Nesha finally handed over the guard duty to other soldiers and crossed the bridge to the fortress town. There was unnatural silence among the buildings. When she entered the yard, she immediately saw why. The round place under the ruined column, which used to hold the Abyss gate, was well lit with crystals and torches that exposed gallows with two bodies hanging from it. They were half naked young men bearing signs of severe beatings and torture, the death was probably a relief for them. She stared at this horrid picture for a few minutes. This was way beyond the standard abuse she has seen. What could have possibly happened to warrant such punishment? There was only one way to find out. After putting off her coat and woolly vest in her room, she walked into the dining hall of the Elyos barracks, where most of them spent at least part of their free time socialising, and headed to the table, where Herlen was playing cards with a few others.

"Hey, Herlen, do you have time?" she gestured towards the door.

"Oh, did you change your mind?"

"Do you have time or not?"

"You'll have to wait until I finish the game, dear," he smiled and continued playing. Nesha hmphed and sat near the door, wondering how long he'd let her wait. It took a while and she began dozing off, when he stood in front of her. She gestured towards the door, got up and left the room.

"What happened here?" she asked.

"You dragged me out because of that?"

"Yes. You didn't have the watch today, so I'm sure you know why there are two dead bodies outside."

"Oh, come on, you can't stir up my expectations and then ask this."

She folded her arms on her chest and stared at him. "Please?"

"Ah, fine," he sighed theatrically, "out of the goodness of my heart I'll tell you. You know Luven, right? That hot-headed idiot, he was sent here, 'cause he was starting fights all the time for the dumbest reasons. So this retard killed an Asmo, 'cause she was standing in his way or something. The guys out there were her grandsons and they attacked him."

"They were tortured and hanged for that? I was told the punishment for attacking the Elyos was whipping and jail with no food!"

"Yeah, that would happen. But those guys had a sister and... eh, I'm not really sure here, but when that idiot killed her grandmother, she Ascended. And when she did, she blasted him with the aether and her brothers killed him. Yeah, the obelisk reformed him, actually it wasn't that long ago. So, that's it. Those Asmos are dead, Luven's in jail, commander was really mad, 'cause those guys were capable workers. And the girl's in jail too, commander's gonna sell her to someone, who can deal with Ascended Asmos. Oh, and Clodias is mad."

"How's that unusual?"

"The girl's still virgin. They'll pay more if she stays that way. So the commander has forbidden anyone to touch her."

Nesha frowned in disgust.

"Yeah, it sucks," Herlen agreed. "You should be careful, if we lose too many workers, who knows what will happen to, ah... someone suspected of being a half-breed."

"Yes, I'm aware. Thanks for the warning. But why would you do that?"

"Because I'm such a nice guy, you know?"

"A nice guy? Here? Why are you even here, Herlen?"

"'Cause you wanted to talk with me?"

"I mean in Morheim."

"Ah, that... I don't really want to talk about it. Let's say I did something and someone saw it..."

"You were involved in the mess in Marayas, or something?"

"Yeah, something. Look, I don't really mind if you're a half-breed or not, as long as you're as hot as... well, you. I guess that makes me kind of like those rebels. But since I'm not a rebel, I have to maintain a certain image..."

"Whatever. Good night," she turned around to leave.

"Oh, wait, you can't just leave without giving something back, you know?"

"I'm not going to sleep with you, I thought that was clear."

"But I know that," Herlen caught her hand, pulled her closer to him and cut a lock of her hair. He quickly caught it before it fell to the ground.

"What do you..." Nesha was confused. When did he pull out that knife?

"Just collecting the payment. If you change your mind, you know where to find me," he bowed and returned to the dining hall.

Nesha rolled her eyes and went to the kitchen to see if there was something left for dinner. These double shifts were annoying and exhausting. The atmosphere in the kitchen was tense. This late at night there was only the head cook and one helper, but fear and sadness hovered in the air.

