The Black Moon shone overhead.

Olfric Bergott ignored the ever-constant drain on his lifeforce as he walked down the road. The hood over his face kept the heat at bay, along with the inquisitive looks that he’d have gotten from the surrounding masses who had nothing better to do than to gossip about their betters. All businesses were closed, all bureaucratic tasks suspended until the Waning, yet here he was, promenading across the starkly empty streets toward the overseer’s office.

He crossed the threshold of the property and walked up the steps. The entire edifice felt empty. Olfric trudged up the stairs until he was standing in front of the office door. He raised a finger to knock—

“Come in.”

Olfric wasn’t uncouth enough to say anything aloud, but privately, he thought it was rude of the overseer to always invite people in before they actually knocked. It was the wily bureaucrat’s way of asserting dominance over visitors before they even made it into his office. No doubt a proximity ward and a scrying zone were set up somewhere around the door.

Exhaling, he walked inside.

The overseer was not alone. Seated on a lavish chair on the other side of the table, a glass of wine in his hand, was a man Olfric recognized instantly. Everyone in Haviskali knew him. An heir to the famed Banksi clan of terramancers, one of the Sacred Eight in the Asukan Empire. Ruling both legal and illegal markets with an iron fist, the man’s casual attitude served as a dagger he used to strike at others’ backs. He was infamously known as the Dark Hand of the Shogun.

“Olfric Bergott,” said the overseer, standing up, “meet Zuken Banksi. He has a very interesting proposal, mandated by Shogun Naowa himself, and he wants to hire you for it.”

Zuken stood up and inclined his head. “Good afternoon. Thanks for attending this summon at such short notice.”

Olfric shrugged. “It was a call from the overseer’s office.” He made a rough jerk with his own head. “He hasn’t been very forthcoming about the nature of the job, but he guarantees I’ll have to play my cards pretty close to my chest.”

“An inch below your heart, just to be sure.”

Olfric blinked at the odd joke.

Zuken set his wine glass down and pulled out a large envelope, which he then offered to him.

Olfric regarded it carefully. “What is it?”

“One of the reasons I wish to hire you for this mission.”

If nothing else, the man knew how to bait others. Fine. He’d bite. Inside it was a photograph. A girl with striking blonde hair and beautiful features. Her blue eyes looked sharp as ever. It was a face he’d recognize anywhere.

Olfric’s face hardened. “What has she done now? Last I heard, the Army was on the watch for her. Are you telling me she’s done something even worse?”

“On the contrary, if you agree to my offer, then she’s going to be your teammate.”

“Impossible!” Olfric exclaimed.

Zuken smiled. “Had it been an easy task, I wouldn’t have asked Overseer Kinosu to personally ask for you. I have seen your records. You’re one of the very best, and have a lot of personal history with her.”

“We hate each other. Is that good enough history for you?”

Banksi smiled. “That’s exactly what I need.”

“And you think…you can make her do…whatever this is about?”

“Yes.”

Olfric considered it for a moment. “She’s a loose cannon. You’re being stupid if you’re resting the fate of the mission on her professional integrity.” He then realized where he was and who he was talking to. “…Sir.”

“I’m not asking you to trust her integrity,” Zuken laughed. “I’m asking you to trust mine.”

The overseer pushed a glass of expensive wine in Olfric’s direction. “Olfric, you know I wouldn’t have asked for this if it wasn’t necessary. It’s a direct order from the shogun himself.”

“…Very well.”

“I’m glad.”

Olfric exhaled. “Overseer Kinosu tells me that it is top secret, and that I’d have to be part of some pretty diabolical things. Makes me wonder if I’m signing my own death warrant, Heir Banksi.”

“We all live in interesting times, Olfric Bergott. Also, since we’re going to be working together, call me Zuken.”

It was like being stuck inside a fishbowl.

Was he annoyed at being in the anomaly, realizing he was part of a team whose purpose was a grave Sin, or the desert’s curse just messing with his mind? Or was it guilt from the knowledge that he was carrying out an entirely different mission under the guise of this anomaly mission?

Olfric didn’t know, and truthfully, he was getting mad about it. He was an aquamancer who’d risen through the ranks with nothing save his sheer diligence and competence. His nobility was a symbol of his allegiance to the Asukan Empire and a reminder of his faith in the Great Goddess.

