7

Shari had them back at the clearing in a third of the time that it'd taken Lira to leave it. She stopped at the edge of the undergrowth, concealed from the wolf's gaze.

The situation was about as she'd expected. The wolf had Arden and the two spirit mages pinned down behind a tree, snapping at Arin as he swooped and narrowly avoided the wolf's teeth. The glow in its mouth was charged and ready, the streaks of luminescent fur alight as it stalked towards them. If they came out, the wolf would blast them. If they didn't, it would reach them and rip them apart with its claws.

Despite Arden's entire quiver sticking out of the wolf's back like spines, the wolf didn't look any worse for wear. After three spirit blasts, it should have almost been out of raw spirit energy, should have at least been starting to lose its form, but it looked as solid as Shari did beneath her.

Lira unstrapped her cloak and let it drop to the ground beside her. She double checked everything, making sure each arrow, each dagger was exactly where she expected it to be.

She leaned down close to Shari, placing her hand on her bondmates side. "With me?"

Shari rumbled in reply.

Lira pulled the first arrow out of her quiver, pricked her finger against the spike on her bow, and swiped her finger across the blood seal on the head of the arrow.

"Ready when you are," said Lira. "Head first, as usual"

Shari took off, Lira on her back, holding on with nothing but her legs.

The wolf was a few steps from the tree where Arden and the mages were hiding when Shari dashed out of the trees. The wolf barely gave Lira a glance, no doubt judging that it had enough time to deal with Arden before she'd reach it.

Then Shari roared.

It was more than just a sound--it was a challenge, one that defied the natural order of the spirit world. Spirits attacked each other all the time. Arin diving at the wolf, attacking its eyes, its ears, its joints--that was expected. Allowed. But a declaration of defiance?

No primal would let it stand from anything less than a regal spirit, and this wolf was no different.

The wolf slammed its paw down into the stone, shaking the ground as it turned its head to obliterate them.

That was the only opening Lira needed to aim her bow and fire.

Her arrow buried itself in the wolf's head, right beside its ear. The blood seal activated, quickly turning the air around it into a thick, dark mist designed to obscure the light. Blinded, the wolf fired off a spirit blast that Shari easily dodged, continuing to run straight for it.

Lira slung her bow across her back, carefully watching the wolf as it thrashed, unleashing yet another errant blast of spirit energy that scorched the stone. They were close now, circling the wolf as it staggered blind around the clearing, crashing into the trees hard enough to knock most of them over.

To have a chance at helping it, they were going to have to hurt it first.

Lira kneeled up on Shari's back, trusting her partner to find the opening they needed before the arrow's mist effect ran out. Her arm crackled as the wolf prepared yet another blast.

Shari knew it, too. She was tense. Waiting. Ready.

The precise moment before the lightning in Lira's arm peaked, Shari growled a second time. The wolf snarled and unleashed the blast directly at them, but instead of dodging to the side again, Shari jumped, launching herself over it and directly at the wolf.

Lira leapt off Shari's back, landing on the wolf's back the same instant that Shari's teeth sank into its neck. The wolf howled, snapping at Shari, who violently shook her head and dropped, taking a mouthful of the wolf with her. Paws on the ground, Shari darted away, but the wolf was too fast, even for her--which was when Lira jammed her hunting knife into the centre of the wolf's back and twisted.

Distraction. It was always about distraction, about keeping the primal's focus split between them. Alone, a primal was far too strong for either of them, but together, they had a chance.

The wolf's teeth missed Lira by centimetres as she dodged it by hanging off its side, anchored to its body by her hunting knife. When Shari threw herself at the wolf once more, Lira used one of Arden's arrows in its side to push herself up. In the precious seconds that her bond mate was buying, Lira scrambled up the wolf's neck, quickly climbing up with her hunting knife and a death grip on its fur.

She made it to the base of where its skull would have been and straddled its neck. The wolf lowered its front half onto the ground, intending to roll over and crush her against the ground. Shari reminded it that she was still here with a growl and a slash at its underside, which quickly got it back on its feet, but the mist around its eyes was fading. Its next two blasts in Shari's direction were far more accurate than a minute ago.

Holding on with her right hand, Lira put the fingertips of her left glove in her mouth and pulled it off.

Unlike her right arm, which was made of purely human flesh and blood, Lira's left arm was entirely made of spirit energy.