"I just need food," Nesha said, when they glared at her with a mix of horror and hate. The head cook pointed at the box with meat bread, popular bread with small pieces of meat mixed into the dough. She took two slices and left the kitchen.

In her room she sat on the dry half of her bed and ate some of the bread, thinking about the event she missed. Herlen had a point. She was already on the commander's bad side and with the gossips she managed to catch, it was only a matter of time before her safe status would expire. If that happened, the Asmodians wouldn't help her, as they helped each other, they hated her too, even though she has never treated them as badly as some of the others. She has mostly ignored them, but that wouldn't matter. What was she supposed to do? Bow before the commander and his favourite brute? No, even if that worked, it would be only temporary. Go to Sanctum and demand her case to be reviewed? She had already done that and was rejected. Sleep with Herlen and hope it could get her something? No, of course not. The only option remaining was to get out. But where? Would the rebels accept her? Or send her back? After all she wasn't a half-breed, she was just branded like one, getting there as full Elyos would be hard. But they have accepted Veille and she was just an Elyos too.

She only noticed she fell asleep, when someone hammered on her door several times.

"Hey, half-breed!" Clodias entered the room. Even from that distance he smelled of alcohol. "It's funkin' cold. Bring me firewood. Now."

"Bring it yourself," she said. Why did he bother her now?

"What did you say?"

"I said, bring it yourself," she got up to have more maneuverable footing if he decided to attack her. And he did. Clodias tried to grab her by her shirt, but she ducked and instead grabbed his arm, twisted it, got behind him and kicked him into his knee. He fell to the floor, tried to stand up, but Nesha promptly knelt on his back, still holding his arm.

"I'll kill you!" he wheezed. "And then again and again. You will..."

"Not without your minions and aether-cuffs," she hissed, unsheathed her dagger and hit his temple with its handle. Twice. He lost consciousness. Nesha got up. She got carried away and that wasn't good. She hoped to have more time to figure out where to go. But this situation decided for her. Anywhere but here.

She counted the food supplies in her cube, they were considerably thinning. But it was still a few hours before dawn, so no shops would be open. It left the kitchen to be the place to get at least some supplies. She packed all her spare clothes, blanket, a first aid kit and her lone trip supplies into her cube. It was one of the better models she bought as a celebration of her fifth anniversary with Miragent. Inside of the small cube-shaped object strapped to her belt was enough space to hold two months of rations. Or less food and additional equipment. She checked Clodias was still alive and still unconscious, dressed up and left the room. The hallways in the barracks were empty, save for occasional sounds coming from several rooms. Outside the barracks it was freezing, but the kitchen was near enough, they didn't want the food to get cold before serving. As Nesha expected, no one was there, the Asmodians were still scared after what happened with the two brothers. After filling her two waterskins, she found the meat bread and some vegetables and stored them into her cube. A brief thought crossed her mind, would they miss this food? The answer was quite simple, yes. And the ones responsible for it will be the Asmodian servants, who already hated her. She sighed and put half of the stolen supplies back before leaving the kitchen and entering the freezing air for the second time this night. The stars, and Elysea, were shining from above, casting their faint light on the morbid scene in the yard. Nesha shivered. She could understand the execution for killing an Elyos officer, but the torture before it was too much. Everything seemed too much these days. If what Herlen hinted was true, their sister was going to end up in some perverse brothel or some other facility, where rich Elyos would be able to torture and kill her over and over again. And the Morheim commander would get some big money for her. Nesha looked towards the prison building and shook her head.

"I wonder if I'll regret this," she muttered and walked towards it. The guards were both in their guardroom, since there were only two prisoners, who were aether-cuffed, they were checking them only every few hours. It was easy for her to step through shadows to avoid their attention. She walked through the hall, ignored the cell with Luven and headed to the other non-empty one. It was locked, but lockpicking wasn't unknown to her. In a short while she opened the door and stopped in shock. The girl in front of her was chained to the wall, her brown hair was all shaggy and her face was dirty with tears and blood. She also had multiple wounds and bruises from beating. But the worst was the empty stare accented by the dull grey colour of her eyes. There was no reaction from her at the door opening. It took Nesha only a few seconds to remember the name the head cook had called her by.

