“When they said the Fourth Floor was harsh I didn’t think it meant I’d be begging to piss just so I could get a drink!” Lucius complained behind me. Three hours into the desert march, I'd given up trying to keep sand out of my boots. The Fourth Floor was one massive desert, populated by hundreds of tall black obelisks that stretched around the landscape like birthmarks for the dunes. Each one stood fifty feet tall, casting shadows below them, reminding us that there was still seven more hours of daylight.

  Who built these? Fern asked.

  Same people who probably built the whole Pillar.

  I thought they told us the Pillar was naturally part of Mourne, they predate any civilization according to the books we read. Fern said.

  Well, there was also that section about conspiracies concerning the Pillars? I like to live in the what if sometimes. I smiled, dragging my feet along the desert sand.

  "Keep up, Forgeman Erik!" Firebrand Hakashi barked from ahead. The silver-haired man had been assigned to lead the Forgemen and guide us during the attack against the Guardians. He wore his hair swept to the side and down, covering one eye, while a black mask covered the lower half of his face. He wasn't too happy about his newly assigned post, and his friends, a group of three other firebrands had slowed down to tease him.

  “Howsss babysssitting going Hakassshi?” Firebrand Srilick, formerly our professor, said.

  The snakeman had been promoted after recovering from the Mage invasion and was thrilled to have caught up to his own classmates who had achieved the Firebrand equivalent rank before him.

  “It’s fine,” Hakashi said grumbling.

  Another companion of Hakashi slapped his hand across Hakashi’s back, creating a loud whipping noise, followed by Hakashi cursing the man. Firebrand Hyper had short auburn hair and a belt of freckles danced below his eyes. He had a small reed sticking out of his mouth and had dozens of throwing knives strapped to his Expedition Uniform.

  “You don’t sound too happy bud? Wanna tap out? Heda has a bet that you’ll last three days.” Hyper laughed. “I figured you’d want out within day one.”

  Hakashi groaned and shoved Hyper away. “You guys sure have a lot of faith in me huh? I’m just glad to be out of harms way. You all should be nervous too, being nervous makes you aware.”

  Firebrand Heda waved her hand. “Babe, you really need to stop worrying all the time. This is the new generation of Cinders; we have the Spiderbane. How can we possibly lose!” She laughed and poked her fingers at Hakashi’s sides, teasing him.

  I jogged to catch up with my friends and peered past Hakashi and the other Firebrands. Ahead, five hundred Cinders marched behind Infernal Spiderbane. Together, our boots kicked up a low dust cloud. And when I looked behind us, it was as if we had a long tail of sand trailing behind us for miles.

  "I still don't get it," Mel said, wiping sweat from her forehead. "Why are we treated like kids and put into the reject backup squad? We saved half these Blazemen and Firebrands during the assault."

  "Volume, Mel," Silas warned, his mechanical arm glinted in the harsh sun. He reached out with his metal arm and grabbed her arm.

  She yelped and pulled her arm away. “Your hand is WAY too warm right now, it’s like it’s powered by the sun!”

  Silas inspected his arm. “That’s the thing with this…I’m either too cold and lifeless, or too conductive and the heat hurts people.”

  “There he goes being all dramatic,” Mel said, rolling her eyes. “I didn’t mean to offend you.” She jabbed a thumb into his side, and a smile popped on his face.

  “Technically, at the end of the fight, we would have died, if not for Spiderbane. And technically, we haven’t even been on a first mission yet, everything about this is unorthodox.” My jaw clenched.

  "Fine, whatever. But we've proven ourselves. What does someone even have to do to increase their rank when my ability is stronger than half these Blazemen?"

  “I don’t know Mel,” I said sighing. “Time and proven experience are also a thing. That's how armies work," I said. "Even here."

  "Well, I vote we rank people by how much ass they can kick." She threw shadow punches at invisible enemies.

  "Take it up with Infernal Laska if you want a promotion,” Hakashi called over his shoulder. "For now, shut up and march. Your barking isn't helping with this heat. Making me yell too.”

  We fell back slightly, lowering our voices.

  "Remember why we're also here," I said. Mel looked at me, confused. “Really?” I said flipping my hands in the air. “Luna! Come on!”

  Mel's expression darkened. “You and Sora wont give up on her will you? Who cares where she is? She abandoned us. She probably escaped after the mages left. She must have heard that the mages would come back and wanted to run. We are sitting ducks right now, biding our time until the mages decide to come invade us. We are hoping on a hunch that the higher floors have some miracle weapon."

  “Luna didn’t leave the Pillar, its special to her. It’s apart of her." Sora clutched her chest. "I can feel her. She is somewhere above.”

  “Really Sora?” Mel challenged. "She abandoned us."

