Black Cloak gasped as they entered Realmspace. The total darkness enveloped Addie in its familiarly gentle embrace.

Addie didn’t give him a moment to think. She dove into his soul with her magic, intending to wrap his soul in a layer of transcendent loop.

If it was just this much, Christena could have done the same thing but even better than Addie. There was a reason it had to be Addie, though.

She knew she only had a few moments to work before Realmspace would push them back out into reality, so Addie needed to work fast before his bonded could go back on the attack.

Coordinating their thoughts, Addie and Squishy dove into their soul bond and released their magic out of their bodies, traveling down their limbs, until it reached Black Cloak. From there, keeping in mind all of Christena’s lessons, Addie and Squishy guided their magic around Black Cloak’s soul.

Their connection to Black Cloak wavered, making Addie lose some of her focus on her magic and soul. She swept her spatial sense out into the physical world to see why that happened. Black Cloak was struggling, trying to throw Addie’s limp body off of him. Luckily, he was really struggling since his limbs were so weak.

“Keep him from moving, I’ll work on the transcendent loop,” Addie asked Squishy over the bond.

Squishy sent back a feeling of agreement.

Now able to focus solely on her task, Addie closed her eyes again and pulled on her magic, stretching it out like taffy. Using her will, she spread her magic out into a big sheet and gently laid it over Black Cloak’s soul shell.

Instantly, her magic caught fire, Black Cloak’s soul inherently resisting Addie’s attempt to stifle his soul’s magic.

But Addie had practiced this with Christena for days. She wouldn’t lose to Black Cloak. Addie poured out more of her and Squishy’s magic and used it to reinforce her will. Despite the inside layer of her magic still burning, she forcefully wrapped it around his soul shell. The flames around his soul smothered and died out.

For a moment, everything calmed down, his magic contained to just the inside of his own soul shell. Addie let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding and scanned their surroundings with her spatial sense.

Squishy had listened to Addie’s wishes, and he had somehow managed to get both of Black Cloak’s wrists in his jaws, getting slobber all over his chest in the process. Squishy pointed his pupil at Addie, revealing the whites of his eyes.

“You idiot girl,” Black Cloak said, “Don’t you realize they are training you to be a repressor?”

Addie froze, something about his words hitting her far harder than she would have expected.

“These Area Lords,” He spat out the title with venom, “They do nothing but hoard all of their power. And at what cost? We the people get nothing but scraps. Just trying to survive and barely getting enough food!”

Addie’s heart started racing, and her mind churned. She didn’t want to hear this.

“When I asked the Lord for help with the children,” again he spat out the title with pure disdain, “He tells me to come back in a few days and seek a proper audience. Disgusting.”

Was Black Cloak right? Christena wouldn’t even tell Addie why more people couldn’t become bonded. Why Area Lords wouldn’t share more of their magic with the people. Her magic around his soul wavered for a moment.

“Don’t listen to him, Addie.” Squishy could feel Addie’s growing horror through their bond. “This man talks about helping people, and yet he tried to destroy countless lives. Even something experimentally created like me can see that this man is barely a person.”

“Why did you hurt the children? The fawn?” Addie asked him, her voice barely a whisper.

He was silent for a moment, and Addie wondered if he hadn’t heard her.

“I was trying to save them, Addie. To give them the magic that is rightfully theirs,” He said, his voice quiet and slimy.

Addie’s heart pounded in her chest. She didn’t want to believe him, but his words planted seeds of doubt.

“I was helping them, can’t you see?” His voice softened, almost pleading. “The power I sought wasn’t for me. It was for them. For all of us.”

“He’s lying,” Squishy said. She could feel how strongly Squishy knew it was a lie, too. “He almost killed Nettal.”

During Addie’s hesitancy to act, Realmspace finally recognized the intruders and moved to push them all back out into reality. Addie moved to touch the ribbon in her hair, but it was too late to call Sen. Realmspace’s presence pushed against Addie’s soul and ejected her out before she even put one finger on her ribbon.

Addie’s hold on Black Cloak broke, and so did her layers of magic suppressing his soul— her opportunity lost.

She blinked at the relative brightness of reality, even as her heart fell as she realized how indecisive she had been. She should have listened to Squishy.

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Just as Addie started to get her bearings, a flash of feathers dove right in front of her face. She screamed in surprise and took a step back while bracing for impact. A flash of black scales soared up from underneath her, and Addie watched as Squishy trapped the bird in between his jaws before landing back on the ground.

The bird squawked and struggled against his grip, but he held strong. The bird’s feathers were torn apart in Squishy’s mouth due to the bird’s own actions trying to free itself, and it let out increasingly frantic squawking.

Desperate, its wings and beak caught aflame, forcing Squishy to drop the impromptu chew toy.

It flapped wildly on the ground, spinning and randomly turning its body. It flapped its wings, trying to take back off into the sky, but it was unable to due to one of its wings being bent at a gruesome angle. The bone stuck out slightly, and blood dribbled down the limb. It turned its head toward Addie with a vicious glare, its soulless white eyes bearing into her. Then, it sunk into the ghostly flaming floor.

“Perhaps I showed it too much mercy,” Squishy commented.

Addie didn’t have time to think about his words. Black Cloak had stood up during the commotion, Addie once again wondering how his spindly charcoal legs could support his weight without snapping.

“You killed him!” Black Cloak shouted.

It was strange he thought that. The bird had clearly still been alive despite being injured.

