With everything she owned either slung over her shoulder or hanging from her belt, Hina walked out of her room in The Grove.

She had her knife, her sling, her bag of shiny black stones—there were twelve in the bag, and one clutched in her left hand—and the two beast cores, one in each pocket. The throwing patterns were fresh in her mind.

Hina was ready for a fight.

Her feet pushed her on towards the dining room, for lack of a better place to start. Kai slept six turns away from the dining room, and Hina was going to find him.

She followed the path she'd taken with Bruce earlier that evening. Left at Black Sun, right at Eggs and right again at the Tree.

The dining room was right... there. Opposite the painting with the Bees. She turned the handle and pushed the door open.

Bruce was leaning back on a chair at the dining table, arms behind his head. He had his back to her, facing the window. He was looking out into the darkness.

Oddly, the windows didn't reflect the room, it was like there was nothing in the panes.

"Must say, I'm a bit surprised," Bruce said without turning around. "I didn't think you'd be this stupid."

"Where's Kai?"

"None of your business, girlie. Not anymore."

"Tell me where he is, or I'll—I'll—"

"What will you do?" Bruce stood and turned slowly, a broad smile on his face. "You gonna cut me with that knife?"

"Tell me where he is."

"No, girl." He shook his head. "No, I don't think I will. What I'm going to do is escort you out. Shame we couldn't work together, really." He stepped out from behind the chair and started moving towards her. "Bit of a disappointment."

"No."

"No?"

Hina completed the working. She held up her open left hand. "No." The stone shot towards Bruce.

He swayed to the side. The stone... flew past him. A dark pit of fear opened in Hina's chest. The window shattered with a deafening crash. She'd missed.

She'd missed.

Bruce glanced over his shoulder at the broken window, then back at Hina. "Well then," Bruce said, still smiling. "That changes things."

Hina stared at him in growing horror.

"You attacked me." Bruce sounded almost gleeful. "That there, is a breach of guest-rite. Hina, you are no longer a guest of this House."

Hina's right hand reached into the pouch of stones, picking out another. She took a step back. The stone was cold in her hand. Heavy.

"You know what that means?" Bruce grinned. "That means I can do whatever I want with you."

The patterns cycled through Hina's mind, one after another. Her heart raced, blood roaring in her ears.

"I'm going to enjoy this," he said.

The stone shot out of Hina's hand, flew across the intervening space and struck Bruce in the shoulder with an audible thud. It fell down to thunk onto the floor.

"Oof." Bruce rubbed at his shoulder. He was still standing. "Quite the punch you got there," he said with a smirk. "Now. My turn." He stepped forward.

Hina's shoulder bumped into the doorframe. She'd backed up as far as she could. She turned and ran out the open door, along the the corridor to the left, her sandals slapping against the floor of the passage.

"You can't run from me, girlie!" Bruce's voice echoed down the corridor behind her.

A strange sucking sensation pulled at her ambit, like potentia was being drawn out of her grasp. It was like someone had opened a door in a closed room, the pressure shifting.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

But Hina didn't have time to think about that. She turned left at a painting with a bunch of fruit and teeth. No time to give it a proper name.

Her stone hadn't even hurt him. And she'd killed ordinary people with the same working.

She had to do better next time. She might only get one more chance.

Something howled in the corridor behind her, her head hurt with the sheer noise of it.

She turned right at a painting with a tangle of limbs. While she ran, she took three more of the shiny black stones out of her pouch and held them in her left hand.

An answering howl came from somewhere ahead. Nora.

Right at the next corner, and then left and right again. Hina wasn't paying attention to where she was going—not anymore.

Around the next corner, she stopped.

A wolf-thing stood waiting in the corridor, mouth open in a toothy grin. Hina recognised it as one was one of the smaller ones from The Spire—maybe three-quarters of Hina's height, muscles rippling under thick dark-brown fur. Curved white horns rose from between its ears.

It paced towards her, snarling.

Hina held her hand up, like she was blowing a kiss. Black stones held out in offering, while the patterns shifted and cycled within her.

The working hadn't harmed Bruce, but.

A stone shot out, hit the wolf-thing full in the face.

