Bioshifter

It doesn't take us long to be ready to depart. As Sindri promised, the four of us are out of our room and waiting by the bridge at dawn. Kagiso yawns, stretching like a cat as morning's first rays of light wash over the multi-layered city. We're far from the only people up and about this early, the main road already full of noisy merchants and rowdy customers. Together we're waiting for that paladin cultist, Hagoro. I'm really worried about meeting him, but I know my friends will have my back if something bad happens.

Clinging to the top of Kagiso's head like usual, it's easy enough for me to spot the man when he approaches: he's the only dentron wearing full-plate armor, after all. His big spear—or I guess maybe it's a glaive or something, I'm not a weapon nerd—is just over six feet long from butt to tip, and pretty fancy-looking, with countless engravings down the entire length of the shaft that probably give him no tactical advantage whatsoever. It's a nice stick though, I'll give him that.

His armor is much cooler, even having a cute little chainmail sock for his tail. His chest piece also has a big fancy artisanal representation of the centipede symbol that the cultists normally wear on necklaces, which I guess is probably good publicity on a guy as huge as Hagoro. Although… hmm. Big fancy art on objects, huh?

"Aura Sight," I say on a whim, startling Sindri. He gives me a concerned look.

Just checking the paladin guy, I reassure him. I wonder what he's worried about.

Order and Barrier. That's what Hagoro tastes like. Interesting combination, but it feels like a good one for a paladin. To heal and protect, and all that. Also, I'm wrong as hell, those engravings feel like Art magic and absolutely provide some kind of tactical advantage, as does the design on the armor. Dang. Although that all said, it's really weird that those inanimate objects feel like anything, isn't it? Aura sight doesn't normally pick up on the presence of magical energy; it didn't show me anything when Ida was casting spells, for example. It picks up on energy given off by souls. So does that mean the armor and glaive have souls? How? Why?

…It's Death magic, most likely, Sindri explains. The soul of an animal—or maybe a person—has been placed in those objects. They'll eventually degrade away, but until then they can use whatever Art magic is radiating off of them.

Huh. I didn't think I was trying to send that thought, but whatever. That's interesting! Death mages are the ones that make magic items in this world, huh?

Magic items aren't common, nor is the magic needed to make them, and the effects of any magically imbued item tend to either be restricted in some major way or temporary. But yes, for this particular kind of self-sustaining aura? Death magic.

"Hello, everyone!" Paladin Hagoro hails us. "You must be Sindri's companions. I am Hagoro, Paladin of Unification. I'd like to extend both my sincere apologies about the mess my nominal allies have put you through, as well as my services on your quest."

Huh. I wonder what kind of cool subclass a Paladin of Unification is.

I didn't catch one of those words, but the cultists are called the Disciples of Unification, Hannah. He's just referencing that.

Oh. That makes sense.

"Silly Hana," Kagiso says, patting me in a very patronizing way that I definitely don't find at all endearing.

"As appreciated as your apologies are," Teboho says, crossing one pair of arms, "we were almost killed by members of your cult. I have to say, I'm less than thrilled at the idea of you accompanying us, even with Sindri's recommendation."

"Understandably so," Hagoro nods, though he winces a little when we call his religion a 'cult.' "But I assure you, it is my every intention to make up for that grave crime against you all. It certainly isn't the will of the Disciples of Unification for innocent travelers to be attacked in their beds. Unfortunately, I can only speculate as to the reason such action was taken against you."

Uh, didn't you basically confirm the other day that your cult is after me? I ask.

He can't hear you, Hannah, he's not part of the mental link, Sindri reminds me, though he does immediately translate on my behalf. "Weren't they after Hana? You mentioned yesterday that the Disciples have an interest in creatures like her."

"Well, that's certainly true," Hagoro confirms. "I admit to no small amount of interest in speaking with Hana here, but I want to emphasize that killing her is very much not on my itinerary. There does exist a heretical sect which would want to see her dead—and it's very possible that's what you encountered—but they are my enemy as much as they are yours. It's also entirely possible that they were too low-rankling in our order to even know what makes Hana important, and the situation was what you first assumed: they were greedy beast merchants looking to steal a powerful creature from a better man."

I flinch a little. Hmm. Why did… oh, I mean, I guess he dehumanized me there. Er… depersonized me?

I'm not a 'creature,' I grumble.

"True," Kagiso agrees. "Friend is Hana."

Yes, I'm… wait, you're saying I'm a hat, aren't you?

"Best hat!"

Okay, well be that as it may—

"Hana?" Hagoro interrupts, though I suppose he can't hear me so it's not really his fault. "I'm sorry to ask, but you can understand me, yes?"

I turn 'towards' him (which is mostly just reorienting to give the appearance that I'm doing so) and wiggle my body up and down to mimic a nod.

"Do you have a way to communicate on your own?" he asks.

I wiggle a few legs at Teboho and he obligingly summons a small tablet and hands it to Kagiso, who holds it up for me. I put a minor Spacial Rend on one claw and carve out a simple response.

I can write.

"Ah, good," Hagoro nods. "That's quite reassuring. Did your friends here teach you?"

Yes, I confirm.

"I can just add you to our communication spell, Paladin," Sindri offers. "If you're going to be joining us in the coming fight, it would be best to do so."

