“Mr. Lione,” Dean Anderson’s voice calmly called out to him, “not quite the reaction I was expecting from you.”


    Nate’s mind rushed back to minutes before, at the young men and women who simply strode out of the pods with a smile on their face. How? How could you face something like that and just walk away? What kind of monsters were they?


    Huck collapsed on the floor next to Nate and violently emptied his stomach. Twice. By far, that was the worst reaction to the pod anyone had seen, judging from their screams of disgust and horror. Nate could see the fear lingering in Huck’s eyes, the tremble in his hands and legs. Huck vomited once more.


    “I see,” Dean Anderson spoke with a frown.


    “Thank you for letting us-” Jenna’s voice rang out before she noticed her friends on the floor surrounded by piles of vomit. “Are they okay?” alarm filled her voice as she ran over to Dean Anderson. “What happened?”


    “They’ll be fine,” he waved her concern off. “Some people have a poor reaction to essence.”


    Essence? Essence? A poor reaction to essence? Nate couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Slowly, he stood, his legs still shaking from fighting for his life before he snatched away his Trait card from the pod.


    [Nathaniel Lione Trait Potential


    Imbuer: 5


    Reader: 4


    Crafter: 1


    Transmuter: 1]


    He had to do a double take at the numbers on his card. Reader IV? How? And on top of that, Imbuer V? What… how?


    “Alright, I think this is a good time to take a break,” Dean Anderson announced. “I’ll call maintenance to clean up this mess. The rest of you… I don’t know. Take a bathroom break or something.”


    Jenna walked over to Huck, helping him stand up and grabbing his card for him before grabbing Nate’s hand to drag him off stage too. “Are you guys alright? Huck, I can feel you shaking.”


    “How…” Nate still couldn’t believe what his card was telling him. Nor could he believe Jenna’s nonchalance. “How are you okay?” he finally stammered. Huck didn’t say anything, still too shell-shocked to do anything but take the next step forward with Jenna’s help. Nate moved around to support him from the other side.


    “Let’s get to the dorms,” Jenna offered, a small smile tugging on her lips as Nate relieved her of Huck’s weight. “We can talk more there.”


    “Yeah. Do you…” Nate had to shake his head to clear his thoughts from dwelling on that fight- the swarm- tiny claws tearing into his flesh- he shook his head again. “Do you know where they are?”


    “Umm. Sort of?” she offered.


    The trio made it out of the building and began their trek through campus. Huck wasn’t much of a conversationalist normally, and this state wasn’t doing him any favors. Paired with Nate’s distractedness, they sort of trudged in uneasy silence until they came across a stairway up a hill.


    “Look at this, boys. More freshies. A thousand credits for each of you to pass,” a somewhat familiar voice called out to the trio from the top of the stairs. His face seemed to ring a bell in the back of Nate’s mind as he squinted at the guy, before placing his face as the dickwad trying to rough Huck up on the train into Gate U.


    “You look familiar,” Nate commented. “Like, your face is ringing a bell or something.”


    The boy stiffened at that comment.


    “Give me a moment. I know the answer’s going to slap me across the face soon enough,” Nate’s eyebrows furrowed.


    The boy did not like that comment, his hand reflexively moving up to his cheek.


    “No, I’ve lost the train of thought,” Nate frowned.


    “Listen here, you little shit. Two thousand credits from you and you get to keep your teeth inside your head,” the boy took a step forward.


    Jenna cleared her throat and leaned over to whisper, “Do you know each other or something?”


    “I… think we met briefly. Must have been a flyby encounter. You know, it’s weird, his face must have made some sort of lasting impression- a real dent in my mind. But I just can’t place him. Was he selling something?”


    “That’s it,” the second-year spat on the ground, his fists clenched with palpable rage.


    Huck slipped from Nate’s arm and met the older boy at the base of the stairs. Huck didn’t say a word, he just leveled his thousand-yard stare up at the situation’s antagonist. The boy tried to push Huck, but Huck reacted too quickly. As soon as his hands made contact, Huck twisted and threw the boy over his shoulder. Huck didn’t let go of the arm, tucking it into his shoulder and bending the boy’s wrist backward until it audibly popped. He slowly brought his unblinking gaze up the stairs to the rest of the waiting thugs.


    They jumped down the stairs two at a time and rushed Huck even as Huck rushed up to meet them. Nate began to shoot forward, but Jenna’s arm lashed out to stop him.


    “He’ll be okay. If either of us join, we won’t be.”


    “What?” Nate asked in disbelief. “It’s five on one and I’m pretty sure those are second years. He’s gonna get the shit kicked out of him,” he protested.


    Jenna just shook her head. “I’m an Oracle 5. Please, trust me on this. We don’t want to get involved in this fight. Huck will be okay.”


    Huck was not okay. The gang rushed him, landing kicks and punches before someone managed to grab hold of Huck and hold him in place.


    “No one messes with our captain without suffering our wrath!” one of the gang shouted. Nate winced at the cliche phrase.


    Punches and kicks flew through the air, connecting with Huck’s limp body. Blood sprayed from his mouth as they pummeled his face. A punch to the gut doubled him over. Then Huck threw his body backwards, landing on the guy who had been holding him and riding it down the stone steps like a luge. Nate had to look away, flinching at every pop and crack as the second-year’s skull bounced off the naked stone steps.


    Huck stood up and popped his shoulder back into place, once again leveling that empty stare at the four gang members left. His face was swelling, blood trickling down the corners of his lips, but he showed no emotion whatsoever. No fear, no triumph, no gloating, no pain. Nothing but emptiness.


