The seconds ticked on and it was only the stinging pain by his neck that made him wonder whether he was really dead. He opened his eyes and found an unnatural pitch blackness suffusing everything and everywhere. 

His fingers crawled up his body with dread, and slowly, he realized that yes, he still had his head on his shoulders. A slight nick seeped what felt like a meagre amount of blood just below his jaw, but that was the worst of the wounds on him. 

Well, he couldn’t have been dead if he was still bleeding, right? The logic felt odd, and yet sound nonetheless. 

“Ash! Ash are you here?” came Myr's sudden voice that broke through his sombre thoughts with the bluntness of a hammer against glass. Ash’s gaze snapped in its direction and though he saw nothing, he knew that she was somewhere there in the darkness. 

“Myr?! I’m here!” 

“Come to me! Follow my voice!” she said and he needed no encouragement. 

Slowly, cautiously, he blindly ambled through the darkness following the sound of her calls until finally, the two met with grasping fingers and desperate hugs. 

“You’re alright?!” she questioned as her fingers ran across his face and neck, searching for wounds. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Got a little cut on the neck but that’s about the worst of it.” 

“Thank Prosperity. I-I thought he’d gotten you. I thought you were... you were. Thank Prosperity. Thank you.” she repeated, her voice growing softer and softer as she sucked him deeper into her embrace, as if afraid that he’d disappear like thoughts on the wind should she loosen her grip. He returned the gesture with the same fervor, and so did the two remain joined for a scant few seconds, taking what comfort they could from each other's presence. 

And then, without announcement or warning, the darkness fled. Ash’s eyes snapped open and he found himself again in the same alleyway that he’d been in mere moments ago, Myr still by his side but with Kross and his goons nowhere to be seen. 

“Where are they?” he asked wearily as he left Myr’s embrace and scanned their surroundings. 

“Don’t know. I can’t sense any of 'em.” 

“Was it... the darkness? It was a spell, right?” 

It had to be, he thought. But if so, who cast it. Certainly not him, nor did he think Myr possible of it. 

Then who. He saw not a single other soul in the alley way, and yet that didn’t mean that they were alone. His paranoia writhed at the thought and he all but started to see eyes in every shadow and whispers behind every corner. 

Ash remained quiet, his unease a roiling weight in his gut, and Myr wasn’t faring much better. Her face betrayed the tumult of questions and emotions that wracked her mind, and Ash suspected that they’d need to have a long hard talk once they got somewhere safe. 

But until then, they had to move. Whatever the cause that lay behind the miracle that had displaced their wroth foe, there was no guarantee that it would last. For all he knew, the Shield warriors were rushing back to the alleyway at that very moment. 

Ash wasted not another second and grasped at Myr’s hand. “We need to get moving.” 

The woman was still for a moment, her gaze affixed to the spot where Kross had been, before she slowly nodded. “Damn the merchant. We need to leave the city now.” 

Ash needed no convincing, and with that the duo cautiously made their way out of the alley and towards their destination. Fortunately, or rather, unsurprisingly, the commotion made by their scuffle hadn’t elicited much of a response from the local guard, or even the populace at large. Most of the folk that had been around the scene of the event had moved on without a second thought, as if the sudden eruption of violence was as natural to them as the air they breathed. 

And perhaps it was, in this city. 

The thought only served to further sour his mood as Ash made his way a close step behind Myr. Their pace was quick, but not so much so as that they stood out from the crowd. Both of them had quickly changed their clothes before they’d left the alley via the selection of garments they’d brought along in Myr’s storage bag, and the woman herself had opted to wear a cowl to further hide her features. 

Anything to make them less recognizable to the Shield warriors that could be lurking behind any corner as far as they knew. Neither wanted to chance an unwanted encounter again. 

The walk towards the gate that divided the Commons District from the Low District was a tense affair but they managed it without any unpleasantness. Fortunately, the guards seemed unbothered or unaware of the commotion the duo had escaped, and again, Ash was glad for the pathetic state of crime in the city. They were waved through quickly enough and made their way down the thoroughfare that cut through the tangle of hovels and shacks that was Totenstrong’s poorest district without a care for the sights on either side. 

With the threat of death at their heels, neither Ash nor Myr had much room for empathy in them for the poor and downtrodden. 

The massive rising peak of the city’s outer wall came into view after far too long by Ash’s reckoning, despite the brisk pace that they’d maintained, and with mounting dread did he notice the queue arrayed before it. Myr grimaced at the sight. It was larger than the one that they’d found when entering the city and at the pace it looked to be advancing they’d likely be stuck for at least forty minutes before they were allowed out. 

Forty minutes wasn’t long in the grand scheme of things, but it felt to him like it was ample time for an agility-aligned mage with a thirst for vengeance to find them. 

He glanced to Myr and knew that she was thinking the same thing. She cursed and seemed to sink deep into thought before, finally, she gestured at him to follow. Without a care for the annoyed or irate calls that echoed out in their wake, the two cut past the queue of merchants and civilians and made their way straight to the guardsmen stationed by the gate. 

The officials shot them an annoyed glance as soon as they noted the duo’s approach and one of their number, a thickly set fellow with a grand moustache rose from his seat to stare imperiously at them. “No cutting. Get to the back of the line.” 

Myr fashioned a passable if not still strained smile across her lips and leant over to whisper something into the guard’s ear. The man’s eyes widened marginally, and he looked to her and then to Ash for a moment before finally glancing towards another of his peers. There was a look that was exchanged between the two guards then that Ash couldn’t quite decipher, but whatever it meant, it seemed to have been to Myr’s  benefit as her figure grew slightly less tense. The guard immediately broke from the rest and slipped away into a booth fashioned into the stone of the wall and beckoned Myr to follow. 

