Something isn't right. Why are all these adventurers just standing around? The forest is right there, isn't it? Aren’t the multisystem users supposed to be fairly deep into the forest?

“What’s going on?” I whisper under my breath. Meagan hears it and responds.

“I have a suspicion, but let me listen a little longer,” Meagan uses a class skill so that only I can hear. At this point, the adventurers have shown they are more than just children, but if anything, that puts us ill at ease. If our objectives are different, we would have to kill them. It is better to be on the cautious side. So annoying.

“What’s up with all these people sitting on their juicy butts?” Jenny spoke up suddenly. Huh. Does she not know what’s going on either? I looked at the three adventurers, or I guess the Jenny Party or whatever they're called. I think they have a name, but eh. Not too important.

Darryn was being himself, looking at a dandelion off the road. I miss dandelions. Technically these just look like them, and if you breathe any of the seeds from this plant it is quite unpleasant. Or so I heard.

The lug was zoned out. His eyes would flicker around until they would eventually return to the Deadelion, heh. Dangit, stupid Yuclaus and his word play. He contaminated me. Oh well, at least it's something to remember him by. Stupid jerk being selfish.

It seemed that Darryn was likewise uninformed as the rest of the adventuring parties, or he was just an extremely good actor. Then again, for all I know he could be a genius under his rough, weird, kinda strange personality. I’m not one to complain though, I appreciate someone who doesn’t care what others think.

Jenny seemed confused too, but I caught her glancing at Khalil from the corner of her eye. That brings me to Khalil. My fellow book enthusiast. If he isn’t suspicious, then I didn’t slaughter thousands of Reforms. Hey, if I can’t laugh about it, it means I haven’t healed. That’s what I’m telling myself.

He was trying to hide it, but his eyes looked slightly glazed, as if some pressure was making them water. His hands were in fists, but a little too clenched. He seemed to notice I was watching.

“I-It must be a camp to push further into the forest. We should move around, get the jump. There is a nice finders bonus for the first team to get information, even more if we capture them,” Khalil stumbled over his words at first, but got more confident as he went. The majority of the “camp” was adventurers standing at the ready with weapons drawn. Camp my butt. He wasn’t fooling anyone, but surprisingly, Jenny agreed to it. So did Meagan.

“It is a shame, but those scrumptious glutes are best viewed from afar.”

“Let's go! We can find a nice clearing for a picnic! I can find us some delicious meat!”

“What aren't you telling me, Meagan?” I whispered under my breath, making an effort to barely move my lips.

“I’m not telling you a lot. Ignorance is bliss. I’ve had the tap on Khalil from the beginning, so I know a decent amount of what is going on behind the scenes. Just follow my lead and trust me,” Meagan said to me alone. What? She’s hiding stuff from me? Way to drop a bombshell when I literally can’t chew you out. Sneaky bi—

“I will tell you this though, there is something more important than the gathering of adventurers. We are all being listened to,” She continued. Meagan was looking down at the ground for some reason. Did she hear something?

“Listened to?”

“This whole area has a net of vines under it. They are constantly shifting ever so slightly. I can hear them burrowing occasionally. They seem to react to movement and sound.” Interesting. It seems there is a bisystem user hiding in the adventurers, or I have an answer to why everyone is so tense.

“Did we ever find out what race the multisystem users are?” I whispered to Meagan.

“No. August’s ability can’t really pinpoint specifics.” I had to hold myself from scoffing at the mention of August. The wild fool once tried to break into Cortex. He was yelling some nonsense about “taking her from him”. Please, the Figment was probably just using him anyway. He was lucky I wasn’t sent to deal with him. The damage he caused the wall gave me enough paperwork to want to deal with him in a spectacular way.

I don’t believe we involved any other races on this mission. I was fairly certain it was a joint Guild and Inquisition operation alone. The odds of there being any other multisystem users infiltrating like we were, is next to none. So it seemed we found one of the multisystem users. Perhaps both.

