The four of them had been jogging for hours. On the one hand, Cooper was shocked that that was even possible. He was a fit enough young man, but he spent more time reading than exercising, and before he started cultivating the first half hour out of the city might have killed him. Now, if he cycled his mana he could keep this pace up for ages. On the other hand, they could have rented horses or maybe even one of the new steam carriages. But Gabrielle insisted they save the money and run. She and Helene had grand plans. After getting back from their recruitment mission they had taken on any stray task Annette offered for contribution points and started saving as much as they could from the stipend.

  He huffed through the early spring air. “Remind me why the army can’t deal with this?”

  “The army is dealing with it.” Helene panted between words. They could all keep up the pace but that didn’t mean it was easy. “They sent a team a couple weeks ago that they haven’t heard back from. They thought it might be something magical which is why we’re helping. And I know you know this because you were literally taking notes during the meeting with the general.”

  “Well, yes. But I didn’t realize at the time we’d be running the whole way.”

  “Oh please, you’re just whining,” Gabrielle said. “You were practically vibrating with the idea of a magic mystery we get to solve.”

  “Just because you’re right, doesn’t mean you have to rub it in. Next time we’re hiring a ride, my treat.”

  A couple kilometers later they stopped for a rest. The spring rains had turned the roadsides into so much mud, but they happened upon one of the old merchant waystations. Not more than a few empty buildings, there was at least a dry floor they could sit on. After collapsing, they sat in silence for a few minutes, panting until they caught their breath from the morning run. Eric, ever thoughtful, pulled out the sandwiches Esther had sent them off with. The rest of their rations were preserved foods that would last for a while, but she had promised a treat for their first meal at least. They devoured the food mostly in silence, with occasional grunts about the taste. Even for Cooper, having grown up in a noble home, the bread was beyond anything he had ever been served. Perfectly crusty on the outside, and soft in the middle, with a bit of tang that came from the starter. When they had finished and were taking time to digest before getting back on the road, Cooper took out the notes Helene had teased him for.

  “I talked to Martin before we left and he gave me some ideas of what we might be facing. The most likely option is that a dangerous spirit beast attacked the town, and then attacked the army team when they got here.”

  “If that’s the most likely scenario, why isn’t Martin, or his friend, out here dealing with it?” Helene was the more timid of the girls, and ruthlessly practical. He was surprised she would point out the obvious.

  “Risk, apparently, makes for good cultivators. And he said it's unlikely a higher tier beast would appear this close to the city without him noticing. But if it's too much for us to handle we should retreat. Next options are some sort of plant with a soporific effect or a mundane attack. Those will be less likely to show up as a threat to the City Core, so we can’t rule them out, but it's pretty unlikely.”

  Gabrielle hopped back to her feet. “Well then let’s get a move on. Keep weapons handy and we’ll see what we can find.”

  ********

  By noon of the next day, they reached the turnoff for the village they were investigating. The sign marking the turn read two and a half kilometers away. Gabrielle allowed them to slow down so they wouldn’t show up out of breath and sweaty. They crossed the last distance at a walk, weapons out and spiritual senses extended. Having grown up hunting, even if he didn’t enjoy it, Cooper had been allowed to take a gun along. Gabrielle was holding a pistol as well, where Eric had been given a training staff and Helene had a hatchet in each hand. Which seemed insane to Cooper but if they were going to be story-book heroes then unusual weapons went with the job.

  The forest was budding, birds were chirping. On another day, this would be an auspicious beginning to an adventure. Cooper could hear the story writing itself. What he could not hear was any evidence of a village less than a kilometer away. The team rounded the last bend and paused in confusion. There was no devastation. No blood or bodies or nesting beast. There was nothing at all. The clearing that should have housed the logging village was empty.

  “I don’t think this was a monster,” Cooper announced, perhaps unnecessarily. “Unless that monster also eats buildings.”

  That was enough to push Gabrielle back into action. “Let's take a loop of the clearing, see if we notice anything. Stay together.”

