Shouts rang out through the first floor when the prisoners discovered their freedom. First came the Amelies, hurrying past me without a word of thanks. One of them remained: Dragon-Mask. She cradled Sensi's body against her lap. Tears dripped down her face. Something about that scene brought through the numbness suppressing my emotions, but as callous as it was, I had no time for sympathy.

Some of the madmen and the few people who volunteered as their caregivers followed behind them. One of the lunatics screamed in sheer exultation, arms raised to the sky as he burst out into the morning sunlight. Some people from the second floor crowded the stairs, pointing as they discovered the cause of the commotion.

The sensation of time magic in the back of my mind felt like an old friend, back after a long journey. I had recovered fully after a week inside of the tesseract. Beside it, the power of the void yearned to be used again.

The tesseract had limited my power to almost nothing. I had been able to sense the knot of time and unravel it, but I suspected that had more to do with the sword than me. Now my power, my anima, came to me with surprising ease, as natural as breathing. I reversed time for a few seconds as a small experiment. A success, though it felt strange, like walking again after several days of bedrest.

Prisoners flooded into the first floor. I avoided them as I made my way towards where Felix laid on the ground. From the dazed look in his eyes he was blinking off another concussion, but at least he was conscious. A sliver of steel as long as a finger protruded from his left thigh. In all of the chaos I had not realized his sword shattered when he used it to deflect the Captain's blow. The bleeding did not look too serious but my friend was beginning to run out of functional limbs.

"I'm going to get us out of here," I said.

Felix grunted and touched the piece of broken sword in his leg. "Yeah?"

Without another word I used my power to return backwards in five second increments. The succession of reversals still jolted my mind even if I had experimented with such uses of my power before. My mind struggled to adjust to my new temporal reality for a split second before I dragged myself into a new one.

Usually I would have enough confidence in my internal clock to reverse back to the moment I wanted; this time I wanted no room for error. While there was not much information readily available on the subject, I suspected the paradox of my power returning me back to my powerless self inside a time-distorting dimensional construct would end poorly.

I returned to the moment when I first stepped outside the fallen barrier. A small chuckle escaped my lips, a touch more mad than I expected. This time I fled Amelie in Yellow as soon as possible. That first breath of fresh air when I emerged into the sunlight was like nothing I had ever experienced. Cool and refreshing. It felt warmer than it had in months, though the occasional snowflake still drifted past.

It felt like a bittersweet freedom while Sensi's body cooled behind me.

I slipped to the side, making room for the escaping prisoners to run around me. They fled in all directions, like ants after someone stepped on their colony. I took almost no notice of them, though in retrospect I should have minded who looked relieved and who glared about as if something precious had been stolen from their grasp.

Instead of following, I hid behind an adjacent building, peeking over the side of the wall to observe Amelie in Yellow from a distance. Archon Vasely did not come like I expected. Over time I had grown so used to the soft melody of the Archon meditating that my mind no longer registered it. Now that I focused on it, I could find no trace. If he was not lost in meditation or coming personally to investigate, what was he doing?

After a minute and thirty eight seconds, a spot cut through the sky, growing as it approached until I could make out the figure of a flying man. His speed must have been incredible; he crossed the city from the Archon’s palace in less than a minute. When he came to a stop, hovering over Amelie in Yellow, his tanned skin and shaved head identified him as Barrow. A long golden spear dangled from his hand.

He descended until he floated over the heads of the gathered survivors, raising eddies of snow from the cobblestones. "The Archon bid me to come here immediately. He heard a rogue demon speaking forbidden words. Tell me, quickly, what has occurred."

No one spoke up. I dabbed at my face with my sleeve to wipe away the trickles of blood from the Captain's talons, curious what would come next.

The winds grew stronger, throwing my hair in a frenzy. Invisible currents lifted a nearby man into the air until he floated next to Barrow’s slippers.

“You,” said the North Wind. “Where is this demon? Are you aiding it?”

The man stared at the ground ten feet below, unable to speak. He gathered his courage and said, “All of us were trapped within that place, Amelie in Yellow. It was like one endless day. It’s over now. The demon is dead, I think. In there.”