“Do you hear that?” Meagan once more asked using her ability so only I could hear.

“What? You? Yeah.”

“No, the forest is rustling.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda what a forest does when air blows through it.”

“Yes, but there's no wind. Look, the dandelion still has all its seeds.” I looked over, and she was right, the dandelion looked untouched, it stayed upright and still. No air pushed against it. Now that I was listening for it, I could hear the trees rustling. How ominous. The Reforms must be browning their trousers.

“Justine! Meagan! What are you doing? Let's go!” Jenny called over to us from a fair distance away. They walked away as we were talking. It seemed our cautious behaviour was for nothing. They were cutting diagonally away from the armed group moving towards the forest.

“Yeah, yeah, we are coming. Don’t get your panties in a wad.” Huh, I think that's the first time I used that phrase on someone who wasn't a little pansy of a man. Khalil also turned around upon noticing we weren't immediately following, and got a lot more fidgety. Khalil and Jenny waited for us to catch up, as Darryn just kept wandering into the distance. He started to curve towards a rather normal looking bush. As he went to squat in front of the shrub, Meagan flinched almost imperceptibly.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“You good?” I said aloud. There was no point in whispering when they were so far away.

“No. I thought the bush was going to attack him. There are a bunch of the vines atta—” Without seeing Darryn so much as move, the bush in front of him exploded. I stopped walking for a second, quickly picking up my pace to remain normal looking. Like Khalil’s horrid attempt at hiding his unease, I doubt they didn’t notice me falter.

“Did he just hear us?” I said, still not trying to hide my voice. Darryn turned his head to look me straight in the eyes. At least I assumed he was, my eyesight was not good enough to see the whites of his eyes. I guess that answered my question. We would have to be much more careful about him. It seemed he was hiding more than I thought in our sparring sessions.

“Well, I’m glad to find Darryn more competent than we imagined! It will make finding the multisystem users that much easier!” Meagan spoke cheerfully, but the look she gave me told me that it was just for show. Hopefully, it will alleviate Darryn’s concerns. It seemed to work as he turned back to the miniature crater he made. He then proceeded to pick up clumps of earth, and toss them in.

We came to the same unspoken conclusion that we should pause our conversation for now. Who knew how good Darryn’s hearing truly was. It seemed we would have to be more careful in the future. After a minute or two of walking, we rejoined Khalil and Jenny. They walked alongside us in silence until we caught up with Darryn. All five of us walked side by side, adventures between Meagan and I. If they pulled something, we could catch them between us.

We walked in silence towards the forest. Some of the adventurers from the large group were watching us with various emotions. I couldn’t see their faces, but I can read body language pretty decently. Some seemed to pity us. Others seemed confused. Some seemed… angry? Strange. This is starting to make me mildly frustrated. Someone needs to just explain what’s going on.

We kept trudging along. After both of our sides had made some suspicious actions, the whole group was now tense. Jenny seemed to be touching the sword on her back as a nervous tick. Every time she did, I found my eyes locked onto her hand. If she tried to pull it out of her scabbard, we would have to go all out. I only had the Concussion Gloves on my person. They would have to do it. I don’t have time to open my inheritance, and I definitely do not feel like listening to Yuclaus again.

Meagan stopped walking suddenly. Everyone noticed. We all stopped. She was staring at the forest, but seemed to be looking through it. As if she had located something none of us could see. She also appeared to be extremely shaken. Enough so that I started putting on my gloves. This was not good. Meagan never got upset. The single tear on her face was enough to motivate me to wipe out the adventures and move on to figure out what was happening.

“What’s going on?” Jenny asked, a little panic in her voice. I'm guessing she could sense the change in my demeanor. Perhaps she could tell that they were on my shit list. I finished putting on the right glove, its translucent surface still showing my hands beneath. Colors swirled on its surface. I started on the left glove. Slip on, tighten wrist, flex hand to make sure it fits well.

