I was on the ground… I think, lying down, maybe. I wasn’t sure. I didn’t feel any pain. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t feel anything. Was I even alive? Well, of course, I was. A dead person wouldn’t have thoughts like this, right?

  Then again, I had already died once and been reincarnated. So, maybe dead people could still think? Like, there is an afterlife, it seems. Perhaps I am dead, or worse, and this is a horrifying thought: I’m paralyzed.

  You’re one hundred percent paralyzed. A surprisingly calm part of me thought, concluding that I was still crazy.

  You’ve always been a bit mentally not well. My astute mind goblin added.

  Which then made me wonder, how did I become paralyzed? Where was I?

  Outside, about fifty feet away from the office building. You were jettisoned at about sixty miles per hour, give or take, and bsted through three walls before plummeting another forty feet into the earth about thirty feet from the generator’s base. As of currently, your legs are twisted and mangled, your neck is broken, your spine is fractured in at least three different areas, one arm is almost entirely ripped off, and you are bleeding profusely.

  Well, fuck. How the hell did I not remember any of that? Let alone survive…

  As mentioned, you are not the most mentally stable. The sensation of being mangled beyond all recognition was quite traumatic. If you’d like, I can show you the memories–

  I discarded that thought. If I were seriously dying right now, I would not want to traumatize myself more than I already am. I needed to act, to do something. But, I couldn’t move or feel; all I could do was think and… Oh, wait, I could feel something. It was small but fierce. Yes, I remembered this now. My well, the power within me, was bubbling forth. I wasn’t done yet; far from it, I could direct it like an invisible hand. A mere thought, a mental push, was all I needed to move this energy to where I needed it.

  Focusing all of my thoughts on the tiny tempest, I directed the energy toward the part of me I felt needed healing the most. Starting with my neck and then my spine. Gradually, as I worked, sensation began to return, and the feeling of bones and muscles knitting themselves together gave the impression of thousands of needles working away inside me. Akin to that sensation of your leg falling asleep from sitting too long before standing abruptly. It wasn’t entirely pleasant.

  As I worked, I directed a small percentage of my ether to my head to tend to whatever may have been busted above from the fall. My main priority there was to restore my hearing, and within seconds, the sensation of pins and needles made its way to my skull. A feeling I had never imagined experiencing and never wanted to again. Not that it was painful, but it was immensely unsettling. Like thousands of little bugs were crawling over me and under my skin, which then gradually began to fade into raw, throbbing pain.

  Yet, as quickly as the pain began to settle in, I divided my energy into focusing on two tasks: one on rejuvenating my body, the second on applying resilience again to numb it.

  You’re pretty efficient at this. The calm goblin stated. How do we know how to do all of this?

  To be honest, I didn’t know. Nor did I want to waste time contempting how I had learned to do this, or really, how I knew how to do anything that had happened in the past… How long has it been?

  You’ve been lying unconscious for roughly fifteen seconds.

  Wait… Has it been only fifteen seconds since I was bsted through the building? Holy shit.

  It’s incredible how fast our minds can think, isn’t it?

  Discarding those stray thoughts, I returned to fixing myself. With the pain numbed and my spinal column almost restored, I spent the next few moments restoring my hearing. Within moments, I could hear and feel air bubbles popping in my head until, finally, the muffled sounds of panicked shouting and screaming rose.

  “Dark Lord, what in the hells is happening?!” A woman shouted.

  “We’re under attack again,” a gruff man yelled. “We need to take cover!”

  “Someone get a doctor! There’s a hurt kid here!”

  “Hurt?! She’s rooting dead!”

  Well, they're about to get quite the surprise. The goblin chuckled.

  Focus, I thought. Help me with my arm, Putinov is still out there.

  Agreed, Fury is eager to finish what’s begun.

  “By the Seven look!” A man gasped. “Look at their arm!”

  “Heavens be, it’s a miracle,” a woman muttered, “it’s pulling itself together!”

  Colors began to pierce the darkness of my vision. Through closed-eyed splotches of multi-colored hues appeared akin to the nebue I’d witnessed within the Cerebellium. I felt the heaviness of my eyelids as I opened them, wincing as the evening sun's sharp light pierced my sensitive retinas. When my eyes adjusted, I saw a small crowd of looming figures standing over me, and amid their overpping voices, I heard a distant arm bring alongside angry shouts.

