Leah sat down on the floor of the cave, opposite Mithra. She wished she had a tablet to write on. It’d help her focus on the lesson, and not on the person in front of her. Mithra’s whole being was distracting, even without mentioning her clothing choices.

  If she had to be truthful, it wasn’t all bad. Mithra wasn’t as grating as most people Leah knew—the days spent inside a small cave endeared her to the woman somewhat. Her working ethic was impressive. She never complained, never stopped for longer than was necessary, and above all, learned fast. Despite being a Veiler Mithra analyzed things constantly, asked sharp questions, and reasoned well.

  Of course, Mithra could also be infuriatingly single-minded, especially when it came to issues like honor and fairness. She’d grow out of it, Leah hoped. Her education was lacking as well, but that was to be expected considering her upbringing.

  “Just like electricity on its fundamental level is the movement of electrons between particles, so is divine energy the movement of what we call the God particle,” Leah said. Mithra was listening intently, even though she must’ve known this already. Good. A refresher would help with grasping the more esoteric lessons. “These God particles attach themselves to atoms in your body, most commonly but not limited to those present in the blood, and their flow is what powers what we colloquially call magic. Marks are devices used as an interface between that energy, your brain and the outside world. Different marks can have different effects depending on their inner make-up and the intent of the user. Most are not well-studied yet, but the underlying principles are understood.

  “The marks in the category of Brutes, for example, interact heavily with one’s body. Every Brute is different however, affecting some parts more easily, while others with difficulty. Similar phenomena can be found in seemingly simpler marks. Fire magic, for example, can manifest as manipulation of vibrations of an atom, but some manifest an ability to manipulate kinetic energy more broadly, granting wider potential uses. More importantly for our lessons, mind—or what some mistakenly call emotion—marks are simply devices permitting the manipulation and interpretation of neural oscillations, or brainwaves. A hypothetical emotion mark would have more to do with the manipulation of chemicals than with waves, but that’s besides the point. You have mentioned your mark interpreting those signals as smells before.”

  That was a gross oversimplification of the actual process, but that was impertinent to the discussion. “Any questions so far?” Leah asked, just for completeness’ sake. This was basic stuff.

  “Yeah, a few,” Mithra said. “What are atoms?”

  This was going to take longer than she thought.

  ?

  Leah’s lessons were incredibly dry, but highly informative. Thinking of the marks in a scientific framework and not as unknowable miracles was definitely an interesting approach. Mithra’s head spinned with all the information she absorbed.

  The lectures droned on for hours at a time, after which Mithra was trying to put them into practice. Already her mind mark seemed more responsive, clearer, but she couldn’t tell if it was the effect of her expanded knowledge or the mark simply healing from damage. She wondered, if that’s what lessons in the capital would look like. No wonder Duncan was so good with his magic if he spent years learning from the best scholars.

  The shaking of the ground had been less intense for the last few days, but a few times they had to defend their cave from smaller dinosaurs trying to enter. They were panicked, desperately fleeing from something, but the cave was too small to shelter them all. Menace seemed disappointed with the progressive lack of prey in the area, spending more and more time in the cave with them and snatching anything unfortunate enough to come his way.

  Mithra was in the midst of sharing a heavily salted meal with Menace when the constant, low-level shaking was replaced with rhythmic thudding. Small rocks showered them, shaken loose from the cave’s ceiling.

  “Don’t.” Leah stopped Mithra from taking a peek outside. Experimentally, Mithra activated her mind mark and an overpowering smell hit her. Panic, frenzy and hunger mixed together into a stench that made her want to vomit. The thumps weren’t from the cleaners, but from a gigantic animal. It stomped one final time, right outside.

  An eye the size of Mithra’s head blinked curiously at her from the mouth of the cave. A low, droning noise filled the air. Primal terror seized Mithra’s spine, her whole chest vibrating with the sound. The noise turned into clicks, penetrating deep into the very essence of her being and activating her fight or flight instinct on a genetic level, shoving forward the millennia of her ancestors living in fear of great predators.

  Leah was by her side, holding her in place.

  The T-Rex, because that was the only thing this animal could’ve been, opened its maw, flashing teeth the size of her arm each. It roared, not the intimidating roar of a lion, but a roar that shook every bone in her body. It slammed its head into the entrance of the cave, only its snout making its way in. The long, curved teeth were inches away from Mithra, so close she could feel the odor of rotting flesh on her skin.

  The dinosaur bit at air in a frenzy, desperately trying to squeeze into the small cave when out of nowhere a buzzing appeared, so loud it overpowered even the animal’s roars. The roars themselves quickly turned from a hunter’s challenge to screams of pain. Lights flashed, painting a net at the cave’s mouth, bathing them in muddy yellow. The T-Rex stopped struggling and slumped to the ground within seconds.

  Leah let go of Mithra and she fell to the ground.

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  “Unfortunate,” Leah said, unshaken. “We’ll have to make a new exit.”

  The gigantic maw of the T-Rex was blocking the entrance. It was dripping blood. Sunlight made its way through a hole in the back of its skull where a brain should’ve been, and out of its sagging mouth. Leah gathered her things, then lifted the top jaw by its lip and held it open.

  “You coming?”

  Mithra could only respond with a short laugh, the tension escaping her body and leaving her drained.

