Cass sagged as the fainted Kohen released her. She didn't have the energy to catch Ahryn, and he fell off his brother's shoulder to the ground beside him.

Was that it?

Had she stopped him?

Carefully, she retracted Soul Guard, drawing it back around herself. Kohen did not stir. She Identified him with trepidation.

Vaisom Noble? (lvl 33)

She didn't love the question mark, but it no longer screamed he was a demon, so she'd take it for now.

As Soul Guard settled around her, the voice of her demonic hunger quieted, and the veil Liminal had placed over her dissolved. She was left with the buzzing of her overdrawn Focus, the pain of her wounds, and the aching of her Health-drained body.

That and a surge of experience.

It washed over her, threatening to drop her to her knees. There was so much of it.

So many paladins had died, and though she had hardly touched any of them, her hand in their deaths was unquestionable. All their lives combined into a torrent of experience, to say nothing of the rewards for their captain's death and defeating a demon.

Level Up!

Level Up!

Level Up!

+ 3 Dex

+ 3 End

+ 3 Wll

+ 3 Ala

+ 12 Free Points

You have reached the Gate! Congratulations!

+ 27 Free Points

Grow further with grace—Gain two additional Free Points per level.

+ 2 Free Points

Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 23.

Wind Step has increased to level 16.

Dodge has increased to level 23.

Stealth has increased to level 14.

Stealth has increased to level 15.

Stormstride Sprint has increased to level 22.

Stormstride Sprint has increased to level 23.

Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 25.

Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 26.

Tempest Blade has increased to level 18.

Soul Guard has increased to level 12.

Soul Guard has increased to level 13.

Soul Guard has increased to level 14.

Soul Guard has increased to level 15.

Soul Guard has increased to level 16.

Mana Sense has increased to level 11.

Mana Sense has increased to level 12.

Mana Sense has increased to level 13.

Beacon of Home and Hearth has increased to level 11.

She'd reached the Gate, level 27. According to this world's logic, she was a proper combatant now, no question about it. Perhaps it had been foolish to have ever pretended otherwise. Liminal hovered on her shoulders, assuring her that she could be without it being her entire identity.

There were so many Free Points to allocate.

Free Points: 41

That was almost 10% of her total stats. She was too tired to do this now. Dropping 4 on the spur of the moment was one thing. Dropping all 41 of these while all she wanted to do was faint was a bad idea. This would probably be the largest chunk of Free Points for a while. She should sit down with Salos to talk about what she needed going into the next bracket of levels before she made any decisions.

How did you do that? Salos asked as he rematerialized next to the boys. That shouldn't be possible.

Cass shrugged. She still wasn't entirely sure what she'd done. Did I fix him?

How would anyone know? Salos asked. That should not be possible. Look at him! His soul looks normal.

So I fixed him, Cass repeated.

You fixed something, Salos agreed. But—

"Ahryn!" the dragonling screamed as she darted back to the center of the cathedral.

"You did it?" Alyx grunted as she limped back over, supported by her dragon. The second dragonling hovered behind her, watching with trepidation. Pellen trailed at the back, looking every bit as tired as Cass.

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Cass shrugged again. "We're all alive." She glanced down at Ahryn. The glow in his skin was entirely gone. The barest spark still flickered in his chest. "For now."

The first dragonling nosed the boy with her snout. "Is he okay?"

Cass bit her lip. "I think he's dying."

"No!" The dragonling glared at Cass, as if Cass could somehow make a difference.

Even Alyx startled. "He isn't just overspent?"

Cass stared down at the boy. If she didn't have this strange soul sight, she would probably agree that the most likely explanation for his state was fainting from a lack of resources.

But she could see his soul. Or what was left of it.

Cass shook her head. "His soul is about to go out."

"His soul?" Alyx repeated, her words stilted in disbelief.

Cass nodded. Was there something she could do for him? Beacon of Hearth and Home, maybe. She rummaged through her Bag, pulling out some of her camping supplies.

"What do you mean his soul is 'about to go out'?" Alyx demanded. "What are you doing?"

Cass held her hand over her firewood and willed a flame into being with Elemental Manipulation. The warmth of Hearth and Home filled the air and settled the buzzing in her body.

