Aiken looked down at the broken plates and wasted pitfruit. Both Hanley and Alayna were doing their best to frantically wipe away the mess but the damage was done.

He took off his glasses, and sighed.

Tervel went back. He actually went back. That was certainly surprising. But- it was worth it. Now we know.

She was gone.

Aiken watched Hanley and Alayna sweep pieces of shattered glass into the corner of the room. He paused, and reached for a piece of purple fruit.

Gone. Not dead. Just gone. He could work with that.

But what was going on?

Aiken couldn't help but think of the girl that came here a few days ago. The one with no memories. No Bounties. Was she a part of this? Between her, the mana debt to the South. It was all too concurrent to be coincidental.

They were connected somehow.

And her disappearance was another piece of the puzzle.

Aiken put a hand to his chest with a groan and doubled over. His heart throbbed. Pushing and pulling. Hanley rushed to his side, but Aiken turned back, pushing him away.

“I'm fine. I’m fine”

He coughed, voice harsh as he touched a hand to his lips. Smothering a smile.

Euphoria.

No. No. Not yet.

Wait a few days and it'll get even better. Even more interesting. He knew it would. Aiken felt it in his bones. In his core.

Times were changing.

A new sky was coming.

---

“Pleugh”

Amora swiped grass from her tongue with the back of her sleeve. She pushed herself up with one hand and looked around dizzily, squinting furiously at her darkened surroundings.

What happened?

She tried lifting her other arm and hot pain flared from her shoulder, shocking her body awake. She tilted her head, blinking back unshed tears as memory swelled.

Eight black eyes.

She got away. Somehow. It let her go.

Amora shuddered.

It still felt unreal. Almost dreamlike. But pain was proof.

So she had proof to spare.

Amora looked down at her arm. A thin sheet of white cloth webbed over it, stretching from her shoulder to her elbow, like a small makeshift sling. She tried moving her arm experimentally and felt the entire structure resist, growing taut and solidifying, fixing her arm in place.

“Huh”

Curiously, Amora bent close, craning her neck as she brought her nose to the white bandage. Her brown unkempt hair spilled down, wrapping greasy tendrils over the material. She jerked her head, trying to free her hair, but it clung on stubbornly. She jerked harder and saw small strands of white stretch out as she pulled. The cloth itself was…sticky?

She used her other hand to tug her hair free from the wet cloth and took in the strange, medicinal smell.

Citrusy. With a sharp cinnamon edge.

“Weird”

Her leg, like her arm, was also bandaged. But she could tell it was harder, more sturdy, splinting her leg straight. She brought a hand to the rough bindings. Unlike the ones on her arm, these were not sticky, and crusted over in a deep crimson. Though, Amora had the distinct impression they were once white too.

“Who-”

She pushed herself up, huffing through gritted teeth and heard something knock over. Amora winced, peering down at the small silver bowl. Its liquid contents spilled out onto the grass. She debated crouching over to pick it up but a quick jolt from her leg rebuffed any notion of bending back down.

“Ooo. Ouch. Yup. We’re standing now. We’re standing”

Amora straightened and looked up at the dark, brown shape ahead of her.

Was it them? Did they help her?

She took a deep breath and shuffled forward, making sure to put the majority of her weight on her good leg.

She was already standing. So logically, that was halfway to moving. And the only real way to move was forward.

Amora smiled at herself. At her genius. And brought her injured leg forward.

Sometimes, she really did love the way her brain worked.

Though, historically speaking, going with her brain didn't really have the best track record.

She huffed, blowing air out sharply. She really hoped this wasn't going to be one of those times.

And slowly Amora limped forward, inch by inch.

To the wooden house she was certain wasn't there before.

---

She felt strangely bare without her spear. Almost lonely even.

Lonely? But it was just a stick? Can't she just pull off another from a tree?

Perhaps. But it was also a partner of sorts, her trusty steadfast spear. Unbending through thick and thin.

Amora chuckled to herself deliriously, head bobbing with every step. Here she was, hobbling around with her cobbled up body, worried about being stickless.

Still, she would miss that little guy.

Amora wondered if it was still stuck in the side of that bear monster. No better place for a little warrior to be buried.

She sighed loudly.

You will be remembered, Big Stick.

Amora shuffled forward and stepped on what looked like a chunk of scrap metal. She peered closely. It looked like a large pot, only it had been dented in and flattened into the ground. Amora lifted her foot and frowned at the dent, which resembled the shape of a boot.

She didn't do that did she?

