Henry blinked as the light of the sun struck his eyes for the first time in days. It blinded him for several seconds, and then several more as he blinked tears from his eyes. When at last Henry was able to see, nothing particularly special greeted him. Behind was a huge city of diamond, ahead rolling grassy fields— the kind always surrounding a fortress for defensive line-of-sight purposes— with no signs of combat marred into them. This meant, Henry knew, that they had exited the dome on the opposite side from which he had entered. Unless Xevis’ men were both capable and willing to repair the devastation in the landscape he had wrought, scars should still be left in the earth wherever originally left.

Though Henry had little sense of direction, the group began to march without command, Amanda and himself following Regulus and some thirty Scourgeborne behind the trio forced together by superior’s command. Henry had no reason to speculate at Amanda’s ill-intent, but could not help but wonder why she continued to serve with such cruel men as these given any opportunity at all to leave.

The trip went by uneventfully. It was a long and relatively slow march— brisk for someone out of shape, but no faster than he could handle with some level of heavy breathing. It was unusual, he thought, for an army to be so slow, and the only explanations he could think of were that they were either doing it for his sake or keeping a close eye out for an ambush. If the latter it was questionable why the trio of leaders was in front, as well as why they took a formation in which all troops faced forward, seemingly without magical aid. He supposed it would be taxing to march backwards as well as to burn magical energy on constant vigilance, but if this truly was a mission fraught with danger, shouldn’t they remain alert?

And yet as they passed through meadow, field, and forest (in which Henry felt especially nervous) nothing happened. He didn’t speak for fear of inciting Regulus’ wrath, but thoughts and speculations made the trip reasonably fast to his perspective.

As the sun began to set a deep orange, the company encountered its destination: a river that was… somehow also painted orange-red.

“Wha?” Henry muttered, but no answer greeted him.

It was at this moment he realized the sun was setting. The sun was setting and he hadn’t eaten. The sun was setting, he hadn't eaten, and was not hungry. Something had changed with his biology, but even as this thought came his stomach began to growl.

“Anyone else super hungry?” Amanda asked no one in particular.

Regulus did not speak, nor did a single member of his company.

Henry looked to her, but said nothing. Though he had been overcome by surprise at the appearance of the river, it now seemed like it must just have been the sun’s reflection on its surface that changed the color enough for him to risk the ire of Regulus in speech. He would not take this risk a second time.

The party encamped into large, square-shaped, cloth tents, and Henry followed Amanda to the river’s shore. He was eager to get away from the legionaries who had slowly begun to creep Henry out. He had never heard them speak, and had never seen them move naturally. Every step they took was robotic. Every breath was impossible through a mask with no holes. He didn’t understand how they moved in perfect sync and seemed to not need food or water. He himself didn’t need to eat for the journey, but had been passed water created by Amanda at intervals to stay hydrated. Why she hadn’t given him food he wasn’t sure, nor why she herself didn’t eat on the journey, but now that they were alone together he might as well ask.

“We have magic for sustenance, and you, uh, didn’t exactly ask for any either,” she said, clearly amused.

Henry laughed and replied quickly, “Fair enough I guess.”

She threw her hands out toward the reddish-orange water as though casting a net, and when they returned to her abdomen a dozen or so fish flew to the edge of the gently-lapping waves at the shore. The fish remained in a box of water some ten or twelve feet to a side as though trapped by something, and Amanda left them there as she casted her hands to the ground on the beach to start a fire. There was no wood or combustible material of any kind, but about half the fish dissolved into pillars of red mist that swirled gently in the cool air and gave off a sense of warmth as they passed to the point over which her palms were raised. Fire began to form on the sand, and the wisps of magical essence slowly continued to trickle from a few of the still-living fish in their invisible pen.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“We’ll eat about half if that’s ok with you?” Amanda asked.

Henry’s stomach growled. Before he could speak she once again cast her hands toward the water, softly laughed, and pulled them back to bring a few more fish into the invisible boundary she had created with the use of an equally invisible net.

“How did you do that?” Henry couldn’t help himself but to ask after witnessing the feat a second time.

“Magic!” Amanda replied excitedly.

“You can see the pillars of aether, right? I already told you how it works,” she said, still laughing. “But seriously, the essence of Yaldabaoth is strong here, just look at the color of the water.”

He supposed she was right, but that shot a hole in his theory about the water being the shade it was as a trick of the light.

“So you were being literal before?” he asked.

“Well yeah, what did you think I meant by using the essence of Yaldabaoth to fuel my magic? Everybody knows he left to avoid oversaturating the world with his power. Didn’t you learn that in the academy?”

Henry stammered and looked away. He wasn’t nervous about her in particular, though was still forced to lean on the knot of power just below his chest to keep it that way, but didn’t particularly want to think about, much less speak of, his time in the world best left forgotten. He supposed he had to say something, so just went with the first thing that came to mind.

“I’m not from around here,” he muttered softly.

“I can tell!” she beamed, seemingly excited to share stories by the fire.

They continued to chat as they ate fish and a few carbs procured by magic, Henry obfuscating the fact he had been reincarnated and saying something about how his memory was spotty after gaining his new powers, leaning on the orb to stay calm as he ad-libbed the details.

“That’s so funny, Xevie says the same thing! I guess that’s just part of gaining godlike power,” she mused.

Henry… wasn’t amused by this. He didn’t lean in for a kiss or grope her because he wasn’t a creep, so the night passed uneventfully as his mind continued to occupy itself with why Xevis had planned things this way. He barely listened to the conversation from this point on, and eventually the two retired as Amanda seemed to think he was tired from the long march.

He had been given his own tent, but despite the pitch darkness and complete silence his thoughts continued to race. Xevis had sent him here for a reason. Amanda was nice enough, but Regulus was not. They had been sent together despite the rather poor relationship Henry had with the brute as compared to the red haired mage. If it came to blows, would he matter? Would the Scourgeborne even matter?

Given the sheer power displayed to him upon entering the world, it seemed unlikely he would be able to do anything about it. Was he fodder? He would be pretty bad at that job considering he would lose consciousness like a normal man. Was Xevis trying to kill him?

“But he could just restrain me,” Henry thought.

“I don’t understand, I don’t understand, I don’t understand,” he whispered continuously, breaking the perfect silence that had enveloped the encampment. The only thing he was certain of was a growing desire for more power. He felt so helpless. He hated being forced to lean on something to stay calm. He hated being unable to defend himself or those he now cared for. It was… emasculating, embarrassing, emotionally straining, to feel unable to do anything but lay down and surrender if the worst came to be.

He could feel the power in him revolving slowly, but for all the focus he placed on it nothing changed. There was clearly a thin connection to something there but it was weak and distant, as though a thin wire were being strung an infinite distance and only the reverberations of space could be felt on either end. He needed to make this connection stronger, he needed to become strong enough to protect what he wanted to keep and destroy that which would stop him from doing so. Perhaps Xevis merely saw this connection and coldly decided Henry would strengthen it through battle.

Whatever the motivation was for taking him along, they had arrived at the rendezvous point to receive supplies necessary for defense in a protracted siege. While his thoughts kept him awake, Henry was certain they wouldn’t be attacked that night. It seemed likely that the supplies would come by ship, and he doubted they would actually make landfall if a friendly army wasn’t encamped on the bank to greet them.

Though it took over an hour, Henry did eventually fall asleep. No dreams greeted him in rest.