Zerith began leading me through The Basion.

“So, I’m curious,” he said as we walked side by side, “What about your magic?” [Shouldn’t it be as strong as the king’s?]

I shook my head. “My magic is nonexistent. I guess that’s so I don’t go berserk like the king. W-well, not that I ever would, of course.”

He sighed. “I’d certainly rather take the risk, so I’m curious why the gods would curse you like that.” [The real reason, that is.]

Despite how casual Zerith acted, he seemed to command respect with the citizens of The Basion. He would wave to most people we passed, greeting them with a nice smile. But, while everyone would make sure to acknowledge him, nobody interrupted us as we made our way through The Bastion. He seemed to appreciate their consideration.

We walked for possibly a mile, The Hero thinking mostly about how he could use me and wondering what the full extent of my powers was.

As mean as ‘using me’ sounds, I knew from experience that some people just thought very straightforwardly like that. Heck, some of the nicest people I knew did, like Jeremy. And he was the nicest.

“Uhh...” I began after about a kilometer of walking, “Am I trying to be secret about my powers, or...?”

“Hmm?” he responded, broken from his thoughts. “Oh, no. Why would you bother with that?”

I shrugged sheepishly. “Maybe because people are afraid of psychics?”

He waved me off. “Doubtful. As long as they know I acknowledge you, the people in The Basion will trust your goodwill.”

“And outside The Basion?” I asked.

“Most people just know that the king wields foreign powers. More than likley, they would think your powers are...come to think about it, I don’t think I know what your powers even are, myself.”

“Oh, well, it’s pretty simple,” I blurted out. “I can lift things with my mind, fly, rea-recognize the identity and position of anyone within a kilometer of myself, control all elements to a basic degree, predict the future, observe emotions and memories that get imprinted on objects, create an immensely strong barrier, I can create telepathic links, and uhh...I think that’s everything.”

He scratched his head, sorting through what I’d said with a mess of thoughts I couldn’t track. He ended up just saying. “W-well, I’ll figure it out once we get to the ocean. For now, there’s no need for you to keep to the shadows or anything like that.” [Could he predict the future this whole time?! That would explain a lot...]

“Cool...” I said before rapidly blinking.”

Wait, maybe the king could see the future? Come to think about it...

‘A slaughter’

There were a lot of loose ends from that day, actually...

“Zerith, how many days ago did I fight the king?” I asked.

“Afterward, you slept for almost three days straight.”

I tried to process that, but it was difficult to grasp what it meant to sleep for three days straight. “Wait...” I said, “You made me sleep on that shitty bed for how long!?”

“A few hours,” he responded.

“And where was I sleeping in the meantime?!”

“In the wards.”

“Then how-”

“Well, something quite strange happened. According to the doctors, you woke up about a day and a half afterward but were unresponsive. You seemed awake when I saved you, too.”

“That...that happens when psychics like me are pushed too far. Sometimes we will...lose our sense of self.”

“Intriguing.” He waved to a passerby, then looked back to me. “Well, after that, they simply commanded you to fall back asleep with that collar on you and then contacted me. I was a bit concerned that it had worked, considering the monster king was able to resist his collar when he was first summoned.” [Though he does seem to have different abilities than her, so perhaps that’s their difference.]

Wait, he knew about that? Was it possible he was part of the first group to summon the king? That explained why he knew so much about psychics, too. “W-well, I do resist its effects,” I said, “But only if I’m conscious. If I can’t think, my abilities are...well, they don’t work the same.”

He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. [If that’s really true, how come she was able to attack so ruthlessly in such a state?]

I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I was left to ponder what he was referring to. Actually... “Come to think of it, why were you there?” I asked. “From my perspective, I got knocked out by the king, and now I’m just...alive.”

He shrugged. “My friend, the one you saw leave my room, received an anonymous tip about a rogue group. I left to personally speak with them.”

A tip? With the ‘Sending’ spell that Chara mentioned, anyone in the Marionettes could have sent the tip, but...

“When did you get the tip?” I asked.

“I left when I heard about it.” [Though, I can see now why blue pushed me to leave immediately. If I hadn’t, we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place.]

