Author's Note: this story includes graphic violence, sexual content, sexual violence, and profanity. It is not for the faint of heart. 

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"Anyone got anything they want to say before they die?"

The words slid from Rofred, spoken with the sharp tang of hopeless sarcasm. A powerful vulpine with a long muzzle and a scarred face, his bright red fur sparkled from the lightning in the darkened skies above. Each bolt illuminated the monolithic door in front of them: the door to the Minah, the Bleeding Castle of the Fiend.

His breathing was calm but his armored hand squeezed tightly at his two-handed sword's handle. Holes and blast marks in his steel plate were his proof of the hard journey just to reach this point. They've battled on-and-off for days through the surrounding country-side, with roads infested by horrifying creatures.

"Always the burning light during our darkest hour, Rofred." Taeira verbally cut back at him, her lithe body and porcelain skin covered by her once-bright blue skirted blouse. Long since tinted a dingy gray, with many cuts and a few minor scorch marks, it still held the symbol of her home, Noksophisus, capital city of the great Mageworks.

Her staff glowed with latent stored mana, shimmering even in the darkened landscape. Her sigillia, heavily enchanted papers tied at her waist, were already glowing brightly - proof that her protective barriers were already being tested, though she could not tell what it was.

Her sister, the Prophesized One, the Queen's-Hand Magician Reialia (pronounced ray-Ah-lia) put a hand on Rofred's back and stepped ahead of him. Her crystal blue eyes glared intensely at the towering door ahead of them. It's obsidian oppression dominated her field of view, and in either direction its unbridled walls projected their power into the sky like a challenge to God. Finally, vengeance for the fall of Noksophisus - vengeance for the death of her father and King. 

"He's right, though, is he not?" She spoke with a shaking voice, but it was not nerves that quaked her. It was anger. "Thank you. All of you. I would never have gotten this chance without you here."

Hanza gave a shrug and elbowed Reialia gently in her side, "Awww don't mention it. Just don't forget you promised me whatever treasure's in there." She was a feline female, and she took her bow from around her body and rested an arrow upon the string. Hanza was a thief who swore she was the source of the Vane treasury heist, the disappearance of the renowned King Wesley's Crown, and every other legendary tale of kleptomania. Her party wasn't sure those were true, but her skills spoke for themselves, in and out of combat.

Speaking through a masked face, her eyes shone as her playful tone nudged at Rofred's obvious nervousness, "And don't worry Roffy, if it gets bad I'll carry you out."

"Heh," Rofred said with a smirk, "you can barely carry your own ego, think you can lift 450 pounds on your back?"

With a scoff, Rofred drew his massive sword, it's runes gleaming brilliantly as static electricity arced around it fiercely. He hooked his arm through a band on his scabbard, and it detached itself from his hip, and a shining red magical shield projected over it. He held his sword up like it weighed nothing, pointing it at the door. "Let's get on with it then. No treasure to be found out here."

Taeira gently pulled Reialia back to her. "I...sis..." She struggled to find the words to express herself, but before she could, Reialia embraced her tightly. Taeira relaxed into the hug. "I'm so proud of you."

"Ten long years, training, travelling, and fighting..." Reialia pulled back, looking her sister in her eyes. She held Taeira's wrist and ran her fingers gently over the scarred mark. Even with barriers protecting the party, the mark was hot to the touch. "We'll kill the Fiend, and remove your mark. I promise. No guts..."

"...no glory," Taeira finished resolutely. They all turned their full attention to the door as Reialia walked forward with the Bleakstone Key, holding it up to the door. "Nara tan zerasine kor falla!" The key levitated violently out of her hand at the behest of the demon-tongue incantation and flung itself towards the door. Seven seconds later, a complex fractal pattern spiraled rapidly out of the center of the structure.

