The rest of the evening was a stark contrast to the warm, friendly atmosphere Leo had gotten used to during the day. Weirdly, only Jess seemed to still be acting like herself. Chance had gone quiet and didn’t say much, blaming his ankle when Leo asked if he was alright, and Mao seemed to make whatever excuse she could think of in order to keep herself away from him. With Max off getting a new wheel for the wagon, Leo was given his tent to set up for the night, and Mao never ended up returning to their previous conversation.

  Something’s not right, he thought as he worked on getting his borrowed tent set up.

  While Leo was excited about the prospect of finally making it to a proper town and gathering some actual information, he wasn’t an idiot either. It was obvious to him that the mood had shifted from earlier, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on what the cause must have been. If Jess and her team secretly were raiders, then they were phenomenal actors. He had no idea why they would have bothered with all the pleasantries in the first place when they could have easily overwhelmed him right from the get go. As much as it pained him to do…

  Leo was going to run away.

  Something was off with Jess and her team, and he didn’t want to stick around until Max finally got back to find out what it was. Dealing with three gem holders was one thing, but four? Or potentially even more, if Max was actually off getting reinforcements? Leo didn’t need to make things even harder for himself. The problem, of course, was Jess herself.

  Max, Chance, and Mao didn’t worry him at all. Even if they had dangerous skills in their core, none of them came across as knowing how to fight, and their souls were a weaker rank than his own as well. No, his main obstacle when it came to getting away was going to be Jess.

  Unlike the others, Jess had never actually come out and openly stated what rank her soul was, but Leo had picked up from context that she was at least rank 10, possibly higher. Not only that, but she’d first made a living as a magical beast hunter, which meant she knew how to handle herself in a fight. Even if she’d had to dampen her soul to enter this plane, she would still be stronger than him, and would almost certainly have more powerful skills at her disposal.

  Which was why he was planning on escaping in the dark of night.

  Ideally, he’d never even have to fight Jess in the first place. While Leo loved the idea of exploring new planes and discovering what was out there, and he enjoyed the rush of taking down a hostile magical beast in a fight, he wasn’t eager to get actual human blood on his hands. He’d been prepared to deal with raiders or people who attacked him for his gems, but Jess and the others were just regular people. Gem holders, yes, but still just people. He had no idea why they were acting like this all of a sudden, but the best thing for all of them would be for him to slip away under the cover of darkness without giving cause for anyone to get hurt.

  Though Jess certainly wasn’t making it easy on him.

  Leo glanced at Chance as the man worked on getting his own tent set up, forgetting to limp more often than not as he walked around. Jess had insisted that Leo set up his tent in the center of camp, allowing them to form a triangle around him for ‘protection’, so that he could sleep easy as their guest. Leo had gone along with the idea because it meant he could risk sneaking out past either Mao or Chance, either of whom would be far better than Jess.

  Still, seeing the three people he’d slowly grown fond of over joint manual labor try to pen him in was rather nerve-racking.

  “So about that map,” Leo tried again as he hammered in the last of his tent stakes. Jess had backtracked on showing him her map as well after Max left, insisting that he wait until they were back in town where she could show him a proper one.

  “I told you before, it’s not so much a map as a paper full of scribbles,” she said, shaking her head as she took a swig of water. “Too embarrassing to show that garbage to an actual Cartographer. Just wait until tomorrow.”

  “Uh huh,” Leo nodded, turning to look at Mao, who was quite clearly turned away from him. “Mao, did you still want to hear any stories about being a Cartographer?”

  Mao jumped, waving at him without actually looking, keeping her face angled away from him. “S-sorry, I’m pretty tired after all the mining. Can it wait until morning? I’m going to turn in early!”

  “I think I will as well,” Chance said, his voice hard as he watched Mao scramble into her still half-unfinished tent. “Maybe we all should. It was a long day, after all. Filled with one surprise after another.”

  “That’s a good idea, Chance,” Jess frowned, narrowing her eyes at him. “You should rest your ankle. Wouldn’t want to bring down the rest of the team, would you?”

  Shaking his head, Chance turned and vanished within his own tent, snapping the flap closed.

  “Want me to take the first watch?” Leo offered, hoping she would say yes and head to bed as well. His fingers tightened around his makeshift spear.

  “The only magical beasts in this plane live up on the surface. We’re safe down here in the ravine,” Jess reassured him. “You should take advantage of having safety in numbers to get some actual sleep for a change. I can’t imagine you’ve gotten much rest being all on your own this past week.”

  “Fair enough.” Though even as Leo bid her goodnight and slipped into his tent, making sure to keep it open enough that he could watch her through the flap, he realized one of the things that had been bothering him all this time.

  Jess mentioned earlier that it looked like I’d had a rough week as well… Why a week, specifically? Why not a rough day, or a rough night? It just seems like a bit of a specific choice. Unless…

  She knows what happened.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  Leo stared out through the slit in his tent, watching Jess as she kept herself busy going through the pile of pickaxes and weapons, making sure everything was clean and undamaged. The only reason he could think of to explain how she’d know about what happened was if she was one of the Planar Lords’ agents, but that seemed impossible. For one, he knew some of their agents lived undercover, pretending to be weaker than they actually were and infiltrating some of the larger planes to keep tabs on things. But here? Mining clay in some random plane with a small team of nobodies?

  It didn’t make any sense.

  There has to be something I’m missing.

