The hooves beat into the beige dirt road; the neighing of the horse reminded me I wasn’t dreaming. The carriages’ wheels provided some non-harmonious coupling with the occasional singing of the morning birds. The beautiful trees breaking the harsh beams of sunlight into gentle and caressing warmth spelled for a cosy and relaxed trip. Ah yes, today was the perfect day of tranquillity. Why then, did I feel an illicit murderous intent emanating from Dawn’s ghastly eyes? Right, because Donna–the damn queen of this country–leaned onto me so shamelessly.

Dawn rubbed her forehead in a stressed manner, “So, let me summarise. Donna Maxwell, the queen, died studying immortality. Before her death, she sealed her mind in a book. You found that book and her consciousness slipped into you for seven years. She could see and hear what you think and see what you see, hear what you hear from the outside.” With every sentence Donna and I nodded our heads a little, earning even more glares of suspicion, “The witch knew she was in your mind and agreed to teach you how to, resurrect her, of all things. She reunited with her family, but instead chose to chase after you, here, in Aquan.”

Again, we nodded and earned an “okay” from Dawn. After that she didn’t say much to me or Donna. Pyro and Kira pestered me about it for a while, but Volt remained silent. Well, he did have experience with such situations. Meagan and Keagan were shocked at first, but concluded to themselves that Donna wasn’t the real queen due to her lack of guard and her easy-going personality. I wasn’t sure what kind of band I stitched together, but I certainly regretted allowing Dawn to come.

This expedition would take us a month to get to a place called the Dark Basin. It was a great crater supposedly carved by the nearby volcanoes and Ashfur as well. I’d heard it was originally a peaceful creature, but about six or seven years ago, it became quite hostile and attacked the local towns and villages, further expanding its territory of barren wasteland. There were many adventurers who sought to slay the beast–be it for fame and glory or money–but grossly underestimated it. These unfortunate deaths became widespread knowledge and Ashfur’s legend began, solidifying his place as the sovereign of the Dark Basin.

At Dusk, we camped in a cave deep in some forests and got a stew going. Keagan wandered off to go hunting and Pyro joined him for the fun. A few minutes later some ruckus was heard and the forests lit up every few seconds. The strongman mage returned with a dead buck snug around his shoulders. Pyro had a couple rabbits and ultimately looked disappointed. “The forest isn’t on fire,” Volt commented, “that’s good.”

“Maybe I’ll set you on fire,” Pyro hit back, “that’ll be good!”

We laughed at their shenanigans, but the moment Dawn and my eyes met, her smiled disappeared and she averted her eyes elsewhere.

“Hmm, you really messed up this time.” Donna said. I didn’t react to it at first, but when my mind registered that I shouldn’t be hearing her but somehow was, my body jumped up.

“What’s wrong?” Meagan asked, looking at me strangely.

“N-nothing! She just poked me, is all,” I said laughingly, pointing at Donna. Yo, what the hell? I asked, but got no response.

I squinted my eyes in puzzlement and she chortled. “It’s like a spell, idiot. Channel mana and try talking to me.”

Like, this?

“Yeah, like that.”

This is damn weird.

“It is, huh?” she stretched her arms out and yawned, “I guess so. Usually I’d see everything from your perspective, but now I’ve got my own view, yet we can still talk like this. By the way, I’m not helping with Ashfur. I’m just here for the adventure!”

Are you kidding me?! What a lazy little whore! We don’t need useless people here!

“Says the guy who cried when he saw me.”

Yeah, tears of depression.

“Is that even a thing, you imbecile?”

It is now. And Donna…

“What?” she answered dismissively, and I could almost feel her eyes glare at me like it once did when she was in my mind.

Welcome back.

At sunrise, we trudged along the cold dew-laden tracks of the forest. The moon and sun’s soft mixture of light painted an almost surreal view. Looking at our party’s setup, I realised much didn’t change. Volt, Pyro, Dawn and Kira still usually kept together. On the other hand, we had Donna, the Garran siblings and myself grouped up, though none of us had any issue communicating with them. The silence was a bit chilling, and our inability to mesh might’ve adversely affected our ability to cooperate when Ashfur was in front of us.

We arrived at a town and restocked on small things, but mainly to maintain the horses. Whilst getting off from the carriage, a fellow bumped into Meagan, “Ah, apologies, madam!” he said, briskly walking away.

