“Hey, Petra,” Ana said gently, clasping the dying woman’s hand. It was cold and clammy, and sticky with blood. “Can you hear me? Varinus said you asked for me.”

  Petra’s eyelids slowly fluttered open. She started turning her head, but it looked so hard for her that Ana shuffled on her knees until she was in front of the innkeeper instead. When Petra said “Ana?” her voice came out as a wet wheeze.

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  “Saw you… fly in. Amazing.”

  “You must’ve missed the landing. I smashed into a wall.”

  Petra tried to laugh. At least Ana thought she did. It came out as a horrid gurgle that cut off in a whine. “Hurts,” she said pitifully.

  “Yeah,” Ana said. What the hell else did you say to something like that? There wasn’t anything Ana could do about it. “Touanne’s on her way, and we’re trying to get some potions. Stay with me, alright? Stay awake.”

  “Try,” Petra wheezed. “Messy? Ray?”

  “They’ll be fine,” Ana said confidently, hoping that she wasn’t lying. “They’re hurt, but stable.”

  “‘Kay. Mikkel. The inn. It’s his.”

  “Hey, don’t talk like that,” Ana said, while silently swearing that she’d make sure Petra’s will became reality.

  “No, Ana. Good kid. No family. All he—” Petra retched weakly, and a thin stream of blood ran down her chin. “All he has,” she finished.

  “Okay,” Ana said placatingly. “I’ll make sure.”

  Even as she said that she glanced toward the only exit from the square that wasn’t blocked by those walls the Earth-mages had raised. Where the hell were Marra and Touanne?

  When she looked back, Petra’s eyes were sliding shut.

  “Hey, Petra!” she barked, snapping her fingers sharply in front of her friend’s face. “Help’s coming! Don’t die on me!”

  Petra’s eyelids reversed direction with agonizing slowness. “Tired,” she breathed, so weakly that it was barely even a whisper.

  “Yeah.” Ana knew the feeling. How many times had she passed out due to blood loss now? Except she’d always had Touanne and a bunch of potions there to get her back on her feet. That, and…

  And her Class bonuses.

  I’m a goddamn moron! she growled at herself. Then she turned her internal voice toward the Wayfarer. Hey, are you there? This is urgent!

  Whenever I can, the goddess replied. Listening if not watching.

  Is my Party safe? Will they be fine if I drop from the Party?

  It took a brief moment before the goddess replied, They’re safe, and close to the outpost. Only a few miles. I can’t say for sure but yes, it looks like it.

  Good. If any of them pray to you, suggest they forgive me, Ana said. Then she left her Party. Only in a life-or-death situation; that was what she’d promised. Well, this was it.

  “Hey, Petra,” she said, lightly smacking the innkeeper on the cheek. Petra’s eyes had started drooping again, and didn’t open past half-lidded at Ana’s urging. “Listen. No need to speak. I shouldn’t have made you talk in the first place. I need you to join my Party, okay? I’m inviting you now, and it’s really important that you accept. Might be the most important thing you’ve ever done. Just join, alright?”

  Petra looked at Ana blankly, then nodded.

  Ana didn’t know if Petra joining would transfer Petra’s existing wounds to her. She didn’t think so, but it was a risk she was willing to take. Nor did she think that Fight Through would kick in for Petra; the woman may have a bunch of stone spikes impaling her, but Ana couldn’t see any way she might be considered to be in combat. But she could definitely use 19 bonus Vitality, and Ana hoped she might get some kind of benefit out of the increased healing from Companionship, slim though that hope may be.

  When she got the notification that Petra, Custodian (20), had joined her Party, Ana did not, in fact, begin to spontaneously bleed out from all over. She didn’t feel a thing, except for the uncomfortable awareness that Petra was injured. But Petra inhaled softly, and her eyes opened a little wider. Ana took that as a hopeful sign.

  “Feels better, right?” Ana said. “Don’t speak. Don’t even breathe too deeply. It’ll aggravate your injuries. But I’ll be with you until Touanne gets here, alright?” Then, for Petra’s sake, she put on a facade of false cheer and switched to her friendliest, most disarming voice and continued, “Hey, want to hear about our hunt? Things got kind of rough.”

  Petra nodded.

  Ana had been talking for no more than a minute when Varinus came to tell her that the mages hadn’t had any potions, and that he’d be moving Messy and Ray to where the other wounded were. To ask if he should, really. Ana agreed. Then she continued her story.

