I knew Aethos was right when they had given me that speech about killing them. They had suggested I do it earlier in the conversation, before the Integration process had been complete and they'd delved my memories like a particularly lengthy book, but they'd come to realize that perhaps it would affect me more than they'd initially thought.

They'd seen my darkness when I entered despite the fear, confusion, and grief I had been feeling and assumed that I would be able to handle it. That my world and their world were similar. They'd rapidly come to the conclusion, I'm sure—it couldn't have taken them long to rifle through my life as they made small hints at my experiences while they were comforting me—that it perhaps wouldn't settle in my soul—figuratively—well. That's why they changed their mind and attempted to lightly nudge me away from the idea.

It's why I left the last one alive. Despite the cold calm I felt while carrying out the action, I also knew, logically, that I was going to have to deal with the emotional backlash of what I'd done, no matter how right it had been. No one is going to blame me for what I did. They would be stupid to do so. All the same, it sits in the pit of my stomach as I make my way toward Esh.

[Serene Slaughter] had cut off all connection I had to hesitate. Hesitation, it whispered, was to die and its entire purpose was to make sure that didn't happen. Then there's that smile it had made me wear. The Skill description had said, "all with a smile on your face," but I didn't think it was going to be literal. Oh boy was it ever literal.

I can only imagine what that man—the only one who'd actually been left alone long enough to perceive me—was seeing as I held him above the corpse of one of the other cultists, smile wide and predatory as I ignored his pleas for me to let him live. I imagine I must have looked like a monster.

That isn't to say I was wrong for it. Just that it's making the nausea burble up into my throat like a balloon full of helium trying to escape a narrow passage. I swallow it down as best I can and trudge on.

They deserved what I had done. They deserved to be dead despite whatever moral quandaries my mind is trying to come up with to assert the contrary. If I hadn't done it, they would have done it again. They would have waited until they'd recuperated enough to cast the spell and kidnapped some other poor person into this Universe, destroying their body and any hope of escaping aside from becoming a God. A Transcendent. Something so rare that Aethos hadn't even mentioned another instance of, nor had they offered it as an option. It's that unlikely to happen.

I suppose for someone like me—no family, no friends, no real connections—this isn't that big of a deal. I have nothing to go back to, in any case. Sure, I'm in a different body. Sure, I killed eight people. Sure, I'm going to live for a few thousand years at minimum. All that is sad, and horrifying, and I'm going to grieve that life I had before coming here for a long while. I can only think of the others who'd been kidnapped, though. They might have had families. They might have had friends, or girlfriends, or boyfriends, or children. They might have been missed. They would have wanted to go back even more than I did. They had things to actually go back to.

The only real tragedy here is how I feel, not anything I had been taken from, in the end. What is that in comparison to what the others might have lost?

I've already lost everything I had to lose, really.

My senses begin to pick up voices before long, though I don't see any settlement yet. The voices are faint, but they're quite distinct from the sounds of the rest of the terrain. The world I had been pulled into is green. Greener than even the greenest of forests on Earth I'd seen. If it were a picture, I would say it was photoshopped, to be perfectly honest. It could be my new vision and I just have a better appreciation for colors now that my eyes are essentially magical, and I'm sure that's part of it, but it's clearer here. The air. It's devoid of any sort of pollution that I can detect. The skies are clear. The weather is perfectly mild. The sun, appearing marginally larger in the sky than Earth's had and slightly more orange, as well, is high in the sky, indicating that it's midday, however long the days are here.

The birds sing joyously as I make my way through the sparse trees toward the civilization, though I only make an effort to catch sight of a few. They resemble Earth birds but only in that their relative shape is similar. Wings, feet, beak, small head, fatter body. The exact details are night and day. Their beaks are sharper, meant to deal damage rather than simply peck food from whatever source it prefers. Their feathers are more sturdy. I can see the way the wind barely budges them as it presses harshly against their forms, even the looser tail feathers resisting the force. They're larger, as well, as even the smallest of which is nearly the size of a swan in body and wingspan. They look meaner.

They're less wary of my presence, as well. They watch me as I make my way through their territory as if waiting for me to succumb to some unseen injury so they can peck at my corpse. They can probably smell the blood. I know avian senses of smell on Earth are not much better than a human's on average, if at all—which begs the question as to why mine is so strong in comparison to my old one that I could smell the mood of those humans—but I don't know anything about this world's flora and fauna. It seems more hostile, though, even at first glance. Ready for a fight. For a kill.

