The three of them made good time, if such a thing could be said of their pell-mell haul through the nighttime streets of Hakarth. Awash in moonlight, street and buildings were transfigured into the stark, unforgiving corridors familiar only in nightmares. Trees, which softened the lines of the city by day, were marauding monsters in the night, rattling and whispering as they carved great pools of shade from lanes and boulevards, any of which might house a murderous monster. Alecia guided them towards the train tracks, which traced a perfect path towards their destination; the tracks glinted in the moonlight like smooth silver wires used sometimes in the manufacture of more permanent spell circles. It was not long before an unearthly wail filled the city – the sirens. In the distance, the whistle of a train announced that the trains still ran from the other depots in Hakarth.

All the while that they ran, steam belched forth from the southern end of the city. Flames rose with it, growing ever higher, consuming more and more of the skyline until fire and steam were very nearly all they could see. There was a palpable heat that swelled from the site of the explosion, like the breath of a mighty beast emanating from the cracked shell of the earth.

The three of them paused when the full breadth of the conflagration they had been chasing through the streets came into view. As Garret had suggested, the remains of the southern train depot lay ahead of them, roaring with a blaze that reached several stories into the sky. Brick, tile, and clay, which were the raw materials of most construction in the city, did not burn particularly well, but many of the trappings within did, and so did the aged trees that dotted the property. Even if not for the fire, the depot had clearly been shattered by the explosion in the nearby steamworks. Brick lay strewn in every direction, mingled with rubble, twisted bits of iron, shattered and molten glass, and what looked like a significant portion of one of the steam engines itself. By some miracle, one wall of the depot still stood, hosting the mass of flames that clawed their way up its length.

Any buildings around the depot had faired similarly. Merigold knew she was not alone in ignoring them to focus on more pressing matters. Namely, shading her eyes from the fire as she choked on smoke and dust and hot steam, and peering through the chaos in search of anything that might indicate the erowist were nearby.

“There!” Garret roared above the sound of the flames, pointing towards the blazing fire. Merigold squinted in the direction of his finger, eyes streaming water down her cheeks. There was a figure silhouetted against the fire, certainly humanoid in nature.

“Let’s go!” Alecia shouted, heading towards the figures without hesitation. Merigold ran after her and Garret, fighting a cramp in her calf that had tightened the moment they stopped running.

As they neared the flames, and the heat became stifling, Garret began to hurl ice into the air, tiny crystals that sublimated quickly but nonetheless cooled the air around them by degrees. The figures, thankfully, were not in the fire, nor were they as close to it as they first appeared. Less thankfully, a tongue of multi-hued lightning scattered them as Merigold and the others approached. It hit a massive chunk of metal shot from the depot, toppling it with a tremendous groan. Sparks flew into the air, eliciting shouts from the scattered people.

Alecia had already reached one of said people, and was dragging them up from the ground where they had stumbled. Merigold could see from their clothing that they were with one of the Combat Guilds, but she had no idea which one. It did not occur to her to care. The progenitor of the lightning strike was climbing awkwardly over a slab of plastered brickwork that might once have been a wall of the depot. It was another corpse, like Zip, though it appeared to be in considerably better condition. Aside from the bubbling red flesh of one of its exposed arms, which must have met with the flames of the depot, it looked almost ordinary. Almost…

Except for the baleful green light that shone from its eyes, and the static that arced across its flesh with every step it took.

“Is this—?” Garret started, but had no opportunity to finish. The corpse-wearing erowist hurled a bolt of raw energy at them, and they were saved only because something intervened; something that looked like a noxious cloud of ectoplasm that rippled with green and gold light. It seemed to absorb the bolt of energy, rotating through a rapidly changing array of colors, before it took a humanoid shape and fixed them all with two pairs of angry gold eyes.

“Ughvac,” Merigold breathed with relief. It was relief solely for the fact that her contract appeared to be working – the erowist had been forced to protect her, and from the way it vibrated through an angry multitude of oranges and golds, it was not at all happy about it. That meant she and the others had a chance.

