Symbols and characters popped out at Dasha as time seemed to slow down. A squiggly green one. A spinning red circle. A blue knot that kept tying itself. So many things, all at once, visually screaming for her attention. 

Dasha couldn't understand a single one.

Then the monster was upon her, and Dasha was engulfed in the thick sludge. The xanda continued rolling, but for Dasha, time had stopped. Her head was ringing from the impact. She couldn't feel anything for the gelatinous substance surrounding her. The pressure was so great she could no longer breathe. And already, her skin was burning from acid.

She could see just fine though. It didn't hurt at all.

Further away, above her perhaps, she could see two blurry blots. They could have been people. Noonin. Fia. They wouldn't last long. Was it a trick of the warped green light, or were the figures already shrinking, dissolving before her eyes? 

And what of Fia's aunt? What had happened to her? 

Dasha felt strangely detached. She was observing everything from far away, time barely trickling by. Symbols glowed in the monster, tiny triangles suspended in its gelatinous body, pulsing rhythmically as it rotated.

A pulse of light went one way, lighting up the triangles in a row, as the outside sunlight spun in the same direction. The pulses were reacting to the movement.

Dasha remembered Fia's aunt, warning her not to touch the shining characters spinning around Fia. What if...?

What if it worked the other way?

One of the triangles was right next to her fingers, so close that in normal air, she could grab it before she blinked. But here, beneath all this pressure, each hair's breadth, each sliver of movement, seemed to stretch for an eternity. Dasha could feel the acid worming beneath her skin, breaking up her cells, burning her from the outside in. Her fingers twitched and strained, grasping for that tiny triangle of light.

Closer. Closer...

The tip of her left ring finger brushed against the corner of the triangle, lightly nudging it. 

The entire xanda spasmed. Great pockets of air gouged through it, sending all of them rippling. Dasha couldn't tell. She wondered if she had been struck by lightning, because the jolt that had coursed through her after she'd made contact was surely electric.

For once, Dasha thought, she wouldn't mind passing out. 

That was fortunate, for indeed she did. The next thing she knew, Noonin was shaking her awake, and nausea was beating down her brain like a mallet.

Dasha blinked. While her fuzzy brain was trying to make sense of what her friend was saying, she took in their surroundings from her place lying on the rough ground, wings digging uncomfortably into her back.

Sky. More sky. Fia? She tried to move her head for a better look, but dizziness made her stop. A wall of latticed steel and stone-

The wall. She knew that wall! They had made it! They were right outside of Gilgilum city, at the base of the wall!

How far had the monster taken them? 

Noonin was still talking, and her ears had finally started to work. Oh dear. Those were some nasty acid burns on his scales. Dasha was afraid of what Fia looked like.

"-And after it spat us out, a city patrol noticed and came to attack it, and I dragged you away, so now we're here, away from the fighting, but I can still hear them going at it, and-" Noonin made a pained hacking noise, throat clearly sore. 

Dasha forced a hand up, patting against his shoulder. 

"Ss oh kay."  

Everything hurt. 

Dasha shut her eyes. Vaguely, she was aware of Noonin flopping down to lie beside her. Light footsteps drew near. Fia. Dasha felt a small hand rest against her shoulder.

"Sassana?" She heard Noonin ask.

Everything was warm. It was the most delicious, drowsy feeling, kissing her skin and blanketing her in liquid sunlight. 

Dasha felt well again. 

She blinked, pushing herself up. Beside her, Noonin was doing much the same thing. Fia- in perfect health, with no apparent damage whatsoever- withdrew her hands with a pleased grin.

"I did it!" 

Her eyes were bright enough to rival the stars at midnight, but her face was flushed the wrong color. She swayed unsteadily, before collapsing on the ground. 

Dasha checked her pulse. 

"Alive. Just fainted. I hate to say it, but that makes three for three on all of us getting knocked out." 

She let out a mirthless chuckle, as Noonin snorted. The pair quickly sobered up though.

