Grunt after grunt echoed throughout the charred, smoky remnants of the forest. Riza limped weakly forwards, a tiny bird perched on her head, simulating her sight.

Her mind was in shambles, utterly unable to hold a coherent thought for more than a few seconds. Her arms and legs moved mechanically. She had no idea where she was going; the critters were leading the way.

Humming bird and sparrows pulled at her clothing—what was left of it, anyway—rabbits and squirrels hopping before her, scouting out the path.

She stumbled over her feet more than once, as if she was trying to relearn how to move in this fleshy vessel. Hitting the ground, it took minutes before she mustered the energy, the will, to push herself back onto her feet.

Finally, she saw it. Dropping to her knees, just a few metres away, was the blackened, dirtied, motionless body of Lefie.

Riza’s brain completely grinded to a halt. No words left her mouth.

A primal force controlled her actions, forcing her to crawl across the beaten ground as tears pushed their way free.

No no no, her mind repeated over and over and over again, like a mantra. She was directly above the body, her arms reaching out, feeling for a pulse in the wrist. Nothing. She checked again, still nothing, and even the neck this time, but it was completely silent.

The body still felt warm. She looked tender in places, where her skin had peeled away from the heat, bruises formed from the concussive shockwaves. Battered and broken.

“Lefie. Lefie,” Riza started to say, reaching up to cradle her head. “Come on. Wake up.” Her voice wavered with emotion.

“You-you’re a heavy sleeper,” she said between sniffles. “I know you’ll wake up.”

Tears dropped onto her arms, her hands, washing in with the dirt and blood, some that hadn’t even dried yet.

‘Come on, come on…” Her fingers wrapped themselves in Lefie’s hair dirtying it.

Riza’s mumblings devolved into incoherent noises as she waited for Lefie to wake up.

She didn’t.

Sobs wracked her body for who knows how long, her brain distant and not there.

Minutes passed as she lay hunched over the girl’s body. Footsteps echoed closer but she lacked the presence of mind to register them.

The huffing, sweating form of Daven appeared, jogging over as fast as he could.

The sobs slowly receded, leaving just the staccato, struggling gasps of breaths. Daven fell to his knees beside her, hitting the ground hard, stifling sniffles.

The next thing Riza knew, she was being pulled into his arms, unable to control herself, Her tears wetted his armour, his clothing underneath. She could feel his weak arms wrap around her, could feel how he was shaking.

“Wha-What about [Raise Dead]?” She heard him suggested from above. “You can bring her back, right?” He pleaded.

Riza just shook, both her head and her body. Just thinking about it sickened her. Contorting her body, her soul, in a homunculus resembling a human for her own ends. She couldn’t do that to Lefie.

The furious shaking of her head got her message across, Daven giving a deflated ‘oh’.

“Then, then… what do we do?” His voice wavered with uncertainty.

Riza pushed herself out of his grip, cutting herself off from her critter’s vision and falling backwards onto the hard ground.

She could hear Daven moving beside her but ignored it, pulling up the list of life skills.

Life

0th Tier

[Heal+] -Learned

Restore 380 health, 4 stamina, 4 essence to a living entity

Cost: 10 es/sec

[Leech] (10/10)+ -Learned

Drain 220 points of health from a living entity

80m range

Cost: 10 es/sec

[Cleanse] (Passive) -Learned

You have immunity towards any toxin, disease, or contamination

1st Tier

[Sapping Curse] (1/10)

Prevent a living entity from recovering health for 4 hours

Casting Time: 1 sec

Cost: 5 es

[Animate Critter] (passive) -Learned

40% chance after killing an entity for the entity to be raised as a level 0 zombie

[Life Sense] (1/10)

Scan for either a general or specific form of life

4m radius

Casting Time: 1 m/sec

Cost: 1 es

[Last Words] (1/10)

Extract thoughts from an entity that died within 4 hours

Casting Time: 1 min

Cost: 5 es

Hidden Skill

Requirements: [Heal] (10/10)

[Rejuvenate] (1/10)

Restore 200 points of health and regenerate any wounds to a living entity

Cost: 15 es

2nd Tier

[Reanimate] (10/10)+ -Learned

Raise a corpse into a level 36 zombie

Casting Time: 1 min

Cost: 18 es/sec

Requirements: [Animate Critter] (5/10)