    The four members looked at each other in hesitation before charging down the steps again. Once again, Huck’s body crumpled to the punishment the gang doled out on his body, spitting up blood and teeth as elbows and knees struck at him relentlessly.


    “We have to help him,” Nate pleaded, but Jenna just shook her head. “Please, they’re going to kill him!”


    “He’ll be okay,” she whispered, though her eyes were wide. “I saw… I saw it. He’ll be okay.”


    The gang had taken to picking Huck up and throwing his limp body to the ground again and again. Huck thrashed suddenly and violently, knocking one of the gang boys off balance. He stumbled backward and tripped at the base step. A loud crack sounded through the area as his head smashed against stone. Blood pooled and began to drip down the staircase. Huck stood up and wiped his mouth, revealing clean, unbroken skin beneath.


    “You… you killed him,” one of the gang boys stammered at Huck, his eyes not leaving the most recently fallen. “He’s dead.”


    Huck didn’t answer, leveling his gaze at the remaining gang members.


    “We gotta get help!” one boy ran off.


    “Did Huck really just kill a guy?” Nate turned to Jenna. “This is getting out of hand. We have to do something.”


    “No,” Jenna couldn’t believe her eyes. “No one died in my visions. Huck’s fine. Everyone’s fine. They’ll be- they’ll be okay.”


    Disregarding Jenna entirely, Nate rushed toward Huck. Reinforcements must have shattered the remaining morale. The two thugs ran off without a word, but Huck wasn’t paying attention. He knelt by the unmoving body at the base of the stairs, his hand on the boy’s chest. Slowly, Nate could see the boy’s chest rising and falling. Not dead. Thank the blue skies above. Green light surrounded Huck’s hand, causing Nate to recall Huck saying he was some sort of healer. Nate’s frantic pace slowed to a walk as he approached his beaten friend.


    “You okay?”


    “Yeah,” Huck answered finally. “I’ll be fine. Them too," he nodded toward the two downed assailants.


    Nate let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, staring at Jenna as she approached. “I saw you lose teeth, man. Don’t say you’re fine.”


    Huck turned his head up toward Nate bearing his teeth. Not a single one was missing. “I’ve lost more teeth than I can count before I was five.”


    Exasperated, Nate didn’t know what to do but gesticulate over to Jenna to say something. She stared wide-eyed at the scene around her. “It was fine. We were all fine. Just sitting in my room. What ha-… I don’t understand.”


    “What in the bloody blazes of the deepest abyss are you talking about?” Nate practically shouted at her. “Why’d you stop me from helping? What do you mean we were all fine? We were not fine, least of all Huck!”


    “My visions. I saw us all sitting in my dorm. No one was hurt.”


    Nate held his hand up to stop her. “Hold on-”


    “We should go,” Huck spoke up.


    Jenna’s eyes turned from deep pink to milky white before returning to her normal color. “Huck’s right. Faculty is on their way and we do not want to be caught in the middle of this.”


    “So flee the crime scene?” Nate couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Are you kidding me?”


    “We aren’t fleeing because there was no crime,” Huck spoke smoothly as he stood. “On our part, anyway.”


    “Yeah, the guy who ran off told a faculty member we were trying to extort them for a stairway pass,” Jenna confirmed. “Quick walk, let’s move.” She grabbed Nate’s hand and led him away.


    A few minutes later, they all sat in Jenna’s temporary dorm room, staring at each other in silence. The room itself seemed pretty bare bones, nothing more than a bed and desk with hardly enough room to get between them.


    Nate decided to break the silence. “Oracle?” He turned toward Jenna. “As in you see the future.”


    She grimaced.


    “And you couldn’t see Huck getting the teeth knocked out of his head?” Nate pushed.


    “I…” but the sentence faded from her mouth as she shrunk back.


    “And you,” Nate turned to Huck. “What the hell was that? You were like a zombie or something. They must have beaten you half to death a dozen times. You should have died six times over.”


    Huck didn’t comment, but also didn’t meet Nate’s eyes.


    “Okay,” Nate took in a breath, trying to calm himself. “Clearly I’m the only one freaking out here. Let’s start at the beginning. Jenna, how much did you know about today?”


    She chewed on her lower lip as she pondered her answer. “Well… a lot. And nothing. Most of it? It’s hard to-” she fumbled around with her words for a bit more before taking in a breath to steady her thoughts. “I suspected a lot. Like I told Dean Anderson, my being an Oracle wasn’t ever confirmed before today. I had a lot of hunches that turned out to be true. And some that didn’t.”


    “And now… you can see into the future?” Nate pressed.


    “That’s really not how any of this works,” Jenna answered with a sigh. “There is no such thing as ‘the future’. There are possibilities and probabilities and inevitabilities and impossibilities, but no ‘the future’. Mostly just hunches and sometimes vivid dreams before today. But what happened in that pod, I don’t know. I suddenly understood more about my Trait? Or maybe my Trait fully activated and I learned how to better wield it. I don’t know, but now I know I can see futures. Like roads. They lead down specific paths, but you don’t have to go down a particular road if you don’t want to, because there are a ton of other roads too. But yeah. So, I had a pretty strong hunch that we’d be able to make it to Trait testing if we hurried back to the auditorium after lunch, which is why I was in such a rush. I didn’t want to get you guys too excited, so I didn’t say anything. Could be wrong, after all. Sometimes… well, sometimes my hunches were more just wishful thinking.” Her cheeks colored at that statement.


