Riley eased her arm out from under her head, moving slowly, testing each joint as if one wrong angle might snap something. The limb was numb and stiff, the kind of stiffness that came from not shifting an inch all night. Apparently, exhaustion had pinned her to the stone floor like a corpse. Her body was filing its complaints now.

  She tugged the blanket higher, tucking it under her chin. One more breath. One more moment before the day started piling itself onto her shoulders: plans, repairs, decisions, consequences. Yesterday’s failures still hovered at the edges of her thoughts, waiting for her to fully wake so they could resume gnawing.

  Warmth pressed against her back. Thorne. His body heat radiated through the thin blanket, steady and comforting. He hadn’t stirred, which meant he’d slept well too. Good. At least one of them deserved that.

  She lay still, listening to the faint clatter and movement outside. Troops were working, tools were striking stone, voices could be heard in the distance. Life continuing. Problems waiting.

  Eventually she stretched, grimacing as her spine cracked, and pushed herself up onto one elbow. Her free hand reached back, aiming for Thorne’s fur.

  Her fingers brushed skin.

  Cold. Firm. Human.

  She froze. Her brain stalled for a full second before catching up.

  She jerked her hand away as if she had just touched a hot stove. She twisted around. A man lay beside her, broad-shouldered, bare from head to toe, completely unfamiliar and completely unconscious.

  Her breath caught in her throat, then tore free in a sharp scream. She scrambled backward, feet slipping on the stone, until her back hit the wall. Her mind scrambled for explanations that didn’t exist.

  Thorne was gone.

  And a stranger was lying where he should have been.

  Riley’s scream snapped the man awake like a whipcrack.

  He quickly lurched upright. He raised his hands, palms out, posture stiff and uncertain, like someone trying to remember how bodies worked. His expression was strained, eyes wide, confused, and far too aware of her fear.

  His eyes darted around the room, wide and unfocused, then locked on her with a jolt of recognition that made no sense.

  Before he could form a word, pounding vibrated the tower door.

  “Warden! Open the door!” Valrik’s voice boomed through the wood, sharp with alarm.

  Riley forced herself to move, legs trembling. She edged sideways toward the door, never letting the stranger out of her sight, never turning her back on him. Her fingers scraped uselessly at the latch, she couldn’t get a grip, couldn’t make her hands obey. She tried again, breath shaking, and finally the mechanism clicked.

  The door swung inward just as Valrik slammed his shoulder into it.

  He stumbled forward with a grunt, catching himself before he hit the floor. He was followed immediately by two soldiers with weapons half raised. They poured into the room in a rush of armor. Riley darted behind him instantly, using his body as a shield. Valrik didn’t question it, his eyes had already found the naked man across the room.

  “Down,” Valrik barked, spear leveled in a heartbeat.

  The man froze. His throat bobbed. His hands stayed raised.

  His submission was meaningless. The two other soldiers flanked him. They each grabbed an arm and forced it down by the man’s side. They held him firm so that Riley could decide his fate.

  “Wait,” he said, voice rough, like he hadn’t used it in years. “You…” His gaze flicked to Riley again, something urgent and bewildered tangled together.

  “Quiet,” Valrik snapped, stepping forward and pressing the spearpoint to the man’s throat. The stranger obeyed instantly, jaw clenching.

  Riley swallowed hard, her voice thin but steady enough to carry.

  “Who are you? How did you get in here?” she asked with a confidence that only came from having Valrik’s protection.

  The man’s eyes flicked between them, Valrik’s weapon, Riley’s fear, the unceremonious room. He looked like someone trying to assemble a memory from scattered pieces.

  “Easy!” the man shouted, stumbling under their grip. “Stop. Stop! You summoned me!”

  The words cut through the chaos like a blade.

  Everything froze.

  The soldiers’ grip remained firm.

  “Riley, please.”

  Riley flinched at the sound of her own name, soft, pleading, spoken in a voice she had never heard before. The man’s tone wasn’t threatening. If anything, it carried a strange familiarity that made her stomach twist.

  Valrik had the opposite reaction. His jaw locked, and his grip on the spear tightened until his knuckles went white. The point pressed harder against the man’s throat, a silent warning that one more wrong syllable would end badly.