“Stay here.” she said simply before she followed. 

Ash watched her disappear into the depths of the room with his brow furrowed and his fists clenched, his instinct to follow after warring with her request that he stay behind. Fortunately, whatever had taken place away from prying eyes didn’t take long at all and Myr emerged scarcely a minute later followed after by a much happier guard. 

Ash eyed the woman as she tucked something away into a pocket of her garment and then gestured at him to come. The two made their way through the gateway without obstruction much to the disdain of those still in queue, and soon enough they were once again back in the world outside. But that didn’t mean freedom just yet. 

Neither spared a moment in lingering and their pace grew faster and faster the further they drew away from the city until it reached a point that they were all but sprinting down the plains, the grass whipping past their bodies as they streaked towards the horizon. 

It was only much later when Ash’s pace started to flag and even Myr’s deep stamina reserves showed signs of strain that they finally paused to take a break. Ash collapsed onto the earth and took a deep swig from a water flask. The welcome coolness rushed down his throat and lent some strength to his body, but his weariness wasn’t wholly physical, and it would take far more than just some water to reinvigorate him fully. And for Myr? He wasn’t even sure what she would need. 

The woman was seated across from him, her face neutral and her gaze distant. She hadn’t spoken a word after they’d left the city and he doubted whether he’d get anything from her now. Her entire mien betrayed how fragile she likely felt, like an exposed and bleeding wound, and it made him wonder just who that man had been that he and his foul words could have such an impact on her. 

Ash thought back to the accusations that had left Kross’s lips and wondered warily whether there had been any truth to them. Even if they had, did they have any merit on his opinion of Myr? Of his opinion on the woman who had saved, trained and housed him without asking for so much as a copper coin in return? 

No, not in the slightest. 

He hesitatingly wondered whether he should ask her about it but couldn’t find it in himself to actually utter the words. Myr had always been a private woman, and he couldn’t see her reacting well to a question as pointed as that considering the state she was in. It would be better saved for after she’d recovered, he decided. 

“Alright, I’m as rested as I can be. Let’s get moving.” he said as he rose to a stand. 

Myr didn’t move. Her gaze remained affixed to the ground by her. 

“Myr?” 

“... I betrayed him.” she said after a long silence. 

Ash was taken aback by the sudden disclosure, and it took him a pathetically long while before he’d gathered himself well enough to respond. “It doesn’t matter to me. You’re still Myr.” he said softly. 

She laughed at that, but it was a bitter, mirthless sound. “It matters, Ash. It matters.” 

“No.” he said more firmly as he knelt by her side with an arm on her shoulder. “I don’t know why you did whatever it is you did, or what your circumstances were, but I know that it doesn’t matter right now. You’re Myr, and you kept by my side even in situations where you had every right to leave my ass to the wind. You saved my life, and you... you made me feel safe and happy in this alien new world. That matters. Nothing else.” 

She looked up to him then and he saw a spark of the old Myr in those dull blue eyes full of unshed tears. She smiled though it was a sad thing, and then nodded as she buried her head into his chest. He allowed her to stay like that for a while whilst he offered her what little comfort he could, but time ticked by heedless of their moods and he knew that they should get moving again. 

As did Myr. The earthen mage rose to her feet and flashed a grateful look his way. His declaration had done a little to ease her worries but even so, he doubted that she’d be back to the woman he knew without a lot of time to work through the past that’d been so abruptly dredged back up. And if she needed him with her through that process, then beside her was exactly where he planned to be. 

With that thought cemented firmly in his mind, Ash set off with Myr close behind, their desire to see the forest that they called home buoying their steps. 

It was nearly nightfall when they first caught sight of trees in the horizon. It was enough to force them to speed through the last remaining kilometers as quickly as they could manage until finally, with a sigh of relief, they drifted past the first tree and into safety. Ash laughed as he welcomed the familiar smells and sights of the place he’d called home for more than a month. He hadn’t expected to have missed it so much, but he supposed that the unpleasantness he’d seen in Totenstrong and the encounter with Kross had something to do with that feeling. Compared to all of that, the forest was a veritable paradise. 

“We’re back, finally. We’re safe.” He turned towards Myr expecting to see the same relief he felt painted across her face, but what he found was concern in its stead. 

“It’s quiet.” she said. 

He furrowed his brow. Quiet? He listened and found that she was right. It was quiet... eerily so. Where were the sounds of bird-calls and animal cries? The rustle of the wind across the trees and leaves? It was as if all life had abandoned the forest. 

“Do you... sense anything?” he asked wearily. 

She shook her head. “Not a damn thing. Not even a squirrel. Somethin’s wrong. I don’t know what, but this ain’t normal. We need to get back to the village quick.” 

He didn’t like the sound of that. The duo sped up their pace and rushed through the maze of trees and bushes towards their adopted home. He hoped that it was just their nerves and fatigue playing tricks on them, seeing shadows were there were none. He hoped that it was just needless worrying. 

He hoped. 

And fate laughed. 

Ash sensed a whisper of movement on the wind and so did Myr. They both ducked and narrowly avoided the monster that swept through the air where their heads had been a moment prior. 

Ash fell to a roll and righted himself, eyes wide and a Fire Bolt sizzling in his palm. Before them, atop the branch of a tree, was a gathering of monsters, their bestial gazes hungrily affixed to them. 

No, Ash realized as he spread out his senses further. Not just the branches. Everywhere. 

Dozens. Hundreds, maybe. 

They were surrounded.