He’s breathing.

  Thank the Gods, he’s still breathing. I pour all of my regeneration into him as fast as I can make it go, and I watch as the stump of his arm heals shut almost painfully slowly. What’s left behind is a scarred mess, but it’s healed. He won’t get any infections or lose any more blood.

  I heal the burn wounds with much more success than the arm. No scars are left behind for those, thank goodness. Regrowing patches of skin doesn’t seem to be the same as regrowing a limb, at least as far as Arcane Regulation is concerned.

  Once I’m done healing him, I put on my cloak. The fires burned away most of my clothes and even one of my boots, so I was almost literally as naked as I could be.

  I’m starting to really hate fire.

  I sidle up next to Scruffy, resting my back on the wall and just… breathe. The sounds of fighting are over, and while I was working several guards came out of the prison. They ask me a few questions, but I just wave them off and tell them to wait for Scruffy to wake up.

  They aren’t happy with my dismissal, but I don’t care. I’m exhausted.

  Thankfully, they take the unconscious woman deeper into the prison, presumably to lock her up. I don’t really care, I’m just happy she’s not my problem anymore.

  After a few moments to catch my breath, I hook his remaining arm over my shoulder and lift him up.

  “Damn, Scruffy. You need to go on a diet,” I grunt.

  Even with my Strength, he’s easily two or three times my size, and I’m still trying to maintain my modesty under an open cloak. It all makes it incredibly awkward to carry him. I manage though, and when I join the Delvers and guards outside the entrance, I find that there are even more people now.

  Priests from the Church wander through the crowds of wounded and dead. Dozens of them, each praying or chanting as they cast healing spell after healing spell. I rush over to one.

  “Hey!” I shout, gathering the attention of a few of them. “Can someone heal his arm?”

  All but one immediately look away from me.

  “We cannot. The High Priest may be able to help you, if you seek him out,” he says.

  Human Clergy

  Level 24

  I scowl at that.

  “Then where is he?” I ask. I do my best not to snap at him, but my voice still comes out cold and biting.

  “He is secluded within the Church, undergoing a communion. He cannot be expected to abandon his holy duties for every little thing,” another pipes in with a sneer.

  Human Clergy

  Level 35

  Disgust and rage roil in my veins. What he really means is that they won’t do it for free. Even in the middle of a city-wide crisis.

  “So he can’t be bothered to—” I start, but then Scruffy stirs on my shoulder.

  “Leave it be,” he says.

  He starts to stand, and I help him. It’s the least I can do after literally dragging him along with me. Still, my mind is filled with hatred. Not healing me all those years ago is one thing. Not healing Scruffy is another entirely.

  “No,” I say, anger lacing my voice. “Once I’ve made sure everyone I care about is okay, you’re coming with me to the Church.”

  He meets my glare with a smirk.

  “Whatever you say, kid,” he says, then he ruffles my hair.

  Last time he did that, I was too stunned at his audacity to do anything. This time I growl and glare at the offending appendage. Just as I raise an arm to start swatting him, Cari slams into my side with a crushing hug.

  “You’re okay! Thank the Gods. I was telling the Guild Master what happened to you, and then the explosions started! I was so worried that—mmph!” she rambles, and I cut her off with a hand over her mouth.

  “Yes, thank you Cari. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a giant to beat up,” I say, returning my gaze to Scruffy.

  He laughs uproariously for a few moments before his eyes widen and he suddenly becomes more serious.

  “I need a favor, Emilia,” he says.

  For a moment I’m confused, but I shove it to the side. He lost an arm for me, even if he might not have needed to worry. As stoic as he was being about it, I could see the hurt in his eyes. The last I could do is hear him out.

  So I nod.

  “I need someone to investigate their base now that the leaders have been dealt with. I would go myself, but I have to get back to work organizing the guard. It will be a while before I can get a team together to check it out. You, though…” he trails off, and I understand what he means.

  By the time he gets around to sending a squad or two of guards to investigate, the place will have been abandoned. I can handle whatever dregs of the gang are left behind, and I could go now. The moment I start to nod again, Cari pipes up.

  “I’m going with you,” she says, pulling back from the hug.

