“I don’t get what personal stuff he could have to talk about with them right now,” Kyle grumbled as they waited around the incline.

Micah didn’t, either.

Ryan had been acting strangely for a while now and he hadn’t been able to figure out why. He knew how much his family meant to him, and he had underestimated just how much he was hurting in their absence. It was such a simple answer, he hadn’t seen it, and now …

Micah barely understood him. He didn’t know what they were talking about—scout camp?—and he didn’t know what to do. No matter what he tried, it seemed to push the other guy away.

So as counterintuitive and painful as it was, he had to give him space until they could visit his family in a few weeks. They had to help.

And he would trust him. Without knowing a thing. Because that was the entire point of trust, wasn’t it?

Still doesn’t make it any easier.

He tried not to fidget but when something echoed in the distance, he bolted up. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Jason asked.

“It sounded like a shout, or a cry, or … Maybe someone should go check on him?”

“No,” Lisa said.

“What if they attack him?”

“He would win.”

“Why would they attack him?” Kyle asked. “I mean, I get that his face screams ‘punch me’—”

Micah whirled on him. “No, it does not.”

“I think you’re projecting there,” Lea said.

“I’m what?”

“Being insecure, jealous.”

“Of Payne?”

“Yeah!”

“Fuck you. He’s the one who goes out of his way to use the stall showers to hide his ‘insecurities’.”

“Dude,” Jason said. “Don’t. You don’t talk about locker room stuff, or even hint. Ever. It’s a shitty thing to do.”

Micah scowled. “Now you’re making it sound like he’s telling the truth. Which he is not.”

“Don’t worry,” Lea said. “If Kyle thinks Ryan has a ‘punch me’ face, I’m not about to buy anything he says about him.”

“Are you calling me a liar?”

“Did you make a statement, or just allude to stuff that could start a rumor like a petty gossip?”

“Like you’re one to talk.”

“Yeah, so what does that make you?”

The bickering went back and forth for a little until Lisa said, “He’s here.”

Micah spun into a crouch to see the base of the incline, and his heavy pack made him teeter on his feet. The air shifted below and heat rose a moment before Ryan showed up.

“Finally!” Kyle said and walked off.

A red lizard hopped onto his shoulder when he walked past it. He looked a little worked up, but that could have been from jogging here.

“Is everything alright?” Micah called down.

He nodded and caught his breath. “Yeah.”

No explanation?

“How did it go?” Lisa asked, and Micah shot her a look. The way she asked, did she know what this was about?

“It went … about as well as could be expected, I guess.” He had a pained expression on his face, but there was also a smile there. It looked relieved.

Following his eyes, he saw Lisa smile back.

That was all he needed to see. Micah pushed himself up, swayed, and twirled on one leg to march after the others, proclaiming, “Onward, then!”

As hard as it was, he didn’t look back. Lisa could look after him, if he didn’t mind her presence at all. That had to be a good thing.

It was still somehow weird that he didn’t mind Lisa touching him, or touching her, but shied away from others. Not that he wouldn’t horse around at all, but not much. Still because of his Skill? Did he think Lisa wouldn’t mind?

Either way, Micah wished he could be that relaxed around girls. Around Anne.

The thought of her made a pretty good day better, and he wondered how her exam was going right now, if she was safe or fighting.

He couldn’t wait to ask her about it.

They stuck closer together on the way out. He was overburdened, Bluth had a guitar case, and they carried two sealed treasure chests with them. None of them could exactly run off.

But the Summoner’s camp had been defeated and they didn’t have to worry about a hail of darts this time, which meant they could keep up a continuous good pace. Which also meant they could tear the rags they’d wrapped around themselves off.

That helped.

The further they went, the more the air seemed to improve. He could physically see it in the essences around them, almost like a faint breeze bringing fresh air in, always a step beyond them.

It had to come from somewhere.

Lisa sensed it, too, because she told Jason and together, the three of them adjusted their course a little further south along that border he could sense in the distance, the river.

From there, remnants led the way:

Wounded monsters clung to walls and barely put up a fight.

Pockets of Kobolds had set up in caverns and jumped when they burst in, distracted by the infighting they’d heard from miles away. The metal and fire Kobolds didn’t seem to get along without a clear hierarchy or goal.

They even encountered single stragglers who hadn’t gotten the memo and shot darts at them through the walls, valiantly clinging to their posts—Micah shot one back with his new blowpipe and far better poison.

But beyond that, they found actual tracks: footprints left by dried mud, scuff marks, dropped crafting supplies, hints of smoke from fallen enemies, and their crystals left in the dirt.

