Vayal Academy

I can’t die.

That’s the one thing I know. Whatever happens here, I can’t die. Not here, not without Mae, not without Alyx — not with Indel lifeless on the device. I need to get through this. I need to find them.

Mae’s out there, across the black void. The tug’s in my heart like a harpoon — but as much as I try to follow it, I’m stuck.

“Hattie?”

“Nym?!”

I glance down, and there she is, staring up at me on the slab. “Hattie! I have to- uhm, I don’t know. Get you out of here, is a good start.”

“Nym, what’s going on?”

She reaches out to the energy around my ankles and jumps back with a start, smoke billowing off her fingers. “Ouch!”

“Nym, talk to me.”

She shakes herself to attention. “Uhm, okay. Mae sent me out. It’s- it’s really scary out there, but they didn’t see me, and so they didn’t get me, and- She told me to get help. You can help! But I don’t know how to get you down.”

“You’d need Mysticism to counter the spell. I’m not sure what you can do with Illusion.”

Our attentions are both suddenly seized as Indel’s head jerks straight up and her beak opens. Purple light streams out of it, projecting the crossed-arm, sour-faced form of Syrene. “Gods fucking damn it, you’re making me work.”

Nym blushes and looks at the ground, and the echo of Syrene embedded in Indel shakes her head in response. “You couldn’t have stayed away? Let me sleep. Urg. Worst part is I don’t even get anything out of it — she didn’t put any of her love in me, but she did leave me with an overwhelming desire to protect you. So… Here we are, I guess.”

“Please,” I shout, “please, can you help Indel? I- I- I can’t lose her.”

“Calm down. She’s fine. Got turned more Arcane Instrument than Living Person there, but changing her back is basically just flicking a switch.”

“Please, p-”

“Yeah, yeah, alright. I’m willing to do it. Just, uh, I need you to promise me something, okay?”

“I can make Alyx stop, I’ll-”

“No, no, nothing like that. I think she’s got that handled. It’s just- well, put it this way: Syrene carried around a lot of complicated feelings that were kind of getting in the way, and I’m like her dumping ground for that. So, basically, it’d mean a lot to me if you could promise to make sure Mae’s alright.”

Gods, that’s my girlfriend for you. Syrene fucks her once to discipline Alyx, and she’s left besotted with Mae — like everyone else who knows her.

“Of course,” I say. “That’s all I want. I want to save her.”

“Okay. Brilliant. Sounds like we have an understanding. Good thing the Professor left me with this living amplifier, huh?”

The shackles switch off, sending me, Indel, Abana, and Gelstra to the floor. Gods, I hope Gelstra’s okay. I hope Indel’s okay.

“My love!”

The Princess’s voice has a new, almost distant quality, like it’s coming from atop a throne. But it’s her. It’s her.

I’m on my feet as quickly as I possibly can, sprinting over to Indel and holding her desperately, planting kisses on her newly glittering face. “My love,” I say, tears streaming down my face. Her body tenses and then relaxes entirely into me; she was already a little taller than me, now she’s larger still. She strokes my cheek with newly long black talons that sparkle like an oil slick.

“Do not fear for me love; darling Hattie. I am alright.” She looks at me lovingly, eyes changing to a bright blue, and for just a moment, I forget we’re in the plane of death. “I’m sorry…” she says. “So sorry for your friend.”

I finally release Indel enough to turn to Gelstra’s body, acknowledging the terrible truth I’ve known from the moment she went limp. Abana, straddling her, sends wave after wave of electrifying Restoration magic into her, trying to restart her heart, but she remains motionless.

“She’s dead, Abana,” I choke out, feeling bad for the raccoon for the first time in my life. “We have to try to save the others.”

She hisses, not turning away from Gelstra’s limp body. “She is mine to protect,” she says, cradling the dead head, ignoring the places where the spikes slash her arms. “You are a Mystic. You will help me cast a circle.”

“A circle? Look; nothing we can do will help her anymore. I’m sorry.”

“Nothing you can do, fool. I will rebind her spirit to her body.”

“What the fuck?!” I yell, in the same moment that Indel cries “You cannot!” Necromancy is the most forbidden of forbidden magic, and it requires an extremely skilled Conjurationist to even attempt.

“Indeed she cannot,” comes a smooth, seductive voice from outside the circle. “She has already tried, and failed.” The… woman? Demon? The thing that is speaking has her shadowy, barely-there hands pressed up against the edge of the circle of light like she’s on the outside of a window. “She couldn’t even rebind the spirit of a mindless hare, you know; she ended up summoning me instead. But our Abana has a fixation.”

“What the fuck is this?” I ask, horrified, terrified, sweeping Indel behind me automatically. “This is how Gelstra lost her memory? You got her mixed up in fucking necromancy?”

“Silence!” Abana shouts, cutting the air with her hand. “I have helped you,” she says, addressing the wispy monster. “Now you will help me.”

“You can’t-” I begin, but both ignore me. The thing presses itself tight against the circle, body stretching out like a tanning fur.

“Your friends are not far from here. Not one of you could make it across Daath — but I can. I know the wards, the ancient magic, the path of protection. And my price is fair: I want only the body in exchange.”

“You have your own form now, yes?”

“Had, sweetling. It could not accompany me onto this plane.”

“You follow the priestess.”

“Sharp.”

I grab Abana by the arm and wrench her focus to me. I have to try and talk her out of this insanity, even if the red glare of her eyes makes it clear it’s a doomed battle. “You can’t seriously expect us to stand here and let you do a deal with this thing, can you?”

“You want to make it to your girlfriend, yes? There is no other option.”

I search for a reply, but as I do, I realise that, for Mae, there’s no line I won’t cross. I’m dragged away from the argument by Nym, anyway “Hattie?” she whispers, “I think we’ll need its help… She’s got everyone in this pit… there are monsters everywhere. It’s…”

Well, it’s not like Abana was going to listen to me, anyway. “You keep red blood flowing through her veins, yes?” she says “You keep her body warm?”

“Yes,” it replies, “until I have the Priestess in hand.”

“No. Until I am ready to bind her soul.”

“You ask too much, young one. You would have me in that wretched vessel for eternity — you are not capable of-”

“There is no time to posture; your point is understood. You shall inhabit her until we return to our plane, plus a day.”

“A day? You really think-”

“This matters to you?”

“No. No, I suppose it does not. I will enjoy watching you fail.”

“We shall see. You must return her corpse in restorable condition, or you will have dishonoured our pact.”

“And you must ensure my reunion with the priestess, or you will have dishonoured our pact.”

This is insane. I hate being put into this horrible bind, where everyone tells me I have to let this horrible thing happen, but fuck, they’re all right — I can worry about consequences once Mae’s safe.

“These terms are agreeable.” Abana draws her dagger and slices her paw open, spills hot blood on the ash. It sizzles. A moment later, the daemon pushes a hand through the circle to touch the spilled blood.

“Our pact is sealed. I shall guide your path to the others.”