    Nate turned to Huck again. “You’re sure you’re okay?”


    “No complaints here. You would have been turned into paste if you tried to step in.”


    Nate just shook his head in disbelief before turning his attention back to Jenna. “And you sent your parents home on another hunch, right?”


    “Well… yes. I did tell them we wouldn’t be tested today.”


    “But we were,” Nate countered. “Also like you predicted.”


    “The future isn’t a solid thing,” Jenna shrugged. “I took another road when I saw the exit for it.”


    “So you’ve said,” Nate furrowed his eyebrows in thought. “Sorry, I’m not talking down to you, I’m just trying to wrap my head around some things. Today has been… hectic for me. Speaking of which, how the hell did you come out of that pod like the whole thing was a stroll through sunshine and rainbows?”


    “I’m… not sure what you mean?” Jenna arched an eyebrow at Nate.


    “The pod. It was traumatic. The ceiling literally collapsed around your head? The swarm of demons that tried to kill you with a thousand cuts before it coalesced into some sort of super demon who moved like a speedster?”


    “What?” Jenna scrunched her face in confusion. “What are you talking about? The pod wasn’t like that at all.”


    “Yes it was,” Huck spoke gravely, his eyes distancing themselves into that thousand yard stare again. “Hordes. Endless hordes. Tearing my body apart. Breaking bones, eating my organs. All as I healed up every injury just to suffer it again and again.”


    Nate and Jenna stared at Huck wide-eyed.


    “I watched myself die hundreds of times. Held helpless as demons tore away my limbs to fight over who got to eat it.” Huck huffed a breath and shook himself. “I… I’m gonna go to bed now. Don’t wake me up tomorrow.” He stood and walked out the room.


    “What the fu-”


    “And you went through something similar?!” Jenna practically shouted at Nate.


    “Not like that, no. Just a swarm of demons trying to cut me to ribbons. I learned a ton about my Traits though. And lived. What about you?”


    Jenna shook her head, not believing what she was hearing. “I sat in a pod that filled with essence and meditated on my Trait. Then something clicked in my core and I started seeing visions of the future. I learned how to control what I was looking at and got all sorts of insight into my Trait and how it worked. Then the pod opened up.”


    Nate blinked at her. “I feel offended on Huck’s behalf.”


    Jenna scrunched her face in guilt. “Me too. But before, you said Traits? As in plural?”


    “Ah, right. Apparently I’m a Reader IV, which is even higher than my mother. And on top of that, Imbuer V.”


    “What?” Jenna popped up to her feet. “A tier 9? That’s just under Bastion at 10! Nate, you could turn into a legend!”


    “Well,” Nate searched for the right way to phrase the rest of his thoughts. “I also got Crafter I and Transmuter I, so technically-”


    “Tier 11?” Jenna gasped breathily. “Nate…that’s unheard of. You could change the world as we know it.”


    “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now,” Nate chuckled nervously. “That’s just my potential. There are oceans of distance between potential and actualization.”


    “I don’t care, promise me that whenever there are partners or whatever, we’re on the same team,” Jenna insisted.


    “We don’t even know what that would entail-”


    “Promise me!”


    Nate relented with a short laugh, “Okay, okay. I promise we’ll be on the same team as much as possible. Huck too.”


    “Good,” she nodded curtly, then smiled. “We should rest for a bit and then orient ourselves to the campus some more.”


    “Was that a hunch?” Nate teased.


    “Mmm, something like that,” Jenna smiled warmly. “I like to think this one’s more intuition.”


    The sun was setting so peacefully in the blue-and-now-orange sky, it was almost enough to make Nate forget the association between red skies and demon-infested Scourgelands. Almost. He couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran down his body, even as the last of the late-evening birdsong happily chirruped goodnight to each other. The contrast between here and the rest of the world… it was unnerving, to say the least.


    “Deep in thought?” Jenna looked up, taking another lick of her ice cream cone. Strawberry, for some reason. Out of all the flavors they had, she had to go with that one.


    He looked down to his double deluxe fudgey chocolate cone and frowned for a second. Or did I get something too complex? “You have a hunch?” he answered curtly.


    Jenna didn’t respond immediately, taking the time to ponder her next words carefully. Nate let the silence hang in the air. “You’re mad at me. And I saw into the future enough times to know why. To your credit, you don’t want to be mad at me, but you are. Nine times out of ten, you try to bottle it up and hope it goes away.”


    “That seems invasive,” Nate answered concisely.


    “Look, we can play this game where I end up asking why we’re even hanging out if you’re going to be like this and you get super defensive, but I don’t like the direction that road heads. Let’s just jump on the issue. You don’t like that we stood by and watched Huck get beat up.”


    Now it was Nate’s turn to pause. “I don’t. You guys were supposed to be my friends. Friends don’t just stand back and watch each other get strung out like that.”


    Jenna pursed her lips in distaste. “I don’t like it either, but like it or not, we’d have ended up in the hospital if we tried. Even Huck agreed. Those were second-years in the Hero program, Nate. A whole year of crazy training ahead of us.”


    “Doesn’t matter,” Nate grouched, conceding the point. “Whatever we go through, we go through together. I’m not leaving him out to hang again. Or you. Whatever comes up next.”


    “You… you’re afraid I’d have held Huck back too if you took his place?” Jenna’s face scrunched up at the thought.


