Get out of my head!” Elana screamed, scrambling back across the floor and slamming against the coarse stone wall. Uzhas writhed within her, a glowing blue mass beneath her skin.

  The door slid open, and Sofia rushed in. “Elana, breathe!”

  “It’s in me, it’s in me.” Elana dragged her nails down her face. “Get it out!”

  Sofia dropped to her knees before Elana and grabbed Elana’s hands, wresting them away from her head. “Shh. It’s all right. You’re all right.”

  Elana shook her head violently.

  “This happens to everyone who bonds,” Sofia said.

  Elana stared wide-eyed at Sofia. “You knew?”

  Sofia frowned. “Knew what?”

  “It spoke to me, Sofia. It’s alive.”

  “Breathe, Elana, it’s a hallucination. They’re common when first bonding with uzhas—learning how to control the gas and stop it affecting your mind takes time. Even I imagined the uzhas was alive when I began sculptor training, it took me days to realise it was just a hallucination.”

  Elana nodded, wanting to believe her, needing to believe her. It was just hallucinations wreaking havoc with her mind. Again…

  No.

  This was real. Elana wrenched her hands away from Sofia. “You lied, you worthless piece of muck,” she said through gritted teeth. “You knew. You all knew.”

  Sofia stood. “Relax, Elana. The uzhas is not alive.”

  “Has it ever filled your body? Or any sculptor’s?” Elana asked, raising her glowing blue hands.

  Sofia’s hesitation was answer enough. Elana lurched to her feet, and Sofia staggered back through the door, which slammed shut. Snarling, Elana leapt at the door and crashed into it, pressing her face against the small window. “What are you doing? Let me go!”

  Sofia peered at her with her one good eye. “I can’t do that. Uzhas has never responded to a human like this, and we need to study what’s happened.”

  Elana howled with frustration and punched the door. The heavy steel shuddered and Sofia stumbled back.

  Sofia watched her, brow furrowed. “You understand we need to study you, right, Elana? You’re an Alchemist, studying the unknown is what you do.”

  “Oh stop the slavock muck, you used me. Don’t deny it.”

  Sofia stared at her a moment then said, “I’m sorry, I have to report to Chernov Commander.” She turned on her heel and hurried off.

  Elana screamed and flailed against the door, every hit shaking it. Dust rained on her.

  Sofia paused by the vault entrance and spoke to the guards there. A moment later, three detached from the group and hurried to Elana’s chamber. Fear glittered in their eyes as they took up positions by the quaking door.

  Elana finally stopped abusing the door and stepped back, breathing hard. She frowned. Strange, no dents had marked the door when they first entered. One looked like an inverted fist. Elana glanced at her own fist.

  Impossible… she hadn’t taken any strength extract.

  Curiosity won, and she stepped forward and placed her fist in the dent. A shiver ran down her spine.

  Perfect fit.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “What the depths did you do to me, Sovereign Sculptor?”

  While I appreciate the sentiment, the uzhas said in her mind, I am not your God.

  Elana sucked in a breath. “I thought you were gone.”

  I deemed it wise to let you calm down.

  “I need to get out of here… and get you out of me.” Elana scanned the chamber. Concrete floor, vents, stone walls, door, steel panel, rack of sculpting extracts… steel panel? Elana hurried to the panel beside the door. The one-foot square piece of steel with a small keyhole at the top was set deep in the stone.

  “What have we here?” Elana traced her fingers around the edge, should she use her new found strength and hit it? No, she might damage whatever lay hidden behind it, and if that controlled the door…

  Make a key, the uzhas said.

  “What? How do you even know about keys?”

  I am connected to you, and you know.

  Elana shuddered. “So you’re just slinking through my thoughts?”

  She got the distinct impression the uzhas shrugged. “Well how come I can’t slink around your thoughts?”

  My thoughts can be seen by you, we share the same consciousness now.

  Elana raked her fingers through her hair. “I don’t have time for this. How do I make a key?” She felt her hand lift towards the keyhole and shrieked, yanking it back. “What the depths? Was that you?”

  Yes. While merged we can move one another.

  “Don’t ever do that again!” Elana shivered, feeling violated. “Just… ask what you’d like me to do.”

  If inefficiency is what you insist upon, so be it. Put your hand over the keyhole.

  Elana did so. “Now what?”

  Patience.

  Elana bit back a retort and instead settled on a scowl. It took all her self-control to not start drumming her fingers against the panel.

  With a soft click, the panel fell open, revealing a row of unmarked levers. Elana’s jaw sagged. “How did you do that?”

  I can move… “uzhasgart.” Which you humans use for everything.

  Elana winced. “Right.” She studied the four levers. “How did you know it was uzhasgart?”

  I didn’t.

  “What if it’d been a brass lock? Or steel?”

  I could have made a key, it said defensively.

  Elana raised an eyebrow. “How?”

  Forming the metal you call uzhasgart is a natural part of what we are. Also, I could stop answering these asinine questions if you were to study my thoughts…

  “I like asking questions. Forming uzhasgart is natural for you?”

  The uzhas sighed and said, I can shape myself into the tools we need, my consciousness will remain unless all of me is used.

  “But that’s like me cutting my arm off to use for something, isn’t it?”

  You can grow arms back with healing extracts, so yes.

  Elana blanched. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

  We do not have a nervous system, so not physically. Though we are aware of our consciousness diminishing, and with it, our intelligence until we are reunited with more uzhas.

  “All right, enough. My head is spinning, and we need to escape before Sofia returns, doubtless with Chernov.”

  How do you propose to evade the guards?

  “You have any more neat tricks you want to tell me about?”

  I can travel through stone.

  Elana laughed. “No, seriously. What can you do?”

  I told you, travel through stone.

  “Oh… well… go distract the guards then!”

  It takes time.

  “Then you better hurry.” Elana’s skin tingled as the uzhas pulled itself from her, leaking through her pores and misting into the air in front of her, a cobalt cloud. As soon as the uzhas finished leaving her, the blue glow vanished, along with the grey of the guards’ minds.

  “What happened? I can’t see you.” She spotted a faint haze floating before of the door. “Wait, is that you?”

  Yes. I do not know what happened. I can sense your mind, but it’s different from when we first bonded.

  Elana rubbed her forehead, trying to relieve an itch that had started. “All right, no time to worry about that. Go. And I’m blind right now, so keep an eye out for Sofia, her mind is blue.” Elana continued rubbing her forehead as she watched the uzhas fade into the wall. The cursed itch almost felt like it was inside her skull.

  I'm writing a new series at the moment, it'll launch on RR on 2/2/26, but I'm doing a bit of a pre-launch over on Patreon. Right now I've got the first four chapters available to read, completely for free! A bit of a taste of what's to come. So go check it out! Sign up for the free tier if you want to be updated as soon as it goes live on Royal Road!

  You rock. Thanks for reading.

  ? Just Some Guy: MC to NPC ?

  by DanWerkhoven

  Darren’s dead now. Well, probably dead. He’s not been able to confirm that yet.

  Isle of Pirates, the newest AAA VRMMORPG (yeah, it sounds like a sneeze if you try say it), Darren finds a killer exploit. So good that the AI in charge of banning cheaters finds an all-too-effective way of stopping him.

  Dive in today to read the first four chapters for free on Patreon before the official Royal Road release on 2/2/26 to enjoy a boatload of action, bad jokes, and LitRPG goodness!