Once again, she was in the dungeon.

The damp walls around her glittered with the glow cast out by a multitude of spells, turning what would have been a dark gloom into an area bright as day.

Hefting her artefact-shield, she pulled on the abundant mana of the dungeon and flooded it through the spell pattern engraved in its back, a semi-translucent barrier springing out from its edges.

At the other end of the corridor the mages from Lightire raised their wands once again, the distinctive blue flames of Lightire pyromancy coalescing in the air before them as the artefacts enhanced their spells to devastating levels.

"Brace!" Lilia screamed to the warriors standing to either side of her.

Leaning forward, she interlocked her barrier with those of her allies, forming an unbroken wall between the attackers and their own line of vulnerable mages.

A moment later, the barrage hit.

Lilia gritted her teeth, feeding every last bit of magic she could muster into holding the barrier against the opposing spells. Intense heat prickled across her face as fireball after fireball splashed against her shield. To her side, a man faltered for a moment.

And a moment was all it took.

Instantly, the spells punched through his defences, burning a fist-sized hole through his torso. He let out a gurgling scream for a mere moment, before a second fireball hit him in the face and silenced him forever.

There was no time to mourn the loss. With the man gone, there was a hole in the barrier, exposing the backline to attack. A hole that Lightire would be quick to capitalize on.

Moving as quick as she could, Lilia snatched up the man's fallen shield, hammering mana into it. The barrier reformed, just in time to stop the barrage of flame that would have laid waste behind her.

The strain of maintaining twice the defences was immense, and Lilia gritted her teeth, struggling to push out the mana needed. An unsustainably high amount. It was only a matter of time before she faltered too.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted someone running up from behind to crouch by the fallen warrior. An angry shout rose to her lips, an admonishment to the foolish backline mage for breaking formation, only to die as she saw who the person was. In its place spread a small smile, one that was returned in kind. Reud crouched over the body, his tussled brown hair covered in a thick layer of dust and grime. He touched a hand to the corpse, and it rose, standing up with unnatural jerkiness, its body glowing with a faint green light.

“I can have him charge on your signal!” He shouted at her over the roar of flame bursting against the barrier.

Lilia looked to either side at the other four remaining warriors. They looked back at her and nodded, grim determination shining in their eyes. They knew as well as she did that Lightire pyromancy was too strong to just wait out, especially given how few of their own backline were still alive, so the only option was to break the enemy's formation if they wanted to survive.

And that meant a charge.

“On my mark.” Lilia called out. “Three. Two. One. Go!”

The corpse burst into a run. As it bolted past the shield wall, Lilia and the other warriors began a light jog with their shields held out in front, maintaining a moving barrier just as they’d trained. The opposing Lightire warriors raised their shields in response, nervously eyeing the undead barrelling towards them, their swords rimmed in a white glow. Fireballs splashed against Lilia’s barrier and flashed past the undead, the Lightire mages seemingly uncertain which of the two threats was a higher priority.

Indecision that would cost them.

A few steps before the shield wall, the corpse threw itself forward into a jump. The Lightire warriors struck out at the undead, their blades digging deep into the unarmoured flesh of its neck and arms.

It wasn’t enough.

The undead skidded over the top of the defensive wall and tumbled down into the unprotected mages beyond, its limbs flailing in all directions as the warriors desperately tried to hack it apart.

Letting their shield wall fall.

“Now!” Screamed Lilia, dropping both the shields and breaking into a sprint.

Every fragment of mana she was channelling into the defensive wall she redirected into her force sheath, ripping her sword from her side as the spell blazed into brilliant light. Like a bolt from a crossbow she shot forward, straight into the gap Reud’s undead had created.

Her first blow cleaved deep into the shoulder of a young man, sending the warrior reeling to the ground. Beside her, the rest of her allies slammed into the remaining shield wall with a great clash of metal on metal.

Shouts and screams filled the air, mixed with the crash of blades and the wet tearing of flesh. Lilia brought her blade down on one raised shield, knocking the man back, only to be prevented from following through by an attack lancing in from her side. Kicking out at the new foe, she dropped low, swinging her blade at the legs of a third. That person fell hard, head cracking against the ground with a crunch.