But above all, it was the symbol of the Bergott Clan. A clan he wanted to take over as its lord someday. It was why despite his personal beliefs…despite knowing that destroying an anomaly was an act of grave sin and treason against the Empire…he’d agreed to the mission.

When it succeeded, the support of the overseer and Zuken Banksi would get him a stronger hold on the state of affairs of his clan inside the Llaisy Kingdom.

The mission was simple enough when it started. Tanya was a Sinner. She should’ve been behind bars. She should’ve had her kami extracted and herself sentenced to a lifetime of imprisonment for what she did during their previous mission. But both the Cobalt Army and the overseer were very interested in her for reasons they were not willing to divulge. And somehow, Zuken Banksi was involved in this mess.

But now, after spending so much time in her presence, Olfric was starting to have second thoughts.

Tanya was…different.

She refrained from getting noticed, even if it was as casual as raising a question. The only times she did so were when she realized things were going in the wrong direction, more often than not triggered by her own experience in similar situations. How a girl who wasn’t even in her mid-twenties managed to possess so much power and experience was beyond him.

And maybe she was a little attractive too.

Olfric looked up at the ceiling and sighed loudly. The quarrel with Tanya had gotten out of hand, but he was certain the monsters were after the blonde aeromancer, which was why it was safer if she didn’t travel with them. Zuken claimed Olfric was being a selfish bastard who wanted to throw her to the monsters to save his own life, but Olfric knew that Zuken knew better.

This wasn’t about saving his life.

This was about saving hers.

Olfric wasn’t the smartest tool in the shed. The thing was, when you knew you weren’t the smartest, you learned to pay attention. Every person had their own quirks and habits. You could learn a lot by watching how a person moved and what they looked out for during a fight. It painted a far more concrete picture of them than their stats or accomplishments ever would.

Olfric had seen Tanya hurl wind and force at close range. He had witnessed her fight monsters in tandem with a crowd, and at times, while running or escaping. He had seen her shoot down opponents one after the other, and also seen her blitz through an entire army like an avenging angel.

If he were to sum it up in a single word, it would be…

Inconsistent.

As part of a group, her contribution was at the level of an average team player. But when she was alone against an entire horde of enemies, a different side of her came out. This Tanya was more analytical. There was logic behind her every step and a patient understanding of the predicament they'd found themselves in. There was an underlying sense of caution and a calculated perception of consequences. With that analytical mindset came a predatory vibe that made him want to find the nearest rock and hide under it.

It was almost like watching two different people who just so happened to reside in the same body.

That, or she went out of her way to hide her abilities except for when she was alone and unhindered.

Olfric didn’t know why she did that. He had, in his own style, tried to fish for information from her. Tanya had instantly gotten defensive about it. He had seen the giddy expression in her eyes when she truly got to fight, unhindered. It was like seeing a natural predator in action. A warmonger that was best at what she did.

But the moment she was fighting as part of their team, that brightness was gone, replaced by a dull sliver of concentration. If Olfric had to guess, he’d have said that Tanya was actually fighting herself.

It was probably for the best that she left the group and traveled alone. But before he could’ve gotten to the heart of the matter and made his thoughts known, things had escalated in an entirely different direction.

Maude didn’t know what was going on. It was obvious she’d react the way she did.

Olfric suddenly paused, and glanced behind him. He turned down random tunnels to be certain. There was someone following him, moving relatively quietly. Even in the damp greenish hue, the best he could see was a dark shadow—ugh—from time to time.

Rounding a sharp corner, he grabbed a stalactite from overhead with a watery tentacle and lifted himself off the ground soundlessly. Turnabout was fair play, after all.

Olfric didn’t have to wait long. A few moments later, he heard the sound of footsteps. Surging forward, he dispersed the water and flung out his other arm to create another tendril, wrapping the figure around where the neck was. There was a distinct thud! as the rocky shard fell on its head, and then a yelp.

“LET ME GO!”

It took him half a moment to register the voice.

“Maude!” Olfric exclaimed incredulously, releasing her. “What in the nine hells do you think you’re doing?”

The naturopath staggered forward, her hands holding her neck, before turning to stare, wide-eyed, at him. “Wotan’s Eye!” she exclaimed. “Are you quite mad?”

“Hey! You had the bright idea to follow me!”

Maude flushed at the statement, unable to deny the accusation. “I just wanted to know where you went. How did you know I was following you?”

