“What happened out there?”

Sara had rushed him to the table they had eaten at earlier, clearing it without concern for whatever was still on it so he could place Keira down and check her over. Concern was evident but she remained calm and in control of the situation while he struggled to hold himself together. He clutched Keira’s hand but it remained as motionless as it was the moment he lifted her. She was still breathing, though slow, heavy and he felt his heart jump in fear every moment between them.

“Finlay!” Sara snapped at him and locked her eyes with his. “I need to know what did this so I can save her—you have to tell me what happened.”

“My sister…”

He explained what they saw and found in the woods. He told her about his sister—or the thing that resembled her and attacked them. She was examining the wound on Keira’s chest as he spoke and he realised it had gotten bigger. The black, ashen, almost burnt appearance over her skin had grown from the fist-sized mark it started as. There were dark streaks that resembled cracking electric burns stretching out from the centre that seemed to darken each time she breathed in.

When he mentioned the spear of smoke that pierced her, Sara furrowed her brow and leaned further down to examine the wound. He told her that it resembled the tendrils of the wraiths that attacked him when he was young, hoping that this might give her some clue on how to help but she only shook her head in response.

“A wraith couldn’t do this. Not to Keira."

“Keira’s aura, her spiritual form would be too powerful for a wraith to break that easily—yours as well,” Ronan said as he and Faye hobbled through the doorway.

“And where hav—Hell, what happened to you?!”

“We’re okay, Sara. For now, we need to focus on the girl,” Ronan replied as he found a chair.

Faye had been almost carrying the man as they entered, though she looked far worse than he did. She was covered in blood and her clothes and body were cut with more wounds than he could count in the cursory glances he made to them.

William appeared with a bucket of hot water and some cloth; Sara had ordered him to fetch them when they arrived and he was panting from rushing. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Faye and Ronan but after the moment of shock faded, rushed to Sara.

“Tend to those two,” she nodded towards Faye and Ronan. “They have open wounds, help them clean and sterilise them.”

“Will she be okay?” Faye asked, she had been quiet and even when she spoke, was sullen.

Sara didn’t respond and the silence that lingered was enough to break him. It was his fault, he kept running the thought through his mind. All of this was because of him and now she was lying here and not even Sara knew how to help her. Ronan hobbled over from his chair and leaned against the table Keira was on, standing beside Sara who looked more lost by the second.

“The wound is growing,” he said.

“It was the size of my fist when she was first hit.”

“Why is that strange?” Sara asked.

“A physical mark might expand with trauma but this is different,” Ronan replied.

The man started tracing his fingers along the lines that resembled electric scorches in her skin to reach the central point. “It’s still burning—William, run and drench a cloth in cold water, hurry.”

The boy ran and Ronan turned back to him. “I’m going to need your help.”

“Anything."

“Ronan, what are you planning? If you need help then let me, he’s hardly in any state to do anything now,” Sara protested.

“I’ll need you as well, Sara but neither of you have communicated with this spirit before and when it comes to invocations—Finlay’s a bit of a natural.”

“But why Finlay and not…”

She trailed off as he looked her in the eye. A look that told the story of the torment he had endured to get them all here safely. Whatever invocations he had cast, whatever spirits he had summoned out there in the woods, it had wiped him out and he was in no state now to try and communicate with another.

William returned and Ronan took the cloth and placed it over the mark. Keira shuddered under the touch but then continued in her silent, slow and heavy breathing. Sara patted William’s shoulder and ushered him to go back to helping Faye and Ronan started to explain the plan.

“Finlay, you’re going to call upon a spirit called Foras. Nochd and Solast are minor spirits, they’re younger, but Foras is very old and very powerful. It is a major spirit of growth and one I wouldn’t have had you call upon for a long time under normal circumstances.”

“I’ll do whatever I can, just show me how.”

“Why this one?” Sara asked.

“This wound comes from spiritual decay. Her soul is being attacked by whatever that thing did to her and because of that, her body is breaking down.”

“That doesn’t explain why a spirit of growth will help.”

“This is why I wanted Finlay to communicate with it, you think too linearly.” He started inscribing the runes on the table Keira lay on.

“Think of the wound as a poison that we don’t have an antidote for. Our bodies have ways to fight against poison if it’s not too potent and given enough time, the same is true for our spirit, our souls,” Ronan said before pausing to look at him.

“Growth can translate to recovery, the body recovers a wound by regrowing skin and cells. You want Foras to speed up the recovery of the wound caused by the attack so her spirit is strong enough to fight back against the lingering poison in her soul,” Finlay said, finishing the man’s thought process.

“See Sara, he’s a natural.”

