“Welcome to my home, honoured Apex.”

“I am sorry, honoured Paragon, but I do not understand your language. I have Walked the Worlds before, but not this one.”

“He said. ‘Welcome honoured Apex’, Walker. He said he doesn’t understand you, honoured – wait how did you know he’s a Paragon? And how did you know he was an Apex?” I looked back and forth between the two, Walker with his directionless gaze and Lucas looking both relaxed and impatiant, somehow.

“Those of us who have attained our mutual stage are able to feel each other, Hunter. Regardless of System.”

“Those who have advanced to such Heights are able to see each other, even when our peaks are in different Systems.”

They looked at each other as they talked over one another, and I rubbed my temples, hoping the conversation would not go on too long, since I was pretty sure it was giving me a headache switching languages so fast.

“It had not occurred to me previously, but you do speak our tongue with some fluency, though you butcher it more than most. How came you to speak the languages of two worlds, when unable to Walk the Worlds independently?”

“Would you believe it’s just a gift? He asked how I spoke his language, Walker.”

“I will admit, that I had wondered how you picked up so many languages alien to our world.”

“You remember me telling you I was sent to Everwood City? The same... person... stuffed my head full of languages. Apparently.”

I saw Lucas frowning at me and I suddenly had a lot of appreciation for translators.

“I was explaining the language thing to him. Walker, should we be getting back? Aella can’t have much time now, right?”

“Aella has a few days still, though she is in a great deal of pain. However, without the egg, what can be done?”

“Oh, shit. I forgot you didn’t know!” With a flicker of will and Experience, I pulled the phoenix egg from storage and held it up.

“You have the egg? How...? No, it does not matter now. Come.”

I turned to Lucas who was admiring the egg in my hands.

“Lucas, thank you for your... hospitality, but I have to go. There are people dying who need this egg.”

“I still have questions, however, if lives are depending on you, I suppose I should let you go. And rules are rules... here, take this. A... gift.” His tone did not quite seem to mesh with his words, but I did not have time to think too much about it. The blonde teenager pulled an intricately carved blue crystal from thin air and tossed it to me. Slipping the egg back into storage quickly, I caught the flung object and looked down at it, gaping at the minutely detailed lock made from what looked like one huge sapphire.

“Make sure to pull it from storage once you are done with your... task.”

Thinking about how Walker had found me with his dagger, I was conflicted: Not doing it would probably cause me some issues down the line, but doing so sounded like it was going to get me kidnapped...

“Ugh, thank you, honoured Paragon... I’ll... treasure it.” Erring on the side of not going out of my way to piss of one of the most powerful people in existence, I bowed and slipped the lock into a toe-ring and stepped up to Walker, who stood impatiently by the portal.

I hesitated by the spinning vortex of flaring light, looking up at my mentor.

“Is this... safe? It doesn’t look like the portal the other guy made.”

“It does not? More intrigue. You will need to tell me more – once Aella is safe. And worry not – if you are able to exist here, without being destroyed by the Laws, the tunnel is safe.” Walker did not bother waiting for a response or even for me to comply, he simply placed his hand on my back and shoved me into the light, my weight posing no impediment at all before the monstrous strength of the Apex.

I was – literally – flung from my feet and into the vortex face first; beyond the event horizon of coruscating light, there was a light filled void, stretching out into infinity in every direction. At first, I thought I was in space, but the stars shone too brightly, and if any single dot caught my attention, I could sense it was a world – more than a world, an entire universe – and there were so many that I thought a person could be forgiven for thinking the void colourful, with lines of black.

Within the tunnel, I felt a weight lifted from me, like the world had exerted some sort of unknown pressure on me. It was freeing and refreshing, at first, but as I sped along that path between worlds, I could feel my soul – I thought – trying to expand beyond the confined of my body and I had a sense that if I stayed too long in that un-place – if my soul expanded too far – my mortal shell would burst and I would die.

Luckily for me, I did not die. Just as the negative pressure was growing painful, I burst through another vortex, still face first, and slammed into the warm sand of the Steel Splinter arena. Standing and brushing sand off of me – as well as spitting it from my mouth and combing it from my beard with my fingers – I glanced back just as Walker stepped casually through the rotating plane of energy.

