“Your powers don’t seem very impressive is all I’m saying,” Greg continued.

  “Again, I agree wholeheartedly that I personally am not very powerful. That does not generalize to the Xian as a species. My people are the most powerful warriors.”

  The man shook his head in disbelief as he steered around a bend. “The fire whip thing Confgration does? You can’t tell me your levitation bit beats that no matter how powerful it might become.”

  “Lord Annihitor can destroy an entire city with one bst,” Hector said. He didn’t know why he was arguing the point. He was a Xian for a couple of months now and had no inherent loyalty to his kind. It was also odd that the guy who objected to making the Arahants into celebrities rushed to defend their honor.

  “I bet Confgration could do the same. Not that he would, mate. Confgration is a good guy. That’s why the others are learning from him.”

  “I’ve heard of the Sage of Confgration,” Hector said. Evelyn mentioned the guy once, so technically he had. “He’s said to be a real hero. But. Xian are built for war. I saw one survive a nuclear bomb.” It had been antimatter, but the difference didn’t matter much for the sake of the story.

  “Surviving a nuke? You’re just making stuff up now, mate.”

  “Unfortunately, I am not. Wish the bastard had died if I’m being honest.” Hector drifted into his thoughts for a time. What would have changed if the Lord General died that day? Volithur survived the initial bst. Maybe he would have recovered and gone home to his family.

  As happy as that thought was… what if Hector extended the thought experiment?

  No one finds out Volithur’s involvement. He lives happily ever after with his wife and son. Probably more kids. He becomes a lord eventually. Probably the ‘hollow spear’ type because Volithur didn’t put in the work on body enhancement.

  All of that would be great except for one thing. Would the Lord Ptinum have anyone to send to the Dream Engine in Volithur’s pce? Hector could only specute, of course, but he thought not. That Yazata creature would have died in his pce. Did that matter? Did he even believe the grandiose cims of the Yazata? Battles from before the start of time as it now existed. It seemed very mythological to Hector.

  Hector desperately wished he could find some proof that Volithur’s life mattered. At the end, that broken man had desired only to be forgotten. Though it might be his dying wish, Hector could never oblige. He had experienced every step of that journey. The choices might not have been ones that he would make, but they were ones he remembered.

  Maybe he would have to be the reason. If he brought this band of Arahant to Earth and saved his world, that would validate the existence of his brother Volithur. The fate of an entire world rested on Hector’s borrowed insight. Such a legacy wasn’t nothing.

  “So what are your powers?”

  “I’m still new to my path, so I can’t do much yet. Travel between worlds, move things around, and shield my body.”

  “Aren’t you a bit old to be new to your powers?”

  “I wasn’t born a Xian. I come from an unempowered world like yours.”

  Greg tapped his fingers on the steering wheel in thought. “Probably no chance the Arahant are going to train any of us in their ways?”

  “Not likely,” Hector agreed.

  “Well, what kind of powers do you get when you’re more experienced? Surviving nukes?”

  “Body enhancement makes a Xian functionally immortal at a certain point. There’s mental enhancement and band telepathy. That’s about it, actually. Xian don’t have any conceptual powers like Arahant or Jinn. Everything we do is very straightforward.”

  “I know I won’t ever be one, but I prefer the Arahant still.”

  “I dated an Arahant for a while,” Hector said.

  They almost ran off the road because of the way Greg jerked the wheel. “You dated one? What was she like?”

  “Quirky in a cute way but after a while it stopped being cute. She wore a lot of bck, drank too much, never paid for anything, and pyed the guitar – poorly.”

  “So an Arahant who is nothing like our Arahant.”

  “I honestly have no idea who the people on your world are. The Sage of Confgration is famous, of course, but I don’t know anything about the others. Their posters make them look like they’re in a pop singing group.”

  Greg didn’t answer for a while. When he did speak, he started off with a discimer. “I don’t think I’ll ever see you again. If I do, I will deny everything I’m about to say. I will cim to the day I die that I don’t follow the news about them.”

  “Come on, Greg, I’m not judging.”

  “Zelda and Machi are studying the mystery of fire under Confgration. Zelda is the girl that can grow bat wings. Machi is the boy that all the women fawn over. Then there’s Rodrick. He summons the giant sword and wears a suit of armor. The mysterious one is Vivian. She goes invisible a lot. I don’t think anyone even knows if she fights or just hides. The fan fiction comes up with some wild theories, let me tell you.”

  “Do any of them specialize in mind control?”

  “What? Mind control? Is that possible?”

  “That’s one of the things Arahant are most famous for. I haven’t been keeping up with my mental enhancement, so I don’t know how worried I should be.”

  Greg stole gnces at him. “You talk about them almost like they’re enemies, mate.”

  “I need to ask them for a big favor, so I’m certainly no enemy.”