The time frame matched too perfectly with Daakyn’s leave...I reluctantly shoved it to the back of my mind, deciding to figure out who that man was later. He was the least of my problems, especially considering he may have saved my life.

“So, about that jail cell...” I said. “Did you move me to it, then break the collar to make me wake up?”

“Yes, but we most certainly didn’t break any artifact of that sheer power. I’m not sure who made it, but whatever enchantment they put on it was incredibly strong. We phased it through you with Poissl’s signature magic, so we could use it later.”

We came upon what looked to be a latter that led up through a vertical tunnel, which a blue-robed guard stood watch beside.

“Hello, Zerith, sir,” she said, standing straight.

Zerith came to a stop in front of her. “Goodnight,” he said, pointing a thumb back at me, “I need to give this newbie a rundown of our traveling procedures.”

The guard nodded. “Are you going outside, then, sir?”

“Yep.” For a few seconds, Zerith awkwardly stared at the guard with expectation. “Can I pass?”

[Did I do something wrong? Why is he looking at me like that?!] “Erm...of course, you can, sir.”

Once the guard said that, Zerith sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” [She lost her nerves when she saw me, great.] he sarcastically thought.

The guard’s thoughts went all over the place in panic as she rushed to figure out what The Hero was referring to. “OH! Right, sir. May I see your badge?”

Zerith pulled a metal badge, which depicted a sword with lightning surrounding it, from a pocket in his robe and handed it to the guard.

She quickly said, “Badgenment,” casting a spell, then handed it back to Zerith. I noticed that she had a badge too, which depicted a target. A lot of people had one, actually. “You check out.”

After the spell was cast, she nodded. “Y-yep, you are definitely you, sir.”

“Cool,” Zerith nicely said, “Remember her face too, will you? Her name is Psychi, and you might see her around here. She doesn’t have a badge yet, but I’ll make sure she gets one.” He walked past the guard with a cheery wave but complained in his mind. [She forgot the simplest of procedures...Well, I can’t expect excellence from everyone...though, I don’t understand why competence is off the table, too...]

As he climbed up the latter, he thought about holding a seminar for the guards to drill in the ‘procedures’. Once he was midway through the lateral tunnel, he yelled down to me.

“You need help?”

I shook my head, then moon jumped up the latter, outpacing him with my subtle flight. He made it to a trapdoor at the top and climbed through, then held out his hand to help me, but I just floated up past him.

[Can she just fly without any holds?]

“So, what was that spell?” I asked, hovering.

He absently shrugged, moving to look about the new scenery with caution. “Badgenment lets the guards identify people. Everyone has a unique badge that represents their signature ability, which is made by our badgemaker. Since only he has the ability to make badges, the security measure is only widely used in The Bastion. Still, I’ve convinced officials from other states to keep their badges on themselves.” [Unfortunately, the guards tend to forget protocol when they see me...]

I began to look about alongside the hero, my mind wandering the scenery once my question was answered.

We seemed to be in a humid, dense forest filled with broad-leaved trees, large, sprawling vine systems, and moist dirt. Sticks were scattered about the ground, some stuck atop enormous ferns with sharp edges, while in the other direction, there was a strange, thick layer of flora that covered the ground...

No, not the ground, a lake! The bastion really was a city built beneath a lake!

The plants and algae were so large and dense inside it that the lake almost looked to be the ground. Trees were rooted in the bottom of the still water, their trunks invisible from above, lilypads floated atop it, yellow strings flowing down from their purple flowers, while large strands of moss grew atop the pads like vines, using them as anchors to spread across the swamp. Algae coated the water surface, so thick that I’d mistaken it for some type of grass.

I immediately floated towards it, curious, but Zerith caught my hand.

“We can’t be too in the open,” he said. “Monsters can do a lot of nasty things, including reporting our location. He let go of me to point at the ground. “Move Earth.” Dirt moved to cover the trapdoor. “The monsters on the ground usually aren’t all too strong, but any that can cast Fly can usually cast Message or even Sending.”

I frowned, disappointed. “So I can’t look at the lake because flying monsters could see me?”

“Basically...” he said. [Maybe I’m being overly cautious here, but it’s best she gets used to sticking to the shadows.]

It must have gotten really bad if people were stuck up in (city-sized)holes, and flying around a lake was deemed dangerous.

