“Hey, you okay over there?” he said, trying to ignore the stupidity of his question. “Can you tell me your name?” he continued, slowly walking around the stone platform towards the scrambling sounds from the other side. He kept his voice calm with his hands up, palms towards her, showing that he wasn’t holding a weapon.

She was crouched against the side of the altar, her back to the stone while she shivered. Her eyes came up at Eli’s approach and focused on his hands, but instead of reassuring her, she shrank back as if he had a weapon. Her eyes darted to one of the still forms near the standing stone, and she froze even as her eyebrows arched up with surprise.

Careful of the woman’s terror, he went to a knee near her but held back from getting closer or touching her. He couldn’t imagine what she’d gone through, and touching seemed like a bad idea. “Hi there, I’m Eli Tal,” he said, talking calmly, trying to reassure her. “Hey there, nice to meet you. I’m not with them...whoever the hell they were. I’m hoping you can help me out a bit here. I just kinda stumbled my way into this. Can I do anything to help? Are you hurt anywhere?” He knew he was babbling, but this experience was far beyond anything he knew. Moving off his knee, he sat cross-legged on the ground next to her trying to ignore the uncomfortable dampness that soaked into the seat of his pants. He could worry about his damp clothing after he helped this poor woman.

“I think we can talk. I'm not sure they’re all dead, but the couple crazies I looked at were very, very dead, so hopefully, the rest are too. I don’t mean that I hope people die, but you must admit that these people were batshit crazy and dangerous. What a bad combo. Nothing like chocolate and peanut butter, or A/C on a hot day, or cash and free time. Sorry. I’ll shut up.” By the end of his babbling, the look in her eyes had shifted from terrified to confused – Eli would take confused.

“I am Gifted Daralis Easone,” she said, her voice rich and clear as if they’d met at a corporate event. “Daughter of Wybert, the Great Wolf of the border, and descendants of Aaric the Mighty.”

Daralis cradled her right hand close to her stomach as if injured. She shifted slightly and got her feet under her like she was ready to bolt into the trees. Her eyes met Eli’s, and he felt a slight smile tug at his lips. He nodded a greeting, hoping to see an answering smile, but her face remained confused with a hint of fear.

“Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Anyway, let me see if I can get some light or maybe get a fire going. Oh, and maybe I can find something to help you. Anything you need right now? Seriously, I’m not trying to be scary. I’m an accountant. We’re known for not being scary unless you cook the books.” He said, his eyebrows arching up as if inviting her in on his little joke.

“What?” Daralis genuinely sounded confused.

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” he said, realizing that jokes might not translate too well, especially after the hell she’d probably been through. “Now, let me see if I can find you something warm. I know it’s not exactly cold out, but it is pretty wet.” He avoided looking at her and how the soaked clothing left little to the imagination.

Touching the bracelet again, he searched for supplies.

There must be a towel. Who doesn’t pack a towel?

Unfortunately, he had no luck with the towels. He did manage to find a couple of blankets, one of which suddenly appeared in his arms.

“Aaaah!” Daralis yelled, her eyes darting around again for a moment while her back smacked against the stone behind her.

Eli froze, trying not to increase her terror. “Sorry, I can imagine how startling that was. Ummm, here?” He held out one of the blankets to her and tried on a smile again when her eyes finally looked up at him. She looked at the blanket, a bit of the wildness around her eyes fading. He glanced around for a good camping spot, maybe somewhere with good overhead coverage since there was no guarantee that the rain wouldn’t return.

Daralis bowed, one hand awkwardly trying to take the blanket, but her injury got in the way. She couldn’t manage to get it around her with only one hand.

Recognizing the issue, he spoke quietly again. “Please, Daralis, let me help you.” With her eyes watching him like a hawk, he took the blanket and unfolded it. Holding it up with his arms out, he wrapped it around her shoulders but was careful of her hurt arm. Her left hand grabbed the edges of the folds, holding them closed to hide her soaked body.

“By your strength,” she said while fiddling with the blanket again. Once satisfied with it, she straightened up, which still put the top of her head at barely chest height on him. Her eyes met his as if waiting for something.

