I had just enough time to draw in one breath before I splashed down, so I hold onto it greedily as I’m yanked through the water. My helmet is air sealed, but the rest of my body being so badly affected, I'm burning through my natural essence at incredible speeds just to barely maintain the status quo. And for active spellcasting I'm nearly tapped out on Aero and Ignia and won't be able to call anymore while underwater in this frigid river — neither of them could feasibly be tasked to do anything but try to stop me from suffocating or freezing.

  None of that matters, though, if I get drowned and eaten.

  I twist around to catch a glimpse of whatever has me in its clutches, but all I can see through the water is a tendril with a glowing yellow tip, which narrows my attackers down to a single option.

  That single option reveals itself a moment later as a maw about five feet across from which the tendril is coming opens like a yawning pit. With my lungs burning, muscles screaming, and armor chiming all kinds of alerts that I have to tune out, I focus as best I can and bring my leg around to kick at the tendril.

  I connect, but the slippery thing shrugs off the impact, so I try to wedge the pointed toe of my greaves into the space between my leg and the tentacle. I lever with as much force as I can manage, and the thing abruptly lets go for a moment before wrapping around both of my ankles at once.

  I resist every urge I have to loose an enraged yell, but settle for reaching to my side and one of my knifes at around the same time the thing pulls me halfway into its mouth and chomps down on my legs like a beartrap closing. My armor creaks in the artificial silence here underwater, and I feel one of the weaker sections give and a tooth beginning to force itself into the growing hole and into my thigh.

  With its mouth closed, though, its eyes are much closer, so I wrench myself sideways and stab into one of them, dragging the knife back towards me.

  It does not, like I hoped, let go. Instead, it crunches down harder in response. I feel one of its teeth crack off against the armor, but the one that was succeeding already drives in deeper and makes me lose control and actually scream out, letting free that last gasp of air. My helmet is still sealed, but there's no air remaining within.

  I am not dying to a fucking river angler while that calamity walks the world.

  I ram the knife home into the things other eye and reach into a pouch with my free hand and grab both phials of Fervora and crush them in my hand. Fervora is a mixture of Ignia and Hydrus, so when it rushes into my system I feel a flush of sudden warmth course through me. A warmth that amplifies my current emotions to an incredible level. Emotions that are currently sitting exclusively in the range of "bitter, violent, rage and a refusal to bend".

  I reach out for anything and feel a wealth of essence come to my beck and call: my essence, not the Aero or Ignia I borrow from the world. I feel it push into every part of my body at once, suffusing my mind, heart, lungs, and muscles.

  I don't gain the ability to suddenly breathe, but I feel the problem lessen at the same time I feel my muscles tensing and coiling with artificial strength, my mind clearing and my resolve hardening. The Fervora warms me, emboldens me, and the Sanctus gives me exactly what I need to fight back.

  I leave my knife stabbed into the now-blinded creatures eye and instead try to grip its jaw to force it open. I can't find a handhold, so I aim a punch with every ounce of force I can manage at the tooth that's penetrating my thigh and collide with a crack that I can feel through my armor.

  The tooth shatters and glowing yellow ichor — some sort of venom — pours into the water to join my golden Sanctus popping into and out of existence as needed. The combination of the two paints the area in a very dreamlike half-light that waxes and wanes as the moments pass.

  I reach both hands into the gap and wrench its mouth open by degrees until I can free my legs, at which point I replace one hand grip with the boot of my greaves and force it open further and further with my full, enhanced, strength. Eventually I hear something give and the jaw goes slack the rest of the way, no longer able to close. Anglers are mostly just one big mouth, so breaking this things jaw wide open will starve it even if it doesn't immediately kill it.

  The moment I push away to swim towards the shore, trying to make sure I know which way I'm going, I see a ray of light streak into the water, striking the creature in its forced-open maw and annihilating it in my wake in a burst of blinding red and purple light, even underwater. It also succeeds in pushing me towards the shore that the ray originated from, where I see the light of Serafina's stave glowing with radiant light.

  Serafina, inadvertently or intentionally, is acting as a guiding light for me once more.

