Miinhart Forest, Desmond, 10416 P.C.

It took Todd a while to regain strength to free the girls, but Annabella didn't mind as much as she had expected to. It gave her time to recover from her shock. Todd — Todd — had just overpowered and even killed a Velniasol. Velniasols were one of the most powerful creatures in existence. How had that even happened?

In the end, Todd cut Jessie loose, and she freed Annabella and Bethany while Todd slumped to the ground again. He was entirely wiped. Annabella hurried to his side as soon as her bonds were cut, only faintly hearing Jessie's recap of what had happened to them. Her mind swirled with the news of the compound's demise, a cold truth she had suspected but hoped against. She avoided its reality, grasping Todd's hand and helping him sit up. He nearly slumped over again, more exhausted than she had ever seen him. He managed to catch himself.

"That was incredible," she blurted out before she could come up with a more civilized approach. "Todd, that... I never... I mean, that was..." So maybe she hadn't recovered from her shock.

He gave her a weak little smile. "Epic?"

"Unexpected," she finished. Couldn't let it get to his head. "How'd you do that? Your sword, I mean, it was..." Hot. Not quite on fire, but glowing as if it had just emerged from a fire. It had happened suddenly, quickly, and glancing over at his sword where it had been dropped in the underbrush feet away, she noted that it was back to normal. In fact, it looked like one of the swords Benjamin had said belonged to the Immortal One's palace guardsmen. There was nothing extraordinary about those swords, and yet...

He stuttered a bit. "I don't know. Honestly, I don't. It just... happens, and I get really focused somehow and I just... do stuff." He laughed a bit, then exhaled loudly. "Does... does fighting usually leave you this exhausted?"

Annabella studied him for a moment. She wanted to say yes, but at the same time, he really did look exhausted, even more drained than he had after walking all through the night. He slumped back to the ground as she said, "I'm not sure. Are you okay?"

He grimaced up at the sky. "Everything aches. I just want to sleep."

"Uh, no." She grabbed his hand again, pulling on him. "We can't. We have to go."

Todd stared at her for a moment, unfocused, before something seemed to click in his mind. He pushed himself back into a sitting position, his face more intense than she'd ever seen it. "Where's Stephanie?"

Annabella closed her eyes and shook her head before beginning her own explanation of what had happened to her. Todd watched her steadily, never once interrupting as she told him about the Gartirih and Luke's betrayal. She didn't bother to go in-depth about what had happened in the cabin, and especially not what had happened with the Athriian ball. She wasn't ready to tell anyone about what things had been like between her and Luke. Especially not Todd.

Silence filled the air for several moments after Annabella finished her story. Jessie was the first to speak.

"So you're saying that someone you trusted with top-secret information sold us over to the enemy?"

Annabella nodded tersely. "Yes."

Jessie stared at her for a moment, and then exploded. "Wow! Okay! Great! Now she knows, thanks to you! How much does she know? Everything?"

Annabella rose to her feet, biting down hard on her tongue before she allowed herself to respond. "I don't know," she responded tightly. "All I know is that we aren't safe anywhere."

"We never were!" Jessie lashed out. "Thanks to you and your friend, now hundreds of kids are dead and captured! Benjamin and Colette are dead, Annabella! Dead!"

"Jessie, enough," Todd said.

"No, this is not okay!" she yelled. "All of you trust so willingly, and when are you going to realize that you can't trust anyone? Everyone is a backstabbing liar, and anyone will sell you out for high enough a price. You've damned us all!"

Annabella snapped. She slammed her fist into the tree beside her with all the anger and grief within her. Pain exploded in her hand, and she yelled, dropping to her knees and punching the tree stump over and over, letting out her fury. She relished the pain, let it consumed her, let it drown out the raging emotions that fought to destroy her. Luke had betrayed her, Luke whom she had once trusted and loved. Benjamin was dead. Benjamin was dead, and it was all Annabella's fault. The compound was compromised. Children were dead. Lives had been lost. Because of Annabella, Sarum had been destroyed, and now the inhabitants of Asural had joined the fatalities. Because of Annabella, Stephanie was in danger and maybe even dead. Because of Annabella, Bethany was an orphan. Reagan was her fault, Tamara was her fault, Benjamin was her fault, Stephanie was her fault. The Veiled Lady now knew about Todd, and the attack would be swift in coming.

Then Todd would be her fault.

"Stop it! Annabella, stop!" Todd was yelling at her, but she ignored him, slamming every ounce of anger and grief and guilt from her fists into the tree, the ground. The pain was overwhelming. She welcomed it. She deserved it. Everything was her fault, and she didn't want to feel it. She only wanted the pain. She could deal with the pain, but the emotions would destroy her.

