~~(Caleb)~~

“Taylor,” I say, and he looks at me. He was talking with one of the other boys from the village, and I feel funny when I see how close they are sitting. It's not irritation. Not sure what it is. It's annoying. “How are you feeling?”

“I'm alright,” he stands up and looks at me with concern clear on his face. “How are you? The monsters seemed determined to attack you.”

“They're focused on my ring,” I answer. “They're attracted to magic and Abilities. They keep calling me 'Lite', do you know why?”

“They won't even call me by my name,” Taylor shrugs.

“Lite,” the boy he was speaking with. “It's our name for you. Only those who prove themselves receive tribal names from us. You proved yourself by throwing yourself in front of your teammate. I am Kilar.”

“Taylor,” I say. “I have a magical ring that decided the only function it wanted to keep here was returning to my hand. It's powerful enough that the monsters will always be attracted to it, which means that as long as you're near me, you'll be in danger.”

“Our village,” Kilar stands and faces me. “Has the best fighters and aura users in the forest. So long as you two are here, no harm will come to you from them. The truly dangerous beasts are far away, and will take a couple of weeks before they would be able to attack our village. By then, we can have others here, to help defend. We can also teach you two to fight with your auras, to make it easier to survive.”

“I already know how to fight with my aura.”

“You do?” Kilar looks at me, surprise clear on his face. “How? Upworlders don't teach it, save for a completely different continent, and you don't share their looks.”

“Teacher taught me.”

“Who?”

“Dunno his real name,” I shrug. “But he looks like he could be my brother. No relation – he's old enough to have known the Sage before the Calamity.”

“So there is no relation between you and the Aurix?” A deep voice asks, and I turn to face another villager, this one an adult probably fifty years old. “I had wondered if there was.”

“Aurix?”

“The name we call him here,” the man nods. “I am one of the few left from the early days of the Enchanted Forest, after the Calamity. Aurix descended and taught us how to wield aura in this place where it is necessary to survive.”

Does he know the Sage?

“Were you alive in the Calamity?” I ask, and he laughs. “What?”

“I was but a baby, then.”

“Oh.”

“What?” He asks.

“Just wondering if you knew the Sage,” I shrug. “It doesn't matter. Teacher knew him, but won't tell me anything about him. I wonder what he looks like. Or if he's still alive. A magician that powerful has got to be alive still. No way something could kill him.”

“If you learned from Aurix,” the says when I finish my small ramble. “Then I have no doubt you are a fine warrior, but from the way you fought before, you have issues with fighting, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Let us help you grow past that,” he says. “We can train your partner at the same time, Lite, but for you to freeze up in a fight could very well be your end.”

“Do you have staffs made of enchanted wood?” I ask. “I think Taylor would be best-suited to using a weapon like that.”

“You know about Enchanted Wood?”

“Teacher told me about it,” I nod. “The Enchanted Trees that fill the forest are the reason why magic and Abilities are funky here, on the occasions they do work.”

~~(Jared)~~

Does Bari ever hit softly? I know he's just trying to help me get stronger, but damn does he hit hard. If I could use my Ability – and without fear of attracting monsters – I'd probably best him immediately, instead of lying on my back, exhausted, sore, and covered in bruises.

A week or so has passed since I heard the news about Caleb, and so far, all I've really done is train and enjoy the company of Bari and his husband.

Today, Bari is fighting me with a staff, and he really needs to learn restraint.

“Remember,” Bari pokes me with his staff when he decides my break is over. “Infuse your aura into the staff. It's made from Enchanted Wood, so don't worry about breaking it. The best way to fight monsters in the Enchanted Forest is with aura or aura-infused weapons.”

“I've told you,” I stand back up, gripping the staff with both hands. “No matter how hard I focus, I can't infuse the wood with my aura. If this were metal, I'd probably have a much easier time.”

“Metal?” He looks confused. “Wood is one of the easiest materials to infuse aura with. Well, except for kaennikite, but we can't mine that anymore.”