  “You know my name,” she said. “How?”

  The man’s throat worked around the spearpoint. He didn’t dare move. His gaze flicked to her again, softer this time, almost apologetic.

  “I’m not trying to harm you.”

  Riley thought for a moment. She needed to hear him out. She gently laid her hand on Valrik’s shoulder. Immediately Valrik backed the spear away from the man’s throat. But the two soldiers continued to hold onto him tightly.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “You say I summoned you. Who are you?” Confusion knit her brow, then something clicked. Slowly, her eyes narrowed as her mind finally caught up with the impossible chain of events.

  The summon.

  Her breath hitched.

  Riley opened the HUD. It took her a couple of tries to focus.

  The message hovered in front of her, calm and definitive.

  ? Welcome New Hero!

  The room felt suddenly too small. Her head spun. She swallowed hard, staring at the glowing words as the truth settled in with terrifying clarity.

  Riley lifted her gaze from the HUD and looked at the man in front of her.

  Her new hero.

  She examined his face carefully. Strong features. A sharp jaw. High cheekbones. A mouth set in a tense, uncertain line. All of it unfamiliar. She had never seen this man before in her life.

  And yet something in the shape of his eyes, the tilt of his head, the way he held still as if waiting for her permission to breathe, it tugged at her in a way that made no sense. A flicker of recognition where there should have been none.

  Then her gaze drifted despite herself, taking in broad shoulders, long arms, the solid build of someone made for strength rather than decoration.

  And then her eyes reached his waist.

  Her brain slammed the brakes.

  Riley snapped her head back up, heat rushing to her face as she shook her head sharply, as if that might physically reset her thoughts. She fixed her gaze somewhere safely above his shoulder and made deeply uncomfortable eye contact with the wall instead.

  Get it together.

  She reached down and grabbed the blanket that had been dragged along with her in the commotion of the morning. She threw it towards the man. The soldiers barely caught it with their hands that also held their spears. They understood the intention and cloaked it in front of the man.

  Riley gave a nod. “It’s alright,” she said to them and they let go of the man’s arms and handed him the blanket to hold himself but they remained by his side, ready to react to any unwelcome movement.

  The man wrapped the blanket around his waist.

  Riley cleared her throat, the sound dry and strained.

  “Um,” she said, gesturing vaguely without looking directly at him. “See that he gets something to wear.”

  Valrik nodded.

  Riley drew in a steadying breath and forced herself to meet the man’s gaze, really meet it. Just his face. Nothing else.

  “Sorry,” she said, still flustered. “What is your name?”

  “Thorne,” he said. No hesitation. No uncertainty. His expression plainly suggesting that the answer should have been obvious.

  Riley froze.Her eyes widened, disbelief flooding through her. The man didn’t flinch at her reaction. He only watched her with that same earnest, unsettling certainty, as if waiting for her to catch up to something he already knew.

  Nothing about this made sense.

  Nothing at all.

  “Thorne?” she questioned, hoping the repetition would somehow trigger her brain to connect the dots.

  Her gaze flicked involuntarily to the spot on the floor where the dog had slept.

  Then back to him.

  Her bewilderment was written plainly across her face as the last piece of the puzzle slid into place.

  ***

  The room slowly resumed a semblance of order.

  Even with a dozen questions clawing at her, she pushed them aside. The only thing she could rely on right now was the strange familiarity she felt when she looked at Thorne: unearned, inexplicable, but real enough to keep her from ordering Valrik to drag him out by the throat. That alone bought him a temporary place in her world.

  But the shock of the morning still clung to her. Embarrassment, confusion, the jolt of waking to a stranger where her dog should have been. She needed space. Time to breathe. Time to think without everyone watching her unravel.

  Once the soldiers had been dismissed and Thorne had been escorted out to be properly clothed and contained somewhere far away from her immediate personal space, Riley finally had a moment to breathe.

  Her heart was still racing, but the instinct to do something kicked in hard. She needed to override shock with routine.

  She pulled up the HUD.

  Timers first. Always timers. Mechanical. Predictable. Never naked. Never human. Timers.

