Korsha crouched, the spirit rushing towards her. It's long steps closing the distance with an alarming speed. Yet she remained calm. Waited. She had to get the timing just right. She grinned as the creature rose up as it reached her, arms shooting up overhead.

With a grin she latched onto the upward momentum of its arm and jumped. She shot straight up, passing the creature's snarling visage. As the spirit arms reach their apex, so too did she.

She flicked the lasher towards the spirit. The spirit hadn't been smart enough to bring its arms down and strike the ground. Its face morphed, rage becoming bewilderment and then eyes growing wide as the tip of the lasher wrapped around its neck.

Korsha was already falling as the lasher finished the noose. Yanking hard, she propelled herself down to the ground, driving the spirit down with her. Landing, she cocked her fist back before throwing it up to smash it into the spirits face with bone crushing force.

The spirit dropped, crumpling to the ground. She leaned over the spirit, a wicked grin on her face.

"Didn't even break a sweat."

Enaru roared. She heeded the spirits advice and jumped back. Long ropey tendrils shot out of the spirit's chest, striking the air where she'd just been standing. Latching into their momentum for a brief moment sent her skidding backwards several feet.

The spirit was struggling to its feet but she was ready. Her chalice armor's extra arms threw their respective shaklers. The chains clinked a dark melody as they shot through the air, undulating like serpents. Their manacles opened like desperate hungry mouths.

With a shriek the spirit rolled to the side, scrambling away as the shaklers pursued. One struck the spirit’s neck, another its leg and then an arm. Korsha spread her feet and lowered her stance, squatting down to drop her center of gravity. She leaned back as the arms began to attract the shaklers.

The spirit clawed at the ground, its nails digging desperate furrows as it was drug backwards. Korsha used her free hand to draw the authoritar sign upon the air before her. The sacred insignia of the Imperial Goddess’s authority burst into existence as she finished. Those thin lines that glowed with the intensity of an inferno. A manifestation of the goddess’s judgment. She then grabbed the receptacle and lifted it up, allowing the divine essence of the icon to infuse it with power. She was going to make sure this spirit never forgot who and what it was and upon whose rights it had trespassed.

Flecks of burning orange fell from the icon as Korsha lifted the receptacle up. it was always so much simpler here where she could channel the power and authority of the Imperial goddess. A heartbeat later a wave of intense sweat-inducing heat slammed into her. Gritting her teeth, she channeled the fire that now flowed through her veins. The crimson radiance flooded out of her like a shimmering mist and poured into the receptacle causing it to shoot into the air. The world around grew dark save for the red glow of the goddesses power.

"You can take it. Please. Take the fragment. Don't do this!"

Korsha ignored the spirit. She also ignored the disapproval radiating off Enaru. The red mist reached out and wrapped itself around the spirit. The receptacle’s pieces shot out as if caught in an explosion. A second later they stopped. Frozen in air. Their dark forms vibrated in around the uncoiling radiance that was now pulling the spirit inside. The spirit was wrapped up now, trapped as though in the coils of the serpent. It continued to beg and plead. Korsha ignored its pathetic groveling, instead she watched in silence as it was pulled into the center of the orb.

All at once the pieces came colliding back down slamming back into their original place. The darkness fell away as the room returned to normal. Korsha grinned as she stepped forward and picked up the receptacle. She examined it and smiled as she attached it to her belt. You'll make a decent gift for my master. Perhaps he will give you purpose. She cast her senses into the orb and examined the spirit's aura. It was an emotional spirit. One that fed off of stress. She nodded, understanding what had happened.

"Now, let us heal this woman." Enaru said, a dark rumble staining his words.

Korsha turned to him and saw the narrow eyed look he gave her. He was displeased but he’d get over it. He always did. This is what she got for binding herself to a moral spirit. Most binders chose spirits with an amoral disposition. It made things easier. Yet when she had met Enaru for the first time she'd been overwhelmed by his majestic nature. There was a strange connection between them as though she weren't meeting him for the first time but instead reconnecting with an old friend. Against her better judgment, and the judgment of her technomancers teachers, she'd chosen to bond with Enaru.