Kaennikite? That's...a legendary metal. Immune to all forces of magic, even before the Calamity, with only one known location where veins of it ran. Abilities don't work on it, either. It's fascinated me for years, but I've never managed to locate even a tiny piece of it to try and use my Ability on.

He said that they could mine it. Well, can't anymore, but that they used to be able to. No one knew where the mine was, just that there was only one known location. It was down here all along?

I guess it makes sense for it to exist in a place where aura is rich and magic isn't, though honestly, I'd expect it to be the opposite.

“Why not?” I ask.

“Monsters invaded the mines a hundred years ago,” he answers. “Before then, we could mine a little bit of it. Being able to infuse our aura into it made it easier, too. We've been having problems attempting to take it back as well – the monsters invading it are immune to aura, and have hides made of a form of corrupted kaennikite.”

“Corrupted kaennikite?”

“Yes,” he stabs the butt of his staff into the ground and shakes his head, sadness in his eyes. “It's immune to aura – hence their immunity – and due to its powerful resiliency as regular kaennikite, it's impossible for us to penetrate it.”

Corrupted, though? For that to have happened, or for it to fuse into the monsters, I'd imagine it lost some of its resiliency to magic and Abilities, and if that's the case...

Then if I could get my Ability to work here, it's possible I could rip right through the monsters.

“Do you have anything made of kaennikite?” I ask. “That I could try to infuse with my aura?”

“I don't,” he shakes his head. “Eldir's father does, but that's the last kaennikite item left in the village. It's an old knife. We're pretty close to the mines here, so they were worried that we'd be attacked with a huge force if we kept too much here. The other villages have more.”

“More what?” Eldir approaches us, yawning. Of course he'd be napping in the middle of the day, it's not like he did anything other than...not gonna continue. “Why are you blushing?”

“Upworlders are strange people,” Bari says when I shrug. “He wants to look at your father's kaennikite knife.”

“Why?” Eldir asks.

“To see if I can infuse it with my aura.”

“It's easy to do that,” Eldir answers. “Kaennikite may be immune to magic and Abilities, but those who know aura can easily infuse theirs into the metal, enhancing its strength and edge even further.”

Bari whispers something into his husband's ear, then Eldir smiles at me and tells me to follow. I follow them to the chief's hut, sitting beside Bari as Eldir has a private conversation with his father, who eventually nods.

Eldir opens a chest and picks up a small box, bringing it over to me. He sets the box on the ground in front of me, sits on the other side of it, then opens the box.

Resting on a cushion of dark green moss is the most beautiful dagger I have ever seen. Eight inches in length, slightly curved, with a smooth finish to it. Leather grip, no jewels. The metal itself is teal, but with a faint silver hue to it, and is glossy, but not fully shiny.

A simple dagger, yet quite elegant.

“May I?” I ask the chief, and he nods once in approval.

I pick up the dagger and focus on my aura, visualizing it flowing through my hand and into the metal. It happens almost immediately and smoothly.

Definitely has to do with my natural affinity for metals through my Ability. In fact, there's a small whisper there...

A vase shatters, and everyone jumps.

“Crap.”

“What?” Bari asks. “It worked immediately, and while exploding vases are unusual, we don't worry about them when they happen..”

Has it happened before?

“Yeah,” I look at him. “About that...when it did, I could feel a whisper of my Ability as well. I tried using it, and instead of it working on the dagger, it kind of blew up the vase. Even with my aura out of the knife, I can feel my Ability again, though it's a lot weaker. To become resilient to aura, they've probably lost some of their integrity against magic and Abilities. I know a small bit of magic and am one of the more powerful cadets here, and not only that, but my Ability is Elemental, metal. If the kaennikite in their hides is vulnerable to Abilities, then I may just be able to clear it out.”

“Practice cycling,” the chief tells me. “Eldir, fetch Rugli for me, will you?”

“Yes, Father,” Eldir dips his head slightly, then the three of us leave the chief behind. “I'll go locate Rugli, he's out hunting something. Have fun.”

I groan. Cycling aura is not fun at all. I can't manage it.

Bari and I make our way to a quiet part of the village and sit down, and he closes his eyes and begins cycling his aura. He doesn't need to practice it, he just does anyway.

