They had been on the airship for barely a day, but it already felt weird to stand on solid ground. Granted, that ground was also few kilometers above the sea level, but it was solid nonetheless. Fernanda had seen a lot of pictures of the Chilean mountains, but never visited the country herself. She hadn't had any chances to travel and this was the first time she had left both her country and her city. And it had already turned out to be quite an experience.

Even the air felt different. Some of it was the elevation and the lower oxygen concentration. But it was also the lack of people and the lack of city. The place they had landed to was not only pastoral, it looked like it was torn from the pages of history with its shoddy stone buildings and goat herders. So this was where Azucena had grown up.

After the meeting on the dirigible, they had finally talked. Azucena had been open and honest and talked about her family's ties to the mystical. They weren't all wizards of anything, and Azucena had said she didn't plan to be either. Her teenage years had been spent in the old world of internet and social media and phones with quite incredible capabilities selling dreams to young girls. Dreams that old magic and centuries of tradition can't fulfill. So the Chilean teenager had left these mountains and set out to become – what was it – an influencer? And then, in some cruel twist of fate, acquired her magic accidentally. Fernanda was still trying to wrap her head around it.

The most relatable part, to Fernanda, was the she had never returned to her family, even after inadvertently becoming a part of the family legacy. She knew all about how hard rebuilding those ties could be, and how exhausting and anxiety-inducing even thinking about it could be.

But her girlfriend had also had a question for her: did she want magic? It was a question Fernanda didn't have a definite answer for. Did it seem enticing? Of course it did! But it was also almost incomprehensibly scary. Even though she had not seen Anna literally on fire, that was not an experience she wanted to have. It didn't happen to everyone, Azucena had told her. But what was certain, was that it would be painful in one way or another. Yet here she was, on the run and experiencing plenty of the downsides of life with magic, without having access to the power and, really, any means of defending herself against these supernatural opponents.

So she had, truthfully, said that she didn't know. Had that been the answer Azucena had been hoping for? It had at least been the one she had expected.

"Where to, now?" Cassandra asked behind her.

They had landed on the apex of one of the mountains. It wasn't the tallest around, but there was still a lot of downhill from here, until any settlements could have been reached. Cassandra had wanted to pilot the ship closer, but Azucena had wanted distance between the vessel and her family's holdings. It was a wise, if arduous decision, Fernanda thought.

Azucena pointed town to a small group of scattered buildings.

"Humble," said the Brit and they started walking down. Even Anna was up on her feet now, though still severely weakened. The jock, whose name had turned out to be Mike – or rather that was what he wanted to be called – was helping her walk.

It took them half an hour to reach the settlement, and it had all been downhill. Fernanda shuddered to think how the way back would be. Hopefully, at least, not while they were running for their lives. She could do with a little less of that in her life.

There was an older woman standing on the road, with a rope attached to a goat. Her eyes immediately fixated on Azucena. Everyone stopped. The two woman started at each other for a time that felt like an eternity – a very, very uncomfortable eternity.

"Well, look who's back," the woman said, eventually.

Azucena tried to smile. "Better late?"

The woman snorted. "You're in trouble, aren't you?"

"A little?"

The woman threw up her arms theatrically and made sure everyone saw her roll her eyes. "Listen to this! She comes home, because she's in trouble! Did she come to see her father pass? No! Comfort her old mother? No! Trouble! Yes!"

"Hey, that's not fair! You don't know what she's been through!" Fernanda shouted, and immediately covered her mouth. She glanced at Azucena, who looked shocked, and whispered: "I'm sorry."

It was too late, of course. The old woman had taken her to her sights. "Who's this then? A little lady who sees it her duty to defend my daughter?"

Of course, she was Azucena's mom. Fernanda panicked. "Well, I'm – uh – I'm someone I hope is very important to your… daughter. And why shouldn't I defend her? And how dare you speak to her like that?! You're her mother, yes, but she owes you nothing. Yes, she left, but did you really even try to accommodate her? Did you ever look in to the mirror and ask, what you did wrong? Why the hell is it always a daughter's responsibility to mend the wounds?!"

Azucena's mother looked at Fernanda quizzically. "A spicy one, eh? A little chili! Well, chipotle, it is not a mother's job to accommadate her daughter, who should be grateful for the care she had received. Do you not think I did not hear of things in the world? We had MTV! I wanted to be a singer. But I had respect. I understood legacy."

"Well, this is a nice family reunion," Cassandra interjected. "But it is getting quite chilly – excuse the pun – out here. Can we take this inside, hmm?"

