Kai had been walking for three hours.
Probably.
There was no phone in his pocket, no watch on his wrist, and no glowing woman floating nearby to explain why the sun appeared to have moved approximately six inches.
Kai stopped in the middle of the field and looked up.
"Are you doing that on purpose?"
The sun offered no defence.
He kept walking.
The place was beautiful.
Kai was beginning to resent that.
Grass stretched toward distant forests, moving in waves whenever the wind passed through it. Mountains sat on the horizon with their peaks hidden behind thin clouds. Small white flowers grew everywhere, and birds occasionally crossed the sky.
Nothing looked dangerous.
Nothing looked particularly useful either.
He had found no road.
No house.
No footprints.
No sign that another person had ever existed here.
Seraphine hadn't been exaggerating.
He was alone.
"Seraphine!"
His voice travelled across the field.
Nothing.
"Still hate you!"
A bird took off from a nearby tree.
Kai watched it disappear.
"Good talk."
His stomach growled.
He looked down.
Right.
Body.
Bodies needed things.
He hadn't eaten since—
Kai stopped.
Coffee.
That terrible coffee at the manga café.
Before that, probably something from the bakery.
His last meal on Earth had been—
No.
He wasn't doing that.
Food first.
Existential crisis later.
The forest gave him water.
Kai heard the stream before he saw it.
Clear water moved between smooth stones beneath the trees. He crouched and reached toward it, then stopped.
He knew absolutely nothing about wilderness survival.
Every survival show he'd ever watched had involved somebody explaining that clear water could still contain parasites.
Unfortunately, none of those people had explained what to do when stranded in a private dimension after being resurrected by a woman made of starlight.
Kai stared at the stream.
"If this kills me, I'm going to be extremely difficult about it."
He drank.
Nothing happened.
He waited.
Still alive.
"Excellent."
Kai drank properly, splashed water over his face and sat beneath a tree.
His bare feet were filthy.
His clothes were strange too.
Simple black trousers. Dark shirt. Nothing he'd been wearing when he died.
At least Seraphine had given him clothes.
Shoes apparently exceeded the budget.
Kai leaned his head against the tree.
For the first time since waking in the void, there was nothing happening.
No Seraphine.
No hospital.
No knife.
No paramedics.
No work.
No alarms.
No bills.
Kai had spent months wishing for a day where nobody needed anything from him.
Apparently the universe had listened and completely misunderstood the request.
He closed his eyes.
Asha appeared immediately.
He opened them again.
"Right."
Sitting around wasn't helping.
Seraphine had given him one useful instruction.
Learn.
Admittedly, she had refused to explain what that meant, which felt very much like her.
Kai held out his hand.
"Origin."
Nothing happened.
He wasn't surprised.
Seraphine had barely explained the thing. Only that something had awakened or attached itself to him when he died, that it responded to intention, and that letting him experiment with it on Earth was apparently a terrible idea.
Which wasn't concerning at all.
Kai looked around.
He needed something small.
A stone sat beside the stream.
Perfect.
He picked it up.
Ordinary grey rock. Smooth on one side. Slightly heavier than it looked.
Kai placed it on the ground.
"Move."
The stone remained where it was.
"Fair."
He concentrated.
Move.
Nothing.
Kai frowned.
He imagined it sliding toward him.
Nothing.
He imagined it floating.
Still nothing.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
Kai started wondering whether Seraphine had made the whole thing up.
"Ancient mysterious power," he muttered. "Can't defeat a pebble."
He tried again.
Nothing.
Kai sighed and reached for the stone.
It shot sideways.
He jumped.
The rock flew through a bush with enough force to tear through the leaves.
Something in the distance squawked angrily.
Kai stared at the empty spot.
"Oh."
He slowly looked at his hand.
That hadn't felt like throwing something.
There had been no push.
No effort.
He had simply wanted the stone closer.
Apparently whatever lived inside him had interpreted closer with unnecessary enthusiasm.
Kai found another stone.
He placed it down.
This time he didn't think about movement.
He pictured exactly what he wanted.
The stone rising into his palm.
Nothing else.
He focused.
The rock trembled.
Kai stopped breathing.
It lifted.
Barely.
Then dropped.
A grin appeared before he could stop it.
"Okay."
He crouched closer.
"Again."
The stone rose.
An inch.
Two.
Then it launched directly into his forehead.
"OW!"
Kai fell backward.
The stone landed beside him.
He pressed a hand against his forehead.
"You know what? I preferred being powerless."
The forest remained unsympathetic.
Food became the next problem.
Kai found berries.
He did not eat them.
He'd read enough fantasy to know what happened when protagonists consumed mysterious glowing fruit.
These berries weren't glowing, but Kai wasn't taking chances.
