Emma glanced at me in confusion then walked up to the group of Hunters while I trailed behind her. “Excuse me?” she called out. “Sorry to butt in, but did you say all the monsters are gone?”

The Hunters turned to her.

The man in the front, a D Rank with battered armor, spoke up first. “Gone. They’re all gone,” he lamented. “Everyone that’s gone out has come back empty-handed. And I haven’t gotten my quota for the day.” He moaned and thumped a hand on his helmet.

My eyes widened and Emma gasped. How was that possible? There hadn’t been a single day in the last twenty years when there haven't been monsters in the Gate. Especially since it’s refilled every night. But it was the middle of the day now.

I tapped a finger on my lip. Did this have to do with Kesstel?

Emma thanked the men then turned to me. “Do you want to check it out, still? Just take some time to look around the Gate without having to worry about monsters attacking? It might be a good time to see the stronger regions in Gate Vale. You know, the A Ranked places?”

It was tempting. Very tempting. But I had to sigh and shake my head for one obvious reason. “The only place I have a teleportation token to is the Josu Rainforest. And I’ve been all over that place lately.” Like, literally.

Emma paused as she caught onto the major problem. The farther from the Gate, the stronger the area was. It could take half a day to hoof it to those regions. Since the day was already half over, we’d get there just in time for night to fall.

As someone who had seen nighttime in Gate Vale, I was never ever going to let Emma risk that danger.

“Oh,” she said slowly. Then her eyes lit up. “But what about the area next to it? The something desert wasteland?”

“The Alous Wasteland?” I supplied. I’d been in the Josu Rainforest enough to be very familiar with the surrounding areas too.

“Yes!” She nearly jumped up and down. “We can teleport to the Josu Rainforest then then walk to the Alous Wasteland. It’ll only take like five minutes or less.”

I nodded. “Or less.”

I can’t say that walking around in a hot desert really appealed to me, but if it made her happy, okay. It was a B Ranked area, and I was strong enough that I had some confidence in keeping her safe if it wasn’t as deserted as this group of Hunters claimed. Then again, Emma was only four levels lower than me. If we tag teamed, we could take down stronger monsters.

Emma happily led me to the transportation circle location. There weren’t many people waiting in line for the purple glowing circles, just a handful in each of the ten waitlines. The reason why was obvious when we got closer to the front.

The Associate worker looked at us. A hard life had weathered the woman’s face and left deep lines around her eyes and thin mouth. She glanced at the tokens in our hands. “In case you haven’t heard yet, there are no monsters in Gate Vale right now. The phenomenon is still being investigated. However, the dangers of the regions are still present. Be careful.”

I held the hankie over my round transportation token and slipped it into my hip satchel. “Are the monster plants still there in the Josu Rainforest?”

The older Huntress shook her head. “No. Everything monster related has vanished. For now. We expect them to come back at night.”

I nodded my head. “Thank you.”

Emma thanked the woman and hopped into the transportation circle. As soon as she touched the glow purple light, her body became a blur of movement as it shot up and through the magical arch that connected to the Josu Rainforest in the southern half of Gate Vale.

I glanced at the Huntress manning the transportation circle. “What are some of the theories around the no monster thing?”

She pursed her lips. “Well, when the Gate Surge was announced, an S Hunter was in Gate Vale. They think he was the one that took care of the monsters.”

So it did have to do with Kesstel. Since all the other S Hunters were accounted for in the army of Hunters waiting at the Gate during the alarm, Kesstel was the only S Hunter she could be referring too.

I nodded my thanks and stepped into the transportation circle. Instantly my body became weightless. Then I was hurling through the sky at airplane speeds. The first couple of times I’d traveled this way, the pressure was nauseating and the speed made me dizzy. Now, I was used to it and my body was strong enough that I didn’t feel like I was being squished like a bug.

I flew over Gate Vale and quickly arched down towards the misty, tall green trees of Josu Rainforest. I twisted around until I was feet first as I approached the ground.

Emma was ten feet away from the landing circle, its pale purple glow illuminating her face. Her hands were out stretched and her face was determined. She watched me come down, obviously ready to catch me. Such a silly girl.

I landed on the ground and braced myself as the inertia sent me skidding across the damp ground, in a well-practiced bent pose. I skidded to a stop feet from Emma’s hand and reached out to high five her hand.

She blinked repeatedly, looking from her hand to me then back at her hand. Then she laughed. “I should have known you didn’t need my help.”

“But the sentiment was appreciated.” I smiled and stood up.

