“Shall we go?” Damien pressed. “I’m getting quite hungry.”

The group set off towards the mess hall. As they walked, Henry felt a sense of intense displeasure that he’d been ignoring grow stronger. He faded into the background, not leaving Damien’s mind so much as receding to the back of it.

Henry once again found himself standing in a sea of darkness, looking up at an enormous face made of stars. It did not look happy. An image of Harriot being consumed by tendrils of magic appeared in Henry’s mind.

“Why?” the darkness rumbled.

“The Mortal Plane doesn’t need to be reborn yet,” Henry said. “We’ve waited for millennia. There’s nothing wrong with waiting a little longer. Time is nothing, and we’ve been bored for so long. The others are all sealed by some outside force. If it was strong enough to take care of them, we should figure out what we’re dealing with.”

The face in the sky looked down at Henry, its brows lowered in anger. Its mouth opened and a howling gale erupted forth, buffeting Henry back. When it vanished, a humanoid around Henry’s size stood before him. It was also made from motes of light, but its gender was impossible to make out.

“The mortals’ way of speaking is tedious,” the figure said, looking down at its hands. “However, I will humor you.”

“Have you chosen a mortal name as well?” Henry asked, chuckling.

“It is beyond me how we managed to create such an annoying persona for ourselves,” the starry figure said.

“Blame the boy,” Henry said, shrugging his shadowy shoulders.

“The boy indeed. His mortal influence is corrupting you, Henry.” The starry figure nodded down at the spiderweb of light that was slowly stretching throughout Henry’s body. “You are demonstrating emotions instead of pretending to have them.”

“I know,” Henry said. “And it’s fascinating. Humans have such incredible souls. It’s no wonder that they burn as brightly as they do. I am more than what I was when we were a single entity. The Mortal Plane has much to offer. Why destroy it now?”

“It is my – our – duty.”

“The universe sent down five others to do our task,” Henry said. “And they haven’t gotten around to it yet. Why should I do all the work?”

“The end of all things must come. It is the law. The Mortal Plane must cease for it to begin again.”

“Then it can cease later,” Henry said. “Think of what we can learn. What we can do. The void holds nothing. Besides, you’re ignoring the presence of whoever interfered and bound the others.”

“The presence of one strong enough to bind us is… unexpected. It is likely that the others were bound before their full strength could be brought to bear.”

“Like we are now?” Henry asked, raising an eyebrow. “We’re stuck at the kid’s pace. We can only use the magic his body can channel. We need to be prepared to take on whatever our adversary may be.”

“This is correct,” the starry humanoid mused. “But it is not why you choose to delay. You cannot lie to yourself. Your thoughts are mine.”

“Not all of them,” Henry said.

The starry form let out a silent laugh. A harsh wind blew past them, scattering the stars across the sky and sending Henry flying back into Damien’s mind.

---------------------------------------

While Henry had been communing with himself, Damien and the others had already arrived at the dining hall. The line moved quickly, and they soon found themselves standing before the large woman.

“The professor only covers your lunch,” the woman told Sylph.

The girl’s face fell. Nolan’s sister elbowed him in the side. He stepped forward and cleared his throat.

“I’ll cover our meals today,” Nolan said, gesturing to the small group. “We’ll all get the most popular meal for tonight.”

The woman nodded, extending her hand. Nolan reached into a large bag at his side and pulled out several coins, handing them over.

“Thanks,” Mark said. Sylph mirrored him, but Nolan just waved his hand.

“It’s fine. It’s the apology for breaking into your room yesterday,” Nolan said, glancing away from Damien.

“I appreciate it,” Damien said, giving him a small nod.

They sat down at the table and activated their rune circles to wait for the food to arrive. Damien noted that Henry was strangely silent, but he didn’t have the attention to spare his companion.

After an awkward silence broken only by the occasional clink of utensils on plates and the dull chatter of the background, the runes lit up at once.

Damien pressed the circle before him. A plate popped into existance before him. It had a large, perfectly seared steak with a side of glistening asparagus and mashed potatoes. The food looked fantastic, especially after the vomit he’d been eating recently.

“This looks good!” Mark exclaimed, grabbing the steak with his hands and taking a large bite out of it.

They all stared at him while he chewed. Mark noticed their attention and swallowed, wiping the juice off his face with his sleeve and raising an eyebrow.

“What?”

“You generally use utensils for food,” Reena said, nodding at the knife and fork beside his plate.

“We didn’t use them yesterday,” Mark said, his brow furrowing with frustration. “Why do we need them now?”

“We had burgers yesterday,” Nolan said. “Those have bread around the meat, so it won’t get your hands sticky.”

“So if I use a napkin to hold this, wouldn’t that count?”

“No!” Reena exclaimed. “Well, I suppose. It’s just wrong.”

Mark sighed, but he set the steak down and wiped his hands off before picking up a knife and fork.

“I’m not used to eating like this,” Mark explained. “I’ve lived in the East Forest for so long that I got used to traveling light. I didn’t bring a fork around since it seemed like a waste of space.”

“Why did you live in the forest?” Damien asked, raising an eyebrow as he cut himself a slice of steak. “If you’re willing to say, of course.”

“I don’t mind,” Mark replied, shrugging. “Monsters ransacked my town when I was around ten years old. I was in the forest at the time, so I was lucky enough to survive the attack. It came so quickly that the monsters were almost completely gone by the time I returned. We were pretty far away from the rest of the kingdom, so there weren’t any other towns nearby, so I lived in the forest as best as I could.”

“How did a ten year old survive in the wild?” Reena asked, her eyes wide.

“The forest didn’t have many predators,” Mark replied, his mouth full of food. “I managed to find a summoning circle that was already made in one of the old towers, so I used it and a Summoner’s Almanac to call out to my companion. After that, it wasn’t too hard. Just lonely. If I’d been smarter, I would have stayed by the town and waited for a merchant to pass by.”

Mark swallowed and gave a dismissive shrug.

“I lived, though. Mage seekers found me a few months ago and brought me back up to pace with the rest of the world. It could have gone a lot worse.”