Sweat dripped down Owen’s brow as he collapsed to his knees. It had been days of non stop physical training and every single fibre of his being screamed in agony. Each movement strained his muscles to the point that he knew they shouldn’t even be functioning.

“Get up!” Alister yelled, standing a few feet away with a device in hand that on its small screen displayed the numbers sixty three. He had been adamant about numbers ever since they had started. “The average thirty to forty year old healthy mortal will easily reach eighty on a single swing. I need you to be hitting at least three times that!”

“The average thirty to forty year old mortal doesn’t fight for days straight without a break…” Owen whined as he got back to his feet leaning on the training sword.

“You are also not average,” Alister responded tersely. Resetting the number on the counter he took a step towards Owen and poked his chest “Three hundred and six times you have hit me since we began. Do you know how much that would accumulate if it all hit at once?”

Owen didn’t have time to respond before the man's fingers were pressed against his chest in an open palm formation. The tips were already exerting a decent amount of force on their own but he was not expecting what came next.

In an instant, Alister pressed forward, closing his fingers into a fist from their position and the force that hit his chest was enough to knock not only the wind out of them, but his very soul out of his body if it was not already tethered.

What the force actually did was send his body hurtling at breakneck speeds across the field and eventually directly through the small town they had set up. He didn’t touch the ground for some time, but when he did it caused his body to flip like a rock skipping across the head of a lake, leaving large holes of destroyed earth in its wake until he finally came to a stop when he hit the ground one last time and the hole created was enough for him to be left laying in.

Of course, being immortal, he survived it. That didn’t make it any less painful. Given that they had figured out his form of immortality was complete indestructibility he at least didn’t need to worry of the intensely uncomfortable feeling of his bones needing to relocate themselves.

His brief moment of focusing on the pain ended when he heard Alisters voice boom from what he could only describe as a few miles away “You have ten minutes to make it back here!” the voice echoed. No doubt everyone in the nexus heard the command.

There was no way he could make that distance in a matter of minutes. Not even the fastest human alive could make that distance in ten minutes. Standing here thinking about it was not going to get him anywhere as he was pulled out of his thoughts by the ground below him shuddering and moving to reform itself back to the way that it was beforehand.

It was amazing to see what Psychopomps magic could do. The richest kingdoms in the world would have access to spatial distortion nexuses like this, but even the most powerful mages all working together could only create one about the size of a small house at best. Yet here, this dragon simply created an entire village with multiple training fields and a fake night and day cycle for them to train in.

With his legs functioning again, Owen began to run, watching the ground ahead also reform. As he passed he couldn’t help but imagine all the other things such a powerful being could do. Right now he had to worry what Alister was going to do to him if he didn’t make it back in time. There was no hope in the seven kingdoms that he would.

Passing through town he was already exhausted, sweating heavily and panting as his pace had slowed to that of a crawl. One foot in front of the other was all he could do but each step was another shot of intense pain.

It felt like running on a broken leg at times, the bone may have been attached but it certainly felt like it wasnt. Osmir was waiting in the town centre for him to pass. No words to exchange but a bottle of water held out for the recruit.

“Thank you,” Owen stammered as he grabbed it, keeping his slow but steady pace.

By the time he made it back to the field Alister looked less than impressed. “That was an hour and a half. Slower than the average male's running speed for your age.”

Owen had collapsed to his knees by now, panting heavily and struggling to respond. Every single muscle in his body begged for rest. “I…” Was all he managed to push out between breaths.

“You need to do better, yes,” Alister sternly finished his sentence for him. He was not without mercy and offered a hand to him. “You will rest for now. Go to the mess hall in town and eat. Get a rest afterwards and then we will see what you study next.”

Owen dared not question his decision and with a nod he took his hand and stood. He had to endure the pain as it was, so he might as well endure it to a pleasant meal and some rest. The mess hall was quite simple as it only needed to serve its basic function. A long table set up for eating at and a counter that had the kitchen behind it.

It wasn’t anything fancy, simple tools to create the basics. A stove, an oven and an area to wash up once done. The ingredients were piled up in crates on one side, and it seemed they didn’t care much for organising everything other than placing those that needed to be preserved in the freezer.

Given the state of the compost bin they also didn’t care much for variety. It looked like they had been eating the same meal in large quantities. Alister approached the kitchen and Owen had to stop him before he started cooking “Oh allow me to cook.” He assured, walking up and placing a hand on his back.

