I sat down at the edge of camp as a small fire blazed within the clearing. I was being held down by two people on either side. Even if I were at full strength, it would be impossible to escape. Regardless, I made it very clear that I was not happy with how I was being treated.

“Hey!” I barked at the man on my left, “Move your hand or I’ll move it for you.” I hadn’t spoken with these two much before, but they had always given me the creeps. Before she left, Amaya told me to stay away from this group, calling them “nothing but trouble”. Regardless of who it was, it was odd to be treated like a complete stranger by these people. It wasn’t their fault they couldn’t remember me, but it still felt weird.

As I was kneeling there on the ground, one par on either side of me, a duo entered my peripheral vision. Of course, it was Quentin and Levi, who were already working together after only a few hours of meeting again. If the situation wasn’t so annoying, I would be interested in learning how relationships develop under different meeting conditions.

Looking at the two, it seemed they were destined to be companions. Their strengths and weaknesses balanced each other out, and they seemed to have similar opinions on how to lead the group. Maybe it was more than a coincidence that they teamed up after forgetting their first meeting. As expected, Levi spoke up first, her impulsive nature getting the better of her.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to be making demands, lady.” She scanned my face, locking onto my gaze for a seconds before looking away.

“You’ve got four people holding you down, yet you look like you’re not worried at all. Is there something you know that we don’t?” She looked away to scan the tree line quickly. “Maybe you’ve got some backup to warrant this bravado?”

I said nothing, levelling my gaze on her. I wasn’t looking at her, rather feeling her out with my newly heightened senses. The developments in my passive perceptions seemed to allow me to get a general feeling for others, but not at the level of detail as focusing spirit on my eyes. Still, I could get a read on her source, and she was much more afraid than she was letting on.

Quentin spoke up next, “Easy, Levi, we can’t jump to any conclusions.” The broad-shouldered man then looked down at me.

“I’m sorry for your treatment right now, but you need to understand our situation. We’re in a foreign environment with frighteningly little information to work with. You appear out of thin air, question a few people, leave, and come back hours later looking like you swam through barbed wire.”

The man’s gaze seemed hard on the surface, but I could tell from his body language that he held no hostility towards me. I was once again thankful that he was the one to take charge, rather than someone more unreasonable.

I spoke up within a break in conversation. “Listen, you’re free to think what you want, but I don’t want to cause any trouble for you or the group. I’m from Urona, same as most of you. Like I told you before, I was captured relatively later, but I was there for everything that mattered.”

“Quite the convenient timing, don’t you think?” Levi added between breaths. I looked at her with a plain expression.

“To some, maybe it would seem that way, but feel free to ask me about anything that happened there, and I’d be happy to answer.” Despite all of my previous bluster, I wanted to appear somewhat amicable without letting myself be pushed around. Feeling around at my reserves, I felt as though I could break free with a precise application of spirit to my legs, but that would go against my goals.

If I forcibly released myself, I would confirm all of their suspicions and from then on be labeled as an enemy. I had become stronger, but I still needed Scalisth and the camp for protection, shelter, and, most importantly, food. I could likely hunt some smaller creatures, but chances were that I would run into something I couldn’t handle and be killed on the spot.

I looked back to Quentin and saw that he was contemplating my offer. After a moment, he came to a decision.

“Alright,” he said, his voice intrigued, “We’ll give you a chance to explain yourself.” Levi looked at him with shock plain on her face, but Quentin raised his hand before she could protest.

“If you answer any, and I mean any questions in a way that seems evasive or misleading, I will have no choice but to remove you from the group by force. We can’t keep anyone who might be a flight risk.” I nodded, and he took that as a sign to begin.

///

The questions weren’t complicated, mostly about what the inside of the holding facility looked like. He asked a lot of questions about the trip we made into the basement teleportation facility. Along the way, he would offer me false information to see if I would latch onto it, but I dodged all of them easily. I wasn’t lying, which made it easy to answer every question to the best of my abilities. The last questions they asked, though, became tricky to answer.

“Well, I don’t know about you all, but I’m not entirely convinced,” Levi said, her face plain with distrust. She looked over at Quentin once more. “I’ll follow your lead.”

“Well then,” Quentin said, looking back at me. He had taken a sitting position on the ground in front of me, likely to set me at ease. “Just a few more questions and I’ll feel alright leaving you alone.” Once again, I nodded and waited for him to continue.

“What do you remember from arriving here? Describe it in as much detail as you find necessary.”

That was a tricky question to answer, mainly because it was the first that would require me to lie for the first time. “Well, maybe not lie, but definitely omit some details,” I thought as I considered the question. I also couldn’t take too long to answer, as that would be seen as suspicious. “I’ll put in as much truth as I can to pad the lies and make the whole thing more believable.” The entire situation was rather unbelievable, and I was gambling on truth being stranger than fiction.

“Well,” I began, “When we were in that giant cavern, I remember feeling weightless before being sucked into that rectangular portal. The next bit after that is fuzzy, but I remember waking up to a soft white light.” I gestured to the area around us. “Then I woke up here, same as the rest.”

