“And here, I thought you said you could protect yourself.”
She scowls, but her attention drops to her chest. Her wounds slowly begin to close. The flesh knits itself together in slow, visible motion—sealing over what should have been fatal.
I’ve seen her heal before. Felt it.
But not like this. Witnessing it brings me a measure of relief. More than relief, but I’m uncomfortable naming what this feeling is.
“Is that the kind of demon you came across before?”
“No. Those were more like hounds.”
“But it was a demon, yes?”
“Yes, a soulless. I couldn’t read any kind of soul signature within.”
“So there’s no knowing what—or how many—have made their way through.”
“No. And that means we need to make contact with my brothers. They may already know, but the sooner we reach them, the sooner we can make a plan to seal the openings and hunt whatever has slipped through.”
“I can’t go to the city just yet.” She steadies herself, though there’s still a slight lag in her movements. “I’m running low on elixir. I need to stock back up before we go, or what happened will happen again—and there won’t be any way to reverse it.”
“So where to?”
“My home.”
“Which is?”
She turns slowly, scanning the forest as if trying to place herself within it. Then she pulls something from her pocket.
A compass.
She moves it a little to the left.
Adjusts.
Makes a small shift to the right.
“This way,” she says at last. “But I’m not sure how far. This forest isn’t familiar… and I don’t know how long I was out.”
I push out my awareness toward Nexus and call her back to me.
“Half a day,” I tell the priestess, and she seems relieved by this.
Her gaze darts away. “Did I… do anything odd?”
“Such as?”
She pulls her other blade from the creature's back and shrugs, using her cloak to clean it while wearing a scowl. Not meeting my gaze, she continues, “Anything…I don’t know. Just sometimes I get these weird dreams, and I can’t control them.”
“You said something.”
She glances at me, wary. “Like what?”
“Recited passages. Or spoke like you were reciting scripture.”
“Oh.” She exhales softly, then shrugs—too casual to be real. One brow lifts. “That’s… yes, that happens on occasion too. Did I say anything interesting?”
“A few things.” I gesture toward the corpse behind us. “But we should probably get the hell out of here. Death calls to the dead. If other demons are nearby, this will draw them in. We need to move—and cover our scent. It’s probably best if we travel by horseback.”