  About three minutes later, when Ana was at the point where they found the gully and the Delve, she saw a dark figure jog into the square with a limping gait.

  “Marra!” Ana called out, standing up and waving, hoping that Marra would see her in the dark. “Here! Quick!”

  Marra either did see her, or moved by sound alone; the older woman had told Ana that her Class favored a high Perception, so either was plausible. She approached on the far side of the hedge of stone spikes, keeping her close to the remains of Administration. She only turned her head away from the ruin and the mages working to slowly clear it when she came close to Ana.

  “Sorry for the delay,” Marra said, sounding much more like the tired, worried woman she was than when she left. “Touanne was busy tending to some patients that she didn’t dare move, and you know she’d never leave until she’d at least stabilized them. She should be on her way now, I hope; I went ahead as soon as Miss Petra’s boy returned with the potions.”

  “That’s fine,” Ana said, not bothering with making herself sound pleasant. “You have them?

  “Yes.” Then Marra noticed whom Ana was kneeling by and gasped. “Gods beyond, is that Petra?”

  “Yeah. Give me one.”

  Marra was carrying one of the padded, partitioned bags that were commonly used to transport large numbers of potions. She was already fumbling it open as quickly as she could, and at Ana’s stern command she carefully removed one of the bottles within, handing it to Ana.

  “I’ll need someone, one of the Earth-mages, that is, to break these spikes,” Ana said as she uncorked the bottle. “Can you see to it?” Then, without bothering to wait for an answer, she turned back to the innkeeper and softened her tone. “Hey, Petra. You still with us?”

  Petra lethargically lifted her head. Taking Ana’s advice to heart she didn’t answer, simply nodding once.

  “Good. Great. I have a healing potion here, alright? I don’t know if those spikes still being in you will cause any problems, but I figure as long as we can keep you alive until Touanne can help you, it doesn’t matter. Can you think of any reason you shouldn’t drink this?”

  Petra was still, then shook her head.

  “Alright. Small, careful sips, now.”

  With that she put the small bottle to Petra’s lips. Getting just a few ounces of the liquid into her friend without spilling took long enough that Marra returned, supporting a limping man. Ana heard their uneven steps as they approached, only looking up from Petra when they were close enough for her to see.

  “Ana,” Marra said. “This is Lavret. He’s an Earth-mage.”

  The man looked rough, with multiple small wounds on his face and arms, and favored one side in a way that suggested that he’d taken a blow to his ribs or abdomen on that side. Still, he was holding up well, and nodded and gave Ana a tired “Marshal” by way of greeting.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Lavret,” Ana replied, nodding back. “I remember you. You were with Halmer, weren’t you?”

  “I was, yeah.”

  “Good to see you still alive.” Ana turned her head meaningfully to the spikes. “Let’s make this quick, alright?”

  “Right. You’ll need to support her. I’ll be weakening the stone, but I can’t tell you when it might snap.”

  Ana nodded. After corking and putting away the still half-full bottle she straddled Petra’s lap, careful of the protruding spikes, and put her arms as far around the woman’s back as she could. “I need you to help me keep you still, alright?” she said softly.

  “Yeah,” Petra exhaled sharply.

  Ana nodded to Lavret the Earth-mage, and he began. There were a few hitches where a spike would snap without warning, and Petra would shift painfully. There were more than a few groans and something that might have been a choked sob. But finally they had Petra free of the hedge, and Ana could carry her from the square to the place where Touanne waited on Cross Street. It was easy to find; it was the first place Ana had seen since leaving her Party in the forest that was well lit.

  Touanne was already very busy. Several people lay in the street, Messy and Ray side by side among them. A flock of assistants, Jisha among them, were helping to keep the injured comfortable. By the way Touanne reacted when Ana arrived, though, none of her current patients could have been nearly as badly wounded as Petra.

  “Oh, Lifegiver have mercy,” the Healer breathed. “Lay her on her side and support her. Gods. Nobody removed the… are these stone spikes? No matter. Explains some of the punctures I’ve seen. Nobody removed them. That’s good. Very good. Jisha? Jisha! And where’s Mikkel? Mikkel, here, please!”

  The French girl looked up from where she’d been tending to another patient. Her eyes widened, and she finished what she’d been doing and jogged over. She quickly nodded to Ana, then asked Touanne, “Oui? What do I do?”