"Ah, I'm afraid I can't," Hagoro says, smiling apologetically. "Policy forbids me from allowing an unauthorized Pneuma mage from casting on me. It's nothing personal, I assure you."

Sindri frowns, but nods.

"A reasonable precaution, especially for a man with secrets to keep," he allows.

"I'm so glad you understand," Hagoro agrees. "Though in the interest of team communication, I believe it would be best to share our elements and general specialties, so that our strategy against the Chaos mage can be planned. I understand that this is sensitive information, so I have no issues going first."

He starts to walk out of town as he says that, heading across the bridge and away from the busy city full of prying ears that might be interested in 'sensitive information.' The rest of us follow, and Sindri nods at him.

"I agree that's worth doing. Team, I know we've had a nasty run-in with the Disciples of Unification before, but I believe Hagoro when he denounces them. He's a skilled Chaos hunter in his own right, and has every reason to work alongside us today."

"Is fine," Kagiso shrugs.

"If you're certain of this, Sindri, then I have no objections," Teboho nods. "I just want justice for my family and friends."

I'm more than a little worried about the things Hagoro said about me yesterday, I tell Sindri. Specifically the part where he said I was 'here to seek your ruin.' That sounds like a pretty solid motivation for betraying us to me. I'm against it.

Those are, frankly, very valid concerns, Sindri agrees. But the journey over gives us an opportunity to speak with him and hear his explanation for that claim. And if your fears come to pass, Hannah… well, it'll be four on one. We're with you, no questions asked. Friendship inherently goes both ways.

I wiggle nervously.

Okay, I ultimately answer.

"We're all in agreement, then," Sindri confirms, nodding to Hagoro.

"Excellent!" Hagoro smiles, clapping his hands once in a surprisingly endearing way. He just seems genuinely excited to be hanging out with us. "Well, I'm an Order and Barrier mage. My primary spell manifestation is Zone of Law. I can create areas in which certain things are banned. It's flexible and powerful, but it affects myself and my allies just as much as it does our enemies, so I don't tend to use it in mixed company. I am quite skilled in martial combat, however, and my weapons and armor will resist disintegration and ward against Chaos to a limited extent."

"I suppose I should go next, then," Teboho nods. "I'm a Matter and Barrier mage, and my magic focuses on rigid material creation. As long as it's not flexible and doesn't have moving parts, I can summon it with a thought. I use it mainly to create weapons, armor, and tools."

"You make armor that has no moving parts?" Hagoro asks.

"It's not very comfortable armor," Teboho chuckles. "There's a reason I don't wear it all the time. It's very restricting, but I can un-summon it and re-summon it to cover or reveal parts of me as needed."

"Hmm. Interesting."

"As you already know, I'm a Pneuma mage, with a focus on coordination and communication," Sindri says, apparently interested in moving things along. "I use the ability to make pacts with animals."

"Like Bulupunu!" Kagiso clarifies, pointing to our lightning lizard tiger.

"Like… Bulupunu," Sindri sighs.

"You named him bald idiot?" Hagoro asks, a smile twitching onto his face.

"Yes? Has no hair and is also stupid," Kagiso confirms matter-of-factly.

Bulupunu sneezes, a crackle of lightning ejecting itself out of his nose.

"No brain in head. Dumb." Kagiso nods happily, as if Bulupunu had just agreed with her.

"I… I see," Hagoro chuckles. "And your magic, Miss Kagiso?"

"Motion," she says. "Precision. Chain reactions."

Chain reactions? I ask. Not just ricochets?

"Have more than one spell," Kagiso says, wrinkling her nose in offense. "Ricochet just most useful."

"She means it's the least likely to kill us all," Teboho smirks.

Kagiso crosses her arms and pouts.

"Praise me for restraint," she orders, and her brother laughs.

"Well, that just leaves you, then," Hagoro says, turning to me. Fortunately, I've been spending the whole time writing, so I've had the opportunity to actually explain.

I don't think my spells have a theme, I say. I have a bunch of weird ones. A Space spell that lets me cut anything, an Order spell that lets me sort and clean, and a Transmutation spell that's constantly changing my body.

"You've also got the magic that lets you step into and out of view and take those strange shortcuts," Teboho says.

Well, that's true, but that doesn't really feel like a spell to me, I respond. It's just kind of something I can do.

"Hana shares a lot of properties with magical beasts, I've noticed," Sindri chimes in. "Not to call you a beast, Hana, it's just the term for a creature whose biology relies on a certain kind of magic, and therefore all living members of the species have that magic. No known magical beasts are sapient—except arguably you, if you count as one—so the terminology isn't really designed for people."

It's fine, I assure him.

"My point is," he continues, "I suspect Hana's Space affinity is a consequence of her species, whereas her Order and Transmutation affinities are the only ones demonstrating synergy with her personality and each other."

"Hmm. An interesting theory," Hagoro nods. "Here's mine: Hana's magic focuses on destroying things, then putting the pieces back together in a way that suits her."

