A Short Lesson And A Walk In The Woods

John quickly moved around the car and opened the door for Ellie, taking her hand as she climbed out of the Uber.

“Such a gentleman,” she giggled before giving John a light kiss on the lips. She then turned to look at the driver. “Thanks for the ride.”

Once she was out and the door closed, the driver did a U-turn and sped back towards town.

John moved towards Ellie, scrutinising every inch to ensure she was physically okay, while Ellie watched him with curious confusion. “Uh, what are you doing?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh, n-nothing? Are you alright? How are you?” John rambled.

Robin laughed and approached. “What the idiot is trying to say is that he’s been distracted most of the day worrying about you.”

“I... What? Why’ve you been worried? I told you everything was fine. I just woke up late and I was just focused on stuff,” Ellie informed John before turning her attention to Robin. “Oh, uh… Hi, I’m Ellie, by the way. Nice to meet you, and you are?”

Robin chuckled and extended his hand, which Ellie shook. “I’m Robin. John and I have been online friends for years. I got into contact with John because he vanished off the face of the earth last week and everyone was worried about him. Must be some kind of worry sickness going around,” Robin joked.

Ellie rolled her eyes at John. “You really need to get better at stuff like that; you seem to have communication problems up the wazoo.”

“Shit!” John groaned, suddenly remembered something and pulled his phone from his pocket.

< J: Hey Alison, Vanessa kinda spoiled my plans for coming to see you by being in your room when I got there. Then she kinda kicked me out of the place once we’d finished. >

Ellie shook her head at him. “Useless, I tell you!”

John and Ellie laughed before she dragged him a metre or so away. “Uh, so what’s the plan? I thought we were going to do something together,” she said, giving John a look as she said the last word.

John was a little bit confused. “Uh, well. I was thinking I need to double-check that I can take items out of a barr-ugh.”

John coughed as Ellie’s elbow left his stomach, laughing to cover it up. “John you’re so silly, what are you talking about,” she said loudly before pulling John and turning him away from Robin. “John! What the fuck are you doing?” she scolded in a hushed tone.

“First off, ouch!” John said loudly. “Second, Robin knows about the Abyss already. He was born into it or something. I’m not sure, we haven’t actually had a chance to talk about his side of things yet.”

Robin chuckled. “You two are a riot, you know that. And yes, my foster parents aren’t part of the Abyss but they know about it from my birth parents. I was born with my powers.”

Ellie’s eyes lit up. “Oh! What powers do you have? Do you have, like, an Abyss job where you use your powers all the time? Your foster parents don’t have magic, does that mean they ask you for help using your magic to do things? Did you have to go to some kind of magic school or something to learn how to use your powers properly? Is your house full of, like, magic items and stuff? Do you have any magic creature pets? Is there, like, Abyssal cable? Oh, do you know all the magic spots in town? Is there an Abyssal phone book?”

John stepped in front of Ellie, shaking her until she stopped rambling. “Ellie, slow down. You can’t ask eighty questions at once and expect to get a single answer.” John’s eyebrow raised and he turned around to look at Robin. “Uh, so what is your magic? Is it like a collection of a bunch of things? Or is there a theme or something? We haven’t actually been able to talk to a person with abilities properly so we don’t actually know how it’s supposed to work.”

Robin laughed, shaking his head. “Seriously? You stop your girl from asking twenty questions, then reel out your own, that how it is?” Robin walked towards the nature trail, waving his hand which prompted the couple to follow hand in hand. “I’m not telling you what my magic is. Though with a question like that, it tells me you don’t know a whole lot about magic, do you? I guess you probably wouldn’t have even thought about it since your magic is so unique and considering the types of people you said you met.”

“Yeah, it’s not exactly been easy to find anyone to really explain all this to me. I was going to ask this girl I met in a herbal shop but we aren’t sure how much we can really trust her. So, I was actually planning on asking if you’d mind explaining a few things,” John said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Sure, don’t worry about it. Like I said, I can’t just let my sidekick fight his battles alone, can I?” Robin laughed loudly. “Okay, so get ready cos this is probably gonna be a bit of an info dump but I’ll try taking it slow.”

John and Ellie nodded looking at Robin who walked backwards. “So mana is separated into elemental typings; this essentially tells you what kind of magic you are suited to but something that might surprise you is… most people in the Abyss are actually a mixture of several mana types. That’s the reason there are so many shared spells and why there are large organisations that can train all of their subordinates with the same kind of magic.

“The interesting magic comes from those who have a strong leaning to one type of mana or are just mono-typed. Monotypes are probably a little less rare than late-bloomers. It’s more common to lean towards a certain element or two but still be a mixture and you can even be a mixed typing and be pulled to one or two elements in particular, from influences like a location bathed in a specific mana, magic artefacts, or being in contact with powerful beings like nature spirits, elementals, demons or even deities.

“Oh, so like me?” John asked, tilting his head which softly connected and rested on Ellie’s.

“I, uh, kinda? Not really? From what you said you became a late-bloomer because of a goddess? Honestly, I don’t know a ton about late-bloomers; what I do know though is that they all lean strongly towards one type of magic or are complete monotypes. I believe that the late-bloomer monotype ratio is more like thirty-five percent. Anyway, so yeah, that’s about the basics of magic, if that all makes sense to you?”

“Huh, yeah, I guess so. Does that mean that I’m a mix of elements then? Because I have an ability that allows me to choose different elements, though right now I’m only able to use Vox,” John asked.

