Phoenix carefully focused on the small stone sitting on the table in front of her. After her party had checked in, they had all decided to try to get some sleep and take the following day off instead of their previous pn of training and shopping, at Saiya’s suggestion. And nobody wanted to argue with the Healer.

  After quickly being awoken by another fshback nightmare, however, Phoenix decided to continue her little project and grasp any chance of not being captured or stranded again. She didn’t know if there was any way to overcome the effects of the silencing chains, and she hadn’t mustered the resolve to examine the one that still sat in her collection from the first time Murinah tried to kill her. Well, not tried, succeeded.

  She knew that she would need to practice resisting them eventually, even if the chains seemed a bit cumbersome to get on. If she was ever caught by surprise again or captured somehow, it would be good to have a backup pn to get out of the device that could completely shut down her ability to escape or fight back, though escaping or fighting anyone that could just brutally overpower her wouldn’t make this skill relevant it seemed.

  Rule of Caste, indeed.

  For now, she would focus on her emergency signal stone, then move on to figuring out the chains themselves. After that, she could worry about breaking the Rule of Caste. After all, rules were meant to be broken, right?

  Phoenix had been mentally berating herself for the st hour for not just running away as soon as she realized they were Sapphire Caste. If she had just stalled a few more minutes, she would have been able to portal away to safety. It had been foolish and arrogant to think she could stand up to such an obvious strength difference. If a Crystal Yeti could break her in half when alone, why would she even remotely entertain the idea she could take on a Sapphire of any level?

  At one point during the night, she felt her heavy eyelids begin to not want to open again after closing to blink, and she downed a stamina potion to solve that little annoyance. She still had a few of them left from originally leaving the city two weeks ago –having not needed them with her party there to support her and getting proper sleep alongside them. Who needed sleep when there were basically magic caffeine potions?

  When she had completed the engravings on the stone, she cleared a small space between the sitting area and the small dining table that was against the rge window wall. She quickly drew the appropriate enchanting circle with a finger of starlight and pced the stone in the center.

  As her mana finished pouring through the diagram and into the item, there was a sizzling sound, and she fell to the ground. The backsh of mana struck her and made her mind feel like it had been hit with a wrecking ball.

  Phoenix didn’t know how long she y there, clutching her head and waiting for the throbbing pain to recede. When she could finally manage coherent thoughts again, she slowly sat herself up and looked at the charred remains of her diagram and what seemed to be a chunk of coal in the center.

  She picked it up to look over it, the intricate engravings barely discernible in the inky bckness. She stood and paced slightly, looking from the circle back to the lump in her hand. “It should have worked. Why didn’t it work? What could I possibly have been missing?” she muttered to herself.

  Summoning her book to go over her notes once more, she mentally checked her collection and growled in frustration, “Powdered silver, not iron, idiot!” she yelled at herself, “If I can’t get the ingredients right for a basic tracking enchantment, how can I even hope to make more useful stuff? Such a failure!” She gave a muffled scream of frustration as she hurled the bckened stone across the room towards the front door.

  To her surprise, Paul caught it. She had once again not noticed his arrival, and she immediately gnced out the window. The sun wasn’t quite peeking through the neighboring buildings yet, but the paling sky warned of the coming dawn. She gave an annoyed groan and walked over to slump into the loveseat opposite the unlit hearth.

  “Nightmares?” Paul asked as he came to sit next to her, as had become their tradition.

  Phoenix rubbed at her tired eyes and said with a sigh, “Yes. I hoped to finish my project, but as you can see… complete rubbish,” she gestured towards the once-stone in his hand.

  “Perhaps you should seek out the temple of the Mender? They might have a way to calm your sleep,” he suggested.

  She scoffed, “I’ve tried prayer before. It didn’t work then, and I don’t expect it to now. Plus, all the gods here seem to just want to get handsy with me. No, thank you.”

  “Maybe your new party Healer? Lady Saiya is very talented at soothing people,” he said, leaning back as he examined the stone a bit more.

  “Her aura did help when we were camping out,” she admitted with another sigh that turned into a yawn, “but it’s not like I can just crash her pce and ask her to share a bed.”

  Paul gave a small chuckle, and Phoenix rubbed her face, trying to wipe the exhaustion away. “Believe it or not, I asked her if there was a spell or potion that could help. She said she would ask around to see if there is a sleeping draught that could help me.”

  Her mentor handed her back the failed experiment and asked, “How did your missions go? I didn’t get to ask before the attack on the city. I saw you helping portal people out, by the way. That was very well done. You saved a lot of people from injury or worse this night.”

  Phoenix didn’t feel like it was a job well done. She had died tonight, and if that wasn’t a failure, then she wasn’t sure what was. She focused on his question, though, the quests she hadn’t died accomplishing, “They went well, for the most part. All completed, but I lost a shirt. Took a nasty hit from the first one, but Saiya helped patch me up alright.”

  “Things working well with the Dewsong dies?”

  Phoenix gave a more genuine smile, “Yeah, they’re both great. Very different from each other, like two sides of the same coin, but both work well with us. Rayna’s funny and brave, while Saiya’s probably the sweetest person I’ve ever met. She barely knows us but already seems to really care, you know?”

  “I’m gd,” Paul said, returning the smile, “You need more good people in your life. Ones you can rely on to watch your back and protect it from getting stabbed.”