The beast shrieked and stagged back, stumbling over its feet.

Hina continued to cycle the patterns.

It hadn't hurt Bruce, but she'd only hit him once.

The beast turned as if to run.

A second stone shot out, caught the wolf-beast in the side.

The patterns spun within Hina's mind. A dance of twisted lines and power.

The third stone shot out and hit the wolf-thing in the face.

It crumpled, collapsing to the ground with a low whine.

Hina ran, hopped over the fallen pile of fur and teeth—it snapped at her as she passed, but the teeth didn't come close. She turned a corner to the left.

Something howled behind her.

Hina turned another corner—left this time, and stopped at the first door, right around the corner. The handle turned and she rushed through, pulling the door closed behind her. If she could lose Bruce here... She snicked the lock into place.

Backing up into the room, Hina found that it was almost identical to the one she'd been given. Bed, desk, wardrobe, mirror, washroom. Window.

The back of her foot bumped into the bottom of the window frame. She stopped.

Checked her well of power—she'd spent freely, but it had grown so much deeper over the last few weeks of travel. It barely felt like she'd used any power at all. Perhaps three quarters of her capacity left—certainly not less than two thirds. She pulled three more stones out of the pouch, which was getting light now.

The mirror in the corner of her eye seemed strange somehow—the reflection not quite right. But there was no time to worry about that. She ignored it.

No time to use the working multiple times, not if Bruce could just shake it off.

Hina would have to take a risk.

The sigil bloomed within her mind's eye, an emblem of depth and power. Its tendrils writhed around the edges, no matter how hard she tried to contain it with the force of her will.

The door shook as something hit it from the other side. An animalistic howl rang out, deafening in the enclosed space.

Hina covered her ears until it passed. One of the stones slipped from her hand and skittered across the floor.

Something thumped into the door again. The whole thing moving with the impact, the center of the door visibly bending inwards.

Hina bent down, scrambled to pick up the stone that she'd dropped.

The thing crashed into the door again, the door bending in its frame. It gained an indentation in the center.

Crouching down with stones in her right hand, Hina fed the sigil a thread of her power as she started to visualise what she wanted it to do.

The door burst open, revealing the horned wolf-beast, which filled the doorway.

It was bigger than Hina remembered.

Her body froze, some primal instinct holding her in place. But she completed the image as the wolf-beast—Bruce—paced forward, teeth bared, wolf-mouth grinning.

The sigil pulsed, and a series of patterns flashed into Hina's mind, three at a time in staccato sequence. Hina held up her open left hand, trembling ever so slightly.

Three stones shot out, hurling themselves at the thing in the doorway. Three impacts blurring into a single loud thud as they collided with his head and chest and head again.

The sigil within her mind was bigger somehow—it had expanded, blossomed. Twisting and turning within her mind, uncontrolled—uncontrollable.

It grew as she watched it, growing, expanding and twisting faster as it drew on—something—in the air. Hina absently tried to dismiss it three times and failed.

Panicked, she gave it her full attention—go—she put the full force of her will into the command.

Something shifted. The sigil began to fade, taking its time.

And then it popped out of her mind, leaving behind a faint sense of amusement.

Back against the window, Hina slid down until she was sitting on the ground with the knees folded in front of her.

The thing that had been Bruce was lying on the floor before her, so close that she could reach out and touch its mangled face if she wanted to. Its paw twiched. It was barely moving.

Hina was okay. She was alive.

But she still didn't know where Kai was.

And Bruce wasn't in a state to answer questions. He was dying, if not dead already.

Good.

It was what he deserved.

But how was Hina going to find Kai now?

Could she ask Ivan?

But no. She had no idea where Ivan was.

The wolf-thing huffed out a breath, and then lay still.

Hina didn't know where to go. She didn't even know where she was anymore.

She pushed herself up to her feet, legs shaking. Picked up the sticky black stones on the floor, put them back in the pouch.

Clambered over the furry body and stepped out into the corridor.

And stopped still in the strange unearthly light of the corridor. A thought occurred to her. She turned back to the door, looked past the body to the darkened window, the shadowy trees beyond.

Wet the roots, feed the leaves.