[Warning: Consumer of the Fourth Anchor is not compatible with Control Decay.]

  I mourned it. I mourned myself.

  Vaguely, I heard Dorin calling my name alongside the sound of feathers whistling through the air, but nothing they could do would help me. There were five of them, now, all bearing down on me with wing-claws.

  Some part of me had the presence of mind to hop away. I did so as fast as I could, buying myself as much time as I could as the fear pulsed through my slime.

  Damn this stupid injury. I just wanted to save my friend. Was that so much to ask?

  [Tag Requirements met:

  Consumer of the Fourth Anchor - Friend of Monsters

  Ability Unlocked: Arcane Ascendent]

  Huh? What was the stupid Consumer tag doing now? Didn’t it know that my present circumstances were entirely its fault?

  I chastised myself. In my panic, I doubted the wisdom of the Creator. I cleared my head and kept hopping. Another harpy was downed by bloody feathers, and the winds had shifted in my direction. Once my lead was lengthened enough to spare a thought, I begged the Creator’s forgiveness and her wisdom.

  [Arcane Ascendent: Details limited due to unknown functions of Consumer of the Fourth Anchor. Mana cost: not applicable. You call upon the power of the Fourth Anchor to push beyond your arcane limits to enhance another ability, reducing cost and increasing potency. Requires Healer’s Bearing.]

  That could be helpful in the long run, but my immediate problems were still bearing down on me. On the side of my vision, I noticed splotches of black mana forming in the earth. Wraiths would appear soon, drawn by the rest of the carnage, and then we’d be even worse off!

  Creator, could I still take Control Decay even though it’s incompatible? Avoiding being immediately eaten was the highest priority. Dead slimes don’t eat rocks…or something like that.

  [Warning: Control Decay is not compatible with Consumer of the Fourth Anchor or Friend of Monsters. Forcing the ability selection will result in a loss of tags.]

  In other words, I could only have one. Consumer of the Fourth Anchor had been nothing but an annoyance. I didn’t know the extent of what it did or what purpose it served, and it triggered at the strangest and most inopportune times. It was the reason that I was about to die and it was the reason that Dorin could never return home!

  But, it’s also the reason he’s alive, a tiny voice in the back of my mind reminded me. Dorin was a draken because of that tag. He might not be welcome with the humans anymore, but he lived. He could still see his children someday, even if they might not want to see him.

  Was I really going to give that up?

  Maybe it’s time. My hops slowed to a stop, and despite the shouts of my friends, I withdrew into myself.

  [Ability Selected: Arcane Ascendent

  Ability Slots remaining: 2

  Activating Augmentation

  Augmenting Wild Magic Wave]

  Dorin didn’t know what Suri was thinking when the slime slowed. He drove his flaming sword through the chest of one of the decayed harpies before turning and sprinting to Suri’s aid. Claws grasped at his ankles as wraiths began surging up from the ground, but that didn’t stop Dorin.

  “Suri!”

  Overhead, the blood-feathered harpy hurled a jagged bolt of solidified blood, taking down another of the monsters just as the wing mother darted forward, shifting her magic to give her a tailwind.

  Enemy of my enemy, and all, he thought.

  Even if the harpies wanted to keep Suri as a prisoner, at least they wanted him alive. Dorin could work with that, rescuing his young friend from their claws, if needed.

  The three raced ahead as fast as they could. Dorin never took his eyes off the slime, which was why he noticed the bright spark that flashed through Suri’s core.

  “Get down!”

  He threw himself to the ground just as the brilliant light erupted around them. For a moment, Dorin swore he saw a dark shape at its center, one that was far larger than the small slime that created the blast. As quickly as it appeared, the dark shape was swallowed by the blinding mana of Wild Magic Wave.

  It was nothing like the last two waves he’d experienced. The magic tore into the earth, forcing Dorin to duck his head behind one of the shambler corpses to protect himself, but even that provided extremely little cover, as the corpse was quickly burned away by the purifying magic.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Screams from the decayed rang through the clearing before abruptly falling silent. Dorin groaned and rolled onto his back. Suri’s magic had packed a punch when he’d been grazed by it at the gates of Felsporo. Now, it was even stronger.

  [Warning: Health at 25%]

  He stared up at the sky for a full ten-count as he gathered his thoughts and took stock of where his pains were. It was easy to do. Everything on the right side of his body hurt, being the closest to the mana explosion. Everything on his left was sore and tingling, with some cuts and tears from his fight with the harpies.

  A blond head with feathered tufts sticking from her hair appeared above him, and he groaned. The wing mother—L’aera, he believed—stared down at him. Her hair was matted and her feathers were ruffled. Mana burns snaked down her neck beneath her clothes, and Dorin had no doubt he fared little better.

  “You appear worse for wear,” she said simply.

  Dorin fought the urge to laugh, which was easy given the pains in the right side of his chest. “And whose fault would that be?”

  “You attacked first. We tried to speak.”

  He bit his tongue. He could have pointed out that the harpies had attacked first by kidnapping Suri out of nowhere, but he didn’t have the energy nor the health left for a prolonged fight with two Tier 2 monsters.

  L’aera smiled and flicked her ear-tufts in amusement. “Do you require assistance in standing?”

