The world felt like it was closing in arouhe wind had stilled, as if even nature was waiting for my answer. I could hear Elise’s soft sobs as she g to Lisa, whose breathing was growing more bored by the sed. The glow of the wrecked carriage’s ntern cast flickering shadows across the damp earth, illuminating S’s still form.Catherine’s fiightened around mine, desperate, pleading. “I make it work, Mashiro. I know it’s a lot to ask, but Lisa doesn’t have much time. If we don’t aow…” She trailed off, her voice catg.“Just do it. Tell me what to do,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt.Catherine’s lips curled into a faint smile, though her eyes remained sharp with urgency. “Drag that bastard over here.”I took a deep breath and rushed toward where S y sprawled on the ground. He was in rough shape—his clothes torn, bruises f from Catherine’s earlier attack. But there was no time to feel sorry for him. Without hesitation, I grabbed the colr of his shirt and started dragging him toward Lisa.“Hey! Ouch! Be gentle, damn it!” S shouted, squirming against my grip.I scowled and, without thinking, brought my fist down on his head in a sharp smack. “Shut up, you lewd dense cabbage!”He groaned, muttering something under his breath, but didn’t resist further. The only sounds were the distant rustling of the trees and Elise’s quiet sniffles as she held onto Lisa.Finally, after what felt like forever, I reached Catherih S in tow. I let go of his colr and straightened, my breathing a little heavy.“Okay, what now?” I asked, wiping my hands on my dress, trying to ighe uneasy feeling in my chest.Catherine exhaled deeply, steadying herself. The dim ntern light flickered against the night, casting elongated shadows over the dirt road and the wrecked carriage. A cold breeze whispered through the trees, rustling the leaves like distant whispers.Elise g to Lisa, her small hands trembling as she wiped away the tears streaking her cheeks. Lisa’s breathing had grown dangerously shallow—her face pale, her lips dry. Every sed that passed felt like grains of sand slipping through an hss, and we were running out of time.Catheriioned for me to kneel beside her. “Mashiro, I need you to focus. Your spatial magic lets you ect two points in space, right?”I answered, hesitating. “I… I think so. I don’t really know how it works, but I’ve used it before.”The only thing I truly uood was that I could make objects disappear into my so-called “iory.” Beyond that, I had no real grasp of its full potential. No one had ever expi to me.Catherine’s expression remained firm. “That’s enough. Fox kin have a natural gift for spatial magic. At higher levels, a fox kin even teleport—just like your friend did after spotting me, leaving behind nothing but flowers.”She reached out, pressing her palm gently against my chest. A faint warmth spread through me, pulsing like a heartbeat, a thread being tugged by unseen hands.“I’ll guide you,” she tinued, her voice softer now. “You just o open a precise gateway—ohat ects his chest to Lisa’s. I’ll hahe rest.”I swallowed hard, my fiwitg as I g Lisa. Her breaths were faint, shallow—like a flickering dle in the wind. Elise g to her sister, gripping her so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.A groan came from the ground.“You’re all insane,” Suttered, shifting slightly. “This isn’t how heart transpnts work—”Catherine silenced him with a sharp gre. “You should be grateful I’m even using you for something useful,” she snapped before turning bae. Her voice softened. “Mashiro, breathe. Focus.”The warmth from her palm spread through my chest, steadying me. And then—I felt it.Something deeper than warmth, more than a mere sensation. Like an invisible thread tyio the world around me. No, not just the world—space itself. A presence I had ruly noticed before, lying dormant within me all this time.My magic.I closed my eyes, f myself to trate. The way I used my iory… It wasn’t just about st things. It was about eg pces, linking two points in space—even if only for a moment.Catherine’s voice was calm but firm. “Imagiunnel. A passage linking one space to another. Right now, I need you to create that tunnel between S’s chest and Lisa’s.”I ched my fists. “I… I’ll try.”The air around me shifted. A faint shimmer appeared between S and Lisa, rippling like a mirage in the dim ntern light. My breathing grew shallow as I poured everything into keeping it stable.