I watched as the scavenger’s eyes grew wild, teeth bare in a wide, unsettling smile. Time seemed to slow, and I watched, stunned as the strange disheveled man started to almost vibrate, skin bubbling and splitting in a dry crackle, before twisting and separating in strange dark masses. The air was humming, like the sound of a thousand tiny wings, and I watched in silent horror as he turned into a mass of tiny buzzing insects, like a thick swarm of spring gnats, in boiling waves. It curved, left and right, swirling toward me far too quickly for me to properly react. No, this was no ordinary magic.

Before I could react, a cool, tingling chill pierced the tips of the fingers of my outstretched hand. It was the bitter searing sting of putting a frostbitten hand under scalding water, only this time, I could not move my fingers away. They remained frozen in front of me, outstretched and paralyzed, and I watched as the tips of my fingers began to blacken.

Before I could scream, I felt a sudden pain on the side of my body followed by a shock of impact as I fell to the hard ground, thick grass breaking around me. I looked up to see Ciro, hand outstretched. He had pushed me to the ground. Before I could read his face, he had already turned around, weapon at the ready. I scrambled backwards through the reeds, but when I tried to push myself off the ground, I found my left hand to be numb, limp and useless.

The black, swirling mass flew in front of Ciro before materializing once again into its human form. I watched as Ciro gave a mighty swing at the man’s torso, grunting as the heavy halberd swept across. But the blade met with no resistance, as the scavenger’s chest turned into the same black buzzing insects where the weapon would have made contact, only to re-form again immediately after. Ciro stumbled sideways, propelled by his own momentum, as the weapon made impact on the grassy ground.

I watched, doing my best to take cover in the tall grass, as the man evaporated again into black cloud, quickly swirling around Ciro and appearing once again, only this time behind Ciro.

Ciro turned quickly, swinging again, only to have it pass through the scavenger’s unfazed body.

“Come now, old man,” the scavenger laughed between swings, “You know better than that. Now where did she go?”

I tried to slow my breath, ducking further to hide my head, when the swinging halberd blade made impact just mere inches from my face, slamming into the ground and sending grass and loose earth to plume around me. I fell backwards further, feeling my back hit the ground, raising my armored knees in front of me as some sort of protection. I closed my eyes, hearing the unsettling buzzing of tiny wings coming closer, and put both of my hands in front of me as makeshift shield.

The buzzing grew louder, and I opened my eyes in horror to see the black cloud swirling around my hands once more. The blackened tips of my fingers on my left hand began to now spread downwards, quicker than I could react. A new fresh sting of pain shivered through my entire body, and I let out a scream unlike any I had ever had before. It felt as though my fingers were being stung by a thousand scorpions, and the black overtook one knuckle, then two. Although only mere seconds had passed, it felt like an eternity as I tried to swat the swarm away with my free hand, kicking at it in desperate frustration.

But just as I could take the pain no longer, something happened. Just as the black lowered, almost touching the top of my hand, it stopped. Everything stopped. Even the beetle swarm seemed to freeze, suspended and the air in slow swirls. I dared to open my eyes to look at my hand. There, on the ring finger of my left hand, was Vasati’s ring.

I took the chance to throw myself backwards, as far as I could from the suspended cloud. Watched as Ciro rushed towards me, pulling my free arm up and lifting me from the ground. His face was flush and sweating, panic still in his eyes.

“What happened?” he coughed through gasping breaths, putting himself between me and the still slowly swirling mass below.

I shook my head, holding my still-limp left hand.

Then, the swirling form began once again swiftly spinning again before us, materializing once again into the red-haired man. He was crouched low, chest heaving as he struggled for air. He looked up at the both of us, head tilted to the side, still smiling. Although, this time his expression read more amused than sinister. I took another step back behind Ciro as he readied his weapon once more.

“Interesting,” the scavenger muttered, seemingly to himself.

