Bella winced as she flexed her fingers. The Redek girl had willed the flames to spiral out into the air as their group had leaped away.
Bella was lucky she hadn't gotten anything else burned. She breathed heavily in frustration and her breath plumed up in icy clouds before her eyes. The fog had rolled back in to replace what she'd frozen, which now lay melting in the grass.

One of the ogres approached her. "Where's our payment?"

Bella glared at him and a spike of ice launched up from the ground and through the ogres chest.

He gasped for breath.

Bella tilted her head and the icicle widened, making the ogre scream. "You'll get your payment when you do your job." She turned away and the ice melted.

The ogre's corpse collapsed to the ground as she walked away.

The other two cowered back when she stalked by.

She reached the precipice of a cliff that looked down on the abandoned remains of the first Eternalia.

She took a deep breath.

There was something about that boy, Wylie. He seemed so familiar. There were plenty of reasons that could be, but he had seemed so honest when he talked about her. As if he really could've been telling the truth. But that wasn't possible, was it? For as long as she could remember, which wasn't very long, people had been telling her who she was, that she was this devout member of the Neverseen. But... what if they were the ones lying to her? What if she really was this Valerie that they kept saying she was?

A memory flashed through the front of her mind. Tam stabbing a knife through her stomach. No. There was no way she was on their side. Who would attack their own friend? Try to kill them? The Neverseen may not have had clean hands, but they hadn't betrayed her.
She whirled and walked away from the cliff, pausing by the ogres.

She shot them a sidelong glance, as if she expected an explanation for why they had failed.

One of the ogres stepped forward. "Ma'am, the Mesmer..."

There was a sickening snap and the ogre collapsed to the ground dead.

Bella lowered her hand. "I don't want excuses, I want results." She turned to the final ogre, who tried unconvincingly to hide his fear. "You know what you're doing now. Don't fail me again." She held a crystal to the faint light and disappeared.