The next day, Uncle Vath and Lily set out before dawn. Both were familiar enough with the land near their compound that they were able to navigate in the dark, and Uncle Vath had intentionally set their first waypoint deep enough into the forest that it was unlikely that other humans would come across it. Uncle Vath led the way while Lily hiked resolutely behind him carrying a camp roll and a pack loaded with empty sacks that Lily would soon fill with herbs, edible plants, interesting rocks, and other loot from their trip. Her uncle carried the bulk of their supplies in his hidden storage space.

The path leading from their stead to the near edge of the forest was about two miles long and well-trodden. Long open fields created necessary sightlines from the stead to the forest. Other families would have filled this space with their crops but Lily and her Uncle survived and profited on the forest’s bounty. Gentle grass- and shrub-covered hills steadily increased in elevation and ruggedness as the pair neared the first trees of the unsettled forest.

Reaching the abrupt wall of trees was always an exciting experience for Lily. Within and between the trees she could feel the greatly increased density of natural essence in the forest. From the outside, it seemed like a wall of mist separating the settled lands from the wilderness. After dawn, the essence would contractback into the forest, going who knows where during the day before creeping out into the open again after dark.

In this way, the forest breathed.

The strategy was the same for all scavengers: the group would chase the essence into the forest, following just outside as the essence withdrew inwards and collecting whatever they could grab on the way in before racing back out in the evening.

Most hunters and scavengers had no way of knowing exactly where the line of safety was, but generations of runners had left waypoints along the way: dawn markers just outside of the forest, hour markers that were either more or less accurate depending on the time of year, and of course a noon mark to know when to turn back. In the deepest parts of the forest it could be difficult to see the sun so the best scavengers had an uncanny knack for knowing the time. They were also gamblers because the essence cloud didn’t always retreat and advance predictably or steadily. It took luck and a certain type of courage to push in, knowing the cloud might at any moment be reaching back toward you.

That’s where Lily came in. Neither she nor her uncle had much to fear from the natural essence anyway, but Lily helped them avoid it altogether. Able to sense and follow the flow of the corruptive clouds, Lily could guide her Uncle through gaps and safer paths. Areas that were either free of natural essence entirely or at least less saturated.

Based on the waypoint scale, Uncle Vath’s first waypoint was 5 hours past the last noon marker. Any other scavenger would be dead by 3 o’clock. After a certain point, it would become impossible to altogether avoid the essence, but for their own reasons both Lily and her uncle were mostly safe outside of the truly dense areas and Lily could always see these danger zones to avoid them.

While it was still dark the pair stopped outside of the forest. Lily sat cross-legged with her back to the forest and her uncle sat in the same pose facing her. Meditation was a daily practice for the two of them, the first step of Vath’s three-part philosophy: know where you are, know where you are from, know where you are going. He applied these rules to everything he taught Lily.

Lily sank into the breathing pattern her uncle had taught her: in for a long five count, out for a quick two count, repeat. Normally distractible, the edge of the forest was one of the few places Lily found that she could relax into a state of mindfulness. Behind her, the dense cloud of natural essence lapped against the edge of the forest. Subtle ripples emanated out of the forest into the vastly reduced quantity of mana beyond, slowly spreading out towards the steads and beyond the range of Lily’s senses.

Directly in front of her the ripples broke against her uncle, creating an overlapping wave pattern behind him until her ability to follow the flow faded in the distance. In this state of relaxation, Lily could almost use the flows as a form of second sight. There the essence lifted slightly as it passed over a nearby hill, filtering slowly through the sparse trees on top and more quickly around them. Essence passed through everything nearby except, of course, her uncle. Lily imagined that the light from the stars fell on the invisible cloud all around them, punching holes through on its journey to highlight the tall grass all around them.

As one and without any signal, both Lily and her uncle held their breath for a count of five. Even the insects and the wind stilled as Lily slowly counted up.