  She focused and began issuing orders, grounding herself in the familiar rhythm of management.

  ? Barracks Training Timer: Infantry = 4 (8 hours/4 soldiers)

  ? Building Timer: Academy Level 1 (8 hours)

  ? Forge Timer: Tools, Nails, Hammers

  The confirmations blinked in one by one. Progress resumed. The world did not pause for revelations.

  Next came assignments.

  Riley adjusted troop placement in the HUD quickly and efficiently.

  Three soldiers were reassigned to food gathering. Two were sent to woodcutting. Four were redirected back to the hole.

  Balanced. Sustainable. Just enough risk.

  She dismissed the HUD and stepped outside the tower into the morning air, where Valrik was already waiting. He stood rigid, helm under one arm, expression tight with urgency rather than panic now.

  Beside him stood a man Riley had never seen before.

  Broad-shouldered and thickly built. His clothes were practical and worn, his boots dusted with stone powder that hadn’t come from walking paths.

  Valrik gestured toward him. “Warden. This is Bramholt.”

  The man inclined his head. “Engineer,” he said simply.

  Riley nodded back. “Riley.”

  Bramholt wasted no time. “Warden. I’m happy to report gold and ore has been found in the hole.”

  Riley blinked. “Both?”

  “Yes,” Bramholt replied. “That’s why I had Valrik wake you. The deposit isn’t shallow. It’s layered. Stone, then ore veins, then gold traces deeper in. Left alone, it will collapse. Worked properly, it will feed this place for years.”

  “All right,” she said. “Then I guess we have a proper mine on our hands.”

  She looked directly at Bramholt. “Do what you need to. Reinforce the walls. Shore the ceiling. Controlled expansion only. No shortcuts.”

  Bramholt nodded once. “Excellent decision, Warden. With the shovels that were finished overnight, we can move faster and safer. I’ll need timber and time.”

  “You’ll have both,” Riley said.

  As if activated by her words, the sound of metal on stone echoed from the clearing. Soldiers had already begun working again, the new tools from the forge were biting into earth and rock with far more efficiency than before. The pace had changed. Faster. Cleaner. More confident.

  Riley spotted Thorne near the edge of the clearing while the mine work continued.

  He stood apart from the others, newly clothed now. When their eyes met, the moment stretched longer than it should have.

  Uncomfortable. Charged. Unanswered.

  Thorne walked towards her. Riley was frozen. She wasn’t afraid of him, but of the conversation. She didn’t know if she was prepared to talk to the naked man that she had woken up to.

  He stopped in front of her. The two of them stood silent waiting for one of them to break the silence. Finally, Riley did.

  “So, I summoned you.”

  “Yes.”

  “Cool…cool.” Riley nodded, looking around as if searching for her next words. “And what exactly does a hero do, besides kill monsters?”

  “I lead when there is battle. Your soldiers can contain threats but I end them. The more I slay the more rewards I get. Those rewards are… bound to me. I use them to grow stronger. To survive larger fights.

  “Upgrades,” Riley murmured.

  “Exactly. Armor. Weapons. Resilience. Each requires multiple drops. Different kinds of materials. But I have to work for it. Nothing will be instant.”

  “So, you are here to protect the base?”

  “Yes…and you.”

  For some reason that made Riley feel uncomfortable. She could feel her cheeks flush. She had always been uncomfortable with attention.

  “I better go find Valrik,” she said changing the subject.

  Later that night, by the time Riley returned to the tower, the sun was dipping low. Exhaustion settled over her like a blanket as she pulled up the HUD one last time before bed.

  The system responded instantly.

  ? Barrack Training Timer: Infantry = 4 (8 hours/4 soldiers)

  ? Academy Timer: Military training speed (for 50% reduction in time)

  ? Forge Timer: Sickles, axes, saws, shovels

  Riley let the HUD fade.

  She lay back on her blanket, staring up at the ceiling. Her thoughts raced recounting the day. A hero. A mine. An engineer. Faster training. Monsters that dropped rewards. She wondered what tomorrow would bring, but she knew predictions would be futile.

  Nothing about this world was simple anymore.

  And somehow, she suspected, it never had been.