I shook my head, but the word was familiar. It was the name of one of the Pantheon powers.

Sharp squealed and clapped her hands. “Of course! My dad talks about her all the time.”

“I know about her.” Pir sipped their coffee with tentative lips. “The fertility lady, right?”

“A fascinating power,” intoned the doctor, holding his own coffee close to heart. “It hadn’t been seen in a century until it manifested about fifty years ago. Immaculate helps people who need assistance conceiving children. One of the ways it does that is by borrowing the soul light of a surrogate male to kickstart the development of a new soul. There have been hundreds of people born with her help, including yourself Badger.”

My mouth froze mid-bite. Compared to all the information I learned yesterday, this was the least shocking, but it was something I’d never really thought about.

Marrow’s eyes darkened. “In the first years of this manifestation, it became a trend to use the lights of more powerful people to create children, with the hope they might be powerful as well. Obsidian and Wyvern lent their light to willing surrogates to increase the chances their bloodlines could maintain the throne.”

Piranha curled and uncurled their claws. “All Jungle people know of Immaculate. For some, it’s the only way reproduction is possible. To use it that way goes against its purpose.”

Marrow shrugged. “That’s exactly right. Pyrite and I are both born from that trend.”

The last bite didn’t taste right. I was overcome by a craving for fresh food back at our farm. “So that makes you my half-uncle? Do you know my mother?”

A fondness cut through his severe facade. "Yes, I know Puma. When she was your age, she took an agricultural class held in the Wilds during the education season. When you return home, you'll have to ask her about me. She once hit me with a shovel after I cheated at cards."

"That sounds like something she would do," I laughed. “Although more violent than I expected.”

He tapped a finger on a particularly deep scar on his cheek. “People hold back less when they know they can’t really hurt you. She was a good friend to Pyrite, one of his best. He told your parents about the Immaculate doctor after being the best man at their wedding.” Marrow must have noticed my expression when he added, “Your mother’s begged this of Pyrite. He agreed because he genuinely cared about your parents and wanted them to be happy. All Puma ever wanted was a family.”

This sentiment made me feel warm, but also confused. I met his foggy, distant eyes. “Why didn’t she tell me this?”

He gestured toward the doctor, with a hand that appeared to have been reattached more than once. Gold-and-Silver replaced his coffee with a stack of notes. “Your mother was focused on her vision for her life, and nothing else was important to her. My guess is she only wanted to ensure a peaceful life for you.”

A peaceful life. Up until I took the Fruit, it had been. A peace I had taken for granted.

After breakfast, the doctor invited us to the Meadow to conduct tests on my power. The prospect set Sharp’s eyes ablaze. Every day she trained with a determination close to madness, honing her skills and trying to get us involved. We’d learned some basic moves from her as kids but eventually grew tired of her scary dedication.

The first half of the day was easy, because the doctor instructed me to sit in the Unseen Dimension by myself for as long as I could manage. The branches glowed all around me, softened by the distinct mix of everyone’s soul light.

After half an hour of sitting still, I returned out of boredom. “I’m still not tired. Is it possible I could stay forever?”

 “Doubtful.” The doctor sat on Ivory’s swing, writing erratic notes with a gold pen. “Previous iterations of Reaper suffered from mental side effects if they stayed too long. We want to learn your limitations, so you don’t break them by accident. Your power is like a muscle, so the more you use it, the stronger it will be.”

I spent the next two hours punching that muscle, disappearing with others and staying as long as possible. The sensation was like training my body to hold my breath. It was easier to disappear with the friends I had known most of my life than with the people I’d met only yesterday.

“When we touch in real life, our souls connect in the Unseen.” Gold-and-Silver interlocked his fingers. “The more you know someone, the more the lights merge, overlap, and change their appearance.”

This truth was evident all around me. Teal and Tungsten’s respective lights were blue and gray, reaching their rays towards one another and communicating in unseen ways. Willow’s blues swirled with Piranha’s oranges, but the colors did not mix. It was more like they danced. Sharp’s light was full of hard white lines that jutted through the souls of my friends, making them brighter in places. In the real dimension, Mercury’s body language was standoffish, faced away from us, but his silvery soul reached out, desiring company.

My own soul would be forever invisible to me, according to the rules of the Pantheon power. Despite this, I felt the subtle touch of my friends’ rays, like gentle comforting hands.

