The Sovereign bridge, like most of Gnome, had been erected in ancient times and maintained with the utmost care ever since. Even the most disdainful goths and steampunks knew better than to vandalize it, and the most corrupt politicians and would-be imperators were smart enough to see its importance.

Maybe not always sane, but usually smart enough to see that it was one of the main arteries of the city, a corridor of trade and easily-taxed passage that fattened the coffers of whomever was in charge of the time.

The dragon, however, didn't care.

The old bridge burned, and only its thickness and superior construction saved Chase from being roasted alive.

As it was, though, she was being steamed like a dumpling and that wasn't much better.

You take 6 points of steam damage!

You take 6 points of steam damage!

You take 6 points of steam damage!

She screamed as the water boiled around her, and white vapor filled the air, trying to boil her eyes until she screwed them shut and covered her face with both hands. Even with her eyes shut the words flared into existence, pulsing every few seconds.

You take 6 points of steam damage!

You take 6 points of steam damage!

You take 6 points of steam damage!

The damp mask against her face grew warm, then hot, and she scrabbled to claw it free....

...no. No.

If she did that there would be nothing between the hot steam and her lungs. It would scorch her throat and kill her from the inside out.

“Chase! Oh no!” Renny shouted, then poked her side with his paws as he wriggled free. “What's happening...” he looked out into the steam. “I've got this! Heal yourself, please!” He took a breath, and a red '14' drifted up over his head. “Manipulate Air!” he shouted and whipped his paws around in circular motions.

Under the bridge, the steam rolled away as fast as it could go.

But the heat was still there, and the water still bubbled and roiled below.

You take 3 points of steam damage!

You take 3 points of steam damage!

You take 3 points of steam damage!

CON+1

“Lesser Healing,” Chase croaked, ripping the mask off her face, unable to stand it anymore. The heat tore into her, but the healing soothed it away... and then some.

You have healed yourself for 43 points of damage!

Your Lesser Healing skill is now level 46!

She repeated it again, then looked left and right. The Smuggler was doubled over and gasping, and Speranza was choking, struggling to unlimber her guitar with puffy, scalded fingers.

Beyond them, on the bank, fires from the collateral of the dragon's breath burned all up and down the shore. Men and women screamed, buckets of water flew, but it was chaos and inferno.

Plip.

Sizzle.

It was loud even in the din, and Chase stared as glowing red drops trickled down from above to drop in the water under the bridge.

The nails, she realized. Spikes or nails or whatever was used to hold the stone slabs of the bridge together. They were melting and dropping molten into the river.

How do you even fight something like this? Chase wondered, bleakly. What sane person goes and looks at this and thinks oh hey, dragons, jolly good fun to go beat them up!

This wasn't something you fought.

It was something you survived.

Then, as a great groan echoed from above, and she saw one of the piles supporting the bridge shift a bit, as molten metal oozed from its joins.

We might not survive this, she realized.

All this took the space in a matter of seconds. “We need to get to shore!” she shouted, thumping the Smuggler's back. “Lesser Healing, Lesser Healing!”

Ignoring the messages and skill up notifications popping into her view, she sent a few at Speranza as well.

“Foresi-” Chase started to mutter, but cut it off abruptly. She still had hours to go, she remembered.

You take 3 points of steam damage!

It was coming slower, but another groan from above showed that she had other worries. “To shore! Get us to shore!” she screamed, and the Smuggler gasped, picked up the pole, and started pushing.

From behind her, she heard fingers strum strings. “Rejuvenating Song,” the Bard gasped, and the melody surged into something cheerful and heartening.

Speranza's Rejuvenating song has healed you for 30 points!

“I need to see where we're going!” the Smuggler shouted.

A strange voice rang out from shore. “Over here!”

“Renny, can you shift the air bubble or whatever you're doing?” Chase looked to her fox friend.

“Yes!” Renny brought his paws together, and the steam closed in to either side of them... but the clear space in front stretched out, illuminating the rocky space where the bank met the bridge...

...and a black-clad figure standing underneath it.

Black leather gleamed over tawny tan and black fur in the firelight, and for a second Chase thought Cagna had found them. But no, the ears were wrong, larger and pointier. And the figure had actual black hair, and a lashing, long tail. She was feline, not canine, and Chase had seen her before, somewhere. But that didn't matter because she was twirling a rope, aiming carefully. “Catch!”

A tremendous splash to the side, and Chase screamed as boiling water sprayed across the skiff.

You have taken 27 points of steam damage!

One of the slabs up above had given way, she realized through the pain. “I dropped the pole!” the Smuggler yelled.

“Catch the rope!” Speranza said in a sing-song voice, keeping her hands moving on the guitar.

Speranza has healed you for 30 points!

“What?” The Smuggler looked up, just as the catgirl released the rope.

I have to do it! Chase realized.