"Cathy, come with me," she whispered and began work on the shackles. They were easy to remove, no one expected her to try to escape, but the girl still has shown no reaction. "Cathy, we have to go."

Cathy slowly turned her head towards her and tears started flowing from her eyes again. She still made no sound.

"Look, you can cry all you need, but you have to keep quiet. Now come," Nesha grabbed her hand and pulled her from the ground. Cathy didn't resist and let her lead her through the hall.

~ o ~

Everything hurt. She thought she had no tears left, but when that Elyos woman came, they started flowing again. Cathy didn't know her name, but recognised her immediately, it was the one, who saved her a few days ago. It seemed so long. Why was she here? Cathy couldn't discern the words the woman was saying. It didn't matter, nothing mattered anymore. She let the woman lead her through the prison hall, not caring where they went.

"Hey, stop! What are you doing?!" the two guards walked towards them. The woman disappeared and within a few heartbeats the guards fell to the ground.

"Come quickly," the woman said.

Cathy moved. She stopped next to the unconscious guards. She could feel they were still alive. Why? One of them had a dagger at his belt. She took it. They should die. But the woman caught her hand.

"Don't," she whispered.

Why? Cathy looked at her, confused. They tortured and killed her brothers, they should die! She tried to pull her hand out of the woman's grasp, but it was too strong.

"They're daevas, if you kill them, the obelisk will start working and alarm everyone. If we keep them like this, we'll have more time to escape."

But Cathy didn't want to escape, she wanted to die. And to kill those who took away her family. She stared at the woman, still confused. Why was she here? She was one of them, after all.

"We really have to hurry. If they catch us, they'll put you back into the cell and beat you more. And I honestly have no idea what they'll do with me, but I have no intention to find out. So either come with me, or I'll just leave you here," while she was talking, she took the belt with the dagger sheath from the unconscious guy and wrapped it around Cathy's waist.

Back to the cell? No, Cathy didn't want that. She looked at her new belt. It looked much better than anything she ever owned. She nodded and hesitantly sheathed the dagger. The woman took her hand again and led her outside. It was cold, so cold she shivered. She was used to such weather, but she wasn't used to her clothes being so torn and her body being covered in barely dried bruises. She wrapped her free arm around her chest to keep at least some warmth. She couldn't miss, the woman quickly turned around the prison building and led her down to the lake, where she wouldn't be able to see the horrible scene in the yard. Too late, she had already seen it. They made her watch. Tears flowed from her eyes again, immediately freezing on her cheeks. It started snowing.

"Wait here," the woman said, when they crossed the frozen lake under the bridge to the gate, and stepped into the shadows. Cathy could no longer see her, even her Asmodian eyes had trouble with the shadows the daevas could work with. She sat on a stone next to the bridge support column and huddled up. Why was there a bridge anyway? The lake was frozen all the time and if they wanted water or fish, they had to dig holes in the ice. She had never seen the lake thaw. Her grandma would know, if... She started sobbing again. When mom and dad died in the war, grandma comforted her, gave her strength to endure. But they took her too.

"Quiet!" the Elyos woman returned, her face was angry. When Cathy looked at her, the expression softened a bit. "Just hang on a bit more. Come, we have to run quickly."

Again she took Cathy's hand and led her through the night. How could she see in such darkness? Weren't the Elyos supposed to need some light? The gate was silent and Cathy wasn't surprised to see no one. The woman had to dispose of them, as she did with the prison guards.

They walked in silence through the only access path to the fortress and the snowfall grew more intense with every step. Soon they emerged from the mountain pass and stood on a large plain. The wind hit them with its full force, completely taking them by surprise. It was so strong it deprived Cathy of breath for several moments. The woman recovered faster and pulled Cathy along the rocky wall, trying to get as much cover as possible from the occasional trees. It took ages, but finally they found a cave with an entrance small enough to keep the wind and snow outside, and spacious enough for both of them. The woman found some sticks and pieces of bark and after a while made a small campfire near the entrance.

