Everyone was woken up early in the morning to get ready. The remaining meat from the bird was distributed to everyone in camp. While the bird was abnormally large, it was feeding twenty people, so the meat didn’t go as far. There was also the problem of a varied biology, as the two boy scouts who scavenged the meat were too scared to take anything but red meat.

Quentin ordered the group to leave the carcass in the open so that it didn’t attract predators to the group once they departed. The more time I spent around Quentin, the more I liked his outlook on leadership. I especially approved of his decisions to improve our survival chances independent of what Scalisth did. His actions tell everyone that he is putting us first, which is good for morale.

Overall, the group was doing pretty well, but that was only on the surface. An invisible cloud of death hung over this small patch of humanity, and everyone was already feeling its pressure. Quentin broke the news of the missing member last night, and it was received as well as expected.

A few people even started pointing fingers at each other, almost getting into a fight. It took six people to prevent the fight from getting serious, but the event was still fresh on everyone’s mind. No one held it against them, though, since everyone was on edge. Three people had died in the last thirty-six hours, two of them to some mysterious sociopath and one to the local wildlife. Everyone had to be thinking the same thing: Am I next?

As the hustle and bustle of the morning activities kicked off, I tried to make my way over to talk to Quentin and Levi. While Levi hadn’t been made leader in any official sense, she was as pivotal to the cohesion of the group as Quentin was.

The woman was organized and confident, which was greatly appreciated when dealing with a group of twenty-two-year-olds in a life-or-death situation. Sure, she came across as rude, especially when I first met her, but a lot of people saw that as a sign of strength, which made her even more popular.

Unfortunately for me, the duo was busy for the first thirty minutes. Quentin focused on task assignments while Levi was in charge of logistics and resource management. Finally, after waiting awkwardly just outside of their circle, I approached.

The two had just finished coordinating everyone and were leaned against a tree to watch over the camp. Levi gave me a small smile when I approached, and Quentin gave me a courteous nod.

“Sleep well?” I asked the two, who both shrugged at the question. “Fair enough,” I said with a small smile of my own.

“You’re not here to reveal any more missing people, I hope,” Quentin said in a flat tone.

“Nope, not that I know of,” I said confidently. “You do a head count this morning?”

Levi nodded, a small smile on her face. “We didn’t lose anybody last night, thank God. We were just about to discuss it when you walked up.” I furrowed my brow in thought upon hearing the news. “Well, that’s certainly interesting,” I added aloud.

“We think so too,” Levi said, suddenly serious. “Although we don’t have much data to go off of, we can see that the killer has broken their pattern.”

“If they ever had one to begin with,” Quentin added quietly. “The first murder happened in the daytime on the first day, the second between dusk of the first day and dawn of the second.” We both looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

He crossed his arms and added, “What I’m saying is that this murderer is either inconsistent or there were two separate killers who just happened to kill on the same day for different reasons.” We both went silent at the idea of two hidden murderers lurking within the group.

Levi spoke up first, her voice much more worried than before. “Are you sure there’re two? It would be hard for two individuals to separate from the group long enough to get away with anything major.” I nodded along in agreement, feeling like I was listening to one of those old crime films from before the Union.

“I’m not sure of anything,” Quentin said with a bit of resignation. “I do have some theories though, if you want to talk about them.” We both shot him a look and he nodded his head in acknowledgement. “I know, of course you want to, but I wanted to keep the floor open for everyone to speak.”

Now that he had the go ahead, he continued, “My first theory is that there is one killer who operates independently within the group. They don’t plan their attacks, instead acting on opportunities that may arise throughout the day. They manipulate the target to get them alone before they strike.”

I spoke up first, “A logical conclusion. It would be easier to move within the group if you were an individual rather than working as a group.”

Quentin nodded and continued, “The second theory is based off of that idea. Due to our relatively small group size, I don’t think it’s likely we have two or more killers collaborating to murder whoever they can. No, I believe that the second alternative is that there are two killers operating independently of one another.”

He continued, “Again, I think a crime of opportunity is the most likely option, so these two both found opportunities to kill, and they both took them. This would mean that they have different agendas or are at least different in their executions.”

Levi spoke up, “How can you tell they’re different? We’ve only got the two missing to work off of.” As she said that, I made the connection.

Before Quentin could explain, I blurted out, “It’s because only one person is missing! We found the other person on the first day, but the second still hasn’t been found!” It was all starting to make sense.

