There was a fleshy pop, then a grunt, and Vaozey fell to the ground for the third time since she had started attempting to use force magic. In the absence of any objects of the right weight near our campsite, she had found a tree stump and began to try to rip it out of the ground. I told her that it would probably be impossible even for me to pull it out with magic but she seemed unconcerned, replying that it would be fine if she just tore the knots she was using as handholds off instead.

“Seyt,” Vaozey swore, clutching her back as it healed back into place.

“Even if you did manage to use magic during that, it’s likely you wouldn’t realize it,” I told her.

“Well I don’t see anything around here that would be better to use unless you want to help,” Vaozey replied grumpily.

“I doubt I would be helpful,” I shrugged, turning back to the testing of my new “magic blade” technique. Previously, my tests with heat magic had concluded that the smallest possible resolution volume for magic was around the width of a hair, but I was certain that was an artificial limitation. While it might not be practical in combat due to energy expenditure, the potential uses for even a weak monomolecular blade were numerous.

“You were plenty helpful last time,” Vaozey countered. “I don’t see how cutting leaves and sticks over and over again will help us.”

“What I did when showing you how to use heat magic was a form of deception,” I explained. “It would only work if you weren’t aware that I was trying to do it, and moreover, I was shocked that it worked so quickly. It was entirely possible that the technique could have failed repeatedly and produced nothing of use for the entire duration of that trip.”

“Yeah yeah,” Vaozey muttered, getting back into position against the stump. “Well if you have any more ideas, just let me know.” With a strained grunt, she began trying to heave the stump out of the ground again, and I went back to cutting leaves and sticks. I was getting to the point where I could split wood so cleanly that it looked as though it was sliced with a proper carving knife, but it still wasn’t enough. As I looked around for another stick, I noticed a lone ant foraging nearby and felt a brief spurt of panic before remembering that I was covered in repellent, or whatever the substance was.

Another series of pained curses from Vaozey drew my attention back to her, and I saw that the knots of wood along the stump she was gripping were in flames. Yelling in exertion, Vaozey gave one last heave, tearing the now-weakened wood away and falling back onto her rear. For just a moment, she glanced at me, then went back to glaring at the stump, slowly letting go of the new charcoal in her hands.

“I’m assuming that was unintentional,” I prompted.

“What a great deduction,” Vaozey sighed. “This is half the reason I haven’t just ‘fixed’ my hands, actually. I keep burning them by accident when fighting anyway, they’d probably be back to looking like charred meat within a few weeks.”

“As I said before: for you, control of magic is your biggest weakness,” I replied. “You don’t seem to have a lack of power, which is fortunate, so I’d advise that you don’t try to brute force whatever you’re doing and instead try to approach it in ways you haven’t attempted yet.”

“There’s a seytoydh ant over here,” Vaozey remarked, and I heard a soft sizzle as she presumably fried it.

“There are a few around,” I agreed. “They don’t seem to care about us.”

“You going to cut them up too?” Vaozey snarked.

“Actually…” I mumbled, using force magic to pick the ant beside me off the ground and hover it in the air above my hand. The creature struggled for a moment but then seemed to calm down, accepting its situation. Using a ring of light beneath it, I illuminated the insect so I could see it clearly. It’s the right species, I thought, seeing the pair of nodules on its forehead, I wish I could examine it in a vacuum chamber or something, it’s possible certain pieces might disintegrate if exposed to oxygen like magic cores.

“Do we have a container you can dump the black powder into?” I asked.

“Not really, why?” Vaozey asked back. “I mean I guess we could put it in one of the used ration wrappings-”

“No, that would make it damp and useless,” I sighed. “I was hoping to use the jar to create a low-oxygen environment since it’s mostly transparent.”

“You mentioned that before when talking about magic boosters, right?” Vaozey asked. “I don’t remember…”

“It’s the chemical in the air that you need to breathe,” I summarized, giving a simple explanation. “It’s also required for fires to burn, and it dissolves magic fuel. If you burn something in a contained environment though, you can use it all up, then it’s possible to extract magic fuel without it disappearing.”

“Can’t you just… do that with magic?” Vaozey suggested. “I don’t really get it, but why do you need a jar?”

“I’ve tried to make vacuums with magic before, removing the air from a volume,” I replied, referencing a few brief tests I did during the trip between Kahvahrniydah and Towrkah. “It’s not possible, at least not for long, the air pressure differential is just too high. Either some air slips through or it expends a huge amount of energy to maintain.”

