Waking up was terribly disorientating. Ana was no longer in the street where she’d gone to sleep—passed out, more like—and she’d never noticed being moved. Messy now lay to Ana’s side with a foot of space between them, instead of Ana being cuddled up to her; to Ana’s other side was Touanne, who slept soundly with a soft, rattling snore.

  Ana propped herself up on her elbows. Around them, in every direction, were at least two dozen people, all laying on makeshift bedding. Despite the unfamiliar perspective the smell and general ambiance of the place told Ana that she was in the common room in Petra’s inn; the chairs and tables had mostly been stacked along the walls, clearing the floor for the wounded. The exception was one table where Jisha sat with the Ters sisters, Dilmik and Sendra, and a Life-mage whose name she was pretty sure was Maro. He was focused on growth and cultivation, but could do some minor healing, she knew that much.

  Well, minor compared to Touanne. She’d seen him staunch the bleeding from a nasty thigh wound once. If she’d never seen Touanne at work, it would have been an absolute miracle.

  Sendra was the first to react when Ana stirred. Mostly because, of the other three, Dilmik sat with her back to the room, and both Jisha and Maro weren’t so much seated as slumped on the table.

  “Good morning, Ana,” the Water-mage said. She kept her voice low, and spoke in a far more solemn tone than Ana was used to hearing from her. “I trust you’re somewhat recovered?”

  Beside her Jisha jerked upright with a startled snort, and Dilmik turned around in her chair at the mention of Ana’s name. Maro, it turned out, was sleeping, and didn’t stir.

  “Morning, Sendra, Dilmik, Jisha,” Ana replied, getting to her feet and approaching the table. “What’s the situation?”

  “Calm, but tense,” Sendra said. “We believe that everybody has been excavated, alive or dead. At least no one is unaccounted for, as far as I know.”

  “The captains?”

  “Alive. They’re both here.” Sendra indicated one section of the room, which Pirta dominated with her tall, narrow frame while the two Falks slept beside her. “I understand Captain Pirta was in far worse shape than Captain Falk.”

  “Elf protected the man, I think,” Jisha said as she rubbed some life into her face. “Heard from—” Jisha gave up and switched to French. “I’m not sure I understood completely, but the woman, the wife — Marra? — she was crying and thanking the elf when they brought them to Touanne. So I assume the elf must have protected the pépère.”

  “Huh.” Ana could see that, she supposed. She was more mystified by Jisha calling Captain Falk a sweet old man than by the idea that Pirta would have… what? Shielded Falk with her body when the building came down on them? Falk was earnest, honest, and kind, but Ana would never have thought of him as grandfatherly. Besides, he appeared to be in his late forties at most.

  Of course, Jisha was sixteen. Ana vaguely remembered how people had looked to herself at that age. Ana wasn’t sure how the girl saw her, and she wasn’t going to ask, in case she didn’t like the answer. Instead she asked, “How’re you doing?” sticking to Inter-guild for both Sendra’s sake and to force Jisha to keep practicing.

  “Tired,” Jisha said. “Woke up by noise, run around, did very small healing.” She sighed heavily. “Tired.”

  “We were lucky,” Dilmik said, indicating herself and her sister. “Went to bed real early last night. And we’ve been busy helping, sure, but not like the Life-mages.” She clapped Maro on the shoulder, and he didn’t even stir. “This poor sod’s wiped out.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short,” Sendra told her sister before speaking to Ana again. “This one’s hauled enough rocks to build a small village, and then she helped carry you and everyone else here. If anyone’s had it easy, it’s me. I’ve mostly been drying out Cross Street with some other Water-mages.”

  Ana nodded. “Takes all kinds, right? So… what about the Earthbreaker and his people? I’m guessing they didn’t break the truce yet, since you’re not panicking.”

  “Camped out in the square, around the Waystone,” Dilmik said. “Nobody likes it, but not even Irry wants to try and dislodge them as long as they’re staying peaceful and don’t mess with the Waystone. But nobody trusts them. That’s why you’re all here instead of at the guardhouse. Don’t want to give them a stone building full of hostages, you know?”

