Author's Note: Hey there! Sorry for the long wait between chapters, but I thought I'd wait until after the holidays to post; I hope everyone reading, whether they celebrated or not, had a fantastic time. I'll be trying to post updates on Sunday evenings from now on. I hope this chapter was worth the wait!


Chapter One: Go Back to Sleep


Solona had had this dream many times before: a class in the library, an enchanter calling on apprentices for answers when she thought they might not be paying attention. The actual topic and the teacher were nondescript, voices distant and faces around her blurred. While these dreams usually ended in a quiz or an assignment she never seemed to be prepared for (or a tryst with a boy who never quite managed to kiss her), something about this time was different—a niggling feeling this lesson was something new, something much more important.

She leaned forward, straining to hear the enchanter from her spot on the floor just in case she could give some credence to her suspicions. Her words remained as generic and removed as ever, so Solona began to look around her instead, seeing if any book or peer would give her a hint why or if this dream had any particular significance. As her gaze wavered from the enchanter at the head of the class, it caught something else: a flicker to her right, a glimmer of light that flitted away out of sight when she tried to look directly at it.

Solona's head whipped around to look at where the light had been, her attention now solely on what had imposed on her dream. Her eyes fixed so intently on the spot that was now vacant, she caught the same flicker again, this time a little to the left of where it had appeared before, and closer—the light was deliberately trying to avoid notice. Instead of seeking it out again, she waited, trying to keep her posture as relaxed as possible.

The light flickered again, this time nearly right next to her face and in focus: a small sphere of white, crackling light—a wisp. Solona leapt to her feet and stretched out her hands, a burst of flame erupting from her fingertips and engulfing the intruder as it began to buzz with a darker energy. The spirit crackled again, too weak to withstand the fire, and then fizzled out; as it vanished, so did the rest of the "students" gathered around her.

Solona watched them disappear along with the still-lecturing enchanter, her eyes surveying the room shrewdly for any sign of more wisps waiting to take advantage of her distracted state, as well as any other beings that might manifest. She stayed poised for further attacks, but turned slowly to take stock of her surroundings. The library remained, shelves and tables intact to her left, but when Solona looked to what should have been the doorway to the right, the scene was fuzzy, shifting under her gaze, until it ended abruptly at what seemed to be swirling, black vapor.

As her awareness returned, so did her memory: this was a test, her Harrowing—she'd entered the Fade awake, her dream lessening the jarring impact of the lyrium. She felt it now, the disorientation of her entry, as if she'd been shoved through a long, narrow tube. She'd only ever been in the Fade when she slept, and this ritual was something she hoped she wouldn't have to do often in the future.

She closed her eyes in an attempt to settle the sensation, her thoughts swimming in disorder; she was in a dream, but this dream was part of a realm in the Fade, and possibly shared by other entities. Solona opened her eyes again, slow and deliberate, first peeking out of the corner of her eyes to check for anymore wisps, and then to her right to study the black gateway—that was where she must have come in, but she was fairly certain that it wouldn't permit her to leave. She doubted she could just "wake up" either—in this state of awareness, her actions determined her will, and it was possible that the demon awaiting her would be in front of a similar portal.

Of course, she'd have to find it first. Solona looked to her left again, half-turning as she did so, and surveyed the terrain in front of her. The room had dissolved, and while some smaller elements—a desk, scattered books, a window still oddly stationary in mid-air—were still about, Solona mostly saw the Fade as it was: winding and distinctly ethereal. She couldn't see as far as what she perceived would be the horizon, the view too twisted and fuzzy, but what her eyes did meet was enough to go by, and served to remind her that she was alone more effectively than the hurried warnings in the Harrowing Chamber.

She exhaled, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, and pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead, the action pushing her bangs away from her eyes and leaving them even more askew than they already were. All of these actions were meaningless, her physical body back in the Harrowing Chamber, but they represented familiarity and served to bolster her confidence. "Okay," she said out loud, her voice sounding distant to even her own ears in the Fade, "time for one high stakes game of hide and seek."

As she explored, she noticed that this particular section of the Fade was surprisingly straightforward—normally, even mages who entered with the aid of lyrium said that realms could shift, warp according to who walked them. The more ground Solona covered, the more certain she became this terrain was static—it phased in and out of clarity, but the images were always the same, still presenting objects she would expect to see amongst things she never would have thought of on her own.

More wisps materialized as she progressed, most of them glimmering far enough away that she could simply freeze them before they had a chance to creep closer and surprise her. Each served to strengthen her resolve, as well as add fuel to the anger that had dwindled in the wake of her initial shock. Every creature that attacked was just as trapped in this test as she was, and enticed by the only potential vessel available.

