15

Lira didn't bother replying to the woman.

She just dropped Arden's bow, aimed her own, and fired.

It happened maybe in the space of a heartbeat, but even before Lira's arrow left her bow, the woman lifted her arm, revealing the tell-tale glow of a blood seal on the back of her hand. Despite being barely five metres apart with no wind, Lira's arrow went dramatically wide, burying itself in the dirt somewhere off to the side.

The woman's smile grew, her eyes fixated on Lira. She took one step forward, dropping her long, black cloak to the ground.

Lira's stomach sank as some part of her recognised the woman for what she was.

Blood witch.

She wore a similar outfit to the other witch who'd tried to kidnap Anya--a single dagger on her hip with otherwise tight, practical clothes that left windows of skin on her thighs, forearms and sternum bare to the world. In two of the windows, the witch had etched blood seals onto her skin. Lira recognised parts of the seals, but they were far more complicated and elegant than anything Lira had ever drawn without weeks of research.

Lira had no idea what this red-haired witch was capable of, so she fell back on her usual plan for large, upset spirits: when in doubt, get the hell out--or at least shoot at it enough to make it hesitate and put some distance between you to come up with a plan.

Lira nocked another arrow, stabbing her thumb on her bow's spike to activate the seal on the arrow. The witch raised her hand with an almost disappointed look on her face, but this time, Lira aimed the arrow at the ground between them.

As soon as she fired, Lira picked up Arden's bow and ran.

The arrow struck. Black mist erupted, a twin to the seal she'd used on the primal spirit yesterday. Lira skirted around the cart, bending down with the intent to scoop up the mage's staff when the ground opened up and swallowed her foot right up to the ankle.

Lira crashed into the ground, barely catching herself on her hands to stop her ankle from snapping. With a curse, she threw Arden's bow and the mage's staff as far as she could towards them and tried to pull her leg free. It remained firmly stuck, like the ground had become quicksand for a brief moment only to harden back into stone.

The witch approached her, the black mist arrow between her fingers, still pouring out thick smoke.

"Clever of you, using blood seals on your arrows," said the witch, wiping her own blood across Lira's seal. The smoke sputtered, but continued to stream out of the arrow, if a little less than before. The witch raised an eyebrow. "Impressive. If you still had your true arm, your seals might almost be as strong as mine."

Lira pulled out one of the knives from her side belt that the witch couldn't see. "Fantastic, I'll keep that in mind if I'm ever looking for a new job as a witch. Any recommendations?"

"I don't believe--" began the witch.

Lira twisted, throwing the knife at the witch.

It caught her by surprise, but Lira's aim was off. The knife flew up, deflected by the seal on the back of the witch's hand that hung at her hip, and forced her to duck to avoid it.

"Rather rude, wouldn't you say?" said the witch through gritted teeth. "The only one who draws my blood is me."

Lira smirked. She just had to buy enough time for Arden's group to sort themselves out, for Shari to take care of the poachers. "You might wanna get away from me, then. I have a tendency to--"

The witch extended her palm towards Lira, where another seal was etched into her skin. The seal flared--almost like the witch had chosen to divert power into it--and the ground beneath Lira moved. The stone that trapped her foot shifted, forcing her to flip over onto her back or break her ankle, while another wave of stone looped over her chest and pinned her down to the ground.

The witch drew her dagger and crouched beside Lira as she thrashed inside her stone bonds, desperately trying to wiggle something free, to reach her hunting knife. The witch grabbed Lira's face, shoving her cheek down into the dirt. Even though she couldn't see it, Lira felt the bite of the dagger as the witch drew a single line down the side of her face.

When the witch finally let her head go, Lira got the absolute pleasure of watching the witch lick her blood off the tip of the dagger.

"Well, that explains a lot, doesn't it?" murmured the witch, running her tongue over her lips as her eyes settled on Lira's skin. "Your blood is powerful." She tapped the tip of her dagger against the stone that pinned Lira's spirit arm. "And this--this intrigues me. From your bond with your spirit beast, I assume?"

Lira glared at her, moving on to another tactic--breaking through the stone with her spirit arm through sheer, brute force. She slammed her arm up into the stone, over and over, thrashing the rest of her body around to mask the sound. "My spirit beast who is going to tear you apart once she gets here."

"Assuming she doesn't get here in a spirit spike trap, that is," said the witch, the seal on her palm flaring--a far more intricate version of Lira's usual lure and water seal that dried her clothes, albeit tailored for stone. The stone around Lira's arm shifted just enough to give the witch access to the bicep of Lira's spirit arm. "I am curious as to what this tastes like."

The witch's dagger wasn't spiritsteel. It shouldn't have been able to harm Lira's spirit arm, but as the blade dug in, the agony exploded.