  I was on my back, gazing up at the sky above me. Near the bottom of my vision, above the few heads of those around me, I could see the looming building and the gaping hole on the second floor where I had been just moments before. Smoke and debris were still billowing out of the hole like a chimney, and as if on cue, they appeared.

  For half a second, I was confused to see my Aunt Saria, bathed in blood and dust, standing upon the edge, gazing down at me, a wicked smile pstered across her face. But the calm voice in my head quickly reminded me that she was no longer my aunt. They were a monster.

  “Alive and kicking, I see,” Putinov called down with arms crossed. “Do you understand now how ridiculous all of this is?” they asked, stepping off the ledge. The crowd around excimed when Putinov did not fall, but instead continued walking on air as if it were solid. “For millennia, I have looked forward to every one of our engagements. Most times, you are wonderful; a glorious dance partner, yet other times, like now, you are pathetic, a let down.” They began stepping downwards, descending from the air as if coming down a flight of stairs.

  I gritted my teeth and grunted softly as my ether began to stitch my nearly severed arm back onto my body. My legs shifted weakly as I tried to push myself away from the encroaching monster. But I couldn’t, my body was still too broken and weak; for that, Putinov was right. I was pathetic. The people around me, the innocents, all of them were in danger, and I couldn’t do anything.

  “When I discovered who you were,” Putinov continued as they descended, “I was delighted-no, I was thrilled.” They threw their arms out wide and beamed. “Finally, there was someone else who could understand me, who could match me, and satiate me after all of this time.” They stepped onto the pavement, and the crowd began to shuffle away. Some began to murmur, but Putinov ignored them. Their eyes focused on me, eyebrows curling up, they looked at me pathetically, and slowly their arms dropped to their side.

  “Do you realize how lonely I was?” They asked softly. “How lonely I still am?”

  “I don’t give a shit about your feelings,” I coughed out as my arm finished healing and I could feel sensation returning to it.

  Their gaze drifted to the ground, their hand curling into a fist. “Many people don’t,” They mumbled and uncurled their fingers and gazed upon their palms. “That is why I’m here, a rejection of my own.” They looked back at me, their eyes bnk. “ I do not bme them, though.” Putinov began to step toward me. “I know that I’m broken, I know that I will never truly fit in with the rest of them.” They began to growl. “But even then, I am still loyal to my father.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, pushing myself up into a sitting position with a grunt, and I noticed my wand lying nearby.

  Putinov smiled. “What I’m getting to is that you and I.” They gestured to me, then themself. “We complete each other, two sides of the same coin, forever to be at odds with one another, but without the other, we cannot be.”

  “Piss off! I don’t even know what the hell you are–”

  “And that is exactly why I am here!” Putinov snapped. “To put an end to this, Anomaly. You and I, we used to mean something. You were the light in my life, the only one who could truly understand me.” They choked up. “Because of you, I was somebody, but then… Then…”

  “Stop right there!” A voice boomed. “Hands where I can see them!”

  The crowd immediately dispersed as a group of armed men and women in a mix of Hein’s Guard uniforms and what looked like everyday streetwear gathered around, weapons raised and trained on Putinov.

  “You abandoned me,” Putinov said in a low voice. “The one light, the one person who was different from all the rest, you abandoned me.” They gred at me, their eyes gzing with seething anger. “After everything I did for you!” They shouted.

  “Hands, now!” A soldier screamed.

  I blinked. And I thought we were mentally unstable, I thought. I began to reach for my wand.

  “You need help,” I said as Putinov stepped toward me, my hands grasping my wand’s wooden handle.

  “Help?” They snorted and shook their head. “No, Echo. I do not need help. I need you to realize that this is all meaningless. A game, a game that you and every single one of these lost souls need to realize is over.” They gestured to the soldiers and me. “We’ve been at this time and time again, for millennia, I’ve expined this.” They jabbed a finger at me. “I am here to help you and everyone else.” Their voice softened again, and their eyes gzed with adoration. “But, you, you are the one I truly want to save, you’re special, different, and I want you to realize that.”

