The gorger’s attack was relentless. Hump screamed as its icy will invaded his body, forcing its way to his core like tendrils of frostfire. Hump threw up his own walls of will, reinforced by his terror. While the gorger’s strength surpassed his own, it was not overwhelming. It was the way it used its power that left Hump barely able to resist. It coiled around his core, cutting off the rest of his body until he could no longer feel it. The world fell away beneath its onslaught, and he found himself adrift, a spot of light within a dark void. His screams faded into something distant. There was only the bone chilling, soul wrenching cold, worming its way deeper into his soul.

Around him, at the edges of the void, cracks appeared. Essence red like rotting flesh seeped in, hungering for him, diving for the very core of his being—the life essence the gorger so craved. Its power stabbed at him, twisting its way through the cracks and seeping deeper.

A battle of wills was taking place within him, and bit by bit, he felt himself losing ground.

His will exploded from the light at the centre of the void, streams of essence flowing out to the cracks, sealing them shut, forcing out this foreign essence. It was like fighting off a flood. Where he filled one gap, another opened, and more of the gorger’s power exploded through the gaps. Each time the pain grew, the gorger siphoning off his strength and left behind ice. Each time the cold penetrated deeper. He could feel his power falling moment by moment, the light of his soul growing smaller, condensing in on itself as if it could somehow hide.

When he thought his strength was gone, and the last vestiges of will had faded, he felt a warmth welling from within.

A roar shook the void.

The wisps of sickly essence were swept back as a wave of lighting-blue burst from him, sweeping back the tendrils of the gorger’s essence, and shutting the cracks. For a moment, Hump sensed the parts of him the gorger had taken. His body was still there, his mind was still there, and he was still alive.

It lasted only for a moment before the gorger came at him again, seeking to devour him. He fought back—not through courage or even desperation, but because he had no other choice. There was nothing left if his soul was consumed. He would be gone. A fate worse than death.

Each time his focus faltered, and his will failed, that same burst of life exploded from his core. It rebuilt the foundations that defended his soul, matching the gorger’s icy will with fire. Its roar reverberated through Hump, a reminder that he was not entirely alone. He was not facing an almighty power that was beyond him, just a starving spirit, corrupted by its own hunger. He could resist it.

When the pain finally receded, Hump couldn’t tell whether minutes, hours, or days had passed. Conscious thought left him, and then even the void was gone.

***

Hump awoke to the sound of a door slamming shut. The entire chamber echoed with it, and he felt a surge of panic rising in him. His heart hammered. He scrambled back against the wall behind him, as if that gave him some semblance of shelter. He was alive. He was still sane—at least he thought he was. Gods above, was this his fate now? To be tortured until the gorger was done with him?

He took a few moments to calm himself, fighting back the rising panic. Focusing on the rhythm of his breath.

Think like a wizard. Assess your surroundings.

He was on the ground now, chained by the ankle to the floor rather than the ceiling by his wrists and neck. That was an improvement at least. The bars of his cell remained, giving him a view of the room beyond rather than just a stone wall. It was more like a cavern than a castle. There was only a faint red light, growing stronger as footsteps echoed closer.

He fixed his sights ahead, waiting for the gorger to appear from the darkness. He refused to let it see his fear. He was all for cowardice when it suited him but appearing weak before the beast would only make his situation worse.

Instead, it was the woman that appeared before the bars of his cell. Her adventurer’s medallion hung around her neck, shown off as if she was the gorger’s prized trophy. Her clothes were filthy, and she was so thin Hump was amazed she could walk. She didn’t look up at him as she opened the gate and stepped inside. Hump watched her nervously the entire time, arms ready to defend himself from a sudden attack. Instead, she held out a small, green chip that glowed faintly in the dark.

“You want me to take this?” Hump asked.

Her face was a blank slate. He sighed when no answer came—there would be no help from her.

