The best excuse to disappear on a date night

Just as he would on any normal school day, John woke up earlier in the morning than he would have liked to and got ready for school. Until John had left for school, there were no signs that it was going to be an unusual day, at least not more than the signs that had already been present for the last week since he had gotten his powers. When he did, however, the signs all came at the same time with the dreaded appearance of a woman. An appearance which took place almost as soon as he stepped out of his house.

A woman belonging to a guild that had, in quite quick succession, after having been almost idle in that regard for a hundred years or more, come to a decision in regards to the sudden appearance of a strangely powerful late bloomer. The late bloomer’s appearance was not strange only because of the unknown nature of his powers, it was also strange by its unusual discovery. One would usually be discovered by local guilds, and if lucky enough, would find safe haven in those guilds. This, however, was a more surprising one, as the guild who was responsible for the discovery was the Council, a body who, up till now, had very little interest in Springfield. That lack of interest, however, did not change their decision to send Ember back.

Unlike his previous encounter with Ember, John, who was shocked to see her when she appeared a few meters in front of him seemingly out of thin air, was first met with a somewhat polite greeting.

“Hey Newman, I guess you don’t have to give up all hope after all,” She began with an almost reassuring statement, and pulled him into the space between his house and the next. Shocked as John was to see her again so suddenly, he didn’t respond or resist before she continued, but he did relax somewhat after that statement, having been reassured by it. “as you’ve probably already figured out, I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to recruit you. I was sent back as the only person in the Council that you have any chance of trusting at the moment, and I do hope you trust me, because if you don’t you’ll very likely die in the next few hours or survive those and end up kidnapped and sold to a mana factory-” She continued. When he heard that, John, who was now listening intently, quickly interjected.

“A mana factory? What the hell is that?” John’s interjection was one made up of mostly panic, although a hint of curiosity could be found in it as well.

“Somewhere you do not want to find yourself in,” Ember quickly responded. Her answer was somewhat less than assuring, however. “I’ll explain everything in more detail later, but for now you need to do two things. Trust me, and keep up. Understood?” She continued in a somewhat more harsh and quick tone than before. John’s response, unlike the last time she had asked him a similar question, was not a nod, but a verbal “Yeah,”

After John had responded, Ember began her quest to bring the young man to the council by walking towards some unknown location inside the city. A path which took them further away from both the academy and John’s house. Their path into the city took them through a few crowded streets, a bus drive and some alleys. Eventually, they reached a small building that looked abandoned at the other edge of town. The building, which seemed to John to have gone many years without any use, had a keypad on its front door, which was a simple steel one that had seemingly stayed without a scratch.

Approaching the door, Ember pulled out some sort of card from somewhere behind her head. The card itself was almost completely black but began glowing in a bluish light as she directed her hand towards the door. A moment later, she touched the door with the card and it immediately slid open, showing no wear in its mechanism despite its seemingly old age.

The inside of the building was almost completely black except for one source of light, a giant arch made of marble that was filled with some sort of indigo coloured material which was almost see-through. At a rapid pace that shocked John out of his surprise, Ember grabbed his hand and headed through the arch. The last thing John saw was the world shattering again. However, it was more vivid than the last time it had happened, with it seemingly taking long enough for each individual part of the world to become a shard and fall onto a black floor, revealing only darkness behind them. When it stopped he somehow knew that not even a moment had passed. He stood there, darkness surrounding him for only a moment before a bright object appeared in the sky above him and began shedding its light on the terrain surrounding him.

He was standing on the other side of another arch, which was also made from marble, in a fairly open field that looked completely deserted. That field was surrounded on all but one side by a forest that seemed to stretch out for kilometers. On that one side, in the distance, a small stone tower could be seen. Ember began heading towards that lone sign of civilization with John following, confused about where he was and what had happened to him exactly.

’Was I transported here when we stepped through the gate somehow? Is this the Gateway she was talking about?’ John thought, asking these questions and many more to himself. He attempted in his mind to come up with answers to those questions but none came to him and so he continued on following Ember, hoping answers might come from her.

It took them almost ten minutes of walking to make it across the field and to the tower. It was made up of stone and looked almost exactly as if it had been constructed during the high middle ages or perhaps the early renaissance. Strangely, however, it showed no sign of aging. Peering in, Ember found it eerily empty.