She reached out and ran her fingers along the soft fur on his head. There was a deep rumble in his chest but he arched his neck up into her causing his antler to smack her cheek. Whether he had done that on purpose or not, she wasn’t sure.

"It was a bad spirit. One that tormented people. My master will ensure that it is put to far better use."

Enaru turned to face her and stared deep into her eyes.

"He was just doing what he'd always done. This woman," he nodded towards the governor who was still cowering in the cage, "opened herself up to him. She invited him in and he only did what he knew to do."

Korsha cocked her eyebrow. For a long moment she stared into Enaru’s teal eyes. Then she shook her head and sighed. That was the problem with Enaru. His sense of logic was strange and circular. Stepping forward, she scratched beneath his chin and enjoyed his purring. She’d learned long ago how to get past these minor differences.

With that out of the way, Korsha turned and eyed the fragment. The fragment was pressed into the back of the cage, knees pulled close around her chest. She marched across the room, eager to finish this job and leave. As she approached she could see the fragment staring at her with wide terrified eyes and a trembling lower lip. She shouted as Korsha’s suit grabbed the bars with her suit’s four extra arms. The bars groaned as they resisted but in the end they died with a sharp snapping sound. A second later the bars clanged against the ground.

With a hole in the cage formed, the fragment’s body lost cohesion, becoming a crystalline fluid. It shot into the air, heading towards the opening. Korsha reached out and cupped the soul fragment.

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“It wouldn’t do for you to get lost out here.” Korsha whispered as she stepped down from the dais and headed back towards Enaru.

When she was only several paces away Enaru growled. She snapped her head up just in time to see a black cloud forming above them. The clouds became denser and denser until they formed the upper torso and head of a daemon. Gnarled horns rose above its head, their tips sharp and pointed just as the daemon’s long tapered beard was. The daemon’s yellowed eyes gazed down at her. Enaru roared. There was a heavy thud followed by claws scraping against the tiled floor.

“Call off your hound.” The daemon said in a dry weary voice.

Enaru hissed in response to the insult. Korsha’s eyes widened as she recognized the voice. This was her master’s daemon. There was another roar and this time Enaru came sailing through the darkness. Korsha jumped to the side, barely avoiding being hit. The daemon let out a long exasperated breath as it glanced at Enaru, an apathetic gaze dulling its shadowy features. Enaru hissed. The daemon rolled its eyes. A hand materialized out of the cloud. The daemon snapped its fingers.

The world was gone.

Vanished.

Korsha was alone.

Standing in an inky blackness.

A blackness that seemed to writhe all around her. Her head snapped to the side as she searched for Enaru but her companion was gone. He’d been left behind. Now the daemon was hovering before her. Sitting in a lotus position with folded arms. His head jerked, and there was a loud snapping sound. A moment later its yellow eyes disappeared, replaced by one solitary gray one.

"I see that you have accomplished her mission, my child." The daemon said, although the voice that spoke was that of her master, Anadrov

Cupping the governor's spirit fragment, Korsha fell to one knee and bowed her head.

"Yes, my master."

"Good. I have a new task for you."

Korsha lifted her gaze. Her eyes widened as the daemon no longer hovered before her. Instead her master stood there, hands clasped behind his back. He was standing in his usual military dress attire. The colored ribbons and medals for decades of service contrasting against the pale coat. This was only a representation of him, as both her master's eyes, and the dark blue skin of his face were intact. Spirits seemed to have a hard time replicating the artificial, something that Korsha had always found very odd.

“What burdens you?”

Korsha blinked, realizing she was staring. Dropping her head.

“No, master. It’s… it’s good to see your face.”

“Ahh.” he said, “I guess here my honor doesn’t matter.”

“No, your honor is perfect. It is this place that is imperfect.”

He laughed at this.

“Arise.”

