Even Theo could sense the pressure coming off this guy, he was clearly much more powerful than their earlier visitor.

“What do you want?” Elise called out to the man.

“Let me inside. It will…”

“Elise cut him off before he could finish his sentence.

“Easier on me if I do so? Sorry already heard that once today. It isn’t happening so, just tell me why you’re here and hurry up about it. I don’t have much time.”

“I’m here investigating an unknown energy signature and the disappearance of my colleague. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about either of those things, would you?”

“No. Look, I suggest you leave now. I promise not to hurt you, if you leave now without a fight.”

“Hahaha! That isn’t happening. I can tell that you know something, so I’m…”

The man never had the chance to finish speaking. Elise stepped forward and called out three words in quick succession.

“Fragment! Inferno! Wind!”

In a blink of the eye the man’s body was forced apart into a million pieces with an accompanying horrific popping sound. Next the tiny pieces all burst into flames, before finally the wind picked up and carried the ash remains away into the forest. Elise then strode on forward, once again rubbing her hands and motioning for Theo and List to follow.

“Erg a bit disgusting, but we don’t have the time to mess around with this. Come on you two.”

They both did as she instructed and fell in behind Elise, following her through the gateway and down the path into the forest. As they walked List stood beside Theo leaning in to speak.

“See. I told you she doesn’t need any help.”

“I can see that now.”

Theo was honestly dumbfounded by what he had seen. He had known that Elise was powerful, of course he did, but this was something else. Both of those men were supposed to be rels and there was no telling how long they had been training and building up their power. The second arrival seemed to be considerably more powerful than the first visitor was, but Elise went through him like it was nothing. Theo knew their powers had to be nothing to sniff at, but Elise seemed to be on another level all together. She didn’t even break a sweat and she didn’t blink before deciding to obliterate them. It was surprising to him that she was worried enough to leave her home to get away from these people, after that display he couldn’t imagine anyone posing her a threat. Theo picked up his pace to walk next to Elise.

“Do you think we will be able to get far enough away before another one of them turns up?” He asked her.

“I’m not sure, but I hope so. I was a little surprised that the second one got here so quickly. It seems whoever is after us, they’re more than willing to commit plenty of resources in finding us.”

“How did they manage to make it here without you noticing them?”

“They were masking their presence. I noticed something was off, but I couldn’t tell for sure that someone was out there.”

“That’s possible?”

“Yes, if your skill is high enough. They were both clearly quite experienced.”

“It didn’t look like it when they went up against you!”

“They were still young and unfortunate enough to come up against someone with a little more experience than them.”

“But you said they had to be rels.”

“They were and all rels are powerful, but that isn’t all there is to it. Some people just happen to be born with natural talent and some people have lived for a thousand years since they passed through the trials. It was just luck that the ones that we encountered today weren’t a match for me that’s all.”

“That didn’t look like just luck to me.”

“I told you this before, but there are people out there with much greater power than I possess.”

“That’s kind of terrifying! I really hope I never run into them.

“If you stay out of trouble you might never have to.”

“But with my luck, I don’t like my chances… How long do you think it will take me to reach the level of one of those guys from earlier?”

“Which one?”

“The first one.”

“Hmm, that’s hard to say, especially before we’ve even begun your training properly. This might sound like a copout, but everyone advances at different rate, it’s almost impossible to judge without a good understanding of a person’s natural abilities and training regimen.”

“I see. That makes it seem like it will be a while.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Remember I told you that I think you have potential?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Well, I meant it and anyway you’ve got a great teacher, so I’m sure that you will progress in no time at all.” She answered with a chuckle.

Theo had to agree with Elise, there could be no telling how long it would take, but he would still have liked an estimate. Their journey continued all the while at a quick walking pace whilst they talked. They had already descended to the foot of the mountain and were following the trail through the heavy tree cover. Theo thought that they seemed to be following the route that he and Elise arrived from. After about thirty minutes of walking they branched off from the main path, Elise was taking them on a route that looked like it was hardly ever used. It appeared to be more of an animal trail rather than a path that any human would take. The tree cover here was much denser than it was on the main path, it would be much harder to spot them from the above the tree line or even from the trail itself. Walking a trail like that cut the already very small odds of them seeing anyone else on the road considerably. As it was, they walked for hours without incident. Theo lost track of how long they had been travelling, but when he eventually got a look at the sun it had passed its pinnacle, it was already the afternoon. As if on cue his belly rumbled, none of them had eaten a thing today. They had initially planned to have breakfast when they had returned from the morning’s run, but their unexpected visitors had put pay to that. It wasn’t clear if Elise had overheard the noise, but she lifted her hand and signalled for them to stop.

