“Essences are specific forms of magic that have been condensed and morphed into a magical item.” Anna explained. “They have varied effects, some allow one to have a familiar or allow use of magic. Essences have been told to be quite rare as they are one of the most powerful forms of a magical item. The item straight up unlocks anything related to the essence it was.”

Anna had taken over the explanation for essences after Levi finished telling the story of how they defeated the Reaping Drift.

“If it’s so rare, how come I have so many?”

“You’re the luckiest person I know,” Tycen said. “You’re dating Piper. All luck.”

“Har har,” Levi said, giving Tycen a flat look.

“Jokes aside,” Anna said, glaring at Tycen, who had pretended not to notice her gaze. “I am not sure, perhaps because the magic has been somewhat powerful with very little magical users. I honestly, do not know. But that is basically what an essence is.”

“There is a little more to it,” Izzy added. “The essences you have will not provide limited magic skill. Most essences only work if the person is already a magic-user. Except for the few exceptions.”

“What are those exceptions?” Levi asked.

“How do you know this? The textbooks I’ve studied have all said that was the case for other essences,” Anna asked.

“No offense, princess but the Onyx kingdom is not known for magical research. Qu’ant is. My family are literally magical researchers. We do tests and experiments, we put hypotheses to the test and try again and again. I have done some of the essence experiments. To answer your question Levi the known exceptions are; Magic and Order essences.”

“Of course,” Levi said.

“Bitter that it's the opposite?” Bradley said snarkely.

“No but things are starting to click,” Levi said absentmindedly. Levi looked into the distance, trying to piece together all the scattered bits of information he had. He needed to find another letter. Those always seemed to provide him with some clarity.

“Upset that your precious chaos magic isn’t one of the exceptions?”

“Bradley not the time,” Izzy said softly.

“No, I want to hear how this otherworlder was able to become so strong. I want to hear how he isn’t the evil in the prophecy set to destroy the world. Tell me, summoner, tell me,” Bradley said, getting closer to Levi’s face. Levi’s eyes were distant as if he weren’t paying attention to Bradley. “Well, say something!” Bradley shouted. The air in the room turned still. Levi’s eyes slowly shifted to focus on Bradley’s. Bradley shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of Levi.

“Why?” Levi said, voice soft yet firm.

“Why? Because the words of old tell a tale of you being the reason for the destruction of the world.”

“Not that why… why do you think that chaos is the evil and order is the good?”

“Because chaos is evil…”

“How?”

“It’s unruly, unwilling to be controlled, monsters that come from chaos are evil and vile, they kill humans.”

“You are unruly and unwilling to be controlled. You come and kill monsters, are you evil?”

“What? No, of course not,” Bradley said with confusion. He looked around the table, hoping someone would back him up. To his surprise, everyone looked angry at him… especially Piper.

“Don’t look at them,” Levi said, his eyes boring into Bradley’s. The young ranger was starting to sweat under the pressure. “Have you ever fought a Lion Sage?”

“No,” Bradley said, confused at the question.

“Interesting,” Levi said. “What about a Frog Angel?”

“Are these real creatures?”

“Very real. We stopped a village from going extinct at the hands of a Frog Angel. Does that sound like something that is as good as you claim it to be would do? Kill an entire village?”

“Well, no-”

“Blanket statements that all chaos is evil and all order is good, is a great way to be hated. You have been around me, do I seem evil?” Levi looked around. “Okay, besides my familiars…”

“No, you do a lot for a lot of people,” Bradley admitted.

“You are correct; chaos is unwilling to be controlled. But I don’t control chaos; I work with it. We work together. Order wants to be controlled, and it can be misused just as easily as chaos can be.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Bradley said reluctantly.

“That doesn’t matter though,” Izzy said. “You lied to us, how are we supposed to trust you now?”

“I couldn’t care less if you trust me or not,” Levi said. “At the end of the day, the monsters we fight that you two could help against wouldn’t be of any concern to my friends or me.” Levi shrugged and looked the two young ones in the eye. “I’m not sorry for not telling you the truth. It was my secret, and I didn’t want this kind of reaction. It was a mistake you even found out, but honestly, I’m not mad you know either. I’m sick of carrying around a secret. I’m sick of people thinking I’m evil. I’m sick of the way this stupid world treats a form of magic and doesn’t blame the magic users.”

