Still, she wasn’t entirely without leads. For one, there was the Keeper’s Core they’d collected in the Catacombs.

  Cass pulled it from her Bag. The orb glistened in the firelight, a sea of misty stars within.

  Salos sat up a little straighter. His desire pinged at her senses and pulled at her own. She wanted to shove it in her mouth. Would it dissolve like sugar on her tongue? Or pop like a grape, the outer membrane bursting and releasing those misty oceans down her throat? Would it taste like the stars or the darkest oceans?

  She shook her head, pushing those thoughts away. These weren’t her real thoughts. Those weren’t her. They weren’t even really Salos.

  “This is yours, right?” Cass said.

  He nodded.

  “There were two more that the Keeper had,” Cass said. “Do you know what those were?”

  He stared at the orb, his gold eyes big and empty.

  “Hey, eyes on me.” Cass snapped in front of his face.

  He blinked and refocused on her. “Yes. Only this one was mine. The other two looked like pieces of other souls.”

  “Why did that Keeper thing have any souls, much less yours?”

  He shrugged. “It appeared to be a demonic construct. My skills alone apparently weren’t enough to power it. They needed parts from other souls. I suppose I should be glad it distilled down into three clean parts instead of properly merging into one amalgamation.”

  “Was that common back then?” Cass asked.

  “Among certain crowds,” Salos said. “The kind the Custodia hunted relentlessly. They are a perversion of nature. Using souls to power golems.” He shook his head. “It’s sick.”

  “So neither the Keeper nor the Caretaker were demons themselves?” Cass asked.

  “Correct,” Salos said. “Instead, someone took parts of a soul and used them as a material in a construct, in other words, a demonic construct.”

  “Are there non-demonic constructs?” Cass asked.

  “Sure. Those obsidian golems we fought were perfectly ordinary golems. Their cores were clean Concept Gems. Constructs aren’t alive, so they don’t have levels. The same way walls and traps don’t have levels.”

  “Plants are alive, but they don’t have levels,” Cass said.

  “Plants aren’t alive the same way people or monsters are alive,” Salos said dismissively.

  “How do you know?”

  “Cass… Do we really need to debate this now?”

  Cass scowled. She supposed it wasn’t important. “Fine. But plants are alive.”

  “Sure, sure,” he said. “Anyway. Constructs don’t have real intelligence. They usually follow a few directives and have a master who can control them. Demons, generally, are uncontrollable beasts.”

  “You aren’t.”

  “Generally!” Salos reiterated. “Generally, they aren’t captured by the first person they encounter. When created intentionally, they are dropped on their makers’ enemies and naturally destroy everything in their path. When they are created naturally, you can expect the tragedy which created them to be about to become significantly worse.”

  His emotions rolled across their bond, heavy and dark.

  “You really hate demons, don’t you?” Cass said, the words a quiet breath in the silent room.

  “It was a good thing you tamed me.” There was no relief in the words—just bitter acceptance.

  Cass didn’t know what to do with that either. She didn’t like her power over him, but if the other option was madness and destruction, perhaps it was for the best.

  But there had to be another option.

  Someway to make him not a demon any longer. Perhaps the organization that had spent so much time hunting them might know. Perhaps she could find answers to that alongside her questions about going home.

  Perhaps collecting all the pieces of his soul would be enough. Perhaps she had already stumbled across the answer.

  Cass picked up the core again. “So, should we absorb this now?”

  Salos hesitated. “I want to. But I’m worried about leaving you alone in this place while you are still recovering.”

  “I’m alright,” Cass said.

  Health: 50/133

  It was more Health than she’d had when she’d first arrived in Uvana. But now, it was a little less than half her total. Her body ached like she was going to collapse under the weight of the world.

  “And Alyx is here too. It’s not like I’m on my own,” Cass added.

  Salos didn’t look impressed.

  “Hey, I survived just fine before I met you!”

  “Did you?” He squinted at her.

  Cass crossed her arms. “I did.”

  “I’ll pretend I believe that for a moment.”

  Cass rolled her eyes. Really, things hadn’t been that bad before she’d met him.