As the aether spun itself in patterns dozens of layers deep, the door lurched and the ground shook from the mere twitch of such mass. They peeled open, and though it appeared to be happening slowly, that was merely an illusion it's great enormity gave it. Reialia took a deep breath, her hands glowing with tattooed patterns, thaumaturgic ink etched into her skin in preparation for this battle.

The doors slowly came to a stop.  The ambient light of the storm overhead barely penetrated through the doorway. Collectively, without meaning too, they all let out an exhale and began the trek to the castle. As they approached, it's height would give vertigo to anyone who looked far up it's barren and charred walls. The arch of the entry stretched, easily, three hundred feet into the sky. 

As each member of the party passed through the threshold, the doorway to the outside world draped in a dense black liquid wall behind them, casting them into pitch darkness.

"Luma," Reialia spoke. A light orb manifested over her. Each of them stared in awe at the enormous chamber before them. A twisted mockery of a king's court laid out before them. Arches better suited in the main hall of a church created a macabre arcade, each one covered in a writhing, twisted black mass that spiraled into the ceiling. Each one met in the middle, where a pulsing chandelier swung gently, not from wind, but from the movement of it's constituent parts.

A carpet of flesh laid out before them culminated in a massive throne with a bulbous sphere of swirling dark energy collected on it's seat. The throne itself was moving, swaying slowly back and forth, as it's legs were made of living men and women, who were the only significant source of sound as their moans of pain echoed off the masonry.

"Focus," Rofred muttered, and Reialia snapped out of her horrified, vacant stare.

"God above," Taeira whispered, and she was the first to step forward. She raised her staff, gave it three clockwise hexagonal waves, and spoke, "Discern, secrets burn." The voice of her Devilkin, contained within her body, spoke in tandem, lending her the connection to the Hellish Realms. A bright red light pulsed from her staff. Normally, it would reveal sigils or magically hidden objects, but here nothing appeared. "Nothing there..."

Hanza, with her night-sight, could see the room clearly even though the Luma spell gave only a dim light. "No wires. Pressure plates? Maybe under the skin carpet?"

"Please don't say 'skin carpet'," Reialia whine and grimaced.

"That's what it is!"

Rofred waved his sword, and the electric crackles silenced them both. "Better question is, is that the Fiend?" The pulsing energy writhed uncomfortably but otherwise remained stationary.

"It hasn't reacted to us being here, whatever it is," Taeira muttered with a hint of cautious fear. "That's no 'great giant clad in armor that swallows the light.' Maybe it's not here? Then again, we've only just entered and this castle is the size of a city by itself..."

A moment of silence passed as the group quietly considered what to do before Rofred snapped, "How do we proceed? We shouldn't just stand here."

Reialia spoke authoritatively, "Same as Grisenwald. If there's a trap, we can't see it from here. If we have to spring it, then we shall spring it. Move defensively."

Just like in Grisenwald, Rofred readied himself at the front of the group, shield out in front of him. Taeira, being the slowest caster, stayed close behind him for cover. Hanza stayed in the rear, her bow's line of sight least obscured when furthest back. Reialia was third in the formation, with room to move and fire spells quickly at any range.

They collectively moved to the left of the fleshy path to walk on the stone instead. Rofred kept a slow, even pace, his ears flicking back and forth, his only good eye scanning left and right. They crept forward for a full minute but seemed to get no closer to the throne.

Hanza spoke up, "the doorway with that liquid blocking us is gone."

Reialia glanced back. "Curious. We're further from the wall but no closer to the throne. Does that mean we physically can't reach it or...Illusion? Maybe we should try more powerful detection."

Taeira reached into her waist pouch to find her aethergraphic salt, used to mark ritual patterns on the ground. Her demonkin's magic was weaker but easier to cast, and she hated trying to do rituals in the middle of dangerous areas, but even she was getting nervous. With practiced ease, she created a sigil with salt on the ground and unplugged an eyedropper with her blood, dripping it onto the salt where it hisses and frothed. 

