A rustle and a buzzing sound jerked Lani awake.

"Oh, sorry!" said Riley, glancing over. She was already wriggling out from under her blanket, pulling her jacket and vest back on. "I was hoping that the vibrate wouldn't get ya."

"I'm a light sleeper," he replied, blinking hard to try and clear away his groggy vision. He sat up, looking out at the dim pale light of dawn before the sunrise. "You sleep okay?"

"I'm a light sleeper too, actually, but that was the best sleep I've had in weeks," she replied. "I was in London up until yesterday. I missed the outdoors so much."

"I think I've still got some getting used to," Lani added, stretching out his sore shoulders.

"Oh, man." She winced "Yeah, the cold and the hard ground isn't gonna be great for that."

"It's okay." Absolutely nothing could have made the night any better for Lani, after all. He could still feel his mana, the primal power like a beacon of warm light within his soul. "How long til the sunrise?"

She grinned. "About ten minutes til it really starts to heat up. We're right on time."

They set up the chairs outside, and Riley got out another tripod and prepared a camera.

"How many of those do you have?" Lani asked, whistling. They looked pretty expensive.

"Enough," she winked. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't own them. They're from my employer."

While she set about fiddling with the camera, Lani decided to try a bit of magic. He decided moving something would probably be the easiest to start with. Tapping into the mana within his soul, Lani reached out for a brown leaf hanging above Riley's head. He poked and prodded it with his mind, and with a tiny snap it fell free. As it twirled, Lani kept poking it to keep it on course.

It fell right onto the top of the camera, perfectly on target.

"Hey," Riley murmured, picking it up. "Where'd you come from?"

Lani smiled. She tossed the leaf aside and went back to the camera.

It was easy, way easier than he'd expected. From the bits of the book he'd seen, plus the stories he'd heard from Jeremy, Lani expected magic to be a difficult task, even the basics taking weeks of practice. Am I just lucky? Or did she bless me somehow?

Are the spirits helping me?

The piece of parchment — a fragment of the book, he now realized — had taught him a particular kind of magic. Something to do with the spirits he'd felt surrounding him as he awakened, those infinite entities filling up the world around him. Lani closed his eyes and concentrated. He called to them with his mind, called to the spirits and asked them to come forth.

One in particular presented itself, a pale wisp of a thing. It wasn't what he expected — not tied to any part of the earth or sea, but a mystical presence given vague shape and form. Lani opened his eyes, and there it was.

A soft, translucent shape, pale blue as the sky. It had no face, no real identifying features at all. The spirit appeared as a blob, almost smokey in its appearance. Lani reached out slowly with his hand, inching his fingers toward the edge of its floating essence.

The moment they touched, it felt like plunging his hand into ice.

Lani refused to recoil, holding his hand in place. The spirit didn't move — didn't react in the slightest. He felt like it was waiting for him to tell it what to do. After all, he'd called it forth. It would be rude to keep it there without giving it instruction or dismissing it.

A click of the camera reminded him where he was. Lani told the spirit to disperse, without a word passing through his lips. He felt a response, almost like an acknowledgment, come back to his mind from the spirit.

It vanished, a faint puff of smoke spreading out from where it had disappeared into the void. The smoke dissipated as it spread, gone in only a few seconds.

"Incredible," said Riley.

"Yeah," he agreed, though he wasn't looking at the sunrise at all.

Riley stopped, looking around. "This seems wrong."

"What's up?" asked Lani, catching up.

"I could've sworn… but that can't be right." She checked her compass and her GPS, looking confused. "Hang on to this a sec, okay?"

She dropped her bag and handed the GPS device to Lani. With a sudden leap, she grabbed the nearest branch of a tall tree and hoisted herself up. Arm over arm, she pulled herself up into the canopy. "I'm just gonna take a quick look! Try to see the town!" she shouted down.

"Okay!"

Lani looked around, and — with no one else in sight — set the bag aside. He concentrated, and again, the spirit appeared. This time though, he made a request when he called for it, and it responded. It was still the pale smokey blue, only partly visible against the backdrop of the thick forest, but it wasn't a featureless shape anymore. It wasn't a work of art, but it had a face and eyes at least. It could express itself.

Not that it did. It simply floated impassive, watching, waiting.

Riley was well out of sight. Lani considered what he should ask of it. What could such a spirit do?

