An angry crimson glow washed over the storm-tinted metal object, bathing the shadowed room in various shades of piercing red light. The object blurred and shifted, like it was vibrating wildly atop the angled writing desk, but it neither fell nor changed position in the slightest. Beads of sweat sprang to the surface of Nevin's arms and neck, and his eyes burned in their sockets.

A faint ringing filled the disheveled study, not heard so much as felt, reverberating in the back of the skull, sounding distinctly from inside the object in question. Aidux recoiled in pain, his mouth stretched wide in protest, but the quiet ringing somehow drowned out his plaintive, high-pitched yowl.

Then, a clap of thunder.

A flash of orange light.

Theis flying backward, his body crumpled forward, a trail of smoke in his wake.

The flash blinded Nevin, and the thunderous boom both deafened and disoriented him. White enveloped his sight as he stumbled toward the spot he last saw Theis, unaware that the man in black was currently half-way across the study, steaming and smoking and balled up at the shattered base of one of Ishen's bookshelves. Nevin frantically grasped at the air, tears of panic forming in the corners of his wide, unblinking eyes.

But, almost as rapidly as it arose, the blistering heat faded. The terrible ringing quieted. The white film occluding his vision slowly began to clear.

As a welcome chill washed over him, Nevin fought to gain control of his rapid breathing, hoping it would in turn still his racing heart. He squinted, searching the study through the dissipating haze of white smoke.

Theis was in the process of extracting himself from the rubble of the bookshelf, brushing aside fragments of shattered wood and stepping over an engraved fox skull that had somehow survived their calamitous encounter. His right arm still smoked, the outer layer of his leather glove a tattered mess. He appraised his steaming hand and gingerly flexed his shaking fingers.

Nevin shook his head in amazement. Despite the force of the explosion, the man in black appeared none the worse for wear.

Is he even human?

It took him a few seconds to find Aidux. All he could see of the cat was the tops of his ears and his wide, silver peepers, poking up over the southern edge of Ishen's now broken window from the safety of the cabin's front approach. Nevin sighed in relief.

“Khek, boy.”

Theis was frozen in place, his eyes vibrating with an alarming intensity as he stared down the younger man.

“What in the Numbra do you think you're playing at?”

Nevin frowned. “I was trying to help you...”

A single gloved finger pointed to contents of his hands. Confused, Nevin looked down. To his horror, the young man found himself standing right beside the angled writing desk, unwittingly cradling the mysterious object across both arms like a newborn babe. Each breath was cloud of visible mist.

“When did I...” he mumbled.

His arms jerked apart, dumping the metal object at his feet. Instead of bouncing as it settled into place, the object hit the floor with a dull, lifeless thud and immediately ceased moving. His breath returned to its normal, invisible state, but Nevin kept both hands overhead, unsure what the pair might do if he left them to their own devices.

“It...didn't react to you at all,” Theis mused, barely loud enough to be heard in the quiet study.

Nevin shuffled back from the discarded object, quickly putting as much space between him and it as he could before his backside collided with the wall. “I didn't mean to. Grab it, I mean. I didn't mean to grab it. I wouldn't. I couldn't even see it, what with all the smoke and light and...”

He shook his head and nervously rubbed an arm. “I must have just bumped into it and picked it up as it fell. Not on purpose. That...that wouldn't make any sense, right? That thing blew you across the room! If I could have seen what I was doing, I wouldn't have gone anywhere near it.”

Through the broken window, the cat's ears flicked off to one side before Aidux vanished beneath the sill. His departure barely registered in Nevin's mind, startled as he was by his own out-of-place actions. He hadn't even felt the cold metal stealing the warmth from the flesh of his hands, hadn't even felt the oblong object pressing against his midsection as he cradled it tightly to his body, not really, not until the man in black had pointed it out to him.

Theis crossed the room and sank into a low crouch, positioning himself a few feet away from the object. He thoughtfully rubbed the gouge in the chin of his mask. Nevin slid along the wall away from the two, expecting another strong reaction and wanting to be as far away as possible when it happened.

But the object just sat quietly.

Theis tentatively extended the hand wearing the tattered glove out over the object, level with the top of his head. “Maybe...”

He lowered his hand, slowly, inching closer and closer. He paused every few seconds, his blazing eyes never lifting from his target, continually accessing its storm-gray surface for any change, small or large.

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Nevin, though, watched him, mesmerized not only by the possibility of another dramatic end to the man in black's actions, but also by his apparent lack of fear in the face of what could only be described as an overtly destructive magical force. He'd nearly lost a hand before. How could he be so casually curious?

When Theis' hand entered within a foot of the object, its surface abruptly changed. The gray metal exuded that piercing red light, as though someone had just pulled it from beneath a smoking heap of glowing coal. The man in black moved his hand no closer, holding it still and observing the reaction.

“O...Okay, Theis,” Nevin's face scrunched as a high-pitched ringing filled the room. He shoved a finger in each ear, but it didn't help. The temperature in the study rose a few degrees with every passing moment, but Theis held fast.