  I kick until the water is shallow enough for me to hop out with all of my enhanced strength in a cascade of water. Land gracefully, though, I do not. With one leg buckling as soon as weight is put on it. Landing face first in snow after everything else just feels like the world is mocking me. Sure it doesn't actually touch me, thanks to my helmet, but the intent behind the slight from reality is well understood.

  "Watcher Above, Nyssa." I hear Serafina distantly as I focus on drawing as much Ignia and Aero into my body as I can to offset some of the harm I've taken internally while I feel the water pouring from the vents in my armor with relief.

  I roll over onto my knees to force myself up to my feet again at the same time that Serafina hobbles over using her stave for support and as a light source in the dimming evening. "I'm… fine…" I say inbetween gulps of frozen air. "Let's… move… on…"

  "Nyssa, you need to stop and res-"

  I feel a bit of anger at everything come to the surface and speak with a force empowered by the Sanctus running through my body. "Resting. Is. The Last. Thing. I. Need. I need to get you and I to safety." Serafina physically flinches away as the Sanctus motes cross the narrow gap between us and land around her head and shoulders. She nods, though, looking pained as she tries to resist whatever effects the essence deemed necessary to carry through to her — which has historically been compulsion. I can't really control it, so while I feel bad, she'll have to understand.

  She speaks through gritted teeth, "Alright, Nyssa, you're right. Delays wouldn't help us here. Do you still want to carry me? I will suffer the walking if needed."

  "For now, I'm fine. I'm still suffused with everything I need to keep going. We just have to go." Punctuating the statement, I step forward and scoop her into a carry and set off into a jog in the direction of our goal that after a few minutes turns into an open run across this clearer region of forest. I try to keep the ride smooth for her, but expediency is paramount. When my Sanctus leaves me, I'm going to be in a really bad way and I want to be as far along this journey as possible when it does.

  After about forty minutes of moving along at a run, we come into sight of the town of Burrowvale as we step out of the forest. Proper night as fallen early as always once the sun has slipped behind the monumental mountains in the distance. The area is painted with the increasing snowfall and the slight glow coming from the town in the distance — rendering everything with a hazy, almost dreamlike, quality not unlike how things looked underwater.

  The town looks almost like a dome covered in layers and layers of buildings, all well lit with warm pink and red lights either from streetlamps or from interior fires sending their hearthlight out through paned glass or crystal windows. In the middle distance between us and the town is a hazy, slightly luminescent, rippling barrier. Presumably some sort of passive defenses against monsters — but clearly not the elements as the layer of heavy snow covering every roof in the settlement displays.

  The entire scene feels like an oversized snowglobe depicting a sleepy, idyllic, town. Which, I suppose, is fairly accurate.

  I let out a sigh, and feel my Sanctus starting to flood out of my body due to the end being in sight. Just have to push on for a few more minutes. Not a problem at all.

  "Nyssa, How about you set me down and we go the rest of the way together?. I've been feeling your essence steadily leaving you over the last ten or so minutes. I can handle five minutes of walking — deeply appreciative as I am for your efforts, I don't need you kill yourself over a walk across a nice, flat, plain."

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  I consider protesting, but as my essence flees, it feels more and more like a good idea. "Alright, Serafina. Just let me know if you change your mind." I set her down as carefully as I can and see her roll her eyes with a smile.

  "I think I'll manage, no worries. You try to do the same. When we get to whatever passes for an inn here, I'll take a look at your wounds before we both keel over."

  With a bit of finality, she puts a hand on my elbow for a bit of support — though for me or for her, I'm not sure — and we set off to cover the remaining distance. A blessedly simple bit of travel where I'm not accosted by monsters, don't need to be on high alert, and feel optimistic for the first time today as I look at the inviting snow-covered hill-town.

  I also continue to feel awful due to being miserably — probably dangerously — cold, my muscles are simultaneously on fire and — also probably dangerously — frozen, and somewhat dazed following all of my essence use and the — definitely dangerous — abuse of my body today.

