-- James --

We were sitting in the conference room for a while with no one even checking upon us. It was eerily silent, none of us knew what to talk about that hadn't been rehashed a thousand times, and the whole incident made it awkward. But, there was one thing that was still bothering me.

"Aster." Aster turned to perk up at being spoken to, "Why did you come flying out of the sky."

Aster looked at me confused before his eyes widened realizing what I was talking about. "Oh, That." What else would I be referring to? "I met a bunch of...sky-boarding people. The energy is so thick here you can literally glide on it down."

"Seriously? It's that thick? I thought it wasn't tangible?" Violet asked.

"Normally, but when there is a lot of it, it can become almost solid. Especially, if you know how to do it." Aster answered calmly.

"And you just happen to know how?" Violet asked skeptically. I was wondering the same thing. It seemed like an oddly specific skill to have. We only just learned of this place.

"Yeah. That's how we use the thieves' roads."

That threw me for a loop, "There are thieves roads?" I asked.

"Yeah..." Aster paused before adding tiredly, "One of these days we need to sit down and really hash out what all we can do."

"Why not now?" Violet asked.

"Sure. I guess I'll start. The thieves' road is a thick lattice of power that usually goes over the cities." Aster began.

"What are they?" Violet probed.

"No idea, but my theory is it has something to do with the city crystals."

"Why do you think that?"

"A lot of the lines lead to them." Aster took a breath, "The roads are extremely thick, to the point, if you coat your feet in mana you can...for the lack of a better term...skate on them." Aster explained.

I could only look on in disbelief. How could something like that exist and not everyone know about it? Violet must have had the same idea, "How do people not know?"

Aster turned thoughtful, "I've been thinking on that. I think they do. It's just so high up, people just forget. Also, you need to be a certain level in an eye skill to see it."

"That's..." Whatever Violet was going to say was cut off as the door to the conference room opened and Rowan listlessly walked in. He looked off, as he walked in and took a seat. Not saying a word, and staring off into nothing.

"Rowan, when did you get here?" I tentatively asked trying to get a reaction from him. The room was quiet as Rowan slowly looked around the room before locking onto me.

"Huh? Oh, James! Violet, Aster? What are you doing here?" Rowan looked and sounded flat, even though his words made him seem surprised. It was starting to weird me out.

"The Edelweiss guy brought us here after someone tried to trap us," Violet answered, all the while studying Rowan.

"Wait. You guys were captured?" Aster asked surprised. I guess we didn't get to that part yet. We really need to communicate better.

"For like a minute. Violet punched the guy and I pushed the button to let us out." I gave a very abbreviated version of what happened.

"The button was on the same side as the trap?" Aster asked in disbelief.

"Yeah." I could only smile, at the memory.

"That is the stupidest trap ever!" Aster practically shouted. Was this some kind of professional pride?

"That's what I said!" Violet said in vindication.

"Let's not get into that." I said trying to get us back on track, "Rowan how did you come here? Did the guards bring you to?"

"No, I...ah..." Rowan looked troubled as he looked to be having trouble remembering, "was using my sensing ability in public and I didn't know how rude it was so a passing ranger offered to help." After he finished talking Rowan seemed to drift off in his own mind. Like he forgot we were here.

"Rowan."

My words snapped him back to the present, "huh? Yeah?"

"Rowan. You seem distant." I said trying to lead him to explain what was going on with him.

"Do I?" Rowan's answer was confusing. Did he not realize what he was doing?

"Yes, you do. And why didn't you answer your phone? And did you find any leads on Bay?" Aster said starting to bombard him with questions.

Rowan slowly turned to Aster, "Phone?" He stared at Aster for a long time before, "Oh. That I gave it to the ranger he said it would distract from the lessons. And Bay is safe inside the tower." Apparently, the tower is really well known. How often does this happen, if everyone in the city knows?

"Oh, rotten decay. The guy screwed with his head." Violet said annoyed finally figuring out what was wrong, and now that she'd said something it was beyond obvious.

"How do we snap him out of it?" I asked.

"Does anyone else find it weird they keep talking of the towers?" Aster pointed out.

"Yes, but we can't do anything about that. We need to snap Rowan out of this." I answered.

Aster surprisingly came up with something, "Violet can you see if there is like foreign energy or something?"

Violet looked Rowan over thoughtfully, "I'll try." She then reached out and touched Rowan. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Aster's eyes glowing as Violet did...whatever it was she was doing.

I saw a small flash and Rowan jump as he asked, "That hurt. What did you do?"

"Ripped something apart, that was pacifying you." She answered.

"But Borage was going to help me with...my...ranger senses." Rowan's voice seemed to fade. I could see the wheels turning behind his eyes.

