I don’t know if I can.
We can do it. Together. With one final tug, she forced my dissociated mind back together and brought me face to face with my repressed pain.
You will never see Amaya again.
I felt an immediate leap in my heart rate as my chest battled to breathe.
Alda is dead, because of you.
Images flashed behind my eyes at a rapidly growing pace, and I gripped desperately at Lia’s arm to find an anchor against the maelstrom.
Your darkness will corrupt Lia, like it corrupted you.
I clawed at the side of my head to silence the thoughts, but the onslaught continued.
Virram brought you here. He needs to SUFFER.
“No,” I wheezed, fighting to stay conscious as every instinct in my core opposed me.
You will lose everything and everyone you love. Again, and again, and—
You won’t lose me. The statement didn’t come from Lia’s voice in my head, but a feeling that resonated through every inch of my body. I promise, you won’t lose me.
The assault on my senses slowly faded as she released our mental enhancements, and the world around me reappeared. Our fire had burned low and brought a chill to our tiny campsite, which nipped at my face despite my drawn hood. I slumped forward and was kept upright only by the grace of Lia’s supporting shoulder against my chest. “Are you alright?” she asked gently.
I gave her a weak nod, too mentally exhausted to manage speaking. “I know it was easy not to think about it while we were in Lybesa, but you still have so much pain locked away up here,” she said, tapping my forehead, “and being back in Kaldan is just making it worse. You can’t keep it all bottled up inside you anymore.”
The thought of doing anything aside from sleeping was too much for me to bear. “You’re right,” I groaned. “Of course you’re right.” I propped myself up into a more comfortable position and leaned my forehead against her shoulder. “I wish you weren’t.”
“I know,” she laughed softly, “but I’ll be here to help you, whenever you need it, forever. I promise.”
I closed my eyes as my physical and mental exhaustion overcame me. “I love you,” I murmured sleepily, and unconsciousness overtook me before I heard her reply.
---
I awoke the next morning still propped up against Lia’s shoulder feeling more refreshed than I had in months. Our deepened bond remained perfectly intact, allowing me to express to her my renewed resolve without the need for imprecise words. My feelings radiated through our shared consciousness as we ate a quick breakfast and packed up our camp: thankfulness, relief, and determination to finish the task set before us. When our morning routines were complete, we trekked back to the road and resumed our journey north.
The path ahead of us was less of a road and more of a depression in the otherwise deep and all-encompassing snow. While it was clear that the roads had been maintained at some point during the winter, recent snowfall had accumulated undisturbed with no sign of tracks from plow horses or foot traffic. Our journey was far more tiring than the day before as we pushed through the knee-deep snow, but we still made more progress than we ever could have by carriage or horseback. Lia’s general knowledge of Kaldan told us that we would find the town of Yenn on the far side of the forest, after which the road would branch off to the east and lead us directly to Shadowmine.
When the first buildings of Yenn came into view of our Detection, it became clear why traffic along the road had stopped. Most of the houses sat completely empty, carefully and neatly stripped of every valuable and scrap of food inside. Judging by the level of snow piled against the front doors of the houses and shops, the entire town had evacuated at roughly the same time. However, as our vision approached the town center, we found small ruts in the snow that led out from an abandoned general store out towards Yenn’s periphery.
The scene at the end of the ruts revealed the full story of the town’s abandonment. A separate set of monstrous, clawed tracks joined the footpaths on the way to a group of three isolated houses, all of which were missing the entirety of their front walls. Snowdrifts mingled with the wooden wreckage inside entryways and living rooms that were still otherwise furnished for daily life. Streaks of frozen blood painted the interior of the houses, marking where the stubborn stragglers had fallen, though their bodies were nowhere to be found. Beyond the houses, the beast’s tracks carried on alone to the north across the open, snowy countryside.
Lia and I broke off from our eastward journey without hesitation and followed the tracks north. A more focused sweep with Detection found the telltale aura of a single monster lingering in the fields a few miles away from Yenn. We slowed our pace as we entered the suffocating aura and began to sweep the area, but our search didn’t last long; the sound of crunching snow echoed clearly over the white expanse as the beast charged us, clearly ready to make a meal of the travelers that had entered its domain. We calmly drew our weapons and spread a few yards apart as we waited for our foe to reach us.
The monster exploded out from a nearby snowdrift with its scythes raised, aiming to skewer Lia through the chest. She leapt back and dodged the predictable blow with ease while I sprinted ahead and circled the beast. My sword was already in motion when the beast leaned forward onto its scythes and
