Helianna and Sylas both stared at Isela in shock, neither responding.

“Hello? How… am… I… not… dead? You’ve got more explaining to do Holly. You also need to explain how I’m not permanently damaged from respawning off of you. I can already tell that I’m fine despite you being null.”

Sylas turned to Helianna once more, matching Isela’s pout with a scowl of his own. Helianna sighed.

“In for a copper, in for a gold I guess. First off, my name isn’t Holly. That was just an alias I used while working with other teams. My name is Helianna.” She looked at the other two, who were surprised but clearly unimpressed. “I’m not a normal null. I also have magic.” Both of them immediately started to protest about the possibility of her statement, but Helianna immediately held up her hand. She pushed her magic out, making a golden light float over her palm briefly.

“See?” Both stared at her in shock and Isela’s large ears stood straight up in the air, nearly prompting a laugh from Helianna. “It’s sovereign magic. That’s probably how I managed to show you two that The Academy was using it to influence your mind.” Neither of them spoke. “I know it’s insane and shouldn’t be possible, but it is.” Sylas was the first to get his bearings back, both still in shock.

“How?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that I have sovereign magic and that it’s weird.”

“Weird? Weird?! That doesn’t even begin to describe it, this is impossible!” Sylas yelled out. Isela grabbed his shoulder, her claws pressing into him lightly.

“Calm down, Sylas. Let her explain.”

“Calm down?! I am fucking calm! She’s the one that’s a walking impossibility. We are consistently taught our entire lives how impossible this is!”

“By who?” Helianna interjected. “The Academy?” Sylas remained silent. “We can’t trust anything from them. I know for certain that The Academy has been suppressing information and knowledge of technological advancements. In fact, one of my missions dealt with that and I want to return there sometime when things aren’t so hot. Speaking of, where are we and where are we going?” Isela’s face brightened and she spoke up excitedly.

“We’re just south of a small village they call Harmony. It’s a cute place! The people were really nice! We’re still in Tilland and we’re heading down to Copocole. We uh… haven’t planned beyond that.”

“We’re still in Tilland?! If I just respawned, then it’s been a week at least, I assume two since Sylas had to respawn as well. We’re sitting ducks. They’ll be looking for us! What have you guys been doing?”

“Hey! You can’t criticize us! It’s thanks to you that none of us remember what happened!” Sylas claimed.

“Thanks to me?! We have no idea what happened! For all we know, you guys were-”

“Stop!” yelled Isela. “You two can get a room after this, but for now, we need to figure out a plan!” Helianna took a few deep breaths while Sylas cursed under his breath.

“First,” Helianna started. “We need to figure out what we have to our advantage. You have gravity magic, right Isela? Thought so. And space for you, Sylas? How do you two fight?” Isela looked to Sylas, but he had his arms crossed angrily.

“It’s called liminal magic,” he stated grumpily.

Isela sighed before speaking.

“Only in the research field. Sylas is our frontliner, kind of. He uses his spatial magic to always be in the front even if his actual body is not, often punching at enemies dozens of feet away. Does that make sense?” At Helianna’s shrug, she continued. “I use my magic and wings to fly up and above the fight and alter the fight in his favor or just use concentrated blasts of magic to take people out myself if I need to. Oh yeah, Sylas has a bow he’s good with but can rarely use it cause he needs to be in the front.”

“Sounds like you may want to switch to your bow, Sylas. I’m best in the front since magic doesn’t work on me and I’ve been trained for it. We’ll need to work on that, but that’s later. We need to figure out what our plan is.”

“I still think we should go down to Copocole,” Sylas interjected with a scowl. “Then we should head inland.”

“No,” Helianna responded firmly. “We should cross the ocean.”

Isela gasped and spoke with a disbelieving tone. “To Wulvinia?”

“Yes. The Academy has less of an influence there. They’re too far away and they’re preoccupied with the Empodian Invasion. The trip there will also be over water, which is harder to track than over land.”

“Going to Wulvinia is insanity!” Sylas barked. “They’re a bunch of brainless barbarians!”

“I’m Wulvinian,” Helianna coldly responded.

“That explains things! And your accent! How did I not realize? Only a Wulvinian could be a freak like you! A magic null?!”

“Sylas, stop. Please.” Isela pleaded.

“What? You want to go to Wulvinia?” When Isela didn’t respond, he threw his hands up in the air. “Everybody’s insane today!” He stomped off. Isela and Helianna watched him go for a few seconds before turning to each other.

“Sorry about that.” Isela said, wincing. “He’s just a little… angry. Right now.”

“Clearly,” Helianna stated, unimpressed.

