“I wonder where he’s gone,” Scypha said, with a slight tremor in her voice. “The goblins should be arriving soon … Sir Knight, do you think he’d be okay with me welcoming them myself? I only came a few days ago myself, but someone has to do it.”

The knight sat cross-legged on the wooden floor, staring at nothing and looking startlingly large and out of place in her room, dressed in his gilded, ornate plate armor.

Suddenly, he shuddered. “Hmm?” he asked. “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“It’s nothing. I’m being neurotic ... Anyway, want to try again?”

“Please.”

Scypha rolled her shoulders back, making herself more comfortable, and laid back down on her stomach on the floor in front of him. She shook her head, pushing away the thoughts of what could, theoretically, have happened to an innkeeper that she hadn’t seen in half a day. She squinted and focused her gaze on the knight’s bright blue eyes.

After a couple of moments, she shook her head. “I don’t think it’s working,” she said.

“You’re too distracted. Pyren is okay, Scypha. I promise. You haven’t seen him in a while, but he’s fine. Now keep trying—focus.”

“Right … right … I’m reading your mind, now… I’m … doing it…”

“Are you ready?” the knight asked. “I’m going to pick cloth.”

Scypha winced as her vision suddenly clouded, and a stab of pain shot through her head. For a mere moment, she hallucinated a small knife, hovering in the air right in front of her eyes. Then it disappeared.

“Okay, I think I’ve got it,” she said.

“Very good. Right then, stone … cloth…”

“Knife!” Scypha finished. She quickly closed her fist to show ‘stone,’ fully expecting to have won their game.

But the knight’s palm was open. He’d picked cloth, just like he’d said he would. She’d lost.

“Urgh … again?!” she asked. “By Vifa … Vifa … By Vifafey’s holy name, you always pick cloth!”

“Are you okay, Scypha?” the knight asked.

Scypha winced, retreating into herself and numbly dissociating for a moment, then snapping back to reality. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just … a little lapse. Anyway, you keep picking cloth!”

“You keep picking stone. I am literally trying to help you win this, Scypha. I told you what I’d pick, so that you’d have an easier time of it!”

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“Well, I saw something different—and I did see something this time. My head hurt, just like you said it would. Like something bit me.”

“Really? It did? Damn it … let me take another look at you, then, okay?”

“Go ahead.”

The knight gazed into Scypha’s eyes, intently focusing on her. For a moment, it was like he’d challenged her to a staring contest, and she stared back—but she couldn’t hold his gaze for more than a moment. He was damned unbeatable … and beautiful…

Finally, he blinked. Then, he blinked twenty more times.

“Oh. I’m sorry, Scypha,” he said.

“Sorry? About what?”

He remained quiet, gazing at her like he’d frozen in time.

For a long time.

“Spontaneous apologies make me a little paranoid,” Scypha said after a while, nervously reaching behind herself and scratching the back of her neck. “I’m sorry, too, though. I am trying.”

The knight blinked again, and the world around Scypha became blurred, growing foggy and unclear. There was no pain, though … and a moment later, everything instantly returned to normal.

“No, no, it’s not your fault that you can’t do it yet,” the knight murmured. “I can see that you want to. It’s just that the animal part of you is thrashing about, desperately trying to protect you. It doesn’t want to participate in our games.”

“The animal part? I have been feeling lately like there are two of me … though I don’t know why, or what that actually means. But, well, how do we turn it off, then? Or force it to participate?”

“There is only one way, unfortunately, and it’s too dangerous. I won't lie, I was hoping that you’d be capable of accessing my powers, but if not … so be it. We’ll im-pro-vi-se-ee.”

The world began to slow down.

Scypha’s body began to shake, and as she closed her eyes to blink, a vibrating wave of red washed over her, all that she could see. It covered the room, covered her hands, then the space right in front of her eyes…

Then, it was like it’d never happened. The red was gone.

She was staring at the empty space just beside the knight sitting in front of her, struggling to blink.

But … her eyes were wide open, and she felt more awake than she had ever been. The world around her was so slow, it seemed frozen in time.

“There’s something crawling in my head,” she heard herself say. “Little spikes, stabbing into my brain. You’ve infected me, curr.”

The knight grimaced, then looked at her worriedly. “You, again,” he said. “You needn’t fear, Scypha. Everything is okay.”

Scypha suddenly regained control of her senses, snapping back to the real, cold world. With a slight tremor coursing through her body, she carefully pushed herself off the cold, hard wooden floor and sat up, taking a moment to steady herself as she surveyed her surroundings.

“Are you sure?” she asked, looking around at the unfamiliar room. “I’m feeling weird again—”

Her body shivered, and after another momentary torrent of red, she found herself back on the floor, curled up into a ball. Her senses slowly came back to her … it didn’t seem like she had moved much. She was still in the same place … But it was strangely light, as if the world had suddenly become brighter.

“Sir Knight?” she asked, pushing herself off the floor again. “Are you still there? No … Am I still here?”

A blanket of fog appeared in front of her, covering the whole room, and then forming itself into the shape of the knight. As the cloudy wisps formed to create his head, he looked at her worriedly. “Not exactly,” he said. “Please, Scypha, I need you. Be strong. Try to fight it.”

“Be…” Scypha’s vision began flickering again, and she shook her head. “I feel like it’s all coming back! Can you see this?!”

“Focus, Scypha. See what? You’re pushing me away—by Chi’orat, you’re strong.”

“I see … It’s that stain I told you about. It’s growing—there are all these white flakes floating around me...”

The knight fully materialized from the misty cloud. Quickly, he ran over to Scypha and extended his hands toward her, helping her rise. He shook his head.

“This really isn’t going the way I wanted it to,” he said. “I’m sorry, Scypha, I’m going to do it after all. This might hurt—”