As she prepped the ritual, her demonkin's face manifested as an ethereal face of it's own on the side of her head. "I can protect you if you let me out."

"I told you I'm never letting you do that again," she hissed at it, trying not to lose focus.

"I'm stuck here now, same as you. I don't know what that thing is, Taeira. If I die in your body..." She paused her ritual for a moment. Demons were deceptive but it was correct. Taeira could feel through it's own connection to her that it feared the castle and the black energy as much as the rest of them did. The demon will cease to exist if she dies, rather than returning to the Red Realms.

"I'm not letting you out but...contractual amendment..."

"Negotiate," it replied eagerly.

"Demoness Ophelia, if I'm incapacitated and cannot physically function due to unconsciousness, dismemberment, or death, you can use my body as a catalyst..." she paused for a moment, before mouthing the next words silently: but your priority is to save my sister.

"You have a deal." The mark on her wrist burned brightly but she ignored it as she wrapped up the ritual symbols. 

"You sure you want to do that?" Reialia questioned with the hair on her neck on it's end. The demon creeped her out, and previous betrayals were still fresh on her mind.

"It's all or nothing Reialia; if we fail Ophelia is going to be the least of our concerns." Taeira replied calmly. Reialia couldn't argue with that, and watched as the aethergraphic salt shined brightly, drowning out even her Luma spell. 

Taeira chanted "Kon calla vitra num saita" repeatedly, and after the fifth chant, the spell exploded outwards as an expanding orb radiated to all ends of the room. The great arcade, with its pulsing arches and dripping tentacles, disappeared. The throne extended away from them to nearly one thousand feet away. It's ceiling doubled in height and church pews appeared before them as they were magically pushed onto the fleshy path. The pews stretched down the hall, and great steps projected the throne high above them. 

Hanza led out a hiss and Rofred raised his blade as he spoke, "Well...at least this is a bit more what I expected."

In the pews were hundreds of writhing, twisted humanoids, all seated with what passed for their faces stared up at the great throne in the near distance, as though entranced by the energy. The remnants of where they came from were visible in ragged clothing, family talismans sunken into swollen skin, or jewelry on long, distended fingers. The victims of the Fiend were now his devout audience for hellish sermons. 

"They were waiting for us to get further in," Reialia exclaimed, her hands bristling with crackling fire, preparing to strike. And yet, the hundreds of creatures remained seated. 

"Maybe," Hanza began as she relaxed her bowstring, "but why aren't they doing anything now?"

Taeira reached a conclusion quickly, "We got closer to it in reality even though it seemed like we weren't under the illusion. It was imperfect, perhaps created in haste."

"So they wanted us to walk into that...thing? Inside of it?" Rofred gestured towards the throne. "So we probably shouldn't do that." At those words, the creatures immediately turned their heads to look at them at the same time. "Well...it was merely a suggestion," he muttered nervously. 

Reialia prodded her sister in the back, "Let's approach it. We can't fight them all at this range safely. Maybe if we approach they will stay seated."

Together, the group moved as cautiously as before, though with some extra speed given the length they now had to traverse. As they moved, they were stared at by congregation. With each step, they got closer to the black mass. 

At last, they were a mere fifty feet from it. 

"YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE DEPTHS OF WATER IN WHICH YOU TREAD."

The voice boomed in all of their minds, and the congregation rose to it's feet silently. The party prepared to fight once again, but nothing attacked them right away. 

"You're the Fiend, yes?" Reialia looked into the black energy, assuming that was where the voice came from. 

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"PROSTRATE YOURSELVES."

An immense weight settled on all four of their shoulders and they all shuddered as they resisted before dropping to one or two knees. Reialia looked to Taeira, who was using all her strength to move her staff in a squared pattern. The voice of Ophelia once again combined with her own, "Unyielding." One of her paper sigils flared brightly and burned, and a symbol was projected over the chests of each of the party. As it did, they felt the weight lift, and they immediately stood back up. 

