“Perhaps, we ought to partake in a riddle, wouldn’t you sa~y?”

  Addie gulped. She was terrible at riddles! But wait, her heart calmed down a bit as she realized she had Squishy on her side; he was great at word games!

  Nettal tugged on Addie’s arm, grabbing her attention. She looked confused, pointing out to the eyes and silently asking Addie a question. Miming like this was difficult to interpret, but Addie thought Nettal probably wanted to know if the fog demon was talking or something. Maybe.

  Addie nodded her head once before putting her attention back on the fog demon. How nice of him... her? Her voice sounded kind of girly. How nice of her to let Addie take a moment with Nettal like that.

  “You appear to be ready, very we~ll then. Let us begin.” The eyes in the fog seemed to smile with delight. “What lives forever yet lives never at all?”

  That made absolutely no sense. “Squishy, do you know?” Addie prompted him over their bond.

  “Hmm. Perhaps. Ask if she will allow us a moment to think.”

  Addie got ready to ask just that, when she realized quite the issue. She still couldn’t talk in ethereal form! Sure, the fog demon could talk to her, but she couldn’t really talk to it... Wait, how was she even supposed to give her answer if she couldn’t talk?

  “We~ll, I’m waiting. Have you figured out the answer or not?”

  Addie wanted to talk but couldn’t. But, the fog demon wouldn’t ask her to do something she was incapable of, that’d be unfair! Not to mention Addie would just lose if that was the case. Surely she’d be understanding that Addie couldn’t speak, right?

  “What is the matter, fog’s got your tongue?” The fog demon stepped one paw forward, her face and paw now completely visible in front of the fog, with the rest of her body still hidden. Her lips curled into a sly feline smirk, fangs showing. “Or is it that you can’t speak after a~ll?” Her grin grew wider at that, a joke only she understood.

  Her body began to grow taut, her neck tensely shifting forward while she moved lower to the ground, as if ready to pounce.

  Holding tightly to her cousin’s hand, Addie prepared for battle. She’d never intended to solve this with words, she was playing with them!

  Time almost seemed to slow for a moment, as the next second dragged on with fast actions from both Addie and the fog demon. Pulling on her bond with Ember, Addie waved her hand through the air, summoning ghostly hot flames in a wave toward the fog demon. Already pouncing, the fog demon jumped straight at Addie, claws out and fangs bared. In that moment where the fog demon was still in the air, Addie noticed that her fur was singed, and she’d flinched from the flames but otherwise remained undaunted.

  Pulling on her magic again, Addie pulled both herself and Nettal into Realmspace; her go-to method of escape had long since become instinctual by now. With Nettal in tow, Addie floated directly forward before turning around. With any luck, they’d be perfectly behind the fog demon now when they reappeared on the mountain.

  So, imagine Addie’s surprise when, instead of having the perfect flanking ambush position, she was instead right back in the path of the fog demon’s leap. She smirked at Addie in the moment before contact, like she’d already won.

  With Ember helping coordinate the magic, Addie threw up a last-second flame shield, the packed solid white flames shooting up just in time to protect her. Addie felt it when the fog demon bounced against her shield, the feline creature rebounding off with a pained snarl.

  “I figured it out! The answer is fire!”

  “That doesn’t help anymore, Squishy! She’s attacking us,” Addie sent back even as the fog demon did something to batter at the shield again.

  “Perhaps it is time instead? No, the answer must be fire.”

  Tuning out Squishy’s current unhelpfulness, Addie focused on redirecting the magic in her shield. With an effort of will and quite a bit of help from Ember, she blasted the shield out all around her. A sphere of fire erupted around her, all of the fog in the immediate area burning up in the process. Most importantly, Addie heard the fog demon yelp in pain, and she felt an impact against the front of her fire wave. But, when the fire and fog cleared, revealing a charred area of ethereal mountain grass, the fog demon was gone.

  The fog began quickly closing in again all around them, undulating and flowing in meandering plumes. Nettal squeezed Addie’s hand, her eyes glowing green and a pulse of soothing healing magic flowing up into Addie’s arm. She didn’t need it though, she hadn’t been hurt.

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  “The answer is fire, my lady.”

  “I heard you the first time!” Addie shot back, slightly frustrated. It was hard to scan her surroundings for the enemy with Squishy distracting her!

  She saw ghostly trees and slopes of grass slowly drifting in an unseen breeze. Looking up or down the mountain didn’t help either; the fog demon was nowhere to be seen. All the while, more and more fog encroached upon the section of stairs Addie and Nettal stood on. Soon, it would cover them all up again.

  To give herself more time, Addie made another flame shield and then repeated what she’d done earlier by having it expand all around in a wave, driving off the fog again.

  The fog demon began cackling, its joyful taunts echoing through the fog without Addie being able to locate where they came from. Her body was taut in nervous energy, ready to launch a flame spear the moment she saw her again.

