Alden sat on the floor of his room and had begun a special training regime. While his control over his soul sense was just above average, his quanum control was easily unmatched. While it was true his aura allowed him to make clones, his ability to use his aura to feel the world around him was severely limited in comparison. Through meditation, Alden had been practicing integrating with the quanum in the environment to make up for his current lack of precision with his soul sense.
“While everyone has quanum, in the 3rd World the quantity is significantly lower in comparison to the 4th World. Through your continued efforts at integration in this world, your connection to the 4th world will be far stronger,” Nero stated.
“If everyone has quanum, how can a world where the literal generators of that resource exist have less than the world created of it?” Alden questioned, maintaining his meditation.
“Humans have the ability to create and manipulate quanum. Once it has been created, however, it cannot be destroyed. That’s why it’s important we siphon it to the 4th World. The 4th World is able to manage its chaotic nature much more effectively,” Nero stated matter-of-factly.
As Alden delved deeper and deeper into himself, he slowly began to synchronize with the world around him. Following streams of quanum he could move his consciousness around short distances, but only for as long as he could concentrate—which only lasted a couple minutes at best. Alden pushed his consciousness beyond the walls of his house and out into the backyard. He was able to observe, feel, and hear as if he was physically there before snapping back into his body.
“Incredible…There are zero records of any guardians ever achieving such a feat. I recommend you take a break before continuing as it could have adverse effects on your mind,” Nero stated.
“I mean I can already somewhat do this using a clone, are you sure there are no records of anyone else?” Alden questioned.
“None that I can find. It's possible that it is part of a database that I do not have access to,” Nero clarified.
“I see…Well, I suppose it's time to go for a walk. We’ll give it another go afterwards,” Alden said, opening his door to see Nicole standing there awkwardly.
“Well…Hello there,” Alden said, wide eyed in surprise.
“Hey…Can we talk for a bit?” Nicole asked, a somber expression on her face.
“Sure, I was just going to go for a walk. Care to join me?” Alden offered.
Nicole nodded silently and followed Alden out of the house.
“So what’s up?” Alden asked as they made their way to the beach.
“I feel like we’re just going with the flow a bit too much. Something about all of this just feels… wrong…especially how quickly Kite accepted us,” Nicole said with a hint of doubt in her voice.
“I get where you’re coming from, and honestly I don’t disagree—but right now we don’t have much of a choice. You’re free to back out if you want, no one will judge you, but it’s natural to feel this way when you’re taking life changing steps,” Alden stated simply. “If you think about it, a year ago we were regular kids just trying to figure out where we wanted to go. Now we’re still just kids in a world full of magical nonsense that we had no idea about. I’m not sure we’ll ever get used to it.”
Alden paused, looking at Nicole’s strangled expression. “...but, I think we’re all on the same page. We’re clearly only being told what everyone thinks we should know and I’m not sure if it’s because we’re kids or if it's because they’re legitimately pulling a veil over our eyes. Only time will tell, but I think we should come up with a fallback measure,” he continued.
“What do you mean, a fall back measure?” Nicole asked.
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“If nothing else, we know we can trust each other. I would like to think Zypher is included in that, but he might not be. We should prepare for the eventuality that you, Cian and I will have to go on our own. With the teleporter finally active, we can develop a safe house that only the three of us know about,” Alden said, stopping to draw a diagram in the sand with his finger.
“We’re limited to this island and the 4th World. I guess we could have one on the island but wouldn’t the 4th World be better?” Nicole wondered aloud as she began doing some drawing of her own. “I guess having a safe house would make me feel better though. I think the best place to have it would be on the island where we’re at least familiar with the environment.”
After an hour more of drawing in the sand, Nicole and Alden decided it would be best to have their own individual safehouses known only to themselves, as well as one group safehouse. They weren’t thinking anything large, just big enough to eat, sleep, and bathe.
“I guess we should go discuss it with Cian. What has he been up to anyways? It’s been oddly quiet today…” Alden asked suspiciously.
“He said something about writing a journal?” Nicole responded, uncertain.
“A journal? Is he writing a diary?” Alden asked incredulously.
Nicole smiled and shrugged at his jest and continued her walk towards the house.
---
Everyone had decided to gather in my room while I was still in the middle of writing my journal. Nicole and Alden explained their plan to me but I thought it could use a few improvements.
“I’m not opposed to the idea. I think the individual safe houses make sense. I suppose we would need an indiscreet item to take us there. It would need to operate separately from our Dratmana. Just in case…” I offered.
“True, very true,” Alden agreed, rubbing his chin which was starting to fill out with hair.
“We’ll each come up with our own item for it—one that we can link to the incantation. We should keep the item a secret from each other, not that I don’t trust either of you but…there’s a lot we don’t understand,” Nicole said, making brief eye contact with me and my heart sank.
It’s not that I didn’t understand, especially with the danger I myself represent, but it still hurt to hear from the girl I loved.
“I guess, I can’t argue that logic,” I said, pushing the feelings to the back corner of my mind. “Also, where’s Zypher at anyways?”
“Oh, he’s been out on patrol. Apparently Commander Kite managed to send a team to help control the quanum manifestations. It seems the rate at which they have been occurring has started to stabilize, for now at least,” Alden said with some skepticism.
“I see. I guess all we can do now is wait and train,” I said while standing up to stretch. “I’ve been sitting at this desk for too long.”
I grinned at Alden while Nicole simply groaned and rolled her eyes.
“Fine…we can train,” Nicole said, sighing in defeat.
The next few weeks consisted of training, GDF indoctrination by Zypher, and rest. Alden’s father, Rian, had also returned from his trip to let us know that the school would reopen fully in a few days. The threats on the island had subsided for the time being, so we would be moving back to our own homes. We were sad of course, but none of us had expected this to be a permanent arrangement. Overall it was a great experience and even though I had enjoyed it, I was also really looking forward to being at home again in my own bed after a couple of months.
By the time we had finished moving back into our own homes, we also heard that our official academy training for the GDF was going to start soon.
“Well…It was fun while it lasted,” I said, leaning back in my chair in the classroom.
“I guess so,” Alden agreed.
“Why are you here again?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You really do not pay attention in school do you man. They merged our classes because a lot of the students left back to the mainland. Or at the very least, were forced back? I’m not sure which,” Alden lectured.
“Ahh yeah, right,” I said, only half listening. “It will be interesting to see what comes next though. Now that we’re finally starting the GDF training and all. Honestly, I’m kind of excited for it but also super anxious about getting closer to Xiphias.”
“We’ll need to make sure we focus on the internal structure of the GDF as an organization as we go through our training,” Alden stated.
“Alright class, it has been a long time since we’ve seen each other. There’s going to be quite a bit of review so let's get started,” The teacher said unenthusiastically as she entered the classroom.
“Here we go again…” I sighed.