I don't have a response for that, and neither, it seems, does anyone else. What the heck, guy? You know what, screw it. He's obviously got this secret society thing going on, and his secret society obviously doesn't like me, and he's either going to come clean on that or he's going to be a threat. I have no reason to burn bridges with this man, and I'm not going to fall for the cliché of alienating the reasonable person who only ends up being a villain because the hero doesn't bother to talk to them. I scribble out a simple message, struggling to keep it short and to the point. I want to call him out on what a jerk he's being by phrasing my magic that way, to say that I understand the sort of nasty stuff he's implying by claiming that the spells which best fit my personality are a thinly-veiled narcissism metaphor, but that's unproductive and writing with my claws is a pain in my extradimensional butt. So… short and sweet it is.

What am I? I ask him, because he's certainly acting like he knows and that's a heck of a lot more than I can say.

He seems almost surprised, his eyebrows rising as he reads the words. We're almost to the edge of the bridge now, and he lapses into silence for the rest of the walk, all the way up the massive flight of stairs, and a good way down the road. It must be at least half a gosh dang hour before he finally speaks up, and it really startles me when he does. Was he spending that long considering his response? Kagiso, Teboho and I had long since devolved into our usual friendly banter, and all of us jolt when Hagoro finally clears his throat and answers my question with a question of his own.

"You are a girl from another world, are you not?"

Kagiso and Teboho don't know that, so they're extra confused. It's one of the cards I've been holding closest to my chest, and I'm not sure it's wise to play right now. But lying? Lying seems worse. So I write.

Yes.

"You're not the first," Hagoro says. "You won't be the last. And that's a problem, because your kind? They set the tree aflame. They pulled the roots from the Great Soil. Your kin engineer our destruction at every turn, and people like me exist to stop you."

Well. That's… okay. Okay! That's really good information, actually! I'm not the only isekai victim, and presumably not the only one that got stuck in a weird monster body, and the cultists hate me because the jerks who came before were apocalyptically terrible. I can work with that, maybe.

I don't want to hurt anyone or anything, I write.

"Really?" Hagoro says. "Then why are you accompanying a professional assassin on his job?"

I flinch, then start writing frantically.

That's different! I insist.

"Is it?"

I angrily tap the tablet in the place I've already written "yes."

"Why's that?"

I huff with annoyance.

If you decide I'm going to hurt the world, will you kill me? I write.

"Possibly," he admits, and it's still chilling even though I expected a yes.

So sometimes you have to hurt someone to protect people.

I finally had to accept that recently. Where did I… no, doesn't matter.

"I suppose that's true," Hagoro agrees. "So you want to protect people, then?"

I don't know how I could cause any of the tragedies you're describing, but I want to see if there's anything I can do to fix them, I write. But if there isn't, I'm not arrogant enough to try something stupid that makes them worse. I don't want to be your enemy.

It takes me frustratingly long to scribble that all out, my legwriting getting progressively worse as I rush to get the words on the slate, but I want to make this offering of peace clear. I want to cooperate, not oppose. Hagoro reads it all slowly, seeming to take the time to read it again as well, and then nods.

"I see," he says simply. "Well. You may certainly color me curious. Extradimensional invaders are not normally so reasonable. I can assure you of this, if nothing else: as of right now, we are allies. Chaos mages are extremely dangerous and it is important that we do not splinter with this task ahead of us. After we handle the situation, I would be open to speaking with you further."

Okay, I write, because there really isn't much else to say to that. My mind is reeling with all this new information and I'm not sure what to do about it. People like me are common enough—and dangerous enough—that a whole organization is dedicated to stopping us? That's crazy. Am I going to end up with the kind of strength that can uproot world trees? That seems… basically impossible. I know that I'm strong, but a foot of cut-anything spell is hardly apocalyptic. Will I just keep getting stronger, or something? I guess that's hardly uncommon for fictional characters in my position.

All these other apparent isekai victims are also concerning. Hagoro seems surprised that I'm willing to work with him, but more than that he seems suspicious. Why is that? Were they seriously that bad? No, wait, stupid question, they apparently caused actual apocalypses. But why is it unreasonable that some of us might want to help? If all these people come from Earth then yeah, you're gonna have some bad apples, but statistically you'll get someone who at least wants to be decent, even if they might not be good at it, and I feel like it would take a very special sort of sociopath to uproot the gobble-darn tree that everybody lives on! Something's not adding up here.

"So, ah, what's this about another world, Hana?" Teboho asks.

Oh. Oh, right. Now I'm going to have to explain things. Well… screw using the tablet to write this all out. If Hagoro wants to know where I come from, he can ask somebody else.

Yeah, uh… so you may have already noticed I seem to know some weird things and not know some other things, I say.

"Didn't seem weird," Kagiso shrugs.

"Er… no, it was definitely a little strange," Teboho says hesitantly. "I just… well. I thought you were like Kagiso."

Wait, what?

The heck does that mean? I ask

"Well… you know. I just figured you were a bit… strange."

…Does Teboho think I'm autistic?

"Not strange," Kagiso grumbles. "Just efficient."

Yeah! Like, first of all, if I was 'like Kagiso,' then that'd be awesome, because Kagiso is great.

"Hehe. Best hat."

And second of all—

"Okay, okay, never mind!" Teboho backpedals. "I didn't mean to touch a nerve."

It's not a nerve. There is no nerve! I'm very normal and I have always been very normal up until the point where I started mutating and waking up in other dimensions and having magic and stuff! I mean, other than my Pokémon obsession. And the fact that I don't even try to talk to most people. And the bit where I don't love my family for some reason. But those don't count! Normal people can have those traits!

