Words escaped Myles as he awoke the next morning as his screams echoed through the bedroom.

While words may have escaped him, the primal feelings that could be expressed through guttural noises did not. Myles felt wrong in every sense of the word. His mind slogged as the pain shot through his stomach and chest, and it only got worse as he grappled with something indescribable as memories and feelings clashed. Urgently, he forced himself to look at the stumps of what should have been and looked at his hands.

That was at least enough to bring him some calm.

He still had both of them.

Turning them over and flexing them, it seemed like they were in perfect shape. That was good.

With more of his wits about him, Myles lifted his shirt and looked for any damage. Thankfully, there was no hole where his heart should be. There was no jagged, burning wound where his rib cage had been split open either.

He was completely fine…

But, the pain…

The pain was gone?

Myles wiped his face, sweat coming off like he’d been out in the rain. Turning around, his pillow seemed to have joined him. A clear outline of his sweat was painted in a halo of water.

Calm down, Myles. Everything’s okay.

It was so real though…

He looked down at his hands; they were still shaking like autumn leaves. Taking a deep breath, Myles tried to calm himself as he came to grips with the end of the nightmare. That was easier said than done as his mind still swam through the rush of emotions at the end. The fight-or-flight instinct still held an iron grip on his thoughts, telling him danger was all around and that he needed to run, fight, or die. It was that primal fear that caused him to nearly attack when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Myles?”

The voice pulled him from his thoughts and brought his attention to the fact he had his original dagger pulled to Ashra’s throat.

“Myles, I am not going to hurt you.”

He was breathing heavily again and had to focus to bring his body back into line. With more effort than it should have taken, Myles lowered the dagger. His words came softly after. “I’m sorry.”

“You are safe, Myles.”

Slowly, pieces of the scene came to the forefront of his thoughts. Why was Ashra at his bedside rather than in the yard training? On the heels of that, a second realization came over him.

It wasn’t just his stress and fear he was feeling.

It was her’s.

Ashra was worried about him.

Had his nightmare really been that bad to call to her?

It was barely a memory now as he tried to focus on it. The dream was quickly becoming just a collection of phantom pains and raw emotions, but Ashra wasn’t convinced as she pressed her question.

“Myles, are you okay?”

His throat was still dry, and his voice cracked like sun-cooked mud at the bottom of a dried-out river. How long had he been screaming? He tried to speak at a reasonable tone, but only a single word came out.

“Ashra?”

With the word, her tidal wave of emotions abated, and his mental barriers slowly clicked back into place. That was just another in a long list of questions he had to figure out though. Even when he slept, his connections to his monsters were iron-clad. They didn't just change in his sleep unless he did it. The puzzle of his thoughts was still vague, but he didn’t have long to ponder as a cup of water found itself shoved in front of him as he sat up.

He hadn’t even noticed she left.

“You were having some kind of nightmare,” Ashra explained as he drank. “Silpha couldn’t wake you, so she sent for me.” She paused for a moment. “Though she didn’t need to. I could feel your fear before she called to me. I’ve been standing watch since. The slimes are curious but I did not let them out.”

The water had vanished nearly as quickly as it appeared, but he was still parched. He attempted to get out of bed, but everything resisted his mental commands. His body felt exhausted despite the night’s sleep now that the adrenaline was wearing off. Still, he had a job to do, and his team was probably on their way now to talk about the day’s hunting.

There was just one problem with all of that though as Myles tried to push past the haze of exhaustion.

“Ashra, I can’t get up.”

***

Dressed as he had been the night before, there had been a time Myles would have been worried about being carried like a child by Ashra through the streets of Runner’s Plaza. Those days had long passed. Despite everything he had been through, despite the terrors he’d faced, none of it had scared him like this.

He couldn’t feel his legs.

Well, he could feel them. It was better to say that he couldn’t control them. As he squeezed his knees where his hands rested, he could feel the pressure on his knee caps. He could sense the heat of his hands through the fabric of his pants. What did that mean though?

“Where is the healer?” Ashra asked him again as the wind cut off normal conversation.

The temple, he replied as calmly as he could. I haven’t heard of any other places, but temples always have a healer on hand for Rani or Dawn.

He didn’t want to say that had been outside the grand dungeon, and Ashra didn’t ask further.

The Monsterkin was a blur of silver as she weaved through and over the morning crowds. Thankfully for them, the Runners made way when they saw her or heard the commotion of her coming from behind them, but it mattered very little once Ashra reached the square.

“Hold on.”

Ashra?

Once the temple was in view, the Monsterkin bent her knees, and Myles tensed as he put the pieces together.

Ashra!?

