They had won. Cass kept repeating to herself as she left the corpse of the queen to Alyx and the other martials. Too many were injured. Too many were dead.

And they didn't need to be. If Kohen had just stepped up sooner. If she had just—

She shook her head. She didn't want to think about that. Better to focus on what she could still do.

She found Hess in the defense's center, a fire pit prepared but not yet lit. His apprentices were laying out tables and cots, the tables laden with bandages and herbs, the cots clean and orderly.

Without a word, Cass ignited the firepit with a burst of Elemental Manipulation. Beacon of Hearth and Home flickered to life. The ice over the ground softened.

"Miss Mage, you should rest," Hess said. "Leave this part to us."

She could feel Salos's agreement at her side.

Cass shook her head. "You need all the hands you can get."

Hess frowned. "There are other hands."

"Tell me what you need," Cass insisted.

He sighed and assigned her to prepare the healing poultice to be spread over the injured's wounds. It was simple busywork. Anyone could have done it. Mostly just chopping or crushing herbs. An apprentice mixed them together over the fire and strained out the solids periodically to be mashed again.

Others collected up the injured, laying them out over the cots. A lot were clearly combatants, injured fighting the monsters. Too many were clearly not.

They would be okay, Cass repeated to herself. Beacon of Hearth and Home was burning brightly around them. Hess and other volunteers were quickly treating them. There were plenty of supplies.

Most would pull through.

Behind her, she could feel Alyx still speaking to the caravan master. The other big-shot martials and a few important merchants were there too. And Kohen. They were discussing what would happen next.

They would make camp where they were. The wagons were damaged. The martials, exhausted. They couldn't move if they wanted to. With luck, the noncombatants would get the wagons into a movable state by the morning. They'd have a skeleton watch over night. There wasn't the manpower for more.

Eavesdropping was easy when Atmospheric Sense picked up everything.

"You sure you shouldn't be resting?" Hess asked as he picked up the next batch of mashed herbs and more bandages from the table.

Cass nodded. "I want to help."

"You have already, you know?" He glanced at the queen's corpse beside the wagon wall.

All Cass could see was the broken wagons behind the rhynselk. Fresh frustration bubbled to the top.

So many were dead or injured because they couldn't hold that wall.

Because Kohen had refused to help.

Because she hadn't forced him sooner.

"Well, thanks, either way," he said. "But remember to take care of yourself too."

She nodded. She was fine, just tired.

He took his supplies and returned to treating the injured.

They were only alive because of Kohen.

Because she'd commanded Kohen.

Her stomach churned.

A part of her insisted it had been the only choice. He had planned to run, leaving everyone else to die. He probably would have gotten himself killed in the attempt.

Only he had a skill that could keep the monsters out of their defenses.

He hadn't even been hurt.

But he could have been, another corner of her brain whispered. A surge of rhynselk could have come through then. The queen could have trampled him. He could have died.

Under the influence of her Command would he have been able to defend himself? Could he have backed off to wait for an opportunity to get to the walls safely?

Or would he have died attempting to fulfill her orders?

And how did the morality of her Commanding him change because he wasn't hurt? Why should it change because it was 'necessary'?

Why was she even sure it had been necessary?

How sure was she that there was no one else with a skill like his? How sure was she that there wasn't something else she could have tried?

What if she'd set up stone spikes ahead of time? What if she'd reinforced the wagon walls ahead of time? What if she'd used Confounding Mists instead? She could have burned Health to fuel it if she had to.

She shook the thousands of alternative actions aside. Their existence was irrelevant. She couldn't change what had happened.

She had Commanded Kohen.

It wasn't like this was the first time. She'd had no problem pushing him around the other night at the banquet. She'd made him shut up the first night of the caravan. Was it really worse here?

Or maybe she shouldn't have been Commanding him around then either.

She'd Commanded Salos too. On accident once. A second time to save him.

She couldn't imagine doing it to him again.

