I don’t know how long I let myself drift in enforced tranquillity. It was easy to be calm when there were no chemicals pumping you full of feelings, no external events forcing you to react.

  I knew that I couldn’t stay like this forever. At some point I would need to build my body back up and face up to my shame. Even here, detached from my physical form, I regretted how I had acted. I felt… foolish, to say the least.

  In the moment it had felt so real, but now I could see it hadn’t been, and I had just lost it for basically no reason. I didn’t know how to deal with the situation that awaited me when I returned to the physical, so I waited it out.

  I knew that I needed to emerge from my protective shell when a familiar vitae signal entered my range. Blood and molten metal, like a ritual sacrifice or a scarred battlefield. Slowly, curiosity dragged me from my anxiety and self-criticism.

  I sprouted a single eye from the top of my fleshy form, only forming just enough of a brain to get the eye to work. I left out most of the glands and hormones, as a compromise with myself. It… kind of worked, but I was definitely more anchored now.

  The first thing that came to mind was that Cassie would be worried. I didn’t know how long I had been drifting for, but it had felt like a while. The second thing that came to mind was the pile of flesh, bone, chitin and all kinds of other biological material that I was sat not far from.

  It was approximately the size of a human, which meant that there were only a couple of options for what it used to be. Given that the corpse drawer was closed, there was only one.

  By the gods, that thing used to be me.

  It wasn’t far off what my body had looked like after Matthais was done with it. In fact, it was nearly the same, down to the pattern of rot. My body must have… remembered it, the way it remembered just about everything.

  Somehow, it was more disturbing to look at with the knowledge that I had done that. Not some crazed necromancer, me. I didn’t even know I could do that, yet in my blind, foolish panic I had. It freaked me out more than a little bit.

  Finally, I worked up the courage to form a single limb and drag myself towards the mess. Sure enough, unlike when Matthais had damaged me, my body still registered this mess as me. It wasn’t beyond change or consumption, so that’s what I did.

  I dragged my small, fleshy form onto the remains and began to drink in the vitae and mana that made it up, much like I had with the limbs that I’d lost to Sarah. It took a lot longer, of course, but I could do it.

  My vitae reserves began to fill again, so I slowly filled out my form into the same little creature I had been when chasing down Hansen. I felt somehow more comfortable like this, rather than a humanoid creature. A necessary degree of separation, maybe.

  Nonetheless, I was rather limited in complexity by my half-brain. After taking a moment to steel myself, I formed myself I proper, fully functional brain. It still wasn’t human-size, but it had all of the neural pathways, hormones and instincts to process fear and panic again.

  I was... fine, to a certain definition of fine. Well, that clearly wasn’t true in multiple ways, but I was rational again. Either I’d managed to wait out the panic, or disconnecting myself from my brain had reset it, but I was mostly clear minded. That was a relief, although as I finished off my remains my other fear was brought to the fore.

  I swivelled to see two people watching me, torn between concern and curiosity, from the other side of the room. Jenny was there, dressed just the same as before but sans gloves. She was mostly showing concern, since she might have figured out what I was panicking about.

  The other person, unbelievably, was Noren. The man was dressed now in even finer clothes, well-made crimson velvet and silver trim. He was looking at me with intrigue, and as always he made the first move.

  He stood from where they were both sitting, approaching me like a foreign delegate. When he stood a couple of feet away from me, he stopped and nodded formally. “Julie. You’re looking well.”

  Oh, you bastard. Two can play at that game.

  After taking a moment to create a mouth that could actually form words, I shot back. “As are you, Noren. I can’t say I expected to see you again so soon, let alone here.”

  He smiled, that same mix of cockiness and over-exaggerated politeness that made you feel like he was mocking you, just in some way only he knew. “No, me neither. Imagine my surprise when a friend of mine summons me for aid, only for me to discover that it was you who needed help.”

  I scoffed. “Yeah, I can imagine you were quite shocked. Why, though, were you called on, Noren?”

  He cocked his head and grinned lopsidedly, giving me a dramatic bow. “You wound me, Julie! For it is I, Noren Foundling, foremost regional expert on vitae, blood magic and the occult, most humbly at your service.”

  I tapped my legs in sequence, pounding a satisfying rhythm into the stone floor. “Oh, really? What happened to Noren ‘I’m not a mage’ Foundling, huh?”

  His grin turned to a smirk. “Why, my dear, I’m not! I do not classify myself as a mage, because many of the connotations simply do not apply to me.”