"Oh, Aion, Cathy, that's horrible!" she exclaimed with surprise, when she looked at her. "I didn't... come here. And take off that... shirt."

Cathy tried to do that, but it hurt. The shirt got stuck in her drying wounds and moving it was painful. She watched the woman pull several things from a small box strapped to her belt. There were more things than what was supposed to fit into it. So that was the famous cube she heard about? The woman, seeing Cathy didn't obey her command, checked her closely and shook her head.

"Sorry, but it has to go off. I know it will hurt, but those wounds need cleaning. And I'm not a cleric, so I have to do it the old way."

With a dagger she cut away the loose parts of Cathy's shirt. Then she poured something, that smelled like alcohol, on a clean piece of cloth and pulled off one of the dried pieces of the shirt. Cathy gritted her teeth to not scream. Of course she knew wounds had to be cleaned. Her grandma had told her several stories of what could happen, if she let a wound to rot. And she knew it hurt. But grandma... Through tears and pain from her loss she stopped feeling the pain from her body. She realised the woman was done, only when she handed her new shirt, pants and a woolly vest. Where did she get them? Probably in that cube again. She even put some bandages on the worst wounds. After she changed, she was surprised, when the woman handed her a piece of meat bread. She ate that immediately, she couldn't even remember when was the last time she ate.

"It will be morning soon," the woman said. "They'll start looking for us. Can you continue?"

Cathy nodded.

~ o ~

The fire ran out of fuel soon and there wasn't more wood in the cave, so Nesha let it die. She packed everything back into her cube, she could do that even without relying on sight, and checked the weather outside. The snow was still falling, but the wind relented a bit. Not ideal weather, but at least the soldiers would have harder time following them. She gestured at Cathy, whom she could barely see without the light and crawled out of the cave. The young Asmodian followed. Their options were very limited. They could go to Altgard or Beluslan teleporters and buy passage to Pandaemonium, from where they could go to Gelkmaros, but that would work only if the Morheim commander kept their escape secret. And Nesha didn't want to rely on that. Or she could teach Cathy to fly and they could go to the Abyss, she heard Beluslan fortress was abandoned, save for the small crew that guarded the Abyss gate, which, as she heard, was somehow still functional. It could be possible to get through them. But then what? Since the Elyos have concentrated their efforts on Asmodae, the Balaur all but dominated the Abyss, getting to the Black Cloud island would be too dangerous. No, their only real option was to reach the Black Cloud trading outpost in Frost Spirit Valley in southern Beluslan, where the Shugos might sell them places on their ship to Gelkmaros. She tried to remember the maps of Asmodae she studied several times before and during her Miragent days. It was a long time ago, she recalled only the general lay of the land and directions. For now, they needed to head south, cross the lava fields of Mount Musphel and then turn east, where there should be a passage to Beluslan. And then south-east again.

They walked through the snow field and stopped at the bank of a stream that wasn't completely frozen. It fell from an open mouth of a skull-shaped rock in the middle of the mountain, finding its way through the massif from the lake around the fortress, creating a pool under the waterfall and leaving it across the path only to fall again from a cliff. Nesha walked along the stream to its end and looked down.

"I don't suppose you know how to glide," she said.

Cathy stepped towards her and pointed to the other side of the valley.

"What's there? Oh..." almost in front of them was a small wooden hut, barely visible to Nesha's eyes. Anyone there would be able to see her white wings, if she tried to glide down. "Alright, we'll walk. It will be a much longer path, though."

