“Tyler?”

  Tyler jumped as he turned to the source of the new voice, in the entrance opposite to the one Rhett’s gang had fled out of just seconds ago. “Lisa?”

  The woman was peeking through the doorway, holding a tray in both hands. A sympathetic grin stretched the corner of her mouth. “You sure know how to put ‘em in their place, huh?”

  Tyler flushed, suddenly conscious of his bare chest and the lines of ribs visible through his pale skin. His long, shaggy hair was still covered in sweat from his training, and he was still breathing heavy from the rush of intense emotion. The echoes of Rhett's crew sprinting away through the halls were just barely fading.

  He felt ashamed that someone else had witnessed that — like a child caught in the middle of throwing a tantrum. He knew there probably would have been a better way to handle it, a more mature style of conflict resolution that didn’t involve strong-arming his enemies into submission. But they just kept attacking him, and he’d just been so angry. It reminded him so much of so many things he’d rather forget.

  Ohmygosh, it was so scary! He even broke my arm.

  He closed his eyes, shoving the memory back down. He had been strong enough to protect himself this time. He knew it wasn’t the same.

  But the thoughts just kept coming.

  The burning of his own joints seemed to wash over him like a vengeful tide.

  But Lisa didn’t seem to judge him.

  She motioned to the wall, and they sat down next to each other in silence. She nudged him with the tray. “Breakfast?”

  It was a full post-apocalyptic rendition of the archetypical American breakfast, complete with sausage links, crispy hash browns, and a trio of weird purple eggs that seemed twice as big as normal eggs should have been.

  A gentle hand pressed into his back, and the inflammation that had begun to run red-hot cooled just a little.

  “Thanks,” Tyler murmured, gratitude swelling in his chest. He didn’t know what else to say, so he just began eating, letting the smell of potatoes and hot grease ground him in the moment.

  The breakfast was heavenly. Perhaps not by the standards of someone spoiled by modern convenience, but at this moment it was all he could ever ask for. Just something to fuel his starving body, and to shovel in his mouth so he didn’t have to talk.

  He closed his eyes as he let his heart come down from the intensity of the past couple of minutes. It was incredible, how the mind could go from racing with adrenaline to completely deflated in so little time.

  “You’ve gone through some shit, haven’t you?” Lisa prodded after a minute. “Even before all this.”

  Tyler sighed. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

  She looked at him with understanding eyes, chewing on her lip and gently grabbing his shoulder. She opened her mouth, then closed it again before chuckling and patting him on the back with a cheeky grin. “Don’t worry, we get into a lot of scuffles in post-apocalyptic society. Rhett especially — it’s nice seeing him rushing off to the medbay for a change. I honestly think you should have roughed him up a little more. I dunno if any lesson can get through Rhett’s thick skull without getting thoroughly beaten into it.”

  He paused mid-bite. “Thanks.”

  That means a lot, actually.

  “I should have known that fucker would have pulled something,” Lisa huffed, and Tyler suspected she was deliberately rambling because she could sense he wasn’t ready to contribute to the conversation yet. “He and his little mob only got here a month ago — apparently he had pre-apocalyptic connections with the Stormchasers’ CEO or something. I almost challenged him to a duel because I was so fucking fed up about him harassing Brandon and my healer pals, but I’m not a good matchup for him. I’ve been telling Alberta she needs to kick them out, but with the skeleton invasion our branch needs all the advanced cultivators we can get.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It wouldn’t be like this if the Main Branch didn’t keep stealing our Journeymen.”

  “Stealing your Journeymen?” Tyler asked. That wasn’t what he wanted to say, but none of the other thoughts seemed to coalesce into words. So he just asked the question and let Lisa do the talking.

  “Yeah!” she fumed, shooting to her feet. “Well, technically it’s not stealing. If you get to Peak-Novice and you ‘prove yourself’ by the Eye’s standards, you get the opportunity to advance to Journeyman. Sounds like a pretty sick deal, right? Except apparently the knowledge of how to advance is ‘too dangerous’ to be spread around, so you have to travel to the Main Branch and go unconscious while they do the procedure for you. And of course, the only way to get this benefit is to sign a magically-binding contract saying that you’ll work exclusively for the Main Branch for two years. And wouldn’t you know — they say that you get some input on where you’re stationed, but barely anyone ever writes back to us. Even people who’ve explicitly said that they’re gonna be close enough to deliver magic mail.”

