“Wait, you’re Frost?!” I couldn’t help but ask the bartender. Although, now that I thought about it, there were clues regarding his identity all along. The snowflake tattoo, the snow-based powers, and his general appearance. Even the extensive knowledge he had about the various fundamentals of the untethered should have been a clue. It left me feeling a bit stupid after finding out his identity.

It was Frank who answered my question though. “He didn’t tell you that he was Frost. Typical!” All of this was said with a fond grin as if he had come to expect this behaviour from him. 

The Cheshire grin was still present on Frost’s face as he replied, “I’ve got to admit that it was a nice change of pace. Everyone always treats me with such respect that it becomes boring to talk to everyone. ‘Mr. Frost!’ or ‘Frost sir’. No matter how much I tell everybody to just call me Frost. It was nice to speak to someone who didn’t care about my identity and just asked whatever was on his mind.”

I was still trying to get over the fact that this unassuming man was the venerable leader of the Untethered in this city.

Ignoring my momentary dumbfounded state, Frank and Frost proceeded to have a conversation of their own.

“So, Frank, how did you come across this one?”, Frost asked.

“David here is my childhood friend, actually. He didn’t even give any indication that he was a potential Untethered though. The illness afflicting us before our untethering affected him before I could prepare him for it. He had already been ill a few weeks before I could give him the pill.”

Frost gained a look of understanding on his face as he said, “Ah, So, this was who you asked the pill for. I was worried when you came for the pill in such a hurry.”

Frank said, “Yeah, the transition was really taking a toll on him. I only got the opportunity to give him the pill today. After the transition, I explained a few things to him before I brought him here. I figured he would be better served asking his questions here as I didn’t want to confuse him or provide him with wrong information.”

I found this a good time to jump into the conversation. “Hey, speaking of you breaking into my house this evening and scaring the life out of me, I am curious about the pink fire you showed me at my house. You a fire magician or something?”

Frank just gave an amused snort before replying, “No, nothing so common for me. My ability is emotional manipulation and control. Basically, I can absorb emotions from people in my surroundings and convert them into energy. That pink fire, as you so eloquently put it, was your own anxiety that I converted into heat energy, which you perceived as fire.”

I was still puzzled about the colour though. “Why was it pink though? Shouldn’t energy still manifest as a normal coloured fire?”

Frank was quick to reply to clear up my misunderstanding. “The energy takes on the colour of the emotion I absorb. Anxiety is pink; hence the fire was pink. And before you ask, no, envy is not green.”

I had always been fascinated with emotions given colours in phrases. To think Frank had a power like that was fascinating and frankly, very exciting for me personally. I was sure my glee could be seen on my face as both the guys had grins on their faces.

I was eager to know more about my friend’s abilities though. “Hey, how many slots do you have? And can I see your tattoo?”

Frank looked guarded for a minute before looking at Frost and back to me. He stared at me for a few seconds before finally coming to a decision. Looking up at me, he said, “First of all, mate, don’t ask anyone about their tattoo. Slots are considered okay. But tattoos are considered a huge violation of privacy, as they represent the innermost self of an individual. Also, never show anyone your tattoo unless you absolutely trust them. A person can find out a lot about you just by looking at your tattoo. Your powers, your motivations, sometimes even your weaknesses.”

I solemnly nodded at him before he continued, “But you are my close friend and I trust you; I am gonna show you my tattoo. Just don’t tell anyone, alright?”

I nodded eagerly at him before he gained a fond look on his face. Looking around to make sure no one was looking in my direction, he quickly rolled up his jeans. There, on his right calf, was a tattoo of a two-coloured heart. One half was coloured the standard red, while the other half was aqua blue. He had it exposed for only a few moments before quickly rolling down his jeans.

He said with a hint of pride in his voice, “I am two-slotted. Although, I have unlocked only one of my powers. Other than me, I know only Frost here who has two slots.”

