"Okay," I said as I released Katrin's hands, "that's the last of it. I'm all out of mana again, so budget wisely if we get attacked."

She nodded and yawned, then slumped down on the roof so the mana well could do the rest of the work while I climbed down to the front where Hugh was sitting on the tiny bench.

"What do you think the odds are we'll actually get attacked?"

"There are too many variables, and we know none of the important ones. All we can say is what would increase or decrease our chances. For example, we could abandon the wagons..."

Hugh was all about ditching the wagons and just riding the moskar. They were tired from not getting a full night's sleep, and while the gravity plates under the wagons helped a little it was still way more work than just having a rider. But the actual difference in time was fairly small, and I was reluctant to abandon all of our gear. He'd also suggested sending me off ahead on Bashful, the axe-faced moskar Hugh had brought with him. It hadn't been pulling a wagon and so was better rested, and since I was the main one they were after getting me to safety would presumably make them call off the attack entirely - assaulting the city probably wouldn't go well for them.

Finally, Katrin had tried to propose that we just change direction and go somewhere else - the problem was that either they were still far away in which case switching routes would only give them more time to find us, or they were very close and turning around wouldn't help. In the end we'd voted, and the winning strategy was to just hurry as much as we could without killing the animals via exhaustion. Chances were good that the Behemoth was nowhere near us, and we'd be to the outskirts of Sentortzi soon.

We were all geared up again, and taking turns watching the skies for any sign of a spy. I'd pinged the OG Callie to explain the situation and, after she had stopped laughing, she'd said she would see what she could do. It was almost time to follow up on that, but I wasn't expecting anything - even if they said they'd go back the other way we wouldn't be able to relax out of fear they'd caught on to the trick.

"I charged Katrin as much as I could, I'll sit in the mana well some more but it's not like my stuff is good for combat at this point anyway."

"You have good instincts, and I can tell that you have been practicing with Errod. I would not worry about adding magical skill for now, divination is very valuable and it will probably be best for you to focus on one thing in the long run. There is only so much that can be done with your Dumine."

That would for sure be true if I only had the one Dumine, and was probably true regardless. When I called up a mental image of my Dumines to feel out the skill trees or unlock an ability there were those little... wires, or roots, or whatever that stretched between the three and it felt like my ability to scry on my own past stretched along them somewhat. I wasn't sure what that meant in terms of total load on the Dumine - if some amount was spread between them, did that mean I could have more total divination ability than what a person with one Dumine could ever reach?

It was a moot point for the moment, since the majority of what I had unlocked was all on the same one. Divination, thought, and spatial. Worse, the plans I had in mind for some future combos also involved the same abilities, plus a touch of probability. Maybe a smidge of temporal. That one - Connie's Dumine with probability, temporal, and runic - was practically untouched though. And then the third was mana and enchantment, both of which had just barely enough to make the mana pools so we could train and recover faster, and then fate or destiny or whatever I wanted to call it.

Fate magic was expensive, so probably I'd want to hold off boosting mana and enchantment in case there was something ridiculous I could unlock later. Right now the skill tree looked more like a straight line, with the only options being hard to define - the sense I got for the less expensive one was that it would let me see... more lines? A different type of line? And then for the more expensive branch it for sure would let me mess with them in some limited way. It was possible that solving my problems with the wild mage was as simple as unlocking that one, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. The other option was to use divination to learn more about the strings and where they went, which was slightly cheaper but might end up being less productive. There was more beyond that, but I couldn't tell how much.

"Well Hugh, that sounds like good advice but right now it seems like there's a lot of people that want to kill me. And I think I can get really good at fighting faster than I can set myself up as the world's best diviner. So worst case scenario, I'll make myself a badass killing machine now and then burn out my Dumine and start over if life ever calms down."

Shit, would that thing with the Dumines linking mean starting over would wipe all of them at once? That would be awful.

"Fair enough. You said you have thought and spatial, yes?"

"Yeah."

"Spatial can be very useful in combat, but it takes time to learn properly even once you have the ability. I doubt it will be useful to you any time soon."

"Not quite what I was thinking."

"Thought then? I know it is possible to use it offensively, confuse others or... something along those lines."