“I pay attention. That’s how!” he rebuked. “Now what are you doing here?”

“I—I just thought I should get you back before—”

“I do something rash in anger?”

“I just wanted to make sure there weren’t any hard feelings,” Maude said, leaning back against the wall.

“Hard feelings?”

“About what happened earlier. I didn’t want to complicate things between you and Zuken, after all.”

Me and Zuken? Olfric frowned, staring at her as he tried to construe possible subtexts of her words. Just how much did she know?

“You’re adorable when you’re thinking like that,” the vanir replied, her eyes sparkling. “I can almost hear the cogs going around and around.”

Olfric glowered at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Her face threatened to tear itself apart with amusement. “Sure you don’t. Perhaps a little reminder is in order? Maybe when you met Zuken for the first time, before our meeting at his mansion?”

“You know about that?!”

Maude nodded, looking all too pleased with herself. “We all don masks. Mine fits like a velvet glove, so soft that it almost feels natural. But your mask is hard and brittle, screwed so tight that it probably hurts every time you so much as smile.”

“That’s an…evocative way of putting it, I suppose,” he remarked, “but what’s that got to do with this? Why are you here whispering about secrets and following me around instead of wiping that Sinner’s tears?”

Maude shrugged. “Tanya’s a big girl. She can manage. Besides, I helped you out enough.”

That gave Olfric pause. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that Maude was more than just a medic. She had vanir heritage. Vanir were deeply perceptive creatures with powers of observation second only to their ability with the arts.

He recalled everything that had happened, putting it under this new lens.

And his jaw fell open.

“You interfered in the quarrel, attracting Tanya’s attention to the people around her. You reacted so she wouldn’t have to, helping her restrain herself from attacking me. Your response wasn’t anger. It was damage control!”

“Was it now?”

Olfric snorted. “I thought Zuken brought the changeling for that. But to think you had a similar role…”

It was just like Zuken Banksi, he supposed. Wheels within wheels. Groups within groups. Secrets within secrets. Was there any doubt left in his mind why this mission was so damn annoying?

“Elena is maintaining a constant featherlight touch on Tanya’s emotions. It was essential that she felt part of the group at all times. It’s what keeps her restrained. We don’t want a repeat of what happened in the desert in here, do we? Among ourselves?”

Olfric shivered. “Has Zuken figured her out yet?”

Maude shrugged again. “You’ll have to talk to him about it later. But we know she isn’t a spy, and we know she doesn’t have any nefarious intentions. She’s capable of sustained flight, so she could have escaped whenever she wanted to in the desert.”

“But she hasn’t.”

“She hasn’t. Instead, she’s been forthcoming about her aid, even at the risk of revealing her past to us.”

“Wasn’t that the plan? To figure out how she did it?”

“Don’t ignore the forest for the trees, Olfric. We need her help to complete this mission. You driving her away from the group, regardless of your reason, isn’t helping.”

“But that is my role. The overly large, noisy, antagonistic distraction that keeps her focused and alert.”

“And you’ve done it fine, but a degree of restraint is necessary. Going over the top can potentially destroy everything that we’ve all been working on.”

Olfric bit his lip. He hadn’t thought of that. Something between playing his role and being part of the team again had made him unconsciously treat Tanya as one of his teammates. And Olfric Bergott took his team’s security very seriously.

“And after the mission’s over? What then?”

Maude slightly tensed. “If things stay the same, Zuken is thinking of employing her, as he promised. But personally, I think he’s found some dirt on her. Something—” But Maude didn’t finish the rest. Instead, she grabbed his arms and pulled him flush against the wall with her, then pressed her palm against his mouth.

“Shh,” she whispered, darting her eyes to the right.

Dressed in Cyffnarian attire was a black-haired soldier. He had a thin face, sharp eyes, and cheeks tapering down into a sharp chin. A thin lance of liquid blue light rose out of one of his fists.

A Cyffnarian pyromancer? He must have been inside when Tanya killed the rest.

For whatever reason, the man’s eyes were shut and his other hand was folded behind his back while he went through a series of…motions. Olfric had never seen such a strange sword style before. There were no sweeping hits or stabs or slashes. Instead, he seemed utterly content to practice piercing and thrusting motions in the air with the fiery lance.