  Jenny finally jumped in. “How do you guys even know each other? Noren wouldn’t explain once he figured out who you were. It sounds like I don’t need to tell you how frustrating he can be sometimes.”

  I turned to Jenny. “Cass and I met him on our way here. Also, sorry about… that.” If I’d had the necessary biology to blush I would have. I was plenty ashamed of my little display.

  Jenny surprised me by casually waving me off. “Don’t worry about it. If I’d been through that, I’d probably have a bad reaction to caromancy too. My bad for not thinking ahead, sorry.”

  Huh. That’s… weirdly thoughtful of her. I can’t say I expected that. I’ll have to keep an eye on her.

  “Ah yes, your run in with the Cabal. I understand you managed to execute one of their members personally, Julie. Congratulations are in order, I believe.” Noren reached into a pocket I hadn’t noticed and pulled out a single silver coin. “Buy yourself something nice.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  I leapt out of the way as he flicked it at me. “What am I meant to do with one silver?”

  He swept his arm wide. “Whatever you wish, my dear. The world is yours for the taking!”

  “...Great,” I deadpanned.

  “Now!” Noren announced. “Since this situation has been cleared up, I shall be off. I shall be in the city for the foreseeable future, however. I recommend you and Cassie come visit some time, Julie. I believe we have… aligning interests.”

  “Wait,” I said as he turned away. “What do you know about the people behind Matthais? The ones you called the ‘Cabal’.”

  He looked over his shoulder. “Come visit and you’ll find out. I’m afraid I have to run, though. I’m sure I’ll see you soon. Toodles!”

  With no further words he brushed past me and strode out the door, disappearing up the spiral staircase and vanishing from sight. I was sure that I felt a pulse of magic from behind the door, but I could have imagined it.

  More than a little muddled, I only realised that he’d never told me where to visit him after he was already gone. Frustrated, I turned to Jenny. “How do you even know Noren?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “We have overlapping fields of work. I don’t really know much about him, but he’s the kind of guy you call when someone suddenly turns into a pile of rotting flesh out of nowhere.”

  I immediately felt bad again. “Sorry-"

  “Hey, I already said that it’s fine, and in this lab my word is law. Mostly, anyway. Besides, you’re better now, right?”

  I wasn’t really sure. Technically I was, but how did I know I wouldn’t panic again the next time something reminded me of that spell? “Um…”

  “Great!” Jenny announced. “Now, there is something I should probably warn you of.”

  “Warn me of? What do you mean?” I asked.

  Jenny looked sheepish. “Well, when you… let’s say collapsed, I might have gotten a bit worried. I sent for Noren, sure, but I also sent for your girlfriend.”

  “Oh, she’s not… actually, no she is. She’s going to be very upset, though. I may or may not have promised not to worry her a matter of hours ago.” This conversation was going to be fun. I couldn’t wait to relive everything again.

  Jenny grimaced. “Oh yeah, good timing. The wards have just alerted me to someone coming in. Three, two, one-”

  “Where is she!” I heard a shout from the stairs, accompanied by a faint crackling sound. Moments later the door that Noren had politely closed burst open, swinging wildly on its hinges. Behind it stood Cassie, sparks bouncing off her as she practically flew into the room. She had her wand in one hand and Hanson in the other. She also had blood pouring from a couple of different orifices, which was more than a little worrying.

  She glared at Jenny. “I swear to every god, if you’ve done something to…” Her righteous anger petered out as she finally saw me sitting on the floor, very much in one piece.

  “Is this some kind of... joke?” She asked, hurt plain in her voice.

  Jenny raised her arms placatingly. “No, no. She was in a bit of a state when I sent the message, she just… got better.”

  The sparks that had been crackling off Cassie’s form died out as her wand fell loosely to her side. Hansen hopped from her grip, clutching the burned remains of what I assumed to be a letter. She slumped heavily against the wall, eyes locked in a squint like she’d just walked in from a dark room.

  I scurried over, morphing into Lia Prime as I did so. Urgently I checked her health, discovering that just like before she had strained her system but not really hurt anything. Everything I could see were clearly symptoms, not the cause. I healed up her burst blood vessels and seared muscles nonetheless.

  “Hey, I’m fine. I’m here. Thank you so much for coming, but I’m okay.” I muttered to her as I wrapped her in a hug, partly to comfort her and partly to stop her from falling over. I slowly lowered the both of us to the ground.

  “Ugh,” she grunted. “What happened?”

  “I… nothing, I’m fine. How are you?” I had to admit, I was worried. Far more about whatever she was doing than whatever I had just been through. I was the one with magical healing powers, after all.