  I eye her for a moment, but her face tells me everything I need to know. She isn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer.

  “Fine… where are we going, Scruffy?” I sigh.

  It only takes a moment for him to explain where they were set up. It’s in some abandoned warehouse in the same district as the orphanage.

  “You can’t miss it. Just about everything around it is burned to the ground,” he says as we set off.

  We move quickly, but Cari’s version of 'quick’ isn’t fast enough, so I sweep her up into a princess carry.

  She squeals with surprise, then with delight the moment I start sprinting down the winding streets toward our destination. I make sure the orphanage is still standing as we pass by, and am satisfied when I see the area completely unharmed by the chaos in the city.

  The closer we get, the more destruction we see. Everywhere we look is collapsed buildings, blackened by fires that went out long ago. When we finally reach the warehouse, it’s just like Scruffy said.

  It’s the only building still standing in the entire block. It still looks as if it’s caught fire a few times, with much of its surface blackened by fire and ash. I quickly set Cari down and we move silently to investigate.

  There isn’t anyone guarding the place though, on account of them being dead at the doors. Three bodies lie on the stone, each with slit throats and stab wounds.

  The massive doors lay open somewhat, wide enough to let several people come and go without issue. Inside, I can make out countless crates. They’re huge, and when we step through the door, our eyes peeled for anything living, I find that the crates were re-purposed into simple living spaces.

  Makeshift stairs and ladders can be seen all over the place, giving paths from one level of crates to the next. Several have holes cut into them, or have sides missing entirely, and within are beds, tables, shelves, and more. It looks like the gang really settled in here.

  The crates fill almost the entire right side and center of the room. The left is filled with tables and what looked like a poor man’s attempt at a bar. All throughout the space is easily another fifteen bodies, each killed in a similar manner to the ones out front.

  With my enhanced senses, I hear the shuffling of papers from a cracked open door on the left wall. Through the crack, light flickers about, as if there’s a fireplace lit within. I indicate the door to Cari, and she nods. We creep up to it and I peek inside.

  It looks like a fairly standard office, except for the fire blazing on the floor and the figure covered head to toe in black leathers, tossing books and papers into it.

  Human Rogue

  Level ??

  It only takes a second to understand that they're destroying evidence.

  I barge through the door, Cari fast on my heels, and detonate a small Blood Burst behind the their head. Sense Danger explodes in my mind, and instead of my attack surprising them, their body flares with mana as they throws a dagger at me in the same instant.

  It whizzes through the air too fast for me to dodge completely, but I'm not alone. One of Cari’s ghostly tentacles swats it from the air right before it can slam into my chest. Suddenly, they're right in front of me, holding the same dagger and stabbing towards me with it.

  I manage to get my arm up in time to block, but the dagger punches through my flesh easily. They yank it out with a vicious twist, then there’s another flare of mana and they vanish. I hear a gasp from behind me, and I turn to find them burying the dagger in Cari’s gut.

  I start to turn in the hopes of saving her, but I stumble. My vision is blurry, and getting worse fast. In the same moment I realize I’ve been poisoned, I collapse to the ground, watching Cari stare wide eyed at the man in front of her.

  With a grimace, she summons another four tentacles that all lash towards him. That’s when he rips the dagger out through her side. Her spell fizzles as she crumples to the ground with a wheeze, clutching her side as she tries to hold herself together. She stares at me from where she lay, eyes filled with fear and pain.

  No, no, no!

  I’ve already shoved all of my regen into healing, and it's making quick work of the poison. I'm still terrified I won’t be fast enough.

  The Rogue doesn’t even bother to finish us off. They glance back towards the quickly growing fire before quietly limping through the door, over Cari’s body.

  I scream in my mind, panic filling every inch of me as I command my body to move over and over. All I have to do is touch her, and I can save her. Again and again, I will myself to move, until finally—my arm twitches.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Then it shifts, weakly at first. The healing is working though, and in no time at all both arms are moving, dragging me towards her. It takes several precious, horrible seconds to reach her, and she’d stopped breathing a second ago.

