The ladies pulled out dark green thread from inside their robes and waited.

Uhh…

"Release him, Cain," Devon said.

I removed my boot and stepped back. Two of the women bent down. One tied his legs together, binding them with the thread, while the other bound his hands behind his back. He looked bewildered. His eyes tracked the women, and when they finished tying him up, he began to strain at his bindings.

The thread held while his muscles flexed, failing to produce the result he wanted.

Devon raised an eyebrow. "Plant fiber. Made from the flowers that grow around the seal?"

Thelassa nodded. "Yes. One of your kin showed us a method to soften the plant and then designed a spinning wheel to process the fibers into thread. We try not to reveal the discovery."

Together, we watched as the five women forced the man to his feet. For a moment, he looked ready to fight back, but then his eyes met Devon's, and he kept his gaze to the floor. When two of the women nudged him out the door, he complied. Blood dripped down and left a trail as he walked.

The other three proceeded to drag the town leader away.

Devon turned to the head priestess. "We'll take our leave."

She pulled on her skirt, and her face drooped. "I understand. Good luck on your hunt."

He regarded her, then turned around. He exited the room, and I followed suit. Alice took up the rear, and we left the church. Once we were outside, he led us down a vacant alleyway.

He stopped and turned around, crossing his arms. "I can hear you grinding your teeth, pup."

I relaxed my jaw and breathed in. "That was cold, Devon."

"And? Do you think I should have done differently?"

"Maybe with more tact? I understood the guards, I understood the alchemist, and the village leader from the last hunt. But her? She is a grandmother worried for her grandchild."

He leaned in close, and I felt his hot breath tickle my face. "And what do you think happens when all you have to show is a dead monster and the bones of the child? Most of the time, you won't even find that, maybe a few scraps of cloth or the ragged toy dropped in mud. We are hunters, not heroes. We do not provide hope. We do our job."

I glared, and he scowled. His eyes were tinted red, and I saw myself in his reflection. The white of my bangs stuck out, and I looked away.

Damnit!

"Let's go."

My pulse quickened, but I reigned in my temper.

I hate that you're right!

I kept my mouth shut, unable to argue a better viewpoint.

"I think," Alice started, "Devon's right. We shouldn't offer false hope. Not when we can't guarantee it. But I think we could have guaranteed we'd try our best."

"And when our best isn't good enough? Has Adeline been teaching you that?"

She shrugged. "No, she hasn't. And if our best isn't good enough, that's on her. We tried, and whether we succeed or fail, we move on."

He said nothing, and we resumed our walk. He led us towards the southwest spire, cutting through streets and alleys. The closer we got to the structure, the more I realized how wrong I was about the scale. They stood at a massive height, easily dwarfing the tallest building in the town.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The spire looked plain, but I knew that meant nothing. Many of the walls inside the Warren had hidden enchantments built-in.

And when Devon hopped over the small metal railing sectioning off the spire from the public, I could already feel a strange energy in the air. It felt cold and came as a soft buzz to my senses. When my cloak grew, I moved my hand to my belt.

"Is it supposed to feel like this?"

"No," Devon answered.

He pointed to the long black chain jutting from the wall. It looked embedded into the stone and sealed shut with no lock. Along the chain, several links had small cuts and pieces of metal missing.

"Someone sabotaged the chain," Alice commented.

"Does that mean the monster escaped?"

"No," Devon said. "That'd require all four spires to be destroyed."

"Just how powerful is this thing?"

"Records are hazy. Most information was passed down orally back then. Few people wrote down details this dangerous. As far as Astra was able to recover from what snippets she found in the Archives, the creature is painted as immortal."

"How are you supposed to fight it?"

"By whittling it down, exhausting its powers till it has nothing left. Secure and cage it. Trap it within a ritual. One of the details points to the creature's ability to replicate itself, sending out pieces of itself as avatars." He bent down and lifted the chain, running his finger along one of the broken links. "The metal holds foreign mana. Eroded, not cut. Whoever did this was powerful enough to power through the enchantments."

"This is ancient, right? How strong would they have to be?" Alice asked.

He shook his head. "I don't know. Insanely so if they could power through the enchantments alone, but I don't think that's the case here. There's a good chance that they had help in some way."

He dropped the chain and moved to the middle of the structure, running his hand along the stone until he came to a stop just above the center links. He pulled out Thelassa’s necklace and held up the medallion, flipping it over so that the tree faced our direction. With it placed directly in the middle of where his palm was, he pulled back, and the necklace stayed, embedded into the spire.

A series of long, curling lines appeared stroke by stroke.

The cool energy increased in pressure and the temperature dropped. My cloak expanded further, and I threw up my hood.

When the lines appeared in their entirety, my eyes stung; the very sight brought pain. “Aagh! What the hell?”

Strong fingers gripped my shoulders and guided me forward. My legs hit the chain, and I stopped.

“Step over,” Devon commanded.

I did, and he pushed me further. I heard Alice growl to my right as she was guided past the chains.

Instead of meeting a wall, we continued, and I finally opened my eyes to find myself inside a cramped space.

Sticking out of the ground in the center of the room was a giant crystal just shy of Devon in height. It pulsed with purple light, following a five-second pulse between each beat.

By my side, Alice stood, staring at the crystal while rubbing her temples. Devon was already across the other side of the room, looking at the opposite wall.

“What is this?”

“Mana quartz. Some of the largest you’ll ever see.”

“It’s pretty.”

No reply.

I sighed and moved closer to Alice. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she replied.

And again, I’m somehow the social one.

I breathed out and saw my breath fog the air. I raised my arm and felt the cold on my skin, but I ran so naturally hot that I didn’t feel the chill. Alice tightened her cloak closer to her body while Devon huffed, unbothered by the chill.

“Let’s go. We need to check the other spires.” He pushed through the solid wall, leaving Alice and me staring at each other. She shrugged and moved out while I stole a glance at the wall Devon had been inspecting.

There wasn’t much: four small crystals were embedded into a black metal panel. Several rune lines swirled around the panel, containing the square piece within a circle. Three of the four crystals were lit up, but one flickered in and out, barely lighting up.

That doesn’t look good. I hope we’re not too late to fix things.

I joined the others, and we moved on. Two of the spires were fine; the chains had intact links, and the inside crystals were lit up just as brightly as the first.

But at the fourth spire, the northern one according to the spire designations, the chain’s links had the same eroded cut as before. When we entered the small room, the problem was instantly noticeable.

The crystal did not glow.

The only source of light was the three blinking crystals lit up on the black panel on the back wall.

Devon stayed silent as he forced us out and then ushered us back to the church. He looked… annoyed.

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

“To ask for the records of any mana users in the town,” he answered.

We made it back to the church in no time, but something was wrong. Devon’s head perked up, and he hurried his steps, forcing Alice and me to jog along to keep up.

When we entered the church, it was to the scene of Thelassa comforting the busty woman from the gate guard encounter. Another priestess was busy drawing rapidly on a wood square with a piece of paper clipped to the top by a tack.

Thelassa stood up, but before she could reach us, the crying woman got up and rushed towards Devon. She grabbed at his cloak and looked up into his eyes with tears streaking down her face.

“Please. You have to save her! Please, sir Grimms. Please!”