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    Waking up alone on that bus in the middle of an open field had been disorienting, of course. And yet, that moment was almost quaint less than twenty-four hours later. In the earlier case, Flick’s awareness that something was strange had begun when she woke up. But in the latter, it didn''t happen until she rose from her bed, unable to sleep despite tossing and turning for what felt like hours, and stepped onto water. Not into. Onto.


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    After going to bed with her new, somewhat prickly roommate nearby, Flick had found herself unexpectedly awake. She’d felt… funny all day long in ways she couldn’t really describe, but assumed that was just part of the whole new Heretic thing.


    On the other hand, the whole idea that this was just something completely normal that everyone was going through went out the window as soon as Flick pushed herself off the bed and found herself in the middle of the ocean as she stood up. She didn’t fall into the water. Instead, she was literally standing on top of it. The bed was gone, as was the rest of the dorm room. She was simply standing on top of the ocean with nothing around her but water in every direction. One moment she had been in bed, and the next, she was out here, where there was no island, no school, no boats, nothing. Just surprisingly solid water, which bounced a bit under her feet like a trampoline.


    And that was when she remembered what had happened hours earlier, after Professor Dare activated what she called the Heretical Edge to turn all the new students into Heretics.


    ********


    Flick’s experience with the Edge had been… atypical. She knew, almost from the very moment that the light touched her, that it was quite different from what everyone else was experiencing. Largely because the Reaper told her so.


    He had appeared in front of her, as Flick had found herself in some sort of simple suburban house while the sound of Professor Dare’s voice faded. Or in what had appeared to be one. He was a tall, fairly gaunt figure, with a narrow, very pale face and long blue hair. In a few short words, he had introduced himself as a Reaper-- as the Reaper, the one whose body was used to empower all these Crossroads people. He told her that they didn''t have a lot of time, hardly any, because she was supposed to be having a normal vision of one of her ancestors in that moment and if he took too long, someone would notice something was up. There were too many people paying close attention to her in particular.


    Obviously, Flick had questions. But the Reaper promised that she would get answers soon, and told her that she was going to have a lot more power when she came out of this than anyone expected her to. He told her where to look for answers about what was really going on, that there were good people here at Crossroads but also some she couldn’t trust. She would learn which was which over time, but for now, she had to keep the truth about what he was giving her a secret. He would contact her as soon as he feasibly could, but until then, he was trusting her to keep this to herself. At least until she learned more and could make the best judgment call about who to believe.


    Needless to say, all of that was a lot to take in. The Reaper, who had not yet introduced himself by actual name, promised once more that answers would come if she was patient. She just had to pretend that this had been a completely ordinary Edge vision. As part of that, he offered to help by temporarily blocking her memory of it and replacing it with a false memory of the Edge vision she had supposedly had, so no one would see through any attempt she made to hide her reaction until she had more time to process in private. But he would only do so if she gave her permission.


    That was the choice Flick found herself confronted with as the vision began to fade. This strange figure informed her that there were dark secrets at Crossroads, that some of the people here were good while others were bad, and that she would have the power to do something about all of that. But to do so, she had to learn more. And that would mean blocking her memory of this until there was actually more time and privacy to discuss it. In the end, despite her confusion and uncertainty, Flick had agreed to that.


    She wasn’t sure why she agreed, to be honest. This whole thing could so easily be a trick. Hell, it was very possible that every single one of them was getting the same speech just to see how many of them would keep an actual secret from the people in charge. It could be a trick to see if they could be trusted to tell the magic school officials the truth. But there seemed to be something inside Flick that was pushing her to believe this whole thing. Or at the very least, to give it a chance.


    And why not? It wasn’t like she had any real experience with the people here. She had just as much reason to trust this complete stranger that called himself a Reaper as she did to trust Virginia Dare or this Headmistress Sinclaire, or anyone else in this school. In the end, her gut was telling her to keep quiet about what she had experienced, about what he told her. And she was very accustomed to following her gut.


    So, she had agreed to let him temporarily block her memory of what had really happened, with the promise that she would remember that evening when she had some actual privacy. Until then, she would simply remember a normal vision of seeing one of her ancestors being abducted by orcs, alongside what turned out to be the headmistress herself. Which turned out to give Flick more than enough questions all on its own. Questions which she was, at this moment, quite thoroughly distracted from.


