My mind and body keep telling me to run, but my heart...My heart apparently is the one really in control, because my feet move beneath me, carrying me behind Oliver's slow walking form, right back to the others.

I'd laughed in his face, called him insane, and even punched him in the nose (as is evident by the little smear of blood still visible there) but in the end, I followed. Call me crazy, which clearly I am, but when someone tells you that you belong to a whole other world and that this new world is full of wonders like I've never seen before, it'd be hard for any girl from the Ring to turn down I think.

Not that I really believe in all this mumbo-jumbo, but I am willing to at least entertain the idea that this could be...true? Clearly it can't be, but still I'd like to hear them try to change my mind.

"Well would you look what the cat dragged in." A male voice says when we make it back down to the mud pits. I'd been keeping myself directly behind Oliver, ready to use him as collateral or something if the need came up.

My mind though had been distracted by the other's low murmuring voices, my heart pounding too loudly in my ears to think straight and when Oliver moved a step to the left, I didn't follow.

Their eyes all fell on me, and one by one a look of surprise crossed their ever ranging features. "Well, well." The big brawny guy from earlier with the red ring nodded his head, eyes scanning between Oliver and me. "You could have told us we just weren't pretty enough for you." He chuckles to himself, winking at Oliver.

"Maxum, hold your tongue." Tonyedda scolds him with a sharp look that quiets him right up. "That's no way to welcome our guest."

"Neither is the whole ambush thing." I point out, trying to seem braver than I currently feel. "I mean, no offense, but when trying to get someone to listen to you, the whole ganging up on one person with a group of glowing weirdos probably isn't the best strategy."

A hush of laughs moves through them, some of them losing the rigid stance if only for a moment. It made them seem a little more normal, and less like a group of crazies hanging out together. "She's come back to hear us out, but if you all keep that up she may just run again." Oliver's deep voice mumbles disinterestedly.

I try not to be too obvious about keeping track of him as he walks over to join the group. Maybe join isn't the right word though, because even though he stands with them, there is something about the placement of his body, the way he plants himself within the group's line, but still manages to seem separate from it, that makes him still seem disconnected.

"Thank you for returning." Tonyedda nods to me after a moment of awkward standing.

"Uh huh." I mumble, barely audible as I make sure that my own positioning is strategic. I don't want to get caught with my back to the mud ponds again, so I angle so that my back is facing the open space, giving me the opening to run backward if need be while also keeping the road to the left and right as an option.

I swallow back hard as I scan over them again.

For the most part they look pretty normal, aside from the weird clothing and the random colors glowing from various spots on their bodies, but each one is so different it takes my breath away. It's not a diversity that you see around here, or even in Utopia if I remember correctly, though Tawny was right in that I don't have as much knowledge of my home as some others do.

I'm used to seeing people of varying heights and weights, but for the most part, we all have narrow faces, pointed chins, thin straight noses, prominent eye brows, bowed lips and large wide eyes in colors varying from a bright gold, down to a rich brown, or in rarer cases like Tawny, a bright aqua blue. Our skin is a dark golden brown, some lighter if they are new to the Ring, and some a little deeper like mine if you've been here a long time.

Standing before me though, the different colors don't only apply to their glowing stones. There are men with dark tan skin with wild black curls that blow in the wind, girls with hair as yellow as sunshine and eyes the color or emeralds. Strange red hued hair, like Oliver's. And just as Tonyedda boast a skin so deep in color, there is a girl with skin so pale, she's nearly translucent in the mild light of our stars. Small, large, bone thin, thick bodied, wide noses, purple eyes, lips so thin they appear to be missing...It overwhelmed my senses. I didn't know we could be so different.

Yet they stood as a group of one.

As different as they all were, I did feel the unison that flowed between them.

"Surely you must have many questions for us." Tonyedda prods gently, taking a half step forward. Her body is wrapped in long tan fabric that drapes down to the ground but leaves her shoulders bared. Around her neck as has an impressive necklace of many stones that creep up to just under her chin all the way down to her breast bone, with the center most stone glowing white light into the night. "You don't need to fear us, Malikah."