Heat shot to her ears as Amora noticed other objects scattered across the surrounding grass. Small pieces of stray metal, bent and twisted, and chunks of splintered wood, formless and impaled into the ground. She brought a hand up and covered her mouth, mumbling softly under her breath.

“It’s never easy is it?”

Amora stepped slower, the new possibility of danger stilling her curiosity. She scanned her surroundings once again before cautiously edging over to the face of the house.

The small, elevated wooden porch had been caved in, floorboards splintered down the middle. Amora limped closer. Moving quietly past the rubble and pieces of shattered clay pottery that littered the ground around the front of the house.

She looked up at the closed, red door and stepped onto the porch.

The broken steps groaned as she pressed into them, but thankfully, they did not snap or break any further. Amora put a hand onto the wooden railing and hopped over the splintered middle, wobbling as she landed awkwardly.

“Wuhh”

She flailed, sticking a balancing hand out desperately.

Pain shot up her arm, impaling itself into her shoulder. She stumbled-

And crashed into the red door.

Amora pulled herself back, wincing, and slowly straightened herself. She looked back at the door, and coughed sheepishly, her cheeks flushing with a similar red.

Whelp. That was embarrassing.

But the door seemed to hold. Amora inspected the flat, painted wood and found no markings at all. No scratches or dents or well- any kind of wear. Amora frowned. It looked brand new. A far cry from the state of the porch beneath. Even the brown wood walls around the door seemed smooth and unmarred- almost shiny even.

With whatever had happened, the house itself had remained untouched.

Amora hesitated, staring up into the crimson door. And knocked.

Silence.

She waited. A minute. Two. Until she heard something. A soft shuffling. Only-

It wasn't coming from behind the door.

“No one is home I belie-”

Amora whirled, swinging her fist behind her. The hooded man leaned out of the way. She pulled her fist back, twisting her body, and struck again. The man lifted a hand from his cloak, casually deflecting her blow with the back of his blue glove.

Wait- glove?

Amora backed into the door with a loud thud.

“Y-You?!”

“You”

“You!”

“Me”

Lokt pulled back his hood with a smile and blew on the back of his hand.

“You- you scared me! Is that a new cloak? How long were you standing there?!”

Lokt shrugged as he stepped around the side of the porch, eyes dancing with mischief.

“Long enough to see your head hit the door”

He paused, looking up from the base of the stairs, and sighed.

“Human customs are so lost on me”

Amora blushed, resisting the urge to rub the side of her head. She could hear the floorboards groan as he ascended, his smile growing wider. Until- he paused, leg half-raised.

“You know you don't have to attack people when you meet them right? I mean, first the stick and now a punch. You're not going to kick me next are you?”

Amora opened her mouth and scoffed as she saw him eye her one good leg suspiciously.

“Not as long as you don't come too close. And I think that’s the normal reaction when a stranger come up to you out of the blue”

Lokt nodded understandably and stopped at the splintered floorboards, spreading both hands outward.

“It really must be such an ordeal meeting new people then”

Amora blinked, stifling a smile.

“Only for them”

She watched Lokt laugh, teeth flashing as his head rolled back.

Now that he was closer, Amora could see he was definitely not human. She knew he wasn't- his gray skin said as much- but in the light of the sunset his inhuman features seemed more pronounced. His skin looked marbled, faint lines streaking down in jagged patterns, like cracks in stone. His teeth- sharp and pointy. Not as sharp as Hanley’s were, but certainly sharper than any humans’ could be. Lokt’s head dropped and dark eyes met her own.

“Why are you here?”

Amora blurted, her back still pressed against the door. Lokt frowned, his smile falling as confusion rippled across his face.

“Isn't that obvious? It’s the same reason as you, isn't it?”

Lokt looked past her, turning to the red door, eyes hardening as he spoke.

“To see the Witch”

“Though… it seems she’s not home”

---

Amora rolled onto her side, swiping hair from her face as she lay on her good arm. The cold grass felt damp against her bare skin. An unpleasant sensation, but she was too tired to care. She yawned as moonlight illuminated the debris around her, and heard Lokt slam into the door again.

“So she’s not here and now you’re trying to break in?”

Lokt scrunched his eyebrows and shot her an annoyed look from the top of the porch- which was really only received by the top of her head.

“Stop calling it that”

“Oh? And what would you call it then?”

Lokt hesitated, turning back to the door as he mumbled softly.

“An understandable product of curiosity”

“Ah”

He raised his voice again, back still turned, face growing hotter.

“And you’re the same, aren't you? You're curious about what happened here too”

Amora bit her lip and looked up into the night sky. The moon was big. Bigger than she thought it would be. She’d seen the moon before. Or at least, Amora felt she had. But looking at it now. At that glowing ball of blue. She wasn't so sure.

