As the door swung open to reveal a grand hall noises hit him the psst of steam, the ringing of things getting pushed through the barely visible copper tubing that was hidden within the darkness of the roof. Low hanging lights that lit up the floor.

As he scanned the room he noticed the diverse collection of beings. Some were very short, there were many creatures like the Rock behind him but there were differences too some were very well polished and made out of different coloured metals.

Neo couldn’t tell if there was a difference in the hierarchy from the quick glances or scattered conversation and actions of those around, however, he wasn’t sure if there were any women around as some of the creatures could be.

As the Rock pushed him forward the door banged closed behind them.

Rock guided him to a door to the right of the main entrance written on a placard were the words BCIS which were etched in English which surprised him.

‘Oh joy’ Neo thought sarcastically ‘I wonder what that means.’

The Rock opened the wooden door pulling him through and saw a petite woman behind a counter that came up to his chest.

She smiled as the Rock push him forward, to the counter, Neo looked her in the eyes so that his gaze won’t look down on her… as she was wearing a loose-fitting shirt, in a sweet voice, she said “HelloGie. How are you doing and what have you bought in today?”

Gie replied without any emotion or interest, in its rough voice “He’s, an intruder, on hill, lock up.Someone look into him.”

She replied, “Thank you Gie for bringing him.” Turning to Neo “I’ll have you fill in a form and then will get you situated until someone can speak with you.”

Neo nodded “Ok, thanks.”

Getting a piece of paper out of a draw she continued talking “Ok I just need to get some personal information from you. What is your name?”

“Neo Marwolaeth”

“Age?”

“18”

“Race?”

“Human”

The woman paused “Well that’s weird. It seems that you have some sort of power, so you can't be a normal human as they can’t see past the illusion, so do you have any special abilities?”

Neo thought about telling the truth but felt that Death might not have the best reputation so went for the next best thing that he could use to explain it “I am telekinetic if that changes anything!”

The women seemed to stew on the information for a few seconds before replying “That would make a bit of sense, how long ago did it develop?”

“Yesterday, and that’s when I found the gateway to this city”

“So do you have somewhere to stay?”

“Nope I have nowhere that I can call my own, I was sleeping on the streets of Swansea when I came across the portal. Then I started seeing creatures that I couldn’t believe existed I thought I had gone mad and was seeing things!”

“I can’t imagine what it is like, so I guess you’ve never seen a golem before, nor dwarves,” She said pointing towards the Gie “My name is Bethany and I welcome you to the supernatural, paranormal, divine world where the myths of your world are facts in our own.”

“Thank you, Bethany, Neo, pleasure to meet you and I hope I am not in too much trouble!”

Bethany smiled “Even in a situation as unique as yours, you are polite and seem very calm just what I imagined for a young British man.

Thank you, Gie you can leave him to me I am sure that he didn’t know anything of the hill and it’s prohibited entry, but I would like to know how you got up there without getting caught by any of the other Castles?”

Bethany turned the last part towards Neo “I walked passed the castle with no windows, no one stopped me and I just continued forward to get a view of the city.”

Bethany quivered in anger, a glow formed in her eyes “Those bloody vampires can’t even take care of their part of the border at least we have some ammo to throw at them for their incapability’s and get them to hire guards for the daytime like we do.”

She said as she stormed out from around the counter, Neo heard and then saw that she was standing on mechanical stilts that had a red and blue glow coming from it.

Seeing his shock Bethany said “What never seen a gnome on stilts before, by the way, we don’t wear red hats!” before leaving the room.

Gie spoke up pointing towards a bench “You stay, wait for her, I’m off, continue patrol.”

After Gie left, Neo decided to walk around the room he found some suspicious looking writing on all the doors - symbols and guessed them to be of magical origin, thus dubbing them dangerous in his mind as they were probably an alarm or defence system.

From what he could see it was a processing reception it wasn’t very interesting or well decorated a mat on the floor, a few plants, paintings otherwise it was a boring plain stone building with a slightly oppressive feel.

Getting bored of looking around, he decided to take a seat and try out his telekinesis talking with Bethany he realised he needed to know how to use it and how it would feel.

Neo as a martial artist had always been aware of the state of his body as being thrown around and hit does give a unique awareness that you don’t get from everyday things.

