I let my gaze hang on my hands which were wet because of Eadric’s blood. There was a slight tremor on them but unlike what I’d expected, it seems that I wasn’t so surprised at the sight. Of course, I knew this was going to be the last outcome. Either Eadric died or all four of us did. One or the other.

When I looked into my mind, I could find all the memories from Earth to be there. There was a wall after that. It blocked me from looking past it, hiding all the memories of the man whose body I’d occupied. But just like an old wall that hadn’t aged so well, there were many cracks in them, memories seeping into me.

Perhaps that’s why I could understand what Sirius and the others were saying. All this time they had been speaking in a language that I’d never heard in my life but not only was I capable of understanding it, I could even speak it as fluently. The only difference being their words were rougher around the edges. Except for the language, the memories that seeped past the wall were not so hard for me to distinguish. It was a relieving piece of information.

I let my gaze sink further down, following along the trail of blood sourced from Eadric’s neck, his body lying flat down. The red blood reached up to my knees as the lower garments soaked up the blood slowly turning my feet cold.

The sight of Eadric’s lifeless body with his head missing from where it was supposed to be, made a rather horrendous sight, making me uncomfortable enough that I avoided its sight. And the modern sense of morality that I’d formed over my entire life on earth wasn’t letting me brush past this incident as something that was of necessity.

From the very start, Eadric had intended to kill us. He acted as if he was playing with his toys but that was further from the truth. He had been bidding his time for the right moment he could strike and when that realization hit me I had no option but to step in. Moreover, with that object he had, I assumed it wouldn’t have been that hard for him to escape if things turned worse.

Darren was able to sense Eadric’s Bondor signature but that metal was somehow able to hide it from him. But, there had to be some kind of limitations to it as he did not use it from the very beginning. Perhaps there was a downtime after each use?

Even though Darren couldn’t sense him, I was able to ‘see’ him, making me the only person who could’ve stopped the situation from degrading. Maybe it was fate playing its trinket and making me arrive here at the right time with the proper weapon in hand, that being the eyes. It took no telling that the ability to ‘see’ Bondor was a rather special ability and for all I knew it could be a despised one at that…

As I heard the rhythmic sound of Sirius’s footfalls, I turned my gaze up looking blankly at his approaching figure. His clothes were in tatters, as cuts and gashes formed beneath them. Darren didn’t have the chance to heal those it seems. From his demeanor, I could tell he was quite tired from the fight earlier. And so was I.

There was a lack of strength in me at that moment as if I could faint any moment.

His dark blue eyes reflected everything in front of him as he watched me with a clear gaze. In them, I saw the kneeling reflection of someone. With his disheveled hair, there was a confused look on his face.

Oh, It was me. The current me. It was me in the body of someone that I had never seen in my life. His body-or was it mine now? was slightly taller than how I was back on earth and there was a sharp pair of eyes that glowed brightly with life, unlike mine.

The power that I got after arriving here was probably something this body’s owner had. So, Did I keep that ability when reincarnating?

The bondors surrounding Sirius were rushing toward him, seeping into his body and rejuvenating him. Entering inside they followed through the invisible channels.

He came to a stop when there was a meter of space between us. But, I continued looking at the reflection formed in his eyes.
A body that wasn’t mine, memories that weren’t mine, abilities that were beyond my comprehension. I felt a bitter laugh come out of my pursed lips, reminding me that they have gone rather dry.

With that, there remained no doubt that I was in another world. Somewhere different. Somewhere which was not earth.
I had managed to leave my body behind but the memories of that life were still there in my mind. But, perhaps as time goes on they will slowly fade away and I’ll be able to outlive them. As they say, time is the best medicine.

Maybe this time will be different…

Slowly my thoughts started to turn fuzzier, my world turning black and soon I felt the impact of my body hitting the hard soil.
Just let this not be a dream.

