It was overcast and shadowed outside, last night’s ectostorm continuing into the morning. Evantra turned in her mattress, feeling the ache of her recent exertions in the sewers in her muscles. She rose, shifting the blankets aside to find an empty room.

  Evantra stared up at the ceiling, unmoving.

  Exhaustion permeated every fibre of her being. She felt an ache in her chest. A ache that wouldn’t go away, and which Evantra knew was not derived from the exertions of the previous days. She shifted in the sheets, withdrawing her arm from within. She watched unblinkingly as it trembled, a reminder of her greatest sin, which had been instilled on the very day that her parents had passed.

  Instilled by the sight of a wraith.

  Evantra let out a soft breath as she closed her eyes.

  The price she had paid for running.

  The worst part about loss was that there was no running away from that. As hard as you tried to run, it followed you like a shade in your shadow, clinging to you with greater fervour the harder you tried to fight it. Haunting and hounding her more than any tremor could.

  Evantra smiled.

  If there was one, single, infinitesimal silver lining to the pain, it was a reminder that she cared.

  Evantra Wraithmarked rose to meet the darkness of the afternoon and to confront her demons.

  To do so, she turned to her bedside table next to her.

  ---

  “I don’t know what to do, Benjamin. I’m, urgh,” Noelle let out a groan of frustration. She had discarded the appearance of the dryad and appeared simply as herself, what she had registered with Second World upon creating an account. They sat at the end of the long, ornate wooden table, framed by giant pillars and darkness beyond them.

  “Inhale slowly through your nose, and exhale through your mouth. As your thoughts come to you, acknowledge them, then let them go, Amitabha. The temptation to go down the roads that present themselves to you will no doubt be strong, but you must resist. In through your nose, out through your mouth.”

  “What if my nose is blocked, Ben—”

  “Acknowledge, and let go.”

  Evantra’s face twitched as she watched their meditation session.

  “Ben… I don’t think Ev— Wraith is ever going to let it go,” her words came out in a whisper, barely perceivable to her. “I helped her out of the Veilsurge… but I still don’t think it’s changed the way that she views me.”

  Benjamin peered at her, opening one of his eyes.

  “Acknowledge, and let—”

  “The moment still stays with me. I ran away. Left her behind. How could she ever trust me to be her techie? I mean… it’s no surprise she distrusts me. Would you trust someone who left you to die?”

  Benjamin hummed before a familiar Wraithkiller SWS appeared in his lap.

  The monk stroked the rifle thoughtfully as he considered her words.

  “Noelle. You cannot force someone to become your friend or to trust you. No matter how desperately you want it, and no matter what you do to earn it. It is something Wraith must come to on her own accord,” the monk said softly. “All you can do is to live by your principles the best that you can. You make mistakes, and so long as you acknowledge them for what they are, you have the potential in you to change. That is a trait that too many lack, blinded by their arrogance.”

  The monk looked up, and his eyes flicked briefly to something behind Noelle, before returning to meet her gaze.

  “If Wraith chooses to be stubborn in her distrust of you, then it is her loss. But she cannot be blamed for approaching your friendship with caution. Trust is not built in a single act, Amitabha. But it can be destroyed in one. Through honesty and vulnerability, perhaps it can be fostered, but you cannot force her hand,” the monk nodded, returning his gaze to Noelle.

  “I would pose another question to you. Why do you so desire her approval? Is your disquiet birthed from the dissonance between her negative perception of you and your image of yourself, and a resulting desperation to correct that? Perhaps there is something more fundamental that is driving you to seek out her reciprocity.”

  Noelle’s eyebrow twitched at the monk’s words, and Evantra was confident that Benjamin’s aim had flown true. Evantra herself had been curious at Noelle’s insistence to befriend her, even if she did have a goal of becoming the techie to a Ghostslayer.

  Seeing her discomfort, Benjamin looked down at the rifle in his arms with a forlorn expression.

  “Perhaps I could interest you in the Wraithkiller Sniper Weapons System? When I fall into despair at the mistakes that I myself have made, that have led to the loss of countless of lives on my hands, I take solace in its artful form.”

