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I smiled—temporarily distracted by my smugness that she was so easily able to pass through my barriers. She was truly the only one who could go anywhere she wanted with me.
“Are you okay?” I studied her, looking for any sign that she was in pain. While I couldn’t see her eyes—the bridge of her nose up was covered by her helm—I could read her every movement.
“No…I think I’m fine?” She stood up straight, then sneezed. “I can tell there’s no magic here.” She paused for another sneeze. “And I can feel the miasma searching for magic.” Another sneeze. “But it can’t seem to dig into me. Although.” Yet another sneeze. “It smells weird out here.”
Two of the mantasps were apparently less intimidated by Chloe than they were by me, and they started scuttling in our direction.
“Ahh, yes. That would be the poison in the air,” I said. “Are your lungs hurting?” It was what I was most concerned about for her. I had so much magic, it would heal me faster than the miasma could harm me. Chloe—while tougher than a regular human—didn’t have such healing powers.
Chloe hunched her shoulders. “Maybe a little? My nose hurts more than my lungs.”
“I see. I’ll use our bond to encourage healing when we’re finished. Are you comfortable taking on the mantasps by yourself?” I asked.
“Maybe,” Chloe said. “Let me see how Destruction and I can handle one of them first.”
“Woo-woo,” said Destruction, most disturbingly.
Chloe didn’t share my estimation of the weapon voicing its opinion. Not knowing any better, she merely nodded as if it had offered sage wisdom instead of being a weapon that wasmaking verbal noises.
“Here we go!” Chloe singled out a mantasp that stood away from the pack, raised Destruction, then used the scythe to slice through the air.
The blade glowed golden before exploding with power, sending a burst toward the mantasp. The blast incinerated it, leaving not even a husk of the creature’s exoskeleton behind.
The two mantasps that had been skittering toward us made a very abrupt U-turn and ran in the other direction.
The two that had hung back burst off in opposite directions, fleeing their certain death, angrily clicking their jaws as they went.
If I were as cat inclined as Chloe, I’d be purring where I stood. I had a life partner who was as capable as myself—something I didn’t know even existed.
Ker, Aristide, and Charon were my closest friends, yes. But over the centuries, I’d become tired of standing alone. Tired of the curse of endless power and duties that came with it.
And now, I have my Amalourne.
Chloe watched the mantasps run and sneezed. “Yeah, I think Truck and I can handle these guys.”
“Have fun.” I smiled at her.
She grinned, then trotted after the monsters—Destruction making weird gurgling noises as it tried to chatter at her.
I waited with my sword unsheathed while she easily finished off the second and third mantasps. She was starting to chase the fourth mantasp around when I felt a presence behind me, on the other side of the barrier.
I stepped back through, nearly ramming into Ker—who had apparently wandered closer with Aristide to get a better look.
“Sounds like she’s doing well,” Aristide said. He was looking at the sky—most likely tracking the heartbeat of Chloe’s trash griffin since it was flapping around up there.
“Indeed,” I said. “She’s ripping through them with ease—with some help from Destruction.”
As if the weapon could hear us, it made its unsettling “woo-woo,” noise that was audible through the barrier.
Charon, gripping a pen, his tiny notebook, and looking quite pained—pained for him, anyway—peered from the shadowy shapes we could see through the barrier to me. “Do you intend to ever tell her that weapons aren’t supposed to reallyactlike partners, and that they shouldn’t make any kind of noise?”
A bright light flashed on the other side of the barrier as Chloe killed the fourth mantasp.
“No,” I said.
Aristide rattled the ice of his nearly empty drink. “And are you ever going to explain to her how elves used the weapons with reverence, and handled them with care?”
Chloe chucked Destruction, which scissored across the barren land and hit the last remaining mantasp in the abdomen with enough force that it sent it sprawling and cut through its carapace.
