I was suddenly looking through his eyes. I was seeing and hearing and feeling the world through Bushwar's senses. It was horrifying, for a moment, as I struggled to move his body and failed. Twisting and turning in my mind, I found myself a helpless passenger, who was unable even to make him aware of my existence.

I frantically searched for an off button, but saw nothing. How can one work an interface when one is not in control of their hands?

Bushwar was walking away from the camp, toward the trees. He... we... didn't look back. Walking leisurely through the forest. Through the trees. Steadily approaching a dark shadow created by the canopy of branches.

He walked into the dark clearing and stood, waiting in some western nook of the forest - as if he expected something to happen. I tried to scream at him, to ask him what he was doing, to tell him I was trapped behind his eyes. But nothing came out of my mouth. Nothing came out of his mouth.

It was five, agonizing minutes that we waited. I stood there and felt it, intimately, as he tapped his foot - as he paced back and forth and, yes, even as he scratched his sweaty balls. It was... not an appealing experience.

It was almost a relief, really, when the hooded figure stepped out of the trees. When we watched him approach us. And I finally felt myself... Bushwar... talking, felt and heard the sound of his voice, "I was worried you wouldn't show."

The figure dropped a purse of something at his feet, silently.He hovered over it protectively as he finally spoke, "You are claiming the bounty on your guildmate?"

Bushwar spat, "Ya, ya. Some of your so-called 'traitors-to-God' are going to be leaving here in five days time. Small group. It will consist of a Level 2 Traitor and, presumably, a couple of Level 3's. Word is they will travel along the edge of a forest down into Rose Garden."

The stranger stood, unmoving, "So why then, pray tell, are you telling me this?"

Ya motherfucker. Why, 'pray tell' were you telling him that exactly? I fumed, still trapped in the bastards eyes and his body. Helpless but to watch and to hear.

Bushwar shrugged. "I need the money. And it's not like I was invited to any of it. I was just left here, out of the way, while they fought monsters. And I will be left here to rot as they move on to bigger and better things. Bitch thought she was too good for me. Slut used me as her 'friend', thinks she's oh so much better than me, and wouldn't even give us a kiss. That's fuckin gratitude."

"So... jealousy." The man muttered, quietly. Nodding.

"Na, not even." I could feel Bushwar's face warming, reddening. "Na, Catgirl like that isn't someone you could bring home to mom, show off to your friends like? They would think I was into bestiality or some shit. I'm not Jealous, no way. It isn't right though. Someone like her, acting like she's some big hero. Too good for some big 'D' on the side?" I felt him grabbing his own crotch, like he was punctuating his words. "No. Isn't right at all." 

The man shrugged, turning his back and walking into the shadows of the forest. He left the purse, lying in the dirt, as he walked away.

'Well, duchebag,' I thought. 'Thank you for just conveniently disclosing all of your secrets just as I happened to start eavesdropping on you. Good job there, shitface.'

I watched now, enraptured as Bushwar retrieved the purse. He weighed in his hand gingerly and opened it up. Together we could see the glitter of gold, and a little slip of parchment wedged there, inside.

He was unrolling the parchment with his hands, flattening it between his figures. I would have held my breath as he started to bring it up to his face, had I any control of our lungs.

Just as letters came into view, however, I found that my world was again spinning. Growing dark. And, just as suddenly as it had happened, I found myself sitting in front of a dead fire. Holding a battered bronze mirror. Alone.

Flashing at me, across the reflective, silver surface was a final notification:

Authorized window for scrying has been exceeded. Would you like to pay (5 Gold) to continue watching?

Y/N

My kitten was the first to approach as I started to scream. But soon it seemed like half the camp were gathered around me, asking me what was wrong.

I didn't say a word though. No, as my voice became hoarse and the screams died at my lips, I simply grabbed my broomstick. Leaning back, I trusted in Lady, and I knew that she would read my mood. She knew me, after all, in a way that no one else here did. Knew me in a way that no one else here could.

And despite her snark, as I fell more than sat upon the handle of her body, she caught me. She picked me up and, together, we flew away from the tents. We flew along the edge of the forest until the encampment was far in our rear view, and I guided us to a stop just in front of the location I had been in, had seen, not some few minutes before.

"Lady," I whispered, "Just trust me. Please?" My voice had a pleading note to it - what notes, at least, my vocal cords could achingly produce.

The reply came with a seriousness that I could not have known to expect. Silently I felt my eyes start to moisten as the calm notes of her voice echoed into my mind, *We are with you to the end, Molly. We love you.*

I nudged us toward the forest, and she expertly glided us through the trees. We barely exceeded a walking pace as we darted among the branches, but there were no footfalls to warn of our approach. There only was the soft breath of the wind as we sped through.

I guided us around as we approached the clearing. Bushwar was right where I had left him, as if he hadn't moved a single inch. He was sprawled out on the ground, counting his coinage, biting the shining gold metal as if tasting the authenticity. And, even as we flew closer, naught feet away, still he did not notice that we were there. Watching him.

I chanted softly, so softly - the death of my voice actually working in my favor as I said the ritual words. "As lost souls wander, I shall lead you, into the bowels of the frozen labyrinth."

