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Searing heat I screao under, i it fillaway the soft flesh ofto work on the jelly-like globes of ue crackling, throat pinched tight, sizzling eyes ith terror I don’t try using ic to protect ht by the river Lost

I start to sink My legs kick out auto, to keepaway, and the acid of the lava eats its way through the wall of my stomach A few more seconds and it’ll all be over I’ll just be scraps of flesh and bone s

I hear a shout tounder No lower legs left to kick with Bones are showing through the flesh ofpaper

Then hands snake around the remains of my chest and I’m hauled out of the lava My lidless eyes focus blearily It’s a wo, but my ears are full of lava I can’t hear what she’s saying

The woman pulls what’s left ofme on hard, cold land Falls beside me, her feet and shins on fire She slaps at the flaic

I’ beside her, covered with lava that’s still eating through my flesh When the woman has put out her own flames, she turns her attention to me Shouts the words of a spell and waves a hand over me The lava explodes off me in splatters, out of my nose, mouth and ears I take an unbelievably welcoony to the world

"Kernel!" the woreat - I can’t repair it byfish, unable to respond I never thought there could be so much pain this side of death The wohme to the worst of the torment I draw back from the brink of pain-fuelled insanity Laymadly

"Use es me "Help yourself Restore the flesh that’s been burnt away It’ll hurt like hell, but you have to do it"

I want to say that I can’t, I’m too weary and don’t know the spells But my incinerated vocal cords and lips won’t let e, so I can tell the woic flows to the areas which I’ve targeted and cells knit together in response to , but workable, I start to complain Then I realise - the fact I can complain proves I have the power to heal , I set to work on the rest of my wrecked body

It takes several minutes, and is every bit as painful as the woain, scorched and blackened froht, scarred around the places where I’ve had to create fresh flesh and bones, tender as well, as somebody who’d been dunked in a river of lava! But I’ painfully, I lift my face to thank the woure she couldn’t stand by and watch me die, so she entered the Board to save er and paler than the Indian lady’s But just as fary but wary expression "You should have been prepared for an attack You fell too easily It would have served you right if I’d left you"

"But you’re dead!" I cry

She laughs "Then you have a ghost to thank" She stands and looks into the distance "Dervish is on his way I was leading him to you when I sensed you fall into the lava" She starts to walk away

"Wait! I don’t understand! I saw you die How can you be here?"

She hesitates and looks up Following the direction of her gaze, I see that the sky is hazy now, cutting off my view of Lord Loss and Beranabus "You must not tell him," Nadia says quietly

"Tell hat?" I frown

"Beranabus That I’m alive" She faces h of it, Kernel He treatedme any way he wished I had no freedoo where I’d be appreciated and rewarded"

"Youmyself to say it

"I joined Lord Loss," she whispers "I spoke to hiift Promised to serve him if he’d allow me a few simple pleasures and some time to myself"

"But he’s a demon!" I shout "They kill huawp at her, unable to believe it She shifts uneasily and looks away "Beranabus can’t see us now He’ll never know I’m alive Unless you tell him"

"But Lord Loss is our enemy You - "

"I saved your life!" she snaps "I didn’t have to I could have left you to sink"

"Why did you save hs and there are tears in her eyes "I like all of you - except Beranabus I hate hiood reason But I don’t wish harm to anyone else I ca my body - or most of it He kept my brain and heart whole He can put ether around them later, and restore my soul from here When I felt you and the others enter the Board, I asked Lord Loss if I could help you He said I could, but only once So this is it You’re on your o"

"Nadia you mustn’t do this Lord Loss is evil If you stay with his"

"I’er care I’ve been apart fro in coht be the last decent act I ever perform But I’m fine with that If I’m to become like the Deht, blinking the tears away, eyes flashing "So be it"

"Nadia" I try again, but she stops me

"I saved your life, Kernel In return, I’d like you to keep my secret and tell no one I’m alive I can’t make you promise, but I’ll be disappointed if you betray me"

"I won’t tell," I mutter

"Thank you" She s If you escape this Board and our paths cross in the future, we’ll be on different sides Don’t expect ain"

With that, she turns, raises her face to the sky, extends her arms, then turns into a beautiful, swan-like de up speed, soaring higher and higher, until she’s only a speck against the skyline then gone

Dervish arrives soony, using es and tweaks As Dervish fusses over me, I tell him about the attack and ether unassisted I don’this face, sweating from the heat of the river