When Ana came to the sun was up. The pain and exhaustion were gone, as was the confusion. The camp was less chaotic, though no calmer.

  She was, she saw as she looked down at herself, wearing a new set of clothes.

  None of that mattered at that moment, because Messy was singing and stroking Ana’s hair, and when Ana twisted to look up at her, the light was back in Messy’s eyes.

  Messy finished the song before saying, “You were an absolute mess.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Bruises, punctures, and cuts all over. Had to get Sendra to wash out your armor. Were those all from us?”

  “Most of them. The revenants got some hits on me, too.”

  “You must have saved our lives ten times over, then. Touanne said that you should be dead, but that she’s not surprised you aren’t.”

  “I still screwed up.” She put her hand below Messy’s elbow, where the break had been. Gently, since there was quite a bit of bruising. “Got too far from you. Is your arm alright?”

  “A little sore, but everything should be completely healed tomorrow. Not allowed to do anything strenuous until then.”

  “And Sadie? Trig?”

  “Both are going to be fine,” Messy said, then, after a pause, “She got between me and the revenant, you know. Sadie, I mean. After I went down, I saw her step between us. Got the bastard with her spear, too.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. I can’t decide if that was brave or stupid, but I need to thank her.”

  “You probably should,” Ana agreed neutrally.

  “I, uh… I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we kind of know each other from before.”

  “I guessed, yeah,” Ana confirmed. “So they’re both recovering well?”

  “Yes.” Messy’s relief was palpable. “Touanne says that they’re not to leave the range of your Ability until they’re recovered, and that you’re not to leave them, either.”

  Ana snorted, happy that Messy let the subject drop. Messy was embarrassed enough already. “I can’t stay in this tent all day. Hell, we need to keep moving, all of us. They’ll just have to stay close.”

  Messy’s good arm tightened over Ana’s chest, as though she could keep her in place if Ana pressed the issue. “I know. That’s what I told Touanne. But you can rest for another few minutes, can’t you?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Ana relaxed back into Messy’s lap, looking up so they could see each other. “You’re better.”

  “Am I?”

  “More… alive.”

  “Maybe I am.” Messy swallowed. She spoke slowly, a little haltingly, but Ana stayed silent, letting her take her time. “Or maybe I hate myself less. Talking to Touanne as we walked helped, but tonight— I guess tonight put things in perspective. Fighting those people… it didn’t feel good, but it felt right. And seeing them, I don’t know, directing the crazies? It feels a little less like my fault now. I feel less guilty about the crazies I killed. All I could think about before was how they’re victims, right? Innocent. And I killed them. But now, I guess I remembered that someone did that to them, deliberately, and sent them at us, and we’re doing what we have to, to survive. It’s still — I hate it. I don’t want to hurt any more of them. But I think I can live with myself.”

  Ana squeezed Messy’s hand. “I wish I didn’t have to ask you to fight.”

  “I know. We all wish that.”

  “But at the same time I want to always keep you so close to me that you can never get hurt as long as I live.”

  “I know that, too.”

  “I’m going to be doing a lot of fighting, Mess. Now. In the future. Wherever I go. And I want you with me. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you’ve— I don’t know if ‘made peace with it’ is right, or if that’s what you’ve done, but I’m glad I’m not hurting you as bad as I feared. Does that make me horrible?”

  “No, Angel. At worst it makes you selfish. Dragging me into battle against my will, that would make you horrible. But you wouldn’t do that, would you?”

  “No,” Ana said. “Not you.”

  “The others?”

  “If I thought our survival depended on it. But at this point, anger, desperation, and peer pressure should keep people fighting. If enough give up for that to fail we’re probably fucked anyway.”

  “And if that happened? What would you do?”

  “Then I’d take you and anyone else who’ll follow me, and I’d try to stop whoever these assholes are anyway.”

  “And that’s why you’ll never have to worry about being abandoned. Because everyone here knows that you’ll do whatever it takes to save us.”

  “I’d sacrifice them all to save the two of us,” Ana whispered, and Messy kissed the top of her head.

  “I know you think that. I’m not so sure. But either way, they don’t need to know. Now, come on. We need to help break camp and burn our dead.”

  “I didn’t see Jisha. Is she…?”