They carefully crossed the stream and walked towards the Patamor Ridge path. As Nesha remembered, the snow receded and the vegetation around them gained more colours. Mostly in shades of purple and orange, but it was still more than the snow white. In the mid-morning they descended to a rich grove with several mounds of leaves, sticks and dirt, dens of numerous sprigg, small and mostly harmless semi-intelligent creatures. They noticed the few daevas and watched them with suspicion, but didn't do anything. Nesha led Cathy right through them and when the path to Mount Musphel opened on their left side, they changed direction. It was becoming unusually hot for Asmodae, Nesha had to take off her coat and stuff it into her cube. There was no real road to the mountain, only bigger or smaller chasms, which steered the way. This area used to be heavily populated with maekis, graceful felines adapted to the hot environment. Worms and centipedes weren't uncommon either, but as Nesha walked over the dark red stones, there was no sign of anything living there.

"Over there!" a male voice shouted nearby. "I saw something moving!" Someone else muttered a quieter reply, not distinguishable due to distance and cover.

Nesha stopped in the middle of a step. How could they find them so quickly? And how could they be that faster? As if they...

"The flight transport," she whispered. "How could I forget?" she shook her head to focus and grabbed Cathy's hand. "We have to run."

She changed the direction away from the voices and moved through the land as quickly as possible, dragging Cathy behind her. The terrain was getting more difficult and the air hotter and hotter, but she still heard the voices and didn't dare to slow down. With not many other options, they started climbing a steep path along the mountain slope. From the higher ground she saw the pursuers clearly, three Elyos men in Morheim guard armor, one of them carried a bow, another sword and shield and the third one, Herlen, had two swords.

"Maintaining your image, huh?" she muttered under her breath and continued climbing. They didn't have much cover and soon an arrow hit a stone right next to her hand and broke. "Cathy, faster," she gritted her teeth and pushed the young Asmodian in front of her. Another two arrows broke over the rocks around her, before the path turned and they gained cover. They stopped at a small plateau and Nesha quickly took off her vest, the heat was getting unbearable. She looked at Cathy, who was sitting on the ground, panting, with beads of sweat on her forehead.

"The vest, give it to me. Quickly," Nesha said and when Cathy did so, stuffed both pieces of cloth into her cube. "Now, where are we? We have to..."

Cathy pointed at a half hidden entrance to a cave and gave her a questioning look. There were several empty shells around it.

"Oh, no, the klaw," Nesha almost panicked. The klaw were not particularly dangerous creatures, but this was their lair and where one didn't possess a threat, their enormous number did. "We can't go there. My legionmates have warned me about this place. That cave is a trap filled with klaw. And there's no other exit. No, we have to..." she looked around, the only passable way was the one they came through. She strode towards the other side of the plateau and oversaw the cliff. "We'll have to glide. Can you summon wings?"

Cathy looked terrified and shook her head.

"Fine, fine, that's a bother, but not unexpected. Come here," she gestured. The Asmodian got up and hesitantly walked towards the edge. "It will be a rough landing, but we have no other option," Nesha took her around her waist, summoned her own wings and jumped. Fortunately, due to the Fire Temple nearby, the area around Mount Musphel contained enough of aether to glide safely and Cathy didn't weigh much more than a full suit of armor. However, they were descending faster than she would prefer. As they landed on a clearly visible path, Nesha looked back. Their pursuers just reached the plateau. There was no time to rest, as the guards knew how to glide too. Nesha took Cathy's hand again and ran alongside the mountain. An arrow chipped piece of rock just right next to her head.

We're lucky their archer is so bad, she thought with slight satisfaction. If they were chased by someone from Miragent, they'd be captured already. Unfortunately, Cathy started to slow down. They were running for quite some time and even Nesha felt tired. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her last portion of aether jelly. She bit off half of it and gave the rest to the girl.

"Eat it," she said. Cathy almost mindlessly stuffed it into her mouth. "It will renew your aether supply," she already felt the fatigue receding.