The wounded refugees hadn’t all made it, unable to heal on this floor, but they must have known something was waiting for them West from here to have all fled that way.

And they were leading them right to it.

“Water,” Ryan said abruptly.

“Huh?”

“This way.”

He pointed and soon enough, Micah heard, then saw, the gurgling leak in the wall for himself. The air cooled around it, even as the humidity rose. He sighed because it was finally something to give him an estimate of his own.

Not that Jason’s guesses weren’t good, but the endless tunnels all looked so similar, a slowly shrinking number helped little with the creeping madness.

“Their camp must be close.”

“Why?”

“Because it makes sense they would build close to the river, for one thing,” he said, “and for another, because I can hear them.”

Micah made a face. “Cheater.”

Ryan shrugged.

A cloud of dirt plumed around his boot in the water when he splashed through, and he tilted his head in the telltale pose of listening to something far away.

What is it? Micah thought. Did you hear something? He had to resist slapping his lap to get his attention.

Kyle had fewer qualms. “If you hear something, spit it out. We’re close, don’t make us wait.”

“Birds,” he said.

Micah needed a second to catch on. Then the single, simple word filled his chest with a disproportionate excitement.

Birds!

He had seen some yesterday on the branches outside his window. They’d woken him up with their noise before the sun had even risen like Ryan used to do, and he knew these would likely try to kill him like everything else in this place, but he still itched to see them. He didn’t think he had ever seen any birds in the Tower, and it felt like ages since he’d seen the sky.

Or maybe that was just the fire and stone dragging his thoughts down.

Ryan went a little ways in and signaled to keep quiet. They were close, but between them and the outside stood sounds even he could hear: the hacking of wood, echo of a river feeding into a cavern, and chatter of countless Kobolds in the woodworking outpost they had built.

“Another camp,” he realized.

“Great,” Kyle said. “Are we going to spend a few hours planning how to attack this one, too?”

Ryan shook his head. “It’s smaller, and we’re passing through. All we need to do is find out if they have any treasure and secure it. We can kill as many as we can and let the rest escape, then.”

He moved to take the lead and Micah spoke up. “You don’t actually have to go ahead to scout, though … right?”

“Huh?”

“Because you rely on your hearing and you don’t have that much better eyesight than the rest of us—”

“I’m better at seeing movement, and my hearing helps me draw back quicker when I notice something, so I can go unseen.”

“No, no, you’re great!” Micah rushed to assure him. “I just meant …”

“What? Did you … want to scout ahead?”

“I want to get rid of this pack,” he half-joked and shrugged. The weight was wearing on him and no number of vitality gummies or slow pace could rid him of his exhaustion. “I thought—”

“Oh. Oh!” Ryan blinked like he was waking up. “Yeah, of course, I can tap you out if you want. Want to switch packs? Will you be fine without your equipment?”

He asked and began to shrug his pack off before he’d even given his answer, but that was a good thing. He wouldn’t have to explain.

Micah shook his head. “I’m good. I have the essentials with me.” He patted his belt and did the exchange. It took a moment to adjust the straps—it was funnier to watch Ryan bend and squeeze his way into the disproportionately tighter ones—but then, he felt so much lighter.

He hopped a little to savor it. Part of him had needed that, but the other part was …

It was stupid, and he hadn’t wanted to make it a big deal, but once upon a time, he had fancied himself the ‘magical’ expert of their duo, while Ryan could have leaned toward the physical stuff.

It had just been an idle thought to distract him when they’d been stuck in the Tower together, but somewhere along the line, through the chaos of fighting, studying, training, and a dozen other things to demand his immediate attention, he had dropped it by the wayside.

Silas insisted he would make a great [Scout]. It was a reminder, even if he didn’t want to intrude.

But maybe for once, Ryan could sit back and watch him lead, surrounded by allies in case he needed them.

Micah peeked around the corner and focused on the essences. Earlier, he’d known Ryan would show up a moment before he had. Now, he tried to flex that instinct and let his [Essence Sight] unfocus similar to how he’d had in Ms. Denner’s office. Not literally, but his perspective on the world so the essences could act without his preconceptions hiding details he might not want to miss.

There, he looked for patterns and breaks and almost, he thought he could see a swirl of heat—

“What are you doing?” Kyle grumbled in his ear.

He nearly jumped.

The guy leaned over him to peek around the corner. “It’s clear,” he said. “Let’s go.”

Before he could storm past, Micah pushed back. “That tunnel may be clear, but what about the next?”

