Academian Quincy stood off to the side, carefully observing as Lord Verena struggled to teach Lord Walker magic. While both student and teacher were enthusiastic and engaged in the process, it didn’t seem to make their progress any easier.

Rubbing his chin in thought, Academian Quincy tried to analyze the situation objectively. Unfortunately, his efforts weren’t amounting to much.

Using the connection he was maintaining through the communication orb in his pocket, He said, “Everyone, I’m going to need to disconnect for a while.”

Scholar Idrius, who was currently relaying the situation going on with House Walker’s adherents replied, “Why? What’s wrong?”

He could feel the bundled memory feeds he was receiving from the evaluators all pause, as they stopped transmitting and turned their full attention to him.

“Nothing’s wrong. I just want to pay a little more attention to Lord Walker’s training. I’m having a little trouble understanding what I’m looking at. I don’t want any distractions at the moment,” he replied.

Their interest and desire for more information was clear to him through the connection they currently shared, but he didn’t know how to explain what he was feeling, so he changed the subject.

“Idrius, you can continue to monitor the social aspects of Lord Walker’s growing influence. The rest of you, continue to follow Yarbarrow’s lead. We can’t allow for local interests to interfere in Lord Walker’s growth. When I figure this out, I’ll reinstate the connection. Although, if you need me, don’t hesitate to contact me,” he ordered tersely before cutting off his connection.

Feeling the parts of his mind that had been set aside for the connection return to his main consciousness, he rolled his shoulders in relief. While it wasn’t necessarily difficult to maintain such a deep connection, doing it for prolonged periods of time was annoying.

Turning his full attention back to Lords Walker and Verena, Academian Quincy narrowed his eyes and focused. For some reason, he felt that he needed to understand what was wrong with what he was seeing.

Looking at the situation logically, Lord Verena was following the standard model for teaching a young mage spell forms. Granted, the speed at which they were covering spells was drastically sped up, but that didn’t feel like the main issue. It was definitely something else.

Lord Walker wasn’t struggling to understand or connect with the essence flows. He wasn’t having trouble remembering or conceptualizing the essence structures that made up the spell forms. He wasn’t even having trouble with his ethereal connection. So what was it?

Watching carefully as Lord Walker fired off an ‘uneven ground’ spell, he had to admit the young man was a once-in-a-millennium talent. With such little center being provided, the entire training circle was affected. The ground rose and sank randomly, turning the terrain into divots and eddies that would make any soldier groan in annoyance.

“OK, I guess I can understand what you’re saying. But why do I have to mentally connect with the ground in the area before I cast it? Can’t I just think about where I want it to be and let her rip?” Lord Walker asked, his tone full of questions.

Waving his arms widely, Lord Verena responded, “Because that’s how you ensure that your spell works as intended. If you don’t carefully target your spell, then the ambient essence fields of whomever you're targeting will interfere with your construct creation.”

Lord Walker replied quickly, “OK. But why? I mean, I’m not actually targeting them, so their essence fields shouldn’t get in the way, right? It’s not like their essence fields are mingling with the ground under their feet. Or at least I don’t think they are… wait… are they?”

Abruptly rounding on Lord Verana, Lord Walker continued, “Hold up! If I can arbitrarily designate what I’m targeting, then why can’t I just use a spell to create an odorless but deadly gas in a bubble around people’s heads? Like, if interacting with physical objects works the way you say it does, then it should be possible, shouldn’t it?”

Lord Verena’s face was contorted into a frown, his patience warring with his professionalism. The man’s emotions seemed to vacillate between pride at how quickly Lord Walker was learning, annoyance at how difficult it was to get the points he was trying to make across, and intrigue at how Lord Walker’s mind seemed to work.

Academian Quincy had never seen a teacher struggling so much to get through to their student. Typically, a learning mage may have trouble with certain aspects of a spell, but never had he seen someone so naturally gifted have so much difficulty understanding the very spells they were successfully casting.