  Leo tried not to growl as he racked his brain for the missing piece of the puzzle. At first, things had seemed totally normal. Everyone had been cool with him being there, and they’d gotten along fine. Then, Jess had taken the others aside one by one, always needing their help with something. And when they came back, they could barely look him in the eye. She’d clearly said something to them, but what?

  Jess had stared at me pretty intently when I first showed up… It almost looked like she was trying to place where she knew me from, but that doesn’t make any sense either. I’m who knows how many planes away from my home plane, and I’ve definitely never met her before in my life. Maybe she knew my parents? People did always say I looked just like them.

  Leo wanted to pull his hair out in frustration, but even a light tug sent a fresh wave of pain through the wound atop his head. The gash that the arrow-hawk had left across his scalp was far from healed, and Leo just knew his hair had to look like an absolute mess right now. After the magical beast had sliced a few chunks off, he’d done his best to trim down the rest to match with his knife. But without a mirror or any actual experience in cutting hair, it hadn’t been easy. As he fiddled with his hair, the pain seemed to clear his mind for a moment, and his blood went cold as he came to a startling realization.

  My hair… Is that why she didn’t recognize me at first? But if that was the case, she would have needed to know what I looked like before a magical beast tried to give me a trim. Which would mean an image of me is going around for some reason, or at least a pretty thorough description. But if that’s true, that would mean…

  The Planar Lords are looking for me.

  Leo recoiled as the thought struck him like a physical blow, his breathing coming hard and fast as his heart pounded against his ribcage. While he thought he’d spotted someone pointing at him from one of the distant rifts in his home plane before he escaped, he hadn’t actually considered what that meant. Until now, he’d foolishly assumed that the Planar Lords would just ignore him. After all, he was a nobody. A freshly minted gem holder who had only left his plane for the first time barely a week ago. The Planar Lords were functional gods, each one strong enough to destroy any number of gem holders with little more than an errant thought. Why would they have any interest in him whatsoever?

  The box his father had given him pressed against his leg as he pushed himself away from the tent entrance, and Leo started, staring down at the bulge in his pocket. Even now, the memory of his father instructing him to keep the box safe, to not show it to anyone, played through his head as vividly as if he’d just received the warning a few minutes ago. With trembling fingers, Leo pulled the small, wooden box out of his pocket, holding it up to the sliver of light coming in through the tent flap from their flickering campfire as he stared at it. He already knew that the Planar Lords were willing to kill just to get rid of whatever was tucked away inside.

  What other lengths would they go to in order to make sure its contents never saw the light of day?

  I have to get out of here, Leo decided, taking a deep breath and carefully tucking the small box back into his pocket once more. A quick peek out of his tent showed that Jess was busy inspecting the same pickaxe she’d already checked out three times now, and Leo sighed as he came to the inevitable conclusion.

  Jess was planning on staying up and keeping an eye on him until Max came back with the Planar Lords’ agents, or whoever it was he’d gone for.

  Leo wasn’t getting out of this without a fight.

  Maybe I can rush past her and make it back to the forest plane without anyone getting hurt, he thought, preparing himself for whatever was about to happen. One way or another, Leo was leaving this plane before Max returned. Millions of lives hinged on his ability to find a way to either save the Nexus, or to find someone with enough clout that if they went public with what was happening, people would be forced to listen. He disliked the idea of taking an innocent life, but if Jess forced him to make that choice, he’d do it in a heartbeat.

  He’d kill one for the sake of millions.

  Before his resolve could waver, Leo stepped out of his tent, doing his best to act like nothing was wrong. Before he could even take two steps, however, Jess called out.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To the bathroom,” he drawled, focusing on keeping his voice steady as he pointed with his spear off to the edge of the cavern. “From what Chance said earlier, it sounded like you guys weren’t exactly big fans of using the buddy system. I’ll be back in a few.”

  “It’s dangerous, you should hold it until morning,” Jess countered, the dancing flames of the fire at her back making her look even larger than she already was.

  “I thought the magical beasts in this plane stayed up on the surface?” Leo said, gripping his spear tighter as he tried one last time to do this without blood being spilled. “I can handle myself, don’t worry.”

  “So it’s come to this, has it?” Jess asked, letting out a weary sigh before raising her voice and barking out into the night. “Mao! Chance! Get out here!”

  Immediately, the two of them scrambled out of their tents, completing the triangle surrounding Leo in an instant. He’d thought about using Dash to get away while they were getting free of their tents, but Jess’ eyes never left him for a second. Using Dash when he had no idea what her skills were could backfire horribly, not to mention he’d yet to actually reveal the skill to any of them just yet. If he timed things right, maybe he could still get away without having to kill any of them.

  “Jess… You’re sure about this?” Chance asked, holding up a short sword that gleamed in the flickering light of the fire as he licked his lips nervously and stared at Leo from the side. “I know what you said, but this just doesn’t feel right.”

  “If you want to call the Planar Lords liars, go right on ahead,” Jess said, causing Chance to flinch as though he’d been slapped. “The man I spoke with back in town right before we came out here was very clear in his description. A brand-new gem holder, most likely claiming to be a Cartographer, despite not having any sort of map or proper equipment with him. He even had a sketch of the culprit done, and other than the hair, it looks just like him. If he’s innocent, then the Planar Lords’ agents will clear him and let him go. If he’s not…”

  Jess turned and spat, a look of pure hatred on her face as she glared at him.

  “...Well, presumably, they’ll kill him. I don’t actually know what the punishment for collapsing your own home plane is, but I bet it’s something nasty.”

  Patreon

  Discord