Rusk and Floumeré spent hours exploring the Sanctuary Stronghold. It was a pretty big place, and even with the destruction its beauty shone through from underneath. Just standing there in the middle of the hall Rusk could feel all the Heroes that had passed through along their journeys. He may have been stuck on this island with a native whose motives he still wasn’t sure he could trust, but the majesty of the Sanctuary Stronghold was difficult to resist. It seeped into his bones and curdled his blood until it was calm. How could someone destroy this place? Why? Why get rid of Heroes?

An armory held swords and spears and all manner of other things and it was located far far inside the Stronghold. Most of the weaponry was already gone or torn or shattered, but there was a singular arrow on display on the wall. Not in a quiver, not anywhere an arrow should be, and when Rusk approached with a look of awe on his face he realized it was in fact an Elva Arrow. But it was more powerful than those he ever pulled from the Elva itself. This one was forged, raw power whittled down into the most beautiful solid white arrow he’d ever seen. Even Mandy’s expertise paled in comparison.

He took that back. She could do something like this if she had the materials for it.

It was Elva, but also mixed with something else, some other power Rusk couldn’t figure out. But it pulled at him, yearning to be used in battle, wanting with all its being to be knocked and drawn and fired.

This arrow. It had a will of its own.

A creature lived inside.

Rusk didn’t know how he knew, he just knew.

Floumeré came up behind him.

“Ah,” she said. “You have a good eye. The Dragon’s Knock. It is said this arrow was forged with two elements instead of one. They are constantly at war with each other. A duality only the greatest archers and those of balanced character can control.”

“Huh.”

Floumeré pointed to the plaque underneath the arrow. She’d been reading that instead of spouting this stuff from memory, which made Rusk feel a little less out of the loop about the whole deal.

He glossed his fingers over the arrow shaft. It shuddered, or he did.

He needed this arrow. That much he knew.

He added it to his quiver.

They continued gathering supplies, anything they could think of for a journey across the sea to confront the King, or at least gather information on how to beat down his vendetta against Heroes, when Rusk realized another problem they’d have to face. A problem that had basically no solution.

“The sea serpent,” he said, paling.

“I am more concerned about the King,” said Floumeré. “How do you intend to thwart one who so blatantly disregards the laws of the natural world?”

“Heroically?”

Floumeré stared at him and then cracked a grin. She threw her head back and laughed, then winced when her injuries protested.

“That’s a problem for the future,” said Rusk. “Firstly we gotta figure out what he’s even doing, how he intends to get rid of all the Heroes besides destroying their safe havens… Safe havens. Do you know of other safe havens for heroes?”

Floumeré shrugged. “I have only the knowledge of this island and the system of volcanoes that lie beneath the waves in these waters.

“Think it’s safe to assume that if there are safe havens and the King is going after Heroes, he’s going to strike there too.”

“What do you know of this King?”

“Very little.”

“Yet another problem.”

“We can learn on the way.”

“We?”

“You’re not coming?” Rusk gestured to the decay all around them. “I found a spell tome over there that has something that might interest you.”

Floumeré gave him a skeptical look and then wandered over slowly to the tome. She read a few passages and then looked at him in newfound respect. In the tome was a spell to keep the volcano from erupting while she was gone. Only one caveat. She’d have to surrender her natural power to cast it.

The ritual involved Rusk channeling her power back into the earth, and after they’d scoped out the Sanctuary Stronghold, gathered a bunch of supplies, decided to stick together, and given Floumeré some time to heal, they got to work casting the spell to keep the volcano from erupting.

They decided to figure out how to get past the sea serpent when the time came.

Floumeré took Rusk’s hands. They sat cross-legged facing each other with a candle on an altar of cloth between them. Rusk hadn’t recognized the symbols, but Floumeré knew them and had some clear connection. She breathed in and the candle lit itself. A red candle, to signify the lava. They were sitting in the middle of the Sanctuary Stronghold’s main hall, because that was the place with the most magical energy according to Floumeré.

She breathed.

Rusk breathed.

Rusk held his breath.

She breathed out.

The candle extinguished.

And that was it. Anticlimactic, really. But when she rose up, tugging Rusk with her, he felt how much weaker she was. She’d gone from godly to human in a span of four seconds, and her breathing sounded shallower, no longer the deep inhale, exhale of someone connected primordially to the earth itself but the shaky breaths of someone who had been stripped of all they once were. When Floumeré looked into Rusk’s eyes, he saw in her a fragile person, one worth protecting that could be built up again, but who had used their inner power as a crutch for all their existence.

She was innocent.

And he felt bad for not trusting her. She couldn’t lie to anyone. It wasn’t in her nature.

Her eyes were beautiful. So was everything else about her. That spark he’d felt for Mandy warped deep in his chest and was replaced by her. This wild innocent fire-lit soul before him.