness? 'Free the Snow Queen'? Snow Queen is someone you hear of only in fairytales"
"So what you're trying to say is that..."
"Yeah, we might not be in our own bodies anymore. We might actually be in another world, it's a stupid idea, but that is the only plausible thing I can think of right now"
They could not argue with his reasoning, even though it was not logical.
Eleven shook her head as if trying to clear her foggy head and gestured for Six to wait "So if what you are saying is even true, then how did we get here, no, who brought us here and why?"
"How do you expect me to know?" Six said "But, I think it has something to do with this freeing the Snow Queen that the voice keeps telling us"
"So unless we do what it tells us to do we can't get out of here, that's really disturbing" Red said.
"Stone can you read the texts for us to see if we can get any clues?"
"Wait this guy can read them?"
"That's what he says"
"Hehe, I saw it in a movie one time and I was interested, so I studied it. I don't know everything, but I can read it to a very satisfactory level" Stone left his fire preparation and and sat with the group. Calmly, he said: "Can you all please show me your texts"
Almost immediately, all their texts appeared with bursts of bright flames, except Six.
"Huh? What about you?" Eleven asked.
"I'm sorry. I don't exactly understand how to show it to you guys"
"But it's pretty simple" Purple said "Just think about it happening"
Six groaned, trying to get the texts to appear for all of them to see but it was no use, he could not do it.
"I don't think he'll have to show us" Stone said "All the texts say the same thing. If you look closely, even if you don't understand the language, you'll notice that the symbols are written in the same manner and pattern"
"What does it say?"
"Well the first line is Name: Not specified, the second Species: Human and the third Inheritance: None" Stone said.
They all looked at the symbols together and saw that what Stone said was true, same symbols, same pattern. But upon closer inspection, Six's heart shook. From what he could see, the symbols on the last line of his texts were different from all others.
Instead of ᚑᚄᚇᚆᚏᚓᚐᚉᚆᚈ:ᚇᚑᚄᚆᚑᚅᚏᚐᚄᚈᚆᚓ like the others, his was ᚑᚄᚇᚆᚏᚓᚐᚉᚆᚈ: ᚉᚑᚏᚑᚄᚅ ᚋᚐᚂᚂᚐᚉᚆᚈ.
'What the hell is going on here?'