Ana looked toward her troops. Her students. They were closing on the gate. They’d be fine.

  Turning back wasn't even a conscious decision. As she started her sprint to intercept Ray, she left her Party. She needed to be able to invite Ray, and Petra led the Party she was already in. She noted in passing that Messy went with her when she left. The others would feel the loss of of bonuses, but they were only seconds from safety. They’d be fine.

  She had no idea what the range was to join a party, so she simply started spamming invitations as she ran.

  Nothing.

  Nothing.

  Nothing.

  Even from a hundred yards out, Ana could see when the bonuses from Bastion hit her friend. Rayni stumbled from the surprise of it but recovered gracefully. When she looked up there was a flash of teeth; Ana imagined she must have just felt Indefatigable kick in, making fatigue future Ray’s problem.

  They met about three seconds later. Ray didn’t even slow down, just a nod and a passing, gasping, “Thank you!”

  The turf tore under Ana’s boots as she reversed course, soon catching up to Rayni. Her eyes were on the crazies in the south. They were still coming fast. This was going to be tight.

  Really tight.

  The shouts of encouragement from the walls and those waiting at the gate suddenly got louder and more frantic. Ana saw some of the crazies tearing ahead of the horde, lean and muscular and far too fast. Arrows, bolts and spells sliced through the air from the walls; the shots were at long range, but some still found their mark. Not enough. The ground turned into a frozen, grasping marsh, as far south and west as the support casters could manage. Not far enough.

  They wouldn't make it.

  Ana learned something useful, at least. The moment that the crazies got within a hundred and ten yards of them, the range of her danger sense, was also when her bonuses kicked in. They’d been off and on since the first fight, only minutes ago, but every time was just as intoxicating.

  The last of the militia vanished through the gate, and closing and barring it would take time. But they’d planned for that.

  “Close the gates!” Ana roared as she ran. “Close the gates now! Ray, to the right! Rope ladders!”

  Then Ana turned south, to the dismayed cries of the watchers on the wall. But they didn't see what Ana saw. At the speed and angle they were going, the crazies were going to intercept them. They were going to intercept Ray. That was unacceptable. Ana wasn't going to allow anyone to get hurt. Not one person.

  She was going to make sure that the only one at risk was herself. And she was not going to let them touch her.

  When Ana hit the first of the crazies, a big, muscular guy, she did so with something closer to a hurdle jump than a flying kick. Ana wasn't big. She wasn't heavy. She might have bounced off. But mass was only half of the equation, she remembered that much. The other half was speed, and at an effective Strength of over 50 there was no human who ever lived on Earth that could have dreamed of matching her sprint. She must have been doing ninety when her booted heel struck the man in the forehead. She continued over him; his upper body tried to go with her, as his lower half tried to continue forward. The combined effect was that he stopped and spun, flipping backward before landing, twitching, in the grass.

  The impact threw Ana into a horizontal spin, but between an Agility of almost 60 and her Combat Acrobatics Perk she landed fighting. She used the momentum, lashing out with the axehead of her weapon and taking her next opponent’s forward leg off at the knee. With the force of her blow the weapon barely slowed, and she danced out of their way. Then the clump of forerunners were on her, throwing themselves at her to tear her apart. But Ana wasn't some hapless victim in a zombie movie. She was a terrier in a rat pit.

  With hammer-axe and shield, with feet, knees and elbows, Ana cut loose. She stopped worrying about appearances, and about doing the right thing. She just fought.

  There had been a little voice in her head these past weeks, ever since the Delve, asking one simple question. It wondered just what she, with her massively enhanced Attributes, was capable of. She’d wondered just what she was. Now she found out.

  Against mere humans, Ana was death.

  The crazies did not come one by one. They fell on her, two dozen against one, and Ana danced among them, a scythe before wheat. With Endurance, she did not tire. With Perception she saw every detail, and heard every movement behind or beside her. With Acuity she kept track of it all, and Agility made sure that wherever teeth, grasping, claw-like nails, or simply the press of bodies was, she was not. With Dexterity, her every blow was sure. With Strength, those blows didn't merely kill; they destroyed. Joints were pulverized, bones splintered, organs pulped. Limbs flew. Blood rained.