“Justine, stop.” Meagan said seriously.

“Then someone better explain what the hell is going on. I am this close to swinging,” I emphasize my point by showing a thin line of separation between my thumb and pointer finger. The adventures looked around anxiously. Jenny was staring holes into the back of Khalil’s head. Darryn looked surprisingly alert, eyes flicking between the two of us. Khalil was staring at the ground.

“Justine, the voice in your inheritance, it's Yuclaus’ right?” I felt like I got slapped in the face at the mention of the recorded message. Yuci, Yuclaus, had made sure to record a memory that conveniently worked with my class. Everytime I used what he left me, I had to listen to the whole message, strange pauses and emphasis included.

“Yes it is,” I snapped back. I didn’t mean to, but it was always a sore subject. Meagan and I have talked about him plenty, but the mention of his name still hurts.

“Could I listen to it one more time please?” Meagan seemed to be pleading with me. I was confused about what she was going on about, but I was not in the mood. Had this been a day earlier, I would have gladly obliged. With how everything was right now though, I was not feeling it.

“I don’t see what hearing it again will do. You’ve heard it countless times Meagan. You should know as well as I do what he sounds like.” The girl paused for a moment before responding.

“Ok. I was just hoping I was wrong.”

“Wrong? What about?” It was then I noticed the forest had fallen unusually quiet. The occasional rustling that had become background noise had stopped at some point. Rather than answer my question, Meagan just pointed at the forest. At first, I was confused about what was so interesting about that particular section. It looked the same as all the rest to me. That was until I saw the figure.

A man with jet black hair walked out of the forest. He seemed to have a vine wrapped around one of his feet, as well as his left forearm. Was he using the vine as a shoe and vambrace? He had long hair, and an interesting style to say the least. I am fairly certain that hairstyle died centuries ago.

“Let’s go.” Meagan walked forward at her declaration. The tension between us all was palpable. I followed a step behind the head of the intelligence department. Khalil, Darryn, and Jenny followed behind us. Now that I could see a figure walking out towards us, I shifted my anger and confusion onto him. He must be the reason Meagan and everyone was acting so weird. So, there was a simple solution.

“Justine,” Meagan started, eyes fixed on the figure that seemed to have a slight limp. “Whatever is about to happen, please, please, please, do not say a word.”

“No why would I—”

“JUSTINIA!” Meagan yelled. We all paused for a second. Even the man heard the shout and paused. “Please. Not now. You will see. Don’t say anything, don't do anything.” I was so shocked at Meagan that I could only mutely nod. I had never heard Meagan yell. We had known each other for millenia, but this shocked me more than anything that happened today. I shut my mouth, and obediently followed her as she spun back around.

Something was extremely wrong. When the man saw that we continued moving towards him, he likewise limped forwards once more. The limp seemed to be getting worse and worse the further he went. At one point he seemed to stumble, his vine wrapped shin almost seemed to bend before it abruptly straightened. The man’s lips moved, causing Meagan to spasm once more.

As we got closer, I started to feel an eerie sense of déjà vu. My mind couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but this man was familiar. Soon, I could make out faint features of his face, and my heart tightened. Air wouldn’t come in my mouth. I felt someone gently grab under my arms, pulling them up and opening my lungs slightly. I was able to catch my breath, and mumbled thanks to Darryn. He nodded, but his eyes were fixed on the figure as well.

“Are you ok?” The voice pierced my heart. It felt as if a knife had sliced deep into my chest, being slowly turned. My eyes started to uncontrollably drop tears. I kept my eyes down, I didn’t trust myself to look up. “No seriously, what's going on? I thought you guys wanted to, I don't know, talk or something. Why are two of you crying and the other three look like you just got clubbed over the head. Trust me, I am an expert on the second one.”

Finally, I found the courage to look up. I looked at the face of the man, at the face of my little brother. A symbol of a city overlooked by a tower lit up on his neck.