"As far as I currently understand it, the fire I absorbed, and that ravaged your town, is capable of destroying the corruption. If the destruction can be 'narrowed' down into a purifying effect I cannot say, but the one I destroyed did not get up again. Its bones were completely scorched, scoured clean of any foreign magic."

"Still," said the doctor, "your hand was burned very badly. Only the timely application of a magical burn salve saved you, and the container you gave us is only good for three, perhaps four doses if we stretch the supply. That would severely lower the effectiveness of the doses, though."

"My magic has always affected me as much as it affects everyone else. Something like this-" I created a small speck of light over my raised index finger "-emanates heat as well as light, which burns me the same as everything else. I did once use my magic to create electricity, though - and in that instance, I wasn't harmed as severely."

The High Weaver leaned in, eyes fixed on the spark hovering over my finger.

"Yes, yes, I see... The effect is almost entirely physical, some sort of simplistic magical construct. It is made of nothing but shaped magical energy, but somehow stays cohesive."

"Is it... not supposed to do that?"

"Well, I won't speak on what magic is supposed to do, as that is a foolish way of thinking. Magic acts as magic wills, nothing more, nothing less. Yours is a kind I haven't seen before, true, but if its expression into the physical world is stable, who is to say that that is not its natural form?"

"Out of curiosity... how does your magic manifest?"

"The magic of the Weavers is... deep. It is natural, earthy. We cannot, will not, command the forces of nature, that is not our way. Our magic expresses itself in the form of allegiances, friendships - the ability to listen to the winds, to speak to the earth. We can breathe life into a dying tree, but only by convincing another plant to share its own."

"So you do not so much wield this magic, as guide, or direct it?"

"I would argue that is still too active a role. We simply suggest a direction it could take, and depending on how it feels and how it likes us, it may take it, or maybe not. I am lesser in almost every respect, I know it, and that is what gives it power."

During our small conversation, the rest of the table had kept talking, planning.

***

In the end, it was decided that a small expeditionary force, composed of myself, one Weaver, one Mediciner and two soldiers would begin a journey. Our first stop would be the Wellspring in the mountains, where we would then attempt to divine the location of the Mountain Throne. If successful, we would then attempt to reach the Throne itself, using stealth and my unique ability of battling the Corruption.

That was also where the major hurdle in our plan lay - at the moment, I had no idea how to control or even call forth the fire. But there were some possibilities - one of which was the strange, almost rune-like shape the scar on my hand had taken, which san-Eltry (the elderly doctor) had taken a thoughtful look at, copied onto a piece of papyrus and strode off with purposefully.

Over the next two days, I spent some time in the meagre library they had managed to save - he was looking through increasingly technical tomes, some of which were written in totally different languages, and I was working to understand the basic principles of fenri blood runes, as well as teaching my Lexicon to dynamically translate the fenrex language.

The neural translator was a godsend - I fed it perhaps three pages of text, asked someone to read it aloud, and the program would begin to infer things based on context, subject matter and lettering. Over the course of a few hours, the pages went from filled with angular squiggles to text that read like it'd been run through google translate a couple of times, to text that had been run through it once, and finally text that could have been originally written in english.

It was marvelous. And just as with the auditory translator, I noticed that some of this understanding seemed to... rub off, for lack of a better word. I seemed to be learning the language alongside the program.

***

By the end of the first day, I was ready to throw down the tome on blood runes. It was dry to the extreme - the more complex a spell cast through them, the more runes would need to be drawn, but all of them needed to be symbolically compatible. So if a spell would (in theory) require the rune 'Ej", looking like a stylized paragraph symbol with a vertical line through it, I would need to take all its possible meanings into account. That particular rune meant "night, black, darkness, moon and a word meaning 'water so deep it appears black even at daytime' ". That meant it could not be written next to any rune having opposing meanings - so no "Jel" (sun, power, purity), no "Seine" (air, dryness, heat, desert), and so on and so forth. Binding two opposing runes into a spell was... inadvisable, to say the least. The conflicting meanings would essentially cancel out violently, as the magic infused within them annihilated into a flare of Wild Magic.