  They crept along the tree line without seeing anything unusual, not that any of them knew what to look for. Everything seemed like an entirely ordinary forest, the village was gone. With nothing else to explore in the surroundings, they decided to take a closer look. As Cooper stepped into what would have been the village proper, he was blinded by a harsh white light, his spiritual senses completely blanking out.

  When he could open his eyes again, he was still in a clearing in a forest, but not one he’d ever seen before. The trees were lush, and covered with winding vines of green and gold. The temperature had gone up, and mist was settling among the branches. All that was pushed to the side as they were confronted with a shouting soldier.

  “Try to go back through!”

  Cooper had no idea what they were talking about, and from the lack of response from his companions, neither did they. The soldier ran at them. Cooper dodged to the side and tensed up but the man sprinted through their group until he came to a stop a dozen meters away. He let out a string of curses while stomping back.

  The moment gave Cooper and the others time to notice the entire village had been transported to this place. Buildings were nestled between trees, sometimes around a tree as though both the house and the tree had appeared in the same place at once. People gathered around them. Most of the clothing was what he would expect in a village like the one they had come to investigate, inexpensive and functional. Though there were a handful of additional people in uniform, the rest of the army team most likely.

  “The good news is we found everyone,” Gabrielle said, low enough that only their group would hear her.

  The soldiers stepped forward first. One woman with a no-nonsense demeanor stepped in front of the rest and held out a hand.

  “Captain Hunter. I was sent to investigate the village of Salgrove and ended up here with my team. Please tell me you have a way out.”

  Cooper was glad Gabrielle stepped up to talk for the rest of them. His parents had given him all the necessary training, but he had never gotten the hang of difficult social interactions. And ‘magically transported to a new forest’ was pretty difficult in his estimation.

  “Gabrielle Marchant. Initiate cultivator of the Eternal Archive. When your team didn’t return, we volunteered to investigate if anything magical was going on.”

  The captain looked them all over before responding. “Well I’m pretty sure we can all agree the answer to that question is yes. And no offense, but I’m not sure what a bunch of kids are supposed to do to help. Unless one of you is that woman who fought off the sea monster?”

  Gabrielle’s hackles went up and Cooper decided he would have to step in after all. “We are young, but we are studying magic and are therefore more suited to such situations. Our sectmaster isn’t with us but has confidence in our abilities to resolve the situation.”

  Captain Hunter was not convinced. “Okay. Here is the situation, let’s see you resolve it. A month ago, a big flash of light and everyone ended up in this forest. The army sent a team and the same thing happened. Now if we move too far in one direction we end up wandering back into the center here, like a looped track, even though we are sure we didn’t turn around. No one can get home or get out. So in your expert opinions, what can we do?”

  They looked at each other sideways. None of them were really experts in magic, they had really only barely gotten past the basics.

  “We’ll look around and come up with some options.”

  The Captain sighed. “At this point any idea you have is worth trying.” Her voice dropped low, and Cooper saw some of the village kids inching closer. “There are some things we’ve been able to forage for food til now, but they won’t last forever. So if you have a magic solution we’ll take it.”

  The Captain retreating back to the rest of the soldiers was a signal to the villagers. All at once they pushed towards the cultivators.

  “Did the king send you?”

  “How are we getting out of here?”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Do you have a message?”

  Cooper and the others did their best to answer as they could and to give comfort where it was needed. The heartbreak on the villagers' faces told him they failed. The crowd eventually ebbed back. Kids went off to play, not yet realizing the danger they were in. The adults stood in clumps, talking in low tones and tossing the occasional mistrustful glance over where the cultivators stood.

  “Okay Cooper, you’re the one that pays the most attention to all the magic theory. What do you think is going on?” Gabrielle was remarkably unconcerned with the situation they found themselves in. Unlike Cooper who was barely holding things together.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know. My only guess is that this is a hidden realm. But that was a throwaway comment from Martin’s friend. I don’t know how to get out. I don’t know.”

  A hand clamped onto his right bicep. Cooper turned to see Eric staring at him. “Breathe,” the other boy said. Cooper followed the advice. A few minutes later he realized he had subconsciously dropped into one of the meditation rhythms they practiced in morning lessons.

