The only person I knew of who might be able to interrupt the portal of such a powerful spirit was Orykson – and maybe the Space King, a rival he’d mentioned once.

Orykson wanted me to compete, so if he was calling me, then it was probably fine.

If it was the Space King… Why? I had never met her, and she hadn’t even seemed interested in getting me away from Orykson, given that she’d never tried to offer anything.

Which meant it was probably Orykson pulling me away to give me one final bit of advice, bribery, or encouragement… Or it was the spirit itself.

After all, worldspirits were rare. This was the first one I had even heard of, other than Dusk. So, I accepted the tug, rather than resist it.

The rainbows dissolved and left us standing at the very top of what I assumed to be the tower in the center of the Idyll-Flume. The floor beneath my feet was made of gold – solid gold! – and there was an ornate fountain that seemed to be carved out of silver in the center of the space, though it was almost dry, only a shallow bowlful of golden liquid contained within. Pillars of silver ringed the edges of the floor, holding up a pagoda-like roof, and I could see the land stretching out for miles in every direction. I couldn’t see edges of the space, as it was on a curve that led way to a horizon.

My mana senses were completely suppressed in the space, but I felt winds rip across my mana-garden.

Then abruptly I was thrown back with a force that punched through my aura pin without so much as a whisper of resistance. Chains of metal rose up from the golden floor, wrapping around my wrists, ankles, and even my torso. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kene also being bound, having been thrown back alongside me, but Dusk remained totally free.

Dusk let out a cry of anger and punched out, the space around her hand cracking and unleashing a wave at someone or something that was just outside of my range of vision. It didn't seem to be phased, however, and as Dusk overcharged her next punch to release another burst, I heard the voice of the worldspirit of the Idyll-Flume.

“Peace, sister,” she said.

Dusk hopped up and let out an angry hiss, almost sounding like a cat, as she demanded that her older brother and his boyfriend be released.

A small, inane part of my mind that wasn’t caught up in the moment of absolute terror, wondered at her verbiage. Kene was nonbinary, not a male, though he did use he/him pronouns. Was boyfriend really the right term? I would have gone with partner, personally. I’d have to ask Kene about their thoughts on the matter.

“In a moment,” the worldspirit said. “First, I wanted to ensure that you were with the children as a part of your free will. That the bond connecting the two of you was not one forced onto you. You can speak freely, little sister. If either of them is holding you against your will, I’m more than capable of protecting and freeing you.”

Dusk shouted with a rushing river that, no, she was not here under duress, thank you very much. She was excited to incorporate the treasures from here into her own advancement, and would like us to be released, please.

“And you aren’t being groomed to become one or both of their brides? Or servants?” the worldspirit asked.

My stomach twisted into a knot. Would someone do that?

The answer was yes, of course. People were terrible, and power revealed what people wanted to do when they weren’t faced with consequences. It had a staggering tendency to convince people their own actions and methods were the right ones.

But the thought of trying to groom a spirit from creation sickened me.

When Dusk reassured the older worldspirit that, no, she wasn’t being used, the golden chains that bound Kene and myself unlocked, falling away and melding back into the golden floor. We stood and got a good look at the worldspirit up close, as she quickly drifted over to examine us.

“I must apologize for the inconvenience,” she said. “It was not my intent to hurt an innocent person, but you must understand… I was not always as isolated as I am now. I have seen much of humanity, and while you have produced a great many triumphs, each one has at least one equal atrocity.”

“I understand,” Kene said. He flexed his arm and allowed the tattoos to shape into their true form, the sealing magic that kept the hag suppressed. “Trust me. I’m paying the price for the deal an ancestor of mine made, so long ago that I don’t even know who they are. People can be terrible. I get that. But not everyone is. There are good people too.”

“I don’t blame you,” I said. I was intensely curious what she would have done if I’d refused the teleport, but I wasn’t stupid enough to ask. It was a struggle, but I managed to keep my mouth shut.

Dusk whistled, asking the larger worldspirit if there was anything else that she wanted or needed, and the spirit considered for a long moment.

“Do you plan to climb the tower?” she asked.

“Maybe,” I said.

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“I see,” she said. She waved her hand, and a single shimmering golden droplet floated out of the fountain and hung suspended in midair.

“You may take this as recompense for your wasted time.”

She waved her other hand and a portal tore itself open in midair, then vanished.

I glanced at the droplet, then at Kene and Dusk.

“Either of you need it more than I do,” I said. “Dusk, you’re a little bit behind my own personal advancement. And Kene, you need to use it to enforce your tattoos. Don’t get me wrong, I want it, but there will be other chances to get something like this.”

Dusk shook her head, cawing out that Kene needed it more than she did.

“No, one of you should take it,” Kene said. “I’ll be fine.”

I gave them a flat look, and they couldn’t meet my eyes before turning and taking the drop, then pressing it to their tattoo.

The ink lines glowed brighter for a second, and I thought I saw a couple of places where the ink had started to fade and disperse grow tighter and cleaner.

Then it was over, and Kene rotated their arm.

“Felt a bit weird,” they said. “Like putting a strong cream on. Kind of hot and cold at the same time. But… Otherwise, I feel fine.”

