For a long time after they escaped, neither of them spoke.
The cavern they had arrived in was enormous compared to the narrow tunnels behind them, its ceiling vanishing into darkness far above. Jagged stone pillars rose from the ground like the ribs of some colossal dead beast, casting uneven shadows across the chamber. Small streams of water trickled through cracks in the walls, their faint echoes the only sound besides the ragged breathing of two exhausted Commonalities trying to convince themselves they were still alive.
Luke sat with his back against a cold stone outcrop, one arm hanging limply over his knee. His entire body throbbed. It wasn't just pain, but something much deeper. Something he could not perceive either. So he did not try. He was too exhausted to anyway.
His muscles felt heavy, but that wasn't the worst part. The true exhaustion lived deeper in his skull, behind his eyes, woven into the marrow of his thoughts. Every time he blinked, the world lagged for a fraction of a second, reality seeming to bend strangely before snapping back into place.
Using Ontokinesis had done something to him.
Again.
He still didn't fully understand the ability, only fragments of it. Most awakened abilities obeyed some kind of structure. Fire manipulation created fire. Reinforcement strengthened the body. Transformations altered flesh. But his…
His felt wrong.
Like he was reaching into the laws of existence itself and forcing them to rearrange around him. And reality hated it.
Luke closed his eyes slowly, pressing two fingers against his temple.
The memory of folding space still lingered vividly in his mind. The sensation had been impossible to describe. It wasn't movement, it was violation. Distances ceased to matter because he denied them. The world resisted every single time, like a living thing pushing back against his will.
And each use left marks. Invisible ones, yes, but he could feel them. Tiny fractures spreading somewhere inside him.
Across from him, Adrian sat near the cavern wall, breathing slower now. Without the blue flames consuming him, he looked far more human. Younger, too. Around eighteen, maybe even a little bit older. His hair was dark and unevenly cut, hanging messily over sharp features hardened by exhaustion. His skin was flawless and fair, despite being engulfed by flames just a few moments ago.
Even resting, Adrian looked dangerous. He was good looking though, but still dangerous. Not because of size or muscle. But because of the way he carried himself.
Like someone who had long ago accepted pain as a permanent part of existence.
Luke studied him quietly.
The stranger noticed.
"…You keep staring," Adrian muttered without looking up.
Luke blinked faintly. "You had four arms."
"…Fair."
Silence returned after that. Heavy, but not uncomfortable. Luke had a lot of questions, and Adrian understood that. For now, they were just tired to say anything.
The kind of silence only survivors understood.
Luke leaned his head back against the stone, staring upward into the darkness above. His thoughts drifted aimlessly at first, to the creatures, the impossible entity deeper in the cave, the dream he barely remembered anymore.
Fragments still surfaced sometimes.
Warmth.
A kitchen.
The smell of banana bread.
Each memory came with a strange ache he couldn't explain.
Luke frowned faintly.
"…You ever feel like something's missing?" he asked quietly.
Adrian finally looked at him properly then.
For a second, something flickered behind his eyes.
Recognition? Maybe...
"…Yeah," Adrian said softly. "All the time."
Luke opened his mouth to ask more, but exhaustion crushed him before the words formed. It happened suddenly. His thoughts slowed mid-motion, his body sinking further against the stone as heaviness wrapped around him completely.
Adrian noticed immediately. "Hey."
Luke tried to respond, but he did not. His eyes closed. And for the first time in what felt like forever, there were no dreams waiting for him. Waiting to taunt and torture him. Only darkness. The quiet, empty and peaceful peaceful kind of quiet.
#
When Luke woke again, the first thing he noticed was warmth. Real warmth, not imagined, and not dreamt. The second thing was the smell. The smell of roasted meat permeated the air, making him almost salivate. Almost...
His eyes opened slowly.
Familiar blue firelight flickered against the cavern walls, casting long shadows across the chamber. Somewhere nearby, fat crackled over flame, the scent rich and smoky enough to make his stomach twist painfully with sudden hunger.
Luke pushed himself upright with a groan.
"…You're alive," Adrian said casually from across the fire.
Luke blinked a few times, orienting himself.
Adrian sat cross-legged beside a crude spit assembled from sharpened stone and broken bone. Several strips of dark meat roasted over the flames while smaller cuts rested nearby on flattened rocks.
"You hunted?" Luke asked hoarsely.
Adrian snorted lightly. "No, I asked the monsters politely for food."
Luke huffed faintly despite himself. That surprised him. It had been a while since he'd laughed. A really long time, actually.
Adrian tossed him one of the cooked pieces.
"Eat before you collapse again."
