There was a bit of an awkward pause before Dario broke the silence.

“Was that really necessary?” he asked, feeling somewhat annoyed at being forced to slap himself.

Amara raised one of her delicate eyebrows. “Was it really necessary to try and touch me with your dirty hand?” she retorted.

Dario opened his mouth to reply before closing it in thought.

“You’re right, I shouldn’t have done that,” he said with an apologetic look. “But you have to admit, you were being a bit snarky.”

“It’s not my fault. How else am I supposed to react when someone who looks like a vagrant is put in front of me, and I’m told that he’s to be my travel companion?” she asked in exasperation.

“You could be polite, for one.” Dario crossed his arms and smiled. “Do you really think that supes like Bright Star would ever put some bum in the same room as you? I’m not dumb. I can see how fancy this carriage is, and I saw how all the supes fought over this particular carriage in the battle earlier.” He pointed towards her. “It all means that you’re someone important, so do you really think that they would put me in here if I wasn’t who they said I was? If I wasn’t harmless to you?”

Amara opened and closed her mouth a few times before sighing in acceptance.

“Alright, I guess not,” she conceded after a moment of hesitation. “I apologize for my earlier behaviour then.” She lowered her head in apology. “Perhaps you aren’t a vagrant after all, and maybe you really did survive out here by yourself.” The corner of her lips twitched as she looked up. “Or maybe they know that I can beat you up if you get too handsy.”

“Hah, fair enough,” Dario said with a smile, feeling happy that his cabin mate wasn’t as uptight as he’d originally thought. Her change in demeanor was either her true self or her way of offering him an olive branch — either way, he’d take it. “But I’m not as easy to beat as you might think.”

“Oh really?” Amara said with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, really. My powers are pretty strong too, if I do say so myself.”.

“And what exactly can you do?”

“Why don’t we first properly introduce ourselves,” Dario said as he raised his leg to show off his cauterized stump. “Because I think we got off on the wrong foot.“ He chuckled as the girl in front of him grimaced.

Despite her look of disgust, she seemed to find his pun somewhat amusing judging by the subtle twitching of her lips. “Has that always been like that?” she asked with morbid curiosity.

“Nah, it’s a recent thing, but it’ll grow back. I think.” Dario shrugged before lowering his leg onto the floor and extending an arm towards her. “Anyways, my name is Dario—” As she glanced at his dirtied hand, he quickly encased it with a layer of light, burning away all the dirt and grime. When the light faded, his hand was completely clean and dry. “—what’s your name?” he asked with a grin.

Amara snorted in amusement before reaching over to accept his handshake. “My name’s Amara, and that’s a neat light show you have there.”

“Thanks. It’s pretty cool and I can shoot some pretty strong beams at things, but I don’t know how it would compare to your powers.”

“That depends on how good your control is,” Amara said. “I’m still working on mastering my telekinesis, but I think I’m making progress.”

“Same here.” Dario raised his hand and made it glow brightly. “I was practising making my beams as destructive as possible, but it usually takes up a lot of my inner pool of energy so I’ve been trying to work on that.”

“Inner pool of energy?” Amara asked, suddenly giving him an unreadable, almost suspicious look. “What do you mean by that?”

“Umm, it’s just part of my powers,” Dario said nervously, cursing inwardly at his little slip-up. He really didn’t want more people knowing that he was an assimilator, but he should still be safe. He hadn’t really said anything that would give away his power class. “You know how it is with all the possible power combinations out there. It’s just another quirk of my abilities.” He shrugged indifferently.

The redheaded girl narrowed her eyes before leaning back in her seat and smirking.

“Riiight,” Amara drawled. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that you’re an assimilator, huh?”

Dario sputtered, “W-What? How do you— What are you talking about?” he asked in a panic. How could she tell his class?

“You mentioned having some kind of pool of inner energy, and I know of only one power class that has such a thing. Furthermore, you seemed to overly react when I mentioned it. Hence, you must be an assimilator,” Amara reasoned with a self-satisfied nod. “Am I correct?”

Dario briefly opened his mouth before closing it with a resigned sigh. He could keep on denying it, but she seemed convinced in her conclusion, and to be honest, he’d like to be able to talk about it with someone else his own age. “Yeah… yeah, you got me.”

Despite her explanation, Dario was still baffled. From what he recalled, assimilators were generally only known as some kind of absorbers and nothing else. No one but other assimilators should know about the inner pool of energy, at least from what he could tell of his own experience, so how did she know? Only four other people in the entire world should know about it.

He explained as much to her and asked how she knew.

“Well…” She paused with a look of hesitation on her face. “Okay, so... don’t treat me any differently, but… I’m actually a relative of King Draxis. More specifically, I’m one of his great granddaughters,” she explained. “You know King Draxis, right?”

“...yes,” Dario replied with a slow nod of his head. He definitely knew him alright, though he usually referred to him as The Bloody King.

“I don’t really know him that well, and I’ve never met him, but a few of us in the family got to know some stuff about assimilators from him. My father’s one of the few who was told about those things, and he proceeded to pass it down to me. He said it was part of my heritage or something,” Amara said with a roll of her clear blue eyes. “I didn’t expect the information to actually be useful for anything, but it turns out I was wrong.”

