"It's pouring... Can't you turn it down or something?" Claude whined as they continued jogging from the scene, having made some distance from the site of the battle, with the screeches of the centurion's pet wyvern fading beneath the sound of the rain. Kael kept them - and the path immediately ahead of them - clear of rain, though they were all fairly damp by this point, regardless.

Kael replied, "No, it's our main source of warning, so we don't get ambushed while we're injured. Again."

Claude sounded slightly out of breath as he kept up, continuing to hold Gus' arm over his shoulders. "Not such a great warning if you couldn't spot us, or the centurion coming in, could you?"

Kael's brows lowered, shifting Shaela on his back as he jogged. "No... that was an unfortunate weakness to have discovered today. Even birds don't usually fly that high."

"Well let's slow down a bit. We're probably not gonna get caught up in their battle from here, and the centurion didn't seem as interested in fighting any of us..." Claude somehow sounded a bit down about not being seen as a worthy battle in the centurion's eyes.

Gus gave him a look for his tone, but obediently slowed down, content to walk with his limp rather than press onward at the pace they had been going. Kael matched them, agreeing they were not in as much of a rush to make distance at this point.

Gus continued, "Personally, I'm fine with avoiding a third fight in a row. Dealing with that Alex guy was exhausting."

Claude rebutted, "Pfft. 'Dealing with.' Right. You probably couldn't even touch him."

Gus deadpanned. "I meant being in his presence spiritually drained me."

"You're just dumb. He's great. And a great teacher. And at least his biggest achievement isn't turning into wood and running in circles."

Gus' eyes rolled to the back of his head, but he gave a brief smile at the banter despite himself. "Yeah? What's your facet, then?"

Claude's chest puffed out. "Hah! I'm the Aspect of Thunder." He waited for the surprised gasps and applause.

Kael's eyebrows did raise in surprise, while Gus' lowered in thought. Claude was disappointed by their mild reactions, but pressed on.

"What, you thought you were the only Aspect around?" Looking at Kael, Claude sounded almost gleeful as he continued. "You're not special. Maybe you only ever had the other idiots in whatever backwater you came from to compare yourself to, but in the real world, anyone could be a threat. Forget Aspects, everyone's got a facet, and while most of 'em are stupid," he side-eyed Gus before continuing, "the biggest issue is a lot of them are unpredictable. You don't know when you'll run into someone with some ability that happens to perfectly counter yours, or that can take you out like that." He snapped, the sound echoing sharply, causing Kael and Gus to flinch. Shaela stirred on Kael's back. Claude smirked at their responses, before he wiped the expression from his face.

"You could be walking along, minding your own business, but when you go to take your next step, it somehow misses the ground. You look down, and you realize you're higher than you should be. Without noticing anything, you started floating, and you're drifting up with no control, practically helpless. You swing your arms around to try to get a grip," he swiped his free arm through the air in demonstration, "but there's nothing close enough to touch. You kick your legs, desperate for something to stand on. You happen to tap the ground with your toe and now you're spinning, getting ready to throw up, when you see a dozen assholes come into view, all of 'em brandishing their own weapons and abilities, on top of whoever decided you'd look better tumbling in the air." He spat toward the end, clearly harboring resentment for the - probably not hypothetical - scenario.

Kael couldn't help but compare Claude's recounting to what they had just gone through, thankful that their group wasn't so heavily outnumbered, and had gotten out of it mostly intact. He wondered what would've happened if the bandits' facets had been deadlier, more comparable to the level of their leader. Very aware of the still-recovering Shaela on his back, and the limping Gus to his side, Kael grimaced, not liking the picture being painted.

"That happen to you then?" Gus spoke up, phrasing it as more of a statement than a question, and disrupting Kael's thoughts.

Claude's brows scrunched. "What about it?"

"Seems kind of shitty, is all. If that's how you ended up with Alex-"

"It is how I met Alex." Claude spoke forcefully. "He got me out of there. Said I had potential... And they didn't stand a chance against him." As angry as he began the tirade, he sounded proud when talking about his mentor figure, puffing up his chest again toward the end. Claude then turned his head toward Kael. "Dunno what he sees in you, though. I had you dead to rights until the stupid centurion butted in."