    “‘Huck, it’s just one person getting hurt. If you get involved, it’ll be all of us,’” Nate made a poor facsimile of Jenna’s voice. “Sounds like something you would say.”


    “I wouldn’t say that,” Jenna scoffed.


    Nate shrugged. “You can’t know that.”


    Jenna blew a raspberry at him before pointing to herself. “Oracle? I actually can know that.”


    “I thought there was no such thing as ‘the future’. It’s all just roads taking you down paths.”


    She sighed, taking another bite of her ice cream and savoring the flavor before answering, “You can be a little ridiculous sometimes, you know that?” She paused, taking another bite. “Feeling any better?”


    Nate sighed in defeat. “Yeah, a little.”


    “And next time Huck is getting his face pulverized, I promise I won’t stop you from jumping next in line. Okay?”


    “Thank you,” Nate smiled softly at her sense of humor.


    “Eh. What are friends for, if not encouraging each other to throw themselves into certain danger and horrendous injury?”


    That actually got Nate to chuckle a little. “Okay, okay, I get it. Huck and I… might need to hear a voice of reason now and again.”


    “Good,” she smiled brightly, her lips glistening with melted strawberry ice cream. Nate stared at her glistening lips and wondered for a moment what strawberry ice cream actually tasted like before taking another bite of his own. Jenna continued, “So, we’ve wandered around campus enough that I don’t think I’d get lost anymore. What about you? Feeling comfortable?”


    “Yeah. It’s a big campus, but not a maze. And we still have, what, six days left before classes actually start? You have any plans?”


    Jenna’s next step faltered as her face reddened for some reason. “N-nope,” she gave him a nervous smile with just a twinge of… hope? “I’m completely free,” she offered as she tucked back a curly lock of brown hair behind her ear.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    “Probably going to be boring for you, then,” Nathaniel shrugged. “I just learned I’m an Imbuer. And apparently better at it than Reading. I gotta practice as much as I can if I have any hope of staying in the hero program.”


    “Ah, right,” she laughed nervously, yet somehow seeming… let down? Nate narrowed his eyes at her in confusion. Did she want me to fail out or something?


    Nate tried at easing her discomfort, “You can come by, if you like. As long as you don’t break my concentration too much and are okay with long periods of awkward silence while nothing happens.”


    “Thanks,” she threw him an unreadable look. “You’re right, though. We both should be practicing with our new abilities.”


    “Come on. I’ll walk you back to your dorm,” Nate grinned.


    Jenna genuinely laughed at that. “I couldn’t ask that of you. It’s too far out of your way!”


    “It’s fine,” Nate chuckled, playing along. “The weather tonight is fair and I don’t mind a brisk walk. Don’t lean too heavily on my generosity, though. I hate feeling taken advantage of.”


    She snorted a laugh and rolled her eyes. Eating the last of her ice cream cone, she took his hand in hers and shook her head with a sigh and a wry smile. “Let’s get going, then.” They took the last ten steps to get back to their building and walked inside. Nate bid her goodnight before heading to the next room over to head to bed himself.


    Popping out of bed the next morning, Nate immediately went to work. “Imbuing…. Imbuing, Imbuing, Imbuing,” he hummed to himself with a yawn. “Well, one thing’s for sure- I’m not spending the next however many years sleeping terribly,” he shot his pillow a disdainful look. In a word, it was lumpy. In several more words, it didn’t keep cool, was too thin and flimsy, smelled of cheap motel rooms, and was scratchy. I could just buy a new pillow, but… The thing looked old. It looked like it had seen better decades, which might be a good place to start with Imbuing practice.


    Nate sat cross-legged on the floor, placing the pillow on his lap and began to concentrate. You are for sleeping, he kept thinking it like a mantra as he meditated. Something felt off, very different from what Imbuing was like in the pod. There, he felt a sort of connection to the metal pipe, like it was hungry to be molded. This pillow just felt moldy. You are for sleeping, he thought harder, pressing his will into the idea. Opening his eyes again, the pillow seemed no different. Nate frowned.


    I’m supposedly a tier V Imbuer. Well, that’s my potential at Imbuing at least. But shouldn’t that mean I pick up on Imbuing easily? His frown deepened as he looked at the pillow on his lap. Then again, how would I know if that did work? He contemplated the pillow again, feeling the clumps of cotton between his fingers. What even is Imbuing? I feel like I knew so much back in the pod, but now everything’s like a dream I’ve hardly remembered having.


    You are for sleeping, Nathaniel thought over and over again. The pillow never changed. Am I thinking the wrong phrase? Telling a pillow that it’s for sleeping wouldn’t exactly change anything, would it? He rolled his fingers across his knee as he thought. Be comfortable. Relaxing. Peaceful. Restful. Nate lost track of time as he focused on these aspects of what a good pillow would be. When he opened his eyes, the pillow hadn’t changed. Something’s still missing. Being more honest with himself, Nate would have admitted that a lot was missing. He felt no connection with the pillow, like he did with an object he was Reading. Maybe that’s the key?


    Slowly, Nate focused his attention on connecting with the object, like he did with Reading any mundane object. Just with that small thought alone, his Reading Trait kicked in, causing him to recoil and toss the pillow across the room. The majority of what that pillow had seen in its lifetime was sleeping, but only by a slim margin. Nate grimaced, trying to let the images wash out of his memory before they stuck as he sat on the floor recovering his will to press onward. After a few minutes of mustering himself, he was able to grab the pillow again, albeit by one corner and held it far away from his body this time.