  Ana maneuvered so she was facing north, and a quick look showed Rayni close to the palisade. Good. A tall, skinny woman came at Ana from the right. Ana pulled her axe from the skull of the man in front of her, used his bent knee as a stepping stone, and smashed her buckler into the woman’s face as she flipped backward over someone trying to grab her. The entire front of the woman's head simply crumpled with a wet crunch. As she passed above the attacker from behind, her leg snapped out, splintering the back of his skull and sending him tumbling forward to trip up yet another of the crazies. She fought with absolute focus, and she couldn’t be touched.

  Ana fought on like that for what felt like minutes, but could only have been seconds. Then she stood in a small field of bodies, the stench of blood heavy on the air. The closest standing opponents were twenty yards away, arrows and flashes of fire and lightning raining down among them.

  Ana had some space, so she turned and ran.

  Rayni was vaulting over the top of the wall. There was no reason for Ana to stay any longer, and the horde was coming. So she ran. She ran so hard and fast that she heard the air tear around her, right toward the wall and the sharpened stakes. Faces gawped down at her as she seemingly tried to impale herself, but fifteen feet out she dropped her weapon and shield and pushed off, leaping above the stakes and slamming into the palisade hard enough that Rayni, waiting for her, swayed on her feet. The impact was enough to rattle even Ana’s teeth, and she would have bounced off and down if not for her Unbreakable Grip on the rope ladder. As it was she shook her head once, then scaled the few feet to the top.

  She hauled herself over the top and onto the walkway behind it, landing on her back to the sound of her own name being cheered. Her bonuses faded and fatigue set in as Indefatigable wore off, but she was alive. Everyone was alive. Rayni knelt beside her, taking heaving breaths and looking like she might hug Ana but was holding back. Then Sendra appeared behind Rayni saying, “Ana, hold your breath, would you?” and cold wetness started traveling up and down her limbs before finally reaching her face. She just let it happen. She was too tired and too high on adrenaline to protest or try to defend herself against the watery assault. Instead she checked the bunch of notifications that she’d been ignoring. She may not get any notifications for killing crazies, but she’d been using her Skills more intensely for those — What? Ten minutes? Less? — than any time before.

  Wow. That was… Wow. Some Advancement Points, a bunch of Crystals, and a Perk that should prove damned useful in the coming days. She felt a little conflicted about that last Achievement, but Points were Points, and she couldn’t afford to be picky about where they came from.

  When Sendra’s ball of water had done its job, cleaning Ana the best it could, Ray straddled her, grabbed her by the collar and pulled her up into a fierce, seated hug.

  “Thank you!” Ray said, low enough that only Ana had a chance of hearing it, then sniffled. “Thank you so much. And I’m sorry. So fucking sorry for putting you in danger like that. I watched you from the treeline, and the… whatever they are — people? — between me and the outpost all moved away south, and I just had to take my chance. I hadn’t realized how close that swarm was. They would have got me if you hadn’t—”

  Ana hugged her back. It seemed like the thing to do. “It’s all right, Ray. It’s fine. I’m fine. And you’re here.”

  “Gods beyond, Ana, I’ve been so scared. There’s so many of them out there. Demons, too. It’s— It’s bad.”

  “I see that you hit level 13 though. Well done!”

  Rayni pulled back a little so they could see each other, and smiled. “Oh, yeah! I—”

  “Angel!”

  Messy’s frantic cry was accompanied by quick footsteps that Ana could feel through the walkway. Then, there she was. She didn’t so much push Rayni away from Ana as squeeze in between the two, using herself as a wedge to pry them apart until she sat in Ana’s lap. She grabbed Ana’s face in both hands, her vivid amber eyes locking on Ana’s own, and there was a storm of emotion there. Raw anger and fear, joy and relief, sheer amazement, more than a little lust and a silent plea for permission. “Fucking hell, Ana, what was that? What were you thinking? What did you—?”

