Ellis had woken up with the worst headache of his life. Every inch of his body was stiff as if he had been thrown onto the ground and left there for the night. And how had he gotten here in the first place? He was supposed to be tricking Ameena in a tavern, not sleeping in an alley!

  Ameena had scoffed at Ellis’s morning groans, before she kicked him in the stomach to ‘help him wake up’. He curled into a ball and tried not to gag too loudly, and waited for Michael to follow her lead. When it didn’t come, he looked around and breathed out a sigh of relief. Michael was still asleep, lying against the wall at the back of the alley with two new corpses lying near him.

  “Do you still want to learn mana?” she asked as Ellis rocked back and forth, holding the place she had just kicked.

  “Yes,” he growled, although it came out as more of a whimper.

  “Good. Now get up, it’s going to take you a while.”

  For the rest of the morning Ellis began learning how to use the most evil creation the gods had ever gifted man, while trying not to vomit. The dried blood felt like it had seeped into his skin, which worsened his nausea to an unbearable degree. Every word or light that glinted off the salt crystals forming along the walls felt like daggers drilling into his skull.

  The explanation of mana had taken two minutes to get through, since Ellis was lucky and had an item that could channel his mana which made it easier to start, or so Ameena explained. She said that channeling mana by itself and using an item was the difference between twenty and one. If it made him more powerful right away, he would take it. He needed all the help he could get.

  Michael woke up during the course of his trials, stretching and scratching his stomach before he walked over to Ellis’s lesson. He interrupted Ellis with an order to ‘strip and search em’, gesturing at the bodies at the end of the alley. Ameena offered to teach him magic as well, but he hummed and hawed before shaking his head and saying that he had ‘stuff to do’.

  Afterwards, he ripped off his own shirt and walked off to god's knew where. Ellis supposed being bare chested was better than wearing a shirt full of blood while walking around, but he was very tempted to run after the man to keep track of his whereabouts.

  But Ameena whacked him on the back of the head and told him to ‘focus’. He really started to hate that word.

  And so, Ellis once again pointed at the ring on his finger, since he didn’t want to break his necklace, and willed it to ‘activate’ or whatever word Ameena had used.

  “Focus. Feel your heartbeat, feel the silence in between the thuds. Focus on it, focus on that power and drill it into your finger’s knuckle. Think of nothing els— stop gagging! Think of nothing else and it will activate.”

  Ellis tried to do as she said, although he had no idea what the silence in between the thuds meant, so he just decided to focus on his finger and chant ‘ACTIVATE’ in his head. For some reason, this made the pounding headache worse.

  She watched him for a while, nodded, then walked after Michael. She waved her wand at herself as she left the alley. Her appearance was replaced with a smaller, more innocent looking girl with blonde hair and a missing arm as she walked down the road, in the opposite direction that Michael took.

  Hoping they would come back, he kept practicing. The headache demanded every scrap of attention that was not focused on the ring, and his mouth tasted like the cotton from Isaiah’s fields. His stomach tried to revolt at every whiff of blood and decaying bodies that scratched his nose, but he ignored it all.

  And kept practicing.

  After an hour, Ellis sighed. He wasn’t getting the whole silence nonsense, so he searched the bodies. They had amazing gear on them, each piece had a +2 in stats at least! Michael and Ameena would kill him if he took items before they did, and he was only half sure whether that was figurative or literal.

  He almost took one anyway, just to spite them. But… There was so much gear here, and he knew Michael and Ameena had some gear of their own, so some should trickle down to him. Maybe. There would be more risks in the future, more times he would have to test their patience, and he could not afford to have their temper snap and attack him when those moments came to pass.

  Waiting for scraps, however, made his jaw lock. So he tried to go back to casting after laying all the gear out with as much care as he could muster. But the smell grew horrendous with every hour that passed.

  When the stench grew unbearable, as respectfully and gently as he could, he stuffed the two bodies in a large recess at the back of the alley, only their noses, lips and the top of their hands jutting out above the hole. They were hidden enough that most wouldn’t see them from the road, and afterwards Ellis had been able to throw most of the salt lining the alley onto their corpses.

  The reward for all his effort was slightly diminishing the smell.

  Cursing himself a fool, he prayed for them and then went back to chanting.