Frost interrupted our conversation by saying, “Careful there Frank, lest you get a big head.” Although he said it with a hint of amusement in his voice, hinting at the fact that he wasn’t serious. From what I had seen of their interaction, Frost seemed genuinely fond of Frank. And the feeling was duly reciprocated. Frank wasn’t kidding when he said that Frost was his mentor. Frost certainly was treating Frank as if he was his protégé.

Frost broke me out of my reverie by saying, “Let’s go, guys. Let David have his first experience of a patrol and learn about some of the unpleasant elements of ‘Dimension’.”

Frank just looked at him with a sceptical look on his face and said, “Are you sure about this, Frost? I mean, he just became an untethered today. Wouldn’t it to be soon for him to go out like this, without any training or combat experience?”

Frost still had a cool air about him, as if me having no combat experience or abilities was a triviality. He continued going about his task and putting away everything before saying, “Frank, trust me on this. Today is a good day for his first day of patrol. He wouldn’t even have to do anything. He could just watch us in action for now. We will just let him take on the weakest of whatever we find out there. Do you really want him to skip today? Think what day it is today.”

Frank looked puzzled for a moment before a look on realisation passed over his face. He grinned before looking at me and saying, “Man, I can’t wait to see your reaction.”

I was quite irritated to be left out of the loop and before I could tell them where they could stuff it, they just made out of the building and motioned me to follow them. I quickly made my way out of the door and saw that they were there waiting for me. After making eye contact with me, Frank just quirked his eyebrows upward before looking towards the sky. Following his line of sight, I saw something that was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

It's strange how a person never really looks at the sky unless they are actually looking at it, admiring the stars or the moon. At least, I don’t. I could never tell you if any night was a full moon or half-moon or no moon at all, without looking at the sky, that is. But even in my obliviousness regarding the night sky, I was positively sure that there weren’t supposed to be two moons in the sky. And there certainly shouldn’t be a red moon in the sky. And when I say red, I mean blood-red. It was beautiful, two moons within inches of each other but as different as they could be. At the same time, it was positively spooky. The scene invoked emotions in me that I didn’t recognise, that I wasn’t sure I was capable of. My emotions must have shown on my face as I could hear snickering coming from Frank’s direction. Looking down, I saw that even Frost was trying hard to keep from snickering himself. Frank, meanwhile, looked on the cusp of breaking down in full-blown laughter. But I was surprised to find out that, at that moment, I didn’t really care. I found myself looking up once more, morbidly curious to see if the red moon was still there. It was.

Frank interrupted my train of thoughts by saying, “Don’t worry. The moon isn’t always red.”

I quickly retorted, “Why are you acting as if the moon being red is the only problem here? It’s not even ‘the’ moon. It’s just a moon. One of two moons.”

Frank just proceeded to wave off my indignance, “Meh. You get used to it. Just accept it as one of the quirks of the dimension, if you will.”

That reply didn’t serve to alleviate my concerns even a single bit. But I realised I wouldn’t make much headway in this direction. So, I turned towards Frost and asked him, “Why is one of the moons red anyways?”

Frost replied with an air of nonchalance that was positively maddening. In fact, both of their cavalier attitudes regarding this matter made me want to tear my hair out. “Don’t worry, it’s only for today. And while there are two moons for the whole dimension on this planet, the red moon only appears in certain places. If the concentration of miasma is very high in a certain location of the world, the second moon, Luna, appears to be red to the people in that geographical location. It is us today, it could be literally anywhere else tomorrow. There are some ways to predict the concentration of miasma over a certain location in the future, but none of them is truly scientific or without its flaws.”

“How do you predict the concentration though?”, I enquired.

“That’s one of the things we’re going to show you tonight. Don’t worry, tonight will be a good experience for you.” Frost replied before leading us out of the alleyway into the main street.

We walked for a few minutes silently before I remembered something that had been bothering me. I turned to Frank and asked, “Hey, you guys keep talking about some kind of patrol. What is up with that?”