  The moment that Ana nodded, her eyes telling Messy that it was okay, Messy interrupted herself by pressing her lips to Ana’s, a hot, hard and desperate kiss that Ana couldn’t do anything but return. Ana understood. God, she understood. She felt so alive. She wanted to scream out her victory, to celebrate, to show this small, contained world what they’d accomplished. Messy wanted the same. She had a different way of expressing it, but Ana was not going to deny her, not in this of all moments.

  After an indeterminate amount of time they broke apart, staring at each other again over the sound of both of them breathing heavily.

  “So,” Rayni said, awkwardly filling the silence. “I guess that dinner date I set you up on worked out?”

  Messy’s eyes widened, and she twisted halfway around, looking up. “Oh! Oh, gods, Rayni, I’m so sorry! And I’m so glad you’re all right! Here!” She twisted around and pulled Rayni into a short, awkward hug. “Ana said that you were still alive out there, but with the crazies—”

  “Aw, shit,” Ana groaned. “The crazies!” She listened, but couldn’t hear the angry, feral voices of the horde anywhere close. Only a faint thunder of a multitude of feet in the distance. “What happened to them?”

  “They turned around once you crested the wall,” Sendra said, looking and sounding extremely embarrassed. “The archers have been picking them off, but they got out of range while you were—” she waved her hand at Messy and Ana. “Busy.”

  Ana became suddenly very aware of the fact that Messy was straddling her, and how closely they were pressed to each other. She decided that she didn’t care, wrapping an arm around Messy’s waist to keep her in place and pull her even closer. “So it’s over? For now?”

  “Looks like.”

  Ana wrapped her other arm around Messy, but this time it was more to keep herself upright as she allowed herself to melt into her girlfriend. “Good. Good. That means that we can rest. And we’ll need it. We’re doing the same thing again tomorrow.”

  “I—” Messy swallowed hard, and as she whispered, her voice broke. “I don’t know if I can.”

  Yeah. That was no surprise. Messy’s voice had been so empty out there, after the first fight, when she remarked on how they didn’t even get a system message for killing the crazies. “Like we’re killing animals,” she’d said, or something like it. She’d fought on, but it had been mechanical. Disconnected.

  “It’s okay,” Ana whispered back. “You don’t have to. But you did good out there. You were brave, and you didn’t hesitate, or hold back. So sleep on it, okay? And if you don’t want to go out again, I won’t ask you to. I won’t think any less of you, and I won’t want to be with you any less because you’re not a killer. All right?”

  “All right,” Messy whispered, but she didn’t sound convinced. She needed more reassurance.

  “I mean it, Mess.” Ana stroked her girlfriend’s braids gently. “This, whatever we have between us, it has nothing to do with that. There’s nothing shameful about not being willing or able to kill. It doesn’t make you weak, or a coward, or anything like that. I won’t pretend that we don’t need you, but I’d rather have you helping in here, feeling like you’re being useful and making a difference, than have you be miserable and hating yourself out there.”

  “You’d be wasting a Party slot,” Messy protested. “I’d just be taking up space.”

  “No. Having you in my Party will never be a waste. You have no idea how much peace of mind it gives me to know that you’re safe. It lets me focus on other things, okay? Don’t worry about that.”

  Messy didn't say anything. She just nodded into Ana’s neck.

  By the time they got up, the high was gone and the adrenaline crash was setting in. Getting off the wall was a chore. The base of the steep stairs was crowded with cheering, chattering, or merely gawking people, militia and curious bystanders alike, and as much as Ana wanted to just shove them aside and go hide somewhere, that was not an option.

  Well, technically it was. She had more than enough strength, speed, and agility to disappear if she wanted to. It just wouldn't do anyone any good in the long run. So instead she had to wear her most sociable mask and spend time smiling, clasping hands, exchanging words of celebration and a hundred other things with everyone in her way. All the while Messy clung to her, refusing to let go. Ana took the opportunity to look around for Tellak and the captives, but they were nowhere to be seen. Tellak, stable and dependable as she was, had probably headed straight to the cells under the guardhouse, where they’d be keeping their captured crazies.