Arguing with fire was difficult. It was why it was the favored weapon of the early ages. The heat, the power, the light—fire boasted an unmatched intensity. It was also the natural representation of the very concept of a predator. It could burn you, scald you, and scorch you to ashes, yet it also provided light against the darkness and all the things that went bump in it.

However, fire was also a difficult element to control. Seeing the lance left no doubt in Olfric’s mind about its wielder’s skill in shape and temperature manipulation. Blue was one of the hottest kinds of flames you could reach in mortal limits.

“Odds are he’s not alone,” Maude whispered into his ear. Her words carried a tone of wearily familiar annoyance. “We can probably escape if we try.”

Olfric kept his gaze trained on the Cyffnarian, as his kami generated as much mana as it could in the meantime. “Odds are we might get spotted even if we try to escape. Finding our way back in the dark is hard enough. Having a pyromancer on our heels is just madness.”

“Not if we can distract him and escape.”

“If we mess up, our sloppy exit will make us targets.”

“Then what do we do?”

Olfric smirked. “We take the opportunity and go offensive right off the bat.”

“I’m not going anywhere near that lance.”

“Good for you. Neither am I.”

“Then?” Maude asked.

“Wait and watch.”

Olfric, standing with his feet firm against the ground in a familiar pose, extended his arms out, drawing on his kami’s power to create a helical blade of pure water in front of him. Then came the next part.

Duplication.

The spell instilled within the helical water blade actualized, creating two—four—eight—sixteen—twenty copies all at once. This was the first time he was launching an attack with this much mana within it, but it was justified. Unlike a certain aeromancer he could name, Olfric was not interested in gauging his opponent’s strength with controlled, weaker attacks.

The only good opponent was a dead one, his father often said. It was a mantra Olfric had internalized.

“Let’s see him dodge this.”

All twenty blades flew in spiral, uneven, non-intersecting trajectories that all aimed at the pyromancer in the middle. It didn’t matter if the man was fast or had extreme reflexes, because that was where the second property of the blades came into effect.

By applying the chief characteristics of water, ebb and flow, Olfric could create untraceable paths for all copies of his helix blade and make them converge at the pyromancer.

The Cyffnarian, as expected, reacted. However, he could not dodge.

The first hit was a large gash against the man’s right arm, severing the tendons. The second lacerated his lower abdomen, tearing through skin and muscles like a hot knife through butter. The final one slashed against his knee, breaking it. The Cyffnarian looked at him with shock and confusion, and his fiery lance exploded as a fourth blade hit him in the knuckles.

“Apologies,” Olfric replied, tightly smiling. “It was nothing personal. You were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.” With those words, he turned away as the rest of his helix blades converged onto the pyromancer, throwing up a mist of red in the air.

Maude stared at the scene, slack jawed. “That—that was—”

“A MIS-TA-KE!”

Olfric whirled around, fists clenched, as he locked eyes with the source of the new voice. To his left stood a young girl of slender build, wrapped in what could loosely be called a kimono. She was pale-skinned and had long, flowing brown hair that fell all the way to her waist. Her voice had been less bremetan and more like someone dragging metal across glass.

But her strangest feature was the glowing sigil at the center of her forehead.

Olfric narrowed his eyes. Was she another Cyffnarian? Her attire did not give away such insignia. Perhaps she was part of the hired military, working with the pyromancer as a mercenary?

“Who are you?”

The mysterious girl glared daggers at him. “Asukan hurt him. Mizo hurt Asukan.” A wave of power began to roll off her.

“I told you we should’ve run!” Maude hissed.

“Relax!” Olfric scoffed. He grabbed the water on the floor and yanked it in the girl’s direction, reforging the water into thin needles midair. They pierced the girl in several vital areas—chest, neck, abdomen, knees, arms—and blood spurted out from each injury before the girl could even register what had just happened.

“As I said,” Olfric replied, smiling. “I got this.”

“NO!” the strange girl bellowed, a deathly aura exuding from her. “DEATH. GOT. YOU!”

Olfric’s amusement quickly faded as the girl changed from bremetan to full-on demon. The first to appear were two ashen wings made entirely out of sharp bone, bursting out of her back. Her body grew from five feet to a towering seven, and her small arms bulked and darkened in color, appearing along with a set of thick, jagged claws. Her legs and chest expanded and rippled with powerful energies, while a thick, bone-plated tail jutted out from her back.

The bremetan-demon doubled down, going from a two-limbed rush to an animalistic four.