  "Remember what I learned on the Second Floor? About the 13th Pillar and how there is a deeper, powerful connection the Pillar has to Mourne? Luna wouldn't abandon that. She is determined to figure it out. Something called her higher." I said.

  "She could also be in trouble," Tevin added, walking beside Zenobia. The curly-haired girl moved through the sand with such a perfect posture that she seemed unaffected by the heat.

  "Fine, fine." Mel wiped more sweat away. "I want to find her too. Especially if she can transform into that fox form Erik mentioned. I’ll accept her forgiveness and abandonment if she fights me in it.”

  "Always about fighting," I muttered.

  "Says the guy with a cursed demon sword no one can touch.” She said. Mel had been wanting to wield the sword more and more despite my warnings about its effects on the body.

  I ignored her and saved myself the energy of talking.

  After four more hours of marching, we finally reached a cluster of large tents backed against another obelisk. The sun was starting to set, and the shade falling off the obelisk felt like diving into cool water. All five of us rushed to the newly set-up water trough, filled with water only slightly cooler than the shaded spot.

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  We dunked our heads, drinking down gulp after gulp desperately. The water tasted metallic and warm, but it was water.

  "Move, you selfish pricks!" Lucius shoved past, his white hair plastered to his skull with sweat.

  I moved out of the way, having had my share, and let him and the other Forgemen pile in for their drink. I noticed a towering figure behind the group. My brother’s keeper.

  Usiast looked over at me, his massive frame blocking the sun. "Come,” he said.

  I left my friends and the other Forgemen, and followed him to my brother’s coffin.

  —————

  The storage tent was crammed with supplies—weapons, chemicals for bombs, herbs for poisons and curatives, barrels of preserved food, and more. But my eyes locked onto the one thing I came here for, Noah’s Iron Coffin. It was propped against a wooden box. The chains wrapped around it looked like a family of metal serpents surrounding and choking their prey.

  How is he still alive in there? Fern asked. This heat alone should've killed him.

  Magic, I shrugged, though the word felt insufficient. Whatever soul is controlling him is also the one keeping him alive, ironically.

  Usiast began unlocking the chains, each one hitting the sand with a dull thud. "The demon mage is only alive because the Pyrarch wills it," he said, as if reading my thoughts. “Some sort of demonic energy sustains him. He receives no food, no water, no protection from the cold, nor the heat. I've guarded him for months, and his body never changes."

  The last chain fell with a CLANK. Usiast stepped back and pulled a trident from the weapons cache, holding it level with the coffin.

  "You think he'll wake up?" I asked.

  "I think demons are cunning." His grey eyes never left the coffin. "You have five minutes to say goodbye. If you die tomorrow, he dies too. Those are the terms."

  I nodded nervously. My hand trembled as I reached for the iron door and pulled it open.

  Noah lay motionless inside, looking exactly as he had the day Lucile poisoned him. No decay or weight loss showed on his body. He had no sweat, not a drop, and no dust had fallen on his clothes or skin. Noah could've been sleeping peacefully if not for the absolute stillness of his chest. There was no rise, no fall, and no breath.

  I pressed my palm to his forehead. It was ice cold, despite the desert heat surrounding us. I pressed my two fingers to his neck, and the faintest of heartbeats pulsed against my fingertips.

  This soul must have done something to keep him alive. I said.

  I almost felt my head nod. Fern’s way of telling me he agreed.

  Five years. Noah had been in this world five years longer than I had, despite stepping through that portal only seconds before I did. Five years for that parasitic soul to puppet his body, forcing him to learn magic to become the Royal Magelord, to kill innocents at the Academy, and who knows what else that soul inside Noah wanted. But deep within him, somewhere trapped inside, my real brother screamed for help.

  "Noah," I said softly, gripping his ice-cold hand. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I hope you're listening."

  His hand felt like holding frozen stone.

  “We fight the Guardians tomorrow. No Cinder expedition has ever survived them. If I die..." I swallowed hard. "If I die, they'll kill you too. But I know you're fighting in there. That thing controlling you—it's NOT you. If you die, we will meet again. That thing, that parasite, he does not own you for eternity.”

  My throat tightened.

  “Fern and I are searching for a way to get our bodies back. And I swear, Noah, I'll find a way to exorcise that demon from you. You'll be free again."

  The knot in my throat grew painful, like barbed wire closing around my neck. I took a deep breath and forced the pain down. No time for tears.

  "I'm so sorry Noah. I’m so sorry… I didn't realize what happened sooner. I'm sorry I couldn't save you from that…that evil thing.” I pressed my hand to his chest. "I'm sorry about Mom and Dad. About the accident. About everything. Please wait for me. I’ll be back. I’ll survive, and we will get your body back to you.”

  I closed my eyes and did something I hadn't done since I was a child—I prayed. To every single god I could think of. Gods of Earth and Gods of Mourne. Demi-gods and Angels. Even demons I prayed to.