So what would her real challenge be—what sought to possess her here? Solona ran over lessons apprentices had been routinely taught every year since they were brought to the Circle, mulling on the demonic hierarchy in an attempt to determine what she would have to resist. She found it unlikely that Irving would pit an apprentice against something as powerful as a pride or desire demon, but assuming things in the Fade was dangerous. Whatever she had to face, she doubted it would just spring out like a wisp: something about what Irving had said about keeping her wits about her warned her otherwise.

Nothing more threatening seemed to be present, at least at the moment. Irving's binding ritual must have cordoned this part of the Fade, barring intruders just as effectively as it kept her penned in. But if her dream had eased her into the test, then was any of what was around her brought into being by the demon, and was anything else aside from wisps waiting to test her resolve? At this point, the questions alone were enough to drive Solona to distraction. She growled and drew to a halt, clutching at her hair again in frustration.

"Someone else thrown to the wolves, as fresh and unprepared as ever."

Solona jumped and looked around frantically for whoever had spoken, frost collating around her fingertips for another attack. The voice had sounded like a man's, but as far as she could tell there was no one else present. Movement below her line of vision drew her attention to the ground, where a mouse skittered out from under what looked like a gnarled tree.

Since this was the Fade it wasn't so strange to converse with a mouse, but as this was also a section of the Fade she knew sheltered a demon, Solona didn't immediately allow the cold energy around her fingertips to dissipate. She continued to simply watch the mouse, waiting to see what it would do. After a moment, the mouse perched up on its hind legs and sniffed the air around her, as if it were sizing her up in turn. "So," Solona said after more silent tension had passed between them, her voice still sounding apart from herself, "you're a talking rat."

The mouse's tail flicked in irritation, and it dropped back down onto all fours. "It's always the same, isn't it?" he muttered, his tone matching his still-twitching tail. "It's not your fault, I suppose, but that still doesn't leave you much time." He craned his neck and began to groom a patch on his back, nibbling at… Fade fleas, perhaps? After he seemed satisfied with his efforts, he turned back around and rose onto his hind legs again. "Allow me to welcome you to the Fade," he greeted, his tone bored, almost as if this were routine. "You can call me… well… Mouse."

Solona released the field of energy held in her hands, still wary but willing to further investigate Mouse's purpose in her test. "Is that a family name?" she asked, her lips quirking just a little when Mouse's tail gave another twitch, accompanied by his right ear. Except this time, Mouse moved in an odd, wriggling sort of way and light pooled around his small form.

Recognizing the signs of a spell, Solona took a step back and summoned the cold energy back to her fingers, ready to retaliate. She watched as Mouse's silhouette changed within the light, growing and morphing, and then the light was gone just as quick as it came, and Mouse… was a man. "No, I don't remember my real name," he supplied matter-of-factly, a raised eyebrow belying his pleasure at surprising her. "It was from long ago, and now you're in the same boat I was, aren't you?"

Changing into a man made Solona even less inclined to trust him, but she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt—or keep her enemy close—for the sake of passing her Harrowing; she was sure that Mouse wouldn't even be in this realm if not to have some effect on her test, positive or negative. She again released the power in her hands, dropping tiny particles of frost to the ground. "The 'same boat?' You're… an apprentice?"

Mouse looked less smug now, his brows knitting underneath blond hair as his lips turned down. "I… think so. It was so long ago, and I've lost so much since. I think I ran away. I hid…" His blue eyes sparked and a sneer twisted features that were more striking than handsome. "They killed me. The templars, I mean. Sadistic bastards."

"The templars simply killed you, then?" Even though some of the templars Solona knew might have done just this, Greagoir was fairly efficient at weeding such men out of his ranks. Of course, Mouse might have failed his Harrowing before Greagoir's time in the Circle.

"That is what they do to the bodies of apprentices who take too long, apparently," Mouse spat, his hands clenching into fists. "They figure you're too weak to resist the demon and they don't want anything… getting out."

"That's… horrible," Solona whispered, still unwilling to trust Mouse, but lamenting this fate for any mage.

"Yes. Horrible." Mouse was still looking down at his shoes, but his hands were no longer balled at his sides and his eyes were dull.

"Um… how long do I have, exactly?" Solona asked, looking around her nervously for some sign of her time limit—perhaps standing here and chatting with Mouse wasn't the best course of action to take.