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One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

And on five, the whole world started to breathe again just as the first hint of a pre-dawn glow lit up the eastern horizon. One last ripple passed through the ocean of essence around them, and then whatever force was pushing it out of the forest ended and the essence started the slow process of withdrawing. It would be a few more minutes before the edge of the mist passed where she and her uncle sat and it would be an hour beyond that before the other foragers would brave the boundary of the forest. Lily and her uncle would enter long before they arrived.

Lily continued her breathing pattern, but the moment of peace was gone. What was about to fill that space was something even better: a story. Uncle Vath would only ever tell her one story per trip to the forest, but the two of them have been venturing inside for as long as Lily could remember. Uncle Vath had a lot of stories, he’d never told the same one twice.

He also liked to keep Lily waiting.

This time she was not going to crack. He had never not told a story before they went on a trip into the forest. Asking would result in more “meditation lessons,” and so she would wait.

“You found peace for three whole minutes. Congratulations, a new record.” Uncle Vath commented quietly.

“Hey! If you were actually meditating, you wouldn’t have noticed!” Lily jumped up in place and pointed at her uncle. Uncle Vath slowly opened his eyes and stared at the accusatory Lily.

“And if you were meditating properly, you wouldn’t have heard me say that.” His smile betrayed the mock seriousness in his voice. “How can you know where you are if you don’t take the time to be there? Don’t always rush to the next thing.”

“Even if the next thing is stories?”

“Even then. Stories are important too though.” He smiled.

Lily hurriedly sat back on her knees, unable to stop herself from leaning slightly forward. However, Vath would not be rushed. He took his time, closed his eyes again, and composed his thoughts for a full (agonizing, for Lily) twenty seconds before he began to speak, beginning his story in the same way that all of his stories began: with ancient history.

“Just over five hundred years ago we came to this world as refugees. We humans were backed into a corner and hiding from a foe we had no hope of fighting. We took our adversary’s world-traveling technology and used it ourselves, desperate to find an undiscovered world to retreat to, but what we discovered was desolation.

So many worlds. Time after time we sent teams through the portals only to find that our enemy had been there first. Most of the worlds had been stripped of life and water and then abandoned. Those that hadn’t been abandoned were worse. Many lives were lost and we were running out of time.

Were we the last? And had we already lost? Finally, someone had a crazy idea: if our enemy sought out worlds full of life and resources, we should seek out a world without. And what a treasure we found.”

Uncle Vath’s voice turned wry. “A lush, green world full of life. Full of air and water. All of it completely toxic to humans. We almost gave it up for a lost cause until we realized that this awful, irrational world had two redeeming features: It was toxic to our enemies as well, and it caused all known technology, our mana machines, crystals, and devices to function... differently. The natural essence in this world was antithetical to mana technology, so they could not work on the same physical principles as they did in our homeworld.

This was our hope. If, or when our enemies encountered this world, all of their advanced weapons would be weakened or changed. As would they. As would we.

In those days, everyone who came here came loaded with tools. What we now call artifacts. Objects that you or I would view as a hammer or a spade would take on strange and wonderful properties here in this world, and our refugees brought as many as they could carry with them.

This is the story of your great, great, many times great grandfather: Vath, whom I am named for. He was the first of our line to step onto this world, serving as a guard for a nobleman who sought to establish a household on this continent.

The portal was still unstable when his party set out. Later attempts would become more solid and easily traversable, but at that time it was generally understood that large or loose tools would often fail to appear on the other side. Your ancestor took a risk and rather than bring extra weapons, he loaded his arms and legs with bracelets. On their world, these bracelets were used as identifiers and control bands for giant machines that moved the earth and built great structures. Here, they turned one soldier into a legend.”

Uncle Vath smiled and opened his eyes. “And that’s where we’ll pause this one. We’ve got to get going!” He sprung up to his feet and Lily fell over backward.

“You can’t do that!”

“Yes, I can.” Vath held her gaze until she groaned and rolled over, climbing back to her feet. “Good stories, like meditation, take time and patience. Something which you could greatly benefit from.” He called the last part out at her retreating back as she had already started following the simple trail towards the forest. He smiled briefly, enjoying watching his niece before he set off after her, his long quick strides allowing him to catch and pass her easily.