Saylor Cogni once believed that kindness mattered.
He helped because he could.
He trusted because he believed people would return the favor.
He gave even when it cost him everything. Eventually, it grew into an unknown weakness, people took notice.
At first, it was small betrayals:
A friend who never paid him back.
A neighbor who forgot his sacrifices.
A colleague who took credit for his work.
Still, Saylor clung to hope.
"People make mistakes," he told himself. "But deep down, they're good."
Until the last nail in the coffin was struck.
It started with a heinous accusation of his credibility at work, which he has always been devoted to.
Someone framed him at work: Falsifying documents to appear as major contracts, and stealing customers by lying to them with degradation towards Saylor to sway their confidence.
Meetings were held behind closed doors for days. All the while Saylor was doing his daily task, thinking it would be dealt with properly with evidence to back his side of the story.
Soon enough one day shortly after Saylor showed up to work security approached Saylor and escorted him out without a word.
His coworkers did not look his way, it was a cold departure.
His family distanced themselves, even the woman he loved, Angela , quietly packed her things over a short period of time while he pleaded with her. She was gone, physically and emotionally.
"You're too much trouble, Saylor. I need someone stable."
The door closed. Not with a slam. Just a final, soft click. All Saylor could do was stand in the deafening silence of the empty apartment.
Many days passed in silence. Bills stacked.
Trash can overflowing, dishes piled up.
The world, once vibrant, grayed to static.
One night someone slid a letter under his door.
No name.
Just one line, typed cruelly:
This is what you get for trusting people.
He didn't cry. He didn't break anything.
He simply let the letter fall to the ground, feeling numb to everything.
Saylor feeling void of the world and emotion walked to the top floor of the apartment. Approached the window at the end of the hall. Opened the window, he was met by a warm wisp of air, straddled the seal, gazing up to heavens...
Suddenly he was met with a blinding light and a boom like that of a mortar launcher going off.
Black rifts ripped across the sky like spiderwebs.
The deafening noise of what sounded like wailing and screaming echoed off the buildings
A heavy fog began to pour out of the rift seams and weighed heavy on Saylor, his breathing became tasked as though he was be choked, he looked down at the people, they weren't walking, they were froze.
His vision blurring, thoughts blurred. He was met with a thousand lifetimes flickering behind his eyes not his own.
Warriors.
Scholars.
Bandits.
Kings.
Names, voices, memories, deaths he was seeing it all as if it were a collection of films.
The fog gripped tighter...The world disappeared.
In the moment before darkness enveloped Saylor, he heard a chilling voice coming from afar deep in the darkness.
"You have been selected, Saylor Cogni."
"Welcome to the Broken Field."