  “You did. She was with Touanne, but you were barely conscious when you got there so it’s no wonder. She’s alive and unharmed. Badly shaken, but that’s no surprise. And… I think she killed one of the crazies. Last I saw her, she won’t let go of that dagger you gave her.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah. Dil and Sendra are looking after her, but I think she could use some time with you. Which…” Messy gently pushed Ana into sitting up, then stood and offered her good hand, “…is another reason for you to get up.”

  As she took Messy’s hand, Ana split her focus, using one of her thought processes to check on the notifications that had been screaming for her attention ever since the battle that night.

  Skimming them, Stealth had hit Level 4; Unarmed Combat, Level 9; and Blunt Weapons, Level 6. That, together with killing the Level 24 Summoner, four Cultists ranging from Level 12 to 17, and the two revenants, which had both been Lethal, netted her a total of 2 Major, 6 Medium, 4 Minor, 3 Lesser, and 2 Least Growth Crystals — bonus Crystals included.

  That left her with over 10000 Points worth of Crystals in storage, more than enough to get to Level 13. Which she would, once she decided what she wanted to spend her Advancements Points on.

  The Binder wasn’t in the list of killed foes, so Ana could only assume that the woman had survived getting her face smashed in. Ana wasn’t sure how she felt about that. If she hadn’t received enough Crystals to Level, she probably would have been annoyed, but as it was… She wasn’t an interrogator, and she didn’t believe in torture. Keeping a prisoner, especially a mage of such a high Level, could be a problem. She’d have to talk to Pirta about it.

  Ana didn’t exactly get any friendly waves once they exited the tent. Too many people had died, and the mood was somber. Maybe she should just publically slit the captured woman’s throat as a morale booster and be done with her? Could that work? Still, the most common emotion that she saw on people’s faces, heard in their voices, and felt in their auras at seeing her was relief.

  “Keep moving, Marshal,” Messy whispered. “Let’s grab Jisha, Sadie and Trilgayeri and take a round of the camp. Let people see you.”

  So they did. Two out of three, at least. Jisha was sleeping in the Ters sisters’ tent, but Sadie and Trig were both well enough to walk around, and came along without argument.

  There was an uncomfortable moment when Messy thanked Sadie for stepping in between her and the revenant, as they both seemed about to go in for a hug, then both stopped themselves. It turned into the most awkward handshake Ana had ever seen, and as they both just stood there, witnessing Messy’s embarrassment became truly uncomfortable. Ana felt she had to do something.

  “Oh, go on,” she finally said, pushing Messy forward with a gentle hand on her back. “You both want to.”

  The tension snapped. “Are you insane?” Messy said gratefully as she took a long step forward, wrapping her arms around Sadie’s shoulders. “You could’ve been killed!”

  “Well, I couldn’t let it kill you, could I?” Sadie’s normally bright voice was a little choked as she returned the hug. After a long moment she added, in a voice low enough that Ana suspected she wasn’t supposed to hear, “I’ve been worried about you. You doing okay?”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “It’s been bad,” Messy whispered back. “Really bad. It’s getting better, but without Ana I don’t know what I’d do.”

  “I’m glad,” Sadie said, and from the contentment in her voice, Ana thought she meant it. “I’m so glad you found someone.” Then she added in a teasing tone, “Come on, let’s not make her jealous.”

  After the hug ended Messy looked almost apologetic as she went back to Ana’s side. She must have known that Ana would have heard anything they said, and Ana stroked her arm reassuringly. Sadie for her part joined Trig a little further back. The two spoke in low, friendly tones as Ana took the longest way around possible to Touanne, talking to people, doing her best to reassure them, offering her condolences and promising that she wouldn’t let anyone’s death or suffering be in vain. In a few places she helped with whatever laborious tasks they were performing, putting her Strength to full use; everyone already knew by now that she was far more than she seemed, and there was no point in hiding it. She still didn’t reveal her real Class, though — anything she could reasonably keep secret, she would.

  The whole time she kept one line of thinking on what she could do with 18 Advancement Points; 5 from her Achievements, and 13 from the Level she was about to gain. With her highest Multiplier being at the sixth Step, she didn’t exactly want for options. She had to ask herself three questions: What did she want, what did she need, and which was more important?