  “All things considered now is probably the best chance. Before things become complicated again.” He glared up at her. “Do me a favor and stay in bed as much as possible and recover more of that Health while I’m out?”

  “Sure, sure,” Cass said. “How should we do this?”

  “Cass, I am serious.” Salos scowled.

  Cass nodded. “And I promise I’ll be careful.”

  He sighed. She didn’t need to feel the overflow of resignation over their bond to see he was not at all reassured. But he moved on anyway. “How did you absorb it last time?”

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  “I held it up to the necklace.”

  “Then do that again?” he said.

  That was almost certainly the correct answer, “But I kind of want to eat it?”

  “DO NOT!” Salos sprang to his feet, hissing.

  Cass recoiled. “Okay. Got it. Why?”

  “We are not sure whether you really are a demon now,” he said. “Absorb that directly, and you certainly will be.”

  “What exactly happens when demons absorb souls?” Cass asked. “You went to sleep and woke up with a new power, but it seems like it would be a big weakness if a demon didn’t have someone to retreat into while they slept off the meal.”

  Cass could only imagine a big scary demon curling up for a nap after every victim and all the demon hunters stabbing it as it slept with their swords. It was an anticlimactic end for such a feared monster.

  “Past demons I’ve encountered immediately get exponentially more powerful when they devour another soul. This happens as they absorb the potential of that soul, burning it for all its worth and then some. But this is a highly inefficient use of power and their souls are always tattered messes. That power burns up quickly, and much of what remains leaks away. They keep only a fraction of what they eat long term, but that fraction, over enough victims, is enough to create monsters far more powerful than anything a non-demon could dream of.

  “That sounds nothing like what happened to you,” Cass said.

  Salos snorted. “No, I seem to be unique in that regard. Is it because of the necklace that binds me? Maybe it happens because I am reclaiming parts of myself rather than devouring someone else. I do not know.”

  “And we are sure you are a demon?”

  “You saw my Identify tag, did you not? I can still see it in my status window.”

  Cass shrugged. “Can either be wrong?”

  “No. Not really. Identify is always accurate, though not always as specific as it could be. And the status window is absolute. It is a description of truth.”

  That was weird. An objective truth? Cass supposed with the System to arbitrate it was possible. It still rubbed her wrong. Not just because hers still said she was a slyphid.

  “And after they’ve eaten another soul, they get more insane?” Cass asked.

  “Like I said, they attempt to absorb the souls they eat. But their souls are such precarious things it isn’t unusual to lose existing parts of themselves as they try to make the new parts fit. Between what they lose of what they already had, what they burn away in that initial absorption, and what leaks away later, they can only end in a worse state than where they started, even if it comes with more raw power.”

  “All of them?” Cass confirmed.

  “Everyone I’ve seen.”

  “How many have you seen, exactly?”

  “Too many.” He stood up and walked in a tight circle before settling in a tighter ball of cat. “Far, far too many.”

  The fire in the hearth crackled beside them. He closed his eyes, his mind far away. Cass stroked the top of his head, waiting for him to come back.

  He shook his head, pushing her hand away. “Anyway, I think I should demanifest back to the necklace, and you should have it absorbed that way. Same as the first time.”

  “Alright,” Cass said.

  Salos disappeared in a cloud of black mist, settling over her heart.

  Go ahead.

  Cass fished the necklace from beneath her clothes and held the soul gem to the pendant. They both flashed, and the soul fragment disappeared.

  Necklace Evolving

  Time until complete: ???

  The room was suddenly very quiet. Like someone had been playing acoustic background music on low for the last while, only to have turned it off with a screeching record stop. This was how the world was supposed to sound, but the juxtaposition was unnatural.

  “Salos?” Cass called into the empty room.

  She held the pendant up.

  Azorth Necklace

  It was a plain thing. Made of simple metal—maybe iron, maybe steel—the pendant was about palm-sized, with an eye embossed on the outward-facing side and a wide swirl etched into the other.

  It was cold in her hand, sucking away her body heat without warming in the slightest.

  Salos was in there.

  He’d be back soon. The next day or two, probably.

  She dropped the necklace, letting it fall against her robes, and pulled her cloak tighter around her body, the transparent fabric becoming more opaque.