…Second of all, yeah, most of my memories are of another universe. When I go to sleep, I wake up there in a different body. When I sleep there, I wake up here. It's very disorienting and I don't know why it happens.

And that just opens up the floodgates. Everyone starts talking at me all at once, and I suppose I can't really blame them. Question after question after question defines the hours of our journey to follow, every moment we spend closing in on the dangerous Chaos mage filled with stories of my home rather than anything more substantial. And honestly? I'm happy about that. Gladdened by it, really. I don't want to think about what we're going to do. Back on Earth, I'd been so freaked out over whether or not I should be killing Sindri (which was really silly of me, since he's a great friend) I forgot to panic about the other person I'll probably have to murder. After all, I'm the most Chaos-resistant person here, even counting the apparently-powerful Order-aligned paladin. I'm also the person who not only has a powerful killing stroke available to me, but I have a powerful killing stroke that isn't easily stopped by Chaos. The most common manifestations won't affect Space magic, whereas they'd fairly easily destroy anything created by, say, Matter magic. So we have pretty much every possible reason for the strategy to involve me doing this alone. I'm not looking forward to it.

If you're lucky, it might not come to that, Sindri says.

Oh? I ask. Really?

Yes, I think there will be another tactic we'll try first, he assures me. You might not need to do anything other than be present.

Why's that?

"Remember back before your eyes grew in, where I mentioned I was trying to devise a spell to allow us to share sensorums?"

Oh yeah! I say. You were gonna do that! I thought you gave up!

"Of course I didn't give up," he huffs. "I just didn't want to unveil it until it was ready. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, you know. If we're going to make use of it, however, we'll need to practice on the way."

"A dangerous fight like this one seems like the worst possible place to test out a technique with less than a day's practice," Hagoro chides. "Especially if it messes with one's usual perceptions."

"Normally I'd agree with you," Sindri nods. "But the goal behind this strategy will be to take out the Chaos mage from well outside their field of vision, before we've revealed ourselves, without any risk on our ends. And if it fails, we can simply deactivate the spell and move to our second plan without issue."

"Hmm," Hagoro hums in consideration. "And you won't need to cast on me to make this plan work?"

"Not at all," Sindri assures him. "It's actually a plan that synergizes the skills of all four of us. But let's see if my spell even works as intended first, shall we? Teboho, I'm going to cast it on you as a final test before I speak the incantation."

Teboho nods, and Sindri just… doesn't appear to do anything until suddenly Teboho jolts in surprise, closes his eyes and clutches his head.

"Oh! Oh, goodness, this is odd," Teboho mumbles. "Oh, I'm seeing d… and hearing, Goddess, I'm also hearing double. Sindri, can you not…?"

"Ah… yes, I can adjust that," Sindri nods. "Apologies, I usually test this with my birds, and they're not hearing the same things I am. There we go, sight only."

"This… this will take some getting used to," Teboho mutters.

"But can you get used to it?" Sindri presses.

"Hmm… yes. I think so. But what's this plan of yours about?"

"I believe that, if I speak the spell aloud, it will be strong enough to link all four of us," Sindri answers. "And hypothetically, it should mean that Kagiso and Teboho will be able to see past barriers and walls in the way Hana does. The Chaos mage is currently holed up in a cave which digs into the flesh of the world tree, veers off to the side, and then doubles back on itself a few times. Given Hana's range, she should be able to see the back of the cave where the Chaos mage waits from fairly early inside the cave itself. If she shares this visual knowledge with Kagiso, it's hypothetically possible that Kagiso could ricochet a shot down the entire length of the cave and take out our enemy that way… and if there are any complications in plotting a course, Teboho should be able to summon barriers for Kagiso to bounce her attacks off of."

Kagiso grins.

"I like plan," she nods.

Uh… my senses are pretty darn weird, I warn them. Are you sure it's safe for other people to see in four dimensions?

It's certainly a lot to take in, Sindri agrees. But it's more confusing than painful. I can't really understand what you're seeing all that well, but Kagiso has a talent for that sort of out of the box thinking, and as long as you're focusing mainly on three dimensions, that's also what we'll focus on.

Huh. I guess he's already tested the spell on me. Really would have been nice if he told me, but it's okay I suppose.

Go for it, then, I allow.

"Alright," Sindri agrees. "Ready, everyone?"

He inhales, and She's here, beholding all of us with weighty, terrifying dullness. She gives me a cursory pat hello, scratches Kagiso behind an ear, flows around Teboho like water and smirks silently at Hagoro, but the ultimate focus of Her attention is, of course, the man who summoned Her. Sindri. She doesn't touch him like She normally does me, merely tasting the name for his new spell and rolling metaphorical, metaphysical eyes. A dull name, a boring name, an unexciting name, but one that, She supposes, does indeed qualify. It will do. It's fine. Almost begrudgingly, She speaks the words.

"Share Senses."

My world… does not explode into a cacophony of vision and sound, which I have to admit I didn't really expect. It certainly blooms outwards a bit, extra points of vision flowing into my mind, but I realize that this is pretty darn boring by the standards of my current sensorium. I already have three hundred and sixty degree vision, not to mention crazy higher-dimensional omnivision that I still haven't fully wrapped my head around. These… extra data points of 2D perception representing 3D space? They're barely a footnote compared to what I'm already seeing basically all the time.