As of this morning, there was something different in his mind, awareness of a muscle that needed stretching, Neo grabbed that feeling and pulled it through his eyes directing the feel toward the mat nothing happened.

Taking out his wallet ‘maybe the mat’s too heavy’ but again nothing, closing his eyes again nothing happened.

He thought that maybe he needed a bit of imagination like all the stories say. You need a bit of imagined instruction as he didn’t really believe that it could happen, so he started directing his imagination to lift his wallet he believed that it would lift, placing the imagined image over his eyes he again demanded that the wallet lift off his hands he felt a little breeze as his wallet flew past his face slapping lightly on the roof, Neo was surprised and lost control of the wallet which fell hitting him in the face.

Neo gave a surprised haha as excitement bloomed and his belief solidified, he then commanded it to come to rest just above his hand.

It did as commanded.

With a huge grin on his face, he started using his mind to move the wallet around and it moves much more smoothly.

He had his wallet hover just in front of his sitting form he looks back to the mat in front of the door and tried moving it, in the same way, it lifted a few centimetres above the ground he looked back to the wallet which was still in place where he’d last left it.

His grin widened as he moved the mat in front of him just incase someone came through the door.

He then looked around for more things to move, his gaze landed on the plants.

Soon he had four plants floating in front of him and he was looking for more he now wanted to see how far he could go, he saw the reception and the pens lying on the desktop and picked one up, as he did he heard a light plop as his wallet hit the ground.

He floated the pen over and lined it up with the six other items that he had.

As the pen floated he concentrated back on his wallet and consciously used telekinesis and tried to pick it back up being aware of the six other items that were floating so that he wouldn’t drop them.

His wallet quivered slightly but it was just a bit beyond his abilities as the other items also became unsteady in the air as he struggled to lift it.

Neo heard the door open, surprising him, he almost dropping the plants but didn’t he did forget about the pen and mat as they clattered to the ground.

Looking to the door to see who had interrupted his practice, he found Bethany at the door looking at the floating plants with her mouth open, there was also someone behind a man quite a bit taller but was also very stocky, Neo assumed that he was a dwarf.

The dwarf also had gaping mouth syndrome, Neo decided to put the plants back to where they belonged the pen was put back and finally he made the mat fly back in front of the door where his new friends were now observing it as it landed in front of them, they seemed to come back to themselves after a minute of no flying instruments.

Bethany spoke first “Well at least that proves that he has telekinesis, hey Thra!”

The dwarf spoke up after coughing in a deep very manly voice “Indeed it’ll make things quicker”

Looking at Neo, Thra walked forward holding out a hand in front of him “Thra’s the name, I’m the commander of BCIS. Bethany came to me saying that you made your way up the hill through the undead clans land and didn’t get caught is that right?”

“Yes if the undead clan owns the castle with no windows in it”

Thra nodded “I know Bethany’s a good Truth-seeker but I just had to make sure. Bethany if you could write a report about it?”

“Certainly”

With a pad and pen in hand, Thra continued talking with a smile “Thank you, now I also heard that Bethany has suggested to me that you could stay in one of the cells for the night and help Bethany as you don’t have a place to stay or money?”

Neo wasn’t going to lie he had money “I do have some cash but I don’t know anything about this city and whether the money I have is usable?”

Thra nodded “Fair enough, we do have a different currency but you can exchange yours in our bank. You are lucky as you’re not used to seeing supernatural creatures or the new cultures you are about to be flooded with, we are probably one of the best clans to have fallen into.

So I will give permission for you to stay here we’re not expecting any trouble so it should be a safe place for you to stay, so would you like to do that?”

Neo was surprised by the offer and took the offer, having a place to stay for free was awesome even if it was a cell, he didn’t mind doing a job it’ll make the time go quicker “It’ll be a pleasure to stay and I’d love to have something to do but if we could talk about what life is like here if we have time.” Bethany nodded “yeah that’d be cool!”

Thra scratched his neck “Bethany take care of him and have him see me tomorrow before he leaves, Good night everyone!”

But before the commander left he gave a warning “Neo just incase anybody hasn’t told you people found on the hill are usually punished with the stocks, the only reason your not is because Gie brought you here and Bethany is on your side with anyone else you would have been put in the stocks tomorrow!” Neo shivered as the commander disappeared. Shortly after Neo realised what was said a little earlier, ‘night’ how long was he sitting trying to use telekinesis.

