Mina was careful as she made her way to the first of the stalagmites. She watched where she placed her feet and kept a wary eye on the large gathering of orcs on the other side of the cavern. It had to be three hundred feet wide and half as tall. 

She crouched as she reached the rocks, moving forward far enough that the others would be able to duck behind them as well. She peeked over one of the jagged stones. 

She frowned as she scanned the warband. She’d never seen so many orcs in one place. She could count at least ten different tribes from where she was, and there was probably more that she couldn’t see. There wasn’t any fighting and shouting matches. They were getting along. 

She glanced behind her when she heard a soft metallic clank. William was knelt behind Boris. She’d barely heard the sound, so she doubted the orcs had. They didn’t have the greatest hearing. 

She took a breath to steady her nerves and began to move again, as quick as she dared. She avoided any loose rocks and pebbles that laid on the ground that she could see. 

A loud, metallic clang sounded followed closely by the noise of rocks and pebbles hitting the ground. She turned, her eyes wide. William stood frozen, his shoulder still flush against the stalagmite that he’d collided with. 

All noise in the cavern stopped.

Fuck.

An orc shouted something in its gruff voice and the sound of heavy footsteps grew closer to them. She dared a look over the rocks. Six large orcs were making their way over to them. 

If they were discovered this would be the end. No one would even know where they were. She didn’t give a fuck about herself, but Frederick? If the crown prince went missing that would throw the entire country into chaos. She didn’t even know if the other three had families to go home too. 

Why had they thought this was a good idea? This was a fucking suicide mission. She glanced back at the orcs. She could probably buy enough time for the others to get out. 

Frederick raised a finger to his mouth and winked at her. Glowing gold leaked into the bright blue of his eyes, completely overtaking the azure.  His face sharpened and narrowed. Black and brown feathers burst out of his shoulders and the scalp of his head like pauldrons and a cowl.. His lips hardened and grew into a sharp, hooked beak. Sharp, angular wings erupted from his back, blood and skin splattering against the wall and stones.

If it caused pain, he didn’t give any indication of such. He looked like an extreme bird fera. He stood to his full height, and she noticed that his boots had been shredded and taloned, bird feet replaced his normal legs. He leapt over the stalagmites. 

Mina swore under her breath and darted around the rock, in time to see the six orcs being lifted into the air and blown backwards and were impaled on the stalagmites nearby. 

That was all it took. The entire mass of orcs turned in unison. The cry they released deafened her as they charged. She steeled herself. If she was going to die, she’d be taking as many of them with her as she could.  

She didn’t see Renault and Boris move next to her, but she knew they were there. She glanced on either side of her. Renault had drawn his sword and Boris had a strange contraption in his hand. She hadn’t seen that before, but she needed to focus. She turned her attention back to the charging orcs.

She took a deep breath and butterfly exploded from her arms, shoulders, and back. They alighted onto the ground and a large wall of flame raised between their group and the rushing beasts. 

“Afé oa i sao i faymasino ao agasula?” One of the orcs gruff voices rang out through the blazing roar of the fire.

“Alo fufu oa leva,” She shot back with a snarl and pushed her arms up against the pressure of the flames, sending them higher and widening them simultaneously. The smell of burning flesh and agonized screams filled the cavern.

The ground rumbled beneath her feet and the ceiling above her wall turned to dust. It poured down over her flames and snuffed them out in one fell swoop. She didn’t have time to dwell on that as the mob of orcs surged over the earthen mounds and was quickly upon them. 

A loud bang came from beside her and she jumped backwards, whirling around. The noise came again, but at the same time that Boris pointed his device at an orc. It dropped dead, a small hole filling with blood in the center of his forehead. Her ears began to ring, drowning out the sounds around her.  

She ducked just in time as an orc tried to grab her and set for a jab into his ribs. She heard her hand crunch and it was shortly followed by intense pain in her fingers. 

Mina stumbled backwards, cradling her hand to her chest. The orc advanced on her, a disgusting grin on its face. The expression quickly disappeared when a long sword impaled itself through his neck and then disappeared. 

Renault gave her a quick nod before he darted away. 

Wind whipped around her, her hair flew around her face and her clothes thrashed around her. She found it difficult to stay in one spot and was pushed backwards. 

Orcs flew into the air en masse; slamming against the walls and the roof of the cavern. They landed on stalagmites and stuck to the stalactites on the ceiling. It was all over in a matter of minutes.

Mina stared in shock at the carnage around her. What the fuck happened? She turned at the loud thud that sounded nearby. Frederick had collapsed to the ground, the feathers, beak, and wings receded into his body. William immediately went over to him, black blood coated his shining armor. He knelt and lifted the prince. 

“We need to leave before the rest came back,” he said as he headed for the large hole in the cavern wall. The floor slowly sloped upwards. 