"Show yourself, so I may kill you," Rofred announced.

"PETTY SWORD." A lash of energy shot out and slammed into a readied Rofred, with his shield taking the force of the mass, hurling him off his feet and thirty feet back into the gathering. Immediately, the congregation nearest to him turned and began to attack. 

"Hanza, go!" Reialia shouted, and Hanza vanished from sight, blood erupting from twisted humanoid abominations, an invisible razor cutting a path towards Rofred. Reialia readied a spell; she still had no idea what this swirling black energy was, but it was obvious that it had something to do with the Fiend. She held out her hand, a furious swirl of mana pouring into her palm, and projected a basic fireball. Without requiring a chant or hand-signs or gestures thanks to her tattoos, the spell executed flawlessly, hitting with the force of ten cannons and creating an explosion that rocked the ground beneath them. Taeira and Ophelia began to independently prepare two spell incantations at once.

Through the smoke, a dozen tendrils emerged, stretching into the walls around them and tensing as they pulled something out of the energy. With slow deliberation, a figure gradually lowered itself to the ground in-front of the throne. It's armored foot collided violently with the ground despite it's slow movement. The energy swallowed its torso, and its head was revealed to be nothing less than a void. It stood an easy thirty feet tall, humanoid but black clad.

Reialia and Taeira tensed - this was the Fiend after all. The real fight began here.

Almost before they could react, the dozens of tendrils detached from the walls and lashed in on them both. Taeira's spell finished in time, creating a physical barrier around both her and Reialia. The tendrils bounced across it's surface, redirected into the abominations, splitting a dozen of them clear in half. Rofred returned with a roar, bulling through several of the creatures and covered in blood; Hanza jumped off of his shield to land on top of the barrier, with a golden arrow prepped and drawn back.

The tendrils swirled around to strike at her, but she knew if she could hit it, she would buy herself time to evade. Golden-tipped and shining brilliantly, she had saved the Asura arrow for this one moment. With a battle cry she let loose, and it ripped through the air at supersonic speeds, creating a sonic boom that rocked the entire room.

The arrow was true, but as it struck the head of the giant, simply disappeared into it's void. Hanza, shocked for just a moment, stood vulnerable. Rofred shouted out, vaulting off a pew, over a bloodied creature, and onto the dome, knocking Hanza away, but too slowly. Hanza, pierced by two of the tendrils, dropped to the floor with a howl while Rofred managed to remain standing as they slammed into his armor and shield with no apparent effect from all sides. The impact rocked his body to the bone, and he felt blood well in his throat. Nothing broken, at least nothing that he needed to fight. 

Taeira only noticed what happened after Hanza yelled out in pain. Looking up, she opened a hole in the shield, dropping Rofred inside, and reached outside of the shield to grab Hanza, who looked at her. "I...I don't-" Hanza staggered words out, before she began to convulse and dissolve into black ooze before Taeira's horrified eyes. 

"No! Damn you!" Rofred cried out in furious anguish, but tendrils slamming into the magical shield contained his rage and prevented him from bursting into the room to slash at the Fiend. Taeira couldn't take her eyes off of what remained of Hanza, her body becoming a black sludge inside of her own leather armor, but Ophelia shouted in her mind, "My spell is done!"

Taeira snapped out of it and shouted out "Protect yourselves!" and Reialia and Rofred moved to either of her sides. Reialia formed a shell barrier between her and Taeira and Rofred readied his shield, both of them exposed to the tendrils, which closed in rapidly.

With a deafening explosion, hellfire poured from Taeira's body in all directions, sourced from the red-dimensions themselves. The tendrils withered and turned to ash, the congregation which had been encroaching on them ignited and squealed for the briefest second before more than eighty of them incinerated, thier pews charred to dust.

