For a sewer, it surprisingly didn't smell as bad as Seiren thought -- or it might be due to her nose being frozen and numbed. The remains of her water-freezing rune wore off so the liquid sloshed around her boots, which, luckily, were waterproof. The tunnel was circular, stretching ahead into the darkness, the ceiling just about brushing the top of her head if she bent forward. They were lucky neither of them were particularly tall or gangly. She lit up a yellow rune and held it in front of her, squinting and wishing she'd had a good look at how Maura created her light runes so that the glare avoided the user. She hoped Maura managed to get away, ratty as that woman was. Seiren wanted her to teach her how to use indigo runes one day.

After ten minutes, there was a thump whence they came. A ripple of energy coursed through the air in the tunnels, causing the hairs on Seiren's neck to rise and goosebumps to form on her skin.

"That would be the nullifying rune."

"Did we..." Seiren brought her light rune closer. The magic still glowed. "We aren't caught in its vicinity, right?"

"No, we're not. You're just feeling the residual effects."

"What would have happened if we stayed?"

"We'll be 'a sack of meat', I believe your words were."

Seiren turned around to scowl at him. Rowan had a half-smile on his face. He shooed her forward. With a sniff, she moved ahead, one hand brushing against the curved stone wall to keep steady. There were remains of footprints there, slowly filling with the trickling water and melting away. Good. The citizens had been through this part.

"I know they don't teach nullifying runes at King's. It's very advanced violet runes. They barely teach you any violet at King's as it is. Depending on the extent on the rune, all magic within an area around the centre point becomes negated. You can't connect with your inner core or any magical thing you've infused magic into -- your rune paper or the elements. It's not you that's affected. Think of it like... noise-cancelling."

"And then mages become plebs."

"Well, yes, temporarily, unless you're also military-trained like my sister."

"So what contribution do you intend to make without your magic, Rowan?"

He gave a low, mirthless chuckle. "Tylene and Dent are my subordinates. Their safety is my obligation."

"And yours is theirs when those creatures tear out your spleen."

"Thank you for your concern, Seiren." He paused. "Those things..."

Seiren slowed. She'd been dreading this moment. He didn't believe her. For some reason, this hurt a lot more than she thought it would. Why should his opinion matter to her any more than anyone else's until now?

Because you trust him.

"I was telling the truth, okay?" Her voice wavered. "I can't prove it. But I never developed them this far. I could get them to heal after wounds, deep wounds, devastating wounds, but they were wild, uncontrollable. I thought I'd put all the test subjects down. I thought that was the end of it. I never thought -- never thought--"

A warm hand touched the small of her back and she made an awful attempt to convert a sob to a cough.

"I wasn't going to say that, you idiot."

She laughed weakly; that was interrupted by a hiccup.

"I was going to ask, before you started accusing yourself of being a liar, what would happen to those creatures once the magic leaves their system?"

"Why the hell are you asking me? You're a mage, too."

"A burst mage. I haven't done rune magic in two years. They're your creations. It's your magic."

"It was my magic. God knows what they've done with it. I don't know." Seiren ran a hand through her hair and shook her head. "They're solely reliant on those green runes. Their minds were taken as a compromise for healing that exceeds normal limitations. That humanity won't come back. I guess they'll just become crazy but not invincible living things? I took their minds. Now I'm taking their lives."

She gave a derisive laugh.

"Who's the real monster, truly?"

"No-one can convince me you're a lost cause. Not even you, Seiren."

"Tell me that next week when I plunge head-long into some ridiculous death-seeking quest again."

"Whatever life-threatening idiocy you plan to get involved in next week, that's not my problem. But right now, we're in this together."

Seiren smiled, glad she was in front and Rowan couldn't see her face. The rest of their journey continued in silence. The road stretched on ahead in a never-ending path of darkness. Seiren's light rune only shone enough for about five metres ahead, but she didn't want it alerting anyone else they were down there. The temperature continued to fall. Her breath became mist again and the trickling of water ceased; the ground crunched beneath her boots and her fingers numbed against the sheen of ice on the curved tunnel wall.

After what felt like hours, a draught caressed her cheeks. She shivered.

"We're near the end. Let's carry on."

"It's the middle of the night. We'll freeze to death. We'll stay inside for shelter until sun breaks and we'll move then."

She sighed and slapped her light rune on the wall, giving her enough to see by to draw an orange rune. She laid it on the frozen ground and snapped her fingers. The rune glowed blood red, emitting waves of heat.

