They walked mostly in silence for the first few minutes, Nigel occasionally pointing out a cloud or to piece of shrubbery, explaining things about it. It was odd, almost like he was intentionally trying to avoid something.

  No, not almost, Caleb thought. He is.

  “How did you become a representative?” Caleb blurted suddenly. Nigel glanced to him, his strange eyes dancing with magic, watching Caleb for a moment, before he chuckled to himself, looking away. But there was no humour in laugh, only a grim kind of irony.

  “Uh… well, luck I guess” Nigel muttered.

  “Luck?”

  “Yeah” he said. “I just… we were messing around. Well not messing around. That I know now. It’s… it’s a bit difficult to explain”

  “Could you explain it? Please” Caleb said. “I mean if you don’t want to you don’t have to, just… this whole thing can get a little confusing”

  “Ah. You want to know how representatives work?”

  “Yeah”

  “Well you can’t use me as an example” he chuckled. “It’s quite funny actually. They’re usually elected. Yuniea runs a poll with the entire population of a planet and the three highest votes take the seats”

  Caleb frowned.

  “Why wasn’t it like that here?”

  “Uh… well what happened here is pretty special. Put simply, planets usually cross the threshold, by having a member of the species form a mana connection. Usually, it’s naturally occurring but here my… friends... we formed it. Through a kind of experiment”

  “Wait you formed a mana connection? Intentionally?”

  “Semi-intentionally. Sam was trying to prove something he'd discovered existed, and roped me and Divine into it. During a particular experiment, there was an explosion and the three of us each formed a mana connect. When you understand the science behind it, it’s an incredible coincidence really - if you can even call it science.”

  “Wait… you caused this? Everything? The trial” Caleb muttered, coming to a stop.

  “In a roundabout way” he said. “Though I had less to do with it than the other two. I was just in the right spot at the right time I guess.”

  Caleb slowed to a stop, staring at Nigel as he continued walking. After a second, the older boy glanced back at him.

  “Sorry. It’s… it’s a lot I know” he said. Caleb nodded. “Are you angry? I’d understand if you were.”

  “No I…” he trailed off remembering everything that’d happened to him. “You didn’t know, did you?”

  “No” he replied, his voice solemn too. They were both silent again, only the sound of the wind rolling through the space.

  “Who’re the other representatives?” Caleb asked.

  “Sam and Divine. They’re my… I don’t actually. I used to think of them as friends but I don’t know anymore” Nigel said. “But that doesn’t matter right now. I’ve avoided it long enough. We need to talk about Daen’s offer.”

  Caleb glanced to him again, spotting the clear mixture of apprehension and fear in his voice.

  “What about it? Is it… bad?” Caleb asked.

  “No. Well… it depends on who you ask” Nigel responded. Caleb frowned. He was finding this whole thing difficult to gauge, especially given Nigel’s vagueness.

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked, his voice firm.

  “Well,” Nigel muttered. “I need you to accept.”

  “Why?” Caleb replied, his heart sinking slightly.

  “The agreement the other two signed is a rigorous one. The other two are ambitious you see. They didn’t want to just be apart of the Federation, they wanted to be the most powerful within it. And it's doable. Because the rest of the federation, the main people in power at least they're… well it’s a bit difficult to explain. Put simply, they’ve been here so long, so fixed in their ways that it’s changed them. They’re different from us”

  “Different how? They all look human”

  “No, not like that. In the way they think. And I guess there are probably some biological differences, small ones based on the time spent in certain locations, but we’re all human in a certain way.”

  “Oh right, how does that all work? Everyone being human?”

  “I didn’t get a straight answer my entire time there. It’s a little- no that’s too much to explain right now. Basically, best I got was a scientist on Etimos told me we probably all share a common ancestor, though the widely held belief is that all important creatures are made in the great Yuniea’s image”

  “That seems very... religious”

  “It is” Nigel said.

  “Wait, wait Yuniea, the system is human? Or looks human at least?”

  “Yes. We think at least. No one actually knows. But getting back to everyone else, they’re… how do I say it.... stagnant in a way? Fixed? Yeah. Fixed in their methods” he said. “Sure Etimos is different, like Earth, in the fact that they’ve developed technology like ours and have had constantly shifting cultures, but they’re not a war planet.”

  “War planet? What’s the difference between a member of the Federation, and a war planet?”

