Magic must be feared. Use it carelessly and it consumes you. Use it confidently and it might still backfire against you. After my last experience with the Fragment’s energy colliding with mine, I began fearing it. I didn’t know any spells, save for the Fragment’s. The only thing I could do with my own Essence was to hold a psionic conversation, like the one I was having with Eva right now.

‘I’ll let you help me, if you answer some questions truthfully,’ I said. I emphasized the word truthfully.

‘Are you sure we have time for this?’ she mocked.

‘The way I see it,’ I replied, trying to sound patient and confident, ‘you either answer my questions as briefly and as quickly as you can, or I die in this fight and all your hope of escaping vanishes.’

‘Being a smartass now, are we?’ Eva retorted. ‘Go ahead. I don’t have much choice, do I?’

‘How do you still contact me without anyone noticing?’ I asked.

‘You took that painful memory of mine with you. You lived it and completely assimilated it. Part of me’s within you now. Think of it this way, I’m another inner voice inside this fucked up brain of yours.’

‘Uncalled for,’ I said, hurt by her gibe. ‘How will I receive your Fragment? What are the risks?’

‘There are no risks as you’ve already taken apart of me,’ she answered. ‘You have another Fragment inside of you that you’re not aware of.’

‘What since when?’ That was an unexpected development. ‘I don’t remember accepting anything from you.’

‘That’s because I didn’t offer anything,’ she replied. Was that spite in the tone of her voice? ‘My soul doesn’t even suspect I’m gone. You took it forcibly when you kicked me out, right after you lived through my memory. The Fragment’s not completely assimilated, that’s why you still hear my voice. But it’s present within your soul. How do you think you easily managed to repel that harmful energy before?’

‘It was your idea?’

‘Let’s call it our idea,’ Eva replied. ‘I’m part of you now. I can only hope to regain my original self after this is all over.’

‘Then how come the others can hear me speaking to you?’

‘Because you still think you’re talking to my ghost by the bones, stupid,’ she answered. ‘Now can we get to thinning the herd?’

‘Not so fast,’ I said. ‘What are the risks of taking you with me? You haven’t answered that!’

‘Reject me and my Fragment will fight back. I’m a tiny one, but imagine what two Fragments fighting you at once can do. You haven’t gained full control yet.’

‘How do I do that?’

‘Training and meditation, not the perfect time to do that now,’ her answers had become shorter. She was still hiding something.

I scraped my brain to think of the information I’d just received.

‘How do I achieve complete assimilation of a Fragment?’ I asked, not Eva, but the library Dif had poured inside of me not too long ago.

‘Meditation and practice,’ the information came in like a bucket of cold water.

‘To put your mind at ease,’ Eva intervened. ‘I can’t risk fighting you. My Fragment will split into smaller, tinier Fragments. It will be near impossible to track them all down if I ever try to get back to my own soul. I’m a drop of water, in the sea that is your soul. The best I can do is blend in, lest I pollute everything and make the water undrinkable. Do you get the analogy?’

I nodded. ‘You’re basically saying that if I die, your chances of going back to your origin are impossible.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Anything else your highness wants to know?’

You tried to trick me you bitch, again! If I’d agreed on taking your bones, you’d have attempted to take over my body again. I’ll fully assimilate you, give you a taste of your own medicine, just you wait!

‘I can control the energy flow from the time Fragment,’ she went on after noticing my silence. I somehow could think and separate my own thoughts from hers. Don’t ask me how, I just could. ‘You won’t have thirty seconds of time stop though. I can give you ten at best. Can you work with that?’

‘I suppose so,’ I answered.

‘Can we get to business then?’ she was exasperated. Or was it me? Shit I’m losing my mind…

‘Let’s do this!’ I said then emerged from behind the bushes I was hiding in. The squad was near the tree house now. I had to move fast and effectively. No worries there, I had the upper hand, at least for now.

‘Can you give me ten seconds as soon as we get close?’ I asked.

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‘Why?’ Eva asked back.

‘Taking out the mage first will give us a considerable advantage,’ I explained.

‘How will you do that?’ she asked. ‘You can’t get close enough without the time spell discontinuing. You’ll be surrounded.’

‘I have a bow remember?’

‘You’re a lousy shot,’ she retorted. ‘I’m part of you remember? I know what you’re capable of, and what you suck at!’

‘I’m not using the bow to kill the mage,’ I said. ‘I’m not that stupid. I need a distraction.’

‘Then who will you shoot?’

I smirked. ‘Read my mind and you’ll understand the plan,’ I said.

Eva stayed silent for a while. When she spoke, her voice was cheerful. ‘You’re a sly fox Stalwart. I’ll provide support. But after this we disappear, is that clear?’

‘I was allowed outside, and your Fragment is within me, what other reason do I have to get back in?’

I snuck behind the trees and soon reached the squad. I revised the plan once more before I gave the signal to Eva. The soldiers were twenty feet away from the clearing in which Raiya’s tree lay. I put my buckler against a tree, I wouldn’t need it for what I was about to do. My heart raced in anticipation.

Do you know that feeling you get, that everything will go according to plan? It’s like certainty suddenly dawns on you. You know you’re about to execute the perfect plan, and nothing’s about to ruin it for you.