“It is faster this way,” she explained before triggering a Skill.

He could feel her muscles tense the moment before she left the ground behind in favor of the sky.

The ascent was something Myles couldn’t properly grasp. His body felt heavier, but he felt almost weightless at the same time. It may have helped that Ashra didn’t so much as let him droop as the air ripped past his head. As they reached the apex of the jump, Myles opened his eyes.

That was a wonderful mistake.

For what seemed like forever, the pair hung in the air, suspended by some unnatural force as Ashra’s momentum was bogged down and reached equilibrium. As it did, Myles took in everything he could with those keen eyes. The plaza was like a living thing as the people moved as its pulse, mostly ignoring them as just another fixture. Beyond that Myles caught glimpses of the forest, the swamp, and the glint of yellow sand— A desert maybe? The beach?

It was beautiful, almost peaceful in the sky above it all. It didn’t last long enough, and sooner than he’d have liked, nature began to reassert its control over the pair.

“Ashra!”

“It is fine. I will not let anything happen to you, Myles.”

That was easier said than done, but Myles did his best to trust in those words as gravity exerted its authority over all things once more. In another moment, the world came rushing to greet them as they reached top speed. At least he had a name for the feeling as his stomach began to push against his body and demand a quick exit. Whether it was a soufflé or a pair of teammates inside the body of a destructive force of nature, falling sucked.

Though he’d been occupied last time, the feeling of his body rebelling was the same as when Shardking fell. This time, there was no protection from the outside world. The air rushing by deafened him more than Ashra’s running had. There was no slowing down, no delay, and no comforts other than Ashra’s iron-clad embrace holding him in place as the pair went screaming towards the surface.

The next moments were something of a blur.

When they should have hit the ground, Ashra’s body enveloped him in a protective shell. As the collision happened, Myles could feel her distort around him as he tossed and turned more than once with only the straps of metal keeping him from bouncing around too much. The only thing keeping his stomach inside where it belonged was his sheer force of will. Even that was being put to the test as he went head over heel for the third time, but it was over as quickly as it started.

Within moments of realizing he could see the sky again, Myles was once again wrapped in Ashra’s embrace and bursting through the doors of the temple with a well-placed kick.

The pair stopped dead in their tracks as they saw the interior.

“Myles…”

“I see them, Ashra.”

At least forty Runners were spread across the temple hall in various states of undress as a busy collection of robed Runners examined them as they were led by a soft-spoken, white-haired Felkin Myles had seen in passing throughout the city. She didn’t hesitate to approach the newly arrived pair.

“Another phantom injury?”

Ashra looked to Myles, deferring to his response. “I don’t know. I woke up, and I couldn’t move my legs.”

The female Felkin nodded as a crystalline window blinked into existence. “Can you feel pressure or pain if you apply it?”

Myles explained it the best he could, and she took notes, asking questions where appropriate before directing him towards the back of the temple to an open spot.

“You kicked the door,” she stated dryly as the screen blinked out of existence. “It was open, and you disturbed my patients.”

“He is injured,” Ashra pointed out. “I did not have the hands to open it.”

The woman sighed, wiped some errant strands of hair from her brow, and rolled out a mat as they arrived.

“What’s wrong with me?” Myles asked as Ashra set him on it.

“The same as everyone else,” the Felkin explained. “You’re lucky it wasn’t anything vital. A few here are having trouble breathing, maintaining body temperature, or blood pressure. We’re stretched to the limit right now.”

That didn’t make sense. They were in safe zones. This shouldn’t have been possible. The term she’d used caught his attention though…

“What did you mean phantom injury?”

She continued her examination as she explained.

“You don’t have any outward scars, no bleeding or bruises to account for the injury. There’s nothing that can be traced back to how it happened,” she pointed out. “You have no curses or other banes that I can detect either.”

“So, what’s that mean?” Myles pressed.

“That we have no idea what’s going on with any of you,” the woman admitted, more frustrated than upset. “Even with all our skills as [Priest]s, [Priestess]es, and [Acolyte]s, we can’t find anything wrong with you.”

The realization hit Myles like a golem’s punch.

If he couldn’t walk, he couldn’t fight.

If he couldn’t fight…

“He had a nightmare,” Ashra said, interrupting his thoughts before they could go any further into the darkness.

The woman waved it off weakly.

“Nightmares don’t cause injuries like this,” the woman explained then sighed. “Though he isn’t the only one that did last night that’s here.”

“That can’t be a coincidence,” Myles said.

“Maybe, but until we can finish checking you out properly, I can’t rule out anything. Please, wait here while I get a proper [Medic] to assist me.”

