Tension had decreased, as far as Gwyn could tell, but he still felt an aching inside of him. He had lost it for a moment—his left arm now rocky all the way up to his elbow as a consequence—but he still felt uneasy. Whatever Amaris had given him must have helped, but she was right. It wasn’t like the proper medicine. For all he knew, it could have been a lie that offered zero help, with the placebo effect being the only thing holding him together now.

  It was miserable. Why should he have to go through so much misery? Did he do something on earth to warrant it? He couldn’t even describe the ache hovering somewhere between his neck and stomach. It just hurt in the sort of way that if he tried to explain, a doctor might give him a funny look and just reply with ‘mm-hmm’.

  “Gwyn, Gwyn!” Mina chirped, perhaps seeing him begin to move funny. As far as he knew, he was walking fine.

  “What, Mina?” He was sure his tone was less than friendly, but he soon realized he was stupid.

  “Bad guys, just up ahead.” She had her hands cupped around her large ears and eyes closed as if to focus.

  Gwyn nodded. Though the elf never saw. “How many?”

  “Two, probably another set of scouts, they are walking casually.”

  “Well then,” Amaris chimed in, “ Perhaps we should take care of them.

  “I’m not going to kill them.”

  The red-scaled lizard woman flashed Gwyn a surprised look. She squinted a moment before the side of her mouth curled up, and she shook her head.

  “I never said you have to, lad. We simply need to get the jump on them.” At once she vanished, though only slightly. Gwyn could still tell she was there, but the guards might not have. “You distract them, and I will take them out from behind!” She scampered ahead, and Gwyn lost track of Amaris. He shook his head and walked forward.

  Distract them? What was he supposed to do? He could probably knock one out with a quick strike, but the attack might make it hard for Amaris to act.

  Before the earthling could think of something, he was face to face with the pointed ends of two spears.

  “Um, there is no need for violence.” They said something back in their strange tongue before both heads suddenly smashed together. The unconscious patrol slumped to the ground, and Amaris appeared with a grin on her face.

  “See, easy.”

  “That was cool!” Mina said as she ran up and wrapped her arms around Gwyn to stop.

  “I’ll grant that is a useful ability,” Gwyn replied.

  “Oh, don’t be so stuck up! Wouldn’t you want to be able to turn invisible! I bet you’d….” Mina stopped and her face scrunched, “Actually, you’re a boy, so I don’t want to imagine what you’d use it for.”

  “What do you take me for?”

  Amaris shook her head and laughed. “You Netzians are something else.” Her laughter subsided, and her tone turned serious. “But we should get moving. It sounded like they were expecting more to come.”

  The red-scaled woman led the way, with the other two chasing after.

  “What do you mean? Can you understand them?” Gwyn asked.

  “Not well, but it seems to be a variation on old Zenotote tongue, so I can pick up bits and pieces. For now, we should find somewhere to lay low.”

  “What about that room there!” Mina chimed in. Gwyn didn’t even see the door until a couple of seconds later, when it was just coming into view. The girl must have had impressive eyesight, too. Typical fantasy elf craziness, Kako must have liked her characters OP.

  Unlike the other doors they had passed in the hallway, this one had a more official look. The door was wider to begin with, and sported a trim along its perimeter where the others had just been simple sliding doors. A deliberate crack down the center suggested to Gwyn that it would slide in both directions if the place had power.

  He tried to pry them open, but his weak left hand was so useless that he couldn’t even start. Liquifying remained risky as he couldn’t put it back as cleanly as it started, and it might raise suspicion. Mina slid in front of him and tried her own hand at prying the doors open, to which they slid cleanly as if the power was on. She turned and winked before the trio shuffled inside, and the doors were pulled back shut.

  Gwyn was at a loss. It was a bridge. The type that anyone might expect on a spaceship. Panels lining the outside of the circular room lay dormant, with chairs turned every which way. In the center sat a raised section where a captain ought to have been, and the front was clearly for pilots. The earthling chuckled a little at the sight of it. He wasn’t sure how else to react.

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  “This is good, they should pass by,” Amaris said as she settled into a chair. She looked around the room for a moment, only to add, “These are some of the oddest ruins I’ve been in.”

  “This is crazy. What is it supposed even to mean?” Gwyn said as he paced around the space.

  “Mean what?” The lizard woman replied.

  “Like this looks like something ripped straight out of sci-fi.”

  “Sci-fi?”

  “A genre we have on earth.”

  “Earth? Earth. Earth!” Amaris jumped up in shock. “You’re an otherworlder?”

  “Yeah,” Mina unhelpfully added, “and he’s a Nonpareil too!”

  Amaris stumbled back into her chair. She was absolutely stunned.

  “Mina, please don’t go around telling people that.”

  “Says the guy freely talking about his home planet like that.” She stuck out her tongue in a playful manner.

  “I never thought I would meet a Nonpareil, or that he’d be… quite like you….”

  “I’m sorry to disappoint.”

  Amaris shook her head. “No, you misunderstand. I am just not sure what to say. I doubt my daughters will believe this treasure tale.” She laughed, mostly to herself.