“You didn’t have to push me, Walker. I have sand in my mouth, now. Uuugh.” Walker looked faintly amused as I rooted around my mouth with my tongue, trying to get every grain of the coarse, irritating stuff out of my mouth.

“We were in a rush, Hunter.” My mentor turned away and began to walk towards Aella’sapartment before I could be sure, but I thought I caught a glimpse of a smile on his usually taciturn face. I shrugged and followed, happy to have relieved some of the stress I knew he must be feeling to have his friend so ill.

We climbed the stairs, and I found Ro still sat by Aella’s bedside – though I assumed he had left at some point. He was once more using his prismatic flame on the black and vivid red flesh of the wound, which now seemed to have expanded to cover most of my teacher’s body.

Turning at our entrance, Ro raised an eyebrow at me before speaking.

“You found the boy, then? I don’t suppose he has the egg? Pah!”

I withdrew the egg once more without speaking and walked over to the bedside, not knowing what to do with it. Aella did not seem to be conscious, and my heart ached to see somebody so strong so helplessly weak. Especially somebody I considered a friend.

“You do have it! Well, let nobody ever say that Ben Won Ro cannot admit when he was wrong! Ha!” I did notice that the old alchemist did not actually say he was wrong, but I decided now probably was not the time to point that out.

“Boy, hold the egg against the wound, here!” Ro snuffed the flame from one hand and pointed at the spot I thought the original wound had been.

Hesitantly, I pressed the flaming egg against the wound – gently - and Aella stirred in her sleep, a small groan of pain escaping her slack lips.

For a long moment, nothing happened – I stood awkwardly holding the egg I had been through so much to obtain, a fear that it would not work worming its way through me. But then, all at once there was a whoosh as the rolling flames grew in size and intensity, flaring up and licking out along the blacked flesh, growing stronger with every inch of skin covered. In moments, every part of my teacher infected with the Phoenix Plague was engulfed in roaring golden flame.

Ro stubbled away from the blaze, not knowing that it did not burn and I felt a little bad for not warning him, though I had not had a lot of opportunity, eager as I was to help.

For a full minute the golden inferno raged unchecked, and astonishingly, it did not seem to only be taking back its own power from the infection, but it also seemed to be reversing the damage. As we watched, the black and red of burned flesh retreated, dragged back by the hungry flames and more and more of Aella was revealed. Ro stepped forward and pulled a sheet over the rapidly restoring flesh, protecting er modesty. With a final surge, Teacher’s skin now pale and perfect, the flamed returned to the egg, and while it may have just been my imagination, I thought I could sense... satisfaction coming from it.

I slipped the egg back into a ring, and looked back at Walker, a grin on my face. He stood much closer than I had expected and I found myself nearly nose-to-robe with him. I jerked back slightly, and arched my neck back to look up at him. His gaze was intense – from what I could tell, given the blindfold - and I turned back to the bed, unwilling to bug him just to share my success.

The three of us, Ro, Walker and I. stood in silence around one side of the bed for what felt like a long time, but was more likely to be a few minutes before the prone figure of Aella stirred. The movement was slight at first, but then, with a gasp she sat up, throwing off the sheet Ro had placed over her.

With a great effort of will, I looked away from her, and from the corner of my eye I could see the old alchemist in white doing the same.

“Deepest Void! Walker! What happened? The last thing I remember this idiot vanished from a basement.”

Aella, apparently not caring overmuch for her own nudity nevertheless hopped off the bed and began to rummage around in various drawers while Ro and I continued to avert our gazes. I will admit however to peeking once or twice - I may not have been human any longer, but what I was only had so much discipline.

“It has been a few days since then, Aella. It would seem that Hunter somehow made his way to another world. The how is still a question.”

“Really? Another world? And he lived? Maybe you’re not as deficient as we all thought, Hunter. I’m joking! You’re still an idiot though.” Now dressed in her usual outfit – this time in lime green, for some reason – Aella turned back to face us, hands on hips.

“Sorry, Teacher, but I wouldn’t have been able to get the egg if I hadn’t gone. On the bright side though, I did get the egg, and I learned to mostly control my Focus.”

