They dashed down the tunnel, Feyla leading the way. Dim purple glow lights lit the tunnel walls, casting watery shadows on them. "It should be just up ahead," Feyla called out.

She skidded to a stop in front of a door. Sedgewick paused beside her, bracing himself against his knees and sucking in breath while Feyla pulled out an odd metal clasp and tapped it against the door.

"Where did you get that?" Sedgewick asked, finally able to speak without wheezing.

"Pulled it off of Vin. I used it to get past locks and spell discs," she said, pleased with her resourcefulness.

Sedgewick nodded as they slipped into the room. "Most people wouldn't have noticed that, you know."

Feyla bit her lip. "Don't go giving me compliments, Master Alverdyne," she snapped, a hard edge to her voice.

Sedgewick blustered. "I'm simply pointing out—"

"Just let it go, all right?" she snapped. Taking a breath, Feyla knelt beside the limp body on the stack of rugs. She flung off the blanket that she'd covered the young wizard with earlier. "Help me lift Vin."

"You know that's not even his actual name, don't you?" Sedgewick stated in his usual deadpanned tone.

Feyla shot him an irritated glare before he knelt on the other side of the wizard. They each flung one of his arms around their shoulders and scooped him up. Sedgewick sat his book down on the unconscious man's lap and snatched the wizard's hat off the floor, shoving it onto the man's head.

"We'll have to take the main entrance," said Sedgewick as they hustled down the tunnel, carrying the still-unconscious Vin. "With any luck, she'll assume we're heading for her personal entrance. That would give us enough time to get out."

"How long do you think we could hold her off if she comes this way?" Feyla asked, blowing a strand of hair away from her face.

Sedgewick stayed silent as they continued to rush down the halls, the sound of their footsteps echoing behind them. His face darkened and his mouth narrowed into a thin line.

"Sedgewick?" prodded Feyla, her brow crinkled with concern.

"I'm afraid I won't be of much use to you anymore," he stated, avoiding eye contact and adjusting his hold on the wizard.

Feyla nearly tripped but managed to catch herself. "You mean, your magic..."

"Gone. All of it. I—I can't even feel a connection anymore." His eyes—with usually held a determined fire—now seemed strangely empty and his voice was filled with a dark bitterness before it dropped away at the end.

Since finding Sedgewick, her rush of relief that he was still alive had given way to a hurt-filled aggravation. Yet at that moment, he looked so...lost. Feyla racked her mind for anything she could say as they turned down another tunnel, passing by an open door. Sedgewick's magic had always been the focal point of his existence. What could she say that would be at all comforting?

A shout rang out behind them, killing Feyla's chance to respond.

Their heads whipped around as Bilara appeared at the beginning of the hall, black magic crackling behind her.

Sedgewick's breath caught as he dropped Vin and dashed to the open door they'd passed through moments earlier. He slung his staff off his back and slammed the double doors closed, shoving his staff between the handles to bar it shut.

Feyla staggered under the sudden extra weight before grasping ahold of Vin and the book and stumbling down the tunnel as fast as she could.

Sedgewick ran up beside her right as a blast hit the door, sending a crack running through the staff. They tighten their hold on the wizard, preparing to run for their lives, only to pull up short as Feyla spotted another spell disc on the wall.

"Get the clasp!" Sedgewick exclaimed.

"I'm trying!" Feyla shouted as she fumbled through her pouch.

Sedgewick's hand shot out and stopped hers right as it pulled the clasp out.

Feyla gaped at him as if he'd lost his mind, but Sedgewick wasn't looking at her. He was staring intently at the spell disc on the wall. Realization showed in his eyes and a smirked curled his lips. She'd seen that look before.

He'd had an idea.

Sedgewick snatched the clasp out of her hand and pulled Vin out of her arms. "Do you have a scalpel? A knife?"

Feyla jerked one out of her kit without question.

Another blast slammed into the door and a cracking reverberated throughout the empty tunnel.

Sedgewick's head snapped to the door. "You can do a basic levitation spell, can't you?"

Feyla's heart hammered in her chest as she clutched her scalpel in her hand. "It's been a really long time," she said, her voice squeaking with panic.

"Make it work." He dropped his book and the wizard to the ground and took the scalpel from her hand. "Get my staff."

"Why—"

"DO IT!"

Feyla stepped back and raised her hand. Her magic coursed through her as she grasped for the vague muscle memory of how the spell felt. A pink glow encircled the staff.

Sedgewick pressed the clasp against the spell disc and slipped the scalpel behind it.

Bilara's enraged scream pierced through the door.

The spell encircled the staff, Feyla's hand tingling as the spell took hold, making the staff wobble slightly.

A scrap from the scalpel rasped beside her and the tunnel plunged into darkness with only the light from her magic breaking it.

"NOW!" Sedgewick yelled.

The staff flew to her hand and they took off down the tunnel. Feyla grasped into the darkness, wrapping her arm around the other side of the wizard.