What can you do? he tried to ask, but nothing came back. Lani didn't think they communicated in words, anyway. Certainly not a language invented by people. The spirits wouldn't be so forthcoming. It was up to him to determine.

He tried to ask it where he should go, but again, it didn't respond in the slightest. Lani asked it a few more questions, but he got the feeling it couldn't understand such abstract ideas. He had to be more concrete. Lani asked the spirit to show him which direction the town was in, praying it could understand such a concept. It didn't move.

Frustrated, Lani told it to move down to the ground, just to see if it would do anything. To his relief, it did so—sinking to the earth and stopping just above the layer of moss and leaves. He asked it to move other places, and it did, but he couldn't think how to get it to do more. On top of that, he could feel it draining him.

Every time it moved, every time the spirit did anything beyond just float there, Lani could feel it drawing upon his energy, his mana. It subsisted off his own power. Without him, the spirit couldn't manifest itself, and as soon as he released that flow of power, it would vanish back into the void it came from.

Curious, Lani let the first spirit sit there, and tried to call for another. It appeared, identical to the first. He tried a third, and a fourth. Both appeared, forming a small wall of pale blue smokey faces floating in front of him.

Well, this is getting weird…

Hearing a call above him, Lani dismissed the spirits. "What was that?" he shouted.

"I can see the town!" Riley shouted back. "But…"

"...But what?"

A few thumps and Riley was swinging back down to the forest floor. "It's bizarre," she said. She took off her gloves, breathing heavily from the exertion. "I don't usually get lost, but the town isn't where it's supposed to be. Or… anything really. It's like we got totally turned around."

"We were following the compass though, weren't we?"

"Yeah…" Riley glanced around, looking uncomfortable. "You think… it's this place?"

"I'd believe it."

She reached out and took his hand. Hers were warm from the gloves she'd just been wearing, and they felt perfect slotted in between his fingers. Lani suddenly felt a wave of guilt over not telling her what he'd found.

"Hey," he started.

"Don't get me wrong," she interrupted quickly. "I mean, you're out here 'cause you want to find magic right? I'm not saying it's all bad. Just… well, I'd rather you have it than whatever did this weird forest," she finished, looking around nervously.

"...I have a confession to make," Lani said, shifting uncomfortably in place.

She looked up at him. "No…"

"Just last night!" he said quickly. "I just… you know, kinda stumbled across it."

"...Really?"

With a slight smile, Lani called up a spirit again. It emerged from the smoke right in front of them, hovering a few feet away.

"...Wow…" Riley reached out a hand toward it. "Oh! That's… sheesh, does it gotta be so cold?"

Hey, maybe that'll work. Lani asked the spirit to be warm. He felt a sudden draw of energy from him as it agreed to his request. "Try again," he prompted.

She did. "...Okay, now it's like my hand's sitting in the sun… That's amazing."

"Sorry I didn't tell you," he said. He dismissed the spirit.

"Are you kidding?" Riley smiled. "This stuff's crazy, and with everything that's happened? I don't blame you. Besides, you didn't wait that long." Before Lani could speak, she leaned up and kissed him again. "Trust me now?"

"Definitely," he replied. He wrapped his good arm around her shoulders and hugged her, relieved.

"...So how'd you do it? How's it work?"

"Well—"

A twig snapped.

They both turned, and Lani saw her hand go to the knife on her belt again. Standing a few dozen feet away was a young Japanese man wearing a silvery-grey robe. His hands were raised in surrender.

"Excuse me," he called out.

"...Hi," Lani called back.

"Hi there," said Riley. "Are you…" She glanced at Lani. "One of the… you know."

"Yes," he replied. He beckoned them forward. As they approached, it became clear just how intricate the edges of his robes had been sewn, and the sheer strength of the material.

"Not really the best forest color," she pointed out.

He smiled. An instant later, the robe shifted through the spectrum, landing on a perfect modern jungle camouflage pattern. He held it there for a few seconds, before it returned to the silver hue.

"Alright, I'm convinced," said Riley, grinning.

He bowed. "I'm here to guide you."

"To where?" asked Lani. "Out of the forest? Back to our jeep?"

"Wherever," he replied.

Lani smiled. He glanced at Riley, who nodded. She spoke first. "Can you take us to the Greywood?"