Phoenix, Clawstruck, Maximus, and Codex, the four strongest heroes in the world, fought the beast that had risen from the ocean. It drifted through the air, moving slowly but inevitably, like the storm that had precluded its arrival. With its many spire-like limbs jutting from its back and bulky body, it looked more like a flying fortress than a living creature. Its body was a tightly tangled mass of soft glowing sinew and red-hot steel. Its flesh steamed as the deluge of rain boiled away on contact.

  Each attack the heroes threw at the creature could have leveled half a dozen blocks of the city. Phoenix threw solid beams of fire hotter than the sun, Clawstruck attacked with dozens of saw-like jets of water, Maximus kicked and punched, and Codex launched solid spears of hardlight. The assault did little more than slow the monster down.

  As the beast hovered over the sands of the beach, a powerful glow began to emanate from its underbelly. The sand churned and then was sucked upwards. From underneath the beast, a gash-like maw opened up and funneled in the sand. The dozen spires on its back began to smoke, and within moments they twisted towards the city with alarming speed. Their movements were jerky and sudden, as if the limbs were snapping their bones to move.

  A white energy burst from the spire-like extremities. The rays of light tore through buildings like a scalpel through flesh.

  Maximus conjured a force shield at the tip of one spire-limb. The energy attack began pooling inside the spire. The limb exploded with white light, and the world shook as the beast let out a howl that sounded like thunder.

  Katherine watched the fight unfold. She saw the hollow limb repair itself moments later and the ensuing struggle that lasted almost an hour. The deadly rain and crossfire of the battle tore the city apart before her.

  She didn’t have eyes to see or to cry, but she saw everything. Her school: gone. Her apartment: gone. The shelter where her mother was hiding. Gone.

  This was her home, the place she’d spent her whole life. Everyone she loved and cared about was here. Now there was nothing. In less than an hour, everything she knew was reduced to broken buildings and concrete sludge.

  She saw it all unfold as she floated high above the clouds, the vision of the disaster somehow piercing the dark veil as if to taunt her with its destruction.

  A message appeared in her vision. This wasn’t the normal grey color or the urgent red. Its color was a brilliant white. The words were as white as the textbox they appeared on, yet she could read them anyway.

  DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?

  She blinked with no eyes as she stared at the words.

  “What?”

  IT WILL GET WORSE

  Worse? How could it be worse?

  “Who are you?”

  YOU CAN STOP IT

  “Me? How can I stop something worse than this? How could anyone?”

  She looked down at the city. Ruins.

  CHOOSE

  “How?”

  REMAIN WITH HIM

  UNTIL THE END

  She woke up to a wooden roof above her head. She attempted to sit up but found the ground beneath her sway like a small boat in water. Was she in a hammock? She laid back down, too weak to sit up. Soreness ached across her entire body. She stared at the wooden ceiling.

  For a few wonderful moments, her mind flashed back to the summer camp she went to when she was in middle school. Her best friend at the time had gone with her and brought a hammock. They set it up in the log cabin, and each spent alternating nights sleeping in it.

  Katherine could remember staying up late in that hammock, covering herself with a blanket and using a dim flashlight to light up the pages of a book her cabin leader let her borrow. It was a horror novel about a woman and her younger sister who went home to find that everyone in their town had been brutally murdered. It was laughably inappropriate. Looking back, she had no clue why her cabin leader had let a twelve-year-old girl read a book like that, but she was glad they had. Katherine stayed up almost the whole night tearing through most of the book. It had scared the crap out of her, but somehow it was comforting and fitting on that quiet night in the cabin.

  That was the night she fell in love with the thrills of horror novels. It was a part of her that had never changed, even when so much else had. It had also been one of the last times in her memory she could recall feeling truly happy. Content. She hadn’t known that just a few weeks later, her whole world would come crashing down around her.

  Now it was happening again. Pointless loss that made something inside her tear itself apart, as if the pain it caused would bring her closer to death and so closer to the things that were gone. She’d thought many times before, during the worst nights, about following in her brother’s footsteps. She’d almost gone through with it twice. Each time, she remembered her mother’s cries. Her mother had tried to hide her pain from Katherine, but, ironically, it was her pain that had saved Katherine’s life. She couldn’t let her mother feel that loss again, not for her.

