It was a bizarre sensation.

Everything about his physical perception sharpened, and he could sense his surroundings with perfect clarity. It did not matter that this was a different world with different rules. It did not matter that his sight and other senses failed him.

Lukas was everywhere.

And he could feel everything.

There was the oddity standing beside him, blue burning bright on its edges. There was a pulsing orb of furious white, angry and malevolent but also curious and uncertain, and a curtain of grey that tossed and twirled around her like a protective cocoon. The earthwalker was there too, covered in an overcoat of rich brown, the feeling of metal and grime and moist earth too distinct to be anything else. He could feel the creatures hiding in the mists, aware of where they were and what they were doing through sheer instinct.

The dense fog was gone, and in its place was a collection of colorful mana concentrations forming shapes that somehow made sense to him. He was certain that if he looked closer, he could see exactly who was there, but something told him that he didn’t want to know.

“Yes,” he murmured. His voice felt alien. He knew his words should have come across as a screech, but instead, words came out. “I can sense mana. You, the earthwalker, all this.” He spread his arms. “I can sense everything.”

“They were right,” the Collector muttered, attracting his attention. “You are no Asukan. Your colors are so much more vibrant now, whereas a moment ago, they were a dull blue.”

He felt the creature’s curiosity peak.

“What are you?”

“I am… a stranger, from a faraway land,” Lukas said. “One who wants to find his way back.”

“It is strange. I sense no falsehood coming from you, yet you do not speak the complete truth. It is comforting to know that we were right, however. We presumed you were not from here.”

“Why?” he asked.

The svartalfar looked pleased by the question. “We may not care much for Asukans, but we svartalfars do observe. You snatched control of the very terrain while fighting someone of Roffulfet’s skill. And, unless we were mistaken, you also stole the Natural Energy flowing through the ground like a sponge, like how you drained the thirteenth wardstone dry. Our kinsmen state that you proclaimed to be a fire-shaper, yet I can see Roffulfet’s ax has chosen a new wielder.”

The ax’s weight on his shoulder suddenly felt more conspicuous.

“And now, your form appears to be a very dominant Other. The shifts are too different, too quick, too versatile to be Asukan.”

Lukas felt an urge to grab his ax and hack the female creature into pieces as she peered at him. It was only her utter lack of hostility that kept him from acting on his emotions. He wondered if Zuken and the rest had made the connection. The last thing he needed was to be chained to a table and be experimented on for the rest of his natural life.

“He’s an outlier,” Tanya replied in an almost uncaring tone. “Like me.”

Lukas felt her colors intensify in his direction. It was strange. The shades were telling him so much more than ordinary sight ever could. “And he’s not from the Empire either.”

He froze.

With everything happening, he’d nearly overlooked Tanya’s peculiar behavior. She was utterly nonchalant about using her yokai powers. She had no qualms over using the Mists for travel, and if this svartalfar could see his colors, clearly she could see Tanya’s as well. Which meant—

“They know who you are.”

Tanya didn’t so much as flinch. “I told you, I’ve worked with the svartalfar community before, and they want nothing to do with the Asukans.”

“But what if—”

“What if… what? They blow my cover? Asukan nobles might be enchanted by svartalf armor and weapons, but there is little trust between the two. I have worked for the Zwaray Keep several times in the past. I couldn’t hide my nature from them even if I tried.”

“I see,” Lukas murmured, wondering just how many twists and turns this evening would take. Suddenly, the entire trip with Tanya, him ending up in a svartalf colony, picking a fight with Roffulfet— it all felt like one giant setup. But why? Why would the svartalfars allow an outsider to kill one of their own?

“Listen Lukas,” Tanya said, “svartalfars are direct. They will never lie to your face. And before you insinuate it, they are not my friends. But they are my allies.”

“Allies in what?”

“Survival,” she replied simply. “The Asukan Empire provides shelter to various non-bremetan races. Some like the ljósálfar, or changelings like Elena, have chosen to become a part of the system. Others like the yokai are hunted and executed. The svartalfars are treated with scorn and suspicion. In that sense, they are my allies.”

Allies. Tanya had been the one that had taken him to the Keep. She had been the one present while he’d fought and bled to defeat the svartalfar. The same svartalfars who had a suspicion about his origins. Considering the Collector’s active curiosity and Tanya’s nonchalant attitude about the mists…

It clicked, in the form of something Banski had casually mentioned…

“The svartalfars do not deal with Asukans.”

