The group stood in place, unblinking and fearful eyes locked to the cackling visage of the phantasm. He barely seemed to even notice the great blade stuck in his neck, even as his foul blood seeped from the wound. Essine was frozen, trembling, and Coin only barely noticed that she was trying and failing to take her hand off the leather handle.

"Oh no," Igrei whispered.

Suddenly, in a blinding green flash, the phantasm vanished from sight. Coin blinked a few times, trying to clear the spots from his vision. He looked around frantically, sniffing the air and straining his ears for any sign of the creature. Yet he found nothing.

"E-Essine, are you alright?" he asked, pushing himself upright. "Why did you do that? You could have been killed."

"This one was... afraid. That creature was so strong, it looked as if it could kill you. And seeing it distracted, and sensing the strength in this blade... this one made a move."

Igrei frowned. "The blade called out to her," the elf murmured, gripping his staff tighter.

A flash tore up the length of the dagger, producing a wave of energy that obliterated Essine's right sleeve. The kobold screamed, a series of luminous lime green runes blazing to life on her fur. The blazing glow grew more intense and knocked her to the floor, an intense pain making her writhe in place. Yet even as she rolled and thrashed, her grip on the Bleak dagger never faltered.

Coin was at her side in an instant, holding the back of her neck with one hand. The other darted to the knife to try and take it from her grasp, but it burned red hot at his touch. He snarled and pulled back, pain seeping through his fingers.

"Igrei, what's happening to her!"

"The Phantasm we fought was a physical projection of the spirit living inside that knife. And now that she's holding it, the spirit inside is trying to overtake your friend," Igrei said, narrowing his eyes as he inspected the symbols on her harm.

Her chest rose and fell with panicked breaths, and her eyes were screwed shut in a mix of pain and panic. "Then destroy it!" Coin growled.

"It's not that simple. It's already entwining itself with her, feeding upon her. And even if we were to destroy it... it would kill her in the process."

Igrei raised his staff, the pointed tip becoming wreathed in a burning white halo. "So... so what...? Just kill her?!"

"I'm sorry. But to leave her like this is just to sentence her to a slow, agonising end. For her own benefit, I'm going to destroy both-"

Coin's fist whipped out so fast that Igrei didn't even see it, knocking him out in one strike. The mimic felt a tiny flash of guilt for doing so, but he wasn't about to sit back and let anyone hurt Essine. Not if he could help it.

He leaned in closer to Essine, who had trailed off into a strange murmuring. Whatever she was saying, she was saying it in a strange language Coin had no understanding of. The kobold tongue? Coin shook his head. It didn't matter, not now.

Coin gripped her wrist and leaned in close to the blade, which hummed in his ear with a rising intensity. "I know you can hear me. If you're smart enough to laugh, you're smart enough to think. Believe me, I know the line between being a man and monster. So talk to me," he hissed.

A strange tinny laugh rose in Essine's lungs, making Coin reel away from her. "I'm sure you know much, little monster. What an interesting creature you must be." When Essine spoke, it was with a voice not her own. The phantasm had hijacked her throat and lungs.

"Why are you doing this?" Coin growled.

"I have lingered here for so... so long. I'm famished," the phantasm hissed, drawing shallow breaths into Essine's mouth. "This rat-thing is barely more than a morsel. But she is a banquet compared to my long starvation!"

Coin paled. It really was going to kill her. Essine's face contorted in pain, her free hand clawing at the dirty floor and raking a path in the wood. "Wait, wait, we can make a deal! Why... why eat just one person when you can have others?"

Essine's breathing slowed, some of the pain in her body seeming to subside. "Continue," the phantasm said.

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"You... you want to feed, yes? Then... how about this? Anyone I kill, you feed on them and get your sustenance. Fifty people. But you let her go." Part of him was revolted at his own words. But he only ever killed people who meant to kill him first. Bandits, monsters, and the like. Fifty of them for Essine's life? He was willing to make that trade.

The temple fell silent, save for Essine's breathing. Then, eventually, the phantasm spoke up. "My. It's rare for someone of this sphere to be so... open to negotiation with my kin. And it's a tempting offer, truly. But how do I know I can trust you?"

"Can I trust you?" Coin bluntly asked.

"Hmph. As violent and destructive as my kin are, you'll find we always uphold our deals."

The corners of Coin's mouth were tugged into an uneasy frown. He was hardly thrilled by this, but if there was a magical way to deal with this then he had no idea what it was. Beyond killing Essine, which he would not allow.

"Fifty lives," Coin confirmed. He fought a strange reflex to cross his fingers as he spoke.

Essine's other hand wrapped around Coin's wrist to hold him in place. "Fifty lives," the phantasm growled, as more waves of emerald light wafted around Essine's body.

The mimic nodded firmly. "You got a name?"

"Iago-Ahdjall. But you may call me Iago. I know the people of your lowly sphere abhor what they refer to as 'long names.'"