The large man was rather confused that he would want to cook in his state, shrugging and moving to the side “Fine. If you feel you are up for it.”

“I very much am,” Owen responded. Checking what ingredients they had on hand without needing to open up another crate and luckily, he had enough to make a stew. Enough for the entire nexus too.

He rummaged through the supplies they had in hopes of finding a suitable pot and luckily enough they at least knew they would be cooking for a large number of people from time to time and there was a pot that could only be best described as a cauldron for the purposes of feeding them all.

“I’ll make something for everyone. It is the least I can do.” Owen tried to assure Alister, not wanting to say that he just outright didn’t trust his ability to cook but he had an idea that by now an immortal probably cared little for taste and ate purely for the practicality of not feeling hungry.

“So.” Alister said to break the silence after a few minutes. “Tell me, what is your innate ability?”

That was a term he had never heard before, most likely something from Alisters time so he asked for clarity “Do you mean my affinity?”

“Ah, yes, that is what you call it these days.” He responded, slightly dejected.

In order to help him not dwell on it too long, Owen responded “Well, it isn’t anything useful for combat or magic. My sister was naturally attuned to fire magic and I landed with a heightened sense of smell and taste.”

“I suppose that is why you wish to be the one cooking?” Alister asked in return. Partly, the other being he just wanted some form of flavour to exist in the dish.

“It is.” Owen responded, finishing cutting up the vegetables and adding them to the pot. A simple click of his fingers below created the spark needed to light the stove. Water was added next to get to the boiling point along with the fist full of seasoning before he moved on to seering the meats on a pan. “One would say that Alchemy and cooking are no different, so my skill set is interchangeable.”

Alister seemed to pause for a moment with the explanation, bringing a large hand to his chin and gently rubbing it in thought. “Is something amiss?” Owen asked, fearing that he may have caused some form of offence.

“No, not at all.” The large man responded once he was done with his thought “I simply… Knew a man who said a very similar thing in my youth.”

Owen felt that he needed to understand who he was working with better and while he wanted to ask questions he wasn't sure just what was appropriate or not, finally deciding to bite the bullet and ask “How long have you been immortal?”

Again he seemed to think for far too long on the question before responding “I cannot say for sure anymore. I do know that I was born before psychopomps took his place atop the tower.”

That caused even Owen to pause in turn, unsure how to process such information as the dragon had been known to be coiled around the tower since the earliest records of knowledge. That would mean Alister existed before everything as he knew it, some scholars even speculating that there was nothing before the dragon perched and brought life to the land.

Alister noticed the pause and continued “It has certainly been a long time, but there is no need to dwell on the past just yet. Give it time and we can discuss my experiences in due time.” Owen continued to cook in silence as he tackled mentally the idea that most of what he had studied may have been completely wrong and Alister allowed him to.

The smell of the stew eventually drew in the noses of passers by and Osmir entered in some more casual clothing this time of a large tunic set to fit him and baggy pants that were more for comfort than anything. “Someone actually cooking?” He asked, seeing the two and approaching to sit with Alister.

“I’m making a beef stew,” Owen called from behind the counter, taking a spoon to taste it after. It needed about five more grams of salt and thirteen of pepper. Considering the flavours he could peer within the broth he also searched through what spices they had so he could add a gram of paprika. Given how large the pot was it would dilute quite heavily but the larger quantities of other spice would make up for that so the paprika could give a very subtle taste. He may even be the only one to even notice it.

He often got lost in his cooking so he could make the perfect meal for himself given his sensitive sense of taste. So absorbed that he had no idea that Swiss and Frost had entered, along with a new guest.

Turning back when the pot was ready to boil he saw that Frost sat with a… frog… Sitting on the table in front of her. Not just any old frog, but a small frog that had an equally small wizards hat on.

It felt like some form of prank, something that they threw together just to confuse him so he asked “Uh… Is the frog a member..?”

“Yes.” Frost replied tersely.

Osmir decided to elaborate and explain “Yes, he is one of us. Though as an immortal being he is an enigma. No need to pay much heed for now.”

By now Owen was used to the weirdest things happening so he did his best to remove it from his mind and walked over to the table to sit with them as the pot bubbled “Alright, well what is my next training?”

Swiss was eager to explain it as she almost stood up on the wooden bench and said “You will be learning mind magic today!”

That was certainly what he was hoping to hear. From what he knew of the nexus, with time passing so slowly the moles would most likely not want to spend the entire time here so it made sense they would want to teach him as early as possible so they could leave.