Metal creaked as the door flew off its hinges. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, SEDGEWICK!"

"We'll see about that," Sedgewick muttered as they fled down the tunnel, life almost returning to his voice.

Feyla soon realized why.

Heat seared their necks as the spell disc exploded, lighting up the tunnel with a blast of concentrated violet magic. Rocks fell from the tunnel ceiling, blocking the way back. Feyla glanced behind, hoping to see their pursuer blocked too, only to find Bilara struggling over the few rocks that had fallen in from of her.

"She's still there!" Feyla shouted in a panic.

"Good," Sedgewick stated as the remains of the spell disc's magic faded, thrusting them back into darkness.

Fire lit up the tunnel, and Sedgwick yanked them to the left. Bilara's blast seared the ground to the right of them as the sorceress finally broke free of the rocks.

They slammed into the cave door. Feyla yanked it open and Sedgewick snatched his staff out of her hand before pushing her and the wizard through.

Feyla tumbled to the ground as another blast soared over her head. Her eyes shot up to Sedgewick, who was standing at the door entrance with his staff stabbed into the ground.

"What are you doing?!" she screamed

He yanked back on the staff, using all his weight to bend it as the already-existing cracks began to grow. "Get down!"

The staff snapped in two. Orange light poured out of it like an uncovered lantern. Feyla ducked to the ground, the heat from the magic scorching her skin. Sedgewick stood unaffected as he reached out his hand, closing his eyes while the magic twisted around it. His eyes snapped open, their usual amber practically glowing. He brought his hands together and twisted his wrists as the magic slammed into the cavern ceiling. It blocked a final blow from Bilara before several hundred pounds of stone crashed to the ground, utterly destroying the entrance.

Sedgewick's face crumpled with pain as he fell to the ground, the last of his staff's magic gone.

Feyla's eyes widened with fear. She stumbled off the ground and slid to his side. "Sedgewick!" Wrapping her hand around one of his own, Feyla placed her other hand against his face, desperately scanning for injuries.

Sedgewick groaned and blinked his eyes, making Feyla sigh with relief as she helped him slowly sitting up.

"What happened?" Feyla questioned as she dismissed her magic.

He squinted against the daylight, still clutching the remains of his staff in his hand. "My staff..." Sedgewick hissed in pain as he rubbed his head. "It has essantium in its core."

"The spell disc material?"

"Yes. Helps channel the spells through it." Sedgewick held up the broken top of the staff, staring at it hard as he turned it back and forth. A crystal jutted out of the broken tip, now a sickly gray instead of orange to match his magic essence. "Essantium can hold magic as well as channel it. That's part of the reason we use it for spell discs. I've had the same staff for a couple centuries—there was bound to be some residual energy." Sedgewick scowled as he clutched the broken staff, his knuckles whitening under his grip. Feyla reached out to help him up, but he waved her aside and staggered to his feet alone. "Of course, it all gone now. Just like the rest of me."

"Sedgewick—" Feyla started.

He ignored her, snatching the other half of the staff off the ground while walking over to the nearby cliff.

Feyla stared at Sedgewick's tense form, his shoulders hunched and his fists shaking as they clutched the broken staff. Should she approach him? Did she even want to? As she remained frozen, Feyla's undercurrent of heartbreak warred with her natural inclination to comfort anyone in pain. What should even say? This was usually so easy for her but her mind was drawing a blank.

Well, I have to say something. It can't be healthy to just let him stand there on the edge of a cliff. What if... what if he—

Sedgewick let out an animalistic cry, shattering Feyla's thought. He stepped closer to the cliff, and a horrifying vision flashed before her eyes.

Until he swung his arms back and catapulted the broken staff over the edge.

Feyla was beside him in an instant, jerking him back and shaking him hard. "Stop giving me a heart attack, you idiot!"

Sedgewick gently removed her hands, his eyes even emptier that earlier. He stared at her as she struggled to calm her still-panicked heart.

A flicker of understanding broke past the emptiness, and Sedgewick gave her a small, cold smile. "I'm afraid I'm not quite that desperate, Miss Everbloom. Although falling would most likely be better than whatever Bilara is planning. Yet—" He straightened his coat. "I'm rather surprised you still care. Healer's guilt, perhaps?"

Feyla flushed, struggling for words as he walked back over to Vin. Prodding the unconscious man with his foot, Sedgewick shook his head and gingerly picked up his book, gesturing with it for her to come over.

Finally remaining silent in turn, Feyla trudged over to Sedgewick and helped him pick up the wizard. Together, they made their way down the mountain toward the small village below.

Feyla's heart felt as disordered as her thoughts. For one of the few times in her life, she wrestled with how to describe exactly what she was feeling. Silence stretched between them, a greater barrier than even the pounds of rock now blocking Bilara in from both sides. Their gazes flickered to the other, briefly, as if each was hoping the other might say something. But neither did, so they continued on in silence.