  Michael returned first, humming while shaking a pouch of coin in one hand. With a surprised smile and an ‘atta boy!’ he smacked Ellis on the shoulder for the laid out gear. He didn’t look at a single piece of it, threw the coin to the floor, before he slid down the back of the alley and got comfortable leaning against the brick.

  “Where’d you get the coin?” Ellis asked, hoping the man’s mood would further improve with some boasting of his violent adventure.

  He looked up at Ellis, his smile wistful as his eyes drifted off to some far off place. “I told some of the locals of our financial plight, and they were more than happy to help out.”

  A black light exploded out of Ellis’s eye, the weight thundering against the eyeball like it hated being inside his head. Trying not to whimper, he shut the eyelid and suppressed his wincing.

  A snap of Michael’s fingers brought Ellis’s attention back to the bastard. He ordered Ellis to ‘watch their stuff’ before his head slumped against his chest, sound asleep. More than ever before, Ellis wanted to stab the man. Killing him right there and then seemed like a gift from the gods themselves, since he was alone, asleep and unprepared.

  Ellis dared not take a single step closer to the ‘sleeping’ bastard. Because unlike every other time Michael went to sleep, this time his chest rose and fell in time with his breath. His hand would twitch every so often, and Ellis swore he could hear him snort every once in a while.

  It was almost eerie knowing Michael was testing him, but Ellis played along. He did not approach Michael or the gear he had laid out. Like a dog, Ellis turned around and continued practicing, chanting past the headache and the nausea, hating himself more and more with every failed attempt.

  Ameena returned after three hours, a stick over her shoulder that carried two buckets of water on both ends. She laid it down by the gear he had laid out, before fishing a half eaten apple out her pocket and throwing it at him.

  “Thank you. Where’d you get the water?” Ellis asked.

  She walked right past him like he hadn’t spoken. “Eat, drink, wash up, then you can keep practicing.”

  That was the single thing she said to him for the rest of the night. She washed off the blood on her clothes, keeping up the illusion while doing so which Ellis was almost thankful for. And now he saw another small problem with Ameena’s illusions.

  Rather than making an arm disappear, she had simply tucked under her shirt as the illusion washed over her. He could see her washing that arm now, the stump of the illusion trying, and failing, to meld into her upper shoulder.

  Watching her gave him a theory on how her powers worked. She could change things, and she could add impossibilities to the open air. But her illusions couldn’t make something disappear. Ellis was glad to notice the weakness. He just didn’t know how to use it.

  He did as he was told though, the water tasting like a gift from the gods themselves and the apple crunchy and sweet. It was his first and only meal he ate that day. It was worth it. Long into the night he considered their situation and how to fix it, without using one of Michael’s or Ameena’s ‘methods’.

  Sleeping in an alley was not Ellis’s idea of an enjoyable evening, and although she tried not to show it, he could see Ameena grimace every time she glanced at her tent. He could not discern Michael’s thoughts unless he was angry or happy, so he focused on her instead. If he could fix this situation, he might endear himself to her.

  When he looked upon the tent, a vague solution to their financial situation appeared, but it would anger Ameena to do so. That idea being to sell off her extra clothes, tent and equipment to nab them some real coin.

  He snorted. Like she would ever do that.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  He rolled over, as he considered staying up to try and stab Michael while he slept. But Ameena sat facing the mouth of the alley, her back towards him. He couldn’t try while she was awake, since a single glance would get him killed. Rolling over onto his back, he went to sleep.

  A kick to the stomach woke him. He whimpered as he massaged the bruised spot that had been struck once again. Ameena walked off with a yawn, stretching as she crawled into her tent and disappeared from view.

  He grumbled as he got to his feet and went to sit at the same spot she had. Most of the gear he had laid out was still in place, but Ameena must have gone through it, since most of the armour had been moved from where he had left it yesterday.

  He thought about kicking Ameena’s tent over in payback, but ignored the tempting thought to start practicing. The silence had eluded him yesterday. It would not do so today.

  Shouting ‘activate’ at it in his head wasn’t working, so he focused on his heartbeat instead. Each thump against his chest grew louder the more he focused on it. The reputed cries of the silk road, rising high into the air as the sun finished peaking over the horizon, drew his attention away from his heartbeat.