“I think it is about time for us to have a break don’t you.” She said while finding a spot to sit.

“Are we far enough away, will it be safe?” Theo asked.

“No, not really, but we aren’t going to be safe for a quite a while. We’re at least far enough that it’ll be difficult for them to pinpoint our location quickly and carrying on for much longer on empty stomachs is only likely to slow us down even more.”

Seeing Elise already comfortably sat down both List and Theo sat and joined her on the forest floor. It turned out that even in the midst of the rush to leave, List had still managed to find to time to prepare them all lunch for their first stop. As soon as she had sat down, she pulled out a lunch box that was full of sandwiches and started distributing them. They were Ithlong and salad, leftovers from the night before. After the sandwiches List pulled out a flask of juice that was squeezed from the small orchard back on Elise’s farmstead. Theo hadn’t yet asked what the fruit was called, for fear that he was becoming a bother, but he could say that it tasted much like apple juice. If you walked past right now and spotted them, the last thing you would think was that they were on the run chased by dangerous pursuers, as they sat there happily eating and chatting away to each other. They looked more like they were out for a day trip and had stopped for a picnic, but that impression could only last as long as things stayed quiet. Just as they had all begun to fully relax and enjoy their lunch, the peace was suddenly shattered. Without warning Elise jumped to her feet.

“What is it?” Theo asked her.

“Someone is out there.”

“Are they coming for us?”

“Not as far as I can tell, the signal came from back home.”

“That’s good though isn’t it? They haven’t found us yet.”

“I don’t know, the way they suddenly popped up like that out nowhere, it’s almost as if they were announcing themselves to me.”

“What’d we do?”

“For now, we just carry on like we were and head to our destination.”

“Okay… Is there any way that they’ll be able to tell we’re out here?”

“I’d be able to pick up the two of you, so it’s possible, but there aren’t many that possess that level of skill.”

“Is there any way you can teach us to supress our presence while we’re out here?”

“Yes, but it is too risky and would probably take too long. Chances are that while you were practicing the technique you would give away our position. I think the best thing for now is to keep moving, just try not to use any Pneuma at all, either of you.”

“That shouldn’t be too difficult, at least until it gets dark. The only thing I know how to do is use the glow stone.”

“Yes, but just be careful that you don’t do anything that feels similar.”

“Right… I’ll try.” Theo wasn’t quite sure what she had meant by that.

“Anyway, we should get moving. Come on.”

They quickly grabbed and stowed away the few items they had out for lunch, then they were ready to leave. The moment they were packed Elise set off, she clearly didn’t want to waste a moment. The pace she set now was quite an increase compared to the first leg, it was almost a struggle to keep up with her over the uneven ground in the forest. At least they now all had some food in their bellies. They kept up this pace for about twenty minutes with no signs from Elise that anything else was amiss. None of them were talking now, they were each doing their best to pick our path through the wood and saving their energy for movement. Other than the background noises of the occasional animal or wind in the trees, the only sounds around them were their own footsteps over the dead leaves and twigs. It was from this relative quiet that they were suddenly shaken, by the sound of an enormous explosion.

“Is that nearby?” Theo asked Elise.

“No, it came from a long way away, it’s just that large of an explosion.” She answered.

“Where is it?

“Back home.”

“What!” List yelled when she heard Elise, immediately turning back and hurrying in the direction they had just come from.

“Hold up List!” Elise called after her.

List didn’t even turn back to look at Elise for a moment, she just continued on at full speed back in the direction of her home. Finally, when Elise realised that List wasn’t going to listen, she ran after her. She quickly caught up with List who was recklessly running through the wood. When she did, she grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and shook her.

“What’d you think you’re doing?” Elise asked List.

“I need to go back… The animals are still in there!”

“What’re you going to achieve by going back there?”

“I don’t know, maybe I can get them out.”

“You know you can’t. Look, I know how you feel, I feel exactly the same, but we can’t go back there. There isn’t even way to tell if that explosion would have made it through the barrier anyway.”

“But it was enormous, you said so yourself!”

“I know, but I think it was just another attempt to draw us out. We can’t let it work!”

“But.”

“The barrier around that place is ancient and strong. I don’t know if I could break it if I tried.”

Finally, List seemed to come back to her senses and stopped struggling with Elise.

“Fine, I won’t go back.”

“Good. Now you just need to calm down a bit. If you stay in an agitated state like that, they might be able to pick up on it. You need to stay in control.”