  “What… The fuck?” I muttered. “Putinov, you need help–”

  “That isn’t my name!” They screeched, causing me to jump with a start along with every soldier around us.

  “Hands or we’ll shoot, now!” One of the soldiers yelled back.

  Putinov? Whoever they were, they looked at me with distress. “Say my name!” They demanded.

  “H-Huh?!” I tried to push away while aiming my wand at them.

  They took a step forward. “Say my name!” They yelled again.

  “Not another step!” A woman shouted.

  “I-I don’t know your name!” I shrieked as they took another step, now looming over me. I readied myself to unleash a barrage of fire.

  “Yes, you do! I’ve told you my name–”

  The right half of Saria’s head exploded as the bolt struck her. Blood, bone, and other bits of viscera sprayed across my face as her body stumbled back. Soon, more bsts echoed around me as every soldier began to open fire. Her body jolted and jigged as each round struck her across her chest, arms, and legs until, eventually, her corpse crumpled.

  I y there stunned, my hand still held out as I had tried to shield myself from the gore. I was frozen, eyes wide like saucers as I stared up at where my aunt had just been standing. “Wh-what the hell, what the hell?” I shuddered and finally released the breath I was holding.

  “Jon, secure the body!” The woman soldier I had heard before ordered. “Bussler, gather the Angel.”

  Angel? I blinked and came out of my stupor. My eyes shifted to Saria’s crumpled, bloodied corpse. Then, down at my viscera-caked body. It was like I’d been sprayed with a hose of blood; my clothes were tattered and red, and no sembnce of their original color remained. It took me a few seconds for my brain to register that I was covered in someone else's skin. Their blood, their pieces, and dear god, it made me sick.

  My stomach lurched, and I twisted away from my dead aunt and vomited my guts onto the pavement. My stomach spasmed again, and I emptied the dinner from earlier out of my system and moaned. Tears welled up and streamed down my cheeks as I panted and breathed.

  “Fucking hell,” I whimpered and pushed myself away from the mess, and gred at the corpse beside me. Fury boiled over me, and I jammed a finger at my aunt’s corpse. “And fuck you!” I screamed, though not at her, but at Putinov or whoever he was. “Rot in hell, or wherever the hell you’re from!” My hand shook, my lips quivered, and I choked up. “Oh god, Aunt…” I gritted my teeth, looking at her body, the bolt wounds, her split head. There was no reason even to attempt saving her; the damage was far too much, even I knew I couldn’t…

  Don’t think about it. Not yet.

  A muffled voice of a soldier shouting at me was all I could make out when I used the spell gust to bst off into the air and away from the pavement. My mind was so locked on my goal that I hardly registered my fear of heights when I threw myself high enough into the air, some forty feet up, to be level with the hole Putinov had blown me through. Timing it just right, I angled a bst to unch me toward the gap where I channeled resilience to soften the blow when my lower waist clipped the edge of the hole, and I grunted. Scrambling, I gripped onto a solid chunk of debris, pulled myself back into the building, and felt my stomach sink deeper.

  We had been staying in the office complex in a room toward the center of the building. The number of rooms, ranging from the one I’d been thrown through to the outside, was about two halls, another bedroom, and two offices. Where I stood now was at the edge of one of said offices, or what was left of it. The room was occupied, or it had been when I had been thrown through it. It was like a bomb had gone off in here; cubicles y shattered, typewriters and papers scattered across the floor, and mangled bodies of those who had been in the line of fire when my body came barreling through y sprawled and broken.

  I could see two women, humans, a halfling man, and a vender severed arm, probably an akumaris’, though its owner was nowhere to be seen. My gut sank even deeper, and my breathing grew shallow. My original purpose seemed gone, but–

  No, no, we don’t have time. Focus!

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My purpose was to find my family. I shook my head and tried to banish the scene from my eyes. I focused on the task at hand and rushed forward. I crawled over hole after hole, the destruction only worsening as I went inside. Everything before had happened so fast that I had barely registered what was going on around us during the csh. The building was quickly filling with smoke from a fire that had started in the blood-soaked room when I had lost control.