The woman frowned. “What do you want me to do?”

“Finlay doesn’t have enough Anam to call upon Foras, at least not while he’s maintaining a space against the miasma here. I need you to create that space, a place protected against the miasma that he can offer for Foras to enter or it will never respond to him.”

“That’s not exactly something I’m well practised in.”

“You’re more than capable, Sara. You’ve seen me do it enough times, I know you can do it.”

She nodded and Ronan, who had finished inscribing the runes around Keira, took out a single piece of paper and wrote the final rune that contained Foras’ name on it. He placed it on the cloth that sat over Keira’s wound and turned back to Finlay.

“Even with Sara’s help, you might not have enough anam to call Foras. Remember, as you push that anam into the rune, the spirit will hear the intention behind it. Make sure you’re convincing, a future promise—tell it anything you can think of that might convince Foras to help.”

Sara had already started to call forward her spiritual form, the glow radiating around her and then as instructed, she moved the shape to create a gentle space of light directly above Keira's wound. He nodded and focused on the rune that lay over the cloth. He was already feeling fatigued as he tried to draw forward his spiritual form. The thing in the forest that impersonated his sister had broken his aura, had broken his form in an instant and he hadn’t recovered from that in the short time it had been. But he had to invoke Foras, it was their only option and so he put everything he had into the formation of his spiritual energy. He promised his future, his life, he would give everything if he had to in order to save Keira. He placed his hand on the rune and soon they all responded to his touch. A gentle glow of blue light that was normally his aura radiated from each marking until the world faded and changed around him.

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It wasn’t the same as the other times, the world wasn’t black with nothing but him and a light to represent the spirit. Instead, he found himself standing next to the biggest tree he had ever seen. Its trunk extended to each side so far he couldn't see the curvature and it stretched to the sky as if it would break through to the abyss of space above. Everything around him was a rich green, vibrant and full of life with the sound of birds and other animals filling the air. Insects darted around the bouquet of flowers that covered the ground with a smell so enticing he wanted to drop to his knees and enjoy it.

It was a paradise of life that couldn’t be natural and that was only emphasised when branches from the tree dropped down and coiled together to form a seat that lifted him upwards. The branches carried him into the air far above the canopy of other trees so that he could see how far this lush forest extended. At least, he could tell that it went beyond his ability to see as it stretched to the horizon on every side with this giant tree standing tall in the centre.

“You would give your life to save her?”

The sound filled his mind but he knew it didn’t come from the world around him as he could differentiate the song of birds and gentle wind from the booming voice within him.

“Yes,” he thought, pushing the thought out as a response.

“You would force your intention over her desire?”

“What? What are you talking about, she doesn’t want to die.”

“Yet she gave her life to protect yours.”

He hesitated, this wasn’t the conversation he was expecting. “She didn’t know the outcome, she risked her life, yes—but now it’s my turn to do the same for her.”

“You believe she’d choose her own life over yours, now?”

“No, she wouldn’t.”

“Then I ask again—you would force your will over hers?”

“If it means saving her, then yes. Even if she hates me for it.”

“You have strong resolve but this won’t be necessary today.”

“You’ll help us?"

There was silence, no response and instead, he found himself sitting, hanging in the air by the branches of the giant tree for far longer than he wanted. The time dragged on until he couldn't take it any more and so he pleaded for Foras to give him the strength to save her.

"Please, you have to help me, she can't die here today. Not like this..."

Silence again, but the wind seemed to pick up and almost knocked him from his perch. He could feel the panic building inside him, the feeling of failure, of not being able to do anything. He was afraid and with that fear, the wind seemed to grow and howl around his body. Leaves filled the air and the branches he sat on swung back and forth so that he had to cling to them with all his strength but then he heard it speak again.

“As the fire burns, it makes way for new growth. Death is the beginning of life. If she is strong, if she has the will—life will come from her death.”

A whirlwind of leaves surrounded him as the wind that carried them lifted him from his branch seat. He fell back to the world of lush green below but long before reaching the tops of the highest trees, he found himself lying over Keira’s legs, back to his reality. Sara was compressing her chest over and over, calling for her to wake up, telling her not to give up. William had rushed to her side, tears in his eyes as he watched in horror as Ronan and Faye stood back from the table holding each other up.

Keira had stopped breathing, she was dying. He leapt forward from his seated position and cried out to her as Sara continued the chest compressions. His eyes were darting to her face and that of Sara but he could see the hope draining from the woman as she tried to breathe into Keira’s mouth.

