Slightly panicked and slightly flustered, Emika felt Melisande’s gentle and careful touch on her back. The doll’s fingers moved over her skin to remove more pieces of torn cloth, clotted blood and dirt in gestures that caused almost no pain.

“What’s there?” Emika asked, her voice a little shaky. Was it shaky because she was scared, or because she was embarrassed? Both seemed equally likely.

“It’s a tattoo,” Melisande responded. “Anyone fumbled with your back lately? It’s a magical rune.”

Emika stared into the night. She had a tattoo on her back? That was news to her. “Must have been Maxime. He had me unconscious a few times. You know, I blacked out whenever he shot me with a gun.”

In a sudden and incredibly quick movement, Melisande swung around, and her face darted into Emika’s field of view.

“He did what?”

“Oh. Yeah. To understand how my curse works.”

Melisande stared for a few more seconds, so close the seems in her fabric were on full display, her blue button eyes pulled out of their folds as much as possible. It was quite obvious that if Maxime hadn’t been dead already, she would have hunted him down on the spot. Visibly trying to control herself, she shifted back to excavate the rest of the rune beneath the blood and gore.

“You know what kind of magic this is?” Emika asked, fiddling with her fingers nervously. Couldn’t do anything but wait, and yet, she wished Melisande would take her time. Being perceived by her wasn’t so bad.

For quite a while, Melisande didn’t respond. In fact, she had apparently finished uncovering what she was looking at, and now Emika simply felt the unrelenting gaze on her body.

Eventually, the doll got up and began walking in strides, ruffling through her thread hair. “Sorry, Emika,” she said, slowly. “I’m pretty sure that’s a summoning rune. I’ve had it used on me before.”

Emika gulped. “Okay, and so, what does that do?”

It seemed like an incredibly vague name. Considering it was Maxime who did it, maybe it would summon something to her when she did something bad? But then, why hadn’t it triggered yet? Plus, Melisande’s gaze seemed to imply something rather dreadful. What could be so bad? They had each other now, right? And both of them were kind of immortal, apparently. What could possibly stand in her way?

As if reading Emika’s thoughts, Melisande took a deep artificial breath to brace herself — and Emika, for that matter. Then, she explained. “It’ll summon you. Some shitter out there has a corresponding chiffre and can use that, once, to teleport you to wherever they are.”

Emika’s eyes widened. “What?” she gasped, reaching towards her back. The rune was beneath her shoulder blades — she wasn’t flexible enough to get there, but tried anyway. The cut-off fingers on her flesh hand extended with wooden filler material so that she could dig her nails into where she thought the rune must be. “Get it off me!” she yelped, scratching herself. She hadn’t been able to cut her nails at Maxime’s place, so they’d gotten good at their job of scraping into skin. “Get it off! Oh, god. I don’t want to be teleported away. Please, Melisande. Where’s your sword?” She looked around in a hurry until she remembered Melisande had sheathed it into her spine. “Melisande. Take it out. Listen to me. You have to cut my back off.”

Melisande raised her arms in surrender, but kept the sword where it was. “Not sure that works,” she said, swallowing at Emika’s pleading look. “The ink’s only a symbol now, it probably seeped in. It’s just there to show it hasn’t been used yet. Fuck.” Melisande grew increasingly agitated, then shouted, “Fuck! I can’t believe I’m gonna call that wretch again!” She fumbled out her new phone and glove from within her thigh — in pure delight, despite herself, Emika recognized the things she had ordered for her — and started putting some numbers in. “Durand hasn’t mentioned anything to you about this?”

Emika was sure she’d remember him talking about putting a tattoo on her. She shook her head. “Maybe it was so he could call me back easily in case I broke out?”

“No, this must be much bigger,” Melisande argued. “Look, humans don’t do magic for fun. It takes tons of time and effort. If he put a rune on you, it’s not for something vague like that, which might not even happen. Total waste of time. Remember, he thought of you as an insect. Damn, why ain’t she picking up?!”

“Well, that makes sense,” Emika said. “Hm… Wait, actually.”

Suddenly, it all fell into place. Hadn’t he mentioned she was going to be transferred? That he wouldn’t see her again? Said goodbye to her? That must be what the rune was for. Getting her out without him even having to be there.

“He mentioned I was going to Heaven,” Emika eventually let out. “That must be what this is.”

Melisande took the phone from her ear as it was still ringing, and stared at her.

“You’re going to Heaven?”

At that moment, the person on the other end of the line picked up. Melisande put her on speaker so Emika could listen in. 

“Amagdala.”

“Melisande? Is that you?” an old woman’s voice issued from the phone, sounding fairly agitated. “You shouldn’t be calling me. He’s trying to catch up. You need to be running.”

Melisande rolled her button eyes. “Don’t worry about him. It’s taken care of, I’m safe.”

“Nonsense. Don’t rely on the scrambling too much, Melisande. These people have other ways.”

“He’s dead,” Emika said.

A stone-cold silence followed. And then, a heartfelt laugh echoed through the forest.

“Who the hell is this?” the woman pressed out between her chuckles in a voice riddled with age but still sharp. “How the hell did you kill a Cursebreaker? Mel, is that true?”

“He’s a fucking tree now, Amagdala,” Melisande confirmed. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you how it happened. It’s complete nonsense. Either way, more pressing issue. We’re in trouble. My girl’s got a summoning rune on her. Is there a way to get rid of it? Like, right now?”

A subdued sigh from the other side. “You have a mage around?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t know. Maybe. Depends.”

Melisande closed her eyes in a gesture of exasperation. It looked very curious, her buttons just disappearing in little folds in her fabric as she pressed her eye sockets together. “Okay. Different approach then. Did any shit change about Heaven?”

“Oh, come on,” Amagdala protested. “The hell is your situation right now? Heaven? That’s what you’re gonna ask about?” A resigned sigh ebbed into a short silence. “I suppose nothing changed, no. Not to my knowledge. Not that I have a reason to keep tabs on them. Kinda busy with myself.”

“Can someone fill me in, please?” Emika asked, by now pretty much failing to follow the conversation on all accounts. “And like, I know I gave the name away, but please, let’s not say I’m going to Heaven? Like, really? This is terrifying. Is it actually a place? Let’s call it something else. Why is it called that? It’s confusing.”

Melisande shrugged. “It’s an island in the sky.”

“A heavily fortified one at that,” the voice from the phone added. “It’s an international research facility for magic and monsters. They also hold some strong individuals there. Pretty big thing.”

Emika’s thoughts raced. Yes, that matched up with what Maxime had told her two days earlier. She just assumed it would be done and over with once he died, or she got away. Though, why? Why would she need to be brought to a high security research facility?

Sweat broke out on her skin as the answers slowly clicked into place. It’s because she was too strong. He had concluded he couldn’t kill her, and then planned to send her off somewhere that could. And, with how the rest of the day had gone, he was right. They were right, wanting to take her into their facility as well. Because she’d killed him, with just a touch.

Meanwhile, Melisande nodded at the phone. She sat down, placing it in front of herself, and reached out to grasp Emika’s hand.

“I want you to consider something, Emika.”

“What?”

Melisande hesitated. She seemed to be struggling. She seemed to be a little repressed. Again, just like a few minutes earlier when she was about to reveal that Emika had an intrusive magical rune on her body, she was obviously bracing herself to say something she didn’t want to say.

And it slowly dawned on Emika what that ‘something’ was going to be.