Bethany closed the door with a shy smile after having heard what the commander had said “Sorry I left you for so long but he wanted an in-depth explanation of you. So I will show you your home for tonight and then we will go get some food, you can ask any questions as we go and I’ll answer to the best of my ability.”

“Your boss seems like a tough nut.”

“What makes you say that?” she said walking toward a door to the right side of the reception touching the symbol it glowed and swung open

“Well, his making you work for twelve hours and then asked you to take care of me after your shift!”

The Gnome laughed “Boy do you, have a lot to learn I am a gnome we can go days without sleeping so don’t worry it usually happens when it gets busy!”

“Oh…… so what are those glowing symbols?”

Bethany turns to look back at him with a smile on her face as they entered a corridor with walls and steel doors that had more symbols on them.

“They’re enchantments after I register you’ll be able to access those doors and the receptions, records and your cell if you had touched them without being registered then you would be shocked as they defend themselves and if you do it again then the shock will increase with each touch.”

As she was fiddling around with something “Bit harsh don’t you think?”

She stopped fiddling and spoke in a serious cold tone “Some of the creatures and beings we get in here are very dangerous and can kill people very easily so giving them a millimetre and they can grab a mile!”

Neo’s back tingled as a chill ran up his spine “Sorry!”

She turned around and stared at him with a smile on her face but her eyes told of a cold fierceness. “It’s ok, it happens we learn and carry on, just remember this isn’t the human world your moral code will probably get crushed so you might want to prepare mentally and keep your mouth shut on a lot of things.”

Neo gulped sensing for the first time a bit fearful as his gut squirmed in worry “Why do I have to be careful?”

Bethany seemed to relax a little as she went back to work “Tell me why do you think Clans exist?”

“Mm, It is somewhere for likeminded people to meet and form a community to progress towards something.”

“Likeminded ha,” she said in a sarcastic tone “We are the Tinkers clan a powerful alliance between the Gnome and Dwarves. We co-rule this city as a part of a council. Each castle represents a kingdom or clan as a city we are a centre of free trade, relations, competition and exploration and all the individual kingdoms try to get there clan reps to the top in order to give themselves advantages. Although it will always be a free and balanced city with so many opposing forces no one ends up in a position of power for long.”

The problem for you is that A, each kingdom has a different culture and ways of doing things so things that are considered perfectly normal like slavery, torture, fights to the death to name a few are abhorrent to you.

B, You as a human have no representatives so you may be seen as easy pickings in our world, if you’re going to stay then you will need to tough up and learn to fight for yourself as none of the clans will accept you as you have just insulted the undead clan unintentionally I know but they won’t care, none of the lower clans will touch you with a barge pole even the larger ones will not, so as to not upset the balance.

C, The human mages left the bubble world ages ago as they were picked on for being, weak without a kingdom to back them, I will hazard a guess that everyone might underestimate you so that could be an advantage, but otherwise humans are looked upon as one of the weakest races out there.”

‘Joy’ Neo thought sarcastically ‘so I’m on my own, great.’

“Anyway, you could always return to the human world. But right now touch this and you won’t have a shocking night anyway” Bethany grinned

“Talking about that Bethany how can I get back?”

“If you want to return to Swansea then you will need to use a portal you’ll need a debit card that we can get you tomorrow, or if you don’t mind a walk then you could just walk out of the bubble walls, and find a bus to the closest city or town, in this case, it is Brecon.”

“Ok thank you,” ‘so that is what they were using to get through the portal’ Neo thought

Neo then looked at the device finding a palm print indented into a sheet of metal, he got the idea placed his hand onto the device, it shined brightly and dimed with no magic wind and no bleeding palms Neo was a little disappointed by the underwhelming exchange.

“Right then,” Bethany spoke with a bit of cheer “Time to get some food Neo, follow me and then you can do some filing for me.”

Placing his bag with his flute, in one of the cells he followed Bethany into the grand hall with a few inquisitive looks from people, they travelled up a few set of stairs and entered into the dining hall, copper pipes climbed the walls interspersed with wood giving it a tavern feel, a four facing clock hung down from the middle of the room.

Neo followed Bethany’s lead to the buffet with a selection of foods to pick from, grabbed a tray and looked at the surprisingly normal food on offer with meats, vegetables and fruits that he recognised.

