"Ken?" I rubbed my watery eyes groggily as I pushed myself from my crumpled, awkward sleeping position.

The cargo car was bare, a few puddles stained the floorboards and the backpack lay wide open against the adjacent corner, but other than that, Ken was nowhere to be seen. I leaned forward, scanning the floorboard closely. A dry patch of wood formed an elongated circular shape next to the backpack—he had been here.

But where was he now? My eyes trailed around the car before landing on the open door where a few raindrops dripped slowly down the overhang, hanging for dear life before succumbing to the forces of nature.

I crawled slowly towards the entrance, my heart beating rapidly at the sight of the rails passing by impossibly fast. Beyond the rails was an endless grassland dotted sparsely with only a few trees here and there. In the distance, I could faintly make out the outline of a neighboring city, little shapes that jutted out from the horizon. We were past Arborad—I was certain of that—but having only read of the outside world, I could only guess where in Aterra we were.

Right, Ken. I thought, refocusing myself. Where could he be? I cautiously craned my neck to get a full view of the exterior and grinned when my eyes landed on a rusty metal ladder that was pounded into the cargo car with tarnished nails and the hammer of a hasty worker.

I extended my hand and just barely grabbed onto the cool metal, which trembled dangerously under my grip. Twisting myself so that I faced inwards, I swung onto the ladder with the help of my feet and clutched the rungs with shaking hands. I dared not to look down, for it would only remind me of my fate if I happened to lose my grip.

With the combined effort of my body, I heaved myself up the ladder, my eyes peeled for any sign of Ken. What a shock it was to me when I saw Ken sitting cross-legged on top of the cargo car, eyes closed and breathing slowly. What in the world is he doing? I thought about tapping his shoulder, to make sure he was okay, but decided against it. He must be practicing another thing I didn't know of yet, and I slowly lowered myself down the ladder, making sure to catch my footing on the rungs.

"Come join me, Wallace." Ken's voice nearly made me fall off the ladder if not for my iron grip on the railings. "I won't bite."

That earned me a chuckle, but I shook my head and said, "Uh, I don't know about you, but sitting on top of a moving train doesn't seem like the safest thing to do. I'll pass."

Ken just laughed, his eyes still closed. "If you think about it, this whole train isn't safe. Who knows, it could derail and crash right at this moment. Now, join me. At least it will be a quick and painless death rather than being crushed under the entire car."

I sighed, unable to resist the smile forming on my face, and gingerly scaled the ladder and crawled up next to Ken.

"What are you doing—"

"Shhh..." Ken exhaled slowly, cutting me off mid-sentence. "One does not interrupt others' meditation."

"Sorry," I hung my head, my cheeks filling with shame. "I shouldn't have joined you."

"No, no," he whispered, his voice almost blown away by the wind. "I want you to stay here. Since your powers are still... developing, we shall work on at least being able to acknowledge your mana pool. Interacting with it is a completely different matter."

"Now, meditation is the simplest way to feel your mana pool," he continued, and I leaned forward to catch his words. "In essence, you cut down the forest of worries and thoughts in your mind, and are left with an empty expanse, scattered with your subconscious. Your body becomes aware and maybe, just maybe, you will find the mana pool."

I nodded, before realizing that his eyes were still closed, and chuckled and imitated his position, crossing my legs, sitting up straight, and shutting my eyes. All of a sudden, I could distinctly feel the wind smacking me in the face, my shirt flapping against my skin, and the rumbling of the train that sent tickles throughout my body.

Just clear my mind. I thought, as my agitation grew with my senses heightened, despite the darkness I was enveloped in. Things I had paid little attention to now came into full view and my efforts to remain still were thwarted by a slight wobble of the cargo car, knocking me off balance.

"Arghhh!" I squeezed my eyes even more until I could feel my eyelids compressing each other. "All this noise, I just can't. Maybe I'm not cut out for this."

"It's only true if you view it that way," Ken said softly. "You treat the noise as a distraction, something that continuously irritates your mind in such a way that you can't even rid yourself of it. Don't try to get rid of it—listen closely to it and then you will be on the path to find peace. Don't fight it."

I inhaled a breath of fresh air, readjusting my position, and settled down once more. It was strange trying to hear something that I desperately wished not to, like trying to swim out of a whirlpool, but as the wind blew stronger in my ears, and the rumbling of the train sent a steady rhythm that tickled my body, it felt as if something had changed. Instead of fighting the current, I wriggled until I was aligned with the forces of nature and everything soon fell into its place.

I no longer felt the wind smacking me in the face, the train jolting me off balance; it had all become a steady rhythm I found peace with.

I could intimately feel the rise and fall of my chest, the gentle thump of my heart against it, and I remained unmoving, for fear of breaking the fragile peace I had built. Eyes closed and breathing steadily, I took in the sounds of birds chirping in the distance, basking in the warm sun that cast golden rays on my face, and savoring the incredible moment—it was something I had never experienced before in the constant chaos of the restaurant.

Then, something quite spectacular happened. As I groped around my body, trying to locate the mana pool, my mind sunk into something squishy and had a little bounce to it. Hidden behind the murky clouds of my subconscious was a formation of this strange medium, a red hue staining it in places. Was this my mana pool? I reached forward and dove into it, immediately greeted with the cool insides of the medium that was slippery to the touch. A surreal moment, it sure was, and whether it was a figment of my imagination or a concrete idea I had no idea.

Retracting myself from it brought me back into the darkness of my mind, illuminated only by the faint glow of the medium. I retreated a bit, allowing myself to get a larger picture of it, and it seemed to reach down to unknown depths, almost like a pool.

"Ken," With one word, I immediately was sucked out of my subconscious and back into the real world. "I may have located my mana pool."