Kael blinked, then lightly smiled, recognizing the childish jealousy for what it was, and appreciating that Claude continued supporting Gus on their walk, even after his poorly-thought comments. "I'm not sure that's how it happened. It seemed a bit closer than that to me."

"Maybe if you're an idiot." Claude rolled his eyes.

The conversation continued with more levity as they walked, until they came upon a crossroads, where the road forked off in three directions. Not wanting to discuss their next steps until Shaela awoke, and needing to take a rest while they waited anyway, they collectively decided to stop here for the moment.

Kael parted the rain in a small clearing to the side of the road, where some fallen logs surrounded remnants of a fire pit. It was likely a common rest stop for travelers, though not a long term one. Camping in plain view of the road in Battle's domain was never a good idea.

Gus decided to gather some firewood, knowing how to find some despite the damp, and confident that Kael would be able to dissipate any smoke before it rose too far above the trees. In the meantime, they thankfully didn't have to wait long for Shaela to fully stir.

Shaela groaned awake. "Aspects above... I'd rather spend a day at Aether's mercy than go through that again."

"Are you sure, Shae? You're on the mend after our centurion friend gave you a fancy potion."

Her eyes shot wide open as she sat up. "Centurion? You mean- I mean, what?" She looked back and forth between Claude and Kael. "And where's Gus?"

Claude looked to Kael, content to sit back and let him explain the situation. Kael began, "He's getting firewood, don't worry. He's mostly fine; a little banged up, but we won." Kael waved his hand toward Claude before continuing, "And this is Claude. He and his... mentor, ambushed us shortly after we defeated the last of the bandits, but we're all jolly good friends now, aren't we Claude?"

Claude looked fairly tired of hearing the explanation already, half-heartedly pumping his fist in the air. "Yaaay."

Kael continued, "But then a centurion came in, riding on a wyvern of all things, gave us a potion for you, and let us go. Alex sent Claude with us while he, erm, engaged the centurion."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"It does?" Kael and Claude gave her a curious look at that.

"When you said friendly centurion, I- well, it doesn't matter."

Kael nodded, "Yeah, turns out they're real, huh? Didn't think we'd ever see one before we got out."

"Out?" Claude interjected, distracted from Shaela's odd statements.

"Yeah, we're heading for Wealth's domain. We wanted to explore, and eventually Aether said we were good enough to make the journey. Pushed us to get out of Battle's realm though. Said it's best we left soon anyway."

Claude was dismissive of the idea. "Pff, good luck with that. Practically nobody leaves the Dome. Alexander and I are headed for the nearest citadel."

Shaela turned to him. "Citadel? Is that a good idea?"

"If you're strong enough to not get taken advantage of, yeah. So probably not for you guys."

Kael jumped back into the conversation, "Wait, you're saying a citadel is nearby? And an actual town then?"

"If 50 miles is 'nearby,' then yeah. Probably down that way." Claude waved toward the southern fork of the road.

While they contemplated that, Gus re-emerged from the woods, carrying a set of relatively dry driftwood. He lit up seeing Shae conscious. "Shae, you're awake! I'm glad! You feeling okay?"

She smiled back at him and reassured him she was feeling better, to which Kael raised an eyebrow, while Gus reached the center of the clearing and began assembling the wood into a proper campfire. "Good, good. Things were looking pretty rough for a while there, and I was worried. Glad that potion worked so well. Since you're up, could you pull out our packs? Should have a firestarter in there somewhere."

Around Shae appeared three knapsacks, two of which she tossed to Gus and Kael, respectively.

"So that's why you guys had so little on you. She carries all your stuff." Claude looked to Shaela. "That's your facet then? 'Packmule?'"

She looked back at him, somewhat cross. "'Pockets,' actually. And I'd watch your tone if you want to get any of our food, kid."