  I stopped at the newly formed entrance made by my head at the side of a hallway that stretched the length of the building. Peering into the room through the hole, I saw the fire building steadily: a rge chunk of the wall was engulfed in red fmes, and smoke clung to the ceiling above. The inferno swallowed the first hole I had bsted Putinov through, leading back to where everything began. I had to put out the fire to reach my family and keep this pce from colpsing. Yet, the only spell I had at my disposal currently was gust. If this were a small campfire, I could easily snuff it out; however, with how much it’s grown now. I’d quite literally be fanning the fmes.

  Dammit, I need water or something. I thought angrily as I gripped the hole. I could move around it by following the hall to the other side of the office, but that would take time. Time I didn’t have. I could probably check for a public restroom, but I didn’t know where to start looking.

  You could always make water. The calm goblin in my head suggested. Or you’re not making it, but instead taking it.

  What do you mean? I asked myself.

  Remember biology? Natural science? High school in general? Hell, not even high school, this is like second-grade level of–

  Get on with it! I wanted to scream.

  The water cycle: water is almost everywhere. In the air, in you, condensation, it’s all controlled by temperature and shit. The stuff surrounds you; you’re made of it! Now draw upon that!

  That was an interesting and hopeful idea. Except, I didn’t know how to do anything like that. I wasn’t taught how to draw upon an element without being around it. When I practiced water magic with my mother, we were camping by the river in the mountains. Or in the backyard with a bucket or by a puddle. The same with fire, at first, until my mother taught me how to control friction to create sparks. Even Alexander, a far more powerful wizard than my mother, trained me during our brief time together to always carry some water, which I unfortunately did not have now.

  Never in my short time learning magic was I trained to perform it without the necessary components already given to me. Today alone was the first time I performed feats without knowing how I was doing them. That was the issue… It felt like instinct, like preprogramming, like I already knew but didn’t know how or why. Was I preprogrammed to understand how to summon water like Jesus Christ?

  There’s only one way to find out. The calm goblin said, and I gritted my teeth.

  I closed my eyes and began to channel. I took a deep breath, cleared my mind as best I could, and let the power within surge. My well swelled with ether. The pulsing pleasure of the tempest radiated out from my core and spread to every inch of my body. My skin felt softer and more sensitive, and the inferno in the other room felt more intense as it burrowed into me.

  As the power grew, I began to focus on what I wanted. I already knew my thoughts and intentions could direct the power. Like with healing, if I gave it a goal, like little workers in a strategy game, the ether tried its best to complete my command. At least, that’s the best way I could make myself understand it. Unlike what I’ve been taught so far from my mother and Alexander, ether, and magic in general, didn’t seem as grounded as they made it out to be. At least not to me; the rules in pce for them seemed more like suggestions when applied to me.

  Why was this the case? I had no clue, and frankly, I didn’t care. If I had to guess, I think it had something to do with Shaed. A while back, I vaguely recall when we first met, he gave me something. A boon, he had called it, but at the time, he had said it had to do with deepening my well, or so I thought. It had been a while.

  All I knew now was that my power exceeded anything I’d expected. From the outset, I’ve consistently demonstrated great potential. My gusts were too powerful, my sparks of fire exploded like artillery, and I could use water to cut metal. All without needing to be trained. So why would putting out a fire blocking my path be difficult?

  It shouldn’t. I concentrated on the oxygen around me and the moisture in the air. The air around me swelled and shifted as I channeled a gust. Circuting the air, I let it cool, and the moisture grew denser. I drew upon the humidity, and in moments, I could hear water bubbling as a ball of it materialized in the air before me.

  At first, it was small, but as the wind from outside blew into the open interior, it grew. Within seconds, the sphere of translucent water bulged outwards, rising to become rger than my torso. With a determined look, I unsheathed my wand, pointed it at the hole leading into the smouldering room, and sent the sphere of liquid inside.

  Once it was inside, my fingers spyed out, and I ordered the ball of water to explode outwards. Within seconds, a roar of heated steam billowed out of the hole. Using gust, I blew most of the steam out of my way and smothered any remaining embers before stepping inside.

