The sun was high in the sky, a slow signal of a long morning and a coming noon. It was bright and flared with significant heat.

At least Zed thought it did. Walking beside Kid, he couldn’t feel anything in the way of temperature. Perks of being a mage, apparently.

“Do you ever get tired of it?” he asked, adjusting the weight of [Titan’s Axe] on his shoulder.

“Tired of what?” Kid asked.

“The whole thing about not being able to feel temperature.” Zed kicked a stray rock on the dirt road. “Don’t you miss being able to be cold or hot or slightly tepid?”

Kid shrugged. “Sometimes.”

They were walking down a path outside the motel. It had led them up a broken tarred road and was currently leading them down a gentle decline that was more dirt and grass than road. The path was slowly being flanked by high rising grassland.

Zed had a feeling it was less grassland and more buildings covered in a great deal of grass.

“What do you mean sometimes?” he asked. “I know being invulnerable to temperature’s awesome, but sometimes I want to feel cold. You know that feeling when it’s terribly chilly and you just get to wrap yourself inside your blanket and just shiver yourself to sleep?”

Kid gave him an odd look. “Yes…”

Zed returned the look.

“You don’t sound very confident,” he said. “Is the answer really ‘no’ but you’re just saying yes to hurry this conversation along?”

“Yes?” Kid said, sheepish.

Zed shook his head. “You’re no fun. Go back and get me Ronda.”

“No, can’t do, Red,” Kid chuckled. “She’s tracking the nearest town without getting us and anyone else in trouble.”

“Oh.”

Zed had forgotten about that. When they’d woken up this morning, he’d tested the water in the bathroom and had found out that it worked. With a quick soapless shower, he’d cleaned himself as best he could and changed into a set of clothes he’d found in one of the many rooms in the motel.

Apparently, the presence of running water, according to the Olympians, was an indication of a nearby town with an active water system.

Zed missed the town he’d met Jason and the others in for the simple comfort of clean clothes whenever he wanted. Now he lived off whatever he could find wherever.

“I’ve got a question that’s been bugging me,” he said after a while. “Can I go for it?”

Kid shrugged. “Shoot.”

“Why is it that the car dipped under the weight of my axe but had no issue carrying all of us in it?” he asked. “From what I’ve been told, we weigh a lot. And I mean like a freaking lot.”

“Muscle tone,” Kid answered easily.

“What’s that?” Zed asked.

“No idea.”

They came to a stop when the road slowly began another slow elevation. At this point there was nothing but greenry on both sides of them. Kid didn’t especially look like he wanted to keep going.

Zed couldn’t blame the Olympian. From what he gathered, they were supposed to scout the area, confirm that there were no other threats of the sapient kind around. And if they were to come across any monsters of any kind, they were given permission to kill them. Unless their rank was too high.

In the case of a monster with a high rank, they were to return with the warning.

“Turn back and tell Daniel we went as far as the eyes could see?” Kid suggested.

Zed was already nodding when he spotted something.

He turned to it and placed a hand above his eyes to block out the sun.

“Dude,” Kid said with a sigh. “The sun’s at our back.”

Zed paused, then dropped is hand. “Oh.”

Regardless, he didn’t stop looking. Off in the distance beyond the greenery on one side of them was something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He could see it through the greenery but not very clearly.

“Is that what I think it is?” he asked, still peering into the distance.

Kid stepped up next to him and took a look.

“I’m not sure I see what you’re seeing,” he said.

“Just between the mass of green,” Zed said. “You’ve got to really look at it. Look beyond all the grass and shit.”

“There’s no shit.”

“All that grass.” Zed scoffed. “I bet you there’s monster doo doo in there somewhere… And drop your hand, the sun’s behind us.”

Kid dropped his hand halfway through its journey to his face.

“I wasn’t trying to block out the sun,” he complained, half-hearted.

Zed nodded. “Of course you weren’t. Also, do you see it?”

It took another while before Kid nodded.

“Looks like an overgrown Boulevard,” he said. “But it also looks out of our way.”

“Boulevard sometimes means houses,” Zed said, stepping forward. “Houses sometimes means people. What if that town Ronda was sent to look for is actually on this side of the motel.”

Kid gave it a thought before nodding.

“Alright,” he conceded. “But how are we going to get there? And you can’t convince me that there’s a way around all this bush if we just keep walking.”

Zed grinned. “Why go around it when we can go through it?”

“Red, there’s like—”

“You know my hair’s not red, right?” Zed interrupted.

Kid paused, looking slightly embarrassed. “Actually, I was using that because that’s what Ash calls you.”

Zed looked at him, confused. “Why?”

“Trying to make you comfortable around me?”

“I’m already comfortable around you, though,” Zed answered. “And actively trying to make me comfortable around you sounds very suspicious.”