  “Yeah, good call. They’re not doing anything to the Waystone?”

  “Well… nothing harmful, as far as Mistress Thair can tell. Though that Grand Summoner seems to be suppressing it somehow. He’s always touching it, and there’s far too much mana, not only in the square but in the entire outpost. Like it’s not even there.”

  “Yeah, I felt that last night,” Ana agreed. “We’ll need to deal with Karti first if Haytham and his people try anything.”

  “Haytham?” Dilmik asked.

  “Haytham Talleh. The Earthbreaker,” Ana explained. “We talked briefly last night. For what it’s worth, he seems honest. Not kind, or merciful, but honest. Earth-mage, you know.”

  Sendra nodded. “Solid. Dependable. And capable of cataclysmic violence. Like someone we know,” she added, giving Ana a small smile.

  Ana suspected it wasn’t Tellak that the Water-mage was thinking of, but she let it pass without comment. “What about the crossbowmen on the temple roof? One of them put a bolt in Messy’s shoulder.”

  “Her and one or two others, including one of the Earthbreaker’s people,” Sendra replied. “That’s what started the whole damn fight. We’ve got people on both sides confirming that Haytham and the captains were negotiating until someone put a quarrel in the back of one of his mages.”

  “What do we know about them?”

  “There were two of them, as best we can tell. Two of the people who came with the Ascender, according to Miss Tellak. She says the Earthbreaker’s people recognized them. Her guess was that they’d been lying low, then saw the mages trying to leave the Splinter and decided that they’d broken faith. But they’re both dead, so I doubt we’ll ever know for certain.”

  Both dead. That was at once both disappointing and comforting. Part of Ana wanted to have been the one to punish them for hurting Messy, and for triggering so much unnecessary violence. A greater part was happy not to have to deal with them. She had enough to worry about. That, and it felt good that for once it hadn’t been a betrayal by people from their own community.

  “At least they won’t cause any more trouble,” she said. “You said Irry and the rest are back?”

  “Sure. I’d bet Omda’s upstairs, sleeping. Unless he snuck past us, which, I mean—”

  Sendra interrupted her sister. “I think Ana would be more interested to hear what Kaira had to say. Don’t you?”

  Dilmik nodded. “Oh, right! So, Kaira was here not long ago, and she said—” Dilmik cleared her throat and did her best impression of their themion friend, “‘Ana’s probably worried about ditching us all, yeah, so when she gets up, tell ‘er we’re better than good. It was a real kick in the tit losing all those bonuses in the middle of an all-night run, but Jisha told me about Petra.’ Then she said that apparently one of their scouts had prayed to the Wayfarer and came out of it ‘looking crazier than a frontier Herbalist and saying we should all cut Ana some slack.’ So, yeah.”

  Ana sighed with relief and thanked the sisters. She hadn’t expected Kaira to blow up on her, but there had still been the memory of last time, when she’d been put on probation from the Party. That had hurt far more than she’d expected, and the idea of having to go through that again had gnawed at her.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Then she told Jisha to get some real sleep, not the nodding off and jerking awake she’d been doing, and went and laid back down next to Messy. She had no idea if she’d be able to sleep, but she just didn’t want to engage with anything that was happening. At least if their tiny world was not, at that very moment, ending. Instead she cuddled back up to her girlfriend, careful not to press too hard anywhere as she relaxed into her warmth.

  With nothing she wanted to do except lie there and possibly drift off, she checked the notifications that had been bugging her ever since the previous evening. And there were a fair few of them, considering all she’d done was fight one single one-on-one where no one had died.

  There was a single kill in the list.

  The friend that the Iron Warrior had accused Messy of killing, Ana assumed. That was a fair difference in Level; Ana could only assume that Messy had gotten the drop on them, or that the dead Stoneshaper wasn’t experienced in person-to-person combat. Either way, the Stoneshaper was dead, and Messy was warm beside Ana. That was what mattered.

