Tanya’s mouth was agape as she took in the impossible sight before her.

According to their information, Cyffnar had appointed a troop of soldiers to patrol the anomaly caves and keep invaders away. She had estimated a small camp—maybe twenty or so soldiers—close to the cavernous openings, banking on the desert’s curse to keep the count low. After the previous night’s skirmish, she had optimistically considered the majority of their “Cyffnar” problem to be taken care of.

Clearly, that wasn’t the case.

“This isn’t a camp!” Maude exclaimed from behind her. “It’s a freaking city!”

It was an overstatement, but only just so. An enormous square of stakewall was built around the soldiers’ encampments and stores, with two gates leading in and out of the base camp. Tents of blackened fabric, too many to count, were laid out row after row, and smaller barrels and equipment were strewn around, like flies buzzing around a sleeping beast.

Tanya’s gaze landed on the five interspersed cavernous openings in the middle of the fortified complex. Entire cohorts of men were in formation practicing combat and maneuvers while being drilled by officers riding atop bicorns. Terramancers were working on additional openings to get mineral deposits out of the anomaly, while aquamancers filled a central lagoon of water for people and animals to drink from. All the while, beast tamers patrolled the periphery.

“This is one of the times I wish I wasn’t right,” Zuken sighed. “Cyffnar plans to drain this anomaly dry before the Black Moon wanes.”

“You expected this to happen?” Tanya asked.

“Not to this level, but…I always bet on people being greedy.” He grimaced.

Tanya licked her lips and peered at the garrison. “If we want to get into the caverns, we have to go through them. It seems like a terrible idea no matter which way you slice it.”

Olfric snorted. “Scared already?”

Tanya raised an eyebrow at him, and then glanced at his feet.

Olfric followed her line of sight, and staggered back.

The shadow followed.

“Why doesn’t it just—” he began, stomping on the sand, hoping to distort the shadow and make it vanish.

She rolled her eyes. Out of her entire team, the shadows seemed to affect Olfric the most. It was amusing, but not unexpected. Maude was a half vanir that held no reservations about her lack of faith in the Asukan gods. Elena was a changeling, plain and simple; a few ljósálfars held only minor positions in the Asukan pantheon. Olfric, however, was a devout Asukan to the core, so his fear of the shadows was a no-brainer.

But it was Zuken’s reaction that truly surprised her.

Zuken Banksi displayed himself as a man of personal strength and mental fortitude. His prowess in Terramancy bolstered his nerves to extraordinary levels, allowing him to maintain his composure in even the most stressful situations. Even so, his apparent nonchalance about the presence of shadows beneath his feet raised all sorts of red flags in Tanya’s mind.

Pay attention, but don’t point it out, she told herself. She was there to do her job and gain her freedom, not pry into secrets that had nothing to do with her.

“For the Goddess’s sake, Bergott, it’s a fucking shadow,” she snapped. “I get that it’s difficult to swallow for someone who’s lived his entire life in the Eternal Light, but your reactions are ridiculous. Get it through your overinflated noble head. When light falls on an object, it generates a shadow. Not because it’s a curse or darkspawn, but because the object is obstructing the light’s path.”

Olfric stood quietly, frowning as he tried to imagine such a thing.

“I’ve traveled to the other side of the Graken Mountains,” Tanya said. “The lands there are still blessed with the Eternal Light, but only weakly. Sooner or later, you’ll find yourself in a corner stained with shadows. I spent an entire year in that place and I turned out just fine.”

“What were you doing there all by yourself?” Elena asked.

“This and that.”

Elena gave her the stink eye, which Tanya promptly ignored.

“What are we, you know…” Maude trailed off, gesturing toward the Cyffnarians. “Going to do about this?”

“This isn’t some regular border patrol,” Zuken said, carefully observing the soldiers. “They’re professional military. Cyffnar is spending serious coin to make sure their operation goes smoothly.”

“We could report this anonymously to the shogun,” Olfric suggested. “He can demand answers from Lord Straff.”