Focusing on my aura, I visualize it running through my body in an endless cycle, from my head to my right shoulder, down to my hand, back up to my shoulder, down to my right foot, back to my hip, down to my left foot, up to my left shoulder, down to my hand, back to the shoulder, and back into my head, swirling through my body as it moves.

Different from just feeling my aura in a natural cycle, I try to move it through that cycle. Normally, aura just rests within one's body, slowly moving in a random pattern. Cycling it moves it through the body and accelerates the passive healing effect it has.

Doing this is so similar to when Caleb teaches us magic, yet so very different.

Returning to focusing on my aura, I start to get frustrated when I continue to fail. Eldir joins us after awhile and begins cycling his own.

Grabbing my bracelet, I start twisting it in my hand, feeling it soothing. I don't know why I didn't think about trying aura infusion in the metal on me – probably has to do with my Ability not working, and not factoring them in. Then hearing they had kaennikite – that would be amazing, if I could control it with my Ability, but not even S-Class metal Elementals have managed it in the past.

Perhaps...if I were to exceed S-Class, it would be possible?

Legends tell of an Enhancer who, a hundred and fifty years ago, surpassed S-Class and became the first – and only – Superhuman to be given a Rank in stars – Single Star.

If he can do it, then so can I.

Focusing on the bracelet, I begin infusing it with my aura and feel the whisper of my Ability connect to it at the same time. No. Not my Ability. That's not my Ability connecting with it. But why do I feel a connection to it as a metal, then?

Unless...

Bari mentioned that his aura has healing properties. Does mine have metallic, and when I'm focusing it on metal, I subconsciously draw it out? Or maybe it's when I'm just trying to fuse it into things, and that's why it isn't working on the wood? Metal and wood, fighting each other...

No wonder I can't infuse their weapons with my aura. Perhaps if I infused, then leaked in the metallic properties? But to figure out how to do that?

I feel different. I'm not sure why I feel different, and the only thing I can see for certain is that I'm circling aura through my bracelet, but other than that...

My aura feels different. That's why I feel different. My aura...

It stops, and I feel like how I was before.

“Ow!” I exclaim, then look at Eldir, who giggles, hiding the staff behind him. “What the fuck?”

“That was the tenth time he hit you,” Bari snorts. “You started cycling your aura and had sheathed yourself in it. We noticed it had taken a slightly metallic hue to it, so Eldir got curious and touched it. He can usually get a reading on aura that way, and when he tried, he said you felt like metal. So he smacked you. You didn't notice, so after several other attempts, he grabbed a staff and started smacking you with it.”

“I don't even know how I did that,” I admit. “It just happened once I started channeling my aura through my bracelet.”

His eyes widen and his mouth drops a little bit.

“I completely forgot you had metal!” He exclaims. “All this time, too...but hey – you got to infuse your aura with kaennikite! The chief has never let me do that before! That is incredible, you know – he doesn't let just anyone try it.”

“Let's work on you cycling your aura again,” Eldir tells me.

The next few days are spent with me focusing on cycling my aura through my body and infusing my bracelet with it.

After a week, I can perform cycling on my own without having to focus on channeling my aura through metal. Shortly after we confirm that, Rugli and seven others approach us.

“Dad,” Bari stands up, giving a slight dip of the head to his father. “Why have you gathered a Divine Formation?”

“A what?” I ask.

“A Divine Formation,” Rugli looks at me. “Is when seven Aura Divinities gather together. It's used for the most powerful of challenges, and the last one was formed sixty years ago. This is only the fourth time it has ever been done.”

“Aura Divinities?” I ask.

“Beings who,” he explains. “Have united so well with their aura, it's a natural part of them. It is part of the fabric of our existence. We are more powerful than ordinary aura users, and there are only two cases I know of where someone is more powerful than an Aura Divinity when it comes to aura.”

“Two cases?”

“I know of Aurix,” Bari says. “But who's the other?”

“Lite,” Rugli uses their name for Caleb, which they apparently call him because they've accepted him as one of their own. “Timos says that he believes Lite's own aura may be stronger than Aurix's, too, and since Timos was taught by Aurix...”