    *******


    So, that was a very confusing and disorienting flash of memories, to say the least. But it was nothing compared to what came next. Standing there on the ocean waves while the veil of her briefly hidden memories was pulled aside, Flick suddenly smelled… everything. She smelled the water, but it was more than that. She could smell the individual components of the decaying organisms and microscopic bacteria in the water. She could smell them and pick out each bit by scent alone. Just like that, she knew exactly what each of the overpowering smells were. She could smell the animals in the water below, could hear them swimming, sleeping, eating, simply surviving. For several miles in every direction, she could hear as well as smell them. Hundreds, no, thousands of living animals. And she could hear everything down there as well, on top of the microscopic organisms and the individual components of the water itself. Everything that was in the water, she could hear and smell.


    Those two things by themselves were enough to make Flick fall to her knees there on top of the ocean. Her hands snapped down to catch herself, and she looked down, which was when she realized the senses weren''t limited to taste and smell. She could see down through the water. Distance and darkness didn''t matter. Looking straight down into the ocean, she saw all those lifeforms all the way down to the ocean floor. She saw all the fish, the eels, sharks, crustaceans, every bit of underwater life within her field of view. She saw all of it, and understood it. Looking at the aquatic animals down there, she knew what they were. She knew what they were called not only in English, but in every language that was currently at use on Earth, and a good dozen that weren’t. The words just popped into her head, along with what every creature needed to eat, what their weaknesses were, environments they preferred, all of it. She knew everything about every animal she turned her gaze to.


    The same knowledge came as she looked at the various plants and coral underneath the water. She knew everything about anything she looked at. She could see everything through the water and darkness, could hear and smell everything. Her senses had been turned up a thousand-fold. She could feel the water under her legs and hands as she knelt there. Even through her pants, she could feel the contents of the water in a way that she could never truly describe to anyone who hadn’t experienced such a thing. She knew the molecular makeup of the water, and everything that was in it. She knew where it had been. As a wave passed over her fingers, she could feel every place it had been simply by detecting and instantly subconsciously analyzing the contents of it, the microscopic materials it had brought along on its journey. She felt that bit of water well enough to know that it had touched the beach at the island where Crossroads was. Not only that, but she knew how long ago it had touched the beach, how fast it had traveled to get out to this point, and from that, knew how far away she was. The island was eighty-seven miles south-west from this point. The knowledge, and an understanding of how it had been calculated, simply appeared in her head.


    All of that would''ve been completely overwhelming. It should have been. It should have practically torn her mind apart to see and experience that much in such a short time. Her senses were completely overloading her brain, which should have shut down or simply snapped. But it didn’t. Because the capacity to sense all those things had come complete with the capacity to comprehend and withstand them. She knew everything about what she looked at, touched, smelled, all of it, every bit of information in over a hundred languages. But somehow, her brain simply cataloged that information, processed it, and set it aside until such information was useful. It was overwhelming at first, but after a minute or so, she adapted. Everything she was experiencing, all that information, was still right there. It was just a bit to the side in her mind, ready for her to access at any point, but not right at the forefront. Like music in the background that she had mostly tuned out.


    Reflexively pushing herself up, Flick looked off in the direction that the wave had told her the island was. She shouldn’t have been able to see it from this far away, of course. Not simply because it was too long of a distance in general, but also the curvature of the Earth should have made it impossible. And yet, in this case, neither of those seemed to apply. When she first turned her attention that way, she saw nothing but water. Yet simply by scooting a bit, she narrowed her focus and felt something in her eyes shift. Suddenly she could see much further. It was like looking through a telescope. Just like that she could see the island and the buildings on it, almost ninety miles away. This area, the ocean, island, everything in it… wait, was it actually flat here? Was this--


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    She wasn''t standing on the water anymore. Suddenly, Flick was up in the sky. She didn''t even notice until she realized that she was high enough over the ocean to see that it was indeed flat. This whole area was flat. They weren''t on Earth. Turning her attention to one side, she could see some sort of energy barrier a hundred miles off in one direction. There were barriers all around them, along all four sides and up above as well. No, not barriers, she realized belatedly. That was simply the limits of this… pocket dimension. Nothing else existed beyond those barriers. The Crossroads school wasn’t just on an island, it existed in its own little reality. Nor was it the only piece of land here. There were also other islands scattered about with their own buildings. Some of which looked like they were intentionally positioned and covered so they wouldn’t be seen specifically from the direction of the Crossroads island.