"Excellent." Though I still had my eyes closed, I could almost feel his presence radiating around him. "Describe it, and I will see if you've truly found it, or if it was just your subconscious playing tricks on you."

Describe it? I struggled to find the right words for a moment, and then it was like a lightbulb had been switched on and cleared all the uncertainty in my head. "I suppose it was similar to a giant bowl of red jelly. A bit squishy, and cool to the touch."

"Huh, I've never heard it described before that way," He said. "Because it's completely wrong."

"Oh." I felt heat rising in my cheeks, wishing I could just crawl into a hole and live there forever.

Ken snorted, and he slapped me on the back, waking me from my daze. "Hey, I'll let you in on a secret, alright?"

I nodded slowly, unsure where he was going. "The truth is, the mana pool is as imaginary as what you just described to me. It's been accepted as part of all magic users, but there isn't substantial evidence to prove it really exists. Put simply, it's just a clever explanation of how affinities work, albeit with good reason, but anything's up for debate."

I suppose it did make me feel a tad bit better but... "Then what was the point of meditation?"

"Well, I was joking before if you didn't catch my drift, but the mana pool is something unique to everyone. What you feel is a completely different experience than what I feel, and what others feel. That is why it is nearly impossible to explain in detail the magical process, so we can only generalize it."

"By being able to feel your mana pool consistently, it will become second nature to you, and the path to find it and interact with it will be a path you've already known through countless meditations," He continued. "As I said before, clearing your mind is the first step in clearing the path to an accessible mana pool."

The words threatened to just fly through one ear and out the other as I tried to wrap my head around his words. Like puzzle pieces, they began clicking together until a full, but muddy picture formed. Questions still bounced around, but at least I had a satisfying answer now.

I gently lifted my eyelids, flinching at the blinding sun, and turned to my left. Ken? Where had he gone now?

Carefully turning over so that my belly faced the top of the car, I groped for the ladder, slowly lowering myself. Ken was lounging comfortably inside the cargo car, chewing on a slice of bread, and seemed slightly annoyed at the sight of me. "What's taking you so long? Is your brain still meditating?"

"I..." I gave up trying to explain myself and climbed into the interior, settling down beside him. Ken had a way with magic, and with words too, apparently. The sun sent warm tingles along my skin as I munched ferociously on my slice of bread—perhaps a bit too fast that a large chunk slipped out of my mouth and plopped mournfully on the floorboards.

"Haste doesn't mean less waste." Ken didn't show a flicker of anger and just stared uninspiringly at the fallen bread, dust already starting to collect on it.

Heat began creeping up my neck, and it wasn't from the sun, and I slowed to a nibble, cautiously checking in between bites if even a crumb had escaped from my lips. I slid down, my head resting against the cool planks, and my feet dangling over the side, the wind tickling my toes. Without even thinking, my eyelids slid over my eyes and I let the world sink in. I had never known that just settling down and breathing could be so simple, yet so powerful at the same time.

"Ken?" My voice left me like a wisp of air, resonating almost inaudibly. "Where are we going?"

"Oh," Though I could only see darkness, I made out the surprised look on his face based on the inflection of his voice. "Well, I didn't think we would get this far, so I've been impromptu this whole time. The train will stop sometime soon, and we can get off then and figure out our next move."

I shook my head gently, feeling each hair tickling the wood. "I should have been clearer. I meant to ask where we were going in the sense of what is going to happen to us. The past, what is it? The present, is it? The future, what is of it?"

A few moments passed before Ken spoke up—still deep in thought. "I... don't know. The future is as muddy as wading through a swamp on a foggy day, the present is ticking by every second, and the past, your father, I assume you mean, I know little of."

I nearly stood up at the mention of my father, screaming internally to Ken to tell me. Instead, I laid back, taking a deep breath and exhaling, just as he had taught me. "My father, tell me about him."

"Your father." Ken sighed as if recalling bad memories. "Well, I might have mentioned this before, but we were great friends, inseparable even. However, after he was chosen to be the flame keeper, I felt betrayed. We were supposed to be a pair, a duo, and now we had gone our separate ways."

Pat. A single tear rolled down his cheek and plunged down to be soaked up by the planks. "And then I did something horrible. I tried dousing him in a tank of water vapor so that his affinity would be diminished and he would be expelled from the position of flame keeper."

He laughed bitterly, blinking back tears. "I was easily overpowered, foolish for thinking I could best him or even be on par with his level. That I could relive the old days. Months, then years passed until that fateful day when he came knocking on my door, leaving me with precise instructions to find you."

Find me. But why? Ken seemed to answer my question as he continued. "I was baffled at first, rightly so. I had attempted to injure him, and then after being overpowered and mercifully taken pity on only because I had been his friend, I had ghosted him, isolating myself and spending my days as a low-level teacher in the academy. Who would have guessed, that I specialized in teaching the workings of affinities and meditation."

I chuckled softly, trying not to break the fragile atmosphere. "I bet you were a great teacher."

"Yeah," Ken said, "But it never would have prepared me for what would happen next. He vanished, and soon I began to see the truth in his words. It had been sudden, but his disappearance was nothing short of that, too."

"But why did he leave? He went insane, right?" It seemed like a trivial question, but when Ken struggled to form a response, I knew something was amiss.

"Insane is what the capital wants everyone to believe." Ken spat the words out angrily. "He couldn't have. But I can't imagine any other reason for his disappearance, and so have others as they've begun to accept the ultimatum."

"So then, what now?" I said, opening my eyes.

Ken just shook his head, his voice carrying a hint of regret. "I have an idea, but it will have to wait. Get some rest, I'll wake you when we depart."

I wanted to press him for more but decided against it. Getting some rest would help us all.