"Hey! Hello? Are you alright?" A voice drifted through the expanse of Lucian's mind. He put the trowel down on the flower bed and wiped the dirt off his hands. After saying bye to his parents, he walked into the white.

"Get off me!! Who are you?!" Lucian sleepily angled the blade toward the unknown person who woke him. The moonlight illuminated sections of their face but barely anything could be made out.

The steel blade glinted in the moonlight, Lucian subconsciously assessed its quality even in the direness of the moment. It was a throwing knife, lightweight and double-edged. For a raider's backup knife, it was of high quality, featuring an expertly made wooden grip and engravings that Lucian couldn't make out in the darkness.

The unknown person yelped: "Hold on, hold on! Do NOT stab me, I'm just asking if you're okay. You were just laying there looking dead as dirt. After that shoot-out, I didn't know if those bandits killed you dead or you got hit by a stray."

Lucian was once again perplexed. Perhaps he had chosen to stay too close to the main road once again. This traveling act he had put up wasn't working. I'm just a bandit camp blacksmith, he thought. The bandit camp was a complete joke.

Everyone on this part of the continent knew it was a steaming pile of cack. "Look man," Lucian made out his voice and the angles of his face. He was a man, a warrior of sorts, most definitely an adventure who's seen their share of action. "I'm just sleeping, why are you out so late at night? Were you part of that fight?"

The warrior scratched his chin: "I'm part of the Fenders, and yes we were just in combat. We were chasing down a bandit group when they hid and ambushed us- we were almost wiped out.”

“What the hell is a fender?” Lucian inquired.

“Mmmm.. How do I explain this simply... The Fenders are a multi-city defense group based in the grasslands dedicated to peacekeeping. We also fulfill and distribute commissions by people. A sort of adventurer’s guild if you will.”

“Oh..... I see” Lucian relaxed a bit and shifted his position, lowering his blade.

“Listen man we don’t have a problem with you, and if you need anything we’re just going to camp a bit down the road. We’re on our way to the drive-in city if you want to tag along.” The fender turned away and started walking down the road.

Lucian heard stories of the drive-in city. It was ramshackle, just like the bandit camp, but unlike the camp, it was cleanish, prosperous in trade, and was a sort of de-facto mecca of trade. The houses weren’t crappy and the city was famous for the crazy vehicles that roamed both the streets and the iconic racetrack in the center of the city. It seemed like a lively place to be, instead of the garbage pile that was the bandit camp. Ok, the bandit camp isn't that bad but still.

“I…um…. might.. actually.. take you up on that offer..” Lucian mumbled, embarrassed by his juvenile reaction to his close encounter with the bandits. His shoes were tattered, his t-shirt ripped and muddy, pants barely clinging to his body. He stunk and hadn’t had the chance to wash since the days in the bandit camp. His stomach protested at the fact he hadn’t yet eaten dinner.

“Huh?” The man stopped and turned to look at Lucian.

“I-I said I’ll tag along, at least for now. I’m trying to complete a mission of my own you see.”

Lucian couldn’t tell, but the man was slightly confused by this but the feeling was quickly fleeting. Everyone had their motives and things they had to accomplish, and the strange man lying on the ground was no exception. So he shrugged. “You can come. Let’s go, I’ll show you our team.”

Muscles aching, joints swiveling, Lucian pulled himself off the ground like an automaton waking up from a thousand-year slumber. The man was already making his way to the campfire, which was mostly obscured by leaves. A red sparkle permeated through trees, and Lucian wondered how the party lit a fire even though everything was soaked in rain.

After a minute of trudging a happy scene unfolded before Lucian's sore eyes. The party was gathered around the campfire, laughing and talking excitedly. The meat was cooking on a skewer, and the coals were blazing. Heat crept to Lucian, warming his face and inviting him closer. A tall and lanky woman sat awkwardly, her legs crossed and folded allowing her to maintain a comfy distance from the fire. Her hair was long and blonde, which almost seemed to have a green, malachite sheen. She wore a white cloak with golden embroidering. A cut emerald rested on her neck, suspended by a silver chain.

Glass vials filled with different colors were fit into a leather satchel at her side. She kept it close to her.

The man Lucian was talking to was illuminated by the fire. He had short, brown hair that looked unwashed. He was the spitting image of the average Joe adventurer, but there was something about him that Lucian could tell was off. He had a maroon cloak and steel armor. He carried a longsword that was strapped to his back and a dagger at his side. Like the others, he carried a leather water flask.

