EMRYS

BITTER WIND NIPPED EMRYS' cheeks while he flew through the thick of Fromir Woods. Narrowly dodging large tree trunks had proved more difficult than ever with his decreased night vision, fading at the same speed as his strength. Though flying had rarely been an issue, his wings struggled to elevate his body, let alone keep up the quick pace he'd forced upon himself.

Emrys... faster.

Amaya's voice echoed in his head, and the warmth of her Runestone practically burned a hole in his back pocket.

He pushed himself despite the weakening of his limbs and the low-hanging branches assaulting his face. He ignored the way their sharpened edges scratched at his skin to create stinging trails down his cheek, and even tried to ignore the aching that began at the tip of his wings, spreading until the weariness weighed upon his shoulders.

He kept pushing, kept ignoring... until, finally, his wings gave up.

They crumbled mid-air and rained ash across the forest floor. He crashed to the ground, tumbling through the brambles below.

His body begged for relief as he lay face down in the dirt. Even then, he forced himself up on wobbly arms. He should have stopped to rest, or even turned back in an attempt to reconnect with his friends. They could've healed Mystia, downed more ball-busting tonics, and worked together to find Eva. But he couldn't let himself stop.

The trees had grown more sparse, and the ground had already begun turning into the gloppiness of Deadfront Mire. The Runestone's pulse strengthened with every step, and he knew he couldn't be far.

It wasn't long before he broke through the thinning treeline, only to find a dark shape moving up ahead.

The silhouette of a woman stumbled occasionally into the dirt, as if her legs were made of rubber. But, robotically, she continued to rise with a resolution stronger than his own. Emrys didn't need the pulse of the Runestone to tell him who it was.

Digging deep, he found what little remained of his strength and ran after her.

"Eva!"

Eva stopped momentarily and looked over her shoulder. In the thin beams of moonlight that broke through the Darkness, her eyes sharpened. "Go, Emrys."

He stopped in his tracks. The cold voice was not her own, but hearing the words from her lips made it difficult for him to form his own.

"We need to get back—"

"Emrys," she snapped, her tone an icy whip against his beaten soul. "Leave."

A heaviness weighed Emrys down so that even his heart sank under the pressure.

It wasn't her. But no matter how hard he tried to remind himself, he yearned for the woman he'd always known. She had to be fighting in there somewhere, and he could only hope there was a way to pull her back out.

"I can't leave you."

"You can," she said, swiveling to face him, "and you will."

As she turned, the moonlight caught the black swirling in her eyes. While the Darkness above could have made it easy to mistake, the waning light could not have tricked him into seeing the smoke that curled from her fingertips.

Emrys' chest stung with every rapid, ragged breath. He braced himself, nearly stepping back, but found himself unable to walk away. "Eva... what are you doing?"

When he stepped closer, Eva thrust out her hand. Smoke poured from her palm, barrelling straight toward him.

Emrys threw up a barrier of flame, but the power expulsion sent him crumpling into the muck. The shield dissipated in a shower of sparks. With his face inches from the mud, he tensed in anticipation for an attack that never came.

Instead, he heard Eva's labored breaths.

"Please, Em." Her voice came out much softer. Much more like her normal self. "Please. I can't stop her."

Emrys lifted his head. Through the dissipating smoke that curled around her body, Emrys saw the fight in her eyes as they faded from light to dark in quickening bursts. Eva backed away from him, wringing her hands and pulling them tightly to her chest.

Despite his weakness, he forced himself to rise on unsteady legs. Eva hastened her backwards retreat.

"You're stronger than this," said Emrys. "You can fight it."

Eva shook her head repeatedly, but her slowing steps proved that part of her wanted to believe his words. Her expression twisted between conflicting emotions while Emrys staggered closer in a struggle to keep himself upright.

The shaking of her head slowed at his approach. Hope swelled in his chest, but her blackening eyes dashed it in a second. As smoky tendrils returned to her palms, Emrys used all his strength to lunge forward and take hold of her wrists.

Eva looked down at his hands, and when she lifted her head once more, her eyes had become nothing but inky voids. The smoke rose in a flash, whipping around Emrys' neck. He stared at Eva, eyes pleading for her to stop—to take control back from whatever had its claws in her. Through the thickening fog, he caught sight of a silver chain peeking out from the collar of her shirt.

The missing Runestone.

Emrys released her wrists long enough to snatch the chain. With one firm tug, it broke free and fell to the sludge below.

The smoke dissipated. Eva's eyes returned to their normal color, and her knees buckled. Emrys tried to catch her against his chest, but his weakness forced him to collapse under their weight.

