“Harmoni!”

Rasha’s familiar voice broke through her thoughts, just as the imp came smacking into her, literally, wrapping her arms around her.

“Thank God,” Rasha gasped. “Are you OK?”

Harmoni did not think she’d ever been happier for someone to be there in her life, and that was a high bar to clear. She hugged Rasha back, tightly, before letting go.

“I’m fine,” she lied. “What’s going on?”

“The shadowguy disappeared,” Wesles said. “He’s notin town anymore. And weheard students were takingtheteleportingrock. To escapetheattack. We should probably jointhem while wecan.”

It took Harmoni a second to catch what he was saying. He’d always talked fast before, but now he was slurring a lot of words together. Probably because they were in a hurry.

But right, the teleporting rock. If that thing was still functional, it was a handy exit strategy. Took you about as far as you could go and still be on the planet.

“What about Fleck?” she asked. He’d been oddly quiet for a second now. “And Cooper and Moon?”

“Cooper said he’dmeetusoverthere,” Wesles said. “Apparently shadowman put somekindofspell on thedragons, but they’realive.”

Harmoni covered her mouth at the realization. Of course. She could tell Fleck was asleep now that she was paying attention. She could also tell he was still alive. Thank God. Her first instinct was still to go running to Fleck, to hell with any other dangers.

Rasha apparently noticed, because she grabbed Harmoni’s wrist and gently pulled her forward. Rasha’s pace started slow, letting Harmoni find her footing, then picked up.

“We’ll meet them on the way,” she assured Harmoni. “But we don’t have time to waste, so come on.”

“Wecan multitask,” Wesles added, running after them.

Harmoni stumbled at first, but she didn’t fall, and quickly found her footing.

They were staying off the path, probably a wise idea. It also gave Harmoni something to focus on. She kept her mind on making sure she didn’t fall down, and making sure they were going the right direction. She shoved other thoughts away, and it was surprisingly easy right now.

They were currently heading away from the school. Which was right for getting to the pink ocean in general. But they’d have to go further North to get to the teleporting crystal.

Harmoni squeezed Rasha’s wrist, and gently shifted to the right.

Rasha seemed to take the hint, and turned slightly.

They hadn’t gotten very far that way when the sky lit up again, turning the area around them white.

Harmoni looked up in time to see a giant fireball hurtling through the sky, and coming down near them.

“Shit!” Wesles shouted.

Harmoni was pretty sure he kept going, but she didn’t catch what else he said.

She launched herself to the side, tearing away from Rasha’s grip in the process. She hadn’t meant to do that, but she hadn’t meant to take Rasha with her either per say. She just reacted.

She dropped to the ground on her knees and elbows, head between her arms.

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It only marginally helped.

The force of the blast knocked Harmoni away, sending her tumbling along the uneven, rocky ground. She fell on her back, the air knocked out of her. She hadn’t been directly set on fire, but there would probably be marks on her hot skin. She couldn’t tell if the black clouds above her were smoke, or spots from slamming her head so hard. And there was a ringing in her ears.

For a moment all Harmoni wanted to do was close her eyes. Sleep didn’t sound so bad.

Then, Rasha’s silhouette came into her vision, along with her staff.

Harmoni couldn’t have known for sure that that back of her head was bleeding, but she got the distinct feeling it had stopped now. The main source of pain in her head faded to a faint throb, and sound came back around her. She could hear the crackling of fire, and when Rasha spoke, she understood the words.

“Are you OK? I haven’t really had a chance to practice healing.”

“I’m fine,” Harmoni managed, sitting up. “Much better than a second ago.”

That second sentence was truer than the first. Rasha hadn’t healed her head completely, and she was still scraped from her tumble. But she didn’t seem to have burns anymore, and she could hear and ignore her headache.

Rasha meanwhile, was slouched, like sitting up straight was too much effort. The crack on her horn was now wider, and deeper. Harmoni could see blood at the edge of it, and if someone knocked on it, it would probably break the rest of the way. She was also missing a tooth.

So Rasha had picked the most important part of Harmoni to heal, possibly at the expense of herself. She hoped they could find someone to heal her soon. If not Tolith, than someone from that weird village on the other side of the crystal.

Speaking of. They should find Wesles and keep moving.

It seemed Rasha had a similar idea. Harmoni got up first, but Rasha looked around from the ground, then used her staff to push herself to her feet.

Then, Harmoni heard a crack. It wasn’t the crackling of fire near them. It was the breaking of a stick, the rustling of leaves. The soft thunk of boots on dirt. Someone was coming.

Harmoni heard it first, having better ears. She stood between the noise and a confused Rasha, looking towards it.

A figure appeared out of the burning forest. He was human, and wearing a black cloak, but he was obviously a different person than the shadow figure earlier. He was shorter, with broader shoulders, and a bit of bright hair poked out of his hood. The shadow man definitely didn’t have that.

But aside from the black cloak, he had red eyes, and the stone like skin. Cultist.

“You’re here for me, aren’t you?” Harmoni asked. She spit it out before he could hope to say or do anything.

The figure paused. The only movement came from all the fire.

“Well, I’m not sure how many of us believed Edith. But this was as good a place to attack as any. And you’re here. So hey, bonus.”

Harmoni understood very little of what was going on. And right now, she couldn’t afford to puzzle everything out or let the implications set in. But she thought she knew enough to carry her through this.

Wyss Village had been desolated when she woke up inside it, with her as the only survivor. They were trying to do that same here. For all she knew, they were already close. But even if this was the worst-case scenario, even if anyone who hadn’t teleported was dead, Rasha and Wesles were alive. Fleck was still alive too, though being unconscious, she couldn’t tell what state he was in. She cold save them. And she focused on that, rather than any hypothetical horrors.

Fleck was asleep. The only person with her was Rasha, and Harmoni was focused on saving her. No friends to help. No voice in her head. Just her. And just she would make the decision she was about to. Fleck would probably have tried to stop her anyway.

“Well, you have me now. I’ll come with you. But we should leave now, before any reinforcements come in.”

“Harmoni?” Rasha asked. Her voice was far away.

The man raised an eyebrow. “Careful Wren. You’re not in charge here. In fact, you’ve given us a bit of trouble. Really want to cause more?”

“If you don’t call off the attack, I’ll resist, and it’ll take you longer to leave. And even if I didn’t, Edinar school could get reinforcements at any moment. Iva is a planet full of magic users, you know? They prioritize it. It wouldn't take them long to contact help, or for that help to get here. You really want to deal with such a large percentage of the planet? People who can fight back?”

Harmoni spoke quickly, out of fear he’d cut her off, and just fear in general. But she meant it. She held eye contact. Her legs were tensed and ready to run, but they didn’t shake.

The Hidden Cult were cowards. Roosher had said it as well. They hid in the shadows and didn’t go after groups that had much chance of fighting back.

The man’s eyebrows rose farther, if that was possible. He seemed less than happy about it, motion intentionally tense and sharp as he reached into his robes, and pulled out a Link. But he did pull it out, and unlike Harmoni’s, his actually worked. He very clearly and verbally asked for everyone to fall back to a meeting spot, staring at Harmoni the whole time.

“There,” he said. “Care to come along now?”

Not really, but she knew better than to resist. She walked towards him, resisting the urge to look over her shoulder at Rasha, letting him grab her tightly at the wrist when she got close enough. Then, the two of them walked away.