Tinea breathed out. The fourth circle was burning pleasantly in her chest, heavy and heated, and she was feeling calm and excited, all at the same time. It was her twelfth birthday, midnight, and she was clear to go. Swiftly, she climbed out of bed as the fresh fourth ring sizzled around her heart, and she hurried to the wardrobe to pull out one of her riding outfits and a fur lined cape. She changed into it swiftly, and then she stuffed a bag full of clothes and jewelry to sell, along with her allowance for this month. She thought about leaving a note, but honestly? Let them panic. She didn’t care.

Tinea stood in the center of her room and took a deep breath in. She hadn’t had many occasions to cast a spell like this, and she needed to make sure it was perfect. If she screwed this up, she could discorporate herself or end up way off mark. It would burn up over half of her fourth ring, which was why she couldn’t cast it at the third ring, because she didn’t have enough mana for it, and she needed to---

Stop overthinking it, she told herself as she took a deep breath in. Breathe in. Breathe out. Hands tight around her backpack. She just needed to go to the magic tower. That was all she had to do. Nothing else, nothing more.

Tinea screwed her eyes shut tight and concentrated. The spell flared to life at her feet, and the world trembled around her. Pure light exploded from the floor, and the chandelier swayed in place. She felt the world swim around her, her body becoming discorporated, and she let out a scream of terror as the world ripped around her. The world spun around her, and she found herself on the floor of a forest.

Oh, she thought, and sat up. It worked. She was…

Not in front of the tower. She must have landed off her mark, she thought in annoyance, and she came to her feet and looked around. The forest was quiet and bare, without so much of a hint of birdsong, and she noted that the moon was in a different position than it had been earlier. So, she was far away from the Inistor winter estate. There was snow gently falling down, and the layer of it over the earth was thick. Her breath frosted in the air, and she lifted her gloved hand to cast a map spell.

The magic tower didn’t pop up, she realized, and she blinked in shock. The magic tower and town that surrounded it was nowhere to be seen, and she stared for a long, long moment before she casted the spell again. Nothing happened except showing her wilderness, and she stared at the blank map for another eternal moment.

Where had she ended up? Or was the map spell faulty? Well, if she climbed a tree, she should be able to find the tower, she thought to herself, and so, she looked for the nearest and sturdiest tree. With a grunt of effort, she started to climb it, hauling herself up hand over hand as she climbed up the stretch of it. Her foot slipped, and she nearly fell, but she managed to catch herself in time. She climbed to the very top of the tree and looked over the swaying boughs in the gentle wind, and there was---

She was on a mountain, she realized. It was a whole mountain, and she blinked in shock before she looked around. There was no town at the base of it where she could ask for directions, so she slipped down the tree and looked up. Maybe there was another town on the other side of the mountain. Which meant she had to climb the mountain. She was pretty fit, on account of going riding multiple times a week, but…

She turned and started to walk up the vast expanse of the mountain. Her feet crunched in the snow, and she wrapped her hands around the straps of her backpack. This may take her a few days, she thought grimly. Of course she fucked up a spell she couldn’t cast twice. Naturally. How annoying.

Oh, well. She would be able to get out of here soon, but she needed to find shelter for the night. It was nearly midnight when she cast the spell, and she had to---

Wait.

Where were her moths?

She paused, looking around. One of them was almost always in her hair, when she was alone, and she--- She didn’t know where her moths were. Impulsively, she tried to summon them, but there was a surge of mana in the air.

There were no moths, and she realized something incredibly concerning. If she couldn’t summon her moths, that meant…

There were rules, sanctions imposed on them. Jaleta made sure they couldn’t oppress the rest of the world. Therefore, when a noble was not within the bounds of their empire, they could not summon their spirit animals. They simply manifested as extra mana, stored outside of the body, and Tinea realized something very, very concerning.

She was not in the Spiritus Empire.

Oh.

Shit.

….

Delfina woke with a gasp of air. Her dreams had been muted, terrifying, snapshots of something she couldn’t touch, a man with horns and deep purple skin smiling in glee as a shadowy figure lit a town on fire with a hail of fire. She was shaking, because she rarely dreamed of anything but Tinea, so that was…

To calm herself, she rolled her eyes back in her head and searched for Tinea. She saw the other girl in pants and a closely cropped jacket, a fur trimmed coat around her shoulders, as a spell flared to life at her feet. A massive beam of white and yellow light engulfed her, and oh.

Oh, that wasn’t calming at all.

Tinea just cast a teleportation spell.

Delfina followed her to a mountain, and Tinea was now climbing up it, sloshing through the piles of snow, dogged and determined as a ball of light lit her way. It was dark, and cold, and she could see Tinea’s breaths frost in the air. Where was she? Delfina could see nothing, and that was concerning for a variety of reasons. She was just in a forest somewhere. Where? What was she doing? What---

Wait.

Was she running away to escape the plot?? Delfina thought in alarm. Oh. Oh, gods, she was. She had fled to avoid the plot, and Delfina had no idea where she was or what she was doing. Oh, this was a problem. This was a big problem. Delfina needed to intervene immediately---

Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she rushed to her desk, her bare feet slapping on the freezing cold floors. Then, it occurred to her that wherever Tinea was was out in a snowstorm, and might…

She slumped down at her desk. She needed to get Tinea back, she was never gonna go home if she wasn’t brought back---

Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she returned to Tinea, searching through the forest she was in. The world spun around her as she swept through the forest, on the hunt for a cave or somewhere she could go for the night. Honestly, why did Tinea do something so colossally stupid? Delfina was tired, too, but she wasn’t running away from her fate. She was facing it head-on, with dogged determination, so why couldn’t Tinea do the same? Running away? What for?