“How is staring at nothing for a minute or two going to help with that?”

“I’m focusing on the essences,” he said and gestured to explain, “to see how they move. Heat essence rises near Teacup Salamanders or fire Kobolds, and the air shifts from movement other than the breeze. So if I see those signs, I’ll know something is around the corner.”

Kyle blinked down at him. “The. What?”

“I thought you were waiting for something to leave,” Bluth hissed from the back. “That kind of precaution is overdoing it. Ryan and Lisa probably already know where everything in a few tunnels radius around us is, right?”

He glanced at them. By their awkward silence, she was right. “Oh, but— What about stuff that is still and quiet? Teacup Salamanders sometimes like to stick to walls for hours on end.”

“Those aren’t going to sound an alarm and we have to deal with them anyway.”

“You can still lead the way if you want,” Jason said, “but maybe scale down the effort and precaution?”

Now those were suddenly bad things? But maybe, he was overestimating the danger if Lisa and Ryan hadn’t spoken up yet. It was hard to get the thrill of the last camp out of his mind.

“Alright.”

“Or,” Kyle spoke up, “and this is a much better idea, let me take out the camp on my own.”

They looked at him. Any other time, it might have just been a glance or roll of the eyes as they shrugged the comment off; Kyle would have cursed, or there would have been a squabble, and that would have been it.

They didn’t look away, and by their faces, Micah knew the others were considering it, too.

“Not right away,” he said, “because we’d need to secure any treasure chests first, right?”

Bluth nodded.

Kyle twisted his head. “Wait, what?”

“And you would have to remain within our sight,” Jason added, “so we don’t break any rules, but … Sure?”

Past his confusion and perpetual scowl, his lips quirked up for a moment before he twisted them back down. Blink and he’d miss it. He still sounded excited when he asked, “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“We did promise,” Micah said.

He seemed to jump on that, because his expression hardened. “Right. You did. So let’s get this started, then. What do we do? Get closer so those two can scout, right? Lead the way.”

He gestured at Micah to get a move on, but Lisa stepped forward and held her staff out to him. “Micah, here.”

“Huh?”

“Take it, if you’re curious. Use some mana to snap the connection. You might even get more out of it than I do.”

Hesitantly, he took the staff by its ram’s head and slipped it into his grip. It was small for Lisa but may have been the perfect size for him. Firm, heavy. He bet he could bludgeon stuff to death with it.

He’d always liked bludgeoning weapons, even if he’d never found the excuse to use one.

Belatedly, he remembered to ask, “Oh, do you want my sword?”

She shrugged.

He fumbled to take it off and handed the sheath back. After testing the weight of the staff, he did as she said and saturated it with his mana to find a connection point.

Awareness spread out like flowing threads, into every swirl, linen, and pillow of air he could see around him, until it was difficult to tell where his field of vision ended and the wind essence began.

“Ah.”

That was … different.

“If it’s too distracting—” Lisa started, holding his sword the way one might hold an umbrella.

“No, no. This is good.” This was almost the type of prescience he had been hoping to find.

“Well, then go,” Kyle urged him.

Micah smiled and turned the corner. He picked up speed and knew, could almost visualize, the air essence ahead. A Teacup Salamander-shaped pocket of void stuck to the wall right around the corner.

He came out swinging and cracked the ram’s head onto the monster’s skull, and its skull into stone. A cleave down tore it off the wall, and two more hits ended it.

The beast gave, and he breathed with a grin in the fading red smoke while his team caught up.

“This is great.”

The river ran through an oval cavern about half as wide as the Summoner’s chamber, and two-thirds as high. A cluster of stalactites hung from one corner, and areas along the riverside were untraversable where the water bit too deep into the stone.

It still met a stretch of even ground: a larger circle on the far side and sickle patch on theirs, extending from their entrance.

The Kobolds had gathered on the opposite of the river to work, with mounds of wood and other supplies stacked against the walls. Most of them worked with crude stone tools, only one had an actual knife. This was where they’d gotten their spears, blowpipes, and rope from.

Three natural exits connected to the cavern, and one artificial one they could see, aside from the river. They led into a series of smaller caverns, which they ignored.

Their team barrelled into the center chamber like a herd of Tower sheep, tackling and kicking monsters aside, protecting their precious cargo with their bodies, and trampling what got too close.

Their destination was a small chamber looking over the camp high up in the wall, and the two treasure chests they had glimpsed within. The Taskmaster’s chamber, Micah thought of it.