Her question seemed to spur Mouse out of his misery. "I'm not sure… not long, I'd imagine. They want to throw you to the mercy of a demon as soon as possible." His gaze shifted from left to right, and he hesitated for a moment, as if reluctant to say what was on his mind, but then he cleared his throat and took a step toward Solona. "I can help you here, if you'd like. I'm not much for fighting, but I can get you around this part of the Fade."

"Not that I'm turning down help, but doesn't this path only go one way?" Solona offered a little smile, crooked and what Wreda called "charming," said like she had a stomachache.

Her attempt at teasing was lost on Mouse, who seemed intent on wallowing—not that she could blame him after so many years trapped in the Fade. "You would be a fool to assume everything in the Fade is straightforward," he chastised. "You know that, don't you? There are other spirits here, sharing this realm with the demon; they're here to test you, if you're up for the challenge, and if you pass their tests they'll help you."

"Are you a test then?" Solona asked, still annoyed at Mouse's insinuation that she was simple. There was something about him, the slight whine to his tone even when angry, that reminded her of Jowan, which was both comforting and irritating, really: on the one hand, she knew how to talk to him, and on the other hand, he might still be a trap. Either way, she'd have to walk on eggshells around him.

"I'm… small. Unnoticeable. I've learned how to hide in the shadows here, and now… I guess I lead you to the demon." He offered her a smile that she gathered was supposed to be reassuring, but it looked strained, as if it were pasted onto his face. "Once you find it, you kill it: that's your way out."

Solona's eyebrow rose almost of its own accord. "That's it? It can't be that simple."

Mouse snorted. "Aside from demons being anything but simple, you're wise to question. Killing everything you see is one sure way to get yourself killed, and what awaits you is powerful, cunning." He finally seemed to notice he wasn't endearing himself to Solona and made a gesture that was probably supposed to placate her. "Uh… let's see… look at it this way: the Fade is all a matter of will, right? I'm not really a mouse, just like you're not really standing there in that body. You resist a demon's possession here by fighting it."

"So I'm thinking it to death?" A small laugh bubbled from Solona's lips, made just a little sharp by her nerves. "All right, so I fight it," she added quickly when Mouse looked like he was about to give another lecture—apparently her sense of humor was also lost on denizens of the Fade. "Um… you don't have to follow me, you know, if you wish to remain hidden." Mouse did seem like the twitchy sort, and Solona wasn't sure knowing which spirit was where was worth his seeming determination to lament everything.

"Oh, it's no trouble," Mouse said generously, looking around him again. "I missed my chance, yes, but it's difficult to just hide while another apprentice faces her Harrowing." He smiled again, the action still more of a grimace, and this time Solona noticed something curious about him—he never quite met her eyes when he looked at her.

Solona shrugged, careful to keep her reservations about her new guide to herself. "I'm not going to turn down help. Lead the way, Mouse."

Mouse's eyes widened and he searched the area around them again, twitching nervously. "Uh… I'll just follow you, if that's all right. I can tell you when you're near another spirit. How about that?"

Solona bit down on the inside of her cheek in an effort to resist sighing. "Sounds fine. So… onward and forward?" She waited as Mouse made another gesture with his hands, this time in a complicated symbol reminiscent of the one his ears had made earlier, and light pooled around him again, shifting him back into a mouse. After a moment, she asked, "Is it possible for me to change my shape, like you do?"

Mouse's tail twitched slowly this time, as if in thought. "Maybe," he finally conceded slowly, "but only if you're willing to forget that you're you, and that takes a long time. I'd focus on something simpler for now, stick to what you already know." He looked up at her, nose twitching as he sniffed the air again, then scurried around her left foot to hide behind her. "I'm ready when you are," he prompted.

Solona didn't bother to hide an eye roll this time, resuming her journey along the path. It was odd traveling with someone as small as Mouse; she couldn't see him out of her periphery, so the only way for her to know that he was still with her was to listen for the sound of his paws scratching against the ground as he ran to catch up with her longer strides. As she still wasn't ready to trust his assistance, the thought that he was scurrying around behind her only served to make Solona even tenser than she already was, and short of turning around and walking backwards into an unknown threat, there wasn't much she could do about it. "Do you know anything about the demon I must face?" she blurted out, wincing when her voice more than likely gave away her nerves—at least this way Mouse would have to speak.

She heard his irritated sigh, accentuated by a squeak. "There are… many creatures in the Fade, some all fire and rage, others less so." Another squeak, and then, "Now, it is dangerous for me to be out here in the open like this, so the less attention you draw to my presence, the better."

