Sora’s stomach jolted as she suddenly found herself in free fall, and a shriek tore itself from her lungs. Above her, Jotaranell howled. In fear or pain, she wasn’t sure, nor did she care. She hit the canopy, the branches snapping beneath her. Sharp twigs sliced up her body from head to toe, splinters lodged themselves in her skin, and then she was beneath the canopy, falling towards the hard mossy ground.

She landed with a heavy thud, wheezing as her breath rushed from her lungs, rolling onto her side and curling up from the pain. A meter or two away, she heard another thud as something hit the dirt, undoubtedly the stargazer, followed by a loud groaning.

Slowly, her Sora managed to catch her breath and rose to her feet, using a nearby tree wide as a wall to balance herself, holding her tattered cloak in one hand. Jotaranell laid half a dozen paces away beside a flat moss-covered boulder, curled up in a ball, guttural noises coming from his mouth.

A glint of metal caught her eye to the left, and Sora pushed off the tree and stumbled towards the protruding haft of her sword staff, her vision swimming, splitting, then refocusing again. The near-meter-long blade was stuck halfway into the dirt, wooden haft still quivering in the air. She pried the weapon free, then turned towards the stargazer and made her way towards him, her steps painfully slow but building speed.

Sharp pain in Sora’s left arm caused her to suck in a quick breath, but it only stopped her for a moment. She reached the stargazer and dropped to her knees on the ground beside him. Jotaranell’s eyes were open wide and unfocused, his breathing labored. Sora stretched her hand towards the silverglass bands in his ears and tore them free with a wet rip, eliciting only a whimper from the astrologian as he flinched away from the pain.

Sora wiped the bands free of the light gore with her cloak, using her staff to keep herself upright. She slid the silverglass into her ears, breathing in as her awareness of the kar around and within sharpened. It was something she’d become more and more conscious of over the last week, the way the silverglass affected her sense of starlight.

Head still spinning slightly, Sora grabbed the back of Jotaranell’s robe and rolled the man onto his stomach roughly. Holding his hands behind his back and channeling a bit of fergkar and elankar with some difficulty, Sora drew up a mass of molten stone, shaping it around the astrologian’s wrists. She only let herself enjoy his screaming for a moment as the hot stone touched his skin before she channeled more fergkar, cooling the stone.

Sora pulled her cloak back around her shoulders then rolled the man back around, gripping his jaw with her good hand to stop him from jerking away. She glared into his eyes, but the gaze Jotaranell returned to her was blank, empty of almost all animation.

Scowling, Sora drew on a sliver of the five fundamental aspects of kar, using a crude healing to try and fix whatever was wrong with the man’s mind. She suspected it was just a concussion, only a bit worse than her own. If it turned out to be anything else, say brain bleeding, she’d probably just end up killing the man. At that moment, Sora quite liked that thought.

Unfortunately, Jotaranell’s eyes refocused after a few seconds of channeling, flashing from wide-eyed dullness to shock and finally a scowl of fury. Giving the man a tight smile, Sora reshaped the last of her kar into a sharp electric jolt, enough to make the man’s head spin for a moment, maybe give him a headache, but nothing more.

Jotaranell took a sharp intake of breath, trying to jerk free from Sora’s grip, but her hand held him firm. She pulled him back towards her with a rough tug, moving her hand from his jaw to his throat.

“What the hells did you do to me?” She asked, glaring into his eyes.

Jotaranell spluttered for a moment, then said, coughing, “well, it looks like we fell through some trees.”

Sora’s anger became a hot blaze of fury. Before Jotaranell could so much as blink, Sora shoved him back, and his head bounced, his eyes fluttering for a moment before refocusing on her. A wheezing cough escaped his lungs alongside a pained groan.

Still kneeling beside him, Sora grabbed a handful of the stargazer’s hair, pulled his head up, and again growled, “what did you do to me?”

Jotaranell gave her a long, tired look, his features suddenly seeming so old as to be timeless. A great sigh escaped his lips, and he said simply, “I failed.”

“What does that mean?” Sora asked, her whole body ready to crush the man’s throat.

A gurgling escaped his lips, but he muttered, “you were meant to be bound to me, girl! He was meant to be mine again!” His words fell from his lips in a white rage. He sighed suddenly, the anger fleeing him, leaving only a sickly pallor to his skin as he closed his eyes. His voice was quiet when he continued, “kill me now if you wish. He’s been gone for too long, and I am tired of fighting to bring him back.”

Sora stared into the man’s face, wan and drawn, stretched with an ancient misery, his eyes dark and hollow. “That tells me nothing, Jotaranell,” she said, voice still hard but without the earlier sharpness. “What am I supposed to do? How do we get it all back to right?”

He stared back into her eyes, and for a moment, it seemed as if he wouldn’t tell her anything, but then he opened his mouth, and his words came with weighed hesitation. “You are synastic now, girl. You can wield Mito’s power with more might than any have for over three thousand years, and you are bound to a man who can no longer reach you. Do as you wish.”