A body crashed into her, sending her sprawling.

Adrenaline pumping in her veins, she rolled to the side, the clang of steel on rock attesting to her narrow escape from death. The attacker gave her no chance to stand, and only her quickly raised block prevented their sword from burying itself in her head. Still, the force of the blow smashed her elbows into the stone floor, sending a tingling numbness up her wrists that made her blade tumble from her grasp.

The helmeted Lightire warrior raised their sword once again, towering over her. Just as the blade was about to swing down, to end her life, a sword sprouted from their chest. The warrior collapsed to one side, revealing one of her allies, Barron, his face bearing a long gash and his left arm hanging limp. Smiling, he reached his right hand down and pulled her to her feet. A quick glance around showed the pair of them to be the only survivors of the warrior-on-warrior battle.

“Get down!”

Lilia turned to see Reud, running towards her, pointing back up towards the Lightire mages, his eyes wide with shock.

Ah yes, the mages. How could she have forgotten.

Spinning to look in the direction he indicated, she spotted what had him so riled up. A mage stood against the wall, blood pouring down his front from a ragged gash in his neck. He had his hands out before him, gripping a manastone, a spinning ball of crystal hovering above it. The air around it shimmered from the density of the mana focused on that spot, a shimmer that only grew more pronounced as the ball span faster.

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Which was bad. Very bad.

“Cover!” Lilia screamed, frantically looking around for a shield.

It was too late.

The ball exploded into a million shards that shot out in all directions, turning the mage that cast it into paste that splattered up the wall in a fountain of gore. The shards flashed past them, quicker than a thought, the projectiles moving so fast they were nothing more than a blur at the edges of her vision.

Lilia turned to Barron, her thoughts racing but her body sluggish. The man who moments ago had saved her life tilted, then fell forwards, his body erupting in blood that flooded from the thousand holes that riddled him. She tried to reach out a hand to him, but found herself falling instead. She tried to brace herself, to stop her fall, but nothing she did seemed to make her body respond.

Lilia hit the floor hard, her head bouncing off the rock. Strangely, she didn’t feel it. Didn’t feel anything. What was going on?

Reud appeared in her fading view, fuzzy blackness encroaching on the edges. His face was distorted with horror, his eyes wide and wet with tears. His mouth moved, but she couldn’t hear his words, couldn’t hear anything at all.

She attempted to open her mouth, to tell him that it would be fine, to not to worry, to say that she loved him. But nothing came out.

An immense weariness settled over her, and everything faded to black.

—

Lilia awoke with a start, attempting to jerk upright. Warm arms encircled her, holding her in place.

“Shush, it’s okay. You were having a nightmare.” A familiar voice said. Reud.

The war was over. She was alive.

She lay still in his embrace, feeling her breathing slowly returning to normal. Reud stroked her hair, the familiar action releasing the tension from her body.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered, burrowing into Reud’s chest. “I’m not a little girl any more, I shouldn’t be having nightmares.”

“Lilia, it’s nothing to be ashamed about. The things we’ve seen…” Reud responded. “Well, they would give anyone nightmares.”

“How do you stand it?”

“I don’t. I got nightmares too.”

Lilia looked up at him. “How did you stop them?”

“I stopped sleeping.” Reud said, his eyes sad.

He really had changed. Lilia studied the man she’d spent the majority of her life with, taking in his bone-white hair and sickly pale skin. He didn’t look older so much as worn, like a painting that had faded in the sun. His eyes, however, had changed the most. They still held the inquisitive spark that drew her to him originally, but lurking behind that was a darkness. The haunted, lost look that overtook him whenever he thought she wasn’t looking. Noticing her staring, Reud smiled at her, the man she’d fallen in love with all those years ago shining through once more.

Well, he wasn’t alone any more. She’d banish that look, no matter how long it took.

After all, they had all the time in the world, now.

A growl from Lilia’s stomach broke the silence, followed by an embarrassed flush that coloured her cheeks.

“Looks like some of us still need to eat.” Reud teased.

Lilia laughed and gave him a quick kiss. “Well, we can’t all survive on mana alone.”

