Ratface didn’t know she’d been asleep until she woke up. She didn’t sit up straight away but instead pretended she was still asleep.

  She did her best to keep her breathing even as she brushed a hand across the floor. Whatever had kidnapped her had left her on stone. The parts she could feel were cut in uniform with faint grooves. Pavement then.

  The air brushed across her face. It was cold and cut into her making her shiver. Wait, her face!

  Ratface sat up and looked around. Her helmet was laying on the road next to her. She put that on before anything else.

  Now hidden from the world, it was time to work out where she was. A quick glance told her there was no sign of her kidnappers. The place she’d been laying had runes burnt in around it.

  The road she found herself on was relatively mundane but that was about the only place. The rest of the buildings around her reached far into the sky towards the moon. She could barely see the stars beyond. They were made of stone with sharp angles etched into them. The building she was closest to had runes etched into them. It wasn’t like any enchantment or spell Abigail had shown her. Instead, it was just the same word for call over and over again reaching up as far as the eye could see.

  With that context the strange buildings gained a new light, not place for people to live but hands reaching up to the sky.

  A sharp light ripped into the sky for a moment before plummeting to the ground a few blocks further away. Ratface rushed over. She did her best to remain stealthy despite moving quickly, flitting from shadows where she could. A part of her wanted to climb the building to get a better view but she didn’t want to touch those monuments calling to the sky just yet.

  Ratface hurried down the alley to where a street opened up in front of her. A creature lay crumpled in the stone, stunned after its abrupt tearing from the heavens. It was big like a bear, but it had a strong set of armour around it. Almost like how bugs had their shells on the outside. It pushed itself onto its four feet and paced around cautiously, a tongue slipping out of its long snout. It was tasting the air and every taste brought it closer to Ratface. She called out to Kryssa through her armour but got no response. Stepping deeper into the shadow of the corridor, she eased her crossbow off of her back and aimed it at the strange beast.

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  Something jumped off one of the building’s and crashed into the strange beast. It ripped into the creature with surprising violence until the bear-thing fell still.

  In front of the bear’s corpse stood a grey creature. It had wide shoulder and looked like one of Claudette’s demons if they forsook any attachment to look like anything but a demonic beast. The moon shone down on it revealing little pockmarks across its body. A soft grinding sounded as it turned to face her. She’d heard of these before, a gargoyle.

  “Ah, you woke too soon, a miscalculation on our Lady’s part,” it said.

  Ah, that confirmed her suspicion. The way it capitalised lady after she’d been told who the last trial would be taking by all but confirmed that she’d been taken to the final trial. Ratface shifted her crossbow to the gargoyle. It might not do much, but it made her feel better.

  “So what is the trial?” she asked.

  “Are you sure you want to know early? I only helped because your enchanted slumber was too short. That thing isn’t all that will be called down tonight. A head start will come at the cost of my protection disappearing.”

  Ratface shrugged, her crossbow never leaving the thing.

  “I’ll take my chances,” she said.

  The thing nodded to her in quiet acceptance. It moved slowly but Ratface didn’t let it fool her. Just a moment ago she’d seen it move so quickly as it ripped apart the bear. The slow movement was just an effect.

  “Very well. Welcome, supplicant, to the final trial of the Lady. The only one that truly matters. Your quest is simple.” The gargoyle gestured to the sky. “Here in this land that calls beyond, all manner of thing may be dragged down.” It gave her a smile that looked alien on it face. “With that in mind, your quest is simple. Find something in this inner city that might be worthy of the Lady’s attention.”

  Message delivered; the gargoyle clambered up the closest building. Its hands found warn spots it had used so many times as to turn into handholds. It too avoided the rune touched edges of the buildings. Ratface resolved not to touch them either if a creature like that was wary.

  Ratface wandered around the city more. A wary eye to the sky. The mana here was reaching out to the sky which she’d expected. What she hadn’t expected was the way other things in the sky reached back. It looked like mana but was alien to her. It was like seeing some of the goblins from other areas, so similar that their differences stood out.

  Her musing was interrupted when another set of lights plummeted from the sky. There was a crack as a bolt of lightning teared through the sky at them. More and more of them fell from the sky in the same spot. Too many for one person to deal with.

  Ratface went to run to it but hesitated. Nothing stopped them from hurting each other in this trial and going to help Fulgora might weaken her own chances. She could just leave.

  A step back and her armour tinkled. The faint charms around it swished around and she remembered that one of the powers was lightning. A gift given freely.

  Ratface shook her head at her own hesitation and ran towards the lighting strikes. She’d have to hope her hesitation hadn’t cost her.