Wild Magic, as described in the first chapter of "The art of Blood and Claw" (the introductory text on blood runes), was what happened when something went wrong. Failed spells would often produce a flare of wild magic. A disrupted enchantment would cause one. Its intensity, and effects, would depend on the amount of magical energy infused within the spell or channeled through the enchantment. The basest of spells, such as a glyph of pain with a missing rune, would slowly bleed the structured, shaped magic from the enchantment and radiate it outwards, causing slight burns or frostbite. As for a larger flare's effects - well, that was one of the leading theories for the cause of the Corruption.

***

Inbetween studying blood runes and theorizing with san-Eltri, I either slept, ate, spoke to people about the local history or sparred with Elran, the guard who'd promised to show me some tricks.

He trounced me many, many times.

"Why do you wield a sword if you cannot even lift it?" he would taunt, before unleashing a flurry of strikes, swipes and bashes. Over time he began switching things up, using more and more complex techniques.

After being caught by a fast pirouette and knocked on my ass for the upteenth time, I asked him if he was actually ever going to teach me anything.

To which he replied that that was what he had been doing the entire time.

And thinking back, it was true - I had learned how to block a variety of strikes, the importance of footwork and how to hold a stance. The only reason he was still beating me just as fast was because he had begun using more complex, unpredictable moves.

Still, my muscles were sore after every 'sparring session' we completed. While resting, I'd discovered a good way to begin training not just my body, but also my magic. I would call forth a spark, then extinguish it, and repeat it as fast as I could.

***

On the second day, we'd gone through the entire meagre "library", finding nothing of value. There were some promising leads, but ultimately nothing concise.

So we went out and asked if anyone else had saved literature, or knew anything about ancient runic languages. Halfway through the remains of one generous collector's library, a young boy entered the tent, accompanied by a guard.

"Sorceress, Chief Mediciner. This one says he has something you might like to see."

The boy hid behind the soldier as I approached, so I squatted down, getting to his level.

"Hey there, little guy. You said you have something for us?"

The child nodded silently, and stepped forward. After stretching out my hands, he dropped a package wrapped in cloth into them, turned and ran off. Shaking his head, the guard made to follow him.

I stood up, then turned to san-Eltri, raising an eyebrow. "What was that all about?"

"If I recall correctly, that boy was the son of the couple who worked the mill at the center of town. It was one of the first buildings hit in the bombardement. He now lives with another family who lost their youngest in the attack, but such things do not heal in mere days."

I grimaced and handed the package over. Unwrapping it, he gave a low whistle, and showed me the book contained within.

"Language Studies of the Ancient North?"

"Indeed. This is one of the most comprehensive dissertations on ancient languages, written by an Iomr explorer about two centuries ago."

"Iomr?"

"They are... were our southern neighbors. When the crisis began, they closed their borders and began killing any Fenri who tried to cross into their territory, thinking they would be the cause of the infection. We haven't had official contact for over five years, but by our estimates about half their territory has been consumed by the relentless spread of the Corruption."

"Oh."

"Indeed. Come on, if I remember correctly, this book was where I've seen the symbol on your hand before. However, it has been half a century since then, and my memory is not as good as it once was."

***

That book was, in fact, the correct one. After combing through a few hundred pages of historical speculation (most of which had been disproven over the two centuries following the book's publication), we got to the real treasure contained within.

The first section of the book detailed a sample of ancient fenrex, written in the proto-runic writing system, and compared it to a translation into modern fenrex. Looking at the sample of ancient text, I noticed that everything was much more angular - there were no curves or diagonal lines, only small, very simple symbols comparable to english in complexity. Meanwhile, modern fenrex was an artistic language with flair and spirit - wide, swinging lines, curves and little decorations adorned pretty much every letter. Comparing two runes, the "Ejw" of proto-fenrex and the "Ej" of modern fenrex showed that some of the ancient form had carried over, but much of it had flowed into a different form.

Interestingly, a similar trend was visible in the other languages detailed in the text - proto-iormr, the language of the ancient Iomr, had very long, very narrow letters, also containing the same angularity present in ancient fenrex, the modern lettering however had diverged, becoming a very messy, loopy language that retained its narrow characters, but every character could be written in a single stroke. The same was true for proto-slefi, the ancient language of the Fenri's northern neighbors, the Siep, who had reacted to the Corruption in a similar, though less violent manner than the Iomr.

It was in one of the last chapters of the book that we discovered the rune emblazoned on my hand. In a chapter detailing ancient sites of unclear origin, the writing found there was described. In one ruin found far to the south of the continent, almost buried by the sands of the desert there, a metal plate had been found that looked to be untouched by the ages.