Tanya grimaced. Lord Straff was the shogun of the Eaborid Kingdom, of which Cyffnar was only a mere part. She had encountered the man only once in her life, and he’d made a terrible first impression.

“And what will that accomplish?” Zuken drawled. “All bureaucratic work is down until the moon wanes. I’d bet my life these people are privately funded to squeeze the anomaly dry and clean everything up before the Waning. Even if our government accuses them of something fishy, they can always deny it.” He looked away. “No doubt the men would kill us immediately if they spot us, and no one would know any better. Besides, don’t forget why we are here.”

“We could always fight them,” Tanya offered.

But Zuken shook his head. “The three of us might be able to put up a strong resistance. But someone still needs to protect Elena and Maude, and we can’t do that if we’re busy defending ourselves.”

“I can protect myself!” Maude began.

Tanya observed that Elena made no attempt to counter Zuken’s opinion of her.

“What about digging our way through?” Tanya offered. At everyone’s blank looks, she explained. “The anomaly is beneath us, right? And we have a proficient terramancer on our team. Why don’t we dig ourselves there?”

“We can’t dig anywhere within scanning distance from their camp,” Zuken explained. “Plus, if we dig during the day, the heat will strike us down. And digging at night will be…” He left the rest unsaid.

“We could dig from our own camp!” Maude offered. “It’s not like anything’s coming after us there, even at night.”

“Maybe, but there’s also the time factor,” Olfric chimed in. “I doubt an underground anomaly will be near the surface. For all we know, it could be half a mile deep. Digging that far with such time constraints would set us back by several days. And that’s assuming the anomaly even goes beneath our camp.”

Tanya looked at Zuken, and he glanced back at her, his face troubled. She could see the reflection of her own thoughts and fears in his eyes. A lot was dependent on the success of this mission, and they were already being pushed back by several steps at the starting line itself.

They needed a game changer—something to win this unwinnable situation. An unstoppable force that could blitz through the garrison like it meant nothing. And conveniently enough, she had one. But revealing it might cause problems for her down the road.

But Zuken and the others aren’t here to commit sin. They wouldn’t mind. Though…

Trying to restrain it was difficult on the best of days. Here, there was no Eternal Light, and add in the fact that they were in the middle of a cursed desert…

But why restrain? a dark part of her pointed out. Look at all those spiritists. Will they be restrained when they attack you?

But—

This is your last chance to gain everything you want. Money. Freedom. Your purpose on this team is to sin. What does a little more or less matter in the face of that?

Tanya remained silent.

You cannot hide it forever.

She wanted to deny it. To tell herself that she could. That she could lock that part of herself away forever, and pretend like it didn’t exist.

But it would be a lie.

“Tanya?” Zuken inquired. “You’ve been awfully quiet. What’s on your mind?”

Tanya came to a decision. “You were right earlier,” she said. “About my kami. It’s strong. Very strong. Strong enough that most of my power is spent in restraining its power rather than using it. I can take them down if I go all out.”

She carefully regarded her teammates’ reactions. Elena was curious. Zuken was cautious. Olfric was skeptical. And Maude…Maude had a shadow of a knowing smile on her face. By the winds, just what impression did the vanir have of her, and why?

“How many?”

“All of them.”

Olfric laughed aloud. “I know the desert will amplify your wind attacks, but you’re still far too sure of yourself. I’ll admit that distraction of yours earlier was interesting, but it’s nowhere close to what we need to decimate them all. You’re only going to get yourself killed.”

“How touching!” Tanya smirked. “I didn’t know you cared.”

He bristled. “If we lose our sinner, this mission is over.”

Tanya looked at the sun overhead. The enchantments they had on to protect themselves from the searing heat would last another half hour at best. After that, they’d have to return to camp or take shelter amidst the sands. “Trust me. I know I can.”

“How?” the aquamancer repeated.

“I can…manifest it in its bound state.”

Silence fell upon the group.

“…what did you just say?” Olfric croaked.