Sora scowled, pressing her hand harder against his throat, eliciting a gurgled grunt from the man, but his eyes remained dull, full of so much time-worn weariness she felt her own limbs growing tired. “I don’t know what to do,” she said, teeth gritted. “I am supposed to be the sword now. Stars, damn it, I can’t control this power on my own! If you can’t help me, then point me towards someone who can.”

Jotaranell snorted. “Girl, where do you think we are? Where do you think a changeling, one of Mora’s rarest and mightiest spawn, would go?”

The patronizing tone in the astrologian’s voice only added fuel to Sora’s already burning temper. Her mind spun as it tried to pull everything from the last hour together. First Lawthe’s death, and Leahan’s ascension to shield, then losing her position as a jah annan, and now, the rite had failed somehow. She had all the power and nobody to keep it in check, or at least, nobody nearby.

She prodded at that thread in her mind, the one link between herself and her leash. She was rewarded with an overwhelming chorus of screams, like hired mourners for a lord’s burning. She jerked her thoughts away from the silvery tether, her frustration rising, wafting off her like flames from a forest fire.

Sora Lifted Jotaranell up to her face, nearly crushing his windpipe in her hand with the force of her grip. Jotaranell’s eyes went wide, looking at her, his face paling deeper, and then she watched as a flicker of purple-black flame leaped from the skin of her hand.

The fire, or something that appeared to be fire, flickered free of her and faded into the air inches from her skin. She suddenly felt the weight of mitokar like a physical thing pushing down on her, desperate to escape her body.

She forgot the stargazer, loosening her grip on him as she tried to keep the power in, to keep it from crushing her. A line of light burst from her hand towards a few ferns at the base of a nearby tree. After another moment, the raging storm of starlight faded from Sora, and she slumped slightly where she sat, tired but not exhausted. She held a hand to her temple, trying in vain to focus her mind again. In a slight daze, she watched as the ferns shook and continued watching as a moment later, a rodent trotted out from the shrub, scurrying towards her on all fours.

The thing was maybe twice the size of Sora’s hand, with a trunk like a snake on its face and a tail like a worn ball of cotton. Its long, broad hind legs kicked lazily off the ground, its clawed forelimbs almost dragging the thing forward. That was the first warning sign. The second was the milky haze to its eyes, the way they lazily rolled around in its skull. The last was the worst, however, and the most damning. It stopped a few feet away, then slowly raised up, standing on its hind legs, revealing the thing's stomach, or lack thereof. The animal was practically hollow, nothing but meat and bone dried with death.

Sora let Jotaranell go, gasping and falling back, raising her sword staff to strike the undead monster, when a loud crack split the air, and something whistled past her head so fast she barely registered the sound. The rodent’s head vanished in a burst of necrotized flesh and crumbling bone, knocking the dead creature onto its back.

Turning her head, Sora found Botaran and Leahan standing not three yards away, Botaran using the tree for support as smoke rose from the end of Leahan’s pistol. Sora felt her body tense, relax, then tense again, a wave of emotion washing over her as she stared, glared, into Leahan’s placid face.

“What was that?” Leahan asked, his eyes shifting from the rodent’s corpse to Jotaranell. His expression hardened on seeing the astrologian, barely noticeable save for the slight muscle twitch in his jaw. “And why is he still alive?”

The astrologian’s face bore a sickly pallor as he stared at the tiny rodent corpse, and Sora realized the thing was still moving. As she watched, the little corpse rolled around, tottered onto unsteady legs, then hobbled back to where it had been standing. Sora heard the scrape of wood and steel against leather as Leahan drew another pistol.

“Wait!” Sora said, jumping to her feet. Leahan stared at her, eyes cold and impassive, the powder weapon aimed towards her feet. Slowly, he lowered the firearm, aiming it towards the ground.

“Why?” He asked, voice flat. Behind Sora, she heard Jotaranell scrabble to his feet.

The astrologian lurched to her side, head still angled to the undead rodent behind her. “It's her’s,” he said, voice cracking on the words.

Leahan’s brow became a slight furrow. “It’s her’s?” he said. “What the stars does that mean?” His voice was deeper than usual, his pallor pale.

“She raised it,” Jotaranell said. Sora nodded slowly in agreement as the man continued, voice steadying. “She is synastic with Mito now. This is the least her power can do.”

A scowl broke through Leahan’s jah annan calm, the skin around his nose wrinkling in disgust. “So, you’ve already tainted yourself with that foul starlight.” He shifted the angle of his pistol, aiming it instead towards the stargazer. “You did this to her. Why shouldn’t I just take your head off here and now?”

Sora felt hot anger rise in the back of her throat but bit her tongue. Snapping at Leahan would only provoke him further. She heard Jotaranell swallow and could feel him tremble beside her, stone-bound arms slowly rising above his head.

“You don’t know where we are. For all you know, we could be on one of the far-flung continents or a long-forgotten island in the misted seas. You have no idea what threats might wait for you in these woods. I’ve traveled the world over. I can tell you where we are, what threats to expect, and how to get back to Jiovar.”

Leahan Snorted. “We three are more than capable of protecting ourselves and discovering where we are. We don’t need you for any of that. Try again.”

