The tightening in Mark's breath accelerated when he realized he was stuck. He couldn’t turn the skill off and could feel himself approaching his limits. He glanced at Sam but he couldn’t gather the breath to call out. He tried to reach out to her through the link but it felt like she was at the edge of his range, even as she sat less than a meter away.

Panting Mark turned to look around, the lines of people were moving gradually but they may as well have been puppets to Mark.

Taking a breath Mark slowed his thinking, he needed to solve this on his own. The sooner the better.

First, he took a look at himself, he too was a mass of faded tones, and the greys of his chest didn’t stand out to him. Searching deeper he tried to feel his cores. Just like his link with Sam, they felt faint. His Prana core felt slightly closer than the rest but not by much.

Sharp pains had begun to prickle near his chest.

Looking around again Mark searched for a solution and that's when he noticed something clinging to him. A thin film surrounded his body, floating a couple of inches off his skin. He hadn’t seen it sooner because it was so faint, barely the thinnest boundary of grey.

Looking around he saw others didn’t have this film, so he focused on it. The perimeter of it was malleable but only just, when he moved his arm out, it followed with him.

Glancing over, Mark saw Sam was looking at him now. She was speaking—a frown having appeared on her face—but it sounded as though she were underwater.

Mark refocused on the wall he tried to reach out beyond it but it moved with him once more. It hung over Mark like a blanket, forcing a sense of claustrophobia onto him as the skill hemmed him in. Mark thought that if he could get out of whatever this was, he could cancel the skill, but every time he reached out, it moved away.

That was until he got frustrated enough to swipe through the air. The grey trails hanging off his arm briefly exploded into colors, as a brilliant shadow followed the path of his arm. It contained multiple hues layered over one another. Blues, reds, and purples, but none were as overpowering as the glowing tones of white that vibrated with power, before moving back behind his skin.

Blinking Mark stared down at his palm as though willing it to come back, and it did, with little fuss, the light returned like multicolored circuitry.

Smiling excitedly, Mark sent the light towards the wall, and as soon as it touched he knew he’d been mistaken. As the light crossed the threshold Mark's entire body felt like it was suffering a full-blown desert storm. Beyond the wall was some other environment completely, and it began to sap Prana from Mark at a growing rate.

Tiny needles of what felt like glass prickled across his skin and he knew it was an extension of what he had felt earlier. Luckily Mark had endured far worse in his efforts to filter the Corruption, and so he sent a little more light out.

He would have continued if Sam hadn’t taken hold of his shoulder with a vice-like grip. Mark focused on her and the room once more. She was mouthing something and the lines of people were taking steps back as though in fear.

Shelby had appeared amongst the crowd at some point and was staring at Mark with a look of grotesque wonder, but Mark didn’t have the time right now. His body felt like it was being drained of strength, as harsh winds now buffeted him.

Mark had been about to use the light to expand the hole in the wall, but Sam grabbed his head between her hands and bumped their foreheads together.

The voice that came through was less than a whisper, but it carried the weight of a freight train.

“Rein. it. in. ”

Mark glanced at the room and then the light, he’d been going about this in the wrong way. Instead of trying to close the skill, he’d been pushing it further. His eyes swiftly moved back to the wall surrounding him, it wasn’t blocking him from closing the skill, it was protecting him from the world out there, the [Wastes].

The next step became obvious, reeling in his light Mark began to pull the wall in as well, sending the light back behind his skin, and deeper into his core. As a result, he began to release the breath he’d been holding until now, allowing his lungs to relax.

The wall responded to his will and retracted to sit against his skin. With it, the aching of his breath eased and the color bled back into the world leaving Mark exhausted.

The skill on its own had used hardly any Prana, save for when his light had gone beyond the wall, and somehow his tiredness was still bone deep. The sound of Mark’s breath as he got it under control was punctuated by the silence in the tent. Glancing up, Mark could tell by the looks on people's faces that the skill had manifested, at least in some way.

Mark was about to say something when Sam startled the world back into motion, giving orders to the perimeter guard to clear out of the tent, Mark told her that wasn’t necessary so she motioned for Shelby to come stand in for her.

The man approached quickly, smiling at Mark with his usual self-assured grin. Sam walked Mark off to the side.

“Okay, so that was a little harrowing, I’ll be honest. I’m glad you chose to come to me, but you should probably avoid doing that when people are around. What happened?”

Mark blinked slowly, the hollow feeling still trying to take precedence.

“Um, yeah, it was intense, it was as if I went somewhere but I could still see you all.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Sam searched Mark's eyes.

“Yeah, I could see that, feel it even.”

Frowning Mark remembered the fear on people's faces.

“What did it feel like, I’m still not even sure what that was.”

Sam hesitated now, a look of worry and disgust surfacing at the memory.

“I’m not sure how to describe it… you know what, I am able. It was like watching you flay the skin off your body. It just felt so… unnatural-”

“You’re forgetting the light that came after that though.”

Mark looked over at Shelby and saw he had edged over to their conversation, they were far enough away that probably only Aura users could hear them but he’d not broken contact with the spire.