"I don't." I tell her, not realizing until the words are out in the open that I wasn't being brave when I said it. I meant it. I didn't feel a sense of danger with these people and the little voice in my head that usually warns me to get away or not to do something stupid is pleasantly silent. "I do wonder though..."

"Ask whatever you wish." Tonyedda urges, her black brows arching up onto her smooth forehead as she smiled.

I swallow back again, still at a total loss. "I-I wouldn't know where to begin." I finally admitted and I looked over to Oliver, relaxing a little more when he smiled. "You aren't from Utopia?" I feel stupid as I ask it. Torn inside both with feeling like they obviously have to be from Utopia, because where else would they have come from? There is only Utopia and the Ring. Yet, in my body I know that they can't be from Utopia, and Oliver had even told me as much.

Tonyedda slowly turns her head from side to side. "No, Malikah." Her voice every bit as soft as silk. "We are not from Utopia. This is the third realm, and it does not belong to us, just as you do not belong to it."

Annnnnd now I remember why I thought these people were crazy.

"I don't know what you mean by realms?" I finally admit, noting the irony that I don't want to sound stupid in front of a group of people I'm sure have no brains.

"There are exactly seven realms." Tonyedda says reverently. "Each one is a world all of its own. These realms, like this one, have their own inhabitants, customs, beliefs, animals, foliage...Each one is unique. Just as we are each unique." Looking at each of the others proves her right. "You know stories of The Six?"

I furrow my brows at her. "You mean like the Gods? What, next you're going to tell me that they are real?" I joke, but no one laughs. "Oh come on, there is no way..."

Tonyedda nods. "The Six are very real."

"What kind of Gods let little kids die in the mud?" I cross my arms over my chest. Talk of the Gods is more prevalent in newcomers to the Ring. Worship to the Gods, particularly Ramos, is a mandatory thing in Utopia. They are raised on the stories there and everything they do is supposed to be in honor to our Gods. As silly as it is, sometimes I still try to do right by the rules even in the Ring, kind of hoping one day I'll be accepted back into Utopia. Especially since it wasn't my own doing that landed me here. I know how stupid it is, and I'd never tell another soul the truth, but I wanted the Gods to look down on me with praise.

But on the other hand, I also saw what those "Gods" were capable of. I saw the bodies of the ones who just couldn't survive another day without food. I've seen the ones who turn to violent crime to just get by. I've seen the way every sliver of happiness gets quickly stamped out within my people. At times like those I'd rather believe that we are all just here, doing the best we can. Knowing someone is sitting up there watching the horror show just makes it worse. It's easier to not believe.

"They are real, Malikah." She tells me again. "And whether or not we agree with their rules here, or in any other realm, is not our duty. I know it may seem heartless, but there is nothing we can do here. We can't change this place, but what we can do, is help another realm. Our true realm."

I brought a dried mud covered hand to the back of my neck and tried to ease the tension I felt building there. "What true realm? What is it you all want from me?"

"Each of the six Gods created their own realm to rule." She bends over to pick up a stick, then leans forward to draw a circle in the dirt, followed by five more. "Altos created the first realm, it's called Altomosia. It's where Brylyna was from." Tonyedda points over to the girl about my age with the pale skin, red eyes, and sunshine hair. "She was a Caster."

"I don't know what that means." Apparently dumb is my new thing.

"Each realm, its inhabitants are different. They look different, they have different ways of life, and different abilities. Each realm was created by a different God, and that God took the original idea from Altos, and created their own world to reign over. In Altomosia, the people are called Casters. They are like much lesser Gods. They can't create or change things like the Gods can, but they do have powers." I find myself rudely staring at the pale girl, waiting to see an example of her supposed powers, but she does nothing but smile at me. "We can teach you about each of the realms and their different inhabitants, but the more important business at hand is our realm. The seventh realm."

"But there are six Gods." I shrug, feeling like I'll always be ten steps behind these people. Already as it is I'm having trouble figuring out what's what, and she wants to teach me about six other 'realms' other than this one? I'll never keep it all straight. Plus, there is the whole thing about there being no way any of this is true. I've likely hit my head and I'm having strange lucid dreams or something.

