The fight had already been going poorly, and in a single moment, everything got even worse.

  Caden already felt superfluous. There was no Surge that would let him, armed with only a hatchet, keep up with the fight between Olivia, Allana, and Hellesa, and without his bow, he had few ways to contribute. He tried anyways, activating the complex rune Storyteller had carved into his hatchet months before, but it proved just as useless–then Hellesa moved.

  Neither Caden nor Tenebres had a chance to respond before the bolt of withering energy–larger and more powerful than those Xythen had used–slammed into the young mage. His eyes rolled up and he instantly collapsed, dead or unconscious.

  Allana’s shriek of rage filled the cavern. She and Olivia had both taken the chance to land a dangerous blow on the hag while she was distracted taking out Tenebres, but now the wraith raised her raidblade to strike again, only for Hellesa to turn on her.

  “A word of advice for your next life:” the hag rasped, “never use witchglass against a hag.”

  The outsider crooked a bony finger, and the jagged black blade exploded backwards. Allana’s cry of anger turned into one of pain as a hundred slivers of razor sharp glass embedded themselves into her skin and hurled her backwards.

  Olivia took the chance to swing another Reckless Strike, but Hellesa was ready, and her bone club met the attack mid-strike. Olivia’s eyes went wide, and then Hellesa’s free hand batted her away. The large swordswoman was heavy enough to not go flying as Allana had, but that just meant she was sent rolling across the cavern floor instead.

  The hag’s alien face focused on the downed squire, and Caden realized what was happening–she finally had the chance to focus her magic. There was an uncomfortable stretching noise, and then Olivia started screaming, her limbs slowly bending against her will.

  The hag was controlling her bones inside of her flesh.

  “No!” Caden ran forward, his last white livingwood arrow in hand, desperate to distract the hag, but another backhand from those long crooked arms were enough to send him tumbling away.

  The celestial staggered to his feet as quickly as he could–distracted as she had been, the hag hadn’t put her all into the blow.

  Their plan had failed. Caden’s friends were dead or dying, and he was the only one still standing.

  There was only one option left, then.

  Caden had first become aware of it during the fight at the caravan, weeks before, when he had Surged both speed and coordination at the same time, briefly making him a match for Aton–a swordsman even Oli hadn’t been able to best.

  Since then, the option had lurked in Caden’s memory, a distant thought he was unwilling to test. The aftereffects of a single Surge were exhausting. Two at once had required multiple potions to keep him moving. Three would probably kill him.

  And yet…

  It seemed like they were all going to die anyway, at this rate. Tenebres still lay on the ground, dead or unconscious in the very ritual chamber he had given everything to escape. Allana was alive, but bloody and weakened, a desperately chugged potion enough to keep her conscious but little more. Olivia’s bones audibly creaked in protest at the hag’s continued attentions, and she let out a scream she was no longer able to smother.

  Well. That made it simpler, if not easier. If his death meant life for his friends and an end to this monster, then it would be worth it.

  Caden blew out a breath, reached for the power Storyteller had engraved on his soul what felt like a lifetime ago, and the brand on their arm, the rippled circle, flared to life, brilliant blue light flooding through his armguards.

  [Soul Surge] activated

  Strength attribute boosted

  Coordination attribute boosted

  Speed attribute boosted

  Stamina attribute boosted

  Warning! Current [Soul Surge] usage has incurred a lethal cost!

  Resilience attribute boosted

  Focus attribute boosted

  Energy coursed through Caden’s body, energy beyond anything they had ever felt before. And then… something unexpected happened.

  Feat Accomplished!

  [Gift of the Echo]: Push your soul beyond its limits

  Reward: 40% Experience

  [Gift of the Echo] has leveled up!

  [Gift of the Echo]

  Level: Apprentice

  Experience: -

  Advance all gifts to begin gaining experience

  Ability Progression: [Gift Reflection] - Active, Soul - Copy one gift ability from a nearby target. Gift abilities operate at Novice level regardless of the target’s level. Abilities from certain gifts cannot be copied. Up to two gift abilities can be retained at the same time.