As if to punctuate his warning, a wisp attacked from further along the road, at the crest of another hill. The dark energy of a spirit attack was more chilling than its electric crackle suggested, affecting soul more than body. Solona hesitated for a moment, caught up in the emotional shock of an attack meant to cause despair, but then she felt a sharp pain in her ankle and looked down to see Mouse sinking his teeth in; the pain brought her back to the present and she encased yet another wisp in ice.

When she was certain the wisp wouldn't attack again, she looked down at where Mouse had been—he'd since sneaked back to his position somewhere behind her—and at her punctured ankle. "Uh… thanks," she muttered, wondering if a wound in the Fade was the same as one in a dream, or if some part of her would actually be affected because of her method of entry. Really, the magnitude of the headache she could get just from thinking about these things seemed almost enough to rival the effects of lyrium.

Determined not to just stand there and silently drive herself insane, Solona started forward again. This time she didn't distract herself by talking to Mouse, instead just listening intently for the sounds of his progress behind her, stopping and starting again as he darted from one object littering the path to another. More wisps tried to overcome her as they progressed, their numbers increasing, but Solona was still able to disable them fairly quickly as they preferred to stay at a distance.

So when they rounded another bend in the path and stumbled into a small pack of wolves, Solona cursed herself for becoming overconfident. There were only three of them, ghostly and hard to look at directly, and they were still far enough away that she at least had time to freeze one before they charged, but the other two snarled and rushed at her, covering ground quickly. Solona backtracked, trying to find footing that was more secure, and summoned another blast of fire, setting both wolves aflame—just in time for one of them to slam into her and knock her to the ground.

Solona pushed at the beast's neck, somewhat relieved that she could touch its translucent body, trying to hold off its gnashing teeth long enough to cover it in another sheath of ice. The wolf was strong though, determined to sink its teeth into her own throat, and while she did manage to freeze it, she only had just enough time to roll out from beneath it before the other wolf got a hold of the hem of her robes and dragged her along the ground. Solona swore and kicked desperately, trying to get one good hit on the wolf's snout, but it was too agile and simply yanked her sharply to the right, rolling her roughly onto her stomach.

They passed another dead, twisted tree, and Solona made a frantic grab for its trunk, wrapping her arms around it to try to resist the wolf's power, and she delayed them just long enough for the wolf to let go and seek a better hold on her leg. Solona kicked again, this time scoring a hit on its jaw and stunning it. She broke one arm away from her grip on the tree and hit the wolf with a bolt of arcane power, disorienting it further, and took the precious few seconds she had to light its fur on fire again.

The wolf thrashed around wildly, trying to put out the flames, and Solona covered her ears to shield them from its keening. The shrieks were too much to bear, and the wolf threatened to set Solona's robes on fire with her own spell, so Solona covered it in ice as well, killing it quickly and quenching the flames. Even so, she kicked at it once it stopped moving, just to make sure it was dead, and remained on her back, propped up on her elbows, until she heard the telltale scratching of Mouse's return from his hiding place.

"You are… you're a true mage, aren't you? Much more potential than I first thought." Mouse was too excited to realize his rather backhanded compliment, unable to stay in one place and issuing an odd, wheezing sort of squeak as he spoke. "You really do have a chance to get out of this trial alive."

"Thanks," Solona gasped, breathless and shaking. She gave herself a once-over and noticed that the point of collision from the first charging wolf had badly singed her robes—if it had been on her any longer, it would have burned through to her flesh. Not that there would be any evidence of her struggle in the mortal realm… at least, so she thought. Unwilling to give away entirely just how much she had relied on luck and adrenaline, she slowly pushed herself up onto her feet, dusting herself off, and remarked, "So… literally throwing us to the wolves; that one I didn't see coming."

Mouse was abruptly his impatient self again, but less sullen than he had been before. "There are more threats ahead, and you must be prepared to face them." It circumnavigated Solona's feet, his entire body leaning in the direction of his nose as he sniffed the air. "There is another spirit ahead," he cautioned. "Not the one hunting you, but still…"

"Wonderful," Solona muttered. If her battle with the wolves was anything to go by, perhaps fighting the demon wouldn't be as "simple" as she'd first thought. Then something in Mouse's warning caught her attention—had he sensed the wolves' presence as well? Instead of alerting him to her suspicions, she resolved to watch him more closely. "Any idea what manner of spirit it is?"

"Mmm…" Mouse's ears twitched up and down as he rose onto his hind legs again, sniffing the air even more intently. "No, but it is dangerous."