His brain suddenly stuttered to a stop, and he realized what he’d been missing.

Lord Walker was successfully casting these spells. That shouldn’t be possible if he didn’t thoroughly understand them. It was a fundamental aspect of nature. You couldn’t create a representation of reality without first understanding it. That was not a matter of debate or even something that had ever been questioned.

Stepping forward to interject himself into the conversation, Academian Quincy eagerly asked, “Lord Walker, a moment if you will? When you cast a spell, what exactly are you thinking about?”

Both Lord Verena and Lord Walker turned in surprise, each with a questioning look on their face.

Having gotten used to answering and doing things he didn’t fully understand, Lord Walker replied without hesitation, “Well, first I think about connecting my center to where I want to put the spell form, then I think about what the spell form is supposed to look like when it's completed, then I think about letting it suck in whatever essence it needs, before finally thinking about where I want the spell to go off. You know, the standard spell creation process.”

On to something, Academian Quincy replied, “You don’t consider the resulting construct you are intending to make, or the specific types of essence your spell form is collecting?”

Lord Walker shook his head. “Not really. Usually, I just focus on the spell form and let the rest of that stuff take care of itself. I used to do all that when I was manually moving the essence around to get the effect I wanted, but with spell forms, it's much simpler. Why?”

Academian Quincy didn’t know how to respond. ‘That… That’s not how magic works…’ he thought to himself helplessly.

—--

Nero returned to the ridiculously large tent that had been set aside for him and his wackos. He’d left Nick and Quincy back at the training field. When he’d left, they had been in a deep discussion about the intricacies of magic.

He needed a break. He’d been practicing magic since he’d woken up, and he needed some time to think through what he had learned… or unlearned… or been told.

Too much of what Nick had said didn’t make any sense to him.

Nodding politely to the guards who snapped to attention as he walked through the front entrance, Nero made sure to keep the frown off his face. It was both weird and kinda nice being able to ‘feel’ how much they respected him. While he didn’t doubt there was some kind of essence technique that allowed for people to hide their feelings, he doubted it would be any easier than the one he’d learned to hide his essence trail.

This world was different in so many little ways that it added up to a completely different social structure. Just imagining what it would have been like in his old world if the employees couldn’t hide their disdain for their superiors was enough to blow his mind. He knew not everyone necessarily ‘senses’ things the way he does, but the subconscious effect was still there even if people didn’t realize it.

The better in tune he got with his essence field, the more he was able to see the subtle differences he had been missing.

Fundamentally, people here weren’t all that different from the ones back home, but they’d developed in a completely different environment, and as a result, they thought differently.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

They were a lot more socially conscious and therefore more concerned with the greater good. They weren’t exactly kinder or more moral, but they were more ‘aware’. That really was the only way he could explain it.

Even he’d caught himself considering the consequences of his actions more since he’d started feeling everyone’s state of mind projecting itself out into the world.

It was like when he’d been a kid, and an adult had asked him how he would feel if someone else did what he did to him. Back in his old world, he’d had to think about it. But here, it was right there for him to see. He couldn’t ignore it. When he acted like a dick, he could ‘feel’ the other person’s essence field recoiling. There was simply no way he could miss it now that he could ‘see’ it.

Walking through the common room toward the buffet table which had been permanently set up, Nero started filling up a plate with his late lunch.

Along the way, he let his senses flow out around him, tasting the sea of personalities that were present in the room. The few people who were paying attention or talking about him were all radiating a feeling of emotional warmth and acceptance. It was like being surrounded by Carebears or something.

Taking a seat at one of the empty tables, Nero absently started eating while glancing around the room.

These were his people… and the fact that he could no longer go about his day without being confronted by that fact was just weird.

Shaking his head in defeat, he set that train of thought aside for the moment and went back to thinking about magic.

While he hadn’t exactly understood everything that Quincy and Nick had been going on about, he’d understood enough to know that how they looked at the world was entirely different than how he did.

