-- Bay --

"Can I go now?" I was staring at an officious-looking man, with a clipboard. The receptionist had sent for him as soon as I had left the room. I was tired and still healing my banged-up legs. He had just been staring down at the clipboard for the last ten minutes. The only thing he said was his name, Salvia, that he was here to interview me.

The man looked up, looking slightly surprised I was there. Had he forgotten me? He shook himself, "After you answer our questions."

I rolled my eyes, "It would help if you actually asked them."

"Ah sorry." He looked down at his clipboard lifting a paper, up. It looked like he was trying to find what questions he already asked. "Ok. What did you experience?

"Big white room of nothingness. Bashed my legs a lot." I added on annoyed.

"Ok." He jotted something down, "Did you touch anything?"

"Yeah. Lots: a wall, another wall. My shins touched more."

"Interesting." The man was not picking up on my sarcasm, or he was ignoring me as he just continued, "What did it feel like?"

I gave up on being annoyed and just started to answer seriously, "Kind of, like, cold stone or steel."

"So...hard?" He asked questioningly.

"Yes?" I answered uncertainly.

"Thank you. Now did you touch anything that pulled on you, or opened you up?" He lowered the clipboard.

It was such a strange question that if I hadn't experienced it in the room, I think I would have been confused, "Yes."

"Did you have to descend anything or climb to touch whatever opened you up?"

"Uh..." I thought back to when I made that connection to the filter, "Climb. Was it not the same for everyone?" I asked confused.

The man ignored my question asking his own, "Ok, and when you entered the room did you notice the change."

"Uhh..." I thought back to when I entered the tower. I remembered coming in and someone saying something. Was there anything?

"It's ok to take your time to think." The man said.

After trying to remember, "Not really. One minute I was walking eyes closed, and when I opened them I was in there."

The man wrote frantically on his clipboard. Then he stopped and eagerly asked, "And when you left?

"Same." I leaned back a little creeped out by the man's enthusiasm. Was I like this when I got obsessed?

The man wrote some more before letting out a long sigh, "Looks like it's still consistent."

Seeing the man put his pen down. I took a chance to try to get some answers, "Could you explain why there was no path to the place I left, or why I can't seem to find where I was now that I've left?" I pointed to the wall I supposedly came from.

"That was the filter." The man said nonchalantly.

"Like, the actual filter. The thing keeping things secret?" I asked in disbelief. How could that be the filter, that kept the secrets of the world, secret? In a tower at the edge of the world. It didn't make sense.

"Exactly! Well Kind of. It's one of them. There are multiple towers, multiple filters all around the continent. And for your information, the last person who went in there described the room as orange-ish and felt soft like fur."

"What?" But it was nothing like that for me.

Salvia shrugged, "The filter randomizes everything. It's impossible to see or feel anything in there and be sure of what it is." He explained.

If that were the case, "Then...do you even know where the filter is?"

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"Somewhere, in this building," Salvia said gesturing to the entire building.

"You don't know?" I could only look at him confused. How could that be possible? It should be right around here. I did just reappear here.

"It is hidden by the filter itself. It screws with everyone's senses." The man seemed annoyed at this fact.

"But how do you do any research?"

"Energy readings, the flow of power, people who wander in." The man added the last with a chuckle.

I felt embarrassed I had been one of the latter, "Sorry about that."

"Happens with new mages all the time. We always get good data." Salvia said excitedly.

"Uh happy to help." I realized I really was a test subject, and just wanted to meet up with Violet and the rest, "Can I go now?"

"Ah yes." He looked over my shoulder at the receptionist who was giving the man a thumbs up. "Your escort will be here in a moment."

"Escort?" Why would I need an escort? Where would I be escorted to? The only thing I could think of was I had violated some kind of law. "Am I under arrest?"

"Oh no." The man said frantically. Trying to put my worries at ease, "You're a quester, and the city leader has issued an order that you need to go to a training compound with the test of your team."

"How did you know I was a quester?" Did I give myself away somehow?

"Your new." He said simply.

"And that's all it takes?"

