The trio staggered to the final Wizard’s Tower or, more accurately, the Chosen One staggered while Qube stomped and Definitely Bad Guy rode around on the Hero’s shoulders. Qube was still fuming with her resolve to have words with the Head Mage once they’d completed the Grand Working, but she was growing increasingly worried by Definitely Bad Guy’s rapidly deteriorating condition.

The Chosen One unceremoniously kicked open the final tower’s door, and strode directly into the middle of the giant rune painted onto the floor. He didn’t waste any time messing about, or trying to test anything, instead immediately depositing the Mage in the centre of the circle.

The rune was sprawling and complex, drawn out like a giant star with five points to it and various symbols filling in the space between the increasingly small spiral present within the star.

“Amulets, amulets, amulets,” the Hero muttered to himself, pulling the four pieces out of his pockets. He looked around and instantly pointed at the four indentations in the floor while Qube was trying to help Definitely Bad Guy sit upright, calling her attention to them. “Amulets go here?” he asked her.

“What is the meaning of this?” a voice demanded. Qube looked up, and saw red. The Head Mage, the one who had put them in this precarious position, was standing in place next to the furthest point. The pair had been so busy that they hadn’t even noticed the old man.

The Chosen One ignored the Head Mage, and instead looked at the amulets he was holding, then at the indentations. An expression of horror grew on his face.

“Hey,” he said to Qube, before swallowing hard. “I don’t suppose you remember the order these were supposed to go in, do you?”

Qube looked at the Hero in dismay.

The Hero looked back.

They both looked at Definitely Bad Guy, who had started shivering.

“I’ll be right back!” the Hero shouted, and sprinted out of the tower. Qube half rose to follow him, but stopped herself as she felt another shiver wrack Definitely Bad Guy’s body.

“Hey,” she said quietly to the Mage, sinking back down next to him. “Don’t worry, he’ll be back soon. Can you maybe cast a fireball to warm up?”

“N-no f-fireplace,” Definitely Bad Guy forced out, his teeth chattering. Qube looked around. The Mage was right. There was nothing to burn. Even if he could cast [Fire Wall], he would have to concentrate and keep pumping mana into the spell to keep it active, something that would be almost impossible as the curse spread.

Although… a sickening idea occurred to Qube. She looked at the Head Mage, and once again felt rage’s teeth snap within her. The Head Mage, rather than moving to help his former Apprentice, or trying to find out what had gone wrong, or even just speak words of comfort to the clearly suffering man before him, instead just stared out the door where the Chosen One had gone. Definitely Bad Guy was too weak to talk to him, and he wouldn’t even be able to see Qube unless she [Heal]ed him.

He didn’t even know that there was someone with his former pupil, and he chose to stand back and do nothing.

“If you don’t want me to do this, just say the word,” she told the old man as she pulled out all of the books she’d ‘borrowed’ from him, and dumped them in a pile in front of Definitely Bad Guy. He didn’t even react to the books appearing. The man’s total disregard for Definitely Bad Guy hardened her heart enough that she was able to give the terrible order.

“Burn the books,” she whispered to Definitely Bad Guy. The Mage seemed to recall himself from somewhere far away, and looked at Qube. Her heart hammered in her chest as she saw the total trust on his face.

“[Fireball],” he said, and the paper burned.

Qube resisted the almost overpowering urge to try and put out the fire she’d just ordered made, instead shifting the Mage so he was slightly closer to it. She reached over and tried to move his hand so she could get a look at where the curse had struck. Maybe there was some way she could try and help him? Even just to heal the damage being done to him?

He kept his hand pressed where it was, stopping her from seeing under it, but his skin around it was slowly turning blue, and his tattoos nearest the point of impact were dead white.

“Talk to me,” Qube said, trying to keep the Mage focused on the present. “Tell me about being a student here.”

The Mage tried to breathe. It looked painful.

“Orphans,” he said, his eyes unfocused. “All of us. St-studied here during the day. Hated it. No one t-to care when he — t-took us. T-teachers… are not parents.”

That would help justify some of the more unusual behaviours of the remaining Mages, deemed unsuitable for kidnapping. And why someone as young as Augustine wasn’t with his family. It still didn’t explain why there was no sign of a large area for young children to learn, though.

“[Heal],” Qube cast, just in case that would help him with the pain of his body slowly transforming to ice. Nothing seemed to change from her spell, but he didn’t seem to be getting any worse. He didn’t acknowledge her work, instead staring at nothing as they waited for their Hero to return.

“No one t-to care… when he killed them.”

The Mage looked at Qube, and she saw naked anguish in his eyes.

“I w-wasn’t the greatest Mage,” he whispered, his lips turning blue. “I’m j-just the one who survived.”

Qube couldn’t do it. She couldn’t just sit there and quietly wait while her friend froze in front of a man who should have rescued him six years ago. Sure, she was supposed to be supportive, but there was someone in the room who was about to become a lot more helpful, even if she had to break his mind to do so.

She fixed her eyes on the Head Mage and was just standing up when the Chosen One burst back into the room.

“I got it!” he said triumphantly. He dashed over to the first indentation, and pulled out the amulets.

“What has happened to my former Apprentice?” the Head Mage bellowed, suddenly acting as if he actually cared about his student now that the Chosen One was back.

“Can I help, Chosen One?” Qube asked, brushing herself off like she hadn’t just been about to [Heal] the Head Mage.

“Don’t distract, got it, don’t wanna forget it,” the Chosen One said as he strode around the star.

“I see that he has been cursed by the guardian,” the Head Mage continued as everyone in the room ignored him. “I warned you to be careful.”

