At the steps of the light.

At the end of the path.

At the beginning of the garden.

We remember the great beauties of mortality.

Kimica Long - The First Seer.

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He didn’t know how long he stood there, leaning against the railing and looking down upon the waterfall.

He was thirsty as all hell, and quite frankly he’d knock someone’s head off just for a bottle of water, so the fact that he was just… standing there watching the waterfall was enough of an indicator of what this was.

Wonder.

He’d grown up in the city, and while there were plenty of videos of nature long past, such as waterfalls just like the one he was seeing now, to see one up close was something else entirely different, especially with how strong his senses were now.

He could make out the sound of individual waves crashing, smell the scent of the river, even see the individual rainbows and mirages that appeared due to the mist rising from where the water crashed below. He’d never seen anything so beautiful, save for Virasuta, except this was a thing of nature, and not a being meant to be perfect. Nature was rarely perfect in his experience, but this right here? Came pretty damn close.

“Hard to imagine a world where this was something you could see whenever you wanted… ”

And the water itself… It was so clean. He could practically see straight to the bottom of the river from where he was, and see practically everything in it.

Looking down at the water below he could make out groups of fish swimming below the surface. And while most of them were rather normal, at least he thought they were normal, he could also see a few larger creatures lurking beneath that resembled a giant snake, except far fatter and slimy looking. If he had to guess he’d say a mutated leach of some kind. Below the water the fish all danced around each other, only stopping to feed or attempt to go around one of the predators around them.

Even the hunting under the water looks beautiful from here… although that might just be because I am not the one being hunted.

He watched as one of the larger leeches launched forward and swallowed several fish whole, before it sank further into the water and found a place to rest while it digested its new meal.

It’s like an entirely new world down there.

He’d been so caught in his amazement that he’d barely been able to hear something that hadn’t fit, and when he had begun to realize it was there his hearing brought it to the forefront over all of the other sounds surrounding, including the waterfall.

“HELP!”

The sound of what felt and heard like a young woman screaming directly into his ear caused him to panic so badly that he tore the railing he’d been leaning on out of the ground, before he held it in front of him like a baseball bat.

“What the fuck?!”

He looked around him, seeing no movement or signs of life aside from the plants around him. He did his best to try and find where the sound came from, glancing back and forth as he went over the possibility he’d simply imagined it.

What the fuck was that?

While it was common knowledge that being isolated for extended periods of time could cause hallucinations, he knew that couldn’t be why he’d heard the scream. He’d only been out here for around two days, and even then he was unconscious for a good bit of it.

So where the hell had the yell come from? And why did it feel like it’d come from beside him?!

Tossing the railing to the side he walked back towards the city, looking at the surrounding roads and the top of the buildings for any signs of life.

It sounded so close, even cutting the sound of the water away, so why can’t I hear anything now?

He knew he could ‘focus’ his senses in certain ways, such as dimming his hearing as he got closer to the waterfall so that he didn’t immediately want to knock himself out from the sound alone, but was his hearing capable of just… filtering sounds like that? How was it able to single it out over the sound of the waves? How was it able to cut away the overwhelming sound of the waterfall and allow him to hear something else like that?

His thoughts were brought back to his highschool biology class, and the short class they’d had covering how the human ear worked. The small organs he’s long forgotten the names of picked up sound waves, and basically filtered them or whatever so that humans could hear. They were also how humans kept their balance, which was why when someone had damage to their ears or hearing they sometimes lost their balance, or if the ear was severely impacted from something they could lose it entirely, sometimes for good.

So if his ears were simply picking up sound waves from further away, did the larger ones not reflect them? If he were to say they weren’t, then was he simply hearing things like a normal person would? It sounded ridiculous to think that his body would simply change to be ‘all magical’ from the Ascension, and it made even more sense for the advancements to still be somewhat explainable by science… It would also explain why he was able to ‘turn down’ the sound of the waterfall as he got closer by concentrating, he was either subconsciously using magic to block out the sound, or his new ‘ear organs’ had some form of blocker that could block sound if it was too loud.

His hearing had improved, like a dogs, but it had also changed in other ways to accommodate magic and the like. If he knew what he was doing, or at the very least how his own body worked, he wouldn’t be lost like a child in a supermarket when situations beyond “walk there” or “punch this” came up.

Goddess I wish I paid more attention in biology, this would be so much easier to understand if I knew what the fuck I am trying to understand!

