Renit ties the knot to the sling at my shoulder and tugs on it once for emphasis. My forearm, rested in the sling he crafted within a matter of minutes, doesn't move. In fact, the small fraction of pain left behind from the dislocation is subsiding with every second my arm is draped within the fabric. How many slings has Renit crafted for him to do it perfectly within a matter of minutes?

I don't receive the chance to ask, nor do I want to hear another horror story about his time spent during battle. I'm too focused on trying to take my first step forward on weak legs. My hip aches from contacting my power before it threw me where I needed to go without dying. When my body crunched against the ground, my hip was the first to make contact before I rolled, lifelessly, and slammed into a rock. Again, hip first.

Without looking underneath the tattered remains of my fabric, I know there are bruises, all shades of purple, blue, and black, coating my entire left side. My arm, through the remnants of my shirt, is starting to change shades from black to purple like the starriest of skies on a summer night. My hip and ribs—worse off—have to be covered.

I won't discover them until we're on our way back to Arego. Only when I shed the remnants of these clothes and view myself fully will Renit and I view the full desecration of our near death. I can still see his face, the absolute fear in his eyes. He saw no option other than death at that moment, and I hadn't hesitated to jump off the side of the mountain to follow him. For me, death was the last option.

Renit has lived too long and been through too much to die falling off the side of a mountain that holds a crystal. He deserves more than that.

My first step is shaken, but Renit braces my good elbow in the palm of his hand and helps me through. The pain is bearable; the agony shoots through my leg from ankle to hip on my left leg but I keep going. Each step results in a slow limp as I stretch out the sore muscles within until we reach the side of the mountain.

A breath of relief releases from my chest and I wince at that, the expanding of my ribs. When the pain is gone, I brace my hand against the side of the mountain and run my tattooed fingers over the slick surface. "We need a different tactic this time around," I say. The chipped stone falls underneath my fingers with hardly any effort to peel it from the surface. "I need to search for the crystal; rather than the secure points to climb."

"Can you sense such a thing with your power?" Renit inquires.

"If my power is cooperating; sure. We'll see."

I place my palm on the surface. The cold stone seeps into my skin and I close my eyes, squeezing them shut to allow myself access back into the black world I slipped into. My head throbs from the bloodied wound and I can hardly stand if it's not for Renit bracing a hand on my back to keep me steady. At least until my power heals everything, I have to go through this. I have to go through the pain of my annihilation.

The surface layer searches over my skin but I push past that and ignore the thought of the weak stone underneath the base. The farther I travel, the colder and darker my power becomes and shivers rock through my body in response to my strengths reaching the deepest depths they've ever traveled. Even the ocean couldn't come to this; it was too warm, too close to the surface. This is different.

Fire Mountain holds something ancient. As did the ocean, but everything around it was freshly placed underneath the waves. The ocean is forever changing. In this case, the mountain hasn't changed since the beginning of this kingdom and when my power searches, it's overcome with everything ancient—including the crystal nestled within.

My power reaches a small crevice, a crack in the mountain's foundation, and searches through. It's dark, cold, but nothing slithers within. There is no life—no spiders, no bats—the terrors of this story are not true. There's nothing there in the small cave but a flash; a different hitch of breath in my power tells me there's something else. A foreign body amongst this mountain.

I open my eyes to look up the side of the mountain, my eyes immediately falling on what my power is searching through. From this level, it's merely a sharp ledge with no cave. Raising higher than climbing would allow, my power continues to slither about like a snake through the cracks. There's something there. It may be the crystal, it may be something else, but there is something there.

The distance is weak; the recognition is faint, but it's there. Something. A light sparks to life in my mind and my power whispers to me the truth. Pull it down. Pull it down.

I smirk to myself and Renit doesn't catch it as he stands behind me. "How about this," I say aloud. "How about we don't climb the mountain at all?"

My eyes close again and they scrape over the stone, closing into a fist. Rocks and shale tumble down and Renit steps back, taking me with him. I don't need the contact anymore and that spot within the mountain crumbles as a result of my power taking hold of the foreign body that lies within.

As if I'm extracting the life of a child too young to hold up his own head, I cup that magic in the palms of my hands and ease it down, down. Shaking from the outer surface of what I've just pulled of dark stone that has never seen the light of day, is dirt, dust, and an ancient debris that leaks down onto our faces and stings our eyes.

Renit's hands brace onto my shoulders and neither of us dares to move until that chunk of the mountain—and the mountain itself—is settled where they should be. Fire Mountain doesn't crumble underneath the removal of such a key foundation, and the chunk of stone housing what I believe to be the crystal wobbles slightly, sharp edges and slick stone embossing what is on the inside, and comes to a halt at the bottom of the mountain.

"Sometimes I wish my power was as versatile," Renit grumbles. He steps around me and kneels in front of the chunk that's wider than his torso and reaches knee height. "Can you break this?"

I imagine the chunk breaking in half, and with my power, I make it happen. One swift move of my hand and the tiniest flick of my slung arm has the chunk breaking to reveal a small wooden box. The wood is darker than the rest of the crystals we've found and has faced less aging from the elements.

The gold trim encasing the outside of the box and the lock is clean and dry, still sparkling in the evening sunlight basking down on it. Pushing rock and dust aside, Renit lifts the box from where it was nestled within the middle and displays it towards me, a wide smile spread across his cheeks.

"Through one way or the other, you did it," he compliments. The box is a heavy weight in my hands so I give it back to him carelessly. "Even if you nearly died to do it."

Ignoring that fact, I say, "Now we go back to Arego. And after that, we rescue Silas."

"Sounds like a plan." Renit squats low and swoops an arm behind my knees while the other braces against my back. The box is in the satchel slung across his chest, now a weight against my body as Renit scoops me into his arms, favoring my wounds, and begins walking in the direction of a mountain pass that'll lead us back to the other side and Arego.

I don't protest for I know he won't put me down if I ask for it. Instead, I lean my head against his chest and close my eyes. Everything from my face, my lips, my scalp, to my ribs and my knees—everything burns. I can hardly move without a lashing whip tearing through my skin so when Renit lifts some weight off my shoulders, I don't offer any other alternative.

It's not long before I fall asleep. The usage of my power, not only to retrieve the box at a great distance and heal myself at the same time—it won't all come to conclude until my body is completely healed. Until then, I must rest. My ribs are repairing themselves at the moment and the scratches, scuffs, and bleeding tears will be saved for later.