Was there anything else she could do?

"Cass!" Alyx grabbed Cass's shoulder.

Cass blinked, focusing back on the present. Alyx asked a question. How to explain? She didn't even really know. More a feeling or an instinct than a well-reasoned explanation.

"I think his soul is spent." The words came slowly as she forced the vague impressions into something approaching reason. "Like your soul has a certain amount of energy? And he's spent it all." Does that sound right?

Abyss if I know, Salos grunted. You are right that souls are made up of a kind of energy—potential—and I suppose, in theory, if you managed to burn it all up, you would die, but it should not be possible to consume it. Unlike Health, which is a resource to be consumed, your potential is a fundamental part of you. It makes as much sense to 'spend' it as it does to spend an arm.

But you can see his soul, too, right? Cass said.

See it? Hardly. Salos grumbled. Feel it oozing and sputtering… Wait. 'Too'? You can see—

"How do we heal him?" the little dragonling asked, dragging Cass back to the immediate issues.

Cass looked at Alyx. "I was hoping that we could get him to a healer of some kind?"

She shook her head. "I've never heard of anyone who can heal soul things. I didn't seriously think soul damage was real."

Now probably wasn't the time to mention that the goddess's blessing had been exactly that.

Actually, wait. Cass frowned, staring through Alyx to her soul. Scars ran over its amber surface, but they were all well sealed. Cass hadn't gotten a good look before—that she could see souls at all was a concern she was pointedly trying to ignore right now, even as she took full advantage of the ability—but Cass would have thought Alyx would still have the injuries from her major blessing.

"What?" Alyx asked, noticing Cass's stare.

Moreover, Alyx's soul had a tether on it. It stretched across from Alyx's chest to Kelstor's, terminating in the dragon's maroon core. Even as Cass watched, a pulse of maroon energy coursed over the connection, rippling through Alyx's before pinging back, now amber, to Kelstor.

She glanced down at Salos. A similar tether ran between them, the energy pulsing between them, fluctuating between the electric blue of Cass's eyes and the gold of Salos's.

Was that an exchange of energy? Could it be that simple?

What had the dragonlings said to her when they'd met again?

"Dragons and their Knights share souls," Cass repeated under her breath.

"What?" Alyx repeated.

"Dragons and Knights share souls!" the little dragonling squealed, her eyes glistening.

"Emenie, don't!" the other dragonling hissed.

"But, Vel!" Emenie whined. "I need to save him. He came for us."

"Aunty's told you a hundred times why you can't pick him!"

Emenie bowed her head.

"Why can't you pick him?" Cass asked. He had a blessing, and frankly, even if he didn't, as long as he just needed soul damage to allow for a connecting point, Kohen had done plenty to the boy.

"He's weak," Velkora said, as if that answered everything.

Cass glanced at Alyx for further explanation.

"A knight's job is to protect their dragon. That is their most important duty," Alyx said.

Cass still didn't see the problem. "He's cleared Uvana, right? He came back from the Catacombs with a blessing? Sure, he's not at the Gate yet, but that's just a matter of time. What's the big deal?"

Alyx sighed. "He didn't 'clear' Uvana, exactly. He accompanied Kohen. He was never expected to do any real fighting. He was just there for the blessings and to get experience for being nearby."

"What? Why?"

"Because he isn't suitable for combat." Alyx sounded tired. "He doesn't have Stamina. It comes out of his Health instead."

"That isn't true," Emenie pouted.

"Wishing it was otherwise won't change anything," Alyx shot back.

"He came to save me," Emenie said. "He saved Lady Mage. He saved all of you."

"He still can't fulfill his duties as a knight," Alyx said.

"You can't pick him," Velkora repeated.

Ahryn's soul flickered in his chest, like a candle in the wind. Any minute now, it would go out. If it was bleeding energy, she might have wrapped it in Soul Guard like she'd done for Kohen to staunch the loss, but this was more like someone had scooped out all the wax of the candle, letting the bare wick burn down to the base. There just wasn't anything left to fuel his soul. And Cass couldn't do anything about that.

