This time when I landed, it was much more softly. The black vortex I was falling through dropped me from only the height of my head as I landed squarely on my butt onto the cold, hard….

Ground?

I stood up abruptly, pushing myself off the faintly glowing ground, radiating with a light pink haze.

“What in the world?”

I had expected to be dropped off outside the next Ring Gate in the system of Ring Gates, the next one apparently being close to the village of Kar’anza. If there was one thing I was sure of, though, it was that wherever I was, it wasn’t Kar’anza.

Hell, I’m not even sure if it was the same dimension.

“Seriously, where am I?” I looked all about, but no matter where I looked, it was covered by thin wisps of that soft pinkish-blue haze that lightly clung to the terrain. Not just that, I looked to be in a dilapidated castle courtyard that had lain in ruins for thousands of years, once proud walls now little more than stepping inconveniences.

“What am I supposed to do about this?” I muttered as I scanned my surroundings, looking for any obvious point of interest. When none presented themselves, I began to walk towards where I assumed the exit of the courtyard once stood, now too ruined to have much distinction.

“Wait a second” I stopped, only a few strides from leaving behind the courtyard. “Wasn’t it daytime?”

Perhaps I had acclimated to the darkness of the crackling void I’d fallen through, but I had forgotten that it was daytime, but where I was now, it was dark.

Not just dark, but dark. Not a single star shone in the sky above, the only light coming from the faintly glowing haze.

The realization instilled a sense of wrongness. Not once had I seen a completely starless night sky, but wherever I was, I was seeing it now for the first time.

I had to move, that much was sure. I wasn’t sure what happened to the Red Foxes after Dayvin leaped into the portal with us, but they weren’t with me.

Priority one, find them.

Wherever we were, I was beginning to realize it wasn’t Haerasong, much less Kar’anza.

That much is obvious, but where is ‘here’?

Past the courtyard, the surroundings were filled with towering pines, as if it needed to be made any more apparent I wasn’t within the desert anymore. I could make out not a physical path but a path of decreased haze clinging to the ground, weaving through the trees. Looking around, there was no other indication of places to go, so I did what any ordinary person would.

I shrugged and followed it.

Walking through the forested area of this…. Wherever this place was, the feeling of unnaturalness only grew. Growing up around woods, I was accustomed to the sounds one could expect from them, animals, trickling creeks, chirping birds, and the cricketing of loud bugs.

But this forest was silent.

Dead silent.

It’s okay, Rook. Just keep going, find the Red Foxes, and get out.

How exactly we were supposed to ‘get out’ was beyond me for now, but that would be a problem for future Rook to deal with. For now, I just had to keep navigating the forest.

Speaking of which, as I continued to follow the trail of less dense haze, I saw as the trees themselves began to change and shift, curling in on themselves as the pines lowly fell away until the once lush forest I had been walking through was now a desiccated wasteland of ghastly ghouls of former trees.

I think they’re trees, at least.

Something about the thought made me stop, and as I did, I took a moment to take a deep breath in.

Breath.

I was acting hasty, setting out the second I had gotten to a new area in search of the Red Foxes. While there was nothing wrong with that, or at least I told myself that, I had failed one of the most basic lessons I’d learned.

When somewhere new, feel out the mana.

I let my senses stretch out, looking for the familiar mana that made up everything. As with every time before, I could feel the world begin to gain a new dimension to its depth, the hidden world of mana revealed-

------------------------------------------

“Huh?”

I was lying flat on the ground.

That’s not right.

Why was I on the ground? I had been standing.

So why was I on the ground?

Why is my face warm?

I reached a hand up towards my face, wiping at a warm liquid film clinging to it before holding my hand out.

Blood. I’m pretty sure that’s my blood.

Things weren’t adding up. I had been walking, standing, then lying on the ground with blood on my face.

I’m missing something here.

Walking. Standing. Lying on the ground. What had led one into the next?

That’s right. Wasn’t I about to sense the mana in the area?

On instinct, I nearly reached out to sense the mana just as I had tried before, but I stopped myself, holding my other hand back with my hand stretching out.

I was sensing mana, then lying flat on my back with blood on my face.

“Meaning…?”

Meaning trying to sense the mana led to this.

I felt my brow furrow in confusion. Something about when I had opened myself up to sense the mana around me had led to me being in this state.

Let’s try again, but just…. Carefully.

Reaching to feel for the ambient mana once more, I repeated the process, albeit considerably slower and cautiously, like peeking your eye open over a minute versus a second.

Oh, well, that explains it.

As my perception of the area’s mana increased, I realized what had happened.

The area wasn’t filled with ambient mana.

It was mana. Not just making it up in portions or within the ground and the trees and the air.

No, everything was made up of literal mana. What I had done by thrusting open my mana sense was akin to pulling the curtains wide on a window, only to find the sun directly outside it.

