I was listening. It was all I could manage at that point.

  The World whispered a warning, something swift and painful coming to strike my chin. I tilted upwards, the wooden blade barely missing its target as Xae went for another strike. It varied, what the Word told me. Uniformity was reserved for uniform things like birdsong or the rustling of trees.

  The swinging of a blade?

  There was so much to tell of velocity and angles, so much of force and intent.

  It was hard to parse, even for someone well versed in communicating with the World. But that’s okay, I wasn’t Yir right now, parsing through the whispers while trying to apply it to my actions. I was just the body, moving to suggestions from something divine as it acted and reacted. Xae struck it again, this time aiming for a jab to the sternum.

  I slapped it aside with a quick swipe and delivered a swing that the girl dodged, a truly artistic performance, something I couldn’t fully appreciate because my mind wasn’t fully there. Listening, but not hearing. Acting, but not knowing.

  Strange, so strange.

  A step back alongside the sound of wind, soon followed by crashing wood. Cracking against one another over and over in a beautiful song of skill against ethereal instinct. Perhaps if the gods were watching, they’d recognize the beauty all the surrounding fools were missing.

  But no, this show was just for the warriors at the centre.

  There was a crowd that’d been silent at the us and our fighting, awestruck perhaps at the display, but they didn't understand. All they saw was two savants, each with their own style. One with mathematical precision and the other guided by a force that could only be nature. They’d stopped their cheering, and the field was filled with the sound of just us fighting.

  It’d been perhaps three minutes since the bout started, three minutes of constant back and forth with neither of us showing a sign of weakness.

  Xae was smiling, and it was so feral that I might’ve felt fear if I understood what was happening. But I didn’t, I just listened to the World, because it’s the only thing that mattered at this moment. The World or the memories. My mind wasn't all there, but I knew the memories weren’t something I wanted.

  So I fought.

  An overhead slash, brought down with a force that didn’t surpass what I should’ve been capable of, but somehow whipped like a snake. Xae parried and tried to hit me with her pommel, but I was already moving to the next motion, and Xae had to back away lest her belly be struck. A dance with no choreography.

  It was beautiful.

  But it had to end, everything has to end eventually. It’s the nature of life, nothing is forever, no matter how much we plead, no matter how much we struggle.

  The end of the fight came abruptly, a mistake or perhaps misinterpretation. I struck too quickly, and Xae took full advantage, whipping her blade onto my wrists with a sharp crack. I yelped as a large welt began to form and dropped my blade.

  Xae breathed heavy, eyes pinpoint and a wide smile on her face as she rested her blade on my chin.

  We stood like that for a while, two warriors trapped in each other’s gaze. Then the crowd erupted into applause. Hunters walked over and carry the victor in merry congratulations while others came to give me their compliments.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  I listened and said the words that the World said were best, what those words were I didn’t know, they just left my mouth as soon as they were whispered into my mind. It all seemed to work well enough if their expressions were anything to go by. A few even seem impressed by what I said.

  Funny, I didn’t even know what I was saying. Didn’t really hear anything at all.

  Just a vessel floating in an empty sea, searching forever more for a shore that didn’t exist. Anything to escape. Anything at all.

  I walked, and I talked, exchanging pleasantries with Xae who seemed happier than I’d ever seen her. But she could tell something was wrong. I knew this because it was whispered into my mind. It was so clear now, I was five months in the clamour of the city with my sixth sense debilitated by the deluge of information, but now?

  It was so simple. So easy, all I had to do was stay awake.

  “Thank you, Xae,” someone said. “You can leave us be now.”

  In an instant the world was silenced, and it was a bucket of cold water to my soul. I blinked in awareness, tired eyes meeting those of a hunter. Sharp, so sharp. I heard nothing from the gaze.

  “Aira? What did you do?” I said.

  “I could say the same to you.”

  “I…I can’t hear it, that shouldn’t be possible. I can’t hear it at all,” I mumbled.

  Aira raised a brow at me. “That’s not worrying at all,” Aira said. “When was the last time you slept? You look like shit.”

  “It’s only been a few nights,” I said. “But that’s not important, I can’t hear it. It’s not there. It was just talking to me…telling me…telling me…mmmmmh”

  I swayed, and Aira steadied me by the shoulder, keeping me still. “Telling you what?”

  “How to fight…how to talk…how to live,” I mumbled.

  “Is that how you managed to fight so evenly with Xae?” Aira said, gripping my shoulder tighter. “Something was speaking to you?”

  I nodded. “The World, you don’t hear it do you? Of course not, you’re human…humans are deaf to the strangeness surrounding them, just a fact of life that is. So deaf…and so, so stupid.”

  “Yir, what’s wrong?” Aira kneeled to my eye level. “The last time you refused to sleep was because of magic…but this is different. What happened?”

  “I can’t tell you,” I grumbled.

  “Why not?” Aira said.

  Because I can’t trust you, I can’t trust anyone, not with this.

  I went to say the words, some platitude or denial or anything at all that would shut out the questions that were inevitable for what I was but-

  There, I could hear it, just a whisper.

  So quiet yet so profound. I’d gotten used to the noise of the city, ethereal and otherwise, so this…it was so loud in the surrounding silence. It wasn’t words, they never really came as words, more like a feeling. This one was warm, a hug, a comfort.

  Trust, the world was telling me to trust.

  I blinked, and looked at Aira’s eyes.

  There was worry there, and pain. The pain of someone who didn’t know what to do but tried their best, and the World was telling me to trust that. The World was telling me to have faith. It’s the only thing it was saying. Everything else was gone.

  I doubted for a moment, looking for a rat, I couldn’t find one but that didn’t mean-

  No, if i couldn’t trust the World then what could I trust?

  “I’m a witch,” I said.

  Aira was silent for a long time after I finished my story.

  It wasn't perfect, but it was a decent summary, I didn’t really even have to try. The World didn’t guide me with the words, they were just there, waiting to be spoken. Waiting to be heard. Now the arbiter of my fate stood as a hunter, tall and strong. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid. Witches were executed for a reason. But I waited, if the World betrayed me then…what hope did I have?

  “I’m not comfortable with you seeing that man Alvir if he’s truly as powerful as you say he is,” Aira finally said.

  I scrunched my brow. “What?”

  “It’s not safe,” Aira said. “And he plans to introduce you to a coven hiding in the city? Hells girl, you have no idea what kind of danger you’re putting yourself in. I thought you were smarter than this.”

  “You…don’t care that I’m a witch?” I said.

  Aira shrugged. “Still processing that if I’m being honest, but by your own admission you’ve contracted with a pretty weak demon so…you’re basically just a mage with extra steps.”

  “And you believe me?” I gave her an incredulous look.

  “I don’t see why not.”

  “Are you…are you insane?”

  Aira gave me a quick smack upside the head for that one. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, miss reincarnator,” she snickered. “Besides, I feel like the end of the world is a more important detail to focus on.”

  “This is so strange,” I said. “I thought…”

  “That I’d turn you in?” Aira chuckled.

  I nodded.

  “Maybe if you told someone else, but you’re not the first witch I’ve ever met, so I know your kind don’t all veer towards evil.”

  “You’ve met a witch other than me?”

  “Oh boy,” Aira smiled. “Well, you’ve told me your story, so I may as well tell you mine.”