"Are you certain you've properly connected to the boundary?" Isla asked, her voice doubtful.

"I did everything you told me to," Emma snapped, waving her hands through the glowing crack. "I can see it, but I can't touch it. Are you sure you didn't miss something in your explanation?"

It was more likely that the process simply hadn't worked, but Emma didn't like Isla's implied accusation.

The corners of Isla's mouth turned down in a disapproving frown. "It seems to me that you must have missed a step somewhere in the process. This is the way that the Corvi have closed cracks for millennia—on the rare occasion that they risked their lives to do so, that is. Connecting to the boundary should have given you the ability to interact with it and your lack of sensitivity to Essence should have allowed you to safely complete what the Corvi could not."

Emma took a deep breath, trying to keep in mind that Isla could have quite easily killed her on many occasions, therefore antagonizing the living volcano in front of her likely wasn't a good idea. "I know which step I missed."

Isla raised an eyebrow. "That is good. Then we can try—"

"I'm not a Corvi," Emma interrupted, barely keeping her voice below a shout. "I don't know what made you think I could use their method—" …or that I would be willing to risk my life to do so, Emma added silently. "—but we humans don't go around closing magical rifts on Earth. Most people don't think magic is even real." Emma wasn't actually part of the 'most' in that sentence, but she certainly didn't practice witchcraft. That had always seemed like playing with fire while covered in gasoline.

Isla's frown deepened. "You are both beings of Miasma. How was I to know that your bloodline would be found wanting?"

Emma bit back a nasty retort, making her tongue bleed in the process. "How about we try something else?" she said in as sweet a voice as she could manage. "Given that your initial plan was fundamentally flawed."

Isla frowned at the crack for a long moment, seeming to contemplate Emma's suggestion, then she shook her head. "There is no need for that. We tried; you failed. I supposed you can go through the other crack to join your friends now. You are useless to me if you can't even connect to the boundary properly."

Emma turned back to glare at the boundary crack. She should have jumped on the woman's offer and gone after Britt and the others as fast as possible, but being called useless left a sour taste in her mouth. It didn't matter that the comment came from a stuck-up Elemental who couldn't follow logic to save her life, it hurt Emma's pride.

Emma didn't usually bother with game puzzles. They felt like busy work; running around and reading instructions—or not reading them—hitting boxes until they lit up in the right order; the time was better spent leveling for the next boss fight. That didn't mean that Emma shied away from a challenge. She was usually the first to make a detour if she heard there was an interesting and challenging puzzle on the horizon. The rewards were usually much more substantial and the satisfaction at the end of the puzzle was reward in itself.

There was no prize to be won at the end of this puzzle—unless, of course, one counted the relative safety of Lapis to be a prize—but Emma didn't like the idea of leaving it unsolved; of never knowing if she actually could have fixed the problem here.

It made her doubly annoyed at the Elemental for activating her most powerful motivation: spite.

But how was she supposed to solve a puzzle that she couldn't even touch?

"You needn't glare at it so," Isla said, the benevolent tone falling flat due to the underlying arrogance she exuded. "It isn't the fault of the boundary that you are incompetent in your lineage. Perhaps—"

"Would you shut up for a second?" Emma snapped, tired of hearing about her 'lineage'. "I'm trying to think."

Isla looked more surprised than offended by Emma's outburst. "I seem to have struck a nerve. If this is how you respond to failure, then perhaps it is better that you learned of your fallibility now, rather than later. Call me when you are ready to return to your friends. I am in no hurry." She melted into the wall, leaving the cavern blessedly silent for Emma to focus on the task at hand.

A small part of Emma's brain registered the fact that if Isla chose to leave her there, she would most likely starve to death, but she pushed the thought away, choosing to focus on the puzzle instead, the only changeable thing in her current predicament.

Emma took stock of the situation. She could see the crack. That was certainly a step in the right direction. It made a lot more sense to her now why Britt couldn't ignore the thing. The glow was distracting enough without the constant sway of the threads at the edge of the crack. However, being able to see it didn't let her physically interact with it, which killed her chances of following Isla's plans to tie the ends together and let the crack heal naturally.

Healing… maybe…?

Emma rubbed her chin thoughtfully. The idea was far fetched, but she couldn't think of anything else to try and it was a low-cost attempt in any case. Stretching her hand out—she didn't technically have to do so, but it made it easier to focus on what she was doing—Emma cast Basic Heal on the crack just to test the waters.

Something hummed within the boundary as the crack responded to her efforts, sealing the tiniest amount at the top. Excitement swelled in Emma at the success, and she spammed Basic Heal, overdrafting on Mana and giving herself a headache. She closed her eyes, waiting for the headache to fade before she checked the crack.

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Emma's heart sank. An inch, maybe two, in exchange for the entirety of her Mana pool; she might as well throw a pinch of salt in the ocean for all the progress she had made.

Emma shook her head. No, this was good. She had made some progress, which was miles above staring at an untouchable crack. The healing had done something, but it wasn't particularly effective. Was it a problem with her spell? Or was healing not the right answer?