“Think I got away lucky with just a bit of blood on my face.” I muttered to myself, more to hear something than any need to speak it aloud.

Everything was pure mana, something that was beyond my understanding. Rather than figure it out, I mentally chalked it to just another feat that only the Sages’ likes could create and continued along my way.

For some time, it could have been minutes, or it could have been days I walked, the dead forest eventually disappearing behind me as I found myself in what could only be described as hell. Bursts of liquid fire exploded out from crevices in the ground as rivers of lava lazily wound past, but I continued walking, the now dark red haze still leading me forward by a path of less dense fog. Walking for even longer, I only began to slow when I saw what looked like an open-air gazebo made of cobblestone, four figures huddled on benches within it.

“Rook?” Veronika was the first to spot me, her soot-covered face splitting wide in a grin. “Is that you?”

“I think so.” I resisted the urge to run up to them, keeping my pace even until I was standing before them again. “What happened? Where are we?”

“What happened?” Dayvin finally looked toward me; the light in his eyes diminished. “What happened is we thought we fell to damnation. Had I realized where that Gate would take us, I would have let the sand bury us.”

“This isn’t damnation, at least.” I shook my head. “Everything here is made of pure mana. I was hoping you guys may have an idea, but….”

“Wait-” Veronika’s head suddenly snapped towards me after watching Dayvin for a moment. “Did you just say, ‘pure mana’?”

“Uhh, yeah?”

“And how do you know that?”

Oh. Whoops.

In a momentary lapse of judgment, I had let it slip that I could sense mana, something most people couldn’t.

“Rook, answer me honestly. Are you a mage?”

Mage, but with an S, and more like ‘in-training.’

Instead, I nodded weakly. “Sort of.”

“A mage who uses a sword.” Veronika, rather than seeming offended that I had withheld the information, was smiling even given the situation. “A magic knight. You know, I might end up right about you ended up an Ornnax adventurer one day, assuming we can get out of here.”

“Again, where is here?” I questioned aloud.

“You’re the mage.” Veronika said with a tired smile. “But if I had to guess, I would think it was some sort of slip.”

“Slip?”

“Think of it like is, if one Gate leads to the next, what happens if they get damaged or misalign somehow? You might ‘slip’ off the beaten path.”

“Meaning we end up here, wherever here is.” I answered.

“Bingo.” Veronika leaned back, looking up at the ceiling of the gazebo. “Now, how we get out, if we can, anyone’s question.”

I closed my eyes, thinking about it. In terms of experience, I would happily defer to the Red Foxes; nine times out of ten, they would know better than I.

But this wasn’t a usual situation. The only one with any experience with things of this caliber was me.

Not like that makes me any more knowledgeable, but I guess this is par for the course.

I thought about Veronika’s idea of this place being somewhere we just happened to ‘slip’ into. If that were the case, as crude as the analogy was, all we would have to do would be get back on our original path.

How though?

Had I been a proper Sage, perhaps I could whip up an idea in a second, but I wasn’t a Sage. I was a fifteen-year-old guy; for the first time in my life, I realized what that meant, how little I knew, how out of my depth I was with no mentor to look after me or a parent to hold my hand.

I need to think.

“I need to think.” I repeated my thoughts aloud for the Red Foxes to hear, who watched as I walked away from them, finding a patch of ground that didn’t appear to be in any direct line of lava rivers or fire geysers. Satisfied I wasn’t about to be cooked well done, I sat down, crossing my legs as I closed my eyes.

Breath.

Perhaps more than ever before, I slowed my breathing to a near standstill, afraid of what would happen if I reached out my mana sense too quickly.

Breath.

The perception of the mana around me came slowly, but it was still nearly enough to make my eyes roll back in my head even as slow as I was taking it.

Breath.

It was strange. In an environment of pure mana, the distinctions between the types of mana blurred. Sure, it was apparent it mainly was thermal mana making up everything around us, but I could sense out some fluid mana as well. Its concentration was exceptionally tiny, but given this place was pure mana, even ‘exceptionally tiny’ was more concentrated mana than I had ever witnessed in my life so far.

Breath.

I drew the fluid mana towards me, pulling it in towards my wrist where I would form my first band. As I had done before, I forced it to begin to spin, slowly carving the foundation upon which I would build the frame of my first ring.

Breath.

Perhaps because of the environment being composed entirely of mana, I found it easier to concentrate on it here and manipulate it as needed.

Breath.

I took a deeper breath, and as I did, I imagined my mind’s eye widening just a smidge more, taking in more of the mana around me. It was difficult, I could feel a droplet of blood begin to dribble out from my nose, but I kept my breathing even, acclimating to it like a climber would to the high altitudes of extreme mountains.

Breath.

Still drawing in and circulating fluid mana, I reached an arm out, pulling in a second source of mana simultaneously, my arm beginning to feel solid as if I could punch through a wall.