  Doubt whispered that they should have waited until she was fully healed. The pain in her shoulder pinged as if to agree. She rubbed the spot the Keeper’s crystal projectile had gone through her shoulder.

  It had healed considerably from a gaping hole to tender muscles in the four or so days it had taken them to return from the bottom of the Catacombs. That was impossibly fast without the magic inherent to this world. It was, according to Alyx, Salos, and Marco, improbably fast even for this world.

  She wasn’t sure how she’d live back on Earth once she lost the super speed healing.

  Well, perhaps she’d just go back to avoiding getting injured. Like a normal person.

  She shook her head. Even with magic healing, it would be days before her Health fully recovered. Salos couldn’t wait that long to reclaim that piece of his soul. It had been too much just asking him to wait until they’d gotten this far.

  Cass flopped over, sprawling across the couch. The cushions were plush, conforming around her body to cradle her.

  Besides, it wasn’t like she couldn’t take care of herself. She had come a long way since leaving Uvana.

  Lvl: 19 -> 23 (+4)

  Str: 18 -> 20 (+2)

  Dex: 39 -> 60 (+21)

  End: 32 -> 46 (+14)

  Wll: 47 -> 78 (+31)

  Ala: 45 -> 74 (+29)

  Res: 36 -> 59 (+23)

  Frt: 15 -> 20 (+5)

  Per: 24 -> 36 (+12)

  Vit: 20 -> 37 (+17)

  Total Stat Points: 276 -> 430 (+154)

  It wasn’t anything like the jump from level 1 to 19 she’d seen in Uvana, but she had also been in Uvana for over twice as long and basically on death’s door the entire time. It was still an increase in total stats of about 50%.

  With this much, she had been stronger than most of the delvers she’d seen today. And, given her slyphid nature, she probably had stats comparable to most at the Gate at level 27.

  She could take care of herself. Really.

  And Alyx was around to help keep her out of trouble, too. Really, Salos had no reason to worry about her.

  He was locked at a lower level than her, anyway. It wasn’t like he could rescue her.

  She shook her head. She was strong enough to survive this world. That was what mattered.

  She didn’t need to be any stronger than that. Just strong enough to find Kaye or Robin—whichever was stuck here somewhere—and strong enough to find a way home. Just strong enough to fix Salos.

  Any other power was just a convenient bonus.

  She sighed. She said that, but was she any closer to any of those goals than when she’d arrived? The empty room screamed no.

  But that wasn’t entirely true.

  She knew Kaye or Robin was here now. She hadn’t known that when she’d fallen into Uvana. How awful would it have been not to have found that information until she made it home? To meet the other sibling’s hope-filled face, only for it to fall upon realizing it was only Cass returning.

  Her sibling, if Perception was telling the truth, was selected as a Champion by one of the gods. She would hear about it sooner than later. That wasn’t gossip that could remain quiet for long. Once the Festival was over and the local gossip died down, the selection of a new Champion would surely be all people would want to talk about, right?

  She’d found two soul pieces for Salos. She had no idea how many were still out there, but that was two more than he’d started with. That had to count for something. And maybe fixing him was as simple as collecting them all for him.

  Alyx had her Major Blessing. She would be selected by one of the dragons. Her father would pick her as his heir, and she’d get access to the magic archive Vault place. There would be an answer to how to send Cass home or a clue to point them toward the Scholar’s Spire.

  There were answers. They were close.

  And if something went wrong, the Festival would be over shortly after that. She’d get to talk with the Academy of Arcane Arts mage. They would have answers. Some research on transportation between realms. They would have other leads Cass could follow up on.

  She was getting closer, even if it didn’t feel like it.

  If nothing else, there was Salos’s wild story about reaching level 99 allowing people to travel between realms. She was a whole four levels closer than she had been when she left Uvana.

  She was doing what she could.

  Right now, she needed to rest. Recover. Heal.

  She wasn’t good to anyone with her Health like this. When the Festival was over, when her Health had recovered, she would renew her efforts.

  She would find them.

  She would fix Salos.

  She would get home.

  She would let nothing in this world stop her.