Kagiso and Teboho, on the other hand, both collapse onto the ground and hiss in agony, prompting me to reluctantly dismount Kagiso's head. This is probably my fault. I guess I should narrow my focus. My spatial sense isn't technically ever seeing less than everything it's able to see, but I still pay more or less attention to different things, twisting how I mentally handle the concept of 'looking at things,' and the mentality of what I'm doing matters a lot when we're using a spell designed by a guy whose magic shares information between minds.

I narrow down what I'm looking at—which is surprisingly difficult, considering how I've been getting more and more used to the exact opposite—and try to take things back to the level I was barely handling when I was first consciously aware of these senses. Thankfully, there's not much around us. Just the forest, my friends, and the paladin guy who thinks I'm going to try to kill the world that one of my friends invited along for some Goddess-forsaken reason. I focus on that friend, lacking anything better to focus on, and move my attention around the inside of his body. Weak points, like the spine and major arteries. Sindri's lungs. Sindri's heart. Huh, it's beating extra fast. I hope he's okay.

Gradually, as I keep my mental eyes steady, Kagiso manages to get enough of a handle on herself to reach up and cover my physical eyes with her arms, blocking out most of my vision. Oh, right, that's also way more than I see as a human. Whoops. At least that seems to finally do the trick, and the team starts being able to function again.

"Well!" Teboho says, his voice strained. "I think we'll need to get Hana a blindfold to prevent this splitting headache, but this should be something we can work with."

Aw, man! But I just got the ability to see back!

"You'll still be able to see through our eyes, Hana," Sindri chuckles. "I think a blindfold is a good idea. Let's make you one."

"Hana sight pretty…" Kagiso coos, wiggling in place with her eyes closed. "Sindri body so soft! Squish, squish! Hehe! Hehehehe! Blood move!"

Well, she's certainly having a good day. Gosh, Kagiso is such a cute little weirdo. Personally I'm not particularly interested in or particularly grossed out by all the organs I'm constantly seeing on a daily basis. It's just kinda how people look to me now. I swap my attention over to the inside of Kagiso's body and she squeals in delight, poking at the muscles on her arm whenever I look at them and watching them squish around in response. Her laughter gets louder and more manic the whole time I look at her.

"Hana, I think you're going to give my sister a heart attack," Teboho comments dryly.

"No!" Kagiso insists. "Heart still beats! Look! Look!!!"

"I… I see it, Kagiso," Teboho sighs. "It does indeed still beat."

"You are certainly quite the colorful group, aren't you?" Hagoro comments, watching all this play out from a respectful distance.

"The important thing is, can you make ricochets using the information you see through Hana's senses, Kagiso?" Sindri presses.

Kagiso grumbles in irritation as I move my focus over to a set of trees, though that grumbling stops when I also include a random friend noodle in my range. Gosh, these fuzzy snake guys are everywhere. Kagiso hums to herself for a bit, then pulls out her bow and fires a shot, bouncing it off of three different trees before stabbing the friend noodle in the brain. Rest in peace, you cute little worm.

"Yes," Kagiso concludes. "Can do."

"Excellent," Sindri nods. "Then with luck, this won't even be a fight."

Yeah. I hope so. Unfortunately, I don't have luck. It takes most of the day for us to finally reach the cave with our quarry, but I'm completely exhausted by the time we get there and I've barely even done anything. We're here to kill. At the very least, I'll have to be a part of the attempt. And then, after that's all said and done with, I'll still have to deal with the gosh dang cultist. He's been watching me like a hawk the entire time, every interaction I have with everyone silently observed, judged with the absolute arrogant attitude needed to decide whether or not to kill an innocent teenage girl. …Well, mostly innocent, I guess. But so far I've only killed in self-defense.

Guess it's time for that to change.

The cave is little more than a hole in the ground, likely dug by some oversized magical predator before being forcefully stolen by our current quarry. The upper part of the cave is stone—as one generally expects from caves—but as it burrows downwards it eventually swaps over to wood. It's unintuitive to my usual expectations, even if it makes perfect sense. My job for now is just to look for anyone currently in the cave, and from the mouth I can't sense far enough into it to tell. It's quite deep, though Sindri's right: it's a lot longer than it is deep, and it's got a lot of switchbacks. I should be able to see our target before anyone else gets a straight shot… most importantly including the Chaos mage.

"Well, this is it," Sindri nods. "Is everyone ready?"

As I'll ever be, I answer nervously.

"This is my job, after all," Hagoro smiles. "I came prepared."

"I'm ready to finally get justice," Teboho says.

"...To get vengeance," Kagiso whispers.

"Then here we go," Sindri nods. "Everyone stay quiet from here on out. Mental communication and hand signals only."

We all nod. I mean, I don't know any hand signals and I wouldn't be able to use them even if I did, but I figure Sindri and Hagoro might have fancy Chaos hunter code signs or something that he can just translate for us. We enter the cave, Bulupunu the lightning lizard tiger moron heading first. If there are any traps, well… as Sindri says, he works as a tamer because animals are comparatively expendable. Everyone (except, again, me) has their weapons at the ready: Teboho with a thick shield and a long spear, each wielded with two hands, Kagiso with her bow and a pair of rocks, even Sindri with his sword. Slowly and carefully, we descend. Slowly but surely, I see more and more of the cave. The layout is… odd, to say the least.