The mouth became a snout. Teeth became sharp canines. Nostrils became slits. Hair became a mane. And finally, her eyes gleamed a luminous silver, while the glowing sigil above her head began to exude a sinister crimson sheen.

When Olfric took in the sight of several hundred pounds of angry-looking monster charging straight toward him, he did the only thing any reasonable person would have done.

He turned around, and ran like hell.

With Maude right on his tail.

The demonic, transforming girl bellowed out a vicious, spitting growl and leaped in their direction, and all Olfric could feel was a growing sense of fear, disbelief, and desperation.

“I can’t believe it!” Maude yelled. “A reiki? A fucking reiki?”

Olfric shakily bobbed his head, even as he ran. He’d heard stories about the monsters that roamed the Black Moon nights. Some believed them to be the vengeful spirits of the dead, intent on haunting their murderers into insanity, while others thought they were acolytes of dead gods possessing beasts to take revenge on the victors. The more superstitious lot referred to them as demons, ghosts, and even demon-ghosts, if such an inexplicable existence made sense.

It was why people stayed home during the Black Moon Rising, trusting the spiritual barriers empowered by their faith to hold up against the demons of the Mist.

“I knew we forgot something!” Maude gasped as she ran. “We’re in the desert! During Black Moon Rising! Of course there would be reiki. Why didn’t we plan for it?”

“Because they’re supposed to be myths!”

“Reiki are yokai. Spiritual predators. Here in the desert, they’re effectively immortal.” She looked over her shoulder, and her eyes widened. “Does that still look like a myth to you?”

“Not anymo—MOVE!” Olfric yelled, throwing himself over Maude and covering them with a cocoon of water. The reiki soared over them and landed at the mouth of the tunnel, a good twenty feet ahead.

“Come on!” Olfric yelled. “We’ve got to move!”

Spiritual predators, he thought to himself as they ran in the other direction, the demon right behind them in pursuit. It meant the reiki had decades, or even centuries, of time to practice their skills. Even modest talents could grow fearsome teeth by then, never mind their practical experience. Even discounting their powers of possession, that thing would be a force to be reckoned with.

“Any ideas?” Olfric snarled. “That thing isn’t slowing down at all!”

“It isn’t a physical being,” Maude quickly explained. “It won’t tire or slow down! We’ve got to destroy its shell in one hit, then try to escape while it’s reforming.”

It was easier said than done. He was an aquamancer. Cutting, striking and taking physical damage were his strengths. Hammer blows weren’t exactly his forté, and facing it head-on in combat would get him killed faster than he could say “unfair.”

But that didn’t mean he was helpless either. Far from it, in fact.

Olfric whirled around and faced the yokai. With a sweep of his palm, a thin jet of water shot forward like an arrow, puncturing through its right eye and tearing a nasty hole. Caught between shock, agony, and impairment of sight, the reiki faltered and crashed like a weathered metal can against the floor.

“Good, now let’s escape!” Maude exclaimed, tugging on his sleeve as the reiki howled with rage.

“Not yet,” he muttered, pulling out a small vial from his robes. It was filled with a fluorescent violet liquid. Taking the stopper off, Olfric conjured a sphere of water in his left palm and poured a single drop of the liquid into it. He watched with a grim smile as the whole orb of water turned a sickly purple shade, before corking the vial and stowing it away.

“What is that?” the naturopath asked hesitantly.

“Watch.”

The orb shot forward at the demonic creature and splattered all over its form, seeping into its pores.

Then, the screams began.

“Poison. From the one-horned toad,” Olfric eagerly explained. “A single drop can kill a mammoth.”

“No…” Maude breathed out. “No that won’t—”

The demon turned a hateful, murderous, one-eyed gaze onto him. Olfric watched with dawning horror as the wound from the punctured eye reformed, the mutilated tissues reknitting in place. Soon enough, a new eyeball was in its place, as if nothing ever happened. The hateful gaze doubled in intensity.

“Okay, that is just bullshit!” he snapped.

“It’s a spiritual thing,” she hissed fearfully. “It’s using Metamancy. False construction. I told you, nothing but destroying its shell can do anything to it. We need to—URKKK!”