Is it just me or–

A semi-encirclement of thin earth rose from the ground, stopping the man in his tracks, then a fireball bathed him in flames and had him roll about in pain. Keagan and Pyro took action, solidifying my assumption–the man was a pickpocket.

“Talk about excessive.”

I chuckled a little, agreeing with Donna. Keagan walked over, placed his palm out to the man and got Meagan’s money back. Of course, we got unwanted attention, but with the astonishing haste and ease in which Keagan went back to doing whatever he was, the tense atmosphere naturally died down. He and Pyro were becoming a team of sorts.

We travelled for the next couple days in peace, no hiccups in the road and it made me think about Ashfur a little, mainly, Pyro’s part to play. I had a particular culmination of spells in mind to actually kill the magical beast, and I figured Pyro would be able to help, but compared to me and Phoenix, he was rather weak. Still, not pulling all the stops worried me, so I began revisiting my initial strategies and everyone’s role. The perfect spot for a little show of potency showed up, a lagoon-like body of water. The mists of the morning set a calming mood.

“So, what ya got in mind, teach?” he asked after I pulled him away from the others. I casted a miniature Flame Strike then made the flames rotate in position, “Picture this, but way larger. Way, way larger,” I emphasised. “This is what Phoenix and I will work together to create, doubling the damage.” I’d already explain the plan to everyone a few times before leaving Aquan, but I still felt like there were little holes here and there which we couldn’t afford.

“Try it,” I told him, guiding him on how to start it. His initial trials were about twice the size of Flame Strike, which was good, but simply not enough. “Try to do it with your wyrm now,” I advised, which yielded much better results. He could become an arsonist with that much, but I totally forgot something quintessential to the spell, its mana requirements. It needed to be channelled. If he kept practising, the size of his Incinerate wouldn’t be too far off from mine or Phoenix’s, however, he would be exhausted in a few seconds. How did I forget that? I asked myself, knowing how much I warmed up to Division’s benefits.

“Forget it. It’ll actually be better for you to focus on whatever weak spots you might see.”

“So back to the original plan then?” Pyro sighed, a little disappointed, but it couldn’t be helped.

“What about me?” Volt joined in.

“Same as before. Save your power for situational uses,” I replied. Despite having two Apostles on the team, one was only there for entertainment and the other was purely responsible for the lives of just three people. He shrugged and went off somewhere with Pyro.

We rode again for a few more days, learning each other’s spells and potency here and there. By evening in the second week of the journey, we came across a town. Carriages were packed, horses reined and denizens were skittering about.

“An evacuation?” Donna thought out loud.

“Looks that way,” Keagan agreed but Kira was a little sceptical.

She crossed her legs, “Wouldn’t you evacuate to a bigger town? This place is the biggest town for miles.”

Certainly, she was right, especially referring to our map. I grabbed a kid’s collar who was running by, “Hey, what’s going on?”

“What do you mean what’s going on? The orcs are coming! So, let me go!” he squirmed and struggled out of my grasp. Judging from the position their carriages faced, I noticed the hill leading up to a small army.

“Orcs, now that’s a word I haven’t heard in a long time,” I commented, leaping out the back of the carriage. Volt was right behind me.

“Don’t be so greedy, teach,” he joked and followed along. We started walking towards the encampment of orcs on the overseeing hill.

Keagan began yelling, identifying our group as mages from the Order–partly correct–and assuring them the situation was under control. His robes further convinced them.

The marauding horde of orc brigands began marching down the shallow decline on their oversized boars. The bulk of them stopped, the commander in front dismounted and walked leisurely towards me, flaunting his towering seven feet height and muscular body. This was a clear show of intimidation and theatrics, a reminder to his underlings of his unrivalled strength. He made a circle around us with a coy smirk plastered on his face. “You must be brave, strutting up to us like that, human,” he chuckled softly, “come on, hit me,” he dropped his shield, taunting me.

“Are you sure?” I asked, “It might hurt.”

Well, that must’ve been the single best joke I ever told judging from his ceaseless cachinnation, imploring the others behind him into a rowdy bout of laughter as well. “Alright, I’ll try,” I shrugged, and curled a non-effectual punch right into his midsection, then casted Divergence right away, sending him slamming into his subordinates behind.

“A little excessive, don’t you think?” Volt pointed out.

