Eric felt like he was plumeting into an endless white void. Thousands of whispers raged in his ears. A white mist constantly entered his mouth and eyes, bringing with it an unimaganably cold feeling, freezing even his thoughts.
This moment streched for an unknown amount of time, but he knew it lasted too long.
After an unknown amount of time he woke up, as if from a bad dream.
He opened his eyes slowly, slightly afraid of what he would see, but before his eyes laid a dark landscape outside the a glass window. To his side an older man was sleeping with a newspaper in his hands.
With a quick look around him, Eric discovered that he was on an older type train, but it appeared to be at a stop.
'It's more peacefull then I imagened' Eric thought as he examined himself.
He was wearing a simple white shirt and dark blue trousers.
Then he examined his hands, they had slightly diferent proporsions to his previous hand. This gave him a strange felling so he moved on to the black briefcase that sat under him.
Seeing it, an alien memory awakaned in his mind.
He saw "himself" being gifted the black briefcase from an old man with gray hair and wrinkly skin, he seemed to praise him for getting a job of a doctor in the city.
Quickly after it fused completaly with Erics mind.
After a bit of confusion he thought 'Huh, so I only recive memories from this mans life if I see something that stirs them'.
With that he picked up the black briefcase and opened it. It was filled mostly with clothes, but there were a few books and documents tucked in the corner. All of them were worn out and looked like they were used quite a lot.
Eric picked up a book made of black lether. He gently opened it and slowly read the language that was compleatly unknown to him, but that he naturaly understood.
As it turned out, it was a medicine notebook describing many diferent herbs, medicines and treatments. It was writen in a complicated language, but it felt like Eric was just reminding himself of things he already knew.
Sometimes his reading was interupted by a stired memory that wasn't his own.
Some of them showed a small boy asking many questions about the plants in his grandpas backyard or that young boy playing in the forest showing off his knowledge of plants and flowers to his peers.
Many showed a teen studying from dawn to dusk under his mentors constant watch, absorbing unthinkable amounts of information each day. And that same teen helping his mentor clean the clinic and treat patients.
And a few showed a fresh adult getting acepted into a bigger clinic in the capital, and the celebrations his family and his mentor held after the news.
'So this man has an old mentor, a living mother, a dead father, an older sister that lives in the capital, but doesn't know I'm arraving in the capital and a younger brother' Eric analized what he understood from the memories.
Halfway through, the train started to move. This awoke a few of the passangers around him, but all of them quickly fell asleep.
Exept for the old man sitting next to him. He started to cough quite violently, it got so bad as to awaken a few passangers around them. The man stood up and went to the bathroom to not disturb any more passangers.
The dark landscape started to fly by outside thee window as Eric looked at it with his new blue eyes.
Eric paid the man no mind as he continued to look through the next book, which was a diary, from which he gained a much better picture about the mans life, both from what was writen and what he came to remember.
While reading he saw both happy and painfull memories, seeing family and friends that weren't his own and medical knowlegde that would undoutably help him as a doctor. It was kind of strange and he felt dizzy towards the end.
He needed a few minutes for the dizzines to end. While he waited he took deep breaths.
After a while, Eric gathered the information he now knew 'My new name is Arthur Arctos and I'm from the vilage Rostus, I'm a new doctor at the New Star Clinic in Junas capital, Malstor. I'm on my way to Malstor right now to start my job.'
'That god really set me up good' he finaly thought as he put back the diary back into the briefcase.
But as he did, he cought sight of a silver ring in another corner. It wasn't something he saw in any of his "new" memories.
He picked up the ring. It was a silver ring with scale patterns akin of that of a snake and it gave him s strange feeling while holding it. A small piece of yellowish paper was attached to the ring.
On the paper was a message writen in english, which was strange as people in Juna wrote Junte.
"This ring holds the concept of sickness, you can add or remove the concept from items or people if you have an deep enough understnding of them.
"But saddly it will make people around you more easily fall sick while you wear it,
"Gift from the best god, everflowing fog."
Many thoughts entered Erics mind, but he took a deep breath and tried to fully understand the message.
'So is there's magic here or was it a divine item given to me as a bonus.
'What does he mean by concept of sickness? And what does he mean by that I can add or remove it from items and people I have a deep understanding of?
'Wait, he did say something before I fell into that void, "Understand, embody and induce" was it? Was he telling me about the magic here?'
He was lost in thought as he saw the sky outside be painted with hues of red and gold and the clouds gained a pinkish blue colour.