I stop paying attention to them eventually, though, as they seem to be leaving me alone despite their obvious curiosity about me. Perhaps they're like crows and they remember faces. They hadn't seen mine come through here, so they're curious about me, if that's the case. It doesn't matter, in the end, I suppose.

One other thing I notice is that my talons—my feet, rather—don't have nearly the tactile response that the rest of my body does. They're hard like that of a bird's, so it makes sense, but I can't even feel the grass underneath. I feel that I'm standing and that the grass is softer by comparison than stone—I stepped on one to compare when I began to notice—but that's the effective limit to it. Pressure seems to be it. I suppose it's not that big of a deal, really. I never used my feet for anything but walking, anyway. As long as I can do that, it doesn't matter. I suppose, also—from a science perspective, anyway—that this means the avian portion of lower extremities just have fewer nerves than the rest of my more-human-by-comparison body.

It's not much longer before I see the town I'm assuming is Esh. It looks just like I assumed it would but also nothing like that, as well. It's just as primitive as I assumed it would be, though perhaps that is rude of me. Aethos had said that there are fifty billion people on Ackellia's surface, so surely there are far larger towns than this with much more impressive structures. After all, magic is real here. If this is how they all look, I'll be extremely shocked.

The border of Esh is delineated by a rather impressive-looking wall that I'm assuming is made out of some kind of stone. Perhaps even raised directly from the earth below it, given that there are no partitions that would suggest it's made from individual blocks. I'd put it at around twenty to thirty feet from base to tip if I had to hazard a guess, considering it's at least three times higher than even the tallest of people I can see through the gates. I'm still far off, though, so I'll have a better comparison when I get closer. The wall is two feet thick all the way around, from what I can tell, and there are guards walking along the top protected by spike-like protrusions that line either side of the top of the wall, acting as sentries, I'm assuming. From what I can tell, they still haven't seen me, though.

Aethos did say my base senses are some of the best in the Universe outside of dedicated scout-type races. Whatever that means. Well, I can imagine from context but I don't know for certain, do I?

The spikes are about two-thirds the height of the guards, so I can only see them from chest up, but they're all wearing shiny silver helmets that remind me heavily of Skyrim guard helmets. I wonder if any of them had lived a life of adventure, only to become a guard after taking an arrow to the knee?

There are also further protrusions that jut alternate between sticking up and out toward the sky at an angle, and out and down toward the ground at an angle, presumably to stop anyone from climbing the walls directly or to catch anyone that didn't quite have the power to jump far enough over the wall to reach the inner part of the town. It's an intimidating sight, to be sure.

I still keep walking, however. I don't really have another choice. I don't know where I am, where to go, or what to do past this point. I essentially already completed the only real objective I had, aside from that one guy I left alive, stranding him naked amongst the dead bodies of his other cult members. I don't actually think he'll stop doing the ritual, nor do I think he made any real changes to his personality or line of thinking as a result of that encounter—he'd even tried lying to me by telling me he had a family who was relying on the money he makes for them, though I could smell the lie the second it left his mouth—but as Aethos had pointed out, it isn't my problem. I don't owe anyone their deaths, and it isn't on me if he goes on to hurt other people. I don't control his actions.

Maybe killing him would stop the group from kidnapping other people in the same manner as I was, but there's no guarantee of that. I don't know how big the group is, or how many different sub-cults there are in the organization as a whole, or even if there are more than just those nine men—though I doubt they were the only ones—so I can't be sure the effect his death would have had either way. Of course, it probably won't help that I left him alive to tell his superiors about the random Migrator who'd decimated his entire group in less than five seconds, including the time it took to be pulled through the portal. I suppose I'll deal with it if it ever becomes a problem in the future.

As I get closer to Esh—I've overheard the name confirmed twice since coming into earshot—the guards take notice of my approach. I hear the report being passed from guard to guard along the perimeter, the order from who I assume is the woman in charge to meet me at the gates, and the subsequent scrambling to carry it out. By the time I've reached them, there are five armored individuals outside the front gates which are closed as soon as they've exited.

Two helmeted guards on either side of a woman without a helmet who is standing with her hands behind her back, posture perfect. Her hair—which appears gelled and secured in a very tight bun in exactly the same as they do in Earth's military, actually—is a vibrant purple color that I would have said was dyed if not for the fact that I can see it growing out of her scalp, with not a hint of a different color at the root. Her eyebrows match. Her eyes, glaring stonily at me, are ice blue. She is wearing the same armor as those around her, though there are three triskelion symbols on her right shoulder. Most likely to denote her higher rank. She gives off a sense of danger, hinting at the promise of death were I to attempt an attack.