    You are for resting- he jolted himself out of his trance at the strange feeling in his core. Connection. He looked down at the pillow and noted nothing physically different, but his core definitely felt attached to it. Be comfortable. Relaxing. Peaceful- again, he had to stop himself from continuing. Each thought was like a feather tickling deep in his ears making his throat itch. The sheer giddiness of actually Imbuing would have been enough to break his concentration on its own, though. Nate chuckled to himself as he held up the pillow to find no changes whatsoever.


    What am I even doing? Am I doing it correctly or incorrectly? Pushing the intrusive thoughts aside, he continued practicing. Be comfortable. Relaxing. Peaceful. Restful. You are for sleeping. Nate pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth where an itch had begun to develop even as he continued gathering his thoughts. His core hummed contentedly as it seemed to resonate ever so slightly with the pillow in his lap. Once his thoughts had been sufficiently gathered, he willed them into the pillow. He may as well have tried passing a brick through the fabric. His gathered will shoved and shoved against the pillow, but got nowhere.


    Frustrated with hitting yet another wall after having so recently surpassed his first, he tossed the pillow aside and buried his face in his hands with a groan. The digital clock on the nightstand next to his bed told him the entire ordeal had taken three and a half hours. That was three and a half hours of metaphorically bashing his head against a wall. Massaging the pain out of his temples from the rapidly forming headache, he came to the conclusion that now might be a good time to take a break.


    Exiting his dorm, he first looked to Huck’s door, thinking back to his friend. ‘Don’t wake me up tomorrow.’ Poor guy. He took in a breath of early afternoon hallway air, deciding some time outside might not be a bad idea. As he turned to leave, Jenna popped out of her room, fully dressed and looking ready to go somewhere.


    “Oh. Hey, Jenna. Going somewhere?” he casually greeted.


    Jenna gave him a polite smile. “Well, it’s 11:26, and I wanted to see if I made any progress with utilizing my Trait.”


    Nate frowned at the comment, his brain missing a piece of the puzzle that was the odd comment his friend just made. “Um. Okay. Did… you make any progress?”


    She gave a half shrug and gestured at him, “Well, you’re standing here, so…”


    Nate blinked. “You used your Trait to see when I’d leave my dorm today?”


    She grimaced. “It sounds invasive now, but at the time it seemed like something easily verifiable and wholly outside of my control. Sorry?”


    “Nah, it’s cool,” Nate waved her off without taking too much time to think about it. “Honestly, you stalking me is kind of like a compliment, you know?”


    “Stalking?” Jenna gawked, her cheeks flushing. “I wasn’t stalking-”


    “You were,” he continued to tease her. “And through time, too. That’s another level.”


    “Oh, like you weren’t about to knock on my door and ask me to go for a walk,” she narrowed her eyes in mock indignation. “Like I should just be waiting around for your every beck and call.”


    Nate frowned at that comment. The idea hadn’t actually fully formed in his head yet, but began forming when he saw Huck’s closed door. “How did you- wait, you kept watching the future to see what happened after, didn’t you?”


    Jenna folded her arms across her chest, holding her head up high. Well, high for her rather diminutive size. “Well, I couldn’t just show up in my pajamas, I had to dress appropriately for whatever it was you wanted to do, knocking on my door in the middle of the afternoon.”


    “But I didn’t knock on your door,” Nate countered playfully.


    “Yet,” Jenna riposted.


    “Exactly how far ahead did you read?”


    She shrugged, not meeting his eyes. “Far enough to know you’re frustrated with your Imbuing Trait.”


    “So you’ve already gone on that walk with me. Why…?”


    “I wanted to see if-” she took in a deep breath and let it out. “I was curious about something and needed to know-”


    “Curious about what?” Nate cut across her.


    Jenna blinked several times. “The… weather. Might have rained.”


    “The weather,” Nate questioned her disbelievingly.


    “Yup. Turns out it’s a pretty nice day.”


    “Uh-huh,” Nate narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion. “Well, I don’t want to bore you, so I guess I’ll just think things through on my own.”


    “Wait, what?” Jenna took a step back in shock.


    “You’ve clearly already gone on a walk with me,” Nate shrugged. “It’d be boring for you to do it all again and have to listen to my problems all over again.” He stepped past her, heading toward the door. She was right about the weather- today was a beautiful day.


    Jenna’s shoulders slumped along with her dropping jaw as Nate stepped past her. Gathering herself, she jogged to catch up with Nate, her eyebrows furrowed in consternation.


    “Betcha didn’t see that one coming,” Nate grinned, giving his friend the side-eye.


    “Blue skies above, is this going to be a thing with you?”


    “Is what going to be a thing with me?” Nate chuckled.


    “Where you go out of your way to break my visions of the future where you’re involved, then say some stupid gotcha line?”


    Nate’s chuckle grew into a chortle, then a laugh. “Why don’t you tell me, O mighty Oracle?”


    Jenna facepalmed, but couldn’t keep herself from chuckling.


    “See? Already better than a depressing walk talking about my feelings,” Nate gave her a playful elbow to her shoulder. “Did I at least make any headway in that conversation?”


    Jenna rolled her deep pink eyes and sighed. “Not really, but you did at least vent some frustration instead of acting like nobody wants to listen to you and diverting the topic.”


    Nate pursed his lips, then glanced down at his short friend. Finally relenting, he began to let loose. “I just don’t get it. I’m supposed to be an Imbuer V. I should have a better grasp of Imbuing than Reading, but Reading comes so easily- like most of the time I have to actively not try to Read an object. But no matter how hard I try, I get nothing with Imbuing.”