She shouldn't have this power. No one should have this power.

She stared up at the darkening sky. The stars were drowned out by the roaring campfire and the rising smoke. Her body shook, though she wasn't cold.

You are thinking something strange, Salos commented. He had materialized on her shoulder.

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

She shook her head, trying to focus on her hands and the herbs she was mashing.

What's wrong?

What wasn't wrong?

You saved the caravan, he tried. You couldn't save everyone, but many more would have died if we'd run.

That was true. Yet it was an empty comfort. Was she supposed to be glad things weren't worse? Should she be happy that with one Command she'd kept the worst possibility from coming to pass?

Salos sighed. You can't expect to save everyone.

Her hands clenched. The dead weren't even her primary worry. Her stomach turned. Was she just used to death already? Was she already numb to it?

Her skin crawled, her guts twisted. She didn't want to be here. The wind pulled at her clothes. It whispered that she should not delve any deeper.

Her mind asked the question anyway: How many had died? How many had she failed to save? How many did the people around her consider an acceptable or expected loss?

She didn't want the answers. There was no number that would make her feel better.

If she had thought to Command Kohen earlier, could she have saved them all?

She winced at the thought, shoving it away. How could she have justified doing that to him before things had gotten desperate?

Cass, talk to me, Salos pressed. You are not responsible for this caravan. No one here was unaware of the risks and the dangers.

I know that. Cass's eyes squeezed shut. She knew that the events of today were nothing compared to everything that had come before.

Then what—

Everything, Salos, Cass interrupted. It's everything.

Salos stared up at her, his gold eyes wide and consuming.

She looked away. The wind gusted. Smoke billowed into her eyes, making them water.

She blinked away her tears. She didn't want to cry. She was upset, but not that upset. It was just the smoke.

She had no reason to cry. No one she knew had died. Not that many strangers had died either.

She had Commanded Kohen, but why should that upset her? She hadn't been the one Commanded. It wasn't her will that had been disregarded. What right did she have to be upset about it?

She hadn't even had to kill anyone today. A cathedral of corpses materialized before her eyes.

She shoved her feelings into the corner, with everything else. The pile teetered. It threatened to collapse.

She ignored it.

I'm fine. She rubbed her face on her sleeve.

Salos nodded, but she could feel his reservations over their bond. Just as she could feel he was at a complete loss as to what to do about her.

God, he must think she was a sulking child, naïve and fragile.

She wanted to say something else. Something that would put his mind at ease, even if she was still a wobbling mess.

Instead, she checked her notifications.

Level Up!

+ 1 Dex

+ 1 End

+ 1 Wll

+ 1 Ala

+ 6 Free Points

She'd leveled up. Clearly, she needed it. She'd thought she could handle whatever this world threw at her. She forced herself to keep staring at the status window. To not let her eyes wander to the row of bodies along the wagon walls.

With reaching the Gate, she got 2 more Free Points per level, for a total of 6, on top of the points to specific stats she had already been getting. There were enough free points she could put a point in every stat every level now and still have one left to double up on something.

She was pretty sure that wasn't what she wanted to do with them, but it was an option.

She pulled up her current stats as she debated where to put them.

Str: 27 Dex: 71 End: 52

Wll: 101 Ala: 91 Res: 70

Frt: 28 Per: 41 Vit: 40

Free Points: 6

If she had more Will, would her stone walls have held better? If she had more Alacrity, would she have pulled them up faster? Could she have saved more people?

Wll: 101 -> 104

Ala: 91 -> 95 (Pre-bonus Ala: 76 -> 79; +21% Bonus)

Good enough. She could think about her next level more carefully.

She kept reading her notifications.

Staff Mastery has increased to level 16.

Dodge has increased to level 24.

Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 27.

Tempest Blade has increased to level 19.

Tempest Blade has increased to level 20.

Identify has increased to level 16.

Beacon of Hearth and Home has increased to level 12.

