~~(Caleb)~~

Someone ate my cookies. Why did they eat my cookies? Couldn't they have gotten their own? I would have shared. They should have asked me if they could have some cookies. I don't really like cookies, I think it was packed by mistake.

Or maybe they forgot and sent it to me on purpose? Or maybe they just felt I could just use it to share with other cadets.

Whoever ate my cookies should have just asked me. I would have shared with them. I don't even like cookies. I would have happily shared with them. I was planning on sharing them with Flame tonight.

“Rivers!” A voice booms from in front of me, and I look up at the officer. “What are you doing in here?”

“Reporting theft.”

“You were supposed to report to the briefing room!”

“Make up your mind on if it's briefing or squad,” I say. “And I'm reporting a theft. To report a theft, one must come to this office and fill out a form. I'm filling out the form now.”

“Report to the squad room! Now!”

“I'm filling out the report,” I say. “It'll have to wait until I finish.”

“Missions take priority.”

“And if I'm gone for three months on a training mission,” I say. “Then the thief will not have been reported by who is possibly Victim Zero. I'll report to the squad room when I'm done.”

“Are you defying a direct order?” The officer growls.

“I am,” I respond. “Lemme finish this report. The longer you argue with me, the longer it will take.”

“Stop and report, now!” He orders.

“Please let me finish,” I request. “I really don't like being confrontational, and am tempted to just put a pause spell on you as I do this.”

“You will-”

The officer freezes, unable to move or speak. I finish the report, hand it in, then unpause the officer.

“Alright,” I say. “I'm ready to report to the squad room.”

“Did you attack a senior officer?” He asks.

“I just put you under a spell,” I say. “I didn't actually attack you. I'm reporting, now please hush and leave me alone.”

“There you are!” Jared groans as he enters the room. “When you didn't show up, we started looking for you. I told them you'd probably be here, because of the missing cookies.”

“You're reporting stolen cookies?” The officer asks me. “Seriously? They're not going to catch whoever it was, and you probably just ate them in your sleep.”

“I don't eat cookies,” I say. “Someone stole them. I tried doing a tracing spell, but they ate all of the crumbs. That's hard to do. They didn't leave any DNA behind, too. That's really hard to do. I put all of that in my report. It's probably someone's Ability. You got summoned, Jared?”

“Yes,” he responds. “Owen and the quartet did as well. Kieran decided to jump in, and they told him that the mission requires an even number of people. He responded with 'add in someone else', and they told him it required a specific set, and he responded with 'kick someone'. Apparently, they're pairing people up, and he wants to pair up with you. He's trying to use his status as a Colonel to leverage them into it.”

“That's Kieran,” I nod. “I'll talk him out of it.”

“He never did go through training is what he says,” Jared says.

I shrug and we leave, making our way to the squad room with the officer following us, scolding me. Eighteen other cadets await us. Flame waves to me as Kieran dips his head to me from the corner he's lurking in. He looks annoyed.

Another Colonel stands at the head of the table, which explains why Kieran couldn't use his rank to boss him around. The Colonel probably hasn't been around long enough to have seniority, but Kieran probably doesn't realize that.

I just checked his mind. He doesn't have seniority. Now shoo. This is for cadets, not Colonels. You don't need to prove yourself to anyone.

He protests, saying he wants to be my partner, and I give him a look. He droops his head and leaves. The Colonel jumps when the door opens and closes. Oh. Kieran wasn't perceivable.

There's a box sitting on the table, inside of which are twenty slips of paper, each with a number on it, one through ten.

“Cadets!” He says. “Now that you are all gathered, here is the mission!”

Does he really need to say that? Just present the mission.

“Each of you,” he says. “Will draw a slip out of this container, and the slip has a number on it. Your matching number is your partner. Once this is decided, we will lift to a forest, where you will all be dropped to the surface. You will have just your packs when you arrive, and what's in them. Your mission is to survive there for thirty days. It is not to escape, it is not to rendezvous. There are monsters abound in the forest you'll be dropped in.

