Much to Bunty’s surprise, the Hyene continued to struggle despite the suffocation. It clawed at the tentacle, trying to scrape it off as the minutes passed. Its grunts and groans were loud enough for the other Hyenes to here, but none of them came to its rescue. When Bunty blocked out the struggling warrior’s sounds and listened, he couldn’t hear them at all. It wasn’t just the howls and cackling that had disappeared but their soft jabbering and footsteps too.

“Did they abandon their leader already?” Bunty asked, retrieving his axe.

“Male hyenas serve the females, but they’re abused and beaten enough to detest them,” Gwyneth said. “I bet it’s the same for them.”

“It’s not that,” Victoria said, after scrambling up the tree. “I’m sorry, Bunty. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“What are you talking about—”

“Hey there, sister!” Edgar’s voice called from not far away. The sounds of hooves followed, and grunting followed it. “I didn’t think you’d take care of the warrior for us too.” Bunty’s heart sank as the lordling emerged from the tall grass, riding one of the deer they had spotted earlier. “Thank you so much. All of you!”

“What are you doing here, Edgar?” Victoria asked, stepping up to her brother. Her left hand tightened around the bow until her knuckles turned white. “I told you that I needed some time away from you.”

“You did?” Edgar grinned, hopping off his mount. The red petals that formed his coat fluttered for a moment before settling to appear as a single piece of seamless fabric. “Without you, I never would’ve known that Bunty-dear is harbouring the DeLawney fugitive.”

Lawrence’s head showed over the tall grass, just outside the clearing. Multiple figures followed him. Gwyneth took a step backwards, trying to make herself smaller behind Bunty. It didn’t do much good, though. All sets of eyes washed over the trio.

“Don’t believe him, Bunty—”

“To be fair, I didn’t need Victoria to figure it out,” Edgar continued, cutting Victoria off. “When my new friends told me about one of their own stealing from them and murdering their party, I was heartbroken. Then they told me about the pitfall trap nearby and the axe wounds, and I put two and two together. Who likes to go out of their way and use traps to make themselves look valuable? Bunty does!” Edgar tried to walk past Victoria and get closer to Bunty, but she blocked his way. “Who likes to be sneaky and snatch what’s not theirs? Bunty does!”

“Believe me, Bunty, I didn’t tell him I’d be with you,” Victoria said, looking back at him with pleading eyes. “I didn’t tell him about Gwyneth either.”

“Honestly, I don’t know what to believe anymore, Victoria.” Bunty sighed, trying his best to appear calm and collected. Deep breathing helped slow the thumping in his chest and on the sides of his head. He worried Gwyneth would make a sudden move, encouraging the opposing posse to charge. So, he moved closer to her, hoping to provide some support.“I’ve never been one to trust anything Edgar says, but this feels plausible.”

Edgar tried to push past Victoria, but she raised her vine-covered arm, stopping him. “I might be a coward, Bunty, but I’d never do anything to hurt you intentionally.” Lawrence stayed back, but the DeLawneys got off their mounts, entering the patch of hacked grass. “Don’t do this, Edgar,” Victoria begged. “Bunty is no longer in your life. How does it benefit you in any way?”

“It doesn’t give me much beyond satisfaction, sister,” Edgar replied. “It’s out of my hands now, though. Bunty and his new friend have gravely damaged our friends’ business prospects. If they didn’t follow me out here, perhaps we could’ve done something to stop them. It’s up to them what happens now. Lawrence and I won’t interfere, of course.”

The look on the lordling’s face spent shivers up and down Bunty’s spine. Edgar had always been a coward and weakling but had always tried his hand at plotting and manipulation. None of his plans had worked out before, but things were finally in Edgar’s favour. Bunty couldn’t help but wonder what game the lordling was playing? What gave him his new confidence? Was it the spirit?

“You have the power to make them step down, Edgar,” Victoria said, lowering her voice. “Please, don’t—

Edgar looked over his sister’s shoulder at Bunty. “Victoria isn’t the best liar, is she?” He asked, trying to get around Victoria again, but she wouldn’t let him go. Nothing was stopping the DeLawney men, though. They advanced towards Gwyneth. She brightened her spirit’s light until little sparks arced between the metal bits, adding a soft hum to the air. Edgar and the DeLawneys didn’t know that she had burned through most if not all, of her attack spells. Intimidation was the only deterrent they had at the moment.

