Shade's eyes snap open as she frantically looks around her. She is in unfamiliar surroundings, on a wooden plank floor inside a building she has never seen before. The walls are the same planked wood as the floor, leading up to a slate roof held up by wood slats and beams. The room she is in is varnished quite simply, a few wooden chairs spread around the room and a short table against one of the walls. There is a fireplace near where Shade is lying on the floor, but it isn't lit, instead filled with fresh logs yet to meet their fate with fire. Shade's gaze flicks around these unfamiliar surroundings, finally resting on the relieved face of Jason who is kneeling next to her. He launches towards Shade and gives her a tight hug, one that Shade is quick to release herself from, pushing him away from her. "Shade, thank god you are awake. I was so worried."

"What is going on here? Last I remember we were in the forest because you made the decision to run off. How did we end up in this building?"

"Well, after you saved us, me and Charlie brought you to her house in the village to keep you safe."

Shade looks confused, tracing out the events she can remember in her mind. "Wait, who's Charlie?"

"I am." The door to the building swings open as Charlie walks through, her arm tightly wrapped in its sling. "This is my house you're sitting on the floor of." Charlie walks over to one of the seats at the table against the wall. She pulls it out and sits down on it, letting out an exasperated sigh. "We're lucky those guards weren't Grulm's best and brightest, otherwise you would have both been found out."

"Wait, the circle of Grulm is here? Jason get up, we have to leave." Shade tries to stand but is knocked back to the ground by a splitting pain in her side and across her chest, falling back onto her shoulders. Jason starts to get up to try and help her, but Charlie stands up first, swiftly crossing the floor to where Shade is lying. "You're in no fit state to move young lady, let alone travel. Besides, the Grulm have encircled this village for the next two months, and as it seems you don't want to run into them you won't be going anywhere for a while."

"If they won't let us leave then I'll fight my way out. I'm no pushover."

Charlie throws her head back and laughs. "Fight your way out, will you? I highly doubt that. You passed out scaring off a few gorefangs, and even though that's no easy feat, I doubt that knights of the Circle of Grulm will roll over quite as easily. Also, your friend here can't fight to save his life." She gestures back at Jason who is still looking at Shade with a worried expression. "It would be far easier for you to wait them out here."

Shade looks around her, taking in the room once again. If she had to be stuck somewhere for two months, this isn't the worst place, and at least there is a roof over her head and food. Plus, two months isn't that long in the grand scheme of things. Jason seems relatively clueless about being a sensitive, everything that has happened so far, he doesn't seem to have had a direct part in, so hopefully not too much more will develop over the two months stay. "I guess you are speaking some sense," she says to Charlie.

Charlie goes back to her chair by the table. "Good. You're welcome to stay here during your time in the village. The guards said they wouldn't come into the village and even if they did, they shouldn't come poking around in here. You'll be safe. Jason, take Shade upstairs to a bed so she can rest. Those wounds won't heal themselves."

Jason nods and stands up, walking over to Shade and attempting to pick her up like he did before, something she is not pleased about. "What are you doing, get off me."

"Charlie told me to take you upstairs to the beds."

"I don't need you to carry me I just need you to help me walk."

"Oh alright, sorry." Jason stoops down and wraps one of Shades arms around his shoulder, helping her to her feet and walking her out of the room and up some stairs. He helps her onto a bed and heads back down towards the main room. Charlie chuckles as he reappears. "You're going to have to look after that one. She's bold, and stubborn. Reminds me of a young me once upon a time."

Jason sits down in a chair next to Charlie, leaning on the arm rest so as to look at her. "Charlie, can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"How did you know to hide me and Shade from the Circle of Grulm. If you hadn't have pulled me and Shade behind that wall, they would have no doubt caught us, and then bad things would have happened to us I'm sure."

Charlie starts to undo the sling that is holding her arm to her chest. "Its not often you find two people who don't have red eyes wandering around the forest who aren't wanted for something. Plus, you guys saved my life, I felt I needed to repay the favour." As the knot on the sling is undone it falls to the floor. Charlie traces a line in the air above her arm with her other hand, and a green line appears at the tip of her finger. She circles the line with the same finger and a circle appears around it. A mesh of green lines encircles the arm that was in the sling, circling around it and covering it in the dull green light. Charlie then pushes her hand through the circle and line in the air and it disperses, the mesh of lines around her arm following suit. She flexes the arm that was in the sling and stretches it out, moving it as if it had never been broken at all.

Jason stares at her with disbelief. "Isn't that arm injured?"

Charlie winks at him. "It was."

"Wait, are you a sensitive? Is that how you healed your arm so quickly? That is so impressive."

"I am, much like your friend, but I am sensitive to the Realm of Balance unlike her." Charlie stands up and heads over to the fireplace, striking a flint against a stone and lighting it. She sits in the chair next to the fire and starts to warm her hands. "I knew she was a sensitive before she did anything, before she entered the clearing even."

"Really, how could you have known?"

"You really don't know much about sensitives do you. Well, come here and let me tell you a story that's sure to pique your interest."

Jason sits on the floor next to the chair, like a child excited to have a story read to them by an elderly relative.

"When someone is able to harness the power provided by one of the realms," Charlie starts, embellishing the story with her hands in front of the fire, "they give off energy from that realm. Different energies fight each other, like animals fighting over food. Two sensitives who belong to different realms will instantly know that the other is like them, like a repulsive force won't let them settle. It is said that an animal is tuned to know when its predator is near, well that's how it feels to be around a sensitive who belongs to a different realm. Perpetual unsettling feelings, never too strong but always around."

"But what if you are sensitive to the same realm as the other person?"