Before she could think twice, before she could hesitate, she scrambled up the Smuggler's back like one of the monkeys she'd inherited from Thomasi, stood on his shoulders as he froze, surprised, and snagged the rope from the air as molten metal rain poured down from above.

DEX+1

The rain intensified, and Chase gasped in pain as a sizzle rose behind her and her back ached with sudden pain.

You have taken 11 points of fire damage!

She scrambled down off the Smuggler's shoulders as he bellowed, writhing in the fire, catching alight. Before she could call a warning he dove in the river...

...the boiling, boiling river.

She watched, helpless, as red numbers burst up, then stopped. He was gone, just like that.

“Tie it off!” The catgirl shouted. “Hurry! It's drifting!”

Chase ground her teeth as her skin sizzled.

Speranza has healed you for 30 points!

You have taken 18 points of fire damage!

You have been afflicted with the burning condition!

She was definitely on fire now, and it was so hard to concentrate, so hard not to follow the smuggler...

...but she managed.

WILL+1

She knew what would happen.

WIS+1

The boat WAS drifting, drifting and at the mercy of the current, moving farther from shore. But Chase had strength most halvens would never see in their lifetimes, and she wrapped the rope around the gunwhale, pulling it taut and knotting it even as it tried to rip from her blistered and charred hands. Pain as the rope pulled against them, then blood, soaking into the fibers of the rope, but she concentrated on it and then Renny was there, lending his own meager strength.

It was enough.

“Tightrope Time!” the catgirl called, and with a hop she was up on the rope, balancing without any visible effort.

And Chase remembered where she had seen her. “You! You're one of the Acrocats!”

The aerial troop had been at Arretzi, been performing while she was trying to navigate her way through the underworld and deal with the werewolves plaguing the city.

What the hells is she doing here?

The acrocat charged down the rope, moving with grace that Chase knew she could never match, with an agility that had to be well over two hundred and counting, and reached the skiff in less than a second. “Chase Berrymore and Renny?” The catgirl said, swaying this way and that, literally dodging the falling drops of metal.

“Yes!” Chase screamed, thoroughly NOT dodging any of the drops. At all. “Lesser Healing!” Chase said, trying to pat herself out.

“Great!” The catgirl smiled, showing really, really sharp teeth. “Lootbag, in you go.”

“Wait, what—”

Nimble fingers seized her, the catgirl snapped open a large bag with a money symbol on it, and before Chase could blink she'd been tossed into the sack.

She gasped as she landed on a cloth floor, stuck inside a tentlike structure about the size of a small shack. Looking around wildly, she couldn't see an exit.

With a yelp, Renny appeared from midair and fell to the floor. He was smoking, and Chase smelled it...

...right before realizing she was still on fire.

You have taken 31 points of fire damage!

“Ow ow ow ow ow!” She got her jar open, jabbed a hand on, and yelled “Transfer Condition!”

The jar burst into flames as the earthworms within burned, and she dropped it, shook her fingers. She patted Renny out while she chanted a few more Lesser Healings, feeling her sanity slip from her with every spell.

“Oh my gods,” Renny said, sitting up. “That was really confusing. What happened?”

“We almost died. Give me... give me a second,” Chase said, feeling the adrenaline rip through her. This was worse. This was worse than crawling through a cluttered basement and trying to dodge zombie clowns.

This had been something she had absolutely no control over coming damned close to ending her, and barely failing.

But at the end of it all it had failed. And she was a halven, so she got over it in a matter of minutes, and sat on the ground, sourly.

Then the rush hit, and she gasped with relief.

You are now a level 17 Oracle!

CHA+3

LUCK+3

WIS+3

Active divergence detected and canceled.

Foresight is now accessible once more.

The words meant that they were out of danger. That particular danger, at least. And with refreshed energy and greater wisdom came clarity.

“We got kidnapped,” Chase said, scowling. We're in... I think it's a Burglar's trick, this loot bag thing. Something like a Merchant's pack. I didn't know it could hold people, though.”

“Speranza's not here.” Renny looked around. “Maybe she wouldn't fit?”

“Or maybe she's not the target. We are.” Chase rubbed her chin. “There are two possibilities here that I can see.”

“I'm listening.” Renny said, pulling out a needle and thread and starting to sew patches over his flame-scorched plush hide.

“Hey, can you check my clothing after you're done with yourself? Please?” Chase said, studying her charred skirt. “But anyway, the first possibility is that Cagna is hiding somewhere around here. She couldn't make it, and she sent catlady to pick us up.”

Renny considered it. “That doesn't sound likely.”

“No. If Cagna had another beastkin friend down here she would have mentioned it earlier. But... there's the chance. And the reason Speranza's not in here is because she's too big for the sack.” Chase sighed. “The other possibility is far more likely. It's the possibility that someone caught her and she spilled what she knew.”

“I don't see how! I'm pretty sure that's against her code. I think?”