Aurix, the being who taught them how to wield aura the way they do. From what I understand, Aurix is Caleb's Teacher.

“So why has a Divine Formation been gathered?” Bari asks.

“The mines,” Eldir says, and Bari looks at him. “Sorry, Bari, but Father swore me to secrecy. They're going to take the three of us to the mines. They believe Jared can truly fight the monsters, and since there are already monsters there, it's not as if using his Ability will make it more dangerous.”

I can use it just fine in the village, too, apparently...they neglected to inform me of that little detail. Monsters tend to avoid the villages directly, the only reason the one Caleb's in is having problems is because of the power of Caleb's ring is just too much to ignore.

“When?” Bari asks.

“Now,” Rugli answers. “The plan is this: as the boy's Ability only lets him force metal apart, he can rip the corrupted kaennikite out of their hide, exposing their bare flesh, and we will take them with our arrows or daggers. You three can recover your aura on the walk there.”

“How far is it?” I ask.

“We can get there in about an hour,” Bari answers. “After half an hour, we'll start seeing their monsters.”

“If we can't find success against them when we first come across them,” Eldir tells me. “Then we won't move forward with the plan. The monsters there can use their claws to rip through aura, so we can't fight up close unless you remove their claws.”

“Got it,” I say.

“Let's go,” Rugli orders, turning and leaving.

I follow them out of the village, pissed as hell. That will probably fuel me in the fights, but that's not their intention. They don't see me as a warrior, and because of that, most of them ignore me or treat me as lesser or just like crap. I was genuinely surprised when Rugli spoke with me before.

Half an hour of seeing nothing but forest after we leave the village, we come across a panther with what appear to be metal scales, teal in color with a faint silver hue to them.

Sensing the kaennikite within the armor, I feel for it with my Ability, and unlike kaennikite in the village, I can grasp it with my Ability – but only for a moment.

The panther immediately looks its gaze on me, that moment all it needed to know something was affecting it, and who. It lunges, and I grasp its armor once more, thrust my hands apart and ripping the scales off.

The panther howls, dropping to the ground, and Rugli quickly ends its life, then retrieves his arrow.

“Let's keep moving.”

I glare at his back as we press forward. For the next half-hour, I rip off the armor of any monster that draws near us. Until we arrive at the entrance, we fight no more than three at a time, but the entrance to the mines...

There are probably a dozen monsters there, and they look tough. Large turtles and armadillos and lizards and snakes...and they all have scales of corrupted kaennikite.

Letting my anger wash over me, I step forward, beginning to rip scales from monsters. More pour out of the entrance as these ones start dying, and I don't care. I can even damage the monsters a little bit with the scales of the others, which pierce right through their own scales.

I don't know how long I fight for, but when I finish, there are nothing more than corpses around me, and I feel drained. Swaying, I force myself to sit down before I just collapse, and it's several minutes before I can do anything.

“Well,” Bari says. “That...was interesting.”

“Very interesting, Rige,” Rugli says. “Now that your anger's out of your system, think you can help us with the mines? It might be tough, but we'll be there to protect you, if any monsters jump out at you in the darkness.”

I'm about to snap at him when I realize two things.

One: he's just joking with me.

Two: he's joking with me.

Make that three.

Three: he called me Rige. 'Ree-gae'. Kind of sounds like he's saying 'really gay'. But the fact that he's calling me that, and actually joking with me...

He's accepted me as a warrior.

I lost control over myself, and he considers me a warrior. How fucked-up is that?

“Let's fuel up,” one of the other warriors says. “Better to rest and enter battle with some food in our stomachs than without.”

“Actually,” Rugli says.

“You know,” I look at the Divinity.

“Yes,” he nods. “I know.”

“How?” I ask. “I thought-”

“Not all of us died,” he says. “Some of us chose to stay down here.”

“But you-”

“Happen to share the looks of those down here,” he explains. “They removed the aura trace from me when I proved myself a warrior, so that the Upworlders would believe I'd died.”

“Why?” I ask.

