The wind howled past Lorelei’s ears as her body plummeted towards the craggy cliffs. She didn’t have the time or the luxury to scream. Fear paralyzed her body as the abyss drew nearer but her mind was sharpened to the utmost. A memory flashed before her eyes - a group of children jumping from the cliffs near Sefis; joy and laughter turning suddenly into cries of distress; an old man and a girl running over to help as the eldest child dragged his younger sibling out of the depths - pale and lifeless with seaweed and blood tangled in his hair. Now, she was in that boy's place but this time, her master wasn’t here to help!

Through teary eyes, she saw the cliffs flying towards her. Stormy waves laced the black granite with foam, and the pieces of green algae tangled in the stone’s ridges looked like sprawling the hair of sea monsters - lurking and waiting for the next victim to drag into the depths. If she hit the rocks, the impact would surely break her legs. But if she dove head-first and lost consciousness, she was dead. From this height, even the water would prove little cushion to her fall. Dread and desperation burned through Lorelei’s veins, the vision of the past jolting her frozen muscles into action.

Twisting her body mid-air, she tried to stretch it out like a thin plank at the last possible second, her feet pointing towards the churning waves. With a splash, she hit the surface of the fjord. The impact burned her skin like someone was scraping over it with a hot knife. Silence and darkness devoured her. Freezing water pressed against her ribs, robbing her lungs of air. Her skirts twisted around her body like a net. Lorelei fought the urge to breathe in as the strong currents tossed her around. Hastened by fear and instinct, the blood rushed through her veins. Her mind started to go dark amidst flashes of green sparks, a traitorous voice whispering in her head. 'Let go.' It was fine to give up. 'Relinquish the fight.' All it took was a single breath and after that… sweet nothingness would come.

No! With great effort, Lorelei ordered her frantically flailing limbs to obey. She wanted to live!

One stroke. The currents and the weight of her soaked garments dragged her into the depths.

One more stroke. Her muscles felt like they were about to tear.

Again. And again... A final stroke. It burned! It hurt! Her lungs tore. One breath. Just one!

Her head broke through the waves. The first sweet sip of salty air scalded her throat. She had time for a few more breaths before the current dragged her back down, tugging on her wet clothes. The fight began anew. Lorelei managed to reach the surface again but the waves rolled over her almost immediately. The third time she reached the surface, she could only take a single breath before the tide overwhelmed her.

Lorelei’s limbs felt like lead, every move requiring immense effort. She was not the best, but she wasn’t a bad swimmer. No child growing up in Sefis was, especially with Master Levi as their teacher. And yet, she was about to yield the fight. The icy embrace of Tight-pass Fjord was so different from the warm lagoons around her hometown. The chill, the storm, the weight of her drenched garments, her body - weakened by worry and magic, they all sapped the last bits of her strength. It was time to let go…

Something wrapped around her waist and rapidly pulled her up. Surfacing again amidst seafoam and droplets of rain, Lorelei coughed and shook, her chest - pressing tightly against someone else's.

“It’s alright. I have you!” Noah’s panting voice was the last thing she expected to hear. “Don’t struggle or we’ll both drown!”

Lorelei didn’t know if she was crying or if her face was just wet from the rain and seawater. But she knew the arm, tightly wrapped around her waist; the warm embrace driving the chill away. It was real! He was real! He had followed her!

“You… fool!” Her rasp was almost drowned by the storm.

“You can scold me later.”

With a mighty stroke, Noah steered them towards the shore. A couple of times, the tide sent them towards half-submerged rocks, their bodies bumping and scraping painfully against the sharp edges of the stone and the mussels nesting in the crags. Still, they swam with the current, using its strength to reach the little pebbly beach just below the overhanging cliffs.

Dragging Lorelei out of the water, Noah took a few shaking steps before the two collapsed on the ground. Coughs and wheezing gasps escaped their lips as the pair lay under the pouring rain, wave after wave of salty gray water hitting their legs with a loud gurgle.

Her head resting on Noah’s chest, Lorelei could hear the strong beats of his heart. The warmth of his body seeped into hers, driving away a bit of the bone-piercing cold that paralyzed her. She felt his muscles tensing as he struggled to sit up, still cradling her carefully in his arms.