“But I think it’s a good idea. And I think I’ll be able to convince him.”

“Well I’m going up to Wulvinia with or without you guys. After learning that your parents were killed by The Academy, I need to see if mine are still okay.”

“That doesn’t seem like a good idea. Wouldn’t they look there, too?”

“Probably. But they don’t have as big a presence in Wulvinia and if something happens, it will take either a lot of time, energy, or both for them to send support. And honestly, I’m not even sure I want you guys with me. It seems like you’ve failed every mission you were on and I don’t want to deal with Sylas. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I realize I should go on my own.”

Helianna turned away from the shocked Isela and looked around their meager camp. There was a tent with a place and there had clearly been a campfire nearby. Aside from a couple packs, the only other thing around was a horse tied to a tree. She turned back to Isela, who had recovered from her shock with a minor look of indignation on her bat-like face.

“What direction is the village? Harmony, you called it?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Wait, hold on!” Isela exclaimed. “You’re going to leave us on our own against The Academy because you don’t like Sylas?!”

“No. It is because you have proven incompetent. I don’t know whose idea it was to confront The Academy, but that has proven that you two lack any ability to plan. And it seems likely that Sylas will fight any decision I make so I will be going.”

“No! Wait! I’ll talk to him. I’ll get him to listen to you.”

“Why do you care? I’m just one person. I can’t help you much.”

“Because you said it! We’re not good at planning! We never are! Sylas is always… stubborn. You can help us and we can help you. We’re a small team, but we’ll be able to help.” Helianna pursed her lips.

“Fine. But I will not wait for you two, and if you two make things more difficult for me, I will leave you behind. You guys have thirty minutes before I’m going to Harmony to get another horse.”

Isela rushed off to grab Sylas and Helianna heard arguing. Not wanting to aggravate the situation, she started cataloging what respawned with her. She didn’t have much, so she spent most of the thirty minutes simply waiting to see if the other two would figure things out. Unfortunately, they did and they packed up everything quickly, putting it on the horse. After a brief discussion, they decided that until they got more horses at Harmony, Isela would fly and Sylas would use his spatial magic to keep pace with the horse while Helianna rode.

Helianna was doubtful he could manage it and Isela had tried to get him to stay on the horse with Helianna, but he adamantly refused, clearly not wanting to be together on a horse with her. On her part, she found herself surprisingly ambivalent as long as he didn’t slow them down. It took much of the day to ride there and they only had to stop once for Sylas, who was clearly struggling. When they finally arrived at night, Sylas was pale and sweating, clearly having overtaxed himself. Helianna chose to ignore him as they got themselves an inn for the night.

Despite not liking the proximity, she chose to only get them one room for the three of them. Fortunately, the money that she had before she died respawned with her, which seemed like the perfect recipe for a money laundering scheme. Regardless, she didn’t have much and needed to stretch it out as much as possible. The immediate problem was that even while stretching it, they didn’t have enough money to buy horses.

She laid down on the ground of the inn, electing to not think about what she might be lying in, but certain it was better than sleeping in the same bed as the other two. She heard them quickly fall asleep and decided to figure out what to do about horses in the morning.

She woke up at early dawn the next morning, having long developed the habit of waking up with the sun. She walked over to the two and lifted the mattress, dumping them on the floor. They both groaned.

“I’m getting us horses. Be ready by the time I’m back.” Muffled complaints were her only response and she took advantage of their groggy minds and left. Being in a small town, it didn’t take long to find the stables and she was disappointed in her options. There were only a few horses so she decided to only take one. It was all they needed anyways. She picked one that seemed well enough trained and started saddling him, hoping the owner wouldn’t see her. It was as she was leading it out that she heard someone yelling behind her.

“Hey! Stop! You need to pay for that!” Not feeling a need to respond, Helianna hopped on the horse and immediately set it galloping for the inn. Fortunately, Sylas and Isela were already getting on their horse as she returned. She slowed down just enough to speak to them as she heard yelling in the distance.

“We’re leaving. Now.” She set her horse into gallop, not caring whether they followed. Only a few moments later, she heard them behind her, trying to catch up. It wasn’t till they’d left town that their horse was side by side with hers and Sylas yelled to her.

“What the hell was that about?” Upon a lack of response, Sylas grumbled and considered trying to stop Helianna to demand answers, but Isela calmed him. Helianna pulled her horse slightly ahead and kept them at a brisk pace for quite a while as she used the sun to navigate.

This lasted until noon, when she stopped at a river crossing and allowed the horses to drink. People of the town had chased them for a bit, but had been left behind a couple of hours ago at this point.

