Zoe woke up a few hours after she laid down to a loud crash from a neighbouring root as somebody dropped a pot full of bubbling soup onto some dirty dishes. Hushed cursing followed after, as though anybody was still asleep nearby after the racket.

She smiled and sat up, sleep wasn’t all that important to her anyway. Darkness still covered the town, and Zoe teleported a few kilometers up, in the sky far above the towering forest. She caught herself in a suit of earth and took a deep breath of the still night air.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" A voice screamed out from below her. Zoe turned her attention to the voice and saw Brick plummeting to the ground in nothing but their underwear, panic and fear racing through them.

Earth formed in the sky and stretched around them, catching and slowing them as they fell, then Zoe brought Brick back up to her.

“What are you doing here?" Zoe asked.

“What? What am I doing here? What are you doing here!?” Brick shouted at her. “How did you do this? Where are we? Why is this?”

Zoe sighed. She wasn’t sure how much she wanted to hide from the group anyway — they were nice, and travelling with them was fun. Now that she’d made it to another city, she’d wanted to take a breather and think about the situation more. Did she really need to be secretive with them? What benefit was there to her? Would Brick and the others think less of her because she’d deceived them? Would they try and take advantage of her and ruin the enjoyable time she’d been having?

But that all came to a screaming halt because of whatever Brick had done. The decision was made for her, whether she wanted it or not. She teleported the two of them up several times as the dark sky lit up bit by bit with the distant stars and half moon.

Brick blinked as light returned, shock and fear the only things Zoe could feel through her empathy.

“I’m sorry, I just thought it would be better if we could see.” Zoe said. “Why are you here?"

Brick sputtered out noises as they tried to form a sentence. “I- you- wha- but- Who are you?"

“I’m Mara. Zoe Mara, I guess.” Zoe sighed and pointed up at the still towering mountain in the distance. “I’m from up there. I wanted to explore a bit, see what the world had to offer. And then I met you. But I’m going to ask you again, why are you here?”

“Are you going to hurt me? Are Blue and Spark safe?" Brick asked.

“Yes, they’re all safe. No, I’m not going to hurt you. I wanted to go out for a bit to think and you showed up. How did you show up, and why did you show up?" Zoe asked.

“I’m a space mage, Mara. Zoe? I left a tracker on you, I’m surprised you didn’t see it since you’re also clearly a space mage.” Brick said.

Zoe looked at herself through her Cosmic Vision and saw a small and subtle rip in space stuck to her back, threads of space that wound over themselves and twisted together. She clicked her tongue. For all her power, she’d never know how to make such a thing, or how to destroy such a thing. Even if she found it, would she have been able to know what it did, or how it worked?

“Ah. Interesting. How do you do that?" Zoe asked.

“It’s one of my skills. I keep it on everybody I care about just in case somebody gets teleported away so I’ll be dragged with them.” Brick explained, fear still seeping through to Zoe’s empathy.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Brick. Honestly I came out here half to think about whether I should still keep hiding from you, but I didn’t notice your stupid thing. I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have teleported you several kilometers up into the sky without warning if I knew.” Zoe said, pushing mana into her Earth skill.

A platform formed floating in the sky, a dozen meters across in each direction with two chairs set in the middle. Zoe pulled away the earth surrounding her and Brick, dissolving it away into a pittance of mana that she reclaimed and sat down in one of the chairs.

“Have a seat, Brick.” Zoe said.

Brick nodded and sat down, anxiety and panic washing out from them. The only other time she’d felt such a visceral fear from somebody was when the wanderer walked over their home. Did Brick see her as the same as that creature?

“Honestly, Brick. If you wanna go back I’ll take you back right now. But I just figured you’d wanna talk.” Zoe said. “I’m not gonna hurt you. Worst case scenario I drop you off back in town and then disappear and you never see me again. But I don’t really want that, cause I like you all and it’s been fun travelling. And I’ve learned a lot, too.”