Barrow descended to the ground, landing lightly. The man drifted behind him, eyes squeezed shut, and collapsed when he touched the ground.

“Nobody leave.” The North Wind strolled through the open door, spear balanced against his shoulder.

What bizarre confidence. He walked right in there with his head held high despite the likelihood of it being a trap involving a high-tier demon. I would not be upset if that was the case after his minion Jokul stabbed me. Now that my time magic functioned I planned on utilizing every advantage I had against those two.

Jokul had failed to end my life, but he was just a man. Barrow could wipe out a legion of soldiers with a thought. Though my borrowed power to nullify magic may have theoretically countered him, escaping the tesseract had not been as simple as erasing any magic I desired. Part of me expected the power of a demon lord to overwhelm anything it encountered, but in the end it was still filtered through a mortal who had not quite reached seventeen.

Just the idea of Barrow strolling in there while Felix bled in some corner made me dig my fingernails into my palms. The urge to check on my friend was hard to resist, but I needed to gather as much information as possible before reaching a decision. If Jokul had acted independently then perhaps Barrow was an ally. As unlikely as it was, he may at least be willing to fly Felix towards the closest healer if my friend was injured.

Arms crossed, I waited another thirty seconds until Barrow's reinforcements arrived. A platoon of soldiers marched in from all directions, apprehending the stragglers trying to make their escape. There was plenty of time before their arrival for me and Felix to begin our journey to the other side of the Civilized Lands.

I prepared to reverse time. Then she arrived.

A flurry of snow billowed outwards as a figure suddenly appeared in the center of the guards. A Narahven woman in loose black clothing, her hair pulled back in close braids. With confidence she strolled towards the lieutenant of the platoon. The ground appeared to ripple with each step of her boots.

They were too far for me to overhear their conversation. The Narahven, who must have been the female Wind, gestured in several directions. Guards hurried to follow her commands, weapons at the ready.

When they returned, they carried limp bodies over their shoulders like sacks of grain. As far as I could tell the prisoners were alive and intact. The guards deposited them on the ground in an untidy row. The bodies did not so much as twitch at their rough handling.

Could the Narahven have killed all of them in a way that did not show? Unconscious people usually did not stay unconscious long unless they sustained significant head trauma. Minutes passed and still none of them moved. The guards continued to bring more and more bodies---less than the total amount of escaped prisoners, but not by much. From what I could tell, the Amelies had escaped.

I could not afford to spend too much time here. Get to the other side of the Civilized Lands, then start thinking. Maybe go beyond. Perhaps Paimon even controlled some small territory within a reachable distance. Becoming the Echo of one of the Goetia had to have some benefits.

Deciding to make the most of the situation, I snuck towards the Narahven and the lieutenant. A guard noticed and shouted a warning long before I came within earshot.

I reversed time, again careful to bring myself close to the initial moment of freedom without returning to the tesseract.

This time I returned immediately to Felix and, ignoring his complaints, helped him to his feet. Between the injured right arm and left leg there was no good side to support.

"You're an absolute bastard," said Felix.

"Would you rather lay there and die?"

He kept silent after that. Most of his weight rested on me as we hobbled towards the door together. As we passed by the Captain's body I noticed the sword protruding from its chest. I could never leave such a treasure behind.

"Support yourself against that table for a minute," I said.

Felix grumbled but listened. His shattered sword had left several lacerations to his arms and chest. A little whining seemed justified given the circumstances. I would have handled everything far worse.

The Captain had fallen onto its side, hand impaled through its head. The demon seemed even more bizarre in death. A halo of blue ichor painted the floorboards around it. The porcelain sword jutted from its chest. I shoved a boot against the demon’s shoulder, intending to push it onto its back, but it must have weighed more than a horse.

I gave up and knelt beside the demon. No movement. A voice in the back of my head yelled at me to run. Ignoring it, I grabbed the sword's hilt. The blade did not seem particularly sharp either. I planted a boot against the corpse and tugged. The weapon was stuck in the ribcage. I worked it up and down, freeing it by degrees until it finally tore loose. Precious time wasted but I had no doubt it would be worth it.