Emma glanced around at the rainy forest. Outside of the drip, drip, drip of the water hitting the leaves and pale tree trunks, the dim forest was still and silent. “I’ve never actually walked around the ground of Josu Rainforest. It's just too dangerous, you know? We tried once, because Billy wanted a challenge.” She lifted her hands and bent her fingers in quotation marks. “But we gave up after a little while. With those bird monsters and the tree roots, we all decided it wasn’t worth it.”

I nodded slowly. I totally knew what they meant. “You’re not missing out. Without the challenge, there’s really nothing to see here. It’s not beautiful like the Feng Jungle, and it doesn’t have hidden sights like Glenn Holt. Just the same thing over and over again.” I reached out and watched the drizzle wet my glove. In fact, if it wasn’t for Kesstel, I wouldn’t have spent so much time here. Just waiting for him to return.

I glanced in the direction of where the Portal Burst had been. I frowned as I played over the last moments of him leaving in my mind.

A thought came to me and my eyes popped open wide. I yelled and slapped my hands on the top of my head.

Emma reacted instantly. Her beautiful recurve bow was out and drawn before I could even blink. Her naive eyes narrowed with deadly intensity as she scanned the trees, searching for something to shoot. But there was nothing around except for us. Confused, she lowered her bow and glanced at me. “Are you okay?”

I was too busy agonizing to pay her too much more attention. “That son of a —” Still I couldn’t bring myself to curse at Kesstel’s mother.

What was the last thing he said to me before he disappeared? That he personally made sure that the Warriors of Mist were extinct. Then he left me hanging for two months! No explanation whatsoever!

I’d been so happy that he was back and worried about how he was acting to even think of asking him about the Warrior of Mist subject. Then the Council showed up and …

“Agh!” I covered my face.

“Um, Jyn?” Emma put her bow away with a wave of her hand and reached out to my shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

I sighed and dropped my hands. “I just let myself get distracted, that’s all. I forgot to do something important before we left.” Yes, I let myself get distracted for the moment, but no way in Hell was he going to get away with it much longer. Kesstel was going to explain why he was going to kill me and why he hunted down all the other Warriors of Mist. No loopholes, no vague answers.

I huffed a breath. “Are they sure there aren’t any monsters around?” After all, I originally came here to blow off some steam, but now the tense anger that Emma’s presence had soothed was bubbling in my chest again.

“I don’t feel any around here,” Emma glanced around the rainforest then turned to the region’s barrier. “Should we try over the Alous Wasteland? If any, the new sights might distract you.”

I bobbed my head in agreement and started walking over with Emma.

As we walked out of the rainforest, Emma chattered happily, obviously trying to distract me. She talked about what was going on with her group. How the Mage Kip and the new guy, Russel, were going out and how he was blissfully wrapped around her finger. Nick was the same as ever, a silent mountain and a steady partner to the more subdued Billy. The Healer, Morgan, had bought a puppy that was an angel … as long as Morgan was in the room. Billy had threatened to kill it more than once.

“And what about you and Mason?” I cut in. “How are things progressing?”

Emma’s face turned pink. “Um, we’ve, ah, gone on a couple dates.” They must have been good ones, from the way her eyes were sparkling.

I stopped on the top of a sand dune and looked around. We were only ten feet into the area and I could already feel the hot sun high in the sky pounding down. Even with my enhanced body, sweat was starting to drip down my back. I shifted, trying to distance my back from the sticky leather armor. The heat made the blood hiding on my armor that much more pungent.

The Alous Wasteland spread out ahead of us, a mix of sandstone pillars and plateau between small mountains of sand. There was hardly any vegetation, and what was there was thin, pointy, and about the same salmon color as the sand and stones. Honestly, the whole place consisted of practically two colors. The sand on the ground and the bright blue of the cloudless sky above.

It was cool looking, I guess, but I felt an ever greater sense of unwillingness to walk through it. It just looked hot and hard to travel through. There was nothing pretty to look at, at all. At least there weren’t any Sand Sharks under our feet right now.

Or maybe it would be better if there were, so I’d have something to concentrate on instead of how hot it was.

Emma pointed to the right. “Is that some green? Do you think there’s an oasis over there?”

I focused on where she was pointing. “It’s definitely green. Let’s check it out.” I lifted a foot to start down the sand dune.

A huge System message popped up right in front of my face. [HIDE ME! HURRY! SAVE ME!]

I staggered and lost my footing. The gravity mercilessly grabbed onto me and caused me to slide down the sand dune. Emma yelped and hurried down the dune, kicking sand everywhere as she rushed to me. I landed on the bottom, coughing like crazy, choking on the sand that filled the air.

Where are you? I asked the System in my head.

[Find the Portal with the Red Orcs. Hurry. I don’t have much longer!]

*****