Alyssia groaned as she pushed herself up off of the pavement. Her body ached in places she didn’t even know existed. Her head throbbed unmercifully and her abdomen burned like someone was holding a hot coal to it. The only thing that saved her back was the rugged rucksack still on her shoulders. Shaking her head slightly she tried unsuccessfully to clear the ringing in her ears.

  Glancing behind her she looked for Tyrial. He had pushed her incredibly hard a few seconds ago. Then, just before she had hit the pavement, an enormous explosion had thrown her into a roll for several meters. She saw no sign of the irascible Mage who had freed her from the Conclave’s dungeon.

  Getting to her feet she staggered slightly at first trying to get her balance. Holding her head with both hands she concentrated on getting her bearings. As the world stopped swaying, she looked around again. She saw the enormous crater from whatever had exploded next to them. She was amazed she hadn't been pelted to death by shrapnel from the explosion.

  She swept her eyes over the devastated pavement, still finding no sign of Tyrial. Guessing that perhaps he had been thrown like she had, she drew a mental line from where she had seen him standing last and the explosion. Following the line, she suddenly saw him lying face down on the ground next to the wall of one of the buildings.

  Rushing over to him she nearly tripped twice over chunks of pavement and stones that had been thrown up by the explosion. Kneeling quickly by his side, she leaned down and put her face close to his. Concentrating, she was immensely relieved to detect warm air flowing out of his lips.

  Gently shaking him she said, “Tyrial?”

  No response. There was a bloody gash on the side of his head, it seemed likely he had been thrown against the wall he was laying next to with quite a bit of force.

  Looking around, Alyssia didn’t see any signs of life around them. The soldiers that had been moving towards them just before the explosion were either dead or gone now. There was also no sign of whoever had created the enormous blast.

  Looking down at Tyrial again, she was frustrated with herself. This man had been working tirelessly to get them both out of that hell hole and Alyssia had been almost no help at all. Now he was lying face down on the ground, probably near death, and Alyssia could do nothing but sit there and watch.

  As tears began to form in the corners of her eyes she dashed them away with the back of her hand. Anger replaced the despair and frustration. No, she would not sit by while someone died for her. Not again, not ever again.

  Carefully, trying not to injure him any more than he already was, she rolled him onto his bloody back. She figured, even if his back was injured, it was still better to drag him that way than on his front. And drag him she would, all the way out of this gods forsaken place if she had to.

  He had said something about the smoke being their best chance for escape. She could still see the biggest column of it floating up into the sky. It was directly below the giant jagged hole in the dome above them. If salvation was there, she would find it.

  Struggling, she picked up Tyrial’s torso under his shoulders and began dragging him backwards towards the alley between two of the buildings. Tyrial groaned slightly as she moved him, but she didn’t stop. She could barely believe how much he weighed as she waddled backward. He didn’t look particularly heavy, he didn’t quite have a six-pack, but there certainly wasn’t any extra fat on him. If it wasn’t for all the blood and dirt, she thought, he would have been quite attractive.

  As she made it to the other end of the alley, she gently lowered Tyrial to the pavement and stepped to the edge of the building. Glancing around she saw that the alley dumped into a narrow road that ran the length of the buildings in this area. The road was currently deserted. Across the road were more buildings and more alleys.

  Picking Tyrial up again, she dragged him carefully but quickly across the road and to an alley on the other side. By the time she reached the alley, she was breathing heavily from the exertion. The thin gruel she had been given for the last few days had not done much to keep her strength up and she was using up what little she had quickly. That didn’t even take into account the burning sensation in her side that continued to get worse as she worked.

  After a short rest, she continued dragging Tyrial towards the other end of the alley they were in. He was groaning almost continuously now, his breathing was becoming more ragged and erratic. As she neared the other end of the alley, she lowered Tyrial gently to the pavement once more and sat down next to him. She was breathing like a bellows now, her aching arms beginning to compete with the rest of her body. Only the fire in her side was any real competition.

