She laughed- at me, Xyn's face was set aflame.

  Not with anger -no, it was embarrassment that accosted him. This was another first for him. The novelty made it more bearable, but only slightly more so. His pride surged, and so did his indignation. The pair demanded immediate payback; however, a stray thought caused alarm to ring loudly within him. He entered fight-or-flight and chose the latter.

  Dozens of consecutive Void Shifts later, he appeared between a cluster of tall trees, half his form in the shade and the other in the sunlight. He was on one knee, using the bark like a shield. Over ten kilometres now separated him and Ana, yet...

  No change.

  With distance not erasing his enamourment, Xyn began the X Shuffle. Black and White became Grey became Black and White...over and over in rapid succession. All the while, the connection thickened and thinned randomly. Xyn had trained himself to be resistant to mental hijinx. The X Shuffle was his ultimate mind defence technique.

  Why was he using it? That was obvious!

  The psionic feared that his burst of feelings was magically induced. That made more sense to him. Ana seemed to line up with his tastes perfectly, and anything perfect was too perfect. It was natural to be wary of something being too good. It was also natural for one to deny embarrassing feelings. These two natural inclinations collided in the young man and ballooned to epic proportions.

  The X Shuffle concluded, and his heart remained thumping in his chest.

  Ah...oh, I'm not under any spell, good. Yeah, good.

  The matter was Xyn: Black and White. He couldn't stand to see his awkwardness and became Grey. An uncomfortable silence ensued. His head entered a swivel, and his hands became magnets, attracting each other one moment and repelling each other by the next.

  This continued for nearly a minute before the young man regained the reins. He pulled hard. His emotions refused to be completely tamed, but riding out the storm became possible.

  It is what it is. Play with the cards dealt, even if those cards are all hearts.

  Xyn rose to his full height. The thought to rid himself of his rosy cheeks came and went. To do so was inhuman. Also, pointless. His mind was the cause of his feelings, not his body. That had been confirmed by X Shuffle. Any reset would be painted over anew.

  Taking a final breath, the Void Prince gathered his courage and wits and took to the air. On his Traveller's Board, he cut upwards and westward in a gentle diagonal.

  Winds pushed and pulled, but they were nothing compared to the warring desires within Xyn. One part of him wished to close the distance in an instant, while another part of him wished the journey would take forever to traverse, believing it would take that long to comprehend his current feelings. His sluggish glide across the blue skies was the resultant compromise.

  Ana came into sight, and Xyn's emotions bubbled anew.

  The Fire Elementalist sat atop a boulder with her eyes shut. She was collecting monster cores. Transparent spatial cubes popped in and out of existence, snatching them up one at a time.

  She noticed me, even from this distance, Xyn thought, seeing her eyelids flicker. Must be another ability of hers. She sure has a lot.

  Xyn knew next to nothing about Elementalists. None of the books, and even the long-lived Tonak, could lift the thick veil covering the Realm of Sacred Elements. Ana overrode his initial assumptions. He knew all residents of Universe 4 were mages and wielded one of five elements. Xyn expected them to be limited to one type of magic, one trick ponies, essentially. Ana proved him wrong.

  More like a many-trick mare.

  The matter of the other's magic saw the Void Prince enter analytic mode. He began mentally cataloguing the various phenomena he witnessed.

  The golden flames. That's her main ability. Potent and versatile. She can expel, shape and even extinguish. Not just her own. Natural flames are hers to control, and even the flames of others can be brought under heel. Her range is unknown, half a kilometre at the very least, he thought, eyeing the cone-shaped tunnel that was etched into the forest. Her secondary abilities are nothing to sneeze at either.

  Xyn ran through the list.

  She has an aura ability like Ki that enhances her stats to superhuman levels. As if that wasn't enough, she has individual magics that buff her offence, defence, speed and perception. Those ten golden rings allow her to expel pure force. The white energy that wraps around her, which can become a giant flower-shaped shield, buffs her defence to ridiculous heights. That movement technique of hers turned her from hypersonic to high hypersonic. And her perception is excellent. She has both an omnidirectional sense like my Void Sense and some kind of farsight ability, it looks like. Then, there's also her storage ability.

  By the end, the Void Prince found himself frowning.

  Ana's mana output was significantly higher than Xyn's and a tad greater than Alison’s. The Void Prince held no confidence in him surviving those golden flames. An area of attack with her at the centre would spell his doom, plain and simple. So while he hated to admit it, Drazal's assumption about their relative combat prowess was correct. In a straight fight, she would destroy him with relative ease.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  And that's only going off what I've seen, what she has deigned to show me. What else do you have up your sleeve?

  The question prompted the young man's gaze. It ceased meandering and snagged on her idle form. A blink replaced his orbs, sharpening his vision to better capture her exquisite features. What started as an intellectual pursuit quickly became an act of desire. Unblinking, his stare grew hot and focused like a laser.

  Xyn's world was nothing but Ana on her rock. Then, without any warning, his world flashed white. The Void Prince didn't blink, and that cost him. His Traveller's Board drew a squiggly line through the air as he fought hard to regain balance.

  T-That was...

  Xyn was stumped like never before.

  Glorious. Damn, someone turn the clock back. I need a replay.

  He wanted to turn back time. Perhaps as badly as Sov wanted to. Xyn stopped in mid-air and refocused on the Fire Elementalist.

  That's a good look as well. Innocent while managing to be the opposite.

  Ana had changed attire, switching to a simple gold-threaded white sundress with flame imprints via her spatial storage. What sent Xyn into a tumble was her changing process. For a full second, she had been nude. The Void Prince had gotten an eye-full.