I'm not going to, nor was I planning on it, but that's what this sense is telling me. Maybe this is a side effect of Aura? A literal feeling of danger, both a sense you get from someone and give off to others unless you can somehow control that? It makes sense, I suppose, but I have no way of confirming that beyond the very likely guess. In any case, the sense is screaming at me not to fuck with her.

Duly noted.

"I suggest you stop advancing and answer some of our questions, wanderer, lest you find yourself wandering in more ways than one." Her voice is commanding and powerful. It exudes the confidence of authority I'm more than familiar with from my time on Earth. Even if they'd been kind, their natures were evident. They viewed themselves as powerful. Here, I suppose that power is more literal but the concept is the same.

I stop walking and keep my hands displayed loosely at my sides. I'm not afraid, of course, but I am wary of any sort of attack. I don't think for a second I would stand a chance in an actual fight with this woman, but I can make a novel attempt at escape if I have to. Whether or not I would be successful is another matter entirely.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"I just escaped from a group that ambushed me a good distance back that way. The one I left alive informed me that this is where I would find the nearest town. I don't know how far away from home I am, or how I get here, or even where here is other than that the town's name is Esh. Can you help me at all?"

I decide there's no reason to be entirely closed off about the nature of my arrival, considering I'm wearing a ripped robe of one of the group that I escaped from. If they find the bodies, they'd notice that I'm wearing the same robe they are and ask me questions. Questions I can preempt by just explaining. I'm not so stupid as to trust anyone I just met with anything other than easily observable facts, after all. Aethos had warned me against telling anyone, anyway. I figure it's in my best interest to listen.

The woman lifts a perfect eyebrow. "The one you 'left alive,' you say? What an ... interesting way to phrase it. You're saying you dispatched the entire group of your supposed kidnappers but, for some reason, left one alive? Why ever would you do that?"

I shrug, not sure of the answer myself to be honest. "The others were dead before I even really thought about the way I was reacting. I'd already made it to the leader before I realized I should probably get a direction to move in, and a reason behind why I was captured. By the time I got my answers, he'd pissed himself and was blubbering so hard that it didn't feel right anymore. I don't know, honestly. It felt ... pedestrian. I did get his robe, though, because I wasn't wearing anything when I got here."

The other eyebrow comes up. "It felt pedestrian to kill someone because they soiled themselves in fear of you? In the robe you took from him and are presumably now wearing?" Her eyes scan me up and down. I flush slightly. Oh, right, the piss. I had been lifting him in the air and he hadn't been wearing anything underneath, so it must have missed the robe. I didn't even stop to think about that. I mean, I would have noticed the smell had there been any, but I genuinely can't believe something like that slipped my mind.

I chuckle lightly, scratching the back of my neck in embarrassment, my feathers tickling the back of my hand. "None of it got on the robe, of course. I would have noticed. I didn't really have any other options, seeing as how the rest were covered in blood." They were covered in gore, too, but that seemed like the wrong thing to say. "As for the pedestrian comment, I don't know, like I said. The heat of the moment had cooled down significantly and I realized that I overpowered them so much that it was somewhat ridiculous to kill him at that point. They couldn't hurt me. It took five seconds from me gaining consciousness in the clearing to my hand finding its way around the guy's throat."

She scoffs, which somehow dispels some of the tension the otherwise perfect aura she gave off garners. Her demeanor becomes less harsh, in other words, despite her not having changed the way she carries herself at all. "How many of them were there, then? I'll have to send a group to go collect their remains lest they attract any wild Beasts that happen to wander by."

"There were nine total in the group. Eight bodies, and one naked guy, unless he's run off. It's highly likely that that's the case. I didn't see or hear him go, but I stopped paying attention to him relatively quickly afterward, so I don't know."

"Eight of them, you say? Who comprised their group, then? By that, I mean the racial diversity, not their literal names if that wasn't clear." Every word is perfectly enunciated. She is the perfect picture of a prim and proper professional. Probably on purpose, but possibly not. Could be a façade, but it doesn't smell like an act.

I can do that sort of thing, now, apparently. Smell emotions and emotional states. I can tell that the others in the suits are wary of me. I can also smell that they're all men. They have a distinctly different scent profile than this woman does. It's pretty instinctual the way my nose deciphers information, honestly. Some of it is confusing, but only due to how fast the information passes through my awareness rather than because I don't understand the information I do manage to latch onto. I'm not used to so much sensation, after all.

