******

We spent the next few days travelling in haste. We had to arrive in Erstürnach as soon as possible, before Lord Himmel received the lodestone message and set any trackers upon our trail.

However, this also meant that we sacrificed sleep in order to make the journey. I hadn't gotten the brunt of sacrifice; the poor sorcerers who rode outside the carriage were the ones who truly suffered. Feeling thoroughly guilty and useless, I sang spells of renewal, urging them—and the horses—to go on. Lady Anya and Lady Gertrude, who both sat in the carriage with me, never said a word of protest.

"All right, so we'll run through the plans one last time," said Lady Anya. She had pulled out a detailed map of the city's ruins, and it now floated in the space between me and the two Magi. "We'll have to leave some of the sorcerers and all of the horses by the borders of the province. The rest of us will continue the journey to Erstürnach on foot, and we'll approach it by taking the southern gate."

Lady Gertrude and I nodded. They had explained that the north was the compass point of gathering magic. This meant more monsters towards the particular direction. Strangely enough, the sorcerers were downing the magic phials we kept stashed away in the trunk of the carriage at an alarming rate—they needed far more magic now in order to maintain the wards. Perhaps it was because the northern lands were fairly barren.

It would also explain why the humming of my Core was less apparent now. I never knew until I'd missed it: there had always seemed to be a comforting warmth in the pit of my belly. It was still there, but it was slightly colder now.

In direct opposition to it, the south was the compass point of dispelling magic. All provinces with Fountains and barriers were built according to this law, following the natural flow of magic which ran in the earth. Hence, the southern gate. Our magic would be weakened, but there would be a lesser chance of us running into corrupted creatures.

"From there, we'll make our way to the Fountain. We'll start our search for clues there. If Anton had truly left something behind, and if Klaudia truly is the only one who can unlock it, I should be able to sift through the memories," said Lady Anya, sounding just like a stern war general. Her tone did little to disguise her anxiety. She knew that the plan had plenty of holes in it. We all knew. But it was our only plan.

"Milady, if I may be so bold to speak, but have you tried sifting the Fountain for any memories before?" I raised the question meekly.

"I tried. Unfortunately, Erstürnach is a city which has stood through many troubled times. There are simply too many memories jumbled up in there. If Anton knew what he was doing, he would leave one clear memory just for you."

"How is that possible though?"

"He had with him a Magus and a sorcerer who were both experts of the mind. And he himself had an Affinity for transferring energy. He could possibly employ the same method when he was transferring magic from one individual and into another with memories," she explained patiently. She was probably used to the numerous questions I had raised for her so far.

It occurred to me that there was still so little of magic I knew about, even after all these months. It was a wonder that I'd managed to blunder by. "All right, assuming that we don't find anything in Erstürnach, what do we do?"

Lady Anya's eyes widened in surprise. She certainly wasn't expecting this issue to be raised, of all times. She looked at Lady Gertrude for guidance.

The dark-haired woman inclined her head. "It would do no harm to tell her."

Lady Anya looked back at me. "You will be our last resort," she said.

"Me? How?" My attention flicked back and forth between my two companions. They had frighteningly serene masks put on.

"Your Affinity is mind-control. You may not know how to wield it just yet, and we still don't know Lord Himmel's true capabilities, but your power may be just the weapon we need to defeat him."

I could feel all the colour being drained from my face. Me? Stand against Lord Himmel? I'd seen him set a whole village on fire with a few words; I'd seen him drain children dry of their youth and energy; I'd seen him reduce Lady Anya into submission. And they wanted me to stand against him? This—this was ridiculous!

"Surely there's somebody else up to this!" I protested.

"Believe me, we'd have tried someone else if we could"—I bristled at Lady Anya's infuriatingly cool tone—"but as it is, you're the one with the Affinity for mind-control. No one else."

I slumped unhappily on my seat. "There must be some other way." There had to be.