They saw magic as a type of personal creation… like they were gods or something. To cast magic, they used their ‘center’ like it was their very being. For them, it required dedication and study… years of it.

He’d read about how mages learned magic and had mistakenly thought they were just idiots. Now, he knew differently. It was him… he was the weird one.

Where they had to painstakingly connect with the essence flows, learning all about them through meditation and effort, he could just guide them to where he wanted them to go. It was no wonder they found his ability to manipulate the essence flows so interesting… it was entirely outside of their abilities.

It was like that old story about the guy with eyes in a land without sight. He was just built differently.

Academian Quincy had chalked it up to his unusual soul, while Nick thought it was some kind of inherent ability. Either way, they had both agreed it was exciting.

Nero, however, didn’t feel all that pleased about it.

Earlier in the day when Quincy had hinted at him being something other than human, that had hit Nero right in the feels. It had really stuck with him.

Despite Nick’s assurance and referenced data which proved his identity, Nero was unable to forget that he was still body-jacking a corpse. He hadn’t wanted to say anything for fear of what they would think of him, but he honestly thought his ‘ability’ was due to him not being part of the local essence cycle.

Apparently, they’d both forgotten about the fact that everything here was connected. But, he hadn’t.

In a very real way, he was a 3rd party player interjecting himself into their lives. While he could ‘feel’ like he was connected to them through their essence fields and their emotions, he wasn’t really one of them. While he may not have realized it, on some level he’d probably always known that’s how it was.

Chewing on his food, he looked around at the 10 or so wackos chattering away on their break, feeling a sense of disconnect with them.

In many ways, he was like one of the magic constructs that was both part of the world and not. His presence was fueled by his desire to be here, and it was overwriting the will of the world. It was a heavy responsibility and one he’d been ignoring.

How had the story of Dorchester supposed to have gone if he hadn’t been here to interfere?

Would the Dorchen noble war have turned out differently? Were the Cosgrave heirs always supposed to have died? Was there some kind of ethereal force of fate he’d been disrupting? Had him being here caused the essence density to change and the kobalds to climb out of their holes? Was it all his fault, or had he saved everyone from their fate? Was it possible for him to ever know?

Scowling at the heavy thoughts he was having, Nero angrily picked up his plate and tossed it in the pile with the dirty dishes. Taking along the canteen he’d filled up with some fruit juice, he went off to find a place without anyone around so he could think.

‘This isn’t me. I’m not some emo-obsessed teenager obsessed with contemplating his place in the world. So, I’m different, so what? I’m still me. I’m still awesome. Now I’ve got people placing their faith in me, big deal. I ran a moderately successful cell phone store for years, I can handle that,’ he told himself stubbornly.

Stomping through the encampment, he ignored the feeling of people’s attention on him. The last thing he wanted to deal with right now was people thanking him for what he’d done during the battle.

Eventually, he arrived at an area currently filled with people watching some fights. The general sense of attention was on the training circle which they’d turned into an arena. The crowd even had shields set up to contain the chaos. His presence went entirely unnoticed.

Taking a deep breath, he luxuriated in the blessed anonymity.

Suddenly he felt an odd ripple through the ether which had him instinctively turning around to see what was happening.

Almost like he was peeking behind a curtain, he saw a flash of gold light resolving itself into a person. It was likely hidden under an illusion and therefore invisible to most people, but he had no trouble seeing it.

Locking eyes with Jennings, he almost couldn’t contain his urge to laugh at the surprised look on the old man’s face. Apparently, he hadn’t thought Nero would notice him.

With a smirk, Nero asked, “Are you here for a thank you? Cause seriously, I do owe you one for fixing the essence flows that I screwed up. I may have gotten a little carried away with that last spell of mine. Admittedly, I didn’t really think that one through… so, sorry about that.”

Arch-mage Jennings’ presence seemed to shift, becoming more fully real and now visible to everyone around him.