    Jenna nodded her head- to her credit, paying attention even though she’d likely heard him say these exact words before. “And you’re jealous that I’ve been pretty successful with my Oracle Trait. Part of you wanted to believe that having a Trait at Tier V meant it would be somehow harder to utilize or activate, but I seem to have thoroughly debunked that theory.”


    With a sigh, Nate released the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in. “Kind of like that, yeah.”


    “Exactly like that, but go on,” Jenna shrugged non-judgmentally.


    “And I’m worried. I have four Traits to work on, and I can’t even get a handle on my strongest one. How am I supposed to keep up with it all?”


    “You don’t,” Jenna looked up at him.


    “I don’t?”


    “Yeah… well, long story short, while I was looking into the future today, I noticed that in our walk, I looked into the future. Yours. Because you wanted to know which road would be most successful for you to follow. And after a few minutes of a lot of possibilities, your best bet is to spend this year only focusing on Imbuing. Having that skill at Tier V alone is enough to keep you in the Elite class. Reading is pretty much just the cherry on top.”


    “The Elite class?” Nate asked, trying to wrap his mind around what Jenna just casually dropped. “Wait, so you looked into the future while looking into the future?”


    “Umm. Yes. And yes. We’re going to be considered Elites in the Heroic Program for Gate Delving. You me and Huck. Anyone with a total Trait potential over 4. It’s basically the regular HPGD, except about a hundred times more intense. They expect us to be leaders- Guild Officers, or even Guild Masters. Our training will be everything in the normal HPGD at a much higher standard for success, plus additional courses on leadership.”


    That news hit Nate like a truck, nearly bowling him over. “Jenna, I’m not sure I even want to be in that program. That sounds way too intense. I don’t even know if I want to be a Hero in the first place.”


    “You do,” she smiled warmly.


    “I do?”


    “You do,” she repeated.


    “How far into the future did you have to look to find that answer?”


    “I didn’t.”


    “Then…”


    She stopped walking forward, instead pivoting to face him. “I looked the other direction.”


    Nate gave her a questioning look. Does she always talk in weird riddles?


    “I know, for instance, you aren’t one to sit idly by when you see someone needs help, even if you don’t stand a chance of actually helping.” She arched an eyebrow at him before turning around to continue walking. “And you, knowing now that your Trait potential is even higher than Bastion’s…” she shrugged her shoulders without looking back.


    “Be ever brighter,” Nate said more to himself than Jenna, his head now realizing what his heart had been telling him. His next step forward felt just a bit lighter. “Yeah. Thanks.”


    That did cause Jenna to look back, a smirk on her face. “We didn’t even get to your Imbuing problem yet.”


    “Yeah, well,” Nate shrugged, “I guess my problems come in layers.”


    “Layered is how I prefer my problems. Easy to address. Distinct from one another. Trust me, you don’t want the alternative.”


    “The alternative being… no problems at all?”


    Jenna scoffed a laugh at that. “No, no. The alternative being a complex web of inter-tangled knots- where every move you make to address one problem will make some other problem worse.”


    “I’m guessing that’s what your problems look like?”


    “Good guess,” she spoke with a tight smile.


    “Like what?”


    “Well, there’s… a problem I would very much like to address with someone. But if I do address it, I end up with the worst possible outcome.”


    “I thought there was no such thing as ‘the future’. So how could you be so sure that you absolutely will end up with the worst outcome, whatever that is?”


    “Remember what I said before about there being possibilities, probabilities, inevitabilities, and impossibilities? That road inevitably leads to the worst outcome.”


    Nate thought for a bit, but nothing really came to him aside from one of his dad’s favorite sayings. If you don’t like where a path leads, build a new road forward. “So build a new road,” he said, having given up with trying to find a vague solution to her extraordinarily vague problem.


    “That’s not how this works,” she sighed. “It’s an either-or situation. Either I say the thing, or I keep it hidden, and the longer it stays hidden, the more likely it is to cause problems.”


    “But saying it will cause bigger problems?”


    “Pretty much,” Jenna sighed heavily, leaning her head on Nate’s arm for a moment before realizing. With a start, she took a step away, muttering apologies.


    Nate ignored the whole thing, taking her problem into consideration. “So… maybe wait on saying it until holding back causes bigger problems than saying it? Or… I guess maybe there are other threads that need to be pulled before you start untangling this big knot.”


    “Yeah, maybe,” Jenna muttered.


    “Hey,” Nate snapped his fingers. “When you were looking into the future at our walk, did we talk about your problems at all?”


    “...No.”


    “Ha,” Nate strode forward with an arrogant smile. “Beat your future-vision again.”


    “That’s not how-” she sighed in defeat. “Yeah, okay, you got me there.”


    “Are you getting hungry? I’m starting to get hungry,” Nate frowned, looking around. “We should probably get lunch.”


    The sandwich shop down the street was quaint in a way that only Chicago could bear to manage. From the coral pink and seafoam green striped awning overhanging the entrance to the relatively tiny interior, no other city could support the existence of such a place- land being too precious a commodity to allow for a shop that could only service a few people at a time. This mom-and-pop shop stood as a testament to the security felt by the people living here. Moreover, it served as Bastion’s private trophy- a precious gem in his crown of accomplishments- a small step towards what civilization used to look like before the sky shattered.


