The Outlands

Tess woke up feeling…groggier than usual. She had stayed up late last night, since today was their day off, and she had–

Her recollection was interrupted by a slight shifting in the bed next to her. Ellie was there, snoring peacefully as she unconsciously adjusted to Tess sitting up. Right. Tess and Ellie had had some…fun the previous night, and ended up both falling asleep in Tess’s bed afterwards.

Tess gingerly extracted herself from her bed, taking care not to wake Ellie in the process. As she got dressed, she began to think about what would come next. And she…honestly wasn’t really sure what she was planning to do with her day. It had been a few weeks and their group was dangerously close to fully clearing the Jagged Cliffs, but Ava and The Rumors wouldn’t allow them to go on their day off, even for this.

In general, Tess had been wanting to go into dungeons as much as possible, but her tutors had said it was important to have days where she rested her body and mind, that going all in on the grind would wear her down way too much. So, she had reluctantly bowed to their wisdom and taken Fridays off. Still, she wished she had something to do, so she wasn’t just at home all day doing nothing.

Ellie groaned, sitting up. “Where…” She paused, looking around before catching sight of Tess, blinking a couple of times. She looked down and noticed that she still wasn’t wearing any clothes, then shrugged and got up, walking over to her pile of discarded clothing and beginning to dress herself.

Tess got her phone out and began to text Jacob. You mentioned that the guys have been wanting to go for a round of laser tag? She asked. I know that was before…everything, but…I was hoping maybe we still might be able to get together.

While she waited, she and Ellie went down to the kitchen for breakfast, and they were able to get halfway through before Jacob responded.

Yeah, I can put something together. Jacob replied. Leave contacting everyone to me, what time works for you?

Any time today, it’s our day off

Cool. I’ll try and plan around seven in the evening, then, plan to meet at the laser tag place. If plans change, I’ll text you

Awesome, see you then

See you then!

Tess looked up from her phone. “Jacob says he’s going to deal with gathering everyone, and to meet him at the laser tag place at seven.”

Ellie checked the time on her phone. “That leaves us with…about eight hours. What do we do until then?”

“Uh…I guess we just hang out?” Tess replied. “I’m sure we can think of something.”

Ellie smirked. “Want to pick up where we left off last night, then?”

Tess blushed deeply. “Later.” She said. “For now, let’s sorta…kick back for an hour or two, I guess?”

“Sounds good to me.” Ellie replied, spearing some of her eggs with a fork and taking a bite. “Just let me know if you want to, I’m ready any time. Uh, no pressure, though, if you don’t want to.”

“No, I do.” Tess said quickly. “I just want a bit more time to wake up first.”

“Well, take all the time you need. We’ve got a long future ahead of us, after all.”

“Yeah.” Tess replied, giving Ellie a smile. “We do.”

---

“I can’t help but feel a little nervous.” Tess said. “I know they’re our friends and all, but they were so…distant during school, and I don’t know how they’re gonna be around me.”

“It’ll be fine.” Ellie soothed. “Even if they are uncomfortable around you, I doubt they’re going to confront you or anything like that, they’d be too scared to. You shouldn’t have to worry about anything, I think.”

“I know.” Tess admitted. “It’d still feel…kinda bad, though, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.” Ellie replied. “But give them some time, they’ll realize you’re still you. And if they don’t…well, then they weren’t worth being friends with anyway.”

Tess nodded, unbuckling herself and reaching for the door, then stopping. “Right, gotta send Isabella out.”

Isabella drifted out of Tess and gave a slight curtsey. “Where should I perform my work, mistress?”

“Not sure.” Tess said. “Fly around, find somewhere with people you think will be spooked. I trust your judgement on this.”

“Understood. I will not let you down.” Isabella gave another curtsey before leaving the car and flying down the street in search of her victims.

