His oldest memory began when the sharp, drilling ache ripped him back from slumber.

  “Ugh… My head…”

  Ka’Tehmn slowly leaned up to clutch his head. After a few moments, the headache began to fade, and he tried to open his eyes.

  The intermittent image of a pristine white tower covered in strange glyphs and complex, interconnecting symbols was replaced by the view before him – a dreary room surrounded by dirt walls and a low, triangular ceiling.

  “What the…”

  His hands fell to his side. He looked around. He was in a small room. A double slanted roof was overhead, high in the centre, and low near the mud walls behind and in front of him.

  The image of the strange tower seemed to rapidly fade away. Starting as no more than a half ethereal mirage on every surface, it quickly vanished, leaving only the mundane scenery behind and an unnoticed influence.

  The room was filled with wooden furniture, archaic tools, and the smell of freshly cut grass. A tree trunk carved into a chair. Stone knives hanging from string. Dozens of clay kitchenware items scattered around.

  He didn’t know this place.

  Something began to squirm in his chest. It squirmed faster.

  Where… What’s going on?

  His heart started to beat faster and louder. He trembled. Blood surged through his body, causing his ears to fill with a dull ringing.

  I don’t know. My memory…

  A voice whispered from the back of his mind.

  Danger!

  His hand shot to his chest. His fingers gripped the rough material. Suddenly, as if by habit, his eyes shut. The odd familiarity of the action enveloped him as he turned his focus inward, forcing himself to focus on his lungs.

  Breath… In… Out…

  Slowly, you’re okay. You are okay. You can do this…

  The lingering remnants of a fading voice seemed to call out from the back of his mind, whether his own or someone else’s, he wasn’t sure, but each word grew fainter than the one before it until there was only silence.

  He followed it nonetheless.

  A long breath in, hold, and then breathe out slowly. Repeat.

  What is this?

  The rhythmic movements of his chest expanding and contracting mimicked the pulsing of his heart. He followed them without thinking. A vague feeling crept into his mind, as if he had done it hundreds, thousands of times before.

  The more he focused, the more his focus began to expand. It grew beyond his chest, checking over his back to the itchy sensation against his neck. Travelled down his arms to feel the cold wrapped around the tips of his fingers. Each subsequent breath brought with it a new sensation, a new part of him—— a new experience.

  Within a few moments, his breathing returned to normal, and he opened his eyes to look around again, a strange calm finally settling over him. A calm that seemed more practised than natural, yet comforted him all the same.

  The clarity came too quickly. With it came an insidious realisation.

  “This isn’t my house. Or, at least, I don’t think it is.”

  His voice had become steady and relaxed.

  Looking down, he finally realised he was resting on an animal pelt spread out above a long boat. Several limbs stretched out on each side of the boat, pegged into the earth floor around him. He pressed his hand into the fur, a still-warm yet soft sensation embracing his fingers. He pushed himself off the bed.

  What creature is this? A large body with five, no, six limbs.

  He counted the segments that extended out beyond the main body and were pegged into the earth below, allowing the large torso to float suspended in the air between the boat’s frame. The headless creature swayed with his dismounting, soon returning to its own still slumber.

  Now standing, he gazed around the room again, but he found nothing that seemed familiar.

  Definitely not my room.

  Seeing nothing around him that looked like it belonged to him, he turned his head down to observe his own clothes. A simple and plain off-white sheath dress covered his body, his arms and shins exposed, and the rest covered. His feet were bare, with his toes slowly reddening against the cold of the floor – a similar sensation to the one in his fingertips.

  Lifting the bottom of the dress up, he realised he wasn’t wearing anything underneath. He also noticed a few cuts and scratches on his right thigh, but no memories surfaced for him to understand where they came from or why.

  “Interesting.” He mumbled to himself. The artificial serenity kept him from panicking, while a fickle sense of curiosity hovered at the edge of his thoughts.

  With the earlier panic having passed, this strange sense of curiosity began to form. He moved toward one of the knives hanging from the slanted roof before carefully tracing his finger along the stone blade.

  The tool had a smooth wooden handle, carved with numerous illegible symbols and ending in the shape of an animal's head. Was this the same creature as the hide he woke up in, he wondered.

  Lowering his gaze, he observed the blade itself. A long, curved blade faced him, one side rough and covered in scratch marks, with the other side smooth and multicoloured, reminiscent of a polished common stone.

  His eyebrows scrunched slightly as the imagery came to his mind between the blades spinning from his touch.

  Neither cold nor hot. Slightly cool?

  As his finger traced the peculiar weapon, his nose twitched at the unknown smell that flickered past. He couldn’t place what it was; however, triggering a strong urge to sneeze made him dislike it instantly.

  “..dy…hu…mna…”

  Suddenly, Ka’Tehmn heard several voices overlapping. The sound of his heartbeat began to echo in his ears again as he shot his hand to his nose to squeeze it and stifle the reaction threatening to burst out.

  His body froze to try and listen, the fear slowly subsiding when nothing happened. He realised they weren’t using a language he understood, or if they were, the voices were too overlapped for him to make anything out.