Though the hole is mostly a twisting cylinder, looking like it was bored out by some kind of giant worm twisting down into the guts of the World Tree's branch, at a certain depth that abruptly changes. The cave continues, but rather than being carved out evenly, it becomes… jagged. No, that's not quite right. I zoom my focus out a little and then I see it. The deepest part of the cave has been dug out not as a cylinder, but as a series of overlapping spheres. Like something just eliminated a spherical area of matter from existence, moved to the far side of that now-destroyed zone, and then did it again. That's… certainly got some terrifying implications about what this Chaos mage can do. I dictate this information to the team, just in case they aren't focusing on my senses at the moment. Both Kagiso and Teboho tense at the report, and I get the impression that they might be remembering a similar sight in what was once their village. Unexpectedly, though Teboho nudges his sister with an elbow and points ahead.

...Kagiso, he murmurs over the link. On the wall, there. Does that look familiar to you?

I'm still blindfolded, so I focus on the input I'm getting from Teboho's senses for a moment. To my surprise, there's a painting on the wall, of all things. I didn't see it with my spatial sense since the dye doesn't really have any noticeable thickness. The work is very abstract, almost nonsensical at first glance with a dozen colors mixing together in a wild mess of dense information, but it's possible to puzzle out meaning and pattern. I start to understand the painting section by section: a girl, first. Kneeling for some reason? No, she's sobbing. Sobbing and angry. I struggle at first to figure out what's around the girl, because it seems to be other people: I can make out arms, legs, torsos, but tend to lose track of where they connect to one another until I ultimately realize that they don't connect with one another. Body parts and corpses. The girl is surrounded by death. Is this… a depiction of the village? Is that what Teboho is pointing out?

"Very familiar," Kagiso whispers, her eyes going wide. "Helen drew this."

Huh?

Who's Helen? I ask.

Don't speak out loud! Sindri admonishes.

A human that lived in our village, Teboho answers me. Her name was Helen. She was an artist. There's no way this isn't her work!

Helen alive, Kagiso agrees, a smile starting to form on her lips. Someone alive!

The Chaos mage must have kidnapped her, Teboho agrees. But why? No, that doesn't matter. Sindri, I think we have a hostage situation.

That… no, Sindri says, shaking his head. Kagiso, Teboho, I've had the Chaos mage under observation this entire journey. They fled your village alone.

What? But… how's that possible? Teboho asks. You're not saying that Helen is the Chaos mage, are you?

I don't have the slightest idea, Sindri answers tersely. I don't know who this 'Helen' person even is. But the Chaos mage that destroyed your village—our target—is the only person in this cave other than us.

Well, what does the Chaos mage look like? I ask.

Human, straight long hair. Tattered, baggy clothes. I've been tracking them at a distance via birds, so I can't give you a better description than that.

Not even a hair color? I ask.

What? Black, obviously.

Oh, right. I forgot that all humans in this world are black. …Again.

Anyway, we need to keep moving, Sindri says, urging the party along. We're in enemy territory. Let's get this over with as cleanly as possible.

We start to move again… except for Kagiso, who continues to stare at the wall painting until Sindri grabs her elbow and yanks her forwards. We creep in deeper together, and wall paintings start to show up more frequently, each as confusing as they are gruesome. We don't waste any time trying to decipher them, and once we reach the second bend in the cave we're finally deep enough for me to see our target.

I didn't expect her to be so young.

Younger than me, probably, though not by much. The person at the end of the cave is a scruffy-looking girl, small and thin in the way that hints at a history of malnourishment, though as of right now she seems to not be starving. Her sunken eyes and blank expression indicate she's doing much less well mentally than she is physically, though. She sits in a large chamber, carved out in a similar fashion to the deeper parts of the tunnels: spheres of disintegration twisting open a cavern in the wood. Somewhat impressively, she's managed to start a campfire inside her wooden cave without burning the whole thing up or suffocating herself: a wide pile of rocks, stone, and dirt forms an elevated fire 'pit,' raising the flickering flames up above the flammable ground and leaving plenty of space on each side to catch falling embers. I guess she must have a history of hiding out in caves. In her hand she has a small block of wood, which she is using a knife to carve into a humanoid figurine.

Sindri, Kagiso, and Teboho see this as well, and the agitation in the latter two is so obvious it pours over the mental link in an anxious waterfall. My spatial sense isn't exactly easy to parse compared to normal sight, and that's the only hope Kagiso and Teboho have for a while as they obsess over the information I'm feeding them about the girl's face, over and over, until they can't lie to themselves any longer.

…That's Helen, Teboho realizes.

Friend is alive, Kagiso agrees quietly.

So your village was unknowingly harboring a Chaos mage, Sindri scowls. How did she stay undetected?

Hmm. Small home. No Pneuma mages, Kagiso answers.

No, Teboho snaps. I can't accept this. This is absurd. That's Helen! She lived with us for nearly a year! She's a damn Art mage, not a monster!

