“I don’t understand, why did they attack us? Surely, they must have known they stood no chance.”

I spoke up, a little bit grumpy, as pushing the arrows through my arm had not been pleasant. Luckily, I had been wearing my practice/fighting gear, so I hadn’t ruined another set of clothes, though I was surprised the blast to the chest had not made a hole. I would take whatever victories I could get though, no matter how small.

“Their leader was reasonably strong, and they likely did not have a way to determine our strength. Given their superior numbers, the situation must have seemed to be in their favour.” Walker stood motionless, unmoved from where he had started the fight, his voice almost warm, as if out for a stroll. Which I guess, technically, we were...

“Why would they have no way to determine our strength? Almost everyone I’ve met has known how strong – or weak - I was since I arrived.”

“I can only speak for those I am aware of, Hunter, but I was able to sense it due to being an Apex. Aella has a bloodline ability which allows her to always see the energy normally invisible. Master Alchemist Ro has refined spiritual senses due to his profession, as that is needed to work at his level.”

“What about the micro-psychos, Fou Shei and his sister? They seemed to have a pretty good handle on my strength when we first met.”

“In the case of the siblings you speak of, I do not know. Aella?”

My teacher was swinging her new sword about, having taken it from the corpse of her recent opponent. The blade was a dull blue and reflected very little light, and Aella seemed happy with it, judging by the almost manic grin on her face. Looking over at us, she blinked her solid pink-on-pink eyes for a moment, clearly replaying Walker’s words in her head.

“Oh, the Unceasing Squall has some sort of vibration-based bloodline ability. It gives them a vague sense of a person’s strength, though I don’t think it’s very accurate! Your lack was just very obvious at the time. They probably couldn’t tell your exact strength now; you’d probably just feel average to them, rather than below average.”

“Teacher, honestly, one day you’re going to over-inflate my ego with praise like that.” I grinned at her, though there was some teeth to it, due to the still sharp ache of my closing arm-holes.

“Don’t worry, humility is important, especially for the weak. If something like that happens, I’ll be ready to help you.” Her voice was completely serious, and I hoped that if I ever did develop a bloated ego, it would be far, far away from Aella.

“Ugh, that’s a nice sword though. Anything special about it, besides being blue?” I changed the subject, as I moved about checking the pulses of the people I had put down.

“It’s very heavy! I wonder if I could have it attached to a chain...” I pictured her swinging around a sword on the end of a chain and shuddered a little, not liking lawnmower-like imagery. Though, I thought, it was not like her usual chain was not devastating on its own.

All the people I had taken out seemed to be alive, and unknowing what the protocol was on my new world, I asked the others what I should do.

“Guy, these... ugh, bandits are still alive. Do I just leave them or do I need to...” I made a cutting gesture with my hand, not wanting to say it. So far, I had killed when I had to, but I really did not want to murder a bunch of helpless people, even if they had attacked us.

“It is up to you Hunter. Though they attacked us, without their leader, and now missing so many of their number, they do not possess the strength to threaten most groups, even if they should so choose.” Walker was the calm voice of reason, and I was really grateful he had not said to simply kill them.

“So, do we just leave them here? What about the dead ones?”

“The living will wake soon enough, and the dead will be retaken by the forest and beasts that live here.” Walker spoke matter-of-factly and though it was different than what I was used to, I mentally shrugged and decided to respect their customs.

Turning back to the unconscious forms, I decided that I would be looting them, regardless. Merciful I may have been, but they had attacked us. And I had expenses. Confiscating their purses, I checked them for storage devices, but none of them seemed to have anything that would fit the bill, which was a touch disappointing. I looked over at the leader’s newly distributed body and figured he probably had the bulk of the wealth, but knowing Aella had already claimed his stuff. You keep what you kill, seemed to be the rule here. I did up netting a couple of hundred coins, in various denominations. It was not a huge haul, but how rich could you really expect bandits to be? If they were rich, they would not be robbing people.

Something occurred to me as I had that thought, a reminder to my first few days on the planet. Looking up at my mentor, I asked question that had not occurred to me previously.

“Walker, where do these glowing coins come from? They look like sliced up balls. You explained what all of them are worth, but... what are they?”

“Sliced balls – or rather cores - are precisely what they are. When a beast is killed, their growth cores can be extracted. The stronger the beast, the more their core is worth. They are then sliced into smaller denominations.”

“Beasts have cores? Do they have souls? I know that’s a kind of human, ugh, person-centric question, but... do they?”

“Come, if you are not going to kill these few, we should leave. It would be unfortunate if they woke now and forced you to change your mind out of reflex. We can talk while we walk.”