  Ability Progression: [Soul Surge] - Active, Buff - Increase one attribute by five points. Lesser duration, lesser stamina and focus cost incurred when buff expires.

  Somehow, the gift of the echo had leveled up. And somehow, it had given them just what they needed. Even reduced, the cost of six Surges was likely to kill them, but now, at least, they’d be able to really make the most of their time.

  Their brand’s glow turned from blue to pure white, illuminating the cave like there weren't multiple layers of cloth and leather between Caden’s brand and the air around them.

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  [Gift Reflection] activated

  [Gift of the Vanguard] reflected

  [Reckless Strike] - Active, Attack - Make a special attack with potency increased by two tiers. Major stamina cost.

  [Gift of the Trickster] reflected

  [Trick Step] - Active, Movement - Instantly teleport to any point within a minor range. Line of sight required to trigger. Lesser focus cost.

  All of this happened in a split second, at the speed of thought. Scratch that, at the speed of exceptional thought, Caden’s mind working overtime from the effects of the focus Surge.

  Caden stood, unarmed, and the hag finally took notice of them.

  “Oh? What will you do now, little pawn?” She cackled at her own joke, and an absent wave sent another of those withering blasts of darkness at Caden–or, at where Caden used to be.

  One Trick Step, then a second, a pair of muttered apologies, and they were no longer unarmed. In one hand, they held Olivia’s runeblade, the shining blade as light as a mere twig in their strengthened grip. In the other, they clutched Allana’s remaining dagger, the blade simple and functional and stained with poison

  They didn’t banter with the hag. They didn’t waste time talking or bragging or threatening. They were on a clock now.

  They blurred forward, and the celestial adventurer tasted true power for the first time. The hag barely got her bone club up in time to defend, but she wasn’t facing the youth she had batted aside so easily a minute before. They weren’t Cadie, the earnest, curious daughter of Felisen’s chief hunter. They weren’t Caden, the rebellious boy who yearned for freedom. They weren’t Cadence, the celestial who had learned from the greatest adventurer in the Realm.

  They were something else, someone else. Not Storyteller, who had trained them. Not the Adventurer, who had empowered them.

  They were someone who searched. For their own freedom, for new experiences, for causes worth fighting for, for people to save. Seeker. Yes. That would work.

  Seeker moved, and for the first time since the four adventurers had attacked, Hellesa found herself truly threatened.

  His movements were the moon, serene and clear and solid, mercurial and evershifting. Her attacks were the sun, shining and powerful and passionate, batting aside the outsider’s attempts to defend. They were the comet, streaking faster than the eye could follow; they were the asteroid, landing hit after punishing hit with the force to make craters; they were the stars, distant and remote and beautiful, a tapestry greater than the points that made it up.

  In that moment, Seeker was truly celestial, male, female, both, neither, something above and below and simply removed all together.

  The stamina and focus boons they had used would save them when the Surges wore off, but for the moment, they gave Seeker a deep well of power to pull from. Trick Steps brought attacks from every angle, and Reckless Strikes made them count whenever they got through Hellesa’s defenses. Their dagger plunged into the hag’s side, and she wasn’t laughing anymore. Spurs of bone grew from her ribs, locking the dagger in place, but Seeker had already predicted that and released the weapon, stepping back to take Olivia’s runeblade in both hands, its hilt a tight but serviceable fit for the celestial’s slender hands. Now it was the sword that came crashing down, fast and hard and with enough potency that it slammed through the hag’s lifted defense and into her collarbone, through the meat of her shoulder, and into her ribs–and then Seeker triggered the rune at the bottom, tapping it just as Olivia had so many times, and the force blast dug the sword deeper into the Hellesa’s body even as it was wrenched from Seeker’s hands

  The hag wasn’t cackling anymore, she was howling, screeching in agony as Seeker showed her what it was to face a true adventurer. She still clung to life, but Seeker knew how to handle that. All it took was a brief look at Tenebres.