  Looking over at Tyrial, she laid a hand gently on his chest, feeling his heartbeat and breathing. His heart seemed to be pounding strongly, which she assumed was a good sign. Not being a doctor, however, she didn’t really know what she was looking for. She just hoped he was ok, at least, as ok as he could be given the circumstances.

  Finally getting her own breathing under control, she stood and peaked around the corner of the building. This alley didn’t pour into a conveniently narrow street like the last one had. Beyond the narrow passage she crouched in was a large open expanse of pavement and dirt with another row of buildings almost a full thirty meters away. Unfortunately, those other buildings were in the direction she needed to go, and there was no cover she could see between where she was and the far side.

  Seeing no other choice, Alyssia squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and walked back to where Tyrial lay on the ground. Kneeling down by his head, she gently brushed a loose strand of his jet black hair away from his face. Looking at him, covered in scratches, bruises and other injuries she almost began to cry again. Another person who had given almost everything for her sake. Even if he was trying to escape himself, Alyssia was certain his job would have been much easier if he hadn’t been dragging her along.

  Gritting her teeth she forced the tears back. She refused to give up. She hadn’t been able to save James, but she would be swallowed by the Void before she let another soul perish in front of her. She was not going to let him down, no matter what. Just like he had said, no sacrifices.

  Picking up Tyrial’s torso, she once again began her laborious backward waddle, dragging Tyrial along the ground towards the buildings across the wide opening. She was almost halfway across the open expense when she heard something that made her blood run cold.

  “You can stop right there, little girl,” an authoritative voice said loudly behind her.

  Stopping in her tracks, Alyssia looked slowly over her shoulder. What she saw brought all the despair and depression she had been fighting off roaring back with a vengeance. She counted at least ten figures, maybe more, walking up on her. They all wore uniforms and they all carried guns, big ones. The one in the lead was holding a small blue crystal out in front of him.

  “Just put the prisoner down,” the man said, “and put your hands up. We won't harm you if you surrender.”

  The strength suddenly drained from Alyssia’s legs. With a thud, she fell to her knees then to the ground, Tyrial’s head falling onto her lap. Tears began to well up as she looked at the unconscious face of the Mage before her. With almost no conviction, she said, “Stand back, if you get any closer I’ll destroy you.”

  “Oh, I doubt that,” the man replied with confidence. “Just surrender peacefully and you won't be harmed.”

  Alyssia could see out of the corner of her eyes the man continuing to walk up to her slowly, holding that small blue crystal out in front of him as if it were a talisman. The other soldiers were moving to surround her, some also holding blue crystals in their hands.

  Despair washed over Alyssia in great waves as she looked down at Tyrial’s face once more. He had said that she should surrender if things went badly, he had said that she would likely be spared. What had been left unsaid, and what Alyssia was now certain of, was that for Tyrial, this was his last chance.

  Alyssia could hear the soldier behind her closing the distance. By the sound of his footsteps, he was almost on top of her. Suddenly an image of James flashed through her head, of James sitting slouched in that dark alley, the last of his blood leaking out of his body. His last words, asking for a kiss, rang through her head like a gong. With those memories came anger, anger that quickly boiled into a blind rage.

  She would not lose Tyrial like this, she would not allow fate to take the life of yet another person who had helped her. She. Would. Not.

  As the rage built within her she threw back her head and screamed at the top of her lungs. She saw the soldier behind her jump back with a startled oath, the hand that had been reaching out for her jumping to the gun hanging from a sling around his neck.

  The screaming wasn’t enough, it didn’t come close to illustrating the depth of her rage at fate for what it had done to her, what it was still doing to her. She dug deeper and found something else within her to throw at the impertinent universe. A Power she had rarely touched, and had no idea how to actually use. She threw it out at the world, pushing it all before her, Willing it to somehow personify her anger.

