On the other side of the darkness there was nothing.

Nothing and no one. Still, Christina looked around as if there might be soldiers hiding, waiting for the right moment to ambush them. Her sight and her other senses confirmed once again what her special sense was telling her.

That, incredible as it seemed, no one had heard the explosion of the ice and the door.

They were in no danger. For the moment.

Which didn't mean they could relax, of course, let their guard down even a little. They were in hostile territory. They had come here to get blood on their hands.

And to save a person.

That was the important part. Not the killing, not venting her anger, though she had felt so good, so... liberated, fighting in the woods, side by side with Desmond.

Dipping her arms up to her elbow in the blood of her enemies. Still, killing was not the end in itself, but a means to an end.

He had to focus on that. He had to keep that in mind.

"Quiet. There are no people within my range," she said when she realized she had to express what she knew out loud, for the benefit of her partner. We're not walking into an ambush.

"Wait. " Amy relaxed. But just a little, as it should be. ''You mean you can feel people?''

"Through walls and floors, through any obstacle, as long as they're not all in the light.

Yes. If they stepped on the tiniest speck of darkness it was enough.

"Which means we can't rely entirely on that sense of yours.

"That may be. But at least now I'm sure we're not in trouble. Among other things, we would have been attacked by now if they had been expecting us. It seems hard to believe, but they haven't heard. There, in the background, you can see that there have been people not so long ago.

In other words, it wasn't as if this place had been abandoned, that the people inside had fled, taking their prize with them. Desmond.

They had made it in time. There was still time.

"Yes. Let's move on.''

They approached a door at the end of the corridor. Above it was a hole that once, perhaps not so long ago, even, had probably been a window.

"There are no soldiers on the other side of the door either. But they are in front and down.''

"I can hear the muttering.''

So could she, though barely, and she had the feeling that those signs of life came from another world. Or something like that. From a place far away. She couldn't explain why.

"Come on, I'll push you. "Amy added, when Christinalooked at her out of the corner of her eye: "Just in case.”

"Okay, but I can do it alone.”

And that's what she did. Kicking the door, she propelled herself up to the hole, grabbing the sides with both hands. She crawled forward, turned around, couldn't see them, but her legs were dangling on the other side of the door.

So her senses hadn't deceived her. She didn't know what exactly was on the other side of the door, but there were no soldiers, after all.

Amy reached out her hand.

Christina took it and let her help her, pulling her to the hole. Then they both landed on the other side. Squatting, as silently as possible, on a metal platform overlooking... a mess hall.

The Empire's soldiers, the enemies, were pacing back and forth. Eating, talking and laughing quietly.

So close to the academy.

So close to the place where they had committed a terrible massacre that had no possible forgiveness.

Christina clenched her fists.

"There are so many of them," Amy said in a low, breathy voice.

And more waiting for us, she thought.

"We've come too far to back out now. Besides, we can take them. I know we can. You... You can create ice, can't you? Mold it and even lift it with your mind.”

There was no time to talk about feelings now. If she wanted to leave, let her go, she wouldn't blame her or try to hold her back against her will, or change her mind. Christina had no right to play games with anyone's life, least of all Amy's.

It was a selfish thought, but surely she would have done both without hesitation if it had been Isabella who had accompanied her here, but she would have begun to have second thoughts.

After all, she didn't know Isabella, she didn't care in the least.

Not that Christina wouldn't feel guilty if she ended up dying. Of course she would. But, like all human beings, she had priorities. And Isabella didn't fit into those priorities. So, despite everything, she wouldn't have hesitated. Not even for a second. Christna would have used Isabella.

Her priorities were Desmond, Amy and herself, of course. Everything else... well. It was expendable.

"There's no problem. "Maybe just because it was what she wanted to hear, but it gave her the impression that Amy had more confidence in herself, now. In this.

"Then do it. Create several, give me shadows I can work with here. The soldiers' aren't enough for me.”

Her words had the opposite effect to what she had hoped for. She saw that too with perfect clarity on the face of her teammate.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Christina frowned.

At least it didn't take her long to unravel that particular mystery. She jumped from doubt to answer from one moment to the next. Because she made that leap to things she already suspected about her friend. She didn't have all the pieces, but she had enough.

"Listen, I know you feel the need to prove you CAN, over and over again, and I can even imagine why. But doing this wouldn't mean that you're less than me, or that you're willing to give less than me. This is simply the most efficient way to fight. With any luck, they'll die before they even know we're here."

Slowly and after a while, Amy nodded.

She clenched her jaw, grim, and set to work.

In a moment there were chunks of ice everywhere, overshadowing the dining room, catching everyone by surprise. She controlled the appearance of ice and shaped it by moving the sword, using it as a conductor.

Some of said chunks helped her in a more direct way. Breaking lamps.

The darkness first claimed what was theirs and then came to life around the soldiers, who had been off guard regardless and would soon pay for their mistake. They were armed, but one couldn't fight the darkness.

Only delay the inevitable. Opening holes in its tentacles or its shadow battering rams, before Christina closed them and went back on the attack with them, barely slowing her down in the first place.

Their only chance was to kill her. And they had no idea where she was.

Besides, she wasn't going to give them time to think.