  When Ana had finally made it to the other side of the crowd — and thank God that people had the sense not to swarm around her, so that there was an other side — she turned and addressed them. “All right. Everyone who went out there! Great job! We won! We goddamn won! But most importantly, we didn’t lose! No one died! Not one of us took a serious wound! No one got bit! But every one of you has fought before, and you know that when you’re stuck in, when your blood is hot and full of fury, it’s easy to miss little scrapes. I want you to find a partner or two, people you’re very comfortable with, and check each other head to toe. Just in case anyone got scratched or anything. If you did, you need to get to Mistress Touanne, the midwife, so that she can check you out. All right?”

  There was a mass of Uh-huhs and Ayes and Yes, Chosens.

  “Good! Look each other over. Talk to each other. I know today was hard. Then tend to your gear. Tomorrow we do it all over again, with the Vestel farm, and the Doren farm in the afternoon if we can. We’re not abandoning anyone. Are you with me?”

  This time the crowd roared. “Yes, Chosen!”

  “Then I’ll see you at the yard tomorrow. Anybody who wasn’t fighting but still wants to help: we need people watching those bodies. I know it’s awful, but we can’t burn them. We need to know how many new revenants we’ll have to deal with in the future.”

  “I’ll set something up, don’t you worry, girl!” Sadie called out.

  “Then, thank you all! You did good out there this morning.”

  Ana leaned into Messy and whispered, “Bathhouse?”

  “Yeah. I’d like that,” Messy whispered back. Her voice was a little stronger, with a little more life and color to it than just earlier, on the wall. A little husky, even. And, Ana noticed, she was getting increasingly touchy.

  Oh, she thought as she connected the dots. Oh! Was she okay with this? A few seconds of self reflection, and listening to Messy's excited breathing and rapid heartbeat, told her that she was.

  In her room at Petra's, when they stopped to grab some fresh clothes for both of them, Messy pushed Ana up against the wall and kissed her, before dragging her out the door. As they washed each other before getting in the baths proper, Messy was very thorough. Her touches slowly changed from cleaning to caressing, though her hands never wandered anywhere Ana hadn't allowed them before. It was cute, really, how careful she was. It was like Messy was holding back as hard as she could, so that she wouldn't spook her asexual girlfriend.

  Messy's patience finally broke after they'd sat in the hot water of the pool for a while. Several other women had trickled in, many of them militia members. They'd all talked, completely inane small talk about what to do for their midday meal, completely avoiding the day’s successful mission. Messy had been a fidgety mess the whole time. It was getting to the point that Ana was getting frustrated, wondering if her girlfriend would work up the courage to just ask or if she should do it herself, when Messy made a move.

  It was slow, careful, simple, and completely unexpected. Giving Ana plenty of time to say or do something if she wasn't comfortable, Messy shifted, leaned in, and pressed herself against Ana, then gently turned Ana’s head so she could kiss her. It was all soft lips, hard nipples, and smooth, naked skin, and still, not a word.

  Ana gently broke the kiss, smiled at Messy's worried expression, then leaned in so that her hand rested on Messy’s waist, and her mouth by her ear.

  “Mess?” she whispered.

  “Yeah?” Messy's voice trembled.

  “I told you, at the start of all this, that I don't hate sex.”

  “Yeah?” Messy sounded really nervous now.

  “But we're at the baths.”

  Messy made a little choking sound and looked around at the dozen-and-a-half faces around the pool. Every one of them was either looking, or very carefully not looking, at them.

  “I— oh, gods!” Messy laughed nervously, hiding her face in the crook of Ana’s neck and apparently hoping that if she couldn't see them, they couldn't see her.

  Ana let her palm move just a hand’s breadth up and down Messy's side, as she looked through the steam at the other women, inviting someone, anyone, to say a single goddamn thing to embarrass her girlfriend worse than she'd managed herself. Then she turned back and murmured, “Do you want to continue at home?”

  Messy couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

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