"You're a what?" the elder exclaimed.

It had to be true. He had accessed the Spirit Plane several times. But now the elder and Nadreen looked at him as if he was crazy.

"I've been to the Spirit Plane. Several times, in fact," Jet explained, trying to remain confident. He knew his cheeks were probably red. He never liked upsetting someone older than him, and yet he had to tell them.

"I know you are a foreigner to our ways, boy, but I had just told you that Planes Walkers don't exist. They were theories, made up by fanatic Spirit Elementalists who yearned to reach the planes."

"It's true though. I was taken into the Spirit Plane just after..." Jet hesitated. He didn't want to explain his story to them about the Emperor. Calling out the Emperor would just make them hate him faster.

Nadreen put her hand on Jet's shoulder. He eyed her as her expression became sympathetic. "You must understand, Jet. The elder has been through many years of Elementalists claiming to hold this power."

"Do you believe me?" he asked.

Nadreen looked to the floor. Jet frowned. Could he prove it to them? The Spirit Plane seemed to only be there when he needed it.

"You do not look as if you have witnessed the Planes, my dear boy," the elder explained.

"All of them? I've only ever been to the Spirit one."

"A Planes Walker's abilities know no bounds when it comes to accessing the other Elemental Planes. They aren't Plane Walkers, they are Planes Walkers."

Still frowning, Jet looked back to the painting. Nadreen let go of him as he walked towards the wall. He studied the image. The painting depicted the plane as a city of some kind. The buildings were green but more defined than the ones Jet had seen before.

"What is the purpose of a Planes Walker? What are they to do with that power?" Jet asked.

"In our Element's case, it is access to the dearly departed. The Spirit Plane is a land just like the one we are standing in now, with people just like us three. I wouldn't see why the other Elemental Planes aren't the same. Entire worlds that are made of pure Element."

Jet sighed. The Plane he had seen wasn't at all like the one the elder described. It was a misty flat land that once had green models of buildings. Maybe he wasn't a Planes Walker. He could have dreamt it all. It wouldn't explain his appearance in Lonava though.

"Look, I know I'm new here, and I have no evidence to make you believe me, but I think I'm one of them," Jet explained as he pointed to the painting. "I think I was brought here to learn that."

The elder simply nodded. He began walking towards the entrance of the temple. Without turning back to Jet, he said, "The Spirits are mysterious, indeed."

Jet watched him leave slowly. He let out another sigh. Nadreen approached him. "I don't know why, but I have a strange feeling that I should believe you."

"Do you really?"

Nadreen nodded. She turned towards the entrance. "We should leave this place. Perhaps you can follow me and tell me your story?" she asked Jet.

"I'd love to," he replied. He had gotten used to telling it by now. He hoped there was a chance to convince her that the Emperor was bad.

The Spirit Elementalist girl grabbed his hand and began to pull him out of the temple. The sun was still beating over head when they stepped outside. It had moved enough for there to be little to no shade before the temple. Jet found it strange that it felt normal to him all of a sudden. The heat didn't burn him or feel uncomfortable. He wondered if the temple had awoken his native feelings.

Nadreen led Jet back through the village. He was surprised when they kept going passed the base of the plateau. Her grip was tight as she continued on into the desert.

"Where are we going?" Jet had to ask.

"One of the villages of your parents' tribe isn't very far from here. It probably isn't the one your parents are at, but maybe they'll recognize your name."

Jet couldn't help but smile. He had hopes that his parents were still alive and in the desert somewhere. He had no idea what he would tell them about Dustan, especially with how Nadreen's village thinks of the Emperor. He always imagined that they would smile when they saw him for the first time since he was little. He had a feeling they would immediately recognize him, even in his current age.

The two walked through the desert for a few hours. Nadreen's idea of not far was still quite a ways. Jet wondered how long he had been out on the general's horse. He felt that he was pretty far into the desert. He could have been out the entire night and into some of the day before he got dropped off.

"Should be just on the horizon after this dune," Nadreen said. She had eventually let go of Jet's hand and assumed he would still follow her regardless if she led him or not.