Amora turned back at Lokt as he brought his face close to the red door.

He was right. She was curious.

How did a house just appear? Where did it come from?

A Witch?

And breaking into her house?

Amora smiled. It all sounded so interesting.

Her days, filled with constant terror. Everything was a battle survival. It was exhausting. She was beginning to worry it would always be like that.

But this was different. This was something she could just do. Only for curiosity. Only for the fun of it, and nothing more. And maybe it was wrong.

But she wanted to see.

Amora watched Lokt slam his hand into the door again. He’d spent the last hour either rummaging in his cloak, hitting the door or inspecting the wood.

Sure it was exciting-but excitement only lasted so long.

She sighed.

“How is it going?”

“It’s almost open”

Amora groaned at his words, not bothering to look up.

“You said that half an hour ago”

Lokt put on a strained smile as he looked back at her. As annoyed as he was- she was right. This shouldn’t be taking so long. An hour of effort and nothing to show for it. He should have broken through by now.

“You know, when you said you could open it I didn't think you were going to just punch the door”

Lokt let out an empty laugh, wiping sweat from his brow.

“Is that what it looks like to you?”

Amora nodded slowly. Isn't that what he was doing?

“I’ve been using this”

She watched Lokt shuffle to the edge of the porch and stick his hand over the railing. Amora hoisted herself up, hobbling closer, and saw a tiny piece of misshapen blue metal in the centre of his palm.

“It’s Anthrite. It absorbs mana”

“You mean that door is magic?”

Obviously. Lokt resisted the urge to roll his eyes- with difficulty, on account of her memory loss.

“Normal wood could not withstand this kind of beating, could it?”

Lokt watched Amora half- nod and stare at the door, eyes wide with newfound respect. He turned back, barely hiding the smug smile plastered across his face as he held the blue metal an inch from the wood.

“The Anthrite allows me to test the strength of the enchantment without using much force”

He pushed his hand forward, slamming the metal into the door. Lokt heard something snap as blue met red, but both the wood and metal stayed in one piece. He placed a hand over the spot he just struck and made a mental note of its location before turning to Amora.

“See?”

Lokt held out the undamaged metal for Amora to see and smiled.

This process was simple. Crude, but simple. As trial and error tended to be. Lokt knew eventually he’d get it open. Either the enchantment would rupture or the source of its power would simply run out. It was an inevitability.

The problem was: time. There was no telling when exactly the door would open. The enchantment could rupture the next second or it could take another hour.

Lokt readied himself again and saw Amora, out of the corner of his eye, poke her head past a broken piece of railing and lean inward to try to peek at what he was doing. He shuffled over, giving her a better view, and continued his explanation.

“This enchantment is- well, somewhere along the door, there are these small cores, which each propagate a thin protective sheet over the surface”

“Because there are multiple cores it causes each sheet to overlap, which strengthens and creates this barrier. But the sheet each core generates stretches over unevenly, which means the thickness or- strength isn’t actually uniform across the entire door. With the thickest regions being around the cores itself”

Lokt nodded to himself. He estimated this door had 4 or 5 cores. A surprising amount, but this was the Witch's house after all. He wondered how much gold it took to create a door like this.

“All I am trying to do is find a point furthest from all the other cores. Where the barrier is weakest. Then once I can break through, the structure becomes unstable and shatters entirely”

Lokt looked back at Amora and watched her nod slowly, wearing the blankest expression he’d ever seen on anyone. He hesitated. Was that too much for someone with no memories?

“So what you're telling me is. You’re stabbing the door randomly until you get lucky and hit a weak spot”

“Precisely-”

Lokt paused as his face twitched. He brought his hands up, waving them around in front of him as words stumbled out of him.

“Wait-I- no. It’s not completely random. No- I’ve got a system going”

“Oh okay”

He froze, looking down at his hands and the strange position they were in. He dropped them by his side and coughed coolly.

“Just okay?”

“Mmhm”

Amora pushed her arm out and tried hoisting herself up over the ledge. But with only one arm and one leg as support, it was proving to be quite an onerous task. She looked up at him.

“Well, the door will open eventually right?”

“Yes. But it may take some time”

He paused, watching her try to lift her cast leg up over the base of the broken railing.

“What are you doing?”

He pointed to the side.

“The stairs are right there”

Amora stopped struggling and a look of defeat washed over her. She slowly let herself slide off the ledge, grunting as she landed between two broken clay pots. She stepped over them and limped past the side of the porch and onto the base of the stairs.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Lokt frowned, watching her cling to the railing and ascend one step at a time. He thought for a moment, and then grinned evilly.

