“Death mage?” Moxie asked, tilting her head to the side. She didn’t let her gaze break away from the tattooed man standing at the base of the stairs a few dozen paces away from her. “The way you phrased that makes it feel like an accusation.”

  “Not an accusation,” the man said. He didn’t make any moves to approach her. “Simply an observation. The scent of your magic is strikingly easy to follow when there are no conflicting energies. There hasn’t been large-scale death magic present in the Coral Empire for a very, very long time. That makes tracking it strikingly easy. Even a lone mage such as yourself stands out like a blooming sunflower in a wilted field for one who knows how to search.”

  Death magic is banned here? Are you serious? How unlucky can I possibly get?

  “I see,” Moxie said noncommittally. She couldn’t exactly say that she didn’t know death magic was illegal. That would have outed her as an outsider — which would have logically drawn the man to ask where she was from.

  Alice had made it more than clear enough that they couldn’t let anyone from Obsidia realize that they hailed from Arbalest. There were far too many people that would want to know exactly what had happened in the baby empire… and they wouldn’t be the type to accept those answers in a casual conversation.

  Ironic, isn’t it? We’ve somehow all ended up in exactly the same spot that Noah was in when he first got to Arbalest. The moment someone figures out who we are, they’ll try to kidnap us and extract information for as long as we can live. But unlike Noah… we don’t have a bunch of extra lives to throw away.

  “Well?” the man asked.

  “Well what?” Moxie replied. “You haven’t asked anything. You haven’t even introduced yourself. You just dropped an ominous line about searching for me, which I’ll head off by making it clear I have no interest in you. I’ve already got someone in my life.”

  “That — no. That isn’t what I meant,” the man said, his eyes going narrow. “You know that wasn’t what I meant.”

  “How would I know?” Moxie asked. She leaned back, making sure her motions remained as casual as possible. “What would you expect if you were minding your own business and some creep showed up in your cave saying they were here for you? Aren’t you supposed to represent Renewal? You’re not doing her reputation any wonders, here. And you still haven’t even said who you are. That isn’t making you a very trustworthy individual.”

  “I am Octavian,” the tattooed man said, more than a little exasperation in his tone. “Don’t try to play verbal games with me. We both know why I’m here. You are the death mage, are you not?”

  “I really don’t,” Moxie said. “I’m not even sure you do. If you did, we wouldn’t be sitting around here and wasting time talking. And I never said I was a death mage. You said that.”

  “But you are,” Octavian said. “I sense the magic, and you are the only one here. This is, after all, a long lost ruin. The only mage here other than you is me.”

  He really wants me to admit to being the death mage, huh? I wonder if the Coral Empire has stiff rules about not randomly murdering people under just vague suspicion. That’s actually somewhat respectable. But I somehow doubt this guy will just leave if I tell him he’s got it wrong.

  “It’s a big ruins,” Moxie said. “And I don’t think calling me a death mage is fair. Just because I’ve killed a bunch of monsters doesn’t make me a death mage.”

  “That was not—”

  “On the contrary,” Moxie said. “I’m a life mage.”

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  Octavian’s brow furrowed. “What?”

  Moxie held her hand out to the side. The moss on the ground rippled and shifted. Feelers pushed up from within the green carpet, rising to coil around her wrist. They slithered down her fingers before forming together and knitting themselves into a miniature version of Octavian.

  “Life,” Moixe repeated. “I’m a life mage. I do not work with death. I deal in life.”

  The entire cycle of it. But that’s semantics.

  “You can’t expect me to believe that,” Octavian said. “All the traces of death magic led here. To you.”

  “And yet you don’t believe it either,” Moxie observed. “Do you? If you did, something tells me we wouldn’t be sitting around here and talking.”

  The little plant doll in her hand reached up and scratched its head. Then it crossed its arms in front of its chest and tapped a foot on her hand as if pondering something.

  Octavian’s lips thinned.

  “So if you were to open your soul to me, I would see no death runes within it?”

  “That isn’t happening,” Moxie said flatly. “I’m not opening my soul to you. You could be the Prophet herself and I would still refuse. What kind of wretch do you take me for? Any mage that willingly opens their soul before another when they have literally any choice in the matter is no more than the dirt on the bottom of my shoe.”

  “Even if the price was your life?”

  “Doubly so if the price was my life,” Moxie said. Her hand clenched around the Octavian doll. Its head popped, sending little streams of vines splattering everywhere like green blood. “I am not a coward. I can feel that you’re at least a Rank 6. I might not stand much chance against that in a fair fight, but you can stuff your head down an anthill if you think I’m going to grovel.”

  Octavian held her gaze for a second. Then his eyes flicked down to her hand.

  “A bold stance. I can respect such determination, even in the face of the inevitable. But I cannot accept it,” Octavian said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small book. “I am more than aware that you are the death mage. There are no others here. Tell me where you got the Death Runes, mage. Then carve them from your soul and put them in this.”

  Moxie sighed. “And if I refuse?”

  “Then I will remove them from you myself,” Octavian said. “There have been no death mages in the Coral Empire for hundreds of years. A centuries old treaty is not going to be broken under my watch. But I have no desire to kill anyone that does not deserve death. Do not force my hand. Release the Death Runes. You can recover from soul damage. Death… not so much.”

  I don’t think my chances here are too good. The progress I’ve made on my formation is a lot, but it’s still not where I need it to be to punch this far above my weight class. This is so annoying. I’ll have to be a lot more careful with how I use my magic in the future.

  Oh well.

  “Thanks for the offer,” Moxie said. “But I’m going to pass. I’m not interested. Whatever old treaties this empire has gotten itself into really aren’t my concern. I have better things to be focusing on.”

  “Are you certain this is the path you wish to take?” Octavian asked. He lowered his stance, pressing his palms together as his features sharpened. Even from where Moxie sat, she could feel power welling within his soul. “There is no going back from this choice. Do not mistake my offer for weakness.”

  Moxie stretched her arms over her head, then shook them out and put a hand on Grim’s cover. “No, no. It’s a kind offer. I appreciate the thought behind it. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to have to pass. But I will have to skip ahead a little bit.”

  A flicker of confusion passed over Octavian’s features. “Skip ahead?”

  “Yes,” Moxie said. She inclined her head. “It was a meeting. I’m not sure I’d say it was a pleasurable one, but I’ve had worse. So you’ve got that going for you. I’d still suggest trying to avoid singling people out in abandoned ruins in the future. It probably isn’t setting the tone that you’d want. Going around and sullying the Prophet’s name can’t be good for the church’s longevity.”

  Octavian’s eyes narrowed. He stepped forward, pressure exploding out from his body —

  Moxie’s body crumbled.

  Chunks of her rained down, collapsing in on herself like old clay, as her hair dried and withered away. Not even her book was spared. By the time his foot had landed on solid ground once again, nothing at all remained of Moxie but a pile of dirt, bone, and old plant matter.

  Octavian stared at the ground where Moxie had been just moments before, the power rolling out from his runes sputtering and fading as he pulled it back. He stared for several long seconds, the confusion in his features turning to disbelief as it became clear that absolutely no trace of the mage remained.

  Moxie was gone.

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