“Okay, okay.” List answered taking in deep breaths and trying to control her breathing as she did so.

“Good. Now, come on, we need to keep moving.”

Elise took List by the hand and led her back to where Theo was stood. Once they’d caught up the three of them continued back on their way down the forest trail. Elise didn’t say anything, but Theo could tell by her expression that she was worried. All three of them pushed on through the forest at an even quicker pace than before. Every now and then Elise would look back, as if she had noticed something, or she was checking to see if they were being followed, but she never said anything. They had been walking for about another thirty minutes since the explosion and at the pace they were going, they must have covered at least another two miles in that time.

Without warning Elise halted on the spot, before grabbing List and Theo each arm. In the blink of the eye they were both sent flying along the path as Elise hurled them. They both hit the ground and rolled to a stop. They didn’t have to wait a single second to find out the reasons behind Elise’s actions, before the reason presented itself. A blinding flash fell from the sky followed by a deafening blast. Pieces of dirt and tree rained down on us as them both lay there looking on in amazement. Inside of the cloud of dust that’d been kicked up by the impact, they could make out a glow and the occasional flash of light, the source of the glow was approaching them through the cloud. Seconds later a woman stepped out of the cloud of dust, they were wreathed in flames and sparks were popping from their person here and there. Theo didn’t even need to think, or to ask List for confirmation, he knew they were dangerous. The flaming woman headed straight in the direction where List and Theo lay on the floor, a grizzly grin growing across her face as she approached. They were glued to the spot with fear and not knowing what else to do, with no sign of Elise since the blast. They didn’t want to even think it, but it seemed the impact had at least injured her, if not worse.

The woman quickened her pace their direction, drawing a flaming sword from her side as she bore down on them. She was only but a few paces away when Theo was finally able to break from his shock and move. Not even thinking about his actions, he jumped up in front of List to shield her from the incoming attack, drawing the sword that Elise had given him in a single movement. As he did this a strange sensation came over him, a tingling sensation from head to toe, his hair felt as if it was going to stand on end. Just as he was about to cross swords with the flaming woman, a bolt of what appeared to be lightning, burst from his blade towards the approaching enemy. The burst took her surprise, but she reacted so quickly that the bolt didn’t even make contact. Before he had even fully realised what was going on, she had jumped back far enough out of range to safety. As soon as the bolt had passed, Theo fell to his knees. He was nearly drained of all energy and was struggling to stay conscious. List, who had been watching the whole thing, had already got behind and braced him so he hadn’t fallen backwards as he collapsed.

“What was that?” She asked Theo.

“I’ve no idea. Was that me?” He mumbled.

“Yes!”

The woman seeing that the danger had passed started approaching the pair again. She started talking as she stepped forward.

“Well I wasn’t expecting that! I couldn’t sense an ounce of power coming from you before that outburst, which means that you must be the one that I’ve been sent to retrieve.”

“What are you talking about?” List yelled in response.

“Not you, him. You wouldn’t be able to tell just from looking under normal circumstances, but there is definitely something special about this one. I could sense it through that bolt.”

“What’d you want?” List asked.

“Him. Isn’t that obvious? I’ll tell you what, just hand him over without a fuss and I’ll spare you.”

“I won’t…”

“You couldn’t stop me even if you tried, not now your protection has gone.”

“Who said I went anywhere?”

Elise’s voice came from behind the woman. A look of complete shock and surprise came across her face, she clearly thought she had already dealt with Elise. The woman spun to turn back and face Elise as quickly as she could, but it was too late. She froze mid turn, seemingly for no reason. Behind her Theo could make out Elise. She was stood still, her blade was in her hand, held just a foot or so above the ground. As he paid more attention, he noticed the drops of blood that were draining from the tip of the blade. He switched his glance to the flame woman, she was still frozen mid turn, her head facing away from him so he couldn’t gauge her expression. As he stared, her flames began to lull and he noticed a feint red line cross her body, it stretched all the way up to her head. The widened as the two sides pulled away from each other, eventually the two halves of her torso split apart and collapsed on the floor. Elise’s single strike had severed the woman in half perfectly and had killed her instantly.

“Sorry about that.” Elise said as she shook the blood from her blade and returned it to its scabbard. “She almost took me by surprise, I had to be a bit rough when I moved you out of the way. Neither of you are hurt, are you?”

“We’re fine, But I was worried what’d happened to you.” Answered List.

“I just avoided her attack and then hid my presence. I wanted to see what she’d do or say. It seems she had little more to add than the others.”