  “I need you to support Miss Petra,” Touanne said, speaking carefully. “Hold her still. Ana, just in case, repeat what I said in… Frahnsess?”

  Ana didn’t bother correcting the pronunciation. She just did as she’d been asked, glancing anxiously at Messy over Jisha’s shoulder as she spoke.

  “She’s stable,” Jisha whispered when she caught Ana’s attention wandering. “They both are.”

  Ana nodded. That would do for now. And they were close to Touanne. Between her healing and her Fount of Life Ability, they should be fine. Assuming, of course, that Haytham the Earthbreaker and his cohorts weren’t planning to turn on them suddenly, but he’d seemed sincere enough in his desire for everything to just be over.

  “Now, Ana,” Touanne said, snapping her finger in front of Ana’s face when she didn’t immediately react. “Stay with us, Ana. I’ll want to examine you, too, once Miss Petra’s safe. Ana, I need you to let Jisha take your place. Then we’re going to remove these spikes one by one. I need you to pull them out slowly and smoothly while I heal. Can you do that?”

  Ana forced her attention back to what they were doing. She’d been ignoring her own pain, but she knew that Touanne was right in that Ana needed to be examined. Hell, she hadn’t even taken any healing potion. As Jisha took over the job of supporting Petra, Ana stood and did just that. She brought out the half-finished bottle from the pocket where she’d stashed it, uncorked it, wiped away the blood and saliva from its mouth, and downed it in one go before settling behind her wounded friend.

  “You hadn’t any potion at all until now, had you?” Touanne gently admonished her.

  “No,” Ana admitted.

  “Please take better care of yourself after a fight,” Touanne said, and everything about her — her tone, her posture, her eyes, and even her aura — told Ana how painful it was for the Healer to see Ana disregard her own injuries.

  “I’ll try, Tou. I’ll try,” Ana agreed. It was a promise she’d made several times before, and she’d always meant it. Maybe this time it’d stick.

  “Thank you,” Touanne said, then looked around. “Where’s Mikkel? MIK— oh, good. Quick, I need another pair of hands.”

  The boy had come running from somewhere. He was covered in dust and had blood on his forearms, but his hands were clean. When he’d seen who Ana, Touanne, and Jisha were crowded around, however, his steps had slowed to a crawl, his whole demeanour overcome with fear and pain. He barely seemed to hear Touanne. He didn’t spare even one of the women a glance as he knelt next to Jisha, by Petra’s head. “Mistress Petra?” he said, his voice breaking. “Ma’am?”

  The way he said it, it almost sounded to Ana like Mum?

  Ana had thought that Petra was out cold ever since she carried her out of the square, but now she turned her head just enough to look up at the boy. The faintest of smiles touched her lips as she whispered, “Hey, boy.” She lifted one hand weakly off the ground, and her assistant took it, squeezing it tightly between his own. Neither spoke. The whole thing looked so intimate and emotional that Ana suddenly felt uncomfortably like she was intruding, despite having just saved the woman’s life.

  Touanne was pitiless. “Mikkel,” she said, gently placing a hand on the boy’s cheek and using it to turn his head to face her. “I need your help. I need you to get out a potion. You’re still carrying some, yes? I need you to get one out, and open it. We’ll be removing these spikes, one by one. When we do, I need you to pour a little bit of potion into each of the wounds, from both the front and back where they’re all the way through. Can you do that for me? Can you help me save Miss Petra’s life?”

  Mikkel blinked rapidly, tears carving furrows on his dusty face. “Yeah. Yeah, Mistress Touanne. Of course.” He squeezed Petra’s hand again then gently laid it on the ground before taking a potion bottle from a pouch on a belt he was wearing. He opened it with practiced ease, his experience behind the bar no doubt coming to use, then pressed a spout into the open mouth of the bottle. “Ready,” he said, sniffing.

  The procedure took time, but it had to. Petra had no less than eleven spikes through her, from her lower chest to her upper abdomen. For each one they had to bare the skin surrounding it on both front and back so that Touanne could put her hands around it, the ends of the spike protruding between her fingers. Then Ana would smoothly pull the spike out, her combination of Strength and Enhancements making it effortless, while Touanne used her healing Shapings to pour Life-mana into the wound, and Jisha held Petra still. Finally Mikkel, who’d quickly overcome his embarrassment at seeing so much of his employer’s skin bared, would pour a small measure of potion into each end of the wound, with Jisha rocking Petra a little bit to each side to make it easier. Touanne applauded the idea of using the spout — which Ana had thought was an established practice that she just hadn’t seen before. It turned out that Mikkel just so happened to have one on him when he rushed out, and had been using it all night when helping to clean wounds.

