"We can poison her."

"What?"

Archie yanked up the leg of his pants, showing off his scar. "Licertes. We can grind up some scales or something and feed it to her."

Hollyhock scoffed. "She's already on the edge."

"Okay, but we need to do something drastic."

Hollyhock grimaced. Archie regretted wasting several minutes getting her considering how little she had to offer. "We should act conservatively. Supplement her essence. Right now, Flambé's essence is unraveling inside of her. She needs to be fortified, not diminished. And mildly. We don't want to flood her system when it's already overloaded."

"You're talking about doing nothing."

"I'm talking about letting her body work things out naturally with a bit of added help."

Archie breathed sharply through his nose. He turned to Anise. Archie needed crazy, and Anise was always good for that. "What do you think? It would work, right? The—what did you call it? The anti-essence? It would neutralize the essence that's hurting her, right?"

"Hmmm…" Anise rubbed her chin. "It would neutralize the foreign essence, yes. But it would also neutralize her essence."

Archie looked back toward the great hall. "Where's Sutton? Sutton will have an idea."

Hollyhock took a deep breath and looked at Anise. "You've seen the effects of licerte scales firsthand?"

"I've seen a scratch, but not the scales. That being said, the very being that is the licerte is antithetical to essence. I imagine the scales would have a similar effect."

"So it'll drop her overall level of essence?"

"Theoretically."

Archie looked at Hollyhock with hope. It hadn't been a waste of time. She was a genius. She was about to save Nori.

"No," she said to herself. "It's too risky."

But where a crazy idea ended, Anise was there to pick it up. "I know what you're thinking. And it would work. We make her levels low. Dangerously low. And then we feed her a neutral essence to revive her."

"Revive?" Archie interjected.

"In a manner of speaking." Anise waved her hands around. "But I don't have any licerte scales."

"Me neither," Hollyhock said.

"Archie." Anise locked eyes with Archie. "Can you find their den again?"

"Maybe." Archie's mouth hung open as he tried to remember. He had been walking with Nori for hours. The terrain grew mountainous—at least, The Platter's version of mountainous. He could follow that. And the blueberries! Highbush blueberries! He could find the den from the rare bushes. "Yes! Yes, I can find it again."

"Okay. You know what you need to do. I don't need many. Just a handful."

"Okay!" Archie didn't need any further instruction. He ran to the door and swung it open.

"Archie! If you die out there, it won't do her any good. Get Tarragon to go with you."

"Okay!" Archie wasted no time looking, running out into the great hall and yelling. "Tarragon! Tarragon!"

An older student answered. "He's down at The Serving Bowl today."

"Shit. Shit!" Archie's body shook in anticipation of his next move.

He didn't need Tarragon. He could do it himself. He was strong. He could fight. He ran through the kitchen and started down toward the lounge. His confidence in fighting remained steadfast, but as he ran, his confidence in finding the den dropped. Even at a good pace, he'd be four hours or more around. If it took him an extra hour to find the licertes, that could be the difference between life and death for Nori. He couldn't let that happen.

He needed Blanche. She could forage to find the dead spot.

But while he was ready to risk himself, he couldn't guarantee Blanche's safety. He needed back-up. And he found it taking a break in the lounge.

"Yarrow! I'm calling in the favor. Come on, we're going on a hike."

Yarrow retained his weekend's leisure, stretching out on the couch and scoffing at Archie. "Yeah, I'm gonna pass on a little—"

Archie leaned over the couch and grabbed Yarrow by the collar. "Yarrow, you piece of shit, I'm calling in the favor. Nori's sick, and we're the only ones that can save her. Now if you have any bit of good in you, get your ass up!"

Yarrow shook Archie's grip off of him and glared, but Archie saw the chink in his acidic armor. Something Archie had said had resonated with him. "Fine."

"What's going on with Nori?" Barley asked.

Archie looked around the room. Half of his class was in the lounge. It must have been break time. They all crowded around and barraged him with questions about Nori. He spotted Blanche in their midst. "Blanche! Blanche! I need your help."

She stepped forward, but not fast enough for his liking. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the crowd. "Is Nori doing okay?" she asked.

"If there was a spot with no essence, could you forage to find it? Like, can you detect the absence of essence?"

"I should be able to, yeah. What's this have to do with Nori?"

"We're going to get licerte scales to cure Nori. I can explain on the way. We can find them in this place a few miles away into the mountains. There's no essence, so you can pick it out. Yarrow and I will—Yarrow, get up! Come on! Yarrow and I will keep you safe. But we have to go now."