“The forest,” he says. “Is called the Enchanted Forest, named after one of fairy tales from before the Calamity. It messes with both magic and Abilities, and you can't escape it. The only way anyone has found in or out is through the air. At the end of the thirty days, we'll retrieve you.

“You may now,” he continues. “Draw a slip out of the box, order of arrival. Fuller, since you were first, you draw first.”

Jared draws his slip, receiving an eight. Everyone draws, and when it's my turn, I draw a nine. That makes me happy. I like the number nine. Twenty-seven would be better, but nine works. It's a multiple of three, the magic number.

Now that we all have our numbers, we make our way to the airfield on the base. There, we are each given a backpack. They have basic supplies, but no food, and no parachutes. They want us to rely on our aura for protection when we drop, but aren't telling us that.

From everyone's thoughts, only the select few elite have realized about the parachutes. It seems to me that they picked the select few for this mission. A mission they're doing a lot of lying about.

This batch has the best of the crop in it. They selected the twenty best recruits for this mission, and aren't telling us that. It's part of the test.

“Will you get out of our heads?” The pilot looks at me, and I look at her. “My Ability is telepathy, Rivers, and while I can't touch your mind, I know what it's like to be in everyone's heads, and I know you're probably just looking at what this is about. No doubt they're having a hard time keeping it out of their thoughts.”

“I can't shut it off,” I shrug. “Only tune it out by accident. I have to get really focused on something for that. Besides, it's not like I'm going to tell them. Anyway, they've all figured it out.”

“They have?” She looks surprised.

“Mostly,” I nod. “About the bags, anyway, so it's not like that's a secret. They also know about the landing. They haven't figured out the rest. I kind of figured it all out before it was in anyone's heads. Even the parts I haven't mentioned. All of them. Yes, including that.”

“Get out of my head!”

“Already told you I'm always there,” I shake my head. “So long as you're near me. Sorry. Anyway, we've all got our packs on, let's go.”

We board the plane, and it takes off. The ride is fast and bumpy, and none of us get to sit. As we draw near the Enchanted Forest, they have us line up at the drop door in the order we drew slips, which starts to clue in the others that we aren't dropping with our partners.

“Okay!” The instructor in charge yells to us. “You will drop when we tell you to! Your first mission is to meet up with your partner! You are not to spend more than twenty-four hours with another pair at a time! If you've been with a pair for more than three hours, you cannot be with another pair for more than three hours at a time in the next seventy-two hours! For all instances, a 'pair' counts for even one other person, not necessarily both in their team! You will not be here for thirty days! You will be here for sixty!

“Also!” He continues. “You have maps in your packs! The last three days, you can be with other groups! There is a large clearing in the middle of the forest! Meet there before the final day! On the final day, we'll arrive to pick you all up! We are at the first drop point! Go!”

Nineteen drop points later, the instructor and I are alone in the back of the plane, and he stares at me.

“Can you feel it affecting your magic?”

“My magic feels weak and disturbed,” I respond. “My flight magic won't let me land safely, but like everyone else, I can shield myself with aura. You picked the top cadets for this mission. I'm sure we'll all be alive at the end. How often do you run it?”

“We use it,” he responds. “To test the best, but we never do it with less than twenty. We had to include you, but we couldn't let Kieran in.”

“Why?”

“He's officially an officer,” the instructor looks out the door. “And we can only allow trainees on missions. He threatened to get Colonel Reynolds involved if I didn't let him...”

“He doesn't have Grant's number,” I say. “He was probably going to ask me. We're at my drop. Bye.”

I jump out of the plane, allowing myself to fall. As I draw closer, my passive Territory grows smaller and smaller, vanishing before I reach the treeline. My connection to my Ability has grown wonky.

Just before reaching the tops of the trees, I shield myself in aura, protecting my body from the fall. When I reach the ground, I twist myself and roll, but mostly because it's more comfortable. I could have just taken the fall straight, with my aura shielding me.

The Enchanted Forest doesn't affect auras. Teacher taught me that a long time ago. He taught me that when the magical fluctuations subsided after the Calamity, this forest, sunk a hundred miles below the surface and stretching over two hundred miles in all directions, revealed itself to be transformed.

