Linda woke with a gasp, her eyelids peeling apart like glued parchment, each blink sticky with the residue of borrowed divinity. Above her stretched a fractured marble ceiling, veined with creeping ivy and the ghostly silhouettes of long-dead frescoes, angels with chipped wings, and gods with stolen faces. She groaned, the sound escaping her lips as something foreign and musical, an Aelvyn's voice where her flat Midwestern drawl should've been.
Her fingers - longer now, slender and tipped with faintly pointed nails - twitched against cold stone as she tried to push herself upright. Her muscles screamed, her new body protesting the movement like a computer rebooting after a forced shutdown.
Linda hissed through clenched teeth and slumped back onto what she belatedly realized was an altar underneath her back, its edges worn smooth by centuries of forgotten hands.
A second attempt ended with her elbow slipping off the edge, sending her tumbling onto the floor in a graceless heap of tangled limbs.
Pain lanced through Linda's hip where she'd struck the flagstones.
"Oh f-fudge—" Linda cursed, but it died halfway, morphing into a startled gasp at the sound of her own voice - crystalline and lilting, like wind chimes whispering secrets.
Linda scrambled toward the nearest puddle on hands and knees, her unfamiliar limbs moving with the jerky coordination of a newborn fawn.
The water trembled as she lurched over it, ripples distorting the reflection until—
There.
In the fractured mirror of rainwater, a stranger stared back who had silver hair tangled with ivy tendrils, green eyes wide as a hunted doe’s.
Linda’s breath hitched.
The nose was hers - still hooked, still defiant - but the rest...
High cheekbones, a jawline that could cut glass, lips fuller than she’d ever dared imagine. She touched her throat, watching the reflection’s elegant fingers follow. A hysterical giggle bubbled up.
Linda looked like a fantasy novel cover model...
...if the heroine had an eight-inch cock twitching against her thigh.
Her hands - her hands - shook as they skimmed upward, tracing the unfamiliar topography of her body. Breasts heavy enough to ache, nipples pebbled from the space’s chill. The dip of her waist flared into hips that would’ve made her teenage self sob with envy.
And between her thighs...
Linda squeezed her eyes shut, then looked again.
Still there.
Thick.
Flushed.
Real.
A sound escaped her - half sob, half laugh - as she pressed her thighs together, the unfamiliar weight sending sparks up her spine.
"You really did it," Linda whispered, her voice cracking as she traced the silver hair clinging to her damp neck.
Her fingers trembled against her collarbone, the skin warm and alive under her touch in a way her old body had never been.
Then she froze.
There, on the back of her left hand, a mark pulsed faintly - not ink, but something deeper - like light trapped beneath skin.
A tattoo?
No.
It was a circular sun with 13 rays.
It was simple, unadorned, pulsing faintly like a heartbeat.
Linda tilted her hand, watching the light shift under her skin.
"Okay... maybe this is the Blessing Vael mentioned?" Linda muttered, flexing her fingers experimentally. With her other hand, she made a clumsy swiping motion through the air - like summoning a VR interface - then paused, waiting for a glowing menu to materialize. Nothing happened. She snorted at herself. "Right. Not that kind of isekai, I guess. Does that mean I'm going to have to train my butt off then? Great... Maybe the Aelvyn can help me with that."
Linda glanced back at the puddle, taking in her reflection once more - her bare skin, her unbound hair, her complete lack of anything resembling armor or weapons.
She groaned, rubbing her temples.
"I didn't even ask about clothes. Or where to go. Or anything useful. Did Vael think I'd just... spawn in fully prepared?" Linda sighed, shaking her head. "Note to self: next time a goddess offers you a new life, ask for a damn starter pack."
The air smelled damp - old stone and something metallic - as Linda finally took in her surroundings. The chamber stretched upward into darkness, its vaulted ceiling lost in shadow. Crumbling frescoes lined the walls, their colors faded to ghosts of blues and golds. At the far end, half-collapsed beneath centuries of neglect, stood a cracked statue. It was of a woman's figure with outstretched arms, her face worn smooth by time.
Only the faintest outline of thirteen rays around her head remained recognizable.
Linda's breath hitched.
She stumbled forward on unsteady legs, her bare feet slapping against cold flagstones.
The statue's face had eroded into anonymity, but Linda knew - somehow - that this was Vael. Or what remained of her. Ivy crawled up fractured marble legs like chains, roots splitting the pedestal beneath. One outstretched arm ended at the elbow, the broken edge jagged as a bad line of code. The other hand cupped empty air where something - a torch? an offering? - had been stolen long ago.
"Oh, Vael..." Linda whispered, her fingers brushing the statue’s broken wrist.
The stone was colder than she expected, leaching warmth from her fingertips.