[Inanimate Life] (1/10)

Bestow the gift of simple life to an inanimate object

Cost: 100 es

[Remnant Memories] (10/10)+ -Learned

Summoned entities are created with a 200% higher level

Cost: 30 es

Hidden skill

[Leech] (10/10)

Animation skill (1/10)

[Parasite] (10/10)+ -Learned

Implant up to 20 parasites in summoned entities. When your health drops to 0, automatically drain all the health from a summoned entity regardless of distance

Cost: 2102 es per implanted [Parasite]

3rd Tier

[Resuscitate] (1/10)

Bring an entity that has died within the past 4 minutes back to life

Casting Time: 1 minute

Cost: 1000 es

Requirements: [Rejuvenate] (10/10)

[Amalgam] (1/10)

Combine 5 summoned entities into one entity

Casting Time: 5 min

Cost: 500 es/entity

Requirements: [Heal] (1/10)

[Senescence] (1/10)

Alter the age of something by 4 minutes per second

Cost: 50 es/sec

Requirements: [Rejuvenate] (1/10)

[Raise Dead] (10/10)+ -Learned

Raise a corpse into an undead version of itself beginning at level 20

Casting Time: 5 min

Cost: 1 es/sec per 2 levels

Requirements: [Reanimate] (5/10)

Hidden Skill

Animation skill (5/10)

[Essence Monarch] (10/10) -Learned

Gain 40% of each summoned entity's essence regeneration

4th Tier

[Resurrection] (1/10)

Bring an entity that has died within the past 4 days back to life

Casting Time: 1 hour

Cost: 10000 es

Requirements: [Resuscitate] (10/10)

[Chimerical Spawn] (1/10)

Bestow the gift of complex life to an inanimate object

Casting Time: 10 min

Cost: 1000 es

Requirements: [Inanimate Life] (10/10)

[False Life] (1/10)

Raise a corpse into an undead version of itself beginning at level 2

Casting Time: 1 hour

Cost: 1 es/sec per level

Requirements: [Raise Dead] (10/10)

Hidden Skill

[Leech](10/10)

[Essential Leech] (8/10) -Learned

Choose a living entity. Upon death, drain 3.2 stat points from it's highest stat if possible

Casting Time: 5 secs

Cost: 22500 es

5th Tier

I can still see this. An errant thought drifted through her brain.

Her eyes scrolled down to [Resuscitate] as she gave a little whimper over the time. Too late.

Then [Resurrection]. One day. Maybe.

“Call-tell Sanders. Tell him to come back,” Riza somehow managed to get out.

Daven did just that, probably saying more as well but Riza just tuned it all out, tuned everything out.

She stared into the lingering abyss that was her vision, a pervading nothingness. The ground shook as Daven moved, wind slapping against her face. The crunch of his feet on the hardened dirt, the rhythmic expulsions of her own breath.

The feeling of the dirt and soil beneath her, covered in a thin layer of ash.

A blanket of warmth covered the area, driving out the frigid cold.

Riza just laid there, taking it all in.

The food wasn’t hearty by any means but it was something. Daven thanked Mesandra profusely for the hundredth time in how many days as he took the box wrapped in cloth from her hands.

It was packed full of berries, fruits, and vegetables grown from the small pile of dirt the woman was using to feed the whole tribe. Even underground, without any light other than the occasional torch, she was able to will the plants to grow and bear the most delicious fruit in a fraction of the time it normally should have taken.

Mesandra asked for updates in return, to learn how they were doing. No improvements, Daven was sad to report.

She smiled softly, wishing him well. Daven took it as she meant it, feeling slightly better from this trip. He wasn’t dealing with this alone.

The small, beast demon at his side, standing stalwart until noticed, happily led him back into the nest.

The tunnels were a maze, and the only way he could see was through judicious use of [Earth Sense]. The demons acted as his guide.

Thankfully, Riza had ordered all of her demons to obey Daven as well. They followed his commands to the best of their ability.

The beast demon didn’t lead him to the breeding pens nor up and out to the cave entrance. Instead, they headed deeper, passing through some of the older tunnels before coming across the newest built, made from his own labour. A straight line from here to the middle of the forest.

The fog tumbled to a stop, leaving the tunnel empty of everything except air. Ventilation holes dotted the entire ceiling, leading up to covered holes on the surface.

