Dazien grimaced as the Sapphire Caste Healer finished mending him. He had been quickly handed off to Rufus Barrett, an Acolyte of the Cultivator, once Cleric Starrk had mended the worst of it and managed to regrow his disintegrated ribs. He was thankful that he had been in too much shock to truly register that pain.

  He gave a heavy sigh with his newly repaired lung as Saiya finished expining why she had returned without their final party member. Dazien ran his hand through his hair, which was beginning to get much longer than he normally wore it, and immediately regretted the smear of blood and sweat.

  Thankfully, he didn’t have to ask as Saiya cast her [Cleansing Stream] to clean off the evidence of their battle, and he gnced at the rest of his friends, who were all watching him with concern.

  Dazien frowned trying to think of how best to lead them and began running through options in his head. They could try to find the other portalist to send them back, but they were either still recovering or unlikely to listen to a Crystal Caster with no authority to command them. Going on foot would take too long to matter, so that really only left him with the most unpleasant of options.

  “We’ll have to wait for her to get the chance to conjure her portal again to escape. Just like we’ve always had pnned in the event something like this happened,” he said confidently despite his inner turmoil. Saiya helped him to stand, not releasing his hand in her worry, and he carefully rotated his newly mended left shoulder, “Thank you again, Acolyte Barrett. We’ll leave you to tend to the others now.”

  The runeforged gave a respectful bow as he murmured almost reverently, “It is my honor to serve.”

  “We need to go back! She’s going to get herself killed!” Rayna yelled at him as he led them all out of the overflowing clinic area. “Emerald Casters, Dazien! Ever since that Crystalline Elemental, we’ve known she doesn’t care about her own safety. I thought we all agreed after that to try and steer her away from those situations! Leaving her there alone… we both know she’s going to do something reckless to try and help everyone else.”

  “I had hoped that her sessions with Priest Jacob would make her value her own life a bit more, but she almost died again at Vallinsarvi to save a pair of children. She may have some kind of martyr complex,” Saiya added gently, as they made their way toward the edge of the camp where Phoenix’s portal should reappear any minute.

  “I think it’s more of a hero complex,” Uriel interjected forlornly, idly rubbing at one of the golden earrings adorning a tapered ear, “It would expin why she was Chosen by that particur god.”

  “The result’s the same,” Rayna abruptly said, redirecting the focus back onto Dazien. She seemed to be urging him to do something by warning, “She’s going to get hurt.”

  “For once, I agree with you, Rayna, but we finally got her to trust us enough to divulge some secrets. We need to trust her now –trust that she’ll make the smart choice and return to us as soon as possible,” Dazien softly replied as he gnced back toward the mountain ruins that he could barely make out with his enhanced vision.

  His [Eagle Eye] perception allowed him to zoom his focus across the molten wastend and he could just make out the priestess flying through the air, throwing fire and swarming feathers, and periodically cshing with the golden lord of avenging wrath.

  Dazien saw firsthand the powers being thrown around in the battle, much closer than he had ever intended. He knew that a stray spell could easily kill Phoenix if she got hit by one, like had almost happened with him. If that stray feather had struck a few inches towards his center, he would have died instantly from a missing heart.

  The thought of that happening to Phoenix made his mind roil in a way that was hard for him to articute the reasoning for. He outwardly schooled his expression and remained calm, however, hiding the apprehension bubbling within him that he knew Saiya could sense. He was grateful for her silence despite the concerned gnces she continued to give him while tightly holding his hand.

  It was only a brief moment ter that his hope rose at the sight of Phoenix’s portal appearing before them. That hope was shattered in the next as five Casters came through that were not his Supporter before the portal winked out again –the magic consumed by the new arrivals.

  “Where’s the portalist?” he asked the Sapphire Caster that was helping carry two of the other Crystals that had come through, “How many more are left to evacuate?”

  “Just her left,” the cinderen woman said with a gnce back at where the portal had been, “I didn’t realize she wouldn’t be able to come through too.”

  His teeth clenched and he gestured in the direction they had come from, informing the other Adventurer of the clinic there. When he finally turned back to look at the distant battle once more, Dazien thought he might have been imagining things in his anxiety. His jaw dropped in shock and horror as he saw a glowing redhead fly into the air above the Emerald Caste priestess.

  “Can I have everyone’s attention please?!” Cleric Starrk yelled out to the entire camp from further behind him. However, Dazien’s focused gaze remained on the absurdity he was witnessing as Everin continued, “I know there’s a lot of concern surrounding the Emerald battle back there and the injured here, but rest assured that–”

  Dazien tuned out the rest of the announcement as his panic skyrocketed over a matter of seconds as the insane Wayfarer grabbed the winged priestess, followed by a swarm of glinting golden metal embedding itself into her back. Then he wasn’t exactly sure what happened as the two combatants exploded in a ball of purple light that caused him to squint but still observe.