A place that affects magic and Abilities. It's part of why I believe that the Abilities are connected to magic. I'm not completely sure, though. Teacher told me he doesn't believe me, that in all his research, he hasn't discovered a link between the two. The Abilities are some supernatural, but nonmagical, force. That's what he said.

And yet I can imitate pretty much any Ability using magic.

Teacher is so weird.

Standing, I take stock of my surroundings. Trees are all I can really see. Trees and dirt. I can't even see the sky from here, other than in bits and specks, and the occasional spot of light that managed to filter in through the leaves.

Hrm. I know where my teammate landed, as the second in each team to drop does, but the trick is making it to them – especially with them moving. I didn't tell the first in each pair to stay put, but the smart ones will.

The trick would be surviving and still staying in that spot. From what little I could make out, no one was dropped in a place suitable for survival. That means they intended on making it difficult to meet up.

Oh.

How are they planning on retrieving us after? They can't really track us?

Unless...

I scan through my aura for a moment and figure it out. They put aura traces on us. Huh. When did they do that? How? I don't recognize the aura. I almost flick it off of me, but then decide that it's better to leave it there until it's time to leave.

This is a mission designed not to see how we survive, but to push us to the next level of our Abilities and our abilities. To train our auras, our combat skills, our survival skills, our observational skills, and our ability to use our Abilities in difficult situations.

According to Teacher, the Enchanted Forest has a disturbance factor on par with some of the most ancient temples and ruins. To adapt to his place and survive here prepares a cadet for true missions, but with mostly weak monsters instead of an actual danger.

Well, there are a few of those, most likely, but what's a challenge without a few strong foes to battle? It's going to be fun being without my Ability helping me at every turn.

The complete silence in my mind is eerie. I've never felt it before. Is this what regular people are like?

It makes me feel alone. No matter how much I hate it, it always lets me know I'm not alone. This makes me feel alone.

I really need to find my partner.

Knowing it could be days before I find them – and that I could come across other teams and some monsters on the way – I begin walking in the general direction they were dropped. Food is a bigger priority than finding them.

Actually, hold on. Lemme try something.

You can do this, Caleb. You can do this several times and live. No one will get hurt.

“This is my reality now,” I whisper, and feel my power flex. The field is far smaller, and so is what I can do with it. “Make it fast, Caleb.”

I take off running, ending the field once I reach the border and starting a new one. Each one has a singular rule: time does not work at the same speed within. I make it from one edge to the other far quicker within it than I could outside of it.

Within an hour, I arrive at my partner's drop site, exhausted. Using it took far more energy than I expected. Not only does the Enchanted Forest affect how they work and if they do, but it also affects the amount of energy required to use it.

Thankfully, my partner kept his butt here, and he jumps when I pop up next to him, exhausted. He jumps a little, then looks at me as I collapse to the ground.

“Dude,” he kneels down next to me, helping me sit up. “You really shouldn't have forced it, if it was going to do this to you.”

“I'll be fine.”

“Sit down and rest,” he says. “I'll go get some water while you recover, and we can find food after.”

He starts walking, and I call out to him.

“What?”

“That's not sanitary water,” I point my arm. “There's clean water that way. You'll need to perform an aura filter on the water you're approaching.”

“Your Ability still works here?”

“Barely,” I answer. “But the passive Territory is inactive. Aura works perfectly fine, as I'm sure you noticed. Water tainted in any form that can work in a place like this is affected by aura, which I can sense, due to my auric presence. I guess you didn't sense me burst it out. We'll work on that by the time this training is over. Aura training is part of why they have us here.”

“Aura training is intensely difficult,” he says. “It's a whole lot of usage for small benefit. Only those with natural talent tend to advance decently.”

“That's why only the geniuses are sent on this training mission,” I explain. “Only the best of the best participate. Only we can figure out a way to advance our aura, but to do that, we need to be forced into a situation where our aura is necessary. I'm sure you've heard of how my aura can forcibly awaken pretty much anyone around me if flexed to just a small portion – along the path to this, I figured out quite a few tricks the aura can do, beyond strengthening the skin and using as a weapon. You can use it to detect things around you, to filter out certain types of toxins and such. They wouldn't drop us somewhere we couldn't survive in, but they wouldn't send us somewhere it's completely obvious how to survive. Clean water's that way, I'm too exhausted to do an aura filter on the water.”

