I couldn't tell where the screech had come from. It sounded like it was echoing from all around me. With a flex of my Authority, I extended my sensory range to the entire clearing I'd created.

With an absolutely required flick of my staff, I created shards of ice and held them in the air around me.

After a moment of nothing happening, I felt Kaede coming out from under the pillar I'd built as she walked into my Authority. Her aura felt practically impenetrable, as if she were walking around with a steel ball surrounding herself. No, wait, actually, steel would probably be easier to pierce with Authority. Maybe some kind of magic, incredibly tough material that also blocked Authority?

Were there any materials that blocked Authority? I assumed they had to exist in some capacity. It was hard to shove my Authority through the ground, but I could still do it.

Wait, I'm getting distracted.

"Hey, Kaede, do you know where that came from?" I asked, my Oath relaxed as she was supposed to help me track it down.

"I think it—" She was cut off, and it looked like someone had hit rewind on a VCR as she unspoke the words.

<Kaede had no idea where the sound came from.>

A smooth male voice spoke in my head. It sounded like a narrator from one of those old radio plays.

"I don't know." She spread her hands out, and dozens of lights appeared, dispersing into the area. It kind of messed up my night vision, but I supposed she needed lights for her inferior human eyesight.

More importantly, what the fuck was that?

"Did you hear that voice?" I asked,

Kaede gave me an odd look from down on the ground.

"No, what voice?" Kaede replied.

<As the two talked, they did not realize the danger that was lurking just past the clearing. Focused entirely on their task.>

"That one, is it just me hearing it? Keep an eye on the edge of the clearing," I said, scanning the forest.

"I don't hear anything. Are you okay? Maybe we should go back to looking at the grave," she said, which was weird. Is she obeying the voice?

It didn't take long for me to realize it looked like the entire clearing was surrounded. There was movement in the foliage and rubble in every direction.

"Hey, what the fuck. Why didn't you let me know we were surrounded?" I asked Novi.

[They just appeared out of nowhere! Also, I'm focused on the town right now. Are we pulling the trigger there? We have like eight minutes left.]

I let out a breath, watching the bushes writhe.

"I think we have enough targets over here. Bring your insect body as support. We don't need to go with plan B," I said, and after a moment of thought, continued. "Observe the area. I think something is creating these things."

The movement had suddenly stilled all at once.

<Surrounded, the duo were set upon on all sides by living shadows.>

From every direction, writhing masses of shadow scampered into the clearing. Carried by thin legs, they looked sort of like angry dark spiders.

"Frost Barrage," I yelled in Root, swinging my staff downwards. The ice shards I had been holding in place made snapping noises as they flew through the air and embedded themselves in several of the shadows. They dispersed into a cloud of smoke the moment they were hit.

Kaede screamed in what I'm fairly sure was fear as the shadows lunged towards her, which was stupid. She was higher level than I was. She should be able to handle herself.

I pushed the staff to its limit and created a whirlwind of ice shards around myself. Just as I was about to speak another spell into existence, a voice interrupted me.

<The Child's magics unfortunately failed her at a critical moment.>

All of the shards burst into flakes of snow and blew off into the air.

Okay fuck this.

"Let the one who speaks unseen be seen," I spoke with Authority blended through [Covenant of the Unbound]. Something immense and powerful tried to resist me, but another force pushed along with me. What felt like the world itself pushed alongside my command, and completely shredded the resistance apart.

I felt something enter my Authority directly above me and found my body automatically diving to the side. Moments later, the pillar of ice I had been standing on was annihilated as a creature slammed into it like a meteor.

Twirling in the air, I landed perfectly on my feet with cat-like precision. The Skill perfectly handled my movements, which was pretty amazing. I wondered for a moment if I would be able to replicate this effect with an artifact.

I was distracted from that thought by a barrage of projectiles that I dodged by throwing myself to the side, coming from the… Bird?

Standing in the centre of the clearing stood what, on first impression, appeared to be a bushtit that someone had scaled up to the size of an ostrich. Which kind of dumbfounded me for a moment. I just stared at the massive non-aerodynamic sphere of a bird.