"Wrong again. I'll let you know if it works. It won't be ready for this fight anyway, assuming there even is a fight."

Shitheel was crankier than normal due to missing his beauty sleep and was snapping at Dopey some as they walked, but otherwise the moskar were putting up with the long hours surprisingly well. I only had limited experience with horses from some "horse therapy" for my behavioral issues, but it seemed like moskar were superior in every way. They were durable, ate everything like a goat, and could handle sprints or endurance marches. The only remotely negative things I'd heard about them was an intolerance for cold weather and some sort of problem with the eggs or babies that I didn't really pay attention to.

I watched them trotting along for a moment, then sighed and turned to climb back up into the mana well with Katrin and caught something out of the corner of my eye. I didn't want to stare and reveal I'd seen it, but it was so odd that I was having trouble. I just turned and slid back down onto the bench with Hugh.

"Hey so don't look now, but behind us and to the left there's a floating guy. It appears he's hanging from a big spiked ball somehow?"

He looked like a little kid that had floated away with his novelty morning star shaped balloon, or like some kind of hyper aggressive medieval Mary Poppins. The ball was, at a glance, a little over twice the size of the guy's head and sure did look like metal. It was a ridiculous way to fly.

"We cannot afford to assume it is a coincidence, yes? But that is good news in a way, as it means he is most likely the scout and the others will take time to catch up." Hugh squinted ahead at the towers of Sentortzi, now visible up ahead. "Even with the wagons they should be able to make it quickly, although they may need some healing once we arrive. We need only to reach the buffer zone around the outer walls, at that point the guards will have seen us coming and should join in the fight once they realize who is after us. Please tell Katrin to get off the roof, and then get onto... ugh, Bashful. Why must you name the animals, Calliope Smith?"

I climbed up and whispered to Katrin and we slid down off the back of the wagon together. She went inside while I pulled on my stupid hover shoes that I'd bought the last time we were in Sentortzi. I'd practiced with them somewhat while camping and, as Katrin predicted, I fell down a whole lot. I grabbed the line that ran from the wagon to Bashful, and without us stopping I scooted out along it - allowing my feet to skim over the grassy plain. It still pulled on the rope of course, which Bashful wasn't crazy about, but it just encouraged him to meet me halfway. I grabbed his saddle, made it up on only my second try - he was bigger than the others - and then I detached the rope. Almost immediately Hugh made some gesture to Errod and they cracked whips over the other four moskar in unison - we went into a full charge with Shitheel growling in protest.

We had made a plan, of course, but it was a shaky one. The best case scenario was them blindly charging up behind us all clumped together neatly, which was ridiculously unlikely. Otherwise it would all depend on how they attacked us and how close to the city we were, but in none of the scenarios did I have a lot of ways to contribute. I would throw knives at them and then - if we weren't winning - run the hell away in the hopes they would ignore the others and just go after me. There was a nagging voice in my head saying I couldn't do that in case they all got slaughtered because I abandoned them, but that was ridiculous - if the fight was going that badly, me being there wouldn't be enough to help anyone.

Still, that voice was a pain - and it meant I would be stressing out, and probably hesitant to stab a guy in the face if needed. There was something I could do, maybe. It was far from a sure thing, but... I closed my eyes, holding tightly to Bashful with my legs, and imagined that fate thread that attached me to the real Calliope Smith. I was almost out of mana, having dumped it all into Katrin, but I had enough of a trickle left to at least poke for a second. The two of us were tethered with this thing but we'd broken it over the years. Professor Yanpliss had said there were no spells for fate and it was all done with wild magic, which meant that it was less secure - less defined.

I fumbled with it, feeling it the same way I had when I managed to watch through her eyes. Of course I didn't have the correct skills on my Dumine for what I wanted to do, unlike with divination, but all I really wanted was to temporarily block it, like kinking a hose. Surely there had to be some way to hold it, or patch it, or just... there. Something clicked, and the whole world felt slightly muted. My panic drained away, my worry for abandoning my friends, my fear of needing to kill someone in close combat. I was back to my natural state - no empathy, no remorse. There was still a voice there telling me this was wrong, telling me I still needed to be a good person and that I'd regret it later, but that didn't bother me. I wasn't going to go kick puppies or whatever, I was just eliminating some distractions so I could follow the plan.