  Spreading her Points out was a non-starter, for two reasons which were really just one reason through two different lenses. If she spread her Points out, the effect would be less noticeable than if she concentrated them into a single Attribute. This applied to both the actual effect and, less important but not a non-factor, to how good it would feel. Outside of combat she only got to experience the euphoria of a greatly increased Attribute once in a while, and when she was fighting she was usually too focused on keeping herself and those around her safe to really appreciate the sensation. Now she had a chance, and she didn’t want to squander it.

  Remembering all her Attribute values was easy enough, thanks to her high Acuity. She’d always considered herself of average intelligence, and she’d been comfortable in that knowledge, but she couldn’t deny that she enjoyed how quick and agile her mind had become in the weeks since the System forcibly turned her into some kind of superhuman. And, she absolutely loved Split Focus, the very Enhancement that let her pay full attention to Messy and the people surrounding her even as she pondered this.

  Her Acuity Multiplier was at the fourth Step; If she spent all of her Points there, she could take it to the seventh. That would make her, as the man said, “wicked smaht.” But was that the smartest choice? Ironically, probably not.

  Some Attributes she discarded out of hand. Her Endurance had never held her back, though overdoing it and collapsing after any major engagement was annoying. And perhaps it might help with the adrenaline crash, but that simply wasn’t important enough at the moment. She also had more than enough Charisma for now, and the same went for Dexterity, Connection, and Willpower. They simply didn’t have enough short-term benefit.

  Her high Perception had always been useful. It was thanks to that she’d heard Rayni coming, after they’d rescued the Servemels, and it was thanks to that she’d heard the casters skulking among the trees this past night. A higher Strength might be not only useful, but invaluable, if they faced stronger demons and revenants as they went south. And Vitality was literally life. Even stalwartly ignoring the devil on her shoulder telling her how amazing another five Points of Vitality would feel the moment she got them, the Attribute was health, toughness, and youth in one convenient package. What was there not to like?

  All serious options to consider.

  Spending 15 of her Points to take her Agility from the sixth to the eighth Step, though, that was the frontrunner, and the more she thought about it the more certain she became that it would come out ahead of her other options. Not only because speed, mobility and evasion were all powerful in battle and convenient in daily life, but because with her extra Point of Base Agility from gaining a Level she could hit 50 in the Attribute, which would get her a new Enhancement. There was no way of knowing what that might be, but it would be good almost by definition. And since all her Attributes were now above 25, this was the only option that would get her an Enhancement. Everything else would need her to invest all her current Points, as well as most or all of the Points from her next Level, which felt like an unacceptable delay.

  It would even leave her with 3 Points to sink into one of her lower Multipliers, which were all in the low priority group. Realistically, she’d put them into Willpower for the decreased sleep requirements.

  Her mind made up, she told Messy, Trig and Sadie what she intended to do, and that they’d need to step aside for a moment. Her girlfriend gave her a wry smile, but didn’t argue, sitting Ana down on a log and waving off a few people who approached them.

  With a grateful nod, Ana took Messy’s hands, then ate 8450 Experience Points worth of Crystals. The rush of her Attributes increasing with her Level was small now, but still noticeable, and she shivered slightly with the pleasant sensation. Once it passed, she pulled up her Individual Summary and spent her Points.

  The System, it seemed, was determined to turn Ana into an acrobat. Snark aside, she couldn’t possibly be unhappy with her new Enhancement — it should help her with both mobility and defense. And she wasn’t too proud to admit that the idea of being able to pull off some impressive stunts was appealing, too.

  The moment she closed her Summary, Ana’s awareness of her body improved noticeably. As high as her Agility had been, there had been minute imperfections in her balance, which she now corrected unconsciously. The effect was a sense of stability so profound that for a moment, it took her breath away. In comparison to how perfectly in tune with herself she felt, even just sitting there next to Messy, she might as well have spent her entire life up to that point drunk.

  Messy gave her a moment to ride it out before saying, “Thanks, Angel. I enjoyed that. Though I wonder what the others will make of it.”

  “Right,” Ana chuckled just a tad sheepishly. “I forgot about the bonus from Bastion increasing. Fun surprise, I guess?”

  “Best part of my day so far,” Trig said from behind Ana, with an awkward chuckle.

  Sadie, standing next to them, gave a pleased little “Mmm-hmmm!” and stretched luxuriously.

  Messy’s smile turned into a full on smirk. “Why do you think I was so ready to let you sit down and Level? Now, are we ready to move on?”