  “Okay, I’m sorry about that. I brought books on everything they suggested and put them in the bottom of everyone’s packs.”

  “We’ll talk about that packing decision later, but for now everyone grab the books and look for the one on hidden realms.”

  They all followed Gabrielle's direction and pulled out the reference material Cooper had brought.

  “These are in that ancient language Adam is making us study.” Helene’s delivery was calm, but that didn’t prevent Cooper from hearing an accusation in it.

  “Adam wouldn’t let me bring the memory tablets, so we’ll have to make do. Strictly speaking he isn’t entirely aware I brought the books either.”

  They quickly found the relevant book, leatherbound and embossed in silver. They all leaned in to start reading before Gabrielle realized the problem.

  “Cooper, Helene, you two are the best at Alrasian, so work on translating. Eric and I will talk to everyone and see if we can find out anything useful. We’ll meet back up in a few hours.”

  ********

  After a communal supper of thin stew, they set up a small campsite away from the villagers. Dinner was just more motivation to get out of here soon. If that was what they had access to, going hungry was going to become a real problem. There was no direct sun or moon that they could see, but the light dimmed in an approximation of nighttime. The group gathered around the book to discuss findings.

  “Good news and bad news,” Cooper began. “The good news is, from our best guess at the translation, hidden realms should always have a way to leave. A portal or some sort of magical object that acts as a key in and out. The bad news is I don’t know how to find it.”

  Gabrielle was next up. “The villagers have been here for a few weeks. They said it happened all at once. There was a flash of light and then the entire village was moved to this place. A couple of people were badly injured. One died after an infection set in on the broken leg.”

  Cooper felt his thoughts stutter. He knew academically that cultivation was dangerous. Hearing someone had died on what he had previously considered a fun quest for him and his friends shattered an illusion of safety he hadn’t realized he was still clinging to . He forced himself to refocus on Gabrielle.

  “-- smart enough to ration their food right away. This far north they know to prepare against a late blizzard that makes the roads impossible. They can’t go on forever though, another couple of weeks maybe.”

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  Helene broke her silence by joining in. Cooper had been surprised at her fluency in the Alrasian while they were translating, his ego slightly bruised that he wasn’t out and away the best at it. When he asked she said it was another way to earn extra contribution points.

  “The captain said if they walk more than a handful of kilometers out in any direction they somehow end up back in the village. That means this place isn’t that big. We can create a search pattern and find the key to get everyone out.”

  It was a sensible plan, and also their only option. If Martin was here he would magic them up a portal or something but they were limited to enforcing their bodies and weapons, and maybe activating a magic gadget or two if they were simple. The girls started sketching out a search pattern based off of a radial grid with the village at the center. Eric coughed to get everyone’s attention and dropped a lump of pale green crystal next to the dirt sketch Helene was making.

  “I think this is the key.” Cooper stared at the serious boy a moment. That could change everything. He clumsily reached out with his hand and his spiritual senses to poke at the rock. There was definitely something magical about it. Cooper tested sending a tendril of mana into the rock. A light seemed to flicker in the center for a moment before going out again. They all looked around but nothing had changed. Helene reached for the crystal and began turning it over in her hands, and then rubbing her palm across the surfaces.

  “It’s broken,” she announced after a few minutes. She pointed to one side that was smoother than the rough edges of the others. “Here and here, I think pieces came off of it.”

  “The plan stays the same then,” Gabrielle said. “Tomorrow we start searching for anything magical, with an eye out for green rocks.”

  Cooper was slightly aghast. “Have you ever seen rocks shatter? There could be dozens of pieces, more…”

  “Then we’ll be searching for a while. We don’t exactly have other choices. I’ll ask the captain at breakfast if the soldiers want to join us. No spiritual senses but more eyes can’t hurt.”

  ********

  Gabrielle was as good as her word and the next morning, four soldiers joined them in a makeshift search team. They had rope and surveying tools they took out to plan the day’s search. Cooper thought of his own pack which housed some rations, a change of clothes, some basic first aid supplies, extra underthings, a bedroll and several books. He would need to work on his adventuring kit if they were allowed out of the sect house after this The soldiers noticed the same thing as they started to heckle the cultivators.

