Eli woke just as the sun was coming up, he had slept more than he was used to but he was starting to feel more settled and in control. It was like all the new magic and power he had felt like it was in a superhero suit that he had just put on, but as time was going by and with rest it felt more like it was him and not the suit. He could still use more rest, but it could wait until he got home, his comfy bed was calling to him. There was a lot of temptation to just blink straight to his bed, but they had two with him that he didn’t want in his home, much less his bed, so he restrained himself. The trip back would give him time to assess these two people as well and figure out what he wants to do with them, even though he was most likely just going to go with what Alora and Bethany decide.

  Walking out into the sunlight, Alora and Gwen were talking not too far in front of him and Bethany and Ghost were walking around a little further away. Eli didn’t say anything but Alora walked up to him with a distressed look on her face.

  “Master, I’m afraid I don’t have a good idea of what to do with Gwen. I hurt her until she would talk and understand that she is at our mercy but she just kept saying that she would do anything we want if we let her live.” Alora explained.

  “Well, what do you want?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I’m done with her but I don’t see the need to kill her. She doesn't know anything.”

  “Send Tara a message and see if she has any ideas.”

  Alora walked back to Gwen and Eli just stood still, enjoying the feeling of the sun on his skin as he took a few calming breaths. He was enjoying travelling with Alora and Bethany, Bethany seemed to have an instinct for what he needed even when he didn’t and Alora’s new found wonder for all things gave her a spark for life that was infectious. He figured he would have a relaxing time until the next monster horde event, then more crazy would be coming his way. Prioritizing what needed to be done before then was where his current thoughts were drifting, he wanted time with Tara, time to catch up with the others, get Alora over 100, and a few other things.

  Glancing at Bethany, she gave him a small nod and wink, he took that to mean that she had a plan for Ghost and had it covered, so he just told her to go on and head home. She didn’t want to leave him, but she knew that he wouldn’t send her away without reason so she and Ghost took off in a run south. Next he gave instructions to Alora to go out and not come back until she was at least level 101, which immediately sparked a heated debate using telepathy. She was refusing to leave Eli alone with Gwen, but since he pointed out that she was indecisive in what to do with her, the argument subsided. Alora took off in a sprint, determined to level quickly and return to him.

  Her legs still not healed, Eli pulled Gwen into the stone teepee structure so they could talk. She sat quietly, clearly afraid of saying the wrong thing and being hurt or killed. “How about we start out with you telling me about yourself?”

  “What do you want to know?” She asked, but Eli just gave her a look with kind eyes and an encouraging smile that said he wasn’t going to ask again. “Ok, um, I’m Gwen, I’m 23 and I was a social media influencer before everything changed.” He gave her a flat look. “Well, I was trying to be an influencer, I was living with my boyfriend who was supporting me. Anyways, Since the new world started I have been using my looks and some simple seduction to keep myself safe and needs met.” She let out a sigh filled with depression and self doubt. “I’m a leech, or a prostitute, that's why I didn’t have an answer when Stac… I mean Alora asked me if I had anything to offer to save my life.”

  “There is a lot to unpack there, but I wonder why you are so honest with me knowing your life is in the balance.”

  “No point, you are going to end up killing me. I figure if I’m honest with you, and with myself, I might die peacefully.” Gwen said and started to tear up a bit.

  “Now tell me what you want.” Eli said as he squatted down next to her, put his hand on her cheek and wiped away a tear.

  She looked up at him, more tears gathering in her eyes, “I don’t know.” Then started to cry, it was the kind of crying when your whole existence came into question. Eli sat next to her and held her as she cried. He could feel her emotions roiling like a storm cloud with her tears as the rain. He let her cry for several minutes, her tears falling down his chest as he pet her hair. He didn’t say anything for fear of influencing her at this moment, she was breaking down into an empty vessel and he wanted her to fill herself back up, not do whatever she felt would appease him to save her life.

  When her crying slowed he spoke again, “You have until sunset to figure out what you want and tell me. If you can’t, you won't survive this world and I’ll have to have Alora put you down. Stay in here until then, I’ll be outside when you are ready.” He walked about three steps outside and used earth magic to raise a circular platform out of the ground which he then sat on and began meditating.

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  Gwen sat on the ground in a magically made stone teepee and for the third time in her life, she didn’t know who she was or what she wanted. The first time this happened was when she was 15 and she had just been invited to her first high school party. She was small and always anxious back then, but was happy to be included in a social event with all older and more popular kids at her school. However, her invitation had been a setup, and the popular girls got her drunk and stripped her naked and took pictures. They gave them to all the boys at school and made fun of her for being flat chested.

