'Okay, you were right,' she thought, 'but I still have to do this on my own.'

Reacting quickly, Rowena ran the few feet over to Iris, moving in front of her like a shield. "Iris, you must get up!"

For a second, the older woman just looked at the shockingly frail, small back that was exposed to her, and time seemed to stand still for a brief moment. She had already opened her mouth, but nothing would come out, no matter how hard she tried.

Iris's body was cold, her dress was wet on the snowy ground, and her shaky breath reminded her with every puff of mist that they were indeed still in the north. But even with this cold, she couldn't care less.

Her eyes burned, the air held a putrid stench that stung her nostrils, and what she saw beyond the young lady was even more horrifying. It was so grotesque, she didn't even know what she was seeing.

A tear formed in the corner of her eye as she finally managed to blink and turn her head slightly, her neck stiff, moving slowly and mechanically. "Young... Young Lady, what is going on...?" The old jewelry designer had seen a fair bit of the world, but dancing skeletons were not one of them.

And it wasn't just the dancing, at least one of them had a blade in its hand. It had attacked the young woman. When she focused again, she saw the half-transparent blade with a black hilt in the hand of the lord's daughter.

She swallowed in disbelief. "A divine artifact..." That was what she saw.

Dumbfounded, Rowena shot her a glance. 'Divine artifact? Where? I wish I had one too.'

She couldn't mean the old saber the clunky fencer in front of her wielded as he swung at her again, while the others in her peripheral vision moved to get some kind of weapon as well.

"Iris, you need to get up now," Rowena repeated as the wind picked up and some of her lavender waves blew in front of her face just as the blade came in and she blocked it with her own, "we need a Priest. The holes must be filled. Call for Colin."

'Young Master Colin?' Iris was unaware of the young master's presence in the Territory, but she could make the connection somewhat, as far as her confused mind was capable of comprehending things.

As she tried to stand, she wobbled and almost fell back onto her backside. Rowena held her blade against the skeleton soldier's, keeping the dull edge pressed sharply against the underside of her forearm, back in her passive stance. It was all she could do.

She felt a gust of wind from the side and bent at the waist, lowering her torso to the left. A scratching sound rang out as the skeleton's blade scraped across her own with the movement. But just in time as a short plank of wood narrowly missed her right shoulder.

The pain wasn't very sharp, but she felt something else flying past her. Suddenly, in front of her, her opponent was gone. No, he was not, the blade was still pushing her arm into her own chest, slowly but surely as her strength reached its limit. But his head was no longer above her, staring at her with his empty sockets.

It didn't have a head anymore, the plank must have blown it off because the other fiend had aimed straight for the shoulder of her sword arm. A scream reached her ears through the chaos and she had to look over her shoulder to see the damage.

Iris shrieked as the rotting head suddenly flew into her arms like a child playing catch. She tried to let go, but it bit into her biceps. Panic overwhelmed her, tears fell, it all reminded her too much of that day sixteen years ago.

She tried to calm down, stood still and took a step back, squeezing her eyes shut. The bite wasn't even that painful in her estimation.

Would all the pain be over if she vanished? 'Maybe that's better.'

"It's not a Visitor, Iris," Rowena yelled, dodging another blow as more of the dance troupe decided to join their little scuffle, "try to shake it off, it can't do anything to you."

'Except maybe give you tetanus,' she thought as a blunt weapon connected with her upper back.

The pain shot through her instantly, her Mana defenses not enough to protect her from the full force as she couldn't breathe.

She thought she could use her muscle memory. But she was wrong. Those weren't her muscles, they would have a different memory. Her memory couldn't make up for the physical capability she now lacked.

'Will you allow me to step in?' Pan asked, distracting her for half a heartbeat.

'What would you even do? No.' It was true, he couldn't do much anyway. Apart from reforming the contract. He wouldn't go against her will, if she didn't want him to step up, then so be it.

Unfortunately, the time she spent thinking was more than enough for another plank to hit the side of her head with full force. Ears ringing, she hit the cold floor, the cloak not helping as she increased her Mana, spreading it in all directions, not just her blade, which wouldn't even reach them.

