LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 1: Never Alone
Vorden was laying in complete darkness. Trying to get used to the feeling of being inside his own body. It was hard to make sense of the sensations he was experiencing. He let his mind wonder, starting in his face, alternately flexing and releasing each individual muscle. Scrunching his nose, then pursing his lips, smiling then frowning, clenching his eyes tight, relaxing the whole face he moved on the neck, chest, flexing his pecks and tightening his stomach, then again relaxing. He continued the process over the entire body, moving to his extremities down his arms. He proceeded to feel the sensation of contracting each individual muscle, flexing his biceps and then in the legs, his calf on either side. Again moving down his body to his hands, fingers, feet, toes, and finally he saved the glutes and the entire backside for last. All the while he was simultaneously inundated with every kind of clinical scent imaginable, and picking up every single minute sound as well. Almost overwhelming to the point of being painful, uncomfortable at the least.
The hum of machinery filled the air, steady and persistent, the beeps and blips of monitering devices were like a metronome to the lifeless quiet of the lab. On a sleek, sterile bed lay his figure, motionless, the faint rise and fall of his chest the only sign of life. The surface beneath him was cool, its smoothness almost like fluid flowing around him, yet the subtle contours of his frame pressed into it as if they belonged. A sharp contrast to the icy air conditioned breeze whipping through the room being forced down from the fucking through a little vent across the room. The sharp gusts of chill licked at his flesh in a million places all at once as it swirled summersaults over him.
The room carried a cocktail of scents: the pungent tang of antiseptic, the faintly metallic odor of sterilized steel, and the electric sweetness of ozone. Closer to him, the delicate clicks and whirrs of automated instruments punctuated the silence. A hiss from that air as it slipped through overhead vents, keeping the atmosphere sterile and still.
Footsteps echoed softly nearby, the rubber soles of lab shoes squeaking on polished floors. Voices murmured in the distance, muffled through walls, their tone hushed but purposeful. Further out, the low thrum of larger machinery reverberated, a distant vibration humming through the building itself, as if the structure was alive and working in tandem with its occupants.
Fingers twitched. The sensation was subtle, like the brushing of fabric against skin, and yet it carried with it a profound significance. The body stirred slightly, not with hesitation but with the tentative familiarity of returning to something long-lost. It was alien—different from what it had been, too smooth and perfect—but also achingly familiar, like revisiting a childhood home after years away.
From the constant ticking of the clock on the wall, the eerie sound of high winds whipping around the exterior of the building, the low buzz of people talking off in the distance, the high pitched electrical signals and humming of machinery all around. The breathing of himself and two other people in the room. That's when he could hear the breathing with slow foot steps getting closer. Until he felt the warmth of another body standing directly next to him.
Vorden, Raten, and Shiro had all been residing inside the body of an elder Blade man who had decided it was time to rest. Ready to leave this world, he happily donated his physical self to the leaders of their unorthodox family. All three were transferred into the body and could swap control of the body at will. This meant that they were able to use the Blade ability once again. It also meant that they could swap control to the best one of them for each and every situation on a case by case basis. It had been over 1000 years since either Vorden or his brother Raten knew the feeling of being in ones own body. Now, after many lifetimes as a passenger in the body of another, feeling like a parasite on the worst of days, he was being given his chance to actually live his own life, in his own body. Over a millenniumspent as a mere bystander, Vorden lived a fractured existence up to now. Living a life out of his control and at the whim and mercy of his gracious hosts. Never able to charge forward on his own path.Never able to enjoy in the minute and often overlooked and underappreciated mundane moments of existence. Simple things people took for granted, Vorden was a complete stranger to them. The contrast between living for 1000 years, and the wisdom that comes with it with the innocent childlike wonder and complete lack of knowledge about so many simple things most children have already mastered, it was stark to say the least. This extreme gap in uniformity across development was a difficult concept to settle within himself regularly.
Now at long last this was all about to change. With thanks to the technological advancements made in the field of cloning and thanks to the kindness and love of their brother Sil who donated a blood sample for the cloning process two brand new clones of Sill had been created, prepared by being aged to roughly the mid 20's. They had both spent at least a decade residing inside his body to begin with. Both Vorden and Raten were familiar with what it felt like in Sil's skin. They were no strangers to seeing his face in the mirror every day, and knew how to maneuver inside his skeletol structure. In some strange sort of way to Vorden, it felt like coming home, and now they could pick up nearly right where they left off all those years ago at the military academy.
Just 30 seconds prior to now Vorden and Raten had been carefully transferred each in to their very own bodies for the first time since being slain as children by their best friend and brother Sil, at the behest of their pretend grandfather who was actually their biological father, over 1000 years ago. All that to say he was more than excited at the very least.
He almost forgot about the body that had walked to his side. Vorden had a pretty good idea who it was. Not ready yet to try his vocal chords, as he was unsure what his emotional response to that voice might be, he figured now was the time to try his eyes. He was ready to open them.