Its gaze was following mine, and with a flick of its wings, a barrage of feathers flew towards me. I stepped to the side in an attempt to get out of the way while still examining this strange creature. While mid-step, the voice spoke.

<Unfortunately, the Child was unable to dodge the attack and perished.>

The feathers were suddenly homing directly towards me.

"NO," I yelled with Authority tinged in my voice. They stilled and fell from the air.

A quick glance around showed me the shadows no longer existed. Whatever it did had run out.

Its power seemed similar to mine. But more narrative-based instead of command-focused.

"Also, you will not call me a Child!" I added, and the world itself seemed to weigh on the command. It snapped into place with trivial effort.

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The bird opened its mouth and emitted a metallic screech. A wave of power washed over the area, which almost completely wiped away my aura as it was squeezed into a small space around me.

<The Miscreant collapsed on the spot as its body failed it. Fear overrode its ability to think as the Author's power washed over it.>

At least it didn't call me a Child again… Wait, the command didn't do anything?

The bird also seemed surprised by the fact that I hadn't collapsed on the spot. So surprised it didn't notice that Kaede had finally gotten her shit together and started contributing to the fight.

"Lance of Dawn," a beam of light that seemed to burn the air it travelled through, struck the bird on its side. The fury of the laser slightly charred its feathers.

Okay, never mind. She barely did anything.

For some reason, when I looked at Kaede, it felt weird as if she was distant or something. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. It was as if the world had decided she was less important.

I ignored that fact. It was probably just the zone doing something weird.

With a flick of my staff, I summoned a wave of tiny ice shards.

"Glacial Torrent," I yelled, flicking them at the bird before it could dispel the Mana.

The crackling sound of ice shattering sounded out across the clearing as the shards bounced off its feathers, doing absolutely nothing.

Fuck.

With a burst of [Natural Enhancement], I threw myself at it. If projectiles were doing nothing, then I'd just have to beat it to death myself.

Before I had even taken a second step, the giant tit turned to me and screamed a horrible mechanical noise. A massive wave of power washed over me. The world seemed to distort, then flickered out of existence.

<The Scene Changed: She waited patiently, wondering, no, hoping, he would show.>

The only thing I heard was the voice. There was nothing else left.

Suddenly, I was sitting at a table by the window in what appeared to be some kind of fancy cafe.

"Have you decided what you would like to order?" A woman's voice came from beside me.

I looked up. Something cold washed over my mind, and I found myself looking down at the table again.

That was odd. Why would I section off my own memories? That was definitely Winter Mana flowing through me.

Don't think about it too hard. I must have had a good reason.

A cup of coffee sat in front of me, alongside several packs of sugar and a small cup containing a white liquid. A sniff confirmed it was some kind of milk alternative, which was exactly what I needed. I had no interest in drinking cow excretions.

After mixing a generous amount of both, I took a sip of the coffee and let out a sigh. I hadn't taken a break to relax for a while. The coffee had some interesting biomagical properties, or at least my Core was giving odd readings. I was going to have to study this later.

I hoped I wasn't drooling on the ground while the bird dug my Core out of my stomach. That would be awkward, but what was I supposed to do?

I doubted that causing a fuss right now would help me in any way.

Just as a test, I tried, "Return from whence I came."

Nothing happened, and I found my Authority wouldn't even wrap around my words properly. It was as if I couldn't get it out of my body. Which meant I was stuck.

Oh well. I'll just enjoy my coffee.

I took a sip and looked out the window, and realized—

Another wash of cold over my mind, and I suddenly forgot where that line of thought was going.

It looked rather similar to the area I lived in when I first moved to Toronto. Just being here was fairly nostalgic. It felt like forever since I'd actually travelled to midtown. I hadn't gone back here for a while. Not after…

Huh, I couldn't remember.

The important thing was that this probably meant events are being pulled from my memory, which was odd. wasn't this supposed to be some kind of narrative manipulation? Why was it using my memories?

<Finally, just as the sun was beginning to set and she had given up all hope, he appeared.>

What was it talking about? The sun wasn't…

Looking outside, the sun was in fact about to set, despite the fact it appeared to have been midday a moment ago. Must have been a time skip.