The strange man then suddenly lowered his hand to the ground, palm upwards, causing both Ciro and I to jump back. But, to my surprise, it was not an unknown surprise attack which followed, but little Doris hopping from between the weeds to the palm of his outstretched hand.

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The man then suddenly stood, packing the little rodent into a small pouch on his belt, before he gave a little nod before turning away from us. We then watched as he once again split into a million tiny insects, black cloud swirling with unnerving speed, away from us. I stood, frozen, eyes searching the dark, as the cloud made its way swiftly through the waves of grass and into the starred, moonlit horizon.

“Mira?” said Ciro, but his voice sounded far away.

I looked up from my daze to see Ciro’s worried face looking intensely at me.

“Let me see your hand.”

“What?”

“Your hand,” he insisted, pulling my limp palm away from my cradling arm.

I watched as Ciro twisted my hand left and right, inspecting it in the dimming moonlight.

“Gods, you sure are a lucky one. Any further and you might have lost your hand. I was moments away from taking it off with a swing of my halberd to stop the spread. Better your hand than your life. Where did you even get this thing?” Ciro chook his head.

I looked down to see the small familiar vine around my ring finger. It was only when the unknown magic hit the ring that everything stopped.

“It was a gift,” I stammered, head still foggy in the sudden calm.

“A gift,” he gave a hearty laugh, “Well, either way. That protection spell was enough to quell a void mage, so they deserve one hefty thank you note. Saved your life.”

Void mage. Of course.

“I didn’t… I didn’t know,” I muttered, feeling my knees grow weak.

“When you raised your hand, you have opened a path directly to your magic. An easy in,” he sighed. “Either way we would have been in danger. Same thing could have happened if he touched us… He could have turned us into beasts, or… or worse.”

Ciro glanced back up at me, and paused, perhaps reading the horror on my face.

“I’m just saying, there’s a million different ways that could have went, most of which are definitely worse than this,” he smiled, dropping my hand. “Your hand will get better. Only time will tell how much damage the corruption did. But you should be fine,” he smiled.

I looked down at my hand, holding it gingerly in my right hand. Black veins sprouted from my now charcoal-colored nails, a tiny line branching downward from my ring finger, barely touching the unsuspecting ring.

Thank you, Vasati.

Of course, the one time in my life when I try to take some sort of stand for myself, and I nearly lose my arm - my life.

A void mage.

“Ciro?” I asked.

Ciro paused to look up from where he was squatted on the ground. He was sorting through the mess of camp, saving whatever leftover food and supplies that he could and packing them away.

“Yes?”

I squatted next to him, helping all that I could with my one working hand.

“Next time… What can I do? How can I protect myself from a void mage?”

“Well,” he scratched the new growth of stubble on his chin, “It depends I suppose. I would start by not showing your cards right away. For all they know, you could be a void mage too,” he signed, trying in vain to dust off a piece of fish jerky before giving up and throwing it to the grass.

“Don’t let them touch you. Once they touch you, they have access to your magic, and can manipulate it however they want. The only reason he was able to do that to your hand is because you opened yourself up when you tried to take his magic- ” he stopped himself to look at me, brows furrowed.

“Speaking of which - Where did that even come from? Little Mira, could barely hurt a fly, taking a stranger’s magic? You seemed so disgusted by the notion last time we met,” he shook his head in disbelief, “What was it - Were you scared or something?”

I looked down, embarrassed.

He laughed. “I’m just surprised, that’s all. Anyway.”

He looked up, scratching his chin once more.

“Right, so… Don’t let them touch you. Every void mage is different, though. They can get pretty… creative with their powers. Combining magics, distorting, manipulating minds… Then there’s the void beasts,” he sighed. “The one we met tonight seemed pretty young, though. Young and untrained. He had dozens of chances to take me out.”

I grimaced at the thought.

Just as we finally finished picking up the camp, there was a familiar light at the horizon. It was already morning. I looked at my disheveled bedroll and sighed, silently cursing the gods for another sleepless night. But I don’t think I would have been able to sleep if I tried, at least not out here in the open field.