“Well, thank you for the egg, I suppose. And congratulation on controlling your Focus. You’re what, only seven years behind the curve now?” I could not help grinning stupidly at my acerbic teacher, I knew she did not really mean it, it was just how she showed affection. I hoped.

“And now he’s grinning like a fool. Walker! Take me out, I need a drink.”

“I would be happy to, provided the Honoured Master Alchemist thinks it safe?”

“Safe? Ha! I think it safer than telling her no, even for an Apex! But it would still better if I could make an examination.”

“Fine! Make it quick, I’ve been in bed too long, I need to work the kinks out.” Sitting down, Aella gestured impatiently for Ro to start. The examination took only a couple of minutes, the old man running his Spiritual Flame over the parts of the body the infection had been only a short while before.

“You’re fine. Amazing! If I did not worry about bringing an Elder Phoenix down on us, I might try a few things... Bah! Never mind! I’m going home.” Throwing his hands up dramatically the alchemist picked up his things and stormed off down the stairs mumbling about youngsters, profits and wonders.

“Well, if you two’re going out, I’m going to go tell Reff I have the egg.”

“I’m sure he will be happy to take it back to his people. You have done a fine thing, in retrieving it, Hunter.”

“Yeah, about that. I’m going to need to go with him. The person who sent me here originally has given me another task...”

“While in another world? I have a lot of question, Hunter.”

“You’re going to head off to the Blacksands? I’ll come with you. You need the training and I always wanted to see the Blacksand Citadel.”

I turned to Aella, eyebrows raised.

“Really? What about the Steel Splinter?”

“Eh, it will be here when I come back. It’s been too long since I had an adventure. You need to Experience the world to improve, after all.”

“Fair enough. I’d be honoured, Teacher.” I bowed deeply, touched that she wanted to come with me.

“Walker will come as well, of course. I’ll need somebody to talk to that isn’t an idiot.” Okay, so maybe I was a little less touched after that.

“I will come. As I said, I have questions.”

“It’s decided then! Not now though. Now we drink!” With a wide grin, Aella leapt across the room, narrowly missing me, and locked her arms around Walker’s neck.

I walked out then. down stairs to wait for them, allowing them to greet each other properly, in private. As I reached the bottom of the stairs, the familiar grey tablet popped in to sight on its own once more:

Congratulations! The upgrade from Danger Sense to Instinctive Precognition has completed!

Instinctive Precognition

React appropriately ahead of events, knowing the general source of the danger and how best to counter it – where possible. Provides a warning when the user is about to do something dangerous, provided they do not know it is dangerous already. This ability can be improved, increasing effective distance in both time and space.

.

The upgrade was way more than I had been hoping for – a little extra warning, hopefully allowing me to dodge otherwise impossible blows, but what I had received was so much more. It also told me that upgrading a Red ability would provide with the Green version of the ability, which even on its own was very useful knowledge.

Clearing the message, I grinned as my quests appeared:

Assignment Received... Difficulty F+ (Revised)... Time Limit: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes.

Return to the world I put on you, idiot.

Bonus Reward: Do Not Die or keep making me apologise to the local gods. (Revised.)

Status: Complete! Bonus Reward Gained!

Please chose:

1) Purchase new Red Ability.

2) Upgrade Red Ability.

3) Defer Reward.

Assignment Received... Difficulty F… Time Limit: 89 days, 18 hours, 01 minutes.

Cure the Phoenix Plague and return the Phoenix Egg to its parent.

Bonus Reward: Do Not cause a Calamity.

I almost select Upgrade there and then – while Danger Sense had saved my bacon more than once, it was certain that Lesser Regeneration had played its own part in my survival. I hesitated, mental finger hovering over the option, but eventually choosing to defer my reward, hoping to purchase a Green ability with my next reward.

I closed the prompt, decision made and waited for my friends to come down. They did – eventually – and the three of us left – Aella being carried as she whispers things into my mentor’s ear – and locked the gates of the Steel Splinter behind us. I went off to find Reff’s inn while the two friends went to drink.

The city no longer felt to strange to me, after my sojourn in the Black, and I walked amongst its crowds with a confidence I had lacked previously. I had upgraded my Danger Sense to Instinctual Precognition, which I had high hopes for. I had also learned to control my Focus – at least at moderate power - and as strange as it was, I was home.