  She gave him a hesitant look as she prodded, “You sound like you’ve had experience with that?”

  His smile became a bit crooked as he replied, “More than I’d like, but I had good friends too. A good party I could depend on most of the time. Maybe someday I’ll introduce you to the ones that remain.”

  “I think I’d like that,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself.

  “So, were your quests lucrative?” he asked with a smirk, shifting the subject back to her.

  She shrugged tiredly, “I got better boots and a new sword. Oh, and I can do some basic Crystal Caste tattoos now once I get the supplies. Not sure my art skills are up to the task, but I might get better with practice.”

  “No, Spirit Gems? You’ll need more to progress to Sapphire,” her mentor reminded.

  Phoenix shook her head and then abruptly stopped. “Actually, I got one tonight for helping defend the docks,” she corrected. Then, she pulled out the new item and held it up, “The Karmic Spirit Gem. What do you think it’ll be?”

  “Usually something that requires two parts. Some kind of give and take,” he specuted, “Like a countering attack or retribution effect.”

  “Doesn’t sound too evil,” she observed, getting a chuckle from Paul.

  The gem reminded her of some kind of three-dimensional yin yang cut into a brilliant diamond, and she simply thought about absorbing it to trigger her [Aetheric Transmigrator] Talent.

  Once the pain subsided, she felt the power of the gem bond to her Dark Aspect, unlocking a new Css ability. Then, she conjured up her book to read the details alongside her mentor.

  Css Ability: Call of the Abyss

  Type: Spell (divine, void)

  Cost: Moderate mana.

  Cooldown: 1 minute.

  Current Caste: Crystal 1 (0%)

  Crystal Effect: Inflicts [Weakened] and [Reflected Fate].

  Weakened (bane, divine, void): Maximum health, mana, and stamina is reduced.Reflected Fate (bane, retribution, divine, void): For each attack made, take a low amount of damage in return. Damage taken is of the same type as the attack.

  Phoenix saw the word ‘void’ and immediately gave Paul a wary look as he finished reading the ability. He turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow, and she tried to speak in its defense, “It’s… um… It’s not that evil… right? Really, it’s more of a warning… isn’t it?”

  He frowned, causing her to sweat a bit before he asked an unexpected question, “Is there something else troubling you tonight?”

  She frowned at his words, “Why do you ask that?”

  “To unlock an ability like this,” he hesitated, reading it again, “Well, it makes me concerned about the path your soul is heading down. I’ve seen people –desperate and scared people– unlock some truly terrifying abilities as their soul responds to the threats they see around them and the despair they feel within.”

  “I…” she began saying but fell silent, processing his warning. Phoenix swallowed and felt a thumb on her cheek as her mentor wiped a tear away that she hadn’t even realized escaped. Quietly, she admitted, “I was killed again tonight.”

  A fre of aura and anger surrounded her for a moment before quickly vanishing as Paul’s hand moved to a golden bracelet around his wrist. She stared at his face, which had shifted into a deadly calm, and he growled, “Sirens?”

  “Partially,” she replied, and at his ft look, she crified, “Some random hired woman. At least, I’m guessing she was hired. She said it wasn’t personal but that she was sent by House Ruwena to kill me and… well,” Phoenix gave a weak smile, “Well, she succeeded.”

  After a long pause, Paul softly said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you tonight, Phoenix,” then he pced a hand over her own, “But I swear to you, I will bring down House Ruwena. I’ve been working with an old friend of mine while you were gone. We’re trying to build a case against the entire family to force the duke and other nobles to take action. They have allies that will try to shield them. I also don’t believe Murinah is the only rotten fruit tainting our city. They will all pay for their transgressions.”

  “Tonight’s not your fault, Paul,” she replied curtly, “I’m just weak. I couldn’t do anything against a single Sapphire. You… you defeated that Emerald Caste Giant while an army of Sapphires tried to take you down. But me… She actually smiled when I stabbed her. I–” a yawn interrupted her words as she tried to expin, “I need to get strong enough that some random person can’t just kill me on a whim.”

  “I know you want to get stronger, and it seems like everything around you is trying to rush you, but rest is important too,” he said pointedly, as she found herself once more yawning.

  He pced the charred stone back into her palm, “You should get some sleep. Leave the Ruwena’s to me and stay safe here, okay?”

  “Right. Sleep. I’ll go do that now,” she replied, rubbing her eyes again. “We’ve got the day off to recuperate after the craziness st night,” she added, then hesitated before asking, “Once I finish resting, can we talk about letting my party know about my [Waypoint] Talent? I don’t want them to worry so much if I die again, and I don’t like lying to them.”

  Paul nodded in understanding, “We’ll talk about it,” he assured, then took his leave.

  She took her time cleaning up the mess left on the table, returning the tools to her collection, then heading for her room to rest.

  Phoenix opened the door to her rented room and suddenly halted at the sight of it.

  She stood there alone, staring at the messy borrowed bed. A room that wasn’t hers in a pce that wasn’t home, and a world that continually reminded her that she was powerless and undeserving.

  Phoenix gnced from the room that now felt foreign and down at the stone Paul had returned to her: another reminder of her inadequacy.

  After a long, silent moment, she tipped another stamina potion into her mouth and conjured a portal.