Luke caught it awkwardly. The meat was still hot enough to burn his fingers slightly, but he barely cared. Hunger overwhelmed caution quickly, and within seconds he was eating.
The taste was strange. The meat tasted gamey and slightly bitter, but still good. Better than good actually.
For a while, neither spoke much. The fire crackled softly between them while exhaustion slowly loosened its grip on Luke's body. The cavern no longer felt immediately hostile with light present. Dangerous, yes, but survivable.
Eventually, Adrian broke the silence.
"So," he said, tearing another piece of meat apart with his fingers, "what's your name, space-bender?"
Luke swallowed before answering. "Luke."
"Just Luke?"
"…Do you have a surname?"
Adrian considered that.
"…Fair point."
Luke studied him again briefly, then hesitated before asking.
"Adrian... right?"
Adrian chuckled.
"So you did hear me. I thought you couldn't understand human language or something."
The name fit strangely well.
Luke leaned slightly closer to the fire. "Your ability," he said carefully. "What exactly is it?"
Adrian glanced at his own hands for a moment.
"…Mend," he said eventually. "At least that's what the Weave calls it. I heal much faster than an ordinary person. I can mend physical wounds of other as well."
Luke frowned slightly.
"That doesn't explain the four arms."
"It doesn't explain most things," Adrian replied dryly. "You see, I encounted something terrifying on my way here, so I had to resort to extreme measures in order to survive, gaining a second Ability in the process. Now, my body adapts to survive. Usually violently."
What he said made Luke pause. Having more than one Ability as a Commonality was unheard of, but it was not impossible. The Weave was the one who awarded boons after all, and Ability — unlike Potentials, were not innate.
Luke remembered the flames burning through his flesh. The azure skin shimmering beneath the roaring flames. He smile faintly as he remembered engulfing himself in flames to escape the reality he refused to embrace. The reality that decided to push out anything that seemed out of place.
That seemed too lucid.
"Funny, I just slew an Ontological Glitch just by waking up from a dream. Who knew those things could be that dreadful."
Adrian looked at him tentatively as he spoke, something dangerous flickering in his eyes. Only for a fleeting moment though, replaced by something else.
Oblivious to Adrian's state of mind, Luke stared into the fire quietly.
"…How long have you been on Skysea Island?" he asked.
Adrian's expression darkened slightly.
"A few hours. I was supposed to be activating the Weave inside me, and suddenly I am standing face to face with the remnant of an ancient horror." he looked at the blue flames for a few moments, then turned to Luke. "I'm assuming the same thing happened to you?"
Luke did not answer, but his silence said a lot more. Adrian understood and remained silent too. Time felt strange here. Days blurred together beneath constant survival. Hunger, fear, exhaustion erased clean measurements of time quickly.
The fire popped softly.
Then Adrian smirked faintly. "You know, when I first saw you, I thought you were dead weight."
Luke raised an eyebrow. "And now?"
"I think you're suicidal."
Luke almost smiled again. Almost. The mood lightened after that. Not dramatically, not enough to erase reality either. But enough for the conversation to come easier. Luke was not not much of a talker by certain circumstances, so the unfamiliar experience surprised him. It was not entirely unpleasant or unwelcome either...
Perhaps Adrian felt the same way.
They spoke quietly for hours, about abilities, creatures, near-death encounters, rumors they had heard before being abandoned here. Adrian talked more than Luke expected, though never deeply. He avoided personal questions instinctively, redirecting conversations with dry humor whenever things drifted too close.
Luke understood that too. Perhaps more than anyone.
Some wounds survived even memory loss.
Eventually, the fire burned low.
The silence that returned afterward felt calmer now.
For the first time since waking in the cave, Luke no longer felt entirely alone in the world.
And strangely, that terrified him a little. Because attachments were dangerous. The Skysea Island devoures awakened, especially Commonalities like them.
Everyone knew that.
But still…
When dawnless darkness continued pressing endlessly beyond the firelight, Luke found himself strangely grateful Adrian existed. Even if only temporarily.
#
By the time they prepared to leave, Luke's strength had mostly returned. Not fully, that was probably going to take a long while. His head still throbbed faintly whenever he thought too hard about Ontokinesis. But he could move again.
Survive again.
That was enough.
Adrian extinguished the remains of the fire carefully before standing. "If there are other survivors nearby," he said, adjusting the crude blade strapped across his back, "they'll either be hiding…"
"…Or dying," Luke finished quietly.
Adrian nodded once.
Then they began walking, side by side. Deeper into the darkness of Skysea Island. Searching for what remained of the abandoned Commonalities. While somewhere far behind them, in the deeper reaches of the cave...
Something vast and unfathomable still watched in silence.