Korsha took a deep breath. She knew what was coming but that didn't make it any easier.

"You will bind her spirit. She is useful to my plans."

Korsha closed her eyes, clenching them shut. All the old familiar arguments rose up within her but she silenced them with the quick slash of submission. In the past she'd shaken her head, wondering how she could ever do such a thing. She’d been trained to use her power on spirits, never on people. Then, just like now, she was torn between submitting to her master, the man who had found her and rescued her, the man who understood and cared for her. The only person who had given her a safe place, one where her cursed powers could never be used to harm others.

Not again.

I won't be a tool for Azaelah's wicked machinations. I am not her tool. I am the tool of the imperial goddess, a weapon she sharpens with her wrath. She gazed up into her master’s gray eyes.

“I am your willing servant.”

As though sensing her struggle, Anadrov stepped forward, placed a gentle hand upon her shoulder and knelt down so that he was eye level with her. Her head dropped, shame filling her for hesitating to obey his command. Her eyes inched up, drawn to his gaze. His lips curved, though it was a sad and weary thing.

"This…" He took it breath, gazed around, and then settled his eyes upon her once again, "Our world is a torn and broken thing. It's a thing struggling to find balance because those with power don't properly wield it. You have power and I expect you to willed it with diligence and honor."

Korsha nodded, feeling infinitesimally small. How could she ever live up to his grand expectations? She licked her lips, a small tremble deep within her. She remembered the last time that she had done this and gulped. She clenched her fists in an attempt to conceal her trembling fingers. It had been this very same situation where she’d earned her master’s respect but had lost Deidra’s. The thought of her sister made her stomach coil into knots.

"That… that…” Korsha squeezed her eyes shut, and licked her lips before she whispered the words, “That would be a betrayal of her confidence."

"Betrayal? Such a nasty word. No doubt beaten into your head by taskmasters who have the luxury of viewing the world in black and white. The universe isn’t black and white, no I would say it is a myriad of colors. A prism of possibility and dilemma.”

"Then what do I do? I promised I’d help her."

"Indeed you shall," he said as he rose, his hand leaving her shoulder, "This is not a betrayal but obedience. We all serve our role in the goddesses' grand design. This is what the mages of the past didn't understand. What Azaelah doesn’t understand. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life in service to a greater power. Now I ask, would you take on that burden?"

Korsha bowed her head, "Yes, my master."

"Good. Now bind her soul."

Korsha took the small glowing orb and placed it before her. It bobbed in the air. She reached out with her hands, her suit responding with the other four. She took a deep breath and pulled from her well of energy. She pulled thin strands of energy from within her and wound them about her fingers. When she had enough she reached her hands forward. All six hands performed different gestures, accelerating her progress. The haunting mantra of the binding poured from her lips.

"I give you: desire. I give you: motivation. I give you: intention. I give you: destination. I give you: cause. I give you: resolve. But most of all I grant you: purpose."

She finished the weaving and ensured that the bindings were made secure. There was a satisfying irony to the fact that the portion of her spirit that had become addicted to working was now going to serve a greater purpose. Her fingers flew into a flurry of gestures she hoped would never become familiar. Taking a deep breath, she fixed the image of her master's face in her mind as she formed her final intention.

Her finger stopped forming a triangular-shaped. The strands she’d made were looped around her fingers, now forming an intricate weave like that of a dreamcatcher. She leaned forward until the strings brushed against her lips. She blew out, feeling the essence of her master's image leaving her and being implanted upon the governor's spirit. The fragment spasmed, losing shape before coalescing once more.

"It is done."

Her master smiled and placed a hand upon her shoulder, "Well done. Come and join me at Hyperion III. Your ship's acrena already has the current coordinates. Do not delay. I look forward to seeing you."

Her eyes widened in surprise, her mouth falling open as she realized where her master had just invited her to. Better yet she would get to see her master after many months of being abroad. She watched as the image of him faded away, once more replaced by the daemon. Then it vanished leaving her all alone with her handiwork.