  But then my hand is on hers, and I immediately push every drop of regeneration her way. I don't care about the poison left in my system. It isn't enough to kill me.

  The instant my mana flows into her, I can feel her.

  She’s alive. But only barely.

  My healing keeps her that way for an agonizingly long time. I end up shifting a sliver of my natural health regen back to myself, and I slowly grow stronger. Thanks to Poison Resistance and having already healed myself so much, even a trickle of healing is enough for me.

  It takes a few seconds, but I manage to stand and scoop Cari into a princess carry. I feel weak, but even now I'm still far stronger than before I had the System. It's more than enough to salvage what I could.

  Looking around, I find the fire crawling up the walls of the room, spreading far too fast to be normal fire.

  As quickly as I can without dropping Cari, I move towards the papers they'd thrown into the fire and use Mana Surge, hoping that it might actually do something. Every fire within arms reach vanishes instantly as mana explodes from my body in a wave, along with ten percent of my mana pool.

  Luckily, that's only five percent of what is stored in my tail, so I still have plenty to work with. As soon as I feel confident, the fires outside of my Skill's range quickly close back in, trying to reclaim its lost territory.

  I use my foot to shift the smoking papers into the Starlight Bangle's storage before the fires can reclaim them, but I only get a few before I can’t fit any more.

  I still have dozens of bodies within, taking up all of the space.

  I dump them. I have them appear to my side and kick each one away with a grunt. The pile grows quickly, but I don’t care. Even the scent of burning flesh doesn't distract me.

  Once done, I store the rest of the burning papers, ignoring the fire that eats away at my leg. Next, I move to the large chest he was pulling the papers from.

  It’s still open, and there are thrice as many documents inside it as there were in the fire. I try to store the whole chest, and thankfully it works without issue. So I do the same to the shelf with all of its books. Then the desk and all of its papers as well, just for good measure.

  When I’m done, more than half of the mana stored in my tail is gone. And I still have to get us out of here.

  Even with so much smoke billowing around us, my skill dispels it as well, giving us fresh air to breathe with each cast.

  Most importantly, Cari is breathing again. She’s stabilized enough that she doesn’t need all of my regeneration to heal. I still give her all but my own natural health regen, so I can at least start to heal my new burns.

  Then I run, hugging her close to my chest, back the way we came. The fire rages around the door frame, and I can hear the creaking of wood above us as the ceiling threatens to collapse. Another mana burst, and the doorway is clear—for a moment.

  It’s all I need.

  We’re out of the office and I’m sprinting through the warehouse, running from the fire that almost seems to chase me as I go. Its already spread to the entire wall connected to the office, and was rapidly expanding along the floor to the crates.

  By the time it reaches the main doors, I’m sprinting through them, a wave of heat on my tail. There’s a loud creak, then the sound of wood squealing as it finally surrenders to the fires and collapses. Looking back, I see the entire left half of the building crumple.

  There’s a wave of heat, fire, and ash as it does, billowing out and towards us. I keep running, not wanting to find out if the Rogue is still around. I watch as the fires try and fail to spread to the nearby burnt husks of buildings, and I’m happy to see it.

  At least the entire city isn’t going to catch fire.

  I decide to head back to the city square, as it’s closer than the prison where I last saw Scruffy. The Priests have no doubt found their way to the square as well, so they can take another look at Cari.

  I may hate most of them, but they were still the best Healers we had.

  Scruffy is in front of the guard house, shouting orders to guards as they come and go. It’s a chaotic mess, but he seems to be in his element. But the moment he sees Cari and I, his scowl softens.

  A lone Priest approaches me and casts a few spells on Cari, probably assuming she was still injured thanks to me carrying her. I’m honestly relieved I didn’t have to ask them to check on her.

  He gives me a quick smile and nod before turning away to help someone else, and I finally let out a sigh of relief. Sure, my skill told me she was alive and mostly well, but it didn’t tell me anything else. I didn’t know if the poison was still active in her system, or if she was in a coma, or…

  Well, it doesn’t matter anymore. She’s okay. That’s what matters.

  “What happened?” Scruffy asks.