  Noelle paused, gaping at the monk’s words.

  “Please inform Evantra that if she would ever like to speak to me, my door is always open.”

  Noelle stared at him wordlessly.

  “E-Evantra? Who’s that?”

  “Oh, forgive me. I meant to say Wraith, silly me!”

  “Ghoulshit, Evantra is going to kill me—”

  “Who’s that?” Evantra whispered into Noelle’s ear, making the girl jump and scream. She stared at her, all colour draining from her face.

  “HEY, Ev— Wraith, w-when did you get here? Why are you… not in your avatar form? Um…”

  “Benjamin? Let’s schedule a chat,” Evantra said to the monk, while her eyes hovered on Noelle. The young man dropped into a short bow with an understanding smile. “Would you excuse us for a minute?”

  “Amitabha Buddha, it would be my pleasure. Non-violence and mercy are tenets in your religion, just as much as they are in mine. Remember Wraith, when emotions are on a high, always ask yourself… what would Jesus do—”

  Benjamin disappeared into a thousand motes of light as Evantra kicked him from the server, exercising the administrator privileges that she shared with Noelle.

  “It seems like Benjamin, in all his profound wisdom, is mistaken about the history of Christianity, wouldn’t you agree, Twig?”

  Noelle blanched.

  ***

  The two of them faced each other silently, Noelle having made the trip down to the church to speak in person. Evantra could see that she was visibly tense, and her body was still covered from the wounds from her delve into the sewers. Prior to their discussion, Evantra confirmed with Noelle that she had done a sweep of their tech and that nothing was bugged.

  Evantra let out a sigh, finally ending the silence.

  “Hey. Thanks for saving me.”

  Noelle stared at her in shock before sputtering wordlessly.

  “Look… I don’t hate you, ok? I just…” Evantra gritted her teeth, physically straining to get the words out, as Noelle listened intently.

  “I’m wary about trusting people. Don’t take it personally. Besides, I know that you saw how I fought, and that you could have ratted me out at any point, but chose not to. Then I learn that you sold your apartment to pay for my treatment. That EZ defender of mine sure has seen a lot of use as well, huh? No wonder you’re so familiar with Trevor, you’ve been putting in some time at the range.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Noelle turned pale as Evantra mentioned the pistol that she had discreetly attempted to borrow. Her voice emerged as a whisper, still tinged with her guilt.

  “I’m sorry. I never meant to leave you behind. I just… loved the idea of helping a Ghostslayer from the comfort of my own home. I’m no good at violence,” Noelle bit her lip, looking like she was on the brink of tears, “that encounter… the moment I experienced the actual thing, I just dropped the ball. I was thinking of it as a game, I can understand if you never want to see me ag—”

  “I need your help.”

  “Huh?”

  Evantra’s eyes were cold as they passed over Noelle. Then she relented, letting out a small breath.

  “I need your help to find the person who killed Millie.”

  Noelle stared at her in silence before she raised the back of her hand to wipe away the tears that dripped down her cheeks. Her gaze seemed to harden, and she seemed to steel herself, before nodding.

  “I understand.”

  “Look, Noelle,” Evantra’s voice softened a degree, even though it took a physical effort to ground out the words. “I would be an idiot to acknowledge that you haven’t tried to make up for what happened. You’ve paid for it twice over. But I need your help with this.”

  “I get it. There’s no one else you have left to turn to; Trevor would never let you look into this himself. Carmen would sooner put a bullet in your he—.”

  “No. That isn’t it.”

  Evantra let out a sigh as she squeezed her temples.

  I hate this. I hate this. I hate this.

  “You’re smart, Noelle. I’ve hit a wall, and I think I need your help. If I really wanted to, I could have just thrown myself at the problem. I’m not turning to you only because of what you have to offer me, alright? Let’s start over. From scratch. Not as colleagues, but as sort-of acquaintances,” Evantra winced as the awkward words tumbled out of her mouth.