Benedict stepped forward. "Can I help?"

"No, Benny, fighters only. Sorry. Sutton! Go see if you can help up in the infirmary. Now come on, let's go."

Archie half-jogged down the hall, encouraging Yarrow and Blanche to keep up along the way. The elevator platform was already up, saving them a few seconds. They filed through the wrought-iron door that Archie didn't bother to close before flicking the elevator noodle. Just as it fell its first few feet, Barley hopped down to join them, landing with a thud that shook the platform.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Bar! What're you doing?"

"You said you needed fighters."

Archie chuckled to himself, the entire dialogue playing out in his head. He'd say he thought Barley was done with fighting, and Barley would give him a five-words-or-less answer that captured his willingness to do anything for a friend in need. "Alright. We're moving fast. I know the way for a while. We can go for an hour or so before Blanche starts foraging. We play it safe. Kill one. Take the scales. Get out. Once we're in the clear, I'll run back by myself."

"Why by yourself?" Blanche asked.

The platform hit the bottom level. "Because none of you could keep up with me. Now let's go."

"We should've brought water," Yarrow complained. He might have been right, but that didn't stop Archie from hating him for complaining.

"There's a stream about a mile up," Blanche said.

Ragged breaths punctuated their sparse bits of conversation. Archie was the only one not sucking in air. "You can sense water?"

"I can sense plants that are well-watered. So either it's raining, or there's a stream."

Archie looked up to confirm that there wasn't a cloud in sight. They were lucky for that at least. And the temperature was mild enough. A bit warm—early winters meant early summers—but nothing too bad. Under different circumstances, it would have been a great day for a stroll. To pick blueberries. Archie imagined Nori walking with them, teasing details about her family and her life like she once had. But Nori wasn't with them. She was in a bed dying. And Archie needed to hurry. He quickened the pace and urged the others to keep up.

"Can we take a break?" Yarrow asked. Barley and Blanche were both in worse shape than him, but they had strengthened their tolerance for suffering in the rough Khalyan wilderness.

"That slowdown was the break," Archie said. "Pick up the pace. We don't want to get there when it's dark."

The sun set their pace as much as Archie did. They had not had the benefit of an early morning departure, and Archie wasn't sure if he would make the others press on after dark. He'd have to go at it alone if they couldn't get there in time. After a brief break at a creek to drink, Yarrow found the energy to complain some more.

"Are you even sure this is the right way? I swear we've gone in a circle."

"Quiet, Yarrow," Archie said through clenched teeth.

"Seriously. Blanche, check the ground again. Make sure we're not turned around."

Blanche directed her tired breathing at Yarrow and then looked at the path ahead. The grass had given way to rocks and massive ferns that dragged on their bodies and whipped as they passed.

Archie kept his eyes ahead. "Save your breath, Yarrow."

Yarrow scoffed. "I'm breathing fine. It's Barley you should worry about. You put on a lot of weight once you gave up on fighting—"

"You don't talk to him," Archie commanded.

"Whatever. I just don't want to waste time going in the wrong direc—"

"Shut up!" Archie wheeled around and stomped toward Yarrow, putting his finger in his chest. "What do you know about it, anyway? We walked across half of Khala for days while you sipped your fine wines and ate your cheeses in Labrusca. What, are you going to tell me you went hiking in Khala too when you were little? Or are you going to pretend you aren't from there like you always do?"

Yarrow rose to the challenge, pushing past Archie's hand and getting in his face. Blanche and Barley groaned in dissent, but they took the chance to catch their breath.

"You don't know me," Yarrow said.

"Yeah, I must not, because I only know that you're good for one thing. Being a psycho. I didn't bring you along because I thought you wanted to help. You'd never do that! I brought you along to kill some monsters, but now I'm realizing how dumb that was, because you can't do anything but burn everything around you, and we need to recover something undamaged!"

Archie turned to walk away, and Yarrow didn't follow at first. He just started trudging along, mumbling to himself. "I'm not a psycho. I can help."

"Do it, then," Archie said.

Blanche stood up and brushed the dirt from her hands. "Dead zone is just a few more minutes that way. Ten, fifteen at the most."

Archie wiped the sweat off his forehead. "How big is the zone? Can you tell?"

"Not really. Once there's no essence, I don't get any feedback. So I can tell how wide it is but not how deep."

"So how wide is it?"