Frank and Frost just looked at each other before ignoring me altogether. I was flabbergasted at them but kept walking in order to keep up with them. I don’t know, a sinister-looking red moon hanging over your head leaves you reluctant to be out alone. We entered an alleyway and there I saw something that froze the blood in my veins. There was a creature there that I could only describe as a bull. With a few major differences. This bull had only one red eye with no pupil. And it was larger than any bull I had ever seen.

Frank then turned towards me and said in a grim tone, “And that, my friend, is why we need the patrol.”

I turned towards him with horror and confusion raging through my mind, desperate for some answers. But before I could get a word out, the bull let out a blood-curling bellow and charged us, specifically towards me.

I feel like there is no shame in admitting that I froze. Couldn’t move a muscle. The sudden onslaught by a creature whose appearance itself had shocked me into inaction was sure to lead to my demise. But in fear-induced paralysis, I couldn’t even close my eyes and was thus destined to see the monster strike the killing blow with my own eyes.

Or that is what would have happened had it suddenly not frozen over. It was literally encapsulated in a block of ice. One moment it was charging towards me, the next moment it was as frozen as me with no escape. Looking around in a haze, I saw Frost walking towards the bull with slow, measured steps, as if a bull hadn’t been about to end my life. That was when I realised who had frozen the bull just before it hit me. Frost made it to the bull and just pushed it. It fell and literally shattered and then dissipated into red smoke, leaving no trace behind of a monstrous bull or the ice that had encased it. I had great trouble in coming to terms with the fact that a creature out of the scariest horror stories out there had met its demise in such a tame manner.

“What the fuck was that?” That was all I had the sense to muster in the form of a question.

Frank replied, his tone a mixture of amusement and understanding, “That was a miasma-monster. Or at least a type of it. That miasma-monster is called a cyclops, the name derived from the Greek legends, of course. It was a specific type of cyclops too, a ‘Taurus’. One of the weaker ones out there, to be honest.”

“That was one of the weaker ones? You are fucking kidding me, right?”, I shouted in disbelief. That thing, which Frost had just called ‘one of the weaker ones’, had just scared me out of my pants. The nonchalance the two men in my company were displaying regarding the matter beggared belief.

Frank was the one who replied, speaking as if he was talking to a one-year-old who had just thrown a tantrum. “Yes, that was one of the weaker ones. But there’s a caveat here. The red Luna.”

“What do you mean?”, I asked.

It was Frost who took over the explanation. “Remember, what I said just a few minutes ago. Red Luna signifies that there’s a high concentration of miasma in our region. Those monsters are made of miasma. They feed on miasma. Thus, it follows naturally that whenever there is a high concentration of miasma somewhere, the monsters in that region become stronger, larger, faster. And also, more in number, as the higher concentration of miasma attracts the monsters to itself like bees to honey.”

“What? Then why didn’t we bring more people with us? I mean, essentially, you are just two against many. I am pretty much useless and a burden in this situation.” The cavalier attitude of both of these guys was throwing me off a little bit, I’ve got to admit.

“That’s because you are forgetting something. Remember what I said. Our cores, too, rely on miasma to sustain itself. Higher concentrations of miasma enhance us too. Think performance-enhancing drugs, but for our abilities.”

I quickly realised what they meant to say. “So, you’re telling me that you guys get stronger too, thus balancing out the upgrade in strength the miasma monsters get.”

Frost smiled in approval, knowing that I had figured it out. “Yes, but it gets better, you see. Miasma-monsters, like any creature in the mortal world, is a creature of instinct. Their manipulation of miasma is totally instinctual. But, we, the untethered, can actively control how much miasma we are using, the form it takes and even how long we are using our abilities. That gives us a major advantage. The more experience you have in manipulating the miasma, the more advantage you get from an increase in the miasma in your surroundings.”

That made a lot of sense. This was the perfect time for a novice like me to see the dangers of the world I had just stepped into. I would have two experienced masters of the craft guiding and protecting me, in a situation where they were the strongest, they could be. And considering the high concentration of miasma, I wouldn’t become an outright liability.

