Kitaya inhaled the damp night air, the undergrowth in front of her face shivering. At the edge of the cliff she lied, eyes on the rocky terrain below. The moon had broken the east when she'd gotten into this position. Now it was high over her head, casting silver light over the trees.

The bounty hunters hid on the other side of the cliff, as far away from her as possible. They were working together out of respect for Ade. Or fear. Either way, they'd called a temporary truce to achieve their common goal—eradicating the Vidaldi.

The little intel they had guided them to this area, a place they'd seen the Vidaldi passing through. According to Oshun, they worked in the dead of night, all over the backlands, lighting fires and chanting in their strange language.

Making more thin spaces, perhaps. Kitaya couldn't be bothered with all the speculation. Her focus was on finding Aldeheid. A beetle crawled in her line of sight, stretching its horns up to the sky. Over said horn, a shadow appeared in the distance.

A group of Vidaldi landed in the clearing below, porcelain masks glowing in the moonlight. They stretched and strolled as though they'd just returned from a refreshing walk through the woods. They gathered in a small circle and a moment later, a flash of gold lit up the night. In a blink,they were gone.

At first glance it seemed like a regular teleportation spell, but after a moment, she caught a faint tang of smoke on the breeze. Not a regular spell, but something more potent.

A muted thump sounded next to Kitaya as Jayer came down from the canopy. "What do you think, Kitaya?" he asked, not taking his eyes from the clearing.

She bit down on her thumbnail. "I think I know what kind of spell that was. But I'll need a closer look."

"I'll relay the message, you head down."

While he sauntered off into the bushes, she rose from the loose dirt and measured the way down. She could make the jump with minimal injuries but didn't want to risk it. She moved to another part of the cliff where the roots of the trees clung to its face like a web.

They held her weight easily as she climbed down to the clearing. The earth was well beaten and rocky down there, making it difficult for trees and shrubbery to take root. Still, a few weeds grew in cracks and small, soft patches of dirt.

Kitaya crossed to the spot where the Vidaldi were and found scorch marks on the ground. The black soot formed a circle of ancient script. She knew this magic. She could dispel it.But using her power in front of Ade and the bounty hunters would be unwise, considering they associated it with the Vidaldi.

She raised her dagger to signal for help, and Ade and the guildmaster joined her a moment later. "This rune circle is hiding something." She crouched and carved runes at the four cardinal points. "Do either of you know the ancient tongue?"

"I do," Oshun said. "But I'm not familiar with this spell."

Kitaya pointed to the southern rune. "Start here and work your way counter-clockwise."

She gave a nod and outstretched her hand and chanted the ancient words. The runes lit up with a blue glow and the ground wavered like hot, summer air.

Kitaya held her breath as the edges of a gaping hole appeared in the ground. It was deep as a well and glowing with orange light. This had to be it, their hideout. They were using the rune to teleport in and out without revealing it. Clever. No wonder they found no traces of Aldeheid near the ruins.

"Look out!"

Kitaya leapt back as a silvery glint lit up her peripheral vision. A chain shot by her face, the back-draft tickling her nose. A veritable army of Vidaldi emerged from the shadows, chains winking in the moonlight. Kitaya swore under her breath. She came here expecting a fight, not a war. She just needed to get to the opening. Then she could focus on finding Aldeheid while everyone else fought.

Chaos erupted in the clearing. Murmuring chants and magic clouded the air, giving way to the clashing of ice and fire and lightning. Kitaya rushed through the turmoil to the opening, pumping her feet as fast as they would go. A chain snaked into her path and she skidded to a stop. She slid her dagger from her belt in time to deflect another chain from behind.

A score of Vidaldi descended from the sky, surrounding her. She held her dagger out and turned in a slow circle as they closed in. Five pounced at once, but a gust of wind dashed them away like falling leaves.

Fukami appeared over her head tattoos glowing and casting green light over the plains of his face. With his clothes fluttering and face fixed in a mask of ambivalence, he looked like the god he once was and not the outcast he'd come to be.

"Go, Kitaya," he said.