He walks off in the direction I pointed, returning thirty minutes later with his canteens filled. He hands me one of the canteens.

“I didn't factor in,” I say. “That it wouldn't take me long to recover enough to use an aura filter. I've been ready since about five minutes after you left. Sometimes, I think about things too much. Teacher always told me that.”

“Teacher?”

“Ancient magician who was around during the Calamity,” I nod. “He taught me magic, aura, combat. I already had my aura unlocked at that point, he just trained me in it. I figured out the aura filter on my own, and he got real upset because he wanted to teach it to me. Apparently, it's not something very many can figure out on their own, and he was really, really eager to teach me. By the way – there's a rabbit over there.”

I point off into the direction of the rabbit, and he looks at me.

“The trick is catching it.”

“I set up a snare twenty minutes ago,” I stand and brush the dirt off of me. “The rabbit got caught, but it's bait.”

“For what?”

“Lunch.”

“The rabbit isn't lunch?”

“What Rank are you?”

“My Ability?” He asks. “B-Rank. Most of us are, though I heard there are two A-Ranks.”

Jared and Flame.

“I haven't been introduced to you yet,” he says. “From the chatter in the squad room, you're insanely powerful, but sometimes absentminded. I have already been proven the latter.”

“I'm S-S-S-S Rank,” I stretch. “People tend to think my Ability is a joke.”

“What is it?” He asks.

“Do you know of Territories?”

“Powerful Special Superhumans,” he nods. “Capable of claiming the area around them as their own. They can control it, to a degree, and usually perceive everything within it.”

“I'm a special type of Territory,” I say. “Known as a Creator. We have a passive Territory at all times, though we can't control anything within it. I can perceive anything within, hear the thoughts of all within, even send thoughts to those within.”

Among other things. I can prevent telepathic communications, intercept them, alter them, and so much more. I've never done it, though. Teacher brought it up once, then said that if I ever went evil, Telepaths would have quite the headache.

Pretty sure they would if they were evil and around me.

“In addition to that,” I say. “We can create alternate Realities, essentially, a reality marble. I can still sort of do it here, which is why I was able to make it to you, but it's far smaller and far more restrictive than normal. My passive Territory is completely gone. Being in everyone's heads annoys me, especially since I can't tune it out, but being in no one's head is eerie. It makes me feel alone.”

“You're really strange, you know that, right?” He asks.

“Dinner's here.”

“It is?”

“Yeah,” I wrap myself in my aura, and he frowns, looking at me, but not exactly. “What?”

“Jeez!” He jumps. “Don't do that when I'm already having a hard time focusing on you!”

“Quiet down!” I whisper harshly. “You'll scare it away.”

“I can't focus on you!”

“When I wrap myself in my aura,” I explain. “It's as if I'm part of the surroundings. Your brain starts to filter me into the background of your conscious, just like you do the trees and everything else. It becomes hard to focus on me, then, because my aura tells you I'm irrelevant, unimportant. Filtered to the background, like a spider in a web.”

“What kind of analogy is that?”

“I never did catch your name.”

“Taylor.”

“Caleb.”

“Yes, I'm aware.”

“How?”

“It was a bit obvious, with you being late and all,” he says. “How are you wrapping yourself in your aura?”

“A trick they probably expect everyone to learn here,” I answer. “Now shush – Imma go stalk our lunch.”

I walk off into the woods, approaching the carvhog. Large body, long tusks, lots of meat, and loves meat. The person who named the species wasn't being very creative at the time, since 'carvhog' is just short for 'carnivore hog'.

Drawing the knife we were all supplied with, I approach the beast, sliding up to its side as it munches on its own lunch, and then plunge the knife deep into the soft spot in its neck. It squeals and dies. It's sad. I don't cry when I kill prey anymore, though. It took me a long time to even be able to hunt, but Teacher helped me. It's different from fighting people. A lot different.

