Aurelius's heartbeat went back to normal after awakening at the campfire, and he squinted at the ash-brown-haired stranger, realizing that she was actually a girl. But that wasn't really the priority. "Enhancers?"

"Good god." the stranger's lifeless look disappeared as her face dropped before she buried her head in his arms briefly before rubbing her eyes and continuing. "How exactly are you that strong with basically no knowledge? Who taught you?"

"Gabriel taught me," Aurelius answered with a nonchalant shrug.

The stranger gasped, her eyes wide. "Gabriel?"

Suddenly Aurelius' heartbeat hastened. "You know Gabriel? Is he famous here?"

The stranger's upper lip curled into a sneer as she leaned forward. "No," she said, shaking her head with disappointment. "It was a rhetorical question. Did you really expect me to know your lousy teacher?"

Aurelius furrowed his brows, flexing his body in a sudden want to get himself free. "Gabriel's not lousy. You're lousy! And what's a retanical question?"

The girl slowly put a palm to her forehead and moved her gaze to the pitch-black sky.

'I feel like she's thinking something not nice right now,' Aurelius thought as he looked at his exasperated companion.

"Okay," Aurelius said.

The girl moved her gaze back to Aurelius. "What?"

"I'll do it. I'll help you get the enhancers or whatever, but I want something in exchange," Aurelius explained, one of the many wisdoms in his notebook running through his mind.

"Hmm, sure," the girl said, tilting his head slightly. "What do you want?"

"I want to reach my full potential and be a hero like my father."

The girl tilted her head a bit more with a deadpan look. "And you want me to do what exactly?"

"I want you to teach me. You're fast, but there was something else to what you did back there," Aurelius said, adjusting his position from uncomfortable to a bit less uncomfortable. "I have some good senses, you know. And your energy signals weren't normal. They were too fast. I don't know if you know, but setups—"

"—emit energy signals that build until the essence is released. I know," the girl reassured Aurelius.

"So teach me your setups," Aurelius demanded, his voice fluctuating as he tried to get more comfortable as he was wrapped in wire.

"Oh, you're a bit off your mark there. You think I have instant setups, but the truth is, I don't have any setups."

Aurelius stopped trying to seek comfort and was awed at what he had just heard. "Setupless essence usage?"

'Why did Gabriel not tell me about that? Surely he knew about it. I bet he could do it too,' Aurelius thought.

"It's called motionless magic," the girl noted. "I can teach it to you, but I can't promise you that you'll learn it. And your fundamentals should be excellent before you begin learning it, or else you'll have a lot of issues."

Aurelius furrowed his brows as he came to a realization. 'So that's why he didn't tell me.' He puffed and felt like crossing his arms. 'I would've waited until I had a handle on my fundamentals. Of course, I would have.'

He then concentrated back on the conversation. "Don't worry, my fundamentals are great. And you're my age, and you can do it, so of course I'll be able to learn it."

"So awkward but so arrogant." the girl scoffed. "How old are you?"

"I'm 16."

"Arrogant and wrong," the girl added to his own statement. "I'm 19-years-old."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Mouth and eyes wide open was Aurelius.

The girl continued speaking, as she figured Aurelius wouldn't. "So yeah, that's that. You help me with the enhancers; I teach you motionless magic."

Aurelius managed to collect himself enough to nod. Then he remembered his uncomfortable position again and addressed it for the first time, "Could you take these wires off me now? Or do you want me to break them?"

The girl sighed and stood up before beginning to approach Aurelius. "I'll take them off. You probably couldn't break them anyway."

"Can I try?" Aurelius' curiosity was awakened.

"Don't. I was just joking," the girl said very quickly and very seriously. It didn't seem like she trusted Aurelius' patience very much. "It's hyperwire, but it'll break if you try hard enough. Depends on how good you're at compression," the girl explained as he removed the wire.

"Compression?" Aurelius asked about the foreign term.

The girl stopped for a second to show Aurelius. She put her hand out and flexed her fingers, which were curled up halfway. The joints in her skinny hands became even more apparent as they popped out as if wanting to squeeze through the skin and flee her body.