“I kinda feel bad for the poor people who are gonna be on the receiving end of her pranks.” Ellie admitted. “But…well, they’re not actually going to be in any danger, so I guess there’s no real harm in it? And it’ll get people talking about things other than you, so…you know what, best not to worry about it. Let’s just go.”

Ellie opened the door and stepped out of the car, and Tess followed suit. They were parked towards the back of the parking lot, so it took them a bit to make it to the entrance of the place. And, there, in front of the door, were five guys talking amongst themselves.

Jacob noticed Tess and Ellie approaching, and waved his hand. “Hey guys, over here!” He called out, giving them a big smile.

“Uh…hey guys, it’s been a while.” Tess said, glancing at her friends. “How’ve you been doing?”

“Oh, uh…hey, Tess.” One of them, a boy named Eric, said, face cramping slightly. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

“I said I was getting the whole gang back together.” Jacob said innocently. “Why would you assume she wouldn’t be here?”

“Well…you know, after everything I just sorta thought she wouldn’t be around.” Eric replied lamely. “But this is fine too.”

Ellie nodded. “Are we missing anyone?”

“Nolan and his girlfriend are going to be here too.” Jacob said.

“When’d Nolan get a girlfriend?!” Ellie asked, taken aback. “He was single when we graduated, right?”

“A couple of weeks ago, it seems.” Jacob replied. “I didn’t find out until today either.”

There was some stilted chat for a couple of minutes until, at last, Nolan and his girlfriend showed up. To Tess’s shock, his girlfriend was the hardcore Life devotee who had come to “warn” Tess about her mistakes and set Marie on her at the graduation.

She looked about as surprised to see Tess as Tess was to see her, and her face immediately filled with anxiety. For his part, Nolan looked like he wasn’t expecting this either, and was looking between Tess and his girlfriend with a worried expression.

“Hey, you.” Ellie spat. “Fancy seeing you here. Come to attack us again?”

The girl shrunk back, and Nolan reached out, grabbing her hand gently. “You can do this.” He encouraged.

The girl nodded, then stepped forward. “No. I…actually came here because I wanted to see if Jacob could put me in contact with you. I…wish to apologize.”

Tess blinked. “What?”

“I had a talk with Marie after everything that happened, and she gave me a lot of things to think about. And…well, I did a lot of thinking and studying of the scriptures, and I even talked with Marie and Pastor Faust at length. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that my father is wrong, his teachings misguided. I don’t know what you are, but…Marie and Pastor Faust trust you, and that will have to be enough.”

The girl bowed her head slightly. “I’m sorry for the hurtful things I said, they were completely uncalled for. Even if the correct teaching was that homosexuality is wrong, which now I realize it is not, I should have let things be. It is not my place to judge you for it. That is for Death, and Death alone to do.”

There was a long silence, which Tess eventually broke. “Um…thanks, I think? I’ll be honest, it kinda hurt, what you did, but it’s not really a huge deal to me, I’ve dealt with worse. And…well, if I was in your situation, at the graduation, I probably would have done the same? Like, I wish you hadn’t, but I kinda get it.

“I…don’t think I’m ready to be friends or anything, but as long as you keep heading in the right direction and trying to reform yourself, I’m not going to hold it against you. Now, whether Ellie forgives you is an entirely separate matter, but…”

“I’m going to defer to Tess on this one.” Ellie said. “She was the one most affected, so if she forgives you, I will too. If I find out you backslide on this, though, then I’ll take issue. Don’t make your mistakes again.”

“I understand.” The girl said. “I’m…going to leave now. I don’t want to intrude more than I already have, sorry.”

“Before you go, I…don’t believe I ever caught your name. What is it?” Tess asked.

“Sarah.” The girl replied. “Sorry for not introducing myself earlier.” And with that, she whispered something to Nolan, soft enough that Tess couldn’t hear, then left.

After she left, Nolan turned to the group. “Sorry for bringing the mood down like that.” He said sheepishly. “It was just important to her and she wouldn’t take no for an answer. We all still good to go?”