“Well, they’re about to die anyway,” I shrugged and casted four Ice Wall spells, encasing them in a wintry prison with a small hole in it. I tethered them to each other with Web of God, “Would you do me the honours?” I asked Volt. His wyrm slithered from his neck and floated right into the hole, going into the ice prison and conducting an, electrifying light show. The orcs’ shouts and roars of anger were quickly silenced.

The ice vanished and all that laid before us were lifeless lumps of orc and boar. Farther up the hill we climbed, reaching the entrance to a dark, stony cave in a couple minutes. “Eric,” Donna brought my attention to her, “it looks like the orcs in that cave has got some of the townsfolk captive. Don’t mess this up.”

Gotcha.

“Volt, we got hostages, take that robe off,” I advised, casting Muffle on both of us to ensure we tread soundless into the cave. Next, I summoned Kor’zha and had him travel underground to give me a location and headcount. He reported six and I already felt where he went to find them, so he returned to the spirit world. We entered into the old cave, avoiding guards until we came across the caged hostages. The real leader was right there, sharpening his great axe. His decorated armour alone told me he was the commander. We crawled, figuratively of course, towards the cage with our fingers to our lips. They were wounded, injured and showed signs of torture.

“Stop prowling around and face me, cowards,” the leader said. I was honestly in shock. Orcs, usually known for being almost braindead brutes were the first to ever catch me sneaking around, though I never did it much. I’m not sure how he knew, but he knew. Wild footsteps encroached, and behind us were about a dozen or so guards. Volt dealt with them quickly, not even giving them a chance to reach close.

The leader finally turned around, his tusks damaged and worn by constant battles and his scars showing a glimmer into his past. Despite killing out his entire squad, he didn’t seem troubled about it. But suddenly, he growled, his eyes had a soft green hue to it for just a second, and he let out an ear-splitting battle cry. He became crazed, an unnatural force raging towards us, but a simple Frost Trap clipped his feet to the ground. He fell, then immediately began forcing his way back up and exerting so much pressure, the ice actually got a split or two in them. I conjured up an Ice Javelin and struck him right through the chest with it before he got the chance to break out of Frost Trap. He fell to his knees and used the axe to keep him upright for a while. “Thank, you,” he blurted out, his breathing staggered and he fell forward.

Volt and I watched each other in confusion, wondering about the orc’s out of place gratitude but didn’t think too much into it. We returned to the town with the captives and Meagan patched them up. We restocked now that the town could go about its normal business again.

Later that night I revisited the orc encampment, scouring the cave. There was nothing out of place, especially after Donna and Kira cleaned out the corpses. It perturbed me a little, how enraged the leader orc became, but I didn’t bother to think any more of it.

I went back to town and noticed Dawn off on her own, taking a walk and somewhat stargazing. My footsteps as I encroached breached her ears and she turned around just in time to see my arms spread. She tried to push me off after I trapped her but my embrace only tightened, “Been forever since I touched you, it bothered me,” I iced the cake and her arms slowly, weakly entreated me the same. “So, you alright now? Donna really got to you, huh?” I jested, sprawling out comfortably in the trimmed grass.

She paused and pouted, “How am I supposed to even compete with her? She’s known you forever, plus she’s… she’s…”

“Pretty?” I tried guessing for her.

“Damn gorgeous!” she furthered, flicking me on the forehead afterward for saying it so indifferently. She sat with her legs up, hugging them with a concerned look in her eye. I wasn’t some psychic, but it sure felt like this wasn’t just about her jealousy with Donna. After a little stretch, I rolled over and grabbed her, making her body fall back onto the grass with me.

“You act like you’re not beautiful too. Did you know August wanted to pluck your feathers?”

An uncontainable snigger escaped her lips, “What?” she asked in mockery of my buddy’s expression. “And what do you want to do?”

“Hmm,” a finger touched my chin, “Well, plucking feathers is nice and all, but I actually want to eat the meat. I’ll season it properly too, don’t worry,” I said, moving in closer. She suddenly placed a hand to her mouth and cackled loud enough for the folks back in Aquan to hear. She’s getting obnoxious. I’m a bad influence.

We carried on at sunrise after a collective thank-you from the town. Dawn was in a much better mood, though it seemed something still boggled her mind. Meagan and Keagan were melding better with the group every passing day.