“Ok...” I said, rolling with whatever he said, at least for now. “You said we were going to an ocean?”

“Yes. Follow me, stay under the tree’s cover, and kill any monster on sight. Super Bound, Speed Mitigation.” He leaned forward, then jumped strong enough to make the ground tremor, sending himself flying into a tree not far away. He quickly bounced off it to another and another, making a fast pace.

It took me a moment to catch up, mentally, but it didn’t take long for me to physically catch up. Although he’d become obscured by the swamp’s trees, I used Recognition to follow him.

I followed silently and said nothing for an agonizing twenty minutes. It felt really awkward, especially when I heard him think about so many things I had no context on.

On the way, I did a profile of the flora as best I could. Wherever we were, the region seemed more like a rainforest than a swamp, as I’d initially suspected. Most of the trees were quite tall, and the other plants had short roots, meaning the place probably got a lot of rainfall. We must have been far from the temperate forests of The Marionette's hideout.

We finally stopped at a beach, where Zerith slid down a tree’s stem and planted his boots into the sand. He shook his head, clearly dizzy.

I spun to a stop above him and habitually pushed my skirt back a little. Skirts came with problems for flying psychics, but I still wore them just because I liked their look.

He looked up with an amused expression. “I guess upside-right works too...Anyway, this is where I’ll test your ability.” He pointed towards the sea. “We won’t be interrupted if we’re out there.” [At least, I doubt the king would keep scouts on the ocean.]

“Do you need a lift, then?” I asked.

“No. Ultra Fly.” He hovered off the ground, then flew into the sea backward at half the speed of sound, as if he was showing off or something.

Well, I was pretty impressed. I didn’t expect there to be a magic that strong.

Then again, depending on the world I got sent to, people could have been tough enough to make me look like a chump. Who knew?

I flew after him, a little perplexed that he hadn’t used the spell in the first place, wasting our time.

He came to a stop too far from the shore for us to be seen.

“You know, for being all about rules, you really don’t explain enough,” I said.

“Enough about what?” he asked, oblivious.

“Like, you took too long to explain where we were going and why, and you haven’t explained why you didn’t just fly here in the first place. I still don’t get what's going on in your world-”

“Look, and listen,” Zerith said, glaring at me. “I’m not your forest guide, I’m The Hero. I play things safe, I do things in order, and I do things right. If you want a better explanation of those things, ask the right people, not me. This isn’t my world to explain.”

I wasn’t expecting the outburst, so I remained quiet, surprised.

He sighed. “If I had the choice, our conversation would have started and ended at The Bastion, where I do much of my work best. Unfortunately, however, I’m low on time, low on people, low on food, and worst of all, I’m sitting in a damned office, tapping my foot while other people are dying, just because humanity itself is on the defensive. I can’t even assess your powers quickly because I need to go to the ocean to stay in privacy, without people or monsters looking in. I can’t even do this quickly because my mana is too low for me to go around casting Hyper Fly without restraint!”

He didn’t seem particularly aggressive or anything, just venting. It was especially obvious since he was thinking exactly what he was saying -or rather, the other way around.

Once he ended, I timidly asked, “What’s mana?” playing dumb to make sure I understood his idea of the concept.

“Oh gods, we need to start here, don’t we?” He rolled his eyes to the heavens. “Look, Everyone has a mana pool dependent on their percentiles. It refreshes over time, usually replenishing fully by the end of a week. Stronger spells cost more mana, generally. It’s really simple.”

“Right. So...” I began, not sure if I should continue the next sentence in my mind. “You do realize you just explained all of the questions I asked...?” I said, sending him a confused smirk.

He began to counter me, “Wha...” before calming down with a sigh and looking to the side in self-awareness. “Yeah, I guess I do,” he said indignantly as if he’d proven how right he was. [And I fucking hate I wasted time like this.]

“Riight...” I said. This guy was ‘The Hero’, but he sure as heck reminded me of every person I knew in their twenties; stressed as hell. “Anyhow, I think it would serve you pretty well to have some teatime, eh?”

He nodded his head, pocketing his hands as he nodded in admittance. “Yeah, I suppose I could go for some tea.”