“Level Up!”

“Level Up!”

“Level Up!”

Could I have predicted this?

Did I expect the Heal orb to grow massive and deal damage on extreme negative FTH?

“Level Up!”

“Level Up!”

Father Penitence. Father Temperance. Father Generosity.

All gone. Forever.

Because of me.

And I feel nothing.

“Level Up!”

“Level Up!”

Is this what I wanted?

Mechanically, I untie Plun and the others.

The world spins faster and faster. I feel so – far away. Like I’m watching my body from the chandelier.

Dimly, I’m aware that Plun tries to shake me to attention. I watch as Tess tries to slap me awake.

I watch as the hooded child throws me over her shoulder like a ragdoll and starts running.

“Level Up!”

She runs with inhuman speed. Plun’s shouts fade into the distance.

Where is she taking me?

“Level Up!”

—

The girl removes her hood to reveal a face completely wrapped in bandages. Peeking through the cloth are two lidless eyes and a tuft of striking purple hair.

“Wake up.”

I hear a long-lost part of me thinking, Core Party Member Get!

“Pull yourself together, Murphy.”

Old Murphy wonders, How does she know my name?

She shakes me with surprising strength, but gets no response. With a sigh, she slings me back over her shoulder.

—

Father Penitence. I hated his guts. I wanted him dead. Right?

Father Generosity. He was stern, but he had kind eyes. Did he deserve this?

Father Temperance. He loved his work. He was a good cook.

He was a good man.

What does that make me?

—

“Murphy, wake up.”

I do not move.

“It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known.”

I do not move.

“You saved all our lives. You did what had to be done.”

I do not move.

The girl pinches my arm.

I do not move.

She dumps a bucket of freezing water on my head.

I shiver but do not move.

She screams in my ear.

I shake her off.

She tickles the underside of my foot.

“Leave me alone.”

“So you’re not completely broken, huh?”

The girl stares into my eyes, unblinking. I look away to the left, but she hops over to meet my gaze. I close my eyes, but she peels my eyelids open.

“Leave me alone!”

“No time to mope, Murphy. You’re a wanted criminal. See those torches in the distance? The whole town is out to get you.”

“Let them.”

“No, that won’t do.” she digs her nails into my arm, “I need you to do something for me first.”

I know she’s trying to troll a response out of me, but rage still boils under my skin.

Her nails sink deeper, drawing blood.

“Go away, little girl, before I get angry.”

“Ooh, is the big, bad murderer gonna hurt an innocent girl?” She giggles, “I’m sooo scared!”

My fist is still clenched around the dead Initiate’s chime. I lift it menacingly to her face.

She stares me down, “Do it, coward!”

A tense silence ensues.

I can’t do it.

She mutters a spell and knocks me out.

“Let’s get you to the destination first. I’ll persuade you on the way.”

—

I wake up in a carriage. The purple-haired bandage-wrapped dark warlock girl stares at me with lidless eyes.

Reflexively, I check the time:

FTH: -8139

That makes it 3:39PM. Why is it dark outside?

“You gained 280 points of FTH from levelling up. That makes it 8:19 in the evening.”

The cloth on the mind-reading purple-haired bandage-wrapped dark warlock girl’s face twists upwards in a way I can only interpret as a smirk.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Can’t you guess, Murphy? They told me you’re a smart one.”

Overpowered dark magic.

Vocabulary way above her grade level.

Unfazed by my negative FTH Heal.

Wrapped in bandages.

Everything adds up to –

“Murphy!” She cackles in delight. “Run to the Valley of the Dead, Murphy! That dream is my best work yet.”

—

The mummy girl continues to stare, presumably reading my mind.

So you’re gonna read my mind, are you?

One, two, three, four. I’ll keep counting ‘til you get bored.

“Oh, cut that out!”

Five, six, seven, eight. I never cooperate with people I hate.

“Stop that! If you agree to hear me out -”

Nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Not until there’s ice in Hell.

“- I’ll show you how your friends are doing.” She pulls out an obviously enchanted mirror.

…Fine.

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Sorry we got off on the wrong foot,” she extends a tiny hand.

I shake it with some hesitation.

“Let me introduce myself. Name’s Nyra. I was brutally murdered at the age of six.”