  But her mother was gone now. Katherine had seen the shelter crumble and fall. Her father was probably dead too. She had nothing. No friends, no family, no home.

  She hadn’t changed at all. Just like before, she took for granted the things she loved, and now they were gone. She hadn’t cherished them; she couldn’t find it in her to be happy and present when it mattered.

  She didn’t know when she started crying during the spiraling thoughts, but she knew when the first sob came. Once it did, she couldn’t hold the emotions back anymore. She curled up in a ball and wept. She tried to push it down, but it didn’t work this time. She might as well have tried to cauterize a severed limb with a warm sewing needle.

  Part of her was almost relieved. She’d always acted so damn miserable: cutting herself off from her old friends, always keeping quiet with her head down, and even starving herself. She wanted to be seen as broken, wanted her parents to give up on her and let her waste away. She hated being burdened by their hopes that she’d be okay. She hated that they hadn’t given up. Now she was free of that burden. She was free to become the miserable waste of space she always craved to be.

  Katherine screamed. She hated herself when she got like this. She used that anger to drown out the sadness and self-pity. It was easier to be angry. She could control angry.

  She forced the tension out of her body. The sobs still racked through her, but she let them. Fighting it only made the pain and frustration worse. Deep breaths. No thoughts. She dug her nails into her forearms. The pain gave her something to focus on: a drain for the feelings inside to siphon out of.

  It took time, but she finally reached it. Emptiness. It was still there, an old crutch she’d thought she’d gotten rid of. Now it welcomed her back like an old friend. There was nothing to feel. Nothing to worry about, and nothing to be angry at. None of it mattered. Here, in some ethereal part of herself, she wasn’t a person who lived, only an animal that survived. It wasn't what she wanted. She knew it wasn’t good. But it was better than drowning.

  She sat up again, gripping the sides of the hammock to steady it. The soreness was still there, but she recognized it wasn’t all physical. She’d felt it before: the soreness, the slight headache. That was her spirit, exhausted and strained. A sound between a groan and a whimper clawed itself from her throat.

  Her eyes took in her surroundings. It was dark, but a small bit of reddish-orange light filtered through some of the seams of wood, giving her just enough light to see by.

  The small room featured no windows, but there were a few pieces of threaded artwork on the wall. Less comforting were the strings of what looked like decorative bones that hung in the corner. The room only had one door, which had a few odd metallic contraptions hanging from it.

  There were two other hammocks in the room. A figure was asleep on one. She could only see his hair, as he was turned away from her, but she knew who it was.

  Justus sat in a full lotus position on the floor. She almost didn’t recognize him. He was wearing strange clothes that weren’t quite like any she’d seen before. The closest thing her mind could relate it to was like the clothes she’d seen in movies set in ancient Greece, though they weren't quite the same. He wore a thin dark gray robe, with a dark thin shawl draped over his shoulders down to his waist. The robes were flowing in some areas but clung against his body in others.

  He was looking at her, and she could read the expression he tried to keep off his face. Worry. She hated when people worried about her. She did appreciate his silence, though. He didn’t ask if she was okay or even bother with asking how she felt. He only met her eyes, nodded, and then shut his, resuming what looked like meditation.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  “Varkalus. My planet,” he said. He kept his eyes shut as he spoke. “Specifically, we’re in a small isolated village near the edge of a bayou in the Wetland Plateau.”

  His planet? He was saying they weren’t even on Earth anymore?

  “How? We… How long has it been?”

  There were a few heartbeats of silence. “About five or six hours since we arrived. I don’t know how long it’s been on your planet. I woke up in the swamp, and you two were with me.”

  “What do you mean you ‘woke up in the swamp’? How did you bring us here?”

  “I didn’t,” he answered.

  “What did?”

  “I don’t know. Probably the same thing that sent me to your planet in the first place.”

  “Which is?”

  His face twitched, but he kept his eyes shut. “I told you, I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know how you traveled to another world?”

