I was a bit surprised to see that nobody noticed us exiting the carriage. Jamie and Oren were occupied with cooking something in a large pot over a roaring fire, chatting idly with each other, while a man and a woman were setting up the tents a fair distance away.

They were distinctly Timuran, judging from their darker skin and silvering hair, but what stood out to me more than that was their size discrepancy. The man was slightly shorter than I was, and the woman looked like she would be about Oren’s height, though she had none of his bulk.

“Laush and Tenna,” Sera said, noticing my gaze.

“Which one’s which?” I asked, not being familiar enough with Timuran to match genders to the names.

“Laush is the woman, and Tenna is the man,” Sera said, giving them both a wave.

Though I thought they hadn’t noticed us, they gave us a brief wave before returning to their work.

“Mediators work in teams of five,” Sera said. “You’ll meet the last member once we return to Plainswood.”

“There’s already someone there?” I asked.

“He’s been there for a while,” Sera said. “He arrived there a day after we got the report of a new Otherworlder and has been staying there ever since.”

“Really?” I asked, making a few mental calculations in my head. “How?”

“How what?” Sera asked.

“How did he get there so fast?” I asked. “I’m guessing you guys were stationed at Redstone, so how did he make the trip in a day?”

Sera smiled. “He teleported,” she said. “We all did, actually. None of us were in Astranta when we got the report.”

“How?” I asked. I’d gotten used to ridiculous feats of magical prowess, but only from Jamie, who was an Otherworlder. The idea that whole groups of people could be teleported over large distances without the power of an Otherworlder was an absurd claim. I didn’t think Sera was lying, but it was a little hard to believe.

“Mediator magic,” Sera said, smugly. “And by that, I mean the founder’s magic. There are a couple of perks that come with having a nigh-immortal Elf as your boss.”

“Convenient,” I said, still unsure of how to feel that a literal legend was still alive.

When it became clear that I didn’t have anything else to say, Sera laughed and grabbed my wrist, dragging me to the fire that Oren and Jamie were tending to. When Jamie noticed us approaching, he tensed up for a second before relaxing and giving us a smile and a wave. I smiled and waved back, trying not to think of how I could potentially destroy the world if I told him the wrong thing.

“Hey, boys. Sorry for taking so long. The zipper was jammed with dried blood and I needed Lena’s help to slip me out without tearing my skirt,” Sera said, leading me to one of the chairs that had been set up around the fire pit. She took the seat beside Jamie, while I sat down at her other side. “What’s cooking?”

“Just some stew,” Oren responded, staring into the pot and stirring the contents with a long spoon.

Now that I was closer, I realized it smelled heavenly, and I hadn’t had an actual decent meal in over a week. Judging from the way Jamie was staring intently at the pot with a hint of drool peeking out the side of his lips, I could tell he was thinking the same thing.

“How long till it’s done?” Sera asked.

“Around forty-five minutes,” Oren answered.

My stomach gurgled quietly in disappointment. I clutched at it, hoping that nobody heard. Sera gave me a glance and a smirk before looking back towards the pot. I noticed Oren glancing at me too, but the frown on his face surprised me. Had I done something to offend him?

He smiled immediately after, making me think that I’d somehow imagined his disapproval.

“Damn, and here I was, thinking we would have dinner soon. It’s been a long day,” Sera said. “Can’t we just eat it sooner?”

“Hush you. As I was telling Jamie, good stew takes time,” Oren replied, giving the pot another slow stir. “You can’t just throw vegetables and meat in a pot and scoop it out immediately once it starts boiling. You’ve got to give the stew time to soak and infuse the ingredients with each others’ flavour, otherwise you’ll just have an uncomfortable jumble of clashing tastes. It takes time, effort, and care to turn it into a harmonious dish.”

Sera made a vague sound of distaste. “You sound like my mother, Oren,” she said. “Are you going to say that the secret ingredient to any dish is love too?”

Oren let out a quiet and gentle chuckle that clashed heavily with his brutish appearance. “Something like that,” he said. “They do say that if you have a conversation with a friend around the pot, it’ll taste better.”

“Oh yeah?” Sera asked. “Who’s they? What are their credentials? Have they published their research to the proper review boards?”

Oren rolled his eyes and gently tapped Jamie’s shoulder with his elbow. “Can you believe this girl, Jamie?”

Jamie jolted in his seat, not expecting to be called upon. “Hmm?” he said absentmindedly. “Oh, yeah. I can believe her.”

Sera laughed. “See? Jamie believes me. Why don’t we just shut up and watch the fire silently, just to see if it tastes just as good? All in the name of science, of course.”’

Stolen story; please report.

Oren just sighed and shook his head.

“Huh?” Jamie said. “Did I say something weird? Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“No need to apologize, Jamie,” Oren said, patting him gently on the back. “It’s not your fault Sera here is insufferable. Just ignore what she’s saying.”

Sera responded by sticking out her tongue.

“To catch you up,” Oren continued. “I told Sera and Lena that talking with a friend while you’re cooking stew makes it taste better once it’s finished. It’s an old wives’ tale, but Sera decided to be an annoying brat and challenge the validity of the statement.”

“And challenge it, I do!” Sera said. “I still think we should try staying silent for the next hour. I’m all for busting stupid superstitions.”

Oren shook his head. “Sorry, Sera. Jamie and I were already talking before you girls came along. We’ve already contaminated the stew.”

“Oh, boo! When did you two become so close,” Sera complained.

Ah. I finally understood what they were trying to do. Though I would never call Sera a normal person, she was acting particularly strange right now, and her strange behaviours always seemed to have a purpose.

Jamie didn’t seem to clue in on what Oren was trying to imply immediately. He stared at the pot for a few seconds before spontaneously jolting in his seat.