She was clearly the only one to feel any relief at all. Alecia, Garret, and whoever Alecia gripped with a grasp like iron in her left hand all stared at Ughvac with a mixture of horror and terror. The other erowist, which should have instilled infinitely more horror and terror in all of them, was hurling insults at nearly the same speed as it was hurling bolts of energy, all of which Ughvac deflected or absorbed. Perhaps, Merigold thought, the two of them were evenly matched.

“It’s protecting us,” the person Alecia held up uttered in disbelief. He was a haggard looking young man in a white and gold vest emblazoned with the shape of a maple leaf; the Twinleaf Guild.

“For the moment,” Alecia said with a sharp look at Merigold. “We need to destroy or capture the other one.”

“It’s already killed three of us,” the man said, shaking off Alecia’s grip, but remaining on his knees. “One of them was our psychic.”

“Then we have to destroy it,” Garret said.

“But how?” the man said, shaking his head. There were shouts rising up from somewhere on their left as more people arrived on the scene. Merigold could see them fanning out, gesturing at both of the erowist.

“We can’t let them go after Ughvac,” Merigold said urgently. “I have to protect him.”

“We’ll help you,” Alecia said. “If we get you close, can you sever this other erowist’s connection with the body it’s possessed.”

“I can,” Merigold agreed without hesitation. The man on the ground blinked, shell-shocked, as he looked between them.

“Great. Get up,” Alecia said, dragging the an up by his elbow. “We’re going to go tell those newcomers what’s happening and see if they have a psychic. Merigold, prepare what you need while Garret and…while Garret watches your back.”

Merigold nodded once, curtly, before she and Garret watched the two of them run towards the newcomers, shouting to be heard above the renewed sounds of chaos. Fireballs spun through the air now, darting around the corpse-wearing erowist. A bolt of lightning shot into it, appearing to bounce off a solid wall that had materialized around the monster.

“How are we going to get close enough to do anything?” Garret asked, watching her ferret out a brush and ink from her bag – like any good Drafter or Illuminator, she always carried them with her. She did not, however, have the notebook that would have allowed her to write up a contract; there would be no new contracts tonight.

“I don’t know,” Merigold said.

“Ah,” Garret said, watching carefully as the battle between guild and erowist played out not more than a couple hundred yards from where they stood. Ughvac loomed over them, still shooting sparks and rotating through all the colors of the light spectrum. It was clear that he wanted to say something, but could without Merigold’s prompting.

“What is it, Ughvac?” she finally asked.

“THIS WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN, YOU—”

“Stop speaking.”

“...”

“I didn’t write anything into the contract about what you could say. That seemed draconian and liable to backfire. But…well, don’t insult me. It’s a waste of breath. Ughvac, are you able to protect me while I get close enough to stop that erowist.”

“No.”

It was a simple answer, and by the way the figure in front of her seethed, Merigold assumed it was the only one she would get. Ughvac most likely hoped she would try to get close anyway, and die, freeing the erowist from the need to protect her or anyone else.

“What did it say, Merigold?” Garret urged, reminding her that she alone could hear the monster before them. Merigold told him, shaking her head and looking in the direction of Alecia and the others. There was plenty of shouting, and pointing in her direction. It was only a matter of time, so far as she was concerned, before someone decided to make a move against Ughvac.

“Merigold! Garret!” a voice called from behind them, barely audible over the sound of the fireballs sizzling through the air. Ughvac deflected another stray tongue of raw energy. The erowist did not seem pleased to see still more people approaching across the shadowed city streets.

“Ilf,” Garret sighed with relief, “and Derek.”

“Merigold Lee,” Ilf gasped as she and Derek stuttered to a halt just out of reach of Ughvac; Derek eyed the monster with more awe than distaste as Ilf continued, “you can….stop this thing…?”

“I can, but I have to get—”

“Close enough,” Ilf spoke over her. “We….know. You and…these two,” she gestured expansively at Derek and Garret, still catching her breath and clearly unwilling to waste any on clarifying what was already obvious, “I’ll…cover you. When you….get close, I can…force that thing…to drop its barrier…Garret will have to…use his ice to…slow it down. One touch…from Derek will sever…all the tendons…in the corpse….giving you just long enough…to break its control…over the body.”

