“This…is…so…weird…” Wu glanced back and forth between Lera and the woman who unwound her legs and floated just over the ground, “What was the thing you said about other species again…?”

“That I didn’t think they existed anymore…” Lera rubbed her eyes as the woman with golden hair tilted her head as the strands lightly covered her pointy ears. Her skin tone reminded Wu of Fatera’s, and she carried a similar presence and strength with her ethereal movements.

“Who are you?” The woman asked, a strange exotic accent accompanying her voice. It felt as if she was whispering directly from beside Wu’s ear, and a shiver was sent through his entire body.

“Sorry...but you have an awesome voice.” Wu said, suddenly snapping out from it before he looked at Lera, who seemed to be as dazed as he was.

“Yeah…” She mouthed as her grey eyes became unfocused.

“Oh~ thanks.” The woman smiled before stopping just shy of a handful of meters away from the two. She watched Wu with interest, as Lera quietly probed the extent of her strength, “The storm was rather harsh, I am surprised that anyone would journey the mountains during this time.”

“Yeah…” Wu said, “We planned to go back, but the wind swept us up right away to the point that all we can do is to move forward, and…inward. This is the eye of the storm, isn’t it? The very center of it all.”

“Thus explained the calmness.” The woman nodded, “I am Isabella Avery. I am a…fellow traveler too.”

“Though you seemed to have been here for quite a bit longer than either of us.” Wu glanced towards the clean organized clothing all over Isabella’s body, “Your clothes are quite a lot neater than whatever we got here.”

“Ah yes. I do like to be tidy at all times.” Isabella said, waving her hand and creating a glowing mat over the ground. Then, she sat down, “Come, let’s wait out the storm. Plus, you haven’t told me your names yet.”

“I am Wu.”

“Lera.”

“Nice to meet you two.” Isabella nodded blankly, “It seemed like neither of us wanted to share why we are here, so why don’t we play a little game?”

“What…do you stand to gain from it?” Wu asked.

“Me? It helps distract me from…some things. And for you, I am extremely familiar with the local geography, and wherever you are heading towards, I may offer you a helping hand.”

Wu looked towards Lera, and she shrugged, sensing not a hint of malice coming from Isabella’s Wave.

“What’s the game?” Lera asked, and Isabella tilted her head slightly towards the storm all around them as her pointy ears poked from her hair again.

“Withstanding the storm.” Isabella smiled, “Whoever that was moved by the storm first loses. We start close, then move outward together one step at a time.”

Wu was about to agree to it before he caught himself. If he was being honest, he would do literally anything if it was asked by Isabella, and somehow, she sounded like his caring mother back before she learned what Oxford was. He wanted to listen to her voice when he goes to bed, and when he wakes up.

She had a radio voice. For the handful of people that still listened to Radio.

“A funny game considering we were just taken out by the storm but...why not..I guess...” Lera said, catching Wu slightly off guard with her response. She nodded slowly towards Wu before Isabella smiled with excitement and stood up. Then, she swirled her arms, asking Wu to follow her before she walked towards the storm first.

“What did you realize?” Wu asked, and Lera gestured to the environment around them.

“All of this…it’s a lot like a Cast.” She murmured back, showing a condensed projection of a Cast array she had already laid out around them, “If it’s a Cast…then it’s something we could manipulate…”

“Why would there be a Cast in the middle of nowhere?”

“Through happenstance, certain natural phenomenons have similar structures to Casts…” Lera said, as Isabella turned back to look at them. Wu waved his hand before moving forward as Lera tracked their positions in the wind and followed.

So on this world, crazy storms may also be an emergent property of the interaction between natural elements and the Wave. Similar to the prevailing theory of how and why life exists in his universe, for any system with enough complexity and underlying laws, these ‘emergent properties’ manifest from the most surprising of places.

“She isn’t evil…right?” Wu asked.

“I don’t sense any malice from her…and it’s not just because she is pretty…” Lera squeezed Wu in the butt, “So pretty to even make you distracted.”

“I wasn’t distracted!” Wu protested when Lera gave him a cold ah-huh before walking by.

“When you are at the higher altitudes of the Titan’s spine, you need to read both the local geography and the local Wave fields,” Isabella explained, taking half a step into the storm as the still air became a gentle breeze.

“Right…” Wu nodded as Lera held his head and stepped forward, “Do the two interact in strange ways?”

