A blink and the scene had changed. One moment, Thera had been at one of the invasion points, fighting against a demon far more powerful than she should have been encountering in only the second wave and the next her eyes were shooting open, her body darting up with them to find herself in the busy hospital she’d been serving, swarmed by spirits as she tried to make sense of her jumbled memories.

Last she’d remembered she’d been hit, and hard too, but the sheer quantity of light and life spirits around her answered why she wasn’t feeling it. She could only imagine that whatever ones had found her during the battle had called the others to start working on her before she could even be dragged off from the grounds, leaving her back in top condition and only needing to wake up, with someone else taking notice of that fact.

“Glad to see you up,” The hospital’s director said, with Thera feeling suddenly very aware that she’d never learned the woman’s name. An insignificant fact but one it felt like her brain was trying to escape to rather than confront her real issue, one that was skating around the periphery of her consciousness as she slowly got her thoughts in order. An issue she didn’t have time to come to herself, with that very director bringing it to the front of her mind as soon as she’d gotten the chance. “I was told the demon took your companion.”

Saying something so shocking to someone who’d just woken up felt cruel but as the one in charge of managing so many lives, she didn’t have the time to waste on consolations and cheap words. She’d examined Thera while she’d been unconscious and hadn’t found anything that made her worry about the shock of it negatively affecting her and as terrible as the news was, she both needed to know and didn’t have time to waste worrying when she was in a state where she could get back to work.

But the mind was not such a simple thing, able to compartmentalize against emotional blows, especially not when it revealed something she had been subconsciously ignoring. She couldn’t feel the effects of bind between them.

A passive skill that let both of them find the other at all times, always pointing in the same direction, Thera knew it could be turned off but neither of them ever actually did it. There was no point. Having it up was convenient, and in a time like that, a comfort. Something they could both look to while the world went to hell and know that the other was still there, even if out of sight. It wasn’t something Ben would just turn off.

She felt a grip on her heart and bile rising in her throat at the obvious implication but she refused to accept it, instead asking more questions.

“What do you mean, taken? Tell me exactly what happened.”

Taken wasn’t the same as killed, there was no reason to think he was dead just because of that, no matter what implication came with her skill’s silence, but the woman by her side had no other answers for her to go off of.

“I’m sorry, that’s all I was told, now if you're feeling good enough to work-”

“How long was I out?” She instead demanded, knowing that there were people she needed to help but not caring then and there at all in comparison. No matter how cold it was, the people around her were strangers. Ben was Ben.

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“About three hours.”

Not long.

A short enough time at least that there were sure to be people in her last point who’d witnessed what had happened while still being stationed to fight more and without waiting for anyone to say another word she was up and out, rushing through the miniature gate to the battle beyond, going up the fortress’s wall and ignoring the damage the demon had caused along it as her eyes scanned the other mages.

There.

She hadn’t been particularly observant of the others around her at the time but there were at least a few she recognized on sight and she went over to the closest, ignoring the spell he was trying to cast as she grabbed his collar and pulled his eyes to her, getting a small yell of distress from him until the man realized she wasn’t a demon.

The hint of relief at that fact only managed to last until he saw the emotion her eyes held as she spoke up, her commanding tone telling him she wasn’t going to accept a lazy answer.

“What happened to Ben?”

“Um, who?”

“The person I was working with here a few hours ago that a demon got hold of!” She yelled in his face, just wanting an answer as the man cowered. “You were here, you must have seen something since this all happened right fucking beside you so answer me!”

With her feelings came her mana, shaking the battlefield in her rage and despair that only scared the man in her grasp more but still got her the answer she was looking for, no matter how terrible it might have been.

“I don’t know! The demon that grabbed him, it dragged him off through the point, that’s all I saw!”

The answer left her loosening her grip, letting the man fall to the ground as she stood amidst the battle in agony. Why? Why would Ben have possibly been taken? She still remembered what the demon had said when it had first gotten its hands on him. Found you. But why had it been looking for him at all? And why go to the trouble of pulling him through the invasion point if it was just going to-

He’s not dead. She told herself, cutting off the thought. It didn’t matter what her skill was telling her, nor what any reasonable judgment that could be derived from the facts implied either. If he was taken then it was for a reason and if she couldn’t feel him through the skill they shared then that was just because there was a limit to it she’d never been able to see before. Maybe the vast void between the stars was too big for an ability like that to work or maybe it was being blocked somehow. She didn’t know and she didn’t care. The only way to get answers would be to ask the one who’d given her the skill in the first place and she didn’t think Anailia would have the sort of time to answer a question like that as it was in the first place.

Nor did she want an answer, not really. Let her believe that she was right. Let her have her hope with the world crumbling around her. What good would knowing do when she still had a war to fight? Even then there were people dying around her and demons escaping into the wider world, what would allowing herself to fall into despair accomplish?

A small part of her made her glance at the distant portal, whispering to her that she should throw herself in, that she should go out and find him, but she forced herself to squash it. It wasn’t like people across the lost worlds had never attempted such a thing before and every time it failed, not even bringing back any information to be used. As powerful as she was, she knew it would just be an act of throwing away her life. If she was going to believe that he was alive then she needed to stay alive as well.

And if he’s not… Well, there’s always the third wave to see what’s on the other side of that.

For the time being, she’d just hoped he’d find his way back and forced her feet to carry her away from the ongoing battle, back to the hospital where she had work yet to do.