Noah found everyone in Karina’s room. Karina had retreated to the back of the room and was sitting on the bed, her knees pulled against her chest. Lee and Moxie sat on the floor in front of her.

“So you can’t bake without fire?” Lee asked.

“No. You need an oven. We’ve gone over this,” Moxie said. “And no, you can’t just set something on fire to bake it. That doesn’t work.”

“Why not? A few seconds of being super hot should be the same as an hour of being less hot. It doesn’t make sense.”

Moxie looked up at Noah, who was standing by the open door with an amused expression on his face. “Ah. Good timing.”

“You don’t know how to bake, do you?” Lee asked. “I never got a chance to try it.”

“We’ll get you an oven when we get back to Arbitage,” Noah promised. “Karina looks traumatized. What happened?”

“Nothing,” Karina muttered. “I’m just sitting here. Don’t involve me in anything else. I just want to be left alone.”

Noah walked up to her bed. “After we’ve got the artifact, you’re welcome to sit around as much as you want. But, until then, you owe me. We aren’t going to make you fight anything. You’ll just be directing us.”

“Sure, sure. Whatever.” Karina slid over to the edge of the bed and pushed herself upright, wobbling unsteadily and catching herself on the wall. Noah took a step back to avoid getting in her way. “We’re going now?”

“Hold on,” Noah said. Moxie and Lee both sent him a surprised glance.

“What? Change your mind?” Karina asked.

“No. We need to talk, though.”

Karina gave him a bitter smirk and crossed her arms – which nearly cost her balance. She fumbled and caught herself against the wall before she could fall. “Decided that you don’t want to beg Father, huh? Can’t say I’m surprised. Just get out of here and leave me alone.”

“You’re free,” Noah said flatly.

Karina stared at him, her smirk faltering. “What?”

“I told you. You’re free. I spoke with Father a few minutes ago. He’s released you. The engagement is ended.”

“You’re lying. You’ve got no reason to help me yet. My end of the deal isn’t finished.”

“I do have a reason.” Noah nodded to Moxie. “I’m dating her, not you. I’d rather not have a random engagement over my head. I’m not the kind of guy that likes two women at once.”

“Why tell me now?” Karina asked suspiciously. “Shouldn’t you have waited until after we got the artifact?”

“Probably,” Noah admitted. “But I was fed up with this shit. Holding the engagement over you was rubbing me the wrong way. It wasn’t any better than what the damn noble families do, so I ended it. Don’t get me wrong, I still expect you to finish your end of the deal, but you’ll be doing it under your own volition.”

Karina was silent for several seconds. Then she started to laugh. Noah took a step back, a mixture of mildly concerned and surprised as Karina’s laughter intensified, turning into a borderline deranged, wheezing cackle.

It took her almost a minute to get control of herself again. Karina straightened back up, wiping tears of bitter mirth from her eyes. “All this time of trying to get out of this shitty engagement, and you just broke it because it was making you feel mean?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

For a moment, Noah thought Karina was going to burst into laughter again. Instead, she just shook her head. “You’re missing something important in your head.”

“I think this world is the one missing something,” Noah said. “I want to make one thing clear, though. You’re free – not forgiven. If you ever raise a hand against me, my friends, or my students – I’ll kill you.”

“I’ve got no reason to do anything like that. If you aren’t lying, I have what I want. I don’t care about you or your damn students,” Karina replied. “I’ll trade an engagement for a threat any day.”

“It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. It’s exactly what I told Father I’d do to you if he didn’t call off the engagement.”

“You told him you’d kill me?”

“Violently. I said I’d rip you into little pieces and scatter you across the Linwick Estate while making sure everyone knew exactly who did it.”

“That… that’s actually brilliant,” Karina muttered. “Everyone would think he ordered it. It would make his ascent to the Main Branch much harder. How come I didn’t think of that?”This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Because all his solutions end with people dying,” Moxie said, looking at Noah out of the corners of her eyes. She didn’t have to add the next part on – he could tell what she was thinking through her expression: And the ‘people’ that your plans end up killing is you.

“My plans are effective,” Noah said. He caught Karina’s eye and let his gaze sharpen. “Are we understood?”

“Perfectly.” Karina pushed away from the wall and gestured to the door. “Let’s go, then. If I’m free, I don’t want to spend any longer in this crappy little town than I have to. I want out of here. I just need to get a branch or something to support myself with.”

“Can’t you just use your Shift Rune?” Lee asked as she stood up. “You’ve got extra mass in other areas that you could use to fix up that missing foot, at least temporarily.”

“I wish,” Karina said. “I don’t have a Shift Rune. I’ve got an artifact. It isn’t nearly strong enough to handle a change of that level. It would burn out. Being able to walk doesn’t matter if you lot are the ones fighting. I can limp along just fine.”

She pushed past them, heading over to the door and pushing it open. She stepped outside, then turned to look at them over her shoulder. “What are you waiting for? Let’s get this over with already.”

