Jesse’s ears rang. His skin felt raw and soot speckled his face. His eyes took time to come into focus. For a brief moment he was back in the inferno of his neighbors apartment. Panic rose in his chest. Then it came back to him. Moments earlier an explosion had rocked him, centered on the campfire in between the men.

  The three men were now laying on the ground. Jesse wasn’t sure if they were dead or not. In his shock Jesse had broken his wrist bonds that he had been weakening. He began frantically working on untying his feet, despite his blurred vision and spinning head.

  He glanced around but didn’t see where the man watching from the brush, the man presumably responsible for all of this, went. He got his feet undone and moved to Aegis to untie her bonds. Nearby the soldiers started to stir. Jesse moved faster, frantic. Finally freeing her, she leapt up and looked around wild eyed, teeth bared.

  Jesse glanced around but couldn’t see his rebar club. He did see his bag of crystals though and grabbed it, running for the nearby brush. Suddenly there was another man standing near him. Jesse swung at him clumsily before recognizing it was the man he had seen moments before the chaos started. Luckily the man had dodged his attack.

  “Come on mate, we need to go.” He said. To Jesse’s shock, Aegis didn’t react defensively toward this man. In fact she acted friendly, wagging her tail and sniffing at him. That was a good enough endorsement for Jesse.

  “Hold there friend, let me make sure these bastards don’t bother us no more.” The man stood and turned, he made a gesture and flame formed between his open palms. Jesse stared, shocked, before shaking himself out of it. There would be time for questions later. Jesse knew one thing, he couldn’t let him kill those men.

  Jesse quickly grabbed the man’s wrist, pulling his hands apart. The fire dissipated. The man frowned at him. “Fine. They wouldn’t show you the same mercy. Let’s go.” And with that he took off running.

  “Come on Aegis.” Jesse said following the man.

  “This individual contains the energy I detected earlier. It seems he is able to direct it out of his body to create some physical effects.” Golem told Jesse.

  “Yeah it looked an awful lot like magic.” Jesse thought in reply, frowning. He had always wanted to be a mage. Every game he had the option to he always played as the magic wielding characters. Maybe he could learn these tricks.

  He had the opportunity to take a closer look at his rescuer. The man had red hair and freckles. He looked to be mid twenties at Jesse’s guess, of a slim build. He had a braided beard, much like depictions of vikings of old.

  As they ran Jesse heard the soldiers thundering behind them. Jesse thought they were gaining on them.

  Golem, add an indicator for how far those soldiers are from us. He told his AI mentally.

  “Complete.” Golem replied.

  200 feet. 175 feet. 150 feet. They were gaining fast.

  “Uh hey they are gaining on us!” Jesse yelled to the man.

  “Of course they are. They are virecents. They are going to be faster than me. Probably you too, though I don't know you. You should have let me kill em while they were stunned.” The man yelled. He stopped and turned. This time electricity crackled between his hands.

  Jesse moved to stop him yelling “Wait, don’t kill them!” but it was too late. The electricity flew from his hands. Much to Jesse’s relief it went straight into the ground which, while intimidating, didn’t really do anything. Aegis yelped from the lightning and shied away from it. The man frowned, looking at his hands, then took off running again.

  150 feet again. This wasn’t going well. Jesse pulled a crystal from his bag. He remembered what it had done in the cave, maybe it could do the same here.

  “I’m going to try something!” He yelled over to the wizard cosplayer, who glanced at him. His brow furrowed.

  “What is that?” He asked. Jesse would have assumed the man knew, but he just shrugged.

  “Be ready!” He yelled and stopped running. His rescuer stopped and started forming more fire as the men caught up quickly.

  They came to a stop cautiously a dozen or so feet away from Jesse and the magic man. Kaelan stepped forward and yelled to Jesse. “Make this easy on yourself and come with us. We will execute the arcanescent and be done with this foolishness.”

  “What the hell is wrong with this place? Why is everything and everyone trying to kill each other?.” Jesse said in response as he threw the crystal as hard as he could towards the man. Lightning fast, Kaelan moved to catch it. His face showed he knew that was a mistake a moment before it hit his hand and exploded. The force shot Kaelan backwards 15 feet, sending him rolling. The other two flew to the left and right, one slamming into a tree and the other rolling to a stop.

