With each step Sasye took the ground shook under my feet as if the tiny fox weighed as much as an elephant. My heels scraped across the hard-packed earth as the sheer force of her strength hit me. She’d never let it all hang out like this before, preferring to keep her strength hidden beneath the fuzzy ginger and cream of her cuteness.

What was she even doing here? Was Kendrick nearby?

All of this blasted through my brain in a matter of seconds, leaving me plenty of time to duck under another blade thrown my way. Even with my high Agility I still got nicked across the neck, thankfully not bad enough to threaten death even if my health bar was getting so damn low.

I performed what I thought was an impressive cartwheel and snatched up the blade Orion had thrown before it could disappear any further into the shrubbery. With it in one hand and my sword in the other I spun back around, still in my crouch to face the mysterious bastard.

He wasn’t there.

I blinked slow like a trusting cat as I rose to my full height, still holding my weaponry tight and at the ready. Orion had decided skinning me was less important than his wild rush back toward the sputtering remains of the bonfire. Seriously, the man was hauling ass, his cape flapping in the breeze behind him blowing smoke like a roasting exhaust.

The weight of Sasye’s potent power pressed harder on my back, speeding my own feet as I took off after him. I didn’t want to catch up to him, not really, but Stella and the remains of what was once Theo Thundershield were back there.

“What are you doing?” Jitta screeched in my air as she flew beside me. “We won. The seal is whole. You don’t need to get involved any more than this.”

“What are you afraid I’ll find out if I keep digging?” I snapped back, jumping over a small boulder and skidding down a poor excuse for a hill.

“I have nothing to hide.”

“Sure. I bet you don’t want me to pick up my dog and get the hell out of here, yeah?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Good, because I don’t plan on leaving all the lootables to you.”

Done talking I covered the distance, leaping over disturbingly still bodies of robed cultists, until I reached Theo and Stella. The dog had barely moved an inch when I’d told her to run. I didn’t like that. Not when Miranda was still cowering behind her skeleton warriors not too far away.

Orion stuck his hand into the cluster of skeletons, wrapping his fingers around Miranda’s arm and yanking her out. Miranda screamed as she was drawn in tight against the man’s chest. The skeletons wobbled, the pink hue of her magic fading from the ivory of their bones.

Orion dragged her with him as he leaped into the dying coals of the fire. Behind his feet, I could see my shadow glob friend aimlessly dumping another small pile of dirt atop the coals. I guess that explained how the creature had been snuffing out the flames. The man whipped his cloak around and turned to look at me, the scars on his face livid against the shadows dancing around him.

“Count your lucky stars, Joe. The next time we meet, I won’t be so kind,” Orion said.

“Yeah, it’s been a blast,” I snapped.

The man smirked as the flames roared back to life, surrounding him and Miranda until the light had me looking away. The whoosh of lapping tongues threw waves of heat over me that died as quickly as they came. When I looked back the bonfire was crackling and flaming again but Orion and Miranda were gone.

The skeletons threw up their bony arms as the pink shade coloring them drained, leaving them off-white and dull until they tumbled to the ground in a jumbled pile of bones. I kicked one of them with the toe of my boot, making sure they wouldn’t just jump up again and try to murder me.

The coals shifted in the firepit making the flames dance about. The shadow glob slumped and wobbled around the fire, throwing itself across my boots in defeat.

I laughed and bent, shoving my blades back into place so I could scoop up the depressed little ball of darkness.

“It’s alright. You were doing a great job before that asshole jumped in there.”

The shadow glob sagged through my fingers like a ball of slime might have, his mood unaffected by my kind words. I moved to shove him into my chest pocket but stopped halfway there. That was Boopzy’s pocket. I couldn’t just shove another kind of monster in there, so instead I dumped him on my shoulder. I couldn’t break Boopzy’s heart like that but Frank could handle sharing. At least the shadow wouldn’t try to dig his beak into my ear the way the raven did.

“I’m sorry, Gabby,” Theo murmured behind me.

Whoops, I’d almost forgotten about that lumbering sack of skin and bones. I turned, absently stroking Stella’s head as I eyed the Champion. The man was looking at his feet, his broad shoulders slumped and his knees shaking.

I frowned and focused on my Identify skill, trying to remember what it had been the last time I’d looked at the man.

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Theo Thundershield – Level 37 Champion warrior

He was only two levels above me! Once upon a time, the man had been more than ten levels higher than me. With his class and power, he should have easily outstripped me in levels. It hadn’t been all that long ago that Orion had kidnapped him, it didn’t make sense. Had he not been earning experience points when he worked under Ryan? I’d been under the impression that he led a whole squad.

Theo lifted his head, the flames lapping behind me highlighting his sunken and shaggy cheeks. His lips were parched and beginning to crack. Tiny bright red threads crisscrossed the white of his eyes. I tried not to breathe too deeply through my nose, the stench wafting off the man was enough to make me gag. That’s saying something coming from a man that lived with James the champion ass trumpeter for far too long. Looking at the man in front of me it was hard to believe he wasn’t one of Miranda’s undead monsters.

