Damien nodded, drawing Ether into himself. The crystal coffin encasing Alina rippled like water and started to melt away from her at a rapid rate. Within seconds, nearly half of the crystal was a puddle on the floor.

Henry stepped forward shadows extending from his fingertips. Before the crystal covering her chest had completely washed away, he pressed five needle-sharp points through her shirt and into her skin.

Alina’s body shuddered as Henry started to work, carving runes into her with rapid precision. Henry’s fingers flew, the shadows extending from them so thin and sharp that it didn’t even look like her flesh posed any resistance.

The rest of the coffin continued to melt away, but Alina’s eyes didn’t open. Blood seeped into her shirt, but Henry didn’t slow. Alina shuddered and Damien grabbed her shoulders, pushing her back into the coffin.

She was surprisingly strong, and even though Damien didn’t have any trouble keeping her laying down, she was still wiggling enough that she could have messed up Henry’s runework.

He grabbed all of her clothes with telekinesis and pulled her flat against the coffin, making sure she couldn’t mistakenly ruin one of the lifesaving runes. Henry continued to work, dozens of eyes narrow in concentration.

The process took much longer than it had with Sylph, and the runes involved spread farther as well. When Henry finally stepped back and nodded to Damien, the lower half of her shirt had been completely carved to pieces.

Hundreds of runes lined Alina’s stomach, stretching all the way down to just above her pelvis. Faint flickers of black energy still danced in the shallow cuts, and the blood flowing from them slowly started to stem.

“Did it work?” Damien asked, releasing the girl.

“Well enough,” Henry replied. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, but it was still worse than Sylph. Those runes will be on there for a long time. If she tires to evolve her core too early, it’ll explode again. Whatever power level she’s currently at – she’ll have to stay at it for at least two years.”

“That’s… rough. Especially at Mountain Hall,” Damien said with a frown.

“Well, her core looked pretty large,” Henry said. “And the amount of Ether you can hold isn’t everything. There are other ways to get stronger, so she should be okay. It’s better this than dying.”

“True,” Damien agreed. He glanced down at the pool of crystal staining Quinlan’s floor. It had turned a dark pink from all the blood that had dripped into it. “We kind of ruined the room, huh?”

“I’m sure Quinlan will get over it,” Henry said dryly. “Do you think she’ll be happy enough to get me some more goats?”

“If you hold this over her head just to make her bring you more goats, you’re a terrible person.”

“I thought we’d already agreed on that part,” Henry said with a cackle. “More goats it is.”

Alina let out a weak groan and her eyes fluttered.

“Good luck,” Henry said. “I’ll be watching.”

He sank into Damien’s shadow, disappearing in seconds. Damien grimaced. Alina’s clothes were completely ruined, the blood and crystal fluid seeping into them at every point. He didn’t exactly have a spare set on him either.

A garbled groan slipped out of her mouth. Alina’s eyes fluttered again, then opened. She blinked, confusion running rampant. Slowly, Alina raised a hand and wiggled her fingers. Her eyes shifted over to Damien, who was standing over her.

“I- It wasn’t a dream?” Alina asked, her words coming out thick.

“Quite real. Sorry,” Damien said. “Before you try anything, I should let you know that you’ve got some runes on your chest now. You need to be really careful not to evolve your core until they fade, or it’ll explode and you’ll be dead for real.”

Alina started to nod, but a flicker of black energy coiled out of her shoulder and her eyes widened. “I need to finish the contract!”

Her hands slipped on the slick ground as she tried to force herself up into a seated position. Damien grabbed her with telekinesis, lifting the girl onto her feet and leaning her against the wall.

Henry, you should probably just draw up the basic contract for her and add in some addendums to make sure Bill doesn’t go on a rampage. You remember it, right?

“Bah. Making me do everything,” Henry grumbled, but he took over Damien’s body. Using a sharpened claw of destructive energy, Henry quickly carved a contract into the ground. Within a few seconds, several paragraphs of a contract had been carved into the floor.

“Use destructive energy and fill this out,” Damien said.

Alina nodded weakly. She extended her hand, bringing a faint flicker of a blade to her fingertip. It was far weaker than Damien’s – almost completely invisible – but it was still enough to leave a faint trace in the ground as she wrote her name.

As soon as she finished, the back of her other hand split open. A long, wizened finger reached out from it and traced its own name on the ground beside hers. Smoke rose up from the stone it touched.