“What’d she mean they were looking for Theo? Come to think about it, the first guy at the gateway said as much himself before we left. What does it mean, why would they be looking for him?”

“I’m not entirely sure myself, only that it has to do with the burst of energy he gave off before I found him. It’s the reason that I picked up his presence in the first place.”

“It just doesn’t make sense that these Drexists would put so much effort into to finding him just because they felt his energy. There must be more to it. Are you sure there isn’t more that you aren’t telling me?”

“Yeah…” Elise fumbled her words a little before Theo spoke up interrupting her.

“It’s okay, you should tell her everything you know.”

“But…”

“She deserves to know, she’s had to leave her home because of this and considering these people are chasing us down, she could also be at risk. It’s only fair she knows why they’re after us.”

“Okay, okay I’ll tell her.” Elise agreed

“What’s he talking about?” List asked eyeing both Elise and Theo.

“I wasn’t telling the complete truth before… I do have an Idea why they are chasing him down like this. The reason is like I said, it’s because they noticed his energy signal, but also what’s unique about it. That’s probably the real reason they’re chasing him down…”

“I don’t understand.”

“You see, I’m pretty sure that Theo wasn’t originally from this world, I think this is the second world he was born into.”

“No, you can’t mean… You mean like her?”

“Her?”

“The witch that shifted the balance to Drex’s followers.”

“Yes, her…”

“Then what’re we doing helping him?”

“Because he needs our help, because there is no reason not to offer him our help and because he’s our friend.”

“But… What if he turns out like she did?”

“I’ve no reason to believe that he’d act like she did. She came to our world over a thousand years ago now, there can’t be any connection between the two of them. They would’ve come from entirely different eras and that’s If they even came from the same world at all. But most importantly to me, I don’t feel that Theo is that kind of person. I don’t sense the slightest shadow within him, and he hasn’t shown the slightest inclination to them, or can you tell me I’m wrong?”

“No… I don’t sense anything like that from him either, but… I heard the stories about her, when she first came here, she was amongst the Leveists, she went through the trials with one of their groups and they had no idea what she was really like. Not until they passed the trials and she got her shard, then she betrayed them all. She caused the war of disunity and everything that’s happened because of that is her fault!”

“I know all of that, but Theo isn’t her! He lost everything when he came here, including his memories. I was able to see the final moments of his previous life and the world he came from ended before he was thrown here. Everyone that he ever knew or loved was killed on that world and for some reason unknown to anyone, he was sent here alone. All that he has here is his life and us, but if you really think that he will turn out like her and that we should abandon him then I’m willing to listen to your reasons.”

“No!”

“No?”

“No, there isn’t any reason for us to abandon him! And just for the record, I do consider Theo a friend even if I’ve only known him for a couple of days.”

“I knew you’d see sense.” Elise smiled at List.

“Thanks both of you.” Theo cut in. “But aren’t you both better off just leaving me here?” He had finally regained some strength and got back to his feet. “Whatever that thing I did back there, it must have given our location away, just like when you first found me. The woman knew straight away that I was the one she was looking for after that happened.”

“Actually, I think we’ll be alright.” Elise answered.

“What?”

“Well, that was just you using a Pneuma attack. Sure, from close range she was able to tell it was the same energy signature as when you were first picked up, but it’ll be hard for them to sense that much from a long distance.”

“But can you be certain about that?”

“Pretty certain, it isn’t the first time that you’ve done as much, and the first time still took a while for them to trace you back afterwards.”

“What’d you mean? There’s no way I’ve been able to do something like that before, I don’t even know how it happened this time.”

“You have. Do you remember back when we fought the Rasenclaw pack that night?”

“Yes, well what I was conscious for.”

“Does the sensation you felt when you fell to your knees not feel familiar to you?”

Theo thought back to that time, when Elise first picked him up and they were on their back to her farmstead on the mountainside. Now that she mentioned it, he realised sudden feeling of being completely drained was kind of familiar.

“Those Rasenclaw that were fried, are you saying that it was me that did that?”

“Yes, that was your work.”

“But you never said anything at the time!”

“There were a few things I wanted to check out before I told you. I planned to inform you as soon as we started working on Pneuma manipulation and your training. Remember that I said you showed potential?”

“Yes, so that was you meant.”

“It was.”

“And this is what has driven you to finally take on new students?” Asked List.

“It is.”

“It all makes sense now.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t meaning to keep all of this from you forever.”

“It’s okay, I understand why you did it… The important thing is what do we do now?”

