For a few seconds, I could do nothing but stare at her.
Morgause was standing in front of us.
Wounded. Covered in blood. A broken chain hanging from one wrist, with barely enough strength left to remain upright.
But alive.
That was all that mattered.
Valeriam slowly emerged from the cloud of dust where Morgause's attack had thrown her. Part of her black clothing had been burned away, a thin line of blood ran down from her forehead, and several reddish marks covered one of her arms.
For the first time since she'd appeared, someone had actually hit her head-on.
Even so, she was smiling.
Her gaze dropped to the chain hanging from Morgause's wrist.
"So you escaped."
Morgause didn't answer.
Fire still burned faintly around one of her hands.
Valeriam studied the open shackle among the links.
"Curious. I was certain I'd left you without enough magic to break them."
"I didn't need it."
Valeriam's smile faltered slightly.
Morgause raised her hand.
Her fingers changed.
It lasted only an instant. Her nails lengthened, the joints shifted in ways no human body should have allowed, and her hand grew until its proportions became completely distorted.
Then it returned to Morgause's hand.
I blinked.
Oh.
Right.
All that time, I'd imagined Morgause trying to rip the chains from the wall, melt them, or destroy the shackles with magic.
She'd never needed to do any of that.
Valeriam let out a quiet laugh.
"You changed your shape."
Morgause lowered her hand.
"You should have chained something with only one."
For some reason, hearing her say that while covered in wounds and with a chain still hanging from her wrist made my chest feel a little lighter.
She was still herself.
Then a small reddish light appeared beside my shoulder.
The lesser spirit.
It drifted a few inches toward Morgause.
She looked at it.
And suddenly I understood how she'd managed to find me too.
"You found me through it."
Morgause glanced at me.
"Yes."
The little light spun once in the air, almost as if it were proud of itself.
Morgause hadn't followed the anomaly.
She had followed me.
Valeriam seemed to understand too.
"Clever," she murmured. "I suppose this era still has a few surprises left."
Morgause stepped toward her.
Her knee buckled slightly.
It happened so quickly that almost anyone else might have missed it.
I didn't.
Neither did Valeriam.
Morgause corrected her stance immediately.
"If that was a compliment, keep it."
The flames around her hand grew.
Valeriam smiled.
And disappeared.
The impact came before the sound.
Morgause crossed both arms in front of herself, and an explosion of pressure opened a crater beneath her feet. She slid backward several yards, but before she'd even stopped, she'd already sent a wall of flame cutting across the gorge from one side to the other.
Valeriam crossed through the fire.
Morgause turned.
Valeriam's fist passed within inches of her face.
Flames erupted from the ground.
Both women vanished inside them.
After that, they began moving too fast for me to properly follow.
Crimson flashes.
Dark waves.
Pulverized stone.
The sky lit up every time Morgause attacked. Columns of fire tore across the gorge while Valeriam answered with blows strong enough to split the stone walls.
But there was a difference.
Valeriam couldn't treat Morgause the way she'd treated Blazer and me.
She had to dodge.
Block.
Respond.
Actually fight.
Morgause was incredible.
Even like this.
Even wounded.
Even after escaping from who knew where and crossing who knew how much distance to reach us.
She was still Morgause.
My Demon Queen.
And I was still lying on the ground.
I tried to get up.
My arm gave out.
I fell again.
I clenched my teeth and tried once more.
This time I managed to lift myself a few inches before pain ripped through my side and forced me back down.
"Shit..."
A few yards away, Blazer lay sprawled across the stone. He was breathing, but every breath looked more difficult than the last.
I looked back toward Morgause.
Valeriam struck her.
Morgause was thrown into a wall of rock.
The stone caved in around her body.
My hand clenched.
Move.
Nothing.
"Come on..."
I tried to reach my staff.
My fingers scraped against the stone.
I couldn't reach it.
Another explosion lit up the gorge.
Morgause burst out of the rubble and managed to block the next attack.
I was still there.
Unable to do anything.
I'd never hated my own helplessness so much.
I couldn't heal her.
I never would be able to.
I couldn't heal Blazer.
I couldn't even stand up long enough to turn myself into a shield.
Morgause had escaped her chains.
She had come all the way here for me.
She had appeared at the exact moment Valeriam was about to kill us.
And now she was fighting alone while I watched from the ground.
"I can help you."
I blinked.