  The smell was awful—a foul mix of roasted flesh, burnt blood, charred wood, and paint. I cupped my hand over my nose and grimaced as I peered around the smoke and steam-filled room. My eyes watered as they stung from lingering smoke, though I managed to dampen the sensation and make my way toward the first hole where I had thrown Putinov through; thankfully, the fire hadn’t caught in the adjacent room.

  I made a quick effort to hop through the hole and quickly made my way through the ruined interiors of those that followed. Finally, I arrived at the pce where everything went to hell, our guest bedroom. When I climbed through the gap in the wall and dropped onto the debris-cluttered floor, I took just a second to scan my surroundings, something I hadn’t done before in the heat of the moment.

  As expected, things weren’t good. Much of the room still looked the same, albeit with the massive hole I crawled through. The bed Isa ordered Saria to sit on was blown back, its frame upended, and the feathered mattress, leaning against the back wall, was ripped and spyed on the floor.

  To my horror, Uncle Aenorin was sprawled along the opposite wall from me, unmoving, and I couldn’t tell if he was breathing. And Isa… She was there, bloodied, and slumped against the dresser to my right, also not moving.

  There is no time to check on them. Just keep moving. You need to check on Father and Varis, the calm voice said. If you must, toss them some healing, but keep moving.

  A smart idea. If they were alive, they’d get something to relieve the pain, maybe even prolong them long enough until I can tend to them. So, that’s what I did. I quickly went over to Isa and pced a hand on her shoulder. If one thing was for sure, she was still warm to the touch. Then again, it hadn’t been that long. If she were dead, her body would need time to cool–

  Stop thinking about that, focus. The goblin instructed.

  I bit my lip and cleared my mind. Channeling rejuvenation through me, green dancing wisps of light swelled in the air as I gave Isa my ether. Within seconds, the bruises and tears I could visibly see on her form were already beginning to recede, and that alone eased the weight on my shoulders. Pushing away from Isa, I then went to Aenorin and repeated this. To my relief, the man gave off an audible breath when I cast my spell.

  “If you can hear me,” I said as his body twitched. “You’re hurt, badly, I can’t tend to you fully just yet, but this will help. Don’t move. I’ll be back.” I got no response, nor did I pn to wait for one.

  Standing up, I ran out of the broken-down door into the main hall, where my father and brother now y beside one another.

  That’s not right. I thought, at first, but then I saw them.

  They were not alone. Lucien, the Frenchman from the powerpnt, and a few individuals I didn’t recognize, probably some of Mr. Rosewall’s employees, were crowding around my family.

  “Back away from them!” I shouted, startling a few of the workers. They jerked back and, to their credit, did as I asked.

  I ran toward my father and brother. Lucien straightened up and stepped back as I dropped to my knees beside my father, or what was left of him. His skin was darkened with bruises and splotches of blood; his clothes were singed and torn. Yet his face, the expression he wore, was almost peaceful, as if he were in a peaceful slumber. I nervously reached out with my right hand, gingerly pced it on his neck, and checked for a pulse, the way Kegan had shown me during the short time I had worked for him.

  I almost fell into despair when I sensed nothing. That is, until a faint little pulse echoed from his heart. It was beating slowly, but weakly.

  “I did what I could to stabilize them,” Lucien said softly from behind, his voice solemn. “I came as quickly as possible when I sensed the power surge. I’m sorry I couldn’t arrive quicker.” He sounded genuinely remorseful, yet part of me wanted to shout at him. The fury from before boiled inside of me; it wanted me to release it. It wasn’t right, hell, none of this was correct, but I knew shing out at those around me wouldn’t help. So, despite the pain of it all, I bit my tongue and held it in.

  “Don’t be sorry,” I said gruffly. “None of us expected this to happen.” I reached out to my father and pced a hand on his forehead. The damage was severe, but it wasn’t the worst I had seen when compared to the soldiers I had healed weeks ago. I could fix him; I had to fix him.

  I took a deep breath and began to draw upon my well. Motes of light phased through the floor beneath me, eliciting gasps from the workers while Lucien watched ftly. I concentrated the power through my arm and into my father, directing it to restore him with a simple memory of how I had seen him. Happy, fit, strong, and, more importantly, loving. I remembered the day he taught me how to shoot; how excited he was when Varis revealed his skills with the cycler. That was the man I wanted to bring back; he was the one I couldn’t lose.