To my relief, Quentin nodded in agreement. “Yes, Olivia’s right about the bodies. Though the missing person could be alive, it’s highly unlikely. There is one other possibility we haven’t explored yet.” He looked to us probingly to see if we could figure it out.

After a moment, Levi gasped, “You think the killer is dead?”

Quentin smiled slightly and nodded but got serious once again. “I think it’s a possibility.” He looked to me before saying, “There is a direct correlation between the death of Matthias and there being no deaths or disappearances tonight.”

My face grew taught as I thought it over. “Could it be true? If it is, then did I try to save a murderer? What would’ve happened if I did save him and he killed someone the next night, no one the wiser?” My thoughts raced as I considered the possibilities, each on gnawing at my guilt and stress from the day prior.

“Olivia?” a voice said, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked up and saw the two staring at me, worried expressions on their faces.

I ran my hands through my hair, which was thick with tangles. “Yeah, I’m alright. Don’t worry about me.” I took a second to straighten my thoughts out before I added to the discussion. Thankfully, the two seemed to notice my distress, and paused to give me a breather.

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After a few seconds of silence, it was surprisingly Levi who spoke up first. “Hey, Olivia? I just want you to know that I think you did the right thing, you know, going in to save him.”

I hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to say. I simply said, “Thank you,” and left it at that.

The scene got awkward again before Levi added, “I trust you, by the way. I don’t think you’re the killer either.” That got a chuckle out of me, and I got a sad smile in return.

Quentin gave us a complicated look, “That’s nice and all, but we can’t afford to give out trust easily. While I also agree that you’re not the killer, Olivia, I don’t think we’re in the situation to blindly dole out trust to those who do right by us. Who knows, that might be how the killer gets us.”

Another second of silence before Levi added with a chuckle, “Damn, you’re such a buzzkill Quentin. Grow a sense of humor.”

“I’ll grow one if it can feed everyone until we get to our destination. If not, then I’ll have to pass.” He smirked lightly, before turning serious again. “We should get moving, we’re burning daylight out here.”

I nodded and turned around to leave, looking to find my travel buddy before it was time to go. As expected, he was alone, sitting underneath a tree near the edge of camp. The second possibility Quentin proposed flowed into my mind unconsciously: There could be two killers.

Logically deducing, if Matthias was the killer, then it was more likely his travel partner was also a killer, assuming there were two. I looked at the quiet man and tried to imagine him as a murderer. Was his quiet demeanor a façade, or a real depiction of his personality? Either way, I was going to be on guard around him, and I sure as hell wouldn’t go anywhere with him alone.

///

We had left camp twenty minutes ago and were making faster pace than yesterday. It definitely helped that everyone was fed and watered as much as possible, which was better than nothing. We quickly slipped into a monotonous rhythm of walking and resting. While it probably wasn’t entirely safe to zone out while travelling, it was hard to stay focused for hours at a time while doing nothing in silence.

I decided to not waste the long stretches of travel time with nothing done, so I started trying to train my Will manipulation. I probed around my chest to get a feel for the source of my will, which Amaya and I decided to call the Source. We decided on that because we found out that all of the energy that moves throughout our bodies passes through this spot at one point or another.

Feeling around in my source, I could somewhat make out the internal composition of my willpower. It was condensed into a spherical shape, staying stable and maintaining its shape. As we discovered before, someone with no control over their Will had an erratic, unstable source. I wondered what Scalisth’s looked like but knew I would never find out. The natural obscurement the body provides to the source made it impossible to see the shape of someone with some experience in utilizing their Will.

I tried to move my Will around my body and noticed a dull pain spread wherever I moved it. I tried to bring it back into my eyes, but the pain sharpened into a horrible headache, causing me to wince. I let the energy go and the pain subsided, my face relaxing. The second I let go of the energy, though, I noticed something odd about how it was moving.

I watched the blue energy trickle down from my head and into my chest. Along the way, though, some of the energy moved sideways, pulled off course by some mysterious force. Since this was all happening internally, I didn’t need to enhance my vision to feel what was going on.

Focusing as I walked, I noticed the energy move into my legs, where it circulated to my feet and back up to my chest. I was so engrossed in watching the energy move that the tip of my foot hit a tree root, sending me stumbling forward. Instead of falling on my face, a hand grabbed my arm, keeping me from falling.