  “No,” he said with a sigh, “and neither do you. It sucks, doesn’t it?”

  Katherine swung her feet off the hammock. She realized she was wearing robes similar to the ones he was wearing. She recalled her first meeting with Justus. He’d been naked. He said he woke up next to them. Had he dressed her? She was aware that the thought should have made her embarrassed or at least indignant. She didn’t care. It was better than him dragging her through a swamp naked, she figured.

  “It’s gone. The city. My home,” she said, staring at the carpeted floor.

  “Most likely,” Justus said, as if he were commenting on the weather.

  “It is… What was that thing?”

  “An apocalypse beast. They’re the strongest monsters that can manifest, or at least the strongest mortals can fight against. We’re lucky to be alive. If we weren’t sent here, we'd likely be dead.”

  “Oh," Katherine said.

  “You should get some rest. The village is hosting a feast during the wake-hours for us, but starting tomorrow you and Simon are going to start training.”

  “Train for what?”

  “For leaving this swamp. This world is dangerous for the unranked. It’s dangerous even for Opals and Jades to travel alone, but we don’t have much choice.”

  “You’re going to train us to use Spirit Arts? Why?”

  “Because I’d rather not travel with two useless deadweights. I'm going back to Talon, and I assume you two will want to come along. I wouldn't mind that so long as you can actually hold your own.”

  “So I’m going to learn magic?”

  Justus opened his eyes, staring at her. “If you call it that again, no. It isn’t magic.”

  “Right, sorry… So can I rank up now?”

  There was a long pause. “It won't be pleasant. Ideally you want to do it when your spirit is full and not strained. Ranking up can be exhausting. Most people rest and meditate for a day at least before advancing, but it's not strictly necessary." Justus scratched his chin. "It's probably for the best you rank up now. It will give you more time to train.”

  Justus reached up. The air shimmered before him, and he reached out and grabbed something from nowhere. It was like one of those magic tricks where the magician pulled a coin from thin air. It wasn't a coin he conjured, though; it was a small light blue stone that glinted with all sorts of colors, like it had been coated with rainbow glitter.

  Katherine stepped off the hammock and walked over. She took the stone.

  “Is this…”

  “An Opal guidestone. A gift from the village chief here. You’ve already connected to mine, so do the same on this one.”

  “Alright,” Katherine said.

  She sat down and focused on the stone. She kept focusing, fixating on its sheen. She focused some more, feeling its weight in her hand. Just as she was about to ask what she was doing wrong, she felt it. A faint hum.

  She latched onto the feeling, zeroing in on it. The hum grew into a buzz that resonated inside her spirit. Now that she knew what to look for, she could recognize the source of the odd feeling. She chased it; she resonated with it.

  Then the stone pulsed with light.

  System Online

  Admin Status: Unkeyed

  Admin Settings: Undefined

  Access Granted

  New User Detected

  Spirit Identity Added

  Spirit Status: Unranked

  Calibration Recommended

  Begin calibration?

  Y / N

  “I have to calibrate again? And why is the font like that?”

  “You can change the font in the settings. That's the default. And yeah, you have to calibrate each stone when you use it for the first time. Or you can link it to a party system that has a stone you've already done the calibration process with. I could do that, since you've calibrated with my stone, but we'd need a link device and power. Even if this village has a link device, which I doubt, I don’t really feel like getting out one of my generators.”

  “You have a generator?” she asked, unable to curb her curiosity.

  “I have two. One’s a crank, the other takes gas.”

  “Oh,” she said. For some reason, she figured this world wouldn't have technology like that. She supposed it made sense, though. Justus told her the magic here worked only if you knew the physics behind what you were doing. That's what the guidestones were for. If you needed to know physics to study magic more effectively, it was only natural that at least some people in society would be passionate about learning science.

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  “What other kinds of technology do you have?” she asked.

  Justus shrugged. “Lights, air conditioning, electricity, ray displays—pretty simple stuff compared to what I saw on your world. Some people have motor vehicles, but most kingdoms don’t have the infrastructure to make those useful. Electricity is still fairly new to most of the kingdoms. Bandwi was the one to pioneer it, and they’re isolationists. About twenty years ago there was a big information leak, and a lot of their inventions and research spread."