    That was interesting, of course. But not nearly as interesting as the fact that she could see all these things from this far away, or the fact that she had just been standing on top of the ocean after somehow appearing there just by stepping out of her bed, or even that the rest of her senses were also so incredible right now. And it absolutely wasn''t anywhere near as interesting as the fact that she was flying right now. Just like that, simply by thinking about the fact that she’d wanted to get a better look at this place, she had shot up in the air and was hovering like it was nothing.


    Powers. The Reaper had told her she would have more power than these people expected her to. Clearly, he hadn''t been lying. As she came to that realization, Flick suddenly found herself in another new place. Or rather, an old one. She was standing in that small suburban house again, with the Reaper himself. His gaze met hers. “I thought you might need to talk.”


    Flick started to respond, only to be interrupted by the sound of a ringing phone. As her eyes glanced that way, the Reaper spoke simply. “Ignore that. It''s not for you.”


    “These--this power, where did it come from? Where did all of this come from?” Flick had a million questions and no idea where to start, so they just continued to tumble out of her. “How are you talking to me right now? Where are we? Which of these people can I trust? Why did you give me these powers? What do you want me to do for you? What are you? Are these people right about everything that isn’t human being evil? Which--I know I’m asking a biased source but the original claim itself came from biased humans anyway, so--what? Just… what?” That last word worked as both a succinct summary of her current thoughts and as a response to the fact that he was smiling faintly at her.


    “You really are the daughter of both of your parents,” the man informed her before raising his hand to indicate the chairs nearby. “Would you like to sit down? I think it''s time you heard the truth about everything.”


    The phone rang again, but if he wasn’t going to pay attention to it, neither was Flick. No matter how curious she was. Instead, she focused on another thing he had brought up. “Okay, if you want me to listen to you, don''t compare me to my mother. Because I am absolutely nothing like her. I won''t abandon the people I''m supposed to care about.”


    The Reaper offered her a very faint smile. “Yes, well, as I said.


    “It''s time you heard the truth about everything.”


    ********


    It was hard, going to school at Crossroads and pretending she didn''t know the truth about what they were. Hell, she knew more than even the Headmistress did, which was scary. She knew about the Seosten and why they had actually set up this whole system. And she knew about her mother’s rebellion. She knew the truth about all of that, even what had really happened to her mother. Her mom, the woman she had blamed for so long and hated since she was a child. The woman who had surrendered herself to evil incarnate just to protect her. Flick had to pretend not to understand any of that.


    And yet, even more difficult than hiding her knowledge for the time being, was hiding her power. The Reaper had informed her during what turned out to be a very long discussion that her mother had been given these powers before. They were part of being connected to the leadership group of Crossroads known as the Committee. She had been given the power in order to stand against them because he liked and trusted her.


    Then she had been captured and her Heretic powers were erased, cutting her off from that connection to the Committee. Years later, she was turned into a Heretic once more, given one of the Eden’s Garden apples. At first, the Reaper had almost handed back the Committee powers once he sensed her return. But then he looked into her mind and saw the truth. Fossor, an evil Necromancer piece of shit, had taken her. She was under a magical oath to obey his commands, a deal she had agreed to in order to protect Felicity.


    Needless to say, giving her the Committee connection would have been a bad idea. But when the Reaper noticed her daughter, the same daughter she had sacrificed her freedom for, being turned into a Heretic, he decided to give her the gift instead.


    All of which meant that Flick had more powers than she knew what to do with. She was strong beyond belief, could fly, had all those amazing senses and the mental capacity that came with them, all of that. But she had more. She could teleport, step through solid objects, control shadows, transform into a hundred different animals, shapeshift in general, manipulate fire, ice, plants, water, and probably a hundred other things. She had so many powers, along with the ability to use them. That was another thing that came with this connection to the Committee. She had their skills as well. Every skill they had when it came to using these powers, or magic, or fighting in general. She had all of it.