    Nathaniel tried his best to swallow the heavy emotions and memories of the building as he sat at a table that had been servicing people in this shop for more years than he’d been alive, doing his best to disguise the uncomfortable flood of intrusive understanding as swallowing a bite of his sandwich. Jenna had picked his sandwich for him, using her Trait to look down every possibility for what he could order and judging which got the best reaction out of him. Admittedly, her method worked. Rather well. Too well, almost. He closed his eyes and gave another guttural noise of approval as the flavor lingered in his mouth.


    “I’m never getting food without you again,” Nate admittedly.


    Jenna shot him a coy grin. “This time was special. It takes a lot of work for me to do that for you, especially when I could be doing it for me instead. You’re going to have to earn it in the future.”


    Nate sighed in defeat, looking at his delicious masterpiece of a sandwich. “The first hit’s always free.”


    “Give ‘em a hint of what they could have, then make ‘em pay through the nose to get what they want,” she grinned wolfishly before taking a bite of her own sandwich. After swallowing, she considered for a moment, “Admittedly, this place does most of that for me.”


    “We are very proud of our products,” a new voice chimed in, pulling a chair from another table and sitting backwards in it to face the two of them. “You both look a little out of place here and I thought you might be attending the University here with me.” She was caramel skinned with black hair and brown eyes, her wiry frame hinting at a life of constantly moving around. “I’m Fiona,” she smiled warmly at the two of them. “Sorry for interrupting your date.”


    “Nathaniel Lione,” Nate responded automatically, moving to shake her hand.


    “It’s not a date,” Jenna answered simultaneously, her cheeks reddening.


    They both looked at each other.


    “Oh. Yeah, we’re not like that,” Nate corrected himself, sitting back down.


    “Sorry, I’m Jenna Harris,” she answered simultaneously again, standing to shake Fiona’s hand.


    Fiona looked between the two of them, narrowing her eyes as if searching for the joke. “Right,” she let the word draw out, not moving to shake Jenna’s hand.


    “So did you get tested yet?” Nate dragged the conversation forward.


    “Ah. Yes, I was fortunate enough to be in section A when the testing began. Fiona Tigris, Rifter at your service. For the right price,” she tacked on with a wink.


    “Really?” Nate inquired. “What’s a- Ah!” Nate looked up to realize he was now staring out the glass window of the shop instead of looking at the shop’s counter. He swiveled his head around, trying to get his bearings for a moment before realizing he was now sitting where Jenna had sat. Likewise, she was now seated where he had been, looking equally confused.


    After a breath, Fiona let out a short giggle. “I’m sorry about that,” she tried to take a serious tone, but the mirth of her prank prevented it as she stared at Nathaniel and Jenna’s dumbfounded and disoriented expressions. “I figured it would be better to show you. I can move things- objects if they aren’t too big or heavy, and people if they don’t fight against me.”


    Nathaniel blinked at Jenna who stared right back at him wearing her own expression of perplexion. “Seems like a pretty useful Trait,” Nate noted, reaching across the small, circular table to switch plates with Jenna, smiling to himself as he reunited with the amazing work of edible art.


    “It certainly has its uses,” Fiona grinned, her brown eyes flitting briefly between Nate’s expression and the object of his desire. “And I’m glad you hold our family recipes in such high regards.”


    “This…” Nate’s eyes widened in awe, “this is your place?”


    “Not yet,” Fiona laughed. “My parents are the owners and operators. I just help around.”


    “Jenna, do Fiona and I become best friends, or do I just marry her?”


    Jenna gave him a flat look. “Ha ha, very funny.”


    Fiona tittered a laugh and stood up. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I wish you the best of luck in your testing. Hopefully we’ll meet again.”


    “Every day. Specifically at lunch,” Nate promised.


    Fiona turned pitying eyes toward Nate. “I don’t think you could afford me, Mr. Lione.”


    “Lunch here every day would get expensive…” he tapped his finger on the table, his mind chugging through scenarios that might work. “I could pull a job or two.”


    “Not every cost is financial,” Fiona rolled her eyes, spending a moment to lock eyes with Jenna. Fiona shook her head and shrugged before leaving.


    “She’s cute,” Jenna finally started the conversation again after about a minute of silence. Her words were a little clipped, but her face was utterly unreadable.


    Nate looked at Jenna for a long moment. Definitely irritated. And a little embarrassed. ‘She’s cute.’ What’s that supposed to mean? His mind whirred as he prepared for another game of ‘this woman seems to be upset with me and I’m not quite sure why’. “That was pretty dumb of me,” he began. Solid opener. Immediately take the blame while not tipping my hand that I have no idea for what I’m to blame.


    Jenna arched an eyebrow at him. “How so?” she feigned confusion, not tipping her own hand in any fashion.


    Nate thought quickly. ‘She’s cute.’ “Fiona,” he grasped desperately at an answer.


    She broke eye contact, looking down at her sandwich briefly before looking to the side while taking in a slow breath and releasing it with a huff. Settling back against her chair.


    She took the bait. Yank the hook and reel her in.


    “Not sure what I was thinking. We’d be terrible together. I’d just spend my whole day asking her to go make me a sandwich. Not exactly a good look.”


    Jenna fought herself as corners of her lips curled upward ever so slightly before she snorted a laugh, the whole action sounding more like a poorly concealed sneeze than anything else.


    Her move. Nate let the silence linger, simply shaking his head in regret.


    Her lips twisted as she considered her next words. Her eyes flickered up toward his for a moment. “I could check, if you want.”


    Nate gave her a quizzical look. “What do you mean?”