"What a mother would I be if I did not welcome my daughter and her… friends, to our home? Do make yourself at home." And at that, she turned and scuttled to the building nearby. It wasn't a bit house, but sizeable enough to easily house their group and the people who were already inside – people who Fernanda assumed to be Azucena's family.

After being ushered inside and lead to the dining room, they all were sat down and served empanadas. Fernanda only now realised it had been more than a day she had touched any food. Whether there had been any aboard the ship, she didn't know, as they had been too busy to even think about food. But now, the rather simple, mushroom-filled pastries tasted like high heaven. She said as much to Azucena's mother, who barely shrugged at the compliment.

"Well, Rayan, now that we're all comfortable here, I'm sure you have a tall tale to tell," the old woman said.

Fernanda, along with almost everyone else, gasped. Azucena blushed.

"I took the name from a video game," she said quickly. "It was… before the magic." She took a deep breath. "Look, mama, we have plenty to talk about, I know, but… there are some pressing issues. And some people here," she gestures towards Heinz and Cassandra, "have heard most of it anyway. Or even lived it. Can we catch up later?"

"Well, I don't want to hold up your friends for nothing, of course!" Azucena's – uh, Rayan's? – mother said. "What drives you here then?"

"Well, that is also quite a long story–" Heinz started, rather excitedly, but was cut off by Azucena immediately.

"She has been recently–" she seemed to look for the right term for a bit, "she has recently awakened." Azucena nodded at Anna, who was shivering.

"Oh," said the mother and there was a great deal of sympathy in her face and voice. "Let us help her upstair then. Aucaman will know what to do." She left the room for a short while and came back with a young man. He ushered Anna outside.

"Now," Azucena's mother said again. "Tell me what's wrong. I can see in my daughter's face a great distress."

What followed was a rather disjointed story told by people who had participated in different parts in the narrative, and were not exactly sure how all the pieces fit together. It was, in the end, a surprisingly coherent tale about a boy who could see in the future and the unknown, yet powerful, organisation that hunted him. Azucena's mother listened very patiently to all of this.

"That is quite something," the old woman said. "Do you have anything to add?" she asked Luca, who had been, again, quiet the whole time. The boy just shook his head. "There are tales…" she begun, but was cut off by Azucena.

"Mama, enough of the old tales. I've lived this life long enough to know what they are – just tales."

"You say so, even after meeting the boy who can see the future?"

"That still doesn't make the hallucinations of our ancestors true."

"But seeing the future, it is not impossible anymore?"

"I – I don't know. I guess not. It still doesn't mean some Nostradamian-adjacent prophecies from a millennia ago are correct. We don't know how far his abilities go, just a few days."

"There is much that is not known," the mother said and ended with a marked silence.

"Oh, fuck no–" Azucena said.

"You need to talk to the Witch of the Inca," the old woman said and it was clear to everyone that they had to do just that.

* * *

It had been more than 20 years since she had last slept in this house. She had still had dreams where she lived here, or at least visited here. They were often vivid, but often also distorted, as dreams tend to be, and entangled with whoever or whatever was going on with her life at that point. Tonight, she had not dreamt of anything, or at least she could not remember if she did. It might have been the overwhelming exhaustion of the last days, or the fact that now that she was home – for some value of home – dreaming about it was quite a moot point.

The room they were in now had belonged to her brother when she had still lived here. She didn't know where he was, nor what had happened to her old room. She had, in general, avoided talking to her mother, and would do so until she felt a bit stronger. Her mother was strong and proud and not one to give in or forgive easily, and it had been over two decades – a long time to let your hatred fester and grow and turn to black obsidian. Whether or not the wounds could ever be healed, she did not know.

She had never planned to return – not even the Necromancer had driven her that far – but with the boy and Anna's Corruption and the shadowy entity after them, somehow, the only safe place she could think of had been home. Her mother would never turn her away, she had known, but it had been clear she had no intention of making her stay comfortable either. And, indeed, she was already driving her out, to go find some family legend no one had ever even seen.

The Witch of the Inca, mom? Not the Mapuche? Why the sudden need to tourist trap our family legends? Her mom had always been so proud of their Mapuche heritage, it seemed weird that she would call the Witch an Inca, a rather generic moniker? Maybe to market it to her friends?

It had worked, of course. Now everyone was convinced that a ghost from hundreds of years old stories would suddenly be the solution to their problems. Even Heinz! The ever-scholar hadn't bat an eyelid when Lady of the house Millaray had suggested that, nor had he protested the plan afterwards.

