Morigan sat in the armchair in her room staring at the door. Thirty days. After that first terrible encounter in the dungeon, and that horrid meeting with Nilendi in their second week here, she had only left the room to sneak to the bathing facility across the hall. They brought her food. They sent those wretched mages to talk to her. The so-nice-she-could-barf Yasima checked on her every day. She refused to answer.

  She had Storm, her beautiful scepter Companion for company. But she was even irritated with him now. Her fathers words danced in her mind like the incessant flapping of a hummingbird. ‘Travel through life like a leaf on the wind – release control and embrace the journey. Your fate will find you along the way.’ Words that Storm echoed with his ‘the Wind has a path’ speech.

  Her father’s words, practically the family motto, passed down through the generations, allowing their royal line to remain the strong, adaptable rulers of a flourishing kingdom on Kiliria. This path she now walked by force would bring out the best in any of her family. But in her, it brought out things she didn’t want to admit out loud, and had only just begun to admit to herself. Those words had made her feel something that wasn’t anger, but wasn’t quite sadness either.

  She knew those feelings now. Anxiety. Loss and loneliness. Fear. Inadequacy. All of those feelings fought for dominance deep in the pit of her stomach. And over it all the anger that kept her safe.

  Fear that she couldn’t live up to her family’s standards. Inadequacy in her magical abilities stemming from a deep anxiety. If she didn’t practice, she had something to blame for her inadequacy and that protected her. She couldn’t live up to her father’s standards. Her perfect sister Brigid. And every other sibling in line trying, and failing, to exceed Brigid’s standards.

  No one would live up to those expectations. No one! Certainly not her! Better to not try than to fail. Better to set the standard so low, no one would bother comparing. No one would say she didn’t measure up. Because she didn’t even start in the same arena.

  Morigan gritted her teeth and pushed herself up from the armchair she had spent most of the last 30 days in. She hated the priests of Etalen for bringing her here. But Brigid wasn’t here. Her father wasn’t watching. And in the middle of the night, no one else watched either.

  Morigan slipped out of the bedroom and into the dark corridors, headed to the Air training facility.

  -----

  Philip arrived at the outdoor training yard with Epona. Zali waited for him at the entrance to the grounds. He waved cheerfully, excited to learn more from his trainer.

  Sometimes, he missed the farm. He liked animals and he got to work with a lot of animals on the farm. And he liked tending the plants. But the farm was lonely. He didn’t have any friends there. A few other Earth mages tended the farms, but most of them were much older. The man who ran the farm never came to see them. One of the other mages taught him the job, then left him to do it. It had been the same for years.

  At first, his parents had come to see him every so often. At the harvest festival, where everyone celebrated the farms, they would come. But they stopped coming several years ago. They had other children. They were smart and good at fighting. And he was left alone.

  Being here was much better. He got to learn new magic. And he got to fight. Everyone wanted to be a warrior back home! War and fighting brought glory. And now he could bring glory! Maybe, if he went home, his parents would come see him again. If they knew what he could do now. If he got really strong and beat the bad magic here. Then he would be the hero.

  “You are early. Good. We have a lot to practice today. You will practice defending against magical attacks. I will send Earth to attack you, and you will deflect it with your shield or magic, as we have practiced.” Zali pointed to a spot several meters away for Philip to stand.

  “Deflecting magical attacks of any kind is possible with both shield and magic. Your shield has an enchantment on it that allows it to interact with any magical attack with a physical component, as long as you have imbued it with your own Earth power. Earth magic can also counter any ability. It can stifle fire, redirect air, absorb water, and block the kinetic component of Aether abilities. But to do so, you must be the stronger mage, with more power and more control.”

  Philip nodded. Zali had told him this, but he liked that she repeated it for him. It made it easier for him to remember.

  “I practice a lot so I can be stronger. And I practiced with the shield and magic at the same time like you said.”

  “Excellent.” Zali raised a ball of dirt from the ground in front of her. “Activate the enchantment on your shield and prepare to defend yourself.”

  Philip focused on sending his magic into his shield. At first, he found it hard to do. How could magic go into another object? But the more Zali explained and demonstrated, the better he understood. Now he could do it, though it still took him a little while to activate the enchantment. Zali said he had to get faster, but for now he could take his time. It was better to practice keeping the magic of the shield active when also using magic to cast spells.

  The shield glowed slightly, signifying Philip had fully activated the enchantment, and Zali attacked immediately. A ball of earth flew towards Philip’s head, and he blocked it with the shield. Seeing Philip had engaged with no difficulty, Zali began her attack in earnest.

  Balls of earth flew at Philip from multiple directions. He moved his shield to block each one, first high then low. An earth ball spiraled behind him and he pivoted to block. The speed and intensity of the balls increased, and he couldn’t move the shield in time to block all of them. A ball hit him in the head.

  It didn’t do any damage, as Zali did not imbue any magic to keep its shape upon contact. It exploded into a cloud of dirt and dust around Philip, and he coughed after accidentally breathing in the cloud.

  “I said you must use your shield and your magic to prevent attacks. The shield cannot be everywhere at once. Start using your magic to block.”

  Philip nodded. Zali had said that. But he wanted to see how much he could block with the shield! And using the shield alone was easier. But easy didn’t make him a hero. He would do better.

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  Zali’s attacks resumed. This time, Philip made a little wall of earth and floated it by his head, like a second shield. He blocked lower attacks with his real shield and moved his floating earthen shield around him to block attacks coming from above. He grinned, happy with how he used both things to block Zali’s attacks.

  He blocked attacks for a long time, until finally Zali stopped attacking. He thought she would say they had finished and he did a good job. But she surprised him.