I got a hum of consideration as the two thought over what I said. It was generally true, just missing the part where I fell from the sky and nearly died. Thankfully, it seemed to make enough sense to pass as an explanation, as Quentin nodded his head in approval.

“Alright,” he said, “That makes sense.” He brought his hand to his face and rubbed it thoughtfully. After a moment of silence, he looked down at me, and I could feel a spike in activity around his source.

“I don’t know what it is, but something’s got him riled up.” I said nothing and waited for him to begin. His gaze moved from me to somewhere behind me. I turned around to look and saw that a towering figure was sitting just out of the tree line, looking into the clearing. Of course, the shadowy figure was Scalisth, creeping around the camp as per usual.

I heard Quentin clear his throat and turned my head back around to meet his gaze. He waited for another moment before asking, his voice much quieter, “What business do you have with the Altum?” His voice was soft, but carried a measured rhythm, as if he were containing a great anger from exploding outward.

“Scalisth?” I asked, “Why? Do you have a problem with him?” I was unprepared to answer any questions pertaining to Scalisth because no answer would make sense. Why would a powerful alien have any need to personally speak with one human in particular?

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“Just answer the question,” the tall man said, his source reflecting much more menacing thoughts than what he revealed outwardly.

Inwardly, I sighed. “I understand why he’s asking, but why did he have to be the one to ask?.” I didn’t know why, but Quentin seemed to have some personal distaste toward the Altum as a whole. “I don’t want to set him off, so I need to be careful with what I say next.”

I decided to be mostly truthful, saying, “Well, he called me over to tell me to be careful around everybody.” It was true but was missing some context.

Quentin eyed me hard, and I could see Levi getting into a more defensive posture. Quentin asked, “Why would you need to be careful around us?” Over the course of the questioning, the men holding me loosened their grips with every question answered correctly, ending with them barely hanging onto me. Now, they redoubled their efforts, and were holding me so tightly it almost hurt.

I had hoped that it wouldn’t come to this. Amaya and I agreed that we had an edge on those around us through our powers, and we needed every advantage we could get. Back then, looking at the situation, I understood why I acted like that. Throughout my life, I had always been focused on number one: me. It was second nature to act selfishly when you had little energy to spare for yourself, let alone anyone else.

Now, though, when faced with truly dangerous circumstances, I’ve been forced to rely on others now more than ever. To me, it was still fine to be selfish, but acting selfishly didn’t have to mean throwing everyone else away to get what I wanted. I needed other people to rely on, but as things were going, no one would be capable of helping carry their fair share.

“I’m fine staying with others, but I won’t carry the weight of the world on my shoulders. I need to start everyone early on so that they have time to grow.” Looking inwardly, I felt the power coursing throughout my body. I had only gotten a taste but knew there was much more to come. “At least I’ll have a head start on everyone,” I thought as I came to my decision.

Out loud, I broke the long silence, saying, “Before I answer that, I have a question to ask of my own,” I said as I tried to show confidence to those watching me. No one spoke, and I took that as a sign to continue.

“Do you remember the crazy guy from the auditorium, the one who raved about the Altum like a religious zealot?” It had been a while for me but seemed like yesterday for them.

“Sure, we remember him,” Levi said, skepticism plain in her voice.

I nodded my head, “Good, that will make things easier. If you think back on it, most of it seemed like gibberish, and you’d be right to think that.” I paused to let my point sink in. “There were some things, though, that were worth listening to.”

Once everyone looked invested, I continued, “Whether or not it feels like it, we are, genetically speaking, half-Altum.” Quentin’s face contorted into a snarl, but I continued. “When you think of the Altum, what comes to mind?”

Everyone stopped for a second and pondered what I was saying. As I had hoped, Levi spoke up first, stating the obvious, “Tall, small faces, weird skin colors, stuff like that?” Most of the people around nodded in agreement. Everyone except Quentin, who seemed to understand what I was hinting at.

“Power,” he said, the realization evident in the soft, reverent tone he spoke in. I nodded along once more but decided to more than just sit and wait for it to sink in.

I hadn’t tried any applications of will that extended outside of the body. I had a lot of ideas on how it could be used, sure, but lacked the power and skill to execute them. “Now, though? I feel like I can do anything.”

Focusing my will, I began to circulate the spirit dwelling within my body. Thankfully, my long rest gave my body enough time to build up a heft reserve of spirit, likely eighty percent of my maximum. Using my source as an anchor, I concentrated the movement of the energy in my body and sped it up. My body ached from overuse, and I felt every movement of energy as it roared along invisible pathways.

It took a lot of effort, but soon I had a veritable whirlpool of spirit circulating at high speed near the center of my body. Using my source as a focal point for the energy took it away from my limbs, which meant I would be unable to juice my muscles like I had against the Tusk from earlier. Still, I knew that this alone was miles more than what I would’ve been able to accomplish the day prior, and I was happy with my growth.

Once I had built up the flow of energy, I refocused on the outside world. Deciding to make my point known, I started off with something I knew I could do. I focused on the four hands holding various parts of my body. I singled out one in particular that was resting a bit too close to my right breast.