"You up already," Fernanda said groggily.

Azucena smiled at her. "You can still sleep, if you want."

"You know," the woman under the wool blanket said, "there's so much more room for both of us here than there is on the ship."

She had a solid point, Azucena decided, and laid back down, sliding under the blanket and into the warmth of her girlfriend's body. "This is nice," she said as they kissed.

Alas, their snuggling was soon interrupted by mommy dearest busting in from the door. "I don't know how they did things wherever you've been, but in here we wake up at sunrise. Mr. Butterbeek called hours ago!"

"Mr. Butterbeak?" Fernanda asked.

"It's the rooster," Azucena said. "Must be, what, Mr. Butterbeak the Fifteenth by now?"

"Nineteenth," mother said. "There were a couple of sickly ones and one got eaten by a bear."

"Poor Mr. Butterbeak," Fernanda said.

"Not to mention," mother continued, "there was a certain tuxedo-clad villain after the current Mr. Butterbeak this morning."

"Lady Penguin!" Fernanda exclaimed.

"We are not calling her that," Azucena sighed. Fernanda shot a glare so icy at her that their cat's namesakes would have wanted at least a pair of wool socks. "We can call her that until we have time to figure out a more… permanent moniker."

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"I don't her what you call her, but you better make sure she leaves the rooster alone. And the chickens. And the fox."

"You have a fox?" Fernanda gasped.

"We… do?" Azucena hazarded. They had not had a fox or any other canine when she had been living here. Naturally, if they had, the fox would be long dead. Still, she was surprised at the proliferation of wild predators on the farm.

Her mother completely ignored any further enquiries about the new vulpine family member. "I have made breakfast, and everyone else is already downstairs," she said matter-of-factly, and left.

Fernanda pulled the blanket on top of her head. "I don't want to."

Azucena put her hand on her girlfriend. "I don't want either. I don't want to spend who knows how many days chasing after a ghost."

Two brown eyes peeked from under the rug. "Your mom seemed pretty convinced she's real."

"Family legacy has always been important to her, and the Witch is far from the only story that has circulated around here since the actual times of the Inca and who knows how much longer."

"But magic is real, and so are zombies and animated skeletons. Are ghosts not?"

"Even amongst the Corrupted, no one knows what, if anything, happens after death. Ghosts, as they are usually understood, don't exist – or at least no one has ever encountered a single one. But there are… entities and ways to appear very ghostlike. We can animate mist or fog and project quite believable visions. Some of the ghost stories have originated from that."

Azucena fell silent. It would be so easy to just say that the Witch did not exist and leave it at that. But they were grasping at straws, and even she was desperate for answers – any answers.

"The Witch is not a ghost," she continued. "Whether she exist or even actually dates back centuries… Well, there are ways to live very, very long, even if it will be a very painful existence."

"Can it be multiple people? Like, a secret society where when one Witch dies, a new one takes the role?"

That was one of the theories, Azucena knew. She was impressed that Fernanda had circled in on it so quickly. "It's possible," she said, smiling.

With a long yawn, the woman sat up and stretched her arms. "I guess we need to go down."

They got dressed quickly and headed down the squeaky wooden stairs that started right next to the door to their room. The house had not changed at all since she left, but then again, it had not changed in the nearly two decade she lived there, not had it probably changed in the centuries preceding that. Azucena could appreciate the fact that it was hard to live in an eternal place like that and not develop a sense of legacy like her mother had. Yet, even if the stone walls stayed the same, the world around them did not, nor would the people. Generations had lived on these mountains with barely any contact with the outside world, all but oblivious to the empires that crumbled around them and the nations that rose and fell. But – thanks to her rather progressive father – Azucena had gotten her first smartphone aged 13 and it had opened a completely new world to her. It just hadn't been that long since that whole world had suddenly seized to exist in a cascade of cataclysmic events, and the ancient realm of magic had swallowed the would-be influencer whole.

As per her habit, her mother had not lied and everyone else was around the table, even Anna, who was the only one not looking almost uncharacteristically perky. Well, Corruption does that to you. Welcome to the club, I guess. Even Luca had a liveliness to himself she had not seen previously.

"Your mother is a phenomenal chef, Azu!" Cassandra said with a wide smile and a mültrün in her hand.

"You can call me Millaray," said her mother cheerily.

Might as well enjoy the meal, Azucena thought as she sat down and picked up a plate. Fernanda did the same next to her. For a fleeting moment, everyone was quiet, too encompassed in the food to say a word.