They were still; they hardly emitted shallow breaths in a silence much like the day they'd arrived in his cursed world. A day that wasn't far gone, yet felt like an eternity. A day that everything was relatively normal between them.

A day he wished he could return to.

Eva's hands trembled as pushed herself up. Tears trickled down her cheeks. She didn't bother to wipe them away.

Instead, when Emrys propped himself up on his elbows, her fingers snaked into his hair. She tugged at his salt-and-pepper strands. He flinched, knowing she had found the gray overtaking his features.

"Your eye..."

Emrys' guilt writhed through the weariness. While he knew how his appearance had changed in the rearview mirror, he didn't want to imagine what the progression looked like since the Reviving Breath had worn off.

A shiver raced down his spine. Frigid rain seeped from the Darkness above. Emrys glanced up at the blackened sky, but instead of its normal emptiness, he found the faint outline of low-hanging clouds. His chest tightened.

How did they break through the webs?

The first lightning strike connected with a pool of water yards away from them. Jagged, white hot bolts scattered across its filmy surface. Static frizzed Emrys' damp hair, and thunder rumbled the earth until he was sure the ground would split from its force.

It wasn't the bitter deluge that sent a chill down his spine. With a trembling hand, he grabbed Eva's wrists and pulled them both to their feet. She stared up at him, brows knitted together as she blinked against the rain trickling down her face.

He could hardly stand without his legs wobbling. Getting to shelter wouldn't be easy.

Another lightning bolt struck a decaying tree a few hundred feet to their left. Eva wriggled her wrists from Emrys' grasp and slung his arm across her shoulder. Though he stumbled in place, nearly buckling her under his weight, she remained firm and trudged in the direction he'd come from. He wasn't entirely sure what safety they would find in the middle of nowhere—and he knew the same thought had likely crossed her mind—but he was too weak and cold to care as they ambled toward Fromir Woods.

"You little bitch." The voice was hardly audible over the raging storm, but its hiss was enough to stop them in their tracks.

Eva jolted, slipping from under Emrys' arm, and he struggled to keep his footing on the slick ground. He turned unsteadily to find a familiar flash of blue hair.

Kali stepped through a storm that refused to touch her. Its winds surrounded her in a barrier of rain that spiraled around her body. The water distorted her form like the strange carnival mirrors he saw on Earthly television and made her arms and legs wobble at varying, disturbing lengths that would have been funny if it hadn't meant inevitable doom. The murder never left her luminescent eyes, her glowering glare fixated on Eva.

"It wasn't me," said Eva. "It was—"

"There's no difference." Kali's voice was amplified by every gust of wind. "There never has been."

Emrys staggered forward to put himself in front of Eva.

Kali laughed humorlessly. "Do you really think your weak little pet can save you? It looks like I didn't need to bring my friends along after all... but it will be fun to watch them tear his body to shreds."

Lightning crackled from her fingertips, caught in the swirling rain that enveloped her body. Ice blue light illuminated the mire in an array of sparks, enough for Emrys to glimpse the shadows darting across the barren landscape.

The Corrupted surrounded them from all sides, screeching and taunting them with bared fangs. Their bodies were larger and even more deformed than the ones on the other side of the Barrier, as if they had not only grown in size but combined with one another to form horrific monstrosities. Each one held the properties of multiple grotesque creatures, completely unrecognizable in their undead state.

Kali let out another howling laugh and pointed one finger in their direction. Lightning thrust itself from the clouds, striking in front of her shield. The ground shook beneath their feet, and Emrys crumpled to his knees. Eva crashed into him in perfect sync with the roaring thunder. Static electricity tugged at his hair while Kali continued her approach, nearly blinding them with constant flashes of lightning.

Guilt washed out Emrys' thoughts. There was no time to run, and he was too weak to fight. Without hesitation, he turned to throw his arms around Eva. She jumped at the impact but welcomed his touch.

"What are you—"

"If I'm going to die," whispered Emrys, "I'll die protecting you."

Straining against the weakness, Emrys unfurled his wings once more. They slid through the pre-designed slits in his shirt and wrapped around both of them. It wouldn't hold off Kali's magic for long, not once the first strike of lightning returned him to the ash he was crafted from, but he had no choice. If he could spare Eva's life for just one second, and earn some sort of redemption for himself in their final moments, he would fight until his last breath.

Electricity snapped from all sides. Sweat trickled down Emrys' neck, followed by a tingling within his skin—the all-too-familiar note of an impending strike. He clung tighter to Eva as she wrapped her own arms around his waist, her breaths quivering with tears.

A soft hum filled the air, followed by a flash of light brighter than any Astraelan sun.

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