Time lost all meaning amid the pain. The contest of wills kept me company. The sensation that most strongly registered was the feeling of my body’s destruction, each fiber seemingly tearing apart and reknitting itself. The physical world around me blurred into a backdrop, inconsequential against the fierce internal battle raging within.

  Suddenly, a sharp slap on my head shattered my focus. Instinctively, I jerked my head back and swung my fist in the direction of the offender. Although I couldn’t see what had happened, my fist connected with something solid.

  Swiftly, I regained my footing and prepared for further conflict. Reaching into my bag with one hand, I summoned my sword, eyes darting around to assess the situation. As I drew the weapon, ready to face any threat, I noticed Jack sprawled on the ground.

  “Where is it?” I asked in my head.

  “I think he’s lying on the floor,” Rabbit replied wryly.

  There was only Jack, lying exactly where I had rolled from, no sign of any other enemy. Sword still in hand, I took two cautious steps forward and called out, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” Jack grunted, struggling to his feet. “You got me pretty good. Was that mana in your arm already, or did you manage to send it that quickly?”

  “It was already there, but why did you hit me?” I demanded, still on edge.

  Jack smirked as he steadied himself. “I came over to say, ‘What are you doing?’” A callback to my own annoying question from earlier.

  “Why would you sneak attack me?” I pressed, still tense.

  “First off, I wasn’t sneak attacking you. I was coming to get you because it’s time to eat. It’s already night,” Jack explained, pointing to the two holes in the cave roof where one of the moons cast a red glow. “Second, I yelled your name several times.” Jack glanced down at his hands, considering for a moment. “And third, your head is sweaty and nasty. You need to bathe again.” He seemed about to wipe his hands on me, but reconsidered upon seeing just how drenched I was.

  Looking down, I realized it wasn’t just my head. My entire meditation session had been anything but serene. My undergarments were soaked with sweat, and my top layers weren’t much better. I decided to get everyone’s food out first before freshening up a bit. Eventually, I joined them for the meal.

  “Learning from the master, huh?” Kaylie quipped as I sat down. “You’re turning into Jack’s little clone.”

  “He wasn’t following my technique because he doesn’t have the control to accomplish anything,” Jack replied, gesturing toward me with a piece of meat.

  “Actually, I was attempting Jack’s method without the level of control he mentioned. It was working quite well,” I responded, trying to clarify my approach.

  Jack gave me a look that suggested he thought I was an idiot. “You can’t do it without control.”

  “I think you are wrong about how it works,” I challenged.

  “Me wrong? I’m the one who taught you,” Jack countered sharply.

  “Let me ask you a question. When you create another path too close to each other, does it collapse into one path?”

  “How did you know?” Jack looked surprised.

  “Because I don’t think what you think is happening, is actually happening.”

  “What do you think is happening?” he challenged, crossing his arms.

  “I think you are sending a small amount of mana into your muscles to find a path. You probably don’t find a path the first time, but maybe the second or third you find a way in. Then just a little bit, and that repeats over and over, getting deeper. Is that your experience?” I questioned, trying to understand his method better.

  “Yes, but how is that not right?” Jack responded, a hint of defensiveness in his tone.

  “Oh, it is, but I don’t think you are finding a pathway,” I explained. “I think you are creating it.” I watched as Jack raised his eyebrow. “Instead of there already being ‘pathways,’” I put up my hand in quote marks, “I think your muscle is acclimating to the mana. And it’s the fact that you are sending a small amount of mana through your muscles that is allowing it to acclimate.”

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  “That’s nonsensical. There are pathways, and they enlarge every time you use them,” Jack argued.

  “Remember when I asked about pathways collapsing? I think that has to do with that. Do you have a word for a small amount of lightning in your body that can be transferred?” I asked this because they really didn’t understand electricity. They only had the concept of lightning as magic.

  “We call it a lightning kiss,” Sana interjected.

  “Perfect. So, you have a ‘lightning kiss,’ and what’s actually happening is that you have a certain amount of charge that shares itself with those cells that don’t have a charge,” I explained, noticing Jack’s confused expression while Sana nodded in understanding. “When you send out a small amount of mana, it gets shared with its neighboring cells. I found out the hard way that cells can only handle so much at a time before being destroyed, so I think the adjacent cells fare better than those touched directly by the mana. This effectively creates a ‘hole’ or a path, as you might imagine it.”

  “You are saying that mana works like lightning? But I haven’t heard of that,” Sana challenged, expressing skepticism about the comparison.

