“Pick up the pace! No slacking!”

  Maeryn gasped for air as she forced her aching, exhausted body to keep running. She didn’t even have the energy to wipe the sweat from her forehead, and it was starting to drip into her eye. Depths and damnation, she hated Limit Day.

  Geovan Hunters had a pretty strict regimen to ensure that its members stayed in excellent shape. That was just simple necessity when your job involved fighting for your life regularly. There were mandatory group workouts, team trainings and the like. But once per month was the dreaded Limit Day, where the trainers did their level best to push the hunters to and past their limits. After all, it was impossible to expect people to do their best if they didn’t know what their best was.

  Maeryn knew all this. She knew there was perfectly good reason for the torture she was undergoing. But that didn’t stop her from absolutely loathing the monthly endurance and strength tests. It always left her a wretched mess, barely able to move or feed herself afterwards. And woe betide her if she failed to eat something afterwards. She’d made that mistake exactly once.

  Lying in bed, exhausted, in full body pain, and having her stomach screaming at her with hunger nausea was one of the worst experiences of her life.

  If Maeryn’s heart pounded any faster, she was going to have a heart attack, she just knew it. But she kept going, wearily pushing herself. The trainers wouldn’t let her go until she literally dropped from exhaustion, and they would know if she faked it. They always knew. Somehow.

  Time stretched on as Maeryn’s sight blurred. How much of it was from the sweat dripping into her eyes, and how much was a failure to get enough oxygen? She had no idea.

  “Good job, Maeryn. C’mon, let’s get some water in you.” Her trainer, a middle-aged super-fit woman named Agatha, heaved Maeryn to her feet. When had she fallen? Oh. She must’ve finished collapsing. She almost wanted to cry in relief.

  Agatha walked her over to a bench and gave her a tall glass of water. “Remember to drink slowly,” she warned Maeryn, who could only give her a weak nod.

  It took everything she had not to guzzle the blessedly cold beverage as she slowly regained her senses. Finally, when she felt like she could speak again without gasping for air, Maeryn hoarsely asked her trainer the question that she always asked at the end of these brutal sessions. “So… how’d I do?”

  “You did good, kid. Better numbers than before you left, believe it or not.” Agatha frowned, looking at her papers. “Also, next time you skip out for two months, you better give me notice or I’ll beat your ass.”

  Maeryn could only chuckle weakly. She hadn’t warned anyone before stealing the airship Stonewing with her friends Frankie and Dan, and she was pretty sure that the only reason Agatha hadn’t dragged her into the ring for a no-holds-barred spar was the fact that Maeryn had literally saved all of Geova from the Mist before coming back.

  “Gotta ask, though. What kind of workouts were you doing up away from us? This kind of growth is good, and if you’ve got suggestions, maybe we can incorporate some of it.” Agatha turned away from her papers and gave Maeryn her full attention.

  “I, uh… to be honest, I didn’t really do much by way of workouts,” Maeryn admitted. “I did some, but I was too busy with everything else to be consistent about it. But, I did end up in a few fights for my life. Had to use Body Enhancement a few times. Overdid it pretty badly once and had to heal up afterwards.”

  Body Enhancement magic granted its users superhuman speed and strength for a time, and even dulled the pain in the duration… but there was a cost. It added strain on the various parts of the body responsible for those movements. Mild use would just leave Maeryn sore, as if she’d gone through a satisfying workout. But going all out without a care would be a fast way for her tendons and ligaments to tear, leaving her in helpless agony and potentially destroying any chance of ever healing properly.

  Agatha grunted. “Body Enhancement, eh? Pushed yourself to the point of collapse, I imagine?”

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  “Yeah.”

  “That explains it. Life or death struggle, Body Enhancement pushed to the limit… yeah, of course you’d be stronger after that.” Agatha jabbed her pencil into Maeryn’s shoulder, and she winced in pain. “But don’t make a habit out of it! Break your body too often and you won’t recover. Seen more than enough idiots make that happen. And you’re not an idiot. So don’t act like one.”