“The cadet I'd fallen in love with,” he sighs. “Passed away down here. Irina was her name, and she could read auras. Killer with weapons. I was a metal Elemental, myself, and had planned on asking her out after we made it out of here. She was my partner down here, and-”

“Did you see her body?” I ask.

“What?” He looks stunned for a moment. “Sort of, why?”

“Pretty sure she's still alive,” I answer. “She works at the Alzir Training Branch, where I did BT at.”

“That...was my branch,” he frowns. “But I saw her die...”

“One thing I know,” I say. “Is unless you confirm the death, then to not accept it as true. Actually, I'm pretty sure that if you killed Caleb and destroyed the body, you probably would still not be able to accept his death as true...death seems to want to avoid killing him.”

“Lite?” He laughs. “He's quite the interesting character. He spent three days trying to figure out why we called his Teacher 'Aurix', and when he finally asked us, he asked us why we called him 'gold' in a dead language.”

“His hair, right?” I ask, and he laughs. “Yeah, that's Caleb alright. Can he get his ring to do anything else?”

“No,” he laughs again. “But the things he's told us...I can't tell whether he's making them up or not. Does the ring really allow him to access an island that he uses as breeding grounds for turtles?”

“How did that even come up?” I ask.

“It's true, isn't it?” His eyes widen.

“I haven't actually been there,” I say. “But the fact that Caleb pulls random turtles out of the ring says it probably is, and when he says something's true, it's best to accept it as fact until proven otherwise. When that boy starts contradicting himself, fuck does shit get weird.”

“He contradicts himself?”

“I've only encountered it once,” I nod. “And it's not an experience I want to go through again. Ever. That was painful as fuck.”

“What happened?”

“Just thinking about it is painful as fuck.”

He snorts.

“What's your name?” I ask him.

“Iltar,” he answers. “Though my Upworlder name was Theodore. I prefer Iltar now.”

“How many?” I ask.

“Just me,” he answers. “No other had enough light in their aura for them to care enough. The only reason they saved you was because of Bari, and we only saved Taylor because he was Lite's partner and happened to be there. When I first saw Lite, I honestly thought he was Aurix at first, due to the immense aura he was leveraging when he went to defend his partner, as well as the purity of the light within. Then I noticed that his aura actually has more light in it than Aurix's, and-”

“Caleb has more light in his aura than Teacher does?” I ask in surprise. “Sorry, it's just that that's shocking. Wait – Teacher has light in his aura?”

“All do, regardless of status,” he nods. “All of us down here do as well, but ours is a different kind of light. Aurix's light is different as well. It's not a light that's a balance of good and evil, but more seems to be a light of creation, as unusual as that might sound. Caleb's own aura has two kinds of light in it – the light of his balance between good and evil, and the same kind of light Aurix has. I find it hard to believe they're not related.”

So do I, after hearing that. Caleb's looks are so similar, he's so amazingly powerful with magic and aura, and his aura even has a form of light in it that I'm pretty sure is not normal to have in one's aura.

And then there's the matter of what I saw in the files at Alzir. I wasn't supposed to see it, but Irina brought up three colors to the aura, including a mystery one. Caleb's file mentioned that he had as much in it as Teacher did, after the day that Teacher showed up and...

She saw Teacher? We could have sworn only the cadets saw him. Did the instructors just pretend they didn't?

So many questions I need answers, and I still have a month and a half before I can actually ask anyone about them.

“I don't understand about the food,” Bari says. “It is better to not eat on a full stomach than on a full stomach.”

“For most people, yes,” I look at him. “However, Superhumans tend to have a huge appetite after using their Abilities, and it makes us weak, physically. I used a hell of a lot of Ability there, due to this place's effect on it. If we were upworld right now, that would've been nothing to me and maybe a sandwich would be fine, but...”

“We're down here,” Iltar finishes for me as things start to get a little spinny on me. “Where he effectively burned his energy for his Ability in that one fight.”

“Yeah, that,” I say. “Whoa, I'm starting to feel the effects now.”

Iltar gets me some food, and I eat until I feel better. They all have a small bite to eat, then we rest a few more minutes before heading into the mines.