  “You favor your right. You have been slow to stop attacks on your left. I will focus more there until you react quickly on both sides. And I will send more balls at once. You must defend against more than two attacks in some battles!”

  With that, Zali resumed sending attacks his way. She did not lie about her plan. Philip frantically blocked attacks that came too quickly for just his shield and his earth wall. He tried to make another earth wall, but it was hard to hold another one together. He had his magic split into three, more than he had done before. He spun his shield and his magical walls around him, blocking desperately, until his magic faltered. Three tiny explosions of earth against his body marked his failure.

  He hung his head, disappointed to let Zali down. “I’m sorry. I didn’t do it right.”

  Instead of a reprimand, Zali sounded pleased. “I increased the pace of attacks significantly. You did well for the first time. You must practice splitting your magic into more and more independent aspects. The more you practice, the easier it will become. We will continue this practice, but you must also practice on your own.

  Philip nodded vigorously, immediately happy with himself again. Zali said he did a good job! He would continue to practice and he would be the best warrior when he went home again!

  -------

  Panu pushed himself up to lean on one arm, casually waving to the Pireta man walking away. He’d decided to visit the nearby spring as a break from training and had met a charming young warrior from the temple. He had shown Panu some unique Etalen traditions that had made the afternoon quite enjoyable. Panu may even see the man again sometime, though he made no promises. The temple had so many people to encounter, after all, he didn’t want to commit to just one… experience.

  Panu had never felt particularly motivated to train beyond finding ways to impress others with his fire manipulations, but the life of a hero held an enticing interest that motivated him to dedicate slightly more effort than normal. Afterall, who doesn’t love the guy who saves the world? He could happily embody that persona with all the benefits involved.

  While his previous experiences on his homeworld gave him a certain level of skill, he did admit that the level of mastery in both magic and weaponry here on Etalen put anyone on his own world to shame. With the training and practice here, if he ever returned to Theledes, he could basically rule the place… not that his world had much use for rulers and laws. Only who could throw the best party and do the most impressive stunts. His impeccable party skills plus his new mastery of Fire would give him an elite status. Or he could stay here, of course. Who knew what the future held. He did miss the parties.

  Panu pushed himself up from his resting place in the grass near the end of the spring, grabbing his shirt, splayed similarly on its own patch of grass, and putting it on. He had to head back for another afternoon in the dungeon with Philip. The Degeta man had skill as a warrior, despite his lack of creativity. Zali, his trainer, seemed exceptionally good at providing a repertoire of skills to practice, and he did his job of keeping monsters off Panu so he could do what he did best… blow things up with fire.

  The dungeons offered a bit of controlled fun for Panu. On his own world, monsters randomly appeared, though none had so much power that they rampaged through the towns like the priests here indicated would happen with their Chaos Eruptions. At least, nothing like that had happened in the past on Panu’s home planet. If it happened here, he guessed it could happen anywhere.

  Panu didn’t know much about the underpinnings of magical power, and he didn’t care to study that information. Theory was boring. Practice and implementation interested him far more. He just accepted that things were different between his world and this one. Afterall, his world didn’t have five gods and five demigods, just the one. Clearly more gods meant more rampaging monsters, from his limited experience.

  Glancing at the sky for the sun, he set off for the temple. It looked like he’d have just enough time for a quick meal before he had to meet Kane, Philip, and Zali for the dungeon. He needed a good meal after that snack he’d had at the spring.

  -------

  Time knocked on the door of the command center, waiting for permission to enter from an irritated sounding Fire, before pushing the door open and stepping inside. Light and Space walked beside him, their abilities critical to refining the information they would present.

  “You have new information for us?” Aether inquired, leaving his station to walk nearer to the demi-gods.

  “We have pinpointed the apex of the Chaos energy, as well as the timing.” Time replied.

  “Well, spit it out!” Fire marched over to stare at the demi-gods.

  “I have determined that the Chaos Eruption will start seven days from now.”

  Aether nodded, but Fire jumped in. “What do you mean start?”

  “It will not just be one eruption. Light and Shadow have been tracking the energies with Space while I work on the prediction timeline. We see two origination points for the eruption. One will spike a day after the first.”

  Light picked up the narrative. “That isn’t all, however. We expect the first to still have lingering effects, possibly an aftershock of released energy, simultaneous with the second eruption.”

  The gods all stared at the demi-gods with the revelation of this information.

  “Wait,” Water looked from Time to Light, unsure she had heard correctly. “Are you saying that there might actually be three Chaos Eruptions in a two day time frame?”

  “Yes.” Time stated simply.

  “And they will be in two different locations.” Space added.

  The gods all began talking at once, each expressing a mixture of anger, disbelief, and fear that this indicated a far graver threat to their planet.

  Aether raised his hands, and the talking calmed. “What are the locations?”

  Space stepped forward, activating a screen that showed the vicinity of the temple that summoned the heroes and the dungeon locations nearby.

  “The first eruption will occur at the dungeon closest to the temple. This is the best possible situation, as the dungeon there has some of the lowest level and least dangerous monsters.”

  “And the other?” Air asked.

  “The other is at this dungeon to the northwest of the temple. Near the town of Asiwek.” Space replied.

  Earth stared at the screen. “That’s a major dungeon.”

  “Yes.”

  The gods all stared at the screen. They would need to alert the temple as quickly as possible. They would need reinforcements from another temple to combat the dangerous, high level monsters from the major dungeon.

  After that brief moment of stillness, the gods sprang into action, each reaching out to their highest level priests in surrounding temples and towns to prepare for the worst.