  “Who goes out without a good length of rope? Do you even have a map?”

  Cooper felt his cheeks warm but managed to take the ribbing and give some back. “Who goes to investigate magic without any magicians?”

  Not his finest but they couldn’t all be gems.

  The group set off along what they had dubbed the northernmost ray. The lack of a sun or stars made determining a true direction impossible. Instead the villagers decided to use the building placement as a reference. So lines were drawn between what used to be the northernmost and southernmost buildings in the village, and that determined the rest of the directions. The house they started at was nondescript. Made from local lumber and worn through quite a few years. The only distinguishing feature he picked out was a set of child’s handprints in red paint along the bottom of the door.The groups would survey consecutive sectors to stay in contact in case something went wrong. His mathematics professors would be proud.

  It was exceedingly dull.

  Cooper dutifully walked his section, feeling for anything that jumped out to him, or reminded him of the stone Eric had found. The younger boy’s spiritual senses were the strongest among them but Cooper was still competent for his level. The problem was this whole place gave off a gentle mana signature, as though the very air was magical. Staying focused and filtering out that information was not easy and Cooper felt a headache building as the morning progressed.

  They saw a few plants with more mana than normal, but nothing else of note, just the ever-present green-gold vines, snaking up, around, and through the treetops. Lunch was a small meal, unfilling and eaten on the move. The meager rations once more provided enough motivation to keep going as he choked down the flatbread-style biscuits. After what he estimated at six or eight kilometers, based on their average pace, the trees thinned. With a burst of speed he broke through the line only to see the village appear. He had walked in straight lines all day, he was sure of it. This forest wasn’t old enough to get turned around in, and the whole group had kept up a rough line as they walked. And yet, one by one, they emerged in front of the same northernmost house they had departed from.

  The group gathered together to check if anyone had found anything. None of them had so they set up along the next couple of spokes on their grid and set out again. They could get at least one more set done before it was too dark to navigate the trees. Cooper had noticed his night vision improving as he continued cultivating, but the soldiers would be blind in the forest after dark.

  A caw sounded out from somewhere to Cooper’s right. He reflexively looked through the nearby trees to see if he could spot the bird. Stumbling over his own thoughts, he realized he hadn’t seen any animals since crossing into the hidden realm. His search was interrupted by a snorting soldier on his left.

  “That’s the signal. Mark where you were standing and we’ll go over to check it out,” the woman said.

  “Right, of course, I remember.” Cheeks blazing, Cooper did as he was told and followed to find the rest of the group clumping around Helene and a younger soldier about his own age. Helene filled them in on where she felt the object and they all searched the area. Cooper was elbow-deep in underbrush when he heard Gabrielle shout from a few meters away. After a flinch he couldn’t suppress at the volume, he joined her along with the others. This stone piece wasn’t a small chunk that would be mistaken for a paperweight or toy. The color matched, a pale green crystal. But it was thin and long, maybe three meters or a bit less, and a tube. It was definitely the same, but how it would work together with the chunk they already had was unclear. With the light beginning to dim, there was no time to stand around and discuss. Two of the soldiers hefted the crystal and they all hurried back to their spokes to continue back to the village. No one found anything else.

  After a quick and disappointing dinner, everyone gathered around the two pieces of stone that they had. Cooper and Eric were messing around with the pieces, trying to find an area the two might have fit together before being shattered. The longer piece was smooth except on the two ends so they tried to jam the smaller piece into it to see if they could fit.

  For one end nothing happened. On the other, it seemed nothing was going to happen again. Eric was about to release the two when Cooper stopped him. The green light was coming back, just like when they had tested the first piece. Only barely perceptible, both stones flickered with an innate light. As they held the two pieces together the light grew stronger and stronger. The villagers clustered around were murmuring at the sight and soldiers’ hands drifted towards weapons, but neither cultivator was about to interrupt the process. With a final surge of light the crystals went dormant again. Eric went to pull his piece away and ended up off balance instead. The pieces had merged together The longer edge now had a base on one end. When no more lights appeared after several moments, everyone wandered back to their homes or campsites. It was just the four of them when Cooper spoke his thoughts to the group.