"We can't let her keep doing that. She's clearly hurting herself, I do not believe she even understands it." Noonin frowned. 

Dasha carefully scooped up the girl, before passing her to Noonin. She didn't even want to dare being seen near her when they entered the city. 

"I'll meet up with ya at Youna's?"

It wasn’t really a question. There was no place else they would be going to first. 

Noonin's gold eyes gleamed with desire. 

"I'm finally going to see her again." 

His smile was dreamy, like a sailor hearing a siren's call. 

Dasha chuckled, waving him onwards. She leaned back against the city wall, forcing herself to count to a hundred. Had the past several days really truly happened? It felt surreal, now that she was here, standing at the solid city walls. 

Dasha looked herself over. The acid burns were mostly gone, but her skin was raw in multiple places. She had several new scars, and the piece of shrapnel melted to her hand was still stuck there. Her wings she refused to think about. Not here, not now.

So it seemed there were limits to Fia's unusual ability. Not that the girl should be straining herself like this. Children had no business practicing mage craft. 

Dasha wondered again, what kind of person Fia's mother had been. And where had her aunt disappeared to now?

She straightened up, dusting herself off and retying her greasy ponytail. Her work coveralls were a torn and patchy mess, but that couldn't be helped. She was used to people viewing her with scorn. Now that she was missing half a wing, she could expect even more stares. Hopefully Noonin would have no trouble though. Fia's presence was not easily explained, but a monster at the city gates was a handy enough distraction.

Dasha hoped no one had died. She sucked in a deep breath, and made her way around the wall, towards the entrance. 

The Gilgilum city gate was wide open, grey arch stretching high above them all. The purpose was more to keep monsters out than people, so no one really monitored the comings and goings in that sense. Folks were beginning to crowd around, pointing and chattering, now that the monster was defeated.

Well. Demolished was the more appropriate word.

Massive chunks of slime were plastered all over the ground and walls. They still hissed in places, as the acid ate at the material around it. The earth itself was bruised, massive holes and trenches slashed through it, even biting into some of the city's concrete foundations.

Had- Had she done all of this? 

Surely the city guard, the uniformed group of fellows proudly wearing their golden insignias and hastily cleaning themselves off from the slime, had managed the actual killing. Noonin had mentioned as much. But the gouges in the earth? It was like a giant had taken a shovel and hacked away at it! The guard couldn't do that. And the xanda, for all its size and might, was still an acidic dissolving slime, so it could not either.

Dasha looked back at her hands. For a moment, the light seemed to flicker, and lightning shaped scars spiderwebbed up her left arm, starting at her ring finger. Where she had made contact with a tiny triangle symbol, no larger than the tip of her thumb.

Powerful words indeed.

Dasha shuddered. It was time to move on, while she still had the opportunity. Huddling in on herself, she wove through the crush of crowds, making her way into the city. 

One good thing about being filthy, beat-up, and a plague-wing: People tended to avoid being near her, so the crowd shuffled slightly to let her pass. Dasha kept her eyes ahead and on the floor. She didn't want to see who was staring at her, be it pity, indifference, or outright hate. 

Soon enough, she had made it past the crowd of onlookers at the gate, and then she could walk more freely and much quicker. Dasha glanced around as she picked up the pace. Cracked concrete pounded beneath her threadbare boots, and tall glass buildings spiraled upwards, topped with twining steel spires where most of the Avar liked to make their homes. Distant winged shapes swooped and darted, letting out faint whistling cries that were swept away on the wind as the bright sunlight shone off their colorful skin.

There were smaller buildings as well, painted brick and clay domes that tunneled underground for unseen lengths, favored by both the scaly Mora, such as Noonin, and the quiet shuffling Ekri, who were made of stone themselves. Alongside these lower buildings were the squat, flat-topped homes that were wrapped with wild ivy and mossy wooden carvings, and which smelt heavily of the marsh water ponds that were exposed on the rooftops or concealed inside. These were preferred by the amphibious Gillain.

Something inside her seemed to finally unwind. Dasha was home again.