“Y-yeah.” Jacob said.

“No, no we’re not.” Another guy, Max, said. “What was all that about?”

“Ah, she came and got in our face about being in a relationship.” Tess said. “A bit rude, but it’s whatever.”

“She set a Hunter on Tess, too.” Ellie added. “Or, well, her family did, but she was the messenger or something? Whatever, point is, she’s been super rude to us.”

Max blinked. “A…Hunter. She called a Hunter. You don’t just get to…gloss over that.”

Tess sighed. “Look, I don’t think it’s any big secret that I’m not…fully human anymore. They freaked out after I made a show of my new abilities and somehow managed to convince an actual Hunter to come over. The Hunter and I talked it out, and we’re cool now, so don’t worry about it.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “If you say so. Just as long as we’re not going to be interrupted by a Hunter barging in on us.”

“Not gonna happen.” Tess replied confidently. “She knows better now, and she’s keeping the other Hunters away from this place, so it’s no big deal. We’ll be fine.”

Most of her friends shared a skeptical look, but Jacob just nodded. “Let’s just get started. It’s really not a big deal, she’s the same as she’s ever been. You guys will see, I promise.”

Reluctantly, the group made its way inside, and Jacob dropped back so he was next to Tess. “Uh…I probably shouldn’t need to say this, but…you’re not gonna…you know…”

“Cheat?” Tess said. “No. I’ve already turned all that stuff off. Honestly, except for when I go to sleep, I haven’t turned off my night vision in…months. I almost feel blind, to tell you the truth.”

“Oh, uh…good.”

“Honestly, I think I might in our last round, though.” Tess admitted. “I just want to see how much of a difference it makes in an environment like this, and I don’t think I’ll have another opportunity for a long time.”

“Just…let everyone else know first, okay? I don’t want them to get all upset.” Jacob said warily.

“I will. Don’t worry about that.”

They reached the counter, where her other friends were already getting out cash to split the bill. Fortunately, Tess and Ellie did have some money; Gramps gave them an allowance for situations like this.

Now that she was thinking about it, she wasn’t sure where Gramps got his money either. As far as she could tell, he didn’t do any work on Mael, so she couldn’t see where it was coming from. They weren’t just…poofing it into existence, right? That was sure to cause an economic disturbance if they made too much.

The group finished paying for an hour of eight people playing, and were led to one of the smaller arenas. Seeing as how all of them had been there before, they were let in to do things as they pleased. They split themselves into two teams of four, and got started.

They played a series of games, and Tess found that it was…easier than she had expected. It took her a couple of games to get used to having to navigate in a dim area, something she hadn’t had to do since she got her night vision, but once she did, it was all uphill. Aside from when she and Ellie were on opposite teams, things were just…easy.

Their friends made a lot of noise, even when they tried to be sneaky, and Tess was pretty reliably able to figure out where anyone within a ten or twenty foot radius was just by the sound. Looking for monsters and traps in dungeons had made her much more aware of her surroundings, and it was really showing here.

Ellie was better, but she didn’t have the raw stealthiness that Ava had been drilling into Tess. That was sort of to be expected, though; Tess was serving as a scout, and Ellie was serving as a tank. It was unreasonable to expect her to be just as sneaky as Tess was. Ava had said that she would eventually get around to teaching Ellie some of that stuff, but, until then, Tess had quite the advantage over Ellie in that regard.

And soon they found themselves gearing up for the last match of the hour. “Uh…hey, I have a bit of a weird request.” Tess said. “Would it be cool if, for this round, it was me and Ellie against everyone else?”

Max gave her a curious look. “Why?”

“Well…I’ve kind of been holding back.” Tess said awkwardly.

“That was holding back?” Nolan replied incredulously. “Could have fooled me.”

“I may or may not usually have supernaturally good senses and chose to use normal ones while we were playing. I want to try and see how I do with them on.”