  “Look at the shape. It’s too big to be a key, and it doesn't make sense for a Core. I bet it will form a doorway. Think about it, what better way to get in and out of somewhere.”

  “If it's a doorway then we’re missing at least two thirds of it.” Helene answered with her normal pragmatism. “The edges might be looping back to the center, but it's still a huge amount of land to search.

  “Let’s hope there aren’t too many more pieces then,” Gabrielle said. “We don’t have time to search for ten thousand tiny slivers.”

  There wasn’t much to say after that and they turned in for the evening. Cooper tossed and turned with the idea of spending the rest of his life searching a forest for something that wasn’t there until he eventually fell asleep.

  ********

  Two days and three more pieces of crystal later, they had reached the southernmost spoke on their grid lines. Cooper’s prediction of a door was proving correct, even the skeptical Captain Hunter admitted he was right, a fact he tucked in the back of his mind for the next time Eric’s competence bruised his ego. The shape of an arched entryway was coming together with each shard. The whole construction glowed a little brighter every time another piece fused to the rest. The keystone for the top of the arch was still missing but they were hopeful it would be the final piece to their escape. If it had been shattered to smithereens they would be trapped forever. Or until the food ran out. Cooper did his best not to think about that possibility but it had been inching further forward in his mind throughout their search. If any part of the door was ground into dust too fine to collect, they were in trouble. Food was already scarce, and it had only gotten worse in the last two days. Captain Hunter had announced the day before that they were reducing the number of meals per day for the adults. Cultivators were tougher than average, but his stomach still cramped as they began the day’s hike.

  The forest always looked the same. In every direction from the village, it was trees and lush plant life as far as they could see, with mist high above filtering the light so that it almost felt like a dream. It wasn’t the comfort of a familiar forest either, like the one near his family’s estate that he’d explored as a child. None of the others had seen trees like this in northern Merista. Cooper thought they vaguely resembled some areas in the mountains of Jaranda that his family had visited once on a vacation, but it was hard to tell, and at the time he had been more interested in his adventure books and escaping humidity than the local flora.

  The lack of variation made it easy to lose focus. At least that’s what Cooper would say if anyone asked why he almost missed the twinge in his spiritual senses. Just as he was coming level with the area, he realized his mistake and made his attempt at a bird call.

  “What was that, are you okay?” Viola, the soldier accompanying Cooper, sounded somewhere between laughing and genuinely concerned.

  “That was a bird call, I felt a piece of the gate.”

  Viola tipped over into out and out laughter. Cooper didn’t think it was that bad but apparently his fake bird noises were not up to standard. When she caught her breath she made the call and everyone made their way over.

  “It’s past that next cluster.” Cooper pointed in the direction and the group made their way over. It was their routine and there was no reason to change it now. The trees were denser in the area, forming a ring around where the fragment was placed. The group waited while a few of them circled the trees and found a gap wide enough for everyone to squeeze through. Gabrielle went first and Cooper could hear her whooping in delight. Once he made his way into the odd clearing he could see why. The keystone was dead center. No chips or missing bits that he could see. The mint green rock was nestled in a pile of small branches and leaves. Cooper had a fleeting moment to realize the rest of the pieces they found looked like they had fallen randomly. This looked carefully placed. But he was hungry and tired. The monotony of the search and the constant stress had worn him down to his bones. He bent over and picked up the stone.

  Creaking noises came from the surrounding trees. Snapping branches and rustling leaves that should have been still. Cooper’s head was on a swivel searching out the noise. That was the only reason he saw something step out of the tree. A moment passed before his brain registered what he was seeing. It was like a twig came to life. Wooden arms and legs pushed off a central spine as long as his forearm, a few leaves still attached. There was no face he could see, no eyes or ears or anything that would mark it as alive. Except it was moving on its own and coming straight at him.

