There was still daylight left to walk by, so we started again towards Coernet, though the endeavor felt somewhat hollow by then. I shuffled on. I knew I had no other choice - I had to get Amaia to something resembling civilization if she was going to have any chance at recovering - her coal-black arm like a dark omen in the peripheries. But without a reward waiting for me at our destination, it felt again like I was short on time - that the clock was ticking. I’d have to make money some other way, and fast.

One million dollars, I thought, the words so vivid in my ears I thought for a moment that RENA was contacting me. I shook my head. How the hell am I going to do it?

As the thrill of the hunt cooled in me, I began to feel somewhat defeated. Defeated, and even a bit guilty, though I did my best to remind myself that was unnecessary.

Our reformed party walked with all the enthusiasm of a forced march - except for Cadoc, of course, who looked almost cheery. Amaia didn’t talk much, only spoke to tell us when she needed to stop for more water.

But one of us was, in fact, being forced - Naomi had asked if we could take off the collar, and I had refused. Amaia and Cadoc both shot me looks when I said that, but didn’t fight me on it.

Their looks were impossible to read. Did they hate me? Fear me? Should they?

At one point during our walk, I let the group overtake me, falling to the back of our four-person convoy. I had felt a sudden and irresistible desire to be alone. I told Cadoc not to stop moving.

There, in the rear, I walked slowly, and eventually stopped altogether, staring at my hands.

With some trembling I held my right hand over my left, moving mana into the fingertip of my right index finger. I let a nail fall, melting it before the drop hit the back of my left hand near where the thumb and index finger meet.

It burned. The pain was intense, but localized, manageable, and over quickly, and I was able to breathe through it. Within seconds any trace of pain had disappeared, such that it was hard to accurately remember how painful it had really been. But it had been painful, and that was only a drop. The drop quickly cooled, sealing itself on my skin. I poked at it, and it didn’t budge.

I set my jaw, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. Then I ripped the dried piece of nail off of my skin.

It stung as it pulled up a short hair or two from my hand, but it didn’t tear flesh. The spot where the melted nail had stuck was now reddish, but otherwise uninjured.

I didn’t know if these facts made me feel better, or worse. But, looking at my hands again, they did make me feel different. I needed a mirror, but the water of the Blood wouldn’t do, wasn’t accurate enough to tell.

I shook myself and ran to rejoin the group. Nobody said anything at my return. Naomi still led the way, the collar around her neck making me think of my dad’s dog leading the way into the woods. That felt like another life.

Below my insurance the dress Naomi wore was ripped and fraying, its yellow cloth like gold thread unfurling. Someone had thrown a cloak over her - probably Amaia - but still I caught glimpses of bare skin through holes whenever she would turn back to confirm that we were still following. The hem of the dress was in tatters, her legs bare up to the thigh - and beyond, in parts - and there were holes above that which revealed glimpses of midriff. Through two torn slits so symmetrical they looked like they were designed that way, I could still see where liquid nail had run like meandering rivers through the small valleys of her chest. If not for the cloak, she had more skin showing than cloth.

I’d never really registered much about her hair before, except that it was black, and short. But some part of my mind had noticed, clearly, because I could tell then that it had slightly changed. Before her hair had been cut in something like a bob, with bangs covering her forehead, every line straight and severe, from the line above her eyebrows, to the line at the bottom of the cut which surrounded her tan neck like an amphitheater. But now it had begun to grow out, and had been cut - presumably by her magic, accidentally - only a little, but the bob had begun to lose it’s artificiality, some strands dipping lower beneath the line than others.

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When Naomi looked back again, I realized that I was staring, waiting for every time she turned to catch more details. Her eyes met mine but I refused to look away. I clenched my fists and stared, and she surrendered first rather than trip. I felt guilty again, because the look she gave me had been pleading. Then I was angry that she was trying so brazenly to manipulate my feelings.

“Cadoc,” I called, though he had been more or less at my side already. “I have something I want to ask you.”

“What is on your mind, friend?” he asked.

I didn’t bother to lower my voice. “If there is no reward waiting for us,” I said. “And we know how to get to Coernet, then why do we need Naomi?”

“What?” Naomi said, stopping. She turned to face us, but I only pointed ahead, past her, then motioned towards my own throat. My threat must have been clear enough, because she soon turned and continued, but I almost imagined I saw her roll her eyes, first.

“You wish to leave her behind?” Cadoc asked, still walking. “Or kill her?”

I sighed. “I’m guessing you don’t want me to kill her.”

Cadoc shook his head. “It would not be an honorable act, truly.”

“What if I challenged her to a duel?” I asked. “She betrayed us. I’m no expert, but that has to be grounds for a duel, right?”

I heard Naomi stifle a laugh, though she didn’t turn back this time.

“Something funny?” I asked.