“I think...I think that's enough. Please.” He squeezed his head between trembling palms, but the ringing pushed through. The heat washed over him and beads of sweat bled from his pores.

“Theis!” he screamed, and the man flinched, returning his hand to the darkness beneath his leather cloak. The object quieted, and the room was still once more.

“Khek.” Theis rose to his feet with a heavy sigh. “Can't be sure if the weapon is responding negatively to me, or it will do so in response to anyone but yourself.”

“Weapon?”

Theis ignored him. “What's your plan here, boy?”

Nevin blinked. “My plan?”

Theis gestured out the window without turning. “Elbin's gone. Vincht and his men have effectively wiped it off the map, and if the fires continue to grow, the entire Traagen is in danger of the same. Might be that the only dwelling still standing is this little cabin right here, and it's already empty. Soldier's are combing the forest, and it's only a matter of time before more find this place.”

His tone soured. “And, because of you, because of your interruption, Vincht - the leader of this band of soldiers - was allowed to escape, and from the little I heard as I arrived, he seems convinced that you know exactly where the object they seek, where that -” He shoved a finger in the direction of mysterious object resting on the floor. “- was hidden.

“I know his kind. Men like that don't give up, not when things get difficult, not when they get hurt, not when there's even the smallest chance they might succeed. They keep coming, over and over again, until they win...or they're dead.”

Nevin shrugged, looking at his feet. “So what? He wants this...Sharasil, or whatever it's called. And he can have it for all I care. Aidux and I'll just head off in the opposite direction, into the deepest parts of the Traagen. Places I know very, very well. We've done it before. We'll camp out, we'll hunt, and we'll stay hidden until all of this calms down.”

Theis took a hard step toward him, scattering glass in all directions. “Until all of what calms down? Until the forest stops burning? Until the soldiers stop scouring the woods for any trace of the boy and his cat, a cat responsible for disfiguring their leader's face? Or maybe until the Languor comes and you have no shelter, no food or water stores, nothing to keep you from either freezing or starving to death?

“Unless you think you can just leave, head east over the gorge and slip into Comelbough. Fat chance of that happening, though. Because if Vincht doesn't hunt you down wherever you might hide, I'd wager he and his men would cut that rope bridge out of spite, leaving you with no choice but to weather the coming months in a land with no safe haven for a wet-behind-the-ears farm boy.”

Nevin refused to look at him, refused to raise his head and meet the man's eyes, refused to let the callous stranger see the twin streams of tears running down his flushed cheeks. As frustrating as it was, he had to admit the man was right. About everything. He was completely out of options, and completely in over his head.

Without the bridge, Nevin was as good as dead. Be that at the hand of Dalen and his drunken friends, Vincht and his soldiers, the harshness of a Traagen Languor, or hiking through the unforgiving Nimmons to the north in search of some means of leaving the peninsula behind. If he could sneak into town to gather some equipment – some dried meat, potable water, a few tools - maybe he'd have the smallest of chances, but if Theis was right about the fires in Elbin, even that was off the table.

The man in black cocked his head and stepped closer to Nevin. “Didn't catch that. Come again?”

Nevin lifted his head, clearing his throat before repeating himself. “I don't have a plan.”

Twin blue eyes burned into him, the white motes scattered in the sea of light. “Then pick it up, and follow me. We're leaving.”

Nevin balked. “No way. I don't want anything to do with that.”

“Not giving you a choice, boy. Came here to get it. Not leaving without it.”

The younger man folded his arms across his chest defiantly. “I don't care what you do, but I'm not going anywhere with that thing.”

“Fine then. Stay here and die. That a better option?”

Nevin chewed his lip and let out a long, frustrated sigh. As much as he hated to admit it, Theis had him cornered.

There was only one problem. “It doesn't matter what I decide. There's still the whole thing about there only being one way off the peninsula, and unless you've got a pair of giant wings hidden beneath that cloak, we're all stuck. You're in just a bad a predicament as I am.”

From the darkness of the kitchen, the lynx emerged, slinking into the room with his ears laid back against his skull. The way he sheepishly looked back and forth between his oldest friend and his newest, it was clear he could sense the tension in the room, but if either had noticed his arrival, they didn't show it.

Theis shook his head. “There's one other way, but it's a hard walk through trackless forest.”

Nevin's eyes narrowed. “Bullshit. Where?”

“Through the Nimmons.”

The younger man paused momentarily before responding, carefully watching the motes in Theis' eyes as they swirled lazily around their pupils. If the man was lying, he couldn't tell. “Ishen told me long ago that the Hyret Bridge is the only way in or out of Elbin. I have a hard time believing you know something about the area that he doesn't.”

Theis shrugged. “Don't give a shit what you believe, boy.”

Finally, unable to wait any longer, the cat swallowed the lump in his throat and spoke. “Would now be a good time or a bad time to tell you there are men out in the woods, a big group of them, heading this way? I think maybe being here isn't a good idea anymore.”

Theis nodded in agreement. “Well? Time to get smart or die stupid. The choice is yours.”

Nevin grit his teeth and sighed.

Not much of a choice.