The captain stood before the priestess and her priests, his shield raised, a green force field separating Cass from them.

  Fortitude’s Aegis

  [A skill bestowed by the goddess Fortitude to protect her faithful followers. Only a truly unstoppable force could break this.]

  No. How could he have reacted in time? There had been a fraction of a second between the blade of lightning exiting Confounding Mists and the captain stopping it. If he had outstanding Dex or Per, she might understand. But everything she saw suggested he was focused on Str and Frt. Was that a ploy to mislead, or was that just the difference in nearly twenty levels’ worth of stats?

  Salos would know.

  [Estimated time to completion: 3 seconds]

  Time was wasting.

  Liminal Mana Sense suggested she wouldn’t be able to break his skill. But she had to try, didn’t she? What else could she do?

  She threw another barrage of Tempest Blades. The first struck his force field and exploded like the one before. The second she angled high. The third low. His shield rose and fell to meet them, his reaction speed more than enough to protect his charges.

  [Estimated time to completion: 2 seconds]

  Stamina: 27/138

  Focus: 91/549

  Health: 72/133

  She was running out of time. This wasn’t working. Was there anything else she could try?

  Tempest Blade was blocked.

  She had no other Elements to Manipulate.

  Even if she wanted to fight them at melee, her staff was broken. Also, she really didn’t want to.

  Those were her attacks.

  That left running. But even running was running out of options.

  How far would she get before the loops pulled her back?

  Wind Step still failed to activate.

  Though she recovered a little from this break, her stamina wouldn’t last long if she Stormstride Sprinted.

  Atmospheric Sense still couldn’t find a way out.

  Was there a secret third option she wasn’t seeing? If there was, she couldn’t find it.

  She had to run.

  Atmospheric Sense found people down all five of the halls. The one with the captain and high priestess was the worst, but the other four seemed the same.

  Was she rolling the dice, then? Hoping the one she picked would turn out okay?

  Her hand clenched around the remains of her staff. This was insanity: repeating the same action and expecting a different result.

  But what else could she do?

  What about the big double doors?

  She’d ignored them until now because she’d been trying to get out and knew she hadn’t gone through them coming in. But getting out seemed out of reach, so her goals needed to shift.

  Not dying and not getting caught were priorities one and two now.

  Running down any of the halls would get her caught—it was only a matter of time. Her fate on the other side of those doors was entirely unknown.

  [Estimated time to completion: 1 second]

  Hell with it.

  She turned and Sprinted for the double doors behind her.

  What if they were locked?

  What if it was a dead end behind them?

  What if there were more enemies?

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  She slammed into them. They didn’t budge.

  She yanked on the handles. The doors were heavy. It took all her Strength to pull them open, inch by inch.

  Stamina: 21/138

  “Spell-cutting Wind!” the priestess’s voice intoned, resonating with power.

  Gusts of wind sliced into Confounding Mists, like blades cutting away at the aether.

  Cass could feel her skill melting before the priestess’s spell. She pulled at the door. She needed to get through before her mists were entirely removed.

  Inch by inch, the door opened, her Stamina dropping with every won inch.

  Yard by yard, Confounding Mists evaporated.

  Cass redoubled the skill, forcing more aether mists into the air as she pulled open the door.

  Cass’s Focus drained even as the Spell-cutting Winds cut away more and more of her cover.

  Stamina: 14/138

  Focus: 67/549

  But the door was open enough. Cass slipped through, yanking the door shut behind her.

  Was she safe? Was this enough?

  She was in a cathedral. High vaulted ceilings soared above her, adorned in stained glass scenes of armored figures, bulls, and mountains. A stone altar stood in the room’s center, empty for now but with an air that promised it would not be for long. Across the room stood a tall statue of an armored woman, a heavy shield in one hand, a mace in the other. It was the goddess Fortitude if Cass was to guess.

  Large circles were drawn in a silver powder to either side of the room. Mana Sight didn’t see any power in them, but they looked arcane to Cass. The beginnings of magic circles, maybe?