  Above her a white-hot sphere began to form, it pulsed in time with her madly beating heart. Some invisible force washed over her from the sphere. From the corner of her eye, Alyssia saw the soldier behind her throw up an arm to shield his face, the other holding the blue crystal before him like a shield.

  As the strength of the invisible force began to increase, Alyssia felt a resistance from multiple points all around her. Pushing harder with her rage, she overcame the resistance. Alyssia saw the blue crystal fly out of the soldier's hand and go spinning across the ground behind him. Bright flashes of plasma from the other soldier’s weapons flickered around her and were consumed by the bright sphere above her. A few seconds later, the soldier that had been standing behind her was blown over onto his side and flung rolling in the same direction his crystal had gone.

  It wasn’t enough, Alyssia’s anger would not be quenched. Years of abuse ran through her mind like a slideshow. So many years of having every good thing she found ripped away from her. Years of happiness denied or cruelly obliterated just as it seemed within reach. No more, she would not let them have Tyrial, no matter what.

  As the power of the sphere above her intensified, her vision began to blur. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the power raging through her. Even with her eyes closed, she could clearly see the sphere above her through her eyelids. More and more power flowed out of her into the sphere above, the pain in her already aching head was beginning to become acute.

  The power was all-consuming, the white-hot rush flowing through her became her entire being. Emotion fell away, pain fell away, reality fell away. Her Will consumed her existence, it scoured at her soul threatening to tear away her very essence. As the torrent surged through her, she began to lose the will to hold on to herself. Like a twig caught in a flash flood, she succumbed to the inevitable and began to let go.

  Enough. A voice, not her own, whispered in her head. She barely heard it over the roar of power. With a jerk the torrent of her Will rushing through her was cut off so thoroughly it might never have existed.

  Above her, the massive white-hot sphere exploded with a deafening boom. The shockwave spread out in a flat disc perpendicular to the ground. The rushing wind of the blast tore at what little was left of Alyssia’s dress. The sound of collapsing buildings and far off explosions caused by the catastrophically powerful blast didn’t even register with Alyssia as the mysterious voices single word bounced around in her mind.

  The sound of one of the many collapsing buildings around her finally got her attention. Glancing up she looked around and was shocked at what she saw. All of the buildings to either side of her had been leveled almost completely to the ground. The upper floors of many appeared to have been thrown backward onto the buildings behind them. She saw no sign at all of the soldiers that had almost surrounded her earlier.

  Great motes of dust hung in the air or blew in one direction or another as buildings continued to collapse. The ground around her was completely scoured of anything larger than a dust mote, save for a small one-meter diameter circle directly around where she sat that appeared completely untouched.

  Taking in the destruction she felt fear claw at her mind, she couldn’t believe she was capable of causing such terrible ruin. She began to shake slightly, she almost refused to believe it. She closed her eyes and hung her head as tears began to fall. How could she become such a monster? How could she ever face herself in the mirror again?

  Opening her eyes, she looked at Tyrial through her blurry tear-streaked vision. Would he ever look at her the same, once he knew what she had done? She didn’t understand why it mattered to her what he thought, but for some reason, it did.

  A sudden sound caught her attention. This wasn’t the sound of collapsing concrete or shifting debris. It was the sound of boot steps. Desperately, she tried to get her feet under her. She couldn’t even lift Tyrial’s torso off of her legs, she was so weak. Frustration warred with her self loathing, both trying to crush her between them. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks as she tried again to lift both herself and Tyrial.

  She flatly refused to just push him off of her lap and run, either she would save them both or they would share the same fate. It was the least she could do for everything he had done for her. Looking around frantically, she spotted the source of the approaching boot steps. From out of one of the floating clouds of dust, an enormous figure stepped slowly toward her.

  As the figure resolved out of the dust, she could see that he was almost a full three meters tall. What shocked her most of all was that he appeared to have four arms and red skin. He also had two enormous weapons sticking up over each massive shoulder.

  “I will not harm you child,” the enormous creature said in a surprisingly soft voice.