It was a long walk, one he did without his demon companion.

At the other end, the tunnel ballooned out into a single room. Two beds made from loaned furs and fabrics were by opposite walls, one housing the corpse of Lefie, the other the body of Riza.

Walking up, Daven disheartedly confirmed she was still sleeping. She was pale—paler than she usually was—and thinner. It hadn’t been long but already, her complete refusal to eat anything was clearly taking its toll.

Daven sighed as he pulled out a chair from the crude table, unwrapping the box and lifting off the lid, revealing a beautiful salad. Normally, he’d turn his nose up at a meal made entirely of plants but Mesandra had a way with them that, he was loath to admit, made them taste far better than even the rarest of meats he’d tried.

The room was dark, lit only by a couple of torches Daven had to replace frequently. He would have much rather located the pair of them back to the cave, near the nest, but Riza patently refused to move, neither her nor the body, so he did the best that he could, lowering them into a cave directly below.

There was no way he was letting them stay on the surface. Far too dangerous.

As Daven ate, the stress seemed to seep out of him. Knots in his muscles unwound and it was like he felt freer to think. Must the food, he mused.

He finished the meal with gusto, each bite as tasty as the last. Wanting to return it later, he even wrapped the box back up again, putting it off to the side.

Pushing his chair back, he looked towards Riza, sleeping like a log for the past day.

Obligations and responsibilities flooded him as he watched her. She looked so small in this moment, so vulnerable.

And then, she stirred. Daven was by her side in a flash, watching as she came to.

Her eyes fluttered open for but a second before closing, a flash of hurt striking him.

She tossed and groaned, wetting her mouth before talking.

“Where-“ She cut herself off, voice hoarse and raspy.

“Here, sit up. I’ll get you some water,” Daven instantly said, helping to push up her weakened body. Once it was clear she wasn’t going to fall over, he grabbed the jug from the table and brought it over, pushing it into her hands.

Riza nodded slowly, lifting the vessel to her dry, cracked lips. Her hand shook weakly, some of the water dripping down her chin as she drank.

She was clearly thirsty, consuming the entire jug in one go.

“Are you okay? How are you feeling?” Daven asked, taking the jug from her and placing it back on the table. His eyes searched the room as he waited for her to respond, looking for the sneaky creature.

“I’m, urgh, hungry,” Riza replied softly.

“You’ve been asleep for the past day.”

“Have I?”

Daven didn’t answer, instead picking up an overgrown rat with far too many eyes that he was comfortable with.

“Here. For sight,” He said, holding her hands together and depositing the creature in them.

Riza froze for a moment, lifting the rat up and placing it atop of her head where it settled into her embarrassingly short hair.

“If you’re hungry, you should use [Heal]. You haven’t been eating at all.”

“Yes. You’re right. Thank you,” And as she said that, a green, ethereal glow covered her whole for a few seconds before dissipating.

“Much better,” She said, voice stronger than it was moments earlier.

Daven caught himself looking between Riza’s closed eyes and the eyes of the rat as he was talking to her.

“It’s good to have you back.”

“Sorry, I’m… fuck,” She said, injecting every ounce of exhaustion into her words. “It’s been hard.”

“It has.”

“How-how is she?”

Daven shifted out the way, letting her gaze upon the body.

“Well, she’s not getting better. The last thing you told me to do was to call Sanders. Him and Meren are about two days away. They’re moving as fast as they can.”

“Sanders? Right, no, shit.” Riza sighed heavily. “Sanders. Purchase [Resurrection] now! Get it to as high a level as you can but return as fast as possible. I’m sending a bunch of critters your way. Use them.”

The necessary minute passed in silence, followed by Riza shooting off [Message]s towards many of her remaining critters.

Daven couldn’t help but smile, watching her take control of the situation. This is how it was meant to be, he thought. Not him, flailing about, not knowing what to do, but someone with a plan and the means to go through with it.

It was slightly unusual watching Riza with her eyes closed the entire time. It was like she was still asleep.

After the orders were given out, she struggled to her feet, complaining about her body still being asleep.

Even so, she hobbled over towards Lefie kneeling down by her side as she reached out for the girl’s hand.

Daven sat himself back down on the chair, reluctant to leave the two of them together.

He gave Riza a solid few minutes. Once it became obvious that she wasn’t crying uncontrollably, he figured it was okay to leave them like that.

