I spat the orange goo on the ground, the crisp sound of gravel under my feet and the faint drizzle had a better effect on my nerve than that thing. The curtain of rain was a few steps away from me. Just a few meters and I would be able to touch the shifting water. But I forced my foot down every time it begun to lift itself.

The ethereal surface was calling to me, to my very essence, echoing my path. The need to fall into its depth made me shiver, it took a conscious effort to prevent my legs from going forward on their own. The uneasiness in me growing stronger by the fact that the pull was not vile. It offered protection and... completeness. As if I would be given a part of me I didn't know was missing.

I stepped away, fighting the pull and crushing my rising curiosity. I had seen enough of this world to know when to step down. This sensation should only be brought by the divine or mind magic, both were too much to deal with. Considering the latter could only be wielded by humans, I guessed it was another of their trap in this all-out war they waged.

Mindbreakers were frown upon, and even hunted, in nearly every places, except when they worked for the consortium's plan, of course. I snorted, remembering the time they tried to rope me in their schemes, luring me with the luxury of their secret facilities. How precious was the face they made, when I pointed out they were asking an half-elf walking the path of empathy to help them butcher other sentients for... I didn't even know what for.

I turned my head toward the hillside, opposite of where the sun shone. I intended to start here to figure out this mess. Where the lake had a certain... custom made pull for me, it was only my instinct guiding me in this direction. I knew it was a shabby reasoning but we had to move, staying here safely and starving wasn't an option. I wasn't even sure how long this place will stay safe.

I begrudgingly dragged myself to where I woke up.

"Better now?" She asked, playing with the embers.

I shrugged. "I guess. Why the fire? It's pretty mild here."

"Warm enough to be sleeping naked?"

"Point taken. Thanks for that by the way."

She only hummed, idly drawing in the ashes with a stick.

"Anyway," I begun. "What did you find about this place? I was thinking of going this way, the hills will give us a better vantage point."

She got up, letting the branche she held fall into the dead fire, and took out a notebook roughly made in some reptilian leather.

"I got everything we need here, but I can't tell you about it. I took an oath preventing m-"

She continued speaking but I couldn't focus on her next words. I forced myself to freeze my body for fear of making a mistake in the spur of the moment.

Did she think I was just a kid that you could make fun of? Was my previous pathetic display making her see me as that unreliable? She didn't hear or felt what I did...she couldn't possibly understand the implications of what we encountered. I used to think I was patient but not even my last junky of an assistant took me for a fool like this. Did she think it was a game?

"...after the bridge we'll h-"

"Is this a sick joke?" I cut her off, not allowing any emotions in my voice for fear of going too far if I let my anger flow. "If it is, I'll go off on my own and I swear that the consortium will know about it as soon as I get contact. You seem t-"

I stopped, my breath dying in a strangled noise. Her right palm was facing me, a tattoo of an eye with tendrils appearing on its skin. After a few seconds the proof disappeared, as if it was never there to begin with.

"You have...but..." I stammered. "You took an oath under the Watcher. What- why?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"The person giving me this," She waved the strange notebook. "made me swear to not reveal its content to you."

"To me... specifically?"

"Yes." She answered calmly, her face a blank slate.

'But it doesn't...'

It didn't make any sense. Why go through the troubles of this ritual just to hide something from me? How much people were here? Why were we... was I brought here, and not to the nearest city? How much time was I out?

"Where are they?" I asked.

"Who?"

"The damn- the people that gave you this!" I motioned to the book in a stiff gesture, too disturbed to keep any pretense.

She frowned. "But there is no people, just us."

"Wha- someone gave you this right!?" She nodded. "Then where is he...she...whatever."

"He is gone, but he will come back in a while, he always does."

"And the others?" I asked despite feeling more lost after every answer.

She looked confused for a moment. "There's no one else except us in this place."

'No...what?'

"And...where are we?" I asked.

She just waved the book again.

"You have to be...aaaaarrg! I'm... damnit!"

I stopped being vocal about my frustration since I started to lead a team of oddballs but this was pushing it too far. It got from worrying to strange and then stranger. And still worrying. She made no sense yet spoke as if I was the weird one.

’Calm down buddy, think.’

I had to find an emitter, so a town first. Even small villages had them... well most. Contacting the consortium was the first step, I can't stay in whatever scheme she and that man, or an organization, was planning. I was a zoologist, a researcher. Not a...a...whatever the people doing this kind of things are. The abominations were already above my pay grade.

"Want some?" She asked, offering me a piece of leaf.

I just shook my head and she returned to scraping some pieces of it that she stuffed in the pockets of her uniform. A foreign uniform like mine. I just noticed how weird it was seeing her in...common clothes.

"Where is your..." I gesticulated with my arms, lost at what words to use. "You know, the rock armor."

She looked at me quizzically. "The what?"

I tried to mimic my words with my hands. "The clothes of rock, with the flowing sand and all that."

She seemed lost for a moment before her eyes rounded. "Oh! You can't cast spells here."

Every questions brought more questions and less good news. At this point I was considering stopping to talk altogether, just to keep my stress at manageable levels. I asked anyway, already fearing to see the notebook dance in front of my eyes.

But to my, pleasant, surprise, she answered.

"The flow of the world is twisted and forceful here. It's rumbling is now a powerful quake that fight our will when we try to communicate with it. Try a babble, you'll understand."

I couldn't speak to the world like wizards did, but as a linguist I could do more than a mere babble. Despite my bruised ego urging me to throw a few insults at her, the scars on my forearm were loyal reminders of the danger of experimenting with the unknown.

I sent my will to speak in chthonic but forced myself to only send the equivalent of a weak, inintelligible mumble. Vibrations carrying my message grew from the earth under my feet.

-Crash!

I flinched as the soil between us exploded in a rain of harmless pebbles and ashes, dirtying my new clothes and bouncing on my skin.

Wind dryed my wide open eyes as I thought of what would've happened if I had tried to send a full sentence.

'What about a spell from a wizard then? But does it also mean that...' My mind was getting messier by the minutes.

"Can't we use it as a... some sort of weapon?" I asked, already dreaming of wielding destructive powers.

"If you're alright with blowing yourself up, sure."

"Yea, make sense. I guess eosian is the same?"

She nodded, which wasn't a surprise. I wasn't willing to be teared appart by the wind just to be sure, so I took her word for it.

"And the paths?" I said, a weight beginning to settle in my guts.

She frowned. "The path should be fine, I've seen him use it without issues."

A breath carrying all the burden in my stomach left my lips.

It made sense but this situation was so strange that I was prepared for the worst. We didn't borrow power from the world afterall, we made it directly our own. Like the Gods do, in a way. I was relieved at having other potential partners than a suspicious wizard, even just insects. The part of her losing her powers was not a relief though, as I would still need a bodyguard until we go back to somewhere civilized. Which I hoped wasn't too far away.

And that other guy...

'From her words I can assume he is a pathstrider too. Please don't be of change, or strengh, or... any path from Conquest really...' I thought anxiously.

New problems kept pilling up, making me miss the mess of my lab. Preventing my assistants from getting high with our research supplies during breaks seemed like a relaxing task right now.