  "What about the guidestones? They seem pretty… advanced."

  Justus shook his head. "No one knows. The guidestones have always been here. Most people think they're a gift from the Diamond Monarchs."

  "Diamond Monarchs?"

  "The gods. There are five. Each Monarch rules over one of the kingdoms, and the Diamond Empress oversees the Serrated Empire. Some people believe the Monarchs gave man guidestones so that we can become closer to their divinity. I don't buy into it, but it's not an uncommon belief."

  "Diamond… So they're Spirit Artists?"

  "Yes and no. They use Spirit Arts, but they're more powerful than any mortal can become. Mortals can only reach the peak of Ruby rank. It's possible to ascend to Diamond, but… it has consequences."

  "Like what?"

  “Madness. Every Spirit Artist who ascended to Diamond went insane shortly after. No one knows why. Some think they become possessed by their spirits; others believe they glimpse knowledge only meant for the gods. Whatever the reason, the only ones who can use that kind of power are the Diamond Monarchs. They've been here for as long as written history, longer even. But none of that is important at the moment. Get through your calibration.”

  Katherine mentally accepted the notification. After the scan, the same message popped up as before, telling her about her physical and mental abnormalities.

  “These physical issues—will I be able to get more information about them once I rank up?”

  “You won’t have to. One of the benefits of ranking up is that it corrects many imperfections in your body. At least harmful ones. Stuff like diseases, poor eyesight, and mutations will be cured.

  “It can’t fix everything, though. You won't be regrowing limbs or anything, and some viruses have evolved to override a spirit’s protections. Most aren’t deadly, and the ones that are can be dealt with as long as you’re not stuck in the middle of nowhere. Which we are, by the way.”

  “Thanks for telling me that,” she muttered. Except for that troubling bit about the spirit viruses, it was great news. Although some of it confused her.

  “The stone says I’m malnourished. So is this going to… make me bigger or something?”

  “No. It will affect your metabolism and refine the way you process food and nutrients. It isn't anything incredibly altering. Mostly small tweaks to your genetic code and physiology. Think of an Opal advancement as making you as genetically pure as possible.”

  “Ah. Sounds a little… eugenicsy, but alright. What about mental issues? The stone mentioned those. Will it change my brain chemistry?” She asked, feeling nervous at the idea.

  Katherine wasn’t sure she wanted the stone to do something like that, even if it did help. Would she still be her if the stone altered her mind? She tried to picture herself as normal; she imagined being able to smile or be happy without the constant anxiety and undercurrent of negativity that hung in the back of her mind like dark clouds. She couldn’t.

  “It won’t change your brain. It can, but you have to give it permission. It’s part of the Monarch Treaties. I wouldn’t recommend doing that, though. It can be tempting, but self-growth is a big part of advancement. If you artificially band-aid your mental wounds, it will be much, much harder to advance.

  “The system can only temporarily balance your mind's chemistry. If you ever get disconnected, those changes will come undone, and you’ll go through something a lot like severe drug withdrawal. That’s why the system doesn’t make mental changes automatically: they can be dangerous and addictive. You don’t want to go down that road, no matter how tempting it might seem. I’ve seen people destroy their lives getting hooked on mental stims. We call them stoners in Solidusk. They seem functional on the surface, but the moment they get disconnected, they’re like zombies.

  “If you do decide to use it for mental effects, it should only be to suppress debilitating pain. Anything more than that is a slippery slope that’s very, very steep. Seriously, don’t do it.”

  Justus seemed pretty set on the topic, and Katherine didn’t see much appeal in using the guidestone like some magic drug.

  “Is there any other advice before I rank up?” she asked.

  “Just one. Lay down. An unranked advancement is the most drastic. The others will tweak your physicality, but the first makes the most changes. It goes smoother if you’re lying down and relaxed.”

  Katherine nodded. She lowered herself onto her back and took a deep breath.

  “So I just do it?”

  “Yeah, you just do it.”

  “Should I use the bathroom first or something?”