  The thing could have promised her candy and flowers for all the difference it made to Alyssia. She renewed her desperate attempts to lift both Tyrial and herself, struggling with every ounce of strength remaining in her body. She barely managed to shift the two of them even a tenth of a meter.

  “You’re scaring the poor girl half to death,” another distinctly female voice said with annoyance.

  From behind the massive beast came a figure even shorter than Alyssia herself. “You stay there,” the smaller figure said with authority to the larger one, who nodded and stood still.

  As the smaller figure walked very slowly towards Alyssia, she put her hands out palms up to show she held nothing. “It’s ok, we're here to help you escape. Were friends of Tyrial,” she said, pointing with a worried expression to the unconscious figure in Alyssia’s lap.

  Now that the smaller woman was well out of the drifting dust cloud, Alyssia could clearly see her. She was almost a full ten centimeters shorter than Alyssia herself. She had striking blue eyes and long blonde hair with the tips of two pointed ears sticking up out of her hair on each side. Most importantly, she had a kind and reassuring face. Seeing her clearly, Alyssia thought she recognized her from Tyrial’s descriptions.

  “Rella?” Alyssia asked hesitantly in a quiet voice.

  Smiling broadly, Rella nodded and said, “He told you about us, good. That will make introductions easier.”

  “Just you,” Alyssia said with a fearful glance at the red giant standing a few meters away.

  “Oh,” Rella said, a slight blush coloring her cheeks. “Well, I’ll vouch for the others, if that's ok with you.” When Alyssia didn’t reply, Rella asked, “May I?” indicating the unconscious Tyrial in Alyssia’s lap.

  Looking down at Tyrial, Alyssia almost began to cry again. She nodded without looking up. Rella stepped over quickly and knelt next to Tyrial. She briefly looked over his injuries, laying her fingers on his chest, then his neck.

  Seemingly satisfied with his current state, Rella looked up and then around at the destruction surrounding them. Shaking her head, she said, “Tyrial never did appreciate the meaning of overkill.” Looking at Alyssia, she said, “Can I have my big red friend over there come carry Tyrial for you? I promise he’ll be very gentle.”

  Looking over at the man with red skin and four arms, Alyssia nodded hesitantly. Rella smiled reassuringly and motioned to the giant. As he walked up to where the two crouched over Tyrial’s inert form, Alyssia looked back down at Tyrial and said, “He has shrapnel in his back and his arm is broken, you’ll need to be careful of those.” While she was speaking, she gently brushed another stray lock of hair out of his face.

  With an oddly conflicted smile on her face, Rella said, “We’ll be very careful, I promise.”

  With unexpectedly gentle and precise movements, the four-armed man picked Tyrial up off of Alyssia’s lap and into a cradle made of all four of his arms. “We should return to the ship quickly, Rella Arengale. This place is not safe.” the man said.

  “Yes Kreshin, I know,” Rella replied with very slight exasperation in her voice. Still kneeling next to Alyssia, Rella looked her over with a critical eye. Pointedly looking at the bloodstained cloth on her head and torso, Rella asked, “Can you walk?”

  “Yes,” Alyssia said shortly. Getting her legs under her, and using her hands on her knees she pushed herself upright. Fatigue washed over her as she stood and she staggered slightly.

  Rella moved quickly to her side, taking one of Alyssia’s arms and tucking herself under it. Carefully, she put one of her own arms around Alyssia’s waist and said, “Careful, I’ve got you.”

  “I… I can walk,” Alyssia said without much conviction.

  “Good,” Rella said without letting go, “this way.” She nodded towards the towering cloud of smoke still rising towards the opening in the dome.

  As they started walking, Rella asked, “What’s your name?”

  With only a brief pause, Alyssia replied, “Alyssia.”

  Nodding, Rella said, “A pleasure to meet you.”