“Haha, what a coincidence, huh? Just my lucky day.” Dario chuckled humorlessly. “Meeting royalty on my first foray into the Wildlands, and a direct relative of the king at that…”

“I may be royalty, but I’d prefer it if you treated me like a normal person.” She sighed in exasperation. “Just treat me like you have been for the past few minutes. It was quite refreshing to be honest. Living in the castle can be such a bore.”

“Wait, since you’re royalty and live in Voirsten like me I assume, does that mean your father is—”

“The royal minister of Voirsten?” she interjected. “Yes, you’d be correct.”

“Huh… I didn’t know he had a daughter.” It was true, while he did know of the powerful man who governed the city, he knew very little of his family.

“I’m not surprised. He’s very, very protective of me,” Amara said with a sour expression. “I was homeschooled by tutors most of my life and he rarely lets me out. It took me a whole year of begging just to allow me out of the city to go see my aunt, and even then it wasn’t without being under the supervision of so many Superior bodyguards.” She leaned back in her seat and sighed. “I thought it was ridiculous at first, but now I see he was right to be cautious. If it weren’t for them… who knows where I’d be right now.” She chuckled humorlessly.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Well, you wouldn’t be sitting in front of me and making a new friend, that’s for sure.” Dario said.

Amara raised an eyebrow. “Is that what we are now? Friends?” she asked with an unreadable expression.

“Sure. Why not?” Dario shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t have many friends myself and we seem to be getting along just fine. I see no reason why we shouldn’t be friends.” He leaned forward with a timid smile. “So... what do you think? We cool?”

Her vivid blue eyes stared at him for several moments before she snorted in amusement.

“Hah, you’re amusing enough so I’ll consider it.” She looked down and muttered under her breath, “Figures that my first friend would be a one-legged, dirty vagabond.”

“I resent that.” Dario narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m actually one-footed, not one-legged,” he corrected.

“And a smartass too,” Amara muttered. “Just great.”

Dario chuckled before shortly putting on a serious expression. “Anyways, since we’re friends now, do you mind doing me a favor?” he asked.

“What is it?” she asked suspiciously. From the look on her face, she seemed to almost expect him to make some kind of perverted demand. He didn’t look that bad did he?

“Do you mind not telling anyone about me being an assimilator? I’d prefer to keep that a secret if you don’t mind.”

Upon hearing his request, she relaxed her tense shoulders. “Oh, sure, I can understand that. Wanting to keep your powers hidden is fairly normal. Your secret is safe with me.”

“Thanks,” Dario said with a feeling of relief. “It’ll be our little secret between friends then.”

Amara chuckled. “I guess so.”

It was then that the carriage suddenly shook and started moving. Dario pushed aside the window curtains and poked his head outside. He looked around and noticed the entire caravan slowly travelling along the road back to the city.

“Looks like we’re heading back.” Dario sighed and leaned his head against the seat. “I’m finally getting out of this shitty place and back to my warm bed.”

“Speaking of that, did you actually stay out in the Wildlands alone for a few days?” Amara asked curiously.

“Yeah, that wasn’t a lie, I really did live out here for a bit. I spent most of my time hunting and learning to control my powers, but I doubt you want to hear any of that.”

“On the contrary, I would love to know how you trained yourself,” she said eagerly. “I find that hearing others’ perspectives can help with one’s own progress in controlling their powers, so please, feel free to tell me what you’ve been trying to do.”

“Umm, alright then.” Dario shrugged and leaned forward. “Well, for my light beams, I’m currently focusing on making the ratio of ass energy expended to damage output more cost effective. I practised—”

“Wait a minute,” Amara interjected, her brows furrowed. “Did you just say ‘ass energy’?”

“Yeah.” Dario rubbed his head sheepishly. “It’s what I sometimes call my inner pool of energy. It’s assimilator energy, but I figured I’d just shorten it.”

The redheaded woman snorted in amusement. “I see. That’s an interesting phrase...” She shook her head and chuckled under her breath. “Anyways, carry on.”

Dario continued, “As I was saying, I practised a lot on stone walls and compared the sizes of scorch marks and craters to how drained I’d feel afterwards. I think I’ve managed a decent equilibrium, but there’s still room for improvement I think.”

“Can I see? From one academic to another of course,” she said eagerly.

Dario wordlessly lifted a finger and pointed towards one of the interior walls. He concentrated on only utilizing a very small amount of assimilator energy, but compressed it into a tight beam to increase the intensity.

A small beam of light burst from his finger and hit the wooden enclosure. It immediately caught fire with bits and pieces of wood falling to the floor from the impact. Dario was about to smother the flame with his bare hand when he noticed Amara tilting her head towards the flame, where it suddenly flickered out.

“Impressive,” they both said simultaneously.

“Not bad,” the redhead reiterated. “I assume that didn’t take up too much of your... ‘ass energy’, as you put it?”

“Nope,” Dario replied. “I could do much more powerful beams, but I won’t for obvious reasons.”

