I looked up with determination and nodded to Soriya. “Right! Let’s do this!”

Soriya and I headed into the room we’d set up as the ritual chamber. We’d already drawn the preliminary magic circles, so the it was relatively quick work to finish filling them in from our notes. Once we were done, we knelt down on the floor on either side of the circle.

Camaxtli trailed along quietly behind us, his expression one of patient curiosity. Or perhaps he was just watching the trained monkeys dance, it was hard to tell sometimes.

Soriya and I placed our palms on the circle, and started to funnel mana into the runes. I had some unpleasant flashbacks to the last time we’d done this, so long ago in the Cavern of Trials. It was hard to realize that had only been three months ago, it seemed like forever ago!

Magic in this world was very showy, I knew that from experience, and it seemed like rituals were even more showy than that. The circle flared with brilliant light, the mana spilling outwards, as it flowed around the lines of the circle and funneled into the runes. The purple black of Soriya’s mana mingled and mixed with the pink gold of mine at the boundary halfway between us, and the individual runes began to shine with each half of the effect, mine a brilliant silver white, and Soriya’s an inky blackness flickering with pinpricks of color.

The two halves started to move, and then to rotate slowly around each other, forming into an intricate latticework, a filigree clockwork machine of mana and will.

I could feel sweat on my brow as I focused, this was by far the hardest spell I’d ever tried. Across from me, I could hear soft panting breath as Soriya pushed more of her mana into the runework.

The filigree clockwork snapped into position, and I could feel the ‘ping’ that filled the air around me, hands on a clockface spinning, compass needles turning, and suddenly I knew the nearest location of the closest arcanum, glowing like a beacon in my head, 600 miles south south-east from us. A vision of an ancient stepped pyramid overgrown with jungle, a sense of overwhelming darkness and the smell of lush vegetation. And then something reached from the vision, a small hand like a child’s and a petulant high voice.

The delicate filigree of mana fractured into shards of light and dark that stabbed through us. I fell backwards, crying out in sudden shocked pain as razored shards of mana sliced into my flesh.

I shook my head in a daze, trying to focus. What happened? What was that? Soriya! My thoughts snapped into clarity and I looked up to check on Soriya. Camaxtli was pulling her gently away from the shattered remains of the circle, her floppy hat discarded on the floor. Her head lolled to the side, and a slow trickle of blood-

I leapt up, and immediately regretted it. “Augh, OW!” I staggered forward, my lips already forming the {Heal} chant.

Camaxtli looked up at me and his beautiful face creased in a puzzled frown. “You must heal yourself first, it is illogical to attempt to heal another when you cannot even draw proper focus.”

“Soriya…” I gasped, my {Heal} chant dissolving before it could finish.

Camaxtli looked down at her, then up at me. “She will live. You must heal yourself first.”

I gritted my teeth and began another {Heal} chant, staggering over to Soriya, and plopping my hand on her stomach, where a welling pool of red was ruining her dress.

I dimly heard Camaxtli say “Illogical, and then Soriya gasped loudly as the silver white light of my healing magic flowed through her, her wounds closing and her clothing cleaning itself.

I sighed in relief and sat down hard, my vision fuzzing and turning grey.

“Idiot!” I heard Soriya’s voice say, and then the taste of fruit and mana on my lips as Soriya forced a healing potion down my throat. The rapid loss of pain was a blessed relief, and I felt myself return to awareness. Soriya was on her hands and knees, looking intently into my eyes, her hat firmly perched on top of her head.

“I see you had time to put your hat on.” I said weakly, and essayed a smile.

Soriya’s expression was conflicted, but she settled on a wry smile. She said “Well it was right there. And you have too many hit points anyway, if you can make jokes after a backlash like that.” Her face grew serious. “You… you need to take care of yourself. You’re our team healer. We need you to stay up, or we all go down. So don’t… don’t keep rushing in like that.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I sighed and smiled a little sadly. “No promises. I see somebody in pain, and I just…”

Soriya’s expression grew grim. “Lilyanna… a healer’s job is not easy. You have a kind heart, and that’s to your credit, but being a healer comes with a terrible choice. If you heal someone else, and die because of it, then your team may very well go down. You’ve got white magic for days, you’re supposed to be the Saintess, for spirit’s sake!. You can afford to heal yourself first and then bring the rest of us back.”

I smiled weakly. “What are you saying, I’m the heroine, I can’t die.” I laughed weakly, abruptly cut off as Soriya slapped me hard across the cheek.

