Time to change things up. Running around and hoping the thorns would solve all of her problems wouldn’t work. That was just scratching Christena.

Changing her strategy was easier said than done, though. It’s not like Addie could summon giant fireballs and fling them at Christena.

Instead, Addie grabbed a stick on the ground. Then, she continued running. Addie easily dodged through the forest and the bramble patch until she reached a somewhat open clearing.

As soon as she reached the clearing, Addie stopped and turned around. She brandished the stick in front of her.

“What are you going to do with that stick, Addie? Hit me with it?”

“Yeah,” Addie responded with all the earnestness of a child. Then, she entered Realmspace.

Before Christena had time to react, Addie was already behind Christena, swinging the branch right for her abdomen. It connected with Christena’s side before she even noticed Addie was behind her, making a loud crack. Christena let out an ‘oomph’.

Addie got ready to swing again and hit downwards towards Christena’s head, but by then, Christena had already turned around completely. She didn’t use magic to block the branch, instead, Christena dodged to the left. Addie still managed to clip a bit of her arm, but it didn’t look like it did much.

To avoid any retaliation, Addie jumped back into Realmspace, this time aiming to appear by Christena’s side.

“Why isn’t she using any more of her magic?”

As soon as Addie reappeared, it seemed Christena was a bit more ready this time, as she jumped back immediately before Addie even had a chance to swing the branch.

Addie got ready to make another jump into Realmspace, but as she activated her magic, she felt a brick wall again, keeping her from pushing her magic outside of her soul. Addie bit her lip in frustration, she shouldn’t be able to do that!

It was fine, she already knew what to do to counter that. Addie pushed the building magic in her soul outwards, instead targeting Christena. The former maid poofed out of existence, and Addie stood by the spot where she disappeared.

When Christena came back to reality, Addie was ready for it and swung the branch with all of her might. A few things happened at once.

The stick hit Christena on the shoulder so hard that the stick broke in two. Addie noticed another white star floating near Christena, and it shot out towards Addie the moment Christena came back to reality. Christena shouted out in pain with a flinch from Addie’s strike. The white star flew out and hit Addie on the forehead, knocking her to the ground. Strangely, it didn’t burn at all, it felt more like a light shove unbalancing Addie and forcing her to fall down.

Addie hit the ground harder than she would have liked, and she gasped as the wind was knocked out of her.

Using her spatial sense, Addie could tell Christena was still recovering from the pain in her shoulder.

With urgency, Addie took in a big gulp of air, forcing it back into her lungs. She sprang to her feet with a powerful jump while she still had the chance. Then, Addie reached out to the nearest branch of a tree, even though she had no hope of actually making the distance. So what? She didn’t need to make the distance in this plane. She could climb even higher with magic.

Addie passed into Realmspace and nudged the alternate dimension in just the right way. Realmspace wanted Addie out, and with a clever application of will, she convinced Realmspace to eject her out just ever so slightly higher up than where she entered from. With a vacuum of force, Realmspace sucked her up and out of its domain, tumbling her further into the sky out of gravity’s reach—repeating the same trick she saw Squishy use when he climbed the massive tree in the forest.

From Christena’s perspective, Addie would have simply ceased to exist, then reappeared three meters higher, easily making the distance to the tree.

Tree branches poked out at Addie when she came back to reality, scratching her torso as pine needles tickled her nose. She reached out quickly and held on to the first branch her hands found. She tumbled for a bit as gravity held her, and almost panicked when her first handful of tree only gave her sappy hands and spare pine needles. Luckily, it only took another moment to get a better grip on a stronger branch. Successfully ten meters up the tree, she took a moment to get her bearings.

Easily keeping her balance in the canopy, Addie looked down towards the ground. Christena had recovered from the initial teleport and now used her hand to block out the morning Binary light as she stared directly up at Addie. In response, Addie stuck her tongue out at the former maid.

Before Christena could so much as scold her rude behavior, Addie reached into her pocket and grabbed one of the tiny pebbles. She swung her arm as fast as she could, and at the apex of her throw, she willed her arm into Realmspace and let go. When her arm came back to reality, her hand was empty.