“I don't know her code exactly. But anyone can break under... torture...” Chase said, staring past Renny.

It was a horrible possibility, and she really hoped that hadn't happened.

She swallowed, then coughed up black gunk, spat into a handkerchief that had somehow managed to get through uncharred. “Either way I don't see a way out of here. And I don't want to risk knocking myself out for a long time with a vision. So... I hate to say it, but I think we're going to have to sit here and wait and see what happens.”

Renny thought it over. Then he made his knife appear from somewhere, and sawed at the floor. It gave, revealing more cloth below.

“I think you're right,” he said, poking at it. “This lower layer is tougher. And there's no telling what will happen if I keep cutting. Well, let me see what I can do about fixing your clothing, anyway.”

The poncho was a total loss, but the bits of it that he could salvage made enough to patch the rest.

He was just finishing up and putting away his sewing kit, when light spilled into the bag, and a hand reached in, fumbling around.

It was NOT a catgirl's hand.

It was wearing a thick leather glove, and looked like it had a very beefy arm behind it.

“Um...” Renny said, backing up.

“Around my neck, quickly!” Chase said. Renny dove and glomped her, circling around the back of her neck and going limp. It wasn't the first time he'd mimicked a stole.

The hand grew larger or the bag grew smaller, it was hard to tell. Chase bit her lip.

When in doubt, buff up. “Double Down, Silver Tongue.”

She was taking a risk by experimenting with the Gambler skill... but the situation was out of her control anyway.

Then the hand found her, grabbing her leg and pulling, and she stumbled...

...and fell onto cold tiles, as a muscular, heavily-armored man straightened up above her.

This wasn't the bridge.

This was a hall.

And around her stood a circle of armored guards, spears out, leveled inches from her, quivering and ready to run her through at the slightest provocation.

Weighing her options, glancing from face to face, Chase made her decision in a heartbeat.

And she burst into tears, crying for all she was worth.

CHASE'S CHARACTER SHEET

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Chase Berrymore

Age: 15 Years

Jobs:

Halven level 11, Cook level 5, Archer level 9, Gambler Level 5, Grifter level 12, Medium level 7, Oracle level 17, Painter level 2, Teacher level 6

Attributes / Pools / Defenses

Strength: 71 Constitution: 39 / Hit Points: 110 / Armor: 10

Intelligence: 69 Wisdom: 125 / Sanity: 194 / Mental Fortitude: 55

Dexterity: 134 Agility: 66 / Stamina: 200 / Endurance: 0

Charisma: 213 Willpower: 57 / Moxie: 270 / Cool: 65

Perception: 113 Luck: 243 / Fortune: 355 / Fate: 50

Generic Skills

Archery – Level 1

Brawling – Level 8

Climb – Level 15

Dagger – Level 2

Dodge – Level 13

Fishing – Level 14

Ride – Level 10

Stealth – Level 19

Swim – Level 7

Throwing – Level 31

Halven Skills

Fate’s Friend – Level N/A

Small in a Good Way – Level N/A

Cook Skills

Cooking - Level 20

Dishwasher – Level N/A

Freshen - Level 12

Archer Skills

Aim – Level 9

Demoralizing Shot – Level 6

Far Shot – Level 1

Missile Mastery – Level N/A

Quickdraw – Level N/A

Rapid Fire – Level N/A

Razor Arrow – Level 8

Ricochet Shot – Level 21

Gambler Skills

Ace in the Hole – Level 2

Ante Up – Level 1

Assess Challenge – Level N/A

Cardsharp – Level 9

Deadly Dice – Level 1

Double Down – Level 1

Gambler’s Fortune – Level N/A

Hold’em – Level N/A

Grifter Skills

Feign Death – Level 7

Fools Gold – Level 4

Forgery – Level 11

Master of Disguise – Level 15

Old Buddy – Level 7

Pickpocket – Level 20

Silent Activation – Level 32

Silver Tongue – Level 32

Size Up – Level 8

Unflappable – Level N/A

Medium Skills

Bad Fortune – Level 15

Crystal Ball – Level 10

Focus Vision – Level 5

Fortuna – Level N/A

Good Fortune – Level 16

Palmistry – Level N/A

Séance – Level N/A

Stack Deck – Level N/A

Oracle Skills

Absorb Condition – Level N/A

Afflict Self – Level 1

Diagnose – Level N/A

Divine Pawn – Level N/A

Foresight – Level 46

Grant Vision Level 7

Influence Fate – Level 14

Lesser Healing – Level 48

Omens and Portents – Level N/A

Random Buff – Level 9

Short Vision – Level 16

Transfer Condition – Level 15

Painter Skills

Fast Dry – Level N/A

Painting – Level 5

Teacher Skills

Lecture – Level 24

Red Ink – Level 3

Smarty Pants – Level N/A

Unlocked Jobs

Farmer, Herbalist

Gear

Enrico’s Last Hand

Light Leather Armor