  Please someone…save him. I cried in my head.

  "Time," Usiast said.

  I opened my eyes, took one last look at Noah, and stepped back, letting Usiast close the coffin and rewrap the chains.

  Usiast finished with the chains and hefted the coffin onto his back like it weighed nothing. “If you mean what you said to him, and he really is your brother… you'd better survive tomorrow, Forgeman."

  I gave him a firm Nod. Usiast had been one of the more vocal ones about his distaste for keeping Noah around. But, maybe him seeing me talk to him, brother to brother, changed his mind a little.

  We walked back into the blazing sun away from the storage area. The heat hit like a physical wall after the tent's shade, but I barely registered it. My mind was still in that coffin with Noah.

  You okay? Fern asked gently.

  I took a deep breath grounding myself with the inhales and the exhales.

  I will be, I said.

  By the time we returned to our group, Hakashi had the Forgemen arranged in pairs, demonstrating stretcher carry procedure.

  "Remember, two to a stretcher!" he barked. “Always practice self awareness. Watch out for any deadly variables, and retrive if you see a safe path. Run to them… safely, bring the wounded to the med tent, and then get back to battlefield. The med team will handle the healing while we handle retriving. Our wounded and dead don't stay on the field. Proper burials for every fallen, that’s my goal. Clear?”

  "Yes sir!" they shouted.

  Hakashi spotted me. "Finally! You threw off our numbers by being gone. Partner with Raine for drills, and for tomorrow.”

  "Who?"

  I heard the shuffling of papers behind me, not footsteps. I turned to find a girl with light ash brown hair cut in a perfect bob, wearing our standard black and gold Expedition uniform. She held a file of folders and wore a sling messenger bag. She looked past me at Hakashi.

  “Sir, protocol 11-3a based on the Willow Strip mission, it was noted that a dragging method of wounded retrival techniques were preferred over the two man method.”

  Hakashi rubbed his eyes, clearly used to Raine’s personality. “Raine, we are doing it the way we always normally do it.”

  “I understand sir, but you see protocol 11-3a specifically states that in the case of snow or sand, the dragging method is faster and allows double the carriers.”

  “I DONT—” Hakashi caught himself before an outburst and shook his head annoyed with his palm holding his face. “Raine was House Enlil," Hakashi explained. “She’s was— you know what never mind. No Raine we are not doing that. Back to places Forgemen!” He shouted out to the group.

  "Nice to meet you." I extended my hand.

  She glanced at it for a second, then walked past me to grab a stretcher and dragged it behind the group. I looked at my friends. Silas shrugged. Mel mouthed "weird." Sora seemed intrigued.

  She's really pretty, Fern observed.

  Ahh there it is. I was wondering when your teenage hormones would kick in. I chuckled softly.

  I just said she's pretty! Why do you always—

  Because I can feel your emotions, remember? And I hate to break it to you, Fern, but I'm twenty-five, Fern. She is a child to me.

  I didn't say anything inappropriate!

  Your feelings did.

  That's not fair—

  Life's not fair. Now push the feelings away. Let’s focus.

  I walked over to Raine as Hakashi had called us up next to run out to the target for drills. I grabbed one end of the stretcher while Raine had already picked up the other, still not looking at me.

  "So do you want to take the lead, or should—"

  Raine took off sprinting.

  The handles slipped from my hands, and the stretcher dragged behind Raine through the sand. She moved like the desert wasn't there, as if she was running on solid ground instead of shifting sand.

  "Better hurry, Forgeman Erik!” Hakashi shouted, laughing. "Speed saves lives!”

  I sprinted after Raine, sending sand flying behind me with each step. She'd already reached the first dummy—a sandbag roughly human-shaped with red paint marking injury points— and without waiting for me, she flipped it onto the stretcher and began turning around.

  I caught up. "You're supposed to wait for your partner."

  She looked at me for the first time. Her eyes were grey like storm clouds, and completely empty of expression. Then, Raine took off running again, forcing me to grab the stretcher and match her insane pace.

  We reached the medical tent in record time despite Raine doing it half herself. She dumped the dummy and immediately sprinted back for another.

  "What the hell?" I muttered, chasing after her.

  This pattern repeated six times. Sprint. Grab. Run. Dump. And by the seventh dummy, my legs burned and my lungs screamed. Raine looked like she could run forever.

  "Don't you ever get tired?" I gasped.

  She stopped so suddenly I nearly crashed into her. Raine studied me like I was one of the practice dummies.

  "Tomorrow," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, “if you move like this, people will die. Are you really tired?”

  Then she was running again, leaving me to stumble after her with the stretcher bouncing against the sand.

  I think I'm in love, watching her put you in place was an awakening, Fern said dreamily.

  I think she might be insane, I replied.