“I have some questions,” He announced.

Riza nodded, acknowledging she had heard him, but remained focus on Lefie.

“I suppose, just, what happened. The forest, the destruction. That was the new Guardian, the one who would replace Adewyn?”

Riza didn’t answer straight away. In the silence, he could hear her breathing, getting louder and louder.

Squinting, he noticed the man gripping Lefie’s getting tighter.

Daven shot up out of his chair, grabbing Riza’s shoulder and shaking her.

“Hey, Riza, look at me. Look at me,” He said, voice soft but firm.

Riza’s whole body shook, limply letting go of Lefie’s hand but still not responding.

Worry instantly gripped Daven as he tried to move Riza. She was like a deadweight in his arms as he picked her up and placed her back on her bed.

He didn’t respond and minutes later, her breathing sounded back to normal. He checked on her and it seemed she was asleep. Again.

Daven sighed—something it seemed he was doing a lot lately—and grabbed his box from Mesandra. It seemed like it was business as usual.

Where once stood a forest was but the ashes of a battlefield.

A man totally encased in armour stood before it all, taking in the sight. His body still tingled with left-over essence, essence poisoning deadly to anyone regardless of level. He was happy there was a Healer nearby to deal with it.

Now, for that bitch…

His feet crushed the earth as he walked, compressing it as the weight of his armour bore down on it. Thick, heavy, and enchanted, you could buy entire villages with how much it was worth.

And yet, he still lost. He couldn’t believe it. The gall of her.

He had left her blinded, at least. At least some payback for what she did, but not enough.

When he’d find her again, no playing about that time. He’d go for the heart, at a distance. She’d never see it coming.

The man stalked the grounds, leaving an ashy trail in his wake. He scanned the landscape, looking for signs of people.

The destruction from their battle still remained. The crater where it all went down, covered in dried blood.

But no sign of life. The ground was undisturbed—not even animals had passed through this place.

It stank of death.

If she was smart, she would’ve left. He knew that, but he also knew what she was like. People like her couldn’t tell their arse from their tit. Ignorant fools.

Everywhere was on high alert. All the forces in Trotton had dispersed on his orders, covering the surrounding villages and even further. Everyone was on the lookout for one small, blonde-haired girl.

Oh, and the tarnys. At least that was something he got out of this, destroying another one of their homes. They’d show up sooner or later and he’d get them that time.

The man must’ve walked around for hours, just searching for any sign of her. He found a few holes dug into the ground, spaced apart, but they were just full of animal corpses. Likely another disturbing tarny tradition.

As the sun was setting, he decided to call it a day. It seemed she wasn’t there, or at least, was hiding too well for him to find.

But she couldn’t hide forever. Sooner or later, someone would see her. And he’d come running back, eager to give her what she deserved.

The days passed relatively peacefully. Daven knew what conversation topics to avoid and, without them, there wasn’t another incident like before. He still didn’t have the details of what happened but he was fine with that; he knew enough.

Riza liked to stay by Lefie’s side a lot. Daven did encourage her to move about, stretch her body, and on some occasions, she did join him, but it was rare.

What she didn’t avoid doing was meeting with Mesandra, who was constantly asking about her.

The woman looked so relieved when Riza talked with her. They didn’t talk for long, and it appeared to be mostly about their evacuation, but the conversation seemed to give Riza strength. She had even decided to raise another demon to help out with that—something about transporting the fog.

Trouble quickly arose, however. Back in the nest, where the [Reanimate]d humanoids were kept, Riza killed one in preparation of [Raise Dead].

However, nothing happened. Riza sat, hunched over the body, hands splayed against it, and tried using the skill. Nothing. Even the usual flow of essence from Riza into the corpse didn’t happen.

“It’s not working. Why isn’t it working?” Riza said, a hint of panic creeping into her tone.

“Are you using the skill wrong? There was no essence,” Daven tried to help, but his knowledge in this matter was basically non-existent.

“There wasn’t? I, well, I felt nothing.”

She tried again. No effect.

Riza slumped backwards, defeated.

“Is it only this skill?” Daven inquired.

“No, maybe? [Heal] works. I’ll try [Reanimate].”

Again, she placed her hands on the body, just like she always did.

“Fuck!” And no essence flowed out. “But [Heal] works,” Riza said as the green glow filled her body for a second. “And so does [Inform]. Why not those two?”