  “Do you need to?”

  “A bit.”

  Justus sighed. “Fine, then go.”

  Katherine sat up. “Where’s the nearest bathroom?”

  Justus sat up from his lotus position. He walked over to the corner of the room. There was a small panel on the floor she didn’t notice until he pulled on a corded latch. It flipped open, revealing a hole. Katherine walked over and looked down. Under the hole was wet marshy ground fifteen feet down. It definitely smelled like a bayou, not that she had ever been to one, but it did smell like how she imagined. Earthy and pungent, like algae-infested stillwater.

  “Is there an actual bathroom?” she asked.

  “You’re in a swamp. So no. It’s either this or you can piss yourself.”

  Katherine pursed her lips. “Fine, but go stand in the other corner. And don’t look.”

  Justus rolled his eyes but started moving. “You realize I’ve already seen both of you naked? You showed up that way, the same way I did in your world. Who do you think put your clothes on?”

  “I did put it together, actually. I was politely ignoring that fact given the circumstances. I’m starting to think I was right about you being a pervert after all.”

  “Oh sorry, did you want me to drag you through the swamp naked or leave you behind? Let me know for next time. Or maybe you could try a thank you instead?”

  “Shut up and face the corner,” she snapped.

  He rolled his eyes, but did as she asked. His words bothered her. She’d been so caught up in all that had happened since meeting him that she never considered how Justus might be feeling. How did she look to him? A girl that took the only thing he had when he was vulnerable and who had forced him into danger. He might be cold and distant, but he could have left the moment he got his guidestone back. Most people probably would have in his position. He really didn’t owe her anything.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Justus didn’t respond, but she hadn’t expected him to. Katherine started to hike her robe up. That was when she noticed what she wasn’t wearing.

  “Where's my underwear!” she asked, distressed.

  Justus turned back to look at her, the annoyance clear on his face. She quickly pushed her robe back down. “Sorry, did you want me to put any on you? You were just complaining about—”

  “I said don’t look!” She threw the only thing she had in her hand at him: the opal stone. It flew towards him and smacked him on the forehead.

  “Hey!” Justus turned back to the wall, rubbing his head. “Don’t throw your guidestone, dumbass!”

  The indignity and anger in her was swept away by a sudden sense of panic.

  “Did I break it?” she asked. That’d be fitting for her: getting angry and breaking the only good thing she had left.

  “What? No, the things are practically indestructible,” he said, bending down to pick up the stone. He had to search the floor blindly for a moment as he reached behind him without looking away from the corner. His fingers found the stone, and then he held it up towards her direction, shaking it for emphasis. “You shouldn’t throw this because you might lose it.”

  “Just shut up,” she grumbled.

  He did, so she continued. Once she was finished, she instinctually reached for something she realized she didn’t have. Toilet paper. Was that even a thing in this world?

  “Do you have any—” she started to ask. She was cut off as Justus reached to the side. The air shimmered, and he brought out a roll and tossed it behind him. It landed next to her. So toilet paper was a thing in this world.

  Had he been waiting for her to ask that? Why hadn’t he given it to her before? She couldn’t decide if he was messing with her. Intentional or not, he definitely made it difficult to like him. It was frustrating.

  "Thanks," she grumbled.

  Once she finished, and Justus was back in his lotus pose against the back wall, she lay down on the ground and interacted with the opal guidestone. She focused on her desire to advance, and a new square popped up.

  Advancement Request Accepted

  Notice: Due to mental status, a Spirit Artist of Jade rank or higher must authorize your advancement.

  Right. She needed Justus to authorize—

  The screen blinked.

  Authorization Accepted by User [Justus Fahren]

  Advancement Ready

  She looked up. Justus met her eyes and shrugged.

  “I already connected to both of your guidestones, in case you needed help with anything.”

  Katherine shoved aside her annoyance. She shut her eyes and focused on her spirit. The ethereal part of herself was weary and frail. As she focused on the feeling, she realized that her body was constantly using the spirit. She could sense its energy flowing through her body in small streams like veins of blood carrying oxygen.