Please…

---

The warmth that radiated all around and within my body was enough for me to wish that I could stay in this comfort for longer. But the muffled voice surrounding me started to become more and more clear, and before I knew it I was fully awake. Blinking a couple of times, my vision adjusted to the brightness of the fire that was burning beside me with a yellowish tint.

The sky was darkened by the disappearance of the sun’s last rays but the little shiny dots there managed to create a rather serene environment. A cool breeze blew past my roughened hair as the fire dwindled slightly casting a shadow over me.

I had been lying over a boulder but unlike a normal boulder, its dead surface wasn’t so hard. It was from a tree called Wokher, a piece of memory seeped into me at its sight.

Sighing I turned my gaze down and saw Sirius sitting on the same boulder a little further from my warm feet. His spear tip poked out from behind his shoulder blade and I could only make out the shaft being placed in the ground.

There was another boulder, opposite of the fire on which Darren was sitting. He had something small in his hand and upon a closer look I discerned it as the broken metal pieces carried by Eadric. Quite further from him, Octus sat there looking somewhere else which I couldn’t tell from my position, but his back was turned toward the fire.

I moved my legs and placed them on the ground. With my body turned up right now, my eyes meet Darren’s and I received a dry smile from him.

“Oh, you are awake?” He said, making Sirius turn his head. But Octus didn’t move.

I could tell my body had recovered from how there was no lingering sensation of weakness in my body, completely different compared to how I felt before blanking out. Looking at how I had used the bondors back then, I’d managed to overexert myself enough that I lost consciousness.

Taking note of that I asked Darren, “What happened after I lost consciousness?”

“We checked Eadric’s body for any clue about who had sent him here but there was none. He was quite the sly one. Later we found this place as our camp for the night.” Darren replied simply.

So, it was all real huh?

Tapping into my vision I watched the world glow up once again, but this time it was under my control. The bondors in the air were calm and tranquil way different from how it was back then.
As the wind blew so did the ashes, making me blink my eyes a few times. When I opened my eyes once again the world had turned normal again. I blinked once and there was nothing but on the second blink, the world turned bright.

So that was the trigger? I wondered silently.

But the silence was broken by Sirius with his cold voice. “You are not from Xavier. The council hadn’t sent anywhere here in the last few months and you aren’t strong enough to survive here alone. So, who are you?”

His voice was chilling and I felt the bondor vibrate wildly at his words. It was no wonder he was so cautious about me. Anyone would if someone appeared out of thin air and even managed to figure out their enemy’s trump card.

My mind turned to figuring out the best response for my position. I had to somehow convince them to help me, to provide me with more information that I needed. But for them to do that, I had to gain their trust. But how?

I took a deep breath in, calming my nerves, and then breathed out relaxing my facial muscles. With a serious tone, I said, “I don’t know. I can’t remember. All I remember is waking up in this forest and finding the traces left by you all.”

I decided to act like I didn’t remember anything. Although it wasn’t the truth I had no idea how I arrived in this world.
I had occupied someone else body so did I die on earth? I couldn’t find any such memory but if I did, then does that mean I reincarnated in this world?

Either way, saying that wasn’t going to be the best response and would even complicate the topic if they were willing to listen to me. But there was no need for that if I could just convince them that I had amnesia.

“Why should we believe you?” Sirius asked.

“A valid question,” I nodded, “but as you can see I have no ways to prove that I can’t remember anything. I’m just as concerned as you are.”

I hadn’t been a big liar back on earth, only resorting to such in the most desperate situations but right now lies continued flying past my lips with no hesitation whatsoever. It was as if I had a natural talent for lying.

“Besides you know full well that I am currently nowhere strong enough to cause any harm to all of you. The first time I came across this mysterious power was during that fight before.” As I said that, my eyes went to my hand.

What I said was completely true. Despite I was able to find Eadric’s trump card I knew full well, as of this moment I wasn’t capable of defeating even a single of them.

“I understand,” Sirius said, his eyes moving from my hand to my face, “Darren has confirmed that you are half-awakened and not a threat to us. That was the only reason we had not tied you up.”

I ignored the later part and asked, “Half-awakened?”