“You’re not making any sense,” Vaozey muttered. “I’m sure you know what you’re talking about, but I don’t really understand it. So you’re saying a jar can withstand this pressure, but magic can’t?”

“No, the jar just makes a solid wall that stops the flow of air in and out,” I corrected, realizing something as I said it. “Actually, I think there might be something I can do.” Putting the ant down, I picked up one of the sticks I had been cutting, then began forming a dual-sphere construct around the end of it with force magic. If I can do this with electricity, there’s no reason I can’t do it with air, right? I thought, The only reason I didn’t realize it was because I was so caught up in thinking about needing a vacuum chamber.

It took about ten minutes of trying, while Vaozey went back to trying to force the stump to move, to get the magic into the right shape for the first real test. Lighting the stick on fire, I attempted to hold the air around it in place, creating a sort of bubble. It worked, somewhat, but enough oxygen still got through that the flame didn’t so much go out as simply start sputtering. Drastically increasing the energy expenditure could “harden” the spherical shell and lower the oxygen content, but it seemed that some would still get in through osmosis of some kind. This has some interesting implications for whatever my resistance magic is actually doing, I grumbled, trying not to be annoyed.

An hour later, once Vaozey was getting ready to sleep and I was also getting tired, I finally gave up. I managed to extinguish the flame a few times, but within a minute or so the air in the bubble was oxygenated enough to allow a new flame to be lit. I just don’t understand why this doesn’t work, I sighed, I can move air just fine, I can even hold it relatively still, but it’s always imperfect. I had even tried a very complex model designed to use two opposing circular flows of air with an area of low density in the middle in case the stillness was the issue, but it didn’t work either.

“Were you putting that flame out with magic?” Vaozey yawned, laying down.

“Sort of,” I replied.

“Didn’t think you could do that,” Vaozey grunted, and she turned away from the fire, propping her head up further on our backpack. Looking down, I saw the ant I had placed on the ground earlier in the same spot I had left it. Is it dead? I wondered as I picked it up, but the creature still struggled a little bit in my force magic so I knew that wasn’t the case. Even though I couldn’t preserve its cores, I began to cut it apart, bisecting it down the center to start with and then slowly pulling the organs out to examine them.

It almost looks like it never had any cores, I concluded once I was finished. I didn’t know much about the insect anatomy of the world I found myself in, but it appeared superficially similar to that of Earth, like most things. The only real oddity in the ant’s body was the nodules on its head and the tubes underneath, which appeared to actually contain parts of its brain. At least, the tissue inside the tubes wasn’t visually distinguishable from brain tissue, so it was likely something similar. Maybe I should find a beetle and do the same test, I thought, I ate beetles in Vehrehr to help regain my magic, if I could find the same species, I could confirm if insects can even have cores. That would provide a useful baseline.

As I put the ant corpse down, I noticed a few more ants standing around nearby. As soon as their presumed comrade was out of my grasp, they began picking up its pieces and carrying them away. Were they waiting for me to finish? I wondered. No, that’s not possible. I’m just tired.

I didn’t sleep well, and I suspected Vaozey didn’t either since she was notably more lethargic when she woke up than she was the previous day. Something about the sounds of the wilderness just didn’t let me relax properly and also kept me thinking about the strange behavior of the ants that I had seen. They’re not that smart, I thought, I’m just being paranoid. Still, images of the time an entire group of ants had stopped to look at me all at once continued to pop up in my head, and I could feel my human instincts telling me that the rational explanations were incorrect.

I didn’t realize just how tired I was until an hour into the day when a bolt flew out of the bushes and struck me through the neck, narrowly missing my upper spine. For the first time in quite a while, I suffered a wound that was not only painful, but potentially fatal, and it caught me entirely unaware because of my preoccupation. As soon as I registered the hit, I ducked into the bushes to my right and heard Vaozey jumping in after me. As I pulled the bolt out, I had to duck down even further to avoid a second follow-up shot that would have struck me in the forehead.

“Do you see them?” I asked as soon as the bolt was out.