Rickety Kobold-sized scaffolding bridged two ledges leading up to it, and they trusted it not at all. It had no guard rails, was crooked, and the path itself was only thirty centimeters or so wide. There was no way they were squeezing themselves up there.

So they took the long way around, through a tunnel that curved around, and it gave their enemies time to react. Theoretically.

They hurried.

Kyle broke off from the group and ran headlong into the chamber, Jason splitting off not far behind. They needed someone to look after him, but he assured the guy he was headed for the river, calling back something about difficult terrain hiding treasure.

Kyle didn’t mind, and neither did Micah. Up until Lisa called his name and wrenched him back. The treasure chest smacked against the corner between them and he needed a second to process why.

The first arrow zipped past where we would have been running and clattered off the stone.

He stared.

“It’s not that good,” she warned him.

It wasn’t about good or not. The arrow had been invisible, compared to the large and sluggish monsters he’d fought on their way in. The shepherd’s staff hadn’t warned him at all.

He breathed into the chamber to see if that helped, and a natural breeze crashed into it.

“Really could use Jason’s new necklace right now,” Bluth said, peeking around the corner from where she stood pressed up against the wall.

Could they call him back? He vaulted over a stack of wood on his way to the far end of the cavern, and Kyle splashed right through the river to tear into the Kobolds with a battle cry.

That was a ‘no’.

“Shields. Cover me,” Lisa said and something prickled his senses.

When he turned, she held an alleyball of rolling flames between her hands. The heat tore at his skin and his wide eyes began to prickle as he stared, but he acted on reflex, doing as she said, and held his shield out below Bluth’s higher one before she turned and flung.

A deafening crash high above turned into a rush of fire that hounded the air, tearing at its heels. It was almost like he could see fire essence again, but by its workings rather than the essence itself, and part of him wanted to fling the shepherd’s staff away as if it had burned him.

Wood and rocks clattered against stone and Kobolds cried out.

Micah pushed through it all, his breathing perfectly steady thanks to his Skill. “You two stay here and protect our loot,” he said, “Lisa and I will rush to get theirs.”

It was the only real option with their distribution of weight. Before they could agree or disagree, he gripped the staff in a vice and ducked out.

As he ran up the incline, phantom teeth floated through the air. One dragged across his lip and cheek—a drifting ember.

He smacked a dying Kobold with enough force to kill it in passing, twisted with the motion, and blocked the spear of another Kobold hiding around the corner as he crested the hill.

He barely acknowledged it, searching the chamber. The chests were gone, along with the residents. No Kobold could carry one, let alone two full chests on its own. Two exits.

He ran to the balcony and looked right along the rickety walkway but could feel the lone fire mage there before he even saw it, raining fire down on Kyle.

The guy fought the entire camp on his own, including the single true Salamander that had joined the fight. Fireflies drifted off his frame like suspended stars and twisted suddenly when he moved or struck.

They hadn’t yet realized they should run, instead throwing more and more bodies at him.

Good on him.

Micah kicked the fire mage off the walkway and sprinted back inside, around the lone Kobold, and to the spiraling staircase in the corner. The stonework changed into layers like candle drip.

He spotted a tail halfway up and whacked the leg it belonged to. The Kobold cried out and let its chest drop, and two more looked down with yaps of surprise. Rather than help, the top one left its comrades to their fates.

Coward.

It was only the one chest, though, and Micah thought he could feel another Kobold leave the staircase higher up, but—

He couldn’t chase them. Rules.

C’mon.

He waited impatiently as he fought and sensed the third Kobold he’d ignored charge up the staircase behind him—

It burst into smoke and Lisa pushed through, shouting, “Go, go, go! I’m right behind you.”

Finally.

He squeezed past the fallen chest and took the steps two at a time with his hands out to brace himself, but frowned when he felt a flame mounted on the wall ahead, snapping at the breeze as it flowed down into the staircase.

These Kobolds had torches?

No.

He put his back to the wall and raised his shield just in time to block a heavy wax fist that belonging to a larger candle golem standing guard at the top of the staircase. Molten wax splattered off its flat head and across his shield. The bits that didn’t hit floated as trails in the air.

Lisa kicked it off him and it tumbled across the ground like a sack of potatoes. She staggering from the angle, began to tip back, and he gripped her arm to pull her up with a smile.

They staggered into a tunnel, glanced left and right, and unanimously chose left over right.

The breeze brought the scent of the Kobolds as both a physical thing and essences in the wind, and there were scuff marks. But beyond that, if he pushed past the breeze, he almost felt like he could sense a wild expanse ahead and—

Distracted, Micah looked ahead and cried out in surprise. He stumbled to a knee and turned his head away from the blinding sunlight.