“To some extent, it all interacts like this…” Isabella gestured around as glowing white Wave lines surrounded her hands, “Like layers of water mixing in with the soil, like ingredients mixing in a hot soup, like sands in the dune…They push on each other, pull on each other, as one pools and accumulates, it eventually had enough of an effect on the local environment, which then in turn affect the movement of the Wave itself.”

Wu and Lera simply listened on, and with every sentence, Isabella took one step further into the storm. Soon, the breeze soon turn into persistent gusts, and Wu heard the scratching sounds of the stones rushing against his light armor. Lera wanted to create a shield around them, but Wu put his hands up as Isabella smiled lightly.

“No shields.” She said, catching a tiny piece of rubble with her fingers before tossing it to the ground, “To truly move forward, you have to confront the dangers and the fears head-on...You have to keep moving forward…”

“And what are you confronting?” Wu asked, hurrying besides her as he put on his helmet, his voices slightly muffled by the layers.

“Is there anyone who isn’t confronting their pasts on this world?” Isabella asked, looking down at a series of bruises over her forearm.

“Only if you are stuck in it, that you need to confront it.” Wu said, “If you are able to look forward, beyond your past, you are no longer shackled by it.”

“How could you say it with confidence?”

“Because that’s the only way you can move forward. When you realize there isn't much of a choice, that knowledge is in itself rather liberating, isn't it?” Wu said, walking past Isabella as he leaned his body forward, resisting against the winds with his bodyweight as Isabella looked at him with her beautiful blue eyes as clear and pure as what the sky should look like usually, just not in this storm though.

"And what were you trying to move past?"

"Everything."

Isabella lowered her head as the winds around them suddenly started to become stronger and stronger, and soon, Wu was picked up off the ground almost immediately. However, before he was swept away, Isabella reached her hands grabbed onto Wu’s hands, planting herself like a tree and pulling him towards her. Then, she embraced him as the winds around them suddenly started to die down.

“I knew it.” Lera’s voice pierced through the ever-decreasing sounds of the winds as her outlines shined through the obscurity, “You were stirring up the storm, as much as the natural formations.”

“And how did you figure that out?” Isabella seemed surprised when she drew her eyes towards a thin black rod held between Lera’s fingers like a pen.

“I hacked it, and that’s just what I saw.” Lera winked back as she stood up, the lines of Wave between Isabella and the eye of the storm now severed cleanly.

“Neat trick.” Isabella smiled, “though we both moved at the end, so let’s consider this a draw.”

“Hey! I won because I figured this out!” Lera threw her hands in the air.

“And he won with his words…” Isabella lowered Wu down before waving her hands. The air around them immediately started to back away in all directions, revealing the barren landscape filled with rocks. Far out above them, the snow-covered apex of the Titan’s spine towered with all of its glory.

“Tell me…what could you do if your pasts are filled with nothing but regrets…?” Isabella asked, her mind filled with the thoughts of the white-haired man that barged into her life, the daughter that they birthed, and all that transpired since then…

“Make sure that you will never feel the same way again.” Wu smirked, “I have felt despair, disappointment, weakness countless times before, and I work every day to ensure I don’t fail the same way twice. I will keep failing, oh yeah, that’s for sure. But what makes us humans…is the ability to adapt and get better. Don't fail the same way...if you can.”

Isabella listened intently. From Wu's expressions, she could tell he's speaking his true feelings.

“By the way…I have to ask…are you an elf? Is that still a thing here?”

“Oh…” Isabella seemed slightly taken aback before she fixed her hair behind her ear, “Yes…I do possess elven blood.”

“COOL!” Lera rushed forward.

“Now…as promised, where would you like to go?” Isabella asked.

“Talonia.” Wu said, “A…friend is in need of our help.”

“Yes…after the recent…situations.” Isabella said, pointing to the North, “as the apex of the Titan’s Spine is actually in the way, going North is not only easier but also safer, as the snowy plains taper out. And to traverse through the plains, I would recommend this specific chariot Cast with certain modifications.”

Her fingers moved, and she created a strange-looking chariot that seemed more like a crawler with insectoid legs.

“Thank you!” Wu and Lera nodded as Isabella smiled back.

“I hope you work through whatever you are facing right now!” Wu added, and Isabella nodded before looking far out in the distance with a sigh.

“I hope so…I hope so too… Now go, I do not wish to suppress the storm for much longer.”

With that, Wu and Lera hopped back onto their chariot Cast and took advantage of the time Isabella bought for them. Then, when they cruised down the mountains, Wu turned to see the storm quickly returning, covering up the higher altitudes as Isabella’s figure vanished from their sights.

For now, that’s the extent of their interactions. But in time, Isabella will return.