Mina took a gasping breath, barely hearing what he had said with the ringing that was still in her ears. She jogged after him, stopping long enough to kick several of the corpses as she passed by them. 

There were at least two hundred orcs here. The largest dent she’d made in their population since she began her hunt. She scowled, she hadn’t even been the one to cause their deaths. Frederick had been. She couldn’t take credit for it.

She caught up to William and glanced at the prince. He didn’t look good. He was pale and sweat soaked through his clothes. She’d never seen someone fully collapse like that after using the power of their Spirit. She’d felt slightly fatigued after using her power sometimes, but never to this point. Did it change based on how much power they used? Had that been a Merge like she’d been told about before? 

For all the answers and information she’d gotten, she was only left with more questions. The stone floor sloped up sharply and took a hard turn to the right. Mina could see daylight as she rounded the corner. It was but a small pinprick, but it was there. She quickened her pace. They were almost to the surface. She couldn’t wait to feel the sun on her skin again.

Nobody spoke as their speed quickened to a fast walk—almost a jog. They finally crested the threshold and stepped out into fresh air. 

Mina glanced around, looking for signs that the orcs that had left for the raid were on their way back. She wasn’t sure how long the fight had lasted, but it had taken at least two hours to get here afterwards. She didn’t hear the signs of them approaching, but there was no underbrush for them to crash through. There wasn’t anything for them to hide behind either, though. 

She turned and looked out across the expanse of the landscape. They were high above the Plains of Vicar. She turned and looked up. They were about halfway up the mountains. She shivered as the cold finally set into her bones and wrapped her arms around herself. The condensation of her breath reflected the sunlight in a bright flash before it dissipated.

She pulled William’s coat from her bag and wrapped it around her, immediately feeling the relief of the familiar warmth. It smelled like him; like metal, oil, and leather. 

“Any idea where in the mountains we are?” she asked.

All those who were conscious shook their heads. She glanced back down to the Plains. She could see the Deas Fissure, but had they really travelled that far? She wasn’t entirely sure how long they’d been underground, several days at the least. 

“I don’t think we travelled that far,” she muttered, gesturing at the small sliver that was the fissure. 

“We did not. We were underground for five days at my estimation. Should not be that far,” Boris said. “Perhaps someone’s Spirit allows them to distort space making the distance shorter?” 

William stared down at the prince. “I will take him back to Lynden so we can alert the families of the fallen. He just needs rest and then he’ll be back in shape.” He looked up to them. “We’ll catch up to you when everything is taken care of.”

He didn’t wait for her—or anyone else for that matter—to respond before he began to stride away, not looking back once. 

Mina watched him leave, her heart in her throat. Why did it hurt more with each step he took away from them? He hadn’t even said goodbye. Hadn’t he cared about any of the time they’d spent together? The blood they had spilled and had had spilled? 

Why was she so upset about this? It didn’t make any sense. Why did she care if he left? It was just one less liability to worry about, one less mouth to feed. One less person that could die. She shook her head and then turned to Renault and Boris.

“What was that?” She asked.

“What was what?” Boris tilted his head to the side.

“The feathers, the beak, the wings. It was like he was a weird bird fera.” Mina crossed her arms and looked between the two of them.

“Ah, right. That was Merge, as I told about before. Was not expecting prince to be able to do it.” Boris’s blue eyes glanced down at the retreating form of William. “Is interesting.”

“How do you Merge?” She asked. She’d done so before, but they hadn’t answered her. 

“You have to obtain full synergy with your Spirit. It increases your power almost ten fold from what I’m told. It takes a lot out of you though, that’s a lot of strain on your soul. It’s why it’s so rare and most people keep it a secret.” Renault glanced over at Boris.

“Da.” The raccoon man’s ears flattened against his head for a moment before they perked forward. “We should get going. Sooner we are over mountains, the better.”

Mina couldn’t agree more. The sooner she was out of the cold, the better. She said as much. “You can also tell me more about this Merging while we walk.”

“There’s not much else to tell,” Renault said. He strode forward until he caught up to her and then shortened his steps. 

“Why do they keep it a secret? Why is it so rare? How do get this synergy?” She sidestepped a jagged rock on the path.

“If I knew how to do it, I would have done it by now,” Boris said, coming up on the other side of her. There was barely enough room for the three of them to walk side-by-side. 

“What about you? Do you have any idea how to do it?” She glanced over at Renault. 

“Why the hell do you think I’d know anything about it?” He snapped. His pace quickened until he was a good distance ahead of them. She wasn’t going to let him outpace them though and caught up to him.

“The fuck is your problem? I was just asking a question, you don’t need to be a dick about it.” She moved in front of him and stopped, placing her hands on her hips.’

“Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers.” Renault rolled his eyes and stepped around her. 