It felt as though she had become a hedgehog, as she burned and spiked up the Mana she had saved in her core during all those hours of meditation.

She couldn't feel anything anymore, because she was terrified for her life, so she poured out her Mana. Her eardrums began to itch as she attempted to mend the damage done by the blow, her eyes screwed shut.

Iris had seen her fall. She couldn't save her, there was nothing she could do.

But her horror at what she had seen was greater than the fear of even a moving skull. Finally she ripped it off, it didn't even have such a strong jaw.

She would do what she had to do, despite the bleeding arm, she would run with her feet anyway. And that she did.

"Help!" she shouted loudly, turning heads all over the marketplace, "On the graveyard, there's monsters! Monsters in the graveyard, we need a Priest!"

"What are you saying, Iris?" an old friend of Ansgar's replied, stepping out of a small stall selling fish from an unfrozen lake about half an hour to the south.

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"Please, we need help, the young lady..." She began to cry at the very moment she thought help might actually come, stumbling in her staggering gait.

As Bruno caught her before she fell, he saw the torn cloth and blood dripping from her arm. Torn flesh was visible through the tattered sleeve, and the glistening dark liquid soaked the dress at her waist as well.

"We need a guard," he said under his breath, shocked to the core, "Where is Ansgar? By Aurora, where is this guy when you need him?"

"It doesn't matter, Bruno. We have to send help, the lady is badly hurt," she was sobbing now, words barely audible, but he knew what she had said.

He knew that some people had seen someone terribly out of place in their little village. But he hadn't thought they were right about her identity. It was all too confusing.

"The young lady was here?" a new voice answered.

He couldn't tell what was going on, but the young guard hadn't expected to hear that expression so far away from Vandenberg. Gren had been assigned to patrol this part of the Territory today, especially for emergencies regarding the border with Nathos.

"Iris, what in Aurora's name is going on? Wha..." Ansgar stepped out from behind the stunned Gren and looked at his wife in his old friend's arms, her face wet with tears.

"Dear..." When Bruno turned a little and his wife looked at him, he could see the blood on her clothes as well.

"Who did this to you?" He felt angry and out of his depth.

"Monsters appeared in the graveyard, we need a Priest and Knights. The lady is in danger as we speak!" The urgency was visible to everyone around them, they had to take her seriously, no matter how ridiculous the mere idea of "monsters" sounded to them. "You must get Young Master Colin!"

'Monsters? In Varnhagen?' Most of them were thinking the same thing. This was sacred ground, so how could they not? And what about the young master? Was he there, too?

The situation wasn't going to get any less confusing, so the guard had to pull himself out of his daze, slap his own cheeks with his hands, and yell, "Leave the vicinity and hurry to the capital!" as he ran to one of the horses. It wasn't a Tevak horse, but it was an above-average breed.

Bruno stood in front of the villagers and took charge of the evacuation. Meanwhile, Ansgar had to stop and watch the others organize themselves into a group, for Iris was clawing at this shirt with all the strength she could muster.

Devastated, she shook her head, pleading. "We have to go back."

"No, you can't," he said firmly but calmly.

However, she let go of him in response. "Then I will go alone."

Ansgar wondered if he had missed something, but he couldn't think fast enough, because she had already turned away and was running.

She didn't even know she had that much strength left when she entered the forest again. The cold didn't bother her anymore.

But she put a hand over her mouth in shock just a bit later, because when she looked at what was in front of her, she couldn't believe it. And neither could Rowena.

As she lay on the ground, she wasn't sure if this was her last moment. Telling Pan to back off was probably not a good idea. But what else could she do? What else could he have done?

She had been afraid, but there was always this last effort. She would always come out on top, she always did.

When her parents had died as collateral damage when the Visitors had attacked an entire district, simply because she had been there, she alone had survived. Yet she couldn't even remember their faces, let alone their last moments.

It was VAULT that told her, so she thought, "Maybe they weren't being honest with her," it wouldn't have been the first time. But it didn't feel like a lie to her. Did she kill her parents?

She knew she hadn't pulled a knife on them, but she might as well have. Of course, she knew it wasn't her fault, but the nagging feeling would never disappear.

She was like a cockroach, she would not simply perish. All her luck must have been spent on that skill alone - or maybe it was also bad luck.