“Right, right. I’m a strong guy or something. How about we find a little cover under one of those trees? My friend, the Jolly Green Giant over there, has a lot of cover for us.”

Eli pointed over to the giant oak-like tree he’d plowed into earlier. He could just make it out in the distance. A few random big raindrops splattered nearby, but nothing like the waterfall earlier, and a few gaps in the clouds provided a peek at a patch of black sky beyond but no real extra light. He wondered at the darkness, guessing it might be a new moon with how pitch black it was.

Daralis looked at Eli for a moment more before giving him a nod and quietly moving towards the trees. She had cinched the blanket around her shoulders, leaving her legs free to walk, and made her careful way up the grassy slope away from the stone structure with her head high. He caught the flash of pale bare feet as she slowly headed toward the trees and grimaced, realizing that they’d need to find her some shoes, and the only likely source was the nearby bodies.

While walking up to the massive tree, he looked through the DS for some camping supplies. He figured there had to be lots of random items that could be useful. Dry logs came out, and he stacked them on bare ground near the giant tree’s base. Looking at a few of the nearby fallen leaves, he was pretty sure it wasn’t an oak, just as he’d thought earlier. The leaves looked wrong since giant fronds on an oak seemed wrong somehow. Not that he was going to be picky on a night like this.

Looking for more supplies, Eli pulled out a small wrapped bundle of some unknown material. It resembled hay but was orange. He figured it could work as tinder to get the logs going. Surprised but happy with his find, he set up a little campfire. He placed a couple of the logs in an “x,” stacked over the orange tinder. More was stuffed near the center, but not too much. While he wasn’t the most extraordinary person in the woods, he’d camped with enough friends to understand the basics.

While setting up the fire, his thoughts drifted to college when he’d gone camping with his three closest friends. Jen had been the big outdoors expert, but then she’d actually received some real military survival training before the war. Eli’s abbreviated boot camp had done little more than show him which side of the gun went ‘bang.’ So Jen had been the one to show Eli, Dennis, and Aarav how to set up a decent camp.

Dennis hadn’t been any better off than Eli in the wilderness department, but the guy sure knew how to cook. He was a top-notch scrounger too. It had been almost magical – how he’d throw some weird, seemingly random ingredients together and produce a damn good meal. Well, except for that one mishap when Dennis misread a label. At least Dennis had to suffer along with everyone else that unforgettable night.

Aarav was the one to show Eli how to throw a proper punch. Hell, he’d shown Eli how to throw, kick, or restrain a person. The man was a monster for fighting, but he was also the nicest guy and walked around with a big smile. Eli had learned a lot from them during their short trips into the wilderness.

His thoughts returned to the present while he brushed off some of the orange hay that had stuck to his wet skin. Dara was standing closer to the tree, the drier ground better protected from the recent storm. Even in the dark, he could see her shivering. He nodded towards the logs he’d set up, his smile back in place for encouragement. “Okay, we need a bit of flame to get this going. Maybe there’s a lighter or something? Hell, there might be a flamethrower in here! That would be something.”

He reached for his bracelet again when Daralis spoke, “I can help with that.” Without waiting for his reply, she slowly approached the logs and tinder. Lifting the edge of her blanket to keep it out of the dirt, she bent closer, reaching out with her left hand. Her eyes closed, and she took in a deep breath. Like a lighter, a tiny flame appeared above her outstretched palm, dancing in the soft evening breeze. She opened her eyes and leaned forward. The orange hay caught quickly, spreading under the logs and igniting a growing fire.

“Wow. Okay, that was amazing. How’d you do that?” Eli stared at the flames, confused by what he’d just seen. He didn’t have a frame of reference for this new experience and stood there, his eyes wide open. He would have chalked it down to some sleight of hand, but it wasn’t like a sacrificial victim walks around with a magic trick up her nonexistent sleeves.

“I have some strength,” she said, her shoulders shrugging almost minutely under the blanket. She settled on a dry patch of ground near the fire, but she still held her right hand close. She seemed in pain, judging by the little winces when she shifted.

