Somewhere in the in-between, two people drive on a highway between worlds. They had just dropped off three young witches, into a world filled with superheroes. Ge was shocked such a world existed, and why they would need witches. When she had asked, Del had said, “Sometimes, you need a little supernatural, in a world of supers.” It was stupid and made no sense, so she chalked it up to just what they were looking for.

Since leaving the world, Ge had been thinking a lot about what Del had told her about, how sometimes he didn’t have a choice, and others he did. She wanted to know more. “Hey, can I pick the next person?” She thought the best way to learn was to do.

Del, blinked at her request, giving the request some thought, debating the pros and cons of letting her. It might be a good lesson for her. Show her how it really works, though I don’t know how she’ll take it. As the silence dragged on he eventually decided, "Sure, and speak of the devil." A clipboard appeared on the truck’s console, just like it always did when they had an order. He picked it up handing it to her. “Here.”

She grabbed the board, in shock. He had never let her read the order before, always reading it aloud. In fact, every time the order manifested she couldn’t read it, it being in some strange language. Though lately, she had noticed the words were slowly becoming legible the longer she rode with the man. She held the clipboard up, the words legible, it was their contents that confused her.

Between 12 and 16.

Male preferred.

Target hero has a sense of being isolated in his own circles, yet has a strong sense of duty to those around him. Willing to put the needs of the many over himself.

Nationality doesn’t matter.

There is almost nothing here. This could be thousands, if not millions of people. She read over the paperwork, again, and even lifted it up looking for more, finding nothing. Shocked she turned to Del. “Wow, never realized how basic these are. Unless there is more.”

He laughed, “Ha.” He let out a loud laugh, “No. That's all to it. They can't really give specific details, mainly because they don’t understand what a Hero really is. In fact, this is an approximation of what they are looking for, filtered through the Aether, into a legible form.” Shaking his head he added, “ Hell, if they had their way that would be a book, not a clipboard, about what they think a Hero.”

“And you know what a Hero is?”

“Yeah.” He answered confidently.

She raised an eyebrow, “What is it?”

Del rolled his eyes, turning to her, “Come on. I’ve already taught you this.”

What did he mean? She thought when she remembered something he told her a while back, “A Hero is just an ordinary person.” The man gave her a keep-going gesture. “An ordinary person thrust into extraordinary circumstances.”

“Correct!” Del excitedly shouted before adding, “Maybe I forgot to add to it but also rise to the occasion”

“Oh.” Ge nodded then frowned, realizing there were billions of people on Earth. Not to mention other worlds, “Hey, this is probably important how do I pick a Hero?”

“You find someone who fits the request.”

“But how?” Ge looked back over the request, “There are a lot of people, that probably fit the request.”

The man looked blankly at the woman before suddenly realizing he never taught her, I thought she might have remembered. He let out a long sigh, “You've grown so much I guess it's time to teach you.”

“Grown? Teach me what?” She stared at him confused. How had she grown, she had always been like this hadn’t she? Well there was that time I was a little girl, but that was only for a few jobs. Right? And why does he sound so sad about teaching this. The woman looked on trying to make sense of it all. The man has always been teaching me. Shouldn’t I already know whatever this is? Was this something he taught and I wasn’t paying attention? These intrusive thoughts flowed through her as she stared hard at the paperwork not letting him see her anxiety.

“I need to teach you how to feel the strings of fate. It will also guide you to the next person.” Ge answered melancholy.

— —

Somewhere on a pail, blue marble, in the middle of nowhere, where no human has stepped foot in decades, a place where any sign of civilization had long turned to nature, Ge sat cross-legged, and Del walked around her giving instructions to her as she closed her eyes, and concentrated on his words.

“Relax, let yourself drift through,” Del spoke, calmly, in a smooth voice.

Confused Ge opened her eyes to ask, “Shouldn't I focus?” She had read so many novels about doing something similar to this, and so many of them had to focus, not let their mind drift when they were accessing their powers. What he was telling her was the exact opposite of what she had learned.

“No, let it drift.” Del admonished. “And don't interrupt.” His voice was serious, something she rarely heard from the man.

“Fine.” Ge closed her eyes, letting her mind drift, focusing on nothing, letting the calm flow through her.

Seeing her beginning to relax Del started talking again, “Let your mind drift. Let your body's energy flow out of you. Let it flow like a nebulous cloud drifting in the sky, dissipating, and returning to the universe. Let it intermingle with all it touches, finding all the bright connections of the universe.”

She did as he said letting all her power drift off, flowing out. It was strange like she was everywhere at once, drifting everywhere and nowhere at the same time, as she engulfed the world. “This is weird.” She said feeling the need to speak the oddness aloud.

“It feels that way at first.” He paused to ask, “Do you feel anything?”

