I ran, the tombs flashing past, leaping over the roots that snaked over the overgrown footpath, slipping on the muddy earth in the dark. A ghostly white tomb appeared in front of me, the path splitting in two, I randomly took the left path and kept on running. I slid to a stop, hearing something. I forced myself to slow down, the wand clutched tight in a white knuckled grip. I stood there panting, a hand resting on the rough bark of yet another stunted little tree growing out of a crack in the side of a tomb. The dark pressed in on me, the lights flashing overhead with longer and longer pauses in between, the scent of magic drifting down, the sharp metallic scent tasted oddly like blood on my tongue.

I slowly moved forwards, more cautious, some sixth sense telling me that something was near. Something unnatural. A whisper to my left and I turned, keeping the wand close to my body, fighting the urge to point it into the darkness. The trees had grown closer here, covering the sky, but up ahead I could see some rocks which could mean there was a clearing of some sort. I headed slowly towards it, keeping my ears and eyes open. the flashes of light and thunder from the top had died down now, making the silence feel even deeper.

Suddenly, the sky erupted in light, a warm glow like a sunrise slowly making its way above the hilltop. I gaped. Unable to help myself, I stared at the miracle in evidence, completely missing the blur of Ga'bor flying at me until the last second, the senses I'd honed over my entire life of thievery moving my body automatically out of the way. It barely resembled anything human anymore, looking more like a massive version of the poisonous frog I'd seen once in the curious creatures market. It was a squat black creature, four spikes protruding in some imitation of a frogs legs, letting it scuttle around until it was facing me. It was covered in green script that the magic light highlighted against it's dark, slimy looking skin.

The creature bunched up its legs again, the spike-legs going inside it's body and shooting out, launching its body towards me. My hand had already twitched the wand up to follow it, the runes started glowing as they sensed my need automatically drawing my energy before launching a constant stream at the creature, ripping through the internal barriers I had created. The Demon started screaming as the energy hit it, the noise sounding like it had swallowed a bunch of cats covered in glass. It exploded! I giggled in relief, finally feeling back in control, and then gasped in horror as I realised the wand was still drawing my energy, launching it again and again at where the body of the Demon was. I tried in vain to stop it, but it kept drawing more and more energy. I forced my will upon it, my mind going hazy at the lack of energy, going slightly dizzy before it finally stopped. I stuffed it into the pocket, a little part of me felt smug at the immense crater I'd just made, wow, I’m totally awesome, before the world turned grey and I fell into the black.

++++

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They ran down the path that Am had seen the almost sacrifice and Demon disappear down what seemed like an age ago. Alyssa had a bad feeling about it in the pit of her stomach, it had been long enough for the Demon to kill the fleeing person...slowly.

They came to a fork in the path, a looming white tomb in front of them, the glowing orb she had summoned glinting off the carvings. "Which way?" She gasped, her breath strained after the running and the fighting. "Bring the light closer" Am waved her down next to where she was crouching, reading the ground for signs of the Demon. "The Demon didn't come this way, but the girl did."

"Girl?"

"Aye, looks like it. Well..." she said, cocking her head," It could be a young boy, but it's unlikely."

Alyssa had no idea how she could get that much information from a turned piece of earth and a scrap of cloth, but she was always right. The Sight probably helped some she thought wryly.

They started off again on the left hand path, Sir Caleb appearing soon after, panting in the heavy armour he wore, Will keeping back with him to keep an effective distance to use his bow. As they ran down, the trees got closer, almost covering the sky. "Can you smell that?" Alyssa sniffed the air, smelling something like burnt sugar.

"She slowed down here" Am was kneeling on the ground again, her keen eyes picking out the little signs scattered around on the footpath. "We should be careful she may have sensed the Demon somewhere close."

As they kept moving they slowed down, eyes darting everywhere, the smell getting stronger. "It's magic!" shouted Alyssa, finally realising what the smell was. An almost collective "huh?" came from her companions. "That smell" She explained, "It's the smell of magic, specifically uncontrolled magic. It appears that the girl had some latent magical abilities."

As she spoke they emerged into a little opening, a bunch of rocks stopping the trees from growing, and saw the girl who had collapsed in the centre of the path. As they approached they saw what had been hidden, and what seemed to be the actual cause of the clearing. A large smoking crater, perhaps the size of one of the tombs, had been hidden behind the boulder. A twisted ebony skeleton was lying at the bottom of the crater. "Well, I guess we didn't have to worry so much, huh?" Panted Sir Caleb as he collapsed on a boulder, clutching at his ribs which Alyssa realised must have either been broken or severely bruised. She cursed herself for not noticing the effect the little run was having on him when she knew just how much endurance he normally had. He noticed her look and waved her off towards where Am and Will were crouched over the girl.

"She's alive" Said Will, brushing her hair off her face.

"Barely, though" said Am, her head on the girls chest, listening to her breathing. "What are you supposed to do if someone uses too much magic?"

"I'm not entirely sure..." Alyssa replied, "Most of the time it kills them. It takes a tremendous amount of willpower to stop it once it starts drawing energy out of you. And if you have that much willpower, you're not going to lose control in the first place." She stopped, wondering at this abnormality. The girl was short, pretty, maybe about fifteen or sixteen, a few years later than when magic normally manifests. And she was a commoner. A pretty well fed one, but no noble would be caught dead having their child run around dressed like that, and the calluses and tanned skin also spoke of a common upbringing. It could be a bastard child, but those were all neatly recorded just in case an outburst of magic like this happened in a public place.

She could tell that this girl was going to be a royal pain in her backside.