The only human in your village, Sindri sends flatly. Alone. With no family. Settling in a place without a Pneuma mage to detect her. Take the shot, Kagiso.

Do NOT take the shot! Teboho snaps, turning and starting to pace down the hallway ahead of us. That is the last person in my fucking life who's still alive after… this has to be a mistake. This has to be. We had her over for dinner regularly! We hung one of her paintings on our wall! She was like family to all of us!

Teboho, stop! Sindri orders. Teboho! Listen to me! She's the Chaos mage! Kagiso, take the shot!

Kagiso stands motionless, and Teboho keeps on walking. He's furious now, ranting angrily over the link.

We did not come all the way here to kill one of the people I'm trying to avenge! One of the only people left that I actually care about! We did NOT!

"Helen!" he shouts out loud, destroying any opportunity we had for surprise.

The Chaos mage jolts, looking up from her work with a terrified expression on her face.

"Teboho!?" she shrieks back. "Teboho, get away!"

"Helen, it's you, right? I'm here to help!"

"I don't fucking need your help!" she snaps back, lowering into an amateur's fighting stance with her carving knife in one hand and her little sculpture in the other. "Go away!"

"Helen, I'm not going to allow any… anything…"

Teboho slows down and stops, his eyes widening. I focus my attention through his senses, and find him staring at a much larger and more intricate painting made of a mosaic of smaller pictures. Different tints and hues of color form concentric rings, each made out of a smaller depiction of an emotion-filled face: rage, sadness, joy, disgust, and on and on and on. The faces change with each ring, beautiful on the outside but growing more and more hideous the closer they are to the center, at which point there is a stylized representation of Helen herself, curled up naked in the fetal position. Teboho stares at the picture, enraptured for only the barest moments necessary to see the piece in its entirety.

And then he dies.

It happens in an instant. The emotional and visual link cuts out first, and then I watch as a sphere of black nothing blooms. It starts inside the center of Teboho's brain, looking to my spatial sense as a near-perfect void as it balloons outwards, consuming the entirety of his head, then his neck, then his shoulders all the way down below his waist before finally stopping just above his knees. Then it recedes, leaving nothing in its place. Teboho's disembodied legs collapse to the stone. The Chaos mage shudders, her eyes squeezing shut when it happens.

Kagiso! Now! Sindri snaps. You have to shoot her now!

There's no response. I realize suddenly that I'm not getting sensory feedback from Kagiso at all. She, too, is staring at a wall, enraptured by a much smaller painting than the one that killed Teboho. Her mind feels like nothing but light static. Her emotions are strong over the link, but they're a mess, jumbled to the point of completely nonsensical. No will, no clarity, no awareness. Only Chaos.

Fuck! Sindri hisses, yanking Kagiso away from the wall and covering her eyes. Hannah, you're up!

I'm up. I leap off of Kagiso's head and into the fourth dimension, immediately meeting world tree wood and burrowing into it with ease. Sindri deactivates the sensory-sharing spell, which is probably what we should have done the moment we saw any art in the cave. The Chaos mage is obviously dual-element with Art, and their magic either doesn't transfer between the link, or it does and we were a fraction of a second away from being killed alongside Teboho in a chain reaction before his brain ceased existing. Which is something I'm just going to have to do my best to not think about, because if I spend any time at all on thinking about the fact that Teboho is dead, holy shit my friend is dead he's dead he was so wonderful and kind and now he's fucking dead then I'll just have a complete mental breakdown and be unable to prevent my friends from sharing the same fate. I have to fight, the adrenaline pumping through my veins demands it. Handle the threat, ignore the pain, and everything else can matter when I make it out alive.

So. The Chaos mage can make paintings that kill you when you look at them. It seems like they have to be pretty big paintings, though, as the one Kagiso was staring at was much smaller than the one that killed Teboho and it only seemed to disable her. Art magic encompassess the realm of emotion, and applying Chaos to emotion would be debilitating: desire would get randomized, any action one might take being rapidly swapped between good, bad, wanted, and unwanted to a paralyzing degree. But the larger and more elaborate the art, the more Chaos she can shove in it, and when the Chaos concentration hits critical mass, then don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it. I need to focus on moving my legs, on digging myself as quick a path as possible to the back of her murdering head. I have a lot of experience with digging, so it doesn't take long.

I am in position, watching my target as her heart thumps at a million miles an hour, stress and terror oozing through her features. Well, good. She should be scared. Her messy hair and ragged clothes make it obvious she's been on the run for quite a while, and it's all ending now. Time to strike. I cut myself a hole back into w=0 space, leap towards the back of her neck, and—and holy shit she's just a scared little girl what am I doing!?

My focus locks on the figurine in her hand and my spells wink out, leaving me as nothing but a confused, flailing mess of limbs. I bonk into her on the way down and she shrieks, a burst of all-consuming blackness flowing out of her body and washing over me… to little effect. It does sting a little, certainly more than lightning did, but I'm still largely unharmed when I collapse to the ground, my body twitching with confusion as the figurine fills my head with confusion. What's going on? Why do I feel so weird? Am I having a seizure? My body isn't reacting right, but I can still think normally, kind of. Where's Sindri? Holy motherfucking shit Sindri was mind controlling me aaagh that's right!!!