Reialia was blown backwards, but in her haste didn't have time to create a full barrier, and she slammed into the stone with an unprotected body, dropping to the floor in a clump, unconscious. Rofred hit the wall with his armored back, and though his head recoiled into the stone, he remained conscious enough to land on his feet. 

Taeira stood, her arms had been outstretched trying to project barriers in front of the others to protect them from the force, and so both arms had been charred black by the hellfire. She dropped to her knees, the pain overwhelming her reason. She left out a cry, partly in pain, and partly in anguish. Her eyes cast up to the Fiend, and widened in horrow.

It was undamaged by either the arrow or the Hellfire. 

The party was nearly vanquished just surviving it's opening attack.

Rofred stumbled over to rejoin her, shaken from the impact. His shield had been overwhelmed by the blast but it flickered back to life and he stood between her and the Fiend. The Fiend remained stationary.

"SUBMIT."

With that word, they felt the force on their shoulders again, dampened but not eliminated by the protective ward. "Any ideas...?" Rofred muttered, dropping to one knee to conserve his energy. Taeira was lost in a moment of hopelessness but Rofred barked loudly, "Get it together, Taeira! Do you have a plan?"

"Yeah, but..." her voice trailed off as she tried to resign herself to what was coming.

"We're not getting out of here, right?" Taeira said nothing, and Rofred let out a bitter laugh. "Hate to say I told you so...whatever time you need, I'll get you." He gave his own incantation. He was no mage, and this was the only spell he had ever learned, specifically for a fight like this - one in which death was certain. "Konto falta aegis." The band of his shield-scabbard tightened around his arm and began to crush it as it fused into his body. As the spell continued he cried out but kept the shield presented towards the Fiend. He growled through his pain at Taeira, "When its done you've got thirty seconds! I won't survive this spell."

The Fiend raised it's arm, a black staff growing out of it's hand and slinging down to crush them both. With a yell, Rofred stopped the staff in it's tracks. The scabbard had grown into a massive physical shield that fused with his bone. His sword became one with his other arm, and he crackled with violent energy, as red steel stretched across various vital points on his body and over his head until he had a bloody, garish metal helmet. "Just gonna hit ya until ya die,  bastard," he muttered through clenched teeth, and he launched his arm upwards. The staff was blown back, and he leapt to engage the Fiend.

"I'm taking over," Ophelia said in Taeira's mind, and Taeira nodded. A great light emanated from her eyes as an energized orange mass grew over her charred limbs. In great pain, she cried out, but it was gradually replaced with Ophelia's laughter. Her skin tinged red and bright orange in intricate patterns, and a bone halo grew from her head as a triple-tail, the calling card of an arch-demon, emerged from her tailbone. "Aaah, that's the stuff. Feel nothing for long enough and even pain hits the spot." She felt a twinge her in mind as the contract took hold. "Yeah, yeah."

Taeira, now an ethereal soul like Ophelia was, began to chant as Ophelia ran to Reialia.

Her head was resting in a pool of her own blood from the impact on the wall, but she was breathing. Ophelia began to cast a dimensional spell as energy crackled nearby from Rofred's fight, the heat from it singing Ophelia's clothing. "Watch it!" she exclaimed, glancing back to see Rofred's shield arm was now destroyed, and the growing metal was beginning to hinder his movements and seep from his blood through its gaps as he distracted the Fiend. 

Taeira completed the chant and etched ghostly symbols into the air with her palm, her spirit form removing the need for a staff. An amulet around Ophelia's neck began to glow as she tore open a hole between dimensions. She grabbed Reialia and threw her in head haphazardly.

"Watch out!" Taeira's warning was nearly too late, as Ophelia turned just in time to summon a molten crag from the earth, redirecting the black staff of the Fiend, thrown directly at her. She closed the dimensional door an instant before the staff got inside, unsure of what would happen to Reialia if the Fiend's energy entered with her.

"Close call. Rofred?"