  Realising that the voices were coming from outside, he stared at the door on the far wall, waiting for his heartbeat to calm down, before deciding that he needed to go outside to find out what was going on.

  The moment he relaxed, his hand failed to block the sharp sound that whistled out of his nose. Silence. After realising nothing happened, he began to move again.

  His eyes caught a pair of sandals tucked into a woven basket by the door, a strange sense of de ja vu flashing too quickly for him to catch. Once on, he pushed against the bundles of sticks tied together to act as a door, watching it lift up like a hatch before stepping out.

  As he stepped outside, the first thing he noticed was the lush grass spreading out in front of him. He cautiously stepped out until he was completely outside, startled at the sound of the door crashing behind him.

  With his hand to his chest, he looked up to see a dull sky. Grey clouds swirled across the sky as they spiralled around something far in the distance. Following their path, he noticed a large white tower floating in the distance.

  The same tower he glimpsed when he first woke up.

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  The strange feeling returned as he gazed at the white marvel, the eerie calm and his habitual breathing smothering any chance of identifying it. His eyes focused on the pristine structure as it seemed to stare back at him, inviting him to come closer, yet letting the clouds overhead warn him of the fate of those who approached it. It looked so perfect, as if it would disappear if he blinked.

  Lowering his gaze, he realised that he was in some kind of village.

  A large wooden wall surrounded everything, with only one exit far to his right. Multiple submerged homes, like the one he had come out of, spread around the wall edge on both sides in a giant circle, their front doors facing toward the centre. Far to his left, at the opposite end from the exit, was a home bigger than the others. It was at least three times the size of the other buildings just based on length and width.

  He noticed a few people were emerging from their own shelter, many of them sharing the same hesitant or nervous look that made him believe they knew no more than he did. More and more questions began to form in his mind as he noticed that while each person had different physical traits, they all wore the same outfit.

  The only people who looked different were the small group arguing loudly in the centre, but even they were dressed similarly.

  Do they know something?

  Realising he wasn’t going to get any answers by standing around, he decided to approach the central, shouting group, a few of them noticing him but chose only to observe cautiously. There were four that seemed too invested in shouting at each other to realise he was approaching.

  “HU TAN VAHL, KUR MEH’HA LOTANGA!”

  “WON BU JIN DAO, NI KAI CHUR~ MAH!”

  As he approached, he saw the group of four more clearly. One large, dark-skinned man was shouting and making loud gestures at a trio of men across from him who looked highly similar. The three men all had dark hair, dark eyes, and a rounder, flatter face compared to those around them.

  Are they from the same place? They look similar, but I don’t think they’re siblings.

  Opposite them, the larger man had dark skin, a large forehead, and was completely shaven above the neck. He was easily a head taller than anyone else around, and with muscles that only served to make him more imposing.

  Different languages?

  Ka’Tehmn watched as the two sides' argument grew more heated, not sure if either side even understood the other, but nobody seemed to want to intervene. Most of the others in the centre looked no less confused than he did. Everyone was just waiting, watching.

  Something moved in the corner of his vision. His head snapped to the side as one of the two women nearby approached him. She had long hair tied behind her head in a ponytail, and her outfit had a rip down the side of the left leg. Ka’ could faintly see a large scar across her knee that spread up, hidden by the rest of her outfit.

  He locked onto her as she broke the tension by trying to speak to him in a third language he didn't understand, her voice high-pitched and nervousness clear.

  Does everyone speak a different language? Then what about those three?

  He didn’t respond to the woman. Something inside told him not to. He observed her for a few seconds before turning his head back to the argument. He caught the larger man stepping forward, grabbing one of the three men by their dress. The startled man was pulled towards the angry titan.

  The other two men looked shocked at their companion being violently manhandled. One of them took a rushed step forward when a booming voice broke the tension. A few heads turned to see a frail old man slowly walking towards them with the help of a twisted staff taller than even the dark-skinned man. He limped towards the group, aided by the long piece of wood, with his eyes wide with emotion.

  “Hu tan kar, vlov nik lotanga!”

  The elderly man quickly shouted again once he was closer, this time with all eyes on him.

  “Na yu san, dao dao mai niya kan shin ma?”

  “!” “!” “!” “!” “!” “!” “!” “!” “!”

  Everyone shared the same surprised expression as the man suddenly switched languages and began speaking to both sides. The larger man quickly released the smaller one and took a few steps back, while the released man quickly retreated to his two companions. Ka’ was now more sure that they knew each other.

  As soon as the old stranger reached the group, the same woman who had called out to Ka’ earlier repeated her question to the elder, only to be met with a broken response that caused her shoulders to drop and her head to hang low.

  He speaks their languages? How? Can he talk to all of us?

  More questions rose in Ka’s mind before being replaced with another, more insidious concern.

  Who is he? Did he come out of the large building? Is it safe to talk to him?

