IT WAS HE WHO WENT.

  In truth, he insisted.

  Whiskey had volunteered right away. He was ready to have her go, trusting her expert survival skills and lay of the land would bring her quickly to the command center. Then he thought better of it once he realized, 'Wait... she has never gone through the Backroads. And Jiehong has only done so once, maybe twice? I should get them up to speed with the Backroads so I am not the only one who can go and use it. But for the time being, I guess that means I have to go instead... geez...'

  Although Whiskey had not been happy about not going after all, evidently, the fieldhands always needed a hand doing this or that and their needs were getting on her nerves, especially since the needs often resulted in her backside facing hassling slaps which she obviously found unpleasant, she understood the demand of the situation. So, he packed up, and promised his team he would stick to the main roads and flee to safety should a wandering warband of golems get in his way... not that he expected as much to happen, not after a secondary ping from Simulacrum which stated he had detected no such large forces.

  Finding the lodestone had been a hassle. It took Jiehong a good portion of the day to locate even with the Screen Master helping them out by using his magical sensing abilities. Once it was located, Jiehong and Whiskey, had to summon deep within the final spurts of magical energy. With a painful channeling, they forced their energy into the stone, barely able to imbue the stone with the trivial sum of magic needed for its activation.

  Once the lodestone had been found and activated -- he thanked the gods there was even a stone in their area! -- he had a bite to eat and then left.

  With the open road ahead of him, he had time to let his mind wander as the only thing he saw while biking was rolling hills, abandoned villages in the tree line, and the flutter of birds. It was a beautiful day out. The sun shone. The massive form of a god's palace sparked high overhead, barely visible as a twinkle in the sky. 'I wonder which god that is,' he thought.

  By the end of his first day biking, he felt less stressed. Being away from the encampment, the hard labor of fieldwork, the less hard, but just as tedious labor of mending tools, or giving interviews, considering, made him feel at ease. He trusted his friends to hold down the fort. So, he could bike. Bike and breath of the world as he let himself be an ant upon the cusp of a world far larger than his little-old-self would ever be.

  By the end of his second day, and nearly halfway to the center, he received a voice whisper from Luxley.

  Despite his declaration he would communicate with him more often, Luxley had been spotty, to say the least. To hear him now was great.

  The whisper he heard had said, "Zan? It's me. How have you been?"

  He had heard the whisper while tending to his simple fireplace out of sight, out of mind, and a little beyond the forest's border. He took a sip of tea, thought about Luxley, and replied, "I'm doing good. We were able to find our way to the first location. We found a bunker! Then we bought the bunker, if you can believe it! And now we're fixing it up, clearing out these contraptions called 'fae-constructs,' and living it up. What's going on with you? I thought I would have heard from you sooner. I hope everything is fine."

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  "Yeah! Everything is great. Just missing you, is all..." Luxley said.

  "Missing me? What ever for, bro?" he replied, taken aback by someone who actually wanted him around and wasn't a teammate, one of which, he reminded himself, was his brother.

  "Lots of stress. I told you about my plans to go and do apprenticeships? For my techy-mag stuff? Well, political stuff is getting in the way. Nothing major. It's just causing delays and everything. Making highway travel hard. It should clear up soon, though. As I am waiting and studying and re-reading the same tomes I have heard over twice now, I keep on thinking about how this all would be much better if I had my bro by my side."

  "For real, man, for real," he replied, keeping it casual and repetitive. "Have you actually left the castle? You said the highway was tricky, so I was curious."

  "Yeah. I left the castle. It is great... or was great, I should say. Getting away from my father is fantastic, but while I wait for the political stuff to clear, I am stuck at an inn only an odd dozen miles or so outside of the castle. I'm well within distance of my old life. It's annoying, you know?" Luxley told him, his tone frustrated.

  "I know what you mean. I am heading back to my base right now. I should be back at the first site helping my team but our leader-type-person... thing, called me back so I could hear of some new development firsthand. I am going to lose days because of the travel back. I don't really dislike it, but I do feel like I should be with my team. I think I know a little of what you're feeling. Maybe..."

  "Sounds like it. I can hear it in your voice."

  "Funny you should say that -- I could hear your stress from your voice. Our voices give us away. Weird. Since I don't think of myself as really having a voice," Zan said, gulping down more tea and ruffling around in his sack for a cracker and some dried papple fruit to fill his belly.

  "Really? You don't think you have a voice? Odd thing to hear coming from the mouth of the grandmaster of a grand martial order!" Luxley replied, laughing with good intent.

  "Well... I am 'grandmaster' in name only. I am training my way there for real. Super long way to go, though. The invasion happened a couple of months ago, maybe three? It feels still so surreal. So weird. I can't believe I'm fighting for my life and for my community. Just everything -- it all changed so much. I wake up most days in disbelief that the day before wasn't a dream..."

  "I understand," Luxley said. "Sort of! I wake up feeling like being away from the castle must be a dream. Then, when I realize I am truly free of it, for the time being, anyway, I feel so happy! Reverse of your situation, I guess. Sorry about that, bud."

  "No. It's fine. Not your fault a superpower invaded."

  An awkward silence passed between the two boys. For all of their blunt interactions, and for all he knew about Luxley from secondhand glances and contextual intuition, he still did not know if Luxley and his family were directly involved in the invasion of his homeland. He suspected they must, since they are extraordinarily wealthy aristocrats living in the heart of the Expanse, but he didn't know for sure. He did not want to ask. Neither did he want to sour a friendship because of his misgivings about complex political situations he knew nothing about. Not when Luxley had been so receptive to helping him.

  "Yeah. Uh -- I hope it all works out for you, Zan. I gotta go now but I will talk to you soon. Bye!"

  Another sudden ending. Luxley pops in, chats for a moment, then leaves. 'I hope he is okay. He always sounds so weird. So full of himself but somehow also fragile. An odd boy, that's for sure!'

  Since his tea was a calming beverage instead of an energizing one, his eyes felt heavy, moreso after such a nice conversation. He dosed his campfire and went to sleep, letting the echoes of his friend's situation and voice reverberate in his mind. A mental peace which led to a dream of gods and entities greater than gods lording over him as though he were an insect. The dream, although intimidating, wasn't scary. Merely mysterious. When he woke, he felt refreshed. Though weirded out by the dream.

  He stretched his sore legs. 'The command center is still a day or two away. I need to get going,' he told himself. So, he packed up camp and shoved off. He saw a System notification -- [New Skill Unlocked: Perception] -- though did not think much of it. After all, he had always been a perceptive lad.