They sprinted furiously into the darkness towards the fens, the only light coming from the thin pair of crescent moons in the sky as the sounds of angry villagers rose up behind them. Priscilla was regretting putting her hair down to sell the act as it whipped around in the sudden breeze, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it while they were running.

  There was a twang, and then a thud as something hit the ground behind them. Priscilla risked a glance back as saw that stupid mayor had found himself a bow. But she didn’t worry about him, not when the arrow didn’t come anywhere close to them and the mayor held the weapon awkwardly in his hands. She bet it was the first time he held the damned thing.

  Though it couldn’t be seen well in the darkness and no one knew what it meant, Priscilla stuck up her middle finger towards this stupid-ass town.

  The only sign they had that they had entered the fens was when the ground beneath them became softer, sinking a little with every step they took. While they slowed down upon reaching this point, they didn’t stop, not when they could still see the town from where they were.

  They closed ranks, with Sulaiman in the lead, summoning a ball of flame to help with visibility. In his hand he held the marble, and it seemed he was taking them on a direct path towards Illnyea. It was dark in the fens, and the ground was uneven, plants not caring that their roots were supposed to be underground. The brush was more densely packed the further they ran, and if Priscilla had enough breath to curse as her hip clipped a bush, she would have. But she didn’t, as it was taking all her effort to keep up with Sulaiman’s freakishly long strides.

  Despite having the helpful fire to see, Priscilla’s foot still caught on a fern and she fell flat on her face. At least the ground was soft, so there wasn’t a crack of broken bone.

  Still, even as Kavil helped her up, Priscilla groaned, poking her nose gingerly. It didn’t feel broken, but her eyes were watering from the impact.

  The ball of flame came closer, causing a prickle of pain in her nose as Sulaiman leaned over to study her face, a touch of concern in his stern expression. He was the only one of them who wasn’t winded by the sprint, contrasting Kavil and Priscilla who were both breathing heavily. She hadn’t had to run without pausing before in this world and was struggling to catch her breath. Priscilla was realizing she needed to seriously up her stamina when she had the time to push this body to the limits.

  Sulaiman looked behind them, squinting before he said, “I think we’ve put enough distance between us and the village. We can pause here.”

  The fire dimmed in intensity as it grew smaller, the excess light being blocked by their bodies as it centered itself between them.

  “Here, let me–” Kavil brushed a finger over the bridge of Priscilla’s nose and the pain faded.

  “Thanks,” Priscilla said, giving Kavil a smile as she blinked away the reflexive tears, “but you really ought to focus your effort on Mister Superhero over there.” Priscilla pointed at Sulaiman, who was now glaring at her. Kavil turned towards Sulaiman, frowning as he searched for a wound on the other man.

  “He shattered the glass window when he jumped out of it,” Priscilla continued when Sulaiman didn’t say anything, “while he was carrying me and all the bags. His knees must be absolutely fucked right now.”

  Sulaiman’s glower intensified the more she spoke, and that just made her smile go wider. If Sulaiman was going to rat Priscilla out to Kavil, she would be sure to give him the exact same treatment in the name of ‘learning from each other.’

  Kavil’s jaw dropped as he looked between them, stuttering, “Wait, why’d you jump out the window? I thought the plan was to sneak out after I got back, and instead, I found the entire town chasing after you!”

  Sulaiman and Priscilla exchanged a glance, both wondering how to explain the fact that they freaked the fuck out over Kavil being slandered and Sulaiman may or may not have given a man a permanent injury to plague him for the rest of his pathetic life. Watching Sulaiman do that and make the entire room silent with fear like it was nothing was unfortunately very attractive and left Priscilla momentarily speechless. In truth, Priscilla didn’t even want to try and dissuade him, even though it put the final nail in the coffin of their once glorious and foolproof plan, and only stepped in when it seemed things were going south very quickly.

  “Well,” Priscilla chuckled, scratching the back of her head, “I, uh, may have pushed the townsfolk too far by being a bitch and they couldn’t take it anymore – I swear I did try to de-escalate, but they, uh, weren’t willing to listen to reason at that point. Sulaiman carried me out of the shitshow and we got away, so I’m considering this operation an overall success.”

  While Priscilla was willing to rat Sulaiman out for being injured, ragging on him for being violent would just be hypocritical considering Priscilla was one more rude word from introducing that man’s face to her fist. Sulaiman had just beaten her to the punch, literally. Plus, Priscilla thought Sulaiman might be a little embarrassed at not keeping his cool, so she wished to spare him from that.

  Sulaiman was staring at her, hard, eyes glinting with emotion, but Priscilla ignored that to look at Kavil, who was staring at Priscilla incredulously.

  “I’m perfectly fine,” Priscilla said quickly, “as Sulaiman shielded me from the worst of the glass, so go heal him up and then you can share what you learned.”

