Once we finally reached the town my entire body felt like it had been fed through a meat grinder. The adrenaline from escaping the tower had started wearing off somewhere along the walk and now all the smaller problems were becoming real again.

My arms were shaking from carrying the princess for this long, my chest kept tightening every few minutes from the mana instability, and every time she shifted against me another sharp pulse of pressure slammed through my ribs hard enough to make my breathing sharp.

Walking into town, I noticed how normal it all looked compared to the nightmare we had just crawled out of.

Lanterns hanging outside buildings, people still awake inside the tavern. Somebody arguing over cards through an open window farther down the street.

I honestly welcomed it, something normal without a doubt beat getting crushed by collapsing rocks any day of the week.

"You can put me down now," the princess said quietly against my shoulder.

"You almost collapsed ten minutes ago." I replied quietly, trying to sound as comforting as I could. "I really don’t mind."

Behind me, Reika made a tired sound that was probably a laugh while Valka pushed the inn door open ahead of us. Heat rolled out immediately along with the smell of food and smoke, and the second we stepped inside half the room looked over at us.

I couldn’t really blame them. We looked like shit. Not to mention the partially naked woman we carried into the building drawing attention on its own.

The innkeeper’s eyes moved from the dust covering our gear to the princess in my arms before settling on me carefully. "Long night?"

"Don’t ask." I said as we walked past him and up the stairs to our room. "It’s better if you don’t. We’ll be leaving in the morning,"

The instant the room door shut behind us everybody finally stopped moving like the tower was still collapsing around us.

Valka started stripping armor off near the table almost immediately while Celeste disappeared into the washroom after grabbing every towel she could find from the shelf near the door.

The room already felt warmer now that we were all packed inside it, heat from the baths mixing with dust, sweat, smoke, and the lingering smell of the dungeon’s mana still stuck to our clothes.

I sat down carefully on the smaller bed and immediately regretted it when another pulse rolled through my chest hard enough to make me lean forward for a second until it passed.

Whatever happened down in that tower clearly wasn’t done with me yet. My ribs still felt tight every time the princess moved nearby, like the mana inside me was reacting without my consent, on its own against my will.

Across the room Reika had somehow ended up beside the princess already, asking questions while she pulled loose strands of hair away from one ear and kicked the rest of her boots off onto the floor.

"You really don’t remember getting carried out?" Genuinely curious, hoping maybe she would remember how brave I had been. "None of it?

The princess shook her head slowly. "Only pieces of it."

The girls kept talking while I rubbed at my chest absently, trying not to think too hard about how my mana was going nuts inside of me. Not painful exactly, more like it was extremely crowded. Like too many different things had been shoved together inside me without asking permission first.

"Let’s go ladies..." Celeste walked back out of the washroom a minute later carrying folded towels against her chest before looking toward the princess. "You should probably wash all the dust out before sleeping, there is still quite a bit of blood in your hair."

The princess blinked once at the directness of it while Reika stood back up immediately. "Come on, we’ll help."

As they walked into the washroom together, I felt not only the mana freaking out inside of me, but a great sense of pride. We had just risked our lives to rescue this girl and now my companions were already treating her like she was already one of us.

The door shut behind the girls a few seconds later leaving the room much quieter afterward, though I could still hear Reika’s bright voice leaking through the thin walls almost immediately while Celeste tried unsuccessfully to keep her focused on actually getting cleaned up first.

I leaned back carefully against the wall behind the bed and exhaled slowly through my nose before another pulse rolled through my chest sharp enough to make my fingers tighten briefly against the blanket underneath me, this was really getting old fast.

Across the room Valka dragged one of the chairs away from the table with her foot before sitting down heavily enough the wood creaked underneath her armor. "You look worse now that you’re sitting still," she said while reaching down to unbuckle one of the straps around her gauntlet.

"Thank you..." I muttered, rubbing absently at the center of my chest while I waited for another spike of pressure to settle down again. "Everybody keeps saying that tonight... Do I really look that bad?"

"Yes you do... they’re saying it because you truly look terrible, Adrian," The gauntlet hit the table beside her with a metal clunk before she leaned back slightly in the chair, watching me for another second. "You carried her almost the entire walk here. To be honest, I’m surprised you’re still upright."

"I can guarantee it’s mostly adrenaline," I said while shifting carefully against the wall behind me, trying to find a position that didn’t make my ribs feel like they were being squeezed from the inside. "That and my lack of making good decisions maybe..."

Valka snorted quietly at that while reaching for the waterskin sitting near the edge of the table. "Yeah, that sounds a bit more accurate."

Another pulse rolled through my chest hard enough this time that I had to stop talking entirely for a second, one hand pressing harder against my ribs while the mana inside me twisted uncomfortably again.

Whatever happened down in that tower still felt wrong inside my body. Not dangerous exactly. Just crowded, like too many different things had been shoved together without asking permission first.

Valka noticed immediately when I leaned forward. "Still happening?" she asked while setting the waterskin back down beside the table a little more carefully this time.

"Yeah." I let out another slow breath before sitting back again carefully. "I’m trying pretty hard not to think about it or show it on the outside honestly."

After finishing my sentence, another pulse rolled through. This time it didn’t stop, it grew in intensity making me grab violently at my chest. "Fuck somethings wrong Valka..." I began to convulse against my will. Mana leaked from my pores into the room. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

As my vision faded all I could see was Valka rushing to my side in distress.