This plate held five symbols, completely unrelated to any sort of existing language that was known at the time, and had puzzled scholars for centuries. The symbols were drawn into the book - the one present on my hand, a vertical line with seven smaller lines of varying lengths bisecting it, a diamond shape with three orbs (the middle one was larger than the two others) on a vertical line inside it, a vertical line with another drawn next to it, bending together at the top and away from each other at the bottom, and finally a small square with a series of seven other squares nested into each other at a 45 degree angle.

There was no translation of any kind, no meaning that could be divined, save for one - channeling magic through them.

Sadly, the last section of the book, detailing exactly that, had felt the brunt of the flames, and was completely burned. Well, at least it had protected the vital knowledge we needed in the process.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I think so."

"This could be monumentally dangerous."

"I think it's our only real hope, wouldn't you agree?"

***

Out we went, along the main road, and to the edge of town. The wind barrier had come down a few days ago, but the soil outside was still muddy, and puddles persisted. Still, san-Eltri said it was best to be careful, and that experiments with magic should not be conducted in populated cities. I agreed.

"What are we going to write on, and with what?"

"Well, our best choice would of course be diamond and blood, but depending on the power these runes represent, that might be a bit too... energetic."

"Why those two?" I asked, interested.

"Diamond because it is one of the purest and hardest substances known. Studies have shown that it can contain magical energy almost losslessly, though its energy needs to be altered first - a Weaver for instance cannot imbue a diamond gem with the same sort of wind energy that goes into a burn salve. There would be a conflict of element, as diamonds are mostly associated with Earth, Light and Might."

"Are all gems like that?"

I had to climb a small ridge. Looking back, I saw that we'd put some distance between us and the town. Still, he continued on.

"Interestingly, no. There are some gemstones, such as Sapphire, which can channel only one specific sort of energy, but most are either completely inert, like onyx, or repulse magic altogether, such as ruby. Not that gemstones are in any way common enough to be frivolous, mind you. I believe the only spell on a diamond slate was the base of the protections around the Mountain Throne, and it was one of the great wonders of our civilisation. As for your other question, blood is a supreme conductor for magic. At least, that is what is believed. It certainly forms a link to the person it was taken from, and allows them to channel energy into it through the same principle that makes blood runes work."

"Hm. So which material are we going to use?"

"I was thinking this wooden board, as well as some simple charcoal. Both are abundant, and they will restrict the amount of energy that can flow through the rune before it simply burns up. I do not want any explosions today. Ah, I believe this would be the perfect place."

We'd arrived at a small, perhaps knee-high slab of rock, which was drier than the surrounding land. Putting one of the wooden boards on it, san-Eltri waved me over, and I began copying down the first of the runes. Naturally, it was the one also present on my hand.

"I think i've got an inkling of what this will create."

"Indeed, it is not very hard a guess."

After finishing the rune, we put about a dozen meters distance between it and us, and I created a small spark of energy, then placed it into the air, where it began hovering.

This was something else I'd tried, creating a spark that would simply hover in the air while I slowly moved away from it, and I'd managed to keep it stable for about fifteen meters before it winked out. The connection grew very tenuous, but I could hold it for that long.

Sadly, the fact that the connection required more focus and energy the further away I was meant that I could only turn up the spark's intensity by so much before it grew too much for me and I became exhausted. There was a sweet spot however - at about three meters away, the strain was manageable, and I could push more and more energy into the spark, which quickly grew into a light and then a tiny star until it seemed to collapse by itself.

My theory was that the spark simply couldn't take that much energy.

Still, it was sufficient for this purpose. So I pushed the spark away, making it float towards the slate with the rune on it, and fed it as much energy needed, bolstering it into a small light that radiated warmth.

Directing it further, I saw it waver and lose a bit of energy, but by then it had already reached the slate, and ignited the charcoal. Runes could be activated in many ways - blood runes often required a symbolic giving of life, like breath, while fire runes such as this one would need to be set aflame to trigger their effect. The slate caught fire, and we waited for but a moment for the charcoal to be completely ignited, before-

SHOOM

A plume of fire shot into the air, shattering the wooden board and scorching the rock it sat upon. I felt a blast of hot air, and the fire died down again, just as fast as it had sprung up.