Tanya chuckled at his gobsmacked expression. Not that she could blame him, really. The concept of kami binding was the core of being a spiritist. Using the Shikigami Ritual, one was able to bind a kami to their soul by sacrificing an appropriate portion of their Soul Capacity. By doing so, the spiritist could utilize the kami’s skills, albeit in a far more diluted and controlled fashion. It was what allowed ordinary bremetans, who by nature should have been able to wield only lifeforce, to become terramancers, aeromancers, aquamancers, and so on.

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Sacrificing potential to gain control over an element. That was the primary philosophy behind spiritism.

On the other hand, what she was suggesting was—

“That’s just stupid!” Zuken replied, his tone carefully toeing the line between bewilderment and skepticism. “The Shikigami Ritual binds the kami to our souls. Manifesting them means shattering those restraints and undoing the ritual. There is no…keeping it bound once you’ve manifested it. You may as well kiss your kami goodbye.”

Tanya shrugged. “I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. It’s a big world out there. One that doesn’t always conform to Asukan beliefs.” When Zuken said nothing else in protest, she glanced around, daring the others to contradict her. “I say we return to camp for now, gather everything we need, and prepare to attack this evening—”

“How would you do it?” Olfric asked out of nowhere. There was a surprising lack of hostility in his tone. “Is such a thing even possible?”

“You’ll see,” she replied mysteriously.

The group quickly rushed back to their own camp, the one they took over the previous day. They had gotten everything they needed packed up for the mission while ensuring they wouldn’t be slowed down by the extra weight. That meant leaving behind a lion’s share of the food and other resources. Olfric kept the majority of the grenades in his bag, much to everyone’s amusement, while Zuken packed a bottle of oil and some cotton to avoid over-dependence on torches.

Maude and Elena washed the blood and dirt off the clothes of the dead soldiers from the camp, all except one. Maude was going to pretend to be wounded and hurt. The idea was to pretend to be Cyffnarian troops so they could get past the camp’s gates without drawing unnecessary attention.

“Alright,” Zuken began as they neared the Cyffnarian encampment once more. “I’ll be going over the plan one last time. If you have any questions, ask them now.” When nobody interrupted, he continued. “Between Elena’s charming and Maude’s wounds, we should be able to lower their suspicions. Once inside, Elena can rile up the bicorns inside and set them astray. While Tanya takes advantage of the distraction and wreaks havoc, the rest of us will grab bicorns and race toward the caverns.”

Maude raised a hand. “Will it really be safe to ride them after they’ve gone crazy?”

Elena smiled at her. “Leave that to me.”

“I’ll ride with you then.” The half vanir chuckled. “Wounded, remember?”

“Moving on,” Zuken continued, “as we ride, most of the troops should be going toward Tanya because she’s the most noticeable. I’ll take the back guard to keep anyone from coming behind us, while Olfric takes the front. Maude says she can maintain a healing circle around us so long as we stay together.”

The naturopath in question nodded. “Ten feet max. Any more and you’re on your own.”

Elena looked at Tanya. “Is there anything you want to tell us before we attack? Something to raise morale?”

Tanya blinked. “Uh, yeah, sure. This is going to suck and you should expect horrible things to happen to each of us. So don’t let your guard down.”

Elena crossed her arms and pouted. “I was looking for something inspiring.”

“Inspiration leads to overconfidence,” Olfric replied.

“Don’t side with her!” she yelled.

“There’s just one thing I can’t place,” Olfric continued, squinting. “The caverns are fairly far from the ward line. Even riding bicorns, it will take us at least fifteen minutes to cover the distance. How is she”—he glanced at Tanya—“going to fight while riding a bicorn?”

“I won’t need one,” Tanya promised.

“Then?”

Her smile became predatory. “You’ll see.”

Their plan went into motion fabulously. Between Elena’s allaying powers, their Cyffnarian attire, and the wounds on Maude’s body, they passed through the border patrol without any issues. It turned out that the soldiers who raided their camp were supposed to return after eliminating the smuggling crew. After that, everything else just fell into place; it was almost insulting how easy it was.

Then, it was time for the first distraction. Tanya wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen it firsthand.

