Dominic and Seth paused in their stride having reached the crest of the hill, the location of their briefing. Their gazes locked onto the swirling orange smoke beyond the eatheral boundary. They took in the stunning view. That of the massive curved wall of dancing orange mist that stood as if trapped behind a thin pane of glass.

  “I’ll be back,” Dominic mumbled to Seth as he dropped his pack and once again began to walk. His destination was a basalt rock that jutted out down the hill. It stood a hundred or so paces before the eatheral boundary like a king before their subjects.

  “Just remember to be back before the briefing,” Seth answered as he turned to look over the gathering of soldiers in the valley to their left. The Academy as well as the surrounding lands were in chaos over the graduation trials. The standing military as well as the militia were in full force. No one wanted any accidents, or opportunistic attacks. Mostly, though, everyone was excited for the celebrations that would follow in the coming weeks.

  Dominic let his Sense drift to passive, having no desire to watch Seth worry about every detail a thousand times over. He already had to wake up well before their allotted time, at the very least he would enjoy the hour or two before his work would start and the briefing would begin.

  Dominic stood for minutes simply letting himself enjoy the view of the orange smoke as it swirled and danced. The shell of Cascadia, as it is now known, is one of hundreds perhaps thousands of sanctuaries that cover the world. Each a dam that holds the flood known as Eather at bay. Histories speak of a world before the chaotic touch of the Eather. Of nations larger than any known today, nations such as America, France, and Brazil.

  At times, Dominic finds it hard to believe that such a world ever existed. One with a never-ending blue sky, free from the corrupting touch of the Eather. A world in which Knights weren’t needed, where one could freely travel from town to town and city to city without worry.

  He turned his body towards the heart of the shell. His vision soon filled with the never-ending horizon, the bright blue sky with scattered clouds, and the breathtaking view of the natural fog that drifted through the Cascadian mountain range.

  “Only in Cascadia would one believe such a fairy tale,” Dominic said to himself as he thought of the Eather filled dome he lived under as a child. A shell barely large enough to have a sky gap. Compared to here where he could walk hundreds of nauts before he saw the other side of the wall. “No one else could even fathom such a place.”

  Peripherally he saw his friend closing his own backpack and moving towards Dominic’s. Dominic let out a sigh as he felt a weight settling on himself. It wasn’t the invasion of privacy that unsettled Dominic, Seth was the one who packed the thing in the first place. It was the fact he was standing here doing nothing as his lifelong friend was, in a sense, doing all the work.

  A long sigh left Dominic’s mouth as he once again tried to ignore that guilt, that work ethic beat into him over his short twenty years of life. He inhaled deeply as he resigned himself to at least doing something to prepare for their trip.

  With that in mind he pulled at his Sense, a skill all Aetherian’s sought to master, from its passive state in which he had a faint understanding of the world around him, into an active one which he could shape and guide. His focus shifted and it was as if he opened another eye, unplugged his ears, or took off gloves.

  Soon that faint knowledge that Seth was moving became a solid image of which items he was holding. That passing understanding of the wind moving the grass along the hill became knowledge of hundreds of unseen insects and small creatures that lived in the area. That tingle that itched at him became the sound of the soldiers chatting in the valley.

  He pulled at the small threads of eather that shaped his Sense and focused them into a cone. The chatter of the soldiers fell from him as knowledge of the world before him opened up. It pushed forward and soon he understood the strain that the ground near the boundary felt as order and chaos fought in a never-ending cycle.

  Even now as a shiver ran up his body from a stray gust of wind, he pushed his sense deeper into the boundary, his body struggled to understand the information fed to it. Of the grassland that quickly became a forest abreast with life. Of Eatheral patterns he has come to understand as an Enhanced. A subgroup of beasts that still retain their recognizable animal form and characteristics.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Insects, small mammals, and predatory birds were among the Enhanced he felt. One of them, a racoon of some sort, was the closest he’d ever found to the coming transformation. Soon the creature would adapt to the Eather, or it would die. From an academic sense, it intrigued Dominic, however, as much as he wanted to study the creature, that wasn’t his current goal.

  He moved on, seeking deeper and deeper. The more he understood of the wilds before him and of the danger they might face, the better prepared they could be. As he was the strongest in the Sense, it became one of his many roles in the squad.