He couldn’t get a good look at her features in the light of the burgeoning fire, but he guessed that she was in her late teens or early 20s. She’d pulled her long dark hair around in a bundle of wet locks to hang on her left side to rest on the blanket. With the fire, her hair would hopefully dry in a bit. He’d want to find her some clothes soon. If nothing else, the spare clothing Lugh provided Eli could work in a pinch, though their different sizes meant it was far from ideal.

Thinking of the night ahead of them, he pulled a couple of logs from the stack closer, ready for the fire. He looked back into his DS, thinking of a few other things they might need, such as food, water, and shelter. A big tarp came out next, and then some extra blankets to sit or sleep on. The tarp went onto the ground, folded a few times for extra cushion, protecting them from the damp earth. He made sure to pull the edges away from the campfire, not wanting to find out if the strange plastic material could burn. He also folded another blanket for Daralis to sit on, setting it down not too far from the slowly growing fire. He gestured at it with a smile and a flourish of one hand. She carefully sat on the blanket with a grateful nod and perhaps the ghost of a smile.

He went back to searching in his storage bracelet for something to eat and pulled out something that looked like rations. He got the sense that they were supposed to be food, or at least he hoped so. He’d just imagined finding something to help with hunger, and one of the packages appeared in his hand. With another thought, two more joined the first. They seemed innocuous enough, each brick wrapped with different colored wax paper and almost looking like a meal replacement bar or protein block.

He opened the blue one, a whiff of a strange floral scent making his nose twitch, reminding him of detergent aisles at the market. Inside, a light blue block with a slightly bumpy surface made him think of a marshmallow square. Tearing off a corner, he tried it but grimaced at the medicinal flavor. The texture wasn’t great either, like biting into a bar of soap.

“Woah,” he said, his head perking up at the rush of energy that swept through him like he’d eaten a few caffeine pills. “Well, I guess we have something for when we’re tired, but it’s too bad it tastes like a chewable pill. Maybe there’s another one that tastes better. Want to try one?” He held up a green-colored meal block.

“Thank you,” Daralis said. She bowed her head again and started to get up, wincing.

Cursing his thoughtlessness, Eli moved closer while starting to open the package. “It’s okay; you’re hurt. Here, I’ll unwrap it. Maybe tell me what hurts? Also, where are we? I know it sounds crazy, but I just kinda appeared here. I’m not a local, or maybe that’s not obvious? It’s kinda hard to tell.”

“No, you’re definitely not a local. Your accent alone...I’ve never heard it before. But even as we talk, it seems to be going away. What are you?” Daralis sat back down with the food, using the wax wrapper as a makeshift plate. Like him, she ripped off a piece. Chewing it, she nodded to him, a tiny smile peeking through.

Eli smiled back, happy to see her more comfortable with him. Her accent had mostly faded, with only the formality really lingering. Then again, he didn’t know what the culture was like here.

“Oh, I’m just me,” he answered but then paused in thought. What must his team think of his disappearance? Did anyone else get snatched? He shook away the thought. Dwelling on things behind his power would only upset him.

He tried on a smile as he continued, even if it didn’t feel quite natural. “I’m an accountant by trade. Do you have accountants here?” He frowned at the idea, though he imagined there had to be something that could use his skills. “I hope I don’t have to learn a new trade. I’d really rather not go to college again. Ugh, and I don’t even want to think about more tests. The CPA exams were annoying enough,” he muttered, still sore from failing one of them the first time around.

“Is an accountant a title? A race? A Blessed? Or Gifted?” Daralis finished the last of her small meal, her agile fingers snatching up the few crumbs left.

“I have no idea what some of those mean.” He shook his head. “Let me start again. I know what those words mean to me, but I’m missing some big context. Let’s just start here: Are you hurt? We can fill in the blanks later once we’re sure you’re okay. How’s that sound?”

Daralis’ eyes looked him up and down a couple of times before lowering her head and staring at the empty wrapper in her lap. Her dark, drying hair spilled forward to cover her face. “I think my wrist is broken,” she said, her voice barely a whisper as if exposing some grand secret. “The bone didn’t go through the skin, but I felt the break. I’m suppressing the area as much as I can.”