  [Gift Reflection] activated

  [Gift of the Void] reflected

  [Sacrificial Victim] - Active, Final - Make a physical attack that does a small amount of dark damage on a hit. If this hit kills the target, receive a moderate boost to all physical or mental attributes for a lesser duration. Minor focus cost.

  Seeker was unarmed, once again, but they weren’t, not at all. They were surrounded by allies, guided by fate, and armed with everything their newfound friends had shared with them.

  Storyteller had once told them, in Kellister, half a lifetime ago, that they were missing something critical, a piece that would make the gift of the echo make sense. Now, finally, Seeker knew what the mysterious man had meant.

  They had needed a party. Fellow adventurers, friends in arms, companions whose powers they knew as well as their own. Not just to give Seeker the powers to succeed, but to give them something worth fighting for, something worth pushing their unique gift to its limit and beyond, at the risk of their life and their very soul.

  That was how Seeker saw it. The chance to win the fight, to save their friends, and to save themselves all at the same time.

  Their hand lashed out, open palmed, and wrapped around Hellesa’s bony face. Her skin was hard, almost waxy, under their fingers. Then darkness flared to life, muting even the glow of Seeker’s brand for a moment, delivering the blow that would kill Hellesa and give them the buff they needed to survive.

  The darkness flared–then dwindled to nothing.

  Dark damage from [Sacrificial Victim] nullified by target.

  Cadence’s eyes went wide, and then Hellesa’s hand, coated in a layer of spiked bone, shot up. Their vision darkened, only their resilience Surge keeping them alive, much less standing. But that brief time of perfection, of Seeker, was gone, and Cadence was left behind, staggered, shocked, unarmed.

  “How dare you!” Hellesa shrieked, black spittle flying from her mouth in her rage. “How dare you turn that power on me!” The hag waved a hand, but this time she didn’t launch a mere bolt of force, but a wave of all consuming dread. No speed was enough to dodge it, no resilience enough to withstand it. Trick Step was gone, traded for Sacrificial Victim.

  They had failed.

  And then a dome of golden light sprang into place around them.

  The wave of physical darkness split around the shining barrier without even a whisper of sound, revealing Hellesa’s shocked face.

  And then someone else was there. A woman, wearing a bright white cloak and tabard over well-tended chainmail, holding a longsword in each hand. Her hair was long and the same brilliant gold as the midday sun, tied back from her face by a simple strip of white silk.

  Hellesa howled at the sight of her, and the corpse hag threw herself forward, hands ablaze with that all-consuming energy–but the woman, glowing as if from inside with that same golden light, met her attacks gamely.

  She was as bright as the hag was dark, as beautiful as the hag was hideous, and, most importantly, as fresh as the hag was wounded. Her swords danced with a grace and strength that put any battle-gifted Cadence had ever seen, even Storyteller, to shame. Every cut, rather than bouncing off of the hag's reinforced flesh, sliced through her gray skin, while the woman easily dodged even Hellesa’s most deadly attacks without so much as being grazed.

  The fight was over in moments, the corpse hag left in three pieces on the ground.

  In the silence, Olivia managed to groan out, through the pain, “Adeline?”

  Cadence’s eyes widened.

  Adeline, Olivia’s mentor. The silver knight that had saved the eclipsed girl months before, the one who had trained her and set her onto the Flax Road.

  A smile parted Cadence’s lips. Luck, or fate, had once again won out, had once again put the right person in the right place to save them all.

  Or, at least, in the right place to save the others. Cadence was dead anyways, Adeline or no Adeline. But at least their efforts hadn’t been in vain.

  “Thank you,” Cadence told the knight.

  And then their Soul Surge ended and everything went black.