  “Right.” Maeryn had pushed the limits on Zephyr, the capital city of the Zephyrians, and had been left a miserable, whimpering mess afterwards bracing for days of healing just to get on her feet again. Thankfully, a spell from Ernesto massively accelerated her body’s natural healing, which had saved her from that, in exchange for leaving her absolutely ravenous. But it still wasn’t an experience she wanted to repeat. “I’ll remember that.”

  “You better.” Agatha’s voice was sharp, promising dire consequences if Maeryn disregarded her, but then she nodded, apparently willing to drop the subject. Maeryn wasn’t surprised; Agatha wasn’t one to repeat herself if she didn’t need to, and they had a mutual understanding. She knew that Maeryn had a decent head on her shoulders, and there was no point in continuing to belabor the issue.

  They sat in silence for a time as Maeryn continued to sip her water.

  “So, what’s your plan now, oh Heroine of Geova?” Agatha asked suddenly.

  Maeryn winced. She hated that title so very, very much. “Please don’t call me that. Dan and Ernesto were the real heroes.”

  “And you were their leader, and everyone agrees they never would have succeeded without you. So suck it up and answer the question.” Agatha folded her arms and narrowed her eyes aggressively, nonverbally daring Maeryn to deny her.

  Maeryn shot her an aggravated look, but backed down in the face of Agatha’s pointed stare. “Gonna fly back up to Cloudreach tomorrow. The Elders have rounded up some people they want to learn holy magic, and they want me to try to keep the peace. Because, you know, necromancers.”

  The only one so far who had managed to learn and use proper holy mana at all was Ernesto, and he’d started as a necromancer. Even Dan, who had been working with Ernesto for their whole journey so far, still hadn’t grasped holy mana at all. That said, the two necromancers from the Zephyrian Research Council that had surrendered to them—Owen and Oscar—were making promising headway on holy mana, able to use unstable variants of it.

  That had led everyone to the uncomfortable realization that holy magic required a thorough grounding in necromancy… meaning that people would need to learn the forbidden art before they could even begin to touch its antithesis. That conclusion hadn’t gone over well.

  Agatha snorted in derision. “Bah! People can be idiots, but this takes the cake. Right now we’re all relying on those necromancers, and some people think they’re entitled to give ‘em all sorts of abuse anyway.”

  Maeryn could only nod. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand where the dissenters were coming from; necromancy had been forbidden since before she was born, due to someone accidentally reintroducing ancient plagues to the people. Thousands upon thousands had died, and what little history remained of that time told horrific stories that wholly justified banning necromancy entirely.

  But circumstances had changed. Necromancy was now the key to survival. That kind of fear didn’t go away overnight, even when the Elders explained everything. But was it really that hard to just… not be verbally abusive to people you didn’t like?

  For some people, it seemed, the answer was yes. Maeryn’s faith in humanity was swiftly degrading as a result.

  “You’d think surviving an apocalypse would make people grateful,” Maeryn muttered, shaking her head. Agatha just rolled her eyes, as if to say she wasn’t holding her breath. “Anyway. Yeah. I’m going to go home, eat something, and collapse in bed so I’m halfway decent for tomorrow.”

  Agatha nodded briskly, her face softening slightly. “Try not to exert yourself too much. Rest days are mandatory for a reason.”

  Maeryn gave her a weak thumbs up, biting back a flinch at just how sore her arms felt. “Yeah. Noted. Ow.”

  Agatha’s lips twitched as she held back a laugh. “Alright then, Heroine. Get going. And let me know when you get back.”

  “Will do.” With some effort, Maeryn got to her feet and let out a slow breath. “Again. Ow.”

  This time there was no hiding the snort of laughter, and Agatha’s voice was warm as she wished Maeryn well.

  Maeryn waited until she was out of sight from Agatha before carefully channeling mana. She still wasn’t super-familiar with this spell, but she’d made a point of learning it from Ernesto before leaving Cloudreach. “Vitality Boost.”

  The spell was technically necromancy, but Maeryn couldn’t bring herself to care, not with all the benefits it provided. By supercharging her body’s digestion, it accelerated strength and stamina recovery… and her body’s rate of healing. It would also leave her willing to eat her body weight in food, or at least make her best attempt at it. “I’m going to have thirds at that barbecue place tonight,” she murmured with a mischievous grin.