Darian jumped. [Sky…? No, wait. That voice… that's… Mindy?!]

[Song Chen? Song Chen, is that you?!]

Darian's face fell. [No. Sorry, wrong mind. Bye.]

[No, wait! Darian! It's Darian, isn't it? Help us!]

[Sorry, I'm busy right now, please try again later…]

[Talia's in trouble! She needs help!] Mindy burst out. [She's going to die!]

[Oh? Is she somewhere near Dragon Lake?] Darian blinked.

[She's… she's in the middle of the war, deep in the neutral zone between La Vive and Germat.]

Darian snorted. [Too far. Can't get there in time. Please try someone else.]

[There is no one else! There has been no other response!]

[Of course not! How many people around here do you think has the kind of Psionic power to reach all the way to the Neutral Zone?! You're lucky you even reached me! How DID you reach me? Not even the Lords of the Wild have that kind of power! In fact, most of the dragons couldn't have…]

[I'll tell you later! But first, you have to help us!] Mindy quickly sent over a burst of memory, detailing the situation in a split second.

Darian growled. [You know, we're all going to get really bad headaches after this.]

[Darian!] Mindy protested.

[Really, really bad.]

[Please! We have to save her!]

Darian scowled. [Fine! But you have to keep your word from earlier and tell me everything about your newfound powers!]

[Uh…] Mindy hesitated.

[Promise me!]

[Fine! I'll tell you! But you have to keep it secret! And you have to tell me something just as big in return so that you won't blab it or I'll blab yours too!]

[Hey, are we saving Talia or what?]

[Promise!]

[Deal!]

[Deal!] Mindy's mind flared, and then, fire burned in Darian's mind.

Suddenly, he was on a field of corpses, and two burly men were trying to skewer him with scimitars.

Didn't these people know that scimitars weren't designed for skewering? They were built for slas.h.i.+ng.

But the knife in his hand, now… THAT was much more suitable for poking holes in people.

Darian demonstrated. He side-stepped the clumsy skewer aimed at him, and quickly stabbed his own knife into the arm joint of the attacker on the left.

What was with his body…? There was practically no strength whatsoever, and the balance felt weird…

Darian spared a glance down and blinked. Eh? His body had become… 'her' body…?

[FOCUS!] Mindy flared. [And hurry up! I can't keep this up any more!]

[Fine.] Darian threw the knife into the throat of the other attacker, then diverted the scimitar in the hands of the guy he'd stabbed in the arm earlier. He easily stole the scimitar from the bleeding arm, and then neatly cut the throat of the nearer attacker. [Done.]

Then consciousness broke off. The world faded to black, and there was nothing in the world any more except a total blackness.

[Not like that… disengage properly…] Darian protested, but it was too late, and he could only sink into an endless dark.

***

Talia stood s.h.i.+vering in place for a minute, stunned into speechlessness, until her legs gave way and she landed in a heap in front of the two dead guys who tried to kill her earlier.

All around her were dead people. Fire, smoke, and debris too, but mainly dead people. Everyone… everyone was…

"T-Talia?" The voice snapped her out of her mire. "H-help…"

"Holt?!" Talia scrambled to see one of her crew pinned under three bodies. He was waving a hand weakly at her.

"I'm stuck…" Holt managed.

Talia grabbed a body to wrest it off him, but then Holt gasped. "No! Gently! He's hurt!"

Talia blinked only to realize that the 'body' she had grasped was one of her crewmen and that he was still alive. Bleeding, battered, and very much unconscious, but alive.

Slowly, she tugged him clear, then the other guy under the heap. "Did anyone else survive?"

"I think so. Probably." Holt hesitated.

"Good. I'll leave it to you then." Talia nodded sagely.

Then she fainted.

***

Mindy collapsed practically on top of him.

"Mindy…? Mindy, are you all right?" Remian asked.

There was no response. Mindy was out cold.

"Phoebe! Emergency! Phoebe! HELP!"

***

Phoebe, at the time, was writing a very sharply worded letter to the leaders of the Iron Legion. At Remian's shout, she went over to see what the matter was, only to see him slump down over Mindy too. He keeled over and collased on the floor next to her.

"Remian?!" Phoebe gasped. "If this is a ploy to steal a wake-up kiss from me, I have to tell you, there are better ploys to go with…"

But there was no response.

Phoebe did a quick check on them, both physical and magical. They were both drained, terribly drained, but other than sheer exhaustion, she couldn't find the root source of the damage. It was not a physical problem, and it was not a magical problem, yet they were obviously hurt in some way, somehow.

"Could it be… psionics?" Phoebe frowned. "Is it a Psionic attack?!"

If so, then staying in the region was a very bad idea. In an airs.h.i.+p as visible as this, they were sitting ducks to an invisible, intangible attack. All of the Red Fangs s.h.i.+elds and armaments could do nothing to help.

But… could they really just leave like this? Without even knowing what the matter was?

Phoebe inspected the pair of them again. They did not seem to be in immediate danger, and even showed signs of recovering slowly. It could take them an hour or so to get back on their feet at this rate, but they were getting better.

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"Take us up." Phoebe decided at last. "We don't need to turn around and leave just yet, but at least let's get ourselves higher to avoid trouble from the ground."

Maybe that might help. Maybe not. Phoebe wasn't sure.

"And whatever you do, keep on alert. We might get attacked at any time." Phoebe instructed, then went to rummage around her herb cabinet.