Solona nodded slowly, her hands braced at her sides for combat if the need arose. "Only one direction to go, so… let's go." She started forward again, nearly tiptoeing around another bend in the path, and silently swore when she saw what this spirit was: a bear, asleep and blocking the path ahead. There was something about this bear that was different from the wolves, though; it wasn't transparent, for one, and neither did it appear feral. Instead, its posture seemed almost deliberately aloof, covering just enough of the path that slipping by without notice would be near impossible.

"Wolves, bears… is this the Fade or a forest?" Solona grumbled, rubbing her sweaty palms over the singe marks in her robes before she approached the bear, nerves humming through her body as she drew closer and closer. Even Mouse seemed particularly cowed by this creature, his paws barely audible as he crept along behind Solona. She stopped a few paces away from the bear's snout, braced on the balls of her feet to jump back if she needed to, and watched it breathing, its eyes closed.

She debated what to do about the obstacle literally in her path, wondering if it was a good idea to speak to it or simply try to move along. Just as she was about to take another step closer, the bear spoke, making both her and Mouse gasp in surprise. "Hmm… so you are the mortal being hunted? And the small one is with you?" One of his eyes had opened ever so slightly, the pupil fixing on both Solona and Mouse in turn from underneath its half-closed eyelid.

Mouse was closer to Solona than she'd thought, his voice coming from somewhere near the hem of her robes. "I don't like this. He may not help us, and if he does you might not like what he has to offer."

The bear took no offense to Mouse's skepticism, even if Mouse drew closer to Solona's ankle for some semblance of protection. "No matter," he drawled lazily, his voice deep and guttural. "The demon will get you eventually."

His eye began to close again, and Solona decided to draw closer and get as much information out of the spirit as she could, since he seemed to know of her test. "What do you know about this demon?"

The bear heaved a long, groaning sigh, his body deflating and rising again as he drew in another breath before speaking. "I know that you will fail your test. Begone!" he grumped, shifting into a more comfortable position on the ground. "Surely you have better things to do than bother Sloth, mortal. I tire of you already," he yawned, stretching his limbs until they popped, before his head settled down on his paw.

So the bear was a demon of sloth, but according to Mouse he was not the demon she would have to face. That didn't make him any less dangerous, however, and Solona studied him more intently before saying anything else. The way he was poised, even curled up around his paws, suggested that he was ready to rise quickly to his feet, and since he'd seemed so amused to startle both her and Mouse he had clearly only been pretending to be asleep; after all, one of the cautions taught in the Circle was that sloth demons were not actually slothful themselves, but many would exploit this commonly mistaken assumption.

Seeking the demon's help would be just as risky as fighting the one waiting for her, but if he had any information to offer it could greatly increase her chances of passing her test and getting out of this nightmare. She ran her teeth over her lower lip, wincing as the sensation reminded her she'd bit it earlier, then exhaled in resignation. "Is there anything you can offer to help me?"

Both of Sloth's eyes opened this time, bright and bloodshot, but very much alert. "Help you?" he chuckled, his powerful body shaking with mirth. "Nothing can help you."

Mouse had crept out from under Solona's robes, nearly sitting on her foot as he sniffed the air around Sloth. "He's powerful," he concluded, perching on his back paws. "It might be possible that he could… teach his shape." He slunk a little away from Solona, stopping just behind her to her right while he kept his beady blue eyes on the bear.

The bear watched him in turn, waiting until Mouse stopped moving before looking over Solona as well. "It's true that I am quite powerful in this form, when I wish to be," he nodded, his confirmation sounding also very much like a warning. "However, most mortals are too attached to their forms to learn the change, especially in the small amount of time you have left. You, on the other hand, little one," he continued, eyes traveling back to Mouse, "let go of the human form years ago."

Solona looked down at Mouse, keeping Sloth in her periphery as she watched her guide twitch uncomfortably on the ground. "A bear isn't very good for hiding," he hesitated, rubbing his cheeks with his paws as he thought, "but… I might be able to help you fight the demon, provided I am given the choice to do so."

While this new development had merit, Solona was somewhat reluctant to welcome it: Mouse had already proved himself to be a questionable ally at best, and learning another form would give him more power to affect her test—for good or ill. She considered her encounter with the wolves, how two of them had nearly done her in before she'd even reached her waiting demon. "Your help would be welcome," she conceded softly, still holding onto all of her reservations about her shifty ally.

Mouse held her gaze, whiskers twitching as he ran over his own hidden thoughts, then he turned back to the sloth demon. "All right, I'll… try. I'll try to be a bear, if you'll teach me."

"Ah, that's nice," Sloth said, his voice oozing with smug laughter, "but teaching is so exhausting, and you have given me no reason as of yet to make the attempt. Away with you now." One of his paws twitched under his chin in dismissal, and his eyelids began to droop again.