“There you are!” Taylor exclaims as he approaches me, staring at the hog. “I heard you had issues fighting.”

“People,” I state. “Animals and monsters are no issue for me.”

“Um...you're really weird.”

“I think that about other people.”

Oh. I just realized something.

“You look like you just realized something,” he says.

“I did.”

“What was it?”

“I didn't need to bait it,” I say. “I could have just wrapped myself in my aura. I passed them all up on my way here, which is why I knew the carvhogs were here. Oh. I just realized. I never did find out what your Ability is. What is it?”

“Manipulator,” he answers. “Kinetic fields.”

He can make force fields? That's awesome!

Figuring out how to imitate them with my magic is hard. I've been trying forever. Teacher says he hasn't figured it out. Just like with flying, I'll figure it out first.

It's one of those funky Abilities that some people believe should be Special, and is sometimes considered to be an entirely different Ability altogether.

“Let's eat!” I tell him. “We can make a fire over where I found you.”

I pick up the hog and carry it to the small clearing Taylor was in, and Taylor gathers sticks and branches, asking me how we're going to make a fire.

“They dropped us off with a few essentials,” I explain. “That includes flint and steel. We can just strike the knife to the flint block and create some sparks. Ever made a fire like that before?”

“No,” he says. “And can we really start a fire with sparks?”

“Sure can,” I drop the hog down. “Here.”

I assemble the fire, telling him to gather more sticks and logs. Some of them, I set to the side, as they're green enough to be good to spear the meat with to cook it on. A few moments after I finish assembling the fire, it's lit, and Taylor and I wait for it to heat up enough to cook the meat.

During that time, we cut the carvhog with the combat knives we were given and spear it on the sticks I had Taylor sharpen, and once the fire's hot enough, we start cooking. As it cooks, I scavenge up some berries and such to eat with the meat.

“How do you know how to do all this?” Taylor asks me as we're eating. “I mean, this tastes good, and there's no spices or anything.”

“The town I lived at,” I answer. “Had a massive forest outside of it, as well as ruins. Teacher taught me how to hunt and fish and scavenge and cook and eat.”

“He taught you how to eat?”

“How to eat good food,” I nod. “And how to eat properly. I'm ignoring that rule of etiquette, since we're in a forest.”

~~(Jared)~~

My only thought as I fall out of the plane is that the only way to safely land – and not die – is to use my aura to protect myself. I've only done it for minor things before, never for a full-on fall

Please don't let me die here.

I crash through the trees, landing with minimal injuries, though a lot of pain. That hurt like hell. I completely forgot to land properly.

Once I have shaken off the fall and assessed my immediate surroundings, I sit down and go through the pack.

A few basic first-aid supplies, flint, a combat knife, a map, a compass, a couple of canteens, a couple of water bottles, a tarp, some plastic pouches to waterproof things, some twine, some rope, and a mess kit.

No filter for the water, and I've heard that the water in the Enchanted Forest can be deadly. How do they expect us to survive without a way to filter the water?

In addition to that, I have no clue where my partner is, since I dropped before him. I can hope that he'd make it to me here, but with this place filled with monsters, there's a good chance I'd get chased away from here...

And I cannot connect to my Ability at all. It reminds me of when Caleb disconnected me, back in basic. It gives off the same feeling of just not existing at all.

Are the two linked?

There's a good chance that Caleb knows stuff about this place that most people don't. His Teacher seems to have taught him a fair deal about unusual things, it's entirely possible this was one of them.

If anyone is going to survive, it's that absentminded boy. Pretty sure he could survive a Calamity and just go 'That was a lot of rain' when it's over.

After a few hours of waiting and attempting to use my Ability, my stomach is growling far too much for me to remain put. They didn't starve us or anything before coming here, I'm just really hungry, and even though basic forced us to work through the hunger, I have a feeling it could be a long time before I actually find something I can eat.

Remembering a story about a pair of brothers who got lost in some woods, I decide to leave a trail, so I can find my way back to where I was dropped. Using the combat knife, I make a mark in a tree every few feet. Something with color would be better, as it would be more noticeable, but for now, the marks will have to do.

