Abe’s apartment was Lyle’s next destination. He was Lyle’s best friend of many years, and an enthusiastic follower of the Ember gladiatorial scene, which extended into knowledge of many other aspects of the culture. If Lyle were to be successful and grow in strength, Abe was the first person he’d want to talk to.

When Lyle knocked at Abe’s apartment door, Abe yanked the door open just far enough to look out. He was a big, slightly overweight Middle-Eastern guy a couple years older than Lyle himself. He had short, curly brown hair and matching brown eyes a few shades darker than his skin. Contrary to his current odd behavior, he was the kind of person that made everyone feel good just to be around, his overt friendliness flowing off of him in waves.

"Lyle?” he said with a genuine smile now breaking out across his face. He pulled the door open the rest of the way. “Sorry, dude, wasn’t expecting you. What’s up?”

“Just dropping by. Got some cool stuff to tell you about. Is someone else here?”

“What? No, no, but there was a Tear that appeared last night for like forty-five seconds and then winked out. I was trying to figure out who went inside. Some trackers got readings on it, but it disappeared before anyone got close.”

“Um… I might be able to tell you about it,” Lyle said. “Was it in downtown Saint Paul? Like three blocks from the Bunker?”

Abe gave him a confused look. “How’d you—never mind, come on in.” He opened the door the rest of the way and gave Lyle a friendly clap on the shoulder before ushering him inside through the trash and computer parts strewn about the studio. The only light in the apartment was the streams of natural light coming in through the window.

“Why so secretive?” Lyle asked.

“Because DOER and the guilds are going nuts about this portal, and I wasn’t sure if anyone had caught me poking around—as unlikely as that is. DOER is on the warpath to find whoever entered without a license, and the guilds are hella pissed they didn’t get their chance to take a whack at it—which effectively means they’re the same way. It’ll blow over soon, I’m sure, but for now I want to figure it out without getting caught between them in a dick measuring contest.”

Lyle smirked.

“Not like that, idiot. Anyway, tell me what you know. Aw, shit, what happened to your head? Is that blood?”

“Probably a little bit, but it’s not mine. I had an encounter with my old boss.”

“Thomas did that to you?” Abe cried out. “That’s—we should call the regional—”

“Woah, woah, chill, Abe,” Lyle said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. “Like I said, it’s not mine. I headbutted him in the nose.”

“Oh,” Abe said, deflating. He quickly straightened back up, regaining his enthusiasm. “I hope it’s broken. Now, you have something to tell me about that Tear?”

Lyle and Abe sat down on the couch and recounted the events of the previous couple days, starting with quitting his job and ending a mere half an hour before now, with his confrontation with Thomas. He stumbled a bit when he mentioned his phone call with Emily. He hadn’t thought about it since yesterday—he’d been a little distracted—and a part of him didn’t want to. Bringing it up was an accident in and of itself. It just came out in his narrative, and by the time he realized he’d rather stay silent on the subject, it was too late. In the end, it felt good to get it off of his chest, but he wasn’t disappointed that any conversation about his relationship was overshadowed by all the other happenings.

“Holy shit,” Abe said once he’d finished. “You’re sure it wasn’t just a dream? That’s fucking wild! I mean, sorry about your job and Emily and stuff, but like—a dragon! And you’re an Ember now!”

“Not very strong, but yeah,” Lyle assured him.

"Don’t be modest,” Abe said. “You’ll get there. It’ll just take some practice. Gotta work that magic muscle, you know? And, with our powers combined, we can get you into the Tower in no time. Or you could take a class, but I’ve always heard practical experience is better in this case. Is that why you’re here?”

“Partially,” Lyle replied. “I also wanted to know if you could shine some light on what my power does. I told you what Layla thought, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Abe said, nodding excitedly. “She thought it might just be light, but that didn’t really pan out. I kind of have the same opinion she did—you’re going to have to actually try it out to know for sure. You have to come into contact with some other Embers, too. Maybe your power interacts with others’, or something.”

“So you don’t know.”

“Well, no, obviously not,” Abe capitulated with a shrug. “Most Embers fit into reasonably clear-cut categories, although it can definitely get a bit weird with the Infinite. Maybe you’re like them.”

The Infinite were the strongest Embers on the planet. They were few in number, with less than a couple dozen people on the planet able to claim membership in their ranks at any given time, but they were many times more powerful than a normal Ember. Their abilities were unpredictable and all but unique.

Lyle smirked. “I wish. I’m sure they started out way stronger than me, though. I don’t honestly feel that different.”

“Hey, you don’t know that. Everyone’s gotta start somewhere. Let’s give you a little time before passing any judgments.”