"That's quite impressive." Rowan sat down opposite her and studied the rune. "Who taught you how to dull the light from orange runes?"

"Nobody. A lot of the rune sketches I developed myself."

We developed ourselves, said Madeleine in a haughty voice.

"Impressive," he repeated. "I'm glad you listen to reason, anyway. Those bad decisions tend to be made when you're alone."

Seiren scowled at him and squatted, extending her hands towards her lightless fire. The sensation crept back to her fingertips. It felt like her whole body was enveloped in a warm hug.

"It gets hard, though, being by yourself all the time. You should learn to lean on others at some point. There are older and more experienced people around who can help."

"Being alone isn't hard. You just cross your fingers and hope you don't get tired of yourself." She shrugged. Lean on others. The last time she leaned on anyone, she died. And the time before that. And the time before that.

"Madeleine must feel tired of you being alone all the time, though, am I right?"

Yes, said Madeleine at once. You make the worst decisions when you get angry and you're by yourself.

Thank you. So much loyalty.

I'm not here to boost your ego. I'm here to keep you from killing yourself by stupidity.

"Get some sleep, solo hero." Rowan grinned at Seiren's scowl. "We have a long journey ahead of us."

He's a good guy, whatever you might have thought of him back then.

He's got Hero Syndrome. He has to save everyone, do the greater thing, be the better man.

And you've got 'Me, Me, Me' Syndrome. You're a right pair.

Seiren scoffed to herself, extracting her gloves from her pockets and putting them on. She tucked her hands into her armpits, her eyelids drooping. The heat from the orange rune wafted over her in gentle waves.

When she next opened her eyes, sunlight shone through a circular exit some twenty metres away. Her neck was stiff and her muscles ached, but she was surprisingly refreshed. It was then she realised she hadn't woken up drenched in sweat from a nightmare or screaming.

She also realised somehow overnight she'd migrated across the metre separating her and Rowan and she'd curled up in a ball, her head resting on his knee. She shot up in alarm. The back of her head collided with something hard.

"Oof!"

Seiren leapt to her feet and shrank away, wincing and clutching the back of her head.

"What the heck, Seiren?" said Rowan thickly, clutching his nose and tears pouring down his face. Sleep left his eyes quickly, replaced by confusion.

"We need to get going. The sun is up." She turned away, her cheeks incendiary with humiliation.

"So you think you should headbutt me to wake me up?"

She said nothing, her heart racing. Rowan groaned, getting up and dusting himself down.

"Just as well the tunnel isn't too small so I could stretch..." He sniffled and then yawned.

You could definitely make a height joke just now, Madeleine said with a giggle.

Seiren said nothing. Her face could have taken the place of the orange rune from last night. She could almost hear the steam coming out of her ears. She straightened her tunic dress beneath the cloak and patted her pockets, checking her chalks and rune papers were still there.

The air was still outside, a pristine kind of crystalline stillness, as if time itself had frozen. The sunshine bounced off the snow, making her squint against the glare. The entire geography had changed. Seiren recognised nothing. She turned around. The tunnel disappeared beneath a small hill in what she presumed would be the direction of Acrise -- not that she could see that, either, with the heavy fog in the north. No footprints on the ground -- no doubt they were all smothered by the snow. She only hoped the Acrise citizens had gotten shelter before the snowstorm swept past. She'd half-hoped she could have followed the train tracks and walked back towards Iwade along them -- the tracks must be buried two feet deep, if not deeper.

Where now?

Well, you can either wait for Maura and the others to stand more of a chance of surviving or you can make a start after the citizens.

But how do they know where to go?

Because they live in Acrise? They've been here before?

"If we head south, it's about two days' walk to Ebbsfleet. Then we take a boat down the river into Benover and speak to King Pollin."

You're lucky Rowan's here, or you'll be an icicle by now.

"Fine." Seiren sighed. "You lead the way."

She glanced over her shoulder as Rowan trudged on. The air might be still and peaceful, but she knew it was anything but beyond the tall, impenetrable walls of Acrise, now vulnerable without its magical barrier and no mages to back them up.

The Karman army has the same size as the Hannan ones and we have more in reserve and paramilitary. They can't just storm Karma.

But Acrise is frozen off. Literally nobody can go in or out unless you have runes and you walk. Seiren lingered for a moment longer before hurrying after Rowan, her feet crunching the snow underneath.

I know. But I'm more worried about the runes. I feel like we're missing something here.

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