After an hour of walking, I begin to suspect something. Another twenty minutes of walking confirms it.

I'm walking in circles. The damn forest is removing my marks and switching back things I moved. It's got me walking in circles.

The a story Caleb was telling a few nights ago, when Flame pushed him for a story that Teacher taught him, comes to mind.

He talked about a forest where the more you tried to keep track of where you were, the more it made you walk in circles. The trick of finding your way through it was to not make marks or move things, but instead, just walk. Memorize the surroundings, but do not change them, and you will progress.

Was he referring to the Enchanted Forest? I know he gave it as a fairy tale, but could it have been based on truth?

Deciding that he must have been referring to here, I follow that knowledge, and another hour of walking passes before I determine it was right.

I memorized my surroundings, and never once passed up the same landmark twice.

Crap. That makes things that much harder.

Sitting down to rest for a few minutes, I close my eyes, reviewing every story Flame has talked Caleb into giving us, in the hopes of finding some piece of information that can help me out while here. Me, and my partner, when we meet up.

It's possible that Caleb himself doesn't even know he knows information that can help us – he told us that story as if it were just a story, and when asked where the inspiration came from, he just said that Teacher gave it to him a few years ago as a lesson, and that it probably didn't have any truth to it.

An hour of thought yields me no results.

Opening my eyes, I freeze. Not five feet in front of me wanders a panther-like creature with shadowy fur and golden eyes. It's sniffing the ground, and I'm pretty sure if it notices me, I'll become its lunch.

It will probably find me delicious.

Moving slowly, I draw the combat knife and hold it up in front of me, focusing on getting my Ability to work. If I can move this with my Ability, I can kill it before it ever notices me.

Focusing on being prepared to move if it attacks, I wait. No use provoking it, in case it misses me. I can't figure out why it hasn't spotted me yet.

A rabbit hops into view, and I track it with my eyes. It hops right in front of the panther and keeps moving. All the panther does is move its head a little, then ignores it, resuming its sniffing.

A few minutes after the rabbit passes by, the panther comes across a patch of herbs. It sniffs them a few times, then starts nibbling on it.

Flat teeth.

The panther has flat teeth. It's not a carnivore. I move to a proper sitting position, letting my legs relax, and the panther jerks its head, moving it a little bit, and I realize not only is it an herbivore, it's blind, too. Those eyes can't see a thing.

I stand up, and it stares in my general direction, sniffing, then when I don't attack it, it returns to eating. I approach it, and it barely acknowledges me.

That's a lot of meat. If I prepared it properly, I could have enough meat to last me a little while, and to keep my strength up.

I strike with my knife right at its neck, and the blade glances off. I strike several more times. I can't hurt it. The panther just...ignores me.

Its attitude enrages me. I can't harm it at all, and it knows that. That's why it didn't bolt when I stood up – it knew it was fine.

After exhausting myself trying to kill it as it eats the herbs, the panther moves over to eat some berries. I try to shove it away, to get food, but it stands firm.

How the hell?

This thing is powerful and immovable, and it's a freaking herbivore, to top it off!

Wait.

I had to use my aura to land safely, and my Ability is inactive. Magic itself doesn't work here, either. Maybe...aura?

I look for traces of aura, and realize that the creature is literally filled with it. Its fur, its claws, its skin – every part of it is infused with aura.

No wonder I can't harm it, it's using its aura as a defense, and probably does it passively.

“Fuck,” I collapse against a tree.

I exhausted myself in my anger. I really need to work on that. I should have checked for aura before then.

The panther finishes its meal, then wanders off.

As I start to stand up, someone runs by me, and my initial thought is that they better not leave me if they want a partner who isn't there for as long as possible, to increase the odds of survival.

A long thought, and long enough to realize...that's not one of us.

He kicks off a tree, flipping around and slashing with a glowing blue knife. As my eyes follow the glowing trail, something becomes visible.

A snake with wings, the target of his blade. The blade is deflected by the snake's fangs – as impossible as I find that – and the boy keeps moving.