He took the chip anyway, eyeing it curiously. It was no bigger than a fingernail, yet he could feel energy within. It wasn’t much, but he could only see it as some sort of sustenance. He put it on his tongue and felt the crystal dissolving, leaving a bitter taste on his tongue like the charred scrapings at the bottom of a pan. Warmth swept through him, spreading to the rest of his body. It wasn’t filling—if anything it made him hungrier—but it was nourishing.

The woman started to walk away, her footsteps perfectly even. More like a golem made of flesh than a person now. Hump wondered how long the gorger intended to keep her, or would it be until her body gave out? There was no way their physical bodies could survive on these chips for long if that was all it fed her.

She opened the gate to his cell to leave.

“Wait!” Hump called, suddenly terrified of being left alone.

She didn’t. She was already out and closing the gate. He pressed a hand to his head, thinking. There had only been one woman in the adventuring party. Bud had gone through the list with him when they’d returned from Lakewood, though he’d hardly been listening.

“Lucile,” Hump said in a moment of enlightenment. “That’s your name, isn’t it? You’re Lucile.”

She hesitated, her eyes meeting his for the first time, before she turned and left.

It had been enough.

Hump found himself smiling. There was still a part of her left. Something in her had responded to her name. The gorger had said it hadn’t drained her of her soul, only nibbled on it. She was more than a flesh puppet. That lit a fire in his heart.

Hump spent several hours working on the chain that bound him with every spell he could think of. Fire Blast had been his first mistake—all he’d achieved was an ankle burn. He managed to scrape together enough dirt from the ground to create a stone, but neither Rockshot or his supreme technique of smashing the hell out of it had worked. There was no bolt, no keyhole. It was a solid ring of metal, which meant he either had to break it or chop off his leg. And he was rather fond of his leg…

Hump realised his mistake the moment the door opened next. He’d exhausted himself. The little sustenance he’d gained from the chip had been wasted on his efforts, and now the gorger had come for him.

It peered at him through the iron bars, its eyes curious. “You still haven’t given up hope?”

Beside it, Lucile opened the gate to his cell.

“Wizards don’t hope,” Hump said. “We cross our fingers.”

It tilted its head in that strange gesture. “Why?”

Hump shrugged. “For good luck.”

It went from curious to grinning in an instant, ivory teeth gleaming like blades. “I think it’s a little late for that.”

It stepped inside, its footsteps light despite seemingly being made out of something like stone or clay.

Hump glared up at it with what he hoped was defiance. “You haven’t broken me yet.”

“Whether I break you or not, it makes no difference. You are a snack before I arrive in your world for the feast. You are interesting though. I have not encountered a soul like yours before. By all appearance, you are weak, yet at the core of you there is a pool of such vitality.”

“I can help you,” Hump said quickly. “You need a caster for the gateway ritual, don’t you? That’s why you took all the townsfolk too, isn’t it? They’re to be sacrificed for the spell.”

“You would turn on your own kind just like that?”

“They’re going to die anyway,” Hump said.

The gorger laughed—or at least, as close to a laugh as the creature could. It reverberated with essence, echoing out from the cavern of its mouth. “I do not need your help. The veil between worlds is weakening thanks to the meddling of your people. None can stop me.”

“My world isn’t as great as it looks,” Hump said, grasping at straws. “You’ll be hunted down. The gods will send their Chosen. Help is already on its way, and believe me, they won’t stop coming while you’re a threat.”

“No,” the gorger sneered, leaning closer to him. “They can try to hunt me, but they will not find me.”

“Are you sure you can be so confident?” Hump asked. “You’ve been in the minds of other humans. You must know how powerful the Chosen are. I know the world. Wizards spend their lives avoiding the attention of the gods. I can help you too.”

The creature raised its arms and chains dropped from the ceiling with a chink, wrapping around Hump’s wrists.

Hump pulled back, heart racing, but he was already in its trap. “No!”