“So what was that about this morning?” Isela asked cheerfully, resulting in a deadpan look from Helianna.

“You’re in an awfully good mood.”

“Why wouldn’t I be? We’re on our own little adventure and it’s a pretty day.”

“Right…” Helianna responded warily. “Well I wanted to get going. I’m surprised The Academy hasn’t caught us already.” Isela seemed to accept her explanation and went to get water, humming. Sylas remained by Helianna.

“You’re going to get us killed,” He muttered but didn’t say anything more as they walked to the water each started filling their waterskin. Before long, they were back on the road and heading to Copocole. They rode for several days and quickly ran through their supplies, promptly having to resort to hunting. All three knew how to hunt however and so they had no issue.

Nearly a week later, they finally arrived in a port town in Copocole. They had to stay for over a week before there was a boat that was leaving for the north. The entire time, Helianna’s paranoia grew and she found herself constantly looking over her shoulder, expecting The Academy to appear. Isela was hardly bothered, the strange cheerfulness that she had recently exhibited now becoming normal, much to Helianna’s chagrin. Sylas however, was put on edge by her paranoia, prompting only more arguments between the two.

They got on their ship after a week with no incident as the only passengers aboard a cargo ship. They had paid the last of their money to board the ship, not expecting nice quarters or good food. And they got exactly what they expected. The crew had emptied out a storeroom, making enough money off of them that it was worth it. There was enough space, but it was cold and the creaking of the ship was easily heard, making all three of them uncomfortable. The food was better described as gruel, and sewage treatment on the ship left something to be desired. But for Isela and Sylas, that’s where the misery largely ended.

For Helianna, it only got worse. She was reminded in full force that boats made her seasick. Her entire first week was miserable and she spent much of her time heaving over the side of the ship despite the ship’s enormous size minimizing the rocking. One of the crew members spent some time helping her, but she never paid much attention to him thanks to her condition.

They arrived at their first stop at the end of the week. The Dyavlomsvochi-Bnevdo Islands. She heard one of the crew rattle off the full name and it sent her already unsteady head spinning. Most people just called it the Bnevdo Islands, much to the consternation of locals, but good luck getting the world populace to pronounce… that. The crew had told her that her best bet at getting her body used to the seasickness would be not going back on land, and with how much longer the trip would continue, she listened. It didn’t stop her from standing at the deck and looking enviously at the islands as she heaved over the side

It took a couple days for them to sail again. They followed the islands and the coast of Turalese, and Helianna’s seasickness finally started to abate at the same time the temperatures rose. She wasn’t confident that she was fine until they arrived at their next stop two weeks later, a small port town on the western edge of Turalese. Isela teasingly tried to get her to leave the ship, but she adamantly refused, not daring to risk her body restarting her seasickness when she returned.

The captain had stayed with her and she asked him about the crewmate who had helped her when she was sick, but he had no idea what she was talking about. He hadn’t had any of his crew leave their post. Assuming he simply didn’t realize who had left their shift, she decided she’d try to figure it out on her own and asked him instead about the interior temperature of the ship.

The interior of the ship had become a weird climate of shifting temperatures, ranging from freezing cold to a boiling sauna. She had known it was coming, but the powerful equator sun seemed to be giving its all in turning the ship into a giant metal oven. The captain informed her that the only thing preventing a miserable existence of roasting alive were the plethora of runes throughout the ship, ensuring it kept cold. Of course, it was an old ship so they were outdated and poorly placed, resulting in the constantly shifting temperatures.

To get away from it, she tried to stand out on the deck and look out over the small port, but found herself burning badly in minutes, requiring her to hide herself under the shade of a partially empty crate. She had no idea what the others were doing, but she highly doubted they were exploring the port like they did at the Bnevdo Islands. Her position stopped her from getting a good view out so she retreated back into the temperature challenged ship.

It took them much longer to do what they needed here and Isela came back burnt even through her fur, but due to kinuze bodies being built much better for the heat, Sylas was fine. She couldn’t remember quite how it worked, but she knew it had to do with his weird head-tentacle hair things dispersing heat or something. She thought they were called perras, but didn’t bother to ask.

The crew could only work for a few hours at dawn and dusk as it was too hot during the day and the captain couldn’t legally make the crew work at night. She wasn’t sure why but it had to do with some strange laws specifically about ship crewmanship. It didn’t make sense to her as she figured they could just sleep in the day and work at night, but she wasn’t the one that made the laws.

She tried to ask around and find the helpful crew-member once they eventually got on the ocean again but never found him. After another week and a half, they finally reached Eichlach and after five long years, she was finally back in Wulvinia.