But someone had to break that calm, and this time it was Heinz. "We've pinpointed the most probably location of the Witch to an old Inca temple some fifty kilometers east of here."

Azucena nodded. She had nothing to argue with. She could say it was a stupid myth, but the truth was they were better off chasing stupid myths than just biding their time here, or anywhere. It at the very least gave her some purpose, and that was what she felt she needed the most right now. A wild goose was preferable to a sitting duck. "Who are going?"

"Who do you think?" Cassandra grinned.

The old gang back together, Azucena knew. It made the most sense – if there was something in that temple, it would be beyond stupid to endanger all of them. The three most capable explorers would be more than enough. "Everyone else is staying here, then?"

"The goats need to get milked and Nawel sprained his ankle, so I'll need some help," her mother quipped.

"I want to milk a goat!" Luca exclaimed with a surprising amount of enthusiasm.

"I'm coming with you," said Anna.

"You are most definitely not." Azucena said. "The last thing we need is you accidentally bringing the roof down on us."

"I can control my powers," the German woman insisted.

"Do you even know what your core ability is?"

Silence.

"Well, I'm certainly Azucena is right on this one. We cannot risk bringing a potential smolderer to an expedition," Cassandra said.

Heinz seemed to eye Anna with some unease, but then said: "I have to agree with them too, sorry. You're in too fragile of a state to go exploring ruins."

Anna pouted, but said nothing.

"It's decided, then," Azucena pronounced. "We'll be leaving soon."

"Be careful," Fernanda said.

"Always," Azucena lied.

* * *

The rest of their impromptu group escorted them to the airship, save for Anna, who was obviously too disappointed. Heinz felt they had made the right choice with her, as it was true that she had only just come to her powers and would be way too unpredictable to join an expedition to a potentially trap-laden ancient ruin. He still felt bad for the woman, more than he normally would for a complete stranger. Heinz had trouble putting a finger on it: it might have been some weird national kinship with another German, but he felt like there was something more to it. There was something vaguely familiar with her, but he couldn't quite tell what. As it was probably nothing, he didn't want to mention it to the others.

"Those two sure are fond of each other," he said instead, watching Azucena and Fernanda hug each other before they departed.

"Mm." Cassandra looked thoughtful, and then added: "I hope it does not end like it usually does."

"You mean with a Corrupted and a mundane, or with Azu's previous relationships?"

"Both, I guess."

Heinz had hard time disagreeing. Contracting magic made dating a very difficult and often potentially deadly pursuit. Few Corrupted were comfortable infecting their loved ones, and while there were ways to prevent that, none were completely reliable. Not to mention that after you entered the world of magic, your life tended to take a turn to the danger lane. That was a life not many people wanted to share with anyone they cared about.

That only left the other Corrupted, but with both people in the relationship leading lives of adventure and violence, things seldom ended very happily. When it happened, it was the stuff of legends. But people were people and love was love and, if anything, the Corrupted were emotional romantics.

He should know.

They met at the bow after their escort had departed.

"Well, here we are," Cassandra said.

"Here we are," Azucena echoed, sounding more deflated than the other woman.

"I have to admit," Heinz said, "an expedition to Inca ruins was not on my bingo card."

That made both his friends chuckle, and agree. As the resident scholar, he felt like this was his quest to lead. "First, we need to gather what we know of the place, which, I'm afraid, is not going to be much. Then we can decide on the best plan of action. Where to leave the ship and so on."

Azucena nodded, and set into a more professional mode. "There's plenty of these ruins in the area, as you know, but I'm not too familiar with this particular one. More than a few were built for or by Corrupted Incas and as such, we have tried to avoid disturbing."

Generally, avoiding anything that had a connection to the Corrupted was a good idea. They were not a very trusting people and absolutely excelled in deadly traps and everlasting magical landmines. That was a sentiment they all agreed on.

"So, do we know anything about this particular one?" Heinz asked.

Azucena looked outside the window. They were still on the mountain above her homestead. "I tried to find if we have anything, and it's not much, even if the Witch is a particular favourite of our family folklore. She is said to be either an immortal or a ghost, so we know that there's probably some life elonging magic going on. There are a handful or stories of her wandering outside of her temple, so there should be some unobstructed exit, but very well conceived."

"When was the last time she was seen?" Cassandra asked.

"Unfortunately, that is a bit vague, but it involves the Spanish colonists, so early 19th century, latest."

"That's very long ago," Heinz said. It didn't bode well for their mission.

Azucena shrugged. "That doesn't mean other excursions didn't happen. They just didn't stick on the local canon. But they still can't have been too recent."