Lucian stopped awkwardly staring at them and came over to the fire. Gradually they stopped talking and looked at him. The man got to his feet and smiled proudly.

"I don't think I've introduced myself yet.. I'm Rainier, and these are my friends. I found this guy on the side of the road, he almost got killed by those raiders. What's your name son?"

"I'm... my uh.. name is Lucian."

"Well Lucian here was wondering if he could join us for a while, he wants to tag along till we get to the drive-in city."

The short but built man was the first to speak, "Anyone's welcome to join us as long as they're a solid teammate. I'm Dema. The road ain't kind to solo travelers, many of them don't make it to their destination alive. Dema wore merc-style gear, heavier armor with metal plates and Kevlar, pockets with magazines, and kept a pistol neatly tucked into it's holster on his hip.

Lucian nodded shakily, having just survived a shoot-out he was still jumpy.

A terse voice cut through the silence. "He may join us if he assists the group. Otherwise, he's dead weight."

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Rainier immediately sighed and rubbed his temple. Eying Apate's pissed off face with his dark, rust-colored eyes. Always the negative one, Apate." He clenched his jaw and glared at her, before softly speaking, "You always seem to ruin the moment." His anger cooled into sadness.

She pursed her lips and stared into the flames. "This is not some carefree expedition. There is danger at every turn, on every road, behind every tree. Our resources could run out if we fail to forage or acquire food and then we starve. We cannot afford to keep inexperienced, _Junior,_ adventures with us. He's a liability.

At this point Dema was visibly uncomfortable, shifting in his seat and looking at the ground. He didn't intervene which implied this sort of thing happens a lot.

Rainier shrugged. "Nobody is stopping you from leaving, Apate. You always seem to complain and the only reason you're still with us is because of what you bring to the table. You're insufferable."

The muscled man spoke when both of them went quiet. "The food was nice but I'll be going to bed. Does anyone want any more food? I need to bring some to Atrophi." He was still for a second, then flicked his head toward Rainier.

Rainier and Apate both shifted their gaze to Dema and an unspoken conversation seemed to occur between the trio. Rainier realized this was discomforting to Lucian as he kept glancing at them, waiting for somebody to say something. "We have a fourth teammate, her name is Atrophi and she's.. how do I put this....well.. shy."

Lucian walked off into the forest to take care of business, leaving the camp a minute behind. He could see the dying light of the fire through the shadowy forest. The shabby attire he wore was no longer adequate, the temperature was inevitably getting colder. Lucian's skin prickled, his hair standing on end. He was almost finished when he noticed another, smaller light in the forest. Interested, he fastened his trousers and pushed through the brush to seek the flickering light. As he drew near he could make something out; There was a meadow.

Within it, a maroon cloak hung on a tree branch, fluttering when the wind gusted. Lucian made an effort to walk quietly to the lantern. Rainier lay on the soft grass, laying over colorful flowers that dotted the landscape.

Lucian kept, low, wary of enemies lurking around.

Stars hung in the night, like galactic tulips and lilies. Different colors shimmered and pulsed as they moved ever slowly in the midnight sky. A strong smell wafted through the air. Reaching back into the grass, Rainier pulled a flask that seemed to be the source of the scent, put it to his lips and half-drank half-spilled it all over himself.

He then started choking on the liquid and ended up spilling the rest of it on the grass. Mumbling and coughing the drunk man whispered: "Ughh.. my love...where did it all go wrong..."

He lurched over and started heaving onto the untouched land, spilling vice onto the pure grass.

"I wish I could hold you one last time."

When Lucian came back to the campfire, Apate was sleeping and Dema was nowhere to be seen. A bedroll had already been left out for him, and a flask of water and slightly stale bread lay next to it.

Lucian sipped the water and ate it with the bread. He was alone with his thoughts. Insects chirped in the night that was lit by the dying fire's last embers, faintly glowing. The water tasted like leather, but it was ambrosia for Lucian's parched throat. He set the flask down in the grass and crept into the bedroll. As a cold gust of wind blew in, the fire was blown out.

Come the next morning, the temperature had dropped even further. Lucian awoke to his breath billowing from his mouth like smoke from a furnace. Rainier and Apate were fighting already; debating on whether or not to use some weird thing to heat their food.