They ran across the dark red stone, the mountain slope and weathered rocks towering around them almost like a corridor. After yet another turn around a stone, Nesha almost tripped over a resting barghest. She cursed under her breath and drew more aether, increasing her speed, while dragging Cathy behind her. The Asmodian girl clearly wasn't used to such physical effort and this was her maximum. The barghest growled and barked and chased after them. In a few more minutes, thanks to the aether sustaining them, they ran to a jagged bridge over a lava stream. It looked like two slabs of menacingly cut rock falling against each other and wedged themselves to create a passage. At the center of the construction Nesha let go of Cathy's hand and jumped across to the other slab. Cathy hesitated, but jumped right before the barghest reached the top and an arrow from behind pierced its neck. The Elyos pursuers were getting closer. Like Nesha, they were trained. She took the girl's hand again and as soon as the terrain allowed, they diverged from the path. They passed around a few stumps of dead, scorched trees and found themselves on the edge of a cliff ending in a wide pool under a lava river fall. There were several pillars and floating rocks between them and the other bank, but the first one from their side was too far for a jump.

"No..." Nesha whispered in despair. A fleeting thought crossed her mind, she would be able to get there by herself, maybe she should leave the girl here as bait... NO! No, after so much trouble she went through to get her from them, she won't let her efforts be in vain. She looked around and then led Cathy to a group of boulders. "Hide here. I'll distract them. When they all focus on me, climb up there and glide to that big plateau."

Cathy looked at her with a horrified expression.

"I know. You don't know how. Just summon your wings and jump in that direction, they'll carry you. It's either that or they capture us."

~ o ~

Cathy hid among the rocks and watched the woman disappear into the shadows. Was she really going to distract them? Or did she run away? Cathy couldn't run through the shadows. Yes, she has Ascended, but the shadows didn't appeal to her. She would rather... not Ascend and had her family back. But deep down she knew she couldn't get that. No, no, the pursuers, she had to concentrate on them. And on what the woman told her. She started humming a soft melody, a song that her mother used to sing her, and it calmed her down.

First of the guards, the ranger, appeared between the trees. For several seconds he scanned the surroundings, before his eyes spotted her. The boulders weren't an ideal hideout, after all. He lifted his bow to aim, when the woman appeared behind him, daggers in her hands, ready to stab. He must have sensed the shift in aether, as he ducked and rolled away, looking for the threat. But he was slow, when he finished his move, there was a dagger sticking out of his neck. With a step through the shadows the woman barely evaded a shining rope of aether, the other two have arrived.

"Stop fighting, Nesha," the one with the two swords said. "You're outnumbered."

"Not for long," she hissed.

"Yeah, right," he looked at the corpse of the ranger. Why didn't it dissolve into aether? Was he even a daeva? "Don't congratulate yourself too much on getting Kaeso, he's still new."

Cathy noticed the silent guy with sword and shield was slowly moving. They both looked like their attention was on the woman, no Nesha, so she climbed on the top of the boulder, as instructed. Her legs still hurt from running and breath still burned in her lungs, partially because of all the hot lava around. As she stared down into the red flowing molten rock, her body began to tremble. She had no idea how to summon wings! She remembered their weight from when she had Ascended, but she couldn't recall how she did it back then.

Wings, please...

A whiff of aether alerted her and she stepped aside in panic, as the shining rope of aether from the guy with shield hit the slope behind her, chipping away several shards. Cathy yelped as her foot slipped and she lost her balance.

"Cathy!" she heard Miss Nesha scream.

As she was falling, she felt piercing pain and two black wings sprouted from her back. Miss Nesha was right, the wings carried her. But she was too low, she hit the side of the plateau, barely grabbing on the edge. Her wings disappeared. She was tired, her arms were losing strength and she struggled to find solid footing. Was this how she would die? Would she even reform at an obelisk if her body was destroyed in lava? The guy up there didn't... And even if she did, they would capture her again. No, she couldn't... Something white slipped past her peripheral vision. Miss Nesha's face appeared above her and she caught her arm, trying to haul her up. She barely got her elbows over the edge, when an arrow struck Miss Nesha's arm, causing her to let go of Cathy. The girl finally found a jut in the stone and set her foot on it, heaving herself a bit. Miss Nesha's face was twisted with pain, but she grabbed Cathy by her upper arm with her healthy hand, helping her finally get up over the edge. Cathy looked back, the ranger was dead, no? Yes, it was the talking man, who held the bow now, aiming at them. The other was preparing to launch another aether rope, but the talking one stopped him with a gesture.