But he had glimpsed it, its outline now burned onto his vision: an exit from the cave they were in, and the treetops below.

“Micah,” Lisa said and sounded alarmed as she tried to pull him up. “What— Are you alright?”

He nodded in embarrassment and tried to squint, but it was uncomfortable. “I need a moment. For my eyes to adjust?”

“Oh.”

“Go! Go get the treasure chest.”

She nodded and left him.

It didn’t help that they’d woken up before sunrise and spent the last two days in dim light, around hazy fires, or in near darkness.

The candle golem lumbered up with a wounded shoulder, and he clutched his staff to see it clearly through hazy vision, then changed his mind and closed his eyes entirely as he stood up.

The first punch came and Micah barely blocked it. It tried and failed to hit him, but it got close, and its molten wax and flame got even closer. He could feel the heat through his shirts and grimaced because he knew it would stain.

But he remembered a time when he’d bumped into chairs and tables after reading up on essences for the first time, trying to ‘see’ them with his eyes closed. Now, he could.

With the staff.

Right. So what could he do on his own …?

He awkwardly blocked another strike and put it aside. As the connection faded, the world turned dark and left him with the noise, smell, and the chill of the breeze. Nothing he could use.

The golem punched his face as hard as any other guy his age might, and he winced as he stumbled back and reluctantly opened his eyes, rubbing his jaw.

That didn’t work.

He would rely on the staff entirely, for now. He could probably learn, maybe even a little faster with its help—though that could be a dangerous road to walk where Skills were concerned, because dependencies would either carry over or could keep him from getting a Skill at all.

It was possible, but … he had so much else on his plate already: crafting new lenses, expanding his dominion, learning how to shape stone, getting a spirit affinity, advancing his alchemy, finding a project to work on, learning another spell, studying over the summer break because he was still behind, attending dance lessons, working out, making a doctor’s appointment, earning money—

Just thinking about it all made him want to scream.

Besides, he didn’t know how useful it would be if the version he learned was any weaker than the staff, and he didn’t know how much he liked sensing the shadow of fire essence.

Something to learn on the side, maybe. For now, Micah drew a knife and tackled the golem to the ground to finish it off.

When he stumbled up to the cliffside exit, Lisa was flinging fire down at something from the edge.

He didn’t see what right away. He was distracted by the view. From above, with their crowns pushing into one another, and the slowly gilding afternoon sky, the forest looked like a field of rolling green.

They had actually found them, the Fields.

He let out a giant sigh of relief, and filled his body with fresh air and scents.

It was glorious.

“There,” Lisa said, and he looked.

A dozen smaller summons were scaling down the rocks. A side path to their right led down inside the cave system, probably to connect with the ground, but she hadn’t been able to take it.

Instead, she was firing at a cluster of five Kobolds that carried a chest between them into the woods. They could still see them, but the forest grew thicker and soon, they would disappear beneath the canopy.

Micah joined her with his slingshot, but his hands were shaking, he’d never aimed at something this far away before, and never from above. Even when he got close, the wind did not help.

Out of five, he hit one and it did little more than make the Kobold stumble.

A summon tacked the slowest Kobold to the ground and gave the rest time to catch up, thankfully.

Lisa let out a breath of relief herself. “Got it.”

He smiled and handed her staff back. “Thank you. I can see why you like it so much now.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. It’s useful for keeping track of your surroundings, but you shouldn’t lean on it too much.”

He got that, too.

She replaced the remnants of his connection and that last whisper of wind faded. But he could still see it, and remember what it had felt like.

They stood there and enjoyed the view until Micah noticed a flock of something in the distance, and heard the song.

Birds!

He nearly jumped and ran off to tell Ryan in that moment, before he remembered, but then he tried to get a good look at them himself.

But as he watched, they seemed to grow bigger, and their song began to sound less like chirping and more and more like the screams of war.

“Are those … coming toward us?”

“Yep,” Lisa said and began to drag on the feeble few warm essences around them to form another [Firebolt].

Did she want to pick them off one by one? Micah wasn’t sure he could hit something that fast and he only had so much ammunition with him, besides. It was kind of expensive, too.

“Shit. Uh, uhh …” He glanced down and noticed, “We still have to get that treasure chest so ... Race you?”

She glanced at him. He stared back, then took off toward the tunnel on their right and ducked behind cover before the first of the flock could reach them.

A moment later, he heard her footsteps as she chased after him and called his name.