Isla’s eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made me reach for my weapon.

"No one's ever asked me that."

She crawled closer to me, hands and knees on the dirt floor. Her eyes, so much like Kirk's, bored into me, sizing me up and taking my measure.

"What can you do?"

"I don't know, I became Landbound yesterday."

"Really?!"

She crawled closer to me, her face inches from mine. I recoiled and turned away from her.

"I-I can show you how to draw upon your connection to the land. My teachers showed me how."

Her breath was hot in my ear.

"O-OK!"

I nodded. Anything to end this ordeal.

"Close your eyes and focus on the sound of my voice."

I did as she instructed.

"Empty your mind. Tell me what you feel."

This was easy enough for me. Meditation was a regular part of my training. It focuses the mind, relieves stress, and makes one more aware of their surroundings. Sinking into my sitting position, I returned to that place far away.

“Well, what do you feel?”

I sighed. How would this be any different from all the other times I meditated?

"I feel you next to me… I feel the heat from the campfire… Oh…"

I shifted my awareness from the external world to my internal one. Two distinct feelings tugged at what I could only describe as my soul.

"Do you feel it? The connection you made through your contract."

I couldn’t believe it. This was real. This was magic!

"I do," I said, forcing the amazement out of my voice

"On your first try? Wow. OK. Reach out to that connection."

“How?”

“Will it to happen.”

There was that word again: will.

I reached out to one connection and felt Elmer’s soul on the other side. I knew that he was alive, healthy and in the middle of a deep sleep.

So, this is what happened when I signed a contract of credit. We became connected legally and spiritually. We would know if anything happened to each other and be able to track each other down. I understood Elmer’s reluctance to sign the contract now, this connection was too intimate for a stranger. I would have to thank him when I saw him again. Not before bullying him into answering more of my questions. There were some interrogation techniques I wanted to try and-

"Any luck? You've been quiet for some time," Isla said.

"Oh! Sorry, my mind was somewhere else."

"It's OK. We still have time before Castille’s watch."

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I exhaled, sitting up straighter.

I re-entered my meditative state, moving away from the connection I now recognized as Elmer to the connection that felt stronger. Multiple souls squirmed at my touch—the sea of souls beneath our feet.

I recoiled, snapping my eyes open and taking short, shuddering breaths.

"What’s wrong?" Isla asked.

"They've been there his whole time… the spirits of the dead, and just we trample all over them."

Isla quirked an eyebrow.

"Didn't you know this already?"

"It's different when you feel it. They feel… trapped."

Isla looked down at a patch of earth in front of us.

"That's because they are."

“What?!”

"If it makes you feel better, we don't think they’re aware. Scholars have tried singling out souls and asking them questions about themselves. It doesn't work. The accepted theory is that when we die, what joins the chorus is not us."

"Chorus?"

"Didn't you hear them? The chorus of voices, the echoes of who they were. There have been accounts of people hearing their parents and grandparents in the chorus. Parents whose children have died have heard their laughter. I'm told it's quite comforting."

I gave her an incredulous look. She was being serious.

Isla rested her hand on mine. I pulled it back.

"We can stop here if you want. You've gotten far on your first try."

I paused for a moment and shook my head.

"No, I can keep going."

A weapon is not afraid.

I reached out to the connection again and pushed deeper. My consciousness travelled away from the campsite, shooting across the sky to the capital and the burned-out ruins of my home.

A cacophony of screams and sobs greeted me. My consciousness drowned in a cauldron of pain, anger and regret. It was warm, and then it burned.

I recoiled, clawing my way back to the surface only to slam into something big, round and gold. I was crushed under the weight of Cynthia’s ring as it pushed me deeper into the murky depths.

Deeper…

Deeper…

Deeper…

# # #

My eyes fluttered open.

I was warm.

Turning onto my stomach in the large bed, I caught sight of the blood spreading on the white sheets. My blood. Each breath was a labour as strength drained from my limbs.

I crawled anyway.

I can’t die here. I can’t…

I grabbed fistfuls of cloth and pulled myself inch by inch to the edge of the bed.

A sliver of metal bit into my thigh. I clenched my teeth, looking over my shoulder to glare at my tormentor.

You don’t deserve my screams.

The tall, broad-shouldered man was dressed in all black, with a hood and mask like Lady Sin. A curved dagger that looked like a wolf’s fang was buried in my thigh.

“Cynthia!”

My head turned to the doorway across the room.

“Cindra.”

Her emotions were plain on her face for the first time in my life. She stared, eyes wide, mouth caught in a silent scream, knuckles white as she clutched the skirts of her maid uniform. She was frozen, stuck between running away and rushing forward to fight the man in black.

“Cindra! Cindra, run! Run now!”

She flinched at the sound of my voice, blinking wetness from her eyes as she shook her head.

“Cindra! Go!”

She looked at me with a painful, longing stare and nodded, her eyes hard, as she disappeared out of the doorway.

That’s my sister!

I pushed my face into the bed to muffle my screams as the man twisted the dagger.

“You’re only making it worse for her,” he said in a gravelly voice.

He ripped the dagger free, taking heavy steps across the bed to chase after Cindra.

“No!”

I grabbed his ankle as he reached the edge, making him trip and faceplant on the floor.

“Bitch!”

He rose to his feet, loping across the room and sticking his head out the doorway.

“Gone? Fine. I’ll get to her. For now, you get the pain. Sin’s orders.”

He walked to the dresser next to the bed, picked up the lantern on top of it, and smashed it on the floor. A gentle breeze entered through the windows, swirling around the man and feeding the fire growing in the room.

I crawled, ignoring the aches of pain from the wound in my thigh and the twelve other stab wounds. I crawled as the man disappeared through the doorway. I crawled to my new life, which was just out of reach.

My legs gave out first, followed a moment later by the muscles that held up my head. I stretched my hands to the edge of the bed and pulled—not enough, too weak. My head lolled on its’ side, my eyes resting on the golden ring Jacob gave me.

That silly boy.

My shallow breaths turned to sobs; my vision blurred as tears poured from my eyes and mixed with the blood on the sheets. The fire licked the side of the bed, singeing my fingers.

At least one of us made it out of this mansion.

Cindra…

Jacob…

Please be safe.

# # #

My eyes snapped open as a pillar of flame erupted from the campfire.

Tongues of fire lapped at what was left of the upper floor, setting the wooden beams ablaze.

"No! Not again. NOT AGAIN!"

My eyes locked on the flames and the fiery beams above us, seconds away from falling.

I barely remember Isla trying to shake me to my senses. I barely remember a shirtless Dugan dragging me out of the watchtower.

I do remember crying as another building burned.