  Noelle looked at her in utter shock before she seemed to steel herself with resolve. The girl nodded, her posture shifting as she straightened upright. While she had previously been wary, she seemed to finally relax for the first time in their conversation.

  “Go on… what’s your best guess?” Evantra took a seat in the chair next to Noelle’s. “I’m sure you’ve had your theories.”

  Noelle didn’t miss a beat.

  “The claws, the teethling disappearing with a flash back in the sewers, and the ‘malfunction’ of Panacea’s nanotech treatment. Out of everything, it was the last anomaly that really caught my attention.” Noelle bit her lip, deep in thought. “How you were able to somehow boost its efficiency. Since I wasn’t able to speak to you about it, I just had to make inferences instead. I noticed something interesting during our night raids.”

  “Oh?”

  “When you got into scraps with Veilcreatures, your wounds didn’t heal in the same way when you used the stims we purchased with our expedition fund. I was keeping track.”

  Evantra nodded slowly.

  “I figured that perhaps it was something about Panacea’s products that you had some sort of… affinity for. But I’ve never heard of anyone being capable of directly boosting the efficacy of a healing product in that manner. The top Ghostslayers get bespoke nanotech bots for their expeditions to deal with injuries, and the pace of their healing is much higher than commercial treatment. You were being “serviced” by ordinary hospital-grade bots. It shouldn’t have been possible.”

  Noelle gulped as she met Evantra’s eyes.

  “Then I watched you out heal the decay of a rotstag, while you were on fire, Evantra,” Noelle looked up at her.

  “How did you become a magical girl?”

  Evantra bit down a smile, somewhat unsuccessfully.

  “You’re fucking kidding me,” Noelle whispered under her breath, seeing her reaction. “The girls and guardians are meant to be dead. There hasn’t been a companion that’s appeared to invite someone into the Forces against Darkness in the last half-century! Wait… the Veilsurge?”

  Evantra nodded.

  “Did a companion recruit you?”

  And here we are.

  Evantra let out a slow, long breath. The path before her diverged, and she knew how easy it would be to come up with a little twist of truth, in a vain attempt to guard what happened. She knew without a doubt that it was what she would have done just a week ago.

  “It was a ritual.”

  She heard Noelle’s sharp intake of breath, but instead of running for the holy water, the girl fell into silent contemplation.

  “I came across a dead magical girl sitting at the bottom of this abandoned lab in the UK. They were researching something called Project Darwin – and I haven’t been able to find anything on it.”

  Evantra explained the abilities she gained and the circumstances around her awakening. The strange catalysts that she had found kept in display cabinets in the adjacent room, and how she had conducted the [ritual of consumption] to absorb them. The way that her skills worked – by consuming occult artefacts – or catalysts, as her system labelled them – and completing quests to sacrifice creatures to unlock skills. Then came the matter of unlocking rituals upon completing each set, which she fuelled with Veilsouls.

  Noelle sat dumbfounded throughout her explanation, but she could visibly see the girl sit up straighter, alert throughout her explanation. They sat in silence for a while before the girl finally broke it.

  “You’re broken.”

  Evantra stiffened.

  “Excuse m–”

  “Totally overpowered. Don’t you get it?”

  Evantra paused, slowly nodding her head.

  “You must have realised it too. Other magical girls had access to a narrow range of abilities that they unlocked as they levelled. You seem to have a potentially infinite repertoire. The most significant limiting factor being how many relics you can get your hands on. Second to that is finding the creatures to sacrifice… you were incredibly lucky to have found the ones you needed for the relics on hand, you do know that right? Although there is always the potential for more than one Veilcreature to grant the same skill.”

  Evantra nodded, and she raised an eyebrow as Noelle started whispering under her breath feverishly.

  “Got anything to say?”

  “SO MUCH.”

  Evantra recoiled briefly as the girl burst out at her, her previous worries forgotten.