Rofred stood, motionless, consumed by steel before the Fiend, sword-arm raised in the frozen pose of a vengeful attack. He was covered in blood, but no more blood flowed from his body. Eternally, he would remain.

"Taeira, is the seal ready?"

"Not happening," Taeira grimly responded. "The amulet..." 

At Ophelia's feet, the amulet, the Quadoan Seal of Eternity, was shattered. "The staff...it..." the demoness was displeased that this was her welcome back to the material plane. All that waiting and plotting, for nothing. 

"There's still another way." Taeira's voice echoed in her mind with rallying resolve.

"I know."

She walked back to the center of the room, standing before the Fiend.

"YOUR GOD SPOKE TO ME. IT HAD NOTHING TO SAY FOR YOU, DEMON VESSEL."

Ophelia could tell it was using the gravity spell again but with a wave of her hand she generated a protective field around her. She tilted her head. What a curious thing to say.

"What are you?" Taeira inquired, her reverberating voice sounding faded and distant as she projected herself over the face of Ophelia like ghostly armor.

"EXPLANATION IS BENEATH ME."

Ophelia smirked. "It wouldn't save you anyway." Her hand ignited, Taeira began another chant, and the Fiend manifested a new staff and tendrils; the fight was back on.

Later...

Reialia's eyes awakened slowly. The brightness of wherever she was pried into her eyes and made them strain. She reflexively closed them tightly. A pounding pain in her head made her feel dizzy and slowly her breath began to come back to her. 

THE FIEND. 

She shot up into a kneeled position, immediately losing her sense of balance and stumbling back onto her rear. "Taeira?" 

Her voice bounced and echoed dozens of times before falling silent once more. With her senses returning, she opened her eyes to look around, seeing only a white void. Panic gripped her; was she dead? "No...no-no-no...hello? Hello!?" She called out into the nothingness and she began to hyperventilate.

"Yes, hello," a voice from behind her frightened her and she whipped around with a yelp, reflexively trying to use a spell but nothing happened. Before her was a dog, a hunting dog of some kind with short white and brown fur and floppy ears. When she stopped moving and waited a moment, it began to wag it's tail. 

"Are you...a guardian of some kind? Am I dead?"

The dog's head tilted to the side as it spoke, though it seemed to be in her head rather than from it's mouth. "No! You're just in my dimension."

As the dog showed no immediate threat, she examined her hands. The tattoos were gone, so her instinctive quick-casting was no longer possible.

Her breath settled somewhat, and she asked "And you are?"

"I don't think the words exist in your language to describe it properly. Or you don't know them, anyway. I can only speak to you with words you understand."

She sat up and rubbed the back of her head. Dried blood flaked out of her hair, and all of a sudden her head no longer hurt. "What...? How long have I been out?"

"Time has no relevance here, although your sister used this plane to store perishable items. I deduce, therefore, that time passes much slower here than your home dimension."

"What is this place?"

"Orsis, your sister called it. I am...present in it, although that's the best I can do in describing this to you."

"Is she here?"

"She is not."

"How did I get here?"

"A being that resembled Taeira but orange-skinned threw you in here and closed the breach."

Reialia closed her eyes, trying to recall details. The fight had lasted perhaps only thirty or forty seconds before she was knocked out. A feeling of helplessness crawled over her; a mere thirty seconds. A ten year journey ended in thirty seconds. She reasoned that the demon Ophelia followed through with the contract and took Taeira's physical form. Taeira's spell must have hurt her. She stood on...nothing. The white void spilled out in all directions.

"This place is making me sick."

"I will try to make it better for you," the dog said, and a gray floor emerged from beneath them. Various flat-colored surfaces appeared from far away and zoomed to positions around her, providing geometric references, although the motion sickness made her want to vomit. She tested the nearest rectangle and found it was solid. She sat down on it's edge. 

"Can you open the door back?" 

"I cannot."

Her hands gripped at the corner of the prism, "I see...am I trapped here?"