  The rest of the notifications were all Skills. Shaping had reached Level 7; Blunt Weapons, Level 9; Acting, Level 8; Intimidation, Level 11; Defense, Level 6; Unarmed Combat, Level 16; and Inspect, Level 8. Not a single new Perk, which was a small disappointment, but those would come. And it was a decent haul of Crystals. Counting what she got from Messy’s kill thanks to her miniscule contribution via her Abilities, Ana picked up one Least, five Medium, one Major, and one Greater Growth Crystal, bringing her almost 5,000 Points closer to her minimum goal of Level 20 before leaving the Splinter. Which had now become “before the cycle ended,” since she was sure that the Summerlands would come for her no matter where she was.

  Well, she was more than halfway there. She only needed about 7,500 more, and she had almost two months to get them. And if by some calamity she couldn’t, then she wouldn’t be too proud to ask for help. It was too important.

  At least she assumed that it was. She didn’t actually know what new Ability she’d get, only that everyone considered Level 20 to be the milestone Level for most Classes. Not all, but most. Her Level 10 Ability gave Ana’s Objects of Devotion—and thanks to the Wayfarer’s meddling, her whole Party—a massive boost to their Endurance and Vitality, as well as letting them share Ana’s Enhancements for those Attributes. Level 15 had given her goddamn wings! Wings that made her Party immune to fear! Both would be hard to beat, and even tired as she was, Ana felt a rush of excitement at the prospect.

  She’d considered asking the Wayfarer what to expect. She knew that the goddess knew; she’d said as much, when Ana got her wings. But she always decided not to. She enjoyed the anticipation, and didn’t want to spoil herself. If she’d been unsure about whether to push for Level 20 she would have asked, but as it was… no, she’d rather let herself enjoy the surprise.

  Though she might be forced to give herself that surprise sooner than expected, depending on what Haytham the Earthbinder intended to do. Earth-mages, Tellak had told her, were like Sendra had described them a few minutes earlier: solid and dependable, yes, but capable of sudden and worldshattering violence. Ana would prefer to avoid any more violence if she could. She wasn’t going to do anything preemptive. But she wasn’t going to trust the truce to hold until she had a better measure of the man and his companions. Especially that Iron Warrior woman. She’d seemed like the type to hold a grudge.

  But that could wait for another hour or four. Ana’s eyes were getting heavy, and her thoughts foggy. A few hours of sleep would never be enough after the amount of healing Touanne had poured into her, even with her Vitality. So Ana focused on Messy’s warmth and her gentle breathing, and let them lull her back to sleep.

  When Ana woke again, a few things had changed. Touanne was up, for one, moving among the patients. A few empty spots on the floor and three available slots in Ana’s Party showed that some people had been well enough to leave. And Messy’s arm was wrapped around Ana’s back. A small thing, sure, but even such a minor, unconscious gesture was enough to show that Messy was truly recovering. No matter how much Ana had already convinced herself of that, it was a great relief.

  She didn’t waste any time. Messy, Ray, and Petra were all still asleep, recovering from their injuries. So were the two captains. Marra Falk was awake and helping Touanne, though Ana suspected that it was more from a desire to be close to her husband than from a true desire to help. And Touanne, of course, was moving tirelessly from patient to patient, checking to see if anyone needed anything.

  Ana kissed Messy on the cheek, and the pleased sigh she got at that, followed by an unhappy grumble as she got up, brought her another small wave of relief. Then she thanked Touanne for her help and hard work, and asked if the people still in her Party would be alright without the recovery bonuses from Companionship. Touanne assured her that they would, though she asked Ana to keep everybody in her Party for the Vitality bonus. She gave Marra some words of encouragement, because that was what normal people did in a situation like this, and did the same for Mikkel, who came out of the kitchen as Ana was leaving. Then she was out the door, headed for the square.