This time, Mouse's tail whipped the ground audibly. "I told you that you might not like the help he had to give," he said, back to being sullen. "Maybe we should just move on."

The sloth demon's attention was caught again, his eyes opening to narrowed slits. "Very well, little one, if you wish to learn my form, then I have a challenge for you and your friend: answer three riddles correctly and I will teach you, fail and I will consume you both. The decision is yours to make." He dozed as he waited for them to weigh the risks of his proposition, outwardly indifferent to the outcome.

"Riddles?" Solona asked, deadpan. "You're joking." Her soul pitted against three questions so a mouse could become a bear? She already had enough of these oddities in dreams when she wasn't in control of their outcome.

"Indeed not," Sloth yawned, his eyes still closed. "Amusement is difficult to come by, and I shall take it in the place of your soul if I can." The way one of his eyelids twitched, it was almost as if it winked at her.

Solona stared at his winking eyelid for a moment, then shook her head and looked down at Mouse, who was simply waiting on her answer. Maybe answering riddles would be easier than a life-or-death struggle with a demon she still didn't know much about beyond it being a demon. She sighed and pushed her hair back away from her face yet again. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she said under her breath. Then, "All right, I accept your challenge, Sloth." Please, don't let me regret it more than I already do.

"Truly? Well, this gets more and more promising." The sloth demon cleared his throat, opening his eyes again to watch Solona as he challenged her. "My first riddle: 'I have seas without water, coasts with no sand, towns without people, mountains without land. What am I?'"

Solona knew the answer before Sloth had finished the riddle, somewhat taken aback that it would be so easy and wondering if each question would be more and more difficult as they went. "A map," she said quickly, relieved all the same that the first part of it was over.

Sloth cleared his throat again, this time in disappointment. "Hmm. Correct. The second riddle: 'I am rarely touched, but often held. If you have wit, you'll use me well. What am I?'"

Once again, Solona was put off by the riddle's simplicity, particularly as every single enchanter in the Tower had at one point in Solona's life either praised or cursed her for her outspokenness. "A tongue." Would Sloth attack them once their backs were turned or was he really more invested in the distraction they provided him? Perhaps Sloth really was there to provide her with a better chance against the demon, and the riddles weren't supposed to be too hard to puzzle out.

"Yes, your witty tongue," Sloth yawned again, speaking as if he were verbally swatting away a hovering gnat. "Now, the last riddle: 'Often will I spin the tale, never will I charge a fee. I'll amuse you an entire eve, but alas, you won't remember me. What am I?'"

Solona's lips tilted in a small smile this time, acknowledging the dry humor in the demon's riddle. "A dream," she answered, her triumph and relief evident as she stood up straighter.

"Rather apropos, is it not?" Sloth chuckled again. "Very well, you've won my challenge and proven yourself an amusing distraction." He rose quickly to his feet for one who was supposed to be so weighed down by lethargy, and eyed Mouse from his higher vantage. "The symbol is simple enough, but it will no longer be so simple to remain unnoticed, little one." His paw drew out a different sigil in the air from the one Mouse had demonstrated earlier, and he repeated the gesture once more for clarity before he dropped back down onto the ground.

Mouse wriggled around for awhile, much like he had before he'd revealed he was human, and just when Solona was beginning to think she'd put their lives in peril for nothing, Mouse exclaimed, "Like this!" before the expected light glowed around him and expanded. When it dissipated, Mouse was a black bear, his head level with Solona's shoulders as he stood on all four powerful limbs. "Am I a bear?" he asked, looking down at his front paws.

Sloth's grunt was noncommittal. "Close enough," he confirmed, before closing his eyes and curling in a ball facing away from them. "Go and face your demon. I'm finished with you now."

Gladly, Solona thought, too eager to get away from Sloth to issue a proper thank you, though whether it would have been for his help or for not devouring her soul she wasn't sure. Of course, now she had to fight another demon anyway… this test really was a nightmare, in every sense of the word. Mouse followed her past Sloth, his footfalls now louder and lumbering as he became accustomed to moving with so much more weight. "I feel… heavy," he explained unnecessarily. "I'm not sure I like it."

Solona's eyes nearly rolled on their own, not as concerned about Mouse's ability to fight her because she was turned away from him and he couldn't see her face, and because he reminded her so much of Jowan now that all she could think about was how nothing seemed to be quite good enough for him. Before she could reassure or tease him, a howl echoed in the distance and both of them noticed another pack of wolves further ahead. "No time to figure it out now," she hissed, not relishing the thought of being knocked down again.