"If she's still alive," Heinz said carefully, "she must be tapped into a wellspring."

"My thoughts, exactly", Azucena agreed.

"Your family has lived here for centuries," Cassandra mused, "they must have some information of the local leylines?"

"Oh, plenty. There are some in the area where the ruins are, but the jungle is not easy to traverse, so it hasn't been mapped carefully. That, and the Inca Witch thing, of course."

Heinz formed his thoughts before saying anything. "So, we're dealing with a probably boobytrapped temple on top of a leyline convergence that is, potentially, powering a stasis sphere for a centuries-old Corrupted witch that has withstood the tests of time and conquistadores and which ever armies have passed through. Right?"

The women nodded. "Easy-peasy," Cassandra grinned.

"Any records of Corrupted making their way there?"

"Uh-huh," Azucena took an old book out of her messenger bag. It was a handwritten, leather-bound volume with browned pages. She handed it to him carefully, signalling its value.

He had plenty of experience handling fragile codices and upon seeing this one only dated back a couple of centuries, he relaxed a bit. It was in good condition relative to its age, too, and the vellum pages were not dry and crumbly. "It's in Spanish," he said after opening the first page.

"Is that a problem?" Azucena grinned.

It was, to a degree. He knew Spanish, as well as a dozen other languages to a point – enough to be able to boost his understanding with magic. Memory magic was a boon for researchers like him, as he could recall almost anything he had ever seen from the depths of his mind – and mind crystals. But he wasn't keen on expending his magical energy already before they entered the temple. He handed back the book.

"So, you want a summary?" Azucena asked, but didn't wait for an answer. "It's from the late 18th century, a Corrupted explorer looking for Eldorado and the fountain of youth was looking for the Witch's advice."

Heinz couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Oh, Eldorado. That's a load of bull."

Azucena's eyes narrowed. "No, it's not."

"Another one of your family legends?" Cassandra asked. She got up. "I need a glass of wine."

"All the Mapuche Corrupted know about it. And there's fountains of youth –"

"Yeah, we know," Cassandra quipped as she exited the room.

"I don't think you need to wait for her," Heinz said.

"I wasn't going to. Ok, so, according to his diary, this guy went looking for the Witch – and he found her."

"We have an actual written account of the Witch? Didn't you say she's not real?"

"Well, it could be a red herring. It was pretty common to write these fake diaries about Eldorado at some point, to misdirect potential infiltrators. But, as it stands, it's all we got at the moment, so we should at least see what it say."

"Go ahead, then."

"According to him, there's three entrances. The main one has a powerful hallucination matrix, drives you absolutely mental in a matter of minutes," Azucena said, flipping the pages of the book.

"Let's avoid that then," Heinz said.

"The second entrance is hidden behind – oh, classic – a waterfall, southeast of the main building. It's a small tunnel barely big enough for an adult to crawl through. And the third… A hole with a hundred feet drop and the ground is covered in spikes."

"How's your levitation spells these days?"

Azucena pursed her lips. "I can probably get one or two of us in."

The scholar grimaced. "We'd need to split. That's not good. How did he get in?"

"Floated through the hole. He was alone. There's no mention where the tunnel from the second entrance ends up. But there's a bunch of corridors and doors afterwards and – this is weird – have to be followed in the Fibonacci sequence."

"I thought this place predated the Europeans," Cassandra said. She was carrying a bottle of red wine and a glass.

"The name for the sequence is European, but it doesn't mean the Inca couldn't have come up with it on their own too," Heinz said. "They were pretty bad ass mathematicians."

Cassandra rolled her eyes as she poured the wine. "A sequence of words more ill-fitted has never been uttered."

"Did you not study math before your career, uh, took a different turn?" Heinz enquired.

Cassandra shrugged. "Perhaps, but now I have a reputation and an image to uphold, thank you very much."

"Right. So, after the Fibonacci maze?"

"Well, there seems to be a set of traps – oh fuck."

"What?"

The look on Azucena's face radiated ire. "He had a retinue of locals. Slaves, basically. He brute forced the traps by sacrificing every single one of them!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Cassandra's voice was overflowing with venom. If there was something all of them hated more than anything, it was these obnoxiously privileged assholes with zero regard for anyone but themselves. This cesspit of humanity had ruined civilisations, destroyed cultures and almost decimate the whole human species itself.

The book was now on the table. "I'm not reading a word more," Azucena said.

"Not blaming you," Cassandra said. "There's a shower in my cabin, if you feel like it," she continued.

Azucena shook her head. "I'll survive. Somehow."