  It took a bit of coaxing to get Menace to willingly walk through the throat of a Tyrannosaur, but they managed. Outside, there was no trace of the dinosaur being alive only minutes before. Apart from the remains in the cave, its whole skeleton was stripped of meat. The bones were pristinely white, not a speck of blood on them, with tiny holes crisscrossing the whole thing. Mithra shuddered.

  “The Cleaner?” she asked.

  “No, its drones.” Leah pointed west, where a cloud of gray-steel glinted in the light, rapidly flying away from them. “They never circle back, so we should be fine to continue our travel. The Cleaner is there.”

  She pointed again, but Mithra could only see a tiny dot on the horizon.

  “It passed us some time ago, but we had to wait for the drones to pass, too,” Leah explained. “Otherwise we’d share the Rex’s fate.”

  That was terrifying. A majestic creature like that, gone in seconds. Felled not by another behemoth, but by insects. Powerless in the face of devices barely the size of a raindrop.

  Mithra climbed back into the remains and into the half of the head that still had skin. It smelled awful, but she cut the gums at the base of one of the front teeth and pulled. With a disgusting, tearing sound, the tooth came loose. A memento. A reminder that no matter how powerful, she could die as easily as this T-Rex if she wasn’t careful.

  The feeling of sun on her skin was refreshing after so many days spent in a cave. It was hot, uncomfortably so, but Mithra didn’t care.

  “I’m going for a run,” she announced and, before Leah could protest, took off. It’s not like anything was still alive here after the drone’s passage. It was safe enough for a light jog.

  She ran, accelerating with her every step. It felt good, finally stretching her legs properly. Her muscles ached from disuse, but they’d be in top shape soon enough. Menace followed her. Hesitantly at first—he was still spooked by the T-Rex encounter—but seeing how much fun Mithra was having, he gained confidence quickly.

  Together they slalomed around pillars of salt, Mithra going low, Menace going high. He dove at her and she ducked, letting him pass millimeters over her head. The next time he flew over her she jumped up, tagging him in the wing. They played this improvised game of tag for the better part of an hour, laughing and screeching together.

  Finally Mithra stopped, panting. She sat on the hot sand, looking at Menace as he flew. He was beautiful, a colorful flurry of feathers speeding through the desert. She engaged her mind mark by habit, but still was careful not to let her emotions leak. The smell of excitement wafted from Menace. Her power let her keep track of him by it alone, even with her eyes closed: she could tell when he rose high and when he dipped, when he turned left and when he turned right. His brain was a small dot moving through the landscape of her mind, alone in the endless desert.

  No, not alone. Her own dot was there too, though she had to focus to be able to feel it. Leah was completely absent from her senses, as usual. And to the south, four more minds were coming their way. Fast.

  Mithra opened her eyes. Leah was nowhere near her, left behind when she started running. The minds smelled tired, determined, but familiar somehow, one of them eerily so. They were different from the minds of animals she had experience with sensing, much closer to her own. People.

  This far out in the wasteland they were either Guardians or Enclavers like Leah. Both options seemed unlikely. What would they be doing here?

  A cold realization hit her. What if they were sent by the Priests? Erring on the side of caution, Mithra decided not to meet them head on. She hid behind a pillar of salt, keeping track of them with her mark.

  They were coming closer with every second. There was no mistaking it now, they were aiming straight for her. Mithra thought through her options. She had her weapons on her, of course, but four people capable of getting so far into the wastelands were more than she could realistically handle. Menace was flying somewhere high, looking for a bite to eat. Leah was probably still close to the cave, making preparations for the rest of their travel. She was on her own.

  The people were close enough she could see them if she strained her eyes. They wore purple robes of the Guardians, but that didn’t mean they were friendly. If her theory about Priests manipulating Guardians was true, she couldn’t trust them. Wait, was that?

  “Duncan!” Mithra yelled. She sprinted towards them as fast as her legs could go, almost stumbling on the sand. The group stiffened at first seeing her barreling towards them, but relaxed quickly enough.

  Duncan swept her into a hug with an unrestrained smile.

  “Mithra, you little menace,” he said. “We’ve been looking all over for you. You can’t even imagine how relieved I am to see you safe. What are you doing here? How are you even alive?”

  Never in a million years did Mithra expect to see her uncle in the middle of a dried sea outside the Veil, but she was immensely grateful to do so. He’d help her, with everything.

  “That’s a hell of a long story,” she said. “I’ll tell you all about it. Let’s go, we’ll talk in our camp.”

  “Our?” a woman asked. Only then did Mithra pay attention to Duncan’s team. She didn’t recognize any of them, but they had a certain air about them. She recognized caution in their stances, but also the effortless confidence awarded to veteran Guardians.

  The woman was shorter than her, without any obvious weapons. She had brownish hair and a burn scar on her temple. The two men couldn’t be more different from each other: one was thin and wiry, the other rippling with muscle. The muscular one had a sword on his hip.

  “Let me introduce you,” Duncan said, ignoring the woman. “Those are my oldest friends and comrades. We were all in basic together.” Before she could ask the obvious question, he continued, “You’ve never met them because they’re stationed in the capital, permanently.”

  He pointed to each of them in turn. The woman was named Vin, the wiry Air Mage was Lucas, and the Brute was Mildred. Weird name. Mithra held out her hand to each of them in turn. Lucas shook her hand confidently, while Vin’s handshake lingered a little too long. If Mithra didn’t know better she’d say the woman was trying to smell her.

  When she moved to shake Mildred’s hand, a mildew stench wafted to her from the man.