Taking what he wanted he followed Bethany up to a counter where she told the till operator to send it to the BCIS account and walked off looking a bit chuffed with herself.

As they looked for a table he noticed that he was being watched by almost everyone in the room, he tried hard to ignore them, he might need to get used to it he thought as he did stand head and shoulders over most of them apart from the Golems.

Bethany eventual found a place at the back in a corner where she turned a knob on her mechanical stilts, which fold up like a horses legs do, then with a quick twist of her feet, she disconnected from the device. Neo stood gaping at the amazing technology he’d just witnessed his mind sparked at the possibilities. ‘I’m definitely going to have to ask her about those later!’

Once seated he began eating which earned him looks of scorn from those on other tables around him ‘Ops, What did I do.’

Looking around the room he found still full plates and no one holding cutlery, ‘Ow damn, I should’ve paid attention to what everyone else was doing.” putting the knife and fork down, he looks towards Bethany who had a smirk.

Neo went to apologise but stopped when he saw her hand move to her lips in a shushing movement.

Neo sat there quietly for what felt like ages; more people came through getting food and sitting down all not touching their food and sat waiting.

But their plates where in the middle of the table, putting his hand over the middle and he felt warm, Neo looked under the table find more pipes leading up to the middle of the table he could feel the slight warmth coming of them.

Neo’s stomach growled loudly as he ate the food with his imagination crying over the delicious food he could smell.

It wasn’t until the main doors closed that a door opened at the back of the room. Everyone in the room stood as several gnomes and dwarfs walked out taking their place at the head table.

Once the head table had all been seated the rest of the room began taking their seats again but still they didn’t eat and sat waiting looking at the head table.

As the room fell silent an old dwarf still with the air of authority coughed to clear his voice, “Gentlemen I have an announcement…” More coughing ensued as the old dwarf regained his composure he continued his speech “the council has decided it’s about time to put together another expedition team which will be travelling into the South American continent to explore, map, and discover more bubbles.

The expedition force will be led by a professor from the academy the rest will be from the defence force. Selected through a tournament which will be held in three months’ time where the grand prize will be 5 million Scions for the first place winner and half that for second place and so on.

As I am not young enough to enter it, we have decided to enter our strongest warrior of the clan, Islwyn.” Everyone apart from Neo clapped and cheered as a mountain of a dwarf rocked up onto the stage.

Neo thought mountain in terms of dwarfs and gnomes but he was still short for a human but add their dwarf constitution he was bulky and looked like he could easily crush a brick wall with those fists of his.

Then the old man picked up a tankard and knocked it against Islwyn’s one and shouted: “for the Tinkers Clan!”

The crowd cheered, mashed their own tankards together and started eating without using knives or forks.

Neo looking to Bethany seeing that she was tucking herself into the meal in front of her with a concerned frown but hiding it with a smile when she noticed him watching her, “So what’s an expeditionary team, I am pretty sure South America been discovered in the Human world?”

Bethany looked at him with confusion before realise who she was talking to “Sorry got lost in the wisps for a second there, we live in the bubbles, supernatural bubbles, that are like another dimension which have, scars in the fabric of them which join them together, for example there are 10 scars within this bubble, the city was built here because it makes for a great trading spot, and well situated within a dozen kingdoms. But it does come with the hazards of rogue, migrating and wandering creature coming through and killing people on purpose or accident.

There are dozens of ways to gain access through walking into it if you are a supernatural being anyway, through the gateways and through the scars from other bubbles.

The purpose of the team is to find new bubbles to make contact with other kingdoms, find treasures, shortcuts and new species of magical creatures and more resources.

It is a dangerous job as you are encountering new threats and ancient dangers which is why they are paying you with the prize money before sending you off.

Take the last expedition, for example, they all died in a miscommunication with the shamanistic kingdom and caused a war for a few hundred years, with millions of dead men, creatures and money it ended in a white peace treaty.”

After her long lecture Neo instead of having answered one question she caused several more questions, “How did you lose to the Shamans and what are they?”

Bethany had several mouths full of food as she chewed them quickly and talk as food flow out “The Shamans are a combination of species from human to Orcs.

They use the elementals and enchantments with their speciality being in their totems a superior defensive system which killed millions of our forces even at the end of the war we couldn’t find a way past their totems.

It cost dearly the people of the coalition forces. They attacked quickly and disappeared as quick, we thought that they had the ability to travel through the bubbles ways without using the scars.

