Cass stared down at the paladin’s body. He was dead.

  She was alive.

  But he was dead.

  She—

  She had killed him.

  Salos hopped up next to her. “Good job.”

  Cass nodded mutely.

  “Did an exit open?” Salos asked, already focused on the next task. Already looking to evaluate if killing this man had served them.

  Cass reached out with Atmospheric Sense. The air hadn’t changed. It continued in its strange looping pattern. As trapped as ever.

  Killing this man had done nothing.

  She forced herself to take a deep breath. This man was a torturer. He didn’t deserve her pity. Her sorrow.

  She forced herself to her feet. “The other one?”

  “Passed out,” Salos said. “You expended most of his stamina. Good job. I gave him a good whack to finish the job.”

  She nodded. It was cold.

  “Let’s drag him out of the hall. Maybe this one will know how to get out of here,” Salos continued.

  She nodded and melted the ice off of the man with Elemental Manipulation. It came so easily.

  She hadn’t checked her notifications yet, but she'd be surprised if she hadn’t gotten a level in it.

  “Switch with me,” Salos said when she’d removed the last of the ice.

  She blinked down at him. “Why?”

  “Do you have the Strength to lift him?” Salos asked.

  Cass looked down at the unconscious man. He was no smaller than any of the other paladins they’d run into, more easily compared in size to refrigerators than people. She shook her head.

  “Come on, time’s wasting,” Salos said.

  She activated the skill, closing her eyes as a human and opening them at her feet as a cat.

  Salos didn’t immediately lift their captive. Instead, he moved up the hallway, trying the various doors until he found one which opened. Only then did he return and lift the corpse.

  Cass cocked her head to one side, watching him.

  “Melt as much of the ice as you can,” Salos said as he carried the remains of 32 away and into the open room.

  Ah. They were hiding the evidence.

  How long would it take for someone to find him? She should hope they never did. She should hope that she was long gone, the activities of these monsters reported to the authorities, and that the authorities removed them from the premises before his body was found.

  She focused on the ice instead. It was easier to encourage it to return to room temperature than it had been to drop it down to freezing.

  Focus: 9/549

  There was still a puddle when she was done. Nothing for that. She didn’t have the Focus to evaporate it.

  Salos was back by the time she was done. He hefted 29 up on a shoulder. How her body didn’t crumple under the man’s weight, Cass could only attribute to the magic of stats. Salos must have a lot more Strength than she did.

  Though, even he struggled to move the unconscious man to the open room. Cass followed him inside.

  The room was another storage room, this one full of big crates. A nook had been created in the boxes, just out of sight of the door.

  The glass under her feet whispered through Stone Memory about where he’d put the body. She ignored it. She didn’t need to know. She didn’t want to look.

  Salos dropped their prisoner in the corner of the clear space and riffled through her Bag, frowning the entire time. “You have forgotten about most of this stuff in here, haven’t you?”

  Her eyes flickered closed. Her Focus flickered on the edge of consciousness herself.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  He shook his head, pulling a cord from the Bag and tying the paladin’s legs and arms together.

  “I doubt that will be enough to hold someone with his Strength indefinitely, but it should buy a little time to make him cooperate.” Salos glanced over at her, his frown deepening. “Should you start a fire?”

  Oh. That would help, wouldn’t it? She nodded dumbly.

  “Can you switch us back?” he asked.

  Right. Yes. She did that like this?

  She swayed on her feet as she had only the two of them again. Her body was heavy.

  But she didn’t need to stay standing. She dropped to the floor.

  “Cass!” Salos leapt up to her as she landed on her butt.

  That hurt a little. She was fine. Where was her fire stuff?

  Salos pressed against her leg. He was warm. That was nice.

  She found a log and kindling and her fire striker. It would have been easier to summon fire, but she didn’t have remotely enough Focus for that. She’d have to do it the old-fashioned way. She fumbled the wood and such into a pile.

  Her fingers were numb. She dropped the fire striker.

  She got it the second time. The flames sprang up with warmth and comfort.

  Cass was out before she could put away the striker.

  ***

  Cass jerked awake later. Salos was in her lap. The fire had burned low.

  Salos shifted in her lap. “You’re up.”

  She nodded. They were still in the storage room, the boxes around them untouched. Their prisoner still lay unconscious across the fire from her. The corpse lay among the boxes behind her.