  I continued to channel my power into him, giving him as much ether as I could muster. Gradually, the bruises on his flesh receded, the blood spots faded, and, noticeably, the aging brought on by years of stress began to fade. Small wrinkles around his eyes vanished, and a few of his grey hairs returned to having that dirty blonde color. Around us, the motes of light began to dance and twirl, bobbing up and down before zipping toward the spectators with almost excited glee. Workers gasped, yelped, and ducked out of the way as the balls of essence zoomed around as if they were alive.

  One of which floated down in front of me. It was about the size of a softball, rger than the palm of my hand but no bigger than my face. I couldn’t help but focus on it as it distractedly bobbed up and down as if trying to get my attention. I almost wanted to shoo the thing away, but refrained from doing so as it continued to dance and jig before me.

  “What is this?” I muttered. “I’m working here, go!” I ordered it, and the little ball wiggled before sinking to my father’s chest. I sighed, shook my head, and tried to focus on the spell when the little mote began to bounce rapidly. “By the Seven, go away!” My concentration shattered, and thus, the spell dissipated.

  “It’s trying to help you,” Lucien said calmly, almost soothingly, as he knelt beside me, and I frowned. “Look, it’s a Life Soul, wisps are what they’re commonly known here.”

  I rolled my eyes and huffed. I didn’t have time for a history lesson. “I never heard of them, Mother never mentioned anything about them.” I muttered, “How is it going to help?”

  “Well, look at it,” he gestured to the little wisp that eagerly bounced up and down on father’s chest. “It’s asking for permission.”

  “Permission for what?”

  “Permission for you to channel it’s energy into him, Luna,” Lucien expined. “Its easy, I think.”

  “You think?” I frowned.

  Lucien shrugged. “I mainly deal with Light Souls, but the process I’ve been told is mostly the same. Open yourself up to it, allow yourself to share your Well.”

  “If you know this, why don’t you help my brother while I help my father?"

  Lucien shook his head. “Spirimancy doesn’t work like that, Luna.”

  “Spirimancy? This isn’t–”

  “It is, you’ve always been using it. Now, just focus.”

  I blinked. “Fine, okay…” I looked to the little wisp that was beginning to fade. “Wh-what’s happening? It’s going away!” I started to panic.

  “Because you’ve closed off your well, start channeling again and concentrate on helping your father. Doing so will bridge the gap between here and the Threshold.”

  “The what–”

  “Just do it.”

  You should listen to him. The calm goblin said, and I cmped my mouth shut and nodded.

  I took a deep breath and focused again on channeling rejuvenation as the power in my core swelled. The little wisp before me brightened once more and bounced almost ecstatically. My eyes locked onto the little ball of light, and my lips pursed as I thought about communicating with this little thing. Lucien had said I needed to open up to it, but how was I supposed to do that? What did that even mean?

  Well, the first step is to stop thinking, the goblin said. Mother and Alexander taught us that magic is rooted in emotion and our state of mind. We'll get nowhere if we keep questioning ourselves and the situation instead of taking action. Focus, meditate, and do what needs to be done.

  The calm part of me was right. I needed to get this over with and act. It wasn’t easy, though. Seeing my father and brother injured like they were, so easily broken by the thing that controlled Saria, made me feel useless. In their moment of need, I couldn’t help them.

  Focus! Stop spiraling. Clear your mind and do this.

  I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, and deeply breathed. I inhaled, held my breath briefly, and exhaled. I repeated this three times until my thoughts seeped away like water evaporating into steam. With each vanishing thought, my muscles began to rex, the throbbing pain that covered my entire body started to fade in my mind, and I felt immensely exhausted. But I held firm as I sensed the power within me grew. Overpping that pain, the pleasurable sensation of ether began to bubble forth, and the fatigue I felt gave way to energetic tremblings as I felt something wash over me.

  A wave of euphoria made me gasp as it bloomed within me. The air, once filled with the scent of burnt wood, paint, and ozone, was blown away and repced with the freshness of spring as the flowers blossomed. A surge of energizing power exploded from me, and I heard the watching group gasp while one man cheered.

  “You’re doing excellent!” Lucien said. “Now, focus your spirit on healing those here.”