Regardless, in his madness, Black Cloak’s eyes began to glow a pale white. He pointed his palm out toward Addie and a torrent of ghostly flames spat out. Addie felt it as a bright heat wave heading right for her face.

They did the best thing they knew how to do. Addie and Squishy entered Realmspace, side by side.

Addie wouldn’t let his words get to her again. He never planned to help the children. He hurt the children, hurt Nettal.

Addie and Squishy ran forward together with new determination, counting their steps. They ran as fast as they could, first three steps to the right, then eight steps forward. Lastly, Addie turned all the way around, now facing the opposite direction. Addie released her hold on their magic and allowed Realmspace to eject them back out into Reality.

Before the transition had completed, Addie already had her arm out waiting to make contact. And contact, it did. She felt the signature black cloak underneath her palm and knew they had successfully gotten behind Black Cloak without him noticing.

Squishy jumped forward and clomped onto Black Cloak’s leg with his jaws, pinning Black Cloak to the ground.

Addie reached her arm out a bit further and made contact with Black Cloak’s back.

Black Cloak tried to turn around, but Squishy dug all four of his paws down into the ground stabilizing himself so that he couldn’t turn. Black Cloak stumbled and nearly fell down, but he re-balanced himself at the last moment.

His new position pushed his back even further into Addie’s hand. She dove right into her soulbond with Squishy. In a well-practice motion taking less than a second, Addie drew out the magic from her bond and flattened it out like a cloth. She wrapped it around Black Cloak’s soul shell again and smothered all uses of his magic.

Squishy sent a loud ‘poke’ through their soulbond, making Addie open her eyes in surprise.

The bird was back. It had formed out of the ground just next to Black Cloak and was currently crawling the last few inches to reach his leg. It moved its unbroken wing forward and touched Black Cloak’s right leg: the one Squishy wasn’t biting.

Black Cloak’s leg seemed to suck up the bird as it was absorbed into his leg.

That had been strange but shouldn’t interfere with the magic Addie was working on.

Black Cloak put his weight on his right leg, and lifted his left leg, bringing Squishy along with it. He flailed the leg around trying to shake him off, but Squishy held firm. Looked like Squishy was doing a good job distracting him.

Addie focused on her magic again, her layer of transcendent loop smothering Black Cloak’s soul and preventing him from using magic.

“I would have helped all of the children. I just need a bit of power, you see.” Black Cloak started whispering, but Addie tried to focus on what she was working on.

Addie drew on the magic within herself and connected it against the barrier she now had sitting around Black Cloak’s magical soul.

“If the Lord had listened to me in the first place, none of this would have happened, you see.” He almost seemed to be talking to himself more than Addie.

“But their magic, the power in their souls— it was just too much to leave it alone! I needed it! To beat the Area Lords!”

With her magic at the ready, and his soul fully wrapped up in her magic, she grabbed onto the most familiar power she had. Addie pushed his soul out into Realmspace.

Just like Christena said would happen, all of the flames that had been within the dome immediately vanished, dropping Addie a few feet down back onto proper swampy mud. Her boots squelched as she landed, her knees bending to absorb the impact.

Without the flames to see by, the inside of the dome was entirely dark. With her spatial sense, Addie watched as Black Cloak fell limp and dropped down onto the ground.

Squishy was right. Black Cloak didn’t want to help anyone but himself. He had even admitted it. He was just sucking up the magic from different souls, trying to gain power for himself at the cost of innocent kids. At the cost of Addie and Auntie almost losing Nettal forever. For a moment, Addie wondered how Nettal was doing, healing all of the other children.

Black Cloak’s body shuddered for a moment, pulling Addie back into the present moment. She heard him groan in pain as he writhed in the mud, getting it all over his shirt. Then, his charcoal legs fully turned to ash. Whatever magic had been holding them together was gone, forever.

This won’t kill him, Addie comforted herself. Even a person like this, Addie wouldn’t want to kill. Separating his body from his soul like this would destroy the soul bond holding him together with his bonded. Much like holding your breath for a few moments, as long as his soul returned in a few seconds, he would be fine. As soon as Addie’s magic ran out, his soul would return from Realmspace and reunite with his body.

Although Christena had told Addie about this, she had also warned Addie never to try it on anyone else. Snapping the bond with his bonded in this way would irreparably cripple Black Cloak, making it so he could never have a bond ever again.

Something was weird though. The bird should have also been forced out of Black Cloak’s body, now that he didn’t have any more magic.

Addie pushed at Black Cloak’s body a bit with her leg, eliciting another groan from the man. He had been a selfish man, happy to destroy other people’s souls for power— just like Servus in the Binary, Addie thought. Despite that, some things he said resonated with Addie. She would have to think long and hard about everything he said.

Why didn’t more Area Lords share magic? Even Christena didn’t want to answer that question.

Addie leaned over his body, examining his chest area. The bird still hadn’t come out for some reason. Addie reached her hand out toward his chest.

Like a ripple disturbing the surface of a lake, but far more disgusting, the bird pushed its head out from Black Cloak’s body. Before Squishy could come over to grab it again, the bird locked eyes with Addie and leaped out of Black Cloak’s chest. It had just enough strength to flap its wings once, despite how broken one of them was.

Addie started to back up, but it made contact with her upper body regardless. Addie prepared her layers of the transcendent loop, ready to fend off its ghostly flame attack, but no flames came.

Its beak touched Addie’s chest, and the bird dove into her body.