“How hurt are you?” His tired voice carried the familiar gentleness she had yearned for. Callused fingers brushed away the wet tangled strands of hair from her face.

“N-nothing t-that would k-kill me.” Lorelei’s teeth clattered and she shivered uncontrollably.

Noah leaned in, his forehead pressing against hers and his hands dared to wrap around her a little tighter.

“Holy Fathers… Thank You!”

Their lips were so close that they almost touched. Their breaths mixed together - jagged, shallow, but warm and full of life.

“Lad!”

“Lorelei!”

Two shouts reached them, muffled by the rain and the thundering waves. Lightning split the sky, illuminating three figures crawling towards them - slipping on wet stones as they climbed down the narrow trail running along the cliffs.

Reluctantly separating their foreheads, Noah looked up and shouted hoarsely:

“We are fine, Duncan! Slow down. You’ll break your necks!”

In a few minutes, the crunching of gravel announced the arrival of Duncan and his companions. Gentle hands supported Lorelei, breaking her and Noah apart, all to her dismay.

“Lorelei! Are you alright?” Saya sobbed. “Where does it hurt?”

“I’m fine.” Lorelei smiled, her fingers giving the other woman’s hand a weak squeeze.

“You are not fine! When you fell… We thought…” Her friend choked.

Beside her, Milly sat on the wet gravel, her hands smearing tears all over her face while she mumbled “Mir-Mama, thank you, thank you!”

Something warm and slightly damp wrapped around Lorelei’s body. She blinked at Duncan, who had taken off his doublet and draped it over her shoulders.

“No… You’ll get wet… sick,” she protested weakly, the exhaustion and the warmth slowly lulling her to sleep. This earned her a resolute head shake from the old knight.

“A little rain won’t harm me.”

Duncan turned to Noah and helped him back to his feet. Seeing his lord bowing down with the intention to pick Lorelei up, he frowned and put a paw-like hand on his shoulder.

“Enough boy. Don’t strain yourself. I’ll take the lady.”

“I know my strength, Duncan. You act like I’m some feeble child!”

“You shake worse than a newborn calf.” The old knight huffed and scooped Lorelei up like she was made of feathers. “Can you risk dropping your wife?”

A vein popped on Noah's jaw but he didn’t retort. Instead, he tucked the doublet around Lorelei’s body. A tired smile lifted the corners of his lips and his hand caressed her cheek.

“It’s over now. Rest-”

He didn’t finish. For a brief moment, everything turned dark like someone had spilled ink over the world. A mighty rumble shook the air before everything came back to normal. No, that was wrong. Lorelei held her breath. The sound of the waves was gone and so was the rain. Droplets hung in the air like crystalline strings of beads, breaking all laws of nature and logic. And again, the world was devoured by darkness, its source - a bolt of black lightning, snaking its way up towards the sky from the cliffs above them.

“Shana!” Noah inhaled sharply. “Damn it, Yanosh, you never told me about magical temper tantrums!”

Spinning around, he faced his petrified retainers.

“Duncan, you protect Lorelei. Protect them all. Stay here and don’t even think about going up until you get my signal.”

“Understood.” The old man’s gaze wandered between the three women in his care and the top of the cliff. “You and the little-one will be good, right?”

“We will,” replied Noah curtly and was about to run away but Lorelei suddenly grabbed his sleeve.

“Don’t go!” She peered into his eyes. “Shana… I think something is very wrong with her.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Noah chuckled. “Shana’s emotions are running wild and with them, her powers. She must have awakened recently-”

“No! I don’t mean that. I think that a lot of this… is not her doing.”

“What!?” Her husband stiffened.

“The strength that pushed me, it wasn’t that of a child, not even of a single human. And before I fell, when I hit the railing, there was a black mist. It broke the stone and made me fall. It felt cold, hungry, and evil. Almost… like a dhrowghost.”

“H-how?...”

Another black lightning shot into the sky. Lorelei cowered in Duncan’s doublet but her fingers only gripped Noah tighter.

“I will explain everything, I swear. You can punish me however you want! Just don’t go there! Please, believe me! What you are facing… might not be the Shana you know! You-”

Noah tore himself free and ran towards the narrow trail climbing up to the gazebo, all while Lorelei’s desperate cries chased after him.

“Let me down! Sir Duncan, stop him! He will die! Please, stop him!”