***

There weren’t any branches for sale in town. That probably should have been somewhat obvious, considering their surroundings. A branch would have required a tree, and they were surrounded by barren stone, with the nearest trees being small and far apart.

Luckily, Karina was able to buy a rod from the blacksmith. It was smooth and far from the best walking stick, but it was enough. Using it, she led them out of town and toward the catacombs.

Noah offered to let her use his flying sword, but Karina refused immediately. No matter how difficult walking was, the tight grip she had around her makeshift crutch told Noah everything he needed to know.

She doesn’t want to rely on anyone. Now that she’s truly free, she probably wants to be able to rely entirely on herself for everything she can. Fair enough. I won’t complain about that.

Luckily for all of them, the base of the mountain wasn’t that long of a walk away from town. It took them about three hours, and would have been considerably less if they’d been moving at a faster speed.

The chill picked up the closer they got to the mountains, and by the time Karina came to a stop before sheer, snow-covered rock, the wind was howling around them. Moxie pulled her fur coat tighter around herself and Noah released more power from Combustion to fight the chill away.

“Here,” Karina said, pointing to a portion of the stone that looked perfectly identical to the rest of it. It was partially covered in snow, but so was the rest of the mountain.

“Where?” Noah asked.

“Right in front of us. The entrance is hidden,” Karina said. She crossed her arms and shivered. “Are you all ready? The Frost Wight didn’t attack me until I entered the catacombs, but it might come out. I don’t know.”

They all shifted into fighting stances. Noah pulled his pipe out and stuffed some Flashgrass into it, though he didn’t combust anything yet. The wind was so strong that most of his smoke would probably get taken away if he tried to use it out here.

“Did it come out when it attacked you?” Noah asked.

“No. It stopped right at the entrance, and it didn’t actually attack until I’d walked in a bit. I’m pretty sure it was hibernating or something, though. It’s awake now.”

“Probably bound to remain within the catacombs,” Moxie mused. “Better to be ready, though. I’m ready.”

“As am I,” Noah said.

“Me too,” Lee added.

Karina nodded and limped forward, leaning against the wall. She drew a thin dagger from her side, bringing it across the pad of her thumb. Blood welled up and she pressed her hand to the stone, dragging it down.

A faint rumble ran through the mountain. Karina sheathed her dagger and used her pole to limp out of the way, putting a good amount of distance between herself and them. Snow sloughed down, piling up at the base of the mountain’s base.

The smear of blood that Karina had left on the stone rippled and sank into the stone like it had been absorbed by a sponge. Lines of dull pink light lit up within the stone, tracing out the shape of a wide door.

Hidden imbuements illuminated on the rock face. They had been perfectly concealed within the craggy rock and beneath the snow. The rumbling intensified as the door slid downward, sinking into the ground and revealing a passageway leading into the mountain.

It was much larger than Noah had expected. When Karina had mentioned a catacomb, he’d been picturing tight, dark corridors filled with musty spiderwebs and skeletons. Instead, he was greeted by a wide, marble-paved hallway – big enough for all of them to walk through side by side without being pressed for space.

The hall was dark, but not pitch black. The light reflected off the marble, giving them view of the hall for the first dozen paces.

“That… is not what I was expecting,” Moxie said, squinting into the darkness. “I don’t see a monster.”

“It must have gone back into hiding.” Karina inched forward. “I didn’t see anything when I first walked in either. It attacked me when I turned the corner up ahead.”

“How big was it?” Noah asked.

“It took up practically the entire corridor. There’s no way to run past it, if that’s what you were thinking.”

They studied the entrance for several more seconds.

“Can we go in?” Lee asked. “I’m bored.”

“Fair enough,” Noah said. “I’ll take the lead and check things out. Everyone else, stand back until I finish up.”

“Are you sure you aren’t overestimating yourself?” Karina asked. “This is a powerful Rank 3 monster.”

“Only one way to find out,” Noah said with a wry grin. He unhooked the gourd from his waist and handed it to Moxie. Her eyes widened slightly and she took it from him carefully. Noah stepped into the catacombs.

The sound of his step echoed out and the wind abruptly cut off as if someone had flipped a switch. He glanced over his shoulder, half to make sure that the door hadn’t closed behind him.

“Don’t look at us,” Karina hissed. “If you’re going to do this, at least pay attention to the monster.”

“You said it was just down this corridor?” Noah asked, unconcerned. He combusted the Flashgrass and smoke started to curl up from his pipe. He placed it between his teeth. The light coming from the flame was minimal, but it still helped brighten the catacombs.

“Yes. It showed up the instant I turned the corner. I barely had any time to respond to it.”

“Sounds good,” Noah said. He turned, pushing more power into his Flashgrass to make it burn a little faster. At the moment, he needed the light from its embers more than he needed efficiency. He gathered the red and black cloud that was curling up from his pipe and sent it forward to illuminate his path.

Then he walked into the catacombs.