  More snapping. Cooper glanced over to see another tree creature sprout. Then a third, and a fourth. And they were all advancing towards him. Cooper fumbled for the pistol at his side but Viola beat him to it. A shot and the soldier’s aim was perfect, the first creature blown to splinters. Unfortunately that worked as a signal to the rest of them. They rushed Cooper like a mob of prickly toddlers. Ears still ringing, he tried to kick them away as they got close.

  “Fuck. Too tight for guns, get them off,” Captain Hunter was shouting orders he could barely make sense of.

  One of the stick monsters took a running leap and landed on his thigh. Gripping the stone in one hand Cooper tried to rip it off with the other. The thing fought back. Small barbs extended from its limbs and latched through his trousers. He ripped it off and chucked it across the clearing. Before he could even catch a breath he was staggering forward as two more jumped on his back. One arm extended, he pawed over his shoulder to try and reach. More latched onto his legs and began climbing. He fell to one knee. The next tree monster took that as an opportunity to jump onto his chest. One of them had reached the arm with the stone and was latched through his shirt and into the skin of his arm while Cooper tried to rip it off. It went flying, along with Cooper’s blood where the barbs ripped through his arm. His mana was cycling but being stronger or moving faster wasn’t going to help him right now.

  He was going to be taken down by saplings and there was nothing he could do about it.Then the others were there. Gabrielle and Helene tore the monsters off his upper body and tossed them to the soldiers, who broke the sticks with prejudice. Eric did the same for his legs, letting Cooper get back to his feet. With his friends taking the pressure off, Cooper could join in his own defense. The monsters weren’t very fast, but it felt like they were never ending. He kicked and stomped the ones that got close. He had a moment to reflect on the advice from Martin he had ignored about guns not being useful against every type of beast. The sticks were too close and too fast for him to reliably hit, so he was left stomping around and relying on his height to keep the stone away from the stick monsters.

  The tide slowed. Fewer of the beasts even made it to Cooper, past the wall of cultivators and well-trained soldiers surrounding him. The clearing was a mess of broken wood, splinters scattered across the ground. The nest they had removed the stone from had been trampled and kicked apart into nothing. Ever so carefully, they left the clearing. Instead of the nonchalance they had entered in, they were all armed and fully alert but there was no sign of any change in the rest of the forest. Since the clearing was already towards the end of their hike, they continued onwards instead of turning back, relying on the magic of the space to get them back to the village. This time, having gained some hard-won wisdom, they stayed grouped up, with a ring around Cooper where he cradled the keystone.

  The others had bandaged up the worst of his scratches before setting out. Even so, the blood dried, sticking his clothes to his skin and pulling hairs out every time he took a large step. The trudge was made bearable by the hope that this would be the last and they could return to the sect soon after. With its warm showers, and as much food as anyone could eat.

  “Imagine if I already had fire magic for this.” Gabrielle was the first to break the tense silence. That broke the tension in the air, and the harsh frowns eased up. Everyone was still on guard but Cooper felt himself coming down from the adrenaline rush, just happy he was still standing. He focused on circulating his mana to promote healing, and let the excited chatter from Gabrielle and the soldiers wash over him. The rest of the walk was filled with cautious eyes and discussions on what kinds of magic would be best for fighting off tree creatures.

  Back in the village, everyone gathered around to watch the final piece of the door get put in place. Children were held back by wary parents, the weeks of being trapped had turned everyone lean and desperate. Cooper had the dubious honor of placing the stone. Captain Hunt assured him it was due to the fact he had bled for it. The fact that the other cultivators were significantly shorter and couldn’t reach likely played into it as well, though his mother’s decorum lessons kept him from saying it aloud. He walked over to the space between two trees where they had propped up the rest of the doorframe.

  The stone slotted in like the rest of the pieces. The green glow, brighter than ever, built and built throughout the crystal. The doorframe shuttered as the last piece fused in place. A moment of calm. A deep breath from all present.

  On the other side of the door they could see… the exact same forest as before. The stones were glowing but they were still trapped. Cooper had relaxed, and now felt the creeping dread back in full force. They had put the door together but it still wouldn’t be enough. They would starve here before Martin came to look for them.

