Juhend Sureb led the group to the lake. It was still dark outside, with no hints of any moon or sun. The stars overhead were wheeling and twisting in a kaleidoscope of intoxicating patterns. Ahead, the glimmering lake shone with what seemed to almost be the presence of moonlight. The grass and dirt was moist and damp underneath the party’s feet as they walked and, while the air was warm like summer, there was an occasional gust of wind that brought with it a nearly wintry chill.

  Adam glanced over towards Hannah. Her blonde hair was cascading down her back as per usual, and her emerald green eyes looked ahead without betraying any hint of concern.

  “So, why did you end up actually coming along? I thought you didn’t want to Shift anymore. Actually, I seem to remember a pretty long conversation about breaking up with me over it…”

  Hannah scoffed. Shaking her head, she lowered her voice.

  “You don’t really think I would trust you and Gusto to somehow be part of a military task force do you? He can’t even cook himself an egg, and you jump into danger at the slightest hint of anything mystical.”

  Hannah’s steps slowed somewhat. Beneath the starlit sky, her face flushed, but she didn’t say anything else. The pair walked on in silence for some time before Adam brought up a new topic.

  “Gusto has been rather quiet recently, I hope he’s alright.”

  Hannah sighed.

  “He’s taking Marc pretty hard, at least that’s what Jezebel told me. I wouldn’t be surprised. Plus, he probably wants to seem all masculine and reliable in front of his lady friend.” Hannah specifically emphasized these words by making air quotes with her hands.

  Adam smiled and held back a laugh at this.

  “Think he’ll ever ask her out?”

  “I don’t know, it took you what, five years to ask me?” Hannah had a wry smile as she reminisced.

  “Five years, two months and thirteen days from the day we met. It was actually during a Diell Day festival.”

  “I remember…”

  The pair drifted off into silence once again as they approached the lake. Adam couldn’t help but question where he had gone wrong. His emotions were already frayed to begin with. Now, it was as if he had accidentally spilled boiling water on them.

  …

  In the midst of a snowfield with billowing winds, Vice Admiral Bruenor Flos held a stack of papers in his hand. He had a look of fury on his face. His voice boomed out like a thunderclap, so much so that even those on the other end of the dreadnought could hear it clearly.

  “FIND ME CAPTAIN NAERHN, NOW!”

  He sighed deeply. One of the papers at the top of the stack had big bold lettering.

  DEMIGOD ATTACKED MARTES, REDEPLOYMENT OF FLEET IMMINENT

  “I can never seem to get anything done before a redeployment. Hell, I’ve only been here for a few days! Angel forbid we somehow manage to get a demigod in the military. Better yet, maybe our damned allies could get their acts together and stop relying on us. Martes is its own country Angel damn them, pray to the Augur or something why don’t they!”

  The other soldiers in the command room remained silent, their eyes honing in on the floor. None of them wanted to be the ones to break the news that the bodies of Naerhn’s team had been discovered over an hour ago. Not one of them mentioned that, technically speaking, their fleet was the joint effort of the Accepted Pantheon as a whole. This was because none of them wanted to see the Vice Admiral lose his temper more than he already had.

  …

  Adam sat cross legged by the edge of the lake. He had gotten used to the swirling stars in the sky and lack of sun or moon light, and had come to find the glistening lake tranquil. It had been a couple of hours of silence that not even Gusto broke. Eventually, Juhend Sureb stood up.

  “Alright, that’s enough meditation for now. You can usually tell if you harmonize well with a Realm in a couple hours so long as you pay attention. I’m going to teach you how to actually use these powers now.”

  Juhend pulled out a number of glass vials and dipped them into the lake, gathering up the water. Even in the vials, the water seemed to stir with a faint light.

  “We as Passengers are capable of using our connections with various Realms to influence the space around us. By extending our souls into the nearby area and forcing the harmony of our soul to overpower the harmony of the surroundings, we create magic.”

  Juhend waved his hand, and a series of stars formed around him, circling and twisting in dizzying patterns. Then, he took one of the vials of water and splashed it in front of him. Suddenly, the water lit up with a blinding flash of light and the surroundings seemed to slow to a crawl- Adam’s own blinking took a full second to complete! Just as soon as the effect appeared, it disappeared as Juhend waved his hand again.

  “We usually are only able to create small scale or weak magic, like the illusion of some starlight, conjuring items, reinforcing our bodies. But as we increase our harmonization with our Realm, we begin to be able to draw upon its power more effectively.”

  “We can use materials gathered from a Realm to augment our abilities. In a way, it is like cheating at cards. You are using sensory inputs- smell, sight, sound, texture, even taste- and you are tricking your own soul into thinking that you harmonize with the Realm in question more than you actually do. This is the basic process I will be teaching you today. It doesn’t allow a Passenger to fight a demigod, but it does allow us to punch above our weight class, so long as we are prepared.”

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  Juhend disseminated a vial of the water to each member of the party. Even Jezebel accepted it, though she looked as if she had no intention of using it.

  “You can think of this water as being a representation of this Realm. Seeing as it comes from here, it faintly resonates with this Realm. As such, by using it, you are able to trick your soul into thinking that you partially harmonize with my Realm here. The same process can work to shield yourself from low levels of unwanted influence.”

  Juhend glanced at Jezebel as he continued.

