Before delving into the more packed areas, Mono pocketed the stone. Using it in the middle of a crowd was often more disorientating than helpful. Instead, he let his other senses guide him as he slowly navigated through the mass of people to his destination at the other side of the market.

Unlike other stalls, Okina’s needed no demonstrations to find business. The smell of the confections were more than enough to attract a large group of people around the stand. After waiting in line for a minute, Mono bought an apple stuffed hand-pie with a red diem.

“Gratibi,” Mono said when Okina gave him the pie. It was the common word for giving thanks. The baker merely nodded with a smile before turning to address the next customer.

Sometimes, when faced with a hard decision, the best thing to do was take a step back and see the bigger picture. Mono took a bite of the pie, allowing the simple pleasure of tasting its buttery crust and sweet apple filling to forcefully eject his mind from the convolution of his dilemma.

He had been looking at the situation all wrong, Mono realized. While staying would be boring, it guaranteed him safety. That's what really mattered. Mono wasn’t a part of this world. He had no connections, no friends, and no obligations. No matter what he did, he would go back to Earth in a year as long as he didn’t needlessly risk his life. Looking at the bigger picture, everything else was secondary to survival, and staying gave the best chances of survival.

As for the siblings, Adamas and Vivian were good people, but he hadn’t spent enough time with them for him to consider them friends. It was probably good that they were leaving, he reasoned. Developing a friendship with people only to never see them again would be a source of regret, and he already had enough of that to last a lifetime. Mono finished his pie and turned towards the inn. It would be best to rip the bandaid off and tell them as soon as possible about his decision.

Making his way back through the market, Mono occasionally glanced at the stalls he had paid little attention to on his trip to Okina’s while mentally preoccupied. There were plenty of things here to keep him from being bored. Music, food, and diverse people with magic; staying was the correct choice. It didn’t matter that leaving with the siblings would be a missed opportunity to explore and potentially learn about magic. Staying was safer and safety was all that mattered. Plus, he could probably figure stuff out on his own by asking the right questions.

Mono kept repeating the reasons to himself in an attempt to quash the feeling inside that was definitely not-doubt. As he squeezed between a stall and a cart, Mono heard Adamas’ voice through the crowd. Heading to the end of an aisle of stalls where Adamas’ voice had come from, Mono reached into his pocket to grab the stone. Time to rip the bandaid off.

The next few events happened in a blur. As Mono was rounding the end of the aisle, there was a loud explosion and the nearest stall imploded. He had no time to react as someone running full speed crashed into him. With a gasp of surprise from both Mono and the runner, they rebounded off each other and onto the ground.

“It’s you!” The runner accused.

“Me?” Still a bit stunned from the collision, Mono was uncertain if he had heard correctly. He looked at the person he had crashed into.

The runner was male but was not a man. That is, he was old enough to have reached adult height but still looked young. He was probably seventeen at the most and had freckles. With longer black hair, he glared at Mono with hazel-brown eyes squinted in anger.

Mono had never seen him before. “Do I know you?”

“Did you forget the person whose life you ruined a week ago already?” The supposed victim’s voice grew angrier.

Who was this person? Had one of his stories been that bad? Mono took a second to think back. The only people he had met a week ago were Adamas and Vivian. As the runner started standing back up, Mono noticed what his accuser was wearing. It was a cloak mottled green, brown, and gray.

In a panic, Mono tried to stand while attempting to get distance between him and the cloaked thug. As he moved, he slipped and fell backwards instead, hitting his head. This was bad.

“It’s all your fault that I’m stuck here instead of studying at Atlatl. The bounty should have been mine!”

It was an illogical accusation, but the stranger clearly believed his own words.

“Hey,” Mono began with a shaky voice. “Let’s calm down. You know it wasn—”

“I don’t want to hear it. It’s all your fault.” The self-righteous figure reached underneath his cloak to take out a handful of familiar, rounded pieces of wood. He began to pull his hand back to throw them.

The world slowed as Mono’s mind raced to find a way out. He wouldn’t be able to get out of the way in time and the disgruntled teen was clearly not in the right state of mind to be talked down. It was ironic, really; here he was getting attacked by someone in the place he had decided was safe. Having already seen what the balls could do, Mono tried to cover his face with his arms and turned to the right in order to prevent his front from being hit.

As Mono turned, he saw Adamas burst out from underneath the collapsed stall’s tarpaulin cover. Without hesitation, Adamas tackled the thug from the side, tripping one of the standing figure’s legs so that they both fell to the ground. The wooden balls flew in all directions and several of them exploded while others rolled away aimlessly without blowing up. The ones that popped caused some screams and running among some of the people who had stopped to watch the spectacle.

On the ground, Adamas looked to be attempting a choke hold on the delinquent in order to subdue him. He was struggling though, as the cloaked figure flailed his arms and started throwing punches. Exercising restraint, Adamas did not throw any of his own and instead attempted to capture the errant limbs.

Mono looked at the grappling pair. Should he help Adamas? Maybe he would get in the way. Adamas was taking a few punches but seemed to be shrugging them off pretty well. As he contemplated, Mono felt a hand touch his shoulder.

“Are you alright?”

Mono turned to see a member of the crowd looking at him with a concerned face. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

“Good.” The stranger offered a hand and Mono took it, mindful of using the hand that wasn’t holding the stone. “It looks like it’s all under control now.”