Levi’s temper was starting to rise as he continued his impassioned speech. He held up his hands and started counting his fingers, “Nobody likes summoners, nobody likes chaos magic, nobody likes swarm familiars, and nobody trust otherworlders! I DIDNT HAVE A CHOICE! This weird ass powerful wizard brought me here to fix HIS mistake. I didn’t choose this life. This shouldn’t even be my fight and yet here I am. Working my ass off to people who constantly treat me like hot ass. For what? To save a world that I wasn’t born in, full of people who treat me and my class, affinity, and whatever an otherworlder is, like crap?” At this point, Levi was shouting. Thankfully for the team, it was the middle of the day, and nobody was in the Tavern.

Frieda had told them she would be leaving to go get supplies for lunch and dinner. So even she wasn’t present. Piper watched as Levi continued his rant. She said nothing, listening intently. Piper knew Levi a lot better than she led on. She had been carefully watching Levi as they had been meeting all these different groups of people. She had started to see that he was carrying a burden more and more each day. Piper thought he did a good job masking it, but she became increasingly concerned that he would lose himself and did not know which mask was used. Watching Levi blow up gave her a slight feeling of hope.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Hope that he knew what was going on and that he could take steps to, hopefully, not lose himself. She smiled slyly to avoid any undue looks as Levi continued, “So yes, I kept a secret. And yes you can’t trust me.” His voice dropped to a whimper. “But I’m tired of trying to convince people that I’m not evil. That I’m not the villain in this story. So I’m done trying. Believe what you want, I am going to keep doing what I’ve been doing and live this life that was forced upon me with no damn choice.” He huffed, stood up, and walked out of the Tavern.

Levi had no idea where he was going, but he could feel his heart racing. He could feel the onslaught of thoughts approaching. Anxiety crept through his mind like a cooling chill. He sat against a tree just outside the small town. His entire body started trembling, and fear started to claw his way into his mind. Anxiety and fear played scenes of his past over and over. Times when he was a failure, times when people betrayed his trust, and times when he screwed up another relationship. These scenes did a considerable amount of damage to his confidence.

Levi sat with his arms tucked over his legs, knees pressed to his chest, rocking slowly. Sweat beaded on his forehead as his body continued to tremble under the immense pressure he had been feeling. Levi’s breath was ragged but started to steady as warmth permeated his core. A feeling of calmness enters his mind, evicting fear and anxiety. His trembling stopped, his sweating stopped, and his breathing regulated as he was able to calm down.

Levi sat with his head sunk low, still in the same seating position. He regained control of his mental faculties, doing his best not to let fear or shame take over. Still, that warm feeling lingered in his mana pool and streamed throughout his body. He took in long, slow, deep breaths. Under the shade of the random tree, he felt the dry breeze sweep across his exposed neck. The weather was comfortable, and the slight breeze provided a nice break from the dry air.

Levi looked inside himself and felt the calming feeling coming from Serenity. His aura dragon was perched on his shoulders, using aura power to calm him down. Her scales and fur were glowing a light blue. Her reptilian eyes were staring at Levi as he looked up. She didn’t need to say anything for Levi to understand her meaning.

Levi sat in the stillness for a few moments, not sure what he wanted or needed.

Meanwhile, back in the Tavern, Izzy and Bradley awkwardly sat with the rest of Levi’s team at the table. No one said anything for a few moments. Izzy opened and closed her mouth a few times, unsure what to say. Piper, Anna, and Tycen just stared at the two, knowing that they didn’t need to add to anything. They watched in contemplative silence, letting the silence be all the pressure they would need.

“Where do we go from here?” Bradley eventually asked. His voice was low and uncertain.

“That depends on you two,” Piper said, her tone was clipped and harsh. “Levi told you his secret and he shared his feelings. The two of you must decide what you want.”

“Why is it our choice?” Izzy asked with a shaky voice.

“Because all that he said was not completely your fault. The three of us know that, which is why aren’t actively threatening you.”

“What?” Bradley said.

“Levi is great,” Piper said with a sigh. “I love the man with my whole heart. He is broken though. He holds in the things that hurt him and does not process them well. If I am honest, I am not even sure what good processing looks like, with all that he has going through. I digress. Levi pushes these issues and anger down. I could see it, it was effecting him in a few ways. He needed to release that anger, release that pressure. You two were the perfect storm.”

“Wait, so you’re not mad at us?” Izzy asked, hopeful.

“I didn’t say that,” Piper said.

“Oh,” her face sank. “I feel pretty bad.”