“No,” she said quickly, still walking. “I mean, like, you could just burn my head off, right? Or melt my throat closed, or whatever would happen, yeah? So what kind of honorable duel would that be?”

“He would remove the collar,” Cadoc answered for me. “Otherwise it would not be a true duel.”

“So you like the idea?” I asked. Naomi was getting on my nerves again, and I was actually somewhat considering it. She basically deserved it. Plus, then I wouldn’t have to keep looking at her, and I thought that might help things. Out of sight, out of mind.

This time Naomi laughed aloud. “You want to be cut in half that badly? You could have just asked me, you know.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. “How did that work for you last time, huh? I seem to remember you being helpless, struggling underneath me, completely at my mercy.”

Now she stopped again, turned on her heel to face me, and pointed, yelling. “That’s only because I didn’t want to kill you!” she said. “And I’m regretting it, now that you’ve put this fucking thing around my neck like I’m some kind of animal.”

“And you’re only here to complain about it because I didn’t want to kill you,” I retorted. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead. Ask Nolan, if you know how to talk to ghosts.”

“Oh, big scary man.” She put her hands in the air before her in mock fear. “Oh no, what ever shall I do against the murderer who knocks people off of cliffs. Except, like, there aren’t any cliffs here, are there?”

“I’m not a murderer,” I muttered.

“Speak up,” she said. “I can’t hear you.”

“I’m not a murderer.”

“No?” she asked. “Just what, then, hopeful? Like, apprenticing as a murderer? A murderer in training? What are you, huh?”

I didn’t have an answer for her. We stared at each other, our journey stopped for the moment. She held her staff again in front of her, and with the golden dress in tatters and the cloak billowing out behind her, she seemed weirdly regal and imposing, like the graven image of some ancient goddess calling forth a plague. I realized that I should have taken that staff from her, probably. Could I light her up faster than she could cut me in half? She was probably asking herself the same thing.

Suddenly Amaia - who had been silent thus far - stepped forward from who-knows-where to stand between Naomi and I.

“You both just said that neither of you wants to kill the other,” she said, looking at one of us, then the other. “So why are we stopping?”

I couldn’t help but look at the black shadow over Amaia’s arm, and see the slow march the sickness had made even since I had last seen it. I felt immediately ashamed.

Naomi lowered her staff almost instantly, and my shoulders relaxed soon after.

“Sorry, Amaia,” Naomi said. Then her voice turned sour again. “I guess I react sort of strongly to death threats.”

“Fine,” I said. “Start walking.”

We did, and silence reigned for a time. But I couldn’t let things sit - didn’t have it in me.

“We don’t kill her.” I said to Cadoc, as if the conversation had never stopped. “Fine. I was just spitballing, anyway. Leave her behind, then. She clearly wants to leave. If keeping her with us isn’t going to get us anything, why bother? She’s a hassle.”

“I seem to remember you being the one to insist we catch up with her, Miles,” Cadoc responded.

“That was back when I thought she was worth something,” I said. “What good is she now?”

I just caught Naomi muttering something as she walked.

“Say again?” I said, knowing whatever it was would be instigating but asking anyway.

“Shut up!” she yelled. She stopped again, turned. “You’re trying to make me angry, and I like, don’t appreciate it.”

The fight was roaring again like it was a smoldering fire which had just had lighter fluid poured on it. “If we’re making lists of things we don’t appreciate,” I said. “Then being lied to about a reward is pretty high on my list, personally.”

Naomi’s fists were clenched, but she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then simply turned around and begun walking again.

“No response?” I asked, running ahead so that I could walk backwards before her. “I don’t really understand your problem with this one. Wouldn’t you be happy to leave?”

“Not now,” she said, not meeting my eyes. “Not now that Amaia is in trouble, and it’s my fault.”

That stunned me for a moment. She was able to take some responsibility, at least.

“But if your parents have no money, what could you even do for her?”

She sighed, and stopped again. “My parents are alchemists, alright? They lost their business and all their money when our town was overtaken by monsters. But they’re like, still alchemists, y’know? They can probably help. Maybe. I don’t know. But I have to try.”

Then she brushed past me. I stood there for a moment, thinking, before following behind.

“Perhaps we should keep her, Miles,” Cadoc said, smiling.

“Are you making fun of me?” I asked.

“Never, friend.”

My mind was racing to process the new information. Assuming she wasn’t lying again - who knows why she would, but I certainly didn’t trust her word - but assuming that she wasn’t lying, and she really felt guilty, maybe we could still use her. And maybe a ransom wasn’t even off the table, fully. They might be poor potionmakers here, I thought. But the potions would probably sell for a fortune on Earth, if they worked and did anything useful. Fuck, it’s worth a try.

Before I could think about it any longer, Naomi had stopped again. I was about to berate her for holding things up when I saw that she was pointing.

“Finally,” she said. “There’s the town, up ahead.”