I don't know how long I stand there, staring down at the charred body of the monster, probably only a few minutes. I'm so damn tired.

My soul washes over the remains before I trigger my disenchantment. Dried and twisted flesh melts away into pink smoke, drifts up, and vanishes as it washes over me. A sigh of relief escapes me, the ability confirming for me that this thing was a monster. I hear a strange crackling noise. A window tries to open in my vision, its outline flickering and indistinct, the words written across it a jumble of indecipherable muck. I dismiss the projected image, turning away.

The black dust littering the street around me floats up, forming a buzzing mass around me as I take a look around the abandoned street. Daggers of glittering gold litter the road, a strange reminder of the battle that just took place. Forcing my aura to expand again, to encompass the few blocks where so many of the blades rained down, takes considerable effort. But then, why should anything be easy for me? The dust drifts back, sinking into the metal, taking it apart bit by bit until the black sand has reconstituted.

The monster's magic seemed to vanish along with his death, the will in his power no longer fighting me as I reshape the blades he created. Not that I think it could fight me anymore.

I turn my eye inward, splitting my focus to gaze at the revolving shape of my soul. On one of the outer shapes rotates a new rune, its light brighter than all the rest, the energy stored within more potent somehow. It isn't difficult to see the differences now that I look for them. There is a difference in the power of the runes, in the potency of the affixes that I have integrated into my being over the last few months. Increasing the power of affixes is one of the main things that a rank two magician is supposed to focus on, I remember. Somehow, it seems my path went in a different direction a bit.

I know that I am just stalling, holding off from the inevitable. A part of me wants to hold off forever, but the exhaustion running through every part of my body won't allow it. Just a little longer, I tell myself. Just a little longer, and I can rest.

The black sand spirals, disappearing once more into my vault, mostly piling onto the floor of the chamber, as I don't have nearly enough containers to hold it all. With a grunt, I leap into the air, letting my magic take the strain of my body, drifting above the tortured city back to where I came from before. The spot isn't hard to find, a little torn-up market square amid the chaos.

The people still linger there as I descend toward the ground. They gaze up at me as I slowly fall from the sky, some with fear in their eyes, others with hope. I don't know how to feel about that. Honestly, I can't feel much of anything about it just now. It feels as if there is a hole where my emotions ought to be, an empty room that should hold at least sorrow. Just a bit longer.

How can I be so numb, yet need to steel myself as I land on the broken market square, swallowing the lump that forms in my throat? My breath hitches as I see her lying on the ground, so still.

The man I handed Jess to before is the last to look up. His eyes land upon me, and he nods. "We kept her safe," he says, glancing down at my friend. They've laid her out on a torn blanket.

My first words fail to leave my mouth. I can't stop looking at her body. It never really settled on me, I don't think. With no threat around, there is no good way to push the emotions that start to attack me from nowhere. The empty room in my mind begins to leak water, spreading out and infecting everything. I'm too tired to stop it from happening.

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"Thank you," I say, stopping, standing like an idiot. What should I be doing? Certainly not just standing here. How can my voice sound so steady when everything is shaking inside?

"We haven't been able to get her to wake up," the teenage girl who spoke before says.

"She probably shouldn't," the man comments. "This wound is too nasty."

"I don't…I don't understand. She's dead." My voice cracks.

The man looks back up at me, shaking his head. "No," he says. "No, she's not."

I lose the rest of what he says, a part of my mind noting it down while all of me focuses on the strange shapes his mouth makes. My hand covers my mouth, shaking. The lump sticks in my throat again, but this time I can't manage to swallow it down.

"She might not last much longer," the man finishes saying.

I notice for the first time the bandages they have put on her, looking more like bloody rags than anything that might be helpful. The one on her side, covering the huge hole that bastard had cut into her chest, is the worst of it. I take a step forward, afraid that I might fall, that my body will give out before I reach her. I do fall, my knees hitting the ground as I make it to her side. When my hand moves over her nose, I feel her, feel her take a shallow breath, the pressure against my hand a miracle.

"Something needs to be done," the man tells me, catching my attention.

I don't see him when I look up. My gaze continues past him, landing upon the twisted tree that towers over the city behind him. Flashes of magic at the palace estate continue, the battle up there likely nowhere near concluding. Every part of me complains as my mind looks forward, plotting a course. All I want to do now is stop, to release the power of the throne coursing through me and collapse on the spot. But I can't; I don't think I can ever stop anymore.

Over the past few minutes, my soul has continued spinning, pouring vital energies into my pathways to refill what I exerted in exterminating the monster. Only a small bit of that power is required to create a golden door in the air beside me. The vault door spins open, revealing the disheveled room that I keep inside.

"I will help her," I tell the man. With all the tenderness I can muster, I lift Jess from the ground, carrying her inside the vault to lay her out upon the bed I have there. Leaving her, watching her blood soak into the sheets, I am once again reminded of just how fragile she is, of how we all are. The group is still there when I exit the vault, looking at me like I have something important to tell them.

"What should we do now?" the teenager asks.

"I don't know?" I answer. "You should probably find somewhere safe. Try to last out the night." It only occurs to me then how many are gathered here together. Looking over them, I can't stop myself from asking. "Why haven't any of you gone insane?"

The group looks between themselves for a moment before the big man answers. "I don't know," he admits. "When the sky turned red, some people started to go crazy. No rhyme or reason to it, I don't think. It just happened."

"There is always a reason," I tell him, but that is a matter for another time. "For now, try to find somewhere safe to wait all of this out. There are people working to bring back order to the city. That is where I am going."

They take my advice so meekly that it worries me. What if something awful happens to them because they took what I said like I knew what I was doing? I can't think about that right now. With my body complaining, I force myself into the air once again, this time aiming for the broken palace at the height of the city. If the 4th army is here in Danfalla, that means the powerful healers Illigar kept around should be too. I can't imagine the pragmatic commander leaving them behind. Those people are Jess' only hope now. I have to reach them. Then, who knows? Something tells me that this won't be the last thing I do tonight.

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