She was snapping necks. Grabbing soldiers and slamming them so hard against the nearest wall, floor, or table that they exploded like a piñata, and the remains they left behind didn't resemble those of a human being.

They resembled, instead, what you might see walking into a butcher shop.

She made them scream.

She ripped off their limbs and littered the dining room with their blood. It was swift, there was no reason to prolong their deaths, but not merciful.

They could not fight this overwhelming power, or even run from it. And she had yet to see demonstrated all that she was capable of. Oh no, she had many cards up her sleeve.

Like this one.

Christina reached a hand forward, clenched her fist, her teeth. Concentrating as hard as she could.

She needed to. She hadn't had much time to practice this trick, for reasons that would be obvious to anyone after seeing it in action, and not once had she used it in a practical situation like this. But it was worth a try.

"What's that? "said one of the soldiers in the middle of the case below, looking at a cluster of their shadows as if he had just realized what was happening.

Or as if he was seeing something else entirely.

That was a good sign, but she couldn't be sure. It was possible that the soldier had simply lost his mind out of fear.

It was hard to put herself in the shoes of a person who was experiencing what she was capable of. It was a part of her. As natural as breathing. That's how she saw it. That's how it was.

But it's not like she was some kind of idiot who couldn't comprehend how terrifying it would be to be on the other side, facing her. How helpless they would feel and be. How easy and tempting it might seem to them...to retreat into madness.

Christina’s magic was special in many ways, not least because it was an incredibly powerful and identical, recurring affinity between individuals who weren't even family.

Who weren't connected in some easily visible way.

It was special because it didn't even look like magic. It went beyond even what the soldiers of the Empire were used to fighting against.

A world without barriers, without rules. Like a living nightmare. That was what she could create.

What the pieces of meat down there were experiencing.

The scream of one of those pieces of meat brought her out of her thoughts. That and the gunshots.

Neither of those sounds were anything special.

The air had been filled with screams and gunfire since the beginning of the massacre. However, the soldier who immediately caught her attention was shouting like a madman and ranting as he fired.

Something about traitors. From this she knew that her trick had worked perfectly.

Christina soon saw that he wasn't the only one affected.

He wasn't the only one who opened fire on his own companions, crazed, even though the shadows were already more than they could handle.

Not everyone was affected in the same way.

Some curled into a ball, sprawled on the ground or crouched, accepting the dead at her hands without bothering to put up futile resistance. Some escaped her, ran out of the dining room. Few, three or four, but still it mattered.

And others turned their guns on themselves. They put themselves out of their misery before the shadows could catch them.

Smiling savagely, Christina wiped the blood running from her nose with the back of her hand, which was stuck to her skin. She hadn't realized it until now, but she was trembling.

She took a deep breath, gathering her strength.

This was her fault. For lack of practice, of skill, at something both more powerful and subtle than the way she commonly used her magic.

"What was that?" Amy asked in awe. "How did you...?"

"I have many tricks up my sleeve," Christina replied simply. She leaned on the railing with her hands.

She had to, but she tried to hide it.

She hoped she could think of what she did as a good idea soon. That she hadn't sabotaged herself.

She hated feeling that way.

"I can see it. Controlling shadows, reviving people, and now this. It doesn't seem cohesive, part of a whole. I didn't expect that."

That's because it isn't, she thought. Not all of it.

She wished she could have told Amy the truth. However, both Desmond and she had agreed that it was better that she didn't know. Because they didn't know her well enough. Because the two of them would go down together if either of them revealed the lie, but there was no weight that would keep Amy from doing the right thing.

Reporting to the authorities, doing her duty.

It hurt to think that way of someone she wanted to see as a friend. As an irreplaceable companion.

But it was necessary. Some prudence.

She liked Amy. Christina hoped with all her heart that part of the reason she was here wasn't that she was counting on the fact that, even in a worst case scenario, she could revive her.

That she didn't see her as a safety net.

Because she liked him, and because she believed that she had been wrong about her. They could have told her the truth. Amy wouldn't have said anything. She wouldn't have ratted them out, at least not on purpose.

Christina's breathing was labored. Abnormal.

Her nose was still bleeding. A little, but some. And her nose felt like it was broken. Hard, hot, and making it hard to breathe, as if it were broken. But it wasn't.

She picked up the thread of the conversation.

"Shadow magic isn't just about physical shadows, for lack of a better word. I can also control the shadows in the human heart. Though, you see, it's a much greater endeavor. For the body... and the heart, unfortunately."

The heart was always the problem when it came to her magic, which was like a poison that was slowly spreading.

Feeling the emotions as they died so clearly was almost like dying herself.

Over and over again, and she couldn't help it.

Yes.

She couldn't really understand what they had gone through unless she would one day face someone like her. But she knew how terrifying it was, yes, of course she did. She felt like throwing up.

"I still don't know what that means."

"I stoked their fears, their paranoia, all their worst emotions to the point of making them explode like a ticking time bomb. And this is the result."

"Complete chaos. Those screams... " Amy shook her head. "Christina, can you move on your own?

So Christina had noticed her weakness after all. Well, she supposed it was a hopeless case from the start to hide something so obvious. She was just too stubborn.

"Yes. Just give me a minute." Christina hoped that wasn't a lie.