Corminar went to retrieve Alenna.

  Faced with the two bodies in their corrupted, burnt states, we knew it wouldn’t do any good. There was nothing that even the most talented healer could do to save them now, and yet it seemed the right thing to do. At the very least, the scientist might be able to explain what went wrong.

  There was a school of thought—one which Raelas shared—that Alenna was to blame. That if she hadn’t assured us that Ama was fine, then we wouldn’t have brought her here. Carle would never have been touched by the corruption. Raelas would have lost one friend, not two.

  The owner of the inn plied us with food and drink and anything else we needed, recognising both the grief and the fact that we’d saved her inn from certain destruction—ignoring the fact that we’d also brought the destruction to her. It was a nice gesture, and one I think the pale Raelas would have been more grateful for if she wasn’t in a daze.

  Even Val had been sympathetic to the tiefling, in a departure from her normal glaring. She was at this very moment making her a tea in the inn’s kitchen, something that I’d never seen her do for anyone.

  I was sitting at Raelas’s side, a comforting hand on her upper back as she stared numbly at the bowl of stew sitting in front of her, untouched. And that wasn’t to comment on the quality of the stew; if Lore wasn’t off somewhere, he’d have been salivating at the aroma. My incomplete ability selection notification weighed on my mind, but there was be time for that later; some things were more important.

  At that moment, Corminar entered the inn, Alenna at his side.

  ‘They’re out there,’ Raelas breathed.

  Alenna nodded. ‘I’ll see to them. I just wanted to say… I’m sorry, Raelas. I really thought she was cured.’

  I noticed that the wording was I thought she was cured, and not I thought I’d cured her.

  Raelas said nothing, but turned back to the bowl of stew, and shifted a shaky hand towards the spoon. I watched her take a deep breath before sipping lightly at the broth, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Arzak slink upstairs.

  As we sat in silence, and nobody would be any the wiser, I thought there might be time to review the ability selection after all, so I brought it up. There were only two choices this time.

  Ability selection unlocked

  Select an ability from the list below:

  Option 1: Weaken Metal II (Worldbending) — Your magicks find flaws within metalwork and exacerbate these flaws, leading to objects becoming immediately weaker. Some enchanted objects may still withstand this spell.

  This was an upgrade to an ability I’d passed on previously. There were definitely a good few use cases for it—breaking into place and, shattering weapons to name a few—but it didn’t feel like enough. If I picked this, then I’d be missing out on the other ability choice, and in this case, the latter seemed to be more useful.

  Option 2: Portal Relay II (Worldbending) — Up to ten small-scale portals can now be positioned stationary to an entity, and used to communicate sound. In addition, your standard portals may be used to communicate sound.

  I’d been given the level 1 option of this ability back when we’d defeated Niamh, and I’d immediately come to regret it. This ability came with use cases including spying on people—something I was a big fan of—but also allowing us to coordinate our attacks better as a group, as we could all be in direct communication with one another. It would almost be selfish not to pick this one. And I liked to think I’d grown out of selfishness.

  Ability unlocked — Portal Relay II

  Portal Relay II (Worldbending) — Up to ten small-scale portals can now be positioned stationary to an entity, and used to communicate sound. In addition, your standard portals may be used to communicate sound.

  As Alenna and Corminar entered the inn once more, I turned to the scientist. ‘Do you know what you…’ I started. ‘Do you know what went wrong?’

  Alenna shook her head. ‘The ward, it…’ She glanced at Raelas, and I took the unspoken point; maybe the tiefling didn’t need to hear this.

  I stood up, and approached Alenna and Corminar at the edge of the room.

  ‘I used a ward to stop the corruption spreading,’ Alenna said. ‘You remember that book you retrieved for me? It was about using the body’s power to sustain wards. That was supposed to be the cure, and I thought from my tests that it would work.’

  ‘You didn’t check?’ I asked.

  A flash of irritation crossed Alenna’s eyes. ‘I did check. The ward was stable. The corruption shouldn’t have spread. But something—I don’t know what—it overwhelmed the ward. It’s almost like the corruption grew more powerful by itself.’

  ‘Can that happen?’ Corminar asked.

  ‘No. Not without—’

  Alenna trailed off, her eyes on something across the room. I followed her gaze to see Arzak standing at the foot of the stairs, her nostrils flaring with an anger I’d never before seen in her.

  ‘Upstairs. Now,’ the orc said.

  Raelas whipped her head up from her bowl.

  ‘What—’ Val started, poking her head in from the kitchen.