“Huh?” he said, as if he was unable to believe what he had figured out.

“Damn boys,” Sera said, shaking her head and pretending like she hadn’t noticed Jamie’s reaction. “Always making friends with each other so easily. You don’t have any idea how hard it was to convince Lena to like me,” Sera said, sighing dramatically and leaning towards me until her head fell gently into my lap. “She’s always playing so hard to get.”

“I’m not sure even I like you yet,” I said. Casual sexism aside, I was already unhappy enough that I was being dragged into this manipulative act that I was being somewhat truthful. “And I’m not playing ‘hard to get.’”

“See?” Sera said, turning to Jamie and pointing up at me, while still lying across my lap. “Boys have it so easy.”

I pushed her off my lap. Sera sputtered and flailed wildly as she fell to the floor, but I had no doubt that she was expecting it.

“Hey, watch it!” Oren said. “You’ll knock the stew over. You know how much work Jamie and I put into this? A conversation between friends is a priceless ingredient, you know. I’ll have you compensate us if you ruin it.”

When Jamie spoke, his voice was soft, almost too soft to make out in the clamour of Oren’s and Sera’s raised voices.

“We’re… friends?”

Oren turned to Jamie, raising his eyebrow, pretending like this wasn’t what he and Sera were trying to achieve in the first place.

“What are you saying, Jamie. Of course, we’re friends. Well, if you want to be,” Oren said, turning away and looking into the fire instead. “I don’t want to be presumptuous.”

“O-of course I want to be!” Jamie said, standing up suddenly. He immediately sat down and turned away, looking slightly embarrassed at his own reaction. “I mean, if that’s alright with you.”

Oren blinked a few times, as if he couldn’t believe what was going on. He was an excellent actor, even better than Sera was. The beaming smile on his face looked completely genuine as he extended a hand to Jamie.

Jamie turned to Oren, his eyes darting between the offered and his beaming smile. He carefully extended his own and grabbed the offered hand.

“Friends?” Jamie said hesitantly, as if the offer would suddenly disappear if he seemed too eager.

“Friends,” Oren said, pulling Jamie in and thumping his back twice.

Oren has joined your party!

I glanced up at the panel, not letting my eyes linger on it for too long. I couldn’t stop a grimace from rising to my lips. Even though I’d realized recently that Jamie was just a kid, I also knew he was still a danger to the world around him, even more so than I’d originally thought if this fourth wall stuff was something to be believed.

But he was still just a kid. The fact that the Mediators were using Jamie’s obvious desperation for friendship to endear themselves to him left a bad taste in my mouth, even more than Sera’s strange seduction attempts did.

I understood that it might be necessary, that it was something that needed to be done to ensure the safety of the world, but that didn’t mean I liked it. The blatant emotional manipulation was difficult to watch.

I stood up.

“I’m feeling restless from sitting down for so long,” I said. “I’m going to walk around for a bit.”

Without waiting for a response, I wandered off.

I didn’t go too far. The night sky was covered mostly in clouds, and without the light of the fireplace, it was difficult to see much of anything, and I didn’t trust myself not to trip over something if I wandered too far into the plains. I just didn’t want to hear anymore of whatever act that Oren and Sera were cooking up to endear themselves to Jamie even further.

It didn’t take long for me to hear footsteps coming up behind me.

“I can imagine how distasteful it must look from the outside,” Sera said.

“He’s just a kid,” I said. “You know that, right?”

Sera didn’t respond right away. She stood behind me for about a minute before walking up to stand beside me. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see her looking up into the cloudy night sky.

“Sometimes I forget you’re not a Mediator,” Sera said. “I keep catching myself thinking that you’ll see the things in the same light that we do and think about them in the same way.”

I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to criticize her and tell her that the Mediators were messed up in the head if they could casually fuck with a kid’s head like this. I knew that they were just doing their job to make sure our world was safe from the monstrous power that each Otherworlder held. But he was just a kid.

“To be clear, I’m glad you don’t think like us. I hope after all this is over, you’ll go home and never think about Otherworlders or Mediators ever again. Just live a peaceful life off the copious amounts of money your government will give you. It’s a good thing you feel sympathy for the Otherworlder. It means you’re normal.”

In the edges of my vision, I saw her turn towards me, but I kept staring forward into the night.

“You never use his name,” I said. “You keep calling him ‘the Otherworlder.’”

Sera turned away from me and sighed. It took her a few seconds to say anything, though I wasn’t sure if that was because she had to gather her thoughts first, or if she was just letting the silence run its course for the sake of it.

“Otherworlders aren’t typically happy people. Otherworlders who have similar or identical personalities to Jamie’s aren’t uncommon in the slightest,” she said. “Even so, Mediators are taught not to sympathize with them, regardless of what they were like back in their home world. Power corrupts, and they all have the potential to become monsters when they arrive here. Many of them do. Some don’t.

“It’s harder to deal with the ones that don’t. On a personal level, at least. Our job is to get rid of them, to protect the world from their influence, and even if the way we do it is by fulfilling their greatest desires, at the end of the day we’re still killing them. It’s not as soul-crushing if we don’t think of them as being like us.”

“So, you act like Jamie’s a monster, just to make it easier to kill him?” I asked.

“Yes,” Sera replied, surprising me with her blunt answer. “Because I might not be able to if I didn’t. And he needs to die, Lena. He’s too dangerous to be kept alive.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing.

“He’s by far the most sympathetic and stable Otherworlder I’ve met. But he’s still too dangerous. All Otherworlders are. If it makes it any better, I’ll mourn him when he dies.”

I sighed.

“It doesn’t make it any better,” I said.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re saying that to the wrong person.”

“I know.”