The snake, on the other hand, attacks me. I activate my aura defense and throw my hands up in time to keep it from biting me.

Then I feel the pain in my arm. It bit right through my aura.

“Hey!” The other kid yells, and his knife bounces off the snake.

The snake hisses at him as it releases me, returning its attention to the other kid, who has another knife in his hand.

“You're really pissing me off,” it snarls.

Uh...did the snake just talk?

“You attacked me, you legless lizard,” he just said that with a straight face.

“It's your own fault for being delicious!” The snake snaps back.

I can't believe they're actually arguing over this. Actually, there are several things I can't believe.

But really? Arguing about why they're fighting?

“Go eat another beast, you beast,” the kid almost sounds bored.

“I'm too strong for you to fight with your current aura levels, idiot,” the snake rolls its eyes, then jerks its head to indicate me. “This pathetic lump of skin, on the other hand, would be problematic if he knew how to wield his aura, not just gently coat himself with it. He also tastes delicious. Now fuck off, so I can enjoy someone. Damn soldiers and sending kids here every decade for training...most of them end up dead anyway, because they can't figure out aura and your people tend to avoid interacting with them.”

Most cadets who go on this die?

Do they use this purge out cadets they don't want?

I really wish Caleb was here, and what he had gleaned from the instructors. Knowing that aura can be utilized in other ways would have been beneficial. Especially if the implication that we can control how much we shield ourselves with is true. The instructors told us it isn't.

An arrow pierces through the snake, pinning it to the tree standing by me. It dies immediately.

“Mostly because we can't stand them.”

The new voice is deep and imposing, and I look at the archer, dressed in a dark green tunic brown pants, and soft leather boots. He has an arrow aimed at me.

I glance to the boy, who is around my age, shirtless, and wearing a loincloth and a few pieces of bone jewelry. He has a sheath on both hips, where he kept his knives. The one he drew a moment ago is still in his hand, and he looks at the man. They're both small in stature, sort of like Caleb, though both have brown hair and matching hazel eyes. Both slender, their bodies are muscled from a lifetime of physical work.

If Flame were here, he'd be chattering away to the kid. I have to put up with it often, and this kid is at least a full point above me. He almost rivals Caleb.

Speaking of Caleb...

Even if he doesn't have access to his Ability, I'd rather that he be here with this man aiming an arrow at me.

“What are you doing here, Dad?” The kid asks.

So they're related.

“Looking out for my son,” the man looks at the boy, probably the mentioned 'son'. He turns his gaze back to me. “This boy has a disturbing aura, even among the batches of cadet I've come across in my hundred of years. There's a darkness within that bothers me.”

“There's light, too, Dad,” the boy says.

“Not much,” the man says. He really doesn't look a hundred years old. I'd say, based on his looks, he's maybe forty, if that. “Only two of this batch have strong light in their auras, and one of them is terrifying.”

“Terrifying?” I ask. “And you just want to kill someone who has more darkness than light?”

“Darkness is evil,” the man says. “Light isn't. That boy has almost no trace of darkness inside of it, and seems to be able to teleport.”

“That boy!” I exclaim. “We're in the Enchanted Forest, and he's still able to use his damn Ability!”

“You know the teleporter?” He asks.

“There isn't one,” I shake my head, though my eyes remain fixed on his arrow. “But there is one who can create reality marbles, or alternate realities. When he's in them, he vanishes from this reality. He can alter the rules of how things work in his reality marbles, and probably did something that let him move faster. Where did he go?”

“Met up with another cadet,” he answers without lowering his arrow a millimeter. “Was pretty exhausted after. Honestly, I'm surprised he made it eighty miles in less than an hour.”

“I'm surprised it took him that long,” I say. “And for him to be worn-out? Hungry, I can understand, but worn-out? I guess the Enchanted Forest is doing a real number on his Ability to make him take that long. I'd have said five, maybe ten minutes. An hour? Wow.”

“Even with an arrow pointed at you,” the man says. “You have an air of cockiness. Bari, do you see why I do not trust him, with the darkness within?”