I opened my eyes, and there was no change - it seemed to be stable, and would probably remain until the next time I fell asleep since that seemed to be how it normally worked. Then again, it was possible I'd done something permanent - I didn't have the expertise needed to get a good look. It was a problem for later, if at all. I risked a look back and didn't see balloon boy, but we didn't slow down.

"I lost visual!" I yelled to Hugh, who nodded.

"I saw him, he dropped back as soon as we sped up - he is for sure with... the Behemoth."

He'd hesitated for just a split second there, like he was going to say something else, something with an 'h' sound at the beginning?

We almost made it. We were maybe a mile away from the buffer zone around the walls, on a nice hard packed road passing by farmland and scattered buildings. We only needed a minute or two more, but I saw that flying dude zip past us and stop, floating, up ahead and high in the air. He swung the ball he'd been hanging from and it rocketed down towards us far faster than it should have - Errod pulled the reins and the moskar swerved but the ball hit the rear corner of the wagon and plowed right through before hitting the road hard enough to make a crater. The wagon - now missing a huge chunk - wobbled and nearly tipped all the way over, causing the moskar to panic and strain against their harnesses. Errod had come to a full stop.

I heard thundering steps coming closer, far more audible than I ever would have expected over the rattling of the wagons. Sparing a glance behind me I saw them coming, five men on things that looked like a cross between wolves and boars. They weren't wearing uniforms but they rode in formation and the one in the lead was instantly recognizable as the Behemoth. He was huge - though still basically within normal human range - and for a moment it looked like he was wearing a sweater before I remembered just how hairy he was. Ick. They were relatively close, and I had some hope that the plan would work but I didn't want to count on it - in any case, we'd need to wait for them to catch up to us some and there was a problem with that.

The moskar might or might not have seen what was coming, but between us suddenly making them run and the sound of something approaching from behind they got the message and picked up speed, Shitheel no longer complaining. If Errod hadn't fallen behind that would be great, but now Katrin's wagon was rocketing ahead and she was the one that needed to be in the rear. Meanwhile the flying guy dropped to the ground and grabbed his ball and chain, zipping into the air once more with it so he would be ready to slam us again.

The pack was getting close to Errod, whose wagon was moving once more but wasn't up to speed and wasn't going to get there before trouble hit. Katrin jumped off the back of her wagon, casting a shield spell as she hit the ground and rolled - she scrambled to her feet as quickly as possible and ran towards Errod. I turned as well - clearly this was where we were going to fight - and heard the wagon Hugh was steering begin to slow. I glanced around to see what the battlefield was like and wasn't particularly inspired, though there was a building conveniently close to the road that we could potentially use for cover in a pinch.

Katrin reached Errod and jumped on the back of that wagon, then turned to watch behind them as they continued, but it would only be a few more seconds before they reached us now. Katrin cast her spell and flashed three fingers at me - if they didn't split up, that's how many she would be hitting. They continued to charge, and then the one furthest to the right panicked and yanked on the reins and everything happened all at once.

The Behemoth jumped into the air, causing his mount to stumble. The soldier on his right jerked and sprayed blood everywhere, and the mount of the one that had pulled his reins reared up but continued a few steps from the momentum and got caught on something in the air, howling in anguish. The Behemoth landed past the razor-thin force shield and rolled, popping to his feet expertly, and grinned like a madman - behind him the bleeding soldier slowly slid in half, and his mount ran off the side of the road in confusion with the man's legs and lower torso still hanging on.

It was the same spell Katrin had cast back in Theramas, though her skill and mana capacity had drastically increased since then - it had left her shaking and in pain before, and this time it appeared she was still ready to fling a few more spells. Sadly, since the Behemoth and one other had somehow seen it coming it probably hadn't been worth the cost. Still, one soldier was down instantly while another two - including the Behemoth - were slowed down.