Let’s try this again.

Earthen mana drawn into me, I focused on coalescing them, forming solid beads of mana. Rather than mindlessly laying them in rows, though, I began to move them towards the channels carved within my wrist by the circulating fluid mana

Carefully. One by one.

The beads of mana that I formed slowly began to fill the foundation carved open for them. The fluid mana I had been circulating to carve out the channel I now redirected to wash over the earthen mana, packing it tighter and tighter together.

I wonder.

I drew in a deep breath, but rather than a refreshing inhale, my lungs began to burn, my nose trickling blood once again as I reached out for yet another mana source.

Thermal, drawn in through the lungs, then circulated to my wrist. I applied the heat mana the same way I did the fluid mana that was compressing the earthen mana in even tighter beads.

Packed tightly together and under the pressure of the washing fluid mana and heated by the thermal mana, I imagined the beads of earthen mana taking on a crystal appearance. Strictly speaking, what I was doing wasn’t needed. I just needed to crystalize earthen mana into a solid form, but I may as well take advantage of the abundance of mana all around me.

Breath.

Holding onto three sources of mana simultaneously would have ordinarily been years beyond my current capability, I was sure, but I could do it within this environment of pure mana.

Breath.

At any moment, I was sure my concentration would break, my hold on the mana escaping me, but through pure stubborn will, I managed to keep it together until, at last, I released the mana, rather than it escaping from me. Letting it go on my own terms, the excess mana flowed out from me far more smoothly, not a hint of accompanying pain.

I did it.

I stared down at my handiwork. Just below my wrist, a single silverly sheen band wrapped around. It wasn’t an actual Sage ring, more like the first level out of a hundred needed.

But it was still a start.

I gingerly stood up, my body aching from sitting cross-legged for however long I had been at it. From the last few times, I’d learned it was all but impossible to accurately keep track of the time when busying myself with working with mana as I had. I stretched my legs out before turning back towards the Red Foxes. From when I last saw them, they had shifted spots, but they were still sitting upon the stone benches within the lone gazebo.

“Oy, you finally done?” Zet was looking at me, rolling his wrist. “If it wasn’t for the fact that we can’t tell how much time has passed here, I would swear you just spent a full day at that.”

“I think I might know a way out of here.” I ignored his comments, turning to look at Veronika instead.

“You do?”

“Maybe.” I answered with a shrug. As I had been busy working on my ring, the back of my mind had been left to its own devices, wandering as I subconsciously considered our dilemma.

“I think your idea about us slipping off a path might be right.” I told her. “But it might be too literal. I think I might be able to re-open the portal which dropped us here, and in doing so, it should hopefully bring us to the proper Gate.”

“And how do you intend to do any of that? I get you’re a mage, but have you been hiding the extent of your capabilities this entire time?” Dayvin was looking at me with a guarded gaze, only a short bit from turning outright accusatory.

“No.”

Technically it wasn’t a lie. I had been hiding the extent of my capabilities, but that was more because the breadth of my capabilities was that there were no capabilities in the first place. I still doubted I could do much more than my ruptured body.

But I didn’t need capabilities. I would just be directing things.

“When I was sensing mana when I was-” I waved vaguely towards where I had been sitting. “I noticed something. The gazebo. There is something weird about the mana there as if it’s shaped in a way to be a sort of cover or cap for something. I think that when we slipped from the Gate, you guys were dropped here for that reason; we all slipped past the cap for whatever reason.”

“Then why weren’t you with us?” Tez questioned.

“I…. Truthfully, I don’t know why I ended up somewhere else, but I think I can cause that cover, the gazebo, to crack open just enough. If I’m right, it will suck us back out.”

“And you’re basing this all on….?”

“Little bit prior experience, lot of intuition.” I admitted.

“Right, so you’re guessing.” Zet sighed as Tez covered her face.

“Does anyone else have a better idea?”

That made them settle down, no one else offering a better suggestion.

“Then, if there are no other thoughts, I’m going to sit in the middle of the gazebo. Once I start, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop. I’ve never worked with mana quite as much as I will be now.”

That one was true. The mana I’d been working with up to this point had been like drops in a bucket, but what I was about to try would be like trying to physically hold back a raging river. Impossible, but it might just be possible to direct it.

I began to walk towards the gazebo center when a hand grabbed my shoulder.

“Rook, is this dangerous?”

Veronika looked at me with eyes that reminded me uncomfortably of my mother when she was afraid I had hurt myself.

“I…. probably.” I admitted.

“Well, I’m not your mother.” Veronika reminded me before tightening the grip on my shoulder. “Just, don’t get yourself killed, okay?”

I thought of the strain my body had been under just utilizing the tiny amounts of mana it had taken to form the barest sign of a ring on my wrist.