  “The war planets make all the major decisions” Nigel said. “I- you ever watch Star Wars?”

  “Yeah?” Caleb said, frowning.

  “Think of war planets as a Coruscant and a regular planet as a Tatooine, though probably slightly more considered. Non-federation planets are probably closer to Tatooine’s. Anyway, everything happens on the war planets, and they decide where the majority of the troops. To control it would be to control all people in the known universe”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Wait, your friends want to control it?” Caleb muttered, horrified.

  “They’re not- no. They just want to be the most powerful” Nigel said, clenching his jaw. “You see in the realm of the council, money doesn’t matter that much. It still matters but favour matters more”

  “Favour? I’ve heard that word used a lot”

  “Put simply, it’s a goodwill token from Yuniea. The amount of liberties she’s willing to grant you uncontested.”

  “What? So… like wishes from God?”

  “In a way” Nigel said.

  “What can you even do with it? Can you ask her for anything?”

  “Not anything. But you can do a lot. You can ask for stat points, to share hidden information with certain people, for dominion over certain territories, free teleportation rights and more. But the main thing is that it can be traded, between anyone. You can use it get rights, things or even information. Think of it like a currency that’s gained from contributing to the war”

  “That seems… overpowered” he mumbled, his mind turning back to all the times Daen had mentioned using favour for him. He gulped hard. The crown on his head suddenly seemed a lot heavier.

  “It is”

  “How does this all come back to Daen’s deal?” he asked. But from the look on Nigel’s face alone, Caleb already knew the answer.

  “There were a series of deals and offers made. From Yuniea and the other planets. There always is when a new planet joins the council. The other two, they took on a heavy burden from Yuniea, minimal help from other planets and organised lots of specific trade agreements.”

  “Burden? As in quota for fighting monsters in the war?”

  “Yeah”

  “So… high risk, high reward?” Caleb said.

  “No” Nigel laughed bitterly. “The “favour tax” is about as high as you can reasonably imagine. Put simply they’ll take a majority of the favour earned by world members for themselves, and use it ‘for the betterment of Earth’ as they say, but we all know what’s going to happen. They’re exploiting everyone basically. I guess I’m included in that too. But even then… it’s just too much. They’re asking for too much from everyone. We can’t…”

  Nigel trailed off. Caleb watched him, then looked to the orange dirt beneath his feet, furrowing his brow. For some reason, Daen’s words came to him, clear as crystal in that moment.

  The Yildaric guard fight primarily against named evils of the opposing dominions. And all war worlds must bear their quota.

  Is that what Daen had meant? That joining would help cover the quota for his world. That it’d make things easy for everyone?

  “You want me to fight to help cover the quota?” he asked.

  “No” Nigel muttered, “they took you into account when setting the quota. If you don’t do this then…”

  Nigel left the rest unsaid, but Caleb could feel the sinister tendrils of choices made far beyond his reach already constricting around him. His face fell as he looked to the ground.

  “That doesn’t seem fair”

  “I’m sorry Caleb. But the representatives set the rules”

  “That’s just, so… horrible? Can’t that just be exploited?”

  “Well usually the representatives can be changed if the people aren’t happy”

  “And they can’t for us?”

  “We formed a mana connection through our own actions Caleb. Even if it was just a fluke, it’s never been done before. The position’s were granted to us by Yuniea. You could try to vote us out, but I think the rest of the council would stop you.”

  Caleb went silent, looking to the scars across his hand with an intense frustration. Any relief he felt, any joy, it was gone now, replaced by a cold dread and coarse frustration. He hadn’t expected things to be easy, but this? This wasn’t right.

  They’re not even giving me a choice, he thought.

  “I’m sorry Caleb” Nigel said shaking his head. “I guess in a way I’m complicit in all this. I was too caught up in all the awe of my circumstances, in the trust that I’d placed in my friends. I think… I think I just thought it would all be ok. That things would be like usual. That Sam would figure out how to fix things. Just… not like this”

  “You don’t have to apologise” Caleb replied.

  “I do” Nigel muttered sadly, adjusting his robes. “I know it’s not much, but I can give you three days, keep the others off your back. After that, I’m sorry but you’ll have to make a decision. I’m not telling you to accept… I could never ask you to-”

  “It’s ok” Caleb repeated, though his tone implied otherwise.

  He frowned, before clenching his fist tightly as his side began to throb.

