Seras waited until everyone had settled into their tents before she got up from her spot on the flat rock. She didn’t turn back as she began to stalk off into the desert.


    “No goodbye?” a deep voice asked.


    She turned and met Dustin’s smoldering eyes. “How’d you know?” Seras asked.


    “Our worlds are obviously very different places, but I’ve found that some things are universal. Like lame excuses.” He said softly.


    He stepped past her and began to stalk off to patch of bare land further away from camp.


    Intrigued Seras followed.


    He sat on a rock and gestured to another for her to sit on.


    Seras sat and crossed her legs.


    They sat in silence for a long time.


    “Why’d you try to leave?” Dustin asked, breaking the silence.


    Seras didn’t speak.


    Dustin continued. “I don’t think we’ve conducted ourselves poorly. Petra maybe, but not all of us.” His voice seemed hurt, but Seras couldn’t see his face so she wasn’t sure.


    “I messed up, you already guessed the whole Outworlder thing. But I should have kept the Cyborg part to myself.”


    “Are you ashamed of what you are?” he asked.


    She scoffed “I don’t think I would have been reborn as I am if I was.”


    “Then why?”


    She sighed “I saw their faces. They think I’m a freak. And despite myself I think I care about what they think. You’ve been kind to me, unreservedly. More than you should for a woman you’ve only just met.”


    “And you trust us more than someone in your position should.” He pointed out.


    “Yeah” Seras said bitterly. “The worst part is I can’t figure out why. I’m not the trusting sort.”


    “No, but we are. And that kind of thing usually has a way of going both ways.”


    “You’re straight with me so that I’ll be straight with you. An interesting idea, but I know for a fact that it doesn’t always work that way.”


    “No” he agreed, “but those who don’t return that trust are not the people I care to associate with. At the last Rock we visited a merchant tricked my nephew into buying spoiled rations, they gained a short-term profit, but they have forever lost my business. And I’ll make sure all the other caravan bosses in this region know about it.”


    Seras was quiet for moment before she blew a long breath “Well that’s a veiled threat if I’ve ever heard one. You’re saying that if I run I’ll prove that I’m untrustworthy and you put the word out about Outworlder Cyborg wandering the desert.”


    He chuckled “Nothing so dastardly. But if you run now without giving my people a chance to come to terms with what you are then you’ll be subconsciously implanting the idea that you don’t trust them. That their shock was enough for you to turn and leave. It will eat away at them. They’ll talk, likely over a couple drinks, and word of a metal women will spread.”


    Seras frowned at her feet. “I don’t like the idea of traveling with people who are afraid of me, or hate me for what I am.”


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    “You need to give them time. We live in a world of magic and wonder. Monsters, flying ships, floating islands, and divine beings, but you are by far the strangest thing we’ve ever seen. But give it time and you’ll soon just be another curiosity in a very curious world.”


    “What do you think might happen if word got out about me?” Seras asked, dreading the answer.


    Dustin considered the question. “That’s hard to say, a lot of dark powers have a habit of transforming their users into inhuman monstrosity’s, things like the death essence, so the adventure society tends to equate the two. That man with tentacles I mentioned, he got into a lot of trouble because he awakened an ability that dramatically changed him. Ultimately, they ruled that his transformation was unusual but not nefarious. As for the magic society, I’d imagine they’d like to dissect you to advance their careers.”


    “That’s what I was afraid of.” Seras put her head into her hands “What the hell am I even going to do? What is there for me in a world like this?”


    “Well for one there’s magic.” Dustin pointed out.


    Seras gave him a flat, unamused look.


    “I’m serious. From your descriptions-your world sounds like a magicless place. I’ve met two other Outworlders from similar worlds, there was an unmistakable joy in their eyes when they saw magic we consider ordinary. It’s like their whole lives there was a piece missing, and when they came here they found that piece. You could work for me; help guard my cargo and slowly purchase the other two essences you’d need to fully step into our world.”


    “I don’t know” Seras muttered. “Magic seems strange, its, from my point of view its unnatural.”


    “Like cutting off pieces of your body and replacing them with metal?” he jibbed.


    “Touché”


    “What does that mean?”


    “You people don’t have Touché?”


    “It’s not translating.”


    “Maybe it’s too complicated. It means you have a point.”


    Dustin nodded. “So-?”


    “I don’t know Dust. That feeling you were describing, I never had that. I knew exactly who I was, how the world worked, and how to rise up. I fell into Merc work because I wanted to stand at the peak and become a legend. The kind of legend that people would be telling until the world ended. Like Ronnoc or Novid.