Dinner was a rousing success as everyone enjoyed the meal and with a few compliments to the cook he was on his way to finally rest. In the small hut he had been assigned his head had barely hit the pillow before he was unconscious.

The following… morning? He assumed it was morning but the sun wasn’t in the sky but heavens knew how time actually passed in this pocket dimension. In the trunk by his bed he was given some spare copies of a generic tunic and pants to wear while his clothing was being washed.

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For now he changed and dumped his clothes in the basket outside the mess hall for laundry he went to where he was told to meet his new trainer for this magic. A few brief questions at dinner let him understand that he was to be the first to learn mind magic within the group.

Checking that he was in the right area as he approached he was sure he had made some kind of mistake. Looking around he was standing in the same empty field that Alister had launched him into the day prior and as far as he could tell, he was alone. “Did I go to the wrong place?” He thought.

Those thoughts soon felt muddled and vague, as if he had suddenly forgotten what he was doing here or what he was even thinking about in the first place. A strange white noise filled his mind that made it quite difficult to formulate a coherent thought, a scraping feeling crawling up the back of his neck once again that pushed and prodded at the back of his head before the white noise intensified.

Steeling himself to combat the feeling he slapped his cheeks and focused as hard as he could which led to the noise dying down and being replaced with a voice. No, it was more like a suggestion of what he should be hearing. “Hello, once again.” It spoke.

Was it a voice? It was hard to tell as it felt like when psychopomps spoke with the group. A message directly into the mind to be interpreted how the sender intended. “Hello?” Owen asked, once he had gathered enough of his senses to stand upright, but his balance was slowly faltering and he stumbled a few times.

After another few moments of nausea induced by this feeling, it died down, as if someone suddenly turned off the overflowing faucet that was pouring feelings into him.

Now that the white noise had died down and he could think straight again he felt a presence behind him. At least he thought it was a presence, but a quick turn revealed it to be multiple, three to be precise.

It was the moles, the large creatures that stood towering above him, well… Two of them did at least, the third was only a tad bit shorter than Owen. “Such is an example of the dangers of our magic,” the tallest mole imparted “Muddling the senses to create an opening for assault.”

“Hello,” the second imparted in a tone that at least Owen would interpret as a kind old lady… Or was that how they wanted to be interpreted. At least, that’s what Owen assumed. The third was what Owen dictated to be a child of the species as it was shorter than him and their small squinted eyes were filled with a curiosity of the world around them. It was clear they wanted to ask questions but they remained silent for now. The large one next to them had one claw wrapped around the child’s side and held them close. “Now dear, time for exploring comes later.”

The one that addressed him first spoke into his mind again and said “You are the one I met with the rat, correct?” His tone was much more gruff and direct. It almost felt like speaking to Alister if he was at least a few feet taller and covered in fur… Somehow those claws seemed less dangerous than Alister’s fists.

Owen was taken aback of course, without a single noise the three had suddenly appeared out of thin air and the smallest of them seemed fixated on him, tugging at the fur of what Owen assumed was an elderly lady. “Not now, later.” She spoke, she must have been manually letting him in on the conversation as no verbal words were shared.

“Mind magic seems quite malleable.” Owen thought as he watched.

Of course he should have expected the largest mole to reply. “It is, when we allow you to be a part of it.”

It took him off guard at first and the panic led to a rather rude response. “He’s reading my mind, that's not allowed is it?” He thought while reeling.

Once again the largest replied, though he seemed amused this time and said “Sun survivors truly are an odd breed. The mind is far more truthful than the mouth,” once again repeating what he had said in the tunnels.

Owen calmed himself as best he could and stood upright to at least appear confident, deciding it may be best to not use his words then. “Alright.” He thought, easier to focus now that he at least understood they were listening to him “I was told I would be learning from you today?”

Again, the largest replied “You will.” This time he waved a claw to the other two who simply shared a nod before they began to burrow under the ground. Those massive claws easily tore away at the dirt as if it was slicing through cake. Scooping up each claw full, the two were underground in a matter of moments, vanishing within the depths of the artificial earth.

When Owen turned his attention back to the large one, he was gone. Or so he thought.

“We will need to start with the most basic of basics.” His voice rang in his head once more. Soon finding that he was standing to his side, having moved without a single noise. What was more surprising was that Owen couldn’t even smell him. As odd as it sounded, his heightened sense of smell allowed him to track someone quite easily. At times he couldn’t help it, letting him at least know someone was near. Not this time though, only when he reappeared did he sense it.