With the second name signed, Alina let out a sigh of relief. All the tension flooded out of her body and she crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut. Damien caught her with telekinesis before the girl could hit her head.

He gently lowered her to the ground, watching as golden energy traced through the lines in the contract, burning them away until nothing remained.

“Huh. That’s new.”

“Little thing I added so others couldn’t see it,” Henry said. “It’s still just as effective, I just made it disappear.”

“I can’t believe it,” Alina muttered, staring at her limp hands. “I’m alive. I have a companion.”

“And it’s a Deathwight,” Damien added. “That’s pretty rare too. I hadn’t even heard of them myself, and I spent years looking into companions because of how excited I was to summon mine.”

“I was so exited for it as well,” Alina said, blinking hard. “I barely made it to school. The wait felt like it was going to kill me.”

“I didn’t make it,” Damien admitted. “I summoned my companion at thirteen. It was not my smartest idea.”

Alina blinked. Then she burst into tears, burying her face in her palms. Damien shifted awkwardly.

Am I supposed to say something?

"You're asking an eldritch monster how to comfort a crying girl," Henry said dryly. "If you have to come to me for advice here, it's already lost. Just do nothing. I can't imagine anything you'll say is going to make her feel better."

And so Damien stood against the wall. Alina cried for several more minutes, until the tears stopped coming and she was just dry heaving. Damien shuffled in his pockets and handed her an old handkerchief to clean herself off. She took it and wiped her face. Alina's eyes were red and her breath was still irregular.

"I - I'm sorry. I didn't think-"

"It's okay," Damien said. "You thought you were going to die. I know the feeling."

She nodded, swallowing and letting out a mixture between a sob and a laugh. "Thank you. Do you want your..."

"All yours," Damien said. "Didn't need it."

And now it's kind of dirty.

Her weak smile vanished as a thought struck her and she staggered, trying to scramble to her feet and falling in the process. Damien caught her with telekinesis. “Quinlan!”

“You better stay sitting,” Damien suggested. “You haven’t moved in a year. Even if it looks like that crystal kept you nourished and alive, you haven’t used your muscles in a long time. They’re going to be really weak.”

“Right,” Alina said, rubbing her nose. “Thanks. But, where’s Quinlan?”

“I was hoping you could help me with that,” Damien replied. “I came to Mountain Hall looking for her.”

“She’s pretty strong,” Alina said with a frown. “I can vaguely remember her trying to break me out of the crystal, then saying she was going to do something and leaving, but that’s it. I don’t know where she went.”

“Damn,” Damien muttered. “There goes that lead. I suppose we’ll have to find her the normal way, but what a waste of time.”

“Who are you, anyway?” Alina asked. “If you don’t mind me asking. Quinlan didn’t really have any friends from what I remember. She just spent all her time practicing before I got locked in crystal. After that, from what I can remember, she just focused on trying to learn runework.”

“Well, from what she said, Mountain Hall discouraged her from learning runes,” Damien said. “Her research brought her to Blackmist, where I came in contact with her because I thought she was hunting me. She fought my companion but eventually came around and we had a chat. Henry and I agreed to teach her runework, and I guess that was for your sake.”

Alina reddened. “I can’t believe she spent so much time trying to save me. Are you a professor at Blackmist?”

Damien snorted. “Me? No. I’m just a Year Two student.”

Alina stared at him. “You could just say you’re under cover or something.”

“What? I’m a Year Two student,” Damien protested. “Look at me! I don’t look old enough to be a professor.”

“No Year Two student can do half of what you just did, much less have their companion defeat Quinlan. I saw how she fought. Not to mention only Year Three students are allowed to take trips to other colleges – she told me that herself.”

“That’s normally true,” Damien admitted. “I’m an exception. To a lot of those things, actually. I can’t tell you much more than that, but I can promise that I’m trying to help Quinlan. I don’t have that many people I trust, and I’d rather not lose her.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Alina said, hugging herself. “I really wasn’t at Mountain Hall for very long before I got frozen in crystal. I don’t know where she went to study, and the things I do remember from our conversations are really muddled.”

“Can you think of anything at all we could go off?” Damien pressed. “Did she mention having other places to hide out when she worked or anything like that? Maybe a professor that wasn’t terrible?”

“She hated all the professors here,” Alina said with a weak laugh. “And she mostly just talked about the books she was reading and the people she’d fought.”