Her arm burned. It wasn't like the lightning that flashed through her when the wolf had drawn energy for a spirit blast. The witch's dagger in her spirit-skin was more like salt on a slug, like some fundamental process had gone wrong at the contact. The energy that made up her arm felt like it was twisting in on itself, writhing in blind agony that stretched and squeezed.

With a scream, Lira ripped her spirit arm free of the stone that bound it and punched the witch across the jaw with enough force to send her sprawling.

Lira sucked in breath after breath, fighting to keep her head clear. She reached up to her still-bleeding face with the arm that felt like it was tearing itself apart from the inside out, and with it, she drew a blood seal onto the stone that bound her: Break.

The stone crumbled. Lira shoved her way free as the witch was getting to her feet.

"You'll regret that," said the witch, the seal on her palm flaring.

"Doubt it," said Lira, drawing her bow with an arrow aimed at the witch. As she'd hoped, the earth-shaping seal on the witch's palm dimmed as she diverted power to the deflecting seal on the back of her hand. The witch couldn't activate two seals at once, at least not at full power. "You're the one who's gonna be outnumbered in a second."

"Outnumbered by who?" said the witch with a laugh, shaking her long, red hair back over her shoulder. "Your friends already left."

Lira's heart stumbled, but she wasn't about to turn around. Wasn't about to look away from the witch and give her a chance. But she took a few steps back, and her heel hit something--the spirit mage's staff, right beside Arden's bow where she'd thrown them.

Already left. Gone.

Her thoughts took off, imagining the four of them bolting for the spirit tunnels. Imagined them finding Thea and Anya, imagined their discussion, the words that said we have to leave her. Footsteps that carried them through the spirit tunnels, to the safety of the capital--all at the low cost of leaving her and Shari behind.

You're the one who always wants to be alone, right?

Lira lifted her bow a little higher as her aim dropped, swallowing down the thoughts, trying to focus on the witch in front of her. She couldn't hold this draw for long--not with the pain smothering her arm.

"Didn't expect them to leave you after your heroic little rescue, did you?" said the witch. She strode forward, dagger in hand. "There's only one way this ends, girl. With you and your little spirit beast coming with me. If you come quietly, I'll have the poachers refrain from the spikes. I'll muzzle the cat, of course, but--"

Lira released her arrow with a frustrated snarl and charged the witch with her hunting knife drawn.

The witch deflected the arrow. She met Lira's knife with her own dagger, her other hand sweeping around, bidding the stone to rise from the ground and curl around Lira's leg. Lira pulled herself free before it hardened, but the witch had the upper hand. Lira was forced back, unable to remain on the offensive while staying on her feet.

Wherever Lira stepped, the ground reached for her. She couldn't get a stable footing, couldn't get her balance back, and little by little, she felt herself falling. She knew it was only a matter of time before she went down and couldn't get back up.

Shari, she tried to tell herself, but her arm was getting worse. It was hard to focus, to do anything but try and stay on her feet. The others don't matter. Think of Shari--she needs you.

She didn't win this by being defensive--she had to make one last attack with everything.

Lira's foot found flat ground for half a second before it melted. This time, instead of retreating, she launched herself forward.

The witch wasn't expecting it. She was slow to react. Lira slashed her dagger towards the witch's chest, meeting resistance against an invisible shield as the witch flared her deflecting seal. It was enough to save her life, pushing Lira's knife away from her heart, but not enough to negate the full force of the attack as Lira's hunting knife sliced open her arm.

The witch screamed, but Lira wasn't done. She swung again, but this time, the witch didn't try to deflect her knife. Another seal on her thigh activated. A blast of wind erupted between them, knocking Lira off her feet and pushing the witch backwards to safety. Lira's back hit the ground, and almost immediately, stone rose up and swallowed her feet into the ground.

"You cut me," screeched the witch, glaring down at her bleeding arm.

Lira raised her bow, barely managing to get an arrow nocked. "Lucky." She fired off an arrow. It wasn't perfect--her left arm was shaking too much--but it forced the witch to activate her deflecting seal. "I was trying to kill you."

Lira nocked another arrow and held it half drawn, aimed at the witch. Her feet were trapped in the stone, but as long as the witch had her deflecting seal activated, she couldn't trap her further.

The witch stood there for a long moment, clutching her bleeding arm with her other hand. She recognised the standoff Lira had placed them in but didn't seem particularly worried about it. The witch had allies. Aside from Shari, who had started outnumbered ten to one, Lira didn't.

"You know how this ends," said the witch. "You've got nothing left. Put down the arrow and save your spirit cat some pain."

Lira managed a grim smirk. Slowly, making sure the witch was watching, she pressed her thumb against the spike on her bow and wiped it across the seal on her nocked arrow--all of it but a line that trailed out from the edge of the seal. "Sure about that?"