While all that made perfect sense to me, I still had questions behind the reason for all of this.

“But why do we require the patrol anyways? I mean, why don’t people just, I don’t know, destroy or kill or whatever you do to those monsters as you encounter them? Isn’t the idea of a patrol redundant when everyone threatened by the monsters themselves?”, I asked, really puzzled about the requirement of patrols protecting people who are powerful enough on their own.

It was Frost who replied, “Your statement is based on a lot of assumptions, David.”

“Assumptions?”, I asked, puzzled by his declaration.

Frost calmly replied, “Yes, your question suggests that everyone who is an Untethered is on the same level playing field.”

Now, I was really puzzled. I enquired, “They are not? I mean, everyone is stronger, faster, better. And most also gain an ability, don’t they?”

Now Frank took over the explanation. That camaraderie between mentor and mentee would have been wonderful to witness if they weren’t teaming up against me.

“David, the Dimension may be completely different than the mortal world where you and I are originally from, but in many ways, they are completely similar. The thing that defines any world is the fact that none of its inhabitants is born equal. That is the defining factor of any species. ‘Survival of the fittest’ and all that Darwin gospel, all are born from one thing. Two individuals are always different, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. And that’s where your assumption has its vital flaw. You have basically assumed that everyone is equal because everyone is an Untethered. To assume so is a cardinal sin in this world. Believe me on that. Just like the mortal world, some are weak and some are strong. You said that most gain an ability. That’s plausible in theory. In an ideal world, that would be the reality. But we don’t live in an ideal world. Most people can never even unlock their tattoos, forget unlocking their powers. They simply lack the drive and the will to do it. Some don’t have enough meaningful experiences. Some are just fated to have limitations. That’s why, just like in the real world, it becomes essential for the strong to protect the weak.”

I was shocked, to say the least. The novelty of everything new happening to me today had taken over the pragmatic portion of my brain. Of course, everyone wouldn’t be equal. In fact, I had even met people today who were on different scales of power altogether. Some like Frank and Frost had two slots and were truly the best the untethered kind had to offer. But I had also seen a guy in Samuel who didn’t have an ability yet and Emma was defined as ‘slotless’. It was a harsh reality that this world, at the core of it, as defined by the same issues as the mortal world. The ambitions, the motivations and the actions of the untethered might be different but the issues remained the same.

“I understand what you are saying. It was foolish of me to accept my own assumptions as fact.” I said, with my embarrassment evident in my voice.

Frost, though, responded with a smile. “It’s alright.”, he said, waving my concerns off, “But anyway, that isn’t even the most important role of the patrol. The patrol is designed to protect the mortal world from the miasma monsters and any untethered with malicious intent towards the mortal world or other untethered.”

That statement brought my thought process to a grinding halt. What he had just said horrified me beyond measure.

“What do you mean? Miasma-monsters can’t interact with the mortal world, can they?” I asked, my fear seeping through in my voice, looking at the both of them for some reassurance or any sign to suggest that they were just having fun at my expense. Sadly, none was forthcoming.

Frank put his hand on my shoulders and replied, his tone sombre. “David, remember what I said when we were at your house. The untethered can interact with the mortal world. The miasma-monsters are also inhabitants of the Dimension. Thus, it naturally follows that they, too, would be able to interact with the mortal world. That interaction, though, brings nothing but grief.”

“But, why? What purpose does it serve? The people of the mortal world can’t possibly have anything the miasma-monsters or the untethered desire.”, I replied, my voice indignant. I still couldn’t comprehend the fact that the mortal world would get involved in matters that they had no business getting involved in.

“The untethered stop the miasma-monsters from gathering miasma. The miasma-monsters also hunt the untethered because our cores are particularly rich sources of miasma. The amount of miasma they can obtain from devouring the core of an untethered is beyond what they could gather in weeks from the environment. Sometimes, the amount of miasma is so much that miasma-monsters don’t have to gather miasma for months or even years if the Untethered they have devoured is strong or old enough. But that is rarely the case as the untethered are particularly good at escaping or evading the attention of the miasma-monsters entirely. So, they turn their sights on the mortal world.”