There was a loud clang as the spiked ball landed harmlessly nearby, presumably robbed of its momentum by Hugh, and I readied a knife - I was staring at the Behemoth, but I knew he would heal too quickly for it to be worthwhile. The flyer landed, grabbed the chain on the ball, and as he launched into the air I spun and threw my knife, aiming at the air above him. I wasn't some sort of expert but I'd been throwing knives since I was a little kid and had gotten probably well over a hundred hours of practice while we were camping in the jungle so I wasn't totally surprised when it hit him right in the armpit. He released the chain and fell, then had to roll to the side to avoid the ball that came crashing down next to him.

We were moving again of course, but the two riders that hadn't been delayed by Katrin's razor-thin shield spell were right on top of us. One was keeping a close eye on me but didn't seem to be attacking just yet, the other had leapt off his mount and was climbing along the top of Hugh's wagon towards him. I wasn't too worried about that guy. The one whose wolf-boar thing had reared up into Katrin's trap was on foot now but unleashed a terrifying red beam that crackled like lightning and blasted a wheel right off of the already damaged wagon - Katrin screamed and fell out the back, and Errod began trying to stop.

This was the part of the plan where I needed to decide if I was making a run for it. Empathy was shut off, squished down to a little voice that sounded suspiciously like Bill, but I was still hesitating. We weren't close enough, and splitting off was best as a last resort. That, and I remembered something from the last time I was up close and personal with the Behemoth - he was awkward as shit when he was mid-transformation. He healed too quickly, but I still had some magic daggers and maybe if I could get one through his eye and into his brain before he finished changing I could stop him.

The one watching me was clearly just waiting for me to do that, so first things first I needed to deal with him. I had a knife - one of my regular ones, because I suspected it wasn't going to work anyway - and I was waiting for that perfect moment. We were all stopped now, though spread out from each person halting for different reasons and at different speeds, and for a brief moment we were eyeing each other like gunslingers at high noon. Any second... come on...

With something surprisingly close to a Wilhem scream the one that had been heading for Hugh went flying through the air nearby and I threw my dagger. The man went to block but had been just distracted enough to not realize I wasn't aiming for him; it hit his mount just under the eye and as it reared back I kicked Bashful into motion and managed to run past him. The Behemoth was changing. His arms were already enormous, and his back was expanding to match - I hopped off Bashful so I could concentrate and aim and skidded for a moment before clicking my heels to turn off the stupid hover effect. I wanted more time, but with everything going on around me I couldn't exactly wait for the perfect moment.

I threw one of the force knives and hit him in the face, but it just skidded off and flew away when the charge fired - maybe it was the angle, or maybe his skull was just too thick. I heard a spell going off from where Katrin was laying but couldn't turn to look, and then that spiked metal ball bounced past with splinters of wood trailing after. I threw another knife, without checking which kind, and this time it crackled with electricity as it dug into his neck - I'd been aiming for the eye in both cases, but there hadn't been a way to run up close and he was jerking around as he transformed.

Bashful reared back as it was attacked by the animal I'd stabbed, and I realized too late the rider was gone. I spun, and there he was with his sword out ready to run me through. My hands were empty, and there was no time. Everything seemed to slow to a crawl, and I realized I was instinctively reaching for the probability magic that had saved me so many times - but of course it wasn't there. At the last second the blade faltered, however, as my attacker pivoted to deflect Errod's blade.

I looked back to the Behemoth, but it was too late - he was almost full size already. I was just going to try to help Errod with the other one when I had to leap to the side instead to dodge another blast of that red lightning. I tried to mentally re-assess. There was the Behemoth, the flying guy with the spiky ball, the red lightning guy, the one that got cut in half, the one Hugh had sent flying - I wasn't sure if he was alive or dead - and the one Errod was now fighting. That was six and we'd been expecting seven, but maybe we just had bad intel. I couldn't touch the Behemoth, that was for sure, but I had to do something to help.

I ran directly towards the red lightning dude. I glanced sideways and saw that spiked ball swing through the air only to be caught by a line of energy from Katrin - much to its wielder's surprise. Hugh was charging at him fist-first so that seemed like it was probably under control. I feinted left and then dodged right, but the bastard ahead of me was waiting for the perfect shot - I needed him to fire and miss so I could have an opening to throw a knife through his smug face.

