When Oskar reached the top of the pit he’d just created, the entire group was watching him, but Touwon quickly shook his head and darted among the bodies, looting as he went.

Penny came over to check on him, and Sara was patiently waiting on Touwon to stop running around so she could get back up on her spot atop his bag.

That cat is something else.

// Sure, okay, let’s focus on the cat and ignore the Drakon you just erased from existence. //

The ending of that fight had been beyond brutal, unexpectantly so, if he was honest, but Oskar was not willing to take any chances.

Fox was watching him with calculated eyes, and Erik looked a little concerned, himself.

Whether it was for his wellbeing or sanity, Oskar couldn’t say, but decisions made with no other conceivable options never bothered him much.

You can’t leave known threats behind you, especially not when they verbally expressed their desire to follow and kill you.

It wasn’t like he was in some stupid story where the author needed a dangerous villain to add tension and created a villainous character with a background and motive. And then while writing it, he realized it felt forced to leave the character in as a constant threat- and so killed that character off because it felt more realistic, throwing the whole next chapter into chaos.

// That seems oddly specific. //

Oskar shook the sand out of his clothes, shifting the weapon back into a spear.

“I’m good,” he said to Erik, who nodded and turned, thankfully taking him at his word. Oskar was noticing some new things about the Wayspring magic now that it was becoming more a part of him.

When he channeled Sora inside or around himself, it responded instantly, gathering momentum as the power spooled up to top speed. But Sora anchored to him, and then gained momentum around him.

So, it stood to reason that Talau would anchor itself to him as well. He’d seen the effects of that while channeling Rakiyu, but now he understood it. His fighting style was very much movement based, and Sora based, so he hadn’t used Talau as much as Sora in life-threatening situations.

It just didn’t see its use, offensively.

And then a few things happened. First was Krellum’s use of it in their fight. Second, pulling it tight around his body had loosened Krellum’s overpowering grip, and that had been eye opening.

I need to learn to use it faster, though; it saved my life. It’s time I started working as hard on Talau the same way I do with Sora.

Touwon and Fox finished looting the bodies, except Krellum, of course. Oskar had effectively removed him from the looting pool. And then they began walking, albeit a little quieter than usual. The fight was a sobering reminder, even though Oskar had managed to kill him.

Krellum could have killed us. Tonight, when we stop to make our plan for moving forward… this has made it clear as hell that it’s time to find Fox’s friends, if they’re still alive… and attack.

He summoned Talau around him and just practiced holding it near him, close, as the group started moving again. He pulled on it, felt it compressing in on itself, and just focused on what was happening… the pattern beneath it all. Compressing the magic empowered it like Sora building momentum.

The only difference was he couldn’t channel it quite like Sora. It wasn’t as fluid; it was all or nothing. Held close for protection or spent.

Sora wanted to keep moving, even if he wasn’t moving himself. Adding Rakiyu, though, loosened those requirements a little, which was why Sora now worked so well on the ground.

What I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around is how it reinforces the magic and still loosens requirements. I keep telling myself over and over that all things are connected, but I’m still treating them like separate things.

It just wasn’t all as structured as he’d previously thought. Rakiyu didn’t do just one thing, and he knew Sora didn’t, so it stands to reason that Talau worked the same way.

It never occurred to him to use Talau how Krellum used it, to move the earth beneath a foe. He’d also heard of another person, friend or foe, who could directly manipulate an element like he could before.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I’ve got a lot to learn. Well, at least I could counter his Talau, although I have no idea exactly how I did it. Maybe it was a test of wills, but I won’t know without testing it further and gaining better control over my magic.

For now, Oskar simply worked on strengthening his Resonant Ward, trying to pay special attention to Talau’s role in it. Other than the damn suns overhead, they were not attacked again.

The air grew stagnant later in the day, but this time, the second the red sun disappeared behind the dune wall, the temperature dropped noticeably with it.

They walked well into dusk. He could walk them to any number of Waysrpings at that point and angled them a little more north toward one that was marginally closer. He and Erik talked a little while they walked, but it was superficial; Erik was avoiding serious talk.

Oskar asked him straight up if he was alright, and Erik had replied, “Isn’t everything serious enough? I can’t learn any more from what happened to me. All I know is I need to move forward. I need to keep you,” he smiled and looked around, “and these guys alive. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

That last part sounded like he’d been talking more to himself than Oskar.