"The actual dead zone? Not too wide. But there's a lack of essence going northwest. It's almost like I can pick out a trail."

"So either they left or more joined them." Archie bit his lower lip and looked around. "Okay, we're gonna take just a second to catch our breath. In case we need to run. And then we move carefully. I guess…Barley, stay near Blanche in the back. Just defend yourselves. I'll take the front."

Yarrow stepped forward. "Let me take the front."

Archie breathed in hard and got ready to chew Yarrow out again, but then he recognized the genuineness in Yarrow's face.

"My acid is better for wide attacks. If I'm in the middle, I'd be putting all of you in danger." Yarrow adjusted his jacket around his shoulders, clearly uncomfortable with his newfound sense of helpfulness. "Let me take the front, and if we run into one, you can take care of it. If we run into a bunch, I can do my thing while you grab a straggler."

Archie turned to Barley and Blanche. They shrugged. "Alright then. Let's move slowly. Oh, and if you hear a voice that isn't one of ours, don't respond to it."

Yarrow shot back a bewildered look.

"It'll be fine," Archie said, even if he wasn't sure. The Bhantla had told him that the voice was that of the wendigo, and the wendigo was a monster capable of things beyond his understanding. But they had to risk it. "Keep an eye out for burrows. Up ahead, there will be a clearing. Don't enter it."

Yarrow picked out the path with maximum visibility, acid dripping from his fingers every few steps. Archie notched a blueberry in his slingshot. Barley summoned a massive leek quarterstaff. They all kept their eyes moving more than their feet, turning back and forth and scanning the dense foliage. The closer they got, the clearer the forest became, but that wasn't enough to offset Archie's rising nerves.

Yarrow stopped and crouched. "Clearing ahead."

Archie pulled his slingshot tight and looked around. They still had at least an hour of sunlight, so the licertes should have been out. Or were they nocturnal? Archie didn't think so, but he couldn't be sure. Maybe they were all underground and waiting for things to cool off. Maybe they were already all around them.

"There's nothing," Yarrow said. He stood up straight and walked ahead.

"Yarrow!" Archie moved to support, but Yarrow didn't need supporting. There was nothing in the clearing but dirt and the wiry branches of dead bushes.

"They're gone," Yarrow said.

"What do we do now?" Blanche asked.

"They could be underground. Stay alert." Archie tried to remember where he had seen a burrow, but he couldn't find it. But he did find what he was really looking for. He ran over and kicked the dirt away from a palm-sized patch of scales. He started to reach down but stopped himself. He didn't know how it would react, and he couldn't afford an ailment.

"Did you find something?"

"Yeah. Just keep an eye out." Archie pulled out one of his pre-prepared rope noodles and let it dangle over the scales. He lowered it slowly, slowly, slowly, until the tip rested on the scales. The noodle curled up and away from the scales, the bottom half of it losing a good portion of its essence. Archie looked up and smiled. "This'll work. I'm gonna get just a bit more in case it has lost its potency."

Something stirred. None of the others seemed to notice, but Archie had seen it. No, felt it. Somewhere beneath the nearby crag, something woke up. Or had it woken up within him?

He didn't let his voice show his panic, but he didn't bother hiding his urgency. "Time to leave. Now."

"Is something wrong?" Blanche asked.

"Here's another piece of scale," Yarrow said.

"We're leaving." Archie whipped a canvas bag out of his pocket and used it to pick up the scales, then ran to pick up the other piece near Yarrow. "Come on, go, go, go."

They shuffled back into the forest, their formation broken. If something came out in front of them, Barley and Blanche would be exposed. But Archie didn't sense danger from in front, only from behind. Something immense was moving beneath the surface.

Archie could run faster, but he couldn't leave anyone behind—not even Yarrow. "Run!"

Everyone found their second wind, nearly sprinting for a full minute through the dense forest. Barley stopped first, sucking air and fighting himself from bending over. He kept his leek high, and Blanche stopped with him.

"I think we're good," Yarrow said as he came jogging through a cluster of ferns.

Archie looked back and waited, watching for something to come chasing after them. Waiting. Watching. Waiting. Watching. Nothing.

"Archie," Barley said. "We can make it back on our own. Go."

Blanche and Yarrow nodded, giving Archie permission.

"Okay. Get home safe." Archie hopped into a jog as he flushed his body with a sugar rush. His legs bounced and sprung as if new again. He unleashed their energy, breaking into a sprinter's pace that he maintained all the way back to the Academy.

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