  Everyone in the camp could see the bright confgration as it quickly grew to a terrifying size, sending up dirt, stone, ash, and va into the air as it collided with the mountainside and stone ruins below it. He was certain the explosion was somehow part of whatever insane pn Phoenix had attempted by getting involved.

  What devastated Dazien most, however, was the sight of the man he looked up to and admired thrusting his greatsword through the center of his friend’s body. The sight made him feel like his own soul had been stabbed and only a gaping wound remained –one even worse than the literal hole that had been punched through him earlier.

  Uriel softly said as though stating it would make it true, “She couldn’t have been near the bst, right? She’ll be okay. She has to be.”

  Saiya gasped and covered her mouth as Dazien’s emotions flooded her senses. He had always strived to only show others the confident face he wanted them to see, but now he fell to his knees. Tears threatened to fall down his dirty cheeks as he clenched his hands into fists, but he didn’t want to cry—kings never cried.

  Dazien saw Phoenix fall from the sky and watched Paul grab onto her, but he couldn’t see them nd among the ash and what he assumed must be a crater of destroyed ground based on the amount of debris in the air. He wondered if maybe their mentor had managed to somehow save Phoenix’s life from an attack he thought should have killed her instantly. He silently prayed that the message he feared the most wouldn’t visit him.

  Rayna stared at him and shook her head as her voice trembled, “No. Don’t say it, Dazien. She’s fine. I might have said it earlier, but she always manages to pull it off. Just another one of her crazy stunts, right?”

  She gnced at the rge plume of smoke that had repced the bright light. Then, taking Uriel’s approach, Rayna firmly stated, “Lord Waynd’s going to bring her back and chew us out. Just like he always does.”

  Dazien was momentarily distracted by the gold lettering he had feared appearing in the air in front of him that only he could see.

  Phoenix Fraser has died.

  Phoenix Fraser is no longer your Subject.

  Saiya flung herself against his side, wrapping her arms around him in a hug that was too tight to be comforting but barely felt tight enough. Uriel was on his other side the next moment, wrapping those more familiar arms around him and shielding his face as his partner whispered, “Nobody can see.”

  Dazien allowed himself to rock forward into Uriel and let out a racking sob.

  Paul eventually made his way back to the encampment after double-checking that the ruins were indeed empty of enemies. To his annoyance, it seemed that Phoenix’s loot ability had automatically cimed the boosted spoils of the Priestess of the Purifier, which he had marked with his [Nemesis] Bane, and he found himself slightly envious of the convenience.

  He did manage to find Neitra’s dimensional storage bag, however, during his brief search inside the ruins, along with a disturbing amount of wealth pced around a yet-to-be-activated ritual diagram. He made sure to cim those materials, but left the diagram intact so someone more dedicated to interstelr ritual work could hopefully transte its purpose ter.

  While he had become quite knowledgeable about rituals over the years –able to perform quite a few higher Caste and somewhat esoteric ones– he had been focused on various adventuring needs, not imploding Reality Rifts and traveling across dimensional boundaries. These corrupted organic enchantments with triggering rituals were beyond anything he had ever heard of, let alone dealt with, and he worried about their introduction into his world.

  As Paul made his way back and arrived at the staging point near the entrance to the Reality Rift, he was promptly intercepted by the only other Emerald Caster in this pocket reality. Everin greeted him with a wry smile, “Welcome back, Lord Padin. I take it Miss Fraser ran a sudden errand for you and portaled directly back to your shared home.”

  Paul started to shake his head in disagreement but the Cleric interjected, “Which would expin why the missing Protégé did not return with her Mentor, and why all those who are clergy aligned with the Chosen One should not eagerly await her return.”

  His golden eyes narrowed on the snow-colored voxen, speaking too softly for anyone else to hear as he pointed out the major fw in the proffered cover story, “You and I both know Crystal Caste portals can’t cross reality thresholds like the Rifts.”

  “Ah, but Wayfarers break all sorts of rules we take for granted don’t they?” The vulpine grin appeared, fangs gleaming with as much mirth as was in those rge blue eyes as Everin added, “It’s not that unbelievable that some dimensional barrier rules might be… bent a bit. It’s not like completely breaking some other ws that govern our lives… or deaths.”

  “The Rebel Fox is a schemer. Waynd should make sure Little Flower never meets him,” Orebe’s voice warned in the back of his mind, having returned earlier to her usual state merged within him. He hadn’t thought about that before, but now he suddenly feared that the crafty Cleric had already made contact with his sister.

  Paul grimaced but nodded in acquiescence to the silent warning, understanding the point Everin was trying to make, “True. We pnned to just meet back home, and you know an Emerald can’t go through a Crystal portal.”