Well, that's not entirely true. I am intimately familiar with sensory overload, but this doesn't feel like that. No irritation. It's not too bright or too loud. All the different sounds I hear are perfectly decipherable by my brain and kept separate from each other, rather than jumbling together into one big sound soup the way it had when I was on Earth. Frankly, I hadn't noticed the lack of sensory overload until this point. Which is surprising because now that I do, the weight of just how much of it I always felt is that much more obvious. I smile a bit but quickly focus on the woman in front of me before I zone too hard.

"They were all human, as far as I could tell. At the very least, they looked and smelled like humans. I'll admit I'm not exactly knowledgeable on anything except for fighting and smithing considering my, shall we say, formal education was significantly lacking. For all I know, there could be races that look and smell like humans but, in fact, are not."

"A group of nine human mages managed to capture a Zenithal that was able to kill them all within five seconds of gaining consciousness? That's an interesting tidbit to consider. How did they manage to capture you for long enough that you're not sure where you are? Additionally, for someone so reportedly lacking in their formal education, you are quite exceptionally equipped as far as vocabulary goes."

She is suspicious. I can smell it. She also finds me amusing. She's not wary of me in the sense that she's worried she won't be able to handle me, I can tell. She smells too confident for that. No, she's wary in a different way, but I have no way of deciphering that without more information. She knows I'm a Zenithal, though. That only tells me that she's come across them—us—at some point, though, because there are none within the section of the town I can see or smell. Which is damn near all of it, honestly.

"I've spoken to many people growing up. It's only natural that I would learn to speak as they do. As far as how they captured me, I was otherwise ... indisposed." I'd already told her that I was naked when I arrived. Let her come to her own conclusions.

"You were mating?"

I let out a squawk—a squawk, do you hear me?—of surprise and embarrassment at the fact that she just said it out loud like that. No shame or hesitation. Note to self, people here are not as averse to topics like that as they are on Earth. Don't make innuendos if you aren't prepared to be called out on them.

I scratch the back of my neck, my face heating up. "I wasn't going to just say it."

"That makes sense, I suppose. Heightened hormones, decreased awareness of outside stimuli, increased focus on the partner or partners. Someone of your reported abilities getting captured leaves fewer options for bondage than you might otherwise think." There is no hint that she is teasing me. Her scent marks her as being entirely serious. I sputter for a second as my embarrassment reaches new heights. Stop, stop! I regret bringing it up. I was expecting her to gloss over it, not draw attention to it! Change the subject, Zed!

"Anyway, I don't really know where to go from here. The settlement of Zenithals I'm originally from has no name, and we rarely leave, so I couldn't even tell you where I'm from honestly." I really hope that bullshit doesn't get picked apart. Please let education be lacking in this world like is common in the fantasy novels I've read. Do me a solid this once.

"Ah, I see. A commune. I have no deep knowledge about Zenithal customs as a whole to tell you whether that is peculiar or not, so I can't narrow down a location based off that information, unfortunately. I can however tell you that the largest groupings of your race tend to be on the continental Island Zephryn or the continent of Aurora. Zephryn is much closer, however, so I would assume this might be where you hail from. Were you near any large bodies of water?"

"Not that I ever saw, no."

"You don't sound particularly upset about the prospect of being away from your community. Is this perhaps because you wish to be free of them? Did you seek adventure but were confined to the commune's borders?" The guards on either side of her have not moved a muscle since the beginning of our meeting. If I didn't hear the hearts beating in their chests, I might assume they had been replaced by some rather lifelike statues. For her part, my conversational partner has moved nothing save her for eyebrows, which have since lowered to their normal position on her face. I would have included her mouth but I suppose that's obvious.

I shake my head, my feathers rustling as they rub against each other. It's reminiscent of how it sounds when a bird flaps their wings. It doesn't sound ridiculous, though, somehow. "Not exactly. I was content being alone, making my swords, sparring. Doing my own thing. I suppose every once in a while I wanted more from life, but not enough to really seek it out beyond what I had grown comfortable with. Otherwise I might have sought out more information about the world in which I lived. No one saw fit to offer, and I was content not to ask."

There. I'm kind of good at this bullshitting thing. Who knew? They say to add a kernel of truth and it sounds more plausible that way. It's also easier to keep the details straight if they're mostly true in the first place.