  Outside, she looked at the sky. It was about midday, and habit reminded her that she hadn’t eaten since before leaving her Party to rush back to the outpost. She’d have to do something about that. And she was filthy. Her clothes were an absolute mess, torn and bloody, and her arms were wrapped in bandages in a way that made her look vaguely like a street fighting poser. But she needed to see with her own eyes what was going on, and she wasn’t going to waste time on getting washed up and changed for Haytham and his gang’s benefit.

  Her route took her past the ruin of the bathhouse, where a number of people were working to clear out the collapsed parts of the building using magic or mundane labor. Seeing the rubble made her heart sink before that feeling was replaced by outrage, renewing the anger that had waned since the previous night. With all the wounded she’d seen at Petra’s it felt odd that it should be a destroyed building that sparked her anger again, but there it was. She’d loved the baths. The baths had been nice. A lot of effort and pride had gone into creating and running them, and now they were a ruin, with walls collapsed, roofs fallen in, and water spilling into the streets. And Haytham had destroyed them because… why? For what damn purpose? A goddamn distraction?

  She wanted to punish him for that. And the fact that the best possible outcome here meant that she’d never get an opportunity to do that rankled more than she cared to admit.

  The dust that found its way in through the cuts in her boots did nothing to help her mood as she stalked down Cross Street. At the square, several people turned startled looks her way as she approached, alerting her that she hadn’t thought to control her aura.

  “Fuck’s sake, Ana!” Kaira’s unmistakable voice rang out from somewhere behind Tellak and Jancia. “We’re all pissed, but bank the flame a bit, would you? I’m on edge already.”

  The whole Party that Ana had run south with was there, except for Deni. “Her parents’ shop got smashed a bit when the baths went,” Kaira explained when Ana asked, having missed the girl during a round of greetings. “They’re fine, but… you know. Poor girl. That shop’s their home, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” Ana said, looking past the Evoker to the Waystone. What she could see of it. The entire plinth that the obelisk stood on was surrounded by stone walls at least ten feet high. “You let them dig in?” she asked, carefully masking her disapproval so that it came as an innocent question instead of an accusation.

  “It was that or start the whole damn bloodletting up again, and nobody was in much of a mood for that. I told ‘em I could take the arsehole out, but I’m only one voice, right? Can’t very well start a war on my own say-so.”

  “Right,” Ana sighed. “Fair enough. Don’t suppose you’ve seen my weapon and my buckler around?”

  Kaira shook her head. “Nah. Pretty sure I heard Messy’s sword’s missing as well. My bet is they—” she nodded toward the improvised fort, “—took ‘em as trophies or something. Wanna take them back?”

  “If you’re quite done talking about starting something that might spell the end of the outpost,” Tellak interrupted, “Ana. How are you? Touanne said that you were in no danger, but I saw both Messy and Rayni beside you.”

  “I’m as healthy as ever,” Ana said, holding up her arms demonstratively. They were both crisscrossed by fine, pale scars. “My ribs are healing and my skin is growing back. More importantly, Messy and Ray are both out of danger, and they’re going to be fine.” Then she turned to Kaira specifically. “Dil and Sendra told me what you said. About us being fine. I appreciate it.”

  “Nah, yeah!” Kaira gave her a toothy smile. “Big difference from last time, right? Wasn’t just that you were being aggro this time. Touanne told us what you did for Petra and everything before you passed out. I love that woman. So… yeah. Here.”

  Kaira spread her arms wide, waving Ana in with her fingers. Ana only hesitated for a moment before going in, giving Kaira a quick hug and whispering, “Thanks,” before breaking.

  “No, you thanks,” Kaira whispered back before letting Ana go.

  “Right,” Ana said after stepping back. She looked around the small group. Everyone had defaulted to waiting for her expectantly. “Who wants to come with me and talk to these bastards?”

  and read 8 chapters ahead of both Splinter Angel and Draka! You also get to read anything else I’m trying out — which is how Splinter Angel got started.

  Join us if you want to chat with other readers, or just hang out!