It lasted for a few hundred years as the kings and the council didn’t want to give up with their long life’s they could keep it up as they don’t have the same perception of time. It wasn’t until the citizens nearly revolted against their kings and the council that they called for a white peace.

We don’t actually know, how the shamans kept us away but they did what they did, after the council and kingdoms called for the white peace, the shamans stayed out of our way for years with us not attacking them they eventually came calling and signed the white peace and since then the kingdoms have been trying to make good.”

Neo nodded engaged with the large amount of information and was eager to learn more but his head had started to hurt with the sound of revelry around him. He decided to eat and leave once they had finished he wasn’t much for crowded, loud places.

Bethany had been scoffing down her food as if it would just disappear any second now; it wasn’t until a hand clamped down on his shoulder.

Bethany stopped eating and scowled at the person who had clamped it’s heavily coarse hand, Neo struggled off the urge to break the arm of the ass who couldn’t say ‘excuses me’.

Neo calmly turned around to speak with the individual that wanted his attention, finding a male Dwarf unsurprisingly with a cocky looking grin that peeked through his huge beard in a barely understandable voice he said: “Looks like you’re having trouble eating there!”

He nodded toward the just over half empty plate of food.

Neo had been lazily eating so that he wouldn’t make himself sick as he hadn’t eaten for close to a day and the large portions that they gave out were a bit much but Neo still appreciated.

Neo had never been in a situation that a fight could break out over food but here it was.

“No trouble here, just taking my time so that I won’t make myself sick after not eating a lot for the past few days.”

The attention of the surrounding area as the Dwarf seemed to take notice of the attention with a more swagger and confidence “Well as you don’t wish to risk being sick perhaps you could do without the rest of it!”

Neo looked at him and saw a healthy plump Dwarf, not a malnourished one, why did he want my food possibly a test of some kind? Best play it passively, offer half I can’t really eat it all, it looked like the infamous proportions of the USA plate. “My apologies, I am still hungry but I would quite happily half the remaining portion if it is ok with the BCIS agent of course as she’s bought it for me?”

Looking over to Bethany who seemed surprised at her sudden inclusion, and sheepishly replied: “The commander gave me permission to buy it for you so it is yours now, do what you want with it.”

There were a bit of laughter from the surrounding Dwarves, the one in front of him joined in but before the dwarf could speak, Neo spoke: “Of course if you are truly hungry then I understand the feeling I’ll share if you would get your plate I’ll split it with you?”

With some venom in his voice, the dwarf replied: “Why would I share with a skirt hider like you?”

With a quick thought ‘Ok that escalated quick and I was willing to share, honestly ungrateful ass.’

“Please, as you have insulted me, I have no reason to continue this conversation, if you do not wish to share in my food then, please leave me to my food.”

Waiting for a reply Neo wondered if any of the human ideas, equality and freedoms had made their way down to this world.

“Skirt hider, skirt hider…”

The surrounding people started the jeer along with the dwarf in front of him.

So he was a skirt hider, he felt slightly disappointed in his new world that they didn’t have greater respect for their womenfolk.

The jeering continued but Neo smiled and turn back to his food ‘if they were not going to be respectful then I’m going to ignore them a keep my tongue quiet.’

He continued eating but faster, the jeering slowly died down as they realised it had no effect on him.

Neo realised that they didn’t quite know how to handle the situation as there was quite a bit of whispering happening behind him.

But when he felt a recognisable hand land on his shoulder he realised he had finished, standing up, the hand disappear as the Dwarf couldn’t reach it anymore, and he turned to Bethany surprising her “Miss Bethany, have you finished, I think I’d like to see my bed for the night and help you sort out your files!” he said with a smile on his face

Bethany who took a minute to look around at the staring faces shyly squeaked “Yes, I’m finished, a lot to do, best to go continue my shift.”

Neo laughed inside he let the small gnome walk stiffly in her metal stilts in front of him as he towered over her and everyone else.

He made sure to be respectful to Bethany “Miss Bethany, where do you place the empty trays?”

She pointed towards a hole in the wall and consciously whispered: “We take the dirty cutlery over there.”

“Thank you for dinner by the way it was delicious, let me take your tray for you.” He said and before she could reply he was already on his way with it in his hand and placed the tray inside and said “thank you!” to anybody that was behind there but only heard a psst of steam but no reply.