"So, wanderer, what do you wish to be called? I see no reason you cannot be allowed into Esh, but I will issue the warning that although I am extended this small bit of trust, as I have detected no falsehood in your statements, and I will be sending others to verify the veracity of your claims, you are expected to follow the rules. No harming others unless in self defense, no thievery, and if a Confluence should occur, you assist in defending the town against the tide. Does this sound agreeable?"

"You can call me Zed. It's my name, after all. What about you? Also, I do have to let you know I have no idea what a Confluence is, though. Would you mind explaining?" This, the assertion that I don't know what a Confluence is, seems to make her more disbelieving than anything else I've said. She is confused, though it doesn't show on her face. Not even a hint of a micro expression presents itself on her face. Perfectly controlled. It's impressive, frankly.

"You have never heard of a Confluence? As far as I am aware, every location on Ackellia experiences Confluences. Large settlements are less prone, especially considering the increased Essence recycle rates, but you said yourself you are from a commune. How could you be as old as you are and not know of them?"

I shrug. I'm not sure what else to say. I don't have any bullshit to spew about this one. "I don't know what to tell you. Maybe we call it something different?"

"A Confluence is a mass spawning event of the Beasts of Ackellia. Over time, Essence gathers in specific areas, typically around areas where there are fewer people to utilize the Essence, thus recycling it. Over time, this Essence builds up. When it reaches the point of Confluence, a hoard of Beasts are spawned from the Essence whose only purpose is to kill. Be that other Beasts, or people. It is an extra-System phenomenon believed to function as a recycling system, as I said, for unused, stagnant, or pooled Essence."

"So this hoard of Beasts just attack towns indiscriminately and you're forced to defend yourselves? I suppose the walls make more sense, now."

"You truly have no knowledge of Confluences?" She asks, the first hint of real emotion entering her voice. Shock. It must be that extraordinary a claim.

"I truly have never experienced such an event. Maybe the commune uses enough Essence? I wouldn't say we were huge or anything, but where I grew up was certainly larger than Esh." She doesn't need to know that where I grew up wasn't on Ackellia. It's true, though. Even living in the middle of nowhere Ohio, there were still vastly more people in my town than here.

"I have never heard such a thing. Even the Kingdom of Azlan's capital city experiences Confluences from time to time. They have nearly a billion people alone. A large percentage of whom are dedicated followers of the Path of Magic. If they cannot utilize all the Essence in an area, despite how weak their Confluences tend to be, I simply cannot believe that a commune of Zenithals could. Not for a year, and certainly not for long enough that you've never experienced one in all the time you've been alive. Which, judging by your hair, is somewhere around twenty years."

"I apologize for my lack of knowledge regarding the issue at hand," I say, having lost all inspiration as to how to continue the conversation, "but I'm not lying. I've never experienced a Confluence. I've never even fought one of these Beasts you're talking about. Never seen one. I stayed inside most of my life, paying attention to my own activities for most of my life. I wasn't taught anything about the surrounding area. I wasn't told anything about these events, if they truly did occur. If they did, then I never noticed, no one spoke about them, and somehow no one died."

"You can see why I find that so hard to believe, yes?" Her voice is full of incredulousness.

"Based on the details you've provided, yes, I can see why that would be hard to believe, but I don't know what else to tell you. I have literally no reason to lie about something like that. Judging from your reaction, it's a truly incredible claim, something that everyone on Ackellia knows about, apparently. It does me no good to make such a claim were it not true. Surely you see that, as well."

After a moment she seems to relent. "I suppose you're correct. There is no reason to make such a claim if it weren't true. I still detect no falsehoods from your Aura, weak as it is. Come. We can talk more within the walls. I'd like to chat a bit more with you. Then we can discuss your options moving forward."

The gates behind her suddenly begin opening, though no words or gestures were made to signal to anyone. It must be a Spell of some sort, then. A rather powerful one, to move so much stone at one time. She steps to the side, one arm gesturing to the opening. I can see hundreds of people milling about, carrying baskets, babies and various weapons in their hands. Children of different races zip about the square with delight and the adults in the area simply smile at their antics and continue on as if it's an everyday occurrence. Perhaps it is.

"Welcome to Esh, Zed. My name is Sytoria, Major General of the Army of Azlan, Representative of Esh and head of the local chapter of the Adventurer's Guild. Follow me."

She turns, walking through the gates with her hands once again clasped behind her back, her strides purposeful and powerful. She is human, I'm sure, but I can tell she would mop the floor with me without so much as blinking.

I follow, anyway, the guards trailing slightly behind me as I, too, pass through the gates of Esh and begin following Major General Sytoria.