Herbal Concocting has increased to level 8.

Elemental Manipulation has reached the Gate! Congratulations!

[Your repeated innovative use of Elemental Manipulation has opened choices.

1. Gain Skill: Stone Spears (lvl 18), Keep Elemental Manipulation (lvl 18)

2. Gain Skill: Arctic Shroud (lvl 9), Keep Elemental Manipulation (lvl 18)

3. Gain Skill: Firmament Manipulation (lvl 9), Forsake Elemental Manipulation

4. Keep: Elemental Manipulation (lvl 27)]

A small smile quirked across her face. Elemental Manipulation had followed her across the Gate. She should celebrate. Later. Tonight was too somber for that.

Either way, she needed to pick one of these options, and that would be easier if she knew what she was picking from.

Stone Spears (lvl 18)

[Why bring your weapon to your opponent when your opponent is more than happy to bring themselves to you? Turn your opponent's power against them with the stone's unyielding nature.

Draw spears of stone from the ground around you. The force an opponent applies against the spear is multiplied by a factor of your Wll.

Modified by Wll.

Focus Cost: +3 (dependent on size and number)]

Arctic Shroud (lvl 9)

[Most would search out a safe harbor in such a storm, but for you, the howling winter is the sanctuary you seek. Wear the storm as an extension of your will.

Surround yourself in freezing air and ice, slowing and sapping the Stamina of all caught in your storm.

Boosts the effects of cold-related skills.

Modified by Wll.

Focus Cost: 18/minute]

Firmament Manipulation (lvl 9)

[Your magic bends toward the firmament above. The stars and celestials call to you, and your soul calls back.

Attune your focus to the firmament to summon and/or control its forces.

Modified by Wll.

Focus Cost: 10 Focus (summoning), additional Focus per second based on commands given.]

They were three very different skills, with three very different purposes.

Stone Spears was clearly a codification of the way she had used Elemental Manipulation against the thunderback boar, among other monsters. Choosing that skill sounded like it would be more Focus efficient and add additional bonuses. If it worked the way she thought it would, it was a powerful skill to use on heavy, oversized enemies or enemies hitting well over her weight class.

With this skill, she might have been able to keep the rhynselks out on her own. Perhaps there wouldn't have been a need to involve Kohen at all.

Arctic Shroud looked like it might have been influenced by her recent experiments with freezing water with Elemental Manipulation, and perhaps the way she sapped away the paladin's Stamina to hold them in place. This skill would accentuate the speed advantage she already had thanks to her Dex and Wind Concept, especially in close-quarters combat. Between this and Dodge, would any enemy be fast enough to hit her?

It would probably synergize with her Storm Body Trait too, which had to be a good thing.

The downside was she didn't have any 'cold-related' skills right now, and she wasn't sure if she would, given one of her Concepts was Hearth. It also sounded like everything besides herself would get slowed by the effects of the skill, including her friends. Confounding Mists had a similar problem, and that restricted the skill's use quite a lot.

Firmament Manipulation was likely a specialization of Elemental Manipulation toward forces like astraum. Cass had seen how powerful that had been. In a way, it was probably a direct upgrade to Elemental Manipulation. Cass could imagine there were probably things like 'sun fire' or 'meteor summoning' to replace summoning 'mundane' fire or stone manipulation, respectively. Cass had no illusions that these would be much more powerful attacks.

But Elemental Manipulation wasn't a combat skill. And she wasn't sure she needed it to be. Would she have escaped her prison/storage room without Elemental Manipulation? Would she have survived Uvana without it?

Would the combat potential of Firmament Manipulation have been enough to make the difference?

As she was contemplating whether to take one of these skills or let Elemental Manipulation hit level 27, an unpleasant face walked up to the fire, his lime eyes fixed on her.

She closed her eyes, hoping he'd keep walking.

"Miss Cass," Tiador said.

She suppressed a sigh. What could he possibly want?

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