“Suppressing the area? Huh, that’s a new one. How about I come closer to take a look? I’m no doctor, but I’ve had a little training. Oh, and I can take that,” Eli finished with a smile, noting the empty wrapper in her lap. He moved closer, scooting over with little dignity instead of standing and looming over her.

Daralis picked up the empty wrapper and held it out, which he took and stuffed back into his DS. Her other arm emerged from her blanket, a bit of the fabric falling open. She was still shivering.

“Cold? Here’s another blanket. Maybe make a nice warm cocoon for yourself? I’ll add more logs to really get this fire going.” Another blanket materialized in one hand, which he swiftly wrapped around her shoulders with a smile. He grabbed a couple of logs and placed them in the fire, careful not to jostle the wood too much. The flames were finally catching, yet strangely, the fire didn’t seem as warm as he’d expected.

“Okay, that should be better. Now let’s look at the damage and see if I have any kind of splint or miracle pill hiding in my magic junk drawer.” He leaned closer and gently touched her elbow, trying not to move her wrist. Her short hiss told him enough to be even more careful.

“Turn towards me a bit, please?” he asked since there wasn’t enough light with her hand hidden behind her shadow. Focusing on her wrist, he noted the swelling on one side, and a yellow triangle popped into existence around the damaged area.

Use Identify on this individual?

What is Identify? That isn’t a command I know for Guide.

“Yes?”

Name: Daralis Easone

Species: Human

Race: Lurran

Level: 3*

Evolution: Low Mundane

Abilities: Firestarter, Focus, Aura Perception

Modifiers: NA

*No Mana Manipulator detected

Eli paused in surprise. The status screen was different from the DS interface. Instead of sensing the details and items, there was a semi-transparent screen floating right in front of him with Daralis’ details. At least it was something he was more familiar with, looking like a modern augmented reality display that conveyed information without blocking his view of the world around him.

This wasn’t in my Beta features. When did this get turned on? Wait, how could it be turned on? No, focus on her injury. Worry about this later, once we’re somewhere safer. Talay.

He shrugged the mystery away and instead focused on her wrist. He zoomed in as it was highlighted. Trying to click on the injured area, a new message popped up.

Biological Scan not available. Turn on Mana Scan?

Biological scan? Mana? Okay, we’re back in the ‘this is definitely a dream’ realm.

“Yes.”

Daralis’ status screen vanished while tiny lights appeared, floating in the air, and he glanced around in surprise. A concentration of brown-colored lights hovered in the air near the tree’s massive trunk, and his mouth popped open when the lights passed through the thick wood, emerging on the other side like it wasn't there. Another smaller one with muted green lights passed just over their heads, almost resembling a miniature star cluster held together by some invisible force. Following the object, it floated along in the air, seemingly unbothered by the slight breeze blowing in the other direction. There were dozens of the things around them, like glowing bits of colored fog, but most were no larger than a softball. Based on Guide’s message, he guessed that the floating lights were bits of mana. What that meant, though, he had no idea.

Realizing he’d gotten distracted, Eli turned back to Daralis but felt fresh surprise at seeing lights within her body. Like a new augmented filter had been overlaid across his normal vision, there were glowing channels inside her like one of those human nervous system diagrams from biology class. A small pebble was in her chest just below where her heart should be, and it pulsed with a pale blue light. Off this little sphere were colored branches that connected eventually to her head, hands, and feet. The slight shifting blues looked like they were produced within the pebble, which flowed slowly into the channels and then changed to other colors.

A light drew his attention to his own hand, seeing much the same thing in his limb. Unlike her, his channels didn’t shift colors out near his hand. Following the color towards his chest, he blinked. He didn’t have a little pebble but a rock the size of a baseball filled with a swirling white color.

What the hell?

Mentally shaking away the problem, he tried to focus on her wrist since he could worry about the ball in his chest later, maybe once he didn’t have an injured person on his hands. It wasn’t like he felt any discomfort from the mysterious glowing ball.

Taking a slow breath, he focused again on the lit channels near her wrist, where the colors looked off like something was disrupting the natural flow. He thought about how he wanted it to be more orderly, to flow like what he saw in her left wrist. Like the light he’d seen inside his body, a new bright white color spread from where his hand touched her elbow. It merged into the stream of her mana system, and when it connected with her injury, the flow straightened out to match the other wrist.