Other than the overwhelming feeling of being everywhere, she couldn’t feel anything else. There was too much, then she started to feel the people-like static across her skin. Following that she quickly found, what she could only describe as a connection, “I feel, connections?” The more she let herself encompass that feeling the clearer the connections became, the static slowly disappearing to the back of her mind. “Those are people.” There was an overwhelming number of links, on the web all around the world. The task suddenly felt daunting, to the point she almost snapped out of her meditation, but she calmed herself, keeping herself adrift, “There are so many. How could I find anything here?”

Del chuckled, “Good. Now we will filter things out.” his voice grew slightly distant as he spoke next, “Imagine those connections you found as starting points, let the energy flow through, don't try to control let your subconscious guide you through it. Don’t resist, just let it.”

A flash of billions of lives played in a cacophony through her mind, filling her with a white noise of confusion, but the longer she sat, the more she understood, she was seeing their fates. “Wow, I can see what might be, for so many people.” Then she started to notice some of the fates ending abruptly, like a television shut off. “Why do so many just stop?”

“Those are sudden deaths, for one reason or another,” Del answered sadly.

She felt sad for them, so many cut threads, “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Del changed the subject jumping back into the lesson, “Now while drifting, along the lines of fate, let your mind wander over the requirements on the clipboard.”

Doing as he instructed, she thought back to the clipboard, letting each requirement float through her mind. One by one the connections disappeared from billions down to almost a thousand to choose from. She was shocked at how few fit the criteria, but also surprised by the amount left, “They're still so many.”

“Now filter your own criteria, the type of people you wouldn’t want or the type of person you would.”

She thought about who would benefit the most. Who wouldn’t be missed as much as someone who might not leave anyone behind, but was a good person? An orphan would work. A hundred connections disappeared.

Being an orphan doesn’t mean they wouldn’t leave anyone behind, so doesn't have any friends. All but a hundred connections remained.

Reads isekai books, give them a real chance. Ten left.

Someone who would be happy to leave earth. With that, only a single person remained. A fourteen-year-old boy, tired of this world. He was always dreaming of becoming a Hero in a new one. A place where he could start over, and thrive. A new life in a world of magic.

She smiled. He was perfect. “I think I found one.”

“Good. Now follow his fate.” Del commanded.

She followed the connection, watching, learning that if the boy stayed here he would stay in the system never being adopted. In the foster system, he will be physically abused, and no one will ever believe him. Growing greater distrust for the system itself refusing to even bring it up to those who might actually believe him. Now too afraid to speak up. Eventually, the boy gets out when he turns eighteen, beating the odds, staying away from drugs, or going down a bad path. Determined to make something of his life, he eventually finds a good life for himself. Getting married, having kids. He looked happy. She couldn’t follow it anymore suddenly knowing what she was doing stealing this boy away. Ge snapped out of her meditative state, tears in her eye, and angry. “Why did you make me do that?”

“To show you what you're taking away.” Del answered sadly, “Sure his circumstances suck now but later? And the potential in that fate is then used to give them power in the other world”

“That.” She was dumbfounded barely listening to the explanation, “Why do we do this?”

“Close your eyes.” He said calmly.

“Why?” She demanded

In a stern no-nonsense tone, he commanded, “Just do it.” Instinctively she did. “Now find the connections again.”

Reluctantly she did, taking a little longer this time, needing to let her anger cool, “Ok.”

“Now pull out a little, what does it look like.”

The woman did taking in the network of lives, “Like a million little wires. Wait what is that tangled bit?”Among the little wires was what looked to be a giant tangled mess, cutting the flow off of many different fates.

“There that's what I wanted you to see. That is a forced summon.”

“What?”

“See when we take certain people, we untangle the mess of fate, or surgically cut the threads letting the others go. If we don't that giant mess pulls on all the strings until they tare. Causing much more devastation.”

Ge stared down at the tangled mess, and she could feel hundreds of thousands of different lives tangled together. Now that she knew what it was she suddenly felt another mess of connections and another. There were so many, she could hardly believe how many tangles existed just on Earth. How could there be so many? It was when she was examining the web she noticed a thread not the red of fate, but a black thread. It pulled all her attention, forgetting the tangle, as it felt, wrong. “Wait what is this black thread?”

Del stopped his circling, “Black thread?”

“Yeah, it looks like there is only one.” As she mentioned it, the thread disappeared, with no trace of it ever being there, “Wait, it's gone.”

Waving his hand in dismissal, “Don't worry about that for now.”

Her curiosity, wouldn’t let her turn away as she asked, “What is it?”

Del was silent, for a while before letting out a long breath, “Nothing good, a monster.”

“On earth?” She said shocked. How could a monster appear on Earth?

He shook his head, as he explained, “Not anymore it can't survive here.”

“Why?” Then she realized, and answered herself, “No mana.”

“So we have a target.” Del skilfully changed the subject, not wanting to discuss the monsters.

She knew what he was doing, and almost didn’t let it drop. Wanted a distraction from the boy she now knew intimately, and what she was taking him away from. But she couldn’t run from this, “I guess”

Del smiled. It never reached his eyes. He turned away as his gaze turned to the web around the Earth seeing another black thread forming, and slowly fading away just as it appeared. This is too soon.