"Just about what I expected. It seems to be some sort of elemental fire rune, but these flames were completely ordinary. A similar effect can be created with normal fenrex, but this was much stronger. Sadly, I doubt this rune alone can be used as a weapon against the corruption. We've examined the bones left over by your destruction of the revenant, and they were scoured clean of all magic. Considering this flame is caused by magic, I do not think it would be effective."

"No, I agree. Maybe it's just me, but that just felt... normal. Like the campfires in town. The flame inside me has its own mind, almost. It feels a sort of... hunger, if that makes sense. Let's try the next one."

So we cleaned away the ash, set down a new wooden board and drew the next rune, the vertical with seven smaller lines crossing it. This time, the rune on the board seemed to burn for longer, branding the rune into the wood, before I saw that the nearby grass was bending outwards, and a blast of wind began tussling my hair, loosening a few strands from the bun I'd put it into. We stayed and observed as the board began to shift on the slate, before slowly being lifted up, touching some sort of stream and then being sucked upwards into the air, which made the fire go out and the magic dissipate. It clattered down noisily, and broke in two.

"Some sort of wind manipulative effect, interesting. I wonder what the other three will do. I'd wager on more elemental reactions. Let's try the next one."

The next one was the rune which looked like a series of squares nested into each other, and I took special care making sure that the angles were right. A wrong angle in a rune like this could result in the overall shape becoming lopsided and acting like a shaped explosive instead of a smooth dispersal.

This one was much more spectacular. True to our speculation, it was another elemental effect, but this time it caused the ground to rumble ominously before the stone slab split in half, followed by the ground itself parting and shifting against itself until the wooden slate had burned out.

"So would you call this Earth?"

"Seeing as it also affected stone, I don't think I would, to be quite honest."

"No, that's... nevermind. Let's try the next one."

This next one was almost psychedelic. It began by causing all the water in the surrounding puddles (at least the ones which hadn't drained into the broken ground) to flow sideways towards the now halved slab of rock, before pooling below it like a large drop of water. I knew surface tension wasn't that strong, but somehow, it held. As more of the wood was set alight, the water began lifting itself upwards around it, first in the form of towers of water, then slowly a very familiar curve - the shape of a magnetic field. Long, thin strands of water formed a narrow torus shape, which seemed to intensify the more water was added to it. Soon, the first torus was joined by a wider one, then another one, and the construct seemed to be drawing the water from the mud, rapidly drying up the soil below. It was only when I noticed my eyes and lips becoming dry as hell that I put a hand on san-Eltri's shoulder and pulled him away from the growing field of water rotating in the air, the slate itself having long since elevated on the combined strands flowing from below.

And then, just as the toruses had begun to yellow the grass below, the middle of the torus crashed together - right onto the still smoldering slab of wood, extinguishing the flames and abruptly cutting off the magic.

Like a puppet with cut strings, the entire construct fell to the floor as one, splashing down and quickly being absorbed by the bone-dry ground.

"So that was water?"

"Indeed. What an interesting shape... Let us attempt the last one now."

The last rune, the diamond shape with the orbs inside, turned out to be the most interesting one. It formed a blazing star, an incredibly bright light as it burned, so bright that we had to shield our eyes lest we become blinded.

When it finally died down and we looked over our makeshift cover, the site was unrecognizable. The grass was greener, higher and almost unnaturally strong and there were many flowers, herbs and small roots where before, there had only been sparse grass.

"Is that... knotweed I spy? At this time of year?"

And so I joined san-Eltri in an impromptu foraging session, gathering weeds, herbs and various other plants that almost certainly did not grow during the rains, or even this close to the winter. Only - when we went to gather what we could, I noticed that the ground beneath all of it was empty, lifeless. There was little water, the earth was dry and crumbly, and already much of the grass had lost its green coloring, becoming yellow and droopy.

"Hey, look at this." I waved Eltri over from where he'd carefully been digging out a bundle of strange, knotty grass, and he joined me where I knelt nearer to the broken slab. "The soil is dead, almost lifeless There are no insects here of any sort. How could this be?"

"What if the rune didn't create life, but simply directed it to infuse the dormant seeds in the ground?" What if it drained all animate life to grow these plants?

"Quick, gather as much as you can of the purple bulbs, the knotty grass and those wide leaves over there before it wilts!"

