Ken woke unable to move staring at the roof of an ambulance. When he looked toward his feet he could see the doors out the back. A heart monitor was singing his personal heartbeat.

“Heart rate just climbed; he waking up?” A voice from the front said.

“I’ll check.” another voice responded and started moving closer. Ken watched as a face swung into view. A pretty short girl in a dark shirt with the Ambulance Company’s logo leaned over him.

“Mr. Chambers. How are you? What do you remember?” She asked him.

What do I remember? Just about everything. Ken thought to himself. He could remember the slaughter, his time mourning in the cave and his time training with Kalaam. All the stuff he had learned was there for him to access. In just thinking about it he recalled the feeling of mana and how to access it. He reached with his newly trained senses and despite his memory he was shocked with what he felt. There was so much mana everywhere.

It had been less than a day since the Veil had fallen, but already the mana was settling. He could see it being attracted into Ley Lines and sinking into the core of the planet. Every creature, plant and stone was absorbing as much as it could. Dormant gifts were awakening at Mana’s touch in every living thing. Similarly, spirits who had long been quiet or dormant were awakening. Without Mana their influence was minor into the emotions and thoughts of living creatures, but with mana they could form their own thoughts and will into action. In some places the land was transforming itself into its preferred climate in more ways than one.

It didn’t take Ken long to realize that the city humans were in trouble. There was a land grab happening for territories where mana would pool in the future, and most people didn’t even know it. His own home in Reno had been near a minor Leyline. With his newly trained mind’s eye he could see magickal happenings that seemed very foreign in the places of power. He saw the same thing in most places of power. There were a couple holdouts.

The foothills in South-South-East Reno had a very human seeming fortress of magick. The area around UNR (the University of Nevada Reno) also had an odd assortment of human magickal activities. West Reno had some interesting stuff happening too. On top of that in too many places to count Ken could feel magicks he didn’t quite understand stirring.

Aware that the ambulance driver was waiting for him to respond, Ken closed his eyes and gathered Mana to himself, spindling it into a careful flow of constantly spinning magick which filled his core. His past few months of training had imparted skill in separating his thoughts and his will. He was confident now that he could safely feel thoughts and emotions without accidentally turning them into magick.

Gently he formed a new spell. It was a series of thoughts. He was going to organize those thoughts and perform much smaller mindblasts of his own.

You can’t see or hear me. Forget about me. Answer a new call. He magickally commanded into their minds.

“Are we driving to Renown?!” The driver called out.

“We had a call, we went inside, and now we’re driving an empty ambulance there...” The girl responded.

The driver pulled over to the side of the road, and the girl went back to her seat completely unaware Ken was there.

“I don’t know why we’re here. I don’t know what we’re doing, and all I can think is that I need to answer a new call,” the driver said with notes of panic in his voice.

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The girl responded. “Check the duty sheet.”

“It only has the service address. I’m driving the wrong way. We need to go there.”

“But I remember going inside. The house. It was a house of horrors. We’ve already been there! I found. I don’t remember what I found. What is going on?” she asked with a fear filled voice.

Ken couldn’t take this anymore. Sleep, he projected to both of them.

They immediately fell asleep. Ken started forming spells to release himself from the bed straps holding him. He had released two of the three straps when a car horn and screeching of tires ahead of the ambulance broke his focus.

Intuitively, Ken formed a shield around himself just as the ambulance and a car slammed into each other jolting the Ambulance around. After the noise had settled Ken finished releasing himself from the bed and looked out the front through the windshield spider-webbed with cracks.

A car was embedded in the ambulance; both vehicles were so crumpled that the drivers could have touched each other if they were awake. The Ambulance airbags had already deflated, but the other driver didn’t have an airbag.

By now other cars had stopped and people were getting out of their cars to offer help. If Ken was going to get out of here he was running out of time. Quickly he focused and prepared to teleport himself to…

… to where?

He couldn’t figure out where to go! He definitely didn’t want to go to his room. Everywhere else he could think of might have people in it! People were getting closer and closer and his mind was muddled. What the hell had happened?

In desperation he chose the safest place he could think to teleport and quickly pulled himself to the walk in at Del Taco.

Thankfully there was nobody there, and he was able to take a few minutes to try to collect himself. What the hell just happened?

Ken’s clothing was covered with gore from the chaos at his house and he had a couple wires from the Heart Monitor which the teleport seemed to have cut about 4 inches away from him. He needed new clothes. Using his new training he drew mana forth and summoned a new pair of jeans, underwear and a t-shirt from his bag. He was about to start changing right in the walk-in when he remembered he could use magick to just look at a destination.

Summoning mana in front of him he told it to act like a screen and show him the room he was sharing in Truckee. It was empty! Now that he was sure, he focused for a moment, summoned the mana and teleported himself there!

Ken spent a couple minutes just standing in the empty room in shock. He looked for his phone. When he couldn’t find it, he summoned it. The moment it was in his hands its battery exploded spraying fire everywhere.

Somewhere deep inside Ken something snapped.

“FUUUUUUCK!” He screamed at the top of his voice. “FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! PIECE OF SHIT!”

Calls were starting outside his room as people responded to his outburst running to see what happened, but Ken was beyond noticing as he continued ranting. “FUCK! FUCK! FUUUUUCK! I don’t fucking deserve this! I don’t want it! I didn’t mean it! Why the fuck! Why me?!”

Roberto’s wife Julia was the first to look in. Luckily for Ken she was made of stern stuff. She quickly grabbed a pillow, shoved Ken onto the bed, and beat back the last of the flames while Ken continued to cuss and rant at his fate.

Another woman and man Ken didn’t know well entered the room to help beat out the flames. After a minute Ken had quieted down and was just angrily crying while he rocked himself and cussing once in a while like he had Tourette Syndrome.

Roberto shooed everybody out, and he and his wife stood patiently waiting for Ken to relax enough to talk.

“Well?” Roberto asked.

Ken looked at him, frustrated anger and pain making it hard for him to say anything.

“When you’re ready to talk we’re ready to listen,” Julia added.

“I can’t...” Ken cracked out. “It’s just too much, it’s too bad, it’s too...”

“It’s the new normal Mr Magic Man,” Julia said. “This is an emergency. Our whole world is falling apart and you are placing yourself in the way. I’m glad you want to be a hero with what everyone keeps saying you can do, but when are you going to admit you’re just a human?”

Ken didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t understand. How could he explain.

“You somehow appeared here covered in blood and burns five hours after disappearing from a hospital which looked like a tornado hit your seat. You are so frustrated, angry and afraid that you can’t even talk,” she continued. “Go take a bath. Give yourself time to think. Don’t do any magick, don’t call someone, don’t do anything other than just think.”

“Can you do that?” Roberto asked.

Numbly Ken nodded and started toward his bag.

Julia stopped him. “Roberto will bring you clothes. Go get into the shower. After you’ve showered the yuck off, take a bath.”

Ken got up and started doing what she told him to.