Farther into the forest, he found a tree bearing something almost identical to an apple.
He picked one.
Smelled it.
Looked for bite marks from animals.
"Scientific."
He took a cautious bite.
Sweet.
Crisp.
Apple.
Or an interdimensional poison with excellent marketing.
Kai ate the rest.
Then another.
By late afternoon, he had learned three things.
The water probably wouldn't kill him.
The fruit probably wouldn't kill him.
And Origin might kill him accidentally if he asked it to move the wrong pebble.
Progress.
Shelter was worse.
Kai gathered branches.
He found larger pieces of fallen wood and leaned them against a tree.
Then he added leaves.
Then more branches.
He stepped back.
The result looked terrible.
Kai tilted his head.
"Rustic."
A branch fell.
"Minimalist."
Another fell.
Kai sighed.
He crawled underneath.
The whole structure collapsed.
For several seconds, he lay beneath a pile of branches.
A leaf landed across his nose.
Kai stared upward.
"I'm going to punch Seraphine."
Something cracked above him.
"Eventually."
A branch dropped onto his stomach.
He grunted.
"After training."
Night arrived faster than expected.
Kai abandoned architecture.
He sat beneath a large tree with his back against the trunk and watched the sky darken.
Stars appeared.
Thousands of them.
Kai searched automatically for something familiar.
The Big Dipper.
Orion.
Anything.
Nothing matched.
There wasn't even a moon.
That was when the distance finally became real.
He wasn't somewhere else on Earth.
Earth wasn't hidden beyond those mountains.
Asha wasn't a train ride away.
Kai pulled his knees toward his chest.
He wondered how much time had passed for her.
Seraphine had said very little.
Seconds?
Minutes?
Had Asha left the hospital?
Had Auntie Lena arrived?
Was she sitting in the same kitchen where their parents had once eaten dinner?
Kai pictured the university brochures.
The notes on his food.
Eight dumplings arranged beneath foil.
He wondered who would pay next month's mortgage.
His stomach twisted.
He hadn't thought of that.
What happened to the house now?
His wages were gone.
Would insurance cover it?
Did Asha know where the documents were?
He should have told her.
He should have written everything down.
He should've—
Kai stopped himself.
"She's safe."
He said it aloud.
Seraphine had promised that much.
Asha was alive.
That had to be enough tonight.
Kai looked at the unfamiliar stars.
"I'm coming back."
No answer.
He didn't need one.
He had made promises with worse odds before.
Kai lowered himself onto the grass.
Tomorrow he would figure out Origin.
Then the day after.
However long it took.
Control meant he could leave.
Leaving meant Earth.
Earth meant Asha.
Simple.
Not easy.
But simple.
Kai closed his eyes.
The ground pulsed beneath his hand.
His eyes opened.
He sat up.
"What?"
Nothing moved.
Kai placed his palm flat against the grass.
For a moment, there was only dirt beneath his fingers.
Then—
something opened.
Kai gasped.
The forest remained around him.
He could still see the trees.
Still hear insects.
Still feel the wind.
But another sense had appeared underneath all of it.
The stream.
Kai could feel it moving.
Not hear it.
Feel it.
Water sliding over stone perhaps two hundred metres away.
His awareness spread farther.
Roots beneath the soil.
Trees.
The hill behind him.
The plains he'd crossed that morning.
Kai's breath caught.
It kept going.
Miles.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Mountains he couldn't see.
Rivers he'd never found.
Forests beyond the horizon.
The entire realm unfolded somewhere inside his awareness.
Kai ripped his hand away.
Everything vanished.
He stumbled backward.
His heart hammered.
"What the hell?"
He stared at the ground.
Nothing looked different.
Grass.
Dirt.
A small white flower near his foot.
Kai waited.
Then carefully crouched.
He placed his hand down again.
Nothing.
"Come on."
He concentrated.
Nothing.
Kai tried thinking about the stream.
The mountains.
The sensation he'd just experienced.
Still nothing.
Eventually he sat back.
"Great."
Apparently his mysterious powers now included doing incredible things exactly once.
He rubbed his face.
Tomorrow.
He'd try tomorrow.
Kai returned to the tree and eventually slept.
He dreamed of home.
Asha stood in the kitchen with her back toward him.
Mum's curry simmered on the stove.
Dad's radio played beside the window.
Everything was exactly where it belonged.
Kai walked toward her.
"Ash?"
She turned.
Then he woke.
Morning light covered the forest.
Kai stared upward for several seconds.
His chest hurt.
Not physically.
He sat up.
"Morning to you too."
The realm remained offensively peaceful.
Kai walked to the stream.
He washed his face.
Drank.
Ate another apple.
Then found yesterday's stone.