Bunty clenched his gauntleted fist and tightened his grip on the axe. He didn’t have much hope for victory. The mounts suggested that escape wasn’t an option either.

Victoria retreated from her brother to where Bunty and Gwyneth stood. Edgar backpedalled into the tall grass, but the DeLawney Climbers continued their approach. “You can’t believe anything Edgar says, Bunty,” Victoria said. “He’s changed since he got his spirit. Things have gotten worse since he upgraded it too.”

“Unless Edgar can read minds and control them, trusting you further wouldn’t be in my best interests,” Bunty said. “I just don’t know what to think. He’s clearly trying to antagonise us, but at the same time, Edgar is here. Following us all this way, unnoticed can’t be an easy task.”

“It is for him!” Victoria grew an arrow out of her right arm and nocked it. “Edgar won’t give us the details of what his spirit can do, but it’s just not right. Father changes more every time we go home, and people around Edgar see things. Eventually, they stop behaving like themselves and follow him mindlessly. I bet it’s the spirit!”

“Why doesn’t it work on you, Victoria?” Gwyneth asked. The venom in her voice took Bunty by surprise. “Or won’t you entertain the idea of him playing these mind games on you too? I’m sorry, Bunty. Pushing you to work with her was a mistake.”

“I think its because our spirits come from the same beast.” Victoria’s voice wavered as she spoke. Bunty struggled to feel any sympathy for her, though. The sound would’ve pulled at his heartstrings earlier, but now he felt numb and betrayed. He didn’t want to believe that Victoria had turned them, but her story sounded too farfetched. At the same time, stranger things were known to happen in Gaia’s Ark.

The DeLawney Climbers attacked. Two of them stayed at range while the other two dashed in, weapons raised above their head. One of them flashed forward, all of a sudden, moving in the blink of an eye. Bunty didn’t have the time to react. Only Victoria moved, and that too was just a step to put herself between them. The mace-wielder froze and zipped backwards. Bunty caught a glimpse of golden light coming off the man’s boots.

The second attacker pointed his palm at Bunty and Gwyneth. Little thorns shot from within his sleeve, flying forwards like countless little darks. Gwyneth fell into a crouch and Bunty hopped in front of her. “Stiffen,” he whispered, solidifying the coat. It stopped the thorns, but the Climber continued his charge, preparing to skewer Bunty on his spear. Victoria acted as the human shield again. The Climber froze mid-thrust and jumped back just as Bunty relaxed the coat, regaining his mobility.

“See what I mean, Bunty,” Victoria hissed. “Their actions aren’t natural. Have you seen people freeze mid-attack the way they are? It’s Edgar’s doing.”

“I don’t like your insinuations, sister,” the lordling called. Bunty swung his head around but failed to spot him. Edgar sounded much too close to be hiding within the grass.

Victoria dropped into a kneel and pressed her right palm to the ground. Vines broke off from her forearm and wriggled towards the two attackers like snakes. Neither Climber made any effort at dodging. They came at Bunty once again, but their charge was cut short when the green serpents got tangled in their legs. More of Victoria’s summoned vines climbed onto their bodies, binding their knees and wrists. The pair struggled against the spell or summon—Bunty couldn’t tell which they were, but the soft snapping suggested that the bindings wouldn’t hold for long.

When the remaining three DeLawneys attacked, Gwyneth pulled her spear out of the Hyene’s belly. The humanoid canine thrashed again desperately as blood and organs followed the spearhead. Then she went still. The ground underneath their feet trembled before a silvery light shone from within the tall grass behind them.

“It’s a door!” Gwyneth exclaimed, snapping Bunty out of his shellshocked stupor. He looked at the light, and hope returned to him once again.

“Don’t let them get away!” Edgar’s voice exclaimed, urging the other three Climber to speed up. “Forget about not hurting my sister. Just don’t mark her face or maim her.”

