Rather than waste precious oxygen replying, Jasper simply nodded and reached for the power within. I am the river; I flow round all things. I am the rock; all things flow around me.

That odd sense of detachment slowly crept over him, but this time Jasper didn’t let it seize control. Fighting against the sensation, he willed the power that welled within to flow through his arm and into Tsia.

At first, the only sounds Jasper heard were the labored breaths he heaved, but his eyes flew open when the first crackle of thunder roared above his head. The wind whipped up, quickly accelerating to the point it became hard to stand. Lightning fell from the heavens, striking at the burning plains again and again and he began to be concerned that they were, if anything, only going to succeed in making the fire worse. But then the rain began.

Warm and salty, just like the river from which Tsia had stolen it, the rain pounded down on their camp. It was impossible to tell how long the spell lasted; minutes, hours, a few seconds - time seemed to blur as an endless, torrential downpour beat relentlessly against the two of them. He struggled to breathe, no longer because of the smoke, but because so much water rained down that it was hard to fill his lungs with air. The angry red glare of the night sky once again faded into darkness and Jasper knew they had succeeded.

A flush of victory rushed over him, which was quickly erased as Tsia’s legs buckled. He snagged her arm before her head smashed into the ground, and gently lowered her to the ground. The beating rain had ceased when she fell, but Jasper barely noticed as he bent over her, suddenly panicking as he called the death of the stone mage. She wasn’t burning her soul, too, was she?

But a finger to her neck confirmed her pulse still beat strong and after a few moments had passed without her skin shriveling in on itself, he decided she’d be okay. She’s just unconscious. He waited a few more minutes for her to wake, but when she still didn’t stir, he decided to just take her with him. It’s time to find the rest of my party. Scooping Tsia up in his arms, Jasper headed back down the hill.

He found Ihra and Abnu, along with many of the Seraphs he’d saved, clustered around the ruined nucleus of his camp.

When she saw him coming, Ihra ran to greet him. She had a slight limp - her left leg still lagging slightly behind the other - and a long jagged hole had been torn in her breastplate, revealing quite a bit more of her than usual. Perhaps some eyes might have lingered, but Jasper only felt a rush of concern as he eyed the gaping hole in her armor. “Looks like they got you good,” he observed as she drew close. “You alright?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Just got mobbed by like ten of those things and one of them got a lucky blow in. My transformation saved me, but…” she sighed exasperatedly, “they totally ruined my armor.” She glanced at the girl cradled in his arms. “I see the little princess found a way to end up in your arms again,” she teased. “What happened this time?”

Jasper grinned. “I think essence deprivation.”

“You don’t go around passing out,” Ihra pointed out.

“True,” he agreed, “but unfortunately I seem to make a habit of running out of essence; it royally sucks, but I’m getting used to it. She, on the other hand, has so much essence it might just be the first time it happened to her.”

His friend smirked. “So you’re saying she popped her cherry.”

Jasper snorted. “Don’t let Nēs̆u hear you say that. Speaking of which,” he gently lowered Tsia onto the ground, and glanced around the small group of Seraphs. “Where are the others?”

Ihra’s smirk vanished, and she nodded toward the unconscious girl sprawled between their feet. “Nēs̆u wasn’t with her? The dude’s usually glued to her side.”

“Nope,” Jasper shook his head reluctantly. “I didn’t run across Tsia until after the fight, but she was alone when I found her. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of Nēs̆u or Annatta since last night.”

Jasper heaved himself back to his feet, and swayed violently as his head, still recovering from the effects of essence deprivation, objected vigorously to the sudden movement. His cheeks turned green and he bent over, vomiting on the ground.

A soft hand patted his back as Ihra looked on in concern. “Are you sure all right,” she asked.

He spat out mouthfuls of acid before replying. “Yeah, just a little more essence deprivation than I’m used to,” he rasped out, “but I’ll be fine.”

She pursed her lips and started to speak, but apparently thought better of it. “Never mind,” she said with a sigh. “Are you up to searching for the others?”

He straightened up and wiped his mouth clean. “I guess we’d better. You want to go together, or split up?”

She gazed into the darkness and shook her head. “I’d rather go together but…it’s going to take forever to search. I’ll check the left and you check the right?”

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“Sure,” he agreed. His eyes flickered to the still-unconscious Tsia and, scooping her back up in his arms, Jasper stumbled over to where the Seraphs had clustered. “Hey, Abnu, two of our party are missing and Tsia’s unconscious. Can you keep on her eye while we search?”

The Seraph’s face was somber as he took the girl from Jasper’s arms. “We’ll keep watch over her,” he promised. “Do you need help searching?”

“I’m guessing you have missing of your own, no?” When the man nodded, Jasper rejected his offer. “We’ll manage, then.”