“We carry on, we still need to move and make it to my friends as quickly as possible. If they still have anyone out here, even if they couldn’t sense Theo’s power, they would have picked up that battle, so we need to stay alert. Let’s just hope she was the last one that was out in the wilderness.”

Elise turned to the flame user woman’s body and with a click of her finger it burst into flames. Within mere seconds the body was reduced to ash, such was the intensity of the fire. Satisfied that it would be at least a little harder to find she turned towards our destination and set off once again. List and Theo both looked at each other before turning to follow Elise. Theo turned to List as they fell in behind Elise and walked by her side.

“Thank you.”

“What for?”

“Accepting me.”

“Ha, well I’ve seen enough to know you aren’t a bad guy. I couldn’t disagree with Elise like that, not when she put it like that, could I?” She chuckled. “Besides, I should be thanking you. You stepped in between us and that woman like it was nothing. If you hadn’t given her that fright, I’m not sure what would’ve happened.”

“I couldn’t let her hurt you and do nothing, but I’m pretty sure now that Elise would have stepped in sooner if that thing hadn’t happened.”

“Well I’m glad you did.” She said smiling. “All I did was freeze, I could barely think, let alone move.”

“We were both just lucky Elise was there to protect us.”

It was still a good three and a half days until they would reach the first stopping point that Elise had planned for them. Theo had to wonder what it was he would find out there. Elise had implied that they possessed knowledge about the first one, the woman that crossed through the worlds before him. If he was lucky, they might have some idea about the process, or what caused it to happen at all. They might even be able to tell him if the woman from his memories, the person he felt he loved, could have come here when he did. Whatever they knew, he couldn’t wait to meet them and find out. All they had to do now was to make it there in one piece.

They continued to walk through the entire day and long into the night before they made another stop. When Elise finally called it a day, they were all shattered from the journey and wanted nothing more than to lay back in front of a warm fire. Unfortunately for them, this wasn’t going to happen. Elise allowed a small fire to cook up some dinner, but this was only a brief and small affair. Once the cooking was done it was immediately extinguished. Fortunately, it seemed to be summer here, at least it felt like that to Theo. He wasn’t entirely sure that this place had seasons, no one had mentioned them to him, which probably meant that they were something that he had remembered from his previous world. Whatever the case was, the weather was warm enough here at the moment so that at night it only got a little chilly. Warm enough to survive a few nights under the stars without a fire for warmth and as things stood the cold wasn’t the highest worry on their list. The pursuers, the many wild animals that lived in the vast woods, some of them dangerous were all more of a worry. They didn’t want a repeat of last time and everyone took a turn on watch through the night to keep watch and as soon as dawn rose, they moved.

They had made it through the first night without incident. No visits from the local wildlife and no unwanted guests had dropped in. Despite this they each only got a few hours of sleep between being on watch and the early start. Even Elise wasn’t exactly pushing the pace as they all trundled along through the ever denser wood, brushing off the morning dew and damp as they went. Theo decided to walk alongside Elise as they moved and check their progress.

“We’re doing well.” She answered him. “At this pace we’ll make it there in a little over two days.”

“We’ve covered quite some distance in just a single day, for a while I was worried that your four-day estimate was based us walking all day and half the night.”

“No, luckily for you, that was based on us walking and taking regular stops, like a normal journey.”

“I just hope they don’t track us down before we make it to our destination… Have you picked up on anything?”

“Nothing heading our way. I did notice a couple of blips around the farm, but this was probably a scout checking things out. The likelihood of them having many more agents in this area that they’re willing to send out after us, after three of them have already gone missing is pretty slim.”

“Do you think we’ll make it?”

“If I’m right and they’re waiting for reinforcements before they continue the search, yes.”

As we were talking Elise stopped without warning and pushed Theo back.

“Stay back, both of you.” She warned.

Neither of them needed to ask to know something was up. Elise was stood ready to strike at the first sign of an enemy. More than that though was the feeling in the air. It was heavy as if it were resonating, as if it were full of static. Theo had no idea what was causing it, but he knew something big was happening. Then the sound began, it was like a high pitch ringing in his ears, he felt as if it was coming from the air itself. Finally, there was a bright flash, immediately the air felt clear once again. However, in place of the heavy sensation was a dark disk of… Something, about ten foot in front of Elise.

“What is that?” Theo called up to Elise.

“A portal.”

“I someone going to come through?”

“We’re about to find out.”

The disk in front of Elise rapidly changed from a dark almost black colour, to become clear. It now looked like the surface of a pool. Without warning an arm appeared, followed by a leg and then the rest of the person stepped through the portal.