Probably better off not mentioning that to her.

“It’ll be fine.” I faked a smile, something I’d grown good at having grown up with a witch mother.

“If you say so.”

I walked past her, settling down in the center of the gazebo. Before I was about to close my eyes, I took one last look at the Red Foxes.

“I should mention, I probably won’t be able to stop once I start.”

“Yes, we got that.” Dayvin grumbled.

“So if anything shows up, you four will have to deal with it.”

“And what suggests that might happen when nothing has shown up yet?”

I sighed, shaking my head. “Let’s just call it me being a magnet for misfortunate.”

“Eyes up, people.” Veronika shouted, heeding my words far more seriously than Dayvin had. “We’re getting out of here without losing anyone, okay?”

I smiled at the thought, closing my eyes a second later.

Alright, Rook. Let’s put reality to the idea.

As I had done before, I began to open myself to the mana around me, but rather than draw it towards me, I first drew at the fluid mana, prodding it forward as it began to whirl around me invisibly.

I could feel my body hurting already, but at the very least, the mana wasn’t being drawn inside of me. I could manage.

More.

I pulled even more mana towards me, imagining it detaching from the rest of the environment like threads being pulled onto a loom.

More.

My inspiration had come from how I had formed the foundational tracks of my first ring. If I could use fluid mana to carve a sort of metaphysical track into my wrist, what was to say I couldn’t use mana to drill through a suspected hole in this pocket dimension or wherever we were.

More.

This would have been impossible for me in the real world, but I had already seen my ability to wield mana was more significant here, and with all but endless mana to draw on, I could do things that should have been impossible.

More.

The mana was whipping around me so fast that I could feel it as wind slapped across my face.

But it wasn’t enough.

More.

I had the speed needed, but I needed to add weight to my mana drill.

More.

Spreading my arms out, I felt the earthen mana rush like a dog beckoned, mine to command.

This feels good.

I was powerful in this moment.

I wonder if this is what the Sages felt like.

“What is that?”

I heard Tez speak, but I wasn’t focused on her words, drunk on the power I found myself in command of.

More.

The wind whipping around me felt as if it were becoming a physical object, more and more earthen mana reinforcing it as I began to make out the sound of the ground beneath me grinding as my mana storm eroded it.

More.

The mana storm was too wide-scale; I needed something more refined. Imagining the storm collapsing on itself, the rushing winds formed by the swirling storm of fluid and earthen mana tightened until lofted overhead was a rotating spear of pure mana.

More.

I needed to blast through in a single strike if I wanted to break through. I could no longer feel my body, but some part of me registered that not being able to feel my body at all was probably a bad thing.

More.

“Rook!”

I ignored the desperate call, as I did with the sound of something smashing off to my right.

More.

I had yet to tap into the largest source of mana around, the thermal mana that seethed in a burning lake just below the ground’s surface we stood on.

More.

The mana spear began to explode with heat as I sucked in as much thermal mana as I could, my maelstrom spear a bottomless vortex inhaling mana like a man dying of thirst would water.

More.

It was ready, I could feel it, but I didn’t want to stop here.

So much power. The mana here was endless. I could create something that even the Sages of old would envy. I was sure of it. I just needed to draw in even more ma-

“Rook!”

My eyes snapped open, Tez shaking me, her right eye sealed up from the blood flowing down from a gash on her forehead. “We can’t hold them off any longer.”

I looked around wildly, and only now did I just notice shambling soldiers made of obsidian marching forward, the Red Foxes desperately doing their best to hold them off.

“Those things are only getting stronger. We can’t damage them anymore.”

Even as she spoke, I saw Dayvin as swung his heavy hammer toward one of the obsidian constructs, but it rebounded off with a heavy-sounding clink.

“If you’re going to get us out of here, do it now!”

I looked over her to the object of my creation floating overhead. It was a likewise obsidian construct, but whereas the living constructs looked like shambling imitations of a person, my construct was a weapon, a tool of pure destruction. It was a spike the color of the night sky, spinning so fast the tip was burning white-hot.

A lance to perforate the boundaries between here and elsewhere. It was ready, I was sure.

But.

But part of me wanted to continue greedily pulling in as much mana as possible, a morbid curiosity of just how far I could go.

Get a hold of yourself.

It was as if I heard a female voice calling out to me, shaking me to snap out of it, and just like that, I was back to my senses.

And with the return of my senses, returned my pain.

Pain didn’t begin to describe what I felt. I was sure I was dying a hundred times a second.

I lost my focus, but just before I did, I flicked my wrist down, the lance of mana shooting down and cracking the gazebo’s floor.

After that, well, my memories are hazy. I swore I saw something reach out from that crack, snagging me by the ankle before I was whisked away, falling once more through a dimension of darkness.

Then everything disappeared into a darkness that had nothing to do with the vortex.