“Were you the creature James’ party found?” Brick asked.

Zoe nodded. “Yeah. I stumbled onto them in the forest and thought it might be fun to travel with them. But then they found the hydra and lured it over to us. James thought it best to attack me. I don’t know, maybe leave me as a sacrifice so they could get away or something. So I killed the hydra and left.”

She chuckled. “But then I didn’t really know where to go, so I stalked them to the ravine and met you and you know what happened after that.”

“Why did they want to kill you so bad?" Brick asked. ”What did you do?"

“Honestly, I have no idea. I told you all I know. And from what I heard, they were honest about their telling of the story. Maybe they were just stupid? I don’t wanna be mean to the dead, but I genuinely don’t get it. I wish they didn’t, cause it’s a shame they died for nothing. But I can’t possibly pretend to know how they think.” Zoe shrugged.

Brick nodded. “Are you going to do the same to us?”

“Do what, Brick? I didn’t do anything to them. I killed the hydra that was attacking them and left. Are you asking if I’ll kill your dragon and leave? Probably not. Unless it looks like it’s going to kill you, then maybe. I like you all and letting you die for no reason is stupid.” Zoe answered.

Brick took a deep breath, a slight wave of calm washing over the anxiety they felt. A move in the right direction at least, Zoe thought. “I’ll be honest, Mara.” Brick said. “You’ve done a poor job of hiding it.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Zoe laughed. “Hiding it from the same people for so long was never really my intention. I just wanted to be able to go into towns and villages and not get harassed or pestered for favours. But then you dragged me along on this month long journey and I just kept going with it cause I didn’t know what to do.”

“Do you still want to join us?” Brick asked. “I’m not sure if we’ll be okay with that. I’m not sure if I am. Spark will be, I think.”

“I’d like to. It’s been fun. But I don’t want to just trivialize it all. I want to keep going like we’ve been going. Just a leisurely stroll through the woods as we work our way towards the dragon.” Zoe said.

Brick laughed and shook their head. “Leisurely, huh? What level are you, really?”

Zoe checked her stat sheet before answering and grinned. “Two eighty eight. Nice, got another level.”

“That’s it?” Brick asked. “That’s not much higher than me, really. Not as far apart as all of this,” Brick gestured around them. “Would seem to show.”

Zoe smiled and disabled her necklace that obscured her level to Identify then pointed above her head. “Doesn’t mean much I guess since I already hid it, but that’s my real level. I’ve got some good classes though.”

Brick nodded and took another deep breath, the fear beginning to give way to a subtle excitement that made Zoe cringe. That’s what she wanted to avoid, the greed of people wanting to use her to their advantage. Why would they walk through the forest and discover dungeons and wanderers when they could just teleport all the way to the last dragon sighting in a matter of seconds? Why would they struggle through a dungeon when Zoe could just rip up the earth and decimate the moles in minutes?

But that simplicity was what she wanted. The normalcy of it all. Travelling and exploring, discovering new things. Taking some time to stop and smell the roses in a place as exotic and exciting as down in the valley was all she cared to do for the moment.

“I think I’m okay with it. With you coming with us. It’ll be nice knowing we have somebody like you on our side. I’m not going to fall into the same trap as James and think you’ve somehow wronged us and that we deserve vengeance.” Brick said.

“Thank you, Brick.” Zoe said.

“But how powerful are you? If we were attacked by a wanderer, could you keep us safe?" Brick asked.

“I have no idea. The other night was the first time I’d ever seen one, and I couldn’t identify it so I don’t know what level it was. Not that levels are even all that great of an indicator of power anyway. I wonder if we can replace our Identify skill with something more useful somehow.” Zoe wondered aloud.

“I’m beginning to realize that myself now,” Brick shook their head. “How’d you do it, anyway? Hide your level like that?"