  “Wow! That was some fine work!” His new magical friend exclaimed. “Now watch this!” As he raised the fire in his hands upwards. A wall 20 feet wide of fire erupted from the ground. It filled the area with a thick smoke. The trio took off in the opposite direction, hoping the distraction and cover of flame and smoke would let them lose their pursuers.

  I hope those soldiers are okay. I didn’t expect that little crystal to cause such a powerful blast. Jesse thought to himself as he ran.

  After a few hours of weaving through the night, Jesse was exhausted and the man who had rescued him looked to be as well. They hadn’t spoken in the entirety of their time together, as he didn’t want to draw the attention of the soldiers who were likely tracking them. Jesse assumed that the magician had a destination in mind, which is why he was surprised when the man just stopped in the middle of a wooded patch.

  “Okay…” he panted before continuing. “I think we probably lost them.” He doubled over panting again.

  Jesse collapsed on the ground gasping for air. He had never ran so far in his life. Aegis ran over and happily licked all over his face. He gave her some pets. His muscles were fire. His lungs burned but felt wet at the same time as he coughed. His head throbbed.

  After both of them had recovered somewhat, they finally spoke for the first time.

  “My name is Tormund Falkaen. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The man said.

  “I am Jesse Weston. Why did you help me?” He asked the first thing that came to mind.

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  The man looked away for a moment, as if considering his reply. “I know what it’s like to be hunted by the likes of them. I came to the quarantine zone to see ifin I could help any of the people here.”

  “How did you know about us?” Jesse asked. He figured they wouldn’t be common knowledge unless this place had some form of internet.

  “I… uh well I am a member of the resistance. We… oppose the Archons rule.” The man replied sheepishly.

  Probably after recruits then. Jesse thought, but immediately chided himself. This man did rescue him after all.

  “Okay so you know I’m not from here?” He asked.

  “Yes, though where in you come from I don’t rightly know.” Tormund responded.

  “Well that makes two of us. It could be a different world, a different dimension, or even a different time. I need to get back there but first I need to find my daughter. She has been here for a few months now.”

  Tormund nodded, seemingly in thought. “Well I’m thinkin we should meet up with the resistance in one of them nearby towns. Maybe theys will have a lead on where she could be. Who knows, maybe she was rescued by them or joined em.”

  “Okay but I have about a million questions. You are the first person I’ve encountered that’s actually willing to give me information.” Jesse said.

  “Ask away and I’ll do my best to answer.” The man replied.

  “Well I think the first one is, well you make fire and electricity. Are you a wizard or something? How do you do that?” Jesse asked, probably a little too enthusiastically.

  “I don’t rightly know what a wizard is but I can do magic, yes.” The man said. “I am known as an Arcanescent. I use essence to make things happen. I specialize in elemental, though there are other forms.” Tormund replied.

  “And what’s essence?” Jesse asked, guessing the answer.

  “Surely yous have seen the red fog or mist risin from critters that are killed? That’s known as essence. All living things contain it and it is transferred on death to the killer, if there is one.” Tormund replied patiently.

  “This examination is consistent with the scans I have performed of the energy and the soldiers.” Golem chimed in, again Jesse made a note to talk to him about the changes he had been experiencing since coming through the rift.

  “Yes I’ve seen it. I even absorbed some. It healed my wounds and made me stronger I think, though nothing like the soldiers.” Jesse responded, brow furrowed in thought, mind racing with possibilities and explanations.

  “Yes. Essence will always heal wounds, even in normal people. It will also increase your physical shape to an extent. Only for virecent will it increase beyond what a normal person can do though. For them there’s no upper limit to strength and endurance.” Tormund replied.

  “Surely there is a limit at some point?” Jesse asked, everything had limits.

  “For essence users, the stronger you are the harder it is get get stronger. It works like tiers, and at lower tiers it is easy to gain enough to move up. Once yous get a large amount of essence though it slows. I’ve never heard of someone reachin their maximum but most don’t attempt to gain tiers.” Tormund said.

  What like levels in a video game? Jesse thought before continuing aloud. “Can you lose tiers? What happens when you go up a tier?”

  “Goin up a tier will increase power. An arcanescent will be able to create greater magics with their essence. A virescent will gain increase base strength, endurance, and healin. Once a tier is gained it can’t be lost, even if the essence used to attain it is.” Tormund said.

