Idelle was dreaming again. Or was she? She wasn’t sure this time. It felt almost like she had woken up, instead, but that couldn’t be right.

She stared around her. The world around her seemed to shift under her eyes. One moment she was atop an ancient mountain, the next it seemed to slowly wither away into a set of plains, covered in flowers and grasses. A river seemed to dance across it, leaving a set of long tracks, and she felt a strange urge to dance with it, to uncurl herself and let her body flow and sing eternally.

She looked again. A figure was there, standing with her. It’d been there the whole time, she realized without surprise. It was beautiful, enchanting like no one and nothing she’d ever seen, and yet when she tried to describe something as simple as the color of its hair it was like she could see nothing at all. She tried to look closer, glimpsing for a moment a flash of glimmering scales; but her eyes began to sting and water and when she blinked back the tears the moment had passed.

“Thank you, little ones.” She heard no voice, yet knew without a doubt that the figure was the one addressing her. She smiled at it, filled with almost instinctual happiness. She felt it smile back. “You have done me an unexpected service.”

“I… don’t know for certain that it was me, actually. I tried my best, but…” She hesitated, wondering why she didn’t want to say more. It must have been her, right? There was no one else… But she felt like saying that was taking more credit than she deserved. She spoke again, voice uncertain. “Will you be all right?”

The being shrugged. “I could survive even at the end of the world. But you have, perhaps unintentionally, given me a rare gift, and freed me from an onerous obligation.”

Idelle’s innocent smile widened. “I’m glad. Truly.” She had no doubt that she would be believed. To lie in this place seemed profane, unthinkable even.

The figure was receding away from her as they talked, but it spoke without any trace of impatience or hurry. “Might I ask something of you? The blood you shed, I have a use for it.”

“All right.” She replied without hesitation. Somehow, she knew that the being would not mislead her and meant no harm, even if she didn’t understand why it was asking.

“Then, I thank you again. I will owe you a favor beyond the gift I have already given.”

Idelle solemnly nodded. “Where can I find you, if I need it?”

The figure paused, considering. “I do not know. It will take some time before we can meet again, and when that time comes we will no longer be as we are now. But that is true of all partings, no? We can only ever move forward in time, after all.”

Idelle felt a strange pang of sorrow at the thought. It was true, wasn’t it? Every moment she spent was gone forever, irreplaceable, never again to be spent on anything else...

The being let out something like a sigh, and the sorrow left her.

“Forgive me, talking like this can be… taxing, for your kind. This will be goodbye, for now.”

Idelle looked around her. The dancing river had settled, and the world was stable again. But something of its dance still lingered, in the way it fell between stones and wound between bends. She did her best to memorize the changes she’d seen, knowing they were a precious sight. A chance to see the world differently, even if only for an instant.

There was a final sense of approval, one that needed no words to convey, and then she was alone again.

No, she wasn’t quite alone.

There was a child’s voice in the distance. A young child, barely old enough to speak. They were calling out, sounding almost petulant, as if someone had taken a toy from them and refused to give it back. But she couldn’t quite make out their words.

She looked around, searching for the child, but the world was empty now. Not even she herself stood there, she realized with a start. Then where was she?

…

Slowly, Idelle opened her eyes and looked around her. She was lying on her side in the strange temple. The fog, and the ancient being within it, were both gone. All that remained were a few great shattered gouges in the tiles and a powdering of fine violet dust all across the floor.

She reached out, running her hand through the dust. It felt soft and warm. It comforted her, running her rough fingers through it. She slowly sat up, feeling more dust scatter out of her hair and down from her clothes.

Had she succeeded? Idelle wasn’t sure. She felt like she’d stopped the poison, but there was no sign left of her success. Only the strange memory of someone, or something, speaking without words in a world that seemed alive with magic.

A favor. She’d been granted a favor, she remembered that much. So whatever had come of her actions, she’d done something worthwhile, as far as the bestower was concerned. And her body was more or less healed. Even her recurrent headache had faded, for now. That was something.