Magic was unbeknownst to Lucian, and he didn't exactly pick up on their conversation. Back in his village magic was illegal, and it was hardly spoken of in the bandit camp. When he was growing up, Lucian often heard rumors that magic users were killed by gangs and clans or sold into trafficking. Their aptitude was far too often systematically targeted by unsavory individuals. The argument was broken by Lucian's cluelessness;

One simple question.

Lucian inquired, to nobody in particular: "What do you mean, mana?"

This did the trick of halting their squabbling.

Apate turned to him, slack-jawed and quite confused; Eyebrow raised. Rainier was much more composed and simply sighed.

Apate scoffed, then finally uttered: "He really is as thick as two short planks."

Reflexively Rainier elbowed her in the ribs: "He's our teammate! For god's sake stop belittling him!"

She scoffed, shoving Rainier aside before raising a single finger. "This, is what mana does." She effortlessly ignited a flame atop her finger, it burned brightly but did not singe the finger's flesh. The lines on her face grew tense as she traced a circle in the open air. She reached as far as her arm would allow before extinguishing the fire on her finger and withdrawing her hand. For a few seconds, the ring of fire lingered. The smokeless fire emanated heat before vanishing with a poof.

Apate slumped over, clearly exhausted from the endeavor. "I usually can draw up much more power, but I've been hungry and tired for the past week. Magic is exhausting you know."

"Not for everyone though" Dema interjected, coming out of the forest with a jar full of berries. "People with high magic aptitude can draw up and expend unfathomable amounts of magic if they're the top of the class.

To this, Apate rolled her eyes and took a seat on a log, motioning for Lucian to follow. "Sit here, Lucian."

He trotted over and sat a good distance away from her.

Apate reached into her satchel and pulled forth an object that looked like a stopwatch. With a scratched metal exterior, presumably brass, and a gauge beneath the dusty glass it lay in her hand. The measuring dial twitched ambiently, but it was a minuscule movement. She concentrated, wincing at the last of her mana being forced out, and the dial moved up a notch. Quite suddenly she let her power go and it was back to the background readings.

"Hold it, Lucian." And so he did. "Magic is all around us, usually in the form of mana."

Lucian stared at the unmoving mana sensor in his palm.

"Mana resides in all life. Be it plants or creatures, flowing through forests to cities. It's on the tallest mountains and the deepest chasms. "

No matter how hard Lucian concentrated the dial was stationary. He furrowed his brow at his misfortune.

Apate picked up on this and offered comfort, "A lot of people don't have the magic aptitude, it's fine if you can't use it. Don't ever feel bad about not having it." She looked very empathetic all of a sudden.

Lucian sighed and brought the piece close to his face. In the glass reflection, he saw himself. Although he escaped death twice now, he hadn't gotten any stronger or smarter. Lucian wasn't any more prepared to figure out what was with the data drive than before. His own family might be in danger and suffer from his stupid incompetence. He thought of the assassins, he thought of the bandits, and most of all he replayed Apate's sneering over and over within the confines of his mind. As the frustrated Lucian closed his eyes, the dial began to shake sporadically, spiking slightly above the first notch at its peak.

His eyes lit up for a second before Apate snatched the device from Lucian's fingers, being more concerned about the safety of the device than his frustration. She didn't notice the meter increasing and was fed up with Lucian's stupidity.

"Let's take a break for now." Rainier put a hand on Lucian's shoulder.

"Fine, whatever." Lucian was dejected but secretly wondering what the tiny spike in measurement could mean.

At Rainier's request, the group began packing their bags, and within minutes they were back on the road again.

As they crested a hill, a grey point rose above the trees. The sun was at its peak. It cast warming heat upon all that lay beneath it which was a respite from the chilly winds that occasionally blew through the trees. Lucian, still groggy, squinted at the odd shape protruding from the green. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, he realized it was a stone tower, and other, smaller wooden constructions lay adjacent. The rest of the party was just, if not more irritable and half-asleep as he, so they just mumbled and didn't seem to care much.

An approaching wooden sign plastered in torn-off posters and nails told Lucian exactly what he was about to ask. The small town dubbed Elysia housed less than 300 people and was snugly situated in a large swath of cleared land in the forest. Dirt transitioned to cobblestone, which gave way to hewn stone brick.