“What the hell happened to you, man?” I asked.

“Gabby?”

“No, clearly I’m not your daughter. Hello, is the real Theo in there somewhere?”

I waved my hand in front of the man’s face but he didn’t react. His eyes didn’t even try to follow the movement.

“Umm, Stella, maybe you should stay with him for a minute. Away, from the fire.”

When neither of them reacted to what I said I grumbled under my breath and dug a small coil of rope from my bum bag. It was frayed and stained but it would do. I tied it around Theo’s waist, trying not to let the creepiness of his indifference get to me. When I’d finished I took the other end and wrapped it twice around my gloved hand before giving it a tug. Theo moved when the rope grew taut, following wherever I dragged him.

I rubbed my free hand against the top of my head and said, “Yeah, Gabby is not going to like this.”

Jitta, once again a human and not a willie wagtail marched up to me, stuffing a pricey-looking ring into one of the many leather pouches circling her waist. She patted the pouch and then flashed me a smile filled to the brim with satisfaction.

“Did you leave anything for me?” I asked.

“I’m sure a few bits and bobs are lying around somewhere. Where’s Sasye?”

I tensed at the question, swinging around to look for the fox. I yelped and stumbled back into Theo when I realized she was sitting calmly at my feet. The wave of power she’d had coming off of her was gone now, replaced by big wet eyes and a fuzzy head that flopped to the side while she was staring at me.

“What do you want?”

Sasye yipped and wagged her bushy tail, looking as innocent and harmless as a bunny rabbit.

Jitta beamed and stepped forward, digging her nails into the fox's fur and giving her a good scratch. “Did Kendrick send you to keep an eye on me? That stinker. As if I couldn’t handle this little party on my own.”

“Hey, what am I, chopped liver?”

Jitta laughed and eyed me as she twisted from side to side, stretching out her arms first one way and then the other. “I’ll admit, having you distract that big flaming oaf was handy but it wasn’t vital for me to stop this fiasco from going down.”

“Can you tell me what the hell these ‘seal’ things are? I’m getting kind of sick of being left in the dark.”

Jitta lifted a brow at me. “Seriously, you don’t even know that yet?”

I swore and tugged at the short strands of my hair, pulling out more than a few. “No, I don’t why do people keep being shocked by that? It’s not like there’s a daily news announcement giving us all a rundown on this bullshit. Would it kill one person just to give it to me straight?”

Jitta laughed and moved over to the bonfire, picking up a stack of wood from the pile nearby and throwing it into the licking flames. The shadow glob on my shoulder melted a little more when he saw all of his fine work destroyed. In a puff of smoke, the glob disappeared, running back to the world it had come from. I sighed as my shoulders slumped without his small weight resting there. I needed to get Boopzy or Frank back. I didn’t feel right without something sitting up there.

Jitta dropped down onto the ground, folding her legs over one another as she poked at the fire with a long stick.

“Come on, if you want the story you better plonk your ass, I don’t have all night,” she said.

I glared at her and the fox currently curling up in her lap as I eyed first the flames and then the countless bodies sprawled over the ground all around us. “Do we really have to do this here?”

“Relax, they’re not dead. At least, the ones I took down aren’t. You know the rule; no killing. It’s one of the big three. I just hit them with a sleeping draught. They’ll wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed come morning.”

“What about Orion?”

“Yeah, he’ll be off sulking for a while about his missed opportunity. Not to worry, I’m sure he’ll pop back up to murder us all eventually,” Jitta said.

I tugged on the rope and wandered to the bonfire, sitting crosslegged like she was. I tried to get Theo to drop down too but he just stood there, looking into the flames while he muttered Gabby’s name over and over. I sighed and turned back to Jitta, eyeing her easy smile with the suspicion it was due. Stella yawned and dropped her heavy head in my lap, closing her eyes as her belly soaked up the heat of the fire.

“Good. We all comfy? Ready for Miss Jitta to tell you a bedtime story?”

“Don’t make it weird,” I snapped. “Why are you so willing to tell me it all? Even Kendrick wouldn’t go into details.”

Jitta waved a hand at me. “Kendrick’s always been a bit of a princess. Now, what exactly do you know so I don’t have to repeat a million different things?”

“Not much I guess. The Toilet Master, he gave me a book…”

Jitta listened as I ticked off the small amount of knowledge I’d managed to gather on my fingers. I didn’t even manage to get to the second hand before I ran out of things to tell.

“Wow, that’s not much at all. You poor oaf. To think you’ve been stumbling around for this long without even a fifth-grade knowledge of the universe you live in.”

“Hey, ease up. I went to a bit more schooling than that.”

She reached out, patting my hand with a look of pity in her eyes. “Melumek isn’t just any old Primordial. He’s the firstborn of the All-Mother.”

I groaned and dropped my head into my hands. Yeah, I could already tell this conversation was going to raise more questions than it answered.