  “You can lose essence?” Jesse asked.

  “Yeah, arcanescents use their essence to create their magics. This makes it very difficult for arcanescents to rank up tiers, as they lose the required essence any time they make somethin explode or whatever.” Tormund stated, Jesse nodded along.

  “Virescent can use their essence to perform greater feats of strength or endurance than they would normally be capable of, even with their greatly enhanced bodies. This is called burnin essence.” Tormund explained.

  “Okay. Are there any other types of essence users? How does one become either of these?” Jesse asked.

  “There are no other known types, though it’s debated. Like I said, most people never rank up even a single tier. And you don’t become them. What abilities you may have, you’re born with.” Tormund explained.

  “Well how can I tell if I am either?” Jesse said. “I’ve ranked up I think.”

  “Your energy signatures indicate you likely have.” Golem said simply in his mind.

  “If’in you were capable of magic you would already know.” The man hesitated and then continued “though it’s hard to control. I can’t tell you if you were a virescent, though I suspects not as yous haven’t risen above what a normal human could do if that run was any indication.” Tormund told him. “I’m sorry but yous may just be Inercent. Meanin able to absorb essence but not able to use it in any meaningful way. That is what most people are since as far as I know, everyone can absorb it. They just can’t do anything with it once they do” Tormund said apologetically. “It’ll still heal you right up and keep you in good shape if you keep absorbin it.”

  Jesse's mood dropped a little. He would have loved to make fire from nothing. Well not from nothing, the energy clearly came from this essence. Maybe he could study it more and figure out how it worked so he could use it. For now he needed to focus on finding Becca and getting back before Kara came through.

  “Okay. It’s fine. So why is magic illegal if it occurs naturally?” Jesse asked.

  Tormund hesitated. “The Archon dictates that it is. I don’t rightly know why. He claims it’s dangerous.”

  “But his soldiers use essence?” Jesse responded.

  “Yeah he’s only outlawed the arcanescents. The virescents are required to register with his army and are drafted an used as his soldiers. Otherwise they are banned from continuing to collect and use essence. Anything else that resembles magic is banned. For our safety he says.” Tormund scoffed at the last words.

  “Alright. How do we get out of the quarantine zone and meet up with the resistance?” Jesse asked, changing the subject.

  “I’m thinkin we needs to talk about something else first.” Tormund said, looking uncomfortable.

  Jesse felt a spike of alarm at his tone.

  “Yous stopped me from killing those soldiers.” Tormund said.

  “Yeah. I’ve witnessed a lot of brutality since I came here. Back in my world killing isn’t something so easily done. We…. Have learned from our past… somewhat at least. Not as much as I would like. See there was a time when life was spent by the thousands and then by the hundreds of thousands. Then by the millions.” Jesse’s mood darkened thinking about his planets history.

  “I can’t even imagine death on that scale.” Tormund said wide eyed.

  “Well it got to the point where we basically destroyed the world. There are only little artificial pockets of life left.” Jesse told him, solemn.

  “Well regardless of where yous are from, this is the reality we live in. If we don’t eliminate the threats then they will come back to bite us. I don’t enjoy killin either but sometimes it’s just necessary.” Tormund told him.

  “I just think that there is a price for killing. We will have to pay it some day. I don’t want or need that blood on my hands.” Jesse told him, growing angry.

  “There is a price for mercy as well and if we continue with a no killin policy some day we will pay it.” Tormund said. His face was passive.

  They stared at each other for a moment tensely. Finally Tormund spoke again.

  “The quarantine zone extends to the river Auselis to the east and southward to the mountains. The river is too wide and fast flowing for us to swim. The bridges will be guarded.” Tormund told him.

  “So what do we do?” Jesse asked.

  “They will be patrolling the banks of the river. There is an underground passage that I know of that leads beneath the river but I’m hesitant to use it. I’ve never been through it and my sources were unclear as to what was down there. I suggest we go with the river.” Tormund said.

  The thought of the underground passage brought visions of those glowing spiders. He decided he would prefer not to find out what was in this underground passage that Tormund knew of.

  “Okay but how do we cross the river then?” Jesse asked.

  “Here’s my plan…”