Todd slammed into her side, knocking her onto her back. She fought him, struggling to get out from under him as he pinned her to the ground. "Stop it," he shouted in her face. She had underestimated his strength and was pinned down before she could throw him off. She writhed and struggled, cursing him, cursing the world, cursing their inevitable deaths. She wanted to yell and scream at the Immortal One, but she couldn't manage it. He knew best, she knew He did, and yet she still thrashed, still cursed His silence, cursed herself. She wanted the pain to blind her. She wanted it to numb her. She didn't want to feel.

She never got what she wanted. With Todd pinning her to the ground with relentless force, she couldn't escape the grief, she couldn't escape the guilt and terror and fear. It consumed her. She choked on it, gasping as it came clawing up her throat, scraping at her eyes, exploding in her mind. There was no escape from it — her icy walls were melting in Todd's firm, warm grasp, and the dam soon caved. She was sobbing. Thick, loud, ugly sobbing, the unstoppable kind that tore so painfully from her chest that she could barely breathe. She could hear Todd and Jessie's voices, but she couldn't understand what they were saying. She was so consumed by her grief. A small hand held hers, cold but gentle. She couldn't see anything through the tears that choked her.

She didn't know when she had curled up into a little ball, but she came to her senses in that condition, curled up in the wet underbrush with Bethany holding her hand and Todd's hand on her shoulder. She was light-headed and humiliated at the mess she had become, and Jessie's pitying look didn't help that any. She had shown weakness, and she hated herself for it — and yet she was also filled with a strange sort of relief, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. When she braved a look at Todd, she saw that his face showed none of the pity Jessie's had. He was calm, neither condescending nor judgmental. He understood, she realized. He understood the buildup, the desire to be strong, the inevitability of the explosion. She had never let her guard down like that in front of anyone before, always so afraid of rejection, of pity, of looking weak. Todd only looked relieved.

"You okay?" he whispered. Jessie didn't say a word, and Annabella vaguely remembered Todd chewing her out for what she said. The girl was silent, yet her eyes still held hostility. Annabella decided right then and there that she did not trust the girl. Jessie herself said it — trust no one.

"Honestly? No. I feel like hell." Annabella cringed at how raspy and torn her voice sounded. She fought to sit up, accepting Todd's helping hand. Tears still dampened her cheeks, and she swiped at them. "Jauliks," she mumbled, not wanting to imagine the mess she was. "I'm sorry, I-I..."

"It's okay," Todd said softly. "Honestly, I want to do the same thing."

She swallowed hard, an ache in her throat she couldn't be rid of as she looked at him through tear-sodden eyes. "Don't, it gives a nasty headache."

He laughed slightly and gnawed on his bottom lip. It was dangerous, the way he was looking at her. It roused those emotions, those same fluttering feelings she had experienced when they had danced. She cursed herself and looked away.

Her head did hurt. A lot. She dragged her hand down her face, letting out a long breath. "We need to go," she mumbled, dropping Bethany's hand and shifting on the ground to get to her feet. "We can't stay here."

Todd jumped up and helped her to her feet. "Yeah, we've gotta find Stephanie."

Stephanie. Annabella's head throbbed even more. Her limbs felt weak. Oh, she hated feeling weak. She decided to just pretend the emotional breakdown had not happened. Thankfully, everyone else seemed willing to comply with that.

"How?" Jessie asked, her voice a bit hard. "We don't have a clue about where she is."

Todd looked at Annabella. "Do we?"

Other than dead? Annabella shook off the bitter thought. "We were near the mountain. It's... very slightly possible that she could have been captured by patrol there. They set up traps everywhere."

"And the chances of us freeing her if she did?" Todd asked.

"One in a couple billion," Jessie replied flatly.

Todd picked up his sword and slid it into his scabbard. "Perfect. Let's go." He walked to where his shield lay in the underbrush and worked on buckling it on his back. He was clearly tired, his movements a bit sluggish, but there was a determination that showed through strong. A graveness had come over him. He had seen it, Annabella knew. Death. The cruelty. It had shifted his vision. He was taking things much more seriously with his dark air of duty and solemnity.

He understood now. The mission. The cost. Somehow, that didn't comfort her.

"You're forgetting one major detail, Todd," Jessie said. "Stephanie was a deserter. If she was caught, she's dead. They'd never leave a deserter alive."

"Stephanie is an Oddity," Annabella cut in. "If they caught her, she's not dead. Worst case scenario, she's in Zusia."

Todd picked up Annabella's sword and cleared the space between them to hand it to her. "What do we do, then? We can't leave her behind."

"Well, actually—"

"We won't," Todd silenced Jessie firmly. "I won't. No more separating. No more leaving people behind." He only met Annabella's gaze for a moment before he turned away, but she knew his words were directed at her. He was still wounded over being left behind.