—

A short while later, they found themselves sat at one of the tables in the main room of the inn. To one side of the room sat the remains of the carnage from last night, burnt streaks surrounding a large dark stain. A young woman kneeled beside it, scrubbing away at the mark with a soiled rag, the innkeeper standing over her.

Lilia waved at the man until he spotted them. Glowering, he stormed over.

“Finally emerged, have you? Look at my inn! The damage! And when word gets back to the Duke…” He shuddered. “Why, if it wasn’t for the Mayor’s decision, you would have been out on your behinds, nobles or not! Why I ought to-”

His tirade was cut short as Lilia pulled a coin from the purse at her hip, and placed it on the table. With obvious effort, he tore his eyes away from the money, the equivalent of a month’s income in a remote village like this.

“You think I can be so easily-”

The clink of a second coin joining the first stopped him dead.

Lilia pushed the pair of coins towards him. “I’ll have some porridge, milk, and bacon if you have it. Fast as you can.” She smiled sweetly at him.

After a moment, he snatched up the coins, bowed his head, and bustled off muttering to himself.

Leaning back in her chair, she looked at Reud. “So, what are your plans for the day?”

“We were going to train the girl, weren’t we?”

“I am going to train the girl. Me. Alone.” She emphasized.

“Wait a minute-”

“I don’t need you looking after me. I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself. You need to go out, interact with people again. Get to know your people again.” She said, not letting Reud get a word in. “You’ve spent too long hidden away. It’ll be good for you.”

“But-”

Lilia barrelled on. “Also, you said yourself we need some work. Maybe you could go find out if there's anything for a pair of adventurers to do.”

Reud paused, his eyes growing thoughtful. An expression that Lilia knew meant that she’d won.

“At least take Bo with you.” He said, finally.

Lilia shook her head. “As you said, a necromancer is not complete without a minion. Anyway, you saw I can take care of myself.” Leaning forward, she took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’ll be fine.”

A woman came out of the kitchen with a steaming bowl and a mug, putting them down in front of Lilia. With delight, she tucked into the food.

“Gods, real food really is amazing. So much better than those damned war rations. You should really try…”

Looking up at Reud, she trailed off. Of course, he didn’t eat any more.

It was all going to take a lot of getting used to.

—

A short while later, they emerged into the mid-morning sun, Bo trailing along behind them. Rachel was nervously pacing up and down the cobble path, dressed in tight riding leathers and with her blonde hair tied into a bun. As soon as she spotted Lilia, she ran over, eager excitement lighting up her face.

Lilia turned to Reud, pulling him into a deep kiss. “We are going that way.” She said, pointing to the north. “You go and mingle in the village, find us some work. I’ll see you back to the inn this evening.”

“Be careful.” Reud responded, stroking her hair. “I wouldn’t be able to take anything happening to you again.”

Lilia pushed his hand away, smiling. “Enough. Go.” With a playful push, she sent him on his way.

Settling her face into the stern mask of an instructor, she turned back to Rachel, the young woman waiting expectantly to the side.

“Before we begin, I want to give you a chance to back out. This isn’t going to be easy, and you aren’t suddenly going to be an amazing fighter. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to hurt, and at the end you will still be limited in the fact that you will always be weaker than most men, and you don’t have magic to make up the difference. Are you sure you want to go ahead?”

Rachel nodded determinedly. “Yes, I want to do this. I have had enough of being the damsel in distress. Even if it’s only a slim chance, I want to try to get the strength to never have to go through anything like that again.”

Lilia studied the woman for a bit longer. The glint in her eyes, the set of her jaw. A flash of a memory darted through her mind, a younger Lilia demanding to be trained by the woman adventurer who saved her from a mana-drunk boar chimera.

She hadn’t given up back then either, and look how she’d turned out. Maybe Rachel had what it took too.

“In that case, you obey me, no arguing, no complaining. You throw one tantrum, back out once, miss a lesson once, and we are done. Only complete dedication will get you to where you want to go.”

Rachel nodded furiously.

“And when you are being trained by me, you call me Master or Master Lilia.”

“Yes Master Lilia!” Rachel shouted enthusiastically.

“Right, to get started there are a few things we need to acquire…”