Amara hummed in thought. “You know, control doesn’t always mean shooting out the most impressive beam. For myself, I find that manipulating small complex things require the finest control. Have you tried maintaining your light at its… lowest setting?”

“Hmm... no, I haven’t tried that yet, strangely enough.” Dario furrowed his brows.

“Well go on then, give it a try. Cover your hand with as little of your light as possible. Who knows, you might end up learning better control and making overall improvements.”

Dario lifted his hand and began to concentrate. All he had to do was lower the intensity, right? That shouldn’t be too hard. He had been practising for several days in energy efficiency so this should be a piece of cake.

For several minutes he twisted and turned in his seat, a drop of sweat rolling down his forehead as he stared at his radiant hand. It still glowed vibrantly and wasn’t that much different from his light’s regular intensity. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t get the light to grow any dimmer.

Across from him, Amara sighed in her seat. “You need to relax, you’re too tense. Here,” She reached forward and pushed down on his shoulders. “Relax your shoulders, and take deep breaths.”

Dario followed her instructions almost mechanically, completely focused on the task at hand.

“Good, good. Now focus on pulling back the light into yourself and leaving only a small gap for it to leak through. Yes, just like that— no, you’re going back to where you started. Focus, Dario, focus.” After a minute of Amara’s coaching where she calmly berated him when he messed up and praised him for progress, Dario eventually managed a breakthrough.

His hand began to glow in an almost invisible tint of light.

“Congratulations. Looks like you managed to do it. You might be halfway decent after all,” Amara said with a smirk.

Dario stared at his hand for a long enraptured moment before he finally decided to test its effects. He reached over and touched his other forearm to see if anything happened. After a few seconds of holding it against his skin, he felt nothing. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The red-headed young woman leaned forward to inspect his softly glowing hand. “Is it safe to touch?” she questioned with curious blue eyes.

“Should be, I don’t really feel anything when I touch myself.” Dario chuckled. “Wow, that came out wrong.”

“Hmm, let me try,” she said with a curious expression.

Amara slowly reached out to grasp his hand. As soon as she made contact, she softly gasped and pulled her hand away. She made a bunch of incoherent noises, but he could’ve sworn he heard her call him a pervert at some point.

“What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” Dario asked in sudden alarm.

“N-no, I’m fine,” Amara stuttered, looking slightly flustered. After a short moment of uncertainty, she raised her hand once more. “Let me try that again.”

“Alright, but don’t hold on too long if it starts to hurt,” Dario said concernedly.

She reached forward, and after a brief look of hesitation, firmly latched onto his hand. Immediately, she gasped out loud, but quickly muffled the noise by biting her lower lip. After a few seconds of squirming, she let go and took a few deep breaths.

Dario placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright? Did it hurt?”

“No, no, I’m… fine.” Amara leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. “It just… it felt weird. It didn’t hurt or anything, it was just... strange and tingly.”

“Tingly...?” Dario asked with both eyebrows raised.

“Yeah… It felt kind of good actually.” The young woman blushed before coughing awkwardly. “Anyways, yeah. You have decent control I think. Keep it up and you might even be average,” she said haughtily, looking purposefully away from him.

Dario stared at her reddened face before chuckling under his breath. His power never failed to surprise him.

Every day he learned something new, and in this case, it wasn’t even him who had made the discovery! If it wasn’t for the perspective of another person, he would have never known that his light power on low setting could affect others in different ways. He didn’t feel anything when he used the light on himself, but from what he’d just witnessed, it seemed to cause a tingly, seemingly pleasant experience on others! Perhaps he should tell more people about his powers, excluding the Assimilator part of course, and see what else he could learn.

Wait a minute… earlier, he had shot light beams out of his head, signifying that he wasn’t limited to shooting only out of his hands. It meant that he might be able to project his aspect onto any part of his body. Did that mean he could potentially use his lowered light setting on... Hmm, that would have to be tested privately at a later date.

Dario smiled to himself at the intriguing thought before quickly remembering the girl in front of him. He was just as curious about the extent of her abilities as he was to his own.

“So, Amara... I showed you mine, now show me yours.”

She whipped her head back towards him with widened eyes. “Wha—? You really are a pervert, aren't you?” She crossed her arms and glared at him.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said with a knowing smile. “I was talking about your powers. I showed you mine, so I’m asking if you could show me yours.”

“Oh. Right, I knew that” she said with a cough. “Well, as you know, my powers involve telekinesis. I’d say I’m fairly good with it, but it’s still a work in progress.”

“Perhaps I can help you too, like how you helped me,” Dario said.

“How do you plan on doing that?” she asked curiously.

“Maybe I could shoot some low-powered beams at you and see if your telekinesis can block or redirect them,” he suggested.

Amara tilted her head in thought. “Hm, I’ve never tried using it like that before. I guess I could give it a try.”

“Alright then. No time like the present.” Dario raised his hands towards her. “Are you ready?”

She simply smiled at him. “Go for it.”

Dario smiled back, and the carriage was suddenly filled with softly glowing light.