Voices came and went in the blind pool of dizziness.
"Captain Livia! He's…"
"Nyah. This is why earthmates don't have an affinity for fire runeys."
"But he's not an earthmate?"
"No. Which is why this is so bad. If it weren't for that warhammer, he'd already be dead."
Radea said, "I can… do it…"
Alice panicked. "You're barely alive! I can't heal you anymore!"
"...Shut… up…"
The fire burning Martin's life force whooshed away.
Dry eyes cracked open. Golden magical barriers surrounded him and Alice. Someone had protected them from the explosion. Gideon was gone.
Martin's voice wouldn't come. "..."
"Don't try to talk." Alice's tone strained with relief. It sounded like she might cry. "Here. Drink."
He realized the pillow under his head was Alice's lap. She brought the potion to his lips. Exhausted as he felt this was still humiliating, especially out in the open. Bitter draught trickled into his mouth. He swallowed and tried to hold the vial himself. A blackened crisp rose into view.
That was his hand.
The potion threatened to come back up. Unable to look he dropped his arm. Pain knifed upon hitting the crystal floor.
"It's only on the surface, just, you have to drink this first," Alice said. "I can heal the burns."
Were his fingers in tact? It'd been a blur. He wasn't sure. Oh, his hands, he couldn't… without them…
Simone's awful medicinal brew got into his lungs. He coughed.
Alice's voice quavered. "I'm trying to go slow. It's harder than it looks." He wanted to tell her it was okay. He wanted to stroke her cheek. He must… be awful to look at…
Sigh.
On the edge of the platform a gold dragon curled over the black one. Lavalike veins flowed underneath ebony scales. "You bonehead. Always acting without thinking. This is going to cost me you know." The gold dragon's jaws parted and a fiery vortex swirled over Radea. The embers under her scales faded. Molten lava began to drip from the gold dragon's horns. One horn chipped, snapped off, and splattered over the crystal. Lava hissed.
The dragon sighed. "And I'd just gotten that back too." She craned her neck. Brilliant scales shone, blue and pink cutting a V at the collar. "What now? As it stands we've only delayed the inevitable. That explosion broke the seal. The fathomless dread will return and our world will become just a shadow like Calamity's Edge."
"I'll go," Alice said. "I might be able to fix the seal from the inside. If not I can still fight."
"Right. We're going ahead then. Don't make us wait too long, nyah. Can't expect us to save the world by ourselves in this sorry state!" A dribble of lava traced the dragon's face.
Radea pushed up on quivering wingtips. Clawed feet drug underneath until she caught her balance. She stretched tall. "I'll finish this."
Wings spread. The two dragons launched overhead, disappearing into what Martin now saw was a literal crack in reality. Bluish ether bubbled within.
This whole conversation Alice had been pouring rune energy into his scorched remains. Blackened flakes shed from his arms like scale off rapidly cooling metal. It really looked like he was being reforged.
He flexed his fingers. Ash cracked and fell to reveal tanned skin. The old forging scar on his left hand was gone.
"How?..."
"It's Lumenivia's Light. I'm giving you some of my runes."
Whatever that meant it went beyond ordinary healing. She was trading her life for his. "Stop. Enough… this is good enough…" He pushed himself out of her lap, surprised at how easy it was. Dust crumbled off him. Singed, snapped leather hung in fragments over charred wool riddled with burn holes. Everything he wore was beyond repair.
He got to his feet. Past the crystal platform the tear in reality splintered. Unless Alice was a dragon it couldn't be reached.
Was she? He was still coming to terms with the gold dragon speaking with Livia's voice. An ancient dragon had lived next to him for over a decade and he never noticed. He pushed a hand through his hair. It'd cooked short. His bangs weren't in his eyes anymore.
Martin stared at the breach. Alice was planning to go in there.
Behind him the warping sound of magic opened. Alice spelled a portal into existence. Rigbarth's plaza shimmered on the other side. She took a big breath and let it out. Then she stepped up beside him to look out over the break in reality.
"I remember where I came from. I remember everything."
"You do?"
"Yes. This is what I came here to do. Or I guess I should say what summoned me? It's a little hard to explain. I'm… an earthmate. I don't even know if I'm going to exist after this."
"What are you talking about?"
"Martin, I'm really sorry."
He couldn't stand this, her talking like she was going to die. "Stop it. I'm coming with you."
"What, no! You can't."
"I don't care." Fiersome hefted over his shoulder. He'd follow no matter what.
"But I care," Alice said. "I care about you. I think I might even…" she choked off and turned her back. The cross straps of her uniform blazed a big X. Her shoulders squared. "Don't wait for me, okay? Take care of Cecil."
"Alice!"
She ran straight over the platform's edge. Her feet landed on open air as if it were solid ground. Pulses of earth runes brightened her steps straight to the void, and then, she vanished.
"Dammit!"
He hovered near the crack, but any time he got too close he could feel his insides being drawn from his body, all the energy pulled painful and taught. Some invisible force wall prevented him from going any further.
He growled and shouted and couldn't think past his own frustration. At that moment he hated being human, hated how weak he was. Every instinct screamed at him to leap into the void and yet his physicality prevented him from doing it. As he tried to force himself forward drops of rune magic split from his spirit. In their absence a painful heartburn erupted. The void started to consume his actual body. With a shuddering hand he looked at Fiersome's grip and saw blood seeping from beneath his fingernails. Crimson trails chased the direction Alice had gone.
He backed up until the consuming pain quit and the ashes of his depleted magic lay quiet. Under his breath he cursed.
An earthmate? There were no more earthmates. Yet Alice was one. He needed help. He needed someone who knew about this.
x x x
Martin barged into the crystal shop. "Lucas!"
"Ah, oh dear. So it's come to this has it?"
He was in no mood for Lucas' antics. Alice could be—
"Well, what are you waiting for? We have an entire town to gather." Somehow Lucas was already standing at the door. A shadow of concern pinched his smile, probably the most ruffled Martin had ever seen him.
Martin didn't understand. "What are they going to do?"
"Pray, of course."