  But for all that, she didn’t see another way out. Atmospheric Sense confirmed the only door was the one behind her.

  This was a dead end. She was still trapped.

  The doors flew open.

  Cass jumped.

  The captain was behind her.

  His hand clamped down on her shoulder. Her bad shoulder.

  Cass screamed.

  She pulled away, but he held her like a vice, the metal gloved fingers digging into her mostly healed wound from the Catacombs.

  She jabbed the remains of her staff at the paladin’s face, Tempest Blade on its tip blazing with crackling lightning.

  He jerked out of the way, her blade of lightning glancing along the metal plate of his helmet instead. Lightning burned against the metal, the electricity sinking into the plates and running down his body.

  It should have stunned him.

  He grunted instead, his free hand grabbing her wrist and twisting.

  She screamed.

  The pain forced her staff piece from her grip. Tempest Blade sputtered out as the wood bounced over the floor.

  “Let me go!” She pulled against his grip. But his Strength was immense, utterly eclipsing hers.

  It was too early for tears, but they were already flowing. She had to get away. She had to escape.

  Her staff. She needed her staff.

  She reached down for it. For what remained of it. For what she could salvage of it.

  The hand on her shoulder jerked her away. Jerked her out of the cathedral and back into the halls. The other paladins fell in around them, a circle of iron-fisted men.

  The captain held her close, marching her down the rightmost hall. She couldn’t pull away. She couldn’t run.

  Her heart pounded in her chest.

  She still had Focus. There had to be more she could do. But lightning hadn’t phased him.

  What more could she do?

  They were going to kill her. This was how this ended.

  She’d failed.

  Failed to get back to Kaye and Robin. Failed to find whichever of them had been dragged into this awful world.

  Failed Salos. What would happen to him if she died? Would he die, too, or simply become trapped in his necklace again? Would the next person to find him treat him like a person or a tool?

  No.

  No.

  No.

  She would not lose now. Not here. Not after everything.

  Her Concepts roared in agreement, Hearth screaming with her resolve, Wind howling against her containment.

  She blasted Elemental Manipulation. A sea of fire erupted from her skin. The wind swirled around them, whipping her flames into a firestorm, growing and growing until there was only heat and light.

  She would be free.

  They could not hold her.

  The air itself burned.

  Stamina: 11/138

  Focus: 27/549

  And it still wasn’t enough.

  The captain’s hand clenched tighter into her shoulder. His armor was hot against her back, but he didn’t make a single noise of discomfort.

  Her knees buckled. Her body sagged. It wasn’t enough.

  He dragged her down the hallway.

  Was there any way to hurt this man?

  “Behave,” he rumbled in her ear.

  Behave? Like a dutiful child before a parent? Like a lamb to the slaughter?

  The flames burned brighter.

  Stamina: 10/138

  Focus: 19/549

  She funneled more Focus into the flames. If she was going to die, she was going to take this man out with her.

  It was hot. So hot.

  Hearth crowed in her chest. Wind fed it, gust after gust of oxygen-rich air into the furnace.

  Hotter.

  Hotter.

  His hands clenched tighter around her. They dug into her shoulder. Clamped around her wrist. They scalded her skin, the metal of his gloves superheated by her flames.

  She screamed.

  Her vision blurred.

  A door opened in front of her. The captain shoved her through.

  She tumbled forward, Elemental Manipulation and her flames flickering out as her Focus ran dangerously low.

  Stamina: 9/138

  Focus: 8/549

  Darkness crowded the edges of her sight.

  She crashed into glass. The floor. Her face pressed against it.

  She needed to get up.

  The priestess chanted. There was a surge of mana around her.

  Cass forced herself up. Her legs shook beneath her.

  She took a step forward.

  Her vision had dropped to a narrow pinpoint. All she could see was the priestess.

  All she could feel was her muscles screaming for rest.

  The priestess shouted the last word of her chant. The magic surged.

  Cass’s legs gave out under her.

  She was falling.

  Her vision deserted her entirely.