Half an hour of walking later, and we haven't come across a single monster, just the wide tunnel walls with only the glowstones they brought with them to guide us.

That, and the aura of one of the Divinities. His aura apparently has light properties to it. Now that I think about it, he kind of had a glow before, and that was without sheathing himself in his aura.

Another twenty minutes, and I can sense something in the walls. I walk up to one. It's faint, just barely detectable. I put a hand against the wall and reach out with my Ability to sense it, and feel my Ability slide off of the ore.

Kaennikite. I can sense it, but can't wield it. Focusing, I take several steps back as they look at me.

“Stand clear,” I say, and Bari practically shoves his husband to the side as the Divinities stare at us.

The wall explodes toward us, coating us in dirt.

Well, them. I may have moved behind one of the Divinities right after triggering my Ability.

“Why did you do that, Rige?” Rugli coughs. “You probably just attracted the attention of every monster around.”

“They're intelligent,” I crouch down and brush my hand through some of the rubble, picking up an ore. “They'd know that I found a spot in the wall with a material that can cut them.”

“Kaennikite,” Rugli realizes. “How did you sense it?”

“I think,” I say. “It was a mix of my aura and Ability. I've given myself a small infusion of it for defense, and with it having traits from my Ability, it must have given me an additional sense for metal. I mean, I have that with my Ability, but not down here.”

Now that I think about it, I shouldn't be able to rip apart their scales with my Ability – I should need to touch it to do that. I have to be able to sense it.

Things aren't making sense, but instead of focusing on that, I infuse the rather large chunk of ore with my aura, and smile as I realize something. Bits of dirt and stuff fall off of the ore as it begins to reshape itself, taking on the form of a small knife.

“How did you do that?” Rugli asks, eyes wide.

“My aura,” I say. “It has metallic properties. When it interacts with metal, I guess I can reshape the metal. That's actually pretty cool.”

Iltar picks up another chunk of ore and focuses on it, and a moment later, it reshapes into a disk, then into a knife.

“I never considered that,” he says. “I brought a few kaennikite weapons, but this is a purer grade than what we had. Not the purest I've seen, but...amazing.”

Iltar and I gather up as much of the ore as we can and create new weapons with it with our aura, discovering that we can even merge pieces together. Aura simply flows into it easily.

We work the material for an hour, then rest up. Once we're rested, the ten of us make our way deeper into the mines, clearing out one tunnel at a time once we start coming upon the branches, each of which have monsters inside.

When we reach the deepest and furthest tunnel, where the most kaennikite ore is located, never getting a chance to be mined, we find a massive tortoise covered in both pure and corrupted kaennikite blocking the way, with what looks like two guns on its shell.

This is the creature that began the assault, but lacked the kaennikite back then. S-Ranked monster with a nigh impenetrable shell capable of firing projectiles, as well as incredible strength and speed.

“My turn,” Iltar steps forward, and he begins to glow with a silvery light as he spreads his arms. “You who have defiled our mining grounds, be cleansed from this world.”

The ground begins to glow as his aura seeps into it, then the walls and ceiling. The turtle snarls, then fires projectiles of kaennikite from its shell, and they stop as they touch Iltar's aura, melting and wrapping around him, then launching back at the tortoise.

The assault continues as the walls begin to shift and change, kaennikite pulling out of them, infused with the power of Iltar's aura.

“Writ of Divinity,” Iltar's voice echoes through the mines, the very air laced with the power of his aura. “Metal's Divine Cut.”

The ores shift into blades, then converge onto the tortoise, a thousand needles and daggers penetrating its shell.

The moment his strike finishes, the Aura Divinity drops to his knees, breathing heavily as his aura fades from the surroundings.

As the others check on him, I watch as the tortoise turns black, the disintegrates into a black dust that fades into the air. All of the other monsters do as well, I notice as I look back.

A nagging feeling at the back of my mind says that something isn't right, something other than the fact that monsters don't just fade away like that after dying. Or rather, after one particular one dies.

Once Iltar has recovered from that attack, we gather up some of the kaennikite, then leave the mines and return to the village, not a single monster in sight as we make the journey.

