An Ordinary Man in the Northern Dynasties: The Great Goose

It felt as if countless red-hot needles were boring through his temples into his brain, then grinding their way down his spine to his tailbone. Gai Da’e snapped his eyes open, but everything in his vision was a hazy yellow. His nostrils were filled with a choking moldy smell and a... hard-to-describe stench of blood. He remembered working overtime, staring at a computer screen packed with client data reports, his eyelids heavy as lead. As an employee at a midsized consulting firm, Gai Da’e spent his days dealing with data, procedures, and workplace relationships. In other words, he used the most precise calculations to secure the greatest possible benefits for his clients, and sometimes himself, by exploiting gaps in the rules. Just as he rubbed his aching temples for the Nth time, a strange bolt of purple lightning suddenly struck outside the window and coiled around his computer tower like a live snake. Then a powerful current shot along the mouse cable and into his fingertips, and his consciousness plunged into darkness.