"Where does that portal lead?"

Her voice echoed through the empty concrete space. Chad's mouth moved, forming the beginnings of an apology.

Nathan met Bree's gaze with a steady stare.

"A dimensional pocket. I use it for storage," he said.

"You already have an inventory."

"The inventory has its limits."

"In theory. No one's actually reached them."

"I did."

Bree's lips quirked up. "Would you mind if I stepped inside to take a look?"

Nathan's muscles tensed almost imperceptibly. "Yes, I would mind."

She didn't say anything and for a moment all Nathan could hear was the blood roaring in his ears. Then she held her hands up in surrender.

"I get it, I get it. It's your business. I won't push."

Nathan exhaled. "Good—"

"But you know," she interrupted, "the questions keep piling up. The assassination, your cultivation, and now this? I'm starting to think there's something you're not telling me, Nathaniel."

"And if I am?" Nathan's eyes narrowed. "What about you? Why are you so interested in my portal?"

Bree hesitated. ”We're working together. Don't I deserve to know the full capabilities of my partner?"

"You've seen my full capabilities," Nathan said. "Have I seen yours?"

Bree scoffed. “Of course.”

Chad coughed in the background. “Bullshit—“

Bree studied him for a moment.

"You know," she said. “Really strong people typically have a soulbound town... until it collapses or gets stolen—which is what usually happens." Her eyes flickered to the portal. "You'd have to be extremely strong to maintain and hold one."

Nathan's fingers twitched. His dexterity surpassed hers; if it came to it, he could take her down before she even blinked. But her Constitution was likely through the roof…

"Why are you even here?" Nathan asked.

Bree held up her hands, a faint yellow glow emanating from them.

"Did you think I was joking about the training?" she said. "It's time for you to up your game."

"You should've just said that from the start."

----------------------------------------

The two headed up toward the roof of one of the buildings. Chad had been asked to stay behind—both because Nathan was fearful that Chad might give something away, and also because Bree wanted there to be no distractions.

The wind beat against Nathan's jacket, flapping it like a drum.

"Your abilities," Bree said. "You've got water, wind—is there anything else?"

Nathan opened his mouth to mention lightning—before the word stopped on the tip of his tongue.

If worse came to worst, he wanted to have an ace in the hole. He doubted Bree would become an enemy, but still.

"That's it," he said.

Bree narrowed her eyes. She knew he was lying—of course she did. That was her whole thing. But would she call him out on it?

"Right," she said. "Let's focus on wind."

Nathan nearly breathed out a sigh of relief. "Let's."

"Have you done any practice on your own?"

Nathan shook his head. "I haven't. Things have been a little hectic."

"That's fine…" Bree stepped toward the edge of the building. "Based on your progress earlier, there's a good chance you'll get it usable by the end of this training session anyway."

Nathan shoved his hands in his pockets. "So, are we gonna get started?"

"Try to do what you did back in the forest."

Nathan nodded. He held his hand out. Energy flooded from his core to the tips of his fingers.

The wind smashed into Nathan from behind, Bree almost tumbled off the building before she managed to backpedal.

"Okay, I guess we don't need to review," Bree muttered. "Now you need to learn how to manipulate it."

"Yeah, that's not too hard, right? Just focus on moving it around."

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Bree's left eye twitched. "Just move it around? Do you seriously think it'll be that simple?"

"That's more or less how difficult it was for water."

"Of course. Of course it was. Why am I even here?"

Nathan activated the wind once more. He gave it a mental command to go to the left… and it didn’t respond. The wind continued to gust against him from directly behind.

He frowned. "It's not like water."

Bree tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Water… is tricky, but it wants to move with me. It listens to me. I feel like the wind just wants to go where it wants."

Bree tilted her head down and rubbed her chin. "Of course you have different affinities with different elements. That makes sense."

"Huh?"

"For me, once I understood earth cultivation, it felt… reliable. Like a workhorse, or an old friend. It does what I need it to, every time. It shows up."

Nathan briefly summoned a few drops of water over his hand.

"I don't think I really feel much of anything when it comes to water anymore," Nathan said. "It's not more complex than moving my hands."

For a split second, Nathan caught a look in Bree's eyes. Her breath seemed to stop for a moment. It was like she was staring at a thousand tons of gold. All at once, the look disappeared.

Nathan narrowed his eyes. What was she thinking?

"Water was easy," Bree said. "From the sounds of it, your affinity is through the roof with it. Wind… you probably still have a high affinity with it, but not as high as with water. So for the first time, you're going to have to struggle to control it. That's normal—and it goes away with consistent practice. For now, I want you to focus on trying to lower your power output. Stop with the massive hurricane gales and try to tone it down to a gentle breeze."

Nathan spent the next two or three hours attempting to do just that. By the end of it, he managed to start with the hurricane gales, as Bree had put it, and lower it down to more… extremely strong summer winds.

----------------------------------------

Nathan slumped to the ground, breathing hard. Concentrating so intensely had taken a lot out of him, even though physically he hadn’t been doing much. In fact, he felt more exhausted than he had in a long time, maybe even going back to the tutorial circle.