But as she thought about it, as she felt the burn in her heart and lung muscles as her Mana was slowly depleted, she wondered: "How am I still down here, thinking?"

She opened her eyes, trying to hear something other than the buzzing that was still very clear in her ears as she propped herself up. It was quiet, as far as she could tell.

And for a second she panicked, thinking they might have followed Iris down to the village, but... then she saw it.

"They... Fell apart?" she couldn't tell what was going on, but there were piles of bones all around her, "What happened, Pan?"

'Hm,' she heard, 'It was the Mana. It blocked their control signal.'

"What the hell? How is that a thing?"

'They were brought to life by Mana. Probably a mere tiny bit of it as well.' In other words, it wasn't that hard to block them. 'They must have fallen when you showered them with yours. How are you feeling?'

Jaw trembling, lips quivering, she stood up on her legs like a newborn doe and slowly gathered what strength she had left. A drop of Mana was left, the rest she had sprayed around like bug repellent.

It was a panicked effort, but it saved her life.

It also meant that someone half-heartedly attacked her with something they probably made as a science project in their mother's basement. A weak trial round.

There was nothing like that in the novel. Still... she had survived it. In the end, that was all that mattered.

"Ha," she laughed hollowly, mouth wide open, as if grinning and laughing wholeheartedly at the same time, with nothing more than that one breathless sound coming out of it. "Get fucked."

She couldn't keep herself upright, just turned around a little to see if everything was really quiet, and ended up looking at the mountains behind her, watching the sun set slowly. 'Aurora,' she thought, 'Are you watching this?' Of course, she knew there was no God.

With her hands on her knees, she tried to catch her breath, sweat dripping from her brow. Just standing there was a huge strain, even with the small amount of Mana she had in reserve. If she used it up, she would lose consciousness a second later.

She wanted to walk back to Vandenberg on her own two feet. Especially if her dear brother would show up there.

With the short-term tinnitus still echoing in her head, she could make out a small noise to her left, tried to turn her head, but instead, looked up from her crooked position, slowly straightening up despite her physical state. Where was her sword now?

As she stared ahead, she slowly dropped down to pick up her blade, only to fall to her knees instead. She grabbed her sword nonetheless, attempting to make sense of what she saw.

"What in the ever loving fuck…?" Her mind went blank as she saw a huge mass of water spawning out of thin air at least fifteen feet in front of her and ten feet above her head, as if it was staring right down at her; mocking her. "You thought you were safe? You funny bitch," it said.

Gulping, she stared at it wide-eyed for another split second before whipping her head around, feeling instantly dizzy and seeing a shocked Iris with Ansgar by her side a few feet away from her.

This made her heart sink even further. 'How are they here...?' But they stood at the edge of the clearing, far away from her.

It was a lot of water when it finally came down, felling trees in its wake, and it was obviously heading Rowena's way. She didn't know if she should be flattered by its favor or not.

Deciding to get out of the way, she reached out her arm in Iris' direction, her hand open, trying to manifest her trusty chains. When she remained motionless in that position for a second without anything happening, she had realized her mistake.

There was no chain for her. Time seemed to slow down as her brain went into overdrive; she could try to put all her remaining Mana into her speed and make a run for it, but she wouldn't be that fast and if she was caught by the masses in that state, it would spell her end.

So instead, she pumped everything she had into strengthening her outer shell, grabbed her tanto and drove it into the frozen ground with her last ounce of force.

Absurd thoughts filled her confused mind, like the fact that she didn't want the edge of the blade pointing in her direction. If she pulled back from that position, the sword would start to dig itself up and lose its footing. So she made sure it was horizontal from her perspective, to give it more leverage against the ground.

She had barely time to realize that thought before she wrapped her forearm and elbow around the not-so-trustworthy polymer hilt and clung to it for dear life. She curled up like an armadillo against it, making herself as small as possible, chin to chest, steeling herself as the surprise tidal wave hit her with full force.

A shadow shot up from beneath her. With heavy weight pressing her down, barely discernible through the masses of water, her fragile hold suddenly broke before her back hit a sturdy surface and two arms wrapped around her as she lost consciousness.