Alina lay on the ground, disoriented as she heard the shouts of men, and lightning surrounding her. She felt her fever threaten to drag her back into unconsciousness... that is until she laid eyes on Kat.

Her friend blazed brighter than ever before, her eyes filled with nothing but the fierce magical golden light that was slowly turning white.

Yes, Katarina Ashowan looked like a divine being sent from the Goddess for the purpose of wrath and revenge as she clamored over waves of magically churning earth like an animal. Her attention fixated on Roscoe who was on his arse, scrambling just beyond the waves of dirt and forest debris.

Despite her prey growing further from her,this did little to deter Katarina however…

She wasn't even breaking a sweat as she crawled and leapt with inhuman accuracy towards Roscoe who was beginning to grow more frantic as he watched the woman who looked a strange mix of beast, pure magic, and human draw closer. Unbeknownst to Roscoe, there was a lightning dome surrounding the scene, and so when his head bumped into it, making his stop his movements with a startled yelp– though the shield had done him no harm.

Even so, he couldn’t move any further away from Katarina as she rapidly closed the distance between them without slowing or hesitating for a single moment, her expression blank, but her aura growing.

Then at long last, a wave of earth rose up beneath her feet, and that was when Kat leapt an inhuman distance over a chasm seperating her from Roscoe, and landed with her knees on either side of him.

Alina's panic tripled. Something was wrong...

Kat began to pummel Roscoe, only… it was clear her punches were stronger than what they should be given her size and stature, and the more she hit him, and the more blood that came from him, the higher her glowing aura grew, along with her smile.

Alina knew her consciousness was fading as she watched the gory scene, her breath rattling her lungs and her fever burning away the wisps of energy she had left, but she couldn’t look away as Kat continued to raise her fists up and back down into his face mercilessly.

Alina then noticed Roscoe weakly fumbling with the discarded dagger he had been wielding at her throat on the earth, and swipe upwards. Alina opened her mouth to shout a warning to her friend, but it appeared as though Kat was unharmed as she continued her savage beating of the man.

A new fear bloomed in the Princess' chest.

“Don’t… kill… him…” Alina raised her hand and began to sit up, but felt the encroaching darkness fill her vision immediately.

As the colored spots danced before her, stopping her from witnessing Kat about to murder a man, a set of strong arms lifted her off the ground, jerking her face upwards.

Through the haze and dwindling conconsciousness, Alina found herself gazing into the weary worried dark eyes she had doubted she would see again.

“Brendan, hello,” Alina smiled weakly as she lifted her hand to touch his cheek with his unshaven whiskers tickling her palm. She felt a swell of emotions in her chest, along with a slew of things she wanted to tell him, but her energy had finally reached its limits and so she floated away into the nothingness that she'd be battling for too long.

Bendan stared at her still face, his breath coming out ragged as a powerful emotion surged through his chest, ripping his heart to shreds as he immediately lifted his hand to check her neck for a pulse.

He could feel her fever beneath his touch and ground his teeth in fury, but waited until, sure enough… he felt her heartbeat. Strong, and steady.

She was alive.

Momentarily calmed, Brendan then glanced down at her bound wrists that were blistered and bleeding, and his vision filled with red.

He gathered her closer to his chest as chaos erupted around him. Getting her to safety was the most important thing in the world.

Lightning was all around them, men were shouting at two grimy looking commoners on their knees with their hands behind their heads, while the earth rolled over and over to Brendan’s left…

The power of the House Witch was something remarkable indeed, but that was when his eyes snapped to the glowing woman who was on top of the man who had had a knife to Alina’s throat. Brendan watched Katarina Ashowan as she continued beating the man over and over, her aura growing… brighter and hotter… her knuckles red with blood, and her blows never slowing…

Brendan stood and turned his back to the violence behind him.

Justice was being dealt.

He didn’t need to interfere… not just yet.

*

Fin strode past the two men who had surrendered without a second look back.

He passed by Brendan who cradled Alina preciously into his being, and didn’t spare the pair another look even when he heard Noramn’s panicked holler behind him.