"I'm glad to hear that." Jet was a bit winded. The heat wasn't so bad anymore, but the trudging through heavy sand tired him out. He hadn't exactly rested fully yet. "Do you think that temple empowers Spirit Elementalists?" he asked Nadreen. The next dune was a large one. They began to trudge up it.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well I felt so heat exhausted on the way here. Calbar is a much colder climate. But now, it feels rather normal."

"Could be. That sounds something an Element could do. Elementalists are much stronger than those without one, even in small things like heat."

Jet wondered how true that was. There was so much mystery from Elementalists, and it seemed everyone from the lands had different outlooks on it.

"There it is..." Nadreen said with excitement but then it slowly trailed off.

Jet looked up to her. She had reached the top of the dune before he had. He stood next to her and saw what had caused her to stop. The village in the distance had smoke coming from it.

"What happened?" Jet asked.

Nadreen didn't reply. She immediately burst into a sprint down the dune towards the village. Jet's hand lit up with his Element. He ran up to Nadreen and used his Element to speed them up. Element rolled down the dune with them. It was only a matter of seconds to reach the village.

"Hello?" Nadreen called out. She had already begun to look in the village. Similar to the previous one, this village had the same round tan houses. The only difference was that most of the ones here were destroyed and still on fire.

"Nadreen...I'm so sorry," Jet replied to her as she looked around frantically.

She turned to Jet. From the look on his face, she could tell he wasn't surprised. "Why? What aren't you telling me?" she demanded.

Jet let out a sigh. "The Empire is bad news. They probably did this on the way to one of your other villages because they didn't have any Spirit Elementalists with them."

"But there had to be at least some Elementalists here!"

"This looks like they resisted. Maybe they knew what he was up to."

Nadreen went through the burning village. Jet followed closely. They looked for any possible survivors of the attack. There were bodies, but none of them had any life. Jet clenched his fist as he tried not to think of Dustan. Each one of the bodies on the floor looked as if they had their soul ripped right out of them. He hoped if his parents were still alive, hoping they hadn't been there.

"Quick, over here!" Nadreen shouted to Jet. She had gone into one of the burning buildings. Jet entered it to be met with smoke and cinder. He could barely see Nadreen crouched over a body. She told him that she thought it moved. Jet examined the body to see if it was breathing.

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Suddenly, the body let out a cough. It caused Jet and Nadreen to jump. "We have to move him," Jet told her. She nodded and they both carried the body outside.

As they laid the body down away from the burning building, Nadreen helped the man sit up to drink from her waterskin. "What were you doing in there? Why is everyone dead?" she asked.

The man coughed a few times. He looked weak. "I ran inside...the Empire...killing all around..."

"Is there anyone else?" Jet asked. Nadreen looked at him, her eyes wide. She could tell he genuinely cared.

The man weakly shook his head. "I was the last...they started burning...everything was on fire." After a few more coughs, Nadreen let him have some more water. He then continued, "I couldn't get out...one of them attacked me..."

Jet could get a better look at the man. His legs were completely mangled. They were bloody and looked to be wounds from the rapiers the Imperial soldiers carried. Jet would recognize them anywhere. The people who disobeyed in Calbar were usually attacked as a lesson.

"Where did the soldiers go?" Jet replied.

"They disappeared. I don't really know."

Jet frowned as he looked up to Nadreen. She shook her head, "He's lost a lot of blood."

"Please, don't let the other villages get attacked...we didn't know...the Emperor..." the man trailed off. His eyes went blank, and his breathing stopped. Nadreen began to cry as if she knew him personally. Jet could tell that the people of Ahrura treated each other as family.

"Should we bury him?" Jet asked carefully. He knew it was custom in the Empire to have a grave for the fallen. Nadreen shook her head. She laid the man down and wiped her eyes.

"No, it's our way here to let the sand take them. The sand will bury them once their spirit is taken."

He nodded to her. He respected their beliefs, because he knew there was no way of knowing how true it could be. He didn't know if the spirits he had seen were the fallen or just collection of energy.

"What is he up to? The Emperor. I want to know."