Delfina swept through the forest, hunting for something, anything Tinea could use for cover. She could communicate through her butterflies. It was imperfect magic, not something that could be used regularly, but Tinea could not die. Delfina…

Delfina might actually crack if she had to go through this again. She might actually lose her mind. They were on life number five, and she felt like butter scraped over too much bread. She was thin, drawn out and worn, lifeless. There was no---

She stopped at the sight of something emerging from the snow. It was massive, black, dark, with glowing red eyes and lips pulled back to reveal jagged, sharp teeth. A wolf, but not of the likes Delfina had ever seen before. It was sniffing at the wind, and Delfina realized Tinea was upwind from it. It broke out into a run, and her eyes bugged out of her skull. Oh. Oh, big problem, oh no, what kind of beast even was that---

She flew back towards Tinea to warn her. She knew this didn’t matter. That if Tinea died, they would just start over again. But, dammit, Delfina couldn’t do this one more time. She couldn’t. Five times was enough. She was tired. She was worn thin. She was exhausted. She couldn’t do this again. No. No more. She wouldn’t let Tinea’s stupidity get them both killed.

She managed to make it back to Tinea as the wind picked up, blowing harshly through the forest, and summoned a million butterflies to whirl around her in warning. Tinea froze, barely breathing as glowing blue butterflies surrounded her, fluttering madly in a tunnel, and Delfina prayed it was enough to tell her to run.

She didn’t run. She just looked confused, and Delfina wanted to scream at her. She wanted to scream her anger at her. How could Tinea be so stupid? What was the use of going to an abandoned mountain, in the middle of nowhere, just to get away from Delfina? It was infuriating. It was infuriating. She was so mad. She wanted to screech at her, beat some sense into her, because why would she take it so far? Delfina needed to go home. Delfina needed to go home. She needed to… needed to… needed to do something.

The butterflies were only designed for communication with the Oracle. They were not designed to fight, were not a magic that could be used for combat. They were only there to communicate the Oracle’s desires. They were not spirit creatures, not like those damned moths that still woke Delfina up screaming, wondering if Tinea woke up screaming, too.

Tinea turned, and there was a low growl from in the undergrowth. The wolf sprang on her, sending the butterflies scattering, and Tinea managed to conjure a shield on her left arm at the last possible minute, blocking the wolf from biting down on her arm. She bowled over in the snow, sliding back a few feet, and lifted her hand, firing off offensive magic, bright white and powerful. It slammed into the wolf, glancing off its hide, and Tinea fired off another bolt of mana, hitting the same spot. This one burned the coat, and the wolf snarled and charged Tinea, and Tinea sent another bolt of mana at it. It singed its fur, and Tinea backed up rapidly before she dropped to one knee and slammed her hands into the ground. A magic circle appeared around the wolf’s feet, chains rising up and lashing it down as the magic circle glowed, and then Tinea turned and ran.

So, this was better than what Delfina did? Getting ripped apart by wild animals? This was preferred to a life of luxury and comfort before she died? Living in the wild, fighting for her life to survive, braving the elements and denizens of this mountain? Delfina was half tempted to just leave her to die. What the fuck? Why could Tinea just never follow the script?

The butterflies swarmed around her, and Delfina left them to her as she flew past her, on the hunt for a cave or somewhere to take shelter for the night. Tinea was headed up for whatever reason, so Delfina went up, too, searching, searching, there.

There was an abandoned cabin in the woods, lean-to and sagging, clearly having not been kept up in a long time, and the butterflies split off, headed for the cabin. Tinea slid to a halt in the snow, watching them go, and then she---

Went in the opposite direction??

Why was she like this?

….

Whatever those butterflies were, they were made of pure mana, and Tinea wasn’t touching them with a ten foot pole. She sloughed through the snow, sinking into the deep powder and headed up. The butterflies returned, fluttering around her insistently, and Tinea ignored them as she sunk into the snow. It was falling harder now, and she needed to find shelter for the night. The butterflies flew around her with dogged determination, landing in her hair and flying in front of her face.

She irritably batted them away, and they continued to flutter, insistent and not taking no for an answer. Goddammit. She wasn’t in the empire, so where the hell was she? That wolf had been as big as a horse, and Tinea couldn’t keep up that spell forever. She needed to find shelter soon. This was getting dangerous.

“Stop it,” she muttered to the butterflies, and the butterflies seemed to double in number, swirling around her and trying to lead her somewhere. She had no idea what was going on. Someone was trying to lead her to them, and she was not happy about it. Over half of her fourth ring was gone, and she couldn’t cast another teleportation spell until she leveled up, which could take years.

“Fuck…” she muttered under her breath. She didn’t even have a sword, hadn’t practiced at all this lifetime, putting all her skills into magic. The creatures on this mountain seemed to be resistant to offensive magic, which implied they were magical creatures, and she couldn’t use her moths. Great. Just great. This was fantastic.

A dark hole formed in the darkness of the night, and she pushed through the snow at it. It was a small cave, worn into the surface of the mountain, and she headed inside and collapsed down. The wolf could probably follow her scent here, but she doubted it would continue to go after such difficult prey. But… Where was she? That was the most pressing question on her mind. Where was she, and what was she going to do about it? She could grind for a few years with her magic to get up to five rings and teleport away, but…

If she went back, she would be in the exact same situation. She would just end up dead at eighteen, fucking again. There was no escape from it, but this…

This might be an escape, she realized.

But, did she want to live like this?

Did she actually want to live like this?