Sadja! 

Who was calling her? She was so tired. The assault was relentless… her arms ached and her heart begged her to just lay down and sleep. Sadja! Came the voice again. She blinked, annoyed at the calls. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone? She had done nothing bad to anyone. She did not care about this entire stupid story of revenge, and looking down into the maw of roaring hate of the Fae, she saw only petty desires, grown like a festering fungus.

What a waste. 

Sadja! Please!

It wasn’t the voice of the Augur. In fact, that only made it better. She had already shared her mindscape with Elissa and it had been far from the pleasant experience. But no, this one belonged to-

“Cloria?” She mumbled using her actual voice, slashing away at a few Hooke tentacles that tried to coil around her ankle to pull her deep into the screaming pit.

Spirits be blessed, you are still alive! I couldn’t reach the Augur, but the Hunter is trying to keep you safe. You have to-

With a roar from the depths, the voice was pulled away and then torn apart. Sadja yowled in pain as the echo of the roar pushed her on her knees. From here, the bottom of the abyss looked back at her. 

But on the outside, beyond that vortex of lamentations, there was who was trying to keep her safe. The same man who had once kidnapped her. The same man who has freed her, against his better judgment. The same man who had faced the most dangerous woman alive to bring her back.

“You know what?” Sadja pulled herself up, standing on one knee. Could she do this? It wasn’t like she could use her blood inside her own mind. 

But then again – it was her own mind. 

Maybe if she didn’t think about it too hard, it would work. 

“You know what?” She roared at the screaming vortex of the Fae, challenging its dominion. “I’m tired. I want to get out of here, I want to lay down in the sun with Hunter. And I want to crack open a new can of preserved food! So would you kindly…” She slashed at her own arm with her knife. 

Blood rushed out, glowing with a silver light that it did not possess in the real world.

No idea how that worked.

As long as she did not think too much about it, it seemed to work. 

Good enough for her. 

She fashioned her bow out of it and cocked a barbed arrow – aimed it at the center of the abyss and remembered an Ereworld expression she had learned. 

Cloria told her it was a bad world, but it seemed oddly fitting.

“… fuck off!”

She let go.

***

The Hunter danced. Crimson light glowed from his body, as he employed the secret arts he had used against Lenora’s Eerie in the blasted city. No need to hold back. Besides, he would probably not meet it again before Spring. And all that mattered at this point was to protect the Wolfgirl behind him. He danced, carrying thin blades made out of blood. Pieces of Eerie fell all around him – his mind and body felt disconnected, pieces of a puppet he was not even a part of anymore. 

All that mattered was the grin of the Fae floating right ahead. He was getting closer, and the Eerie were following him, so if he could just reach the monster, he could-

Even now you fail, the Fae mocked him. We have only just begun. But you will live. You will live to see the consequences of you-

The hideous voice stopped.

With a gargled scream, the Fae’s twisted head tried to turn back – but it couldn’t, even as a shining mote of silver light appeared right below its neck. With a howl that pierced through flesh and stone alike, it screamed in utter pain, writhing in mid-air as the Eerie around it stumbled upon each other and, like ants under attack, dispersed in instinctual panic, the will that had unified them completely lost. The Fae slashed at its chest, as if trying to fight something that wasn’t even there. 

The mote on its body grew into a rift. And with the hiss of an ember growing into an inferno, white flames ran through its body. As the Fae let out a shriek, it began to fall down towards the ground, kicking and screaming. The white fire engulfed it completely and it impacted the layers of cursed corpses like a meteor. 

The Hunter also fell back.

Blood ran down his body.

He stumbled, his heart skipping a beat.

With a few words, he cancelled the incantation and the glow was extinguished.

He fell on his knees like a puppet without strings. Turning to check on Sadja, he found her slowly standing up on her elbow, rubbing her head. 

“Sadja,” he groaned, crawling up to her. They embraced and held onto each other. The war, the assault and the Winter became stuff that concerned others. For the time of three long, tired breaths, spent against each other’s chest as they hugged, they could rest in peace.

Around them, the Eerie army dispersed. They turned on each other, unable to ignore pain and wounds anymore. They attacked one another, trying to find some nourishment from the cursed flesh, biting and clawing and skittering and screaming. 

But from the barricades a high rallying cry tore the silence apart. All the defenders took whatever weapon they could muster – half-full bottles of holy water, guns, shovels, knives and bent pipes, clubs and firebombs – and threw them at the confused assailants, pushing the black, squirming tide away from the Furnace District. 

All that did not really matter to him. 

“You’re safe,” he hushed against her neck. She smelled of tangy sweat and fear and relief. “You’re here.”

“I said a bad word,” she replied, her cheeks flushing gray, and the reply was shocking enough that he rattled with laughter. “I’m serious! Cloria will be mad!”

“With some luck you can tell her yourself.”

He passed a hand through her hair and Sadja pulled him closer. 

From deep underground came a rumbling vibration. The rubble and gravel that covered the ground trembled and rattled. The hum rose through their feet and onto their backs.

“W-What n-now?” Sadja lamented. “I’m tired of bad news.”

“This isn’t bad news,” Hunter replied. He nudged her to look in the direction of the Generator’s shaft close to the Temple.

One by one, the electric lights of the building were coming back up.

Pic by NFWar

Author’s Notes: It has taken me a while, but I finally came back to a chapter I can confidently say I enjoyed. Also… 150 chapters. Whoa. That went well beyond what I expected Patina to ever reach. At any rate, I hope you liked it. Thank you for reading, especially if you have been reading since the start.