One moment, Elena was conversing with the crowd, and in the next, several of the bicorns neighed furiously, rattling against their chains as if the end of the world was nigh. Some quick-and-dirty Terramancy on Zuken’s part broke through their bindings, taking care of the rest.

And now, as her team hopped onto the two-horned equines, it was her turn to step up.

Rolling her neck, Tanya began to alter the air currents around her. Siphoning them backward allowed her to propel forward in whatever direction she wanted. Adding in a little gravity manipulation trick she’d learned back in Maluscion, and to any neutral observer, it would look like she was flying.

“She can FLY?!”

She smirked at Olfric’s fading screech as he rode toward the caverns.

Of course, flying had its own share of issues. She could dodge if she saw the projectile coming at her, and she could even weave through attack patterns. But attacking while maintaining flight was still beyond her. Taking a single shot would mess up her balance and send her plummeting.

But that was fine. It was simply a method to get away from the others and attract attention. Before she really got started.

“Attack!” roared a Cyffnarian soldier, wielding one of the greatswords preferred by the Cobalt Army. Tanya landed on the ground and rushed toward the nearest soldier coming toward her. She aimed a hit at his elbow, reversed the hilt of his sword, and shoved it straight through his stomach.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

More steel glittered ahead of her. Tanya pulled the heavy sword out of the slain soldier’s gut and sent it flying at the next attacker, a bit of Aeromancy doubling the sword’s speed. Her opponent was skilled enough to deflect the sword’s blow, but not fast enough to dodge the blade of wind hidden underneath that pierced through his neck.

Two gone. Tons more to go.

“AEROMANCER!” someone yelled, and before she knew it, the ground in front of her shot up into spikes that aimed for her face. Tanya leaped back with three somersaults and sent a concussive blast of wind at her opponents. But one of them raised a sand wall, proving himself to be yet another terramancer, while the other stepped out of the way, with only a cut on the cheek to show for it.

“Nimble, ain’tcha?” commented one of the swordsmen circling her like a predator. Between the two terramancers and two sword-wielding soldiers, she was effectively locked in place. Any wind attacks would be instantly blocked by walls, while the swordsmen carefully wove their way closer and closer to her.

Taking a deep breath, Tanya closed her eyes, before snapping them wide open. Alert. Focused. No more reservations, or holding back for the sake of holding back. The battle was hers to win, and she would guide it in whatever direction she saw fit.

Her show of confidence didn’t faze them in the slightest. The first swordsman came at her from the side, her twin swords spinning like dazzling blurs while a terramancer charged from the back with a chunk of rock cloaking his fist. A second swordsman slid under her guard, aiming for a sweeping slash of her legs.

Three against one. A splendid tactic to take her down before she could react.

But, for all their coordination, it didn’t change the fact that they were simply too slow.

Tanya blurred into motion. The twin-sword user’s eyes widened and the blades twirling around her wrists abruptly clanged above her in a blocking cross. A heartbeat later, a wind hammer smashed against the woman’s hastily prepared guard. The swordsman strained, and she buckled when a slashing gesture tore through her legs.

Tanya backflipped and grabbed the terramancer by the wrist, redirecting his motion toward the ground as she flipped him over her shoulder. She spat a wind blade into the man’s eyes at the same time as she grasped the hilt of the other swordsman’s sword, snatching out of his hands.

The man stared back at her, resignation written all over his face. “…This is going to hurt, isn’t it?”

“A little,” she admitted.

A second later, the soldier’s decapitated head bounced along the sandy floor.

“FIRE!” came a shout, and a volley of flaming arrows sped toward Tanya. One second, she felt the stirring of wind around her, pressing against her in just the right ways, shaping her body into the proper angle, propelling herself into the air. The very next, she was high up in the air with a bird’s-eye view of the large contingent gathered below her.