“The core must be inside of that corpse, just like it was before,” Merigold affirmed. She looked back at Ughvac, just once.

“No time,” Ilf said urgently. “Get out there…now!”

“Stick close to me. Ilf’s barrier can only cover us so well,” Derek said. “You have everything ready?”

“Almost,” Merigold said, turning to face Ughvac. With a last glance at Ilf, she raised her hand and said, “sleep.” Immediately, Ughvac vanished, its entire essence sucked down into its core which appeared to be a faintly glowing, igneous stone about the size of her fist. Merigold picked it up hurriedly, stuffing it into the bag on her shoulder, and armed herself with her brush and ink, one in each hand.

“Go!” Ilf shouted.

They went. Derek and Garret lost no time charging ahead, and Merigold pumped her legs as hard as she could to keep up with them. There were still fireballs slicing through the air all around them, dazzling the distant figure of the erowist. Forks of lightning occasionally shot from the guild unit Alecia had joined, lighting up the night in flashes of gold and blinding white. The erowist gave as good as it received, sending bolts of energy tearing up the earth and sending debris – and occasionally people – flying. Most everything thrown at it ricocheted off or was absorbed.

It did not take the erowist long to notice their foolhardy charge. To Merigold’s surprise, it charged in turn, gathering angry balls of light in each hand and letting loose a howl that hardly seemed like it could originate with the human whose body it had stolen.

Three things happened in quick succession thereafter. Derek skidded to an abrupt halt, throwing out his hand to catch Garret in the chest. The erowist thrust out both hands and hit Ilf’s barrier, sending it pitching back, momentarily off-balance. And Garret threw his arms out in front of him, creating a solid block of ice as thick as a man that wrapped around the erowist’s legs and torso.

That was her opening, and Merigold knew it. She knew it, and yet she had skidded to a halt behind Derek, and forcing her legs to carry her any further suddenly seemed an impossible task. Derek ran forward, pushing his palm against the erowist’s shoulder. The creature’s head lolled strangely, those luminous eyes wide-open.

“I WILL KILL YOU ALL. I WILL RIP THE SPINES FROM YOUR BACKS, SUCK THE ASTRAL ENERGY FROM YOUR VERY BONES!” the erowist was shouting so loudly she could hear little else. Merigold was shaking so hard from fear and adrenaline that her vision shook with her.

“Get in here!” Derek shouted.

His words pulled her from her fear, and Merigold stumbled in front of the erowist, splashing the first line of ink across its forehead. Then the second. She could hear the ice cracking as the creature fought free. Water sloughed from the ice, already melting in the heat of that abominable fire. She was drawing as fast as she could, hands miraculously steady for the amount of shaking in her body.

It was not fast enough.

A white-hot beam of fire, or electricity, or some hybrid mingling of the two, burned a hole through the ice around the erowist’s left hand. Derek screamed, a sound that Merigold was sure would haunt her for the rest of her days. Something hot splattered against her arm as Derek collapsed, and Merigold found herself staring at it.

Blood.

Blood that made her vision swim. Bile pile dup through her throat, threatening to break loose. She swayed. If Garret had not grabbed her to keep her upright, she would have passed out then and there.

“Meri, this is what you do.” His voice shook, but she could tell he was trying to be calm, and trying to calm her. Maybe it worked. She was still writing, aware of the sound of footsteps all around them.

And then she was done.

Merigold slid to the ground, still supported by Garret, turning her head away from Derek because she was afraid to see what had happened to him. He was making strange, inhuman sounds. Ilf was talking to him. Someone shouted was explaining that the erowist was now trapped in an immobile state, trapped in the wheels of whatever fate they had in store for it.

“Gods,” Merigold said, shuddering.

“Derek’ll live, Merigold,” Alecia said, stepping into Merigold’s line of vision. “It’s not that bad. Nearly cauterized, they’re saying. And we have a fire elemental here.”

“We did it,” Merigold said weakly.

“We did it,” Alecia agreed.