"Which is why this is a last resort," interjected Lady Gertrude. "Which is why we need you to focus on finding whatever possible traces Anton had left behind in Erstürnach."

Her words hammered logic into my head. If all went well, we should be able to find a weakness of Lord Himmel's in the city. "All right."

The carriage suddenly slowed down. Cautiously, Lady Gertrude drew the curtains aside and rolled down the window. One of the sorcerers, a jolly young Warder by the name of Kurt was riding just outside. "Approaching Hamelin soon, Your Ladyships. Should we make a stop there?"

Lady Anya's eyes slid towards me. "Your call, Lady Klaudia." The adding of a title in front of my name made me squirm uneasily. "What do you think?"

"Can we afford to not stop by?" I narrowed my gaze at the Magus. Was this a test of some sort? She knew I was from Hamelin. Surely she also knew that most of my memories there had not been very pleasant. I hadn't actually seen her sift through memories yet, but I had no doubt that she would be very subtle in doing so.

"I think we most certainly can," she replied readily.

"Then we needn't stop by. Carry on." I nodded to Kurt.

"As you wish, milady." He bowed his head atop his mount and sped off, shouting in the distance, no doubt to relay the message to his comrades. Lady Gertrude rolled up the window. She left the curtains drawn.

And as we rolled by Hamelin, as my eyes took in the familiar sight of crumbling buildings and unwashed streets, my chest tightened with longing.

It ebbed away eventually.

******

It took us only one more day after Hamelin to reach Erstürnach. Its borders, at least. Still, I was surprised by the relatively close distance to my hometown.

We were now trudging along on foot. Me, Lady Anya, Lady Gertrude and four other sorcerers, including Heidi. The other two had been left behind on the borders to guard the horses and our belongings.

Lady Anya had promised them that we would return by nightfall when we'd separated. Otherwise, they had direct orders to immediately return to Starkfurt. A chill had ran up my spine at the implication of the statement.

I clutched onto my pouch a little more tightly than usual after that.

Heidi stayed by my side while we walked, her water supporting my bad leg along the whole way. I'd told her about Lady Anya's reaction when I'd related the resemblance between Maria and Elise, and she still felt guilty about her accidental interruption of the conversation. I'd assured her that Lady Anya wouldn't tell me anything if she could help it, but she wasn't much comforted.

"Have you ever been to Erstürnach?" I asked Heidi. She was busily checking the extra phials of Fountain water tucked into her belt. Her eyes snapped up at my voice.

"Never. In fact, I'd never even heard about it till Lady Anya had asked me to come along a few days ago," she replied with a wan smile. Her face was pale beneath the freckles, and I could tell that although she had no prior knowledge of the city, she still had enough reason to feel scared.

I was too. Something just felt...wrong in the atmosphere. Amidst the wastes, where lines of barren trees took root and the ground cracked under our feet, there was a sense of malevolence in the air. No monsters so far. The Warders were doing their job well. But my skin prickled with the attention of unseen eyes in the shadows.

"How long have you been working as a Healer anyway?" I said.

"Five years, after I'd received my blessing from Saint Gwayrin at the age of thirteen," she answered.

"That's a fairly young age."

"I'd come into my magic earlier than most. Mother saw that I had talent, worked her arse off to send me to Starkfurt. I attended the magical training academy and was deemed as a quick learner. I still remember during my Drinking ceremony that I was standing in a whole row of boys and girls, all at least five years older than me." She chuckled. "Laws, how they goggled at me!"

"So you bound yourself to Starkfurt? Not your hometown?"

"Ach, of course not. Mother had ambition, see? She knew that if I were ever to get a proper foothold in sorcerers' ranks I would need to be a permanent resident of Starkfurt. She'd even threatened that she would disown me if I failed to secure myself in the city."

The chilliness around me wasn't dissipating, but at least it felt a lot more tolerable with Heidi's soothing voice. "Where is she now?"