“They were supposed to be here,” Ember whispered under her breath, confused in regards to the tower’s emptiness. “well, I hope nothing happened to them. But we have to keep moving anyways. John, search the basement,” She continued more loudly and pointed towards a staircase that led down inside the tower’s small interior. “take anything you find there, we’ll leave straight afterwar-” before she had a chance to finish, however, John interrupted her.

“Ok, that’s enough of the “I’ll explain later” schtick. What the hell is going on?” The young man said angrily, his patience slowly crumbling.

“There was supposed to be an escort waiting for us here, they’re not. Whatever happened to them is probably not something we can deal with on our own, so we need to move, now. They were supposed to give us some supplies and some equipment for you, maybe it’s still here. It should be down in the basement,” Ember said, her tone quick but less harsh than before. John, his patience now slightly restored, nodded and headed down to the basement.

There he found a few things of some interest. There were a few days worth of supplies there, a simple staff of some kind and what looked to be a worn gambeson. First, he observed the staff.

It seemed to John that they knew the extent of his powers more than he did, as the staff was designed specifically to help his Arcane and Psychic magic. He quickly grabbed it and equipped it before observing the gambeson.

It was a simple thing, but it would protect him well. With one movement he pulled it into his inventory and switched the gambeson with his shirt. It was made of some linen-like material that was actually quite comfortable, if a bit itchy. Nothing like he had imagined a real gambeson feeling.

“Hurry up!” Ember shouted from upstairs, and so he did, grabbing the supplies and placing them in his inventory, which was now almost full, as he was heading up the stairs.

Exiting the tower, John could see nobody around him and it looked to him like Ember had completely disappeared. A hand then suddenly appeared and grabbed him, pulling him into a close embrace.

“I saw something,” The cold voice of the spy whispered. “it’s possible whoever was here is still around somewhere, so from now we’re going to be walking with my invisibility up. Hopefully it can cover us both if we’re this close,” She said, holding John in front of her strongly with her left arm while her right was prepared to strike at some invisible enemy at any moment.

John grumbled in response. ’This again?’ He thought to himself, but began walking in a direction Ember pointed him towards nonetheless. For what was probably a few hours they continued walking through the forest that surrounded them earlier, making stops occasionally in hidden areas where they could rest for a few minutes. It was an uncomfortable walk for John, being so close to her for long periods of time. Their movements hit each other almost every few steps; he could feel her breath on his neck at almost every moment, a thing he might have found pleasant if not for the current predicament. Most uncomfortable, however, was the feeling of her breasts when they touched his back; It was a feeling John was unfamiliar with, but not one he found entirely unpleasant. It seemed to John that Ember was also uncomfortable. As apparently, making two people invisible for such long periods of time was taking a physical toll on Ember that John had no familiarity with. When he decided to ask Ember about it during one of the breaks, she responded in a more casual tone than usual.

“Huh, so there is yet more bullshit to your powers. It takes the rest of us significant effort to regenerate mana, though it usually depends on which art they use,” She said, before getting up again and grabbing John. “we need to keep going, more answers will have to wait,”

After a few more hours had passed, they reached the end of the forest and found themselves in front of a brick road that extended toward the north. The bricks were made of a material that was a white color with just a tinge of blue. Ember led him to it, and immediately when he stepped on it he got a strange popup.

Road enchantment applied: Movement speed increased by 50% as long as you stay on the road.

’The benefits of magic,’ John thought to himself, before beginning to move in the northerly direction of the road. John really felt the increase, it was as if his body weighed almost nothing. He felt like he was more running than walking, even with the slow pace of their movements as required by walking while so close to each other. After what seemed like another couple of hours to John, they began hearing sounds from further down the road. At that point, the sun had already started setting. It soon became too dark for John to see much, but strangely a minute later, he could see everything.

“It’s part of my powers,” Ember whispered quickly, before directing John to continue walking at a slower pace than before. A few seconds afterwards, he noticed a small camp that was set up near the side of the road. In said camp sat four people around a small campfire, all individually armed with what seemed like modern weaponry. They were all holding what looked to John like P90 rifles although they seemed to be modified. To what extent, John did not know. Laying around them were yet more guns, mostly pistols, and a few boxes of ammo. That made John question Ember’s lack of a firearm, but he decided against asking such a question at that time.

Her grip tightening on John, Ember directed him towards the edge of the road on the other side. Attempting to sneak by the group, they began moving extremely slowly away from the group and off the road. That was a failed attempt, however, as the next thing John noticed was the sound of gunfire and darkness enveloping him.