Mouse hung back as the wolves rushed across the path, but when they had nearly halved the distance to them, he suddenly roared and charged, plowing into them with his bulk and sending a few of them scattering. He pinned one down with a huge paw and quickly broke its neck, and whipped out and knocked another wolf onto its back as it tried to flank him. While he was preoccupied with the majority of the pack, a couple of the wolves had recognized Solona as the easier target and resumed their previous charge, but Solona was ready and froze one where it stood, and stunned the other with spirit energy long enough for Mouse to finish off the rest of the wolves and offer his assistance.

Solona watched as Mouse sank his teeth into the last wolf's spine, yanking him savagely from side to side until it yelped in pain, its back snapping, and he dropped the beast unceremoniously on the ground. She'd given him power to assist her, but now he definitely posed another problem: what would happen if Mouse turned on her? She had no illusions about his existence in the Fade, and whether he was truly killed for taking too long in his Harrowing or for failing against a demon (if he'd ever really been an apprentice at all), the fact remained that he was a spirit.

Mouse had ambled back to her as she considered him, his mouth hanging open and panting in excitement. "I've never done that before," he said proudly. "Perhaps being a bear isn't so troublesome after all. And you helped me get this power." His large blue eyes gleamed. "If only you had the time to learn such magic now, with a talent like yours; you'd be quite a force against the templars, that's for certain—not that they wouldn't claim you unnatural and cut you down long before then."

Solona hummed neutrally and began walking again, and now Mouse matched her pace so they continued side by side. Mouse was also far more talkative now, expressing more of his disapproval for templars. "They're so quick to label you a blood mage, you see, simply for learning just a little too much, and perhaps there's just a small chance that you might become an abomination." His words dripped with contempt, his paws fell heavier against the ground, and a growl had slipped into his speech. "And of course once they've accused you of blood magic, there's no convincing them otherwise, and they simply kill you on sight."

Rather than risk his ire or betray her still growing doubts about him, Solona remarked, "You're starting to sound a little crazy there, Mouse," keeping her voice light and airy.

Mouse cut off, stumbling just a little. "Am I? I'm sorry," he apologized, his gait returning to its previous near-bumbling. "It just isn't right, what the templars are allowed to do. I had always heard of those who turned apostate, hunted and constantly running, but free." He sounded so despondent that Solona nearly placed her hand on his sinuous back in sympathy, but she caught herself and rubbed the singes on her robes again instead. Remember to think first, Solona.

They trekked along in silence for awhile, encountering no more enemies, and after they came around two more bends in the path, it dawned on Solona that she recognized where they were—they'd somehow managed to come back full-circle. "Wait… we've been here before, haven't we?"

"Hmm?" Mouse asked, distracted. "Oh, yes, I told you already: there is only forward. You need only wait for the demon to manifest."

Solona's teeth ground together in irritation. "Any idea where that might be?" Or when: if what Mouse had already told her was true, she couldn't simply walk around in circles forever.

"It could be anywhere, but it usually shows itself there," he directed, stopping so he could point one of his paws toward a clearing not too far away, one that Solona was fairly certain hadn't been there when they'd first passed this part of the path. As they came closer to it, a patch in the ground seemed to burn like the embers of a fire, and sure enough as Solona stopped in front of the clearing and watched, the cinders seemed to coalesce and rise out of the ground in an amorphous, burning mass.

"And there is a spirit of rage," Mouse supplied, again stating the obvious—granted, he sounded just as stricken as Solona felt; even if rage demons were taught to be the weakest in Brahm's hierarchy, it was still a threat to a mage who had never even seen one before. There was still another concern niggling in the back of her mind again, reminding her of the first enchanter's warning, as well as Mouse's words: powerful, cunning.

The rage demon emerged fully from the ground, sparks still erupting from its body as it moved toward them, mimicking a snake as it slithered. There were two glowing slits in its already bright body, most likely serving for eyes, and as they seemed to fix on her a terrible, crackling laugh came out of a gaping hole that had to be its maw. "And so it comes to me at last," it gasped, just barely able to form words—it was more like the awkward shaping of vowels than actual speech. "And will your eyes be the ones through which I'll see the land of the living?"

Its words were meant to intimidate, and with the intense heat radiating from its molten form, Solona was less sure of her abilities than she had been a moment ago. That didn't mean she was just going to stand there and let it take her, however. "It's two against one, you realize?" The authority in her tone was less of a façade now, her repulsion of the rage demon bolstering her courage.

"Amusing," the demon choked out, its long, snake-like head twisting to face Mouse. "I see it has no idea of our… arrangement."