No, Fin's eyes were fixed on Katarina, his stomach gripped in horror.

Her face… her strange smile, the blood that splattered her cheeks as continued her endless strikes. Her eyes were entirely aglow, but the the aura around her was… turning white.

Fin stepped forward, the earth stopped waving like an angry sea around her.

She was burning her life instead of just her magic.

“KAT!” Fin shouted, his heart pounding in his chest as he moved forward, his eyes fixed on his daughter’s splattered features…

Annika was sprinting past him, and as a result, she reached her daughter before anyone else, and immediately began whispering in her daughter’s ears, her arms gripping around Katarina’s waist.

Fin watched his daughter turn on her mother, and for a terrifying moment, Fin had a terrible premonition that Kat… couldn’t recognize her mother. Then, Annika said something… and suddenly the magical aura faded down.

It dwindled down further and further until at long last, Kat slumped into her mother’s arms.

Annika’s dark gaze cut to Fin, and the two shared a nod of understanding, though there was a far greater emotion that passed between the two of them that bordered along great unease and fear.

“A Physician! We need to get to a Physician!” Norman called out over everyone making Fin turn back to his King, and rake his hand through his hair. He was surprised to feel the sweat along his hairline as his fear had made everything seem rather cold…

Giving his head a shake, Fin acquiesced that there would be a better time and place to address the power his daughter had just shown.

“Your Majesty, there is a Physician waiting back at-” Fin’s words were cut off.

“Kat? Kat? Oh, Gods- KAT!”

Everyone turned back around to see the young woman collapse like a broken doll against her mother.

Fin immediately bolted back over to his wife with Norman close on his heels.

“Her side!” Annika shouted, tears in her eyes as her hands trembled, clutching her daughter to her.

Dropping to his knees, Fin immediately checked his daughter over, and sure enough, once his eyes fell to her side, noticed the blooming crimson stain that was steadily growing.

“Oh, Gods,” Fin’s voice turned hoarse as he ripped Annika’s cloak and immediately pressed it to the wound. Stripping off his coat, he then took his daughter into his arms, and stood swiftly, Annika then covered her daughter with the discarded coat while brushing her snarled red hair away from her pale face.

Fin strode away hastily, his terror unlike anything he had known before, all he knew was he was moving towards the group where Captain Taylor waited with emergency bandages and basic knowledge of battlefield healing.

Annika turned her face down and felt the tears threaten to fall once again as she noticed her daughter’s blood on her tunic. She then saw Norman standing over the man Kat had been brutalizing moments before. The bloody dagger was still in his hand.

“Is he-”

“Yes,” Norman confirmed gravely.

Annika stared at the corpse coldly before turning her back on him to return to her daughter’s side. “It was too swift a death for him.”

***

Alina could hear the birds singing outside, and could feel the balmy summer breeze wafting through the window.

She groaned and turned over in her bed, not quite ready to cast off the heavy cloak of sleep.

That is until she realized that she was in a bed.

Her bed in Austice in fact.

Sitting bolt upright, Alina’s wide eyes surveyed her surroundings frantically. Her wrists were stinging but they were wrapped neatly with clean snowy white bandages.

How had she returned?

Her mind strained to recall her final moments before passing out, and after a great deal of brow furrowing, she remembered Kat attacking Roscoe, and then seeing Brendan…

Turning to swing her legs over the edge of her bed, Alina halted when she found herself locking eyes with her father, who sat in a chair beside her, his eyes bloodshot and sunken.

“There’s my girl,” Norman greeted his daughter, his voice coming out a croak. He wore a cream tunic and black pants, but it was clear he hadn’t changed in days.

“F-Father? What happened? How did we get back? Is everyone alright?!” Alina asked all in a single breath, but then had to stop as she felt her lungs rattle ominously. She coughed a few times, but could tell someone had rubbed the minty smelling salve on her chest and it was helping her keep her breaths long and smooth in between.

