With gifts given, their travels began. Steph stretched out a hand, and with an effort of mana and will tore a hole through space which they all quickly walked through. No sooner than the last person stepped across its boundary was it closed and another opened, followed by another, and another. It was like she was making miniature versions of the gates that constantly ran to allow travel between countries, and Ben couldn’t help but marvel at her magic as she went.

To completely erase the distance between two places was something he would never achieve through his own power like that. Sure, he might be able to create a tool with similar properties if he worked hard enough and could get access to the magic, but it would never truly be his, something he could work on and grow through his own efforts.

When that train of thought came to him he did his best to abandon it. There was nothing he could do about his incompatibility with magic, no use being jealous of the people he cared about, so instead he tried to turn his attention to the scenery as they passed it. The very first gate brought them out of town, and with each one that followed they got deeper and deeper into the woods, though at the tenth Steph had to stop.

“That was incredible!” He could help but tell her. “How have you gotten so cool since I last saw you?”

“Thanks, but it’s not that good.”

“It’s really not,” Her teacher agreed, sounding disappointed. “The range you sense ahead is still far too weak. Each jump brought us what, a few hundred meters?”

“I’m sorry Wedrow,” she said, giving her teacher a bow. “If you take over I’ll start practicing my spacial perception more as we go.”

The worm gave her a silent look for a moment before turning away and opening a gate himself, and when stepping through Ben immediately felt a difference. He wasn’t sure how far they’d gone, but the woods felt so much deeper compared to every single jump from Steph that the gap between student and teacher became immediately apparent.

“How much farther did we get with that one?” He couldn’t help asking, curiosity getting the better of him. Luckily for him the worm seemed willing to answer.

“Without being aware of my destination ahead of time I can manage a jump of about ten kilometers. I’ll take us through another twenty gates and from there we'll take a break to rest and regain our mana.”

Over two hundred kilometers of travel in a span of less than an hour. It was shocking to put it mildly, the kind of power those with awakened skills could access, and Ben briefly wondered if any were worshiped as gods for their strength before dismissing the thought.

In a world with real gods, I doubt they’d be too happy about a mortal taking any valuable faith.

They continued on from gate to gate as they were produced, watching as the woods between each grew darker and denser until they finally had to stop for Wedrow to regain his mana. Steph seemed at the end of hers as well, having continued to practice her spacial perception even after exhausting herself while opening the first round of gates, so the moment Wedrow stopped she let herself collapse to the ground with Will quickly running to her side.

“Will, she’ll be fine. Leave her and ensure our immediate area is safe.”

He took a look between Steph and her teacher before doing as he was told and quickly running off to explore the surrounding woods. It was times like these Ben's lack of combat and magic skills actually proved to be an asset. With no expectations of him he went to take a seat beside Steph, and seeing Thera unsure of what to do gestured for her to come down beside him.

“That really was incredible Steph, I can’t believe you’ve gotten so good with your magic in the past year.”

“Not too incredible. Me and Will have spent basically that whole time getting acquainted with how to use all of the abilities that anyone who worked their way to our level would already have mastered. Plus, even if I can use all the spells, I still haven’t mastered them.”

“Ha, practice is something you can’t escape,” He teased. “Speaking of, since we’re having a break, mind if I do a little myself?”

He held out a hand to her and she took it, aware of the skill he’d gained in some of his past letters and more than a little curious about just what it was like. When the connection was made she was immediately aware of two things. How controlled Ben kept his thoughts, at least when he was connected with someone, and how little control she had of her own.

Maybe it was the knowledge that she didn’t want her every little secret to come to mind that made things she’d much rather keep to herself cross her thoughts in rapid succession, and the knowledge that she’d need to suppress them only made it worse.

Ben saw enough that he had a variety of questions he wanted to ask not only her, but Will especially, but decided to respect their privacy until they felt ready to tell him and instead focused on something he could tell she wanted to talk about.

So you’re worried about how Thera feels about what you said yesterday? He thought to her with enough force to strip away her growing panic and making her concentrate on the conversation at hand.

Ah, yes. I just feel really really bad about it. We just came here with all of these worries and said all that right in front of her and now that I know you weren’t forced into it I don’t want to be mean to your fiancée.

Well, I’m flattered that you think I’m such a catch that a princess would resort to charming me to have me, but don’t worry too much. Thera feels awkward, but if you put in some effort I’m sure you could get along. Oh, but don’t mention the princess thing, she doesn’t like that. Or the fiancée thing, she’s pretty uncomfortable with that too.

Can’t you help a bit more than that? She thought at him while staring at him with big embarrassed eyes.

Ben could only sigh and turned to Thera beside him. “Mind helping me with my practice too? I haven’t tried to connect to two people at once yet, it might be a good experience for me.”

She seemed more hesitant than usual before taking his hand, but when she did he immediately tried to use hidden mind to separate them from each other while leaving one of his own minds with each of them. He wanted to use this as a chance to talk to Thera in private first to see where her head was at before he tried smoothing things over, especially when the first things he felt from her were discomfort and jealousy.

Discomfort he understood. She was going to have to interact with people for the next week that she was already sure had a bad impression of her, but the jealousy was a bit harder to pin down. Maybe she was worried about him having other friends around now, but he couldn’t be sure, so instead he went to the direct approach.

Want to talk about it?

…You know, I hate that you can tell my mood so easily when we do this when I can feel less and less from you each time.

Benefits of practicing your mental control. He thought, a smile forming on his face. But I’m fine, it’s you I’m worried about, talk to me.

There's nothing more to say, I already told you I was going to feel awkward with this but I’ll deal with it for the week.

That’s the discomfort, but I’m also picking up hints of jealousy. The moment he expressed the thought her mind turned flush with embarrassment. You don’t have to worry about losing me to them if that's what's it is.

And from embarrassment quickly to exasperation. That’s not it so don’t worry. I will… try to figure out how to get your friends to have a better opinion of me.

I’m glad to hear it. You know, Steph wants the same thing as well, I think the best thing for both of you would be an open and honest exchange of feelings.

As the thought passed through his mind his grip tightened on each girls hand so they couldn’t attempt to escape from his next move, and he immediately changed the way hidden mind was set up, dropping the barrier he’d put up between the two of them and instead separating his own minds from theirs, leaving them alone to interact as he watched over their thoughts.