“Yes, half-awakened. It’s just a term I came up with to describe your condition. For some reason, you haven’t been able to awaken completely so you currently stand between a sprout and an awakened mystic.” Darren said throwing a piece of wood into the fire.

“Sprouts are those who had newly gained the ability to sense bondors and their flow around them but they cannot nearly control or manipulate the bondor, making them quite useless in a sense. Whereas awakened are full-fledged mystics who can manipulate bondors to their will.” He finished.

I took a moment to think through his words and understand their meaning. “Does that mean despite the fact I can control the bonds, I don’t have the full capabilities of a mystic?”

“Correct. Your senses are better than that of a sprout but you still lack the full capabilities and abilities of a mystic. I have never seen someone like you before in my entire life,” As Darren said in the latter part he had a weird glow to his eyes that made me think whether that’s how scientists looked at their guinea pigs.

But a half-mystic, was it? I already had a theory after hearing Darren’s explanation. When I reincarnated here, something that made sense and I preferred thinking Zareth on earth was dead, I went through the awakening partially. Now that I think about it, my senses and strength were enhanced from the time I woke up and slowly the world opened up anew before my eyes, the bondors being visible to me.

“Then how does one awaken in a normal situation?” I asked the most important question I could think of.

“Some naturally, others through training. As one learns more about bondors and their nature, their insight into mysticism becomes deeper and subsequently, they awaken.” Darren explained.

“So everyone does through the same awakening process but gains different powers at the end?” I asked.

Is it that random? I wondered.

“It’s not about different abilities but which domain and sub-domain they belong to determines what kind of power they would possess,” Sirius replied this time.

“Exactly what Sirius said. In the case of Eadric, he was a ‘Mindless wanderer’ which is his rank name but it belongs to a sub-domain and that sub-domain belongs to a domain, both of its name is unknown to me. ”

From there on, I continued asking them questions and they kindly answered them.

The gist of it all was that there are certain domains under which multiple sub-domains belonged. There is no limit to how many sub-domains there can be. And each sub-domain had a few subsequent ‘orders’. ‘Order’ meant the collective of all the ‘ranks’ that belonged to a sub-domain.

Darren was from the sub-domain of concealment and his order was ‘Pathfinder’. The initial rank is used as the name of the ‘Order’ to erase any more complexities.

Each of the ranks had some base abilities which one would obtain after their ascension to that specific rank. But the interesting part was that with more insight they could get more derived abilities, making the abilities of two people belonging to the same rank have different abilities and strengths.

At first, I thought knowing a mystic’s rank name was the key to defeating them as that would allow one to prepare sufficiently but with that last piece of information, I had to change my way of thinking.

As the conversation slowly dwindled, I asked,” Why are you sharing all this information so easily? Aren’t they valuable?”

“They are. Most people in our town, Xavier, don’t know much about mysticism in general. But,” Darren said, his eyes turning sharper, “We still need you to be alive.”

Huh?

For a moment everything turned silent and I felt a chilling coldness creeping up my naked feet. It was only broken by Octus who sneezed but all of us ignored him.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You should know that my ability allows me to sense the bondor signature of a person and yours is quite abnormal. It’s like the bondor inside your body isn’t fully in your control. You are constantly releasing bondor out of your body and because of your lack of control I assume you will run out of your bondor reserve way quickly.” He replied.

“But what has that got to keeping me alive?” I shot back.

“I don't know how your body is managing to balance it but chances are it probably won’t last long enough. And the result would be your bondor overflows and your body explodes as a result of it.”

I couldn’t tell if he was telling the truth or not. Maybe it was their way of keeping me in their control by having my life as leverage. Perhaps they thought by installing fear in me they can control me and get what they wanted. But in case it was the truth it was a rather concerning fact. I had no intention of dying soon after being able to escape my previous life and reincarnate here.

“So, what's the solution?” I asked simply.

“To become a full-fledged Mystic,” Sirius replied this time.

“And how is that going to work?”