  “I’m–” Sulaiman started, but Kavil whirled on him.

  “If the next word out of your mouth is ‘fine,’” Kavil said pleasantly, poking him hard on the chest, “then I’m going to declare you a worse patient than Priscilla as I can literally see the blood dripping down your face.”

  Priscilla thought about protesting because it meant she was the worst patient at the moment, but instead chose to enjoy the way Sulaiman’s mouth snapped shut like he had been slapped. Ah, it really was nice to not be the one getting nagged.

  Kavil ordered Sulaiman to sit down with his back against a tree and began examining his knees. Kavil tutted as he did his examination, frowning at the joint as he healed it, but eventually said, “You’ll be fine, just don’t go jumping out of windows anytime soon, you hear me?”

  “I understand,” Sulaiman said solemnly, like it was a situation he normally found himself in. Kavil healed Sulaiman’s cuts quickly before sitting back on his hands with a sigh.

  Before Kavil could begin speaking, Sulaiman said, “Priscilla, come here.”

  Priscilla eyed Sulaiman suspiciously. “Why?”

  “You have glass in your hair, in case you haven’t noticed, idiot. Kavil will be busy speaking, so the sorry task of getting it out of your hair so you don’t cut yourself while you sleep falls to me.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Well, that certainly was a good reason.

  Priscilla sat in front of a kneeling Sulaiman as Kavil relayed what he learned from Ulric. Sulaiman’s fingers moved dexterously through her hair, but Priscilla couldn’t even enjoy it as Kavil spoke of what the town had been through so far. It sounded like The Starving One had eaten a Dappled Hyena before coming to Aidais’ Lament and used the nasty cackle to inspire shock and awe. The tale of what happened to the family made Priscilla’s stomach turn over as her damned imagination provided a clear picture. She knew The Starving One didn’t view non-church members as real, but now it was all the more real to hear about the cannibal’s casual brutality. That was what lurked in the forest, and, knowing a protagonist’s luck, Illnyea would have encountered The Starving One or her lackeys already.

  Priscilla refused to even entertain the possibility that The Starving One had defeated Illnyea. Illnyea may be alone, but she was strong and resourceful, she would hold out until Priscilla found her again.

  Priscilla’s fingers curled around the sack of quartz tied to her belt and hoped her plans to deal with the magical overload worked.

  “Fuck,” Sulaiman said simply when Kavil was done speaking, his fingers stilling.

  “I must be rubbing off on you,” Priscilla joked, though her heart wasn’t in it, “you beat me to the swear word.”

  A sharp tug on her hair had Priscilla wincing and she elbowed Sulaiman’s thigh as she pulled away from him to glare at him briefly.

  “So what do we do?” Kavil asked.

  “We’re going to have to rely on the element of surprise,” Priscilla said because that was the only way she saw them having even a chance of surviving, “and hope we catch them off guard.”

  They didn’t technically need to fight The Starving One if their only goal was to save Illnyea. But Kavil had promised Ulric to save his daughter, so now they were on the hook for that because Priscilla knew there’d be no persuading Kavil to leave an innocent child to the mercy of a cannibal.

  Fighting just The Starving One and her two cronies would be difficult on a normal day, as the fens were full of freaky monsters for the cannibal to eat and absorb its power. But adding at least fifteen cultists on top of that, and things were starting to edge near the ‘impossible’ territory, especially since this was now a rescue mission where they hoped to bring everyone back home in one piece.

  “I don’t like relying on that,” Sulaiman said, crossing his arms.

  “Got anything better?” Priscilla asked because she really would love a better plan.

  Sulaiman’s frown was all the answer she needed. Priscilla ran her tongue over her teeth as she thought about telling them how to prepare for the cannibal’s powerset. Just thinking of saying it aloud coated her tongue in blood, but she couldn’t just let them go in blind.

  “So Ulric said The Starving One laughed and then the ground shook, right?” Priscilla asked Kavil, choosing her words carefully.

  Kavil blinked, then nodded.

  Priscilla made a show of tapping her fingers in thought before she said, “That sounds exactly like what the Dappled Hyenas can do.” A fine statement of fact but Priscilla felt her throat tighten warningly. Damned restrictions, damned god of cowards.

  But maybe it was enough based on the sharp look Sulaiman gave her.

  “Are you suggesting she can eat a creature and then use its powers?” Sulaiman asked, horrified incredulity creeping into his voice. Kavil’s jaw dropped as he too stared at Priscilla with a gaze that suggested he hoped Sulaiman was wrong.

  Priscilla shrugged, knowing that being direct meant blood and then the boys would be distracted from the true danger. “Well, if your whole shtick is to eat things since you’re starving, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some benefit from doing so.”