Jotaranell was silent for a long time. Sora could sense the anxiety wafting off the man in thick waves as his eyes flickered from her to Leahan, to the undead creature behind them. “I can teach her to use the power,” he said slowly. “Without a guide, she could kill all of you, but with my help, she could be the match for any force. Perhaps even…” He trailed off, a sudden spark of hope igniting in his gaze.

Slight incredulity still wrinkling Leahan’s gaze, the jah annan shoved his pistol into the bandolier across his chest. “Very well. If I remember correctly, that is what you promised the prince before your betrayal. So long as you do this, you will live.” His stare sharpened as he continued, “but if you try anything, I will personally see you gutted and returned to Jael as a shambling corpse. Do you understand me?”

Head lowering, hands limp in the stone manacles, Jotaranell nodded. “As you say.”

Leahan let out another disdainful snort and walked away. Botaran drew closer to Sora. “Are you injured?” He asked, eyeing the rodent behind her.

Sora shook her head. “No, I’m fine,” she said and was surprised by the truth of the words. She felt fine, better than she had for a long time.

At the look of confusion on her face, Jotaranell said, “It's the bond of synastry between you and the prince. So long as he lives, so shall you. It might take time for greater injuries to heal, but you will not die unless he does.”

“Does he feel my pain then?” She asked, suddenly hoping her concern didn’t show through her blurted words.

Jotaranell shook his head. “It is only a one-way bond for you two. He will feel none of your pain, but you will feel his.”

Sora frowned, glancing towards the rodent, the headless thing still swaying on its hind legs. Jotaranell followed her gaze and stared as if he’d forgotten about the rotting corpse. “You should release your hold on it,” he said. “It will drain your reserves, and they should already be near dry.”

“How do I do that?” she asked, frowning at him.

“The same way you release any weaving of kar, girl. You’ve done that a hundred times before. I shouldn’t have to explain that to you.” His voice had regained some of its usual arrogant impatience.

Sora did as he said, searching for the web of Mitokar that should be between herself and the creature. She found the finest threads of kar she’d ever witnessed there, so small she was surprised she could sense them at all. Reaching out with her mind, she gripped the starlight, then sliced it free from herself with barely a thought.

When the creature just continued to stand there, she frowned. “Why is it still doing that?” She asked. “Shouldn’t it just be unanimated or something?”

Jotaranell shook his head. “Flesh is unlike any of the other elements, girl. It’s a vessel for kar. The rodent will stop moving eventually. I doubt there would be enough inside the thing for it to move longer than a day or two.”

“So, what do I do with it now?” She asked.

He shrugged. “Nothing. You already released it, so you can’t command it now. It will fall over eventually, or perhaps something will come along and eat the thing. Does it really matter?”

“I suppose not,” Sora said.

“You must be cold,” Botaran said, drawing Sora’s attention away. As if the words were a kind of kar web, Sora suddenly felt the bitter bite of the chill air. “Take my tunic,” he said.

He slid out from under the thin shirt and handed it to her. Sora took it gratefully and pulled it over her head, refastening the cloak around her shoulders. Botaran glanced at her feet and frowned, then tore some of the fabric from his own cloak before Sora could stop him. It hurt her heart to see the black cloth torn more than it already was, but she decided to say nothing.

He handed the scraps to her silently, and she wrapped her feet. It wouldn’t do much, but it would still make a difference. “Thank you,” she said, and he smiled at her.

Leahan returned, and the sight of his face sparked something angry inside of Sora. Why did he, of all people, have to be here. “I can’t see any structures or roads nearby.” He turned towards Jotaranell. “Do you have any idea where we might be?”

Jotaranell shrugged. “Likely the northern continent. I doubt there would be many other places a changeling would go. If that’s right, these would be the wall woods.” He looked up, squinting to try and peer between the canopy branches above. “If we move north, we’ll eventually find the wall or the divide. From there, finding civilization shouldn’t prove to be a difficult task.”

Leahan nodded, then turned towards Sora and opened one hand. “Give me one of the silverglass bands,” he said.

Sora’s hand reflexively shot to the earrings. “Why?” she said, voice dropping into a dangerous depth.

Leahan scowled again. “It’ll be better to spread the power out between us. Two starborn fighters are better than one in a fight.”

Reluctantly Sora unclasped one of the rings from her ear. She held it above Leahan’s hand for a moment, then turned towards Botaran. “You take it,” she said, ignoring the slight flush of anger that suddenly rose on Leahan’s face.

Botaran shook his head. “You and I both know that Leahan is better at kar manipulation than either of us. Especially when it comes to healing.”

Sora scowled. “I don’t trust him,” she said, but the bluntness of her words seemed to have no effect on either jah annan. Slowly, the flat expression on Botaran’s face broke her resolve. With a sigh, she dropped the ring into Leahan’s hand. He looped it through his ear wordlessly, then turned away, striding into the dim star-lit forest.

Lifting his bound hands towards her, Jotaranell suddenly asked, “would you mind? These things are chafing.” Sora shook her head and ignored the man. Botaran followed after Leahan, and Sora fell in behind him. Jotaranell sighed and followed after a moment. They all strode through the near silent forest, the only sound in the night the crunch of Jotaranell’s boots on dry foliage.