From what I could tell the weapon had no innate power by itself. Perhaps the nullification had destroyed its magical properties. A shame, but it would still have its uses. I wrapped Felix's left arm around my shoulder and we set off, the weapon dangling awkwardly in my hand. If we encountered Barrow or the female Wind I would have to reverse time and leave the sword. It was not worth our lives if it slowed us down.

Random passersby avoided us as we hobbled past. They seemed keen to leave in general, which was understandable, given the crowd of people fleeing in all directions. I was all too happy not to talk to any strangers with more curiosity than sense.

After five minutes we managed to put a surprising amount of distance between us and Amelie in Yellow. I expected the woman to find us at any second. Her powers seemed terrifying, even compared to Barrow's mastery over flying. She could appear out of nowhere, as if she transformed herself into the wind. Not to mention how she managed to immobilize most of the prisoners. If she found us, we had no chance against her in our current state. Maybe in any state.

I told myself not to worry. If she was going to capture us, she would have done it by now; if everything was going as it had before, she would be talking with the lieutenant right now.

In the end, the woman didn't find me. Barrow did.

The North Wind streaked out of the sky before coming to a sudden halt twenty feet in front of us.

He pointed his lance at us. "Leones. I did not realize you were part of this. I sensed your presence in the area, though you feel different than before."

A warm and stupid glow built up in my chest. Maybe there was a way out of here if Barrow wasn't involved. Not many people had witnessed the actual confrontation between me and the Captain.

"Well," he said. "I should have listened to Jokul. He told me to kill you before you ever left my home. At the time it felt like a senseless murder. I regret not heeding his warning. There is a wrongness to you but you are not one of Astaroth's marked. I have no obligation to keep you alive. Not to mention you are holding the keystone of the tesseract. How curious."

The hope died as quickly as it came. I looked down at the weapon in my hand, still stained with the demon's ichor. "You know about the tesseract?"

"It is only one of several within the city. Escape should have been impossible. You will come with me and explain."

I could feel the fight leave Felix as he gave up hope.

Barrow leveled his spear in my direction. The beginnings of a tempest stirred to life at the point of its blade. Presumptuous of him to think I would actually fight.

I reversed time to around ten seconds before his sudden arrival. Head tilted upwards, I could just make out a figure high in the air. From his vantage the North Wind would be able to see half the city, but I already knew he was looking directly at us.

"Barrow is coming to kill us," I said to Felix. "I'll take care of him. Lean against that wall."

Taking a few steps back, I summoned the power of the void and pointed at the sky. The figure of the North Wind plummeted downwards like a meteor, confident in his dramatic entrance.

A wave of nullification rippled outwards. And missed. My body felt heavy, lethargic, as if all the will had been drained from me. Adrenaline had powered all of my actions since I unraveled the tesseract, and so I had not noticed how exhausted I felt afterwards. Using the power of the void once more caused a different type of fatigue than the piercing migraines from overusing my time magic. Both were equally annoying.

I had at most two more tries before my body was in worse shape than Felix's.

I reversed time and tried again.

"Help me, Paimon," I muttered.

Maybe it worked, maybe it didn't. The nullification connected this time. Instead of coming to a sudden stop, the North Wind plummeted directly into the ground. The impact disintegrated him into a fine pink mist.

The air whistled and something stung my right cheek. When I reached up to touch it, blood came away. What must have been a piece of bone had left a thin laceration behind as it flitted past. My hand trembled.

Felix began to shout.

Nothing recognizably human remained once the mist settled. Only a disgusting mess and a wide expanse of fractured cobblestones.

Bile rose in the back of my throat and I managed to keep it down. Barrow was a hero to most of the city. Every time other people mentioned him to me, it was in an attempt to impress me with his strengths and virtues. Killing him felt different from the Magisters and his guards. Though they were respected in Velassa, the North Wind was revered in Odena.

His death was only temporary if I wished to reverse time. Murdering the child of an Archon would have disastrous consequences. There was no place I would be free to walk the streets without fear. But he had tried to kill me, and had ended up dead.

That is karma.