Shani and Inferi wandered through twisting tunnels of stone, always moving upward, but getting nowhere, it seemed. For the time they’d hiked up the slopes of the cave, Shani thought they should have reached another plane of the totem, or at least found someone. Weren’t there hundreds of Storm Horse Beastcallers and Mana Beasts inside here somewhere?

The feeling of elation they’d experienced at merging their storm and shadow mana together had faded, leaving both grouchy and snapping at one another again. Shani again felt second—or perhaps now, third—thoughts about sneaking into the totem. No one really knew what the inside was like beyond the few lower levels that had been explored and cleared. Looking at it from the outside, the Storm Horse Totem was large enough they could wander around for weeks without finding someone else, if they’d been trapped in another portion of the structure. That was if something didn’t kill them first.

Inferi growled as she padded along at Shani’s side. “Give me something to fight,” she repeated yet again. “Anything other than walking and walking and walking. This is maddening!”

Shani said nothing, knowing nothing but a fight would sate Inferi’s irritation. She felt it building in her as well, like a maddening itch within her beast heart that spread like a rash across her entire body.

Almost as if the totem had felt their pleas, the tunnel forked. It was the first time a choice of passages had presented itself in the hours they’d walked since they’d escaped the chamber.

“Should we split up?” Inferi asked.

Shani pondered the question. It would save them time exploring but made them both vulnerable to getting lost or a surprise attack.

“I can handle myself fine on my own,” Inferi said, reading Shani’s thoughts. “But if you need me to protect you, we will stick together.”

Ignoring the jibe, Shani pointed to the passage on the right. “This way. Together.”

It felt just like the passages they’d wandered through before they’d found Kiypu, except this time the tunnels went up, and instead of Kellen and Vex, Shani had only Inferi for company. She wished Kellen was with them, which surprised her. The spirit traveler had proven himself to be made of stronger stuff than she’d first guessed, but Kellen still struggled to hold his own. It was better this way, not having to watch over her shoulder to make sure he wasn’t getting injured or killed every time an attack came.

“I miss them too,” Inferi grumbled. It came out like a complaint, as if she wished it wasn’t the case.

“I do not miss them,” Shani said.

Inferi let out a single barking of disbelief. “You can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me.”

Shani gritted her teeth. Wasn’t that the truth? She might not dislike Inferi so much if it wasn’t like staring down an independent version of herself that had no problem voicing any of their deepest, darkest secrets.

“He is safer outside,” Shani said at last. As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized she’d been thinking and speaking only of Kellen, Vex not included. Thankfully, Inferi determined not to point that out.

As the miles of tunnel wore on, she questioned their choice to enter the totem again. Doubt crept in, like the dark looming around them. What good were they doing here, other than fighting off a few Snake Cultists or wild Mana Beasts? Though the totem held endless reserves of storm mana, it was useless to their attempts to push through to Guardian strength with no shadow mana source.

“If we’d never come here, we wouldn’t have learned how to fight with our mana combined,” Inferi said, once again reading her thoughts even if she hadn’t desired a conversation. “That makes us better off than before, at least.”

Shani grunted in agreement, then paused. At some point, the floor of the tunnel had leveled off, for the first time since they’d began their trek. The click of Inferi’s claws on the rock stopped when she halted, and a faraway moaning wind drifted down the chamber toward them. The pair looked at each other, then set off at a brisk jog.

It wasn’t long before a light appeared ahead, glowing from a faint dot until it was large enough to promise an entrance from the cursed tunnels. Inferi and Shani broke into a run, glad for anything that wasn’t a tunnel and flickering mana crystals. Inferi’s long, powerful strides carried her ahead. Instead of shouting for her to slow down, Shani pushed herself even faster, filled with renewed hope.

Several paces ahead, Inferi burst through the archway in the tunnel, then let out a surprised yelp and vanished.

Shani rushed forward, then skidded to a stop. Her momentum jerked her feet out from beneath her and she fell hard, hands scraping the gravel. She blinked and leaned over the edge.

The tunnel had emerged on the side of a cliff with only a short ledge to speak of. In her haste, Inferi had run right off the edge. Below, Shani saw nothing but clouds. The canyon walls rose hundreds of feet overhead and disappeared into the mist below.

“Inferi!” she screamed. There was no reply. She screamed again. Still no sound or sign.

Her Mana Beast wasn’t dead, otherwise she would have returned to Shani reduced to Ward state. She wasn’t hurt badly either, or Shani would have felt some pain through their shared bond. Instead, Inferi was just… gone.

Shani smacked the rock wall with an open palm. Who knew how far the fall was? Shani was not a creature made of mana. If she jumped, she would die.

Cursing Inferi’s recklessness, she peered over the edge again. Nothing but mist. A quick look at the rock walls deterred her from attempting to climb down. The hand and foot holds were there, but small enough that one mistake would send her hurtling to her death. That left only one option in Shani’s mind: she would have to go all the way back down the tunnel and take the passage to the left, then hope it came out at the base of the cliff.

A strange sensation gripped her. She peered over the edge again. The thought crossed her mind that she, too, could jump. She stared over the ledge, wondering what it would be like to freefall through the clouds, completely unburdened.

Shani sat down on the ledge and dangled her feet off the cliff, staring and thinking about a great many things in her life, especially Ubira’s raid. She thought about her husband, whose bones were somewhere out on the plains, blown by the wind and snow atop his funeral scaffold. She ached for him, ached to feel something again that wasn’t hurt or anger.