"That depends on the nature of the spell. Taeira's orange doppelganger may have added stipulations to the opening of the dimensional tear and your presence in it. We will not know until they come about. By the way, that was here with you when you fell in. I have preserved it for you." The dog gestured towards the table, and Reialia turned to look, seeing a necklace but with only a piece of something attached to it. 

It was the Seal of Eternity, or only a part of it. Her hands shook as she reached out to grab and it hold it in her hand. They weren't able to create even one opening to use it, and now it was destroyed.

Sitting down against the rectangle shape, Reialia felt a pang of guilt and sadness imaging Hanza. She knew that, more than likely with the Seal shattered, they were all dead, and Ophelia had been under contract to save her. Curling her legs to her chest, she let out a pathetic mewl as the reality began to set in. "But...but we..."

Memories flashed in her mind: her older sister and her beginning their journey, and she was only twelve. Her first victory over a goblin and the great celebration in the pub where Taeira let her take a sip of wine at fourteen. The Three Tribe Assault and their valiant defense. Meeting Rofred training deep in the Korii mountains and joining him against the Vampire Lord Gaika. Her sister, Taeira, gaining dominion over the arch-demon Ophelia, the demon that now had control of her body forever. Catching Hanza trying to make off with Reialia's Queen's-Hand necklace, the symbol of the Queen's authority that paid their way through inn after inn. 

"My friends are..."

She looked down at her necklace, and it was still there, covered in the brown stain of her own blood. A ten year journey... "Mama..."

Tears began to well up, and she buried her head into her knees and let out choking sobs, "We...we fought...so...hard..." she said between sobs. The dog sat nearby for a moment before walking over near her and sitting beside her feet. "I did...everything...I...was supposed...to!" Sliding off the prism, she smashed her clenched fists into the floor. "It was what the god damn prophecy said!" Over and over, she struck the ground. "WE DID EVERYTHING!"

She cried and cried, for what felt like hours, and eventually, in the silence and exhaustion, fell into a restless sleep. 

When she awakened, she was on something softer that felt like a bed, and in her waking haze imagined that she must have dreamt the entire thing. Her eyes snapped open, and she found only the void, though with more complex shapes of varying degrees of softness, and a table shaped object with food on it! At least, it smelled like it and was steaming.

Her stomach roared and she got off the cushioned rectangle and voraciously bit into stewed meat and fruits. She recognized the taste and the smell, and it was satiating, but it was shaped very strangely, and the color wasn't right. When she finished, taking a long drink of water, she felt confusion. Where did this food come from?

"You did this right? What all can you make?" she asked, although the dog wasn't nearby. Looking around, she stood up to get a better view. "Hello? Dog?" 

"Lots of things," it said, making her jump and turn around to see it sitting on the bed.

"Stop doing that!" she shouted in frustration. She was sure it wasn't there before. 

"But I can only manifest things you understand. Concepts like gravity and a floor were the first. While you slept I used your mind to make more things and learn what you require to survive. Taeira obviously put you here to live, after all."

"Did you see the battle with...the Fiend?" 

"Oh, I can only generalize concepts and then chisel them with repeat explorations into something more specific. I cannot perceive memories."

"So you became a dog because that's my favorite animal?"

It nodded it's head, ears flopping gently back and forth. "Correct, it is the clearest animal concept in your mind."

"I...I see." She felt a profound desire to ask it to manifest her friends so she could see them again, and fought the urge. "So...this is you making a bed, and such?" She motioned at what she was laying on when she awoke.

"Yes." It answered simply.

"Okay..." She took a deep breath and felt a powerful melancholy grip her heart. She pulled a plain white blanket over her bizarrely undetailed bed and laid down again.

Until the spell ended, she was stuck here, mostly alone with her thoughts. Having eaten, however, she felt fatigue sweep over her once again. Not wanting to remain awake and ponder the battle, she let herself be taken into sleep.

She wondered when she would be free.