She rubbed her temples, trying to come up with another plan that hopefully wouldn't end up giving her another migraine.

More.

Emma took a step back, blinking rapidly. Had the crack just talked to her? She wasn't sure she could call it actually talking. The word wasn't as complete as a voice in her head, but rather it was an impression; a need; like the thoughts you get that are so quick they don't even involve images.

The boundary wasn't actually alive, was it? Emma had thought that part was just flavor text; empty words to make the explanation more interesting. It was the kind of legend perpetuated by bedtime stories and campfire tales.

More. The plea came again, accompanied by the impression of searing pain. Emma took another step back, grimacing as she rubbed her arm, having no real outlet for the pain that the boundary was showing her. The boundary wasn't just alive, it was conscious; maybe not conscious enough to have a decent conversation, but enough to ask for help.

Were Rayna here, she probably would have latched on and given everything she had to help the boundary as soon as it asked. She was stupidly empathetic and way too naive. Be it a kitten on the side of the road or a crying child lost at the supermarket, she never could walk away from someone in need. It was one of her best qualities.

Emma tried to be more strategic with her aid. She planned on helping the boundary—especially now that she knew it could feel pain—but she wasn't interested in sitting in front of the crack and spamming Basic Heal for the next three hours. Her first attempt had been ineffective, which meant that the boundary had a relatively low Vitality stat—or it didn't have one at all—so she needed a spell that scaled off of her own stats.

Emma checked her spell list, frustrated by her lack of choices.

(Spell) Basic Heal — heal small injuries such as scrapes and bruises with one cast, or larger injuries such as stab wounds with multiple casts. The number of casts required to fully heal a wound depends on the severity of the injury and the Vitality of the subject.

Cost: 10 MP

HP Regeneration: 100/cast

(Spell) Ring of Sanctuary — heal all subjects within a small area of effect that stays in a single location for a limited duration. Recasting the spell before it has ended repositions the area of effect and refreshes the spell's duration and regeneration. Maximum regeneration cannot stack with multiple casts. The amount of healing per cast scales with the caster's Intelligence stat and their proficiency.

Proficiency: 100%

Cost: 50 MP/cast

Duration: 30 seconds or until the maximum regeneration has been reached

Base Max Regeneration: 3000 HP

Multiplier: 165%

Chance to Instantly Heal an injury: 0.65%

(Spell) Purify — detect and purify sickness within a wound. The effectiveness of the spell scales with the Caster's proficiency and Intelligence stat.

Proficiency: 100%

Cost: 15 MP/cast

Success Rate: 42.5%

(Spell) Lifeline — transfer some of your remaining HP to an injured comrade. The amount of HP to be transferred is chosen by the Caster. The effectiveness of the transfer is determined by both the Caster and the Subject's relative Vitality. Note: if the Caster does not have enough HP to complete the transfer, the spell will fail, and all HP will be returned to the Caster to prevent their death. MP will not be returned to the caster in the event of a failed transfer.

Proficiency: 10%

Cost: 10 MP

HP Conversion: HP transfer * (Subject Vitality/Caster Vitality) * 3

Basic Heal and Lifeline both scaled off of subject Vitality, meaning that the boundary's Vitality being unreadable or near zero would make the spells pretty much useless. That left only Ring of Sanctuary and Purify.

Emma cast Purify to rule out viral or bacterial infection. She wasn't sure if an energy barrier could get infections, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to check. The spell failed twice before she finally hit a negative reading. Even with her Intelligence up to sixty-five points, the success rate was abysmal.

The boundary responded with mild curiosity, pulsing slightly in time with the spells.

"Just ruling it out," Emma said aloud. "You're not sick—at least not in the biological sense—that makes this trauma, not infection."

Emma might not be a doctor, but she had watched enough medical shows to get the gist of how all of this worked—and she had watched enough doctors reacting to medical shows to fill in some of the details they got wrong. She pulled her notebook out to jot down some notes as she waited for her Mana to refill. There was no sense in giving herself a headache just because she was impatient.

Again, the boundary responded with curiosity, apparently unable to read what Emma was writing.

"Just trying to solve the puzzle," Emma said, unsure if the boundary could actually hear her. "Anything you can tell me about—" She gestured with her pen to the crack. "—whatever this is?"

There was no response. Either the boundary had nothing to say, or it really couldn't hear her. Emma shrugged. It was worth a shot.

Emma ended up doodling instead of writing down theories, unable to come up with anything to write in the notebook. That was Rayna's thing anyway.

She tried Ring of Sanctuary next, her AOE Healing spell. Since it scaled with her Intelligence stat, it theoretically would be more effective than Basic Heal had been. Almost as soon as Emma cast the spell, it winked out of existence. She frowned, trying again, but once again, the AOE appeared and disappeared immediately.

"What the hell?" Emma pulled up her notifications, trying to figure out what was going wrong with the spell. Was there some sort of magic-blocking effect in the cave? Basic Heal and Purify had worked just fine, though.

Her two most recent notifications were identical, shedding some light on the scope of the problem before her.

Ring of Sanctuary has reached the limit of its healing capacity.

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