  I chuckle despite myself which has Serafina turn around to look at me with concern. "You find something amusing, or are you getting delirious?" The concerned face turns to a wry smile after I take off my confining helmet to reveal my smile.

  "I was just thinking about how stupid my last few weeks have been and how much the world decided to beat the drek out of me in the last few days." Talking makes me feel a little bit better, giving me a distraction of something other than my current levels of suffering.

  "That's what I meant, by the way," She offers as the light snow crunches beneath our feet, "You've been struck with a cavalcade of stuff, and can still laugh at the end — not least of which because of your mental fortitude but also because you were able to make it through the other side. It's very admirable for anyone, let alone someone who's has so many unfair cards dealt to her." The warm look she gives me kicks my flagging heart into overdrive for a couple moments and I look away.

  I've never dealt well with compliments, but Serafina seems to always manage to say just the right ones to make me bashful, not angry or dismissive like most.

  We pass through the shimmering barrier and it has a momentary feel of something like stepping through warm jelly. It crackles with competing energy as it passes over my armors enchantments, and when Serafina passes through just behind me she staggers and winds up shaking her head, looking dazed for a moment.

  "You okay, Serafina?"

  "Mm, yeah. I think the barrier just didn't like some of my essence types, or maybe I'm just more tired than I thought and passing into safety made my brain realize an end is finally in sight."

  She gestures and I see a couple people standing on the lowest level of the town pointing at us with some urgency. The distance from the barrier to the town is maybe a thousand feet, so crossing it is still non-negligible, but by the time we're halfway through, I see someone heading our way announced by the heavy noises of plate clanking and rubbing.

  The guard who approaches is a tall equin woman with braided, mid-back-length, red hair, two slightly pointed, funneled ears perched atop her head, a well-taken-care-of, if old, breastplate, a brutal-looking flanged mace, a tall tower shield, and a deeply concerned expression. Her build is tall, very leggy, and overall powerful as is common for even bipedal equin.

  "You two look like you've fallen from the boughs and hit every branch on the way down." She hesitates, taking us both in fully. Her reaction tells me I'm probably worse off looking than I feel.and I feel terrible. “Is there anything I can do to help? Do you need medical help, lodging?"

  Serafina speaks up before me, being in better overall condition. "Lodging, if at all possible. I will see that whoever can put us up is compensated thoroughly in the morning, but we've been traveling for a couple days and have had a rough run of things, so if I could wait to handle anything official until morning, it would be greatly appreciated."

  Even tired, wounded, and generally distressed, Serafina wears her status and role on her sleeve. Not as a method of bragging, or intimidation. She just has this aura of collected control that seems to put people around her at ease that I keep finding I greatly admire. Whether addressing a room of hardened veteran knights, counseling me in private, or dealing with average everyday people, she treats everyone with the same genial respect and it seems to always turn them to her side of anything going on fairly effortlessly.

  "Not a problem at all. I'll warn our resident doctor in the morning. In the meantime, let me take you to the Catnap Inn. We've had some people come into town in the last couple days, but there should still be a room or two available. It's not far."

  With that, the equin woman gestures for us to follow. Which Serafina does with little hassle aside her limp. I, on the other hand, have had all basically all of my Sanctus essence leave me and can be described only with the utmost generosity as "trudging". Inevitably, I fall behind, but she adjusts her pace to stay alongside me. If it weren't for the force amplification of my armor, I don't think I'd be standing right now.

  "Just a little farther, Nyssa. You've done, and are doing, fantastic."

  The comment buoys me long enough to get to the inn. An inn that has its entire front facade shaped like a caricature of a cats paw — I think I've heard people refer to the little bits that are called out by the shape as "toe beans", and the name suddenly makes a good bit more sense. Just above the door is a sign showing a cat sleeping curled on a mat with the word "catnap" peeking out beneath the chubby feline. In the windows, all emitting warm firelight, rests an almost literal sea of cats.

  All told, it looks delightful, and in the morning I might even be able to care.

  I follow Sera in and see an old lapin man with aged white hair, floppy ears, and more advanced kyn features like more exaggerated digitigrade legs than a younger lapin would have. He's looking at the two of us apologetically, and I consider turning around right away to get a start on wherever we're going to have to go instead.