And finaly sleepiness overcame him, he packed the briefcase and swiftly fell asleep. His sleep was peacefull, more peacefull than the sleep he could have gotten in the hospital.
***
After a nice nap, Eric went to the food compartment to sasiate his hunger. He didn't forget to take the silver ring with him to ensure that it wasn't stolen and to test it out.
The compartment encompassed a few train carts. All of them were filled with people eating food and heated conversations.
He found an empty table and waited for the waiter to come and take his order. More and more peolpe came into the resturant, but not many left, so many people seated themself next to occupied tables.
While he waited, he saw the old man that was previesly sitting next to him.
He was looking for a table and noticed Eric sitting alone. He came over slowly and nervously, and asked Eric in an eldery voice while pointing at a place next to Eric "Would you mind if I sit here?"
Eric was about to decline the man before feeling something strange from the silver ring on his left hand. It felt like it was responding to something within the old man.
'Was it responding to a sickness within that man?' Eric thought as he looked closer at that man.
He now noticed that the man was strangely pale, he was sweeting even while it wasn't warm and he had dark circles under his eyes. 'Yeah, he defenatly looks sick' he finaly thought as he invited the man to sit.
"Oh thank you" thanked the sick looking man while sitting down opposite off Eric.
At that moment, a young waiter came over with a black vest and a slightly tired expreson on his face.
"What can I get you two gentelman" asked the waiter with a kind smile.
The man opposite Eric answered first "Lamb soup with potatos, please", the waiter quickly wrote it down and looked at Eric. He searched throught his memory to find something he could order.
"Chiken with sause, grilled potatos and a glass of water, please" he ordered while remembering how much money he could spend.
The waiter wrote that down and exused themself to go to the next table.
Eric looked at the man opposite him and tried to stir something within his silver ring, but nothing happened, he tried small hand gestures, command words in his mind, anything, but nothing worked.
'I probably don't "understand" him well enough' he thought as he tried to come up with something to get to know the man opposite him better, but before he did, the man spoke.
"What is a young man like you doing here, if I might ask"
Eric tried acting slightly embarased to give his words realism "Well, I got a job in the capital not long ago and this is my once in a lifetime opportunity"
"And what kind of job are we talking about? I want to know how much to congratulate you" the sickly man asked with a small smile.
Eric answered while trying to get something out of the man "Well, I'll soon work at the New Star Clinic as a doctor"
The sickly man looked at Eric with a suprised look, confusing him. After a moment the man laughed "What a coincidence, my niece works there too, and I'm going there to see her, and get treatment because I've been feeling quite bad lately"
'Now we talking, so he has a niece which is probably a doctor and hes feeling sick for quite some time' he thought as he once again tried to remove the mans sickness.
This time, there was a reaction. It felt like something deep inside him was stired and taken by the silver ring with scale patterns. He directed his attencion to the sickly man.
In the next moment the mans skin gained a little color, the dark circles under his eyes recided and his face showed more life, but it wasn't much of a change. And for sure not a full recovery.
'It looks like I need more information' Eric thought as he identified the changes.
"And what's her name, because it looks like I might be working with her soon" Eric asked with as much politnes he could muster.
"That is true" laughed the now less sick man, "Her name is Emma, well, Emma Green"
"And what would be your name, because I don't think you told me?" Eric asked seeeing the opportunity to get the mans name.
"My name is Henry Green, and could you give me your name young man" the man said with a smile.
'Same last name as the niece, a bit strange, but now I know his name' Eric thought before speaking "Arthur Arctos", these words left wierd taste in Erics mouth.
The man was about to speak, but at that moment the waiter came with their food.
A brown soup with meat, carrot, pea and potato chunks that gave of a nice aroma, and a plate with pieces of chicken and potatos covered with a light sauce.
The waiter left and they started eating and chating a little.
And while they chated, Eric tried to remove the concept of sickness from the man opposite him once again. The proces was the same, some kind of energy was taken from his body to fuel the ring, But the effects were much stronger.
Now the mans palenes disapered all togheter with the dark eyes under his eyes. Eric could also swear that a some kind of spark shined in the mans eyes.
After he finished eating he paid the waiter two coins, 5 vezero each, which was the currency of Juna, and left to the bathroom.
On his way he recounted his encounter 'So it seems that someones actual name is quite important when understanding someone and dealing with concepts. But what would be my true name? Eric Smith or Arthur Arctos?'
While lost in thought, he found a yellowish paper in the pocket of his pants. He was sure it was empty when he left the table.
On that piece of paper stood a message writen in english.