  He’d expected to have his life changed forever, to be slowly and steadily pulled from everyday life as magic became more and more a part of the world. Just not so soon.

  “You can take me back now” Caleb said.

  “No” Nigel said.

  “No?”

  “You don’t have to go back if you don’t want to” Nigel said.

  “I can’t stay here”

  “No Caleb, I’ll let you go anywhere” he said. “For the next three days, just request it and I’ll cover the favour.”

  “Anywhere?” Caleb mumbled, awed.

  “Anywhere” Nigel said with a smile. “Where do you want to go first?”

  “Home” he mumbled. “I want to go home.”

  “Just think of the place and it’s done” Nigel said. Caleb closed his eyes, remembering the dusty dryness of the trailer park, of the chainlink fence that surrounded the lot, of the beaten sidewalk he and some of the other kids would cover in chalk drawings in the summer. He remembered the taste of the place, the smell, and the sound. The feel of it and the memories. His mind stretched beyond the place, beyond just his actual home to the feeling of it. To all the places, and space where his memory had felt at home. From the park he’d played in with his middle school friends, to the tree he’d sat in for an hour during a picnic, and even the hill he’d chased his sister up once. Before any thoughts of cancer, magic and monsters had ever existed in his mind. Back when everything had been simple. Normal.

  He felt connected to the space itself in a way he hadn’t quite done in years. Maybe even ever. It was both surreal and the most grounding experience he’d had in a while.

  The rush was sudden, powerful as if a force was connecting the memories within his mind to a place beyond. Instantly a red portal appeared in front of him, warping the space around it. Caleb hesitated, reaching out to it, feeling the whirlwind of its magic wash over his hands before finally stepping through.

  The change was instant, a sudden feeling of power, almost ecstasy-like, as he stepped through the portal. Then he was on the other side, the sound of his home surrounding him. He blinked hard looking around as his heart beat in a slow and steady rhythm. He stood on the slope he’d chased his sister up, overlooking a few houses and then the sea beyond it, as the glow of the sun beat down on him.

  “This home?” Nigel asked, the portal behind them disappearing.

  “Yeah”

  “You live in one of those houses?” Nigel said.

  “No, no” he muttered, voice quiet. “It’s a slight walk away. I just remembered up here more”

  “Yeah, that happens if you have a connection to the place. It goes away after the third or so try though”

  “I- thank you” Caleb mumbled, turning to Nigel suddenly.

  “I- don’t thank me” Nigel said, his joy at the thanks, overshadowed by guilt.

  “Thank you anyway” Caleb repeated.

  “Well, if you really mean it, you’re welcome.”

  They stood in silence on the road for a while, before Nigel sighed.

  “What’s wrong?” Caleb asked, turning to him.

  “It’s the others” Nigel said, swiping at the air as his eyes scanned over various invisible messages. “They’re having a meeting with someone important. Say they need me.”

  “Is it important?”

  “No… yes, but I should probably stay”

  “It’s ok. You can go”

  Nigel looked to him, frowning before looking back to the message.

  “I won’t be able to convince them anyway. They’ll just keep going the way they’re going” he said.

  “I mean they could always get worse” Caleb said. Nigel frowned, his face twisting with uncertainty.

  “That’s… true”

  “You seem like a decent guy”

  “Then I gave off the wrong impression” Nigel half joked.

  “You seem compassionate Nigel. I mean, you told me all this. You could’ve just told me I had to accept and not explained anything” Caleb said. “It sounds like the other two need a voice like that in the room.”

  “It won’t be enough” Nigel muttered dejected.

  “Can’t you at least try?”

  Nigel was silent for a moment, looking out over the sea as the mana all throughout his body seemed to rippled down from his head.

  “I guess I could” he muttered. “Well… thanks for that. And uh… bye. The free teleport will still be active by the way. Just… try not to do anything insane.”

  “I won’t” Caleb said. Nigel nodded, then waved his hand, a red portal appearing next to him. He hesitated, then stepped through the portal disappearing behind him. Caleb watched as the shimmering of the space died down, then turned his attention back to the sea. The sun glinted off it perfectly, the light shimmering off the water. In the distance he could see the horizon, though somehow it looked just a little closer than he remembered.

  He took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh smell of air as a small smile, the plague of anxious worry temporarily leaving his mind as he allowed the childlike joy to sweep through him.

  He was home. He was finally home.