~~(Flame)~~

“Are you alright, Flame?” My partner asks. Garret. His name is Garret. Garret the irritated twat. “Flame! Answer me!”

“Huh?” I look at him. “I'm alright. Jeez. Keep your voice down.”

“You kind of wore yourself out that time,” he says. “I could barely keep up with you. Remember – I can't use my Ability here, so I'm stuck with my aura.”

“I just wish,” I sit against a tree. “The monsters would stop attacking us. It seems like anytime we get into a fight, we have to run, because more monsters show up after. Why does having a fight cause more fights?”

The air shifts, and I jump to my feet as Garret looks around, drawing his combat knife and looking around.

“That's not a threat,” I say. “That's Caleb's power we just felt. He just wrapped us up into one of his reality marbles. It's only natural he'd be able to use his Ability here, if I can.”

“I still don't believe-” Garret cuts off as we both flip up into the air and find ourselves standing on the bottoms of tree branches instead of the ground, though I almost missed. “What the hell?”

“Hey, Caleb!” I wave as I see him approaching, jumping from branch to branch until he arrives. “Why'd you shift gravity on us?”

“Practice,” he answers. “I didn't know you two were here. This is my partner, Taylor. He's my partner.”

“You already said that,” I say.

“So?” He looks irritated. “He's my partner. Not yours. I should warn you to flee as soon as we leave the marble.”

“Why?” I ask. “Are you gonna go all scary on us or something?”

“No,” he answers. “Magic and Abilities attract monsters down here, so-why do you look horrified?”

“I've been using my Ability,” I admit. “I can use it enough to create an explosive burst, and use that when fighting the monsters. Are you saying that that is why we keep having more monsters attack us after a fight?”

“Probably,” he answers, twisting his ring a little bit and pulling out a few knives teal in color with a silver hue to them, then tosses them to us. They float in the air. “Two each. They're kaennikite, and work well with infusing your aura into them to fight. Being from where you are, Flame, I'd say you already know how to do that.”

“Yeah!” I nod. “I've even taught Garret how! It was so frustrating, though, because he kept getting frustrated and annoying, and I just wanted to punch him, but I didn't. So if using your Abilities attracts monsters, why are you doing it?”

“My ring is magical,” Caleb responds. “While the only thing it does down here is return to my finger. I think the enchantment was a little too strong. I honestly didn't expect it to be that strong.”

“Did you make the ring yourself?” I ask. “I thought you said it was a gift from Teacher?”

“I never said what it was,” Caleb suddenly looks annoyed. “Since the ring's as powerful as it is, it attracts monsters, and I can't get rid of it due to that enchantment. I wanna...never mind. So me practicing my Ability down here in case it's needed isn't going to increase the threat level. But yeah, you two should probably run away the moment I release you from here, because we're, ah, purposely attracting monsters right now.”

“Why?” Garret asks, then looks around. “Why are the colors of everything changing?”

“I can't really do a whole lot with my Ability down here,” Caleb looks depressed. “And I need to flex it to attract the monsters. So I'm changing color tones and stuff. Dropping you two out.”

The moment he says that, Garret and I find ourselves dropping to the ground. I land in a roll, and Garret lands on his side and swears, then moves to his feet.

I grab him and start bursting my Ability. It will attract monsters, yes, but probably not as many as Caleb is purposely attracting. Once we're a fair distance away – far enough away that we shouldn't be affected by the monsters he's attracting – I stop running.

“That's...insane,” Garret says, then looks up, wrapping himself in his aura. “Monsters.”

“I got this,” I say.

“Don't use your Ability again!” He exclaims as I start ripping through the monsters with my flames. “Flame! No!”

“This isn't my Ability!” I ignore his attempts to stop me. “These are claws of dragon fire!”

When the last monster falls, he stares at me, eyes wide. We stare at each other for several long minutes.

“Look,” I say. “No new monsters, and there's always been a few within two minutes of the fight. It's been six. That's not my Ability's fire. I dun know where it comes from or why I can use it, but it's my dragon fire claws. Now stop being a baby – I know you're just upset that I got to kill more monsters than you.”