The witch stopped, eyes on the arrow head, the deflection seal on the back of her hand still held in front of her chest. "What kind of seal is that?" Her eyes narrowed, almost like she could read the seal from where she stood despite the distance. "It's--fire, air? I don't see how--"

"How about I show you?" said Lira, right as she wiped her thumb across the final line of the seal--the timer to the explosion--and fired the arrow straight at the witch's heart.

As expected, the witch deflected the seal, but half a second afterwards, as the arrow was flying off uselessly to the side, the explosion went off.

The witch was knocked off her feet and thrown sideways by a shockwave of fire and air. Lira covered her head with one arm as the wave of heat blasted her, already drawing the seal for 'break' onto the stone that trapped her feet. It crumbled. She kicked her legs free, sparing only a glance at the witch to gauge how much time the explosion had bought her.

Whether through her seals or some other luck, the witch was still conscious, and she was angry. Her palm with the stone-shaping seal was glowing and pointed towards Lira.

But behind her, sneaking out from around the side of a nearby tree trunk, was Anya.

For half a second, their gazes met. Lira stared at her, dread sinking into her stomach when saw the determination in Anya's gaze. The girl flicked her braid back over her shoulder, pulled out the small knife Lira had given her, set her eyes on the witch and charged.

The witch didn't see Anya coming, too focused on once more trapping Lira in the stone that was rising up and over her body. Anya stabbed her knife into the back of the witch's shoulder, who screamed and erupted in a blast of air as she had earlier, knocking both herself and Anya apart with the blade still in her shoulder.

Anya was slammed into a tree. The witch landed on her feet, pulling the knife from her shoulder with a pained grunt. With a curse, Lira broke herself out of the stone. The witch was already reaching towards her, stone-shaping seal glowing and active. The ground shifted beneath Lira, grabbing for her feet, but the witch's control was sluggish, inaccurate.

Some old thought at the back of Lira's memory told her why: the witch was losing blood, and with every drop that escaped her body, her seals were weaker.

Lira reached for her bow.

The witch turned and ran, darting behind a nearby tree.

Lira was on her feet, arrow nocked, teeth clenched with a low hiss escaping between them. Her arm was screaming in pain, but at this point, it was background noise. Her entire body echoed with it, singing together in some hideous chorus that demanded she scream along.

Lira spared half a glance at Anya, who was slowly getting to her feet and clutching the back of her head with both hands--both hands, which meant--

"Where's Ryn?" said Lira, gripping her bow with white knuckles. Anya gave her a dazed look, so Lira repeated herself, louder this time. "Where's your damned spirit?"

Anya blinked a few times and pointed towards the tree she'd come out from--the same tree that the witch had run behind. "I just put him down for a moment to--"

No.

Legs shaking, arms barely obeying her command, Lira bolted towards the tree. She scanned the trunk, the branches, the ground--the ground, where a small patch of blue-white spirit blood speckled the base of the tree, right beside a small clump of leaves.

No, no, no.

Lira turned, catching sight of the witch's red hair through the forest. Retreating, running back towards the spirit tunnels.

Thea has to still be there. She still has to be blocking the tunnels.

She loosed an arrow at the witch's back. The deflection seal still had enough power to knock it aside. Lira swore and ran after her, her legs too slow, too soft, vision spiralling down into the chorus of agony that rang out from her arm.

She has to be.

Lira chased the witch to the entrance of the spirit tunnel. More than one corpse of a poacher littered the forest floor in pieces, mauled beneath Shari's claws. Lira leapt over them, utterly focused on the red hair of the witch.

The ground rose into a hill, surrounded by a small grove of trees. Pale blue luminescence flecked their leaves, their branches twined and twisted around each other to mark the boundary of the spirit tunnel.

The witch ran past them, Lira ten seconds too slow behind her. The witch headed for the gap that dove into the stoney ground, lifted by the roots of the grove that lay within. Lira was gaining, but nowhere near fast enough to stop the witch before she reached the spirit door. Once she was through there, the witch would escape, taking Ryn with her for good.

Please, Thea, Lira thought through her pain-fogged brain. Please still be there.

As if in answer, a pale blue spirit shield bloomed in front of the spirit tunnel's entrance. The witch didn't have time to stop and slammed into it. Dagger in hand, she attempted to slash through the shield. It held, as off to the side, the glow of Thea's staff emanated through the grove.

The witch turned her back to the shield as Lira caught up, throwing her bow on the ground and drawing her hunting knife. Ryn was clutched tight within the witch's hand, his wing awkwardly caught beside his head. The glow of his white-blue blood covered her fingers.

"Drop the spirit and I let you live," snarled Lira, taking those last few steps towards the witch. "Or--"

Distracted by the pain, Lira saw the decision in the witch's eyes half a second too late.