“What about a rival?” Damien asked. “Another Year Four that actually challenged her or something? Just someone that might know a little more about where she is.”

Alina’s nose scrunched. “I think she mentioned someone called Venus. A Year Four that used… Ice magic, maybe? It’s really hard to remember. I know she fought against her a lot, though.”

“Venus,” Damien said. “I can work with that. It’s possible she told them where she was going.”

“I don’t really think they were friends,” Alina hedged.

“I’m not a detective,” Damien said with a sigh. “I don’t know what else to do, and I really don’t trust the professors here.”

“Yeah,” Alina said, her gaze falling. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to survive Mountain Hall like this. I’ll get chewed up and spit out. I can’t even really help you find Quinlan.”

“You’ll have time for self-pity later,” Damien said. “Go use the shower and get some of the blood out of your clothes. Then we’re going to find Quinlan. Someone here has to know at least something about where she might be, and they’re going to tell us.”

“That’s pretty big talk for a Year Two.”

“I told you,” Damien said, his eyes flashing. “I’m an exception.”

Alina swallowed, then nodded. She carefully lifted herself to her feet, using the wall to keep upright, and staggered up toward the bathroom. Damien followed after her, then cleared his throat.

“There’s a good bit until we get up there. Quinlan has this thing pretty deep underground. Prepare yourself, I’m just going to teleport you.”

“I – what?”

Damien tapped Alina on the shoulder, pushing the rune pattern into the Ether and sending out of his finger. Alina vanished with a puff of black smoke, appearing at the far end of the hall with a yelp.

Chuckling, Damien Warp Stepped himself and then repeated the process on Alina until she’d been deposited in the shower.

“A little more warning next time!” Alina yelled.

“Just shower,” Damien said. “I’m going to go find out where this Venus lives. I’ll be back before you’re done.”

He didn’t wait for a response. Damien teleported, vanishing from the room and stopping only long enough to close the door behind him. Drawing on his Ether, he cast Warp Step rapidfire, blurring across the campus and arriving at the library in just a few dozen seconds.

The process took a ridiculous amount of Ether, but he wasn’t in the mood to wait around right now. Damien strode up the steps and approached the first deck, where a bald librarian was scanning through a book.

“You don’t have your school colors on,” the librarian said, casting a judgmental glance down at Damien.

“I don’t go here. I’m a transfer student,” Damien said. “I need information on where Venus lives.”

“A transfer?” the librarian asked, cocking his head to the side. “I didn’t realize the Year Threes had already arrived. You’ll need to switch into Mountain Hall colors while you stay here.”

“I’ll pass,” Damien said flatly. “Now give me the information I asked for.”

“Absolute lack of respect,” the librarian growled. “What school are you from?”

Henry slipped into Damien’s body for an instant and Damien bared his teeth. Dark flames flickered to life in the back of his eyes and a sputter of purple mist slipped out from his lips. The shadows in the room lengthened, flickering and shifting as faces started to form in the darkness.

The gravity around the librarian surged and the man staggered, barely catching himself before his face slammed into the desk. Henry released the magic and slipped back into his normal spot.

“Answer the question.”

“What in the Planes–”

“I am seriously not in the mood for this,” Damien growled. “It’s been a long day, and I’m pretty pissed off. Just answer my blasted question before I find out just how much a Mountain Hall respects strength.”

“You’re insane,” the man said. “She lives at the peak of the East Mountain in room four.”

“See? That wasn’t so hard,” Damien said, slipping back into the shadows and Warp Stepping out of Mountain Hall’s library.

He hadn’t gotten a chance to really look around it, so he resolved to take a few moments to swing by once he found Quinlan. Henry would probably never forgive him if he didn’t.

“Damn right about that,” Henry said. “You do realize that there’s basically zero chance that this Venus girl knows anything about Quinlan, right? That’s like you telling Reena where you went.”

Do you have a better idea?

“Aside from just running around, tearing things apart until she comes out?”

“I’m going to take that as a no.”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” Henry admitted with a sigh. “Then we might not to get to check out their library.”

Damien rolled his eyes. He paused for a moment, appearing a few feet away from a group of students, and scanned his surroundings to reorient himself. He wasn’t the best with directions, but he did know where the South Mountain was.

One of the students finally found their voice. “What the–”

Damien didn’t hear the last of their sentence, as he’d found the mountain in question and was moving once more. With any luck, he’d find Quinlan before the sun set.