In the distance, Zuken and the others were being chased by a cavalry despite his and Olfric’s attempts at keeping them away. A large group of spiritists were waiting for them midway, while archers stood at attention, ready to take them out from afar. Finally, there was—

Oh no! A pincer attack—

“AAGH FUCK!” Tanya cried, feeling a sharp surge of agony as a metal arrow stabbed through her calf. The sudden pain knocked her off-balance, making her vulnerable to gravity once more. She barely managed to pour wind under her feet in time to avoid getting a broken leg.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” came an ominous voice. Behind her, a strongly built man crossed his arms and looked down at her with a mix of condescension and pity. “A tiny, injured birdie. Where did you come from, little girl?”

Tanya ignored his words and focused on his wristbands. Crimson. Three layers. He was a pyromancer, and a damn good one at that. Two pairs of swordsmen took positions behind him, while another three scimitar-wielding warriors circled back around her. What was it with these Cyffnarians and trying to intimidate her with numbers?

“It looked like there was a party.” She shrugged, standing back up with a grimace on her face. “So I decided to join in on the fun. But frankly, it’s been a little disappointing.”

“Is that so?” The pyromancer grinned, his yellow teeth on full display. “Get her.”

Tanya watched the approaching troop with detached interest. Her eyes hardened and became ice-cold, and she made a motion of rubbing errant dust off of her shoulders. She knew that she would have no trouble taking them down, because she knew something they didn’t. A fundamental truth, of sorts.

Most people were not prepared to die.

They weren’t prepared for the possibility that their final moment was approaching. One could not function if they constantly lived in fear of that demise. And so they chose to pretend that everything was fine. They rubbed shoulders and took solace in the collective lie that they told one another.

It was why this group of soldiers approached the lone injured aeromancer with gleeful grins on their faces, not stopping to consider that the same woman had slaughtered half a dozen of their men just moments ago.

Tanya smiled. She would teach them better.

She grabbed the neck of the nearest person, dragged his jaws open, and—power flowed into her—sent a blast of wind through his mouth. Quickly accelerating herself to the left, she circulated wind around her right arm and pierced straight through another’s chest.

More power flowed in.

Her left hand played with force. Her right hand bent the wind. Her immediate vicinity was filled with a series of sickening cracks and groans as she systematically aimed for their essential bones with a mechanical precision.

Femurs. Knees. Elbows. Ankles. Ribs. Spine. Skull.

“MY ARM!”

—power—

“SH—ARKK!”

—more power—

“MONSTER!”

“Someone HEL—!”

—more, more, more—

Horrified, begging, gurgling screeches dripped out of their dying mouths as the soldiers fell to the ground—some on their knees, others face-first, but all of them broken by her actions. Tanya jerked her hand back and punched someone at the base of his spine, her fingers grabbing at something far more powerful and metaphysical than bone.

It surged into her—

—Tanya crushed the man’s vertebrae, dropping him to the floor like a stringless puppet. She looked at the spiraling, contorting web of energy in her hand and felt it sink into her body.

Lifeforce Gained—3466

She had nearly forgotten the euphoric feeling. Every time she sank her fingers into someone, their lifeforce—their very lifeblood—became hers. Hers to tear out. Hers to use. Her to consume. But it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like these people—FOOD—would have used it properly anyway.

But…

“Should it be so easy to end a life?” she asked aloud, to no one in particular.

The large pyromancer from before coughed out a glob of blood onto the ground. “Now I see. You’re no Asukan, are ya? You’re something else, ain’tcha? A deviant fuckin’ bastard.”

“You’re still here?” Tanya wondered. “I thought you’d have run away by now.”

The man cackled, undeterred by her icy gaze. “Run? Run? Are you fuckin’ serious? The kind of mezals I’m gonna get from the Cobalt Army when I send a deviant packing is—is—”

His mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.

His hands twitched, but they no longer moved.

His eyes widened as he screamed silently, in a voice that no one could hear.

And then he died. Just like that.

…

Tanya snorted. “So much for that.” She turned toward the caverns leading into the anomaly, where her teammates were waiting for her. It was going to be weird explaining what had happened to them, especially considering she hadn’t unleashed her kami at all.

But the lifeforce tasted wonderful.

A satisfied sigh escaped her lips as Tanya stared up at the Black Moon. With no further ado, she began to walk towards her destination, uncaring of the piles of bodies that littered her path.