Maude lurched forward, bending at the waist as her legs remained frozen. Shock and disbelief overtook her as her jaw fell open, rivulets of drool falling from her lips. Thin cuts appeared over her face, crisscrossing each other to make illegible sigils that glowed crimson with her leaking blood. Two were on her cheeks next to her ears, two right beneath each eye, and one lay in the center of her forehead. All of them glowed eerily.

Then, the vanir sigils that adorned her shoulders, her waist, all the way up to her ankles…

They too began to glow.

“Maude…” Olfric started, reaching out a trembling hand. “Are you…”

“Like my friend said,” Maude replied, her voice similar, yet so different. “Death. Got. You.”

A cold pit formed in his stomach. “Maude! Remember your gods! Shield yourself in faith! Fight it!”

“Fight?” Maude asked with sick amusement. “Why, I’ve never felt better in all my life!”

“No, that’s what it wants you to think!”

Suddenly, the demonic reiki came slashing at him, and it was only his instincts and nimbleness that let him fling his body to the side. He was in a tight spot. Physically, he had no chance of seriously harming the creature, and he’d left his stash of Eternal Light torches in his bag with the others.

He rushed toward Maude, who glared back hungrily. Conjuring a pair of water whips, he cuffed her arms together, but she shattered through them like they were made of paper. A third watery tendril grabbed her by the ankles and tripped her, and Maude fell back, just in time for him to envelope her head with a sphere of water.

Olfric smirked, then turned to face the reiki. “Right, Tiny. It’s your turn now.”

And then, he let loose.

His kami, Shahxith, was what was called a marid. In simple terms, it embodied the elements of water and ether. The combination of both allowed Shahxith to exercise solidity in the otherwise fluid water element, allowing the creation of whips and constructs—solid enough to act as weapons, but fluid enough to flow and disintegrate at a thought.

Additionally, the ether element lent itself heavily to conjuration, letting Olfric gather tremendous amounts of water at will.

The floor shimmered brilliantly, right before an immense shower of water submerged it from above, creating a makeshift pool inside the chamber. The effort winded Olfric and dropped him to his knees. Casting a spell like that, with the desert outside, had been incredibly taxing on his reserves.

But it was worth it. For he was in a watery environment now. The rules had changed. He wouldn’t need any more conjuration, not when he could get as much water as he wanted from the large pool. Besides, being exposed to water would increase his inner rejuvenation.

Circular logic? Perhaps. But circles were exactly what water was all about. Ebb and flow.

Olfric blitzed forward through the water as if he was sliding on it, then sent a quick succession of water bullets aimed for the creature’s groin, then its eyes. The reiki slipped and fell, then tried to stand up, but it was all too easy to make it crash down on its own weight.

He laughed, before raising dozens of sharp watery blades into its face from the pool.

“That’s a lesson for you,” he casually remarked. “Don’t take on an aquamancer in his element.”

A wave of unseen force smashed into his back, sending him tumbling into the water face-first. His nose smashed against the rocky floor and began to seep red. Olfric tried to flip over, but it felt like someone had inserted a hot, metallic rod into his spine.

Damn! Must have fractured.

Gritting his teeth, he turned around carefully, and there was Maude, walking toward him with a lazy, confident sway in her hips. “Did you miss me?”

He could only groan. “I should have known that little bubble wouldn’t hold you.”

Maude laughed melodiously. It was a sound he’d never heard from her before. “Oh, Olfric… It was painfully clear you didn’t want to kill me. Just enough to keep me distracted for a while. Once I stopped breathing and I took over, it was no problem at all.”

Olfric twitched at her words. Just who was this entity? Maude or the—the other thing?

“If you’re in there, Maude, then you won’t want to hurt me. Fight it! We’ll take you back to the Empire and you can be healed. You’ll be free!”

“Healed?” the naturopath asked incredulously. “My whole life, I’ve desired freedom, and I spent every bit of it as someone’s lap dog. Trestan Banksi, the emperor, and then…” She trailed off, her eyes shining with malice. “But things are so much different now! This—” Her face contorted, and then a spark of recognition made itself known. “This yurei is different. It has no goals, only instinct. Just a monster that wants to hunt down everything that enters its lair, and it wants me to do it. And I can do it however I want. Its Metamancy is mine to wield, and my own oaths hold me back no more. And you know what’s the best part? There is no ETERNAL LIGHT to trap me this time around!”

She edged closer to him. “For the first time in my life, I’m free!”

With a roar of pure joy and bloodlust, she charged at him.