  “They haven’t found us yet?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “We’ve been lucky.”

  How much longer would that luck hold? As long as she could hold on to it, she promised herself.

  She leaned back against a crate and opened her notifications.

  Level Up!

  + 1 Dex

  + 1 End

  + 1 Wll

  + 1 Ala

  + 4 Free Points

  Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 20.

  Wind Step has increased to level 14.

  Stealth has increased to level 13.

  Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 24.

  Tempest Blade has increased to level 17.

  A level and five skill levels. This brought her up to level 24. She was close to the Gate now.

  “What exactly did you end up doing to that other paladin?” Salos asked. “It didn’t look like Skill Injection.”

  Cass nodded. “Tried that first. Cost too much.”

  He nodded. “That makes sense. The further apart the level between practitioner and target, the greater the cost. What did you do instead?”

  “Summoned reverse fire,” Cass said.

  “Reverse fire?” Salos repeated.

  Cass nodded. She held a hand out and demonstrated.

  Elemental Manipulation resisted again, but it was easier this time. Was that an effect of the increased level or the certainty that it was possible?

  With a burst of Focus, a flame-like substance appeared in her palm. It was cold, but not unpleasantly so. It wasn’t very bright, though it produced some blue-tinted, almost silver, light. It danced like fire in her hand. Though, it almost seemed to curl into itself to Cass’s eyes.

  “Astraum?” Salos said.

  “What?” Cass asked.

  He gestured at her little fire. “The flame of the stars, Astraum.”

  Cass snorted. “Is that how stars work here? They’re made of this stuff?”

  “You didn’t know?” he asked. “How did you even summon such a thing if you didn’t know?”

  “Rationalized its existence based on fire,” Cass said with a shrug. She hadn’t really expected it to work. Or for it to produce light. She’d intended to create a simple endothermic reaction. She’d assumed it would be lightless, sucking up the heat and producing… She wasn’t sure how that would work. She supposed she should be happy it had worked out.

  She closed her hand, snuffing out the flame. It was as easy as snuffing out the life.

  “That seemed powerful,” Salos said.

  She nodded. “Funny how quickly a human body shuts down when its core temperature drops that low that quickly.” Funny in a terrifying kind of way. “I imagine if he hadn’t let me keep the dagger in his chest, gloating about his invincibility and everything, he might have lived quite a bit longer. I wonder if he could even feel the cold through his Fortitude.”

  “It’s easy to ignore your body’s warnings if your Fortitude is too high,” Salos agreed. “If one wants to go down that route, Perception is critical. Ideally, one registers their body’s sensations via Perception while blocking the body-stopping pain via Fortitude. Not that it matters for either of us, of course.”

  Cass snorted. She poked at her newest set of wounds, a long gash across her thigh and the cut on her forehead. “I’m not loving these gashes on my body you’ve left me.”

  Salos shrugged. “Learn to use the dagger yourself and we won’t have to do that again.”

  Cass sighed. She couldn’t argue with that.

  Her whole body hurt. She was supposed to be resting still. She probably would have slept all day if she hadn’t been arguing with Alyx. Maybe her Health would be fully recovered by now. Instead:

  Stamina: 124/141

  Focus: 247/549

  Health: 71/134

  That could be worse, but she was still only at half Health. Given all her bonuses, this was probably shockingly good recovery time.

  Somehow, that failed to make her feel better.

  She’d spent way too much Focus in that last fight. Summoning water and then freezing it was not efficient. Would it be cheaper to summon ice directly? Could she even do that?

  She held her hand out, imagining a ball of ice forming in her open palm. The image of the frozen corpse overtook her vision. Her heart leapt to her mouth and the skill dropped.

  “You alright?” Salos asked, his gold eyes trying to meet hers.

  She nodded. She could feel his concern at the edges of her soul. He could see that her little nod was a lie. He probably didn’t need to feel her soul to see it, either.

  But he didn’t press her on it. Just sat against her, warm against her leg.

  There would be time for grief when she was safe. When the dragon was safe. Now she needed to recover what she could.

  For the moment, she needed to do something with the Free Points. More Health and Focus? Or just more power?

  The paladin’s armor was strong. Would she be able to cut through it if she had more Will behind her magic? It couldn’t hurt.

  Wll 82 -> 86