We lost seventy-three of ourselves during the fight with the Orcs.

It was unavoidable.  We do have strong bodies, but not strong enough against the strength of an Orc. We knew that, with the attack, we would be sacrificing some of ourselves.

But that was not a problem.

By the trees, hidden of curious eyes, we hatch.

The process was not an easy one. One of us had to kill itself, basically explode from the inside out in order to duplicate its DNA into two eggs. Then, the eggs needed warmth and safety for forty-six hours before we are ready to be born again.

Luckily, we are thousands. We could easily multi-task, dedicate hours of our time into simple tasks and it costs us nothing.

We would be thousands more, if we could do it. Unfortunately, we have some kind of limitation.

Sixteen thousand four hundred and eighty seven minds.

When we try to have more than that, we fail. We can’t connect with the new body.

Why this limit?

We don’t know it.

There’s a lot we still don’t know about we. Our memories from before are fluzzy.

But we had time. We connected some dots.

There are some things that we are sure.

We were just I once before. We were turned into we. Created.

And we wanted it.

But why?

We don’t know it. We thought about it. Analyzed the possibilities.

There are certainly advantages for our creation. But what was the reason? Was it an experiment? A search for power? Madness?

We don’t know. But we know that we became we, by our own will.

And, by our own will, we decided to pretend to be human.

We do look human. We are constantly watching us from different angles, making sure everything looks how it’s supposed to look.

Our face, formed by hundreds of our bodies connected together, is a scarred one. Even though we can imitate the right features, the movements, the colors, we couldn’t make it pretty. Some parts don’t connect that well and look like remnants of sickness and fierce battles.

But, the face we try to imitate was real, once. We didn’t create it.

There was also a mage. A powerful one. Powerful enough to be able to join the ranks of the Shinning Siblings and be equal among its peers.

But he died.

Was he a friend? We don’t know.

We still know so little.

We rest by the river, looking lost in our own thoughts to anyone who sees. With our face, we watch the sky.

But we also are everywhere. We watch everything.

Anna and Lucas are training. They are a good match.

There are not many fighters that could give Anna trouble in a duel.

Even without all her training, she was still a body enhancer.

She could give her body strength, velocity and reflexes that way surpassed any other human being.

But still, against Lucas, she is on the defensive.

He moves fast at her, slashing, and she dodges and throws a punch at him, even faster. She misses. The next second she dodges another slash and blocks another with her knuckledusters. She gets ready to try another punch, but at the last second she positions herself to block a slash from the right, and then she is cut from the left. She grunts and spins with a kick aimed at him, but again she’s met with only empty air. Blood starts spilling from the new cut on her arm.

-“That was the sixth one, wasn’t it? Maybe it’s better if we take a little break, have Daniel take a look at you”?

By answer, she growls and throws a ferocious punch at him.

Which she misses, of course.

He laughs and starts attacking her again.

It’s not that it’s was impossible to hit Lucas. He was fast, surely, but there was a limit of how fast a human could move without enhanced abilities.

What it was impossible, was to know where he was.

Lucas was an illusionist. All it was needed was a glimpse of his eyes and he got you. He couldn’t create big things, but he didn’t need it. His opponents were so busy dodging attacks that never came and hitting a person that was not there, there was nothing they could do to avoid his knife. In a one-on-one fight, he was almost invincible.

Almost.

Anna dodges again and reacts with a large kick. Not losing her momentum, she kicks again, and again. She can’t be one hundred percent sure of where he is, so she compensates, increasing her range, hitting many places at once, moving faster. She scores a hit at him, a feet straight into his ribs, and her strength is enough to throw him to the floor.

-“Fuck! I think you may have broken a few of my ribs.”

-“Want me to get Daniel?”

He smiles and gets up.

-“Nah, I can take a hit. What kind of sparring pair would I be if I could not, right?”

Rosa is a distance away, hunting.

She is at the top of one three, quiet surveying her surroundings. Slowly, she starts moving and aims at a big sized bird, resting on a branch. Her movements make no sound, even though the creature probably wouldn’t be able to hear her, such a distance away.

She shoots.

She jumps and grabs its body before it hits the ground. The arrow pierced through its neck and hit a tree just behind it. Probably where she intended it to hit. She grabs it back, cleans the blood and takes the dead bird to her others victims of the afternoon.

Seven birds, two rabbits and a small boar. As usually, food won’t be a problem.

Diego and Daniel are together, talking. Diego always share his plans with the group, but he usually likes to discuss then with Daniel first. They walk around the perimeter, far from everyone else.

But of course, not far enough from us.

-“I’m not so sure about going north, Dan. We are too deep into Wild territory. Maybe it would be wiser to keep with the river, make sure we stay out of trouble”.

-“That would cost us three days. I’m all for choosing the safest route, but we do have a deadline to meet”.

They walk, and as always, we listen and watch. We notice the worry on Diego’s face at the same moment that Daniel does.

“This isn’t just about what we may find here, is it? You are still thinking about what we found with the Orcs”.

“It still makes no sense, don’t matter how much I think about it. The maps they had, the resources, its way above any operation we saw before. It’s not normal, Dan. I know you agree with me”.

“It’s… unusual. But brother, what you are suggesting happened is what really is abnormal. Monsters don’t cooperate like this. Not in such a high scale. You know that”.

“Yes. Yes, I know. You are right. But I just can’t let it go”.

“Maybe it’s time to share your thoughts with the rest of the group?”

-“We’ll talk about it tonight. After dinner”.

It seems that dinner will be accompanied by secrets and conspiracies.

Well, the good part of having no real face was that no one would be able to tell we’d have already heard everything.