“Right there,” Vaozey replied, pointing into the bushes and then ducking to avoid a third bolt. I thought they were further back, I grumbled, seeing the two attackers pointing crossbows at us. One wore a metal breastplate, while the other was simply clad in leather, and both wore black hoods and face wrappings. The smaller one in the breastplate shot another bolt, and Vaozey grunted, flinching to one side. “Got me right in the seytoydh eye…” she muttered.

“They’re very accurate,” I noted, “we might need more cover.”

“Come out and surrender!” the smaller attacker yelled. Female, I thought. “We’re taking you to Awrehrehzha! Whether you’re alive or not for the trip is your choice!”

“Shawnawl eydhteyvb jhoyt, teylm!” Vaozey yelled back, using several new curse words that I could only assume were even more severe than her usual ones. “Can you hit them with that knife from here?” she asked more quietly, turning to me.

“Only if they don’t move,” I replied. “I can close distance, but can you make it up to them?”

“You think I’m going to just hide behind a tree if I can’t?” Vaozey cackled quietly. “This is the first decent fight I’ve had in a while. I’ll be fine.”

“Last chance!” the larger, male figure warned. Normally, a human probably would have bantered back before attacking, but I was short on patience and wanted the element of surprise. Bursting out of the bush I was hiding in, I crossed the thirty or so meters between me and the man in about five steps, barely getting my sword out of the sheath before I reached him due to my speed. He tried to shoot me, missing by about a centimeter, then the top half of his head came off of the rest of his body, and I ducked to avoid the bolt of his partner, who had better trigger discipline and waited for me to stop moving before trying to shoot.

Vaozey came in just behind me, tackling the woman just after she got her shot off and throwing her to the ground. Though they were both female, Vaozey was around thirty percent larger overall than her opponent, and that size difference meant that the battle was over in seconds. Her mace dripping with blood, Vaozey stood up, huffing out a few breathy laughs.

“Gods, I think I needed that,” she joked. “Good way to get out the frustration.”

“You got over here very quickly,” I replied, wiping my sword on the corpse of the male attacker and sheathing it.

“I don’t think it was…” Vaozey started. “Wait, do you think I used magic?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I did, and you were only a few steps behind me.”

“Seyt,” Vaozey swore, looking upset. “I don’t even know if I did it. Shit. I need to try that again later.”

“Did it feel any different than normal?” I asked, bending down to start searching the male mercenary’s corpse.

“No,” Vaozey replied, doing the same for the female one. “Just felt like running fast. Are you sure it was magic?”

“Not at all,” I replied. “It took me about two seconds to get here, and you about three or four. It’s well within the range of normal possibility, it’s just faster than I would have expected.” As I ran through the pockets on the man’s clothes, I found a pin in the shape of a bird of prey. “I don’t think these two were Rehvites,” I said.

“Yeah, me either,” Vaozey replied. “Too weak, and she didn’t even try to get me with binding.”

“This one has some kind of identifier,” I said, holding up the pin for Vaozey to see. She, as well, held up a similar pin.

“Mercenaries,” Vaozey said.

“Does the pin have any particular meaning to you?” I asked, looking mine over for any indication of letting.

“No,” Vaozey shrugged. “Probably just the symbol of whoever they work for. Say, does he have any armor you could give me?”

“You can take a look,” I suggested.

“No, you look,” Vaozey replied. “If he has anything, give it to me.” Right, that custom, I sighed. “‘A warrior is a hunter of its own kind, the spoils of its prey belong first to it, then to the prey’s surviving family, then to nature. To scavenge the prey of another for profit is to disgrace oneself.’”

“Roydlow again, I’m guessing,” I muttered.

“You’re getting better at guessing,” Vaozey replied.

“No armor,” I replied. “Does that breastplate not fit you?”

“Not a chance,” Vaozey scoffed. “Any orders? Papers?”

“Nope,” I shrugged.

“Doubt these are the only ones they’ve sent, assuming they were hired by Rehvites,” Vaozey remarked.

“Yep,” I grunted. And no ants visible anywhere, I thought, looking around, So either the ones last night somehow reported back despite the repellent, or I’m just being paranoid. In response to internal stress, I sighed, and my mind was filled with anticipation for sleep.

We found another creek that ran through a clearing around noon, which we used to wash off the blood from the fight. I didn’t have much on me, cutting off the top of the man’s head had simply spattered my face and front a bit, but Vaozey was covered as usual. The bridge over the creek was also larger and better constructed than the previous ones, being made mostly of bricks instead of just raw stone and mortar like usual. We’re still a week from Awrehrehzha, I thought, I wonder why this particular bridge is so expensive-looking?