By the time we returned with our bounty, the little grove we'd accidentally created had withered into dust. It was almost supernaturally fast, though some of the more hardy plants to the rim, which had not gotten a large dose of the magic, had survived, and now formed a ring of life around a small patch of dead soil. It felt like it should be symbolic, but I couldn't really figure out a meaning.

In any case, we'd discovered what we needed to know. Using the newly christened Rune of Elemental Flame (what *was it* with these *names*?) as a centerpiece, san-Eltri and I began building a spell, based off the Glyph of Pain, which would in essence share the flame in my blood (or something like it - it was sort of... halfway physical, halfway mental?) with the others, allowing them to tap into its power in a proprietary sense - they couldn't throw it around like I could, but they would be protected by its passive effect of resisting the corruption. At least, in theory.

In practise, this was a very complex spell. Using two entirely different runic languages needed very, very particular phrasing in both of them, so much so that a spell that was half made of one and half of the other could be accomplished in about half the size and energy expenditure if it was simply cast in one language. Still, fenrex did not truly have an equivalent for the elemental runes, so we used it - as well as because my use of the flame had created a shaped scar on my hand, which was probably important.

***

Over the next few days, we worked ourselves to the bone, but finally managed to create a working prototype of the spell. It was a monstrosity - at least a square meter, intricate to the extreme, but it *worked*. Using myself and a volunteer as a test subject, the design was painted on his back, and I had the honors of breathing life into it. The feeling was... immense. I was instantly aware of the connection, a metaphysical bridge of blood that conferred physical attributes across us both. Jah, the volunteer, said that he felt the fire coursing through his veins, which I attested - apparently, it had awoken on its own, flowed through both our bodies and then settled back within mine.

After carefully breaking the spell, we went to work on minimizing it. During the test, various dead ends and inefficiencies became obvious, as well as the certain "moods" of the elemental rune - basically slight differences in exact meaning that can cause problems while conducting energy - which were quickly corrected, allowing us to downscale the newly named "Firebond Glyph" to a more manageable size.

One of the Weavers, who had come by occasionally and watched us work, gave us the next idea - a blood rune was well and good... but why not create something deeper, more permanent? Like a branding, or a tattoo?

That proved to be just the thing we needed. The spell had lost much effectiveness during the downscaling, and it became more and more difficult to write the smaller we managed to make it. So san-Eltri dove into his books again, then reappeared with a small, unbound sheaf of papers that detailed a method of primordial blood runery which had been used before the modern kind was perfected. It entailed a branding made through something like body paint - charcoal ink, treated to be much more flammable, mixed with the donor's blood and then set aflame to brand the person it was applied to. It was a sort of "primal version" of fire and blood runes, and had been abandoned when those two had been discovered. However, the principle itself (without the magical component) was still used among the Fenri to create body art.

Finding the ink needed was not a problem, as all its components were common household goods like alcohol or charcoal - the treating process was a little tricky, but luckily, not much blood was needed. So after infusing the ink with the blood and preserving it, we gathered up the rest of our team members.

Elran had volunteered, as had his brother, the stoic Ekias. Our Weaver was strikingly familiar to me, and I realized that I'd met her before, on the day of the storm, where she'd maintained the wind barrier. Her name was je-Kalyi. I did not know the Mediciner, whose name was san-Zur. The prefixes, I realized, were titles - san-Eltri had the same as san-Zur.

Our small group was directed to an artist who'd lived in the destroyed town. That surprised me - I hadn't met any Fenri who were obviously marked like this, until I saw the inside of the artist's tent. Apparently, they had a similar institution as marriage back on Earth, but instead of a ring made of precious metal, they preferred a paired work on the back of their hands, where the fur was the thinnest. Looking around the various posters haphazardly hung around the tent, I saw some designs that were familiar - I'd seen them before while wandering around town. Even san-Eltri had one on his hand, though it was very faded.

***

"Fair day to you! Please, sit down while I finish up with the two lovebirds." said the artist over his shoulder. He was sitting before a small table, bent over the clasped hands of two Fenri. Both looked up when we entered, but were quickly lost in eachothers faces once again.

Once he'd finished up, the two walked out of the shop, hand in hand, whispering to each other, and the artist turned to face us, cracking the vertebrae in his back. "By the gods, all this bending over will lay waste to my back one day. Oh no, that sounded wrong..." clapping his hands together, he fully turned to face us. "You know, I'm all about the power of love, but I don't think a six-person piece is possible. Also, don't you have a partner already, Eltri you old dog?"