  With as much haste as she could manage without falling, Alyssia followed the towering red giant as he moved in the direction Rella had indicated. As they walked up to the destroyed buildings and began making their way around the wreckage, Alyssia both marveled and trembled at the incredible destruction her power had wrought.

  “Impressive, isn’t it,” Rella said. “Tyrial has a habit of going a little overboard wherever the Conclave are concerned. I believe his favorite saying is something like ‘Overkill is underrated’. Or something like that.”

  “I…,” Alyssia realized that Rella had assumed Tyrial was responsible for all of the destruction. Alyssia was about to take responsibility for the destruction herself, but she couldn’t force the words out. Instead, she only managed a weak, “Ya…” For all that Alyssia felt she was a monster for what she had done, Rella certainly didn’t seem phased by the idea that Tyrial had leveled an entire city block.

  Walking carefully to avoid the debris that littered the ground, they made their way around what was left of the block of buildings. While their view on the other side was blocked by more roving motes of dust and dirt, they could begin to clearly hear the sounds of battle ahead.

  As the dust began to clear, Alyssia could make out the bright flicker of plasma bolts sizzling through the air in the distance. Through the thinning dust, she began to make out the scene before them. In a large open space with no buildings, sat the mostly intact remains of what looked like a small space ship. Perhaps as large as a small house.

  A large cloud of dark billowing smoke rose from one end of the ship. Several smaller plumes of smoke rose from other ragged holes in the ship's exterior. Perhaps twenty meters to one side of the ship was a group of about two dozen people. Most were crouched behind various types of cover, peeking over it occasionally to trade plasma bolts with a much larger group of soldiers on the other side of the clearing.

  The group nearest the downed ship was between them and the group at the edge of the clearing. Alyssia fervently hoped the people nearest the ship were their destination, or they were going to have a very hard time of it.

  As they left the cover of the dust motes entirely, the huge red giant crouched lower to the ground and began moving faster. Alyssia, with the aid of Rella, did her best to keep up. They were slightly more than halfway to the ship when Alyssia lost her footing suddenly and went down hard, taking Rella with her. As she hit the ground, she felt a sharp pain in her side.

  Rella jumped back to her feet and reached down to help Alyssia up. “This isn’t a good spot for resting I’m afraid,” she said with a tight smile.

  “I’m sorry,” Alyssia said, struggling back to her feet. She tried her best to ignore the burning pain in her abdomen that had now reached a fever pitch. She found it a little more difficult to ignore the warm wetness that was crawling down her torso. It seemed that one of her wounds had finally fully reopened.

  Rella tucked herself back under Alyssia’s arm and started moving towards the downed ship as quickly as she could. As they moved, Rella glanced at Alyssia briefly, then down at her abdomen. “Alyssia, are you —,” Rella began.

  Between one step and the next, Alyssia’s head swam and she lost her balance. This time, however, as Alyssia went down, Rella was ready and caught her on the way. Rella slowly and gently laid Alyssia down on the ground, then looking up towards the group of people they were heading for, she pulled in a deep breath and yelled “Gabriel, I need you.”

  The world was spinning like a top around Alyssia as she slowly collapsed to the ground. Once she was down though, things began to slowly steady themselves again. She heard Rella yell for someone and realized she was putting the young girl in danger. “I’m sorry,” she said as she tried to get back to her feet.

  “Shhh,” Rella said, easily holding her down. “You stay put.”

  A minute later, an average, unassuming man with brown hair who Alyssia assumed must have been Gabriel jogged up to where Alyssia lay. Without saying a word, he crouched down next to her and began to pick her up. “I can —,” she started to protest.

  “Hush girl,” Gabriel said as he carefully but quickly cradled her in his arms and began walking quickly towards the downed ship.

  “I see Tyrial acquired a stray,” Gabriel said tightly to Rella who was walking beside him.

  Rella gave Alyssia a long penetrating stare and then said, “I think she acquired him, and I’m not sure stray is the right word.”