The voice had been so faint that, for a moment, I thought I'd imagined it.
The small reddish light floated in front of me.
I looked at the spirit.
"You can talk?"
"When necessary."
"You picked a pretty good time to reveal that."
Normally, I would have tried to make it sound funny.
This time, I didn't even have the strength to pretend.
The spirit looked toward the battle.
"I can give back part of what you've lost."
My expression changed.
"Can you heal me?"
"No."
The answer came immediately.
"Your wounds will remain. What is broken will stay broken. But I can restore part of your energy and mana. Enough for your body to respond again for a while."
"Do it."
"Nellie."
"Do it."
Its light flickered.
"I'll have to use everything I can give you."
That made me really look at it.
"Will you die?"
"No."
Relief came too quickly.
"But I'll become inactive."
I frowned.
"For how long?"
"I don't know. It could be weeks. Months. Maybe longer."
An explosion shook the mountain.
Morgause fell from the sky and hit the ground on one knee.
Valeriam descended in front of her.
Morgause managed to fire another blast of flame before she could close the distance.
It forced Valeriam back.
But I saw Morgause's hand trembling.
"Do it," I repeated.
"I may not wake for a very long time."
"But you will wake up."
"Yes."
I looked at the spirit.
"Then wake up when you can."
The little light remained still for a few seconds.
Then it descended toward my chest.
I felt warmth.
Then pain.
My back arched against the ground.
Mana rushed back all at once.
Not like resting.
Not like using a potion.
It felt like forcing liquid into a container covered in cracks.
My mana channels burned as energy spread through my body. Then something else followed: strength. Not enough to repair my injuries, but enough to force my exhausted muscles to obey again.
I clenched my teeth.
The spirit's light began to fade.
"Wait..."
It didn't answer.
Its form grew smaller and smaller until it became a tiny reddish point that fell into my palm.
It no longer glowed.
But I could still feel it.
Weak.
Sleeping.
I closed my fingers around it.
"Thank you."
I carefully put it away.
Then I planted one hand against the ground.
I stood.
My legs immediately started trembling.
I had to lean against my staff to keep from falling.
But I was standing.
I searched for Morgause.
Then I saw Blazer.
He was still where he'd fallen.
Trying to get up.
Failing.
Caelum's words returned to me.
If Blazer dies now, we don't know if he'll come back.
I looked toward the battle.
Then at Blazer.
Then back at Morgause.
I wanted to run toward her.
I wanted to throw every bit of mana I'd just recovered at Valeriam.
I wanted to help.
But the truth was too obvious to ignore.
I couldn't.
Not that way.
The spirit hadn't erased my defeat.
It had only given me another chance to do something useful.
And Blazer...
Blazer was someone I could still help.
I made my way over to him.
"Come on."
He opened one eye.
"Nellie...?"
"Yeah."
"Thought you were... worse."
"I am."
I pulled one of his arms over my shoulders.
Pain immediately flared through my side.
"What are you doing?" he muttered.
"Saving your ass."
"Sounds... humiliating."
"You can worry about your pride when you can walk."
I gathered mana.
Instant Movement.
The world folded.
The gorge vanished.
We appeared beside Caelum and the three unconscious members of the expedition.
My legs gave out the moment we arrived.
Caelum caught Blazer before both of us hit the ground.
"Nellie!"
"Treat him."
Caelum's expression changed as soon as he saw Blazer's condition.
"He's worse than I thought."
"Can you do anything?"
He was already opening one of the emergency cases.
"Stop the bleeding. Keep him stable. Use what potions we have left. I'm not a healer."
"Neither am I."
We didn't need to say anything more.
Caelum got to work.
Blazer weakly grabbed my clothes when I tried to step away.
"Don't go back."
I looked at him.
"Morgause is still there."
"Exactly."
"Blazer."
His eyes could barely stay open.
"She came for me."
That was all.
He let go.
Not because he agreed.
Because he no longer had the strength to stop me.
Instant Movement.
I returned.
The gorge looked like a completely different place.
An entire section of the mountain was burning. Several walls of rock had vanished, and the ground was covered in craters.
Morgause and Valeriam were still fighting in the middle of it all.
Three crimson projectiles appeared around Morgause.
Valeriam dodged the first.
Destroyed the second with one hand.
The third exploded against her shoulder.
Morgause appeared in front of her immediately and drove a mass of concentrated fire straight into her abdomen.
Valeriam was thrown backward.
