The howls of the damned passed between the student and the master. Cages surrounded them, and several limp and locked-up creatures turned to watch the brewing argument.

Oriz glared up at Zoe — momentarily defiant — before she deflated.”

“This all…” Oriz gestured at the demon, at the picked-clean Earth System corpse, and at the greater hell of cages and flames around them. “This all sits uneasily with me.”

“And you think I like it?”

“I know you are headstrong, but be careful you don’t drown in your own waters. Willpower pushes, but it doesn’t lead.”

“I’m strong, Oriz. And I’m getting stronger. I have a quest for the Mountain of Faith, and after what I saw of Rue’s power… I can do what I need to do.”

“Might destroys boundaries, but that helps nothing if you keep charging into them,” Oriz replied. “Listen to me. This is all getting to us. It has to be, otherwise there’s nothing left of us to even fight for.”

“I’m fine —”

“You’re in charge. We need you to keep a level head.”

“I’ve been level.”

“You’re about to snap.”

“Since when do you care!” Zoe’s chains lengthened as she stepped toward Oriz. Tips dangling like serpents. “You and Bella are all over each other, I only have Anton to rely on, and he wanted to kill me when we first met!”

“I haven’t helped you as much as a teacher should…”

“Stop with that.”

“Zoe…”

“No, just…” Zoe’s chains receded with a sigh. She gripped her head, to hide her face, to block her view, to feel the comfort of metal upon her skin. “Just, stop… You’re not my teacher. We’re two people who met in a desert and… there was a way we could help each other, and we did. I’m glad you’re here with me, and we can help each other again, but let’s not pretend this is more than what it is.”

Oriz’s expression remained as still as grass on a windless day.

“If that is how you feel…”

Zoe tilted her head, listening to her technique.

“They’re about to wake, go find Skidmark. I want to get moving.”

###

One of Anton’s floating eyes led the way through a canyon of precariously stacked cages. There was no difference in his technique, at least not that Zoe could make out. She knew the Skein surgery had been a success but Anton insisted the technique was still developing inside him. So, the same chrome-colored orb floated and glowed with its wispy light as Zoe carried Anton in a harness of chains. With [I Will Carry You], she made the chains so light his toes dangled above the ground.

“I want to say this is demeaning, but…”

“You love it,” Bella said. “I do as well.”

Bella hung in a harness beside him. The two of them were wrapped up in Zoe’s chains like wings outstretched behind her. Skidmark walked ahead of the group, silent despite her loud personality, and Oriz brought up the rear.

Some cages were empty, some held corpses, but some held creatures — human, alien, demonic — that watched with the silence born of endless helplessness. Zoe didn’t consider opening the cages. The one demon shackled and marching before her was enough. Her heart pulsed, and despite her growing strength, she didn’t know if she could handle linking herself to another life. Another soul. Another fate.

Not if they let her down, if they left her… to do it all alone.

“I don’t love being carried like a baby in a sling,” Anton continued philosophically. “I just can’t walk until my technique stabilizes. Doctor’s orders…”

“Sure thing,” Bella rolled her eyes and tried to smirk with Oriz, but the alien woman’s gaze was on her feet. “Hey, anyone got an idea of what rune I should pick next?”

“Whichever one makes you useful?” Anton jabbed.

“Oh, shut up! I’m more help than you are in a fight.”

“I have my [Dandelion Through the Pavement] technique. I’d argue it’s more deadly than any blade.”

“An argument you’d lose. What good is a technique that requires touching someone?”

“At least I’m good outside of a battle!” he whizzed his eyes around to punctuate the point. “If you don’t have your sword, you’re a pre-system dead weight.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Ok, one, that is incredibly insensitive. The Gambler tricked me into taking the runeblade, and it eats any techniques I might form,” she said as she stroked the blade. “No, of course, I’m not mad at you I’m just explaining to this idiot that our Skein is all tangled like a weed-choked garden. And second,” she said as she glared at Anton. “I’m great outside of battle.”

“How?”

“I’m an excellent cook and moral support.”

Anton barked out a laugh.

“You’re a terrible cook!”

“I don’t see you doing any better.”

“That’s not a valid — oh, we’re here.”

From the side, the door could not be seen. Thin as paper, it did not catch the light, but as they rounded Zoe saw the door stood tall as a redwood and as wide as a house. It looked like any other wooden door, though where planks of such proportion could be found boggled the mind. The handles likewise were brass levers longer than she was tall. It must be how a mouse felt as it wandered through a human house.

“You didn’t say it was so big,” she said to Anton.

“Yeah, well, it’s been a weird couple of days.”

“A weird moment stretched out to infinity,” said the Four-Hearted Wasp with a chuckle. Everyone looked at him, and his smile widened. “There is no time here. No days. We are all of us trapped in a world without circles.”

“You,” Zoe yanked the chain, and the demon stumbled. “Shut up. Your job is to give directions, and nothing else, understand?”

The demon grinned.

“If I may say one more thing…?”

Zoe glared.

“Thin. Ice.”