  Ka’Tehmn watched the new arrival discuss with the tall man and the strange trio, trying to figure out who this new addition was and what he wanted. His hands began to sweat as he curled them up into fists, his eyes noticing two of the others from the group doing the same thing.

  The old man simply spoke to the two arguing sides, seemingly acting as a translator to mediate whatever dispute they had. Eventually, Ka’ suppressed the tension in his stomach and silenced his internal worries, deciding to try talking to the old man. He wanted to find out if the old man understood his language as well.

  “Which languages do you speak?”

  “I understand you!”

  “I speak several.”

  As soon as he opened his mouth to speak, both the old man and the other woman in the group responded.

  Turning to face the woman, he noticed the shock on her face.

  So she speaks the same language as me.

  He decided to try talking to her later, but first asked her to wait for a moment while he communicated with the old man. Then, turning back, he unclenched his fists from the surprise of her outburst, feeling the cold chill even more in his fingertips.

  “You can call me Olthello, I don’t remember my name, but I’d rather you didn’t remind me I’m old.” He chuckled at the two before continuing his explanation, both of them suddenly realising they didn’t recall their own name either.

  “I can speak five languages,” he quickly confessed in a tone far too calm and steady. “But I don’t remember what they are called. Nor do I know where we are, how we got here, who I am, or what we are doing here. I only woke up and came out here to hear them blaming each other.

  Do either of you know anything about what is going on?”

  The woman shared a nervous look with Ka’Tehmn for a brief moment before both shook their heads.

  “Well, it seems that we are in a bit of a dilemma.” The old man chuckled to himself.

  Several onlookers from the edges began to come towards the central group as the rest of the group tried to speak with the man. Surprisingly, the old man could understand all but the first woman Ka’ spoke to earlier.

  I remember him telling me that he could only say “I don’t speak” in her language, but I don’t remember what it sounded like.

  Ka’ began to relax a bit more once he realised that everyone was equally unsure of the situation. Once the group had calmed down and begun talking, a few more people from the edges of the village approached the centre. They discovered that several people could speak more than one language. Nearly half of the group was able to speak a language that someone else could understand.

  Unfortunately, only one man was unable to speak the same language as anyone else. Ka’ decided to keep an eye on him, a little anxious that he didn’t fit in.

  However, Ka’ couldn’t remember what he looked like.

  Wait...

  Ka’ could remember learning a few words with everyone in several languages so they could communicate better. However, his memories became hazy from that point onwards.

  How many words did I learn?

  It helped everyone to try to communicate across the various languages, though most still grouped with those who could understand them.

  Did we try to find food or water next?

  I can’t remember.

  I remember helping someone build a trap; what were we trying to catch?

  Did someone identify edible plants?

  What happened after that?

  Ka’Tehmn remembered asking people about the white tower before they woke up; however, few people knew what he was talking about.

  I remember... Something important happened. What was it?

  Nobody else could remember the tower, even when it stood so tall in the clear weather.

  Why didn’t I realise that at the time?

  Several images flashed through his mind - time spent learning a few new words, working with different people, everyone returning to the same homes they awoke in.

  I remember! We all went back to the buildings we awoke in at the end of the day.

  Why didn’t I notice that?

  In the middle of that first night, he dreamt of what had happened that day. The image of the pristine, white tower floated half-translucent through his mind. It passed through each scene and every moment. As it did, the memories became more and more difficult to recall.

  He recalled waking up, exploring the strange, subterranean home, going outside after hearing the argument, the old man appearing and gathering everyone together, gathering food and water from the surroundings, and finally, they decided to explore the tower the next morning before going to sleep.

  He dreamt of this happening. Over, and over, and over again.

  Sometimes he would find nobody in the centre when he emerged, only cowering faces scattered around the edges. In different seasons, the scenery changed, sometimes cool and windy, hot and sunny, or with inches of cold snow blanketing the ground. They didn’t always find food; sometimes the clawing hunger pulled at his insides as he had to force himself to sleep at the end of the day. He dreamt about the same day and the many different ways it could have played out.

  Each iteration of the day that came from the tower and was swallowed back up, quickly replaced by another as the tower continued to float through his day’s memories. It acted as distributor, judge, and collector.

  The days that passed seemed to appear and disappear from his mind. Some memories showed only fragments, others allowed him to relive entire conversations or scenes as if still there.

  He recalled emerging to see the first woman and the old man brawling in the howling wind, having one of the similar-looking trio crying on his shoulder under the hot sun, even struggling with a group of men to light a fire to cook a snow-coloured horned rabbit. A cornucopia of different scenes burst into his mind, each one bringing new information and knowledge that he hadn’t realised he’d forgotten. However, no matter how much Ka’ experienced, they all faded away as fast as they came. They were all swallowed by the tower.

  As he dreamt, the memories of the day he had slowly began to fade into the foggy haze. Piece by piece, they broke apart and drifted away from him, until he forgot everything that happened, ready to wake up with no memories but the image of the pristine white tower. Ready to perform the next version of the day.

  Then he heard them scream, and it yanked him free from the tower’s domain.