  "Ach, Space is limited, only one room open, one bed. Is big though. Room for maybe three." He's clearly not originally from Eldara, with a thick accent from the nation to the south, Kaymar.

  "That's quite alright. We aren't really in a position to be picky, and I'll take any degree of privacy I can get. Thank you very much." She looks over her shoulder and shoots me a warm smile. "Is it on the first floor? My companion is more than a little tired out. I think she might die if she tries to go up a flight of stairs."

  "No no no, first floor, far back of the building, no no. Nice, private, and even has heating runes and a bath. Perfect for two young folks." He smiles, managing to scrunch up his already scrunched-up eyes to the point of probable blindness. He reminds me dearly of a close friend — a similarly aged felin back in Kharbon named Colto who has been something of a surrogate father for me over the years.

  I let myself be dragged along as I think more about him. I failed to go visit him and he'll surely have heard about my injury and be worried sick — he always worries when I don't check in for a length of time. Mostly because I end up in situations like my current state too often for his liking.

  Too often for my liking too.

  "Perfect. We'll take it." Serafina's voice cuts my reverie short and I look up to see him hand Serafina a key — an actual "twist and lock" key. It's uncommon to see anymore with how reliable essence locks have become, but then again, this town is protected by a barrier, so they probably don't need much in the way of in-town defenses. "Thank you again, Miss…?"

  "Leran. And I assume you are of the Blackthorns, yes?" Serafina nods with a smile, "Your family has done much for our town, we will gladly support you as long as needed." The equin leans her shield against the nearby doorframe before locking her hands together in front of her chest and bowing at the hips in a show of thanks.

  "That's wonderful to hear. I'll make sure we don't abuse the hospitality." Serafina turns, putting a hand on my elbow again and guiding me forward. down a couple hallways and to the rearmost section of the building.

  She unlocks and pushes the door open and freezes with a growing smile she tries to hide before failing and giving into a fit of the giggles and moving to block my view. "Nyssa, I know you're tired, but I want to surprise you with this. Can you close your eyes and I guide you in? I need to see your reaction to this."

  "Uh, sure? I must admit to a bit of concern though" I say, exhausted, but close my eyes as requested. My eyelids are quite heavy, so the effort comes easily. The feeling tries to call me off to sleep, even standing, so I focus extra hard. Serafina takes me gently by the hand and leads me in with another set of suppressed giggles.

  "Okay, open them."

  I do so, and see a whole lot. A whole, whole lot of a lot. The bed has velvet red blankets and sheets and is on a slightly raised platform in the shape of a heart. The same material is framing the windows, which open up to look out over the plains. There's ample candles around the room, though none are lit.

  It's a couple's suite, right out of a racy novel. It's not as polished as what people would imagine — but it's an honestly very charming attempt for a small town to add a little novelty to someone's stay.

  However, I've been having some very confused feelings around Serafina, and seeing this right now, so messed up as I am, I have nothing to say, and am not at all sure how to react. So I just do what feels the most natural. Turning beet red, and hiding my face in my hands with a groan.

  "I'll…I'll just sleep in the chair, Serafina. I wouldn't wan-"

  "Seriously? Nyssa, you've been borderline freezing to death all day. I'm not allowing my literal savior three times over to sleep in a chair. I also refuse to sleep in a chair." She points at the bed with a bit of gusto, "We're two grown adults, I'm fairly sure we can handle sharing a bed that large. If it really bothers you, we can sleep on different layers of the blankets."

  With finality, she closes and locks the door before starting to get out of her armor, robes, and traveling gear. With only the greatest degree of unease, I join her in that endeavor.

  The entire process, even my embarrassment aside, is entirely miserably as I discover a whole host of new cuts and abrasions from the Sanctus essence allowing me to push well beyond my reasonable limits and causing harm as usual.

  Resigned, I strip down to my body glove and sit on the bedside for a few moments before I decide to really need to lay down right now.

  About an hour ago, actually.