His little ‘hypothesis’ would even explain why he was suddenly able to hear the voice.

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He had focused on tuning out the sound of the waterfall, but he hadn’t been focused on the person's voice because he’d never expected it.

So the final question was, where did the scream come from?

He tried focusing on his surroundings, doing his best to silence the sound of the waterfall and water behind him as everything faded away to silence. It felt like tensing muscles he didn’t know he had, and it was nearly painful with how tense his neck and head felt.

Though the process proved worthwhile, because through the silence and the light winds he could hear muffled screaming, and the sound of something - or someone - grunting while fighting what he could only assume was whoever had screamed.

If this were the city I’d just ignore it… but I kinda don’t want to be stuck out here alone if I can help it…. Does that make me a bad person?

Running the way he came he leapt back over the toppled building before sprinting down the street, passing buildings and oddly painted ‘art’ as he went.

By the time he’d ran down three blocks he’d begun to near the sound of the fight, and whoever had screamed was no longer making any attempts at making noise, meaning they had either already died, or were simply incapable of screaming.

Hopefully they aren’t dead, it would really suck if the first person I met out here was some psycho murderer, or an already cooling corpse.

As he finally came to the street where the sound of fighting had come from he arrived just in time to spot the person who had screamed, just as they were beginning to be carried away by two other figures.

The ‘figures’ as he’d noted them as were entirely covered head to toe in cloth and animal skins. The only visible thing to even show that they were actually human and not some twisted aberration born of magic and mutation was the bags and weapons they carried, and the very human eyes and mouths that showed through their covered faces.

If they are out here with just rags, they are probably Altered, no baselines would survive long out here.

He couldn’t be certain for sure, but he thought they were men, older than he was for certain judging by their difficulty breathing and the wrinkles near their eyes. Even from half a block away he could watch slowly as they realized he was there, realized he was a person, and realized he was already approaching them fast enough to ram through solid concrete with ease.

They’d had just enough time to drop the poor woman and go for their weapons before he was on them.

They are reacting rather slowly for an Altered-

He slammed into the first man with his shoulder before he even had time to finish his thought, the audible sound of crushing bone and collapsing organs resonated in his ears as he stopped, sending the man's body flying a dozen meters away before colliding with a slagged car, he didn’t move an inch after landing.

He’d never move again.

He wasn't Altered? What the fuck… Why is a Baseline out here?

He was in shock, he hadn’t gone as hard as he could, hell he wasn’t even going half as fast as he was capable of. He never even thought about whether or not the man would be a baseline, nor what would happen if he hit him and he wasn’t capable of taking with minor injuries.

I just… I just wanted him to stop!

The man’s partner seemed just as shocked as he was, except he seemed far more used to situations like this, or was simply faster to react, because it took him less than two seconds to immediately draw a long makeshift blade and attempt to behead him with it.

If Mark wasn’t so distracted by the fact he’d just killed a man, he would have never even let it get close to him, let alone hit him, but as he was he was so lost in thought the only reason he noticed the second man was because his blade shattered against the back of his neck. The previous shock he had been feeling was replaced quickly by anger, then by apathy. He couldn’t blame the man for trying, he had just killed his friend, or brother, or father for all he knew.

But the men had attempted to assault a woman, and while he didn’t know if she was secretly some serial killer who had murdered an entire family or a bunch of babies, he had acted.

And now he had to deal with the consequences.

Turning around to face him he stood over the man as he stared down at the handle of the shattered blade, just as shocked as Mark had been when he had accidentally killed his friend, before he looked up to stare him in the eyes.

His eyes were a pale gray, and only a small bit younger than the man he’d just killed. He stood there for a moment, petrified as he held onto his broken weapon and stared Mark in the eyes. His shock was replaced by fear, as Mark’s had been by anger, easily recognizable by the shaking, short gasping breaths, the scent of urine that he could easily recognize from the many shitty bathrooms he’d been in over the years.

Leaning over the man he did his best to sound intimidating as he let out a low growling command.

“Drop it. Now.”

The man’s eyes widened even further, if somehow possible, before the weapon clattered onto the ground and the man stepped back a step, before falling on his ass.

The man began cowering beneath him, holding his hands in front of himself as he spoke “Aies pitié! Aies pitié!”

Ay pitey? What the fuck is he saying? ‘Have pity’? Is he even speaking english? I swear to fuck if these are some third generation tribals that haven’t seen civilization since the war I’m gonna lose my shit.

