They stared at the rift in horror a moment before she turned to Seph.


    "I''ll go in after him; you try and keep it open somehow," she told him.


    "How!?"


    "I don''t know! Figure it out," she snapped back, diving through.


    The dark of the Traverse was far thicker than she was accustomed to. And it didn''t feel like when she slept, it was heavier, thicker; there was a resistance to her movements, and holding the power to keep her light in place was harder. She could see the horse had been discarded; it was still alive but injured, mauled practically. Was the creature planning to come back and finish it off?


    Through the darkness she could see sparks of light shooting off and hear Cullen grunting. She ran towards him, pulling out her gun. Once her light touched the beast and she could see her risk of hitting Cullen was slim, she fired at it, hoping to at least distract it from Cullen. It did turn on her then, running at her. She kept shooting, backing up. Her bullets didn''t seem to be doing anything to it.


    "Fuckfuckfuck—" She turned and ran, the exertion made so much more difficult by the environment. She put as much of her aura into her speed as she could, her speed crippled by being here in the flesh. The creature didn''t seem to have the same problem as it reached her, swiping at her hard enough to throw her through the air. She slammed into a rocky outcropping. There was a sickening crack, and an agonising pain flared out from her right arm. She had dropped the gun she''d been holding in the blow. There was no time to wallow or even try to alleviate the pain. She sat up, the creature bearing down on her at a frightening speed.


    She was going to die. There was no water here; the earth was dry, and what was left of the trees was dead and barren. Her power had nothing to instinctively protect her with, like in the container.


    And then out of nowhere she was hit with water, a whole heap of it just dumped on her. It happened so fast, but once it was there, her power reacted again. In the split of a second, the creature was encased in ice, trapped and unmoving. Except its pitch-black eyes were following her as she moved.


    "Sun!"


    She looked across to Cullen, who was standing there, hunched over and holding his side, breathing heavily. He''d conjured the water for her! She pulled herself up, keeping an eye on the frozen creature as she picked up her gun. It was still alive in there. Though she wasn''t sure if ''alive'' was applicable...


    She joined Cullen; he was hurt pretty bad. A gasp escaped her when she saw his hair. It had been a dark brown before; now it was stark white.


    "What?" He asked, eyes rimmed with panic.


    "Your hair..."


    He raised his light to get a look, pulling at one of the longer strands to see for himself.


    "What the fuck?" He breathed out. He quickly shook it off. "We need to get out of here."


    She nodded, looking around and hoping to see the rift they''d come through.


    "I think we came from this way," she gestured.


    They started walking at a very slow pace with Cullen''s limp. She couldn''t move her arm; she was quite sure it was broken.


    "Don''t suppose you know how to heal?" She asked him.


    He shook his head. It was a long shot with how complex healing casts were. They were only taught to people who specialised in casting and intended on going into the healing division. But Cullen was a high achiever, and it wouldn''t surprise her to learn he''d taught himself how to do it.


    He stumbled as they walked, and she reached out with her good arm to try and steady him.


    "Here," she muttered, ducking under his arm and offering some support.


    He didn''t pull away or argue it, at least. She kept her injured arm close to her side in an attempt to keep it from being jostled as they walked.


    "Thanks," he mumbled eventually. "For coming in after me."


    "Thanks for the water," she returned. "Here''s hoping Seph managed to keep the rift open."


    He hummed his agreement before he quickly doubled over, expelling the contents of his stomach.


    "Ugh, this place..." He groaned.


    Being in the Traverse must have been so much worse than when they''d been at that camp.


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    "Yeah, we really don''t belong here."


    They found the horse, the poor thing lying there, its breathing ragged. Sun drew her gun and put it out of its misery.


    "The rift should be around here," she mumbled more to herself than to him.


    They both looked around, Cullen managing to summon enough power to brighten the light. Neither wanted to move much; every step took so much energy and caused so much pain. As well as the break in her arm, she was becoming more and more aware of the other—less serious—injuries she had sustained.


    "There!" Cullen pointed out.


    The relief she felt was indescribable, and the pair quickly hobbled over as fast as their injuries allowed. It was a lot smaller than when they''d come through, but it was still large enough to fit them. There were also rocks and sticks littering the ground below.


    They put their heads through the rift, Seph crying out in fright as he was about to shove a sizeable log through the hole.


    "Fucking hell," he snapped, his hand going to his chest. His irritation quickly faded when he looked at Cullen. "Cullen!"


    In a surprising display of affection, Seph hugged his friend tightly through the rift, Cullen returning it despite the pain it must have caused. She supposed he really did care about his friends. Maybe it was harsh, but she had just assumed he was a piece of shit to everyone, and his friends were mindless followers. But then, his family had taken responsibility for the incident with Vaan; maybe that had been at Seph''s request...