  “How very true, which is sadly why I had to remain here to assist. I figured once our Sapphire portalist showed up and got the remaining forces back to this side, you would be free to handle the pesky problem, which appears I was right in assuming,” the Cleric said as they both began walking toward the command tent, which he had thought to report to first.

  “Shall we report your victory to Officer Trayvious now? Not many could view such a battle from this distance, my Emerald Caste eyes were barely adequate, and I believe your victory came at the same time I was making a motivational speech to the camp, coincidentally.”

  Paul raised an eyebrow, not believing that anything this fox did was coincidental, but didn’t stop moving as he said, “What are the chances that you missed the killing blow?”

  “Slim to none,” the fangs glinted again with the sly smile Everin gave, one of his tails wrapping around to cover the grin a moment ter, “That massive explosion of purple fmes, however, was something that not even my rakish charm could draw attention from once its brilliance lit up the sky.”

  Everin’s next whispered words had Paul pause again, “Unfortunately, I was unable to distract your little band of orphans from witnessing something that should not have been seen. I suggest you allow me to handle the reports while you wayy their grieving and let them know what became of their missing friend.”

  Paul spread out his aura sense as unobtrusively as possible in order to locate his quarry and was dismayed to sense chaos in the handful of familiar Crystal Caste auras that were off to the side of the main group. As he id eyes on them, he groaned internally, realizing what must have happened to the group of young Adventurers missing their teammate.

  While most of the camp was abuzz with the sense of victory, despite the heavy injuries and casualties that y as a mournful undertone, this party made it quite clear they thought the price had been far too great.

  “This One told Waynd to let King’s Dream know sooner. This was going to happen eventually and this is exactly–”

  “Not now, Be,” Paul mentally chided his Familiar in return, despite knowing she was right… again.

  Dazien and Uriel were sitting on the stone ground, back-to-back giving both physical and emotional support to one another. Saiya had attached herself to both men’s arms, a tail wrapped around each waist, and was humming a soothing yet mencholic melody as her own tears stained her cheeks. Rayna, on the other hand, was pacing around, angrily kicking loose pebbles that dared to cross her path.

  The bard was the first to notice him approaching, and her face fell as she snarled angrily with fangs bared and ears ft, “Where is she? You were supposed to bring her back to us.”

  Paul frowned as Orebe’s reprimand proved true; he only had himself to bme for the current situation he found himself in. He had insisted that Phoenix keep her resurrection ability a secret, and for once, the stubborn Wayfarer actually listened to him.

  He grumbled to himself before quietly speaking, trying to convey that they should also be discreet, “Not here. We should go back to my home and talk in private.”

  “You killed her,” Dazien’s hollow voice said from the ground as he slowly stared up at him with a tear-stained face and dulled amethyst eyes, “I saw you.”

  Paul’s heart broke a little at the dead gaze the young gemite gave him, and his own narrowed as he roughly pushed down the urge to console, growling instead, “Not here. Be silent and come with me.”

  Saiya and Rayna moved to follow him, still appearing to trust in his intentions. However, Uriel remained at his friend’s back, and Dazien wasn’t moving as he bitterly asked him, “Why did you do it? You didn’t need to. She was just a Crystal…”

  “She is stubborn and headstrong, but I trust in her abilities and choices. More than you do apparently,” he said harshly, wanting to end the conversation before any undesired ears overheard something that would be too difficult to expin away. They were much too in the open for his tastes.

  “I did trust her!” Dazien yelled back, finally moving to his feet. “I trusted you too!” he shouted, stomping towards him and shoving a finger against his chest. The hurt and betrayal were pin on Dazien’s face as he accused him, “But instead of protecting her –like you told me to do– you used her like a potion to be consumed and tossed aside! You chose to sacrifice my friend–” Dazien’s voice cracked on the word which incited another pang of hurt in Paul’s own chest, “Traded the life of my friend to kill an enemy that you could have beaten without!”

  “Nothing to see here, people!” a tenor voice said nearby to the onlooking adventures, and Paul noticed Everin serving as a distraction for them. “Just a misunderstanding between student and teacher, you know how that can be! You there, get back to moving those supplies to the clinic! Don’t make me report anyone just standing around not helping!”

  Paul was only barely taller than Dazien, but he seemed to tower over all of them as he went the more direct route. His aura crashed down on the whole party like a tidal wave of cold fury, completely suppressing theirs and causing them to tremble like terrified children. He grabbed Dazien’s colr, dragging him so close that their noses were almost touching.

  He spoke with the sharpness of shattered ice, “I’ll do you a favor, kid, and pretend that you didn’t just accuse me of betraying the person I pn to adopt into my family. Now, if you will all stay silent, let us go and I can expin things to all of you… in private.”