Outraged at the insinuation, Claude shot back, "'M not a kid! I'm probably the strongest one here! You guys got practically taken out by fodder!" He crossed his arms and half-turned away.

"No thanks to you, from what I hear." Shae replied.

Kael again jumped in before the argument could get anymore out of hand, raising his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Look, lets just finish cooking, and eat." Claude's stomach growled from his position on the other end of the clearing. "And you'll get some as well, Claude. Once we're done, we can figure out what we're all doing."

Gus finished getting the flame going, and pulled his utensils from his pack, holding a pan out to Shaela, who then deposited a flank of raw meat from her pocketspace on its center.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

He placed it over the flame, then moved to sit with Shaela while everyone waited in peace for it to cook, with Gus occasionally getting up to turn it over and apply various herbs and spices.

Between adjustments to the pan, Gus helped Shaela cut her hair short, parts of it having been damaged in the explosion. She'd decided to switch to a pixie cut for her dark brown hair. Seeing that, Kael contemplated cutting his own black curls short, but decided the volume looked good framing his blue eyes, the rare times it wasn't compressed by the rain. Gus retained his own crew cut, never having felt the need to grow it out.

Once the meal was finished cooking, they ate in relative silence, backed by the sound of the rain around them, each of them finding comfort in it for their own reasons.

After they had finished eating, they worked together to clean up evidence of the recent fire, and prepared to move on. After standing up, Gus addressed the elephant in the room. "So Claude, what do you want to do now?"

While Claude blinked, Kael jumped in. "You could come with us, if you'd like. I think you'd be a valuable member of our team." Gus barely reacted, not seeming to have any issues one way or the other, and though Shaela pursed her lips, she also didn't speak out against the idea, understanding where Gus and Kael were coming from, even if she hadn't seen most of the fight herself.

Claude looked at them like they were morons. "Alex isn't going to lose. I'll wait here."

Kael, Gus, and Shaela traded looks. Gus looked contemplative, having the most experience with Alex, while Shaela shrugged, the least aware amongst them of how Alex and the centurion compared. Kael, meanwhile, seemed unsure how to break the news to Claude. In his mind centurions were near-invincible; no matter how unnaturally skilled Alex seemed to be, Kael couldn't imagine the centurion losing.

Kael began, "That's..."

"If you're sure." Gus ignored Kael's faulty start, holding confidence in Claude and Alex.

Kael looked to Gus, pleadingly, but Gus shook his head in denial.

Kael gave a long sigh, trusting Gus' judgement of the situation, and recognizing that Claude would be stubborn about this. "Alright, I'll leave the rain out of the clearing for now, then. Hopefully we'll see you again sometime, yeah?" Gus and Shaela had already started moving in the meantime.

Claude rolled his eyes as they began walking away. "Whatever. Aspects attract Aspects, according to Alex, so we'll definitely see each other again. Just try not to die too quickly. I'll trounce you even harder next time."

Kael gave one final wave, hopeful that they'd see the boy again.

----------------------------------------

The trio continued west, having filled Shaela in on what she missed in the meantime. Though with only a couple hours of daylight remaining, they'd need to find someplace to set camp soon.

"You know, Kael, much as I hate to admit it, that Alex guy did make some good points." Gus decided to open up their usual post-fight retrospective. He'd often lead the discussions after Aether's wargames and their training sessions, going over what went wrong, and what went right.

Shaela often knew what she could have done better, or differently, almost immediately after the fact, but almost never had comments for others. Kael gave things plenty of thought, but rarely vocalized his thoughts, and fell too deeply into introspection at times. Thus it fell to Gus to lead these kinds of talks.

Kael sighed and stretched, nodding along. "Yeah..."

Gus continued, "You could've opened the fight against Alex and Claude with some of those needles while you were talking to them. I had assumed that's what you were doing, especially after he outright said you should."

"I know, I know. I don't think it'd have made a difference in that fight though, considering Alex literally tossed knives through the rain to deflect multiple needle drops throughout the fight. Somehow he knew they were there and could time the throws well enough to hit them every time."