  No one was punished and she became an outcast. Her family couldn’t afford to move, pay for private school, or homeschool her since they both worked. The rest of her time in high school was spent on auto-pilot, she felt hollow and devoid of agency, like her life wasn’t hers anymore. Even when she was a senior, and her body had developed more she would still find the picture in her locker at least once a month with mean things written on it. It wasn’t until she moved away for college did she think she would finally be able to find out who she was and why she was alive. Gwen was absolutely convinced that there was a person somewhere deep inside her that she could dig out, underneath the empty void inside her, the real Gwen was hidden.

  College started out as a peaceful experience, she had gone across the country to a small school in hopes that no one from her home town would be at that school. She didn’t even know what she wanted to major in, she just wanted to get away. The first year went by with nothing happening, she started to relax and even gave up being alone and made a few friends. It was the start of the second year where things went wrong again. One of her friends had introduced her to a boy, he was very handsome, very kind to her, and on the football team. Even after only a few dates, she fell completely in love with him and started planning her whole life, her whole identity around being his girlfriend. It gave her an identity that she had been missing and filled the void in her soul, that is until she had gone with him to an away game and someone recognized her.

  They had been celebrating after the game and decided to drive back the next day so they could have some fun in a new town. While they were eating, some players from the home team came into the diner and one of them recognized her immediately. She didn’t notice them looking since she wasn’t on guard for it anymore, they had been having a nice meal just talking about the game and their ambitions for the future. Eventually one of the football players walked up and showed her a picture on his phone asking if it was of her. The absolute lightning bolt of panic that shot through her body at that moment almost made her vomit.

  She tried to get away but was blocked by the guy with the picture. All she could do was curl into a ball and go back to being empty again, but then she heard noises and realized that her boyfriend was fighting them and demanding that they delete the picture. No one had ever stood up for her like this before and she lifted her head and opened her eyes just in time to see him break his hand on a plate that one of them had grabbed. He immediately fell to the ground in pain and got kicked a few times before the waitress said she was calling the police. His hand never healed properly and since the other kids said he started the fight he lost his scholarship.

  After he went back home he told Gwen that he hated her and that she ruined his life. His parents and siblings would text or email her horrible things but she would read them and agree. She was hollow again, she dropped out of school but refused to move back home. She stayed in town in a one room apartment working as a cashier, until she met her boyfriend that she moved in with. He was twice her age, but he had money and she was well past feeling like she deserved love so when she moved in after only three dates and he started treating her move like a pet rather than a person, she just let it slide.

  Then the world ended, her boyfriend died rather quickly, so she just found someone else to leech off of until she ran into her cousin Adrian. He took her in and she was treated like a princess by all the guys around her so she just filled the princess mold like water. The tutorial ended and she met Stacy who seemed like a kindred spirit, she just went with the flow, no expectations, no judgements, just someone to be around so she didn’t feel alone. Her cousin assigned some aspiring doofuses to protect her and things were looking up until the day she met Ash. Now not only was she still hollow, she was forced to face it, to say it out loud, to be honest with herself about who and what she was.

  Hours had gone by while Gwen thought about her past and how she got here, in this spot. She had always thought that she would die young, but this whole situation was not what she had pictured. After going through her past she was trying to sum up the position she was in and what the solution was, it was around noon at this point and she was starting to feel the pressure of the time limit he placed on her.

  She started talking to herself, “Ok Gwen, here is where you are. You have a few more hours to figure out who you are and what you want out of life. You have never been able to answer these questions before, but if you don’t, Zappy McTazerpants is going to come back and cook you from the inside out with her magic.” She paused because she thought she heard Ash snicker at the nickname she made up for Stacy, but she quickly kept going. “Maybe I should start with who I’m not and what I don’t like.” She paused again. “I don’t really know that either, I’ve always just been what the people around me expect me to be, like an identity chameleon. Is that who I am? It seems pretty hollow and depressing but maybe it's useful.”

  At this point, she had maybe an hour left and she was still working on how to pitch the idea to Ash. Especially since she didn’t have an idea, she just knew who she was and what she wanted. What she didn’t know was how she would be able to use these self-revelations to be useful to him so that she doesn’t get killed. There was still about 30 minutes of sunlight left when she crawled out to where Ash had been sitting. She had been shocked that he would sit there all day, and guard her.

  “Alright, I’m ready to talk.” she said from her crawling position.