Teal, a bouncy person who reminded me of Willow, was simple to disappear with, but Tungsten was a different story. After spending a few unpleasant minutes with the gray-eyed twin in the Unseen Dimension, I was overcome with exhaustion. In that short amount of time, he had explained a book's worth of information on the breeding patterns of the Gilded Butterfly.

I slumped down on the grass, drank from a jug of sweetened Moonlight juice, wiped my mouth, and said, “Turns out it works better the more I…uh…connect with someone.”

Tungsten crossed his arms as his brother rolled over laughing in the grass. “I don’t like what you’re implying.”

I busied myself with my lunch.

Teal laughed harder and punched his brother on his skinny shoulder. “He bored you to death, didn’t he? He’s the smart side, after all, but not as good with people. C’mon Tungsten. Learn to give people a chance to talk about themselves.”

As the sour twin simmered, Dr. Gold-and-Silver clapped to capture our attention. “No more. Badger has the right idea; it is time for a proper lunch.” He shot us a comically sinister look. “And after that, the real fun begins."

My assumption that people Of-the-Wilds didn't enjoy meals together was proven wrong. We gathered in the dining room on the third floor, at a large wooden table made from the tree itself. Olivine served a steaming basket of fluffy white rice and fried battered tomatoes, a real treat after days of mushrooms.

When combined into one, Teal-and-Tungsten turned out to be a compelling storyteller, enrapturing even Willow. They weaved a story about giving Wild Fruit to one of their family horses, which led to a chaotic chase through Benzay. By the end, no one could catch their breath laughing.

“I can still smell the manure pile…” they mumbled when the story was over.

Willow wiped away a tear. “Good to know Wild folks aren’t as uptight as I thought.”

Ivory sat adjacent to her husband, wearing a green leaf-leather dress and a radiant smile. “This is a dark place, and stories are the best source of light.”

Willow gulped down the rest of his cold tea, slammed the cup down, and gave her a look of pure mischief. “I couldn’t agree more. I’d enjoy it if you joined our evening training and sparred with me a bit, your highness. You know, to prove your strength.”

A smile curled on her face, somehow containing twice as much mischief. “Don’t call me ‘your highness’ until the I complete the coronation ritual, but you're on.”

They shook hands. I shared a commiserating look with my friends. Willow decided to trust her, but he was also the kind of person who liked to challenge and push people to show who they really are.

As promised, that evening’s training was far from boring. To practice using my power in defensive situations, Marrow and the doctor suggested fighting one-on-one to get used to different styles and gain experience.

First, I subdued Teal and Tungsten with little effort, as they struggled to avoid my sneak attacks. Being able to communicate in their heads wasn’t a big advantage if they couldn’t see me anyway.

Fighting Mercury was like fighting something slippery and amorphous. He had named his power ‘Tesser’ and could instantly move his body anywhere in a hundred-foot radius. Like me, he was hard to catch and find. After ten minutes of appearing and reappearing, we were both exhausted, but neither of us had even touched.

Marrow was not shy to give advice. His tone was fatherly, and maybe a little too gentle, compensating for the rough state of his appearance. “When you find yourself evenly matched, take your time to think about your advantages, and the disadvantages of your opponent. Did you know Mercury has a limit to how many times he can do that, like your own limit? Neither of you even tried to exploit that.”

Mercury exchanged a guilty glance with me.

“And Badger,” he continued. “Do what you can to interact with the souls you're fighting. The Divine Pantheon has more advantages than you realize.”

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and sighed. “I’ll do my best.”

Next was Olivine. She had thick strong arms, tattooed with subtle spirals that were only visible if the light hit her dark skin at a certain angle. Gold-and-Silver gave her these, as they were crucial in maintaining precise control when performing surgery. After she sat for the mastery test in the coming education season, she too would be called ‘Doctor’.

Our fight started. I disappeared before she had a chance to grab me. Her green soul moved around the room with a deliberate and cautious pace. I inched close enough to feel its aggressive heat. When she moved near the orange light of Ivory, her closest friend and leader, it burned less like a fire and more like a sunbeam.

I reached out and touched it without being burned. “You can trust me,” I said aloud, even though no one could hear me. “Stop moving. Stay still.”

She hesitated. I reached where I thought her arms would be, but in the split second before I returned, the soul blazed hot again. As soon as I attempted to grab her, I was pulled into the air.