The moment you enter the fog, you feel it. Your eyes burn in agonizing pain, and breathing the mist makes your lungs feel heavy.

"Maia!" I shout. "Where the fuck are you!" FUCK, that hurts. I squeeze my eyes shut and endure it. She can't be too far away, right?

You feel something snake around your wrist.

I whip out my axe and chop at wherever I can feel it pulling from with a loud mental FUCK YOU. Not being able to speak won't stop me.

Another wraps around your other wrist before you can cut it. You feel yourself pulled forward, but something hard hits you square in the stomach. You hear a screeching hiss and you're tugged in some random direction by the front of your shirt.

I thrash, resisting every single inch, the wind completely knocked out of me.

"Stop thrashing. It's hard to focus while you're kicking like a child." Oh, you recognize that voice. Cashel pulls you out of the fog and releases your shirt.

I take a deep breath, bracing myself against my knees. "Maia. Where is she," I manage to hack out in between shuddering coughs.

"Gone. I will get her." He begins to walk back into the fog, but stops and turns his head to you. "Hale, a bit of advice." "Before you try that again, I recommend praying harder." He walks away.

I throw my hands up in frustration, but don't argue. What does the scene around me look like?

There are a few other soldiers keeled over, coughing and sputtering, outside the fog. It seems that most others have run.

Well. Time to go find Finn. Any sign of the wolves?

None nearby. A lamppost explodes beside you, hit with a shot from above.

Are there ANY other descendants nearby?

None at all. "HEY, PURPLE KOOL-AID, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!" But there is an adjuvant.

"FUCK OFF," I yell back, but fly over all the same. "What are we doing. What the fuck is going on."

"We need to get onto the other side of this thing," He points to the smoke. "But it takes up the whole street and we can't go through it. That's all fine for you, but I can't fly. A lift?"

"Sure." I seize him by the forearm and carry him to... the other side? Is it a street? Wherever he needs to go.

You carry him over the fog. You see him pull out a sword and slice something below you, another screech sounding as one of the spire's tendrils is chopped off. You land on the other side, next to Maia and Cashel.

MALE 2