“Fair enough,” Lyle acquiesced. “I guess the next step is practice, then.”

“Practice, practice, and practice some more. Train hard and long. Maybe even risk it… for the biscuit. I’m assuming you want to hop in a Tower or take a class or something, not be a gladiator?”

Lyle raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding?”

“Right, stupid question. Those guys are out of your league.” Abe looked at Lyle expectantly, and Lyle could tell he was fighting a smile.

“Don’t appeal to my ego,” Lyle said with a laugh. “You’re just obsessed with the fights.”

“You know me too well.” Abe’s smile burst onto his face and he leaned back on the couch. “So, the Tower is probably your best bet. Didn’t Carson take a class and say it was useless?”

Lyle winced inwardly, but nodded.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Abe mused. “Anyway, you’ve got a license, so that won’t be a problem.” He thought for a moment, and held up a single finger. “Let me grab my laptop.”

Abe danced around the mess of his apartment, his footsteps knocking heavily on the wood floor, and returned thirty seconds later to flop back onto the couch with laptop in hand. He flipped it open and started browsing forums that were linked to the website for the nearest Tower’s floor licensure.

“Shouldn’t be too hard to get you into a delve team for one of the lower floors,” he said. “It’s Wednesday, so most should be available still, although that’s to say nothing of the fill-status of the licensed groups…”

Abe continued to muse aloud for a couple minutes as he searched, but he wasn’t really talking to Lyle, so Lyle’s thoughts drifted to his phone call with Emily the day before. His heart ached, because he knew he should have been better. He missed her already, but he half wondered if he really missed her, or just having someone like her to lean on. Guilt began to well up inside him as he realized he wasn’t sure. She was right about how he’d been distant. He berated himself—he should have been better. He had to be better.

Lyle pushed the painful thoughts away for the moment. To distract himself while Abe continued mumbling into his computer, Lyle looked within himself at the burning flame and summoned his power to his hand once more, willing the waves of light to flow around his fingers and into the open air. He tried summoning a second spark to orbit the first, but that put quite a strain on him, like the feeling of trying to do a particularly complex math problem, and the waves of light became far more unwieldy. They slipped from his control if he relaxed his focus for a moment, drifting in the air like they were underwater before snapping back to his palm.

His concentration failed several times in just the course of a minute, always returning to his guilt.

Abe glanced up at one point, looking around with a frown.

“Oh, sorry,” Lyle said, realizing what Abe was probably feeling. “That’s me. I’m practicing.”

“And I can feel it?” Abe asked in confusion. He studied Lyle’s open hand, and eventually just shook his head. “That’s weird, dude.”

“Layla could, too, apparently. It feels like static electricity, right?”

“Exactly that. But that shouldn’t be possible.”

All Lyle could do was shrug and go back to his practice, while Abe mirrored his movement and went back to the search. Lyle probably could have done it himself, but Abe knew his way around the Ember forums better than anyone Lyle knew. He would be able to get Lyle a safe venture into the Rice Tower—so named for its adjacent lake—with trustworthy teammates much faster than if Lyle tried to do it himself.

“Ah-ha!” Abe finally said in success, breaking Lyle’s concentration again. “Here we go. Second floor, and it’s this afternoon.”

“So soon?” Lyle asked, relinquishing his hold on the power.

“Would you rather wait? The lower floors get claimed pretty quickly, and anything on the weekend is probably going to be full up.”

“I guess not,” Lyle admitted. “But I’ll need to figure out how I’m going to fight quickly, since I don’t know how to use the magic.”

“Yeah, the only thing left is to find you a weapon,” Abe said with a nod. “Unless you were planning on just punching things. I signed you up, by the way.”

Lyle nodded his thanks, then continued, “I didn’t have anything in particular in mind.” It wasn’t quite true. Thoughts of weapons had often crossed his mind given who his father and brother were. Or had been.

“Well, you still have your dad’s sword, right? Go pick that up and I’ll drive you down.”

“That’s… I don’t know about that,” Lyle said. “That sword in particular is—”

“Unless you want to buy a weapon, that’s all you’ve got,” Abe said. “It’s not like I have anything lying around. Well, I’ve got a gun, but pretty sure that wouldn’t be much use.”

“You own a gun?”

Abe shrugged.

“Right, whatever. I’ll grab the damn sword.”

"‘Atta boy,” Abe said with a smile. “Now, I—you know, I’ll actually drive you over to your house. Not too far out of our way anyway. Your sister home?”

“No, she’s in class. And out of your league.”

“Hey, can’t blame a guy for trying,” Abe said with a chuckle. “Now, c’mon, let’s get a move on. We got places to be and monsters to kill.”