I looked up and saw that Luca had grabbed my arm and nonchalantly helped me regain my footing. His face was impassive, as if he hardly even noticed the fall or the act of helping me back up.

“Thank you,” I said in a quiet voice. Instead of a reply, I got a nod and a forward-facing stare. Yet again I was going to be walking in silence.

Taking time to reevaluate my strategy, I decided to try and map how the energy moves throughout my body. That way, I could have a foundational understanding of its movements to learn from later. Reinvigorated with energy, I once again coalesced energy into my source, and pushed it around my body.

First were the legs, which were the first anomaly I had noticed. It was interesting watching the energy move, as it wasn’t like blood moving in a blood vein. With blood, the vital fluid had to turn around and travel through the veins to return to the heart, but the energy tended to move in whatever way seemed easiest. It could simultaneously flow down and up through the same areas of my body.

“That means it probably doesn’t occupy any physical space,” I concluded. That made sense, as this energy was normally invisible to the eye and undetectable to the physical senses.

I then started watching my arms and noticed that the flow was much weaker to them. It was still there, sure, but it was like a trickle more than a steady flow. Out of curiosity, I started swinging my arms more as I walked, trying to see how the flow changed.

Somewhat as expected, the flow to my arms increased in direct proportion to the amount of motion I was doing. That seemed to be the reason why my legs were so lit up with energy, since I was forced to keep walking. I then tried to watch it in my fingers but found it hard to follow. It seemed much more complex than the larger limbs, which made sense intuitively, but was still frustrating to observe.

After observing the natural movement of energy in my body, I noticed a few key things: First, the energy naturally distributes itself throughout my body. Like a gas, it fills all of the empty space within my body, generally matching my form. It flows around seemingly at random, but it always returns to my source at one point or another.

Second, the energy can be manipulated by my Will, but it is not as effortless as letting it follow its natural course. I had already been altering the natural flow of energy in my body when I focused on my eyes, manipulating the energy on instinct.

Throughout my tests, with and without Amaya, I noticed that we didn’t really have a word for the blue energy in and outside of our bodies. Partly, that was due to us being distracted, but the main reason was that we really didn’t know anything about it. Was the energy in the body the same as the energy outside, or was it fundamentally different?

My instincts told me that they were the same, but if so, why couldn’t I access it? Deciding to treat them as the same thing, I wanted to give them a name that would work for now. “How about spirit? Kind of meshes with the whole Will thing too.”

I pushed the thoughts aside, as I wouldn’t get anything done if I followed tangents whenever they presented themselves. Focusing, I delved back into my internal structure, and watched as the newly named spirit flowed throughout my body. I continued to observe it, watching it track paths throughout my limbs.

Once I felt I had a solid understanding of the movement of spirit, I started nudging the energy by tiny amounts to see how it moved then. As expected, the energy deviated from its path, only to return to it a moment later. Like a river, the energy corrected its course to follow its intended path. I was enraptured by watching the energy move and spent the better part of an hour silently watching the spirit recover after a gentle nudge.

This training wasn’t just to observe, but to help me refine my control over my Will. Although it may have sounded simple, it was incredibly easy to mess up. I would often use too much force, completely dispersing the flow of spirit throughout my body. That always sent a pulsing pain that didn’t subside until the flow returned to normal.

“Is this how Scalisth and the water beast hurt me so badly?” It made sense, considering how the pain was similar, although greatly subdued compared to those inhuman monsters.

I spent the rest of the trip refining my usage of Will. I still made mistakes, but I had gotten to the point where I wasn’t blindly blasting whatever area I was focused on with an explosion of Will. Pain was an excellent teacher, and I learned quickly how to avoid blowing away the flow of spirit.

Even as we stopped for water, I continued to poke and prod at the hidden world within my body, fascinated by the discoveries I made. “I can’t wait to tell Amaya about all of this, she’ll be so jealous.” The thought of the other practitioner made me pause for a moment.

“Am I better or worse at this than she is?” I wondered to myself. On the surface, I was better when it came to manipulating the flow of spirit while she was better at perceiving it. Somehow, though, I felt like she was a bit better than she had been letting on.

I had no way to prove such a thing, so I didn’t bring it up. Instead I continued my practice, waiting for the group to finish purifying the water. I sat there for twenty minutes, completely oblivious to anything happening around me, engrossed in the task at hand.

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