“No, I'm not,” he shakes his head. “You-”

He cuts off, looking to the side.

“I what?” I ask, looking in the same direction he is. “That looks like a cave.”

“It probably is,” he says. “That's the cliff face that surrounds the Enchanted Forest, judging by the height. There are no signs or anything, but from the fact that the entrance is stone, I'd say it's not just a cave but Ruins.”

“Ruins?” I ask, and he nods. “Why do you think it's Ruins? It doesn't give me the tingly feeling Ruins give me.”

“Ruins give you tingly feelings?” He looks at me in confusion.

“Yeah,” I nod. “My dragon fire gets all tingly when we're near ruins. Well, this near to them. Maybe I just have to go inside to see?”

I walk into the entrance, but don't feel a tingle. Wrapping myself in my aura for light, I begin walking, looking at the smooth walls.

“Flame, no!” Garret exclaims. “Flame, don't just walk into the tunnel! We're partners, and we need to stick together!”

“I knew you'd follow,” I tell him. “Now stop being noisy, you're annoying me and I want to punch you again.”

After almost an hour of walking, we arrive in a large cavern with a dozen openings on the opposite wall, each one decorated differently from the others. The moment I enter the room, I feel a shift in me.

My aura is no longer accessible, and my Ability and magic can be sensed once more. Testing, my aura doesn't work at all, and fire swirls around me in a blazing inferno that terrifies Garret.

“Holy shit!” He swears. “What the hell are you doing, Flame? The monsters-”

“There aren't any nearby,” I look around. “I can sense all of the heat around me, as part of my Ability, and the only living things here are us. Our Abilities are working again, but our auras aren't. At all. I can't even force it. Caleb would probably know why.”

“Why do you think he'd know?”

“Caleb knows more than he says he does,” I look at him. “He probably knows about this place. These aren't Ruins, either.”

“They're not?” He asks.

“No tingle in my dragon fire,” I nod. “This is something entirely different. It's kind of scaring me.”

“You?” He scoffs. “Scared?”

“I can't use my aura,” I say. “Just my Ability and magic. Something isn't right about this place. It's making my hair stand on end.”

I lift my arm up, and he looks at it. My hair is literally standing straight up, and when he sees that, he frowns.

“I thought that was just a phrase,” he says. “I've never actually seen it before.”

“This place is creepy,” I look at the dozen paths we could take. “As soon as I stepped into this chamber, the switch happened. There's got to be powerful magic or something at work here. Whatever it is, it's scaring me. I want...I want my brothers. I can't take it!”

I run back into the tunnel we came from and don't stop until I'm back in the forest. I don't stop running until I slam into Cliff, tackling him to the ground and wrapping my arms around him, crying into his chest.

“Whoa, Flame!” He says. “What are you doing?”

“I missed you!” I sob into his shirt. “It was scary! I couldn't use my aura and my magic and Ability worked in there, but it gave me a creepy feeling and made my dragon fire feel all weird and it wasn't tingly like Ruins make it and it was scary! It was so scary, Cliff! It was like reality was different without it being a marble! It was so scary and terrifying, Cliff! I'm so scared!”

“It's alright,” Cliff wraps his arms around me. “You're alright, Flame. Everything will be fine. We've less than a month and a half left, so you'll be fine, okay? You'll make it through. Where's your partner? Brooks said you found him.”

“Probably back there,” I sniffle. “It's too scary, Cliff. It's way too scary. I dun wanna be there!”

“It's alright,” he rubs my back. “Come on, Flame, let's get up. Once you calm down, tell me about it, okay?”

“Okay,” I get off of him and sit with my back against a tree, and he sits beside me. “Where's your partner? You didn't do an aura trace?”

“Died on the first day,” Cliff sighs. “I never met up with him. I haven't really fought any monsters or anything, but judging by how quickly he died, I'd say he landed near a monster and was caught off-guard.”

Cliff puts an arm on my shoulders and leans his head into mine, and I lean into him and start crying again. That was really scary, and I don't want to go back. Please don't make me go back.