"Oh, shut up, Gerkan. You know that's not why we're here." The two were of similar ages, and shared a hug. Much back-clapping was involved. When the two parted, Gerkan's face sobered up.

"Of course, you're the group who'll brave the corruption and hopefully put an end to this... this horror. Everyone's been talking about it, and how insane the five of you are."

"Indeed they are. Amelia, the sorceress, and I have created a spell that will protect them from its influence while they are inside its domain. Look, here." Gerkan's eyebrows climbed higher and higher as he beheld the sheet our spell was written on, turning it around and squinting at some parts, before setting it down and nodding.

"This will be one of the most complex pieces I've ever done, but I can do it."

"I knew you could, that's why we came to you. You're the best around."

"Don't try to flatter me, I've been immune to your 'charms' since that night at the academy! Now, who'll go first?"

***

It ended up being Elran, followed by his brother, then the Weaver and then the Mediciner, and finally myself. The spell, being of the deeper variety, required a mark on all participants - even the donor. Both Elran and Ekias sat through the process expressionlessly, though Elran looked at the growing collection of brush strokes with interest, while Ekias simply stared off into the distance, lost in thought.

je-Kalyi looked on intently as the reddish-black ink slowly formed the shape of the spell, even muttering under her breath as some of the more intricate designs were painted onto her forearm.

San-Zur had the worst experience. Ironically, he disliked seeing blood, even this diluted, but had nonetheless become a Mediciner out of a sense of duty, and volunteered for the expedition because of the same. He spent the entire time with his head turned away, visibly cringing.

There was a bit of a hiccup with my tattoo, as the scars caused by me gripping the Worldstone some months prior were still very much visible, if only as faded lines just a few shades lighter than my skin. Still, I had noticed that they would shimmer very slightly whenever I cast magic with that hand - though horrifyingly, as Gerkan lowered his brush, they seemed to shift slightly across my skin to make space. Nobody except myself seemed to notice.

When it all was set and done, and Gerkan was telling us not to touch it until it was dry, san-Eltri put an arm over his shoulders and led him off, effectively preventing him from remembering that we had yet to pay.

Because the Firebond was a branding-type spell, it would require about a day to dry out its moisture before it could be activated. However, as the spell was on my 'magic arm', I also couldn't cast any magic through it - that would likely interfere with the still-wet ink and cause it to collapse. And a flare of wild magic was not really something I wanted to experience.

So Elran and I trained for a bit, just sort of clanging two sticks together for the fun of it, and I ruminated on the nature of magic as the sun kissed the horizon. The five of us, alongside san-Eltri, spent the evening chatting away about anything and nothing, getting to know one another before we walked into uncertainty the next day. We decided to get as much sunlight as possible and begin our journey just after sunrise.

We wouldn't be taking any grazers or wagons, as the Firebond was already slightly overtaxed with five subjects linked together, and they would inevitably be corrupted, twisted into "sharp angles" as someone had said.

***

When the morning came, the five of us gathered in the small yard behind the medical tent as agreed, and I prepared to activate the Firebond. It had dried completely, and per our calculations, I would go first, as a symbolic act of sacrifice, and to form the first end of the connection.

Flaring a bit of magic through my arm, I noted that the jagged scars on my arm really did shimmer just the barest amount, and I created a small spark over the palm of my hand. Making it float down my forearm and towards the iridescent ink, I hesitated for just a moment before pushing a hefty bit of magic into the spark and plunged it down into the symbol.

It ignited almost instantly, and the pain was incredible. There are few things more painful than fire, though luckily the process was over in a few moments, and I jumped up to plunge my entire arm into a waiting barrel of water, cursing all the way, "Oh, fucking god dammit! That hurts like absolute fuck!"

When it finally, finally stopped hurting and lessened to a bone-deep throbbing instead, I pulled my arm from the barrel, and beheld the branding. It was pristine, all the lines had burned cleanly and entirely, scarring my arm deeply enough for it not to heal over without a mark, but not deeply enough that I'd need actual medical attention.

"You know, I think I'm having second thoughts about this." said san-Zur, beginning to stand up, but then he wavered with himself and sat back down. "Or not. No, I need to do this."

One by one, I repeated the process, branding my companions with the same spell, and forging a connection of blood between us. The first was, of course, Elran, who shivered all over and cringed badly as the branding applied itself, before lifting up the entire barrel and dumping it over his head.