Aella put her new toy away, and the four of us walked on, leaving the blood and bodies behind. I looked back once, and shuddered at the contrast between the beauty of the forest, and what now lay upon its floor.

*

***

*

“The question of whether beasts have souls or not has more complexity than it may seem like upon the surface. Most beasts do not possess souls, as we know them. However, there are a few which do indeed possess souls. It seems to be a question of power: There are a few singular examples called Elders. Elders are the beast equivalent of an Apex and they do indeed possess souls, as well as the ability to alter their forms.”

My stomach was threatening rebellion by the time my dark mentor finished speaking, despite the fact that I had not actually eaten any animals since leaving the city.

“... Please tell me that becoming an Elder is rare, and that I haven’t been eating potential sentient beings.”

Walker chuckled, a rare wide smile on his usually stoic face.

“They are exceedingly rare. I had the same reaction as a child, when I was told some beats walked, thought and loved as we do. If it is any consolation, they do not seem to care overmuch for any un-souled beast not of their line.”

“Well, at least it’s not just me. You and Ro mentioned that using a phoenix egg could cause trouble with an Elder, right?”

“That is right. A phoenix is immortal – they cannot be permanently killed. They normally do not produce young for this reason – they simply have no need. Only a phoenix Elder is capable of producing an egg.”

“... So the egg I have in my ring... is the child of something about equal to an Apex?”

“That is correct.”

I thought back to my latest task – in my head, I had automatically placed all the emphasis on curing the plague... but what if the main task was returning it? Having an angry Apex-level parent rampaging across the world did not seem like it would be a good time, given Walker’s recent revelations... And as my mentor had said, phoenixes were immortal. Suddenly, the bit about not causing a cataclysm seemed much harder than I had hoped...

“Let’s pick up the pace guys. Lives are at stake and all that!” I lengthened my stride, knowing I was by far the slowest person in the party. The others easily kept pace.

We had been walking for while in companionable silence – if at a quicker than normal pace – when Walker spoke up again, his tone reluctant.

“Hunter, I did have another question – I had hoped you would bring it up, however you seem reluctant to go into specific details regarding your trip to the other world.”

“Honestly, unless you want me to describe being eaten, I’m an open book, Walker.”

“...You were... eaten? Never mind, if you do not wish to speak of it, I will not push you to. You mentioned that the door through which you entered that world was different than the one through which I retrieved you. In what way was it different?”

I frowned, as I thought about it – I was sure I had told Walker before, but so much had been going on, maybe I had forgotten.

“Yeah, your door was all bright and spinny, and there was the whole... void... in-between. The door I went though was just... a hole. One side was here, and the other was there. I just stepped – or dove – through.”

I paused for a moment as something else occurred to me.

“Couldn’t you have portal-ed us to the Blacksands? And why didn’t Reff’s brother portal him to Everwood?”

Walker walked in silence for a few moments, his brow tight above his blindfold, clearly thinking about what I had said.

“We may only open passages to other worlds. Why this is the case, we do not know, though it has been speculated that constructing a passage with both end-points upon our world would impinge upon the gods’ Domain. We do not create a hole, as you describe, but rather a tunnel constructed from energy though the void between worlds – it, by its nature must pass through something. That is why I find your description to be strange; to my knowledge, the passage between worlds takes a very specific energy, and must possess a very definite form. Even when such doors are opened between worlds by the gods, it is the same as the one I created, though at a much larger scale. What can you tell me of the being that produced this door?”

“I don’t know that he did create the door, it was already open when I got there – Reff, did the guy I chased – with the shadow face, open it?”

“With definite assurance, it was the person you chased, Hunter. The space the portal had occupied seemed to be eaten away, or eroded in some way.”

“He ate the space? He sucked the Experience and Praxis right out of my centre too. Maybe that’s his thing? Can eating be a Focus?”

“He removed the energy from your centre directly, Hunter? That should be a true impossibility, regardless of the system in which he operates. While most things can serve as a Focus, it is impossible to affect a person’s internal Experience directly, or so I thought. Even a vampire must draw your blood out in order to consume the Experience within it.”

Recalling another detail that Reff had mentioned to me, I spoke up again, “Reff, you said that he pulled green-cat-guy through a second portal, with chains, right?”

“In recollection, that is true, Hunter. Black chains, their links soundless. It was... eerie.”

“This man created a second portal? Another impossibility. It takes time to recover the resources necessary. This is most disturbing news; I will need to discuss this with the others.” Walker’s voice was troubled, which was disturbing to me on a whole other level than I was used to.