  But then, Addie realized how silly she was being. She needed to use her Spatial sense! Or, wait, she also had her new Aura sense, too! First, she scanned the surroundings with her Spatial sense, sweeping all around— by focusing on a cone in front of her, instead of as one big sphere, she could extend the range. She saw plenty of ethereal plants, trees, grass, and such, but no big cats. Switching to her Aura sense, Nettal glowed bright green right next to her, and she had to ignore her cousin’s brightly glowing outline so she could focus on the forest surrounding them, instead.

  For a moment, Addie thought she saw a spot of glowing yellow, but the source ran away so fast that she couldn’t track where it moved to. She had to scan again, like looking for the odd thing out in one of those ‘Spot the Sally’ picture books she used to love. The entire time, she also began charging up a powerful flame spear, condensing her magic down to make it extra hot.

  Then, she saw another glimpse of yellow through the fog, but only a flash before she lost track of it again. She swept her eyes and head to the side, in the direction she thought it moved to. The condensed white flame built up above her shoulder, warping the air around it with heat. Yet again, Addie was glad she couldn’t hurt herself with her own magic.

  She waited, ready to launch the spear the moment she found the fog demon again. But it continued to hide, and all the while more and more mist began creeping in. The surroundings became darker, the light of her flame spear glowing against the coming fog.

  Movement caught the very edge of her spatial sense, drawing her attention to it. Her aura sense, with its increased range, caught the biggest flash of yellow yet, and Addie nearly launched her flame spear right there. She held off though, since the demon was still moving, and Addie didn’t want to miss.

  Nettal tugged on Addie’s left arm, drawing her attention. She raised her eyebrows and then pointedly looked in the exact spot where Addie could see flashes of yellow aura. Nettal could see the fog demon, too, Addie realized.

  Without wasting a second, Addie launched her flame spear through the air. It streaked through the fog, blasting it away as it soared through the air. The light from the spear illuminated the fog demon’s surprised face, just before she got hit by condensed flames right on her back left hip.

  She snarled, an ugly sound with an equally ugly face. Addie had no time to celebrate, she already was pulling on her magic for a second shot. But, the fog demon also made her move, hissing and leaping further back and into the fog once more. Addie immediately lost track of her.

  In just moments, Addie was already getting more pings from her spatial sense— this time from right behind! She turned around, forced to let go of Nettal’s hand, and at the same time, Nettal moved so that Addie acted as a shield between her and the fog demon.

  Impossibly, the fog demon was already mid-leap, somehow having made it all the way behind Addie in less than a couple of seconds. Addie flinched, and out of pure instinct more than willful effort, Addie reflexively launched the magic she’d been building forward in a stream of fire shaped somewhere between her shields and spears— just a solid cone of fire blasting out with great force. Purple embers and wisps floated off near the edges, but the center of the cone was blindingly white.

  She heard a feline yelp/scream just before something heavy hit her chest. The next few moments were a blind scramble as she hit the ground and then fell right through it, total darkness surrounding her as she felt suffocated. She flailed, trying to figure out where up was, but her spatial sense helped her figure out where she was. As if coming up for air after a dive, Addie breached the surface of the mountain again.

  The first thing she did was check if Nettal was safe, and though her face looked pinched with fear, she seemed fine. Next, she rapidly scanned all around for the fog demon again. Her fog had come back in full force, so Addie needed to blast it away again.

  She did so, but this time, instead of the fog slowly creeping back in, it seemed to be thinning itself out. She swept her eyes all around, spatial and aura senses also sweeping in different directions from each other at the same time. She didn’t see the fog demon anywhere, but her magic fog continued to go away more and more.

  Not quite believing that the fight was over so soon, Addie kept looking all around, Nettal also joining in to check their surroundings. After five minutes, the fog had completely cleared out, and neither of the girls found any traces of the fog demon.

  Addie was tempted to start climbing the stairs up the mountain again, to hurry up and finish the trial, but she also didn’t want to get ambushed if this was some kind of trick. But, after another two minutes of nothing happening, and since the mountain was now completely clear of fog, they had no choice but to keep going.

  To Addie’s surprise, they were only about another two minutes from the summit. The top of the mountain had been carved out— now just one large platform of polished ethereal stone. And, on top of that, right in the center, was another pedestal with a book on it. Unfortunately, the fog demon was here, too. Preparing herself for round two, Addie started gathering her magic.

  “Ack! Get off of here...” The fog demon wasn’t attacking, in fact, she had her back to Addie. Her back paws were on the ground, with her front paws on the stone pedestal. She had her claws out, gently trying to grab the book and bring it over to her mouth.

  Before Addie could release her next flame spear, the fog demon managed to get the book in her mouth with a triumphant grunt. She turned her head back, eyes flashing yellow in the light as she smirked at Addie.

  Addie launched her flame spear just as the fog demon started to run away again, the annoying kitty trying to steal Addie’s book!