"There are." Tonyedda agreed. "But the realms weren't their only creation. They also created companions. They were like them, but slightly lesser. They are the Demi Gods. It was the Demi Gods who created us, people like you and me and all of us you see here. There are thousands of us, and we belong to the seventh realm."

Realms, and Gods, and powers. It was all too much. I needed to sit down, but I knew better than to give my opponent that kind of opportunity to catch me showing too much weakness. Not that I thought these people were going to attack me, but I didn't know that they weren't either, so I stood my ground even as my head hurt with questions.

"If I'm supposed to be in the seventh realm, why am I here?" I ask, trying to clear out the clutter in my head. "And why was what's her name from Altomosia? What am I supposed to do in a new realm?"

The thought just got to me.

They want me to leave the Ring. Not just the Ring, but Utopia all together.

Screw being tough, I kicked out my legs in front of me and took a seat on the ground, eying the others cautiously.

Tonyedda lifted a hand to her stone and brushed it with the tips of her fingers absently. "We each come from all over." She begins. "Some are from other realms, and some are from the seventh realm itself. Where we are has nothing to do with where we are destined to be. The virtue stones chose us. Each color represents a different virtue that is needed in our mission to protect the seventh realm."

"Protect it from what?"

"Itself." She whispers. "You see, the seventh realm is different from all of the other realms. It doesn't just have one type of being or inhabitant. It's filled with all different types of beings from each of the other realms. There are Casters, Drinkers, Utopians, Demons, Shiftlings, Faes, and humans all living in the same realm."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what that is supposed to mean to me." I rub my face. "I've never heard of most of those things. And I still don't see the problem."

"The problem is that these creatures don't belong in a shared realm." She tells me. "They are at natural odds with each other. If it weren't for us, the Custodes, they'd destroy each other and themselves, sending the realms all into chaos." The others around me begin to nod with Tonyedda as her speech becomes stronger and stronger. "If it weren't for us, the realms would be doomed. We are needed, each and every one of us, to protect and preserve the realm. We live in the seventh realm, and we keep the different beings in check. Each of us has a job, each of us is as important as the next. It's our duty and our destiny to do our part. The virtue stones seek out the ones destined to be one of us, and together we help save people. And in return, when our duty is done, and are days are gone, we move on from this reality to become eternal watchers, just like the Demi Gods who created us."

Woah.

That was way more explanation than I really wanted. It's one thing for them to try to convince me I'm a part of their weird little group, but then they drop the news that Custodes are meant to become basically Gods upon our deaths. I'm just a girl from the Ring. I don't know how to, or even know if I want to, try to keep a realm from killing itself. Even for eternal life.

"I don't think I can do this." I muster up a small voice.

Tonyedda smiles down at me, something about the look in her eyes reminding me of Tawny, how she makes the young ones feel comfortable with her. "We can help you, Malikah. Each of us has been right where you are right now. It's a lot to take in, and it can be overwhelming, but that is why we are all here. We can help you make the transition and teach you our ways and how to utilize your stone."

I risk taking my eyes off the group to look down at my necklace. "You said the stones chose us?"

"Yes, they seek out the best person to represent that virtue." She nods. "Each color represents the virtue, and all Custodes of that color are grouped together. In times of need, the utilization of the different virtue stones help us. Reds are for war minds, white is for unifiers, yellow for leaders-"

"What about mine?" I cut her off. "What does blue mean?"

I catch a hint of a smile play on Oliver's lips as the other people in the group with blue stones touch their hands to them while Tonyedda speaks. "Peace makers."

I drop my hand away from my stone. "Peace makers?" I laugh out right. "This stone clearly picked the wrong girl."

"The stones are never wrong." Tonyedda assures me.

I push to my feet and square my shoulders. "I know we just met, but up until this sun cycle, I've been making my coin by fighting in the pits, and you can ask anyone who knows me, I'm about the least peaceful person in the Ring."

"The stones know you better than anyone else, maybe even better than you know yourself." Tonyedda disagreed. "I am telling you, the stone is not wrong about you. They have never chosen wrong before."

I tilt my head and smile. "You know what they say: there is a first time for everything."