For a moment, Christena stared at Addie, baffled, as seemingly nothing happened. Then, with a whistle, the thrown stone appeared mere inches away from Christena’s face, causing her to flinch. Addie’s aim wasn’t that great though, and the rock missed by quite a margin. Either way, her proof of concept was sound, and Addie smirked.

A huge smile adorned Addie’s face as she grabbed two big handfuls of pebbles out of her pockets, and then threw them. Again, the rocks seemed to disappear entirely from existence, but their momentum was conserved as they reentered reality, and Christena was met with a dangerous shower of rocks.

Christena quickly raised her arms up to shield her face in anticipation of the coming stone-fall.

Seeing that Christena didn’t use any magic to shield herself filled Addie with hope.

While Christena was preoccupied with her unwanted shower, Addie let go of her tree and leaped towards the forest floor, aiming to land behind Christena. A meter before impact Addie tugged on that so familiar part of her soul and warped into Realmspace. The wind rushed by her as the cold stone floor rose up to meet her. Just before she crashed into the ground, she braced to re-enter reality, again directing Realmspace to suck her out and upwards upon re-entry.

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Her crash landing on the forest floor was dampened by her efforts, though her ankles still had a moment of sharp pain when she actually landed. She was getting better at directing her momentum while in Realmspace.

Christena’s back was turned towards Addie. She took the opportunity to promptly kick out the back of Christena’s legs as hard as she could, causing her to stumble and unceremoniously fall over in surprise, a mouth full of dirt her reward. Not one to let up, Addie jumped up and pushed back into Realmspace for only a moment, then directed her exit out of the alternate realm with extra force downwards. With supernatural acceleration, Addie plummeted right onto Christena’s back, digging her heels directly into her back.

The wind seemed knocked from Christena’s lungs, as a wheezing ‘oomph’ of air escaped her mouth.

Magical exhaustion crept in heavily now. Honestly, Addie was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner— that familiar ache of her soul stretched too thin trying to accommodate her will. Her soul didn’t feel like it was in danger of cracking yet, though. She thought if she tried hard enough, she could probably make a couple more jumps into Realmspace.

With that familiar push, she leaped into the air and passed back into Realmspace, this time aiming to ruthlessly come down on Christena’s head and end this nightmare. When she re-entered reality, Christena rolled out of the way before Addie’s heels could come crashing down on her skull.

In a fluid motion that demonstrated clear training, Christena swept her leg out from the floor, tripping Addie into the dirt.

Addie’s first reaction was to lift her head up and try to wipe all the stinging, scratchy dirt from her eyes, but she quickly realized how vulnerable that left her. From her tripped position on the ground, she flexed her soul and pushed herself back into Realmspace. She could feel that Realmspace would only tolerate her presence for a few seconds, so she stood up and rubbed the dirt from her eyes as best she could.

When Realmspace kicked her back out into reality, she wasn’t quite ready. An image of Christena’s arm thrown out in a precise backhand towards Addie’s face caused her to recoil and take a step back. She bumped immediately into something behind her and then felt someone grabbing her arms from behind.

The image in front of her was fake, and her spatial sense showed that Christena was directly behind Addie, holding her arm painfully up against her back.

Instead of saying anything, Christena just let out a breath of exhaustion, as if she was glad to finally be done with all of this.

Terror threatened to well up from Addie’s chest, but she still had a bit of magic left. She got ready to pull on the last vestiges within herself—

Christena shoved Addie with more force than necessary, making Addie reach out instinctively to break her fall, her hands striking the earth hard. A sharp, jarring pain shot up her right wrist as it twisted under the weight of her fall.

For a moment, Addie lay there, dazed, her breath knocked out of her. The forest seemed to spin around her, the trees blurring into streaks of green and brown. She tried to push herself up with her injured hand, but a nauseating wave of pain washed over her, so intense that her vision whited out for a second. Her wrist throbbed agonizingly, a hot, pulsating ache that made her stomach churn.