I jumped in with a query I had to clear, the entire situation still blowing my mind. “But the mortal world has people with ordinary cores, right? How could they quench the thirst of these miasma monsters?”

It was Frost who proceeded to answer my question. “It is a fact when you say that people in the mortal world have ordinary cores. But they are still sources of miasma. The mortal world exists within the Dimension, not parallel to it. The miasma in these ordinary cores is like comparing a drop of water to an ocean in case of the untethered, true, but the basest instinct of a miasma-monster is hunger, like all other animals in the mortal world. When beasts get desperate, anything goes. After all, a drop is still better than nothing. And collect enough of those drops and you have a glass of water.”

I felt sick just hearing them speak. The killing of humans just so monsters could feed on their cores was repulsive to the extreme. But this was the reality of the world I had set foot in. it would be much easier to accept this as a bitter pill to swallow and move forward to stop it, rather than wallow in my feelings.

I asked, my mind still buzzing with the information they had just dropped on me, “Has it ever happened? You know, people of the mortal world dying because of miasma monsters?”

Frost replied in a grim tone. “More than we’d like to admit, I am afraid. Especially in ancient times, when the untethered were low in numbers and still novices in skill and simply outnumbered and outmatched by the miasma-monsters.”

I asked him, genuinely curious, in a morbid sort of way, “Any cases I would know of?”

Frost replied, his voice betraying none of his emotions, “I think the most famous case would be The Black Plague, which affected the entire world.”

My mind reeled in shock as I understood the implications of his word. My mind still refused to believe it, “You’re kidding, right? The Black plague was caused by rats. It is too well documented by the mortals for it to be related to the Dimension or miasma monsters.”

Frost replied, his voice still composed, “Oh, yes, the Black plague was caused by rats, just not the ones you typically see in sewers and dump yards. It was a grave moment in history, with huge losses in the mortal world as well as in the ranks of the untethered, many of whom sacrificed themselves to stop the waves of the miasma-monsters that seemed to envelop our entire planet. It was also when the idea of the patrol was born. It was a vow by the strongest of the untethered in that generation to never let a situation escalate to the proportions to which it had grown to in those times.”

There was a long moment of silence where all three of us were lost in our thoughts. I was struggling with the implications of what Frank and Frost had just relayed to me. For the first time today, I was struck with the true dangers this world represented, not only to me but to humanity as a whole. I vowed to get as strong as possible because I had just understood the magnitude of the responsibilities the untethered carried. It was not just abilities and powers and fun; this world was steeped in danger. And I had no intention of falling prey to it.

After what seemed like hours, I asked them one final question. “Hey guys, you said that this world had its fair share of weak people. I am puzzled as to why you are investing your time and efforts on me when I am more than likely one of the people forever destined to be stuck at the bottom of the barrel?”

Frank and Frost exchanged a glance before Frank answered,” To be completely honest with you, David, the biggest reason is that you are my childhood friend.”

Although that answer was a bit disheartening and a blow to my confidence, I supposed that it was fair. It’s not like that I had shown signs of being anything special.

“But”, Frank continued, “I have a hunch that you will be special. Just a gut feeling, if you will. And remember, this world is similar to the mortal world in one more aspect. Hard work is always rewarded and you’d better remember that.”, he finished with a wide smile. I returned his smile with an honest smile of my own, appreciating his efforts to bring me out of my funk.

Frost interrupted us by clapping his hands. “Okay, that’s enough of the grim and serious topics. Frank let’s show David here what a patrol feels like. Although, fair warning, David, since you are with us, it will be less of a patrol and more of a hunt. Where we will be the hunters and the monsters will be the hunted.” Frost ended his final statement with a face-splitting grin. I am not at all afraid to accept that his words had me tingling with anticipation of what was to come next.