"Worn out?" Bree asked.

"Yeah, that really took it out of me."

"You're probably not used to the strain of manipulating your ki that much. It comes so easily for you," Bree paused. "It's a pretty amazing thing, you know."

"It is what it is."

Bree was quiet for a moment before she broke the silence. "How big is that dimensional pocket of yours?"

"Not that big," Nathan lied as easily as he breathed. "Maybe enough to transport a handful of people, but not much more."

Bree scoffed. It was clear she didn’t believe him, but it didn’t seem like she was willing to confront him on it either.

"I'm not a good leader," Bree said. "I'm the drill sergeant, the woman you come to when you need discipline in the ranks. I'm a tactician. I'm an organizer. But a leader? No."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what I say, and I say what I mean. I'm not a leader. A real leader—the kind of leader we need right now—would be inspiring. They would be capable of getting people to rise above their own limitations, to keep fighting to reach the next circle. And we need that. The challenges are only going to get tougher, and we need every fighter we can get our hands on.” She paused. “I can't do that."

Nathan rubbed his hands against the concrete ground.

"You could learn."

"No." Bree laughed dryly. "I'm not sure it's something that can be learned. I think at least part of that inspiration has to come from truly believing it's possible."

Nathan's eyes wandered over to Bree. Her eyes were dimmer than usual, lacking their usual luster. “You don’t?”

"I don’t. It's hard to see the point now, anyway."

Nathan’s mouth went dry. “Your son, right?"

“Yes.” Bree looked out toward the setting sun. "If the circles can take away someone so bright, then they can take anyone. And even if we make it out, will it even be worth it?"

Nathan's nose twitched. "Of course it would be. We’d be free."

A faint grin lit up Bree’s face at Nathan's words.

"See, that's what I'm talking about,” she said. “The circles haven’t broken you yet. Or if they did, you managed to come back, reforged and stronger. You don’t show it much—I think you try to keep it hidden for some reason—but you have something that very few other people in the circle have at this point. "

Nathan rolled his eyes. He didn’t know where Bree was going with this.

"And what is this mysterious thing I have?"

"Hope. You truly believe that you can escape the circles.”

Nathan stood up and started walking toward the stairs. "Thanks, I guess."

"You know what I'm asking you to do, Nathaniel."

Nathan stopped at the stairs. "I'm sorry about your son. I'm sure he was a good man."

"He was a boy."

Sympathy, cold and heavy and exactly what Nathan didn’t want to feel right now, slammed into him like a brick. He suppressed the emotion and continued down the stairs.

----------------------------------------

"Everything go well with Bree?"

Nathan nodded at Chad. "It did."

Chad raised a single eyebrow, clearly disbelieving. Nathan was starting to get tired of how easily people could read him. He idly wondered if there was a skill or something to help hide his facial expressions.

"Yeah, while you were out," Chad said, "I actually had a little adventure of my own."

"What happened?" Nathan asked.

"I was just heading out to pick up some food when I got swarmed by a mob. They wanted to know what the progress was on getting to the next circle. It was pretty scary—I wasn't sure what to do."

"How did you get out of it?"

“A lady gave me a hand, actually. She swooped in out of nowhere and caused a distraction. Grabbed me, threw me into an alleyway, and saved my ass."

Nathan grunted. "I assume you got her number or something?"

"Numbers don't work down here, and even if they did, she was gone the next second."

Nathan noted the encounter in his head. If they ran into this lady, he'd have to thank her for helping Chad out. But for now, Nathan had something else he needed to discuss.

"I actually need your help with something."

Chad clapped his hands together and grinned. "Yes, come before Elder Chad and speak of your troubles. Surely he will be able to help you. Is it romantic? Platonic? Romantic-platonic?"

"Actually, it has to do with fishing."

Chad drooped. "Gosh dang it."

"This is a bit of a long shot, but I'm looking for an unusual pond. The water is kind of... translucent? And it feels weird if you dip your hands into it—like mist?"

"A misty pond?" Chad glanced around. "Wait, it's starting to get dark. Let's get some light in here first."

They gathered some scraps of wood that had been set aside and lit them on fire. Smoke filled the room, so they opened a window to let it out.

"There we go," Chad said. "So, you were talking about a misty pond?"

"Yeah, I know the odds are basically nil, but I was wondering if you’ve heard anything about it?"

"As a matter of fact, I have!"

"Really?" Nathan twisted up his face. "How?"

"Dude, when's the last time you checked Dither?"

"Sometime in the last Circle...?"

"Well, everyone in Pocket Chad—that's what we decided to call this pocket—has a group. We've been sharing information on interesting things we’ve found. Somebody actually posted a picture of exactly what you're talking about. They didn’t find any loot, but they left the location."

"That's perfect,” Nathan said.

Chad wrote down the directions, and Nathan immediately stepped out of the building, walking into the dark, deserted streets.

As he walked, something tugged at the edge of his mind. His eyes flickered behind him, catching sight of a few shadows trailing him.

It seemed he had some uninvited guests.