Gus grimaced. "Okay. Didn't realize he was that good. Either way, you really need to work on speeding up that technique, and ideally be ready with it before fights happen. The more enemies we can take out before there's even a fight, the better."

Kael gave a final nod. "Will do."

Gus rubbed his chin. "Shaela..."

She began, "I could've kept my distance more, stayed further back with Kael instead of opening myself up to the explosive guy's projectiles. Probably thrown up some shields just before the explosion as well. I was too focused on removing the rocks from play."

"You still have them, right? Don't pull any out." He spoke the latter sentence very quickly.

Shaela rolled her eyes. "Yeah I've got some, why, you think they're still primed, even with the guy dead?"

"Almost certainly. And with the stasis they'll have enough of a fuse left to work as short range projectiles, though we'll have to be careful how we use them... For now the best form of practice for you is still gonna be absorbing raindrops without getting wet. It was a bit of an unfortunate match-up with their detonating their attacks before they reached you most of the time, but even when they don't, I want to make sure you're 100% safe from any attacks like that."

"Yeah yeah."

"And, of course, keep working on bringing things out of your pocketspace with the same speed they went in with. Aether said it should be possible; just have to get the right mentality to make it happen."

Shaela nodded, holding out her hand, palm up, and letting the rain hit it. Any time the water built up, she'd pocket it as well, dumping it just under her hand, along with any droplets she had managed to successfully pocket. Though on being released, none of them started from more than a stationary speed.

"I'll keep working on my physical training. Can't do much with my facet without some good material to absorb, and none of the metal we have really makes the cut. Regardless, I need to be faster to close the distance with any enemies, if I'm not acting as a wall between them and you two."

They continued their discussion and light training, until they moved off-path to set up camp in a clearing Kael had noticed through his rain. Shaela set up alarms around the campsite with various tools she pulled from her pocketspace, while Gus and Kael set up their tents. Kael took first watch, allowing the rain to peter out gradually over the next few hours so as to seem natural. He was not inclined to maintain it in his sleep, as doing so made for a rather restless night for him.

They continued on their journey for another few days, maintaining their routine, and passing a couple smaller branches from the main path they were on. Eventually though, they encountered a change in the scenery.

It was early in the day when Kael spoke up. "Uhh, guys. Something's going on with the clouds ahead of us. It feels like there's a wall in the way? But I don't see anything, and it feels like I should be able to make clouds just past it, it's just not happening at any reasonable pace..."

They paused their trek in contemplation. Gus scratched his cheek. "Let's see what we find when we get closer. We should be near the border, so maybe something's up with that?" He speculated.

As they made their way closer to the strange phenomenon, they noticed what Kael had pointed out. The clouds were clearly bumping up against an invisible wall, pressing up against it, and prevented from going further. The trio was even able to walk a bit further than the rain could, before they encountered the same wall. It didn't seem to be perfectly vertical, tilting slightly inward, hence the rainclouds not reaching as far along the path as they could on the ground.

"I guess this must be the border?" Kael said as he pushed his hand against the invisible barrier, unable to get it through.

Gus knocked his hand against it as he walked across the path, determined to check the span of the road for any openings, while Shaela approached to put her own hand against it. "Hah, so the 'Dome' is a literal dome?"

She brought her hand out to touch it, but quickly pulled away when she felt her fingers pass through some kind of film. Her hand shot to her actual back pocket as she backed away.

Not noticing her predicament, Gus spoke up. "There must be a way through, though. I doubt the centurions, or the dragon, are locked in here permanently. And Aether would have told us if we couldn't pass, right? I mean, they told us this was where we should go."

Shaela shakily spoke up, "Well-"

"Right you are, kiddos!" A new voice interjected from above, causing all three to flinch, remembering the previous two times unexpected voices appeared, especially from above.

On the other side of the barrier flew a pair of riders seated upon a griffin. They seemed to have come from somewhere to the north, and glided down for a landing just as the trio looked up and spotted them.