"This time of year, yeah."

How could it be that simple? But what I said was, "Fuck."

"Oh don't worry. You guys just get training." Salvia said reassuringly. Though I don't know what or why we would need to train for.

"What? That's weird that they would just train us." I was trying to understand.

"Oh that. Migration is going to be massive this year so they want your help."

"Migration?"

The man looked at me surprised. I guess it was common knowledge here, "Big monsters come out of the crack and try to destroy everything."

"So...no big deal then," I said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I thought so too but they're making a big stink." The man said scrunching his nose up annoyed.

I didn't know what to say to that. Instead, I focused on questioning the man learning what they do here. Finding more about the filter. Asking how the filter works. How it can judge and assess our intent in real-time and blur it out.

A lot of it he didn't know, but their theory was very interesting. They think that the power itself was sentient with some type of hive mind attached to the filter, constantly transmitting through the air. I wondered if there was some way to stop the broadcast, and he said the world is too saturated, and we've been attempting to do just that for centuries.

When I asked what powered it, he said the filter constantly draws in power from the air and broadcasts some sort of signal. Apparently, the power near the crack is extremely dense, so it was the perfect place for something like this. When I asked why so much power was here he said it had something to do with the barrier.

"Barrier?" I asked. I had never heard of a barrier. Did I miss it?

"Yeah, that's what the crack is. A crack in the barrier." The man said casually as if he didn't just drop a bomb on me.

"Barrier for what?" I asked fearing the answer.

"Monsters."

"But there are monsters all around."

"Not that kind. Bigger, stronger, and more numerous. We think the barrier was put up to give humanity time to grow strong."

"Who put it up?" I leaned in wonder who could possibly put a barrier up of that size.

"We think we he keepers. But records from that time have been....Filtered."

The man was very forthcoming with information but learning the filter was actively hindering us, "But..."

"Hello. Here to pick up the mage." A large man stepped inside interrupting our conversation.

"Just when the conversation was getting good," Salvia said, with resignation.

"Hello?" I said questioningly. I had completely forgotten I was to be escorted somewhere. I still wondered if this would be a good or bad thing.

The man gave a big friendly smile, "Hi, Edelweiss sent me to get you, and bring you to the training compound."

"Well let's go. I'm really tired." Since I was no longer talking to Salvia I was feeling everything start to catch up with me.

The man gave me a sympathetic look, "Right this way." Leading me out of the building.

They brought me to a massive building with all sorts of training equipment. I walked through the lower floors and passed by everyone from my team. They were all training in different ways. None of them seemed to notice me as I passed by their separate training rooms. Rowan and Violet just looked angry and James was doing really strange yoga-esq moves.

Odd. When I. Passed by Aster he was moving around but kept tripping over his own feet, or dropping his weapon, and his trainer looked kind of like a ninja. I couldn't help but stop and watch. It was strange I knew Aster had issues moving, but I never knew it was this bad. He moved with his sword and almost fell from how off-balance he was. The, am who I think was his trainer took a step forward and he went to swing only to lose grip on it. None of it was adding up. Was it something the man was doing?

I felt a hand on my shoulder interrupting my viewing. I looked up to see the man let go and gesture to follow. I tore my eyes away from Aster just wondering what kind of training he was going through. I wondered if they were bringing me to train right now, so I said aloud, "I think I'm too tired for training."

"That's alright. Your teacher won't be here till tomorrow. You got out pretty quickly." The man said, smiling.

If I got out quickly, "How long does it normally take?"

"Couple days." The man thought for a second, "You got out in about half a day or so."

"What if I took longer?" I asked wondering if they would have just let me rot in there.

The man scratched his chin, "They send someone in to get you but it's really tricky so that can take another day or two."

"Wow." I didn't know if I was lucky or not.

"If it makes you feel any better it's kind of a right of passage for new mages." He said seeing my shock.

"No. No, it does not."

It grew quiet the rest of the way to the room. Though that was only a minute. When we reached the top floor he brought me to a door and handed me a key, "Here your room hands her a key."

"Thank you."

Then the man left.