I gaped at her, lifting a hand to the growing red mark on my cheek, astonished to see tears in her eyes.

“Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare start treating this life like some kind of disposable game! Don’t you remember!? Don’t you know how that goes!? If the heroine dies its game over! Only this time you died, so there’s nobody to press the new game button! So don’t you dare do that to me! We started this stupid quest so you wouldn’t have to sacrifice yourself, so the plot wouldn’t make you die!” She half shouted half sobbed.

I blinked, and lifted a hand to her, confused and a little scared. “Soriya, what…”

She grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. “Promise me! You have to promise me!”

I frowned and gently took her hands off my shoulders, holding them in mine. “Soriya… what happened? Who… who didn’t take care of themselves?”

She sank down into a small heap, her hat tipping over her face, and was silent. Just when I was about to say something, she finally spoke, in a quiet shattered voice.

“Me.” she said, in a broken voice. “I didn’t… things… I gave and I gave and I gave and it was all for my family, and every time…” She looked up at me, her eyes red with unshed tears. “So don’t… don’t you dare tell me that it’s fine to just… give until there’s no you left! Don’t you tell me it’s just a video game just because we both lucked into an extra life!”

I sat there, feeling unbalanced and disoriented for a long moment before I took her hand in mine and squeezed it. “Ok.” I said softly. “Ok, I promise that I will… I will value my own life more. Because it’s… it’s precious to my friends. And I don’t like making my friends cry.”

I stood up on wobbly legs, leaning on my staff for support, then reached down to help Soriya to her feet.

“So let’s… find out.” I said, letting Soriya compose herself. “Because we need to let everyone know. I’m not sure what is to the south, but that felt like an optional boss… with a quest item that is most definitely not optional.” I muttered grimly.

Soriya looked up at me, and shook my shoulder again. “Stop it! You’re doing it again! This is not a video game, this is our life! It’s weird and strange and has a System but I don’t see a new game screen or a controller anywhere!”

I frowned but nodded. She was right, it was just… so easy to treat this world as a video game, myself as a detached observer… even given all the strange changes that I’d had happen to me, it still felt… half unreal. I squeezed my staff tightly, and nodded again. “Right. Lets go find the others.”

Camaxtli cleared his throat. “If I may ask… your reactions…”

I flushed. Having such a heart to heart moment in front of a soulless automata, just great.

“Am I to infer… you have lived a life… before this one?”

I chewed my lip, unsure what to say, glancing over at Soriya. She gave me a “might as well” shrug and I sighed, then turned to explain our situation to Camaxtli, in an abbreviated form.

When we had finished, Camaxtli was silent for a long time, his eyes flickering in rapid thought. he was quiet for such a long time that I’d just about given up, and was about to start towards the hangar again in search of our companions.

Camaxtli spoke, his voice wobbly and unsure. “This is… outside of expectations. I am… I must accompany you… I…” He stopped, and then said, in a voice that was lost and quiet. “I must have instructions, and my creators are unreachable.” He looked at me, his eyes large and fragile. “What do I do?” He said.

I stared at him, and then smiled faintly. “The best you can.” I held out a hand to him. “It’s what the rest of us do. You’re welcome to come along on the trip. Maybe we can find your heart at the same time we find my brain.”

Camaxtli tipped his head to the side, and then said “Was that… a metaphor?”

Soriya laughed. “It was a joke, Cammi. Get used to it, she makes them all the time.”

“Cammi…? My designation is-“

“No, enough of that!” Soriya pointed her finger at him. “You’re off to find your heart, and you’ve joined a motley crew of fools on the journey! We’re friends now, and friends give each other nicknames!”

“I… see.” Said Camaxtli. “I suppose I shall be in your care then.” He trailed after us, his eyes still flickering with intense thought.

We limped into the room we were using as a common dining hall, Eshaan immediately rushed over to me.

“What happened?! Are you ok!? You look terrible, did something happen?! Did he do something to you!?” He glared at Camaxtli fiercely, and reached for his sword.

I patted him hurriedly, and shook my head. “Eshaan, Eshaan. Peace! I’m fine, we’re fine, it’s ok! Things went weird, but Camaxtli is not at fault! Please do not go all…” I bit off “boy” since that’s clearly what Eshaan was doing.

And can you blame him, you officially recognized him as your boyfriend, so of course he’s defensive and… and very hero-y.

I sat down at the table, and poured myself and Soriya a cup of fruit juice. “Eshaan, please go bring Lakshmi and Daniyel in. We’ve got some things to discuss.” I rubbed my temples.