  Gabriel grunted and said, “I’m just glad that explosion actually turned out to be him, I’m not sure how much longer we could have held out here. This ant hill turned out to be a lot bigger than we expected.”

  As they neared the downed ship, Gabriel yelled “Get me another stretcher.”

  A few seconds later, Alyssia was placed gently on a long hard stretcher next to the still unconscious Tyrial who was laying on a similar device.

  Once Gabriel no longer held Alyssia he began quickly barking orders like someone who was very accustomed to being in charge. “Sarah, tell William we're ready for extraction. Delenor, if you’re planning to do something flashy, now would be the time. Kreshen, get the shuttle ready for pickup. Horvith, keep those Conclave pinned down.”

  If Alyssia thought the scene had been chaotic before, the man's words sparked a flurry of activity that rivaled pure madness. People dashed around picking things up and firing weapons. Everyone was careful to avoid the area where Tyrial and Alyssia lay.

  One man stood out from the rest, however. He was short with graying hair and very dark skin. He stared, almost unblinking, at the outskirts of the clearing where the Conclave soldiers were. The hair on Alyssia’s neck stood up as she felt the now-familiar sensation of a Mage using his Will.

  Along with the prevailing hail of plasma bolts that the two groups had been trading all along, large chunks of debris and rocks now also joined the fray. As the battle raged, something caught Alyssia’s eye and she glanced up at the sky above her. A strange flickering distortion seemed to move far above them, just above the dome and its gaping hole.

  Like a tea stain on paper, the red hull of a ship spread out across the distortion. A few seconds later, a sleek-looking large red ship hung in the air just above the hole in the dome. Alyssia was startled to realize she recognized the ship. It was the same one she had wished would take her away back at the Harthade spaceport.

  It seemed, for the first time in her entire life, one of her many wishes was actually going to come true. As the ship hovered, four hair-thin tendrils fell from the ship and through the hole in the dome. As they fell, Alyssia realized they were actually very thick cables with what looked like grappling claws on the ends.

  Suddenly, Gabriel was standing next to Alyssia and Tyrial, along with Rella and the huge red four-armed creature Alyssia thought was named Kreshen. “Everyone pull back,” he yelled. Looking at his wrist, he said in a more normal voice, “William, some covering fire if you would.”

  With a deafening roar that drowned out all other sound, enormous bolts of plasma began pouring from the ship above. The bolts impacted all around the downed shuttle as the four teathers clamped on to its hull. Huge plumes of dust shot into the sky from every direction as the ship above completely leveled everything around the clearing they were in.

  “Let's move, those orbiting Destroyers are probably already half way here” Gabriel said. Everyone that Alyssia had seen hiding behind cover from earlier was streaming into the shuttle now. Kreshen picked up Tyrial’s stretcher entirely by himself and carefully carried the unconscious Mage into the shuttle with the rest.

  Leaning down, Gabriel picked up one end of Alyssia’s stretcher, while Rella took the other. The two of them carried Alyssia into the shuttle with everyone else. They carefully placed Alyssia’s stretcher in the middle of the floor next to Tyrial’s.

  As the shuttle began to shake and shudder, Alyssia’s mind began to get fuzzy again. She was having a hard time concentrating on her surroundings as her head began to swim. Rella, who had been kneeling beside her, turned to Gabriel and said in a worried tone, “She’s losing a lot of blood, where’s the medkit?”

  Alyssia tried to say she was alright, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a low groan. A cold sweat began to form on her as the world continued to spin. She felt a sharp prick on her arm and looked over to see some girl putting the end of a short narrow tube into her arm. On the other end of the tube was a large bag of liquid that an older man was holding.

  Alyssia tried to concentrate, she thought she should know the names of those two people but she couldn’t bring them up. She wanted to ask one of them for a blanket, it was getting cold in this… wherever she was. Where was she? Why couldn’t she remember? The last thought that crossed her mind before the darkness took her was that she hoped Tyrial would be ok. Whoever that was.