Now standing upright, Mono looked back and saw that Adamas had finally managed to get the troublesome teen immobilized. Adamas had given up on the choke hold and was mounted on top of the delinquent. The teen’s arms were pinned to his side, forcefully held there by Adamas’ knees.

Even though he was pinned, the delinquent kept struggling while nonsensically blaming Mono and Adamas for ruining his life. Adamas merely sat and waited for the teen to run out of energy, which seemed like it would take a while.

“When I get free,” the teen threatened, “I swear that I’m going to —”

“Abel?” A voice from the crowd called out.

At the sound of the name, the teen stopped struggling. His face, which had been red from anger and exertion, quickly paled.

A side of the crowd parted to allow an older man through. With greyed hair and an iconic wooden staff, Mono recognized him as one of Emre’s friends who was able to sculpt the wood of trees like clay. While the man’s face had wrinkle lines from the smile he usually wore, he was not smiling now.

“It’s not what it looks like, uncle,” the teen who was apparently named Abel began.

“Really? Because it looks like you were causing trouble again.” The man turned to look at Adamas. “Could you let him go, Adamas?”

Adamas looked between Abel and the man. After a moment, he quickly stood up and moved away. As Mono, Adamas, and the rest of the crowd watched, Abel was roughly pulled up by his uncle.

“What is your excuse this time, Abel?” The elderly man asked.

“Those two stole a tavryr from me.” Abel pointed at Mono and Adamas.

“Tavryr? Why would you care about that? You’ve always considered trapping beneath you.”

Abel gave no response, but the man seemed to immediately understand.

“Was it for the bounty? I thought I told you Abel, you are not supposed to do these kinds of things for the money to go to Atlatl.”

“I wouldn’t have to if you had let me go when they offered me the scholarship!” Abel said vehemently. “It’s all your fault. I was talented enough that they invited me, why didn’t you let me go?” As Abel tried to shift the blame onto his uncle, Mono heard something new in his voice: insecurity.

The man gave a sigh. “The issue was never about whether you were talented enough.” Taking a few steps to the side, he bent down to pick up one of the wooden balls that had not exploded. Standing back up, he held the ball in front of him for Abel to see. “This is why.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Abel argued. “I’m the only who can make th—”

“Exactly,” Abel’s uncle interrupted. “You’re the only one talented enough to do something like this. But rather than using your talent thoughtfully, you make weapons out of the very things that we use to help others to selfishly boost your ego. The reason we didn’t let you leave wasn’t because you weren’t good enough, it was because we thought you weren’t mature enough.”

“I’m old enough.”

“Really? Take a look at the mess you made. Does an adult place blame at the feet of others while causing more problems?” The man made a sweeping gesture at the area around him.

Abel looked around at the people watching him, the stall he had collapsed on Adamas, and the other stalls in disarray after the initial panic from the crowd. For the first time, he seemed to see beyond himself, and there was a look of shame on his face as he stared at what he had done.

“I’m sorry for the trouble my nephew has caused,” the man said to the crowd. “If you could overlook this, I will make sure to handle the consequences of his actions.”

Most of the people had already dispersed before Abel’s uncle had finished his lecture. The ones that remained, primarily the nearby stall owners, nodded and began to leave to fix their stands.

After a few quiet words with the uncle, Adamas gave a nod before walking towards Mono. “How was the show?”

Mono looked at Abel and his uncle. They were currently helping the owner of the collapsed stall put his stand back together. There was a hole where Adamas had torn through the stall’s cover. “Wild. Was the group from before really just a bunch of teens looking to make some quick money?”

“Yes, after you had fallen unconscious on the road, I learned that myself when I had them take their cloaks off. It was a bit of a shock to learn that they were just delinquents led by someone who was desperate to get enough money to go to Atlatl.”

“What’s so special about Atlatl anyways?”

“Right?” Adamas began to laugh. He stopped when he realized that Mono hadn’t been joking. “Oh, you were being serious. I’m sorry for assuming. Atlatl is a place where all kids in this country dream they could be. It’s where people go to improve their talents and meet other talented people from across the country.”

From what Mono understood, talent was their word for the magical things people could do. “Seems awesome, did you ever want to go?”

“When I was younger, before I learned that I didn’t have the aptitude for Weaving.” Adamas shrugged. “After discovering that, I decided to focus on developing the talents I did have. Unfortunately, they weren’t ones that Atlatl had an interest in.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be, I’ve learned to use what I have to do something that I enjoy for a living.”

The reply was very vague to Mono. “What exactly do you do?”

Adamas hesitated for a second before replying. “I compete in martial arts tournaments.”

While unexpected, the answer was not a complete shock to Mono. After seeing Adamas fight, it made a lot of sense. “You never mentioned this before.”

“It isn’t something that a person should brag about. It’s better when people underestimate you in a real fight.”

“I see.” Mono took a moment to digest the new information. When he had met the siblings, Adamas had mentioned that Vivian studied at Atlatl. Did that mean she knew enough about magic to explain it in a way Mono would understand? He would ask her tonight and, hopefully, be able to figure out how magic worked in a couple of days with her help.

Except, she wouldn’t be able to help. The siblings were leaving tomorrow morning, Mono reminded himself, and he had decided to stay instead of go with them. The feeling of not-doubt returned.

Staying was the better choice, but was that really the case? Less than an hour after the decision to stay was made, he had been attacked. Thinking about all the things he was risking by leaving or staying, everything he had to gain in both choices, Mono made his decision.

“Adamas?”

“Yes?”

“Is the offer to go with you guys still open?”