The caravan is bustling with energy under the midday sun. Merchants scramble to secure their wagons to the horses. Cedric is alone, organizing some papers. The party stands in front of the Western gate, well-rested and packed with their belongings. A flock of birds fly overhead, their black feathery bodies distinct against the natural blue sky. Lucius silently appears behind Cenvin and taps him on the shoulder. He jumps and turns around.

  “What is it?” He stabs.

  The man steps back, hands raised in peace, and gently chuckles.

  “Cenvin, proposition for you.”

  In the distance, the caravan is about to begin moving. From the leading wagon, Cedric looks behind him and yells at the party to hurry. Durand responds and taps impatiently at Lucius.

  “What is it?” Cenvin repeats.

  “The comas induced by your ability have some fascinating properties. Each coma, although becoming increasingly infrequent thanks to your abstaining from using your portals, is gradually longer with each one. In other words, my friend, it’s getting worse. I have confidence that my team of healers and scholars will be able to find a solution to your condition or at least an explanation, but we can only achieve that if you stay here in Italica City for us to conduct research.”

  “So you want me to stay here?”

  “Precisely.”

  “Nah.”

  “May I ask why so?”

  “Three reasons, Lucius. First, I’m getting paid for this mission and intend to see it through. Second, Kores pissed me off by all the shenanigans during my time in this god-forbidden city. And finally, I wish to find Shyn. She’s going to Starmetal Valley, so-”

  Durand interrupts, “Thought you disliked her?”

  “I changed my mind. She’s a valuable asset in destroying Starmetal, so, you know, she’s useful!”

  “...I see.”

  Lucius retreats as a group of Mercs walk up behind him. They say something about the “Star” to him and he nods. Focusing his gaze upon the party one last time, he smiles and waves, his silvery voice smoothly says “goodbye” one last time, and strolls away with the Mercs at his side.

  Lenny is the first to tear away from the exeunting Lucius.

  He claps his paws together, “Let us get a move on.”

  “You’re right,” Cenvin joins, “we need to go.”

  Finally, Durand also nods and joins the rest of the party to their two horses. Lenny will share a horse with Durand. Together, they gallop out of the Western gate to join the departing caravan. They catch up with Assert, who is riding a black horse that seems to blend in with the shadows of the nearby overhanging trees. She notices the party behind her and scoffs loudly.

  “Took you a while to say goodbye, huh? Need a handkerchief to wipe your teary eyes, Cenvin?”

  “You-”

  Assert cuts him off by wildly laughing and speeds up, treading to the head of the caravan. The party is left in the dust.

  Durand stops Cenvin from chasing after her.

  “What’s the point? You can sort out your stupid differences later,” he yells at him, who’s tearing after Assert. He waves dismissively and Durand turns red. “Not even five minutes out and already getting into trouble. Oh boy.”

  Clasping onto Durand’s cloak, Lenny looks at Italica City behind him for one last glance. Its Skytowers seem to sway in farewell at him. The blue backdrop of the sky appears almost unnatural. Lenny had gotten used to the eternal night. The city finally felt homely, the single most logical place since Lenny’s escapade from Seashine. After all these years, Seashine City will likely be foreign to him. The unknown scares. Memories of his time there scavenging like a dumpster animal come flooding back to his mind. Then, leading to the events after meeting Rikki, and how Starmetal Valley murdered him in cold blood-

  Starmetal Valley. A mad glint rises again in his eyes. The very thought of them seems to sharpen his claws. The final destination after reaching Seashine. They will meet with Shyn, infiltrate the city, and work to topple them once and for all; things will be great, and they will get better. The future is bright.

  But there’s the complications of the journey there in the first place, of course. The Otherworld didn’t have a big presence in Italica City due to the Mercs and Orions, but their domain is the wilderness. There’s no telling what kind of eldritch species they will come across.

  Whatever. Everything will probably work out.

  Lenny’s calculating brain branches off into other topics, and as the caravan travels, the landscape around them slowly changes from civilization to the more unknown wilds.

  The caravan traveled quickly. Before sunset, they could no longer see the city behind them. The road is well-trodden, with wheel prints, horseshoe prints, and footsteps all decorating the dirt path, forming an unintelligible and chaotic mosaic. Acres of farmland surround them. In the distance, a thin puff of homely smoke rises from a large windmill.

  The sky is completely dark. The merchants had begun to make camp. The party helped them out, and in return, some men gave Durand some bacon to roast. Huddled around a relatively shabby fire, they watch the bacon sizzle on a pan. Cenvin crosses his arms, shivering despite the dancing fire.

  “The night sure is cold,” he comments.

  The party is quiet.

  Upon seeing no reaction to his remark, Cenvin raises his voice a bit louder.

  “Oh, you guys don’t think it’s cold?”

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  “No, not really,” Durand replies. “Lenny’s got fur and I’m a ranger. If you want to be warm, adapt to the frost.”

  Cenvin raises his arms in exasperation and wraps a warm fur cloak around him. He had taken it from a merchant’s wagon. Beside him an armored knight sits down, eagerly toasting their hands against the fire. Their armor is quite hard to make out, but the party knows that it’s Assert.

  “Grebs is not going to be happy that you stole his wares,” she says to Cenvin, who shrugs in return.

  “You probably won’t believe me that I bought this from him. With honest money.”

  “Because you didn’t. Cenvin, my foolish turd, the fact that you’re unpaid is still a joke among Mercs.”

  Cenvin’s face turns red, blending in hue with the pirouetting flames.

  ` “Say that again, woman.”

  She laughs dismissively and takes off her clay mask. The party instinctively leans in to get a look at her face to no avail, as the lightless sky and her helmet cloaks her face in an impenetrable veil. She produces a dagger, stabs into the second-fattest piece of bacon, perfectly grilled, and picks it up, using the dagger as a fork.