  His understanding came from his Grandfather’s stories and the teachings held within. Though he didn’t understand it at the time, his Grandfather had taught him much of what it meant to be a skilled knight.

  Dominic turned his head towards Bethany having felt her walking towards him for the last few seconds. He nodded in greeting as his mind was still shifting through the data beyond the boundary.

  “I still don’t understand how you can do that,” Bethany said in response to his affirmation of her. As his focus shifted to the conversation at hand his understanding of beyond the boundary began to slowly fade. “If I was to go that deep, I would have to close my eyes. There is no way I would even be able to notice someone walking up to me.”

  “Do you close your eyes when you smell?” Dominic asked as he pulled his legs back from the ledge and stood. He had done enough to settle that guilty feeling from earlier.

  “If I want to concentrate on what I’m smelling, I do.” Bethany retorted. Dominic was about to reply when she held up her hand.

  “I’ve heard it before, separate your Sense from all your others. While it is easy to tie it to another sense like sight it is only a handicap in the future.” Her tone was thick with sarcasm as her hand made exaggerated gestures. “My question is, how do you separate? How do you not get pictures before your eyes?”

  Dominic understood the question well, he had been confused when he first gained his Sense and it felt like he was feeling things on his hand or even smelling them. None of it matched what his grandfather described in his stories he reminisced of the Sense, he always spoke of it as something akin to a true sixth sense. Even his teachers taught using other senses. They would speak about sensing the tingle crawling across your arm as someone sneaks up behind you. Of your hairs standing on edge as someone prepares a skill. Or even letting your Sense fill your vision as Bethany had described.

  Only a handful ever mentioned being able to separate the Sense, to have it become something entirely new. Those were the masters of their craft, the teachers of the scouts and seers.

  “Well?” Bethany asked again as her body shifted. Clearly, she was annoyed at the silence.

  Dominic still took another moment or so before he spoke, his mind trying to figure out a way to answer the question.

  “I wish I knew how to explain,” Dominic finally replied. “I’ve talked to the teachers of the Sense, those who are able to do what it is I am, and most spoke of it as a natural thing that came with time and practice. I think, I think they are mostly right. As it took me much time, practice, and failure. There were a few months where I walked around with a blindfold when not in class, or otherwise in need of seeing. Not sure that accomplished much aside from many bruises and memorization of different paths. Then there was the period I had Seth change the passcode to one of our closets daily and hide the code on balls behind the door. Though I eventually learned how to open it constantly, I still saw images before my vision.” Dominic paused as he continued to think of things that might help.

  Bethany let out a sigh before she spoke. “You’re really no help.” She finally said before she turned and walked towards Seth and Tylor.

  Dominic watched her go unsure of what he could’ve said that would’ve helped her understand. The truth was it was as difficult as describing what color was to a blind man. You can talk about variance like blue being cool or red being hot, but that doesn’t really describe the color so much as the sensation the color brings. In that way he can speak of the information and other sensations that pelt his mind but not what Eatheral color they are.

  Dominic’s eyes dart down the hill towards the domineering presence that shook his reforming Sense. There stood a tall fit man in a blue and black mithrialian silk uniform talking to another squad of cadets. The presence he eluded was so overwhelming it was as if the air around him was constantly shifting. A man with more titles than many had years of life.

  “Michael Vistan,” Dominic whispered before he turned back to his squad. He saw their attention was likewise on the Dean of the Academy. Without another thought he started to jog towards them. It wouldn’t go well for them to be out of order as their commanding officer was about to appear.

  “The hero of the black arch,” he heard Tylor whisper as he neared. “I can’t believe anyone would be able to hold so long against a dozen violets.”

  “I am fairly certain that those stories are greatly exaggerated,” Bethany replied, just barely audible. It if wasn’t for his Sense he was sure he wouldn’t have even known she spoke. “Besides, my favorite is how he earned the title Guardian of the Forth Gate.” She continued as Dominic stopped beside her and began to put on his pack. “The invasion of the Walala Raiders has always been a fearful event. Yet during his time…”

  “Atten-tion!” Seth said in a sharp voice his body becoming stiff. Bethany’s words ended as the rest of the squad likewise stiffened. Dominic could sense Vistan had just begun his slow hike up the hill.