"By the three, do you feel like this all the time? It's like there was pure lava running through my veins for a second."

Next was Ekias, who lifted both eyebrows at the pain in an almost astounded manner, which disturbed me more than it should have. He simply brushed off the ash left when it burned out, applied some sort of herbal paste from a small jar at his belt and meticulously wrapped a bandage around his arm while ignoring our stares.

je-Kalyi simply cooed and whispered at the flames, seemingly not even registering any sort of pain, until Ekias put a hand on her shoulder when the fire burned much longer than it should have. She gently grabbed one of the bandages, held it to the flame while humming and the fire seemed to climb away from her skin. When there was nothing left on her arm, she walked over to a brazier and put the smoldering bandage inside. "There, there, here's some nice, tasty coal for you."

San-Zur grabbed himself a piece of wood, bit down on it, clenched his eyes and nodded at me. I quickly ignited the ink on his arm, and he sweated severely while rocking back and forth, a low keening sound escaping from between his teeth.

When san-Eltri said "Alright, that's enough. Go dunk it in the water," he jumped from his chair and thrust his arm into the icy water, courtesy of Ekias, who'd carried a new barrel from somewhere.

***

Afterwards, I returned to my tent, and began gathering up all my stuff. I folded the antimemetic cloak, placed it on the table, forgot about it, packed my bag, looked around and saw it again, which led me to unpack the bag while not taking my eyes off it, then putting it right at the bottom, folded in a way that the sown design would be on the inside and not become damaged. I stacked all the other miscellaneous stuff into it - my phone, which I sadly hadn't gotten the chance to fix, wrapped in silk courtesy of Neetu. The Worldstone, inside a small leather bag, secured tightly at the bottom. The vial of stardust, still wrapped in the blackout cloth. What scrap I could piece together from the barrier-sustainer, as well as the broken cube itself. The matte mirror shard, kinda useless at this point. The new shard, inside of which Ref looked up at me.

"So we're really doing this, aren't we?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"Well, my efforts were in vain. Those books you fed me were pretty much useless. I can't find any sort of site characteristic to magic, like those on Earth - there seems to just be magic everywhere here. It's sort of weird like that."

"So there's no way out of this world?"

"I didn't say that, no. However, I believe we need to seek the place on this planet, hopefully this planet, good lord, where the magic is densest."

"And that of course is the source of the Corruption."

"Naturally."

Putting on my jacket, pulling on my backpack and strapping on the sheath for my sword (with the sword inside of course), I grabbed the walking stick from where it'd been leaning by the door, took one last look at my sleeping quarters and stepped outside, where the other four had been waiting.

Together, we took the main road out of town, only to be met with a small group of well-wishers, the town leaders and san-Eltri himself.

"Lads and ladies, I wish you luck. I hope you'll all come home safely." said the younger of the two soldiers, before vigorously shaking all of our hands. The elder simply nodded toward each of us.

The High Weaver gave each of us a hug, pinched je-Kalyi's cheek and then moved to stand beside the two soldiers.

The two civilian members of the leadership council dragged a large backpack between the two of them, before unceremoniously dropping it to the dry ground in front of Ekias, who simply lifted one eyebrow, before scooping it up and placing it on his back. It fit his large frame well. "Here are as many supplies as we can spare. There's enough food and water for two months, maybe three if you ration severely."

Finally, san-Eltri came up to each of us, wished us good luck and a safe return, and then moved to stand before me.

"Sorceress, Amelia, you've given an old man hope. With your help, maybe we can beat back this evil, and I'll be able to see the place of my birth once more before I die. Here, I commissioned one of the smiths to make this for you."

He lifted up a small box, inside of which lay a few small sheets of metal, elegantly decorated around the edges with runes, and polished to a shine.

"I know that for some reason, you don't use your left arm for magic, and plate would be too heavy for you, so I got you some armor for your main casting arm. Now you won't have to worry about getting it cut off accidentally-" I cut his rambling in half with a hug, which he hesitantly returned.

Finally, the time had come. I strapped on the metal arm guards, securing them with leather straps, and marveled at the retained mobility caused by three interlocking armor plates and the pauldron, shifting under and over each other as I moved them.

We checked our gear one last time, testing weapons for rust, straps for tears or rips, and containers for holes, and then we walked into the rising sun.