The day it all started was supposed to be an ordinary day.

For Sophia Rothmer, that meant escorting a new delver through a simple dungeon's Tier One area. Sure, she knew her mother had seen a future where she ended up in another world on her own adventure, but that was months ago; it probably wasn't going to happen.

For a group of offworld mercenaries, that meant damaging a dungeon's instance core, snagging some extra treasure, and blaming it on either Sophia or her trainee.

For Dav Carolan, that meant exploring a new world. He may not know what's going on, but he'll figure it out; he always does.

The heist didn't go as planned. After a disorienting and potentially life-altering trip through the place between everything known as the Origin, Sophia and Dav find themselves in a cave. They have no idea what happened to the bandits, no idea where they are, and Sophia seems to have lost her Skills.

It's not an auspicious welcome to the Broken Lands.

Updates Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The content warnings are mostly to give me room to write; this fiction is not intended to be edgy, but there are times when someone is seriously injured and the Bad Guys sometimes do Bad Things. The characters also had lives before the story and they're ... not always happy.

No AI assistance was used in the writing, but there is AI art.

This story is released ONLY on RoyalRoad, Scribblehub, and Patreon. If you're seeing this somewhere else, it was stolen.