“That’s a bit underwhelming,” I said, and they nodded. We stood around for a second longer before Dusk scampered up my pants leg and into my pocket. She pointed to the portal and cawed out for us to go onward!

I chuckled and took Kene’s hand, then we stepped into the portal and let rainbow light swallow us once more.

This time, we stepped out into a huge crowd of people. My mana senses were back, but there was so much chaos and conflicting power running through them that it made it all but worthless.

All around me, hundreds of people were ascending, all at once.

Sure, compared to the thousands that were competing, that wasn’t a ton, maybe only one in ten.

But there were still hundreds of people breaking through at once.

While some people were breaking through, others were moving quickly, setting up a safe zone for a starter camp. There were old shells of buildings throughout the zone, overrun with vines and slightly crumbling, but earth mages were already working to repair them.

Still others were charging off into the deep forest using whatever methods they had – I saw people flying on carpets, brooms, swords, and even a cauldron. Others moved on foot, enhanced by quick movement spells or tremendous physical gifts. Yet others ran through the air, unsupported by anything at all.

Already there were some aerial battles starting to take place, different people fighting over seemingly nothing at all.

The three of us looked around wildly, but I couldn’t spot anyone I recognized at all, let alone Liz and Travis. I met Kene’s eyes and bit my lip.

“Hold on,” I said. I held out my hands and formed a spatial anchor, then fed it more mana to make it permanent.

“This way, I can use it as a waypoint with my Sense Directionality spell and navigate us back,” I said.

“Great,” Kene said.

A force beam ripped past us, almost striking us as someone shot through the air, aiming for someone else who’d been behind us.

“Let’s get out of here,” Kene said, and Dusk fervently nodded her head in agreement. We took off into the woods, not breaking out our brooms for fear of getting caught up in the aerial battle going on.

Once we’d gotten deep enough in for us to no longer be at risk of being caught off guard by a random blast of magic, we slowed to a stop, and I sent a pulse of power into Sense Directionality to get our bearings.

I got several pulses back, and frowned. Most of them were clustered tightly together, all coming from the same direction – clearly I hadn’t been the only one to get the idea to set up a spatial anchor in the camp area.

But there were a few blips that were much closer, and I felt my eyes widen.

A natural spatial lodestone, maybe? If anywhere would have something like that, it would be a place like this.

“I can sense what I think is a spatial lodestone over there,” I said, pointing off to my left. “I could use that for forming my domain weapon, want to check it out?”

“We are here to look for natural treasures,” Kene said, “so let’s look.”

I closed my eyes and unwove my mana senses, then swept them out in a cloud around me that extended as far as I could without actively spending mana to empower spells, then nodded.

We cut through the woods for about a quarter of a mile, until we arrived at the spot where I could sense the spatial lodestone.

It looked smaller than the last one, shaped more like a river stone, smooth and round, and I tossed it into Dusk’s realm without a thought.

Kene was also sweeping out their own mana senses, and they turned and started heading away. I followed them, concentrating my own in a brushing motion that let me sense a mass of telluric power, alongside a bunch of random things as well.

The same nearby power was likely what had caused the spatial lodestone to form, and so there were odds I might be able to find something else.

We slipped between the boughs of a massive redwood tree, only to spot a circle of natural standing stones. Each stone was glowing slightly, and someone was already there. When they spotted us, they rose to their feet and drew a sword.

“Fight for the space,” they said, “first blood, no killing blows.”

Dusk whistled out that she agreed and leapt out of my pocket, swinging her fist, letting out the pent up annoyance from earlier. I sighed, but started channeling my own mana through my mana garden.

The mage, who felt like a peak second gate telluric mage, was caught off guard by Dusk’s attack, but quickly drew their blade and caught the crack in the air with it.

Then their sword exploded into flames, and they leapt forward, slashing. I let out a scattered shot of bone shards to try and knock the blade out of their hands, and Kene was sketching one of his new spells.

When the sword was knocked off course, the mage drew a marble from their pocket and sent mana into it, then chucked it at Dusk, who punched out. Her crack in the air met the marble, and it exploded into a burst of lightning.

Meanwhile, I was pulling my mana senses together and trying to get a handle on this mage. Their sword wasn’t enchanted, or if it was, it had been done by someone good enough to not leave a trace.

No, rather than enchantment, it felt like a plant, but with the earth, instead of life. A metal that had natural magic, and that the telluric mage was amplifying, like when I used blademoss.

Another three marbles were thrown in the direction of Kene and I as Dusk battled them in melee.

“Chargestone!” Kene called out.

I used my pinpoint boneshards to catch the marbles in midair, and they also exploded into bursts of lightning, then I spun and layered some fungal locks onto the enemy mage.

It caught them off guard just long enough for one of Dusk’s cracks in space to slice into their cheek, and a trickle of blood ran down their face.

The fire on their sword went out, and I dropped the fungal locks. They slid their sword back into its scabbard, gave us a nod, then turned and used some sort of movement spell to ride a wave of earth away.

I glanced around at the circle of glowing stones, trying to catch up. That had all happened too fast, I felt like my head was spinning…