The rain poured hard over Cebu City as thunder rattled the old stained-glass windows of St. Ignatius Academy. Inside the towering school building, students rushed to pack their things, excited to go home—except for one girl who lingered in the shadows of the library.
Felicita R. Delgado, seventeen, always felt more alive among the shelves of forgotten books than in any classroom or hallway. With her thick, untamed curls tied loosely behind her head and a pencil tucked behind her ear, she looked more like a scholar from another century than a senior high school student. Her classmates often called her curiosa—the girl who asked too many questions, poked around where she shouldn't, and loved mysteries more than math.
Today, however, curiosity was about to lead her somewhere she could never return from.
She stood before a door at the back of the library, barely visible behind a sagging curtain of cobwebs. The janitor's warning echoed in her head: "That part of the library is off-limits. Sealed since the fire in 1983. Nothing there but ashes."
But ashes didn't knock.
Three times that week, Felicita had heard strange sounds coming from beyond the door—soft, deliberate knocks. Like someone tapping their fingernails on wood. Quiet. Rhythmic. Calling.
It didn't help that she'd found old floor plans of the school in an out-of-print yearbook. There it was—The South Wing Archives, once a private library reserved for clergy, scholars, and early Spanish-era manuscripts. Its door had been sealed for decades, but the blueprints didn't lie.
With her phone flashlight ready, Felicita reached for the rusty doorknob. The door groaned as she pushed, and surprisingly, it opened with barely a fight.
A rush of cold, dry air greeted her, carrying the scent of mold and old wood. Dust spiraled in the beam of her light. Inside, shelves stood like forgotten soldiers—books left in mid-read, furniture draped in torn cloth, and in the center of it all, a marble pedestal that had no right being in a school library.
The pedestal was circular, about waist-high, and carved with markings Felicita couldn't immediately identify. It shimmered slightly when her flashlight passed over it. Atop it lay an ornate wooden box, sealed shut with an intricate metal clasp. Unlike the rest of the room, it wasn't dusty at all.
Felicita knelt beside the pedestal. Her heart raced. She reached out and brushed her fingers along the surface of the box. The carvings looked... ancient. Baybayin? No—similar, but older. The metal clasp bore a single gem in the center, a dark red stone that seemed to pulse faintly in the dark.
Without thinking, she reached into her pocket for her multitool and pried open the latch.
It snapped.
The box creaked open, revealing black velvet inside—and nestled in the center, a necklace.
The pendant was oval, slightly larger than a coin, held in a setting of gold filigree. The gem was unlike anything she'd ever seen: a swirling mix of deep crimson, bronze, and something that shimmered blue just beneath the surface. Ancient runes circled it in patterns that seemed to move when not directly looked at.
Felicita held her breath. She reached down and—
"Ow!"
She pulled her hand back. A small splinter from the clasp had pierced her finger. A single drop of blood slid from her fingertip—before she could react, it dripped directly onto the surface of the gem.
The effect was immediate.
The gem began to glow—first red, then blue, then a blinding white. The entire pedestal vibrated, and a low hum filled the air. The lights in the room flickered violently. Books tumbled from their shelves. Felicita stumbled back, shielding her eyes.
A crack echoed across the room—followed by silence.
Then, from the gem, a beam of light shot upward like a column, stretching into the ceiling. A circle of symbols lit up beneath her feet. The pedestal split apart into curved plates that hovered in place, rotating around the necklace mid-air. And then… she was pulled.
Not by wind, not by force—but gravity seemed to tilt around her. Like space had folded itself inside out.
She screamed—but it was muffled, as though underwater.
And just like that, Felicita was gone.
---
She landed hard. Dirt and dust filled her mouth as she coughed and blinked.
The light had vanished. The necklace still hung loosely from her hand, but everything around her had changed.
She was no longer in a library.
She was lying on a stone path surrounded by dense jungle. The sky above was pale gold, and unfamiliar birds cried overhead. In the distance, towering structures of stone and gold glimmered under the sunlight—an ancient city, but impossibly alive and vibrant.
"Where…?" Felicita whispered.
She looked around. She was alone—but not for long.
A group of armored guards on horseback appeared from the trail ahead. They wore bright red sashes and bronze-plated armor, and each held a spear etched with glowing lines.
One of them pointed at her.
"Dayuhan!" he shouted. "Hawak siya ng hiyas!"
The guards advanced.
Felicita froze. The gem around her neck pulsed again, faintly—but this time, she heard something.
A voice in her head:
"Connected. Network established. One-time access granted to Market of All Worlds."
A transparent interface blinked to life in the air above the gem. Felicita gasped as floating menus opened in her vision—categories like "Tools," "Food," "Medicine," "Weaponry," and…
"Delivery in 0.3 seconds available."
The guards were almost upon her.
"Is this some kind of… shopping app?" she whispered.
The voice returned:
"Trade available. Scan object to initiate barter."
Felicita dug into her pocket and pulled out the small gold pendant her grandmother had given her—a keepsake she never removed.
The gem scanned it instantly.
Value matched. Trade accepted.
You have acquired: Smoke Bomb – Tactical Grade. Deploy now?
Felicita had no idea what she was doing, but she said, "Yes!"
In an instant, a small device popped into her hand—a cylinder the size of a lipstick tube. She threw it at the ground.
BOOM!
Smoke exploded in all directions. The guards yelled, confused, and Felicita dashed into the trees.
Her heart thundered as she ran. Somewhere between the jungle leaves and the strange sky, she realized something terrifying and exhilarating:
She wasn't in her world anymore.
And the necklace… it wasn't just a portal.
It was a key to something much, much bigger.
---
End of Chapter 1