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“How?”

“How?” Zed cocked a quizzical brow. “The first time I ever ran into you guys, one of you put a hole in my chest. And there’s a part of me that still thinks it’s one of you guys.”

“Oh, that was Ronda.”

Zed opened his mouth, then closed it.

“I’m not sure how to respond to that,” he said, finally. “On the one hand, I find it too difficult to believe. On the other hand, I was just a Beta mage at category one.”

“It was actually her,” Kid said. “She was on scout duty that night. But more importantly, I read the report. When she learned that there was a possibility of you being at the party, she opted to be the one to attend. If she hadn’t, you would’ve probably run into Jennifer instead.”

Zed gave it some thought. So he’d had his ass handed to him by Ronda in an Olympian armor. That made him shiver.

“Just how strong are you guys in that armor?” he asked.

“Very,” Kid answered. “For Beta mages, it can make some of us equal to Rukhs. Some Rukhs can end up walking around as Bishops. But that’s the good stuff. Ven had something close enough to that. I think.”

“I don’t think I ever offered my condolences for your loss,” Zed said. “I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t know him long but he seemed like a good guy. And you guys seemed to like him.”

Kid grew momentarily stoic. His expression toughened and his lips pressed into a thin line.

“Thank you,” he said. “He was a great leader and a great soldier. But he knew what he was signing up for when he joined the VHF. Like the others, we could go at any time.”

“Anyway,” Zed said, studying the overgrown bush in front of them. “Just so you know, Ash doesn’t call me Red for the color of my hair.”

“Then why does she call you Red?”

“Because when they found me I was more red than any other color.”

Kid paused, thoughtful. “That’s why Chris calls you bloodbath. You had a lot of blood on you?”

Zed gave him a thumbs-up. “Exactly. And I know you guys are in a hurry to get me to your head quarters, but you guys do know that while it may look it, my hair really isn’t red. It’s auburn.’

Kid squinted at Zed’s hair.

“It is?” he asked. “Can’t tell the difference.”

“Half the people I run into can’t,” Zed told him. “I’m not surprised you can’t. It’s definitely more on the reddish side than the orange, but I assure you it’s auburn.”

“Oh.” Kid scratched his neck like a child caught doing something they should not. “So how are we getting to the boulevard?”

Zed raised his hand and pointed it at the bush. “Good ol fashion rune magic.”

Kid grabbed his hand. “I wouldn’t advice that.”

“Advice what?”

“Well, you’ve got a few runes I’m already aware of, but there’s only one I know of that can get us through this.”

“And?”

“And I would not advice burning the whole thing down. It could spread.”

Zed struck [Titan’s Axe] in the ground and gave Kid a reassuring pat on the shoulder with his now free hand. “Oh ye of little faith. I am not so stupid that I would think of burning it down. Of course it would start a fire we might not be ready or prepared to stop.”

Kid gave him a look that told Zed that he wasn’t believed.

“So no fire rune,” Kid said.

Zed nodded. “No fire rune.”

“And you weren’t just thinking of using a fire rune?”

“I see why you don’t have any friends,” Zed replied. “You show signs of trust issues. Have you considered seeing a therapist for that?”

“You were not just thinking of using a fire rune,” Kid repeated. “Correct?”

Zed sighed. “You’re putting me in a bit of spot, not gonna lie. There are only two answers to you’re your question. One will make me look bad. The other will make me a liar. I’d rather not be either.”

Kid released Zed’s hand and shook his head. “You were going to use a fire rune.”

“Such accusations!” Zed declared haughtily. “I would have you know that I was not going to use a fire rune, I was going to use a fire based rune. With all this overgrown farmland, it only seemed fair that I use something with more firepower.”

“Zed!”

“I know.” Zed waved him down. “I’m not going to use that now. Not after what you just told me.”

Kid let out a sigh. Zed wasn’t sure how he felt about how relieved Kid looked. In Kid’s defense, he had been about to burn everything down with reckless abandon without consideration for the fact that it could cause more harm than good. Still, he couldn’t help but make a comment.

“You remind me of my brother,” he said. “Older brother. He had this thing with accusing me, too.”

Kid’s expression turned to surprise.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Zed added quickly, “I wasn’t a troublesome kid growing up. It didn’t feel that way. But like most kids, I did have my flaws. For instance, I could put up a fight against anyone over a book.”

“A comic book?” Kid asked.

Zed shook his head. “Nope. I mean a book. I once fought a kid that was twice my size because he wouldn’t let me have my math textbook. I lost obviously. But anyone could’ve called it even before the fight started.”

His hand was still pointed at the shrubbery in front of them and his finger started drawing a rune.