She stopped, and she stepped back, but Keira was lifeless, she hadn’t woken, hadn’t started breathing. She was dead. Sara’s face filled with tears as she looked at him but then a puzzled expression showed. He followed her gaze to his hand where he saw the leaf that he was holding without realising it. His eyes widened at the sight and he pressed the leaf to the wound in Keira’s chest in sudden hope that Foras had given him. Nothing happened.

“Send it your anam, Finlay!” Ronan almost yelled as he stumbled forward to the table.

He pressed his hand over the leaf and with every ounce of his will and spirit left, forced all that he could into the leaf and below his hand a bright green light blistered into sight. It was blinding in brilliance but felt warm as though standing in the summer sun. And then her chest swelled under his hand. Once and then stillness but the light remained. A second time and then stillness but it continued to hold. One final time and she breathed back to life. The light disappeared as he lifted his hand, the leaf gone. Instead, there were tiny green spindles of glowing light that coiled around the traces of black electric marks on her wound as though stitches to a cut, they seemed to hold those marks in place and stopped their spread. She continued to breathe, the pace increasing beyond the slow step it had before until reaching a normal rhythm.

He fell backwards, collapsing to the floor from exhaustion. He had used everything within him and his body felt numb and unresponsive. But she was breathing, she was alive, the spirit had helped him and now she would survive.

Ronan made his way to Finlay’s side and helped him back up and then to a chair behind him. Sara started examining Keira again and Faye leaned against her smiling. William seemed to be in shock and couldn’t take his eyes off Keira but was now kneeling by the table as though all the tension he held in his body released upon seeing her breath.

“You did it, you managed to contact Foras,” Ronan said as he sat down beside him.

“Yes, though I wasn’t sure it was going to help, but I guess…”

“Well done, Finlay. You did an amazing job.”

“Is she going to be okay now? Will Foras be enough?”

“I think so, though, it’s rather hard to say. She’s going to need a lot of rest, we’ll need to keep watch over her of course and the sooner we get her back to the city the better. But I think we’re through the worst of it.”

Keira was breathing normally but she hadn’t woken from that unconscious state. The colour in her face was returning and he felt reassured at the expressions on both Faye and Sara.

There was noise behind them and he managed to turn and look to find that other members of his section were watching from the corners and hiding behind the walls. They had woken from the commotion that they had made and were investigating.

“Alright everyone, there’s nothing for you all to worry about,” Faye had decided to deal with them. “Everything is under control now, we’ll talk more in the morning, you all need to get back to sleep and rest.”

There was various grumbling from the others but the look Faye was giving them told them to hurry up and soon they disappeared back to their rooms. She walked around the table and pulled a chair up in front of Finlay, giving him a quick look over to make sure he was alright as well. He couldn’t help feeling it was a ridiculous position given the state she was in.

“Well, that didn’t exactly go to plan.”

“It’s pretty clear there’s more going on here than we thought,” replied Ronan.

“I’m sorry, I put everyone in danger and you’re both so hurt, Keira’s—”

“That’s enough,” Faye pressed her hand to his mouth. “It’s our responsibility, we’re in charge here. Don’t blame yourself for any of this.”

“Everyone’s alive Finlay, that’s the important thing. Everything else we can figure out later,” continued Ronan.

“Besides, if anyone’s getting blamed, it’s this idiot,” Faye glared at Ronan and only then removed her hand from his mouth.

The man ignored her comments as he turned away and disappeared into his own thoughts; it wasn’t uncommon for him to act this way so they both fell back into their chairs and rested in wait for his inevitable return. Sara came over and stood behind Faye, placing one hand on the woman’s shoulder.

“Are you okay? Do you want me to look at your wounds?”

“William did a fine job, it looks worse than it is.”

“What about this one?” She nodded towards Ronan.

“He’s fine as well, just a little burnt out. He had to pull his weight for once to get us out of there.”

“What the hell happened? I can’t imagine anything powerful enough in this miasma that you two struggled with.”

“That’s it!” Ronan leaned forward. “That’s what’s been bothering me.”

None of them responded but rather waited for him to continue.

“It was hiding the miasma from us. It barely got worse as we got closer, only when we were right beside it did it change. This base level we’re feeling now is nothing to what it should be…”

“That thing was too powerful,” Faye interrupted. “The miasma should have been far worse, we should have known what we were walking into. Hell, we should be able to feel it here and now.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” replied Sara. “Demons don’t control the miasma they release, they can’t hide it.”

Another moment of silence covered them and he was starting to think this conversation could wait until the morning. He was struggling to keep himself awake but at the same time, he felt torn between wanting to watch Keira and figure out what had happened to them. It was Ronan that spoke again but what he said only brought another round of questions that none of them could answer.

“Which means—that thing wasn’t a demon.”