A tinkling of a bell announced the door to the cafe opening. A moment later, a frazzled man sat down in the booth across from me. He was wearing a wife-beater and looked like he hadn't slept in over thirty hours.

"Ellie, right?" He asked, then in a quieter voice. "You have it?"

<Obviously, she did. That was the entire reason she had been waiting for him this whole time.>

There was suddenly a box sitting on the seat next to me. It was a steel case with a heavy padlock on the front.

"So, what's in this anyway?" I asked, "I have a 'don't hand rando—"

I was cut off as my throat began to burn.

I was acting out of character? But this isn't even part of the Zone, is it? Was I given a new character? What the fuck is happening?

The guy glanced around the nearly empty cafe. "If Steve didn't tell you, then it's not important."

<She needed the money and couldn't risk alienating him, so she resigned herself to never knowing the secrets contained within and handed it over to the man.>

No, no, fuck that. I'm not going to be a good little actor in whatever story they're trying to tell here.

I picked up the padlock and examined the bottom. It required a key, which I obviously didn't have. I was just glad it wasn't one of those stupidly overdesigned ones.

I tried just pulling it apart, but it was made of sturdy stuff. Despite my enhanced strength, I couldn't even rip it off the latch. The metal made an unhappy noise at my attempt.

This meant I was going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. In my hand, I grew a pick and a tension wrench, then inserted the wrench into the base of the lock.

My Core felt hot. It wasn't burning yet, but I was clearly pushing the boundaries of my role.

"Stop!" The man whispered as loudly as he could. "It's delicate, you can't just expose it to air. If you damage it, I'm not paying for delivery."

There we go. Now I feel the burning.

Oddly enough, it didn't feel as bad as when I wasn't playing my role properly back at the village. So either I was allowed more freedom in this role, which seemed unlikely. Or since this wasn't the actual Zone I wasn't being hit as hard.

"Then just tell me what's in here," I replied, ignoring the heat in my throat as I spoke.

This wasn't the first lock I'd ever picked, but to say I was rusty was an understatement. Luckily, a combination of Grace and Wit helped make up for that deficiency, and I managed to align three pins on the first try before fumbling it.

The second through fifth tries, I dropped it on the first pin, so that might have been beginner's luck, though.

"It's drugs! Are you happy? There's a kilo of cocaine in there. Now hand it over," he said. The guy was starting to get kind of antsy.

"Nah, you can expose soft to air without damaging it. Don't lie to me, dude. If it were coke, you would have just said that when I first asked." I replied, and finally felt the lock give with a satisfying click.

The burning suddenly stopped entirely. I was surprised enough by this fact that I didn't notice that homie decided to fuck around and find out until he had already pulled a gun and shot me.

<She ignored his pleading and paid for her obstinance with a bullet to the skull. That was the end of—

I fished the bullet out of my skull and noted it was literally glowing with the amount of Mana it contained. Kinetic Mana, I was pretty sure.

Great, now my immersion is broken. Magic didn't exist back on Earth… I think.

The bullet actually hurt, too. Not because of it tearing through my shell, no, I still didn't have pain receptors, so it kind of just felt like he threw a ball at my head. Then that ball drove itself into my flesh.

What actually hurt was the fact that, apparently, the world decided that my not dying was breaking my character's role, and I was being punished for that.

The guy just stared, clearly not expecting me to stay upright. I held up the bullet, flicked it back at him. It broke the sound barrier with a sharp crack before embedding in his skull. He hit the table like the sack of meat he was.

Someone was screaming at the back of the shop, but that didn't interest me.

I turned back to the metal case and opened it up. Inside was…

Nothing? But also everything.

I blinked, trying to comprehend what I was looking at.

There was a single corked vial sitting within. That wasn't the odd part, though. What was odd was the thing the vial contained.

It was as if I were staring at the concept of importance. It had no colour or discernible features. It just exuded importance.

That actually made sense. The bird was trying to steal my narrative relevance so that it could use it against me.

I wonder what it tastes like.

I took the vial out of the case, popped it open and took a swig.

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