***

Over the next twenty minutes, Myles was prodded, poked, examined, and Ashra’s stress grew. Despite the effort, all the answers came back the same. Physically, he was fine. His body was a bit fatigued, but there wasn’t a new scratch on him. Normally, that sort of examination would be great to hear, but in this case…

“I’m sorry,” Cali, the [Acolyte] who had first examined him, lamented. “You don’t need Stabilized or any of the other attentions we can give, so I have no choice but to send you home for now.”

Ashra bristled, but Myles calmed her with a thought. “So, there’s really nothing you can do?”

“If it gets worse, bring him back, but if it’s an astral injury, which shouldn’t have even been possible, it has to mend on its own,” she confirmed again then sighed. “As a high point, you don’t seem to be in any other danger, and I’ve made all the notes I can to reference with the other patients, Myles. I’ll send someone to check in with you tomorrow and check on your progress. Until then, please take it easy.”

“Take it easy?”

“Yes. Don’t try to fight or do anything too strenuous. With your monster, that shouldn’t be asking too much.”

“I will make sure he rests.”

“Good. Now, I didn’t want to bring it up before, but you did dent the door.”

After Myles handed over some of his hard-earned coin as a donation to the temple, Ashra carried him into the street and began the trek home more or less as the [Acolyte] had advised. As if that wasn’t enough of a problem, he knew that his team would be waiting for him by now since it was well past the start of the morning, and if he didn’t show up, that would only worry them. Not that being paralyzed wouldn’t, but still, it was better to meet the challenge at his own pace.

Ashra treated the situation surprisingly well, speaking to his mind as the two walked.

“They will understand about you being late, Myles.”

Despite doing his best to reign his feelings of frustration in, Myles broadcast everything as he replied. That’s not what I’m concerned about, Ashra.

“I am trying to refocus you into something productive. Worrying helps in planning, but it is useless when you’ve already been told the best path.”

Myles grumbled. There wasn’t a point to argue when he was wrong. I know.

“Then you should be ready. Silpha says they’ve been waiting for the last ten minutes.”

He took a breath and tried to relax. Okay, let’s do this then.

Moments later, Ashra had opened the door and all eyes turned to them. Mitchel, Tail, Kendra, Will, and Lyna were all there, just as Silpha told Ashra.

“It’s the happy couple!” Lyna said, cutting off the others for her joke. “What took you?”

“Yeah, we’re supposed to meet here before going to hunt,” Kendra reminded him. “Where were you? Did something happen while you were out? I didn’t think Ashra was the kind to carry you .”

Kendra grinned at the joke, but Ashra said nothing and settled him into a chair taking care to make sure his legs were sitting properly.

“Myles?” Kendra asked again, all traces of her normally flippant attitude gone.

Myles sighed as Ashra moved to the side of the chair.

“It’s a long story.”

***

No one said a word as Myles went through his morning and what he could remember of the night before. They didn’t have to. Their emotions beat on the connection to his team like a battering ram and threatened to overwhelm his tepid calm.

“So, you’re paralyzed?” Kendra asked. Myles felt their collective wince as Kendra put it to words. They all may have been thinking it, but she was the only one that could say the words.

“Temporarily,” Myles reiterated, more hopeful than he felt. “Probably. The [Acolyte] said my astral would need to heal if that was really what caused it. All I can do is wait.” Myles let the silence hang for a few moments before he continued. “Until then, I want you to party together and train. Ashra will join you during the day, and I’ll have Silpha take care of the house until I can.”

“Who’s in charge?” Lyna asked.

“I still am, but in the field, I think it should be Will,” Myles explained carefully, explaining himself quickly after. “He has the forethought and planning to make sure you all come back.” He also had the coolest head, but he didn’t want to remind the others of that. “Hopefully, this will only last a day or so.”

“I hope you’re right,” Will said weakly. “I’ll accept but only until you’re up and running.”

Myles glared. “Really?”

Will blinked, considering the wording, then groaned. “I’m doing it now. Aren’t I?”

A smile replaced the glare. “It’s a leadership thing.”

“Even a day is a long time to be without one of our own,” Tail pointed out, interrupting them. “We will keep a lookout for anything or anyone that can help.”

“That goes without saying,” Kendra added. The others nodded in agreement, but she wasn’t done. “Now more importantly with Myles held up, who’s going to cook?”

The room went deathly quiet at her words. Will glared at her, and Tail’s ears twitched in annoyance. Lyna’s jaw dropped as she turned to Kendra, and Mitchel looked like he was about to chew her out.

Myles broke out laughing.

“Better,” Kendra commented, smiling.