  “It is this same process that allowed me to shield Jezebel from the contamination of my Realm on her soul during the duration of her stay here. Through my connection to my Realm, I have stopped most of the nearby harmony from reaching her. I reinforced this with a number of sensory stimulations related strongly to the Physical World that I implant into her psyche at regular intervals.”

  Juhend glanced at Adam as he tapped his cane on the ground.

  “It is important to note that even with these precautions, the only reason it is effective is because I am harmonized with this Realm to such an extent. You can counteract the latent effects of a Realm, and even counteract magic from a Realm if your ingredients are precise enough, but the effect is temporary and is incapable of substantial interference.”

  Juhend clasped his hands together.

  “Now then, who wants to try some magic?”

  …

  Adam smiled as the illusory lights swirled around him. It had been a few minutes now, and at this point everyone had managed to create at least some effect. Even Jezebel, who was originally adamant about not becoming a Passenger, ended up being convinced to try it once Juhend explained that he was safeguarding her soul from contamination. Adam’s beaming smile locked onto Hannah, who wore a guarded expression.

  She really doesn’t want to pursue this life, does she…

  Adam’s smile slowly faded after the realization that she wasn’t here for her own pursuits.

  Juhend tapped his cane on the ground, emitting a loud sound as if it were striking metal.

  “Excellent work everyone. As you can see, the use of sensory stimulation is capable of letting even Jezebel create minor effects. Though she won’t be punching through walls or flying anytime soon, each of you were quite capable of creating minor illusions and other effects.”

  Juhend passed around a few more vials of the glistening water to each of them.

  “You may each keep these, the effects will be rather minimal outside of my Realm here, but you might still find a use for them if you are lucky.”

  He conjured a stone altar in front of him. It had a series of indents where three candles were placed, and at the middle of the altar was a glass orb filled with snow, a vial of the same glistening water, and a dark tree branch.

  “Now then, one final lesson for the day. We all know how to Shift already. You find an Anchor, use a First Ingredient and Second Ingredient, establish a connection to a Realm, and funnel your spirit into the Realm. But, can any of you tell me exactly what each piece of a ritual does, and why we use this method specifically? If I had wanted to Shift to another Realm, I don’t necessarily need an Anchor, and I would be capable of grabbing a couple of random objects from the surroundings to serve as my First and Second Ingredients.”

  Adam shook his head, as did Hannah and Jezebel. Gusto thought for a moment, but eventually expressed that he was unsure. After a moment, Hellig raised his hand.

  “Well, we use an Anchor to make sure that we can find our way back to the Realm we started from, and the First Ingredient and Second Ingredient respectively represent the physical and spiritual characteristics of the Realm we wish to enter. I don’t know why we use this method specifically though…”

  Juhend waited a brief moment before continuing.

  “Very good grasp of the fundamentals, Hellig. But this is not the full truth of the matter. Think back to what we just learned regarding sensory stimulation.”

  A light seemed to dawn on Gusto’s face as he loudly blurted out his thoughts.

  “Wait! So if the objects are used for sensory stimulation in making magic, and there isn’t a real difference in the objects in a ritual to Shift, then the real thing that’s happening during a Shift is us tricking our souls into harmonizing with a Realm?”

  Juhend gave a chuckle.

  “You hit the mark Gusto. Yes, the only requirement for a Shift is that the spirit of the Passenger believes a Shift is occurring. We trick our souls during a Shift in the same way that we trick our souls whilst using sensory stimulation to enhance our magic. By using certain materials that correspond to a certain Realm, we can make our soul think that we are in that Realm. When the soul thinks it is in a Realm, it naturally will start to be influenced by that Realm in the manner I have already explained. Once that occurs, the physical body will naturally follow, thus allowing us to Shift.”

  Juhend gestured to the items on the altar.

  “The altar and even the ritual itself is of lesser importance. It is merely a conduit for us to trick our own spirits. Once you achieve the rank of a demigod, or even certain high level Chosen depending on the Realm, you are capable of traveling between Realms with much less difficulty. Of course, a ritual has the best possible effects if you already have a link with the Realm in question and your First and Second Ingredients are both directly from that Realm.”

  Juhend gestured to the glass snow globe on the altar.

  “Shall we Shift to another Realm? The military happens to have requested our insight into a rather strange occurrence.”

  Juhend smiled, as if he wasn’t really asking.

  …

  In the basement of a building in a small town somewhere to the south of the Diell Empire, a figure spoke in a casual tone.

  “The Ever-Decaying Lord once made a prophecy, do you want to know what it is?”

  A young man had his blindfold removed with force. He was tied up to a wooden post in a basement somewhere. Before him stood a tall man in a dull, almost-yellow cloak. His eyes were sewn shut and his mouth outstretched into a smile slightly too vast to be that of a normal human.

  The man’s screams were muffled by the gag in his mouth.

  “When the masses squirm, the cull shall begin… I shall be that cull. Isn’t that nice? A loving way to usher in the apocalypse, don’t you think?”

  The man with his eyes sewn shut had his smile expand almost to the back of his ears. Rows upon rows of sharp teeth were present.

  “I enjoy my work, but I’m pretty busy now that the Lord said the apocalypse is happening. I have another city to get to in a few days, so I have to make this quick.”

  The strange man manifested scissors in his hand, snipping the air with delight.

  “What do you say, member of the masses? Will you squirm for me?”

  The sounds of the young man’s struggles were drowned out by the stench of a burning city up above.

  …