  Pride surged in Dorin’s chest. He didn’t need her help. Even this wasn’t the worst injury he’d ever had. But, as he tried to push himself to sitting, his body protested and he laid back down.

  Rather than wait for his answer, L’aera hopped up, flapping her wings so that she hovered just above him and offered a talon. He sighed and took it. She beat her powerful wings, pulling him first to sitting, then to standing. It was a painful process, but he wasn’t about to lay around in the aftermath of battle when there was still work to be done.

  Nearby, the blood-feathered harpy knelt next to a glowing green slime. Suri’s body pulsed slowly with mana as she gently took him into her wing claws.

  “What are you going to do with him?” he growled, trying his best to make the gesture seem intimidating rather than pained. In the blast, his flame blade had been dispelled, but he still had his bone pick, a weapon that he couldn’t wait to retire for its unwieldy and inelegant design. He could forge better.

  The wing mother and blood sister exchanged looks. They were tired and had probably suffered more damage in the blast than even he did.

  L’aera stepped forward, holding her head high as she hooked her wing claws in front of her. “I have lived in these woods for many seasons. I do not know of any dragonkin colonies near here. From whence do you hail?”

  “I’m from—” Dorin’s voice caught. He cleared his throat and continued. “I’m from Felsporo.”

  “Is that not the name of the human town?”

  “It is. I was human until yesterday. He—” he pointed to the slime in the blood sister’s arms— “saved my life, but turned me into this in doing so.” He paused, lifting his right arm so he could hold it against his chest. His head drooped as the weight of reality settled back on his wide shoulders. “It doesn’t matter, though. I can’t go back like this.”

  The two harpies' eyes went wide, and suddenly, the wing mother moved close enough to him that he could have rested his chin on her head…if he’d been so inclined, which he definitely was not. She stared up at him, brilliant blue eyes seeming to pierce straight into his soul.

  “You are Las’hik? A lost soul?”

  Dorin took a step back, but she followed. Never once did L’aera’s gaze leave his own.

  “I’m not lost! I’ve been exploring these woods since I was six!”

  “But you are a wanderer with no home? Untethered from your life and exiled from your people?”

  Her clear blue gaze was unnerving, and Dorin didn’t know what to make of her words. Was she trying to judge if he was worth kidnapping? Harpies were known for snatching people, but they were usually pretty young girls or handsome young men not…him. He hadn’t been any of those things in over a decade…or more depending on who you asked.

  Only after one of the longest minutes of awkward silence Dorin had ever known did L’aera finally step back. She spread her wings to reorder her feathers, then settled them back at her sides and hooked her wing claws.

  “What is your name?”

  “Dorin.”

  L’aera nodded. “A strong name for a being of fire and earth. As Wing Mother, I would like to formally invite you to the High Ridge Colony as our guest. You have fought well, and we have already shamed the Great Mother enough for one day. I shall not do so again by leaving a Las’hik out in the dark.”

  Dorin blinked several times. Their demeanor had changed so quickly that he felt like he’d been sucker punched. Not ten minutes ago, he’d been running for his life from these two women, and now, they were offering to take him home with them?

  What would Fallia do? His wife had always had the best insights. She could charm her way out of a dragon’s mouth, all while stealing the gold it laid on. But, as soon as he thought of it, he could almost hear her voice echoing from the grave, chastising him about unfair opinions of other peoples.

  The harpies were civilized enough to have a society. They might have used an antiquated and formal version of the human tongue, but they clearly had their own culture. The Great Mother they spoke of was very likely the Mother of Monsters, a greater deity who still held sway in the monstrous pantheon, despite having been dead for over half a century. Though Dorin knew little about the teachings of their goddess, he knew that she was worshipped by several monstrous species throughout the land, not all of whom had the harpies’ poor reputation.

  Maybe they would be friendlier to a draken than they had been to the town?

  In the end, the throbbing ache in his right arm and the tightness in his chest gave him his answer. He didn’t want to be caught in the woods on his own. Night brought its usual dangers—beasts, and exposure being chief among them—but he was less afraid of those than he was of being surrounded by shamblers again. He could still smell the corpses in the area, even after Suri’s magic had burned them to ash.

  “I’ll go where Suri goes,” he said, gesturing towards the emerald bundle in the blood-harpy’s arms.

  “Then let us be off,” L’aera said, spreading her wings wide before Dorin stopped her.

  “Suri was injured in the dungeon. Either be gentle, or leave him with me and we’ll follow.” Dorin’s crossed his arms, hoping again that his gruff demeanor was at least a little intimidating, despite the state he was in.

  It was the blood harpy who spoke next. “Injured? He seemed fine before…” she trailed off, clearly thinking before closing her eyes and bowing her head. “Yet, I did not even notice his intelligence until it was too late. Forgive me. Do you know what sort of injury he suffers from?”

  “He mentioned mana exhaustion and core damage.”

  “Mana exhaustion,” she scratched her chin. “I have some mana-dense herbs that may be able to help. I shall walk with you on foot to ensure his safety.”

  “And I shall scout from above and warn you of any danger,” L’aera agreed before taking to the air.

  Together, the blood sister and the draken knight walked into the forest, and Dorin desperately hoped that he wasn’t walking into a viper’s nest.