It rested beside the water.
Kai crouched.
No speech this time.
He held out his hand and pictured the stone rising.
It lifted.
Immediately.
One inch.
Two.
Three.
It floated toward him.
Kai caught it.
He blinked.
Yesterday that had taken hours.
Today it had taken seconds.
"Interesting."
Kai set it down.
Again.
The stone rose.
Faster.
Again.
Higher.
Kai placed it down a third time.
Then noticed the flower beside it.
Small.
White.
The same kind he'd seen throughout the plains.
Kai stared at it.
He remembered last night.
The feeling of the realm.
Not around him.
Connected to him.
Seraphine's words returned.
The realm will respond to you.
He'd assumed she'd meant eventually.
Kai reached toward the flower.
He didn't touch it.
Instead, he thought of something simple.
Grow.
Nothing happened.
Kai waited.
Still nothing.
He almost laughed.
"Worth a—"
The flower moved.
Kai froze.
Its stem lengthened.
Slowly.
An inch.
Then another.
New leaves unfolded.
The white petals widened.
Kai stared.
"Stop."
It stopped.
Immediately.
His skin prickled.
The stone had been one thing.
Moving an object.
This was different.
Kai looked toward the stream.
An idea occurred to him.
Probably a stupid one.
Those were becoming a theme.
He focused on the water.
Not all of it.
Just a tiny section near the bank.
Up.
Water rose from the stream.
A sphere the size of an apple hovered above the surface.
Kai forgot to breathe.
It wasn't trembling like the stone had.
It simply hung there.
Waiting.
Kai moved his hand.
The water followed.
Left.
Right.
Up.
Down.
Kai lowered it.
The sphere returned to the stream without a splash.
He stared at his fingers.
There had been almost no resistance.
Because, he suddenly understood, he wasn't forcing the water to obey.
Something about this place already wanted to.
Kai stood.
His attention moved beyond the stream.
Trees.
Earth.
Wind.
The mountain range on the horizon.
All of it felt different now.
Yesterday, he'd thought Seraphine had abandoned him inside an empty world where he could safely practise whatever had awakened inside him.
Maybe that wasn't quite right.
Kai crouched and pressed his palm against the ground.
"Come on."
Nothing.
He closed his eyes.
He stopped trying to reach outward.
Instead, he remembered what Seraphine had said.
Yours, if you can make it so.
Kai opened his eyes.
The ground pulsed.
Once.
The sensation returned.
Stream.
Forest.
Plains.
Mountains.
Everything.
This time Kai didn't pull away.
He let it come.
His awareness spread farther and farther until the scale of the place should have overwhelmed him.
It didn't.
That frightened him more.
The realm didn't feel enormous.
It felt familiar.
Like moving a hand he'd only just realized belonged to him.
Kai slowly stood.
His palm left the earth.
The connection remained.
Not as strongly.
But it remained.
Wind moved through the trees.
Kai thought, without meaning to:
Stop.
The wind stopped.
Every leaf became still.
Kai's eyes widened.
"Okay."
He thought:
Again.
The wind returned.
Softly at first.
Then stronger.
Branches moved overhead.
Kai laughed.
He couldn't help it.
Not because he understood.
He absolutely did not.
But for the first time since the knife entered his body, something had happened because he chose it.
Not the attacker.
Not death.
Not Seraphine.
Him.
The laugh faded.
Kai looked across the stream.
He could feel the realm waiting.
No.
Waiting wasn't right.
It wasn't a servant.
It wasn't another creature.
It felt closer than that.
Kai lifted one hand.
The stream rose.
Not all of it.
A narrow ribbon of water curled upward, twisting through the air.
He moved his fingers.
The water followed.
Kai stared at it.
Then lowered his hand.
The stream fell back into place.
His heartbeat had quickened.
He remembered the stone.
The flower.
The wind.
The impossible awareness stretching beneath his feet.
Kai looked toward the mountains.
For the first time, he understood what Seraphine might have meant.
This wasn't simply somewhere she'd sent him.
It wasn't a prison.
It wasn't a training ground.
It wasn't even just a world.
Kai looked down at the grass beneath his bare feet.
"Mine?"
The realm answered.
The ground trembled.
Not violently.
Just once.
A pulse beneath his feet.
Kai stood completely still.
Then slowly smiled.
"Right."
He looked toward the distant mountains.
Yesterday, he'd been worried about finding shelter.
Today, apparently, he owned the weather.
There was probably a reasonable middle ground somewhere.
Kai picked up the apple he'd left beside the stream.
"Food first."
He took a bite.
"Godhood later."
Then he started walking.
For the first time since arriving, Kai wasn't looking for a way through the realm.
He was looking at what he might build inside it.