“Hmm…”

  The entity held Tatsu's glare without flinching, her gaze steady. She didn't step back, she didn't tense. She just watched him.

  “Wow,” she tilted her head, the corners of her lips slightly stretching, “your face is real scary.”

  He didn't respond.

  *She has such a strong grip.*

  Tatsu still sagged forward, his knees scraping the ground beneath him with his hands holding his weight.

  His chest hitched, breath rumbling low as blood dripped from his mouth, as it crept from his lips.

  Crimson dotted the blank canvas.

  He looked up through his brows at the lady, gaze sharp and unblinking.

  After a moment, she drifted her gaze downward, slow and deliberate, as if a thought had finally settled.

  Her eyes landed on her hand, turning her palm slightly to examine the blistered skin, as steam curled up the air from the burnt wound.

  She smirked at it, “That hurt,” she said lightly, “you bastard.”

  Tatsu shifted, planting one foot, then forcing the other beneath him. His hands pushed off the ground, arms shaking as he dragged himself upright, spine straightening inch by stubborn inch.

  He swayed once, breath grinding low in his chest, but stayed standing.

  He looked down, a shadow looming over his eyes, leaving them dark and unreadable.

  The back of his hand dragged across his mouth, smearing blood over his knuckles and a drop fell on his white buttoned shirt. He spat to the side, jaw tightening, then lifted his head.

  Even half-unsteady, his glare snapped back to her– sharp, feral, unbroken.

  “Shut up.” he said simply, raising his arms, elbows loose and weight settling through his legs.

  His fingers flexed, then curled, knuckles tightening.

  Water still clung to his arm, sliding free as he raised it.

  The lady's gaze flicked over to his raised arms, her eyes widening a fraction as she took him in.

  Then softened.

  A soft sound escaped her nose, a soft, amused breath slipping out.

  “Tch.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Her mouth curved as she spoke, “Such persistence.”

  She took a step forward, unhurried.

  “the quiet one will finally thrive, eh?”

  The space between them thinned.

  Tatsu's shoulders drew tight.

  Breath sank, slow and heavy. Fingers curled, then stilled.

  Muscles along his arms locked as his weight edged forward, every part of him braced–waiting–for the moment she came close enough.

  Then, he burst forward, arm cocked in a wide right hook, momentum hurling him forward.

  The air shifted–then she was gone, leaving only a faint blur where her form had been.

  Tatsu's eyes caught it too late.

  A heartbeat later, her shape pressed against the space behind him.

  “Nice speed.” She said, voice of whisper of motion, almost brushing his ear. The sounds of her earrings echoing.

  “Gah-!”

  Tatsu spun around, eyes ballooning, mouth opening.

  His arms shot up, legs scrambling as his balance wobbled.

  “Relax.” She said, head tilting, “I'm not gonna kill you, idiot.”

  Her hand pressed against his chest. Cold. Firm.

  “Tch.”

  Something invisible held him, pulling Tatsu into place as he tried to jerk backward.

  His chest against her palm, heart hammering, breath caught. She closed her eyes, the swollen disc on her forehead glowing, like a moon in the night.

  A heavy pulse throbbed at his temples, warmth and pressure surging upward and pressing against his eyes.

  Tatsu's head felt like it was filling with liquid, each pulse slower and heavier, his ears rang with a low, pulsing buzz.

  Shadows crept inward from the edges of his sight. The entity's shape blurred, melting into one another and the colors around him dulled, as if someone dragged a gray veil over the void. His hands shaking as he tried to lift them and breath caught in his throat, short and jagged.

  His sight became darker and darker.

  ***

  Eyelids heavy and frosted, Tatsu forced them apart. Each lash felt like it was breaking a microscopic seal of ice.

  Above, the world was a blur of muted grey, but as his pupils adjusted, the ceiling sharpened into a jagged cathedral of icy stalactites.

  Through the drifting haze of mist, tiny, bioluminescent spores pulsed with a rhythmic, green-yellow light, casting long, dancing shadows against the cavern roof.

  Beneath him, the granular bite of sharp crystals of packed snow dug into his shoulder blades against his back, the numbing cold seeping through his white buttoned shirt.

  Flakes settled on his black, loose-fitting pants, turning the fabric into a salt and pepper landscape and piled the creases of his white boots.

  Images of the skeletons, the bright flash of the sword and Tenaro surged back into his mind.

  Tatsu's spine snapped straight, his breath hitching in a chest that felt suddenly too tight.

  He whipped his head to the right, his neck muscles straining.

  The wind howled through the cavern. A sharp, biting gale that whipped snow into a frenzy.

  Tenaro sat there, perfectly still, legs crossed as if he were meditating in a garden rather than a freezing hell.

  “Yo.” Tenaro said, his voice flat against the roar of the wind.

  Tatsu blinked at him, and spun his head around as he scanned the cavern. The height, and the emptiness.

  “How'd we end up here?” Tatsu asked, “What happened to the sword? The chambers?”

  Tenaro's brows slightly shot up. He leaned back, his piercing emerald gaze studying Tatsu's face.

  “Woah.” He let out, “You're not stuttering.”

  Tatsu stopped. He looked down at his left arm.

  The jagged, the jagged frozen weight that had once encased his arm was gone; only pale skin remained, still feeling the residual of warmth in his body.

  The words came out smooth, without his jaw shuddering, “Yeah. You're right.”

  “Heh.” Tenaro let out an amused breath and jerked his chin to the left.

  “Was gonna carry you out of this hellhole, but…” he gestured toward a jagged horizon of debris, “No way I'm hauling through you that.”

  Tatsu turned his head. To his left, the earth had been violently hollowed out into a colossal crater. Rising from the center was a monolithic, thick structure that seemed to swallow the light.

  It reached upward, a pillar of unyielding stone that punched through the cave ceiling, disappearing into the dark stone above like a needle piercing a veil.

  Now Tatsu's eyebrows shot up, his jaw loosening as he stared at the view.

  “Here again?”