  “Just dandy,” she groaned as she clumsily wiped the blood from her face. “Seriously, I’m fine. Just… pushed myself too far too soon. Thought you were hurt. I like the hug though. Loving the outfit, too.”

  I blushed lightly, but decided not to back down for once. “Thanks. I made it myself.”

  That got a laugh out of her, and I could see she was already beginning to recover. I didn’t let her go, though. Even if the situation could be better, I had to admit that I liked the position we were in now.

  “Can you two stop flirting, please? Especially not in my lab. I need this place sterile,” Jenny complained.

  “Hey, we’re dying here,” Cassie joked. Laughter is the best medicine, I guess.

  “Ugh,” Jenny said, turning back to her desk. “You clearly know where the doors are. Now that Bug Girl isn’t a pile of mush anymore, you’re welcome to leave whenever.”

  After a couple of minutes more to let Cassie recover, I stood us both up. Quickly stopping to grab Noren’s reward money, I supported Cassie as we left the lab, waving goodbye to Jenny and Hansen as we shut the door.

  As we made our way up the dark stairway I shifted back into my bug-like form, so that I didn’t need to worry about decency. I kept the swirling teal and pink pattern on my chitin, though, because I was pretty sure that Cassie like to watch it move.

  When we made our way to the corridor before the door, Cassie asked the question I had been dreading. “So. You gonna tell me what exactly happened down there?”

  I didn’t want to answer. Even if I could get past thinking about it without feeling a little sick, I still felt kind of stupid for even doing so in the first place. I tried to distract her as we stepped out onto the street. “I met up with Noren, actually. He’s in Meria for a bit. He also definitely knows something about the whole vampire thing. He even had a name for them. Called them the ‘Cabal’.”

  Cassie raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. We’re definitely getting back to that later, but that wasn’t what I asked. Also, we’re going the wrong way.”

  I smoothly turned around and took a left turn that I’d missed. To be fair, I hadn’t exactly been paying attention to the streets on the way here. “Nothing. Just a big accident, that’s all.”

  Cassie dropped out from under my supporting arm, swaying a little on her feet but staying upright. “Bullshit. You don’t get Jenny of all people worried unless something serious happened. Spill, I’m worried.”

  I was hesitant to invoke it, but I knew that I could trust Cassie. She knew when to make fun of me and when to be kind, but I still braced myself out of instinct. “I… kinda freaked out. Jenny was doing some necromancy, and I just… I was there. In the ritual room, getting consumed from the inside out by that magic. It was a bit much, is all. I didn’t mean to worry you, or anyone.”

  Cassie was silent for a few seconds, and I started to get worried. “I keep seeing it too,” she finally said. Her voice was soft and her gaze dropped to the floor, like she was admitting to something she wasn’t supposed to have done. “I know that I didn’t experience it, but seeing you just… fall apart like that, it was,” she paused. “I don’t know. Just for a moment, before you came back, I think it broke something in me. Last night, I couldn’t make myself sleep. I just kept seeing you die, over and over behind my eyes.”

  I grabbed her by the shoulders and held her tight, wrapping her in an embrace I rather needed myself. “I did too,” I admitted. “I only managed to sleep by manually knocking myself unconscious. I’m so sorry-”

  “Not your fault,” she interrupted, her voice muffled against my torso. “Necromancer’s fault. He cast the spell.”

  I was silent for a beat. “Yeah. Maybe… maybe it was. I still should have moved out of the way though. Should have seen it coming.”

  “No, none of that,” Cassie insisted as she leaned back a little, looking me in the eye. “Not your fault. I know how you get, and this wasn’t your fault.”

  I tried to believe her. Maybe I did, I couldn’t quite tell. “Okay,” I conceded. “At the very least, we can be haunted by that man together. That’s what matters, right?”

  Cassie clearly hadn’t been expecting the joke, because she snorted hard enough that it had to be painful. It wasn’t even that funny, barely a joke really. Desperate times and all that, I supposed.

  “Come on,” Cassie said as she gathered herself. “I can walk on my own now. Let’s go back to the room, eh? It’s kind of late, and I don’t know about you but I am exhausted.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, sure. Let’s go.” I stuck out my arm, to which Cassie responded by looping hers through mine as we walked back to the Warg’s Fang. After the day we’d had, not even that sleep in the bath was enough to sate me.

  “No, Lia. This way,” Cassie tugged on my arm, guiding me in the correct direction. Oh yeah, all was right with the world.

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