A flash of white filled a sphere around them for a second, by a sudden cloud of fog expelled from Riza.

“[Intrinsic Tank] is a yes, [Manipulate Air] a no.”

“Daven, is this a [Message]?” Riza’s voice resounded both in the echoing cave and Daven’s head. He confirmed the skill worked.

Picking up the critter from atop her head, Riza held it in her hands.

“[Parasite] is a no. That’s like half my skills that are gone. What’s the connection?” She wondered aloud, placing the rat back on her head. It looked slightly disoriented.

Although he was unlikely to be any help, Daven ran through the skills in his own head.

[Inform] and [Message] worked. Those were both psyche skills. [Heal] and [Intrinsic Tank] were the only ones in other skill trees that worked. [Reanimate], [Raise Dead], and [Manipulate Air] didn’t work.

“Have you tried [Leech]?” He asked, since that was one of the skills that wasn’t tried yet.

“No, that won’t work because it requires si-“ Riza cut herself, head perking up instantly. “That requires sight,” She repeated, saying the words slowly.

“[Manipulate Air] requires sight. I could only use it on fog because I could see the fog. I can’t see the fog anymore,” She said, sounding strangely excited.

“[Message] and [Inform] don’t require sight and neither does [Intrinsic Tank]. They all work. I guess I never tried [Reanimate] or [Raise Dead] with my eyes closed. Come here,” She ushered over Daven.

Placing her palm against his arm, she focused for a few seconds but nothing happened. He felt no change.

“[Heal] didn’t work on you.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” He asked. It sure sounded like one to him but with how she was acting, he was unsure.

“Obviously. But there’s a pattern there. Skills I activated with sight. It’s how the skill targets what it affects. [Leech] needs line-of-sight and I guess [Heal] does as well.

“[Message] used to be like that, when I first got it. I needed to be able to see the critter I was using it on for it to actually work. Practise is what made it work through sensing their location and then eventually not needing that information at all.”

A sharp gasp of realisation.

“Shit. Has [Leech] never needed sight and I just haven’t bothered to experiment? [Leech] doesn’t explicitly state it cures hunger and thirst but it does. Maybe there’s more nuance to these skills that I thought there was. Fewer hard limitations.

“It was just obvious that [Message] worked that way. Fuck, [Manipulate Air] should work that way. I just assumed it required another skill instead,” Riza babbled, sounding more and more excited.

“But, you can’t use these skills anymore?” Daven said, not totally following what she was saying.

“Not yet, but this totally breaks my preconceptions about them. This is amazing. Do you need to be able to see the earth you’re shaping?” She asked him.

“It helps. I can only move the earth that I’m not directly touching if I can see it.”

“I bet that won’t always be the case. Maybe [Earth Sense] would help but eventually, you should be able to move a mountain with your eyes closed!”

Daven sighed but didn’t say anything more. The important thing was, Riza was back to her old self.

From there, Riza still stayed by Lefie’s side but her attention wasn’t wholly devoted to the ground. Most of her time was spent in actual meditation, not just using the skill. She had a hunch that the vague feelings of the world around her had something to do with her revelation.

Breathing quietly and periodically, she centred her body. Daven was somewhere else, too large an annoyance to ignore.

The world was still. Her senses flared with sensitivity, even without sight. [Heal] drew her inner eye towards the centre of her body, the skill originating from her heart and spreading outwards.

She had used it so often it was second nature by now. No imagining the essence was necessary; instead, she focused on the feeling. The way the essence inside her shifted and flowed, converting to health as it filled her body. The essence was alive, in a way.

Keeping that mentality, she shifted her senses outwards, to the world around her. The critter, sitting atop her head, was but the smallest drop in an ocean of essence.

If she didn’t focus on it, it’d be totally invisible.

As she zeroed-in, ignoring everything else, it was like the bud of essence blossomed into a flower, the tight and interwoven essences that flowed about its little body peeled back and showed themselves to her.

The whirlpool, however small it may be, that represented its life was there. The essence constantly being consumed and regenerated in a cyclical loop.

Level wasn’t everything. Rogue greater demons shined brighter than beast demons and humanoid demons were even brighter, but what she focused on mattered.

Back when she was collecting all the humanoid demons, Riza remembered sitting down and meditating, just like this. Tiffany was ablaze with light, even though she was such a low level.

