Dyasen was halfway convinced there was no biome other than grassland. On his way through here in the other direction, he’d started to feel certain of it. The brownish-green fields stretched for miles in every direction, only rarely broken by ridges, rocks, or the occasional small settlement.

Dyasen was currently headed toward one such settlement, hoping to restock his supplies there. He had his pack again — which he’d dropped a few hundred yards from the fort before going in — but there wasn’t enough food in it to sustain him for the whole journey back. Unfortunately, the settlement was deceptively far away due to the nature of this never-ending field of nothing, so he would have to spend another night camping in the open before he made it there.

“A night in the grand field it is, then,” he declared to himself, since there was no one else to talk to. He was rather used to talking to himself; not only was thinking in words an integral part of his power, but out of everyone in Miracca’s team of mercenaries, he was the one who most often went on missions alone. Well, him and Hexis, anyway.

Glancing up, he saw that the sun was close to disappearing behind the mountains that lined the horizon. “Wellll,” he said. “I suppose I ought to find a place to camp.”

He glanced around quickly, locating a patch of grass that looked decently soft. The chosen spot was about five feet in front of him, so he marched to it cheerfully, looking down and placing his hands on his hips.

This’ll do. With a loud sigh, he grabbed the strap of his pack, slinging it off his back.

“Sooo… you done yet?”

Dyasen blinked, stilling for a second. He’d assumed whatever this was had some sort of range limitation, given the way he’d first encountered it. But apparently if there was a limitation, he hadn’t exceeded it yet.

“I can’t tell where you are,” the voice mused. “I can hear you, and I think you were near earlier, or else I wouldn’t have picked up on your thoughts. No one else here ever thinks anything interesting. Not in words, at least.”

Dyasen turned his pack over and dumped the supplies on the ground, then dropped the pack next to them.

“But I still can’t tell where exactly you are.”

He went about organizing his things, setting up a spot to sleep with his blankets and another spot to set up a fire. I’m not here, Dyasen thought to himself, putting a bit of energy behind it. Hopefully, it would be enough to discourage further pestering from whatever this was. There is no one here, and no one worth talking to. He felt himself start to sink into nothingness.

“That’s your Energy Redirection Ability, isn’t it?” the voice demanded. “That you can hide yourself. Because I’m still partly convinced you don’t exist, and I don’t think that’s natural given how loud your thoughts are.”

Dyasen let out a long sigh, coming back into his consciousness. It was sort of right, but also completely wrong. And, it was apparently not going to leave him alone. “Alright, fine, I’m here,” he grumbled.

No response.

“Alright, fine, I’m here,” he repeated, this time in his head.

“I knew it!!!!” The voice sounded exceptionally pleased.

“How come you couldn’t hear me when I spoke aloud? I’m sure I was thinking the words as I said them.”

“It’s just not how my abilities work,” it told him. “You direct the thought in a different way if you’re going to say it out loud. And I’m glad for it, too. If I could hear all the conversations going on around me, I’d go insane.”

“Fair enough.” Dyasen continued setting up camp, pulling out a heavy pan to cook his meal. Then he stared at it, glanced at the partially-formed fire pit, at the miles of dry grass, and back at the fire pit. Shit.

“What?” It sounded like it was trying to sound unsurprised by his word choice.

“I was about to set up a nice little fire in the middle of a giant grass field.”

“Oh. Great idea.” It snorted.

Dyasen rolled his eyes, pulling out his rations. There was enough that didn’t need to be cooked to make a meal out of — jerky, dry bread, and several sad-looking pieces of vegetable matter.

“So whatcha gonna do about it?”

“I’ll just eat what I can without cooking. It won’t kill me.”

“Are you sure?” It sounded honestly worried.

He rolled his eyes again. “Yes. I have jerky, dried bread, and vegetables that don’t need to be cooked.”

“Okay. Just making sure.”

He raised his eyebrows. “What were you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know, I just don’t want you to get sick. You’re the only person that’s talked to me in a long time.”

It hadn’t made it easy for him to avoid talking to it, but he decided not to say that. “Well, thanks. I guess.”