Pain lanced through his body in a sudden rush, forcing Coin to clench his teeth. His body swayed, struggling for balance, and he glanced down to see the dagger was now clutched in his hands. So fast that even his sharp reflexes hadn't seen a thing. Essine sagged into the ground, her breathing gentle and relaxed, the runes on her arm slowly melting away.

But for Coin, the pain only grew more intense. Agony raced through his flesh, travelling up his clenched fists. His nose became flooded with an ashen, burning stench, his mouth ran bone dry, a dreadful scream pierced his ears and seemed to echo endlessly. And in his mind it felt as if a colony of ants were crawling relentlessly around in his grey matter.

Goddess... even the emerald venom felt pleasant in comparison.

'What... sort of mind is this?' Iago's words echoed in his brain, as if lost in a vast labyrinth. 'So chaotic, so misshapen. It's a turbulent ocean being barely hemmed in. And this... body. It looks human, but inside... inside it's like a strange slurry of meat that has been moulded and twisted into a human shape. What are you?'

Coin grit his teeth and sucked in some air. His magic surged in his body, producing an aura of bristling electricity. Slowly, he sucked the knife into his arm and sheathed it in a pocket of dense, calcified flesh. A sheath that was sturdier than stone.

Bit by bit, as he summoned his own willpower, he pushed Iago's influence further and further within himself. "Don't you ever try to take control of me," he huffed. "You'll find I'm tougher to reel in than Essine. And if you try to do so... I'll use my magic to blow myself to smithereens!"

'You would, wouldn't you?' Iago asked, trailing off into a teasing laugh. 'Well, worry not. I doubt I could puppeteer this strange miasma of meat in the way you do. Not that it matters. Come, let's get started on my meal.'

He felt his senses being tugged toward Igrei's unconscious body. Coin narrowed his eyes, still fighting against the phantasm's unseen claws. "No."

'No?' Sharp pain lanced from his wrist toward his shoulder, forcing Coin to grit his teeth. 'Then perhaps I should simply feed upon you, if you won't fulfil your obligations.'

Coin slowly rolled his sleeve up his left elbow, the dagger glowing brightly through his flesh. They couldn't take the dagger from Essine's hand, he noted. Not when it burned so hot to the touch. And removing her hand wasn't something that could easily be done to a normal person.

But Coin was far removed from normalcy.

With his power surging, he funnelled his magic to his right hand until he'd forged a powerful lightning bolt.

'What... what are you-'

Iago's words were drowned out by a pained groan from Coin. He whipped his left arm downward, jettisoning the chunk of calcified meat from his forearm with a spurt of blood. It hit the ground with a thud, cracking open to reveal the glowing gleam of the dagger.

Iago's voice vanished from his mind. The phantasm's presence, which had threaded itself into his body like a fleet of harpoons skewering a whale, was wrenched away in an instant. Though Coin still felt woozy. Tearing a chunk of his own mass away hardly helped.

Mimics, much like coyotes, could gnaw off chunks of their own biomass if they were trapped in a way they couldn't otherwise escape. But to give something up, be it wealth or their own flesh, was a high hurdle for a mimic to clear.

He staggered back just as Iago's phantasm erupted from the dagger, shrieking and flashing his talons. Coin snapped his right hand forward, a crushing wave of lightning shooting from his palm. It overwhelmed Iago, drowning out his shrieks, and sought to obliterate the dagger behind him. The lightning, a continuous and blinding jet of boiling plasma, stripped and scorched chunks of Iago's flesh. And yet the demon pressed on, trying to shield the cursed blade with his body.

From the corner of his eye, Coin could barely see Igrei struggling to his feet. But he was in no condition to lend his aid. Coin spread his feet, trying to draw more and more power through his body. And yet the phantasm pressed toward him, only partially slowing in his approach.

Coin grit his teeth. His mind raced, desperately trying to concoct a way to save them all.

A wave of sickly green light struck both Iago and the dagger in the side, pulling a horrendous cry from the phantasm. His flesh, already being scorched and shredded away, began to wilt under the alien glow.

Iago retreated, trying to pull back toward the dagger. But he decayed more and more by the second, until he had collapsed into a dissolving cloud of ash. Gone, without a trace. The dagger protruded from the cocoon of stony flesh, now rendered dull and devoid of any magical light.

Coin took a breath as the surge of his magic slowly trickled away. The alien glow died away too, but Coin was able to turn toward the source before it vanished. Essine was sitting upright, panting for breath. Green light smoked from her right hand, gradually fading. Her eyes carried a similar glow, and those strange runes were flickering on her upper arm.

He watched in stunned silence, only moving again after Essine collapsed back. "Damnation," the mimic muttered. "How did she... Agh, doesn't matter!" They could get answers later, when they were away from this cursed town.

Coin hoisted Igrei under one arm, and Essine under the other, and slowly carried them from the ruined barracks. It was hardly wise, exerting himself so much when he was only freshly recovered. But nobody had ever accused him of being a genius.

He emerged onto the streets outside, huffing for breath. And, as he went, he only barely took notice of a bird perched on the roof of a nearby building, watching them with a keen interest.

A tiny black wren.