He laughed, satisfied:

“I must confess you are the first one that made me bleed. I had to use a heal potion, bitch.” - He came another step closer and sighed - “You know your quest. Free the bastard from jail and come with him to the Silver town. The time is set for two days on your collar! Ha, ha, ha!”

Fuck! At least I do not have to follow him now.

“And Alice?”

“You lost”

I was mute for a few seconds. Why would he do this? How could I change his mind? What could I do?

“Fucking bastard!”

The gnome and his troop disappeared. They were already gone. I screamed all my fury at the collapsing portal and pulled with all my power my frozen foot. The ice finally broke, pieces of my boot remaining glued to the iced floor, including some of my own skin, huge chunks of ice and debris hanging on my foot.

Suddenly all was back to normal, and the soldiers ran from all sides toward me. They stopped watching me screaming my anger in the middle of the devastation.

“What happened? Did you win? Where are they?”

“The fucking bastards are gone.”

They thought I won when they saw only me emerging out of the darkness. I was not keen to explain how badly I lost.

I was feeling devastated and weak, and my right foot was carrying blocks of ice and detritus with me. I started to blast the ice with my katars to free myself. I must be a pretty nightmarish picture with my burnings and equipment in tatters walking through the devastated area. The marketplace looked as if a cyclone had passed through it: stone columns had been destroyed, blasted, or simply iced, the tiled roof was now missing in large portions, all those neatly arranged sales booths pulverized. Even the rectangular stones covering the market's floor were cracked or blown out.

The market booth owners came hesitatingly behind the soldiers to see if they could recuperate some of their belongings. A couple of them approached the place where Alice lay, broken in ice blocks. I took a bottle of healing potion from my belt and drank.

This is a minor healing potion, but at least it will fix some wounds. As I searched for another one, I found a restore scroll in my bag.

My heartbeat went up a notch. What if I try it on Alice? Only a super high-level druid could have saved her now, and there was no chance I could get one here within the next minute. There was no more time for anything else. I do have an anti-freeze potion, but that would not work in this situation. Now, normally she is dead; however, if she were frozen in one block, not split apart, I should be able to bring her back to life with my potion. The damn idiot had to break her! Only if she would not be broken! Or only a leg or a hand broken, but her torso and neck broken!? What if I put the ice pieces back together? How does it matter if the ice is broken or not? Especially if I put it back together and heal the rupture? What if?

“Don’t break the ice. Don't touch her,” - I told the soldiers who were gathering around her - “that ice breaks easily, and this could further hurt her.”

“But, but she is dead? She cannot survive this!?”

I heard angry voices. NPCs were starting to wail and scream about their lost goods, with the soldiers trying to calm them down. Oh fuck, this devolves in the end into a revolt. I need to hurry up and get out of here. I could try to spin it up as if I fought to defend the town; that would be my only chance if it gets ugly, or else… kill and run… but first save Alice, try what still can be tried.

“I want to try something.”

One soldier asked me, shocked:

“Necromancy?”

“No!”

I cleaned a tear. I don't want to cry! I am angry. Mad. They should not try to stop me. Nobody should try to stop me. Luckily she is only broken into a couple of big pieces. I put her main body back on its feet and then took the upper part.

Will this work? I have to try!

I think they felt my mood as the angry voices went to make noise a little bit further away. I still heard some nasty comments, but I concentrated on my work.

I blew over the broken part to remove any impurities, poured some heal potion over the ice, and put the upper block over it. My fingers trembled, and I needed to be fast and precise. I controlled my breathing, concentrating on what I was doing. The trembling ceased.

The ice melted on the surface where the healing potion was spread and froze partially again as cold spread from the block, welding the pieces together.

The NPCs around me started to comment:

“She is crazy!”

“What is she trying to do? Make an ice statue of the dead rogue?”

I ignored them. I continued to gather further pieces, washed them in heal potion, and put them together. The healing potion was fighting the ice, trying to rebuild the scarred tissue. There must be still living cells in there as it seemed to work partially. Living cells? Are these avatars made of living cells?

Fuck don't overthink it, Dolores; hurry up before it melts altogether. Even if not perfect, the heal potions should do the work.

This needs a lot more healing potion than it would be needed if she would drink it. I hope I have enough.

Now she is almost done, there are still missing some small parts, but she starts to crumble. What do I do, the restore scroll or the anti-freeze potion? Does the restore scroll make any sense? It is used for greater healing and can restore limbs, but I never saw one used in such a case. What if I use them concomitantly?

I put her gently on her back, carefully not to break my construct. I was so damn afraid she would break. I took the potion and uncorked it, then held it in one hand and the scroll in the other, then started to pour the potion over her at the same moment as I shook the scroll open. I need to try now or forget it.

“Restore Alice”, - I mumbled whilst the magic unfolded from the scroll. I heard her lungs emptying as the unfreezing potion started to work. I kneed on one knee and poured my last healing potion over her face and body.

Nothing happened.

For a couple of seconds, I looked petrified at her face, then started to do reanimation movements.

I know how to do it, and I took my first help training. I blew air into her lungs and pressed her heart in rhythmic movements.

I put my weight on her sternum, repeatedly pushing with my arms. It has to work!

But… nothing. I was getting desperate. Electro shocks? Would that work? This is an avatar in a game; why would that work?

Fuck, I have to try; I do have a pair of stars that produce electric shocks. To be used against cattle and the kind to chase them away. I swooped in my inventory, took two out and planted them to her sides near her breasts.

Her upper body jumped from the shock, her mouth opened, and air entered the lungs with a sound as if absorbed into a vacuum.

“Alice!”

I pressed her, then put my mouth against her and blew air in her lungs again. Again and again.

I felt a movement under my hand. Her eyes were open. Our eyes met. I pressed her lungs once more.

She mumbled, trying to look around and started coughing miserably.

“Gargle-cough-cough-grunt-heave-cough”

I hugged her.

“Huh… Cala? What happened?”