Another thought crossed her mind: what if she left the totem? Perhaps she could backtrack and find a way out and leave Inferi behind. If Inferi was never defeated in battle, she would never disseminate and return to Shani. She could be free of one burden, at least.

As she battled with these ideas, the mist continued to swirl and churn below. Shani’s breath caught. A shape was forming in the mist, beginning with a large body, then four long legs. The horse’s head came last. When the horse formed completely, the mist rose as if lifting it up into the air. It watched Shani from several paces away. There could be no mistaking the Storm Horse.

The goddess, or an illusion of the goddess, walked across the clouds toward Shani on graceful legs. As it neared, Shani raised a trembling hand and held it out, like she would approach a startled horse. Except she felt like the shaken one in need of calming. The horse’s body rippled with gray clouds, its spectral mane floating in an unknown breeze. Standing just in front of the spot where Shani sat on the cliff side, it lowered its head and touched its nose to her hand.

A rush of confirmation and belonging filled Shani. The Storm Horse knew her as one of her own, regardless of what Mana Beast she’d manifested. Tears sprang into Shani’s eyes. When she blinked, the mist horse was gone.

A choked sob escaped from her and she cried like she hadn’t since she’d been a little girl. Her body shook and she wrapped her arms around herself, feeling alone once more now the Storm Horse had vanished.

In its place, a narrow bridge of gray stone spread across the canyon from Shani’s ledge to the far cliff, just in sight, a bowshot away. Shani stared at it, debating whether to go on or to go back to see if the other tunnel would lead her down to the canyon below.

She didn’t know how long she sat there before finally wiping her face and standing up. Running away solved nothing. She would try the left passage or whatever else it took to find Inferi. With the back of her hand, she removed the rest of her smudged eye paint, checked her weapons and descended back down the tunnel, first at a walk, then a jog.

When she reached the forked passage, she turned down the unexplored tunnel, still at a slow run. This path carried on at a gentle slope and her pace increased. Soon enough, she saw a light ahead. Slowing, she walked to the exit and gazed out into the light.

The tunnel came out on a short hill overlooking a narrow valley at the bottom of the gorge. The ground was covered with fine red sand and the hill she stood on was more like a large dune peppered with sagebrush and tufts of thick, tall grass bunches.

Shani looked up, searching for the bridge and the spot she’d sat above. Thick clouds obscured the sky. With no other choice, she descended the dune, trying to recall how far the lower tunnel had veered in a different direction from the higher path. Without a heading, she could end up wandering in the opposite direction Inferi had fallen.

There was still no sign of the Mana Beast as she stretched out her sense. Aside from knowing Inferi was still alive, she had nothing to go on. There were no signs in the sand either. In fact, she noticed after two or three steps, her footprints vanished behind her. Squaring her shoulders, Shani checked her weapons once more and started down the canyon to the left.

She soon lost track of how far she’d gone. A bright, sourceless sunlight lit the canyon, even though the sky was covered in clouds above. Other than a gentle breeze in her face, she felt nothing, not hot or cold.

As she walked, she examined the canyon walls on either side of her, looking for other bridges or ledges with openings back into the catacombs. The red walls looked to be the same red rock as the Tall Spears and the Wind Bones and were sheer cliffs on both sides. It didn’t take long for Shani to wish something would happen, even if it was an attack or trap. The absolute silence punctuated by the occasional whistling wind was already driving her crazy.

Just when she’d resolved to turn back if nothing changed in the next mile, the canyon opened up before her eyes. She hurried forward to the spot where the cliffs widened and fell away, finding herself standing atop a bluff overlooking a vast prairie. Unlike the Thunder Plains, there were no Tall Spears formations to break up the unending expanse. In the distance below, thousands and thousands of horses—far larger than the largest herd she’d ever seen—grazed on the blue-gray grasses the same color as Shani’s skin.

“How is this possible?” she muttered. There could be no way the physical interior of the totem was large enough to hold the plains she looked out at. The rolling, horse-covered hills stretched as far as her eyes could see, highlighted by brief flashes of lightning unaccompanied by thunder. The sky spoke of a powerful storm brewing, but the horses grazed on, unconcerned.

If Inferi had wandered out into these plains, it could take Shani weeks to find her unless they stumbled upon one another by chance. On second thought, Shani doubted the hyena was out in the middle of the herds. Calm as the horses were, she doubted they would put up with a Mana Beast wandering through their midst. Was that enough reason to turn away and walk back in the other direction? Shani clenched her teeth, frustrated. She was built for action. Like an arrow, meant to be pointed in a direction and loosed. The strange workings inside the totem formed a world she could understand.

Her thoughts fell away as she focused on nothing but the howls of the wind as it gusted across the plains and rustled through the grass. Several moments passed before she realized the rustling was growing louder and louder, no longer peaceful, but like the sound of a war rattle shaken in a ceremony before battle.

Shani jumped to her feet, reaching for her spear. She’d never bothered to string the bow while they were in the close quarters of the tunnels.

Below her, every head of every horse shot up in alarm. They started to run, they soon galloped away by the thousands. The rattling grew so loud, Shani’s teeth felt like they were going to shatter. Her vision jumped from the motion. A tornado appeared, spinning in a blur of gray storm mana and crackling electricity. Before Shani could run, Inferi shot out the side, thrown from the whirlwind.

As Shani watched her Mana Beast free falling, a large, winged figure plummeted out of the sky and scooped the hyena out of the air in its claws. Then it dove for her.