As we hit the ground, we could still hear screams from above. Everyone was freaking out, but despite that, the person I was most worried about was Callie. Horror, guilt, self loathing, pain. Feeling a heart break in real time was an absolute nightmare. Perit hadn't been super close to either of us, but Nat was, and the tall blonde woman had still been part of the group. "Oh gods." She whimpered. "Oh gods what did I do?"

I was at her side in a second, catching her hands as I shouted out. "Chelsea, lights please." A blinding white flame coalesced on my sisters hands and flooded the room with light. Callie was crying, tracks running through the makeup on her eyes and trailing over her mask, mixing with the dust on her face. "Callie." She didn't respond. "Cal! Honey, it's ok. It wasn't you. It was the translocator."

Nat was sobbing over her friend's corpse. I let go of my girlfriend and walked over to check on my cousin. "Natalie." I said quietly, kneeling down and putting my hands on her. "Nat I know this is horrible, but we need to store her body. I've never done a resurrection wish before, but I imagine the less decomp the better. If we put her in one of our spatial rings it'll probably make it easier to bring her back."

She let out a ragged laugh, a hollow, empty sound. "Bring her back? Do you know how much that costs? Do you know how high rank the wish GRANTER needs to be? Never mind the payment. And it scales. Perit was a high F-ranker. It's not like bringing back a mortal."

I nodded in sympathy. "I know. Jessie has been trying to get her brother back. But it IS doable. I checked and the wish is valid, just outside my abilities."

"You're not thinking this through." She snapped. "This will ruin her life. Of course I'll bring her back, but think about what she's losing. People lose interest when a story stops. Any reputation she's got, any chance to get stronger, it'll be gone. Valk and I will be way higher rank than she is, and we'll have left her behind. Assuming we can even do it at all. What if we die? Then we wait what? Ten years for you to maybe bring me back? Death isn't something casual you can just shrug off."

I put up both hands, not missing Jessie's worried expression, but not having time for it. "I get that." I said soothingly. "But we CAN bring her back. Most people don't get that option. And you can help her when we do. Grant her wishes to grind up her stats. Fast track her."

She took a long breath. "I appreciate that Shane." She said, exhaling deeply and trying to calm her trembling voice. Tears still rolled down her face. "But that only works up to the edge of E-rank. Paths are soul bullshit, and you can't wish for them. Help forming one maybe, but not past that. You're right though." She waved a hand and the body vanished. "Better condition should make it easier."

Callie bolted over, eyes wild, and grabbed her hands. "Nat! Oh my gods, and Valk! I'm so, so, so sorry!" She flinched, eyes losing focus. "What am I saying? Who says that? Sorry I killed your friend? Like that even means anything. I'm a monster."

She burst into a fresh wave of tears, but Nat reached out and put a hand over her mouth. "Enough." She said finally. "It's...awful. Gods is this awful. But I saw what happened clear as day. It wasn't you. It was that catty fuck and his bullshit teleporter. If he wasn't probably dead I swear-"

Callen cleared his throat. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but he probably isn't. Some of those robed assholes were stuck in the hall, chances are good he swapped with one."

"I thought translocators can only affect other objects?" I asked carefully. "Is it possible for him to do that?"

He nodded. "It is. Low level translocators struggle with the ability because it requires a large amount of Fantasy. Don't ask me why."

Valk, who had been standing to one side, stone faced and staring at his partner, spoke up, voice raw. "As terrible as this is, we do need to keep moving. I'm not sure where that bastard was going with that cup, but chances are good he needs to get back to the temple. Or somehow teleport out somewhere else. Who knows. Wherever he's going, we should be following. We need to get that cup back, or at least find a way out." He glanced at Nat's hand. "Or we'll never bring anyone back."

"Agreed." I said solemnly. "Anyone have any clue where we ARE?" I scanned the huge room we ended up in. It probably shouldn't have fit in the first floor, but then, when had that ever stopped Ascendant architecture. The room was full of pillars, and between them I could see tables. Long wooden tables wound tight with dense green vines that almost seemed to be moving in the flickering light.

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Oh, nope, they were ACTUALLY moving. Awesome. Jessie frowned at them. "Those aren't...right. They've mutated. The energy inside them isn't life force. Not really. It's like that gross green stuff coming off the skull. I can feel it twisting them, making them stronger in an awful way. We need to leave."

"Don't have to tell me twice." I said with a nod. "Chels, can you make a hole? Fire plus purify equals bad for plants plus abomination energy. I can pump you up if needed."