From her left shoulder all the way down to her fingers, Lira's skin was the same colour as Shari's pale blue coat. Though tangible, there was no skin within it. She could see through it if she tried hard enough--not that she ever took her gloves off unless absolutely necessary.

The spirit-arm had downsides, such as being affected by the push and pull of spirit energy around her or vanishing entirely if Shari was too far, but it was stronger, painless, and most importantly, it allowed her to establish an almost physical connection to a spirit.

Most of them, anyway.

Muttering a prayer to anything that might be listening, Lira placed the palm of her left arm directly on the centre of the wolf's forehead.

She expected a raging, overwhelming presence, like being caught in the sea during a storm with monstrous waves that broke above you, shoving you down into the dark, deep waters of the abyss below to drown. She expected a howling gale that ripped at her ears and collapsed her legs. She expected teeth, razor sharp, to slice at her mind and cut her down like a sapling to a woodsman's axe in the winter.

Instead, she found shards.

Shards of the storm, of the waves, of the teeth and the gale, broken and scattered among a void. She almost could see how they pieced together, could feel the anger, the rage, the desperate hope trapped within each one of them. She could feel the spiritsteel as it pierced her hide, breaking each of the shards into smaller and smaller pieces until nothing was left of them but dust.

Yet something else lurked between the shards. A strange, almost familiar energy. A tug, a call, a demand that yanked on the shards like a long, slack leash on a pup. Enough to make her notice, but not enough to reign her in.

Lira tried to reach for the shards, tried to pull them together long enough to find something, anything to connect with, but there was nothing left. No will--not anything that felt like a spirit, anyway. Whatever had held the shards of this primal together was gone, leaving nothing but an empty, hollow hole at its centre with the echo of a lonely, baying howl.

Unless she found whatever it was missing, this spirit would never recover. She had no idea where she'd even start. How she'd stop it from killing her, from running away while she figured it out.

Lira dug her fingers into its fur, desperate for a hint of sanity, of anything reasonable still left within it.

Let me help you, she tried. I'll do whatever I can to help you, but I need you to show me there's something left. That you're willing to hang on.

The shards… hesitated wasn't quite the right word, but for a moment, she could have sworn the lonely howl had sounded more like a promise of resolve.

I need you to do what you can to stop attacking us, she asked it. Run into the Wilds. We won't chase you. I'll make sure whoever left those traps--

The leash on its half-broken mind yanked.

All at once, the shards went into overdrive. The memory of the spiritsteel spikes being hammered further and further into her hide flared. There was nothing but rage. Nothing but a blind, bitter wrath, a hatred so extreme that it would end itself to get revenge.

Lira was jolted back into her own brain as the wolf's physical body thrashed, shaking her hand from its head and sending her tumbling backwards. She grabbed at whatever she could, managing to grab a handful of fur that saved her from dropping to the ground and being crushed beneath its paws.

The wolf's fur began to glow--not just streaks this time, but its entire body, drawing so much spirit energy to it that the outline of Lira's left arm began to pull towards it. The pain was almost blinding, threatening to both rip away her control and black her out.

Lira only had one option: she dropped.

Shari was there, just as she always was. The spirit cat darted beneath the wolf, catching Lira on her back and bolting for the treeline before the wolf exploded, but the world was spinning. The sheer agony from her arm had numbed the rest of her body. She couldn't feel her arms, her legs, couldn't hold on to Shari.

Seconds before the wolf was about to explode, Lira slipped off the side of Shari's back.

Shari stopped. Turned. Ran back to Lira, who was trying to get back on her feet and knew she wouldn't be fast enough. Shari grabbed one of Lira's belts in her mouth and tried to drag her, but it was too slow.

"Go," muttered Lira. "You're fast enough to--"

The wolf's fur was almost pure white, tinged with the palest hint of blue. The blast was coming.

Shari threw herself on top of Lira.

The wolf erupted.

"Sovereign, shield him!"

The supernova of spirit energy exploded outward, but instead of destroying everything in a hundred metre radius, it met a golden, shimmering wall. Trapped with nowhere else to go, the spirit energy turned inward, slamming against the same thing that had summoned it.

"Lira?" Arden's voice was as loud as his footsteps. "Lira, you okay?"

"Alive," she mumbled. Her body was prickling all over, but the pain in her arm was fading, so that was a bonus. Shari climbed off her, nudging her nose under Lira's chest, a demand for her to get on. "What were you thinking? You almost got yourself killed, you dumb cat."

Shari just rumbled in reply as Lira managed to sit up straight on her back. The wolf was still alive, but it was yet to move, standing where it was to snarl at the two spirit mages.

