"Magic... begin!"

At the cue, the magic circle flared with layered light, like ripples on a moonlit lake.

"Read... analyze... sync... modify... reshape..."

The obscure chant slipped from Aer’s lips like cold beads. Lian felt an itch crawl under her skin like marching ants.

"Aer, you said it was just a checkup... why does my whole body itch?"

Aer didn’t answer. Her gaze was a blade of ice fixed on the spell’s flow.

"Repeat thrice... read... analyze... sync... modify... reshape..."

The itch swelled into a brushfire under the skin. No scratching helped. It felt like something was being drawn from her bones.

"Aer! Stop... I—I can’t take it!"

"Sorry. Just a bit more. Hold on, and you can come back, Ling!"

Bzzz!

Aer’s words struck Lian’s skull like a struck gong. Of course she knew—Aer wanted to fuse her back with Ling.

For no reason she could name, the itch vanished. What remained was a cold stab of betrayal, like winter water down the spine.

"Please stop... Aer... don’t... don’t... you lied to me..."

Aer didn’t hear Lian’s near-sobbing plea. Her laugh cracked like dry branches, and she threw herself wholly into the spell.

"Hahahahahahaha! The last step is here! Ling... my Ling is coming back!"

Her right hand pressed to the circle. Mana streamed from palm to sigil like a river into stone.

"Soul Reshaping... Se—"

Thud.

Before she finished, Alicia—freed the instant Aer’s focus slipped—tackled her. Aer’s hand tore from the circle. The flow cut. Crack—the fragile array shattered. Lian collapsed like a withered leaf.

The crackle of breaking glyphs stabbed Aer’s ear. She shoved Alicia aside, scrambling back to the circle’s ghost like a panicked bird.

Her hands swept the floor, searching like sieves through sand. Her face swam with frantic light.

"Where is it? Where is it?"

She clawed at bare ground as if something invisible hid there. The frenzy looked mad... and almost pitiful, like a lost child in fog.

Then, impossibly, Aer found something. She cupped it with both hands. Her smile twisted like warped glass.

"Heh... hahahaha... it’s still here. It’s still here. The magic can continue..."

Bang.

That so-called hope burst like a soap bubble. It powdered into pale dust, drifting up like ash. Aer tried to catch the grains, but they flowed through her fingers like rain.

Despair.

Life dropped and climbed like a roller coaster. Hope was the bright crest; despair was the plunge into shadow.

The pain of it made Aer’s seated body tremble, like a string about to snap.

"Heh... hehehe... it’s your fault... it’s your fault... it’s all your fault!"

She sprang from the floor. The power of a great Yokai uncoiled at last like a storm breaking.

Alicia’s vision blurred. Aer was suddenly in front of her. A huge fist filled the sky of her sight, a falling hammer she couldn’t dodge.

Maybe death was near. Alicia’s nerves lit up tenfold, like lightning sketching the world. The fist crawled closer, slow enough for anyone to avoid.

Too bad only her nerves sped up. The body stayed like mud.

Watching the fist that would kill you isn’t pleasant. Worse, a faint character for death was etched on those knuckles like a ghost brand. If you don’t want to see, then close your eyes... ah, right, I’ll probably die before my lids shut. What a joke—forced to witness my own end. No one could be unluckier.

As Alicia’s thoughts spun like dead leaves, Aer’s fist reached the bridge of her nose. The next heartbeat would launch her like a rag doll. One mercy, though—her eyelids finally took pity on her. They dropped right on cue with her sped-up nerves. At least she wouldn’t see it.

...

One second? Two? Longer?

No pain rolled in. Nothing at all. So, already dead? Or maybe she’d died so often her mind muted pain—how considerate.

She pried her eyelids open, shaking. Aer’s fist still filled her view, hovering above her nose like a halted comet. It had been stopped—by a small hand that couldn’t even encircle Aer’s wrist.

She looked closer. The small hand felt familiar: the size, the ratio, the little nail, the whorl of prints. Ling’s little hand? No... Ling couldn’t be up that fast. So it had to be Lian.

Her guess landed true. The voice was the same as Ling’s, yet Alicia knew the soul behind it. It was Lian, speaking between Aer and Alicia.

"Aer... why did you lie to me?!"

Aer tugged her trapped hand. But as a Yokai who specialized in magic, her strength was no match for a brawler like Ling.

"Lian... let go first... I need to pound her once to vent, then I’ll restart the sp—"

She stopped. Lian’s eyes were wet, the glaze hidden poorly. The quiver in her voice was rain.

"Hey... can you tell me... why you lied to me?"