"Well," Charlie continues, a twinkle in her eye. "The energies given off by two people sensitive to the same realm don't fight. They instead grow and mould together, becoming one source of power, a pool for both sensitives to tap into."

Jason's eyes widen, like a child passing by a store front, his mind racing with what he just heard. "That sounds beautiful."

"Oh it is, but it's also dangerous. When two sensitives who belong to the same realm are together they can't sense it. If they don't say, then neither of them would know, but they would grow more powerful. Not only do they have their own level of energy, but due to the union of the two sources of power, they have the other persons too. Fights between sensitives like that become deadly bursts of power, displays that can never be replicated in which the winner is absolute." Charlie's gaze starts to wander, down into the pits of the fireplace. Her pupils start to dilate and her eyes glaze over as she envisions these melodies of combat, enthralled by their beauty. She is brought back to the room by Jason letting out a polite cough and she straightens up in her chair again. "But its not all doom and gloom of course," she stutters, blushing a little, embarrassed to be caught in her own thoughts in such a way. "The large cities, while being Grulm controlled, are not completely void of sensitives, as much as they would like them to be. They aren't very powerful by themselves, powerful sensitives are often rooted out, but they team up with each other to increase their power. They group up in hospitals and use their increased power to cure the sick, or at farms and use it to grow crops to feed the impoverished." Charlie leans back in her chair and looks up to the roof, seeming to be deep in thought but still continuing with her story, as if she is telling Jason a profound truth, one that requires a pure train of thought. "It's a nice reminder really, that no matter how weak or powerful you are, rich or poor, male or female, when we work together anything is possible."

A tear rolls down Jason's cheek. He hadn't realised it but during the ending of the story his eyes had filled with tears, waiting to burst forth. He swallows the lump in his throat and wipes his eyes dry. "That's truly beautiful Charlie, I had no idea how amazing the world of sensitives is."

Charlie stands up from her chair, content that her story has reached appreciative ears. "Well, I'm glad I could enthral you for a little while." She looks out of one of the skylights and sees that the sky is a deep pink. "There is one thing I am a bit confused about however, maybe you could shine some light on the situation for me."

"Sure, what's on your mind?"

"Your friend Shade, her aura is powerful, powerful enough for me to know she was coming before she even arrived at the clearing. I could sense her before even you showed up. Yet, despite all that energy, she near tore herself apart manifesting only a fraction of it. Do you know what's up with that?"

"I'd love to help you, but I don't really know. What she did to save us was probably the most impressive thing I've ever seen her do. Before that I've only ever seen her summon smaller tentacles and only one at a time."

"Ah well, it was worth asking anyway." She moves over to the fire and hangs a pot over it. "It's getting late. I'll make you two some food, you can take hers up to her, it's probably still not a good idea for her to move too much." Charlie spends some time preparing some food, with a little help from Jason, and puts it in the pot. It stews for a while before the pot starts to bubble and the lid rattles. Charlie spoons some of it into two bowls and hands them to Jason. "Take one up to her, and it's probably a good idea to eat yours with her too. We wouldn't want her getting too lonely up there."

Jason takes the bowls and starts towards the door he took Shade through earlier. "Good idea, I'll take these up now."

In the room upstairs, Shade finds a piece of parchment inside a chest at the end of the bed she was placed down in. The wounds on her hands under her makeshift bandages have not fully healed yet and still produce a little blood when disturbed. She dips her finger in the blood and uses it to write on the parchment. On it she writes to Sylas, explaining her situation and when he is to expect her. She explains to him how her target ended up in Zilla with her and that she is bringing him to the sanctuary so they can both eliminate him. Suddenly, she hears footsteps on the stairs outside the door coming towards her. She places the paper on the floor next to the bed as tendrils start to emerge from the blood that was used for ink. The tendrils snake towards the four corners of the parchment, Shade clenching her fists to deal with the pain of manifesting them. The tendrils pull the corners together, scrunching the parchment into a ball before pulling it out of existence. There is a knock on the door and Shade quickly replaces the bandage on her hand and pulls the covers over herself, pretending to have just been woken up by the knocking on the door. "Come in," she says with her best sleepy voice.

Jason opens the door holding the two bowls of stew that Charlie had made them. "Sorry Shade, did I wake you up?"

Shade sits up in the bed. "It's fine, I feel better anyway," she lies, the pain of her actions just moments ago still searing in her hands. "What have you got there?"

Jason hands her one of the bowls. "It's stew, Charlie made it for us. You should eat, it'll help you recover faster."

Shade takes the bowl and places it on her lap. Jason notices a speck of blood from her hand that was left on the bow where she grabbed it. He starts to eat his stew before taking the spoon and pointing at Shade's hands with it. "Something has been confusing me Shade, how come every time you do your sensitive stuff you end up bleeding, it doesn't seem very healthy."

Shade takes a spoonful of her stew. "It's just the type of sensitive I am. My powers manifest from my blood so injuring myself is just part of it. I usually have the power to heal any injuries that occur to me from my own power but right now that power is tolling me too much. I will injure myself more if I try to heal."

Jason finishes his stew and places the bowl on the floor. "Do you know why it is your powers are reduced? Maybe we can find a way to fix it and you can go back to your regular powerful self."

Shade places the final spoon of her stew into her mouth and considers telling Jason that he is the reason that she cannot use her powers properly, and that it will only get worse. She decides that maybe it wouldn't be the best idea to tell him right now but telling him eventually isn't out of the realms of possibility. If she can find a way to use it to manipulate him into trusting her more, she will take it. "I don't know. Besides, the sun has probably gone down now, and we should sleep."

"Good idea," Jason says as he lays down on his bed. "My body is not happy about last night's sleep on the stump, so a good night's sleep will do me good."

The pair close their eyes as the night overwhelms them both.