Her expression hardened. "Dead. She'd been bitten by a vampire," she said bitterly. "I was visiting her back home when it happened."

Heidi's tone implicated what she had done to save her mother. I bit my lower lip, searching for the right words to say. "I'm sorry," was all I could offer.

We stayed quiet for a while. The air was muffled with sobriety, as though it weren't right to raise our voices beyond a whisper. Then Heidi finally spoke: "We've all lost something to the plague, eh?"

"We have," I said softly.

"Anyhow, we're here to rectify the problem and make sure that no more poor bastards end up like us."

She didn't sound afraid anymore. No—she sounded grim, determined, but not afraid. Her courage washed over me, and I opened my mouth to agree with her, only to be interrupted by Lady Anya suddenly stopping in front of us.

"We're here," she uttered into the quietness.

I squinted into the gloom. Mist was closing in from all directions, but even then I still couldn't make out any signs of ruins. It was the same, unbroken scenery, stretching on and on. "Wha—"

Lady Anya held a hand up, effectively silencing me.

Almost as though on cue, all the Warders—basically all the sorcerers, not counting Heidi—stepped forward and drew their Mediums out. They began to cast a joint spell. Magic sang through the wastelands, the only sign of life here.

Then I finally felt—rather than saw—the illusions. There was a strange distortion in in front of us. I realised that I had only managed to see it because the Warders were pinpointing every ounce of their energy towards that particular space. They wouldn't be able to bring down the entire barrier. However, they could tap into a weak point and exploit it.

Eventually, a rift formed in the air. I could vaguely make out fractured pillars and crumbled buildings inside, but there was mostly the same landscape of the wastelands. It was disconcerting to watch.

"In," Lady Anya ordered us sternly.

Two Warders went up ahead, entering Erstürnach through the rift. Lady Gertrude gestured for me to follow. I quickly scrambled towards the tear, keeping my eyes focused on what used to be a public bathhouse before me, refusing to let my attention stray to the sides.

Then I was through. Elise wasn't jesting when she'd told me that Erstürnach was one of the finest cities to have ever existed. I was only standing in one small part of it, and I wasn't even on high ground, yet I could already sense that this place had once been greater than Heidelberg, greater than Starkfurt. Greater than all the known strongholds put together.

But it was dead.

Goosebumps crawled up my skin. There was an undeniable magnificence to the city, even as it lay desolate and in ruins. Terrible things had happened here though. Sunlight beat down upon the streets, casting long, long shadows. Ghosts of the past whispered in my ear; the wind howled miserably about me. In addition to the eerie atmosphere, I heard a distant roar in the distance.

It sounded suspiciously like a gryphon's. I prayed that all saints would preserve us.

"Move quickly and quietly," said Lady Anya. The rest had come through the rift while I was observing our surroundings. The Warders were downing one phial of Fountain water each, already having to replenish their energy.

We all took our new orders with curt nods. She led our little group through the streets, often glancing over her shoulder to make sure that all of us were still following.

My own eyes darted everywhere uneasily. No monsters so far. Still, I had the sensation of being watched.

Meanwhile, the Warders flanked us, carefully feeding a steady stream of magic into the mobile barrier around us. It should be enough to disguise our scent and deter any unwanted creatures. Lady Anya and Lady Gertrude's bodies were taut, ready to spring into action at any moment. Heidi's hand was resting on the mouth of her water skin.

I clung onto my flute.

Apparently Lady Anya had memorised the route to the Fountain, for she didn't need to refer to the map to navigate the streets. A few times, she suddenly took a bypass and sped down a diverging alleyway whenever the barrier glowed with danger. A few times, we were forced to take cover in one of the many abandoned houses. Dust tickled our nostrils, and our clothes were soon caked with grime after dragging our feet through the dirt, but we didn't complain.

We didn't dare to.