    “I don’t know those people.”


    “They were the heroes who were alive during the Fall. Their legends have been told for eons; I grew up wishing to be just like them.”


    He considered her words. “I don’t know much about your world; it sounds like an awful place. But here, all our great heroes are adventurers, and to be an adventurer you need power, and power comes from essences.”


    “I don’t know man, I absorbed one already. The son of a bitch hurt like hell, but pain’s an old friend, it’s what I felt deeper down that scared me. That essence was rewriting my soul. Changing me. I’ve never believed in any of that soul crap before, but I’ve always had a strong sense of self. No matter how much chrome I chipped in I always knew that it didn’t change who I was. Magic’s different.”


    He frowned “I can’t speak for what you experienced, but for me I feel like my essence only brought forth my better qualities. Made the core of my identity more solid. I don’t know who I’d be without them.”


    “How do you know the magic isn’t taking you for a ride.” Seras accused. She opened her pocket space with a thought and pulled out the death essence. “You said essences like these change people into monsters. That they change people. Maybe they’re just the ones with the most obvious outward change.”


    His burning eyes lit up brighter at the sight of the death essence “Where’d you get that?”


    “From the city, don’t worry my net ability warned me about it before I could absorb it.”


    “You can access the restricted essence list as well as the normal essence list?”


    “Yeah” Seras considered the essence once more, feeling the untapped power from within. She locked eyes with Dustin “I had a look at that list, all those restricted essences turn their wielders into monsters. Vampires, Lich, succubae. What if the unrestricted essences just turn you into something less unsavory.”


    Dustin held your gaze before he cursed. “Dammed Outworlders. Just when I think I have you people figured out you turn around and beat me over the head with a new revelation. I was always on the periphery of the chaos those other Outworlders caused, but now I understand what people mean when they say Outworlders bring nothing but trouble.”


    “You’re exaggerating.”


    “I’m not. Outworlders cause trouble no matter where they go. I’ve heard some say it’s because you don’t recognize the contradictions your very presence brings. I think it’s that the world isn’t ready for living proof that the way things are, aren’t set in stone.” He clenched his fists before he let out a sigh. “No, I define my powers. The essence and awakening stones may have given me the power, but I am the one who shaped it.”


    Seras sighed. “Maybe I’m just talking out my ass. I don’t know. I feel like I’m drowning, and I can’t see which way is up. And you’re telling me my only hoping at seizing control is an anchor to make sure I sink deeper into this shit.”


    He shivered “That’s disgusting. Don’t ever mention talking with your ass again.”


    Seras laughed “Not what that means.”


    “Either way, I thought Petra was crass for a woman, but you make her seem dainty.”


    Seras guffawed “You realize you’re talking about the lioness who belched so hard that she almost put our campfire.”


    “Tooshay” He said with a smirk.


    Seras frowned “Are you trying to say ‘touché’”


    “Did I do it wrong?”


    “Nah, it was perfect. I just wasn’t expecting it.”


    He smiled softly, “We can all learn new things, if you give us time.”


    Seras huffed, she had been convinced that leaving was the right choice, now she wasn’t sure. “Fine, I’ll stick around a little longer.”


    “Good” he nodded, “but you don’t get to ride with us for free, I expect you to pull your weight.”


    “Don’t worry about me Boss man, I’m tougher than I look.”


    “Theres one more condition.” He said, his tone shifting to something grimmer. “Whatever you decide; whether you decide to try to swim for air or grab that anchor, know that there are lines in this word that shouldn’t be crossed. Choices you can’t come back from. I said that Outworlders can cause change, but they can also bring death. My home country once warred with an Outworlder who sought to conquer the world with an army of the dead. You want to stay with us then you turn that cursed essence over to me, and any others like it that you find.”


    Seras tossed the grey orb of death. “All yours. Global domination is not my thing.”


    He glanced at it before it dissolved into ash and cinders, vanishing from sight. “And that’s the only one you found?”


    “What? Do I look flush with evil magic stones, besides the tech essence that was the only other I’ve seen.” Seras considered him for a moment “I do have two awakening stones.”


    “What kind?”


    “One Earth awakening stone-”


    “That would be expected for the labyrinth, they’re the most common around these parts.”


    “-And one Celestial Book awakening stone. That one was in my pocket space before I woke up, I think it was placed in there during the whole ‘soul transmigration’ thing.”


    His eyes went wide with shock.


    And drink. At this point if Seras had any actual booze she’d be blitzed by now.


    “Nothing but trouble.” Dustin muttered to himself.