Heading back towards the doorway and a red faced Bethany, Neo took a passing glance around the room most of them were not interested in what was going on, and the ones who had been harassing him were as red-faced as Bethany, others had shock written over their faces, which humoured him quite a bit.

“Miss Bethany, shall we continue?”

They returned to the BCIS reception where Bethany placed a hand on another door behind the reception and opened into the records room where there were just cabinets, Neo assumed full of files and shelves at the back with an assortment of boxes.

He also looked back at the desk finding it covered in enchantments, pointing Neo asked Bethany “What do they do?”

Bethany looked at them and smiled “Those are defensive and offensive enchantments that one puts a barrier up around the desk that one electrifies it for those that really get out of control!”

“What if they get past it?”

Neo turned to look at Bethany but found a red glowing stick being pointed at him, looking past straight into her eye he found them glowing with a piercing gold, he shivered under her gaze. “I can see the intent of people it gives me enough of a warning not to tell them but it isn’t the only things I can use to defend myself!”

Nodding Neo was glad when she placed the wand back into her stilts

“I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t handle monsters!”

Nodding some more he calmed himself while Bethany walked towards a pile of files Neo thought ‘where was this confident woman earlier in the canteen?’

The files were 2 times her own size, patting the pile she spoke “These are the file I want you to put away they are from the last week of investigations they need to go in to the correct cabinet, there are 24 cabinets lined up in alphabetical order you just need to put it in the correct cabinet and that’ll be an easy task but time-consuming.”

It seemed simple enough as he picked the first one and went to find the correct place for it. Once he had learnt where all the cabinets were he started to use his telekinesis to move the files to him and then towards the corresponding cabinet, it wasn’t long until he had it in full swing.

“So did you know that would happen in there?”

Neo asked Bethany who was sitting back behind the reception filling in the forms replied “Of course but it did flee my mind, but you’re going to have to learn some things for yourself as I don’t know everything, but I didn’t save you, because they don’t like women who have power over them, they find it weak to stand behind women, I also wanted to see how you’d handle it.”

“How’d I do?”

“MM… ok, you went passive which they didn’t know how to handle as most of the time it would just end up in a fight to protect your honour as a man, which you didn’t do!”

“Was that wrong?”

“To them, you’ll seem weak even by those who observed the confrontation, will look down on you, as you might not have noticed we were at the back of the room?”

Neo nodded thinking back to it were sitting at the back, Neo the assumed from there that the more affluent people were at the front, like a hierarchical system

“Well as a women I have no hope of getting closer to the front unless my boyfriend or husband is an important person or powerful, but even then I would be alone as there a no other women in the building dwarf or gnomes, even though gnomes don’t mind, we had to make concessions with the dwarves culture the only reason I am allowed here is because I am a truth-seeker, which affords me privileges like working here as it is well paid considering that I am a woman, I’ve never been courted by anyone.”

Neo also searched his memories and couldn’t find any other women that he could recognise as women anyway.

“What’s a Truthseeker?”

Bethany laughed sweetly looking back at him “Kind of says it in the title really, but I can see if someone is being dismissive, lying or I can be a Wayfinder with inventions, I can look at something that needs repairing and it shows me how to fix it, improve them just better ways, sort of hard to explain it.”

Neo nodded in understand “I think I get it so did I pass earlier today?”

A huge grin spread across her face “I am not telling what I got from you.”

“Ow interesting, go on!”

“Nope, not happening its part of my contract not to communicate what I know, but do you think you’d be in my records room if I thought you were dangerous.”

Neo nodded “Good point, wouldn’t want to get you in trouble, by the way, I’ve finished with the filing!”

This got Bethany’s attention she came back checking on the file pile and some of the cabinets “What! it would take me an ages to do that, how did…” She seemed to think for a little bit “Your telekinesis you used it to open and close the cabinets and move the files around, mmm so jealous right now!

So what do you want to do now?”

Neo thought about asking more question but he could just felt a headache flaring in his mind, maybe I should relax “Do you like music?”

“Yes, of course, it’s considered an art. skills and crafts are very acceptable practices indeed, why are you a musician?”

“Yes I guess, I can play the flute.”

“Oh did love to listen; it’s a shame that you don’t have a flute.”