With her good hand, Addie carefully cradled her wrist, the slightest movement sending fresh spikes of pain coursing through her arm. The bone felt wrong, unnaturally angled, and even the light touch of the cool air made her wince. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to steady her breathing, to manage the pain that seemed to echo through her whole body.

Every heartbeat was a reminder of the injury, each throb a sharp stab that radiated up her arm. Addie fought the urge to cry out, her teeth gritted against the pain. Even Christena seemed to cringe slightly at the sound. For some reason, Christena was making a face that Addie knew well. That was the sympathetic expression Christena always used whenever Addie hurt herself on accident.

In a last desperate attempt, for the final time today, while still lying on the ground, Addie moved outside the veil and into Realmspace.

Her breath hitched in this other dimension. She had moments, maybe, before Realmspace punted her back out. On the ground, with the cool bleak stone beneath her for company, Addie despairingly thought of any possible way to turn things around— to use any possible remaining bit of power to somehow turn the tide.

“Squishy, I need you” Addie sent out across the bond connecting the two of them. Addie could faintly feel his presence, but he seemed distracted or maybe preoccupied. Whatever was happening back in the basement, he couldn’t make it to Addie in time.

Addie thought she heard a whisper from him, an apology.

Why won’t he come? I thought we were going to do this together! My arm is broken! I have to do something.-- But I have no magic left.—Maybe he’s still fighting Fluffy. I don’t want to lose. But I don’t know what to do. She thought and argued within her mind, debating against her own overwhelmingly negative thoughts and sense of loss. She tried anything to think positively. In no more than a handful of seconds and self-recriminations, her time was up, and Realmspace kicked her back out into reality. She hadn’t even managed to move a single inch.

Totally exhausted magically, Addie felt desperation leak in as she realized there was absolutely no possibility of defending herself. She closed her eyes tight as tears began to leak out from them. She thought she could win too. The moment of her victory seemed so achievable, but in the end, she failed. She idly wondered if her dad would be ok, or if Squishy even won his battle against Fluffy. She thought about what the consequences of this loss would mean for her, and how Christena would take advantage of her defeat. She thought about what it would mean to be a sacrifice in Christena’s ritual.

Addie watched on in shivering fright as Christena started to close the distance, but for some reason, her face still looked empathetic and familiar. In response, Addie curled her body up in a ball, with the right side of her body pressed into the cool forest loam. She guarded her injured left arm into her chest carefully and shut her eyes tight.

Christena slowly walked forward and kneeled down on both knees next to Addie. She reached out to where Addie lay knocked down on the cold stone. With her right hand, Christena gently pushed against Addie’s right shoulder, turning her body slightly and exposing Addie’s face.

In response, Addie opened her eyes again just as Christena began to speak, “You passed, Addie.” Then, she scooped Addie up with both hands, hugging her upper body. Somehow, it also felt like an embrace. “You’ve worked really hard and learned a lot about your new powers. You’ve grown so strong.”

Christena continued after a few seconds, “It’s ok. I know this was hard on you, but everyone’s safe, even your dad, the villagers, and everyone else.”

“What?” At that moment, some of Addie’s horror was pushed away by Christena’s seemingly kind words, and replaced with a bit of hope. It didn’t stop the tears, though. Addie sat on the floor, limply hugged by a kneeling Christena. They stayed like that for a while, Addie in shock, comforted by her waking nightmare as the last week’s events replayed in her mind.

Some of Addie’s horror began to be replaced by memory. She remembered as a young child Christena’s comforting embrace after she got hurt playing. Christena had always been around, often around much more than her constantly busy mother. Christena played with Addie and participated in her morning lessons. She was seemingly always there to hold her or wipe away her tears. These kinds of moments, being comforted by her were... familiar.

After a few moments, as the hug continued and nothing horrible happened, Addie tentatively reached her uninjured right arm out and began to embrace Christena back. She curled her hand around some of the loose cloth of her maid outfit, bundling it in her hand. Finally, Addie began to cry anew, sobbing loudly into the surrounding forest.