She nodded and leapt into the hole, landed in the hall below with a thump that was immediately swallowed by the chaos outside. The corridor before her stretched on as far as her eyes could see, lit by flickering firelight. She yanked a torch from a sconce affixed to the wall and jogged deep into the hall.

Kitaya came to a junction and banked right doors lined the wall on her left, devoid of any signage of markings to denote what they were for. She reared back and slammed her boot into the first one. It flew open, slamming into the wall.

Only an empty cell lied beyond. A pair of shackles lied in one corner and some blood-soaked rags in another. No Aldeheid. She moved to the next door kicked it hard enough to leave it hanging from its hinges and found a similar scene.

Kitaya continued through the halls, breaking down every door she found. Behind them were more cells, more shackles, more chains. Some had tables with chains and knives, while others rank of human waste.

But none held her magician. She doubled back to the main corridor and took another hall. More doors, bigger doors. She found an abandoned kitchen, stocked with fresh fruit, cured meat and jars of grain. Pots and pans lined the walls and a fire pit sat in one corner with a kettle hanging over it.

Down the corridor was a room with wooden floors and two chairs at its head. Kitaya swore. Had the Vidaldi expected them? Did they move Aldeheid? She ran from the empty room and continued her search, around twists and turns, down halls and through abandoned chambers.

"Aldeheid!" she called over the cacophony from above. Her heart slammed against her ribs from both exertion and fear as she pounded through the maze-like halls. The more she searched, the more her hope dwindled. Behind every locked and unlocked door was more of the same: abandonment.

Her flat out sprint turned into a jog and then a walk, exhaustion seeping so deep into her bones, she had to cling to the walls to stay upright. Every opened door and every long corridor blurred into each other until she found herself walking in mindless circles for hours.

Even after the sounds of battle faded away Kitaya continued to wander. "Aldeheid?" In her head she was screaming, but the word came out as a hoarse whisper.

"Kitaya?" Jayer appeared in front of her, with Jetei on his shoulders. "Thank the gods. We've been looking everywhere for you."

She shook her head and pushed pass him. "I have to keep looking."

"You can barely stand. You need to—"

"Stop, Jayer! Don't you get it? It's a cape's job to protect their magician. I failed him. I failed Aldeheid. I rushed him into all of this when her told me over and over that he wasn't ready." She put her back to the wall and slid down, threading her hands in her braids. "This entire mess is my fault. Because of my stubbornness, my arrogance."

Jayer knelt in front of her. "Listen, Kitaya. We're going to find him or he'll find us, whichever comes first. And don't blame yourself for this. Who is cape and who is magician doesn't matter. Aldeheidchose to protect you, because that's the kind of guy he is. How he's always been. He throws himself in the line of fire for those he cares about."

His words sunk into her and she gave a stilted nod.

"You're in no shape to keep going. Fukami can get you back to town, while the rest of us keep searching. Ade wants to raid this place and check the surrounding area, so if Aldeheid is out here, we'll find him, I promise you."

Another nod. She couldn't force any words past the lump in her throat.

Jayer led the way outside where the bounty hunters were gathering the bodies of the Vidaldi and stacking them in a pile. They interspersed the corpses with wood and dry tinder. Ade stood off to the side with the guildmaster and Fukami floated on his back overhead, a length of chain wrapped around his fist.

Kitaya stood in the middle of the commotion, the moving bodies, the conversation and the scents of sweat and blood assaulting her senses with brute force. The world spun and tilted, and she threw a hand out to stop herself from falling. Her back slammed into something soft and bouncy.

"You're in poor form," Fukami said. "Should I call Sora to take you back?"

She blinked the black spots from her vision. "I think so" Jayer was right. If she stayed any longer, she'd become a liability. Her mark was still intact. Aldeheid was still alive. She hadn't slept a full night since she came to the backlands. If she kept going like this, she'd kill herself before she found her magician.

Fukami whistled his cloudwalker down from the sky, before helping her on its back. "We'll regroup as soon as we finish up here."

Kitaya threaded her hands in Sora's mane as she floated from the ground. The people and trees grew smaller behind her and the winking torches of the town came into view. She waited until the cloudwalker shot towards the west to bury her face in its mane and let her tears fall.