“Entertainment”

“Huh?”

“Well I’m doing all the work right? That's hardly fair. So you can be the entertainment”

Amora looked at his smile, her leg half raised, as confusion and apprehension wrinkled over her.

“Hmm. How about you tell me what happened to you? Battling more snakes?”

Amora’s face cleared slightly as her leg dropped. She leant into the wooden railing with a sigh, resting her chin on the cold wood.

“More like a bear. And a spider”

“A spider?”

“A giant spider”

“A giant spider?”

Lokt didn't bother disguising his scepticism as he frowned at her. Amora met his eyes and blew out her cheeks as she pushed herself off the railing.

“Yes! A giant spider!”

She crossed her one arm over her stomach and bent her leg to take a seat on one of the stairs. She hesitated.

“And it was talking too”

“Huh”

Lokt eyed her, and spoke slower to clarify.

“So a giant talking spider beat you half to death?”

“Yes- well no. The bear did that first but the spider was watching”

“You mean he didn’t help you? What a brute!”

Lokt smirked as she blew out her cheeks again.

He watched her twist in her seat, face beet-red. Why did this feel so familiar?

Amora looked for something to throw. But without anything in arms reach, she stepped forward.

Blinding pain shot up her leg, folding her onto the wood planks.

“Ow”

“Careful. I'm not redoing your bandages if they come loose”

Amora looked up, biting back the sharp, splitting pain in her leg. She pushed herself upright and looked at him as she brought it under control, her hard expression softening.

“You did- Thank you”

Lokt shrugged nonchalantly.

“Well. You looked pathetic with all your humanness so I thought I’d help”

“And just like that you ruined it”

Amora mumbled and Lokt grinned wickedly, continuing, his voice getting louder.

“My word! It was such a shock to see you lying there. I mean- I would think you'd at least have the decency to bleed out next to that flower you love so much”

“But don't you worry. Between you talking to a flower and hitting your head against a door I think my opinion of humans has raised a bit”

He pushed his hand in front of his face, and emphasised just how much ‘a bit’ was with his two fingers.

He laughed heartily at Amora’s indignant expression.

When was the last time he was able to talk to someone like this?

Years probably.

Not since…

---

Amora watched Lokt turn back and bring out the small blue metal again. He stabbed the door with its edge. It didn't seem like a particularly forceful blow, but the impact snapped his hand back all the same. She saw him grimace, brushing his free hand over the spot and ready another strike.

Amora didn't know what to think of him. He was… a little scary. Those teeth did look quite sharp. But scary was something she’d seen a lot of, and watching him smile and laugh made her think otherwise.

He didn't seem particularly dangerous. Or untrustworthy. He helped her after all. And honestly, it was funny. She went from almost being robbed by him to helping him break into a house. All in the span of two days.

Amora smiled, shifting her head as she sniffed the white bandage surreptitiously. The citrus smell was a lot stronger now and all traces of cinnamon had disappeared. Did that mean it was working?

“Are you sure there’s nothing I can do to help?”

Lokt turned to her, holding his wrist with his freehand.

Amora stared at him expectantly, as his face cleared and seemed to brighten. He gasped.

“Oh wait. Your stick! Where is it! Ugh if I just- quick hand it over! That's going to help us so much!”

Amora rolled her eyes and sat back down.

“Well too bad, cause it’s stuck inside a bear monster”

Lokt's smile twitched as his eyes narrowed. Bear monster? He opened his mouth.

“Nice”

Amora returned a smile as he turned back, crouching at the base of the door.

“Just trying to be helpful”

Amora flicked a small piece of wood she broke off from a splintered floorboard and watched it arc down and land on Lokt’s head.

Bullseye.

He turned back to Amora and she looked away hurriedly.

“That. Amora. Is the complete opposite of hel-”

Pop.

Lokt sprung back, slamming into the wood railing as the door swung open.

He flung his gloved hands forward, eyes sharp as he stared into the dark house, ready for-

He hesitated. And the moment passed.

Lokt brushed himself off calmly, and walked up to the entrance. There weren't any signs of hostility. Not that he could sense such things. But nothing seemed to be lunging out from the dark so that was good enough for him.

He stopped under the doorway. A single step and he would be inside. Inside the Witch's house. The interior was completely shrouded in a single overarching shadow. Lokt couldn't make out any shapes or silhouettes. He wavered. And Amora hobbled over beside him curiously, both peering into the dark.

A full minute of looking into that blanket of black passed.

And Lokt looked at Amora with a nervous smile.

“You first?”