Morgause barely had time to breathe.
Valeriam returned.
A knee.
An elbow.
A downward strike.
Morgause blocked the first two.
The third slammed her into the ground.
I wanted to move.
I stopped myself.
What could I do?
I could barely follow their movements.
The mana the spirit had given me wouldn't last forever.
My injuries were still limiting me.
Jumping directly into the fight would only force Morgause to worry about me too.
So I stayed where I was.
Hating it.
Watching.
Looking for something.
Anything.
Morgause stood again.
There was blood on her lips.
Her left arm barely responded.
Even so, she raised the right.
The flames returned.
And without thinking, I shouted:
"Morgause!"
She turned.
Only for an instant.
But she turned.
Her eyes found mine.
First I saw surprise.
Then relief.
She had seen that I was still standing.
Then Valeriam appeared beside her.
"Morgause!"
Too late.
The blow struck her side.
Morgause was thrown away.
She crashed through a stone pillar and disappeared into the rubble.
My stomach dropped.
I'd done that.
I'd distracted her.
Valeriam didn't waste the opportunity.
She appeared in front of Morgause.
Morgause tried to rise.
One leg failed.
Valeriam raised both hands.
Mana began gathering between her palms.
I recognized that feeling immediately.
It wasn't an attack meant to knock her down.
It was a finishing blow.
Morgause understood too.
She lifted one hand.
A barrier of flame appeared in front of her.
Flickered.
Then vanished.
She didn't have enough strength left.
Valeriam compressed the energy further.
The space between her hands began to distort.
I could feel the spell stabilizing.
Preparing to be released.
I couldn't defeat her.
I couldn't take that attack in Morgause's place.
I couldn't even raise a barrier strong enough to stop it.
But I didn't need to do any of those things.
I only needed to stop her from finishing the charge.
I watched the magic.
Its structure.
The flow of mana.
The exact point where all that energy converged.
I breathed in.
Instant Movement.
I appeared beside Valeriam.
Her eyes shifted toward me.
Surprise.
Not much.
But it was there.
I raised one hand.
I didn't cast fire.
I formed a barrier.
Small.
So small it wouldn't have protected even my face.
And I placed it directly inside the flow of Valeriam's spell.
Her eyes widened.
I closed my fist.
The barrier collapsed.
The magical pattern broke with it.
The gathered energy lost stability.
Valeriam pulled her hands apart.
Too late.
The explosion threw us in opposite directions.
I hit the ground on my back.
Rolled several times.
Managed to stop myself by driving my staff into the earth.
Morgause had been outside the worst of the blast.
She was still alive.
That was enough.
Valeriam stood.
She looked at me.
This time, she ignored Morgause.
All of her attention was on me.
"You should still be on the ground."
I struggled to breathe.
"I've spent enough time there."
"Your body is broken."
"Yeah."
"You barely have any mana left."
"That too."
Valeriam watched me in silence.
There was no contempt in her expression.
Not even irritation.
She looked like she was trying to understand something.
"I don't understand."
I tightened my grip on my staff.
"Not my problem."
She took one step toward me.
"I already defeated you. You know perfectly well how great the difference between us is, and yet you came back."
Another step.
"Your body is at its limit. You've seen what I can do. You know I can kill you now that your respawn points no longer function."
Dark energy slowly gathered around her fingers.
"So tell me what it is."
I didn't answer.
"Hate?"
Valeriam kept walking.
"Resentment?"
The ground cracked beneath her feet.
"Revenge? Pride? The need to punish me for what I did? There must be something that justifies this stubbornness. Some emotion strong enough to keep forcing you back to your feet when every part of your body should be begging you to run."
I looked toward Morgause.
She was still among the rubble.
Wounded.
Exhausted.
But alive.
Valeriam slowly extended one hand toward me.
"So tell me, Nellie. What reason could possibly matter this much?"
The answer came with surprising ease.
After all of this.
After the vision.
The chains.
Believing, even for a few moments, that maybe I'd already been too late.
After watching her appear in front of me covered in blood because she'd crossed all of that just to find me...
How could Valeriam even ask?
"Hate? Resentment? Revenge?"
I struggled for breath and managed to straighten myself a little more.
"I don't need any of those things."
I looked at Morgause.
Then I looked back at Valeriam.
"After all..."
A small smile appeared on my lips.
"Does anyone really need a reason to protect the person they love?"