“You have almost zero mental defences. Such a common thing for those who walk on land,” again he vanished, and once again, he appeared to Owen’s other side. “Mind magic grants the ability to influence the minds of others. Such as removing your presence from their senses.”

With that, his first lesson began and he sat in the field with the mole, keeping his legs crossed and arms steady he followed the instructions he was given. According to the mole it required him to stop being so dependent on his sight. While sight was important for most creatures, it hindered one's progression with mind magic.

The problem here became that everything he was told from the mole simply came down to shutting out his other senses, something that was very difficult for someone to do. That point made the first session of training simply consisted of Owen sitting in the middle of a field with his eyes closed listening to the mole simply stating occasionally that he must continue to do as he did.

“I think this will do for your training today.” The mole said after hours of simply nothing happening.

Standing up from his seated position Owen decided that it was now best to address some concerns with him. “Do you have a name?” Was his first question, unsure how they would address each other given how they spoke.

“I do not. We recognize each other through our mental waves.” It replied tersely, before adding “If it makes it easier for your kind, you may come up with one for me until you are able to communicate properly.”

“Well…” Owen mentioned as he considered what a possible name would be suitable for such a hulking creature. Finally settling on “Then from now, until I can replicate your mind magic I will call you Hugur.”

Hugur seemed to take a moment to digest the name, a large claw rubbing at the top of its head before a nod followed “If it makes our interactions easier, then so be it.”

It was a deal, and one that Owen felt was a learning opportunity for Hugur, so he held his hand out towards him. Expecting the confused look from the mole, he explained “This is a common gesture for the surface dwellers. It is a way to show we both agree on something.”

Hugur took a moment to examine his mind before reaching his large claw forward. Owen needed a moment to figure out how to best take a hold of his claw without hurting himself, but ultimately he took the hit of pain for now by gripping onto the sharp side of his claw. “This is a sign that we agree.” He explained as he shook his claw.

“A sign we agree.” Hugur repeated, shaking a bit too frivolously that ended up lifting Owen off the ground and then somewhat aggressively placing him back down which caused him to stumble and fall.

“It will take a bit of practice, but you got the right idea.” Owen said once he got off the floor and dusted himself off.

“We will return to training tomorrow.” Hugur said once the handshake ended.

“Alright, rest well.” Owen responded.

He watched Hugur dig his way into the dirt as the two moles had before him, easily slicing his way into a tunnel that the mouth healed up once he was deep underground. “I’m not sure if I will ever get used to seeing that…” Owen thought before he headed to his next appointment.

The next set of unique training was with Osmir. Unsure what he would be learning from him he approached the building that Osmir stayed in in the centre of the village square. Opening the door he found it looked quite similar to a doctor's office. A waiting room and all with Osmir himself sitting at the front desk reading over his tomes. “Welcome, welcome,” he began, holding one finger up to usher him one moment as he used another to trace along where he was reading. Snapping the book shut a moment later he stood and said “A pleasure to have you. Today we will be going over one of the most important skills you need as an immortal.”

He ushered Owen inside to his ‘office’ where he had two comfortable seats waiting. A desk full of tinctures and potions along with some more standardised medicines and books of the anatomy and treatments for various races across the realm. He sat by the desk and offered Owen the seat across from him which seemed to be genuine leather if the feeling was anything to go by.

“So, what are we going to be learning today?” Owen asked.

Osmir looked through his books for a moment, sorting them and placing back some of the phials he was using for medicine. Cleaning off the table he leaned against it and explained “The most important skill you can have as an immortal is to care for yourself.” That felt like such a cop out answer but Osmir continued to explain “You may feel it is okay to start neglecting your body, or to take your immortality for granted in the grand scheme of things, but we need to understand that our body still has functions and while yes, we can ignore them… Well, the body doesn’t like when we do that.” He took a moment to allow Owen to take in what he said before continuing once he nodded. “Lets take your need to eat. You may feel that it is not important anymore. Your body will sustain itself. Which it will. Though you will still feel hunger and eating will keep you energised. Going too long without eating will cause the usual symptoms of starvation, you simply cannot die from it.”

That was a far more grim way to put it and it at least painted a vivid picture for Owen of what would happen. Then Osmir moved on to “The bigger one is your mind.” Leaning in he looked over Owen’s face closely, examining every little detail along with how he looked away from him at any given chance. “You need to learn to accept that what happened was not your fault. That it was in essence, a freak accident of nature that led you down the path you wound up on.”