  ‘Now,’ Arzak said again. ‘Stuff you need see.’

  The grieving tiefling rose from her seat, eyes on Arzak. ‘What stuff?’ she asked. There was panic in her tone.

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  The orc didn’t acknowledge her in the slightest. ‘How many time I need say? Come now.’

  Val, Corminar, Alenna and I strode over to the stairs, and Raelas whipped her hand out to grab my arm as I passed. ‘It’s not what you think,’ she said.

  I looked to Arzak, who held my gaze, a scowl on her face.

  ‘What isn’t?’ I asked the tiefling.

  But Raelas had no answer.

  I yanked my arm free of her grasp, and as I joined the others on the staircase, Arzak led us upstairs and along the corridor.

  ‘I went up to Ama room, see if more information for Alenna. See if more information to understand corruption.’ Arzak paused. ‘I think I find it.’ She came to a halt in front of Carle and Ama’s room, and she placed her hand on the door. She sighed, and then pushed. The hinges groaned as the door opened.

  I saw nothing at first, only a dusty room much the same as my own. Except, this one had more stuff being stored in it, a good dozen small crates stacked in one corner of the room, away from the beds.

  One of them moved. Just a little. But enough.

  ‘Don’t tell me…’ Val said, getting there before I did.

  ‘Malae,’ Arzak said.

  A chill ran down my spine. ‘Why? What in the gods’ names could they want with…’ I started, but then an answer occurred to me.

  ‘Ah,’ Alenna said. ‘That… that’d do it. That’s why my ward didn’t hold up—the corruption did grow stronger. It fed on the malae in this very room. My ward… didn’t stand a chance.’

  But I wasn’t interested in this anger; I now felt ire to rival Arzak’s. I turned around, pushed through the small crowd at the threshold of the room, and charged down the corridor.

  Raelas recoiled when she saw the fury burning on my face. ‘It’s not what you—’ she said, stumbling backwards into a table, knocking glassware smashing to the floor.

  ‘Why?’ I roared. ‘Why do you have them?’

  ‘It was… it was…’ Raelas stuttered, gulping.

  ‘Why?’ I shouted once more, striding towards her.

  ‘It was payment!’ the tiefling blurted out.

  I came to an abrupt stop, perplexed by this response.

  ‘We knew you were never gonna pay up,’ Raelas said. ‘And I think you knew we knew.’

  ‘I thought you wanted to do what was right.’

  ‘You heard our story,’ the tiefling replied, now shouting too. ‘You know what we came from. What we had to survive. There’s safety in coin. There’s no safety in doing the right thing. But we came anyway, because we know how valuable those creatures are. This was our payment.’

  Fury blossomed through me. To think I’d thought Raelas might have been a good one. No. No, she was no hero; she was just like the rest of them. Without a word, I grabbed Raelas by the wrist and pulled her towards the staircase.

  ‘Styk, no, I—’

  ‘Yes, Raelas. You’re dealing with them now. I don’t care what else you’re going through, this is too far. You saved malae. Malae! You know what these creatures can do, and you gambled lives on them for the sake of coin. I can stand you gambling your own lives on them, but what about everyone else? What about the others staying in the inn? What about me? Or did you not think about that?’

  Raelas followed quietly, giving up any resistance. The others parts at the doorway as I pushed Raelas inside.

  ‘Portal them out, and burn them,’ I said. ‘Now.’

  ‘Styk, I didn’t mean to…’ Raelas said, staggering back to her feet and coming back towards me with begging eyes. ‘I do care. I did think about—’

  When she tried to touch me, I instinctively pushed her away. I didn’t want her touching me. I couldn’t stand the idea anymore.

  But I didn’t mean to push her towards the crates.

  As Raelas fell backwards into them, the stack toppled, a handful of boxes falling to the floor. We all went immediately silent, waiting with bated breath to see if any of the monsters were free.

  And then we heard a familiar noise.

  Shlop. An oozing black limb popped out from behind one of the boxes, climbing on top. It waited there for a moment, looking at the fives of us.

  Then it pounced towards Raelas.

  For all her crimes, the tiefling didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve being touched by a mala. And I’d been the one to push her. I was the one who’d done it to her.

  It was that line of thought, perhaps, that led to me yanking my dagger out and leaping between Raelas and the mala. My blade blocked it in midair, and I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when I felt something strangely cool touch my wrist.

  When I looked down, I realised what I’d done. The mala had touched me. And the corruption began to spread.