She clambered to her feet. Most important of all, she was still alive. That was a miracle, with everything she’d encountered over the past… night? Day? She wasn’t sure. She’d spent too much time unconscious to even guess.

She turned and found her sword, lying in the dust a few steps behind her. She carefully picked it up, examining it in the strange glow cast by the rock walls and ceiling. It looked fine, no worse for wear than she was. Apparently, she wasn’t the only lucky thing here, she thought dryly.

Idelle looked around again. How would she get out of here? Her eyes fell on the wooden doors, still hanging slightly ajar. She started towards them, the dust shifting under her feet. If it was a one in seven chance, she might as well try the odd one out.

She was rewarded with the sight of a staircase behind them, spiraling upward into blackness.

Idelle paused in front of the first step, hesitating. She had no idea what she’d find up there. She thought back to the city, the orange glow cast on the houses as she sprinted through the streets. People fleeing the flames. Dead bodies, lying unburied as the living fought and fled.

She closed her eyes and took a long breath. Her quiet voice echoed up the stairs as she spoke to herself. “...Are you really going to run away again?”

She reopened her eyes. No. Not this time. Not after what Cecilia had done.

Idelle’s jaw set and she started up the stairs, her footsteps firm. She had asked herself what the point of being strong, of staying alive was. Well, how was that for an answer? She might be weak now, so weak that she’d been utterly helpless in front of Cecilia’s magic. But her power could change that. Her power would change that.

And once she finally became powerful?

She’d find the princess, and force an answer out of her. No more games, no more secrets. Idelle would ask her why she’d betrayed them, what exactly Cecilia thought was so important that she was willing to kill hundreds, thousands of people for it.

Another step. Idelle’s hand tightened unconsciously around the hilt of her sword. And if Cecilia didn’t have a good answer ready?

Idelle would make sure she was strong enough to kill the other girl.

She didn’t look back as she rounded the corner, or she might have noticed the dust slowly spiraling inward behind her — as if being blown together by a gentle wind.

Soon after, she reached the top of the stairs. They opened into a dark room, too dark to see clearly. Idelle flicked her hand, and a small orb of light appeared above it. A long stone wall greeted her, set atop rails that were carved out of the stone floor. There was a long lever next to it.

She stepped forward, tugging on the lever, and was rewarded with a loud click. She glanced around, then tentatively pressed on the wall, pushing it to the side. It slid easily, despite the weight, as if it had been well maintained. A ray of dim light came through the revealed passage, and she dismissed her charm in response.

Stepping through the aperture revealed an inconspicuous shrine, the kind of small and tidy place of worship that could be found anywhere in the kingdom. This particular one was less than tidy, however. The door was gone, and ash was scattered across the stone floor. The air was warm, and Idelle tasted a little smoke still.

She hesitated, then turned back and slid the wall shut again. It locked into place with another click. She wasn’t totally sure why she did it. It just felt right, somehow, like the strange place she’d been in was special and should be kept apart from the world.

Then, she quietly strode across the shrine and through the burnt-out doorway.

The city stretched out around her. She was still in the older, primarily stone section, she realized; and as such her immediate surroundings were still mostly intact. In the distance, however, she could see hints of wreckage, blackened wood visible amidst fallen bricks. She saw a flicker of flames still definitely burning in one of the piles.

She started down the streets. No one else was visible in this part of the city, not even bodies. Either they were burnt beyond recognition, hidden under rubble or inside buildings, or everyone had fled the city. The sun was barely peeking through the haze of smoke, high overhead.

Idelle looked around her. Which way to go? She found it impossible to imagine any of the city had been spared from the flames, with how far they had spread already when she had woken up the night before. They’d probably been set in multiple places at once, and firefighting efforts forced back with violence. Her heart clenched at the thought.

No, the survivors must be outside the city entirely. The merchant camp, that was the most likely place. She tried to figure out where she was relative to the gates, but the city was unrecognizable to her. Finally, she just chose the direction with the fewest lingering flames, and started towards the outer walls, picking her way carefully across the rubble that had spilled into the street.