  His voice snaps me back into the moment. I didn’t notice him approach us, my focus entirely locked onto Cari and her wellbeing. I quickly tell him what we found, and he takes me into the guard house.

  We stop for a moment in one of the side rooms a floor below his office, and he directs me to place Cari on the cot inside. Gently, I lay her down and tuck her under the surprisingly soft blankets.

  For a moment I just lean over her, touching my forehead to hers and close my eyes to listen. Her breathing is smooth and stable. Calm. Her heart beats a steady rhythm without a single stutter. And when I open my eyes to search her face, her skin is flushed with color.

  Scruffy gives me the time, though I can easily see he is impatient to learn more. I still don't want her to leave my sight.

  A few moments later, I leave with him, heading up to his office for the second time today. This time, I have a feeling that he won’t be trying to arrest me.

  “Where’d you stash the papers?” he asks, and I tense.

  I look around the room for the most open space available, and after quickly closing the door behind me I make my way over to it. Then I unceremoniously withdraw everything I’d gathered at the warehouse from my storage and set it all on the floor.

  The loose papers I set back within the chest, but I leave it open. Many of them are charred, but many more are still half legible. When I turn back to Scruffy, he’s giving me a look of surprise. But the moment he sees me glaring, he holds his hand up in surrender.

  “Alright, alright. Not my secret to tell anyways. Thank you for this, Emilia. Truly,” he says.

  “It’s the least I could do after you went and lost an arm for me,” I say, then my face twists with rage. “But we’re not even. That fucker hurt Cari bad, and I’m not going to let him get away with it. If you find anything, and I do mean anything, Tolsted, you find and tell me immediately.”

  I’m barely holding the rage back at the mere memory of what happened to Cari. My use of his name coupled with my gaze seems to work, though, as he immediately nods.

  “Of course. You will be the first person I tell, I promise you that. Now, if you’d like, you can stay with your friend for as long as you’d like, but I need to get back out there and—” he says, stopping to look towards the opening door.

  Cari stands there, leaning on the frame, groggy but lucid. She’s holding her side with one arm, as if the wound were still there, and when I meet her gaze she gives me a weary smile.

  She takes a step towards me and stumbles.

  Then I’m by her side, well before she starts to fall, supporting her under her free arm and holding her by the waist. She turns slightly and practically crumples into me, leaning her full weight against mine. Her head rests on my shoulder, and I almost don’t catch what she says.

  “We have to tell Folly…” she says, her voice weak and raw.

  I give Scruffy a look, and he nods before making a shooing motion with his hand.

  “I’ve still got work to do. Go,” he says.

  I don’t need to be told twice. For a second, I try to support Cari in walking with me, but she’s practically asleep on her feet. So once more, I scoop her up. The moment I do, she tucks her head into the crook of my neck and goes entirely limp, falling asleep instantly.

  It doesn’t take me long to make it to the Guild, but the moment I step through the doors, things feel... wrong. Strewn across a table in the center of the room, surrounded by several Delvers and the Guild Master himself, is a man more bloody than anyone I’d seen today.

  He’s missing an arm, but it’s been crudely wrapped in cloth and looks to have stopped bleeding days ago. Guild Master Folly sees me, and waves me over urgently. He’s grim-faced, almost anxious. Something is very off here, but I can’t tell what.

  “Emilia,” he says. “Can you heal him?”

  I nod as I approach. When he offers to hold Cari for me, I reluctantly pass her over to him. He holds her gently, like a father holding their child, but I still almost don’t let go.

  She’s family, and I already lost one of those.

  Still, I manage to push through my fears and move around the table to the side where he still has an arm and settle into the seat. I set my hand atop his forearm and activate Arcane Regulation, letting my regeneration flow.

  As his wounds visibly close, I notice him start to relax, and everyone around me lets out a sigh of relief. Then his clenched fist opens, and I pale at the sight of what he’s holding.

  A fragment of smooth white stone, slick with blood. Attached to the back of it is a sliver of flesh, twisted and glowing an angry red. The entire fragment is covered in the most intricate rune carvings I’d ever seen.

  They coil around the bit of flesh, still writhing as they carve into it with some unknown purpose.

  And I knew exactly where it came from.