Lira lunged. The witch activated her wind seal, blasting them both with a messy yet powerful gust of air. As Lira was knocked back several metres, scrambling to get back to her feet, the witch steadied herself against the shield, raised her dagger, and ran its tip straight through Ryn's body.

A blinding flash of agony dropped Lira to her knees, knife falling from her hand as from somewhere in the forest, Shari's roar of pain echoed through the trees.

Barely able to think, to breathe, to move, Lira somehow got back to her feet in a daze, no longer entirely contained within her own body. She staggered towards the witch, who was drawing a seal on the surface of Thea's shield with Ryn's blood. The shield shimmered, then dissolved from the inside out. The witch ran through, down into the darkness of the spirit tunnel.

Lira followed her.

She knew that something was wrong with her, that she shouldn't have been able to stay on her feet, that she should have been slamming into the root-covered walls of the tunnel blind from pain. Every second was agony, ripping through her mind held together by a single, sheer focus, but with each step, the pain was almost engulfing her, pushing her out of her mind--changing her into something that was stronger, something that was built to handle it.

At the bottom of the tunnel, where the roots of the grove grew into a loose oval that framed the shimmering blue mist of the spirit door, the witch stopped once more. She drew a seal with Ryn's blood onto the ground just in front of the mist with a glance over her shoulder back towards Lira.

"You want the spirit?" said the witch with a sneer. "Here."

She threw Ryn's body behind her, right at Lira's feet.

The tiny, birdlike body speckled iridescent blood across the ground as it ragdolled to a stop. In spite of herself, Lira stopped, gently tucking Ryn's wing against his body with a trembling finger. Even now, the tiniest flicker of life still clung to his form, but his small, dark eye was fluttering closed. He might last a few final hours, but whatever chance he'd had at survival earlier was gone.

The witch drew a final line onto the seal that stretched into the mist of the spirit door. The mist shifted, changing from a pale blue into an ugly, dark maroon.

Lira charged her with a roar. She slammed the witch against the wall, realising all too late that she'd left her knife on the ground above. She punched the witch across the jaw, sending them both crashing into the floor. They grappled, both trying to pin the other, but it was the witch who ended up on top, pinning her spirit arm to the floor with her stone-shaping seal.

The witch glared down at her, chest heaving but smiling nonetheless. She wiped a finger across the cut on Lira's face and put it to her mouth. Her eyes lit up. She drew her dagger, leaning its tip in towards Lira's skin when from somewhere at the tunnel's entrance, voices were shouting, growing closer.

The witch frowned, sheathing her dagger and moving towards the spirit door with one, final look towards Lira.

"I'm in no condition to wrangle you now, but rest assured," she said softly, stepping the first half of her body inside the maroon mist of the spirit door. "We'll be back for you, little spirit-armed demon."

Lira ripped her spirit-arm free of the stone right as the witch vanished entirely through the mist.

Gone.

"Get back here!" screamed Lira, stumbling to her feet and crashing back down with every attempt. She crawled the last few metres to the spirit door and reached inside the mist with her spirit arm. She'd drag herself through these Sovereign-cursed tunnels if she had to, but this witch was not escaping. Not with Ryn's blood on her hands. Somehow, she'd find her in the ether of the spirit tunnels. She didn't know how, but this one, single thought in the back of her head wouldn't let her think any differently. It was the only thing that cut through the overwhelming pain that was shoving her out, demanding that she make room for it, to let it take over. "Get back--!"

Hands grabbed her from behind. Pulled her back. Dazed by rage and pain, Lira tried to swat them away, to push forward into the spirit door.

"Lira! Lira--you can't go in there, can't you feel it? Can't you feel what she did to it?"

"Oh, Sovereign. Thea, look--look at her arm."

"Lira, Lira you need to--agh, really? Lira, look at your arm, stop fighting me! Shari, can you…?"

The sound of soft, solid, paws on stone that Lira would have recognised anywhere made her finally stop thrashing. Made her look, to see the giant form of her bond partner walk towards her, fangs and fur covered in bright, crimson blood.

A proud, victorious huntress.

Shari lowered her head, pressing her muzzle against Lira's left shoulder. Her spirit arm faded, leaving behind nothing but the small, long-ago healed stump protruding from her shoulder. The pain vanished--as did that strange, consuming strength she'd found in it--and left Lira sprawled across the ground with an exhausted, trembling body.

Lira reached up her remaining hand towards Shari but didn't quite have the strength to get it there. Shari helped her, ducking her head beneath the hand to let Lira rest it atop her head.

"Sorry," whispered Lira, barely recognising her own voice. Her eyes stung. Her cheeks felt wet. Her head was spinning, the darkness at the edge of her vision closing in. "I tried, but--but I…"

Shari rumbled and laid her chin across Lira's chest.

A few moments later, and Lira fell into the waiting dark.

*+*+*+*