  Is that just how long it takes to make the switch? Or was it on purpose?

  Xyn tried to find an indication of intent on her face but failed. Ana's dignified mask gave nothing away.

  What am I thinking about, damn. I'm embarrassing myself out here. This is not how I expected things would go. Gather yourself, Xyn. First impressions are hard to wash away.

  Giving himself a pep talk, Xyn ironed out his thoughts and expression of foolishness.

  Now, to turn the tide.

  He disappeared and reappeared at Ana's seven o'clock, ten metres away. Xyn expected a strong reaction, but the Fire Elementalist played it cool. Outside of the smirk that rose a moment later, she was a statue, still and beautiful.

  I can't win with her.

  "You move well, stranger."

  Her voice rang with the pleasantness and playfulness of a wind chime, at least, that was what Xyn thought as it echoed in his head. He altered his vocal cords and parted his lips.

  "As do you. I was watching," he replied, using Banon.

  Ana's smile widened. "I noticed." Her eyelids sprang open, and her expression transformed. Her dignified look became a youthful blend of confident, cheeky and curious. Her misty blue eyes, shining with interest, pointed toward Xyn.

  In her scope, the Void Prince felt naked. Her stare wouldn't be called piercing by anyone, yet it effortlessly bypassed his facade to see the real him. He was unbalanced by her, and she knew it and relished the fact; her subtle smile evidence of that.

  "So, you're the one. The one fated for me. I can't say I'm disappointed."

  For the third time that day, Xyn's mind blanked. Three seconds passed before the gears resumed their spin. "What...what are you talking about? Me, fated? How? Why?"

  "Hmm, so you're not in the know. Well, she didn't say you would be." Ana hopped off the boulder and then began drawing a circle around the psionic with her steps.

  "Who are you talking about?" A baffled Xyn followed her trajectory with shaken eyes.

  "I speak of the one I met on my first day in this forest. Starlight Cabrena is what she called herself. She was a witch, like the kind you read about in fables, at least in appearance. Old, hunched back, wrinkly. She had pointy ears, pale skin and eyes that reflected a constellation. Does this ring a bell to you?"

  "Yes. Though I've only heard and read tales about her. She is a legendary existence who is said to wander the stars."

  Cabena was one of the handful of surviving Conquerors. She was a regular Elf who gained an inheritance that involved the wielding of stars as powers. The Tower's reward changed her. Not just power-wise, but also her personality and life goals. Of all the known Transcendents, she was the strangest, but also the most harmless. She existed under the masses' radar and was considered more a wonder of the multiverse than an individual.

  "She's next to impossible to track or pin down. No one meets her, and she has no interest in meeting others, so how and why?"

  "Because I'm a living star, according to her. She admires heavenly bodies and took the time to admire me," Ana explained, an obvious pride echoing in her voice.

  A heavenly body...for sure, Xyn had to blink slowly to prevent his gaze from wandering into dangerous territory.

  "She came suddenly and left suddenly, carried to and fro by a beam of light. Before parting, she filled me in on a few things, though she was cryptic with her wording. She also "read the stars" to examine my fate. According to her, "the one fated for you approaches. Become a circle and a circle you'll be.""

  Ana did a scratchy voice when doing the quote. Xyn didn't know if the impression was accurate or not, but he did find her performance endearing.

  "What does that even mean?"

  Ana completed her circle and ground to a halt. She shook her head. "I have no clue. I was already going in circles, so I assumed I should continue circling the spot I was summoned. I guess I was right to do so. Then again, maybe you're not the one fated for me." Ana gave the psionic another sweep. "She...wasn't specific...about anything. I asked about this fated one, and all she said was that they would act as a source of light."

  "Enlightenment?"

  Ana’s fingers snapped in agreement. "That was my thinking. What say you, handsome? Can you enlighten me?"

  "I can. I'm as fresh to this world as you, but I've acquired a fair share of knowledg-"

  "Wait, you arrived here eleven days ago? I was told a language called Macheon dominates this realm. You speak with an odd inflexion, but you are speaking Banon. How?"

  Xyn's lips tugged up, feeling his first win of the day. "Let's just say, I'm a quick learner. If becoming a circle means enlightenment, I can aid you in your shapeshifting." Though you're perfect as you are, he added internally, appreciating her hourglass figure.

  "For free?"

  "Of course not. Nothing is free in any world. Knowledge for knowledge. I wish to know about your time here and your universe of origin. I know next to nothing about the Realm of Sacred Elements."

  "Deal," Ana said with a grin. She would get what she needed and give what she would have freely imparted anyway. Her realm's story was to be spread far and wide.

  Xyn nodded before glancing around. "A long discussion is needed. This place won't do."

  "Right," Ana said, eyeing the aftermath of her destruction.

  "Over there."

  Ana followed his finger to a distant depression. "Sure."

  Five hundred metres were crossed in next to no time. To the demigod-like existences, the distance covered was comparable to a mundane person taking a step. Arriving first, Xyn focused on his storage ring.

  "What are you summoning?" Ana asked, curious as she glanced from the psionic to the open space.

  "My mobile home," Xyn responded.

  "Hmm, I see.”

  Ten seconds later, the grand lodge materialised.

  Ana moved to compliment the structure, but Xyn was gone. The door swung open, and he appeared before her again, wearing a welcoming expression.

  "Come on in."

  The Fire Elementalist's feet moved before any conscious thought was registered. She entered of her own will, swallowed whole by the monster of wood and bones.