Qube was about ready to kick the Head Mage into the makeshift fire.

“Mind Mage to the left of… no wait, does that mean this one? No, he didn’t say it has to be to the immediate left, now did he? Are they trying to be clever?” The Chosen One ignored this provocation from the other man and continued striding back and forth, trying to solve the puzzle that Qube couldn’t remember.

“I fear that is a great and powerful curse,” the Head Mage continued, mournfully shaking his head and then stroking his beard, acting as if the sight before him filled him with great sorrow. But Qube knew better. She’d seen the indifference when the Hero hadn’t been there. Her hands clenched into fists as she knelt back down by Definitely Bad Guy, wrapping an arm around his back to try and give him some of her warmth.

“Left, left, left,” the Hero muttered, before slamming down the final amulet. “There! That should work!” He bounced up from where he’d crouched, and stood back. “Wait, why isn’t it activating?”

“The final component is the gift of the guardian,” the Head Mage said sadly. “In order for a Grand Working to activate, there must be proof of sacrifice. The guardian was chosen for this purpose.”

“That’s super messed up,” the Chosen One said, raising an eyebrow at the Head Mage. “And that curse needs to go. In fact, this whole place needs reworking because this,” the Hero gestured broadly, “is a mess.”

“The Grand Working is a nullification spell, capable of travelling great distances,” the Head Mage said. “It would be able to completely erase the curse residing within him.” The Head Mage sighed. “However, its original purpose was to destroy the magical shield preventing us from accessing the dungeon and rescuing the king and queen. While it would theoretically still be possible to breach the shield without this Grand Working, it would be substantially harder, and, if it happened during an attempt to take the castle at Cobbletown, carries the risk that the Evil Emperor may slay the king and queen before we could reach them.”

The Chosen One didn’t say anything in response to the Head Mage’s speech. The Head Mage waited a moment, to see if he would reply, before continuing unprompted:

“While I may not be able to completely purge the curse from his body, if the others and I worked together we should be able to stop it from spreading any further. This may cause him to have an affinity for fire and ice magic, allowing him to cast both types of magic, at the cost of his strength and mana being lessened.

“Regardless of his choice, he will need to remain in the centre of the working, and he will need to direct the Grand Working to either himself, or the castle.”

The Chosen One remained silent.

“Chosen One?” Qube asked. “What should we do?”

The Chosen One looked at Qube, before crouching down on Definitely Bad Guy’s other side.

“Hey Sparky,” he said gently. “This is all you, buddy. What do you want to do?”

The Mage looked at the Hero, shaking from the cold.

“Come on,” the Chosen One urged. “This is your choice to make. It’s your personal quest, after all. And I think you’re broken enough that you can, genuinely, choose, rather than just let yourself be influenced by how I completed the stupid Temples.”

“T-temples…” Definitely Bad Guy trailed off, fading slightly before reviving. “Yes. I ch-choose. B-both.”

“What?” Qube and the Chosen One asked simultaneously. Qube clicked to his meaning first. The Grand Working was essentially a one-time-use Bestowal.

“Chosen One, get out of the rune and start the Grand Working,” she said, staying in place beside Definitely Bad Guy. The Hero blinked at her for a second before realisation dawned. He gracefully rose up and strode over to the top of the star, next to the Head Mage.

“If this doesn’t work, save yourself,” Qube whispered to Definitely Bad Guy. The Mage nodded.

“K-king and qu-queen c-cannot d-die,” he said quietly as he shivered. For some reason he looked distraught while saying that. Or maybe that was just the curse slowly killing him. “I p-promised.”

Who had he promised such an obvious thing to? Qube felt like the more she got to know this man, the more she realised how little she actually knew him. Before Qube could ask him about it, the Chosen One dumped the pile of coal at the top of the star and the Head Mage lifted his arms, the sleeves of his robe falling back to reveal his forearms, which were covered in star tattoos.

“Oh great and powerful cosmos,” the Head Mage intoned as mana startled to swirl around the rune. Magic burst forth from the amulets and joined the whirlwind, whipping the whole thing into a frenzy that nearly cut the two pairs off from each other. “I beseech you to take what is offered, and give unto us the power to unmake that which hast been wrought, to right this terrible wrong, and bring forth that which must be!”

Considering how long they’d been working on this spell, Qube would have thought the Head Mage could have come up with a better speech. A rumbling from under their feet caused Definitely Bad Guy and her to slide backwards, as a pedestal emerged in the centre of the spiral. On it was a paper scroll.

It had to be the Grand Working’s Bestowal. The mana started bleeding from the whirlwind around them, infusing into the scroll which floated up and unrolled itself, revealing a big red X in the middle of it.

“Are you ready?” Qube practically shouted over the mana storm. Definitely Bad Guy nodded. “Then on the count of three!”

She suddenly flashed back to the first time she’d seen a Bestowal, back in the Forest Temple, and her first countdown. Her chest squeezed.

“Remember, you take care of yourself!” she shouted, suddenly scared. “I’ll take care of the shield!” The Mage nodded at her, or maybe just shivered.

“One, two, three!” Qube cried, as together they reached towards the scroll, touching it at the exact same time.

Power surged into Qube, terrible and numbing, racing up her arm and hitting her body with near-lethal impact. It ripped at her, feral in a way no other spell had ever been, spreading through her until it filled her.

“[Nullify]!” She heard Definitely Bad Guy croak out next to her, his hand still on his chest. He collapsed as soon as he finished casting.

That was it. She had to control the spell. She had to release it. To complete the Grand Working.

“[Nullify]!” she gasped, and her world dissolved.