Jet pulled Nadreen away from the houses and bodies. He took her to the edge of the village. He pulled her closer so they could sit together. He knew he had a long story to tell her, and taking it standing wasn't going to be good.

"Let me start from the beginning. It started almost 6 months ago. My brother Dustan and I were poor citizens of Calbar, working day jobs to get by. It was the day that Dustan's Element had awaken..."

Jet told her the story that he had told dozens of times now. Throughout the explanation, Jet was surprised to see her not as closed minded as he expected from someone who has been lied to for so long. She was shocked and enthralled. He made sure not to leave any detail out so she wasn't fooled by the lies the Empire was spouting to the people in Ahrura.

The sun began to set over the desert lands. Jet couldn't believe how beautiful it was. The sky turned orange and purple as it darkened.

"So the general was at the wall?" Nadreen asked. She made sure Jet was still paying attention, because his gaze was off towards the sun.

"Uh, yeah," Jet stammered to regain his focus. "We were just looking for a way through. The gate on the Empire side blended seemingly with the walls strange architecture."

"I've never seen the wall before. Is it large?"

"Extremely. I had never seen anything like it before. Though that is more common nowadays."

Nadreen laughed at Jet's remark. It made him smile. "So then what happened when the general appeared?" she finally continued.

Jet leaned back onto the sand. The fires of the village had dwindled to embers. There was nothing they could have done. The sand was cooling down. Even with the air smelling of smoke, it was a pleasant time for Jet. He wondered if it was something about the peoples' spirits being at peace, at least by the Ahrurian belief.

"Heyvl, Irina, and I were running on the third floor. We happened upon the two gateways that led to both the Empire and Ahrura. The general stepped in from the Ahrura side and pacified the soldiers that were chasing us."

"How did he do that?"

"His arms had ignited with the purple aura that Soul Element gives off. I assume he had control over them." He had already told her about the Queen's theory on Soul Elementalists and the Emperor. Nadreen nodded and let Jet continue. "Irina initiated an attack after the general had threatened us. I tried to sneak up behind him while she distracted him. He must have sensed me because he knocked my sword away and started to carry me towards Ahrura. He also attacked Heyvl...the general's Element must have drained mine because I couldn't do anything but struggle, and even that was futile. Before I knew it, I was in your village."

Nadreen sat still, taking his story in. She couldn't believe it, but yet there was something about him that she couldn't shake. Jet didn't feel like a liar. He was definitely a foreigner and seemed to not know much about his own Element. "If I had known he was kidnapping you..." she trailed off.

Jet shook his head. "It was better that no one knew. As far as he knows, I'm a random Spirit Elementalist boy who wandered away from the others."

"I'm surprised he didn't recognize you."

"Well last he saw me, I had a green scarf. It isn't uncommon for the soldiers and higher ups of the Empire to ignore all those below them. To them, we all look the same; poor, weak low-lives."

Nadreen sighed. "That is really depressing to hear. What do we do now? I doubt just the two of us could convince my village that the Empire is repeating our past."

"Do you know when the Empire will be back to take your village?"

"In a few weeks."

Jet wracked his brain trying to think of a scheme to stop the Empire. He knew that any attempts and Nadreen's village would end up like the one he sat next to. Maybe the best thing was to let them get taken to the Empire, he thought.

"This is going to sound crazy, but I think we shouldn't stop them."

"What?! That does sound crazy!"

"If we try and stop them, we end up like this village. But if we go with them, that's more of us to stop them from the inside. My friends should be heading back to the Kingdom. They'll storm the Empire with an army from both the Kingdom and Lonava. The more Spirit Elementalists in Calbar means more men for that army."

Nadreen smiled, accepting his idea. "I like the way you think Jet."

"So now, we just decide what to do in the meantime," Jet sighed.

"Have the elder help you train your Element. Perhaps hone your Planes Walking?" Nadreen suggested. She believed him. That made him happy.

"That sounds a good use of our time. We should head back before it gets too dark." The sun had just set. Darkness covered the lands, but it was strangely well-lit by the open moon. The once menacing desert was now cool and calm. The hot yellow sands were now cooling and looked gray.

Jet started to lead the way. He looked back to the village. "What do we tell them about this place?"