Even though raged pulsed through Bunty, he grabbed Gwyneth’s hand and pulled her towards the door. The building anger and doubt made him want to find Edgar and dismember him, but they were outnumbered. Fighting would them would be as good as a death sentence. Bunty’s head told him to believe Victoria, but his chest hurt too much to listen. Bunty saw her meet one of the DeLawneys head-on and hoped she wouldn’t suffer too much for assisting him. The thought that Edgar didn’t want her dead put his mind at ease.

They were ten feet from the gateway when a searing pain pulsed through Bunty’s side. At first, he thought it was a stitch or something in his head then a warm wetness spread from the area before travelling down towards his trousers. A sweet aroma filled his nostrils as he staggered and fell onto his knees.

“No!” Gwyneth screeched, but an invisible force pushed her away from him onto the ground. Then one of the Climbers was on her. The man held her down with augmented, scale-covered arms.

Bunty looked for the injury’s source. He could still feel the offending weapon inside of him. He clutched at the wound and found a shaft sticking out of his side. One moment there was nothing there, then Bunty blinked, and Edgar was standing next to him. The red petals were transparent for a heartbeat before they solidified. On looking down, Bunty found the hibiscus topped staff pressed to the wound. Then Edgar pulled the weapon back, and the pain worsened. A colourless blade dripping with blood exited Bunty’s side. The shape and form approached transparency as the red trickled off it.

A grunt escaped Bunty’s lips as Edgar hopped back. Gwyneth and Victoria screamed at him—or Edgar—but he only heard muted incomprehensible words. Baba’s training and his initial days in the tower had inflicted various injuries to his person, but Bunty had never felt anything so painful. It felt like the wound was on fire while the rest of him stood naked atop the Bear’s Tooth on the first floor.

“Stiffen,” he managed to get out as Edgar swung the staff at him. The coat blunted the attack, but the force still knocked Bunty onto his front. Bunty’s eyes came in to focus, and he could hear the world once again.

“You’re just making this worse for yourself, Sen!” Edgar laughed like a mad man, before swinging again.

Bunty just about managed to roll onto his back and away from the attack. Neither Victoria nor Gwyneth came to his rescue. The remaining DeLawney men kept them busy. Lawrence was nowhere to be seen, though. Bunty worried his former friend would burst out of the grass and impale Gwyneth through the chest. When he caught Edgar’s next swing on his gauntlet, Bunty remembered he could only afford to be concerned about himself in the situation. He suspected that the injury in his side was close to being considered a mortal wound.

“Don’t do this, Edgar!” Victoria grunted from not far away. “I beg of you. Let them go!”

Edgar ignored his sister and went in for another swing. The flowers fell away from the staff, revealing a short spear with an ugly curving blade. That confirmed it for Bunty. It wasn’t invisibility he was dealing with but illusions. He grabbed Edgar’s leg with a gauntleted hand before willing the pen to release Slimeskin. It rushed out of the spirit, enveloping the lordling’s knee and thigh as he screamed. Edgar swung at Bunty again, but there was no power behind the blow.

Gwyneth came charging in and knocked Edgar off balance using her spear’s shaft. Then she swung her electrified spearhead at him, but the red coat and its wearer disappeared, leaving a sweet aroma behind. Then Victoria was by Bunty’s side helping him up.

“Don’t breathe in the smell,” she warned them. “That’s how Edgar enchants everyone! It’s the damn petals.”

Bunty tried to get words out, but his body failed him. He pressed the gauntleted hand to the wound and released sticky Slimeskin again, patching it for the time being. Bunty feared that unclenching his teeth would release the ear-rending screams building up inside, so he kept his lips sealed.

“To the door!” Victoria exclaimed. “The vines won’t hold them for long.”

Every step made Bunty’s body heavier, and the coldness spread, digging its way into Bunty’s bones. The two women half-carried-half-dragged him into the tall grass away from Edgar’s angry screams. Now that the Slimeskin had his limb bound, he’d struggle to get free, invisible or not.

“What the hell did he do?” Gwyneth demanded. Her voice sounded like cold steel. Bunty could feel the rage within Gwyneth. She’d been a good companion to him.

“Thank you for your help, Gwyn—”

“I’m sure he’s using illusory and mind-bending spells,” Victoria said.