“Easy, easy…” Norman soothed as he reached out and brushed his daughter’s soft wavy blonde hair from her face and gently clasped her hand. “We rescued you two, and after you rested in a small town for a day, we moved back to Austice. Gods, Alina when I saw you unconscious in his arms…” Norman couldn’t finish the sentence as he visibly shuddered.

“I’m safe,” Alina reached out and gently clasped her father’s other hand. “We’re back, and… is Reese okay?”

Norman went still for a moment and Alina began to fear the worst when he finally nodded slowly.

“Reese will make a full recovery. The Ashowans have asked a witch capable of regrowing bones and teeth to help him grow back the ones he lost.”

“Oh, thank the Gods… I know he is a bit unorthodox, but he didn’t once tell those nasty men where Lorelai and her daughter were. He was rather brave in my opinion.”

Norman’s shoulder slumped forward as he stared up at his daughter pleadingly.

“Why… Why in the world did you go to see him that night?”

Alina shifted back away from her father.

Strangely, when she had been kidnapped, she never had imagined her father ever being able to ask her about why she had been out that night… Now it all seemed so long ago…

“I… was upset. Kat…” Norman winced, and Alina frowned. “What’s wrong? Father, don’t tell me you punished Kat! She tried to stop me! I begged her, and- and, no! It wouldn’t be fair if she-”

“Lina,” Norman interrupted his daughter, his eyes falling to the bed and his grip around his daughter’s hands tightening.

Alina froze.

Since their mother had died, he rarely, if ever, had called her by that nickname…

“Lina, love… Kataraina… you know Katarina is a witch, right?”

“Y-Yes…? Father, you’re scaring me.”

“Well, when witches use a lot of their magic they… sometimes they use too much. Not to mention when she was stabbed-”

“She was stabbed?!” Alina cried out leaning forward fearfully and grasping her father’s arm as she braced herself for more information.

“Yes... though… those injuries… thankfully, weren’t fatal. She will take a long time to recover, but Katarina has been unconscious for as long as you have though… we aren’t sure how much longer it will be. Fin says the first time he had experienced burning too much magic was when he was a lad and he slept for a week. It’s been… not quite a week since you both returned. Your fever only broke last night, and… you must’ve been so tired…” Norman’s expression was pained as his mind brought back the image of his precious daughter laying still in her bed for days and nights on end.

“Kat will wake up though once she recovers right?”

Norman hesitated, then grimaced.

“We believe so, but… the Ashowans are all rightfully distraught right now…”

“Oh, Gods… it’s all my fault,” she whispered as her eyes fell to the floor and her features twisted in anguish. “Kat hadn’t slept in days and barely ate and, and then I made her run to get help and-”

“Alina, it is not your fault that those terrible men took you. Nor is it your fault that she chose to follow you that night. Though I will say thank the Gods she did. If not for her, we would not have found you nearly as quickly as we did.”

Alina shook her head, unconvinced, before dropping her forehead to her hand.

“Don’t you blame yourself for this, Alina. While you should not have snuck out, you did not deserve to have such terrors forced upon you.” Norman stood and kissed the top of his daughter’s head.

“Get some more sleep, I’ll have a meal and bath sent up.”

Turning towards the door Norman slowly made his way to leave his daughter to gather her thoughts in peace.

He could at the very least leave her side knowing that she had awoken.

Alina watched her father go, the guilt in her heart feeling like a slab of granite as it weighed her down into a place of deep regret.

When the door opened, her father stepped out, and Alina glanced back up, about to say farewell… When she caught a glimpse of a large, unshaven Troivackian King slumped against the stone wall staring eagerly at her door.

A familiar sense of warmth and relief bloomed in her chest, and just as Brendan’s eyes were about to meet hers, the door once again closed.

With her gaze still fixed in the exact direction she had just seen the Troivackian King’s face, Alina leaned back into her pillows slowly. She couldn’t deny the weariness she still felt in her bones, or the pain in her muscles, lungs, and wrists, but… seeing that Brendan was still there, even though she knew things were far from right with Kat still being unconscious, something in her knew that there was still time to fix things.

For now, though… she needed to rest, and to grow strong again.