Zoe turned her enchantments back on and gestured above her head. “It’s just some enchantments that show more information on the Identify. But if I overlay them all perfectly then it kinda shows up as a different level a little bit. I bet the eight looks weird now since I levelled up though. I’ll have to make another one now.”

Brick squinted above Zoe’s head. “Yeah it does look a little off now that you mention it. Like I’m looking at two things at once. Or three? I’m not sure. Weird. I wouldn’t notice it at a glance though, and I wouldn’t identify the same person multiple times every day so it would hardly need to be perfect. Fascinating.”

“It does the job well enough. Pain in the butt to make though.” Zoe said.

Brick laughed. “I wouldn’t know, I’ve never enchanted anything before. You say you’re from the peaks?”

Zoe nodded. “You get many people from up there down here?”

Brick puffed air out through their nose. "Natives, no. Not like you. Or maybe we do and just never notice. We get people who claim to have climbed up to the peaks coming down with stories, though. Long days and bright nights, without fear of the shadows coming to life in the light. I never believed them before.

“I thought they were full of shit. Nights without fear? No wanderers prowling the darkness? Sprawling cities with lights lining the roads keeping everything bright even in the middle of night? That’s just a fantasy, really. Imagination.” Brick said.

“But now?” Zoe asked.

“Well now I see it for myself. We’re not even up to the peaks and I can already see. I can see my hands, this platform. The distant peaks. It may as well be high noon I can see so well, and yet it isn’t. It’s dark. And there’s no shadows threatening to overrun us. We’re safe here, as long as you can maintain this platform.” Brick said.

“I can. My mana regeneration is pretty good.” Zoe chuckled.

“Is it all true? Cities beaming with light even now, up there? Children staying up late reading books by torch light, without fear?” Brick asked.

“It is.” Zoe said.

Brick closed their eyes and nodded for a few seconds. “I’d like to see it one day.”

“I can take you there. All three of you. After we deal with this dragon, I’m really excited to see a dragon, honestly. Never seen one before.” Zoe said.

“I’ll hold you to that, then, if we keep travelling. I’m for it, and I think Spark will be. But we’ll see tomorrow. I can’t hide this, Mara. I like you, but they’re my family. I can’t lie to them.” Brick said.

“I know. I’ll take us down then? Might be a bit to find the town again though, honestly. Should be basically straight down, but my vision in the dark is pretty restricted so I can’t just teleport us willy nilly.” Zoe said.

Brick shook their head. “I think I’d like to sit up here a while longer. I’ve never seen the night sky like this before. I’ll lead you down before light, I know where the town is.”

“How?" Zoe asked. ”Can you see it still?"

Brick laughed. “See? No. But I have trackers on Blue and Spark still, so I can feel where they are. They’re pretty much straight below us like you said, though. Won’t be hard.”

“How long do those last, anyway?" Zoe asked. ”I’ve been wanting to find some kind of beacon or tracking thing so I can always know where home is even if I go far away and haven’t found anything suitable yet.“

“A week. More if I put more mana into them, but if I’m away for longer than a week then something very wrong has happened and they already take a lot of mana.” Brick said.

“Hmm. Is it a skill I could get do you think? That would be perfect for what I need, I think.” Zoe asked.

“I guess, if you get my class. I’m not sharing the details though, I’m sorry. It’s a bit personal.” Brick answered.

“That’s fine, I’d like to see you using the skill though. You don’t sleep much, do you?" Zoe asked.

“Every few days, usually.” Brick said.

“Then on the days we’re both up all night, I’d like to study that skill please. I can pay you. Gems, gold. I’ll go clear that dungeon dozens of times and give you all the rewards. Whatever you want.” Zoe said.

“Sure, I can’t use it too much though. Like I said it uses a lot of mana, but I’ll let you study it whenever I use it, if you think that’ll help you somehow.” Brick said.

“I think it’ll help a lot. Thanks so much.” Zoe smiled. Maybe there was a silver lining to this unfortunate accident after all.