    She closed her eyes and focused for a moment. “Well, out of…. Four hundred and ninety three attempts to ask her out, she only says yes to five of them. Looks like… one involves hiring a farmer with a herd of cows to spell out her name with the cows. Ooo,” she grimaced, “and turns out she only says yes out of pity because you slip and fall face-first into a cowpie.”


    This time, Nate snorted a laugh. “That’s okay,” he folded his arms, leaning back in his chair. “I’ll judge the success of each relationship path by the number of sandwiches she makes me. How many do I get from that one?”


    Jenna laughed genuinely and opened her eyes to give Nate a bewildered look. “You’d eat cow crap just for a sandwich?”


    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Nate scoffed, “this isn’t ‘just a sandwich’. This is sacred masterwork art in food form. Men have fought wars over less blasphemous statements than yours, I’ll have you know.”


    She quirked a smile, her head tilting to the side. “It is a pretty good sandwich.”


    “Pretty good? Pretty good?” Nate mocked outrage and indignation. “Yeah, and the Tier V Gates around New York City are a bit of an inconvenience.”


    “Okaaay,” she relented with a chuckle, “the sandwiches here are definitely praiseworthy. Blue skies above, Nate.”


    “Do you mind if I quote some of those comments?” Fiona shouted from the shop’s backroom. “We’re putting out a new ad in the paper.”


    “One free sandwich per quote,” Nate offered.


    “Ha! As if. I was being polite by asking. I was actually going to take your comments and publish them anyway, just listing you both as anonymous customers if you didn’t let me quote you specifically.”


    “It’s fine, you can quote us,” Jenna rolled her eyes.


    “Excuse me,” Fiona snapped back teasingly, “but when my fiancé and I are having an argument, kindly stay out of it.” She emphasized the teasing bit by sticking her tongue out at Jenna. “Looking forward to that cowpie to the face, sweetie,” she winked playfully at Nate.


    Jenna rolled her eyes and laughed. “She’s not joking. That’s now the only way she’ll say yes to any of your proposals.”


    Fiona laughed. “Doesn’t even have to be farm related. Bring in a big pile on the first day of class and see if I say yes.”


    “Hmmm. How many sandwiches is that route?” Nate turned to Jenna.


    “Are you kidding me right now? You’d seriously-” she cut herself off with a facepalm. “And I’m not your cheat guide for a dating sim.”


    “You’d get one sandwich,” Fiona answered smugly. “And I don’t have to say yes to your proposal.”


    “All it would cost is my dignity?”


    “Well,” Fiona waffled her head back and forth a few times, visibly weighing her options, “let’s say your dignity and the remaining half of the price. Plus taxes.”


    “You drive a hard bargain…” Nate narrowed his eyes at her.


    “We’re leaving,” Jenna groaned, grabbing his arm and pulling. “Preferably before she takes you for everything you own.”


    “But… sandwiches,” Nate frowned theatrically.


    “Now,” Jenna pulled harder, trying to subdue her smile.


    The sky was more peaceful than either one of them had experienced before this week. White wisps of cloud drifted slowly across that ocean of light blue as birds chirped happily from trees planted along the sidewalks. They took a minute to enjoy this serenity, this moment of peace with each other, reflecting on their lives ahead of them.


    “You still haven’t spoken about your Imbuing problem,” Jenna absently noted, as if reading Nate like an open book.


    “I think you hit all the points already. I’m frustrated and, yes, a little jealous that you’ve got your Trait working for you so well. And I’m supposed to focus on Imbuing this year. What else is there to say?”


    Jenna took a long moment to answer. “The things you want to say instead of someone else’s summarization?”


    Now it was Nate’s turn to walk in silence for a time. “I’m scared,” he finally uttered. “Because I have no clue what shape the future holds for me. What’s an Imbuer even do in a dungeon? Or out of a dungeon if I fail out of the HPGD? And that’s assuming I can even manage to Imbue anything at all.”


    Frowning, Jenna tapped her chin. “I’m not sure. What actually is Imbuing?”


    Nate opened his mouth to answer, but not a single word came to mind. Perplexed, he closed his mouth again and thought over her question. “I’m… not sure.”


    “Maybe that’s why you’re struggling to Imbue?” Jenna offered.


    “But it was so easy in the pod.”


    “What did it look like in the pod then?” she inquired.


    “I just… willed things to be a certain way and they were. But I’ve tried that already and nothing happened.”


    “Hmmm. Do the materials you Imbue have to have certain conditions?”


    “I… don’t… know,” Nate dragged out each word. “I’ve only tried Imbuing my pillow.”


    “Maybe your pillow’s just stubborn.”


    “It’s a pillow. It can’t be stubborn,” Nate scoffed.


    “How’s it resisting your will to Imbue it then?”


    Again, Nate opened his mouth to speak, and again, no words came. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”


    Jenna let out a long sigh, “And now your mind won’t focus on anything but the new ideas popping into your head leaving you jittery with excitement. Yeah, go ahead.”


    “Really? You don’t mind?”


    She twisted her lips and looked at Nate for a moment before answering. “I mind a little. But I know this is really important for you, so yes, go. Just promise you won’t stay locked up in your room the whole time? And I expect at least one text a day, if nothing else then at least let me know you haven’t starved yourself to death.”


    “You beautiful person,” Nate giddily hugged his friend and sprinted off to the dorm.


    Jenna lightly touched her arms where Nate had hugged her as she watched him run off. “You could’ve walked me home,” she muttered to herself. “I’m going back too, you know.”