“That’s it,” Catherine whispered. “Now, hold it open.”I could feel my strength draining, my arms trembling as if I were holding open an unseen doorway while something heavy pressed against it, trying to force it shut. The strain made my vision blur, but I gritted my teeth and refused to let go.Catherine raised her free hand, magic swirling around her fiips like frost f on gss.“Now,” she said, her voice cold and unwavering, “undress him.”I flinched. “W-What?”Catherine shot me an exasperated look. “We need access to his chest, Mashiro. That tuni’t remove itself.”S groaned. “Oh, e on—at least buy me dinner first.”Without hesitation, I smacked his forehead with the palm of my hand. “Shut up.”Ign his grumbling, I reached down and ya his shirt, f it open. The fabric was stained with dirt and sweat, stig to his skin. My firembled as I pulled it away, exposing his chest beh the flickering ntern light.Lisa let out another weak cough, her body barely moving now. Elise held onto her, eyes wide with fear.Catherine wasted no time. She pced one hand over Lisa’s chest and the other over S’s, her magic fring to life. A deep blue glow surrounded her fiips, crag like frost spreading across a frozen ke.“Keep the tueady,” she anded.I gritted my teeth, feeling the pull of magic stretch against my very being. The shimmering gateway between them flickered, unstable. My body screamed for relief, but I held on.Catheriook a deep breath. “The’s begin.”The night air felt heavier as Catherine’s magic swirled around us, sending a biting chill through the space. Shadows danced wildly against the broken carriage, stretg and twisting in the flickering ntern light. The world had narrowed to this single moment—Lisa’s fading breaths, Elise’s desperate grip, and the steady hum of power vibrating in the air.I ched my fists, willing the spatial tuo remain stable. It pulsed faintly, a shimmering tear iy eg S’s chest to Lisa’s. My vision swam at the edges, the strain unlike anything I had ever experienced.Catherine’s hands remained firm, one pressed over Lisa’s fragile frame, the other h over S’s exposed chest. The frost-like glow deepened, crag along her fiips.S let out a strangled grunt. “Ugh—this is ihis is insane—”Catherine didn’t spare him a gnce. “Be grateful I’m making use of your pathetic existehen, with a sharp exhale, she moved.

  A pulse of magic erupted from her hands, and suddenly, the se before me became something out of a nightmare. S’s body arched as his chest was forced open—not with a bde, but with magic that wove through flesh as if it were nothing more than mist.Elise let out a horrified gasp. I barely held back my own. S coughed violently, but Catherine’s spell silenced him, paralyzing his body in pce.His heart—glowing with a strange, eerie light—rose from his chest, suspended in the air between him and Lisa. The e between them wavered, flickering like a dying ember, but I forced it to hold. Lisa’s body shuddered. Her breathing hitched, then slowed.“No—Lisa!” Elise cried, shaking her.“She’ll be fine,” Catherine said, her voice strained but unwavering. “Just a little more.”The heart drifted forward, crossing the shimmering gateway I had created, and lowered itself into Lisa’s chest. Catherine’s magic surged, sealing the wound instantly as if it had never beehen, all at ohe tension in the air she spatial tunnel colpsed. I gasped, feeling my knees buckle as exhaustion smmed into me. For a long, heavy moment, the only sound was the crag of Catherine’s lingering magic. Then— Lisa’s fiwitched. A small, quiet breath escaped her lips.Elise’s eyes widened. “Big sister…?”Lisa groaned softly, her eyelids fluttering. Color had already begun to return to her face.Elise let out a choked sob and threw herself onto her, burying her fato Lisa’s shoulder. “You’re okay—you’re okay—”Relief crashed over me like a wave, but I was too exhausted to fully grasp it. I let out a shaky breath, my arms trembling at my sides. Catherine exhaled sharply, closing her eyes for a brief moment before looking at me.“You did well, Mashiro.”