  Like forcing her muscles to relax, she widened those channels and let more Spirit flow through her body. She could feel it coursing under her skin, through her muscle, bone, and even her organs. She felt it moving through her mind. She widened those mental channels and the connection sparked to life.

  It was as if a thin curtain lifted, and suddenly she could see what she was doing in higher detail. She could sense her Spirit more vividly than ever. It was completely alien, but she felt an impression of its form. It was a giant churning ball of water. The surface cracked and broke apart like glass on occasion before melting back into waves. The shape of the ocean was constantly shifting and changing. Sometimes it was beautiful and flowing; other times it felt dangerous and sharp.

  As she studied the thing, she noticed there were things like eyes in the water. Not actual eyes, but parts where the waters swirled and formed spirals reminiscent of eyes. Each one was skmehow focused on her. Somewhere deep in its depths she could sense a flickering light. The light was far deeper than should have been possible, but she could feel it: a fire, burning like a drowned sun.

  Wings unfolded from the depths. Dozens, then hundreds. They kept unfolding, sometimes folding back into themselves or other wings, creating complex patterns that felt like a language she couldn’t hope to understand. The wings were like those of an insect; only the intricate highway of veins seemed to be formed from metallic bones. A thin film of inky blackness connected the veins, shimmering with prismatic light similar to a pool of oil on asphalt.

  The being reached out to her with its wings.

  She felt no fear as it wrapped her in dozens of its wings. It was her, a part of her more real than the flesh and blood it was tethered to. She felt a connection to it, as if it were a long-lost relative she hadn’t seen in years. It was concerning how creepy it looked and felt, though. Was that a reflection of her or the nature of Spirits in general?

  The feeling of her bones cracking brought her back to reality. Something inside her body was shifting. There was a tingling sensation across her whole body, and it was most powerful in her lungs, gut, and hips. Her spine popped as she felt it shifting.

  She felt pain, but a euphoric feeling in her body drowned it out completely.

  The sensation lasted for a few minutes. Then, like the tides of a sleepy ocean, the Spirit withdrew back to wherever it came from. The pain and pressure of the Spirit faded, leaving only the euphoric bliss. She could tell she was exhausted, but it was the good kind of exhaustion you get after a long jog or workout.

  She opened her eyes to find four new screens in front of her.

  Advancement Complete

  Current Rank: [Opal]

  Rank Progression: Low

  Next [Rank Milestone]: Peak

  Spirit Threshold Achieved

  New Affinity Manifested: [Null]

  New Affinity Manifested: [Eruption]

  New [Null] Skill: [Deflection]

  [Deflection]: Use your spirit to absorb and temporarily store kinetic energy, then release it in a powerful strike.

  Cooldown Skill

  Cooldown: 60 seconds

  New [Eruption] Skill: [Pyromancy]

  [Pyromancy]: Conjure a fireball in a small area.

  Energy Skill

  Current Energy: 80/80

  She sat up, groaning a bit as she felt the stiffness in her body. Despite the fatigue, she felt incredible. Tiny aches and pains that she had taken for granted as part of life were gone. It felt like her body had been taken apart, scrubbed down and restored, then put back together better than ever.

  She tried to remember what she had sensed from her spirit, but the feeling wouldn’t come as it did before. All she could recall were images: snapshots from a low-quality camera that didn’t do the reality justice. The only thing she remembered clearly was a bright flame drowned in darkness.

  She lifted a hand in front of her face, flexing the fingers. They responded so quickly it was almost eerie, like they were moving before she even thought about it. Though the change was small, the difference it made was as clear as night and day.

  “How are you doing that?” Justus asked.

  She looked up to find him staring at her, his expression flat and unreadable.

  “Do what? My hands?”

  “I mean your Spirit control. You connected to my stone, recovered faster than your friend here despite your channels having been strained recently, sensed a low sapphire beast while unranked, and now with a barely recovered Spirit you figured out, on your own, how to advance.”

  “I just… do it. I don’t know.”

  Justus didn’t seem happy with the answer, but he dropped the topic. She felt ashamed for some reason. Was there something wrong with her? She didn’t like the way he looked at her so intensely. It was like she was a puzzle he was trying to understand how to crack.