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" the Chaos mage whines, backing away from me.

I feel like the eye of a hurricane, with absolute insanity roaring on every side of me while I wait, oddly calm within it all. If I focus, I can feel Friends in the back of my mind, chastising me for thinking poorly of Sindri and demanding I do the right thing and kill the girl in front of me. And yeah, she… she killed Teboho. She's killed a lot of people… if Sindri is to be believed, I suppose. Is she crying?

If I do kill her, will I ever get a better shot at stopping Sindri?

I don't know what's happening to my head. Maybe it's because I resist Chaos so well but Sindri doesn't? But I can still barely control my body, the seizing twitches of my limbs nearly flopping me into the campfire. I focus as best I can, trying to control myself, to command even a single leg. The others are on the way. Kagiso, Hagoro… Sindri. When they get here, they'll kill her, even if they have to do it blind. Their eyes are closed as they stagger down the cavern path, hands against a wall to lead them where they need to go. I have to still my shaking, to move. I have to gamble on this. Even if it ends up being a mistake, it's a mistake I can't afford to not make. I manage to get Spacial Rend active on a single claw. I'm so sorry, Teboho.

Help, I write, my limbs shaky. The Chaos mage's—Helen's—eyes go wide.

"What?" she whispers. "What the fuck?"

Kill human, I write, and then my 'friends' finally make it into the chamber.

Hagoro steps in before anyone else, his weapon at the ready, but Kagiso makes the first attack. Firing an arrow directly at Helen, the Chaos mage lets out a burst of disintegration, obliterating the attack… only to get hit in the back of the head by a stone that just bounced off three walls. Helen cries out in pain, staggering forward into the range of Hagoro's spear.

Hagoro frowns, and does not attack. His eyes rove around the room, noting the campfire, the dropped carving, the blank walls, and my message to Helen.

"Hagoro, what the fuck are you doing!?" Sindri roars, pointing at Helen and sending Bulupunu to keep her off-balance, blasting her with lightning that she has to focus on obliterating with her magic or be fried. "You're the only one other than Hana that can break through her defenses!"

"Ah. Sorry, friend," Hagoro answers absentmindedly. "Just… getting a handle on the situation."

And then he strikes. A simple twist of his body and his polearm flashes through the air, dealing instant death.

"Fucking Pneuma mages," Hagoro grumbles quietly as Sindri's head rolls to the floor. "Zone of Law: Ceasefire."

Bulupunu, Helen, and Kagiso all freeze as magic floods the area around us, the Goddess appearing in a flash to erect holy boundaries around the entire room. Even more terrifying, She remains in the room. Bulupunu, being a wild animal no longer bound to a man's control, does the sensible thing and immediately dashes for the exit. Unfortunately, he also does a less sensible thing and makes a swipe at Kagiso as he leaves. The Goddess smirks, making an eldritch facsimile of a tsking noise, wagging Her finger back and forth before sending agony through the poor animal's body, forcing it to abort its strike thanks to the violence of its convulsions. Silly little animal. The Goddess' law is absolute. Bulupunu gets the message that time, shakily getting to his feet and scampering off.

I feel my head start to clear and my body stop writhing as Kagiso collapses to the ground, dropping her weapons and clutching her head. She lets out a horrid wail, agony and fury and despair all mixing in a single, horrible sound as, with the dead man's magic no longer affecting us, she realizes the full scope of everything Sindri has done. …No, actually, that's untrue. I'm not sure we'll ever stop seeing the ramifications of Sindri's casual disregard for our personhood. I don't know how much he did, but I do know it'll be a broken part of me until the day I die. But for now? I'm free. We're finally free. Goddess, I wish I could cry.

She rolls Her eyes at me, as if to say 'grow tear ducts then, idiot.'

"So then," Hagoro sighs, turning to the Chaos mage. "Hele, was it?"

She blinks, her whole body shaking in terror as she looks up from Sindri's corpse and stares at the dentron paladin.

"It's, um… Helen, actually," she manages.

"Helena," Hagoro corrects himself incorrectly. "You seem lucid enough. Now that we're all clear-headed, would you be interested in resolving all of this with a friendly conversation?"

She glances around nervously, her focus mainly on the chamber exit… and then on Hagoro, standing between her and that singular avenue of escape. He can't attack her while Zone of Law is up, so maybe it would be safe… unless he can deactivate the spell any time he wants to. Holy cannoli that would be so broken. I wouldn't put it past the Goddess to give someone magic that good, though.

"S-sure?" Helen manages, though at this point I'm struggling to care overmuch about whatever Hagoro and the Chaos mage are getting up to. The paladin saved me, so he's good in my book. I stagger to my feet, my muscles sore and strained from their recent convulsions, and slowly I make my way over to Kagiso. Kagiso, who just lost her brother. Who was betrayed by a man she trusted with her life. Who has no one else left in this world, no family, no home, and no future. I crawl over to her, and she scoops me up in her arms, holding me close. Tears drop from her eyes and land on my carapace, flowing down over my smooth shell. It's the most emotion I've ever seen from her before. As the water from her face drips over my own eyes, we cry together, huddled up in a cave with her family's murderer and our minds' savior. We can't even muster up the will to care about them.

Right now, and perhaps for a long time coming, all we have is each other.