  Sulaiman let out a long, controlled breath while Kavil looked down with shock as he processed that.

  “Then we must assume that she may have the capabilities of any creature residing in the fens,” Sulaiman began, sounding supremely unhappy with that conclusion. “Remind us, what lurks here again?”

  “There’s the Carnifex Crab that breathe underwater and collects bones, the Razor Beaked Crows that like to peck you to death, the Firebog Wolves that breath fire and cause chaos in packs, and of course the Gorelock Toad along with a bunch of smaller critters that shouldn't be a problem,” Priscilla listed, wracking her mind and wishing she brought her bestiary with her. She hadn’t wanted it to get wet in case she took a tumble.

  Asha briefly squeezed Priscilla’s hand three times, startling Priscilla, then three more times insistently. It didn’t seem like her artifact noticed any danger, so why…

  Asha pushed feelings of contentment and the distinct impression of listening intently while squeezing three more times and that’s when Priscilla understood what Asha was trying to remind her of, a creature she had told Asha about during their reading sessions that had slipped Priscilla’s mind since it had been so long.

  “Ah, there’s also potentially the Three-Headed Gorgon Newt,” Priscilla said and both boys gave her identical looks of horror at the name alone. She hurried to try and assuage their fears. “Okay, so the chance of encountering one is tiny, they rarely come out of their nests, which are sooo easy to steer clear from because you’ll spot the slime they secrete to build the walls around its home.”

  Neither looked relieved by that good news.

  Sulaiman sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “And what can this newt do exactly?”

  “Well, each head does something different – one has a venomous bite, one shoots boiling water, and one can momentarily petrify creatures if you meet its gaze, hence the gorgon part of its name. They’re about ten, eleven feet long and usually are a dull red color, so you should be able to spot them coming.”

  “Oh joy,” Sulaiman said, dead-pan, “I’ll see the newt right as I get petrified, poisoned, and scalded.”

  “Being an animal nerd really is your superpower,” Kavil said with admiration in his voice. Priscilla paused in the middle of preparing a retort for Sulaiman, feeling her cheeks heat.

  “I just think they’re fascinating,” Priscilla said, averting her gaze, “and, um, it’s just cool to see the crazy creatures this world comes up with.”

  “Don’t be so embarrassed,” Kavil said, scooting so he bumped his shoulder with hers. “I was complimenting you! Without you here, we wouldn’t even know about this threat, and I certainly wouldn’t have connected the hyenas to The Starving One.”

  Priscilla did not know what to do with Kavil’s sincerity and chuckled, “Well, at least I’m good for something.”

  Silence momentarily descended upon them before Sulaiman bluntly broke it. “Are there any other creatures you can recall?”

  His no-nonsense attitude helped Priscilla reorient herself.

  “Not that I can think of,” Priscilla said.

  Sulaiman gave a sharp nod and the ball of fire winked out of existence.

  “Then we should rest for the evening,” Sulaiman said. “I’ll take the first watch.”

  “Aye-aye, captain,” Priscilla quipped, rummaging through her pack to pull out her bedroll. The ground was wet and would probably steadily soak through her bedroll as she slept, but Priscilla would rather get one solid night of sleep before they went traipsing about the fens.

  As she laid her head down, Priscilla thought about how chaotic the last few hours had been and chuckled at the ridiculous situation she had found herself in. (Focus on anything that wasn’t the fact that Illnyea was out there alone and in danger, the threat of a magical overload hanging over her head like a guillotine with a rope that was wearing thinner and thinner.)

  “What’re you laughing about?” Kavil asked.

  “That I have one hell of a story to tell Illnyea when I see her,” Priscilla said. She thought Illnyea would be most amused by Sulaiman’s leap out the window or maybe Priscilla could accurately describe the confused revulsion that dripped off the townsfolk’s gazes when she wiggled her fingers at them.

  Priscilla heard Sulaiman let out a sigh as Kavil giggled.

  “Yeah, that you’re a leader of a mighty harem,” Kavil teased.

  “What, no I’m not!” Priscilla protested, sitting up. “That’s, that’s not what I did, it was you and I who were a committed couple, and, well, technically, I did sit on Sulaiman’s lap and I insinuated that we were fucking but I–”

  Priscilla closed her mouth before she could dig herself a deeper hole with her flimsy defense, remembering just what she had done to Sulaiman. She had justified it to herself in the moment that of course she should trail her fingers down his chin because of the disgusted look the mayor gave her, but now that Priscilla had distance from the situation, she felt her cheeks flush from her own audaciousness.

  She was just glad it was dark and no one could see her face as an awkward silence surrounded them.

  “Go to sleep,” Sulaiman said firmly, his voice just a tad strained.

  Priscilla decided that was sound advice and did just that.