Oskar thought about that awhile, and after a mile or so further of walking, he agreed with Erik that there wasn’t much more to learn from his past screw ups. It was easy to get caught up in old mistakes. Erik had been here dealing with God knows what for months before Oskar even arrived.

I feel so weak compared to Erik, he admitted to himself. All it took was dreams of things he actually lived through to make me almost lose my mind. Maybe I did, and all this is a dream.

Strangely, even though he didn’t really take that last thought seriously, a horrible feeling of being under scrutiny reared its ugly head, and he tried to calm himself down from a heart rate that just doubled.

What the hell? Was that amusement? That’s the first time I’ve ever gotten something specific from… it?

He thought it was just overdoing it with Sora that had caused it last time, and the other times… well, it wasn’t so long ago I was questioning everything, so it was easy to think them figments of my imagination.

But now? His mental struggles were having an effect that he had no means of understanding. Tired, he’d let his Ward drop when he was speaking with Erik. Casting it again now he felt better. Safer. Saner. With a more logical mind, he could see easier why he’d been so close to losing his struggle with mental health before.

After the road-side bomb, the IED that put him in the hospital and physical therapy for months afterward, Oskar had blamed himself. He hated thinking about himself when so many others didn’t make it home.

His unit had finished the last three months without him, and he felt like he’d abandoned them. I didn’t even care about myself, I just felt like ass for leaving them. I… still do.

Erik had come and stayed with him for over a month, and by the time he’d had to leave to work again, Oskar was in physical therapy and was already training with a temporary prosthetic.

I probably wasn’t exactly great company, but I worked my ass off, thinking that maybe, just maybe I’d be well enough to go back before my unit got home. Should have known better, though. I set myself up for failure.

He didn’t make it back to his unit in time, and Oskar was left reevaluating whether he still had the fire inside him that made him a Marine in the first place.

Around the time he was still wrapping his head around that, Erik had disappeared off the coast of Africa. After two weeks of searching, the US Government had called off the official search, but they had reassured him they were still looking for answers.

He believed, at least on the surface, that his brother was dead. For the first time in his life, Oskar considered he might be better off the same. For almost three months, he felt dead inside.

The nightmares had started a few weeks afterwards, though, trapping him in a weird place between hope and horror that his brother was alive after all. Being soft forced out of the Marines and with no surviving family, he’d had no purpose.

If he couldn’t fight with his Marines, what was the point? If Erik was dead, did he have anyone left who cared?

Between leaving the military and constantly moving, he had had broken his remaining close ties, few as they were to begin with.

You add in a few months of insomnia, and you’ve apparently got a recipe for seeing spider Cthulhu in your peripheral vision during moments of doubt and extreme stress.

// You know… I’m getting closer to what I was. I… understand more, now. It’s important that you know I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through. None of that was your fault. I’m glad you’ve found a purpose here, though. With me. The Kobold people need you, especially those two right there. This entire world is broken. No one knows exactly what originally went wrong here, but nothing’s gonna live long enough for it to matter without the Wayspring Magic. And it’s looking like that’s you, buddy. //

I honestly don’t know what I’d do without your insane planet. Things had gotten bad back home,” Oskar smiled. Although things aren’t going fantastic here either, but at least I’m not depressed, here. I appreciate you saying that, though. Even though you’re not a real person, it still means a lot.

// I hope you don’t think that was an insult. I’m better in every way. And if I was human, at least I’d still have both my legs. I'll give you credit, though, you're tough and adaptable. //

Thanks for the compliment, I think.The Marine motto is Semper Fidelis, which means "Always Faithful," but some guys would say Semper Gumby instead, based off an old cartoon clay-mation show from like the 50s. Best translation for that is "Always Flexible." Things never go the way you expect, I mean, look at where I am, now? Adapt or die. And you'd miss me if I was gone, inferior or not.

// The way you act, chances are I’ll get a chance to find out. //

Oskar laughed at that one.

The group reached the Wayspring, and Erik and Oskar set up the big tent while Fox kept watch. Touwon went hunting with Sara and Penny and had been gone for close to an hour. Oskar could feel them scouting- and hunting- around the camp as the sky went from purple to dark blue. When Touwon got back, Penny went up on top of the dune, and Fox slid gracefully down the slope. Her face was serious as she said those dreaded four words.

“It’s time to talk.”