An image of the boy and the dragonling curled up in the library sprang to mind. The nights reading children's books to the wind and the starlight, was that not to carry his voice to his precious friend?

"What's more important?" Cass cut in. The answer seemed so simple to her. She stared directly at Emenie as she spoke. "The future combat power you might hold or the life of your friend?"

Emenie looked down. Her claws tapped the glass floor. Her tail swished anxiously.

"No person's life is worth more than a dragon's." Velkora stuck her nose in the air. "We have a duty to our hoard and the city. We can't choose our knights for trivial reasons like our—"

"Ahryn or the city?" Cass cut her off. "If you had to pick, who would you save? Pretend he survives this without you. Pretend you are standing before all the candidates. Which of them would you run to save if they were all in danger?"

Emenie's eyes drifted back to Ahryn.

"If you picked a different Knight, would they let you?" Cass asked. "Would they let you rescue him?"

Emenie's head shook slightly.

"What matters most to you?" Cass asked again. "Why do you care about power? For its own sake or to protect what you love?"

"I understand," the little dragon said.

"Emenie, no," Velkora protested.

Emenie ignored her sister. She curled around Ahryn and nudged his hand onto her snout. She closed her eyes.

A thread spun out from her soul to Ahryn's. It wavered and shook. Cass held her breath.

Alyx sidled up next to Cass. Her hand ran over the pommel of her sword.

"He'll be okay," Cass said.

Alyx stared at the children for a long moment in silence. "Thank you."

Cass shook her head. "I just said what needed to be said."

Alyx opened her mouth, then closed it again.

"What?" Cass asked.

Alyx shook her head. "Nothing. Just useless thoughts. Worries I don't have any right to worry over. Not after the choices I've made."

Cass watched her out of the corner of her eyes. Alyx wore that worry openly on her face. Was she embarrassed to be fretting after nay-saying her younger brother bonding with the dragon?

Alyx's eyes drifted over Kohen. "Is he…"

"I don't know," Cass answered.

"But you knew. That it was him," Alyx pressed.

Cass nodded.

"And you wanted to save him, anyway?"

"Should I have not?"

Alyx stared at her brother. Kohen's purple hair was laced with streaks of startling white, and his skin was still imprinted with what almost looked like maroon bruising. His hands had shrunk from the claws back to something human, but they were longer and thinner than they should have been, the joints bonier.

"I don't know," Alyx said finally. "Once upon a time, I might have had an answer."

Cass couldn't imagine. Couldn't dream of feeling so bitter toward her siblings that the idea of killing them might be preferable.

"Once Ahryn binds—" Alyx was cut off as the building violently shook. Cass kept her feet only thanks to her heightened Dex.

An earthquake? Cass scanned the room for cover. No tables. The door frame was too far away. Could they get out in time?

Wait. Did an earthquake even make sense? The temple was on a floating Spire. A spire-quake then? Did they do that?

Judging from Alyx and Pellen's faces, the answer was no.

"Grab Kohen," Cass said as she swooped down to Ahryn's side.

"Wait! Don't touch Ahryn!" Alyx shouted before Cass could grab the younger boy.

Cass froze. The ground under her continued shaking.

"Moving him could cause the binding to fail," Alyx said.

Cass eyed the ceiling warily. There was a lot of building above them, but Ahryn failing the binding would probably kill him too.

"We can't stay here," Cass said. "This shaking could bring the entire building down on us. How long will it take for him to bind?" It hadn't taken Alyx long during the fight, but she had also been interrupted, and her dragon had forged a bond once already.

Alyx shook her head. "The ceremony takes all night, I've heard. I don't know how much of that is pomp and how much is the actual binding."

The shaking stopped. For now. If it were anything like an earthquake, there would be aftershocks.

"Salos, can you read the integrity of the building?" Cass asked.

Salos's claws scraped against the glass floor. He shook his head. "The glass is too malleable. It doesn't know."

"This is the Temple," Pellen squeaked. "The gods wouldn't just let it get destroyed."

The building shook again. Harder.

Alyx stumbled over, catching herself on Kelstor.

There was a roar. Then another one. And another. Seven in total.

Alyx stared at the ceiling. "The dragons."

"What?"

"My grandmother is here."

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