  “Mikkel the Apprentice, medical innovator,” Ana said, giving him a practiced, approving smile once she learned that. She poured on all the Charm she could, and it seemed to raise the kid’s spirits at least a little as they continued.

  And then, after many long minutes, they were done. Mikkel held his employer and, Ana suspected, mother figure’s hand as Ana supported her in a sitting position, and Jisha helped Touanne apply some poultice and bandages to the wounds. Then they carefully laid Petra on her side with a pillow under her head and some bunched fabric to help keep her from rolling onto her front or back, and that was it.

  “I can examine you next to Mestendi and Rayni,” Touanne told Ana, leading her toward the two women with tired gentleness. “We really should start getting people inside, preferably into beds,” the Healer said once they were kneeling by Messy’s side.

  “Uh huh,” Ana replied. Now that the immediate emergency was over, her own fatigue was rapidly catching up with her. She’d run ten miles in less than fifteen minutes, by her own estimation. The adrenaline of her headlong rush back to the outpost and the following fight with the Iron Warrior was long gone, and the crash was on her. Then there was the pain on top of that. Her arms were a torn mess, and she had cuts on her face, her scalp, her neck and shoulders, and on her legs, not to mention the goddamned soles of her feet. Which she’d been walking on for a while now, without the benefit of Fight Through.

  All she wanted right then was to lie down next to Messy and sleep. But her enemies were still alive. They were still in the square. And while they were ostensibly helping at the moment, goddess only knew if and when they planned to turn.

  I can fight if I have to, Ana thought. The bonuses will kick in, and the fatigue and the pain will be gone.

  For once, the idea didn’t excite her.

  Touanne continued speaking. What had she said? Something about getting people inside? “Until then, it would be very helpful if we could get some people in a Party with you,” the Healer said, speaking softly. “I know it will be emotionally draining on you, having so many hurt people to worry about, but—”

  “Yeah, it will,” Ana said, cutting her off. She should have thought of that herself. Forcing Touanne to ask was embarrassing. “But I’ll do it. Of course I will. They need to be awake.”

  “Thank you, Ana,” Touanne said, gently helping her take off her armor. “None of these people should be at risk of dying, but it will mean a lot for their comfort.”

  “Happy to help.” Happy to take some pressure off Touanne to be more exact. Ana didn’t give a damn about most of the people in the street, but Touanne would understand what she meant. She wouldn’t even judge Ana for it. She was too understanding for that.

  Once Ana’s Party was full of injured people, Touanne got properly started. The examination went quickly, but the treatment took time. The fractured ribs were the least time-consuming; the numerous cuts that needed salving, and her flayed forearms that needed to be cleaned, covered with poultice, and then bandaged took longer than Ana was comfortable with. She was embarrassed to be taking up their only Healer’s time for something so superficial when there were many others who were far worse off than her.

  “Please don’t worry,” Touanne said when Ana tried to tell her just that. “To be honest, I’m just about tapped out. I need to breathe a little, and doing mundane work like this lets me rest while still being useful. It’s amazing I’ve been able to do as much as I have at all, so close to the Waystone.”

  “I think Karti’s doing something to it,” Ana mumbled. The healing that Touanne had poured into her abused body was eating away at the last of her reserves, and now she was truly flagging. “It’s barely absorbing anything.”

  “I thought that might be the case,” Touanne said. Ana blinked, and startled as Touanne said, “There, all done. You can lie down now.”

  Ana looked dumbly at her arms. They were both bandaged. Touanne had only started a moment ago, hadn't she?

  She didn’t question it. And to hell with Haytham and his mercenary mages. Someone else could worry about them for a few hours.

  With a mumbled “Thanks” to Touanne, Ana stretched out beside Messy. She rested her cheek on her girlfriend’s uninjured shoulder, put her arm across her chest, and was out in seconds.

  and read 8 chapters ahead of both Splinter Angel and Draka! You also get to read anything else I’m trying out — which is how Splinter Angel got started.

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