Linda swallowed, clenching her fists until her nails bit into her palms.
The sting grounded her.
"I'll find out what happened here," Linda murmured, pressing her forehead against the statue's crumbling base.
The words tasted like a vow, sharp and metallic on her tongue. She pushed herself upright, scanning the chamber with methodical precision - left wall, right wall, altar, alcoves - the way she'd once scanned code for vulnerabilities.
The skeleton lay sprawled in a shadowed alcove, half-buried under fallen masonry. Linda hesitated before crouching beside it, her nose wrinkling at the stale, dry odor of ancient bones. The pendant around its neck glinted dully, a mirror of her own mark, but cracked down the middle. Its clothes were surprisingly intact, the fabric oddly smooth under her fingers as she peeled the linen shirt and woolen trousers from brittle ribs.
Linda dressed quickly, averting her eyes from the empty sockets staring at her.
She left the pendent.
Linda wasn't an idiot.
Vael was the perceived bad guy here and having her mark probably was a very bad idea.
Linda grimaced at the faintly glowing tattoo on her hand - a beacon in the shadowed temple. She rubbed at it with her thumb, as if she could scrub the divine brand away, but the light pulsed stubbornly beneath her skin.
"Okay, first order of business..." Linda muttered. "Figure out how to hide this before someone sees it and... I don't know, burns me at the stake?"
The words tasted too real in her mouth.
But there wasn't anything to hide it with right now, so she put it on her to-do list.
Linda flexed her fingers, staring at the pulsing mark.
If this was Vael's Blessing - surely it did something - she just had to brute-force the activation parameters. Swiping the air again yielded nothing, so she tried vocal commands next, her voice echoing strangely in the cavernous temple.
"Um... display stats? Status window? Show- show magic interface?" Linda tried. the mark remaining stubbornly inert. Linda huffed, pressing it against the altar like a malfunctioning touchscreen. "Come on, you stupid thing..."
But nothing happened.
Linda exhaled sharply through her nose, rubbing her fingers over the mark.
If Vael's magic had a manual, she'd clearly skipped the tutorial.
She lifted her hand experimentally, the glow intensifying as she moved it toward the doorway, casting jagged shadows across the crumbling frescoes.
"Fine," Linda said. "You're a glorified flashlight now."
The doorway pulsed with unnatural shadows - not the absence of light - but something hungry that swallowed it whole.
Linda hesitated, her bare toes curling against the damp stone. Then she stepped forward.
The darkness lunged.
A rotting hand clamped around her ankle, yanking her off-balance. Linda shrieked as she hit the floor, her palms scraping raw against stone. The thing crawled over her, ribs cracked open like a broken birdcage, a void where its heart should be, and black ichor dripping from its teeth. It smelled like wet rot and burning wires.
Linda gagged, shoving at its chest, but her hands passed through its ribs as if they weren't there.
Its jaw unhinged with a wet crack.
"G-get off!" Linda wheezed, twisting her hips to throw it sideways.
Her borrowed shirt ripped as the thing's claws caught the fabric. Its breath was ice against her neck, its hollow chest pressing down - into her - like sinking into tar. She panicked, kicking wildly, her heel connecting with its pelvis.
Bone shattered.
The zombie-thing wailed, a sound like a dying server fan, and scrambled back, its fingers leaving oily smears on her skin.
Linda rolled onto her hands and knees, gasping.
The mark on her hand burned and not metaphorically.
White-hot pain seared up her arm as the tattoo flared brighter, etching the shadowy thing in stark relief.
It flinched, hissing.
Linda scrambled backwards, her breath coming in ragged gulps as she thrust her glowing hand toward the creature like a torch. The thing staggered but didn’t stop and its hollow chest cavity gaped like a corrupted file, tendrils of black smoke coiling from the wound.
It lunged again, fingers clawing at her shirt, its breath reeking of rust and spoiled meat.
Linda flailed - no technique, just raw panic - her elbow catching its jaw in a lucky strike that barely slowed its advance. The thing snarled, pinning her wrists with inhuman strength, its hollow chest pressing against hers as its teeth snapped inches from her throat. She kicked, twisted, but the creature was relentless, its weight crushing her into the cold stone as dark spittle dripped onto her collarbone.
Then...
Steel flashed.
The zombie-thing's head tumbled off its shoulders, bouncing once before rolling into the shadows, its body collapsing limp and heavy across Linda’s torso. She gasped, shuddering as black ooze seeped from its severed neck, staining the stolen shirt.
Above her stood a figure backlit by torchlight, their blade still dripping with viscous shadow.
Someone had come to save her...
...and the first thing she sees is beautiful yellow eyes that sparkled in the limited light.