  “Not exactly. We have a concept in our world called entropy.” I paused, consulting internally with Rabbit before coming up with a better analogy. “Okay, think of it like cooking. You have a piece of meat on a spit and are rotating it to ensure the outer layer doesn’t burn. However, some outer sections will inevitably burn regardless. The heat transfers inside the meat, cooking it thoroughly. So, the cooked portion of the meat represents the muscle being acclimatized to the mana, while anything too hot will be destroyed.”

  I could actually see understanding dawning on Jack’s face with this explanation. “Let’s say you’re right. What does that change? It’s not like I would do anything differently.”

  “Maybe not for you, but for me, it changes everything,” I replied. “While meditating, I realized you chose me for your technique because of my healing factor. You probably thought that once I had sufficient control, I could create pathways extremely fast. That would be true. However, I discovered a much faster way. Instead of pushing mana through a single path and then creating a second and third, I decided to flood my muscles with mana.”

  “That wouldn’t work. It would just destroy your muscles,” Jack countered.

  “Yes, it did, and it was excruciating. I had to let them regrow, which wasn’t very pleasant. However, when I lowered the amount of mana, it actually worked. My regeneration was quick enough that I could make a minimal push with every other breath and not totally destroy my muscles.”

  Jack leaned forward, intrigued. “And that’s how you hit me with mana still in your arm?”

  “Yes, but I haven’t fully finished that arm yet. I still have a bit more to go.”

  Jack leaned back, looking contemplatively up at the sky through the holes in the cave ceiling. “That means before the next full moon, you could have completed the whole cycle. I wonder how much mana you could hold with your whole muscle converted.” His gaze shifted from the red sky back to me, a smirk playing on his lips. “Well, with your muscles, not that much.”

  You know, even when he compliments me, they always seem backhanded. I can’t win.

  “Maybe not, but thanks to this method, I might actually live long enough to grow real muscles. Thank you, Jack,” I said with a sincere smile. Jack smiled back but quickly reverted to his tough exterior.

  Sana’s demeanor changed suddenly. “If you two are done making eyes at each other, I want to fill you in, Alf.”

  “I bet you would want to fill her in,” Rabbit commented in my head, but I ignored him.

  “Since you were meditating all day and didn’t join our conversation earlier, you don’t get a say,” Sana declared like a mother. “Jack will take the first watch tonight, you’ll have the middle, and Kaylie will cover the last one. No complaints about being tired tomorrow. Also, we need to decide our next steps if we don’t find anything by tomorrow morning.”

  “A decision about what?” I asked, not overly concerned about the watch schedule. I had a hard time falling asleep anyway, and this arrangement meant a lot of disrupted sleep for me, unlike Kaylie and Jack, who would only have their sleep interrupted once. Despite this, they were all here for me, and I would’ve volunteered for the middle watch regardless. However, I was curious why Sana wasn’t taking a shift herself.

  “A decision about whether we should leave,” Sana explained, pointing up to the two holes in the cave roof through which the red moonlight streamed. “We haven’t found anything in this room, and we can’t stay here indefinitely. Tomorrow, we’re planning to move that ring you received around the room and onto the circles. If that doesn’t do anything, we’ll probably have to leave.”

  “But what about the treasure?” I asked, my tone almost childlike.

  “We can always come back someday when you figure out the riddle, but keep in mind we do not have unlimited food, and we aren’t getting anywhere,” Sana reasoned. “If we can climb through the hole and face a series of traps up there, we need to give ourselves time to prepare, rather than deciding at the last second.”

  Her argument was well-reasoned, and I couldn’t fault the logic. Yet, I knew if we left, it was unlikely I’d come back. I doubted their help would extend to repeated trips here. Nor was I skilled enough to tackle this place on my own.

  By the time I lay down for bed, all I could think about was the possibility of going home tomorrow. I didn’t particularly want to go on the Ancients’ adventure, but over time, I realized it was necessary. The treasure had been promised as something significant, perhaps a vast pile of riches. In my world, that would be fantastic, but here, I wasn’t even sure how I’d use such gold. I was hoping for something more. Something like a powerful sword or sneaking boots to enhance my abilities.

  It took me a while to fall asleep, worried as I was. When I finally did, it was under the gaze of one of the moons peering at me through the cave hole. As I drifted off, I imagined that the opening above me was the heavens staring down and judging my weakness. And so I dreamt…