    "Just help get us out of here," Cullen told him.


    Seph tried to help him out; it wasn''t easy with his injuries and the slowly closing rift. Sun tried to help from her side, but she only had one usable arm.


    "What happened in there?" Seph asked, setting Cullen down and helping her through as well. "How did you stop it?"


    "It''s frozen in ice," Cullen told him.


    "I don''t know how long that''ll hold, though," she said. "We should hurry and get out of here."


    "I''m guessing the horse isn''t coming?"


    "No."


    There were still enough horses for them all, but it was going to be difficult for the injured in their party to mount up, let alone ride. Seph had to help them both up, and it wasn''t without pain and possibly further injury. Sun gripped her reins with her one good hand and followed the boys. It was a slower pace than before, and every step made her wince. She could only imagine how much worse it must have been for Cullen, considering his injury was in his leg, and she suspected his ribs.


    They made it back to the village just as the sun was starting to rise; they were filthy, injured, and cold. The cold she didn''t mind so much, but Cullen and Seph were shivering, their lips blue. They had been soaked earlier in the night and not given any chance to dry off before having to traipse through the cold.


    Seph helped them both down from the horses, and she muttered a quiet thanks as they headed inside to tend to their injuries while Seph tied up the horses.


    Inside, her and Cullen dropped heavily into seats at the nearest table, their gaze connecting. What a fucking night...


    Seph joined them moments later.


    "We should take care of your wounds," he said.


    "Check Cullen first; that one on his leg looks nasty," she said.


    There was a lot of blood, but it at least looked dry, so maybe it had stopped bleeding on its own. While they were given some basic first aid at the Academy, it didn''t go into too much depth. Mostly how to keep people alive until someone with the skill could mend them or heal them.


    Before they could do anything, heavy footsteps outside had them all tensing. With her good hand she drew her gun, and Seph rose to his feet, unsheathing his sword. The door of the inn swung open, and Cage entered, raising his hands when he saw them ready to fight him.


    "It''s just me," he told them. "Holy shit, what happened to you lot?"


    He couldn''t talk; he was a little more injured than the last time they''d seen him too.


    "We got attacked," Seph told him, putting his weapon away. "We just got back."


    Sun set her gun on the table. "Where''s Commander Mercer?"


    "Coming. I flew here. We seem to be missing a horse," he noted as he came and checked them over.


    "It got killed in the Traverse," Cullen replied softly.


    "And your hair?"


    "Killed in the Traverse," he repeated. What his actual opinion on his new hair was, she couldn''t begin to guess. But it didn''t look too terrible, quite striking really.


    Cage looked to Sun, like it was something she could explain. She just offered a shrug. She was too sore and too tired to voice her speculations. The creature hadn''t been mauling him, but it had been doing something. She wondered if it hadn''t tried draining his life force the way she could. All those other people in the Traverse had white or grey hair and were aged. Maybe it just never completed the process with Cullen before she interfered.


    "All right, let''s get you seen to; by then the Commander should be here, and we can leave."


    -


    Commander Mercer wasn''t great with healing either and didn''t want to risk damaging them further with an improper cast, so she and Cullen were patched up as best they could manage and piled into the carriage once they were all packed up.


    As for the creatures - what they had found at the camp did indicate a range on the machine that weakened the veil. Hopefully, with the machine off, it could be repaired so the creatures could no longer punch their own hole through. The rifts were able to close on their own, so perhaps the veil could heal itself given time without that machine on.


    Sun didn''t know what would happen next, and Mercer seemed unsure himself when she''d asked. The area would obviously be monitored, perhaps a perimeter established if they could figure out how far the barrier''s weakness extended. But stepping into the area came with a very high risk given these creatures ability to travel both worlds.


    This evaluation had not gone as she''d thought. Their objective had been to find the missing people or find out what happened to them. It had sounded so straightforward. And had been anything but.


    In the carriage she rested her head against the wall; she was so tired. The vibrations hurt too much, though, and she had to sit up again. They were all looking a bit shattered after the last few days. Seph seemed to be the only one who''d come out of it all unscathed. Even Commander Mercer had received a couple of minor injuries from his last fight in the forest.


    She was actually looking forward to going home, seeing her friends. Even Kalys, strangely enough. Although she was worried he might be disappointed with how things had gone here—and how much was revealed of what she could do.


    Cage and Commander Mercer would have to write up a report on everything that happened; she wondered if her brother would be able to read it. And then the actual evaluation of her performance—would he have access to that?


    Suddenly she wasn''t looking forward to seeing him as much as she had been a moment ago.