The next morning, Jamie tried to talk to me again, but was pulled away from me at the last second by Oren, who conveniently wanted to try sparring with an Otherworlder. Jamie seemed anxious at the idea at first, but after a bit of gentle goading by the rest of the Mediators, he reluctantly agreed to a friendly spar.

Oren started off the fight by firing off a salvo of small rocks at Jamie and rushing him with his body simultaneously, using all of his limbs to trap Jamie in a whirlwind of flying strikes.

It was an awe-inspiring display. The speed of his body was fast enough that it was a sure sign that Oren was using magic to enhance his body beyond its natural limits, but the fact that he could cast body enhancing magic, while simultaneously launching magically controlled rocks was something I could have never imagined witnessing.

Though I knew I was just an utter novice in magic, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Oren would be considered one of the strongest magic users in the world.

Even so, it didn’t make a difference against Jamie.

Jamie evaded every single attack with ease. Though he had a small grimace on his face throughout the fight, it didn’t seem like he was worrying about Oren’s assault. I could imagine that he was remembering the same thing as I was. His fight with Medric. How he had killed someone.

Though Oren was much stronger than Medric had been, I doubted it made a difference to Jamie. If at any point, if he wanted to, he could have smacked Oren on the neck like he had with Medric, easily breaking his neck.

After about five minutes passed, Oren collapsed on the floor, sweating and bleeding out of his nose despite the fact that Jamie hadn’t retaliated at all. A puddle of drool spilled out of Oren’s mouth as he lay panting on the floor.

Mana depletion. While it could have been acting, for all I knew, I also didn’t doubt that Oren would go as far as to actually deplete his mana just to make it more convincing to Jamie.

Whether it was faked or not, it worked to Oren’s advantage.

Even if Jamie never touched him, he still felt guilty enough for Oren’s plight that he was easily convinced to spend the rest of the morning helping Oren as he fought against the symptoms of mana depletion. I had experienced mana depletion once before, and I could sympathize with how Oren struggled to even eat his food, forcing him to ask Jamie to physically tilt his head back for him so he could at least swallow some stew.

Though Oren was getting better by the time we finished breakfast, he was still woozy, and needed help getting onto the carriages. Obviously, the perfect person to take care of him was Jamie.

I ended up sharing a carriage with Sera, with Laush driving. We hadn’t spoken since I last confronted her a few days ago, and I had no intention of starting now. Unfortunately, a few hours into our journey, Sera took that choice out of my hands.

“We’re getting close to Plainswood,” Sera said.

Though she paused, giving me the opportunity to speak, I said nothing.

“We think that you’re close to being able to cut you off as the Otherworlder’s follower. Oren and I have been working to make him feel an ample amount of companionship with us, and we’re hoping that with one final push, he’ll be willing to release you from your role as a Chosen Follower. If all goes well, you’ll be able to stay in Plainswood when the rest of us leave.”

I still didn’t look at Sera, but the news was objectively good, right? That’s what I wanted, right? To leave the problem in someone else’s hands? To have Jamie die so he wouldn’t be a threat to my life anymore?

That’s what I wanted, right? For Jamie to die?

“Good,” I said aloud.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sera nod and smile. It seemed a little stiff, but I didn’t care enough to analyze why.

“You’ll have to play along for just a bit longer,” she said. “Our fifth member, will have set up a scenario in your village that will provide you with a good excuse to leave the Otherworlder’s side in an amicable split. We haven’t been able to set up proper communication with him while we were on the road, so we don’t know exactly what it will be. You may be faced with a random stranger posing as a family member or a close friend. If you play along, it’ll give you the highest chance of escaping your Follower status properly.”

The idea was strange, but not to a level that I wasn’t used to by now. I nodded, acknowledging that I heard.

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Sera smiled for a few more seconds before the expression dropped off her face completely. She fixed me with a blank stare that gave away no emotion whatsoever. It was unsettling enough that it drew my attention, making me lock eyes with her.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” she said, her voice monotone.

“For what, specifically?” I asked.

“That I am attracted to you,” she said, with a wince, like saying it was physically uncomfortable for her. “It must make you feel uncomfortable.”

I stared at her for a few more seconds to give the opportunity to say more. When she didn’t, I looked away and shrugged.

“Don’t be,” I said, keeping my voice in the same monotone that Sera was using. “It’s flattering, I guess. Two people falling in love with me at first sight in the span of a few weeks. I’m on a roll.”

“I am not in love with you.” Her voice rose slightly, though I wasn’t sure if it was out of panic, anger, or something else. “I am just attracted to you is all. There is no chance I fell in love with you, whatsoever.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, finding my own voice rising too. Unlike Sera, I could easily identify the emotion behind my voice. “Is that so? Is that teary-eyed face of yours is supposed to help me believe that or not?”