The chains dragged him up, raising him until he was almost off the ground. They cut into his wrists like knives, blood running down his arm. The gorger ran a finger across the blood, turning it dry just from its touch. It breathed deeply, soaking in the life that flowed through it.

“Delightful, but there is only so much life in flesh.” It tasted the final word, dragging it out like a snake. “My confidence is not misplaced, human. I can mould my body to any shape, I merely need the perfect clay.”

Hump’s eyes were wide. He shook at his chains, but they were too strong. He hung there, limp and useless, completely at the gorger’s mercy. Yet something about what the gorger said struck a chord with him. “The townsfolk aren’t for the gateway, you want to use them to create a body.”

“Shhhh.” The gorger pressed its hand against Hump’s chest. “Enough now.”

Hump braced himself for what was about to begin.

“Let the feast commence.”

And then there was pain.

***

There was no getting used to the torture. The gorger came for him daily, at least, that’s how it felt. In the dark it was impossible to tell how much time passed between visits, and Vivienne had said time flowed differently in this realm. He’d lost a lot of muscle. The chips Lucile brought him did next to nothing for his body. They kept him alive, and that was all.

Hump didn’t waste his time in the dark though. Each time the gorger left him; he turned his focus inward. While his body decayed, his soul was changing. It was growing stronger. He could sense the dragon now, and its presence nurtured him. A part of him was afraid of what that might mean, but he would worry about that if he lived. All that mattered right now was that it gave him a chance.

He focused on healing the cracks left behind by the gorger’s attacks, sealing them shut and healing the wounds. It made him wonder just how badly Lucile’s soul must have been injured for her to be so far gone. And it gave him an idea.

When Lucile next came to him, he was waiting. She approached as she usually did, looking thinner and more frail than ever before. When she stepped close to him, he grabbed her by the wrist and pressed his palm against her chest.

Then he brought his soul to bear.

The gorger had taught him well. He pressed his will and essence into her, worming his way to her core, seeking out her innermost power. She put up little defence. She did not have the mind to muster up her will, and her soul was drained to the point that its meagre efforts at resisting were a simple matter for Hump to break through.

He could feel the heat of her power. Her core. But now that he was there, nothing happened. He’d expected to feel something. Anything. A connection that would clue him in to what to do next. All he felt was the ebbing power that gave her life, like the dying flames of a fire.

No, it couldn’t end like this. There had to be a way. He did the only thing he could think of. There was only one soul technique that he had practiced.

He remembered Celaine’s teachings, diving back into the depths of his memory. In the past, he had reached out to the egg with the thrill of flight and hunt. Now, he focused on the only thing he thought might reach her. He thought of his time with Bud and Celaine, travelling from Bledsbury to Lakewood. Their battle against the trolls, the ruined shrine, chatting together around campfires and troupe that had been entertaining on their way through Cropsfield. The joy of adventuring.

He channelled everything he could through his connection with Lucile.

Screaming.

It reverberated through Hump. Pure, undulated terror. So awful that Hump let go from the shock. He opened his eyes and Lucile was staring back at him, silent. She dropped the chip in her hand and darted back, staring at him.

“Lucile,” Hump said softly, like talking to a scared child. “Can you hear me?”

She stared at him a moment longer, and then her gaze lost its sharpness. She turned and walked away, closing the gate to his cell behind her. Steady steps echoed through the cavern, yet Hump did not feel dismayed.

She was still in there. For the first time since he had arrived here, he had a plan. Fleeing the gorger’s prison would be pointless. He would be lost in a realm with no food or drink, hunted by beasts that could smell his blood from miles away. There was no escaping with the gorger here, but once the gateway opened…

Hump slipped the fallen chip to the back of his cell and buried it beneath a layer of dirt. He would save as many as he could. They weren’t much, but he could draw on their power for his magic, and he would need it if this were to work.

Lucile didn’t know it yet, but he was going to free her. He was going to free them both.