Robin looked confused, furrowing his brow. “Uh, I don’t know what Vox is, if I’m completely honest. It sounds like you might be able to actively pull yourself towards one element or another. From what I know there are seven core mana types which in turn can mix to make other elements, so for the seven core elements you have: Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago the four-”

“Oh, shut up and get on with it!” John laughed.

“Tough crowd.” Robin shrugged. “Yeah, so you have those four, then there’s also light, dark and arcane. Honestly, I’m not the best person to talk to about all this; I couldn’t tell you if you lean into one element or the other, but if I was to guess, I’d say you are completely flat in the middle and that ability of yours must push you towards one element in particular? Again, I’m not really well versed with this stuff.”

“Maybe Vox is just another name for Arcane? From what I was told, Vox is the element of magic,” John explained. To which Robin nodded in agreement. “Maybe we can talk more about it later? Because right now we’re wandering further and further into the forest without a direction. The main thing I want to test out is using something as a focus for a barrier and taking something from a barrier I create.”

“Well, I don’t really know anything about how barriers work. I can enter them and feel them, but that’s my limit. So this’ll mostly be up to you, little John,” Robin said, slowing down to close the distance between him and the couple to only a metre or so then turning on his heels to walk forward.

John rubbed his chin. “Do you know where to go to find the natural barrier or even just an idea?”

“Oh!” Robin changed direction slightly, heading down another lesser walked path. “Kinda? I haven’t been, but a friend named Erica told me about it; her ex lived or lives there.” Robin let out a melancholy sigh. “I’m gonna miss her, actually… She left for Canada this morning, Erica that is.”

John leaned forward lightly punching Robin’s shoulder. “Seems like the two of you were close… But chin up, I’m not gonna be a replacement for your girl but I’ll be here for you. After all, I need my Abyssal guide, don’t I?”

Robin laughed dryly. “I guess you do, don’t you? Hey, actually Erica was kinda my gateway into the Abyss. Well, saying the Abyss is a little bit of a stretch when I really just mean one place. She introduced me to The Seven Circles.”

John’s eyebrow rose. “The nightclub?”

Robin nodded. “Yeah, it actually got a gateway to a much larger Abyssal location: The Inferno. Essentially, it’s like a central hub for recreation; we should go sometime actually. I’d say we could go to Pride, the nightlife level, later but you have school tomorrow, right?”

John opened his mouth to agree but Ellie butted in. “He does, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t go, does it? I’d assume that if John drinks, it’s likely that he won’t get a hangover thanks to Gamer’s Body, but even if he does I can just give him a cure. With that out of the way, I could also grab some Duskmother’s Tea which will make it so that even if he doesn’t get enough sleep, he won’t be falling asleep in class tomorrow.”

“Hey, wait a minute. Listen, I would like to go but I’m only eighteen. I’m not old enough to drink so there’s no way they’ll let me in,” he argued.

Robin tutted thrice. “You remember when my birthday is, don’t you, John? I’m not gonna be twenty-one for another six months. Don’t worry about getting in, they use European drinking ages, so as far as the Inferno is concerned, you became drinking age on your birthday.”

John thought about it a little. “I’m probably not going to drink, it’s not really something that interests me, but I would like to check it out. Let me just let my mom know.”

John pulled his phone out bringing his mom’s number up and sending a message.

< J: Hey Mom, just thought I’d let you know I’ll probably be home late. I know it’s a school night but Ellie and I got an invite from Robin. He’s kinda feeling down because his girlfriend had to leave town. Oh yeah, also I found out Robin actually lives in Springfield. I was completely shocked. Anyway, I hope you won’t be mad or anything. X >

His phone buzzed quickly after.

< M: Sweetie, you’re an adult. I’m not going to stop you from seeing your friends. But does that mean that we won’t have breakfast in the morning? Love you xxx >

John thought for a moment; this could be a chance to stay the night with Ellie in her lab. Though on the other hand he still needed to deal with Dahlia. Robin was right that having her protect Brenda would be a great idea, plus if he gave her a phone, it would be easy to know when it’s safe to enter and leave Ellie’s lab from the garage.

< J: No, I’ll be home. I’ll probably just be getting in really late, I don’t expect to really get enough sleep but it’ll be alright, it’s not the first time I’ve done an all-nighter xx >

With that taken care of, he stored his phone away and looked up to see Ellie and Robin smirking at him.

“What?” He asked dumbly.

“You’re cute when you’re trying to think about something,” Ellie replied, leaning in and giving him a light kiss on the cheek.

“I was gonna say you looked like you lost a brain cell or two.” Robin laughed, joined by Ellie.

“Oh, so now you’re both gonna be picking on me?” John questioned in mock offence.

“I called you cute, didn’t I? Suck it up,” she said, sticking her tongue out.

John rushed forward to lick Ellie’s stuck-out tongue and laughed as she spluttered.

“Hey, you love birds done yet? I think we’re here.” Robin gestured. Though looking in that direction, all John saw was more forest.

“Here, where?” John scratched his head.

Robin smiled and walked four steps in the direction he gestured before vanishing. John looked at Ellie who smiled and pulled John’s hand prompting him to walk forward in the direction Robin had walked in, trying to focus on trying to find and go into the barrier.

Would you like to transport you and your party into the Natural barrier?

Yes | No

John reached up and tapped ‘Yes’, tightening his grip on Ellie’s hand as his entire body lurched.

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