Riza suspected that was her skill at work. [Raise Dead] consumed a lot of essence and it was all going somewhere. Even just 1 essence a second was 3600 over the course of an hour, and then hundreds of thousands over days. That showed itself in Tiffany.

But not all the time. If the demon was just an afterthought, she’d barely show herself, supplanted by higher levelled demons.

It was complicated and nuanced and Riza didn’t fully understand what was happening but she endeavoured to find out.

Daven was part of that endeavour. He existed because of [Raise Dead] but why didn’t he glow to her?

It turns out, she just wasn’t looking properly. Riza’s brain couldn’t help but compare it to searching a database. The default state filtered out everything that wasn’t a demon. Was that the universal default or merely a consequence of bending this sense into a demon-sensing one over the course of months, she didn’t know.

But when she filtered out the demons and focused, instead, on the essence of reality, the world around her, that was different.

This was what she had sensed before. The life of the world. She could feel the air around her, breathing, moving. It was faint, very faint, and imprecise but after much thinking, Riza was confident that’s what it was.

But she could change her search still. No demons, no world, but people. This was even harder than the rest, and the range of her senses shrank to nothing more than just a metre or two around her.

This was how she sensed the swirling, whirlpool of essence inside the rat, inside Tiffany. At only 100 essence per day, the rat was miniscule, barely noticeable, but Tiffany was like a torch.

And then there was Daven.

Sitting on the bed while Riza sat on the floor, she concentrated on manipulating this esoteric sense to identify what she was looking for, for the internal energies of people.

And then, it clicked. The dim feeling of Daven exploded into an overwhelming sensation of fire. Riza’s mind was set ablaze, she fell over, screaming in pain, and opened her empty eyes to rid herself of the sight.

Pressure pushed on all parts of her brain, just like when she opened herself up to an entire demon nest in the past.

Non-existent food left her mouth in dry heaves as [Heal] after [Heal] worked themselves to relieve her of the pain.

Daven was on her in an instant, fetching her water and cleaning her up and eventually leading her back to the bed.

He was worried but Riza was incoherent, mumbling vague English as her mind tirelessly worked to stitch itself back together.

Still, no breakthrough. None of her skills that didn’t work before now worked. But she was getting closer, she could feel it!

“Holy shit,” Meren exclaimed, looking down to see the forest before them—or, what was left of it.

A massive, triangular portion was completely destroyed. Blackened grass, heaps of ash, and even a massive crack climbing up the side of the mountain at the apex of the triangle.

She had never seen anything like this before.

“Emergency,” Sanders repeated Riza’s words back with seriousness.

“That’s, fuck. [Resurrection]. What level is it now?” She asked, turning towards her companion.

“Level four.”

“We’re cutting it close,” She said, looking back at the destruction.

She should’ve been there, she thought. Fighting with Riza.

“Don’t come closer. Find somewhere to hide,” Riza’s voice echoed in both their heads, judging by the look on Sander’s face. None of them argued, quickly hurrying further up the mountain and into a particularly dense bit of bush.

Over the course of the next hour, they just waited. Messages were exchanged with both Riza and Daven, documenting their progress. Apparently, it still wasn’t safe above ground. The person who did this was nearby and had returned once already. That was more than enough reason for Meren.

Thankfully, Daven quickly emerged from the ground, the dirt peeling back as a pitch-black tunnel revealed itself.

He ushered them in, sounding exhausted as he said how much he missed them.

Once they were in, it was a straight line to Riza, apparently. No turns, although the tunnel was remarkably not straight. Must be hard to navigate underground.

Daven sealed the tunnel back up, filling in the excavation as they walked, erasing any evidence they were ever there.

The pair had quickly outpaced Daven, and Riza wasn’t sending them any messages now that they were on their way, leaving them both to stew in their thoughts and speculate.

After what felt like hours of walking, the tunnel finally connected with another, light flooding the corridors from torches carved out of stone. Taking a left, they walked further until coming across a room where a tired Riza was waiting.

And there, on a bed made of stone, skin black and red, was the body of Lefie.

Meren’s breath was caught in her throat at the sight, a sensation of disbelief washing over her. This felt impossible.

A teary Riza looked at them, kneeling beside the bed.

“Please, Sanders… Save her.”