  Ellis usually would have loved to listen to that wonderful noise, to the signal of the day’s start in the Albus Citadel. He hadn’t had the chance yet, despite being in the city for over two days. But he pulled his wandering thoughts away from that wonderful noise and back to his heartbeat with a vengeance. The only thing in the world was his heartbeat, and the ring. Not even all he had hoped to experience could distract him on this day.

  The morning glow of the sun flowed over his skin as he practiced, the minutes dragging into hours as the day dragged on, but he was unaware of the changing sky. Every thought, every ounce of concentration he had was on the beating in his chest.

  Thump, thump, thump…

  He did not know how long he sat there, his thoughts trying to wander but always brought back to the task at hand. Each thump against his chest seemed… longer. He started noticing the space in between, when his heart was as still as a dead man’s and the feeling of weightlessness it brought. He tried nudging it, and it moved! He shoved it with all his might into his arm…

  “You there! What are you doing in this alley!? Step forward!” A deep voice rang out, making Ellis lose the silence.

  “What the fuck! I almost had it! Why woul—”

  Ellis stopped yelling when he saw who had spoken.

  Five guards stood at the mouth of the alley, two of them almost Michael’s height. All of them had big swords strapped to their waist and shields on their arms, most of them having accompanying daggers tied to their ankles. Each man was far more armored than the men Ellis had stripped, their helmets red and frightening with open faces, making the guards taller than he thought they should be. They looked tailor made from the stories of city guards Ellis had heard about in his youth, able to woo a maiden with one hand and butcher an army with the other.

  They didn’t look like they were here to woo a maiden.

  “Sirs! My apologies, I was distracted for a moment and did not know who was speaking!” Ellis said quickly, trying his best to sound pathetic as he walked towards them with his hands where they could see them.

  It was the shortest who spoke, red and blue stripes circling the armour around his impressive shoulders. “That attitude is much better, boy. Do you have a city pass?

  Ellis held up his wrist with the bracelet once he came to a stop a respectable distance away from the men, thanking the gods he had made that deal at the gate.

  His face darkened. “A child of Anwir, huh?”

  Ellis looked from the man, back to his wrist. So the guard at the gate had decided to mark them.

  Trying his best not to sound cheated, he lied through his teeth. “Yes sir. It helps with trade.”

  The guard was silent for a moment, before giving Ellis a slight nod. “Fair enough. Have you seen two guardsmen patrolling in this area?”

  Ellis’s stomach dropped at the question. He swallowed hard and put both hands behind his back before they could start shaking. “We can’t say that we have, and we have been here for two days sir. Why do you ask?”

  Please don’t smell them, please don’t come in here. Please just leave! He is going to wake up.

  “They have gone missing. If you and your…” The red and blue striped guard squinted past Ellis’s shoulder. “Is that man even alive?”

  The words raced out of Ellis’s mouth like he was a spooked horse. “Yes sir! My brother is just drunk, don’t mind him, he sleeps like he’s dead. My ma got the tent, of course.”

  The man squinted at Ellis, before shrugging like this was normal. “Well, if you three see anything, report it to a guard, ya hear?”

  Ellis nodded furiously in agreement, before they started moving off. The sigh of relief leaving his mouth was cut short as the tallest of the guards turned to him.

  “Say, kid. Why are you in the alley? You seem… educated. Or sound it, anyway. Not the usual shitstains of the city.”

  Ellis started sweating. “We are travellers sir, from a small village up north. We fled here after my village was attacked by a whole lot of Rass, with nothing but a tent and the clothes on our backs! If you could spare a coin in these trying times, we would be mighty grateful,” Ellis begged, hoping it would make them leave quicker.

  The guard wrinkled his nose at Ellis’s plight, before he shoved two coppers into Ellis’s chest and strode off after his friends. Jabs of ‘softie’ came from the group once the tall guard rejoined them.

  Ellis didn’t tempt the gods again, waiting until their voices were well out of earshot before glancing over his shoulder. Michael still lay at the end of the alley, sound asleep. Ellis let out the sign he was holding, and shook his head at the madness of his situation. He turned around, pocketing the coins for himself.

  But the moment he looked up from the pocket, he froze.

  Ameena stood outside the tent, studying him with slightly less contempt than usual.

