Nass’s heart clenched; a surge of terror so great it drowned out every rational thought. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All he could do was madly dash toward his sister as fast as he could. He didn’t have a weapon, but the slaver did, so he’d use that one…

Getting ever closer to Niss and Vrelyen, the monster shrieked again, the deafening sound piercing his ears, overpowering everything else in the world. Niss's eyes met Nass’s one more time, wide and pleading. She struggled against the slaver's grip, and she bit down hard on his forearm, drawing blood, but the pink skin didn't let go of her.

And then suddenly, the human lurched forcefully backward, Niss falling out of his grip and stumbling onto the ground. Scypha stood there, with one hand holding the slaver in the air by his neck, her eyes all white. She had a wide smile on her face and a bloody knife in her hand.

“I told you, Vrelyen,” she said, her voice full of cheer. “It’s time to carve!”

Nass glanced at her only briefly before deciding she wasn’t important. Niss. Niss was right there, crawling on the ground to her side. She was injured – her leg was bleeding – but he could make it. The screecher was getting closer, but he could make it. That’s what he told himself. He had to.

And he did make it. The screecher – or maybe time itself – seemed to slow down as he ran. By the grace of the gods, perhaps, he reached Niss before the monster’s rows of teeth could get any closer.

“Go!” he shouted, roughly pulling her to her feet. “RUN! NOW!”

Niss stared at him, her eyes wide with terror. Her injured leg trembled and she winced in pain, but she put her weight on it anyway and ran. He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her forward. Together, they fled, past Scypha, the slaver, and the giant monster destroying everything in sight – back into the maze of shattered carts and sliced-apart corpses.

Behind them, he heard the fading sounds of Vrelyen screaming in pain, and Scypha gleefully laughing.

As Nass and Niss reached the ruins of a slave cage, fifty feet away, Niss pulled his arm, wincing in pain.

“Nass,” she said, crying. “I’m so glad you came for me. I don’t understand how that worked … But Scypha – she saved me too. She saved a lot of us, she opened half of the cages! We have to—”

“We can’t, Niss. There’s no time! Don’t worry about her, she’s friends with that thing, anyway!”

“No, she’s not! The real her isn’t. Nass, we have to do something!”

She let go of his hand, then, and stopped running. Nass stopped, staring at her. Tears streamed across her green cheeks, mixing with blood from a cut on her nose.

“Nass … This can be that moment. Maybe we don’t need a shard of the divine. We can prove ourselves now, and Father will accept us! I’m sorry, I know you don’t care, but please! We have to try!”

Nass hesitated. “What the hell do you mean ‘prove ourselves’?! We don’t have to prove anything to that pink old snot! We just got away from that monster, Niss, and now you want to go back?! For a pink-skin?! No. I won’t have it!”

Niss stared at him pleadingly, pulling her hand back. “Then let go of my—”

“What, so you can go?!”

“Yes!”

“No, Niss! You’re not going back there! Come with me, and stop struggling!”

“Even if you don’t, I have to help her! She helped me!”

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“Damn you! Damn you, Niss! Now isn’t the time!”

“Now might be the only time!”

Nass glared furiously at Niss, his rage nearly boiling over. It was just because the damned woman was pink and not immediately evil! Niss was being naïve and stupid again – yet again!

But … better him than her.

“I’ll go, then,” Nass growled. “But I’m not taking any risks for a damned pink-skin, you got that? At the first sign of trouble, I will leave her to die. Now go, and take care of your bleeding leg!”

“Wait, I can help—”

“Go that way!” he roared. “Or I’ll break your other leg, and neither of us is going to help that thing you call a friend!”

He grimaced, hating himself, and ran off. “Don’t you dare come after me!” he shouted. “Go!”

Just a little later, Nass’s breath came in ragged gasps, the dusty air burning in his chest as he made the stupidest decision of his life, running back towards the sounds of splintering wood and twisting metal, and the towering monster that he knew perfectly well had let him escape.