Like I had done against the river beast, I focused my will and sent a spark of spirit into the creep who was using his task as an excuse to cop a feel. In a flash, the wave of energy shot through his arm and into his body, striking him directly in his source.

With a wail of pain, he jumped back from me, his hand clutching his arm. He fell onto the ground, heaving deep breaths between shouts of pain. The other three holding me were dazed by what had happened, as to them it seemed as thought he suddenly let go for no reason.

Using their momentary distraction, I sent similar, albeit smaller pulses into their bodies. Their reactions were less severe, but I could tell from the yelps of pain that it wasn’t pleasant. With a casual motion, I rose to my feet, dusting off my dirtied pants and stretching my arms high into the sky.

Everyone in the immediate vicinity was on edge but I didn’t let it bother me as I finished stretching and stood there in silence. I needed to make sure to not appear too hostile so that everyone knew this was a threat, not an attack. I locked eyes with Quentin, who was much more nervous than before. Everyone in the clearing had makeshift wooden spears, but no one knew the extent of my abilities and weren’t willing to risk attacking me.

Levi, instead of looking to Quentin for approval, never let me out of her sight. She seemed poised to lash out at me until a raised hand came out in front of her. Quentin still looked uneasy, but I could tell he understood the situation well enough. Now that I had laid my cards on the table, I continued where the conversation left off.

Everyone was still eyeing me, but Quentin was the first to let his gaze fall to the earth. “I don’t really understand what happened, but I’m assuming from your tone of voice that there’s more where that came from?”

I shrugged, “I won’t lie, it felt good to get a lick in after being forced to the ground for the past half hour,” I said as I rolled my neck. “Even still, I won’t do that again. Well, unless I am provoked, but whether or not that happens again is up to you.” A silent nod of understanding.

On his right, Levi looked like she wanted to ask a serious question. I had a feeling about what it was going to be but kept that to myself while she organized her thoughts. We’d butted heads in the past, but I genuinely respected the woman for her leadership skills and ability to think under pressure. She was a bit spontaneous, but sometimes that’s what you needed most.

Once she gathered her thoughts, Levi pulled a braided strand of her away from her face and set her eyes to look through me. What she said next completely took me by surprise, though.

She spoke firmly, but quietly, “That thing you did to them, can you do it to me?” She punctuated her statement by gesturing at her newly outstretched arm. I was baffled at the request and looked to Quentin to see if he had anything to say about it. Apparently he didn’t, as he didn’t give any indication he even saw me look at him.

I shrugged and walked towards the woman. It was taking a lot of focus to keep the energy moving as quickly as it was, and I knew I didn’t have much longer to do this. That meant I needed to do this quickly if I wanted to maintain my confident appearance. Once I was close enough, I wasted no time in grabbing her arm and sending a pulse of spirit throughout her body.

Like a pinball machine, the energy cascaded throughout her body. I took care to avoid her source, since I didn’t want to mess up the veil Scalisth put on her. He could probably put it back on again but I didn’t want to have to tell him I broke it a day after he placed it on everyone.

The second the energy flowed into her arm, Levi grunted in pain, pulling her arm back from my grip. Instead of falling to the ground, though, she stayed upright and clutched at her arm with her remaining arm. The entire time, she kept her eyes trained on me as she swayed gently from side to side. After a few seconds, she loosed her grip on her arm, revealing that she had been holding on with a vise grip.

She took a few deep breaths before smiling a somewhat arrogant smile. “I think it’s fine if we let her stay, Quentin. That certainly hurt, but it wasn’t enough to take me out of the fight. Makes me think those four over there were overreacting.” I looked to my four guards, only two of them back to their feet.

I smiled as I could practically hear what she was implying. “I can handle you and your fancy tricks, so don’t get any ideas about trying to run the place.” Her boasting had some backing to it, as she had faired the best against the pulse. What she didn’t know was that I had taken it easier on her than the others. “Best to let her think she’s got me handled, it’ll make things easier from here on out.”

Quentin seemed to have no more problems with letting me stay, as he turned to me and offered his hand. Taking it, I saw that he didn’t flinch at all, not worried that I would zap him in the slightest. That caused a slight grin to cross my face, which contrasted heavily with his stoic expression.

“Quentin Trebeck, I hope we can work well together in the future.” His grip was firm, but I was able to match it by pouring a small portion of energy into my arms. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t very practiced at enhancing my upper body, and I poured a bit too much energy into my hand. His face twitched as my finger clamped shut like a vise grip. Deciding to roll with it, I maintained eye contact and smiled.

“So,” I began, “What’s for dinner?” I had seen Scalisth drag another animal into the clearing, which meant it would soon be my job to clean it up, as per usual.

Quentin, not knowing anything would be special about the meat, said casually, “Probably nothing tonight. We’ve got some meat, but the two I assigned to handle it can’t seem to butcher the body properly. Who knows how long it will be until we can get a slab on the fire.”

Upon hearing that, my smile grew even larger. “I think I can help you with that.”