  Magically-binding contracts. That sounded unsettling.

  And he was starting to see the cracks in what had seemed like a unified organization.

  Lisa was pacing back and forth now, waving her hands frantically in the air. “So they steal all our Peak-Novices who probably could have become Journeymen on their own if they didn’t hoard all the knowledge to themselves, and then when we’re threatened they charge us exorbitant fees just to send over Journeymen that we wouldn’t have needed if they didn’t poach all our talent! Brandon keeps trying to convince me to get on Emery’s good side so that she’ll vouch for me, but I think something fishy is going on.”

  She swiveled on him, as if something had just popped into her mind. “Oh right! That was what I was going to ask you. How did you advance?”

  Tyler opened his mouth.

  “I mean, I know you said your cultivation isn’t normal, but you’re still a Journeyman! Even if you’re a bit unconventional, you’ve clearly found something that works.”

  “Well…” He scratched his head. “Unconventional is maybe an understatement. I’ve been trying to figure out how I can explain this well, but the reason why I don’t have an aura is because I was forced to eat this Cursed fruit the moment the Dimensional Storm dropped me off. I had — and still have, really — this mix of inflammatory conditions, and there was no way I was surviving an hour without Awakening that instant. The main restriction of the Curse is that my mana can’t go outside of my body at all, so if that’s where your aura comes from, it would make sense that I don’t have one.”

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  Lisa whistled. “Shit, dude. Really?”

  “Yeah.” Tyler leaned back against the wall, tracing the maze of pipes along the ceiling with his gaze. They were painted the same grey as the rest of the room, but the paint had flaked off in some places, revealing the beginnings of rust.

  “That’s why I had to give back all those magic items too — I can’t really use any of them, since my mana is trapped in here. And unfortunately, I also have no idea how to get to Journeyman. I was alone on an island for the first couple of months, and I didn’t advance past Peak-Novice until this fight with this super-powerful bird monster. I honestly don’t even remember much of the lead-up. It was crushing me with magic and I could feel my body collapsing in on itself and I was just so angry and desperate to survive… and then next thing I know I’m waking up over here.”

  “Damn. That sounds… really rough. I guess that would explain why you were so fucked up when we found you.” Lisa sat back down next to him, leaning against the wall in solidarity. “It must have been a lot, going from all that to waking up here, and then having to fight that skeleton general right after. And then this.”

  Tyler titled his head. “You know, oddly enough I think that skeleton thing actually helped. It let me put off thinking about things for a little longer, and I always feel more steady when I have something to do. Plus, winning always makes you feel a little better, y’know?”

  “Fuck, I get that,” she slapped the wall behind them. “I so get that. But it’s honestly incredible that you were even alive — that healing kick from advancement between stages must hit different. But when you say your mana can’t go outside your body…”

  She looked at him with a mix of concern and confusion.

  He shrugged. “I mean, you’ve pretty much seen all I can do. I only have three techniques — one that enhances me all-around physically, another that lets me toughen my body for short periods of time, and the third’s a cultivation pattern that I had to improvise because I can’t cultivate normally. I’ve tried so many others, but most of them require some amount of exterior mana.”

  There is that one technique, though. Maybe I’ll be able to do it, now that I’ve advanced again.

  Tyler realized she was still looking sadly at him and winced. “It’s not actually that bad. I have a shitload of mana to practice with, and Resilience seems like it’s a good match for these kinds of things anyways. Even without any techniques I’m stronger and much more durable, and I might heal a bit faster than normal too.”

  She nodded, stroking her chin in understanding. “Then… you wouldn’t mind if I did this.”

  With an exaggerated wind-up motion, Lisa punched him in the arm.

  He was so taken by surprise that he didn’t even do anything to block.

  “Ow!” Lisa cursed as her fist bounced clean off his shoulder. “This is why I’m not a melee fighter. Ow, ow, ow!”

  Tyler stared at her as she tumbled backwards to the floor. She stared back, innocently clutching her hand as if randomly punching someone was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

  And suddenly he was laughing.

  “You know, it’s not good to laugh at someone else’s pain! If I weren’t so nice that could be the start of a blood feud.” Lisa grinned.