Daralis suddenly sighed.

“Any better?” Eli asked, looking away from her wrist to find her staring at him, her mouth and eyes wide with shock.

“Your eyes!” Fear replaced the shock, and she leaned away from him, pulling her arm back within her blankets. Her head hunched down between tight shoulders while she stared at his chest as if unwilling to meet his eyes. “What are you? I swear on the Oververse that I won’t tell anyone about you.”

What the heck is an Oververse?

A small bundle of the floating lights suddenly whizzed towards her, swirling around Daralis to create a slight halo around her body in a flash of light. Then, it slowly moved away from her as if nothing had happened.

“Huh? What the hell is happening?” he whispered. The fear in her eyes made him push away the countless questions that piled into his mind but instead focused on the woman before him. “Sorry, Daralis, but I don’t know what I did. I can see these little energy currents inside you, and I could tell they were messed up at your wrist. I just made it look like your other wrist. No biggie!”

Her eyes came up briefly at his words, and Eli put on the most charming smile he could muster. Judging by the lack of reaction, it apparently wasn’t good enough. Her eyes quickly returned to the ground between them.

“Healing another is very rare. So you are a Gifted?” Daralis asked.

“Gifted, like with a capital letter? That’s a title?”

Her eyes came up again. “You don’t know about Gifted? Blessed?” Likely noticing his confusion, she continued, “The Gifted have abilities above the common ones. You saw my demonstration, but that’s just a minor ability that anyone could have, and there are countless minor abilities held by the common people. To be Gifted, you have something special that stands out, that sets you above the rest. A bone mender would be Gifted, at least if the healing isn’t limited to just their own bones’ healing.

“The Blessed, though, are the direct conduits for one of the Gods. They were Gifted first but are then given a blessing by one of the powerful people who rule our land. Do you serve one of the Gods? My father served under Aaric’s Blessed, Clachta the Resolute.” Her shoulders straightened at this admission, clearly proud of her father.

“No, I don’t serve any god or gods,” he muttered, the idea infusing a bit of anger into his voice. “I’d know damned well if I was serving one. Not that they’ve ever done anything for me.” Images of his childhood, the death and pain he’d seen, flashed through his thoughts. Feeling his voice rising, he took in a slow breath to calm the anger that had stirred in his chest. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bite your head off. Just give me a second.”

“I’d feel a lot better if you promised not to hurt me,” Daralis said in a small voice, but her eyes finally lifted to meet his again.

“Swear like you did?” he asked, latching onto the idea to distract him from the direction his thoughts had taken. “Okay, I swear I won’t hurt you unless I have to defend myself from you.” Daralis continued to look at him as if waiting for something. “I swear this on the Oververse?”

Like before, the tiny lights moved into action and surrounded him for a moment. A blinding flash accompanied by a strange feeling as if his whole body did a quick flip in gravity, almost instantaneous, then gone.

“What. The. Hell.” He blinked, the afterimage fading. “Is that some sort of promise verifier or something?”

“I don’t understand,” Daralis replied, but her tight shoulders had relaxed after his light show. “It is a vow made to the Oververse. It is everywhere. If you break your oath, it will punish you.” She said this slowly as if explaining to a child.

There’s some ever-watching thing that could punish people? Holy shit. I wonder if that-, no. I’ll worry about that later. Focus on the now.

“So, do you feel a little safer?” he asked, trying on a smile to dispel his racing thoughts. Daralis’ own tiny smile peeked out from behind her hair for a moment, a slight nod joining it. “Good. Just give me a little bit while I look into something.” She nodded again and pulled her blankets tight around her small frame while turning her eyes to the fire.

Eli slowly stood and moved out of easy earshot. “Guide, can you use Identify on me?” he whispered.

Identify cannot be used on User

Would you like to see your status screen?

Oh, for fuck’s sake. “Yes.”