Thinking back on the strangely calm yet manic man, I hoped he would stay put in the Black, though it seemed unlikely. But a man can hope. Right?

*

***

*

Just under two weeks after we set out from Everwood City, the four of us finally reached the edge of the forest. It came as something of a surprise to me. I had been expecting a gradual decline in density, maybe smaller trees or shrubs, but instead there was a sharp line where the trees cut off, as if some giant knife hand cut the forest away. In place of the vast forest, there were plains; endless rolling fields and hills stretched out across the landscape and I could see the shadow of distant clouds racing across the green canvas.

“There should be a town over that hill.” Walker gestured to a distant hill, taller than most of the others I could see by a fair margin.

“In confirmation, I believe my guide and I passed through here.”

I slapped Reff’s thigh and smiled up at him, knowing it should now only be a few days before we reached his home.

It took a few hours to reach our destination – the hill had looked larger than the others, but it was in fact both very large and quite distant.

The town itself was huge – not on the same scale at Everwood City, but it was still massive for something being called a town. As we approached, I noticed part of the hill closest to it had been dug away, leaving a gigantic opening rimmed with giant stones which led into a shadowed interior.

“Does this town have a name?”

“It is known as, ‘Forest Border Outpost 18’. Perhaps not the most imaginative name, but the inhabitants of the plains tend to err on the side of utility, rather than the one of creativity.”

The town was ringed by a sixty-foot high wall of gleaming white stone, with towers every ninety feet or so. I could see men and women with huge, thick bows patrolling along the wall’s crenelated top, with a few keeping their eye on our approach.

“I take it there aren’t many towns without walls?”

“Nobody’s that stupid! Who wants to be murdered or eaten in their sleep?” Aella’s sing-song voice was mocking, but I took it in stride. I would rather ask stupid seeming questions than actually be stupid.

As we approached the nearest gate, two men stepped out dressed in leather kilts and complex metal chest armour that looked almost Roman. They each held a shield and a long spear, and looked like they likely knew how to use them. Which, I reflected, should really be expected from guards.

“Hold strangers! What business brings you to Forest Border Outpost Eighteen?”

The guard’s accent was clipped and rigid, which almost the sounded like a formal chant.

“We are seeking to procure transport to the Blacksand Citadel.” I left the explanation to Walker, since he was the only one among us who actually knew where he was going.

“How long will do you intend to stay within the Outpost?”

“Only as long as it takes to locate transport.”

The guard that wasn’t speaking moved his spear to rest against the inside of his shield and he reached his now spare hand out. Four slips of paper appeared there, and he glanced over, confirming something to himself, before gesturing for us to take them.

“These are your entry permits. They are valid until sundown. If for some reason you are required to stay longer, you will need to speak to a member of the guard so that we may assess your requirements and provide new permits, should it be necessary.”

We accepted our passes and thanks the guards, before entering. We passed through the wall, and it was much the same as the ones leading to Everwood had been – multiple portcullis as well as regular murder holes, all made from the same stone as the walls, the interior lit with alchemical bulbs, all shining a stark white.

On the other side of the wall, we were met with rows of uniform buildings constructed from the same materials as the wall, all running in perfectly straight lines, each building exactly the same as the ones to either side of it. Each building was constructed with balconies and overhanging roofs, all held up by smooth white columns.

Following Walker, I saw signs at each intersection, like many of the cities and towns back on Earth. These things had been conspicuously absent in Everwood City, but I had not occurred to me until I saw the familiar sight at the outpost.

We passed several squares, centred around huge fountains, and occupied by diverse groups, many of whom seemed to be wearing togas of varying length. In one square, I saw an old man with muscles like Schwarzenegger in his prime addressing a rapt audience with some sort of story, but I was too far away to hear away details.

The huge entrance to the hill grew steadily larger in my vision as we approached it, and I was almost ready to let my curiosity get the better of me when we turned onto a new lane, and I had the question of what it was answered.

On either side of the wide lane, tall platforms had been built, easily forty feet high, with wide, overhanging platforms at the top. To the side of each platform there was a truly massive animal that looked like a cross between a kangaroo and tiger, crouched on all fours and with a platform attached to their backs with a multitude of straps. Further down the lane, I could see another one of the gargantuan creatures emerging from the entrance to the hill, its gait ungainly, though I imagined it was probably more fluid at speed. I looked at the legs and tried to imagine the motions they would result in, and I imagined long bounds into the air.

Hoping my new body did not get travel sick, I turned to Walker as we made our ways closer, “This... is the transport, isn’t it?”.

“Indeed.”