“As you should,” Anna chided. “Although, Piper is correct, I am upset with how you handled that. Especially after you have seen how he has treated the people in this town. But more so how he has treated you and your families, who have been more than a little rude to him.” The two aristocrats nodded at Anna’s words. Both of them had their heads down and didn’t say anything else.

Several hours went by as the team went back to their assigned duties. Piper did most of the things on her list solo as she was giving Levi some space to calm down. As she told the last person about her successful monster hunt, she frowned because she had not seen or heard from Levi yet. Doing her best not to worry, she went back to the Tavern to have a rinse-off. The last monster she fought left her bloody, with its blood.

After she showered, she heard a noise coming from the room next door. She walked outside to check it out. Thankfully, Levi was there, sitting on the bed, reading a book.

“I am glad to see that you are alright,” Piper said. Her hair was wrapped in a towel as she wandered over toward Levi. She kissed his forehead and took a seat next to him on the bed.

“I appreciate you,” he said, looking up from his book.

“I know,” she said with a smug smile. She leaned her head on his shoulder as she sat in bed. “Do you feel better now?” She asked. “Finally releasing all that anger?”

“I hadn’t realized how much I was carrying,” Levi admitted. “I do feel bad for yelling at them though, that wasn’t my best moment.”

“Perhaps not. It wasn’t your worst either,” Piper said. “So maybe hold off on apologizing, you still have plenty of time to make an ass out of yourself.”

“Oooo man, my girlfriend is hilarious,” Levi said sarcastically. The two of them chuckled as Levi continued to read. “It was cathartic. I definitely feel better.”

“I certainly hope so,” Piper said. “You left me to do all the notices, so it had better be worth it.” She giggled at the fake, affronted look that Levi gave her. She kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear, “I am glad you are feeling better.”

“I’ll be better,” Levi said. “Panic attacks aren’t fun especially since they are caused by me not dealing with my emotions in a healthy manner.”

“Suppression is probably not the best but you cannot change the past, only the future,” she nodded.

“Oh very wise,” Levi chuckled. He kissed her cheek.

“What are you reading?”

“It was one of the books on Veluvius in the library before the creepy kids talked to us.”

“Learned anything special?”

“Kinda,” Levi said. “There are a lot of things about him that are a clear mystery. First is where he even came from. All accounts that I have seen on the man start in his late adult years. Always as a 3-star or higher, never lower. It’s like he just appeared out of nowhere.”

“Do you think he’s an otherworlder?”

“I don’t,” Levi shook his head. “No one discussed the man as anything but a native to this world. Even in his letter he sounds sure of how the magic of this world works.”

“So what are you thinking?”

“I’ve got three pretty implausible scenarios in my head,” he held out his index finger, “One - he got rid of his family history due to the state of the world and summoners. Two - He’s not a human at all but perhaps an entire other entity. Three - the crown prince or someone on the crown prince’s side actively got rid of his information, for some reason.”

“That does seem odd that they wouldn’t get rid of all of it.”

“Yeah that was my thinking too,” Levi said. “I don’t know but I do know we have a map with the location of the rest of the dots. I say we leave this town in a day or two.”

“I agree,” Piper said. “We’ve cleared the notice board. Do you want to create that ritual for the people who are getting essences?”

“On the last day,” Levi said. “Before we leave. I want it to be a surprise for the village.”

There was a knock on the door, “come in.” Levi said. A young woman that Levi had never seen opened the door and poked her head in.

“Uhh hello,” she said. “Are you Levi Winters?”

“Uh hi,” Levi replied. “Yes.”

“Great, I am Trixie,” the young woman said. “I became friends with Anna a couple of days ago. I met with her today as I acquired the amount of money she said I needed to buy a magic essence from you. She told me that you wouldn’t be busy and to come see you right now.”

“Did she now?” Levi asked.

“Yes!” she said with a beaming smile.

“How much is she charging you for the essence?”

“7 Gold coins,” she said.

“Okay,” Levi said. “Go back and tell her I will sell you the essence and perform the ritual tomorrow.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Levi nodded. “Before you go… tell her that she sucks and she shouldn’t send a teenager to do her biding.”

“Uhh, I’ll do my best to remember that,” she said. Piper held up a hand to her mouth in a poor attempt to hide her laughter. Levi looked at her sharply. She bit her lip, trying not to laugh even harder. She failed, and her laughter erupted from her mouth. Levi couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit.

“Well played Onyx,” Levi mused. “Well played.”