Lukas stared at her.

And kept on staring.

Tanya knows my secrets…

Tanya brought me here…

The svartalfars are curious about my origins…

The svartalfars don’t lie…

Like a kaleidoscope that was suddenly coming into focus, it all hit him.

“This isn’t a safeguarding mission,” he slowly said, his eyes narrowing. “You're not here to search for metal deposits. You’re here to acquire more information about me.”

The svartalfar’s colors glittered. Lukas sensed amusement in them. “You underestimate us, strange one,” she said. “The job is very much real. But why make it merely a reconnaissance mission when you can multitask?”

As it turned out, he didn’t really need to find a way through the Mists. The Collector, who went by the name Mori, was perfectly capable of sensing the general direction. Lukas watched with surreal fascination as she effortlessly manipulated the mists into opening a pathway, similar to how Tanya had brought them into this… place.

Whatever it was called.

And now, they were back in the real world— or at least something that looked like the real world. There were groves of trees that looked somewhat like eucalyptus if the leaves were thinner and furious outgrowths of plants that reminded him of cedar. The ground was covered with thick blades of yellow grass that felt wet beneath his feet, while an intense tinge of sourness— metal, he realized —permeated the air. Whatever this place was, it was very different from the Haviskali he’d come to know during his stay so far.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Tanya replied. “Don’t worry. We are still in Ikai.”

“But it looks like the—”

“Empire?”

“Yeah.”

Tanya shot him a calculative glance. “You really can’t tell, can you?”

“Can’t what?”

“Sense the mana in the air.”

“Of course I—” Lukas paused. “Technically, I never actively sensed mana back in Haviskali. Can’t compare without a baseline.”

And there it was again, that feeling of being X-rayed. He hoped she didn’t realize it was the very first time he was sensing mana. The implications of such a thing were unfavorable for him. Looking away, he closed his eyes. And there it was.

Mana.

The entire place was saturated with it, so dense that he was certain he’d suffocate if he didn’t control himself. The urge to take it all, to condense it and churn it around him was almost irrepressible.

“Remind me to take you out more. There is so much you still need to see.”

He mentally snorted. Here he was still trying to digest a single trip, and she was already suggesting the next one. Life, and Tanya it seemed, just loved throwing curve-balls at him whenever he wasn’t looking, and sometimes even when he was.

“The realm of Ikai is fragmented,” Tanya explained. “It crisscrosses with the subastra at various points. These are the places that become a mix of the Real and the Ethereal.”

“Borderlands,” Lukas said.

“Borderlands,” Tanya agreed. “The mists are but one way to find the path to one. If you know how to navigate the mists, you can sense your way into the borderland you want.”

Lukas frowned. “That’s it?”

“You think it’s so simple? Every borderland is filled with its own inhabitants. Once Mori starts digging around, things will inevitably go sideways.”

He looked at the area around him, confused. “I don’t see anything. There are just trees here.”

“Just trees,” she said flatly. “They are inhabited by the kami of the forest, wood-shapers and earth-shapers. Neither are known to be the friendly sort. See those clouds?” Lukas looked up, seeing the slight shifting of cirrus into the darker cumulonimbus ones. “Water. Lightning. Sound. And that’s if the Eyes of the Kotoamatsukami don’t fall upon us.”

“The what?”

“The Three Great Kamis, the most powerful entities in all of Ikai. Ezzeron himself is a child compared to the Holy Trinity.”

Lukas reflected on what he knew of Ezzeron. How Tanya had brought in the power of the Wind when she had faced Inanna.

“If Kami are so powerful, how come Asukans can wield them?”

“They entrap them. No Asukan would ever step into this realm when it's safer to lure the average kami out of their domains and into places where the Eternal Light shines bright. Then they trap it using the Shikigami ritual, making them slaves to their will.” The ends of her lips twisted. “But in here? Kami are free to act as they like.”

A nervous bead of sweat made its way down his temple. “Is that so?”

Tanya grinned. “This will be a good opportunity for you to see a kami’s wrath for yourself. After all, our job is to protect our employer from harm. Who knows? Maybe you will be able to temper a kami into following you.”

“Right. Why not take part in a multi-monster smackdown while we’re here?” he replied sarcastically.

His blonde companion simply grinned and pointed to the sky. The clouds rumbled.

“Here they come.”