We had barely finished crossing the bridge, still dripping with water, when we heard distant shouting coming from the west. Four figures, all dressed in similar black uniforms, were approaching at extremely high speed from about five hundred meters away. Vaozey and I broke into a sprint eastward, aiming for the edge of the clearing so that we could get some visual cover and hide. The new aggressors were obviously Rehvites of some kind using magic to enhance their speed, but they didn’t appear to have any weapons drawn. They think we’re the mercenaries, I realized as I kept pace with Vaozey.

“Two hundred meters,” I said, calculating that we would enter the tree line when the pursuers were about fifty meters away at our current pace.

“I don’t know what a seytoydh miyter is!” Vaozey growled back. “Gods, Yaytgayao, if there was ever a time for some help, it would probably be now!” Amazingly, Vaozey’s speed started to increase, and she began yelling in exertion. Faster than I expected, we reached the tree line, and Vaozey yelled in shock as she struggled to redirect her speed and avoid crashing into something. She ended up tripping over a root and cartwheeling into some underbrush but thankfully wasn’t knocked out by it.

“You go that way, I’ll go this way,” I directed, pointing in two random and partially opposite directions.

“Seyt that,” Vaozey replied. “We both go one way. Those guys are at least as fast as you, probably as strong too. If either of us gets caught alone we’re dead.” With no time to argue, we both went the way that I had told Vaozey to go, with me taking the lead and zigzagging at certain points to make our tracks harder to follow. The trees were densely packed but didn’t provide much in the way of cover before the upper canopy, meaning that climbing them to try to hide was useless.

Our pursuers entered the tree line on schedule, whispering and grunting directions to not give away their motivations, then spread out in a fairly efficient search pattern to look for us. The glances that I caught showed that they had weapons in hand, so presumably, they realized that we weren’t the mercenaries, but their targets. They probably won’t follow us very deep in, I thought, the search radius will expand far too much for four people to cover very quickly. We just need to get about a kilometer from their entry point to get away.

“This way,” I whispered, pointing deeper into the forest, and Vaozey nodded. As we walked, I noticed her looking down at her feet often, and realized it was to avoid stepping on anything that might make noise. While it was good that she was learning, it also meant that she couldn’t keep an eye on the positions of the Rehvites, so I had to do double duty in that respect.

A whistle came from about sixty meters to my right, and my blood ran cold for a moment. The attack I was expecting never came, and instead, Vaozey and I watched from crouched positions as a second Revhite joined the one who whistled, and began conversing with him. Though I couldn’t make out their words, they seemed to be talking about the ground, making numerous gestures to it. Soon, a third joined, clearly their superior. The first two explained whatever it was they were talking about to her, and she scratched her head, then made a circular gesture with her finger.

“What are they doing?” Vaozey whispered.

“Looks like they’re leaving,” I replied, raising my eyebrows in shock. We’re not even half a kilometer in, and they’re giving up? I thought, watching the group slowly make their way out of the forest, apparently being very careful of where they walked.

“Why?” Vaozey asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Something with the ground?” Looking down, I could see that the underbrush was very thick, but appeared otherwise indistinguishable from normal. “Are there plants in this country that are dangerous to touch?” I asked.

“There are plants like that?” Vaozey asked back. “I don’t know, but I haven’t heard of that. Dangerous to eat, or painful to touch, sure. But dangerous to touch?”

“I can’t think of any other reason,” I replied. A few minutes passed, and the Rehvites didn’t return. I looked out for ants, and there were a few, but they didn’t appear interested in us. Even if they’re tracking us, they don’t seem willing to come after us, I thought, standing up. Vaozey did as well, then followed me as I slowly walked over to where the Rehvites had been standing. Besides the footprints in the muddy brush, nothing appeared out of the ordinary.

“Does the ground here feel a bit… soft to you?” Vaozey asked, stepping with her right foot repeatedly.

“It’s covered in a layer of refuse and mud,” I replied. “It’s probably just a bit less densely packed here than elsewhere.”

“No, it’s almost springy,” Vaozey replied, jumping a few times. “I can’t explain it, just jump, you’ll see what I-” All of a sudden there were a series of snapping sounds below us, then there was no ground at all, and we fell into darkness.