It came into view quickly, because it was so monstrously large. It slithered over a pair of overturned carts, the front of its body standing tall, like a giant snake ready to lunge. Scypha crouched on the ground in front of it, her eyes all white, smiling, and bloody as she used a knife to slice across the slaver lying on the ground before her.

“I’ll get better at this,” she laughed. “But it’s a good start. Perfectly legible.”

The slaver groaned, his voice raspy and unclear, wordlessly bleating in agony.

“Can you read it, Vrelyen?” Scypha asked. “You should – after all, it’s on your stomach. Figure it out!”

The screecher towering above the two of them lowered its head and hissed, emitting a spine-chilling sound that made the earth tremble under Nass’s feet.

Scypha looked up to face it for a moment, smiling, then turned back down to Vrelyen. “Don’t pout, little tyrant,” she said. “I did you a kindness. At least you won’t live to see what I’m going to do to your children.”

Nass shook his head. “The friends you make, Scypha…” he muttered.

He hid behind the remains of a ruined cart. Every instinct he had screamed at him to turn and run, to go back to Niss and drag her away before the monster turned its hollow, soulless gaze onto the two of them. His jaw clenched so tightly it hurt, and he breathed so shallowly he might as well have been holding his breath.

Saving Scypha? That thing over there was unsavable. Leaving is the only option.

That’s what he knew – but despite everything, he did have to try. He owed the damned pink-skin, since she truly had helped Niss. By the god Gromph’s divine decree, debts owed were to be debts paid. Perhaps he could wake her up from her murderous trance, but he had no idea how—

The screecher's massive head tilted towards him. Nass's whole body shuddered as its red, depthless eyes locked onto him, narrowing – and suddenly, there was a human man standing directly in front of him.

Nass stumbled onto the ground, hastily inching away from him, but at the same time, the man took a step forward, glaring at him with hostility. He wore gilded, spotless armor, shimmering in the light, full plate except without a helmet. He had no sword, but Nass knew with every instinct he had that he was deadly beyond imagining.

Nass's vision swam in and out of focus, the world around the man blurring like a nightmare. He kept walking closer.

Behind the man, everything was distorted. Nass heard Scypha suddenly shriek and fall over herself. She began panting loudly. Her voice seemed far away.

The man turned away from Nass for a moment, looking at the pink-skin, before settling his furious stare back at him.

Suddenly, Nass's survival seemed like a fragile, foolish hope.

“We are not ready to be allies, yet,” the man spoke threateningly. “I told you to run.”

Nass breathed hard, his hands shaking, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. “I’m sorry,” he gasped. “I had to.”

Nass’s vision flickered and cleared up. Behind the armored man, Scypha slowly got up to her feet before stumbling back down to the ground. Nass could hear her sobbing, praying to her lord god, Vifafey…

As if he could have changed a damned thing.

The man in gleaming plate armor stared at Nass. “You had to…?” he asked. “You want to be a hero, is that it?”

A vision of Niss flashed into Nass’s mind. A clear picture of her, battered, bruised, and bleeding. She was tying up her injured leg with torn-up pieces of her rags, holding back tears and wincing in pain. The giant shadow of the screecher fell over her, a monstrous maw opening up and revealing hundreds of rows of dagger-like teeth.

Suddenly, the vision disappeared.

“Then what are you waiting for?” the man in plate armor asked.

Nass turned towards him, his whole body trembling. The man quickly vanished into nothing, leaving Nass alone, just sitting on the cold, hard ground. In the distance, the screecher shrieked again, its reverberating sound shaking the earth. It lowered its massive head toward Scypha, and she suddenly fell completely still, gazing into it, dazed.

It wasn’t too late. If he ran, then maybe … but Niss…

Nass got up onto his feet.

Slowly, the tentacles on the monster’s face grabbed Scypha by the arms and legs and began lifting her into the air, towards its mouth.

Nass turned his head and walked away.