Mina whirled and stomped after him. “What the fuck is your issue? What’s going on?”

“Any issue I have, isn’t your problem,” he snarled. 

Mina clenched her jaw and dropped her pace until she was in stride with Boris. 

Fine. If he didn’t want to explain, that was on him. She thought they’d passed that point though. She blinked. Of course. That’s why. He did condemn her for what she’d done. He never straight up said it, but obviously that’s why he was acting like that. Why hadn’t he done it before now? Had it just taken him that long to fully process it? She kicked a pebble at her feet and sent it skittering into a boulder.

“Perhaps it is not you, but the subject matter that is a sore topic,” Ariadne’s voice was soothing against her frayed nerves. Mina jerked, but didn’t look around this time. She was getting used to hearing the voices in her head.

At this point, she was starting to half-expect the Spirit to pipe up whenever there was even the smallest of issues. The other possible Spirit hadn’t spoken in a while, was it gone?

“The imposter is not gone, she is still around. I have managed to subdue her for now, but I do not know how long that will last. We will need to find the source of her power and extinguish it. Accepting me will help in that endeavor.” 

“Accept you? How am I supposed to do that? I don’t even know if you’re my actual Spirit or if the other one is. How do I know which of you is the imposter and which isn’t?” Mina asked.

“There she goes, talking to herself again,” Renault grumbled from ahead of her. 

Mina ignored the comment, there was no point. She didn’t want to fight with him, not right now. She had more important things to do. Actually no. Fuck that. She wasn’t going to let him win.

“I was not talking to myself, and you damn well know it.” She lengthened her stride to catch up to him.

“Oh, do I now? Now you’re telling me what I do and do not know?” he asked. The amount of venom in his voice caused her to pause. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything. Did he suddenly hate her out of nowhere?

“Did I do something to make you be such a fucking cunt to me?” she asked.

Renault rolled his eyes and stalked ahead, faster than she could keep up without jogging. That would make her seem desperate, and she was far from that. She shoved down the spike of annoyance. It wouldn’t do any of them good for them to be fighting. They weren’t that far from the cave mouth and a shouting match could easily alert a returning raid party.

She was positive that they wouldn’t be able to take on the rest of the orcs without Frederick, and if she was going to die, by the gods she wasn’t going to be doing it in a place that made her nose numb. 

That power, it had been astounding. She’d never seen anything like it. If she could figure out how to Merge with her Spirit, the orcs would never stand a chance against her. Of course, she was getting ahead of herself. She needed to figure out how to actually Awaken her Spirit first. Mina still wasn’t entirely sure if Ariadne was her Spirit or not. How the fuck was she supposed to be able to tell? What happened if she fully accepted the voice as her Spirit, and she was wrong? 

What if the first voice was her real Spirit and Ariadne had subdued her? What if she was the imposter? What would happen then? Would her soul be torn apart? Would she lose her powers? There were too many what-ifs for Mina’s comfort. 

A hand appeared in front of her face and she stumbled backwards. 

“Earth to Mina, are you okay?” Boris asked.

“What? I’m fine. Why?” She looked around and then down at the sudden, sharp pain in her foot. It was submerged in a small stream and the pain was from the icy cold water. She jerked her foot out and her whole body shivered, despite it just being her foot that felt like an ice block.

“Focus on your foot and send the heat towards it without manifesting it outside of your body. It should help in preventing hypothermia,” Ariadne said.

Mina blinked and then took a breath. What would it hurt? It’s not like the fire could actually harm her if it didn’t work. She concentrated on her foot and her brows furrowed. It was an effort not to summon the butterflies, but she could feel her foot warming and quickly turning from footcicle to a normal appendage.

“It worked,” She muttered, half-surprised that she’d actually succeeded. 

“What worked?” Boris asked, tilting his head to the side.

“My…possible…Spirit told me to focus on my foot and send heat toward it. She said that it would help keep me from getting something called hypothermia. I’m not entirely sure what that is, but it sounded bad.” 

“Da, is very bad. Causes things to turn black and fall off.”

Renault stopped and turned towards them with a scowl. “Aye, your Spirit gave you a piece of advice on how to use your abilities. Good for fucking you. It’s normal. You aren’t special.”

Mina was actually going to ignore him again. If he was going to act like a petulant toddler, she’d treat him like one.

“I don’t think is maybe Spirit. Only actual Spirit knows enough about power to give advice. It knows own power better than anyone else,” Boris said, giving Renault a glance. 

Mina nodded and they started up the path once more. She chewed on her bottom lip. She couldn’t get lost in thought like that again. She hadn’t even realized she’d veered off the path. That could have ended up much more catastrophically. What if she’d gone off a cliff? One of them would have had to stop her, and if she wasn’t paying attention? She shook her head not wanting to go down that line of thought.