"Hello hello. You three want to cross, then?" The same guard continued to speak as he dismounted with a smile, while the second guard stayed back, remaining tense and ready to take flight again, should any of them prove capable of crossing, or sending anything over.

Gus found his balance first, responding affirmatively. "That's right."

The first guard nodded along, "Well, we can make that happen, assuming you've got a pass. First of all, any of you an Aspect? Hmm?" He looked between the three of them.

"What does that matter?" Kael decided not to give them anything too easily, remembering Alexander's warning about giving information away, and Kael's previous flub in revealing his Aspect status.

"Because we wouldn't want to impede an Aspect, of course. But, I suppose if you're not one, you could always pay your way through, or present a centurion's token."

Gus interjected again. "And how much is it to get through?"

"One hundred gold pieces." the man stated, prompting each of them to blink at the absurd sum. The guard's smile stretched. "Each."

Gus crossed his arms. "Okay, right. And a centurion's token? What's that?"

Shaela fidgeted in the back, listening intently to the guard's response, "Seeing as you don't know, I don't think it particularly matters, but it's just as I said. A centurion's token is an expression of appreciation for a battle well-fought, or perhaps for some other favor that has them looking fondly upon you."

"Now," he clapped. "The border here prevents both people and magical phenomena from crossing, which is why, I presume, this rainfall has been cut off so abruptly. Natural rain would've gone right through." He peered closely at the three of them, narrowing his eyes playfully. "And perhaps whichever one of you controls it should stop trying to test the barrier, before we decide to send something through from our side, hmm?"

The second guard sighed and called out, "Stop messing with them, Piers!" He spoke to the trio next. "Kids! Work hard, figure out a good way to use your facets, and get cushy jobs in a citadel. If you make enough money in time for the Polemos, great. If not, at least you'll be mostly safe there."

The now-named Piers rounded on the second guard, pointing his finger violently. "Don't ruin my fun, birdbrain." Then he turned back to them, smiling once again. "So... which one of you is it? Hmm?"

They were determined not to give anything away, remaining stoic in the face of his question. He continued after a moment. "I suppose it doesn't really matter. Only an Aspect would be able to get anything through anyway." Kael immediately stopped trying to form clouds on the other side of the barrier, allowing the bare wisps he had formed to dissipate naturally.

Piers sighed. "No money, no token, no crossing. Them's the rules, kiddies." He continued, "We'd let an Aspect through, but none of you qualify."

When Gus and Shaela remained silent, Kael grudgingly spoke up. "...and if I said I was an Aspect?"

The guard's smile stretched until his eyes squinted. "I wouldn't believe you."

Kael stumbled at that. "Wha-"

"You don't have the disposition of one. And you've let me talk around you three for a full minute now." He waved dismissively and shook his head. "So no, I don't think any of you are crossing today."

Piers began walking back to the griffin. Kael grit his teeth, beginning to force a cloud to form above the griffin before they could leave. Before any rain could fall, Gus grabbed his shoulder, and subtly shook his head when Kael rounded on him.

As Piers remounted the griffin and the border guards prepared to fly away, Gus waved to the second guard, "Thanks for your time!"

Shaela, gnawing on her thumbnail, muttered to herself while watching the guards lift off, "Assholes."

Piers' eyes shot to Shaela while the second guard was busy handling the reins. Piers' arm flung out, shooting a shard of ice at her forehead fast enough that nobody moved to react in time. As it hit, Piers called out through his teeth, "Good luck!" The second guard began scolding him as they flew off, having felt the motion behind him.

Shaela stumbled backward at its impact as Gus and Kael rushed toward her, but the icicle had disappeared, leaving behind only a bit of blood, which dripped down her forehead from where it broke the skin. Shaela held her hands up to ward the boys off. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I got it before it went too deep. Didn't even touch my skull, I think."

Gus hugged her anyway. "Phew. Okay. Good. Good job." He then held her out at arm's length and gave her a look, briefly looking to Kael as well. "Alright! No more mouthing off to powerful people. Agreed?"

"Agreed," they chorused.