The demon shrugged — as though death was a fanciful dream — and faced Bella. Its tongue flickered as it tasted the air.

“You asked about runes, did you not?”

“Alright, leave her alone…”

“Runes are the language of demons,” Oriz said from the back of the group.

Zoe glanced at her, but neither said another word.

“Yeah, Zoe, wait…” Bella glanced at the demon. “I know the One-Eyed Crow, and they had some good advice to give me. So, I have to choose a rune: [Thunderclap], [Sunderer], [Endless Heaven], [Wildfire], [Debone], [Hurricane], and [Portend].”

The runes scratched their way through the air.

“I bet he says debone,” Anton snarked.

“To be sure, there are many things with unnecessary bones, such are the makings of the Smith that they lean toward redundancy, but no, no…” the demon cocked its head. “[Sunderer] and [Endless Heaven] are both the keys to that blade you wield. The other runes are… accessories.”

“It’s a trick,” Zoe said. “Somehow it’s a trick, it has to be.”

“I have to choose a rune,” Bella said. “And better now than before we go through these doors.”

“We don’t even know how to get through the…”

Zoe trailed off as the doors groaned. The deep rumble shook her entire body as they opened of their own accord. She wasn’t sure what she expected to see. Fire? Ice? Darkness?

Other people?

The doors opened. Her eyes adjusted.

A curtain of falling sand filled the doorway. Despite the overwhelming quantity, the rustling hiss was soft, ambient, and warm, as though a desert were tipped on its side and allowed to pour gently into the abyss. Not a single grain fell through the door.

“As planned,” the demon said. “I present the Doorway of the Hourglass. Through here we enter the Chamber of Present, and we follow the flow into the Chamber of Spent Time. A portal is available that can take us to the Polar Caverns, and from there, we simply navigate the labyrinthian passageways until we reach the Sweet Tear Marsh on the Coast of Fire. Of course, I’m simplifying, but it’s not too difficult… if you know the way.”

Zoe tapped her chin.

“And we’re supposed to trust you about all this?”

Chains rattled as the demon shrugged.

“I always honor my deals.”

Zoe ground her teeth.

“Fine, but you go through the sand first.”

“As you wish.”

“Um,” Bella raised her hand from the harness of chains. “I still need to pick my rune? And I’d like to do it before —”

“Fine!” Zoe walked away, her chains extending to give herself as much distance from the group as possible.

ding!

What’s wrong, Zoe? You’re acting like a poo poo head.

I’m in Hell, Zoe thought back.

We all are.

Yes, but it feels worse for humans.

ding!

OK, but… don’t be mean to your friends.

The demon isn’t our friend.

ding!

Not yet, he isn’t!

The jubilant voice of the Black Star faded away, but Zoe’s irritation remained. She ran a chained hand down her face. Cool metal against her hot dark skin. She missed her hands but didn’t let the thought develop enough to touch the link she held with the Black Star system.

And even that annoyed her.

Soon, she told herself, soon they would be out of here.

First, they would find this angel and complete the Epiphany of Flesh — whatever that led to… She wasn’t sure, wasn’t even sure enough to theorize, but Rue had bitten the heart before he ascended, so it had to be something valuable.

Once they found the angel… they would have to find their way out of Hell. However, they went about that. She glanced at her friends, almost looking for someone she could say something snarky to, or just try to joke around, or just… she missed Jack, even though he never really seemed to be a part of them.

Once they were out of hell, they would deal with those bugs, if they hadn’t already overwhelmed the town and the island. Zoe tried to care, but she couldn’t. If the bugs had taken the island, she would sink the island from the sky and send it crashing down into whatever lay at the bottom of the rainbow sky. An act of vengeance for humanity.

And then she would continue on her quest to grow in power until she could rip Rue’s head from his shoulders.

But first, probably first, she would speak with the Witch. Though what that conversation would be like — especially with the Gambler dead — Zoe dreaded to find out.

It was all so damned depressing.

She sighed and kept walking. The doors vanished as she walked around them. Strange, how pathways disappear when you turn around…

From behind, through the now invisible doors, Zoe saw her friends engaged in a debate. No words were audible over the soothing rush of sand. Zoe knew Bella’s choice of rune was important. Every choice was important when it came to power… she just couldn’t muster the energy to care.

Performing the surgeries back to back had drained her in a way she hadn’t expected… that had to be it… not to mention the ordeal of the battling gods and the gambler’s game… she rubbed the recovering wound on her side… how could she replenish her energy in a place without sleep? How could the mind work through trauma when there was no chance of dreams?

Hell was an insidious place, and she had barely been here for a fraction of eternity.

A knucklebone bounced along the ground and struck her knee. Zoe turned. Skidmark stood there, looking awkward at being so close, but aggressively determined to stay there, with her boot half raised after kicking.

“What’s up with you then?” Skidmark said. “I thought you were Queen Badass after you snapped Derrick’s neck.”

Zoe debated activating [Our Hearts Toll as One]. It wasn’t rage, just a cold curiosity. Someone was annoying her, and she could make them go away.

And nobody was looking.

Nobody could stop her.