"Not over yet," said Arden, his eyes on her left arm. "Every time the wolf spirit blasts, the Rupture widens a little. I think the wolf is drawing energy directly from the realm. We have to--"

"You do it," said Lira, sucking in a breath. She tried to lift her left arm and didn't get it past her hip. "It's a little hard to draw blood seals with one arm dead, but we'll make sure the wolf stays off you."

Arden pressed his lips together, nodded, and took off at a run towards the Rupture.

Lira drew in a deep breath, hand on Shari's side as Shari ran towards where the spirit mages were standing. The contact was helping her spirit arm, but it was nowhere as instant as it'd been earlier.

Their gazes were stuck on her arm, shifting only for brief glances at each other.

"You okay?" one of them asked her as Shari stopped beside them.

Lira gave them a quick nod, wishing that Shari hadn't picked a spot that put her left side closest to them. "If the wolf blasts again, can you shield it a second time?"

The older mage grimaced. "I don't think we'll need to find out. Look at him. He almost killed himself the first time."

It was true. The wolf was putting up a front, still snarling and snapping in their direction, but its legs were shaking. It could barely stay upright, let alone draw that amount of energy a second time.

Lira turned her attention to the two mages, giving them a closer look.

Like all spirit mages, they both wore a slender circlet around their foreheads and carried a stylised silver staff with a jewel embedded in its head. Their garments were similar to Ardens, albeit with a little more spiritsteel and less weaponry, having only a dagger each on their hip.

"That was a sovereign spell," said Lira to the older mage. With his greying hair and wrinkles around the edges of his eyes, Lira was surprised he'd been chosen for a Wilds mission in the first place, but if he were capable of sovereign magic, it made sense. "And shielding the wolf itself, too. Clever."

"Wasn't me," said the older mage, pointing at the younger mage beside him. "It was her."

The younger spirit mage, a girl with short, golden-blonde hair caught up in a loose ponytail gave Lira a hesitant smile.

"You?" asked Lira.

The girl gave an awkward shrug, her hand going to the spiritsteel patch that covered her left eye as she yet again glanced at Lira's arm. "I just kinda saw you fall off your spirit beast and knew you wouldn't make it. I just… felt it."

Lira glanced down at Shari and ran her fingers through her fur. "For Shari's sake, I'm glad you did. I didn't, well… " Lira turned her head towards the girl, though her eyes stayed firmly on Shari as she murmured, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," replied the girl. She stepped towards Shari, holding out her hand towards her nose, who sniffed it and purred in reply. "What's her name?"

"Shari," said Lira.

The girl rubbed her hand along Shari's nose. "Nice to meet you, Shari. I'm Thea."

Shari continued to purr. Still sitting on her back, Lira just rolled her eyes.

Great. Another one her dumb cat wanted to adopt.

In the centre of the clearing, Arden had finished his job. The Rupture was shrinking once more, fed by the several blood seals that Arden had apparently drawn around it. In the current situation, Lira was more than fine with the 'better safe than sorry�� attitude.

Lira stretched the fingers on her left hand. Once the Rupture was closed, she'd approach the wolf and try to make that connection again. She'd been close the first time, and now in a weakened state, it should be--

The wolf snarled.

Lira grabbed her knife as the mages beside her aimed their staves, but there was no need.

The wolf wasn't after them. Like before, it snapped at the air around it, a vicious snarl rasping up from the depths of its chest. It backed up several, shaky steps, getting ever closer towards the Rupture, almost like it was being pulled by several, insistent tugs.

As Lira was trying to figure out what to do, the wolf reached the Rupture.

Its back half vanished through the dark mirror of the Rupture's centre, no longer quite wide enough to accommodate its size. It seemed to hesitate, before one last defiant shake of its head had it shove open the side of the Rupture, just wide enough for it to slip back into the spirit realm once more.

The Rupture closed, leaving only behind a few final wisps of lightning and a crater of melted stone.

"That's… good?" said Thea, looking to both Lira and the older spirit mage for input.

"At least he's back where he belongs," said the older mage. "I suppose that's the best outcome we can hope for, for both us and him."

Lira remained silent on Shari's back.

It was true--getting the spirit back to its realm was more than she'd dared hope for, and yet, in a split moment before the wolf had vanished, she could have sworn it'd looked at her.

A flicker, just a flicker of that same resolve that she'd felt among the shards.

*+*+*+*