Name: Eli Tal

Species: Human

Race: Restricted* (Anomaly)

Level: 6

Evolution: Mid Mundane**

Abilities: Tracking, Identify, Mana Scan, Healing

Modifiers: Mana Saturation – regeneration substantially increased

*Restricted race detected. Report to the nearest Sanctioned Temple for review.

**Unsanctioned partial evolution detected. Immediately report to the nearest Sanctioned Temple for review. Failure to comply may be punishable up to permanent death.

There wasn’t a tremendous amount of information, but it was something. A flush of heat flared up Eli’s chest and neck when he reread the part about reporting to a temple for review, his hands curling into fists. He had no intention of stepping foot within any temple, regardless of any stupid warnings from a faulty piece of tech in his head. The line about levels was interesting, again reminding him of a game system. Daralis had a lower level in her status screen, though she didn’t have the mana manipulator thing. She had a line about her abilities too, but he wasn’t sure if those were all he had or if they only showed up once used.

“Guide, please list available abilities.”

Command Unknown

Eli whispered a few more different ways to ask for that list, but no good. Of course, there was another way to test his idea. He’d seen Daralis start a fire, which was likely her Firestarter ability. It made some logical sense, assuming logic worked in a magical world.

He looked into the campfire. A small patch of light-orange fog passed through the fire, but the cloud passed through the flames as if they weren’t even there. A moment later, another color shifted through the fire with the same result.

There had to be a connection between the lights in their bodies and the glowing fog in the air, and him seeing them with something called “Mana Scan” made it seem like a safe assumption. Maybe those were a weaker version with the less vibrant lights floating around? They had some energy about them, as he could almost feel the power in the air. It was like before a lightning storm, but the feeling was cranked up to eleven.

Eli glanced over at Daralis, “Could you show me your little fire again? I just haven’t seen anything like that before. I’d like to see if I can replicate it.”

“You can’t replicate abilities,” she said, looking at him with a frown. “You are born with it, though most can’t use them until they are adults.”

“Please,” he said, retaking his seat on the blanket. “I’d like to try, just in case. Humor me?”

“Fine,” she huffed.

He watched as Daralis held out her left hand again, palm up. Her eyebrows scrunched up while she stared at her hand. With his new ability, he saw the pale blue pebble pulse for a moment, and a glowing line of energy shot out through her system. The color changed to a beautiful reddish-orange as it neared her hand, and out popped a small flame a couple of centimeters above her palm.

“That is still amazing,” he said, his grin almost painful while watching actual magic. “Let me try.”

“Go ahead, waste your energy. It’s yours to spend.”

He was happy with the snippy comment, glad to hear anything other than fear in her voice. He took a few slow breaths to slow his racing heart, thinking about what he’d just seen. Holding his right palm up, Eli concentrated on the spot above his hand and imagined that he was powering up a flame, and an image from his childhood came to him. Going with his instincts, he thought of those cold mornings when he was little and would take his hands out of the hot bath water and watch the steam rising off his skin like flames in the cold morning air. Holding the image in his mind, he focused on the feeling of a flame above his hand and how hot it would feel, like standing too close to a campfire. Finally, he imagined the sphere in his chest sending the energy up his arm until it changed to the same shade of reddish-orange from Daralis’ demonstration.

He started at a strange thump from inside his chest, and suddenly there was a whoosh of exploding flames that climbed a meter into the sky.

“Oh shit!” He fell backward, scrambling as he tumbled, hitting his head against the tree root behind him. He rubbed the back of his head as he looked around. “What happened?” He checked his hand, but there wasn’t any blood or even a burn.

“You!” Her eyes shot him with a piercing look as if in accusation. “You have Firestarter? Why did you need my help to start the fire? Is this some big joke to you? Do you serve Vessi? These tricks seem just like him!” Daralis was looking around as if someone might come out of the shadows. She shifted a bit as she clenched the front of her blanket tighter to her body.

“Guide, status,” he whispered.

Name: Eli Tal

Species: Human

Race: Restricted (Anomaly)

Level: 6

Evolution: Mid Mundane

Abilities: Tracking, Identify, Mana Scan, Healing, ???*

Status: Mana Saturation – regeneration substantially increased

*Unknown ability – update database

What is happening to me?