"Last chance, Nesha," he said. "Come back and this little trip won't be held against you."

"As if you could do anything about it," Miss Nesha snapped, holding her arm. "We have to get over there, Cathy," she added in a quieter voice.

Cathy nodded. The other bank of the lava river was far, but the floating rocks and columns were close to each other, so they could jump. They reached the other side and Cathy looked back again. The men were still standing there, but didn't attack. Was the bow... dissolving? The guy waved at them, as if for goodbye and walked away, his companion following him in confusion. She looked at Miss Nesha, who was frowning.

"Let's move from here," she said and, still clutching her injured arm, led Cathy through a grove of more scorched remnants of trees. After about half an hour they stopped. The rock under their feet was no longer dark red, but grey, almost black. It was already afternoon and in addition to fatigue, Cathy's stomach demanded food. Miss Nesha sat down, but instead of food, she pulled bandages and a half-empty vial from her cube.

"Hold the arrow Cathy, don't make it move," she said. Then she snapped the head of it. "Now pull it out," she gritted her teeth and hissed as the arrow left the wound. "Now clean it and wrap it."

Cathy opened the vial, poured some of its contents on a small piece of bandage and applied it on the wound. It didn't look too terrible, there was just a lot of blood, now that the arrow was gone. To improve her concentration on the task she started humming a melody, another of her favourite songs. She could feel the aether around the wound, it was telling her what was wrong and what needed to be fixed. The bone was slightly chipped, the muscle, sinew and skin pierced. She touched the damaged skin and pushed the aether to go deeper. First the bone. It was only a small crack, but even then it took several minutes. Then the tissue was knitted together and finally new skin covered it. It was thin and pink and sensitive, but Miss Nesha was no longer bleeding.

"That's incredible," she breathed out. "Thank you. What else can you do?"

Cathy shrugged. She had no idea she could do this. And it was tiring, she wanted to sleep.

"Here, eat something," Miss Nesha gave her a piece of the meat bread and some rabano. The red root vegetable was mildly sweet and still decently fresh to remove some of the fatigue. She was given a waterskin and she drank several full gulps before returning it. They already left the greatest heat behind, but it would take a while before her thirst completely disappeared.

"They don't seem to be after us anymore, but we should keep moving, in case they change their minds," Miss Nesha said, as she packed everything back to her cube. Cathy nodded. They got up and continued south. After half an hour they reached a deep gorge barred by a thin natural wall forming sort of a bridge. They crossed it and continued east. The general feel of the landscape didn't change much for a few hours. When they reached a huge pit with already solid and cold lava inside and a broken airship half buried in it, the air was clearly colder. Miss Nesha pulled their vests out of her cube. The path was leading them up, through a mountain range. Yes, she had heard about this strange phenomena. On one side, Mount Musphel burned, on the other were the cold peaks of Beluslan. People said the aether behaved strangely in these parts.

"There used to be guards in this pass," Miss Nesha said. "Even though almost no one lives in Beluslan now, I'd expect some to at least watch for the Balaur or the rebels."

But there was no one in sight. They walked through the pass without an incident and began descending. After crossing another jagged bridge, they left the path to take shelter. It was almost evening and Cathy was tired from the hours of walking. To her surprise, in the middle of the mountain, there was a small wooden hut. It was half ruined, but they were able to find a stable shelter from the snow and wind there. Miss Nesha gave her a blanket and Cathy immediately fell asleep, with the Elyos woman huddled in her sturdy coat next to her.

When she woke up the next morning, she was alone.