  “Good to hear. We’re about as far as I can take you. They blocked the roadway past the next exit, so we’ll be parting ways there, mate.”

  Hector nodded. “I appreciate the ride. I didn’t meant to drag you out of the party.”

  “Never know what I’m on the hook for when Randy comes around.”

  “You seem to treat him good.”

  “Strange situation all around, mate. My wife had complications during delivery, so she ain’t never having another. That makes my step daughter the only kid I’ll ever have. He don’t like that I step up for a lot of things, though. Probably feels like he’s being repced. We won’t ever cut Randy out of her life, but can’t let him take her about unsupervised either.”

  The car took an exit from the freeway and rolled to a stop. Hector held out a hand to his chauffeur. “I appreciate the ride, Greg. You’re a good guy.”

  “Likewise, Hector. Thanks for the magic trick at the party.”

  The three hours in the car let him replenish his reserves some amount. He could lift a room full of kids for ten seconds or club a group of dirty cops to death if necessary. At the moment, neither of those skills were necessary. As the sun set, Hector walked alongside the closed highway, passing signs for Bay Beach.

  He pushed on through the night, cultivating chaos as he went. Lacking his trusty backpack, Hector had no food supplies and began to regret not staying at the party long enough for birthday cake. He hardened his resolve and picked up the pace of his hike.

  The roads were empty for a long stretch. It was past midnight when he encountered people. A military truck idled on the road, its headlights pointed in his direction. Hector moved to the side, pnning to slip by in the dark of the treeline.

  “Too te now, buddy. Walk towards the truck and y down on the ground.” The shout reached him the moment he stepped off pavement. He hesitated long enough that the man continued. “We see you on infrared. You’re not slipping by to harass the Arahant.”

  Hector turned and slunk forward. He’d need to demonstrate some ability to convince these soldiers that he deserved to speak with their heroes. The soldiers converged on him while he was fully blinded by the headlights. A woman was the first to reach his side.

  “Aren’t you a bit old to be a fanboy?” She reached out as if to shake hands and snapped a cuff on in a smooth motion. “Let’s not go to the ground, mister gray hair. Put your hands behind your back and we’ll take a nice ride past the beach house where the Arahant stay.”

  He let the woman soldier cuff his other wrist. “What then? Are you putting me in jail?”

  “We’ll pass you off to the police. They fingerprint and take a mug shot. If you don’t have any warrants, you are put on the next bus going to Steel City. We still get four or five trespassers a night.” The woman’s demeanor was entirely too cheerful for her line of work. Or maybe it was just right. He had intended to resist with his domain before she started chatting him up.

  They loaded him into a van. The friendly soldier sat in back with him while a driver and another soldier stayed up front. Hector poked a portion of his domain into the key hole of the cuffs, intending to release the mechanism. Then he ran into a familiar problem.

  Despite all of the memories, he was not Volithur. Hector was the superior talent in almost every way. Almost being the key word. His senses were dreadfully inferior. He could snap the metal of the cuffs if he wanted to get rough, but picking the lock proved utterly impossible while cking the fine sense to ‘see’ what he was doing.

  “There’s the famous house. Which one is your favorite?”

  “My favorite Arahant is Sage Evelyn,” he said.

  “Sage Evelyn? Are you inventing new Arahant?”

  “She’s not here on this world.”

  “Oh, really? What are her powers?”

  Hector was watching the beach house. The windows were lit bright and he could see shadows moving about inside. With a twitch of his domain, a cable of force formed and shattered the gss. “Evelyn? She sees the future.”

  “The future? That doesn’t sound very exciting.”

  “The truth isn’t always exciting.” Hector squinted at the house, trying to discern if anyone was investigating. It rapidly disappeared from view. He grunted in disappointment. Of course it wouldn’t be so simple as that.

  They parked in front of the township building of the abandoned town and escorted Hector inside to sit in a line of chairs next to a red firetruck. His cuffs were removed and a police officer arrived to snap a picture with a digital camera and then scan each of his fingers for prints. Everyone appeared annoyed when they couldn’t find any identification during a search. The police found no record of someone with his name existing.

  “Look, guy, we’re going to transfer you to jail if you don’t give us your real name. If you have a record, we’ll find out anyway. The fingerprint search will be done by morning, so just make this easier on us all.”

  Hector gnced about the room like he’d done several times since his arrival, sure something was off. Being detained was messing with his head. He couldn’t get comfortable. “You’re not going to find any records of me. I’m from another universe.”

  “Enough of the fantasies. You’re not an Arahant.”

  His attention slipped from the man looming over him to movement he caught from the corner of his eye. There was nothing there. “I never cimed to be one. I’m something called a Xian.”

  “You’re something called a Xian. Unbelievable. Tell me then. What does a Xian do?”

  A voice came from nowhere. “This one breaks windows.”