  “The bacon’s ready, let’s eat. Got days of journeying ahead of us. There will be tribulations. There will be conflict. The least we can do is to get to the mission objective in one piece,” she takes a bite of the bacon, “hmm, not bad!”

  The meaty aroma of the cracking sizzling bacon fills the nostrils of each of the party members, and they begin to distribute bacon to each other. Lenny is granted a particularly large portion. Cenvin leans back on his backpack, warm food inside his stomach, and breathes deeply in satisfaction.

  While Lenny hungrily devoured his fill, Durand, who was not feeling particularly famished, played with his piece, which happened to be the largest one. He played around with it before trying to use his ability of Matter Manipulation on it.

  “It’s quite confusing,” he says as he fails to liquidate it. “So my ability doesn’t work on organic material, even if it is dead. Then why could Shyn bypass these restraints?”

  “Maybe she had no moral compass, unlike you?” Cenvin suggests.

  “It is also possible that it is a part of her ability of Ability Duplication,” Lenny prompts.

  “She doesn’t see life as you do,” Assert states. “It’s the difference in Worldview.”

  The party turns to Assert, and Durand speaks first.

  “Worldview? I’ve heard something similar before, from Diem. Can’t remember when, though… I think it was something Diem retconned. Diem! Are you adding it to the campaign now?”

  Do you still remember it? I guess the memory module malfunctioned or something. Oh well! Yeah, I’m implementing Worldview into the campaign again. How about we let Assert explain what the concept of Worldview is?”

  “Very well,” she says, swallowing the final bite of the bacon.

  “Worldview… where do I begin? Worldview is how a person perceives the world. Their mind assigns a specific value to something to measure its importance relative to others. Example: To a Ranger such as Durand, when comparing two things such as the concept of life vs the idea of money, he might give “life” a higher value, such as 85, contrasted with “money’s” value of 24. However, if Durand’s mind compares “money” to “religion,” then he might assign “money” a higher score of 76 while “religion” receives 19. It’s all subconsciously done in your head, and of course, Worldview constantly changes and expands.

  “Now, what does all this have to do with your ability? Based on current research information by Shadow’s Edge, an ability comes with every Gift, and Gifts are randomly handed out by an unknown higher power. You seem to call him Diem. These abilities are then infused with one’s soul, physically and mentally becoming a part of them. The subconsciousness then constantly tweaks and edits the Gift to work in tandem with Worldview, which the subconsciousness also controls. All of these happen without you directly knowing.

  “This will certainly explain why Shyn can affect organic matter with your ability, Durand. Cenvin’s guess was not too far off the mark. Unlike you, she likely puts the idea of “life” in a lesser or equal regard than the idea of “murder.” Her subconscious is perfectly fine with brutally taking a fellow human’s life, while yours blocks you from doing so, even to the point of disabling your ability on any organic matter at all.”

  She pauses and takes a swig from her waterskin.

  “Any questions?”

  “Surely Shadow’s Edge has a way to measure Worldviews? I wanna know what my Worldview is!” Cenvin asks.

  “Oh, ye-” she pauses. She dons her mask and responds dryly, “Such a magic item exists, but Starmetal Valley develops it. You don’t need to know what your Worldview is, just ask your conscience.”

  She stands and begins walking away. Stammering, Cenvin shouts after her.

  “Y-you sure sounded like you have one such item! Come back right now!”

  “You don’t need to know!” She yells back as she fades into shadow. “But unless-”

  She pauses suddenly as if having a great revelation, and hastily shuffles out of sight. The party had finished their meager meal, and the caravan seemed to be dying down for the night.

  “What’s her problem?” Cenvin grumbles as they clean up the dying fire.

  Players! I believe a long rest is in order, sweet dreams!

  In the dead of night, the moon is directly overhead, and a hand stirs. It brushes off the blanket covering its owner’s body and works in tandem with the legs to bring the body to its feet. It picks up a dagger. Grasping the dagger, they stealthily travel to a nearby figure, peacefully sleeping yet still tense as a veteran soldier. Pieces of the figure’s plate armor are neatly organized next to them, but the figure’s face is still enveloped in the darkness of the chilling night. The hand rises, dagger glinting, and with a swift motion-

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  As Durand's voice whispers behind him, Cenvin’s dagger seems to hit a solid air wall. He whirls to see the Ranger, one hand outstretched to cast his ability and the other hand holding a longsword aimed at his throat. He smiles casually and tosses the dagger into the grasses nearby, then he raises his hands in quiet surrender, rapidly darting his eyes back and forth from Durand to Assert, who hasn’t woken up yet.

  “Did you just try to murder her?”

  “Look, she offended me. She’s obviously not a friend!”

  “A friend, maybe no, but still an ally. We need her prowess to get us through this.”

  By now they have returned to their tent and now are quietly arguing.

  “You can’t kill an NPC for just pissing you off, too!”

  “Okay, I get it! I get it! Hop off my back!”

  “Promise you won’t do that kind of idiotic stuff again.”

  “Promise!”

  Durand rises and as he leaves the tent Cenvin speaks up again.

  “Why aren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night?”

  He shoots Cenvin a disapproving, almost parental look.

  “Studying with Cedric on how to manage a goddamn caravan, and immature party members too.”

  As the tent flutters close behind him, Cenvin mutters once again in the dark: “Goober.”

  The next morning, the caravan prepares to move once again. Merchants frolic about, checking if everything is normal. Assert is once again disputing with Cenvin about something. Cedric frantically weaves between the chaos, giving out orders of instruction.

  Lenny raises his head into the air and sniffs suspiciously. Nyri is flying in the air, using the milky clouds as camouflage and stalking the caravan. He shrugs. The Lumi is not an enemy, something that only he seems to realize.