Then streaks of blue light appeared, and a sphere of compressed essence appeared at the streaks' meeting point at the center of his palm.

"Compression, as in this," the girl said before relaxing his hand, letting the streaks fade away.

"Oh, you mean close-range combat essence usage." Aurelius nodded with a smile of realization.

The girl sighed and got back to work with removing the wires. "Yeah, whatever."

"Oh, now that we're on the topic of names, what's yours?"

"I'm... Cade," the girl said with some trouble as he worked with the wire.

"You're a girl, right? So why were you with mercenaries? And why were they with you? I thought mercenaries were exclusive or something."

"I needed some help... or fodder. And yeah, mercenaries are some A-grade pieces of shit, so I pretend to be a guy. Pretty good at it too, though doesn't take much to fool those dumb bastards."

"Well, it's good to meet you, Cade. I'm Aurelius," Aurelius said, having to look over his shoulder to see Cade.

"You northerners really like long, overly complicated names, don't you?" Cade spoke monotonously as he kept his focus on the matter before him.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with my name." Aurelius took Cade's comment to heart. "My father was the one who gave it to me. He's Zalfarian."

"Is your father that Gabriel you mentioned?"

"No, Gabriel's Gabriel."

Cade raised her brows. "Ah, right. But why hasn't your father taught you if he's your hero."

"He's not just my hero. He's a hero... And he hasn't been able to."

"You don't know him do you."

Aurelius jolted. "I know my own father."

"Whatever you say," Cade said exasperatedly. "So anyway, you're from the west, then? What are you doing on this side of the great ocean?" Cade kept the conversation going naturally.

"No, I've lived in the Thropes for all my life. My mother is from there."

"Oh, a child of a Zalfarian and someone from the Thropes, huh? How did that happen?"

Aurelius had no real explanation and looked around the dark forest a bit before coming up with something to say. "My father just wanted to see the world and found my mother. What about you?"

Cade stopped for a few seconds again to think of an answer. "Mircrest. Lived there my whole life. My father was a soldier, and he helped me learn motionless magic when I was 12. He died a few years later. My mother got sick and followed soon after."

"I'm sorry about that. But..." Aurelius' face twisted. "At 12?"

"I was... am gifted," Cade answered and got back to work.

"So about these enhancers?"

"Right, they're a kind of miracle drug. They're the blood from the hearts of cursed beasts."

"Huh, where did you think you'd find one of those? Even Gabriel told me he had never seen one with his own eyes."

"The Cloud-Piercing Mountains."

"Ugh, isn't that a long way away?"

"It's not as far as the maps would have you believe. It'll take five days at most, and besides, a long journey is good for you, isn't it? More time for you to train under me before we separate?"

Aurelius turned as best he could to face Cade. "But I was planning to go to Mircrest too. Wouldn't it be better to go together?"

Cade took the time to look back at Aurelius and make herself clear. "Look, I only wanted you as my partner because fighting beasts is easier with someone and because you just so happened to beat my former partners."

"But I can help you with other stuff too, as long as you help me with motionless magic."

"I don't need your help outside of this, and besides, people who are around me too much always end up dead. That's because out of all the people I've ever known, I'm the strongest, but I can't protect others. You'll surely learn that one day as well," Cade said, and there was a sound of the wire rubbing against itself as Aurelius was freed and Cade gathered the wire into a portable shape.

"But we could do a lot of good together. I've heard of how corrupt Mircrest is and some Numen organization that's responsible and I'll stop it."

Cade shook her head. "You have no idea what you're dealing with. You really should stay out of Mircrest and never even think about Numen again." She gave Aurelius a cold look. "Do you understand?"

Aurelius was speechless.

Cade then threw the neatly packed wire onto her bag on the other side of the campfire before offering Aurelius a hand. Aurelius took the offer and was easily pulled up to his feet.

Cade didn't let his hand go just yet, though. On the contrary, she squeezed it harder with her surprisingly small hands. "So that's our deal. For a few days, we will help each other, and afterward, we will walk our separate paths. Is that understood?" She didn't wait for Aurelius to answer. "Good. Now go to sleep. Our journey begins tomorrow."