The harsh yellow-orange of sand was all that broke the monotony of white whizzing by her, creating a film between Amberosin and the world around. Her ears were full with the roaring of the wind as she cut through it on her ever changing slab of marble. Deathly afraid that standing would mean being thrown off of her moving mantle, Amberosin crouched and held her pack close. Patri rattled at her feet clutching his injured shoulder with his mouth agape, no doubt swallowing pounds of sand and rubble as they rocketed down the port roads. Amberosin couldn’t help smiling at the thought. She was glad he was alive, for the time being at least. Her smile faded, however, when she chanced a closer look at Patri. She could see that neither he, nor the mysterious young woman who rode along with them, looked like they had much longer.

There is nothing I can do… just like with Ragoth… and mom...

A familiar chill ran up her spine at the revelation and threatened her with tears. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. What would mother-

Amberosin wouldn’t get to finish that thought.

Though she’d steeled herself against her own building emotions expertly, she could never have hardened herself enough to withstand an actual wall of stone. If she’d not been lost in thought she may have heard the marble slabs piling atop one another from behind her; but Amberosin had been distracted. The flat wall that had formed from marble slabs, turned vertically without warning and caught her entirely off guard. She jumped upon impact. If she had stayed crouched, she likely would have just been jolted and fallen, much like Patri and the unknown woman. Instead Amberosin sprang upwards and added to her momentum, sending her directly into the stone wall of a tavern another ten paces away from where Patri had stopped.

Amberosin sailed over Patri, who was still screaming and clutching his shoulder, cleared the mystery woman by about five full heads, and met the wall with stupefying force. She’d been quick enough to cover her skull which meant her right shoulder and back were completely exposed to the harsh stone. Amberosin heard something pop but she couldn’t place where it came from. She fell three paces away from the wall, bounced two, slid two, and stopped halfway between both her fellow travelers. She lay there a moment with her eyes closed, tempted to stay there, come what may.

Yeah right, like I’d take the cowards- wet? Why is the ground wet?

Amberosin’s eye shot open.

The sand around her was soaked with blood that seeped from scrapes and gashes about her own body. A ringing began in both her ears as she forced herself onto hands and knees. Through the whole thing, she’d held on to her bag; also covered in a large splash of red. Amberosin huffed as she rose to one knee, stretching her back until she was sure her spine and ribs were fine. Nothing felt shattered or protruded through the skin so far as she could tell. She counted that as a win.

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“Heh… Legends, Pat… heh… you think our quiet... friend will fix me up… again?”

“Ha! Oh! Only after he does me... you fucking lunatic. Oh... Oh that is no good.” Patri groaned as he strained to look at his shoulder.

He was still alive. Thank the Creator.

A soft residual glow of his own reddish essence cascaded up and down his arm and over some of his chest, blue shining in small patches just below the skin. Just outside of the reddish-blue patches near Patri’s chest was a small vein of purple and orange that still shone with severe intensity. He was still alive but she couldn’t say how much longer that would last. It seemed as if the invasive essence was moving forward with each heartbeat.

“Ah…” Amberosin’s ribs may have been in worse shape than she thought. Breathing was harder than it should be and hurt like hell. “I do believe the polite thing to do... is to let the lady go first, Pat. Senfe would agree, don’t ya... think?” Joking, as always. Running from the creeping fear and growing stiffness in her lungs. Everything actually may have been hurt much worse than she had originally thought.

Oh well. Doesn’t matter now. What do you do next?

“Aye, Senfe would.” Patri was silent for a moment. Amberosin thought she heard smiling. “Just like you, she is quite the selfish prick.”

He was definitely smiling; as was Amberosin. That man loved Senfe more than his own life, that much had been glaringly obvious for a while now. It made her feel good to know that kind of thing actually existed.

“ Speaking of the lady of our happy crew, hows… uh.. Eyepatch over there?” Patri chuckled with a pained groan that turned him to his side, facing towards Amberosin and “Eyepatch”.

“She seems… fine..” Amberosin fell back to both knees, hands on the ground once more, “ But I am definitely telling... her you called… Eyepatch-” the last few words were mumbled. Amberosin fell with her face in the dirt and sand. She could hear Patri yelling her name but couldn’t get a word out over her own pained wheezing. Darkness was closing in fast and breathing started to hurt far too much, so she did it less and less until she had finally just stopped. Felt better that way.

I cannot believe I am going to die before Patri. Guess I’m not as badass as we thought, huh Pat?

She could feel it now; her lungs were nearly filled with warm fluid. Amberosin cursed herself for missing whatever had caused the puncture, in what she was now certain was the left lung, but knew it was too late for any of that to matter. Regardless, her hand was still clutched to her pack.

Well.. technically I got out with a huge score. That counts for something… right?

She refused to playback her shitty little life before she left, trying to pick out what little good may have ever been there. She wanted the darkness. The peace.

Amberosin should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Not for her.

Not for anyone who wanted it.