  “Where do I even start? For one, you’ve barely properly tested the limits of your abilities. You mentioned obtaining Veilsouls but not levelling up when you cleared the Veilsurge with Caliburn’s Ghostslayers… I wonder how far you can stretch ‘assisting’ a kill to obtain experience for it. Beyond that, what if we put you in the cockpit of an Archdemon? Would you gain experience and Veilsouls for every single Veilcreature you killed? Would you gain their souls? What if you set off a nuke? If you pressed a button that deployed a nanite swarm that slaughtered Veilcreatures across a province?”

  Evantra stared at the girl as she continued, providing more horrifying examples of potential modalities of testing the limits of her “system” than was strictly necessary.

  “Then that quest mechanism. Right now it’s pointing you towards creatures that you need to sacrifice… but calling it a ‘quest’ could imply that there’s a broader use for the mechanic. What if there are quests that aren’t just relegated to ‘hunt’ quests to unlock skills? Though we’ll need to look into magical girl quests further for hints about this,” Noelle mumbled under her breath, before she leapt out of her seat.

  “Not to mention, you labelled [stonerooted] as being useless, but have you tried using it but isolating other parts of your body? Keeping it free from the effect of the skill? Are you able to activate your skills to degrees?”

  “Uhh…”

  “If you did that, and timed it correctly, you could make for an exemplary sniper, leaving room for you to pull the trigger the split second you’ve sighted your target, eliminating weapon sway… that synergises excellently with your current stealth abilities, hmm what else,” Noelle continued, her eyes flashing.

  “Your rituals. Have you tried using them on others?”

  “What?”

  Evantra stared blankly at Noelle as the girl raised an eyebrow with an undertone of disappointment.

  “You didn’t even think about the possibility of it, did you? Figures. Cooperating with other people was the last thing that was on your mind. You’ve been using them just like your other skills, but when you think of rituals, they’re external. Blood or whatever other substance drawn in a certain configuration, employing certain sacrifices to empower it – at least, that’s all I know from my limited knowledge.”

  Evantra stared at Noelle, dumbfounded.

  “That aside, your mimicry abilities… you do understand how incredibly broken that is already?”

  “It doesn’t really feel that way—”

  “Heat, sound, scent, your heartbeat – all perfectly negated by [conceal] as well. Do you know how many Veilcreatures use these markers to hunt you down? Invisibility through cybernetic means has its weaknesses, a strong enough electromagnetic pulse. Not to mention your [ritual of concealment], which you haven’t gotten to the bottom of. Activate it.”

  “Now?”

  Evantra asked her incredulously. The girl simply nodded. She pulled out her phone and pointed its viewfinder at Evantra.

  “Noelle…”

  “Relax. I’ve checked it for bugs already. Besides, I’m not taking a photo or video… I might not have to.”

  [Ritual of concealment]

  Veilsouls remaining: 16

  Evantra activated the ritual and watched as Noelle let out a shriek of excitement. Then she did take a picture and showed Evantra the image that had been captured.

  She wasn’t in it.

  She’s a monster. She extrapolated on my abilities instantly, thinking about applications that didn’t occur to me.

  I thought I had taken my abilities nearly as far as I could have.

  Not to mention… her idea of using rituals on others? Would that be possible?

  Darn it Carmen… I hate admitting that you were right.

  As Evantra stared at Noelle Laurent, she felt the pressure on her chest begin to ease. The pain within ebbed for just a moment, as if there was the barest potential that it would ever dissipate.

  For the very first time since Millie’s passing, Evantra felt something else beneath the despair that suffused her. That dragged her down with every step that she walked, a reminder of her failures. Beneath it was the resolve to find the people who had stolen a bright soul away from this dreary, decrepit town.

  To ensure that they received their due.

  Beneath even that…

  Hope.

  “You’ve been going about this the wrong way. We’re going to turn you into the best stealth archer archetype and infiltrator there ever was,” Noelle seemed to be brimming with excitement, until her expression darkened, seemingly recalling something she had forgotten.

  “Well… within reason. It’s more like you shoot and turn into a cabinet before rinsing and repeating. But before that… there’s something you should know about me, if we’re going to do this seriously.”

  Noelle’s face fell, and the infectious curiosity and enthusiasm on display had all but vanished.

  “I’m an heir of Demeteria Agricorporation.”