Just to drive the point home I added, "A random passerby."

He let out a long breath, "I'm seeing it now." He was no longer listless. Now he just seemed tired.

We all caught up as we waited, explaining what we had all been through today. Aster's story was odd, with a group of people who created a class, but not as odd as our own. They were surprised when we explained what this city was, and how people came here to get away from it all, and train, or just die. Aster looked really uncomfortable at that, and Rowan looked disbelieving.

It wasn't too long before the conference room opened and a smiling Edelweiss, Hawthorn, and, based on Rowan's angry glare, Borage. Just seeing their smiling faces filled was strange, like they were looking at us like prized ponies.

"Hello, children!" Edelweiss said, excitedly. "We have worked it out."

Rowan couldn't hold back and lunged at the man next to Edelweiss, only to be easily swept aside by the man and pinned to the ground. The man calmly spoke to the restrained Rowan, "Still projecting your emotions. I could feel you were freed the second I stepped in.

"The fuck man. Why are you doing this?" Rowan yelled at the man. I was taken aback. I don't think I ever heard Rowan yell at anyone like that, let alone the anger. What the man did must have really freaked him out.

"Not doing anything anymore. Plans have changed." Borage answered with a dark smile. His words were strange and only made me nervous.

"Yes. This is all good and nice." Edelweiss took a step forward, "You all will be brought to a small training camp, where you will learn from the best of the best. Congratulations! It's an honor not many receive."

"Why? Why should we do any of this?" Rowan asked. He had stopped his struggling but the fire was still there.

"Two Options. We kill you now and you revive in a year or two at the crystal, and everyone is mad at me for not letting them have a chance to be in the show." I felt a shiver down my spine at how casually Edelweiss had said that.

"Why is killing us even an option?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Edelweiss was shaking his head, "I don't have time dealing with the mess you questers make."

That's not our fault he even admitted it, and I said as much. "But it's not our fault. The people"

Edelweiss cut me off, "It doesn't matter."

"But" I started.

"THE SECOND OPTION! Which we will be doing! Will be having you all in a training camp in the west end of the city. There you will all be taught to control your strength. You all seem to have reached the mid twenty's in a record amount of time, and it shows. Not in a good way. You're more than likely to just hurt yourself or others right now."

"What of a third option, us just leaving?" Aster asked.

"Would you do that? Walk away from your quest and contract, and everything that comes with it?"

I wanted to refute him, but could we. Could we walk away from the potential? The possible benefits. Though at this point we only seem to be having negatives as people have been constantly accosting us. "Maybe?"

"It doesn't matter. The second any of you left the city. Someone would send a massive hunt for you. We would lose manpower, and that isn't ideal right now. Besides you'd most likely be brought back here." Edelweiss turned to us seriously, "Listen the cat is out of the bag that you all are here. All can do is contain you. If you all get high-level training out of it then good for you." He stared pointedly at us. I didn't have any other argument and the training sounded like it could only be a good thing. "Any questions?"

"What's to stop people from interrupting our training?" Aster asked. Why didn't I think of that?

Edelweiss didn't pause as he answered, "That will probably happen, but it will be contained. Besides, the instructors will want to look their best. For the fight at the end. I can almost guarantee the episode will build with your training maybe even a montage. Then end with a massive epic fight with a horde of monsters. So no need to worry about your ratings." He said this all with a sardonic smile.

I felt almost offended he thought we cared only about the ratings, "That doesn't matter to us."

"Does to the people." Edelweiss said annoyed, "You will be giving lodging for your stay, and you will stay within the training field."

Violet gave the man a glare as she asked, "Are we, prisoners?"

The man shrugged, "If you want to think of it like that, you can. Once the tide of monsters is over. I don't care what you do, be free, stay, go home, but once it's over your no longer my problem."

We didn't really have time to respond as everything started to move like a whirlwind after Edelweiss's declaration. We didn't even have time to object. They immediately picked us up and tossed us into a truck, and before we knew it we were at our new home for the next...week or so. I didn't know when the migration would happen, but by the way, everyone spoke it had to have been soon.

The training field was more of a compound as they brought us through the ten-story structure, that was surrounded by thirty-foot walls. Once we passed the walls we could see massive training fields with lots of different people doing all sorts of training. From swordplay to magic. Inside the building, the first floor was nearly hollow and filled with different types of training equipment and other open areas. They brought us through more rooms with more equipment. Everything here was designed to train people. In what? I didn't fully know.

No wonder they brought us here. Our apartments turned out to be on the top floor as every other floor except the ninth was a training room.

"This place is crazy." And the rest of my team could only nod in agreement.