She reached out with her white flame and poured it on the nearest vine. There were some under us, we'd just been insulated by all the dust from the floor above. As the fire touched the plants, an unearthly scream echoed up, seeming to break in multiple registers at once. It sounded like nails on several chalkboards of varying distances. I couldn't help but wince.

"I got it." She said stonily. "These things will be cake." Raising her hands, she focused, and twin torrents of white fire like a flame thrower started to spew forth. She aimed them at the plants in the aisle near us, towards the closest door, and then slowly began to burn away those horrible plants, ignoring the screams.

I wasn't sure about the exact stat requirements, but judging by the sweat starting to drip down her brow it was hardly easy. She moved down the aisle, step by step, hands like flamethrowers as she burned away the obstacles before us. Callen was at her back, sword drawn, waiting and watching for any possible threat. As she did that, I took the time to walk over and put my arm around Callie.

My girlfriend was a strong person. The strongest I'd ever met, in a lot of ways. She was also a kind person, one who cared about doing the right thing. Killing an innocent person, much less a friend and someone that was loved by other people she cared about. It was anathema to her. It was just about the worst thing Felix could have done.

And FUCK Felix. I didn't care about gods or murder cults. I was going to kill him for this. For making the person I loved most feel THIS. I could feel the emotions through the bond, like a fucking parasite eating away at her until nothing was left, and there wasn't shit I could do about it. How do you fix something like that? How do you unring that bell?

She stopped, pulling me to a halt and looked at me, hands reaching up to cup my face. Or my mask I guess, but wither way. "Don't." She said softly. "I can't feel that too, baby. I can't take your heart breaking while mine does. I'll be ok. It's awful, but I have a way to fix it. I'll help you get strong so Nat can wish her back. Just like Jessie is. I believe in you. I know you can do this."

"I can FEEL you suffering." I said plaintively. "I can't just ignore that. Ignore you. How am I supposed to not hurt when you hurt?"

She chuckled wetly. "By letting me do this myself. I'm sorry, but knowing how much this hurts you is making it worse. I'm alright, I have something to focus on, but I think we need to close the bond until we get out of here. Just so we can both function, because the feedback is going to make us useless."

"Well can we at least beat Felix into a bleeding weeping mess and kick him into a ravine?" I asked hopefully.

Her face hardened. "We can kick him into TWO ravines." I wasn't actually sure what that meant, but she sounded like she had ideas. As ominous as that sounded, I was glad she was focusing on anger instead of guilt. I felt her rage before she closed down, and it was frankly a relief compared to what I'd been getting from her before. And then...it was all gone. Knowing she was hurting made losing contact all the worse, but I pushed it aside.

I half expected to be jumped by evil plants, but whatever the things were that were slithering around they weren't smart enough to ambush thankfully. Chelsea burned us a path to the door, and when we opened it, we slipped out into the hallway, ready to follow after Felix.

Before we did though, I forced everyone to stop. "Alright guys. This...this was bad. I know we're all tired. Scared. Hurt. I know this is a shit situation. But we have to keep going. We have to find Felix, because he HAS to have a way home with that thing. But I just want you guys to know, I'm GOING to get us out of this. No one else dies. So we do this careful, and we do it smart. First thing we need is to get out of here." No arguments at that, which surprised me. But I guessed they were pretty shaken up. "Callie, I want you checking for traps. Shadow clones, trap Skill, the works."

She looked at me suspiciously, probably wondering if I was giving her busy work...but she WAS the one with the trap Skill, so after a second she got to work. Chelsea was leaning against the wall looking worn out, sweat matting her hair. "I'm...gonna need a minute." She said, panting. "That was a lot. Whatever that energy is its bad news. It took some serious effort to purify it."

"You're fine." I said with a smile. "Callie needs time to do her thing anyway, rest up. I'll get Jessie over here to give you some juice. We have a healer for a reason."

I waved over the blonde, who was looking a bit pale. This whole thing was probably bringing up a lot of shit she was trying to push down. "Hey Jess, can you top my sister off. She's feeling a bit wiped." I saw Callen's eyes widen a bit, and realized he didn't know. Oops. Seemed like a bad time to worry about that kind of thing though. Hopefully he could be trusted, but if not we might all die anyway.

"Sure thing Shane." She said weakly. She stepped over, laying her hands on Chelsea, and green light poured out from her hands. I nodded to her gratefully and then went to stand next to Callie as she scanned the hallway. I didn't say anything, just took her hand and laced my fingers in hers. Even with the bond shut I got an echo of gratitude that she pushed over to me, and it made me smile. We'd get through this. Together. I just wished I could figure out how.