Sera’s eyes widened as she dabbed at the edges of her eyes with her fingers. She didn’t find much, not having cried enough to produce big enough tears, but her eyes were still shiny with moisture. She looked up at me, her blank expression finally morphing into a human one, filled with mortification.

“I-I’m sorry,” she said.

“Are you?” I said, pushing myself up out of my seat. In the small space, I towered over Sera, who was shrinking into herself as much as possible.

“Are you? Are you really? Because I can’t tell what’s real or not anymore. Watching you treat that poor kid like he’s a fucking psychological lump of clay to mold as you please has really put me on the fucking edge.”

That was too far. I knew Sera and the other Mediators were doing what they thought was best for the world, but I couldn’t stop the words from spilling out of me.

“You don’t even do it subtly either. You just gaslight him right in front of me, like it’s no big deal. It’s like you expect me to stomach it, like I’m one of you sickos. I’m a butcher’s daughter, but you don’t see my family opening up a slaughterhouse with glass walls so the village children can watch us cut open a pig’s bloody carcass.

“You flaunt the fact that I can’t trust anything that comes out of that mouth of yours, right in front of my face. I know I’m not special. I know that if you wanted to, you could pull the exact same shit that you’re pulling on Jamie on me, because I know I’m not smart enough to notice it either.”

In a spur of madness, I leaned down and grabbed Sera by the collar of her shirt. She pressed herself far back against her seat, but I didn’t let her escape me, pinning her down with my body and pressing my forehead directly into hers so she couldn’t look away from me. Though a small voice in the back of my head reminded me that Sera could easily kill me if she wanted to, my frustration and anger had been bottled up for too long to be contained. It was going to overflow, and I had no interest in trying to contain it.

“Every time I listen to one of you bastards talk, it feels like I’m in a poisoner’s workshop, downing bottles of dark green liquid that you keep saying is good for me, but I have no idea whether I’m drinking the truth or some lie that will eventually lead to my horrible and painful death. I know how much of a big deal you are. I know how insignificant I am. I know that, in the grand scheme of things, I’m nothing. If your little group thought that they could save millions of people by killing me, they would do it happily, so stop pretending to be so fucking friendly with me.”

Sera was looking up at me, her eyes wide and moist. I was hard to decipher the emotion she was feeling, but I stopped myself before I began to try too hard. I knew that whatever emotion was written on her face, I wouldn’t be able to trust it.

“If you have a way to get me out of this mess, fine. Tell me and shut up. Don’t bother telling me about how you’re fucking sorry, and how great you think I am, and how you just couldn’t help but be attracted to me. If you actually loved me, you would shut up and let your feelings rest, because at this point, anything you do or say can only make me more paranoid and more distrustful of you. If you respect my intelligence at all, you should know that only a fucking idiot would trust you at this point. For the sake of our world, I pray to any Gods who would listen that you’re at least smarter than that. So, are you? Are you a fucking idiot, or are you going to shut up and stop speaking to me?”

It felt good to finally let it all out, but as the anger simmered down after finally having a means of release, I grew more aware of the fact that at the moment, I was sitting on a Mediator.

I had held down and verbally assaulted a Mediator. I was currently letting out deep angry snarling breaths directly on a Mediator’s face, staring her down from atop her lap.

“Y-yes, ma'am. I mean, yes, Lena,” Sera said, in a squeaky voice.

I scowled at her one last time before getting off of her.

“Yes, what?” I asked, still standing.

“I’ll shut up,” Sera said, looking down and away from me.

Satisfied with the answer for now, I sat down.

“Good,” I said.

Sera shrunk in on herself, seemingly trying to occupy as little space as possible. She was curled up, with her shoulders hunched forward and inwards and her hands tucked in between her legs like a kicked dog. Her legs were crossed tightly, and they kept fidgeting, like she couldn’t find a comfortable position for them.

I looked at her face for a brief second to try and decipher what she was feeling. I noticed her biting her lower lip and carrying a deep flush on her cheeks before I caught myself. I looked away from her, not wanting to give her any opportunity to try and confuse me.

I tried looking away, but a panted breath drew my attention back to Sera.

“What was that?” I asked.

Sera looked up at me, red-faced, looking like she was almost about to sweat for some reason.

“N-nothing,” she said.

Surprisingly, she was the first to break eye contact.

I stared at her for a few more seconds before I decided I didn’t want to try and figure out whatever she was trying to do.

I looked out the window, pretending not to hear Sera as she kept fidgeting awkwardly in her seat.