  “You’re proving to be useful,” she said, looking down at him past her nose.

  “Uh… thank you?”

  She nodded, like she had bestowed upon Ellis a great gift rather than a vague compliment. “Tell me, child of Anwir, is your first instinct always to lie?”

  Ellis took a step back at the casualness to the question which might have him killed. He couldn’t handpick his words, and he had to respond within a fraction of a second.

  So he blurted out the first lie that popped to mind. “To them? Of course! Those monsters don’t deserve the truth! I’ll lie to them as many times as it takes. Anwir will make sure they believe it!”

  She studied him for a moment, but didn’t nod. Then she was walking forward, casting an illusion on herself, casting barely a glance his way. “Keep practicing your mana.”

  And then she was walking down the street, or a little boy was, the same hand as yesterday missing. She must use that on all her disguises with which she wanted to evoke pity. It made sense, being able to hide a weapon in one hand while begging for coin in another.

  He did as she bid, trying to bring the silence he felt earlier back into focus. Greeting Michael when he woke up did not help with that, but the man had left in a hurry, like he hated being here, so the interruption wasn’t too irritating.

  He found the silence in seconds this time, but whenever he pushed it towards the ring, nothing would happen. Over and over again, far past when the exposed skin on his face and arms started burning in the sunlight, he continued. And nothing would happen. Every time he shoved the silence into his arm, he felt it dissipate, like the item was too far away. He failed at this, for hours.

  “Why don’t you just work!” he yelled at the street, looking around to hit something and finding Ameena, two buckets of water over her shoulder and a raised eyebrow on her illusions face, studying him from a few feet away. He placed his arms behind his back and pinched the skin until it bled, chastising himself for failing to notice someone sneaking up on him twice in one day.

  “Are you getting somewhere?” she asked with a snort.

  “I have gotten nowhere! I feel the silence or whatever, but everytime I move it nothing happens! I swear this is all nonsense!” The pain in his arm did not dissipate his anger at all.

  “The mother of learning is repetition. You get to learn this under my tutelage, your food is taken care of for you,” she said, tossing an entire apple and a loaf of bread at him which he caught hungrily. “And you have hardly a distraction to your name. I learnt this on the run in the back of a wagon while mercenaries kept trying to fuck and extort me. Stop complaining, and do it again.”

  Ellis wanted to punch her in the face for her ‘guidance’. He didn’t think he’d survive the process. He was still tempted enough to try.

  Closing his eyes, he refocused. Like the last few attempts, he found the silence within a second. But his heartbeat was roaring from his frustration, thumping so hard it felt like it was trying to escape his ribcage. And every time it thumped, he felt something else graze the hair on his chest. He had wanted to focus on the ring, but the object pressing against his chest hair grasped at his attention like a drowning man. With every heartbeat it grew larger and larger in his mind, until only it, and the silence remained.

  He nudged the silence, and it moved a millimeter. He poked it, and it moved a centimeter. He pushed it straight into the necklace hanging around his neck, and all the silence was sucked out of him in an instant.

  Ellis stumbled back at the sudden… lessness he felt. He felt lighter, some lingering effects of the hangover worsened, and he had to double check that his heartbeat was still there. He opened his eyes to a thousand status popups jumping out at him, like they were all fighting each other for his attention.

  Every single thing he looked at had screens similar to his status hovering in front of them, always tilted in a way so that Ellis could read them. He now knew the wall of the house in front of him was 2.4 meters high and 7 meters long. The bodies at the end of the alley now jumped out at him, his attempts at hiding them futile now that their information was displayed. He saw they had died 33 hours ago and that they were both 19 year old males.

  And when he turned towards the tent, he saw Ameena sitting on her pack, sharpening her knife with practiced hands. Not the one armed boy, not the illusion she hid herself behind. Her. And her status, hanging above her head.

  A Child of Evosa:

  *Ameena Fray:

  Strength: 6 (Loggers pants: +3 strength)

  Mana: 10 (Wand of deception (bonded to: Ameena Fray): +5)

  Dexterity: 6

  Perception: 5

  endurance: 5 (Messengers necklace: +2)

  Constitution: 6 (Guards ring: +2)

  Total: 38 (+12)

  Level 3

  Skills: knit flesh(level 2), mend bone (level 1)