  He tried to respond, but he couldn’t stop himself from doubling over with a wheeze. He looked up at her, and she wagged a finger at him. Except it was from the hand that she’d punched him with, so he could see where the bottom of it was a bit swollen.

  “That isn’t a very good way to make your point, you know.”

  “Looks like someone really wants a blood feud. You know that would mean you’d be in a blood feud with Brandon too. I think. I don’t know how blood feuds work, actually. But the point still stands!

  After a while, Tyler gathered himself, and they sat back down against the wall. His entire body felt just a tad bit lighter.

  “Thanks for that. For everything.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the redhead said with a self-satisfied smile.

  Tyler took a deep breath, feeling the cool wall behind his back. I missed having friends. Friends are nice.

  He was snapped out of his thoughts as Lisa looked at the entrance of the room with a scowl. “Man, I wish I could just casually shrug off six dudes trying to attack me like that. I hate being so pathetic physically. I feel like the Aspect of Blood is supposed to make you super strong and tough, but I just can’t figure it out. One of these days, I’m gonna be able to curl Brandon. Mark my words.”

  “Maybe I can help,” Tyler said wryly. “That’s about the only thing I do know how to do.”

  She nodded at that, leaning back against the wall. “Man, and you said you improvised your cultivation technique?”

  “Yeah? Is that bad?”

  “No! At least, I don’t think so. It’s just that I’ve never heard of anyone else doing that. Thought I was the only one.”

  Tyler’s eyebrows raised.

  “I make up all my techniques, actually. Brandon is always telling me to be careful, since none of us know how any of this shit works, but I mean, what was I supposed to do? Just not do anything? Because there’s no fucking blood manuals out here. Same kinda thing as with you — obviously I would follow instructions if I had them, but there’s nothing here that works for me like that. But apparently not everyone can just make up a technique on the spot.”

  “Wow,” he whispered. “Like, you could make one up right now and it would work?”

  Lisa shrugged. “Maybe if you gave me like an hour?”

  “Holy shit.”

  How many tries had it taken him before he’d managed his first successful run of his cultivation technique? Granted, that had been a fundamental change to the core of the technique, but…

  “That’s awesome.”

  Lisa puffed out her chest, motioning for him to continue. “Yes, yes. Keep praising me. Lisa Frie, cultivation prodigy and magnanimous judge of moral truth. Also expert healer, and best-looking markswoman in a thousand leagues.”

  Then, her smirk widened. “I still can’t believe you asked me to shoot you.”

  Tyler chuckled. “I just needed some way to show you guys that I could take a hit. Thanks for going with it, by the way. But why’d you think I had something going on here despite the lack of aura, anyways?”

  “Oh, that?” Lisa grinned, pointing to his chest. “It was all the blood. I’ve never seen Blood Resonance that strong in a person before, not even from Alberta or other Journeymen. I told you — it’s like you’re on steroids!”

  “Huh.”

  He supposed she had told him that. It was interesting, that Resonance correlation didn’t necessarily line up evenly for both sides.

  Tyler was about to ask more when Lisa suddenly sat up, pulling out an inscribed silver talisman from her pocket. It looked similar to the one Brandon had used to communicate with Alberta, and this time he used the opportunity to push on his Analysis.

  Transmission Talisman

  This is a part of a two-artifact set, intended to be used by a practitioner of Wind or similar Aspects to speak with their allies over short distances. This talisman is spiritually linked with its twin, allowing both sides to be activated so long as at least one end is fed with compatible mana.

  Huh. Like a phone, but only one side can call.

  “Yeah, we’re in the first training room. No, I brought him breakfast! I wasn’t goofing off, did you know Rhett showed up? Oh my god, you won’t believe what happened. Oh shit, I totally forgot! Okay, telling him now. Wait… what? Huh? What do you mean? You’re shitting me. Holy.”

  Lisa turned to him, voice shaking slightly with emotion that he couldn’t quite decipher. “Okay, Brandon just called me. We can go talk with Alberta now, and you can ask her all of your questions. No biggie. But, uh. Prepare for some questions of your own, because…”

  The woman swallowed, and for the first time since he’d known her she looked genuinely lost.

  “The skeleton generals are all gone. The Main Branch is saying that you’re the one that did it.”