"I do!" He went out to grab his flute from his bag, once he returned there was a gasp from Bethany and the flute that had just been picked up was suddenly gone again as Bethany swooped in grabbing it from his hands.

The sudden action from Bethany took Neo by surprise and was defenceless to stop her as she admired the flute; she suddenly pulled a set of goggles from out of a desk draws.

Inspecting Bethany a bit closer he found a well balanced body if she was of human sized it would be considered hot whether other Gnomes liked it he wouldn’t know.

“O wow what a flute, Neo where’d you get this it’s beyond masterful, could even call it divine?”

She said turning around with her goggles on making her orange eyes huge, she realises that his eyes were magnified, she blushed removing her goggles.

Neo stared at her with a huge grin on his face. He shook his head and answered her question pausing and remembering that she was a truth-seeker and reconsidered lying “It sort of fell out of the sky!”

She burst out laughing “Ha you’re not lying it must be a divine item no other option!”

She continued admiring the flute with a huge grin. Neo watched her wanting to know more about divine items “What's a divine Item?”

“Mmm, Neo broad topic, but basically they are items of massive power that are used, made or given by demi-gods or gods.”

She was still admiring the flute while she answered.

Neo smiled “Would you like me to play you a song?”

That got her attention she stopped checking out the flute and looked at him with a sparkle in her eyes “Would you?”

“Yes, of course, no problem. I have to keep practising, as my grandfather used to say “if you don’t use it you lose it” and mum says “practice makes, perfect” So what would you like me to play?”

Bethany was very happy about the proposition she dragged a chair from behind her reception and placed it in front of Neo, sitting attentively “I don’t mind what you play.”

Shrugging at the way Bethany was so excited just to listen to him play some music, Neo thought about what he should play and just picked ones he liked. “Mm, I think the Waltz of the flowers, Aase's Death and finally I’ll play The Fig Leaf.”

As he bought the flute to his mouth and he started to play. It didn’t feel normal he opened his eyes some sort of light floated out of the flute at every note blown the light spread in the air creating amazing colours that formed imagines.

As he was finishing his first song and flowed onto the next, there was a lonely boy sitting on the swing watching families play catch.

‘Maybe I have some control over the imagines’ as he made the character disappear and imagined dancing people acting out their emotions.

Neo was a little worried at how this was being received by his admittedly small audience to see Bethany fully captivated by the whole display but it wasn’t her that almost made him miss a note it was the hundreds of old men facing him in the air around him they were all old somewhere young with some horrific looking wounds, Neo continued onwards regardless but his mind was doing flips.

As he was finishing up the song he took a long look at the faces seeing tears, Neo smile in anticipation as he went on to the next song and their tear faded into smiles, laughter and good memory’s.

It was then when the light moved towards the crowd flowing past Bethany and touching a ghostly dwarf and with a smile he disappears and reappeared on the stage dancing, laughing and drinking surrounded by family and friends.

With each accepting smile, another imagine would appear with equal laughter if not more than the one before, For Neo it clicked at least they are crossing over with a smile on their face.

He finally found out 2 things what the flute does and how he could collect souls.

Soon Bethany and Neo were once again alone in the records room Bethany red faced, but had a beaming smile. Neo also has huge grin but he was also pulling in great breaths as his head span, he shivered in pleasure a refreshing feel rushed throughout his body.

Bethany started clapping “That was amazing!”

“It’s really a divine item with that sort of effect.”

Neo could practically see the star shooting out of her eye as she looked at him.

Neo was shattered, yawning uncontrollably as got up from the bench he was sitting on he stretched and looked towards Bethany “I’m going to head off to bed.”

With a slightly bleary eye, Neo thought that he was a bit too tried a bit too quickly; maybe the souls have a physical effect on him because he certainly wasn’t feeling this way before he started.

But Neo was powerless to stop himself though. But a voice did, Bethany spoke his name, looking back to see a red faced but very cute Gnome squirming. “Neo, my name is Bethany Seen Shredder and I accept your music, it was beautifully played and completely captivating!”

Neo was too tired, but still understood a compliment when he heard one. “Thank you for listening Bethany Seen Shredder.”

Neo laugh to himself as he tried to understand how someone can have a name like Bethany Seen Shredder ‘Man that’s an awesome name’

He continued hazily on towards the cell, not noticing the massive grin that adorned the skipping Gnome’s face.