We probably went on like this for hours. It was hard to tell. We hardly exchanged any words between us, save for Lady Anya's quick commands. The rest of us had been intimidated into silence. Once, we stopped for a quick meal of bread and cheese. I had found courage in Heidi's steely eyes before, but my nerves were slowly being strained to a breaking point. All I knew was that the sun was high in the sky when we finally arrived at the castle.

On any other occasion, I might have been awed. The fact that it had been abandoned for over two hundred years showed, yet the structure still held. It towered over the city, watching over it like a benevolent guardian. The fortress looked solid, even after all these years.

But this was not any other occasion, and I found myself shivering at the sight of the castle.

"This is where we'll have to find our own way to the Fountain," whispered Lady Anya—she hadn't raised her voice over a whisper once in the city. "The map doesn't detail the layout of the castle, so keep a sharp eye out, and stay close."

We were already doing both of the above; we nodded our heads anyway.

We approached the fortress gates. The years had eaten their way into the wood, and it was already smashed open. By some creature who'd arrive here before us, most likely. Hopefully we wouldn't run into it.

Cautiously, jumping at every turn, we made our way through. Shadows lurked at every corner, encouraging us to quicken our pace. As we explored the interior of the castle, I couldn't help but feel a little pang of pity. There had been fine works here: gilded floors, walls layered with gold leaf, pillars carved with intricate details. All rotting on the dust. All lost, all forgotten.

Suddenly, as we crept down one of the numerous hallways, a screech echoed in the halls. Lady Anya whipped around, eyes wide in alarm.

Gryphon.

"The beast must be circling overhead. It's probably made its nest here, and we're intruding upon its territory," hissed Lady Anya. "Be careful."

We didn't say anything in response.

We continued to make our way forward, knuckles white with the tightness of our grips around our respective Mediums. There never seemed to be an end to the castle—it just kept stretching on. After taking a turn, there would always be another hallway to greet us.

"It should be around here," Lady Anya muttered, more to herself than for our ears. "I've been here once..."

Once isn't enough to memorise the entirety of the castle, I'm afraid, I wanted to grumble.

Then we turned down another corner, and with contained excitement, Lady Anya whispered, "There!"

Sure enough, sunlight was washing over the area before us. We scurried forward, carefully emerging into a courtyard. I wanted to sink onto my knees in relief.

Erstürnach's Fountain was before us.

More specifically, what was left of it sprawled beneath our feet.

I imagined that it had once been like Saint Bromilde's Fountain, glowing and pulsing and brimming with sheer magic. Now though, there was an ugly hole in where the Fountain had been. Like a small scale crater. My Core suddenly rose when it had been dormant all this while, wailing and mourning for the lost Fountain.

Its centre started to glow.

Everyone reacted instantly, preparing for spells of defence or offense. My Core was singing, urging me towards the Fountain's centre. I took a step forward. Then another, and another, and ano—

"What are you doing?" growled Lady Gertrude, hand clamped on my shoulder to prevent me from moving any further.

An invisible string continued to tug me towards the centre. It was so thin, the connection could sever instantly if I were to hesitate the slightest bit. I had to go. I knew—I just knew. "I have to get down there," I replied.

Her eyes darkened in understanding. "Go," she whispered harshly. "We'll cover you."

She released me from her grip. I headed out without wasting another second. Sunlight spilled over me, warm and welcome and comforting. I drew in a deep breath, gathering my nerves. When I reached the edge of the crater, I tucked my flute into my pouch and slowly slid myself down.

Nothing happened. No gryphon swooping down abruptly to snatch me from the ground.

Trying not to trip over the uneven surface, I walked towards the centre. It was glowing even brighter now. Yet I couldn't tear my eyes away from it. My Core continued to pull me towards it, and it continued to sing to me. It was as though I were in a trance, and the only way I could break it was by going towards the centre...

When I finally arrived there, the glow faded away. In its place was an unassuming rock. It was dark and unpolished, spanning roughly the length and width of my thumb. A lodestone. Frowning, I picked it up.

My vision went white.

******