Before Solona could react to this information, Mouse scoffed and lifted his head higher, his posture defiant. "We don't have an arrangement! And I'm not a mouse any longer," he growled, the familiar action of him rising onto his haunches now dwarfing Solona. "I don't need your protection anymore!" he roared.

"We shall see." The demon charged, darting forward alarmingly fast, and its arms lashed out and almost set the sleeve of Solona's robes on fire. She backtracked, nearly tripping over her own feet, and hastily threw an ice spell in an effort to slow him down. Mouse used the window of opportunity to throw himself forward, his paws slamming into the rage demon's body and sending it reeling back, roaring again as he did so and making the ground underneath Solona's feet tremor.

The demon was temporarily stunned, but before Solona could take advantage, she was struck from behind by another bolt of despair: the rage demon had summoned wisps to its aid. "Take care of the demon," Solona ordered when Mouse turned as if to attack the wisps. "I'll pick off the rest." She took out her attacker and the wisp behind it with fire before either could retreat, then whipped around and froze another that had appeared to the left of the demon, which was alert again and battling Mouse.

She hit the rage demon with an arcane bolt, further distracting it, but another wisp materialized as she was preoccupied and attacked Mouse, drawing a bellow of agony from him before Solona could freeze it. The moment cost Mouse a heavy blow from the rage demon's arm, and his fur smoked and sparked as embers sank in to his skin and set him aflame. He bellowed again, this time in pain, and Solona couldn't afford to aid him as the rage demon's attention had returned to her. She threw another arcane bolt, but it was hardly fazed this time, still slithering toward her; in a moment of panic, she waved frantically, summoning a power she'd never used confidently before, and hit the demon with a pulse of lightning.

While her adversary was put off again by this new magic, Solona quickly gathered cold energy once more, hitting the demon, but also aiming to put out Mouse's smoldering fur. Mouse roared, the power of it resonating in Solona's core, and slammed again into the rage demon, this time overpowering it and bearing it to the ground, his powerful jaws ripping into the mass of the demon's throat until it screamed in agony and seemed to melt into the ground, defeated. Mouse dropped onto his belly, burying his snout into his forearms, his pants all but sobs as he tried to ease the pain of his burned mouth.

"I'm… I'm sorry," Solona said softly, hands outstretched as she approached him. "I don't know how to help—I'm not good at healing." She knelt down next to him, placing her hand on his side to provide some form of comfort. Even if she didn't trust his motives, especially after learning that he had betrayed past apprentices in their Harrowings, Mouse had still just essentially cooked himself in his efforts to help her. It was strange though, how even with the demon dead, Solona still remained in the Fade; wasn't the binding spell supposed to lift once her test was completed?

She risked a glance around her, searching for a sign of the rage demon or some other possible threat, but she was alone in the clearing… with Mouse. Her teeth gritted with the effort to make sure her movements were slow and steady as she withdrew her hand and took a step back. "The rage demon wasn't my real test, was it?" she asked, frost emitting from her fingers almost unconsciously.

Mouse stopped panting, and as she moved back further, he pushed himself up onto his feet, light encompassing him until he stood before her as a man. This time his eyes were disturbingly hollow, his smile more of a sneer. "You are a smart one, aren't you?" he drawled, standing taller than he had before in an air of superiority. When he spoke next, his voice changed, deep and sinister, discordant in a throat unsuited for his true form. "Simple killing is a warrior's job. The real dangers of the Fade are preconception, careless trust—pride."

He raised his arms, summoning the energy to change his form yet again, and Solona watched as the column of light grew to something over twice her size. When the light faded, Mouse was huge and horned, a spirit boasting power that Solona couldn't hope to defeat as an apprentice—a pride demon. The ice around her fingertips seemed to rebound into her veins, chilling her blood as her eyes widened in fear and disbelief—the Circle wouldn't actually summon and bind a pride demon, would they?

Mouse laughed, the sound jarring Solona back to the present and making her snap to attention, ready to fight him in whatever way she could. Mouse's strange lips twisted upward and he leaned forward, patronizing and intimidating, as if he were about to pat her on the head with his giant hand—or crush her like a bug. "Keep your wits about you, mage," he offered, his advice somehow mocking and indifferent at the same time.

As he continued to speak to her, Solona felt an odd pull from behind her navel, a tug of power that seeped into the rest of her awareness and made her vision foggy, indistinct. "True tests never end." Mouse's voice sounded too far away, and suddenly Solona was falling through the ground, and she screamed, sinking through what seemed to be the swirling vapor of a Fade portal…