The fact he couldn’t understand the man didn’t bode well for either of them. He couldn’t interrogate the two of them to find out who was in the wrong, and he couldn’t understand any directions they gave, if they were willing to give them.

He’d just killed the older man, and he didn’t doubt the younger one wouldn’t hesitate to get revenge if given the chance, whether that was luring him into a den of beasts he thought was strong enough to kill him or simply misdirecting him.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see the girl they had been attempting to grab. She was breathing, but had apparently been knocked unconscious when they had dropped her. Unlike them she was mostly uncovered, save for wrappings that covered her chest and a pair of pants made of beast hides and lizard scales. He couldn’t recognize most of the furs on it, but he could recognize some of the colorful scales near the hip as part of a snake. The scales lined the sides of the hides, either as a method of holding the furs together, or as decoration.

She looks… clean. Unlike the man who is covered head to toe in rags and smells rancid, she looks like she just got done taking a bath, and smells like it too. Did she just get done bathing in the water, come out and get attacked? I guess if you’re going to ambush someone, doing it when they think they are safe is probably the best bet.

There was also the issue of her clothing. All three of them were wearing rather… ragged clothing, but her clothes seemed… special. The stitching on the furs were really well made, and the snake scales were extremely eye-catching.

Maybe it’s a fashion statement? She is a woman, even if she lives in some tribal village in the woods somewhere, women love their clothes.

Looking back towards the man he gave the rags he was wearing another once over, noticing how most of it was made out of old clothing that had been roughly patched together. Most of it had holes, and even the clothing that was in better shape still looked a decade or two older than he was.

I can’t take him with me, he’s too weak and slow. I would end up literally carrying him around just to get anywhere in any reasonable amount of time. I also don’t want to keep him prisoner since that’d mean I would have to sleep with one eye open every night on the off chance he makes a break for it…

Fuck it.

Raising his hand he pointed away from him and the girl.

“Go.”

Whether it was because he understood that one word, or the fact that he pointed, the man immediately scrambled to his feet and sprinted down the street in the direction he’d pointed. He didn’t know if the man would survive out here, but he’d already killed his friend and felt guilty enough about it, he wasn’t going to kill him as well. The feeling was made worse by the fact he didn’t really understand what was happening when he’d interrupted them either. They hadn’t attempted to strip her, or they just hadn’t gotten to it yet, so he didn’t know if this was an ‘assault’, or if this was too rival groups at war and he’d just stepped into the middle of it.

The only saving grace about the whole ordeal was that the men had been out here alone, meaning some way, somehow, they had managed to survive out here for quite a bit of time. He just hoped he hadn’t fucked it up for them… if they were innocent.

Just like an idiot, I saw a woman getting manhandled and I immediately saw a victim, for all I know she stole something of theirs and I killed an innocent man trying to get their shit back.

Whether or not she was innocent, whether or not they were tribal gang members, all that mattered was that he’d saved the woman, and killed his first human being.

A human being.

He felt a little sick from the thought, made even worse again by the sight of the older man's crumpled up body still in sight, but luckily he didn’t feel like he was on the verge of breaking down. He felt like he had a rock in his gut, but it wasn’t overwhelming or making him nauseous. He’d heard stories from other guys in the slums, gang members, or people at the pits about when they killed their first person. Many of them admitted to throwing up, some to crying - although that was only after getting them blackout drunk - and many others admitted to feeling guilty for varying amounts of time.

He just hoped that it didn’t stay long, he didn’t want to have to think about what he’d just done.

When the younger man had left his sight he finally turned back towards the woman. It had barely been more than a minute since she’d been knocked out, but he knew that head trauma that knocked someone out cold had the potential to severely damage their brain. And while he wasn’t a doctor, being dropped from around five feet onto the pavement and cracking your skull against it hard enough to knock you out probably constituted ‘head trauma’.

Just hope she doesn’t die from that, then I would have killed two people for no reason.

Kneeling down beside her he shook her shoulder a few times, and when that didn’t work he tried patting her on the cheek.

After the second pat her eyes shot open, and before he could ask how she was doing she punched him in the face.

Normally he’d be angry, but he was too irritated to actually care about the punch when all it achieved was him being slightly surprised and her cradling her sprained wrist to her chest while whimpering.

Why are you crying? You're the one who hit me!

Standing to his full height over her he let out a sigh of annoyance before speaking to her.

“Great, now that you’re awake and can tell me what the fuck is going on.”