Nadreen shrugged. "They don't come here and we usually don't get visitors. I assume it'll be fine if we just don't mention it. Their spirits are at peace."

Jet nodded. Having an outlet for the story of his brother, Jet had never hid anything from anyone. He knew he could keep it a secret though, because he didn't want to be outcasted by Nadreen's people.

The air was clean in the desert. Once they were away from the smoky village, Jet realized how fresh it was to breathe. Lonava and the Kingdom had fresher air than the Empire, but the desert took the prize.

The sky was covered in stars. Jet hadn't ever seen an open night sky. The nights in the Kingdom and Lonava were darker and cloudier. He wished Heyvl and Irina were there to see it too.

"Something wrong?" Nadreen asked.

"I just hope my friends are okay, and know I'm okay."

"I'm sure they do."

"Do you have a mailing system? Perhaps I could write a letter?"

Nadreen shook her head. "No, sorry. Our only way to contact the other lands was through the Empire."

Jet frowned. He wanted to let them know he was okay somehow. When the two made it back to the village, Nadreen showed Jet to one of the houses that housed the villagers with no houses. That would be where he slept.

Nadreen had already been gone for an hour when Jet realized he wasn't going to be able to sleep. He had to think of some way to talk to the others. But how? He raced through his mind trying to think of the most complex ways until he thought of what the elder said. Planes Walkers could access other Planes. Something told him that if he could access the Crystal Plane, he could contact Irina.

Laying on his appointed bedroll, he began to focus his Element. He was completely determined to access his Plane. Jet looked around. There were a few desert dwellers. Some were Elementalists and a few were not. They all seemed to be completely asleep. Being in the desert had to be exhausting, so Jet didn't want to disturb anyone by using his Element.

Igniting the green aura only took a second. Jet at least knew how to "startup" his Element quickly. Having it around his hands and arms made it easier to throw it around.

"Okay...let's do this," Jet whispered out loud. He thought it would be better to say it out than think it. He needed any motivation that he could travel to the Plane.

Suddenly, Jet fell through the floor and onto a hard surface. The thud caused a burst of light green mist to billow up. He blinked a few times and looked around. It was the Spirit Plane. "Well that was easy," he chuckled. The Plane looked similar to the last time. The Element formed buildings and the setting of what seemed like a city. Only this time, the streets and buildings were more defined. Jet wondered if the more he grew with his Element, the more attuned he was to Planes Walking.

He stood up. The Spirit Plane was a good start, but now he needed to access the Crystal one. He scratched his head. Accessing the Spirit Plane was natural almost. It was his Element after all. But a whole new Element that he knew nothing about? That would be tougher.

Jet decided that he had to focus on Irina. He began to walk down the street. Barely visible shapes of spirits walked by him. He did his best to ignore them and solely focus on his friend. Her Element was pink and quite sharp. The Spirit Plane shimmered.

"She can send a wave of them that will burst out from the floor," Jet began thinking out loud. The Plane slowly quaked, but Jet didn't notice.

"It can be used a shield. Rujar's shield." The Plane melded and folded around him.

Jet looked up. "Her hair turned the color of crystals." With that statement, the Plane around him burst into dust. Suddenly he was surrounded by dark caverns filled with glowing crystals of pink and blue.

"Whoa!" he shouted in surprise. Jet thought it was a mining cave, but instead of rock, everything was made of crystal. The floors weren't as see-through as when Rujar and Irina used the Element, but he could tell it was still Crystal.

"Hello?" a voice echoed across the glossy surfaces.

Jet looked around. The colors were hard on the eyes. "Is someone there?" he called back out. It was thrilling. He was about to meet another Planes Walker. He ran towards the voice, his feet clapping the smooth floor as he moved.

"I'm over here!" the voice called out. Jet moved swiftly. He wasn't sure how long he had in the Plane and wanted to make sure he would see who it was. It could have been someone that could get a message to his friends.

The voice continued to call out until Jet knew he had one more corner to turn. He moved down the hallway of crystals as fast as he could. When he turned the corner, he was surprised at what he saw.

"Irina?" Jet asked out loud.