And then the Behemoth made it to me. He moved faster than I expected, and a gigantic hand closed around my arms and lifted me into the air - I was being crushed, and couldn't even really wiggle. I saw a flash of light as Errod's shield ring triggered. I saw Hugh knock the flyer backwards into his own spiked ball just before being hit with that blast of red lightning. He'd had something that stopped Katrin's attacks earlier, had that been used up? It was unclear, all I knew was that Hugh had been flung backwards and landed in a pile all limp.

Katrin was trying to get closer to the lightning guy, and lit a bonfire at his feet - but he just danced to the side and blasted at her. I knew she had to be low on mana. She looked up at me and our eyes met for just a moment - Katrin looked tired, helpless. These guys were powerful, and it wasn't looking good. She nodded at me, though I wasn't sure exactly what it meant. And then she threw herself at that mage. He blasted one last time and a curved shield appeared in front of her, bouncing the lightning back at him. That had to have been why she wanted to get so close, there was no way she could actually aim the deflection. The shield shattered and she collapsed in a heap, but the one that had initiated the attack was rolling on the ground screaming and clutching his eyes.

Another flash from Errod's shield ring, and another. That was all of them. The Behemoth laughed.

"Good work, most of you anyway. Kendt, you playing with your food?"

The soldier fighting Errod - Kendt, I guess - grinned and turned to face the Behemoth while still parrying every attack Errod made. "I was curious, he's got a very particular style. I can't place it, it's like he just picked up little bits from various schools without ever mastering any of them."

"Well finish it, and get out the healing potions for Rigela and Pogue."

"And Geiter?"

The Behemoth turned to look at the one rolling around screaming. "Sounds like he can get his own potion, though they're not great at eyes. Guess we'll have to find out."

Katrin was moaning slightly, and I couldn't see Hugh. Kendt turned back to Errod, parried another attack, and then chuckled. "You're a terrible swordsman, you know that?"

Errod nodded. "So I've heard." He saluted, passing his sword off to his off hand so he could raise some fingers to his forehead. The other man looked surprised and then copied the gesture, but lazily - and then went to stab Errod through the eye.

I didn't want to watch, and even without my empathy turned on I may have flinched somewhat - so I couldn't really catch what the hell happened. Errod still had both eyes, but Kendt was short one ear.

"What the fuck! How did you!" Kendt sputtered, and then went into full attack mode. Every swing and thrust was perfectly blocked, as if it was a choreographed dance - but one where both dancers had absolutely baffled expressions for some reason. Errod wasn't attacking, after that shocking ear removal, just parrying in this incredible minimalistic way where he only diverted the other man's moves by exactly the amount needed.

"Errod!" I yelled, barely able to breathe, "Just kill him and run! Get out of here!"

The Behemoth snickered at that like it was a hilarious joke, his stupid inhuman grinning face looming over me. What was Errod waiting for? What was the Behemoth waiting for? Why was everyone just watching this? And then I saw the answer - a shadowy figure materialized behind Errod, stepping out of thin air with a sword ready. I tried to scream, but the Behemoth squeezed and I felt all sorts of things grinding together inside me that weren't supposed to be touching.

"There he is," Errod said quietly. He stepped sideways at the last second, slapping the blade that was coming at him from behind so that it dug into the road - before either man could recover Errod had taken another step backwards and very neatly stabbed both men in the throat; Kendt went down instantly, but the shadowy one stumbled back and then vanished.

"Well I'll be damned," the Behemoth said, "the kid was faking it. Huh. Good for you, kid. But your friend here can't breathe at the moment, and you could stab me all day with that needle of yours and it wouldn't do you any good. So you're still kinda fucked."

A voice came from the wreckage of one of the wagons. "Let her go, Henden."

The Behemoth recoiled and went pale, like he'd seen a ghost. "Nobody calls me... who the fuck is that?"

Hugh stood up, dusting himself off. His shirt was smoldering and the skin underneath didn't look great either, but somehow he was still giving off this vibe that said he was about to kick someone's ass. The Behemoth looked at him for a moment, tilted his head, and then said something I never expected.

"Hugh? Is that you, man?"