    Unfortunately, she couldn''t actually use those powers very much. At least, not yet. Flick was still learning how to do so quietly, without being too obvious about it and exposing herself. She might’ve had the powers of the Committee, but as her new Reaper teacher had pointed out, the actual Committee still outnumbered her by a lot. No matter how strong she was, there were at least twelve other people who were just as strong. Her best advantage right now was that they had no idea she had been added into their Committee connection


    So, she was spending her nights learning about her powers, experimenting with them off in the real world now that she knew how to teleport there. Among her many gifts was a complete lack of any need to sleep, and her magical knowledge had come with the ability to create a spell that would prevent the Crossroads’ security magic from noticing her absence. So she spent every night transporting to safe areas on Earth to learn as much as possible about using her power.


    But throughout those weeks of practicing with these gifts, she had been unable to actually use them very much. Not when it counted, anyway. When she and Avalon had been attacked by the Peridles, Flick had been certain there were many eyes watching through various means. She didn’t dare expose how much power she actually had, and instead had to pretend to be next to helpless while Avalon took care of most of them. The most she had been able to do was create a localized slowing effect that kept some of them from potentially overwhelming the other girl. Even then, she was afraid that the people in charge might’ve been suspicious about someone else helping out, given how thoroughly they scoured the room and questioned Avalon and her about whether they had felt any other presences while that was happening.


    Then there was the moment when Trice and the other two had attacked them during their first hunt. Again, Flick had known people would be watching. And even if there weren’t outside observers, she couldn''t exactly trust her entire team plus several people from Eden’s Garden to keep quiet if she showed off. She had to play down her ability yet again, hiding it. She wasn''t Superman, she was Clark Kent, the secret identity, with untold cameras and witnesses watching his every move.


    And now, she was here, visiting home. It had been so hard not to simply tell her dad the entire truth about everything. But she still wasn''t certain she could identify all potential threats around them and protect him if it came down to it. She was still practicing with those powers. So, she continued to play clueless. Which went well enough, at least until that new neighbor boy, Ammon, revealed himself as a threat. She had been about to reveal at least some of her power when he tried to have all her former coworkers attack her in her own home, but before she could do anything like that, the vampire had arrived and carried her out of there to safety. Flick had been so distracted by Ammon and the arrival of all those people that she hadn''t noticed Asenath until she was right there. After that, she simply allowed the girl to carry her out of the house. It was the easiest way to deal with that situation without revealing her secret.


    Of course, that also gave Ammon a chance to escape. He must''ve used magic of his own, because the boy managed to vanish by the time Flick oriented herself after being taken from the house. When Asenath introduced herself and asked Flick to trust her, it was a very easy choice to make given everything she knew. But just because she trusted the girl didn''t mean she was ready to reveal all of her secrets. So she played the normal first year Heretic student for the time being, while they searched for Flick’s father.


    All of which had led Flick to the police station, and from there, to this very moment. She had knocked Ammon through the window, before jumping down after him, only to land in front of a limo, from which a familiar figure had emerged. A figure who introduced himself, but such introduction was unnecessary. She knew who he was, after her Reaper friend had shown her what really happened to her mother.


    He was the Necromancer. And he was quite possibly one of the only people in existence whom Flick could be absolutely certain did not communicate with the Crossroads Committee.


    “Oh,” she interrupted him mid-sentence as he was talking so smugly. “I’ve been waiting to meet you.” Even as she said that, the blonde girl snapped her fingers. Instantly, a ring on her finger flared brightly as the spell that she had prepared within the first week of being at Crossroads triggered, and they found themselves standing in the middle of an empty city, surrounded by skyscrapers. The buildings all looked real, as did the cars, the street lights, the billboards, everything was an almost exact replica of New York City. But there were no people.


    She had the pleasure of seeing an expression of confusion spread across the Necromancer’s face, as he jerked one way, then the other. “What--how--where…” His eyes narrowed dangerously. “Who…?”


    “Oh, it’s still me,” Flick replied. “There’s just more to me than you were expecting. And this…. this is an old Reaper Archive. It belongs to a friend, but he said I could use it to have some private time with you if you ever showed yourself. You might notice you’re missing something. That connection to your own homeworld, it doesn’t exist here. No using billions of lives as human shields. Now, I’m told you still have a hell of a lot of power and ghosts with you at all times anyway. You’re still pretty damn strong. Which is good.” Meeting his gaze, she slammed her fist into her palm with enough force to send a shockwave of concussive energy in every direction. It made Fossor stagger backward, flipped over several cars, and set off their alarms.


    “Because it means making you tell me where you’re keeping my mother is gonna be a lot of fun.”