Dyasen finished setting up, not bothering to make any sort of real shelter. It never rained east of the mountains this time of year. He sat back against his pack as he ate the cold food, legs crossed, watching the sun set over the mountains. There really are some beautiful things in the world.

“Ooh, like what?”

He groaned. “Shh. I’m enjoying the quiet.”

“Aw, but… I never get to see anything beautiful. Can’t you just tell me what it looks like?” It got a bit quieter as it added, “Please?”

Dyasen imagined his best loud sigh in his head.

“What was that for?”

“Huh. So you could hear that, even though it wasn’t a word.”

“Yeah, you still imagined it in your voice,” it said crossly, like that was obvious.

Dyasen closed his eyes, took a breath, and opened them again. “How long am I going to be stuck with you?”

“As… long as I want you to be?” It sounded like a mumble.

Well, then he supposed there was no point in ignoring it. “Okay, fine. I’m looking at a sunset. The sun’s going down behind the mountains, and it’s… very colorful.”

“What colors?”

“Sunset colors,” he grumbled. “It’s more orange down low- well, actually, it’s yellow-ish right around the sun, but more orange right around that, and then it gets sort of pink the higher up you look. Like… sunset colors.”

“You’re not very good at describing things, are you?”

“Look, you asked, and I tried,” Dyasen snapped.

“Okay, well, thanks.” It actually sounded sincerely appreciative. “What are you doing now?”

“I’ll be going to sleep as soon as I get a moment of quiet.”

“You don’t need to be so mean about it,” it protested, sounding hurt.

He sighed, then remembered it couldn’t hear him and sighed again in his head. “Sorry. I’ll talk to you in the morning. I promise.”

“Thanks,” the voice said softly.

Silence followed.

Dyasen scooted over to his pile of blankets, crawling under them and trying to ignore the bits of grass that poked his back. He was in probably the world’s most convenient place for any person or creature looking to steal something, get a quick meal, or defend its territory from a potential threat, but he decided he had enough sharp objects in his vicinity to quickly discourage anything that got out of hand. He was a light sleeper anyway.

The night passed uneventfully, and Dyasen awoke and packed up quickly as soon as the sun rose, setting out across the field once again. He was exceptionally careful not to think anything in words -- he felt that he deserved a few hours of silence before burning more of his energy in a pointless conversation.

When he was nearing the settlement in the late morning, though, guilt started to gnaw at him a little bit. I did promise. Then he realized he’d just spoken whether he liked it or not, so he added, “So here I am.”

“Heyyyyy, what’s up?” The response was almost instant.

Dyasen took a long breath in and let it out through his teeth. “The sky.”

“Huh. Must be nice.”

Dyasen adjusted his pack on his shoulders, pausing for a second. He’d reached the edge of the natural grass; beyond him, it turned to some sort of cultivated plant that grew in a rectangle surrounding the settlement. The settlement itself was little more than a small shack, with a shed tacked on next to it and a run-down cart parked outside. There wasn’t anyone outside that he could see, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been seen.

“Anyway, whatcha doing?”

He started forward, doing his best not to step on the plants. They were in neat rows, which made it easier. “I’m currently approaching somebody’s farmhouse in the hopes of getting more food, and maybe a faster way back to the city.”

“What city?”

He actually blinked at that. “ZeSarys.”

“Never heard of it.”

“How…” He shook his head. “Okay, well, it’s the capital city of CaSaryn. Which is the Empire that we’re currently in. Or at least, that I’m currently in.”

“Never heard of that either.”

“Oo-kay.” He found that a bit odd, but he supposed it didn’t exactly get out to see the world a lot.

He finally reached the house, still without encountering any people. I suppose not everyone is as careful as the people I’m used to.

“What?”

“Oops, I forgot for a second that my thoughts are now open to constant eavesdropping.”

“Sor-ry,” the voice said snidely.

Dyasen rolled his eyes, huffing. “Okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. Can you just leave me alone for a little bit? Or a few hours? I’m going to need to concentrate on talking to other people without also talking in my head. Human interaction gives me enough trouble as is.”

“Okay, fine. But you’d better let me know when you’re done.”

“Will do.” Rolling his shoulders back, Dyasen stepped up to the old-looking wooden door and raised a fist, then knocked twice. Here goes.