  “Regardless, you’re Opal now. I assume you unlocked two affinities and skills?”

  Katherine nodded. “Null and Eruption. Is that good?”

  There was a brief moment of surprise in Justus’s expression, but he hid it quickly.

  “Don’t know. I haven’t heard of Null before, so it’s probably pretty rare. Eruption isn’t common, but it’s not particularly uncommon either. It’s a powerful offensive affinity that usually focuses on wide area attacks.”

  “Is there any system for that? Like their rarity or something?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know it. You have to buy that info at a guild hall. All I know is that rarity doesn’t mean better. Movement, my specialty, is pretty common, but it's also incredibly useful and sought after. Same thing with Restoration and Fortification. Common, but really useful. But it's the skills that matter more at this point. What skills did you get?”

  “Um… something about absorbing kinetic energy and making fire.”

  “Don’t know the first, but the second sounds like Pyromancy. That’s a really good one. It’s not very versatile in early ranks, but if you train with it properly, it has some really useful evolutions.”

  “Evolutions?”

  “Your skills can evolve. Again, it doesn’t really matter at this point. What I will say is that you should use every skill you have every single day. Use it until it’s as natural as moving your arms. Think of the skills like muscles. If you don’t exercise them, they’ll atrophy.”

  “What about—”

  A groan from behind cut her off. Katherine looked back to see Simon pull himself to a sitting position on his hammock.

  “Ugh… Hey pretty girl, were you waiting for me?”

  Katherine flushed, then noticed the small dog that jumped up from between Simon’s legs. She hadn’t noticed it before. He was talking to his dog, of course. It yipped and spun in circles on his lap before licking at his face. It whined with excitement as it pressed up against his chest.

  Simon scratched the dog, then looked over to Katherine and Justus. He picked up the dog, then swung his legs over the side of the hammock. It was strange to see him wearing the odd robes. Unlike Justus’s plain dark robes and her light gray and blue ones, his were dark gray and pale red. He looked down at the robes, confused. Then he looked around the room before finally turning his attention back to her and Justus.

  He looked so out of place in this bizarre fever dream of a reality she’d found herself in. He was too normal—too familiar. He didn’t belong here. She didn’t belong here. They belonged back home.

  “Damn it. Did I miss a bunch of important stuff again?” he asked.

  Katherine got up and rushed over to him. Before she could think better of it, she threw her arms around him in a tight hug. Her arms were shaking as emotions started to well up inside her again. He stiffened but patted her on the back.

  “Did you see it too?” she whispered.

  His arm settled on her back as he returned the hug.

  “Yeah… I saw it.”

  Katherine blinked back tears. She could have convinced herself that it had been a dream. That what she’d seen was only a nightmare of her worst fears. Now there was no denying it. Her home really was gone. She was alone, and the only person she had left from her life was him.

  “Sorry,” she said, letting him go.

  “It’s fine.”

  He coughed, then looked over to Justus, who was still sitting on the floor. He’d gone back to meditating with his eyes shut. Katherine wasn’t sure if he was politely ignoring the two or if he didn’t care.

  “Where are we? Is this some sort of secret cabin headquarters of yours?” Simon asked.

  “I’m going to go back to sleep,” Katherine said. “I’m really tired, and I’ve already had more than enough answers for now.”

  Simon’s waking had caused her mental walls to falter, and her emotions were rising back up. She needed to get them back under control, or else she feared she’d break down again. Why did Simon, who she liked, make her begin spiraling, while Justus, who aggravated her, made it easy to ignore her pain?

  “How long have you been awake?” He looked down and picked at his robes. “Also, who put clothes on me?”

  Katherine made her way to her hammock. It was low enough to the ground that she was able to fall into it.

  “Ask the mage,” she told him.

  “I’m not a mage,” Justus said.

  Katherine didn’t smile, but she did feel a slight amusement at his annoyance. She curled up in her hammock and ignored the two as Justus caught Simon up on all that had happened. She didn’t mind their whispered voices. It was a nice reminder that she wasn’t completely alone.