She didn't blame him. She wished she knew how to apologize.

"And if she's in Zusia?" Jessie countered. "Are you really going to traipse across Desmond and try and infiltrate the city to save one person?"

Todd glared at the ground for a long moment before looking back at Annabella for help. For permission. Permission to throw their mission aside to go after a girl they'd only known for a month. A girl he cared about. A girl they cared about.

Annabella, however, knew a bitter truth, one that she knew would take Todd a long time to understand: the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. Sometimes, some had to die in order for the rest of them to survive. Sacrifices had to be made, even if those sacrifices were each other.

Yes, it'd take Todd a long time to accept that.

"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it," Annabella said. "For now, let's just focus on getting to the mountain. It's nearing evening."

So, they started the miserable hike to the mountain. Annabella hadn't realized how much the poison had taken out of her until now; exhaustion weighed heavily on her shoulders, and often it took a while for her thoughts to catch up with what was happening around her. She was unsteady, although she covered it up well. Bethany clung to her, refusing to let go, and she took to carrying the child on her back. Todd offered to take her, but Annabella refused — Todd looked worse than she felt, and he was straining himself. Annabella had to admit, his endurance was remarkable. He pushed on even though he was exhausted and in pain. His determination — probably aided by his grief — drove him onward, and while it impressed Annabella, it also worried her. He still wasn't ready, but they had no choice but to continue on.

Evening came, and with it an icy wind that stung their faces. They crossed the river at the same place Annabella and Stephanie had before. Sure enough, they found the body of the Gartirih still sprawled in the undergrowth. Annabella was glad Bethany had fallen asleep.

"Stephanie's in the mountain," Todd said quietly as he stood some distance away from the girls. He had glanced at the creature for a moment, shuddered, and then walked away to observe the mountain in the fading light. The sun was gone and the mountain was like a looming shadow, dark and ominous and frightening. Annabella felt a pit deep in her chest every time she lifted her eyes to look at it.

"You can't just walk inside and save her," Jessie said, always the practical one. "We have no idea what we'll find in there."

"She's right," Annabella agreed. "The tunnels inside the mountain are a maze. No one knows what goes on inside there and no one unwelcome who goes in comes out alive."

"But Stephanie—"

Annabella cut him off. "Is probably long gone, Todd."

He looked back at her. In the poor lighting, she couldn't make out his face, but she knew it was hard, his eyes dark. He looked away quickly, his head down.

Jessie spoke up again, a bit slowly. "Except..."

Oh, great. Annabella looked at the younger girl. "Except what?"

"Except maybe we need to go in there." She sighed at Annabella's raised eyebrows. "Look, maybe I'm not really trusting in your beliefs, Annabella, but maybe what we're looking for is in there. What if who we are looking for is in there? And if there is the off chance that Stephanie is there..." she trailed off, looking at Todd.

"We've gotta go in," he finished.

Annabella fought not to detest Jessie for switching sides. "Todd, if you're caught..."

"I'm the Deliverer. I have a destiny, don't I?" he tested.

"Yeah, and that is exactly why they'll kill you."

"Don't you have faith in your Immortal One?"

"I can have faith and still die!" Annabella snapped. Couldn't he understand? "You're not invincible, Todd. None of us are."

He raked his fingers through his hair before responding. "Look, in all honesty, I shouldn't be alive. The attack on Asural, that demon thing? Both should have killed me, easily. But they didn't. I'm still here. I don't know how I survived, okay, I don't know how I fought that thing and I have no idea how my sword gets really hot like that. It makes no logical sense, but it makes some kind of sense. Maybe I'm not invincible, but I'm protected, and I know that if I don't at least try to save Stephanie I will regret it for the rest of my life." He took a deep breath. "I'm going in. And if I die... so be it." With that, he turned and started walking again, heading directly for the base of the mountain.

Annabella watched him walk away, her heart pounding a staccato beat within her chest. He didn't understand, he couldn't understand. The risks. The costs. He was running on adrenaline, banking on the idea that he could run through fire unscathed. There was no way this could end well, and she knew it.

Jessie moved first. "Well, Princess," she started slowly, gesturing to Todd. Annabella knew she was being mocked. "I think you got what you wanted. There goes your Deliverer." She then started after Todd.

Annabella stood still, clutching Bethany as Todd and Jessie began to fade into the darkness. She felt frozen. Undecided. Jessie was wrong: this was not at all what she had wanted. She had wanted a strong Deliverer, a man who was sure of himself and who could lead without hesitation. Todd wasn't that. He was still a boy, still unsure of himself and merely following his heart instead of his mind. He was no leader. Not a good one, at any rate. He was about to lead them to their deaths.

She followed him anyway.