  Light pulsed again. What looked like green lightning shot from the corners of the frame into the center, creating a swirling mass. Cooper’s spiritual senses picked up on the mana in the space rushing towards the door, even without him actively focusing on it. The plasma swirled faster and faster, more mana rushing in, until with one last flash, everything stopped. A swirling green and blue mist was left filling the doorway, obscuring the forest behind it.

  “Do we walk through?” Gabrielle asked, to no one in particular.

  That was enough to break Captain Hunter out of her daze and have her snapping into action. “Grab a rope and something heavy Collins. Markson, Filers, keep everyone calm, get them to start packing up, we might only have one shot to get back through.”

  The soldiers launched into action while Cooper and his sectmates stood around and watched. Faster than he would have thought possible, everyone had a pack with their most important belongings strapped behind them, and a long rope was tied to a hefty branch. At the Captain’s signal, Viola tossed the branch through the doorway. From where he was standing, he had the right angle to see that nothing appeared on the other side.

  “Good start, it definitely goes somewhere, now reel it back,” the captain shouted.

  The soldier followed instructions and the branch came back through the door undamaged. They all stared at it in silence. There was an obvious next step. Walking through a magic portal you don’t know actually works was a risk he wasn’t sure he wanted to take.

  “Do we have any pigs or something running around?” His question went unanswered, but they all knew the truth. Any livestock that made it through was eaten weeks ago when food became scarce.

  “I’ll go through first.”

  “Gabrielle!” Cooper hissed. He pulled her to the side with the others to have a discussion. The woman in question waved his concern away.

  “As the most senior cultivator present, it’s my responsibility.”

  “Who said you’re the most senior cultivator?” Helene interjected.

  “The point is, we’re doing this.” Without giving them any more opportunity to argue, she confidently walked towards the archway. The rest of them hurried to follow. With only a slight check in her steady pace, Gabrielle disappeared into the mist. Helene and Eric followed immediately. Cooper took a deep breath, gave a nod and a forced smile to the rest of the people trapped, and stepped after his friends.

  There was nothing to compare the sensation to. It was like walking through a sheet of water without getting wet. There was pressure, and at the same time like his body was being pulled in every direction at once. An instant or an eternity later, he stepped out of the other side, directly across from the barrel of a rifle. The disorientation made him stumble and a loud voice told him to freeze where he was. His friends were in his periphery, holding their hands up so he did the same.

  “Identify yourselves” the same mystery voice was shouting again. Thankfully Gabrielle was either less disoriented than he was or better at faking it.

  “We are cultivators from the Eternal Archive investigating the disappearance of this village. Captain Hunter will be here momentarily to explain further.”

  The soldiers were surprised at the confident but useless answer. And even more surprised when Captain Hunter appeared behind them and started shouting at the soldiers to stand down.

  “Clear the area, we have half-starved civilians coming through!”

  The soldiers, used to following orders in that tone of voice, jumped into action, stowing their weapons and setting up a triage station. Cooper found their group shuffled off to the side, watching the activity. A slow stream of villagers was exiting the portal. Some seemed to almost enjoy the experience, smiling and looking exhilarated. Others stepped out and immediately staggered off to empty their stomachs. The portal looked exactly the same on this side. A freestanding doorway of green crystal, filled with swirling mist. It was so overtly magical, Cooper had a hard time reconciling it with the village location.

  “Let’s go home,” Eric said. After hearty agreements all around, they made to set off, after all the sun told them it was midmorning. They attempted to slip quietly away but Captain Hunter jogged over before they got more than a dozen meters.

  “Wait up kids. I get you want to head home, but we’ll need to discuss what happened once the civilians are taken care of.”

  “We’ll be at our sect house, you can find us there or let us know and we’ll visit the fort.” Gabrielle said, then they completed their escape. The days jogging back home were uneventful, though still hungry. They found and managed to cook a small rabbit but it was barely enough to take the edge off. When they saw the city in the distance, Cooper almost cried. It was without a doubt the happiest he had ever been upon seeing the capital.