“RAIYA O’CHERAN!” Utar’s voice reverberated throughout the forest. “TIME WITCH TURNED WARLOCK, PART OF ARSALAN’S WIZARD COVENANT! COME OUT NOW, AND WE MIGHT CONSIDER A PEACEFUL NEGOTIATION!”

What was I talking about? Fuck my lucky stars!

“FAIL TO DO SO,” Utar went on, “AND WE’LL UNLEASH HELL UPON THIS FOREST!”

BOOM! A loud explosion was heard in the western side of the forest.

“What was that?!” the leader of the squad I was tailing blurted out. “That’s not part of the plan.”

“It’s their answer,” the mage said. “She’s not coming peacefully.”

‘Now!’ I told Eva. Gods bless my lucky stars!

The world stopped and I moved. I ran to the rear guard. Their iron armor had a weakness I had to exploit. I reached the first one in a second, and thrust an arrow between his shoulder plates. The sword got in without resistance. I smiled.

I went to the second one and inserted an arrow, deep within his shoulder as well. I had five seconds left, enough to put one more arrow and disappear. I went back behind a tree, just in time to hear the soldiers’ screams of agony.

The leader, Gervais was his name, turned around to see his comrades trying to reach for the sharp object that pierced their flesh.

‘Again!’

The world stopped once more. I had five seconds this time. The ten second time stop wouldn’t work twice in a row. Hell, I wasn’t sure we could do two more five second stops without the Fragment’s energy going erratic.

I ran to the first soldier, and put an arrow in his neck. Blood tried to spurt out but it was stopped as well. I ran back behind the tree and waited.

“Aaaaaaargh!” the soldier screamed then fell with a heavy thump.

The others lost control. They jerked left and right, their eyes trained on the trees in the distance. The silver plated paladins surrounded the mage, holding their heavy shields higher.

‘That’s your cue,’ I told Eva.

I felt darkness envelop me once more. It didn’t last more than two seconds but it felt like an eternity for me. When the forest materialized once more before my eyes, the mage was speaking to the leader.

“I can’t sense anybody,” he reported. “He must be at least a hundred feet away from us. We’re dealing with a sharpshooter with eagles eyes here!”

The leader swore, to his comrades’ greatest astonishment and low grunts of disapproval. I didn’t understand what the fuss was about. Why not swear? To keep your souls clean? You’re already killing and butchering people because they wouldn’t agree with your own belief. Your souls have already gone to the dark side.

“Don’t panic,” the leader told the others. “Get the injured in the middle and keep a tight formation. We have to meet the others in the middle. The protection barrier will take care of the rest then.”

‘Again!’ I told Eva. It was more like thinking about it really. I wasn’t speaking or holding a psionic conversation anymore. The ghost was right. I’d kept part of her during our fight for existence. I could think and transmit my thoughts to her. And I could also stop some of my thoughts from reaching her. I suspected she could do the same.

I learned not to trust anybody anymore.

‘You’ll have to let me rest later,’ she said. ‘I can’t cast these in rapid succession and keep the Fragment’s energy at bay.’

‘I understand.’

Time stopped once more and I quickly jabbed the injured guards in the neck. By the time I was back behind the tree, the squad, reduced to ten now, was running toward the clearing. They’d raised their shields high in order to avoid any more arrows from above. Little did they know, the arrow weren’t shot from a distance.

I caught myself giggling behind the tree. That’s the way of a coward, you may think. That’s the way of the assassin who’d found a good exploit, I’d say in my defense.

Panic can make people act erratically. That’s what I was going for. I needed the silver plated paladins to lose their focus and give me a chance at taking out the mage. I ran after them, they weren’t looking behind now. They were certain the sharpshooter was far away.

A huge shadow skimmed past the leader and blocked their path.

‘Good job kid,’ Sisha’s eerie voice reached me. He was standing before them. He had grown in size. Sharp, spiky bones were protruding from his paws now. He had two sets of sharp claws on each leg. His gray fur emitted a dark aura, sparkling like bolts of lightning as it danced around him. The soldiers looked up at the giant demon. I heard some squeal as they pointed and screamed ‘monster!’

The mage yelled some instructions to his paladin escort who immediately held their maces high. Their weapons, along with their shields, shone a bright golden light. A protection screen enveloped them.

Shisha only laughed. I could tell by the strange hisses that buzzed through my mind. He swung his monstrous claw and the leader’s war hammer flew in the air. His body was cleaved in half. His golden breastplate was smeared in blood as it rotated in the air too. His head fell beside my feet. What monstrous strength!

“Call for reinforcements!” One of the silver armored paladins shouted at the mage.

Sisha blinked at them and another explosion ensued. I was loud enough to make my ears buzz. But there was no bright light, no fire. The dark energy that enveloped Sisha had engulfed the mage and the four paladins protecting him. When it all subsided, only the mage remained standing, his clothes torn and his hair burned off.

He raised his strange staff and shot a bright red beam into the air. It reached the sky then exploded into numerous tiny fragments. The mage fell, face first, right after that.

‘Reinforcements are coming,’ Sisha told me. ‘Hold this place and dispose of the rest.’ He was speaking of the remaining five soldiers. ‘I’ll have to intercept them before they get too close.’

The cat demon leapt off, past me, and inside the forest. The five remaining soldiers turned to follow the monster’s movements and noticed me, standing behind them, sword in hand.

Shit, I forgot my buckler!