“The smell must be the trace.” Both women ignored Bunty’s attempts at getting his final words in. Gwyneth pulled on his left side painfully as she continued to speak and more blood poured from the wound. “Or it could be the controlling element too.”

The DeLawney Climbers came at them again when the trio was little more than an arm’s length from the gateway. Bunty guessed his companions had only disabled them momentarily. The DeLawneys likely had more experience if not a second Core upgrade too. Victoria let go of Bunty, ran up to the structure and pressed her right hand to the frame. Vines flowed off the limb and crawled over the frame before spreading from its top like a parasol.

“Get him in here!” Victoria exclaimed. “I can’t let go.”

The Climber gifted with speed was the first to reach them. He ran straight into a lowering curtain of vines though. They wrapped around the man entangling him. The man growled at them, bearing his teeth like an animal. His club swing almost reached Bunty before the vines pulled his arm away and held it in place.

“Maybe you’re on our side after all,” Bunty said. He couldn’t tell whether it was the throbbing or the light-headedness, but a soft chuckle escaped his lips. “Good job, Victoria. You struck gold with that spirit. You can be a trapper now too.”

“I wouldn’t be as effective if they weren’t under Edgar’s spell,” Victoria grumbled as the door opened. “Quickly, Gwyneth! Get him through.”

“What about you?” Gwyneth asked, pausing. “I doubt things will go smoothly for you now.”

“I can’t let go,” Victoria said. “They’ll follow us, and this will continue on the other side. I need to keep up this spell and buy you time.” She glanced around as if expecting to see someone in the tall grass. “The door should disappear if I run from this position. It opened for the three of us, not them!” Bunty grabbed at Victoria as darkness encroached on the edges of his vision. “It’s alright,” she continued. “Lawrence won’t ever let me get hurt. Edgar’s control spells aren’t as effective on him. We don’t know whether it’s his spirit or exposure to the original plant. He’ll take care of me. You two go! You need to patch Bunty up before he dies of blood loss.” Victoria unclipped the pouch hanging from her belt and pressed it into Gwyneth’s hand. “This will help you patch him up.”

“Thank you,” Gwyneth said. “I don’t know whether you let my secret slip-on accident or not but thank you for this. Once Bunty isn’t a mess, I’ll tell him that you’re not a bad person.”

“I’ll remember,” Bunty mumbled. The roaring Climbers outside the net of shifting vines drowned out his words.

“I don’t know if he’ll ever trust me again.” Victoria’s words sounded distant and devoid of hope. Then Gwyneth dragged him through the door’s white light onto soft, sun-kissed sand. The sounds of birds, waves and people filled Bunty’s ears.

Bunty’s back hit the soft sand as Gwyneth staggered and let go of him. The ground and light fought the chill consuming his body.

“We need a healer!” Gwyneth screamed, scrambling to peel back the Slimeskin coat and shirt underneath. Bunty felt her fingers on his wound, but it didn’t hurt anymore. “You have to remove the Slimeskin, Bunty.” Gwyneth leaned in to speak directly into Bunty’s ear. “I can’t do anything with it all stiffened.”

Bunty didn’t remember using any of the command spells. In fact, the past five minute’s events felt like a dizzying blur. He struggled to recall the details after Edgar pulled the spear from his side. Instead of telling the Slimeskin to relax, Bunty pressed his hand to his coat and willed every bit of it back into the inkwell. The emergency bandage, his jacket and finally the gauntlet disappeared into his pen. Then the spirit fell away from his body on to the soft sand.

“Oh no,” Gwyneth’s whisper barely reached Bunty. A weight pressed down on where Edgar’s spear had pierced his flesh. Then Gwyneth held a glass bottle to his lips, and a warming fluid flowed into his mouth. The sweet, spiciness reminded Bunty of his mornings after training. He saw Baba, Alexander, and Neer sitting together drinking spiced tea even though the latter of the three had never spent much time together. “My friend has been stabbed! He’s bleeding out! We need a healer!

Gwyneth repeated herself and screamed a lot more, but Bunty didn’t register most of it. He couldn’t tell whether the shadows blocking the sunlight were real or his vision fading. The world darkened around Bunty, and he let go of his hold on consciousness, drifting into nothingness.