Noticing everyone stepping back along with the looks of recognition on their faces, he said, “Let’s go for a walk, Nero.”

Just like that, Nero felt the man’s essence reach out to surround him. Stifling the urge to interfere with the process, Nero let it happen.

The world twisted and turned before reassembling itself back into something he could comprehend.

Finding himself now inside a tastefully appointed room, Nero looked around in appreciation of being back inside Dorchester… or what he assumed was Dorchester based on the ambiance. Wooden walls along with some paintings, familiar overhead essence lighting, and ornate rug-like carpets. If he weren’t in Dorchester, he’d be surprised.

Not bothering with being polite, Nero jumped into one of the chairs, sighing in relief at having the chance to enjoy cushioned seats again. Glancing up at Jennings, he said, “Thanks man… Seriously, I needed this.”

Chuckling, Arch-mage Jennings walked over to sit opposite Nero on another chair. “So, you’ve finally discovered what makes you different from those around you.”

The arch-mage’s tone wasn’t in the least bit judgmental or accusatory, and what he said certainly wasn’t in the form of a question.

Nodding, Nero replied with a weak smile, “Yeah. I don’t think Nick or the others have figured it out yet.”

Leaning back comfortably in his chair, Arch-mage Jennings replied, “Just to put your mind at ease, I can tell you that you are, in fact, a human. You are not a sociopath, mentally unstable, or in any way outside of the norm. Well, not when it comes to who you are while you’re here that is.”

Curious, Nero asked, “OK… but what do you mean by that?”

Smiling gently, the arch-mage replied, “I mean that for all intents and purposes, you are a perfectly normal and average 14-year-old human being. Nothing more, nothing less. However, that is not all that you are. I have always referred to you as an anomaly for a reason. You aren’t supposed to be here. Therefore, you have a unique and valuable perspective from which you view the plane around you.”

Utterly confused, while somewhat mollified, Nero asked, “So, I’m like an outsider looking in?”

“That’s a perfectly understandable way of interpreting what I just said, but nonetheless entirely accurate. You’re more accurately both here, and not here. Your soul isn’t a product of this reality, or at least I don’t think it is. Therefore, you’ll never be fully in tune with the essence around you. As a result, you can understand it, recognize it, and use it, but you can never truly join with it. That is both a boon and a curse. For example, you will never be able to achieve godhood. When you reach level 100, reality will reject you. You’ll have to move up the dimensions and leave these planes behind,” he said gently as if he were delivering Nero terrible news.

Nero looked over at the man in confusion, “Uh… what?”

Sighing in exasperation, Arch-mage Jennings replied, “I honestly didn’t plan on telling you any of this anytime soon, both because you wouldn’t understand it and because it wasn’t currently relevant but I don’t want you misunderstanding what that academian mistakenly concluded.

When a person reaches level 100, they attain unity. While you can’t possibly understand what that means right now, you can just think about it as being perfectly in tune with your body mind, and soul. For people who are a product of this level of existence, that would mean also being perfectly in tune with the universe… all planes of the universe.

As a result, they could become gods, merging with reality to create their own plane of existence and influencing those around them. However, it also means that a person could transcend this plane of existence and move up to a higher dimension, being reborn into a higher state of being.”

Nero listened closely to what the old man was saying, relying heavily on the translation magic to read into what little subtext he could understand. “OK, so it’s like a game where you reach max level and then start the New Game+.”

Stunned, Arch-mage Jennings’ eyes practically rolled back in his head as his brain struggled to comprehend the concept of what ‘New Game+’ meant to Nero. After barely a moment, his glare focused on the young man like a laser. “That is an incredibly interesting way to interpret what I’ve just said. Has your previous world mastered dimensional travel?”

Nero met Arch-mage Jennings’ stare for a few seconds before he could no longer contain himself. Bursting into laughter, he said, “Oh man. Fuck it. Let me tell you about video games and how your world could be described in the context of what I’m familiar with…”