“The darkness,” I say. “How much is it, in comparison to the light? Because if you reverse Caleb's, you will find more darkness than in mine. I have a tendency to dislike weak people, as well as people who abuse their power. I'm getting better on getting a handle on the darkness.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“It upsets Caleb when I act that way,” I hesitate before continuing. “Caleb is a sensitive, absentminded kid who has hella good looks and a caring outlook who has fears he's pushing through. When I kill people just because they abuse their power, it upsets him. He hides the weak side of him, but it's still obvious to those who know it's there.”

“The darkness is attracted to light,” the man says. “But something tells me your attraction takes a different form. You love the jumper.”

“And he's completely disinterested in romance,” I say. “He's a late bloomer in that aspect. He doesn't even play with himself. Hell knows when he'll finally start finding himself attracted to people, if ever. He seems to have a thing for magic. All I want to do is make him happy, even if that means toning down how I want to be just so I don't upset him.”

“Magic barely exists here,” the man says. “And your aura says you are honest about your feelings for Caleb.”

“And he doesn't know,” I say. “Can you...lower your bow? You're making me nervous.”

He lowers his bow and slowly moves his arrow forward, then returns it to the quiver on his back, hanging the hand with the bow by his side.

“Thank you,” I say. “How forbidden are we from interacting with you guys?”

“Pardon?”

“You guys never interact with cadets,” I say. “From what I heard you and the snake say. The trainers have to have a way to tell how we did, other than simply being alive when we finish, or have better skill and ability with our auras. They have someone who reports to them our progress. You said your people saw him do that. You guys were at our drop points.”

“We report on the final day,” he nods. “After all of the cadets are up, we give them our reports, then they leave. This is a rare occurrence – they only perform this mission once every decade or so, when they have twenty cadets who are considered geniuses and extraordinary. Only they have a chance of passing.”

“So your restrictions on interacting with us?”

“None,” he answers. “We simply don't interact due to the darkness that fills upworlders.”

Upworlder...must be the term for people from outside of here.

“People from here don't have that darkness in their aura?” I ask.

“Perceptive,” he says. “Enough has been said to distract your mind from that.”

“How can you see darkness and light in auras, anyway?”

“Something all of us down here learn as children,” he answers. “We learn to awaken our aura as small children, and over the years, taught many different techniques. Seeing the light and darkness, as well as the emotions, within an aura are among those tricks, though few can manage that particular trick.”

“Where do you get clean water from?” I ask. “And hunt?”

“Strange next question.”

“Need to know how to survive.”

“Aura filter for water,” he answers. “You stretch your aura thin between your fingers. First, you put two fingers together, then pull them apart. You need a closed set when pulling when you're new, so curling your index finger into your thumb, then slowly uncurl, making sure your thumb remains touching your index finger, until your tips are touching. The trick at first is keeping your fingers touching as you stretch your aura thin. At the same time, you need to focus on purity in your aura. If the aura used isn't entirely pure, you won't purify the water. The cadets who figure out the trick and drink water from the usual sources aren't aware of that last part, and drink the contaminated water. It only works on water with aura contaminants, such as here. Unless you can make your thoughts pure, you'll never be able to drink water from the normal sources.”

“I could use the tarp to catch dew or rainwater, couldn't I?”

“You could,” he smiles. “I'll be willing to take you in for a few days, teach you a few things about aura.”

“Thanks,” I say, then my head starts to spin. “Whoa, things suddenly got dizzy.”

“Probably the bite,” he says. “I'm only taking you in because I can't, in good conscious, allow someone to die when I come across them injured. Normally, someone with darkness like yours would affect that decision, and I'd have no issue, but there are two things changing that.”

“What?” I ask, putting a hand against a tree to brace myself. “Whoa. Getting really dizzy.”

“The first,” he says. “Is that you care deeply about someone with an aura with more than thirty percent of it consisting of light, when less than ten percent of his is darkness. The second is the fact that the poison took that long to affect you. It's rare to find an uplander with that much aura.”

So they can read auras, but not gauge its level, like Irina can.

“Um,” I chuckle. “Wait until you find out how much aura Caleb has. You'd probably faint.”

A moment after I say that, I faint.