  Gwyn continued to move about the room until he found himself by the captain’s chair. He wiggled into it—the seat was clearly meant for something larger than a person—and eyed the buttons on the panel. One flashed gently. Gwyn did his best to slide the dust off it so he could see the characters written on it.

  He didn’t press it. He was absolutely sure he had avoided doing something that stupid. But as soon as the skin of his finger made the lightest contact with the button, a light jolt numbed it. At once, the floodlights on the floor lit up. The whole room seemed to shudder, and perhaps the entire ship with it. All the panels began to beep and buzz, and an array of different colored lights flashed about. A laser net blasted down onto Gwyn’s face and body, and a mechanical voice boomed through the room in a language he could not make out.

  “Amaris, what did it say?” he shouted.

  “That wasn’t old Zenotote.”

  The mechanical voice said something again, followed by a buzzing sound. The next thing Gwyn knew, Mina had tackled him to the side. A smoking metal hole was burst in the captain's chair.

  “Shit,” Gywn spat as he and Mina burst up from the floor. A large gun turret had emerged from the ceiling above and tracked the Earthling and the elf as they ran around the room. Another blast punched a hole in the wall just in front of Gwyn. He spun back, practically tripping over Mina as she tried to do the same.

  The gun glowed red hot as it tracked their movements. Amaris was already at the door, trying with all her might to open it up, but it wouldn’t budge.

  Gwyn tripped. He wasn’t even sure over what, perhaps just his feet, but he hit the ground hard as the ceiling gun locked in on him. The burst echoed through the room, but he was unharmed.

  Mina, now with a hole in he stomach, fell to her knees in front of him.

  “No!” Gwyn shouted. The red-tipped gun kept its aim true on the Nonpariel. Mina, with an unknown amount of strength remaining, pointed to it.

  “Get it.” She said softly. “It should be easy for you now.”

  Gwyn crossed the room and ran under the gun. It tried to slide away from him, but he turned the whole thing into a liquid goo that poured all around him.

  He breathed heavily as he ran to Mina. She fell onto her back and breathed heavily. The hole in her stomach left a mangled mess, and the purple dress Gwyn had fashioned was shredded. He waved his hands over the wound, unsure of what to even do for treatment.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. I. I. I just need to….”

  “Hey,” Mina croaked. “It’s okay. I’m just one of Mistress Kako’s characters, remember. I’m not real to begin with.”

  “Shut up. We’ll figure something out.”

  “This isn’t the first time I’ve died, and it’s not the most painful either. The mistress likes us to remember it all so we become stronger characters.” She made a soft laugh. “I am just still too weak. I should have told you not to panic at that gun beforehand.”

  “You need to stop talking… it saves strength. I. I can still do something.” Gwyn tore the ends of her dress and began forming the fabric into a long bandage. He wasn’t even sure if there was anything left to hold in, or how to administer the first aid. He clenched the fabric and fell to his knees.

  Amaris came from behind him and set a hand on his shoulder.

  “She doesn’t have much time, lad, you should say whatever else you want before the end.”

  Gwyn punched the floor. He wasn’t even sure what to say. Was this part of the misery he had to go through? Or was it somehow his fault? He had the power to destroy the gun with ease. If he had been more heroic and less of a coward, he could have just done it. He could have saved her.

  “Hey,” Mina croaked. Her voice was getting even weaker. “Have you ever kissed a girl?”

  “What the hell are you talking about? This is not the time!”

  “Just humor me.”

  “Yes, of course, I…” Gwyn was cut off as the elf used the last of her strength to touch her lips to his. She fell back to the floor with a smile.

  “That’s good. I wouldn’t have wanted your first to be a girl who wasn’t real.” Mina began to cough up blood. She groaned and arched her head back. “Oh, this is always the worst part.” Then she went limp. One second, her chest still weakly rose and fell, the next her head drooped. Gwyn slowly reached out his hand to touch her, but stopped just short of making contact. Seconds later, her body began to dissolve into sparkling purple energy, not dissimilar to Kako’s magic.

  It began at her feet, going up until the last hair of her head was consumed. The dress Gwyn had formed from the umbrella fabric fell flat onto the floor. He shouted up at the ceiling.

  Kako sighed.

  “Mina, you’re such an idiot.”

  The winds were picking up, and sounds of battle rang out from higher in the hotel. Things were getting exciting all around, but now seemed like as good a time to leave as any. She stood in the courtyard of the hotel, far out past the lobby, where a statue of Crennusal stood.

  “You’re the last one,” she said to the statue, “I was saving the most handsome for last, of course.” The writer stroked the leg of the statue. It was as cold and rough as she expected.

  “It is fortunate that there was so much chaos here today; I might have had a harder time getting you away. Now, if anyone notices, they will just think the statue broke.” She laughed at her coy tone as if she wouldn’t have used chaos to her advantage. That just simply made for a more dramatic story.

  “You will be on your own now, Gwyn, but this should be like playing on easy mode.”

  She waved her hands through the air, channeling purple magical energy that slowly circled them both until it swallowed them. When it dissipated, neither the author nor the statue would have left a trace.