There was a brief pause before Nolan spoke up. “Again, they were off? I swear you could always find me ages before I could find you.”

Tess rubbed the back of her neck. “No, that’s just regular person stuff. I got some training since we last played together and it kind of translates super well to this, so…you know.”

“Unbelievable.” Max said, shaking his head in disbelief. “I thought we agreed that we were to always go all in, no matter what the situation, and here you’ve been holding back on us? Unacceptable. We’re gonna do four on four like we always do, and you’re not gonna hold back.”

Tess felt a wave of relief wash over her. It seemed like at least a couple of the guys were warming back up to her after they realized that she was still…her.

“I don’t think you guys get it.” Jacob said. “It’s like…cheating levels of good. It’s really not fair.”

“Fine, fine.” Max said, holding up his hands in surrender. “We’ll do a two on six. Just don’t come crying to us when we overwhelm you with sheer numbers.”

“Please.” Ellie said. “I was gonna tell you not to whine at us when you get destroyed. There’s no way you win this.”

“Oh, it’s on!”

The match was one-sided. Thanks to her tremorsense, Tess had a near perfect idea of where everyone was at all times, and was able to use that to thwart their attempts at attacking her. She even tried to aim without sight a couple of times, using tremorsense as an alternative, and while she wasn’t as successful with it as she would have liked, she was surprised to find she hit more often than not.

She would have to train herself with that later, until she reached the point where it was just as easy as using her eyes. She could tell that it only required fixing her mindset and trusting what the tremorsense gave her, so it would almost be more like trying to break a habit than actually learning a new skill.

After a few minutes, the match ended, and everyone began to put their gear away. Save for Jacob, the guys were all in disbelief over just how much of a difference her not holding back had made.

“How…did you do that?” Nolan asked. “I was behind you, hadn’t moved for like…a minute, and the moment I peeked out from my pillar you nailed me without even looking! How did you know?!”

“Uh…how do I put this…I basically have a minimap but better? I could tell exactly where everyone was the entire time.”

“That explains a thing or two.” Max admitted. “I might have underestimated you.”

“In your defense, it’s literally supernatural.” Tess replied. “You couldn’t really have known to expect that.”

There was a silence at that. “Right.” Max said slowly. “I…forgot. If…if you don’t mind my asking, how long have you been able to do…everything?”

“Since I was out of school a few months ago.” Tess said. “That’s about when everything happened.”

“I thought something about you seemed a little…different after you got back.” Nolan said. “Guess I must have been picking up on that?”

“…Yeah.” Tess said. The conversation petered out, and the group finished putting all their gear back and left the building.

“Well, it was good to hang out with you all again.” Jacob said. “How would you guys feel about doing something like this more frequently?”

The group was silent for a bit before one of the others, Ethan, spoke up. “I…guess it’s fine.” He said. “As long as we don’t get caught up in supernatural nonsense or anything.”

“You won’t.” Tess said. “If people come looking for me or something, I’ll just leave and deal with them on my own. You shouldn’t need to worry about a thing.”

“Good.” Jacob said. “I’ll text you all some time next week, then, we’ll get together. But…for now, I guess I’ll catch you all later?”

The group began saying their goodbyes, and Tess slipped up to Jacob’s side. “Hey.” She whispered. “I need you to follow us once everyone’s gone.”

“What’s this about?” Jacob whispered back.

“You know…that place. We figured out a way for you to get there if you want. Just follow our car as we leave, we’ll bring you there.”

Understanding dawned on Jacob’s face. “Got it.”

Tess nodded, heading back to Ellie. “I let him know.” She said. “He’s gonna follow us there.”

“Cool. Did you get Isabella back yet?”

“Doing it now.” Tess replied, before sending a mental message to Isabella instructing her to return to the car.

After a few minutes, Tess and Ellie made their way back to the car, where Isabella was waiting. Isabella went back inside Tess, and Ellie gave a nod. “Shall we be off, then?”