“Such a beautiful corpse. A shame such an ugly thing ended up that way.”

Lethin shoots me a look somewhere between shock and discomfort. “Hmm?”

“No, nothing. This… this is who I- what I must be.” She kneels down next to the riddled corpse and begins rifling through its belongings while I investigate the guards.

“Surviving is hardly a thing to be ashamed of.”

“Is it truly simple survival? Our task is clear, I do not resent it, but I do not see it so simply.”

“To live is to destroy. We are proof of that, dear sister! Ingots of pure metal forged in the fires of adversity, we were broken down and formed into something new… something better.”

“Something new, but not whole.”

“Mmm… yes, never whole. The world owes us something. The missing piece. Perhaps we will never be paid our due, but we shall rest easier knowing those who stole it will suffer dearly.”

“Yes… easier…”

A thoughtless tune accompanies the sounds of picking through the effects of the dead. I come up with several tablets with some runes I don’t recognize, along with ‘self’, inscribed on the front. With that, some destroyed armor, shattered weapons of wood, some strange, uniform rocks of various colors, and something that might be organic, which is wrapped in a strangely malleable bark.

“Those tablets can be broken to release healing magic into the user. It won’t treat anything really dangerous, but it can generally stop bleeding and mend small cuts and bruises. Those colored stones are our currency… useless to you. The parcel is food.”

“My thanks, the ways of your people are familiar, but entirely alien at the same time.” I pass the currency to her and break off a piece of the brownish substance that smells like dirt and pop it into my mouth. It’s bitter and chewy at first, but the exposure to my saliva not only changes the flavor to a more savory saltiness, but also inflates the small piece into a genuine mouthful. Not bad… I’ll appropriate some more for when I head out. I’m sure Lauren would like to try-...

I stop chewing, suddenly disgusted with… something. The food is fine, but I spit it onto the ground.

“Not to your liking?”

“...No.” I feel the cracks vividly, running like spiderwebs through my mind. Was that all it took to break you?

Ha… hahahahaHA! It is not I that broke, but this world! A broken thing begets more; an endless cycle of misery perpetuating itself. What fool stands against the flow of the world? Like a stone in the river’s….path…

What was I…?

“Come, we must hurry. He will be missed, and more remain.”

“Y-yes! Of course. A debt is owed, and a debt shall be paid.”

The tune comes back easily, marking our steady path through the twisting corridors. Burn it down. Burn it all down. One elder down, five to go. An entire archive to burn… hundreds- no, thousands of years of knowledge, illuminating one last time. It will not heal the wound, but it will help.

Guards occasionally stand in our way, but they fall just as easily. They know nothing of magic or healing, and Lethin’s mastery over both ensures we have nothing to fear. I take them by surprise, cleaving and slicing, and she hits them in all the right places when they fall or try to run. Though these simpletons give us no trouble, I remember how quickly I was disabled in fights with the magic users, and I wonder. The knife that keeps flitting through my vision gives me an idea… perhaps instead of carving apart my enemies, it could stop them. It draws on my Energy to mold, slowly sliding down my arm and coating my entire torso in a thin sheet.

“Lethin!” She starts, springing into an offensive stance and looking around wildly, only stopping to fix me with a damning glare when she determines we’re safe. “What!?” She hisses.

“Stab me with one of your spikes!” Her glare freezes, then cracks into confusion as her posture relaxes slightly.

“Stop talking nonsense, we have a job-”

“Would you kindly indulge me, just for this? Pick somewhere… painful, but not deadly. Oh but you don’t know human biology… ah, here!” I say, pointing to my left pectoral and grinning at her.

“If you are sure. Hold still…” The stab comes fast, but I’m starting to get the hang of predicting how the magic will function. It’s not instantaneous, and there’s always a little flash when Mana flows from one medium to another. What the magic will do is more difficult, and it’s only because I know what’s coming that I can brace for it.

WHAM. The force kicks me off the ground, hitting me hard against the wall and knocking the wind out of me. What beautiful force! What an elegant way to end a life! I must know it… I must have it. My insides fill with lights: a slight arrhythmia triggered by the impact, internal bleeding from both impacts… but no punctures! My Energy drained, but I think the impact totalled about 6 Energy; far less than healing a hole in my heart.

“E-*cough* excellent! Much obliged!” She shakes her head, muttering something about “getting through this” and continues down the hall with me whistling happily behind her.

Like a dancing pair, we carve our way ever closer to our goal… well, one of us does. Lethin seems to find no joy or redemption in what we do. At points, recognition would flash in her eyes and she would hesitate to deal the final blow. “Lethin,” I would tell her, hacking the offending bodies into pieces too small to have meaning, “we have no time for sentiment. Only our goal.” Though she didn’t respond at first, she grew to understand. By the time we reach the ornate door guarding our treasure, no hesitation or remorse remains in her eyes. I see the touch of madness in her, same as me. Doubts dispelled, she meets my grin with a reluctant smile, and we push into the archive.