“Anyway,” he went on. “What I’m trying to say is that, you should really stop accusing me. I know it’s a one-time thing, but one time things can slowly become two-time-things which slowly evolve to… Uhm… Sorry ‘bout that, new runes can be tricky. Long story short, stop reminding me of capybaras.”

“What?”

Zed shook his head. “Sorry about that. Side effects of rune training. Festus kept going so hard at it last night and I had to do what I could to keep up.”

He completed the rune and channeled mana into it. Unlike other times when he cast a rune, it left a bit of an effect on him. His mind sharpened in on itself for a moment. It was as if he was suddenly acutely aware of everything that was nothing.

It felt as if he was taking the silence of his own mind and cutting it in two. If that made sense.

A moment after, a notification flashed in front of him.

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

· You have used basic rune [Sharp]

· Basic rune [Sharp] has applied effect [Slash] on [Overgrown farmland].

· [Slash] takes effect.

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

Zed read the notification and almost laughed. Was it naming random things after whatever he was calling them in his mind now?

What the heck was an overgrown farmland? And what were the chances that what was in front of him was actually an overgrown farmland?

A sharp blade of what he felt was mana shot out of the rune in front of him. It was three feet in length, and it cut a straight path through the plants.

Zed looked down at his hand and flexed it. The casting time was within acceptable delay, but he needed to be faster.

“Anyway,” he said, turning to Kid. “You never explained what you meant by muscle-tone.”

He found Kid with his mouth agape and a worried expression on his face. Zed had a strong idea why the Olympian had the expression but didn’t want to give him the chance to speak on the subject.

He really wanted to know about the whole thing about cars carrying mages that weighed a lot easily. And when he’d just brought it up, they’d somehow dangled away from the subject, like a worm in a stream.

“I’ll answer your question to the best of my ability,” he said quickly. “But only after you’ve explained the muscle tone thing to me.”

Kid managed to school his expression, but only a little. Anyone watching would be able to tell he was still on the confused and worried side of things. Still, he looked like he was willing to answer, and had the answer. So Zed was thankful for at least that.

“Muscle tone,” Kid stammered, then shook his head as if clearing some mental fog. “Yes, muscle tone. Uhm… it’s that thing that makes an unconscious body seem heavier than a conscious person. The way it was explained to me is that, people unconsciously, use their muscles to move themselves and pick themselves up.”

“So we’re unconsciously making ourselves lighter?” Zed mused. “Not sure it makes sense to me.”

“It doesn’t have to. The muscle tone thing happens with everybody, but in mages it’s kind of taken to the entire extreme. It’s the control. That’s why you can punch a hole in a wall but can pat a child on the head without crushing their skull.”

Zed winced at that. He couldn’t imagine going to pat a child reassuringly on the head only to cave their head in.

“It’s a subconscious control,” Kid was saying. “As for the car carrying us even though we weigh so much, it’s like weight displacement using ambient mana.”

“You lost me.”

Kid scratched is jaw in thought. “I’m sorry but I’ve got no other way to put it. If you put a really heavy object on the ground, nothing happens. Correct?”

Zed nodded. “Correct.”

“But if you drop it from a height, you might get a crater.”

“Also correct.”

“It’s like that,” Kid said. “It’s all some level of weight displacement on a magical level. That’s the best I’ve got.”

Zed wasn’t completely convinced, but he was willing to take that level of explanation… for now.

“My turn?” Kid asked. He didn’t sound very eager to ask.

In fact, what level of worry he’d displaced with his explanation had slowly turned into fear. But Zed pretended not to see it as he nodded.

“What the hell was that?” Kid asked.

Zed raise his hand and drew the rune in the air again. It took him lesser time to draw it before casting it. This time, he didn’t cast it straight. He aimed it at an angle.

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

· You have used basic rune [Sharp]

· Basic rune [Sharp] has applied effect [Slash] on [Overgrown farmland].

· [Slash] takes effect.

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

It looked like a blade slash from where he stood as it cleaved through the plants.

“This?” he asked.

“Yes!” Kid almost screamed. “What the hell is that?”

“It’s called a sharp rune.” Zed bent and picked [Titan’s Axe] up. “Picked it up last night. Impressive, right?”

Kid stomped up to him. “Don’t play games with me, Zed. You know exactly what I’m asking.”

Zed took a deep breath and let it out.

“I agreed to answer you,” he said. “But for me to answer you to the best of my ability, you’ll need to ask the correct question. The exact question.”

Kid took a calming breath. Beside him, his hands trembled slightly. He balled them into fists and released them. Then he did it again.

“Zed,” he said, finally, his voice intentional and controlled. “Why is your rune black?”

Zed nodded. “That right there is the question.”

“And the answer?”

“Oh, that one’s simple.” Zed shrugged. “I’ve got no idea.”