Words that weighed heavily on Owen’s mind for some reason. It hadn’t exactly been something he had a lot of time to think about since the incident, but they held weight. Owen was unsure how being placed into a tube against his will was a freak accident of nature. Osmir let him chew on the information for a few moments before he continued “You may be best speaking with Swiss at some point. She obtained her immortality in a similar way to you but should you ever need it you can come speak with me in confidence.”

The rest of the session was mostly tips and tricks on how he could remind himself when he needs certain things as it was easy to forget about eating when focused.

Taking the advice from Osmir he wanted to approach Swiss as she had also extended an offer to him before. He found her sitting atop a hill not far from the village watching the artificial stars pass overhead. “Hey…” Was all he said at first, unsure how to even approach the conversation topic.

“Hey there. You managed to shower this time?” She asked as she turned her head to watch his approach.

Owen was unsure if that was meant to be a jab at his awful joke, until she started cackling seeing the confusion on his face. “Come on, sit down, stinky.” She said, her ears relaxed and hanging to the side.

Wordlessly Owen sat down on the grass next to her and pulled his knees up to his chest, joining her in staring up at the sky. “I still can’t believe that this is all artificial. A world that exists within its own space with its own laws,” he said after what he felt was sufficient time had passed.

“You learn to get used to the strange things that happen around here,” she added in response. Pointing up at the moon she explained “We can actually decide the time of day here for when it calls for it.” Moving her hand as she kept a finger pointed at the moon, dragging it along the sky to advance the time of night where the stars rushed to meet its position creating a somewhat picturesque lightshow in the sky.

Everyone and their mother was able to practise magic these days, even if they had no innate ability to do so they could get pre-made wands with spells imbued which made what once felt whimsical and amazing as a child feel normal, and yet, even then this felt like magic to him, sparking that childlike wonder within him.

She knew why he was here and when she was done playing with the moon she placed it back into its original position in the sky. “What do you think the price of progress is?” She asked.

As an alchemist that was a difficult question, he had strove for progress his whole life, but what was he willing to give up for it?

“I… don’t really know…” He said at first. “Normally I would have said progress at all costs, but after seeing what happened at the labs I worked for I am not so sure anymore.”

Swiss seemed satisfied with his answer before she continued “Most would agree with your original mentality. A raging sea of ratling corpses littered the sewers and sidewalks before we were considered sentient enough to not be classified as monsters.” She clenched the grass under her in one hand as she brought up the past of her people “Thousands of lives lost in the search for this so-called miracle that is Immortality.”

“All for one person's sick desires…” Owen added. Simply recalling his own experience, knowing many people strive for the same end goal.

“Then when I finally was found to be truly immortal, the labs rejoiced. They threw parties and planned to use the process on everyone within the lab. Until Alister and Osmir arrived,” Swiss said, playing with the individual blades she pulled up before blowing the rest out of her hand.

“Was it as horrific a sight as what you both did in the labs you found me in?” He asked, still reeling at the sight and the smell of those mounds of corpses that were ultimately set alight and forgotten to history. Ironic that their end was similar to their victims.

Forgotten and erased from the records.

A thought passed through his mind, he was in essence the same as them. Who he once was, lost to the flames. To those he loved and cared for, they probably assumed that he was within the pile of bodies found. He would need to come up with a way to give them closure without scaring them once he returned to the real world.

“It was kinda the same. He was far less subtle about turning the alchemists into a fine red paste,” she explained. Leaning back she used her hands to keep herself propped up. “It’s okay to hate what happened, even okay to hate who did it to you… It is best though, to learn to not to hate yourself for what feels like letting it happen. There was no way you could have predicted what they would do to you.”

Twice now he had been told not to blame himself. Of course it made sense and only natural you would want someone to be able to recover from what he had been through but ultimately he wasn’t sure where these feelings of resentment came from.

Sitting back and thinking on it, he had the same feeling towards Alister, the same feeling towards psychopomps, and hell, a tinge of that regret and anger sunk in while dealing with Hugur which he easily could tell when delving into his mind during their training.

He tried to place it into words but he found nothing came out. Swiss saw his struggle and mentioned “No need to force yourself to speak. We can just enjoy the sights together for now.”

Of all the thoughts racing through his head, all the questions and uncertainties, the thought of simply sitting in silence with some company was… comforting. Taking her up on that offer he simply stared at the stars and lost himself in a daydream of home.