Even as the ice encrusted across his neck, over his head, already I had started chanting my next line. Feeling the words, as I spoke them, from the bottom of my soul, "As my soul burns, I shall share this torment, with everyone you have ever loved."

Witchcraft +1

He never even had a chance to turn his head, to look at me, as the flame caught him in the lower back. The hellfire burned almost instantly through his spine and, even as he flopped bodily to the ground, the charred ashes of his flesh still glowed red with my magic. Eating away further like flames from a brisket.

I had seen him, these last weeks, I knew his reactions and I knew where he left himself open. So, when the end had finally come, it was finished in a matter of seconds. While he had been gaining from our sessions, so too had I. And my skills, bolstered by hell itself, had progressed much faster than his. 

I picked up the gold that had been paid for my life, dumping it unceremoniously into my Inventory. I took his sword too, knowing that it had been his pride and joy, and ferreted it just as quickly away. 

For all that I searched though, I absolutely could not find the note that I had seen just as I had been spirited away. My guess is that he had burned it or ate it, it mattered little which, while I was losing my mind by the campfire - screaming.

I worried that whoever it was that he had spoken to, they could still be here. Could, even now, be watching us. And it wasn't a chance that weighted lightly on my mind.

So, in parting, I simply snapped up a few of his fingers, stealing his traitorous digits as I hopped back on my broom. I smoothly tucked them, unceremoniously, into my cleavage as I let Lady spirit us away. I needed new information now and, while he had denied me the note, I had ways of prying out of his dead flesh. Many ways, indeed.

I guided us aimlessly south, into the quiet plains of the Machina Graveyard, letting Lady concentrate on keeping up steady. I let it go that way for some twenty minutes, while I thought and I thought and I thought. Finally, when we were far enough away and I had calmed down a bit, I whispered for her to stop.

In the morning sun, we wordlessly landed in the dirt - grass and rock and strange, twisted metal reaching as far as the eye could see. Quietly, I peeled Bushwar's fingers, one by one, exposing the precious bones underneath.

Lady didn't say a single word, simply hovering my my shoulder next to me. Adding her quiet support and understanding as I went about my grim work. One finger, two, three fingers in and I finally had what I needed. A clean, white set of undamaged bones. Gleaming wetly in the morning's light.

I whispered, I chanted, and with my dead friend's fingers I Rolled the Bones. Closing my eyes and hesitating, only for a moment, at what new horrors they might unleash.

Scavenging +1

As I gathered myself, bending over and squinting at the tiny letters, I solemnly read out loud:

"Go Angmar."

'Angmar' I recognized as the southeastern-most peninsula of the Continent. It was said to be the home of Orcs, upon which they built savage, brutal cities. But, beyond that, I knew very little of it. Well, besides the fact that it was really, really far away.   

Shrugging I hopped back on Lady, burning the bones with a flick of my wrist and a few muttered words. I didn't, in fact, want anyone to know what I was planning this time. We flew, heading due east, as I hoped to skirt around Ravenholt and the Voodoo Marshes. They were both dark areas on the maps, and they did not look too inviting.

As time passed, I noticed that the ground too was passing very fast below us. I remembered that brooms had 'slow acceleration', but I then realized that never had there been mentioned a limit to how fast it was we could go. 

I put my face next to Lady, trying to shout over the now battering wind, "How long do we have left? We aren't going to crash when time runs out are we?" They were, in fact, the two currently most pressing questions on my mind.

But a gentle, soothing voice purred back, echoing softly but clearly in my mind, *Do not worry, little one. We... should have mentioned. A legendary broomstick such as us can fly for much, much longer than that rickety thing you were using. Plus... do not worry..." she trailed off as her focus seemed to waiver. Letting the wind scream past until new notifications spiraled across my vision:

You have chosen to allocate Soul Points - 3199 remaining.

You have selected: Advanced Flight

Would you like to allocate 1000 Points to: Advanced Flight?

Y/N

Response confirmed. You have chosen to allocate 1000 points to: Advanced Flight, flight time (Currently 4 Hrs/Day: 1 Base, +3 Legendary Boomstick) doubled; Maneuverability Increased; Boomstick self-flying proficiency increased; maximum speed increased significantly.

Congratulations! You have unlocked new SP options.

2199 Soul Points remaining.

You have selected: Demonskin Hat

Would you like to allocate 500 Points to: Demonskin Hat?

Y/N

Response confirmed. You have chosen to allocate 500 points to: Demonskin Hat, new armor option activated. 

1699 Soul Points remaining.

*There* Lady whispered, *Now pull up your hood and hold on tight - we're going to kick things up a notch.*

I did as she said and noticed with wonder that, as I pulled the hood over my eyes, the top shifted into a long, floppy Witches' Hat. The edges of the hood tightened around my face and pulled it on tightly, keeping the brim sealed low on my forehead and protecting my eyes from the battering wind. With a single hand I felt the long cone of the leather, dancing in the wind above me. It seemed to bunch and lean, off to one side, much like a certain Sorting Hat had looked in an old movie about wizards.

The leather of my hat, and body, and skirt shifted abruptly, dancing from it's current light purple hue and mellowing, darkening into a dull, matted black. I felt my stomach drop out from under me as we soared higher into the air, and I clutched at the dark wood as I felt her accelerate. Taking us faster and faster into the sky, weightless and free.