  “Yeah,” Ana said, rising with preternatural grace and offering a hand to Messy. “Let’s go.”

  They went back to their slow, circuitous approach toward Touanne. Having spent her Advancement Points, Ana’s second line of thinking stayed on self improvement, and something occurred to her: She hadn’t been at all deliberate with her Skill use. Her Unarmed Combat was at Level 9 now, and she suspected that was due to her using it almost exclusively in desperate situations. If she could push it to Level 10, not only did she suspect that her Iron Body perk would give her better bonuses, but she’d get another Perk, too.

  She had plenty of other Skills that would benefit from some more deliberate training. She never bothered to Inspect everyone, but she really should. With the Skill at 4, she was only one Level away from a Perk, and those seemed to be the only benefit of improving the Skill. She resolved to use the Skill on anyone she hadn’t, and everyone she met, from now on.

  Defence and Stealth were also both at 4, and having higher Levels and Perks in those would definitely help her, but they weren’t really candidates for deliberate training. The problem with those Skills was that trying to train them in the situations she usually found herself would delay or draw out the fight in a way that put everyone else in danger. Once the current crisis was resolved, she would be able to work on them, but until then she’d just have to hope that they’d improve on their own.

  One Skill she absolutely should work on, though, was Shaping. Magic was a tool that she’d neglected, and she needed to fix that. She used her one spell whenever she went into a fight, and she was sure that it had saved her a bite here and a scratch there, but she could still only cover a small part of herself, and then only weakly. It was nothing like what she’d seen other mages do, firing shards of stone or metal and opening trenches or pits in the earth, and those were only the obvious effects. She’d seen Tellak wielding various weapons — she could apparently reshape them at will with the Craft of Metal — and while her swings weren’t as fast as Ana’s, they seemed to hit with far more force. That might be from her Skill, or some Perk or Ability, but Ana had a sneaking suspicion that her friend and teacher was somehow messing with the mass of her weapon, besides its shape. If she could learn to do that herself, with her Strength…

  At that point they reached Touanne’s improvised infirmary, and Ana stopped dividing her attention. The Healer — still an [Elfin Healer (23)], which they’d have to do something about — looked sleepless and haggard, but when Ana and Messy approached, the smile she gave them was real. Her body language exuded relief at seeing them. “Ana! Good to see you on your feet so quickly, and that you took my instructions to stay close to your Party members seriously. But, please, you need to come to me immediately after a battle, alright? No arguing! That, or we’ll need to have you drink a small healing potion after every fight as a matter of course. Gods, you scared us!”

  “If it’ll make you feel better,” Ana said, and Touanne nodded.

  “It will! What if the captain hadn’t gone to talk to you? She said she found you slumped against a log or something, barely conscious. You could have bled out!”

  “I said I’ll do it,” Ana said, a little more harshly.

  “Angel, be kind,” Messy murmured in her ear. “Nobody wants to lose you, least of all your friends.”

  Ana snorted softly. “Yeah. Sorry. Don’t like being told what to do, but… yeah. So, how are we? Can we pack up and move, in your opinion as our primary healer?”

  Touanne’s face scrunched unhappily. “We still have some with remaining injuries, who would need to be carried — we stabilized everyone we could but simply didn’t have enough stamina to heal everyone fully. And those we did heal—” Touanne’s eyes flicked between the four of them, “—shouldn’t exert themselves too much, so we’ll need to go slowly. And I’d prefer to perform the curing rituals on anyone who got scratched or bitten. But, yes, we can move. If we must. And only after everyone’s had a chance to say their farewells to the fallen.”

  “Of course.” Ana looked to the long row of pyres that had been set up along one side of the glade. She’d need to do another “heartfelt” speech about people who meant nothing to her, beyond the fact that losing them made it less likely that those she did care about would make it. But the ceremony was necessary. If not for morale, then to make sure that they didn’t have two dozen revenants descend on them from behind.

  Fucking revenants. They were a pain to fight, and absolutely lethal to anyone who wasn’t her. One of them had taken out three of her Party, and might have killed the rest if Ana hadn’t stepped in. And that had been with brute force. Which made her wonder why, if revenants could use the Skills of the body they possessed, she hadn’t seen a single one use magic yet.

  She’d have to think on that. There were more immediately pressing issues. They needed to keep moving.

  “Right,” Ana said. “Let’s hold a funeral.”

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