Their guard kept the lines moving and no one seemed to want to look in this direction anyway. But Shelby was the exception.

Sam looked at him, with an annoyed expression, but the man didn’t seem to mind.

“There was this light that I can only describe as sacred, it felt like a beacon in the darkness. It had this pull, and all I could think was how beautiful it felt.”

Sam looked miffed but didn’t deny it, she just turned to Mark and created an air bubble around the three of them.

“Yeah, okay it was strangely hypnotizing, but you need to be careful, whatever that was, it was not without its risks. I could barely feel you in the link, it was like you weren't here at all.”

Mark nodded at this, he was more and more certain he’d gone to the place the system called the [Wastes], where that was, was still an unknown, but there were bound to be dangers.

There were so many questions though, did everyone have this inner light? Why couldn’t he feel the people around him when he was there and yet see them perfectly fine? Mark wanted to try out the skill again, but the discomfort in his chest stopped him for now. The skill was certainly interesting, though how useful it would be still remained to be seen.

“Alright if I promise to be careful will you watch over me again when I use the skill?”

Sam sent him a wry look.

“You know, I just realized both you and Jonathan love to flirt with danger. If it's not him on the frontline it's you who’s messing with his very essence... fine. I'll keep an eye on you when you decide to fuck around and find out.”

Mark couldn't help the smile that crept onto his lips.

“That reminds me, I need to go make sure Jonathan is alright, the Corruption messed him up pretty bad, and he’s been avoiding me.”

Sam’s relaxed look moved to concern again.

“I thought you said he was healed?”

“He is, physically, but like me, he’s probably suffering under some changes, and since he won’t come to me directly, I need to go check on him.

Mark realized that probably didn’t sound very reassuring but he promised Sam he was just checking up on him.

“You know what, maybe I should come with you? Shelby’s got the spire for now.”

The moment they had started talking about Jonathan, Sam had shrunk the shield to include just the two of them.

“You really think Jonathan would like that?” Mark as he raised a brow.

“Why would you think I'd give a shit what he wants? You're our healer, and you need to have a look at him, right?”

Mark simply nodded, knowing when to shut up.

“Fine, then let's go find him, he should be in the pit right now.”

Karter still called it the training grounds, but to everyone else, it was the pit, as the new tunnel to the underground became one of the fighter's favorite spots. Allowing them to safely take turns at slaughtering the Corrupted, which even now continued to gather.

Sam nodded to Shelby, who grinned back like a child on Christmas Eve. After that, Mark and Sam left the tent and took to the skies.

The trip, hardly took them ten minutes and Sam had the lead the whole way. Mark had hoped he’d be able to catch up with her since his construct had grown since their last race, but she seemed to have refined her spells even further since then. There was a certain charge to the air and tiny sparks seemed to trail off Sam’s form. He didn’t how, but she’d gotten even faster.

When they got there they searched the place, asking the guards where Jonathan was, but no one had seen him for the last twenty mintutes.

Mark could feel he was there, but they couldn’t see the guy anywhere. The warehouse that held the pit was huge, but even now it was packed with people. Searching through the crowd would take forever, Sam stood at the railing looking down into the pit.

‘It doesn’t feel like he’s down there.’ she sent through the link.

Mark looked at the room, there weren’t a lot of places to hide in here but he decided to let the pull guide him. Walking out of the warehouse Sam and Mark head toward a small dilapidated apartment next door. It was close by, having survived all the surrounding destruction, but there was nothing here really. Heading up to the door Sam opened it and they spotted Jonathan standing in the middle of the living room rubbing at his mouth.

He should have felt them coming and yet he looked somewhat taken aback, his face was pale and his breathing was irregular.

“Hey guys, what’s up? Is there an emergency?” His voice took on a more serious tone.

Sam glanced back at Mark and they walked in, Mark shutting the door behind them.

The room had a slightly sweet smell to it.

“No emergency, is everything okay?” Sam said keeping her words low.

Confusion and panic painted themselves across Jonathan's features.

“Yes, everything's fine, did you come here just to ask that?”

“Well no, but you seem… surprised? What are you even doing here?”

Jonathan looked between them.

“Mmm, well I was just grabbing a bite to eat in peace.”

Sam and Mark exchanged a look and Jonathan huffed. He could see he wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Alright fine, I know this looks weird but could I ask you to drop this, everything is fine”

Mark was about to tell him why they were there, but Sam got to it first.

“Normally yes, but I know you. You’re a stubborn bastard, and I want to know what you were doing.”

Jonathan's shoulders dropped just slightly as he glared at them.

“You sure?”

Sam didn’t even bother to respond, choosing to hold his gaze.

Without saying another word Jonathan reached into his inventory and took a massive cut of raw meat.

The thing was easily over five pounds of steak, and there were already large pieces torn out of it, causing thin trials of blood to run down his hand and fall to the floor.

“I wasn’t lying, I was eating.”

The sweet smell suddenly made more sense, as did the wiping of evidence away from his mouth. He'd been eating raw meat; by the looks of it, this wasn't the first time.

There was a pause, Sam put a hand on her chest and breathed out.

“Is that all? Oh, thank goodness.”