As I worked my way home, I lost myself to the essence flows around me. Essences are like playful rabbits when nothing is driving them. Its entertaining. As I worked my way through the rocky debris field of the mountain behind me. It seems the essences distracted me from “people of unsavory nature”…well that is what my parents would call them. My brothers called them woodland bandits. Right now, they were popping out from behind rocks around the debris field. My brothers would also take great pleasure in terrifying me with stories of kidnapped young children being thrown off of mountains to empower their essence flows of the infamous woodland bandits.

Asshats.

“Well, look what we have here. A young man, alone in the forest, enjoying the world around him. Don’t you know it’s not safe to be in the woods alone boy? You never know when a bear might pop out and eat you, leaving all your gear to rot in the soil. How about we help you avoid that waste of materials and have you hand over everything.”

I don’t think I could have heard a speech that seemed as fake as that one. They were each dressed in a uniform, a kind I did not recognize. Each wore grey leather with purple trims and white leather gloves. Who wears white gloves in the middle of forest, and robs kids...well, teenagers…am I an adult. I don’t think so, but I am not exactly a kid anymore.

I don’t think my mental wanderings were something these people had expected.

“Sir, he might be an idiot. Those clothes are all scraps. And…well, I am not getting any kind of essence use off of him. He is probably a dud.”

“You might be right. Hey kid, you’n id-i-ot?” The group laughs as I look around. It’s about this time that I notice a young boy in the back, gagged and heavily beaten if the bruises on his arms and legs are an indication. He also seems to be unconscious. He is a Strong…wind it seems. Young, very young. He could be 10 or so, by his height.

As I inspect the remaining “bandits” around me, they are mostly Influencers, with a couple Weaks and one Parity, the leader. One of the Weaks seems to be forcibly settling the earth and wind essence around them. Its subtle. It was probably the reason I didn’t notice them when I was inner monologuing. Mostly earth, wind, a water Weak…the dual user, and the Parity is earth.

“No, but who are you, and why are soldiers of some organization I don’t recognize, here in the middle of nowhere?” That seemed to have sharpened them up. Maybe I should have played dumb, but, well, I only have my brothers for examples…so how should I act. It’s all fairly moot at this point. It’s not the first time I have had to deal with banditry, but this is probably the first time I have had to deal with state sponsored banditry.

“Kid, just give us all your stuff and we will be going.” Now that is what he said, but just as he finished he pulled earth essence and began to build earth restraints around my feet and legs.

“Ah. Well, I don’t think I can allow that.” As the essence coalesced around my legs, I kindly ask my earth essence buddies to stop. After that, I asked them to instead, restrain everyone, but the boy.

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“Shit Sarg, he just light up. Earth essence...water man, you are up.” The surprised look on the Sarg’s face seemed to indicate I was a bit more than he thought I was. Fighting over essence use is common, essence doesn’t have only one master…but it will listen to a more powerful voice… a more powerful song. The battles between Parities and Strongs often come down to surprise on the Parities part…and the lack of numbers for the Strongs. But I just asked and the essence did. There wasn’t a struggle or clash of wills…the essence just ignored him. Probably the first time in his life…and last I think.

While the surprised look on the Sarg’s face morphed into horror, I shut the remaining combatants down. Layers of thick earth and water solidified into stone around them, leaving just a small gap for air, and some chest movement. Well, a gap for excrement as well, but I only learned that after the fifth bandit group I ran into on the other side of the mountain. I also left a mouth opening on the Sarg.

The essence settled back down, and I walked forward and inspected the young boy. They had done a number on him. From the angle of his leg, they had broken that. He wasn’t wearing much either, just an oversized shirt with shit and piss stains. I sang to some light essence and worked it through his body. I can heal a bit of his leg and some of the bruising, but I don’t want to be seen as some sort of master healer. So, I will just heal enough to make his injuries uncomfortable and not a full heal. Having my guardian punt me off the mountain a few times was enough to teach me some fairly high level healing…and flying…but I really only know enough to fix bones and some bruising. I never had to fix organs or the spine. Ah well, what to do next.

The boy will be out for a bit. I can wait for that. I decided to start with Sarg. Walking over, I worked some of the essence out of his ears and began my discussion.

“Sarg, I think I should tell you, that I have killed more people than most kings. I don’t like to kill people, but people suck sometimes and I haven’t found a better way to deal with the trash.” It’s kind of hard to see a reaction to this, but I don’t really care. When I was younger, I tried and failed. Maybe it was my inexperience, but I haven’t seen peoples lives get worse after removing the trash of this world. Then again, I don’t have a lot of experience. I will leave them here, sealed in stone. If there are others of their group, they will find them and understand the warning…at least it had before. The uniforms have me concerned somewhat.

He starts to mumble something.I work a bit more stone around his mouth and add some room to allow for jaw movement.It will still be a strain for him.

“Kid…ah, Sir…let’s start over.” His voice is strained…his heart is beating hundreds of times a second…and he can only get new air in via his mouth. The result is a gasping cadence to his speech.

“We were just sent to inspect some areas around the kingdom, there is not much left after the Seat fell, so King Barth just wanted to see what resources are out here…so…lets just call it a bad encounter and go our separate ways…right, nothing more, nothing less.”

King Barth. No idea who that is. Not someone nearby though, there are very few villages nearby.

“Why the boy?”

“Well…he is a Strong right…his kind killed thousands of people…it’s only right we stop him before he starts killing.” And that’s when my world shrinks again. Some kid, barely alive for the shattering, tortured, and eventually killed…because of me. This is the world I…no we created.

I begin to breathe in a slow rhythmic pattern. This is reason for my trip down the mountain. I need to know. Well, it looks like my person I can help…if he isn’t insane already.

“You can see he is Strong, right…scum…we found him two weeks ago. We are looking for the family that has been hiding him.”

And it grows. They are not only killing Strongs, but anyone related to them.

They are bandits. They also represent a King. If they die, will anyone care. No one will know. Is killing an ignorant person, just because they are ignorant, justified. I need to settle down. This stress is more than I expected on my first day out.

“Look, we have some money…ya know, you weren’t the first. We were tracking a woman earlier…lost her here…but she had some nice equipment if you know what I mean…we can help…”. He didnt get much further. I crushed each stone coffin and slid the bodies into the ground.

Well, I suppose getting down the mountain on Day 1 is a fair accomplishment for most people. I can’t exactly drag the kid along…so I begin to make a small camp…away from the newly created graveyard. I need a plan for the kid. Looks like my trip to my old home is delayed.