Leaving the small encampment behind, Jasper ventured into the darkness. The search proved to be an even more difficult task than he’d expected. With the wildfire quenched, the darkness had returned with vengeance. Whatever moon might have shone that night was hidden by a thick layer of clouds, leaving barely any light by which to sort through the piles of blackened corpses that lay on every side. Even the fields themselves seemed determined to thwart his progress, for the torrential rains had turned the previously flat plains a muddy, boggy mess that clung to his ankles like glue.

Still, Jasper persisted in his search, determined to find the missing pair. In truth, he found it tough to believe that Annatta or Nēs̆u had fallen during the battle. The enemies, save perhaps for the mage, had been rather weak, relying on sheer numbers to overwhelm the Seraphs, but Nēs̆u and Annatta were both leveled high enough that he doubted that even a small horde of the creatures would have been sufficient to bring them down.

But that wasn’t enough to untangle the knot of worry that sat in the pit of his stomach. No matter how skilled a warrior was, no one was immune to the risk of a lucky strike like the one that had almost killed Ihra, nor being murdered in one’s sleep, a fate he himself had nearly suffered. Please be okay.

Jasper’s worry waxed as the search stretched on with no results. He slowly spiraled outward, heading further and further away from the camp until he was far enough from the mourning Seraphs that he could no longer hear their cries. The silence of the scorched plains was almost oppressive; there were no insects or birds left to weave their nighttime symphony, nothing but an endless, silent dark broken up only by the company of corpses that did little to assuage the growing sense of paranoia Jasper felt.

At least one thing was working in his favor, though. Slowly but surely, the throbbing in his head slowly improved as his reserves of essence began to refill and he started to feel human - well, Djinn - again. But his mood quickly grew to match the storm skies above as, no matter how hard he searched, he could find no trace of Nēs̆u or Annatta. Where the hell are they? Even if they’re dead, I should be able to find them.

With a groan, he straightened his back and surveyed the empty fields around him. Dozens of blackened corpses lay behind them, none of them his friends, but he saw no more ahead. Where the hell are they? If they’re alive, surely they would have found us by now; if they’re dead, then where are the bodies?

He stomped his foot in frustration and immediately froze as the silence around him was broken. Somewhere to the north of where he stood, a voice called his name, begging for assistance. “Jaasssper! Jaasssper, come quick!” He recognized Ihra’s voice immediately, but he made no move to answer her call for, at the same moment, the soft giggle of a child echoed behind him.

Jasper’s blood curdled and a sicking feeling roiled in the pit of his stomach as he slowly turned to face the gallû.

The porcelain-faced girl beamed up at him with a broken smile. Her chubby little hands still clutched tight a straw doll with edges singed with soot, and her white tunic was wrinkled and caked with mud. He eyed her uncertainly but tried to reassure himself that she’d made no attempt to hurt him thus far. It was technically true of course, but technicalities make for a cold comfort when you’re facing a creature that can kill you with a single touch - especially one playing the role of a capricious child.

She stared up at him silently, her arms swaying back and forth as she cradled the little doll until he finally spoke. “I’m guessing you have another message for me?”

The girl’s head bobbed vigorously up and down, and then she crouched low to the ground. Her hand traced something in the mud and she leaned back to let him see. Careful to keep his distance from her deadly touch, Jasper crouched down and, letting a small flicker of flame spring up on his hand, examined the simple symbol she had drawn.

It was the Corsythian sign for “1.” His brows knit together in confusion. “One? One what? Surely you’ve got more than that.”

A mischievous smile flashed across her face and the girl stood up and walked closer to beside him. Jasper fought the urge to pull away as she crouched down beside him and her hands dug into the mud a second time. When she stood up again, he examined the additions.

“One plus one? What the hell?” Irritation surged through him as he lurched to his feet, partially overriding the fear. He was still very careful, though, to keep his distance as he turned to face her. “Are we doing math homework now?”

The child shook her head and spoke haltingly. “Save. One. Save. None. Save. Both.”

Jasper struggled to connect the dots. Save one? Save…both? His thoughts turned to his two missing partners, and a new fear gripped his heart. Was this whole attack nothing more than a ruse to kidnap Nēs̆u and Annatta?

He towered over the child menacingly, his anger suddenly overriding his fear. “What did you do to them?” He demanded roughly. “Was this all your mistress’ doing? Did you take my friends?”

The child shrugged her shoulders, completely unperturbed.

He clamped down on his anger with an iron grip and took a step back. Now is not the time to do something stupid. And trying to threaten a being he had no chance of beating was the very definition of stupid. All it has to do is touch me.

“JAASSPER!” The second cry echoed again and, on instinct, Jasper glanced over his shoulder. Remembering who was standing beside him, he immediately whipped his head back, but the ground in front of him was empty. He glanced frantically to the left and right, and spun around on his heels, desperate to pin down where the gallû had gone, but it had left no trace behind.

“JAASSPER!” Damn it. I’m never going to find it anyway. Abandoning his search, Jasper ran toward Ihra, hoping against hope that he had misunderstood the gallû’s message, and that Ihra had found their missing party members.