  And I did just so. I opened my eyes and did my best not to be distracted by what I saw, as everything around me and myself had changed. Like steam rising from a kettle, an ethereal green light seeped from my skin and coiled into the air before evaporating. Dozens of green wisps flew and danced around me, and when I raised my hand and mentally directed them to help my father and brother, they descended upon them like a swarm of tiny doctors.

  It’s like when I healed everyone during the prison break. I thought as I watched the wisps work. Have I really been doing this since the start?

  It’s possible. The goblin said. We don’t know what Shaed did to us or if we’ve just been natural.

  In mere moments, I saw my father and Varis lie beside each other, healthy and safe. The little green wisps rose from their bodies and pranced in the air, pying and wiggling as if joyful of a job well done before abruptly coalescing into a rge ball and zipping down the hall toward the bedroom, where this all began.

  “Wh-where are they going?!” I said, standing to follow.

  “What did you direct them to do?” Lucien asked.

  I blinked. “To heal everyone,” I said just as my father began to sputter and cough. I spun around and got down beside him once again. “Papa! Stay still, you were hurt.”

  Father sucked down breath after breath before gagging. “Gods be… Th-thank you, Luna…” He cleared his throat and looked at me weakly. “Saria, wh-where is she? Where is your aunt?”

  My stomach sank. “Sh-she’s…” I trailed off, and he closed his eyes and let off a low groan.

  “Roots take the being who did this…” He grumbled, then looked back at me. “What about the rod? The power core she had, have you or anyone secured it?”

  My eyes widened. “What?”

  “The package arch-krek-head gave her,” He said with a grunt, “We need to get that before it’s inserted into–”

  “They’re still alive!” Lucien suddenly blurted, just when an eruption of gunfire from the outside interrupted us, as shouts and screams of fear and agony echoed. Without a word, Lucien bounded toward the hole in the wall.

  “Wh-what’s going on?” One of the lingering workers asked.

  My stomach tightened as I looked at them, and for a brief moment, I hesitated. Fear coiled inside me, and I gazed down at my family. A part of me wanted to stay and protect them, to possibly even gather them and leave, to hide.

  “Luna,” My father said hoarsely. “You need to stop them.” He grunted as he lifted his head. “You might be the only one who can. Whatever it is they’re doing, it can’t be completed.”

  “But Lucien went out there,” I said, “He can probably stop them.”

  “And you can help him,” He said. “That thing… Whoever has Saria, you saw how strong they are. I trust you can do this, you’ve already beaten them twice.”

  “The first time the Master was controlling me, a-and I almost got killed earlier!”

  “I know,” He said softly, “But what if Lucien gets hurt out there. Who will heal him?”

  My jaw set. He’s right. If Lucien falls, the only one left to stop them is us–

  A loud crack split the air, and the world shifted suddenly. Once again, everything turned negative as light gave way to dark and dark gave way to light. My brain screamed like someone had driven a spike through it, and everyone around me dropped to their knees. My father gasped and groaned as the world seemed to shatter briefly around us, yet as quickly as everything changed, it reverted.

  I sat back, gasping for air. My head throbbed, and sweat began to form on my brow. My hands clenched into fists, and inside, I could feel the boiling anger behind that door starting to seep out again—the fury that allowed me to go toe to toe with that thing briefly.

  It’s time we go punch them down again. Fury purred. We end this now.

  I pushed myself to my feet and looked down at my father. “I’ll be back,” I said.

  “And I’ll make sure to watch over your brother,” he said. “And, Luna… Don’t be reckless.”

  Recklessness is how we’ve caught them off guard. It makes us unpredictable. Fury cooed.

  Yes, but it can also lead to our demise. The calmness added.

  “I’ll try not to be,” I said, turning away from him and beginning to trot towards the makeshift exit.

  It was time to end this now…

  “A strange man he was, tall, smooth skinned, and pale. His eyes were small like that of kendo beans yet round and colorful like the bulb of shenia in spring. He looked nothing like that of our cnsman or distant cousins across the Chaunden, yet he spoke our nguage, and others like that unheard. Kadriel he said his name was, herald from beyond.” - Unnamed Kazoran scripture.

  ImmortanJoJo